First Look: Syfe Core Portfolio – Limited Sign-up Bonus

If you’re the sort who wants a hassle-free way to invest and set aside funds for higher returns, Syfe has recently released three new portfolios: Core Growth, Core Balanced, and Core Defensive. These portfolios take the hassle and management out of your investing, and can be your main investment portfolio if you so desire.

Diversification across stocks, bonds, and gold

All three portfolios are invested in low-cost ETFs with stocks and bonds in various regions and sectors, as well as gold. This provides significant diversification; stocks and bonds are generally inversely correlated, and gold tends to act as a safe haven during stock market crashes.

Core Growth
The most aggressive of the three portfolios, Core Growth has almost 70% in stock ETFs to provide long-term growth. It still has a significant 30% in bonds and gold, and this can offer some cushioning during market downturns.

Following the Rule of 100 – where the percentage of your portfolio in equities is determined by your age subtracted from 100 – most working adults can happily plop their funds earmarked for longer term pursuits without worrying too much.

Based on Syfe’s backtested data, the Core Growth portfolio yielded an average annual return of 11.23% over the past 8 years.

I’m personally vested in this portfolio.

Core Balanced
As the name suggests, Core Balanced aims to balance between the higher-yield asset of stocks which stands at around 40%, and the safer bonds and gold classes which take up a heavy 60% of the portfolio.

Personally, I think this is more suitable for more risk averse individuals who do not want too much volatility in their investments.

Based on Syfe’s backtested data, the Core Growth portfolio yielded an average annual return of 7.25% over the past 8 years.

Core Defensive
Core Defensive is the most conservative of the portfolios, with less than 20% of equities allocated to equities. This may arguably be way too conservative if you don’t have immediate or short-term need for the money.

Based on Syfe’s backtested data, the Core Growth portfolio yielded an average annual return of 4.90% over the past 8 years.

Free withdrawals/deposits, rebalancing, and dividend reinvesting

It is not very difficult to decide on your own risk appetite, draw up an asset allocation, and buy ETFs to fit into your portfolio, but this would of course require time and effort in actually doing it. Most people just end up doing ad-hoc investments when they feel like it, which I’m personally guilty of to some degree.

There’s also the logistical issue as well as cost concerns when trying to fit different ETFs into an investment budget and rebalancing one’s asset allocation.

It’s therefore convenient that Syfe offers features like free rebalancing (once in April and another in October each year), on top of free withdrawals and deposits (no sales charge or brokerage fees!). It also reinvests dividends automatically – a gripe I have with DBS Invest-Saver which curiously still does not offer.

Fees

The fees start at 0.65% per year for balances below $20,000, 0.5% for $20,000 and above, and 0.4% for $100,000. I think it’s fair for the convenience, but do note that the individual ETFs also have management fees which average about 0.15%.

Overall the expense ratio isn’t high, and if you have bought or are considering investment-linked or long-term endowment policies the fees here are really miniscule in comparison.

Sign up promo

Sign up for Syfe with referral code SETHISFY and you can get a fee waiver of 6 months of your first $30,000 of investment! It will be only 3 months of fee waiver for sign-ups from 1st October 2021 onwards.

The referral code field is found after you finish a few questions about your risk tolerance, and when you are first asked to input a password. If you miss this step, you can still input the referral code 14 days after account creation.

Syfe Cash+

If you are looking for Syfe Cash+ which is even more risk conservative than Core Defensive and aims for 1.75% p.a. returns, you can also sign up with the same referral code above.

Note that if you wish to sign up for both Syfe Core and Syfe Cash+, you should sign up and fund Syfe Core first, then sign up for Cash+ a day or two to ensure that you receive the referral incentives for Syfe Core. It makes no difference to you, but it does increase the incentive I receive, and I would gladly appreciate you taking your time to do this.

I intend to write an article about Syfe Cash+, so stay subscribed to my Telegram to be notified of the article!

Conclusion

Most of us are too busy/distracted to invest on the regular, and often let emotions or procrastination get in the way. Syfe Core portfolios are hence a great choice to set up and forget, and is a convenient way to set aside money for the longer term without much hassle and effort.

The fees are reasonable for what it offers, and is competitive against other investment platforms. Unfortunately, only cash is accepted at the moment, although Syfe does indicate that SRS investments are coming soon.

As with all things money and investing, none of this is meant to be personal financial adviser and you should seek financial advice before purchasing a financial product.

Keep up to date on the best cashback/mile cards, financial products, attractive deals, and more tips to maximise your financial wellbeing by subscribing to my Telegram channel.

Subscribe to the channel, then join the group chat. You would often benefit from the tips shared exclusively in the group chat!

Disclaimer: I may receive an affiliate/referral fee when you sign up for services/products on this site, and such fees keep the site running. I would only recommend services/products I would personally use or recommend to my own friends and family, but I do not provide any warranty or guarantee for the quality of these services/products. Thank you for supporting my site!

Please exercise due diligence when signing up for any service/product as I will not be liable for any personal loss, financial or otherwise. Content published here are my sole views and personal opnion, and none of the information here constitutes personal financial advice nor represents the views of my employer(s).