I'm still in something of a state of limbo. My paperwork finally arrived at the brokerage, but now I have to fund my account.I have the money (a little, anyway), but my credit union doesn't seem to let me wire money to them, so I'll have to mail them a check. That will take days to get there and possibly a couple of weeks to clear. I'll see if I can find a quicker way because that is very disappointing.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to convince my parents of the importance of considering the dire state of our economy and what they may need to do about it. But my dad is very stubborn and extremely reluctant to do anything even remotely different -- let alone something as radical as investing in a foreign market. I'll visit them next weekend, so maybe talking about it face-to-face will help.