I'm graduating from university in 1 year's time. I currently have around $50k and I'm not sure what to do with it. Should I invest in stocks? And should I be considering insurance at this stage?

Question

Elsa Goh · Accepted Answer

Just a suggestion on allocation. You can adjust according to your comfort levels.

1. Keep 30k in a bank account with a good base interest rate and tell yourself not to touch it. With the rising SIBOR i recommend citibank maxigain. These will be your emergency funds. After a while, see if a multiplier account may work better as you develop your spending habits. But the risk of keeping it all in one account is that you will feel more tempted to spend it.

2. Put $10k in singapore savings bonds. Don't look at them for 10 years. No monitoring needed.

3. Remaining $10k use for riskier investments. For this again it really depends on your risk profile. Check out the various seedly articles and always always remember every investment carries some risk. It is whether it is high or low only.

Yixiong Chang · Answer

Just keep the cash in liquid higher interest bank account. You will probably need to use some when u graduated. Either for further studies or maybe grad trip =D. Do not start to invest until you have learned at least the basics, and know what u are getting into.

It is worthwhile to get protected with insurance now (not ILP, not endowment, not wholelife). Go with the plain vanila term insurance, which offers highest protection per dollar. Avoid the agent channel and go direct insurance, you will be able to save alot.

Add me on facebook so that I can give u more pointers.

Dwivid Sharma · Answer

Hi there,

I would love to help you guide regarding your investment. I agree with  Elsa Goh. It was a good suggestion that divided all the money into 3 segments. Highly secure money with low return, the moderate risk with government bond and moderate returns and High risk and high return.

Here I would like to suggest you keep 30K in the bank just for security money. If you need it in an emergency.

And now, first hire 1-2 financial experts who have good knowledge of stocks, forex and commodity investment. Ask them to suggest you for investment. Lots of people are making good money with experts advice. you can also do low capital investment on their advice and test their expertise and make good money too.

But don't get greedy with profit. Always trade with the capital that you can afford to lose.

Loh Tat Tian · Answer

For safe options in investing, I think many have mentioned those that is very liquid and safe (like SSB, citi maxgain savings account) that is highly likely to be good safe havens.

For insurance always remember to consider the following:

1) Medical (very important to anyone)

2) Critical Illness (to help you in recovery from illness for Income/Premium drugs etc)

3) Life/TPD insurance (for your dependents like parents in the future, or kids who will depend on you). My generic advice is to get $1million term till 65 (especially if you can afford it), because it can serve a few functions. Also, you can take your time to think through till age 29/30 as insurance premium increase drastically after age 30 in many cases

(a) The HPS component for your BTO/HDB

(b) The coverage for children education required

(c) Parents allowance (especially if you belong to the sandwich generation)

4) Disability income. It makes more sense for high income earners since disablity insurance only compensates the amount you could have earned before the disability (an office job could pay you about $2,500 nowadays soo....)

5) Accident policy. (could be a add-on to the insurance to Life due to accidents)

https://blog.seedly.sg/working-adults-what-are-the-key-insurance-policies-you-should-get-in-singapore/

Ch Leo · Answer

First thing to do is to educate yourself on investing. Understand the type of investment vehicles that are available and their associated benefits and risks. Work out which one you are most comfortable with and a investment strategy. Investing is a habit. This will go a long way for yourself

Nicholes Wong · Answer

If not much knowledge, go do your research first through google. There are a lot of free information online. We cant give you a definite answer because there are a lot of ways to invest like robo advisor, etf or doing it yourself(DIY). Anyway you havent graduate, so just use this 1 year to learn about investing. Then once you start work and have stable income then invest, dont rush it. Remember to keep an emergency fund of at least 6 months expenses which can be more if you want. Insurance is very important and you should definitely look into it. Hospitalisation insurance is the first insurance that you definitely need to get before even thinking about other insurance in my opinion.

Ayodele Henry · Answer

Hmmm

I'm graduating from university in 1 year's time. I currently have around $50k and I'm not sure what to do with it. Should I invest in stocks? And should I be considering insurance at this stage?

Answers (8)