Tag: investing

Grab Invest (Robo)

On By RistrettzIn New Ideas, Personal Finance Series, Robo Advisors, Wealth & HealthLeave a comment

During the earlier part of 2020, Grab announced an acquisition of a wealth start-up, Bento. The have since re-branded them to be GrabInvest. It looks like they have ambitious plans to expand into South East Asia with Singapore as its base. We have seen quite a number of new services and products that Grab has been rolling out. That is the benefits of having strong backers as well as a branding that aims to disrupt some industry. I’m not too sure how big they can become but they have been throwing marketing dollars for some time to build their brand. You can read more about the acquisition here at Bento As GrabInvest.

Invest, Save and Grab

It sounds like Grab is going to bring out the brand in their app once more. They probably want to integrate this into the Super App that we often hear about. The tag line is pretty effective I say.

Almost No Barrier to Entry

It takes only a small amount to start investing. I don’t think Syfe and StashAway has a minimum amount to start investing but this set them apart from the usual investing through micro-investing. I’m not too sure about the effectiveness though.

Saving Money

Each time you use the app to do certain actions, you get to choose an amount that will be used to invest automatically. Good habit though.

Spend

There is no lock-up for your funds so you can transfer your money back to the wallet anytime. Talk about flexibility.

Underlying Investments

Okay, looking at how things are. This is similar to the other robo-advisors as to their cash solutions. The underlying funds would be Fullerton Fund and UOB asset management. My guess is the usual short duration bonds or assets as close to cash funds. Due to the nature of the expected returns projected at 1.8% p.a., it is most likely the case.

Fees are simple at 0.45% p.a. Similar or higher than other solutions. If you ask me, I’ll go for Singlife account where you can deposit up to S$10k at 2.5% p.a. and it is SDIC protected. Micro-investing versus Singlife – Singlife wins hands down but integration wise and branding, Grab edges forward a little more.

Read about my previous post on Singlife here at Where to Park Your Funds? Singlife

For excess funds of more than S$10k, get into Dash and Earn. The first year will be at 2% p.a. capped at $20k. Then go for Tiq Gigantiq at 2%p.a. (For the first year) capped at S$10k. On the options available, I’ll give grab a miss unless I have too much spare cash in their wallet that I can’t take it out.

Conclusion

It seems like it is a hype for now. Other for convenience, I can’t find much differentiation from the rest of the many options available in the market except for convenience. It doesn’t help that Grab is trying to take over the world by trying to integrate everything. I don’t support a monopoly so that is a minus. However, I do think that there are other services which will show up on the app in the near future. Coupled with the fact that digital banking license will be announced in Q4 2020 or in 2021 should there be any delay. As a consumer, we should be happy about competition.

I do see more pros than cons though, given their history of data breaches and bad marketing. Also, I don’t see that they are MAS licensed or approved nor are they working with any financial institutions other than the mentioned fund houses or asset managers. On top of that, monies are held in custody of Grab. Reading their Terms and Conditions, it seemed like they got their own ass covered as compared to the consumer so I’m not too sure about that.

I still don’t see it on my Grab App even after updating the app so I’m wondering how buggy their app can be over time.

Disclaimer

This is not a sponsored post and purely my own opinion that I am writing about in my thoughts. If you like what you are seeing, do remember to check they out and do your diligence. Don’t be too fixated with what is the best.

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

Value and the concept of Perceived Value

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

Value is a very interesting concept. In the world of investing and valuation of companies, there is no one size fit of the valuation of a company. This also create an inefficiency into the market where there are enough buyers sellers to take in price and also to sell out. This is also a great definition to split up what buyers and sellers view certain companies or certain things. This is extremely interesting for me – Over the years there is no doubt brands bring out a certain stature in beings. (Beings as in humans) In Singapore – The last 10 years have seen a big bunch of folks growing with affluent wealth significantly.

Perspective

Let me just put things into perspective – many might know what a KIA Picanto is. Just about 7-8 years ago, COE prices were sky rocketing to above S$80k. The brand new Picanto actually cost cost to a S$100k here and I actually do know some people who own these. With the same S$100k, you can actually get a Toyota Vios or a car with a smaller engine such as the Toyota Yaris (Which is a sportier hatchback). To some, owning a car is just not feasible or it just doesn’t make sense. This is where things get interesting. For S$120k, you can almost get into the entry level continental cars such as Audi, Skoda and Volkswagen. Driving an Audi versus a KIA – what perceived value do you now have?

Concept

Before beginning on the concept, i need to have a disclaimer that I am not a qualified psychologist nor am I a specialist. I just find that stuff like Feng Shui, Human Psychology, Behaviours and Ideas are built on a single platform. This platform is known as Common Sense. While it is easy to understand, many may not practically use or realise until much later.

For me, I think that it is necessary to always stay an open mind. There isn’t really such a thing as a one man show, it is always a team effort to succeed in a project.

A Story to tell about

Side tracking a little about team effort. This reminds me about a story. I knew something who was working as a Management Associate working in a bank many years ago. The selfish bugger intentions were to let the higher ups know that he single handedly solved and produced many solutions for the bank. In reality, he simply used his intern or ex-intern to do so. In summary, he took all their work and claimed the full credit. Why? I don’t know. Perhaps for the money? Most likely that is the case.

Currently, he heads a department but he is an empty shell. This is simply because he gives no credit to those below him. That’s no way a good boss should behave. He is no role model and in no capacity to lead people.

Value

It is precisely because different people view value differently, the variation of behaviour changes from one to another. Even family members do not behave or think the same. This “unique” behaviour is partly why there are so many inefficiencies in the equity market. At any point in time, there are sellers and buyers in the market. That was how a buyer and seller market was formed. Then came the “trend followers” – Because everyone enters into a position, they create a buy volume or trend which pushes the momentum of the company. Often, that is translated to share price as well. However, always remember that the price on the stock market is the sentiment of an investor, not the situation which the company is in.

Herding

Over time, people behaviour will naturally act as a herd. When the momentum is to buy or sell, a natural phenomenon is to follow. If you follow, it doesn’t feel like you are missing out. This theory actually touches an emotional aspect of our being that we do not like to be left out. That sounds a little needy but as humans, we are generally weak in such situations. Hence, the word “FOMO” appeared. It means Fear Of Missing Out especially when cryptocurrency coins started to increase exponentially to 100x or 1000x. No one likes to miss out on a good deal.

Not saying yes to everything

Well, I can’t really say much about when is good time to buy unless you are an insider. That being said, it is illegal because it is not a level playing field. Eventually, you will be exposed so make money the right way. I guess that only successes and failures bring experiences.

You can’t just buy anything and everything. There’s the existence of curating for a reason. You have to understand and know what are you buying certain stuffs for and what is your exit strategy.

There are things eventually that you can take risks on and some you don’t. That does not mean that it is not a bad thing. I am an advocate that if there is something new that is worth investing or exploring. Try it out with an open mind. You can be disappointed for 99 times but it only take 1 opportunity to get it right.

Disclaimer

This is purely my own opinion that I am writing about in my thoughts. 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.

StashAway – August 2020

On By RistrettzIn Personal Finance Series, Robo AdvisorsLeave a comment

Stash Away is another Robo Advisor with different proposition. In my previous posts, I discussed about why I chose different Robo-advisors. Part of me is really to try out what works for me and if I would stay with them long-term. After using Stash Away since Jan 2020, my answer would be a yes. This is the first time I am writing about Stash Away and the experience has been good so far.

Stash Away has a ERAA® (Economic Regime-based Asset Allocation) based robo-systematic allocation system and there is nothing much to complain about. For any SGD funded into the account, it would have to convert to USD in order to buy into the portfolio which involves fees. For dividends distribution, most likely there will be the usual withholding tax. (30%)

One little tip that I realised with cash deposits is that when the US market comes off and I deposit some cash into the portfolio. Within the day, I can see the prices in the app. With SRS funds, It is not that simple. It takes about 2-3 days to do so.

On my view on Stash Away

The Good so far

I really like the App. It is simple and easy to navigate. The colours are all nice and warm, it makes you feel secure with your funds. I like the way they use the technology and methodology to invest the money. The idea is based on an algorithm approach. Recently they reallocated to add on Gold to the portfolio and I think that it was a great move. For cash funds get invested almost immediate in the morning without any lag time sounds good.

One of my habits is to listen to market outlook but that is hard to come back these days. Stash Away has a weekly market commentary by the CIO, Freddy Lim. The very first time i heard him speak was right before the circuit breaker where he shared about risk reward ratio for Stash Away in 2019. Thereafter, his views and comments about the market have been succinct and easy to digest. This makes it easy to understand for everyone. The market commentary is only 15 minutes so it doesn’t take up too much of my time yet it allows me to take back a lot more.

The bad so far

They use a custodian account so the funds are not under your own name. That said, it just means that they have more control and flexibility about the fund flow in a legal way. Even though the move to add commodities into the account, I still feel a little uncomfortable but then I have a long horizon of 10 years so I guess only time will tell. I also do not quite like that they use Saxo Capital to execute the trades. I find that Saxo is generally more costly and offers poor FX rate for the retail and private clients. Given the options we have for brokerage these days, Saxo is not competitive at all in my opinion.

Summary of my portfolio

I have separated three portfolio:

A. Education Funds A – Risk Adjusted to 26%

B. Education Funds B – Risk Adjusted to 22%

C. Retirement Funds C- Risk Adjusted to 30%

From time to time, I will adjust the risk portfolio in the app accordingly when I feel that markets are moving up or down. I take certain risk in that but that is just a very small tweak I make. This is an extremely interesting feature for Stash Away.

Fund A Performance

Since April, the portfolio is up about 7.0% annualised which is pretty good.

Fund B Performance

Since April, the portfolio is up about 4.0% annualised and if markets were too pullback, it would be a good time to top up. Fund A and Fund B was invested in the same time. The main objective was to find out how the fund would perform while using different risk matrix.

Fund C Performance

Fund C was invested since February 2020 before the market pull back. This portion of the fund wasn’t doing well back then in march 2020 and at one point in time, it was at the – -30% mark. But it has since recovered and I have put in more funds into this retirement fund. This Fund has a 20 year horizon so it has a long way to go and I’m not too worried about where it is going in the next 5 years.

As a totality, the full portfolio performance is doing pretty good at around 3.8% annualised.

As you can see in the transaction reports, the details in SGD conversion to USD (1/0.7268 = 1.3759) and investments into the respective US based ETFs that the portfolio chose to follow before funding.

To sign up or try out Stash Away, visit the website and use my referral code at Stash Away Referral

We’ll both get up to $10,000 SGD managed for free for 6 months which is a good deal.

Disclaimer

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 Stash Away website for this article.

 

Endowus – August 2020 performance

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

Endowus

Roughly about three months ago, I made the call to go with Endowus to try out the Robo-advisor. I must say that I did and still having a good experience with them. I guess it is time to let people know that they are a dependable and competent group of people whom you can trust your money with. They also have a bunch of good content, the only thing is that their video content always over run but it just means that they have too much to talk about.

They are also one of the first robo-advisors to allow CPF investments into the funds and that tells a lot about this company. Of course, the investment funds that they use to build the portfolio is different for the Cash or SRS options which uses the competent Dimension Funds which used to be only available to institution clients (Meaning big corporate and deep pockets could only access to these funds)

Fund Fees

Now, Dimension Funds are available to retailer clients like anyone else on the street. The problem is that most places actually charge you a trailer fee, platform fee, recurring fee on top of the management fee and upfront fund fees. Yes, it is the financial industry. Endowus actually rebate those fees so that they only charge what they should be charging – the Fund level fees.

Something that  really like – Endowus will only charge you fees at the end of the quarter. Comparing an upfront fee or taking a fee after your portfolio actually returns something. I would choose the latter. Don’t get me wrong, i am agreeable to paying fees and it is necessary to keep good companies running. In general, fees are the ones which keep your investment returns compounded at a lower rate.

When to Invest?

In my previous articles, i discussed about the best time to invest and frankly there isn’t any. To get a head start, the best time is really to plonk in some money to a diversified asset class when the markets have come off. Simplifying things, if you only invest 10% of your Networth each time there is a correction. Doubling the portfolio just means roughly about 9% of your portfolio. (assuming it doubles)  So, it is something worthwhile to think about the risk and rewards. It also doesn’t mean that higher risk will eventually give you a higher return. In all conditions, the nature of things is that by taking a higher risk, you should get a higher return.

Portfolio

I had split up my portfolio into two parts. The first – A S$5000 SRS portfolio invested since May 2020. The second – A S$5500 CPF OA portfolio invested since May 2020 and YTD the returns have been pretty decent.

Figure one below is the SRS portfolio:

1

Figure two below is the CPF OA portfolio:

2

If you use my referral code to sign up and invest minimum S$10k, we both get $20 each which can be used to offset the management fees to keep their lights running: https://endowus.com/invite?code=EDZ8M

Disclaimer

This is not a sponsored post. I will still add on more of my CPF OA money regularly. I will definitely pick up more when markets come off to add on to my portfolio.

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/

These pictures were taken off Endowus website for reference.