How to invest in Malaysia: A practical guide for beginners (updated 2024)

Before this resource on how to invest in Malaysia came about, we did a simple guide on how to start investing in Singapore some time back, which proved to be a great resource for Singaporeans who wanted a quick and easy way to get up to speed on how to invest in Singapore.

So now we decided to do the same for our Malaysian readers and create a similar resource on how to invest in Malaysia. We’ve compiled a list of our best articles that will guide you step-by-step on what you need to do to start investing today.

You’ll find that many of the links here are very similar to our Singapore guide – and that’s because the principles of financial responsibility, fundamental analysis, and long-term investing are almost the same anywhere in the world. But we have a number of articles that are unique just to Malaysian investors and we’ll add more to this resource as we continue to publish them.

We hope this practical guide will help you get the ball rolling — especially if you’re a beginner – and ultimately help you make better, more profitable investment decisions. 😊

How to invest in Malaysia

1. Before you start investing, it’s important to set your personal financial goals and how much you need to save (and invest) to reach your target. These articles will show you how to plan ahead and get your personal finances in order before you put first dollar in the stock market.

• How saving just RM11 a day can make you a millionaire
• Do you have these 2 financial parachutes ready before you invest?
• The rule of 300: How much you need for retirement

2. Once you have your finances in order, it’s time to open a brokerage account. We’ll show you how to open a brokerage account in Malaysia.

• How to buy shares in Malaysia and open a Malaysian brokerage account

3. The next step is to choose you investment style that works best for you — based on your own risk profile, investment goals, and financial needs. Remember, any particular strategy can give you great returns as long as you do it right, and you’re also free to combine different styles to suit your individual needs.

• Here are the top 5 stock investment styles. Find out which one works best for you

Knowing that, these articles will give you a deeper introduction into each investment style:

Value-growth investing

• The Alpha Quadrant: The 4-step formula to picking the best stock investments
• The many models of investing: Predictable value investing
• 7 quick steps to pick the best value-growth stocks

Income investing

• 5 reasons why you should invest in dividend stocks
• 5 easy steps to pick the best dividend-growth stocks
• 10% and beyond – how to earn a double-digit dividend yield from your investments
• 7 reasons why Nestlé Malaysia is on my dividend watchlist

Malaysian REITs (Income investing)

• 5 important factors you need to consider before you invest in any REIT
• Top 5 Malaysian REITs that made you money if you invested from their IPOs

Deep value investing

• Deep value investing: 4 core tenets to finding bargain stocks with big upside
• 6 things you need to know about deep value investing before jumping into it…
• How to construct a deep value stock portfolio

4. Once you understand the types of companies you should be looking out for, you need to manage a watchlist and portfolio of stocks. We’ll show you some quick ways of finding investment ideas to add to your watchlist, and what you need to do manage and monitor your stock portfolio along the way.

• 3 easy ways I find new investment ideas fast
• When to buy a stock: The 3 best times to buy stocks at a discount
• When to sell a stock: 3 best times to sell a stock to lock in profits and protect your downside
• 3 ways to maximize your investment returns during a market crash
• 3 things you need to do when your stock’s price falls 30%-50% (or more…)
• 3 signs your stock portfolio could lose you a lot of money
• 5 things you need to do if you keep losing money in the stock market
• 5 reasons why you should attend annual general meetings if you’re an investor
• 4 free investment apps to track your stock portfolio performance

The fifth perspective

We hope you find this guide on how to invest in Malaysia useful. This list is by no means final and we’ll add/update the guide as we write more articles and share new information that’s relevant to investing in Malaysia.

At the same time, check our favourite investment books, read our analysis section, and our coverage on annual general meetings on how we apply these concepts when we do our research on companies in Malaysia and beyond – I believe you’ll find a treasure trove of insights that will help you become a better, more profitable investor.

To your investing success,
The Fifth Person