Quote Originally Posted by BlackPeter View Post
Hi Kwkiwi, welcome to the forum.

First - you shouldn't expect "financial advise" on this forum. In New Zealand only "authorised financial advisors" are allowed to give that, and only after looking into and analysing your personal financial situation.

What you can hope for is that others share their investment experience with you - and it is up to you to decide whether these experiences / analysis and conclusions are relevant for your personal situation. Obviously - some people might have an agenda as well (like ramping up the shares they hold, or ramping down some shares they want to buy - or just stirring for "fun"), and even the better posters here are (as any human being) not infallible.

Having said that - I do hold a small percentage of my portfolio in TEM (Templeton Emerging Markets) in order to have some hedge against a falling NZD - and to benefit from the in my view likely better performance and growth of the emerging markets compared to the first world markets.

Over the long time they had a quite good growth rate, though my personal timing to buy in was not that flash. After 3 to 4 years of holding (and some subsequent "averaging down") did I just manage to break even. Lucky me not my best investment instrument!

Otherwise - it appears to be a professionally managed fund - and I am still holding (and expecting better growth in future - lower oil price in my view should help).

Haven't looked at the other Templeton funds, but assume they are quite professional as well. Just depends which markets you think will do well in future.

Just one other thought - if your plan is to get some exposure to European growth ... one other method might be to invest into (NZ or Australian) companies which are exposed to the European markets?
Thanks for your thoughts and sharing your experience. Much appreciated.