Are there any recommended ETFs for emerging markets?
I can't imagine any reason to use anything other than EIMI. Why do you ask?
Hello, and thank you for the wealth of financial advice on this thread!
After reading Shiny Things' book, I am currently choosing between having IB or StanChart as my broker for IWDA, and would like to seek your opinions.
Oh - IB might actually be a better bet in your case, because you have that US bank account floating around. You can get the money out of your US bank account into IBKR pretty easily.
Once you turn 25, you can decide whether to keep the IB account open or transfer your shares to Stanchart.
Hi I have just finished reading the book. Just wondering how to decided the amount to set aside every month. For simple illustration purpose, let’s say I want to reach $1million in 10 years for my retirement. Ignore the allocation to different asset class.
1) Does it mean this year I will put in $100k spread over 12months?
2) if market moves positively and 1 year later my $100k invested has market value of $150k, so I will put in $50k next year to bring total to $200k?
Yeah, kind of. If you want to get to a million in ten years, then, leaving aside interest, you'll have to save about $8,300 a month.
To question 2... no, that strategy is bonkers. You'd keep saving your $8,300 a month - and any excess returns is just a bonus. See below.
Point 2 looks like value averaging and looks realistically applicable from with point 1 as I suspect you seem to have cash lying around. Maybe you should look into this strategy and see whether applicable.
Value averaging is a really silly strategy: whoever came up with it has obviously never invested money.
The problem is - what if markets go down by a lot? In the example above, if markets went down by a half after year one, then he'd have to find $150,000 in year 2! Where's he going to get that from?
Pls pardon and allow me to sidetrack this post to talk little abt Insurance.
As per shinys book regarding term life insurance, i have a Mylifechoice insurance with Aviva which is a whole life insurance. [...]
And according to Aviva, based on a projected investment rate of return of 4.75% p.a. the projected lump sum cash withdrawal age age 65, which is not guaranteed is $54,220.
That is a lie, even if they’re technically “allowed” to use a 4.75% return projection. 4.75% is not an achievable return when SGD bonds are yielding low-2s. They won't be able to deliver anywhere near that amount.
At this point, should i review my plan and change to a lower plan eg. Term life or continue paying the premiums for 13 more years? What are my options?
Tear it up.
lump sum now at historical high just to see them crash within next 2 years? This is going to be painful though.
Firstly, markets tend to be at or near their highs. If you didn’t invest just because markets were near their historical highs, you’d have sat out the whole of the 1980s, and most of the 2010s.
Secondly, how do you know markets are going to crash within the next two years? Even if they do crash, that’s why you don’t dump a lump sum in all at once - you spread it over a few months, so if the market goes down while you’re investing, you can still buy more at the cheaper price.
Hi Shiny, everyone
How did you invest in etfs? Through RSPs with bank eg. Posb invest saver or just pump in lump sum with a broker eg. Dbs vickers?
You’re conflating two things:
1 - lump sum versus regular investing? And,
2 - a RSP product versus a regular brokerage account?
The answer to 1) is “whatever you can afford”. Generally, people get paid regularly, and they invest out of their paycheck, so people will tend to regularly invest. Even if you have a lump sum, it’s not a good idea to invest it all at once (it’s mathematically good, but for behavioral-finance reasons it’s tough), so you can spread a lump sum over 4-6 months. (BBCW advocates longer periods sometimes, and I’m fine with that; as long as you’re investing it in the first place, that’s what matters.)
The answer to 2 is “whatever’s cheaper”. I like POSB IS because it’s cheaper than a normal brokerage account for regular investments, which is how most people invest.
For the global portion of the investment portfolio, what are the pros and cons of investing in IWDA only versus investing in IWDA + EIMI versus investing in VWRA only?
Hmm - good question.
IWDA: cheap, good, liquid, you don’t actually need emerging-markets exposure that much;
IWDA + EIMI: more expensive, higher transaction costs, why bother when VWRA exists;
VWRA: cheap for what it is but a higher expense ratio than IWDA, do you actually need emerging-markets exposure?
. I checked back the policy. For my age, if i were to terminate now, i can get back the net surrender value of $668.64. If i were to hold this until age 65, the guaranteed surrender value is $65,500. Not sure about the non guaranteed though. 
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