Hello Grasshoppa,

Recently I found something interesting in my social media platform about a Robo-Advisor that can turn my spare change into investment. This concept is not something new in the world as there is a  similar platform in the USA called Acorns. I’ve been fascinated by the concept of Acorns where they will invest your spare change & I am happy that Malaysia has finally launched something like this. 

What Is Raiz Malaysia?

It is an investment platform that is formed with joint collaboration between Permodalan National Berhad (PNB). Currently, the platform is only available exclusively for Maybank Debit Cardholders (MBB) where all your spare change will be invested to Amanah Saham Nasional Berhad (ASNB) portfolio. They have 3 portfolios that you can select upon investing with them.

1. Conservative (20% ASN Equity 3 Fund & ASN Sara 1 Fund)
2. Moderate (100% ASN Imbang 2 Fund)
3. Aggressive (80% ASN Equity 3 Fund & 20% ASN Sara 1 Fund)

Upon my checking on each ASN Fund, they are all invested in local market assets. That means that you will not have any direct exposure to foreign equities, unlike other existing Robo-advisor. (ASN Fund are considered unit trust / mutual fund)

My Thoughts On Raiz Malaysia?

Personally, I love the concept of investing my spare change but the platform that they are offering may not suit my liking. I am always looking for ways to optimise my money & investment. The concept of investing in spare change is a good concept for me as I can optimize my spare change to invest. It is also suitable for those people that want to invest but they have no time or knowledge to invest. They just have to sign up with the MBB card, select the portfolio & they are good to go. The concept is perfect. 

Since investors can only link their MBB debit card to the platform, I find it hard from my end to convert my spending from my BigPay card to MBB card. I have my MBB card with me but I never kept it in my wallet as my MBB account is purely for me to pay for my house instalment. Since I have signed up for Raiz, I have tried it several times using my MBB debit card by making a few transactions. Based on my communication with their team, they may have new banks or cards in the future as well but it won’t be that soon. 

I tried to make my first RM10 deposit into the platform but it was not reflected immediately nor did I receive any notification on it. So I made another RM10 deposit. It was deducted a few days later. RM1 was charged to my debit card for verification which will be returned once the process is completed. To test the platform out, I actually made 1 transaction for my McD breakfast the other day. LOL. As you can see on the right, my current round-up is at RM3.85 which they will only invest when the amount rounded up to RM5 (by default). Even if I made RM1 transaction, they will still round up based on the maximum of RM1. You can also set recurring investment which currently I’m setting at RM50 per month. 

As for their management fees, they are charging RM1.50/month for account with RM6000 below & 0.025%/month for account above RM6000. Which means that if you have RM6000 & below, you have to pay in total of RM18 per annum. Imagine having less than RM500 in your account or lesser, it may not be worth it to pay that much for their monthly fee. Other Robo-advisor in Malaysia are charging 0.2-1% per annum. 

Robo-Advisor that is using Unit Trust as part of their investment portfolio may incur additional cost in terms of management fee & other hidden fees. You may read my previous post on Mutual Fund vs Robo-Advisor to understand further. I have also communicated with their marketing team & they mentioned that they are looking to diversify & expand their investment option in the future. I personally do look forward on this portion. 

Conclusion : 

To be honest, I love the concept of investing my spare change as I believe I am able to save more money & invest more using Raiz platform. I may not be a fan of unit trust investment that invest locally as I personally manage my own stocks portfolio. But I am keen to try this out for at least 1 year to see how much can my spare change portfolio grow. I will update you more once my investment portfolio with Raiz grows. 

You may also use my PROMO LINK to earn RM5 once you have successfully registered with Raiz. 

OSS!