Auntie likes to browse Reddit from time to time, especially when I’m bored. One of the sub Reddits I visit is Singapore Financial Independence. From the threads I’m guessing most of the redditors are below 35 years old.
As an oldish person who’s generally risk-averse I have thoughts on the topics at this sub reddit.
Online brokers – good to look at fees, don’t be obsessive
IBKR is the recommended broker, and I think it’s a good recommendation. But in the chase for lower fees, there’re questions on whether the more exotic channels should be used.
OK your mileage may vary but you’ll never find Auntie using an unproven channel like Revolut to buy shares. I know Revolut as a travel card, but not as a broker. So when someone asked me about using Revolut to buy ETFs I went huh?
I am using DBS Vickers and Fundsupermart for my ETFs. I know Vickers costs a lot of money but frankly I have more than half a million in that account and I’m not going to quibble on fees. I know that DBS will return my money. Revolut, I’m not that sure.
Waste of time to look at bank saving interest rates
Loads of questions on which bank account offers better savings rates than others. To me, a bleddy waste of time given the administrative efforts to do switchover:
- Change salary payment arrangements
- Change your GIRO (auto bank deductions)
- Set up payment arrangements
All for how many % of interest? Are you holding like $300K worth of savings? Otherwise how much more in interest are you expecting to earn?
And banks change their offering all the time. I’ve been using OCBC 360 for ages. It was better, then other banks bettered it, then it seems that it’s better again. Frankly, I can’t be arsed to monitor.
A bit obsessive about getting things exactly “right”
VWRA? VTI? VT? Does it cover xxx market? Should I buy others to balance it out? All good questions. But when you start quibbling whether you should buy VOO or QQQ I think it’s going a bit too far.
Generally speaking start by picking a target portfolio and then fill it up with assets. For example, since I follow the Couch Potato Portfolio, I am to achieve 50/50 assets in both bonds (which to me includes my CPF/government mandated retirement savings) and stocks.
So during rebalancing (every 6 months for me), if my stock portfolio exceeds my bonds portfolio, I just buy more bond units to make up the difference.
As to what ETF you should buy to make it “right”, my view is there’s no need to get it exactly “right”. Look at what the Index ETF tracks and if you’re happy with it then just buy it. For context, about 75% of my ETFs is in VXC.TO, which excludes the Canadian market. To some, it’s a huge omission as Canada is a big market itself, but I’m okay with it, not losing sleep. I do have some VT/VTI (very small proportion) to make up the difference but it’s too small to make up for the “gap”. But I’m happy with it.
Hi FI-ing Auntie 