During my December 2025 updates - 2025 in Review: The Pivot, I've briefly covered about my move to Hong Kong, the rationale of my move and my long-term plans. At that point in time, amidst all the other chaos, I was also re-figuring out and re-learning on how to manage my personal finances almost all-over again. Whilst some concepts and principles remain inherently the same (e.g. zero-based budget, pay myself first), there are definitely nuances that I didn't know and had to adapt & learn as I go
Put these nuances on top of the relocation headaches, settling in new job, and travels (both work and personal) in between, I got worn out pretty quickly. Anyway, today's article would be some sort of "special edition" outside of my quarterly updates where I will cover some of the interesting aspects of Hong Kong, and how it reshaped some of my thinking. Enjoy the read!
I knew nothing much about being employed in Hong Kong, frankly speaking. Whilst I've worked in Hong Kong previously for a short stint of a year, the contract arrangement was very different. Back then, I was technically still an employee in Malaysia temporarily assigned to Hong Kong office for secondment. Back then, my income were still mainly paid in Malaysia, with extra "pocket money" (corporate term: per diems) received in Hong Kong on a monthly basis to cover my day-to-day living expenses here. Accommodation & utilities were also provided directly by my employer. So concept of managing personal finances in Hong Kong was basically nil for me.
This time around, given that I have "resigned" in Malaysia and performed Exit Clearance with LHDN, and then "re-hired" in Hong Kong under local Hong Kong Employment Contract, things are now very different for me with salaries paid locally in Hong Kong and have to manage taxes or retirement scheme contribution just like the rest of the Hongkongers. Aside from the negotiation for compensation package leading up to the signing of employment contract, and some excel calculation on expected lifestyle costs to know my minimum baseline - I prepared for nothing else - and it was good to have some positive (and negative) surprises on few areas.
At this point - personal taxes in Hong Kong is still a pretty new topic to me and I'm still trying to navigate around the topic with help of our appointed tax agents. Unlike Malaysia, Hong Kong's personal tax does not run on full calendar years (1 January 2025 - 31 December 2025) but in between years (e.g. 1 April 2025 - 31 March 2026). Personally I liked Malaysia's approach more as it provides a clean cut - but can't complain since there are also some benefits with Hong Kong's personal tax vs. Malaysia's.
One easiest example of an unexpected upside is the tax float. In Malaysia (and even Australia) - Taxman will basically deduct a portion from your payslip every month and you will receive the nett balance after forced deductions. In Hong Kong however, things are done so differently where we are paid out in full salary (after Mandatory Provident Fund deductions, more on this later) and you are supposed to 'save' for your own taxes and make lump-sum payment later (to date, whilst I've filed tax returns, I have not made any payments yet - tentative by end 2026/early 2027).
This concept is very new to me - as I'm very accustomed to be managing only the net income and leave everything else to auto deductions. Suddenly, I'm getting a huge chunk of cashflow, or otherwise known as Tax Float Cashflow, that I can manage - between the day I received my income to the day of tax bills (usually 1 year period, according to my tax agent). Obviously - I can't be spending these monies as I needed to make sure I have sufficient liquidity to pay my tax bill - whenever it comes. But that also means that I can 'invest' them in safe instruments (e.g. Fixed Deposits alike) and pocket the interests.
For now - I simply parked them in some liquid FD-alike funds in places like AlipayHK (similar, or should I say exactly the same like TnG GO+) so that I have the liquidity when taxman comes knocking for payments. Unfortunately, when I did a deeper research, seems like I'll only get this benefit of "float" during my first year - since I earned no income in Hong Kong last year. Going forward, I'll need to pay one year's worth of tax in advance.
Another key upside is obviously the lower tax rate than Malaysia. In Malaysia, my personal income tax can go up to 25% but in Hong Kong, it is capped at maximum of 17% and cannot go higher. With lower tax ceiling, I instantly get to keep an extra 8% of my income on yearly basis. In addition, just like Malaysia, personal taxes in Hong Kong is on territorial basis - with no capital gains tax or import duties on most goods.
Whilst the move to Hong Kong wasn't an intentional one for tax optimization - I definitely reaped the benefits out of it unintentionally, which made me reflect a lot on my future moves considering Australia's 40%+ tax rate, and also capital gains tax. However, whilst the additional savings may seem glamourous on first glance, it actually isn't the case when I looked deeper - as I'm taxed indirectly through other forms: the crazy expensive rental prices, at least x6.5 of what I would pay back home.
If you're interested, there's an interesting documentary by Behind Asia and South China Morning Post on this topic. Not affiliated but I just found it interesting to watch documentaries.
All in all, there are definitely more rooms for me to optimize my personal income taxes, but I'll only be able to do so starting from the next taxation year (2026/27). I've started to learn about some potential tax deductions, hopefully from next year onwards I'll be able to finetune them as I did in Malaysia.
As a start, I've already found an immediate hack that I could already start - to maximize my contributions to the Tax Deductible Voluntary Contributions in MPF Hong Kong (more on this later). By contributing up to the tax deductible limits of HKD 60,000 per year, I instantly guarantee a return of at least 15% per annum just by offsetting payable taxes. That's basically HKD 9,000 of free money annually (assuming a tax rate of 15%) before any profits from the funds. Basically it's the same as the RM3000 PRS tax relief but Hong Kong edition.
There's always a saying goes where people only learn to appreciate for something after they've lost it. I believe I am one of them too. Whilst I already knew that Malaysia's EPF/KWSP system was pretty good, it was not until after I moved to Hong Kong that I realized just how good it really was.
For context - depending on your salary brackets in Malaysia, Employers are legally required by law to pay you, on top of your monthly salary, an additional fixed 12% - 13% directly deposited into your EPF/KWSP account for retirement purposes. Whereas from Employee's (your own) perspective, at least 11% will be deducted from your monthly salary amount and deposited into the same EPF/KWSP account. Over decades, the amount will stack up pretty quickly especially for someone whom actively pursues their career growth.
The best part here is - you can also opt to increase the contributions through the i-Topup (Voluntary Excess) by submitting KWSP 17A form and the contribution will scale aggressively the higher your income goes. Before I resigned from Malaysia, I was actually leveraging this and volunteered to deduct an additional 3% of my gross salary directly into EPF, helping me to accelerate my retirement nests.
This works differently to the self-contribution (i-Simpan) mechanics with RM100,000 limit annually. so you can imagine for an aggressive saver, these multiple factors combined can really boost one's retirement nest rapidly. At average 4.5% - 6% annualized return over the last decade, EPF/KWSP, even today, remains as the largest size of my total investment portfolio serving as a strong foundation.
In comparison with Malaysia's EPF (Employees Provident Fund) system, Hong Kong's MPF (Mandatory Provident Fund) System is relatively young - having only established since 2000 after the deadly Asian Financial Crisis.
Similar to Malaysia's system, employer's are required to contribute on-top of salary paid out, and employee's portion will be deducted from their monthly salary - but at a much lower percentage of 5% on both fronts (employer's contribution & employee's contribution) with a hard capped contribution amounts up to HK$1,500.
Meaning to say - for most median income earners earning HKD$30,000 per month, they will only be contributing HK$3,000 into their MPF account on a monthly basis with both contributions combined. A measly 10% contributions versus 23% contributions in Malaysia.
| Comparison Table | Malaysia EPF | Hong Kong MPF |
| Mandatory Contribution Employee Rate | 11% (standard) | 5% |
| Mandatory Contribution Employer Rate | 12% or 13% depending on wages | 5% |
| Mandatory Contribution Cap | None | HK$1,500 (each party) |
| Voluntary Contribution (via Payroll Deduction) | submitted via KWSP 17A/18A form - limit depends on employer arrangements & respective labour laws | depends on employer arrangements and MPF providers scheme |
| Voluntary Contribution (via Self-Funded Deposit) | via i-Simpan, limited to RM100,000/year. | via Tax Deductible Voluntary Contributions (TVC) - no limits in contributions but tax deductible benefits only up to a maximum of HK$60,000 |
| Average Return | Generally 5-6%, with guaranteed minimum rate of 2.5% by law | Depending on fund selections |
Another major difference between the two systems are how the investments are managed. In the case of Malaysia's EPF system - investments are centralized with full oversight by the EPF, a federal statutory body with governance, oversight, and also makes investment decisions to ultimately generate profits and pay members a long-term sustainable dividends.
Whereas in the case of Hong Kong, the MPF government body only looks after the governance and oversight of the industry and ultimately it is up to the individual to make their decisions to select respective fund providers and individual fund choices. Whilst it was daunting at first - but thanks to the last decade of my compounding knowledge in the personal finance space, it wasn't too hard for me to decide on what to do with my fund selection.
Frankly, whilst the entire MPF industry looks like they have plenty of choices, it's basically a basket of mutual funds and you will have to pick your poison. Obviously I went to the (very limited option) of Tracker Funds, with much lower annual fees compared to Mutual Fund counterparts but yielding similar returns (depending on geographical allocation).
First thing first - the 'guaranteed' mindset that I used to carry from Malaysia no longer applies here. It is clear to me that in Hong Kong, you're on your own to plan for your own exit. Of course, I'm not going to let the years of compounding in Malaysia EPF and also my hunger for personal finance knowledge to get wasted, and I focused on four pillars that I could control to maximize my retirement security using my Hong Kong income:
This goes without saying - since I am no longer employed in Malaysia, the only way for me to contribute into EPF Malaysia is through their i-Simpan programme to contribute voluntarily, with maximum contribution of RM100K per year. What I've done here is to automate the end-to-end process to make the whole i-Simpan process seamless.
For most of us Malaysians, we only need to log-into KWSP i-Akaun Website or App, and go through the one-time setup of Auto Simpan, connect to your bank account to start the auto monthly deductions process. In my case, I've went with a monthly deposit of RM8,333 on the 1st of every new month - totalling RM99,996 by end of the year, short RM4 from the cap.
However, considering that I am currently based in Hong Kong, earning Hong Kong Dollars, doing only this step is not sufficient and I will eventually run out of my MYR reserves/cash flow. I had to do few extra steps to make sure that I get fresh funds of RM8,333 on a monthly basis - and that's where I stumbled upon the beauty of Scheduled Transfers in Wise, where I can schedule an automated transfer of exactly RM8,333 into my Malaysian bank account every month, a couple days before the i-Simpan auto contributions.
So that's one problem solved - but another challenge remains: to send the RM8,333 from my Wise account to my Malaysian bank account, I need monies in Wise to ensure that the scheduled transfer goes through, and this is where the 3rd loop of the standing instruction comes into play, from my local Hong Kong bank account.
Considering that the MYR-HKD exchange rate may fluctuate from time to time, I decided to send a deposit a fixed amount of HKD16,500 into my Wise account - and leave some "spending monies" in my Wise account to accommodate for any months when MYR is on steroids (strong).
A combination of these creative methods have allowed me to FULLY AUTOMATE my KWSP contribution the moment my salary drops - plus minus a few days of delay. Effectively, it allowed me to pay myself first without even thinking about it other than monitoring to make sure fund goes through without issues.
So that's Malaysia's retirement sorted, securing a baseline for my future.
On the bright side of things - despite the shittier MPF system in Hong Kong (versus of Malaysia's), I was genuinely surprised to find out that my employer actually offers Employer Matching Program - something that I've only been reading from various personal finance books. The moment I found out such programme existed, I signed up immediately with zero hesitations.
As a result - on top of the statutory HK$1,500 contribution both by myself and my employer, I now contribute an additional 5% deducted from my gross salary - in exchange of employer's 10% additional contribution, which is the maximum allowable limits with the programme.
In simple terms, thanks to this Employer Matching Programme - I am getting an additional 10% salary on top of my gross. Lower rate than Malaysia's 12% - 13% but still better than nothing. Beggars' can't be chooser... but perhaps also why I still insist to contribute to my EPF in Malaysia despite it locking away my cash flows.
There's no rocket science here quite honestly. The only thing I could manage is to select funds based on my choice of geographical allocation part - as I can't control anything else.
I started by selecting US Equity Tracker Fund and went all in 100% on it to accelerate my US over-exposure so that I can eventually sunset and retire my Malaysia's EPF i-Invest portfolio, which was a controversial decision I started back in 2020 to rapidly accelerate my exposure outside Malaysia. Back then, I was over exposed to Malaysian equities and way under represented for overseas equities.
The situation have now changed hence the goal is simple - leverage Hong Kong's MPF, where I need to 'actively' select funds anyway, and position it as my Actively Managed Retirement Fund and gradually reset my Malaysia EPF back to its own root of Conventional Fund to become my Retirement Fund Anchors.
As we speak today, my MPF Hong Kong balances between the US Tracker Fund and Asia Pacific Tracker Fund - and all I do is to review, on a quarterly basis, the geographical allocation split between the two and make changes if necessary. Over time, I foresee that all of my EPF i-Invest funds will be retired back into the EPF Conventional Portfolio.
Considering the amount that are already being poured into US + APAC tracker funds through my Hong Kong MPF, there will definitely be impacts to how I contribute funds in my Personal Freedom Portfolio going forward.
Since there is already a significant amount of monthly contributions pouring into pure equities via the two MPF tracker funds mentioned above, I’ve effectively stopped actively contributing fresh funds into VWRA within my personal portfolio. In fact, I may even perform a hairline trim on my existing VWRA holdings in the future to ensure that my overall equity exposure stays strictly within my target allocation.
Because the funds locked inside the Hong Kong MPF system are legally untouchable, my personal Freedom Portfolio now has to play a much heavier, strategic role. It has essentially become my master steering wheel - being the only place where I retain total macro agility and granular control to rebalance my entire net worth, ensuring I don’t accidentally become overexposed to a single asset type or geographic region.
However, there is a bitter pill to swallow here: the higher cost. Our MPF tracker funds carry an annual expense ratio of roughly 0.7% to 0.9%, which looks incredibly expensive when stacked against VWRA’s clean 0.2% fee. In the long run, if I ever decide to leave Hong Kong and legally regain early access to these locked MPF funds, I will almost certainly liquidate them and move the capital straight back into the efficiency of VWRA. On the bright side, paying ~0.8% for a passive tracker is still a massive win over traditional Active MPF Equity Funds, where predatory management fees routinely chew up 1.3% to 1.5% of your compounding returns year after year.
To stick to my "pay myself first" principle - just like I did for EPF Conventional, I've semi-automated the quarterly deposits as well now that I am in Hong Kong. The steps are very similar to how we do our usual deposits on Interactive Brokers - with one slight difference where this one's set on a recurring basis.
Similarly, on the bank's side - I've also set up a standing instruction to deposit periodically into Interactive Brokers' account with my client reference code. For my Malaysian readers looking to run a similar cross-border setup, you can do this exact automated push using Wise to schedule a send of USD/HKD/SGD, just like how I did my Auto-Simpan earlier.
Once the cash hits the account, I get a successful deposit notification from IBKR. In the past, I automated this part as well where IBKR will blindly purchase VWRA up to the specific amounts in USD - based on a recurring trade setup. However, due to the circumstances mentioned above, I'll be doing this part manually for now instead of blindly buying VWRA (since those global equity exposures are already heavily covered by my monthly MPF contributions), what I choose to buy depends entirely on what needs rebalancing in my overall portfolio strategy described below.
When I first relooked at my total asset allocation chart, I was secretly tempted to call it a "All-Weather Portfolio" as it sounded fancy, like how Ray Dalio did it. But to be real - I’m no Ray Dalio. I don't have an army of analysts backing me up, nor the experiences that he had accumulated over the last few decades, and my portfolio definitely isn't actually All-Weather either.
If we look at the textbook All-Weather framework, we are supposed to dump over 50% of our portfolio into traditional bonds. But to me? Holding a massive pile of long-term paper bonds right now feels like trying to catch a falling knife, especially government bonds, with risks of inflation slowly chipping away any possible gains (if any at all). My fixed-income exposure today is approximately 25% which are mainly driven by our Malaysia EPF Conventional Fund that I have no controls on.
Dalio built his model to survive a 1930s-style deflationary depression where cash is king during a crisis. But that’s not the financial headache that I’m trying to solve. Looking at how the world handles any major financial crisis today, where the standard, copy-paste approach is basically to turn on the money printer and 'magically' solves the problem. When the system relies on debasing currency just to stay afloat, I don't want to lock my life's savings into long-term paper IOUs.
Instead of building a portfolio with bonds as the defensive safety net, I leveraged my geographical advantages and positioned our Malaysia EPF Conventional as the safety net instead. Once the defensive safety net are sorted out, I can leverage both my Hong Kong MPF and Personal Freedom Portfolio to take the aggressive stance against fiat currency and create the barbell effect.
Hong Kong's reality pushed me to build what I call an Anti-Fiat Barbell.
On one side of the barbell, I have the global equities acting as my primary growth engine, capturing global economic and corporate growths. On the completely opposite end sits my commitment to hard money (mainly Bitcoin and Gold), serving as a high-conviction shield against systemic inflation and currency debasement. In between both ends lies the thick, rigid steel bar holding the entire structure together: my rock-solid, sovereign-backed EPF foundation to cushion me if things ever hit the fan.
| Economic Growth (Rising Productivity) | Economic Recession (Falling Output) | |
| Fiat System Stability (Baseline Architecture Holds) | 1. The Growth Engine Captures global corporate profits and human innovation when the traditional system functions normally. | 2. The Stability Anchor Provides a guaranteed, sovereign-backed floor to cushion localized or global downturns. |
| Systemic Debasement (Money Printers Going Crazy) | 3. The Systemic Shield Acts as a liquidity sponge (Bitcoin & Gold) to capture exponential upside when central banks spams printing. | 4. The Liquidity Buffer Provides dry powder and strategic optionality when everything is chaotic or crashing simultaneously. |
Of course, there's also a chance (probably a very high one) that I am completely wrong - with no inflation, hyperinflation or currency debasement taking place. Even in this case, my original strategy of buy-and-hold index fund will probably still carry me for the coming decades - albeit with lesser potential gains (vs. going 100% all-in on equities).
So… that’s the grand plan on paper, but how do I actually get there? And more importantly, how far off am I right now? To turn this four-quadrant theory into real-world execution, I set up a fixed blueprint target for each bucket. Here is exactly what my asset allocation looks like today, where the targets sit, and the current gaps I need to bridge using my monthly cash flows:
| Macro Season / Asset Focus | The Blueprint Target | Current Reality (as of Q2'26) |
| 1. The Growth Engine (Equities: Capturing global productivity) | 50% to 55% with tolerances of 40% as the lower limit in case of crypto rallies | 51% |
| 2. The Stability Anchor (Fixed Income: Cushioning Economic Recessions) | 20% to 25% | 26% |
| 3. The Systemic Shield (Hard Money: Defending against printing) | 25% to 30% maximum tolerable upper limit up to 40% during crypto rallies | 16% |
| 4. The Liquidity Buffer (Others: Cash reserves & agility firepower) | 0% to 5% | 7% |
| TOTAL | 100% | 100% |
When I first sought out to transform my portfolio from a spaghetti mess of different stocks and mutual funds in 2019, I loved the textbook simplicity of VWRA because it promised total global diversification, and ultimately cleaned up most parts of my individual picks/mutual funds by 2025.
But when I actually dug into the mechanics of a market-cap weighted index, the illusion breaks. Whilst it's true that there are global diversification with more than 3000 stocks in VWRA, NVIDIA and Apple alone makes up almost 9% of the entire portfolio. Then there's also the SpaceX saga - watching a massive, highly volatile trillion-dollar company getting fast-tracked into index funds shortly after IPO really rings an alarm bell for me - as I really hated the idea of being forced to buy into the hype at peak whether I want it or not.
In these context, one really had to ask: am I really that diversified?
Going 100% VWRA means our entire life's financial security is resting on the assumption that seven companies in Silicon Valley will continue to grow exponentially forever, completely unhindered by antitrust laws, geopolitical trade wars, or currency devaluation.
Yes - whilst the index will eventually cleanses and rebalances itself, but it takes time. If the tech sector gets hit hard tomorrow (just like the dotcom crisis), we're pretty much guaranteed to ride the roller coaster all the way down before the index gets to react and rebalances itself. Hence, whilst a pure equities portfolio sounds good on paper, it relies on a blind hope that I won't be left holding the bag during multi-year, or decades, of recovery lag.
Discovering this concentration risk was a major trigger for me. It made me realize that a 100% index strategy isn't really that 'safe' - it's really an aggressive and crowded trade. Splitting my wealth into a three-pillar barbell allows me to participate in the Magnificent 7's upside through my equities, while ensuring my net worth isn't entirely trapped in a single, top-heavy baskets.
Don't get me wrong. Ultimately, I still have strong conviction in low-cost index fund investing. It's only that I can no longer ignore the macro signals I've been seeing over the last few years, and this Hong Kong move simply provided the final push that I needed to evolve my strategy. Could I be wrong? Absolutely. But I'm no longer comfortable ignoring the signals.
I will be lying if I mention that I've always had faith in bitcoin. If I've had the faith - I would've probably allocated bitcoin with a much higher tolerance in my target allocation than a measly 1% over the last 5 years. And let's be real, I'm definitely not an early adopter here; I completely missed out on those sub-$10k USD days, and this is not a play driven by FOMO either. The truth is, I don't. I never fully trusted bitcoin, and even so today. What changed my mind was the never-ending money printing and rising debt level in the United States that made me err on the cautious side. History doesn't repeat, but it definitely rhymes.
Many people argue that bitcoin is not a productive asset - as it doesn't generate any economic value. They're not wrong - and in fact, it consumes so much of energy just to keep Bitcoin (network) "alive". However, it is one of the few, if not the only highly-liquid hard asset that provide asymmetrical upside potential, with fixed supply and protection from sovereign nations. Could I buy real estate instead? Probably yes, but that also means that I'll need to lock away a hefty sum of cash flows (and capital) into the real estate, which I'm not a fans of. Plus, as an expat moving between countries, I really don't want the headache of managing physical properties, dealing with tenants, or paying localized maintenance fees and taxes. I needed an asset that is highly liquid, zero-maintenance, and completely borderless.
With fiat currencies, the downside is slow but guaranteed loss of purchasing power over time due to money printing. But with Bitcoin, even after taking into account its volatility, the downside is really capped to the amount I've invested in, but with fundamentally uncapped upsides as it gradually absorbs the global fiat currencies. It’s a highly rational math bet: risking a fixed, managed amount of capital for an open-ended, exponential shield. There's also the growing adoption by individuals, institutional and eventually sovereign nations too, with growing maturity of legal frameworks and infrastructures.
You will probably see it soon in my coming financial snapshots for Q2 of the year - but this asset is definitely one of the focus area I have this year to exponentially accelerate my accumulation phase.
Please, do not ever take this as a recommendation to buy - I'm merely sharing my thoughts processes before arriving at this conclusion, and it is definitely a (huge) risk that I am taking to make a play here. If you are really keen to start, I strongly suggest to read The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous and make your own decisions.
Looking back at everything we’ve broken down over the last few chapters, this whole cross-border journey has been a massive learning curve.
We talked about how earning a bigger income sounds amazing on paper, but it really just brings bigger responsibilities and forces you to grow up financially. I had to learn a completely new tax system from scratch and figure out how to maximize it. I had to dive deep into understanding different provident funds, which ironically made me appreciate Malaysia’s EPF a whole lot more. Even while living overseas, finding ways to operationally tap into those EPF benefits and continuing my voluntary contributions became a no-brainer anchor for my net worth.
But if I look at the big picture, the absolute biggest shift from this Hong Kong move wasn't actually the higher income.
It was the perspective.
Yes, a bigger shovel helps you dig faster, but without the maturity that I’ve been slowly honing over the last few years, I probably would have just blown the extra cash or stuck to a generic, rigid strategy that doesn't fit today's world. The income gave me the capital, but the perspective gave me the blueprint.
To be completely honest, I don't know if this new Anti-Fiat Barbell portfolio will actually work. Only time will tell. But just like last time, and how it’s always been on this blog, I am going to continue to refine, learn, optimize, and probably bang my head against the wall here and there.
Thanks for walking this path with me, and let’s see where the numbers take us next.
Cheers,
Gracie
For those interested, I've kept the snapshots of my legacy investment strategy below when the world used to be much simpler. Unfortunately, I don't believe that the simple, laid-back mindset would work considering the macro environment today. Maybe I will be proven wrong again, but as I've learned all these years - the best investment is investing into things that allows you to feel peace at night.
I hold a long-term view (10+ years) and minimise number of trades as much as possible, except for experimental transactions where I try things out - such as mixing in a very small amount of single-stock picks or experimental ETFs. But in general, I take a very laid-back/passive investing approach and most of my investment, in the long run, will be held in VWRA domiciled in Ireland.
Whilst you will need to study and make decisions on how your investment style should be, I decided to utilise VWRA as my primary choice of ETF for the following reasons:-
1. VWRA is an All-World FTSE Index Fund investing in global stocks encompassing developed and emerging markets. I initially debated a lot between choosing VWRA or going with IWDA + EIMI combo for better flexibility in reducing US exposures / increasing emerging market exposures but I have decided to stick with a one-fund approach to keep things simple.
2. A one-fund "catch-all" approach = Fewer funds to maintain = fewer transactions = fewer fees paid to the brokerage.
3. Let's not forget the "Accumulating" feature - which means no dividend will be distributed = no transactions are required to "reinvest" the dividend as they will automatically be reinvested within the fund.
4. VWRA is domiciled in Ireland, which provides tax advantages for me as a Malaysia Citizen, a country without a tax treaty with the U.S. This topic is deep enough on its own so I'll leave a link for now in case anyone's interested in delving more into it.
Of course, there will come a time where I want to have higher exposure in certain countries / emerging markets / speciality funds to help me to maintain my ideal portfolio ratio (e.g. I have my China ETF 3040.HK for exposures to Greater China).
For those interested, I journaled some of my thoughts on how I ended up with VWRA as my primary driver hidden in some of my previous updates here, here and here.
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