Hello gurus, this is a good thread to read..

but i just have one question... why do Brunei dollar is higher compared to myr in view of being the same oil producing countries which is affected by the price falling commodities.

where as brunei to sing dollar is at 1:1 appx.

or is it our country fundamentals that are dragging ringgit down?

p/s: still trying to read all the posts here

Hi MGM,.. about the chart, if you say that the level is the same between today and three years ago, then I would say that dividend has not been factored in.

For the REITs in my portfolio, I can tell for certain that the yield has been, on the average, at least 4% per year for the last THREE years, using your frame of time reference. I checked my updated spreadsheet a moment ago, the yield is at 7.98%.

My unrealized capital gain is now at 38%. Let's take a quarter of that, hence at 9.5%, since we are going to use the last three years as the time reference.

So, totalling up the above : 4% + 9.5% = 13% gain.

Had you invested SGD100K into SGREITs three years ago, then : SGD100K + 13% gain = SGD113000 sitting in Singapore now.

If you liquidate and realize your profits by selling-off everything and converting back into the RM, bringing back to Msia to invest more into the ASX, you would have : SGD113000 x 2.98 (conservative exchange rate) = MYR336740 dropping into your bank account.

You would have profited by : MYR336740 - MYR250000 = MYR86740.[SIZE=7]

I have taken very, very conservative figures in my calculation. The profit figure derived above should be higher !

The snag here is : the above calculation is based on my portfolio of REITs and some Dividend Stocks. Not across the board of REITs.

MGM,

1) I do not invest in Malaysia.  I believe Malaysia is DOOM.  It will crash and NEVER RECOVER.  The ONLY QUESTION is whether people get their money and asset out of the country before it is too late.

2) I do not know how to invest on properties.

Dreamer

let's recap...!

the usd strengthening or rm weakening started about a year ago, sometime in oct 2014 when rate was about 3.30.

on 6 jan 2015, a thread emerged on the subject:
https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/3461956

that day, rate had already moved to 3.56.

today, it is 4.20. peak day closing was 4.339 on 8 sep 2015.

so, from a year ago, -27%.
from jan, i.e. 9 months, -18%.

let's not worry about how right or wrong anyone has been or how clever or silly some comments were since jan but spend more time on what has been useful in protecting one's blood sweat and tears rm savings.

i recall some methods thrown out. how useful or useless have they been?

let's not bother with rm denominated methods as there is no fx involved.

my take over the last 1 year:

1. us stocks/etf's - on average, there is zero cap gain, maybe a small loss. plain fx gains, excl transaction costs.

2. sg stocks/reits - stocks probably lower but with fx gains; sg reits not much cap gain but dividends and fx gains.

3. gold - flat in usd, no dividends, fx gain less buy-sell spread.

4. dual currency/foreign currency accounts; usd or sgd cash - pure fx gains less buy-sell spread.

5. european, asian, emerging markets stocks, unit trusts, other funds - pls comment as i hv no idea.

6. what else?

the clear and present danger: all this is not going away anytime soon. it may be only the beginning of a long period of volatility and uncertainty. there is still the fed rate hike issue, china's slowing economy, commodities supercycle at bottom, oil price may fall further, continued currency wars, etc. plus our infamous local politics, of course.

i personally have done a bit of 1 and 2, quite glad i did that. wish i had done more.

for the young with zero savings or debt but plenty of energy, the world is there for you.

for the about to retire, pensioners or wheelchaired, what you have is all you got; lose it, get robbed or get devalued, no one will help you.

even bnm governor has advised us to "adjust".

it is a major and serious issue that impact all of us.

lastly, saying "other countries also affected" does not help, we all already know, no need to dwell on that.
so, pls comment and share yr experience, plans and what not!

Don't go to uni..

Tell your son to come out and work.. or get a vocational degree such as technician, electrician or something that pays you well whilst you study.

In no way will he be able to repay you his study loan.

And what's the point of spending 500k only to come out and work for 1.5k salary.. better to take the 500k and start a business straight away..

fair enough.. just make sure you advise him well.

His generation will enter the job force with much lesser work going around. He needs to prepare for it well in advance..

A very good perspective of someone well-invested in local economy.

MGM,.. you mentioned you have approx. 6%-8% every year. Is the bigger portion of this 6% to 8% from ASX ? I believed you do have a substantial amount in ASX !

We are not talking about quantity here, or who has more money here.

Yes, my percentage is more than yours,.. and you can still live with a percentage half of mine. But if you are not diversified adequately, this percentage you are earning is highly at risk, and tends to erode your purchasing power soon.

Should be one of the factors that make Sgp great. Still,..need to be careful. Look what happened to our Iskandar ?

the federal gov really gave Singapore a slap in the face by imposing vehicle per-entry fee. singaporeans are the biggest investors/spenders in Johor.

I fully agrees with this. But I think oil prices will always be below usd30/barrel to suppress shale oil.

The Saudis have reserve which can last them 20+ years. The rest of the world aren't that lucky. So it will be see who will bleed first.
They can increase the price of oil but then the shale will become profitable. Then they need to lower it compete with shale.

this alternative report about hlib is quite different:
such low confidence from an ib, might as well say 3.0 to 5.0!