Hey everyone,

This week's newsletter covers where to start if you've never invested a dollar in your life, a KrisFlyer hack most people in Singapore aren't using (or don’t realise exists), and the real cost of Disney Cruise Concierge for a family of four, numbers included.

Let's get into it.

Someone asked me this on Instagram recently: advice for a 30-year-old who's never invested before, and tips for getting started.

My honest take is always the same: start with a low-cost, broad-based Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF). What’s an ETF? It's essentially a basket of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of stocks.

As the name suggests, it’s traded on an exchange, like the Singapore Exchange, New York Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange etc. One purchase of an ETF typically gives you exposure to the growth of companies and the global economy at once.

Here's why I always lead with this. In Asia, most of us get it backwards in that we start with single stocks and only learn about the broader market later. And I did the same thing. But the reality is that the broader market rises over time. Plenty (actually, the data says the majority) of individual stocks don't.

Getting comfortable with the market first, and watching your money compound instead of risking it getting wiped out in one stock, gives you a better early experience with investing. That matters more than people think.

For me, the worst outcome I see is that someone loses a chunk of capital in a single stock and then avoids investing altogether for years afterwards.

Bad experiences undoubtedly shape our future behaviour but if we can have positive early experiences with investing, that’s going to help us be consistent and disciplined with it over the next few years and decades.

If you're interested in individual stocks later, then by all means build small positions but do it once the foundation's in place.

Here's a KrisFlyer hack in Singapore most people aren't using: Kris+. You're already earning miles on your credit card every time you spend.

But Kris+ sits right on top of that as a second layer. It's Singapore Airlines' own lifestyle and payments app, and when you use it right, you earn miles twice on the exact same transaction.

Download the app, register with your KrisFlyer number, find a participating merchant (restaurants, retail, lifestyle spend), and pay through the app.

You earn up to 9 miles per dollar directly from Kris+, with most merchants sitting between 2mpd and 6mpd. Your credit card keeps earning its own miles in the background at the same time. Two earn rates but with zero extra spend.

Turn on auto-transfer in the Kris+ app settings. Miles land in your KrisPay wallet first, then move into your KrisFlyer account automatically.

There's a second layer most people miss too. Kris+ spend also counts toward Elite Miles or PPS dollars. KrisFlyer Elite Silver members can earn up to 5,000 Elite Miles a year this way, Gold up to 10,000 with the earn rate set at 1 Elite Mile per S$1 spent.

For PPS, it's 1 PPS Value per S$3 spent, capped at 2,500 PPS Value per membership year (5,000 for PPS Solitaire).

My take: if you're already spending on a miles card, Kris+ is free money you're leaving on the table. Stack it on top of what you're already doing, granted the merchant takes Kris+.

You can sign up for Kris+ through my referral code P210083. Spend just $5 in the app and get rewarded with 500 KrisPay Miles (equivalent of $5).

This week's video is the conversation I wish someone had with me at 21.

Ten money lessons, each one cost me time or money to learn the hard way. A few worth flagging:

Why $200 a month at 21 beats $280 a month at 31.

The one number from a 100-year study on the US stock market that changes how you should think about picking stocks.

Why growing up in a market that makes up less than 4% of global stocks nearly cost me my own diversification.

If you've already made a few investing mistakes, lesson nine is for you. Check it out below.

There's a lot of content out there on the Disney Adventure Cruise from Singapore. Almost none of it tells you what it actually costs. I want to fix that, so here's the full breakdown, real numbers, for a family of four.

We just got back from three nights on board. And here’s an honest assessment of whether Concierge is worth it.

A bigger room and added perks with Concierge. But basically double the price.

Early boarding is the first thing you notice. There's a dedicated check-in at Marina Bay Cruise Terminal, hours before general boarding opens. We had a welcome lunch at Hollywood Spotlight, then hit the water slides and other parts of the ship while they were still mostly empty. That's hours of access most guests don't get.

The Concierge lounge spans three floors on level 17. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and from 5 to 10pm, free drinks: beer, wine, cocktails, champagne. That's a decent perk for pre-dinner drinks on its own.

Where it actually mattered for us was breakfast and lunch. The Disney Adventure holds close to 6,700 guests, and the main restaurants get rammed from 8 to 10am. Concierge skips that entirely, and the food's on par with, if not better than, what's on the rest of the ship.

The best perk, for us, was the private pool and jacuzzi on deck 19. Cabanas, sun beds, free food and drinks all day. With that many people onboard, the main pool area turns into a crowd. Deck 19 was the one place on the whole ship, besides maybe the Adults Only pool at the aft, that felt calm.

You also get priority seating at the evening shows in the Walt Disney Theatre, plus free popcorn, and priority booking for the Royal Gathering, which is the picture-taking session with the Disney princesses.

On top of that, 24 hours of free WiFi per person. WiFi onboard costs US$39 a day for one device otherwise, and you can't hotspot it. With Concierge, my wife and I stacked our kids' allowances too and got 48 hours each.

Finally, the Concierge Stateroom is actually bigger than the Oceanview Verandah

On the final day, Concierge guests disembark early. No mad rush on the last morning. I would say that overall, staff are super friendly throughout the ship and Concierge staff do really make an effort to go out of their way for you (we were allowed to bring down free drinks from the Concierge to dinner each night).

You can also open your own wine/champagne in the Concierge lounge (remember each adult is allowed to bring 1 bottle on board free of charge) and staff are pretty chill about providing you with a bucket of ice for you to take it down to dinner.

No priority queuing at the main attractions, including the Iron Cycle Test Run roller coaster. That queue ran at around 2.5 to 3.5 hours the whole trip.

So, if you are absolutely insistent on going (a roller coaster at sea is pretty cool + unique I have to say), do take into account spending close to half a day in the queue.

We queued for about half an hour (thought we were close) and then realised after speaking to an attendant that it was going to take another 2.5 hours in line.

In terms of the overall experience on Disney Adventure, I would say my two boys really enjoyed it (especially my younger one) but I found a lot of the characters roaming about and picture-taking were definitely more geared for girls, especially the various Disney princesses and “Royal Gathering”.

There was an awesome Avengers show on the final evening and there are a few Marvel superheroes hanging around in various spots but I personally think girls will find more for themselves on the cruise…unless your boys are into the “classics” like Aladdin and The Lion King but I felt like that was more my wife and I’s generation!

Their kids’ club is great, though. They’re open from 9am to 11pm each day and the kids wear a wristband that allows them to enter after registering. From 3-6pm it’s “open house”, where parents are allowed into the kids’ club with their children.

Indeed, from 9am to 3pm and 6pm to 11pm, only kids are allowed in the kids’ club. There’s also a nursery available onboard for babies/infants (6 months to 3 years) but we didn’t check that out. The minimum age for the kids’ club (unsupervised) is 3 years old and above.

But our boys (5 and 7) were pretty happy going in and exploring the kids club for a few hours at a time (there are various shows put on throughout the day as well as a massive space with lots going on).

I would say if your kids are under 3, it’s more challenging to find lots of things for them to do as a lot of the rides and the water slides won’t be suitable, or they won’t be able to go on them. For me, the sweet spot is probably 4 to 7 years old.

Pro tip: Don’t forget that if you do go on Disney Adventure, there’s a tradition called “pixie dusting” where families decorate their doors with Disney magnets and other decorations. You have to hang pocket organisers outside your door and kids go around and gift each other things like sweets or stickers. It’s cute but it does require prior planning!

For us, yes. This was likely our one and only Disney Cruise, since our older son is nearly 8. We went with close friends who also have two young boys, which made the trip more fun regardless of Concierge.

What we paid for was daily relief from the crowds and some actual downtime (plus a bigger room but we didn’t actually spend that much time there), and that's what we valued. If you're fine with a smaller room, queues and don't mind the chaos, you can save the US$3,000 and put it towards something else.

If there's a topic you'd like me to break down in a future edition, hit reply and let me know. The best ideas in this newsletter come from your replies.

Until next week,

— Tim

1. Investing Made Simple: A self-paced course that walks you through building a proper investment portfolio from scratch. ETFs, allocation, brokers, and the mindset to stay consistent. Everything you need to start and keep going. Join here.

2. Miles Made Simple: A strategy guide for earning and redeeming KrisFlyer miles the right way. If you're flying out of Singapore and not optimising your credit card spend, you're leaving a lot on the table. Get the guide here.

3. Got a question? Submit it here and I might answer it in a future edition.