How would you invest your first 10-20k?

1. Dollar cost average into Global ETFs manually or using robo advisor. Every month put a portion.

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2. Put some into Singapore savings bond for emergency usage.

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Assuming you have no debts of any kinds; the first 10-20k should go to your emergency funds with a good interest rates. If you have already set aside for emergency funds, then I would set aside into ETF, REIT & robo advisers. Depending on your risk appetite; allocate by %.

For myself I'm not well versed in the investing section so I'd avoid putting everything into one basket. For ETF I used DBS and it's the lower risk lower gain basket for me. Therefore when I uses robo adviser I tend to go medium risk vs being conservative.

Hope this helps!

My take is that there is no hard and fast rule as each investors' threshold for losses and risk taking ability is different.

I would look at my situation and assess a few things

1. Liabilities

2. Stability of job

3. Threshold for taking losses

if you have high amount of liabilities and a job that isnt as stable, my first 10-20k would go into income producing products. Any cash that you hold needs to be stored in a high interest account so they are not left lying around when not deployed.

i.e. OCBC 360, UOB One account or Stan Chart Bonus Saver. Subtle differences in how much you earn and what criteria to be met. That should give you your 2-3% interest on cash up to around 70k in each account.

I personally would maximise these before heading for SGS bonds etc because SGS bonds give a max of 2.5% ish on 10 years and there are different tiering for each year. Only good if u have more than 250k and you maximised the 3 above accounts.

Now, then we move on to what gives better dividends. REITS/ Blue Chip stocks. in my opinion, stocks are alot more complicated than commonly understood. You need to know what the expectations for the company are in the market (i.e. what is priced into the stock) and also understand where the future of the company lies. SWOT analysis etc. So, I generally would not recommend it for regular on the street dude. Individual stock names should make up a smaller proportion of your portfolio.

If you are happy to have the higher risk, higher reward investment into stocks, then opt for ETFs. they have the lowest management fees and they cover a large number of stocks, which means you get the automatic diversification. (I dont like mutual funds and unit trusts because of the high costs involved which is only explained in the super fine prints) and active investing hasnt been proven to be that effective. So you need to do alot of digging into the right fund managers etc.

From my experience, markets is all about timing, timing, timing. So if you invest in one shot, you could put yourself in a scenario of make it or break it. If you think you are technically apt and very good with catching troughs and peaks, go for it. Otherwise, I would recommend monthly investment over 24 months. The rationale is that cycles can play out over 5 years ish (depends what you read). So you are trying to minimise the risk of buying high and selling low. and mathematically, the monthly average works out in your favour. Investing is always about the long term, so try not to look for that 3 month return or even shorter. Thats speculating. (speculating is also one strategy but only when you have loads of excess lying around)

Allow for mistakes. And after you have made one, look back and analyse what you could do better. I am still refining how i allocate my resources and what I want to achieve. and it has been 10 years since I started.

Good luck and have fun!

First 10 to 20k would be my Emergency fund. (Future proof myself) then monthly put money in a robo invest or investment team. Pay that little commission to ensure that someone is monitoring your investments. esp if you are new to it