What Is A Regular Savings Plan and Getting The Best RSPs

When you hear the term “save money,” it means to preserve it in a traditional container, such as a piggybank or low-yield savings account. However, to save money in a real sense means to preserve your money’s value during the present time you’ve earned it. With this in mind, the line between “saving” and “investing” money gets blurred and opens up opportunities for new products such as regular savings plans (RSP).

In this short post, you’ll learn all about them and the best places to use RSPs.

What is a Regular Savings Plan?

A regular savings plan will have a saver deposit the same amount regularly into an investment account that a broker maintains and runs. This “saves money” by paying for an investment account in installments of S $100 or more.

This plan’s “savings” aspect isn’t the original savings account context but the investment in either conservative or growth/aggressive portfolios. Thus, RSPs are savings plans because you can invest a minimum of S $100 as an example and use dollar-cost averaging to get enormous profit from your investments. Read more on how to save money in Singapore.

What is Dollar-Cost Averaging?

Dollar-cost averaging is a technique for reducing the risk of investing in securities. The strategy involves making equal dollar investments at regular intervals regardless of the share price. Dollar-cost averaging will cause an investor to buy more shares when prices are low and fewer shares when the price is high.

Here’s an example of potential earnings you can get by using dollar-cost averaging with a S $500 monthly investment amount.

10 Best Regular Savings Plans in Singapore 2022

Get started on the best RSPs in Singapore by trying out these 10 leading plans and brokers that can potentially give you massive returns.

1. dollarDEX by Aviva

Key Features 

• Owned by Aviva/Singlife
• A complete platform for unit trust and mutual fund investors
• Zero sales, platform, or switching fees
• Annual management fees only
• Multiple investor profiles for portfolio creation and recommendations

Overview

Aviva-owned dollarDEX is one of the best investment platforms to start your venture with RSPs. With zero sales, platform, and other fees, except for that annual fund management fee, you can save plenty while using dollarDEX. 

On the other hand, the platform can benefit from having much more investment products aside from just unit trusts, mutual funds, and recommended managed portfolios. While it does help to get low-risk portfolio focusing recommendations, having much more selections for each risk appetite profile can maximize your monthly investment amount.

In addition, dollarDEX can benefit from having a mobile application for quick fund rerouting and taking advantage of recommendations while on the go.

2. FSMOne

Key Features 

• Owned by iFAST Corporation
• Operates in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, India, and China
• Has a wide variety of investment and insurance products (Stocks, ETFs, Structured Warrants, Daily Leveraged Certificates, bonds, funds, and managed portfolios)
• Per trade fees

Overview

FSMOne is owned by iFAST Corporation, a household name in Singaporean finance. This RSP platform allows you to start investing at S $50, S $100, and S $500 for its ETFs, UTs, and managed portfolios respectively. Your monthly fixed sum payments go to the various investment and insurance products that you can find in your custom portfolios and other financial instruments, which include stocks, structured warrants, bonds, funds, and more.

FSM One’s advantage over the competition is its low commission fees that investors accrue per trade. Paying at 0.08% if you’re trading in US and HK exchanges is much lower than the typical 0.1-0.3% you get by using bank-run online brokerages. Plus, the flat S $8.80 per financial instrument trade commission fee is relatively low if you’re trading higher volumes of financial instruments.

However, the S $8.80 commission charge can hit investors who make light investments well below the S $1,000 mark. It defeats the purpose of dollar-cost averaging if the S $8.80 is going to eat away easily at your S $50 initial investment.

3. OCBC Blue Chip Investment Plan 

Key Features 

• Fixed ETF investments
• Access to 21 financial instruments in the market
• Costs about S $1-S $2 per month on average
• Cash or SRS payment options
• Includes CapitaLand, ComfortDelGro, SembCorp, SingTel, and NikkoAM holdings
• Cost-effective fees for either new or old investors

Overview

OCBC Blue Chip Investment Plan (BCIP) is one of the best choices for investors looking to embed themselves in high-quality assets. They can easily spot the inclusion of CapitaLand, ComfortDelGro, SembCorp, and other blue-chip companies in Singapore to consider using the platform to start investing.

BCIP allows you to invest your S $100 monthly using cash or SRS. Using cash will have you pay S $100 on a monthly basis. On the other hand, SRS payments are automatically deducted from your account at any time, usually during the first or second week of the month. Then, OCBC securities safeguard all the financial instrument purchases you’ve made.

One of BCIP’s biggest benefits is the wide selection of financial instruments available. While they aren’t the most affordable counters around, they guarantee stability and growth for your investments. For example, Nikko AM, CapitaLand, and SingTel are some of the strongest assets in the market and are a typical component of any effective long-term investment strategy.

However, if you’re a new customer below 30 years old, you’re paying higher fees (0.88%) for your investments than older customers above the age, who only pay 0.3%. Plus, the securities you purchase do not guarantee AGMs’ inclusion and give you voting rights. But still, BCIP is one of the best ways to benefit from blue-chip stocks at any time.

4. SAXO Regular Savings Plan

Key Features 

• Affordable and curated portfolios
• Advanced technical analysis and market tools
• No platform, custody, entry, and exit fees
• High-quality, risk profile-oriented portfolios
• Invest in Blackrock and Lion Global portfolios
• Minimum S $2,000 investment and S $100 monthly contributions
• 0.75% service fee charged yearly

Overview

Both Blackrock and Lion Global works with SAXO to bring their portfolios to the global market. The result is an RSP with virtually zero fees except for its yearly service fee, allowing investors to earn much from their dollar cost averaging venture. 

SAXO RSP is directly under Blackrock and Lion Global’s portfolios. It requires an enormous initial investment of S $2,000 and regularly provides S $100 deposits to maintain your balance. 

Once you’ve registered and confirmed your account, SAXO RSP will provide you with a great selection of top-notch assets, including Blackrock’s huge iShares financial instruments and Lion Global’s selection of Nikko AM assets that can build your wealth in no time.

However, the huge minimum amount and subsequent deposits might not work well for starting investors with small capital. But still, having only a service fee for dealing with yearly is an effective investment of your S $2,000 and time to SAXO RSP.

5. POEMS Share Builders Plan

Key Features 

• Choose from over 40 financial instruments, including stocks, bonds, UTs, and other assets from over 50 countries
• Low starting amount at S $100
• Web and mobile accessible platform
• Excellent technical analysis tools
• Advanced features including news, research reports, SGX market depth
• Zero platform fees
• Carefully-managed portfolios

Overview

POEMS by Phillip Capital is a well-known platform for many investors because of its convenient web and mobile-accessible platform, low fees, and a great selection of assets. POEMS’ Share Builders Plan focuses on fixed-dollar amount investments that help you buy a consistent amount of securities and shares for the long-term. 

With just S $100, you can get started building your portfolio using POEMS 2.0. In addition, registering a single POEMS account gives you maximum use of other POEMS features, including its excellent technical analysis tools, advanced news, SGX market depth, and other features, zero platform fees, and carefully-managed portfolios.

6. MoneyOwl

Key Features 

• S $100 one-time or S $50 monthly investments
• Joint venture between NTUC Enterprise and Providend
• iFast acts as custodian
• Integrates technology with human advisory
• No sales charges
• 0.65% advisory fee (human)
• 0.18% custodian fee

Overview

MoneyOwl is one of the best Robo advisors that offers algorithm and human advisory. Most Robo-advisors use algorithms to provide recommendations, but their data isn’t enough to justify most of their recommendations. A human touch always provides insight, and MoneyOwl uses Dimensional Fund Advisors in managing their portfolios. 

Using evidence-based strategies, Dimensional diversifies market-based returns using factors and perspectives they have tried and proven before. These methods helped them beat the market and increase their asset’s profitability.

MoneyOwl has five portfolios available and based on investor risk appetites: Equity, Growth, Balanced, Moderate, and Conservative. Dimensional’s Global Core Equity Fund, Emerging Markets Large Cap Core Equity Fund, and Global Short Fixed Income Fund make up these portfolios with various assets to help your cash grow.

Unfortunately, MoneyOwl doesn’t have mobile applications and isn’t web-friendly. Plus, it has less technical analysis tools for independent investors who do not want to use their human financial advisors.

7. DBS/POSB Invest Saver

Key Features 

• Includes ETFs and UTs
• Includes Nikko AM Singapore, SGD Fixed Income ETFs, REIT ETFs
• 0.50% per Bond ETF transaction monthly
• 0.82% per ETF transaction 
• S $100 monthly every 15th of the month.

Overview

DBS or POSB’s Invest Saver is one of the leading RSP available because it has no lock-in period and includes many of Singapore’s highest-performing assets, including Nikko AM Singapore, SGD Fixed Income ETFs, and many REITs in the country. For just S $100 that deducts itself automatically from your account every 15th monthly, you can start investing.

You can use cash to pay for ETFs and cash or SRS for unit trusts. However, DBS/POSB Invest Saver has no custom portfolios that depend on your risk profile. Therefore, conservative and aggressive investors should conduct in-depth research to understand their portfolio’s performance. Experienced investors may find much higher value with this RSP, even though it lacks technical analysis features.

In addition, you can only buy whole units of ETFs and no fractional units. Therefore, you’re getting the entire ETF benefit, potentially yielding high returns in the future. Alternatively, Invest Saver’s Unit Trusts are actively managed by the best DBS/POSB managers, so you can be sure that your money is in good hands.

8. Syfe

Key Features 

• Zero platform fees
• 0.65-0.35% varying management fee depending on your account tier 
• Four core investment portfolios
• Zero minimum deposit
• A safe starting RSP for most investors

Overview

Syfe isn’t an exclusive RSP, but it functions like one. In many ways, this Robo-advisor is better than some savings plans because you can invest any amount on it per month. In doing so, you achieve the same objective as dollar-cost averaging – paying any amount to buy when it’s low and buy enough when it’s high. Of course, how much you can buy depends on the deposit you make.

Syfe has four core investment portfolios with ETFs, UTs, and other assets to help it maintain and improve its performance. These are based on the typical archetypes ranging from conservative to fully aggressive investment portfolios.

For example, the Syfe Core Portfolio has stock, bond, and gold ETFs for higher volatility that can increase the risk of losses or increases. This portfolio has a defensive, balanced, and growth/aggressive variant. On the other hand, the Syfe REIT+ portfolio focuses on Singapore’s iEdge s–REIT 20 Index that tracks blue-chip REITs in Singapore. 

With all these benefits mentioned, Syfe’s only drawback is that it’s a Robo-advisor without any human aspect. However, it does have an excellent customer service feature that’s open 24/7 and has addressed many customer concerns in the past.

9. Endowus

Key Features

• Immediate ownership of UOB Kay Hian account
• Minimum maintaining balance of S $1,000
• Zero platform fees
• 0.05-0.60% annual management fees
• Includes Dimensional, Schroeder, Lion Global, and PIMCO assets

Overview

Endowus closely works with the Monetary Authority Singapore and CPF. It’s a Robo-advisor that integrates your CPF savings and SRS accounts as an investment option. It’s challenging to invest in your CPF-OA because of the limited choices, but thankfully, Endowus is an excellent one to use.

Versus other Robo-advisors as RSPs in this list, Endowus has one of the largest minimum deposits possible at S $1,000, but you can easily use your CPF-OA or SRS to pay for it if you’re short on cash. In exchange, you have access to many mutual funds, ETFs, and UTs that can possibly increase your cash’s value.

Endowus’ cash and SRS portfolios include top-performing assets from Dimensional and Lion Global, such as Dimensional Global Core Equity Fund and Lion Global Infinity U.S. 500 Stock Index Fund. Alternatively, CPF portfolios have both Schroeder and Lion Global Assets that you can use.

The only downside to Endowus is the huge minimum deposit, which partly defeats the purpose of RSPs. However, it can still work as an RSP if you have enough cash to deposit into it.

10. Stashaway

Key Features

• Zero minimum deposit required
• 0.20-0.80% annual management fees
• Includes iShares, Vanguard, SPDR gold shares, and other assets
• Beginner risk profile testing and recommendations
• Two investment portfolio profiles

Overview

Stashaway is one of the first Robo-advisors to ever exist in Singapore. It rose to popularity because of its accessibility and low fees that Syfe soon contested, enabling the market to remain competitive. Stashaway offers the world’s best assets in the form of ETFs and provides two main investment portfolios to choose from

Stashaway offers iShares and Vanguard assets included in its ETFs. For no fee at all to deposit (meaning you can deposit any amount you want). Stashaway doesn’t charge any platform fees, so you can simply invest and pay for the 0.20-0.80% annual management fee instead.

The Robo-advisor will ask for your permission to rebalance your portfolio automatically, allowing you to take advantage of short market movements and avoid heavy losses. However, its efficiency depends on long-term investments rather than short-term day trading, which can be a turn off for some investors.

A Recap

Here’s a nifty table to summarize all the essential features and qualities of the RSPs we’ve recommended above.

Based on this table, Robo-advisors are the most accessible RSPs because of their zero investment requirements. However, their main downside are the minimum investment prices for specific assets. For example, some ETFs in Syfe require you to buy a specific amount of NAVPU (Net Asset Value Per Unit) of their portfolios. It will take some time before your monthly investments can buy these NAVPUs for you.

On the other hand, you have easy access to other accounts for just S $100 or more with non-Robo-advisor accounts. Their only downside is the fewer asset selections available from their portfolios. For example, OCBC Blue Chip Investment Plan focuses on blue chip companies and REITs in Singapore, limiting you only to UTs and ETFs pertaining to these assets.

How Much Should You Use For Monthly Investment?

RSPs are excellent in maintaining a conservative investor’s portfolio value. On the other hand, a S $100 minimum investment can hurt average budgets. Here are some great guidelines to help you save cash for your monthly investments.

Your Income

Your financial situation is one of the key factors in determining your monthly investments. If you have a high income, you may be able to invest higher per month. At the very least, a S $100-S $500 contribution wouldn’t affect your monthly budgets. But if you have a low income, it can be challenging to set aside the same amounts because of your tight budget. In this case, you can choose to save small amounts to meet one-time investments for various RSPs, if applicable.

Your Savings

RSPs rely on your savings, the monthly contributions you deposit. Keep in mind that these are separate from your rainy-day funds, which are fully liquid and accessible in case of accidents, emergencies, or unemployment. Thus, if you plan to use RSPs, have an established amount of savings from your income for your emergency use, too.

The Fees Involved In Your Investments

One of the most daunting tasks for any investor is to pay the smallest amount of transaction fees possible. Investment fees can end up extremely affordable or expensive. Sometimes, what seems to be an affordable investment fee actually leaves you paying higher. With this in mind, keep in mind to do your research before committing to new accounts or funds.

How Are Regular Savings Investment Portfolios Helpful?

Monthly investments help investors spread risk in the event of market downturns and other unexpected events. Dollar-cost averaging works to keep investors in full control while giving them the peace of mind that they’ll never miss out on a month’s worth of returns or lose so much from market activities.

Our Final Thoughts

Regular savings plans are an excellent and helpful solution that gives investors of all incomes and experiences a way to preserve their portfolio’s value through dollar cost averaging mitigation. Get the best deals from the ideal financial institutions we’ve included in this list.

• A regular savings plan (RSP) is the modern version of savings accounts with a focus on using assets to preserve the cash value you’ve deposited.
• RSPs increase your asset value by taking advantage of dollar cost averaging, allowing you to buy stocks during its low performance and easily cut losses.
• Many RSPs offer you high and low-risk portfolio focusing on various assets and categories.
• Some RSPs have zero minimum deposit or platform fees, too.
• Make sure you have enough in your budget to save using RSPs and using cash that you can liquidate during emergencies.

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