Invest on your own

If you invest on your own in the stock exchange, you can reduce your expenses considerably. If you buy shares or the exchange traded fund, you pay a brokerage of 0.3%. There is no annual fee.

If you are not sure about the shares to select, invest in the STI exchange traded fund. It is invested mainly in about 30 Singapore blue chips that make up the ST index. This gives you diversification.

1,000 STI ETF will cost you abotu $3,200 now. If you are investing your monthly savings, you may have to wait for 1 year to accumulate sufficient savings to buy 1,000 shares.

You can offer a price between the buy and sell price quoted on the exchange. Your order will stand in the queue, waiting for someone to sell to you. If you are keen to buy immediately, you can pay a higher price to match the sell price on the board.

If you have a large sum to invest (say $100,000 or more), you can select 5 to 10 blue chips and invest $10,000 to $20,000 in each share. This will give you some degree of diversification. It is like creating your own portfolio.

You will need to open an account with a stockbroker and a CDP account.