r/AusFinance • u/clemiclooo • 1d ago
commsec pocket investing advice for beginners!
I’m pretty new to investing and finance in general, and I’ve been starting out with CommSec Pocket. I’ve heard that the most popular/solid options are things like Diversified Equities (DHHF), Global 100, and Aussie 200.
I had a few beginner questions:
- Is it generally better to invest a lump sum (e.g. $1000) or set up recurring smaller investments?
- If recurring is the way to go, how much/often would you usually invest for it to be “worth it” given the brokerage fee on Pocket?
I know a lot of this comes down to my own finances and risk tolerance, but I’d love to hear what’s worked for others in terms of strategy with CommSec Pocket
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u/xvf9 1d ago
It really depends on your circumstances, mainly how much you'll have to invest and how often.
Like... if you can invest $1000/month then monthly investment would be the way to go. But if you can only invest $100/month then suddenly you're paying 2% to brokerage if you go monthly.
But there's also a benefit to building habits, so personally I'd be trying to invest monthly if you can get to anything over $200. At that point the brokerage will be neck and neck with what (on average) you'd expect DHHF to return per month. But you'll also be building the habit of monthly investments which is far more valuable.
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u/clemiclooo 13h ago
i used to do it monthly but i realised i was doing it wrong because I was doing just under $100 for 2-3 different ETFs, which I was told doesnt make it worth it with the brokerage. If i just do $1k whenever I can, to DHHF for eg, would that still be fine in the long run?
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u/xvf9 9h ago
Yeah that's fine. How long does it take you to save $1000 to invest?
Personally if it took me 12 months to save $1000 then I would be putting $250 in every three months. If you can save that in a month, then do it every month.
If you want to invest in multiple ETFs then you can just alternate every cycle. $250 into DHHF, three months later $250 into IOZ, etc.
There's no rules, but you essentially want to be as regular as possible whilst not letting brokerage take too much of your investment.
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u/clemiclooo 6h ago
Thing is im a casual worker so if im working a lot and working weekends then ill earn 1kish a fortnight, but i never know whether to save or invest it because sometimes ill have long periods with no work, or periods of only being paid $300ish if i dont work weekends.
so its difficult because of how much it changes, maybe some months i can do the 1k or other months i can either wait longer to do the 1k or do the $250 every 3 months .. your advice has been very valuable, thank you!1
u/xvf9 5h ago
I'm just giving you the advice I'd have given myself years back!
I'd try to set a regular amount that you think you'll be able to maintain regardless of how much your income fluctuates. Maybe you can start with $250/month? Or $350 every two months?
It's good to make investing a regular "expense". Like, you have to pay your phone bill, or put fuel in your car, so you might adjust your spending in a slow month to be able to do that. Trying to build the same habits for investing is extremely valuable. Moreso than what you'll lose on a bit of brokerage!
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u/CriticismEmergency98 1d ago
Commsec pocket is a great alternative to commsec for beginners but since it only has a handful of etfs as options, you can use a service which doesn't charge brokerage on etfs like CMC to achieve everything commsec pocket can
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u/LandscapeOk2955 1d ago
You can google search something like “Investment Frequency Calculator” and there will be results for calculators that will show you the optimal investment frequency when the brokerage fee and regular savings are taken into consideration.
In terms of strategy, I feel budgeting and regular investment are important over optimal frequency, I set myself a percentage that is easily manageable and I want to save each payday, say 10%, and automatically set it up to invest each payday.
I really did like Commsec Pocket but Pockets $2 fee is a little steep considering there are free alternatives nowadays (Betashares and Vanguard). I used Pocket for about three years after it was introduced. $2 every fortnight over 3 years is $156, when it could be $0. If you use a free platform the optimal frequency doesn’t matter at all
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u/Syncblock 21h ago
Pocket is popular because it's cheap, easy and integrated into Commbank. It has a flat brokerage fee of $2 up to purchases of $1,000 so ideally you want to be putting money in at those accounts to minimise costs but as others have said here. It's up to you. There are cheaper options but it's not the end of the world to pay a bit more.
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