Depends.. in good years maybe 6%, in bad years, 1.8% or so

Dreamer, any thoughts on Singapore STI ETF?

Over here ROI from cash > ROI from bonds right now that's why.

I asked. There may be taxation restrictions for foreigners, meaning, may be not allowed.

FSM CMF now 3.2, how many bonds are going to achieve that for the same amount of risk (which is almost absolutely no risk in the case of CMF lol )

The other thing is, at lower levels of capital, you probably save more on transaction costs (compared against forgone interest income from bonds) when keeping equities+cash as opposed to equities+bonds.

If bond is paying below 4%, that is too low. Even FD can do better.
PBB bank bond is paying 7.5%. OSK Medium term notes bond 7.25%pa .

CMF at only 3.2% is only good for parking temporary money.

That's weird.. you can buy Singapore equities, but you can't buy Singapore ETFs?

vangurard bond peformance not up to par

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pm?s=BND+Performance

Folks,

In an asset portfolio, most of the return are determined by the stock versus bond ratio.  So, for the first step of asset allocation is to determine the stock versus bond ratio.

This has to be decided by each individual.  The followings are some of the guideline

A) The stock/bond ratio should be between 80/20 to 20/80.  If you go above and below that ratio, you are talking too much or too little risk and do not get the optimal return.

B) Risk versus Return tradeoff. 
   
    1) If you take on higher percentage of stock allocation, your portfolio will be more volatile.  You need to take the "50% test".  Historically, stock can drop 50% of its value at any point of time.  Can you stop yourself from selling when that happen??

    2) Do you NEED to take risk?? If you have ENOUGH money, you do not need to take on higher percentage of stock allocation.

C) Age in bond rule -> A simple rule is to take you age and use that as your bond ratio.

D) All else fail, do a 60/40 asset allocation.  Those are the standard ratio use by insurance company for their investment.

E) When in doubt, lower the stock ratio.  The strategy only work if you can yourself from selling in a market crash.  If you cannot sleep at night with your aset allocation, reduce you stock exposure...

F) Emergency fund is not part of your asset allocation.  You need at least 3 to 6 months of emergency fund.  You may keep longer if you feel your income is unstable.

Dreamer

What do you mean by 'pbb bank bond' ? is that even for retail investors?

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=VBINX&t=my...n&z=l&q=l&c=VTI

Folks,

Look at the graph and compare VTI (100% US stock) versus VBINX (60% US stock / 40% US bond)

Dreamer

Nice chart. So if we suspect bear is near we convert from VTI to VBINX?

Nice chart. So if we suspect bear is near we convert from VTI to VBINX?

.yes, can buy from cimb bank wealth management

Ok now I'm confused, don't you have to tender for those? and how many million do you need for it? any website or whatever? AFAIK MTN are issues by companies, usually for something like 50 million, and you have to tender for it.

Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT) is down.

almost erase this YTD gain