First Time UITF Investor: BDO Peso Balance Fund P10,000 Placement and ROI After 3 Years

For first time UITF investor, choosing the bank for your first Unit Investment Trust Fund and the fund type can spell a difference between earning and losing. Between preserving your capital, gaining profits, or losing a percentage of your capital.

Why is this?

This is because banks have their own team of Fund Managers and strategies in choosing investment vehicles and fund appropriations for the money entrusted to them. They also have different fees levied on the investor; some fees are trust fee, administrative or management or servicing fee, redemption fee, etc.

The most popular banks that Filipinos are investing UITF with are probably Banco de Oro (BDO), Bank of Philippine Islands (BPI), Security Bank, Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company (MBTC).

Last May 20,2013 I placed a UITF investment with BDO worth P10,000. I’ve chosen the BDO Peso Balance Fund, my consideration then was because it was my first time to invest and my risk appetite then were moderate.

The BDO Balance Fund is a mix of equity and fixed-income investments. On BDO’s page it says there “In order to minimize risks and maximize earning potential, participants/trustors are recommended to stay invested in the Fund for more than three (3) years.”

This coming May 20, 2016 my UITF investment with BDO will become 3 years. I am sharing to you now how my investment performed after 1046 days (as of March 31). The BDO Peso Balance Fund UITF shows a “Unrealized loss of P1,339.07”. Table below is from my BDO online access.

Amount is “unrealized” because your investment gain or loss status will only be real if you redeem your UITF investment.

NAVPU at placement date was 4,169.6588. NAVPU on March 31,2016 was only 3,611.4278. This fund has been on a downward trend since I’ve made this investment. I have been monitoring this UITF placement since I opened this last 2013.

I got the figure above by using BDO UITF Yield Calculator which you can find on this link.

If had redeem this yesterday March 31,2016, I would only get P8,660.93 from my P10,000 invested in BDO UITF Peso Balance Fund last May 20, 2013. ROI lugi.

Will I redeem it anytime soon? No. I want to redeem when at least there is some gains.

My target earnings from this particular UITF? P3,000. I want to get P13,000 when I redeem (capital + profit), a Return on Investment ROI of 30%. When will this happen? I don’t know haha. I’ve already stayed invested in this UITF for close to 3 years, I can wait a few more years before I redeem or withdraw my investment. The moment this hits P13K, I’ll redeem it.

If I know before what I know now, would I still choose BDO Peso Balance Fund to place my first UITF investment? The answer is no.

I’ll be posting about this topic soon: UITF Yield Comparison: BDO versus BPI versus Security Bank

FINANCIAL LITERACY: LEARN and GROW

Lately I have been learning as much as I can about investment and how to make my money grow and work for me. I am trying my best to make myself become more financial literate by attending investment seminars and financial literacy conferences and workshops and to apply the good strategies applicable to me and my circumstances.

Next week I will be attending a seminar for mutual funds, I hope to gain new knowledge to better equip myself in dealing with finances.

I really want to start investing in the stock market but I still know little about this so am not investing yet.

If you have been thinking about investing in UITFs, Mutual Funds, Stock Market, etc., learn as much as you can about the market, what you are getting into. Be clear with your financial goals too to make it easy for you to start investing and stay invested.

To a more rewarding financial future for us all. Cheers!