I was thinking about the time when I opened a GCash account because some of my favorite restaurants aren't in Foodpanda anymore. Shawarma Gourmet no longer was in Grab Food and I wanted to buy their pita bread to eat steaks with. Eventually, I found the feature called GInvest which is basically investing for a minimum of PHP 50.00 or PHP 1,000.00 for starters. I've had some investments such as AXA's Chinese Tycoon, Retail Treasury Bond (RTB), and Long Term Negotiable Certificate of Deposit. Basically, these are mutual funds. However, I felt the need to do some investment muscles. For privacy purposes, I'm not going to display full data here and neither should you.
I thought about how GInvest has opened some time ago but I only got into it late last year. I decided to drop in a few pesos into the local investments (which have PHP 50.00 minimum) and the international investments (which have PHP 1,000.00 minimum). I took the risk assessment and found myself in the "moderately aggressive". However, the application allows aggressive investment even for that. I guess my risk appetite changed from moderate to moderately aggressive. I decided to drop in some money here and there to see how it goes.
It would be good to know that GCash is short for Globe Cash. GCash is partnered with the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) as well as other partner banks. Pretty much, GCash is a legitimate platform for digital money which can't be compared to cryptocurrency which I'm wary about. I decided to give it a try. I admit that I sold one of my earlier investments (which only made a few centavos) and transferred to a more aggressive package. Meanwhile, I try to keep in mind to invest the money only which you don't need now. So what I did was to put some money in GSavings (which is ran by Commerce International Merchant Bankers or CIMB) to take advantage of the 2.5% interest rate. I decided to abide by the minimum deposit since banks do require them. GSavings is a powerful safeguard if ever I need to use GCash for future transactions.
It would be important to know that just investing PHP 50.00 or PHP 1,000.00 will not make it increase in a short amount of time. One reason why people enter into the Ponzi schemes or pyramid schemes is because of the promise of fast gains. Neither stocks nor bonds promise immediate high returns. Both amounts are the starting point. Chances are the PHP 50.00 was raised to PHP 55.00 and the PHP 1,000.00 was raised to PHP 1,050.00 for a start. It's really not an instant wealth maker which is a good thing. It means that the returns are in moderation no matter how aggressive the package is. There's a reminder function that informs you to invest at least a certain amount at a certain period of time. It's like I should invest at least a certain amount per month or per quarter. It would help develop discipline overtime such as dropping PHP 50.00 a day (which would mean investing PHP 1,500 per month) or PHP 1,000.00 a month for a start.
Basically, it will be a good feeding muscle. One of the things that I felt was pay attention to the Net Asset Value Per Unit (NAVPU). If the NAVPU is down then I feel it's time to buy low and sell high. Buying high and selling higher can be good but only if you're quite experienced. Otherwise, buying high to sell higher might soon result in a loss. Though, some people buy stocks to hold on to them if they give dividends. Some of them buy the stocks to get a share in the company. A share is a specific number of stocks required to form at least one share. I think it would be a good idea to at least buy low and sell high. If the NAVPU is low then one can get more units. Though I don't suggest buying when the NAVPU is way too low either. It might mean the performance isn't good. Though buying at a slightly higher price might be the better advantage.
I think one disadvantage with GInvest is the amount of time from purchase and sales. The good news is you bought the value on that day. For some reason, GInvest delivers your units after a certain number of business days instead. I guess it's because the feature is still new so what's why the purchases and sales can't be made immediately. Yet, if you bought it for that day then that's the amount charged to you. One needs to be rather patient in doing GInvest. I feel the feature was deliberately done to avoid overbuying by making purchasers wait for their investments to arrive. Take note that the cutoff time is from 12:00 A.M. to 11:59 P.M.--something I need to take note of when continuing my journey here.
I consider GInvest it as my petty cash investment. It would probably help me build better muscle for investments. The aim isn't all about making millions but making sure to have money to meet your needs. I think putting some money in the Philippine Stock Index Fund would help me get a know-how before I decide to buy stocks and handle them myself from the Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEI). Getting some feeder funds would mean getting small units of stocks from global companies. I feel learning all about them would be essential before I enter a bigger amount into them. Then again, I won't be showing financial figures because people have the right to financial privacy.