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Tag: The '5'

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 23:07:00 +0000

Poppet for U:

Question 1: What were you doing 5 years ago?
Anxiously waiting for the birth of my 1st child.

Question 2: What were the 5 things on your to do list today?
1. Check my emails
2. Check out the forums
3. Cook for buka puasa
4. Eat a lot for buka puasa
5. Updating investor's analysis (cheh!)

Question 3: What are 5 snacks that you enjoy?
1. Cake (last weekend I made choc cake, heavenly)
2. Kuih yg crispy, anything yg crispy
3. Fruit (but dalam pantang, fruit is no-no)
4. Nuts (Looove nuts)
5. Ice-cream

Question 4: What are 5 things that you would do if you were a billionaire?
1. Pay all my debts
2. Buy properties (and cars, and jets..and so many other stuff )
3. Travel with my family - vacation
4. Invest & saving for my old years and for my children's education and insurance
5. Give back to others in the need


Question 5: What are 5 jobs you've had?
1. Daughter
2. Wife
3. Mother (3 jobs above that I can't quit from)
4. Architect
5. Cyber couch potato

Aci ka ini..I think I put in more than 5 for each Q! Ala, what the heck..

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Sat, 10 May 2008 08:19:00 +0000

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Hidden Riches From Your EPF Funds Part 3

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:44:00 +0000

Those who have read my previous entries on this series will know that some people have AT LEAST RM4000 in their EPF funds at their disposal for investment in EPF approved Unit Trust Funds per year, provided that they have already accumulated enough for the Basic Savings Amount, satisfy the few conditions & calculate a minimum withdrawal of RM1000 for each investment period of 3-months.

Essentially, we can equate that as regular quarterly investments of RM1000 (annual contribution adjustments shall be ignored to simplify things). Based 
on these assumptions, we can create two hypothetical  unit trust investment scenarios that shall reveal the total return of each investments versus the yield of the EPF annual dividend for same amount had these funds were left in the EPF accounts in the same period of time .

Scenario 1, quarterly investments of RM1000 into a moderate-risk unit trust fund X over a period of 6-years as shown below:

Hidden Riches From Your EPF Funds Part 2

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 00:57:00 +0000

This year one of the best moves that EPF has taken yet is to restructure the limit of EPF account balances to enable contributors to withdraw their EPF funds and invest into the EPF Approved Unit Trust Funds at an earlier age. This simply means that the younger the contributor is, the less money that they have to retain in the EPF (this is the Basic Savings Amount or BSA) and 20% of any excess funds shall be eligible to be invested. Below is the BSA limit structure:


You are eligible if:-
+   Your balance in Account 1 is not less than the stipulated Basic Savings Amount
+   You are below 55 years old
+   You have not withdrawn from your Account 1 in the last three (3) months from the date of your last transaction.

Calculation for your investment:

Suppose that you are at age 25 and your EPF Account 1 balance is at RM16,000:
Your EPF fund you can withdraw for investment will be
= (16,000-BSA at age 25, see table above) x 20%
= (16,000-9,000) x 20%
= 5,000 x 20%
= RM1,000

Therefore, you are able to withdraw RM1000 from your EPF Account 1 for investment & your new Account 1 balance will be RM15,000.

Then, after 3 months you are allowed your second withdrawal after taking your current balance in Account 1 PLUS your additional 3 month's worth of contributions in your Account 1 since your last withdrawal. The calculations will be similar as above provided that you have not reached your birthday within that period (if this is the case then the BSA will change according to your new age). Withdrawal will be granted only if the calculation reveals that you can withdraw a minimum of RM1000.

Provided that you are able to withdraw at least RM1000 from your EPF funds for investment in a 3-month period, you actually have RM4000 worth of investable funds per year. That's not bad at all, considering the money does not come from your own pockets. Agree?

My next post will show you how much is the potential yield of this RM4000 investment!

 

Hidden Riches From Your EPF Funds Part 1

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 06:45:00 +0000

It is the time of year again that the employed Malaysians (or otherwise) are receiving their Employee Provident Fund's (EPF) annual statements following the deposit of the previous years' dividend in the mail (well, my husband's & mine were received in the same day sometime this week!). Most people may look at these statements merely as a reminder of their retirement savings or nest egg that will look after them at old age, many would simply file them somewhere for safe keeping (read: to be forgotten because of the lack of awareness on what to do with them) while others would just toss them out like a piece of junk mail after they're done reading it (if they get to be read at all!). Yes, some people just treat their EPF statements as just a PIECE OF PAPER.

"According to EPF, 72 percent of contributors who withdraw their savings at the age of 55 tend to spend all the savings within three years." So if this is a fact, then your EPF savings is not a nest egg at all. Suppose you get retired at age 55, and if this is a fact, you will finish off you EPF funds by 58 and then what will you do to support yourself & your family after that? Go back to work? Will you be able to work at such an age? If this is a fact, then your EPF money is just your ticket for your 3-year (mandatory!) unpaid leave. It just defeats the purpose of retiring, isn't it?

This is when you have to consider other ways that you can earn any extra dough that will help in the retirement fund's building stage. One of the ways is of course by INVESTING. Yes, the concept of money makes money is not alien to many people. Actually DOING the investing is. Some people may feel that it is not in their capacity to start embarking on an investment in this day & age of rising costs of living & stubbornly static wage structure (it's a nation's problem unaddressed, not your fault at all!). Some people may feel like they're living hand-to-mounth, using up whatever pay they get until the end of the month where there is nothing left even for a little bit of saving. Now this is a fact. If there's no saving, how can there be any INVESTING?

So this year why don't you get a little bit more aquainted with that PIECE OF PAPER you will or have received because in it may hold the information to a hidden source of riches that you may have overlooked all these years? Do you know that you can withdraw your EPF savings for investment into the EPF Approved Unit Trust Funds?

Why invest using your EPF Savings?
+   No "out-of-pocket" capital outlay. The investment is derived directly from your EPF Account 1.
+   An opportunity to diversify your retirement savings. "Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
+   The potential to boost total lump sum payout upon retirement. Capital gain is significantly enhanced through investment in Unit Trusts.
+   Choose the investment strategy that closely matches your own personal objectives and lifestyle e.g. Equity, Bonds etc.

I will be reveal to you how you can do some basic calculations on your EPF Account 1 balance to see if you are eligible to use that money for investing in my next post.

Phishing Alert, yet again!

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:54:00 +0000

As explained by WIKIPEDIA: In computing, phishing is an attempt to criminally and fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

Today I received such an email in one of my Gmail accounts, supposedly sent by 'Paypal Security' with the subject line 'Your PayPal account could be suspended!'. Wow, I was amazed how this particular email account somehow got linked to Paypal since I'm 1000% sure it's not. I was smelling the phishy already.

Anyway just for the fun of it, I opened the email anyway. WARNING, open your suspicious emails at your own peril. In this case I sort of known already what is going to happen if I do just that. So this is what I got..

The email tells a tall tale of a person who was trying to get access of my Paypal account from France, that's miles away from where I am.

The Paypal Security suspected that the account was subjected to unauthorized access & threatens account suspension for this exposure and even provided a link to verify myself as the rightful owner of the account. It seems to be a genuine secure link https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run.

I clicked on the link & walla...



It looks just like a paypal login page right? WRONG!!!
Squint yer eyes a bit and zoom in on the URL field. Okay, okay the URL is http://www.paypal.websrcene98.com/.

You see, the seemingly 'secure' link from the email has redirected me to a phoney Paypal website with a dodgy URL. Any 'ol person could have innocently logged in there & provided the all necessary details of an email address & password, enough for the phoney website owner to get access of the account later. Hence, many many unauthorized transactions can easily be initiated (read: money paid out) from the account.

So here, you have been warned. Please practice caution with your emails especially when they  concern with your online accounts with banks, payment processors etc. 

Investing In The Volatile Markets - A Unit Trust Perspective

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 03:43:00 +0000

Unit trust investing is NOT a speculative kind of investing whereby one would time the market and aim at buying low and selling high as the strategy to reap the highest possible return at the quickest possible time frame. On the contrary, unit trust should be used as a vehicle to bring your financial planning up towards its goal by adopting the 'buy-and-hold' strategy which subsequently may require medium to long-term period.

In a volatile market, an investor should:

1) Become a medium to long-term investor. The 'buy-and-hold"strategy can also work by holding on to a well-selected unit trust fund over a period of at least three years.

2) Practice Dollar Cost Averaging. Dollar Cost Averaging is simply investing a fixed amount of money in a fund at a fixed interval of time (weekly, monthly, quarterly etc).Those who are smart need not worry about market timing in volatile markets since they will be able to automatically buy more units when prices fall and fewer units when prices rise. As a result of these regular investments they will eventually achieve a lower average cost per unit than the average market price at any given period. A disciplined and methodical approach to investing is the key to long term investment success.

3) Not be tempted to switch from one fund to another with the notion that they can make quick gains by making use of the often short-term market movements. This strategy will almost always be not effective in a volatile market situation because it is impossible to predict with numerous factors, both domestic & foreign, affecting daily and weekly fluctuations in stock prices.

4) Rebalance the investment porfolios. This is to ensure that the portfolio allocation reflects their current investment objectives and risk profiles. In an uptrend of stock prices, if the investor's risk tolerance have reached it's highest limit, he/she should reallocated some of his/her equity exposure by switching some into bond or money market funds to obtain the balance in the portfolio. By diligent maintanence of this balance will reduce the risk of the portfolio becoming too concentrated in a single asset class.

Again, I would like to refocus on the objective of unit trust invesment which is to achieve medium to long-term goals & adopting Dollar Cost Averaging to eliminate worry over the current volatile market conditions.

Would you like more information on unit trust investing in Malaysia? Do drop me a comment.

What Happens When 3 Extraordinary Teachers from "the Secret" Come Together to Teach the Science of Getting Rich?

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 10:37:00 +0000

The Science of Getting Rich is a timeless classic written in 1910 by Wallace D. Wattles. It is a bold title for a book and suggests that getting rich is a predictable outcome if one can master the principles outlined in the book. Here is how Wallace D. Wattles puts it in his own words, "The ownership of money and property comes as a result of doing things in a certain way. Those who do things in this certain way, whether on purpose or accidentally, get rich. Those who do not do things in this certain way, no matter how hard they work or how able they are, remain poor. It is a natural law that like causes always produce like effects. Therefore, any man or woman who learns to do things in this certain way will infallibly get rich."

Certainly, this book is well referenced by many of the great teachers today and it is the same book that inspired Rhonda Byrne to produce that runaway success "the Secret". Here is what Rhonda Byrne said on her introductory note to the book, "I can honestly say that, since that first night when a tattered printed manuscript found its way to me (thanks to one of my daughters), my life has never been the same. Once you read it for yourself, you will understand why". Rhonda went on to produce the movie "the Secret" and the best-selling book of the same title which has sold millions of copies worldwide.

However, learning how to do things in that "certain way" as described by Wallace D. Wattles may be more challenging for some as the book was written nearly 100 years ago. Some of the language is a little dated and much of its wisdom lost from a modern day perspective.

Fortunately, a new training seminar for the Science of Getting Rich has brought the wisdom of this timeless classic back to life for modern readers. Called "the Science of Getting Rich", this program is the most comprehensive training system for mastering Wallace D. Wattles wealth creation philosophies and principles since its creation. It comprises written, audio and live seminar formats for learning, applying and mastering the Science of Getting Rich

A unique "twist" to the program is the fact that it has an in-built vehicle for creating substantial financial wealth through its affiliate program. This is truly a unique wealth eduction and wealth building program designed to empower any individual with the resources to get rich. It is a program whose time has come. The program would not be possible without the original text from Wallace D. Wattles, the skills of leading teachers of our time, the phenomenal success of "the Secret" and the Internet as a learning and distribution tool.

Click here to learn more about the Secret Science of Getting Rich and the details of the program.

Ebiztip in Kanggie.com

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 06:31:00 +0000

The Compounding Magic

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 08:01:00 +0000

From The Single Best Investment by Lowell Miller, compounding is the money that money makes, added to the money that money has already made. And each time money makes money, it becomes capable of making even more money than it could before!

Money makes money, then makes some more money which makes more money…this is one cycle that you would WANT to get sucked in.

How?

+ You need to have some money of course

Then?

+ You need to invest this money so that it will give a decent return on the investment

+ The compounding returns comes into effect when the returns you got from this investment is reinvested back to gain more returns

Some simple numbers:

Suppose you have RM100 lying around at the end of the month, if you invest this money (every month without fail) into an account that earns 10% return per annum, this is what you’d get:

After the first year of investing, you'll get RM67 (5.59%) in return for your RM1200 investment, this may not seem like much since some of this invested money has not run its full year's course to earn the 10% return..so never mind this (you're in it for the long run!). Continue investing.

After Year 2, you'll find that your investment has generated RM200 aka 8.09% ROI. That's a substantial gain!

The previous year's returns has been reinvested back adding to the regular investment of RM100 per month, thus giving you more returns. The compounding effect is beginning to work its magic.

Let this cycle repeat itself year after year after year...To me, it's an almost effortless way to earn some decent few thousands of RM given the time. Not bad considering that it started with just RM100. Now why did I say 'almost effortless' ? Just watch this space!

Avoiding Major UT Pitfalls - Asset Allocation Uncovered

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 07:54:00 +0000

Recently I got the my first lesson of a 4-day eCourse on UT..that's Unit Trust for the newbie. The writer of the eCourse is Rajen Devadason, a Malaysian certified financial planner(CFP).

So he started off with the process of investing more wisely in Malaysian unit trust.

FYI, about 80% of attendees at Rajen's numerous public seminars on investing or financial planning have invested in UTs proving that UT is a HUGEly popular investing instrument in Malaysia.

Sadly, about 20%-70% of these people have LOST money doing so. So are you as a current or would-be investor considering UT investments should be alarmed by this statement?

The good news is that not necessarily so.

The reason many unit trust investors lose money is because they don't really understand the vehicle and so they don't exploit it correctly.

Pitfall # 1

+ Not using the right instrument for the right purpose in the right manner. UT is all about to achieve a specific end - be it augmenting retirement funding, your kids' future tertiary education needs, or simply general wealth accumulation or some other goal that matters to you (Most goals are likely to be achieved in the Medium to Long Term). As an investor, you are likely to invest money that has been earned and saved over many, many years. You have sacrificed short-term fun for the opportunity to invest over the long haul so that you and your family can enjoy far better things in life many years from now. Right?

Here's how to do it right

+ Most UT funds are equity funds (funds being invested into Bursa Malaysia and such), invest in just equity funds at your own peril cos this is particularly dangerous behaviour here in our country because our cherished Bursa Malaysia is a volatile beast. It is capable of stratospheric highs and stygian lows.

+ You really should be aware that there are other asset classes available to the savvy unit trust investor. Most notably, these are the cash or money market funds, and the fixed income or bond funds. Also, there are some equity-income hybrids known as balanced funds.

+ Two centuries of data make it very clear that in the long run, equities give better yields than bonds, which in turn give better yields than money market instruments. So, you gotta have some equity exposure in your portfolio. However, you should also be getting sufficient stability in your portfolio to allow you to sleep soundly at night! Therefore, bonds & money market instruments are useful too. This strategy known as asset allocation is very important in the realm of UT investing.

So are you one with the impending trouble by getting yourself into Pitfall # 1? Get yourself sorted by a smart consultant by dropping a comment!

How to Accept Online Payments - the Easy Way

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 11:43:00 +0000

If you’re selling anything online, you’ll need to be able to accept online payments.

There are many ways you can do this, but let’s simplify it down to the hard way and the easy way.

The hard way requires you set up a merchant bank account and then sign up, at quite some considerable expense, to accept online payments on your account. Not only will you have to pay a percentage of each payment you receive, but there is often a monthly charge for running the account too. If you start getting into big figures, you may even find that the bank holds back a sum of money due to you for chargebacks.

A chargeback is where a buyer asks for their money back – either due to fraud or because they are unhappy with the product you have supplied. There are stories of some companies holding back large sums of money to cover the cost of chargebacks.

That’s the hard way!

Now for the easy way.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past five years, you'll have heard of Paypal. It's easy to set up and account to take payment for goods, downloadable Ebooks and subscriptions without the need to set up a merchant account.

This online payment system is the quickest and easiest way to accept payment online with cards such as Visa, Mastercard and Maestro on your site. It's easy to open a Paypal account and start accepting payment online immediately.

This article was submitted by Jennifer Carter. Start your own Internet Businesses.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jennifer_Carter

Introduction to Affiliate Programs

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 11:34:00 +0000

If you haven't discovered affiliate programs on the Internet yet, you are missing out on an extremely powerful profit-making source.So what the heck are affiliate programs and how do they work?Affiliate programs can vary from website to website, but the main idea behind affiliate programs is that a website will pay you for sending them buying customers.You send people to a website, if they buy something from that website you get a cut of the purchase.You will usually be paid either a percentage of the sale or a flat rate.Here is a random list of websites that have affiliate programs. The dollar amount shows how much ONE SINGLE PERSON is earning every month with that affiliate programs.- Posters.com------------ $5,000/mo- Sitesell.com------------ $10,000/mo- 1HideOut.com--------- $3,000/week- Marketingtips.com----$8,000/mo- Gen-fit.com------------ $18,000/mo- Pillstore.com----------- $50,000/mo- Keycode.com---------- $5,000/mo- PartyPoker.com------- $15,000/moI could go on forever with these amazing figures.Everywhere you look, people are making massive profits on the Internet. I'm showing you these figures in hopes that you will get excited about affiliate programs. If you can become successful in just one affiliate program, your life will change dramatically.I personally am an affiliate with at least 40 different affiliate programs. Granted not all affiliate programs you join will be profitable, but if you can get just a few affiliate programs that are profitable, you can make a ton in profits.Can you imagine working with ten different affiliate programs that convert 5 - 20 sales a day? If you were paid $15 for each sale, that would mean you could be making $22500-$90000 per month.Even if you had a bad month and only made one sale everyday for each affiliate, you would still be making over $4500 per month. You may think all of this is outrageous, but trust me; there are tons of people out there just like you and I that are utilizing affiliate programs on the Internet and making huge profits from them.How can all this be possible? The Internet of course!!! It'spossible to advertise to hundreds of millions of people worldwide with the single click of the mouse button. The Internet is probably the most powerful marketing tool in the history of the world. Best of all anyone can use this powerful marketing tool. Anyone with a computer and Internet has access to millions of customers worldwideand the opportunity to convert sales on a very large scale.It is becoming very evident that affiliate programs will have a huge role in the future of the Internet. Billions if not Trillions of dollars are spent through online purchases every year, and this number will continue to increase at an amazing rate.It is also forecast that within 2-3 years, 50% of all online sales will be made through the help of affiliate programs. You don't have to be good with math to figure out that there is an enormous opportunity waiting to be tapped.But don't wait, act now!! Now is the best time to get rolling, if you can establish your self with online affiliate programs now, you will have good positioning to just sitback and watch your profits increase as the Internet continues to grow, which is inevitable.Now I'm going to tell you the best part about affiliate programs. Once you get everything up and running, you can basically sit back and let the computers and the Internet do everything for you automatically.You can spend as little as 3 hours a week and still bring in well over $5000/month. Affiliate programs are awesome!!But remember, the more time you spend working, the more income you will make.Think of it as a business, try to set some hours aside and write out some goals that n[...]

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