Dividend Magic

Saving and Investing towards Financial Independence in Malaysia

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Luno Malaysia Review

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My Crypto Portfolio

It has been awhile since I’ve updated my crypto portfolio. Older readers of mine may remember my crypto mining days.

My most recent update of cryptocurrencies was back in December 2018 when had about USD 288 (or approximately RM1,256). I have not made any additional investments since then.

My Take on Luno Malaysia

I have recently moved all my coins – Bitcoin, Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash to Luno’s platform.

The process was surprisingly simple and easy. Bear in mind that this is my first time sending / receiving coins.

It took around an hour for all my cryptocurrencies to arrive as they require confirmations on the blockchain.

As of today, my total crypto portfolio stands at RM3,808. For a roughly 1.5 year period, my return is about 200%.

I’ll be using Luno as a wallet to stash all my cryptocurrencies from this point on as well as an exchange to buy/sell.

The user interface is spot on and the support I’ve received from them with my inquiries has been outstanding.

Safety wise, Luno is the first regulated cryptocurrency exchange in Malaysia. And that’s saying something. They’re regulated by SC so there’s really nothing to worry about on that end.

My Take on Bitcoin

I’ve been monitoring cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin on and off for a few years now and I consider it somewhat similar to gold.

It could be (sort of ) a hedge against volatility and uncertainty in the economy. In that instance however, I’d still put my money on gold to beat every other asset class.

Bitcoin in itself is much more volatile compared to gold. However, with that volatility comes the opportunity for higher rewards.

As always, prior research and due diligence on your part is required before making investments. For any asset class.

Luno Malaysia Promo Code

As part of a collaboration with Luno Malaysia, we’ve come up with the perfect promotion for new users wanting to invest in Bitcoin.

Using the following code – LNDVDMAGIC50 , you will get RM50 worth of Bitcoin when you buy RM500 or more. That’s an instant 10% return on your investment.

If you’ve been wanting to own some Bitcoins, now is really the time to start.

Unfortunately, this promo is for new users only.

The full promo rules can be accessed hERE.
Please go through them carefully to meet the criteria for that RM50.

End.

As of 30 April, my crypto portfolio worth RM3,808 consists of the following.

  1. Bitcoin – RM2,763
  2. Ethereum – RM1,039
  3. Bitcoin Cash – RM4

Let’s see where the next wave will take us.
Onwards and upwards!

Emergency Funds & Fixed Deposit Laddering

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I’ll teach everyone how to set up your emergency funds using fixed deposits right here.

I know some of you veteran investors will already know all about FDs, but this one is for the newcomers.

You wouldn’t believe the number of inquiries I’ve had on FDs from readers. FDs are, by large the first form of investment everyone should have. They are a risk-free, interest generating financial product offered by the good banks here in Malaysia.

In this article, I’ll show you how to set up your Emergency Fund with FDs.

What are Fixed Deposits?

Fixed deposits or FDs as we will call them is, first of all, a financial instrument. Here in Malaysia, they’re provided by banks and gives a higher interest rate than a typical savings account.

The usual terms of a Fixed Deposit here in Malaysia:

1. You place a fixed sum with the bank for a fixed period of time.
2. The bank agrees to pay you a fixed interest rate.
3. You don’t touch that money. After the said period, you get your money back PLUS interest.

What if you were in an emergency you say?
And you needed to uplift the FD before it matures? Well, you’ll most likely lose all your interest. But your initial sum will NEVER be touched.

This right here is a liquidity problem with fixed deposits. Don’t worry I have a solution.

My Emergency Fund

An emergency fund is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a certain amount of money, easily accessible and put away in case of an emergency.

Exactly how much to put away? You’ll first need to know your average expenses and spending per month. After figuring that out, you’ll want at least a 6-month emergency fund.

Using myself as an example – On average, I spend around RM5,000 per month. All in.

So, a 6-month emergency fund would be RM30,000. But I try to keep a 24-month emergency fund going. Just cause. Which gives me around RM120,000 in liquid cash.

Now, the key ingredient for a good emergency fund is LIQUIDITY.

My emergency fund is 90% Fixed Deposits and 10% Savings Account and/or Cash. But an FD isn’t that liquid. So here’s how you make it liquid.

Why an Emergency Fund?

An emergency fund in my opinion serves two purposes.

The first one is to help you avoid a situation where you have to liquidate your investment assets in a crisis. As an investor, your portfolio can take a huge hit if you sell at the wrong time.

Imagine having to sell your stocks or that investment property due to a medical emergency.

The second reason is psychological. Knowing you have a safety net gives you a sense of security and peace of mind. It’ll give you a boost in confidence and has helped me as an investor focus on investing. I don’t have to worry about my expenses or my needs during an emergency.

I am genuinely positive that my emergency fund has helped me make better investing decisions.

Fixed Deposit Laddering

FD Laddering. This should address all the liquidity problems you have with your fixed deposits. Here’s how I do it.

Remember that RM120,000 emergency fund? It won’t make much sense if you put the whole chunk of it into one FD.

Say next month you needed to get your car fixed and it’ll cost you RM1,000. Uplifting that RM120,000 FD would mean you lose your interest. 3% on 120K is RM3,600 in interest per annum. That’s no chump change.

Solution? Break that RM120,000 up. I personally use Maybank so I’ll be giving you an example of it. The minimum FD placement is this – RM5,000 for 1 month.

My FD Ladder

If you’re up for it, you can go right ahead and break them up into 24 tiny chunks.

I differentiated mine into RM10K and RM20K FDs, with a mixture of 1-month and 3-month periods. It’ll look something like this:

The longer you place your money in an FD, the higher the interest the bank pays you. It is, however, a negligible difference because you’ll be compounding your money if its a monthly one anyway.

Also, try to make sure you place your FDs on different days of the month. I have them in the beginning, the middle and the end of the month. This will allow you to eventually uplift the one that’ll cost you the least in interest in the event of an emergency.

Fixed Deposit Perpetuity

I always select the following 2 options whenever I place an FD.

1. Credit interest earned to the principal.
This essentially means you’re compounding your interest automatically.

2. Renew FD at maturity.
This means I never have to look at my FD Ladder again. It’ll run by itself.

End.

I know most of these are common sense to some, but I still hope I managed to bring value to everyone reading this.

I’m sure some of you have more sophisticated FD hacks and tricks. Please, do share!

Maybank 2 Cards Premier – Best Air-miles Card

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There are two components to Maybank 2 Cards. You get a Visa / Mastercard and an American Express card. 2 cards.

The card we will want to focus on is the Amex card, as it gives 5x Treatspoints per RM1 spent whereas the Visa / Master gives 2x Treatspoints.

To keep it simple – You spend as much as you can with your Amex. The Visa / Master is the fallback card for places that don’t accept Amex.

Cashback vs Air-miles

First off, if you’re new to the world of credit cards, allow me to explain. To me, credit cards for the first 10 years of my life were about cashback. I have since yesterday, switched to air-miles mode.

I’ve done the research, I’ve done the numbers. You get a better bang for your buck with the air-miles approach. A caveat: Your spending will need to be in the above the RM36K per annum range.

How to get Maybank 2 Cards Premier

Maybank recently revised the minimum income required for their Maybank 2 Cards Premier to RM100K per annum. Even if you don’t fulfill this requirement, I’ll tell you how you can still get them cards.

I was a little short on the income front. Maybank doesn’t care about your dividend income.

I spoke to my relationship manager in the bank and to my surprise, a simple FD pledge would allow me to get the Premier cards.

So, if you’re short on the income/salary front, talk to someone in the bank. This is not a foolproof method and it goes on a case-by-case basis.

Also to note, if you’re planning on getting the 2 Cards Premier, your existing Treatspoints cannot be carried over. This is because the redemption rate is much more favourable to the premier cards.

Maybank 2 Cards Premier Annual Fees

Now, one last thing before you jump on the premier card bandwagon. Apart from the RM25 mandatory fee from the government, the premier cards have an annual fee of RM800.

The cards are free for the first year. For subsequent years, you’ll need to have an annual spending of RM80,000 to get the fee waived.

You know I’m frugal and there’s no way I have that much of an annual spending every year.

My strategy for this? I am utilizing the 4 free supplementary cards provided by the cards. Combining the spending of all cards should get me to RM80K a year. And yes, Maybank allows you to total up the spending per annum of the principal and supplementary cardholders.

What’s in it for the supplementary cardholders? Well, they get the same 2x or 5x treatspoints as you, the same redemption rate for air miles. Basically, everything is the same for them as supplementary cardholders!

I’ve got the first year to test this out. We’ll see how it goes.
I do solemnly swear that the RM80K target will not cause me to spend more than I usually do.

Meantime, do follow me on Instagram and on Facebook for updates.

End.

As I’m writing this, I feel an unexplainable urge to go on a rampage on the benefits of a credit card. As opposed to cash and debit cards. Instead, I’ll keep myself controlled for now and have a long-ass article on it soon.

I know most of you reading this are masters and sifus at optimising your credit cards. Please do let me know if you have better cards out there to recommend for air-miles and cashback for other readers.

And for those of you that are attending our little meet up on the 8th, I’ll see you all real soon.

Funding Societies – My First Default

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First off, an update on my portfolio’s performance with Funding Societies Malaysia. Annualised returns have gone down from 13% to 9.23%.

A lower figure compared to January but still, a 9.23% return is commendable for an investment.

Mainly due to –
1. A default; and
2. New unutilised capital.

My First Default(s)

It caught me off guard when I first received notice on the default on the issued notes, of which I’ve put in RM300 each into the affected notes.

MBBT-18080032
MBBT-18080033
MBBT-18080034

Being caught off guard like that isn’t always a nice experience but it was mitigated somewhat because I’ve constantly been managing my own expectations and prepping for a few defaults.

Re-adjusting Funding Societies’ Auto-invest Bot

If you’ve noticed, all the notes come from a single issuer or company. So it’s back to the drawing board for me.

I’ve now switched my auto-invest bot settings to have ‘Max Issuer Exposure’ from the previous 25% to a mere 5%. I don’t want to be over-invested in one single issuer.

In the event that a single issuer defaults, my loss exposure will never exceed 5% of my total loan portfolio.

Steps Taken by Funding Societies

It all started on 7 January 2019. The issuer contacted Funding Societies to delay payment. Below will be the notices I received from Funding Societies. In chronological order.

This will be pretty lengthy but it is important you as investors know the step-by-step process taken by Funding Societies.

7 January 2019

Dear Investor, The Issuer has reached out to us to push back the repayment of January 2019 due amount because pending receivables from their client, this will include late interest charges. Tentatively, repayment of January 2019 due will be on 18 January 2019. Thank you for understanding the situation. Team Funding Societies 7/01/2019, 6.20pm

** And thereafter, lengthy amounts of back and forth discussions with the issuer on the settlement. I’ll spare you the details. With the issuer failing to make repayments in March, Funding Societies finally decided to serve a letter of demand.

10 April 2019

Dear Investor, We wish to update that we have served the Letter of Demand as of 8 April 2019. At this stage we continue to be in contact with Issuer through our lawyers to demand for RM 50,000 which due on 31 March 2019, and upcoming RM 150,000 which is due 15 April 2019. As we wait for Issuer response to the Letter of Demand, kindly allow us to update you by 17 April 2019. Team Funding Societies 10 April 2019, 8.30pm

18 April 2019

Dear Investor, We would like to inform you that Note Issuer has made a partial payment of total RM 10,000 and it has been distributed as principle to investors on 16 April 2019. However, the amount made by Issuer is less than what we have requested from the Issuer. We are still in the midst of negotiating the outstanding repayment term with Issuer. As per our last update, the Letter of Demand has been served to the Note Issuer, and the Note Issuer has only made payment of RM 10,000.00 of the promised RM 200,000.00 upon the expiry of the Letter of Demand on 17 April 2019. At the meantime, we are escalating our recovery efforts through legal avenues and are discussing with the appointed panel lawyer on how to approach this matter effectively. You may refer to your email for full update. Kindly allow us until 3 May 2019 to provide you updates on the progress of recovery. We truly appreciate your kind patience and continued support. Team Funding Societies 18 April 2019, 1.25PM

End.

So there you have it. I’ve said there would be defaults and I’m sharing with everyone the first of mine.

There are inherent risks in investing in P2P financing. To mitigate, I am diversifying as much as I can. Putting in small amounts in every note issued.

And now, as I’ve learnt the hard way, not to overexpose myself to one single issuer.

I hope everyone learns from this.

That being said, I am still getting a 9.23% return. So don’t let yourself be discouraged by my defaults.

😀

Sign Up!

If you have not already, you can sign up with Funding Societies hERE.
Alternatively, you may use the code: j1mwa37p
You’ll receive RM50 upon investing your first RM1,000.

Note:
Funding Societies has reduced their referral bonus from RM50 to RM30 effective 1st March 2019.

Using my code and link, you’ll still receive RM50.

StashAway Malaysia Review and My Portfolio’s Performance

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Meet Up

Having been watching and hearing a lot about StashAway for the past few months, I finally met up with Wai Ken and Albert Kok from the StashAway team.

I got to know more about the company itself and the team behind it. I was impressed by both the team and the technology behind StashAway. I’ll, therefore, be guiding you to opening a new account and investing in them with this article.

Economic Regime-based Asset Allocation (ERAA)

I’ve put off opening an account for a while now as I wasn’t too sure what kind of ‘sophisticated investment strategies’ the company was going to apply to my hard earned money.

They call it the ERAA. In short:
1. You determine your risk levels
2. StashAway picks the securities to invest in for you
3. ERAA will re-adjust the asset allocation to maintain your previously determined risk level

What I Like About StashAway

  1. As a retail investor, you get access to a multitude of investments from the US, Japan etc.
  2. You also pay fees only available to the big boys.
  3. Auto readjustment of your portfolio. You can leave your portfolio as it is for years and let StashAway handle it.
  4. Annual fees start at 0.8% and it goes down as you invest more

Dislikes

I found that I was unable to pick and choose personally the assets which I want to invest in. The only choice I had as an investor was to reset my risk profile and look at the breakdown of assets to be invested in.

Why? This is in StashAway’s FAQ –
Based on your risk preferences, selected goal, and current economic regime, our algorithm carefully picks the ETFs most suitable for your goal. This allows us to provide the most optimal diversification personalised to you. As such, it is not possible for a customer to handpick the ETFs or the allocation.

Getting Started

First things first, sign up at this link hERE.
Dividend Magic has partnered with StashAway to get you 50% off your fees for the first RM100,000 invested for 6 months.

Now, I didn’t have too much trouble with the account sign up. It took me about 5 minutes but I’ll guide you through it as best I can. With pics.

Step 1 – Getting Started
Step 2 – Your Email and Password
Step 3 – Your Goals and Portfolio
My Parameters
Projections for my Portfolio – I wish.
Step 4 – Eligibility
Step 5 – More Assessments
Final Step – Set up your risk profile!

My Stashaway Portfolio

I will be updating my Stashaway’s portfolio on a quarterly basis.

March 2020

I’ll personally be depositing about RM3K to RM10K as a start.

This will be a long term passive investment for me and I’ve decided to put my money into a balanced portfolio, with a StashAway risk index of 14%.

The portfolio mix will consist of 54.5% growth assets and 45.5% protective assets.

Have any of you started investing in StashAway? How is your porfolio doing? And for those who are planning to start out, please do share the portfolio mix you’ve decided on and why.

The Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF)

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EPF Dividends 2018 – 6.15%


The Employees’ Provident Fund has a good track record of declaring above average returns to Malaysians. Also, have a look at their very simple vision and mission.

Vision

Helping members achieve a better future

Mission

Safeguard members’ savings and deliver excellent services

Quality Policy

The EPF is committed to help members achieve a better future through continuous improvement in safeguarding members’ savings and delivering excellent services. 

With the EPF, Malaysians essentially have in place a system of forced savings, investing and reinvesting for their retirement.

An independent governmental body whose goal is not motivated by fees but to earn the highest possible return for its members.

In general, Malaysians are happy with the 6.15% declaration of dividends by the board of our good old EPF.

And YES! 
EPF = KWSP. They’re one and the same.

We’re all familiar with EPF as our retirement fund. But what does EPF actually invest in?

dividend magic - retirement
‘How late do you expect to be working?’

Main Assets of EPF


As of 2018, equities made up about 41% of EPF’s total assets.

A further 50% is invested in fixed income instruments.

Let’s have a look at some of EPF’s largest equity holdings.

It’s a good idea to have EPF’s investments as a reference, apart from my Freedom Fund of course. ; )

What Will Become of Your EPF Savings?


With the recent 6.15% declaration in dividend, what do you plan to do with your savings in the fund?

I’ve created a simple poll in an attempt to gauge the mentality and financial decisions of everyone here.

No pressure. Also, there are no wrong answers.

What Will You Do With Your EPF?

View Results

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What I Do With My EPF

I personally am leaving my EPF untouched till I reach 55. And then I’ll withdraw a monthly amount to keep me alive, slowly drawing down on the capital.

Your EPF is essentially forcing you to save a portion of your income every month. And it helps you reinvest those 6% and above dividends every single year.

Even though I’ve mentioned there being no wrong answers to the poll above, I do believe Option 2 and 3 – where you’re essentially drawing down on your funds from your EPF savings is the least financially sound decision.

I see no reason for one to forego that 6% return in lieu of mutual funds or property. If you’ve got to take money from your retirement savings to purchase something, you definitely can’t afford it. In my opinion, of course.

Has anyone done this long term and made good money from Options 2 and 3?

End.

You may have heard from uncles and aunties telling you to withdraw as much as you can during times of uncertainty.

Mutual fund agents may have enticed you to believe their RM100 million funds are superior to our national fund – worth over RM800 fucking billion dollars.

Property agents may have hinted that your purchase of that 3BR apartment is a better decision than leaving your money in the hands of a professional investing team.

I think all are a load of hokum and I’ll stick with EPF for the foreseeable future.

I think you should too. 
And this is a plea to all Malaysians, don’t squander away your retirement savings.

TL;DR – Withdrawal from EPF? Bad idea.

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