@meaning Hi Meaning, before you invest, you should aside some emergency savings and be sufficiently protected. Uncover your commitments (current and future) and understand the product you are about to invest. You may also consider your investment preferences. With a better foundation, you may be able to accept a little more risk if this is meant for long term investment. Do take a step back to understand yourself, since nobody knows you like you do.

A great digital tool that can help you do this would be our DBS NAV Planner. NAV Planner, available at no charge on DBS digibank can serve to guide you and help you uncover your investment preferences. At the same time, it would also throw out some relevant ideas for your consideration that fits your profile.

@heidi Hi Heidi, general investing approach and investment selection are very personal, regardless of citizenship status. However, you may wish to consider the currency (eg. SGD or your domestic currency), and liquidity (eg. long-term vs short-term) of the investments before putting your money in, based on your circumstance. Different duration or certainty of stay here may deviate your choice of investment. There may also be tax implication, which you may need to consider as well. Hopefully we are not daunting you here.

@Heidi Answers will be shared right here for everyone's open learning!

@jeegley Hi jeegley, when it comes to investing, it is good to keep up with market views and consider its implications to what you are already invested in. The DBS CIO publishes their outlook on a quarterly basis and that would be a good place to start.

Within the unit trust universe, there will be equity funds, bond funds and balanced ones more commonly. Equity and bond funds can either have broad mandates covering a global investment universe or more specific mandates covering specific countries /sectors such as technology, China onshore equities REITs, Asian High Yield to name a few. These specific mandates would require more attention monitoring changing market conditions compared to broader based or balanced funds for example.

Balanced or multi-asset funds offer investors a portfolio mix of bonds and equities. Depending on the manager’s view on market conditions, they may tilt towards either asset class but still within a diversified portfolio.

Finally, consider keeping up with our DBS fund select team’s research on our suite of funds. This can be found on our UT webpage.

@edwinlee Hi EdwinLee, it’s great that you are thinking about investing through an ESG lens! As we work towards being the best bank for the world, we offer solutions and products that help drive the green initiative and some of the options (investments or otherwise) available can be found on this site.

You may also have noticed that since the second half of last year, we have an ESG rating for every single digiPortfolio and this can be found on our factsheets to drive awareness. We are satisfied that every single digiPortfolio currently has an ESG rating of BBB and above but at the same time, know that this can be something that we should continuously improve on.

@unclesam Hi UncleSam, maintaining a well-diversified portfolio is something we believe in as well. Like you mentioned, there are many bond funds managed to different mandates. Some have mandates to only invest in investment grade bonds, some invest only in Asian bonds while others buy only high yield / junk bonds. For the latter particularly, as the term ‘junk’ suggests, the companies issuing these bonds are rated below investment grade and would come with a degree of risk. These allocations in your portfolio need to be sized appropriately.

Regardless of the asset class you are investing in, assessing the strength of a fund manager vis-à-vis another fund manager is important. Our DBS fund select team evaluates funds based on considerations such as the experience, track record and management acumen of the fund management team, investment processes and strategy in managing the fund as well as past and long term returns potential. The team then assigns a rating to each fund based on the degree of conviction. Explore the fund search on our website to view some available options.

@heidi Hi again! Apologies, we couldn’t share any opinion on which portfolio to top up based on your hypothetical scenario.

@heidi Hi Heidi, we think it’s fantastic that you are utilizing our DBS NAV Planner as a digital tool to aid you in your investment planning! DBS NAV Planner serves to guide you while it uncovers your investment preferences and provides relevant investment ideas for your consideration. There are a plethora of investment options to choose from, but ultimately, it all boils down to each individual’s risk appetite and personal preference. It would also be helpful for you to understand the concept of Dollar-Cost Averaging. This would allow you to keep investing over a period of time and stay invested in the market.

@brownbear32 Hi brownbear32, in short yes. The DBS CIO publishes updated views on a quarterly basis. Based on these views, our DBS investment team will review our portfolios and make any necessary adjustments during the rebalancing exercise. Do keep a lookout for the digiPortfolio quarterly rebalancing notices or the digiPortfolio dashboard for these updated views and changes!

@huilin Hi again! Ensuring diversification is one of the key priorities for every single digiPortfolio. Regardless of whether an ETF is listed in Singapore, the UK or the US, the portfolio contains ETFs that invest across different markets/ sectors to provide diversification. For instance, within our Asia Portfolio, we have SGX listed ETFs that track indices for China equities or Asia Pacific REITs. I hope this addresses your question.

@marcus Hi Marcus, we certainly advocate the practice of dollar cost averaging and are working hard on making this available for you guys! Please bear with us in the meantime and remember to top up!

@huilin Hi huilin, we certainly advocate the practice of dollar cost averaging and are working hard on making this available for you guys! Please bear with us in the meantime and remember to top up!

@getitgt Hi getitgt, thank you for the question. digiPortfolio harnesses the investment expertise within DBS to provide ready-made portfolios for clients. The 3 teams involved are the Chief Investment Office that does the monitoring of markets and determining the house view, the fund select team that researches and reviews positive-rated funds for selection and the discretionary portfolio management team whose job is to put together core, diversified portfolios based on the views and instrument options.