Is 70% SPDR STI ETF and 30% Nikko am Corporate bond ETF considered a safe and stable investment for a beginner?

Whether you are a beginner or not in investing, had not much bearing whether certain instruments is safe and stable. It really depends on your risk appetite & how the products you choose perform thus far.

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Equities in general as an asset class is generally more risky than bonds, which is why most who commented suggest your 70/30 asset allocation might need some reviewing. But what product(s) used to constitute this 70% equity exposure can vary. One need to bear in mind that individual stock picking tend to be more risky than equity ETF. Hence, there's a substantial difference in using individual stocks versus using an etf equity fund to represent your equity exposure under asset allocation

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The fact you choose to use etf over individual stocks, to some extent mitigated the risk of individual stock picking. So whats left is to choose which ETF index to follow

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If you look at the last 5 years, STI ETF have been meandering at circa $3 level, not much downside/upside. The net effect is bascially buying into a long-term bond, not much capital appreciation, only collecting 3-5% dividend income. I would say 70% of STI ETF, is less volatile than 70% in some mid/high risk bonds allocation. if you factor in your CPF as a bond component in oyur overall portfolio, that equity representation would also go down

There are some other ETFs that offer yield between 2% to 5% on SGX, including REITs and Fixed Income ETFs. You can check it out here: https://api2.sgx.com/sites/default/files/2019-0...