So why do people invest in gold?

• To diversify their investment.
• To protect against crises such as economic, political or social crisis (social unrest, wars and others tend to drag the stock market down…but gold tend to be more stable).
• Because it’s simple and straightforward.
• Because the price chart is easily obtainable.

From what I’ve observed, gold investing can be highly speculative but if you are investing for the long term, gold price will definitely go up. And rather than investing in stocks (which you are relying on companies), funds (which are relying on the fund managers and stocks), currencies (which you are relying on the governments for not screwing up) or real estate properties (which sometimes depends on luck since cheap prices are only available for new housing areas), investing in gold does not have so many external factors involved. True, whatever goes down will go up and vice versa. But for a precious metal which will decrease in amount (there’s only that much gold in the world), the price will still go up, albeit slowly.

So my advise to you and myself, is to look at this possible investment option as a way to diversify my portfolio away from funds and stocks. Don’t buy a lot in one go. Just slowly accumulate little by little. And you don’t need to keep all the gold and gold bars at your home. You can let the banks to manage them

There’s a very good article written by KCLau on gold investment in Malaysia. It’s a very good read. For those who are interested to invest gold in Public Bank, you can refer to this link Invest Gold in Malaysia through Public Bank. Maybank also provides such service and the minimum is 1g of gold, as compared to Public Bank’s 10g.

Take a look and who knows maybe gold investing is the one for you (it’s a good learning step for beginners as well).

Good luck

p/s… just checked with Maybank today. The min investment is 1g but there’s no way you can do it online. Meaning, even if you want to buy or sell 1g, you will have to bring your passbook to any of MBB’s branches, and do the transaction there. Kinda troublesome :T

p/s…. you can check MBB’s gold price HERE.

Fortunately, the CEO tried his best to dig the details from the older servers and managed to restore the data before Nov 2010. Unfortunately, all my blog posts within the 1 year is now gone, forever.

I will cut down more on blogging from now onwards. It’s a very big blow for me and I don’t really have time to set everything up again.

Anyway, since the last post on FD was back in 2010, here’s an updated FD list for December 2011.

Hope it helps.

Hope it helps.

Hope it helps.

Debts

Some debts can deal a killing blow to your investment plan especially those related to credit cards or those which have very high interest charges. It’s advisable to clear those off FIRST before you put your money elsewhere. For example, if your debt’s interest rate is like 4-5%, but your FD return is only 2%, it means you’re actually losing money than earning money. If you can pump money into both sides, then fine. Just be sure never to neglect the former for the latter. Focus on how to stop losing money, then only to how to earn more money.

Insurance

This is equally important. Life insurance and medical insurance are very very important. I can’t stress this enough. There are people who only focus on how to grow their money that they neglect these 2. And when they’re hit with some issues which don’t allow them to work, their dependents will suffer since there’s no income. Or, when they’re hit with some serious illnesses but do not have the money to pay for their medical bills. In the end, they need to take out all their personal savings in order to pay for the medical bills. Yes, growing your money is important, but thinking about your dependents and the ability to keep you healthy are even more important (especially if your company does not give you a medical card). Look into what kind of life insurance you should buy here – How much insurance do you need?

Once you’ve given thoughts (and actions) to these 2, you can start planning the second step of your investment journey. Always remember that your investment journey will be greatly jeopardized if you are not able to generate income, or something else is draining your income away. So do take note. These 2 should be the FIRST thing you should look into while planning for your investment journey.

However, I do realize that sometimes people are becoming too fearful of something they don’t know. Just the other day, a friend of mine told me he’s going to venture into land investing. I asked why don’t he consider stock instead because the entry cost is lower. You don’t need so much money to go into stock investing and you definitely don’t need to get a bank loan for it. His reply was simple – “I don’t like to gamble”.

I think most people have the thinking that stock investing = gambling. Unfortunately, it’s not if you know what you’re doing and if you’re not trying to get rich quick. Based on The Free Dictionary, gambling is “the act of playing for stakes in the hope of winning”. This definition is somewhat similar to the definition of speculation: “Engagement in risky business transactions on the chance of quick or considerable profit.” And I often put these 2 together due to their similarities.

But to say stock investing IS NOT gambling, is kind of an understatement. Because there are a lot of stock investors who do speculate and gamble. These are normally the short-term stock owners. They tend not to keep a particular stock for more than few months. They do short-term buying and selling, and they trade a lot. However, when asked why are they investing in a particular company, most of them will not be able to answer you. Investing with uncertain future is, in a way, speculation. And as long as it’s speculation, it can be considered as gambling.

But this does not apply to stock investing alone. It also applies to other form of investing, be it land, property or stock investing. Truth to be told, this kind of method does help you earn a lot if you’re lucky but it is also very very high risk. I’ve burnt myself in the past due to stock speculation and it wasn’t a pleasant feeling. So easy come, and easy go. Just like how you can go buy lottery and if you’re exceptionally lucky, you will win a large sum of money.

However, if given a choice, I would encourage people not to speculate in stocks and never do all those short-term trading. It is too risky. If you want to invest in stocks, be prepared to spend an awful amount of time understanding the way it works, how the companies operate, the track records of the company’s management team, the prospects, etc. There are tonnes and tonnes of stuff for you to do research on. From there, you can shortlist some of the companies that you’re interested in and wait for them to drop to a price which you think is cheaper than the fair value. Then go in for those undervalued stocks. Invest and keep. But be prepared to keep them for 3-5 years (or even longer than that!). Yes, stock investing is about holding on to a particular stock for long term. If you’re trying to sell within few months, then it’s not really investing. It’s speculating.

So there you go, the myth of stock investing. As you can see, the proper way of stock investing is very different from what most people believe it should be. It’s not gambling at all. There are some uncertainties, but you make the decision based on your research and studies, not based on some unfounded rumors. And by far, it is also the best investing for me. Low entry cost, decent profit.

Just make sure you know what you’re investing in.

The funny thing is, no matter how ridiculously priced these properties are, they still get sold. A semi-d house with an awkward design (toilet next to the car porch), located in Shah Alam and priced at 800-900k….sold out. This shows how desperate the home buyers are…. or rather, how aggressive the property investors are.

I think it’s pretty obvious that our property market is seeing a stiff competition between the desperate local home buyers and the cash-rich property investors (especially foreign investors). The situation is fast becoming a “get a house while you still can afford” thing as local home buyers (or first time home owners) rush to get their hands on ANY affordable properties.

As a result of this, the price shoots up even more, to a state where other local home buyers can no longer afford to get their own houses and yeah….people have to rent a place or risk getting a big big debt on their shoulders.

But seriously, will this situation continue? I’m afraid so. What bout the price of the properties? If the properties are overpriced as they are now…will there ever be a bubble burst for our local property market? I’m afraid not due to the large number of rich foreign property investors coming in, and also due to the smart marketing move by the local property developers.

And on the question of whether the government’s decision to lure foreign property investors is a positive/negative move…. i will leave that to you.

p/s…. property consultant Chris Boyd recently said that now is a good time to buy property due to the affordable interest rate and that the property price has not peaked *shudders*. Check out his article in The Star here – A good time to buy.

But how much is “enough”? 50k? 200k? 1 million? or just $1 more than the amount you need? Without defining what does “enough” mean to you, it’s very difficult for you to set your financial goals. So the first thing that you need to know before doing any financial planning is your definition of “enough”.

I’m not going to guess what is your answer. So I’ll just assume you are like most people I know, and your definition of “enough” is to be able to retire comfortably, without having to worry too much about money when you’re no longer working.

If that’s your definition of “enough”, then I have a few tips which might be able to help you achieve your goal.

• Go for conservative investing. When choosing a type of investment to put your money into, always go for conservative type of investing. Say NO to short-selling or active trading (be it stocks or funds). Go for those which are safer, but have lower returns. Index fund is a good option while FD (interest rate is too low at the moment), and stocks (too risky) are not.
• Pay attention to the cost of investment. Most investment types need you to pay a certain amount of money for their services – especially stocks and mutual funds. Pay close attention to the amount of money you need to pay for such things. Because most often than not, these fees will greatly reduce the amount of earnings you get from your investments.
• Minimize spending. It’s okay to get your WANTs every now and then but always take into consideration your financial goals. Will buying item A has any negative impact on your financial goals? Will it slow down your overall progress?

I think these 3 simple rules will be able to help you in achieving your “enough” and enable you to live comfortable upon reaching your retirement age. I can’t say that it’s going to work 100%, but I really believe it WILL help you to move closer towards that direction. But bear in mind that, these 3 simple rules are not going to make you rich…. they will only be able to make you achieve “enough”…. just enough for you to live comfortably.

p/s….. conclusion, if you are looking to achieve “enough” (as in enough to live comfortably upon retirement), you should avoid going to risky investment types such as property and stocks, and also avoid spending too much on services such as those incurred by mutual funds.

Normally people would invest in residential units because they tend to be cheaper (generally speaking) and there are also more options for them to choose if compared with business premises (shop lots, office units, etc). However, they may change their mind once they realized that the profit margin tends to be higher for business premises.

Yes, you CAN earn more by investing in business premises, sometimes significantly more than investing in residential units. But, as with everything in this world, there are pros and cons to each of them.

Business premises

+ A good tenant can easily helps you to pay off your loan and at the same time, helps look after your unit for a long period of time. For example, banks, and franchised outlets.

+ If you happen to buy the unit in a very good location, you can expect to earn more than 40%. For example, those who bought a shop lot in Kota Damansara when it was first launched could easily earn a 200-300% profit now.

- Most anchor tenants like banks are pretty hard to get. Most of the time, it is the property developers themselves who are able to engage them as tenants.

- Business premises tend to be priced higher than residential units.

- Maintenance fees and the utility charges are also priced higher for business premises.

- A lot of speculations are involved when investing in business premises. You invest in one place at a cheap price, and hoping that the location will become popular in the near future.

Residential units

+ Priced lower than business premises.

+ Maintenance fees and utility charges are sometimes lower (certain properties fall under the commercial rates though).

+ Easier to find tenants as the demands are higher for residential units, as long as you don’t ask for ridiculous rental price.

- Your tenants are easier to run away especially for those renting out their apartment or condominium units. I’ve seen tenants moving out in the middle of the night (just spent 2 or 3 hours) without their landlords knowing it.

- Although demand is high, the supply for residential units is also very high especially when most of the units are controlled by property investors.

I’m not sure if this gives you a clearer picture of which type of property investment you should go into. I sure hope it does. Anyway, there could be more pros and cons to each of them. But in general, all I can say is that investing in residential units is for the beginners and perhaps those more reserved type of investors. If you have the financial backing and are okay with high risk, then go for business premises. High risk, high yield. Just be aware that if the location you’re investing in failed up pick up momentum, then your investment is as good as gone.

As for me, I’m not that big a risk taker. I prefer to have a slow and steady growth, with minimum speculation. That’s why I personally feel that investing in residential units is more suitable for me.

Hope it helps.

If you refer to the previous rates in August 2009, you will notice that there’s no change to the rates at all. But many people are saying that our Bank Negara will increase the interest rate soon, considering the fact that our economy is slowly recovering. I’ll post up an update to this list of FD rates once there’s any changes to the interest rate.

Hope it helps.