STI ETF

Https://www.ocbc.com/personal-banking/investments/blue-chip-investment-plan At the bottom of the page, it states the fees for transfer of the securities/stocks to CDP or other financial institutions. https://www.ocbc.com/iwov-resources/sg/ocbc/personal/pdf/investments/bcip-faqs.pdf Have to go to an OCBC branch to complete the transfer form.

No, custodian accounts are really safe and saves you money. I would not reccomend it

You have mentioned quite alot of negative aspects of STI ETF. Won't it be quite ironic if you are gotta allocate capital into it? Maintain your objectivity. Do not make your decision to invest because it is a popular fund in Singapore or your friends and relatives have invested in it etc. Have a systematic approach to decide what is good and not good in your opinion. I wrote something similar at https://seedly.sg/questions/can-review-my-portfolio-1-iwda-10-000-invested-beginning-of-this-year-2020-dca-monthly-1-500-2-sti-etf-18-000-invested-since-2018-having-a-loss-3-unit-trust-10-000-value-11-000-any-suggestions . Hope it helps.

You are right, accumulating is the better, hassle free and cost effective choice. the wished for flexibility can also be has with investing new money into the portfolio. For your situation MSCI World, MSCI ACWI, S&P 500 and a bit of MCHI could be considered being aware that stock investing is always risky, total losses possible. what to avoid, I have written up here: https://seedly.sg/questions/what-is-your-general-investing-philosophy-strategy

I would do a regular savings plan and place it in the S&P500, put into Singlife which gives you up to 2.5% per annum, or put it in a roboadvisor where you can set it and forget it.

Hi, It really depends on what you plan to do with your investments? Are u looking for dividends consistently? Or are you looking for capital gains? For dividends, I would say that the STI ETF pays are much better yield than the S&P 500. However, in terms of capital gains it is really far off the S&P 500. It wouldn't be fair to compare the two anyway because both countries have different economies. I would probably hold both and proportion according to what your goals are. Have tried several Brokers from TD Ameritrade, Interactive Brokers, Tiger Brokers and even our local banks like DBS Vickers. If you are looking to buy SG stocks, not many Brokers offer that right now. I'm using Tiger Brokers for that right now because of low commissions. That being said this is a custodian account as compared to a CDP account like DBS Vickers. Some people would rather pay higher commissions for that ease of mind in a CDP account. It depends on your risk appetite. I personally split my account across a few brokers If you are a beginner, i would strongly recommend using a robo-advisor as well. Something like stashaway. It takes the guesswork out for yourself. $500 a month would be difficult to purchase on a normal broker unless u buy fractional shares which not everybody offers. Should you decide to go ahead with a regular broker i would say alternate and dollar cost average your different investments across the months. E.g Month 1: S&P500, Month 2: STI You also don't get taxed on capital gains for US stocks with the exception of dividend payouts. So i would not worry about that unless you're using the S&P500 for dividends Hope that helps!

Nah, low returns. USD has good stability with SGD over many decades so I feel is safe compared to other EM.

Wouldnt recommend buying into STI since low returns.

Yes cancel completely investing into STI, invest periodically into MSCI World ETF with best broker currently TD Ameritrade Singapore branch (= zero fees & reliable)

Many alternatives but only few 'relatively' safe ones. minimizing trading / account maintenance costs & properly diversified asset allocation via passive ETF stock indexing & Buy + Hold for ultra-longterm are the simple but not easy steps to durable investing success. on the alternatives but more on, what to avoid surely, You could read here: https://seedly.sg/questions/what-is-your-general-investing-philosophy-strategy