Personal finance involves managing your Income, Spending, Insurance, Savings and Investments.
If you are reading this now, you are probably looking to invest to grow your money.
With core inflation rate at 1.9% in Singapore on average, investing sounds more attractive than the meagre 0.05% interest earned in your savings account.
Are You Ready to Invest?
You are if you check all these points!
- Have paid off high interest debt
- Have enough insurance coverage
- Have spare cash (i.e after accounting for 6 months of savings funds)
- Have an investing horizon of 5 years or more
- Possess investing knowledge
- Ready to do your own due diligence
You may have stumbled upon some financial blogs online.
Or you may have read some of Seedly’s blog posts and feel inspired to start investing.
Regardless of how promising a certain investment may sound…
Always, ALWAYS do your own due diligence.
But if you’re ready for that, you are also ready to invest and get returns higher than the inflation rate (and even more)!
And you shouldn’t procrastinate and put off investing for another time (which may never come).
First Things First: How To Open A CDP Account & Choose A Brokerage?
Before we even talk about what to invest in.
You need a CDP and brokerage account for most of the investments that I’ll be talking about.
Learn what a CDP account is and how to open your own CDP account.
We’ll even help you to figure out which is the best online brokerage to use.
- CDP vs Custodian Account? Which Should I Use and Why?
- Ultimate Cheatsheet: Cheapest Stock Trading/ Brokerage House In Singapore
- Real User Reviews On Online Brokerage
What’s Covered In This Investment Guide?
Click on me to go to the relevant section!
Guide to Singapore Savings Bond
For: Low risk; Individuals who are risk-averse and want high liquidity.
If you want low risks but want to still beat inflation, Singapore Savings Bond is for you.
If you are curious and wanna know how the SSB rates are calculated, here’s something for you:
Guide to Exchange Traded Funds
For: Medium risk; Individuals who want to diversify at lower costs.
An Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) usually tracks an index or a pool of many companies.
Investing in an ETF gives you a small stake in many different companies and is more cost-effective than investing in 30 different companies individually.
- A Beginner’s Guide On How To Invest in ETFs in Singapore
- ETFs in Singapore (SGX): What Investors Should Know
- How To Choose The Right Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) To Invest In?
- STI ETF: A Simple Way To Invest In Singapore’s Top 30 Companies
- Best U.S. ETFs in 2020
- A Dummies Guide To Investing In Ireland-Domiciled S&P 500 ETFs
- Popular ETFs Listed in Hong Kong
Guide to Regular Savings Plan
For: Medium risk; Individuals who want to cultivate the habit of investing monthly.
A regular savings plan or regular shares savings plan (RSSP) is an investment plan that allows you to invest a small and fixed amount of money (as low as S$50) into a particular investment product on a monthly basis.
- Working Adults: Easiest Ways To Invest A Monthly Sum For Beginners
- Which Regular Shares Savings (RSS) Plan Is The Cheapest? DBS vs OCBC vs PhillipCapital
Guide to Robo Advisors
For: Medium risk; Individuals who want to cultivate the habit of investing monthly.
Robo advisors are digital platforms that provide investment services with little to no human supervision.
They will help to build and manage your investment portfolio based on your risk profile and investment goals in a low cost and passive manner.
- A Dummy’s Guide to Investing in Robo Advisors
- The Ultimate Robo Advisor Singapore Comparison Guide: StashAway VS AutoWealth VS Syfe VS GrabInvest and More
- Robo-Advisor vs Financial Advisor: Which Is Better?
Guide to Stocks Investing
For: High Risk; Individuals who are risk-seeking and want more than just to beat inflation.
Common Myth: “High Risk, High Returns”?
Truth: High Risks ≠ High Returns.
Higher risks can POTENTIALLY give you higher returns, but know that it is not always an equal sign. The potential for upside returns is also the potential for downside returns.
Be prepared that your capital can turn to zero if the company goes bust. But of course, if it goes well, your initial capital can also grow to a lot more.
What Are Stocks?
Stocks (also known as shares or equities) are a type of investment available on the stock market that gives you part ownership of a listed company.
To know about the various jargon used in the stock market, here’s a “What Is” compilation just for you.
On that page, you can know what the various terms such as “dividend yield”, “P/E ratio” and “market capitalisation” mean.
Different Categories of Investing
There are three main types of stocks: value stocks, growth stocks, and dividend stocks? What do they mean and which is suitable for you?
- Dividend Stocks vs Growth Stocks vs Value Stocks: Which Is the Best Investment Strategy for You?
- New to Investing? Here Are The Best Investing Strategies You Need to Learn Before Investing
Once you have learnt the basic terms of investing and the different categories of investors out there, you would want to look into the language of business, which is accounting.
You now need to know how to analyse financial statements to pick stocks.
How To Read Financial Statements
The first step to understanding a stock? Learning how to read their financial statements. Here is a walk-through of the 3 financial statements, simplified with explanations using a fictitious company, Seedly Chicken Rice!
Reading Company Annual Reports
A company’s annual report is like a student’s report card.
It has information about the company, such as its business profile, the management team, and its financial statements.
Investors need to know how to read an annual report to make informed decisions about the company they have part-ownership in.
How To Read Financial Ratios
The “What Is” compilation comes in handy for you here again to understand the various financial ratios.
- Profit Margin, Dividend Yield & ROE, ROA, ROIC
- P/B, P/E ratios & Quick Ratio, D/E Ratio, Interest Coverage Ratio
- Value Investing: 5 Things To Look Out For In A Company
Picking the Best Stocks
Now that you know the basics, let’s learn how to pick individual stocks for your portfolio.
The following guides will help you to pick the best stocks listed on the stock market:
- The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Picking Your First Stock
- Here’s How You Can Pick Great Stocks Just Like Warren Buffett
- Economic Moats Explained: What to Look out for When Investing in Companies
- Here’s How to Pick Strong Dividend Companies That Can Survive Recessions
- Want to Discover Great Stocks? Here Are 7 of the Best Free Stock Screeners to Try in 2020
For those who want to be introduced to some of the companies available in the Singapore stock market, you can start off with the Straits Times Index (STI).
The STI is home to 30 of the largest and most liquid companies in Singapore, such as CapitaLand, DBS, and Singapore Airlines.
Here’s an introduction to each of the index stocks in just 60 seconds!
We also have in-depth analyses and guides on non-STI and overseas stocks as well:
- iFAST Share Price Is Up 175% This Year: Is It Still Worth Investing in the Fintech Company?
- What 3 Investors Like About Amazon, Tencent, and Singapore-Listed Micro-Mechanics
- The Ultimate Singaporean Guide To Investing In FAANG Stocks (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google)
- Your Ultimate Guide to Investing in Facebook (FB) Stock
- A Singaporean Guide to Buying US Stocks With the Cheapest Brokerages
If you are thirsty for more investing knowledge, you can check out these 10 investing books!
Stock Ideas for 2021
Looking to add more stocks to your portfolio in 2021? Get some ideas from here:
- 8 Growth Sectors to Consider Investing in for 2021 and Beyond
- Investing in 2021: 9 Stocks to Consider Buying for the New Year
- Singapore Investment Bloggers Reveal Their Top Stock Picks for 2021
- 3 Strong Singapore Stocks to Consider Buying Right Now
- Stock Investment Ideas: Singapore-Listed Companies That Are Rated as a “Buy”
- 10 Singapore Blue-Chip Stocks Trading Near Their 52-Week Low Share Prices
Guide to Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)
For: High Risk; Individuals who are risk-seeking and want to receive good distribution yields.
REITs basically pool money from investors to invest in a portfolio of income-generating real estate assets.
Here’s everything you need to know about REITs and choosing the best ones:
- Working Adults: Guide to REITs Investing in Singapore
- Understanding REITs Better: What Makes Up a Typical REIT Structure?
- REIT Jargon 101: Commonly-Used Terms That REIT Investors Must Know
- Cheat Sheet: How to Pick the Best Singapore REITs to Invest In
- REIT ETFs: The Ultimate Singaporean Guide to Investing in ‘Em
- Seedly REITs Tool: A FREE One-Stop Resource to Help You Invest in REITs
We have analysed the 40-odd REITs in Singapore and have compiled them in the Seedly REITs tool.
Choose Your REITs from Seedly REITs Tool
As a REIT investor, on top of exploring the latest financial performance and prospects, we also have to look at a REIT’s latest valuation (price-to-book ratio and distribution yield).
That’s where the Seedly REITs tool can come in to help.
The Seedly REITs tool gives you easy access to important investor information like:
- Unit Price
- Market Capitalisation
- P/B Ratio
- Dividend Yield
The data is updated daily.
Do check out the tool for all your REITs needs!
Strengthening the Investor Mindset
Investing is all about the long-term.
You should be disciplined and stay the course during market volatility, which is a norm when it comes to investing.
If you need guidance to stay sane during market crashes, here are some recommended reads:
- COVID-19 Crash: 10 Don’ts of Stock Market Investing
- Practical Tips on Investing During the Stock Market Volatility
- Here’s How to Invest Well over the Long-Term (Includes Views from Warren Buffett)
- 3 Warren Buffett Quotes To Keep Us Sane During the Current Stock Market Crash
Guide to Alternative Investments: P2P Lending, Cryptocurrencies and Gold
Some of these investments can be very risky and may have high default rates such as P2P lending. So do bear that in mind before investing in them.
- P2P Lending Platforms Comparison
- A Quick Guide: Cryptocurrencies and Factors Affecting The Price
- Investing In Luxury Watches
- A Singaporean’s Guide: How To Invest In Gold
Have Burning Questions Surrounding Investments?
Why not check out the SeedlyCommunity and participate in the lively discussion about all thing money!
Disclaimer: The information provided by Seedly serves as an educational piece and is not intended to be personalised investment advice. Readers should always do their own due diligence and consider their financial goals before investing in any stock.
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