StashAway 2022 Review — How much did I make After 2 years?
Investing as a beginner — Recapping my journey and StashAway Robo Advisor performance
You know how it is like when you dated someone for a year and the red flags start to appear?
You pretend and still hang on….in hopes that things would change for the better.
Well,
it has been almost 2.5 years.
And it’s time to give up on this relationship and date someone else….
This is how I felt at this very moment as I am giving my final update and review about my journey with StashAway. I thought I should give a final update on my StashAway’s performance before I liquidate all my money on the platform.
Previously I wrote how I was still fiercely loyal to the platform and shared about how we should be invested in the long term. But I now realize that comparing the StashAway with other Robo advisors (Endowus and Syfe) in the market, StashAway is the worst performing platform.
Here is a video that recaps my thoughts below. If you prefer not to read further.
Comparison of Robo Advisors Performance
Today will be the final time I am going to update you about my StashAway. And I will be breaking up with StashAway.
This is based on the Robowar experiment done by Choong Hwee who shared on Seedly, he has been comparing the performance of Robo Advisors since Jan 2021.
At the end of 2021, Endowus was the best performing roboadvisors compared, Syfe was pretty good, and then when it comes to StashAway… basically you would have lost money.
And if you started investing with the Robo Advisors from Jan 2021 till now, Endowus would bring you a 9.66% gain while you would lose your money investing with StashAway. StashAway is -7.89%.
Reasons Why I’m Leaving StashAway
- Not earning money for the last 2 years
- Performance is not as good compared to the other platforms (Endowus & Syfe)
- Will prefer to do my own investing by buying Index fund
- Money is needed elsewhere — Jingles and I are getting a home!
My StashAway Performance Snapshot
StashAway has recommended to stay invested in their portfolio for a minimum of 3–5 years. I have started investing for about 2 years and 4 months. It’s 8 months to 3 years of investing with StashAway and I’m still getting negative returns.
I am not a financial advisor and as a normal consumer, someone who is not well versed in the various financial instruments, you would expect that by putting your money with Robo-advisors, you would have a better return compared to placing your money in a bank account.
And especially one that you pay a monthly management fee…. you should at least expect them not to lose your money. But of course, all investments have their risk and this includes Robo advisors.
I have been reading this book by call Skin in the Game and it taught me about the challenges of how there are lopsided or one-sided benefits or incentives. By charging you a monthly fee based on the AUM (assets under management), even if the assets under management lose money Robo advisors can still get a percentage cut of the assets. That means Robo Advisors can still profit as they could deduct management fees even when there is a negative return.
Even when…you lose money.
Therefore, the StashAway management fee adds up to losses in my portfolio.
Now let’s see my StashAway performance.
Based on a simple calculation my net deposit is $29k and so far the returns is -$1,358. Which is around -4%.
My portfolio is a split between Income which is more toward local and 22% which invests in global assets.
More details of the portfolio breakdown are here:
Final Thoughts & Next Steps
Moving forward, I have started dollar-cost averaging into Endowus and will be DIY-ing some of my finances into Index funds.
I hope that Endowus continues to perform well and tide through these challenging markets.
Let me know if you also invest in Robo-advisors and how are your experience so far?
Thanks, Choong Hwee for the data insights and comparison of the various Robo-advisors to help me make my investing decisions.
