Thinking whether their work-save-and not take risk principle will be sufficient for their retirement, considering inflation, I went back to do a simple calculation. Assuming an annual income of $60,000, savings rate of 30% and a life expectancy of 90, it’s shocking that to retire at 45, their investments will have to be earning 23.5% which is far higher than the best interest rate on savings!

Investment in treasury bills is about 2-5% while higher risk investments like bonds, equities or options can fetch a higher return. With at least 15 more income-earning years, it is worth exploring higher risk investments such as stock trading.

ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund) is a possible start for the novice. ETFs generally carry no sales charge with low management fee of below 1%. It is a starting point because it is well-diversified and normally tracks the prices of stocks that together form a high market capitalization.

After understanding better the movements in the stock market, it is then recommended to allocate a sum of money that one can afford to lose in individual stocks. There are various good online trading stock sites that are user-friendly and offer investor advice. Another option for those who have a higher risk appetite is to go into options trading. Options are available for equities, ETFs and indexes, for instance the OEX Option (S&P 100), QQQ Option (NASDAQ 100) and SPX (S&P 500). The OEX Option for instance consist of the top 100 blue-chip stocks from diverse industry groups (OEX is the ticker symbol for the Standard & Poor’s 100 Index traded at the Chicago Board Options Exchange ). There are also several websites that provide trading signals for those interested in option trading, such as OEX Options that provide at least a trading signal per day and a good list of option-related articles.

Unfortunate you don’t get quote for other markets except US. But it seems like all these stuffs are made possible using APIs. (Interestingly the possibility of this was mentioned as early as 2000.) So it could be possible to access the wealth of financial information that yahoo has soon.

My days of capturing of Yahoo Finance stock charts could be numbered.

Industry Coverage: War Politics, Gold & Philosophy. Naivete and inexperience explains why he always says experience can be substituted. His economics learning stops at Econ 101, but calls central bankers to adjust their policies. He studies human behavior, wine, history, … -He listens to a child’s advice as much as an adult’s. True but strange, he has an accounting degree from NUS, 8 years of auditing experience, and spent 12 years in the land of the bushman (South Africa).

Interesting guy that I would be interested to meet.

Wickly impressive!

• Drag the time range
• Hover over chart and get value of Open, High, Low, Close
• No refresh required to add indicators, comparison chart.

Yahoo Finance has up the ante on Google Finance.

Each day, at the end of market, ShareJunction sends me a summary of the Singapore market including STI Index changes, Top Actives, Top Gainers, Top Losers.

I have not been actively trading shares but I find the summary useful to keep tab on the market pulse.

This service reminds me of ShareInvestor, yet another Singapore stock market information website. ShareInvestor started 5 years ago (if I remember correctly) and provided similar service, including individual forum discussion for each counter.

ShareInvestor later grew pretty success (my perception) but gradually lock up every bit of information that was initially provided free. I stopped visiting them when everything I clicked required me to sign up.

I do not blame ShareInvestor for trying to be profitable. However I was secretly hoping someone would take up the challenge and make investment information free again. So imagine my smile when I found ShareJunction.

My wish is that they can sustain on the ad driven model and continue to provide information freely. The way information should be.

If you invest in Singapore Stock Market, you will not be disappointed to give ShareJunction a visit.

Founded in 1988 in Australia, First State Investments is the fund management arm of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. The group is one of the largest fund managers in Australia with investment offices in Sydney, London, Edinburgh, Singapore, Hong Kong and Jakarta.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and is the second largest bank in Australia.

First State Investments (Singapore) offers a range of retail unit trusts that includes global and regional funds, as well as specialist sector funds.

The First State Regional China Fund is one my favourite fund and has performed very well in my portfolio.

Funds under management (for Singapore)

Singapore fund prices

Regional equity

• First State Asian Growth Fund
• First State Regional China Fund
• First State Regional India Fund
• First State Singapore Growth Fund
• First State Dividend Advantage

Global equity/balanced

• First State Global 100 Growth Fund
• First State Global Balanced Fund
• First State GEM Leaders

Asian balanced

• First State Bridge

Sector

• First State Asia Innovation & Technology Fund
• First State Global Property Investments
• First State Global Resources

Website: First State Investment firststateasia.com

Reference:

• FundSuperMart introduction to First State Investments
• Finatiq Fund House profile
• Yahoo Singapore Finance Fund Manager Index

dollarDex transformed their business model from their original online loan and financing model to include distributing unit trusts.

Things I like about dollarDEX

1. Investing with credit card.
   This is a killer feature and appeal to those that likes to mange their finance with credit card. Effectively you can use the credit money in advance and at the same time accumulate reward points for your card.
   Although not all fund can be brought with credit card, this concept alone deserves full point.
2. Performance chart comparing to CPF and bank deposit.
   A nice simple chart that all other sites should have but don’t.

Things that dollarDEX can improve

1. Browser friendliness.
   Since I use Firefox, dollarDEX is the only site among the 3 that I have to switch to IE in order to use it. As a result I hardly ever visit it.

For historical reason, most of my cash investments are with finatiQ. The reason is because finatiQ started off as the first (and only) attempt to be a fully online bank in Singapore. I brought into the indea and moved most of my cash there.

When it lanched in around 2000, it offered the highest interest rate among all the banks for fixed deposit. Now its cash deposit interest (1.38% p.a) is even higher than fixed deposit (0.75% p.a).

Things I like about finatiQ

1. Easy transfer of cash between OCBC which I have an account. (Bank of Singapore is owned by OCBC)
2. Fixed deposit. Nice option but not attractive enough to see a need to use it.

Things finatiQ can improve

1. Portfolio information is too minimal. One point I take issue with is the lack of buying price, date brought and return.
2. Navigation. I have no idea where to look for information I want.

Of the 3 online unit trust retailers, Fundsupermart (FSM) is my favourite site for unit trust investing in Singapore.
What I like about fundsupermart.

1. Good, informative, original articles. Unlike the other sites, FSM has editors that research and write articles. This set them apart from sites that uses fund managers stories. They also publish a magazine. Having SPH as an investor does shows.
2. Simple and easy to use user interface.
3. Good set of functions to search, compare and chart funds.
4. Only unit trust site with a forum. This actually show that FSM “get it” when comes to online interaction and leveraging the online media to reach out and create community.
5. SGS bonds. Though I don’t buy them, they are a good concepts and add to the investment mix. This and beening the first CPFIS Investment Administrator show that They are creative in delivering value to customers.

What fundsupermart can improve on.

1. Articles are getting more “markety“. More objective and well-researched article please.
2. Function to chart investment over time.
3. Graph or table to compare invested amount against CPF or bank return.

So far I must say it is disappointing.

There are a number of day trading blog which are pretty good but I have not seen any good investing sites.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against day trading. Once upon a time I trade actively too. However I stopped, finding it too stressful for my liking.

There are too many US-centric investing sites around. If you come across any good Singapore or at least SEAsia/Asia investment sites, please share.