The central business district in Singapore. 
 
Bloomberg News
We recently chatted with Jim Rogers, 72, the Singapore-based investor who co-founded Quantum Fund with financier George Soros. In 2007, Mr. Rogers and his wife, Paige Parker, moved from New York to Singapore, specifically so their two daughters, Happy and Bee, could grow up speaking Chinese and experiencing the region’s extraordinary economic evolution. We wanted to know how the Rogers family has fared since moving to Asia. Does Mr. Rogers miss the U.S.? Would he do it all over again? Here’s an edited version of his phone interview with editors Polya Lesova and Gabriella Stern.
We wanted to know how Mr. Rogers defines himself—is he an expat or a global nomad or …?
Mr. Rogers: “I am an American citizen, I pay American taxes, I vote in America. I think of myself as an American living abroad. I’m one of those Americans who’s living wherever he wants to.”
Jim Rogers with his wife, Paige Parker, and their daughters, Happy and Bee.
 
Carolyn Strover
We asked about his daughters’ experiences in Singapore’s school system. Happy, 12, and Bee, 7, attendNanyang Primary School.
Mr. Rogers: “We’re extremely happy with Nanyang. If I have a complaint, it’s that they really work these kids very very hard. My daughters had more homework in the first two or three years than I had. It’s astonishing how advanced their work is. I cannot help my daughter with her math anymore. I could never help her with Chinese. It’s amazing how advanced it is. Certainly they’re learning things I didn’t learn till 10th or 11th grade.”
Mr. Rogers described his daughters’ Mandarin fluency, noting that Nanyang instructs in English and Chinese, alternating weeks: “The main reason we moved to Asia was so my girls would grow up speaking Mandarin and knowing Asia. It was never a question for us to go to any international schools.” Happy and Bee, he said, have done very well in Mandarin speaking contests, competing against Singaporean students. “ I don’t speak Mandarin at all,” he said.
We wondered about the family’s social life, whether they are part of Singapore’s American expat ‘bubble.’
Mr. Rogers: “Most of our lives revolve around Singaporeans. [The girls] have one or two American friends. Most of their friends are Singaporeans. They’re the only blue-eyed kids in the school. Everyone we know is Singaporean. We do know a few Americans, but very few. I guess that’s partly because most of the expats that come to Singapore are here for two or three years.”
He and Ms. Parker find plenty to do in Singapore. “We’re never at a loss for a symphony, plays. There’s plenty of stuff for us to do in Singapore. More and more events come to Singapore. I’ve heard people say Singapore was boring. Maybe it was once upon a time. It certainly has not been boring for us.”
What’s Mr. Rogers’ daily routine like, we wondered:
Mr. Rogers: “My routine, my life as much as possible centers around my children. I have a special bicycle I take my children to school on. [People say] ‘You’re that white guy that takes their kids to school on their bicycle.’ I collect them every day if I’m in town.” Mr. Rogers said that while Ms. Parker is his second wife, Happy and Bee are his only children.
“I was very, very much against children all my life,” he said. “I felt sorry for people who had children. I was totally, totally, 100 percent wrong. Like many other converts to anything, I’m an apostle. I was 60 when I had my first child. There’s nobody I’d rather have dinner with than my two little girls, and Paige, of course.”
Happy Rogers with her classmates at Nanyang Primary School.
We inquired about his work routine.
Mr. Rogers: “I have to invest my money and I do. It doesn’t take too much of my time. I have an office but I’ve never been to my office. I have an office at home. My secretary needs an office but she comes to my home every day. These days if you’re an investor, all you need is a computer.” About his investing activity, he said: “I don’t trade very much. Brokers don’t particularly like me because I don’t buy and sell very often. I may own them for years. I’ve been doing this for a long time. After a few decades I hope I’ve gotten better.”
Is there anything Mr. Rogers misses about the U.S.?
“No, there’s not,” he said, adding that Singapore has everything he wants or needs. “I can get hot dogs at the American Club [in Singapore]. If you land at JFK, you land at a third-world airport, go through third-world immigration and go in a third-world taxi on a third-world highway, and stay in a third-world five-star hotel. I’m very happy we sold our house.”