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