📈 my noob guide to investing | what i learnt after investing for 5 years

[@ginnygoh4743]

Hi Lisa! Been wanting to reach out since I started watching you from the very beginning. I’ve always been very impressed with your understanding of the need for financial literacy and here’s just some advice on my end. If retirement before 65, (like 55 or 60 as you mentioned), I would avoid putting money through SRS. I understand it’s for tax relief, but being unable to withdraw without penalty before 62/63 makes it quite inflexible for that goal. Also, the opportunity cost is so high to have your money locked in SRS when you are still young. I’ll suggest SRS only when you have your retirement date/amount/details completely sorted out and you are using it as a tool outside of just tax relief. Consider investing yourself in an ETF via a cheap brokerage like Interactive Brokers. I’ve used Robo-advisors myself and through that also learned a lot and gained confidence to invest in my own, but the fees really do add up over decades of investing and compounding. Lastly, I strongly encourage that everyone keep insurance and investments/savings seperate. Most of the time, it only serves the insurance company, not the customers. But once again, an incredibly well made and detailed video. I applaud your dedication to share your knowledge. Have a wonderful 2025!🎉 Edit: Just got to the end of the video. Regarding using Robo-advisors for rebalancing, I subscribe to the philosophy of investing in almost all equities in ages 20-40. Ages 50-60 start keeping cash/bonds/SRS to reduce volatility and risk when it comes to start drawing down your assets. Hope that helps!

[@LisaAdultinginSingapore]

This is all really fantastic advice! Thank you so much 🥰 I'll take it into consideration for my investing decisions this year!

[@CrazyPingPong97]

hey, i resonate with your videos from the start as we started work at the same time and you speak with a calmness about finance that is quite soothing! am also not a guru, but do note that the S&P 500 ETFs that you bought are generally popular. However, the ETFs in your excel sheet are actually subjected to 30% dividend withholding tax (takes 30% of the cut of your dividends) and has inheritance tax (if you pass away, it taxes around 40% i think) because it is domiciled in USA. There are other ETFs that are domiciled in non-US countries so can read up more on those

[@ginnygoh4743]

@@LisaAdultinginSingaporeCrazyPingPong brought up a really good point I forgot about. I also only buy Irish domiciled ETFs. I won’t drop the ticker symbols. (Everyone should do their research so they understand what they are investing in, listen to Lisa!) Again, it’s all about the compounding effect over decades.

[@LisaAdultinginSingapore]

@CrazyPingPong97 yeah I realised this too! hence why i've stopped investing in VOO on syfe trade. do you think i should just sell those or hold on to them? 🤔

[@choypengkong]

Very good advise, I also agree that if you are in your 20/30s and have the right mindset go 100% equity, have a long view of 30-40 years to let compounding do it work. I think SRS is ok, but if you tax burden is not high you won’t get a lot of savings so it’s not really worth the opportunity cost of locking it up till retirement age. Focus on cpf it can be over 1m by 55, and that the first bucket to unlock, SRS is the second bucket at 63. Think it terms of “buckets” each has a time frame and an unlock date. Buckets with at least 25 yrs unlock do 100% equity, those with lesser years can mix in bonds to lower the fluctuations

[@kongalan566]

Have been watching your videos and very impressed with what you have done. Just like to add that one other principle to consider for investing at a young age is to keep it simple (Bogleheads). Perhaps just stick to one or Two World ETF (diversify) and DCA (passive) regularly. I have the same experience like you, trying different robo advisors and brokerages. After a few years, decided to consolidate and just go with one robo (SRS and CPF) and one brokerage (Cash -IBKR buying VWRA or FWRA). This makes managing, monitoring and rebalancing much easier. I also think that you should top up CPF OA/SA first rather than SRS for retirement. Top up SRS later in life when your income is higher and the tax savings is more significant. Hope that helps.

[@KahnJi]

thank you for crafting and creating content Lisa! appreciate it and wishing you a happy new year ❤

[@sumit6190p]

i love listening to Lisa voice and go to sleep. Best lullaby

[@HenryHamilton-z2f]

I always enjoy watching and listening to you

[@j.c.00]

Very useful video! Happy new year!

[@ErnestineAlice-u3y]

Ideas are common but put up in practice are serious task

[@TheDividendUncle]

Great guide for young investors! 🎉 Looks like you have a well diversified portfolio, which is great but unfortunately is more rare than it should be for young investors.

[@BoonTee]

Great video! Thanks for sharing!

[@wavTan]

Just a suggestion, maybe you can consider the option to top-off CPF instead of SRS to get tax relief instead, unless you have hit the tax relief CPF ceiling of 16K for both personal and spouse/parents under CPF own-self top-up and use the OA portion in OA for robo-invest part :)

[@LisaAdultinginSingapore]

good idea! i've stopped contributing to SRS for now, but i'll consider this strategy next time if i need the tax relief :-)

[@VirusKid]

Would be good to show how much yield you’re getting from each asset, and whether is a dividend asset, or growth asset. If you’re from finance background, online brokerages would probably save you a lot of management fees. I do agree that reading helps.

[@willieabc]

Slow and steady is the way to build wealth

[@Nanami-ex8nr]

Yay new video 😊

[@choypengkong]

I think in this day and age it’s prudent to plan for early financial freedom. Jobs might not last forever due to automation and Ai and at 45-65 finding good employment won’t be as easy. Aim for a balanced portfolio 25x ur annual income and chart out of how long it will take you to get there. If you need 2.5k per month that’s a 750k portfolio. You can still work all the way till 65 if you want, and market/health allows. But you have the option to do something that might not put food on the table if your portfolio covers you. 750k sounds like a lot but that’s is saving $1500-1800 per month for 20-25 years at 6% return. Lisa is already on the way to hitting this and more. I treat this as: “count down to your financial freedom”, freedom is using ur assets instead of your time to pay for your lifestyle. And I agree with the other commenter, don’t mix investment and insurance. Just focus on etf, total market… boring is gooood. Don’t waste time with ESG or whatever fancy etf, fancy is bad. Don’t be a SJW when it comes to investment, own all sectors to get the market return.

[@softspaze]

Hello! I've been following your channel for quite a while now ( I miss your monthly budget diaries hahaha). Off-topic to the video but may I know which language centre do you use? I remember your monthly budget had language classes. I'm looking to pick up Bahasa/Vietnamese to better converse with my foreigner friends. Also, happy new year! :)

[@madferalchicken]

what app do you use to create your slides? Is it canva? I like how minimalistic it is!

[@LisaAdultinginSingapore]

yes i use canva! thank you so much ☺️

[@dappledgrass]

Hi Lisa, I know in the video you mentioned that you preferred robo-advisors, but would you be able to share on how to navigate losses from stocks? As a beginning investor, I bought some stocks that dropped in prices significantly and have been finding it difficult to bounce back from the loss. Not sure what to do with the stocks now (hold and pray for price to go up years from now, or sell and reinvest).

[@AaronSurvivinginSingapore]

NICE!! Consider dividend investing as well :) when you reach your retirement age, idk how comfortable you'll be to start liquidating your investments. Dividend stocks take out the guess work for you. Just receive the dividends while letting it appreciate modestly.

[@qianjunxd]

Hi Lisa at your current salary I strongly recommend you not to contribute to SRS account. You can invest the after-tax salary to S&P or Nasdaq ETFs with low cost brokers such as IBKR which will definitely give you much better return in the long run. I recommend you only consider SRS when your marginal tax rate reaches 15% or your overall tax rate reaches 7%😊

[@LisaAdultinginSingapore]

oki! i haven’t contributed to it since 2022 but im just holding on to the little that i have in the account ☺️

[@qianjunxd]

@@LisaAdultinginSingapore I see Which brokerage do you use for SRS now ?

[@LisaAdultinginSingapore]

currently just using stashaway!

[@dydocdeslife]

Js in time to dollar cost average into the stock market

[@1sthokage91]

I think now maybe you still young, and might not think of it. but if possible do share your exit strategy when you reach your retirement age