Someone forwarded this to me. Dedicated to fellow engineers out there in the blog-sphere. Just listen to the lyrics. Damn true and hilarious.
Those that are looking for the My First House Scheme (Skim Rumah Pertamaku), where the 10% down payment will be guaranteed by Cagamas Bhd for houses purchased below RM220,000 will be solely disappointed. Below is the announcement from Cagamas's website. I guess interested buyers must wait until the process get firmed up by the government. Not sure how long will it take though even though the scheme was announced in the budget 2011. And there is condition on your monthly salary, if i am not mistaken it must be below RM3,000 per month.
Implementation , Implementation!!!
Cagamas Berhad, the National Mortgage Corporation and leading securitisation house, welcomes the announcement of the proposed My First Home Scheme (“Skim Rumah Pertamaku”) by the Prime Minister as part of the National Budget 2011. Cagamas is currently in the process of working out the details of the implementation of the scheme and will make the necessary announcements in due course.
Update: Najib just announce that the scheme will be in effect soon now. According to my friends in the banking line, they did know that the scheme will take on place on 8 March but yet to received any circular from the government. With the PM announcement, those interested please go to the nearest bank to inquire. I suspect there must be a term and condition that prevents the buyer to dispose the property within a certain time frame to prevent yet another property speculation vehicle.
Today saw an avalanche drop of penny stocks in KLCI while the index seesaw from positive-negative-and close at positive. Loser outpaced gainers with blue chip pushing the index to positive region today. I guessed this is the end for the pennies. See these stocks below, HWGB, BORNOIL,IRIS and OLYMPIA. Game Over..At least for 2011..Next Bull run?
WINNING BEAUTIES: Wee (centre) poses for a photograph with (from left) Then, Yii, Bong and Tan.
The results for Miss Cheongsam Charity 2011 are out:
To recap, here is my pick last time:
No.1, Chien Joon Ching, aged 20 yrs
No.3, Hii Wee Chia,
No.11, Yong Zi Hui, aged 21 yrs
No.15, Kong Ying Ying, aged 19 yrs
No.10, Bong Choon Na, aged 22
No.3, Hii Wee Chia,
No.11, Yong Zi Hui, aged 21 yrs
No.15, Kong Ying Ying, aged 19 yrs
No.10, Bong Choon Na, aged 22
Here is the final judging result. Drum roll, please:
Miss Cheongsam Charity: Wee Pek Choo (No.5)
1st runner up & Best Cheongsam: Bong Choon Na (No.10)
2nd Runner Up: Yii Mei Hong (No.9)
3rd Runner Up: Then Ching Xian (No.14)
4th Runner Up & Miss Friendship : Tan Chiou Yong (No.18)
Miss Talent : Chan Ngiik Mei (No.13)
Miss Charity: Sim Heng Leng (No.4)
Miss Photogenic: Hii Wee Chia (No.3)
Conclusion: None of my picks matched the end result :( The closest i got was 1st Runner up, Miss Bong Choon Na & Miss Photogenic, Hii Wee Chia. One of the local forum ran a poll on who is the likely winner and their favorites are also very different from the final results. I guess this is a beauty pageant after all, everyone is entitled to his/her opinion. Maybe some of them look more beautiful face to face (photos can be deceiving with the advent of Photo-shopping) or my perception of beauty is unique.
This reminds me, in a short term period, stock picking is like picking a winner in a beauty pageant but in the long term it is like weighting machine for the true value of the stock. True value of a stock will eventually surfaced out sooner or later. But as part of human nature, we tend to pick "external beauty" versus "fundamental or inner beauty". Hence, the tendency to chase after rumors. :D
So here is the winner of Miss Cheongsam 2011 again for your viewing.
Miss Wee Pek Choo. Congrats to her.
Renesial Leong is known as the Property Queen in Malaysia. She has written a few books on property investing. "Your Tenant Your Jewels" is one of her series. I borrowed the complete series from a friend. I think started reading the series in the wrong sequence. I read finish the book just under 3 hours with intermittent breaks as I find that most of the jewels are pretty common sense ideas although some jewels are really the diamonds to a future property investor.
The diamonds are in IMHO is the various steps a landlord can protect their property using the LAW against unscrupulous tenants.(collecting deposits, furniture checklist, tenancy periods,etc) And also the various legal methods to put black & white in the tenancy agreement to give the options to increase rental yields in the future so that one can REAP in more $$$ into the pocket. She highlighted the importance of engaging professional law services to use the law to protect oneself. Hence, I truly believe that a good lawyer (even though it comes with an expensive fee) is very important as he/she will help you to protect/grow your wealth.
My rating is 6.5/10. (I will review the other series soon enough)
As highlighted by one of my readers from Sarawak, below are the service charges incurred when you buy mutual funds from CIMB Bank through their CIMBClicks EInvest. Damn cheap!!!
| CIMB Clicks eInvest | ||
| Type of Funds | Normal Sales Charge | Promotional Sales Charge* |
| Equity Funds | 5.0 – 6.5% | 2.5% |
| Index Funds | 1.0 – 3.0% | 0.75% |
| All Bond Funds | 1.0 – 2.0% | 0.0 – 1.5% |
| All Money Market Funds | 0% | |
| CIMB-Principal Strategic Income Bond Fund  - (31 Jan to 9 March 2011) | 3.0% | 2.5% |
More information on buying mutual funds through CIMBClicks EInvest.
Was goggling the blogsphere and found this wonderful table showing the dividend yield for various REIT stocks available in Malaysia. Generally REIT has very low volatility & volume. Hence buying REIT is for medium to long term. It is certainly better than fixed deposit. And if the property market is bullish, it the rental income collected by this REIT will surely increase.
And in a way better than some of the mutual fund performances. (I'll blog more about this next time about my strategy in buying mutual funds)
Got the table below from here http://www.start-investing.com
| No | Name | Current Price (RM) | Number of Payout per year | Last Year Dividend (RM) | Dividend Yield |
| 1. | AHP | 1.06 | 2 | 0.0735 | 6.93% |
| 2. | ALAQAR | 1.13 | 2 | 0.0823 | 7.28% |
| 3. | AMFIRST | 1.17 | 2 | 0.0969 | 8.28% |
| 4. | ARREIT | 0.95 | 4 | 0.0938 | 9.87% |
| 5. | ATRIUM | 1.05 | 4 | 0.0870 | 8.29% |
| 6. | AXREIT | 2.35 | 4 | 0.1573 | 6.69% |
| 7. | BSDREIT | 1.45 | 2 | 0.0941 | 6.49% |
| 8. | CMMT | 1.08 | 1 (Not Yet 1 Year ) | 0.0340 | N/A |
| 9. | HEKTAR | 1.33 | 4 | 0.1060 | 7.97% |
| 10. | QCAPITA | 1.09 | 2 | 0.0775 | 7.11% |
| 11. | STAREIT | 0.86 | 2 | 0.0648 | 7.53% |
| 12. | SUNREIT | 1.08 | 1 ( Not Yet 1 Year ) | 0.0175 | N/A |
| 13. | TWRREIT | 1.24 | 2 | 0.0950 | 7.66% |
| 14. | UOAREIT | 1.46 | 2 | 0.1083 | 7.42% |
This table is last updated on 10 Feb 2011 based on closing price of the same day. Next update will be 31 Mar 2011.
Some note on the month when the REIT typically issues dividend. Kinda old but usable.
I read this during my spare time. This is the first book that I read that is from Robert Kiyosaki. Yes, I heard about him before but i never really when out to buy the book until i saw a 50% discount on it :D
After reading this book, I realized that what is written in the book is really the same experiences & mental thoughts that I encountered during my working life. (I was a slacker at university, hence those are my wasted years) I believed that clever leveraging is one of the key to financial success especially when you started from zero to become something in life. There is a lot of types of leverages as indicated in the book. The key idea of the book is that one must always equipped oneself with KNOWLEDGE to achieve financial success in a early life. (Hence the title of my blog: KNOWTHYMONEY)You don't want to work hard all you life and only reached financial freedom when you are old and weak. (you basically cannot enjoy your fruit of labor)
The book mainly talked about Robert's foray into property investing, business building, stock market and options as wealth generator (not really applicable to Malaysia context as we cannot buy put options or write/sell options)
This book is a good book for beginners that wants to achieve financial freedom in their life. I feel that a lot of the younger generations out there are either too dependent on their parents even after graduating from university or just plain ignorance about financial planning & wealth building.
So my rating for the book is 8/10.
Not sure how many of you guys read the book "The Great Expectation" by Charles Dickens. It is a story about Pip's great expectation to become a gentleman (he suddenly inherited a fortune from an anonymous benefactor) to win the heart of Estella but fumbled along the way because of his spending debts and the rejection from the cold heartlessness from the girl that he admired.
The last few weeks really revealed a weakness in the current KLCI market run.The last thing we are afraid is that might triggered the start of a bear market.
The last remaining huge catalyst for the stock market is the upcoming election. This is something most people are expecting with great hope to boost the KLCI to new highs. The problem here lies with the expectation that alot of 'goodies' will be sent out to GLCs. Hence, there is a alot of recommendation to buy these counters.
However, there is a possibility that the election effect has already been baked in the current stock market levels. So like in any stock market environment, always remember to BUY INTO RUMORS, AND SELL INTO NEWS.
I remember at one point during the last US presidential race, I was expectating a bullish DJIA in the days leading to the election date. However, the bullishness evaporated as the countdown nears. Will this happen to the our KLCI market also, since it is expected that the market correction phase is now in progress.
From the blogs that I read, some investor/retailers/traders are liquidating their positions into CASH while waiting for the market conditions & directions to be clearer in the coming days.
So dear readers, what is your current position in the stock market?
A. Accumulation & bargain hunting
B. Selling into a CASH position
C. Do nothing
For me, my answer is B. As i am in ~50% CASH position as detonated in my tweets. Something triggered my fear button the day before the great bleeding begun & i begun selling. Called it gut feeling or what I don't really know..
Blood is on the streets as KLCI opens -15 points and stays put throughout the morning session. At the close, KLCI shed a total of 32 points making today the largest single day drop for 2011. It is because the latest china rate hike during the China's week long CNY holiday or our BULL needs more rest before charging to new highs?? Lets see the coming days to get a clearer short term picture on where our KLCI is heading to.
The remaining card this year is of course the Malaysia election.
DJIA is breaching into new highs. Our KLCI managed to inch up slowly to 1539 points. Overall volume has reached to 31 million lots valued at 2.7 billion. WoW. Not bad for Bolehland considering the last bull market (2005-2007), it can hardy reach this target at the buying climax.
The penny stocks are being GORENGed to lofty prices. Penny stocks such as the legendary IRIS, ASIAEP, OLYMPIA, COMPUGT, MUIIND which each traded around 1 MILLION lots today. BORNOIL (formerly SUGARBUN, a change of name really changes the FENGSHUI..lol) & HWGB is pushed up very aggressively.
Below are of my opinion only, and based on my observations. There is a general saying that the bull market is going to end when the aunties and taxi drivers starts to recommend stock for you to buy. Here is my own observations on the stock market as the bear market for property has yet to happen.
Stock Market HOT
- A-lot of local brokerages are doing roadshows giving overviews on the stock market in general. Their objective is to encourage more retailers to open brokerage accounts for trading. They are usually teamed up with the technical analyst providers/trainers, where these FREE seminars are usually is a pre-view to their courses. You need to pay more $$$ to attend the "REAL" training courses. During the last bull market, it seems that every weekend there is a seminar by one of the local brokerage houses that is held at 5-Star Hotels. With the free good food and drinks, a lot of newbies and retailers will attend the events. The important part to note that during the bull market, the organizers are very willing to fork out alot of money to provide quality food (I meant like cakes, buffet style lunch, etc).
Stock Market COLD
The frequency of events starts gets lesser and lesser until you never heard any events held by the local brokerage firms. If there any, there is no longer free good food and drinks for the participants. Plus, if there is any, the food served is just a simple fried rice and beehoon....lol.
I assumed the same indicator will apply to the property investment. Already I got a few emails on future property investment talks sent out by my friends. As the property investment market usually SUPER DUPER LAGS the stock market , it will take longer for it to burst.
The key to property investment is the % rental yields that you can generate and also the long term holding power. Don't talk about property appreciation, as like stock, a property can only appreciate if the buyers assumes that the "highly valued" property prices will increase even more. However unlike stocks, property market is a thing that is EASY TO GET IN, HARD TO GET OUT in an event of no/poor bidders. Hence, a decent rental yield is vital and this highly achievable only when you managed to buy the property at a very low price.
Something similar to dividend yielding stocks, where in a BULL market it is hard to get a decent % (I mean percentage here) dividend as most of the stock prices have already accelerated upwards.
P.S I will attend one of the coming property investment talks to sample out the quality of food provided :D
Here is another eye-candy post before CNY. Bursa trades half-day today, which is a good idea since the volume is expected to be low. The KLCI gained 11.88 points (88 = luck luck) to close at 1531.82. Hence, this is an angpow for those bought in last Monday or during the bloody KLCI period last week.
Picked this articles/pictures online. Below are 18 finalist for Miss Cheongsam Charity 2011. I really think it is very very hard to don a cheongsam and look good in it, hence you don't really get to see girls in cheongsam anymore during Chinese New Year. You only get to see it in beauty pageants such as the Miss Cheongsam Charity 2011, which i think is a good way to somehow preserve the almost fashion dying trend of wearing cheongsam for CNY.
Below anyone planning to watch the finals of the event, take note the event is held in Sarawak on the 16 February.(unless you want to fly to East Malaysia) Google around for reservation. Btw, NO swinsuit events before you start rushing to book Airasia tickets..haha :P
I looked through all the profiles of all the 18 finalists. What surprises me is that a huge majority of them wants to be a businesswoman, I am not down-playing their aspiration, but most of the girls I know at my age (engineering, marketing, professional white & blue collar job holders, teachers, insurance agents), have very little interest in doing business or even actively managing their personal finance. (I hope i don't get hate mails on this comment). I like to talk about personal finance to them once in a while to share & gather information. However, as i said before, not many of them are actively involved in wealth building. At most they are just saving up their earnings in fixed deposits.
A lot of my female friends have no investments whatsoever, even in low risk mutual funds. They are generally VERY risk adverse group. Maybe the younger female generation is willing to take in more risks compared to their seniors. (P.S to myself: Mix more with these group of younger females or males (19-24 years old) since I like to share knowledge on wealth building. For me, knowledge is power)
It seems NONE of them (except Tay Wei Wei, she wants to be an accountant) wants to aspire to become doctors, engineers, lawyers. This is somewhat very different from a average guys' aspiration. Okey, that is out of the topic.
Here is my pick for the top 5 girls for Miss Cheongsam Charity 2011 to capture the crown: (in no particular order)
No.1, Chien Joon Ching, aged 20 yrs
No.3, Hii Wee Chia,
No.11, Yong Zi Hui, aged 21 yrs
No.15, Kong Ying Ying, aged 19 yrs
No.10, Bong Choon Na, aged 22
Click below to see the All 18 finalist's profile and their gorgeous pictures in Cheongsam :P Here is a teaser. (She is one of my picks to capture the crown)
The 18 finalists are:
- Chien Joon Ching
No.1, Chien Joon Ching, aged 20 yrs, a Hakka girl from Kuching, height 157cm, born in the Year of the Horse; a university student and a part-time tutor. During her free time, she likes to surf the Internet and watch TV, and she hopes to be a successful businesswoman.
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