Finance Smiths

Personal finance apprentices-in-training

Investments for Mar 2018

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Automated Investing for Mar 2018: S$1,300

Maybank Kim Eng Monthly Investment Plan

  • Buy 28 units of SPDR STI ETF (SGX: ES3)
  • Buy 27 units of Nikko AM STI ETF (SGX: G3B)
  • Buy 98 units of Lion Phillip S REIT ETF (SGX: CLR)
  • Buy 90 units of Nikko AM REIT ETF (SGX: CFA)
  • Buy 67 units of Philip APAC REIT ETF (SGX: BYJ)

POSB Invest-Saver

  • Buy 27 units of Nikko AM STI ETF (SGX: G3B)
  • Buy 88 units of ABF SG Bond ETF (SGX: A35)

OCBC Blue Chip Investment Plan

  • Buy 167 units of Nikko AM STI ETF (SGX: G3B)

Manual Investing for Mar 2018: S$1,200

Standard Chartered Online Equity Trading

  • Buy 200 units of Philip APAC REIT ETF (SGX: BYI)
  • Buy 200 units of SPDR STI ETF (SGX: ES3)
  • Buy 2 units of Vanguard FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield UCITS ETF (LSE: VHYD)
  • Buy 2 units of Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets UCITS ETF (LSE: VDEM)

Robo-Advisor Investing for Mar 2018: S$1,800

StashAway

  • Funds transfer of S$900 invested in US-listed ETFs

Smartly

  • Funds transfer of S$900 invested in US-listed ETFs

Total Invested Amount for Mar 2018: S$4,300

Comments

  1. Hi, how are you buying the 4 counters on SC online without incurring a $10 charge for each?

    • Hi, I have a SC Priority Banking relationship for now and there’s no minimum commission charge when trading online. This might change going forward depending on whether I continue with that relationship!

  2. i’m not sure u know what u doing. You bought 2 STI ETFs? And you have a few monthly plans all buying the same Nikko AM STI ETF ??

    And you manually buy ETFS while monthly plan is alr buying??

    Do you know STI is largely flat for the past 10 yrs?

    Big mistakes you’re making!

    • Yup, I agree that the monthly purchases of our ETFs overlap, largely because my wife and I keep our investments separate (we can own the same ETFs at times). As for the STI being largely flat, that’s fine with me as well. We will only know whether I’m making a big mistake in the long-term!:)

  3. Regarding multiple purchases of same ETFs, as long as transaction costs are minimal, is OK … otherwise good to streamline for greater efficiency i.e. cheaper. Ideally should be less than 0.2% total cost.

    S’pore large caps while not fantastic over last 10 yrs, has been ok … Provided dividends are re-invested.

    Using MSCI Singapore TR Net, from Apr 2008 to 17 Apr 2018, the return has been 43% … that’s 3.64% annualized (less than CPF-SA lol!!!). But ok lah 🙂
    It’s higher in USD terms due to the strong SGD.

    From 1990 till now (28 yrs), S’pore large caps returned 3.5X your money (about 4.58% annualized … in USD terms it’s 6.3%). That’s after 3 times when the stock market dropped 50%-60% and 2X when it dropped >20%, plus numerous 10+% corrections.

    2 potential methods to improve, which involves “market timing”:
    1. instead of auto reinvesting the dividends, to accumulate them & have a leveled plan to commit them e.g. invest 1/5 of accumulated amount whenever market drops 10% … hence in a -30% bear, you’d have committed up to 3/5 of your accumulated dividends.

    2. Use a long-term signal e.g. 200DMA to determine when to sell & buy back in. Doesn’t have to be 100% all-in or out … can be overweight or underweight e.g. 80% equities vs 40% equities. Be aware of chosen signal sensitivity e.g. for 200DMA better to use end-of-week or even end-of-month to avoid whipsaws & slippage. What you want is simply to ride the big longer term waves and not be thrown off by normal & numerous -10% corrections.