Things have been quiet lately on my blog because there hasn’t been any major updates. I have recovered from my recent bout of illness, which took longer than I thought and was not a pleasant experience. I’m trying to make changes to our living habits by sleeping, resting, exercising more and improving our diets by eating healthier and home-cooked food. Let’s hope this pays off and I recover faster the next time.
Anyway, it’s time for some exciting news. My wife received the sign-up notification email from StashAway Singapore that she can now set up her robo-advisor account with them. The main reason for my wife going with StashAway Singapore instead of Smartly Singapore is due to the lower fees as the investment amounts increase to significant levels. We should be building up her robo-advisor account more quickly than mine since most of our current Monthly Investment Plans (MIPs) are using my bank accounts. Hence, it’s critical that the fees she pay are lower for large investment amounts.
I know the portfolio/asset allocation framework is different between StashAway Singapore and Smartly Singapore. Since we can’t accurately compare the returns from these different portfolio/asset allocation frameworks at this stage, we have to go with the pricing structure as the main point of consideration. After all, the plan is for my wife to go with one robo-advisor (StashAway Singapore) and for me to go with the other robo-advisor (Smartly Singapore). As we work out which portfolio/asset allocation framework is superior over time or if the pricing structures change, we might amend our funds allocation accordingly.
Since I am still waiting for my sign-up notification email from Smartly Singapore, I might write about my wife’s experience setting up her robo-advisor account with StashAway Singapore. The onboarding process was smooth and we found the additional questions on our income, expenses, net worth and investment aims useful in the goal-setting and risk allocation of the portfolio. For my wife’s account, she went with a very aggressive General Investing portfolio. It has a higher proportion of growth Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) compared to protective ETFs.
The asset allocations of this very aggressive General Investing portfolio in relation to the various growth and protective ETFs are interesting, especially those listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Given that the holdings of our current foreign ETFs listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) do not overlap much with that in the robo-advisor account with StashAway Singapore, it’s a good start.
We have taken a conservative approach and only made a one-time funds transfer of S$100 into the account. Just to test out when and how this cash amount is invested. After we gain a better understanding of the logistics, we should commence monthly funds transfers into the account to automate the investment process. Will provide more updates as we get more advanced in our knowledge of the account.
Once the asset class / ETF allocation is known, you can use some portfolio analyzer to have some sense of it e.g. annualized returns over various periods, volatility, maximum drawdowns, time taken to recover for drawdowns, sharpe ratios, etc.
We have the ETFs and their allocations but might not run them through the portfolio analyzer for now. That information should be useful at a later stage though when the account reaches a certain value. The portfolio size is too small currently for those numbers to make any analysis difference to me for now!:)
I am also keen to know how automated investing works.
Keep us updated of stash away!
Haha, I am interested to see how the performance of robo-advisor portfolios are like too. Can’t wait to compare StashAway and Smartly!