MONEY MASTER

A very interesting article that I read last weekend regarding gold and the monetary system. It's quite long winded, but very informative and I think it's appropriate to share it here since we have been monitoring the gold price for quite some time already. It gives us the insight of gold and how gold are ties to the money value, even how often countries stray away from Gold Standard and then coming back to it, and then moving away from Gold Standard again and back and forth. The writer gives advice that if we do really want to hold physical gold, we should not do it in a rush, gold bug or not. The article is as follow:- KEYNES called it a “barbaric relic” in 1924. Scarce, attractive, malleable and immune to corrosion – gold used to be ideal money before the advent of modern paper money. Today, just like diamonds, gold is also a girl’s best friend. In Asia, it is the masses’ darling. Most Asians are showered with gold when they are born; gold is figuratively given away duri...

HALF of the 22 women on a list of self-made billionaires released last Friday by Shanghai-based Hurun Research Institute are from China. According to the 2012 Global Self-Made Rich Women List, 48-year-old Longfor Properties Co Ltd chairman Wu Yajun is ranked No. 1 with a fortune of 38 billion yuan (RM18.2bil), followed by 71-year-old Chan Lai Wa of Fu Wah International Group (No. 2), Zhang Yin of Nine Dragons Paper Holdings (No. 4) and Zhang Xin of SOHO China (No. 5). These four billionaires maintained their top five ranking from last year. The other top 10 richest women are Spain’s Rosalia Mera of Zara (No. 3), US celebrity Oprah Winfrey (No. 6), American clothing giant The Gap co-founder Doris Fisher (No. 7), Huabao Group chairman Chu Lam Yiu (No. 7), mum-and-daughter pair of Lv Hui and Diana Chen Ningning (No. 9), China Orient Landscape chairman He Qiaonv and Specsavers founder Mary Perkins from Britain (both No. 10). The minimum wealth requirement for this year’s l...

A very interesting article that I read from the Star newspaper last Saturday on whether we can retire with RM1 million since it officially makes one a millionaire. But will one million enough for one to retire? A MILLION ringgit is a lot of money. In the past, it was always considered “the benchmark” in terms of a person's success. After all, having RM1mil officially makes you a millionaire. However, realistically, is RM1mil big enough to survive on today, especially once you retire? According to official statistics, the average Malaysian male has a life expectancy of up to 75 years, while for females its up to 77 years. This means that a retiree aged 55 has to support hinself or herself for another 20 years or more. But let's be a little bit conservative for the purpose of this article, let's put the average life expectancy at 80 years old. With RM1mil at 55 years old, you would need to divide that money to last you another 25 years, which comes to an aver...