This is an account of how I build and maintain my SRS portfolio since 2023.
What is SRS
The Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) is a Singapore government-led initiative to help Singaporeans prepare for old age by building their retirement nest in advance. SRS complements the Central Provident Fund (CPF) and is voluntary. It offers attractive tax benefits as contributions are eligible for a dollar-to-dollar tax relief, up to a personal income tax relief cap of S$80,000 per Year of Assessment.
I have been contributing to my SRS account mainly for the tax benefits. I didn’t spend too much time thinking about how to invest it. Truth be told, I kept mixing it up with my CPF contributions. For the last couple of years, I placed the bulk of the funds in Endowus. It was doing okay in terms of returns. But I decided to exit for 2 main reasons: user experience and management fees.
Endowus insisted on using UOB Kay Hian to manage our accounts. My account value in UOB Kay Hian and Endowus vary greatly. The difference isn’t in cents. It is in thousands. I know the information kept by Endowus should be the accurate amount but this is not reflected in my bank statements, so it is annoying to have to figure out the difference whenever I update my financial records. I also did not like the recurring management fees. It is not high in comparison to other similar platforms, but it seems high to me for something ultra passive like an SRS account.
I decided to bite the bullet and spend some time to study and get a better understanding of SRS, its advantages and disadvantages, and work out my own SRS investment strategy and build my own SRS portfolio.
I thought my ideal SRS portfolio should have:
- An appropriate time horizon which is long term since I can’t touch my SRS monies without penalties.
- An annual yield of at least 4%
- A set-and-forget mechanism as I do not want to monitor my portfolio too frequently.
The Limitations of SRS
The type of investment instruments is limited:
- Endowment insurance plans – this type of saving-cum-insurance products are good for people who can’t save on their own. For people who are great savers, it is really not necessary.
- Unit trusts – the recurring cost of investing is high and their performance have been lacklustre of late.
- Shares and ETFs listed in SGX – The Singapore Stock Exchange is such a small market. (https://www.sgx.com/campaign/etf-investing-srs)
- Singapore Government Securities – The higher interest rates lately made this more attractive.
- Structured Deposits – I am staying away from this.
- Time Deposits – This is good for the short term. I’ll park money I need to use in the near future in time deposits just to earn extra interest. It is therefore not quite suitable for SRS.
Another limitation is 100% tax for early withdrawal amount + 5% Penalty Fee. The Singapore Government has set the official statutory retirement age at 62. If the SRS contributions are withdrawn before that, penalties apply.
In conclusion, I can only invest in shares and ETFs listed in SGX and Singapore Government Securities with a mid to long term time horizon.
Exploring Suitable SRS Portfolio Strategies
My next questions are:
- What Singapore stocks and ETFs to buy
- What should the allocation be
I looked at the following portfolio strategies.
The Permanent Portfolio
The permanent portfolio was constructed by Harry Browne with the objective of creating a safe and profitable portfolio in any economic climate. Browne stated that a portfolio equally split between growth stocks, precious metals, government bonds, and Treasury bills would be an ideal investment mixture for investors seeking safety and growth.
In the Singapore context, the permanent portfolio is likely to look like this:
- Local Stocks: STI ETF (ES3) – 25%
- Bonds: Singapore Government Bonds (30 years) – 25%
- Gold: SPDR Gold Shares (O87) – 25%
- Cash – Time Deposits – 25%
Dr Wealth did a simulated Singapore Permanent Portfolio that started on 3 Jan 2012 with S$100,000 capital up till April 2018. The yields are not impressive.
The Lazy Portfolio
The Three Fund Portfolio or the Lazy Portfolio is a simple strategy for lazy ETF investors. All you need to do is to pick three types of ETFs that give you exposure to the local stock market, the international stock market and the bond market.
In the Singapore context, the lazy portfolio is likely to look like this:
- Local Stock Market – SPDR STI ETF (ES3) or Nikko AM STI ETF (G3B) or iShares MSCI Singapore ETF (NYSEARCA: EWS)
- Bond Market – ABF Singapore bond fund (ABF)
- International Stock Market – ??
I didn’t find many examples of lazy portfolios using Singapore stocks and ETFs. A good international market ETF is especially difficult to find. There is also no back testing studies that I can fall back on (I’m not good at doing this on my own). Many investors had complained about the slow growth of STI ETF. I don’t see how a long-term portfolio consisting of the STI ETF can be profitable.
So, using the lazy portfolio for my SRS investment does not seem like a good idea.
Dogs of the STI Portfolio
Dogs of the STI is based on the Dogs of the Dow investment strategy.
“Dogs of the Dow” attempts to beat the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) each year by leaning portfolios toward high-yield investments. The general concept is to allocate money to the 10 highest dividend-yielding, blue-chip stocks among the 30 components of the DJIA. This strategy requires rebalancing at the beginning of each calendar year.
Alvin Chow from Dr Wealth explains it for the Singapore context in this video. He called it the Singapore Blue Chip Dividend Investing Strategy:
SRS Strategy for 2023: Dogs of STI
I found this applies to my SRS investment. The strategy is quite straightforward:
- Buy the top 10 STI stocks by dividend yield and review the ranking each year
- Sell those that fall off the scale and replace them with those whose yields have gone up significantly
I did some extra work by looking at their P/B and P/E ratios. I did a basic calculation of stock price based on the 5Y P/B ratio to see if the current price is higher or lower. My assumption is that if the current price is lower than the price based on the 5Y P/B, then the stock is considered reasonably priced. My final list has only 8 stocks. I’ll allocate 12.5% of my investable amount to each of the 8 stocks and REITS according to the equal weight rule.
I just found out that Hong Kong Land Holdings is not available for SRS. My list is now down to 7.
I decided to use FSMOne to buy my SRS portfolio mainly because they currently have lower fees. Their desktop platform and mobile app are quite user-friendly too. I have no issue linking my SRS bank account to my FSMOne account.
Feb 2023 Update
As of end Feb, I only managed to purchase 6 of the stocks/REITS. Maple Industrial Trust is trading above the price I want to buy it at. They are:
- BUOU Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust
- BS6 Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Holdings (https://blog.seedly.sg/yangzijiang-sgx-bs6-guide/)
- C38U CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust
- M44U Mapletree Logistics Trust
- AJBU Keppel DC Reit
- F34 Wilmar International Limited
I decided to use Yahoo Finance to track this portfolio. I can see the performance of the portfolio at one glance. They have a new feature that can also track dividends. Looking forward to seeing records of the dividends collected. Kaching! Their fundamentals view also let me see information on the dividends such as Ex-Div Date and Div/Share.
September 2023 Update
Share prices of 4 out of 6 stocks are lower than my purchase prices although the performance of BS6 Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Holdings has been surprisingly good. Together with the dividends collected, the portfolio is about 10% up.
October 2023 Update
I decided to sell BS6 Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Holdings on 10 October for $1.60 per share. The price has gone down below SMA 13 and 26. It looks like it might keep going down. I thought I’ll take profit now (dividend collected too) instead of waiting till early next year.
Jan 2024 Update
I started the portfolio with $18,973.00. The current portfolio value is $20,074.57, up 5.8%. Seeing that this is my SRS account, I think I did okay for a newbie.
I learnt a few things from this experiment:
Portfolio Value: The overall portfolio value is made up of dividend yield + market value. A lower market value will affect the annual yield. Although I feel silly not thinking of it before the experiment, I realized that I wouldn’t have started the experiment if I have known.
Not set-and-forget: This portfolio wasn’t a total set-and-forget. I found myself checking the portfolio fairly regularly.
Fees: Because I used an FSM trading account linked to CDP to buy and sell these stocks, the fees are about $12 per trade. This means if I buy and sell all 6 stocks, the total fee is around $144.00. Ouch! I do not want to do too much buying and selling with this portfolio.
REIT evaluation: There are a number of REITS in my SRS portfolio. I know they are different from stocks and should be evaluated differently. It is also the reason I decided to move away from the Dogs of the STI approach. I found a few video tutorials and the Beansprout.com REIT comparison tool helpful.
Moving forward, I am modifying my strategy. I will still be picking SG equities to buy by filtering for stocks with the best dividend yields from the STI. I would not buy all in the list and will drill down and pick the ones I find most compelling. It will not be a set-and-forget portfolio. I know myself better at this point that I would rather manage my portfolios more actively.
My SRS Portfolio in 2024: Dogs of STI
According to the dividend yields of the STI stocks in early Jan 2024, the top 10 stocks are:
| Company name | Last price | Volume | Dividend yield |
| Capitaland Ascendas REIT (A17U) | 2.97 | 8,405,100 | 7.37 |
| Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust (BUOU) | 1.16 | 5,170,000 | 6.29 |
| Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (O39) | 12.89 | 3,159,300 | 6.21 |
| Yangzijiang Financial Holding Ltd. (YF8) | 0.32 | 4,506,800 | 5.63 |
| Keppel DC REIT (AJBU) | 1.85 | 6,091,600 | 5.51 |
| Venture Corporation Limited (V03) | 13.67 | 572,300 | 5.49 |
| Mapletree Industrial Trust (ME8U) | 2.50 | 4,852,500 | 5.40 |
| Mapletree Logistics Trust (M44U) | 1.69 | 14,540,700 | 5.33 |
| Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited (J36) | 40.73 | 234,500 | 5.28 |
| CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust (C38U) | 2.03 | 19,613,900 | 5.22 |
I already own 5 stocks in this list. The ones left are:
- Capitaland Ascendas REIT (A17U)
- Yangzijiang Financial Holding Ltd. (YF8)
- Venture Corporation Limited (V03)
- Mapletree Industrial Trust (ME8U)
- Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited (J36)
The volume of Venture and Jardine are not high enough. YF8 is only 30 cents. So, I am not selecting them too. This leaves A17U and ME8U. I’m going to add these 2 stocks in equal weightage as the rest in my portfolio.
Feb 2024 Update
I have managed to purchase A17U but ME8U is too high already, not chasing. I also decided to include 2 stocks that I bought before 2023 into my SRS portfolio. These are not selected using the Dogs of STI method, but they are in the STI. They are DBS and OCBC.
My current SRS portfolio:
June 2024 Update
I added AIMS APAC REIT (O5RU) to my SRS portfolio and is looking at adding Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust (N2IU). This REIT has been beaten down a lot since it absorbed foreign assets that are not that great. The price is at all time low and according to the Fifth Person, it might be a good time to buy.
I have veered from the Dogs of the STI strategy since starting it in Feb 2023. It gave me a good start. Along the way, I picked up more knowledge about the Singapore stock market and understand my personal preferences and risk tolerance better.
I managed to add Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust (N2IU) to my SRS portfolio at $1.22 on 20 June 2024.
August 2024 Update
July and August have been good to 2 of my holdings: AJBU & N2IU. AJBU had taken a bit of time to recover. I’m still waiting for BUOU, F34, M44U to do the same. The lesson I learnt this year is that, in addition to my fundamental analysis, I should do some basic technical analysis to find an appropriate entry price. This should ideally be at a support zone rather than at a high point.
The current market value of the portfolio is up 5.67%. If I add the dividends collected, the value is up by 8.78%.
To sum up, a more active management approach has helped me build up my SRS value. It is up 11.43% based on my total contributions.
September 2024 Update
A conversation with my sister prompted a decision to exit Fraser Logistics and Industrial Trust. I will try to sell at the market price of $1.19 which is $0.10 shy of my purchase price. It is a break-even trade as I collected some dividends.
I am also going to be purchasing SRT and CFA, both are REIT ETFs.
December 2025 Update
I added a few more stocks to my SRS in 2025. These new purchases like Centurion, Amova STC Asia REIT ETF, CSOP iEdge SREIT ETF, and Capitaland Ascendas REIT have not done yet. Fortunately, some of my earlier purchases did, especially the 2 banks. The portfolio value grew to 15.45%. Adding the dividends I collected pushed the total yield to 22.91%.
I was not as active with my SRS this year. One of the reasons being the relatively high transaction costs and the time needed to evaluate Singapore stocks. There are fewer people analyzing Singapore companies.
SRS Strategy for 2026: G3B
I am reassessing my SRS strategy for 2026. Top considerations are:
Reducing transaction costs
Besides using the broker with the lowest fees, which happens to be FSMone, I also found out that they have a Regular Saving Plan that can shave cost further.
Reducing number of holdings
I think I am holding too many stocks. Trimming the underperformers might be good for the portfolio.
Interest in STI ETFs
In 2023, I concluded that the STI ETFs are growing too slowly. However, their performance has been stellar in 2025. The Singapore banks smashed their earnings, REITS are slowly recovering, and more importantly, the Singapore government launched initiatives to revitalize the Singapore stock market. I bought some Amova STI ETF (G3B) in the latter part of 2025 and it has performed well. I think the Singapore stock market will do well in the coming years. I also wouldn’t have to buy the individual blue-chip stocks. Cut down some of my holdings and re-direct the funds to the STI ETFs instead.
Interest in the iEdge Singapore Next 50 Index
I am also interested in an ETF tracking the next 50 stocks after then top 30. The index was officially launched by the Singapore Exchange (SGX) on September 22, 2025. The idea is to invest in the next 50 companies using an ETF instead of selecting the individual companies. The Next 50 ETFs will only be launched in the latter half of 2026, so I have to wait.
Since I decided that I will invest in the STI ETFs, I will need to decide which ones:
SPDR STI ETF (ES3) or Amova STI ETF (G3B)
| Metric | SPDR STI ETF (ES3) | Nikko AM STI ETF (G3B) |
| Price (approx. end-2025) | S$4.72 | S$4.81 |
| Estimated 1-Year Total Return | ~25.8% | ~27.0% |
| Dividend Yield (2025) | ~3.8% – 4.1% | ~4.2% |
| Tracking Error | ~0.25% | ~0.15% |
| Expense Ratio | 0.28% p.a. | 0.30% p.a. |
The Cost Advantage
G3B’s Total Expense Ratio (TER) of 0.24% is lower than ES3’s 0.28%. For long-term SRS holdings (often 10–20 years), this 0.04% difference compounds into meaningful savings.
Liquidity & Spread
ES3 remains the “grandfather” of the STI ETFs with a much larger Fund Size. Because it has higher daily trading volume, the bid-ask spread (the difference between the buy and sell price) is usually tighter. ES3 offers a slightly better entry price if I am investing a very large lump sum of SRS funds at once.
I’m not planning to do large lump sum investing for 2 reasons:
- Cut down transaction costs by using FSMOne Regular Saving Plan.
- Dollar cost average and leverage on dips as much as possible. It seems more prudent to DCA than do large lump-sum entry after all-time highs.
Next Steps
- Set up a Monthly RSP on FSMOne for G3B using existing cash in the account.
- Identify and close holdings to free up funds for the RSP. First underperformers are: Mapletree Logistics Trust ($7,000), CSOP iEdge SREIT ETF ($4,584). Do this progressively.
- Reinvest dividends into G3B.
- Leave G3B to compound.
LOL, it seems like I am leaning back towards the Permanent Portfolio:
- Local Stocks: STI ETF (ES3) – 25%
- Bonds: Singapore Government Bonds – 25%
- Gold: SPDR Gold Shares (O87) – 25%
- Cash – Time Deposits – 25%
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