How to Start Investing In Your 20s & 30s For Retirement (Part 2/2)

More millennials in Singapore jumped on the investment bandwagon in 2020 to take advantage of the incredible stock market rally. But do they know about the risks they're taking with their money? With a longer runway to retirement, what mistakes do they need to avoid for a better chance at reaching their retirement goals?

Heidhar, a single 29-year-old engineer, and Gwen, a young mother who's taking a break from work to care for her family, share their investment challenges.

Financial experts Christopher Tan from Providend and Jolene Ong from the Institute for Financial Literacy weigh in on what Heidhar and Gwen are doing right, and wrong, with their money.

Produced in partnership with MoneySense.

(HEIDHAR)
00:00 Introduction
00:59 What his budget looks like
01:50 The 20/30/50 Budget Rule
02:37 How much money to set aside for emergencies
03:04 Whole life plan or term insurance plan?
04:26 Fundamental principles of investment
05:53 Should you top up your CPF accounts?
06:54 Rule of 72: How long it takes for your investment to double
07:51 His retirement strategy & the risks
08:32 What you can learn from Heidhar

(GWEN)
09:01 Introduction
10:19 Double income household to single income: Challenges
10:44 A creative way to use your credit card
11:23 How much emergency fund does one need?
11:46 Saving with goals in mind
12:06 How couples should manage their finances
13:23 Should you invest in cryptocurrencies?
15:10 When to start planning for retirement?
15:48 Is our CPF money ours?
16:33 Investing in endowment plans vs topping up CPF Special Account
17:22 Advice for Gwen
18:17 How much savings should you have by age 35?

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[violetlopez]

I’m not good doing it alone but getting into the market has been my best decision so far in my road to financial independence as it turned out lucrative for me.

[IanAlwaysLearning]

Don't understand, school need to include investments as a subject.

[lck]

This two even worst than the last two advisors. Everything also CPF. Never cover inflation. Never cover market returns, everything also rely on budgeting.

I dont know whether this is advice for 20-30 or 40-50. If 20-30 cannot take high risk then who can?

[muingoheng]

Really appreciate Mr Tan encouragement/advice to Gwen fr18:20. A successful life need not be define as loads of money in the bank at retirement.

[koruspring]

A lot of people think you can get rich from investment. That's wrong. Investment help you keep your rich. Only teaching investment will make you rich.

[Susanne-zuku]

Amazing video, A friend of mine referred me to a financial adviser sometime ago and we got talking about investment and money. I started investing with $120k and in the first 2 months, my portfolio was reading $274, 800. Crazy right!, I decided to reinvest my profit and gets more interesting. For over a year we have been working together making consistent profit just bought my second home 2 weeks ago and care for my family.

[Joe-toee]

CNA as a Singaporean Media channel, places so much emphasis on the importance of CPF. Well, its sponsored by the Singaporean government after all hahah.
Doing some simple homework and investing in an ETF like the S&P 500 / SPY beats the 4% returns by a long shot.
Staywoke Salaryman

[jaspm]

Never get crypto investment advice from people that doesn't understand crypto 😂🌈

[JayM-isjs]

*I* *just* *made* *my* *first* *$20, 000* *in* *cryptocurrency* *I'm* *so* *glad* *I'm* *gonna* *have* *a* *successful* *retirement.*

[wt]

At 20+ I don't understand any terms they used. Oh all I learnt from school is animal cells do not have cell wall

[rocky]

Lol cryptocurrencies are highly speculative.You are NGMI.Boomer thinking...

[lucretius]

Economics should really be part of the education system, unfortunately we are still forced to learn things that most of us will barely use in life.

[NicholasYg]

I find it quite staggering to know not a lot of Singaporeans own stocks, capital gains are not taxed here. Everyone should put in a bit of effort to learn the basics of investments.

[samlai]

CPF FRS 186, 000 is 2021 rate. Is this rate still valid for Gwendolin Mah, who is only 33 yo at 2021 + SG ruling party ever changing policieis on minimum sum ?

[jamesmadison]

Heidhar is single and he does the 20, 30, 50 rule. i am married with 2 kids but i save more than 70 percent of my take home pay. I dont earn alot, just a little abit higher than the median income. But my wife is working as well and she saves 70 percent of her take home pay. We have a maid too but i pay my maid's salary from my liquid cash savings that i have..so dont really touch our existing monthly salaries. I do the cooking most of the time so we dont necessary waste money dining out. I do have alot of cash savings in high yield accounts but didnt touch investing as i have zero clue. For now this works for me still.

With zero investing knowledge, which is a low risk investment tool that can almost guarantee ( i know its not guaranteed) at least 3 percent?

[afiqsejuk]

Crypto has me given me returns which I have never dreamt of. LOLS

[eddy-currents]

It's funny how people keep mocking cryptocurrency as an asset class - yes, it's volatile, but it isn't only about speculation. They can keep mocking crypto as they had for the past decade, but I'll keep making money off of it in both the bull and bear markets. Glad to be financially independent before I even start working - no thanks to CPF

[ShoppingwithRina]

Very great I’m trying so hard to be minimalist

[MrBoliao]

Singapore got way too much CPF, seriously cannot have so much ordinary acct money flooding the property market and jacking prices

[johnlong]

I am a Portfolio / Fund Manager. Forget about all these fake pros. The safest investment is to purchase an Index like S&P500. No single or professional fund manager has ever been able to beat the indices consistently over the long term like 50 years.