So far I am ok, 1 property already rented out >6 years, so far they all still paying the bank for me. I am not speculating with the property prices, as I am looking for stable income, and not likely to sell them off. Even the price stagnate or crash, as long as the rental is reasonable it is ok for me. Even of anything happen to me, I can pass on these income producing assets to my loved ones as the mortgage (loan) is insured via MRTA, which the insurance company will settle the loan.

Yes blood on the street is good, I bought those properties during poor economic times so I am getting good yields on them. Also I am offering the rental at slightly below market value to ensure I get quality "professional" tenants.

But not all my investments is in properties, they are more diversified. In case of emergency, I can liquidate some of my other assets and can still pay off my loan 100%. So I am more conservative than you think.

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Added on July 1, 2011, 11:40 amI do agree with you, I saved and "slaved" for 5 hard years before i could get reasonable amount of DP for the 30% down payment. You should not over extend yourself, but there are opportunities everywhere. Properties since 2007 is not interesting because speculation has made the current rental yield are quite ridiculous.

This post has been edited by gark: Jul 1 2011, 11:42 AM

There are two types of debt, good debt and bad debt. You need to be smart to differentiate between the two.

Bad debt are the ones that cause you to LOSE money in the long run mostly via depreciation and obsolete. The debt that you mention all fall into bad debt category. Yes you can "afford" a honda civic by paying monthly and after 9 years what happens? You car will actually LOSE value by about 50%. Also the i-phone you mentioned it will be obsolete in 3-4 years, so what value did you get? Maybe you will lose 70% of the purchase value.

On the other hand there are good debt, which are the ones that help you EARN money in the long run. Debt for investment, business and properties are such debt. After paying for your debt, your holdings will actually gain HIGHER value. Also these items will help you EARN active/passive income. Just make sure you can 'earn' more than the interest rate otherwise it too falls into bad debt category.

See the difference? Bad debt are the ones that tend to destroy people's life over the long run, it is just that you have not realized it yet.

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Added on November 11, 2011, 12:55 pmYou are falling into the consumption mentality trap, get out before you destroy yourself. I would not think of buying a nice car even though I can afford to buy it easily. Also I have not touched any i pad, i phone, blackberry etc, my phone is a cheapo RM 200 phone which serves it purpose well. And yes I have some debt, but they are ALL good debt.

This post has been edited by gark: Nov 11 2011, 12:55 PM

Time to 'invest' more in quality bank shares.... let the younger generation consumption habit feed our dividends...

This post has been edited by gark: Nov 11 2011, 01:31 PM

Very true... but there is a middle road as well..

I prefer to invest more during the initial stage and when the time my investment is bearing 'fruit', then I can enjoy by spending those money on what I want and when I want, mostly on my family. Those investment will generate perpetual and increasing income so my spending also goes up with it.

Being financial savvy does not mean you have to be a miser, but spend accordingly to your income.

This post has been edited by gark: Nov 11 2011, 04:54 PM

Invest as much as you want and feel comfortable with. Practice pay yourself first, then you will not be attempted to spend all your savings away. Since you are a self proclaimed beginner... below are the steps to start you off with.

1. Figure out how much you would like to save, and put those money away in a different account once you receive your salary. An average saving rate of 20%-30% of your salary is more than adequate. The rest of it, spend and treat yourself once a while.

2. Save at least 3-6 months worth of salary as emergency fund. For your case that will be minimum RM 4k x 3 = RM 12K to start off with. Put these money in 1 month auto-renewal FD. These are the money you may draw if you have emergency such as medical, emergency, lay off etc... grow this emergency fund with your salary as it increases.

3. Since you mention Islamic Investment, I will assume you are bumi, in that case once you have done with your emergency fund, put all off your savings into an ASB account until max. Once it is maximum, then you may consider other investments such as Unit trust and/or bond funds.

4. Never be greedy in investment, especially those too-good-to-be-true scams. If you want to invest directly into share market prepare to do lots of homework and read on investment. But for the mean time ASB investment is good enough.

5. Do not accumulate credit card debt and personal loan ever. Also your car debt has very high interest due to long repayment period, next time you change car, remember to minimize the payment period. It is far better for you to have housing loan debt than a big and long car debt. This is because car depreciates, and property appreciates. But above all, spend within your means and keep with your investment plan.

There you have it, simple 5 step investment plan.

This post has been edited by gark: Nov 19 2011, 09:44 AM

Take a look at all your insurances, is there any over lapping between the takaful and your company's medical card, if yes then you can consider to discontinue the takaful. If not then you may keep the takaful but look at the big picture.

You need only two types of insurance, the rest of the investment link/savings insurance will not be beneficial to you as most of your savings should go to ASB.

1. Medical/Hospitalization Card/Insurance, with enough annual and lifetime limit to prepare for any illness. Cancer/heart bypass/stroke can cause upwards of RM 100k of hospitalization fees. If your company medical insurance is sufficient, maybe you can opt for a lesser value.

2. Term Life insurance, it depends on the amount, if you have large dependent (family, parents, kids) buy higher value in case if you demise it will not be a burden to them. The life insurance needs should be lesser as you grow older, as your savings and assets will then be sufficient to support your dependents. In fact by near retirement, life insurance is prohibitively expensive to pay and no longer serve the purpose intended as your dependents will be lesser or they obtain their own income.

Well, there is no right or wrong, there are people who prefer to be heavily insured and then there are some who prefer self insurance. I tend to prefer the middle line.

This post has been edited by gark: Nov 19 2011, 07:11 PM

Low trading price got hidden advantage also... but not much people focus on it. Based on 2011 Annual report...

Total Assets : RM 388,228,921
Cash & equivalent : RM 118,357,839
Stocks : RM 270,506,529

Dividend & Interest Received : RM 17,610,689
Yield on Asset : 4.536%

Now the fun part begins ... share price is RM 2.05, asset is RM 2.71 (latest)

So our yield on cost will be 4.536% x 2.71/2.05 = 5.996% but you must also factor in the "1.5%" fee.

Furthermore we are buying a dollar for 70 cents, so strip out the cash each RM 2.05 we pay for the share we get RM 0.845 in cash and RM 1.93 in stocks. Since cash is basically risk free, so we are effectively buying RM 1.93 worth of "shares" for RM 1.205, at 37.5% discount. Which is approximate early 2010 price, so got time machine here...

But.... since i-cap does not pay dividend, all the cash is locked up that is why there is so little interest in the shares. Also the liquidity is an issue, and people expect the market to crash soon. The large cash holdings also affects the total yield.

But there might be a re-rating if icap pays a dividend or invest those cash horde to raise yield. But where else can you buy a mutual fund at 30% discount to NAV?

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Added on January 2, 2012, 10:08 amNot really.. if TTB really 'quits' they will likely liquidate all the holdings.. instant profit, since the liquidation NAV is higher than share price This is one of the 'exit' strategy for the holdings.

This post has been edited by gark: Jan 2 2012, 10:14 AM

Remember past performance is not an indication of future performance. What is hot now might not be later. Best if you have some diversification.

If you can't take much risk, then perhaps you might look at bond funds instead of equity funds in which both kidsave and icap falls into. There is no low risk high gain fund out there (except for ASB )

Savers are not necessary misers, it it just that they have better planning than spenders. You can practice paying yourself every month which will go to savings and investment and spend the rest. Lets say you commit to save RM 500 per month, whatever left you can budget and spend. If you really cannot afford it, go sometimes and but not all the time.

Saving too much is an obsession, and not healthy in the long term. Just commit to save maybe 30% or RM 500 of your salary at the beginning of each month and invest those amount wisely. The rest of money just spend it carefully and treat yourself once a while, it makes your life a little bit more worth living. If you still have some extra money left over put in your vacation fund or something.

This post has been edited by gark: Jan 5 2012, 10:03 AM

If you only save, then with the low interest rate you get, sooner or later it get eaten up by inflation. You need to yield at least above the current inflation rate of 3%-5%.

For me I practice the following...

1 month Expenses in Cash form in SA - For Daily use

6 months Expenses in e-FD form (1 Month-Auto renew) - For emergency Use

The rest in investment, that is well diversified across equity, bonds and others. So if 'kena' 1 bad investment got another 9 other investment to backup. If you are conservative (scared to lose), put a majority of your investment in bonds and only some in high quality equity. With careful portfolio management, you can lower your investment risk substantially by diversification.

So far works well for me.

This post has been edited by gark: Jan 5 2012, 12:45 PM

1. First of all avoid all kinds of installment, like your facial and travel installment, all these leads to unnecessary spending. Budget and save up cash allocated for entertainment accordingly. Set up a budget and perhaps target to save at least 30% of your salary? A lot of people are doing about 60%-70% per month. You have spend a lot of money in cars, which is a depreciating item. Anyway you are wrong to calculate car as asset, it is a liability.

2. Travel lover does not mean that you have to spend a lot of money. Learn to travel within budget and lower your expectations, and utilize especially budget hotels and budget airlines. Backpacking is a good way to travel and it much better than those organized tour. You can save more than 50% this way and see more sights and have complete freedom. A tour to Australia for 2 person can cost only about RM 5k vs 10+K via travel agency.

3. Prepare 6 months expenses in FD or other liquid investment in case there is an emergency, if you put in housing mortgage (flexi) make sure it can be easily taken out.

4. For your extra house rather than flip for a quick gain, keep it and get rental income. Passive income really helps you in the long run. For the UT, buy within your expectations and risk tolerance value, anyway the money is for long term so no need to concern with some losses.

5. Have you given think about retirement, children's education etc? If you think long and hard, and calculate it the cost is going to scare you, so start preparing now.

This post has been edited by gark: Mar 15 2012, 07:47 PM

Are you CFP certified?

Well talk is easy and calculation can always show great profit for 'average' 12% gain per year. For those who have been investing a while knows that past performance is not equal to future performance. Also the gains will not be steady, there are bad times and good, depending when you are buying. Invest based on your risk tolerance, and if you take 12% as a guide then your risk tolerance is very high...Question is do you have the holding power if your stocks suddenly take a 40%-50% dive? or do you dare to double down once it hits these number? Well it happened in 1997,2001 and latest at 2008...

This post has been edited by gark: Sep 27 2012, 04:15 PM

Well if you want to retire with income of 5K a month (should be sufficient for you), and lets says you need a blended passive income target of 5%, then you will need asset of 1.2 mil, but your asset value have to keep up with inflation. So it depends on your preference/risk tolerance/numbers below...

1. Target income per month + 5% inflation p.a.
2. Target yield per month (make sure your yield increment on average beat inflation)
3. List down your holdings eg. property, yield 4% rental rental rise 3% p.a. + FD, yield 3%, rise 0%, stocks yield 6%, rise 3% p.a. etc etc and you can see the whole picture.

In the end you need to know your blended yield to see if you need more passive income or more investment. If your blended yield already covers what you want and you can retire already, why bother to look for more yield?

This post has been edited by gark: Dec 10 2012, 01:50 PM

Don't beat yourself up to increase your investible wealth. Money is NOT everything, you only live once so you need to enjoy yourself once in a while, starving and penny pinching is not a good practice. Forcing yourself to suffer is neither good for your well being and mental health, thus affecting your income generating work.

Set aside a reasonable amount of your monthly income like 20% for a start and invest diligently, and never be attempted to 'touch' this investment account. The rest spend it all to provide enjoyment for you and your family. If you have good savings and investing habit, in matter of years you can already see your passive income comes up substantially.

Be moderate, but keep a close eye on your expenses and never go into debt for "things"... that does not give your income.

This post has been edited by gark: Jan 9 2013, 01:45 PM

Being born with a silver spoon in the mouth does not equate to hard work and savings. If you have the wealth readily available then by all means spend all you want, you can spend years throwing away your wealth like the multitudes of super rich kids around and never have to worry about money. They have ready capital at their disposal and any investment will be easy to execute.

What you have no silver spoon and no capital to begin with? Then it is not such a clear cut an easy road. Not everyone is cut out to do business in which you need capital to start with. Basically not everyone is as lucky.

The majority of the people is just not as lucky and have to work their way up to gather wealth. In term of savings, while I do not condone these ultra low cost living strategy, they do have their merits. They wish to build up CAPITAL faster so they can invest and generate income so they can get OUT of the rat race sooner. They are doing what they can to build and preserve wealth.

I used to have ultra low cost living for 10 years after graduation so I understand them, even with a generous salary I was living in a low cost house and hardly spend on things.

Car? Company Issue, never bought one before. House? Got investment property in PJ, rented out for 2.5k a month. Where I used to live? In a single story low cost house, which i am renting for RM 400 a month. Debts? Almost none.

I do also go for overseas holiday and enjoy steak dinner at fancy restaurant, while I do indulge a bit. But these are the fruits of my passive income and not on my capital. On the other hand I am ensuring that my capital is continuing to build at a fast pace and hope to completely retire on my passive income by 50.

So no need to equate the have-it's and those who are working hard to reach there. They are a different breed and have different overwhelming needs.

Then i think you no need to come to the financial management section to post all your 'success' as you have obviously said you have attained. We have nothing more to offer you, since you are already extremely confident to your road to wealth.

Your posting here does not offer any 'advice' whatsoever to attain the success, just bragging rights. Well you have it!

Good luck and remember to follow what your 'mentor' says... Sayonara!

This post has been edited by gark: Jan 12 2013, 11:11 AM

Haha! You said you are not successful yet but you can still 'advice' people to be successful? And you are following your mentor to road of success ? That is really wishful thinking. Well good luck!

You don't simulate advice by bragging first. It's more like the other way around. Having a good lifestyle does not equal wealth. There are many rags to riches people who I really respect, yet they do not show & throw their wealth around some of them have multi billion companies. They are humble and treats everyone with respect.

Sorry, for those even rags to riches and throw their wealth around and then brag, do not garner my respect, as I find them to be 'show offs'.

This post has been edited by gark: Jan 12 2013, 11:35 AM

Yeah I respect WB, no don't like RB as i think he is brash, obnoxious and crude..

Well again good luck on your journey to wealth, you are more interested with people soliciting you for a 'solution' rather than give genuine advice. Too bad I don't need it as I am comfortable with my wealth.

For 10K a month, that is already consider the low end of my target. So, sorry not interested.

From your previous posting I can see you are from a rich family and still studying overseas. Wait till you get into the real world. Good luck (again, you will need it)!

This post has been edited by gark: Jan 12 2013, 11:57 AM