Hi all, I have a special case here.

I have a friend in US that needed my help to settle his house loan here at RM 12,000, this is to avoid forex charge.

So now I planned to invest into S&P 500 and have read about it in the 1st post and also most of the post here.

Is currently the best method?

1. Create Transferwise (Understand they will asked for proof of transfer)
2. Create an IBKR account
3. My friend will transfer the USD with the value of RM 12,000 to my Transferwise directly from US
4. From Transferwise then transfer to IBKR account
5. from IBKR account buy my preferred S&P500 counter under IRL domicile.

Understand currently got ARKK too, but i am not too sure wanna invest this or not. So for now i will be focusing on S&P 500

And I also aware that the Fed planned to raise interest 3 times this year depending on the inflation rates, so I am not sure now is the right time to enter or not. Seek for the kind advice.

Thank you

This post has been edited by MasBoleh!: Jan 15 2022, 01:17 AM

Anyone can advice please?

Yes go ahead

Hi sifus I'm in a dilemma between SWRD/IWDA (both track MSCI World Index, meaning developed markets large and small caps) and of course the almighty S&P500 (CSPX/VUAA, etc...)

One of the reasons I think SWRD/IWDA is attractive is it's more diversified than S&P500 and it reduces the withholding tax exposure (although only 15% coz Ireland-domiciled). Anyone went with one over the other and have some thoughts to share?

Or just buy VWRA. No dividends, it's just accumulating by itself.

VWRA 0.22% TER vs. SWRD's 0.12%, the 0.10% difference is quite huge

Would suggest to buy BNKS and XDWF.. Both invest in banks and financial institutions amidst this interest rate hike period by Fed. BNKS focus on US financial institution. XDWF on developed market's financial institutions.

For S&P500 better go for VUAA (same thing as CSPX). Cheaper and it is rising in value. Easier to get into it due to price.

If you're into ESG - environmental social and governance companies, buy SUSW or SASU.

SMH good pick also due to shortage of semiconductors globally. Likely price hikes incoming for all things semiconductors.

All listed here are Irish Domiciled ETFs. I did some research on my own, and also reading articles before recommending.

I would avoid tech stocks for time being as they are expected to go down a lot. Energy and consumer staples another good etf to invest in.

My VWRA, SWRD and CSPX went down alot in last two weeks. So will stay away from them first till stabilize. Not sure how much more they can drop.

This post has been edited by Davidtcf: Jan 17 2022, 09:56 PM

Thanks bro for the valuable input. Will seriously consider VUAA when I’m ready to get in

You're welcome.
Also don't worry about expense ratio. If the ETF grow alot in the end the ER doesn't matter. As long not too high e.g. More than 0.5% then should be ok.

VWRA and SWRD more for "diversifying". I still prefer S&P500 type ETF. VWRA imo diversify too much and not focus enough. As for SWRD if developed market S&P500 good enough. US hold such a big chunk in both. If somehow it drop a lot both ETF cannot escape from US pulling them down. Also Asia during pandemic not doing so well.. Just see how bad EIMI is doing nowadays.

Better go into specific ETF that is booming during a time. Like what I suggest banking, semiconductors, renewable energy, oil and gas, Healthcare etc.

This post has been edited by Davidtcf: Jan 17 2022, 10:36 PM

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This post has been edited by Hoshiyuu: Jan 18 2022, 12:24 AM

I'd advice to avoid advice from people who have just started investing, jumping from one failed investment vehicle to another, repeatedly timing the market then get burned, yet go around regurgitate whatever they just read yesterday without fundamentally understanding it ... if they can provide sound justification or reference material for you, then take those and do your own research.

Just because it's an act of considerate kindness doesn't mean its factually true, always do your own due diligence...

Depending on your capital, you might want to consider some of the following factors:

SWRD only covers developed country large and mid caps, so no Alibaba, no Tencent, no TSMC, usually people who go with SWRD will mix in EIMI or WSML for either emerging market exposure and/or developed country small caps exposure. The cheaper TER is likely due to missing such coverage. You are trading exposure for fees reduction.

If you end up holding multiple ETF due to wanting exposure to certain segments, you need to take into consideration of your purchase and rebalance cost - buying 3 tickers monthly is going to eat into your cost if you aren't throwing in a decently large amount.

---

If you wanted to chase performance, you can just all in SP500(VUAA/CSPX), if you wanted to diversify (via buying SWRD), why stop at large caps and mid caps of developed countries?
Winners rotate, Large/Mid and Small caps take turns getting returns, US and the rest of the World take turns getting returns - hence why VWRA is recommended - and I am sure those who hold VWRA would happily hold VT instead of it didnt had a 30% withholding tax.

Personally I recommend to VWRA and chill too, hold one ticker, get rich slowly but surely.

This post has been edited by Hoshiyuu: Jan 18 2022, 12:46 AM

Thanks for taking the time to write your recommendation

One thing I wanted to point out is that VWRA doesn't seem to carry small caps at all, the factsheet mentions it only carries large and mid-cap companies. But aside from that, I wholeheartedly agree with your general philosophy of holding total global market and chilling. I'm currently in the midst of rotating out of my Bursa dividend stocks into IBKR and looking to build a braindead portfolio. I was initially thinking SWRD+EIMI for some time (was thinking Eimi Fukada holding a sword.... lol ) because of the lower TER as compared to VWRA, but you made a good point about rebalancing and purchasing separate tickers adding to the hidden costs of the portfolio.

I also think about IWDA which is the OG developed markets ETF with 0.20% TER until SWRD came with 0.12% TER. If you compare IWDA's 0.20% with VWRA's 0.22% it's a no-brainer to just "VWRA-and-chill". I think this is a convincing-enough argument for me to go VWRA for my core "safe" portion of my portfolio.

If I have about RM50k, do people generally recommend lump sum since VWRA is relatively stable, or does it still make sense to DCA one's entry over maybe 3–6 months?

This post has been edited by KingArthurVI: Jan 18 2022, 01:45 AM

Yeap, VWRA unfortunately do not carry small caps, its not ideal but it's impact is smaller than you might think. I've posted this before somewhere else so don't mind the copy paste:

Of course, if you believe in small cap value tilt or factor tilting in general, it's very easy to quickly dig back into the rabbit hole that we just crawled out of, like adding in AVUV/AVDV and just ignore the withholding tax since small caps rarely generate enough dividend to matter, and since they are US listed, the trading cost is way lower, etc.

But my personal recommendation is always, keep it simple, hold VWRA, spend the time on increasing one's income instead.

As for lump-sum vs DCA, it's a much debated topic so I'll just give you my personal opinion:

Time in the market > Timing the market, lump sum should give you a higher return - keyword being should.
While VWRA is relatively stable, with VWRA being basically ~60% US, and lump-sum into a decade long bull market is always scary, can you really withstand your 50k poofing to 30k overnight, and keep holding it for another decade or two?

For me, I have a good 20 year horizon minimum ahead of me, I'm looking forward to a crash to test my resolve, get cheap shares, and I believe in investing in VWRA enough that I haven't really found another place that I would put the majority of my money into (e.g. if for any reason VWRA drops 50% overnight, well, chances are nowhere else is really safe anyway), so personally I will lump-sum that amount in today.

Besides, I think I'll have much bigger regret seeing VWRA go up by 3 dollars when I only deposited only 5k out of 50k and end up panic FOMO lump-sum anyway

This post has been edited by Hoshiyuu: Jan 18 2022, 03:03 AM

Wow thanks for the much valuable insight! I like the idea of a braindead portfolio a lot, coming from someone who thinks buying dividend stocks on Bursa is even too much of a pain, so I think I'll go with your recommendation of VWRA over micro-managing multiple ETFs. Lump-sum investing is a bit scary for me, but I think my investment horizon is definitely very far out, 10-20 years, so short-term volatility shouldn't factor in too much over time.

Just out of curiosity, how often do you top up your ETFs? And are you using IBKR? On IBKR, the LSE commissions seem to encourage less frequent / higher amount top-ups rather than like US exchanges which are $0.35 minimum.

Welcome, but remember to take what I say with a grain a salt and scrutinize every detail, hell, I could benefit from people telling me where I am wrong and fix it before I regret it a few decades later.

I am currently buying monthly and making sure the cost of transaction is kept under 1% of the amount invested (currently at around 0.7%) - but I highly doubt this is the way to do it. Better to just park somewhere locally like Versa/SA Simple and make a deposit every 3 months IMO. Whether $2 a month to capture the up and downs of the market better is up to the individual investor, as there are an argument to be made on both side (penny-wise pound foolish VS invest early invest often).

But generally as long you invest and stay invested, even if you aren't likely to be the biggest winner, just doing that alone will make sure you come off well enough - there's a reason people have successfully retired wealthy buying nothing but Maybank for 30 years. It's hardly the most optimal thing to do, and yet consistency will still reward you well - maybe the fella who did so could have retired with 3mil instead of 2mil, but they sure as hell isn't forced to work until they die with crippling debt and no safety net.

If you put in 100 bucks monthly since 2015, you would have 15,507 with SPY and 13,394 with ARKK.


If you put in 100 bucks monthly since your post in August 2021, you would have 952 with SPY and 573 with ARKK.

I don't see the outperformance.



This post has been edited by Lim Ling Yang: May 24 2022, 02:55 PM

Wah why you go dig up so old post?
After seeing what cathie did this year, I can no longer recommend her.

Buying high and selling low. Doubling down on stuff like teledoc.

You don't see underperformance? Here you go.
https://youtu.be/TodjSg0AINI
Etf which outperform sp500 since 2009.

So you are saying if a hedge fund manager gets lucky and outperforms the market temporarily you would recommend them but if they get unlucky then you no longer recommend them? Isn't that buying high selling low as well? I mean you only buy when they outperform then sell when they underperform. Unless you got a time travelling machine and can buy before they outperform the market. Hindsight is 20/20.

Like how you recommend buying ARKK when they are at their all time high and now want to sell after what she did this year. Buy high sell low. And now you are doubling down on recommending other etfs that are now outperforming the market at their all time highs. Reminds me of someone.


Also, watch section 12:59 Manager Skill vs Luck of the youtube video.

https://youtu.be/p6HrepdLSu4?t=779



This post has been edited by Lim Ling Yang: May 24 2022, 09:27 PM

I was looking at past 5 years performance of sp500 Vs arkk prior to this downturn.
After seeing how Cathie do this year with her choices I won't reocmemnd them at all anymore. It's not about unlucky. It's making bad choices like come on, buying doubling down on teladoc and selling palantir?
It's obvious palantir got more moat than teledoc.

Like principal Asia Pacific dynamic income. Despite bad result this year, I will still recommend them as prs to go as I agree with some of their picks. Bad result is cause by politics which is out of their control.

After seeing Cathie picks in this down market, best to pick qqq or semi conductor etf.

My own portfolio is tech heavy with semiconductor cause I know they will outperform the sp500 over time.

This post has been edited by Ramjade: May 24 2022, 09:42 PM

Just sharing, now Webull is available in SG, meaning if u have SG bank account you can deposit SGD for investment.

https://www.webull.com.sg/