As a form of diversification I have decided to purchase some AMB (Amanah Mutual Berhad) unit trust. My banker at Maybank had tried to persuade me to buy these units since early last year (2011) but I was skeptical ( without even looking at the annual financial report!). I am more comfortable with the "regular" PNB unit trusts like AS1M,ASM,ASN3 and ASW.
Last week Agnes (the persistent banker) had texted me that AMB unit trust was selling at a discount of only 3% sales charge as opposed to the usual 6.5%. My interest was piqued. I started to look for the information on this unit trust and the prospectus and was encouraged to invest. In fact I truly regretted not investing in it much earlier Launched in 2003, this PNB-owned unit trust fund has been making impressive progress giving an upside of 167% over the period. Of course you will realise that past performance is not a guarantee of future income distribution ( as they always like to remind investors!).
I withdrew some of my saving last Thursday (11 May 2012) to purchase this Unit Trust and was looking for more fund before the deadline of the discount sales charge that is today 15 May 2012! Was counting myself lucky when I received a text from HSBC on Friday 12 May, that my BNM Bond (SSR) acquired in 2009 would mature on 14 May 2012, Monday. Gosh,the 50k capital "out of nowhere"! I was adamant all of it would go to AMB unit trust. So you could imagine my desperation to get back that money in time before 4pm on 15 May today.
I checked online for the credit last evening , but still not in. This morning I enquired "left,right and centre" for the fund as it was going to be a last minute purchase kinda thing. The telebanker said it was BNM which was delaying the crediting and the HSBC branch manager was trying to influence us to buy their managed unit trusts by saying that they could also give us a 10% return to rival AMB and that past performance is not a guarantee...blah,blah......and at 4pm there was still no sign of my "money". I was disappointed to say the least.
And just now at about 9.30pm (15 May 2012) when I checked online, there it was my 50k nicely nestled in among the transactions. Well, I missed the discount and now hoping that the AMB unit trust price would fall following the Eurozone crisis with Greece possibly withdrawing from the Euro (or being ejected). I noticed today there is a broad selling down across the board at Bursa Malaysia in tandem with other regional markets.
As I am no longer risk-happy like I used to be, I am into unit trusts and let the fund managers deal with the market volatility. Luckily, I managed to come out of the market just before the selldown, leaving only my telco stocks which are broadly defensive. Though AMB unit trust is an equity fund , I feel a lot safer to be in a group rather than on my own as I am looking for returns beyond five years of investment. Trading and speculation are out as far as I am concerned (for the time being :).... at least)
A discount of 3.5% is quite substantial if you were going to buy a lot of units. As usual one can never be lucky all the time and come to think of it, the process of fund acquisition in fact constitutes half the fun of investing,
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2 comments:
Hi there, if you wish to purchase funds such as AMB for sales charge fee (2% or lower), perhaps I would recommend that you read this:
Saving on Sales Charge Fee
http://invest-made-easy.blogspot.com/2012/12/fundsupermart-saving-on-sales-charge-fee.html
Hi MY Investor,thank you for your information. I have visited your informative blog and found it quite helpful. Will be visiting regularly to see what's in store for me in regards to knowledge and sharing of experience.
Yes, it is very convenience to do transactions online. I have also visited the Fundsupermart website and read their T&C. The only thing that worries me are a number of indemnities in favour of the company.
I suppose if you are used to this kind of online investing, it should be fine as the lower sales charge is indeed attractive in the long run.
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