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!

Can feel a lot of negative energy from 99percent and unker dreamer. Everything is no good and hopeless in their perspective 

I hope other readers will not be discouraged. Good times and bad times are part of investment. The path won't be smooth. We just have to do the right thing, hopefully ahead of the good and bad times.

But if you are not prepared and done nothing yet, then just have to manage the unexpected and minimize the damage to the lowest possible level. Like the damage to your RM, still not too late to salvage. All you got to do is find the window and opportunity in the volatile market and act bold and fast. Once you make your first step, even if it is a small amount, I am sure you will feel a lot better (because you did something)

Unker,

It is simple modern economics. As proven in the economic recession/boom of many countries over the past few decades. Also the same for oil price for the past few decades as well. They rise and fall and rise back. They all experience economic cycles.

Burma and Philippines are more like lagging behind the other countries instead of "never recover". They progress at a much slower pace

Be more positive. Death may be a good thing. You could go to heaven and meet your loved ones who went there before you (like parents etc). I would love to meet my grandmother again 

Don't get me wrong. I am saying good or bad things don't last forever. But that doesn't mean we should not diversify our investment. Diversification is the management of our investment risk. We should do it even if times are good

My post you replied to was intended to encourage the readers because those posts by you and 99percent today have too much negative energy. It is bad for health    The bad times might be here, but be more positive and everyone can make a better decision

While I am no proponent of the current government's policy, please take a look at the following graph of GDP per capita for Malaysia

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/malaysia/gdp-per-capita  Press the "Max" button for 1960 numbers.

Look at the ups and downs. It follows economic cycle, like all other countries in the modern times. On some years, a country may encounter set backs, but they recovered.

However, if you say Malaysia is lagging behind other countries given the vast resources, then I fully agree.

Unker, if you don't mind me asking, how long have you migrated to the USA ?

Would you be able to set a timeframe ? Argue and debate on a specific event is meaningless without a time frame.

It's like saying "based on my opinion, you will get sick one day and never recover". Of course a person will get sick. And he has a chance to die as well. If you want the debate to be meaningful, then a timeframe would help a lot.
I believe our discussion here is on your assertion that "Malaysia will be down and never recover". I have showed you historically malaysia, like any other economies, experienced ups and downs. And there is no occasion since its independence that malaysia was "down and never recovered". Same for oil. Look at the oil price history chart. Oil price never stay at the top and stay there, nor sink to the bottom and never recover. It has its own economic cycle.

On diversification, it is another matter all together. We should diversify our investment for risk management. I agree on this point. I have done that myself. For others who have not done so, I don't think it is too late. They should seriously look at it and take the opportunity when US$ takes a breather. Risk management is fluid and dynamic. We should re-balance based on the market movement. US$ maybe strong now, but it will have its bad times in the future, and we should do another re-balancing when that happens.

As we speak, the windows of opportunity on US$ on Friday has lapsed. It has gone up from 4.20xx. Now it is approaching 4.25 soon.

Most malaysian are influenced by herd behaviour, blind by greed, trapped and refused to listen to alternative opinion.

the issue with our gomen is expenditure will increase much faster than revenue. More and more gomen borrowing, guarantee will be off budget.

Malaysia will certainly recovered to pre crisis status but falling behind neighborhood countries.

Oil is a commodity, commodity price is cyclic.

the gomen is keeping it close lip as don't want sabahan to ask for higher loyalty payment.

Nor do they have any business nous. That's why they can't generate long term sustainable business strategies. Their vision is all very short term.
They have no ideas of diversification of income streams, relying solely on natural resource most times. There is no vision of value adding. This shows their traits of lazy approach to long term sustainability. 

All these and the demands of NEP bears on them like a perpetual anchor.

i like to see how crocked their present budget is. Is it true that this year's budget was based on $85 oil???????????? 
i heard it from analyst on tv.

At the rate MYR is going, I think the govt should implement Capital Control. Currently many biz are affected, esp those who buy in USD and pay in credit, currency exchange loss would have kill the biz if it continues.