Published on February 24th, 2025
First, a congrats to our German and European friends on 80% of German voters voting against the AfD. A big win for democracy as the US government becomes a captured Russian accomplice. In this post, we will cover how to invest your IRA’s and brokerage funds outside US focused exchange traded funds.
A recap
Our last posts we have highlighted the following actions to take as small, financial acts of resistance against “King” Kraznov I and the Ketamine Kid. Kraznov was the Russian intelligence name given to Donald Trump 40 years ago.
- Boycott Tesla cars and batteries – don’t buy one from them
- Some are selling their Tesla’s. We fully support that effort even if we can’t afford to change at this time.
- Sell your Tesla stock. Tesla stock down from 475 to 338 with sales continuing to drop and market indices looking wobbly.
- Lock your debit cards
- Lock your credit reports
- Buy gold
- This includes physical gold like 1 oz gold Canadian Maple Leaf’s and 1 oz gold Mexican Peso coins
- Buy digital gold through an ETF such as GLD
- Buy gold related ETF’s such as GDX, which tracks large gold miners
- Sell your US investments in your 401k as much as you have comfort
- Instead, invest in international funds to support the world and spur greater investments in regions outside the US
- Today, we’ll talk about investments outside the US for your IRA’s and brokerage accounts.
International ETF’s for your IRA and brokerage accounts
Vanguard and Blackrock (iShares) are the largest asset managers for ETF’s. Most of the big international ETF’s are under their names. I am avoiding recommending both, as both are not the best climate champions and promote lots of necrofuel investments. The fund company I picked for investments is Franklin Templeton, which has lots of country specific ETF’s.
The following Franklin Templeton country funds are available:
- Asia ex Japan: symbol FLAX
- **** 4-star Morningstar rating
- Australia: symbol FLAU
- No Morningstar rating
- Brazil: symbol FLBR
- *** 3-star Morningstar rating
- If you know of a a better one let us know
- Canada: symbol FLCA
- No Morningstar rating
- China: symbol FLCH
- *** 3-star Morningstar rating
- Same, if there are better funds let us know
- FTSE Europe: symbol FLEE
- Seeks to provide investment results that closely correspond, before fees and expenses, to the performance of the FTSE Developed Europe Capped Index
- Includes some UK, US, and other exposure outside the key Euro countries
- **** 4-star Morningstar rating
- FTSE Eurozone: FLEU
- Seeks to provide investment results that closely correspond, before fees and expenses, to the performance of the FTSE Developed Eurozone Index
- **** 4-star Morningstar rating
- Germany: symbol FLGR
- No Morningstar rating
- Hong Kong: symbol FLHK
- **** 4-star Morningstar rating
- India: symbol symbol FLIN
- **** 4-star Morningstar rating
- Japan: symbol FLJP
- **** 4-star Morningstar rating
- Japan Hedged: symbol FLJH
- ***** 5-star Morningstar rating
- Latin America: symbol FLLA
- *** 3-star Morningstar rating
- Ditto as above
- Mexico: symbol FLMX
- No Morningstar rating
- Saudi Arabia: symbol FLSA
- No Morningstar rating
- South Korea: symbol FLKR
- No Morningstar rating
- Switzerland: symbol FLSW
- No Morningstar rating
- Taiwan: symbol FLTW
- ***** 5-star Morningstar rating
- United Kingdom: FLGB
- No Morninstar rating
This can get complicated real fast. We have bought a lot of these ETFs. If you wanted to diversify outside the US, you would need to cover Latin America, Europe, Canada, Mexico, Asia, Australia, and Africa. And you will notice Africa is missing above. We found a Van Eck fund, symbol AFK, that invests in Africa. Choose what your goals are, where you want to focus, and how much you want to invest in each, and do you invest it all at once or over time?
These are not easy answers. It impacts your retirement, if such an idea even makes sense now. We have been taught to buy an S&P 500 index fund or a target date retirement fund and invest monthly. That was when the US was a failed, stable democracy. As the world shifts and the US turns away from the rule of law and democracy, the simplicity of buying a US index fund and forgeting it until you retire is not adequate.
* We currently own AFK, FLCA, FLCH, FLEU, FLKR, FLLA, FLMX, GLD, and GDX. Looking to add UK, India, Japan, and Australia soon.
Major country ETF providers
We list here major country / region ETF providers.
Franklin Templeton: https://www.franklintempleton.com/investments/options/exchange-traded-funds?filter=CLASS_STRATEGY:Country;
Van Eck: https://www.vaneck.com/us/en/investments/africa-index-etf-afk/overview/
Note: The AFK fund has high expenses and fees, we’ll keep looking for alternatives
Vanguard: https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/etfs
iShares: https://www.ishares.com/us/products/compare-funds
What about bond and fixed income international ETFs?
Unfortunately, I started with country equity funds. I’ll need to do more research on good international bond and fixed income ETFs. I hope to post on that soon.
Final thoughts
The US voted against a UN resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine today, the 3rd Anniversary of Russia’s invasion of the sovereign nation of Ukraine. What a horrible betrayal of the sacrifice made by the brave Ukrainian people. Many of us don’t recognize our country from 30 days ago. It only took Hitler 53 days to consolidate his power once he was elected. Hitler used executive orders to do it without changing the Weimar Constitution. “King” Kraznov is following a similar path with a torrent of executive orders. He is facing resistance, a growing resistance, and some of it is coming from his maga base who are speaking up and getting hurt.
For almost 250 years, the world had the US as a guide for financial innovation, the rule of law, a leading democracy, a stable currency and the peaceful transfer of power. We made many mistakes and did many horrible things. Today, the world confronts a global economic power, with the strongest military, armed with nukes, siding with Russia and North Korea. Every action, small or large, has to resist the Elon-Donald-Putin takeover.
Our hope is by protecting your assets from the coming US economic and financial storm, by supporting our allies when they need it, our movement has courage and strength to do the morally right thing, and slows down tyranny until it is reversed. The world has a tremendous opportunity to invest in their own people, to develop and stregthen new relationships.. They should take advantage of this gift the US has given them.
Joy is an act of resistance. Spending time with your family, loving them, is an act of resistance. Doing activities you enjoy is an act of resistance. Writing to reach others is an act of resistance. Learning is an act of resistance. Investing in countries that don’t seek to brutalize others is an act of resistance. Helping your neighbors and community is an act of resistance. Cleaning a beach is an act of resistance. Hanging a flag upside down on El Capitan in Yosemite is an act of resistance.
In our next series, we’ll detail how you can remove the stain of Google from your life, starting from maps, to email, to calendars, and storage. We have already deleted a few of our gmail accounts, and working to delete the rest. Gmail might be more pervasive and difficult to change than your bank account.
RESISTANCE IS WORTHWHILE. What actions are you taking to resist? Please share in the comments below.
Sincerely yours,
smilingdad
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