How do I get started on my personal investment journey? With zero background and knowledge, what are the first steps I can take?

The start of any personal investment journey begins with knowing your personal finance:

• Statement of Net Worth

• Statement of Cash Flow

• Personal Financial Ratios

Know your risk appetite (conservative, moderate, or aggressive), and your investment goals (retirement / income / education funding / kids, etc).

From here, you'll be able to better ascertain what investment returns and risk you should be looking at, and hence determining the types of assets you should invest in.

In general, anything long term + less risky returns - Turn to ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds). These are lower-cost options investment vehicles which basically tracks / aims to replicate a certain index performance. ETFs are a great way to gain exposure to a basket of securities represented in an index through a single transaction, and hence also allows for diversification.

An example ETF is the Singapore Lion-Phillps-REIT ETF, which tracks a basket of REITS (Real Estate Investment Trusts).

A good beginner friendly investment avenue I'd recommend is Stashaway Academy: https://www.stashaway.sg/academy They offer financial planning and investment planning modules, and also offer monthly webinars + webinar recordings to brush up your investment knowledge.

Feel free to ping me to learn more. Good luck!

Cherie Tan

www.cherietan.com

Start off with

• reading books and news.
• reading about the different instruments such as shares, bonds, ETF, etc
• open demo account and understand them
• consider Robo but start of small to understand yourself how you react especially to losses.