1. I am currently a 25 yo PR, and recently received a windfall of roughly S$2.5mil, of which S$0.5mil are in Unit Trusts and the rest are in cash.
Congratulations. Where do you plan to retire?
4. In terms of brokers, I will be splitting between IBKR and Stan Chart, maybe IBKR for global stock and Stan Chart for local stock. Reason for doing this is just to spread the eggs around.
FSMOne is probably better for ES3/G3B, or at least it was last I checked.
5. With S&P reaching all time high currently, I presume it would be better to DCA monthly rather than trying to time the market for the market to dip.
To a degree. I have no criticism if you want to reposition this lump sum over the next 10 months, for example.
6. With regards to using CPF as bond portion, my understanding is that I can do a lump sum top up of SA to the Full Retirement Sum 2021 of S$186,000 to enjoy the 4% interest. I currently have the following amount in my CPF, of which I have been transferring my OA to SA since the start of this year every month, I have also done a MA top up of S$7k earlier this year. I presume there is no harm to empty my OA to be at 0 dollars? But just feel abit “strange” to see OA at 0 dollars.
OA: 10k
SA: 26k
MA: 15k
Actually with these balances you're still in bonus interest territory, meaning 5% interest on SA/MA. There are really only two material differences between OA and SA:
(a) OA earns 2.5% interest while SA earns 4.0% interest. (Not counting bonus interest.)
(b) OA can be used for purchased housing, some higher education, and a very little bit of insurance in Singapore while SA cannot (until age 55+ when any SA surplus becomes liquid).
Obviously point (a) favors SA. Point (b) only really matters when your non-CPF liquid assets are fairly modest or lower. You don't seem to be in that situation, and therefore OA to SA transfers seem to make a lot of sense for you. If you do make a gigantic SA top up as high as that level (Full Retirement Sum) then you cannot make any more OA to SA transfers. Thus OA starts accumulating dollars as compulsory contributions stream in. You don't seem to need OA to make part of a down payment on a home even if/when you want to do that, and you could start servicing a mortgage with OA right away, so really you'd in the best possible position to transfer OA to SA if you wish.
7. In terms of allocating 12% to property, the thinking behind this is that I am currently still single and not sure if I will be getting married. So figured this property could serve as an investment property for now, and maybe for my own usage next time if I am not getting married. However, not sure if this is a wise move, given Singapore’s property market seem to be very heated right now and also the upfront 5% stamp buyer duty that PR has to pay.
I wouldn't view it as a
particularly good investment, and private sector housing in Singapore is something of a luxury in consumer terms. Note that ABSD drops to zero on a first home for Singaporean citizens, but of course there's no guarantee of citizenship even if you seek it. Or if you marry a Singaporean citizen (or qualified Free Trade Agreement individual) then ABSD drops to zero if/when you buy as a couple. That's a terrible reason to get married, though.
I'm not sure where you can buy a S$300K home in Singapore, which is what 12% of S$2.5M implies. Maybe a leasehold that's long in the tooth? Or do you mean that'd be a 25% down payment, so a ~S$1.2M home, plus BSD, ABSD, and other costs?
8. With respect to the UTs, I am not sure if I should redeem them out and slowly reinvest the money into the global stock index funds, given that 2 of the UTs are doing well with more than 40% returns currently.
You should. I assume they're high cost, and any monkey was capable of doing well in recent months.
9. In terms of insurance, I currently have Prudential PruShield Plus plan with rider covering Class A public hospital A ward. I also know you are a strong advocate of disability insurance, so I figured I should get that sorted out.
I am, and it happens to be cheap protection at your age.