3 Investments Where I Lost All of My Money

Want to know a secret? Everyone makes mistakes during our investment journey. Sometimes we pay too much in fees because we didn’t know better, sometimes we try to time the market and it didn’t work, and sometimes we trust the wrong people and get sucked into some shady Ponzi scheme.

I made plenty of mistakes myself, like the many, many times I tried to time the market but it went on the opposite direction (WHEN WILL I LEARN?!?). But this article is NOT about those kinds of mistakes. I don’t mean losing money when the market is not in your favour. Fluctuations in price and value is normal and even expected for some types of investments, like properties, gold/precious metals, things like that.

This article is about the times where I lost ALL of the money in the investment. Here they are, compiled in one post.

#1 – Gold: Gold Bar

In my early 20s, circa 2010s, there was this gold rush, this gold craze. The price went up like crazy, and naturally it generated a ton of attention. I covered this in more detail in the
What You Should Know About Gold Prices In 2008-2018
 article.

At the time, I bought some e-gold from a bank (and made some profit there). But I also bought something else – a gold bar. From Lelong.com.my.

Physical gold is a type of investment, yes, but because I was young and stupid, I bought a gold-
plated
 bar, which I now know is pretty much useless as an investment. At the time, I just thought I snapped a bargain. Again, I was young and stupid.

Plus, the gold bar never arrived too. I think it was a scam seller -_- Double bodo. It wasn’t a huge amount to lose, but I might as well throw that money away.

#2 – Forex: Copy-trade platform

Have you seen the forex trading advertisement using images like these?

The idea is you can use technical analysis to predict if the market is going up or down, enter a trade, and hopefully make a profit. Rather than investment, I’d say forex trading is more like a skill. Many people have lost a lot of money because they overestimated their trading skills.

I’ve kind of dabbled in forex trading, but never lost actual money… until I decided to try a copy-trade platform called 1Broker (
US authorities have taken down the platform on October 2018
).

How it works is (for this particular platform):

You fund your account

You
copy
someone else’s trading activities in the platform. When they enter a trade, you’ll automatically enter the same one as well.

You make a profit/loss if they make a profit/loss

In June 2017, I transferred in an amount I could afford to lose into the account (if not mistaken, around $500). I didn’t
want
 to lose that money you know. To ‘diversify’ and reduce my risks, I copied trades from at least 3 people who had high ratings. Each of them had over 50% ROI on their own trades. I also set small entry amounts – only $10 for each trade.

I thought it would be easy money. But in just two months, my account ran out of funds. I lost everything I deposited.

#3 – Cryptocurrencies: Waves & ZCoin

Broadly speaking, there are two types of crypto wallets: the one where you have complete control and ownership, and the one where the company acts as a custodian for your cryptocurrencies. Compare it like physical gold that you keep yourself in your own password-ed vault versus e-gold that banks keep for you.

To make long story short, I’ve done a classic newbie mistake and forgotten the seeds for two crypto wallets which I have complete ownership – my Waves and ZCoin wallets. The seeds are a bunch of random words or a long alphanumeric passkey. I can’t possibly reproduce and bantai the words to gain access.

Without the seeds, I can’t access my account. And if I can’t access my account, I can’t access those cryptocurrencies. Forever. Not even the developer team can help me.

I’m not sure how much I lost exactly, but at least $500 easily, as of current rates (and now crypto market is bear-ish, too!). To my defence, I thought I saved those seeds somewhere. Maybe someday I’ll discover I did actually write it down.

Note: I still love crypto as an investment. The rest of my cryptocurrencies are safe.

Lessons from losing money

Does it hurt? Hell yeah it does. It hurts not just my finances, but my ego as well. Each time it happens, I always go ‘
you should have known better
,
 you idiot
‘.

Ah, the power of hindsight ay?

But you know what? I won’t cry over the lost money. I accept these losses and will consider them as expensive mistakes instead. No investment or financial course can teach me these valuable life lessons. In fact, I’m grateful they happened:

I’m grateful that the amounts I lost were comparatively small. Some people have lost much more than I did

I’m grateful that I still have time on my side to earn money and recover these losses

I’m grateful that they made me super sceptical of new types of investments I come across

I’m grateful that I get to write about them so that YOU don’t make the same mistakes I did

Going forward, these mistakes won’t deter me from trying out new types of investment platforms and financial services (that’s kinda my hobby). But I will be more selective of what I pick from now on.

Have you lost money at any point during your investing journey? Share in the comments section, so all of us can learn and ultimately be better investors together.


I’m a Luno User since 2015. Here’s My Luno Malaysia Review

This is my long-overdue Luno Malaysia review after being a long-time user.

Let’s start this article with this little tidbit of information:

Before Luno Malaysia, they were called.. BitX

I’ve signed up with Luno since December 2015, back when they were still known as BitX. They only rebranded into the Luno that you know in 2017. I’m not sharing this info to be ter-paling crypto early adopter (I know people who were earlier!). More to prove that I’ve been using their services for a long time.

In this Luno Malaysia review, I’m going to cover Luno Malaysia platform ONLY. For other questions like what other crypto exchanges are available in Malaysia and is bitcoin halal and what’s the difference between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, please head over to
The ULTIMATE Cryptocurrency in Malaysia Guide [2022 Update] article
 – I’ve already covered it there.

Luno Malaysia Review: Features You Should Know

In all my years of using the platform, I can say there are 4 areas where Luno Malaysia excels in:

User interface (the UI/UX
) – very easy to use, foolproof even. Trading knowledge useful but not required. Great security features
Can set up repeat buy
 – You can set up crypto purchase monthly, weekly or even daily, from RM1. A great set-and-forget, sikit-sikit lama-lama jadi bukit strategy (the fancy term for this investment strategy is DCA – dollar cost averaging)

Bonus for new users
 – New users can get RM50 in BTC on minimum RM500 deposit (instant 10% ROI) with my code ‘
LNSURAYA50
′
. Simply open a new account at
Luno.com
 > Go to REWARDS > Choose ENTER CODE > Enter the given promo code > Click Apply Code > Deposit the minimum amount required > Buy the minimum transaction amount > Get rewarded with the additional Bitcoin.
Trustworthy

I want to expand on that last part.

Can you trust Luno Malaysia?

I personally have a lot of trust in Luno Malaysia.

Two reasons why I say that – One, Luno Malaysia is registered with Securities Commission Malaysia and regulated under the
Digital Assets Guideline
, issued on 28 October 2020.

In fact the initial batch of approved crypto exchanges in Malaysia – Luno, SINEGY and Tokenize – have my biggest respect. It’s not too far-fetched to say that without their perseverance in getting licenced, crypto wouldn’t be this mainstream.

Second is my own personal experience with the team. I don’t know what they do to promote such a community-focused culture in the organisation, but it’s great. Even from the early days, my interactions with Luno employees have been nothing but positive.

I even provided some work in an informal capacity (wrote some articles) and at one time interacted directly with co-founder and CEO of Luno, Marcus Swanepoel and he was super nice and respectful.

And the positive interactions continued on even now. The Luno Malaysia team reaches out from time to time to offer updates, benefits, support and learning opportunities. As of the time of writing, they are conducting free webinars aimed to increase women’s participation in crypto.

However, please note that
trustworthiness doesn’t mean ‘confirm won’t lose money
‘. That brings me to:

Luno Malaysia review: Common complaints

Common complaint #1 – Losing money

Luno Malaysia the company is regulated but (1) the value of your bitcoin will still go down during bear market, and (2) you can still get scammed and lose your crypto. It’s the same idea as using banks – if you accidentally transferred funds to a scammer, or if your account got hacked, the bank is not responsible for the loss.

There is no 100% guarantee way to prevent losses, but you can significantly reduce the chances by:

Implementing 2-factor authentication
Implementing Biometric login
Using strong passwords for your Luno login AND email address
Using hardware wallet if you have a significant amount

You can read more about digital security and other security measures in the
The ULTIMATE Cryptocurrency in Malaysia Guide [2022 Update]
 article. You can also refer to
Luno Blog section on Security
 for more tips.

Common complaint #2 – Not enough cryptocurrency options

Currently
, the platform only offers BTC, ETH, LTC, XRP, BCH, ADA and SOL – a far cry from the hundreds/thousands of crypto assets options offered from popular (but unregulated) exchanges like Binance and KuCoin.
Aaron Tang, Country Manager of Luno Malaysia (you may also know him as mr-stingy.com) has said that the number one customer request is more crypto assets.

Even though Aaron has assured that
more coins will be offered later in 2022
, it is unlikely that they will add more than 10 additional crypto assets. It is also unlikely that your favourite dog coin will be approved by Securities Commission and listed in Luno.

This is not a bad thing.

Rather than lack of options, think of it as Securities Commission doing the work to ‘vouch’ cryptocurrencies on our behalf. When they approve a crypto asset, they’re basically saying ok this one safe, not scam.

Plus, once you get BTC, it’s not hard to exchange that to whatever crypto asset you want – it’s just a matter of learning how. So not having options in local exchanges is not that big of an issue tbh.

Personally, I choose to concentrate on mostly hodling BTC and ETH myself because they’re the safest options. For a longer version of that argument, read more in the
Which Cryptocurrencies to Invest In? 3 Ways I Use to Decide
 article.

Common complaint #3 – No staking or farming options

Sometimes I see people asking when Luno Malaysia will offer staking or farming options. They are both terms used in
DeFi
, or Decentralised Finance. In case you don’t know what it is:

Staking is kinda sorta like fixed deposit where you earn by ‘locking’ your cryptocurrencies in exchange for profit
Yield-farming is kinda sorta like earning from being a liquidity provider (a fancy term that basically means, you supply money for borrowers)

Now, two points that I want to make:

First, Luno is a CENTRALISED company and regulated. Staking and farming are part of DeFi, which is DECENTRALISED finance and unregulated by nature. Therefore, Luno CANNOT offer staking or farming. It’s just fundamentally incompatible
Second, *if* they do want to offer similar-but-not-quite-the-same-type of services, they’ll have to call it ‘crypto savings account’ or ‘interest-bearing account’ (instead of staking) and ‘lending platform’ (instead of yield-farming) or something

Hope that settles it.

Final say: Don’t take regulated exchanges for granted

Perhaps some of you read this article wanting to know why you should use Luno or other regulated exchanges when unregulated ones offer more services and crypto assets. Just one reason: your safety.

I wish more people know how scary it was to invest in cryptocurrencies in the early days. It was very common to lose money. I’m oversimplifying, but it went more or less like this:

Circa 2015-2017:
 Many exchangers and p2p platforms allowed Malaysians to buy and sell crypto, but not all of them are great with due diligence or security. A lot of people lost money when the exchanges got hacked or when they got scammed
Circa 2018-2019
: It got so bad that many local banks were not willing to work with crypto exchanges, making customer deposit/withdrawal difficult. Regulatory body Securities Commission started on the Digital Assets framework, aimed to increase customer protection
Circa 2020 – now
: About a dozen crypto exchanges applied for the licence but only some (including Luno) successfully met SC’s stringent requirements. Now, Malaysians can easily own (selected) digital assets

What I’m saying is, being a licensed exchange is a hard-won battle and the extra few ringgit paid is well worth your own security and protection, especially if you’re new to crypto. When you gain more experience and knowledge, then you can go nuts and explore the wild wild west side of it.

Last but not least, don’t forget to get that
Bonus for new users
.
New users can get RM50 in BTC on minimum RM500 deposit (instant 10% ROI) with my code ‘
LNSURAYA50
′
.

Simply open a new account at
Luno.com
 > Go to REWARDS > Choose ENTER CODE > Enter the given promo code > Click Apply Code > Deposit the minimum amount required > Buy the minimum transaction amount > Get rewarded with the additional Bitcoin.


MIDF Invest Review: Buy US Stocks and ETFs from Malaysia Directly, Securely and Cheaply [SPONSORED]

This is my review of MIDF Invest, an online stock trading and investment platform which gives Malaysians direct and secure access to stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq at competitive rates.

In this MIDF Invest review, I will cover MIDF Invest’s features and fees.
I will also compare it to other stock trading platforms.

The article is divided into the following segments (ratings added):

How to
open a MIDF Invest account
 – 4.5 out of 5
Is MIDF Invest
legit
– 5 out of 5
Is MIDF Invest
halal
– 4 out of 5
MIDF Invest
fees
– Depends (very cheap for a local platform)
MIDF Invest vs Online International Brokers vs Local brokers
 – 1 out of 5 for people who don’t mind unregulated platforms, 5/5 for people who prefer regulated platforms
Where is the
best place to buy US Stocks from Malaysia
MIDF Invest
future plans
 and improvements
Bonus: Stocks Investing 101
 – 3 Things Newbies to the US Stock Market NEED to know

Ok, let’s start with:

#1 – How to open a MIDF Invest Account

My rating:
4.5/5

“It takes 10 minutes to register an account while approval will be evaluated individually. It differs from 10 minutes to 24 hours for MIDF to process and approve a user account according to the Know Your Customer process.”
– Khairi Shahrin Arief Baki, MIDF senior vice-president and head of digitalisation.

Have tried it, can confirm, registration was fast and all done online. Unlike traditional brokers, no in-person office visits or paperwork was necessary. Except for a small hiccup due to, well, lighting issue, the registration went well, I’m satisfied.

The 3-step process to open a MIDF Invest account is:

Step 1: Download MIDF Invest

Download MIDF Invest at:
https://link-to.app/SurayaZainudin
 |
Google PlayStore
 |
Apple App Store

Step 2: Complete registration and eKYC

The next step is completing a short questionnaire and to submitting your IC and selfie for eKYC purposes (KYC = Know Your Customer = a legally required process in an effort to reduce money laundering and other criminal activities).

My only recommendation here is to complete the KYC process during daytime, so it is less likely for the eKYC system to reject your IC’s picture. If for some reason that still doesn’t work, then contact their ‘Happiness Agents’ right from the platform – their customer service will assist you.

(My other recommendation is to take a nice selfie, because the same image will stare back at you in your dashboard. I hate my own picture, I wish I looked nicer, don’t repeat my mistake.)

(OK I have been told by MIDF Team you can change your profile pic in Settings. Cool cool)

Step 3: Fund your account

Next, you can choose to play around the demo account, or you can start trading for real. I chose the latter and deposited RM1000 – the amount arrived instantly and ready to be used for any US stock and ETF purchase.

…It’s so fast, theoretically I could join a social media-driven stock rally on the same day. Not investment advice.

Additional info from MIDF team:

The account type is nominee account
There is no minimum deposit, but you need at least USD50 to start trading (~RM210)

#2 – Is MIDF Invest Legit

My rating:
5/5

Yes, MIDF Invest is legit. It is a partnership between:

MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd
, a wholly-owned subsidiary of MIDF (
Malaysian Industrial Development Finance Bhd
; been around since 1960), and
Saxo Markets
, an online brokerage and division of Saxo Bank Group, a fully licensed Danish bank with more than two decades of experience in award-winning electronic trading platforms used by more than 120 global financial institutions.

This is how the interface looks like. Some people who are familiar with Saxo have commented that it is an easy-to-use platform, and suitable for beginners, so that’s good to know.

MIDF Amanah Investment Bank is regulated by the Securities Commission and Bank Negara Malaysia.

#3 – Is MIDF Invest Halal

My rating:
 4/5

MIDF Invest comes in two versions: Conventional and Islamic. During the registration process, you can select which account you’d like to proceed with. If you select Islamic, then going forward,
the platform will only show you Shariah-compliant stocks and ETFs.

The ONLY reason why I knocked out 1 star despite Islamic filter being a rare and expensive feature is because it significantly reduces ETF options for me. I can’t even view the Conventional ETFs, let alone buy them :<

However, I have to admit that beyond being a religious obligation, the shariah filter also acts as a helpful process of elimination. Even with the filter, I’m still left with a bunch of stocks I still can buy, including the popular ones like Tesla, Apple, Microsoft etc. So.. good enough.

As a refresher, halal investing is investments that are allowed in accordance with Islamic principles.
Halal investing is not just for Muslims
 – Non-Muslims reading this, you are free to practice halal investing as well if you strongly dislike the following industries:

Excess debt
Tobacco
Alcohol
Firearms
Gambling
Adult entertainment
Impure foodstock
Usurious institutions

screenshot of the US stocks I can buy (Islamic account)

#4 – MIDF Invest Fees

My rating:
Depends

MIDF fees are as follows:

Trade value under USD1000 – USD8 min or USD0.015 per share
Trade value over USD1000 – USD10 min or USD0.015 per share

Is this cheap? Is this expensive? Read on in #5.

(If you lazy to scroll – it’s cheap for a local platform. Other local competitors charge USD25 per trade)

#5 – MIDF Invest vs Online International Brokers vs Local brokers

My rating:
 1/5 for people who don’t mind unregulated platforms, 5/5 for people who prefer regulated platforms

Before MIDF Invest, someone who wants to buy US stocks from Malaysia must pick between using online international brokers OR local brokers. Those are the only two options.

 Which one do people choose?
My own personal observation is that users of online international brokers and users of local brokers are two different crowds.

Users of online international brokers
Users of local brokers
The investors and traders tend to have smaller capitals (so cost per trade matters more)
The investors and traders tend to have bigger capitals (for people who make 5, 6, 7-figure trades, USD25 per trade is nothing)
Accepts risks that come with platforms unregulated in Malaysia. Relies on the platform’s reputation and track record. Understand it is hard to report to Malaysian authorities if anything happens
Does NOT accept risks that come with platforms unregulated in Malaysia. No matter what, peace of mind comes FIRST. The broker MUST be registered to operate in Malaysia.

#6 – Where is the Best Place to Buy US Stocks from Malaysia

This is a continuation of section #5.

So where is the best place to buy US Stocks from Malaysia? As always, the answer is it depends on the type of investor you are. Now that MIDF Invest entered the picture, here are the top pros and cons of each platform:

Types of Brokers
Pros
Cons
Online International Brokers
(eToro, TigerBroker, TDAmeritrade etc)
– Cheap (low to zero commission)
– Unregulated in Malaysia
– Takes time to open account
– Funding account takes days (may even get stuck for weeks)
Local brokers
(Hong Leong, CIMB, etc)
– Regulated in Malaysia
– Expensive (USD25 per trade!)
– Takes time to open account
MIDF Invest
– Regulated in Malaysia
– Cheaper than local brokers
– Can open account in 10 minutes
– Fund deposits arrive instantly
– Not as cheap as online international broker
– New; still in Beta

If your definition of ‘best’ is:

cheap, and
you don’t care about regulation status, and
you want to trade more often,

Then those online international brokers are ‘best’.

But if you’ve always been seeking out a regulated platform to get US stocks and ETFs at lower fees, then MIDF Invest is worth a try.
MIDF Invest is for people who want a broker that is BOTH regulated in Malaysia AND cheap(er than existing options)
.

#7 – MIDF Invest: Future plans and improvements

MIDF Invest is still in beta phase and has lots of room to grow. There are big plans for the app, online broking is just the first product. When asked about it, Khairi Shahrin Arif Baki, MIDF senior vice-president and head of digitalisation replied this to an online query:

So here’s hoping for fractional shares, automatic portfolio allocation and other nice features in future updates 🙂

#8 – Bonus: Stocks investing 101 – 3 Things Newbies to US Stock Market NEED to know

There are many things to know about the stock market, but here are some that newbies to US stock market NEED to know:

#1 – Basically what stock investing is

Watch this video if you’re very new to the stock market, as an investment.

The stock market attracts
 investors and traders
. There are many differences between them, but I’d say the primary difference is the
frequency
of trades – traders buy and sell stocks more often, as frequent as a few times a day (day trading) to a few times a week/month/quarter (swing trading)*.

In contrast, a traditional investor ‘stays the course’ more and would rarely sell unless changing strategies or rebalancing their portfolio. With investors, keeping their stocks for
decades
is not unheard of.

Important: Both investors and traders can become gamblers if they let greed take over. It is especially dangerous with leverage, ie when they allow you to make trades bigger than your capital. It amplifies your wins, yes, but also your losses.

*There are more types of trading. Won’t go there here.

#2 – There are many stock markets around the world

In Malaysia we have Bursa Malaysia, which lists Malaysian companies. If that is all you have known so far, then may I introduce you to a snapshot of the global stock market in various geographies.

Source: https://howmuch.net/articles/all-stocks-capitalization-around-the-world

Puts things in perspective, doesn’t it? Malaysia market is so smol in comparison to the US stock market. The US market is also the center of innovation, and innovation tends to have the highest growth.

#3 – You don’t have to get individual stocks

Personally, as much as I believe in diversifying my investment portfolio to include the US stock market, I also have no interest in individual stock picking (unless you’re working in and/or super familiar with an industry, I think it’s mostly luck tbh) nor do I have interest in trading (ie frequent buy frequent sell).

If you’re like me, then the financial instrument you’re looking for is called ETFs – exchange-traded funds – baskets of investments that resemble mutual funds, but trade on an exchange like a stock. All I want to do is get my hands on ETFs that track the top companies in the US, and just leave it to grow.

Happily, this is something that MIDF Invest offers. Vanguard S&P 500 ETF is *the* ETF to get if you believe that the US economy as a whole will grow in the long term. In addition, Muslims can also get the halal version of S&P 500 ETF (this is the one I got for myself!)

Download MIDF Invest at:
https://link-to.app/SurayaZainudin
 |
Google PlayStore
 |
Apple App Store


The classic investment advice says slow and steady wins the race, but all of us are hares. Whether you like it or not, we are attracted to BIG, FAST results. Despite knowing better, words like ‘highest return on investment’ and ‘most profitable investment in Malaysia’ *will* capture your attention.

Admit it.
 Even though we know that we should think long-term, all of us try to chase that sweet, fast high. And I think it’s okay to acknowledge that, because denial won’t do any of us good.

On an individual level, yes we’re greedy and impatient. But also on a societal level, we’ve also been conditioned to think that fast growth=better. You can see this mentality all over:

Bursa Malaysia ranks stocks by ‘top gainers’ and ‘top losers’.

The default search for unit trusts is usually by ‘Best Performing Funds’ based on 1-month period (so short !!)

Property investors are advised to factor in property rental rate growth, the higher the better.

When gold prices soared, *more* people bought more of it, causing a self-fulfilling prophecy.

And more

I personally admit that I constantly look for opportunities to get high investment returns, too. If I didn’t, cryptocurrencies wouldn’t have made more than half of my total
investment portfolio.
 You can read my reasoning in the article, but basically it started as a small % before ballooning to higher % over the years.

My investment portfolio as of July 2020

So in that spirit, I think I want to write about the actual return on investment that I got from my investments, based on personal experience.

OBLIGATORY DISCLAIMER

One – Just because I got these return on investment, doesn’t mean you will too. Lots of factors are at play, including my risk appetite and pure dumb luck (main reason).

Two – I am not a financial expert, just a poyo, konon-terer DIY investor. Half the time I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing. This is both good and bad, because it forces me to constantly learn more about personal finance. It turns out learning is also an awesome coping mechanism to the financial anxiety that I get.

Return on Investment vs Annualised Return on Investment

Before we start, we need to differentiate between the terms Return on Investment and Annualised Return on Investment, because they CANNOT be used interchangeably.

According to
Investopedia’s How to Calculate Return on Investment article
, you can calculate ROI with these two methods,

and Annualised ROI with this method.

Where possible, I’ll use the ROI/Annualised ROI numbers that was given to me from the investment platforms OR historical numbers.I’ll also use
Calculator.net’s ROI Calculator
 where applicable

But! Take the info here with a grain of salt – over the years I have added more funds, withdrawn, moved funds around at various timelines so everything except data from official sources is more of a rough estimate than a true figure.

Alright, here we go.

Ranked: My Most Profitable Investment in Malaysia to Least Profitable

#10 – Money in bank

Not really an ‘investment’, but hey got la small amount. My primary account, which is a
Maybank Savers
 account gives 0.60% return on investment per annum. The other accounts give 0% I think

#9 – Tabung Haji

From 2010-2021, the annual returns ranged from 1.25% to 8% (
source
). That’s not bad, considering (1) it never went negative, and (2) the profits have already been zakat-ed on your behalf.

However, I probably won’t use Tabung Haji for anything other than hajj funds. It didn’t do very well in 2018 and 2019 (1.25% and 3.05% respectively), plus I’m nervous over the alleged
misappropriation of Tabung Haji funds
.

#8 – Unit Trust – PRS

PRS = Private Retirement Scheme = think of it as optional EPF. My one and only PRS fund at FSMOne generated 27.84% profit over 6 years, or 4%-ish in annualised ROI (had to calculate myself).

Why continue this investment? Because it gives me up to RM3000 in tax relief annually.

Special note: There are literally tens of PRS-specific unit trust, and hundreds if not thousands of unit trusts. Your unit trust ROI range will vary A LOT.

Here are
3 Ways to Pick the Best Unit Trust in Malaysia (Advisory & DIY Method)

#7 – EPF

From 2014-2020, the annual returns ranged from 4.75% to 6.9% (depends on conventional or syariah). Data taken from
KWSP Dividend page
.

#6 – ASB

From 2010-2020, the annual returns ranged from 5.5% to 8.9%. MyPF.my maintains a great page on
ASB annual returns
. You can see the returns shrunk in recent years (but still good).

image credit: MyPF.my

#5 – Unit trust – BEST Invest

Quite new at this one, but VERY excited over its possibilities. I love that it is (1) syariah-compliant, and (2) ESG investing ie Environmental, Social and Governance ie sustainable investing ie ethical investing.

At the moment, it’s already showing 7.08% absolute returns after only 2 months or so in.

Related:
 I Tried BEST Invest by BIMB Investment, the ‘First Robo-Intelligence Shariah ESG Online Investment App’

#4 – P2P Financing

Currently, with some defaults, my annualised portfolio performance is a comparatively low 10.23%. However before defaults, it was as high as ~16-18%.

(Note: The screenshot is from Funding Societies. My referral link is
here
)

#3 – ETFs – Robo-advisory

My portfolio is Moderately Aggressive, and this is its allocation. If not mistaken, the ‘US Stocks’ part is channelled towards
Wahed FTSE USA Shariah ETF
.

And I’m getting a whopping 20.17% gains from my portfolio right now.

I don’t understand the (US) economy, I really don’t. Record numbers of people are unemployed, the poor are getting poorer… yet the stock market is booming :/

The bubble will burst, though. I don’t think this will last, it’s not sustainable at all.

(Note: The screenshot is from Wahed Invest. Use code ‘surbin1’ to get RM10 for free when you open an account. Find the app in Appstore)

#2 – Gold

Gold is a tricky one to rank because it reaaaaally depends on when you buy and sell. Same like buying and selling (non-dividend) stocks, I imagine.

If you bought 5 years ago, circa 2015, you’ve probably made a nice profit.

But if you bought in 2011, then you either (1) have sold at a loss, or (2) now only see (small) profit

Personally, I bought gold many times in small amounts over the years, and I can’t even properly calculate my ROI. But I estimate somewhere around 30-50% return on investment? Hard to say.

(Note: The screenshot is from HelloGold. My referral link is
here
)

#1 – Bitcoin & Cryptocurrencies

And I guess to no one’s surprise, the highest returns of all my investments belong to cryptocurrencies. This was the most profitable investment in Malaysia, and possibly the whole world in 2020.

According to my calculations, my ROI for crypto – mostly BTC plus some ETC and a scattering of airdropped alts – is a whopping 2900%, or 134% in annualised ROI.

Like gold, it’s very hard to calculate ROI for crypto because it really depends on the time you buy and sell. I was lucky (dumb luck I tell you) to stumble upon crypto relatively early, therefore I get that kinda ROI.

Equally important: I’m not a trader. I don’t buy and sell often, I don’t try to make money in the wild price swings (even though I’m tempted). My strategy is literally to buy and keep for years, because as said in this
Pantera Capital’s Medium article
: Don’t look at the highs, look at the lows.

As investors, we tend to get caught up in the all-time highs. Equally important are the yearly lows. Looking back at the low-print of the market for each year, Bitcoin has shown consistent positive growth — there’s only one year with a lower low than the previous years.

Thankfully it worked out. But of course, I can say this because (1) survivorship bias, (2) As a crypto holder, *of course* I want more people to get into it, the demand will push the price higher. So again, take what I say with the biggest effing grain of salt.

(Note: I bought my first BTC from Luno. My referral link is
here
)

Conclusion

Okay, so those are all my investments and their respective return on investment. I hope it gives you – especially if you’re new to investment world – an insight into one person’s actual investment performance.

Again, I want to stress how lucky I am, AND I also want to take this opportunity to invite you to read up my article about
investments which I lost ALL of my money.

So far, I don’t have investments in properties (
REITs
, flipping, rental etc) and in the stock market (Read:
7 BEST Articles to Read Before You Jump into Stocks Investing in Malaysia
) and a few more, so I don’t know the ROI range for those investments. If you’re doing those, please share your return on investment in the comments section.

How have your investments performed over the years? Which performed the best, and which, the worst?


Breakdown of My (SUPER HIGH RISK) Investment Portfolio

Obligatory disclaimer: This article is for SHARING purposes only! NOTHING in here is a recommendation, so don’t say ‘Oh Suraya say must do like that’ HELLO I NEVER SAY THAT

When Mr Stingy posted his
How I Invest My Own Money
 article, where he gave the complete breakdown of his investment portfolio, I
knew
 I wanted to write out my own version as well.

Investment portfolios are like a reflection of our personalities. It exposes our risk appetite and maybe some traits as well (see:
(Stereo)types of Malaysian Investors: Who You Are Based on What You Invest In
).

In this case, I realised that while some of our investments do overlap with each other, the percentage breakdown is completely different.

So, I’ll be sharing the breakdown of my investment portfolio. Like Aaron, I also don’t feel like disclosing the total amount, just the percentage of each investment type.

Everything is accurate as of time of writing (July 2020). Let’s hope that the eventual market downturn will be kind to us *laughs nervously*.

Breakdown of My Investment Portfolio, %, & Risk Level

Here are all my investments, sorted by highest to lowest, as calculated and screenshot-ed from Excel sheet:

In chart format,

Okay, time to address the elephant in the room – Suraya,
WHY IS YOUR RISK SO DAMN HIGH
?

I get it. If you add it up, my high-risk investments make up 63.5% of my total investment value. As a comparison, Aaron’s portfolio is nearer to ~80:20  safe:risky ratio.

And the reason for that is… well, the value of my crypto holding grew exponentially. I started collecting cryptocurrencies from December 2015, especially bitcoin. One bitcoin was around RM1600 then. It’s around RM40,000 each now.

IF the prices remained at 2015/16 prices, my crypto holdings would just make up 10%-ish of my overall investment portfolio.

But yeah, as it stands, it is what it is. Over half of my overall investment portfolio is in crypto. And now you might ask,

‘Why don’t you sell your bitcoin? To reduce the risk of your investment portfolio’

That’s a GREAT recommendation. At least two
licenced
 financial advisors told me the same thing. But I’ll tell you why I won’t, at least not in the near future, in a multi-part answer:

I did.
 Over the years, I’ve sold off
some
 of the crypto gains to channel into other investments. If I didn’t, the percentage would’ve been even higher

I’ve gotten used to it.
 I’m aware I have this weird cognitive dissonance situation thing going on, but honestly having a large percentage of crypto feels BOTH safe and risky for me, for different reasons

I’m confident in my ability to earn
. If (touch wood touch wood TOUCH EFFING WOOD) I lose access to all my crypto, or it gets stolen or whatever, obviously that would suck but I can earn it back. Or attempt to.

I’m not a trader
. Traders look for opportunities to make a quick buck during the volatile swings. I’m more interested in the long-term potential

But… NGL I am nervous about the estate planning side of it. If anything happens to me, all that value will be locked up forever. If any of you cryptoheads are reading this, please leave your suggestions in the comments section. How do YOU plan to pass it down?

My other investments

My other investments are (comparatively) less exciting. I have a huge preference for investments that:

Can be automated
. Related:
10 Places to Automate Your Investments in Malaysia

Are practical
. I self-contribute to EPF and PRS accounts every year because can claim as tax relief. If I could
purchase unit trust from EPF account
, I might have done that too.

Are convenient
. Almost all of them can be managed online. Many are fintech options, like HelloGold (for
gold
),
BEST Invest
,
Funding Societies
 etc

Are Syariah-compliant and/or ESG/sustainable investing
. Related:
10 Types of Islamic Investments in Malaysia (that Everyone Can Get)

(all referral links at
linktr.ee/surayaror
) (please read all my
investment-related articles
 first)

Personal conclusion

Is my investment portfolio good? Is it bad? I don’t know, but I can say that I’m (1) happy with my net worth overall and (2) can sleep at night, even with the risks. The latter is important especially for me – as a woman, my natural tendency is to play it safe.

(Note: studies actually concluded that women’s tendency for low-risk investing is actually the better investing style. But the fear does potentially make us lose out on more profitable, high-risk investments) (In reverse, usually men have to
learn
 how to reduce their risk)

However, once I beat my fear of embracing riskier types of investments AND made sure I have a good amount in low-risk investments, I find that I couldn’t get enough of high-risk investments. I enjoy doing them
in the safest way possible
. For example:

All accounts are set to incredibly complex passwords and 2FA where possible (read:
How to Digitally Protect Your Money; A Checklist on Digital Security in Malaysia

Not planning to dip into investments, everything except money in the bank account is for long-term

I have a mental ‘stop loss’ – will sell if it ever dips below a certain amount

For mutual funds and unit trusts, I’ve diversified in multiple regions, both in and outside Malaysia

For p2p lending, I automated it to make small but many investments, to reduce the impact of loan defaults if and when it happens

(and perhaps most importantly) Never stop learning skills that allow me to earn (more) money so market recessions will have minimal, if any, impact on me. The idea is, if it goes down, I’ll simply earn more to make up for it

Anyway, this concludes my investment portfolio breakdown article. How does yours look like? Are you happy with the way you allocate your resources? Let me know in the comments section!


3 Features in myASNB App You Should Know [SPONSORED]

In the
Amanah Saham: 4 Advanced Strategies You Should Know
 article, I mentioned how useful the myASNB app is, for both new and existing ASNB investors. As someone who has personally spent hours commuting and waiting for my turn at the ASNB branch to open an account and conduct a transaction, the ability to do the same thing from my phone is definitely appreciated.

In this article, I’d like to expand on the myASNB app – what other features do they have, and what can you use them for? And most importantly, how can they help you achieve your financial goals?

Feature #1 – Target Labur

“A dream without a plan is just a wish”

Do you have a financial goal you’re working towards? Then the first feature is for you – let’s make your dream a reality.

For example, let’s say you want to have RM3000 in your Emergency Fund. You aim to complete this goal in 8 months, starting in January 2022 and ending in August 2022. How much do you need to save monthly to achieve that goal?

You don’t need to do the calculation yourself, let the app do the work. While return expectations may vary – the final amount depends on the fund you choose – but saving RM375 per month is a good starting point.

The awesome thing about the Target Labur feature is it is
great
for long term goals, because it factors in compound interest in the calculation.

Let’s try another example just to show what I mean: let’s say you want to finance your own business, and give yourself 2 years and 2 months (26 months) to raise the initial RM10,000 capital.

If you save the money using a bank account (or a literal tabung in your house), you need to save RM384.62 per month (RM10000 divided by 26 months)
However, if you save using myASNB Target Labur, then the amount you need to save per month becomes… RM376 per month*

*Expected return of 4.15% per annum used as a guide; actual returns will vary

The Target Labur feature comes preset with 8 common financial goals, such as saving for retirement, purchasing a house, purchasing a car, planning a holiday and more, plus Custom Goal option for anyone who, I don’t know, wants to buy a horse or something.

Watch the Target Labur tutorial below.

Protip #1: Set up as many goals as you want – it’s common to want it
all
– but prioritise what’s most important for you, especially if financial resources are limited.

Protip #2: Notice that Paying Off Debt is not included as a financial goal above. If you have high-interest consumer debt such as credit cards and personal loans, then please prioritise paying those off first.

Feature #2 – Auto Labur

Imagine one day you check back your myASNB account, and find out that wow, you have RM10,000 in your account! Then you remember, oh yeah, you have set up the Auto Labur feature some time ago but forgot all about it. Good job, Past Self!

That’s pretty much the function of the Auto Labur feature. Set it up. Then forget about it. One day, get pleasantly surprised by ‘bonus’ money that compounded over the years.

To set up Auto Labur, simply click the Enrol Now button during myASNB operation hours (7am to 6pm) and fill up the particulars:

Which fund (there are 16 funds. Learn more in
ASNB product page
 or see next section)
Which bank the deduction is from
How much to deduct (the minimum amount is RM30 per month), and
Date of deduction (choice of 2nd, 25th or 28th of every month)

Protip #3: Combining Target Labur with Auto Labur is a GREAT idea. Target Labur tells you how much to save monthly, and Auto Labur does it for you automatically. It’s the perfect combination!

Feature #3 – ASNB Wakaf

The next feature I’d like to highlight in this article is ASNB Wakaf, a super cool application of fintech in making contributions and donations. Usually, donations are made on a one-off basis. How’d you like getting that pahala/good karma on an ongoing basis?

How it works is:

1) Apply for WAKAF via MyASNB app

You can find it right in the main page of MyASNB app

Select Click to Wakaf

2) Select the fund and the WAKAF amount (min RM1000)

If you have multiple funds with ASNB, then select the one you want to make the contribution from. If you don’t have money in the fund, then you can easily top up via the MyASNB app as well.

Important: Only the return on the investment will be distributed for wakaf projects, thus maintaining the principal intact to generate returns for subsequent years. For example, let’s use Amanah Saham Bumiputera’s 5% dividend for 2021 as a benchmark. Therefore, RM50 (5% ROI on RM1000) will be your contribution under Wakaf ASNB for the year. This method ensures your contribution lasts FOREVER.

Where does the contribution go? It will be channeled towards Wakaf Projects benefiting Health, Education, Community Empowerment and Humanitarian Missions.

3) Confirm your application and done

Read and understand the T&C and Wakaf Statement and if you’re happy with your decision, complete the Confirmation page and you’re done!

Aside from the features mentioned above, you can also perform these transactions on the myASNB app:

Create a new ASNB account without going to the branch
Perform balance enquiry for ASNB unit trust funds
Perform additional Subscription to ASNB unit trust funds
Access recent transactions
Access account statement
Read prospectuses
Register for any ASNB unit trust funds, and
Search for ASNB branches nationwide

Protip #4: It’s cheaper to do additional subscriptions of variable price ASNB unit trust funds from myASNB app rather than through the counter. The latter’s sales charge can go up to 5%, as opposed to 1.5-2% through the former.

Download myASNB App today

What do you think of myASNB app’s features? What other features do you want them to add? Let them know – drop a comment below!

If you’re a new myASNB user, follow these steps to sign up:

Step 1: Download the myASNB app. It is available on
Android
,
iOS
, and
Huawei
.
Step 2: Click on Sign Up
Step 3: Enter in your personal details
Step 4: Upload your IC
Step 5: Finalise account information
Done! The whole process only takes minutes

You can read more about the online account opening process
here
.


Pros & Cons List of 5 Popular Investments in Malaysia

In this article, I’m going to give you a condensed but concise pros/cons list of five of the most popular investments in Malaysia:

fixed deposits
mutual funds/unit trust/ETFs
stocks
gold, and
properties/land.

Why these five? Simple – because
the overwhelming majority of us will start our investing journey with one of them first
. Eventually, you need to know the tried-and-tested strategies that work well with each type of investment, so learn them all here in this one article.

Let’s get right into it.

#1 – Fixed Deposit

What it is:
 Agree to let bank keep your money for x time. After a few months to a few years, they return back the money to you plus a bit of interest/dividend, which is your profit.

Pros
:

Easy to get
. Many banks offer it.
Easy to
compare rates
. Many financial comparison platforms list rates from different banks. Use them, it saves a lot of time
Super super safe
. Your initial capital is guaranteed.
Set-and-forget system
. Pretty passive

Cons
:

Small return on investment
. Depending on the OPR, you’re lucky to get 4.x% ROI. Usually it’s 2-3.x%. That’s barely keeping up with the inflation rate.
Your money is
locked away
 for the duration. Cannot use for up to 5 years.
There are
penalties
 if you do need to take out the money before the term is up.

Strategies
:

Better to use
cash management platform
 instead. Same concept as FD except no lock-in, aka you can take the money out whenever you want with no penalties.
Be
realistic
. Don’t chase the highest rates offered if you’re not sure if you can spare the high minimum amount needed. Don’t lock it away for years unless you have a healthy-sized emergency funds socked somewhere else
It’s not a bad strategy to open a new fixed deposit every month/every 3 months/ every 6 months. Over time, you’ll always have
FDs expiring every so often

#2 – Mutual funds/Unit trust/ETFs

Note: Mutual funds, unit trusts and ETFs are not technically the same things, but similar enough that I grouped them together

What it is:
 Instead of buying one asset at a time (stocks, properties, precious metals etc), you get to buy it as a ‘package’. Ie, buying the S&P 500 means you’re buying a small portion of the top 500 companies in the US stocks market, at once.

Pros
:

It’s like
instant diversification
 in your investment portfolio. Your mutual funds/Unit trust might have a mix of: stocks (of different markets), properties, precious metals, currencies and more
So. Many. Options. To. Choose. From.
 There are probably hundreds of different Mutual funds, unit trusts and ETFs that you can buy
Different products have different risk levels, so they suit different risk profiles. You can choose based on its risk level.
The higher the risk, the higher the potential income
.
Some mutual funds and unit trusts have
 tax benefits
 too. When filing taxes, don’t forget to deduct amounts contributed to
EPF, PRS*, SSPN**
 and investment-linked insurance products. Yes those are considered a type of mutual funds and unit trusts too
An investment in Tabung Haji specifically lets you queue up for haji

*PRS = Private Retirement Scheme. Kinda like secondary, but optional EPF

**SSPN = education-earmarked funds for your kids

Cons
:

So. Many. Options. To. Choose. From
.
Some are only available for some people: ASB for Bumi folks, Tabung Haji for Muslims, some unit trusts for high net worth individuals
You really have to check the
fees
 offered by some financial institutions. Some can get pretty high (5% sales fees is HIGH, there are lots of low-fee options nowadays).
Except for some, many people forget that the
ROI for most unit trusts by fund management companies is not guaranteed
. As such, many people investing in high-risk growth funds especially have lost money, especially if they couldn’t take the bear market and withdrawn funds

Strategies
:

If you’re Bumi, take advantage of the
ASB loan
 if you can commit to the monthly payments.
Generally speaking,
roboadvisory platforms
 (which include ETFs) have much lower fees than unit trusts. It’s 1% (or even less than) vs up to 6%. No brainer
Do take advantage of the mutual funds/unit trusts that can give you
tax benefits
You can take out a portion of your
EPF money to invest in other unit trusts
, or to buy property (whether you should is another matter. Personally I vote no, I don’t want to kacau my retirement money)
Tabung Haji and some platforms like
Wahed Invest
 help you to calculate and pay
zakat
You can buy
PRS
 funds with zero sales charge
You can diversify into US market and buy S&P 500 easily from
MIDF Invest
. And they even have Shariah version!
Automate monthly contributions
 to your preferred mutual funds/unit trust/ETF and it’s as passive as it can get

#3 – Stocks

What it is:
 Stocks represent your ‘ownership’ over a (small) part of a company

Pros
:

Super fun for people who like to read and
do research
. Lots of publications and seminars you can attend.
You get to choose to learn about the
fundamentals, the technicals
, or both.
You can trade, you can do
warrants
, you can do IPO, you can do value investing, lots of options
As a shareholder, you get to attend
AGMs
 and get nice doorgifts

Cons
:

Not so much fun if you have no interest in company news and updates, and macroeconomics in general
You get the
 ‘what if’ syndrome
. What if bought lower? What if sell higher? What if I waited? Why didn’t I sell then?
A lot of survivorship bias. While lots of people made money on the stock market, don’t forget lots of people have lost money there, too

Strategies
:

If you like
fundamental analysis
, you’re suited for value investing and dividend investing strategies. Read those books and attend those talks
If you also like
 technical analysis
, you can potentially increase your ROI with
warrants trading
. Read those books and attend those workshops
If you’re a long-term holder, except for rare events,
don’t disturb your stocks
 after you buy them. Just hold them for the long term. Many people itchy fingers like to buy/sell too often.
Buy when others are selling, sell when others are buying

Related articles:

DividendMagic Taught Me How to Read Financial Statements and Buy Stocks
7 BEST Articles to Read Before You Jump into Stocks Investing in Malaysia

#4 – Gold

What it is:
 The yellow-coloured metal

Pros
:

Historically holds value
. Probably won’t go down to zero
You can get them in
physical and digital versions
. Physical gold is quite fun because you can wear gold jewellery and start coin collections and pretend you’re a pirate
You can also temporarily
pawn physical gold
 to use as emergency money, and buy it back when you can
But on the other hand e-gold is very practical and hard for thieves to steal
Buy-and-forget type of investment
. Pretty passive

Cons
:

Physical gold can be
stolen
And if it gets stolen, you might get hurt or your house might get broken into. Buy insurance.
Muslims are obligated to
pay
zakat
 on gold (over a certain amount)

Strategies
:

The price
fluctuates
. Buy a little bit every month to average it out
Remember that gold prices
tend
 to go up when the stock markets are not performing well (this theory doesn’t hold well lately)
It’s probably not a good idea to make gold your
only
 investment. Many experts advise limiting gold to max 5-15% of investment portfolio

#5 – Properties/Land

*Note: this is not property purchase for own stay, strictly for investment purposes

Pros
:

Big. Solid.
 Very satisfying to own.
You can earn from
capital appreciation
 (the value of the property) AND
rental income
. The
estimated annual ROI is 8%
 for properties in Klang Valley.
You can make any adjustments you want. Anything. Put in a fireplace even though you live in tropical Malaysia? Why not YOU OWN IT WHAT.

Cons
:

Nothing about it is cheap
. You need 10-20% of the property value as downpayment. You need to pay legal fees and stamp duties (some developers may waive this). You need to buy house insurance. That’s not including furniture, installing fixtures, renovations. So many things to pay for.
Becoming a landlord/landlady/Airbnb owner is no joke. It’s
hard work.
You always need to have
extra money
 for repairs and more renovations.
Harder to liquidate
 (turn back to cash) than other types of investments. It’s also not the best time to sell houses in Malaysia right now, there’s a housing oversupply.

Strategies
:

The holy grail is to find tenants that can
pay more in rent than the monthly mortgage
. Not impossible, but definitely not easy
You can
outsource some work
 to agents (for rental) and AirBnB property management company (for AirBnB). It’ll cut into some profit, but it’ll save you a lot of time
Or you can always opt for the least-hassle one,
REITs
. Think of it as the mutual fund version of properties.

Related articles
:

5 Things I Learned About REITs in Malaysia (From a Bursa Malaysia-Sponsored Workshop)
Hi MORTGAGE Review: I Found Out How Much Home Loan I Can Get

Last words

This concludes pros, cons and strategies of five of the most popular investments in Malaysia: fixed deposits, mutual funds/unit trust, stocks, gold and properties/land.

If you’re completely
new in this investing thing
, your first few investments would probably be one of the 5 investments mentioned in this article. You could mix-and-match them, or simply stick to mutual funds/unit trust/ETFs, that’s actually fine too.

As for how much, you can use the
50/30/20 budgeting rule
 and set aside at least 20% of your income to go to these investments. More is better.

How about other investments and strategies? Consider that ‘play money’, money that you can afford to lose. You can try out other less popular (and riskier) investments like
cryptocurrencies
,
p2p lending
,
forex
, equity crowdfunding and the rest later.

Do you agree or disagree with my analysis? What else would you add? Share them in the comments! Let’s help each other make good investment decisions.


I Interviewed A Professional Trader from a Malaysian Investment Bank

If you thought being a professional trader means only working for a couple of hours a day, while sipping cold drinks by the beach, you’ve been told a lie by opportunistic marketers, my friend.  I can tell you that, because I interviewed a professional trader who shared with me how the #tradinglife is
really
 like.

Meet Isabelle Zhen from Kenanga Investment Bank. She is the first (and to date, only) person who could explain trading – and specifically warrants* trading – to me in a language that I can actually understand. I learned more about
warrants trading in a two-hour workshop conducted by her
 than literal years from other sources.

*Warrants = a financial instrument. You can trade other things – more info further below

Isabelle has an interesting job – she is the Warrants Issuer and Spokesperson at Kenanga Investment Bank. Her job scope involves both trading warrants professionally and organising educational talks. After some prodding I found out that Isabelle has been there for 4 years (so far), and already promoted twice. I think that speaks for itself.

The Daily Routine of a Professional Trader

Isabelle specialises in trading derivatives, specifically warrants, and maintains a strict daily routine which debunks all the trading-is-easy-money fantasies sold to you by irresponsible trading platforms and self-declared trading ‘gurus’.

Isabelle’s Daily Schedule

Time
Activities
6.30am
Wake up, have black coffee and start the day with spiritual activity (read Bible)
7.00am
Listen to BFM 89.9 for local newsflow updates (“while I shower”) and turn on CNBC to find out what happened in Western markets  (“while I get ready”)
8.30am
Stationed at desk and ready to start work. Double-check charts and trading systems
9.00am-5pm
The market opens; Trading and other work activities
(Isabelle: When I start trading, I talk to the stocks like they are my babies
Me: Even in front of your co-workers?
Isabelle: They’re used to it)
After work and weekends
Do personal projects, reading and practice trading for fun

Some trading tools Isabelle uses include:

Broker
– Kenanga Investment Bank (of course)
Information/Newsflow
– “In addition to BFM89.9 and CNBC, I scan through every related news source. But my favourite is our Bloomberg terminal (it’s like a Google for companies)”
Structured Warrants
 –
NagaWarrants.com
 for warrant terms, indicators and Live Matrixes.

Something that is immediately apparent about Isabelle is how much she LOVES trading. During the course of our conversation, her face LIT UP when we talked about trading mindset, thought process and strategies. She admitted she “likes to visualise candlestick chart patterns before sleep, before The Queen’s Gambit made it a thing”.

Listen, I don’t exactly have the best experience with trading (got burned when I attempted copy-trading, which serves me right tbh), but Isabelle made it sound downright fascinating, so let’s talk about that.

Life of a professional trader: Trading mindset, thought process and strategies

Can I admit that while I’m aware there are books about trading as a skillset, I had no idea there are biographies and memoirs of great traders?

“I like knowing the history of trading greats; like Richard Dennis who believes that trading is a learnable skill, W.D Gann’s trading rules, and Jesse Livermore’s big wins and big mistakes,” said Isabelle, “I also love the works of Richard Thaler in behavioural finance and apply when I execute trading execution”

How do you apply that? I asked.

I’m simplifying it, but here’s how Isabelle explained it:

First,
visualise your trading goals
and
make a trading plan
. For example, you might set RM10k in income as your goal. From there you can decide on suitable financial instruments which can help you reach your goal, given available capital and your risk profile
Second, look at
behavioural quirks
. What works for AND against your own personality? For example, Isabelle said she’s aware she has ‘itchy fingers’ – the tendency to over-trade – so she mindfully sets trading limits
Third,
execute the plan following trading rules
*. “Trading rules are like the red signal light at the traffic light. You can always break it, but be prepared to face harsh consequences.”

*Isabelle’s Three Trading Rules
#1 –
To have an abundance mindset
. Never feel like you should enter a trade because you don’t want to miss a ‘once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’; there will be other opportunities and more good trades to catch in the future
#2 –
 Being constantly self-aware and staying humble
. The market attracts the overconfident and humbles us quickly – that’s just the nature of this beast. But it is a game of probability where you can improve your odds of success by doing the homework.
#3 –
 Trade like a robot
. This means analysing the market objectively and consider which weapon aka financial product to attack it with. It’s important to set stop losses and target prices, then mercilessly cut loss like a robot, if it gets hit.
“My trading rules come from understanding the trading greats and simplifying it for myself.  In the 1900-1950s, you’ve got the main principles from Charles Dow, the market structure from WD Gann and chart patterns from Richard Wyckoff & Robert Rhea in the 1930s, the boom of technical indicators from Richard Dennis, George Lane, John Bollinger, John DiNapoli & Wilder in the 1950s, Japanese candlesticks from Steve Nison in the 2000s & now is the age of the Quant.”
(Suraya’s note: I only have a very shallow understanding of these people and concepts. Guess you have to learn from Isabelle by attending her workshops – scroll all the way down for the video)

In addition to improving trading as a skill via self-practice, and learning from history/notable figures, another strength that Isabelle has is the ability to succinctly describe concepts and approaches.

For example, when I confessed my own fear of trading, Isabelle explained
satisficing
 as the decision-making strategy which she applies in her trading life – “At some point, you have to realise you have learned all the theory you could at one go, and can only learn further by executing.”

The 4 Type of (Professional) Traders

According to Isabelle, there are 4 main types of professional traders: scalpers, day traders, swing traders and position traders. The differences between them, in her words:

Scalpers
– The goal of a scalper is to make 1 tick or break-even, and do this many, many times through the day. I used to do this. I know a few traders who make at least 10 trades a day – 7 break-evens, 2 wins and 1 cut loss. This machine-gun style of trading suits “active personality” types but there is the risk of “over-trading”.
Day traders
 – Day traders open and close trades intraday, meaning they close their positions before the end of the day, so they don’t expose their capital to overnight risk. They usually have a “view” for the first half, second half or whole market day.
Swing traders
 – These traders hold on to a trade for several days or weeks. Usually working professionals can’t monitor prices through the day, so they do their homework and analysis at night. For swing traders trading Structured Warrants, I find them profiting the MOST as they get to harness the full power of the Force, I mean gearing.
Position traders
 – These traders hold positions from weeks to months to even years. The main risk is that such traders may ignore “trend reversal” signals or experience “opportunity costs” from tying up your money for too long.

The same trading skillset can be applied to each instrument*, but most professional traders concentrate on one or two instruments at most as they require different background research.

*You can trade many financial instruments, including cash instruments, derivatives instruments, stocks, foreign currencies (‘forex’), cryptocurrencies and more.

Watch Isabelle’s Warrants Trading Workshops

Is warrants trading for you? Maybe yes, maybe no, but it is something that stocks investors favouring blue-chip companies can explore – unlike other financial instruments, derivatives and warrants trading is a regulated activity in Malaysia, so you’re somewhat protected (reminder: most of those aggressive forex platforms are not licensed in Malaysia).

To end this, I’d like to share here a 20-min beginner-friendly guide to trading warrants, presented by Isabelle herself, plus the Q&A session where we talked more about trading mindset and experience. You can find intermediate and advanced materials at the
Kenanga Youtube channel
 and also join the
NagaWarrants telegram group
 for warrants-related information, community support and learning opportunities.

*This is not a sponsored article from Kenanga, but I was paid for the webinar appearance, which took place on December 2020. Information were summarised from our conversations before and during the webinar.


3 Places to Get PRS in Malaysia with ZERO Sales Charge

Looking to invest in PRS in Malaysia, so you can have a better retirement? You deserve to know the cheapest options out there, and nothing is cheaper than 0% sales charge.

In fact, nothing more is acceptable. This is money for your retirement we’re talking about. The alternative – paying 0.5%-3% in sales charges –  means losing out on thousands of ringgit over the long term. And you need all you can for your retirement – that shit’s expensive.

In this article, I’ll share:

Part 1: What is PRS – Introduction to Private Retirement Scheme in Malaysia

Part 2: Where to buy PRS in Malaysia without the sales charge

Part 3: FAQs – Which PRS in Malaysia is the Best? Which PRS Fund to pick?

Part 1: What is PRS – Introduction to Private Retirement Scheme in Malaysia

(skip this part if you’re already familiar with PRS. Beginners please read)

PRS or Private Retirement Scheme is another place to park and grow your retirement savings. That’s the money you need when you hit 55/60 years old, depending on when you retire.

How does PRS work

Think of it like optional EPF. If you are a working adult, you know that 11% or 12% of your salary is deducted for EPF right? The money goes into a ‘tabung’ managed by EPF, who will invest it on your behalf.

Similarly, the money you contribute to PRS goes into a ‘tabung’ managed by a provider of your choice, who will invest it on your behalf.

Must I do PRS? Isn’t EPF enough for retirement?

Maybe EPF is enough for retirement, *if* you have around RM800k MINIMUM to a few million (recommended) in your EPF account. That’s not even a huge amount – it allows you to enjoy a
modest
retirement, not an extravagant one.

Note: The figures are based on
retirement calculators
 and advice given by financial advisors.

However,
over half of EPF contributors aged 54 have savings of LESS THAN RM50,000 for retirement
. Therefore, unless they have alternative arrangements, including relying on their children/family members, they probably won’t be retiring and will continue to work in old age, even if battling health conditions.

That’s why retirement planning is a significant part of good personal financial planning, and why they keep telling you to
save for retirement early, as soon as you start working.

Why open PRS online account

Some of you might ask – why not just keep retirement savings in EPF? Why need to open PRS?

The easy answer is you don’t have to, but the tax relief from contributing to PRS funds is worth getting.

How much is PRS tax relief

PRS tax relief will be given up to RM3000 in contribution within one calendar year. According to PRS Tax Relief Calculator from
FSMOne’s PRS Guide
, if your annual chargable income is RM40,000 (approx RM3k+ salary per month), then maxing out the annual contribution will give you tax savings of RM240.

Is it worth doing Private Retirement Scheme for the Tax relief?

Some people say that it’s not worth doing PRS in Malaysia just for the tax relief alone but Idk man. RM240 in tax savings on RM3000 contribution that goes towards my own retirement sounds pretty good to me. It’s equivalent to an immediate 8% profit.

Differences between EPF account and PRS online account

There are many differences between EPF and PRS, but some that you should know are:

EPF is basically one giant tabung – you deposit money, the good folks at EPF manage and invest it on your behalf.

However,
there are many PRS funds
, from
many PRS providers
 (asset management companies). For better or for worse, you can choose which ones to invest in – yes, plural, because you can choose more than one PRS funds

EPF funds are guaranteed to provide at least 2.5% returns per annum.
There is no such guarantee for PRS funds.
 You *could* lose money, but generally speaking, many funds should do okay, given the long time horizon

PRS is NOT the same thing as EPF i-Invest
. To invest in PRS funds, you need fresh funds, aka a new source of money. To invest in selected unit trust via EPF i-Invest, you are allowed to take some money out of your EPF Account 2. For more info, read:
All You Need to Know About Buying Unit Trust Through EPF i-Invest

PRS fees and charges

As for fees, PRS funds impose these charges:

Sales charge
– to pay for marketing and servicing services – up to 3% per annum) (
this is the one you want to drastically reduce
)

Annual management fee
 – to pay for investment management services – Up to 1.8% per annum

Transaction fees
i.e. switching fee, transfer fee and redemption charge – to pay for administration of your transaction

Note: Check
here
 and
here
 for the latest update on fees and charges. For more information about PRS, please browse the
Private Pension Administration page
.

Alright, now that we covered the similarities and differences between two retirement schemes in Malaysia, let’s go on to how to open PRS online account in the most cost-effective way – here are 3 places to get 0% sales charge.

Part 2: Where to buy PRS in Malaysia without the sales charge

#1 – Via PRS Online Enrollment (for 30 years old and under only)

Web link:
https://prsenrolment.ppa.my/

The first option is unfortunately only available for people aged 30 years old and younger. As per the landing page,

For applicants age 30 and below who perform self-enrolment through PPA’s PRS Online Enrolment service, the PRS Providers’ sales charge will be at 0%.

Note: I don’t have an account with PPA’s PRS Online Enrolment service, so I don’t know how good the platform is. If anyone have experience, appreciate you sharing in the comments section.

#2 – Via eunittrust.com.my

Web link:
https://www.eunittrust.com.my/Home/Banner1

The second option is through enittrust, an online platform where you can purchase unit trusts from multiple providers. They have PRS funds as well (note the difference of sales charges from offline vs online in the image below)

Note: I don’t have an account with PPA’s PRS Online Enrolment service, so I don’t know how good the platform is. If anyone have experience, appreciate you sharing in the comments section.

#3 – Via FSMOne

Web link:
https://www.fsmone.com.my/funds/tools/fund-selector
 > More Filter > Check PRS Providers Only

The third option, from a platform that I personally use, is FSMOne, which is formerly called Fundsupermart. Like #2, FSMOne is also a platform to purchase unit trust online, and they also recently allowed stocks and ETFs purchase.

This is not a sponsored post – I quite like FSMOne. They send good newsletters, organise financial webinars, and even gave me RM40 in Touch ‘n Go eWallet credit just for topping up my PRS fund (so I get tax relief AND ewallet credit).

If you end up using this option, would appreciate you opening an account via
my referral link
. You get a token to enjoy unit trust purchase at a lower sales charge of 1% – way less than what unit trust agents charge (5%).

Part 3: Frequently Asked Question – Which PRS in Malaysia is the Best? Which PRS Fund to pick?

Disclaimer: NOT AN EXPERT. Just sharing the process that I used to select which PRS fund is the best for me. Get other people’s advice too.

Hint: you’ll never know which one is the ‘best’ one because you can’t predict the future.

Method #1 to pick PRS in Malaysia: Pick based on providers

Do you have a preference for any of the
providers
? Some people base their decisions on that. They trust Company A so they pick what Company A offers.

List of PRS providers, as of writing time:

AHAM Capital AM

AIA

AmInvest

Hong Leong Asset Management Bhd

Kenanga Investors

Manulife Investment Management

Principal Asset Management

Public Mutual

RHB AM

Some companies win investment awards, which is an indicative (not guarantee) of good future performance.

Method #2 to pick PRS in Malaysia: Pick based on recommendation from financial planners or financial media

Some people get recommendations from their
financial planners
.

You may get fund recommendations online too, whether from financial newsletters or media or other sources.

Method #3 to pick PRS in Malaysia: Pick based on process of elimination

Personally, I didn’t use any of the methods above. What worked for me is the
process of elimination
 – use the information available to reduce fund options and pick from the remaining. How it works:

First, I eliminated all funds that have sales charge. This was easy – I went through FSMOne. Last I checked, 61 PRS funds were available

Because I am still young (under 45 years old), I decided to focus on Growth funds. Therefore, I eliminated Conservative and Moderate funds

I also eliminate non-Syariah funds. The Muslim guilt is real

I also eliminated funds that invested heavily on Malaysian equity and prioritise other geographical locations – I figured I have enough of those in my other investments

This drastically reduces my PRS fund options. You might go through some more process of elimination. Some people might not want to invest in funds in industries they think are dying, or in REITs, or whatever.

That’s it. You can read up the factsheets and longer reports, or cross-reference with other recommendations to make your final pick. Make an educated choice based on the information you have.

Remember:
if you can’t pick just one PRS fund, nothing’s stopping you from getting a few.
You can split the RM3000 into two PRS funds (RM1.5k each) or 3 funds (RM1k each), etc.

Is it worth saving for retirement?

If I’m honest, I no longer believe in the traditional concept of retirement, where you get to stop work/earning income completely and live on savings. Not any more. And many others feel the same way I do. The amount you need is too much.

Personal opinion: Retirement is no longer an achievable goal for most of us. We are the generation that will work forever, or until we can't. It's less 'just tahan until retire' and more 'prioritise well-being, don't burnout'
I'm not even sad about it. I've accepted it.
— Suraya: bestselling Bergaji & Pokai book (@surayaror)
April 22, 2021

HOWEVER. It doesn’t mean I’m not even going to try. What’s the worst that could happen? That I have access to more money at 55/60? That’s not a bad problem. Plus I can’t assume I’ll be healthy enough to work at that age.
 Dahla makan banyak exercise tidak

So, if I have to do it for the sake of Future Me, then might as well optimise it by reducing fees. You don’t want to waste up to 3% in sales charge, you want to let every single cent compound over decades.

I wish you the best in your journey to save and earn money for retirement, whether by choice or by force. All the best opening your PRS online accounts and building your retirement accounts.

Truthfully, by the way things are, with low wages and everything, not everyone can make it in the end. Hope the odds will be in our favour.


5 Things I Learned About REITs in Malaysia (From a Bursa Malaysia-Sponsored Workshop)

Back in April 2017, I attended a full-day REITs Analysis Workshop organised by Bursa Malaysia. It was part of the Bursa Investor Education Workshop Series where they talk about different investment vehicles and investment strategies.

Here are 5 things I learned about REITs in Malaysia from the workshop that I want to share with you, plus additional info I learned along the way.

#1 – REITs investment in Malaysia: What you should know

REITs stands for Real Estate Investment Trust. The investment allows retail investors, aka you to
 profit from commercial properties’ rental income
.

Commercial properties comes in a few types, including:

Office;

Industrial;

Retail;

Hotel;

Mixed (combination of the above, may also include Hospital, Education, Business Space and Plantation)

Each REIT is managed by a Trust, ie a bunch of people who make big decisions for the REIT. Multiple properties managed by the same Trust is common.

As mentioned, REIT investors earn from rental income, which comes from:

Retail shops at malls (from H&M to Guardian);

Office lots at office buildings;

Medical, logistical, industrial and educational institutions at whole buildings;

Hotels at hotel buildings;

and more, as long as they are commercial (not residential) properties.

#2 – Where and how to buy REITs in Malaysia?

You can buy REITs in Malaysia from:

Bursa Malaysia – Local REITs

Roboadvisors – Local and international REITs, and

Online Investment platforms – Local and international REITs

Note: Local REITs means the real estate assets are located in Malaysia. International REITs means the real estate assets are located outside of Malaysia

Here’s how to buy in REITs from each option.

1) How to buy REITs listed in Bursa Malaysia

Here’s the step-by-step way to buy Local REITs listed in Bursa Malaysia:

Open a CDS account (Skip this if you already have one)(Here is a
list of organisations you can open a CDS account from)

Fund your account

Select which REITs you’d like to invest in and take note of the price per unit

Purchase 100 units (or the minimum amount allowed). For example, let’s say 1 unit is RM1, so 100 units is RM100.

Congrats, you have invested in the REIT 🙂 Repeat the purchase next month, or consistently

There are
20 REITs listed in Bursa Malaysia
.

*Note: There are 20 REITs listed in Bursa Malaysia, but only 4 are Syariah-compliant. They are:

Al-‘Aqar Healthcare REIT

Axis REIT

KLCC REIT

Al-Salam REIT

2) How to buy REITs from Investment Apps

You can buy Local and international REITs from 2 investment apps:

Wahed Invest
 (roboadvisor) –

offers Syariah-compliant Local REITs,

Versa Asia
‘s Versa REITs (‘digital wealth management app’) – gives you exposure to real estate assets in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and United States

Here’s how to buy REITs from both platforms.

How to buy Local REITs from Wahed Invest

Here’s the step-by-step process to buy Local REITs from Wahed Invest:

Open Wahed Invest account (Obligatory referral code:
Download app
 and use code ‘surbin1’ to get FREE RM10 bonus)

Select Thematic > Local REITs (If you already have existing investment, click Add account in Dashboard)

Cash in (fund your account) a minimum of RM100 and complete your purchase

Congrats, you have invested in the REIT 🙂 Repeat the purchase next month, or consistently

How to buy Versa REITs from Versa Asia

Here’s the step-by-step process to buy Versa REITs from Versa Asia:

Open Versa Asia account (Obligatory referral code: use code ‘SURAYA’ or click
here
 to get FREE RM10 when you deposit RM100 in your account)

Select Investments > Versa REITs

Cash in (fund your account) a minimum of RM100 and complete your purchase

Congrats, you have invested in the REIT 🙂 Repeat the purchase next month, or consistently

Versa REITs gives you exposure to real estate assets in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and United States.

3) How to buy REITs from Online Investment platforms

Aside from CDS Account and through roboadvisors, you can also buy Local and International REITs from online investment platforms. For example, you can:

Buy Local REITs from Rakuten.my
, and

Buy International REITs from
FSMOne
 (they have a bunch of interesting ones, see picture below)

Aside from those two, there may be other online investment platforms you can get Local and International REITs from. Let me know what I missed in the comments.

#3 – Which is the best REITs in Malaysia?

Naturally, the next question you as an investor want to know is, which is the best REITs in Malaysia? Which one(s) should you invest in?

Using simplified fundamental analysis approach, the speaker focused on three things:

Dividend Yield
 – did the REIT yield steady or growing returns in previous years? If yes, that’s a good indicator.

Growth Potential
 – will the rental demand for the properties increase or decrease in 5 years?

Loan Related Risk
 – is the REIT in a financially stable position? Whatever is their asset value, they must have less than 45% in debt. For example, if they manage RM100 million worth of properties, the debt must be less than 45 million. They also must have good interest coverage ratio (more than 3 is good; this part I’m still struggling to calculate).

Personally, I think that
Dividend Yield
 and
Growth Potential
 parts were easy enough to understand. It’s just looking at one chart then do the market forces assessment.

On the other hand, the
Loan Related Risk
 part requires you to read the REITs’ balance sheets and calculate the debt to asset ratio and interest coverage ratio.

Hot tip: Finding the best REITs in Malaysia based on Dividend Yield

You may not know this, but Local REITs or Bursa-listed REITs have pretty good performance.

Look at the Yield section in the picture below, taken from
The Edge
–
notice how none of the REITs have negative returns in the last 3 years
? This is indication (but not guarantee) of continuing good performance.

You can see historical REITs dividend yield beyond the 3 years at
klsescreener.com
 or
TradingView.com
.

#4 – REITs from fundamental analysis approach – what’s that?

Agenda of the day

I really liked the fact that the speaker took the time to explain fundamental analysis versus technical analysis. Both can be used when making your choice.

In case this is your first time hearing about fundamental and technical analysis, here’s the difference between both:

Fundamental analysis (FA)
: assess factors that make an investment good or bad; suitable for long-term investing. “I think the property will continue to attract renters and yield a steady passive income because of its proximity to an expanding university.”

Technical analysis (TA)
: the type of investment doesn’t matter, the profit potential based on charts does; mainly for short-term trading. “Based on indicators, there is a strong likelihood that the market will correct itself and the price will decrease therefore I will short X”.

REITs in Malaysia: Pick Fundamental or Technical Analysis?

Chua said that both FA and TA approach can work, but
pick a primary approach
 because using both can sometimes give you contradicting results and get you stuck in analysis paralysis.

My personal preference (as well as the speaker) for REITs is fundamental analysis. If one were to take the FA approach for REITs, the speaker emphasised market forces, like:

Because e-commerce is growing, REITs that concentrate on retail (ie shopping malls) may lose tenants as they can’t compete with online shops;

Likewise e-commerce is likely to help push REITs that include logistics industry;

Booming tourism means that REITs in the hospitality/tourism sector have a good chance of doing well;

REITs that includes medical industry might do well as Malaysia is set to be an ageing population by 2030;

And more.

The analysis above are examples, there are more things to take into consideration. There is no one correct answer. They can even be personal opinions, but you get the gist.

Additionally, according to Chua, it’s quite easy to see good-performing REITs in action – go to any of the managed properties and see the tenant occupancy rate. If there are a lot of shops (more than 80% filled) and many people at the building, that’s a good sign.

The bottom line is – if you think the properties is managed properly (good maintenance, etc) and can attract tenants, it has potential. Think from the tenant’s POV – would I rent here if I have a shop/office? If no, avoid.

#5 – Additional information about REITs in Malaysia

Bursa Marketplace
 – Go to The Mkt > REITs – Lists all available REITs in Malaysia. Click on each one for more info.

You can also learn about REITs from
Bursa Academy webinars

The Complete Guide to REITs in Malaysia by Dividend Magic

As mentioned, you need a CDS account to buy REITs. You can find more information about CDS accounts
here
.

The REITs’ individual websites – Google their names and their websites should pop up. The website should contain reports, types of properties they manage, the people behind the trust, and more.

Conclusion

REITs is like the stocks version of properties, bundled up in package like unit trust and managed by professionals. So if you like the idea of property investment but lazy to manage it yourself, REITs might be a good option for you.

Lastly: My knowledge on REITs in Malaysia is by no means complete, so I invite you to share your knowledge in the comments section below.


My actual monthly budget with RM3,500 salary a month

I love that more people are talking about their monthly budgets!

One of my favorite Malaysian PF (that’s personal finance in case you’re not familiar with the jargon),
Mr Stingy
 aka Aaron Tang recently published an article where he outlined his monthly budget when he was earning RM3,500 a month in 2010. His article was inspired from
this Pakdi.Net article
 written by a fresh graduate who said that his RM3,500 salary wasn’t enough!

I was earning RM3,500 until a few months ago (in communications/NGO line, that was considered a decent salary okay), so I would like to share my own monthly budget then.

FYI I enjoy tracking my expenses and I have data of every. single. transaction. For the sake of this article, I will be taking the average spending during 1 year period, October 2014-September 2015. This means that I will be dividing each category by 12.

Here are my tallied expenses for that time period. Notice that not all months are created equal – I definitely overspent in May, June and July 2015. But for the most part, I was doing okay.

I heart February 2015.

This was my spending by categories during the same time period. Don’t worry, I’ll explain each of those categories. Read on.

My top 8 spending were:

Wow, my top spending from October 2014-September 2015 was Donations & Gifts! #humblebrag Let’s break it down:

1) Donations & Gifts. RM5,357.33 / 12 months = RM446.45 per month, on average.

I gave out zakat, helped my sister’s engagement, gave presents, contributed to charity.

2) Utilities & Rent. RM4,926.83 / 12 months = RM410.57 per month, on average.

Necessary spending, includes rent, internet, utilities bills. Read how I managed to pay only RM150 in rent for a master bedroom in KL in this
article
.

3) Misc Needs. RM4,896.63 / 12 months = RM408.05 per month, on average.

Misc Needs is a category that I created for random, unavoidable expenses. Home repairs? Misc Needs. Fixing shoes? Misc Needs. I suspect the amount is high because I needed to replace my old laptop (it was still running on Windows XP, that’s how old it was!).

Yes, as a young professional, a laptop is a required work item, okaaay.

4) Loan Repayments. RM4,659.75 / 12 months = RM388.31 per month, on average.

This is to repay 2 loans: PTPTN, which I successfully paid off earlier this year (and took advantage of the 20% discount!), and an investment loan.

Sometimes I kick myself for not taking a bigger investment loan, but I admit that’s my greedy side talking.

5) Groceries. RM3,435.47 / 12 months = RM286.29 per month, on average.

Gotta eat. I cook a lot and always bring lunch to work to save money on food.

So far, 1-5 are all ‘responsible’ expenses. That’s about to change, I’m not a boring person 🙂

6) Misc Wants. RM2,466.03 / 12 months = RM205.50 per month, on average.

Misc Wants is a category for things that isn’t strictly needed but would be ‘nice to have’. This includes new clothes, or just generally pretty things that I wanted.

Significantly, I was smoking during this time – that’s about RM80 I was burning (literally) away. I’ve since quit.

7) Dates. RM2,400.99 / 12 months = RM200.09 per month, on average.

<3

8) Social. RM1,840.85 / 12 months = RM153.40 per month, on average.

Going out with friends. Friendships are investments, too.

The next 8 categories!

9) Insurance & Medical. RM1,446.51 / 12 months = RM120.54 per month, on average.

Primarily for my Medical card. And the occasional band-aid and panadol.

10) Food. RM742.97 / 12 months = RM61.91 per month, on average.

Ooooh this is bad. This is food that I bought that wasn’t part of groceries or dining out with family and friends. In short, this is pure glutton and the reason why I’m fat -_-

My appetite is very healthy lol.

11) Business. RM658.16 / 12 months = RM84.85 per month, on average.

For my small business (Kotak Koffee) stock and items.

12) Petrol. RM500.69 / 12 months = RM41.72 per month, on average.

I don’t have a car, but I use my friend’s car all the time. Of course I have to refill the tank, I’m a good friend.

13) Public transport. RM474.58 / 12 months = RM39.55 per month, on average.

Low, isn’t it! My (ex)office allowed us to claim back on public transport, up to RM100 a month!

14) Mobile. RM337.80 / 12 months = RM28.15 per month, on average.

I subscribed to Umobile’s RM28 per month plan, it satisfied my needs.

15) Parking & Tolls. RM84 / 12 months = RM7 per month, on average.

Pffttt peanuts.

16) Website. RM58.03 / 12 months = RM4.84 per month, on average.

This category was deleted since I was a nO0b and didn’t know that you have to pay for hosting plans! GoDaddy wanted USD200 from me to recover the lost data, so GoDaddy lost my business.

—

If I add up all the average monthly spending, it totals to
RM2,888.03
.

Salary: RM3500

Minus: Spending (RM2,888) + EPF (RM385) + SOCSO (RM14.75) + tax deductions (RM33.60)

Total left from salary: RM178.65

No wonder I didn’t manage to save much during this time period!

So yeah. I know that we like to hate on the people saying that this ‘high’ salary is not enough… but for a person who was actually living on it, it’s kinda true. I can only imagine how people get by with a lesser salary.

What do you think of this breakdown?

P/s – check my maths in case not correct, can?


7 BEST Articles to Read Before You Jump into Stocks Investing in Malaysia

In case you didn’t know, Bursa Malaysia is having a moment right now. It kept smashing records.

As of the time of writing, it broke the
trading record high of 27.8 billion shares in volume worth RM7.8bil on 11 Aug 2020
, AFTER
breaking the trading record high of 26.65 billion shares worth RM9.05bil on 7 August 2020
, AFTER
breaking the trading record high of 15.62 billion shares worth RM10.45bil on 4 August 2020
 (and it broke records the day before that, too).

And investors went crazy. Like moths to a flame, the (price) action attracted a lot of attention. This phenomenon isn’t unique to stocks; the same thing happens to other commodities, too – you’ve seen the long lines at gold jewellery stores when gold price broke RM300/gram.

(P/s – Never think you’re immune to FOMO, best to stay humble. Having an ego and thinking you’re more rational than the crowd
could
 will be your downfall.)

So… you want to start exploring stock investing in Malaysia, but don’t know where to start. Here are 7 articles, to read *in order* that will help you in your stocks investing journey.

Article #1 –
A Guide to Stock Investment in Malaysia by DividendMagic

This evergreen article covers the basics, must-know information about stocks investing in Malaysia. It covers:

What is Bursa Malaysia

What is CDS account and why you need one

Which brokers are available (and which one to use)

How much to start with if you want to start investing in Bursa Malaysia

Article #2 –
A Beginners Guide to Shares Investing by My Personal Finances

Similar to Article #1, but gives you a slightly different perspective and other information, such as types of shares traded on Bursa Malaysia. I like that it shows you how buy and sell order interface looks like (in this case, the screenshot is from Rakuten platform).

Article #3 –
Ini 15 Panduan Beginner Perlu Tahu Tentang Pelaburan Saham di Bursa Malaysia by Majalah Labur

This article is a must-read for Muslims as it includes information about Syariah-compliant stocks, which make up only a fraction of all public-listed stocks in Bursa Malaysia. If it matters to you, of course.

Note: Syariah-compliant stocks might also be attractive to those who like SRI investing, or socially-responsible investing. They don’t touch gambling or liquor.

Article #4 –
10 Important Things to Know Before Invest in Stock Market by Marcus Keong

Another overview of stocks investing in Malaysia article. I like how systematically Marcus laid out important things you should know before you start investing in the stock market.

Article #5 –
My Stock Investing Workflow: A Step-by-Step Guide by I’m Funemployed

Now we get to the fun part – how people actually invest in the stock market. The styles they use. Out of all the articles, I like Nicole’s the most.

In her words,

Here I will share my own workflow, the actual step by step process of what tabs and windows I open when I’m doing research, trading, and also monitoring my portfolio

She even shows you a snapshot of the apps she uses exclusively for stocks investing.

Article #6 –
I Tried Bursa Marketplace’s Mirror, Learn & Trade Platform

(my article, sponsored by Bursa Malaysia)

Another way to peek into how people do stock investing is by following – for lack of better word – stocks influencers, (self-proclaimed) stocks experts.

Information is of course valuable and investment in knowledge is a good idea, but if you’re still ‘trying it out’, a free way to learn from *actual stocks investors who actually trade for a living in financial companies in Malaysia* is through Bursa Malaysia’s MLT Platform. No need to shell for that four, five-figure stock investing ‘course’.

You can see the trading styles of experts in fundamental analysis. Experts in technical analysis. Experts in specific industries (ie Oil & Gas sector). They were all hand-picked by Bursa Malaysia, so don’t have to worry about legitimacy.

The experts also can give you ideas on which stocks to buy and when, because they enter trades *with real money*. I see them as kind of your personal real-time stock picker.

Article #7 –
DividendMagic Taught Me How to Read Financial Statements and Buy Stocks

(also my article)

And finally, when you decide you want to be a stocks investor, learning how to read financial statements is part of the journey. After all, you can follow tips and advice, but not doing the legwork and reading the financials behind the company you’re buying is still plain betting.

Conclusion

In no way I am claiming that just these 7 articles are enough reading material – they’re just a starting point, but they are damn good starting points. Again, read them in the order – there’s a reason why I started you off with foundation (theory) before moving to practical.

To go deeper, you can explore more articles on each website. Lots of embedded links in there.

Alright, have fun kiddos. If you know of other amazing stocks investing in Malaysia article, do share with us in the comments section!