Hello all,
I'm happy we have a Boglehead chapter Malaysian chapter! I was feel lost and isolated in a sea of stock pickers and crypto fans lol. I literally read every post and learned so much, especially about bond allocation which I'm very confused with. You guys are awesome and I'm glad there are people in Malaysia who believe in the investing style I do.

I'm a late starter, unfortunately.

I wish wish wish I knew about the Boglehead investing philosophy in my 20s, but now I'm 45 and slowly realigning my portfolio to this allocation:

70% equitties - VTI, VXUS, VOO --> But will just put in VT from now on for simplicity's sakes. In the future will transition to Irish domiciled ETFs. probably next year.
10% REITS & some local blue chip stocks - SUNREIT, AXREIT, Maybank
20% Fixed income - mostly money market and FD. I have some in ABFMY1 ETF also

I have ways to go to adjust my portfolio. In my 30s I bought the smooth talk of a Public Mutual unit trust salesman and just let her pick whatever stock. As a result I'm now overweighted in Malaysian equities . But it's way too scary to sell now cos that unit trust is down soooo much. So I'm not going to touch it.

Instead, I'm hyper accelerating my investments, just pouring most of it into VT, which I buy using Rakuten Trade cos it's only RM8 per trade. I'm ALSO slowly move my investments out of SA into VT (at a loss, ouch).

Yes, about my US ETFs. I totally understand about the witholding tax issues, but after watching a video by Zeit where he compared buying US ETF vs Irish domiciled ones, I think my portfolio too kecik to worry about that now, and I don't think I can afford the big bullets of investing in LSE for now. I'm also working up the courage to open an IBKR account --> I just don't feel secure using an online broker not approved by SEC yet.

I got a question for all of you - are you all 100% foreign equities (US & world), or do you have a mix of M'sian and foreign equities in your portfolio? If I have a choice I want to keep my Malaysian equities to just 10% of my portfolio cos I have no confidence with the Malaysian economy.

Hello all,
I'm happy we have a Boglehead chapter Malaysian chapter! I was feeingl lost and isolated in a sea of stock pickers and crypto fans lol. I literally read every post and learned so much, especially about bond allocation which I'm very confused with. You guys are awesome and I'm glad there are people in Malaysia who believe in the investing style I do.

I'm a late starter, unfortunately.

I wish wish wish I knew about the Boglehead investing philosophy in my 20s, but now I'm 45 and slowly realigning my portfolio to this allocation:

70% equitties - VTI, VXUS, VOO --> But will just put in VT from now on for simplicity's sakes. In the future will transition to Irish domiciled ETFs. probably next year.
10% REITS & some local blue chip stocks - SUNREIT, AXREIT, Maybank
20% Fixed income - mostly money market and FD. I have some in ABFMY1 ETF also

I have ways to go to adjust my portfolio. In my 30s I bought the smooth talk of a Public Mutual unit trust salesman and just let her pick whatever stock. As a result I'm now overweighted in Malaysian equities . But it's way too scary to sell now cos that unit trust is down soooo much. So I'm not going to touch it.

Instead, I'm hyper accelerating my investments, just pouring most of it into VT, which I buy using Rakuten Trade cos it's only RM8 per trade. I'm ALSO slowly move my investments out of SA into VT (at a loss, ouch).

Yes, about my US ETFs. I totally understand about the witholding tax issues, but after watching a video by Zeit where he compared buying US ETF vs Irish domiciled ones, I think my portfolio too kecik to worry about that now, and I don't think I can afford the big bullets of investing in LSE for now. I'm also working up the courage to open an IBKR account --> I just don't feel secure using an online broker not approved by SEC yet.

I got a question for all of you - in your equities portion of your portfolio, are you all 100% foreign equities (US & world), or do you have a mix of M'sian and foreign equities in your portfolio? If I have a choice I want to keep my Malaysian equities to just 10% of my portfolio cos I have no confidence with the Malaysian economy.

Am so sorry for the double post. Can't seem to delete it?

I could, but I'm literally down 10k so takut lol. I'd much rather move it out of the ecosystem to be honest. Don't like being charged up to 1.5% annual fees. A friend of mine told me to look at their top 10 holdings. If they got potential stay, If they don't, just cut losses. OUCH. It's a small caps fund.

Encikbuta - Nice to find a personal finance blog! I love reading them. I have one too where I document my journey but not in such detail as you. I'm terrible at math lol: Lowyat won't let me include the link cos still probation so later I share. Also glad to meet another one investing in VT. 100% equities is so brave!

I am planning of just simplifying into that from VTI + VXUS cos I really tired of paying MIDF's super high trading fees. Just buying via Rakuten Trade now. When I realise all I have to do to invest every month is just funnel fix amount every month there, I'm like, eh, so easy ah? Lol. Before, I had to funnel to so many different places, roboadvisors lah, UT lah, brokers lah ... glad to know all I have to do is just that for now.

My funds are quite songsang right now. My equity part of my portfolio (Excluding EPF) is 55%. Fixed income is 45% - a mix of FDs, bonds and MM. I'm hoping to bring the equity up to 70%. My Malaysian equities almost half of my equity portfolio but I'm quickly catching up with my foreign investments, so soon it'll be at least 30% of the portfolio. It'll take me some time to gather the bullets. I suppose as I'm 45 already, It's reasonable to have about 30% or more in Fixed Income.

IBKR - still conflicted about that. My question is, if anything happens to the company, how do we get the money back? No one can answer that for now so I still takut.

Glad to learn from everyone!

Me too man. I explored the Malaysian ETFs, we do have a KLSE-type index fund ETF - FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ETF but apparently it doesn't track the entire index but just certain companies (30 biggest listed companies), so it's not as diversified as we'd like. Performance some more not so great.

Speaking of Malaysian ETFs wonder why not many people exploring them? I bought two funds mainly:
- ABF Malaysia Bond Index Fund (0800EA)
- TradePlus MSCI Asia Ex Japan Reits Tracker

Glad to know you're into VOO. Irish domiciled funds have higher expense ratio than US Vanguard funds and also the brokerage fee is higher apparently, so I think it more or less evens out in the end. Well, until you amass too much and then you start feeling the WHT pinch and get worried about estate tax.



encikbuta I remember reading up about people trying to get back money from an investment bank that kantoi, it wasn't easy. somemore it resides overseas. I don't know lah, I don't have that risk apetite - totally understand since you got dependents. Thanks for telling me about the FSMOne ETF plan. Will check it out.

Agree! That's why didn't even bother with the index. Besides, so heavily invested in Malaysia via ETF already. So my focus now is on shoveling more foreign funds.

Admittedly, I find it hard NOT to time the market sometimes. I usually invest right after I get my salary, but I'm thinking - Maybe I should invest when VT / VTI is lower. And then I hesitate, and then weeks pass and so on lol.

About VOO etc, I watched a recent video by Ziet that made me more assured that it's okay to invest in VT for now until I amassed too much and I can buy Ireland domiciled funds to make it worth it. Just search on Youtube "The Best & Cheapest Way to Invest in the S&P 500 Index | VOO vs CSPX" (sorry can't include links right now) .

My next mission is to find a PRS fund (global) to replace my current one which is Malaysian based. Just want to have more foreign funds. Eyeing Manulife Shariah PRS-Global REIT Fund or AIA PAM – Global Islamic Growth Fund. Must do homework on them first. Once the PRS tax benefit is taken away I'll stop putting into this fund.

Hello everyone,
I find the conversation about FSM RSP ETF fascinating as it'll be good to automate my investments.

However, I'm super confused about the fee structure due to the discussion.

As far as I understand, let's say your RSP is RM2000 a month. The transaction fee should then be 0.08% of the RSP or min US1. So in this case, it'll be US$1 - RM4.50 which, for local brokers, is considered quite affordable compared to Rakuten's RM8 per trade or MIDF's freaking RM36 per trade. This is, of course, for those who prefer local brokers like me. (I have been told to death that IBKR is cheaper, I totally get it lol)

Am I correct on the math here here or off base?

Was just thinking this. I prefer to stay in one broker if possible but unfortunately I kept opening with one that ended up not being the preferred one. So I now have accounts at Malacca Securities, Rakuten Trade, MIDF and next, FSM one? lol

That's good to know! I still have so much to learn about buying shares - I didn't know we can transfer

For me the reason is very personal. I'm someone that can get overwhelmed quite easily when it comes to financial matters. I need to make investing as brain dead simple as possible. I've read up on how to transfer funds to IBKR and I'm like, gawd, so complicating. This will cause friction for me, which means I'll hesitate to invest and slow down my investing too.

Also, the idea of having most of my wealth in an overseas brokerage where I have no easy access to their offices in case shit hits the fan makes me nervous. And the thought of what I need to do to get that money back in case anything happens is also overwhelming. I get that the likelihood of that happening is very slim, but I rather play it safe.

Maybe I'll put a portion of my income in IBKR one day, but for now I'll use local brokers.

Hello everyone,
I'm currently invested in these local ETFs:
- TRADEPLUS MSCI ASIA EX JAPAN REITS
- ABF Malaysia Bond Index Fund (0800EA)

Understand that many Malaysians think these ETFs may have bad liquidity, though some say the market makers mitigates that problem. The idea of a Malaysian-domiciled ETF of foreign funds is very attractive to me. (Currently just plugging into VT)

What's your opinion of Malaysian ETFs? Any of you invested in local ETFs? Do you think it's worth it to do so?

I suspect cos the right "arrangements" have not been made in the corridors of power, if you know what I mean...