When the market is up for most, it’s easy to feel smart, but the truth is, historical evidence shows that investors lose out by large margins when they trade frequently or try to pick the winning asset or stock.

If you had known that markets would go through two bear markets over the next four years, would you invest? The first (Jan-Mar 2020) resulted in a decline of -21.37% . The second bear (most of 2022) saw global stocks decline -25.63%. And yet, the cumulative returns over the past four years is +44.22%.

2024 & 2020 is starting to look pretty similar — all-time market highs, Federal Reserve looking to cut interest rates, and yet another Biden vs Trump election contest. Yet, investors who stayed the course during this period would’ve been rewarded with around +40% (global markets) from then to now.

Interest rates are almost inherently impossible to predict with any practical level of accuracy, and thus making financial decisions based on their forecast is a fool’s errand.

Let’s examine dividend paying stocks, REITs, and the total-return portfolio approach when it comes to generating an income in your later years.

With current interest rates, many investors are unwilling to leave the safety of cash with more than US$6 trillion sitting in money market funds now. However, sitting in cash and earning 5% per year has actually been costly for investors.

There are various ways to structure sustainable, and long-term income generation from your investment assets which reside out of the CPF scheme.

The value of a real adviser can often times be hard to quantify because following good advice tends to keep you out of trouble — and like looking through a good pair of glasses, you often forget they’re there, until they aren’t.

The cost you pay for high levels of certainty in investment is reflected in the difference in return you receive compared to riskier assets.

Despite global stocks giving positive returns 74% of the time since the 1970s, the individual investor experience can starkly differ based on the regime of market that you were in.

Higher interest rates means a higher cost of borrowing for both you and companies, but it also means better opportunities to grow your savings through instruments like T-bills and our Capital Holding account

Research and data show that for both developed and emerging economies, there is no clear pattern to linking market returns with the economy. GDP reports and recession calls are just one of many data points to consider in investments.

Research shows that global markets give a historical average return of 7% p.a., however almost none of the individual years gave that exact return. The actual investment experience has to account for the variability in annual returns, e.g. 2022(-18%) and 2023 (+22%).

Did you know that since the S&P 500 index was created in 1957, it has made 1,186 new all-time highs? A new high every 14 trading days. Studies show that that all-time highs lead to a continuation of the bull market 99.2% of the time.

A lot has been said in the financial media after the S&P 500 and Dow made new record highs but stock markets hit all time highs frequently; they’re supposed to.

It is interesting if we examine the Magnificent 7 from 2022, 3 out of 7 would still be sitting on losses. The largest loser being would be Tesla, with two-year total return of -32.58% — despite posting a whooping +102% return in 2023.

Most people don’t have enough money saved to be able to live adequately in retirement without earning some kind of investment return. In the simplest terms, by not investing, you risk outliving your money.

Global stocks seemed to be on track to beat its longest record of advance without a significant decline from 2009-2021 — 13 years before markets declined by -20.8% in 2022. After a positive 2023, how long will this next run of positive returns last?