So, it goes on and on for robo advisors. Many would probably be tired of hearing this. I mean, this is pretty normal. Unsexy stuff is not always exciting than the buzz of trading. Just only a couple of years back where i left the financial industry, I seem to be able to take a step back and think about what is an investing portfolio.

From where I came from, building a long term portfolio is very rare. The emotions, drive, passion and revenue counts a lot. Customers want quick and fast trade execution with low rates and high profits, sometimes it comes with terms like low duration and low risks. Let’s face it, people are a greedy bunch – most people just want guaranteed returns, beat the system, make huge profits and take low risks. I rather people show me how to make those returns guaranteed and i’ll put money with them instead.

I get it that property, gold and some asset classes do generate huge returns over the past few decades. That is history and history doesn’t mean it will return the same going forward. All these talk, there can only be a process when there is a conversation around planning, finance or even trading. Most people are just classified under the one way channel.

Investing especially in spot market is a tough business. Most people cannot accept fluctuations in their portfolio. Autowealth is yet another solution for me. Just that this time around, this is for my kid to start out her investment journey when she can. Teaching financial literacy is something I would recommend to anyone.

Why Autowealth?

My two reasons for doing so is really just (a) try out one more robo advisor and (b) segregate this fund for any other purpose other than the kid’s investment journey. We shall talk about if robos die off in the future but this is conversation for another day.

My take about the investing journey has been the same since day one. Don’t sweat the small things, the costs of robo are so low. We are talking about a 15-20 year horizon here so heck those low costs. You need to pay them to keep their lights running. For companies like Endowus and StashAway, these guys have the experience and passion and these translate into action.

Perhaps Auto Wealth is in a different segment all together but they are the ones I see positively after the other two. After signing up in June I finally got to funding the account in September and October when markets were on the downside. The idea of doing this over the long term is to really to buy in when markets drop. Down the naysayers, just take a look at this historical S&P 500 chart for the last 50 and 100 years. Markets will go up and each time it drops, just pick some up and let the robots do the work on balancing and re-balancing. As long as fees remains low, the portfolio will grow over time and over a longer period. It should remain in the black based on some backtesting.

For a 50 year horizon on S&P 500 (roughly around 1970 to 2020):

Big time hedge funds and billionaires made their market on the equity markets during US boom time. Naturally, capital market are still the source of capital funding even till today.

For a 100 year horizon on S&P 500 (roughly around 1920 to 2020):

From 1920, US markets isn’t that global and the equity markets isn’t that advanced so there is a long plateau. There are more factors than not being global as capital raising. It is not a popular medium since investors are less savvy as well.

Performance

Looking at the portfolio, it looks pretty nice ahead of the 15-20 years horizon. This is a portfolio which is set at roughly 40% equities and 60% bonds. The investment vehicles will be through ETFs. It does look like it can withstand long term peaks and troughs. What i really like is that i can switch between the SGD and USD currency performance portfolio as well as the impact on USD SGD forex on performance. I wouldn’t say this does as well as the portfolios but to be fair, markets were already slightly upwards and I would like to deploy funds out into the market in tranches over time.

+3% absolute is decent in my view and this is as at 16 Nov. If markets drop, the rule is to fund the account more. Do note that all of these will have USD exposure. Time versus DIY – it is really about what is important. I usually will want to see the ultimate end goal whenever I start anything.

Disclaimer

This is not a sponsored post. This is purely my own opinion after using their service and/or products. If you like what you are seeing, do remember to check they out and do your diligence. There is no one size fits all investment strategy.

If you like what I am sharing or if it resonates with you, do use my referral codes here at https://atomic-temporary-178675883.wpcomstaging.com/contact/ for the services.

The pictures were taken from Auto Wealth website for this article. If you need a referral code, drop me a message and you can indicate my full name during registration. From there, both of us will  get $20 each to supplement the fees.