Everything You Need to Know about StashAway, the Investment Platform Made for You

By Mel Sim

Need to save up for an epic holiday, a dream home or your retirement but don’t know where to start? Check out StashAway, a new wealth management platform with no minimum investment, no minimum balance and best of all, no added charges!

So you’ve started working for a while now and you’ve managed to have a little bit of savings in the bank. The adult thing to do is to invest that money and make it grow. But mention the word investment and your mind goes blank – there are so many types out there you don’t even know what is what. Plus, all that mumbo jumbo investment jargons and fees and terms and conditions – why can’t investment be a simple thing that does what it is supposed to do, make more money!

It can, if you sign up with StashAway. This new digital wealth management platform takes away all that mind-numbing stuff about investment and makes it ultra-straightforward where all you need to do is share what your investment goals are, invest and that’s it.

You must be thinking: Hmm... before I part with my hard-earned savings, what is this StashAway? And more importantly, is my money safe or not?

That’s why we went straight to source, StashAway Malaysia’s country manager Wong Wai Ken, to learn everything about investing with StashAway.

But first, some deets about the company: StashAway is a Singapore-based digital investment advisory platform (or a robo-advisor) that is the first and currently the only digital platform to obtain a license from the Security Commissions November 2018 to operate in Malaysia. Since then, more than 5,000 people who were on its waitlist prior to the launch have started investing with StashAway and the platform is also now available to public.

Its main purpose is like all other investment platforms: To help you invest and grow your money. But what’s different is how StashAway does it – by getting rid of the complexities of investment and making it easy for you to be in charge of your portfolio.

So why is it different from your traditional investment platforms?
“Traditional investment is inconvenient, expensive and aren’t tailored to your needs. StashAway provides you with a simple and transparent way to access a sophisticated, personalised product, at a much lower cost,” says Wong.

Wait – did you say lower cost? How does that work?
“Investors only pay StashAway a management fee of 0.2% to 0.8% each year with no sales charges, and approximately 0.2% in ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund) fees charged directly by the ETF manager,” says Wong. “Compare this to the traditional fund manager’s fees, who typically imposes 3 to 5% in sales charges and 1.5 to 2% in management fees and typically switches clients across products every couple of years for a total average annual fee of 3 to 5%. With StashAway, you pay less than a total of 1% per annum and save 2.5 to 4.5% in fees, which go straight to returns.”

We did the math for you:
Say you invested RM2,000 a month in an investment yielding 6% gross per annum With traditional investment, you earn approximately RM1.2million in 30 years With StashAway, you earn approximately RM1.8 million in 30 years With a 2% saving in fees with StashAway, the amount you save is RM600,000 – almost 50% more than your traditional investment.

OK, this sounds interesting. But how does StashAway determine where to invest?
That’s where StashAway’s unique technology comes in. The digital platform comes with a framework called Economic Regime-based Asset Allocation (ERAA) that is designed to manage your money through different economic and market cycles.

Huh?

We get Wong to explain how this works: “During a recession, you want more protective assets like bonds and gold in your portfolio, and during good times, you want more exposure to tech and consumer discretionary equities such as growth assets. So your portfolio is automatically managed and intelligently adjusted so that your wealth is grown and protected through the ups and downs of the economic cycle.”

Which means, you don’t have to do anything, right?
“Your investment journey with StashAway begins through our digital interface, where you first select a life goal such as planning for a trip or buying a home. StashAway then generates a portfolio that reflects your risk preferences and an investment plan that estimates how much you need to set aside to achieve this goal. You can always edit your goals and risk preferences through the desktop or mobile all in a few seconds. You can also set up multiple portfolios for different investment goals. It takes 15 minutes to sign up, without paperwork, and your money will be put to work at couple of days later,” explains Wong.

My money is safe with StashAway, right?
Ah-huh. “StashAway Malaysia is regulated by the Securities Commision Malaysia and has a license to carry out portfolio management investments. Your cash deposits are held with a Trustee’s bank account that is specifically set up to house the deposits of StashAway Malaysia’s customers to provide additional security,” explains Wong.

Sold! How much money do you need to start investing with StashAway?
Any amount, which is great for those who just started working. There’s no minimum balance with StashAway (you can put in however much you choose to start building your wealth and still own a fraction of a minimal investment) and slowly build this up when you have more. Remember, the earlier you start, the better because of compound interest. So at 25, you only need to set aside RM490 a month to retire by age 65 with RM1 million (assuming a yearly return of 6%).

How much and how regular you invest your money is up to you. You can increase, decrease or cease your regular investments at any time. Oh and you can also deposit and withdraw at any time, any amount. It’s your money, after all.

Give me more tips on how to invest smartly with StashAway.
“Starting early allows you to set aside less as you have longer term to invest, thanks to compound interest. Diversify your investments so you can reduce your risk and optimise your returns. Determine how much you can set aside very month and invest consistently so that if your goal is in 10 years, you don’t have to worry how the markets are doing presently,” shares Wong.

Find out more via this video

Head on to StashAway’s website to find out more today. There’s even a special promotion for Graduan readers! As always, please conduct your own research before investing."

Picture by rawpixel on unsplash

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