Recently, I was one of the panelists alongside Suraya (Ringgit Oh Ringgit) & Ken (HSBC) moderated by Roshan Kanesan (RinggitPlus). Being part of the HSBC webinar has definitely been a momentous experience since I started my blog. With the attendance of over 400 people, I am glad to hear lots of positive feedback from this webinar from the attendees. It was a 1 hour 15 minutes webinar where there was sharing from Suraya, Ken, Roshan & myself. The topic of this particular webinar was ‘Get Financially Fit”.

During that session, Roshan did review some surveys conducted by RinggitPlus in 2021 that 40% of millennials usually spend more than what they could afford. On top of that, 50% of millennials can’t survive more than 3 months with their current cash savings. If you ask me, it is definitely an alarming situation, especially for those who are not able to survive more than 3 months. I strongly believe that each individual should save between 10-20% of their current income & have at least 6 months’ worth of cash savings in their bank account.

The first question that was directed to me was on why is it important to be financially fit now, I personally linked it to our body wellbeing. There is a saying that goes “we are what we eat” & our time spent working out is a direct result of how our body will look like. The right food & our workout habits will also relate to our life longevity. How does it relate back to our financial fitness? Imagine our body health being similar to our financial health. We need to fuel ourselves with the right food equals the right knowledge in investing. Workout consistently which equals investing consistently. The longevity part is where we build our wealth over a long period of time. It is relatable.

There was also another question that was asked to me which is my view on investing during the pandemic. As I mentioned earlier in my previous posts, I always see investing in the market downturn as a good opportunity. As one of Warren Buffett’s quotes, “Be greedy when everyone is fearful & be fearful when everyone is greedy”. I definitely got greedy during the pandemic. Instead of timing the market, we should stay invested regularly. It is almost impossible for anyone to time the market but instead, we should use the power of compounding & dollar-cost averaging to beat the market.

This was a question that was raised by Roshan to Suraya on financial tools and both of them shared their love for both Excel spreadsheet & also their preferred financial app. Personally, I do not use Excel for any expenses tracking, instead, I am using this tracking app that I’ve used since 2015/2016 & I’ve never failed to track my expenses. I think the accuracy of my expenses tracker is at 90% or higher as I have very high discipline in recording my expenses even a smaller ones.

In my routine in terms of investing, I used to track my investment on a daily basis where I try to keep up with the daily stocks price & market trends. Eventually, I stopped doing that & instead of looking at it on a daily basis, I started to learn to invest based on long-term investing where I buy & hold for a long period of time. It is a method that I adapt from Warren Buffett’s way of investing where he looks into each individual company’s stocks based on their Annual Financial Report or Quarterly Report to uncover great companies that are undervalued. Aside from that, in my other investments such as Robo-advisor, PRS, gold & others, I stay invested by using a simple dollar-cost averaging method.

When I was asked about my top tips on the do’s & don’t for beginners, I personally think that it is important to start investing early. Not only are you able to build your wealth over a longer period, but it also creates good habits for you when it comes to investing. For young parents out there, you can educate your kids with the “menabung” habit where they can start this habit young. Once they are at the legal age of investing, they can start investing with as low as RM50 a month & eventually increase it when they can afford to invest more. Since there are so many different investing platforms out there, ensure that they are approved by the Securities Commission of Malaysia. As for the don’t, do not take your friend’s advice when it comes to investing especially if they are not experts or experienced investors. Since it is your money, you should take control of it rather than trusting your friend for any tips. You can take your research similar to how you do your research for your holiday trip. Just like you survey for the best attraction or food for your holiday trip, you should do your research for the best investment to invest in & understand what are you investing in.

Overall, my best takeaway from HSBC Wealth Toolkit is that they provide you with the tool to determine your financial health. You may check out this link on their Financial Wellbeing link for some details shared but I am still not able to find their tool as per the webinar sharing. Aside from that, what I like from Suraya feedback was her tips for beginners to invest. She mentioned that you just have to start investing. That first step is important & from there, you will definitely be able to learn a lot from it.