Ah, what I mean is, KDI Invest don't really offer anything attractive or unique to a person with international brokerage access. But it remains a good alternative to those who aren't willing to DIY.

Currently, KDI Invest's aggressive portfolio consist of ~65% $VT (Vanguard Total World Index) and the rest a mix of BNDX (Aggregate bond), CASH, and a sprinkle of miscellaneous ETF like QQQ and SPY.

Functionally, it's literally just a mix of VT (Total World Equities), BNDX (World Aggregate Bond), and CASH.

Such a simple portfolio can further be simplified by dropping BNDX (young people usually opt to not add Bond to portfolios until latter in investing life, or use EPF/ASNB/SSPN as pseudo bonds).

Thus, its a 1-fund portfolio consist of VT. Most brokerage charge very little commissions (free or 0.35 US cents) on US etfs, and the ongoing charges for holding VT is only 0.07%.

So to grossly simplify it, if VT returns 7% a year - you get 6.93% of the return. You get only 6.3% of the return if investing through KDI. (~10% less). This will greatly affect your compounding - and hurts a lot when market is sideways for a very long time.

Furthermore, VT's non-US alternative, VWRA, only pay 15% withholding tax instead of VT's 30% - that's another 0.5% different in annual returns.

So it doesn't actually take too much capital to quickly outperform KDI Invest or any roboadvisor investing in basically the same thing, but earn more simply you are paying less fees.

TL:DR: fees bad, KDI Invest no offer anything unique

It'll depend on your capital, your investment interval, and how much you plan to deposit each time. It goes something like this:

1. 0 lump sum capital, plan to put in 200 or so a month build investing habit: Stashaway, KDI Invest is fine.

2. 500-1000 a month, prefer monthly DCA to better capture up and downs of the market - IBKR and buy $VT, accept paying 15% more WHT for cheaper trading fees. Move to Ireland domiciled &VWRA in the future when withholding tax drag is bigger than trade commission cost.

3. ~2500-3000++ a month, or willing to invest quarterly (save up to 3000-5000+ then one shot invest every 3-4 months): $VWRA on IBKR.

Fees for reference:

Wise forex MYR -> USD is about 0.5% forex charge
IBKR forex: 2USD fixed, spot rate.
IBKR US stocks : 0.35USD
IBKR Ireland domiciled USD denominated stocks: 1.70USD
$VT Expense Ratio: 0.07% annually
$VWRA Expense Ratio:  0.22% annually