The dividend declared by EPF for 2007 was 5.8%. Compared that with housing loan interests which at the moment is as good as BLR - 2.2% (EON Bank Print Media advertisements). So the current BLR is 6.75% and minusing 2.2%, you get 4.55%. Then you take 5.8% and subtract that with 4.55% you get 1.25%. Doesn’t sound like much you say? Well, for a RM300K loan, you will save RM3,750 per annum or translated to a savings of more than RM300 per month. Now, isn’t that a lot? The money saved could be used to buy a new car even.

So a lot of people who do not do their homework, will withdraw from Account 2 and end up “losing” some savings.

I hope you find the above tip useful. I am thinking about revamping this blog where I offer to provide different financial scenarios as case study. So if you have any queries, feel free to leave me a comment, I will strive to answer them to my best of abilities.

In one of the industry where I was involved (technically I am still involved as the company is still on going though I have let it survive on its own for the last 18 months). I used to control the southern region market for a particular product which most of you are likely to have in your house or office. But some overzealous sales people decided to cut me out and proceed directly with some of my dealers and hence I saw that a price war is looming. So I made a quick exit and decided to watch from sideline. Sure enough the price for that product fell dramatically.

I was advised by some seniors in that principal to remain in the sideline until things becomes favourable. So much so that things are starting to look up again and the principals in USA decided enough is enough and wants to clean up the market a bit. Here I am back on the drawing table to prepare for my next round of battle.

I always believe if you have integrity in what you do and that you are keen to develop market rather than destroy it, your principals will always return to you and give you the product which everyone wants to buy. What product it is? hahaha.. those bloggers that knows me will know what it is.. for others.. stay tune for clues ;-)

Does it matter if he is or was nasty to you? Afterall, if you want to do business, you are in it to make money or profit. Do you think by boycotting that person, you will send that message across and he will come begging you to take him back? This is afterall NOT a love relationship where one has to give in.

I always believe that in business, both parties must learn to accommodate one another’s bad habit and then to ensure the deal is done with success benefit to both parties alike. Allow me to give you an example.

If an angel falls from the sky and told you, “Hey I am going to make you $100,000 richer but the catch is, the person whom you hated the most will be enriched by $500,000. However, if you choose not to receive the $100,000, the other person will not receive a single cent.”

So which path will you choose? Most people will mix their emotion in and say they rather not have the $100,000 as they will not enjoy the $100,000 as their worst enemy has gotten a lot more than them. But couldn’t they see it from another perspective where they had been enriched by $100,000 which makes them better than most people?

If it had been me, I would use the $100,000 and make sure i invest in high yielding investment and hopefully will help me yield more than $500,000 to even things out. Set $500,000 as a goal where you want to reach and then do even better than just $500,000. Without the $100,000 as a base, you may lose out on a huge opportunity.

Tags: emotion, business, decision

But is there such a card? I cannot remember who started all these rebates first but if I am not mistaken, it should have been Citibank. But the other credit cards follow suit and to this date, I do not know which offers what. But one card that sticks to my mind a bit is that UOB credit card that helps you save on your carrefour shopping. Afterall, hypermarket already offer you a pretty good value for your shopping budget, surely another couple of percentage rebates will help? Yeah. There is a card for petrol fuel savings from Petronas and Shell. I am not too hyped up about savings on car repairs, etc as I believe my foreman is much better than that and he doesn’t has merchant facilities.

Shop around for the best card, I still believe in saving every single ringgit you earn. Plus you get points with your purchase which makes more sense when you redeem them for vouchers later.

Tags: credit, card, UOB, citibank, save, money, rebates, petronas, shell

Okay back to the topic. I always promised readers that this blog had been created to help those achieve financial discipline and in the longer term financial independence. You need discipline before you can achieve independence. Any other way to financial independence would mean you have taken short cuts and hence may not be good when it comes to maintaining your independence.

Just an indication of the number of loans I have under me. Think somewhere in the middle of 0 and 100, and you will find the answer. I don’t want to be too explicit. Fact is because of the volume of loans I have with bankers, there are certain priviledge which I can negotiate for.

The interest at the moment on the market for residential properties have dropped to BLR - 2.0%. I know most banks can offer that rate to you. So if you notice your rates are way above that for the tenure of your loan, make your way to the nearest branch that services your loan, and demand a reduction. Yeah, you heard me. But ensure you have been a good paymaster. Otherwise any demand would fall onto deaf ears. The banking industry has never been this competitive in the market. Many smaller banks are feeling the pressure to match the loan pricing and frankly, most banks would take a bit more than two years to recover the cost of the loan which is why they are tying you in for 5 years strictly.

Even if you are within the penalty period, but if you have been a good paymaster, the banks are likely to reconsider your demand. So if you managed to save XXX amount of money, please do not hesistate to leave a comment. I would love to see more and more of you save money from the tips here.

p.s. I know a couple of bankers who would offer lower, but that is for you to find out who they are and what they can offer. Never feel shy in asking your bank for a lower rates.

Tags: bank, loans, interest, rates, reduction, negotiate

Rather than writing on the social aspect of the entire experience, I will concentrate on the business aspect of how Proton’s authorised agents or Proton themselves could have better themselves in the above case.

Take for example, companies like Dell. With news of their exploding laptops circulating around the world even though it was just one single unit (isolated event), they went into damage control and immediately investigated the matter and traced the source to their Sony manufactured batteries. Then immediately there was a world wide recall for the affected batteries models. Dell gained a lot more goodwill even though it costs them millions of dollars in that recall exercise.

Yet another example, Apple iPod. When it was launched initially, it had a lot of problems with batteries with many users claimed faulty just after the 12 months warranty. Worldwide condemnation of Apple inaction over the matter and these correctly exerted pressure resulted in Apple’s top brass finally giving in by giving the old customers discounted vouchers over their next purchase and fixing batteries at no costs.

The way the story goes for Jennifer, it seems that the business is being run by some chinaman (probably true but without offence to chinaman businessmen). They try to minimise their costs and if this case is well publicised, tell me, how many would dare to venture into that Proton in Ampang for their next purchase? Plus the fact that Proton is on an upward trend showing signs of good quality in their last few product launches, this sort of news, if I were proton, would endeavour to keep hush hush. What’s RM60,000 to Proton? They can splash so much money on advertising but yet allow a public complain to go astray.

Shame on you Proton.

Frankly, personally for me 5.8% isn’t bad though I must say 2007, Malaysia EPF should have done well given that Bursa was going through the roof with an all time high limelight on plantation stocks. I wonder how much interest EPF has on plantation stocks. Sime Darby came out of a mandatory rest with an all time high pricing becoming the largest stock in Malaysia. Now that TMT (Telekom, Maybank and Tenaga) are no longer the stelwart of our economy.

EPF has also gone into foreign territory after being allowed to do so by law. It may do EPF good if they could list all the investment they have made and those that they made during the current year. How much money are we paying EPF to manage our money and how much money they used to salvage certain government entities.

But as for me, this year, I wanna ensure I get my money out and then pay off some housing loans and then refinance my housing loan again to get a lump sum of money and together with my savings (which I have been saving for in the last 6 years) for this coming financial crisis to buy as much share as possible even if it means margin account.

Like what the Singapore government says it could be a once in a lifetime investment opportunities. Have you prepared your funds? Make sure you target shares like banking and plantations, oh, and of course our very own Bursa.

This story is about a 40 something year old man who sells Kway Teow Soup in Johor Bahru. If I give anymore clue, most people would know who I am talking about as he is rather famous. But I shall not give anymore clues as I doubt he would want you to know that he is making that much.

Fact of the matter is that his daily take is more than RM800 and minus some costs, he easily make more than RM500 a day. But why is it that he could never save enough money and the most he could afford is his waja and a double storey terrace house.

Apparently after going through with him, I realised he has failed to keep proper accounting and would rely on a cash transaction basis for all his dealings. He cannot tell if he really made RM500 a day even though with logical and rough calculation that is indeed his supposedly daily income.

The fact that his money drawer is not locked, it can be subject to other people’s prying and possible stealing. He plays a bit of 4-digit which means more bleeding. He drinks can drinks from the shop so it is rather expensive as well. His money is so unaccounted for.

What he needs to do is to have a system of keeping no more than certain amount in the drawer and to take in RM50 each time the amount exceed that and place it into his wallet which he could easily account for. He should have a small book to keep track of how much he pays his suppliers when they deliver stuff to him rather than guessing his costs.

Frankly for someone with such turn over and calculable costs as his, he should be driving a nice Bimmer and living in a bungalow. Don’t you agree?

My personal favourite would have to be American Express though it is not a widely accepted card with most merchants choosing to ignore this card due to high merchant fees. I was initially attracted to the 5x bonus point scheme which was on for a period of time a few years ago. Managed to accumulate more than 1,000,000 points during that period as I use the card mainly for business activities and purchases.

I do not believe in high credit limit due to mainly incidences of card fraud and the never ending stories of how you have to talk to the bank on a lengthy basis to resolve fraud issue. I have seen my friends being charged for things which they did not consume or buy. Hence I believe in setting my limit at the lowest possible denomination. Very often banking staffs would call and ask me to upgrade the card or limit which I have politely decline.

But higher credit limit can come handy especially in emergencies. There is this recent incident where I max out my usual business related credit cards and due to the fact it is the festive seasons period, did not have the chance to pay up and free up the credit. This can be a problem when I need to buy certain things urgently. This problem had occurred in the past before but not often enough to warrant a change in credit limit.

Another problem with higher credit limit is that some people would tend to get carried away in their spending and may find paying the bill when its due difficult. Often this is a trap where the amount of interest paid would be quite substantial.

So think hard on how much you want to set your credit limit on.

Well, after more than 1 year on the plan, I must say, I have converted many people into this plan. Especially those who are away from their loved ones and needed to be in constant contact.

Since starting the plan, I have been based away from home for a bit. I realised that I do need to keep in touch with my family. I would call my kids every night. They too knows where to find me. But without this plan, I would have to pay full retail price for phone calls made.

I knew I had saved a bit of money in the long run even though my bill remained the same. I realised I have made a lot more phone calls minutes now than before.

However, during the course of the year, I realised Maxis coverage was getting from bad to worse. It seems that some places I would experience a lot of dropped call or worst, no signal. This plan is good for those who wants to save money but when mobile phone portability comes, I think there will be enough competition to ensure Maxis do up their coverage or lose a lot of corporate clients.