3 Simple Tricks To Allow it to be Easy To Develop Investing Habits

The stock market has always been of great interest to me. Even as a child, I was helping my mom to look at stock prices on the teletext daily. After turning 21, I opened a brokerage account and began buying stocks.

As a student then, I didn't have that much money. This means I possibly could only buy 1 or 2 different stocks since we wanted to buy them in lots of 1,000 shares back then. For example, a stock like Singtel trading at $3.00 per share then would cost at least $3,000 per transaction. When we wanted to invest in bank stocks like OCBC, we'd need at least $8,000 to $9,000 to purchase 1,000 shares for each transaction.

Back then, there weren't any robo-advisory platforms we're able to use. This could be one reason the reasons older investors (above 40) tend to hold individual stocks within their portfolio today, and need to diversify their investments appropriately. Younger investors (30 and below) have a tendency to hold a larger proportion of the investments in robo-advisory portfolios and could choose 1 or 2 platforms they are familiar with to invest through.

But could it be an investment bias that each generation has? Do older investors know more about stocks, making it easier for them to invest in stocks while younger investors who are less familiar with stocks would decide to park their money with robo-advisors instead?

In my opinion, it's investing habits that really keep people investing in exactly as they are used to.

If you lack investment experience and find it hard to start investing, it is important that you start building your investment knowledge first. At the same time, you should also work on developing good investment habits as well

Here are 3 simple tricks that you can use to develop investing habits for yourself.

#1 Start A Separate Account For Neglect the Monies

One of the simplest tricks to develop a good investment habit is to have a designated take into account your investment monies.

By separating neglect the monies from savings that you need for day-to-day transactions, it prevents you against accidentally spending money that you have set aside for investing. It also inculcates a habit of always setting aside a sum for investments, whether you invest in that month or not.

For example, in case your take-home salary is $3,000 and you wish to set aside 20% of your salary ($600) for investing, transfer it immediately to your investment savings account once you receive your salary each month. If you are afraid that you may forget, consider setting a recurring transfer each month to your designated investment account.

Alternatively, you can get your company to GIRO your salary to your designated investment account and also to transfer the money set aside for spending from your investment account each month.

Even if you do not invest the money immediately, the truth that it's sitting in your designated investment account will serve as a reminder that you need to invest the money.

The OCBC 360 is one such account that you could utilise for investment purposes. The account offers decent interest rates, which allows you to earn bonus interest for performing transactions like crediting your salary, or buying an investment or insurance product. You may also choose to credit your dividend and coupon payments straight into this “designated” investment account.

#2 Explore Convenient Investment Options Provided by The Bank

One of the advantages of designating a savings account for your investment with a bank like OCBC is that you can easily start investing through platforms provided by the bank. You don't have to complete separate forms, open another brokerage account with another broker or transfer funds over before you invest. This makes it easy for you to start and keep investing with minimal disruption.

For example, one way that I developed a habit for investing was with the OCBC Blue Chip Investment Plan (BCIP). The BCIP allows investors to purchase blue-chip stocks or selected ETFs on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) from as little as S$100 per month. This was perfect for someone much like me who did not have any investing experience and could only afford to invest several hundred dollars each month. Also, as a new investor, it's better (in my opinion) to adopt a dollar-cost averaging method of investing, where you invest a small sum each month, rather than make a sizable one-off lump sum investment.

If you are already an OCBC savings or current account holder, you can start investing via mobile through the OCBC Mobile Banking app (download from Google Play or even the App Store). This way, it becomes easier to make investing a regular habit – just like replying to texts or surfing the web on your way to work.

Screenshot from OCBC Bank app

Besides the BCIP, there are more investment products would-be investors may consider, such as Unit Trusts or OCBC RoboInvest – a digital advisor that uses an intelligent algorithm to help you invest from as low as US$100, with a wide selection of portfolios to choose from based on your risk appetite, needs and preferences. You do not need much to get started. You can purchase unit trusts and RoboInvest from as little as $100 (US$100 for RoboInvest) through the mobile app.

For example, if you want to invest in local stocks or ETFs with the BCIP, you can choose 1) things to invest in and 2) how much you wish to invest each month through the app in your mobile phone. Funds will automatically be deducted from your OCBC savings or current account each month to make the investments. You can improve your investments or stop investing at any time in time.

#3 Track The Progression Of Your Goals Closely

Most of the investments we make are for the long-term. We may be investing towards our retirement, child's education or other goals such as a home upgrade of the new car. As such, it's important to constantly keep track of our progress.

Tracking our progress doesn't only allow us to make early adjustments as going off-track but also serves as valuable motivation, validation and encouragement if we are doing well – just like the mile markers the thing is while running a marathon. Managing your hard earned money is easy with the Money Insights feature on the OCBC Mobile Banking App, which provides you a view of your spending and also helps you set budgets.

Separately, you can utilise the OCBC Life Goals planner, a tool that allows you to set your goals and to work towards it. OCBC Life Goals help identify financial gaps that you might not have noticed while planning for your retirement or children's education. It also offers you solutions to help close these gaps.

Tracking your purpose and monitoring your progress is essential because it gives us an indication of methods well we are doing, and what else we can work on to improve our results.

If we want to get fit and to live a proper life, we need to develop the practice of eating healthily and to find the time to exercise regularly.

Similarly, we need to get the right investing habits within our younger days to make investing part of our daily lives. By establishing an account to keep the savings for the investments, downloading the right apps to make investing easily accessible for us every month and to track our goals regularly, we are able to set ourselves up to achieve success in our investment journey.