FREE GIFT : Suggest a new URL for this blog !

I have been writting this blog for a few months now.  I think this blog has enough content in it to deserve a URL at its own.  So whoever read this please suggest a URL name by leaving a comment.  If I pick your URL I will be sending you a book "Top Money Tips for Malaysian" for FREE if your receiving address is in Malaysia, else I will be sharing some of the great ebooks I have with you.  If you already have kclau's book, then I will try my best to come up with another great book for you.  You can leave as many comments as you want.  Some reasoning with your suggested URL is greatly appreciate too !

These are what I have done trying to find a good URL but without success yet.

malaysiaPersonalFinance.com - too long, first time visitors have to type too long. typo etc.

then I tried some myPF.com mtPF.com myMoney etc but all these domains are no longer available.  To see if your suggested domain is still available, you can use whois.ws

then I was hoping to try with some branding like meshio.com, so I was thinking to start with some pronounciation that will not be ambigous.  So I listed down all the possible pronounciation and found out that most of them would still lead to miss-intrepretation like B is like P, D is like T.  Very soon, I was left with only C, F, H and Y.  So add 5 vowels to these 4 letters I have 20 options.  However, quite a lot of these 20s are also ambigous like YE is like YI, YU is like U etc.  So the best matches I can come up with this exercise is haha.com, fafi.com alike.  Most of them are also not available and doesn't really sound good anyway.

So now you can see that I really need your help, its not just a year end give away thing ... please please please ask your friends to come suggest too !

I have tried my best to provide useful content for the past few months, I hope it has been benefitial to some of you.

2008 was an interesting year for me considering the downfall and how I dealt with it ... Merry Christmas to you all and may 2009 be a better year for us all !

Traffic of this blog is shown in below graph : top 90 visitors / day, average 38, recently drops to 20s due to my trips away.

It will need a permanent URL before bringing it to its next height.  I am counting on you ....

just in case above FREE gift does not excite you, there are a few hundred stuff that I trade ... you may also pick from that list once I select your suggestion.  

http://saltlamp2u.com : 

http://klsmihosting.com/baocabin/catalog2.htm : etc.

Red Indian Winter Stock Market

It was autumn, and the Red Indians asked their new Chief if the winter
was going to be cold or mild. Since he is young and being a Red Indian chief in a

modern society, he couldn't tell what the weather was going to be.

Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he replied to his Tribe that the yes

winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village
should collect wood to be prepared.

But also being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea.
He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and
asked 'Is the coming winter going to be cold?'

'It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold indeed,'
the weather man Responded.

So the Chief went back to his people and told them to collect even
more wood. A week later, he called the National Weather Service again.
'Is it going to be a very cold winter?'

'Yes,' the man at National Wea ther Service again replied, 'It seems it is

definitely going to be a very cold winter.'

The Chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect
every scrap of wood they could find. Two weeks later, he called the
National Weather Service again. 'Are you absolutely sure that the
winter is going to be very cold?'

'Absolutely,' The Man replied. 'It's going to be one of the
coldest winters ever.'

'How can you be so sure?' the Chief asked.

The weatherman replied, 'The Red Indians are collecting wood like Crazy.'

This is basically how Stock Markets work ! and how we have so many half-past-six gurus.

Book : Top Money Tips for Malaysians by kclau.com

I am one of the lucky ones who started finance planning even when I was a teenager.  Ofcourse when I put my money into mutual funds at that time, I didn't really know what I was doing.  However, starting early does give me a strong advantage 10-20 years down the road.  I was able to choose the jobs that suits my long term plan;  I was able to change job duties within a multi national company; I was able to change job at my own pase and finally I was able to start my business without too much worry of losing monthly salary income.

However, the curse for this kind of 'smooth path' people is that we tends to stay in the 'well plan' zone too long until we get carry away.  We 'thought' we are all ok and therefore we got relax and start to make some fatal mistake in our personal finance plans.

That is the good thing about reading habit.  I realize my pitfall when I read kclau latest book "Top Money Tips for Malaysians".  There are so many tips in there that I once know but forgot to practise them ...

You can view more details at kclau's blog or buy a copy from me at this link.

western 2009 prediction

Some predictions are made in this link, summary as follow

1. Yahoo! will trade higher in 2009 

2. Sirius XM won't file for bankruptcy 

Losing 95% of its price this year, writer think it will still go on.

3. Tech will lead the market recovery 

writer thinks Apple and Google will make a big Come Back.

4. Chinese stocks will outperform stateside equities 

writer recommends NASDQA:BIDU a google equivalent search engine in China called Baidu

Danger of Technical Analysis

If you know charts, then you probably should know there is a X and Y axis.

In technical charting, X axis is usually Time.  The Time can be month, week, day or even minutes.

Understanding the reasons behind technical chart is tough, but using it is very simple.

For example, chart below has 3 graphs in it.

1.  the top graph show the price info, its called candle stick ( don't worry, will be shared more later )

2.  The below 2 graphs are analysis telling you when to buy and when to sell

3.  when the red line cross above, BUY.  when the red line cross below, SELL.

Now back to the danger part.  Below chart is shown in a 5 minutes X axis.  Both signals are asking you to BUY

However, below is another chart showing exactly the same stock but in 1 minute duration.  In this chart, the signal is telling you to SELL !


Although this may be confusing but even the best Technical Analyst in the market sometimes make mistake forgeting to counter check the X axis and recommend wrongly.

Technical Analysis vs Fundamentals

I have shared some methods to invest before ...

When to Buy at What Price

Why use EPS and PE ?

...

Those are within the category of fundamental analysis.  Basically you are trying to understand what a business is doing and how it 'may' perform in future.  Fundamentalist is trying to differentiate the big and important factors from the smaller factors or rumors ...

Sometimes even though the fundamental of a business is strong but its stock price may still go down if the demand is suddenly drop while the supply remains the same.  So even a totally rediculous rumor can affect stock price seriously in a particular time, as long as the demand believes it.  As the description of this blog mention, 90% of the people will take silly rumors as truth.

Fundamental also include effect of news.  If a company announces good year end result, its stock price may most probably go up.  However, you may observe that the stock price actually go up even before the announcement is made - its called react before the news.

As you may see now, fundamental analysis is great for long term wealth accumulation from time A to time B.  However, there may be a lot of ups and downs in between.  If you are able to catch the ups and downs in between you may be able to gain more, like wise if you 'guess' wrong, then you may lose more than what long term gain can get you.

You may NOT be able go guess right the lowest and the top points EVERY times, but there is a SYSTEMATIC / Statistical way to identify (1) end of the lowest point and (2) the end of the highest peak.

In other words, you may use Technical Analysis to catch the

(1) after lowest point and

(2) after the peak

The idea is this ... no matter if it is rumor or insider news, it will be reflected on the actual buy and sell price.  That's why Technical Analysis can NEVER catch or predict the actual bottom or peak, but it can usually catch the after effect.

If all these are TRUE, this is what you can do to lower your risk while maintaining your reward.

1.  use fundamental to filter out which stock to buy ( can keep long term )

2.  use technical analysis to 'further' narrowing the 'in' and 'out' timing.

... stay tune ... you are able to reach the 'sure win' arena ...

Wiki : Usury

Usury (pronounced /ˈjuːʒəri/, comes from the Medieval Latin usuria, "interest" or "excessive interest", from the Latin usura "interest") originally meant the charging of interest onloans. This would have included charging a fee for the use of money, such as at a bureau de change. After countries legislated to limit the rate of interest on loans, usury came to mean the interest above the lawful rate. In common usage today, the word means the charging of unreasonable or relatively high rates of interest. As such, the term is largely derived from Abrahamic religious principles; Riba is the corresponding Islamic term.

I have posted many storiesabout how money turns evil ...

many people may says that capitalism is not good because the rich gets richer ... actually its not the capitalism, its just the way the money is defined.

Again ... its all about a large population of under educated public being abused by a small group of smarter people.

This problem has been known LONG ago and well documented almost in ALL kind of religions ...

Fund Managers Are Lousy !

I attended one pursuing session urging us to take their classes on technical stock assesment.  Half way through the following conversation took place :

speaker : You know who uses our services ? ( Technical Chart )

( pause a bit, no one answer, then speaker continue )

speaker : Profesionals ! ... You know who are the pros ?

( then he continued )

speaker : Fund Managers !

student : but .... its hard to say isn't it ?

student : all those mutual funds drop like hell so they are not any better than us.  How to say they are pros ?

The speaker didn't answer well and almost no one signed up with their offers.

Basically its a matter of size.

I used to sell lemonade when I was a boy.  I made about 100-200% profit a day.  Then when I grow up I built a factory to sell lemonade, I would be happy if I can earn 10-15% a year.

Selling lemonade from my garage required $100 capital while a facotry took up $1 million.  

Things get complicated

when size grows !

It is very hard for a $100,000 guy to understand how to handle $2 billions.

BIG guys like mutual fund managers do have some 'limitations' because they are BIG !

1) They cann't simply buy or sell too much funds by law, coz they may 'manipulate' the market at ease

2) They promised investors to keep '80%' of the fund in the market to qualify as 'quity' fund etc.

emphasize on Automated Saving again

Some of you who has been reading my blog may have seen this picture below many times.

Basically this diagram is almost all about what I preach about in personal finance.

The first thing to do is not to buy insurance nor any investment plans.  The first thing to do is to transfer money from your income into a "Money earn Money" (MeM) acount.

It should have a few unique qualifying features:

1.  It always have a positive interest, no matter how low it gets.

2.  has limited convinience to withdraw money out from this MeM acount.

So it could even be just a normal saving account with low interest.

The 'flow' from Income to MeM should be Automated.  Once setup, you should forget about this MeM account too.  That way this MeM is really passive, definitely accumulating and safe from weak EQ withdrawal.

Another version of Money Crisis theory

OMG, after I posted up how Money Turns Evil ( Part 1 Part 2Part 3 ) , more and more people mentioned it too.  Below video is another version of it - speaking in Chinese.

Famous Successful Business man talk about Finance Crisis using his own theories.

The way he talks may be a bit bore but he actually suggested how to solve today's crisis !!

by having a modern day barter system !! One of the post I drafted but haven't posted up yet.

Money As Debt Video

I have told a long story how Money Turns Evil in the past.  ( Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 )  The last part was actually more like a basic tutorial to forex trading as a matter of fact.

Anyway, I read from Meshio blog about an interesting video - Money As Debt.  The story line may have some similarity to my story but this video is 10 times better !!

A 47-minute animated short by Paul Grignon (via BB) explaining how the monetary system used to be, and how the existing mo

netary system works

 

Have FUN watching !!

Book : Get Your FIRST car FREE !!

I mentioned before the biggest personal finance challenge in Malaysia is to buy car due to its rediculous high taxation (read this old blog here).

However recently I received a book from my sifu's sifu titled "TOP Money TIPS for Malaysians".

( read how happy I was in my personal blog here )

Written by KC Lau, one of the pioneers in Malaysia Personal Finance Blogging world !!

... guess what !

This books shows you HOW you can get your FIRST car FOR FREE !!!

It is totally mind blowing !

How could I have NOT thought of it myself !!  I regret so much that by now I already have had own 3 cars.

Why didn't I read this book earlier !  Argh !!!!

Don't make the same mistake I did.  You should go get this book now !  ( Click here to read more about it and BUY IT ! )

One more thing, this FREE CAR tip is only 3 pages out of the whole 208 pages !!  Imagine all the other tips that can help you Save More, Make More and Protect your Money !

Different types of Incomes

One of the famous income categorization is the one by Rich Dad, Poor Dad:

E is when you get paid when you do your job, usually within a fix amount of time or a pre-determined achievement list.  The good thing is your income is relatively consistent.  If you are the 9-5 type worker, even if you go to work and surf the net the whole day, you still get paid that day !!

S is when you think you are doing a business but actually you are not.  Basically you are still selling your time and effort in a linear way.  At the moment you cut down your time or your effort, your income drops accordingly.  The good thing is if you are a very hard working person, you are mostly likely to earn a lot.

B is when you have an idea and you get other people to make that happen.  You are Managing it but you are NOT Doing it.  Significant differences between S and B is that B is operated within a well established "system" while in S, you are the system itself.

I is when you keep your money in FD and every month your money increases.

The problem of Robert's first book 

is that he didn't say 

this Quadrant is a concept, 

NOT a finite categorization.

May be he did but not emphasized enough.

For example, a worker who goes to work everyday, just do whatever asked to do and waiting for month end paycheck falls under E.

However, if another worker is expanding his personal network during his career in order to move up the rank and also join better bigger companies could be considered as S.  He could be treating his employers as his customers, whom he pleases the customers in order to get paid higher and higher.

E worker works from 9 to 5, selling time for money.  S worker may not appear in office all the time but his mind is definitely 24 hours online thinking how to expand his 'business'.  Most CEOs operate their jobs like a Self Employed business.

Beggar who beg 9 to 5 can be considered doing a 'job' as E.  Beggar who analysed what places to be at what time to maximize his 'income' could be a S.  Beggar who gather other beggars to learn his begging strategy while he no longer go out to beg but share a commision of what other beggars have beg could be a B.

So wherever you are whatever you are doing now, you can do it the E way, the S way or B and I ways.  Its a matter of HOW you earn your income, NOT what you do.

One more heads up ... I also think Robert miss out one very important category.  There are a total of 5 income category types, not just 4.

(the 5th income category here, published 7 Jan 2009)