What to do with $18K?

[kazejin]

It is probably better to just place money in an ETF unless you have lots of funds.

The balance between risk and gain is one the investor need to be wary of.

An ETF works well as it barely impacts on gains but greatly reduce risk.
If you have lots of funds, you could build your own "mini ETF".

 

[Mr_Leo_WG]

Great book . If u have more time go read his other 2 books black swan and antifragile.

Yes, read Black Swan too, gonna start on Antifragile.

 

[flyerfox]

Hey guys, I also have one question which I'm mulling over. I intend to start investing, and it seems like the easiest way for me to start a portfolio of investments is by buying into the STI ETF. But isnt the STI abit high right now? Should I just wait for it to drop or will a dollar cost averaging strategy be sufficient? I just feel that it might not be wise to buy into the market now, but surely I'll need to start somewhere...

 

[kazejin]

Hey guys, I also have one question which I'm mulling over. I intend to start investing, and it seems like the easiest way for me to start a portfolio of investments is by buying into the STI ETF. But isnt the STI abit high right now? Should I just wait for it to drop or will a dollar cost averaging strategy be sufficient? I just feel that it might not be wise to buy into the market now, but surely I'll need to start somewhere...

It is difficult to time the market.
Dollar cost averaging helps to reduce timing issues. But it works both ways, negative and positive.

If you feel uncomfortable entering now, just place the money in fixed deposits or bonds til you feel comfortable?

 

[Nyan]

Hey guys, I also have one question which I'm mulling over. I intend to start investing, and it seems like the easiest way for me to start a portfolio of investments is by buying into the STI ETF. But isnt the STI abit high right now? Should I just wait for it to drop or will a dollar cost averaging strategy be sufficient? I just feel that it might not be wise to buy into the market now, but surely I'll need to start somewhere...

Dollar cost average it. buy more on the months that are low to maximise profits.

quote and unquote
Hold stocks for a year (Wall Street’s territory) and you’re at the mercy of the market’s madness — maybe a huge up year, or maybe a devastating loss.

Five years, and you’re doing better. Ten years, and there’s a good chance you’ll be sitting on positive annual returns.

Hold them for 20, 30, or 50 years, and there has never been a period in history when stocks produced an average annual loss. In fact, the worst you’ve done over any 30-year period in history is increased your money two-and-a-half fold after inflation. Wall Street would love to think about those numbers. Alas, it’s busy chasing its monthly benchmarks.


2 months in posb invest saver. I've made a profit of 6-7%.

best thing ever happened to me considering i've used a small amount of money.

god knows what the banks are earning when they take our money for F.D.

 

[flyerfox]

Dollar cost average it. buy more on the months that are low to maximise profits.

quote and unquote
Hold stocks for a year (Wall Street’s territory) and you’re at the mercy of the market’s madness — maybe a huge up year, or maybe a devastating loss.

Five years, and you’re doing better. Ten years, and there’s a good chance you’ll be sitting on positive annual returns.

Hold them for 20, 30, or 50 years, and there has never been a period in history when stocks produced an average annual loss. In fact, the worst you’ve done over any 30-year period in history is increased your money two-and-a-half fold after inflation. Wall Street would love to think about those numbers. Alas, it’s busy chasing its monthly benchmarks.


2 months in posb invest saver. I've made a profit of 6-7%.

best thing ever happened to me considering i've used a small amount of money.

god knows what the banks are earning when they take our money for F.D.

I see, so I think I should just start somewhere, instead of timing the market I guess, or else I will just be waiting forever. Besides the STI ETF, are buying into funds the only way I can access foreign markets without having to incur FX exposure? I know we can buy other ETFs, but those are USD denominated.

@Nyan, Just curious - posb invest saver is basically buying STI ETF with 1% sales charge. Why don't you just buy through a trading platform instead?

 

[alexchia01]

Cost Dollar Average is an insurance agent strategy.

Nothing wrong with this strategy, except that you are not utilizing your resources.

If you are ok with an average return, sure, go ahead.

As an investor, my objective is to utilized my resources as much as possible, and this meant buying as low as I can.

It does not make sense that you keep on buying even when you know the market is high.

Good investor is patience, he don't anyhow buy and definitely don't use cost dollar average. He'll reserve his capital when market is high and buy only when market falls to certain level.

Please don't say you can't time the market, we are not suppose to time the market. We are to buy when the market is selling at a discounted price and it's not difficult to determine this.

 

[Mr_Leo_WG]

Hey guys, I also have one question which I'm mulling over. I intend to start investing, and it seems like the easiest way for me to start a portfolio of investments is by buying into the STI ETF. But isnt the STI abit high right now? Should I just wait for it to drop or will a dollar cost averaging strategy be sufficient? I just feel that it might not be wise to buy into the market now, but surely I'll need to start somewhere...

Actually, this is the strategy I adopt. I often lose money due to market timing, so I rather just use DCA. Takes my emotions out of the picture too. Contrary to what people say, I would rather take the average returns, since 9% is not bad too.

 

[Nyan]

Cost Dollar Average is an insurance agent strategy.

Nothing wrong with this strategy, except that you are not utilizing your resources.

If you are ok with an average return, sure, go ahead.

As an investor, my objective is to utilized my resources as much as possible, and this meant buying as low as I can.

It does not make sense that you keep on buying even when you know the market is high.

Good investor is patience, he don't anyhow buy and definitely don't use cost dollar average. He'll reserve his capital when market is high and buy only when market falls to certain level.

Please don't say you can't time the market, we are not suppose to time the market. We are to buy when the market is selling at a discounted price and it's not difficult to determine this.

''A good investor is patient''

Im definitely not a patient person and i won't spare time to watch the stock market and study it's pattern because that is really not my character at all. and that is why i used the DCA to minimise my loss.

I come from a family where a few of my cousins, uncles and even my dad are hardcore gamblers. I do not wish to end up like them. but you can say, you can watch the stock market daily and be on your toes. Back to paragraph one, i won't do it.

I also said that the DCA is used to minimise loss, and to MAXIMISE Gains, buy more on the low months.

The dca is also a form of savings for your future you. If there's annual gain that is 8% average and the risk is low. so why not?

@Nyan, Just curious - posb invest saver is basically buying STI ETF with 1% sales charge. Why don't you just buy through a trading platform instead?

Posb invest saver allows you to buy odd units. $3.32 per unit

Per lot is $332.

If I'm not wrong, trading platforms only allows you top buy 1 lot minimum.

Cant afford per lot.

 

[CronesWar]

@Nyan, Just curious - posb invest saver is basically buying STI ETF with 1% sales charge. Why don't you just buy through a trading platform instead?

im interested in buying through a trading platform but have little knowledge on how to go about doing it. Any links that can share to improve my knowledge on this area. My main focus is on SG blue chips only.

 

[Mecisteus]

Im definitely not a patient person and i won't spare time to watch the stock market and study it's pattern because that is really not my character at all. and that is why i used the DCA to minimise my loss.

if thats the case, you should go for passive investing aka index investing.

google for "permanent portfolio". that portfolio has been backtested for the past many years. it can yield decent returns with near zero effort. if you are not comfortable with the asset allocation, you can always tweak and decide for an allocation that suits your appetite.

active investing is just not suitable for everyone. if it works for you, then it is good. if not, you must try the alternative methods.

 

[SGxiaosin]

We are to buy when the market is selling at a discounted price and it's not difficult to determine this.

What is your method to determine whether the market is selling at a discounted price may I ask?

 

[Shiny Things]

Why shiny go SF?

So this is a fair question. It deserves an answer, and a good answer, otherwise I'm going to come off sounding like one of those ungrateful FT assholes who comes to Singapore, gets paid stupid amounts of money, and spends his spare time getting pissed at BQ Bar and bitching about how Singapore is not like wherever they came from. (This is not an entirely unfair portrait: I did more than my fair share of bitching about Singapore, and I spent a heck of a lot of time at BQ Bar.)

Incidentally, if you haven't tried the kebabs at BQ Bar, you really should.

Anyway.

Singapore was good to me. Really good. I liked it, and I had a great time. But I knew pretty soon after I moved there that I wouldn't want to settle down and stay forever.

The weather is an acquired taste: some people love humidity and love that it's summer all year. I don't like either of those things.

It's crazy expensive. I was earning more than I've ever earned in my life, but I couldn't afford to buy a car. A beer was nineteen bucks (in some places, ahem Post Bar ahem). The rent on my two-bedroom apartment was more than my parents' mortgage payment on their three-thousand-hectare farm. I still don't know how y'all can afford to live there.

And yeah, there's the whole civil liberties and section 377A thingies. Neither of those made me feel particularly welcome.

--------

The second half of that question: why the USA?

I'm originally from Australia, but I wasn't ready to move back there and settle down; I'd travelled to the States a few times, and liked it a hell of a lot.

America is relatively cheap; even in SF, the second-most-expensive city in the USA, the cost of living's still vastly lower than Singapore. I can have a brand-new 6.2-litre Corvette over here for less than the cost of a brand-new 1-litre Toyota Aygo over there.

California, especially, is a fantastic place to live. The weather's mild and the air is clear and fresh. You can be in Las Vegas or WeHo in two hours if you want to party, or to Big Sur or Yosemite or Tahoe (or even Denver or Jackson Hole!) in three or four hours if you want to sit on top of a mountain and be close to nature. Plus there's Utah. Utah is the most underrated state in the union - five incredible national parks, and the best adventure sports in the country - but nobody ever even thinks of going there.

San Francisco's a great place to work, too. The pay is great; the people are interesting and passionate; and everyone's got grand ideas, some sort of grand plan for how they're going to build the Next Big Thing.

As much as Singapore's a nice place - it's safe, it's clean, it's a great place to raise a family - I highly recommend working in the States or Australia at least once in your life if you get a chance. Come over here. Rent yourself a cheapo apartment in the Sunset or San Jose. Work in the Valley for three or four times what you'd make in Singapore. Meet some people who are smarter than you are, and learn from them. Meet some people who are friendlier than you are, and make friends with them. Buy yourself a second-hand Ford Mustang for less than twenty grand and drive it to Vegas like Hunter S. Thompson, then push on to Utah and Colorado and let the night sky in Bryce Canyon blow your mind.

I liked Singapore, but it wasn't a forever home for me. America just might be.

 

[neanea]

Thanks shiny for your sharing. You got PM !

So this is a fair question. It deserves an answer, and a good answer, otherwise I'm going to come off sounding like one of those ungrateful FT assholes who comes to Singapore, gets paid stupid amounts of money, and spends his spare time getting pissed at BQ Bar and bitching about how Singapore is not like wherever they came from. (This is not an entirely unfair portrait: I did more than my fair share of bitching about Singapore, and I spent a heck of a lot of time at BQ Bar.)

Incidentally, if you haven't tried the kebabs at BQ Bar, you really should.

Anyway.

Singapore was good to me. Really good. I liked it, and I had a great time. But I knew pretty soon after I moved there that I wouldn't want to settle down and stay forever.

The weather is an acquired taste: some people love humidity and love that it's summer all year. I don't like either of those things.

It's crazy expensive. I was earning more than I've ever earned in my life, but I couldn't afford to buy a car. A beer was nineteen bucks (in some places, ahem Post Bar ahem). The rent on my two-bedroom apartment was more than my parents' mortgage payment on their three-thousand-hectare farm. I still don't know how y'all can afford to live there.

And yeah, there's the whole civil liberties and section 377A thingies. Neither of those made me feel particularly welcome.

--------

The second half of that question: why the USA?

I'm originally from Australia, but I wasn't ready to move back there and settle down; I'd travelled to the States a few times, and liked it a hell of a lot.

America is relatively cheap; even in SF, the second-most-expensive city in the USA, the cost of living's still vastly lower than Singapore. I can have a brand-new 6.2-litre Corvette over here for less than the cost of a brand-new 1-litre Toyota Aygo over there.

California, especially, is a fantastic place to live. The weather's mild and the air is clear and fresh. You can be in Las Vegas or WeHo in two hours if you want to party, or to Big Sur or Yosemite or Tahoe (or even Denver or Jackson Hole!) in three or four hours if you want to sit on top of a mountain and be close to nature. Plus there's Utah. Utah is the most underrated state in the union - five incredible national parks, and the best adventure sports in the country - but nobody ever even thinks of going there.

San Francisco's a great place to work, too. The pay is great; the people are interesting and passionate; and everyone's got grand ideas, some sort of grand plan for how they're going to build the Next Big Thing.

As much as Singapore's a nice place - it's safe, it's clean, it's a great place to raise a family - I highly recommend working in the States or Australia at least once in your life if you get a chance. Come over here. Rent yourself a cheapo apartment in the Sunset or San Jose. Work in the Valley for three or four times what you'd make in Singapore. Meet some people who are smarter than you are, and learn from them. Meet some people who are friendlier than you are, and make friends with them. Buy yourself a second-hand Ford Mustang for less than twenty grand and drive it to Vegas like Hunter S. Thompson, then push on to Utah and Colorado and let the night sky in Bryce Canyon blow your mind.

I liked Singapore, but it wasn't a forever home for me. America just might be.

 

[alexchia01]

What is your method to determine whether the market is selling at a discounted price may I ask?

My method is a little bit more complex than the one I'm going to give you below, but the one below is already a proven method.

Use the 200MA. Buy when the counter you want falls below the 200 MA. Stop when it risen above.

Please note, the counter must be a strong good fundamental counter, this does not work on lousy fundamental counters.

This is also mainly for investing, you can use this for trading, but for long only, not for shorting.

People who are familiar with this method, knows it's part of the turtle trading strategy.

You can check out this strategy online, just Google "Turtle Trading".

Please don't pay to learn this strategy like I did, you can find this strategy free on the internet, just do a little search and you'll find it.

This is a very simple strategy to understand and master.

The question is... Do you have the patience?

 

[John.D Rockefeller]

So this is a fair question. It deserves an answer, and a good answer, otherwise I'm going to come off sounding like one of those ungrateful FT assholes who comes to Singapore, gets paid stupid amounts of money, and spends his spare time getting pissed at BQ Bar and bitching about how Singapore is not like wherever they came from. (This is not an entirely unfair portrait: I did more than my fair share of bitching about Singapore, and I spent a heck of a lot of time at BQ Bar.)

Incidentally, if you haven't tried the kebabs at BQ Bar, you really should.

Anyway.

Singapore was good to me. Really good. I liked it, and I had a great time. But I knew pretty soon after I moved there that I wouldn't want to settle down and stay forever.

The weather is an acquired taste: some people love humidity and love that it's summer all year. I don't like either of those things.

It's crazy expensive. I was earning more than I've ever earned in my life, but I couldn't afford to buy a car. A beer was nineteen bucks (in some places, ahem Post Bar ahem). The rent on my two-bedroom apartment was more than my parents' mortgage payment on their three-thousand-hectare farm. I still don't know how y'all can afford to live there.

And yeah, there's the whole civil liberties and section 377A thingies. Neither of those made me feel particularly welcome.

--------

The second half of that question: why the USA?

I'm originally from Australia, but I wasn't ready to move back there and settle down; I'd travelled to the States a few times, and liked it a hell of a lot.

America is relatively cheap; even in SF, the second-most-expensive city in the USA, the cost of living's still vastly lower than Singapore. I can have a brand-new 6.2-litre Corvette over here for less than the cost of a brand-new 1-litre Toyota Aygo over there.

California, especially, is a fantastic place to live. The weather's mild and the air is clear and fresh. You can be in Las Vegas or WeHo in two hours if you want to party, or to Big Sur or Yosemite or Tahoe (or even Denver or Jackson Hole!) in three or four hours if you want to sit on top of a mountain and be close to nature. Plus there's Utah. Utah is the most underrated state in the union - five incredible national parks, and the best adventure sports in the country - but nobody ever even thinks of going there.

San Francisco's a great place to work, too. The pay is great; the people are interesting and passionate; and everyone's got grand ideas, some sort of grand plan for how they're going to build the Next Big Thing.

As much as Singapore's a nice place - it's safe, it's clean, it's a great place to raise a family - I highly recommend working in the States or Australia at least once in your life if you get a chance. Come over here. Rent yourself a cheapo apartment in the Sunset or San Jose. Work in the Valley for three or four times what you'd make in Singapore. Meet some people who are smarter than you are, and learn from them. Meet some people who are friendlier than you are, and make friends with them. Buy yourself a second-hand Ford Mustang for less than twenty grand and drive it to Vegas like Hunter S. Thompson, then push on to Utah and Colorado and let the night sky in Bryce Canyon blow your mind.

I liked Singapore, but it wasn't a forever home for me. America just might be.

I'm migrating to CA in 3 years saving up for my 911 Carrera LOL

 

[archcherub]

San Francisco's a great place to work, too. The pay is great; the people are interesting and passionate; and everyone's got grand ideas, some sort of grand plan for how they're going to build the Next Big Thing.

As much as Singapore's a nice place - it's safe, it's clean, it's a great place to raise a family - I highly recommend working in the States or Australia at least once in your life if you get a chance. Come over here. Rent yourself a cheapo apartment in the Sunset or San Jose. Work in the Valley for three or four times what you'd make in Singapore. Meet some people who are smarter than you are, and learn from them. Meet some people who are friendlier than you are, and make friends with them. Buy yourself a second-hand Ford Mustang for less than twenty grand and drive it to Vegas like Hunter S. Thompson, then push on to Utah and Colorado and let the night sky in Bryce Canyon blow your mind.

I liked Singapore, but it wasn't a forever home for me. America just might be.

oh believe me, i tried.
i went north carolina for exchange program, fell in love with usa.
short of illegal overstaying, i couldnt stay in usa.. haha. no job offers (my degree is not particularly useful in usa)
tried my best to look for any jobs in SF, california in general... zzzzz without an engineering, or anything to do with tech or finances, no jobs!

enjoy ur life there man!

 

[Nyan]

oh believe me, i tried.
i went north carolina for exchange program, fell in love with usa.
short of illegal overstaying, i couldnt stay in usa.. haha. no job offers (my degree is not particularly useful in usa)
tried my best to look for any jobs in SF, california in general... zzzzz without an engineering, or anything to do with tech or finances, no jobs!

enjoy ur life there man!

let's talk about degree please.
I've just grad with diploma in fashion marketing
I really don't know where to take my degree. Wanna study pr/marketing.

i thought of hong kong but i don't think ill be able to get in as they're population is really big i doubt they can accommodate so much. And it will be hard to afford hong kong.

i know of this school from thailand that has really good facilities and it's big unlike sim which is a small building. It a international school. The campus is really big.

MARTIN DE TOURS SCHOOL of bachelor marketing - http://www.au.edu/index.php/marketing

International business mgmt - http://www.au.edu/index.php/international-business-management

ALBERT LAURENCE OF COMMUNICATION ARTS bachelor in Public Relations - http://www.au.edu/index.php/public-relations


Note that the first two are School of business and the third one which is Pr is school of communication arts


i really need advices on this. i don't want to study in SIM.


obviously can't get into NUS or any singapore uni because it's filled with FT

 

[saysuzu]

then don't study, take the money go invest instead

go out work after you ORD, gain work experience is better than gaining your knowledge first

after you work enough, you can go study part time/full time or whatever

nonetheless, your money will still be growing better than those stuck inside banks like mine

 

[Nyan]

then don't study, take the money go invest instead

go out work after you ORD, gain work experience is better than gaining your knowledge first

after you work enough, you can go study part time/full time or whatever

nonetheless, your money will still be growing better than those stuck inside banks like mine

to be honest bro. my dream since i was young was to study in a big campus big school, where the community is big and lots of activities.

but sadly i can't do that in my country just because I'm not academically inclined.

If it won't cost me my life to study in a big campus i would chase my dreams. but not ****ing expensive like america one semester school fees $40k those kind you know. ( haven't even count expenses )