On this period of high-yield financial savings accounts supplied by banks, do you know that our SRS funds yield solely 0.05% p.a.? If you wish to shield your SRS funds from shedding buying energy on account of inflation, think about investing in ETFs, which may doubtlessly supply greater returns.
Disclosure: This submit is dropped at you in collaboration with Nikko Asset Administration. All analysis and opinions are that of my very own, and shouldn't be taken as monetary recommendation to your particular state of affairs(s) as I do know nothing about your particular person monetary circumstances, danger tolerance or funding aims. I extremely advocate that you just use this as a place to begin to know extra concerning the varied ETFs supplied by NikkoAM which you should use for SRS investing, after which click on into the respective hyperlinks above to retrieve the fund prospectus and efficiency in order that will help you resolve whether or not it matches into your funding aims.
With the yr coming to an finish, some people are topping up their Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) accounts to scale back their tax invoice when It’s time to file tax returns within the new yr.
When you’re making an attempt to do the identical, bear in mind to finish your funds switch inside this month – by 31 December of every yr – as a way to qualify for the tax aid in your tax invoice served to you in April.

However what occurs after you prime up your SRS?
When you’re responsible of leaving the funds idle in your account, that’s a giant missed alternative as a result of over time, inflation alone would negate any tax advantages you get from contributing to your SRS account. Your cash not solely loses its buying energy every year, however you’re additionally lacking out on the prospect to have grown the cash for greater returns that will earn you extra than simply 0.05% each year. Nevertheless, you’ll need to pay attention to and handle the funding dangers of being uncovered to the monetary markets whenever you put your SRS monies to work, vs leaving it in your checking account to earn 0.05% pa curiosity.
Though most banks have raised their rates of interest over the previous few years, this doesn’t apply to your SRS account. Go forward and test – you’re nonetheless solely incomes 50 cents for each $1,000 saved. When you had maximized your SRS contributions to scale back your earnings tax, that’s solely $7.65 on each $15,300!
When you requested me, I believe it’s foolish to only contribute to your SRS account; you’ll need to speculate your funds as nicely.
What do individuals make investments their SRS funds in?
To get an concept of what most individuals make investments their SRS cash in, you may refer to those statistics launched by the Ministry of Finance right here, which exhibits that the preferred instruments used are:
- insurance coverage (25%)
- shares, actual property funding trusts (REITs) or change traded funds (ETFs) (25%)
- Singapore Authorities Bonds, Company Bonds, International Foreign money Mounted Deposits and Fund Administration (Others) (21%)
- unit trusts (11%)

[1] “Others” comprise of Singapore Authorities Bonds, Company Bonds, International Foreign money Mounted Deposits and Fund Administration
Single Premium Insurance coverage Insurance policies
Shopping for a single premium insurance coverage plan has usually been a very fashionable possibility amongst SRS account holders. These are normally your endowment or annuity plans, that are bought by insurance coverage brokers and are designed to offer a lump sum payout at maturity or a gradual stream of earnings sooner or later, ranging from a date* of your selection. Its attractiveness lies in the truth that a portion of funding returns is normally assured, which explains why such insurance policy have historically been well-received amongst those that are extra conservative.
*Sidenote: you would possibly need to set a date after you flip 62 years previous, or later. That is so that you received’t incur the 5% early withdrawal penalty and be subjected to solely 50% of the withdrawn quantity being taxable.
Shares, REITs or ETFs?
When you’re in search of investments with decrease charges, then shopping for particular person shares, REITs or ETFs instantly from an change may be extra of your cup of tea as in comparison with non-listed merchandise.
And if you happen to desire to not handle particular person counters, then investing by ETFs can present a cheap method that additionally takes much less time to analyse and monitor. A single ETF may help you obtain diversification as you’re uncovered to totally different firms and industries, and diversification can typically assist to dilute volatilities coming from the person inventory counters. .
For instance, the Nikko AM Singapore STI ETF –tracks the highest 30 firms listed on the SGX-ST Mainboard ranked by full market capitalisation.– and has a low whole expense ratio (TER)of 0.26% p.a (audited as of economic interval ended 30 June 2024) and the ETF has a TER cap of 0.25% p.a.2.
Over the long-run, particularly if you happen to intend to speculate long-term to your SRS monies earlier than withdrawing them in your retirement years, placing this sum to work will assist keep away from having its worth being eroded by inflation.
Bonds
1 in 5 SRS account holders have presently invested their monies in bonds, which usually come issued with mounted maturity dates, permitting you as an investor to know when you may anticipate to obtain your principal again. What’s extra, bonds are common for his or her mounted earnings payouts (generally known as “coupons”) which works again into your SRS account.
Some examples of bonds that you can spend money on together with your SRS funds are the Singapore Authorities Securities (SGS) bonds and Treasury Payments (T-Payments), which have a minimal utility quantity of S$1,000 and is topic to a $2 transaction payment.
When you desire to spend money on a basket of bonds reasonably than handle particular person bond positions your self, then different options you can take a look at embrace the ABF Singapore Bond Index Fund which invests primarily in Singapore authorities/government-linked bonds, or the Nikko AM SGD Funding Grade Company Bond ETF which tracks the iBoxx SGD Non-Sovereigns Massive Cap Funding Grade Index, which is made up of funding grade bonds issued primarily by established and credible Singaporean firms (equivalent to DBS and Singtel)* and Singaporean statutory boards.
*as of 31 October 2024
Try this text: Are Bond ETFs price investing in?
Unit Trusts
As you may see from the desk, unit trusts are another choice that SRS buyers go for. A fast search on FSMOne’s Funds & ETF Selector with “SRS” chosen because the cost methodology will present up its complete universe of roughly 1,230 funds for buyers to select from.

These unit trusts are actively managed by a fund supervisor. As such, lively administration charges will apply.
What ETFs can I take advantage of my SRS funds for?
Your SRS monies can be utilized to buy any ETFs listed on SGX, the place there are presently over 70 forms of ETFs you can select from. You should use a inventory screener equivalent to FSMOne’s Funds & ETF Selector to filter by and see what is sensible to you (see beneath screenshot).

A few of the extra outstanding names embrace the Nikko AM Singapore STI ETF, which has a 1-year return of 21.92% as of 31 Oct 2024,* or the NikkoAM-Straits Buying and selling Asia ex Japan REIT ETF that has persistently been paying distributions 4 instances a yr, for the previous 7 years^.
*Returns are calculated on a NAV-NAV foundation and assuming all dividends and distributions are reinvested, if any. Previous efficiency will not be indicative of future efficiency. Please consult with the Fund factsheet for the total vary of returns.^Distributions are usually not assured and are on the absolute discretion of the Supervisor. Any distribution is anticipated to end in a right away discount of Fund’s NAV. Distributions could also be paid out of capital which can end in capital erosion and discount within the Fund’s NAV, which will probably be mirrored within the redemption value of the Items.
The charges you pay for such passively-managed funds are usually low. Right here’s the overall fund charges buyers can anticipate to pay on the above 4 funds:
Supply: Nikko AM web site, November 2024
Footnotes:1 Audited as of economic interval ended 30 Jun 2024. Administration Price and Trustee Price are included within the calculation of Complete Expense Ratio.
2 Audited as of economic interval ended 30 Jun 2024. The Supervisor has lowered the cap on the overall expense ratio of the Fund to 0.25% each year of the Deposited Property with impact from 1 December 2023. Any charges and bills which can be payable by the Fund and are in extra of 0.25% each year of the Deposited Property will probably be borne by the Supervisor and never the Fund.
3 Audited as of economic interval ended 30 Jun 2024. Administration Price and Trustee Price are included within the calculation of Complete Expense Ratio.
4 Audited as of economic interval ended 30 Jun 2024. The Supervisor intends to cap the overall expense ratio at 0.55% each year. Any charges and bills which can be payable by the Fund and are in extra of 0.55% each year of the Deposited Property will probably be borne by the Supervisor and never the Fund.
Nevertheless, notice that apart from the overall expense ratio, additionally, you will incur brokerage charges every time you make a purchase or promote transaction. To attenuate this, some SRS buyers could select to speculate solely a couple of times a yr, however if you happen to desire to not attempt timing the markets and do dollar-cost averaging as a substitute, then you may arrange a Common Financial savings Plan (RSP) to speculate persistently each month, whatever the buying and selling value.
Sponsored Message
Do you know? Buyers can now use their SRS monies to purchase ETFs utilizing the ETF RSP characteristic on FSMOne so that you can make investments commonly with zero processing charges on every buy!

- FSMOne is operating an SRS promo from 1st November 2024 until 31st Jan 2025.
- This SRS promo is obtainable for all SRS-enabled ETFs.
- The SRS promo mechanism is as follows:
ETF Internet Funding Quantity *(Regular Purchase + ETF RSP Purchase – Promote) **Qualifying Interval from 1st November 2024 until 31st Jan 2025 | Present SRS Buyers | New SRS Buyers (i.e. haven’t carried out any SRS transaction on FSMOne platform earlier than) |
S$10,000 – S$19,999 | S$10 + S$5* | S$20 + S$5* |
S$20,000 – S$49,999 | S$20 + S$5* | S$40 + S$5* |
S$50,000 and above | S$50 + S$5* | S$100 + S$5* |
*You possibly can earn a further S$5 bonus whenever you make investments at the least S$10,000 in mixture into any Nikko AM ETF by your SRS account and assembly the required Internet Funding Quantity.
Go to Nikko AM ETF web site to search out all their ETFs. There are 4 Nikko AM ETFs which you’ll be able to make investments utilizing your SRS :
To learn extra about easy methods to make investments utilizing SRS, go to spend money on ETFs utilizing SRS.
TL;DR Conclusion
No matter your most well-liked frequency, it is very important notice that permitting your SRS funds to stay idle in your checking account could end in missed alternatives for potential progress. When you’ve been procrastinating, Funds Babe is telling you now: make at present the final day you accomplish that.
Notice: Whereas ETFs present a fuss-free method to make investments, you must notice that each one investments are usually not with out dangers. Particularly, key dangers of the ETFs talked about embrace market and credit score dangers, liquidity dangers, product-specific dangers together with monitoring error dangers, danger related to the funding technique of the Fund or an absence of discretion by the Supervisor to adapt to market adjustments, rising market dangers (as well as for the ABF Singapore Bond Index Fund), and rate of interest danger and credit score danger (as well as for Nikko AM SGD Funding Grade Company Bond ETF). Investments within the Fund may be uncovered to different dangers of an distinctive nature every now and then. Please consult with the Fund Prospectus and Product Highlights Sheet for additional particulars.
Necessary Data by Nikko Asset Administration Asia Restricted: This doc is solely for informational functions solely as a right given to the precise funding goal, monetary state of affairs and explicit wants of any particular particular person. It shouldn't be relied upon as monetary recommendation. Any securities talked about herein are for illustration functions solely and shouldn't be construed as a suggestion for funding. It's best to search recommendation from a monetary adviser earlier than making any funding. Within the occasion that you just select not to take action, you must think about whether or not the funding chosen is appropriate for you. Investments in funds are usually not deposits in, obligations of, or assured or insured by Nikko Asset Administration Asia Restricted (“Nikko AM Asia”). Previous efficiency or any prediction, projection or forecast will not be indicative of future efficiency. The Fund or any underlying fund could use or spend money on monetary by-product devices. The worth of models and earnings from them could fall or rise. Investments within the Fund are topic to funding dangers, together with the doable lack of principal quantity invested. It's best to learn the related prospectus (together with the danger warnings) and product highlights sheet of the Fund, which can be found and could also be obtained from appointed distributors of Nikko AM Asia or our web site (www.nikkoam.com.sg) earlier than deciding whether or not to spend money on the Fund. The knowledge contained herein might not be copied, reproduced or redistributed with out the categorical consent of Nikko AM Asia. Whereas affordable care has been taken to make sure the accuracy of the knowledge as on the date of publication, Nikko AM Asia doesn't give any guarantee or illustration, both categorical or implied, and expressly disclaims legal responsibility for any errors or omissions. Data could also be topic to alter with out discover. Nikko AM Asia accepts no legal responsibility for any loss, oblique or consequential damages, arising from any use of or reliance on this doc. This commercial has not been reviewed by the Financial Authority of Singapore. The efficiency of the ETF’s value on the Singapore Alternate Securities Buying and selling Restricted (“SGX-ST”) could also be totally different from the online asset worth per unit of the ETF. The ETF may be suspended or delisted from the SGX-ST. Itemizing of the models doesn't assure a liquid marketplace for the models. Buyers ought to notice that the ETF differs from a typical unit belief and models could solely be created or redeemed instantly by a collaborating vendor in massive creation or redemption models. The Central Provident Fund (“CPF”) Unusual Account (“OA”) rate of interest is the legislated minimal 2.5% each year, or the 3-month common of main native banks' rates of interest, whichever is greater, reviewed quarterly. The rate of interest for Particular Account (“SA”) is presently 4% each year or the 12-month common yield of 10-year Singapore Authorities Securities plus 1%, whichever is greater, reviewed quarterly. Solely monies in extra of $20,000 in OA and $40,000 in SA could be invested underneath the CPF Funding Scheme (“CPFIS”). Please consult with the web site of the CPF Board for additional info. Buyers ought to notice that the relevant rates of interest for the CPF accounts and the phrases of CPFIS could also be various by the CPF Board every now and then. The models of Nikko AM Singapore STI ETF are usually not in any approach sponsored, endorsed, bought or promoted by FTSE Worldwide Restricted ("FTSE"), the London Inventory Alternate Plc (the "Alternate"), The Monetary Instances Restricted ("FT") SPH Information Companies Pte Ltd ("SPH") or Singapore Press Holdings Ltd ("SGP") (collectively, the "Licensor Events") and not one of the Licensor Events make any guarantee or illustration in any way, expressly or impliedly, both as to the outcomes to be obtained from using the Straits Instances Index ("Index") and/or the determine at which the mentioned Index stands at any explicit time on any explicit day or in any other case. The Index is compiled and calculated by FTSE. Not one of the Licensor Events shall be underneath any obligation to advise any particular person of any error therein. "FTSE®", "FT-SE®" are commerce marks of the Alternate and the FT and are utilized by FTSE underneath license. "STI" and "Straits Instances Index" are commerce marks of SPH and are utilized by FTSE underneath licence. All mental property rights within the ST index vest in SPH and SGP. The models of NikkoAM-StraitsTrading Asia ex Japan REIT ETF are usually not in any approach sponsored, endorsed, bought or promoted by FTSE Worldwide Restricted ("FTSE''), by the London Inventory Alternate Group firms ("LSEG''), Euronext N.V. ("Euronext"), European Public Actual Property Affiliation ("EPRA"), or the Nationwide Affiliation of Actual Property Funding Trusts ("NAREIT") (collectively the "Licensor Events") and not one of the Licensor Events make any guarantee or illustration in any way, expressly or impliedly, both as to the outcomes to be obtained from using the FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Asia ex Japan Internet Complete Return REIT Index (the "Index") and/or the determine at which the mentioned Index stands at any explicit time on any explicit day or in any other case. The Index is compiled and calculated by FTSE. Nevertheless, not one of the Licensor Events shall be liable (whether or not in negligence or in any other case) to any particular person for any error within the Index and not one of the Licensor Events shall be underneath any obligation to advise any particular person of any error therein. "FTSE®" is a commerce mark of LSEG, "NAREIT®" is a commerce mark of the Nationwide Affiliation of Actual Property Funding Trusts and "EPRA®" is a commerce mark of EPRA and all are utilized by FTSE underneath licence." Neither Markit, its Associates or any third occasion knowledge supplier makes any guarantee, categorical or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of the info contained herewith nor as to the outcomes to be obtained by recipients of the info. Neither Markit, its Associates nor any knowledge supplier shall in any approach be liable to any recipient of the info for any inaccuracies, errors or omissions within the Markit knowledge, no matter trigger, or for any damages (whether or not direct or oblique) ensuing therefrom. Markit has no obligation to replace, modify or amend the info or to in any other case notify a recipient thereof within the occasion that any matter acknowledged herein adjustments or subsequently turns into inaccurate. With out limiting the foregoing, Markit, its Associates, or any third occasion knowledge supplier shall don't have any legal responsibility in any way to you, whether or not in contract (together with underneath an indemnity), in tort (together with negligence), underneath a guaranty, underneath statute or in any other case, in respect of any loss or harm suffered by you because of or in reference to any opinions, suggestions, forecasts, judgments, or another conclusions, or any plan of action decided, by you or any third occasion, whether or not or not based mostly on the content material, info or supplies contained herein. Copyright © 2024, Markit Indices Restricted. The Markit iBoxx SGD Non-Sovereigns Massive Cap Funding Grade Index are marks of Markit Indices Lmited and have been licensed to be used by Nikko Asset Administration Asia Restricted. The Markit iBoxx SGD Non-Sovereigns Massive Cap Funding Grade Index referenced herein is the property of Markit Indices Restricted and is used underneath license. The Nikko AM SGD Funding Grade Company Bond ETF will not be sponsored, endorsed, or promoted by Markit Indices Restricted Nikko Asset Administration Asia Restricted. Registration Quantity 198202562H.