Integrated shield plan - To downgrade?

My mum has an integrated shield plan with NTUC Income and her annual premium just came this month. She had to pay in cash about $3000 plus.

To be honest, this amount scares her because it will continue to increase and she see the huge deduction from her bank account and of course, being a retiree with not that much savings, it can be quite frightening.

Read more: My mum resigned from her job, whats gonna happen next?

We were walking back home on Sunday after dinner and she was sharing with me that she is thinking of downgrading so that the premium will not be that high. She does have other insurance premiums that she is paying for but of course, they are not as much as this is.

For me, I do feel that downgrading will not be too good for her because I have heard of people downgrading and then something happens and they cannot claim for some things.

Insurance is really not something I am strong in and I know the basics of it but in-depth details are not that clear to me.

I would need to read up more and in the meantime, my mum wants to seek the opinion of her friends who are around the same age as her before she makes the decision.

Switching from POSB Invest Saver to FSMone ETF RSP

POSB Invest Saver is a regular savings plan (RSP) where you can invest $100 (minimum) every month which is dollar cost averaging where you invest a fixed sum of money periodically over a long period of time.


I also use it as part of the criteria for DBS multiplier account to achieve another category. If you have seen the dividends I received over 2019, I received dividends every month except for April so I can move my RSP over to FSMone.

Read more: November 2019 Portfolio Review

I chose to move my RSP over as FSMone can offer lower commissions and the main thing is that they can provide much more choices.

Currently, POSB invest saver allows you to buy 4 ETFs:

1. Nikko AM Singapore STI ETF
2. ABF Singapore Bond Index Fund
3. Nikko AM SGD Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF
4. Nikko AM-StraitsTrading Asia ex Japan REIT ETF

I have been planning to buy shares from other exchanges besides Singapore.And FSMone offers 40 ETF choices ranging from those in SGX, HKEX and also US stock markets.


For a start, I will be buying SPDR STI ETF (ES3:SGX) and Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund ETF Shares (NYSE:VT).

I like to embark on a more passive and also index investing because to be honest, my portfolio is not performing better than the index and I have decided to just follow the index since I am not beating it

I will slowly add on ABF Singapore Bond Index ETF (SGX.A35) to my purchase. This will mean I need to have an allocation for the 3 ETFs so that I can rebalance it once a year.

In this way, less time will be needed and I will not need to time my purchases as it will be automated.

I have tried the FSMone interface and I think it is rather simple to use. They even have an app that I can easily access to view my investment holdings. The app also allows me to make changes to the amount that I like to purchase each month.


I think automation really works wonders for me, after I started automating my savings to create an emergency fund, it made me realise how having automated deductions can really help achieve your saving goals as the money is just automatically deducted.

Of course, my first purchase will be done on the 8th of next month (start of 2020) so I am still not sure if all will go well.

We shall see how it goes! Here's wishing everyone Merry Christmas in advance and short work week ahead!

Trying to give some financial tips isn't as easy as I thought

Recently, I had a chat with my aunt as she was just randomly asking me about using credit cards as ez link cards and that it is so much more convenient then the past as no topping up was required.

We slowly moved towards the topic of savings account, she currently just got back to work after taking about a 4 months break. I was explaining to her about a bank account that would allow her to earn more interest from her balance.

She was very receptive and was willing to find out more from me as she knew that she was missing out especially when I showed her how much interest she could get each year.


I was pretty surprised as most people I have have talked to about finances or like when I try to let them know about a good savings account, they would usually be like oh, and then brush off the topic.
 
On the other hand, I met up with my university friends the other day. And we were on the topic of managing our personal finances.

One of them mostly spends her money on food and she wants to know how much do we save per month and also what kind of investment do we do as she was interested in it as well.

So I kinda just slowly explain to her how and what I buy monthly using my RSP with POSB and that I also save a portion to be invested into other individual stocks.

I think at this point, I could see her face kinda like change cos it was a little too much for her. I knew and I just slowly made a conclusion.


I think to many, it is a chore to manage their own finances. But I believe that if you don't take care of it yourself, no one else will do it because it's not theirs. Unless you pay them to do it.

Definitely, I know money is a pretty sensitive topic in Singapore and that even more so on how you manage your money.

But I believe to listen to others and to learn can really help an individual as they can see the many different ways to manage and can choose the best one.

I think what most of friends lack is the action part because I feel that once you go ahead and start, it will make everything seem easier as you have already taken the first step out.

November 2019 Portfolio Review

For November 2019, another 59 units of NikkoAM STI ETF (SGX:G3B) was purchased at a price of $3.3606. 

Portfolio:

Switching over to FSMone:

One major change to my regular savings plan (RSP) is that I have decided to move it over to FSMone.

FSMone recently released their ETF RSP where commission rates are at only 0.08%, subject to the minimum amount for the various exchanges at S$1, HK$5 or US$1 respectively.


This makes it more worth it for me to purchase the ETF through FSMone. Also, since both POSB invest saver and FSMone will hold my ETF under a custodian account this means that comparing the lower commission rate, FSMone will be a better choice.

Another point is that I can purchase SPDR STI ETF (SGX:ES3) and also much more other selection of ETFs, both local and overseas rather than only NikkoAM STI ETF (SGX:G3B) through POSB invest-saver.

Of course, switching over means that I will need to set up a standing instruction for the amount to be deducted into my cash accoount in FSMone as it will not be auto-deducted from my account. But once, it is set up, it should be automated and that's why I prefer having a RSP.


I haven't had any deduction yet and the coming one will be on 8 Dec 2019 so I shall see what price it would be purchased at.

Will be having a separate write-up on it!

Dividends:

$15 was received from SGX in November 2019. The run up in SGX has made my portfolio look better as I purchased it at $7.22 and the current price is $8.85.

I am glad that my dividends has doubled since 2018, if I can keep it up next year, that will be great!

December will be quite a good month for dividends as Tai Sin Electric and First REIT will be giving out dividends. Great way to end the year especially when it's Christmas and there is lots of gift giving.