Malaysia Money Matters

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 l...

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...