Monday, 14 December 2015

Investment Items

Being a student with a debt of about 52.2k is no joke but I will be using some of that money for my investments. What investments have I been making? I adopt the dollar cost averaging method where I will spend a certain amount of money every month to buy some shares regardless of the share price. This is a good way to lower down my cost and to prevent myself from trying to time the market. Whether it works or not will be known at least 40 years later when I retire. Currently, as a poor and heavily indebted student, the amount of money spent per month is very low. I shall not talk about how low is low but it does not really matter. So what do I buy? I buy shares of Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), go google it and you will see many information about it. What exactly do I buy?

iShares Core MSCI World UCITS ETF | IWDA (LSE)
This ETF tracks the index and to me, it is a good exposure to developed markets.

SPDR Straits Times Index ETF | ES3 (SGX)
This ETF tracks the index and it is to gain exposure to my home market, which is Singapore.

ABF SINGAPORE BOND INDEX FUND | A35 (SGX)
This ETF tracks a basket of high-quality bonds issued primarily by the Singapore government and quasi-Singapore government entities, and it is good to have a balance of stocks and bonds in my portfolio.

For local SGX stock purchase: Standard Chartered (I believe Maybank offers something cheaper)
Minimum commision SGD10 or 0.20% whichever is higher

For overseas stock purchase: Interactive Brokers (IBKR) due to their low commissions. 
However, do note that the Interactive Brokers require a minimum of USD 3k to open account for age 25 years old and below and will have a mimum monthly fee of USD 3. If transaction cost for the month is above USD 3, that amount will be charged and no additional USD 3 will be incurred.
Above 25 years old, USD 10k is required to open account and minimum monthly fee of USD10. If transaction cost for the month is above USD 10, that amount will be charged and no additional USD 10 will be incurred.
Monrhly fees will be waived when your total assets held under IBKR is above USD100k.

Sadly, IBKR cannot be used to trade in SGX for Singapore due to unknown reasons. Else, I will be using IBKR for all my transactions.

I don't encourage anyone to follow blindly and I and no expert in this field. I am just typing out what I am currently buying and I judge based on my own personal risk appetite. Follow at your own risk and I am not liable to any losses.

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