Do you have a CDP account?

No? What is that?

CDP is the Central Depository account where your scripless (share certificateless) shares are held.

Many people have opened their CDP account in recent months (eg. in July 2007, 6,200 accounts were opened). Many are only entering the stock market from Jan 2007.

There are about 250,000 accounts that are active (active is defined by at least one buy or sell in the last 3 months). If we assume that Singapore has 3.4 million adults over the age of 20 years old, this would mean that only 7.4% of adult population have an exposure in the stock market.

So if you don't have a CDP account, you belong to the majority. But is this good for you?

Basically I don't think staying away from investing in shares is good for your retirement. Why? As equity investment consistently outperform bonds in the past, it is advisable to allocate some of your monies in the stock market.

Reference - "Not many benefit from bull run", Teh Hooi Ling, BT, Aug 4, 2007.