Author: The Turtle Investor

How To Surrender Your AIA Prime Life Special Policy

Posted by The Turtle Investor | Jun 24, 2017 | Personal Finance |

Remember that I wrote about surrendering my AIA Prime Life Special policy last year in August? This is a follow up post on that. Quick and easy, I promise! Let’s go back in time for twenty years, and it would be the year 1997. Ignore the glaring red words and focus somewhere near 1997, and it isn’t difficult to note the peak there and then. With 72% allocation in fixed income, it is needless to say that the projections made back then would be pretty tough to achieve. Especially with the prolonged low interest rate environment. Well, it is...

How To Surrender Your AIA Prime Life Special Policy

Posted by The Turtle Investor | Jun 24, 2017 | Personal Finance |

Unlike Misa Travel, Some Agents Can Prosper!

Posted by The Turtle Investor | Jun 12, 2017 | Saving & Spending |

The recent collapse of Misa Travel has been a nightmare for those who have made bookings with them. The “lucky” ones would have bought travel insurance, which would have covered the cost incurred. Those who paid for their trips via credit cards could probably invoke the credit card charge-back feature to recover their money. Still, the inconvenience as a result of this would still piss many people off. If I were in their shoes, I would wreck havoc. OTAs Are Cheaper? The sweeping statements people make tend to gravitate towards “why would people use brick-and-mortar travel agents when online...

StashAway Robo-Advisor : You Want To Know More?

Posted by The Turtle Investor | Jun 4, 2017 | Investing |

Writing on this blog has continued to amaze me in terms of giving me the opportunity to interact with people who building products that are giving everyone the access to affordable and good investment services. Just a short while ago, I wrote a series of blog posts that shone the spotlight on StashAway, a soon-to-be-launched robo-advisor that is barely a year old – and it has moved at lightning speed. Both interest and questions on StashAway have been mounting fast and furious. Both myself and the folks at StashAway have noticed that some of these questions can be fairly technical in nature, and obviously...

TURTLE INVESTOR 2016 GIVEAWAY WINNER

Posted by The Turtle Investor | May 30, 2017 | Investing |

A short post to congratulate the winner of the Turtle Investor 2016 Annual Giveaway. I know, it took a while to get this out considering it is already at the end of May. You have noooo idea how hard it was to find someone to respond to my email. As I have always said, all subscribers are forever eligible for the Annual Turtle Investor Giveaway contest. But you would first have to, you know. Reply. My. Email. Anyway. I had used a random number generator and slapped it on the entire email subscriber list which contains ‘live’ subscribers all the...

Would You Invest $250,000 (Or More) Without Doing Homework?

Posted by The Turtle Investor | May 27, 2017 | Personal Finance |

OK – using the word “investing” might not be the most appropriate. With each successive BTO, the papers would go on and on about how certain popular estates are heavily over-subscribed. Heh. Ever wondered what kind of homework did those couples do before deciding on that $250K (or $500K) HDB apartment? I know of some who don’t even bother to physically check out the neighbourhood. I live in Punggol, which is why I’m particularly interested in what’s in store for my neighbourhood and how it would potentially affect the resale prices of HDB apartments in my area. So, how...

Robo-Advisor StashAway Gets S$3-Million Funding

Posted by The Turtle Investor | May 19, 2017 | Investing |

Things are really heating up in the robo-advisor scene in Singapore lately. Just three weeks ago, I mentioned that StashAway had received in-principle approval for our retail fund management license. Today, the team behind StashAway was excited to inform me that StashAway had confirmed that it had secured S$3-million for its pre-series A round. The proceeds from the round, which will close this week, will fulfil MAS’s regulatory capital requirements of S$1-million for StashAway’s retail fund management license (guess I learnt something new today), as well as go towards launching the investment service in Singapore, continually innovating the platform, and...

What If You Don’t Wake Up Tomorrow?

Posted by The Turtle Investor | May 14, 2017 | Personal Finance |

This blog has always been in a constant state of change. When I first started it, it was intended for myself to keep track of all the index investing resources I encountered and understood, as well as to make sense of it all. Figured I’ll keep everything on a blog since many people would be looking for the exact information like myself. Index investing was far newer and rarer a few years back. People started coming, reading, asking, and sharing. One thing led to another, and I discovered many other Singapore-based finance blogs. Even better, I learnt a great...

The Battle Of Robo-Advisors (SG Edition)

Posted by The Turtle Investor | May 11, 2017 | Investing |

Shortly after I shared the emergence of StashAway, it does look like the battle of the robo-advisors is starting heat up right here in Singapore. First-mover advantage, you say? It has been exactly one year since I have written my first post on Smartly. Since then, I have written more posts, had a beer with Keir, tried out the Smartly beta, and finally it does seem like the clearest indication of a launch date by Smartly is going to be June 2017 as indicated on their Facebook page. On-boarding of first clients should start by then. Keir Veskiväli (Founder...

StashAway : Robo-Advisor Competitor To Smartly

Posted by The Turtle Investor | Apr 30, 2017 |

Not much of updates from Smartly lately, and I know many people are still patiently waiting. Myself included. The good news for us consumers is that it now has a really strong contender in the form of StashAway. I’ve been monitoring it for a while, and looks like it has received in-principle approval for its Capital Market Services License. While another wait begins for StashAway, at the very least it is a step in the right direction for SG. Like Smartly, StashAway will be aiming to be the first to offer similar robo-advisor investment services to everyone regardless of...

Gili Lankanfushi : Choosing Your Maldives Resort. And Jetty. And Villa.

Posted by The Turtle Investor | Apr 13, 2017 | Holiday |

Many moons ago in November 2008, my wife and I experienced our first ever resort stay at Langkawi Lagoon Resort. We didn’t know what to expect, and what resort living is even supposed to be. We bought 5-dollars Malaysian Airlines tickets (excl. taxes) before we even decided where to stay 😉 Beach resorts. Pool villas. Spa suites. We have come really far since then! What better place than the beautiful country of Maldives to conquer next?! For first timers to Maldives, choosing a resort can be a really tough decision! This is especially true if you are not used to...

On STI, Air Miles And Giveaway Winner

Posted by The Turtle Investor | Apr 9, 2017 | Investing, Saving & Spending |

The STI ETF has been doing a sideways dance since the first day I started investing in it on 24th December 2012. According to Stocks Cafe (previously SGXCafe), STI ETF has time-weighted returns (including dividends) of 13.2% during the same period. Meh returns? I suppose. I’ve always called myself an index investor, and not a passive investor. Index investing isn’t necessarily passive by nature. If you have a re-balancing strategy, you might have bought more during the early-2016 dip. Your returns might paint a very different story. My favourite image that I keep reposting. As of right now, the SPDR...

If You Ever Need An Index Investing Starter ..

Posted by The Turtle Investor | Apr 2, 2017 | Investing |

Have you ever felt that despite all the blogs and online resources available, you still needed that extra something to nudge you towards index investing? Did you say “yes”? Shiny Things One place that I’ve learnt a lot from is, surprisingly, the Money Mind sub-forum at Hardware Zone. I know, don’t judge. I tend to lurk around many places 🙂 There is a particular individual who uses the handle of Shiny Things , and he shared a heck of a lot of sensible stuff that I generally agrees with. Many times, it is related to index investing. He even...

Nikko AM Straits Trading Asia Ex-Japan REIT ETF : One Thing People Aren’t Saying

Posted by The Turtle Investor | Mar 26, 2017 | Shares & Derivatives |

Like what I wrote for Phillip SGX APAC Dividend Leaders REIT ETF, just throwing out some food for thought for this one. A REIT ETF such as Nikko AM Straits Trading Asia Ex-Japan REIT ETF is a great tool to have at our disposal. It would fit in nicely if you’re trying to construct a portfolio like Rick Ferri’s Core Four, for example. Portfolio Charts is a website that I really like, by the way. Needless to say, a regional or global REIT ETF exposes us to markets that we are not familiar with. Have you wondered what’s behind the flashy...

DIY Insurance For My Wife

Posted by The Turtle Investor | Mar 19, 2017 | Insurance |

Bye bye investment linked policy (ILP). We finally pulled the plug on my wife’s ILP. The one she bought from her ex-classmate after she snagged her first job. Who is no longer even in the company. Or the industry. I spent a little bit of time reviewing her current coverage and decided to make a little adjustment for her. At 60% of her old ILP policy’s monthly cost, I have gotten her four times the coverage that her ILP was giving her. Instead of going via the compareFIRST route, I want with DIYInsurance (by Providend) instead. I trusted the...

Author: The Turtle Investor

How To Surrender Your AIA Prime Life Special Policy

How To Surrender Your AIA Prime Life Special Policy

Unlike Misa Travel, Some Agents Can Prosper!

StashAway Robo-Advisor : You Want To Know More?

TURTLE INVESTOR 2016 GIVEAWAY WINNER

Would You Invest $250,000 (Or More) Without Doing Homework?

Robo-Advisor StashAway Gets S$3-Million Funding

What If You Don’t Wake Up Tomorrow?

The Battle Of Robo-Advisors (SG Edition)

StashAway : Robo-Advisor Competitor To Smartly

Gili Lankanfushi : Choosing Your Maldives Resort. And Jetty. And Villa.

On STI, Air Miles And Giveaway Winner

If You Ever Need An Index Investing Starter ..

Nikko AM Straits Trading Asia Ex-Japan REIT ETF : One Thing People Aren’t Saying

DIY Insurance For My Wife

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