MONEY MASTER

KUALA LUMPUR: Franklin Templeton Investments, which managed US$753.8 billion (RM2.99 trillion) worth of assets globally as at Dec 31, 2017, is “underweight” on the Malaysian equity market, which it sees as neither cheap enough nor growing fast enough. “Malaysia has this issue whereby it is never cheap enough to be a significant part of Franklin Templeton’s portfolio, and it is not fast-growing enough in terms of listed companies,” Chetan Sehgal, its managing director and director of global emerging markets and small-cap strategy, told a media briefing yesterday on the asset management company’s 2018 emerging market outlook. Nevertheless, given the country’s strong gross domestic product growth and exports recorded last year, Franklin Templeton still sees some sweet spots in the equity market here, namely export-related and banking counters. “The thing is that exporters in Malaysia have done very well despite the fact that the currency has appreciated ... this ...

As we usher in the New Year after the benchmark FBM KLCI closing in the positive zone in 2017  — the first time in three years, many investors would ponder whether the strong momentum could continue into 2018. The following is the list of factors that could possibly swing the market moving forward: Malaysia’s GE14 The much anticipated 14th general election (GE14) did not materialise in 2017, will definitely take place in 2018 before Aug 24 this year as the mandate of the ruling Barisan National (BN) coalition will end in June 2018. Analysts have in general expects the GE14 to be the main driver of investors’ sentiment in early 2018 before a return to fundamentals post GE14. So far, most research analysts view that the poll is likely to be in between February and April. The pre-election rally is expected to lift sentiments and improve the “feel-good” factor, which is important for incumbent governments. The election-play counters, companies that are perceive...

KUALA LUMPUR: Turnover rent structure has helped Hektar Real Estate Investment Trust (Hektar REIT) to manage rental pressures amid a weak retail environment coupled with the overbuilding of malls in the Klang Valley. Hektar Asset Management Sdn Bhd, the manager of Hektar REIT, said that while the average rental reversion measured on base rent was reduced by 7.1% in the first half of 2017, the lower base rent was covered by turnover rent. The base rent is a fixed initial rent that has been agreed upon while turnover rent depends on the annual turnover of the retail’s business. “When the tenants do well and their sales go up, then they can afford to pay more rent as a percentage of that (increased revenue),” said Hektar Asset Management chief executive officer Datuk Hisham Othman. “This structure also allowed us to monitor the performance of our tenants and by having their sales figures in hand, we can foresee the direction of where the business is heading,” H...

Invest at the bottom of the market and sell at the top. That’s solid advice, but it’s not easy to follow. Consider the stock market right now, for example. Is this the top of the market? Is it time to sell? With the American stock market already up more than 300 percent since March 2009, including dividends, these are pertinent questions. Several readers asked them in response to last week’s column, which pointed out that wherever the market goes next, it is definitely not at the bottom now. After years of spectacular gains, stocks are anything but cheap. What’s more, the market has been so placid this year — despite the turmoil emanating from Washington — that the calm on Wall Street has been almost supernatural. By some measures, stocks haven’t been this steady in more than 50 years. Furthermore, the economic expansion now underway is already the third longest since 1854. It takes little imagination to envision a sudden rout. Those observations unnerved some readers who aske...

I've recently read a very interesting article regarding the value of debt in retirement from The Edge Markets - Personal Wealth , and I must say the article really open my mind on debt and it gives me new idea on optimizing wealth in future. I like the way the writer end the article with "“All debt is, is a magnifier of investment decisions that you make. If you make good decisions, debt will make them look better. If you make bad decisions, debt will make you look worse." The article is as follows..... CONVENTIONAL thinking would have it that to live a happy life, you must be debt-free in your retirement years. The idea is that you should be reducing your risk and focusing solely on preserving your hard-earned capital. But Thomas J Anderson, author of  The Value of Debt in Retirement: Why Everything You Have Been Told Is Wrong , tells  Personal Wealth  in a Skype interview that he believes this mantra is one of the greatest myths about retirement ever...

Recently while I surf the net, I come across an article which I think will motivate most of us from the middle class to do differently like the rich people, hopefully we can be like most of the rich people as mentioned in the article "In fact, your daily habits may be a major determinant of your wealth" - and I really agree with this quote. Keeping it as part of my blog post so that whenever I feel that I need motivation, I can just read the article from this blog post. The article is as follows:- 9 Things Rich People Do Differently Every Day What you do today matters. In fact, your daily habits may be a major determinant of your wealth. "The metaphor I like is the avalanche," says Thomas Corley, the author of "Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits Of Wealthy Individuals." "These habits are like snowflakes — they build up, and then you have an avalanche of success." Corley spent five years studying the lives of both rich people (defi...

Today I've read an article from The Star and I do share the same sentiment with the writer that not all debt is bad especially this quote " Smart money management is not about avoiding debt; rather it is about choosing the right debt and making it work harder for you." The article also mentioned slightly on how to utilize the credit card to free up more cash flow which in the end can be use to generate more passive income. The article is as follows:- SINCE the US subprime mortgage crisis of 2007–2008, we have had an influx of credit and debt related news such as the European sovereign debt crisis (often referred to as the eurozone crisis), the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing (QE) programme and, closer home, 1MDB. It all sounds pretty daunting to the average ears and lends credence to the public’s general fear of debt. But what is debt? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as “an amount of money that you owe to a person, bank, company, etc” whil...

As everyone from Ted Turner to Drake has said, the hardest part of getting rich is making the first million. The rest just comes naturally. The fact that wealth begets more wealth was illustrated once again last year by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, currently the two richest people on Earth. According to Bloomberg, the pair finished 2014 a combined $21.1 billion richer than when the year began. (Gates' fortune rose $8.1 billion to a total of $86.6 billion. Buffett's rose $13 billion; he's now worth $73.8 billion.) Gates and Buffett are aware of their privilege. They have both advocated for higher taxes on the wealthy. They have also poured billions of their own money into the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the world's largest funders of charitable causes like infectious disease research, poverty reduction, and (more controversially) education reform. Source: Mother Jones

Recently I have learned that a lot of my colleagues, who are few years my junior bought their 1st property right after they start to work and it seems that it is slightly contradict with the article "The young find it difficult to afford a home" from The Star - which brings me to think that it could be the mindset between people from the northern region with the people living in the central region of the peninsula. I see that the people from the northern region, especially the Chinese tend to believe that property is a good investment and one should always get the first property at very young age. Although I personally don't agree on buying property right after getting the first job, I agree that purchasing property must be at young age - and we should not aim for the high-end property but rather the kind of property that we can afford at that time. I personally agree with Malaysian Institute of Estate Agents (MIEA) president Siva Shanker that the Gen-Y definitely n...

I have read an interesting article regarding Malaysian investors are not very smart. There are other similar kind of surveys and articles that seem to show that Malaysians especially the Gen Y-ers are shying away from equities investment and prefer to hold cash than any other investment assets. Below are the whole article taken from Free Malaysia Today - Our Investors Are Not Very Smart, by Scott Ng. Only 2% of Malaysian investors are able to answer survey questions. PETALING JAYA: Malaysian investors are not as smart as they think they are. A survey has painted a dismal picture, saying our investors lack financial literacy. The survey found that out of all the Malaysian participants in the survey, only 2% were capable of answering the five questions posed to them in the survey. This is in comparison with Singapore’s 20% and an 11% overall for all participants. The latest Manulife Investor Sentiment Index in Asia (Manulife ISI) is based on 3,500 interviews across seven As...

I've read an interesting article on The Star not too long ago regarding what happens when you show-off with expensive things, but can't afford it and of course it makes sense that the consequences of showing off with expensive things which you cannot afford is debt; and in some of the more severe cases one might actually declared a bankrupt because of this. I am sharing the following article to raise awareness among the youngsters who are not having good sense of financial management ; but at the same time placing too much importance on appearing "rich" rather than really rich in net worth although the article applies to almost everyone.   The article is as follows:- Placing too much importance on appearing rich can affect one’s net worth. One may want to delay self-gratification in order to build a strong financial foundation I ONCE asked someone who looked like a million dollars on the outside but was totally broke, this question:“Is your self-worth destroy...

It is so coincidence that just the other day I was chatting with a friend regarding financial management in the family and then yesterday The Star posted something similar to this - Money Can't Buy Me Love , which talks about financial management or planning in a family that should start as earlier as possible to prevent financial struggles. I found that the article is really interesting given that I agree with most of the points and the fact that there are many relationship which fall apart due to the mismanagement of the family finances. The article is as follows:- Indeed, love is a many-splendored thing. When we are passionately in love, nothing really matters in the world. But when the romance settles and financial issues start to pile up, can love be thrown out of the window? MONEY certainly can’t buy us love but it can to some extent, prevent financial struggles. I have seen many relationships fall apart due to mismanagement of family finances. Arguments about mo...

I read about an article on Mr. Money Mustache and how he retired at 30 and it was actually an inspiring article to me, and I'm pretty sure that most of us can learn from him. Inspiring in the sense that I aim to retired by 30 before I started to join the workforce, and unfortunately at 30 now, I still don't feel comfortable retiring. There are few reasons that I don't feel comfortable; the first being not accumulated enough invest able cash and investment assets in which can generates the amount of cash that I need to have my current lifestyle. Another reason is I'm still aiming for property and still paying for my property; in which will increase my expenses. So, I look into the advice of Mr. Money Mustache and learn something; though I cannot emulate him 100%, I'm sure there are some key learning from him. The article is as follows:- Meet Mr. Money Mustache. Hundreds of thousands of readers follow his bold advice on his self-titled blog — and for good rea...

A very good article I read the other day from MarketWatch and realized that how true the article sounds. It might not give you the tips on how to get rich, or how the rich actually gets richer, but it does give you an insight of the qualities and the experience that we need to pass on to generations in order to be in the affluent society.  We all know, innately, how the rich get richer. Money begets money. But how does that actually happen, aside from compounding interest and purely financial factors? You could take the cynic's view that the game is rigged. But the more accurate answer, backed by research, is that the rich get richer because of great parenting. How rich you become over your lifetime is directly related to how early you capture the basic truths of finance and investing. You have seen the exception that proves the rule, the rich kid who blows his family's wealth in a generation through poor decisions. Chalk that up to absentee parents. Truly, teaching is th...

I've read an interesting article on The Star regarding some tips on how to spot a millionaire, though I truly believe this kind of millionaire is the millionaire next door, which means, they are very frugal in their spending and they most likely try to buy something to reflect their millionaire status or lead an extravagant lifestyle. While I did some rough calculation before and I understand that having RM1 million is not tough, but surely it is not easy, not to mentioned accumulating up to USD1 million in Malaysia - the number itself is already three times more.  It took roughly a savings of RM2.8K per month for the next 30 years to reach RM1 million milestone, and requires three times the effort to become a millionaire in US dollar. Anyway, the purpose of this post is not to talk about how to get there, but merely on how we can spot millionaire among our friends. You never know, your neighbour might be a millionaire, yet, he looks even poorer than you. According to the ar...

I've blogged about the some of the Universal Rule of Personal Financial Management and one of the rule mentioning about never depend on single income , which is actually taken from a famous quote by the Sage of Ohama, Warren Buffett. This rule is in fact the most important rule after one have discipline in controlling spending. It's so coincidence that I read an article in The Star, and it mentioned about how hard does your money work, although towards the end of the article, it is starting to do a bit like "advertisement" by trying to get people to use the service of fund managers or financial planners. Nevertheless, that is not the most important message. The message is clear, how hard does your money work rather than how hard one work for money - exactly the same as what I was trying to imply on the Universal Rule of Personal Financial Management: #3 Never Depend on Single Income . The article is as follows:- YOU may be working hard for your money, but is yo...

IN recent years, the level of household debt among Malaysians has been a matter of growing concern, as the statistics show that the average person is way over his head in debt. Based on Bank Negara figures, the typical household borrowing is a shocking 140% of disposable income. That's something to think about, as it means that at least half of Malaysians are struggling desperately with their finances. So, they probably have very little idea of how they can become financially free, let alone wealthy. Incredible, isn't it? Most people we know would like to be free of financial worries and to enjoy a high standard of living, but so few seem to get it right. The journey towards financial success begins by first knowing where you are. Strangely, many people in the middle class find it difficult to answer this question: are you middle class, financially free or rich? In my latest book, Set Yourself Free: How To Optimise Money and Become Wealthy With Minimum Effort and Risk, I have t...

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...