Hey everyone,

This week: the biggest retirement myth I keep running into, why your emergency fund might be quietly losing to inflation, and a real comparison of the brokers actually worth using in Singapore.

Let's get into it.

If your emergency fund is just sitting in the same everyday bank account as your spending money, it's probably earning somewhere around 0.05% a year.

On $20,000, that's $10 a year. Meanwhile, inflation is running at 1.9% right now, quietly eating into it every month.

The instinct to leave it untouched in cash is understandable. You want this money boring and instantly accessible, not locked up or exposed to market swings.

That's the right instinct but the mistake is assuming "safe" and "0.05%" are the same thing.

They're not. There are options that keep the same liquidity and safety profile while actually paying you something.

Two concrete ones to consider that have zero obligations (so alternatives to high-yield bank savings accounts):

Singapore Savings Bonds (SSBs) — Backed by the Singapore government, so this is about as close to risk-free as it gets, and they're relatively liquid: you can redeem in any month with no penalty, you just lose a bit of the step-up interest if you cash out early. The current tranche pays 1.46% in year one, stepping up to a 2.06% average over 10 years.

A money market fund, like the Fullerton SGD Cash Fund — Not government-backed like an SSB, so slightly more risk, but still extremely low-risk and highly liquid. The current gross yield is around 1.3% to 1.4%. Always check the platform fees before committing, with an emergency fund, as liquidity matters more than chasing the last 0.2%.

Neither of these is meant to replace your emergency fund with an investment. Think of them as “cash-lite”, earning you a yield but still there when you need it fast. And at least it’s not actively losing you money to inflation versus it sitting as cash in the bank.

This week's video: some of the biggest retirement myths I hear from Singaporeans.

The danger with a retirement myth isn't that it's wrong. It's that when you find out, it can often be too late to fix.

For example, if you catch it at 30, you've got three decades to make amends. Catch it at 58, and you've only got seven years.

Here are five worth checking your own plan against:

None of these are quite true, and I go through exactly why, plus what to actually do instead.

I get asked which broker to use more than almost anything else, so here's my honest answer.

Nobody paid me to write this and none of these platforms sponsored this comparison. Rather, this is just what I actually use and recommend.

There isn't one right answer here. It depends on what job you're using the broker for.

For the global ETF core, IBKR is the gold standard, and it's seriously not even close. The FX conversion is basically the spot rate plus S$2 per conversion.

And it's one of the only platforms in Singapore giving you proper access to UCITS ETFs on European exchanges like the LSE. Better yet, you can automate recurring investments into both US- and European-listed ETFs and stocks.

For Singapore-specific investing, I actually use a different platform entirely. moomoo is genuinely well-built for local stocks, with an easy interface, supports direct CDP linkage, has zero commissions on SGX trades for new users in year one, and it's where I hold my Singapore dividend satellite. What it doesn't do is give you UCITS ETF access, so it's not where your long-term global growth engine should live.

FSMOne sits in between, a flat fee structure that works well for larger Singapore trades, has UCITS access and lets you use SRS funds for regular savings plans but it's not competitive on smaller trades. Its Regular Savings Plan (RSP) for ETFs does have a 0% processing fee on buy trades although commission costs will be higher upon selling while FX spreads on converting currencies are also less competitive.

Tiger Brokers is worth a specific mention if CPF or SRS-linked investing matters to you, it's one of the few platforms that supports that directly.

The mistake isn't picking the "wrong" broker. It's expecting one platform to be right for every job. It's more about matching the tool to what it's actually built for.

If you're ready to set up your global core, open an IBKR account here.

Someone asked me what the biggest lie is that Singaporeans tell themselves about money. My answer: that safety lives in cash.

Cash, Singapore Savings Bonds, T-bills, none of these lose you money year to year. But over 5, 10, 15 years, inflation quietly erodes what that money can actually buy.

There's always something in the news making it feel like a bad time to invest, and that steady drip of negativity is one of the biggest things holding people back from actually building wealth.

It’s worth being precise about what this does and doesn't mean, since it connects to this week's Quick Action above. SSBs and money market funds are broadly the right call for your emergency fund, that money needs to be safe and liquid.

The mistake isn't holding cash-equivalents for short-term needs. It's treating cash as a long-term wealth-building strategy, and using "it feels safe" as a reason to avoid investing the money you don't need for the next 10 years or even decades.

Cash has a job. It's just not the job of growing your wealth.

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

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