All The Fintech Products in Malaysia that I Love Now

I really like these fintech products, and not even sponsored to say this!

Fintech = finance + technology. You probably use some of them (like bank apps). What I’m about to do here is to give my own take of how these fintech products in Malaysia are personally helpful for me. I’ve divided them into: products that save money, products that help with money management, and investment-related products.

Fintech products that save money

Cashback apps – Shopback.my

As of time of writing, I’ve used Shopback.my for a couple of years and received RM464.86 in cashback. All I’ve done is to make purchases I was going to make anyway, but through the platform. You can use it to get money back even for mobile topups (like from Lazada and similar) and for your vacations (Expedia and similar).

Referral link:
here
 (get RM5 extra when you purchase)

Non-referral link:
here

Comparison websites/apps

There are a lot of these, and I love each of them. They can be:

Credit card, personal loan, travel insurance, mortgage, fixed deposit, savings accounts, broadband and telco comparison websites –
GoBear
,
iMoney
,
RinggitPlus
,
CompareHero
,
LoanStreet
 and similar

Product comparison websites –
iPrice
 and similar

Money exchange rates comparison –
CurrenSeek

Fintech products that help with money management

Expense-tracking tools – Money Lover

I like to track my spending and dissect them (see:
My Total Income and Expenses in 2016
). Big fan of Money Lover – a paid app (get from AppStore or PlayStore) but gives absolutely beautiful breakdowns in graphic format. I like them so much, I even have a
review
 on them (also not paid to say this).

Invoicing/Accounting tool – Financio.co

Ok, so I’ve been using
Financio’s
 (free-for-startups) invoicing tool for about a year plus now. Works great, looks professional. There are plenty of accounting software in the market, so for me they are similar, it didn’t really stand out.

THEN Financio decided to make a campaign, and I’m sold. The campaign is so appealing to me. Bad puns galore (I like bad puns). I’m a big believer in personal branding, and they’ve been putting this guy (who they say is the person behind Financio) in ad campaigns and I can’t help but to be charmed by them. I mean, like,
look
:

Accounting software used to be bleh, but they changed my mind, they
can
 have character, so that’s why I’m putting them here.

(Q: Which food is the most sensitive? A: Pau. Because it has a lot of fillings)

Fintech products for investment

Gold savings account – HelloGold

I was introduced to
HelloGold
 during the
Bloktex Blockchain 2017 conference
. I haven’t personally used it yet, but I think it’s worth sharing. Strong team and potential platform for you guys who want to invest in gold.
Syariah-compliant
. Partnership with AEON Credit.

Basically, HelloGold allows you to buy gold (digital or physical) and records your ownership to that gold on blockchain (tamper-free data ledger where in this case, proof of ownership is prioritised). You can invest as low as RM1, and the gold can be used as collateral.

Unit trust platform – FundSupermart

Fundsupermart
 has been around forever, but it’s worth putting them here in case you don’t know them. I got my PRS account (Private Retirement Scheme) from them, and better fees than private providers. They also have a
funds selector tool
 and it’s easy to find the Syariah-compliant options, so thumbs up for this feature.

I’d love to give my referral code for this but it’s not as straightforward. If you feel like giving me the chance to earn one of their x.x% sales charge tokens, contact me (comment here works too) and I’ll send you an invite.

Related:
FAQ: How to start investing in Private Retirement Scheme in Malaysia (and get RM1000 bonus)

Other fintech products in Malaysia

The fintech product offerings that we have here in Malaysia is still limited. Overseas, there are:

Apps that help you invest small amounts of money automatically (like Digit, Acorn)

Robo-advisors that allows people (beyond the crazy rich ones) get access to personalised financial, wealth and retirement planning

AI (artificial intelligence) tools that give people alerts and help them make financial decisions (good or bad can be debated – AI is not foolproof yet)

However, we do have (as of time of writing):

Bank apps that are apparently more user-friendly (I’ve yet to download Maybank’s app)

Equity crowdfunding and P2P lending platforms (see:
What can you invest with RM1000? A quick guide
)

The trend that will hopefully make insurance more cheap – online insurance providers (p/s- this is also called ‘insurtech’)

More digital payment options, what with your SamsungPay and all

Various websites and apps that help you check stock and commodities prices

Money management platforms that can give you better-suited financial products (like MoneyLion – note: have not personally used)

Other bitcoin service providers (most are global companies but some welcome Malaysians as users)

Crowdfunding platforms that Malaysians use to raise funds for education, events and other things

Personally, I’d love to see more products that use technology for positive social impact. Feel free to take the ideas below and turn them into reality:

Big data applications that match deserving candidates to agencies providing social security services, like food bank and stuff

Senior/disabled-friendly security measures that can identify and stop people from becoming financial victims to scammers

Blockchain tech enabling transparent and efficient BR1M or similar funds disbursement

And more. Sky’s your limit.

As someone who loves financial literacy, the rise of fintech products in Malaysia makes me very excited. Banks are jumping in on fintech initiatives left, right and centre. And after using some of the products, I have to say they have helped me, a lot. I keep myself updated via news and the
Fintech Malaysia FB group.

Any other fintech services and products in Malaysia that you use? Can you share them in the comment section below? Thanks!


[FREE TEASER] The First Chapter of Money Stories from Malaysians: Volume 1

Some of you know that I published a book,
Money Stories from Malaysians: Volume 1
. I am super grateful for support from early buyers – you are the best!

For everyone else, here’s the first chapter from the book. Consider this my attempt to lure you into buying the book. Like how they give free food samples at the grocery stores so you buy the product.

Without further ado, I’m happy to present to you the first short story in the book,

Look out for Naila, world! by
Jouhari Ali

Every parent loves telling stories about their children. How smart and well-behaved their children are. How proud they are of them.

I am no different.

A lot of times, the parents would also share and show party tricks they taught their children. Here, I am different. I am here to tell you what my daughter taught me.

Through unfortunate events, Naila’s mother wanted a divorce just a day after her second birthday. I complied.

Usually, in a Muslim divorce, the mother would always get custody of the children. Second in line would be the child’s maternal grandmother. Only then the Syariah courts will consider giving custody to the father. During the divorce process, we were asked by the court what was to happen to Naila. Naila’s mother received full custody, but she agreed to let Naila live with me. I was overjoyed.

My living situation then was not what you would call “normal”. I was living with three other guys, friends of mine since college. They were all young and single men. But thankfully they were more than happy to accept Naila and me. For a few short, amazing years, Naila was living with me and her three wonderful uncles.

Soon enough, the guys got married and moved out. If you don’t count our cats, Naila and I were the only two left in the four-bedroom house. The rent was ridiculously cheap, so we just kept staying there until I bought an apartment. A new place for us to call home.

Naila was seven years old when we moved into the new apartment. She had just started Standard One. There were no lifts, but there was a small pond and a jogging track. We got the best view of the pond from our apartment’s balcony on the fourth floor, where we could often see a few anglers. Once in a while, the group would start screaming out loud like Ronaldo had just scored a goal. Naila had never experienced fishing before and was naturally curious about what they were doing.

A father and daughter moment
, I thought. My father had taught me how to fish and this would be an amazing opportunity to pass the knowledge to her.

One day, I got us fishing rods and supplies, and off we went to the pond with our new gear, bait, and a small bucket. She was so excited about her first fishing trip, even though the pond was just a few metres from our building.

Before we started, I went over the safety precautions. I showed Naila how sharp the hooks were, what to look out for, and how far she needed to be from the edge of the pond. I told her to always follow one rule: never stand closer than your body’s length to the edge. Why? Because, if you were to fall over, you would still fall on land, not in the water. There were additional rules. For safety reasons, Naila was not allowed to bait the hook or cast the line, but she could reel it in if anything bit.

I could see fishing lose its appeal to her with those kinds of rules. After a while, she seemed more interested in digging for worms along the bank of the pond. I told her that’s a great idea—we wouldn’t have to buy worms the next time we go fishing.

As Naila dug for worms, she invited other children passing by to join her. Most of them did. Soon enough, our group became a digging party as kids started to get the word out that they were allowed to dig for worms, and there was a responsible adult (me) watching over them. Naila forged many friendships that day.

A man, all docked in fishing gear, noticed the excitement and came over. Naila struck up a conversation with him too, and offered to sell the worms she just dug up for RM1 each. Even though Naila had no idea what the going rate for worms was, she had business in mind and was brave enough to market her wares like it was second nature. I simply thought she was cute.

My mouth dropped when the man made a counteroffer. He said he would pay RM1 for two worms, but they had to be big ones. I didn’t say a word during the whole negotiation, but I thought the guy was cool for playing along.

The kids came into a huddle and decided RM1 for two fat worms was indeed worth their effort. The man bought four worms and nodded my way. I smiled back. We both knew he did not need the worms. He could have gotten fifteen for RM2.50 at the shop just across the street or he could also have dug them up himself for free!

Naila and her friends made RM2 that afternoon from their only customer. I was proud of her. She made her first business transaction like a champ and I was there to witness it, just a few feet away, frozen in amazement.

Later that night, Naila revealed that her worm business was more exciting to her than her fishing career (she caught one fish). Not trying to give her false hopes in the profitability of this venture, I explained how the worms were not really worth that much and the man was just being nice. Naila was undeterred. She told me she and her friends were planning to dig up more worms to sell to other anglers the next day.

Predictably, her first business venture was not successful. Not from the lack of trying—it was just a simple case of supply and demand. Anyone could have dug the worms up for free, plus she was selling it above the market price.

Still, she had fun making friends while digging up those worms. The ones that were still alive by the time we went home were put back in the ground by a tree.

Let me tell you about her second business venture: selling ribbon bracelets. By that time, she was eight.

Naila was supposed to bring ribbons for her school’s art class, so we went out to get some. Picking her up from school the next day, I noticed a clear plastic bag full of coins. From what I could see, there must have been around RM10 worth of coins.

I asked her where she got the money. I thought she must have won a ribbon-making contest at school or something. Instead, she said that she had learned how to make ribbon bracelets in art class, made a few, and sold them at fifty sen each.

Again, I was shocked and amazed. I admit I was sceptical.

“Everyone brought ribbons to school, everybody learned to make the bracelets, and you managed to sell them today?”

Naila explained how her ribbon bracelets were in demand because she innovated and used two ribbons of different colours. The teacher had taught them using ribbons of only one colour during the class, but now, her classmates could make custom requests for ribbon bracelets with two colour combinations.

She did not stop there. When a customer asked for a colour she did not have, she would trade some of her ribbons with someone else. Even though she had competition, she had an advantage—Naila could make a bracelet out of any colour because everyone would gladly trade their ribbons with her. Some even volunteered to make the ribbon bracelets as her orders grew!

“Teachers are OK with this?” I asked.

She laughed and said she sold a few to the teachers too.

This brought me back to my primary school days. I had been a timid, scared little boy. Here I am now, blessed with a daughter who somehow made a week’s worth of allowance in one day.

The next day was just as impressive. After I picked her up from school, she asked if we could stop by a store and pick up some super glue. She explained that some of the ribbons she sold the day before came apart and she wanted to fix them for her customers. At eight, this young lady knew how to stand behind her products and provide warranty and customer service!

I was more than happy to get her the glue, and we got a few types just in case. I’m not sure if she knew how important her business decision was. Imagine if there were another art class project and she decided to go into business again? Her customers would gladly buy from her instead of her competition because of her warranty, customer service and product innovation.

The next day, I asked about her ribbon bracelet business. It turns out that she got even more orders and no competition! At lunchtime, she sat at one of the benches and operated her business in full swing.

When a child makes their own money, something happens to their appreciation of money. When Naila gets to pick out toys or clothes at the store, she actually looks at the price tag. Even at her young age, she understands what those numbers after RM mean.

Naila understands value, too. She demonstrated how it was cheaper to buy a box of pencils than a single one. Any parent would feel blessed to have a child that actually takes the price of an item into consideration when they want something. If you have seen the shopping behaviour of other children, you might know that their final choice is usually influenced by the packaging and how much air time the product had on TV. But not my Naila.

While picking her up from school one Friday afternoon, I noticed a tear in her relatively new school bag. She had the habit of not zipping her bag properly and after a few weeks, it tore. I thought she would ask me for a new school bag soon, and it would be a good opportunity for me to give her the “take care of your things” speech.

I waited for that request all weekend, but it never came. She never asked for a new bag, and by Sunday, this horrible father forgot all about the torn bag.

Monday came, and I took her to school as usual. While she was walking into the school compound, I noticed that she had taped up her bag with electrical tape. Those black elastic tapes, the ones that electricians use to tape up wires… the only type of tape that was plentiful in my toolbox. My heart twitched. I thought I was going to teach her a lesson about taking care of her things. That morning she taught me that she’s a lot smarter and stronger than I gave her credit for.

Later that afternoon, we bought a new school bag. I wish I had said something about the tape incident but I didn’t. I felt like a horrible father. I was ashamed of myself while being so proud of what she’s grown up to be. Here is a little girl who was raised by just her father and his friends, taking on what our cruel world had to offer head on. Yet she never complained that her bag was falling apart. She taped it up so her books wouldn’t fall out.

Somehow, Naila grew up to understand money and thrift better than kids her age. I can’t exactly point out to how she turned out that way. I will not claim that I had anything to do with it.

Children can understand the value of money. Children do understand the importance of making money and saving money. But, of course, money should never be their problem—that’s the burden of the adult.

If you ask children what they want to be when they grow up, you’d almost always get the kind of jobs that help people. Go ahead, give it a try. You’ll hear doctor, teacher, soldier, fireman, policeman, and there’s always that one kid who wants to be Spiderman.

I asked Naila the same question when she was nine. She told me she wanted to sell cars and have her own car business.

I was happy to hear that. She was already thinking about businesses, not jobs! I asked her why she wanted to sell cars, of all things.

She told me so she would be able to give me one.

–End–

If you like the story above, there are 9 more short stories in
Money Stories from Malaysians: Volume 1
 book. Click the link to buy and enjoy the rest of the stories, including one of mine right at the end 🙂


[SPONSORED] I Asked Hard Questions to the CEO of Funding Societies Malaysia

What does Mr-Stingy, Dividend Magic, KC Lau, Blackbelt Millionaire and myself have in common? Aside from the fact that we all maintain websites with personal finance content, that is.

All of us do P2P financing as one of our investments. We lend money to companies.

In particular, and most strikingly,
 all of us chose
Funding Societies Malaysia
 as the P2P financing platform of choice (note: referral code. You get RM30, I get RM30).

My experience with Funding Societies Malaysia so far

(scroll down if you just want to read the interview with Kah Meng)

When Funding Societies Malaysia contacted me for a collaboration opportunity, I was excited. I was already an existing user, with RM10,000 in my account.

 My dashboard

I deposited money in Funding Societies Malaysia way back in March 2017, but took it out as the notes (businesses to lend money to) kept getting over-subscribed (too many people want to invest!). Procrastinated until October 2018, where I finally deposited money again.

This time around was much better, because I can use the autobot feature to make automatic investments according to my preferences.

 I didn’t manually make these investments, the bots did

You can set up to two bots – one for invoice factoring and another for business term financing. The biggest difference is the former is for super short-term investment (30-120 days), and the latter is for short-term investment (1-24 months).

So far, my annualised portfolio performance stands at 12.52% in 20 invested loans and 0 defaults (default is if the company that borrow your money end up not able to pay back). I think I can do better with diversifying my loans – something to tweak as I go along.

If you want to try out P2P financing, start with small amounts or an amount you’re comfortable to lose. It’s still considered higher risk than other types of ‘safe’ investments like fixed deposits, gold, mutual funds and things like that.

Questions I Asked Kah Meng, the CEO of Funding Societies

On the meeting date, Kah Meng and I met up at Old Town White Coffee at Bangsar LRT. I admit that I took an immediate liking to him – he’s around my age (he’s 32), polite and nice to look at in real life.

Here are some questions I asked him:

#1 – What’s your daily routine like as the CEO of a fintech startup?

You are what you do and all, right? I’m always fascinated to know what startup founders do on a day-to-day basis.

Here’s (almost) everything he does:

Attend a lot of meetings.
 “My day starts early and ends late. I meet whoever I need to meet to get the job done.”

Give a lot of media interviews.
“About 8-10 interviews a week,” he says

Conduct job interviews.
 “The right fit is everything. I’m involved in everyone’s interview process, all the way to the interns. It’s not just skills, but cultural fit as well.”

Make micro-decisions
. “I trust my team to do their job well, and I’m only hands-on where needed. I meet them in the office throughout the day to give final inputs and make micro-decisions to progress things along.”

That whole hiring and delegation part intrigued me. As a small business owner, I’ve thought of expanding many times, but the idea of hiring staff intimidates me. It’s part control issues (ie ‘no one can do it better than me’) and part fear (ie ‘what if I can’t pay them?’). So we talked about that for a bit.

“I’m good at time management, but after a certain point you can’t create more time, you know? If you want to grow, you need to learn how to delegate,” Kah Meng said after he shared productivity apps he uses in his daily life (Google Calendar and Remember the Milk), “The hiring process is something I emphasised right from the beginning. I conducted hundreds of interviews to get Funding Societies Malaysia’s first few hires.”

Hundreds?
Hundreds?

“Yes. It was hard and long and tedious but completely worth the effort –
the right hires compounded into more right hires
 for Funding Societies. We started in Malaysia in 2017 and already expanded to 50 people by end of 2018 because we got the first few hires right”

#2 – Funding Societies Malaysia boasts low default rates. Last I checked, it’s at 0.93%, which is ridiculously low for a high-risk investment. How?

(Note: Data was taken from
Funding Societies Malaysia Progress Page
. Defaulted means the business that borrowed the money was not able to pay it back. Like say for example you borrowed money from the bank and promised to pay back X amount every month, but you missed a few consecutive payments. Like that lah.)

Additionally, how many companies exactly make up that 0.93%? And… which industries are they from?

“Three,” Kah Meng said easily, “Two from trading, one construction. But let’s not discriminate against any industries. It just so happens the defaulted loans were from those industries!”

What happened to them?

“I can’t share the details, since that info is P&C, but I can share that we actively work together with the defaulted companies and other companies that missed payments (but have not yet defaulted) – we reach out to them and together, try to work things out, restructure their payments plans. Ultimately, we want to see the companies committing to their repayments.”

“Obviously on our end we want to keep the default rate low so investors have confidence with us. This is something we keep in mind when considering every SME that apply to be listed on our platform.”

#3 – Say I’m a company and I want to borrow money via your platform. What would cause my application to be rejected?

Kah Meng explained how Funding Societies’ business plan includes a risk management section. The ‘acceptable’ default rate they will tolerate is between 3-5%, which makes them overachievers at the current 0.93% default rate. As an investor, I liked hearing that. Remember, I’m an actual investor with them, with RM10k in!

Borrowers are rejected if they:

Are not clear about their business model or how they plan to use the borrowed money

Have poor credit history

Plans to use the money for long-term asset

The last part required a bit of explaining from Kah Meng’s part – I wasn’t familiar with the term. “So what that means is Funding Societies is not suitable for long-term business development activities, for example if the company wants to use the money to build factories or buy land. It has to be more immediate than that.”

#4 – Which part of your job do you enjoy the most?

This was my favourite part of the interview. Kah Meng’s face
lit up.

“My favourite part is definitely going through company applications and discovering the variety we have within the SME space in Malaysia,” he said excitedly, “There’s just so much
colour.
”

I egged him on.

“It’s so fascinating to learn about the value propositions and strategies from different companies. You’d think they are similar, but they always have a twist in conducting business, something that separates them from competitors. My favourite industries to go through are the services, B2B and retail industries.”

Can you give an example of a company that made you go, ‘brilliant’?

“I can’t give too much away, but there is an SME in the retail industry that offers personalised products. The products combined with the business model has amazing potential.”

#5 – Last question… Why did you call yourself a boring person?

At one point during the interview, Kah Meng literally said, word-for-word, “I am a boring person”. When I brought it up, Kah Meng appeared sheepish.

“I repeat a lot of the same things,” he said slowly, “I like structure. My daily and weekend routine doesn’t change that much. On weekdays, I work. On weekends, I go for workout and rest. I eat the same lunch. I wear the same type of clothes (Suraya’s note: that explains all the Google images of him).”

Honestly, I don’t see the problem. This is the holy grail of productivity – when the habits are so ingrained that you don’t have to motivate yourself daily, you just do it because that’s what you do. And it sounds like he’s repeating the right habits over and over again. Not a bad thing at all.

But he did appear genuinely self-conscious about it so I tried, “There must be something you tried a bit differently recently?”

“…The other day I decided to eat chicken rice for lunch instead of my usual meal…”

Wild.

Well, if you like the idea of someone like that working to grow your P2P financing-earmarked investment… Someone who has a hyper-practical worldview and whose definition of fun is way different from other people… Here’s my referral code for
Funding Societies Malaysia
. You get RM30 from this link, and I get RM30 too.


[SPONSORED] I Asked 8 Hard Questions to Great Eastern Takaful’s CEO

You know how content from insurance/takaful companies all kind of say the same things? “Protect yourself and your family in case anything happens”, “Life is unexpected, be prepared”, “Make sure your loved ones are taken care of”?

Yeah, they’re repetitive. And boring. Important stuff, sure, but boring.

So when I got the opportunity to interview Great Eastern Takaful’s CEO, Shahrul Azlan Shahriman,
 I told them I wanted more meat
if we proceed with a paid collaboration to promote their newest takaful product, i-Gr8 Harapan. I told them I don’t do pure ‘promotion’ without interesting content about their new takaful product and the takaful industry in general.

Surprisingly, this jual mahal approach paid off.
They approved all of my questions
. Here they are, for your reading pleasure.

#Q1 – Who is i-Gr8 Harapan suitable and NOT suitable for?

I studied the
i-Gr8 Harapan product brochure
. The i-Gr8 Harapan takaful, which is a term takaful* product, looks especially suitable for:

Muslims
(for the Badal Hajj**, Waqaf*** and Hibah**** services option)

People aged
between 30 days – 70 years old

People looking for
at least RM100,000 in Basic Sum Covered
 (and up to RM500,000)

People seeking
higher Accidental death benefits
 (up to 4x)

People who can commit
~RM60-RM100+ in monthly contributions
(from RM2 a day)

People who
don’t want investment-linked takaful products
 (me)

People who want
term takaful but lazy to go medical check
 (me)

People who
don’t have term takaful yet
 (me)

*
 term takaful
– when you die, your family/whoever you nominate gets a lump sum

**
Badal Hajj
 – if you die before you do your hajj, Great Eastern Takaful can get Tabung Haji to send someone to hajj on your behalf so you get the pahala

***
Waqaf
– donation for charity

****
Hibah
– give the money to whoever you want, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, related or not related through nomination. You can also hibah to charity of your choice via assignment.

They said that this product is suitable for everyone (understandable answer), and added in:
people living in Johor and working in Singapore
 (and similar arrangement) would especially benefit from this. Since they can get 4x the Basic Sum Covered (BSC) if they KO outside of Malaysia due to accident. So if your BSC is RM250,000, your nominees get RM1 million.

You can find the full Accidental Death Benefit coverage in Page 6 in
the brochure
.

Note: that if death is due to natural causes, your nominees get the BSC amount only (no darab darab).

#Q2 – The product is marketed as ‘at RM2 contribution per day’. What is the range of monthly contribution for someone who’d like to take the maximum BSC (RM500,000)?

The
i-Gr8 Harapan brochure
 gave the below as an example:

Name of person covered: Murshidi

Gender: Male

Age next birthday: 35 years old

Smoking status: non-smoker

Basic sum covered: RM250,000

Monthly contribution: RM57.50 (less than RM2 daily)

RM250,000 BSC is nice, but RM500,000 is even better – RM500,000 is nicely 10x the annual income of someone who earns RM50,000 per year, or RM4,167 per month.

(10x annual income is the usual rule of thumb if you want to calculate how much to get for term takaful.)

Can I find out how much we should expect to pay if we want the max BSC, I asked. Sometimes we just want to know without the hassle of contacting an agent first. Maybe can give the amount for 25-35 years old, which is the majority of RoR audience?

Oh sure can can, they said. Here you go:

Max RM500,000 BSC for Male Non-Smoker (Age 25-35) is RM105-RM115

Max RM500,000 BSC for Female Non-Smoker (Age 25-35) is RM95-RM105

Good to know the price range, right? Easy for you to check around and compare.

Note: Four variables affect your monthly contribution amount:

Sum covered – the higher the BSC you want, the higher the contribution

Gender – higher for men (y’all display more risk tendencies)

Age – higher if you’re older, obv

Smoking status – higher if you smoke, also obv

#Q3 – In the brochure, there is a section on rewards for underwriting surplus and investment profit. Can explain?

I’m referring to this section:

They said:

If there are surplus and investment profit from the Tabarru’ Fund, they will give 50% of the money back to
certificate owners
via bank transfer (the other 50% is their portion)

If there are fund deficit, Great Eastern Takaful will pump in money to the fund as a loan, no extra contribution needed or expected from certificate owners

This is quite a nice arrangement for a non-investment-linked product, no?

#Q4 – The product looks like it will be distributed purely from agents. Any plans to create direct distribution channels* for it?

*
direct distribution channel
 – where you subscribe it directly, usually online, without agent as intermediary.

They confirmed that yes, the product will be distributed via their 5000-strong agent force, BUT will be available online at the
Great Eastern Takaful website
 in the future.

Why, I asked.

They explained that this particular product with this many benefits is
limited edition
, and
only available from September-October 2018
. Two months only.

Why, I asked again.

Need to manage risks, they said. Takut kena abuse.

How often do you get fraud cases, I asked.

“We take it seriously,” said Shahrul Azlan, “That’s why we have to follow through specific procedure for claim payout. This is because the money in the Tabarru’ Fund belongs to all contributors and we want to make sure that we pay out only genuine claims.”

Fraud cases are one of the reasons why contributions can be priced so high. Don’t la be so selfish and make life harder for the rest of us who just want to be covered.

So how is the i-Gr8 Harapan is going to be different from the online product, I asked.

No Accidental Death Benefit, they said.

Fair enough. I understand how businesses need to apply risk management strategies.

So yup if you’re shopping around for term takaful, know that this particular product, i-Gr8 Harapan, have extra benefits in September-October 2018 only. Check it out here
product page
.

#Q5 – What’s something you didn’t realise before you joined the Takaful industry?

That it’s both sad and fulfilling, said the CEO.

Shahrul Azlan told us a story when he personally delivered a compensation check to a family after the certificate owner’s passing. It was a crying fest, with lots of declarations on how the money will be used to fund the sibling’s education.

I asked the other Great Eastern Takaful staff members who joined the interview if they had the same experience. Some of them nodded, and shared their own stories. It seems like the experience is one of those unforgettable life experiences. I can imagine, especially if the person who died was the primary breadwinner. It’s like their love carried on. Sebak jugak la.

“Oh, I also notice that usually after these cases, we get requests from the family members to be covered or to top up their certificates,” Shahrul Azlan added.

I can imagine that too.

#Q6 – What are some challenges specific to the Takaful industry?

I won’t lie – the conversation took a slight racial turn after asking this question. Everyone on the Great Eastern Takaful team confirmed while Takaful products are mainly created to be appealing for the Muslim market, it’s hard to market takaful to the Bumis (most of them Muslim in Malaysia, as you know).

Some key highlights:

Bumis tend to view takaful as a luxury
, not a necessity. They’d use their disposable income to buy things first rather than subscribing to takaful protection.

Non-Bumis tend to understand the need for protection better.
Bumis like to give excuses
, like not having enough money. The lack of long-term planning is obvious (I won’t touch on macro-level contributing factors, like economic policies here)

Around 30% of Bumis who do participate in takaful would
stop paying

within the first year
. The persistency rate (I guess you can liken it to drop-out rates) is much lower than non-Bumis

Bumis give
less priority to term takaful
, which usually benefits the family. If they have takaful, they’d get medical card and personal accident. Those don’t usually give out a high enough payout upon death (Note: guilty as charged. I have medical card and PA takaful, but not personal protection. Dammit I hate that I fit the stereotype here)

I have no excuses for my race. Just have to be better so we’re all better collectively, as Malaysians.

Bumis reading this, share with us what you think. Why do we not take takaful seriously?

#Q7 – There are a few takaful providers in Malaysia all trying to capture the biggest market share. What differentiates Great Eastern Takaful against the rest?

Great Eastern (the big brother of Great Eastern Takaful) has been operating for 110 years, they said. Their reputation, and thus ours, is solid.

Good answer. A company operating that long must know a thing or two about staying in business. You’d want them to be around when you/your family need to make the claim.

Then I asked about their company culture. They proudly pointed out their 2018 slogan, ‘Our Time is Now!” (I noticed it everywhere while entering the office also).

The CEO said he even received the slogan as a birthday gift. That’s him posing with it with his colleagues, in his office.

Why did the company pick ‘Our Time is Now!”, I asked.

Because we want to make our mark in the takaful industry
now
, he said. Takaful products usually require specific period of time to be completed. We did this one (i-Gr8 Harapan) in shorter period, because ‘our time is now’ (laughter ensued).

How often do you repeat the slogan, I asked.

Too many times, they laughed again.

I’ve never had this fun of a chat with top-level management of a takaful company, I tell you.

#Q8 – Tell us something about the takaful industry that many people don’t know

Apparently, there’s a friendly competition going on among takaful companies operating in Malaysia. All 11 CEOs get together under something called ‘Race for Cover’ campaign, which aims to get more Malaysians (and especially Bumis) covered. Everyone got together for this noble cause, but obviously each one wants to win and capture the most market share.

Somehow this part is really funny to me lol.

Last Words

As we wrapped up our conversation, all I could think of was:

Damn I have to get myself a term takaful. I don’t want to be a Bumi stereotype

I wonder how this i-Gr8 Harapan product compares to other term takaful?

After we left, I had a chat with a media colleague (not from Great Eastern Takaful) who joined us. She said she has three (!!) term life insurances. And she agreed the product sounded good. “It’s definitely cheaper than what I’m paying now”, she said, “and I got mine when I was in my early twenties, when they’re supposed to be cheaper.”

(She’s Chinese, if that matters. Hey isn’t conventional insurance is supposed to be cheaper than takaful too? I can’t confirm this part, but that’s my impression when I did my research last time)

So yeah. Have a look at i-Gr8 Harapan and see if it’s suitable for you (scroll back to #Q1). Remember that this promotion with the extra benefits all is only available on September-October 2018. If you’re interested, contact a Great Eastern Takaful agent
here
.

To end this article, here’s a picture of Shahrul Azlan the Great Eastern Takaful CEO posing with my website (thank you for being so sporting!)


5 Fascinating Facts about Takaful/Insurance Industry (#1 is ❤) [SPONSORED]

Welcome back to another article on Takaful and insurance – one of the MOST requested topic from you, the Ringgit Oh Ringgit audience!

Today’s article is brought to you by Great Eastern Takaful. As we’ve done before, I asked whatever I was curious about the Takaful/ insurance industry to the Great Eastern Takaful team, and they answered. They’ve always been incredibly generous with their knowledge – before this, they’ve shared
the process of Takaful product creation
 and I asked the
CEO about challenges specific to the Takaful industry
.

(The generosity seems to be a company culture – congratulations on winning the CSR Initiative of the Year – Malaysia at Insurance Awards 2020!)

Here is a compilation of the most noteworthy points from our discussion, for your reading and learning pleasure. I find them interesting and hope you do too!

#1 – More married people take up Takaful/insurance as compared to singles

According to data from Great Eastern Takaful, the Takaful take-up rate is 71% for Married people versus only 25% for Single.

71% vs 25%! That’s a big gap! My romantic side is happy – I think taking Takaful/ insurance is an AWESOME gesture, to show you care for the people you love 🙂

There is one big downside though –
the median marriage age is 26-28 years old
. The older you get Takaful/ insurance, the higher the contribution will be. Also, how sure are you that you won’t have medical issues by the time you’re married?

Remember,
pre-existing medical conditions may NOT be covered by ANY provider
. Takaful/Insurance agents are tired of repeating themselves, so let me do it: if you can afford it, get covered while you’re still healthy!

Knowing this, Great Eastern Takaful created
i-Great EVO
, which is specifically designed to
grow
with you. How it works is:

Get it when you’re young and have no dependents (Phase 1), it is advised to take a basic plan with accidental and medical rider which you can upgrade with a Critical Illness rider to support your shift to married life and/or children and/or career growth (Phase 2 and 3)
The coverage in the medical rider will automatically increase for Room & Board and Overall Annual Limit every 5 years to ensure that you will get sufficient coverage in the future.
The plan is flexible; you can get for your dependents and upgrade your plans at any time. For children, 11 Child Critical Illness coverage is provided on top of the 45 Critical Illness list.

The brochure below shows you how
i-Great EVO
 works in action:

Important: as you move up a Phase, your coverage AND contribution will increase. If the monthly contribution in Phase 2 and 3 freaks you out,
 remember that you can always talk to your agent to reduce the coverage to a more affordable sum
. Later when you earn more, you can increase it back.

Fun fact of the day:
Aman RA the rapper made a song about i-Great EVO
.

#2 – If you have a medical card, your contribution WILL increase

Double-digit annual growth is a great thing for investments, but not so much for medical claims. Because of this, Takaful/ insurance providers had no choice but to re-price some 4.5 million certificates/policies between 2016-2019 (Source: Bank Negara Malaysia’s
Managing Medical Claims Inflation
 document). In 2019 alone, the
medical inflation rate in Malaysia
 stood at 13.2% 13.2%!!!

According to Great Eastern Takaful, Medical claims make up almost three out of five claims they processed in 2019, with the average claim of RM3,919.85.

If you follow
the rule of 72
, the average medical claims with 13.2% annual inflation will double around 5 and a half years. That means the average claims will cost RM7,839.70 circa 2025, RM15,679.40 circa 2030 and a whopping RM31,358.80 circa 2035!

Note: The table above does not include the Covid-19 financial assistance, provided for free for Great Eastern Takaful customers and family members (spouse & children aged 18 and below) in the event of death & hospitalisation. This benefit went into effect in 2020 and paid out RM151,600 in hospitalisation claims. The benefits include:

RM200 daily hospitalisation benefit up to 60 days, upon diagnosis of COVID-19 and kept in quarantine at any of Ministry of Health Malaysia designated hospitals.
A lump sum of RM20,000 per Person Covered upon death due to COVID-19

It doesn’t matter if your medical plan is ILP (investment-linked product) or standalone (term Takaful, ie the ‘burn money every month’ type).
The former will get repriced if medical inflation continues to grow at this rate, and the latter will increase in price when you get older anyway
.

So what can one do?!

If money isn’t a problem (and I hope it won’t be for you), just close one eye and continue paying your monthly contributions despite the increase. Not using your medical card is the best-case scenario; that means you’re healthy.

(Note: shopping around for a new medical card is not a solution. For one, you’re older so your new quotations will price in your age and be more expensive. Secondly, this is a nationwide problem, not a specific hospital; ALL Takaful/ insurance providers are required to reprice their medical plans.)

If money *is* a problem, then talk to your agent and see how you can temporarily reduce your coverage until you can increase it again. It is almost never a good idea to eliminate a medical plan; ironically, the more you can’t afford medical fees, the more you need to keep it.

#3 – The 7 most fumbled/ misused/ misunderstood term in the industry

Takaful/ Insurance industry is a specialised field. Word accuracy matters; you don’t play around when billions of ringgit is involved.

The jargon is a good thing for legal reasons, but unfortunately this caused a lot of confusion with everyday consumers, who just want the protection. I don’t know about you, but the jargon intimidated me so much that I procrastinated on getting myself covered as soon as I could!

I asked Great Eastern Takaful about the most fumbled/ misused/ misunderstood terms that people should know. Here they are:

Free-Look period
: 15 days from the date of acknowledgement receipt when you receive your Certificate for you to review the suitability of the plan. If the Certificate is cancelled through written notice during this period, the Takaful Operator shall refund an amount equal to the amount of contributions paid minus expenses (if any).
Waiting period:
 typically between 30 to 120 days depending on type of cover from the date your Takaful plan is active before you can make a claim.
Nomination
: refers to the authorisation made by the participant by naming a person as beneficiary or executor to receive the Takaful benefits upon death.
Hibah
: a gift in the form of your Takaful benefit to anyone (person or organisation) directly without interference from any distribution laws
Deductible
: an expense payable by you before the Takaful Operator pay the balance of the eligible medical expenses.
Rider
: Optional coverage that can be attached to the basic Takaful plan with additional contribution.
Survival Period
: Claims will only be payable if Person Covered survive after he/she has been diagnosed with a covered illness.

Get your agent to explain all these terms to you in detail, and make sure you completely understand them so you know exactly what you’re buying – that’s what they’re trained for!

Click
here
 to make a commitment-free appointment with a Great Eastern Takaful agent.

#4 – 50% of Participants (Certificate Owners) didn’t do nomination (?!)

(Note: this % from Great Eastern Takaful is considered high. I’m told that the nomination rate for overall Takaful/ insurance industry is lower)

Participants who don’t do nomination – why don’t you??? Please do so ASAP, if not your next-of-kin must undergo the loooong process to obtain letter of administration from the Malaysian High Court OR distribution order from the Land Office. That could take years to sort out!

If you’re a Great Eastern Takaful Participant, you can do your nomination online through the customer portal,
i-Get in touch
. Participants from other providers, please contact your agents – you might have to print some documents and submit in person. It’s mafan but you need to do it!

#5 – Using Takaful / Insurance as Retirement and Legacy Planning

Alright, want to hear a secret? The T20 (T5? Idk) have been using Takaful/ insurance as retirement planning and legacy planning tool.

For them, Takaful/ insurance isn’t just for medical or life expenses if something bad happens. For them, Takaful/ insurance is also a tool to ensure
generational wealth
.

This is how the strategies work, simplified:

They take a plan with a really high sum covered
. We’re talking six, seven-figures. Most people don’t take that high – the average sum covered for Great Eastern Takaful plan is RM 96,000; the highest among all providers
They continue paying monthly contribution until plan matures, they die or TPD-ed, whichever comes first.
 I’ve heard of children paying their parents’ contributions, as they know they are nominated
Next-of-kin gets the money to ensure continuity of family prosperity

Great Eastern Takaful offers retirement planning and legacy planning products too. It’s called
i-Great NEO
. Here’s how it works:

On a related note, Great Eastern Takaful told me that legally speaking, under the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013 (“IFSA”), you have the freedom to nominate anyone who is 16 years and above to receive your Takaful benefits without any dispute.

Ask your financial planner to compare the advantages of nomination under IFSA as opposed to nomination made under conventional plans governed by Financial Services Act 2013 to know which is better for loved ones who are not related by blood (like adopted children, for example).

This is also a good time to confirm that yes, non-Muslims can totally get Takaful products. Quite a few people asked me if it is possible. Yes can can.

Find out more about i-Great EVO and i-Great NEO

Is i-Great EVO for you? Is i-Great NEO for you? The only way to find out is to
make an appointment with an Advisor
. Give yourself a budget (10% of your take-home salary is a good starting point) and go from there – ask them what you can get for that amount. They are trained to prod out your life priorities, so the plan is tailored for you.

As a final note, I want to say thank you Great Eastern Takaful for the opportunity to work together again. The rest of the team were shy, but here’s a screenshot of myself with the CEO himself, Shahrul Azlan Shahriman 🙂

For more information, visit:

i-Great EVO:
http://bit.ly/EVORoR
i-Great NEO:
https://bit.ly/NEORoR
Make an appointment with a Takaful Advisor:
http://bit.ly/MakeAppointmentRoR
Facebook:
facebook.com/GreatEasternTakaful
Instagram:
instagram.com/GreatEasternTakaful


[SPONSORED] Revealed: How Takaful Products Get Created (from the Team that Made i-Great Aman)

It’s not every day that you get to ask about the takaful plan creation process directly from the people who actually create them for a living.

That’s right, these two ladies from Great Eastern Takaful Berhad
makes
 takaful products. From scratch. They don’t distribute them (that’s the agents’ job). They
make
them.

Say hi to Ms.
Nurul Sheila Khalib and Ms. Azlina Ideris
from the Product Development team at Great Eastern Takaful Berhad (two ladies sitting on the left).

As someone who is fascinated by behind-the-scenes of the financial industry in Malaysia, I really want to thank them for sharing with me and RoR readers how the takaful creation process looks like.

Here are the 4 stages.

Stage 1: Ideation

In this stage, the Product Development team at Great Eastern Takaful Berhad holds brainstorming sessions to hash out which takaful products should be offered to the Malaysian market.

Sometimes, the team would cross out certain types of takaful products due to limitations. Maybe the market for a particular product is too small to make the product development worthwhile. Some products are also crossed out for being too similar to existing products.

After whittling down their choices, the team holds targeted focus group sessions to get feedback. “This is how we find out the feasibility of the product,” said Ms.
Nurul Sheila
, “it is important to figure out what the market actually wants (or there’s no point in creating it)”.

For example, during the creation process of Great Eastern Takaful Berhad’s newest product, i-Great Aman, the team found out that the market is seeking a
comprehensive-type investment-linked takaful/insurance product that is easy to customise
.

As such, i-Great Aman is designed so that the basic Family Takaful, which provides protection upon Death / TPD, can be chosen on its own or with any or all of the optional coverage below:

Critical Illness

Medical card (multiple types and plans)

Personal Accident

Hospitalisation Benefit

Waiver benefit – where you pay a little bit extra to get Great Eastern Takaful Berhad to pay on your behalf if something happens and you can’t work and unable to pay your monthly contributions (yes this type also got)

You can choose to get the basic plan together with your choice of optional coverage for yourself or for any one of your dependents (spouse and/or children). And there is also waiver on the payor’s life that you can choose to add if you decide to get a plan for your loved ones (spouse and/or children), where GETB will pay on your behalf
if something untoward happens to you
 and make sure your loved ones stay protected.

(I was curious to see what kind of mix-and-match plan I could get under i-Great Aman. Scroll further down to see the quotations I got)

Bonus section! What each takaful/insurance does, in 20 words or less:

Basic Protection
 (Death / TPD) – give your family/dependents money after you’re gone or suffers from total and permanent disability. Important if you’re the primary breadwinner

Personal accident
– give you and your family/dependents money, if an accident caused your death or to be totally and permanently disabled.

Critical illness
– give you money, if you are diagnosed with or have undergone a surgery due to any one of the listed illnesses

Medical card
 – covers your medical bills with multiple plan options to choose from to get nicer room and better care at the hospital

Hospitalisation benefit
 – gives you money for each day that you’re hospitalised. This is crucial if you’re self-employed and can’t gain any work/income during hospitalisation.

Stage 2: Testing with Agents

At this stage, top agents of Great Eastern Takaful Berhad will get involved. “We talk to the agents and get their feedback about the product,” explains
Ms. Azlina
, “They are on the ground and know what their clients want (and don’t want).”

Another reason to talk to the agents – to get their views on the
product pricing
. Seasoned agents know what customers are willing to pay, especially in this economy. It must appeal to value-hunters.

Therefore, i-Great Aman comes with these kinds of features:

From RM100 per month
 – The basic plan is affordable enough for most people, so you can start your coverage sooner rather than later. You can add on more coverage as and when you make more money in the future

Auto-extension coverage
 – basically means it’s not mafan, because no need to manually renew at age 70 and 80 years old (where takaful plan usually stops covering you)

No Lapse Facility
 – to have the peace of mind that the coverage will continue within the first 3 certificate years, even if the fund perform badly and that the Account Value (from the investment funds) is very low and may not be sufficient to cover the Tabarru’ charges.

Flexible options
 – where you have the option to choose from any one of the 3 funds or a combination of the funds, and you get to switch between your funds as you like to maximize your returns (for Free!), You also get to add more money (when you suddenly receive some durian runtuh) in your selected funds as a single top up (and you can repeat this as many times as you have extra cash). The best part is, when you need some cash urgently (like suddenly wanting to get married), you can make partial withdrawal from the account value (just ensure that the balance of the fund is at least RM1000) without jeopardising your protection.

Badal Hajj services
 – if you die before you complete your hajj obligation, i-Great Aman will get someone to do it on your behalf

Wider Critical Illness coverage
– 45 illnesses instead of the standard 36

Get back 50% of the underwriting surplus and investment profit from Tabarru’ fund
 (if any). The money is given automatically, with no additional or separate steps needed (I asked). This is the beauty of Takaful.

For the medical cards – high annual limit of up to RM2 million, and
NO LIFETIME LIMIT

Bonus section! Why medical cards with high annual limit and preferably no lifetime limit is optimal

If you get hospitalised, you don’t know if your bill is going to be RM1000 or RM1 million. It depends on your luck. The point of having a medical card is to not worry about this bill.

If your annual limit is low, let’s say RM100k or so, and your medical bill came up to RM350k, then you’ll have to pay the difference out of pocket.

That’s obviously not the ideal situation. So you want a card with a high annual limit. Statistically speaking, RM1 mil annual limit is sufficient for most situations.

Medical cards with no lifetime limit, on the other hand, is quite hard to find, based on my personal experience at least. Usually takaful/insurance providers will cap the lifetime limit. If your lifetime limit is RM1 mil, and your medical bills came to RM250k in one year, that means the balance of your lifetime limit is now reduced to RM750k. Not ideal too.

Tl;dr – If you want medical cards, consider its annual and lifetime limit

Stage 3: Management-level clearance

After doing all the planning and getting feedback, the product is pretty much finalised. In the next stage, the Product Development team must get clearance – basically get all the paperwork and underwriting in order, and also making sure that the numbers make sense, business-wise and of course getting the Shariah Committee approval on the product (because this is Takaful and it is Shariah compliant!).

The team also plans with the related departments to hold training sessions with Great Eastern Takaful Berhad’s staff and agents, so that they know how to explain the product to you when it’s released.

Stage 4: Product launch and distribution

Finally, the product is made available to the public. Great Eastern Takaful Berhad’s marketing and communications arm work hard to get the news out there (this collaboration with Ringgit Oh Ringgit is one such effort).

I asked if i-Great Aman is available online, because I’m a Millennial like that.

The answer is no, you still have to get it through agents. This is because:

People have the tendency to over or under-cover themselves
. The agent’s role is to figure out the fine balance between what you want vs. what you can afford. No point if you get the highest coverage possible but can only afford the monthly contributions for like, 6 months.

Part of your monthly contributions goes to an investment fund, which you’ll get back at the end of the term (that’s why this is called an investment-linked product). There are just 3 funds to choose from, but
 people might pick investment funds that are not suitable for themselves

Generally speaking,
people don’t buy lifelong commitments online.
 They prefer making a decision after talking it out with a professional

Seriously, what I shared so far about i-Great Aman is just the tip of the iceberg. You have to ask so many other things to your agent, like:

My i-Great Aman quotations

As mentioned above, I myself was curious about what kind of mix-and-match plan I get under i-Great Aman. So I got two quotations – one for RM450 per month, and another for RM500 per month.

Please note that:

(1) the monthly contributions are on the high side because I insisted the quotations include medical cards, which jacks up the amount (if you want RM1xx-2xx monthly contributions, simply remove the medical cards or reduce the room and board plan), and

(2) these quotations were personalised; your monthly contributions will vary according to:

The
amount of sum covered
 you want (the higher it is, the higher your contribution)

Your
gender
(I thought men have higher contributions but apparently women of certain age groups may get higher contributions too)

Your
age
(the older you are, the higher)

Your
smoking status
 (smokers pay more)

(Circumstantial) Your
 health status

With RM450 monthly contributions, I can get the below i-Great Aman plan:

Family Takaful
for myself – RM300,000 sum covered

[i-CIBR]
Critical illness coverage
 for myself  – RM300,000 sum covered

[i-CABX]
Personal accident coverage
 for myself – RM50,000 sum covered

[i-HB]
Hospitalisation benefit
 for myself – RM200 per day

[i-MX200 + i-MO120k]
Medical card
with RM200 for daily room and board, with RM1.2 million annual limit and no lifetime limit

[i-PP]
Provider coverage
 – if anything happens to me and I can’t pay the monthly contributions due to total and permanent disability (TPD) or critical illness, Great Eastern Takaful will pay on my behalf so I am still covered

[At the end of the term] However much your investment fund made during the whole term

But if my goal is to have an even better medical card, I can get the below i-Great Aman plan with RM500 monthly contributions:

Family Takaful
 for myself – RM150,000 sum covered

[i-CIBR]
 Critical illness coverage
 for myself – RM150,000 sum covered

[i-CABX]
 Personal accident coverage
 for myself – RM50,000 sum covered

No hospitalisation benefit

[i-MX400 + i-MO200k]
Medical card
with RM400 for daily room and board, with RM2 million annual limit and no lifetime limit

[i-PP]
Provider coverage
 – if anything happens to me and I can’t pay the monthly contributions due to total and permanent disability (TPD) or critical illness, Great Eastern Takaful will pay on my behalf so I am still covered

[At the end of the term] However much your investment fund made during the whole term

The ladies said that there is no limit to how much I want to cover myself – I could request for RM10 million sum covered for family takaful if I want to, but of course the contributions will reflect that.

I also asked who i-Great Aman is NOT suitable for. The team was quite upfront about it. DON’T get i-Great Aman if:

Your
age
 makes the cost of monthly contributions too prohibitive (age 40+)

You
don’t want investment-linked plans.
 This product is for people who strictly like the idea of a hassle-free and comprehensive protection plan with an investment component. If you prefer, Great Eastern Takaful Berhad also offers term takaful products (i.e. the ‘burn money every month’ kind). You can get it
directly from the website
 too.

Last words

Either way, and I hate to admit this, but the best way to learn about takaful (and you have to learn about it) is to talk to the agents. Most of the things I learned about takaful/insurance is from them. Not online, not from books. Agents.

Once again, thank you so much to Ms.
Nurul Sheila Khalib, Ms. Azlina Ideris
from the Product Development team
and Ms. Tengku Sheila Tengku Azib
 from the Brand and Marketing Communications at Great Eastern Takaful Berhad for sharing with me and the RoR audience how the takaful plan creation process looks like! Love the culture of transparency that was evident from our conversation.

Limited time offer – Meet an agent, Win RM100

Here’s how to enter a
lucky draw to win RM100
 just by meeting a Great Eastern Takaful agent. Follow these steps:

1) Go to Great Eastern Takaful’s
Find a Takaful Advisor page
 and select an agent of your liking, OR find a friend or family member who’s already a Great Eastern Takaful agent

2) (If via website) Insert the code #GETSuraya under Pertanyaan/Inquiries (see image below)

3) Meet with the agent and take a wefie together. Post it on social media with the hashtag #GETSuraya. Make sure to set your Facebook, Twitter or Instagram profiles to public!

4) I’ll randomly select one winner for the RM100 cash prize by 15 September 2019. Good luck and happy learning about takaful stuff!


“I Need Money Urgently”: 4 Ways To Get Some Money Now

How often have you been in a situation where you go, man, I need money urgently..

Are you simply planning ahead, just in case you’ll be in that situation? Or are you currently desperate for money right now?

Then this article is exactly for you. I can only imagine the mental stress you’re going through. Maybe you need money to pay rent this month. Maybe your car or house is about to get possessed by the bank. Maybe a sudden, unexpected medical bill wiped out your emergency savings.

And all the financial articles you read online… weren’t exactly helpful. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but ‘don’t get into the situation in the first place’ is a horrible thing to say to someone who’s
going through
 the problem.

Here are some ideas on what you can do to come up with some money urgently in Malaysia. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the RoR mini-forum.

#1 –  Financial tools

Financial tools can be a bunch of things. It could be personal loans, credit cards, debit cards, ewallets, and more.

The annoying this about this option is:
the more financially vulnerable you are, the less accessible these financial tools are for you
. Banks and financial institutions are not that keen to lend money to people with
bad credit scores
.

BUT! If you are able to access and use these financial tools, they’re incredibly helpful. Many credit cards offer
cash advances
. Some
personal loans
 can be applied online. It’s fairly easy to put a big expense on credit cards to pay at a later date. You might even able to divide the payment into smaller, more manageable chunks through
 instalment plans
.

Some people even have ‘hacks’ for borrowing money using financial tools. For example:

Ho Wei Yen
 – (If you need physical cash,) reload your BigPay card with a credit card, then withdraw it from the ATM. You can save money this way instead of withdrawing cash directly from your credit card. Note that BigPay ATM withdrawal will cost RM6 for withdrawal fee regardless of the amount.

I’m using my Public Bank mastercard Quantum credit card for Rm30 cashback (5% from RM 600 spending) and Visa Signature Public Bank for RM38 cashback (6% from RM634 spending) to reload my BigPay card. The money can be transferred from BigPay to own savings account maximum RM1000 with a fee 50 sen.

Brendan
 – O
ffer to pay for someone using my credit card, and collect cash upfront.

(Might as well: Get extra RM10 credit if you use my BigPay referral code INLALP7ZLE. To download the app, find BigPay in
PlayStore
 (Android) or
Appstore
 (iOS)

It goes without saying that you shouldn’t borrow money for non-emergency situations, and try your best to make the payments in time. Missing payments
may
 will ruin your credit score.

It also goes without saying to NEVER, EVER BORROW MONEY FROM A LOAN SHARK.

Say you don’t have financial tools at your disposal. What can you do? Well, you can..

#2 – Step up the side hustle

When I asked the RoR audience on what they would personally do to come up with an extra RM1000 by the end of the month, many showed their incredible grit – an admirable character strength tbh. They said they would simply try to
get more clients for their business/side business or put in more hours in their work
.

It didn’t matter what the business was. One person mentioned will-writing. Another mentioned web-designing services. Another sold baked goodies (
did you know you can sell homemade food in Malaysia on Kravve?
). Some mentioned Grab.

For example:

Muhammad Amar Hasshim
 –
Anyone needs a website? Quick and beautifully made, as long as you provide all the info and images for the website regarding your product/services. RM1k only

James Leng –
(I would) d
rive for Grab after working hours for that month (to get an extra RM1000). Based on previous experience, RM10-RM20 net profit on average per hour is achievable with a Myvi or Axia. If RM20 per hour, then (to earn RM1000 I would have to work) 50 hours or 1.7 hours every single day for 30 days straight. However, one needs to also factor in that your car needs to be serviced a little bit earlier than what was scheduled.

Unable to work or get new clients? Then perhaps you can…

#3 – Sell something you own

Looking through the replies, many of you mentioned
selling things you own
 for extra cash.

Some also mentioned
downgrading their gadgets
 if they really need the money urgently. They would sell their phones and buy a cheaper one.

I was surprised by how useful
(physical) gold
 is as an option:

Sams
 – (I would) take my gold bar – purposely bought for emergency situation like this – to Ar-Rahnu. With them, I’m able to get a loan worth 60%~70% from the the current market gold price. They charge 0.07% per month in fees (note: fees may vary).

I’ve done this a lot when I need to renew car insurance, repair car breakdown, cover medical bills and more. By using Ar-Rahnu or pawnshop service, always try to redeem your gold as fast as possible, to avoid more charge (‘upah simpan’). The good thing about this method, you are able to get your gold back once you redeem it thus maintaining your asset.

Example calculation: 10g gold bar 10g x RM190 x 60% = RM1140 | Fees – RM1140 x 0.7% = RM7.98 per month

Read up my various
articles on gold investment
 if interested.

#4 – Borrow from friends & family

And finally (intentionally) is borrowing money from friends and family. Some mentioned siblings, some mentioned parents, some mentioned good friends. A fair few of you
emphasised the importance of paying back the money as soon as possible
to maintain good relations.

Some of you also got a bit creative. For example:

Audrey Herrera
– W
e have this ‘kutu’ thing with our family members for the fun of it, it’s like forced savings. (So to get RM1000,) start
 a ‘kutu’ and be the first to take it

Mohd Haffiszul Mohd Said
 –
I would organise a trip for my friend for a distant future and ask for RM1000 in deposit. (The trip) would take place 6 months from the date I asked for a deposit.

I love the RoR audience, I really do 🙂 Would have never thought of those!

Which option should you do to get money urgently in Malaysia?

I arranged all the options in this article in this order:

Use financial tools

Earn more from side hustle

Sell stuff

Borrow from friends/family

However I really liked what Sara said about having a sequence of things to try:

Sara Razz
 –
I will try by sequence and move to the next if the first fails:

Promote my website/design services

Pre-sell a product

Find something I own that can sell

Ask from my husband

Credit card

Borrow from friends

I think it’s good to think about your plan to come up with the money. At least if plan A fails, plan B or C may work. If this is a recurring issue,
contact AKPK for help
. They have financial education, financial counselling and debt management programme.

What other options do you know?

What other things can someone try to get fast cash in Malaysia, aside from the above? Share them all in the comments section!

Last note

I wrote this article in good faith. I expect you to use the knowledge and act in good faith as well. Money issues cause broken families and people committing suicide – it’s no joke at all.

Please never, ever borrow money without the intention of paying it back. Please never take advantage of someone or a company at their expense. Please don’t use any of the tips to live a life outside your financial means.

Thanks. Share this article around if you find it helpful.


Malaysians Share Where Their Interest in Personal Finance Came From

How do members of the Malaysian personal finance community first get interested in personal finance? What sparked this fascination for money management?

I was curious, so I asked that question during a mini-forum in Ringgit Oh Ringgit FB page one day.

The answers were as varied as you’d think. They were so interesting, I reached out and asked if I could compile them here. Here you go – why Malaysians got interested in personal finance, in their own words.

#1 – From the school of life

Hafiz Mansur
 –
 Growing up, I took many of the things I had for granted. When things took a turn for the worse, the realisation that I might not have enough money to eat really forced me to take my personal finances seriously.

In retrospect, I am glad it happened. This led me to vow to do everything that I can to avoid from falling into financial ruin again. I now spend a lot of my time reading personal finance articles, and I especially love reading localised articles and blogs, such as RoR.

(Suraya’s note: Thank you 🙂

–

Nur Hidayah Abu Bakar
 – (I got interested in personal finance) from being hardcore poor while growing up

–

Emily Piuk
 – (I got interested in personal finance) from watching how my parents struggling financially. I also saw how some of my peers who just spend money on whatever struggled like me. I wanted to figure out how to not stay struggling forever.

–

Vincent Muthu
 – (I got interested in personal finance from) my need for money as I left the safety of PaMa fundings.

–

Lee Thean Seng
 – (I got interested in personal finance) when I started working and realised that I need to generate more income because fresh grad salary sucks! Then I researched more and keep updated on other forms of investment

–

Loh Chuan Tuck
 – (I got interested in personal finance) when I need to climb out from the hell hole of debts. My story is, I bought my car Ford Fiesta with my first salary, which I thought was perfectly fine as a single male staying with parents.

Soon after I get married, we needed to buy our first home. The house downpayment put us straight into about RM60K of debts. Being financially illiterate at that time, I soon realised that our income can hardly make it out. I also used up my personal loans quota to start a business, and also took the maximum credit limit of RM12K with credit card.

Yes, I am drowned and in despair, but I know I can find a way out. I learned about all the different kinds of loans including loan sharks and licenced money lenders, credit cards, financial assistance, business grants etc. In the end, I resorted to AKPK to consolidate and minimise my monthly commitment, negotiate with banks to refinance loans, learn to live frugally and armed with a whole lot of financial and business knowledge.

I was desperate but my wife has never been. She supported me to go climb down the bottomless hole, and even though we are basically stretched out to reduce monthly commitment, I can now see the light is becoming brighter.

–

Nabila Hassanah
 – (I got interested in personal finance) from doing petty jobs at a young age and having to pay for my own wants, not needs. I did cheap facials, massage, babysitting, cooking, dishwashing, anything for some money

–

(Suraya’s note: There were more people who basically said they learned about personal finance because they just had to, it’s part and parcel of adult life. Sorry I couldn’t put everyone on this list.)

#2 – From parents

Ann Sinden
 – (I got interested in personal finance) from my parents. Developed it naturally at a very young age.

My mom is a saver while my dad is a spender. Because of that difference, they always fought. As a child, I observed and tried to figure out what was actually the root cause – financial mismanagement.
I’m glad that I inherited my mom’s money gene.

–

Loke Vincent
 – (I got interested in personal finance from) my mum. As well as the fear of having no money at all in the bank account.

–

Linvest Linnet
 – (I got interested in personal finance from) my parents and my CFP facilitators. Eternally grateful to all of them.

–

Sara Razz
 – (I got interested in personal finance from) my mom. She used to work at Bank Negara and gave me this little buku wang saku to track my expenses!

–

Nadira Naima
 –
(I got interested in personal finance from)
my parents. They are both auditors and from a very young age I was trained to jot down all my expenses, so that before bedtime I can report it to my father. He will key in everything in Microsoft Money software. His exact words to me “1 sen pun kena kira!”

–

(Suraya’s note: There were more people who credited their parents. Sorry I couldn’t put everyone on this list.)

#3 – From spouse / family members

Amirah Nazarudin
 – (I got interested in personal finance from) my husband
.
He started reading Robert Kiyosaki’s book and taught me a lot. My husband likes to read his interesting books then shared the conclusions with me.

–

Yap Yun Kee
 – (I got interested in personal finance from) my relative. My cousin recommended me to learn about financial literacy because we were entering adulthood. They recommended Rich Dad, Poor Dad and your page for beginner understanding

–

(Suraya’s note: There were more people who credited their family members, including but not limited to cousins, in-laws, and I would add good friends here too. Sorry I couldn’t put everyone on this list.)

#3 – From studies/work

Zarinah Mohd Yusoff
– (I got interested in personal finance) from being forced into Certified Financial Planner class when I was in Permodalan Nasional Berhad in 2002.

CFP came to Msia in 1999 and PNB was one of the founding members. So the staff were “forced” to take up the Certification. After completing it, I appreciate the opportunity very much. It was good.

–

Mohd Nuruddin Abd Manap
 – Since I joined as a staff of Knowledge Economic City (KEC) in Saudi Arabia, I have learned many things, including their excellent financial management strategy. The Saudis are very smart in managing the money: always invest, invest, invest and invest!

–

Archibald Frankie Undam
 – (I got interested in personal finance) from my daily job. When I started my
banking job, I didn’t have a proper department and reported directly to the Branch Manager. Unlike my colleagues, who had specific tasks – sales, current account, remmitance and so on – I was doing a lot of things and thrown here and there.

I found that I like to talk to people, give ideas and decided maybe the sales line would be a good fit for me. From there, I developed that passion for personal finance and started to read more books on it. The first book I read, I Can Teach You How To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi (I think), helped me a lot in striking conversation with clients.

–

Zahidah Mokhtar
 – (I was) forced into a management training program to be a financial consultant. I never became one. But the knowledge stayed and passed on to family and friends.

The story goes like this. I studied BBA marketing at UiTM . It was common for companies to approach the school for management training program. Our dean recommended 12 of us to undergo the MA training program during one of the semester breaks.

During training we learned about various type of insurance,  using and maximising overdrafts in investment, managing personal expenses, and making retirement planning using easily available financial products such as ASNB, KWSP and unit trust.

At the end of the programme, we were to sell unit trust and insurance but I did not pursue the line as my career. However the experience led me to buy an insurance policy on my first salary. I started looking into my spending, and made adjustments to cut unnecessary expenses and save 10% of salary every month. I also started investing.

#4 – From books and personal finance websites

Muhammad Amar Hasshim

– (I got interested in personal finance) from a book I read, Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. I’m a lazy person to start with and I don’t want to be working till 65.

Although my dream is to retire by 35-40 ish, I didn’t know that is possible until I read the book. Although not much, I started doing little things where I can earn passive money so my dream to retire before 40 is achievable.

–

(Suraya’s note: At least two other people mentioned reading this book, a few others mentioned RoR. Thank you, I appreciate it)

#5 – From a personal desire

Jasbir Kaur
 – (I got interested in personal finance) from my love for travelling. I needed to multiply my money so that I could travel more frequently. So I read a lot of books related to investments and finance.

–

Stev Yong
 – (I got interested in personal finance) from having nerdy pipe dreams of how much would I need to place in FDs that I would never have to work again!

I was a teenager then and now been on this personal finance journey until today. While I still have some FD, I’m continually learning to improve my personal investment plan and asset allocation.

–

Sherinaz Basree
 – You, my then dying folks, and my late mom’s worry about being dependant on others. Mainly I don’t want to menyusahkan others.

–

Neutrals Fong
 – Firstly it came about idolising the rich people, and finally learnt that these people are good at personal finance which brings them there

–

Syaza Nazura
 – Since I started working part-time (during studies) and wanted to save up money for my travels in the States.

Personal thoughts about these sharings

Getting these answers really challenged my assumptions about personal finance interest.

For example, I actually thought that personal finance topic is more like a
‘you can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink’ situation – I thought you can’t force people to be interested in it if they’re not ready. But apparently,
you *can* force people to like it if its part of their job or study requirements
!

Another assumption busted is the role of parents. Your answers showed that
you can take ownership over your own financial life regardless whether your parents were good OR bad with money
. If they were good, you’ll inherit good money habits. If they were bad, you’ll want to learn personal finance so you won’t end up like them.

Some answers were also fascinating in its vagueness, kind of. I had trouble categorising a couple – should this fit under school of life, or should it fit under parents, or should it fit under books?

But somehow I think I can relate to this vagueness. I personally don’t know – or at least, can’t
pinpoint
 – where *my* interest in personal finance came from. Maybe it’s a combination of multiple sources, and that’s okay too.

But anyway. Thanks again to everyone who shared their answers. Now I want to hear from the rest of you – how did you become interested in personal finance? How’d you end up on this website?

I’m super curious, so share YOUR reasons in the comments section, please!


[SPONSORED] Investment-Linked Products, As Explained By the CEO of Life Insurance Association of Malaysia

As part of an outreach campaign, members of the financial media – including personal finance bloggers like yours truly – were invited to the office of Life Insurance Association Malaysia and treated to a first-hand presentation of the latest update within the investment-linked products industry.

Even the CEO of Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (or LIAM for short), Mark O’Dell attended the meeting. He’s like the top boss in the insurance industry.
His background is very, very impressive
. Happy to report he was approachable in person.

Let me share with you how LIAM explains investment-linked products. It’s quite clever.

Investment-Linked Products, explained using Nasi Lemak

This section explains investment-linked products, or ILPs for short, using the nasi lemak analogy. Yes,
that
 nasi lemak.

Imagine the most
basic ILP
 like a basic pack of nasi lemak. You get coconut rice + sambal. Protection (life insurance) + investment. Basic.

Now imagine the
comprehensive ILP
 like the nasi lemak with lots of extras. You get coconut rice + sambal + the fried chicken, the rendang, the sunny-side up eggs, the sambal tempe, the sambal sotong, whatever. They cost more, but they make your nasi lemak
way

better
.

Applying the same concept here, add-ons to your ILPs – called riders –
gives you better protection for an additional cost
. Depending on the provider, riders can be any of the following:

Medical card

Critical illness

Personal accident

Hospitalisation benefit

Waiver benefit

Income protection

There are two types of ILPs:
conventional
 and
takaful
. You can pick either one. Both conventional and takaful ILPs serve the same purposes and objectives – protection + investment plan.

The only difference is Takaful ILPs are Syariah compliant, thus eliminating the elements of Maisir (gambling), Riba’ (interest) and Gharar (uncertainty).

ILP – the investment part

The
protection
 part of ILP is easy to understand. In the most basic ‘nasi lemak’-type of plan, you get life insurance. This type of insurance is particularly important for main breadwinners who have dependents who rely financially on them.

Let’s talk about the investment part of ILPs. How it works is
the monthly premium/contribution goes towards an investment fund
. The idea is you’ll get your investment money back at the end of the term, while being protected for the whole duration. It’s common for the term to be a few decades long.

About those investment funds. Every Insurance provider/Takaful operator offers different funds. Takaful ILPs will offer Syariah-compliant investment funds.
It’s important to know that the funds’ values go up and down like other investments
.

The majority of policyholders get their ILPs from an insurance / Takaful agent. Their role, aside from helping you select which Insurance/Takaful is most suitable, is to advise you during the investment fund selection process.

Mark O’Dell mentioned how sometimes people get surprised that the investment fund they selected for their ILP didn’t perform as well as they hoped. That’s because they may be unaware that
their fund’s performance can go up or down over the years.

Policyholders should be aware of this fact as the poor performance of your investment fund could affect your fund value in your policy. Other factors that reduce your fund value are:

not paying premiums/contributions on time,

making partial withdrawals from the fund, and

choosing not to increase premiums/contributions when your protection cover has been increased.

The reduction of your fund could lead to your policy/certificate being unsustainable
. To maintain your policy’s sustainability, you can either
reduce your protection cover

or increase your premiums/contributions.

I was told that insurance premiums and Takaful contributions don’t usually drastically increase in price. If it does, the most common reason is due to policyholder/ certificate holder
also taking a medical rider with their ILP
, therefore the cost of medical rider premiums/contributions increases due to

medical inflation, and

increase in medical claims.

New Development for Investment-Linked Products in 2019: Sustainability report

BNM came up with a new rule that came into effect on 1 July 2019. Basically, insurers are now mandated to give
sustainability reports to policyholders/certificate holder
.

They need to tell you, at least once a year and through their marketing channels, in plain English (not legalese),
how your investments in ILPs are doing, if they are still on track, and what you can do if they’re not.

If you are an ILP policyholder/certificate holder, look out for the information from your Insurance/Takaful providers. It’ll be very useful, something to regularly monitor.

Speaking of monitoring, I asked a burning question of mine –

Why do insurance/Takaful products expire? Are newer products better?

I own an insurance/ Takaful product that is no longer offered by the insurance provider/Takaful operator, so I’ve been very curious about the reason why.

According to Mark O’Dell, new products enter the market because the insurance/Takaful landscape
evolves based on consumer demand.

For example, consumers have shown a preference for shorter-term payment period and a higher sum assured policies/certificates, so those are introduced in the market.

This naturally brought a follow-up question: are newer insurance policies/Takaful certificates better, then?

Not necessarily, said Mark. If you’re thinking of terminating your ILP to a newer product, you need to consider:

The premium/The Contribution
 – Your protection begins immediately upon paying your premium, but your investment won’t have time to grow if you terminate it early. Also remember that you may have ‘aged up’ and likely have to pay a higher monthly premium/contribution if you enrol in a new plan.

Its contestability period
 – If you start a new policy/certificate, the contestability period starts all over again. Just so you know, the life insurance company/Takaful
operator cannot dispute the validity of a life policy/Takaful certificate after it has been in force for 2 years
. If the insurance company/Takaful operator refuses to pay, it must prove that the policy/ certificate was obtained through fraud.

The coverage
 – What you want in the newer products may be covered under your existing policy/ certificate anyway. If not, you can actually contact your insurance company/Takaful operator and request them to make the changes you want, at a lower cost (I didn’t know this was possible, cool to know)

Last words

Thank you
LIAM
 (Life Insurance Association of Malaysia) and
MTA
 (Malaysia Takaful Association) for engaging with Ringgit Oh Ringgit for ILP education.

Just so you know, this article is a purely educational piece – LIAM and MTA don’t sell investment-linked products themselves. The bodies are set up to achieve the following mission and vision:

 LIAM’s Mission & Vision

 MTA’s Mission & Vision

For more information, please visit the following websites:

LIAM :
https://www.liam.org.my

MTA :
http://www.malaysiantakaful.com.my/


[SPONSORED] 4 Things I Learned from Kenanga’s Investment Event

On 12 January 2019, I attended an investment event organised by multi-award winning
Kenanga Group
. The name intrigued me right from the start – you don’t come across something like
Market Outlook Symposium 2019: Smart Investing or Dare Betting?
 every day. Held from 9am-2.30pm, the event packed in five speakers (and a lunch break). You can check the agenda of the day and speakers’ profiles
here
.

I had fun live-tweeting the whole event. Click on the Twitter thread below to read 50+ tweets giving play-by-play account of each speaker’s presentation. Among others, you’ll find stock picks by Kenanga Investment Bank’s Head of Research, a warrants trading tool (that may help you get double-digit ROIs), what to do with your money during bear markets and more.

I’m seated and ready to live-tweet
#KenangaGroup
‘s
#MarketSymposium2019
 event, starting soon! Follow and RT this thread for investment outlook in 2019
pic.twitter.com/KcvRakWrce

— Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)
January 12, 2019

Here are some things I learned from the event. Some commentaries are not specific to the event itself, but an overview of the general investment events scene in Malaysia.
This article is sponsored by Kenanga, but all opinions are mine
.

#1 – The Kenanga-organised event… exceeded expectations

Throughout the years, I’ve attended my fair share of investment events in Malaysia. Some were good, some were bad/ outright scams, most were average.

I would rate investment events as ‘average’ if they go back to good but
generic
 advice. You know what they are: don’t invest more than what you can afford to lose, know your risk portfolio, start investing sooner rather than later, things like that. Essentially nothing’s wrong with those advice, it’s just you don’t learn something new, you know?

I can honestly say that Kenanga Group’s Market Outlook Symposium 2019 is one of the better investment events I’ve attended so far:

The topics are for people who have exhausted beginner-level investment information.
 If you already know basics of investing by heart, and looking to level up your investment knowledge, then keep an eye out for other events organised by Kenanga. I’ve personally learned a lot during the event.

Focuses on the stocks market.
 Not surprising, considering Kenanga offers a popular share trading account called
KenTrade
. I enjoyed the many viewpoints presented by speakers, from fundamentals, to technicals, to politics, to global economics and more.

There was no hard-selling.
 The only time they promoted Kenanga is to invite the audience to attend another FREE workshop by Derick Tan, who gave a wonderful presentation about tools and strategies he uses to time and enter the market. The workshop is only open to Kenanga customers, and you can check updates by following
Kenanga Group’s Facebook page
.

The entry fee was more than reasonable.
 It was free for Kenanga clients, and RM20-RM30 for outsiders, depending if they RSVP or not. Awesome value for an event held at Berjaya Times Hotel. The price included light breakfast and lunch too!

The speakers kept to their topics and presentation times
. RARE AND APPRECIATED.

#2 – The importance of critical thinking when investing in the stocks market

Let me share with you what each speaker presented during the event.

Speaker Chan Ken Yew, also the Head of Research at Kenanga Investment Bank, presented not just stocks picks, but also explained why his team thought those public-listed companies are poised to do well. Some belong to an industry with growing customer base (like Islamic finance), some are investing in their infrastructure, some announced upcoming projects in the pipeline.

STOCK PICKS by
#KenangaGroup
 ‘s Head of Research!
pic.twitter.com/fiiO6w2RYC

— Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)
January 12, 2019

Speaker Derick Tan presented about market cycles and investment opportunities present in the upcoming bear market (almost all speakers during the event agreed that we’re not in bear market yet, but soon). He uses technical and historical data to create this ‘should I buy stocks or not’ chart. The green segment is the best time to buy, as many stocks are underpriced and have high growth potential (this is called value investing).

Oooh he called it. He said “probably the bear market is around the corner”

He also said this is not the best time to do value investing
pic.twitter.com/jVISqrgkMA

— Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)
January 12, 2019

Speaker Dr Ch’ng Huck Khoon who specialises in investment and behavioural finance presented about investment opportunities during Pakatan Harapan’s term. He emphasised the importance of understanding the government’s focus by reading their manifesto, which helps you to know which industries will be allocated extra budget under their term, when and where cash injections/refunds/boosts will be made, and the impact of relationships between top leaders in the country and between Malaysia and other nations (among others).

Next speaker takes the stage! Dr Ch’ng Huck Khoon on The New Government Challenges and Opportunities
pic.twitter.com/KlmWTSx7cq

— Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)
January 12, 2019

Speaker Ooi Kok Hwa talked about what’s happening in the world, and how that may impact your investment strategies.

Current market worries (global)

Oh! He mentioned how a significant volume of the funds in markets are done by bots/machines
pic.twitter.com/dmdUdnjmYV

— Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)
January 12, 2019

Investing in the stocks market is essentially trying your best to make good predictions from the data you have. There is a lot (A LOT) of information out there, from timing to politics to trade relations and everything in between. You have to apply some critical thinking skills from those data when making your stocks selection.

I need to emphasise the role of luck here. Experts may give you a lot of information, but at the end of the day, no one can predict the future. Despite the best expert analysis, tools, strategies, projections, teams and other types of resources, you still have to accept that things don’t always happen according to plan. Mergers may fail, projects may get cancelled, the government may re-adjust their budget, lots of things can impact stocks prices. But it’s still better to learn all these than going in the stocks market blindly.

That bring me to..

#3 – Different investment products suit different types of investors

I’ve been to enough investment events to know that some audience members… are not really there to learn how to invest. They just want the speakers to tell them what stocks they should get and when, full stop. I have witnessed this at many events, including at Market Symposium 2019.

I understand that investing can be overwhelming. I also understand that some people need that authority figure or established companies that can give them assurance, make them feel like they are doing the right thing with their investment money. Again, understandable – losing money hurts. Especially if you are retired or nearing retiring age (I estimate roughly 30-50% of the Market Symposium 2019 audience is from this demographic).

The thing is,
it’s completely fine to let high-reputation companies manage your stocks portfolio for you so you can focus on growing your income
. You don’t have to do everything yourself and stress over picking the ‘right’ stocks and buying it at the ‘right’ price (or worse, finding the ‘right’ stock picker expert!). That’s why there are products like unit trusts and services like investment portfolio management (
what Kenanga offers
). Check the fees, and if you feel it’s worth it for the value you get, go for it.

If you actually enjoy the process of picking stocks, then I do suggest going for Kenanga-hosted events like Market Symposium 2019. You get like a crash course in different approaches in picking stocks. This event alone introduced me to four approaches (fundamentals, timing, politics, global markets).

#4 – Warrants trading tool

Last but not least, something that I have learned for the first time from Market Symposium 2019 is the existence of warrants trading tools. Some of you may read this and go, duh that’s really obvious Suraya, everyone knows about warrants, but I’m telling you right now that I don’t know much about it – this was something I learned for the first time on Saturday. There’s much to learn about this type of investment, but right off the bat I can see it’s a high-risk, high-returns kind of investment, where having the right tools and interface matter.

9.6% vs 28% ROI if trading shares vs warrants
pic.twitter.com/9ldsobKwVX

— Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)
January 12, 2019

I really enjoyed Isabelle Zhen’s presentation, when she shared a demonstration of Kenanga’s new Live Matrix tool,
NagaWarrants
. I admit I may have developed a bit of a brain crush on Isabelle after checking out
her Instagram page
. I mean, she describes herself as a ‘fictional character’, lmao!

Finance and investments always have that ‘boring’ and ‘dry’ connotation, so it’s nice when you see the people in it are multidimensional and interesting after all 🙂

Isabelle and her team take lunch appointments and hold educational talks about warrants. You can connect with them at 017-214 5177 during office hours. You can also join their Telegram group, @KenangaWarrants to get access to buy bid promos at one tick cheaper (whatever that means).

Last words about Kenanga Group’s Investment Event, Market Outlook Symposium 2019

I personally don’t own stocks yet, but I’ve been meaning to dabble in it for a while now, especially knowing that the bear market is coming. I do have fantasies of buying good stocks at a low price, keep them for a few years until the market recovers, and sell them off at massive profits.

This is not a new idea. That’s what the rich have been doing all this while – buy low, sell high. I don’t like how the system encourages the rich to get richer, but I also know that I can’t change the rules of the game, so the best thing to do is to learn how to play the game, too. If you can’t beat em, join em.

Those of you who have a stocks portfolio. Who or what influences your stocks selection? How do you decide when to make your entries? Do you actively attend investment events like the one organised by Kenanga group? What did you learn from those events? Let us know what kind of stocks investor you are in the comments section.