Hi Seedly community, would really like some advice about which online brokerage to use for investing in my situation.?

A+B) I would recommend a globally diversified etf like iwda/vwra or something similar. It is riskier to put all your chips into just the US market, you’re essentially betting the US market is going to outperform the rest of the world in the future and you would be missing out on other great stocks not listed in the US.

C) IB is likely the cheapest at the amount you’re investing in. Any forex conversions + trading fees are offset against the monthly inactive fee so you’re likely to only be paying 10 usd per month at ib and much higher commissions at other brokers.

D) IB forex rates are almost spot rates anyway It’s unlikely for you to be getting better rates elsewhere.

E) Value of the trade

F) Yes thats correct, Dividend withholding taxes are applied before the dividends get reinvested.

2a. IB doesn’t charge monthly inactivity fees if your portfolio hits 100k usd. You could consider TD ameritrade if you’re only planning to buy US listed stocks. I would just stick to IB if you’re planning to buy stocks from different exchanges.

C) Not really, you’re stocks are just as safe at any reputable brokers as they are in CDP. Plus, CDP account can only hold SGX listed stocks. All other stocks are by default at your brokers custodian account.

Hi Anon,

Welcome to your new investment journey and great that you have settled your insurance and emergency funds aside. Your best investment now is to build up more savings and your investment knowledge 👍

It is great that you have already started with a robo-advisor like stashaway, which is a good beginner method in my opinion. It also helps to keep you invested in the market as your are building up your investment knowledge. However ,you will want to invest on your own as the fees for robo-advisor may get quite a fair bit as you invest more.

You can also consider investment in ETF, preferably with low expense ratio like VOO/IVV (US-domiciled) or CSPX (Irish-domiciled). That will give you some diversification and an exposure to ~500 US companies at one go. However, one may consider other ETF(s) too, based on their goals and comfort. (Abit hard to give suggestions as am not sure of your goal and risk tolerance)

If you are into dividend , you can look into SYFE reits to start (do have some capital gains potential too). I do not recommend picking your own stocks at the moment if you are new to the market (even so as the market now has so much uncertainty and volatility). As you get better, you can start to venture into your own investment and stock picking :)

You may want to open some brokerage account of your choice first while you built up your knowledge, some may take some time to get your account created. If there is any questions, just ask and the seedly community is always there to help 👍