How to Double Your Money in 10 Years with the STI ETF

The Smart Investor

May 29

Key takeaways: S$10,000 invested in ES3 grew to around S$26,220 over 10 years, including dividends. That works out to a total return of 162.2%, or about 10.1% a year. S$500 invested monthly would ...

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Open an account to enjoy low commission trading today!","ogImage":"https://c1.itigergrowtha.com/portal5/static/media/og-logo.0a0bd8dc.png","ogUrl":"https://www.gotigerhk.com/news/2639625254"},"companyName":"Tiger Brokers"},"pageData":{"isMobile":false,"isTiger":false,"isTTM":true,"region":"HKG","license":"TBHK","edition":"fundamental"},"isCrawlerRequest":true,"__swrFallback__":{"@#url:\"https://stock-news.skytigris.cn/v3/news\",params:#id:\"2639625254\",edition:\"fundamental\",auth_exemption:1,,,undefined,":{"share":"https://ttm.financial/m/news/2639625254?lang=en_US&edition=fundamental","thumbnail":"https://thesmartinvestor.com.sg/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/6-300x200.png","is_english":true,"pubTime":"2026-05-29 17:30","share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/e9f99090a1c2ed51c021029395664489","id":"2639625254","market":"nz","top_or_hot":-1,"title":"How to Double Your Money in 10 Years with the STI ETF","media":"The Smart Investor","content":"<div>\n<p>Key takeaways:\n\nS$10,000 invested in ES3 grew to around S$26,220 over 10 years, including dividends.\nThat works out to a total return of 162.2%, or about 10.1% a year.\nS$500 invested monthly would ...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://thesmartinvestor.com.sg/how-to-double-your-money-in-10-years-with-the-sti-etf/\">Source Link</a>\n\n</div>\n","source":"thesmartinvestor_highlight","html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; 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height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nHow to Double Your Money in 10 Years with the STI ETF\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n2026-05-29 17:30 GMT+8&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=https://thesmartinvestor.com.sg/how-to-double-your-money-in-10-years-with-the-sti-etf/><strong>The Smart Investor</strong></a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<div>\n<p>Key takeaways:\n\nS$10,000 invested in ES3 grew to around S$26,220 over 10 years, including dividends.\nThat works out to a total return of 162.2%, or about 10.1% a year.\nS$500 invested monthly would ...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://thesmartinvestor.com.sg/how-to-double-your-money-in-10-years-with-the-sti-etf/\">Source Link</a>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","isBrief":false,"type":0,"news_type":1,"symbol":"STI.SI","symbol_name":"富时新加坡海峡指数","start_time":0,"source_url":"https://thesmartinvestor.com.sg/how-to-double-your-money-in-10-years-with-the-sti-etf/","article_id":"2639625254","we_media_id":null,"thumbnails":["https://thesmartinvestor.com.sg/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/6-300x200.png"],"rights":{"source":"thesmartinvestor_highlight","url":"https://thesmartinvestor.com.sg/how-to-double-your-money-in-10-years-with-the-sti-etf/","rn_cache_url":null,"directOrigin":true},"url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=2639625254","pubTimestamp":1780047000,"columns":[],"sourceInfo":{"source_id":"thesmartinvestor_highlight","name":"The Smart Investor"},"weMediaInfo":null,"summary":"A S$10,000 investment in the SPDR STI ETF grew to around S$26,220 over 10 years, including dividends. Here’s what Singapore investors can learn.","collect":0,"end_time":0,"defaultTopTitle":"thesmartinvestor.com.sg","property":[],"viewcount":null,"language":"en","relate_stocks":{"STI.SI":"富时新加坡海峡指数","ES3.SI":"STI ETF"},"translate_title":"如何通过STI ETF在10年内让您的资金翻倍","themeId":null,"isJumpTheme":false,"ttsUrl":null,"symbols_score_info":{"STI.SI":1.98,"ES3.SI":1.98},"content_text":"Key takeaways:\n\nS$10,000 invested in ES3 grew to around S$26,220 over 10 years, including dividends.\nThat works out to a total return of 162.2%, or about 10.1% a year.\nS$500 invested monthly would have grown to around S$115,000, based on historical data and reinvested dividends.\nIt gives investors exposure to Singapore blue chips, but it is heavily weighted towards banks.\nThe STI ETF is not risk-free.\n\n\n\nDoubling your money in 10 years sounds ambitious.\n\nBut for Singapore investors, it has already happened with one of the simplest investments available on the Singapore Exchange (SGX).\n\nA S$10,000 investment in the SPDR Straits Times Index ETF (SGX: ES3) would have grown to around S$26,220 over the past decade, including dividends.\n\nNo stock picking. No trading. No lucky bet on the next NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA).\n\nJust Singapore’s blue-chip index, dividends reinvested, and time.\n\nThat may surprise investors who think the Singapore market is boring, slow, or only useful for dividends. Yet over the past 10 years, the humble STI ETF delivered a result many investors might have been happy to achieve from individual stock picking.\n\nThe lesson is not that the next 10 years will look exactly like the last 10.\n\nThe lesson is that wealth-building does not always look exciting while it is happening.\n\nMonth by month, dividend by dividend, year by year, the result can look ordinary.. until one day, it is not.\n\nWhat is the SPDR STI ETF?\nThe SPDR STI ETF aims to track the performance of the Straits Times Index, Singapore’s benchmark stock market index. It does this by investing substantially all its assets in the shares that make up the index, in broadly similar weightings.\n\nIn plain English, buying the STI ETF gives investors exposure to a basket of Singapore’s largest listed companies through a single investment.\n\nInstead of choosing between DBS Group Holdings (SGX: D05), OCBC (SGX: O39), UOB (SGX: U11), Singtel (SGX: Z74), Singapore Exchange (SGX: S68), or various REITs, investors can own a broad slice of corporate Singapore.\n\nThe ETF is also accessible. It has a board lot size of one share, pays distributions semi-annually at the manager’s discretion, and has an expense ratio of 0.28%. \n\nCan the STI ETF double your money in 10 years?\n\nOver the past decade, yes.\n\nFrom May 2016 to May 2026, a S$10,000 investment in ES3 grew to around S$26,220, including dividends.\n\nThat is a total return of 162.2%, or about 10.1% a year. Put another way, every S$1 invested became about S$2.62.\n\nThe official ES3 factsheet tells a similar story. As of 30 April 2026, the fund’s 10-year annualised return was 9.59%, calculated net of fees, in Singapore dollar terms, on a NAV-to-NAV basis with distributions reinvested. The STI index returned 10.17% over the same period.\n\nThat is the power of compounding.\n\nA 10% annual return may not sound dramatic in any single year. But when gains build on earlier gains, the outcome becomes much more powerful over time.\n\nWhat happens if you invest S$500 a month into the STI ETF?\nNot everyone begins investing with a neat S$10,000 lump sum.\n\nMost people start with a salary, a monthly budget, and whatever they can set aside after bills, groceries, school fees, insurance, and life.\n\nBased on the STI ETF’s historical data, I calculated what would have happened if an investor had put S$500 into it every month from June 2016 to May 2026, with dividends reinvested.\n\nThe assumptions are simple: S$500 invested at the start of each month, dividends reinvested when paid, and no brokerage fees or bid-ask spreads.\n\nOver 10 years, the investor would have put in S$60,000.\n\nBy 21 May 2026, that portfolio would have grown to around S$115,000.\n\nThat is a gain of about S$55,000, or roughly 92% on the capital invested. The money-weighted annualised return works out to around 12.6% per year.\n\nYou did not need to know when interest rates would peak, when inflation would fall, or when bank shares would rally.\n\nYou simply needed to keep investing.\n\nRegular investing removes the pressure of trying to time the market perfectly. Some months, S$500 buys fewer units. Other months, when prices are lower, the same S$500 buys more.\n\nDoes the STI ETF pay dividends?\nYes. And dividends matter.\n\nThe STI ETF pays distributions semi-annually, at the manager’s discretion. Recent distribution data showed payments of S$0.091 per unit in February 2025, S$0.089 in August 2025, and S$0.085 in February 2026.\n\nBased on the latest data, the ETF’s distribution yield stood at around 3.39%.\n\n\nAn investor can spend the dividends. But for investors still building wealth, reinvesting those dividends can make a big difference.\n\nReinvested dividends buy more units. Those extra units can receive more dividends in future. Over time, that creates a compounding loop.\n\nIt is not flashy. But it works quietly in the background.\n\nWhy not just keep the money in cash or Singapore Savings Bonds?\nCash and Singapore Savings Bonds have their place.\n\nThe latest Singapore Savings Bond data showed a 10-year average return of 2.11% per year. That is useful for investors who want safety, liquidity, and capital preservation.\n\nBut the trade-off is growth. At 2.11% a year, money grows slowly.\n\nInflation is another reason investors should think carefully about holding too much cash for too long.\n\nMAS noted that core inflation held steady at 1.2% year on year in January and February 2026. It also raised its forecast for both MAS Core Inflation and CPI-All Items inflation to 1.5% to 2.5%, from 1.0% to 2.0% previously.\n\nCash and Singapore Savings Bonds can still play useful roles. But for long-term wealth building, investors may need assets that have the potential to grow faster than inflation.\n\nOver the past decade, the STI ETF did that.\n\nIs the STI ETF risk-free?\nThe short answer is no.\n\nThe STI ETF owns Singapore blue-chip stocks, but the exposure is not evenly spread.\n\nAs of the latest factsheet, Financials made up 54.91% of the index. Real Estate accounted for 15.31%, while Industrials made up 10.40%.\n\nThe top three holdings were DBS, OCBC, and UOB, which together accounted for just over half of the ETF’s top holdings table.\n\nThat has been helpful in recent years as the banks benefited from strong earnings, higher dividends, and share price gains.\n\nBut concentration cuts both ways. If the banks struggle, the STI ETF is likely to feel the impact.\n\nInvestors should also remember that ETFs trade like stocks. Their prices can rise and fall, and diversification does not guarantee a profit or protect against losses.\n\nGet Smart: Simple Can Still Be Powerful \nDoubling your money in 10 years is not easy.\n\nBut as the STI ETF has shown, it may be more achievable than many investors think.\n\nOver the past decade, a simple investment in the SPDR STI ETF did more than double once dividends were included.\n\nA regular S$500 monthly investment also produced a strong result, turning S$60,000 of total contributions into around S$115,000 over 10 years, based on NAV data and reinvested dividends.\n\nThere are no guarantees that the next 10 years will deliver the same outcome.\n\nShare prices can fall. Dividends can change. The STI ETF is heavily weighted towards Singapore banks. Future returns may be lower.\n\nBut the lesson remains useful.\n\nYou do not always need complexity to build wealth.\n\nA low-cost ETF, regular investing, reinvested dividends, and a long enough time horizon can go a surprisingly long way.\n\nSometimes, the path to doubling your money is not about doing something brilliant.\n\nIt is about doing something sensible and giving it enough time to work.\n\nOne Singapore bank has quietly become one of the strongest income engines in the market. Its dividends have grown at 16.6% a year while others were pulling back. That level of consistency can change a retirement plan entirely. Our FREE 2026 Dividend Game Plan explains why this bank keeps lifting payouts and why many long-term investors rely on it for stable income. Download your free copy today.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, Instagram and Telegram for the latest investing news and analyses!\n\nDisclosure: Joanna Sng owns shares of the STI ETF, DBS, OCBC, UOB, Singapore Exchange, and NVIDIA.","kind":"highlight","is_publish_news":true,"is_publish_highlight":false,"is_publish_live":false,"is_publish_wemedia":false,"editions":null,"column":"","sentiment":"0","news_tag":"","news_rank":0,"isVideo":false,"video":null,"symbols":[],"gpt_button":0,"need_auth":false,"need_login_tip":false,"code":"91000000","status":"200"}}}