Can I get some advice please :(

oceanicmanta

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My agent recently scolded me for letting my money rot and asked me to sign up for this plan: https://www.axa.com.sg/savings-investments/axa-wealth-accelerate#coverage

Brochure here

AXA Wealth Accelerate is a ILP

min $300 a month ! ... that's 10% of your monthly salary !

ask the agent what's the bid-offer spread of a typical fund

the catch is the big fat commission the agent is guaranteed to get from closing the deal

... stay far far away from this and the agent :(

if u have $300 a month to spare, topping up your CPF SA for guaranteed 4%pa would be better choice (among others) compared to an ILP
 
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Zombiewar

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Cant help you much in term of investing.
but for insurance, i can tell you with confidence from personal experience that the single most important one is hospitalization coverage.
get coverage early when there is no exclusion and hold on to it.
Personal accident coverage next, followed by Term Insurance if you have dependents.
those CI, early CI, disability income etc are really optional stuff.
buy insurance from insurance co.
buy stocks from stock market.
deposit $ in banks.
no one should be going to the meat seller to buy seafood
 

taquito

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beware this type of agent only wants to leech from you and earn commission, doesn't care if you earn or lose money.
 

Okenba

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1) Am I underutilising my money now? Should I continue waiting for an economic downturn like my dad said, or invest now to take advantage of compounding? If now, how should I portion my investments for a 10-year horizon?

It is always best to invest when the crash comes. The problem is that no one knows when the crash will come.

There are some who have been predicting a crash since 2017 or earlier. If they waited for the crash, they would have lost out on all the gains over the past few years.

Say the overall gain for the past 2 years were about 40% (I doubt, but assume...), even if the market crashed now by 20% and they bought at the bottom, they would have still lost out.

Will the market still rise so high from now until the next crash? I have no idea. But food for thought yah?

And when the downturn comes, will a new investor have the guts to throw in all his money? That can be tough too.

If you have similar concerns, some form of regular, automatic investing might work for you.
 

MikeDirnt78

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1) Why don't you increase your monthly RSP?

2) Run away from the agent.

3) You should view insurance as an expense. In this way, you are only paying for pure insurance.

If you want cashback or premiums to be returned back, then obviously insurance companies must charge you in the form of insurance + savings and bake it into higher monthly premiums for you.

Paying telco bill is also another expense. You don't get back anything from the monthly bills. Isn't it?
 

Zombiewar

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Luckily, I have hospitalisation insurance from AIA which is paid for by my dad's Medisave as of now. :o Term insurance was signed under this agent, but I find it really expensive at $100/mth with Multi-pay CI. It's the Aviva 1.1 million one.

How is your CI coverage like? Or do you think death + TPD coverage is enough?
Im paying ~2600/yr for a ILP for death, tpd, ci at 200K. 10yrs old policy. Now it has just break even, will be surrenderring it.
Other than that no other CI.
Your CI looks like a rider. Can drop it from your main policy.
Some CI pay out only at stage 3 of the illness. By that time, i thing is abit toi late already.
Althought early CI pay out much earlier like stage 1 or 2, the premium is too expensive.
You should get the most extensive coverage of hospital policy.
Im on the As Charged private hospital policy that is no longer available now due to govt new policy.
 

MikeDirnt78

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How much would you recommend I increase my RSP to? I have been hesitating because Nikko am seems like at a high point now, but I guess that's the whole point of DCA :s22:

Thanks for the perspective on the insurance.

You can also consider ETFs like the Nikko Straits Trading REIT or go globally with IWDA.

How much to increase is entirely up to your risk tolerance and allocation that you are comfortable with.
 

hwmook

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I'm with this agent because at least she recommended Term instead of Whole life, and she's an IFA. So far I've managed to fend off her ILP recommendations, and I honestly don't have many other choices lol, my friends in insurance are all AIA and also recommend me ILP.

I think as long as I know what I'm signing into, should be fine ;) Plus she is quite proactive, if anything happens, at least she will follow up properly.

You DO NOT KNOW what you are signing into. An ILP come with many layers of fees and your insurance agent is not telling the whole picture.

She will follow up properly until she doesn't. Don't be naive, they are all trying to earn your money, that's all. They are not trying to help you, you need to help yourself.
 

articland05

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I'm with this agent because at least she recommended Term instead of Whole life, and she's an IFA. So far I've managed to fend off her ILP recommendations, and I honestly don't have many other choices lol, my friends in insurance are all AIA and also recommend me ILP.

I think as long as I know what I'm signing into, should be fine ;) Plus she is quite proactive, if anything happens, at least she will follow up properly.

sounds like u alrdy signed?
is it still within cooling period? u can terminate it....
dun be stupid to sign a ILP...such plans only benefits the agent, not you
 

hwmook

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How much would you recommend I increase my RSP to? I have been hesitating because Nikko am seems like at a high point now, but I guess that's the whole point of DCA :s22:

Thanks for the perspective on the insurance.

I understand CI is for covering your lost income when you are sick - it's just that an extra $60-70/month feels so expensive when considering that it's money I'm not getting back + the coverage of $200,000 is not that high either. Doesn't help that the industry is so opaque that I can't find much information what people my age pay on average for Term Death + TPD + CI coverage. The people around me all are getting Whole life, which is :(

Buying whole life insurance simply mean you loan a big sum of money to these insurance coy and in return they give your some insurance coverage as interest. Why would you want to do that when you could have invested the money yourself and use the returns to pay for the insurance yourself?
 

treeskull

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The agent you mentioned is mostly just an insurance salesperson who sell products originated from the insurance company, he/she may not have the knowledge to recommend or sell investment products to clients without a certification.

I quote this from the MAS Financial Act (CAP.110):

"Any representative of a financial adviser who provides any financial
advisory service concerning securities (excluding collective investment
schemes) shall pass Module 5 and Module 6. With effect from 1 January 2012,
in the case where the representative provides any financial advisory service
concerning securities (excluding collective investment schemes) that are
Specified Investment Products, such representative is also required to pass
Module 6A."

Do ask for the certification of your agent for the above mentioned modules.


For more information, go and read this document from MAS for more info https://www.mas.gov.sg/regulation/acts/financial-advisers-act

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pylpoh

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Depends on your risk appetite, now you are probably not so sure. Maybe can leave whatever you have in Ssb and FD alone; only when you decided what you want, then can consider reallocate. The dbs account 50% as emergency fund and 50% as warchest. For me, assuming my portfolio is 100k. I plan to have 20k sti etf 20k iwda 10k on 2 different reits, 10k on 2 different blue chip, 10k warchest ,30k bonds. So even if sti etf kaboom drop by 10k, I will only loose 10% of my portfolio on paper; I won't panick and sell , making it a real lost. Quite hard to be zhunzhun. Just try to stay as close as planned. Your portfolio allocation depends on your risk appetite. Identify your risk appetite over time, decide and diversify your portfolio .Then every year just reaccess and rebalance. Anyway don't ganchiong too much to invest. At your age, better to focus on earning more $$$. Dca and invest slowly. It's different for everyone. If you speak to some, especially entrepreneurs, getting 3-7k passive income out of a 100k portfolio is totally waste of time. It's natural for agent to talk like champion, it's their job to do so. But if you want can challenge them , ask them to reveal their portfolio and how much they are getting out from it.
 
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chienwei

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do not invest in the ILP, the funds can have bad performance and you will be tied down.

i would suggest investing into roboadvisors, start very small so u gain a better understanding of how it works. you can still partially follow ir dad's advice by keeping part of ur funds in liquid deposits
 

wutawa

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I know many ppl had said alrdy but pls dun buy the insurance, no matter how good it may seem to u. :)

Usually i wun recommand this but u mentioned u have no cpf contribution. U should contribute a bit into medisave. If your medisave dun have enough to give the annual premiums such as medishield life and careshield life (age 40), u may get into serious trouble wor.

Your $3k monthly income is counted as salary by dbs multiplier?

To follow your dad's advice, dun touch your ssb. Anyway, it has the highest yield among those u r having. If market really crash, u can sell ssb to buy shares. Earning >2% then shouldnt be too difficult. :p U may keep $500 per bond if u using it for dbs multiplier bonus.

When the fd matures, invest the amount elsewhere. Even put in your dbs multiplier is much better.

Monitor your posb IS to see if dca is good or suitable for u. If u get more than ssb, then keep it up or contribute more. Otherwise, just take it as a regular saving lor.
 
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BBCWatcher

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Cant help you much in term of investing.
but for insurance, i can tell you with confidence from personal experience that the single most important one is hospitalization coverage.
get coverage early when there is no exclusion and hold on to it.
Personal accident coverage next, followed by Term Insurance if you have dependents.
those CI, early CI, disability income etc are really optional stuff.
Disability Income Insurance (DII) is very important indeed, especially in Singapore. Personal Accident Insurance is not.
 

Value.Matrix

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Hi all! I am a 24 y/o female freelancer with an average monthly income of ~$3000, no CPF contributions.

Currently, I have about $75,000 in savings, distributed:
$35k in SSB (~2%),
$20k in CIMB FD (1.7%), and
$20k in DBS Multiplier (~2%) which was only opened recently (before that was CIMB FastSaver).

Recently also opened RSP with POSB of $100/mth for Nikko am STI ETF. (~$300 so far only)

My dad has been telling me to hoard my money and wait for the economic downturn, but as time passes and my money grows, I feel a little uncomfortable just leaving money to grow at inflation rates. At the same time, I understand where he's coming from, and have read that lump sum investments outperform DCA. I'm also not knowledgeable enough/too lazy to do DD to buy stocks or ETFs and find that the commission rates are too ex.

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My agent recently scolded me for letting my money rot and asked me to sign up for this plan: https://www.axa.com.sg/savings-investments/axa-wealth-accelerate#coverage

Brochure here

...although there are a lot of start up bonuses etc, I have always been of the view that BTIR is the way to go. And yet, I have no clear direction or idea on how I should invest my money at the moment.

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:( I have a few questions/ would like to seek your opinions on the following questions:

1) Am I underutilising my money now? Should I continue waiting for an economic downturn like my dad said, or invest now to take advantage of compounding? If now, how should I portion my investments for a 10-year horizon?

2) What do you guys think of the plan my agent told me about? Apparently, the fees are only 0.26% p.a. if I sign for the 15 year plan, and there's a 200% bonus or something. It sounds good, but what's the catch?

3) Also, if there are any agents here, can I also get your opinion on CI whole life insurance vs CI term with cash back? Is there a difference? Currently I have Aviva's Term death + TPD + multi-pay CI rider which is damn expensive at $64/mth, and I am thinking of getting CI whole life instead, so I at least get the money back.


Thank you so much, any input or views would be appreciated :o

(1) i am trying to understand why the tax man and CPF have not been knocking on your door. Maybe its too small for now. (or never declare lo)

(2) 10 year horizon is a bit short if you want confirm gains from the stock market. You have to adjust your own mindset from 10 years horizon to 10 - 12 years incase a recession hits and your gains are off your goal.

(3) ILPs have fees. Know why you are paying fees for. Its primary to avoid paying estate duty tax on whatever you have invested. You are paying fees to reduce the tax. But most people most say ILP is bad due to fees. If you intend to buy US stocks, just take note anything above $60k in US stocks or funds is subjected to 40% estate duty tax. (but if you earn little and invest little, no point buying. Not for you. Only for HNW). SGD stocks/shares and everything, no estate duty tax.

(4) let's use this instead, much better research with some base

0.25% premium a year of coverage > invested at 4%, takes 71 years to breakeven

0.5% premium a year of coverage > invested at 4%, takes 55 years to breakeven

1% premium a year of coverage > invested at 4%, takes 40 years to breakeven

2% premium a year of coverage > invested at 4%, takes 27 years to breakeven

3% premium a year of coverage > invested at 4%, takes 21 years to breakeven

4% premium a year of coverage > invested at 4%, takes 17 years to breakeven

Pick your own poison, and whats makes sense as a risk management process for you. I personally do not believe paying more than 1% premiums in coverage.

Why 4%, cause of cpf no brainer way ti gain interest.

(5) CI insurance, breakeven for BTIR 4%. ECI and multipay, 6%. As per (4), do your own mathematical model. Fact based decision making, with situation to consider beats making uninformed decision with no numbers to justify.

PS: edited the information on Ireland Estate Duty/gift inheritance tax which is not applicable to non-resident. As at Nov 2019.
 
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articland05

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No, I haven’t signed. I just wasn’t aware it’s an ILP and am asking for opinions here. I don’t appreciate the use of “stupid”, I’m here to learn and such comments aren’t helping.
woah!! why take it so personal?
I'm not saying "you are stupid".
I'm saying "dun be stupid".

totally different context...

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chienwei

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Do you mind sharing how you decided on that portfolio allocation?

For now, I think I’ll look into increasing my RSP to 500/month and maybe IWDA. Thank you for the insight!



Thank you!! I will go look into it. Are you personally using any roboadvisor platform? Do you have one to recommend?
can look at this link for roboadvisors.
https://blog.moneysmart.sg/invest/robo-advisors-singapore/

i tried probably most of them and decided to keep most of my cash funds in stashaway. srs funds also in stashaway.
i like the interface and the performance is ok for me. you can also try a few by putting in small amounts to see which roboadvisor suits u.

CPF-OA in endowus, cos that the only one now that allows CPF-OA
 

Okenba

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Honestly, don't be too quick to invest. Especially on the advice of random people in a public forum.

Take the time to read up and learn about investing yourself. Find a style that suits you and then come and ask more specific questions about it.

Take responsibility and ownership for your financial education and don't spend your money just because some random fella said you should.
 
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