MONEY MASTER

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak unveiled Malaysia’s 2015 budget today, with an eyes on how the government plans to cut the fiscal deficit, bring down its own debt, piled up close to a self-imposed limit of 55 per cent of gross domestic product. The following are highlights of Najib’s ongoing speech to parliament: Government aims to lower fiscal deficit to 3.0 per cent in 2015 from an expected 3.5 per cent this year. 2015 budget allocates total RM273.9 billion, an increase of RM9.8 billion compared with the 2014 initial allocation. Operating expenditure RM223.4 billion, development expenditure RM50.5 billion. Payments to civil servants of RM65.6 billion is largest operating expenditure item. Federal government revenue collection estimated at RM235.2 billion in 2015, an increase of RM10.2 billion from 2014. Taxes Revenue from goods and services tax to be introduced in April at rate of 6 per cent expected to be RM23.2 billion, but after allowing for the abolition...

If you are not aware, tomorrow, Malaysians will be looking forward to the Budget 2015, which will be announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak. The theme of the budget is something to look forward to:  “Accelerating Growth, Ensuring Fiscal Sustainability and Prospering the Rakyat”. BUDGET 2015 What is there to look forward to? Focusing on implementing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in April next year. GST may well be the talking point again Budget 2015 will definitely highlight some of the key things in regards to GST that will take effect in April next year.  According to Maybank Investment Bank, it is expected that there will be ammendment on the excemptions from GST. Currently, fresh food, public transport, education fees are excempted. It is expected that there will be new excemption from the GST and thus GST revenues could decline to 2.4 billion ringgit from 4 billion ringgit for the April to December period, and...

Recently the stock market has not been doing very well, whether it is in the local market or in the region or in US or Europe. For today, the FBMI KLCI ended lower for the second day in a row as weak foreign sentiment weighed down the market. It lost 9.22 points or 0.5% to end at 1824.32 as stocks such as IHH Healthcare Bhd and SapuraKencana Petroleum Berhad declined.  FBMKLCI Index I guess it's natural for people to panic when they see such a drop, especially if you are buying on news and projects that you heard of. When you look at the world market, you are probably even more afraid. Below are the indexes of the world market from Bloomberg. ASIA AMERICAS EUROPE Red signs are not what investors would wanna see. But there is one thing that is bigger than the trend, bigger than the volatility of the market...and according to Warren Buffett, it's the business. Warren Buffett in an interview with CNN The man known as America's ...

On my previous blog post, I posted on the comparison of some of the best cash rebate credit cards in Malaysia namely the Maybank 2 Card Platinum (Maybankard 2 Platinum), Citibank Cash Back Platinum, UOB One Platinum and the Hong Leong Wise Platinum card. Note that I'm using the "platinum" tag to compare although there is the gold card for Maybankard 2 Card, Hong Leong Wise and UOB One is because I cannot find something similar for Citibank Cash Back Platinum, so I think it will be fair to compare the four cards based on the same annual income requirement of RM 60, 000. Today I'm blogging more on the details of the Maybankard 2 Platinum Card. Maybankard 2 Platinum Card comes with two cards, as the name has suggested. It comes with the bundle of one Maybankard 2 American Express card and the choice of either the Visa or Master Card. Having said so, the users prior to mid of 2014 only have to pay one GST or RM50 while the new applicants after that will be required...

As we all might have know by now that the Ron95 petrol price up by 20c beginning 2nd October 2014, 12.00 a.m as part of the subsidy rationalization move by the government. In fact, after the announcement of the petrol hike, the petrol stations are jammed with the citizen rushing out to fill up the tank in order to save some money. While the effort might save a few ringgit and it is a one time effort, still a lot of Malaysians are doing so, knowing that every penny saved count. This is why for the past few years, cash rebate credit cards are gaining popularity in Malaysia - especially those credit cards that offer the cash rebate for petrol like the Maybank 2 card, Citibank Cash Back card, UOB One card and Hong Leong Bank Wise card. Before this OCBC Titanium is popular due to its 5% on petrol and dining and capped at RM50 cash back per month, however the offer ended and it is now offering 1% unlimited cash back. The attached is the comparison of the 4 most attractive cash rebate...