I'm 20, with a savings of 15k. I want to start investing but I am not sure how. Any advice?

Hi, for savings, I would recommend putting $10k in Singlife account which offers 2.5% per annum for the first $10k.

I read the you are planning to do your degree next year. You have to ask yourself whether are you going to pay your school fees by yourself? There's always a saying that one shouldn't invest with your monies that you need to in the short term.

I am not trying to say that you should not invest but you should invest the amount that you WILL NOT use for the next few years that are meant for studies.

So for the salary you gonna get for the next one year before starting on university, you should focus more on building up your savings to prepare for any expenses from university. The remaining can be meant for investments.

For beginners, I wouldn't suggest stock picking because there's a lot to look into when investing in individual companies. I would recommend going for the passive investing strategy through robo-advisors or ETF RSP by FSMOne. In the meanwhile, you can start reading books or blog articles that analyse a company to learn how to stock pick.

Hi Anon,

I am 24 right now and am graduating next year, so I believe we are 'peers' in some sense. I totally understand that you are overwhelmed by the tons of options available out there, and everyone tells you different things due to their personal interest/ experience/ knowledge. I would like to share with you what I would do once I graduate next year for your reference.

Out of the $15k (I am assuming that's everything you have), save $3-5k in a high yield savings account as your emergency fund just in case something bad happen (you lose your job, an urgent medical situation, etc). You can save the $3-5k in Singlife account which generate you 2.5% p.a. I would've suggested SCB Jumpstart too like you mentioned but they just dropped their interest to 1% so Singlife is the best one at the moment (though no guarantee they wont drop their rate too)

Once you have your emergency fund setup, now it's time to start investing! We are still young, so our goal now is to grow our capital as fast as possible and as aggresive as possible (but hey I am not asking you to gamble). We have at least 3 decades to grow our wealth, so invest in something that can generate us higher return (though riskier) instead of the safer ones such as fixed deposit and bonds. So aim higher! Below are the options you can explore, pick 1, or even do both:

1. Regular Savings Plan, if you do not have sufficient knowledge and confidence to start picking individual stocks yet, start with RSP, it will not go wrong. Options available now are POSB, OCBC, Phillip Capital and FSMOne. I'd suggest go with FSMOne RSP as they have the lowest fee ($1) and provide the most options (even international ETFs). You can DCA a couple hundreds into each ETF every month, such as iShares Core S&P 500 ETF, iShares FTSE A50 China Index ETF, Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF, Fidelity® MSCI Information Tech ETF (note: these are my choice, you can choose other ETFs that you personally like on the platform)

2. Robo-advisors. They are pretty solid option as well, you just have to answer some questions and they will provide you with a customized portfolio that cater to your goals and risk level you are comfortable with. If you want to maximize growth (comes with higher risk), choose a portfolio that has the highest risk-reward. You can invest a lump sum or just DCA every month. Some options are StashAway, Syfe, Endowus, Digiportfolio, Kristal, etc. Personally, I would go for StashAway for general investment and Syfe for their newly launched REIT portfolio.

Both of the options above are pretty 'passive' as it requires minimal effort on your end, so you can focus on your work and maximize your earnings as much as possible (learn some new skills, impress your boss, get your promotion, and invest more!). In the meantime, start learning about investing and stock picking. There are many courses and investing books to get you started. Once you have equipped yourself with sufficient knowledge, you can start to invest in stocks with high growth potential (instead of dividend stocks). This will further accelerate your FIRE (financial independence, retire early) journey. Of course, if you think stock picking is time consuming and you have no interest to do this at all, you can definitely stick to option 1 and 2. If you start to invest consistently at the age of 20, you can live a very comfortable life when you are around 50 years old (instead of 65 :D)

Hope it helps, cheers!

I'm really happy for you.

You are probably one of the few 20 year olds to think of the future. good on you!

I was just like you with SGD15,000 savings and I had no one to ask. But you are really lucky to have so many online references.

There are 3 Simple Ways you should start with your SGD 15,000:

1. Read books

I know young people don't read these days and I didn't like to read too. But if there is any books you have to read, it has to be these 3 books that go me started on my investment journey. This is really no choice but to start these 3 first.

2. Open a Brokerage Account

If you read these books, you have to decide what accounts to open. I have document my journey on the different accounts I used over these 12 years. You can use them for reference.

3. Profits are made when you BUY not when you SELL

I would not encourage you to sell but to hold long time, at least 20 years but here is a screenshot of my current portfolio. Hope it helps.

Invest well!

If you would be a full-time student, are supported by family and do not have debt accruing interest, I would suggest dumping it into your CPF SA for the very low risk bonus interest of 1% for your first minimum 40k in SA.

Current regulation is that you can withdraw any amount at age 55 above BRS. Of course, the BRS will increase according to CPI inflation. The political situation can change in 35 years, hopefully you would be well positioned in your career to emigrate before those leaving Singapore permanently cannot retrieve their CPF in full, if you really see that there is no way out.

Insurance is a big bogeyman people throw. As a socialist, I believe if everyone were to agitate for adequate single-payer healthcare and put everything under the government, we would enjoy better coverage at lower cost without having premiums thrown away for profit seekers. If you only take bus and MRT and stay at home during the pandemic, you don't have to cover so much immediately.

I'm personally happy to take advantage of lower premiums after the critical illness changes in August, but women might be worried about no payouts for Stage 0 breast cancer which becomes real cancer 20-30% of the time. For Integrated Shield Plan, Raffles Health seems interesting as by definition a newer plan gets to ignore those who take maximum advantage. But look at other insurance advice.