Financial Planning Just For You

Inflation to exceed 6% in June, says Zeti

2008-07-09T16:09:00.001+08:00

Take the cue from Zeti. Inflation is here to stay. Atleast until second half of 2009. So with the low fixed deposit rates it would logically mean the more you save the more you lose. But of course you can look at alternative investments such as unit trust funds, blue chip shares and properties. However for any money put into these alternative investments, a long term view of atleast 3-5 years must be adopted. With this in mind, these alternative investments will serve you well and have historically given returns of 10% and above. Below is an extract of the article as reported by the Star.

KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Negara Malaysia expects the consumer price inflation to exceed 6% in June, following the adjustment in petrol prices by 40.6% and diesel prices by 63.3%, says Governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz.
“While domestic inflation is expected to remain elevated for the remaining part of this year and early next year, it is expected to moderate in the second half of 2009,” she said Wednesday.
She said the inflationary pressure was also from increase in electricity tariffs on July 1, with tariffs by up to 18% for households and an average of 26% for some commercial and industry users.

A strong case for market optimism

2008-04-22T23:32:00.000+08:00

Money Magazine
A strong case for market optimism
Believe it or not - you have several good reasons to believe the sky isn't falling. In fact, it may be clearing up.
By Michael Sivy, Money Magazine editor-at-large
Last Updated: April 22, 2008: 4:40 AM EDT

(Money Magazine) -- The economy is in trouble and fear rules Wall Street. No wonder. Banks and other financial companies are posting huge losses. The Federal Reserve has had to engineer a rescue of investment bank Bear Stearns. Home prices are sinking.

The Fed is cutting interest rates to battle recession, but the stock market refuses to be calmed. The Dow swings wildly even as it teeters on the edge of a bear market. And oil keeps rising while the dollar keeps falling. It's all unsettling in the extreme.

But the really scary question is, What's next? Are we at the start of a deep recession and a crushing decline in stock prices? And however serious the problems, how can you best protect your investments?

I'd argue that if you apply a little long-term thinking to the worries that are keeping you up at night, you may well conclude that the outlook for your portfolio isn't so bad - and in fact, that it may even be mildly encouraging.
We've had downturns before. Why does this one seem scarier?

Normally, bear markets and recessions are simply a phase of the business cycle. But the current slump in the stock market and the economy has a different, and potentially more dangerous, origin - a financial crisis.

The outlines of the story are by now depressingly familiar. When the real estate boom ended, a variety of supposedly safe mortgage-backed financial instruments turned out to be poison. The banks and other institutions that owned this debt - or were exposed to it indirectly - suddenly found themselves on the hook for enormous losses. Exactly how big no one could say. The uncertainty has made them much more cautious about lending, and that in turn is hurting companies that rely on short-term borrowing.

Falling home prices and the credit squeeze also hit consumers directly. The cash-out refinancings that homeowners used to pay off other debt and support their standard of living are harder to come by. The big fear is that reduced consumer spending and a credit crunch together could trigger a recession much worse than the normal business-cycle slump.
How bad could things get?

Bear markets that are set off by a shock can be severe. The Great Depression of the 1930s, the stagflation caused by the oil crisis in the 1970s and the real estate bust in Japan in the 1990s all crushed stock returns for years.

Among the most pessimistic economists now is New York University's Nouriel Roubini. He worries that the damage caused by the housing bust will be too big for the Fed to contain. Roubini expects that without far more extensive government intervention, home prices will fall a lot further, leading millions of homeowners to walk away from their mortgages. Banks will have to write down the value of mortgage-backed assets much more sharply than they already have.

The resulting domino effect would knock down the entire financial sector, commercial real estate and commercial lending. The process could take several years to play out and would wreak havoc on the portfolios of pros and Joes alike.

Other gloomy forecasters take more measured positions, but many still believe that the decline in housing prices is at best half over. They expect that stocks will suffer another significant decline and that any near-term rebound in prices will prove only a temporary respite.
That sounds awful. Why on earth should I be optimistic?

First, remember that predictors of doom make headlines precisely because their positions are so extreme. Most forecasters are more positive. The UCLA Anderson Forecast still anticipates that the slowdown won't even be severe enough to rank as an official recession. (To qualify, the economy has to actually shrink for at least six months, not just stagnate.)

Edward Yardeni of Yardeni Research is one of many economists who expect a short, shallow recession during the first half of the year with a recovery starting by fall, and he projects that S&P 500 operating earnings will rise 7% for the year. Yardeni also notes that the price/earnings ratios of big value stocks are quite low and that growth stocks are the cheapest they've been in more than a decade.

Even Warren Buffett, who has said we're now in a recession, is bullish longer term. His Berkshire Hathaway has sold a variety of options basically betting that the stock market is close to a bottom.

I'm inclined to agree that the outlook for the economy is more encouraging than most investors seem to think. For one thing, it appears likely that most of the damage has been done and that stock prices today reflect what are now widely recognized problems. Moreover, while you can find similarities between the three big shocks of the past 80 years and today's situation, none really matches present circumstances. Let's look at them in more detail.

Depression. The 1929 stock market crash was the best-known event leading into the Great Depression, but the loss of paper wealth wasn't what unleashed the calamity. The more important causes included bank failures, excessive consumer debt and restrictions on international trade. Some of these seem to have parallels today, but the most important factor is completely different.

As banks failed in the early 1930s, the Federal Reserve allowed the money supply to shrink by as much as 35%, causing the economy to keep contracting. Today, by contrast, the Fed has been pumping money into the economy as fast as it can. Over the past year, in fact, the money supply has grown more than 7%.

In addition, the Fed is intervening to an unprecedented degree to shore up troubled banks and brokerages. It's likely that Bernanke & Co. will keep pushing interest rates down to make it easy for banks to lend money, thus minimizing the credit squeeze.

Once all the banks' bad loans have been identified and written off over the next year or so, some institutions will be out of business and others will have been forced to merge à la Bear Stearns. Their stockholders and bondholders will have suffered - a lot. But most of the U.S. economy will be poised to recover.

Stagflation. In the 1970s a sharp spike in oil prices following the OPEC embargo produced a devastating combination of slow growth and soaring inflation. Today oil prices are as high as they were in the '70s, after adjusting for inflation. Yet the U.S. economy is more than twice as energy-efficient as it was back then.

Like a car that gets 28 miles to the gallon instead of 14, today's economy can better tolerate high fuel costs (although there is still some pain). And despite a few bad inflation numbers in recent months, pressure for price increases generally remains moderate.

Stagnation. In the late 1980s, Japanese real estate boomed. When the bust came, financial authorities there kept trying to prop up prices so that companies could avoid big write-downs. The result was much like removing a bandage very slowly, and for 13 years investors in Japanese stocks felt the pain.

Send feedback to Money Magazine
By Michael Sivy, Money Magazine editor-at-large
Last Updated: April 22, 2008: 4:40 AM EDT

The recent real estate bubble in the U.S., however, never got as overinflated as the one in Japan did. And although the Fed and other parts of the government are trying to cushion the fall, they aren't trying to postpone it indefinitely. U.S. banks, unlike their Japanese counterparts of the '90s, tend to acknowledge loan losses fairly promptly. That may hurt stocks in the short run, but it should leave the economy and the market open for a recovery much sooner.

The stock market always recovers from setbacks, if you're prepared to wait long enough. The real question is what's needed for a prompt recovery. The average bear market lasts 14 months, but declines can end in less than six months if the economy doesn't suffer an extended slump - and if share prices are not massively overvalued to begin with.

On this second point, the numbers are encouraging. The most popular blue chips were trading at price/earnings ratios above 30 back in 2000, right before growth stocks collapsed. The historical average for those stocks is 24, and they were at less than 20 when the market topped last October.

As for how big a decline might be, past bear markets have split into two categories: those in which blue chips drop by an average of 22% and much bigger declines in which the drop averages 39%. The S&P 500 has been down as much as 18% from its October high, so I don't expect much more downside.

That said, my optimistic outlook for stocks does rest on two reasonable, though by no means surefire, assumptions. The first is that the Fed will pursue the right interest-rate policy - specifically, that it will continue to cut short-term rates this year and that it will also start nudging them back up in a year or two so that the economy and inflation don't over-heat.

That's not as easy as it sounds. A big part of the blame for the current troubles can be laid at the feet of the Greenspan Fed, which in hindsight kept rates too low for too long following 9/11 and ended up pumping more and more hot air into the real estate bubble.

The second assumption is that the scale of loan losses will remain within manageable bounds. The doomsayers notwithstanding, the total equity in the U.S. financial system is many times larger than the total losses most economists expect.
But what about the dollar? If it keeps dropping, that has to be bad, no?

" The dollar normally declines when the U.S. runs a very big budget deficit and the economy slows, especially if similar trends aren't occurring in countries that we trade with. Even more important is the level of interest rates. Europe hasn't been cutting rates much, while the Fed has slashed ours by three percentage points in less than a year. Foreigners don't want investments in declining dollars when their interest income is also falling.

A weak dollar is inconvenient if you travel overseas, and it pushes up the prices of imports. But the weakness also makes U.S. products cheaper for foreigners and helps U.S. exports. Many U.S.-based multinational companies get more than 40% of their earnings from outside the country. At the very least, export growth saves jobs and helps lessen the impact of a recession.

In any event, the Fed can't afford to worry about the dollar as long as it has the credit crunch to deal with. Low interest rates are necessary to limit damage to the economy which has to be top priority. When growth resumes and the Fed is raising rates once again, the dollar should recover much of its lost value.
What should I be doing with my portfolio?

You can't buy low and sell high if you dump stocks in a depressed market. Today lots of blue chips trading at below-average P/Es are likely to be bargains. When you're considering such stocks, start by looking at businesses that get a large share of earnings overseas, where economies are more stable now.

Low debt is always good. So is a dividend yield of more than 2.5%. The blue chips mentioned in our 100 best list share these characteristics. If you prefer mutual funds, dollar-cost averaging into a total stock market mutual fund or investing in a high-yield stock fund makes sense psychologically and financially in this market.

Beyond that, follow the rules of investing that apply in any market. Diversify your investments as broadly as possible, minimize your trading costs, and balance growth stocks with income investments.
What if things do go wrong?

If you buy into the dire outlook that Roubini sees, you might want to take all your money and put it into Treasury bonds or CDs and wait things out. The problem with that strategy is that you not only have to be right in your pessimism, you have to know exactly when to turn optimistic again. Even the experts have a hard time getting that right.

And it's worth noting that Roubini, despite his concerns about the next few years, keeps his entire portfolio in stocks because he sees himself as a long-term investor.

But if you feel like you must do something, there are more reasonable insurance strategies you can employ. Increase the size of your emergency cash fund. Put a small slice of your portfolio into an inflation hedge like T. Rowe Price's New Era fund, which invests in commodity producers. Invest in foreign blue-chip mutual funds to hedge against a falling dollar.

For my money, this insurance is too expensive now. Commodity and foreign-stock funds have already had a big run, and those are the areas of the market where investors have been piling in lately. Historically, following the crowd only leaves you poorer. I'd rather pick up bargains among the strongest U.S. stocks. That would let me rest easier at night.

- Reporting By Joe Light; Donna Rosato contributed to this article. To top of page
First Published: April 22, 2008: 4:20 AM EDT

Another favourite song from The Myth

2008-03-27T00:35:00.000+08:00

My favourite song - friends

2008-03-27T00:32:00.000+08:00

EPF Member's Investment Withdrawal Eligibility

2008-02-11T21:56:00.000+08:00

Effective 1 November 2007, EPF under its ”Beyond Savings” strategic initiative has introduced various enhancements to member’s benefit structure in stages. These enhancements are in accordance to the EPF Act 1991 (Amendment 2007) . One of the enhancements is the introduction of the basic savings concept that will be used to determine the minimum sum a member is allowed to withdraw from Account 1 for Investment Withdrawal.

Definition of Basic Savings
Basic Savings is an amount to be put aside in Account 1 progressively at various pre-determined age levels to enable a member to accumulate a minimum savings of RM120,000 at age 55.

A member needs to have a basic savings amount at the predetermined age levels. Amount in excess of the basic savings can be invested in products offered by external fund managers approved by the Ministry of Finance.

For more information please visit: http://www.kwsp.gov.my/index.php?ch=p2news&pg=en_p2news_highlights&ac=2246&lang=en

EPF : Service Charges For Unit Trust Investment Capped At 3 Percent

2008-01-21T23:04:00.000+08:00

Saturday, January 19, 2008
Members of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) will pay 50 per cent less in service charges for investment in unit trusts from January 1, 2008. The EPF announced that the service charges would be capped at three per cent, and fund management institutions cannot impose service charges beyond that.

This move as approved by the Minister of Finance will help members save on service charges. The service charges by local investment funds in Malaysia currently are relatively higher when compared with other countries like Singapore, United Kingdom, Japan and the United States.

“Members can enjoy better returns from their investment in unit trusts with the lower service charges,” said Datuk Azlan Zainol, Chief Executive Officer of the EPF

Datuk Azlan also added, “We decided to cap the service charges at three per cent in the interest of our members and the fund managers”.

Currently members pay about five to six per cent in service charges.

“A study commissioned recently by EPF revealed that one of the major factors affecting the investment returns for our members is the high service charges imposed by the fund management institutions,” said Datuk Azlan.

About the Employees Provident Fund (EPF)

2008-01-21T23:02:00.000+08:00

January 21st, 2008 ·

The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is a national savings scheme, providing basic financial security for retirement. The Fund is committed to preserving and growing the savings of its members in accordance with best practices in investment and corporate governance. It will always be guided by prudence in its investment decisions.

As a customer-focused organization, the EPF delivers efficient and reliable services for the convenience of its members and registered employers.

The EPF continues to play a catalytic role in the nation’s socio-economic growth, consistent with its position as a leading savings institution in Malaysia.

Date: 12 December 2007

A LETTER TO MY INVESTORS

2007-12-17T02:20:00.000+08:00

Dear Investors,

It is the time of the year to plan for the coming year 2008. Many of us are setting goals and making resolutions. Some of the goals and resolutions may be brought forward from 2007.

Yes we may have missed out on some of the targets and resolutions set this year. As long as we have given our best to try to achieve these goals we have every right to feel proud of ourselves. Congratulations on those goals that you have achieved.

Setting investment target is another goal you can make for the coming year. Try to put aside a sum of money for investment throughout 2008. Make an effort to put the money aside in an investment that can give you good return. What are investments? Investments are tools or vehicles that you can use to bring about good returns in the coming years. Most of the time investments take a longer time to bear fruits. Some takes three years, others five to ten years. Take property or unit trust funds for example. You do not expect to make great returns within a year. If you do then you are not investing but speculating. Some may even consider speculation as gambling.

The investments you have made in Public Mutual funds are for medium to long term. You can expect good returns within this period. Investments in unit trust have a proven track record. As can be seen in develop countries, most of the retirement funds are invested through unit trust (mutual funds) managed by capable fund managers. Public Mutual and their professional fund managers have a proven track record; winning many fund awards year after year. So you have made a right choice investing with Public Mutual.

In addition, as your agent, I am committed to closely monitor all your investments and give appropriate and timely information so that you can make the necessary decision to benefit from the dynamic investment environment. Through timely switching and strategic asset allocation you maximize your unit trust returns.

Over time the market will always go up but some short term trend reversal creates great opportunity for an investor like you. Do not let fear overcome you. It has been proven over again and again that this is the best opportunity to put in more investments to benefit from the dips. Remember the Asian Financial Crisis, the bird flu, Tsunami disaster in Asia, Thailand military rule, etc. Did you miss out on these opportunities the last time?

Going forward, 2008 will be a challenging year for investments. Market will be volatile. However taking a longer term view, the risk is mitigated. I strongly advise that you do not loose sight of your long term goals, like funding your retirement and children education needs. You should continue to put aside money for your unit trust investment as this is a proven vehicle to grow your funds for your long term goals. Have a regular investment plan. Some investors put aside money and invest on a monthly basis. Others choose to invest on a quarterly basis. Both of these regular investment plans benefits from the ‘dollar cost averaging’ concept.

The year 2008 will also see greater changes in the unit trust industry for the benefit of the investors. Service charges will be lowered. This is a gift from the unit trust industry. With lower service charges, more of your money can be invested. This will result in better returns on your investment. EPF will also be making changes so that more money can be channeled to higher yielding unit trust investment.

Personally, my goals for 2008 will be to assist my investors to make more money by staying vigilant and closely monitoring the market and my clients’ investment. I would also like to help more people to achieve their investment goals. In this respect I will welcome your referrals of family members and friends, should they like to invest in Public Mutual unit trust funds. I would like to thank those of you that have made referrals to me in 2007.

I truly enjoy my work as I find the unit trust industry amazing. Everyday I am helping people to get closer to their investments goals. I am proud to be a qualified consultant representing The No. 1 Unit Trust Company, Public Mutual Bhd. Public Mutual is also the Most Awarded Unit Trust Company. I would also welcome your friends and relatives who are considering a career in the financial advisory in Unit Trust to join me in this rewarding business, either on a part-time or full-time basis.

I will be glad to hear from all of you, your friends and relatives.

Lastly, Merry Christmas to you if you are celebrating this joyful occasion. Also wishing you a Happy New Year 2008 and may the New Year brings joy, good health and wealth to you and your family members.

Best Wishes,

Kenny Ng WH

Certified Financial Planner, CPA, RFP, CA, CPA, MBA

Public Mutual Berhad (The No. 1 Unit Trust Company)

012-3092145

Invest in your future, invest in PM Unit Trust

Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires

2007-11-22T22:37:00.000+08:00

They’re just like you. But with lots of money.

By Kristyn Kusek Lewis
From Reader's Digest
December 2007

Success Stories
When you think “millionaire,” what image comes to mind? For many of us, it’s a flashy Wall Street banker type who flies a private jet, collects cars and lives the kind of decadent lifestyle that would make Donald Trump proud.

But many modern millionaires live in middle-class neighborhoods, work full-time and shop in discount stores like the rest of us. What motivates them isn’t material possessions but the choices that money can bring: “For the rich, it’s not about getting more stuff. It’s about having the freedom to make almost any decision you want,” says T. Harv Eker, author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. Wealth means you can send your child to any school or quit a job you don’t like.
According to the Spectrem Wealth Study, an annual survey of America’s wealthy, there are more people living the good life than ever before—the number of millionaires nearly doubled in the last decade. And the rich are getting richer. To make it onto the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans, a mere billionaire no longer makes the cut. This year you needed a net worth of at least $1.3 billion.

If more people are getting richer than ever, why shouldn’t you be one of them? Here, five people who have at least a million dollars in liquid assets share the secrets that helped them get there.

1. Set your sights on where you’re going
Twenty years ago, Jeff Harris hardly seemed on the road to wealth. He was a college dropout who struggled to support his wife, DeAnn, and three kids, working as a grocery store clerk and at a junkyard where he melted scrap metal alongside convicts. “At times we were so broke that we washed our clothes in the bathtub because we couldn’t afford the Laundromat.” Now he’s a 49-year-old investment advisor and multimillionaire in York, South Carolina.

There was one big reason Jeff pulled ahead of the pack: He always knew he’d be rich. The reality is that 80 percent of Americans worth at least $5 million grew up in middle-class or lesser households, just like Jeff.

Wanting to be wealthy is a crucial first step. Says Eker, “The biggest obstacle to wealth is fear. People are afraid to think big, but if you think small, you’ll only achieve small things.”

It all started for Jeff when he met a stockbroker at a Christmas party. “Talking to him, it felt like discovering fire,” he says. “I started reading books about investing during my breaks at the grocery store, and I began putting $25 a month in a mutual fund.” Next he taught a class at a local community college on investing. His students became his first clients, which led to his investment practice. “There were lots of struggles,” says Jeff, “but what got me through it was believing with all my heart that I would succeed.”

2. Educate yourself
When Steve Maxwell graduated from college, he had an engineering degree and a high-tech job—but he couldn’t balance his checkbook. “I took one finance class in college but dropped it to go on a ski trip,” says the 45-year-old father of three, who lives in Windsor, Colorado. “I actually had to go to my bank and ask them to teach me how to read my statement.”

One of the biggest obstacles to making money is not understanding it: Thousands of us avoid investing because we just don’t get it. But to make money, you must be financially literate. “It bothered me that I didn’t understand this stuff,” says Steve, “so I read books and magazines about money management and investing, and I asked every financial whiz I knew to explain things to me.”

He and his wife started applying the lessons: They made a point to live below their means. They never bought on impulse, always negotiated better deals (on their cars, cable bills, furniture) and stayed in their home long after they could afford a more expensive one. They also put 20 percent of their annual salary into investments.

Within ten years, they were millionaires, and people were coming to Steve for advice. “Someone would say, ‘I need to refinance my house—what should I do?’ A lot of times, I wouldn’t know the answer, but I’d go find it and learn something in the process,” he says.

In 2003, Steve quit his job to become part owner of a company that holds personal finance seminars for employees of corporations like Wal-Mart. He also started going to real estate investment seminars, and it’s paid off: He now owns $30 million worth of investment properties, including apartment complexes, a shopping mall and a quarry.

“I was an engineer who never thought this life was possible, but all it truly takes is a little self-education,” says Steve. “You can do anything once you understand the basics.”

3. Passion pays off
In 1995, Jill Blashack Strahan and her husband were barely making ends meet. Like so many of us, Jill was eager to discover her purpose, so she splurged on a session with a life coach. “When I told her my goal was to make $30,000 a year, she said I was setting the bar too low. I needed to focus on my passion, not on the paycheck.”

Jill, who lives with her son in Alexandria, Minnesota, owned a gift basket company and earned just $15,000 a year. She noticed when she let potential buyers taste the food items, the baskets sold like crazy. Jill thought, Why not sell the food directly to customers in a fun setting?
With $6,000 in savings, a bank loan and a friend’s investment, Jill started packaging gourmet foods in a backyard shed and selling them at taste-testing parties. It wasn’t easy. “I remember sitting outside one day, thinking we were three months behind on our house payment, I had two employees I couldn’t pay, and I ought to get a real job. But then I thought, No, this is your dream. Recommit and get to work.”

She stuck with it, even after her husband died three years later. “I live by the law of abundance, meaning that even when there are challenges in life, I look for the win-win,” she says.

The positive attitude worked: Jill’s backyard company, Tastefully Simple, is now a direct-sales business, with $120 million in sales last year. And Jill was named one of the top 25 female business owners in North America by Fast Company magazine.

According to research by Thomas J. Stanley, author of The Millionaire Mind, over 80 percent of millionaires say they never would have been successful if their vocation wasn’t something they cared about.

More Ways to Grow Your Money
4. Grow your money
Most of us know the never-ending cycle of living paycheck to paycheck. “The fastest way to get out of that pattern is to make extra money for the specific purpose of reinvesting in yourself,” says Loral Langemeier, author of The Millionaire Maker. In other words, earmark some money for the sole purpose of investing it in a place where it will grow dramatically—like a business or real estate.

There are endless ways to make extra money for investing—you just have to be willing to do the work. “Everyone has a marketable skill,” says Langemeier. “When I started out, I had a tutoring business, seeing clients in the morning before work and on my lunch break.”

A little moonlighting cash really can grow into a million. Twenty-five years ago, Rick Sikorski dreamed of owning a personal training business. “I rented a tiny studio where I charged $15 an hour,” he says. When money started trickling in, he squirreled it away instead of spending it, putting it all back into the business. Rick’s 400-square-foot studio is now Fitness Together, a franchise based in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, with more than 360 locations worldwide. And he’s worth over $40 million.

When extra money rolls in, it’s easy to think, Now I can buy that new TV. But if you want to get rich, you need to pay yourself first, by putting money where it will work hard for you—whether that’s in your retirement fund, a side business or investments like real estate.

5. No guts, no glory
Last summer, Dave Lindahl footed the bill for 18 relatives at a fancy mansion in the Adirondacks. One night, his dad looked out at the scenery and joked, “I can’t believe we used to call you the black sheep!”

At 29, Dave was broke, living in a small apartment near Boston and wondering what to do after ten years in a local rock band. “I looked around and thought, If I don’t do something, I’ll be stuck here forever.”

He started a landscape company, buying his equipment on credit. When business literally froze over that winter, a banker friend asked if he’d like to renovate a foreclosed home. “I’m a terrible carpenter, but I needed the money, so I went to some free seminars at Home Depot and figured it out as I went,” he says.

After a few more renovations, it occurred to him: Why not buy the homes and sell them for profit? He took a risk and bought his first property. Using the proceeds, he bought another, and another. Twelve years later, he owns apartment buildings, worth $143 million, in eight states.

The Biggest Secret? Stop spending.
Every millionaire we spoke to has one thing in common: Not a single one spends needlessly. Real estate investor Dave Lindahl drives a Ford Explorer and says his middle-class neighbors would be shocked to learn how much he’s worth. Fitness mogul Rick Sikorski can’t fathom why anyone would buy bottled water. Steve Maxwell, the finance teacher, looked at a $1.5 million home but decided to buy one for half the price because “a house with double the cost wouldn’t give me double the enjoyment.”

It’s not a fluke: According to the 2007 Annual Survey of Affluence & Wealth in America, some of the richest people “spend their money with a middle-class mind-set.” They clip coupons, wait for sales and buy luxury items at a discount.

No kidding! Talk show host Tyra Banks calls herself the Queen of Cheap and keeps perfume samples from magazine ads in her purse for quick touch-ups.

Sara Blakely, founder of the $100 million shapewear company Spanx, gets her hair trimmed at Supercuts.

And Warren Buffett, the third richest person in the world, according to Forbes, lives in the same Omaha, Nebraska, home he bought four decades ago for $31,500.

Make your money last

2007-11-17T23:28:00.000+08:00

You're working and you're investing. As retirement gets closer to reality, you'll need a plan for turning all your savings into security - so you can really enjoy the next phase of your life. Read all about it at.. http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/moneymag/0710/gallery.do_it_now_moneylast.moneymag/

It is important to understand that there is still life after retirement. So stretching and managing your assets/money is very important. There may be no chance of earning it back if you make a mistake in investing it. So you must identify save investments that can keep up with inflation. Unit trust or investing in a blue chip with high dividend paying track record is advisable. Please do consult your financial planner before making any investment decision.

Laughter the best medicine

2007-11-17T23:19:00.000+08:00

Live healthier. Reduce medical bills.

Laughter appears to cause the tissue that forms the inner lining of blood vessels called the endothelium, to dilate or expand in order to increase blood flow. Laughter offsets the impact of mental stress which is harmful to the endothelium. A compound called nitric oxide is known to play a role in the dilation of the endothelium. Mental stress may lead to a breakdown in nitric oxide that results in blood vessel constriction. Hence laughing often is a great adjunct besides proper diet and regular exercise for improving blood vessel health and for relieving mental stress.
- Courtesy of Arun's blog.

2007-11-13T22:09:00.001+08:00

Caricature Drawing and a Better Retirement
By: Bill Trantham | Posted: 10-06-2007
What began as a hobby has become a full-time obsession. I refuse to refer to drawing as a "job",
that would defeat the original purose of what I do.
It began as a search for some part-time way of
augmenting Social Security. I needed enough additional
income to keep the wolves away and facilitate my being
able to focus exclusively on art; the fullfillment of
a life-long dream.
For the past three years I have been making the
transition from my previous life as a mental health
counselor to that of a semi-retired caricature artist.
It has been one heck of a trip, but well worth the
time and effort.
I feel very comfortable saying to one and all that
I have now made it to where I had always wished and
hoped I could someday be. My list of art clients
numbers into many hundreds and include not only orders
from nearly every State in the Union, but also from a
dozen foreign countries as well. I have divested myself
of the stressful routine of being a full-time counselor,
working in a busy community-based mental health facility. There are no more staff meetings, schedules or mountains of paperwork to deal with. I now spend my days
at home in my studio,listening to vintage rock'n roll music and creating caricatures from photos people send me.
I'm not getting rich, but I am comfortable and, more importantly, much more at ease with myself and the world. I have succeeded in making retirement a truly
"golden" experience that has rejuvenated my spirit and
replentished my hope for the future.
I strongly encourage anyone who is comtemplating what to do with themselves in their later years, those who do not necessarily see themselves fishing or playing golf until they're planted, to consider a similar course. Turn your hobby or latent passion into a means to a happier, more productive retirement.
For me, it was art and caricature drawing. Whatever it is you've always wished you could do, remember: If not now, when?

About the Author:
Bill Trantham is a self-taught artist living in Oklahoma City. He is retired from mental health counseling and creating caricatures for clients via his website.
Printed From: http://www.articlesbase.com/art-articles/caricature-drawing-and-a-better-retirement-162403.html

Chen Chow: CIMB Wealth Advisors Asset Allocation Talk

2007-11-04T18:13:00.000+08:00

Chen Chow: CIMB Wealth Advisors Asset Allocation Talk

Thanks for sharing. Many people should be investing time and attending these seminars to gain knowledge to understand investment and the risk involved. Risk is sometimes over exaggerated. Investing is the right instruments is important as leaving money in the Fixed Deposit with the bank cannot even guarantee a return exceeding the inflation rate. Meaning every year the money in the bank actually depreciates. - FP

Socso to offer free check ups

2007-11-02T23:19:00.001+08:00

KL: Social Security Organisation (SOCSO) members above a certain age will be entitled to free medical checks under its Prohealth programme from next year. Human Resource Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Fong Chan Onn said Socso planned to launch Prohealth as part of its service to members.
"We are considering offering the programme to our 4.9million members, especially those aged above 40," he said. - Bernama

Spending your retirement savings too fast.

2007-11-01T20:44:00.000+08:00

If you've made it to retirement, congrats! You've amassed enough money to create your own portfolio-generated paycheck. Excellent work.

But you can't take it too easy. Because you'll receive a severe pay cut if you deplete your portfolio too fast. How much can you take out each year and be almost certain that you won't outlive your savings? Just 4% a year. That's the withdrawal rate that would have sustained a mix of stocks and bonds over most 30-year historical periods. Sure, if you retire on the eve of the next bull market, you can take out more. However, if you quit working right before the next bear market, then taking out more than 4% a year could have your portfolio beating you to the grave.

A little bit of fun is important in life plan

2007-10-06T00:13:00.000+08:00

I find this Hossan guy very funny and entertaining. If you are sensitive please do not view this clip. He is a good entertainer and he can get people laughing with his antics. He can dance, too. As we goes through life, securing every penny we make and tightening our spending, it is always good to get a good laugh for free. As we laugh our body goes through a process of re-energizing and healthy cells multiply as we suppress the un-healthy cells. As they say health is wealth. So LAUGH AND GROW RICH.

DJI at 14,000

2007-10-02T00:29:00.000+08:00

NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street shot higher Monday, sending the Dow Jones industrial average above 14,000 for the first time in 2 1/2 months as investors moved back into stocks at the start of the fourth quarter. While the beginning of the new quarter was an incentive for institutional investors to buy, the market was also encouraged that the worst might be over from the summer's credit and stock market turmoil, and that new economic data would nudge the Federal Reserve toward another interest rate cut at its Oct. 30-31 meeting.

This defies logic. When thing are getting bad. Major worries about subprime, hedge funds liquidation and house prices dropping give no reason for the DJI to move up to this level. This is really a self fulfilling prophecy like my mentor, Dr. Clemen Chiang like to say. People do not realize what they are doing. It is a herd instinct. Everybody is just following. Likely there is no leader but everyone is so blinded by greed that they start jumping into the market. When things turn, these landing would be far below. There will be no safety net to break the fall and many people will be hurt. Some will be hurt very, very, very bad. So if you think you can make some fast money in equities please think twice. Have a long term view. It is still right to invest in good companies. Do your homework. Do not borrow to invest. Do not speculate but invest for the long term.

The financial plan

2007-10-01T13:03:00.000+08:00

A financial plan is a plan for spending, making money and saving for the future. This plan allocates future income to various types of expenses, such as rent or utilities, and also reserves some income for short-term and long-term savings. As saving is any money left after spending one’s income, the amount can be any figure if we can control our spending and income. To have more savings, we either have more income or spend less. We can also do both. Hence it is important to look and act on ways to make more money. After doing that we control our lifestyle so that we spend within our means.

A financial plan can also be an investment plan, which allocates savings to various assets or projects expected to produce future income, such as a new business or product line, shares in an existing business, or real estate. This would also include investments both monetary and time, into some projects such as Internet marketing, investment in shares, trading options, or network marketing. However there are so many money making opportunities out there, we have to be careful and not getting involved in scams. Scams can hurt yourself and also others who you have introduce to these investment opportunities. Let us all be aware of scams out there.

Unleash your marketing genius

2007-09-30T14:07:00.000+08:00

Today is the 3rd day of the UYMG seminar. I feel so privileged to be able to learn from the best in internet marketing industry. The internet marketing business is big, it is un-believable. I believe it is one of the business anyone can do as a part time business before graduating to do it full time. It provides a lot of flexibility. It could be your financial plan. You could create more money for your retirement. Got to go, back to more learning.

UYMG

2007-09-29T19:33:00.000+08:00

I was at an internet seminar this weekend. It call Unleash Your Marketing Genius. The speakers were fantastic. They include Stephen Pierce, Christopher Guerriero, Mike Filsaime and Jason Tan.

Financial Planning education begins here

2006-11-21T18:29:00.000+08:00

We have started a blog about financial planning so that we could share our knowledge and help others be a better person in their financial plans. Without a proper financial plan would be disastrous for most people. This is evident from the statistic of people retiring but have to depend on their children and welfare. I would also like to invite everyone visiting this blog to share their thoughts.