*Official* Shiny Things club - Part 2

[BBCWatcher]

what do you guys think of Zackstrade and Captrader? trustworthy?
seems like cheaper options compare to IB~

How would you get Singapore dollar funds into those brokerage accounts?

 

[effkewkew]

you bought the earlier version book?? from amazon?? digital copy?

Yes I did. I bought from amazon. Digital copy, it’s sitting in my kindle iPhone app right now

 

[flowerpalms]

I will try to get the paperback

Yes I did. I bought from amazon. Digital copy, it’s sitting in my kindle iPhone app right now

 

[Shiny Things]

BBCWatcher & Shiny & Everyone here,
what do you guys think of Zackstrade and Captrader? trustworthy?
seems like cheaper options compare to IB~

I’ve never heard of either of them; I didn’t even know Zacks (which is a not-very-well-respected research outfit) offered trading.

Just use IB, come on.

Hi shiny things, thanks for creating this book, purchased and read it
It helped me to add up knowledge on investing, on top of what I already knew. So much things to learn out there
Financial Times is a quality newspaper whereby I read almost everyday, it was a godsend, until I graduated

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the book - and hey, keep up that FT subscription if you can afford it, it’s a great newspaper.

I have question:
- Do you go into the macro-economy of things, when deciding whether the time is appropriate to purchase a particular stocks/etf, after reading its financial statements (Bal Sheet, Cash Flow, P&L, auditor report)?
(No need to know too deep, but good enough to know what is happening)

Honestly - not really.

The idea behind a “110-minus-your-age” approach is that you don’t have to think about that sort of thing. Most people - you, me, just about everyone else on this board - have actual jobs, and lives, and more important things to do than fret about whether we’re timing our investments correctly.

It’s much better - for your finances, for your mental health, for everything - to just “set and forget”. A decently balanced portfolio will perform well no matter whether the economy is good or bad.

And don’t forget about diversifying into overseas stocks, either! If the Singaporean stock market is weak, overseas stocks will provide you plenty of diversification.

Full disclosure: because I watch the markets closely, I do a little bit of this myself to try to capture big secular trends (for example, I switch back and forth between corporate and municipal bonds when one sector is trading relatively cheap or expensive). But I don’t let that interfere with my general “110 minus my age” rule, and I definitely don’t do it all that often; once every 2-3 years, absolute max.

In this current time, what is the top 3 best investment strategies for a newbie who never invested before if he has 10k to invest in. If he is looking for medium risk, short term, non active investment areas ?

Here’s my top three strategies:
1) Invest your money; don’t leave it sitting in the bank and doing nothing. If you need the money relatively soon (within five years), and don’t mind the market going up and down a little bit but not a lot, MBH - as BBCWatcher mentioned - is an excellent choice.
2) Invest in something and SIT ON IT. Don’t actively trade; you’ll end up doing worse than you would have if you’d just left it alone.
3) Go to the pub. You don’t need to overthink your investments.

Dear shiny and bbc
Why still talking about iwda + eimi
Shouldnt we promote vwra now

Not necessarily. IWDA is well established, and has a lower expense ratio. That little slug of EM stocks in VWRA is awfully expensive to maintain.

I'm 25 from Vietnam and really never thought about my retirement before. So at this moment I can think of 4 options (3 too many):

1. my home country
2. US or Canada
3. Australia
4. EU

So... yeah, as BBCW pointed out, you’re probably too early in your career to think about exactly where you’re going to retire.

That said, Vietnam’s economy is flaky enough that you probably wouldn’t want to park the majority of your investments there for the long term. For someone in your situation—and this is the same advice I give to anyone, small or large, who’s thinking of investing or retiring in a country with less-developed capital markets—you might be better off with a simple stocks-and-bonds allocation in global stocks and bonds. So instead of ES3 and IWDA, it’s just IWDA. And instead of MBH, it’s CORP (listed in London).

 

[my an lien]

So... yeah, as BBCW pointed out, you’re probably too early in your career to think about exactly where you’re going to retire.

That said, Vietnam’s economy is flaky enough that you probably wouldn’t want to park the majority of your investments there for the long term. For someone in your situation—and this is the same advice I give to anyone, small or large, who’s thinking of investing or retiring in a country with less-developed capital markets—you might be better off with a simple stocks-and-bonds allocation in global stocks and bonds. So instead of ES3 and IWDA, it’s just IWDA. And instead of MBH, it’s CORP (listed in London).

Man, this is what I love about you and your book. You give instructions, not just advice. Thanks again, will look into it.

 

[flowerpalms]

Is it the latest edition the black or green colour paperback?

Man, this is what I love about you and your book. You give instructions, not just advice. Thanks again, will look into it.

 

[junl87]

Hi Shiny Things,

I have jus read ur book on retirement investment. Really thank u for giving useful insights on investing basics. Definitely help a investing noob like me.

I have a question on for the overseas ETF investing, u suggested scb trading. In that case, it is subjected to at least 10 dollars transaction fee. Would it be correct to say it is better to accumulate money before investing i.e if u decided to invest 400bucks each month into overseas ETF, u accumulate say until 2k then buy using lump sum. Or would u recommend still monthly buying of 400 bucks worth of overseas ETF.

Also if I am not wrong the Maybank RSP is discontinued. What would be the next best option for local investment of 400 sgd

 

[flowerpalms]

I am going to buy the book Paperback in Amazon . When i get my pay this month. Pls wait for me

 

[assiak71]

Maybe if VWRA's TER drops below 0.20% then it would be interesting to more people.

I honestly do not think that 0.05% makes a practical difference

 

[tangent314]

Oh it does to me, and to many other people.
Don't expect your preference to be made the default recommendation.

 

[drifting]

Just wanted to mention that i have been a follower of the buy and hold ETF strategy ever since i first learnt from the Shiny Things Thread here in Money Mind a few years ago.. recently bought and finished reading Rich by Retirement as well

Just wanted to check if anyone has recently became eligible for SCB priority? If so, can the AUM requirement of 200K done purely through the market value of the ETFs held with SCB?

I understand one should consider transitioning to IBKR upon hitting a higher invested amount but asking for those who wish to stick with SCB all the way

 

[Converged]

Anyone here buying vwra instead of iwda+eimi

 

[ahbuiszxc]

Hello. I need some help here. After reading rich by retirement, for my age, I would need to allocate 80% in stocks and 20% in bonds.
For the 80% in stock, 40-40 local and global. I have approx $10k currently to invest, should I make a lump sum 40-40 split between local and global? Subsequently, I'm able to invest 500$ per month. How should I allocate the fund for the 40-40 local and global stocks.
First month local and the next month global and repeat?

 

[confusedsuitguy]

Anyone here buying vwra instead of iwda+eimi

I am just about to start investing for the first time and I will likely be testing this out. Sizeable AUM and not too much of a difference in TER. ShinyThings said he'll be observing it closely and will make a final call soon.

 

[Kapish]

Anyone here buying vwra instead of iwda+eimi

i rather stay on iwda + eimi because if EM not doing well i can sell it off.
VWRA you are stuck with it

 

[kehyi4]

... Just wanted to check if anyone has recently became eligible for SCB priority? If so, can the AUM requirement of 200K done purely through the market value of the ETFs held with SCB? ...

From SCB Priority Banking TnC:

2. Eligibility criteria for Priority Banking
To enjoy the exclusive Priority Banking membership and all the benefits and privileges that come with it, simply maintain a minimum of S$200,000 in deposits and/or investments, or maintain a minimum of S$1.5 million in housing loans with us.

 

[Wishdom]

i rather stay on iwda + eimi because if EM not doing well i can sell it off.
VWRA you are stuck with it

The general consensus in this thread is to increase your purchase in eimi so as to maintain your portfolio composition. Selling a losing position is typically not recommended.

Vwra can be convenient since the weightages are automatically ''balanced''. You don't have to worry about the composition of your iwda and eimi falling out of place.

Sent from Ilovennp using GAGT

 

[flowerpalms]

Which broker are you using?

Hello. I need some help here. After reading rich by retirement, for my age, I would need to allocate 80% in stocks and 20% in bonds.
For the 80% in stock, 40-40 local and global. I have approx $10k currently to invest, should I make a lump sum 40-40 split between local and global? Subsequently, I'm able to invest 500$ per month. How should I allocate the fund for the 40-40 local and global stocks.
First month local and the next month global and repeat?

 

[Kapish]

The general consensus in this thread is to increase your purchase in eimi so as to maintain your portfolio composition. Selling a losing position is typically not recommended.

Vwra can be convenient since the weightages are automatically ''balanced''. You don't have to worry about the composition of your iwda and eimi falling out of place.

Sent from Ilovennp using GAGT

yeah i understand but EIMI has been trending sideways since 2017
is it advisable to stay invested in EM?

 

[Wishdom]

yeah i understand but EIMI has been trending sideways since 2017
is it advisable to stay invested in EM?

Assuming that you are in for the long haul; an investment decision based off a 2 year time frame is myopic.

With that being said, the only correct answer to your question is: nobody knows for sure. (which is not a bad answer)

Your question then brings us to an important assumption of the broad based index investment strategy. While we do not know which country/sector/counter will perform; we can expect the economy as a whole to grow. Thus, the foolproof move is to buy everything (or almost everything) to ride this growth. So yes, I will think that you should continue to stay invested in EM.

On the other hand, most people choose to ignore EM since it accounts only for ~10% of the market. How significant this 10% is will be for yourself to decide.

Sent from Ilovennp using GAGT