if you had $10,000 in spare cash how would you invest it right now so here's the big picture before you consider your options us markets have had a strong first half of the Year investors remain bullish on AI in particular in Singapore stocks have seen their best rally in years led by the big Banks so chin there are stocks there are bonds and there are ETFs with these different asset classes in mind how do we divide that $10,000 if you think of it as a pyramid the bulk of it at the bottom around 60% I'll keep it in Fairly conservative Investments so this could be bonds or this could be ETFs which track indexes the second layer which is 30% I would allow myself to seek a bit of growth so it could be in stocks or even dividend stocks which are able to grow their dividends over time and right the tip the remaining 10% if you want right you don't have to do it but if you want you can pursue a bit of speculative investment for the first 6 months of 20124 US Stocks have been on a tear the S&P 500 Index has risen by 14.5% so can what goes up continue to go up historically the market does correct 10% meaning that the from its high will fall by about 10% roughly about once every two years that's historical numbers it can go many years without falling so the the truth is no one knows when that is going to happen and instead of worrying where the market is going to go come up with a list of stocks which you want to buy uh you can either buy a little right now and wait for better prices to come along before you buy again so when it comes to the sectors in the US which specific ones should I be looking at I think right now ai is a big growth sector it's coming to a stage where they're trying to prove the business model for this new trend cloud computing for example I think that could also benefit from the growth of AI I think semiconductors is another area where it could indirectly benefit from uh the growth of AI as well are you looking at names like Nvidia or any of the Mac 7 for example among the Magnificent 7 I would point out meta platforms and they have demonstrated that they are able to tap on AI to come up with a business which is worth $10 billion in Revenue run rate and it uses the AI generative AI capability in the right way where it's able to actually make their ads better right so ETFs they're great for new investors and those who like me uh want a hands off of approach you want to think about too many things uh what kind of ETFs should I be looking at the main ETFs I would look at are index ETFs these are ETFs which track an index for example the S&P 500 and uh basically hold whatever the S&P 500 is having right now so the S&P 500 is an index which encompasses 500 companies in the US and these 500 companies represent about 80% of the US stock market so what you get for a very low sum of money is that instant diversification to 500 different companies just like the US markets Singapore stocks have been edging higher in the first 6 months of 2024 total Returns on the STI when you add in dividends Rose to 5.7% one of the areas where we are looking at right now are REITs or Real Estate Investment Trust there been beaten down because of a high interest rate and but then I I think that when things are uncertain it's also a good time to pick up some of these companies especially the ones with really strong sponsors uh which are performing well despite all this pressures which they're facing from uh interest rates and so on in general I think in Singapore what you want to focus on are dividends and that's because Dividends are untaxed in Singapore so whatever the the company gives out you you get to keep which I think it's a great deal once you are ready to invest allocate your funds according to your short-term and long-term financial goals bonds typically have a duration and some of them might be 6 months some of them could be 10 years some of them could be one year so uh within that 6 months you're going to get all your money back and then you have to reinvest that into the next uh you know cash of uh bonds and so on but for stocks and ETFs and and when I say ETF I mean ETFs which are linked to indexes I I would consider a minimum 5year period for holding because you do not know what's going to happen in the short term and statistics show that the longer you hold the the better your chances are to actually generate positive returns so if you are new to investing completely new what is your number one rule of thumb people get too excited they they saved up all this money it took a lot of effort and they see an opportunity they they do not want to miss out and then they just pull everything into that that uh one idea or one stock or one investment and I I would say really take a step back think about what you want to do or achieve with that money and as a rule of thumb if you took two years to save up that money then take at least a year to invest it and of course before jumping in head first into the world of investing make sure sure you have enough for a rainy day so for emergency funds it could range from 6 months to 12 months it also could depend on the person's circumstance uh if you're retired for example I don't see anything wrong putting aside you know 5 years of emergency funds that 5 years of money is not money we should be investing anyway so those were really great insights from chin now if I had $10,000 in spare cash I think I'll consider putting it in a tech ETF so that I can be part of the AI race