At S3, we are making investing accessible for everyone by eliminating financial and investment illiteracy through necessary education and advisory services and an essential foundation investment portfolio design.
Smart. Stoic. Simple.
Our Investment Philosophy
One’s economic well-being and financial health is equally important as one’s physical and mental health. The principles governing all three are the same.
S3 living. S3 thinking. S3 investing.
Smart
Understanding and analysis before any investment decision.
Stoic
Eliminating ego and emotions in investing.
Simple
Simplifying investing through education and learning.
Accessible
Fighting misinformation and fear to embrace investing.
Essential
Investing at all stages of life and in all financial conditions.
Active
Investing is always active, as with living and aging.
Holistic
Integrating into one’s income and expenses (cash-flow).
Strategic
A well though approach, not ad-hoc decisions.
A complete and TOTAL approach to one’s Investment portfolio.
Invest after you understand. Learning and education component of our philosophy and services is equally if not more important in investing because lack of understanding creates fear and uncertainty within us leading most investors to lack confidence in their investments and prematurely exiting and selling instead of patiently adopting the well known buy and hold approach. So speak with us to learn about investing and building a foundation investment portfolio.
There are only two steps in investing. Do NOT skip the first step.
WHY S3?
Which of the investor profiles fits you the most?
Novice Investor
None to few investments
0-20% of net worth* invested in securities
You have never invested in equities or bonds or REITs and have only held cash in your bank account. You have perhaps purchased or are considering buying a property as your home. You may have one or more rental properties. You may have dabbled in investing by buying individual stocks or ETFs and perhaps do not consider them as good investments. You may have invested in some mutual funds or unit trusts in your pensions portfolio.
Competent Investor
Substantially invested
20-60% of net worth* invested in securities
You have substantial investments in stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, REITs, stocks, bonds, commodities, gold, even crypto, but still keep significant cash and/or real estate. You do this in your pension accounts, your IRA/ISA accounts and also via investment platforms like Saxo, IG, Hargreaves, among others. You may also be trading options.
Seasoned Investor
Significant investments
60-90% of net worth* invested in securities
You have significant investments in the markets. You rely on your portfolio for dividend and interest income from equities and bonds. You may also be trading options. You likely monitor your allocations across asset classes regularly.
*Net worth includes cash savings, equity in real estate, businesses, insurance, and investments in equities, bonds, commodities, crypto, pension funds and any other assets.
As an investor, you can be a public or private sector employee, a business owner, retired, semi-retired with minimal to significant savings, on your own or with dependants including children, partner and/or aging parents.
An investor with any of these profiles is constantly trying to answer a single question.
How can your investment portfolio do all of this?
Experience and Wisdom
Applies the wisdom of all successful investors out there
Solid fundamentals
Is proven and based on long term history and fundamentals and not pure speculation
Market Adaptive
Always adapting to be in sync with current markets
Balanced
Balanced enough to reduce excessive volatility and risk, but not so balanced and safe that I only get 3-4% returns
Cash-flow Integration
Integrated into my cash-flow by providing a decent income to meet my expenses
Lifetime Planning
Incorporates planning to last a lifetime for me and my dependants
Reasonable Growth
Focused on reasonable growth, but not so risky, that I can still sleep peacefully at night
Discretionary spending
Still leaves me room to take some risks, pursue my hobbies and business ventures
Can you build a portfolio today that will make you free from uncertainty and fear of the future?
If someone tells us that our investment portfolio depends on your risk appetite and time horizon, then they have wasted our time. That is exactly what every pension administrator, financial consultant, ETF provider, investment firm, insurance agent and friend has been telling us over the years.
An investment portfolio needs to first have a foundation designed on a sound investment philosophy, methodology and approach to achieve these goals above. Such a foundation does not depend on one’s risk appetite to begin with, which in turn depends on one’s investment literacy. Any consideration of one’s risk appetite and time horizon, comes only after one have successfully built such a foundation portfolio. One’s risk appetite is only a function of one’s knowledge and understanding of the economics, markets and investing.
At S3, we offer such a portfolio and are teaching you how to build such a foundation investment portfolio.
THE ONLY WAY TO INVEST.
THE ONLY WAY TO BE.
S3. SMART. STOIC. SIMPLE.
OUR INVESTMENT METHODOLGY
MERGE – Macro ETFs for Reasonable Growth with Equities (mostly)
An ESSENTIAL and ACCESSIBLE investment portfolio designed with three core qualities:
1. Selective Macro ETFs (countries and sectors) to drive growth and diversification without excessively sacrificing returns.
2. Focused on reasonable growth (alternative GARP i.e. pace, not price) and income (not moving into income alone or increasing income component, as one progresses towards retirement).
3. Reasonable diversified/balanced to reduce downside volatility and associated risks and integrated into optimal spending.
Aims to achieve at least 7.3% CAGR (annualised returns) or double the investment portfolio every 10 years.
If 7.3% CAGR sounds boring and does not sound interesting or exciting, then you are missing the point.
We do not want our investment portfolio to be exciting or interesting. The goal for it is to be boring by having stable growth and income, so we can then make our life interesting and exciting by pursuing our hobbies, interests and travels with the secure cash flow generated by our foundation portfolio.
Numerous funds, ETFs and investment schemes promise and even successfully demonstrate much higher recent returns. However, most, including hedge funds have poor long-term returns.
There are individual ETFs tracking S&P500 and Nasdaq which are delivering more than 7.3% CAGR over 10 years. However, does that mean one will safely and confidently invest 80% of net worth in that single ETF and sleep tight? Not really. If the reasons are not clear, please read our approach in detail.
Chasing much higher returns leads to unnecessary volatility and risk and often poorer returns.
Our focus here is on AT LEAST 7.3% CAGR, thereby doubling the portfolio consistently EVERY 10 years.
We may even triple the portfolio every 10 years, but let us ensure we can double it first.
S3 ESSENTIAL FOUNDATION
INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO DESIGN
Watch and learn recipe for THE ESSENTIAL FOUNDATION INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO
Essential Deep BREATHING for our physical, mental, economic and financial health and well-being
Dividends
Bonds
REITs
Equities
America
Technology
Health Care
India and Japan
Non-essential
Government Bonds and Cash
| Objective | Growth and Price Return | Income, diversification, volatility reduction and return protection | Expenses, Inflation hedging and diversification |
| Asset Classes | America – S&P and Nasdaq index ETFs | Diversify with India and Japan for growth | Invest in technology, health care and consumer discretionary sectors | Dividend ETFs and dividend growth stocks | REITs and high yield corporate bonds | Gold, Commodities, Short to medium term Government bills, notes, bonds, and Cash |
| Allocation | 60-70% | 15-20% | 10-15% |
S3 ESSENTIAL CALCULATORS
Every business, every company has three critical statements, its BALANCE SHEET, its INCOME STATEMENT and finally its CASHFLOW STATEMENT, which the business maintain rigorously and publishes quarterly in the case of public companies.
Similarly, we also need three essential calculators to keep track of our financial health, by understanding our EXPENSES and CURRENT NET WORTH, and linking the two through our ESSENTIAL INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO in our CASHFLOW PROJECTION.
Smart. Stoic. Simple.
As S3, we are making Investing ACCESSIBLE for all.
ESSENTIAL foundation Portfolio | Education and Resources | 3 ESSENTIAL Calculators
“I had always been a real estate investor. S3 helped me understand investing and diversify.”
Edward Pratt