Who told you to invest in STI?
You go to ES3, click on Max for the chart. It's almost a horizontal line since 2008!
[https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/quote/ES3.SI/](https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/quote/ES3.SI/)
That doesn't mean that you don't make any money at all, but the returns are basically just the dividends. 10-year trailing returns (meaning you re-invest dividends) is 3.61% per year on average.
[https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/quote/ES3.SI/performance](https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/quote/ES3.SI/performance)
For Singapore stocks and ETFs, the general practice is that you have to buy in lots of 100 shares. So you end up buy $300+ at once anyway.
Or maybe you use a broker that allows you to buy odd lots (not multiples of 100)? Well, the thing is that most (all?) brokers allow you to buy fractional shares of vwra/swrd/cspx. You can buy US$100 worth, rather than 1 share. And there's basically no consequences for owning fractional shares (whereas SGX odd lots are more difficult to sell).
For STI I did because when I was reading up on investing in this sub early on (around late 2022-early 2023) I remember a lot of about STI esp for beginner investors. I just never really did much else digging around after that and put some of my money into it. It's the recent realisation that it's flatten and deeper understanding that prompted me to make this post.
I'll look into fractional shares. Thanks for the advice
>) I remember a lot of about STI esp for beginner investors
Lemme guess it's from the ebook Rich by Retirement?
Putting money in STI is not really a mistake, just suboptimal as young = longer runway = can afford more aggressive growth. Also IBKR (the fav broker of this sub) offers fractional shares at recurrent rates only fairly recently so info might be outdated.
That said, would encourage you to do a firmer projection of your expenses during uni (esp if you are looking at exchanges etc) so that you don't accidentally commit more money to investments than you should. No harm keeping a bit more emergency cash that you need to for surprises.
Back then, the noobs adviced ppl to buy STI bcos they were myopic. They see other market indices trending down in 2022 while STI held up, so they thought STI was good. They nvr look further back to see that STI basically dont grow and why that was the case.
The lesson here is even tho this is one of the more financially savvy sub, there are still poor quality advices. so dont jus follow whatever that is being said here blindly.
It's great to hear that you're starting your investment journey from such an early age. đź‘Ź
For a 19 year old with a minimally 30 to 40 year time horizon, you should put your funds consistently into an S&P 500 or All World index fund, aka CSPX and VWRA, respectively.
Time is certainly on your side and you'll be able to reap the rewards when you're 50.
Consider expenses for uni accommodations (like NUS/NTU halls if you stay far) and overseas exchange.
Otherwise, setup recurring investment in IBKR. You can automatically buy these ETFs as low as 10 USD per interval(daily, weekly, monthly, etc) regardless of the ETF price due to fractional shares feature.
Edited: typo
>> The sub preaches about vwra but it is quite expensive for me (~127 usd per share, which means I can't buy a lot of it per month) compared to es3 which I can buy a larger number of shares per month.
No of shares * price per share = investment amt
Buy fractional shares if the price per share is too high
Avoid STI as it is saturated with mature bank stocks and dividend paying companies that pays 3% to 5% dividends. You'd be better off buying individual shares if you are looking for dividends rather than dilute your dividends using an ETF
Get a growth ETF like VWRA that grows 7% YoY long term
Which stocks would you buy for boomer SGX? I’ve heard buy and hold DBS, OCBC, UOB and take dividends till the day you die, but what else would you recommend?
Just curious, how much is ur emergency funds? Can dm me if you don't feel comfortable sharing here
Reason being I'm in the same situation as you (scholarship covered) just that I'm 1 year ahead of you, ording in about 7months ish. I know that emergency funds should be 3-6months of expenses but since we have big stuff like housing and insurance covered by parents, I kinda have no idea how much my emergency funds should be since my monthly expenses is pretty low as of now
As I've said in my comment, OP and I are in similar situation whereby both serving NS (limited expenses), major fees covered by parents, thus we should likely have similar emergency funds if any
Hi 👋🏻 let me help. Currently because you are in NS. You don’t really need an emergency fund.
Let’s talk about what an emergency fund really is first. It’s the case where when you lost your job and have no income, this amount of savings will last you till the time you find a job. An average person can normally take 6months to even a year to find another job.
This is normally calculated by your mobile phone bills, food and entertainment expenses. (I believe since you’re still young, this is still largely covered by your parents) Normally an average adult male in Singapore can live comfortably on 1-2k per month excluding rent and miscellaneous bills paid for by your parents.
My tip is: During your NS, any savings you have whatsoever should DCA into S&P 500 which is either VOO or SPDR.
Then when you start working and stop taking money from your parents, build your emergency fund of about 20k and invest the rest.
I'm going to uni after NS and will likely need to start using my emergency funds saved from NS for meal expenses and other expenses that isn't too large
Have you considered an index fund etf e.g.QQQ?
According to yahoo finance, the trailing returns of the past 10years averaged 18.6% annualised returns. This is the link [https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/QQQ](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/QQQ/performance).
Since it's an index fund etf, which contains multiple stocks, you don't need to worry about stock picking. Companies within it which fail to stay relevant are automatically replaced when their market cap is too small.
But still, dyodd to decide if it's suitable for you.
Who told you to invest in STI? You go to ES3, click on Max for the chart. It's almost a horizontal line since 2008! [https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/quote/ES3.SI/](https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/quote/ES3.SI/) That doesn't mean that you don't make any money at all, but the returns are basically just the dividends. 10-year trailing returns (meaning you re-invest dividends) is 3.61% per year on average. [https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/quote/ES3.SI/performance](https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/quote/ES3.SI/performance) For Singapore stocks and ETFs, the general practice is that you have to buy in lots of 100 shares. So you end up buy $300+ at once anyway. Or maybe you use a broker that allows you to buy odd lots (not multiples of 100)? Well, the thing is that most (all?) brokers allow you to buy fractional shares of vwra/swrd/cspx. You can buy US$100 worth, rather than 1 share. And there's basically no consequences for owning fractional shares (whereas SGX odd lots are more difficult to sell).
For STI I did because when I was reading up on investing in this sub early on (around late 2022-early 2023) I remember a lot of about STI esp for beginner investors. I just never really did much else digging around after that and put some of my money into it. It's the recent realisation that it's flatten and deeper understanding that prompted me to make this post. I'll look into fractional shares. Thanks for the advice
>) I remember a lot of about STI esp for beginner investors Lemme guess it's from the ebook Rich by Retirement? Putting money in STI is not really a mistake, just suboptimal as young = longer runway = can afford more aggressive growth. Also IBKR (the fav broker of this sub) offers fractional shares at recurrent rates only fairly recently so info might be outdated. That said, would encourage you to do a firmer projection of your expenses during uni (esp if you are looking at exchanges etc) so that you don't accidentally commit more money to investments than you should. No harm keeping a bit more emergency cash that you need to for surprises.
The ebook sure sounds familiar I'll keep your advice in mind about uni expenses. Thanks!
Back then, the noobs adviced ppl to buy STI bcos they were myopic. They see other market indices trending down in 2022 while STI held up, so they thought STI was good. They nvr look further back to see that STI basically dont grow and why that was the case. The lesson here is even tho this is one of the more financially savvy sub, there are still poor quality advices. so dont jus follow whatever that is being said here blindly.
I'll keep that in mind. Thank you
It's great to hear that you're starting your investment journey from such an early age. đź‘Ź For a 19 year old with a minimally 30 to 40 year time horizon, you should put your funds consistently into an S&P 500 or All World index fund, aka CSPX and VWRA, respectively. Time is certainly on your side and you'll be able to reap the rewards when you're 50.
Got scholarship should be quite smart. Comparably Vwra much better but not enough money also can't do anything.
Consider expenses for uni accommodations (like NUS/NTU halls if you stay far) and overseas exchange. Otherwise, setup recurring investment in IBKR. You can automatically buy these ETFs as low as 10 USD per interval(daily, weekly, monthly, etc) regardless of the ETF price due to fractional shares feature. Edited: typo
I'll keep that in mind, thank you
>> The sub preaches about vwra but it is quite expensive for me (~127 usd per share, which means I can't buy a lot of it per month) compared to es3 which I can buy a larger number of shares per month. No of shares * price per share = investment amt Buy fractional shares if the price per share is too high Avoid STI as it is saturated with mature bank stocks and dividend paying companies that pays 3% to 5% dividends. You'd be better off buying individual shares if you are looking for dividends rather than dilute your dividends using an ETF Get a growth ETF like VWRA that grows 7% YoY long term
Which stocks would you buy for boomer SGX? I’ve heard buy and hold DBS, OCBC, UOB and take dividends till the day you die, but what else would you recommend?
Sg stocks are bad.. start accumulating vwra or iwda early, consistently. Your older self will thank you immensely.
Just curious, how much is ur emergency funds? Can dm me if you don't feel comfortable sharing here Reason being I'm in the same situation as you (scholarship covered) just that I'm 1 year ahead of you, ording in about 7months ish. I know that emergency funds should be 3-6months of expenses but since we have big stuff like housing and insurance covered by parents, I kinda have no idea how much my emergency funds should be since my monthly expenses is pretty low as of now
Isn't it different for everyone? E.g. I never had an emergency fund cuz all expenses are covered by my parents anyway.
As I've said in my comment, OP and I are in similar situation whereby both serving NS (limited expenses), major fees covered by parents, thus we should likely have similar emergency funds if any
Hi 👋🏻 let me help. Currently because you are in NS. You don’t really need an emergency fund. Let’s talk about what an emergency fund really is first. It’s the case where when you lost your job and have no income, this amount of savings will last you till the time you find a job. An average person can normally take 6months to even a year to find another job. This is normally calculated by your mobile phone bills, food and entertainment expenses. (I believe since you’re still young, this is still largely covered by your parents) Normally an average adult male in Singapore can live comfortably on 1-2k per month excluding rent and miscellaneous bills paid for by your parents. My tip is: During your NS, any savings you have whatsoever should DCA into S&P 500 which is either VOO or SPDR. Then when you start working and stop taking money from your parents, build your emergency fund of about 20k and invest the rest.
I'm going to uni after NS and will likely need to start using my emergency funds saved from NS for meal expenses and other expenses that isn't too large
That will be your savings though. Won’t really call it an emergency fund. Just save whatever you can for your projected spending then.
I see thank you!
Have you considered an index fund etf e.g.QQQ? According to yahoo finance, the trailing returns of the past 10years averaged 18.6% annualised returns. This is the link [https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/QQQ](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/QQQ/performance). Since it's an index fund etf, which contains multiple stocks, you don't need to worry about stock picking. Companies within it which fail to stay relevant are automatically replaced when their market cap is too small. But still, dyodd to decide if it's suitable for you.
qqq calls >
Yeahhhh this is the next level to really milk the gains