Malaysia Money Matters

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...

Latest op-eds like "60% of Penangites cannot afford to buy houses" and the perennial favourite "Graduates cannot afford properties" really get my goat. Seriously. Am so fed up with all the whining the newspapers do about this issue. Fed. Up. Frankly, why we are even using a fresh graduate salary as a benchmark for purchasing property? They shouldn't be buying one fresh out of university anyway. If you just started work - this is what you should be doing: Rent a room, not an apartment - A ROOM. Save money. Build up your savings. Build some more savings. Depending on your job location, you may need to buy your own transport - either a bike or a small car. Keep it cheap first, OR get a second hand car (make sure you ask around for a reliable mechanic!) Buy an apartment or a flat first. Don't buy a new property, buy one that suits your needs and your budget and is in a high demand location for rental - this usually means high density but with c...

It was bound to happen eventually - the lax way the government wastes money, leakages everywhere and so on. In the long run, this downgrade is probably a good thing. It is a wake up call that we have to DO SOMETHING concrete to move our economy to the next step! Off the top of my head, with but a stroke of a pen, the government should: Impose GST - not just to broaden the tax base but to create more oversight into businesses; lets face it, there's way too much cooking of the books. How can business tax be almost equal to personal income tax? (Govt tax revenue sources by petroleum: business: personal is roughly 33:35:32) Shut down / tightly control the money changers and remittance houses - they are the key channel for fund leaving the country under the radar. Banks have to monitor and report to Bank Negara on fund flows but these organisations don't have to. Why? And it's already proven that funds from corruption by politicians have left the country this way. So ...

How time flies - almost a month since my last post. I'm in the midst of working with my designer on the renovation plans of my new house. Going to do some restructuring as the current layout is not very optimal. Some background - bought a double storey terrace corner lot, the layout is a pretty standard terrace house design. Unfortunately, the previous owner had done some extensions that are not pretty - it looks like it was done without much thought or planning into it. So we're have to break down quite a number of walls to create an open plan space downstairs - dry kitchen, dining, entrance foyer, formal sitting and casual lounge area all into a seamless design while keeping the costs down!! Upstairs, the master bathroom was "remodelled" (if you can call it that) into a heinous L-shaped ... thing! So that is going to need some major work and we're knocking down one room wall to turn it into a central open family lounge area between the rooms. Going bac...

As it happens, I was in Melaka over the weekend - 'twas a most pleasant trip despite the hazy conditions. Not to mention a wee bout of stomach upset... my own fault, think I shouldn't have eaten the rice ball that fell on the table. :P yeah, extreme cheapskate, me. Don't want to waste food! Anyway, it's in the news that the new Chief Minister of Melaka wants to stop the weekend night market at Jonker St. where the road (and by lanes) are closed to traffic on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. He says it's a trial for 1 month to help alleviate traffic... Of course, both sides of the political divide have gone to town on this - DAP saying that this is typical UMNO petty style to punish the Chinese while pro-BN blogs are crowing "serve you right" or to that effect - it was a lot ruder, of course, I've toned it down 'cos I'm classy that way, you see? hehe Ok, so my take on the Jonker Walk market is that it's pretty ok.. nothing great, really...

While a few thousand people showed up, it was far below the expectations of 20,000 to 30,000 attendees. However, was it very surprising? I would say No, Not at all. Here's why: Rally fatigue : there's only so much emotion one can expend - I think most of the earlier attendees have more or less "moved on" and need to get on with their normal lives. It's very tiring to maintain the level of anger at the BN government. Partisan takeover : For those who attended Bersih, the main intention was to demand for electoral reform and to let the ruling party that the unbalanced odds in their favour is simply not fair. BUT that does not translate into automatic support to PR either. The current rallies are PR-related. I see myself as more pro-Malaysia than anything else, hence I wouldn't attend. Life takes over : Well, sooner or later, responsibilities at work and family take over. Holidays that were postponed now can be taken. Life goes on. But to the pro-BN...

You gotta laugh, isn't it? If it was all so tragic to begin with, that is... Needless to say, the fallout of the 13th General Election continues in many permutations - ironically, many pro-BNers are very bitter about "winning" while PR has been rather politically astute in quickly catching on the mood to continue drumming up support through rallies and such - which I think is a waste of time but you know, it's all just political drama.... I was quite taken aback by the very acrimonious racial rants by those aligned to the BN government, so much so that I had to unfriend an old schoolmate (was never close to him anyway) when he was spouting a lot, really a lot, of very offensive anti-Chinese things on his Facebook. I'd rather not have to see that, thank you - I have very close Malay friends and I am not what he paints all Chinese to be in his postings. But no point in confronting, why exacerbate matters? Dia nak bodoh macam tu, biarlah - maybe he needs to get i...