Category: Alternative Investments

Any investments that cannot be classified within traditional asset classes

Mental well-being and DIY investing

On By RistrettzIn Alternative Investments, Personal Finance Series, Psychology, Wealth & HealthLeave a comment

Today, I’m going to go straight out and talk about Mental well-being and why DIY investing is related to it. Personal Finance is a wide topic. Some people talk about it passionately while other talk about it in monetary terms. If you come across my blog about how I view investing and personal finance. It would always bow down to one thing. You need to look at it long term (30-40-50 years).

My last post was on 15 Jan 2022. It was a new year and new resolutions but who knew that I was hit with reality and I got a little depressed. I’m quite the jovial and joker kind of guy so it is hard to see me depressed for a prolonged period. But I realised that I needed to get away for a short while. While this happened to make myself well a number of events happened and it was all unexpected. After all these has tide over. I found time to talk about this, write it down as a form of content as well.

Many things happen to our lives.

a. Triggering events

This is a wide scope. It can affect family members, jobs, health and other financial events

b. Illness/Sickness that spread from friends to friends and family to family.

This affects family the most. The support from the extended family and who take care of your kids while you grind at work

c. Your own well-being

Of the three items, I find that your own well-being determines who you are and what you want to become. Whether you like it or not, triggering events happens without any warnings. Sickness and illness happens mostly without much time to react. While all these happen, it is important to keep your own spirits up. What you do and say eventually is the outcome of how you treat yourself.

I’m no expert at this but if you do realise you need help. Look for professional help. With the option of working from home, it limits the interaction or distraction with colleagues, friends and family members. It makes one feels inwards towards approaching people. For people who realise it, it is a positive sign. For people who doesn’t, then it makes it tricky.

Now, here comes the key part to this article. When you are down and out, nothing interests you anymore. This includes your own investment portfolio and personal interests. However, there are things that will keep you going (i.e. kids, ferrying the kids, family and etc..) This will make you go at minimum pace. What if this distraction goes on for a year? Often, I hear many friends (Who thinks that they are Warren Buffet and I don’t blame them) say that why pay fees. These are for people who doesn’t know what they are doing.

Let’s look back and ponder on what we just discussed. If you DIY your own investing portfolio and you leave it under the bus for a long time. What will happen to your own portfolio? I will leave the answer to yourself because everyone is different. I’m not saying that paying exorbitant fees is the answer to this. There are many solutions to these and some of these include letting a robo-advisor manage your own portfolio. While you take time to find your own wellness and recover your motivations. No one run their lives in adrenaline until old age. There’s always peak and troughs like every investing period. Pace it out and find things that matter the most to you.

I’ll make this short but will probably do it in a three part format because I really find it important that what if one day (touch wood) something really happens to you. I’m not sure what everyone invests in but I dabble in a bit of a crypto defi and multiple platforms to maximum my exposure and benefits. I’m not sure if my family member can pick up the pieces to recover every cents of my investments should anything happen to me. I’ll remember my own passwords once I see how I algorithmically encrypt it. I can’t say the same for my family members.

Conclusion

Stop sweating on the small stuff. a 0.5% or 1% fee on your portfolio buys you  nothing but a piece of mind. All you need to do is to research for a reliable and honest company that can do the work for you. Review them from time to time to make sure they are still relevant to your own investing philosophies. For star traders who are often right than wrong. Think about the day when your hands doesn’t work quite that fast as your brain is thinking. Income is important to everyone so transfer your risk and sometimes paying a little more works out better.

Till the next blog. Great weekend ahead.

Disclaimer

This is not a sponsored post. This is purely what I write about because I generally have a passion towards learning and spreading personal finance. There is no one size fits all investment strategy. I do not have any affiliation to any robo-advisors or company nor do I get any perks other than a referral fee.

If you like what I am sharing or if it resonates with you, do use my referral codes here at Referral and Recommendations

All about Tiger Brokers

On By RistrettzIn Alternative Investments, Deals, Personal Finance SeriesLeave a comment

I may have been a latecomer in the free stock game here but there’s always a opportunity or rather opportunity cost. Regardless of the time and period, if there’s something to gain or benefit from recommending certain products. I don’t see why we can’t do that. There have been a recent trend in growing a trading platform of late and in doing so, offering too good to refuse perks such as free “1” shares of popular and big capitalisation US equity companies.

Before I begin, I need to say that I’m working with Tiger Brokers on this sponsored content. Personally, I have used them and cost wise, it has been one of the more effective trading apps I’ve used as compared to traditional brokerage.

Tiger Brokers Perks

Tiger has a professional trading platform with easy-to-navigate design, quick online account opening, and funding. Tiger support trading global markets that include US, HK, Singapore stocks, and more. Tiger is offering every client benefit below when you do an initial funding of 2000SGD or estimate 1550USD:

1. Registration: 500 Tiger Coins
2. Account Opening:
Stock: 60 commission-free trades within 180 days for stocks of U.S., H.K., Singapore & Australia
Future: 5 commission-free trades for Futures within 30 days
3. First Deposit ≥ SGD 2,000：
Stock: 1 free Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) share

I just want to qualify for you to take note that you can’t send in a test transfer like initial $1 and the balance $1999 on the second transfer.

Due to some system related constraints, these are the issues that came up. I know that end of the day, what’s the difference as long as it makes up the whole sum. I have feedbacked to them and we shall see what they say.

In Summary, you have to complete an initial transfer of the full amount to the Tiger Broker Designated account that was opened in your name to be eligible for the promotion and free stock.

Read the updated Terms and Conditions here: https://www.tigerbrokers.com.sg/welcomerulesg?lang=en_US&contentId=153

Updated to be correct until 30 September 2021.

To apply directly, click here to use my link: Tiger Broker Account Opening Link

Thank you all in advance. I may give you a little extra if you use my link to sign up. Just drop me a private note once you have done so and funded the account.

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. Just take note to use this code to get your Tiger Perks – “WELCOME321“

Now, if what I am sharing does resonates with you, do use my referral codes here at Referral and Recommendations

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

The pictures were taken from Tiger Brokers website for this article.

SHIB or Shit Coins (Cryptocurrency)

On By RistrettzIn Alternative Income, Alternative Investments, CryptocurrencyLeave a comment

There has been a number of crazy movements in the crypto world. No one can really explain the reason fundamentally but it created a bunch of young millionaires especially from Elon Musk little tweet about Dogecoin.

With only 11 days in the market, Shiba coins seems to be the next trend of meme coins. Woof Paper perhaps of white paper: https://www.shibatoken.com/

Pretty funny comments I would say reading the whitepaper. I hope VB burns or keep SHIB.

Buy or Risk? It really depends on your risk taking level. No pain no gain, no risk no returns.

Currently, it seems like you can use 2 ways to purchase SHIB:

a. Buy via Crypto.com App

b. Buy via metamask [Through the Ethereum (ETH) network]

c. You can buy it through Binance now. That’s pretty huge.

Crypto trading and currency is not for everyone so do your own diligence. Don’t FOMO, invest wisely. Good luck! Now, to the moon.

Disclaimer

If you decide to sign up with Crypto.com to trade any other coins, Use this Crypto.com App to sign up for Crypto.com and we both get $25 USD. Referral Code: im3py887ty

If you like what I am sharing or if it resonates with you, do use my referral codes for other services at Referral and Recommendations

These pictures were taken off SHIB website for reference.

AutoWealth – Performance Update & YTD (February 2021)

On By RistrettzIn Alternative Investments, Performance, Personal Finance Series, Robo AdvisorsLeave a comment

AutoWealth is my long-term portfolio approach. For my child’s portfolio, this is to  add on over time and have a good 20 years horizon. My only gripe is that I cant measure YTD performance. Of course, there is no reason to do that expect for measurement purposes. A time weighted performance is more of an important indicator in my opinion. Just a reminder for myself and on why I chose Autowealth:

Why Autowealth?

My two reasons for doing so is really just (a) try out one more robo advisor/segregate a portfolio for a sole purpose and (b) segregate this fund for any other purpose other than the kid’s investment journey.

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.

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.

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 back testing. I like it that they have already breakeven so it would be less of a pressure as a company.

As a pretty new kid on the block, it does look like they are one of those companies who keep things lean, mean and transparent for others. Many times, I do not mind paying slightly more for better service or better app/products. I speak for myself though as I do know many who penny pinch and I shall not comment more on this. My philosophy is to never sweat the small stuff – To have bigger dreams, you will have to let go of the small things. No change in Portfolio allocations.

Performance – Feb 2021

Looking at the portfolio, it is pretty expected as the market has been pretty neutral.  My investment horizon would be estimated to be 15-20 years. 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. USD has been steadily increasing versus the SGD.

Overall, since funding to date (in SGD currency) performance is +9.13% and I like this. The impact of USD on SGD is about -2.08% and by referencing the portfolio in USD, absolute return would be at +11.00%. No complaints thus far.

Looking into the details if I were to look at the portfolio value at $5334 (end Dec 2020) versus today at $5457. Some simple and manual YTD calculations below

YTD Performance[($5457-$5334)/$5334] x 100% = +2.30% (YTD 10 March 2021)

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 Referral and Recommendations

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.

Endowus – Performance Update & YTD (February 2021)

On By RistrettzIn Alternative Investments, Performance, Personal Finance Series, Robo AdvisorsLeave a comment

So I have been busy recently so I missed January 2021 performance update. There are just so many things to keep up with and with the pandemic still ongoing. There are just simply too many changes. At the same time working from home seems rather mundane these days. Humans as social creatures and so eventually, we cannot stay and work individually over a prolonged period of time. Plus, there are just that many telecommunications that you can make.

December through January 2021 has been interesting filled with US elections and more printing of money. In the market news, no matter the situation, a systematic approach about investing is quite important. Month on month, diversification has been really important. Slowly but surely, I’m actually feeling that Endowus and my investment goals do align pretty nicely on the investment portion.

The newly launched Cash Smart looks pretty decent. I might take a crack at that to put in some money consistently. Plus wow, if you use my referral code, you will get an addition $100 that will be added to your portion when you invest S$10k worth. So, it means referral bonus $20 for you and me (Check out my referral link at Endowus Referral Link + additional $100 for you. Only applicable for new customers of Endowus. The $100 is also available for you in the promotional LionGlobal All Seasons Fund (Growth) units after a 90 days holding period. Great news though for new investors.

SRS Portfolio

Overall, portfolio is up 15.25% since May 2020 in SGD. As usual, in USD terms, due to no FX impact as the portfolio is USD ETFs, the performance will definitely be better especially when USD is already up 3-4% versus the SGD since start of the year in 2021. Of course, the reference will be SGD since I use SGD. This is the SRS/Cash portfolio which consists of my favourite Dimension Funds in a 40% bonds/60% equity. Overall from May 2020 to 9 Mar 2021, it is a 15% increase in absolute terms – Fantastic. From Jan 2021 to 9 Mar 2021, the fund was stable with just roughly 2%+ increase in portfolio. Not too bad, knowing markets were rather choppy and moving more negative on most days so far.

In Terms of YTD returns in 2021, I’m looking at 2.34%. I’m really like what I am seeing here. Definitely topping up if there are any corrections (By definition a correction is more than 10% drop in a single day)

CPF Portfolio

For the CPF portfolio, it is also doing pretty well though not as well as my Dimension Fund portfolio. I’m still looking at 10.59% returns from May 2020 through to 9 Mar 2021.

In Terms of YTD returns in 2021, I’m looking at 0.29%. This is quite expected so not much of a surprise. I have no requirement to login daily to view my portfolio performance. Just a monthly review will be sufficient.

On a side note, the cash management accounts have started to report a decline. This is also expected since interest rate environment is here to stay for the long term.

Also, I would be looking at the new Smart Fund DIY portfolio which looks really interesting. I would definitely be looking this up as interest rates are still pretty low and I got some cash lying around.

Like every month, the pros once more:

  • Endowus is the first and only robo-advisor to be approved by the CPF board.
  • 100% trailer fees back to the consumer, not the fund management fee. This is really one of a kind I’ve seen so far.
  • They do have a decent team who makes sense when introducing their platform.
  • I believe all retail investor should try them out because of how they are trying to disrupt investing and make investing work for everyone.

Again, I will shamelessly thank all of you in advance for using my referral code.

Disclaimer

If you decide to sign up with Endowus, do remember to use my referral code: https://endowus.com/invite?code=EDZ8M

If you like what I am sharing or if it resonates with you, do use my referral codes for other services at Referral and Recommendations

These pictures were taken off Endowus website for reference.

Autowealth Robo Advisors – Performance (Oct 2020)

On By RistrettzIn Alternative Investments, Personal Finance Series, Robo Advisors1 Comment

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.

 

Everest Gold

On By RistrettzIn Alternative Income, Alternative Investments, New Ideas, Wealth & HealthLeave a comment

The sound of Everest Gold is not exactly sound and safe at first notice but they are a new digital trading platform. You can trade gold digitally now, akin to a stock brokerage account. There are a number of articles out there from bloggers and online news that talks about Everest Gold.

Trying it out

To try it out, you do not need to put in any money. All you need is to use my referral code and your will be awarded 200k points which is approximately USD 20. These rewards can be used to subscribe for gold during their events.

  • No need for any transactions. Just make sure your details, bank accounts and everything is verified.
  • Referral is limited. Not sure if they will be bringing this back but in Oct 2020, the fee was 300k points which is approximately USD 40.

Referral

Use this link to find out more if you are interested at Everest Gold or use this referral code when you decide to sign up: TZLLE. Both of us will get more rewards for subscription.

History

A little dig up of the company. Everest Gold is a Singapore-based  fintech gold trading form. The creation of such a service is to digitise gold trading and makes it easy for both beginner and expert investors. It is suitable for anyone who have interest in gold trading. I personally have also tested their customer service team and response is pretty decent.

Everest Gold uses 999.9 pure investment grade gold. 1kg bard are from a refiner in switzerland. You can also download them from an app and investing starts from 1 gram. From what it seems, anyone can trade and liquidate almost immediately. Physical gold assets can also be collected from their depositories by submission of a request in-app.

Disclaimer

I do use this service and by signing up as a referrer, both you and I will get some benefits.

As with all investments, there are risks involved so please do your own diligence.

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

The pictures were taken from the Everest Gold website for this article.

Crypto.com Exchange (Crypto Trading)

On By RistrettzIn Alternative Investments, Cryptocurrency, Personal Finance SeriesLeave a comment

Crypto Trading has been something that I was looking to go a couple of years ago. However the process and understanding the steps were just complex and seems daunting. The whole idea of buying crypto through a block-chain transaction and also when you transfer ETH through the ERC-20 system and so on and so forth.

I didn’t even know what was gas to begin with! Then came Crypto.com that was my initial foray into crypto currency and it gave me confidence because of how simple the setup was. It was built into 2 segments and eventually developed into a brokerage style (Crypto.com Exchange) at Exchange

Crypto.com App

The app is divided into two sections: The first is the Visa Debit Card and the second the purchasing wallet in the Crypto App. You can sell your crypto into the Visa Card (This is only one way) in the form of BTC to Fiat Currency. You can buy and sell and convert from different coins/tokens within the app itself as long as they list it in the App.

The next development that they built was the earn functions. It works like a fixed deposit. You need to put in a minimum sum, it can be no terms, 1 month or 3 month and they pay you the interest every week. The presumed interest rates are not fixed and are subject to changes. I find that the flexible terms plans allow for such flexibility. I previously talked about Crypto.com here Foray into Cryptocurrency with a Visa Card

Crypto.com Exchange

Recently, Crypto.com built an Exchange platform. This is what most people define traditionally as the brokerage. This exchange platform will allow you to set triggers for all coin pairs that is tradable on the exchange. You can also set limit buy and sell or market orders through the platform. This gives some form of control as the rates are always moving even during weekends. On the App itself, the rates are probably held for 5/10 secs depend on how volatile the trading pairs are but the exchange will provide live and almost instant conversion at the price that one would like to get.

You can also soft stake in the exchange with other coins that is listed on the page. It means that certain coins get some form of interest just by putting it on the exchange. You do not need to do anything but just take note that it may change from time to time.

Above is the referral programme for both referrer and referee for NEW Users.

They also have a referral programme now. You can also read more about it in detail here at Exchange Referral

The sky is the limit for now. Look at the referral bonus paid out in CROs Tokens. The rich gets richer.

Above is the referral programme for both referrer and referee for EXISTING Users

Benefits

  • No referral limits – You can refer as many friends as you want; you and your friends will each be rewarded upon meeting the requirements.
  • Bonus credited instantly – Referrer/Referee will receive their bonuses immediately once all conditions are met.

If you would like to give it a go or just to try it out, do use my referral code. Meanwhile, if you have any questions about funding or what to use to buy and how to buy, just drop me a note anytime.

Referral Link: My Referral Link

Referral Code: im3py887ty

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.

Images seen in this article were take off the relevant websites for illustration purposes only.

What Will I Invest with S$10,000

On By RistrettzIn Alternative Investments, Cryptocurrency, Personal Finance Series, Robo Advisors, Wealth & HealthLeave a comment

I realised that such posts actually attract more viewership as compared to technical breakdowns. I get it that most people want a quick and fast way to read content and download views. The first 3 seconds of every post will most likely decide if the reader would like to continue reading, be skeptical or just scoff at it. In my earlier posts, I talked about having an emergency fund. It takes time to build such things so don’t forget, the little things count.

In this article, I’m going to discuss more about what to invest and why especially for folks who just got out of school. When I graduated, I remember vividly that it seemed to be pretty hard to save money. A few years on, I realised what constituted the bulk of my spending and why I could not save more. These life experiences cannot be bought so I would say the money spend networking and forging friendships are my human capital.

Going back in Time

Going back to 5 years ago, there wasn’t many choices to invest extra funds into. It was the standard brokerages, fund houses or at most bank/custodian brokerages. There wasn’t a lot of tools to invest in and let’s be honest, the retail bankers can’t be too bothered with a S$10,000 fund. It just isn’t worth their time. So, like many others who preaches, I shall say it again – If you do not care about your own money, no one will. I remember I used to buy funds via FundSupermart, trading some Forex with CMC Markets/Saxo Capital and used Standard Chartered Brokerages to buy US/SGD equities. Nothing fancy that you can really do though.

Moving forward 2020

With the current options we have available, traditional investments seems really cool. (At least it is for me) I really like the options out there for me to pick and choose. You can Insurance Tech, Robo Advisors, Cryptocurrency, Real Estate Block-chains, ETFs, Leveraged Equities/Indexes and many more. With the upcoming digital bank in Singapore, I think that this is going to be great for consumers. The key problem now is to get more people interested in their own personal finances.

What to do with S$10k?

We are going to take away the cash solutions for this since this is on the assumption that cash funds are kept away in a safe place. With the new funds, this is money that you can afford to lose. I used to know something who likes to take a punt, he would leverage and buy options on the same counter without considering the risk. Well, he wanted to win big but eventually his portfolio became pathetic and he lost his job while these options expired and markets dropped. The objective of sharing this story is to always abide by your investment discipline.

I am reminded of the rules:

  • No one has the crystal ball and you will never know when the markets decide to be green or red.
  • A small amount of leverage is fine but not when it is concentrated into one counter. Remember to diversify but not over diversify.
  • Always use option to your advantage, not to speculate.
  • When you lose to the market, blame no one but yourself because no one forced you to invest. You can keep cash and seek cash solutions but if your cash deflate, that’s on you and no one else.

With a S$10k portfolio, I would split it up into a few tranches.

Robo Advisors

  1. Robo Advisors are a great tool if you do not know what to buy or when to buy. The whole idea is to buy when markets go up or down. The entry level for robo investing is so low that anyone can invest. Let’s also be real, all platforms have a cost upkeep so fees are unavoidable. For this I would Assign at least S$6k (~60% – 70%) into such funds and this forms the Core part of the long term portfolio
    1. The first option can be Endowus (USD ETFs) which i discussed before here at Endowus
    2. The second option can be Stash Away (USD ETFs) which i discussed before here at Stash Away
    3. The third option can be Syfe (For SGD related equities or the Global Equity Portfolio) which i discussed before here at Syfe

Now, you must not forget to top up your investment on a monthly basis. Treat that as a form of savings. The earlier you save, the faster your will reach your retirement goals.

From the robo advisor portfolio construction, you can choose a partial bond|equity balanced fund. This is where your bond exposure comes in. Do not waste your time with SGS or SSB during this period because they returns are not great.

Cryptocurrency

2. They say that trend is your friend. The trend now with all the hype is about Cryptocurrency. I can’t help but would add a small amount to the portfolio. They are supposed to act different as compared to fiat currencies. For this I would assign at least S$1k (~10%-15%) and i consider these as alternative asset class.

    1. The first option is to buy Bitcoins. They are by far the largest Cap in the Crypto World.
    2. The second option is to get a foot in to Crypto.com. I previously discussed about this as well here at Crypto.com App/

Funds

3. Personally, I like income or dividend equities or funds. If you are more risk adverse i would suggest to put some money into the PIMCO income funds. They are just the best in class for bonds. Depending on what you like, the average dividends is roughly around 3-4% p.a. For this, I would assign at least S$2.5k (~25%-35%) and these are supposed to be a stable source of dividend funds.

Trading

4. Finally, what fun is there if you leave everything in the Core Portfolio. The balance 15% of funds (~S$1.5k) can be use to buy in specific equity counters in the SGX. (for e.g. bank stocks or reits whenever there is a market pullback) If you really wish to fully invest these monies, just put them back into the Robos or ETFs.

What other options would you do or suggest to do? Feel free to comment. The whole idea of writing is to really share about opinions and you never know when an idea strikes you.

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.

Images seen in this article were take off the relevant websites for illustration purposes only.

Singapore Reits or not?

On By RistrettzIn Alternative Investments, Deals, New Ideas, Personal Finance Series, Robo AdvisorsLeave a comment

Singapore Reits is something that many Singaporeans understand and take heart to. Some folks actually build their income/passive income via this source and I can see why.

My take on Reits on SGX

a. First it is based in Singapore – There is this local bias that it can do well given most people like to see for themselves if the malls are working out well in terms of retail quality, crowd, spending and how many shops are still in business.

b. SGD payouts avoids the currency risks. For a retiree or someone drawing on income from dividends, this payouts serve as a source of bill payment.

c. An alternative and cheaper way to enter the real estate market in Singapore is really through the reits/stock exchange. I know that people will argue that it is different but technically in my view, it is the same (And you do not need to pay stamp duties, get a mortgage and pay sales charges)

d. It is more liquid than real estate.

For a long time now, Reits have been growing big and popular within the investing community. Again, all investments comes with risks – Most people have more comfort in dealing with things they can see or get a sense of. For a long time, there have been plenty of wins for reits but as you can also see, the Circuit Breaker period in April through May have affected them in a way or another.

Diversification?

So again diversification is key to investing once more. If you put all your eggs into the Reits for passive income, then with such dividend cuts your bottom line is definitely affected. Currently, it doesn’t seem like this Covid situation is going back down or slow down whatsoever so dividend cuts is going to be prolonged in order to save businesses and jobs. Then again, there are certain sectors who might see a booming business such as Data Centres or even certain suburban reits. Sub-urban malls are definitely crowded but the former shopping aisles in orchard and high end malls are definitely missing the tourist crowd which rakes in the cash and spending. It is no wonder why people are worried about their livelihoods.

It is not all doom and gloom. Sectors will emerge while some will recover. It is definitely time to pick up some if you did not have any. The idea is to really have a long-term goals when you pick a stock and stay disciplined. Once you sell it off, you may never be able to pick back the company at their valuations again.

The Passive or Lazy Choice

If you are lazy, let Robo-advisors do the trick for you. For e.g. Syfe. https://www.syfe.com/ Initially i only took on the Reit+ portfolio some time in April 2020 to test it out so that I do not need to manage the portfolio and incur those trading fees. They have expanded other products such as a Global ARI portfolio (Long term investment into equity,bonds and commodities) and Equity100 portfolio which is 100% into global Equity ETF (US and UK listed ETFs)

Auto-rebalancing

Syfe has invented their ARI (Automated Risk Investing) methodology, which is a risk-based rebalancing strategy, which changes the allocations of your portfolio according to changes in risks in the market in order to limit your losses. In short, once it triggers a certain level, the system will trigger an alert and things start to sell off to re-allocate. It also means that over the longer term, you will naturally see a better performance of the portfolio.

Every rebalancing of course depends on what portfolio you choose from so everyone is different. I personally like the idea of investing into a portfolio of reits instead of picking it on my own. In terms of fees, it depends on your investment amount with them.

In terms of pricing, I think it is cost effective. Do find out more about it here https://www.syfe.com/pricing

a. Management fee per year is at 0.65% p.a. for investment amounts S$0 – S$20k.

b. Management fee per year is at 0.50% p.a. for investment amounts S$20k – S$100k.

c. Management fee per year is at 0.40% p.a. for investment amounts S$100k and above.

Do use my referral code to get some benefits when you sign up a new account with Syfe. Referral Code: SRPTSMQ5J

You will get (Find our more about their referral scheme here https://www.syfe.com/magazine/how-can-i-invite-a-friend-to-join-syfe/) :

a. S$10 bonus if you invest S$500

b. S$50 bonus if you invest S$10,000

c. S$100 bonus if you invest S$20,000

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 Syfe website for this article.