What I found was this product has the following chrematistics -
- can start as low as RM10
- Shariah Compliant
- Transferrable to people
- Account opening done online (via Maybank2U)
- Set Buy and Sell queuing
The low initial investment is the most attractive feature are the low start fees of RM10 and also the Buy and Sell queuing feature. The transferrable feature is also interesting as we can select how much (worth of gold) to transfer to another party.
Other bank's GIA account gold is bought by the grams, but for Maybank it is bought by the RM.
Here's the steps to open MIGA-i via Maybank2u (no need to go to the branches)
Step 1: Login to Maybank2u
Step 2: Select 'Apply'
Step 3: Select ‘Maybank Islamic Gold Account-i (MIGA-i)’ to create MIGA-i account
Step 4: After your MIGA-i has been created, activate your account with an initial investment as low as RM10.
I've just registered for this account and put in a starting amount of RM100. I do understand gold prices are at a high now and it might fall when banks pull handbrakes on inflation by increasing the interest rates. However, in the long term Gold has an upward bias in price, not because its value has increased but due to inflation/excessive money printing. I'm not sure if MiGA-i account can withdraw in physical gold or not but for me it's irrelevant as I prefer not to hold physical gold.
In general, nowadays it is important to have a (small) portion of retirement portfolio in gold as a mini hedge against inflation. Given the Covid19 pandemic situation, governments around the world are printing money and United States is the worst culprit, printing money like no tomorrow and then the inflation is exported to other countries by virtue of all countries holding US dollars as the world's reserved currency. While real estate is still a better hedge against inflation, this investment product is generally quite illiquid, it takes a long time to convert real estate into immediate cash for emergencies.
In addition, geopolitical tensions can also cause gold price to soar up and stock prices to drop. Major geopolitical issues of 2022 include China Taiwan relationship and Russia NATO and US standoff.
A small trivia here, Maybank do have a Silver investment account, a metals account where you guy buy silver. The account is in grams (silver). I do have such an account but due to its un-popularity, I think Maybank might close it down. I write a previous article on Maybank Silver investment account here.
📍Links
https://propfessor.blogspot.com/2020/04/maybank-silver-investment-account-in.html
Referral
In you find this article useful, use my referral code 👉🏽 ocj0125 when asked during the registration of Maybank Islamic Gold Account-i opening.
