OCBC Frank allows $100 investment a month for bluechip through them but there is a monthly fee of $5 . If i invest $100/month, I will make a lost by the end of the year. Is this common? Should I put in more going forward if not what should I do?

Question

Daryl Liao, Fti · Accepted Answer

It doesnt make numbers sense to do it. 5% loss every month.

Why not save up and do a Dollar cost average every quarter or half yearly?

Nicholes Wong · Answer

If you want to invest in the STI ETF of $100 a month, it might be better to use POSB Invest Saver or Maybank Kim Eng monthly investment plan.

[https://blog.seedly.sg/which-regular-savings-plan-is-the-cheapest/](https://blog.seedly.sg/which-regular-savings-plan-is-the-cheapest/)

Tan Wei Ming · Answer

OCBC Monthly Investment plan is too expensive for someone who wants to invest $100 a month.

$5 out of $100 is alr 5% cost. That's too expensive!

Besides POSB InvestSaver, the other monthly investment plan that I will recommend is Maybank Kim Eng monthly investment plan. Do take a look!

Brian · Answer

Hi Anon,

Just a quick update! Maybank's Kim Eng Monthly Investment has already discontinued their services leaving DBS, Philips and OCBC as the only traditional choices!

I am on the same side as the others who have contributed, as your current investment amount seems low and expenses will hurt your monthly investments. You can consider snowballing your monthly savings (although it might defeat the purpose and I'm not sure if it is a practical method to do so), by contributing a larger amount each month or decreasing your frequency of savings. However, with the rise of alternative investment platforms, you might want to consider these alternatives for now if you decide to proceed with a $100 RSP!

Robo-advisor platforms can give you access to (globally) diversified portfolios depending on the choice of robo-advisor platforms. They usually charge a management fee (except for https://solutions.kristal.ai/seedlypost) and some might have restrictions on the minimum investment amount, so definitely do take note of that!

I think Seedly came up with a new updated article as well, hence you should check it out! (https://blog.seedly.sg/singapore-platforms-to-invest-fixed-monthly-savings)

All the best in your investment journey!

Bjorn Ng · Answer

Before you even invest, you are already losing 5%/month. By the end of 1 year, you would have lost 60/1000 = 6% nett, which is not feasible considering that STI ETF gives about 3% pa and REITs (the safer ones per say) gives about 4-5% pa. You are literally losing $ every single year.

2 options, is of course to invest more every month, or you can take a look at POSB InvestSaver. If I am not wrong, the sales fee is only 0.82% for POSB. That is way more feasible even at $100/month investment. You can read more about it here: [https://www.posb.com.sg/personal/investments/other-investments/invest-saver](https://www.posb.com.sg/personal/investments/other-investments/invest-saver)

Choon Yuan Chan · Answer

You are already losing 5% due to commission. I would strongly recommend that you put in more loving forward to reduce the effect of the commission

Wilson Nid A Break · Answer

If you can only afford $100/month, then might as well avoid this scheme. Just because a scheme is out there, doesnt mean you had to utilize it

Pang Zhe Liang · Answer

You will need to calculate the actual opportunity cost associated with the charges as compared to the capital invested.

Thereafter, study your instrument to find out the projected and expected rate of return. Then deduct it off the fee to find out the net return.

Now, evaluate if the fee makes sense. If not, time to move on to a better investing vehicle.

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Rais M · Answer

There are several such monthly investment plans in Singapore. Let's talk about the 2 major ones with DBS/POSB and OCBC.

POSB Invest Saver charges a fee of 1% (0.82% promo now) for investing with them. At $100 per month, we are looking at $1 or $0.82.

OCBC BCIP charges the minimum of 0.3% of the investment amount or $5. By investing $100 per month, it would trigger the minimum of $5 fees. However, if you were to invest $500 per month, it would be the same as POSB Invest Saver. And if you were to invest anything more than $500, OCBC will be the better option.

MT2020 · Answer

Its either you invest more to lower your monthly fee, or you can change to a different bank such as posb.

Geraldo L. · Answer

It's good that you recognize that the high costs are eating into your returns and personally I feel that 5% is way too high. In your case, i would consider switching over to FSMOne or POSB investsaver to save on the costs. Every bit counts!

Yen Peng · Answer

Was just reading up on this topic and found a useful comparison article by one from our Seedly Community: [https://blog.seedly.sg/which-regular-savings-plan-is-the-cheapest/](https://blog.seedly.sg/which-regular-savings-plan-is-the-cheapest/)

Hope this helps! :)

Frankie Rappaport · Answer

-investing into single stocks is not a good choice for a retail investor (like me),

when even 'expert' active stock mutal fund managers over longterm mostly are evidenced to underperform by severals studies

-5/100 = 5% will be a super investment for OCBC, but if kept at that level a detrimental for the customer (at least that works like a mutual fund's inception fee, and 5% is ultra-high comparably)

-given the above: reconsider Your OCBC choice. Just as an example, You could, still with a certain stock market risk andwith much much lower fees self-invest into passive indexing stock ETFs using a cheap SG online broker (POEMS or FSMone qualify),

a reasonable start could be SP500 Index ETFs like VOO or IVV, or a global ETF like VT.

You need however generally a time horizon of at least 5 and better 10 years to see your success, because some crahes will come (then go), and the only credible thing is long-term performance

Joel Lim Cy · Answer

You could do this on your own. Paying them 5% every month diminishes a significant portion of your profits already. I would just stop it entirely.

Tinexxxx · Answer

IMO, it’s not worth it!!

$5/$100 = 5%... losing 5% each month, you can put that money in better places such as stocks or robo-advisors!

Or you can increase your capital to reduce the $5 fee!

Katrina Ch'ng · Answer

If you are below 30 years old is only, it's only Flat rate of 0.88% of the total investment amount. From my analysis & calculation, Below 30 years, best to use BCIP with monthly investment less than 500, if more better opt for a higher lump sum and invest directly with a brokerage account. If you are 30 years and above, with the fee of 0.3% of the total investment amount or S$5 per counter, whichever is higher, monthly investment of 1200 to make the $5 fee worth but if is anywhere above 3k then use brokerage account (suggested DBS Vicker Cash Upfront which is only $10 and direct CDP.

JeffreyLeeZQ · Answer

Wah. 5% trading fee is too expensive man. It is not common.

Seedly actually wrote an article before, comparing between the various regular savings plans: [https://blog.seedly.sg/which-regular-savings-plan-is-the-cheapest/](https://blog.seedly.sg/which-regular-savings-plan-is-the-cheapest/)

Do check it out!

Cheers.

**- Jeffrey (**[**jeffreyleezq.com**](https://jeffreyleezq.com/)**)**

Adriel Thin · Answer

5% transaction fee is way too high. And definitely not common. There are other monthly investment plans out there (e.g. POSB investsaver, POEMS), which charge transaction fees of less than 1%.

If you can only afford $100/month, how about going for a robo-advisor instead? They offer instant diversification and charge a much lower fee, both of which contribute to much better long-term returns.