Investment Tip | 10 Places to Automate Your Investments in Malaysia

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

Those three things are not *exactly* the same things, but close enough. Basically, these are the ‘fruits basket’ version of investment. Depending on which one you get, you might a combination of Malaysian stocks, US stocks (and other regions), precious metals, real estate, and/or other commodities, etc.

Some Mutual Funds/Unit Trust/ETFs you can automate include:

• (1) Fundsupermart – the marketplace of mutual funds and unit trusts. Many funds allow automating monthly contributions. I use this for my PRS (Private Retirement Scheme) funds, so I can get tax relief up to RM3k per year (Note: PRS is like secondary, optional EPF)
• (2) Best Invest – This is the new fintech app by BIMB Investment, a subsidiary of Bank Islam. Basically they’ll suggest you their unit trust fund(s) with their ‘robo-intelligence’ technology
• (3) ASB – You can set up monthly deductions to your ASB account (thanks Jakz for the info!), or get ASB financing, aka the upfront capital slash loan you take to invest in ASB (technically not so much as automating your investment, as paying your loan back. Still, I think it counts)
• (4) EPF/KWSP deductions – Didn’t expect to see this here, do you?  Yup, this automation was already done for you employed folks. You might not be happy with the deductions now but I bet your retired ass will be grateful for this money
• All the robo advisor platforms – You can set up recurring deposits to (5) Wahed Invest (use code ‘surbin1’ to get RM10 upon min RM100 deposit), (6) Stashaway and (7) Mytheo. See a comparison of platforms here: Best Robo Advisor in Malaysia: Lowest Fees, Syariah-Compliant, Global Exposure and More article.

Just realised Wahed Invest added a much-wanted feature: set-and-forget auto deductions!

Omg and you can do it weekly too. That’s one of those investment ‘hacks’ I’ve always wanted to try. RM50 per week isn’t much but that’s RM2600 per year, an amount I might just waste away pic.twitter.com/xVrJZUdp0a

— Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror) January 28, 2020

#2 – Gold

The only gold investment platform that you can automate, that I know of, is through (8) HelloGold‘s SmartSaver plan (note: referral link; get RM5 on RM50 of gold purchase)

Personally I’ve completed my 12-months deduction:

Oh wow, I’ve completed funding 12 out of 12 months in HelloGold SmartSaver

Basically I add RM100 per month, and the system buys RM4.xx in gold per day, regardless of the price

Dollar-cost averaging, set-and-forget system. No need to time the market pic.twitter.com/YrF1msMRJj

— Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror) May 5, 2020

#3 – P2P lending platforms

And the third option is by using P2P lending platforms. Simplistically, through these platforms, you agree to lend businesses money in return for profits. High returns, but also higher risks.

I know that (9) Funding Societies have auto-invest bots, because that’s the reason I chose that platform. Read more: [SPONSORED] I Asked Hard Questions to the CEO of Funding Societies Malaysia

According to Blackbelt Millionaire, (10) Fundztastic also has a SmartInvest programme which you can enrol. It invests up to 5 investments at a time.

#4 – Cryptocurrencies

Not for everyone, but it *IS* an option as some of the platforms allow automatic and regular deductions.

For more info, read: How to Buy Cryptocurrencies in Malaysia [2021 Guide]

What do you think of automation as an investment tip? Do you have anything else to add to the list of what can be automated?

As you can tell, I love automating my investments. Personally, this is what I do in my own financial life:

• I add on to EPF and PRS via Fundsupermart once a year, to take advantage of the tax reliefs. Usually at the end of the year, because I keep delaying. If I automate these, I would have earned more in profit AND have a less financially painful December
• I am currently paying back my ASB loan – I took RM50k loan for 25 or so years, so I’m paying ~RM289 per month
• I am automating Funding Societies and reinvesting my profits
• I’d like to renew my HelloGold automation (since I completed 12 months)
• I’d also like to set up the weekly deposits to my Wahed Invest account. Still scrounging up the courage

How about you? Which of the above do you personally do for yourself? Do you know of any other options/platforms that allow you to automate your monthly contributions?

They may use different names for it: recurring deductions, monthly deductions, monthly debits, auto-invest, recurring deposits, auto-dedutions, etcetera, so it’s possible I might have missed a few options, who knows!  Let me know in the comments section 🙂

To read all my previous articles on investing, please click here: ringgitohringgit.com/investing