StashAway Simple 4 Month Review – Better Than Savings & Fixed Deposits

I have invested in 2 of StashAway’s portfolios simultaneously for about 8 months as of this writing:

1. StashAway 16% Risk portfolio (not shariah compliant) – I was not impressed with my results.
2. StashAway Simple 1.8% risk portfolio (now also not shariah compliant) – what we’ll be talking about in this article

Disclaimer: This blog post is explaining StashAway Simple from my POV at only 4 months in. Everyone’s outcome will be different.

What is StashAway Simple?

From my POV, StashAway Simple is a shorter investment (min a year) alternative to putting money into a savings account or fixed deposit. For reference, most fixed deposits in Malaysia are still below 2% per year.

The selling points of StashAway Simple are:

• It is more flexible (can withdraw money anytime you want, unlike fixed deposits)
• Earns you a higher percentage (2.4% annually) compared to savings accounts and fixed deposits
• Unliked the regular investment portfolios, StashAway Simple is shariah compliant This is no longer true:

Not to be confused with the regular StashAway portfolios which have a much higher risk & return index (I had one at 16%), and is more suitable for longer-term investment (around a min of 3 to 5 years).

Why I Invested in StashAway Simple?

I needed a place to store a sum of money for a few months while still earning interest, but flexible enough for me to withdraw anytime I want.

My Scenario: I was getting married, so I had to withdraw RM22,000 from my unit trust to pay off various wedding related stuff.

Unfortunate for me with the COVID lockdown, we weren’t sure when the wedding can actually take place. 

So the money was in my savings account the whole time, which I wasn’t so happy about because:

• I could ‘accidentally’ spend my wedding budget
• I didn’t want to store the money back into my unit trust or fixed deposit because it’s a hassle to withdraw later

So I saw StashAway Simple as the perfect solution for me at that time.

How Did My StashAway Simple Performed?

At the beginning of 2021, I had invested in a total of around RM 22k into StashAway Simple. 

After 4 months, StashAway simple has generated me RM 188 in earnings, that’s roughly only 0.79% of my total deposit:

Although my return of 0.79% is far from their advertised 2.4% per annum, I’m only 4 months in. Here’s how I quickly calculate if this investment is right on track as advertised or not:

Quick & Dirty Calculation: If I were to pro-rate the annual 2.4%, at 4 months in, I should be earning roughly: 2.4% divided by 12 months x 4 months = 0.8%

This is not the proper way to calculate, but its good enough for a normal person to gauge the effectiveness. My calculation is at 0.8%, and I earned 0.79%. Close enough! I think this investment is right on track.

As of this writing, StashAway Simple performs better than a regular savings account, but worse than a fixed deposit. I have to wait for a year for StashAway to beat everything.

My Dividend Entitlements & Returns

Here is the breakdown of my earnings. It seems that I earn dividend entitlements (returns) once a month:

The ‘Rebate’ is part of the StashAway Simple’s management fee payment calculation. I would not take the ‘Rebate’ calculation as part of my earnings.

Where is My Money Invested?

100% of my money deposited into StashAway Simple is invested in Islamic money markets (such as bonds).

I doubt regular people would be interested in reading the details about this fund, but if you are, here’s the link shared by StashAway Simple.

StashAway Simple Personal Summary

4 months in, StashAway Simple only made me 0.79%, which is still far from their advertised 2.4%. But if I were to keep the money for a whole 1 year, I’m confident that I will be able to achieve the 2.4% claim.

Would you want the 1-year update? Comment below to let me know 😊

If you want to register StashAway Simple, click below to get your account managed for free for 6 months: