Step by step walkthrough on Maybank Kim Eng's Monthly Investment Plan

Step-by-step guide to invest in Monthly Investment Plans

In our previous article on monthly investment plans, we compared the various services offered by banks and brokerage houses and how these plans could help retail investors enter into the stock market via dollar-cost averaging without paying high commission charges.

For today, we will take an example of one such monthly investment plan offered by Maybank Kim Eng and provide a step-by-step walkthrough of the platform to explain how you could use it.

Step-by-step guide to invest in Monthly Investment Plans

1. Open a Maybank Kim Eng KE Trade Prefunded Account.

2. Log in to yourKE Trade Account.

3. Click on "e-Services" tab as shown below.

4. Select your prefunded account (completed previously in step 1), key in the amount to invest and key in the name of the counter you wish to purchase.

5. Alternatively, you may also click on the “List of Eligible Securities” (the 3rd tab on the top) to view or search for all counters available offered under their monthly investment plan.

6. You may search by markets, or search by counter code or counter name. You may also choose to display all eligible securities by clicking “ALL” markets and hit the “Search” button.

Maybank Kim Eng’s Monthly Investment Plandoes offerdistinctive features that we like.

Lots of companies to choose from

The platform allows users to select from 225 counters over 5 different markets (Singapore, US, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand). From what we know, they offer by far the largest amount of stocks that you can select from.

Low commission charges

Even if you were to invest as little as $100 a month, the sales charges still stick at 1%.

Our Take On Monthly Investment Plan

Whether you choose to use Maybank Kim Eng’sMonthly Investment Plan or those offered by other financial institutions such as OCBC, POSB or POEMS, the same value proposition holds true and that is the fact that these plans allow retails investors to gain access to dollar-cost averaging when buying stocks. 

As long as the commission charges remain low and the selections of stock counters are adequate, this will be aneasy and affordable way to get started in stock investments.

Article was first published on K.I.S.S Investing, a website aiming to keep stock investing simple.

How to earn passive income from REITs

Most often than not, people are lazy to get started learning about investments but know the importance of saving for the long term. 

Thus, many of them usually put their hard-earned money into safe instruments like bank deposits, fixed income; with insurance being the most commonly utilized to grow their wealth.

While they are generally safe, the returns they offer are so little that you cannot even cover the inflation rate of 4% in Singapore! As a result, many people have flocked to the world of REITs, known as Real Estate Investment Trusts, for higher returns. They offer distribution yields averaging 6% with the highest reaching almost 10%!

What is a REIT?

A REIT is a company that mainly owns, and in most cases, operates income-producing real estate such as apartments, shopping centers, offices, hotels and warehouses. Some REITs also engage in financing real estate. The shares of many REITs are traded on major stock exchanges.

To qualify as a REIT, a company must have most of its assets and income tied to real estate investment and must distribute at least 90 percent of its taxable income to its shareholders annually. A company that qualifies as a REIT is permitted to deduct dividends paid to its shareholders from its corporate taxable income. 

As a result, shareholders of REITs are usually entitled to stable distributions as REITs have to honour this tax preferential treatment which do not require them to pay income tax.

Why are REITs so popular?

• The first thing why people look at REITs is usually because of its steady distribution yield.
  It is even more so for semi to full retirees like my dad. The picture on the right shows the annual reports he received from owning them.
  
  Heeding my advice, he bought into many REITs on the aftermath of the U.S. subprime crisis, and sits on some multi-bagger capital gains and juicy dividend yields based on the low share prices when the purchases were made.
  
• No Hassle. People may ask why they should buy REITs instead of property. The main point is this, when you buy property, you will need to rent out it. Having disastrous tenants may offer you the worst nightmare. On the other hand, when you buy REITs, you are taking advantage of the experts to handle everything there can be.

In my next article, I will touch on how to choose the right REIT that fits you as well as explaining the different types of REITs. Hope you like my post! You can receive more regular updates by "Like"-ing my facebook page at www.facebook.com/kissinvesting. Thanks & HUAT AH!

What do the Stock RMK (remarks) mean?

During the past week, I have one colleague vested in Olam and she got a shock when a "H" suddenly appears in the "Rmk" column just beside the stock code. I told her that the management team is requesting a trading halt to make an announcement; and the stocks will resume after the request is lifted once more.

She panicked again, asking if it is bad news. I teased her saying it may be; whereas it can be either good or bad. Fortunately, it turns out to be an acquisition from Temasek's subsidiary! In the end she profited handsomely from the deal. haha.. happy for her.


So what actually do the abbreviations in Remark (Rmk) column denotes? According to the I touch on a few common ones below:

• CD - means with dividend. A Dividend has been declared but not paid.
  
• XD - Ex-dividend date signifies that the dividend has been paid out. Thus, you must buy the stock from the period [CD to one day before XD] to be entitled to the dividends.
  
• H - Trading Halt [A temporary suspension in the trading of a particular security on one or more exchanges, usually in anticipation of a news announcement or to correct an order imbalance. A trading halt may also be imposed for purely regulatory reasons. During a trading halt, open orders may be canceled and options may be exercised.]
  
• SUSP - It means that the shares are suspended indefinitely on a case-by-case basis, usually pending investigations. In the local context, many china stocks have been suspended before. E.g. China Hongxing.

Conclusion

As you can see from the list beside, there are still many other remarks to learn for stocks investing. Nevertheless, you do not have to worry so much. Stocks investment is an on-going journey, what matters most is that you are willing to keep an open heart to learn as you go along. Google is always there to help out!