MONEY MASTER

BILL GATES VS STEVE JOBS It is an ironic when we mentioned these names. While both of name are famous for the "Information Revolution" , these are also the two names that hardly see eye to eye to one another. One of them are seen as the devil who is only interested in making money out of the manipulation of technology. Bill Gates is the villain to many of the techno geek and given the failed product of Vista, it is hard to deny that. However, let us not forget Bill Gates is also the man who give us Windows 3.11, Windows 95, Windows XP, and of course now Windows 7 . But for most people, Bill Gates is one man who only interested in money, money, money!! On the other hand, Steve Jobs gained the reputation more like a saint in this industry. Whenever people talk about Steve Jobs, people will talk about his passion for art, design and even perfection. While no one could deny the effort Jobs put on Apple's product, is it really true that Gates is the villain while Jobs is the s...

Whether you like him or not, the Apple CEO Steve Jobs has had a helluva decade. After all, it was under his helm that Apple defined the portable music player market with the iPod, has shaken up the mobile industry with the iPhone, rocked the retail music business with iTunes and re-invented the computing business with OS X in a way that the PC business - with less than 10 percent of market share - is no longer the bread-and-butter of the company. Of course, the marketing plan by Apple was brilliant and create a loyal and if I could use that word, a cult-like followers of the Apple brand. In fact, FORTUNE magazine describe it as the DECADE OF STEVE - How Apple's imperious, brilliant CEO transformed American business . It also mentioned about the dedication and commitment that Steve Jobs had towards every small details in the company. We cannot deny that the manner in which Apple conducts business has been highly effective at not only increasing sales and broadening the company’s po...

This post is continue from where I left last week on What does the 1Malaysia 2010 Budget has in store for you - Part 1. The last post on 2010 Malaysia Budget is regarding on how the government will implement the fuel subsidy which in my opinion, will not be able to reduce the burden of the poor, which was the actual purpose of the subsidy. This time, I will discuss the other "goodies" in 2010 Malaysia Budget like the following:- The maximum income tax rate for individuals to be reduced to 26% from assessment year 2010. Personal relief increased to RM9,000. Personal relief for EPF and life insurance schemes to be increased to RM7,000. Taxpayers will get tax relief on broadband subscription fee of up to RM500 from 2010 to 2012. To promote prudent spending, a service charge of RM50 a year to be imposed on each principal credit card and charge card ; and RM25 a year on each supplementary card, effective from Jan 1, 2010. The personal relief will be increased to RM9,000 where...

Have you heard of the rule of 120 minus age ? It is actually an investment allocation rule or a guideline for novice investors like most of us. The rule is pretty simple, just take 120 minus your age, and you will have the allocation in percentage for investment. Example, Ricky is currently 23 years old, which means that he should invest up to 97%. The idea behind this rule is the younger we are, we need to allocate more for investment, as we can afford to lose. Besides having nothing to lose, the income we are getting when we just started to work is not that high. Imagine the scenario below:- Ricky, currently 23 years old and start to work earning 20K annually. After deducting all his expenses other deductions like loan installment, he will still have about 4K (assuming 80% is the expenses in percentage). From this 4K, he should invest 3880 (120-23 = 97% of 4K). 17 years down the road..... Ricky now age 40, and earning 40K annually. Assuming 80% is his expenses, he will still have 8K ...