Hi to all financial gurus here, just dropping by to ask your oppinion.

I recently have managed myself to save for my wedding at the next year. So, since it will be at least 6 month before I actually gonna use it for the wedding expenses, I have some considerable ammount of money in my bank account...

And knowing banks just dont provide good dividens/interest, its kinda sad just watching my money just sitting there doing nothing...

So, do you have any suggestion for a short term investment (6 month or so) that I can get my hands into.. maybe FDs or Unit trustes.. Any ideas guys...

Thanks for the advice newbie99. I understand your point of view.. Actually I came accross with the idea because i have been monitoring in general some of the unit pricess after the financial meltdown.. and it seems to be rising up quite steadily.. Thats why I would love to jump the bandwagon as well.. Anyway, let say I put them in FD, what are the risk or even charges that might applies and need to know? By the way, any other ideas? Thanks for the reply though.

You calculate with your new salary, so that you have a higher target to achieve to befit your new earning power. This formula actually encourage you to save and invest.

Bros...thank you for the comments.
The points stated above are really worth a ponder to me..

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Added on May 3, 2010, 10:59 am
Dreamer, just a question for you, no hard feelings, aight?

You can choose to anwer or not to answer my questions below, just for my benchmarking.

1. How old are you now? age range i mean
2. How much is your family's take home income per month?
3. Which state are you staying in Malaysia?
4. What field and what occupation are you in?
5. What are your goals in life?
6. What do you plan to do with your accumulated savings?
7. What machines do you use to maximise your current wealth?

I hope to get some specific answers from you before proceeding my queries.
Thank You

Well I do, since rentals form a large chunk of my income, so I included it. Basically the income is as per reported for income tax. 

I admit, for myself, there are times I feel: what's all this? working and saving? being frugal and savvy in all aspects of life?
In the end, my children get to enjoy the life I worked so hard for.
Yes, I admit my parents led a similar life, working hard, saving every cents, and providing us with the best, but I really beg to differ at times.
That's why I am savvy on my own expenditure, but when it comes to parents, wife, siblings and friends, I spent.
It is some sort of gratification to them who made me who I am.
p/s:
If you noticed, I stated I am planning to trade in my wife's 2004 saga.
She commutes to and fro her work place in KL every day, and the manual gear of the saga is dreadfull during a jam(which is always the case).
Her safety is my utmost concern, so I will need a car with good safety features.
Another fact we should face is, Malaysian made cars are really not that up to standard in many aspects.

newbie99,

Any advise on how you assume savings for children's tertiary educations?

Just FYI, I might adopt my mom's EVIL way of providing.
When we were in secondary school, this sentence is a norm.
"I will only provide you all up to secondary education, from then on, university or college, that's on your own."
In that, she meant that if any of us do not secure a scholarship or loan, we can forget about furthering our studies and go for STPM instead.

That's why I don't think savings for tertiary education for children is that important compared to family assurance etc.
I plan to make my statement clearly understood when I have kids.
IMO, spoon fed kids most probably end up spoilt.

I had a rather stringent childhood myself, and we are all doing considerably fine at the moment. 

I had no computer games, no ultraman, no gameboy, no sega etc
I had my 1st nokia 3310 when I was 18years old.   
I had my 1st PC when I was in University.       

But I stand where I am today, not considered successful as yet, but better off compared to my peers who were really a happy child when they were young.
That's why i still strongly believe in my parents' parenting ways.

I use a measure of inflation rate to keep the amount in focus, if i ignore inflation rate, then it will be quite hard to plan for a target in 20 years (since investing month by month basis). Real returns matter, but if you can account for inflation rate (and beat it) it keeps the target realistic.  Anyway everyone have different style of calculation.

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Added on May 3, 2010, 9:44 pm

Yes, I also follow this 4% rule, assuming your investment stays above the inflation rate.  To achieve this, I still have a while to go as the asset required number is 7 figures... in 20+ years time. 

newbie99,

1) How old are you??

2) Worked for 20+ years and let see whether you feel the SAME way again.

3) FREEDOM.. You are FREE to CHOOSE what to work and how much to work.  You are FREE to tell YOUR BOSS to go and fly kite if you want to.  You are FREE to say NO to unreasonable request.

Dreamer

P.S.:  From my career standpoint, I had achieved whatever that I setup to achieve.  And, I have the FINANCIAL FREEDOM to earn less and CHOOSE to do what I like.  I could not had done that aka demote to Engineer from Manager if I am NOT financially secure to do that.

Looks like I am the youngest in this current discussion.
Looking forward to more constructive inputs from seniors.

Hi masters,

How come I have seen many younger people besides me staying in bungalows of 1.3Million , where I am now 34 and I cannot even afford a 300K home?

sad

Anyway, seriously need advice here. I can save about 5K a month Nett, currently finished paying car loan and not owning a home (renting in KL, plus don't see the need to at the moment because got a family home somewhere else that is from parents, which I plan to stay when i got older and to take care of them... not planning to get married).

Wish to achieve financial freedom sooner , and find myself very miserable in my current job (have you got that feeling every morning when you get to work and you have this 'sigh' thing?).

I don't see myself getting happier with this job, and am considering taking a few months off to rethink of priorities in life or maybe get a new job.  got options to be richer like owning another person's business but I don't think I'll be happy.

In a quandary. Should I just quit my job and take this few months off to study about financial markets, REITS, etc , investment? OR should I hang on with this hated job for a while..

advice appreciated. Anyway, what will you guys invest in with average of 5K savings a month? I have parked 'enough' money in PNB funds and I don't think I want to invest more in that, looking to diversify.

Thanks guru!

yw88,

If you can DELIVER 10% annual return, why do you NEED any customer??  You can take a bank loan and make yourself RICH. 

This is the PROBLEM that I have with this kind of post.

This is call "Bait and Switch" sales tactic.

Bait -> You tell people that benefit -> Huge profit, XXX percent and so on..

But,

Switch -> You do not tell people the cost and risk until people get caught and it is TOO LATE.

If you are NOT confident enough to tell people the WHOLE PICTURE, DO NOT SELL!!!

It is VERY SIMPLE.

1) If you CANNOT DELIVER 10% annual return to yourself, what is the LIKELIHOOD that you can do it for OTHERS.

2) If you CAN DELIVER 10% annual return to yourself, you DO NOT NEED customer

It is just take a bit of COMMON SENSE to see through this kind of BS.

Dreamer

I dunno whether it is allowed or not to do this at here........if it is not allowed just delete my post......

I am an wealth planner which planning the financial issue for whole family or individual so that they wont face any financial problem in the future......

Basically, what i provided is one account that include saving, investment, medical card and insurance which i think it is necessary for everyone. The investment in this account do give high return of about 10% per annum, which I think better to invest here rather than put the money into other place which give low interest rate.

BTW, if any further information needed or you interest of this account, you can PM me or CALL me for any inquiry or appointment to meet up and I will explain everything for you.
Thanks.

Vincent Tee
016-6668600
email : winter_win88@hotmail.com

of course the 10% is not guaranteed ...but based on our company previous performance, its actual return is more than 10% per annum.
OK, I din state clear here and that is why there is a need of appointment to make it clear. It is basically an investment linked account which must include insurance. And the portion of insurance and investment is 1 to 5, which mean u can invest RM500 per month with RM100 insurance per month.

BTW, personal loan is 12% per annum and i dont think i will purposely loan to invest lo.

IF it is not guaranteed , then can use any " forecast"  rate. 20% or more.

BUT FOR MARKETING ANY INVESTMENT PRODUCTS, THE AGENTS NEED TO WARN INVESTORS THAT THEIR INVESTMENTS MIGHT SUFFER LOSSES IN THE FUTURE TOO.

That  is a fair statement, and shall be disclosed willingly.

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Added on May 4, 2010, 7:53 pm
The fundamental essence of an insurance policy is to give PROTECTION. Investment is secondary.

Trying to sell AS IF it is better than Unit Trust, people would know how to judge according.

Consumers could be better educated than the agents , commonly  in Malaysia.

Wow, less than one thousand a month for expenses when you are married and have at least one kid seems impossibly low to me. I am married but with no kids, and I estimate our food costs (including eating out) alone to be at least 1k.

EDITED TO ADD:

Also, do you really think a mutual fund can average at least 7% a year over a span of 30 years? Remember that there are years when you lose money instead of earning, so that has to be averaged out. I use an average of only 5% for my own retirement plans. If I can rely on 7%, I will be able to retire much earlier than planned!

Hi guys,

I've got around 20k capital to invest in property which I was planning to but then now I plan to buy a used car bcos current car breaking down soon (worth 60k). And if i were planning to put a large down payment, there goes my capital   am planning to take 5 years loan and after that I should be able to invest in housing property, am not sure if this is this the proper way 

Any comments?