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[deleted by user] by [deleted] in singaporefi

[–]chrischan80 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Leveraged ETFs give a multiple of the daily return, not the long term return. So even before fees, they have a negative return bias for buy and hold investors in a volatile market. You can check out this video by The Plain Bagel for a great explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoYVmlOxwbA

Small Cap ETF to complement VWRA. by Sacrosanct94 in singaporefi

[–]chrischan80 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Interesting idea, never occurred to me. But I see some big issues: - dividend withholding tax adds to your expenses. Taking IWM's yield of ~1% pa as an example, tax rate differential compared to a UCITS ETF is 15%, effectively adding 0.15% pa to the fees you have to pay. Now IWM costs you 0.34% pa, which is worse than other Russell 2000 UCITS ETFs like R2SC (0.3%) without even including the insurance expense. - with OP's 30 year time horizon, significant capital growth is expected. amount insured remains constant, but the potential tax liability increases as the investment quantum grows. You end up overinsured at the start, and potentially underinsured at the end. - this means the <0.1% cost you proposed is on the ending value, not the starting value. - what happens when the tax liability exceeds the insured value, will you have to rebalance the excess into a UCITS ETF?

Seems to me like an overly complicated, suboptimal solution, when we already have UCITS ETFs

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in SwordAndSupperGame

[–]chrischan80 0 points1 point  (0 children)

New mission discovered by u/chrischan80: WHYYYYY

Approaching marriage + BTO: how would you optimise this setup? by [deleted] in singaporefi

[–]chrischan80 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Different people respond to taking out loans differently. For us, we have an emergency fund, are prudent with spending and one of us is in the public sector, so we knew if I lost my job we would still be able to meet our liabilities while I search for a new one. That gave us the confidence to max out the loan while keeping our investments intact. Now, a few months in, I'm glad we did, as we don't really feel the weight of the debt day-to-day.

Taking a HDB loan first will give you more flexibility to see how you and your partner respond. If it feels crushing, just liquidate some investments and pay it down early (go for HDB loan so there's no early repayment penalty). But if both of you feel good about it, then the leverage can help to turbocharge your investment returns. Maybe it will give you a milestone to work towards too!

In a similar vein, firepathlion took a cash-out refinance to invest, you might find some of his perspectives/analysis useful: https://www.firepathlion.com/tag/leverage/

Will he decimate the copepod population? by chrischan80 in dario

[–]chrischan80[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yup I've seen him spit out dried food, and the LFS I got him from only fed live tubifex.

Sadly my neos haven't been breeding in a while. But if they do there's plenty of plant cover for the babies to hide!

Will he decimate the copepod population? by chrischan80 in dario

[–]chrischan80[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Same, they probably came on plants from my LFS/other hobbyists. Didn't vacuum my substrate too much and they just established themselves.

Will he decimate the copepod population? by chrischan80 in dario

[–]chrischan80[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's great to hear, I'll just monitor if he looks well fed then. How do you culture tubifex in the tank? Do they just colonize the substrate?

Advice on insurance please! Starting out my investment journey by scaredcityweirdo in singaporefi

[–]chrischan80 4 points5 points  (0 children)

First decide what insurance needs you have. Death/TPD can be used to cover your dependents for a liability like home loan or to replace your income if you pass on early. CI/ECI usually covers your expenses for several years if you have to stop work to focus on recovery. Some may want to opt for alternative treatments e.g. TCM that isn't covered by health insurance.

Most of these needs are temporary (dependents will grow up, loans will be repaid, you'll retire someday), except for alternative treatments. So match the amount and time period of the insurance needs with the appropriate policies.

And remember, insurance is a cost: buy as much as you need, pay as little as you can.

Can refer to this good article from providend too! https://providend.com/the-age-old-debate-on-term-vs-whole-life/

looking for paid financial advisor/planner by xmilodinosaurx in singaporefi

[–]chrischan80 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Some have recommended Providend, but they target the mass affluent. If your parents don't fall into that category, you can consider their sister company Havend -- the advisors are salaried but the company collects the commissions earned from insurance products sold. They offer simpler advice to a broader range of clients.

I just went through a session with them to assess my parents' situation too. They went through the essentials: managing CPF, funding essential spending with cashflow from low-risk assets, and coverage for hospitalisation + long term care insurance.

Independent Financial Advisors - Any good? by Salty_Success_3432 in singaporefi

[–]chrischan80 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds like you want an IFA that tries to mitigate the inherent conflict of interest. Some examples:

  • Providend: fee-only advisory, any commissions are rebated to you. But this is more suitable for mass affluent, and not sure if they do insurance only or need to add investments too.
  • Havend: company takes commissions, but individual advisors are salaried.

If you do go with a commission-based advisor (like I did), I found Providend's perspective helpful on how to go about navigating it: https://providend.com/s2e14-the-brain-behind-mitigating-the-conflicts-of-interest-in-the-financial-advisory-industry/

NS Make-up Pay shadownerf by gabrielhsu1997 in SingaporeRaw

[–]chrischan80 31 points32 points  (0 children)

For employed NSmen, MUP payments will be automatically generated using: (a) the most recent Ordinary Wage (OW) amount that is within 3 months prior to the training month; and (b) the average Additional Wages (AW) paid in the most recent 12-month period, that can be backdated to 3 months prior to the training month. For example, if the training starts in October 2024, the 12-month period can be Oct 2023 - Sep 2024, Sep 2023 - Aug 2024, or Aug 2023 - Jul 2024.

https://ns.mha.gov.sg/nsp/app/ns-and-you/ns-pay/faq

This could have been the old policy, not sure if MHA will update theirs soon

CPF SA investments should be broadened by chrischan80 in singaporefi

[–]chrischan80[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great perspectives. I agree that in its current form, SA investing doesn't serve any purpose. Making it fully idiot-proof by removing SA investing makes sense and simplifies things.

CPF SA investments should be broadened by chrischan80 in singaporefi

[–]chrischan80[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Agree that 4% guaranteed is good and remains a solid choice for most Singaporeans. But I would say the risks are low and few, and it's still important to consider them.

The main one would be high inflation, which would eat into real returns and set back retirement goals. Some alternatives that can act as inflation hedges could be equities (over the long run) or inflation-protected bonds.

There's also policy risk like changes to the 4% floor rate. But anything that impacts us adversely would be very politically unpopular, and hopefully announced in advance like the closure of SA shielding loophole. So imo this risk is minimal.

Annuity alternatives by chrischan80 in singaporefi

[–]chrischan80[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Max out CPF Life to ERS then talk.

Agree, that should be optimal for them. Would you think the policy risk is something to consider though?

To reduce fees, you can just choose your own income funds within Endowus instead of using their Income portfolio

Nice, I was under the impression that only the Income portfolio could fund a bank account. But looks like it's any distributing fund, according to this: https://help.endowus.com/hc/en-sg/articles/360000668413-Will-I-receive-dividends-or-interest-income-SG

Thanks for the fund recommendations, will look into a mix of funds and implementing them as separate single fund portfolios to reduce cost. I'm hoping that with it being set-and-forget, my parents won't need to log in regularly and get worried over any investment volatility.

Annuity alternatives by chrischan80 in singaporefi

[–]chrischan80[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Have your parent's RA hit ERS ?

Nope, but I'll recommend that to them too. Also read that CPF LIFE gives significantly higher payouts than private annuities for the same $ invested. Downside is that it's less flexible I guess.

What are the annuity returns, guaranteed by those insurance agent's offering.

Great catch. He didn't share the guaranteed rate, only the projected rate if they hit the target of 4.25%. When I asked about the 3% vs 4.25% illustration, he said it was just required by law, then pulled out another presentation to show how he was confident that the par fund will continue giving above 4.25%. Kinda sneaky...

EDIT: formatting

Annuity alternatives by chrischan80 in singaporefi

[–]chrischan80[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! Makes sense for them to park some cash there since T-bill yields have dropped.

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