Hi Mr Tan,Need the following advice on unit trust:1 Is unit trust a safe investment?2 Any recommendation for any particular unit trust?3 How long should I hold? Is now a good time to buy them?4 I have 50k to invest but not sure what to invest? any suggestion (not a big risk taker)
REPLY
My recommendation is to invest in the ETF, instead of a unit trust (due to difficulty of choosing which unit trust). Join FISCA (www.fisca.sg) and attend the educational talks.
Click "Register" to be a member
Click "Event" to see the talks available.
Attend the free talks on Financial Planning and Investments".
Keep your $50K under the bed and let it grow with silver fish.
ReplyDeleteCome on, attend Mr. Tan's talk and know something about investment. I say 'SOMETHING' because you cannot become an expert just attending a few talks when CFA takes 3 years of INTENSE study.
Best, engage an investment adviser from FISCA to help you to grow ABOVE INFLATION at least.
Remember this.....NEVER USE AN INSURANCE SALESMAN to help you because they will help themselves to your money.
From August the IFL, Institute for Financial Literacy will roll out lunch time talks on personal finance.It is a collaboration between Singapore Polytechnic and MoneySense
ReplyDeleteNever buy from insurance salesmen.
ReplyDeleteBe careful. They are disguised as
1.financial advisers
2.financial consultants
3.financial planners
4. life planners
and worse ones to avoid are
1. senior financial consultants
2.executive financial consultants
Why? they got additional prefixes because they conned more commission out of their victims.
and to avoid like plaques are logos like the following.
MDRT, COT or TOT
They are definitely conmen and women. They goT these titles by virtue of their STEALING from their victims. Notice the titles end with 'T". It stands for THIEVES.
Beleive it or not, it serves you well to heed this warning. You will save hundred of thousands over the long term. It is better to err on the safe side, right?
From the Inside.
I met an Executive Financial Consultant from a social enterprise company and I felt insulted talking to her. She didn't sound or talk like a consultant but more like peddler of some toxic products and who yakked like a duck out of water and suffering from verbal diarrhea..
ReplyDeleteIt was an insult to all genuine, true blue financial consultants.
MAS should do something about and stop the insurance companies from giving titles that their salesmen and women don't fit.
I Blushed.
Hahaha, ntuc agents are insurance salesmen and they are the best product pushers in Singapore that their ceo lovingly called them his sales champions, a title that these salesmen should use and NOT the misleading and misrepresenting titles like senior or executive financial consultant.
ReplyDeleteThey can call themselves "sales champion or senior sales champion or executive sales champion" and no one will dispute that they are and truly live up to their title.
So the ceo of ntuc has admitted that his agents are salesmen. But why give them misleading titles like financial consultants when they are not? Is it to help these salesmen find more victims?
ReplyDeleteIt depends on your time frame:
ReplyDeleteShort term- anytime less than 1year
Medium term- anytime beyon 1 year but below 3 years
Long term - anytine more than 3 years to 5 years
With 50K you can spread your risks over the 3 terms.
Unit trusts charge service fees, usually as a percentage of the total price you pay. They can also charge you annual fees.. but this is built into the price quoted when you want to sell back to them your units.
Might as well buy your own shares like STi-ETF. You pay SGX trading fees once when you buy and once when you sell. But this share should be held for the LONG TERM for you to gain anything worth your time & money.
MEDIUM TERM you can buy REITS, also traded in the stock exchange. They pay you a distribution 2 x or 4 x a year depending on the REIT.
Because you are risk averse, SHORT TERM is not appropriate for you.
And, please, attend the talk. You can prepare all the questions before you go, and do not be shy asking them.. there are many people who hide their ignorance and pretend to know about 'investing' only because they want to paint a picture of sophistication.
Do not be that.
It is a small fee and you will understand much better than one who pretends to know.
These people at FISCA know what they are talking about without pushing any product to you.
You can walk out anytime.
Have you read in the Sunday Times one customer was mis-sold a regular ILP when she wanted an investment without insurance?
ReplyDeleteThis is what happens in the life insurance industry. Agents are not only unqualifed but greedy too.
I remember an auntie saleswoman with fierce title of Executive Financial Consultant shared about how she was able to sell enough of the regular ILP Vivolink to qualify for the incentive trip to Spain. She shared how her mindset was changed after visiting the Great Wall of China.This is a load of crap. How could a person became an investment expert after a mindset changed? It was the incentive trip and commission that made her bolder to 'sell' ILPs and not her knowledge or skills. It was greed that pushed her to stoop to push an unsuitable product..I advise all her customers to take a closer look at what they were sold.I am sure they didn't buy.MAS must examine the sale of the rest of the salesmen.
An Insider