Ok here comes the part 2
I will just talk about what should you know about unit trust, not going to touch too much on the inside(who manage the money, who approve, etc, i am not too sure)
Tata! Here come unit trust! Some people(agents) said it is just like FD, you put in money, lump sum or monthly(you want weekly also can), and you earn interest. The concept is somewhat similar but actually there are differences(of course).
Firstly, unit trust (UT) company will charge you service charge, which is a one time charge. Also, there will be an annual fee, something like annual management fee. All these charges is what the unit trust company lives on, they are not doing charity you know.
Service charge = (sell price - buy price)/sell price x 100% = ~6% ('cept bonds cheaper)
Annual mgnt charge = usually 1.5%, depends, bonds usually lower
Wowowow, so many charges, and still say just like FD!? Told you liao mah, its different one, becoz the unit trust companies are not doing charity, they need to support their wives to buy cosmetic and their kids to buy transformer. But wait, dun run away first, let me tell you why the heck you should pay these people rather then put in you hard earned money to bank and let them to shark other people.
And also, UT have risk also, doesn't mean you sure sure get double or triple of EPF interest everytime, you might also lose money in short term. But, usually(note, usually only, not always), you earn more with UT in long term. As long as M'sia grow, your UT grow

So, if any agent tell you that garentee got so and so return(eg, garentee 300% return in 15months

) you tell him go back eat oat. Remember, no such thing is easy peasy speedy money.
Firstly, there is a company of expert to manage your funds, you dont have to go study the stock market to invest in unit trust, nor you have to have first hand news to ever able to earn anything. They will worry this for you, and they will decide which area(stock, bond, equity....) to invest, surely they can decide better then you(sure a UT company wont hire a monkey as their fund manager?). And you, just have a peace of mind, put in money and wait, just like FD

Remember the risk diversify i mentioned when investing stock? You also dont have to worry about this, the fund managers will worry about this, your UT fund is nicely diversified into a range of stock or bond(depends on the type of UT you buy) and even some in FD as well. So you will have a well diversified risk profile. Remember, diversified risk doesn't mean no risk, you still have risk, but minimum risk, it also depends on the risk profile your UT is. But you wont lose like you lose in stock market la, as someone has mentioned, UT is very slowww, so thats the point, you lose money also slowly lose

And also, you can start invest in UT for as low as 1000, and you get all the benefit of UT, like diversify risk(what else you can diversify with 1000 only btw, you cant even buy 1 lot in stock!), fund manager, good interest... blahh. And can top up in any UT you invested for as low as 200. So thats a very good point, you dont hv to work for 10 years to save enough money to invest
And for this little bit of money you are contributing in developing our beloved M'sia economy as well! Becoz your funds will be used to invest, not shark loan

Next i will touch about UT trust risk profile, which to choose and how to monitor, etc. Part 3 tbc
(wooo, gosh, got works 2do, brb)
(edit, another benefit of UT is that you have a liquid asset. Thats means it can help you whenever you need money. Not like property like house or land, you have to sell it to get cash. You can cash UT anytime if you urgently need money)
This post has been edited by rexis: Apr 26 2006, 12:07 PM