Are cash management like Syfe Cash+ and StashAway Simple considered savings or investments?

Hi Anon,

Strictly speaking I'd classify them as investments. This is because the underlying funds are unit trust funds regardless how low the risks. Some of the securities within these underlying funds are capital guaranteed (such as bonds) but there's a still a risk of default.

You may wish to look at MoneyOwl WiseSaver where the underlying fund is only invested in SGD deposits with maturities < 1 year. It's akin to you putting your money in various banks' fixed deposits to capture an average interest of these deposits. Only difference being you as a retail investor may not get preferential interest rates offered to institutional investors such as Fullerton. Interest is accrued on a daily basis.

There are alternatives which I use myself, such as the Singlife Account and Etiqa/Singtel Dash Pet which are capital guaranteed insurance savings plans with non guaranteed returns.

Where cash is concerned, I would require that the instruments fufill 2 criteria. I need to be able to access my funds in short notice (within 1-2 business days) without suffering any losses to my capital. Returns would be a bonus, not a primary consideration.

How much cash you hold depends on your short term needs (1-3 years). Are you saving up for property/renovation/car/etc? If there is no immediate use for the funds, we just need to keep about 6 months of our monthly expenses in cash. This is our emergency fund.​​​

To me is an Investment, because savings is 100% guaranteed, cash management is not.

Personally, I would consider them under savings as they are generally low-risk. Nonetheless, it still has risk and capital is not guaranteed, so do invest for at least 1 year to allow the investment to reach its projected returns.

It's definitely not a savings account. the princupal can decrease