WOW SIFU ive been reading your posts and you are one of the very reason I posted!! And i've also started to study bond because of the experience you shared, but still not able to learn in thorough just surfing on the basic.

Thank you so much for your encouragement, but I do feel i'm basically empty on this financial planning world. Would very like to learn more from you!! I admire your planning and even self realization on what you want and achieving it~

If theres any advice or website etc you can share to me, I would be very thankful!! Regardless of that, im still very glad to get inspire by you~

P.s. I LOVE doraemon too, so... but no thats not the reason i express my admiration hahahahha.

Given your assuming young age, bonds isn't a great idea. You should be more invested into the equities market and play on your longer runway.

Bonds, FDs are geared more towards those reaching retirement.

I am a new joiner to this board. British citizen, 58 years old, married to a Malaysian and just been made redundant by my employer in Dubai.

We will be returning to our condo in Penang and look like having to live off the returns from my wife's investments in ASB and ASM. We also have a young daughter and her school fees will not be cheap.

We don't have extravagant tastes, are mortgage free so our big ticket items are education and private health insurance.

On top of those costs, what would be the estimate pcm to live comfortably in Penang please?

i guess that would be "depends" on the level of comfort....

found this on google...hope it can provide you with some info while you wait...

Cost of Living in Penang
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Penang

https://internationalliving.com/countries/m...enang-malaysia/

https://www.google.com/search?ei=TKtPX6DsLb...Q4dUDCA0&uact=5

Thank you for the kind words. However, fuzzy may have a point there. I’m almost twice your age (48 vs 26) and thus my risk appetite would naturally be different from yours, simply because I wouldn’t neither have the stamina nor enough time to recoup my losses if a “bet” goes badly wrong.

Since I don’t have a blog, please allow me to share my personal financial journey here with you - so you can learn from my mistakes and perhaps see a better way for yourself.

When I was your age, I didn’t have the means to invest - junior doctors made a pittance (even in Singapore) and whatever money I had as I progressed in seniority was spent on specialist exams and studies and courses (this is the part about self improvement that every one talks about and - at least in my case - it has proven extremely useful in increasing self-value and earning capacity). In fact, I will have to say I entered investing relatively late, when I was in my early 30’s.

We started off in properties - it was just our conservative natures - and built up a respectable portfolio. Then, we spent the next 10 years paying off all the properties - and that shows up as a big hole in our investment portfolio, as we didn’t add any stocks or derivatives or unit trusts or anything for that time period. All we did was to pare down the multiple mortgages and I was obsessed with paying as little interest as possible. My thinking, rightly or wrongly, back then was that I wasn’t confident of making more in actual quantum of returns (because of my limited capital) than what the banks were charging me in interests. So, the money I saved would be money I earned.

We became totally debt free by our 40‘s, and that’s probably when our personal investment journey (excluding real estate) started. I will admit, I got my fingers badly burned on stocks - to the tune of $50,000, and initially, we lost about another AUD100,000 in an ill-advised joint venture with an acquaintance in Adelaide.

From those experiences, my wife and I decided that we’d rather make do with lower returns in exchange for security and safety and peaceful sleep at night. So, it was initially fixed deposits for a few years, until bonds came into the picture. Before COVID-19, we also invested in Equity Linked Notes, and we have about $3,000,000 tied up presently. Thankfully, most of the prices have recovered and it looks like we will be able to ride out to their maturity, collecting our interest payment in full and recouping our capital - but, when the markets plunged in the initial days of COVID-19, I will confess I was ready to write off that $3,000,000 from our holdings and delay my retirement! This was also a lesson learned for me - it really showed up my risk adverse nature. Even a capital protected (subject to successful maturity and in the absence of knock-in events) product like the ELNs gave me sleepless nights. Once the ELNs mature, I’ll probably stick with bonds and bonds alone.

We are able to do what we do because - respectfully - my wife and I earn what can only be termed exceedingly generous remuneration packages. Bonds (at least the way we purchase them) require a large capital outlay. In the past, in other threads, I’ve shared a few photos of the values in my bond portfolio held by different banks and brokerage houses. As you might know, each bond is at least $250,000 (though some Australian ones used to start from $200,000 - not anymore). We also buy to hold till old - it’s not something we would actively trade. We’re happy to collect the coupons and let other braver, cleverer people do more exciting things with their money.

Thanks for reading. It’s rather fun reminiscing on my amateur steps as a basic investor.

This post has been edited by hksgmy: Sep 3 2020, 07:17 AM

Hmmm both of you have your point, though I myself is more of a conservative and careful mindset, hence is not much into aggresive investment. But I DO know if theres a time to be aggresive it is now, as I have the long years to cover up my losses.

Property is a hard way to venture now as Covid-19 hits, one of the major impact and I would see the effect gonna last for at least a few years before it can recover and boom again. Hence though risky, its still a better option to explore on the equities and stocks. And still, given my weak heart I will only invest 10-20% into high risk investment, so I would still need diversified medium to low risk investment vehicle. Since bond require large capital, perhaps i'll have to look into funds.

Anyway thanks for sharing~ I like to read others stories, we all have our journey, and its nice to have some motivation and inspiration now and then.

Don't pick stocks, just invest into a index fund that tracks the market, such as SPY or QQQ, or some of the ETFs.

Oops sorry for late reply, dug my head into ETF and REITS after reading all these suggestions, first steps in reading all those websites and get to know more on these. Thanks very much for the advices all~
Will update if theres any exciting news hehe.

.

This post has been edited by 126126: Oct 18 2020, 10:59 AM

FIREd = financially independent and retired early

for a FIREd family,....it need to take into consideration whether those investment spelled out are enough to generate returns that are consistently and more than enough months after months to meet the monthly expenses required for the family.

thus you need to spell out the amount required for the family and the returns generated by those investment to determine if improvement to your current portfolio is good enough or not.

Hi, appreciate your feedback. Lets just assume in this case the numbers/returns required for the family are sufficiently catered for.

Just hoping to hear opinions on how else to allocate the pie and what other alternative investments are there for a retirement portfolio.

if/when that is the case, then your portfolio is good enough...

for how others allocate the pie....well as for me, i think it depends on personal preferences, past experiences, personal needs, total financial assets, etc, etc
Their selections may not suit all...just like your selected port...you have 54% in Equity related investment...(property + stock mkts).....which may not go down well with others that questions "what if the mkts goes down and stayed down for a few years?
well, then unless the "passive income" from the returns of your Cash in FD, ASNB FP and EPF can provides enough to sustain your family needs during that period.

on your questions on alternate investment for retirement...
googled and found these
investment vehicles during retirement
https://www.google.com/search?ei=3vRvX5fCF9...Q4dUDCA0&uact=5

hope it can provide you will some ideas as to other alternative investments are there for a retirement portfolio.

This post has been edited by MUM: Sep 27 2020, 10:49 AM

Where can I get index fund in Malaysia?

Hi, congratulations on achieving the much vaunted FIRE lifestyle.

Without knowing the actual returns and your expenses, it's hard to comment further on the viability of your mix, but if you've managed to keep afloat and stayed FIRE'ed thus far, then the ballpark answer is "yes, you're doing it right - keep calm & carry on ".

IMHO, there's no real/ideal mix - I'm property & bond heavy, and I'm still able to reap returns of around 5% (which beats my benchmark of 2.5% of Singapore's CPF, since I'm based in Singapore), and thus, I can do without the stress of the market volatility. Having said that, I managed to pick up quite a few local banking stocks (the usual suspects - UOB, DBS & OCBC) at multiyear lows, but that's mainly for dividend returns - and the way I see it, there's more upside than down, so there you go. Your mileage may vary, of course.

Good luck & well done!

You can purchase fund via e-Toro online.

Can check out EFT
https://www.bursamalaysia.com/trade/our_pro...ge_traded_funds
or FSM Malaysia

FYI eToro is unlicensed by SC and is still on the alert list from SC
https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/etor...censed-entities
https://www.sc.com.my/regulation/enforcemen...stor-alert-list

Somewhere is there a Wiki for young Malaysian millennials on how to get started on a long term unit trust investment plan?

Hi, i've been reading a lot about passive and active income and i'm trying to see if there are more options for me to invest. I'm in my early 30s and not married yet.

Breakdown of current investments are as below:
a) 51% on a condo - Being tenanted at 2.4k/month
b) 12% on KLSE (growth and dividend stocks)
c) 1% cash, 1% FD, 1% PRS, 1% mutual
d) 4% on Amanah Saham variable and fixed priced funds
e) 21% on EPF
f) 9% on US stocks

Other than the condo, i do not have any loans at the moment. My expenditure is kept at a very minimum level.

What other investment options i should look at?

This post has been edited by silverwave: Sep 28 2020, 10:47 PM

how many % of your current income are being used to pay the loan of the condo?
how many % can you save pm from your current pay PLUS rental from condo after MINUS all other expenses (including loan repayment and condo fees)

This post has been edited by MUM: Sep 28 2020, 10:57 PM

Probably about 1/3 of the income when i was working and I usually pay more to clear the loan faster. I'm not working now (on a short break) but the loan has been paid in advance for 2 years.

At least 40%-50% can be saved after deducting all.