Nope. Timing the market is really no no. It is one thing to keep a cash position and take advantage of cheap valuations and another to follow old myths. The Sell in May and Go Away myth is old and not always true. Focus on the things you can control instead :)

Definitely service based for me. Maunfacturing tends to have high CAPEX and one feature i like about service based business is once their investments been 'amortised' in, they start to have operational leverage. For manufacturing the sweet spot seems to be when production is gaining traction and the backlog orders/ contracts are piling up. Otherwise, not my preference.

It doesnt make numbers sense to do it. 5% loss every month. Why not save up and do a Dollar cost average every quarter or half yearly?

Nope. You can also purchase Single Premium annuities and insurance plans with it. Bonds and FD are also popular products to couple to tax savings with!

Yes I would If the company has solid fundamentals and is a quality company. When you buy into an index, it is buying into a basket of stocks, around 30 if I'm not wrong. not all stocks that are inside are high quality companies as there are other considerations involved. Market cap and all. So why would I put my hard earned money to buy a basket of stocks if I have narrowed down to 1-2 companies That I feel is good?

I assess it based on the value it would bring to me. Can i learn something that improve my thinking about investing that makes back the course fee? Depends on your portfolio size. if you portfolio size is 5k, does it make sense to pay 3k (industry average) and leave 2k for investing? But if your portfolio size is 300k, 3k is 1% And it is relatively easy to make back the course fees and even 'profit' from this 3k investment. My take is build your cash reserves to at least 10-20k. The hard truth is capital is necessary in investing. 100% of 5k is still only 5k.

You can consider start putting your money to work through SSB, indexes. But most importantly get your emergency fund ready (3-6 months of what you spend). Invest in your knowledge through books and courses to exponentiate the process.

I think you're doing the right stuff. But along the way you may want to pick up investment books and get more traction on that. Worked for me! One thing I wish I knew was that I shouldn't be too optimistic about salaried income as this may change anytime. Always good to have some buffer and not commit to too many monthly commitments :)

Yes you do have to receive the dividends manually into your bank account. Personally, I would accumulate such dividends and make an investment maybe quarterly if the quantum is not big. Otherwise the minimum commissions and fees would become a big percentage of your costs.

Show them the profits! Okay jokes aside. I used the rule of 72 to show people the magic of compounding. Put your money in the bank to rot or buy into assets. Your money your choice :)