Depends on the stock. For blue chips the spread is usually not very big (e.g. 3-4 cents), but for smaller cap companies, it can be significant, as much as 10%.

You should start the planning now. Your children will graduate and will step into the workforce where they must take care of themselves. You need to look at your situation now and ask yourself when you would like to retire, as well as your goals and dreams you would like to achieve in retirement. Firstly, ensure that you have a basic level of guaranteed income when you retire. CPF Life is one of the best annuities around and it gives a lifetime of income. As we do not know how long we live, a lifetime annuity forms the basis of 'survival income' to ensure that you will have money for essentials. You can also contribute to RA via top ups or with CPF monies to hit the enhanced retirement sum. Do note that this is a one way traffic however, money put into SA/RA will not be able to be withdrawn. Next, ensure you have medical and Long Term Care coverage. Medical and nursing bills can be quite hefty and we want to ensure that such bills do not drain us of money for retirement. Beyond Medishield life and Eldershield, look at getting an integrated shield plan as well as Eldershield enhancement. Once those are taken care of, we can look beyond the basics. Creating lasting income from both guaranteed and variable sources will ensure diversification across various asset classes (retirement plan, equities, fixed income, etc) and a stable, low volatility portfolio. The exact composition of such a portfolio is dependent on your risk appetite and preferences, so discuss with a consultant who can help you to plan and allocate your limited resources accordingly. If you'd like, I can show you the strategies we use to plan for clients including strategies to hedge inflation and longevity through your retirement years.

If you have direct crediting service, the dividends will be credited on the payment date so you should see it reflected in your bank account on the next day. Foreign shares will probably be credited to your brokerage account so do give your broker a couple of days to process.

You should definitely look at contributing to your CPF. You can target contributing to your Special Account through the Retirement Sum Topping Up Scheme which would grant you tax relief as well as help to compound your retirement savings. This assumes you are comfortable with having your monies locked in CPF for a long time as it is largely a one way traffic. This forms the core of your guaranteed retirement funds and you can supplement it with annuities at the same time. Your allocation is largely on fixed income and it would be definitely advantageous to have a little more equity exposure, hence I can see why you have thought about investing in REITs. However you might want to keep your funds liquid first as equity investing will require a fair bit of research into the company, to see if you are OK with the risks as well as the business. Even if you find a company/REIT to invest in, the price might be too high and I don't recommend overpaying for a stock. Patience does get rewarded but it is the waiting game that really tests you, as it is never easy to sit on money and do nothing. Ultimately the best investment you can make is in yourself and your business. The returns will be more tangible and can grow faster than the average stock. With more funds available from a thriving business, you will have more bullets to fire when opportunities present themselves.

For monies that are needed within the next 10 years, stay conservative. You can go for defensive investments like Singapore Saving Bonds or investment grade bond UTs, with some allocation in equities through either ETF or UT. Rebalance whenever your allocation starts to skew heavily to equities as it is an indication that markets have gone up and it is time to take profit. Long term you can consider a more aggressive weighing on equities. Maintain bonds in the portfolio, something like 30-70 should be OK. This assumes you have no definite timeframe for liquidation and can hold on to the portfolio when the markets are down.

There are unit trusts that can deliver decent returns, so 6% is not an unheard of number. However, whether or not one should invest in unit trusts in the first place will come down to a number of factors, including - Risk appetite - Preference for asset classes (some UTs are in equities, some are in fixed income, others are mixed) - Sector preference (some people like tech stocks and hence tech UTs might be appealing) Analysis of the unit trust also is down to several factors such as - Volatility - Peer to peer comparison - Sharpe Ratio - etc... I presume that your colleague is probably buying from the Navigator Platform when you mention that he bought it from Aviva. What is more important is the actual unit trust that he bought.

With a budget of $100/mth, it would not be cost effective to do stocks. You may consider building up your portfolio with some dividend paying unit trusts. You can do this on POEMS. Start with one fund first and you can switch out into other funds once your portfolio grows in size.

You will need to know what you invested in. Looking at your comment below, if it was indeed Unit Trusts, there is no guarantee of any form. Depending on which unit trust you invest in, returns can potentially be better than CPF OA's interest, but you are at the mercy of the market, and hence if you require the CPF monies for a milestone that is coming up in the short term (<5 years), it might be better to keep it within the safety of CPF. If you can send me the details of your investment, I might be able to give you a more detailed opinion so that you can gain some clarity.

Hello Linda. The best car insurance here is rather subjective as it does depend on a lot of factors such as your driving experience, your marital status, etc. Ultimately you might want to sit down with a broker such as myself to assess your requirements before we commence a search for you to find the most cost effective insurance that meets your needs.

Yes, you can. If you include your bonus and AWS, it will usually be enough to allow you to qualify. Even if including it does not bring you past the threshold, banks are usually able to issue the card if they do not deem you a credit risk. It also helps if you have a POSB/DBS bank account. Having said that, I assume you are talking about the entry level cards where the requriement is $30000 annual salary.