Investing & Retirement

"We asked youths about what they feel about investing and their current outlook for their future retirement to know more about their behaviour towards them."

Do you actively invest your money?

Daron: Yes, I invest every quarter. I would invest a small sum. Ok small sum is quite subjective so I would say between $500 to $1,000. I also have a savings plan from AIA, which costs about a few thousand each year as well.

Yucheng: I guess so, I'm putting in like 200 per month into this investment plan and I guess for any extra money I have, I will be putting it into those robo-advisor. I'm using syfe ah actually and I'm putting that into syfe and crypto.

Owen: I guess I am, Because I'm paying it every month, but then that's the only investment that I have.

Aiman: No. I don’t do investment. Probably just cause I don't know anything about it.

Jeslyn: Recently I just started after watching a lot of youtube videos and advertisements. I went to check out an investing app. I legit started 2 day ago and this is my first time.

Leticia: No, I am scared to go broke.

Kieron: Not active, now I have funds inside my investment account, but I dont actively take part in trades

Solihin: No, i’m not interested in investing

Sabrina: Ermm, nope I don't.

Loh Chuan Ren: No, haven’t yet

Ryan Goh: Yes I do.

Clara: My sister does help me invest a certain amount of money but I only invest like $50 and it was my first time lah, so I just put my money with my sister. But $50 did not get much la, like $7 or something. I don’t know what is the norm or what is a good investment result like what is the average. At least it’s better than 0.01 something percent.

Why haven't you started and deterring you?

Leticia: I think I don't have a sense of security and I need to read more about the investment but I'm a bit lazy to find all the information I need. Don't really have the time for it. Confidence also depends where the information comes from .

Solihin: I have debts and I don’t believe in investment. Investment has ups and downs to it so I am not ready till I am financially stable, and I have a strong savings that I can fall back to when I need it. But if you ask me, I would prefer investing in insurance.

Sabrina: Ermm, nope I don't, I feel that my allowance is just sufficient enough for my savings and my spending, so I have never really thought about investing yet.

Aiman: And the reason why I haven't really started that is probably because I don't know how to start, but I plan to. Um, exactly when I can’t say but yeah I plan to. I don't know how to start. some of my friends are beginning and I actually talk to my parents about this, all this stuff like oh should I start investing my money all this stuff. They say, um, no rush, they say you eventually need to do it, but at the moment, focus on what I have at hand, which is graduating from poly, so yeah, I haven't really thought about it.

Loh Chuan Ren: Feel like it can be very dangerous investing if I don’t have any knowledge about it. That's the main reason I have not started it yet, I know nothing about it so it’s a bit scary to start and I would need to do research.

Clara: I plan that when I reach a certain amount in my bank then I can start investing safely, because I don’t want to invest without having enough la. I think that to be like financially stable is one of my goal right now then the investment comes later. But I keep procrastinating to learn about it because it sound so like, in a sense it’s so tedious and you need to watch and learn to know so it’s abit mafan.

If yes, what prompted you to start investing?

Daron: I was quite influenced by my friend, and we started last year. I will go for stable stocks. My portfolio now is at a negative value, but I think it is doing fine as I'm only down 1 to 3 % so I am pretty fine with it.

Yucheng: I guess it’s more of when I see other people getting those compound interests or like when they are young and already started investing, which helped them to get super rich that kind of thing. I guess that's a turning point for me also ah but I guess it's also risky in a sense that it's almost the same like gambling like those crypto kind of things. But I guess it is also how you can lose your money straight away, like it can go to zero. I guess it's more like if you are uncertain of something you won’t want to venture into it since you are scared something will go wrong.

Owen: What prompted me to start investing is actually from my brother-in-law, because my brother-in-law is a financial advisor. So, he's actually my agent also. So, uh, I just told him that I want to save money and start to save money and stuff like that. So, he recommended me that policy. So then from there on, I just say, sign with him lor

Jeslyn: I am a pretty low risk taker, I invested with this app called OANDA low risk portfolio. I know that this portfolio invests in low risk stocks , the lowest it can go is -1.3% and highest is 5%.

Kieron: My dad just shared with me about his investments, and talked to me about the topic, from a Family Member Recommendation. In terms of position, the money I put into investment, I have not withdrawn, I just invest what I can lose, and because right now I feel I do not have much responsibilities and I save alot and did not spend alot from the start, I put an amount of my savings into some investments which did not go well but im over it. When an investment goes well for me I just leave the earnings in the investment account.

Ryan Goh: So last time like in my secondary school days I was quite interested in cryptocurrency ah so that’s where I learn all my like how to read charts and how to do basic technical analysis and fundamental analysis and slowly after that I realise that cryptocurrency is not very viable, it’s not financially sound ah in terms of like the risk and volatility. So I stopped doing that and I changed to like more traditional investments.

How do you do your research when investing?

Daron: Sometimes it is more of peer to peer sharing, sometimes I would just buy because they say it's a good buy. However, I would see the value of the stock and if it’s value is ok then why not. It’s about proper risk management, I would see how much I can lose and if it's not that much then why not just try with a small amount. And I have learnt forex before, I learnt how to read candlesticks, so sometimes I will watch the candlesticks to see how much it moves throughout the days when looking at stocks.

Yucheng: Yes, but I kinda got lazy because I am working in the food industry also so it's not really a related kind of thing since I don't learn finance. So right now I feel like if I have to juggle both, it will be quite hard since I have to learn about finance on the one hand and food related things on the other hand. Right now I don’t invest in like those one specific stock, for the $200 per month right, they say they are investing into China because they say China is a growing country so they just put into like a bunch of stocks in China ah, I think it's called etf ah. I mean you know high risk high reward la that kind of thing, but since im younger im willing to take such a risk ah.

Owen: Um, I don't do research on investing ah actually. But then I do hear it from friends ah. My friend, Shyan, so he knows about this kind of stuff so he might sometimes say about this kind of stuff. So, I just listen, yeah. But then I just listen but I cannot do anything because I don't have money to invest. I don't think I get peer pressured easily.

Kieron: For investments, I avoid talking to my friends on the topic. We all have different investment opinions, I don't get influenced by others but for one of the investments I did try asking a friend to invest together with me, but it didnt go well in the end. I only got influence from my dad. Usually I will do my own research and ask my family member's opinion.

Ryan Goh: A lot of it would be on youtube, I would do some due diligence on my own also such as technical and fundamental analysis. Of course, I wouldn’t do it everyday, I wouldn't look at my stock portfolio daily ah since there is so much day to day like volatility it’s just like noise ah but in the long run i think it will go up. But Sometimes I get influenced by friends, so for example some of my friends dabble a bit in crypto so they will say like this coin is good that coin is good, maybe this stock is good that stock is good and I would just put a small position in it.

Clara: No, But I can google ah but not sure if there is a specific place.

What does “retire well financially” mean to you?

Daron: Means I don’t have to work anymore and can get income every month, that's retirement for me.

Yucheng: It means I don't have to work to support my household, that kind of thing, where like you have a bunch of money to sit there and run by itself. When I don’t have to worry about money, and then like I can go out to like anywhere and I can go and buy whatever I want to buy and don't have to think much about it.

Owen: I guess it means that I don't have to worry about money when I'm at a retirement age? Like I can just use my money to do whatever I want, maybe like traveling and stuff like that. Yeah. Basically what I cannot do now, I'll want to do it next time without any worries.

Aiman: I guess not worrying about your finances when you grow old. So, once you retire, you just want to you know relax, not work. That’s the reason why you retire and just have that pool of money available for you just in case you need anything la.

Jeslyn: I think firstly you still need to have emergency savings , it can be like CPF I guess for a serious situation. Secondly you need enough money to live every month. For me that's financially well off. And it also depends on the age and how long i want to live, and for me to not feel worried.

Kieron: Have a house, have a car and be able to travel every year. To have a sustainable household, household vehicle and spend my years travelling. Travelling is important as I feel humans need to explore out of the ordinary, and if we are confined to the same space we may go crazy, discovery is important. I'll try my best to not stay in an office job, I aim for $2 million networth before I retire around 50-60. This is for financial security and also for me to pass it down to my children if I were to have children in the future, but I wouldn't just give it to them because the saying goes you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, you teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. I'll make sure they practice independence before I give them the money.

Solihin: Enough money for retirement so I don’t need to work hard or even work anymore.

Sabrina: It basically means to have money to last after i retire.

Loh Chuan Ren: I guess it means having a good amount of money to do whatever I want until like I am like 80 years old with no problem at all, I guess that’s stability right there

Ryan Goh: So I think it would mean living financially sound and comfortably in the future. Like I don't have to work or at least I have the choice to not work and my basic necessities would be covered, things such as my food and cost of living.

Clara: Like don’t need to work, can enjoy life. I guess also like support your children in some ways, like still have a backup or something to pass on to them after you die. Like I haven’t really think that far.

Is retirement important to you? Why or why not?

Daron: Yes, because I don’t want to work for the rest of my life

Yucheng: Yes, if I want to live a happy life, I think people around this age just earn money, spend it and just want to have fun.

Owen: Definitely important ah. I feel like I want to retire now already. I damn tired, it is tough ah but definitely yes to retirement cause that's where you get to enjoy life.

Aiman: Yes. It is important. No one would like to work forever, so it's important to make good financial decisions and so that you can actually retire early and so that you have enough money that you can retire early. So retirement is important to me, I guess most people say that it's important that’s why I also think it is important.

Jeslyn: I recently watched this youtube video about people who set a fixed retirement fund for their parents and their parents passed away before they could use it. This kind of stumbled me a bit and makes me wonder why am I cutting some of my lifestyle now if i cant even use it in the future. Right now I find it hard to say if it's important to have it.

Leticia: Yes, I don't want to just depend on the government monthly payouts. I feel that just depending on the CPF payout is not enough , I would need to have a separate fund for it. It is important as we don't know what will happen in the future

Kieron: Its definitely important, because I probably will burn out along the way. I am not even at the mid-life crisis stage, for sure everyone needs to retire one day, we can't always be bent on work. Maybe work a more relaxed job? Because I want to see what I can learn during my remaining days and spend more time with my friends and family, those kind of wholesome, bittersweet ending vibes.

Solihin: Never thought of it.

Sabrina: I haven’t really thought about it yet.

Loh Chuan Ren: Yes, of course you need to be able to enjoy after working hard for sure.

Ryan Goh: Absolutely.

Clara: I guess, I heard that starting to save for retirement early is better

What do you think is a suitable age to save up for your retirement & have you planned for it?

Loh Chuan Ren: I would say the latest 25 years old, this kind of thing cannot start too late if not you won’t gather enough to do whatever I want. No, I am not 25 yet haha. I will start at 25 latest lah but in the upcoming years I would be planning it already.

Owen: Uh, I think, I don’t think it's about age to me. I think it is when you get, uh, uh, financially stable job where you think you are earning, uh, a lot more than what you can save, uh what you can use sorry. So maybe that's how you can start to save. Yeah. Because if you're trying to save, when you don't have enough money to cover your expenses, then I don't think that's right ah. Because you are suffering ah. You cannot because you want to save for the future, then you suffer now right, doesn’t make sense.

Clara: Honestly now if you are already saving, sooner or later you’re saving would naturally turn to retirement right, I mean you can also use your savings or like separate your savings. Maybe I will start when I am a working adult in the industry for like already a couple of years down in the working field. Right now I cannot really bring myself to think that far yet like I haven't even stepped into the working world. Maybe soon? But it is good to have.

Jeslyn: I find that when i have a family it will be different.

Leticia: Maybe when I have started working.

Yucheng: I guess all those investments right now are towards retirement but I have no specific plan.

Daron: As soon as possible ah, but I haven’t thought of my retirement plans yet, I just want to retire young.