Didn't touch it since opening deposit, KDI isn't exactly earning my strong confidence given their UX so far.

If only it's reflected on UI side and is withdrawable 🤷‍♂️

Slightly better, because Akru can't even complete my registration process after 1y, that is one hell of a jank startup waiting for an acquisition and 0 intention to improve.

Thanks for maintaining the first post well, TS!

On that note I think it's been easily 30+ days and mine is nowhere in sight...

It's also worth nothing that $VT, the backbone of the aggressive KDI Invest portfolio has an expense ratio of 0.07% on top of 0.2% FX charges. It's one thing to start out small and test the waters, but I won't recommend anyone to pay 0.7% annual fees to buy a 0.07% expense ratio ETF if investing for long term anyway.

Ah, what I mean is, KDI Invest don't really offer anything attractive or unique to a person with international brokerage access. But it remains a good alternative to those who aren't willing to DIY.

Currently, KDI Invest's aggressive portfolio consist of ~65% $VT (Vanguard Total World Index) and the rest a mix of BNDX (Aggregate bond), CASH, and a sprinkle of miscellaneous ETF like QQQ and SPY.

Functionally, it's literally just a mix of VT (Total World Equities), BNDX (World Aggregate Bond), and CASH.

Such a simple portfolio can further be simplified by dropping BNDX (young people usually opt to not add Bond to portfolios until latter in investing life, or use EPF/ASNB/SSPN as pseudo bonds).

Thus, its a 1-fund portfolio consist of VT. Most brokerage charge very little commissions (free or 0.35 US cents) on US etfs, and the ongoing charges for holding VT is only 0.07%.

So to grossly simplify it, if VT returns 7% a year - you get 6.93% of the return. You get only 6.3% of the return if investing through KDI. (~10% less). This will greatly affect your compounding - and hurts a lot when market is sideways for a very long time.

Furthermore, VT's non-US alternative, VWRA, only pay 15% withholding tax instead of VT's 30% - that's another 0.5% different in annual returns.

So it doesn't actually take too much capital to quickly outperform KDI Invest or any roboadvisor investing in basically the same thing, but earn more simply you are paying less fees.

TL:DR: fees bad, KDI Invest no offer anything unique

This post has been edited by Hoshiyuu: Apr 8 2022, 04:32 PM

It'll depend on your capital, your investment interval, and how much you plan to deposit each time. It goes something like this:

1. 0 lump sum capital, plan to put in 200 or so a month build investing habit: Stashaway, KDI Invest is fine.

2. 500-1000 a month, prefer monthly DCA to better capture up and downs of the market - IBKR and buy $VT, accept paying 15% more WHT for cheaper trading fees. Move to Ireland domiciled &VWRA in the future when withholding tax drag is bigger than trade commission cost.

3. ~2500-3000++ a month, or willing to invest quarterly (save up to 3000-5000+ then one shot invest every 3-4 months): $VWRA on IBKR.

Fees for reference:

Wise forex MYR -> USD is about 0.5% forex charge
IBKR forex: 2USD fixed, spot rate.
IBKR US stocks : 0.35USD
IBKR Ireland domiciled USD denominated stocks: 1.70USD
$VT Expense Ratio: 0.07% annually
$VWRA Expense Ratio: 0.22% annually

This KDI their RM10 harder to earn than the scammiest referral brokers lol. How many months already 😂 I just want to fast fast get and fully close out KDI Invest...

eeh. It's fee-free VT. I'm okay to hold it for a couple of years even if it explodes Monday night. I'm only withdrawing because I'd prefer the left display (total portfolio asset) to be equal to my KDI Save instead of KDI Save + Invest

World indices are swinging up and down lately, not much anyone can do about that. The portfolio at highest aggressiveness is mostly VT - you can pretty much guesstimate the performance just by looking at VT's price history.

I know right? I'm at least 25 years away from my horizon, I was worrying I would spend the first decade buying into the unrelenting US bull and have sequence of return slap me in the face when i want to retire early.

Never stopped buying every month. Invested all my windfalls, no regrets.

This post has been edited by Hoshiyuu: May 3 2022, 01:25 AM

Not yet.

This time TnG is a tad slow, their GO+ promo ended with the "coming soon" banner hanging for a while already... struggling to be competitive?

Then it's going to be garbage like Versa Invest and their underlying Principal funds then even less reason to kasi chance

This post has been edited by Hoshiyuu: May 12 2022, 04:11 PM

I did some quick napkin math with 10000 capital and I've got:

3.5% compounded daily over 1 year: 10,356.18
3.5% compounded yearly over 1 year: 10,350.00
3.5% compounded daily over 10 year: 14,190.44
3.5% compounded yearly over 10 year: 14,105.99

This post has been edited by Hoshiyuu: Apr 16 2023, 10:56 AM