My investment journey with POSB Invest Saver thus far

In the previous post about my background, I had mentioned about choosing POSB Invest Saver as an alternative to start my investment journey. It was an ideal plan to begin, as it purchase shares on a fixed date at a certain price regardless of market condition. If prices were high that day, I would acquire lesser shares and vice versa.

I signed up for it in October 2014, choosing ABF SG Bond Index Fund (A35.SI) and investing the minimum amount of $100 of which 0.5% ($0.50) is deducted for commission.

Unfortunately, I have misplaced my statements that have transactions from Oct 2014 to Mar 2015. (Through rough calculation, the price in that period was in the range of 1.16 – 1.17.) Here’s the transaction data from Apr 2015 to Dec 2015:

Date	Units Bought	Units Sold	Net Units	Price ($)
25-Apr-15	85.88	-0.88	85.00	1.1585
26-May-15	85.92	-0.92	85.00	1.158
25-Jun-15	86.77	-0.77	86.00	1.14661
25-Jul-15	86.82	-0.82	86.00	1.146
25-Aug-15	87.28	-0.28	87.00	1.14
26-Sep-15	86.89	-0.89	86.00	1.145
26-Oct-15	85.83	-0.83	85.00	1.1592
25-Nov-15	86.14	-0.14	86.00	1.155
26-Dec-15	85.99	-0.99	85.00	1.157

The index fund’s price didn’t fluctuate much, so the units purchased were relatively similar.

Here’s the divdends I have received so far:

Dividends Received	$	Dividend per share ($)	Shareholdings at Ex. Dividends Date (Units)
15-Jan-15	7.78	0.0305	255
18-Jan-16	34.07	0.0265	1286

In summary,

Current Shareholdings:	1286
Amount Injected:	$1,500.00
Market Value (Indicative) from IBanking Portal:	$1,466.04
Dividends Received:	$41.85

Due to the recent market downturn, my unrealised loss has almost eradicated my dividends received. Nonetheless, like every other investors who have this index in their portfolio, I am planning to hold it for long-term to observe its performance.

While the bond index is subjected to market fluctuations, its dividend yield tops interest received from comparable fixed deposit (Cue CIMB FD’s 1 year rate of 1.2% for amount above $1,000).

-Alvin

A short background

At first, I was adamant about dabbling in securities.

Stories where someone managed to build their wealth through investing, and stories where someone lost almost everything when a financial crisis striked, they were etched in my mind as I grew up. Nevertheless, the lesson learnt, like many other investors had preached, was somewhere along this line:

‘Never invest money you cannot afford to lose.’

I was taught since young to cultivate a habit to save, so that I need not worry about retirement when I grew old. In a sense, I developed a preconception that this amount I set aside was money I couldn’t afford to lose. Putting it into fixed deposits seemed assuring.

Until I entered teritary education, and learned about Inflation and Time Value of Money.

‘A dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow.’

Anyone could look up on these concepts through the internet, but learning them first-hand from a lecturer had shed some light about how reality worked. With low risk comes low return, with high risk comes high return: I am sure everyone could relate to this.

2014

When I wanted to begin investing after understanding the inherent risks, the capital I had on hand (which came from my NS allowances) could only net me 1 lot (1,000 shares) of STI ETF (ES3.SI). Purchasing a lot and unable to adjust the average price didn’t sit well with me.

After evaluating the alternative platforms I could turn to (POEMS, OCBC BCIP and POSB Invest Saver), I decided on POSB Invest Saver. As a small note, I did not consider SCB Online Equities trading as the change of lot sizes (from 1,000 to 100 shares per lot) only came about in 2015.

While there was no control over the purchase price with an automated regular savings plan, it suited my strategy of averaging my unit holdings’ price in the long-run.

-Alvin