What are your thoughts on the stock market currently? Do you think it's a good time to invest and would you recommend a beginner investor to enter now?

Dear Anonymous,

Thanks for this question! It is great that you are starting to think of investing. Investing in markets has proven over time to deliver above-inflation returns to investors who are able to stay invested long term.

There is an African proverb that says that the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. This applies to investing as well! It is time in the market that counts and not the timing of the market. Time in the market allows you to reap the compounding impact of returns over time. Whereas timing the market is a close to impossible exercise, and most professional managers don’t manage to do it.
What might give you comfort is that over the last hundred years or so, it did not matter when you started. As long as you had time (~10 years or so), even you had started at the beginning of a major crisis, you would not lose money if you managed to stay invested in the stock market. You can take a look at this webinar on investing, especially in the middle or so, when you see a mainly green-and-pink matrix diagram. https://www.facebook.com/moneyowlsg/videos/8514...

Do also take a read at https://www.moneyowl.com.sg/the-right-way-to-in...

About how much to start with, yes, you are absolutely right that you should not pour all your savings into the market. As a financial adviser at heart, and not just an investment house, MoneyOwl always advises clients to take a holistic view and ensure that they are in good financial health before starting to invest – much as we should be physically healthy before we run a marathon. One of most important things we need to do is to keep an emergency fund of about 6 months’ worth of living expenses. Otherwise, should you suddenly need money to fund your lifestyle and do not have this, you might end up having to liquidate your investments and take a loss, thus derailing your wealth accumulation plan.

If you still have questions, do email MoneyOwl at [email protected] or message us on FB Messenger and ask to speak to one of our qualified advisers. As you may know, we aren’t just a robo but have a full team of human advisers on the AWP/CFP programme. For now till end of 2021, we also have zero advisory fee on all cash investments up to $10,000: an initiative we introduced recently to help Singaporeans, especially small investors looking to start, better manage amidst challenging times, something that is in our DNA as an NTUC social enterprise.

Hope this helps!

Hi there,

The true answer is really depends what approach you take.

However, if you are asking from a beginner perspective, I think it is better that you start with passive investing and Dollar Cost Average. With that, the best time is to justt start right away and forget short term fluctuations. During this period you can invest in the most important thing as well; yourself. Read more and improve our knowledge to udnerstand our financial goals, risk appetite, investment philosophy and stratergies.

For Passive investing a few good places to start are to follow instagram accoutns such as thewokesalaryman, Simple Sum, SAV finance etc... there are many. You may also want to speak to a financial advisor or attend webinars to learn more about basics of investing.

If you are interested in active investing, then it is a different story, let me know if you want more info on active investing.