it's not wise to even dump 1 ringgit in such a scheme.

Please don't advertise any get-rich-schemes here. Any service or company that promotes get-rich-schemes are liars and cheaters in my opinion.

Saving 100K is a great achievement - you should fell good about it. Although yes, in perspective, 100K looks smaller these days, but still you should feel confident abt having such money in the bank. It's at least 3 years of expenses covered just in case!

Most graduates I know who are now at age 27-28 may not have been able to save that much in KL. If you think about salary for professionals starting at 2.5K at graduation, most ppl by age 27 will get bumped up to about 6-7K if they have been focused and successful. At the same time, living costs in KL if you did not live with your folks/relatives, can cost up to 2K+ per month, + so many other distractions like clubbing, mobile phones expenses, holidays, karaoke, nice clothes, nice restaurants, nice car, petrol, upgrades to you car, etc. even buy expensive watches to keep up with appearances - hence the low savings. That's why going overseas actually is good cos you have less of these distractions.

It's always good to have some back up cash: 20-30K or 1 yr of expenses is more than enough. Then you should put the rest of the money into small real estate investments. It's always ok to start small. You learn just as much cos you will need to do all the same homework as you would do for investing in a bigger piece of real estate. For e.g.there were some studio units launched 2 years back by MK Land in Damansara Perdana. They were going for RM100K. You can put 10K down, and then borrow 90K and service the monthly repayment ~ RM700 inclusive of maintenance. The bank usually approves the loan if the monthly repayment is about 30-45% of your gross salary.

Today the units are ready, the rental for basic unit is rented out at RM750 and the studios are being sold upwards of RM130K!!! You've just created wealth either in a positive cashflow stream of RM50 per month (inflation of rent will make this higher) or in RM30K of equity (before tax)!!!

Depending on the individual location/market you may want to keep or sell the unit. Either way you would have learnt alot from having to:

1) survey the market/location/company so that you can continue to find good deals
2) perform all your cashflow calculations (in this case your cashf outflow is fixed at RM700 but your rent is already giving you positive RM50, and with inflation, rental will go up, but your loan repayment will not move very much - it will if you take a BLR + loan)
3) sum up your courage and intelligence to transact in this deal and mitigate all your risks/concerns by talking to ppl and asking a bunch of stupid questions (we all learn from the ground up)
4) understand that MRTA is better than taking out life insurance
5) learn to be a landlord
6) do a similar deal quickly when the opportunity arises

Remember, start small, then you can move on to bigger units. You can even start with low cost housing, I know some people started with investing in RM80K type of housing, of course, do all the same homework - cashflow (can it be +ve cashflow generating? by looking at the potential rental, or look at completed units).

Then you can sleep well at night - stable job (with increments every year), stable rental (you can adjust for inflation) and enough cash in the bank in case you need it.

Good luck. Now you can also do this without RPGT.

The only other thing I'd add is to develop a skill such as plumbing, painting or electrician. Nothing to do with being a landlord, but I feel this skill is in danger of becoming a shortage cos everyone wants to work in an office/factory. If you develop such skills from the ground up, and you can speak good english, I believe there's a lot of "banana" clients whom will want to deal with you. After a while you don't even do the job yourself you just hire some ppl, you supervise.

I say this because all my parents' good friends who are now retired or having an easy life have started successful businesses from the very ground up - car air con repair, duck rice stall to owning the whole coffeeshop, electrical wiring business, etc.

Very sound advice from dopey (Not so dopey after all, it seems).

Billy, you've only told us about your part of the financial story. Since you are getting married soon, you must plan your finances with your soon to be new bride.

Being a graduate, I guess we can safely assume that she has a good monthly income and will also have a substantial lump of savings too.

Combine your savings and I'm sure you'll be able to afford a decent single storey house in and around KL. She'll probably have a car too, so sell off one of the cars so that you can further reduce your costs there.

Also, because your wife has a stable income, you can actually consider doing business that are more risky. Coz to me, being your own boss is always better than being an employee.

Go and plan with your soon to be wife, and all the best!

Sorry Dopey, I have to disagree with you.



If you have seen Jobstreet's or Personal Money's recent salary guide, you'll know that an average graduate with five years' experience earns only RM2.5k-3.5K. Only those in certain fields (investment banking, oil & gas etc), managers and the exceptional few earn a salary of 6-7k at the age of 27. Yeah, good salesperson can earn 6-7k too, but mainly from commission. MOST 27-year-olds only dream of 6-7k salary.




So overseas don't have all these distractions? Hmmm, maybe Iran or Zimbabwe don't have-lah. The key is having the discipline to resist the temptations to buy, buy, buy ...



You were referring to Ritze Perdana. *Cough*Cough* the rental is actually RM650 upwards. But I don't have issues with the rest of what you wrote.



This is a very good point. I'm a banana myself

Overall, an informative contribution

This post has been edited by Addicted2Money: May 17 2007, 01:30 AM

((most ppl age 27 will get 6 - 7 k salary ????????))

hey, u think malaysia standard is the same as west ?6-7 k being what job ?clean?

to the thread starter, i think u were sort of like aeroplane jumping, right ? from what u told, i think it is most appropriate to take ur 100k to get involve in business. a potential business, not those cyber cafe,handphone shop.....and also forget all those ridiculous FD,ASB,UNIT TRUST.

property is a good long term investment.but, u nede to have a stable financial background. rentingout will not always promise what u been dreamt.still, is risky.

This post has been edited by a6meister: May 17 2007, 10:13 AM

I think Dopey's post makes a lot of sense.

Just a few points to note. I probably have to agree to some extent on Dopey's point about being less distracted whilst overseas when it comes to spending money unnecessarily on nice cars, entertainment etc. I think wherever we are in this world, we will always be tempted by nice things as long as they are accessible to us. However, the difference probably lies in how much we are willing to pay for access to those things. I currently work and live in the UK and find that entertainment can be quite costly. A few examples :

1) A typical cover charge to enter clubs is £20 (RM140) and that does give you a free drink. One drink in a UK nightclub costs a minimum of £4 (RM28). And the concept of opening a bottle of JD is almost non-existent. In KL, cover charges are almost non-existent if you are willing to share amongst friends to 'open bottle'. One bottle of JD is approx RM350, split amongst 5 friends - that's RM70 per person plus at least 3 glasses of drinks each for the rest of the night.

2) Cinema - One ticket at TGV costs RM10. One cinema ticket here costs between £8 to £14 (RM56-RM98) depending on cinema and location.

Of course the argument is that I'm earning in GBP so the conversion costs should not affect me. True, but also my income tax rate is 40% and all UK employees have to contribute a further 2.5% of gross salaries to National Health Insurance. This effectively reduces my nett income to about half and hence reducing my purchasing power.

With the knowledge that I have rent to cover every month as well, it really puts me off spending so much unnecessarily on entertainment/clothes. It's hard sometimes because who can resist clothes right? After all, I am a girl and I love to shop. But I think once you have lived here and realise your purchasing power, you will realise that you really should resist temptation most of the time.

It's like eating out vs cooking. Eating out in London can set you back about £6 to £10 for a normal one-person meal in a chinese restaurant. For that same amount you can buy groceries (meat, veggie and fruits) to last you at least 4 days. It's not only me - trust me, ask Malaysians here in London if they willingly eat out every night. Nobody does.

If want to shop, wait for the summer/winter sales. You can almost buy anything you want at greatly reduced prices.

Car? Most people are happy to just take public transportation here. In UK, you have to pay for a Congestion Charge just to drive in London. Plus parking and car insurance is not cheap at all.

any investment can be successful if you have enough knowledge about it. lack of knowledge is putting your money at risk.

if i may understand you correctly from what you've said.. you're moving from a saver to an investor/businessman.

mind you, this transition can be scary and exciting for those unprepared. you may listen to alot of recommendations.. but the more important thing is, are you prepared mentally to cross this treshold?

alot of expensive mistakes can incur if you just dunk your head into it. the way how money are made is very different from being a saver to an investor.

learn all the asset classes (e.g fixed income, equity, derrivaties, commodities, etc) as each of them have their tantrums and hypeness(aka pro and cons).

learn about asset allocation (it's a simple term.. but if you grasp the idea, it's one of fundamental of good wealth management)

all the best

some businessman willing to take huge risk on their business, just imagine putting their house/car/land.. everything to the bank and take out a loan.

maybe perhaps people have forgotten about this term called "calculated risk"? isn't this, the epitome of a healthly asset allocation.

Thanks again for all the feedback and advice from everyone in this thread. Since the time I wrote this topic till now, there has been some major changes to my life which I made for the past couple of months.

I've set myself some targets when I wrote this post am trying to achieve it, but unfortunately it is all not going according to plan. But what the hell, this is life, not some precision assembly factory, some cock-ups are expected.


I have so far spoken to my partner about our future and we have decided to buy a house for ourselves. So this is one new financial burden I have to live with for the next 25 years. We are planning to marry sometime next year or so, when the house is ready so there is still time for that.

I've been looking for jobs in the market and have so far yielded none that can suit my expectations. I was hoping to get something which I can lend my current work experience to so I'm still holding out for something better. Its not like I'm out of work so at the moment, it is not a desperate situation. Still thinking whether to completely change industry or to stay in my current one.

I have spoken to a few close friends about the prospect of opening a business, two of them are now in some form of business on top of their daily job. One seem to be successful and the other is still looking for his footing. But both are happy about their achievements and I feel happy for them as well. I can't seem to find the same enthusiasm they both have though, so it's still not an option for me.

I have started looking at numerous investments in the market and will try my hand at a few soon, namely unit trusts and the stock market. Nothing big, just testing the waters.

Dopey,
the house I'm going to buy with my partner now is a form of investment itself. Although we don't plan on selling it the moment it is built but the idea will probably spring itself up when the market heats up a bit. For now, the plan is to get cosy and build a family. But like I said, if the market does heat up to a point that it is favourable for us to sell it, then we probably will. No emotional attachment whatsoever yet.

Zombie,
thanks for the advice. My partner still seem to hate the idea of working . She still hopes she is going to be a housewife after marriage, I of course will remind her of the reality we will be facing. To be honest, I hope for that as well. Well, only time will tell.

lwb,
thanks for the advice about the saver to investor thing. I am like you describe and will be very prudent in any investment I decide to go into. Although its hard to shake off the saver out of me, I believe it is a good thing to be mindful of all costs.

Again, thanks for all the comments and please don't stop here, keep the comments and advices and warnings coming. I believe this is good education for all.

100k..i would say all dump to proton's share when the price below rm6...i'm sure the price will up back to >rm9 in this few months time..haha

put into bank? invest some small biz?

If you want to start biz...
100k could be enough to start own business and become a boss. But truly one thing if you want to start own business, you gotta work triple hard than a normal employee coz it's ur biz though. think about competitivenes, your marketing strategies and so on. many things need to take into account. some people throw 100k to start up their own biz eventually all burn out coz they just wanted to invest money to generate good return but negligence about biz planning. You could consult financial analyst to get what are the current biz great in demand. or look for reliable partner, your friends perhaps to join partner to reduce your cost. Any Biz coud be profit one depends on how you capitalize on your biz and utilise your resources. Like me, I have a friend from Bangladesh, he was just a college student but he is doing ~RM2000 extra income for himself just by renting condo unit. He rented from owner then rent it out again. He has 10 units on hand and each mark up RM200. I'm also doing that though. What you need to do just to find tenants. That's all. And currently i'm also looking some products from China to import. coz it's very low cost!

If you want to invest...
I have a friend investing in swiss cash, public mutual. Swiss Cash fund is an internet-based investment program promoted by Swiss Mutual Fund, a fund management company claimed to be registered overseas, and the investment opportunities in the fund is offered through the Internet and local agents. But people is skeptical coz Swiss Cash is not licensed or exempted from licensing by Bank Negara Malaysia to accept deposits nor is it licensed by the Securities Commission to carry out asset management activities or services in Malaysia. But it still survives more than 15 years in Malaysia. and people like me still investing in it to make profits. it just depends on you want to take the risk or not. everything related to money surely come with risk, this is for sure. your mind must think beyond that rather than just saving money to buy house or car...this evetually increase your burden. As you said you're going to marry, have you thought of life after marriage? you mentioned your partner is likely to be housewife, then certainly you will be carried heavier responsibilities.

I'm 24 years old and going to be 25...sooner or later to be like you too. I only have 10k to by the time i started all this. so who care? as long as you make it right and always stay wise for your planning then you'll be reaching your target. I believe you have gone thru so many Gurus and mentor given your expertise advise and make an arrangement for yourself which path you'll be choosing. One last thing, tell you the truth, rememeber what Mahathir said before? Bring Back Your Money to Malaysia, it does make sense coz Malaysia is a good place to do biz.

God luck to you~ and have a great wedding ahead! All the best to you~

go to bank auction n bought 6 shop houses at 15k each...
then wait maybe 20 years n each unit will cost 100k tat time..

buy some very profitable lands around kl (if got la)...not those stupid ads on profitable plots in UK
haha

or buy one small place in australia...then rent/sell it off

if u want to make more, get those financial consultants from the trust co's and get their advice...
or u might as well put in fixed deposits...
it depends i think whats ur goal

but invest in anything that will reap benefits...in large amounts...in long term...this will guarantee great gains...what more now our money doing ok...
real property is usually the way
dont put the money in anything that sounds too good to be true

This post has been edited by gtoforce: Jun 11 2007, 02:52 AM

pls don simply give ideas without further explaination with facts...

Well I would think what you should do to invest your RM100K depends a lot on your area of expertise.

If you are in the property industry you would be more fammiliar, have access to information or better deals to homes. I know people who buy houses at below market price, buy homes to invest at cheaper interest rates,*cough* "make full use of their bumi status" *cough* or have access to more premium land lots eg. in front of fields.

If you are working in the finance industry, you will be more fammiliar with trends than others & the people there are usually forced to keep up with times. These guys are in a better position than others to invest directly in the stock market or bonds. But please don't abuse insider information.

If you are the typical Joe you might be better off investing in FD or funds. If you are truely unfammiliar about investments FD may be the best for you. But cause FD doesn't really earn you much you have to focus more on your job which you are fammiliar with.

Well then if you are very good at running your own company. Investing more in your company may be a good idea. Otherwise simply use your money to "refinance" everything. I mean you could use your 100k to repay as many of your debts as possible. Since your debts may average around 8% repaying these debts is like making an investment of 8% to you. But obviously start with the highest interest charging ones first.

The last one is also applicable for everyone else. You can use your 100k to repay all your credit cards (it will be like 18% return investment), repaying your housing loans (7%) or whatever loan.




Well so basically in short invest on where you have a competitive edge on.

give it to me,