Is it a good time to invest our CPF now that the market is down?

This was actually a question we got on social media, and I wanted to post it here for all the share, sorry for any confusion!!

If you are already looking at investing your CPF monies, and are just looking for an "excuse" to go in cheap, then now may be a good time to go in. But please make sure that this is a long term investment commitment.

STI is cheaper in terms of fund expense, but for long term investing you may want to be globally diversified. I made a reply here on local versus global:

https://seedly.sg/questions/is-the-investment-s... ​​​

Hi Shengshi,

Good question. No crystal ball can tell the future, so if you have always been intending to invest, now is as good a time as any, especially if you have not started a single thing.

Pay attention to:

• Your portfolio allocation - 35% max on your CPF OA monies for equities, and you'll have to do other asset classes for the remaining money

• Your entry prices - If you are doing stocks, be aware of transactional fees, don't enter with too little an amount. Look for companies which you think will outlast the crisis, or have a monopoly on the market, and find their support levels (requires a bit of TA) to determine a good entry price for you

• Your time horizon - Anything needed in the next 3-5 years should not be invested, anything goes for the rest of the money

• Your strategy - Dollar Cost Averaging may work well in this uncertain climate, but again, be aware of bank fees

• Your opportunity cost - If you don't feel confident beating 2.5% handily, it is best to stay out of investing OA monies

STI has always been not very appealing to me. There are better ETFs out there, and even Singapore focused equity UTs handily beat the STI.