Understanding the Habits of the Rich

Fancy getting rich? Here are the rich man’s habits.

Seminars, webinars, Social events/ gatherings, book launches... These right here are some of the main events circled on the rich people’s calendars!

Ever wonder why?

At one of the many book launches I have been to I had a chance to chat up the local best-selling author Azizi Ali, brilliant mind I must say. He told me that the number of books published in a country mutually relates to the wealth of the citizens.His explanation therefore was the more publications per annum, the more the development countrywide hence increase in the wealth of the individuals.

Not so long ago while I was at a luncheon with this brilliant friend of mine, he mentioned that “rich people seldom eat alone”. I was quite ecstatic because this is a habit that I unknowingly practiced for quite a while now. What he said is totally true come to think about it. Its quite funny that there is an entire book dedicated to this subject “Never Eat Alone”. If you read this book, you will learn a thing or two and where you have been going wrong all his while.

According to the above scenarios, did you notice the common customs of the rich people?

Ask yourself why the rich become richer, the poor become poorer and the “Average” stay stagnant?

THE RICH ENJOY READING. TREMENDOUSLY!

In this dynamic era, the rich still find time to read despite the diverse media. They have plenty to choose from that is to say magazines, books, newspapers, and  of course the internet which is the most dominant of them all.

In this world we live in, you have got to spend money to make money. I know it may sound cliche but take a look at the those thousand dollar seminars and courses, they are always full to the bream! They never go unattended, why? Simply because the rich love to learn. If you fancy an opportunity to meet all these filthy rich people all congregated in one room, I suggest you attend one seminar or course in the area near you. Trust me.

Now I understand not everyone has a couple of thousands of dollars at their disposal that is why I advise you to get familiar with the term webinars. This term is a derived from two words that is to say web and seminar. Thanks to technology we now have webinars which you too can enjoy from the comfort of your couch. They are always scheduled to happen at some stipulated time over the internet. Usually there is a number of slots available depending on the organiser of the webinar. Guest speakers and renowned financial consultants are the people that run these webinars. 

Are you rich yet?

NO! Me neither. So until we all regard ourselves rich, let us acquaint ourselves with the these terms below:

●     Seminars

●     Book launches

●     Webinars

●     Courses

●     Social events/ gatherings

This way, we will keep track of the rich and hey we could be involved in their circles.

Thank me later!

This is a guest post by KCLau. KCLau is the best selling author of Top Money Tips for Malaysians. His popular personal finance blog is one of the most visited websites in the financial blogosphere with thousands of email subscribers. He also hosts regular and free online financial training featuring different financial experts. You can follow his latest updates by visiting www.KCLau.com. 

Trader's Diary 29/7/13

By Smoking Gun

Bought 100,000 shares of Hi-P on 28/7/13 at 0.805. No other positions added or exited during this period. All in all relatively good day for the portfolio. Net cash invested still remains at 49% of portfolio.

Disclaimer: This is a mock portfolio and all trades referred in the the context of this mock portfolio are purely hypothetical based on actual prices observed during actual trading. This mock portfolio only serves merely to demonstrate the methods in my stock picking and trading strategy and does not represent a solicitation or recommendation to buy and sell any security or financial instrument. The author and/or interested parties may have positions in the stocks mentioned. The content on this site is provided as general information only and should not be taken as investment advice. The ideas expressed are solely my opinions. Any action that you take as a result of information, analysis, or commentary on this site is ultimately your responsibility. Consult your investment adviser before making any investment decisions.

Rationale for  investing in Hi-P as explained by the narrative below;

How to Become a Financial Planner?

After the two series of article on Financial Planning and Financial Planner. Some of you may asked: "Is it difficult to become a Financial Planner? What's the requirement needed?"

Hmmm... Good news is it is not difficult, but the bad news is it's not easy either and the requirements for sure will be raised in the future.

So, how?

In Malaysia, those who practice as Financial Planner must pass any one of below examinations:

1. Registered Financial Planners (RFP) issued by Malaysia Financial Planning Council (MFPC)
2. Certified Financial Planners (CFP) issued by Financial Planning Association of Malaysia (FPAM)

After you have passed the said examination, it doesn't mean that you're a Licensed Financial Planner straight away. Why? It's just serves you an entry passport only. Once you have accredited the qualification, you must apply the required licenses with Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and Securities Commission (SC) before you can carry out financial planning activities.

By then, you can claimed the following title:

• Financial Adviser Representative (FAR) by BNM
• Licensed Financial Planner by SC

Please take note that passing the said examinations doesn't carry you the titles, getting the licenses does. If not, you're deem to have convicted an offence which can land you in jail or subject to hefty fine.

Other requirements include:

• Must be a Malaysian citizen
• At least 21 years old
• Have minimum 3 years related experience
• Must be a FULL time practitioner
• Then, you must fulfill the minimum hours for personal development programs every year

Next, we will talk about "The Challenges Faced by Financial Planning Industry in Malaysia"

This article was contributed by Alex Yeoh, a licensed financial planner with a reputable financial planning firm. Finance Malaysia blog will work together with Alex in bringing more interesting articles on personal financial planning. You may reach him via email alexyeoh@vka.com.my

Trader's Diary 25/7/13

By Smoking Gun

Been swamped with work and a stream of friends and relatives visiting all at the same time during the last few days, so not been updating my blog on a daily basis. A few trades were done in the mock portfolio. Here is how the portfolio stood at day end.

Disclaimer: This is a mock portfolio and all trades referred in the the context of this mock portfolio are purely hypothetical based on actual prices observed during actual trading. This mock portfolio only serves merely to demonstrate the methods in my stock picking and trading strategy and does not represent a solicitation or recommendation to buy and sell any security or financial instrument. The author and/or interested parties may have positions in the stocks mentioned. The content on this site is provided as general information only and should not be taken as investment advice. The ideas expressed are solely my opinions. Any action that you take as a result of information, analysis, or commentary on this site is ultimately your responsibility. Consult your investment adviser before making any investment decisions.

During this period, I added 200,000 shares of Centurion to the portfolio, while I took profit on 200,000 shares of OKH Global at 0.515 for a 14.4% gain. Overall portfolio is up 1.2% since inception, while cash uninvested still stands at nearly 60%. The portfolio shall be more reflective of the efficacy of my trading methods once the invested portion of the portfolio is closer to 80%.

Here's my rationale for the Centurion trade which took place on the 17 Jul 13.

 Looking at Centurion's M index, from a reading of 2.52 to 42.69, it jumped up to 270.72 yesterday (16 Jul 13) and carried over to 334.85 today (17 Jul 13). This was accompanied with rising prices and MFI and successfully broke its 52 Week High (BrH%). Breaking the 52 week high is normally a precursor to a continuation of the uptrend.

My rationale for selling out on OKH

My sell signal is based on the readings of the MFI. An drop in excess of 3 points will prompt me to liquidate my positions. On the circled readings on the MFI, yesterday's reading of 69.44 which was a drop of 3.5 points from the preceding day, prompted the sell yesterday. This was confirmed by weaker prices today. A drop in the MFI in excess of 3 points will indicate a significant money outflow, and as part of the trading discipline, we shall exit if this happens even at a loss (in this event, we made some money)

New Fund: Kenanga Asia Pacific Total Return

After merging with ING Funds Berhad, Kenanga Investors Berhad launched its first new fund of the enlarged family. In this uncertain global economic environment, how much return can a fund generated was the main concern for many investors. Want to get higher return? Then, we cannot runaway from higher volatility! Are there any balance in between?

Yes. To cater for such investors, this new fund aims to provide a compounded rate of return of at least 10% per annum over market cycle (5 years) by investing in a diversified portfolio of Asia Pacific equities.

3 Reasons WHY it benefits you:

Well... Unlike others, this fund DO NOT has any benchmark constraint. This allows flexibility in identifying and implementing the most optimum investment strategy. Picture below shows the differences between Absolute and Relative return:

Still not yet convinced? How about the proven track record?

Click here to download prospectus

Source: Kenanga Investors Bhd

The Debasement of Major Currencies Crash & Asset Class Returns As At 30 June 2013

By Guest Blogger, Salvador Dali, Malaysia-Finance

June was a torrential month. We had people running for the escape shutes just on the likelihood of QE being tapered down in the near future. In reality, its just the usual holiday season for most finance industry people ... as usual when there are not much going on, it takes little to move things down. Then the whole world searched high and low for reasons to explain that phenomenon. Many times, its just profit taking. Because seriously, look how easy it was for markets to return to some normalcy? You tell me that what started the rout in inescapable fear and loathing, suddenly reversed course.

Emerging markets stocks and bonds took the brunt of the hit. Remember this trend, when the markets crash due to the finality of the debasement of major currencies, this is what will happen, magnified 5-10 times at least. Just look down the asset classes, every single one except cash is down. Remember this ....



The funny thing was that gold even went down. Of course in a real major correction based on the debasement of major currencies, the developed marlets bonds will TANK in a big way, followed by their stock markets as people pull funds away. They will also pull funds away from emerging markets stocks and bonds. Emerging markets bonds will be the most vulnerable - because they attracted the most inflow over the past 5 years as funds seek out better yields with "better currencies". The debasement of major currencies (USD, Euro and yen) is nothing new, there are a lot of believers, just that we do not know exactly when it will happen.

But why, what is the justification that the debasement crisis will end in tears? There is debasement just by looking at the amount of money printed by most central banks over the last 5 years alone. Technically, in the US alone, they might need only 1/10th of the amount of money running in the system. OK, that might seem scary already. Even if you try to take back half of that, you know there will be dislocation, no matter how well planned. Pumping in is fun, just like alcohol consumption in a party. The way out never is.

Two, the QE funds are largely not flowing through the real economy. Big and small banks, but mainly big banks, are benefiting enormously by taking these funds at zero and getting their 0.2%-0.4% margins leaving that in the interbank. Is it any wonder that even behemoths like Bank of America and Citigroup are making billions again - its not from lending, its not from trading, its not really from investment banking.

Already the real economy is not getting the credit they need to jump start. They can see the low rates but they cannot borrow realistically. Those who do borrow are using it for unproductive ways again, e.g. flipping houses, or carry trades. These inflate certain asset classes (stocks and REITs mainly) but doe not provide the multiplier effect down the entire economy.

When central banks sells bonds again (to soak up liquidity), the big guys holding the cash will demand for much higher interest rates = you go from zero to 3% and then 6% quite fast. Sharply higher rates will pummel all stocks and the chain reaction goes around. Only this time, the severity is pronounced because its not a one off event, investors can see the amount of liquidity to be called back. Even if central banks stopped the soaking up process midway, the confidence is gone. Confidence is one of the greatest asset in valuing assets. 

If QE did what it was supposed to do ... lend to businesses and people who need them, you would have seen a great multiplier effect of more money moving around, improved business velocity ... which would then enable the economy to better weather the turning off of QE or soaking up of liquidity later on. 

The strange thing is that you cannot just sell one currency and thats the end of it, it has to be converted into another currency. But as you can see from the last two paras, everything will collapse in a debasement correction as currencies of all sorts will collapse.

HKD will be under some strange pressure when USD falls by 20% in a week. It might finally prompt a reweighting of the HKD to a basket of currencies. The emerging markets will be very busy defending their currency, not because they are not stronger than the developed currencies but because their bonds have attracted so much foreign money that the moment they all decide to exit the bonds, it literally means that yields may double from 4%-6% to 10%-18% overnight as the ringgit, rupiah, baht will be sold down tremendously as funds repatriate. This will cause an even bigger collapse in emerging markets stocks even though they may be fundamentally superior to developed markets' stocks.

The strange part which i mentioned was that last month sell down did not see gold prices rise as that should be seen as the best alternative if you do not want to hold currencies. 

This piece of advice will be worth millions to the right person. In a debasement of major currencies correction, almost nothing is worth buying. Except hard assets, but not just any hard assets, if USD is tanking then holding a USD property does not help. Pick the right country that can ride out the storm and come out stronger and your net wealth intact.

Buy UK properties, buy Singapore properties, buy large tracts of farmland or idle land in Malaysia, Australia, NZ, buy gold certificates. Looks like many Malaysians already have a great read on the upcoming disaster, many have been ploughing headstrong into UK and SG properties. However, me thing the total exposure to all the hard assets above should be between 30%-60% of your total assets. Get closer to 60% when the storm is near. Currently it is not.

So, when will this happen? I think come next May-September, plenty of time still. There is still the possibility that this event can be further delayed: if QE stops and the markets rumbled but steadies ... however, the central banks DO NOT sell bonds i.e. no soaking up of liquidity .... then its like postponing the inevitable. It will come, if you do not soak up the liquidity the markets will correct the realignment for you. They will just lose confidence in developed markets bonds, then developed markets stocks, then assets of most things, just like you saw from the figures in the month of June 2013 only multiplied.

Once that train starts, you can see a few months of high anxiety. Bernanke should be so glad to get out of his position so that he does not need to go through that.

A Guide To Home Loan Refinancing

For those who have never been exposed to the concept of “refinancing”, home loan refinancing may seem like a baffling notion.  After all, what good could possibly come from getting a new home loan… just to pay off your old one? Wouldn't you just go back to square one after the whole process? These could be some of the questions you’re asking yourselves, and understandably so.

In reality, home loan refinancing is a widely-adopted practice with many potential benefits. Home buyers far and wide undertake it in order to lower the interest they’re paying on their home loans, reduce their monthly loan repayment amounts, and generally alter their loan terms to better suit their financial needs.  In fact, some even refinance to free up cash riding on the inherent values of their properties!

Want to refinance your home loan in Malaysia?
Click here to compare different rates by different banks.Courtesy of: iMoney.my