MONEY MASTER

A lot of us think that financial planning is difficult, and thus relying on financial planners to plan on our behalf, but financial planning is something that is different from one individual to another individual depending on age, risk tolerance, plans and many more; thus relying on financial planners who usually have certain templates of financial plans for financial planning is one of the costliest financial planning mistakes that one should avoid - although getting the advice from financial planners as reference is strongly advisable. The next costly financial planning that one should avoid is to treat retirement fund like EPF in Malaysia or CPF in Singapore as savings. I come across many who told me that they do have savings and give the example like EPF which is a financial planning blunder. Retirement fund should be treated as the fund for retirement (as the name already suggested), and one should somehow allocate a portion of the income as savings for rainy days. IF thi...

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has raised the overnight policy rate (OPR) by 25 basis points to 3.25%. This is the first hike in the OPR since May 2011. The decision was made at the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). BNM also released a statement, saying "The floor and ceiling rates of the corridor for the OPR are correspondingly raised to 3.00 percent and 3.50 percent respectively." OVERNIGHT POLICY RATE? WHAT IS THAT? Have you ever wonder what is this OPR that these people are talking? I used to have big difficulty understanding the business and financial vocabulary. In short, OPR is the interest rate at which a bank lends to another bank, which is set by the BNM.  This rate has an effect on the country's employment, economic growth and inflation. Generally, it is an indicator of the health of a country's overall economy and banking system. WHY IS THERE A HIKE? There is a lot of reason for the increase in the OPR but there are a...

As expected, the meeting today had an outcome...Bank Negara Malaysia decided to raise the Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) to 3.25%. The 25 basis points increase is the first in 3 years and has been expected by the market. The floor and ceiling rates of the corridor for the OPR has increased to 3% and 3.5% respectively. The Monetary Policy Committee believes that the country economy is going for a steady growth part. As to inflationary pressures, it said inflation has been relatively stable as the effects of the price adjustments for utilities and energy continue to moderate. Demand driven inflation remains contained. “Looking ahead, inflation is, however, expected to remain above its long-run average due to the higher domestic cost factors.” The increased in OPR will eventually effect commercial banks' Base Lending Rate. It will be interesting to see how the effect will impact the household in the country.