Saturday, November 13, 2010
Trading for dummies e-book download
Friday, November 12, 2010
Tips: 7 Spending Tips From Frugal Billionaires
by Jean Folger
Carlos Slim Helu (Carlos Slim), a telecom tycoon and billionaire with well-known frugal tendencies, has a net worth of $60.6 billion, according to Forbes. Assuming no changes in his net worth, he could spend $1,150 a minute for the next 100 years before he ran out of money. To put this in perspective, he could spend in 13 minutes what a minimum-wage earner brings home after an entire year of the daily grind.
Granted, the world's billionaires (all 1,011 of them) are in the debatably enviable position of having, quite literally, more money than they can possibly spend, yet some are still living well below their means, and save money in surprising places. Even non-billionaires (currently 6,864,605,142 of us) can partake in these seven spending tips from frugal billionaires:
1. Keep Your Home Simple
Billionaires can afford to live in the most exclusive mansions imaginable -- and many do, including Bill Gates' sprawling 66,000 square foot, $147.5 million dollar mansion in Medina, Wash. -- yet frugal billionaires like Warren Buffett choose to keep it simple. Buffett still lives in the five-bedroom house in Omaha that he purchased in 1957 for $31,500. Likewise, Carlos Slim has lived in the same house for more than 40 years.
2. Use Self-Powered or Public Transportation
Thrifty billionaires including John Caudwell, David Cheriton and Chuck Feeney prefer to walk, bike or use public transportation when getting around town. Certainly these wealthy individuals could afford to take a helicopter to their lunch meetings, or ride in chauffeur-driven Bentleys, but they choose to get a little exercise and take advantage of public transportation instead. Good for the bank account and great for the environment.
3. Buy Your Clothes off the Rack
While some people, regardless of their net value, place a huge emphasis on wearing designer clothes and shoes, some frugal billionaires decide it's simply not worth the effort, or expense. You can find David Cheriton, the Stanford professor who matched Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page to the venture capitalists at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers (resulting in a large reward of Google stock), wearing jeans and a t-shirt.
Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of the furniture company Ikea, avoids wearing suits, and John Caudwell, mobile phone mogul, buys his clothes off the rack instead of spending his wealth on designer clothes.
4. Keep your Scissors Sharp
The average haircut costs about $45, but people can and do spend up to $800 per cut and style. Multiply that by 8.6 (to account for a cut every six weeks) and it adds up to $7,200 per year, not including tips. These billionaires can certainly afford the most stylish haircuts, buy many cannot be bothered by the time it takes or the high price tag for the posh salons. Billionaires like John Caudwell and David Cheriton opt for cutting their own hair at home.
5. Drive a Regular Car
While billionaires like Larry Ellison (co-founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation) enjoy spending millions on cars, boats and planes, others remain low key with their vehicles of choice. Jim Walton (of the Wal-Mart clan) drives a 15-year-old pickup truck. Azim Premji, an Indian business tycoon, reportedly drives a Toyota Corolla. And Ingvar Kamprad of Ikea drives a 10-year-old Volvo. The idea is to buy a dependable car, and drive it into the ground. No need for a different car each day of the week for these frugal billionaires.
6. Skip Luxury Items
It may surprise some of us, but the world's wealthiest person, Carlos Slim (the one who could spend more than a thousand dollars a minute and not run out of money for one hundred years) does not own a yacht or a plane. (Reducing the amount you spend is the easiest way to make your money grow.)
Many other billionaires have chosen to skip these luxury items. Warren Buffett also avoids these lavish material items, stating, "Most toys are just a pain in the neck."
What We Can Learn
Some of the world's billionaires have frugal tendencies. Perhaps this thrifty nature even helped them make some of their money. Regardless, they have chosen to avoid some unnecessary spending (at least on their scale) and the 6,864,605,142 non-billionaires out there can follow suit, eliminating excessive, keep-up-with-the-Jones style spending. No matter what a person's income bracket is, most can usually find a way to cut back on frivolous spending, just like a few frugal billionaires.
Source:
http://finance.yahoo.com/
Is Your EPF Money Enough for Retirement?
ONLY 5% of Malaysians are prepared for retirement. Despite a growing awareness for the need to prepare for one’s retirement, many do not translate their plans into action.
Those in their 20s think they are too young to think about retirement, while those in their 30s and 40s tend to believe they are doing enough because they have their EPF savings. By the time they are 55, it is just too late.
The sad truth is that at 55, most people cannot retire with financial security.
Based on EPF’s 2005 annual report, about 90% of EPF contributors have less than RM100,000 in their accounts – not enough to see them through 20 years past retirement.
Let we see article below:
By Ooi Kok Hwa, as featured in The Star.
SOME studies conducted in Malaysia have shown that most retirees spend all their EPF money within three years of their retirement. Given that the average lifespan for a Malaysian is 75 years, if we retire at 55 and spend all our EPF money within three years, a lot of us will be wondering how to survive from 58 to 75.
The most worrying question that most of us will be asking is how to survive retirement when we lose our steady stream of monthly income to cover our daily expenses.
However, if we have been building an investment portfolio apart from EPF money, we would not be able to generate a source of returns from our own investment portfolio.
In reality, a lot of us have been spending most of our savings, including part of our EPF savings on our children’s education and clearing debts on house and car purchases, which leave us with not much savings for our retirement.
With this general concern in mind, let’s look into how much of our EPF money we can afford to spend to have enough for our retirement based on the our local conditions and some assumptions.
Generally, an average Malaysian starts working at 25 and reaches retirement at 55 (after 30 years of working), thereafter living the remaining 20 years (until 75) relying on the EPF savings.
We will assume a starting pay of RM1,500, growing at the rate of 8% per annum; an average bonus of two months per annum, average EPF returns of 5%, total EPF contribution of 23% (employer: 12%, employee: 11%) and inflation rate of 3%.
Our main objective is to test how much EPF money we can spend until we use it all up.
Our analysis shows that if we are able to live with just one-third (or 33%) of our last drawn salary, the EPF money should be able to support us for 20 years until we pass away at 75.
From the example below, if a person’s last drawn salary is RM13,976 at 55, he can only afford to spend one-third or RM4,612 per month after retirement (1/3 x RM13,976).
However, if his spending exceeds the one-third level, such as 50% or the full amount of his last drawn salary, his EPF money can only last 12 or five years respectively.
Even though our computations are based on a lot of assumptions and hypothetical scenarios, our objective is to bring to your attention that we need to be careful in spending our EPF money and control our expenses once we retire.
We will need to adjust our lifestyle after our retirement, especially for those of us that are used to spending most of our take-home pay when we are still working.
Once we lose the regular income source and are relying just on the savings, we will need to plan carefully in order not to out-live our savings. In this example, we can only afford to spend 33% of our last salary after retirement!
Everyone has different financial situations. However, we need to plan for our retirement. If possible, we need to build our own investment portfolio apart from the EPF savings. We may need to seek some part-time jobs after retirement if our financial resources do not permit us to stop working. Besides, we need to clear all our outstanding debts before retirement.
We also need to buy enough life and medical insurance for ourselves as well as set up education funds for our children.
Last but not least, one important point to note is that our computation is based on the assumption that we are still able to generate 5% returns after retirement.
Unless we have the skills and knowledge to generate the returns, putting the money back in EPF and letting EPF generate returns may be a good option. For the average person, we feel that it is not easy to generate 5% returns annually over a long period of time.
- Ooi Kok Hwa is an investment adviser and managing partner of MRR Consulting.
Friday, November 5, 2010
TOP 10 best island to go honeymoon
1)Pangkor Laut,Perak
Pangkor Laut is a privately owned island located three miles off the West Coast of Malaysia along the Straits of Malacca. This piece of paradise has been 2 million years in the making, and here you will find one of the world’s premier resorts nestling in the shade of forest giants as old as the land.
2)Kapalai island, Sabah
The mere name conjures the image of crystal clear waters and a floating paradise like no other. A 45-minute trip from semporna by speedboat, kapalai island is one of the many beautiful diving havens in this part of the world. However, kapalai is truly unique because it is not quite an ‘island’.
You will never have to gripe about having a less than desirable view: you have a breathtaking view of the Celebes Sea no matter where you turn! The restaurant is a wooden deck, where diners can eat indoors or al fresco. There’s even a viewing area in the middle of the restaurant which allows you to see the myriad of marine life passing below.
3)Tioman island,Pahang
Tioman Island (locally known as Gunung Daik Bercabang Tiga) is a small island located 32 km off the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia in the state of Pahang, and is some 39 km long and 12 km wide. It has eight main villages, the largest and most populous being Kampung Tekek in the north. The densely forested island is sparsely inhabited, and is surrounded by numerous coral reefs, making it a popular scuba diving spot. There are also a lot of resorts and chalets around the island.
Its beaches were depicted in the 1958 movie, South Pacific as Bali Hai. In the 1970s, TIME Magazine selected Tioman as one of the world's most beautiful islands.
4)Redang Island, Terengganu
Redang Island boasts with white sandy beaches lined with palm trees, crystal clear waters and spectacular coral reefs. It’s everything that you hoped a tropical island would be and this idyllic place is less than an hour from the east coast of peninsular Malaysia.
With excellent visibility and spectacular, easily accessible coral reefs, it is no wonder that Redang is hailed as a scuba diving and snor kelling paradise. Even right in front of the most popular beach, the rocks are home to various species of coral, reef sharks (harmless to humans) and moray eels. Redang and the surrounding islets were gazetted as a marine park in the early 90’s and human activity in the area is strictly controlled in order to protect the marine ecosystems.
5)Sipadan island, Sabah
The only oceanic island in Malaysia which rises 600 meters from the seabed, Sipadan Island is a world wonder in its own right. It is formed by living corals engulfing an extinct volcano cone which took centuries to develop. Located at the centre of the Indo-Pacific basin, Sipadan Island has one of the world’s richest marine biodiversity in its ecosystem.
6)Mantanani island, Sabah
Mantanani island is a group of three isolated islands northwest of Kota Belud, 80 km north of Kota Kinabalu. It was so isolated in fact that not until recently, only a few locals knew the existence of the islands.
But most popular attraction of Pulau Mantanani are the dugongs (sea cows). Here you can swim with them. The island is virtually unknown to most people, although the indigenous Ubian fishing tribe here have for years sighted dugongs.
7)Perhentian island, Terengganu
Located on the eastern coast of Malaysia, the Perhentians are two islands. Both are stunning covered with a lot of palm trees, wide beaches, and crystalblue water. There's not much to do here and visitors typically lay on the beach all day, resting from the night's drinking before. It's the perfect place to put up a hammock. A strong monsoon season limits when to go between March and October.
8)Mabul island,Sabah
Mabul is an island off the south-eastern coast of Sabah in Malaysia. It first became popular due to its proximity to Sipadan island.
Few years back, it has gained its recognition as one of the best "muck diving" sites in the world. Mabul island is a small oval shaped island surrounded by sandy beaches and perched on the northwest corner of a larger 2 square kilometer reef.It is more correctly recognized now that the reason for the quality of the MUCK Diving is simply a result of overfishing uses of cyanide and dynamite by the local people of this area.
9)Kapas island,Terengganu
Kapas island is answers to all your hopes for an idyllic tropical island swaying palm trees, untouched jungle, turquoise water gently lapping at the beach and colourful coral reefs just off the shore.
This picturesque getaway is less than 5 km from the mainland and is reached within 15 minutes by speedboat from the coastal fishing village of Marang. Its accessibility from the mainland makes it popular with locals for day trips and the fairly good availability of budget accommodation means that it is also popular with backpackers,
10)Langkawi island, Kedah
The Langkawi group is an archipelago of 99 islands around 30 km off the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Pulau Langkawi itself, by far the largest of the group, is a mountainous, palm-fringed island with scattered fishing kampongs, paddy fields and sandy coves. It has seen significant development in recent years and is home to some of Malaysia’s most upmarket resorts. Other islands are nothing more than deserted limestone outcrops rearing out of the turquoise sea, cloaked in jungle, and ringed by coral.
Credit
Image hosted by flickr
and Malaysia Island
Thursday, November 4, 2010
How to start trading at Bursa Malaysia
To trade stock at Bursa Malaysia ( previously named KLSE), the first question I asked is:
How to have a trading account and start buying shares?
Do you qualify to trade at Bursa Malaysia?
You have to be at least 18 years old.
Step by Step Guide:
1. Open a Central Depository System (CDS) account:
you can do this by approaching an authorized depository agent such as stockbroking company and some banks.
* provide photocopies of IC (identity card)
*EA form or pay slip (if you are working)
* fee RM10
You will receive the account document by mail.
2. Open a trading account with stockbroker:this will be done simultaneously when you open the CDS account.
* need to provide income statement (as student, I dont have income statement that time)
* fill out trading account form
* the stockbroker will check your credit status at CTOS (Credit Tip-off Service) and stockbrokers’ defaulters’ list – in order to qualify you and set your trading limit
3. Get a remisier:
normally your stockbroker will appoint one to you if you don’t have any particular preference.
* remisier has to be licensed by the Securities Commission
* remisier helps you make the order: sell or buy at what price you want.
* get someone you like and trustworthy as your remisier
*here my remisier contact, 019-9350055, just wassap tell you interest to open account, he will guide you
*dont forget to mention you read the contact number from RINGGIT INSIDER
4. Buying and Selling Shares:
You can key in your order at online system provided by your stockbrokers, or call your remisier to make the order. If your buying order match a selling order, you will get a trade confirmation. The stockbroking firm will then send out contract notes to you specifying details of transaction.
5. Payment:When you buy share of company W, your CDS account will be credited with share W at 9am on T+3 (T=transaction date). The 3 days only include working days. Your payment had to be made on 12.30pm that day. If not, your share will be forced sold at a contra loss or contra gain.
Fees involved:
* brokerage fees – maximum 0.7% of the value of total shares traded, normal practise is 0.6% (online brokerage fees 0.42%)
* Clearing fees - 0.04% of contract value subject to cap of RM500
* stamp duty – RM1 for every RM1,000 worth of value
All I stated above just basic how to start in trading stocks. A lot more we have to learn in order to success in Bursa Malaysia since this is active type of investment vehicle. We know a lot of people become rich in stock exchange, but beware, a lot of people also go bankrupt here.
last but not least, here is my latest portfolio in Bursa Malaysia, the price may change when you read this post, I capture this on 9.30am, 4 Nov 2010
KFC I just bought few weeks ago, and my gain today 21.17 %
Dictionary
Average Price = Price I buy
Last Done Price = Latest transaction price in Bursa Malaysia
Monday, November 1, 2010
Tips to doubled your money through investment
What are the most favorite investment vehicle to doubled your money nowdays? From basic and low risk investment to the most profit and high risk instrumental, we are listing 9 ways to invest your money through various investment vehicle. check it out....
1. Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB)
Risk : Very low
Return : 8-10% per annum
2. Website Domains
Risk : Medium risk
Return : 10-5000% (depend on website domain)
If you invest smartly into website domains, you can earn millions over time. However, this area is vastly unexplored by investors, and can yield more than traditional products. You can simply buy a good domain name for RM 10-RM 100 and resell at higher value. Many good domain names are sold for more than RM 5000. One word domain names like insurance.com or ad.com have highest value (in millions), and most of them are already taken. However, if you can come up with creative two-word domain name, you can make a killing.
3. Gold
Risk: Superb low risk
Return : 1%-100% (more longer, higher the return)
This precious metal is a remarkable insurance coverage against inflation. When all your investments like stocks, mutual funds, etc. go down, gold increases in value. One of the reasons why gold isn’t affected by national crisis is it reflects global demand. Any political party or company’s revenue cannot determine its price.
4. Silver
Risk: Low
Return : unknown
According to the US economy, silver will be among the metals that will become extinct by 2020. Apart from investment, silver is used for more than 2,000 purposes, most of them are vital to our economy. As of now, it is more rare than gold. In years to come, it will surpass the value of gold per ounce. Hence, one of the most beneficial investments today.
5.Real Estate Investment Trust (REITs)
Risk : medium
Return : ~7.8 % per annum
Want to buy property or retail lot to collect steady stream of rental income but don't have money? REITs formed by companies that purchase and manage real estate using funds pooled from shareholders. Dividend payout can be generous depending on which REIT's you are buying.
Example of REIT's in Malaysia is Sunway REIT's, the largest REIT's in Malaysia. Sunway asset are located in award winning township that have approved masterplans. As rental income will begin to rise over next few years, REIT's is one of the GEMS in investment.
6. Property Investment
Risk: Low risk
Return : 4-8% per annum (rental), capital appreciation of 2%-3% a year
Properties are relatively stable and predictable in both their rental returns and their market value. Banks are ever willing to lend money to good buyers and for properties in excellent location. On new budget 2011, PM DS Najib announced 100% loans scheme for first time home buyers.
7. Private Unit Trust
Risk : Low to medium
Return : depend on portfolio (bond/equity/etc)
Example : Public Mutual or CIMB Principal/Islamic unit trust
Unit trust is a collective investment scheme that pools the savings of a large number of investors. The money collected is invested by the fund manager in different types of stocks, bonds, or other securities in various proportions depending upon the objective of the fund. The income earned through these investments and the capital appreciation realized by the scheme, after deducting the trading costs and expenses of managing and administering the fund are paid out to the unit holders in proportion to the number of units owned by them.
Most of the unit trust funds in Malaysia are open-ended funds (the fund sells as many units as you and other investors want to buy and buys as many units you want to sell). This makes unit trust funds very liquid investments – though the price at which you sell may be less than your purchase price if the value of the fund has dropped.You can make an initial investment with as little as RM1,000 and buy additional units when you have more money or invest a fixed amount on a regular monthly schedule via a bank account. Thus unit trust is the most suitable investment for the common man as it offers an opportunity to invest in a diversified, professionally managed portfolio.
Each Fund has a defined investment objective and strategy.
8. Exchange Traded Fund (ETF)
Risk: medium
Return: 4-7% per annum
Exchange Traded fund have long been considered a cheap and quick tool to gain access to the market. Traded on the change like a stock, an ETF carries the same brokerage and trading cost as any other equity purchased, and it provide investor with instant diversification by exposing them to a basket of securities through a single trade. Very suitable for young investor which has limited fund since they can diversified and manage their investment through ETF. Compared with unit trust, it is cost efficient and allow flexible trading in stock exchange. Recently, CIMB has launched two ETFs, the CIMB FTSE Asean 40 Malaysia and the CIMB FTSE Xinhua China 25 to the local market which gives local inventor access to the 40 stocks in the Asean region and Top 25 Chinese stocks listed in the Hong Kong Exchanged
9. Investing in blue chip stock in Stock Exhange.
Risk: Very high risk
Return : Very high return
If you had invested RM 1000 in Genting in 1987, it would amount to about RM 35000 now.
According to investopedia, stock generally does not have voting rights, but has a higher claim on assets and earnings than the common shares. Also known as "shares" or "equity".
Many investors purchase a particular stock with the intention of making a big profit over a short period of time. However, this action is not investing, but a pure gambling. The reason for this is that you are never guaranteed that you will get the high returns you hope for over such a short period of time.
There may be times in which stocks have put a record on short-term growth, but these occurrences are very rare. On average stocks have returned from 10% to 12%. However, this doesn't mean that all stocks return at these rates.
How to get rich in 10 days
Becoming rich by saving and investing money is easy. But you will have to wait for more than 20 years to get some real money. Instead, there are several ways to earn quick money and live your life like a king. Here are few tips on how to get rich fast....hmm I think, real fast.
Buy Lottery Tickets (Magnum or Sport Toto)
This is one of the easiest ways to earn big money overnight. Instead of learning about various investment products and investing in risky market, simply spend half your salary buying lottery tickets. Imagine your salary RM 2000, then spend RM 1000 to buy 1000 lottery ticket !!!!!!
Yes, this asset class is a bit different from other classes like stocks, bonds, funds, and so on.
WARNING : Gambling in any form is prohibited in Islam
Buy and Sell Cocaine, Heroin or Ectasy
Since last few decades, selling illegal drugs has been one of the most lucrative businesses. You can earn as much as 500% of you investment on selling every kilo of cocaine. Simply invest around RM 3000 and sell it at street value. Initially, it would be difficult to convince peddlers and customers. However, it’s worth the effort.
WARNING: ''Seksyen 39B Akta Dadah Berbahaya 1952 yang jika disabitkan kesalahan boleh dihukum gantung sampai mati''
Save RM 40,000 Every Day
Become rich within a month by saving RM 40,000 or more every day. By the end of the month, you will have saved more than a million ringgit. Here is another way to get richer. Save more each day to become a billionaire.
Become a Hitman
This would require a bit of investment. Japanese swords or English snipers are not cheap. Besides, they are not tax deductible either. However, once you start getting professional contacts, you will earn millions every day.
Win Money in Genting Casino
In today’s world of hedge funds and risky commodities, trying to earn money gambling in Genting Casino seems to be an outmoded trend. However, the killing you can make in blackjack cannot be made by investing in Axiata or Maybank stocks.
WARNING : Gambling in any form is prohibited in Islam
Launch a Stupid Website Programme/ Online Programme
Can’t you come up with something like ‘Login FACEBOOK dapat duit’ or 'MAKE MONEY FROM FACEBOOK' ? It’s a stupid idea, but a successful. Rather than striving to become a hitman or take the risk of robbing a bank, think about such in idea.
p/s: moral values:
If you realize these are not feasible ways to get rich, there is only one way: Earn money through legitimate methods.
How do we make money? just for the fun of it, you van get RICH through ''unusual means'' like what I stated above...lot more I did not state such as ''to get early inheritance from rich parents or married rich woman/man'' :P
Unfortunately for most of us, the above will be OUT OF QUESTION or OUT OF LUCK. Most of people, including myself, have to do it the hard way.
We can become rich, it is possible... just we need to do in smart way :P