StashAway Performance – Mar 2021

I have been later for one quarter in 2021 in terms of updating. Nothing much has changes for the StashAway portfolio. Similar to Endowus, it is on auto-run and monthly additions are placed into different portfolios. I am still on the risk index of below 20%, split all the risk portion for 3 different portfolio. I still maintain that having calculated risk per $ makes more sense in my opinion. It doesn’t mean high risk high rewards although it can give you high rewards.

As I have always preached, the important thing is that I am not left on the sidelines. If Mr Market decides to go either way, it would matter that much to me in my opinion. If Mr Market drops, then I will add on more to the portfolios. That is what I believe will work for me for my traditional and rather stable investments.

Retirement Portfolio A (risk-14%)

The SRS account since deposit is currently at +2.11% as on 8 Apr 2021 (Time-weighted return). I think this is quite okay as I entered the market at a high before it dropped in March 2020. Performance wise, I think it is decent and also this is a super long term portfolio – I would say close to 25 years horizon so I’ll just leave it there to monitor on the progress. It was at around +3% in Dec 2020 but oh well. Let it be i guess.

In USD performance, that’s about 5% (Time-weighted return). That’s expected.

 

Education Portfolio B (risk-16%)

This portfolio is set out to be on a 15-18 year investment horizon. It is at 7.63% on 8 Apr 2021 and I think that this is pretty good. It’s the same as the last time i measured during Dec 2020. I have been averaging in whenever there are market dips. The risk index is at 16% and I will adjust those risk levels as and when I feel that there is a risk on or off.

In USD, I’m looking at double digits 11.75% (Time-weighted returns)

Education Portfolio C (risk-20%)

For this portfolio, I look at this at shorter horizon of 12-15 years so I feel that I need to take on some risk to achieve my goals. This SA risk index is currently at 20% and will take on to be one of my riskiest portfolio. Return is at 14.42% (Time-weighted return) at inception as at 8 Apr 2021 Not much of it has changed or rather it has dropped slightly but this is just a note to self and measure the monthly performance. Over time, more funds will be added to achieve the targeted invested goals.

In USD terms, we are looking at 18.81% (Time-weighted return). Looking great I feel.

Conclusion

So far StashAway has been a great supplement as a robo advisor. I will try to do more regular updates as a reminder to self. After using a few robo-advisors, I find that SA will play second fiddle to my Endowus Portfolio. The year of 2021 should be a test of time for most portfolios. I still believe that rebalancing regularly will be the key.

StashAway does have their own advantages. They do hedge their portfolios against huge crashes and take a stand on some positions which I do like because a lot asset managers don’t and even though they talk big about macro. I can’t see those actions being translated into customer’s returns.

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 Referral and Recommendations

The pictures were taken from the Stash Away website for this article.

StashAway – Performance Dec 2020

Here comes the late performance report in December 2020 for StashAway. I am still on the risk index of below 20%, split all the risk portion for 3 different portfolio let me understand how I want to do this portfolio going forward. I still maintain that having calculated risk per $ makes more sense in my opinion. It doesn’t mean high risk high rewards although it can give you high rewards.

As I have always preached, the important thing is that I am not left on the sidelines. If Mr Market decides to go either way, it would matter that much to me in my opinion. If Mr Market drops, then I will add on more to the portfolios.

Retirement Portfolio A (risk-14%)

The SRS account since deposit is currently at +3.06% as on 18 Jan 2021 (Time-weighted return). I think this is quite okay as I entered the market at a high before it dropped in March 2020. Performance wise, I think it is decent and also this is a super long term portfolio – I would say close to 25 years horizon so I’ll just leave it there to monitor on the progress.

Education Portfolio B (risk-16%)

This portfolio is set out to be on a 15-18 year investment horizon. It is at 7.61% on 18 Jan 2021 and I think that this is pretty good. I have been averaging in whenever there are market dips. The risk index is at 16% and I will adjust from time to time but try not to touch any of those if you don’t quite understand how that works.

Education Portfolio C (risk-20%)

For this portfolio, I look at this at shorter horizon of 12-15 years so I feel that I need to take on some risk to achieve my goals. This SA risk index is currently at 20% and will take on to be one of my riskiest portfolio. Return is at 14.92% at inception but as  I didn’t take a screen shot on 18 Jan, this is on 22 Jan 2021, Not much of it has changed or rather it has dropped slightly but this is just a note to self and measure the monthly performance. Over time, more funds will be added to achieve the targeted invested goals.

 

Conclusion

So far StashAway has been a great supplement as a robo advisor. I will try to do more regular updates. I’m not sure if I can do that given things have been rather difficult of late and it has been quite busy at work.

2021 should be a test of time for most portfolios. I believe have rebalancing regularly will be the key.

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.

StashAway – Performance Nov 2020

Here comes another Robo-advisor experience from my end. To re-iterate the risk level, I am still at the risk index to below 20% as I felt that there isn’t a need to go all out Risk On going into November. I still think that having calculated risk per $ makes more sense in my opinion as news and information goes on a random rampage.

As I have always preached, the important thing is that I am not left on the sidelines. If Mr Market decides to go either way, it would matter that much to me in my opinion.

Retirement Portfolio A (risk-14%)

The SRS account since deposit is currently at +2.07% as on 11 Dec 2020. Pretty stagnant I would say but I’m not too worried about this long term portfolio. Performance wise, I went into this knowing it was pretty high end of Jan 2020.

 

Education Portfolio B (risk-16%)

This is something I set on a 15-18 year horizon. It is at 5.78% on 11 Dec 2020 and I think that is okay going at around 6-7%p.a. that I assume going into the end of 2020. I have been averaging in whenever there are market dips. The risk index is at 16% and I will adjust from time to time but try not to touch any of those if you don’t quite understand how that works.

 

Education Portfolio C (risk-20%)

This portfolio has a shorter horizon of 12-15 years so I feel that I need to take on some risk to achieve my goals. This SA risk index is currently at 20% and will take on to be one of my riskiest portfolio. Return is at 10.14% at inception which I find it fantastic to reach double digits. More funds will be added over time to achieve my targeted invested goals.

 

Conclusion

So far StashAway has not failed me in a sense that it fits in to my investing style and logic. I wish to put more into the accounts but I can’t bring myself to invest when prices are going higher. However, this is a pretty good supplement in my opinion.

I shall re-look into how I present the performance. Perhaps a more systematic approach so that it is more of a reference instead of just a monthly update.

a. Month on Month

b. Quarter on Quarter

c. Year on Year

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.

Stash Away (Sep & Oct 2020)

I’ve not been diligent in posting my performance that i invest into Stash Away. It has been positive so far (the experience) and I’ll say it is on par with what Endowus is providing. In my own words, I’ll say that they complement each other and offer different perspective. I do trust and believe their views on certain aspects of investing and hence, SA shall be the second robo advisor that I will build a long term goal with over time.

I have since adjusted the risk index to below 20% as I felt that there isn’t a need to go all out Risk On. Having calculated risk per $ makes more sense in my opinion as news and information goes on a random rampage. Most importantly, I am invested – So if Mr Market decides to go up that is fine too. If Mr Market decides to go down, then it will be time to put more funds in. After all, it is a long game.

Retirement Portfolio A (risk-14%)

The SRS account since deposit is currently at +2.46% as on 5 Nov 2020. It’s one of those that I went in February 2020 before the crash came in March 2020. Nonetheless, I believe in the long term strategy that S&P 500 or index generally rises over the longer term so I have a super long horizon on this. I haven’t decide if I should fund more SRS monies into SA or Endowus. We shall see how things turn out.

Education Portfolio B (risk-16%)

This is something I set on a 15-18 year horizon. It is at +5.06% as at 5 Nov 2020 and I think that is a good return in my view. I have been averaging in whenever there are market dips. The risk index is at 16% and I will adjust from time to time as I do believer that by doing so, you sell some assets while buying into a new asset class based on the risk you set so in a certain sense, I can take profit while increasing or reducing my risk. Try not to touch any of those if you don’t quite understand how that works. There is some level of punting involved.

Education Portfolio C (risk-20%)

This portfolio has a shorter horizon of 12-15 years so I feel that I need to take on some risk to achieve my goals. This SA risk index is currently at 20% and will take on to be one of my riskiest portfolio. More funds will be added over time to achieve my targeted invested goals.

Conclusion

So far StashAway has not failed me in a sense that it fits in to my investing style and logic. I wish to put more into the accounts but I cant bring myself to invest when prices are going higher and higher. Instead, when things come down I find it easier to put money in.

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.

StashAway – August 2020

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.