Top 5 Investment Courses in Singapore Reviewed (2020 Guide)

Happy Chinese New Year Everyone! 恭喜发财！

For a beginner investor in Singapore, finding where to start is an overwhelming experience. There’s just so much information out there & so many conflicting opinions.

It took me years of trial and error and making mistakes before I started to understand what investing was about. And that’s also why I started Financial Horse so we could have a community where we communicate and learn from other investors in Singapore.

The progression for a beginner investor usually goes like this. First you get curious about investing because you’ve been hearing your friends talk about investment gains and you really don’t want to miss out. FOMO! You go home and start googling “what shares to buy” online. You realize this is more complicated than you thought and decide to put some money in a robo-advisor to test things out.  

After learning some basics online & by reading some books (Best Investment Books) and monitoring your robo-portfolio, you decide you’re ready to buy your first share. You come across Financial Horse’s “Best Stockbrokers in 2020” and open an account. You monitor your portfolio like a hawk, celebrating every gain and feeling every painful dip. You make some mistakes and start to develop some general investing rules for yourself.

Eventually, you hit roadblocks & start thinking about signing up for an investment course. After all, you’ve heard some great testimonials online, and it seems like a much quicker way to short-cut your learning, so why not.

Okay I got a little carried away with this story, but you get the idea.

So for those of you who are considering signing up for an investment course, I wanted to pen this article just to share some of my thoughts, and hope that it would be helpful for you guys.

Basics: Investing Courses for Singapore Investors

Investment courses are an interesting breed. Some people swear by them, and some people absolutely hate them.

The way I see it, it all goes back to how you process information. If you learn well in a classroom setting, you’ll probably learn well via Investment Courses, whether physical or online. If you can’t learn well by listening to someone speak, you probably wouldn’t learn well via investment courses, and you may want to consider other options such as books or talking to other investors (FH Investing Facebook Group).

For me personally, I’m a visual/text kinda guy, so courses work okay for me, but not amazing. When I go for courses, I usually like to watch them on 1.25x speed, so online courses are my favourite, and I seldom go for live classroom style settings unless the instructor is really good. That’s just how I learn, and it’s important you understand how you learn too. Not everybody is the same, and what works for some people, may not necessarily work for you.

Ranking Criteria

In this article, I’ve ranked what I think to be the top 5 Investment Courses in Singapore, by their quality. Factors I used to rank the course include:

Quality of Investment Knowledge

To me this is the biggest one, with the biggest weightage. You’re here to learn about investing, so the quality of knowledge better be good right?

An investment course with fantastic quality of investment knowledge, with poor marketing, is acceptable. But an investment course with fantastic marketing, and poor quality of investment knowledge, is absolutely unacceptable.

There’s nothing that makes me angrier than an investment course that teaches poor / low quality investment content.

Value for Money

Price is what you pay, value is what you get. As investors, value is everything. This carries over to investment courses as well. It’s okay to pay $1000 for a course that delivers $10,000 in value over the next 2 or 3 years. But to pay $500 for a course that doesn’t add value? Absolutely not okay.

Lifetime updates

Lifetime updates to me are a nice to have. When I buy an investment course, it’s nice to see the creator being dedicated to his creation, and continually adding new content.

It’s not a deal breaker for me, but it’s more a way of evaluating the intention behind the course creator. Is he here to make a quick buck and move on? Or is he going to refine the course content year after year, to create the best course ever?

Customer Support

Again this is not a dealbreaker. But a course creator that is quick and prompt to reply to questions from students, really demonstrates a commitment to his course, and this is something I appreciate.

Top 5 Investment Courses in Singapore

Ranking Table

Ranking	5th	4th	3rd	2nd	1st
	Adam Khoo	Value Investing College	Dr Wealth	Fifth Person	Financial Horse
Quality of Investment Knowledge	Beginner	Beginner	Beginner – Intermediate	Beginner – Intermediate	Beginner – Intermediate
Course type	Wealth Academy (primary course)/ Crypto/ trading also available	3-day bootcamp	Wide range available	Dividend machines/ Investment Quadrant  *Only open once a year	Complete Guide to Investing / REITs Masterclass Stocks Masterclass *Lifetime updates
Value for Money	>3,000	>2,000	1,000 – 2,000+	<1,000	<1,000
Free Preview/ Introduction	√	√	√	X	√
Customer Service	√	√ Lifelong support after bootcamp	√	√ Support from coaches to ask questions	√ Discussion area to ask questions

5^th Place: Adam Khoo Wealth Academy 

I know what you guys are thinking. Adam Khoo? Investing Courses?

His landing page is a little flashy, and it does overpromise a little, but I mean that’s just Adam Khoo right?

Adam Khoo’s 4-day Wealth Academy Course is a decent option if you’re looking to get into investing. It conveys why you need to invest, the importance of investing, and the basics to investing. Most of the information in the course can be obtained via other means, but what you get from this course, is Adam Khoo’s persuasiveness, to really instil in you the importance investing. I know of some younger investors who attended and left really excited to learn more about investing and to get started on their investment journey, so if that works for you, this could be worth the course fee in itself.

He offers a free course (Wealth Academy™ Lite Workshop (Singapore)), so if you’re a beginner investor, it’s worth it to just drop by the free course before deciding if you want to go any further, and whether you like his teaching style. The actual paid course is on the pricey side though (around S$3,000 last I heard) so it ranks lower on the “Value” category.

If you’re a more advanced investor who knows the difference between a P/E and a P/B though, this course is probably less helpful for you.

There is also a WEALTH ACADEMY™ PRO TRADERS that teaches the basics of technical investing. Again, a fantastic option for those who are looking to get into day trading. But once you know your Bollinger bands and Candlestick patterns, you’ll need to start moving to more advanced materials.

4^th Place: Value Investing College 

This 3-day Value Investing Bootcamp (VIB) is a great introduction to investing that covers the basics of what you need to know. Things like fundamental analysis, portfolio construction, and their own unique take on valuing stocks.

Disclaimer alert – Most “proprietary stock screening” methods that are touted are usually just variants of value or momentum strategies. So don’t place too much faith into them.

The course fee is also on the high side (around S$2,000), so again it ranks low on the value category.

Much like Adam Khoo’s courses, Value Investing College also offers a free option, so if you’re thinking of signing up, no harm checking out the free option first.

Again, must like Adam Khoo’s course, this is good for beginners, but once you know the basics of fundamental investing, this is probably less helpful.

3^rd Place: Dr Wealth 

Dr Wealth has a whole bunch of courses (Intelligent Investors Immersive, Early Retirement Masterclass, Factor based Investing Course, 8-Figure Trading Blueprint, CryptoKnight) that can be helpful whether you’re a beginner or intermediate investor.

Dr Wealth courses tend to be more technical than Adam Khoo’s or Value Investing College’s, so that’s a good or bad depending on what kind of an investor you are.

Again, most of these can be learnt online or from books, but usually when you pay for a course, it’s so that someone can help to synthesize the information, and break it down for you clearly. I think Dr Wealth’s courses do fulfil this.

Again, course fees are on the high side (around $1000 to $2000 depending on the course in question), so it ranks lower on the value category.

There are also free intro-courses so if you’re keen, do check those out first before signing up.

2^nd Place: The Fifth Person 

The way I see it, the Fifth Person is one of the best investment courses out there right now, with their Dividend Machines and The Investment Quadrant. Their prices are also much more reasonable than other courses in the market.

I know the team from the Fifth Person personally, and I can vouch that these guys know their stuff, and they are also passionate about investing.

If you want to learn the fundamentals of fundamental investing, whether for dividend stocks or value-growth stocks, the Fifth Person is a great place to start.

Unfortunately, there’s no free course that I know of, so you’ll just need to wing it on this one.

1^st Place: Financial Horse – Complete Guide to Investing for Singapore Investors (FH Course)

The most common question I get on this site is: “I am x years old. I have y dollars in the bank. How do I invest my money?”

I’ve taken everything I know about investing and condensed this information into a set of videos, guides and materials. It is the FH Course: the Complete Guide to Investing for Singapore Investors.

I genuinely mean it when I say that the FH Course is the most high quality and value for money investing course for beginner to intermediate investors in Singapore.

At a fraction of the price of most other courses on the marekt, the FH Course covers everything a beginner investor needs to know. From asset allocation, understanding the market cycle, how to pick Stocks, how to pick REITs, how to pick bonds, how to pick ETFs, how to invest / pick Property, how to utilise CPF as an investment tool & how to minimise your tax bill, the Course teaches you to build a complete portfolio as a Singaporean investor. None of the other courses above come anywhere close in terms of value and amount of content delivered in a single course.

I also wanted to let you guys in on a big secret in investing. Most beginner investors obsess over which stocks to pick – should I go with MCT or CMT? and pore over research and annual reports to find the answer. In reality though, that’s just missing the forest for the trees.

In investing, the bulk of your investment returns come from good asset allocation (how much you put into stocks / bonds / property / commodities). Only once you get asset allocation settled, should you start worrying about which stocks to pick.

And none of the courses above cover asset allocation, because it’s not sexy. People want to pick the stock that goes up 100% in 5 months, instead of obsessing over whether to put 30% of their net worth in stocks or bonds.

But here at Financial Horse, we focus on what really matters. Asset allocation is by far the most important thing you need to learn at a beginner investor. The FH Course builds a complete framework from the ground up to think about your net worth as a Singaporean, inclusive of CPF, property (residential + investment), bonds, stocks, REITs. This is the same approach I adopt towards conceptualising my own net worth. In fact, I would even go so far to say that the Asset Allocation module itself is probably worth the entire course fee.

And that’s just the beginning. On top of that, you also learn about:

• How to split your assets among stocks, REITs, bonds, cash, and real estate?
• Understanding the Market Cycle – What is the right time to buy stocks, or sell them?
• How to analyse and pick REITs?
• How to identify good property to invest in, and the right time?
• How to analyse and pick growth dividend stocks?
• How to find the right ETF for your portfolio?
• How to invest in bonds in Singapore? And which are the best ones?
• How to use CPF & Tax Planning to your advantage, without breaking the law?
• How to put an entire portfolio together, to achieve your financial goals?

The full course outline is set out below:

• Module 1: Objectives and Goal Setting
• Module 2: The Importance of Asset Allocation
• Module 3: Understanding the Market Cycle
• Module 4: REITs
• Module 5: Property Investing for Individuals
• Module 6: Shares
• Module 7: ETFs
• Module 8: Bonds & Fixed Income
• Module 9: CPF & Tax Planning
• Module 10: Putting it all together: Sample Portfolios

There is also a free preview of the Asset Allocation lesson (sign up here), so definitely check it out to see if you’re on track with your asset allocation!

If you’re a beginner to intermediate investor, I genuinely think that this is the best investment course out there for you. 

Still not convinced? Read more about the FH Course here.

Tied for 1^st Place: REITs Investing MasterClass

Regular readers of Financial Horse know that I love REITs. REITs are my first love, and I pride myself on being a REITs investor first, and a stock investor second. I’ve been investing in them since I started as an investor, and I’ve made lots of money from REITs.

When I first launched Financial Horse, I wrote about the 5 things to look out for when investing in REITs. Stuff like P/NAV, Yield, Interest rates etc.

In recent years, I’ve seen articles from mainstream sites (eg. Straits Times and Seedly), that go into similar details. They talk about looking at Price to Book, Gearing Ratios, DPU growth etc.

I knew that once mainstream media was looking at the same things I was, retail investors’ interest in REITs would start to grow and indeed, many readers email me every day asking for me to do more in-depth articles on Singapore REITs. 

To this end, I thought it would be really helpful to create a REITs Investing Masterclass. More than what my articles could convey, I wanted to go above and beyond to deliver high-quality content.

I pored over countless real estate, practitioner level texts. I pored over valuations textbooks. I pored over capital markets, modern portfolio theory, statistics, probabilities textbooks. In this process, I broke down a REIT into what it really is. Real Estate, with leverage, with capital markets characteristics.

And I came up with a completely new framework to invest in REITs.

In this REITs Masterclass, you’ll learn the intermediate to advanced level skills necessary to invest properly. In the REITs MasterClass, you learn about:

• When is the best time to invest in REITs? And when is the time you should be selling REITs?
• ​How to make money from real estate? How to identify the best properties to own for a lifetime?
• How does real estate and REIT fit into your portfolio? What is the best percentage of REITs to have in your asset allocation?
• What can we learn from REITs from the US? What does this mean for S-REITs in the next 5 years?
• Unique risks ​you must look out for before buying REITs
• ​Growth drivers a REIT must have so you can earn increasing distribution and capital gains every year
• ​The best type of sponsors and managers a REIT must have to protect your capital and make you money
• The financial and operational metrics a REIT must pass
• ​How to value a REIT accurately using practitioner level valuation techniques

For serious investors who want to build a long term REIT portfolio & for Investors who are not satisfied with average returns, the REITs MasterClass is for you.

This is probably THE best REITs Investing course out there for Singapore Investors.

Read more about the REITs MasterClass here, or sign up below.

Difference between FH Course and REITs MasterClass

The FH Course is for beginner investors who want to learn the basics and fundamentals of investing. The course teaches you everything you need to know to assemble a complete portfolio, from stocks, REITs, bonds, CPF, private property etc.

The REITs MasterClass on the other hand is for intermediate/advanced investors who already know the basics, and want to take their REIT and real estate investing to the next level. It drills down into REITs and real estate as an asset class, and gives you everything you need to know to become an advanced REIT investor, competing at the highest level.

It blows my mind that there are courses and degrees out there for everything we do, but when it comes to investing, we’re supposed to just pick it up ourselves.

I’ve seen many investors get blown up in the market because they simply didn’t have the knowledge or skills to understand what was going on.

They were going up against money managers with PHDs from Harvard, 20 years’ experience at Blackstone, people who read and breathe finance.

In times like this, trying to invest against top money managers without some semblance of training and knowledge is a recipe for disaster. 

And with both the FH Course or REITs MasterClass, signing up now gives you lifetime updates, which means timely & updated content that is relevant to the current markets. We also raise prices every year, so don’t wait too long! Because you have lifetime access, you can learn at your own pace & go through the course as new material is added.

Focus on the bigger picture!

In investing, as in life, it’s not good to be penny wise, pound foolish.

I’m reminded of the investors who obsess over picking MCT at $1.95 vs $1.93.

Don’t lose sight of the forest, for the trees.

Both the FH Course and the REITs Investing Masterclass are designed for investors looking to seriously invest over the course of a lifetime.

If you are a serious investor, this course will speak for itself.

You already know from your own experience how big the losses can get if you’re unprepared, or if you make a single mistake with one REIT.

You know through your own investing experience, how important opportunity cost is.

You don’t want to be scrambling to figure out which operational metric to look at, which Sponsor to focus on, when REITs are at fire sale prices.

You want to be able to get up to speed immediately, to supercharge your knowledge, to the level of advanced investors.

You want to have the same knowledge as the big boys, right now.

Get this right, and you’re setting up your finances for the rest of your life.

Invest in yourself. Don’t rely on others. It could just be the best decision you ever made.

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If you have any experience with these courses, do leave comments below so you can help out other investors making a choice! Share your comments below!

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Looking for a comprehensive guide to investing that covers stocks, REITs, bonds, CPF and asset allocation? Check out the FH Complete Guide to Investing.

Or if you’re a more advanced investor, check out the REITs Investing Masterclass, which goes in-depth into REITs investing – everything from how much REITs to own, which economic conditions to buy REITs, how to pick REITs etc.

Both are THE best quality investment courses available to Singapore investors out there!