I'm new and keen to invest, hope to get some insights and better ideas, no need for money in the next 5 years. Emergency fund & insurance done.?

Have spare cash of 10k & 1k every mth, Pruwealth with 17yrs to go, regret having it but treat it as a safety net. was keen to invest in s&p500 but cant decide between US or Ireland and also saw reviews saying 3mths waiting time to open TD. anything I can do while waiting for my TD acc to be ready or any better ideas I can do?

Discussion (1)

What are your thoughts?

Rahul Wadhwa

19 Sep 2020

Student Ambassador 2020/21 at Seedly

Hi Anon,

It's great that you're getting started. For your spare cash, I would reccomend opening a Singlife account to get the high interest rate of 2.5%. Your capital is guaranteed with Singlife too as they are insured by SDIC.

As for choosing between Ireland-domiciled and US-domiciled S&P500 index funds, I would say it depeneds on your objective. Are you planning to trade the ETFs or hold them for the long term? If you are planning to trade, US would be a better option due to the tighter bid-ask spreads, higher volumes. If you are planning to hold it for the long-term, I would reccomend going for Ireland-domiciled due to the lower witholding tax. Despite a slightly higher expense ratio of the ETFs, the lower witholding tax will benefit you in the long run.

TD only has access to US markets, so to access Ireland domiciled ETFs through LSE or other European exchanges, you would need a broker that has access to these exchanges. Currently the ones I am aware of that have better rates are Saxo and IBKR.

You can also check out tiger brokers. They have access to HK, US, Singapore and most recently ASX. Last I spoke with the customer service they mentioned they are planning to bring LSE on board too but did not provide a timeline. So while waiting, you could open an account with them (it's almost instantaneous) and when your TD account has opened, you can bring over your holdings.

Another option you can look at is robo-advisors. I think it depends on a couple of factors, like your commitment level, risk appetite and knowledge of the markets. With robos, the process is streamlined, you only need to answer a couple of questions based on your risk appetite and they will have a pre-set portfolio for you. After that you can invest how much you want or even set up a recurring deposit. If you have a higher risk appetite and/or better knowledge of the markets, you can pick your individual ETFs/stocks to buy.

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