Singapore households underinvest in equities

 

By UBS’ calculation, financial assets make up 63.8 per cent of Singapore’s gross household wealth – one of the highest shares in the region. SingStat’s own 2025 fourth-quarter household balance sheet puts the figure at a broadly similar 57.2 per cent. On the surface, this looks like a financially sophisticated population, heavily exposed to markets. Dig one layer deeper, and the picture flips. Equities and securities – the assets actually capable of compounding growth – make up just 11.2 per cent of total household assets, or just over one-fifth of that 57 to 64 per cent financial-assets bucket. The rest is overwhelmingly cash, mandatory CPF savings, and insurance: safe, low-yield instruments, not growth engines. 

Cutting and pasting here for my reference. Based on my conversations with my friends and acquaintances about investing, I am not surprised. Many people seem to think that stocks are risky and property investing is safe. 

On the other hand, holding 20% equities and 80% CPF/cash/insurance policies is not so terrible that it will make you poor.  For reference, the performance of the LionGlobal All Seasons Standard fund, which is a 30% equities/ 70% bond (SGD overweight) fund has a 5.0% CAGR since inception in 2018 while the All Seasons Growth fund (70%/30%) has a 8.1% CAGR.

Bear in mind this is an "average." Some will have more than 20% allocation which is good, some will have less than 20% allocation which is not so good.

My personal target allocation is 90% equities / 10% cash & near-cash.

Springleaf SG61 61 cent prata

I went to Springleaf Prata on a weekday morning to enjoy their SG61 $0.61 plain prata and $0.91 egg prata. It was interesting to people watch and see who else isn't at work and can eat Prata on a weekday. Not surprisingly, it was a mainly female crowd. Not surprising because that is similar to my experience in gyms in weekday mornings - mainly women. I guess it is ironic that most FIRE bloggers seem to be male, but those that are enjoying the FIRE lifestyle are female and don't think it is so unusual that they need to blog about it.