A couple of weeks ago, I made a Facebook post which garnered some attention, possibly because it struck a chord with some of my friends, including those with whom I do not usually interact with (received a number of PMs).
I reproduce it in it’s full shameless glory below.
“In an unusual departure from my usual shitposting, investment advice from me, a non-financial adviser:
1. Buy a global index fund like the MSCI World Index, which gives you exposure and diversification to 1,600 global companies (including Tesla) without putting all your eggs in 1 basket.
2. Hedge against USD with the Straits Times Index if you will likely retire in Singapore.
3. Buy the Singapore Bond Index fund to cushion cyclical market downturns.
4. Buy some Bitcoin with a little spare cash (don’t go overboard). Don’t touch it for the next 20 years.
5. Don’t buy investment-linked policies (get term coverage). Surrender all ILPs once you break even, and pump into #1 – #3.
6. Never have more than 6 months of expenses rotting in your bank accounts earning 0.05%.
7. Don’t buy a car unless you have legitimate reasons (e.g. have young children or elderly parents to ferry around on a regular basis).
8. Pump your CPF SA with your OA (leave enough for mortgage payments, perhaps $10,000 at any time in OA, if you haven’t finished paying your property). Top up $7,000 in January every year for tax rebates ($7,000 at 5% growth is almost $20,000 in 20 years). Max out to FRS ASAP, so the interest covers the yearly increase in FRS ceiling. CPF LIFE is an annuity that gives you money FOR LIFE from 65 (assuming you are not already dead). #returnourCPF movement is for bitter/unwoke people who would rather bitch than research.
#1 – #3 is just a simple Bogleheads fund tweaked to have a Singaporean ‘flavour’ to it (with the STI and Singapore Bonds). Nothing special. Other woke Singaporeans are doing it. Investment communities discuss this strategy, but yes, it is boring and ‘uncool’ AF. The process is methodical, passive and unexciting.
Why I’m right: over the years, aside from my day job, this has made me more consistent returns than Forex trading, Internet Marketing/arbitrage, ‘investing’ in a brick-and-mortar business, ILPs bought a decade ago when I wasn’t woke, and other random bullshit. Don’t get me wrong, I love my financial advisor. Needs change and people get educated over time. 90% of my friends have too much pride to take this advice. They’d rather stock-pick and gamble on the next big ‘growth stock’. There are people who play Russian roulette with 90% of money in cryptocurrencies.
1 of 2 things will happen:
1. They will become rich because they are lucky.
2. They will be poor.
In any case, I meet to hang out with these people, advise them once or twice and then I shut up. Nowadays, I just sip my beer and smile without speaking much, while they repeat their endless cycles of euphoria and disappointment, letting the stock market scalp them bit by bit and waste away their working years.
If #1 – #3 sounds complicated (it is not), then just sign up for a broker account and buy the S&P500 manually on a monthly basis.
If that still sounds like too much work, and you don’t want your money to rot, just sign up for a robo-adviser like Stashaway (this is what I advised my wife to do because she hates numbers).
Disclaimer: I am not a financial adviser. Above are based on biased personal experiences, and is for infotainment purposes only.”
