Malaysia Money Matters

A new condo launch in Melawati by Sime Darby, I didn't know about it but just so happened to drive by the showroom as it was being constructed; then my mum told me that the launch event was on Saturday the 24th. Didn't have time to go on the 1st day but managed to make it today, the 26th. First impression is that the development seems pretty decent.  An overview from the brochure: Here is the location within Melawati: hehe my scanner truncated it somewhat, the dark green area next to the planned 30 storey apartment is going to be the new Melawati Ma ll (a Capital Mall project). And here are the build-up specifications: Other main information points not in the images above are: Freehold Price per square foot from RM600 to about RM750 for the larger units Maintenance cost is 30 sen per square foot Looks like about 70%-80% booked up by the time I got there around midday today - after just 1 full day + 1 morning of sales. Construction ...

A strategic view, if you will: Lots of Fire element, hence it is an aggressive year. Very creative but also very confrontational. Economies will be vibrant in the 1st half of the year then cool down again in the 2nd half. So make hay while the sun shines. I think a lot of the worry is actually caused by the media (who need to have something to report! And doom & gloom make for sensational news) and by everyone else who have this mistaken notion that economies must *always* grow. No, they are cyclical. If you don't grasp that fact and put into your business forecasts, then you will *always* be wrong and miss targets. Banking looks set to do well (phew!) - I hope the worst of the compliance issues everywhere have been resolved after some major fines being meted out in 2013. Looking at the 24 Mountains chart and compared to the political stage here in Malaysia, we're in for ANOTHER dramatic year. This time, both the Snake (PM Najib) and the Rabbit (Opp Leader Anw...

This is dedicated to Mah Sing Properties and their Aspen Gardens development. Now I believe I must have given my name and phone number at one of their property launches ages ago... most likely at M-Suites. But lately, I've been bombarded with almost weekly SMS messages - and usually the same message is sent twice for their Aspen project. The first few I ignored but then it started to get quite frequent. And the promotion was not about discounts or whatever but for some rather tacky or unrelated activity - just to attract people to go there. And it has become increasingly bizarre of late:  - Today: a Cosplay party  - Last week: Zumba classes  - Earlier: Medical talk  - Months ago: Think a Feng Shui talk... I wouldn't have thought much about it if the SMS's hadn't been so frequent but they were so persistent that it was becoming very annoying. So I did a quick check on this Aspen Gardens - ehmehgerd - they are charging RM3.8million (starting price) for hu...

Avenue K is coming back to life again. As the renovations are finally done, the new tenants are starting to move in. It looks that the mall management has got a clear strategy that works: Have mass market appeal retailers like H&M, Starbucks, FOS, Popular Bookshop, Cotton On, G2000 and so on. Have NON-HALAL food & beverage outlets to act as an alternative to KLCC's fully halal F&B landscape The newly opened Food Atrium (think yesterday was the soft opening) looks like it has potential. The prices are more expensive than both the KLCC foodcourts - a quick glance at the menu boards yesterday looks like a range of at least 10 bucks a meal up to 20 bucks. I had the Vietnamese noodles that was RM17.90 - fairly generous with portion and meat, so no argument there. I think it will definitely be the choice to eat for Chinese shoppers at KLCC - after all, KLCC's food choices are totally halal (as if the 45% of non-Muslims in this country don't matter a...

It started with what seemed to be a fairly innocent news piece about an announcement on a large development in Pahang, specifically in Gambang that would cover 250 acres. The purpose was to build a huge multi-faith complex ( excluding Islam of course, because... err .. well.. lets not go there ) that would house retail, function halls, a resort and most importantly, a final resting place ( ashes only, I think! ) for your dearly beloved and/or yourself of course. Going through their website , the stated intention is noble enough. Creating jobs, attracting tourists and so on. No doubt, it will help the local economy there which is about 30km away from Kuantan or a 3 hour drive from KL. However, look a bit further into their business model and it starts to look very much like an MLM where the product being sold are the columbarium niches at about USD700 a pop. Which is cheap now and what they are promising would be that each niche will triple in value or more in time - so it's e...

This is more like a "note to self" kind of posting.. it's from something someone said on Oprah, can't remember who (he did seem a bit supercilious) but what I remember was that he said in order to be considered truly 'wealthy' and thus happy in one's life - one should have a BALANCE of these 5 kinds of 'wealth': Material Intellectual Physical Emotional Spiritual So lets break it down: Material wealth - the most obvious one, of course, money & possessions etc. I would include a steady or assured income because there's nothing more stressful (to me) about not knowing whether you're going to get any income. Of course, some entrepreneurs may thrive on such an adrenaline rush, but not me, thank you. Intellectual wealth - I believe it means more than just education or qualifications. It should also include the thirst for knowledge and having the ACCESS to knowledge that makes one truly wealthy. Not surprising that even in...

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...

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...

"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...

Keep one compartment in your wallet empty. This symbolises having space to allow more money to flow into your life. I've been doing for the past few years - so far so good! :) Believe it helps focus one's mind to eliminate clutter and as nature abhors a vacuum, thus this 'space' in your wallet is pulling in energy. Just something to consider, eh?

Just realised that I didn't write anything for the whole of 2011! It was an eventful year actually. Got promoted early in the year :) Not to sound ungrateful but it was kind of expected because in terms of meeting the set goals, KPIs etc which was done - so it came in as promised. Only thing was a bit delayed because it was supposed to have been in Sept 2010 but it came in March 2011. Ah well, better late than never. So with that, the pay jump was about.. almost 40% which was kewlness. Then the big surprise was in Sept 2011 after coming back from the Korea trip, that I got a pay increase! That really came out of the blue, was probably too busy working and stuff - just doin' and doin' and doin' and the reward just came! Oiyooo... this time, was about a 20% but seriously, this actually made my pay rise by almost 100% within a year. Yes, in just one year. Like. Oh. My. Goddess. I'm not saying this to boast, I'm still pinching myself to see if this is...