I just quit all robo advisors and went all in 60% VT & 40% SCHD. Thought of the 0.8% we pay SA... Thats over 1/3 of the div yield for VT already

Yes, I hold VT because of the market cap weightage of global market. Should US outperform International or vice versa, VT can never beat both of them but should sit somewhere in the middle for performance. If US outperform, I win but not as much as holding US only ETF.

I am not comfortable with holding near to 30% International stocks... so I chose SCHD to reduce it to about 20%. I didnt choose VTI as there is a 58% weight overlap between VTI and VT. Seeing how the market is going right now, I feel more comfortable with its high quality value stock and almost 1/4 of them is midcap and smallcap companies which provide room for growth aswell. The 30% withholding tax is inevitable..

For Stashaway, you lose 30% to dividend withholding tax and 0.80% to management fee. I rather do it my way..


This is the underlying index (how the stocks are picked) for SCHD ETF


This post has been edited by melondance: Mar 15 2022, 11:55 AM

I remember StashAway had XLE during end of 2019, and they sold off during 2020 when the pandemic struck. Look at where XLE is now. And same goes for XLK. Energy ETF was poised to go up when the pandemic eases, we could have DCA into it cheaply.

What's up with their ERAA system? I bet a monkey picking random stocks could do better. I withdrew most of my holdings when they entered KWEB at such exorbitant valuation.

That's where the hard part is. They cushion the crash but missed on huge gains... For KWEB, they could have given the user a option to keep or dispose of KWEB... Not long after they added KWEB the selloff began, it was pretty clear not everyone wants to buy the dip, but rather keep it in our portfolio.

The way that they rebalance your portfolio for every deposit is not optimal either..

Not to bash on them, but I really wonder how long is their "short term volatility"..

Its only been a few years since SA launch and when you count the number of "reoptimizations" they have made, I am afraid they are not confident enough in their own investments. I understand they had to readjust their portfolio to cushion drawdowns during certain events. However, if the fundamentals did not change, I see no point for them to adjust their portfolio that often.. Furthermore, they could have let us choose to hold KWEB constant in our portfolio, instead of selling it off... With that kind of drawdown, I actually wouldn't mind taking the risk of losing what is left of KWEB.. For companies like Alibaba, their cash on hand is literally 1/3 of their stock price, it is just ridiculous.

Like I have mentioned, I have US and International ETF for many years now. I wouldn't mind the drawdown but SA just keep "reoptimizing" their portfolio. The risk profile of their investment will always change with future events. What most people need is a solid portfolio that doesn't change all the time.

Looking at their reoptimized portfolio, regions such as Middle East, South America, Africa, Central America probably isn't worth our time to invest in as their % weightage compared to global market is negligible at best. There is room for these regions to expand but it is never a certainty. It really depends on their governance, location, innovation, workforce.

Changing ETF from time the time can protect you from market downturns to some degree. But what they have done over the past few years has just been losing the opportunity to DCA into good ETFs at a low price. When StashAway added KWEB, they should have saw it coming... by a long shot. Its not just KWEB, but their Covid handling was "so so" only. Given the 0.8% fees I have to pay on top of 30% withholding tax, I wonder how much it impacts our long term gain?

Actually, I have a Interactive Brokers account opened quite long ago. But their deposit and withdrawal process is not the easiest along with slower customer support. Could save a few thousand per year using IB, but I just couldn't be bothered with some of the quirkiness that comes along with it. Remember back in the old days where everyone is buying shares through bank and even worse buying UTs. But now we have much better platforms even though the fees are not optimal compared to SG.

Wait Simple is 1.9% after rebate and expense ratio? I thought RHB CMF2 in FSMOne is 1.7-1.8%. And after T+2 redemption you can instantly withdraw from cash account as FSMOne uses instant transfer.. I rather have the ability to withdraw quickly then..



This post has been edited by melondance: Mar 26 2022, 05:16 PM

While Simple will have higher returns, I chose CMF2 because I can directly determine when I will get my money in FSMOne Cash Account, once they sold the units and deposit into Cash Account, you can literally withdraw instantly even at 2am morning... Even their Cash Account has 1.1% pa...

CMF2 is 1.8% pa, to buy is T+1 business day and to sell is T+2 business day... Mostly SA takes 3-4 days, and they use IBG so I receive it at 11PM..

What do you guys of the 0.3% fees for one ETF flexible portfolio?

I see that it offers ISAC ETF which is Ireland Domiciled and tracks the MSCI AWCI index.

Seems like the 0.3% fee more or less makes it same to own VT with 30% Dividend WHT. The 15% savings in WHT feeds to the fee.

However, Stashaway forex conversion rate is only 0.1%. Some other platform forex conversion can cost around 0.5% - 1%.

Good idea to use the flexible portfolio?

I actually already have IBKR account. But not really want to do all the manual things to topup, etc. And no local broker seems to offer access to london stock exchange.

Stashaway I can buy ISAC with 0.3% fee but benefit from 15% WHT all gone to the

Since Rakuten uses IBKR, they can't offer London Stock?

This post has been edited by melondance: Jun 10 2023, 01:08 PM

😢 Where have they announced it? That’s not good

They said 0% WHT on UCITS Bond ETF, is that true? I thought it’s 15% for equities ETF like VWRA.

Is there any confirmation from IBKR that this won't be happening next year?

Wait.. so Stashaway got news from Saxo that IRS told them to stop and that's it? No more explanation or something?