So here is my question to all the 'sifus' and gurus. What or rather How should I invest RM100k which has been accumulated over the years?

Some info:
1. RM100k in bank, normal savings account.
2. Monthly income expected to be around RM2.5K a month.
3. Monthly expenditure is expectd to be RM2.3k to 2.4k.
4. Expected savings from monthly expenditure will be low.
5. Only SPM qualification so far.
6. Planning to start family soon as well. 1 year.

How can I make this RM100k make me more money than I can earn so that can save more?

Options being considered:
1. Fixed deposit long and short term.
2. Real estate investment.
3. Unit trust.
4. Stock market speculation.
5. Start business as my own boss.
6. Invest in business as a partner.
7. Invest in education and get better job.

What do you ladies and gentleman think?

This post has been edited by billycomeback: Feb 13 2007, 03:11 AM

Thanks for the replies guys, really appreciate it.

The 100k saved was a result of working my ass off overseas. Now that I'm planning to come back to Malaysia for good, I doubt I can get any high paying jobs for now, hence the Rm2.5k expected salary. All my expenses includes car loan and the rent for the home I'm staying in. I'm not a Bumi so ASB is out I guess.

The thought of studying again to get a Diploma or a Degree was to improve my job prospect in the future, so I don't get stuck with a low income. Looking at engineering courses or in IT since I have experience and interest in both. (worked in manufacturing and love computers) Education is still expensive in Malaysia in my opinion but I guess it is offset in the future. By the way, I'm already 27 this year so I'm not getting younger . The problem with education is, I would either have to do it part time while I work or do those distance learning courses. Not too sure if the distance learning degrees are good enough though.

"Blow it on sex, drugs and alcohol. Waste the rest." Hehehe, been there done that and got the t-shirt.

The real-estate investment idea, I got it from this forum, but I have no idea whatsoever about it. Never owned my own house before, so it is in the pipeline to get a house for my family. Is it a good idea? Or should I just continue renting?

Regarding business, I have a friend who runs a cafe business, his business is good but it is not his business, just running it with the owners being sleeper investors. So he always thought of coming out on his own, I thought if I had the money and no idea how to use it, I would help him with some capital and I get some of the profits while he runs it. Still nothing planned yet, just an idea when he told me of his intentions.

So the general advice I'm getting is to put the bulk of my savings in a FD account to earn interest while I wait for opportunities to arise. My partner has been talking about investing in unit trust as a future savings for our family, but I haven't really checked out anything so far. This forum seem to like Public Mutual, I guess that is what I'll check first. Does it really take up to 5 years to see a good margin of profit? Wouldn't the stock market crash cause it to come down?

Hmmm, I always try to avoid stock markets but the promise of very good returns always tempt me to try at least once to see it for myself. Still have no guts to put money in it though. So is the stock market gonna crash anytime soon or is it the low season already?

Thanks again for all the helpful responses. I will take your advice and put some of my savings in a FD account for now and try to figure what I want to do with the rest. Keep your ideas coming though, as I think there are others as well with some savings to use but don't know how. Funny I always thought when I had money, everything would be easier, now that I have some I get even more confused than before.

I'm sorry I wasn't clear in my first post so apologies for that. But yes I do have RM100k in the bank at the moment. If you read my 1st post carefully and my subsequent post in the 1st page, I meant to say my 'expected' salary and my 'expected' expenditure. As explained in my 2nd post, I worked overseas and I'm planning to be back in Malaysia soon to start a family to settle down. Since I will not be earning anything comparable to what I was earning before, thus the RM2.5k expected salary based on my SPM. Took me about 5 years to get that amount although I worked a little longer but I wasted it all on booze, sex and rock and roll before i realised my mistakes. If not I could've saved almost double of what I have now.

Thanks to all again for the advice. The FD route will be what I'm choosing for now. Probably take out some for my marriage and probably further education if I can find a job with time enough to do part time studies. I don't think I want to work offshore to be honest, as that means I'll be away from the family again so it won't mean any difference to what I was doing before.

I will hold the thought of investing in stocks for now although I have already received PMs from financial advisors. Some of my friends also offered their financial advice so I'll just be patient and wait for the right time.

"If I were the threadstarter,

i'll get married as fast as possible! To get a true trustworthy life-time financial planner for me! ...um... No, no... i won't go oversea. "

Hahahaha true true. My partner already trying to control me financially already.

True, I can't seem to figure out how much a marriage will cost until I see a marriage counsellor, but overall, I believe it won't be a big spending spree. Planning to keep it simple yet memorable, and hopefully the angpows I get can cover some of the cost involved.


Yeah the salary part is my biggest worry to be honest. I'm not even sure what I can get with my qualification. The Rm2.5k is just a guesstimate at best, not even sure what the market is like these days in Malaysia. Already registered for the local online job search websites, now just to test the market to see what I am offered.

My partner has no problems I suppose, already has a degree and working in a reputable company in Malaysia. So I don't worry much about her, only myself because I can't stand the thought of being unable to provide for my family.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'this by the best interest rate you can get for your capital.', but let's just say I'm paying a RM400 rent every month which would make my yearly rent to be around RM4800. So do you mean I divide this by the amount of interest I can earn from the capital I'm willing to put down for a house?

It is greener because I earn more, but the reason I saved so much is because I have no life there. I saved where I can and hardly spend on anything other than the necessary. There are other colleagues of mine that have worked outside their country for so long that they don't even see their children more than 2 weeks a year. It becomes like a self imposed prison because the money is so good, it would be crazy to quit their jobs and go back home at their education level. I don't want that kind of life, so I decided to come back early when I'm still young to start myself new so I don't fall into the same situation. Money isn't everything. It's a means to an end but it should never control your life.

Thanks for your advice dreamer101 and also empyreal regarding house buying. I've done some thinking as well about buying a house, it will be a hard decision but most likely will involve some kind of beneficial loans from banks which I have family working in. Still too early for that at the moment but your advice will be in my head of course. I won't increase my monthly expenditure too much just to pay for a house compared to renting a house. I'm wondering though, is it possible to pay the entire amount for the house? Is it worth it? Because if I can find a medium cost house, I might share it with a family member to pay for the entire house in full so no loans will be applied. Just wondering if it is a wise thing to do.

Don't think I'll do insurance selling to be honest. I have a habit of avoiding insurance agent friends, not that I don't like them, but I treat them the same like MLM friends. Just something I'll try not to do, unless I have tried every possibility. No offence to any agents out there, I respect your job as a provider of a service, I just don't feel comfortable with certain sales tactics that are questionable. Maybe just me and my suspicious outlook.

Regarding wedding, absolutely impossible to have a small dinner with immediate families. It would be a PR disaster for me and gf hahahaha. My side would probably think I'm such a 'scrooge' and her side would think I'm trying to hide the marriage from public like as though it is something wrong hahahaha. So it would be a reasonably sized dinner, nothing pompous or extravagant, just simple and easy. Just need to convince the other side to do the same....

I thought about that before but money changer is a definite no-no because the capital needed is too big. Air ticket seller sounds like a credible business since Air-travel in Malaysia will be broadening with Air-Asia selling cheap flights but then Air-asia doesn't have plane tickets. They just give you the booking number and thats it.


Maybe if I can't survive in Malaysia after trying then maybe I would consider the option of "jump plane" again. I've seen people make it with minimum wage, I believe I can too. But if it really is bad beyond my expectation, I will probably look for other opportunities elsewhere then.

Thanks dreamer101 for your replies.

1) So being auditied is a bad thing, am I right? Never paid any land taxes before, not sure if house is considered as well.

2) Medium cost to me would be around RM80k - RM130K. I might be willing to go up to RM150k if it is really worth it and I can source other funds from my family. But I'm trying to find something within the RM120k and below range.

3) I've thought about this and I am keeping an eye around my neighbourhood and nearby housing estate as it is where I would like to live in. Problem about desperate seller is, I'm afraid I might inherit the problems by the previous owner, like debt collectors, bad luck or even supernatural forces. I guess it come with the package.

I've been looking and asking around about what to do with my money from close friends and relatives. Most ask me to get ready to settle down but keep a good part of it for emergency and investments. Settling down meaning, buying a house and a family car.

I've also let my friends know that I am interested in businesses they run or have contact with. Just to see how it runs and test the waters. No commitments as yet. But it's kind of hard to commit money into a business I have no passion about, so I'm still a little doubtful about it.

Job vacancies has been a bit slow so far, but I'm hoping it would pick up after Chinese New Year, so I'm not that worried about it at the moment. Planning to take up a Diploma course as well to back myself up and to sort of certify my experience.

This Chinese New Year has so far been great and I believe it will get better. So I hope I can do reasonably well for myself and I wished everyone celebrating a Happy Chinese New Year and Prosperity to all in this coming years.

Thanks again for all the comments and suggestions from everyone. A lot of good points I feel has been shared and I feel some other souls can benefit from the ideas in this thread.

1) Ahh no problem then, already proven since I worked outside the country and I'm taxed there, so I won't get taxed again in Malaysia. I've checked this once and I'm sure it still holds true, but I will check again when the time comes.

2) Regarding house renovation and such, I've only factored in about RM10K or so for some simple renovations, since most of my furniture from my rented house will be going to the new house. Of course for older homes, I would need to fork out more for renovations and paint. As this won't be my 2nd home, most of my furniture from my rented home will be reused and it should be sufficient for another 5 years or so.

3) Yeah very true I suppose, no reason to go in blindly and inherit every problem that made the seller desperate in the first place.

Thanks for your feedback and suggestions dreamer101, I really appreciated it. I'm still driving a small car so it's no problem. Will probably upgrade it to a slightly bigger car if I start to have kids. What's wrong with hatch-backs? Too small?

Fortunately my partner is currently in a comfortable position where she works and she likes to be near her family so it has been pondered upon and the decision was that she maintains her status and I should be the one to see how I can improve my situation. If my plan backfires completely, at least she still holds a stable position for both of us as we ride out the storm.

English SPM onli leh But thank you for your compliment. I guess it's because I speak English to everyone I know. Unfortunately my Chinese language is not on par with my English. Some people call me a 'banana'. (Yellow outside, white inside.)

Yeah, I believe what you say is true, for KL medium cost would be in the range of RM160k - RM300k. Thankfully my hometown is still affordable so I hope to find one nice place to live in that fits my budget.

Yup, I'm following what the others have advised me to do. The current stock market correction is making me excited and am looking at some blue-chip stock as an investment opportunity when the price drop some more.

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.

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.

Thank you Derek. It is always been a dream of mine to be educated abroad and also to get a degree like most of my friends have done when they finished secondary school. Unfortunately for me, the interest to study is there but the inability to finance it is the prime reason I am working overseas. Until now, I still have some hope that I would be able to start studying again but it is getting fainter as I get older and more commitments. Hopefully, when I start working in Malaysia, I can find some time to do some part time studying.

I fully agree with you about planning my commitments according to what I can afford. It is my hope that my future expenditures won't be so taxing on me as I am preparing for it now. What you did with your savings is a great way to accumulate not only your wealth but your confidence as well in managing your money. Although I commend your efforts to discipline your expenditures, I hope you have kept an open mind about buying a house. It should not be a rush but it is better to be on a lookout for a house always rather than looking for it once you achieve something like a RM6k pay. This could save you a lot if you happen to find a good deal and will keep you abreast of property prices. Just keep an eye for your future house or what house you plan to have in the future, by visiting property launches and houses for sale. There are no commitments for doing those but it will equipped you with the knowledge of terrain and keep track of development cycles.

Regarding marriage, I remember my mother used to say "When you have money, girls will flock to you." Now this is true for the most part, as girls DO really flock to you when you have cash to splurge. But these aren't the kind of girls you want to spend the rest of your life's with. Thankfully, my partner and I have been going out for a long time even before I started work and the decision to marry was not in rush or by surprise. Here is a little advice from a person going to get married, the decision doesn't come like a sudden idea popping on top of your head. Time will mold your thoughts to a point where marriage isn't a big thing anymore, more like a customary event just for the convenience of administration. I hope that doesn't pop the romantism bubble you guys and girls have out there regarding marriage. Hahaha a bit boring the way I explained it.


Lcsx, you are absolutely right about debt there. I don't believe in "rolling" money. I only believe in one thing and that is CASH in hand. Hopefully one fine day I can truly say I will be debt free or financially free.


And a special mention to ansonz. I will NEVER put my money into some get rich scheme and if it is my loss not to do so, then so be it. So Swisscash or swissmutual or any other internet investment scams out there that even has the word swiss in it is definitely out of the question. I hope you don't truly believe that they are actually real and that they have really been operating for even the past decade. Try to research your investments and not believe the advertisements.