No, I invested directly in the country concerned and yes, in Sgp,... have been doing so for many years, started during the currency control years (Malaysia).

But would like to share some points here though, 'cos, it's not all good when putting the money only outside of Malaysia. Why ?

1) If you put directly in the country concerned, you get taxed quite heavily by the gov't of that country... say, 10% on your FD interest in Australia, and 4.5% in NZ (and that is if you have enrolled for that special savings scheme, (can't remember the name,... 'cos I registered for it sometime back and just left the money there), otherwise, the Kiwi gov't also whack 10% off your interest.

Alternatively, if you put in Malaysia or Sgp, the tax is zero,...

2) If you put in an FCFD (Foreign Currency Fixed Deposit) in Sgp, the interest is lower compared to if you put in an FCFD in Sgp, of course muct compare apple to apple-lah,... same currency and same tenure/duration.

Check it out for yourself - compare Sgp's Maybank vs Malaysia's Public Bank (PBB). PBB will give you a higher rate.

i not sure yet about the surplus because when i count it, there are something that might deduct my surplus every month. for example, my office parking monthly ticket, i have to pay advance 3 months and it cost me RM 189 and other stuffs like taking car to service, buying groceries and others maybe.

yeah. i have to admit that i can't buy house or new car but if i got at least RM 500 as savings. what can i do with it? invest in FD after save to RM 10k? and for sure that i know i will buy my own gadgets and i think it is a very difficult part for me now to save money.

maybe in the future when i earn more, i will save more?

If you have RM 500 per month surplus, you can make a standing instruction with your bank to put the amount every month into a savings vehicle like a mutual funds. Which mutual funds to invest in, you talk to a Unit Trust Consultant of your choice.

If you want to buy the gadgets, separate it from what you desire from what you require. Desire vs necessity. When you are clear about its objective, it makes it easier to choose whether to buy or not.

Xuzen

Monsieur Geekin, thank you for your comments,... I must say your comments are pretty unique and I reasured them very much,... thank you again. My counter-comments in Red :-



Please counter-comment to my points above, Sir,... I do indeed find the comments coming from someone of your background very valuable,....

....let me know if you needed my advice too,.....

This post has been edited by Lawyer1: Sep 22 2009, 01:24 PM

3) Once business size become bigger, it is always advisable to be Sdn. Bhd. to limit your liabilities, that's why we often see sole proprietorship in small scale, once become bigger, all turn to be sdn bhd. But I have no knowledge whether lawyer firm can be register as sdn bhd or not to run.
Sole-proprietorship is cheaper and easier, but it is treated as personal wealth, while for Sdn. Bhd. company and individual asset is separated out.

Because when business become bigger sometimes, not everything can be totally controlled, nor you can have every insight of the deal done one by one. So to limit the potential liabilities like your company made mistake and need to pay compensation, at least it will only affect the company, not your personal asset.

Joking aside,
Your advice do cost or not?
Every appoitment with lawyer and advice from lawyer is counted per hour basic.

ic.. so it is desire versus necessity then. i know what i want but sometimes there are always temptations to buy things.

Unit Trust eh? but i really dont understand how unit trust works. is it the same with FD? i heard that unit trust is a investment of long term but it has higher risk and higher return profit compare to FD right?

You know what they say, Expenditure = Income - Saving Not the other way round...

If you have left over money after your monthly expenditure & saving, you can use it on your temptations....

if only the temptations > my objectives or target but for now i think there is nothing that can drift away from my target,

The biggest risk in the world is not taking any risk, everyone agree?

1)Putting money under the pillow or milo tin, exposed to fire risk and inflation risk but get away from bank bankruptcy.
2)Putting money in FD worry of bank bankruptcy and not able to hedge against inflation risk.
3)Putting money in the equity,forex,commodities,futures,options,property will expose to many risk, higher than putting in the pilow or milo tin, if u get high return and you can be self-made millionairs. Will you stop after making millions?

For each sectors of business there must be a strategy to reduce their risk compare with the competitors, therefore they remain in the business because they know how to avoid it and remain in the business. Or they have failed but they bounce back stronger and make a sucess in their life. I believe if we have faith and belief in ourself, we are already a successful person.

@Lawyer1
Since you have a good portfolio, do you consider yourself at the stage of financial freedom? Do you still have the feeling of unsecured since you are at top(for me atleast you are on the top)? You have the wealth, do you have the health? Can I have a cup of coffee with you?

@CrossFirE
Unit Trust=Mutual Fund(equity Market,bond market,money market, all in one)
Some people would say it not good, some would say it is very good. People who lose the money will say it is not a good investment, people who make the money wil ltell you very good.
Investment is just like your own business, if you take care of it, you will know how good is it, but if you ignore it and let it up and downs, you might become someone that tells it is not good, but if u reduce the risk and know when to cut loss, perhaps you are better than others. There is no right or wrong in the world, in the end you are the one that decide.

<<it's not all good when putting the money only outside of Malaysia.>>

Lawyer1,

Out of all your total assets, 3 millions is in Malaysia and 1.5 millions is outside of Malaysia.

So, do you feel safe having that much money in Malaysia?? That is the QUESTION that you have to answer yourself.

<< 1) If you put directly in the country concerned, you get taxed quite heavily by the gov't of that country... say, 10% on your FD interest in Australia, and 4.5% in NZ >>

Which is IRRELEVANT... You are NOT aiming to make money out of those money. Your GOAL is to keep them safe. If the GOAL is to make money, there are better way.

<<compare Sgp's Maybank vs Malaysia's Public Bank (PBB). PBB will give you a higher rate.>>

Which is IRRELEVANT. You have TOO MUCH money in Malaysia. Your GOAL is to protect the VALUE of your savings to be affected by ONE country.

You are in WEALTH PRESERVATION mode. You have ENOUGH. It is MORE IMPORTANT not to lose money than make money.

Making 10% out of your investment will not make a difference. But, losing 30% to 50% of investment will make a difference.

SAFETY is MORE IMPORTANT than return.

Dreamer

---

Added on September 23, 2009, 7:34 amEng Hua,

No. The BIGGEST risk in the world is STUPIDITY. Aka, not knowing and invest in stuff that you have NO IDEA what it is.

A fool and his money soon parted!!

Dreamer

This post has been edited by dreamer101: Sep 23 2009, 07:34 AM

Yes, a law firm can also become an SB. I believed when there are many partners, and when there are many decision-makers who make critical decisions in a business entity, then that entity needs to be an SB. Otherwise, if most decisions, or at least the critical ones need to bounce across myself, I believed not necessary to be an SB.

An SB means to spend more in terms of time, money and effort to cover against risks of making wrong decisions, right ?

Oh yes, one more advantage to be an SB : can get bank loans easier than than a sole proprietorship. But I don't need anymore bank loans,... so okay-lah,....

Just PM me-lah, no cost,... my replies will be straight to the point and be as useful as possible,.. however, sometimes time may limit my capability to reply to all, but I will do my best. In the past, I have helped people for free, maybe what I get in return is a makan and friendship-lah,....

Dreamer,... thank you for the insights and the focus - Wealth Preservation,....

Put it this way : if I am to worry about the amount of money I have in MY, then there is too much to worry about,... don;t forget I have a company too which does not have liabilities (no loans whatsoever), has quite a sizeable customer base and PB value.

So, add-up all I have in MY, how to change-over to Sgp or other countries ?

Can't do much-lah about all these, so for me : just go day-by-day and look forward to working in another country, say Canada. ... New life, new things, no more boredom,....

And then start building another base there and when children study there in future also cheaper-lah,....

What do you all think of my plans ? Good or not ???

SB means extra cost for hiring secretarial and accounting service, other than that, little different (don't see there is need for extra effort, just cost side only), but at least in SB whatever done is in more systematic way.

SB can have tax advantage as well, as individual max tax bracket is higher than company tax.

Since above is not applicable to your case, so it makes little difference to your case.

Glad to have another expert's advice service here.

He he he,

Lawyer 1 may want to seek specialist help to put some of his money in tax-free haven such as Cayman Island, The Bermudas etc.

The financial planning company that I hire to do my personal finance does these to their High Net Worth Clients.

Xuzen

Eng Hua,... thank you for your comments,.... quite unique too, I must say,... and my replies :-

1_ Yes, somehow, I still have the feeling of insecurity,... what if the money I have is not enough to sustain me if, say, my business goes bunkers : this is in fact one of my major insecurities.

2_ My health is okay,.... used to exercise a lot when I was young but now became lazy. Don't smoke that much (stopped for sometime now), don't drink that much too. Guessed I am quite okay on the health side. Thank God.

3_ Sure, when time permits,....am a bit tied-up these few months : I am currently doing a crash course on a foreign language, in preparation for working in another country.

Would appreciate if you have more replies,.... thank you.

Xusen,... thank you. I think I can manage my own money-lah,... no need to pay someone to manage it, after all, it is, well,.... not really a lot,.. right ?

Ha ha ha, I used to sucketh when I try to manage my money. But after paying some money to these professionals, I learned a lot from them as well. Many of the information I presented here I ciplak a little bit from them and from some of the Finance books I read from.

Xuzen

this may sound simple trivia question to some, but still interested to know.

In Malaysia, I heard that foreign income below certain threshold is not taxable under company operating profit. Does the same applies if you earn based on personal foreign income? i.e. dividends and rentals from oversea investments.

Somewhere along the line, you will have to be considered as 'tax residents' even if you are not their actual resident, if you earn substantial amount. But that is based on employment only or applicable to general investment income also?

roughly what is the threshold for our neighbor countries, e.g. Singapore, Australia?

Tax residency is based on time spent in Malaysia and not based on amount you earned. In a nutshell, tax resident has more advantages compared to non tax resident.

To compute tax residency status is quite complicated and best left to those tax people to do it. (I get a headache when I read the Tax law concerning tax residency).

Tax is based on recurring income (income derived from employment and also dividends etc), income from capital gain are not taxable (example profit from selling equities, real estate)

As long you are a tax resident in M'sia you must declare you income in M'sia irrespective of where you derived your income. (Not so clear on this part, may have to refer to my income tax book later tonight... get back to you)

Xuzen

Lawyer1,

1) You have to answer this yourself. Do you keep enough outside of Malaysia??

2) Another reason to do this that is to protect your savings in case that RM collapse.

3) Third reason is to hedge against foreign exchange for future education expenses.

For example, you KNOW that your children will study in Australia. So, every year, you transfer a bit of money to your Australia account. So, instead of taking a HUGE RISK on the exchange rate between RM and Aussie Pound when your children need the money in Australia, you spread it out across many years.

Dreamer