I am a fresh grad with about $40k in my savings accounts. I want to start doing long term investments but I am overwhelmed by the options I have. Any advice?

Congratulations on your graduation. You have a long runway of more than 20 years to invest. You are at my older daughter's age. This is what I recommended to her after setting aside emergency funds & insurance for insurance's sake (not for investment returns because you can do it better yourself):

• maximize CPF contribution into your SA account to earn 4% compounded till you are ready to withdraw at 55 and minimize use of your OA account (repay your housing with cash if you can) for housing to maximize the compounding of 2.5% interest rate. check out the 1M65 math https://dollarsandsense.sg/1-million-65-using-c...

• Invest in S&P500 ETF

• Value investing in high quality US & Chinese companies which have little/no competition and will be around 20 years from now. This is Warren Buffet's investment strategy.

My teacher in value investment is Adam Khoo (watch this for how he values companies https://youtu.be/4fY-RVB39Dw). My portfolio YTD is up with double digit gain because I invested more into high quality companies when they were discounted during the recent March/April sell-off.

I cannot recommend his courses enough. I wished I learnt from Adam when I was your age instead of buying unit trusts that banks recommend. I could have retired earlier.

Wishing you a good FIRE journey!

with warmest regards

Philip​​​

The best thing to do is to spread your investment budget into two phase, phase 1, invest 60% in stocks and bonds at AmexSFC, ICmarket Ameritrade and apply G19 autotrade software for high daily returns and grow like Warren buffet (2) invest in agro commodities. It will give you high returns because of Covid-19 outbreak.

1) Before investing, ensure you have adequate insurance protection. Basic hospital plan is a must a rider is great but not necessary. Basic is sufficient for most government hospitals. Rider is only if you want to go to a private hospital for treatment. Life insurance is only needed if you have dependants. Since you said you are a fresh grad, i am assuming you arent married of have children. Therefore life insurance is not necessary. If you really want to get Life, go for term. Don't fall for marketing bullshit about Whole Life. The money you save on term life insurance can be invested to make potentially better returns when compared to Whole life.

2) Ensure you have adequate emergency reserves. Stash some cash in condition-free high yield accounts like the 2.5% Singlife accounts or CIMB FastSaver which offers up to 1.8% per annum without annoying conditions like crediting your salary or spending on their credit card.

3) Before investing, kindly read up and research on whats available on the market. RSPs, roboadvisors and self DCA comes with numerous pros and cons. Study before entering the market. Read up on the various brokers and the services or markets they offer. Look through investing subforums, like Money Mind on HWZ or even the investing subreddit on Reddit. This is very important. We've all heard stories of new investors who bought stocks or ETFs on the advice of family, friends and the internet only to be burnt because they didnt understand what they bought, like Hyflux for example. Always research on your risk appetite. There are numerous resources available where you can find out about your investment risk appetite. Also, try to understand your reason for investing. Is it for early retirement? For the purpose of "passive income"? Your reason for investing wil determine the type of stocks/ETFs you invest in.

4) ONLY INVEST MONEY THAT YOU ARE WILLING TO LOSE. This is very important and links back to point (3). If you are not prepared to lose up to 50% or more of your investment value, perhaps you are not ready for investing in the stock market. Try safer alternatives like SSBs, SGSs or Fixed-Deposits. Relatively low returns but also very safe.

Have a great investing journey ahead.

I suggest you look into things like ARK ETF & VTI (Vanguard ETF), invest a lump sum and then keep adding what you can save every month from your paycheck. It will be hard to beat the inflation with savings accounts now.

I would not look at Roboadvisors as you can do most of the things yourself, including rebalancing and DCA without paying any fees. In the end index returns beat most of the hedge funds and investors out there.

Also invest in yourself and learn new things, thats the best thing you could do!