Hi everyone, I would consider myself as a beginner investor with a low risk appetite. Any suggestions on how I can gradually increase my risk appetite over the next few years?

If you're not picking stocks individually, IMO going with robo-advisors are just fine...they're not that scary.

So far, I invested one lump sum using CPF OA with Endowus since Jun (my friend was shocked at the amount I threw in) and I never had any instances that it went below my capital.

It's just a matter whether the investment earns more or earn less with the market fluctuations. And yeah, it has beat that 2.5%...!!!

If you want to stock pick, it's a different ballgame altogether. I started in Oct 2019 with REITs/Trusts for stock picking and accelerated my learnings via attending 4-5 investment courses.

I'm not the kind who can tahan figuring things out on my own. I also want to make as few mistakes as possible. So I rather pay to fast track and then execute quickly.

Also, I find by attending courses, you gain that confidence over time in going for investments that give better returns, even though there may be increased volatility. Volatility is OK if you know what you're doing.

As an example: I joined the Growth Investing Mastery course on 10 Aug. On 14 Aug, I already bought my first US stock. So far in 3-4 months, results are better than I expected.

What's more challenging in individual stock picking is the investor's mindset and belief that needed to be changed, in order to achieve outsized results.

Basically if you are able to hold long term, unless you are trading with leverage, there will be basically no risk.

The only risk is you choose the wrong vehicle, and after years of investment, then you discover it is not able to generate the return you required to achieve your financial goal and you wasted time. $$$ cant buy time and $$$ need time to compound.

you can have all the investment knoweldge, but always must ask yourself "why do u want invest?" You must know your end goal.

1) you need to understand what you want to achieve. For eg. Retire by 40?, million by 35?

2) look at your investment options: stock, robo , unit trust, bond. Each have its purpose.

3) with the timeframe and options. You will have to take that "risk", else you will not achieve your goal, is not a matter of choice.

investment is not complicated for retail investor, need to learn 3 things fundamental analysis, technical analysis and how to use a screener. Once u learn these 3, everytime you see a stock/bond/unit trust or whatever, you will be able to judge. If you still not sure, just buy the market leaders, the whole market move together with them.​​​