On a totally different note: let’s get away from using “it” as a pronoun for people. “They/them” is a great gender-neutral pronoun if you don’t know who’s behind a screen-name.
Hi, other than investing in IWDA, can we buy individual stocks like disney for a long term perspective?
So here's the thing: I strongly discourage new investors from buying individual stocks, for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, successfully stock-picking takes
a lot of work! It’s literally a full-time job for tens of thousands of people, who spend their day trying to pick stocks that will go up more than the rest of the market.
Thinking about which stocks to buy, instead of just buying a broad ETF, means you’re making investing way more complicated than it needs to be.
Secondly, most people (especially new investors) are
terrible at trading individual stocks. They buy stocks at the highs (everyone wants to jump on a rocket ship!) and sell stocks after they’ve crashed, because they want the pain to stop. That leads to buying high and selling low, and doing worse than they would if they’d just left the money alone in an ETF.
Not sure if it has been asked before... I'm in my late 20s. I have allocated around 70% of my investment in G3B/ES3 and then 30% in IWDA.
Just want to check what is the general consensus around the ratio of SG index vs World index?
You need
some of each, and I think you need more IWDA and less Singapore.
I like 50/50 because it’s super easy. Other people like a heavier 80/20 weight.
On Bonds, I'm thinking of putting $300/mth in MBH and $100 in Endowus 100% bonds portfolio. All the funds are SGD hedged. Yes I am aware of the high fees but annualised performance since inception in 2003 has been 5.85% which is not bad I believe for bonds. At least that gives me a small exposure to the international bond markets while remaining SGD hedged.
I don't think there's any good reason for regular investors to have exposure to foreign-currency bonds, and even less reason to buy
hedged foreign-currency bonds.
Here’s a dirty secret that you wouldn’t know unless you’ve traded FX or fixed-income for a long time: a USD bond that’s been currency-hedged into SGD is basically exactly the same as a SGD bond.
You might as well just buy a SGD bond in the first place. (In fact, for weird FX-market-structural reasons, a USD bond hedged back to SGD is currently
worse—has a lower yield—than a native SGD bond with the same credit risk! Why bother?)
Some people need the reaffirmation to make financial decisions in life like asking a stranger on the internet..
Hey, this is actually a valid point. The reason I wrote the book in the first place is that the hardest part of investing is just
getting started.
Having someone tell you "here's how to get started"—whether that someone is a book or a rando mouthy ang-moh on the internet—gets people through the hardest part. And if they start off on the right foot—using a simple, easy, portfolio and a set of rules to follow—then they can expand from there later.
Thank you all for your reply to my questions. Need a bit of time to digest.
Re Saxo, i finally managed to speak to the customer service, confirmed that there is no custody fees for local stocks and the buying fees is 0.08%, min SGD10 (home.saxo/en-sg/rates-and-conditions/etf/commissions).
This is very good rate, no?
Nah. $10 a trade for local stocks is pretty much the average these days. It's nothing special. (And Saxo is
bad for overseas stocks.)
Basically I don't want to encourage them.
If i want a usa etf that gives dividends back to me , which is similar to iwda (just that iwda is accumulative), which etf is best? vwrd good?
Uh. IWDA’s not a US ETF; it’s a “global developed markets” ETF.
If you want a global-markets ETF, including emerging markets, use VWRD UK.
If you want a “global developed markets” ETF, a direct match to IWDA: use VEVE UK.
If you want a US ETF, use VUSA UK.
where is the best place to purchase kospi etf? is it also those domiciled in ireland?
Huh. That’s a bit of an odd one, but… If you’ve got access to Kospi futures, go for those. The Kospi derivatives market is the most liquid equity derivs market in the world.
There are Kospi ETFs out there, but all of them are unappealing for various reasons; 3170 HK is tiny and illiquid; EWY US is expensive (0.6%) and the divs might be subject to some unfavorable tax treatment because it’s US-listed.
