Invest In Crypto Currencies, Stocks Or Insurance Fund?

Crypto is now the hot topic in the city. But which platform(s) we should use to buy the crypto you want? I personally tried Binance, Binance SG, Coinbase and CEX.IO. Personally, Binance SG is the most user-friendly. You simply connect their payment vendor, Straits (formerly Xfers), to your local bank account, and you can buy in their platform. Most importantly, you can withdraw money back to your bank account without service charge. Comparing with other platforms, most of them require credit card payment or SWIFT which require certain commission to the credit card provider or the third party service provider. Also, there will be delay. Unfortunately, Binance SG was banned in Singapore already due to the recent regulations. I can still use Binance but I need to connect with my HK bank account and I cannot withdraw money back to my personal bank account/credit card. I have to use the third party wallet and use other platform to sell then withdraw to my bank account.

For US stocks, I have been using my bank account and Interactive Brokers (IB). The pros of using my bank account is convenience - I can convert from local currencies to USD then buy the stocks immediately; however, IB requires some time to transfer money from the bank account to the IB account, and requires some time for the exchange before buying the stocks you want. More importantly, bank is more reliable if you worry about the close-down of the third party platforms. FYI, IB is very reliable and is the trading platform behind many other third party trading platforms, therefore, their commission is pretty low. This is why I have been using IB for trading recently. Can you imagine no matter how many stocks you want to buy, you need to pay USD 20 commission + tax when I use the bank account for trading, however, IB only charges me less than USD 2 for buying my recent stocks (normally they charge 0.08%). Can you imagine if you only have USD 1k and you want to buy the stock you want, say ALIGN recently at USD 598, I recommend IB rather than your bank account.

If you think buying crypto like riding on the roller coaster, you can consider buying the stock of Coinbase or other crypto trading platform. I personally bought Coinbase in the last 3 weeks at USD 270 and already jumped to USD 290.

For insurance fund, I personally don't recommend as most of your money go to the commission of your trader(s) and insurance agents. Otherwise how could the agents can become the diamond level and the company pays for the trips and buys a luxury apartment? You are right. They are serving you and they deserve the commissions. I totally agree. But it's your money and why you want to pay others instead of earning the revenue for your retirement fund? I made this statement because I bought quite a lot of insurance fund from my close relative. Though she said she had been helping me monitor the funds and adjust the funds. Within 3 years, I lost about USD 20,000. I couldn't blame her as I trusted her too much and didn't check the funds regularly. But the amount I lost was in my earlier career. Can you imagine if I knew how to invest by myself, I could multiple this amount already or even invest in properties for my family.

If you are young and reading my article, I strongly recommend you to separate certain amount from your salary to invest no matter in stocks or crypto. As I am not a risker-taker, I don't invest in warrants or margins. If you want to know more about them, please ask someone that can share more details with you then make your own researches before your investment. I shouldn't say that but don't trust others easily. Again, this is your own money and don't rely on anyone to get some pocket money for you. Even your friends and family members, they also need to feed their family. Why they should help you instead of using their time for their own researches and investment?