Nikko STI ETF RSP (Sep 2013)

I bought 1 lot of Nikko STI ETF at $3.29 today for my regular savings plan for the month of September 2013. Details of all transactions for my rsp are logged here:
 http://madstranger.blogspot.sg/2013/07/nikko-sti-etf.html

Snap shot of current units:

Total Units	Total Cost	Average cost	Last Done	Profit/ Loss	% Gain / Loss
300	$980.52	$3.2684	$3.29	$6.48	0.66%

Other notes:

1) STI has ran up over the past 2 weeks and is on the high side for now. Prior to that, there was a sharp dip to about $3.10 for the Nikko STI ETF. But as it fell outside my rsp window, I did not buy any units. Perhaps I should introduce a few new rules to my rsp plan to accumulate a bit more on dips. The new rules can include some sell criteria as well. For that, I will need to observe a bit longer to decide and finalize on the rules.

2) There should be a dividend for the Nikko STI ETF coming next month (Oct 2013). The ETF gives out dividend twice a year (May and Oct). For the purpose of the tracking of dividend, I will deduct it from my overall costs for the ETF.

3) From this month onwards, I will also include a snap shot of the current units for my STI ETF. It will include the total units, total costs, average cost, last done, profit/loss, gain/loss as shown above. This update will also include the rsp purchase that is made for the month.

Standard charted brokerage account FAQ

I get quite a bit of questions on the standard charted brokerage account relating to my post on my STI ETF regular savings plan (http://madstranger.blogspot.sg/2013/07/nikko-sti-etf.html). So I think it will be good to provide a list of frequently asked questions on the account opening here.


1) Which accounts do I need to start buying shares via the standard charted brokerage account?

For the account set up, you require the following
A) a savings account
I used their e-saver. There is no minimum sum to maintain. But the account do not come with an ATM card. Every transaction you need to do is via internet banking.
See details: http://www.standardchartered.com.sg/save/saving-esaver.html

B) brokerage acct
Account for you to buy and sell shares

C) settlement acct
If you intend to trade other markets apart from SGX, or want to buy local shares denominated in foreign currencies, you need the corresponding foreign currency settlement account. Otherwise, you only need the SGD settlement account.

You need to transfer money from your savings account to the settlement account before any purchase. i.e no contra



2)  How about the CDP account?
As shares purchased via the stanchart brokerage account are held by the bank itself, you do not require a CDP account.
If you already own shares in your CDP account, you cannot sell shares you own in your CDP at the stan chart account. The 2 accounts are separate.
If you do not own a CDP account, you can open one via the typical brokerages (e.g. poems, dbs vickers, uob kayhian etc). But note that the stan chart brokerage account and the CDP account are separate.


3) Would there be any fees associated with the transfer of funds in/out?

SCB charges for transferring out:
http://www.standardchartered.com.sg/promotion/securities-trading/promotnc.html
$10.70 (inclusive of GST) per 1000 share per counter transferred, up to a cap of $107 (inclusive of GST) per counter; transfer charges may be levied depending on incoming banks.

 SCB charges for transferring in:
* Free;
Transfer charges may be levied depending on outgoing banks

CDP charge for transferring in/out:
$10.70 per counter

  
4) Understand that there is the trading fee of 0.2% as well as the SGX clearing fee of 0.04% and GST. May I ask how much would the GST be?
You are right on the part of the 3 component charges (commission, clearing fee and GST). The breakdown of the charges are as follows:

Commission = 0.2/100 * trade amount
Clearing Fee = 0.04/100 * trade amount
GST = 0.07 * (commission + clearing fee)
** All amounts rounded to nearest 2 decimal places.


5) What disadvantages are there for using the stanchart brokerage account as compared to holding my shares under the cdp account/ using other brokerages?

• You receive dividends one working day late. CDP needs to pay SCB your dividends first, before SCB pays you.
• For other corporate actions, there will be a more significant delay or tighter timelines. 
• For foreign currency settlement accounts top up, the spread between their buy and sell can be very huge.
• No smartphone application for trading
• Cannot buy shares using your CPF or SRS funds

Income group breakdown for year of assessment 2012

The Annual Report 2012/2013 for IRAS was released last week. Like the past few years, I lookout for the breakdown of the various income groups.

Source:
http://www.iras.gov.sg/irasHome/page.aspx?id=15206

The breakdown is as follows:

 

Based on the data above, we can see that:

1) Most tax payers fall into the range of the 30k-40k annual income band. The tax residents pay earn an average annual income of 34.8k and pay $165 in taxes

2) 4220 tax residents fall into the range of the highest band (more than 1M in assessable income). In the previous year, there was only 3870 tax residents in this band. For YA2012, they earn an average annual income of 1.9M and pay $354,213 in taxes.

Based on an analysis done by salary.sg:

http://www.salary.sg/2013/compare-your-annual-income-2013/

A $100k per-annum income will now place you at the 78.2th percentile, compared to 79.3th in the previous version of this tool (which uses last year’s IRAS data). This is a drop of almost 1 percentile.

Last year’s median income was $52,300. This year, it is $53,000.

If you make more than $91,500, you are in the top quartile (i.e. top 25%) of all resident taxpayers.

To be among the top 10% earners, you need an annual income of $171,000 or more.

To be at the 95th percentile (i.e. top 5%), you need to make at least $265,000 a year.

Other notes:

If you are interested to know how high or low our income is as compared to other tax payers, you can use the salary.sg calculator (link above) to check which percentile you belong to. 

Do note the following:

1) The statistics are based on IRAS year of assessment 2012 data. The income and taxes information are based on your 2011 income.

 

2) The statistics above do not take into account of individuals earning less than 20k per year as the first 20k of income is not taxable.

Related Posts:

Income group breakdown for year of assessment 2011

Income group breakdown for year of assessment 2010