Investing in Unit Trust is easy. Like all things worth doing in life, you may need to climb a little learning curve. Do not be discouraged, the time investment you put in will reap many time return.
An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
- Benjamin Franklin
If you are reading this I can assume you know how to get online and is perhaps looking to do self-directed investing online. (Sorry for the jargon, it simply mean investing yourself).
In this first installment on Unit Trust Investing, I will introduce how to get started.
Continue reading ‘Introduction to Online Unit Trust Investing’
dollarDex transformed their business model from their original online loan and financing model to include distributing unit trusts.
Things I like about dollarDEX
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
Of the 3 online unit trust retailers, Fundsupermart (FSM) is my favourite site for unit trust investing in Singapore.
What I like about fundsupermart.
- 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.
- Simple and easy to use user interface.
- Good set of functions to search, compare and chart funds.
- 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.
- 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.
- Articles are getting more “markety“. More objective and well-researched article please.
- Function to chart investment over time.
- Graph or table to compare invested amount against CPF or bank return.
Are you buying your unit trust through banks, brokers or online?
With commission of online unit trust retailers half that of banks/brokers, it make sense to use online brokers to save on the charges.
In Singapore, I know of 3 pure online distributors – FundSuperMart, FinatiQ and dollarDex. (Please share with me if you know of others)
Some banks and securities houses like Phillip Securities’s POEMS also allows buying of unit trust online.
Buying online is simple and easy, saving not only money but also time. In future posts, I will be sharing my experience with these distributors.
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