Thank you. Sounds like StanChart might be a decent choice to just put everything in one place...
Well, no - if it was, we'd recommend doing that. For small investors, Stanchart is good for international stocks, but there are cheaper options for local stocks (because Stanchart has a ten-buck minimum fee). For large investors, IBKR is cheaper, but it doesn't let you buy Singaporean stocks.
I've read a little about the 3 fund portfolio and am curious if our CPF can adequately serve the function of the Bond fund. I see the bond portion as a means to mitigate risk and loss when equities tank, and CPF seems to serve that purpose.
This is fair. Some people do that (treat their CPF as a bond).
I'm also curious about the need for a local fund as most of us are employed in SG and would already have assets and CPF in SGD.
You're saving up to retire in Singapore, so you want things that will increase in value in line with the Singaporean economy and Singaporean cost of living. And the best thing for that is Singaporean equities, because they tend to grow in line with the Singaporean economy.
You don't want to be all-in on Singapore, because then you'll be missing out on great companies like Apple, Shell, etc. etc. etc. But you also don't want to ignore Singapore entirely - because if Singapore does well, you'll miss out.
cytosine said:
I am tempted to hold off any bond investments till market conditions get worse in a year or so,
You don't know that will happen.
As it is, I have read elsewhere that REITS and Singapore Saving Bonds are already too overpriced.
This isn't true. I don't have a particular opinion on REITs (except that I don't really like investing in real estate at all), but Singapore Savings Bonds aren't "overpriced" at all: they have a price floor at 100. You can always sell them back for the price you paid for them.
Right now, my natural instinct is to adopt a wait and see attitude, while I know rationally I should just be consistent every month rather than timing the market.
So it's natural to be scared of doing new things, but it's the wrong instinct; this is one of those times where primal instincts are wrong, and counterproductive.
And, to be honest, if you're scared to invest now when things are actually pretty good, you're not going to be any less scared when markets are going down. In fact, you'll be even more scared. and you'll never get around to starting.
The trick is just to start. Buy some stocks, then some bonds. You'll get comfortable with it, and you'll get comfortable with investing every month—and then if there's a down month, you'll get the pleasure of buying even more ETF shares for the same amount of money.
