This is part one of the I Was 28 When I Saved My First RM50 series, where I detail my experience saving for the first time.

If you, like me, have encountered feelings of shame for not measuring up to the saving & investing prowess of your peers, I hope reading about my experience can help you take the first steps in just getting started and making a plan to stay consistent, without constantly comparing yourself to others.

The beginning: starting with the unexpected

It’s January 30, 2020, and I’ve just scheduled my first deposit with StashAway, the Singapore-headquartered robo-advisor that’s an almost-household-name among Malaysian investors. 

That was the first time, in my entire life, that I’ve set aside money for something that wasn’t for something immediate or tangible. Was I too late? I thought so.

This is an insider’s glimpse into how and why only after 28 years of living, I took my first steps to save — or invest, if you want to be technical — my first RM50.

It’s not the most conventional route for starting a savings goal, but I had nothing to lose, and everything to gain.

Getting comfortable with a small number

For as long as I lived, up until that fateful moment last year, I never had the courage to admit to the people around me — not even the ones I count as my closest confidantes — that I had no savings. As I continued to put forth an image of a-person-who-somewhat-has-it-together, while incrementally racking up credit card debt month after month doing things I enjoyed doing, I was deliberately ignoring the mess I was making.

When I finally made the firm decision to really get my finances in order in June 2019, with a debt payoff plan in place, I had to face uncomfortable facts.

It was also the perfect time to allocate a category within my budget to start saving for the first time. At the same time, I got wind of StashAway and its super-convenient, dummy-proof, low-barrier-of-entry option.

In reality, as I was already allocating 20% of my take-home pay then to clearing my debt — this was when my gross income still qualified me as a B40 — I could not fathom setting aside an additional 20% of my take-home pay for savings and investments alone. Not if I wanted to continue enjoying living in the present, in my own terms.

It took me more than 6 months after, when desperation crept up on me that I started reading up on personal finance, growing my wealth, and investing options.

Then I hit another stumbling block

As I would soon realize, most advice out there cautions against investing until you have:

I did not check that list. 

So, here’s how I did it. I eschewed the recommended 20% number that personal finance experts were recommending as a baseline for monthly savings. It wasn’t achievable on my B40 salary while I was actively paying off my credit card debt and trying to live somewhat comfortably.

I told myself, “You can’t play by the book when your needs and goals are different. Let’s just start with saving RM50, but we’ll deposit it in StashAway.”

I could start saving for the first time and investing all at once. Killing two birds with one stone, I thought.

Advice given by personal finance gurus, or any guru for that matter, are not one-size-fits-all. The sooner we learn how to take great advice and adopt it in ways that fit our goals, the more forgiving we will be with ourselves. 

Turning things around

Few months down the road in July 2020, I got a new job with a fair salary. Every few months, I was able to ramp up my debt payoff amount and my allocation for StashAway. RM50 became RM100, then RM300, then more.

This is my very first portfolio with StashAway, and the one with the lowest risk index (22%) out of all the portfolios I currently have.

At the end of January 2021, a year after my first deposit of RM50 and consistent dollar-cost averaging (DCA), I had deposited RM4,102, and had accrued RM300.79 in returns.

Today, I already have a separate account just for my emergency savings.

But back then, with most attractive high-yield savings accounts having a minimum requirement between a RM3,000 and RM5,000 deposit to start off, it was intimidating to even think about saving. 

To even consider putting away RM500 a month was a tough pill to swallow. I also couldn’t trust myself to just leave it in a regular savings account where the money was just one ATM or online transfer away.

There was a lot of fear, and I didn’t trust myself with my own money.

Why this worked for me

Making the first move with the RM50 — deposited with a platform that would require some steps and a few days had I wanted to withdraw at a whim — changed things for me.

Being able to do it with an investment management platform like StashAway, which doesn’t require a minimum deposit, lowered the barrier of entry into my personal finance journey.

Today, I can confidently say that I have separated my account for emergency funds from my investments, which I continue to diversify across different platforms. 

So, if you are like me for most of my life up till February 2020, struggling to start saving for the first time or build an emergency fund, this is your sign. There’s no better time than now to make your first move.

So, was I too late? Maybe. But as the classic Chinese proverb goes:

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

Or, if we refer to the more modern adage, the best time to start was yesterday. The next best time is now.

Start small — whatever number that means to you. As long as it’s money set aside.

Final Words

If you liked what you’ve read and are now geared to start your StashAway journey, consider using my referral link, and we’ll both get up to RM30,000 managed for free, for 6 months.