All,

FREEDOM.  Get to spend and live your life in the way that you want.  That is my definition of success in life.

Dreamer

jongkolkhoo,

There are MANY paths to wealth.  There are ALL consists of variations of EARN, SAVE. and INVEST.

It takes different kind of person to do business.  I am from a small business family and I know the trouble involved in dealing with business.  I am not suitable for business.  I am NOT street smart.  But, I earn several times more that normal people in salary.  So, my path is to save as much of my income and invest wisely.  And, that is enough.

So, eazy   is relative to the person.  We all have to find what is best for us.

Thank you for your compliment.  I am the way that I am because I had been through TOO MANY recessions.  And, looks like we are coming into another big one.

Dreamer

You see 'where you are'. People go to shopping mall, most likely to shop (window shopping of coz), I'm not surprised if they spend over there. People go to restaurant to eat, hence youll see a lot ppl eating like no tomorrow

You should be more worried if nobody is spending in shopping mall...

Dreamer,

It is ok to be skeptical over an agent's intention. Perhaps is a valid concern. As I mentioned in my last reply to Cherroy, if you are ever thinking of investing in UT, do some reading youself and decide. Perhaps it helps you to make a better decision in all investments you are intended to go for. Ask for the track record of the UTC (unit trust companies) for an indication of the fund managers' ability.

Talk about the %  commission you need to pay to UTC for the funds invested. Do allow me to point out some facts:-

Do you know how the rich have their money managed? I am sure the rich biz man out there have no time to sit in front of a computer and start monitoring their shares/properties etc. I know a rich Dato, hoping to do his biz, of course I failed. Why, because he has his very own fund manager to manage his portfolio with a fees, of course. No one will do any job for free, especially the professional. And I am sure they charged a lot higher since the service is personal

So we ask ourselves, we only have 1k to invest, which professional fund manager is kind enough to bother me? the answer, is NO (of course!) Then how? the poor is not fit to do his/her financial planning, just because he/she failed to have million of dollars to hire a personal professional fund manager?

UT is so far one of the best possible channel for ppl like us to HIRE the professional fund manger to manage our money and to make a return that helps us to at least preserve the value of our hard earned money. The best point is regardless you invest 1k or you invest 1 million, the treatment is the same. If the 1 million is being spread to 100 counters, your 1k will be spread to 100 counters as well; and managed by the same fund manager. That's how UT works.  So, how can it be free?

5-7% upfront commission is only paid when you first invest in a fund and if you kept your fund for let say 10 years or so (which most ppl do, especially the young investors), you are mainly paying 0.5 - 0.7% per year to hire your own Fund Managers. Is that too expensive? That's why it is the agent to advise the investors to keep the fund more than 3 -5 years due to this initial entry cost.

The 1.5% annual maintanance fees, is already reflected in the daily price of the fund. So if you are reading the track record of the funds, this annual fees has already been taken care off. In other words, when you see the track records of the fund, you do not need to deduct the annual fee from the return again.