*Official* Shiny Things club - Part 2

[redtees]

Are you 25 or younger? If so, you only need USD 3k equivalent to activate your IBKR account. Speaking from personal experience (and I was over 25 when I opened my account), I was able to activate my account with SGD 6k and start investing with IBKR. It's just that I didn't have the option to withdraw any cash from my account until I had in excess of USD 10k equivalent in assets with them.

If you can commit to buying IWDA every month, then you should just start off with IBKR because the monthly cost is the same to you whether IBKR or SCB: USD 10 each month. Unless you have other assets with SCB that can push you into priority banking, that is; at 0.18% with no minimum commission, your SGD 2k investment, or about USD 1,526 will generate commissions of USD 2.74 a month per transaction with SCB. This is before factoring in the USDSGD spread, which based on what forummers who use SCB here have said in the past, runs at about 0.5%.

Hi wealth_farmer,

Thank you for the response! I am over 25. If that is the case I will try to open an IB account. I'm looking to invest IWDA for 6 months and ES3 for another 6 months, this will repeat every year. If I were to do this, there will be periods of time where I'm paying IB $10 for nothing. Is this advisable? Or are there better ways to do it?

 

[wealth_farmer]

Hi wealth_farmer,

Thank you for the response! I am over 25. If that is the case I will try to open an IB account. I'm looking to invest IWDA for 6 months and ES3 for another 6 months, this will repeat every year. If I were to do this, there will be periods of time where I'm paying IB $10 for nothing. Is this advisable? Or are there better ways to do it?

Hmmm... why six months IWDA followed by six months ES3? Why not IWDA one month, ES3 the next... rinse and repeat? If you're not gonna be investing each and every month into IWDA, then IBKR doesn't make sense.

 

[redtees]

Hmmm... why six months IWDA followed by six months ES3? Why not IWDA one month, ES3 the next... rinse and repeat? If you're not gonna be investing each and every month into IWDA, then IBKR doesn't make sense.

IWDA one month and ES3 the next works for me as well. It's just to make sure that an equal amount of my yearly investment goes into each ETF.

I guess this means that IB is not a good choice if IWDA will only be invested every alternate month.

 

[wealth_farmer]

IWDA one month and ES3 the next works for me as well. It's just to make sure that an equal amount of my yearly investment goes into each ETF.

Does this mean that IB is not a good choice if IWDA will only be invested every alternate month? Since I will just be paying them 10 USD for nothing for those months that I don't buy IWDA.

Yeah, personally if I'm on a bimonthly schedule, I wouldn't go with IBKR. Not unless I already have USD100k assets with IBKR which is when they stop charging the USD 10 monthly minimum activity fee. I'd go with SCB in this case.

 

[redtees]

Yeah, personally if I'm on a bimonthly schedule, I wouldn't go with IBKR. Not unless I already have USD100k assets with IBKR which is when they stop charging the USD 10 monthly minimum activity fee. I'd go with SCB in this case.

Understand, thanks!

 

[blue_line]

Hi wealth_farmer,

Thank you for the response! I am over 25. If that is the case I will try to open an IB account. I'm looking to invest IWDA for 6 months and ES3 for another 6 months, this will repeat every year. If I were to do this, there will be periods of time where I'm paying IB $10 for nothing. Is this advisable? Or are there better ways to do it?

Hi,

I am over 25 and I opened my account with SGD3k deposit. So it shouldn't be a problem opening one.

Why 6 month though? You can easily make it a monthly contribution with the amount that you are investing i.e. 2k to IWDA and ES3 each per month.

 

[BBCWatcher]

The scariest statement I find is when people say cash is a drag on their portfolio. I really hope, we don't see a day when they will regret making that statement.

Cash might be a "drag" on a portfolio, but "So what?"

The basic argument in favor of keeping "cash" -- SSBs, let's suppose -- as an emergency reserve fund is that (a) stock portfolios (for example) could fall in value 30% or more rather quickly if/when there's a financial crisis of some kind, and (b) financial crises are probably correlated with your own personal financial needs, notably that you personally might lose your job as a consequence of a financial crisis.

If you don't mind liquidating highly depressed assets in order to sustain yourself if/when there's a financial crisis with personal impact, OK, so be it. However, a lot of investors/savers are uncomfortable with that idea and would prefer not to be forced to sell during stock market troughs. Yes, OK, that "insurance" might mean they lose a little bit of upside potential, but it's still a reasonable thing to do for many people.

If you agree with this argument, then you might wish to blend SSBs with short-term and medium-term SGSes (government bonds), or a (low cost) government bond fund, to form your emergency reserve fund. That's because high quality government bonds would tend to appreciate during a financial crisis. So you could sell some of those appreciated bonds, lock in those profits, and raise emergency funds -- or at least that's a possibility. An emergency reserve fund doesn't have to be cash in a bank or stuffed under a mattress. It can be in reasonably liquid cash-like vehicles, notably high quality government bonds -- and maybe in a couple or more currency zones.

 

[redtees]

Hi,

I am over 25 and I opened my account with SGD3k deposit. So it shouldn't be a problem opening one.

Why 6 month though? You can easily make it a monthly contribution with the amount that you are investing i.e. 2k to IWDA and ES3 each per month.

That's because I only have 2K SGD to invest every month. I can do something like 1K to IWDA and 1K to ES3 every month, but that would mean incurring quite a hefty amount of fees on both platforms, which I feel I should avoid.

 

[wealth_farmer]

That's because I only have 2K SGD to invest every month. I can do something like 1K to IWDA and 1K to ES3 every month, but that would mean incurring quite a hefty amount of fees on both platforms, which I feel I should avoid.

Do you have a bond component, or you're treating your CPF as your bond component? Or you're going with a ballsy 100% allocation to equities?

 

[redtees]

Do you have a bond component, or you're treating your CPF as your bond component? Or you're going with a ballsy 100% allocation to equities?

I'm saving for retirement so CPF will be my bond component.

 

[blue_line]

That's because I only have 2K SGD to invest every month. I can do something like 1K to IWDA and 1K to ES3 every month, but that would mean incurring quite a hefty amount of fees on both platforms, which I feel I should avoid.

Fair enough. IWDA in IB will cost you around 1.3% in fees based on U$10 on your S$1000 investment a month.

For me, I chose IWDA as the USD10 fee per month is lower compared to the total from SCB's commission + spread.

 

[meltbread]

Hi guys.

My friend recommended me the Shiny Things Book and I really learned alot of it. So first I got things proper by doing my own health insurance to cover my arse (my coverage that my parents bought for me actually ENDED holy ****!) Then I opened a invest saver to get ES3.

So all that's done, I also opened a SCB account and purchased ES3 as well. On the day of opening my account, the lady advised me to open US and SG markets only, so I took her advice. She said when I'm more used to the system then come and open more (ok no issue).

However, now I want to get some overseas ETF (Vanguard or IWDA). Am still reading up, but I can only find IWDA:LSE on SCB... can't seem to find Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT).

May I know which exchange is VT on? I only see it on ASE which I assume is wrong

 

[little pupsky]

Forget about VT. What you are really looking for is VWRD or IWDA on the LSE which you need to enable access for. Buying these ETFs on the LSE reduces your withholding tax liability by half, as compared to buying their USA-domiciled counterparts.

For the LSE ETFs, pick VWRD for dividends distributing or IWDA for dividends reinvesting. Finally, for IWDA, one possible next step to consider once you are more comfortable and confident is to add a small emerging markets component to your portfolio (see EIMI). For VWRD, it already has a small emerging markets coverage.

Hi guys.

My friend recommended me the Shiny Things Book and I really learned alot of it. So first I got things proper by doing my own health insurance to cover my arse (my coverage that my parents bought for me actually ENDED holy ****!) Then I opened a invest saver to get ES3.

So all that's done, I also opened a SCB account and purchased ES3 as well. On the day of opening my account, the lady advised me to open US and SG markets only, so I took her advice. She said when I'm more used to the system then come and open more (ok no issue).

However, now I want to get some overseas ETF (Vanguard or IWDA). Am still reading up, but I can only find IWDA:LSE on SCB... can't seem to find Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT).

May I know which exchange is VT on? I only see it on ASE which I assume is wrong

 

[meltbread]

Forget about VT. What you are really looking for is VWRD or IWDA on the LSE which you need to enable access for. Buying these ETFs on the LSE reduces your withholding tax liability by half, as compared to buying their USA-domiciled counterparts.

For the LSE ETFs, pick VWRD for dividends distributing or IWDA for dividends reinvesting. Finally, for IWDA, one possible next step to consider once you are more comfortable and confident is to add a small emerging markets component to your portfolio (see EIMI). For VWRD, it already has a small emerging markets coverage.

Oooo okay thanks for the tip! I'll read up more on IWDA as I much prefer them to distribute the dividends as I may not be so disciplined. Will probably have to go down to SCB to open it.

I'll go read up on EIMI as well!

Thanks very much! More karma to you.

 

[little pupsky]

You mean you prefer one that *reinvests* the dividends, right? VWRD is the one that distributes dividends.

Oooo okay thanks for the tip! I'll read up more on IWDA as I much prefer them to distribute the dividends as I may not be so disciplined. Will probably have to go down to SCB to open it.

I'll go read up on EIMI as well!

Thanks very much! More karma to you.

 

[meltbread]

You mean you prefer one that *reinvests* the dividends, right? VWRD is the one that distributes dividends.

Ah yes. Typed too fast. Think it’s better if I just kept it all inside, instead of taking the dividends out. Pros and cons.

 

[jacky817]

Hi guys.

My friend recommended me the Shiny Things Book and I really learned alot of it. So first I got things proper by doing my own health insurance to cover my arse (my coverage that my parents bought for me actually ENDED holy ****!) Then I opened a invest saver to get ES3.

So all that's done, I also opened a SCB account and purchased ES3 as well. On the day of opening my account, the lady advised me to open US and SG markets only, so I took her advice. She said when I'm more used to the system then come and open more (ok no issue).

However, now I want to get some overseas ETF (Vanguard or IWDA). Am still reading up, but I can only find IWDA:LSE on SCB... can't seem to find Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT).

May I know which exchange is VT on? I only see it on ASE which I assume is wrong

Try this:
At the SCB online trading page, click the settings button at top right, at "search filter" tab, tick all the other stock markets. VT is under ASE, america stock exchange.

The others' advice on VWRD and IWDA is right, but at least you don't get scammed by SCB's confusing UI

Welcome to the (very small) club of long-term ETF investors

 

[Maeda_Toshiie]

Oooo okay thanks for the tip! I'll read up more on IWDA as I much prefer them to distribute the dividends as I may not be so disciplined. Will probably have to go down to SCB to open it.

I'll go read up on EIMI as well!

Thanks very much! More karma to you.

All of Vanguard's ETFs distribute dividends. iShares' ETFs have a mix (some of them even have a distributing and a non-distributing version of the same fund).

If you want a pure S&P500 play, VUSD and CSPX are S&P500 ETFs domiciled in Ireland and listed on London (so 15% instead of 30%). However, IWDA covers all developed markets, which is better for beginners.

 

[soulblader_89]

Hi guys what is some of expense managing app or finance managing app you guys used?

can shared?

 

[wahkao3]

wa so epic thread got part 2 liao