So what do we do when we don’t understand such things? We leave it to the experts!

Unfortunately, experts are being called experts because of few things and one of them is that they don’t come cheaply. So we end up paying some of our $$ in order to have these experts manage the complicated stuff for us.

To be honest, I feel that all these new types of investment only benefit none other than the financial institutions and the people working for them. For an investor, the return has been lowered due to the number of layers which appeared out of nowhere, in between the investor and the money they invest in (the experts are in some of the layers). The more complicated an investment type, the more layers there will be, and the more money they will charge you.

So most investors end up in a dilemma, we are paying people to reduce our return of investment. And then we start to complain about the low rate of return. Yet, most cautious investors do not dare (some are lazy) to venture outside and control their investments themselves.

What’s next then? Well, my advice to you is simple. If the financial system comes out with very complicated things, and if you cannot understand, then don’t go into it. Don’t ever pay someone to manage for you because the return of investment will be so low that, well, it’s better to just pump into Fixed Deposits. If you want better return, then manage those investments yourselves unless you are so rich that you wouldn’t mind those additional charges. But that’s another issue altogether.

Conclusion, manage your own investments if you want better return (higher risk though so you must know what you are doing) but if you prefer to let the experts handle things for you, then be prepared for very minimal returns.

Maybe we can change this to Malaysia Economy...but what about the IMF? Change to?

Even the wife, who is a hair stylist, told us that the number of customers have been reduced by 50% at least.

My dad’s friend (another person), who owns a factory, told us that he has to retrench 20% of his foreign workers because of bad economy. The number of orders have also been greatly reduced.

Well, at least, that factory fares better than some others who are forced to close down, thus increasing the number of jobless people.

I do expect our country to be badly hit somewhere in May or June 2009. Whether we like it or not, and whether our government and central bank like it or not……there are just too many things which we cannot really control – such as the closing down of those factories by the multinational companies. Unless our government can come out with $$ to support those jobless people…otherwise, we might just end up like what happened to US now – people don’t have money to pay back the debts/loans.

That’s why I am really afraid of investing anything in banking stocks. It’s just too risky for me. My speculation might be wrong but well…better be safe than sorry.