Investing Archives - Ringgit Oh Ringgit

[SPONSORED] I Tried BEST Invest by BIMB Investment, the ‘First Robo-Intelligence Shariah ESG Online Investment App’

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“What the heck is robo-intelligence,” I thought to myself when I first heard about Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad (BIMB)’s new fintech product, BEST Invest, “is it the same as robo-advisory?”

“Robo-intelligence is not robo-advisory,” said Amirul Safuan, Head of Marketing & Digital Business Unit at BIMB Investment Management Berhad, in a cheerful yet repetitious tone that implies he had to answer that question hundreds of times.

“It is the use of big data technology, analytics, algorithms to assist on systematic processes of a large quantity of information and data in the decision-making process. It is about the “process”, not “advisory”.

He answered this during an online press event in May 2020, shortly after the app’s official launch. I was pleasantly surprised to be invited, happy that he took (and answered) all my questions, and then went ahead to hire me to write a user review, even after knowing my (transparency-first) writing style.

To be honest, I am a fan of the keywords BEST Invest are using. Fintech. Big data. Artificial Intelligence. ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) aka Sustainable Investing. Top it off with Shariah compliance. Awesome, awesome, awesome. The only keywords missing are blockchain and cryptocurrency (jk jk).

And so, it is my utmost pleasure to test out the BEST Invest app, and present to you a list of its pros and cons.

07 ^th
July

[SPONSORED] All You Need to Know About Buying Unit Trust Through EPF i-Invest

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According to an article published in The Edge portal, ‘as of April 2020, EPF i-invest had recorded approximately 25,000 transactions worth RM219.3 million’.

That is pretty significant, for two reasons:

That means the average transaction size is RM8,772 (!! that’s bigger than I thought!), and
It also means that there’s a lot of demand for buying unit trust through EPF i-Invest platform, considering it just launched in Q3 2019.

buying unit trust through epf i-invest — The launch of EPF i-Invest platform, taken from instagram.com/kwspmalaysia

20 ^th
May

Investment Tip | 10 Places to Automate Your Investments in Malaysia

Posted by Suraya - 12 Comments

I’ve decided. Now, anytime anyone new to investing asks me about which investments to get, I’m going to say ‘get the set-and-forget’ ones. Take this investment tip: Unless you have a natural passion (or desire to learn about) stocks and properties and other research-heavy investments, go for the investments you can automate.

Why? Because the challenge is not about picking an investment. There are a lot of good options. The challenge is adding more money to it on a regular basis, usually monthly, over the long term.

Without automated investments, most people will start an investment… then ‘forget’ to contribute to their investment portfolio on a regular basis. And by not adding, the money will never grow as fast as you want.

I know because I’m talking about myself. Despite being an investor for over 10 years now, transferring money out of my banking account to my investment account still hurts each and every time. Therefore, it’s a good idea to feel the pain once (as you set up the recurring deductions), rather than feeling the pain many times over many years.

In this article, I’ve listed out all the investments that you can automate in Malaysia, that I know of. If there are more, let me know in the comments section.

#1 – Mutual Funds/Unit Trust/ETFs

11 ^th
May

[VIDEO](Stereo)types of Malaysian Investors: Who You Are Based on What You Invest In

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What are the stereotypes of a property investor? A stock investor? Gold? Crypto? Join me as I list out the stereotypes and impressions I have about different types of Malaysian investors.

This video is inspired by an article I wrote a few years back: 12 Types of Investment Available in Malaysia and The People Who Have Them

(If you want more bitchiness, you’ll LOVE this one: Roasting Different Types of Investments in Malaysia (Everything That Sucks About Them)

Do you agree with the way I stereotyped Malaysian investors? Disagree? Tell me in the comments section!

Also please follow the RinggitOhRinggit Youtube channel. I’m currently exploring YouTube as an additional income stream. So help me out by watching and subscribing, I’m trying to hit 1000 subs and 4000 watch hours so I can write about the monetisation process 🙂

13 ^th
November

10 Types of Islamic Investments in Malaysia (that Everyone Can Get)

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My relationship with Islam the religion may be complicated, but I’m ALL for Islamic finance. During Securities Commissions Malaysia’s SCxSC 2019 Fintech Conference event, someone said Islamic finance = ethical finance and gosh, that’s it, that’s why it’s always been appealing for me.

I love the underlying values behind it, like how usury (interest) or riba is completed prohibited, and how excessive risk-taking or gharar is not encouraged.

Conventional finance can be so predatory – yes, predatory – and I love how Islamic finance and banking is structured in a for-the-good-of-all way, even though admittedly things are never perfect in practice.

When it comes to Islamic investments, I admit I do have a big preference to Syariah-compliant investments. Not ALL of my investments are halal, but most of them are. I’m a work in progress, as we all are.

Throughout the years, I’ve made my notes when it comes to Islamic investment options in Malaysia. It’s far from comprehensive, but it’s time to share it with you. Hopefully it’ll help.

15 ^th
July

Guide: How and Where to Invest in ETFs in Malaysia

Posted by Suraya - 8 Comments

Some questions I get with surprising regularity nowadays are (1) is ETFs a good investment, (2) is ETFs in Malaysia good, and (3) do I personally have investment in ETFs.

And the answer to that is, so far, (1) yes, (2) depends, and (3) yes.

Let’s go deeper a bit into each of the questions.

Is ETFs a good investment?

29 ^th
May

Pros & Cons List of 5 Popular Investments in Malaysia

Posted by Suraya - 6 Comments

In this article, I’m going to give you a condensed but concise pros/cons list of five of the most popular investments in Malaysia: fixed deposits, mutual funds/unit trust, stocks, gold and properties/land. I’m also going to give you the tried-and-tested strategies that work well with each type of investment.

Why these five? Simple – because the overwhelming majority of us will start our investing journey with one of them first.

Let’s get right into it.

#1 – Fixed Deposit

15 ^th
May

[SPONSORED] The Beginners Guide to Warrants in Malaysia

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On 27 April 2019, I attended my first warrants-specific talk.

The event was called Demystifying Structured Warrants, which is apt tbh. I’m a complete beginner in this financial instrument. I know almost nothing about it.

This was my second engagement with the Kenanga Investment Bank, after writing about the Market Outlook Symposium 2019: Smart Investing or Dare Betting? investment event back in January 2019.

I’m happy to report I liked two out of two Kenanga-organised events so far. Good content. No fluff, just lots of good info. Then they gave free food some more.

Like the first article, this is a sponsored post, but all opinions are mine. It’s great that I can share what I learned about warrants from the event, as someone completely new to the world.

#1 – What is warrants?

This is the textbook definition:

Does that make sense to you? I kinda sorta understand… ish. It’s a very theoretical financial instrument. I feel like I’m learning quantum physics.

19 ^th
November

3 Investments Where I Lost All of My Money

Posted by Suraya - 28 Comments

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

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

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

12 ^th
November