Hi Anon, There are indeed a plethora of options to consider when it comes to a regular savings plan. Below are just some common options. 1) POEMS 2) Insurance ILPs 3) Robo advisors 4) POSB STI 5) and many more As a financial advisor myself, my portfolio mainly consists of ILPs, US Equities, REITS, S&P500 ETF. Its common for new investors to be bombarded with the various investment options available when starting out their investment journey. A easier way of helping you make the decision would be to consider the following factors: 1) Investment knowledge - how equipped are you with understand the financial markets and grasping financial concepts 2) Capital - How much money are you intending to start off your investment journey with? It should be the amount of money that you are willing to lose as investment returns are never guaranteed 3) Time & Effort - how much of your personal time and effort are you willing to put in to do your research and understand the financial markets better? With the 3 factors above, you could more or less decide if you are more of a passive or active investor. If you fall into the active category, and is willing to put in time and effort into understanding what and when to invest, perhaps DIY-ing your investment through buying of stocks/unit trust would be more suitable for you. If you fall along the more passive category, and has only basic investment knowledge, you may consider doing an RSP-ETF, ILP from an insurance compan, Robo Advisors. Amongst these options, ILP would typically have the highest fee but not necessary the lowest return net of fees. Furthermore, most ILPs in the market now offer capital guarantee upon death which is something that none of the other investment tools out there would offer. At the end of the day, what matters most is still your risk appetite, if you are able to stomach temporal losses and willing to take on more risk to gain higher returns, equities and other high risk investments may be more suitable for you. Also, if your final decision is to take up an ILP, it would be important to consider the skill and knowledge of the advisor in providing you sound advice on portfolio allocation and also a back-up plan should your investment goes south. Feel free to drop me a message at https://brandanchen.manulife.sg should you need more clarity!

Hi Elaine, There is NO difference in terms of coverage for DPS provided by either insurer. Basically, DPS is a simple Term plan that provides coverage of S$46,000 till Age 60 for 3 main things: Death, Total & Permanent Disability, Terminal Illness. DPS will be automatically assigned once a person makes his/her first working CPF contribution from 21 years old onwards. However, you are able to opt-out of it, but will not be advisable as its relatively affordable.

Recommendation would depend on your risk profile and expected investment returns. HOWEVER, INVESTING INTO ADDITIONAL COUNTERS TO CLOCK INTEREST ISNT THE WISEST THING TO DO. Do consider your options before jumping into the bandwagon of maximising these high interest bank accounts. Its not worth to deviate from your plans just to gain a little bit more interest!

It great that you want to start your investment journey! Before even starting your investment journey, you should be ensuring that your insurance portfolio is covered! For starters, you should have a hospital/health insurance and some coverage on Death, Disability and Critical illness. After getting your basics covered, it is important to understand the following for your investments: 1) Investment Goal: What are you investing for and how much you aim to achieve? 2) Risk Profile: Understand what kind of risk you are able to take! 3) Knowledge: Based on 1 and 2, what are the options that are viable for you to achieve your goals If you are investing into individual stocks or ETF, please DO NOT DO SO on a MONTHLY Basis as the quantum you mentioned is not worth the fees! If you would like to, accumulate your monthly saving for 6 months before entering! Would suggest, that you look at ETFs first since they are much easier to understand and may not be as risky as holding a single counter! Another alternative is to speak to a financial advisor who is proficient in the markets to assist you with other investment options and portfolio management! If you would like to find out more, feel free to drop me a PM at https://brandanchen.manulife.sg/

In short, you are losing money because you invested in SGD and if you were to liquidate today, you would suffer a loss due to FX fluctuations. However, on the bright side, your robo-advisor did make positive gains since it is denominated in USD. For investments involving foreign currency, it's would be prudent to take into consideration FX fluctuations, on top of the underlying investments if your aim is to receive your investment returns back in SGD. However, there are also specific funds that provide FX hedges against such currency movements but it may or may not work in your favour depending on the skill of the fund manager! Such investments should be kept for the long term, would be good to check in once in a while instead of every month!

Well, I would suggest getting an iPad with a keyboard and an Apple Pencil! One way is to look at carousel listings! you should be able to find something around your budget and iPads will perform the above just fine!

1) Total premiums paid will definitely be lower for a lower premium term 2) A key consideration for selecting a time-frame would be cash flow and opportunity cost 3) Personally, I would opt for 20 years to stretch my dollar as far as possible 4) Another scenario is whereby an ECI occurs 11 years into the policy, for a 10 year premium term, you would have fully paid up the policy! However, if you selected a longer premium payment term, u would have paid lesser but yet still receive the same payout! 5) Personally, I would concentrate on setting aside more for investment! Insurance is merely a risk management tool! Investing/savings is what determines your retirement and future lifestyle! 6) If you would like to find out more about Manulife's whole life plans which cover 126 conditions, and comes with 6 months premium waiver upon Retrenchment. Feel free to drop me an email at [email protected]

Agree with Tat Tian & Hariz! As financial planners, we can't provide specific financial advice online without fully understanding the whole picture of things. Based on the information you shared, here are my thoughts: 1) Death cover is no necessary since you do not have any dependents 2) Make sure you have health insurance! 3) Main concern for you would be critical illness coverage. Rule of thumb would be about 5 - 6 times of annual income for CI Coverage. This can be further broken down into ECI vs CI. Would suggest for ECI coverage to be approx 1 - 2 times of annual income and 3- 4 times for CI coverage! 4) The rationale for using income instead of expenses to compute coverage is so that you can still continue to contribute to your future retirement when you recover from any CI 5) A mix of whole life vs Term for such coverage would indeed be a cost-effective method as ECI term plans are pretty expensive, especially if we add up the premiums for the entire duration. Perhaps it would be more beneficial for you to arrange for a coffee chat with a financial planner so as to provide you with a better understanding of your needs! If you would like to, you may always reach out to me via my email: [email protected]

Firstly, it's always about suitability. ILPs are merely one of the many tools or investment solutions that one can take up! If one prefers passive investments, No doubt that ILPs may have higher charges or cost. However, the net returns that you eventually achieve (if managed properly) could actually be much higher than that of other options such as Robo-advisors, Index Funds etc. Most importantly is whether your adviser is able to manage your portfolio and conduct regular reviews to ensure that your portfolio is aligned with your goals/objective! At the end of the day, what matters more is the advisor's abilities to manage your portfolio! Should you decide the cancel, it is highly probable that you may lose the bulk of initial investment! The second question you should ask yourself is should you decide to cancel, will the alternatives be able to recoup the loss from early cancellation

Firstly, what is your definition of overpaying? Secondly, premiums depend on quite a couple of factors: Age, Gender, Smoking Status, Health Status, and the type of plans you think best caters to your needs. In a nutshell, personal financial planning revolves around 4 key pillars: 1) Health Insurance - cover hospitalisation bills, pre and post hospitalisation treatment and consultation 2) Life Insurance - Provides income protection in the event of Death, Disability, and Critical Illness 3) Retirement Planning - Consists of investments and savings 4) Personal Accident Coverage At the end of the day, the advisor should be able to explain to you the various types of options available to you to meet both your objective and BUDGET so that you do not think that you are over-paying! If you would like to find out more, I would suggest you speak to a financial advisor or myself. You may always contact me at https://brandanchen.manulife.sg/