People misunderstand investment, especially when it comes to the stock market.

Though I have to admit that they are a lot better informed now than they were two years back.

My generation (I'm an '80s baby) used to think you needed to be rich to be able to invest.

In other words, we thought one needed at least S$10,000 to effectively invest in the market.

That is true if you are looking at lots of big caps like DBS, which costs about S$20 per share.

You'd need at least S$20,000 buy just one lot.

But the sheer volume of smaller companies listed locally now means small time retail investors have a lot more choice in those they want to invest in.

Their picks may vary according to the companies' fundamentals, business or even how much the stock price is.

Thing is: You really only need to set aside about S$100 to buy one lot of shares.

And if you play your cards right, your returns might be substantial, especially in the wake of the current capital raising boom.

Of course, you shouldn't expect such counters to pay out high dividends, or even dividends at all because they are probably small and growth companies.

For every big company with a certain business you are interested in, there is probably a small one in the same business, just like your Carrefour and your neighbourhood Econ Minimart.

Take Time Watch Investments (formerly known as Wee Poh Holdings).

I am not giving investment advice, simply using this counter to explain the above analogy.

Time Watch is was last done at S$0.005, so you can imagine how many lots you can buy with S$100.

Sincere Watch was last done at S$0.945, so you could scrape by with one lot for S$1000.

Of course, affordability isn't the only thing you should consider when investing.

Depending on how risk-averse and how much time you are able to spend monitoring market movements, you can pick a nice mix of slightly bigger companies and smaller caps to make up your portfolio.

On that note though, please only invest with money you can spare.

Don't dump your entire life's savings into the stock market because it is, after all, still a gamble.

So make that your new year's resolution, or at least, spring clean your portfolio if you've got way too many counters to keep track of.

Remember, if you can't afford a watch from Sincere, you wouldn't do too badly with a Casio either.

Serene Lim