AWOL 2014 Issue 286 13th June | Page 9

Advertise here from only 40 baht per week cashING in The Financial Benefits of Being an Expat...benjamin franklin style Every week in this article Helen Couldrey, a financial consultant with the deVere Group, and also a qualified English lawyer, will give you tips and ideas of how to take advantage financially of being an expat. Helen has clients in Bangkok, Hua Hin and Cha-Am who she helps to maximise the financial benefits of living overseas. TOO MUCH CASH…? Cash plays a useful part in most investors’ portfolios. But, like all good things, one can hold too much cash. So what is the optimum amount of cash for an investor to hold? And where might excess cash be more usefully placed? As mentioned in a previous article, good financial planning means you will have access to emergency cash, normally 6 months of living expenses. But what about additional cash within an investment portfolio? Many advisers, including myself, recommend having a small cash holding at all times, perhaps 5% of total financial investments. This may seem an illogical thing to do if you are certain that there are other investments that could yield you higher returns, however there are some good reasons behind holding a