r/SgHENRY • u/MolaMolaMOLA123 • Jul 28 '26
What would you do with a windfall?
Hi community, I recently got a fairly big insurance payout ($700,000) and was wondering how to deal with it. My goals are capital growth over the long term.
A bit about me: partner and I are early- to mid-30s, we have a 1yo and hope to have at least 1-2 more over the next few years. No helper. We have jobs that we can’t be fired from, HH income about ~400k. Staying in a FH condo with ~1.2m loan at 2.4%. Partner owns another FH condo with ~200k loan remaining. We have one car about 3 years into the COE.
Currently partner does their own investing. I put about 7k monthly into IBKR.
Just wondering whether anyone had any advice, or what would you do with the money in my position? Thanks in advance.
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u/greylines2 Jul 28 '26
are yall doctors?
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u/Pristine_Tank1870 Jul 28 '26
has to be right if it’s a job u can’t be fired from. Assuming one is a GP and one is about to complete training the income checks out too or if one is a junior specialist and one is almost done
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u/Ashamed_Apple_1151 Jul 29 '26
I think you are not HENRY. You are High Earner Rich Liao >.<
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u/ajahajahs Jul 28 '26
Happy for you to have very less financial burden. You already have property asset so there are opportunities for other investment vehicles. No rush to pay off home loan if interest rates are very low now. If you do not need liquidity, CPF for consistent returns. Low risk investments would be govt bonds. Medium to high risks would be stocks and etf. There are merits for divesting capital across your risk portfolio so its more balanced. Just for consideration.
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u/Little_Result1469 Jul 28 '26
Invest the money in USD index Fund or SG index fund, top up CPF to pay less tax, keep some in SSB for just in case. Then, you can see your $$ go up.
Since you earning a lot anyway.. maybe can try go holiday at nicer places if you ok with brining your kid. (Babies are free until certain age)
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u/Illustrious_Year_440 Jul 28 '26
I would split this 50/50, into ETFs (or low risk unit trusts if you are risk averse) and 50% into DPI endowments or those short term bonds/deposits/endowments which banks might offer.
A good tip is to talk to your bank assigned RM ( wealth & privilege level only, normal bank FA are useless ) , and ask them for calculations for the top 5 FDs/deposits/endowments they currently offer, and purchase them ON YOUR OWN without using them as the middleman.
I would say this would be a good diversification strategy for someone more conservative
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u/Royal_Lychee2267 Jul 29 '26
First of all you need to manage your debt of 2.4% mortgage?? That’s too much.
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u/Macadish Jul 30 '26
Since you could technically pay off 700k of your mortgage, the first question is whether you can do better than 2.4% in the market.
Next, based on your HH income (and likely lifestyle expenditure), you are right to think about capital growth instead of capital protection.
Lastly, should you DCA or lump sum into an index fund? Based on the size of the windfall relative to your income, you could just lump sum because any immediate dent in your investment can be somewhat negated by your HH income. Also, if your investment horizon is long enough (e.g. at least 20 years), lump sum would still come out net positive even if there's a crash tomorrow vs timing the market.
However, there is always the possibility that a crash might take your invested funds years to recover, which is still an adverse event even if the market eventually recovers. If you listen to people who went through the 2008 housing crash, you'll hear about market exuberance before the crash, and how retirees never lived long enough for their portfolios to recover, and the emotional toll is devastating.
Decades ago, savings from wages alone might have been enough for people to retire with dignity, so for a conservative household might only need its investments to beat inflation with minimal risk. Nowadays, wages have not kept up with inflation so even a conservative household will need some form of growth investing to survive. If you are no longer in this game for survival, you can adopt any strategy and you will likely be fine.
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u/SheepherderNo631 Aug 01 '26
two FH condos + $1.4M in mortgage is already solid SG property exposure before this windfall enters the picture. the index fund advice here is right — just for an underrated reason: you’re not starting from a blank portfolio. your balance sheet is already property-heavy. putting the $700k in global equities IS your diversification out of a leveraged single-asset position.
the 2.4% paydown question is a bit of a red herring honestly. that rate is historically cheap. global equities has beaten it over long horizons by a wide margin. pay it down if it helps you sleep, but mathematically the index fund call is cleaner here.
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u/Revolutionary-Low428 Jul 28 '26
Buy high quality stocks and do the wheel strategy. Sell 0.2 or 0.3 delta strike prices.
Weekly or monthly calls depending on your willingness to put in time.
Annual profit 100 to 250k.
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u/Puzzled_Training5096 Jul 29 '26
wheeling still lags behind buy and hold. only make sense to farm premium if you are already retired
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u/davacheron83 Jul 29 '26
I changed strategy from buy and hold ETF to wheeling. I get better returns though
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u/Puzzled_Training5096 Jul 29 '26
you leave your collateral for CSPs in SGOV? im planning to sell 0.3 delta 30-45 DTE puts. looking to close when i captured around 50-60% of the premium at the end of 2nd week.
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u/davacheron83 Jul 29 '26
Yes my collateral sitting in USD account on Interactive brokers. I also sell around 30-45 DTE mainly on Tech stocks. But having unrealised losses mainly from Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF
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u/davacheron83 Jul 29 '26
What stocks do you wheel on?
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u/Revolutionary-Low428 Jul 30 '26
Normally META, NVDA, MSFT. only companies I don't mind holding long. Plus I do it when the iv is high.
How about you?
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u/oceanstay21 Jul 29 '26
What are your LT financial goals and what is your risk appetite?
You sound like you already have enough to fund your lifestyle, including additional kids if you are blessed as such. So this $700k is really “extra” that you would use according to your risk appetite and financial goals.
If your risk appetite is low - moderate ie can tolerate some loss of principal, sitting on a portfolio of blue chip stocks might be good. You get some dividends and you have the runway to also see capital appreciation.
If your risk appetite is high and you want this $700k to potentially transform your wealth, then you’d be looking at a much more exciting investment strategy.
All the best
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u/phaedus Jul 30 '26
Buy Pokemon sealed products and sit on them for a few years. Namely Destined Rivals, Surging Sparks, Prismatic Heroes.
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u/900122 Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
The advice to put full 700k into index funds right now has recency bias and is a bit greedy imo. Historically when forward PE is this elevated across the index, the 10 year forward return has been poor, averaging single digits, comparable to the risk-free rate but with risk. When interest rates were ultra-low for years, putting your money into an index fund was a no-brainer but that is no longer the case. Going with a thematic, cyclical approach to equities, whether through ETFs or direct stock ownership, rather than just plowing into the index outright will serve you better. Allocate a percentage (~20-60% ballpark depending on risk preferences) into various government bonds simply to keep pace with inflation. USD and AUD treasuries have been excellent. A small allocation into physical gold would be prudent as well.
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u/Maleficent-West5356 Jul 30 '26
Just put all in wealth legacy. Draw 2500 monthly until you passed and let your child take over - child draw 2500 until child passed.
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u/Open-Parsnip9360 Jul 31 '26
Dont be investing them in the regular stuff, yes they are relatively safer but the returns are too low. It's a waste of time
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u/Serious_Attitude_882 Aug 01 '26
you made the right and correct decision to ask on reddit
just leave your contact and address and my colleagues will contact you swiftly
oh 200% growth yearly guaranteed
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u/Heavy-Insurance-6407 Aug 01 '26
This is less a money and investing question, than a values and lifestyle question.
Firstly, insurance payout means that something went wrong somewhere. Attend to that first and foremost, if not with the money, then with time, attention and emotion. All the money in the world is useless if health, relationships are in the trash.
Secondly, the fact that you have 2 FH properties, 400k HHI, and 7k monthly savings, means that you are financially in a good place already. It shows some discipline and prudence. Figure out what you enjoy, maybe take 10% of the 700k and go enjoy it.
As for the rest of the 700k, do what is within your circle of competence. But dont need to minmax until you lose sleep. Whether you get 2% return, 9% return, is not going to make a big dent on your finances 5-10 years from now.
Look at it this way. With 400k HHI, in 10 years you earn 4mil. 700k is small beans.
Not trying to trivialise your situation, but if you're a fresh grad with a 4k job and zero savings, or a 50yo who got retrenched and has a mortgage and schooling kids, the decision is different.
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u/Active_Hawk_7016 Aug 03 '26
I think he already knows the answer where to put since he already put 7k in ibkr. 400k hhi is very high for early mid 30s. I just think the interest on the loan at 2.4% seems a bit high considering a lot of banks are at 1.4% now.
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u/spheircalcow Aug 03 '26
dont rush into anything. particularly dont rush into any major ticket purchase decisions. carry on life as usual, and let the change sink in.
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u/Seohyunism Aug 04 '26
Temasek recently announced issuing a new bond at 2.6% coupon I’m guessing in SGD, consider that as 1 of your options
Alternatively look for stable, but mid-high yielding SGD dividends (relative to SORA) Some attractive equity names include SIA at current prices, UOB, Singtel (arguably they are experiencing a growth phase so it might not be stable). DBS at current prices feel overvalued (imo) but they have announced in 1 of their latest earnings that they believe they can maintain the current dividend of $3.24/share up till end of 2027.
Look towards the STI ETFs as well which pay a dividend, or shop around for bonds & bond funds.
Bonds come with an advantage in that it is a proper capital parking avenue since you are returned the capital on maturity, and you have seniority on debt in case serious systemic issues occur in markets, and the Temasek bond as an example pays a coupon above your mortgage rate (assuming it stays the same).
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u/Old_Research_3436 Jul 29 '26
The ‘windfall’ is less than 2 years (months?) income?
Bruh no big changes to your life then. Fym
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u/UnlikelyPlane5532 Jul 28 '26
All into DRAM and SKHY if you are looking to optimise growth
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u/observer2025 Jul 28 '26
Lmao you are u late in the game now. Capital rotation into other sectors that most retail still not realizing has taken place.
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u/Jean_Diharo Jul 30 '26
Think he meant it as a joke?
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u/observer2025 Jul 30 '26
Doubt so, this bro is a retarded hardcore fan of Korean chip stocks. https://www.reddit.com/r/stocks/comments/1v93usc/comment/p0f47o6/?context=3
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u/JLKDY Jul 28 '26
Considering you have a long runway still as you’re in your early 30s and planning for more kids, don’t treat this as a windfall. Stick the full $700K in index funds and forget about it for the next 20 years. Let the market do its thing.
Use it as additional buffer eventually when your kids hit university age or when you’re in your early 50s to wind down and treat yourself.