Malaysia Money Matters

Many years ago, I wrote a rant about the Bumi discount that property developers give to bumi customers. Non-bumis, of course, pay full price. Not only that, you know that the developers would have passed the cost of the discount to YOU, the non-bumi buyer. And if you didn't know that, consider yourself schooled, yo. Anyway, that was then. After all the angst and what have you of the unfairness of the whole thing, what woke me up was the constant (I do mean CONSTANT) whining you see on commentaries and forum boards about how oh so unfair it is etc etc (as well as whining about how new launches are always soooo expensive and not where they want to live etc - that's a whole other post).. and I was like, what the F? So you know what? Screw the system. I am not going to even participate in this whole "relying on developers for properties while being screwed to fund the discount". I went and bought from the secondary market. Yes, it needs more cash up front. Yes,...

As we get closer to the date (who knows when it will ever materialise .... talk about dragging it out), a new article on Malaysia Today links to a so-called campaign by Anas Zubedy  called "No Free Rides" calls for Malaysians to write a letter to their MPs articulating what you would want and then based on their responses, vote for the one who agrees to your wishes (!). Now, I'm rather conflicted about this guy - am not quite sure if he is naive, idealistic, has a hidden agenda, just doing this for attention (for his business) or all of the above. He always comes across, to me anyway, as a mix of smarmy and sincere. Not a good combination, believe me. Anyway, what he's calling for is not wrong - in an ideal world, that really should be how we decide on which politician to vote for.. but practically? Hmm.. Nonetheless, 'tis a good exercise to think through what each of us finds important. Ultimately, what we want is the best for our country, right? So to ...

I wants it, precious! Wonder what is the price? So far, have had good experience with the returns from Pavillion REIT, just kicking myself for not buying into it earlier LOL yeah... nothing much to blog about, except that I'm in the process of completing the lengthy process of buying a house. Yeah, got one finally - a landed property in a decent neighbourhood. My long term investment as it were :)