I'm going to enlist and have $28K in savings. How much should I allocate for emergency funds and investments? No short-term goals but I really want to grow this amount further while I'm in serving NS. Any advice?

I plan to start investing before enlisting but am currently lost at how to start. Since SC JumpStart has dropped to 1%, is Singlife the best choice now for me to park my emergency funds? I plan to save/invest majority of my NS income so where should I save or invest this money?

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Sabrina Wong

Edited 13 Dec 2021

Communications at University at Buffalo

I agree it's always good to keep some emergency funds aside and it's equally important to save & invest consistently. As for how much, it really depends on your situation & your financial goals. Most experts recommend keeping three to six months' worth of expenses in an emergency fund. With this said, may I recommend a financial platform that you can explore to help you get started on your financial journey?

I am currently using Hugo Save which is a digital account that helps you spend, save & invest, starting with gold. Starting your financial journey with Hugo Save is also suitable for beginners where there isn't any minimum balance, penalties or paid fees required for maintaining a Hugo Account and you can invest in gold for as low as $0.01 and for as long as you want to. The gold in the Hugo Gold Vault is physical gold allocated to the user and is safe.

Since you mentioned you are currently serving NS, I think you would be able to resonate with this article which talks about how you can manage your NS allowance and practise healthy saving habits in general: https://bit.ly/NSHugo

All the best!

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Tan Wei Ming

21 Jul 2020

Founder and Writer at Frugal Youth Invests

Hi fellow NSF to be. I myself is also an NSF but alr reached the halfway mark.

Yes Singlife is the best savings product to own right now.

https://frugalyouthinvests.com/2020/07/20/best-...

You can refer to this article on what's the best savings products to get besides Singlife.

As for how much you should allocate for emergency funds, technically it should be at least 6 months of your expenses. So how much more you want to set aside depends on how much risk you want to take.

I personally have similar savings as you and I keep about 25% as cash for savings (emergency funds) and expenses.

You may refer to my 1 Year NSF milestone to know more about how I manage my personal finance.

https://frugalyouthinvests.com/2020/06/26/1-yea...

For investment, as a beginner, I advocate the use of ETFs and passive investing style. So robo advisors or ETF RSP will be good for now.

Let me know if you have any queries.

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