Raiz Invest Malaysia is organizing a friend/buddy referral campaign. Each of us get RM5 after topping up just RM5 from your Maybank Account into Raiz Invest. The robo advisor (Raiz Invest) taps into PNB (Permodalan Nasional Berhad)'s variable rate/price funds. This means you get RM10 just putting in RM5. A major prerequisite for signing up is you need to have a Maybank account with a debit card (ATM card).
(💡 Update: This campaign has ended on 30/9/2020 and the reward of RM10 has been reduce to RM5 if you use my referral)
Raiz Invest is a micro savings and miro investing robo advisor app.
All Raiz investment portfolios are investing in unit trust funds managed by Amanah Saham Nasional Berhad (ASNB), a wholly-owned subsidiary company of Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB).
I wrote an earlier article (detailed) about the Raiz Invest robo advisor app:
I've compiled a table listing the % percentage of management fees you would be paying if you invested below RM6,000. Under RM6,000, your management fee is RM1.50 per month which turns out to be RM18 per year already. You will notice you are paying higher management fees at investments less than RM6,000.
The management fees below 1% is quite low as compared to what mutual fund/unit trust companies charges which are in excess of 1% (around 1.5%) depending on the fund type. Do note that while at 0.3%, the management fees charged is the lowest of all robo advisors in the market (eg Stashaway, Wahed Invest, MyTheo, Akkru), it's investment instrument is PNB variable price funds which is actually unit trust funds that incurs its own management cost while the typical robo advisor's investment instrument is low cost ETFs. Having said that low cost ETFs also have their own risks particularly those US denominated ETFs where you have an additional forex risk (eg changes in RM/USD exchange rates) and US investment related laws like dividend withholding tax.
What I would want to highlight on is do not put in below RM1,000 as the management fees will be very high and erode your principle investments. In theory you can start with just an investment of RM5, however, after month 2, what you have left in your account will be RM2 only because there is management charges of RM3 (RM1.50+RM1.50).
Why Raiz Invest ?
Use it like a digital savings for pocket money but start with big initial investments (~RM1,000-RM2,000) because the management fees is very expensive if you start with a small initial investment.
You believe in the strength and potential in the Malaysian Stock Market (KLCI now only a 1,500 points range and is at a historically low level)
The management fees comparison between various robo advisors in Malaysia :
Wahed Invest :
0.8% p.a. fees for RM100 – RM499K
0.4% p.a. fees for RM500K and above
Stashway :
0.8% p.a fees for RM 50K
0.7% p.a fees for RM 50K to RM 100K
MyTheo :
1.% p.a fees for RM 30K
0.9% p.a fees for RM 30k to RM 100K
👉Raiz Invest *note - behind is buying PNB unit trusts
0.0.25% p.a above RM 6K
Akru (2020 Made in Malaysia robo advisor)
0.7% fess for RM100K
FSMOne Managed Portfolio :
1% p.a fees
1.25% sales fees
The returns on PNB variable rate/price funds so far (Sept 2020) from Raiz Invest Malaysia's email newsletter are as below :
Just in 1 month, more than 1 million ringgit is being input to be managed.
Tenant called me one fine Sunday to inform me that water was leaking out from the kitchen cabinet sink despite closing all the water supply. She told him she suspect it could be from the PVC water pipes underneath the kitchen cabinet.
I immediately called my plumber over to check the situation out. My plumber arrived at the scene, did some random checks and found the source of the leak quite fast.
Apparently the problem wasn't caused by a leaking water pipe instead it was caused by blockage at the outlet drain. The outlet drain at all DeCentrum units comes with a drain trap which needs to be regularly clean but for my case the tenant didn't know about it. The gunk and dirt accumulated on the drain trap until all the waste water overflow back up the drain.
My plumber cleaned up the drain pipe and then put it back and the water overflow problem didn't occur anymore. The problem will still come back in future when there is a blockage again.
Total damage to my wallet was RM150 😪. I think it could be cheaper but this plumber is quite responsive and does the job immediately on the same day of calling him.
The government will be giving out a one off RM30 for individuals that are above 18 with annual salary less than RM100K.
The 3 wallet providers that can receive this incensive are BoostPay, TouchNGo and Grab wallet. The government is doing is to encourage people to use electronic wallets and reduce cash transactions. It is not often the government is giving out incentives to such a wide selection of the population so do take this opportunity to sign up.
To be frank, the amount is not big but the use of ewallets is a life changer for me, it is fast and hassle free, I no longer need to carry a wallet. Nowadays I just carry a card holder containing all my credit cards, debit cards and loyalty cards with RM100 note inside for emergency purposes.
Update : somehow the whole process of claiming e-Tunai didn't go as smoothly as expected, too many people trying to claim and the system got stuck there.
The 2 wallet providers are aggressively providing incentives to sign up to eTunai at the moment. BoostPay and TouchNGo wallets are organizing lucky draw campaigns during this sign up. There doesn't seem to be any incentives from GrabPay but I guess this is quite normal as GrabPay has got a strong monopoly on ride share and food delivery and thus they don't really need to push people so sign up.
If for some odd reasons you guys are not signed up yet please do using my invite code and referral code for BoostPay is onglrwv while my TouchNGo wallet invite code is abmuke. I've seen Malaysia changed a lot in recent years with regard to ewallets, tech savvy people are using it and I'm also one of them.
I no longer carry my wallet anymore, now I just carry a card wallet to fit in these 3 cards.
Malaysia's 1st Park Inn by Radisson at De Centrum's progress seems reaching the final construction. The sign board has been put up already. This is the 1st Park Inn by Radisson in Malaysia. On its global website , Park Inn is described as a upper midscale hotel brand that delivers stress-free experiences, good food and upbeat environments.
Based on their global website, the only other country in South East Asia that has Park Inn by Radisson is the Philippines.
The facade seems quite normal at the moment, nothing really spectacular at the moment but understand that it will be a 3 star hotel. This place is going to give AirBnb homestay operators at De Centrum residence a run for their money.
The location of Park Inn is quite strategic, right at the exit of the highway and is highly visible compare to the other 3 star inns like Uniten's own RHR hotel which is much further from the main road.
The local management team seems to have presence on the internet and seem to be recruiting now.
Dego Ride is a motorcycle ride e hailing launch for some time in Malaysia but was put on hold by transport ministry. There were a couple of issues raised with regard to safety of passengers.
1 Jan 2020, the transport ministry now allows motorcycle ride e hailing to be used.
The cost for the rides are RM3 for the 1st 3KM and RM1 for the subsequent KM. All rides has to be within 10KM radius.
Interestingly the app will assign rider based on your gender, means that for guys you will always get a guy rider and for ladies, you will be assigned a lady rider.
At the moment there is a lack of motorcycle drivers and I understand the company is actively recruiting at the moment. They already have a Dego Driver app for such purpose.
If Dego is allowed to operate and is successful, it will open doors to other motorcycle ride sharing companies like Gojek and Grab. I've personally used Grab Motor before in Vietnam and very impressed by it. A motorcycle is much faster than a car to reach you and it also reaches the destination faster than a car.
At the moment, Dego ride riders seems to be around KL City Centre.
I've yet to use Dego Ride at the moment as I'm not working in downtown KLCC. However I've used Grabbike services in Hanoi Vietnam which I made a video on it.
Recently I lost one of my access cards and went through the whole process of getting a new access card to De Centrum Residences.
Step 1
1st thing ask the owner (if you are renting) to write an email to Decentrum management decentrum.mgmt@gmail.com and
Use this simple template :
To whom may concern,
My tenant (Mr XXX) lost the access card for my unit B-22-2 (unit number)
Do issue new card for him.
Tq
Step 2
Go to the management office at level 9 and then request for new access card and pay a replacement fee of RM50 and fill up access card replacement form. The replacement card will be issue on the same day.
Step 3
If the card is suppose to have access to the parking, take the replacement card to the LG level of Decentrum Mall parking offices and request the parking attendant to allow the card access.
Finally
Make sure you test the card access as in my experience the car park access was done improperly and I had to revisit the car park offices again.
MyTheo is a new Roboadvisor in town after Stashaway that is currently live already. Users can sign up for this Roboadvisor since May 2019.
Just for more information, there is another Roboadvisior launch after MyTheo which is Wahed invest, an Islamic Roboadvisor, it invests only in ETFs and investment instruments that are permissible by Islam.
You can use my referral/invite code to sign up to Mytheo Roboadvisor - ONGCJEBG6Z
The management fees charged by myTheo is as follows :
The management fees is slightly higher than Stashaway's fees (0.8%) at the lower tier.
myTheo Roboadvisor is a collaborated company between Silverlake Digital INX and Money Design, a Japanese Fintech firm. Silverlake is a well known company supporting all the big banks in Malaysia. Most of the bank’s backend systems uses Silverlake services. Money Design on the other hand has got experience in Roboadvisor software in Japan. The combined company managing the myTheo Roboadvisor is called Gax MD.
The registration process is similar to most financial apps, you need to go through a series of steps, eKYC (electronic know your customer) to verify your identity. Once registration is done, there will be questionnaire to understand the kind of investor you are, depending on the answers given, myTheo roboadvisor will create a personalized portfolio based on the risk profile of you (based on the questionnaires). The personalized portfolio is grouped into Growth, Income and Inflation Hedge where in Growth there are a list of ETFs that the roboadvisor will recommend. What amount of investment to be put into the 3 groups (Growth, Income and Inflation Hedge) will depend on the risk profile selected.
For unknown reasons (security, I presume), the myTheo application does not allow screenshots to be taken so I had to use another phone to take pictures of the myTheo app. The other 2 roboadvisors like Stashaway and Wahed'ls mobile app can take screenshots.
Personally, I feel Stashaway Roboadvisor’s interface is much better but it is understandable considering MyTheo is considered a newcomer.
MyTheo management fees compared with Stashaway, Wahed Invest and normal unit trust funds
Wahed Invest :
0.8% p.a. fees for RM100 – RM499k
0.4% p.a. fees for RM500k and above
Stashway :
0.8% p.a fees for RM 50K
0.7% p.a fees for RM 50K to RM 100K
MyTheo :
1.% p.a fees for RM 30K
0.9% p.a fees for RM 30k to RM 100K
Mutual Funds/Unit Trusts :
Typically 1.8% for equity funds
On paper, Wahed Invest's management fees could be less than Stashaways. However, I think Stashaway has a slight advantage if you invest above 50K and your management fees reduces to 0.7%. Wahed invest's 0.4% management fees is a bit out of grasp for orginary Malaysians as the total amount invested needs to be 500K which is a very very big amount. MyTheo's fees is on the high side but personally I feel management fees might not be indicator of future performance also.
Updates : I created 2 portfolio called 1st pot of gold and 2nd pot of gold. 1's portfolio suppose to be conservative while the other will be high risk. So far I've put in RM800 to test and there a very marginal gain of RM1+ but with small net loss due to forex/currency differences. I do expect it to be net gain once Mr Donald Trump pumps up the US equities in search for his 2nd term. A lot of the portfolio are US ETFs so it is natural it will rise based on US policy.
Personally, the interface is not as easy as Stashaway's interface, much harder to navigate around the ui.
Updates 20191128 :
There's some chutes of recovery on my portfolio, I think is because the Dow and Nasdaq are lifting the portfolio up a bit.
Updates 20191219 :
MyTheo CEO Ronnie Tan was on BFM (Business FM) today. Link here
Some key points from the interview :
Prefers to be called digital investment management than a roboadvisor
Not 100% a black box trading system as there are some inputs required by fund managers
0 currency exchange fees
Updates 20191225 :
Christmas update. I've since top up more money into the Roboadvisor. The fund has got some gains but there' still negative currency gains. Hopefully when the Ringgit strengthens my fortunes will reverse.
Updates 20191230 :
Almost year end and MyTheo robo-advisor is in the news already.
Portfolio having some losses mostly due to currency losses making the overall portfolio still in the RED.
Updates 20200121 :
I topped up some cash into the portfolio. Portfolio still negative with losses from currency exchange even though the overall portfolio has got minor asset gains.
Disclaimer : I just signed up only and put in less than 1k into the account. I will be writing a series of blog on this new financial service as time progresses. If you feel this article have given some insight into MyTheo and wish to sign up, do use my invitation link or invite code here
