Are you satisfied with the country you are currently in ?

If you are, then what you have planned in the above is right - basically set aside funds to finance your children's studies in future. However, be very careful of how you nurture them, what mois said is very true. Many kids sent overseas without proper guidance end-up 'being in Disneyland', and they return to Msia with nothing except for a piece of paper.

If, on the other hand, you are not satisfied with the country that you are currently in, or yearn for adventures personally, then work towards a PR-status in the destination country, which will be your chosen country for yourself and your future descendants.

With a PR, the education costs will be lower, you will be staying near to your children whereby you will be able to monitor and nurture them continuously because you will be staying with them. And you can start a new life in your preferred country, follow the laws of that country and live with the people there.

Two possible paths to take !

On this idea (migration then education), just to share what i read over the weekend on Australia (AU)migration:
1. To qualify for migration based on retired investor: minimum AUD750,000 investments in AU
+ need to proof monthly income (when in AU) of AUDx,xxx per month
2. Ppl migrating via such method are not entitled to "free"/gov sponsored health care
3. Processing fee for "consultants" RM40K to RM50K

Mind U, i was flipping through and EXACT details may be off a bit

There are of course other methods of migration to AU (too detailed to post here) - U can read it in this month's Personal Money magazine if i'm not mistaken on the source (read too many donkey stuff over the weekend since my little girl was away with her mother  )

er.. I'm assuming yr Q was targeted to me yar
Personally, my assumptions are as per the Excel zip file i uploaded for U:

Average inflation pa: 6%pa
Stocks & equities: 13%pa (assuming value investing & companies with strong fundamentals)
REITs / Properties: 8%pa + 2%pa to 3%pa capital growth (slightly lower than inflation) if hi-rise
Fixed Income: an average of FD (3%pa) + EPF (5%pa) + Bonds/Bond Funds (6%pa)
Alternative Investments: depends on the "alternatives"

Play with the Excel bro
I hope to at least achieve 80% of what U achieved, assets accumulation-wise, by the time i'm 49 
May i ask - you're a working stiff (like me) OR a business person?

Hehhe - seeking asylum? or just being one of the shadow folks in AU?
If seeking asylum - buta buta kena exported back to MY due to AU's & MY's inter-exchange understanding... die lar. Back to square one 

In all seriousness though, like what bro Hansel said, AU's just one option. The other one i'm eyeing is Canada.
Both are countries with rich natural resources AND "below the radar" politics (mostly) with a balanced view in terms of politics - IMHO only ar, again pls put down them pins/voodoo dolls & guns

Okay, and agreed with your first paragraph.

You are not satisfied with Msia, then do something about it. Go somewhere else. Why stay here and whine and cry for a change in Gov't (if you think your dissatisfaction is because of the system) ? I'm sorry for saying this.

Don't be an investor migrant, that is not the only way. IN many developed countries today, if you wish to be an investor migrant, they will check you out too to see where your funds came from. There are laws, Anti-Money-Laundering Laws, etc, etc... it is not easy too, and it is the right thing for that gov't to do - satisfied !!!

To make a long story short - it's just this : are you able to keep earning your income without being physically in Msia ? If your answer to that question is a big YES, then there are many other legal and proper ways to migrate, and to contribute to another country.

(wongmunkeong @ Sep 5 2011, 11:55 AM)
Holy crap bro - 30%pa average returns on "Alternatives" last 10 years?!! 
U gotta share yr methodologies and approach + of course what alternatives 

Yes - that is amazing. 30% return average for the last 10 years, that would be 300% return gained on the initial investment.

Er.. bro, great returns but sorry to burst your bubble - its effective rate of growth/returns is about 16.91%+, not 40%pa on average.
You're right if based on simple calc is 40%+ by dividing total returns % by years lar

Attached for your easy reference & usage is the calc - can also be used to ascertain for other growth/returns.
BTW, how in the world did U know 2002 was a good time to buy?
Gold was at it's lowest for like 20 to 30 years (2011 backwards lar )! 

U lumped sum (gungho) OR averaged into it within 1 year (seeing gold price go up a bit, buy a bit more kinda thing)?

Aiyo, (my techer once said) average return won't give a sensible value for overall return. Average returns will yield incorrect and artificially high results.

Equities: 13% p.a. is DIFFICULT to achieve in the long-run for MOST investors.  Please bear in mind the 13% p.a. assumption is compounded over a long period (e.g. 20 years or more for retirement purposes) and for the whole equity portfolio, not just a few outstanding stocks (what's good in the past ten/twenty years may not be equally good in the future - very few companies can maintain outperformance for more than 20 years). Yes, some people may argue that their track record over the past ten or twenty years were more than that...all I can say these investors are GOOD (or lucky?)

I will give you an example why it is difficult to achieve 13% p.a..

Let's look at KLCI (a composite index of "leading" companies in M'sia) or now, known as FBM-KLCI (I am using Yahoo Finance data - unable to access full Bloomberg data on my current PC). KLCI excludes dividends (so you can add another 2% to 3% to compounded returns stated below)

(i) Based on the longest data available on Yahoo Finance, the KLCI data starts from Dec 1993 (which happened to at the tail end of the 'super bull' in 1990s)...KLCI was 1275 (Dec 1993) and 1447 (Aug 2011) -> annual compounded return of 0.72% p.a. over the 17.67 years. Of course, it is based on the last peak (or near the last historical peak) to current level.

(ii) Let's use 2000 to Aug 2011 - return. KLCI was 812 (Dec 1999) and 1447 (Aug 2011) -> annual compounded return of 5.08% p.a. over 2000-current.

(iii) Excellent market timer - bought at bottom in Aug 1998 to Aug 2011. KLCI was 303 (Aug 1998) and 1447 (Aug 2011)-> annual compounded return of 12.81% p.a. over the period. So, get a 13% p.a., you have to be really, really good.

For my own equity portfolio, I am assuming less than 10% (it's blended with heavier weighting on emerging/Asia markets). I consider myself to be quite a decent equity investor since I am semi-retired (still involved in finance/investment industry for the fun/thrill of it) and can live comfortably on the dividends from my equity portfolio.

Please bear in mind - even for well-run sovereign funds such as GIC (blended:equity, fixed income, etc) achieved only 7.2% over a 20-year period (7.6% for a composite portfolio of 70% global equity and 30% global bonds) http://www.gic.com.sg/data/pdf/GIC_Report_2011.pdf .

I just do not want fellow forumers to be using unrealistic returns for their retirement planning and get disappointed in the future. Nevertheless, I do like most of your replies and writings 
In the article below, over 1985-2007, annual returns based on KLCI was 8.6% (+2% dividend yield = 10.6%).
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?f...87&sec=business

Yup yup - agreed bro Chabalang. No one can argue with proper statistics and law of averages. Thus, my caveat is as always "personal expected/assumed average pa returns"

I dont buy much stocks but when i do, tend to be lucky (touch wood) maybe coz i wait for blood/suicides nowadays, or at least when i hear people swearing off stocks and not blindly "buy equities" based on Asset Allocation (which i do use just to allocate $) / re-balancing.
Paid lots of "tuition fees" to the market in my younger and dumber daze. Now still dumb but not THAT dumb 

BTW, 2008 crash - i put most of my $ into LPI (sold liao last month, hit my Trailing Stop Loss thus forced to realize profit) and PBBANK (still held now) + TWRREIT (still held now) (Dec 2008 till 1st qtr 2009). These stocks.. phew.. it's not just a matter of timing / value but also filter/selection of stocks/equity funds that's the kicker. Much much more than 12.81% or my own 13%pa (CAGR) target. Touch wood touch wood.  i was eyeing these 3 for awhile before end 2008, especially LPI & PBBANK. TWRREITs was something "new" since REITs were kind of "new" in MY market - lucky shot for that i guess.

1997 - 1998 double-dips, i was also lucky in the sense that i sold out before the currency crisis (stocks and equity funds) as there were plans for those $ and i didnt have that much $ to monkey around with. God works in mysterious ways 

Equity funds-wise, i'm lucky in the sense of buying with more $/EPF during "downs" due to value-averaging component of my programmatic approach
+ mid-long term trend-based buys after recovery and in new accumulation stage.
Thus, overall equity fund returns goes up (based the donkey XIRR formula in Excel lar coz i'm way too lazy to go calculate one by one and do a crazy consolidated CAGR).
Note - the only DCA i do is just to leverage on the "agent investment", which is at NAV without any service charges. Kiamsiap / cheapskate lar me bro, how to say no to this?

To each his own - plans & map to investment success, as everyone has very different risk appetites, focus and experience/skills. The main idea i'm trying to share is to HAVE A PLAN + EXECUTE the plan + TRACK, else how to manage and edit the plan .

Hhehe - Prophetjul, i also dunno how to trade unit trusts/mutual funds short term. I'm just into 5 to 16 years long trades (in the vein of "in the long run, we're all dead", thus not buy and hold buta)

IMHO, for a person who's investing in Stocks directly already, mutual funds (equity & bond funds) can be picked up sup sup water.
Similar steps required.
1. Filter based on performances, sectors, domestic/foreign, fund's directive/investment approach, etc. to fit your Asset Allocation gap to fulfill
2. Create entry and exit plans / methodology
3. Execute, track and manage based on (2).

IMHO, the only major difference is the SWITCHING game instead of "selling" / redeeming unless U want to cash out.
In an accumulation phase of our investing lives, SWITCHING to/fro bonds/equities is recommended - see the Excel i posted in PMv2 thread or Mutual Fund thread. If cant find, drop me a PM.

In that Excel, i simulated Mutual Funds (with 5.5% service charges + $25 SWITCHING charges) VS Stocks (0.55% cost per buy, another 0.55% per sell) with lump sum $5K, $10K and $20K (something to that effect) and going in/out stocks or SWITCHING between equities and bonds for like 6 to 10 times just using that initial capital + assuming growth/returns of x%.
Bottomline:
As a long term vehicle, mutual funds do have their place, even with the service charges of 5.5% and yearly mgt fees because the transaction costs are less than stocks' in/out costs in the long run + for beginners with low capital (eg. $100pm), the cost is lower than stocks' transaction cost as a $ of the value transacted.

Whoops - i just checked, that post was in response to your Q . Dang my memory, i'm getting old 
http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1299169/+2182

UTs: yeah - trust a bit hard, here.
What to do - until i can take out chunks of $30K from EPF, i can only "afford" to do UTs, not self-directed stock investments using my EPF A/C1 $
Know the system, work/milk the system  - lemon and lemon juice thinggy

EPF's stock trading: Yeah - those who are "following" EPF's in/out of stocks are going to be severely confused  Left hand rep buy, right hand rep sells  Winner = bursa + securities firm (trading charges)

HSBC is now pound sterling5? hm... me beginning to smell wounded animals.. not much blood gushing out yet.. waiting hungrily for value lelong  but like what Chabalang said earlier, hopefully not bad until we lose our working stiff jobs here

*cough*kronies*cough*

What if when you buy the property is 900K, now already 1.2K, but your loan is 800K left. You consider yourself 100K networth or 400K? 

Thus, it explains why I say the formula is made for property investors. The house price might go up, but in actual fact, you won't have the money until you sold it, right?

I think if I have 50% of his stage, I will retire .

Once your net worth reach RM1 million, then to get RM8 million should not be a problem. The 1st million is always the most difficult.

Of course, 10 years is short and I never thought can reach RM1 million to RM8 million by 10 years leh. Maybe I need 15 years to grow RM1 million to RM8 million. Below is my plan.

So far my track record in share investment is CAGR 20%, which means my portfolio size would double every 4 years. For your information, I just got the share margin facility not long ago, hence the CAGR 20% is an unlevered return.

Maybe my portfolio size was too small and I could flip CAGR 20% in the past, so to be conservative I assume my portfolio's return will be mean reverse to market return when its size becomes larger, likely my long run CAGR would reduce to 15% and with that my portfolio could double every 5 years, this indicates RM1 million could grow to RM8 million in 15 years. And don't forget if I also keep pumping in additional annual savings, then the period of achieving RM8 million could be even shorten further.

Correct me if I am wrong .

I don't know if 1st RM1 million is the easiest or not, so far I have been working and saving for 7 years and investing for 9 years, but I still can't get through that RM1 million .

I have been investing for 9 years. As I said, my capital is small so the marginal return for such a small portfolio is normally higher than a bigger portfolio.

If compare my CAGR return with those investment legend such as Peter Lynch and Warren Buffet, their initial year of investment were much more higher at CAGR return of 30% to 40%. That is why in long run even though their portfolio mean reverse to the market's return, their long run average return since inception still can maintain at 15% to 20% because of their great performance in the begin. I am not as good as this investment legend, so I only achieved 20% in my 20s. Likely I may only achieve 15% in my 30s and eventually 10% in my 40s.

Yah I was getting started through savings, plan every budget and spend below my mean.