Greetings all,

I'd like to revisit what seems to be an age-old discussion on this forum - investing in overseas shares from NZ.
I've had a look through the majority of threads on the forum regarding this topic however a lot of the information is outdated, or the stuff which is really applicable to my situation is scattered amongst a dozen of different threads.

What I would appreciate is concise, clear, practical advice about exactly how to go about directing in overseas shares from NZ as a relatively new investor hoping to expand my portfolio to include global shares.

What are your experiences/current practices/opinions?

To give you a bit of background about my situation: I'm mid-20's with a small nest egg ($10-20,000), built up after finishing university. I'm looking mainly for capital growth with a view to building a decent retirement fund over the next 40 years. I plan to drip feed ~$1-2,000 per month into my investments and given my age, will have >90% in shares in these early years. I aim to have ~50% of these in australasian shares and 50% globally. At this stage I am mainly going to focus on passive funds/indexes and ETF's as I do not have vast amounts of time to research companies and am happy to let my money (hopefully) grow steadily over time rather than sitting idly in a bank account. I prefer an DIY approach and am not overly keen to give a decent proportion of my money to a broker, but will consider a managed fund if this is recommended for investing overseas. I am currently a member with ASB securities and will do my NZX/ASX trading through them.

It all seems to get a bit trickier when it comes to investing globally.

The options which I see as currently available include:
1. Direct investment into overseas shares via ASB securities - comparatively expensive (~$90/trade), which is a big chunk out of the relatively small investments I'll be making initially.
2. ETF's on the NZX/ASX - none on the NZX now that AMP WiNZ is closed; more on ASX but there is the risk with double currency exposure, and the initial deposit fee can also be expensive.
3. UK investment trusts on ASB securities - could be an option, but again, expensive
4. Fund manager, especially one focused on ETF's such as Pathfinder
5. Setting up a separate online account via E-trade or optionsexpress - I don't know too much about this but have seen it mentioned quite a few times on ST.

As mentioned, I am a fairly new investor so the above information may be incorrect, misguided or incomplete, so I apologise for this and would appreciate if there are any corrections to be made.

Hopefully with your guidance I can make a final decision about the best way for me to gain access to overseas shares.
Thanks all!