26 working, have been saving and never invest before. Thought I should start investing and have been reading up. Plan to invest ~100k in ETFs and perhaps reits, stocks, any advice how I should start?

Hello there and congrats on starting your investing journey!

It may be daunting to know that there are so many different kinds of ETFs out there and with a sum of 100k, you can have the flexibility of choosing what to invest into. I actually wrote an article regarding Syfe and Stashaway which you can read here as well as posts on Growth Portfolio and Dividend Portfolio here.

If you don't know where to start, you can always get started with a roboadvisor. Currently, my robo allocation (Syfe Equity100) has a return of 26% (Time-Weighted Return) and I started the portfolio in July. The rally has been giving me quite a good return and my overall portfolio is up +15% annualised right now. This is all thanks to US equities which is currently up (+53%) while my SG equities are down (-3%) so far.

Unfortunately, SG equities has a bigger allocation and this is why my overall return is only +15%. Glad that you are looking into US and China market which can be done through Syfe Equity100 which you can read more here.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask and reach out!

I touched on investing for beginners here.

1. Lump sum outperforms the index 68% of the time over a 12 month period. Close to 90% over multi year periods. Most screw this up largely due to their inability to weather market voaltility.

2. I would invest this in a lump sum, provided I have my emergency funds in place, and cashflow is strong. Considering that the time horizon is over 10 years, you will do better than most people who go DCA.

DCA is great for cases where cashflow is strong.

Honestly, from your description, a Roboadviser will fit every single one of your investment criteria. The only decision you need to make is either lump sum or DCA. No right or wrong answer, decide based on how much volatility you can stomach.