<< it is true that <<SOME>> financial planners do not need to work>>

agreed! but i'm just making statement just like how "If the pro is so good, they will be rich. Why do they want to work and give others advices?" without adding "why do SOME of them want to work", if you define "help" as "work" that is. but i am glad that we've redefined by adding "some".
"So, why should a client show his/her financial document to you??"

agreed again! heck, why would a client show me? i never demanded clients to show me their financial statements! heck! why do i even have a client? i'm not providing any financial services! one should at least tell his/her finance situation to the financial planner because it is she/he who went to the financial planner's help, but with financial documents, it's just easier, but thats entirely up to him/her. only if a stranger (cyberspace or otherwise) demands your financial documents, should you be alarmed and inform the police.

note: an unit trust consultant or a insurance agent CANNOT claim that she/he is a financial consultant. it is wrong.
"tell people to be very careful about seeking advice until they have some financial knowledge"

there's no argument why i said you have top notch knowledge on finances, because i can't agree more with you! advising people and teaching them about finances is what we do. or excuse me, at least some of us do (i do). some of us do not demand financial documents before helping or threaten other people to force them to sign up because it is unethical, you can lose your license and more importantly it;s their money, wanting to invest or not is their choice. a choice which i pay uttermost respect. as i have always insisted, the final decision is the investor's. if he/she still do not understand, ask more!
but the last part, i do agree again but i have to something to add. if one have little or no financial knowledge, he/she will get killed by fees and commissions by those institutions and not knowing it. but the odd thing is, isn't it you STILL get killed by fees and commissions even though you have financial knowledge but still invest in them? and the worst is, getting killed while KNOWING IT?

there'd be a lot corpses if people do get killed by fees and commissions because public mutual alone has 1,000,000 living account holders! but ofcourse, the term "killed" is not taken literally here. but did 1 million people invest with financial knowledge or did not? it's either those that does not have financial knowledge should invest in FD or have financial knowledge invest in anything else than doesn't have "killer" fees, but 1 million is a HUGE amount! then again what constitute to "killer" fees? a 7% tops service charge when you buy? and an annual fee of 1.56%? (info from Here). lets take for example that i have invested 100K in 2006, i do lose out 7K but i made 24K (+26.01%)in a year after deducting the annual fee. and bring foward my 117K this year, i've gained 25K more year to date. i only lose out on the annual management fee because there isn't service charge anymore! ofcourse they still do get paid annual fee regardless if the market did go down, but hey! doesn't capitalists want to earn more money by making your fund to perform better? so does 1.56% really does earn the nick of "killer fee"? perhaps they should make a horror movie about killer fees, where investors would die after investing a year when the institution charge investors their annual fee. i also know that if an investor has RM5K at NAV in some of the public mutual's fund, she or he is covered by free basic insurance at no additional cost, hidden or otherwise.
i'm just a newbie compared to few thousand posts. as a junior, i do agree with dreamer in his previous post. he is right. if one doesn't want to learn anything, then stick with FD that offers 3.7% a year with he/she needing not to monitor the money. but she/he would be losing out on so many other opportunities! but FD doesn't have risk? there is one at least that also shares with other types of investments. can it perform more than inflation rate? the choice is yours, investor.
edit : "be killed by fees and commission by those glorified sales persons of UT, Insurance and so on.." since i'm a newb, does this mean that if i go straight to the company without going through the agents, i get to save on the agent commissions and not get killed by the killer fees? if yes, please do enlighten us (me especially) which company so that i can buy for myself and recommend others. or if they still charge the same, should i totally forfeit in buying unit trusts and especially insurance?

dude, u got creamed and u r turning the other cheek!

then let me give you a statement : "if i'm a financial consultant, you can't ask for my financial statements because it's like u going to a doctor to operate on your rectum, and asking the doctor to show u his rectum before you do so! You can ask me for ppl whom I have helped and who recommend me, but what does my financial statement have anything to do with helping to set your finances straight? And if you don't show me your "rectum", how am I suppose to help you?" Tell me whether you agree or not to the statement.

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Added on July 9, 2007, 12:17 pmLet's say there's this guy, who has worked for a number of years, and have some money to invest, but he has little knowledge of investment. How does he start? He looks in internet, he talks to his investor friends, he looks as historical statistics, he talks to pro consultants.

But until he actually takes the plunge and does the investment himself, he won't be able to learn much. So what to do? Start small! People don't invest to lose money, but you have to have the mindset to learn from every mistakes and if you lose your investment it's not the end of the world. Learn and do, and losing is part of the game, some ppl have the stomach for it, some don't. And don't be egoistic and think you are weak because you don't have it. There are many forms of real life investment, and not all are suitable for everyone.

Let me see your tax return first and confirm that you are rich before we start talking.

wrong example on doctor's case.  Should be to show the past patients record that he operate b4 not show his own rectum. 

Hi guys,

Yeah. Living frugally is something I practice. I believe in delay gratification. Even if I die tomorrow, no regrets. Just like others, I had my fair share of credit card debts when I was younger and credit card is something very interesting to me. I work from home so I dun need a car although I have one for transportation.

Currently looking for a property as I'm living with my parents now and need to plan for my future. It's more for my own stay than investment. Some people say better buy now because it's getting more expensive, some say wait until KLSE crash then ppl will sell their house to pay for debt. I also dunno la which one is true. Can't predict the future, right?

Anyway, you guys are right. There's no need to build 70% of my salary but more of my expenses. Unit trust seems like favourite these days but haven't done much research on it so far. Stocks are getting too expensive plus I have no time to research about it just yet. FD seems to offer something too low.

Any more advice for a financial idiot like me?

Cheers,
AC

A thumb up for your good discipline.  here are my thoughts.  Housing boom and burst usually takes place in a prolong cycle like every 10-15 or so, therefore you really can't 'sit it out' if you want to get a house now.  Buying house is an expensive undertaking, DO NOT BUY THE BIGGEST HOUSE YOUR COULD AFFORD, this is because when you add up with the various fixed and variable expenses (installment, insurance, maintenance, assessments etc), the overall cost is very high.  It is better to treat the house as an liability than asset.

On how to enlarge your saving nest, I have a different opinion.  You are in your 20's and even your are a risk averse person, it still make sense to allocate a large portion (> 50%) on higher returns investments.  This is your wealth creation phrase, not preservation.  FD does very little to advance the creation purpose.  You can mixed your stock portfolio with blue chips (need very little time to monitor), small caps & maybe some short-term 'speculative' stocks.

Cheers

www.smartconsumerbanking.com

I earn 1.5k after my EPF and SOCSO deduction. Petrol and tolls take me 400 a month, about 200 for mobile phone, 88 for streamyx, 120 for insurance, car maintenance average 40 a month, 200 for education loan, 200 for family. I know I need to change my lifestyle to reduce my expenses, but I have no idea how to...

Last time back 70-80's, people don't treat car, handphone, petrol bill is necessity in their life, that's one the reason why your parents or grandparents can save so much last time out. Nowadays, especially younger generation keep on changing handphone, new car, even treat weekends movie etc also a must in their life.

Also older generation generally is much hardwork compared to the newage people (surely not all, but compared to percentage wise, it is lesser nowadays no offence). Last time (80's) you tell your workers to work for 7 days/week for production rush to complete an orders, not much problem or resistance from the workers.

in that case, we should work smart and hard?

so let's not talk about the older generation. how about our own generation? ever thought of buying your own house? ever thought of the loan? a maximum of 30 years loan. if you're lucky enough to purchase your own hosue by the age of 25, a 30 years loan would be just enough, it'll be fully paid off by the time u retire. yet, how many of us get to own our own property by the age of 25?
what i'm trying to say is that, the ordinary 9 - 5 job isn't gonna take us far.  not even far enough for some ppl. if you wanna generate more income, then i think it's time to think out of the box, step out of your comfort zone and try doing something else, take some risk while you're still young.

3) If you get a chance, go and look at the salary thread.  We have people earning 2K and saves 50% of their income.  Meanwhile, there are people that earn 5K to 6K and spend it all.  It is ALL YOUR CHOICE.

FYI, I do come across some people manage to save 75% out of just 2K income. These people are indeed VERY FRUGAL, probably most average people will call them stingy.