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I just finished my degree and I have been working in Malaysia for 3 months.

Let's say that every month I have a salary of $2,550 and my expenses are:

  • $300 taxes
  • $500 to parent
  • $300 toward utilities
  • $400 for food and fuel

There is around $1,000 left and I put $500 toward investment (Stashaway) and $500 goes to Emergency Fund.

I see two choices:

  • Investing is kind of risky as I might lose all of it but I could earn much more over 20-40 years
  • Or I could put it in my government fund, kind of a fixed deposit (4-7% annually)

My main question is, where do I start saving/investing? Which one should I do?

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    What country are you in? Do you have any debts? Does your employer provide incentive to contribute to a retirement program?
    – Hart CO
    Commented Nov 29, 2019 at 5:25
  • Malaysia , No Debts , yeah , 11% toward my retirement program
    – incognitorecon
    Commented Nov 29, 2019 at 6:13
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    How accessible is the government fund ? could you sell it at any time ?
    – xyious
    Commented Nov 29, 2019 at 16:33
  • The two choices aren't mutually exclusive (and there are actually more than two). You can hedge your bets by investing your money in several ways at the same time. That way, if one goes bad, you still have the others.
    – Ray Butterworth
    Commented Nov 30, 2019 at 1:20

1 Answer 1

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Trying to succeed at something that you are unfamiliar with is a daunting proposition and AFAIC, investing based on the advice of anonymous strangers on the web isn't the best approach.

My generic advice would be to start the process of becoming financially literate. To do so, start by reading beginner level introductory material. There are a lot of "XYZ For Dummies" books. Build a basic foundation and as you understand more, seek out more complex books in areas of the market that suits your needs:

  • Equities?

  • Fixed income?

  • ETFs?

  • Closed end funds?

  • Mutual Funds

Read everything that you can and until you're somewhat literate, you won't have a clue what may be worthwhile versus what's BS.

Understanding financial markets is like learning a foreign language. It takes time and effort, something most people don’t want to do and as a result of failing to do so, they often lose their money. Financial markets can quickly take the money of the inexperienced and uninformed.

Get a library card :->)

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  • Financial markets aren’t picky that way - they can quickly take money from anybody.
    – Lawrence
    Commented Nov 30, 2019 at 2:06
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    That is true but the financial markets take it away faster and more often from noobs who don't know how to manage risk.
    – Bob Baerker
    Commented Nov 30, 2019 at 3:15
  • I should have added a smiley. :)
    – Lawrence
    Commented Nov 30, 2019 at 5:04

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