r/singaporefi

I’ve been trying to understand the real picture of being a Financial Advisor / Wealth Manager in Singapore, and I’m getting very mixed signals.

On one hand, I see Reddit posts saying it’s just a glorified sales job, high attrition, most quit within 2 years, and anyone with a diploma can try. On the other hand, I have a close friend who’s been a wealth manager at a reputable firm for about a year (part of a team from day one), and their lifestyle is genuinely confusing me.

Here’s what I’m observing:

· Fancy travel every 1–2 months (team trips, events, award presentations).

· Extremely high SES lifestyle – fine dining weekly, luxury luncheons, flown out for events.

· Awards like MDRT, COT given out at quarterly ceremonies like they’re normal, yet FAs flaunt them as huge deals.

· No finance degree needed – just pass training and exams.

· Constant recruiting – firms and teams always looking for more FAs.

So my questions for current/former FAs:

1. Who pays for those trips and dinners? Is the team lead funding it out of pocket to motivate the team, or do all FAs get this lifestyle once they hit certain sales targets?

2. Is MDRT actually easy to get in 1–2 years? To an outsider like me, “Million Dollar Round Table” sounds elite, but I keep hearing it’s very achievable early on. What’s the catch?

3. What are the real drawbacks? Because from the outside, it looks like: join a team → pass basic exams → travel, eat well, get awards. That seems too good for a job that doesn’t require a degree. Where’s the catch? Stress? Client rejection? Unpaid work? Cold calling?

4. Do most FAs who “survive” actually get rich? Or are we only seeing the top 1% while thousands quietly leave?

I’m not trying to bash the industry – I genuinely want to know if I’m missing something, or if anyone really can just walk in and get this lifestyle.

Thanks and hoping to get some real insights from those in the industry!

I am 49 this year with 3 kids. Family of 5. HDB fully paid.

Took me 25 years to amassed a portfolio of about $1.5m and a monthly dividend of only $2.6k per month. Monthly expenses of $7k - $8k so still stucked in a job that I dread going to daily.

Thinking back, my greatest regret was starting seriously buying equities too late at 40 years old and not amassing during the COVID crash.

Anybody else in the same situation. Close enough the see the finish line but still damn far away.

I intend to retire in 6 years time.

Background info: Self-employed, nearing 40, just came into $500,000 spare cash.

Had a talk with my HSBC RM, here's her suggestion and my understanding of it:

1. Invest the $500,000 into a bond fund that pays around 6-7% interest.
2. Take a loan of $1,000,000 and invest it into a bond fund that pays around 6-7% interest.
3. The 6-7% interest will off-set the interest fees of the loan.
4. Relatively safe because although bond funds are not capital-guaranteed, the nature of bonds are.
5. So any fluctuations in the value of the investments will not be drastic, so I won't run into a risk of having to top-up.
6. If all of the above holds, the good thing is that I will be "making free money" by making 6-7% - interest rate on $1,000,000; which would otherwise not been available.

Am I missing something? Seems like a pretty decent deal to have imo.

I'm not looking to actively grow my capital anymore and am more interested in creating income streams.

43 here, just managed to pay off my HDB after 11 long years. I have about 250k in stocks (mix of income and growth) and an overseas investment property with about 150K equity. No kids, but wife works a low-income job as a childcare teacher. Between us, we have about 80K in cash for emergencies. Combined CPF around 240K (burned a huge chunk after paying off HDB loan).

Long story short, I work in finance (middle management) and I'm very burned out. Also with all the AI going on, I suspect my job will be eliminated in a few years. I am actively using Claude for work and I can see how it will eventually replace me entirely. I'm thinking of just socking up another 250k in VRWA (over next 3-4 years) and then calling it a day. Doesn't mean I'll quit working, but i'll probably step down into a lower responsibility job with better hours.

Any bros here have walked that path? Thoughts even if you haven't?

41M here getting into daytrading with the intention to supplement my income, cause job outlook especially in my industry rn is really looking bad. It between daytrading and grab instead. I already traded for a few days, got some returns, but im wary. I want to hear horror stories if any1 has any to share.

Personal loan interest is at all time low with a few bank offering 1% max 80k for a tenure of 60 months, coupled with cashback and etc.

While Autoloan is hovering at 2%+, and the need to transfer the car to the finance company.

am a civil servant, but is restricted by the 3x unsercured loan policy.

is it possible to write in to HR to get an exemption? the COE itself is an asset, though a depreciating one, it's still under my name. shouldn't it has more collateral than it being under a finance company?

not sure there is any way to bypass this? none in family can help me with this.

I’m looking to get an AIA critical insurance that’s going to cost me ~$3k annually. I’m in my late 20s and i’m financially stable enough to support myself.

Just needed to know if this is something I should go with or do you guys happen to know any good recommendation for insurance?

I’m looking for something that might give annual full body checkups and also have a good coverage

Would like to invest $1250-1500 every month into Singapore dividend stocks/ETF to build a monster dividend portfolio which can provide me good cashflow in the coming years, if I decide to work part time/retire earlier. For now, I reinvest all my dividends.

Already doing DCA monthly into VWRA (USD $500) in a separate portfolio.

How to best deploy the amount monthly in a fuss-free way? I use moo moo. Wait for a dip on individual stocks and buy in? (Odd lots for bank stocks). Manual buy ETFs every month?

Hi,

My (35F) husband (40M) has a job offer overseas. He plans to be there for two years at least.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to find a job or transfer in the destination country, because the job market there is not good for my industry (niche sales role) and I don't speak the local language.

Financially, I am doing well for my age group, with enough savings, and have no liabilities yet, no kids. We stay with his parents with no property (yet)

I'm at a loss about what to do.

I'm worried that if I follow, my 2 year gap will be a huge turn-off for future employers, especially given my age close approaching 40.

We have discussed an LDR, but I don't want to do that either, especially since we have only gotten married this year, but I still want to be gainfully employed in my field.

Common advice that I got was:

1. Do further studies > the destination does not have any widelyknow universities
2. Start a family > not keen
3. Start a business > no ideas, scared of risks
4. Remote work > not possible in my current role (sales hunter, face time)
5. Have husband turn down the offer > husband wants to do it, since he is very career minded, and I am willing to support him.

The option that we are leaning most towards is us going, and me pursuing hobbies - cooking/gardening/painting

Has anyone been a long-term trailing spouse? How did it work out for you? What did you keep busy with? And was it difficult to get back to work after the years of unemployment - especially for professional roles?

Thank you - please be kind.

Hi All

Like to seek some opinion on financial planning.

I’m in my 50s with inherent health issues and looking at maximising passive income, wealth preservation and inheritance for children. I do not fully trust banks and insurance agents as their primary objective is to sell products. I’m looking at objective assessment and recommendation and AI proposed that I look at fee only advisory such as Providend.. like to seek advice from bros and sis here 🙏🏼 that have used such services

EDIT: Thank you for all, I have received a wide spectrum of comments, I appreciate all. I am looking independent planning advice separated from execution (wealth mgt).. so I’m sorry that IFA linked to insurers are not my priority (got various DM), so banks are out too. I realised that ‘no fee advisory’ can provide a few complimentary sessions so I may go for that to assess their usefulness. I also got some really good advices on some key points I should look out in my financial planning. Those that ask me for details of my financials, I’m really not comfortable to share details in public, my apologies. The intent here is to ask about no fee advisory.

2nd edit
Since covid i used my own money to pay for company expenses and goods. Total i forked out is about $250k, hence i took back $100k a few mths ago to reimburse myself. All accounted expenses in google sheet for credit card paying for goods, remit money overseas for goods (china) and VA salaries.

Edit:
Its private limited company, and director are personally liable for all the debts.
50% shareholding each for partner and i

Not trying to do anything funny. Bankruptcy issue only arose recently.
Feb was when i took out $100k to reimburse what i paid for company for past few years if expenses. I did not hestitate and send most to repay my friend and my wife.
Now that bankruptcy in mind, i am worried jt looks like sus.
I don’t like to do any illegal stuff.

Asking advice as i have been mentally exhausted. I admit i am brink of seeking mental help for having very negative thoughts but i am pushing hard for the sake of my kids.

Short summary: my business owes abt $1m many years ago and we were repaying monthly, with less than $800k to go.
Tried my best, but collapsing for bankruptcy.

My biz partner has decided to give up, and planning for non-payment, which means the counterparty would probably send letter of demand and file us for bankruptcy, unless i take over 100% of the loan. On my own, i am confident we two can clear the loan slowly, but he prefer that he take the plunge and get discharged 5yrs rather than shoulder debts for 10 years
I tried asking the creditors to restructure but they are not keen, as they are gov linked i think.

I cannot do it on my own, with parents with sickness and 3 young kids of my own.
My wife has a relative high income, but if i used her income to pay this debt, we have nothing for our kids and my retirement (i am already 47yo)

Here to ask the crowd wisdom before i start non-payment.

1a) do they go through my wife’s bank accounts and holdings? Do they check to make sure i didn’t do excessive transfer in the last few mths.

I had borrowed numerous times from my wife and my brother, and a close friend since covid period. The amount is probably $200k and above
Company excel sheet has numerous times where i sent or paid from my bank accounts, but didn’t write explicitly its my wife, or friend or brother.
A lot of borrowing is for covid debt and legal fees

My wife has much higher income, but lent me so much.
4 mths ago, i made a withdrawal of $100k from my corporate account and paid off my friend and my wife. As i do not kept a proper record of how much, i am worried the creditors suspect i am hiding assets

Another complication is my wife borrowed balance transfer at the same period and sent it to crypto wallet to hold in fixed deposits for interests, is this onboarding by StraitsX gonna be sus?
(I had no idea my partner would give up and push for bankruptcy back then)

1b) also sent my friend $60k from this money i withdrew from corporate account 4mths ago i had and I’m worried they complicated my friend. Its pure payment to repay debt.

2. do i have to declare crypto?
   I last dabbled in crypto many years ago and stop when FTX collapsed. I helped my brother do airdrop farming using his wallets and thats it. I dont think i have significant money except maybe $100 here and there
   I’ve a friend who bankrupted and said no one asked abt crypto during filing, checking if its true. He himself had crypto wealth but technically its his wife who bankrupted.

Can i don’t declare this: fear of complications as i used my brother wallet and also my wife’s exchange account. She did use SCB to send to StraitsX money for crypto onboarding.

3. do they go through my phone photos, my emails, my whatsapp, telegram, chrome broswer history like investigating? Or my PC data browser history etc
   Worse: do they go through my spouse’s phone too?

4. when they eventually visit my home to confiscate, what do they look for? My PC is the only valuable thing but i use for work. I cannot imagine they will take my furniture?
   How do they judge what is my wife or what is mine?

Another complication, i am a HDB owner but living in rental condo. I think i have to move back?
I have an old car with bank loan, guess they will make me sell too.

5. lastly my company owes a supplier some money, as we were very close, i want to sell him my company before i bankrupt, and let the counterparty take the full payment (very little) but operate the company without taking over this debt
   I am hoping this would be allowed as i owe him so much for supporting.

6. bankrupt means many big companies would not hire me right? Kinda downward spiral.
   I tried telling the counterparty to let me pay less better pay close to none (5% of full debt is what i heard), since bankrupt means i cannot find a good job also. They would not bulge.
   MP also cannot help as its commercial dispute.

7. lastly for the sake of completeness, any tasks or details i should do or take note. I know someone told me to maximise my credit card loan or business loan before i give up but I’m skeptical there are no additional penalties.

Any DMs and comments are appreciated. May not be active fast as its a long work day for me today

Ps: pls don’t ask me abt how we incurred this debt, its a very long story and my wounds are painful and deep.

EDIT: Thanks all the for comments and perspectives below. Very encouraged to see such lively chatter! A few people have mentioned that this analysis doesn't include inflation, opportunity cost, stamp duties etc + most people sitting on paper losses won't sell. All absolutely fair points, though I thought it would be good to make a clarification.

My intent with the analysis was simply to demonstrate that a fair number of SG private property transactions DO transact at a loss even when just comparing buy and sell prices. These transactions happen in spite of peoples' preferences to not sell at a loss. If we factor those sitting on paper losses, mortgage interest, opportunity costs, those will certainly further worse the loss ratios / actual losses.

To be clear, this isn't to take a view on whether SG property is a good investment or not. Good is subjective. Depends on your time horizon, alternative options, risk tolerance, and the specific property in question. Hard to generalize is my sense.

----------------------

ORIGINAL POST

At a recent dinner, I was chatting with some friends who were thinking about buying private property. Someone in the group mentioned that Sg property "will never lose money", which I think reflects a commonly held view. 

I analyzed historical private property transactions in Singapore from 1995 to 2025 using public data from URA to determine the % of properties that made or lost money and the amount of that gain or loss. This is done using "buy-sell transaction pairs" over this period i.e., if we know how much the same property was transacted for each time, we can figure out how much was made or lost in between. Given that we know the transaction dates, we can also figure out how long the property was held for. 

I used AI to help with the analysis and charting below, but I also manually verified the data using Excel pivots.

Private Property Absolute Returns (1995-2025)

Private Property Annualised Returns (1995-2025)

Returns by District (1995-2005)

Loss rate by purchase year

Here are the high-level observations, 

• Historically, ~1 in 6 private properties were sold at a loss (across all holding periods). If you exclude the late 90s which included the Asian Financial Crisis, then it's closer to ~1 in 10 
• The median return was ~23% for condos with ~3.5% median annual growth rate (CAGR); for landed, it was ~37% and ~4.8% respectively.  
• This puts the average holding period at ~7-8 years, which corroborates well with other sources and anecdotally makes sense
• Landed properties tend to have a fatter tail than condos on the upside 
• Variance of losses across districts can be significant though all districts had positive gains over time period

 

Putting aside "homes should be for living not investment" for a moment, a couple of things to keep in mind, 

• Generally, while SG properties have made money for most, there's still a decent chance of loss, Whether it's 10% or 15% of the time, it clearly happens. And I don't think anyone buys a house thinking they'll lose money. In those cases, people still sold probably due to circumstance even when it would crystallise a loss   
• This is particularly noteworthy given that property is also typically a significant chunk of net worth and a fairly concentrated financial risk.  
• These returns do not consider stamp duty, agent fees, inflation, opportunity cost  etc, which would make the returns less attractive.  
• They also do not consider the impact of leverage that could boost your returns (provided of course the return on the house > the interest rate of your borrowing)

Think a company called Urbanzoom had run a similar analysis a few years ago. Putting this refreshed analysis out here to help to create more informed perspectives as people think about homebuying and their personal financial plans. 

Hey all,

31M; Working in a semiconductor/AI company. Wanted to get some opinions on my current situation.

• Total stock portfolio: ~100k SGD
• Cash: ~17k SGD
• Mostly individual stocks (not ETF-heavy)
• 4.4k SGD take home salary after CPF & ESPP (idk if that matters)

I’m not too concerned about my cash position. My main concern is the market itself.

With how strong things have been lately (especially in tech/AI), I’m starting to feel like we might be getting into bubble territory (this topic been going around for a while now but still). I don’t want to ride my portfolio all the way up and then back down if a major correction happens.

At the same time, I know trying to time the market can go wrong if it keeps running higher. Most of my holdings are in Micron (MU) currently which has run up a lot!

So I’m debating:

• Stay fully invested
• Trim a portion (maybe 20–30%)
• Sell more aggressively (like 50%) to lock in gains

Questions:

1. Would you trim at this stage or just hold through volatility?
2. Is selling ~50% too aggressive?
3. How do you decide when to de-risk vs stay invested?
4. How do you balance locking in gains vs letting winners run?

Appreciate any insights, especially from those who’ve been through previous cycles.

Thanks!

EDIT: To everyone who chimed in so far, thank you!
Yes, I work in semicon and I have a strong conviction that the cycle will continue, at least for a few months. But if something happens midway (say a bearish fundamental news) and my portfolio drops down, that'd be really bad to see. Also, MU is a cyclical stock and it'd take ages for MU to see this kind of numbers should a correction happen.

The reason why I have a large portion of my holdings in micron is because, I used to work there and had my ESPP contributions going on back then when it was USD 60 - 70.

(Formatted with ChatGPT for better readability)

Hi everyone,

I’ve recently cashed out a portion of my portfolio and now have $400k in cash, it's in USD. My goal is to preserve this capital as I plan to buy a house within the next 3–5 years. I’m a foreigner working in Singapore on an Employment Pass, and I hope to become a Permanent Resident in the future. Given this context, what’s the best place to park this liquid cash while keeping it safe and accessible?. Can we buy US treasury bonds?. I’d really appreciate your insights and recommendations.

Been reading a lot of solid advice here, so hoping to get a reality check on our situation.

Profile:

• M42 (PR) / F41 (Singaporean)
• 1 child (13), from previous marriage living with us (my wife has custody). Not planning more kids
• Household income ~20k/month (both in sales / sales-adjacent roles, so not 100% stable - I’ve already gone through a layoff 2 years ago)

Current situation:

• Living in a 4-room BTO HDB (~12 years old), fully owned by my wife (she is paying the loan via CPF, still 18 years left)
• No ownership stake on my side currently

Plan we’re considering:

• Sell the HDB
• Rent for ~6 months in between
• Buy a ~3BR condo (~$1.3M range - looking at Hillview, YCK, Khatib, Yishun, Canberra, possibly along new MRT lines like Upper Serangoon; but pretty open about areas)

Financing:

• Loan mostly covered via CPF OA
• Estimated ~$1,000/month cash top-up (split between us) - may increase after ~3 years
• We have enough savings to cover expenses + loan for ~2–3 years if both of us lose income

Main objective (important):
This is not a lifestyle upgrade.
The goal is long-term retirement positioning:

• Hold condo for ~15-20 years
• Then sell and significantly downgrade
• Also allows me to build ~25% ownership stake vs. none today

Timeline:

• Likely executing this in ~12+ months

Questions / sanity check:

• Does this strategy make sense purely as a retirement play?
• Are we underestimating risks (income volatility, opportunity cost, property market)?
• Anything obvious we’re missing?

Appreciate any perspectives - especially from those who’ve made (or decided against) a similar move.

​

Sold my car 2 yrs back after driving for close to 20 yrs. Took awhile to convince my other half but eventually we made the tough choice. Call it de-cluttering.

Staying beside the mrt certainly helped alot. For context, car was fully paid from day 1 but severely under-utilised.

Call it an expensive symbol, a must have 5C status to show family members that we are cruising in life.

Kids are now very comfortable taking public transport though im still not used to the cigarette smell in grab cars. Family & friends are accommodative to meet at venues beside train stations. We do rent getGo cars from a carpark near us and spent Under 100 a mth on it, bringing kids to far flung parks and destinations.

Car is a luxury tax that is used by gahmen to transfer wealth but it's also seen as a must have esp for young family with kids but I strongly urge everyone to accept wealth flooding into our bank acc, simply by not owning a vehicle.

Transfer that wealth into a bigger property near train station or etf. Besides, other than the ciggy smell, you have the luxury of being sent to the doorstep of your destination without worrying/fighting over carpark lots.

Let others fuel the economy while we hunker down and FIRE.

Impress others not with your material belongings but your unbreakable peace of mind.

I (35F) was recently laid off and very fortunate to be able to take a break before looking for a new job.

Post-layoff I came to the realization that I really have not been managing my finances properly. I have kept nearly all my savings in the bank and fixed deposit.

Is it reasonable to start DCA into ETFs without a job? I was planning to DCA S$2000 into the S&P 500 every month. My monthly expenses hover around $2000 and the mortgage can be serviced by my CPF.

The only unknown is when I will get the next job.

Thanks!

Cash and FDs 690K (20% chunk was recently paid out as retrenchment benefits + bonus)
US equities 160K
Unit Trust 40K
Gold 32K
Crypto 3K
Endowus 1K

CPF OA 165K
Outstanding mortgage (my half) 316K

Edit: Not very investment savvy and quite cowardly (when it comes to investments) because losing any amount of money seems very scary to me! A 20% chunk of the cash amount was also recently paid out as part of a retrenchment package and bonus.

Edit 2: Idk why some readers are so triggered. I grew up not talking about money very much, it was a very taboo topic at home. All my parents told me to do was get a good job and every dollar saved is a dollar earned.

Ironically, my dad was in banking but he never sat a single one of his kids down to talk about investing. The mantra was to save, save, and save some more.

I have about 100k cash and planning to invest for the long term (5+ years). Risk tolerance probably moderate.

Currently thinking of doing something like:

majority into ETFs

smaller portion into semiconductors / AI

But semis have already run quite a bit, so not sure if I should start now or wait a bit.

Would you just DCA in, or hold off for now?

Thanks!