A review of DBS's Invest-Saver!

Hey all readers out there,

hope you guys have been staying safe out there! As Singapore enters the much awaited Phase 2 of our post-circuit breaker life, it is important for us to remember that Covid-19 is still out there, and to take the necessary precautions when heading out! Anyways, in today's post, I will be talking more about DBS's Invest-Saver plan that I used to start investing when I first started to take proper care of my personal finances.

DBS's Invest-Saver plan is a Regular Savings Plan(RSP) that allows you to invest a fixed sum monthly, into your choice of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) or Unit Trusts (UTs) (The list of ETFs and UTs available for the RSP is on DBS's website). It allows you to start with as little as $100 per month (which was what I started with!) and only charges a mere 0.5% - 0.82% of sales charge. This makes the plan really suitable for those who are interested to start investing, but do not really have the know-how yet, as this plan allows you to start with a relatively small amount, and does not require a CDP account, thus making it less complicated. It is important to note that you do have to be at 18 years of age to start this plan though.

The Invest-Saver could also be interesting for those of you looking for a way to practice some discipline in your savings. When I first started managing my own finances, this plan really helped me in building my savings as the money was automatically deducted from my bank account on the 15th of every month, and I wasn't able to use it even if I start running low on cash towards the end of month, and hence I learnt to work my spending around this constraint every month. 

Creating and using the Invest-Saver offered by DBS was a seamless experience for me. Starting the Invest-Saver was really easy, taking only a few clicks on DBS's website to set-up. Also, in case you're worried that you might lose track of your investments since you are investing on a monthly basis, DBS allows you to look up your investments on their website easily. Once you log-in, you are able to look up your average investment price, the last known indicative price of the fund and your unrealized profit/loss. This allows you to assess how your investments are doing anytime, anywhere conveniently, which I felt was a really neat feature from DBS. 

To my knowledge, there are other RSPs offered by the other banks out there as well. However, the costs they charge may defer and there are already websites out there that have done the comparisons, and hence I encourage you to do your own due diligence.

In all, the combination of a low-starting cost and low fees makes DBS's RSP Invest-Saver an excellent savings plan suitable for most youths out there who are looking to start their investing journey somewhere. However, I think it is important for the youths who are looking to start this plan to have a healthy amount of savings set aside before starting on this RSP, since after all this is a form of investment which ultimately carries a certain amount of risk. Hence, it wouldn't be the financially sound decision to put all of your eggs in this basket (or in any basket, to be fair).

Stay safe and healthy,

T

Finally picked this stock up!

Hi everyone,

It is finally phase 2!! We are one step nearer to full recovery hopefully. But this week, due to uncertainties regarding a second wave of coronavirus hitting the world, the markets saw a slight pull back. I took the opportunity to purchase a stock that I have placed in my watchlist for quite some time: Chip Eng Seng (SGX:C29) at 55 cents per share.

Chip Eng Seng Corporation Ltd (CES) is a construction and property group. Notably, CES was the main contractor for HDB's Pinnacle @ Duxton, the only public housing in the CBD area. Another notable one is perhaps Bishan Loft. In March 2020, they secured a $98.7m contract with HDB for building works at Tampines, lasting around 30 months. As Singapore start to ease the restrictions again, the construction industry will also be allowed to resume operations. Following so, housing needs and property development will start to gain traction as well. 

CES has been paying a solid 4 cents per share in dividends for the past 10 years. That translates to a dividend yield of 7.27% for me! From the annual report, CES takes pride in their ability to maintain the dividend payout. Financials wise, I do not foresee any significant cut in their dividends policy. The company's EPS is consistently more than 5 cents. 

My main motive of purchasing this stock is to enjoy the dividends payout. I particularly like the fact that they are paying a fairly modest payout ratio. Maintaining at 4 cents per share every year allows them to draw on previous years' retained earnings should they not perform well in the year. 

This stock has been on my watchlist for sometime and I am glad that I will be able to ride the recovery wave (hopefully) up with it. CES closed today at 56.5 cents.

O

Creating My Own US ETFs Portfolio

Hello everyone,

Hope everyone is adapting well to the post-circuit breaker life. Since circuit breaker, I have been looking at starting a portfolio that consist of a few US ETFs and to dollar-cost average into the portfolio either every month or every quarter (still thinking about it)...

I have finally selected the ETFs that I want included in my portfolio and have also invested in them. As much as possible, I try to allocate the amount equally. I will briefly share the 5 ETFs that I have selected. 

1. Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:VOO)

This ETF attempts to replicate the S&P 500 index. Similar to Singapore's Straits Times Index, buying one of this is akin to buying the US stock market. Hence, I decided to include this into my portfolio as I attempt to ride the recovery wave up post-pandemic.

2. Vanguard Health Care Index Fund (NYSE:VHT)

I believe healthcare sector would be greatly review as the world recover from the pandemic. Furthermore, healthcare is also an indispensable sector, hence similar to the XLP.  

3. Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR (NYSE:XLP)

Diversification using this ETF ensures that a certain portion of this portfolio can continue to perform in a recession as the make up of this ETF are mostly companies from the consumer defensive industries.

4. Technology Select Sector SPDR (NYSE:XLK)

This ETF grants me a heavier exposure to the technology sector. I believe the technology industry will see a faster growth in the coming years as we are now 'forced' to get used to digitalisation.

5. ARK Innovation ETF (NYSE:ARKK)

The last ETF is ARKK. As I am still young and with little to no debts or loans to pay, I am able to take on a little more risk and hence I wanted to put more focus on the growth stocks, especially in the technology innovation sector. ARKK consists of companies that deals with innovation across all sectors, from healthcare to consumer defence. 

With that, I seek to achieve a more holistic diversification in this portfolio. I also did went through the ETFs carefully as well as looking at the annualised returns across various time periods (you can do this easily by just googling the ETF).

I will be tracking the performance of this portfolio as well as updates on any new additions on the blog, perhaps on a monthly basis. Details of my purchases (in USD):

                                                    

ETF	Cost	Quantity	Commission	Total Cost
VOO	280.00	1	1	281.00
VHT	194.00	1	1	195.00
XLP	59.54	4	1	239.16
XLK	97.50	2	1	196.00
ARKK	66.09	3	1	199.27
Total	697.13			1110.4

Stay safe and healthy,

O

Our first post!

Hello everyone! Welcome to our blog!

FinanceOT, we believe that everyone should put in a little extra effort in managing their own finances, hence the name FinanceOT to signify Finance Overtime. Other than that, it also represents two of our initials!

We started this blog in hopes of tracking our personal finances and investments as we inch towards our first big milestone of a 100k by the age of 30. Aside, this can also hopefully be a platform for us to share some tips about personal finance and investing, especially for the young. It is never too early to start saving and investing! Some youths may find it intimidating and confusing to start learning about these topics with the vast amount of information they see online. We hope that our blog will provide youths with a safe starting space, to launch their journey towards financial freedom.

In this blog, some of the things we will be sharing about are budgeting, choosing the right savings account to deposit your money, tips to reduce your money output and other personal finance related topics. We would also be writing on the topic of investing, such as platforms/brokers for youths to begin investing, where to start investing with a small starting amount, and give our reviews of some of the investing platforms we have tried!

During this circuit breaker, we have started looking into US equities and have also started investing in them. We also did some trading and made a little profits. Do stay tuned for more details regarding them in the future posts!

We welcome any comments and feedbacks via email or the comments section, thank you! :)

Meanwhile, stay safe and healthy!

- O and T