I am a fresh graduate (Free from debt) started my full time job. I wanted to start investing to have side income instead of using my time to trade for money(part time tuition) can you please advise me how do I start investing?

Question

I heard from my friends, methods such as insurance saving plans, unit trust, SG bonds, ETF, autowealth roboadvisor, stashaway etc. I am planning to set aside $200 per month but I am not sure where to start for a beginner like me.  Thank you!

Cynthia Jasmin · Accepted Answer

Hi there,

Start investing in such young age is an amazing idea!

Kristal.AI is another robo-advisor you can add to your list.

There is no fees for your first $50,000 investment which makes Kristal.AI a great start for you, there are no hidden fees or catches. On top of that, you can use free algorithm feature to get investment advice on asset allocation, and to have a portfolio which fits your profile and suits your needs. This feature will come in handy especially for beginner.

Here's the link to Kristal.AI reviews [++https://seedly.sg/reviews/robo-advisors/kristal-ai++](https://seedly.sg/reviews/robo-advisors/kristal-ai)

Hope this helps,

Cynthia

Nicholes Wong · Answer

If you invest $200 per month, then maybe POSB invest saver might be good for you. From there you should get Nikko AM STI ETF. Just my opinion based on $200 per month. But if you really want to invest on more stuffs, best is do self research first since nowadays informations are all around the internet.

Gabriel · Answer

Hey, as ShinChan has shared, you can start off by setting up a Regular Savings Plan with POSB investsaver to invest in the Nikko AM STI ETF. Alternatively, you can consider using robo-advisor to diversify your portfolio outside of the Singapore market. Stashaway is a good choice to do so! SG Bonds offers higher interest rates than savings account and is liquid too. While insurance savings plans (endowment) locks in your money and if you choose to surrender the plan/withdraw the funds, you might lose to interest that you could potentially earn.

Eric Chia · Answer

Your friends gave very good methods - a range of tools from insurance savings to stashaway robo advisors. With $200/month, you can cover at least 2 of the tools listed.

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To start investing, consider the following:

**1) What's your risk appetite?**

- Do you believe that to gain some side income, you need to take some risk? How much risk would you be able to take?

- Do you need liquidity? The $200/month is extra money or you may need the money 1year, 5 years, or more than 10years down the road?

- Do you already have emergency funds set up?

- Does your family rely on you for the bills?

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**2) How much would you like to be in control of your investment?**

- Do you want to drive the investment manually? i.e. spend the weekends reading up on companies, learning investments and analysing when to buy and sell

- Do you prefer driving the investment on semi-auto mode? i.e. let the experts handle the money, sit back and check in once in a while (the frequency of check matters - savings insurance only need to check once a year; unit trust about half a year once; robo advisers is as and when needed, about once a month

- Do you prefer to work with someone or be in control of your investments?

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Get started and keep yourself invested!

Jonathan Chia Guangrong · Answer

Mm for a complete beginner to investing with a small monthly budget, stashaway will be a good start. You will set up your risk profile when you create your account (which I believe can be adjusted later once you are more experienced), and can start with the $200 you intend to set aside every month. They offer free workshops as well which anyone can join in; I've been to a couple of these even though I did not fund my account and the information presented was great. I'd say forget about using unit trusts or retail insurance products for investing. It won't amount to much eventually, or rather it gets very expensive to be able to hit a target of say $1 million using these said tools

Jason Sing · Answer

Do your homework first. Understand your risk profile and choose the instruments that suit your profile.

HC Tang · Answer

Profile: No debts fresh grad just started full time job.

Target: Side income

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Can read this by Seedly for a start:

https://blog.seedly.sg/beginner-series-tips-seedly-money-framework/

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With full time job, start budget and finanicial planning. Get basic protection (insurance first, then the $200 can either start somewhere as advice in the links above)

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On the other hand, don't give up on Tuition as side income as it is your side gig supporting your main job. This side gig gives u the $ to save for war chest for investment and use some for holiday and others and even if one day you're changing or in between job, you'll always have this side gig as income. Safety net!

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Meanwhile, read all the investment product reviews and choose what's fit you most.

Next, save about 1k+ and read review at: https://seedly.sg/reviews/investment-courses to attend investment courses and start taking things into own hands while continue doing full time job and side gig tutition.

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This will allow you to achive whatever your financial purposes / dreams or FIRE early.

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Luke Ho · Answer

Don't touch the STI.

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I've seen many people invest out of convenience alone, like in the STI where they've given up their monthly payment plans halfway when they don't get or understand the results they're getting. It's a phenomena developing recently, which I've written over here: [++https://www.moneymaverickofficial.com/posts/sti-etf-not-good-beginners++](https://www.moneymaverickofficial.com/)

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Before you start investing, you have to consider your objectives.

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Many people don't plan, and become resentful later as a result. If their investments are liquid, they'll have many excuses to take them out. Their returns and their capital becomes abysmal over time, instead of high.

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For first timers, I'd love to take you through a good mix with dividends - so you can see how profits are generated from actual companies you're invested in, and be motivated by the balanced growth before deciding what kind of investment result you want to aim for in line with you objectives.

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Do drop me a PM and we can always talk about how I can help you. As an investment specialist, I made 32.7% last year. [++https://www.facebook.com/luke.ho.54++](https://www.facebook.com/luke.ho.54)

Yong Kah Hwee · Answer

You can look can singapore savings bond, POSB regular savings plan, and robo-advisors!

Jeff Yeo · Answer

Based on 200 a month consider

- SSB
- ETF

please take time to study And become more savvy

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on a longer term you might want to accumulate more capital before going into the stock market building a dividen portfolio or do active trading.

Wong Ming Yao · Answer

Debt-Free fresh grad, a head start compared to most of the students!

As a starter, you have to get a few things settled before investing:

1) get yourself covered - Health, critical illness, accident plans

2) set aside emergency funds to for rainy days (at least half a year of salary)

3) pay yourself first to save as much as you can - use some of the money to invest in your knowledge first. Just like driving, you can't drive without a license. Get yourself educated by reading investing books like One Up Wall Street, 5 rules of successful stocks investing. Watch online investing videos.

MT2020 · Answer

It depends on your risk appetite. As you are a fresh graduate, you have a higher risk tolerance, which means I would recommend you to start with robo advisor which invest in global etfs. Meanwhile, you can read up on books on investing before slowly investing in individual equities.

Geraldo L. · Answer

Most important thing when you start investing is to understand what kind of investor are you. For a start, you can read up and do more research on Robo-advisors if you prefer someone else to manage your investments for you, or Index investing/RSPs if you would like a more hands-on DIY approach.

Andy Sim · Answer

READ READ READ! Get familiar with all these different instruments you listed, understand your risk profile and personality then choose and investment method. I.e. low cost passive investing? trading? value, growth, dividend investing?

You may want to budget to go for an investment course to fast track your learning. You can consider Dr Wealth courses or take free ones from SGX.

Ow Jie Liang · Answer

Read up, watch videos, look at articles, find friends with similar interests and you can discuss together. It is more fun to have friends who are also into investing.

Not everything is fun and games though. Warren Buffett gave advice by saying that he used to read a lot of Companies' Annual Reports. It is not difficult but not everyone is going to do it and stick to it.

Investing should be treated as a marathon and not a sprint. I am also relatively new to investing and this was how I started. I wish you all the best!

Ninja · Answer

Investing is zero effort and is not spend on using time to trade for money. It should be money giving you back time.

j · Answer

1. Read up! - Have a brief understanding of how these instruments/ platforms work, and what generates the profit behind them.

2. Understand what you are looking for - What's your risk profile, how much you are going to put in & how frequent are you monitoring/ contributing more? Understand you investing philosophy and which mediums suit you the best.

3. And talk to those who has experience in investing - often there's an emotional portion to the market, so have a chat with those who may have stumbled previously to understand what to take caution of and not make similar trips. Or better, ask them about their sucess stories and how you can follow their examples.