Malaysia Money Matters

I'm going to rant a bit. Ever notice how some people, despite a nominal RM1 parking charge Will Still Park Outside and BLOCK TRAFFIC? Yessss.... so I've come to label them as "cheap asses". Cheap. Ass. Of course their justification would be, "Oh you know, anywhere you can save a dollar, why not?" etc etc. I agree. One should save where one can. But if you become a NUISANCE in your so-called quest to save money, then you are a Cheap Ass. Here is my definition of being economical: Saving money through proper planning and creativity. Let's break it down: Proper planning = planning your trip to the mall to get whatever it is you need, knowing what's on sale, buying things you need (NEED, people. Not 'want'). Cheap asses don't plan. They just do whatever they want like go crazy, snatching stuff at sales, thinking they're saving money on parking by parking on the street, flood F&B outlets with their damn Groupon vouch

Phew, 2012 is over - what a tumultuous year it has been; as predicted for a Water Dragon year with yang water in the heavenly stem on a yang earth element earthly branch - a clash of elements that is like a big wave on land. So let's all look forward to 2013 which is still going to be tough times (yin fire yin water clash) but nowhere near as extreme as 2012. Astrologers are predicting that while it is not going to easy times, there are still opportunities for wealth. Given the elements ruling the year, wealth comes from intelligence - meaning you'll have to use your brain to get ahead, it's not the kind of year where you can do simple things like buy any stocks or shares and boom, you're making money on the market.  So you have to do your homework and I feel the growth areas are in intellectual / technological advances. I believe high tech, publishing, software, innovative products and services - even things like improvements in processes for better effici

So the US Congress is still debating on what to do about their so-called Fiscal Cliff and of course, the media is making a big drama about it. Hmm, so they are going to be "hit" by higher taxes and decreased spending - that was AGREED to happen years ago and this is the medicine that was prescribed to Asia when we were hit by the crisis of 1997. So what's good for the goose is not good for the gander? May sound callous but maybe they should allow this 'falling off' to happen, make the necessary changes to get out of their debt. Maybe the US dollar needs to be devalued (although I do understand their frustration at China for deliberately keeping the yuan low) - same goes for the Euro. It could be too high. Perhaps globally, there should be smaller differentiation between currency values and real wages for a better world for everyone. Let's all sing: This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, Age of Aquarius!  hehe

Just my thoughts on the issue - a couple of friends asked me about it, seeing that I'm in banking and all but at the time, I didn't know much about it - only what I read in the papers when the whole thing blew up. So being the usual KPC (kay poh chi, although I'm not a 'chi', tqvm); thought I'd do a bit of digging and while most people these days are very sceptical about what the government does (including yours truly), I must say that the raid by BNM and the police has its merits. Assessing the situation by fundamental principles of the set-up, operations and sales pitch by Genneva; there is a real disconnect. To break it down simply: It is not set up as a bank, it cannot accept deposits. It is set up like a retailer: "you buy gold from me" but it starts getting muddier because; They promise you physical gold but then persuade you, for practical reasons of the safety of your gold, to accept a promise on paper that you can get your gold at any

Ibrahim Ali of Perkasa - that bastion of brown supremacy - has proclaimed that Islam restricts Malays from succeeding in business while the Chinese (due to our implied godlessness, snort) are merrily making moolah (I love alliterations in case you haven't noticed) from all the non-halal businesses. Well, that statement is so stupid that it's not worth refuting BUT it did prompt me to think about this: what if we were to compare a similar business, which can be run by either a Malay or Chinese or whomever and see how it goes. So have you noticed that tau foo fa (silky bean curd in syrup, a chinese dessert [apparently I DO get readers from Sweden, Russia and so on.. so have to make it clear, right?]) has become a staple at the Ramadhan bazaar for many years now? Sold by Malays. I hate to break it to you but it tastes really bad. It's a simple enough dessert, right? Just soft bean curd in syrup. Not much variation apart of adding ginger to the syrup, OR using brown pal

2 seemingly small issues on the news about PAS in recent days: The fines issued by the PAS controlled municipal council to a Chinese-owned hair salon in Kelantan for allegedly having lady hairdressers cut men's hair Wanting to protest (via memo, yawns) and shut down the upcoming Elton John concert in Genting on account that he's gay. Now if I may quote this very old poem: For want of a nail, the shoe was lost For want of a shoe, the horse was lost For want of a horse, the rider was lost For want of a rider, the battle was lost For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost. For right or wrong, I understand that they have their principles and their right to try to enforce them but this cannot fly in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious country like ours.  Give and take, yes.  But imposing your values by force of majority, no. By these two incidences, it seems to me that PAS is not ready to rule because they always get caught up in issues like this, always

This is post no. 44, 4+4 = 8 = prosperity. Yes, essentially, this is what I want from our government. Because once we become a richer country, life would be better all around - although granted that not all problems will go away but hopefully there will be lesser and replaced by such 'happy' problems of having to decide what to eat! Instead of the problem of 'is there enough to eat'? Firstly, let's be fair to the existing government and civil servants - we are developing to be sure and it is helped a lot by petroleum revenues as well as private enterprise, but at the same time because the pace of growth has been quite high for a while - a lot of fundamental things are not done well and in the long run it will come back to haunt us. In fact the problems are already here: But lets start with one issue first: Education I think there is too much emphasis on tertiary education whereby it has become a matter of quantity over quality, we have failed in the lower le

My colleague recently got into a minor accident while crossing the road, a motorcycle knocked her over. The scary part was that she was carrying her infant son at the time, fortunately they were alright apart from scrapes and bruises. Now, the background to this was that a few years ago, she mentioned that she doesn't have a will despite having 2 kids and I was like, "Girlfriend!? Really? I'm all alone and I already have my will done up, what's wrong witchu??" ( ok, I didn't actually say that.. ) And she was so surprised that I had my estate plans all done up and I said, it doesn't matter how much or how little you think you have, what's important is that you make sure that your survivors are taken care of and there is as little hassle as possible.  An uncle of mine died intestate and my aunt went through a long and tedious process to unfreeze his assets; not to mention fending off his greedy sisters who wanted his property, who cares about his

So I toddled along to the sales gallery for the launch of the Veo which is a high-rise condo in Desa Melawati - north of Taman Melawati proper, it would actually face Tmn Melati across from the MRR2, hence it is close to the exit into the Karak Highway. The developer is Sime Darby and they've launch Tower B ( a calculated move ) which is set slightly back from the main highway, in front of it is the planned Tower A ( with better KLCC views, higher price later natch! ) and the delayed Quarza project which is a commercial development - all by Sime Darby. Onto the Veo itself, it is a mixed bag... lots of 1-bedrooms, posh-ish studio type units at around 700+ square feet going for around RM0.5 million. Then there are the much larger units around 2,000++ square feet including one layout that has the very in-trend dual entrance for the main family unit plus granny flat / bachelor or bachelorette pad, it is a good concept. Priced from RM1.4 million. There is a mid-size layout of 1,

Came across a rather shocking piece of news that was in a vernacular paper; seems that Malay teenagers were willing to subscribe to regular porn stories sent to their phones from an Indonesian service for RM17 a month (or was that a week? Think it was a month...). Like, what the hell? They're kids! Go read a Jackie Collins novel and flip to the dirty bits and fap away at that, my son. Can you imagine that if they have 1,000 subscribers, that's a cool RM17,000 a month. I'm sure they have a lot more than that. I tell you, gotta get me some of that ACTION! hehe but how? LOL Just kidding! (maybe) Which brings me to the situation here, in our oh-so very 'moralistic' country where even the word "Beer" can be censored out of Beyonce's 'If I were a boy' single. Imagine, if you will, that censorship were not as hidebound as it is now and that instead of people accessing porn illegally, it was taxed - goodness, it would exceed the revenue from th

I have been entertaining the thought of adopting a child for quite some time now. However, it will probably be only a pipe dream because given the realities of raising a child single-handedly is not something I can handle in terms of energy and time. Financially, I guess I'm ok but that is only the tip of the iceberg. So what brought this about was that a friend of a friend is getting a child, single also. And really, he's in no shape to do so. Not financially stable, no family support here (they live in East Malaysia, a flight away) and ermm not matured enough yet, I think. Although who is to say, maybe getting a child will force him to get his act together. Anyway, since this blog is all about money, I thought I'd break down the adoption issue in terms of the real costs involved and hold on to your hair, what I'm about to say is not very pleasant: First - there are 2 ways of adopting here: one is through the Welfare department, the other is to find your own baby

Hands up those who got all excited about the concept of Groupon and other similar websites that offer seemingly impossibly high discounts on goods & services? Frankly, I've always been wary of these deals. Unfortunately, I have friends who love this kind of thing and want to drag you along on whatever 'deal' they've gotten. Sigh... So what happens is that I go along and invariably, it sucks. Here is why: Experience 1: Buffet, supposedly. It was a small pub / bistro in PJ. Well known for their BBQ lunch. This time, they did a Groupon deal for a buffet and free-flow of alcohol. Really got such a big frog jumping on the road*, meh? [* - literal translation of Chinese saying; meaning 'seems to good to be true', ie it (the frog) would have been caught and eaten a long time ago ] Holy crap, I tell you, it was the most painful experience EVER. The drinks were watered down and you can tell it was not a good brand that they used, very harsh tasting. I&#

The other day, I was presented with an investment opportunity in a small oil field in North America. The returns are guaranteed and paid quarterly. The premise of which is that it is a proven oil field, already tapped out of easy oil, so by using a new process which they couldn't tell me what it was but I suspect it is fracking. The proposition is very attractive, no doubt but in light of all these investment cases being in the media lately, such as the Gennova gold investment (don't know if it was really a scam, ponzi scheme or just a case of not getting their paperwork done correctly?), I'm rather sceptical. Finally, it came out that the program has not yet received its certification to be sold to investors yet, so I was not too pleased to have wasted my time on being pitched something that is not approved. Commercial bankers are like that one la.. very compliance focused, you know! LOL Anyway, lets see how it goes, am still interested in it as it is a fairly sh

This post has nothing to do with money. All I want to say is (apart from jumping on the bandwagon) is: Enough Already with the news coverage. Seriously. I feel sorry for the girl's parents. 'tis most embarrassing. There's some talk about him doing this to wiggle out of his scholarship bond as his business is doing very well, maybe he doesn't want to go back to NUS. A la Bill Gates, that sort of thing. But it's hearsay at the moment, so don't take my word for it. One good thing to come out of this is that maybe there will be more openness and less hypocricy  about sex in this country. Not holding my breath though. p.s. is it just me or do you think she seems really skinny. At certain angles, looks like he was doing it to a teenage boy, not a girl (*cough reverse Bieber cough*)

I love calculating stuff like this.. mainly because I'm so sick of those newspaper articles that don't do their numbers correctly, saying all sorts of dumb things getting people all riled up AND those commentators who keep ranting on about fresh graduates who can't buy houses (newsflash: they shouldn't be buying houses until working for a few years anyway). So let's all have a reality check here, THIS is what you can afford (a la Suze Orman) based on your TAKE HOME PAY after deducting EPF and income tax. Also, the calculation is based on maxing up to 33% of your take home on housing BUT your actual loan commitment is set at 28% with another 5% set aside for things like quit rent, assessments, maintenance fees (if you're living in a condo or apartment), utilities like electricity, water and sewage (Indah Water) - these are fixed expenses that a lot of people don't take into account when they buy property then wonder why they're short of cash by the en

It's already mid-October. A lot of predictions have been made that once summer is over, there is going to be an economic collapse. A lot of signs seem to be pointing towards it, to wit:  - countries unable to service their sovereign debt, coming close to running out of money  - cost of borrowing increasing, e.g. Spain's rating dropping to BBB+  - the people in countries like Greece protesting against the austerity measures (which is not effective to my mind, the austerities that is, not the protesting) Lets look at it in simple terms: I believe this crisis is brought about by human failings, not because of fancy economic terms. Firstly - lack of integrity :  - Did Greece fudge their numbers to get into the Eurozone? They did, didn't they? So from the get-go, they got in based on lying. So there is no basis for them to be in there.  - Going way back, reneging on the gold standard is what goes us all here in the first place. Secondly - intellectual laziness and

Using the analogy of food, the newly announced budget is like cake. Sweet, nothing but carbohydrates and fat but no nutritional value at all. In other words, hardly any substance. No macro economic reforms, no innovative measures, no tough / disciplined measures to fix problems. Nothing at all. So to call it an election budget is really the understatement of the year. Well, when you eat cake, you'll  feel happy for a while, the sugar buzz is great but after a while, you will be hungry again and your body hasn't gotten any protein or vitamins at all! This budget is like a short term sugar high. One clear example, the RM200 smartphone subsidy. Those young kids who get the subsidy are still going to fork out more just to buy the phone AND have to pay for the monthly data plan. So how is that helping them? Sigh.. expect more sexting and dumb comments on twitter, facebook et al and definitely more hook ups and booty calls when they get onto the hookup apps! Is the 200 buck

Many people, including those in the government, think that credit cards are bad, bad, bad. So is fire, doesn't stop you from using it, does it? I would argue that if the rules are set properly (not arbitrarily as they are now), AND taking into account lessons learnt from Taiwan and South Korea on how to jump start your domestic economy but without most of the dire problems that can come with a consumption-led boom, then listen up: But first, some background. There are about 11-12 million working adults in this country. Only about 4 million actually hold credit cards. What about the rest, you ask? Based on the Bank Negara guidelines, they don't qualify due to their lower income or lack of income documentation, say hawkers etc who deal in cash and don't keep proper records. The consequence of that is that these individuals are essentially LOCKED OUT of the formal banking system, so who do they turn to when there is a need for cash - you got it, the loan sharks. Why do

The 2013 Budget has been tabled. A lot of funding in bits and pieces to a diverse range of stuff ranging from legal aid, insurance for hawkers & fishermen, residents associations, smartphone rebate for youths (like they deserve it? wth!) and so on. Being the typical cynical Malaysian (it's almost a default setting, seriously, given the stories on corruption one hears so often), I went through the budget speech to look for any big projects that are possible cash cows (pun intended) and I guess there are a few - especially the TRX (Tun Razak Exchange) which even pro-establishment blogs are questioning. Do we need another financial district, purely for Islamic banking? Well, pity most of the local banks who will be arm twisted into setting up office there. This country is not rich enough to need so many banks AND running on 2 platforms - conventional and Islamic. Anyway, topic for another day. Back to the Budget - I would rate it as pump priming via direct handouts and disco

So Avenue K is being refurbished... again. I actually quite like the place but somehow, I think it suffers from *something* but I don't know what. Location is good, right next to KLCC and connected to the LRT but it just cannot seem to make it big. I reckon it has something to do with the management - I used to have season parking there and if the car park management is any indication of the total mall management.. well.. hmm! Not a good experience. One of my fantasies is to take over that place, turn it into a Services & Senses Mall.. yeah baby, it's all about sight, smell, sound, taste and feel. Meaning, focus on F&B, services like spa, massage, beauty and so on. Don't bother fighting for retail because that's what Suria KLCC is all about, you can't win. Anyway, looks like they are positioning themselves as a fashion retail space. *shakes head* Pavilion has just opened its Fashion Avenue - don't think Avenue K can compete. Anyway, walking along J

I purchased a unit of interest in this venture sometime last year. So far, they've made good their promise of the 1st year return which is in the form of their products (retail value of RM800). Well, you know, bird nest has a high perceived value (even to me, especially on the health & beauty aspect! Yes, I'm vain). Now that the issue with exporting bird nest products to China is more or less sorted out, it should bode well. I think I kinda like buying more 'exotic' investments e.g. bullion, bird nest (oh yeah, the return on my fave shopping mall REIT was unexpected and not bad, think it works out to be around a 6% return pa). Why the birds nest investment? Culturally significant luxury food item to the Chinese (Japanese & Koreans too, I think. And if not, it's not a stretch of the imagination for them to latch onto it too.) Only available from South East Asia - the swiftlets that produce this do not live anywhere else - don't even think it can

I actually didn't see this until a week after it was published in the Star. I got the photo off Facebook! hee Firstly, there's something weird about how they have classified "Upper Middle" as having an income of RM10k a month now in 2012 - reason being, if you see that back in the 80's, the ratio of  UM income to Lower income is about 8 times. It can't be that now in 2012, the ratio is only 3.3 times? I believe the ratio should be the same - so Upper Middle class household income now SHOULD be around RM26,000 a month. That makes more sense. Apart from that, the rest of the numbers make sense and shows that the middle class is being squeezed. Taking the ratio of annual income to house price, back in the 80's a middle class household only needs 4 times annual income for a double storey house. Now it is 7 times. Actually, the upper middle is also squeezed even if we took 26k as the benchmark, because back then, an upper middle class household als

Bank Negara has been pushing for greater use of electronic money. I recall back in the day that BNM was trying to get the banks to push more debit card usage and the banks did try, believe me. There are a lot of advantages to going cash-less - especially in Malaysia, because honestly, I think there is a lot (A LOT) of physical cash moving around in the underground sector of loan sharks, drugs, prostitution and all manner of legit businesses acting as a frontage. Using electronic money saves on physical cash management which is a PAIN (for banks lah), provides better monitoring and better record keeping - if you have nothing to hide, that is! So why didn't debit card usage take off, especially with BNM breathing down the necks of all the banks? A few reasons: The majority of M'sians are actually living hand-to-mouth, there's practically nothing left in their savings account the day after pay-day. It's all been taken out to pay off debts / rent and buying groce

You know how sometimes some things seem to appear in the periphery - innovative stuff in some documentary or news shows that is kinda cool but no one really pays attention to it and then boom, it ends up altering everything! So I wonder, what are the few new or not-so-new technologies that could end up changing the world as we know it? I reckon these are - shale gas, cloud computing and 3-d printing. Shale gas: Even though I think that cellulosic ethanol is more sustainable, the current infrastructure favours shale gas production in terms of volume & immediacy. Actually, I think it is a good thing that the US can be energy-independent or at least, rely more on Canada instead of the Middle East. Same goes for Israel too. International politics is going to shift in a big way and frankly, it's about time too. Less money going into the Middle East will force them to come to terms with the real world, no more easy money - time to grow up. Cloud computing: More thin client de

Can't help but think that the current problem rests on two basic things: 1. That Greece fudged its numbers to be eligible to enter the Eurozone 2. That the Euro members don't want to let Greece out for fear of losing face So the crux of the matter is that their membership is based on a lie and for the sake of ego, the other countries are expecting Germany to continue lending money to Greece to service its loans. It doesn't make sense to do so! Face the facts, the due diligence was not done properly and structurally, the Greek economy was not prepared for the influx of cheap money coming in on the back of strong credit ratings which are not theirs. Of course, if we are pointing fingers, then part of the blame also lies in the intellectual laziness of the analysts who conveniently combined the credit ratings and averaged them out, thus making it seem that Greece was more credit worthy than it actually was. [The reverse also happened in the Asian Financial Crisis whe

Over the years, I've changed jobs and every time I did so, I'd have to open a new account for my salary. It hit me that I have quite a number of accounts out there!! Seeing that I have some free time this week, I decided to take half a day to run around and close up all these 'legacy' accounts. Not bad, all in, I liquidates about 500 bucks! Can you imagine? That's my problem actually, I tend to leave things unattended - mainly because too busy and procrastinating :P A few months ago, I also went through a round of decluttering by cancelling some old insurance policies and subscriptions - from the insurance alone, I got back around 1,300 and the subscriptions were costing me about 2,000 a year! Sigh.. now, the only thing left is what in the world am I going to do with all the small change accumulated into literally kilos of coins? Yikes...! 'tis a journey..

They have an optimistic view with the following stats: RM440+ billion to be spent on projects RM860+  million on the poor 5% growth year on year to 2020 Great! Err... but don't forget that there are key structural problems that are not being addressed seriously / or being addressed but not much results to show for it. Corruption From the little bribes to the traffic cop to the multi-million scandals in the news, Malaysians have become cynical to having a clean, meritocracy here even though we know this is what we need but with so much vested interest around, how can this be eradicated meaningfully? On a practical view, corruption will always be around in some form or another, lets not kid ourselves that it can be stamped out completely. All we want is for it to be reduced to a minimum and those who do indulge in it will be caught and punished. Right now, it is the whistleblowers who are victimised for "not following the proper procedure to report such activities

So we have several government initiatives to 'transform' the economy but the question is: can project-driven development get Malaysia to where it wants be? No doubt the building boom during the Mahathir years spurred the economy, aided by petroleum revenues. But is this model still applicable now in 2012 and beyond? Let's break it down: The population & minimum wage Lets set aside the view of race and look at Malaysia in terms of socio-economic background. In this respect, then we resemble what I would term a 'tear drop' shape, not a pyramid. Why this shape? Notice the small sharp pinnacle at the top and the heavy bulge at the bottom. A pyramid presumes a more equal distribution in just a few bands. An organic shape is a more accurate description of what is going on in our country. According the government statistics, only 3% earn above RM15,000 a month while something close to 75% of workers earn below RM1,500 a month. Actually, I am not too fussed

Am seriously considering going onto Smashwords as an indie writer and sell stories. Now, of course any new adventure of mine always has an ulterior motive, in other words: it's all about the money, it's all about the boom boom bada boom boom, baby! Although, that being said I think it has to do a lot with me wanting to express myself more creatively. I am not to keen on the whole affiliate marketing thing or writing eBooks on technical stuff, although I could but I think my heart would not be in it. Hmm.. my research (i.e. sorting by best sellers) shows that best sellers are mainly erotic romance on SW. Huhu!! All of that " her heaving bosom crested her bodice as the gallant officer carried her off the pirate ship, she could feel his generous endowment against her hip " stuff?! Just need to get off my butt and start writing it all down..

"100 birds in the South" symbolises many opportunities coming your way. Why so? Let's break it down: South = represented by the Phoenix, Queen of the Birds 100 = shorthand for 'lots'  Element of the South = fire (luck that comes from fame, being known - not necessarily being a celebrity but being known in your field of work, thus opportunities will 'fly' to you, see?) So, displaying an image of 100 birds will activate this kind of luck for you.  Ok, I'll admit, it is all quite tied up with Chinese culture but at the crux of it all, I think it is a form of neuro-linguistic programming that has developed over thousands of years so people think it's mumbo-jumbo. But it's not.  Anyway, instead of spending a lot of money [that you DO have ;) but don't want to use] on buying a display piece that might be too chinois for your current home décor - here's what I did: Found a beautiful National Geographic poster on bird migrati

In my seemingly never ending quest to purchase another property, I thought I might as well document my thoughts here on what I've seen so far.. sort of like a reminder / diary for myself. Age IS catching up after all! OK, so went to have a look at the Type A unit in 3 Residen which is 1,389 sq ft with an asking price of RM700,000. I've been to the launch of this development a number of years back and have seen the show unit. Now, finally having a look at the completed one. The positive: The location in Melawati is not bad, in that it is next to the hills so there is some greenery that is unlikely to be torn down The large foyer is a unique feature and does set the unit back away from the common area, so there is some sense of additional private space before you enter the unit proper - although one could also say that it is a waste of space. Depends. The movable panels for your office / private entertainment area that can be closed off is a clever touch The triangula

A few months ago, I decided to put some money aside into bullion. I've been reading up on gold and silver investments and watched the prices for a while. But given how busy I can get at work, I decided that gold trading is not for me - just don't have the time to watch the volatility and honestly, I don't have the stomach for it. Not in my DNA as it were :) Anyway, after scouting around the different options available, I went for Tomei's portal Goldsilver2u.com (err.. not very original huh? LOL but it's straight to the point!) to buy some wafers  - yeah, wish I could say BARS of gold but you know.. Got some silver too, the prices have fallen a bit but I'm not too concerned because this is a long term play. Mainly I went with Tomei because they've been around for a while, have a strong retail presence and thus, pretty stable. Not rocket science, really. So, they are now tucked away in the safety deposit box at the bank for a rainy day.

There's been a lot of hoo-ha in the media lately here - from Anwar's remark while on the dock to Jamil's so-called 'call for protest against gay marriage'. I mean, seriously? Is this even an issue in Malaysia? Firstly, as a Buddhist, this is not an issue to me. Marriage is a social convention that is part of the samsara world. It is what it is, when done well (i.e. a happy marriage), it produces stable individuals who can develop themselves. When done badly (i.e. broken or unhappy marriage), it produces unhappy people - both parents AND kids with long lasting implications. So whether marriage is good, bad, for heterosexuals only, can be for gays also and so on is a pointless debate because the debate does not focus on the actual results. Of course, on an overall basis, a stable family life produces a well-balanced society. A well-balanced society means a good environment for mental cultivation and reduced suffering. I think a stable family life be it heterosexua