US Citizen Trying to Avoid PFIC

Hi All,

As the title suggests, I am trying to avoid breaching the PFIC regulation while continuing to invest. Once tax season rolls around I normally max out my Roth IRA, however I am not in a sticky situation where all my earned income in the past year has been made outside the US. Hence, I will most likely be opting for the FTC, so that I can contribute to my Roth IRA.

Unfortunately due to EU and US regulations I am now in a sort of investing purgatory where I cant invest in ETFs/mutual funds in either market without being in tax paperwork hell. So I am now looking at buying individual stocks, but I am a noob and am looking for advice. I would like to purchase stock that is more on the safe side and acts like the S&P500. I am not really looking for dividends, at the moment I am more so in a “set it and forget it” mindset.

So perhaps another way to phrase my question is, what would you invest in if you wanted to invest in index funds, but were not allowed to? I will of course do the leg work to figure out what sort of maintenance I need to perform on the stocks (i.e. how often do I need to login and check on my stocks, when do I rearrange my stock allocations). If anyone has links for videos/docs on how to maintain stocks that were particularly helpful to them, that would also be dope.

Some opinions/options I have found through reading reddit include:

• Utility companies
• Chips (e.g. Nvidia)
• Insurance companies (e.g. Allianz)
• Boring services we will almost always need (e.g. Waste Management WM)
• Huge Pharma (e.g. JNJ, Pfizer, P&G)
• Food (e.g. KO, Pepsi, General Mills, Costco)
• Green tech I am weary of, ive read that the renewable sector is stull in flux, companies are not yet stable

A friendly request … please don't roast me, I am not the most financially savvy person, I am just trying to prepare for retirement and keep my money safe from inflation in a responsible way. If I wrote something that sounds stupid or doesn't make sense, please teach me so I understand “the way”. Thanks in advance for your help.