Got a $300k inheritance. Only investment i’ve ever done is put in FD. What should I do with low-med risk? Which premium banking to be with? Profile: 35yo, female, 1 kid, HDB loan, divorced

Get a fee-only financial advisor to help with your planning.

Fixed deposits are fine

Hi anon,

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My suggestion is simple.

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Take a step back.

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Don't do anything yet.

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$300K might be a lot of money to suddenly appear in your bank account. Such incidents don't occur that often (how many inheritances can you get in your life?)

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So planning what to do with the money, as well as what that money can do for you, is very very important.

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There was another seedly thread where someone got an inheritance, put it in an ILP and got badly burnt. So I'm going to be upfront here: I don't advocate ILPs at all (and I'm an advisor myself).

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Premier banking has its pros and cons. However, do you really need what they offer? Because if you don't there's no need to force yourself to be a premier banking customer. (For brevity I won't go into details)

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Again: Ask yourself what do you want from that money?

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Do you want to grow it? Generate income? Or a mix of both? Do you want it to just benefit yourself, or do you want it to benefit both you and your child?

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My immediate question after reading about your situation is: Is your HDB loan a big stress? If so, would paying off a part of the loan be a better idea for you? After all, peace of mind is priceless.

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If not, read on.

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If you are looking at low to medium risk instruments, I'll be frank and tell you that you are going to have to perform some hedging. Something either has risk, or it doesn't (in my view). So to do low to medium risk means you'll definitely have some of those funds invested. Investing carries risk, so mix investing with some safe products, like annuities (for income) or endowments (for growth of wealth/securing your child's education, etc) will be one way to manage the overall risk level of your portfolio. As to what you can invest in, there are a range of assets, like ETF/UTs (for growth), dividend paying stocks (for income), etc.

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Exactly what kind of allocation (between safe and risky assets), amount to deploy now or later, etc, will really depend on many factors, including how much you want to test your limits when it comes to investings, and I'm referring to how you react to market swings. No one will complain when the markets are up, but when they are down, you'll likely feel a sinking panic (especially considering you have only ever done FDs in your life) and may make irrational decisions.

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Honestly as much as I'd like to give more advice, this is about all I can say about your situation, as I don't know you on a personal level nor the exact details of your finances.

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I hope this has brought you some clarity and hope you'll be able to find someone who can help you best manage your situation (not necessarily outright manage the money) because sometimes a second opinion can ground you to reality and prove useful.

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All the best, good luck and if you have questions please feel free to reply to this post.

Tbill not bad, higher than FD.

You may want to check the numbers. SSB might not pay higher than your HDB loan depending on what rate you get for HDB.

High savings account rates may change anytime so that's a risk.

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