New to investing

[Porkbelly]

My 2 cents worth.

Investing in anything has basically one goal:

beating the interest rates on bank deposits and the inflation rate
over 1 year or more.

Anything less than 12 months may be too specualtive and similar
to gambling in the casinos.( unless your crystal ball is fail-proof)

And the money used should be spare, left over cash,
after deducting necessary expenses and savings.
Savings is the bedrock, without that its quicksand.

There is also the element of luck.
Not everything boils down to scientific analytics.
All the best though!

Actually, I thought the goal should be beating some passive low cost ETF instrument like STI ETF.
Or you can find some pan asia benchmark if your active investing encompasses regional stocks.

The argument is that a passive cost averaging way of investing using ETFs is fairly passive, with minimal effort, so an active management approach must beat this handily to be worth the effort.
Using the interest rates is kinda setting the bar too low... at least in this current environment.

Yes, using bank's deposit rates is a low benchmark.
But is it low because of the rate or is it low because
there are other markers to use, like an ETF?

An understanding of how the ETF reflects the market is
required. There are many ETFs to choose from.
Some ETFs may get delisted too.
For beginners, it can get confusing.

I started out using the local deposit rates from banks.
The reasoning was, if I cant earn a better return elsewhere,
I might as well leave it in the bank.

After some time, with confidence and understanding about
risk apettite etc, another benchmark can be used, like an ETF.