Currency around Malaysia

The following shows a list of a few currency compare to Malaysia Ringgit.  Basically the higher the graph the better it is for the Malaysian - "I can get more of their money with my money."

In short ... 

For those who earn Malaysia Ringgit, its good to go spend in USA and Indonesia.  On the other hand, those who are working in China and Singapore are laughing when spending their money back in Malaysia.

USA

Australia

China

Indonesia

Philippine

Singapore

Thailand

You can investigate more yourself by visiting to xe.com

Extra work

Not entirely TRUE in all aspects but nevertheless a great quote 

The Amount of Money

in your bank

at the time you Died

. . . 

is the EXTRA work you did

that wasn't Necessary

Investing on Foreign Land Conversion

Have you ever been approached by investment opportunity on a piece of land oversea ? It usually goes like this ...

Land is limited, population is growing.  So investing on land is a low risk high return opportunity;  Especially on an island . . . but why oversea and how its a better investment ?

• more structure and well organized land & property legislation 

With better laws in foreign country, one can be more assured in his land investment is being protected in terms of benefits and interest safe guards compare to your own country which may otherwise affected by cronism or corruption.

• steady and growing population - usually a developed nation

Here the demand is being taken care of.  If the people in your country is leaving the country, then there may not be any more demand to your land in future.

• tax free or exemption

Normally a country would love some money coming in from oversea, hence they may offer attractive tax incentive.  So investing on land oversea could actually become cheaper than investing land in your own country.

• Land Conversion

To make the return more attractive, land investment is usually tight to conversion.  For example, the land was initially for farming purpose.  But as population grows, the land is to be converted to residential area.  Once converted, the value of the land usually increase drastically.  However conversion like this requires expertise planning and professional services.

So should you invest into an opportunity like this ?  

Says there is an offer on a piece of land near London where this farmland will be converted into a residential area in the next 5 years.  The offer is GBP 13 to GBP 16 per square feet.  Assume the buying process is simple and legal where you only need to deal with a local public company approved by your local government.  Buying process is as simple as using your credit card and checks writing.  Total investment could be as small as 1,000 sq ft.

Will you buy into this offer ?  What are that factors that will affect your decisions ?

Money And Love Personal Finance

MaLPF.com = Money And Love Personal Finance

Happy Chinese New Year 2013

Have you optimized your 2012 tax ? Last call !

Do you know that you can actually save up to RM 925 by paying attention to your tax even if you are only earning Rm 3,000 a month ?  The example is illustrated here !

This is a reminder last CALL for you to optimize your 2012 tax.  IRB may actually pay you a bonus this year !

Malaysia Stock Market 20121107

Buying opportunities again ... are you dare to go for some year end bonus this year ?

TM : no major news, could have bought in today.  Should be a good keeper.

AIRASIA : EPF leaving, International investors support, internal Directors buy back.  If you like Airasia business model etc.  Opportunity to buy now.  No foreseeable big profit gain by year end thao.

AXIATA : No Major News, EPF & Amanah Raya holding up.

DIGI : face problems in service area, technical issues, licenses etc.  EPF disposing.  Watch closely for Management strategy turn over.  Now this company is 'finally' going south, not just stock wise, mainly business wise.

PBBANK : NO Major news, EPF continuously holding up.  But technically just started a down trend.  Don't chase down trend, wait a bit on this one.

What is your opinions ?  All comments welcome ...

Reversal Trend Stocks

In stock investment, you should learn how to see the mega trend.  When it is generally a bull trend, you simply buy some blue chips and it shall earn you some good money.  When bear comes, you took your profit.  As long as you don't stay too close to the market, this can rather easily be achieved.  Just walk around a wet market and ask 10 stalls how the market is.  You will be surprised how closely their non-professional opinions are related to the real market performance.

Then you must realize NOT ALL stocks are the same.  Even during an obvious bull run, there are some stocks going down.  Like wise during bear runs.  Some stocks will still go up.  Finding out these 'Reversal Stocks' is important for a full time traders.

The reason goes like this:  there is a fix amount of money floating in the market.  The mega fund managers simply CAN NOT withdraw TOTALLY from the market even if it is GUARANTEED a bear market.  They are required by law to keep investing ie. 70% of their fund.  So during bear market, they will focus on a few stocks to minimize loses.  As a result, during bear market, a few stocks will always be on a up trend.  And not surprisingly, those are the stocks didn't join the previous bull run.

As long as you have done your fundamental analysis, knowing mega trend stocks and reversal stocks allows you to invest both during good and bad time.

Cheated or Own Ignorance ?

a Guaranteed 20% return investment was introduced earlier and it is indeed legitimate.  But do you know it is like an offer " Give me $10 now, I will give you back $9 ".  And of course it is Guaranteed !



Gold Price is about $17,000 at the time that offer was made.  You could easily buy a 100g gold bullion at $18,000 at market rate.

A recap of the offer as below

SummaryMaximum Capital : $ 23,500
Total Return : $4,590
Rough Return : ~20%

As you can see, you are actually paying an extra of $5,500 at the beginning without realizing it.  ( If you know the gold price, you would probably NOT buying it, would you ? )

23,500 - 18,000 = 5,500

Then through out the period, they will pay you back $4,590 and yet they can keep an extra profit of about $1,000

5,500 - 4,590 = 910

Of course it is Guaranteed !  Because you already pay them the money they will pay you back.  All they need to do is to keep the extra money in a FD and they can easily honour the 'contract' they promise to pay you back.

Is that a scam ?  Well, not really.  Because they didn't really cheat or present any incorrect facts.  They will even show you the gold price at that point of time.  Gold selling price is always higher than the gold index price because traders need to pay other fees and make a profit.  

The problem is you don't know how much other gold traders are selling gold bullions at.

So the only 'trick' for a person who 'invest' into such a scheme is his own 'ignorance'.  There isn't really a crime nor fault of the business here.  It always PAY to be IGNORANT.  And this is the best real life lesson you can get.  After all, you only pay $910 for such a lesson.

Then again, almost ALL of those who invested in such a scheme STILL DO NOT UNDERSTAND what they have got into.  They will simply just get out of this scheme one day and get into another similar ones.

20% Guaranteed Return through GOLD ?

Have you ever heard of an investment with Guaranteed Return 20% ?  Well, this particular one is from The Gold Guaranteed . . . what do you think the catch is ?

1. You Buy Bullion Gold from TGG ( The Gold Guaranteed )
2. You keep the gold
3. You sign a 3-months-contract with TGG
4. TGG pays you 1.7% every month
5. At the end of 3 months, you can choose to 
1. renew the contract for another 3 months or
2. sell the gold back to TGG how much you have paid for ( ie. your Capital ) 

• To renew the contract, you have to pay the additional cost if the gold price has gone up
• Like wise if the gold price has gone down, you get paid extra and also gets to renew the contract

For example, at end of August . . .

1. You pay $22,500 for a 100g bullion and signed the 2 pages contract
2. You get paid $382.50 monthly for the next 3 months ( 22,500 x 1.7% )
3. 3 months later, 100g gold price goes up to $23,500.
4. You paid an extra $1,000 and renew the contract
5. You get paid $399.50 monthly for the next 3 months ( 23,500 x 1.7% )
6. another 3 months later, 100g gold price goes down to $21,500.
7. You get paid $2,000 and renew the contract
8. You get paid $365.50 monthly for the next 3 months ( 21,500 x 1.7% )
9. another 3 months later, 100g gold price goes back to $22,500.
10. You paid $1,000 and renew the contract
11. You get paid $382.50 monthly for the next 3 months ( 22,500 x 1.7% )
12. when the contract ends, you sell it to TGG and get back $22,500

Month	paid	get back
1	$22,500	$383
2		$383
3		$383
4	$1,000	$400
5		$400
6		$400
7	-$2,000	$366
8		$366
9		$366
10	$1,000	$383
11		$383
12		$383
		$4,590

Summary

Maximum Capital : $ 23,500

Total Return : $4,590

Rough Return : ~20%

All this happens while you are keeping your own bullion gold with you until you sell it back to TGG.

How does this sound to you ?  What could be the catch if any at all ?

What other strategies you may apply assuming this is a genuine deal ?

Malaysia Lowest Stock Brokerage Fee

MPlus Online and ECMmoney offers the lowest brokerage fee @ 0.08% for cash upfront account.  MPlus offers even lower rate @ 0.05% if you have more than 30k balance.

Follows by Hong Leong, Jupiter Online, OSK 88  who offers 0.1%

source

I have been using Jupiter but I am paying 0.45%.  I forgot why I pay so much, perhaps its because I am an Elite member who obtain extra trading info !?  My effective fee cost is actually 0.6% and below.

I tried to switch to CIMB but not successful due to their systems are not easy to use.  I stay with Jupiter mainly because I can trade from my android phone.

Have you used any of above brokers ?  Are they good ?

How Corrupted are we ?

Below table shows how corrupted a country is perceived to be.   The smaller the number is the more corrupted the country is.  For example, North Korea, Russia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Philippines are perceived to be corrupted while New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan are perceived to be "clean".

Malaysia is somewhere in the middle comparable to Soudi Arabia, South Africa and Italy.

source : wiki

earn Money with Money

Read this from Alan Tan's facebook, seems very meaningful to me.  So sharing here with you all ...

By Alan Tan

One day, an old man and his assistant arrived at a farming village. The old man gathered all the villagers and told them that he is in the business of buying and selling monkeys and that the reason why he has come to their village is becoz there is a forest next to that village which is infested with lots of monkeys. He told the villagers he would pay $10 for every monkey they bring him.



So some of the villagers started to stop work on their farms to go into the forest to catch monkeys. They brought their monkeys to the old man and true enough, he paid them $10 for every monkey. Words spread and not long after, more and more of the villagers stopped working on their farms to go into the forest to catch monkeys. And they were all paid $10 for every monkey they delivered to the old man.

Becoz more villagers were now monkey hunters, it became more and more difficult to catch monkeys as their numbers started to dwindle. The supply of monkeys started to come down. So the old man gathered all the villagers and told them he would pay $20 for every monkey they bring him. Wow! That sounds great and the villagers started to drum up the beat to look deeper into the forest and higher into the trees to look for more monkeys. And they were paid $20 for every monkey they caught and everyone was happy.

As more and more villagers turned monkey hunters, the monkey population in that forest started to dwindle very significantly and it became increasingly difficult to catch even one monkey a day. As such, the villagers started to return to their farms to work.

Once again, the old man gathered all the villagers and told them that as he is running out of time and he needed more monkeys, he would up the stakes and pay $50 for every monkey delivered to him. He also told the villagers that as he has to leave the village for a few days to attend to some business in town, they can deliver the monkeys to his assistant and his assistant has been instructed to pay $50 for every monkey caught.

The villagers got all excited and went deep into the forest to look for monkeys but by this time, there were no monkeys to be found. The villagers approached the assistant and told him the $50 offer is wonderful but the monkeys were simply not there.

That assistant then said to the villagers......"I know there are very few monkeys left in the forest. But here in my cages, I have thousands of monkeys. Tell you what...why not you buy these monkeys from me at $35 each. Then when the old man comes back, you can sell your monkeys to him for $50 and make $15 each."

Wow! That sounds like a great idea...the villagers thought. So they bought as many monkeys as they could from the assistant at $35 each.

After that day, the villagers never saw the old man or his assistant again

=====

What do you take away from this story ?

Tenaga Power Factor Surcharge

Tenaga Malaysia WILL charge you more if you have in-efficient electrical appliances, old wiring etc. at your home.

KLSE 2012 07 26

Try give these stocks an eye ...

MRCB : worth buying below 1.80, potential peak 1.90, can observe for another 3 trading days before making decision.

UEMLAND : worth buying below 2.00, potential peak 2.08, observe another 5 trading days before decide.

YTL :  -- do your own research --

MAS :  -- do your own research --

DIALOG, MAXIS : some recommended this but not me.

FREE lunches - the real one !

Dear Michael,

While many people still think there is no such thing as FREE lunch in this world.  I have been having FREE lunches for more than 5 years now.  Not only that, I actually get paid when I eat.  Sometimes they even force me to bring a friend with me for FREE too !


Unlike some who thought I may have been keeping it a secret, I didn't !  I actually told my friends about it.  And remember ?  Sometimes I have to bring my friends to have the FREE lunch.  So I had to explain to them what it is all about.

Most would guess that once people know it, people would go grab all these FREE lunches.  Normal people like you and I would have no chance of getting them at all !  But after years of having FREE lunches, I can tell you in confidence that on the contrary, I actually received calls begging me to go for some FREE lunches and I actually have to turn some of them down.

There is NO special contacts needed, I am not any Datuk's son, no special pre-qualify skills needed.  All I need a computer and internet connection.  They teach me all the things I needed and I am good to go.

Ok, no more suspense.  All you need to know can be found in gapbuster.com

The reason I am sharing with you is that I want to bet with you.  Even after your readers learn this secret of FREE lunches.  Most of them, may be ALL of them, will still NOT join me here.  You see, human are always limited by their own thoughts without realizing it.  For some who realize it, they refuse to make a change on it.  Well, I shall explain more later if needed but let's see ....

Love your Finance Tips,
Mathew

The Only Man in the World Who Knows What Really Went Wrong at JPMorgan Chase

If you were following Nasser's blog and have missed his commentaries, I just posted a conversation with him on my blog. Thought you might want to know.

Who make money from stock market ?

why some idiot can earn money from stock market but some smartest analysts don't ?

list of Malaysia past expenditures ?

I saw below list from facebook, do you know what they are !?!?


1. PKFZ RM12 billion

2. Submarine Commission RM500 million

3. Sime Darby RM964 million

4. Paya Indah Westland RM88 million

5. Pos Malaysia (Transmile) RM230 million lost

6. Eurocopter deal RM1 billion wasted?

7. Terengganu Stadium collapse RM292 million

8. MRR2 repair cost RM70 million

9. Maybank overpaid BII RM4 billion

10. Tourism - NYY kickback RM10 million

11. 3 paintings bought by MAS RM1.5 million

12. Overpayment by Sport Ministry RM8.4 million

13. London’s white elephant sports complex RM70 million

14. MATRADE repairs RM120 million

15. Cost of new plane used by PM RM200 million

16. InventQ irrecoverable debt RM228 million

17. Compensation for killing crooked bridge RM257 million

18. Loss in selling Augusta RM 510 million

19. Worth of APs given out in a year RM1.8 billion

20. Submarines (future Muzium Negara artifacts) RM4.1 billion

21. PSC Naval dockyard RM6.75 billion

22. The Bank Bumiputra twin scandals in the early 1980s saw US$1
billion losses (RM3.2 billion in 2008)

23. The Maminco attempt to corner the World Tin Market in the
1980s is believed to have cost some US$500 million (RM1.6
billion)

24. Betting in foreign exchange futures cost Bank Negara Malaysia
RM30 billion in the 1990s

25. Perwaja Steel’s US$800 million (RM2.56 billion) losses

26. Use of RM10 billion public funds in the Valuecap Sdn Bhd operation to shore up the stock market

27. Banking scandal of RM700 million losses in Bank Islam

28. The sale of M.V. Agusta by Proton for one Euro making a loss of €75.99 million (RM348 million) Same as No.20?

29. Wang Ehsan from oil royalty on Terengganu RM7.4 billion from 2004 – 2007

30. For the past 10 years since Philharmonic Orchestra was established, this orchestra has swallowed a total of RM500 million. Hiring a Kwai-Lo CEO with a salary of more than RM1 million per annum!

31. In Advisors Fees, Mahathir was paid RM180,000, Shahrizat Abdul RM404,726 and Abdul Hamid Othman (religious) RM549,675 per annum

32. The government has spent a total of RM3.2 billion in teaching Maths and Science in English over the past five years. Of the amount, the government paid a whopping RM2.21 billion for the purchase of information and computer technology (ICT) equipment which it is unable to give a breakdown. Government paid more than RM6,000 per notebook vs per market price of less than RM3,000 through some new consortiums that was setup just to transact the notebook deal. There was no Maths & Science Content for the teachers and the notebooks are all with the teachers' children now.

33. The commission paid for purchase of jets and submarines to two private companies - Perimeker Sdn Bhd and IMT Defence Sdn Bhd amounted to RM910 million. Expanding on No. 2?

37. RM300 million to compensate Gerbang Perdana for the RM1.1 billion "Crooked Scenic Half-Bridge"

38. RM1.3 billion has been wasted building the white elephant Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) facilities on cancellation of the Malaysia-Singapore Scenic Bridge

39. RM100 million on renovation of Parliament building which leaks

40. National Astronaut (actually tourist) Programme – RM40 million

41. National Service Training Programme – yearly an estimate of RM 500 million ( MOST National Service Camp LAND OWNERS are tied to Najib or old 'friends' of Najib )

42. Eye of Malaysia - RM30 million and another RM5.7 million of free tickets

43. RM2.4 million on indelible ink

44. Samy Vellu announced in September 2006 that the government paid compensation amounting to RM38.5 billion to 20 highway companies. RM380 million windfalls for 9 toll concessionaires earned solely from the toll hike in 2008 alone

45. RM32 million timber export kickbacks involving companies connected to Sarawak Chief Minister and his family.

46. Two bailouts of Malaysia Airline System RM7.9 billion. At a time when MAS is incurring losses every year, RM1.55 million used to buy three paintings to decorate its Chairman’s (Munir) office. Expanding on No.11

47. Putra transport system bailout which cost RM4.486 billion.

48. STAR-LRT bailout costing RM3.256 billion.

49. National Sewerage System bailout costing RM192.54 million.

50. Seremban-Port Dickson Highway bailout costing RM142 million

51. Kuching Prison bailout costing RM135 million

52. Kajian Makanan dan Gunaan Orang Islam bailout costing RM8.3 million

53. Le Tour de Langkawi bailout costing RM3.5 Million

54. Wholesale distribution of tens of millions of shares in Bursa Malaysia under the guise of NEP to cronies, children and relatives of BN leaders and ministers worth billions of ringgit.

55. Alienation of tens of thousands of hectares of commercial lands and forestry concessions to children and relatives of BN leaders and Ministers worth tens of billions of ringgits.

56. Since 1997, Petronas has handed out a staggering RM30 billion in natural gas subsidies to IPPs who were reaping huge profits. In addition, there were much wastages and forward trading of Petronas oil in the 1990s based on the low price of oil then. Since the accounts of Petronas are for the eyes of the Prime Minister only, we have absolutely no idea of the amount.

57. RM5,700 for a car jack worth only RM50

58. Government-owned vehicle consumed a tank of petrol worth RM113 within a few minutes

59. A pole platform that cost RM990 was bought for RM30,000

60. A thumb drive that cost RM90 was bought for RM480

61. A cabinet that cost RM1,500 was bought for RM13,500
62. A flashlight that cost RM35 was bought for RM143

63. Expenses for 1Malaysia campaign paid to APCO?

64. RM17 billion subsidy to IPP

65. US$24 million Diamond Ring for Ro$mah - Cancellation of Order - how much compensation?

66. CowGate ... RM250 million

67. Monsoon Cup . . . RM800 million per year

68. Illicit Fund Transfers out of Malaysia (2000 - 2009) : RM 1,077,000,000,000!

69. Tajudin-Danaharta settlement to cover up for Dr M and Daim

70. Billions of ringgit toll concessions that disadvantage the government and taxpayers

71. MUSA-AMAN's Timber-Concessions kick-backs worth $90Million US Dollars into his personal account causing thousands of acres of precious Rainforest in Sabah ( homes of endangered wild life such as Orangutans, Borneo Pygmy-Elephants & the Sumatran Rhino ) to be cut-down....

Malaysia Best Rates 2012 April 29 Update

TOP Fix Deposit up to 12 months is Affin = 3.6%.  Most others are offering 3.1% to 3.2% so you should change your FD bank if they are still giving you 3% or below ...

Monthly renewal FD is 3.05% from Affin, Bangkok Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia.

Alliance offers the lowest car loan rate at 2.65% but it may goes up to 4.8% as well so it really depends on your negotiation skill.

BLR hasn't changed much since Nov 2011, JP Morgan 6.2%, Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of Tokyo offers 6.25%.  Most of the others are 6.5% to 6.6%.

CIMB's AirAsia saver account offers 1.6% saving account interest while Maybank's Flexi Safer Plan offers 1.5%.  Most of the others are offering 0.X%


HAPPY LABOUR DAY !!


FREE INFO on Malaysia Best Rates