This article first appeared in Wealth, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on July 24, 2023 - July 30, 2023

The advancement of technology has always been tilted towards encouraging people to spend rather than to save or invest. This has at least been true in Malaysia over the past decade, but this trend is changing.

I still remember clearly the time I “accidentally” spent more than RM1,000 on a mobile phone game a few years ago. Making a payment was just a push of a button away with your credit/debit card linked to your smartphone: You click on an online item, you press your thumb on the phone or scan your face, and the transaction is done. You made a payment. You spent.

But things weren’t that easy if you wanted to make an investment. You would need to register with the service provider, be it an agent or online platform, by filling up paper documents before passing them over or mailing them.

And even if you managed to navigate the registration process, you would need a minimum investment amount of RM1,000 to invest in a unit trust fund, which is still quite a significant amount for the younger generation, especially fresh graduates. The threshold for buying a gaming item, or other things, online can be as low as RM10, or even less.

The gap between spending and saving/ investing conveniently online is rapidly closing, though. First, the investment amount of unit trust funds has dropped to as little as RM10 from at least half a decade ago. And with a smartphone, users can now easily register online with the e-KYC solution, coupled with a pretty good user experience. We can all kick-start our investment journey conveniently from there.

There are several options out there. Raiz Invest, the less talked about mobile app that lets users invest their spare change in unit trust funds, is a decent option. Once you link a credit/debit card to the app and purchase something with it, the spare change is automatically invested in unit trust funds based on your risk profile.

If you think the investment amount is growing too slowly, you can simply click on a button on the app’s homepage to let it automatically deduct a specific amount from your bank account each day or week or month, and invest it in unit trust funds. It is akin to the habit of saving coins in a piggy bank in a highly digitalised world.

Raiz Invest might not have been attractive to investors a few years ago as its auto-debit function was available to users of only a few banks. Spare change was only invested in Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd (ASNB) funds which, in turn, invest in locally listed blue-chip stocks. But it has now expanded its offer to users of more banks and tied up with private asset management firms to broaden its product offering.

Just recently, Touch ’n Go (TnG) launched GOinvest, which allows users to invest their money in the TnG eWallet in a series of funds managed by Principal Asset Management for as little as RM10. The process is fast and simple — literally just a few clicks away.

Of course, there are many other apps that offer users similar solutions. Versa is an investing app with one of the best user experiences in the market. StashAway, too, among others.

The point here is that it is now good timing for the government, regulators and stakeholders to raise the overall level of financial literacy in the country. Performing the act of investing has always been harder than spending, but it need not be the case.

When your children or even grandchildren can click on a button on a smartphone to invest RM10 in unit trust funds, the value of which can grow over the years, or spend RM1,000 to purchase gaming items online, which would you prefer? You would hope that they make the best financial decision.

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