After reading the answers in the forum, I am not sure to go for robo-advisor or self pick the funds? What are some changes you would want to make, back when you just started investing?

For the beginner the less overwhelming method could be a roboadvisor. However with a lot of initial reading (on passive ETF investing), discipline and patience, you can do it more cheaply all by yourself with a cheap online broker (TD A, Standard Chartered, POEMS). With 500 a month it would be better to switch that to 2000 every 4 months to reduce relative fees and have roughly the same results.

here are my tips&tricks, but do not follow the higher risk strategies I mention there (technology tilted investing):

https://seedly.sg/questions/what-is-your-genera...

Hey there,

There is no correct answer when it comes to what to invest to start off. Depending on your level of expertise, you can always start off with a robo-advisory, which allows you to stay invested over a longer period.

A good idea to start with for picking stocks, is choosing companies with a proven track record. If you do buy stocks via our local brokerage houses, only local stocks are held, overseas stock are still custodian holdings by the company.

To start off, definitely open a local brokerage account, so that you can manage your local holdings in your CDP. You can always do a mixture of robo-investing, and equity purchases, depending on your own goals. So to get a better picture of what or how you should start off, first establish what is it you are trying to achieve with your investments. Overseas brokerage houses, have lower fees when trading foreign equities, so if you are investing on foreign equities, find a brokerage house that is easy for yourself to navigate!

I do hope i was able to shed some insight on your question!

*Do note that this does not constitute as investment advice. Please do your own due diligence when making investment decisions.

There are already some great answers here, I will just like to add on one thing. CDP account is only for Singapore stocks and ETFs, you can't use CDP account for overseas investments.

In hindsight, I would tell myself to not be afraid and take the first step. I was initially strictly investing on Roboadvisor ( SA ) because of the cheap fees...market index... and lastly, being afraid of the unknown and using a brokerage's website (scared of possible hidden fees... etc)

I would also tell myself to let my winners run and to always not be impatient (which i do still now, but better at it), know when to cut loss when theres opportunities somewhere else, and definitely, write down why am i buying the shares and selling the shares.

So basically, I would dive straight to stocks (not just any stocks but the companies I researched and with a good moat) (Although im still not ready to buy us stocks (excluding robo) because im still not sure of the fees in it so in this sense im still afraid of the unknown!)

However, i must declare that i learnt more about stocks during investing in robo, but not doing anything and researching the companies you want is fine as well, just dont lose sleep after you buy because you scared it will drop (means the risk too high for you).