The City Survival Guide

How to get your dream job?

2009-04-21T19:37:00.004+08:00

It seems impossible to get a dream job nowadays. However, you might be able to get one if you really work on it. Speaking from my experience, I would like to share some tips with you.

1. Interpret your dream
Many people do not even know what they want. 90% of the job seekers are putting monetary rewards as their main consideration in seeking a better job. Before moving into that, list down what you really want for your new job. (in terms of exposure, traveling requirements, job function, career path) You will be surprise to find that you actually wanted more, than just money.

2. Knowing your destination
It is such ironic that everyone seems to know how to answer the popular interview question of "how do you see yourself in 10 years?", but do not really know what they are answering. Most of the interviewees came prepared which such question. However, most never really ask themselves such questions throughout their entire career life. Where you want to go? Do you see yourself as a future entrepreneur, skilled expert or manager? Knowing your direction helps you to focus on the job function you want.

3. The Time Race
We always contradict ourselves with different goals. Some common examples are statement such as, "I want to be a manager in 5 years time" and "I want to try different job roles to know what I am suitable for". Changing different roles is just an excuse to buy more time as you are unsure of what you really want. Let me tell you a fact, what fits you the best, end of the day, is what you are best at. If you don't think you like to do what you are best at, forget about excelling in your career. You will always be a mediocre.

4. Job Function, Company, Remuneration- Choose 2 out of 3
Fulfilling all your 3 requirements above for your first few jobs is like hitting a lottery. My advice, choose 2 out of 3 above. Why specifically 2 but not 1? Having two of above brings you closer to your dream job. If you only have one of them, you will need to try to fulfill the other two in your next job search. This is tough, as your salary requirements is moving up along with time. Any mistakes in choosing your career will not only costs you your job, it will also costs you time.

5. Get to know the right headhunter
80% of my experiences with headhunters are bad. Some headhunters just call you up to get FREE ADVICE from you about the job description(JD) given by their clients. Some will take your CVs and pass round to a few employers at the same time to try their luck. Most of them do not care about your career. They are more client-focused and they care more about their commissions. This is why they can always find GOOD talent for industries but always fail to provide the RIGHT candidate. Try to submit your CVs to a few headhunter and locate one or two good ones. Better still, check with your friends on their experience with headhunters and get them to introduce you to the good ones. Just drop me a comment if you need any recommendation from me.

6. Know your job well
Dream jobs are meant for those who can handle their job well. You can be hired as a CEO but are you able to increase the company's profit growth by 10 % per annum? You will only enjoy your job without high levels of incompetency stress. Most jobs are deemed to be stressful not because the employers are mean. It is simply because many of those are incompetant and yet taking up jobs that are beyond their capacity.

7. Be confident but don't think too highly of yourself
Dreaming of a job that pays you high salary, flies you around the world in business class cabins, able to work from home and comes with a huge team for you to command? Are you dreaming? No, it is not impossible! Once you have identified your strength, you will only need to identify the right company that is profitable enough to match your requirements. Be confident of yourself but never expect all companies to be able to afford what you want. Check out their annual reports (if they are listed) or audited accounts (from SSM for RM10) if you are really concern about the companys' profits.

Good luck in your job hunt!

Even easier now to top up your ASM and ASW!

2009-04-21T18:33:00.002+08:00

Looks like the Malaysian government is really desperate for cash. Amanah Saham Berhad(ASB) has just enabled their trust holders to top up using online banking. The only drawback to this is that you can only do it with Maybank2U. Read more here.

Maybank Newsroom Statement
The Star's Report

Newbie to ASM & ASW?

2009-04-20T22:52:00.005+08:00

Just to share a bit more about Amanah Saham Malaysia & Amanah Saham Wawasan as some of you might be asking what is this all about.

ASM is a fund launched by PNB on year 2000 while ASW was launched back in 1996 when Dr. Mahathir first conceptualised the Wawasan 2020 vision. So far, both the funds performance has been very consistent and profitable.

To purchase the fund, you can walk in to any of the following banks:
i) Maybank
ii) RHB
iii) CIMB
iv) Post Offices

Just prepare at least RM 100 if you are opening a new account. Each unit cost RM 1. The past dividend payouts for ASM are listed as below:

ASM : 2006 - 6.75% 2007 - 6.80% 2008 - 7.80% 2009 - 6.25%
ASW: 2006 - 6.80% 2007 - 8.00% 2008 - 7.00%

ASM announces its dividend on 31st March every year while ASW announces on 31st August.

ASW & ASM is back again

2009-04-20T14:11:00.002+08:00

Missed the opportunity to grab ASW and ASM trust fund last year? Don't worry, 3.3 billion units will be out for grabs starting tomorrow. Each person can only purchase up to 20,0000 units. Be careful when you are queuing with your loaded bag of money. :) . Here is the details:

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/4/20/nation/20090420114255&sec=nation

How to Pitch?

2009-04-20T03:19:00.003+08:00

Coming out with great ideas is hard, but evangelizing and convincing others about your idea is even harder. Pitching is an art, which takes time and effort to pick up. However, learning some tips and tricks on pitching will definitely help to put you on fast-track in mastering the art.

Being a 3-times award-winner of international business plan award and a 2-times recipient of government venture grant (sounds a bit arrogant, do i?:)), I hope to share some tips on pitching with my readers.

1. Refine your idea
Great ideas originates from crude ideas. Crude ideas are normally flawed and comes with plenty of rooms for improvement. Before pitching your idea, try asking yourself a few pragmatic questions. What problem does the idea solve? Does the idea have any adverse effect? Does your idea benefit the mass market, or just a handful of people? Will the idea bring huge benefit in relative to implementation cost? If you still can't think of enough questions to refine your idea, try going to Gallery SmartShop and check on all their creative products. Ask yourself what you products you will buy and why you buy it, if you are given an RM2000 voucher.

2. Focus your area
Having an idea or solution that solves a few problem at once is superb beyond any doubt. However, an idea which covers a wide range of problems will certainly involve more pitching. Pitching is about getting others to intoxicate with your idea. Therefore, it is important to define your pitching scope. Without setting some borders to your idea, you be pitching for 10 minutes just to get to the center of your idea. This rule will help you to ensure your audience does not *yawn* at your pitch.

3. Identify your audience
It is always a part and parcel for me to identify the audience or panel of decision makers before I pitch. Doing some quick research on your audiences will increase your chances in pushing the idea through. I was once faced with a panel of 15 joint decision makers which comes from different background. I actually did a quick research on 10 of them in order to capture their attention from various perspective. The effort was actually paid off.

4. Build your pitch
Pitching is like telling a story you can't wait to share to your friends. You will finally gain the satisfaction after telling the story by having responses such as "wow', "wah", "really?". Well, at times, they might find your story to be boring too. This is what exactly you want to avoid during a pitch. A good pitch requires proper structure, which builds up from a teaser to the climax. Think about your idea, can your audience grasp your idea it in a 5 seconds, 1 minute or 5 minutes pitch? Let me give you a real-life idea which I am currently working on in 5 seconds.

"Shipping books from Amazon.com at RM5 only instead of USD10!"

Do you think you want to know more? Haha, find out how in a few more months time! (I am developing the solution now.) Restructure your pitch for 1 minute, 5 minutes and 10 minutes session. Try to get the gist out of your idea within the specified period. So , have you started working on your 5 seconds tagline now?

5. Practice it
I know a very senior executive(one of the "C"s) in Samsung Group who still practice his pitch repeatedly before facing the audience. It is normal that your confidence will build up after structuring your pitch, so as your egoisim. You might be over-confident with your idea. Believe me, things are very different when you are facing your audience especially when the phychological factor kicks in. Be it a job interview or business idea presentation, your balls tends to hide during the pitching session and you might be performing only partially as good as what you had expected. Therefore, practice and improve on your pitch for at least 15 times before the actual session. If you feel weird speaking to the mirror, try pitching to your best friend or partner, it helps.

6. Be confident while delivering your pitch
Before we dive into this step, ask yourself, are you confident with your idea? Having confidence in your idea holds the key to delivering a good pitch. Forget about pitching if you are not even confident with your idea. If you are still not convinced about your idea, go back to step 1. If you are convinced, the next step would be building your confidence. I still remember vividly how I defended my arguments in one of the venture funding approval session. I thought my chances were slim after the "cynical" approval session but I got the grant in the end. Moral of the story, be prepared and do not give up easily.

I hope to share more about pitching the my coming posts (especially on some tips during the actual pitching session). I hope you enjoy this post and do leave your personal tips/comments if you have any!

Did you queued for Sukuk Bonds?

2009-04-19T15:38:00.006+08:00

Excerpts from TheStar report on 17th April:

KUALA LUMPUR: The RM2.5bil Sukuk Simpanan Rakyat government bond launched Tuesday is all snapped up.

The bond issue has been increased and Malaysians can continue to buy the bonds, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement Friday.

Go to www.treasury.gov.my or www.bnm.gov.my/sukuksimpanan for details or contact Bank Negara Malaysia TELELINK at 1300 88 5465.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/4/17/nation/20090417172535&sec=nation

It is never a surprise to see such news, especially with the current gloomy state of economy. In the past, people have been queuing outside the bank as early as 5 a.m just to get a share of Amanah Saham Wawasan and Amanah Saham Malaysia(ASM). However, how many people really know how Sukuk works ?

This is one of the problem with Malaysians, the "herd mentality" and "kiasu"(scared to lose) spirit. Many jumps into the bandwagon without even a single knowledge of what Sukuk uses as their investment vehicle. Malaysians seems to be very confident with the government when it comes to bonds and trust funds as compared to government policies. *grin*

Back to Sukuk. Since interest bearing bonds are not permissible in Islam, hence Sukuk are securities that comply with the Islamic law and its investment principles, which prohibits the charging, or paying of interest. Sukuk normally invests in HALAL assets by providing short term LOAN and revenue collected from these assets will be distributed as dividend to bond holders. A simple scenario would be investing (as a short term investor) in toll concessionaire or even real estates (by providing loan for development and expansion) which in turn generates steady fixed income.

Here comes the question many will ask when they make an investment.(but surprisingly not when they invest in Sukuk!) What happens if the investment loses money? Well, in Islamic finance, the risk is SHARED. However, when it comes to Sukuk bonds issued by Malaysian government, the risk will be guaranteed by the Malaysian government. (though I am not sure what is the level of guarantee, but I am sure that the coalition government does not want to lose their next election,:))

Sukuk bonds provides you with 5% annual return, to be distributed on quarterly basis. The bond will mature after 3 years. For those who didn't manage to grab a share of it, here's the good news from BNM. For more information on Sukuk, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukuk

One of the greatest advice I had for Web Startup

2009-04-18T17:10:00.005+08:00

I usually do not spend more than 10 minutes watching videos online. However, this talk on web startup is so far the greatest advice I had for Web Startup. I have attended enough seminars on startups by VCs and some organisations for me to say "cut the crap!". This video talk truely enlightents you on how easy you can create a million dollar company!

Enjoy the talk by David Heinemeier Hannson of 37 Signals, who is also the founder of Ruby on Rails which slices through most of the hype and nonsense around startup companies I have heard for years.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href='http://www.omnisio.com'&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Share and annotate your videos&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; with Omnisio!&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

How to Survive Retrenchment?

2009-04-15T04:38:00.008+08:00

Most of us are lucky. We have never tasted the bitterness of retrenchment in our entire working life. However, as many firms are undergoing major organizational restructuring in order to cut costs, the risk is adverse. Adding salt to wound, a lot of companies have freeze hiring. Thus, retrenchment is something many people may have to face, whether they like it or not. Here are some tips to help you cope with retrenchment if you land yourself in such a situation.

1) Face It, Not Face Off

The initial reaction you will encounter would be shock and anger. You are shocked that the firm is willing to lay off a good employee. But you need to understand that this is not personal, it's business. After that, you might feel depressed that your firm did not value you as much as you though they did. You may even feel a depreciating sense of self-worth. But there is one thing you need to do - you need to get back on your feet. Share your feelings with your loved ones, your spouse and family. Do not carry the burden alone. Your family will be there to support you and help you work things out during these difficult times. Once you have accepted the reality of your retrenchment, you need to find out what to do next. How are you going to cope with it?

2) Assess Your Finances

While sharing the bad news to your family, you may also need to tell them that there is a need to adjust your current lifestyle to survive financially. You may get a nice severance package when you were laid off, but refrain from spending it on luxury items that depreciates in value such as a new car or a long vacation. Instead, you need to spend on things that will help you make more money. For instance, you may want to invest the money to make it grow or set up a business to make more money. As a family, look into how your family can save money by cutting down on daily expenses or switching brands.

You may think that you have enough to cover for the next 6 months, but the reality may be different. The amount you have may not even last that long. Besides looking at your cash flow, also assess your debts, savings and assets.

It is also important that you get enough medical or hospitalization coverage for you and your family. Since you have stopped working for your firm, you may find that no one will cover your medical expenses. Get one as soon as possible. The last thing you would want to do is to have to fork out lots of money on medical expenses during these times.

3) Skills Training

Assess your current skills to see if they are still relevant in the modern job market. If they are not, you may wish to upgrade your skills with extra training so that you can land yourself another job easily. In addition to technical expertise and knowledge upgrade, you also need to learn to refresh your resume writing and interview skills to help you clinch the next job. Also, the Malaysian government has been kind enough to offer free skill retraining program for laid off workers. So, let's just grab the opportunity and make yourself a more valuable asset to your future organisation.

4) Positive Attitude

It is important to have the right attitude from the beginning in order to cope with the situation. You may be retrenched but it does not mean the end of the world. Continue to network with friends and ex-colleagues to be in the loop about what is going on in your industry. You may wish to ask them to look our for a job opportunity for you and get their recommendation. At the same time, you may want to seek help at employment agencies to get another job. They may offer you a temp-to-perm job. Start off with the temporary position and if you do a good job, you will be employed full-time. Be open to various opportunities available. Don't waste time feeling sorry for yourself; you've got a life ahead of you.

5) Be flexible

You may find that there are limited job opportunities in the industry you worked in previously. If that is the case, you may have to find work in a different industry. Be flexible. You may have to undergo more training, experience a drastic pay cut, or irregular working hours. In order to get the next job, show your employer that you are willing to be flexible about these things. It is important to take whatever job you can get at this moment and continue to look for other opportunities as you go along.

Coping with retrenchment is never going to be easy. But if we take certain issues into perspective, it might be easier to cope. Having the right mindset is the most important tip I have here. From there, you need to formulate a plan to streamline your finances and look for another job. All the best!

Excerpts from: Sydney Hazelton

How to start an Internet Business?

2009-04-13T20:23:00.006+08:00

Despite more than 10 years of experience dealing with Internet technologies, I am still new to Internet marketing. Lately, I have been researching on Internet marketing strategies which leads me some interesting findings. I would like to start my post with simple introduction tools to Internet business.

1. What makes you special?
Internet hosts millions of sites and the number is increasing day by day. What makes your business outstanding? Having a niche product/service will help you in identifying and growing your customer crowd. Surprisingly, simple business such as language translator, grammar tools, connectivity detection tools, Sarawak handicrafts, accessories and cloths are selling like hot cakes. Have you identified yours ?

2. Where is my shop?
You can host your Internet business anywhere. Ebay & Lelong.com provides member storefronts for you to start your "shop". Alternatively, you can even sell your stuff from blogs. Just post your products and services on web! If you want to have a virtual office with hotline number, you can look for various virtual office solutions in town which starts from RM80 per month. If you want something cheaper, leave me a comment and I will share more with you personally.

3. How to collect my money?
Popularised by Maybank, online banking is the fastest and safest way to get paid. Altenatively, you can open a free payment account with Paypal and fetch business from international customers as well.

4. How to promote my business ?
If you do not have spare cash to promote in Google Adwords, Facebook or online newspapers, try the following:

a. 7-11 - There are so many 7-11 shops in town, just post your ads there, you will be surprised about the results.

b. Freebies - Give out some freebies for referrals to your website. Your freebies can be the products that you are selling or simply an RM 20 Starbucks voucher!

c. Forums- Join forums with your website's signature. Be active and get to know friends there. Start with lowyat.net or malaysianbabes.net(if you are targeting ladies)

d. Signature - Design a good signature for yourself, prefebably with some nice graphics. Find good articles online and forward to your friends with your signature. Your friends will help you to forward those.....

e. Blogs - Visit friend's and stranger's blogs. Get your friend who is a frequent blogger to blog for your business.

f. Facebook - Leave comments on your facebook friends' page and start a fan club for your website.

g. Search Engine Optimisation- SEO . This is complicated but can be a good solution which is free of charge, leave me a comment and i will tell you more,:).

h. Youtube - Send your friends interesting Youtube videos related to your product with your website advertisement.

i. Information Collection- Search for info related to your product from the web and filter them.
Publish your findings related to your product on blogs and promote your product there as well.

j. RSS- Keep an RSS subscription for your potential customers to subcribe to your website promotions.

I will share more about my findings in the coming post. Stay tuned!

How to buy GOLD in Malaysia?

2009-04-01T23:35:00.004+08:00

It has been a long long time I have not appeared in the blog space. So sorry my dear friends as I am busy lately.

I have been advocating on buying GOLD to safeguard your wealth. I am not saying that you should used up all your wealth to purchase gold. But rather, try to spend 5-10 % of your wealth to buy some GOLD to hedge against economic crisis.

A lot of people are new to GOLD investment and most of the are thinking that you should keep physical gold bars at home. Well, some people might be doing this but I am not. Let me introduce you a simpler and safer way to invest in GOLD.

There are 3 commercial banks in Malaysia that offers gold savings investment. All you need to do is to open an account with them and all your gold savings will be recorded on the savings passbook in gold units (grams). You can open an account with any of the following banks: Maybank, Public Bank or Ambank. Personally, I prefer Public Bank as their spread for buying and selling is much lower than the other 2.

Check out this page and get more information from here.
http://www.pbebank.com/en/en_content/personal/investments/gold.html

For latest GOLD rates, you can refer to
Public Bank Rates
Bank Negara Malaysia or
Gold.org for international gold rates

Have fun!

Why averaging up is better than averaging down?

2008-10-28T19:58:00.002+08:00

We are in the midst of financial turmoil, again. I can appreciate the "turmoil" better now as I am relatively wealthier than I was 10 years back. Many has started to pop me with this question: "Is this the right time to buy shares? When can we buy ?"
There is no best answer to this. Even if Warren Buffet tells you to be greedy when everyone else is fearful, you got to have "bullets"(money) to be greedy! However, I would like to share my thoughts on averaging.
Many have told me that they have started to "average down" following the turmoil. These includes averaging down their trust funds, stock holdings or even bonds. For financial idiots, averaging down means buying the same equity/trust/shares at a lower price compared to the price you have bought previously to lower down your average purchase price for all units held, vice versa for averaging up. Why I prefer to average up instead of down?

1. The Percentage Trick
If you have bought ABC share at RM 1 each last month and now the price has fallen to RM 0.50, you loss 50 % of your share's value in your investment. Think about this, if you were to break even again, you need the share to gain a 100% increase. In order to make a same amount of RM0.50 gain , you need the share price to perform 200 % gain for the share to move from RM0.50 to RM1.50. Which do you think is harder ? To move down from RM 1 to RM 0.50 or to move up from RM 0.50 to RM 1? Mind you that we are talking about the same value of 50 cents here with a different gearing ratio.

2. Bull and Bear sequence
Strong bull does not visit share market often, so does the bear. If you notice, our market is stagnant most of the time, with less than 15% variance over 3-6 months. A stable market is always the best time to make good decisions. Stable market normally occurs after a great bear market. You can take your own sweet time to average up.

3. Catching a Falling Knife
Have you experienced that before ? Have you ever averaged down, causing your portfolio to stay in red for a very long time? This statement is very true, you will bleed. I have a friend who recently told me about the hidden potential of IOI group, as their stock price have fallen from RM 8.60 to RM 4. I have advised him to put that purchase on hold. IOI shares has since fallen from RM4 to RM2 now in just 2-3 weeks. During a turmoil, you will finally find out all the risk that a company is exposed to.

4. 真金不怕红炉火- Genuine Gold is able to endure the fire
During the good times, everyone is concerned about share price gain rather than dividend yield. Who cares how much dividend you make as long as the company is making big money and share price is up exponentially. Most of the time, investors are not told about the investment risk a company is exposed to and the debts-translated-benefits during the good times. All these will gradually surface during a crisis as companies are desperate to keep their books looking good. Unfortunate incidents on risk exposure(such as Enron, IOICORP) will less likely to happen when the market is picking up.

So, when the market is bottoming out? Or, would it be better to say, when the market is picking up again? My personal gauge, when the market is moving up 15 % again over a period of 3-6 months, it would be a good time for averaging up. It's always better to be safe than sorry, don't you think so?

Million Colours of Malaysia. Why talents leave?

2008-10-18T01:06:00.003+08:00

I feel somehow lucky, to be a Malaysian, after watching the video below.
Malaysia, a great place, and will be greater if we manage to retain all the talents.
The song is performed by a talented Malaysian as well, Juwita Suwito, listen to her songs here.
Are you a Malaysian residing outside Malaysia now? I hope to share about talent in my next entry. Let's hope for a better Malaysia tomorrow!

Being calculative for the wrong reasons

2008-08-06T03:28:00.005+08:00

City folks are calculative, in certain sense. They calculate the tolls that they are able to skip by choosing different routes to reach their destination. They calculate how much points they could earn on Bonus Link when making a decision to purchase a product. They figure out which computer shop to visit from lowyat.net before purchasing digital peripherals. They try different ways and spent a lot of time convincing their banks to waive the credit card annual fees.

We are always calculative on little things that are well publicised. Everyone in the city knows about toll-skipping routes, you will looked dumb for not knowing that. Even ladies shop often in Low Yat nowadays. We often overlooked the non-obvious stuff when we choose to be calculative. I will bring out a few simple examples.

Most of the people working city owns more than one bank account, even there is only one which is active. This is partly because most of us opt to have a career change every 2 to 3 years. Most of the companies insist their employees to have accounts with the bank they dealt with. Many therefore ended up with 3 or 4 ATM cards. I know of a friend who owns 8 ATM cards. Are you aware of how much an ATM card cost per annum? It is RM 8 per annum, regardless of your usage(for most banks). 8 cards would mean RM 64 per annum. You will seldom notice it because it is automatically deducted from your bank account. You will not feel the pinch as it is a minimal sum compared to your savings in bank. Do you really need all your ATM cards ? For your information, my ATM card is also my credit card. I pay RM 0 for ATM facilities although my daily withdrawal limit is capped to RM 3000. Of course, my credit card annual fees are normally automatically waived by the banks without even needing me to call them. (I only stick to one credit card to focus my spending on one card)

Many know how much they paid for their road tax every year but not their car insurance. We always get runners to renew our insurance and road tax without knowing much about the details. Do you know that your car value depreciates year by year ? This results in lower insurance premium. However, most drivers are not aware of this. They paid whatever standard amount which is advised by their insurance agents. The premium for RM80K and RM60K can be very different. Are you aware of that?

The list of examples will never end if I decide to cite every one of them. Advice for the day, it's good to be calculative at times, but not for the wrong reasons.

Getting Rich Quick in the city

2008-08-03T19:42:00.006+08:00

If you are approaching 30 and still not belonging to the group of rich, powerful and famous, do not be disappointed, many are with you.

This is NOT an entry telling you about how to get rich quickly. It is an entry speaking out what most of the early twenties young working adults had in their mind when they started their working life in the city: to get rich quick.

There is no shortcut for success. I have joined at least 2 MLM companies before and I know how hard people work towards their success. I also know some of their "scam" tricks on how to attract more members. Fortunately, the products I bought from direct sales membership are usable and effective for me and my family (though I did not continue to use them now anymore, the products are really good, it's just too expensive).

It is not the case for many. Many loss their hard-earned savings by investing into scams and memberships. They will not tell you their story as it is not something to be proud of. Some of them chose to create "fact exposure" sites which are widely publicised as they felt that it's their obligation to warn others about some flawed investment scheme.

Some of the young entrepreneurs found themselves to to be in trouble by trying to slaughter the golden goose. So, how should you decide what's the best for you in order to live comfortably in the city?

1. Be Patient
I have been through the early 20s stage. I must admit, 20s is a very competitive stage in life, especially for young graduates who works in the city. You don't have much experience and yet try to prove yourself to be more successful than your peers. You want to own an Altis when your peers are driving Vios. Many who are impatient to make their first pot of gold eventually loss their "investments" to some "professional scams". I grew up in the era of dotcom bubble during my early 20s, where many young, successful entrepreneurs are featured by the media. I have too, been given the limelight by main stream media featuring my startups during the early 20s . However, I have learned to be patient and analytical throughout the years in order to move to the next level. My advice for the early 20s, analyse the "opportunities" offered to you carefully before investing your time and money. Yes, time and energy is all you have when you are young and use them smartly. They will translate to success and money if you make your decisions wisely. Learn from other's experiences and try to create opportunities for yourself rather than buying into one. I will blog more about creating opportunities for yourself in my future entries.

2. Be Focused
Many will try everything to get rich and famous. Most of the people in their 20s will have similar philosophy of life: "never try, never know, so try everything and you might hit the jackpot". Ask any of your friends working in the city, 8 out of 10 of them will tell you that they have joined an MLM, unit trust or insurance company as agents before. However, probably only 1 out of 10 of those who joined remains as active member now. It's hard to achieve what you want in life if you are not focused. Trying out everything is not the solution to get something out of your life. I have told myself that I would like to improve the quality of people's life through technology. I am still sticking to that goal.

3. Be Balanced
My ex-neighbour never gave up persuading me to join his MLM business. I have nothing against MLM companies, as long as they sell their products honestly. One of the factors I chose not to join is because of the imbalance workload in MLM working environment. He drives a C Class now, bought just after 6 months joining the MLM company. Frankly speaking, his C Class does not come in easy. I knew how hard he worked. Ever since he joined the MLM network, I hardly seen him at home. He came back at 3 or 4 am almost every night, even during the weekends. Though he claimed that his working hours are flexible, it's not flexible at all to me. Weekends has to be dedicated for work and you usually spent your time in talkshow events at night. You hardly have time for your family. Always strike a balance in whatever you do, maintain a healthy lifestyle, you will never regret doing that.

Though it is hard to make yourself rich quickly in the city, there are still ways to guarantee yourself a comfortable lifestyle in the city. I hope to share more about this in my future entries.

Why having hard time to look for food in the city? Now, everyone can cook!

2008-08-03T03:22:00.006+08:00

Most young working adults living in the city do not cook. Eating out has become a norm for many working class city folks. Sometimes, you just run out of idea where to take your dinner. With rising inflation, many hawkers and restaurants are either hiking their food prices or cutting down their food preparation cost. Neither is good for us as consumers. Well, we will need to eat everyday. So, what can we do ?

Learning how to cook can help to ease some inflation burden while helping you to de-stress yourself. I find cooking helpful in releasing your tension especially when you do your cooking during the weekends.

Learning how to cook is easy. Learning how to cook your favourite Malaysian food is especially important especially when you are in some foreign land. I have picked up some cookings tips and figure out some recipes from the following websites.

http://www.deliciousasianfood.com/
http://myhomerecipe.com/
http://imbinitchy.blogspot.com
http://steamykitchen.com/
http://www.rasamalaysia.com

Want to taste my cooking ? I am planning to run a pot luck at my place, anyone joining ?

Snippets: When God's plan is greater than Man's

2008-08-02T02:54:00.004+08:00

"人算不如天算" (ren suan bu ru tian suan, it means man's calculation can never be more accurate than God's).

I used to work for a UK public listed company for 4 years. I was allocated GBP9000 worth of share option at the price of GBP1.79 which is due for exercise on August 2008. This translates to 5028 shares.

When I decided to leave my ex-company, the share price was at the height of GBP3.42, it was just 8 months before I could exercise my options. I will not get anything from share options if I leave the company anytime before the exercise date. My potential loss would be (5028 X GBP (3.42-1.79)) = GBP 8195.76 or RM57,534 (GBP/RM was 7.03 at that time). Enough to buy a brand new Waja.

It was a tough decision to make. Though I knew it was only a potential figure, it was something hard for me to part with. Something which I deserved having if I fulfilled my employment duty for another 8 months. I left in the end.

The news broke out on 31st July 2008 and the latest share price was GBP1.71, 8 pence lesser than the option price. What can I say?

Buying vs Renting Property

2008-08-01T21:40:00.007+08:00

This is a boring topic for most to go through, as you can find similar article in financial magazines or newspapers. However, I would like to share my experience from a more personal viewpoint rather than financial viewpoint. A viewpoint from someone who migrated from other states to Klang Valley for a living.

Almost 50% of the young working adults in Klang Valley do not grow up here. Many found a job in the city and made city their home after having a stable career. Many who came from foreign state rushed into buying properties during the first few years of their working life. A lot of them do not want to "service the loan" for their landlords, while some are worried about the quick-rising house price. It's really a tough decision to make, especially when your income is merely in the range of RM 3-4K. So , what are the factors you should consider before buying a property?

1. Do you really like city life?
Many of my friends went back to their hometown within 5 years after working in the city. Some of them find it hard to cope with working stress and the high living cost, while some find city a cold and boring place. I had a friend who constantly having gastro problems when she started working in the city. Doctors are unable to diagnose what's her problem exactly but she has recovered after going back to her hometown. Do you really like city life ? Are you ready to bite through the bullet and go through the city struggles? If not, renting a place is still the best option during the first 3 years of your working life.

2. Which city do your want to be exactly?
Many of my friends started to work in Penang and moved to Kuala Lumpur eventually, vice versa. I have also friends who worked in Kuala Lumpur and decided to move to Singapore after getting fed up with the rising crime rate. If you are not sure about the city that you plan to settle down with, be safe, rent a place.

3. Are you the only child?
Well, many will wonder why this is important. Think about this, what if your parents wants to stay with you? You need a bigger house ? Or you might need to move back to your hometown?

4. Do you have a stable relationship/ planning to get married ?
Sometimes your wife/husband might have different plans on whether to settle down in the current city. Be sure about it.

5. Where do you prefer to work at?
My neighbour is an interior designer. He just sold his house two weeks back. He works in Damansara Heights and interior design companies normally have their premises located at the city center. It's hectic for him to travel from house to work and he had realise that he had made a wrong decision buying a place far from his work place.

6. Are you paying more than 3 % of the total property value per annum for your rental?
If the property you have rented cost you RM 500 per month(RM 6,000 per annum), the average value of the property should be 6,000/3% = RM 200,000. If you are renting a property worth more than 200K at Rm 500 per month, you can slowly look for a property you like before rushing buying into one.

7. Can you afford a property which you don't mind staying in with a housing repayment as much as 25 % of your income?
If you are making RM 4000 a month, you can afford to repay RM1000 for your housing loan. Are you able to afford that and would you stay in the property after it is ready ? Many bought their properties without doing proper survey. They bought simply because it is cheap and affordable. Some chose to continue renting a place even after their properties are completed because they don't really like the place they bought. Why do you want to buy in the first place if you know you won't be staying in that property?

8. Are you looking for an investment or a place call home ?
Many do not have an idea what exactly they wanted, a property for investment or for own stay.
It is hard to satisfy both criteria unless you have gone through hundreds of property in town. Rule of thumb, if you are looking for a property for investment purpose, ensure that it generates positive cash flow.(Malaysia's property has very low capital appreciation, ranging from 2-4 %, which is lesser or same as FD) If you are looking for one for own stay, make sure you like the place, capital appreciation is secondary. Never force yourself to purchase a property just because of the capital appreciation potential. You might regret someday.

So, are you ready to buy one now?

Addendum: Inflation, BLR, OPR, FD Rates

2008-08-01T15:59:00.005+08:00

Bank Negara has just published their latest report on Malaysian economy. As per my previous entry on inflation and real FD return rates, I would give you a clearer picture depicted from the BNM report. Picture is worth more than thousand words,:).

Real FD return rates is decreasing since Sept 07'.

MYR is depreciating against major currencies since early of the year.

So , what are going to do with your Fixed Deposit in Ringgit Malaysia? :).

*all images above are cannibalised from BNM's latest report

Snippets: How to get the job you want by having a good resume

2008-08-01T01:53:00.005+08:00

Jobs are aplenty in the city. This is why people come to cities to seek for better opportunities. However, getting the right job for yourself is never easy. It is a two-way matching process, and a trade between employers and employees. You might be good at your expertise and domain, but not good at expressing the skills and achievements you possess on a piece of paper. Your skill sets can be much more valuable, by having a well-polished CV to "enlighten" your potential employer on the talent they needed.

If you are not good at expressing yourself through your CV, it can be solved, easily. Visit Boon's blog, or drop him an email at boon [at] leapwalking [dot] com to ask for help.

Looking for true friends in city

2008-07-31T14:28:00.008+08:00

It's hard to get true friends in the city, especially when you have started your working life. You can't appreciate the meaning of true friends anywhere better than the city.

I had a friend who stays close to my hostel room during the university days. We were quite close to each other back then as I always dropped by his room for casual chats. We nearly lost touch after graduated as both of us are busy traveling and working. (there is no Facebook yet back then) However, I tried contacting him a year after we graduated. The conversation sounds like this:

Me: Hey, brother, how are you doing?

My friend: I am fine. How about you?

Me: I am fine too. Just thought of catching up with you, have time for a cup of tea?

My friend: Sure, but what you want to SELL to me?

Me: Huh? SELL to you? I am not selling anything to you, just catch up with you and have a gathering.

My friend: Sure or not? You are the first person who told me this after graduated.

Me: .............................................

It's not hard to come across "long-lost" friends who calls you for a "tea-session". I have friends who calls me up to introduce insurance plan, MLM, "investment-link", credit cards, mortgage plan, Iraq dinars, fitness membership (by the way,i heard YogaZone got into trouble lately), get-rich-quick scheme, discount vouchers, magazine subscriptions etc., you name it. Some called me for help to ease their cash flow problems or borrow my car for emergencies. I gave in most of the time. Everyone needs a rice bowl to survive in this city. If you can help your friends not at your expense, why not ? This explains why I had applied more than 10 credit cards.(which most of them I had canceled to date)

City is a cold place. Leaving your hometown for opportunities in the city can be depressing especially if you do not have true friends in your city life. Your parents and siblings are not there to give you a listening ear or a helping hand. Coping with city and working stress alone is definitely not easy.

"无事不登三宝殿" (wu2 shi4 bu4 deng1 san1 bao3 dian4, it means people don't look for you without a reason). I can truly appreciate this Chinese proverb now which existed since 5000 years back. 90-95 % of your friends are mostly "business-related" . It's a norm as everyone in city fights for survival and might not have much time for you on non-beneficial activities. I am fortunate to have a few true friends which consists of my ex-classmates, ex-house mates, ex-uni mates, ex-colleagues and CG (cell group) members. I appreciate them a lot for their support, listening ears and helping hands in needy times. So , how can you get true friends in the city?

1. True friends shares similar values

You might might share different stories with true friends but you always find it interesting to listen to their stories. You might not have the same dream and vision but you are always keen to know how they think.

2. True friends tells you the truth

Conversation with friends tend to be superficial especially in city. There is typical two types of answers when they are asked about their current life. "Business is extremely good and life is great like never before" or "I am not as good as you la" . True friends shares their success and struggles with you.

3. True friends thinks of you when they need someone to listen to

I give "platinum status" to all my true friends. I never cease listening to their problems and trouble, because I felt privileged to be the first group of people they think of when they need someone to talk to.

4. True friends thinks of you when they have something nice to share

Be it a nice dumpling or home cooked dessert, they always call you up to share nice things with you.

I always encourage my friends to join my CG(cell group). One of the reason I liked my cell group a lot is because most of us comes from foreign states. We share the same feeling of not having our family members around, we share the same stress of coping with city life.

True friends can be found in groups of people with same hobby or ideology as well. You can find a true friend even in the driving range. You might also meet a true friend during a back-packing tour. True friends can even be found from blogsphere as you might share the same ideology,passion and values with other bloggers.

Last but not least, business partners can also be true friends if both parties are not selfish in nature. Anyway, you do not want to have a selfish business partner, right?

To all my true friends, i dedicate this post to you,:).

Inflation, OPR, BLR, Currency & You

2008-07-30T01:00:00.006+08:00

Inflation, OPR, BLR, Currency. These words seems to be hitting the financial news headlines lately. Besides inflation, what the other terms has to do with you?

Staying in city is not easy, the cost of financing a property is always double the ones in smaller towns. The cost of financing is directly affected by BLR(Based Lending Rates). So, if you are staying in the city and planning to purchase a property, inflation and BLR will be one of the major concerns for you.

Inflation creeps into our daily life, causing us to spent more for less goods. This is what we can feel directly when inflation hits us. How about our savings, trust funds and stocks? Our liquid assets will be less valuable. Imagine your FD rates is 3 % while the inflation rate is 7 %. Whatever you have today is worth lesser tomorrow.

One of the ways to fight inflation is to increase the OPR (Overnight Policy Rates or Interbank Lending Rates). Increasing OPR will slow down inflation as business activity will slow down due to tightening of banking facilities. Besides that, the OPR might be higher than inflation rate as a result, giving positive return rate for your liquid assets.

Bank Negara has recently decided not to raise the OPR. Therefore, BLR will not be raised as well. Most of the property owners hence felt relief about the decision. The stock market has also return to bullish state as cost of borrowing for business remains stable following this announcement. However, the retaining of rates might also signify that our economy is lethargic. We cannot to afford a setback in economy growth now by raising the rates. On the negative side, inflation might also be spiraling up in months to come as a result of the decision.

Now that Bank Negara maintained the OPR rates, we are also facing yet another crisis, the currency crisis. If you check on the BNM FOREX rates, you will notice that MYR has been depreciating since the announcement of Bank Negara on 25th July.

Currency devaluation is a scary phenomena. Imagine your hard-earned money accumulated since the past 10 years is depreciating by 5-10 % every year. Your EPF money will be eaten up by inflation and currency devaluation. We are experiencing the toughest time ever, in wealth management and economy management.

It's far too complicated to analyse the best solution to manage our current economy. It's a tough decision to make in deciding whether to raise the rates in order to maintain our economy's health. I have been admiring Zeti for her calmness and intelligence for a long time. I hope she had made a wise decision this time.

The Wish List

2008-07-29T00:05:00.005+08:00

I love to be young. I am easily satisfied during my younger days. I am delighted when I got my first mountain bike, overjoyed when I bought my first car using my hard-earned money during university days. It's very hard to describe my joy in words. However, I am supposed to celebrate joyfully upon settling my home loan last year but I wasn't really overjoyed. The only feeling I had was, relieved.

One of the hardest thing to to overcome in city is temptation, and one of the hardest thing to achieve is satisfaction. I have to admit human are greedy in nature but temptation makes it even harder for people to survive happily in the city. I can still recall vividly that the best ice-cream in my hometown were Walls and Nestle. (FYI, my hometown is a small town with a population of about 100,000). There is no Hagen Dazz, Baskins, NZ Natural, you name it. Peer pressure makes it hard for you not to taste them, especially if you are a young working middle class. What makes it worse is that once you have tasted them, you will never be able to appreciate Walls and Nestle again. Life is hard, our decisions are always contradicting, huh?

To satisfy all your needs, you will have to earn more. Some chose 0 % payment scheme to satisfy their needs while some work day and night just to afford higher taste. I knew this will never end. I knew I couldn't afford everything I wanted. I came out with a solution for myself, a wish list.

My wish list is supposed to make myself happy in every milestone of my life while helping me to control my spending habits. Some milestone were based on accumulated wealth while some were based on personal achievements. The wish list is meant to be a reward scheme to make my family and myself happy especially when I have achieved certain milestone. Wish list is also a way to drive myself harder to achieve something in life in order to enjoy the carrots.

I will probably share my wish list as snippets in future entries. If you are finding yourself in a dilemma to own something you wanted a lot, create a wish list. You will be happier, someday.

Snippet: Leapwalking.com

2008-07-28T18:29:00.003+08:00

Career development is very crucial for every one to survive in the city. I have not been focusing much on career development thoughts. My friend, Boon, has a great blog that focuses on career development with analytical views on various career related issues. Visit his website at http://www.leapwalking.com You will surely benefit a lot from his advice.

Having a mentor at different stages of your life

2008-07-28T02:23:00.006+08:00

I am learning to appreciate things I have learned in the past as I get older. I am an engineer by training. However, I started appreciating finance at the age of 21. I moved on to history, geography and now economics. When I was young, I couldn't understand why people did their PhD in history. It was boring to me. At different stages of life, you learn to appreciate the usefulness of different knowledge domains and starts to apply them in your daily life.

Having a mentor at early stage of your working life helps you to appreciate these faster and easier. I had started to have mentors after entering university. My first mentor Dr. Ewe gave me advice on entrepreneurship when I started my first techo-venture at age of 18 . I learned a lot from how to lure venture capitalist, striking an elevator pitch to writing professional business plan in the early days of my university life. I thanked Dr. Ewe for his enthusiasm and guidance in bringing up the future generations of technoprenuer in Malaysia.

During the final years of my university life, I met Mr. Yap, an ED of a public listed company in Malaysia. He was kind enough to mentor me on starting up new companies and running a profitable business. I had a great lesson on startup essentials and know-how on maintaining a successful business cycle. I thank him for his patience with a young punk like me.

I met my ex-CFO, Mr. Chew, who was also a Finance Controller in a listed company years later. Cool and quiet person, he is a great mentor in guiding me on financial management and stock market investment. Having graduated from engineering studies, financial management is a total stranger to me. I started learning about the basics of financial management from my cool mentor when we got closer in a trip to Ipoh. I continue to learn about ways to control operational cost as well as to increase company's profits from a financial standpoint. Terms such as technical analysis and fundamental analysis were added to my dictionary throughout the mentoring process. I was trained to be a shrewed investor. I wouldn't say I am a financial expert now but my financial knowledge are much superior than my university peers thanks to Mr. Chew. I opened my first CDS account after knowing him and my stocks portfolio has been multiplied by 800 % since then.

Ms. Lee and late Elder Cheng were my spiritual mentors. Their guidance and teachings has kept me walking in a righteous path throughout my career and life. Being successful in your life without ethics leads to emptiness. I thank them for planting ethics and God's word in my life.

Good mentors are important in shaping your thinking and character. They fill your innocent mind with useful tips and advice which can be applied for lifetime to make you a better person. I could never imagined myself to be what I am today when I moved from a small town to the big city of Kuala Lumpur. My mentors gave me substantial survival skills to survive in a city. I certainly hope I could mentor the younger generation someday.

Working Overseas & Migration: Are you in?

2008-07-24T22:45:00.000+08:00

If you are below 30s, something must have crossed your mind before. Migration. It's the trend for the young working adults now and the trend is spreading virally.

I used to hear stories about my relatives and friend's parents working in foreign countries during the 80s. Many of them migrated and some came back during the late 90s. The favourites are Australia, New Zealand, Japan, US, UK, Singapore, Canada and Saudi Arabia. The rich ones will uproot their family and migrate to developed countries while the poorer ones simply work in countries that can provide them with more income. In the 80s, economic instability and currency conversion rate was the driving factor for the migration wave. Today, the economic factor is still present but there are more reasons behind this new wave.

12 of my friends have left to other countries this year. Also, I am seconded lately with my family to work in MENA region. Officially, I am an expatriate now, :). 4 of my other friends are leaving by August. There are more to go. Different reasons are cited by my friends for leaving the country. Why the migration and job secondment wave is hitting Generation X in Malaysia?

1. Air Asia Factor
Low cost air carrier or better known as Air Asia in Malaysia makes it possible for middle-class or even lower-middle class to travel by air. I used to envy my friends during my school days when they tell me about their traveling experiences. I used to imagine how the air cabin looks like but my maiden flight was way below my expectation. My parents used to tell me that if I want to fly to other countries, I will need to earn a lot or join a good company. Air Asia changes everything. The air-traveling landscape has changed much since the millennium. Many Generation X had the chance to travel at least to nearby countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar and Hong Kong to experience a different culture and lifestyle. I am blessed to be able to set foot on 16 different countries. After observing the culture and lifestyle of different people around the world, many just have the impulsive thought of spending a year or two in some foreign land. Yes, we want to see the world, and feel it. Low-cost air carrier has opened our eyes to the world and we want more now. We want to experience a different place rather than visiting. Air Asia has also given many a good reason to fly back to their homeland more frequently, taking away the concerns of losing touch with friends and family.

2. Diminishing of national pride
Nationalism started since the 19th century, marking the end of imperialism. Enterprises and businesses used to be indirect tools for new imperialism but is slowly fading away now. In the past, people worked hard for their country to "conquer" the world with their products and businesses. Malaysian Proton bought Italian Augusta which is sold to the Germans now. Americans are selling Budweiser to Belgian brewers and GE Plastics to Saudi Arabians. American owned Jaguar is sold to Indian TATA now. It's hard to distinguish who owns what now but the new owner will always try to impose control by swapping the senior managements. Today, you are not sure who you work for anymore. You might be working for a Malaysian company, which is later sold to the Italians and later to Middle Easterners. Today, you feel less proud of your country and other peoples country. Vietnam, China and India are growing economies but you will not feel proud to be their citizen. Of course, with what's happening lately, you feel less proud of being a Malaysian now. Many used to chase the American Dream, but the Green Card's demand is getting lesser now. Today, people care lesser about working and contributing in and for their homeland. Money, security and personal experiences comes before nation building.

3. Wide-spread of User-Friendly Communication Technology
Call any Malaysian number using www.flekx.com and it cost you nothing. Communications cost is zeroing now. I still remember having pen-pals from Finland when I was 13. Ask any 13-year-old teenager today and they will tell you to socialise in Facebook. We are changing our communication tool from letter-writing to telegraph to phones to internet voice calls and now to video calls. The classic verse to end an overseas phone conversation used to be, "we have talked too long and it's getting expensive, guess i need to end the call now". Today, our conversation end like this,"my ear is hot liao la, bye bye". The advancement of communication technology has brought everyone closer. People are less concerned about communication problems after leaving their homeland. Even Indonesian maids can afford to call back everyday now.

4. Rising Education Levels
Our parents used to be proud of having HSC or Diploma certification. Anyone who graduated from university will leave their name on the ancestors association's wall of fame. This is not the case for today's education. Throw a pebble and it might hit an undergrad on the street. The rising of education levels has 2 major effects in driving the migration rate. First, it's harder to get a job now. Second, your knowledge and skill sets can be deployed anywhere in the world. Salary scales has been quite stagnant for the past 10 years. It's getting harder to look for a decent-paying job now as compared to 10 years ago. Graduates are forced to work with lower wages as they do not have much options. Experienced expertise and knowledge workers will look for decent paying jobs in overseas to make their experiences worthwhile.

5. Historical Mirror Factor on socio-politics
Politics. Be it Anwar or Najib, TDM or Pak Lah, all we want is a foresighted leader, a prosperity-and-security-conscious leader. We studied Sejarah (history) from Form 1 to Form 5. What has the history taught us? History told us that Philippines and Indonesia are stronger and more powerful than Malaysia. Riau and Sulu Empire used to conquer the "Kepulauan Melayu". Their currency is much stronger in the 80s and 90s compared to what is today. Reformation and chaotic politics has brought down the nation. Political chaos has inflicted burdensome socio-economic problems. We have a very close mirror to predict what will be happening soon to Malaysia if the political problems doesn't end. As what Sun Tzu says, "Fleeing" is the best option.

6. Globalisation of Developing Economy
I have just finish reading the book, "The World is Flat", by Thomas L. Friedman. Globalisation is affecting your daily life whether you like it or not. Many Malaysian companies are venturing to less developed countries to fight for survival. One of my friend is seconded to Cambodia as Financial Controller for a listed company in Malaysia. He is still below 30, this is a great opportunity for him to gain his experience as an FC. Globalisation has given opportunities for many Malaysian companies to venture out. As a result, many young working adults are given the opportunity to prove themselves at young age, as the more experienced group in their 40s has more family obligations and considerations. Given a chance to be a country manager at age of 28, would you go to a less-developed country to venture your career?

There are far more reasons than the ones mentioned above for people to leave their homeland. Be it a migration or secondment, survival is what you need in a new environment. I will talk more about surviving in a new city with a different culture,language and lifestyle in future entries. If you have some time spare, do vote for my migration question on the sidebar, "Given a chance to be in senior management at 28, would you go to a less-developed country to venture your career?"

Good luck to all my friends who decided to venture out.

Enhancing Value of Your Neighbourhood

2008-07-22T20:12:00.000+08:00

I stay in Puchong. This year marks the 10th anniversary of my stay as a Puchongnite.

When I made my decision to own my house in Puchong 6 years back, it's was really tough to tell people that you actually bought a house in Puchong. Back then, it makes you look stupid investing in a place full of mining pool and shady shoplots-some are even renovated into dodgy pubs. IOI mall has so many vacant lots and their anchor tenant, The Store, could not even survive. Many asked me why I bought a place in such areas (a.k.a low-class-area). Many recommended Subang USJ to me at that time. My answer was simple, without help from anyone, how can you afford to own a landed property in Klang Valley after working for only 2 years?

I have never stayed in a strata property before in my life-time (my entire hometown has only 2 blocks of residential apartments) and I came from a foreign state where landed freehold properties are halved the price of Klang Valley's. It's really tough to make a decision to own a relatively expensive piece of property in the early days of your working life. However, I knew I wanted a freehold, mining-free, gated landed property in Klang Valley and the properties that fits into the category are getting scarce day by day.

Setting price factor aside, one of the reason I bought a place in Puchong instead of Subang is because Puchong has plenty of land. You might be surprise with this reason as it contradicts with the normal rule of economics where scarcity increases the value of goods. I knew about this, I know Puchong's property value might not appreciate fast. However, when I look at Subang from Google Earth, the entire area was very well planned with little space for roads and highways. Most of the land are built with landed properties and you hardly see any vacant land plots on the map. The Subang's population will be saturated and the commercial properties are not doing well here. Subang is definitely a no no for me to stay as I hate traffic jams. On the other hand, a future city with vacant lands gives the future city mayor a chance to plan for a better city. I always tell my friends that Puchong will be a bigger city compared to Subang in years to come. I chose Puchong.

Some of my major concerns when buying a house during my early 20s:

Price & Budget
Crime Rate & Security
Neighbourhood
Landed, Tin-Mining-Free, Freehold

I knew there are many more concerns for everyone else but the 4 above are my major ones. My Puchong property had everything right except for the neighbourhood factor. ~~For sure, you do not want to stay close to foreign labours, drug addicts or prostitutes. Also, you want your next generation to study with other kids who are brought up in a good family.~~ The question now would be, how can you be sure about your neighbourhood when you are buying a newly developed property.(the neighbourhood has not been established yet).

Of course price factor does come into the picture, but we have to take price factor aside in this discussion. (or I will just stay in Kenny Hills) My best friend bought the same area two years after me and we started to promote Puchong to friends. Most of our university mates are working as professionals now and I ended up having most of my university friends staying in Puchong now. I am very surprised as my housing area are now occupied by doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, professors, lecturers etc. Even better, 10 % of them came from my hometown and many of them came from my home state. I am satisfied with my neighbourhood now as everyone are very co-operative and we have a very good security management.

A peaceful and friendly neighbourhood greatly enhances the pleasure of your stay in a particular housing area. A good neighbourhood also increases the value of your housing area indirectly. It is therefore important to do your part to create a pleasurable neighbourhood. Some of the things my residential committee and neighbours does:

Pay security management timely
Keep the roads clean
Organise seasonal events
Alert every residents on any burglary cases within the neighbourhood
Alerts the security when suspicious foreign labour found wandering around (they climbed over fences sometimes for shortcuts, as what they claim)
Do not simply park their car outside your house (it's very annoying, and part of the reason being, a young neighbourhood generally has less cars)

On a side note, Subang's property prices are falling lately. Apparently, Subang's crime rate is getting worse according to the latest report. And who says Puchong's property is cheap now? IOI latest two-and-half storey terrace house is launched at the price of RM880K for an intermediate unit.

I love Puchong.

The New City Trend- Unit Trust: Should I Invest?

2008-07-22T03:15:00.000+08:00

It's very hard not to bump into a unit trust agent while walking around the city. I still remember this agent who never fails to promote her unit trust when I bumped into her during lunchtime around KL Sentral.

Some of the promotion tag line are very creative, eg. "Young man, don't only wet in pubs la, save some money, buy unit trust and save for "lou po bun"(savings to get married)." Hey, do I look like someone who wet a lot? I have not been to pubs since 23 and I have already got married,:P.

Anyway, back to the unit trust topic. Most of my friends who are working in the city bought unit trust, a lot of them are selling too. Some also opted to leverage on their EPF savings to purchase unit trust, as they are worried about the way EPF manages our money. However, many asked me the same question these days, "Should I sell my trust fund?"

I sold all of mine back in 2007, anticipating a recession which didn't happen. Ever since then, I never bought in a single fund. I was one of the very first trust fund advocates and investor among my peers. I am still able to recall that we are able to count the number of trust funds available in the market back in 1996. Now, you just lost count.

My stand is still neutral now for trust fund. Reason being that a lot of people living in the city are lacked of financial knowledge. This is the reason for buying as well as not buying trust funds. If you do not know how to manage your money, probably investing in a trust fund might help you to fight against the rising inflation. However, many of the fund investors are investing based on the city "herd-mentality". Their favourite tag line is, "If you do not know how to manage your wealth, let the professionals do it".

People are working very hard to make extra money in the city but didn't have extra time to learn how to manage it. This is why when I asked my friends on funds they have invested, they couldn't even tell me the ratio of their funds distributions (ratio of cash, equities, bonds, properties etc). Many are unable to tell me which sector of equities their funds are focusing on and what is their funds' investment policy. When asked about the difference between Money Market Fund and Equity Fund, a typical answer would be "huh? got difference one meh?" I hope you are not asking yourself those questions now. Even if you are, it's never too late to learn,:).

My current view on trust funds: a long-term investment tool. If you do not know how to manage your wealth, keep everything in cash and gold now. Trust funds are not good for short-mid term investment in the current financial climate. One of the reason you lost count on the trust fund counters is because the number of trust fund investors is growing at an exponential rate due to overheated economy. Economy is extremely hot in countries such as China, India and Vietnam. The recent economic shocks has sent various equities market value back to more acceptable level, bringing down trust fund's NAV (Net Asset Value) significantly. The worse has yet to come.

What if you are still on a trust fund investment plan? Keep whatever that you have invested, unless those are junk trust funds. (I will write on analysing trust fund soon if possible) For future investment, IMHO, I would choose to divest into foreign currency or gold instead of trust funds.
Does your trust fund manager care about losing your money ? No, they don't. They still get their sales commission and professional fees annually. Life goes on. This is why I don't trust them.

My personal advice before investing in trust funds, always take note of these few things:

Fund Distribution (Ratio of Cash, Equities, Properties, Bonds)
Risk (high growth high risk, stable growth low risk)
Investment Policy
Moral & Ethics (in case you don't invest in gaming or tobacco companies)
Past dividend and bonus splits records
Compounded Annual Growth Return (CAGR)
Performance of other funds within the same financial group

Talk to more people to find out their views on the economy direction and decide on funds which suits you the best. Happy investing!

* the above advice are purely my personal opinion and I will not be responsible for any losses incurred based on advice given.

Why city folks are late to get married? (II)

2008-07-22T02:55:00.000+08:00

Steps to save for your wedding:

Get a wedding planner: You have so much to do to prepare for a once-a-life-time event. Get your friends(preferably just married,without kids) to plan for your wedding. I bet you can save a lot!
Wedding Cards: Get from your hotel/restaurant if you are not planning to have a special wedding invitation card. Otherwise, get a friend irom digital printing industry to help you out.
Wedding dinner: try to negotiate not to settle for full payment before the wedding.
RSVP: Many Malaysians do not understand what RSVP means. Instead of explaining this to them, just call up everyone you invited for your dinner two weeks before to confirm on their attendance.
Wedding buffet (if you have any): remember any "chap fan" auntie or uncle who sells very nice chap fan. Get them to cook for you and what you need is just to buy/rent some very nice caterer utensils. You can save a few thousands for this. My buffet for 150 people with 8 dishes only cost RM800. Get your wedding planner to do this,:).
Honeymoon: Ideally, go for a one week honeymoon in a nearby island (eg Langkawi, Bali, Phuket). There's is always AirAsia,:). You will enjoy and relax a lot. If you wish to have an overseas posh trip, plan it during MATTA fair.
Flowers: Get a florist from outskirt( Klang, Kajang) who is equally good to assist you in decoration. You can easily save a few hundred bucks.
Relatives: If you need to accommodate relatives from far, get a bungalow for a day or two. You will usually pay less compared to hotels.

Why city folks are late to get married? (I)

2008-07-21T04:27:00.000+08:00

One of my good friend recently told me that she needs to "strategise" her steps to get her boyfriend to marry her. When asked, the reason given was that her boyfriend was financially unstable. I felt sorry for her. I got married at age of 26 though it wasn't easy. Let's face it, marriage is one of the biggest event in our life and a once-a-lifetime event which you will have to spend to give your wife a memorable wedding. This is some experience that I would like to share, getting the best with least money for your wedding. And guys, don't wait for your girlfriend to push you to marry her!

Spending for wedding can be very impulsive if not well planned. For instance, your wedding album might go up from 3K to 6K if you do not have an idea about how your album should look like. My sister's wedding album cost her Rm14K while mine cost RM2.8K. Imagine Rm14K sitting at a corner in your house collecting dust after your wedding. Well, memories are priceless, some might say.

Let me give you an idea about the main expenditure for weddings:

Wedding Album & Wedding Package
Wedding Ring
Wedding Dowry
Wedding Dinner
Event Video & Photo Shooting
Honeymoon

Here are some tips for couples living in cities (especially KL) who are deciding on your wedding package. Many couples decides their wedding packages in bridal roadshows. Bridal roadshows normally offer much better discount compared to walk-in purchase. However, many are not aware that the bridal house they have chosen might not have suitable gown for the bride. A lot ended up renting another gown which might cost them another RM1000 or more for just 2 days. What is RM1000 to make your wife happy on her wedding day, :). But if you can save this RM1000, it will make both of you even happier. So how ? Shopping around different bridal house to check on their gowns before bridal show season starts. This does not only help you to save, but also provide both the lovers a memorable pre-wedding experience. It would be very easy for you to make decisions and ask for discounts in bridal roadshows as you already know what you will be getting.

For wedding rings, needless to say, check them out early and purchase during sales season. :)

Getting tired. To be continued tomorrow.

Snippets: Malaysia Property Outlook

2008-07-20T04:02:00.001+08:00

I have been checking out on different opinions on Malaysia's Property Outlook lately. Some of the interesting views and arguments I found.

http://malaysiafinance.blogspot.com/2008/07/frank-assessment-of-property.html

http://biz.sinchew-i.com/node/14940

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/7/14/business/21807128&sec=business

http://www.estate123.com/reviews_articles/article_review_detail.aspx?a_id=59

http://www.bnm.gov.my/files/publication/msb/2008/5/pdf/5.15.pdf

Building Zero Cost Knowledge-Based Business (III)

2008-07-20T03:08:00.001+08:00

Money, you cannot run business without it. Though I am talking about zero cost, but money is still involved in any business. Without money, your business will not profit even if it is a zero cost business. This is why, it is extremely important to have business clients while having an investor will help you to quickly expand your business.

It is really hard to run a business while having a day job. You have limited time to approach your customers directly or even to surface for your business. It is therefore important to join a network to promote your services through your friends and strangers. Promote your solutions and skills through Facebook chats or your blog. A casual chat with your friends might bring you surprises. You will never know your friend of friend are actually looking for the solution you are building. This helps your solution to be promoted rapidly by just word of mouth.

There are plenty of "middleman" or "solution brokers" around. Many people has huge contact database and are always looking for "lubang"(opportunities). However, be very careful and selective when you encounter one. A good "solutions broker" will help you to manage your entire project and provide you with peace of mind to concentrate on solution development. Never underpay your broker. A good solution broker helps you to build your track record which is extremely important for a business to attract more customers and investors. These brokers will also be a good marketing personnel for your business if you are able to pay him/her handsomely.
Investors are able to help your business to take a leap for your business expansion. If you have a good solution which is attractive, investors are always interested to invest in your business. How you can meet these investors ? Some tips for you on investors:

1. Join Entrepreneur Clubs. Be it MCA ICT Resource Center, TeAM or PUMM, these organisations provide you with necessary information and networks to access to investors.

2. Look for Listed Companies. There are over 1000 listed companies in Bursa Malaysia alone.Listed companies are owned by many shareholders. Their money belongs to public and most of these companies are always interested in acquiring potential companies to boost their revenue and improve business portfolio. If you happen to know any friends working with or owning(as a director) a listed company, you can always approach them to help you to sell your company.

3. Private angels. There are many people who are rich and do not know what to do with their money. Socialise around and you might get surprises. To expand your social network, join Toast Masters to get to know more professionals. You can also visit trade shows and free conferences to get to know more people from different industry.

These are some basic guidelines to start a zero-cost business and by no means a comprehensive one. I hope to cover more from time to time in future. Feel free to drop your comments if you have any. Moving to more interesting topic soon... :) . Why city folks are always reluctant or late to get married ?

Building Zero Cost Knowledge-Based Business (II)

2008-07-20T02:21:00.001+08:00

Have been busy lately, it took me such a long time to blog again. Anyway, I hope to finish this series as soon as possible.
The Power of Collaboration. Many knows that collaboration and partnership is important for businesses but do not exactly know how to benefit all parties involved in a collaboration. There are many ways to work on a collaboration but I am only going to mention one of the most crucial collaboration or start-ups--resale.
When you have a knowledge-based business, the value of the solution is intangible and subjects to the importance of your clients' encountered problem. Packaging your solution with some existing goods gives your customer an impression of "value-buy". For example, you can package your solution with Windows Server software license, server hardware or even a data hosting subscription. Collaboration with distributors in such cases, will help you to solve a lot of software and hardware related problem as those problems can be directly directed to your vendor/partner. Furthermore, software/hardware sales commissions are quite lucrative and will be able to boost your company's profit. Packaged solution also gives more revenue to your business which provides a good track record for financial institutions if you need any facility.

So , how do you start your first collaboration? Here's some tips for you:
1. Google for software or hardware from overseas which complements your product/solution. Approach the contact person and strike a partnership. Why overseas? Overseas products normally hopes to get some sales rep/agents to expand their business to other regions of the world. If you are genuine, they are more than willing to work with you. For example, Flekx.com, a Malaysian FREE Calls provider collaborates with PORTSIP to distribute their free calling software. This allows Flekx to concentrate on free calls solution while leaving the soft phone features development to PORTSIP.
2. Brainstorm on how you can benefit your potential partner with your current solution before approaching them. This will help you to convince your potential partners.
3. Provide updates to your partner. Updating your partner with the latest development gives more confidence to your partner and encourages them to promote your solutions more aggressively.
4. Demographics. If your partner comes from a different region or industry, share and exchange your market demographics with them to help both parties to expand faster.
5. Distributorship. Seek for distributorship of your partner's product if you think their product is robust and strong. This will provide you with a lucrative side income for a start. However, never forget that your solution is still your core business and always stick to your business goal.

The final chapter, I will talk about Client & Investor, source of your income and capital. Watch out!

Building Zero Cost Knowledge-Based Business (I)

2008-07-04T17:49:00.001+08:00

"白手兴家" (bai shou shing jia), a term to address successful business man who started with just penny-like capital. Its seems hard to start a business without much capital these days. My friends has been asking me, how do you start selling and stop dreaming without capital?
As what the Chinese proverbs says 创业难，守业更难, starting business is never easy, maintaining a business is even harder. However, if you start with limited risk running business within your domain of expert and interest, it would be much easier than thought. Some of the tips are as below.

1. Service, Solutions, Product
Many of us just don't like working for people. I have friends making Rm20K and above a month with average 3 months of bonus every year who quit their jobs. You can be making RM5K, 10K, 20K, and yet you will still quit for the same reason: I want to be FREE! However, many people quit for the wrong reasons, they just want to be FREE without preparing themselves for financial freedom. Many end up returning to employment with even more grouses and depression over their employers and jobs. Generally, I classify businesses into service, solutions and product.
Without much capital, most of the people started out by self-employing as a service provider a.k.a free-lancer. Freelancer will not keep you going far as you might be "hitting-flies" during low-business-cycle. Therefore, freelancing might be something good to start with but one must quickly turn him/herself into a solutions provider or product seller. A lot might ask, what is the difference between service and solutions? Service generally involves exchange of labor or knowledge for goods/money. Solutions on the other hand, involves problem-solving. Solutions can be documented and reapplied to different parties easily. Thus, solutions are valuable and might contain some sort of intellectual properties.
Let me quote you an example. I have a friend who is a web scripting programmer, took up a freelancing job years back to create a server monitoring web-based application. It's a simple job with little wages. However, he managed to turn the scripts into an SMS-based server monitoring solution, which is currently sold to 32 countries worldwide at http://www.hyperspin.com. He managed to quit his day job to run this business full time after slowly building up the business for more than a year.
As for products, you can turn your services into products and engage resellers to sell for you as well. Just burn your software product into a CD/ USB drive and package them into a box. Alternatively, you can use a serial-key controller to control your software distribution through the web and get paid using Pay-Pal.
Yes, service is just a short term solution for business-running and you can't go far with that. You need to try to turn everything you do into a sell-able solution or product.

In the second section, I will talk more about the using Power of Collaboration to build your zero cost business. Watch out for more,:).

To be continued.................

How to thrive during tough times?

2008-07-02T02:06:00.000+08:00

Depressing news is hitting business headlines more often nowadays. Nikko Electronics which is listed on Bursa Main board is closing down its factory, retrenching thousands of Penangnites. US is becoming Bear Country now with Dow Jones heading south for more than 20 % from the peak. During the 97 Asian Financial Crisis, I am still an undergrad without much wealth accumulated. Although I started some small business since 1996, my business was not too badly affected as my business is dealing mainly with cost savings. Volatile times can be melanchonic, but can be trivial too. How you can thrive during tough time?

Property Shopping Spree
On and off, I like to check on the latest property market price from Thestar Classifieds or iproperty.com.my, not really to purchase any property when I found one that is a steal but to checked out how many "steals" are available in the market. Lately, I found quite a few and it's getting more and more. A 20 x 70 double storey link house in USJ 3D normally cost about RM300-310K , but someone is letting go at RM270K. If you are planning to buy a property, hold on, you will be surprised with what you can get with just RM250K.

Blue Chips Shopping Spree
If you are feeling sad because you missed the 2006 Super Bull run for KLSE, this is a good time to shop for good blue chip counters. Down from peak of RM13.20, Maybank is now RM7 per share. The price can be much lower during a recession. General rule of thumb, when the blue chip counter cost only 30 % of it's peak price, it is normally a steal. (disclaimer, this is a personal view and I am not liable for any damages or losses of anyone taking the above advice)

Garage Sale
Huge amounts of expats vacated areas like Damansara Heights and Sri Hartamas during the 97 crisis. If you have spare cash, yes, you can purchase the properties in hose areas. However, for most of us who can't fork out 500K and above at any one time, forget about it, as banks will be very stringent on housing loans as well during bad times. What might be appealing to the general public would be the garage sales held by those expats. At times, you can get very good quality stuff at dirt cheap price in a garage sale. Check out classifieds for garage sales!

Business acquisition/Starting your own business
Are you nuts? Some people might say that. Why start or acquire a business during a recession? Plenty of reasons, among those, because your employer will freeze your pay anyway during a recession and you need extra income(even during 2001, many companies still freezes pay), because many businesses will collapse and you will have less competitors, because you might be able to acquire a business probably halved the price it use to be, because many people will choose to migrate and sell their business, because it cost lesser to operate during a recession, because .... . No matter what reason it is, starting a part time business during a recession gives you some flexibility to learn from failures. Freelancer are especially sought after as well during bad times to cut fixed operation cost.

Economic cycle is getting shorter. We will be experiencing longer stagnant economic conditions sandwiched by short boom times. So , grab your opportunity during this coming cycle and get the best out of it!

Why SGD?

2008-07-01T03:12:00.000+08:00

I have been advocating lately about keeping some cash in SGD.(I know this sounds a bit like a Malaysian "traitor" and will be condemn badly by Tun Mahathir if he came across my blog). Many might just ask me, why SGD ?
Singapore has been suffering from high inflation lately with steep fall in export revenue especially last two months. My wife visited Singapore 2 days back hoping to get some nice shirt for me and guess what, the same shirt I bought last year cost more now even during the Great Singapore Sale! Inflation, this is the reality that we have to face it, even in Singapore.
Singapore has limited land and manufacturing activities will not be able to sustain Singaporeans' cutting edge lifestyle anymore. Singaporean government, dubbed The Singapore Inc. , is gradually changing Singapore into a high tech, commercial and financial economy driven country. This reminds me about SimCity game where old factories are gradually faced out and replaced by high tech research labs and commercial offices as your population grows and as the city gets better.
This is what exactly Singapore is doing. No doubt, introducing stronger currency will hurt manufacturing driven economy especially South East Asian countries. Therefore, by getting rid of low cost manufacturing, strengthening the local currency will bring more good than bad. As the country is less dependent on manufacturing sector, stronger currency will not deplete the trade surplus as country's income is not dependent on this particular sector anymore. On the other hand, strengthening currency will cut down inflation(for a small country that relies heavily on imports), attract talents to work with high salaries and also attract depositors to keep their cash in SGD with Sg banks. Yes, Singapore is morphing itself into the so-called "Eastern Monaco".(Monaco is a small country where a lot of Europeans keeps their cash with Monaco banks and makes the country super rich)
Let's do some simple analysis. Malaysian's MYR is depegged from Singapore's SGD since 1992. What are the changes in terms of % for MYR/SGD currency exchange rate from 1992-2008? The maths is simple:
1992 - SGD 1 = MYR 1
2008 - SGD 1 = MYR 2.4

(2.4-1)/1 = 1.4/1 = 1.4 = 140%

16 years with 140 % of difference is not bad at all. 8.75% per year on average, which is better than the all-time-high foreign FD interest rate NZD is providing. Sounds sexy , huh ?

Many of my friends did the math and told me, "Cannot be la, SGD cannot be keep rising. You mean it will rise until it hits the same level as USD, are you kidding? There is always a limit"
Let's look at 2007-2008 rates. (with reference from BNM website) During June 2007, the rates was 2.20 and as of 30 June 2008, the rates was 2.41, there is a 9.51% rise in terms of exchange rates. If SGD rise another 8 % by June 2009 , the exchange rate will be something like 2.6, which sound possible. Besides that, we are really not sure how Malaysia politics will mess up our entire economy, turning our currency into "banana papers".
Again, the next question, why SGD? Why not Euro, CHF or GBP? Haha, the answer is simple, Singapore is so damn near and Malaysian can even open an account with Malaysian MyKAD. In any case of emergency, you can withdraw your cash from Singapore on a day trip. So , why make your life hard?
So, if you have some cash to spare, this is a good and safe option to go for, don't you think so ?

The nightmare that came true: High Inflation Era

2008-06-06T01:18:00.000+08:00

I was reading NST Online when the bad news came. Yes, the nightmare came true, fuel price hits RM2.70 per litre. Literally, if you are driving a Wira which consumes about 1litre/10KM, you will be paying about RM 2.70 for a Char Kway Teow which costs you RM4.50 5KM away (to and fro makes it 10KM) from your house. It's tough to imagine but it is happening in front of our eyes!
Everybody will be hit. Higher income group will be the least affected group while middle class people will suffer the most. We are witnessing a downgrade of middle class income group to lower-middle class income group. Our dear Tun M has given his thoughts from a leader's perspective There are also strikes by DAP asking for a decrease on fuel prices. What will happen next and what we can do as middle class?
Though I am not an economist, but I reckon that severe after effects will follow through, some of the after affects are as below
1. Rise of transportation cost
I bet you that even POS Malaysia will be increasing their rates for postage and delivery services. McD Delivery might charge you with a 50 % hike for their delivery services as well.
2. Stock market crash
The business will be hit hardly due to high cost of inflation and slowing down of local consumerism activities. Stock market will not crash immediately but throughout the next few quarters, businesses will feel the pinch.
3. Rising rates of BLR
Inflation will definitely happen. One of the best way to curb inflation is to increase borrowing costs. Beware if you are taking a housing loan with fluctuating BLR rates. To contain inflation, BLR can be raised to 8-8.5 %. If you are taking a 300K loan, it will mean that you will need to pay RM500 more per month if the BLR is fixed at 8.5 % instead of 6.75%
4. Decrease in Real Estates Value
I agree with real estate experts that properties situated far away from cities will suffer from depreciation. However, I certainly do not agree that higher end properties that is near to the city will experience a boom in prices. A lot of houses and apartments around high-end areas such as Damansara and Sri Hartamas are rented out as quarters for restaurant and cafe workers. With high fuel prices, fine-dining and entertainment industries will definitely experience a drop in business volume. With a lot of vacancies for house rental in high end areas, do you think the property value will go up?
5. Soaring prices of hawker food
Hawker food business might go to an end. Would you pay RM 7 for a plate of Char Kway Teow? This is the reality, hawker food will cost more than today's prices of RM4.50 on average. When a plate of Wan Tan Mee cost you RM7, you will be thinking, I would rather cook myself! Even a pack of Maggie Mee with an egg cost you more than RM1 now, what do you expect,:).
6. Gen Y learning curve
We are living in an era where Gen Y pampered kids finally started their life journey seeking jobs. Gen Y will have a hard time looking for jobs as they normally ask for high pay and unable to cope with stress. It's a time for them to learn what is hardship or the country will fail with low productivity.
7.Widening of social gap
Middle class income group used to be able to afford imported Thai rice, which cost about RM25 instead of RM50 now for 10KG. Yes, they still can afford it now but everyone will think twice before buying. A lot of middle class people will switch to value-for-money, which suggest a downgrade in their lifestyle and standard of living. It turns out to be, you can only purchase imported fragrant rice without second thoughts when you are taking a 5 figure salary. And sorry to Gen Y again, you can no longer afford a Vios on your own for your first job.
8.Reduce of Office demand
Many will opt for SOHO and business owners will look for cheaper locations which is closer to their homes. Don't you think so ?
9. Credit Card Woes
Credit card companies will be forced to increase their minimum wage requirements but many will still get it. Gen Y debts will be growing faster than ever. Savings will be something that is easy to talk about but hard to be put into practice, especially when you are living in city.
10.Depreciation of MYR
Malaysian Ringgit might fall to lower levels due to pulling out of foreign funds as our country has become less attractive for business. Buy some Singapore dollar or open an account in Singapore,:).

Disastrous. What can we do then ? How to survive in city with such circumstances? I have provided some tips in my previous post. But i would like to give more tips here, with regard to the hike in fuel prices.

Saving Tips
1. Work from home
Suggest to your boss that to work from home on alternate Fridays.
2. Use Social Network to Carpool
Somebody please create some apps to carpool using Facebook. Social network gives you the trust to car pool with unknown strangers.
3. Plan your shopping list
Plan your groceries to avoid having to go out again just to get some soy sauce
4. Optimized your driving speed
Drive at off peak hours and average speed of 90-100km/h if possible
5. Food delivery
If you often drive out for lunch or dinner, try considering food delivery once or twice a week.
6. Register for Online Payment
Online payment and banking can save your time and fuel.
7. Check catalogues before shopping
Buying gadgets in Lowyat? Check them in Lowyat.net. Avoid wandering around searching shop to shop. Your parking fees and time might not worth the effort. For hypermarkets, most of them are distributing brochures house to house now, check them before you shop.
8. Call less, Call for free using Flekx.com
Call mobile phones and pstn using www.flekx.com softphone. You can save a great deal!

Financial Tips
1. Fixed Rate Loan
If you planning to get a housing loan, go for fixed rate loan.
2. Cash
Keep some cash , probably worth 3-6 month of your pay, preferably some in foreign currencies.
3. Stock market/Mutual Fund
Reduce holdings in share market or mutual funds and wait for a downfall to enter again,:)
4. Properties
Try to get out of properties. This is a bad time to get a second property if you have already got one. Properties market will collapse if inflation is uncontrollable.
5. Foreign Currencies
Carry trade some foreign currencies especially SGD.

Look for other posting below for more tips!

Take care guys.

Should we change our lifestyle?

2008-05-24T18:11:00.000+08:00

"Change your lifestyle!" This is what the government urges Malaysians to practice during this everything-is-going-up era. Personally, I don't agree with this statement. What does it mean by changing your lifestyle? Let me give you some example:

1. Instead of eating fragrant rice, change to brittle rice.
2. Instead of driving your car, ride a bike.(with no bicycle/motorcycle lanes on trunk roads)
3. Less movies, more RTMs & TV3s(or pirate DVDs)
4. Less Starbucks and mamak, make your own coffee
5. Buy less books and papers, view online (how about poor people who don't even have broadband?)
6. No Baskins/ HagenDazs, consume low quality ice cream with more chemical and trans-fat
7. Less fresh food , more canned food
8. Less overseas vacation, more Cuti-cuti Malaysia (becoming a frog in the well)
9. Use RON 95 instead of RON 97 petrol, take in more sulfur dioxide.
10. And many more downgrades.......

Come on. Everyone can downgrade, but we do not want to be forced to downgrade. Philippines has better standard of living compared to Malaysia 30 years back. What happened now? Yes, they downgraded their standard of living. They flee their countries too, working in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Middle East etc. Do we want that to happen to us Malaysians?

We have been enjoying 20 years of prosperity from rich natural resources which is going to be drained out very soon. What's more left for us ? Nope, we don't have world-class Malaysian owned technology, product or knowledge. This leaves us with nothing. All that we can do is to CHANGE and DOWNGRADE our lifestyle! What else we can do? I will share on my thoughts about how we can maintain our lifestyle while going through this tough time in next entry. :) Leave your comments!

Preparing for recession

2008-04-26T19:19:00.001+08:00

How can you prepare for recession?

1. Keep your job. If you don't like your job, tell yourself, you just need to bite through the recession.

2. Increase income stream. You can blog, proof read, edit content, pick up more freelance jobs to decrease your debts.

3. Budget. We tend to have a mentality of "i-am-okie-as-long-as there-is-leftover-for-this-month-income'. We don't really budget our cashflow. Create one now and cut off unnecessary expenses.

4. Call up your bank to reduce interest rates if you have a property. If you bought a property 3 years back, your loan interest can be as high as 7% per annum. As banks are getting competitive now, some banks are even offering a 4.8 % per annum interest rate for the entire loan tenure. If you are still tied to a 5-year locking period loan, write to your bank to reduce your interest, a penny saved is a penny earned!

5. If your housing loan is free from locking period, REFINANCE it! HSBC offers you very competitive package now!

6. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Never always count on a single source. Diversified your investment, sources of income or even you business deals.

7. Start saving in high interest yield banks! Standard Chartered Bank offers you very competitive Flexi Deposit rates through e$aver Account !

8. Balance transfer your credit card loan to a lower interest rate bank if you have any card loan!

9. Recycle. Always purchase refill packs and use both sides of your paper. ;)

10. Indulge in small ways. Admit it, we will go crazy if saving like mad without indulging ourselves once a while. Indulge yourself in small ways. For me a Perrier with lemon after a days work makes my day!

11.Always look for vouchers. Credit cards and membership card provides hefty discounts for dining and retail. Always browse the websites for latest promotion. Why pay more for the same thing?

12.Buy and Sell in Lelong.com or Ebay. Your jacket is too small? Thinking of throwing it ? Convert it to cash! If you are thinking of purchasing a new gadget, tr to search it at auction sites. For a month or two old gadget,you can even get a 30-40% discount for the same thing.

13.Diversified your investment. Hedge your wealth. I will talk more about hedging in future. Many people do not know what to do before a recession even they anticipated it. Hedge your funds! Try investing in gold, you can open a GOLD account in Maybank, Public Bank or Ambank. Since gold price was tagging at USD600/oz few months back, I have been asking my friends to invest in gold, now it is near USD1000/oz!

14. Beware of REITS. If you invest in REITS. Pull out when recession is coming. You never know what can happen to properties during a recession. It much better to keep liquid cash.

Hedging is an interesting game. I will talk more about hedging in the next few posts. Believe me, if you play it right, you can even thrive during a recession!

The Recession Litmus Test

2008-04-26T17:42:00.000+08:00

It has been a long long time I am out of blogging space. Life is busy, and life goes on. Since 2007, I have been anticipating a recession to happen by 2008. Haha, sometimes i just feel myself looking like the little chicken in Chicken D Little, telling everyone the sky is going to fall. Yes, it has not happened yet, and yet it seems like everyone is waiting anxiously for the "dooms day" to come. Aren't you?
I have thought about this a long time. Why just waiting? At times of uncertainties, what can we do to prepare ourselves or even thrive during a recession? Everyone has some idea but no one has really been putting plans into actions. So , I have came out with some general rule of thumb to prepare myself for the forthcoming recession.

The Recession Preview: The Recession Litmus Test
I am not an economist, but I really like to talk and study about economy. It's just so fun to explore more about supply and demand. These days, even without recession, times can be hard. Rising cost of food, energy and transportation is turning a 10 ringgit note to look more like a 5 ringgit note. However, we will always try to comfort ourselves, "the GDP last years was 6 %, how bad can it be?" . I have thought about it and some of the indications of recession is listed as below:

Rising Costs of Living: creates inflation, people will have less disposable income to spend on luxuries, properties and hobbies. Eventually ,creating an economic downfall.
Dependency on limited commodities income: Malaysia, as what Tony Pua mentioned in The Star, is depending mainly on CPO and crude oil income to sustain our economy. These 2 commodities is accounting for almost 50 % of our exports income. Another major income comes from electronics industry, which is also at the brisk
Properties Overhang: The government has recently allowed Malaysians to withdraw their EPF monthly to finance their housing loans. This act is merely delaying the financial problem to 20 years after. (ppl will suffer during retirement as they have little savings in EPF). Although RM 9.6 billion financial floodgates has been open up, it merely causes goods to inflate. From my personal perspective, those who really need a property, will buy it even without this incentive. While those who has already bought, they will just have more to spend, which can be good and bad. (it will cause inflation although it might boost economy activities). This clearly will not be able to solve the property overhanging problems in Klang Valley. Once the bubble burst, everyone who owns a house will feel it.
The CPO effect: CPO has a great effect on our countries economy. During days of 97-98, per tonne of CPO can only sell for RM400 versus the RM4000 we have now. I would say , the current CPO price is very shaky as we have experience CPO trading halted for twice due to panic selling this year. If the CPO price permanently drops below RM2000, w will have a problem.
Stock Market effect: A lot of people like to refer KLCI as an economic health indicator but I prefer to analyse trading volume as indicator of economic health. Trading volume reflects the confidence level of consumers in stock market and it is clear that since Jan 2008, the trading volume has plunged drastically.
Retailer inidcators: Let's wait for quarterly result from Jusco, Seng Heng, The Store, HSL, Amway and I will be able to tell you more!

I will share more about preparing yourself in the next post. Watch out for more, ;)

Planning for your lifestyle .....

2007-04-09T11:07:00.000+08:00

A lot of my friends have been asking my opinion about financial planning. Everybody seems to understand Fixed Deposit (a.k.a. FD) is not the best way to grow ur money but nobody seems to be able to give the best advice in managing your money. This is the reason i named the title "Planning for your lifestyle" rather than "Planning for your finance".

Our financial needs, plans and protection depend a lot on our lifestyle. I would classify our financial distribution into 4 different areas: Expenditure, Savings , Investments, Protection.

I have write a lot about expenditure and income generation, let's not talk about it today. (starting to get bored about it). Therefore, we will discuss about savings, investments and protection. I would start with protection as I think a lot of people got trapped in this area when they enter their working life phase.

During the 90's, buying insurance is "the thing" that everyone should do to protect your family and you kins. Yes, everybody loves their family and hope that in the event of unfortunate happenings, their family is protected and income is assured. Less than many people actually know that a lot of people are over protecting themselves and their family which causes them to channel inpropotionate amount of their income into the Protection quadrant of their financial distribution. When you first started work, how much you actually have is probably less than RM 30K during the first two years of your working life. Insurance agents always like to persuade their client to invest in insurance as a form of Investment. This eventually confused a lot of insurance holders actually found out that buying insurance is a liablity rather than investment. If an insurance agent tells you that you only need to pay X amount of years to get yourself covered up to 70 years old, they are only telling you the half truth. Always read the fine lines before you sign anything. Most of the time, you are required to extend your payment period or they will deduct the amount from your promised bonus given based on your insurance premium. Therefore , I always suggest step protection - increase your premium as your assets and family grow. Besides that i always emphasize insurance as a protection; so , protect yourself with medical insurance rather than life insurance especially when you are single. Money is more important when life needs to be prolonged. So , never over commit for protection. My suggestion is to just commit less than 5 % of your income for insurance protection. Anything more than that will surely be a burden for young working adults.

Investment is always interesting to talk about. I am sure you always envy your friends who tells you how much they make from stock market. I will have an idiots guide to Malaysia share market later. However, I suggest that a young working adult should not invest more than 20 % of their income in shares. I will talk about the risk and share market analysis later. Trust funds is also good for investments. But, never over invest trust funds with your savings. I will also provide a study on trust funds which i have experience for more than 10 years. Generally, there are 3 types of investments.

High Risk: Forex & Commodity (very high risk), Equity (share market)
Medium Risk: Trust Fund, Properties
Low Risk: Bonds, Government-Linked Trusts Funds(eg. Amanah Saham Wawasan)

Savings? How much you should save ? Of course, saving as much as possible is the best! However, it is recommended that you save at least 6 months worth of your salary for rainy days. Never treat savings as investments, vice versa. Savings comes with very very minimum risk, you can say that it has no risk at all. (I think you never heard of any Malaysia bank went bankrupt for the past 10 years).

The last question you might want to ask me. What all these 4 things have to do with my lifestyle ? The lifestyle you wanted will determined where you should put your money in. If you choose to be single, you might be able to risk more. Therefore, you can invest more and put less money for protection. If you plan to have kids, probably you need to save more , and buy some protection for your kids. If you are still single and plan to get a girlfriend(for guys), probably you might want to put more money on expenditure(spend on clothes and perfumes) and investments(for marriage) while less on protection.

My next major entry will talk more about investment particularly on stock market. Watch out.

Generate cash out from You Tube !

2007-04-02T11:34:00.000+08:00

A few weeks ago, my friend referred me to an MV in Youtube. It's called Muar's Chinese, (mind you , a bit vulgar).

Multimedia and Web 2.0 world is constantly producing millionaires and web celebrities everyday. When i first watched this clip, my first thought was ,"wow, this is a creative song, but what does he gain besides popularity?" I was proven wrong when i saw the song's selling as True Tones in Digi , Maxis and Celcom website. Click here for the song preview by Digi

Fellow multimedia and art professionals out there, You have another alternate source of income now!

Credit Card - leverage it!

2007-03-20T14:00:00.000+08:00

There are nine million credit card holders nationwide and this figure is counting. The most recent report about bankcruptcy in Malaysia reveals that 40% of them resulted from failure of paying back their credit card loans. Should you get a credit card ?

I must admit, back in year 2000, getting a credit card is a joy for me. A significant milestone for me as an income earner. Business world is always realistic, you don't want to buy your customer lunch with your seem-to-be unimpressive classic card (don't mean to insult any classic card holders here but sharing what business world perceives). This drives me a quick move to change from Classic to Gold and to Platinum. The joy of upgrading is always there but i only realise the true usage of credit card as a financial leveraging tool a few years back.

Let's talk about the bad points of credit card first. Credit card drives you to spend more. This is a known fact. The moment you swipe your card , you won't feel the pain until the payment dues. The adrenaline rush to get discounted deals always overcomes your calculation logic. Therefore, you have to be very discipline(financially) with a credit card. Besides that, credit card charges annual fees. Yes, i will talk about ways to get waiver later, :).

The good points now. You can leverage credit card as a cash flow tool. As we know, we have so many 0 % interest payment plans available now. How do you make use of them wisely? These perks are meant to drive you to spent on unnecessary stuffs(a.k.a luxury stuffs) . But , it would help you to save on interest if you know how to leverage on them. I will take a simple scenario, such as travelling. My wife & I had planned to go for honeymoon in New Zealand quite sometime ago before we got married. And, you need to save a lot of money for that, :). The trip costs about RM12K for two person. When I was making the payment through credit card, I was offered a 0 % interest payment plan by Standard Charted Bank. Guess how can I save money through this plan? I took their their plan for 12 months repayment and injected the 12K I have as a capital repayment for my house loan.(which charges me 7.03% per annum) . I have effectively saved RM 843.6 not taking in the interest compounding factor. You can actually practice this for necccesities that you needed. Direct Access credit card is also offering 0 % interest payment for 9 months for any purchases above RM500. You can always play around with the figures but just make sure you are discipline enough to repay the payments.

If you know about credit card well, they give you a 20 days interest free period. For any large payment you need to make through credit card, (eg. buying expensive furniture or electrical appliances ) you can choose to pay 1 day after the effective monthly cut-off date.(if you have a choice of when to make the payment). You can earn one month of interest from there. Let's say , your monthly credit card bill cut -off date falls on 17th of every month (all transactions after 17th will appear only on next months bill), your payment due date will be 20 days after 17th(which normally falls on 6th of next month). If you made a transaction on 18th, you will only need to make the payment 2 months later. This effectively gives you 50 days of interest for free. 50 days is almost 1/7 th of a calendar year. If your transaction amount is large, the effective interest you gain is quite substantial.

You might ask, what about annual fees ? The credit card industry is so competitive now that they will give you a waiver whenever you requested one.( I haven't been paying any annual fees since 2002) Or, simply just choose a card without annual fees. ( EON Bank, Direct Access, Ambank, Citibank)

Income Generation: Get paid up to USD75/hour by signing up with Google as beta tester

2007-03-17T23:04:00.000+08:00

In my past <101>, I did mentioned about generation income from online surveys. I have some good news to share with you, the 8th world most admired company ranked by Fortune, GOOGLE, is offering up to USD 75/ hour as a product beta tester for their company. Details are published on their website in this LINK.

Too good to be true ? Read their FAQ then. :p.

Another website i found out to offer cash and rewards for participating in online survey is DataIntelligence. If you like to play computer games, do follow up with my next posting on how to be a game tester and get more income! I will post a few more postings on Income generation before moving on to the topic on how to control your expenses.

Income Generation: 101 Ways to increase your income

2007-03-16T10:14:00.000+08:00

After some brief introduction on Creating Income Balance Fund, we are back to the fundamentals again, income generation (or money making lah to be direct).

I guess after you started working, there is surely some long-lost-friend or some merely -acquiantance friends will call you up to ask you out for a cup of coffee. Well, they might be selling you MLM money making solutions, insurance, unit trust... , you name it. Since you have gotten enough of all these, i will not talk about all these here anymore. Let me give you some altenatives.

1. Participate in Surveys
Do you know that by just participating in surveys, you can earn about Rm100-150 per survey ?
These survey are normally held by market research companies for FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) and normally held on weekends. Altenatively, you can google for online participation website to make extra income. One of the website I have encountered is GlobalTest

2. Brokering
There are several types of industries which requires a lot of brokers. Generally, some industries needs licenses for broker while some doesn't. I will list down several which doesn't require any licenses.

a. Cars & Vehicles
Selling cars can be really easy and commisions are good. All you need to do is bring your friend to the car showroom and give him some good and HONEST recommendation about cars. Of course, you might need to have some knowledge on cars. Commision can range from Rm500 - RM3000 per car. If you want to know how to registe as a broker, please email me for details and contacts.

b. High Margin Accessories
Introduce your friend to tint his car for income ranging Rm100-RM500. Alternatively, high margin accessories includes curtain fitting, window tinting(for home furnishing) and a lot other more.

c. Credit Cards
I will talk more about credit card, which is a double edge sword in future. Do you know that you can actually introduce your friends to sign up for credit card and make RM50-RM100? Check out Alliance & CIMB cards for this offer.

d. Other's
You can also constantly look out for opportunities to broker high margin goods to generate more income. Some examples are Premium goods(sourvenirs), service contracts, head hunting(helping people to find jobs), vacations and so on .

3. Online Trading
If you are a reclusive person, don't worry. You can generate income by just sitting at home. You can try to purchase and sell goods in Ebay or Lelong.com . However, you might come accross some questions, such as, "I don't having anything to sell, how ?" . Good point, this is the reason i named the sub -title as online TRADING, not online SELLING. Some tips for you to make yourself a potential online trader.

a. Check out goods offered
Find out goods offered in Ebay.com or Alibaba.com which is new and cheap. Try to call and contact the seller and see whether they are genuine.

b. Ask Around
Survey the item among your friends and see whether they interested. Lately, I managed to import an automatic vacumm robot from US, which only cost USD299 (which is about RM1050). I surveyed around and found out that Malaysia is selling the unit for RM 1900. The best part is, most of my friends who just started their family doesn't mind to pay Rm1500 one-off to get a robotic maid. Well, if you can import 10 units of them, you will pocket
in a nifty profit of about RM3000.

c. Contact seller
Make sure you contact seller and ask for a good price. If you manage to convince him/her to give you exclusive right to sell the item in your country, that's even better! Make sure you have legal document if you plan to be a local authorised distributor.

4. Free Lancing
I mentioned about skills and the importance of mastering some skills. With skills, you can offer all sorts of services to others such as financial consulting, accounting services, web designing, interior designing, revonation contracting, translating, programming, proof-reading and even game-testing(gamers are offered money to test games before the launching). Where to get business ? Elance is just one of the website that you can find out, I am planning to launch one called Workcubes , look out for www.workcubes.com.my or simply press the link.

5. Publishing
Probably, this is one of the best motivation for me to start this blog, besides trying to help youngsters to survive in cities . (hey, i am genuine okie? ) . Many people are constantly looking for contents to entertain themselves. (this is reflected by the declining readership of Reader's Digest and the reason why you keep receiving some lottery-like-lucky-draw brochures from Reader's Digest). More and more people are reading blogs daily and ebooks when they are bored or during travelling in trains or busses to work. Think about one topic you can share the best with your friends. Start a blog ! or write an ebook. You can earn from Adsense and a lot more other source of advertising revenue.

6. Coaching
Many people will think of giving tuition as a source of income. In my personal opinion, giving tuition actually locks up your time and the income generated probably is not worthwhile to some of us. (this is very subjective to different group of people) Here, I am encouraging special interest coaching as a source of good income. Special interest is normally niche and specialise. This is the reason why people are willing to pay more for your time. For a start, you can offer money back gurantee coaching to attract people to sign up with you. You have nothing to lose , right ? Just some time. Besides that , you need to have some knowledge to coach, (you don't expect people pay for nothing right?) . Some ideas for coaching are cooking lessons, baking lessons, tennis lessons, forex trading lessons, DIY lessons, language lessons, dancing lessons and so much more ...

to be continued ........

Creating your own income balance fund: Part 2- Expenses & Taxes

2007-03-15T14:39:00.000+08:00

I think I will ask myself once a while during end of the month: where has my money gone to ? Wow, guess all of you have this experience before (even you are making RM10K a month) . Well, indeed, expenses and taxes is part and parcel of our life, you will have to know how to manage it.

Of course, many people will suggest to you the-old-boring-way of managing your expenses daily and monthly- have an Excel sheet or use a notebook to record your expenses. Well, this is one of the ways, but since it is an old and boring method, I won't go into it in detail.

My focus here would be, where your money has gone to ? I generally catagorized a few major expenses that eats up our income.

1. EPF & Taxes - Comprises about at least 15 % of your income (might go up depending on your salary)

2. Transportation

3. Food

4. Entertainment

5. Luxury

Believe me or not, most of the city folks actually spent the most for the fifth ietm, Luxury. This is where my focus will be on here. Luxury, bu the word itself is very subjective. Dictionary.com defines luxury as a material object, service, etc., conducive to sumptuous living, usually a delicacy, elegance, or refinement of living rather than a necessity. Many people might say, having KFC or Mc Donald's isn't a luxury at all; but is fast food a necessity? If it is not, I would consider that as a luxury. Some of the examples of luxury:

a. Having a good lunch especially on Friday
(I don't know why this is a trend for city people, but probably they might want to celebrate for the upcoming weekends). A lunch like this might easily cost a young working guy Rm 30, 4 Fridays in a month could easily costs Rm120, probably 8 % of the income already ( assuming income is RM2000 a month, same for all below)! But, don't go for lunch with colleagues makes you looks like an unsociable gig, how ? I will talk more about solutions to this in the next post.

b. DVDs
Have you ever calculated how much you have spent on DVDs? (pirated ones la of course) Each cost you RM10, and imagine you buy one copy every week. Yah , you have effectively spent 2 % of your income.

c. Indulgence
During one of the Merdeka day a few years ago, I had a shocked when i was driving around Subang Taipan. Guess what, it is 31st of the month, the Baskin's day. (Well, I have to admit, me too was once badly indulged in ice-creams before) People are pushing and queing for ice-creams. And, it's not free ! You still have to pay 69% of the usual price for the premium ice cream, and people are pushing here and there as if the ice-cream is given out for free. Most of the people are in their 20s, and i gues they just started to work not long ago. Indulgence is definitely one of the big bug that is eating up your big bucks. What do you think ?

d. Gadgets

How often you changed your handphones? Do you have a Bluetooth headset? Do you have an iPod or MP3 player ? Do you have a digital camera, when you bought that? I find that city folks like to keep themselves up to date with trendy gadgets. Do you think it is a neccesity ? I have a friend who actually took up a IPP(Interest-free Payment Plan) for her digital camera which cost Rm2000 2 years ago. That was a 3.2 megapixel model and guess how much it costs now ? How often you use your digital camera and yet you have to pay about Rm170 every month (which is about 10 % of income) for a year and yet grumble about not having enough money every month?

e. Cafe

Many youngsters like to hang out in cafes like Starbucks and Coffee bean, no wonder these cafes are mushrooming at an exponential rate in KL. Do you know that Starbucks have just revised their price by more than 10 % since 2007, or probably , you never really care about the price when you step in to those cafe? We like to feel the luxury(yes, that is the word) of sitting in a comfee cafe for a chat . Don't you think so ?

There are many more things about luxury and unneccesary spending. More will be discussed in the upcoming posts. The next few posts will still be focusing on solutions to cut down your expenses wihout depriving your lifestyle. Do give some comments if you have any.

Creating your own income balance fund: Part 1- Income Generation

2007-03-14T13:49:00.000+08:00

Selecting a good job is one of the key to success. Many may ask how I define a good job, I would say, a good job provides you survival skill sets and molds you into a domain expert. You can be just a sales executive, probably getting about RM2000 a month. But, what you have is more than that, a skill set to sell and product knowledge. If you can make use of these, you will be able to generate extra income. Let me show you some example. What can a sales executive selling air-conditoner parts do ?

1. Do your job well: Selling Air-Con parts
Yah, this is his main job , so he work hard to archive his target. A lot of people are eager in making quick money but they do not know that it is hard to get to anywhere without proper skill set. Days of primary-six-educated-tycoon making tons of money are over, you need proper skills and these skills are accumulated where you spent most of your time at , your daily job.

2. Use your mouth: Brokering for Air-Con Contractors
After selling parts for a while, he has gain good knowledge on air-con and must have known several customers well. He can thus broker and introduce business for his customer, getting extra income. He might help his customer to broker air-con deals, or even brokering other related deals.

3. Bring it online: Advertise your skills
Tell your friends about your skills or sales leads, and let them know you can help them or their friends with that. You can even advertise in blogs or online forums.

4. Squeeze your brain: Learn an alternative skill
We always like to refer skills as sword, the more swords you carry , the more protection you have. I am sure we have better things to do than just watching the 7 pm drama or downloading Bit Torrent movies to watch at home during our spare time. Spending some time for new knowledge is always helpful in generating future income. Spend some time on niche knowledge, which you are interested in. For example, you can learn about share market, tea, finance, raring pets, loan management, cake baking, programming, design, composing... so much new things to pick up out there. The important thing is , remember to just MASTER in one or two area, or you will be jack of all trades. This will eventually lead you probably to become a amatuer tea trader, loan management consultant, designer; or , you might just get a few thousand bucks for selling off your new born Chiwawa puppies.

Excited about income generation? I will feature more income genaration opportunities from time to time for different industries under Income Generation label.

Creating your own income balance fund

2007-03-14T12:35:00.000+08:00

Everybody is grudging over the increase cost of living especially in cities. Many people ask, I just make RM2500, how to survive in KL ? Well, many people survived with a fixed income of RM1500. You might ask: how these people can ever do it ? Some tips for you here.

1. Income generation
Fighting for increment is always hard. Fight with your boss for your own or for your staff until your face gets flushing red might probably get you a 10 % increment over your salary. Of course, your main income is always inportant, and yes, you still have to fight for your increment, :P. But, have you ever thought of how to generate better cash flow income during the start of your career life ?

2. Expenses & Taxes
Yes, you will definitely agree with me that city folks always tend to spend more than what they can afford, or probably always spend on what they can afford the best. Learn to spend what you can afford the least without depriving your daily lifestyle.

3. The Cash Flow balance
Learn to balance your monthly cashflow to prepare for investment opportunities. Probably you will tell me that you have read Kiyosaki's Rich Dad book. But, let me tell you , learn the Asian way, :) .

Survival Guide: Table of Contents

2007-03-14T11:56:00.000+08:00

1. The Monetary Guide
Well, many people come to the city for a single purpose: making more money and lead a better living. Most of the people make much more money in the city, vice versa, they spend more too. City people likes to live on future money, and this is a risk as well as opportunity. This guide will show you how to create opportunities using future money. Some of the interesting issues to be discussed

Income Balance Guide
Future Money Guide: Prepaid, Credit Cards etc
Investments Guide: Properties, Stocks, Unit Trust, Bonds etc
Savings Guide

2. The Basic Needs
Learn about accomodation guides, food & transport here.

3. The Career Guide
Wondering what to do in your career ? I guess 90 % of the people who read this blog are not satisfied with their job. What can you do about it ? We will talk about headhunters, entreprenuer development, part time, freelance and more..

4. The Lifestyle Guide
Guess most of the city folks have a much more complicated lifestyle as compared to village ah pek. Staying in apartments while driving a brand new BMW is common in cities. Learn some fast and cheap ways to the lifestyle you want here.

5. The Spiritual Guide
Many people are lost in cities. They feel empty and lonely after years of stereotype life cycle in city. Eventually, depression and other negative effects developed rapidly in cities. Learn how not to be one of them....

The City Survival Guide: Abstract

2007-03-14T11:09:00.000+08:00

Have been thinking a while lately to write an ebook, though my English is only Malaysian standard. After giving some thoughts, I finally settle down with this title, which I hope to help younger generation to survive and create the life that they wanted in vibrant cities such as Kuala Lumpur.

It's always a dream for Kampung(village) boy to work in the city. We can all see that from LOST, Jin(a korean village boy) was eager to find a job in Seoul, and eventually got a job as a bell boy in a wellknown hotel. However , many came to the city but eventually find it hard to survive in this highly competitive environment. Some experienced culture shock while many find it hard to even feed themselves. Eventually , many went back to their hometown in the end.

I hope I can share some of my thoughts on the 10th year of my survival in the capital of Malaysia.
And , I hope you enjoy reading the articles.

Cheers,
Charles