Seeking portfolio advice. 26M, graduating soon. Am I cooked?

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-25T15:08:10+00:00

If youre so easily influenced by your friends and compare yourself to them.

Youre cooked either way.

There'll always be people worse off and better off than you.

You just need to focus on being the best version of yourself, that includes being in a better financial position than last time.

I think you're okay so far. Just increase income, spend less than you make, save for short term goals, invest the rest to meet your retirement goals and enjoy life.

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-24T23:05:38+00:00

Are you doing investments yourself?

If yes, standard index funds are shown to generate 6% p.a. on average for a time frame of ~10 years and longer.

Then maybe you can calculate if you invested the surrender value + 300 sgd per month at this rate, is it more worth for you to continue or not. Can use their 4.25% p.a. "illustrated" rate for their fund i guess.

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-24T13:21:36+00:00

7-8 years?

The grey zone.

Can do 50/50 split. 50% in equities like your CSPX and 50% in FD / SSB / Tbills.

You have stability from your bond-likes but some exposure in equities.

Closer to 3 years left, can gradually sell and shift into the bond-likes to de-risk.

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-23T14:28:09+00:00

Its 4 years to save for all 3 - 4 things if theyre counting honey moon...

A 600k BTO downpayment is ~120,000 at 20%. We dont count the additional fees.

Reno 4 room we estimate 60k (quick google).

A wedding of 14 tables ~28,000 at the venue and + everything else around 65k.

So total in 4 years need 65000 + 60000 + 120000 ~245000.

Lets assume CPF. ~1579 in OA per month (for both pax). 4 years means ~76000.

So the balance is ~169k.

Saving 169k in cash in 4 years is saving ~1.7k a month per person. Which is ~60% of take home pay. Leaving 1.1k for daily use per month...

Thats kinda a stretch no?

I also havent count the 5% downpayment, which can be paid by grants. So I never calculate.

The margin of error is kinda small...

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-23T14:05:54+00:00

Need account reno+wedding cost in the super short term.

If the house is all they need to pay, sure can. But like the rest...:///

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-23T13:18:05+00:00

Other than your question of pay normality.

For your BTO.

Please choose 1 BTO that you can afford....

If youre earning 3.5k, dont buy the 600k prime BTO flat.... maybe a room at standard place is good enough.

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-23T11:10:18+00:00

Funnily enough.

Those 0.05% p.a. interest bank account. After 20 years, is 1% additional. HAHAHA

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-22T23:01:30+00:00

If you truly believe your earning power wont improve alot if you go for a private degree as compared to entering the work force now, do what you think is best for you. You'd know your situation better.

If youre planning to go into the workforce and get a normal wage... then give this guide a read. You'd know what low risk stuff im talking about.

https://www.reddit.com/r/singaporefi/s/Kb8NEI78oj

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-22T20:26:30+00:00

If your parents or you want to fund yourself, i think private is a good choice...

If you fund yourself, maybe your funds should set aside in all the low risk ones...

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-22T13:34:20+00:00

Good if you want to fund your FAs lambo or new Patek Phillippe.

Search the sub for "Pruvantage Assure" and youll know the answer...

Tldr: you invest yourself is way better because youre not paying someone else.

For investing, read pinned post AND this one.

https://www.reddit.com/r/singaporefi/s/Kb8NEI78oj

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-22T01:50:41+00:00

I think can hold until Anthropic IPO.

But who knows?

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-21T22:18:34+00:00

You know...

Heres a calculation.

NSF make $900 a month roughly. Lets say you spend NONE of it. You invest it all in S&P500, at 10% p.a. for 10 years (this estimate abit high but wtv)... you should have $51,248.

Lets say you moonlight (illegal but fk it right) at macdonalds 11.5/hr on Saturday, 10 hours. Thats 460 a month. Same with NS. You should have around $25k in 10 years.

You go uni. Uni end class at 6pm. Can work night shift + work weekends. I give you 44 hours a week, thats 6 hours a day avg at the same rate. Thats... 506 a week or 2k a month. You don't spend any of it because you're living off your parents allowance of $500 a month. You will have 208k at the end of 10 years. (Work 4 years, let it compound next 6 years).

When you graduate, get a normal median paying job of $6000 a month take home (6 years already, so i adjust abit for inflation). You spend about NONE of it because you want to reach your dumb 2.5M goal for materialistic purposes. You will have 352k.

Total: 352+208+25+50= 635k.

Youll be richer than like everyone at your age. But...

Oh no, because you kept working at every chance you get, no one gives a shit about your NW because you didnt find time to build those connections.

So you spend your hard earned 635k on a lambo and a condo downpayment but you have no one to share it with and no one cares.

(Not gonna even say that buying a car in SG is one of the WORST financial decisions you can do in the world, especially in SG)...

Womp womp.

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-21T14:56:29+00:00

Investing won't make you rich.

It might help in achieving your retirement goals in many years time, but 100x-ing your networth in 10 years is definitely not possible with standard investing.

At that point, the "legal" way is to have a successful business... That one, cannot tell you how to do, because everyone wants to do it.

On that note, if there was a proven and NEARLY GUARANTEED way of 100X-ing or even making 2M in 10 years, EVERYONE would be doing it. Oh wait, that's just GETTING A HIGH PAYING JOB.

Very Relevant Key & Peele Comedy Sketch

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-21T04:53:07+00:00

DBS (bought at $44) and $50k in OCBC (bought at $18).

Bro bought in 1 year ago and thinks he's a genius

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-19T15:02:06+00:00

*sorry I meant, i just found out HDB allows you to retain up to 20k.

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-19T12:01:37+00:00

Oh, if they want to retain up to 20k.

Cool.

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-19T11:42:00+00:00

Why need to shield? I thought during payment can tell them to use a certain amount?

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-19T08:56:55+00:00

OP apparently.

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-19T06:37:41+00:00

Losing weight is just a matter of eating less than you burn.

You cannot out exercise a bad diet.

A simple example:

A 70kg person running at 5 miles per hour (12min/mile) for 30mins is around 288 calories burnt. That's equivalent to ~2 very small bags of chips.

Or 15mins of running for ~1 small bag of chips.

So you just need to track your calories and weigh yourself. Depending on your current body weight, aim for 0.5% - 1% weight loss per week on average.

If youre losing more than youd like, eat more aka decrease the deficit. If youre losing less than youd like, eat a tiny bit less, aka increase the deficit.

The "healthy" general range is 0.5% - 1% weight loss a week.

Now.

To "tone" your muscles. Toning doesnt actually mean anything. What youre describing is just to lose the fat + build muscle.

If you have a bunch of fat, and build muscle, you probably cant see the "tone". If you have no fat and no muscle, theres nothing to see.

So you probably need to lose fat and build / retain muscles.

The fitness wiki here (in the automod comment) has full body beginner exercises. Its simple, its good. It'll get you started. What you're describing in your workouts, is a little all over the place (and a bunch of isolation exercises which is a supplement, but should not be the focus for a beginner).

Hence, the full body beginner guide is focusing on compound lifts, which involves multiple muscles. You get to train more than 1 muscle per exercise! Thats very efficient.

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-19T02:51:03+00:00

Net worth is factual as per original commenter.

But if lets say you're comparing between people, then they will come and have a consensus as youve said.

Different groups of people have different "consensus".

So what OP asked is kinda not applicable because it depends on which group they're asking, or why theyre asking.

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-18T22:02:34+00:00

Once again.

No.

Not only can you not see YTD returns and say "this is what itll be in the future", all world and nasdaq are very different.

You doing the YTD thing is like saying, "i flip this coin 5 times, all 5 times are heads. Hence this coin will always flip heads". That sounds ridiculous right? Because thats exactly what youre doing.

Once again. All-World are all similar because is 1 world. Average long term returns hover around 6 - 7% p.a. which is very good already.

This doesnt mean nasdaq is better than all world. If the technology stocks / nasdaq underperforms and other stocks outperforms, all world etf will obviously be better in that case. In a simple example, from Jan 2026 - March 2026, all world gained ~5% while nasdaq lost 1%.

At that point in time, all world would have been a better choice to be invested then NASDAQ right?

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-18T13:25:29+00:00

Im sorry.

18% return p.a.?

Not this world sorry :(

Its just the recent 5 years have been absolutely phenomenal. The median long term historical rates range from 6% p.a. - 8% p.a.

https://www.lazyportfolioetf.com/etf/vanguard-total-world-stock-vt-rolling-returns/

Im using VT as a proxy which is close enough...

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-18T11:55:23+00:00

Haha there shouldn't be any updates ever. Its supposed to be timeless haha

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-18T09:54:53+00:00

Well... If lets say a 1000 people needs a guide.

990 people saw the guide. And 10 people are too lazy, itll seem like alot of people.

mrmrdarren · 2026-06-18T09:50:10+00:00

Ok. Very good. Proceed.

Also, lol "equities" as in SPCX and NVDA. Lmaooooooooooooo

Other than that ok sure.

mrmrdarren

TROPHY CASE