A reader asks me through email about the differences between some similar financial jargons.

KCLau,

When reading financial books, I will come across terms below and I have problem to differentiate them. Can you tell me the differences?

1. equity, share and stock
2. bond and money market

Teo

First, let me show a trick to quickly look up for definitions of a word or phrase. Last time before the existence of the World Wide Web, we have to look for the meaning of a word with the help of a dictionary. I’ve forgotten the last time I checked up something in the dictionary ever since I got to know this trick.

Open up your web browser and go to www.google.com
Type “define: XXXX” in the search box and press enter.
For example, if you want to look for the definition of equity, type “define: equity”.
You will get this search result.

Equity, Share, and Stock

Equity = the ownership interest of shareholders in a corporation

Share = any of the equal portions into which the capital stock of a corporation is divided and ownership of which is evidenced by a stock certificate; “he bought 100 shares of IBM at the market price”

Stock = the capital raised by a corporation through the issue of shares entitling holders to an ownership interest (equity); “he owns a controlling share of the company’s stock”

In very simple terms:
Let’s say Mr. Tan started a business with his wife registered as Tans Sdn. Bhd.
He and his wife Susan own the company’s shares.

When the company is listed as a public company to raise more capital, the capital raised is called “stock”. The stock certificates are issued to other investors who pay to own shares of the stock.

As Tan family and other investors own the shares of the company’s stock, they own the equity. Equity is the ownership of the share of a business; shares are units of the equity or stock. You can say that equity is more general than stock.

When the business remains Tans Sdn. Bhd., Mr. Tan and his wife own the shares of equity of the company, but not the stock (because the company hasn’t gone public listed).

When Tans Sdn. Bhd becomes TANS BHD. (already listed at Bursa Malaysia), they all own the shares of the stock of the public corporation. Stock is also the equity.

In fact, you don’t really need to be annoyed by these jargons. All you need to know is

invest in stock = invest in share = invest in equity

Bond and Money Market

Bond = a certificate of debt (usually interest-bearing or discounted) that is issued by a government or corporation in order to raise money; the issuer is required to pay a fixed sum annually until maturity and then a fixed sum to repay the principal.

Money Market = the market for short-term debt securities, such as commercial paper, certificates of deposit and Treasury bills, with a maturity of one year or less. Typically, these are safe, highly liquid investments.

Well, the main difference is that for bond, the term is longer (e.g. 3, 5, 10, 20 years etc)
For money market, the term is very short (less than a year).

Money market has the lowest investment risk. The return is also relatively low, even lower than Fixed Deposit.

Can you explain this in even simpler sentences?

This article is posted at: KCLau's Money Tips

What is the difference of equity, shares, stocks, bond and money market?

I came across an article talking about financial compatibility, advising couples in a relationship to find out whether they are financially compatible or not. Experts say it is important to do this even before tying the knot. This is a practical advice as money disagreements have been cited to be the number two reason why a lot of couples get divorced.

What the experts say

According to financial expert Philip DeMuth, part author of the book “The Little Book of Investing Do’s and Don’ts”, take notice of how your partner deals with money right from the beginning of the relationship. Pay attention to how money is handled during the first few dates. It is not a good sign if your potential partner throws money around just to impress you. Having lots of money is not an excuse to spend crazily taking Warren Buffet as an example.

If your partner likes to use cash to settle payments, it may indicate that he is careful about credit card debt. On the other hand, it could also mean that he has had his cards cancelled. If you want to find out the real situation – ask! At the same time, look out for signs indicating financial stability in your potential partner. Two signs of financial stability are being a homeowner and staying at a workplace or sticking to a job for a long period.

After marriage, couples should continue to keep track of each other’s finances. Jacquette Timmons, the author of “Financial Intimacy: How to Create a Healthy Relationship with Your Money and Your Mate”, suggests that couples discuss about money regularly to avoid problems especially concerning big purchases like buying a house.

Timmons also suggests talking about the various issues of money, i.e. “earning, saving, investing and spending.” During the discussions, take note which area you and your partner agree and disagree.

According to Manisha Thakor, author of “Get Financially Naked: How to Talk Money with Your Honey”, couples may find it tough to be open about money even knowing the importance of it.

To overcome communication barriers, Ryan Himmel, a certified public accountant offers the following tips:

• Open up about your past personal financial mistakes

• Choose an appropriate time to talk about money, not after one partner just had a difficult day at work

• Appoint a financial advisor to get a neutral third party opinion

• Use the word “we” rather than “you” or “me” to promote team effort

Lastly, if your potential partner refuses to talk or open up, DeMuth’s advice is to run away or break off from the relationship.

Reference source: www.forbes.com

Read other articles by Jacquelyn at WParent.com on parenting matters and Tips4Everyone.com on solving marriage problems.

This article is posted at: KCLau's Money Tips

Financial Compatibility: Talk before tying the knot!

(When I first saw you, I saw love.
And the first time you touched me, I felt love.
And after all this time, you’re still the one I love.)

Looks like we made it
Look how far we’ve come my baby
We mighta took the long way
We knew we’d get there someday

They said, “I bet they’ll never make it”
But just look at us holding on
We’re still together still going strong

These are the lyrics from ‘Still the One’, one of my favourite love songs from Shania Twain. This week, I was really happy to sing those exact same words to my wife. Why? The 8 of May 2010 marked a really important milestone in my life. It was the 10th year anniversary of our marriage and we celebrated it by taking a romantic getaway to Bali. Time really flies indeed. Ten years ago, on the 8th of May 2000, we got married after going out together for 6 years. I was 24 and she was **censored**. Now, ten years later, we have two wonderful children and are as happy and in love as ever.

The reason that I am really proud in reaching this milestone is because I know that staying happily married after 10 years is not easy at all. Nowadays, a happy marriage is the exception rather than the norm. We all know that less than 10% of businesses that start make it past the 10-year mark. Marriage isn’t all that different. From my informal observations and surveys of the thousands of people that come for my seminars, I have found that less than 20% of people stay happily married after the first five years.

So many friends I know, including my own parents and my wife’s parents, have ended their marriage in divorce. And many of those who decided to stay together have lost the love and passion somewhere along the way. I can name many who are married but are miserable. They are just staying married because they feel obligated, staying for the sake of their children or because they are too fearful or shameful to make a change.

After being married for the first decade, I now know that a successful marriage DOES NOT happen by chance. Many people have the illusion that as long as they find Mr./Mrs Right who they love, everything will be plain sailing, the birds will be singing everyday their love will automatically last the test of time. Sorry to say, it does not happen that way.

No matter whom you marry, the road to marriage is fraught with challenges and problems. There are going to be disagreements and fights over children, money, in-laws, holidays, parenting methods, life choices etc… Unless you use the right communication strategies and manage your thoughts and emotions in the right way, these inevitable events will destroy any relationship.

At the same time, love, like any human emotion does not last unless you make the effort and spend the time to cherish, appreciate, pamper, delight, surprise, entertain and serve each other every single day. You cannot marry someone and expect to be still happily in love after 10 years without working on your relationship on a consistent basis.

I have observed that the main reason why most relationships fail is because couples take each other’s love for granted and never worked on building and nurturing their relationship once they got married. Whatever you don’t nurture consistently will slowly and surely die. And when things go wrong, they find someone to blame, especially each other. Many of my friends who end up in divorce tell me that it is because they married the wrong person, because their mother-in-law broke the marriage up, because of money problems or because the children killed the intimacy in their relationship.

The reason my marriage has successfully made it for 10 years is not because we were perfect for each other and that we are lucky enough to have no problems.

In fact, we are as different as night and day. She is a vegetarian and I love to eat meat, She loves shopping and I hate it (I think it’s a damn waste of time). She wants to watch Chinese movies and I want to watch English ones. I love massages and she hates anyone touching her body. I wanted to live in a Bungalow and she wanted to live in an apartment…you get the message.

So, what the heck do we like about each other? I don’t know about her, but what I love about her is that she has a really kind heart. She won’t even harm an ant (literally!) She goes out of her way to help strangers and is extremely honest with her thoughts and feelings. She doesn’t play games and goes straight to the point. She’s the kind of person who I know will stick with me through thick and thin. If I ever lose everything I have, she will be standing there by me. She is also an amazing mother to my children. That’s what I love about her! So despite our inherent differences, our love for each other has driven us to always find a way to make it work.

At the same time, we have gone through our fair share of huge challenges and emotional ups and downs. We have disagreed over everything and almost anything you can think of. There were times when we felt like killing each other and calling it quits. They have been some very low and even near breaking points in our marriage. However, what allowed us to bounce back and strengthen our love was the fact that we chose to put in 100% effort to make it work and to apply the right communication strategies that we read from hundreds of books on relationships, NLP, psychology etc…

Here are five lessons I have learnt throughout my 10-year journey that I would like to share with you. It has helped me on my journey of marriage and I hope it would do the same for you.

Lesson #1: Love Your Partner The Way They Want To Be Loved
We have all heard the phrase ‘Treat others the way YOU want to be treated’. I discovered that this advice does not work in a relationship. Instead, we need to treat others the way THEY want to be treated.

We all have different love languages. Some people feel loved when they are physically touched (hugged, kissed, touched etc..). However, some people do not feel deeply loved through physical touch. They may like it, but they don’t feel deeply loved by it. Instead, they feel loved only when they hear the words ‘I love you’. For others, they only feel loved when you do things for them or when you spend time with them.

When I first got married, I expressed my love primarily through physical touch and by saying how much I loved her. These were my two love languages. Unfortunately, I neglected spending time shopping with her (since I was always working) and spending the time just talking. This made her feel really un-loved as ‘quality time’ was her primary love language. Imagine my frustration when I gave her hugs and expressed my love through words and she did not return the affection. It was only after reading the book ‘The Five Love Languages’ that I began to change the way I expressed my love-in….her language. As I started to spend time with her doing what she loved did she feel totally loved and the sparks began to fly again. The lesson I learnt? If you want your partner to show you love, first make him/her feel loved by expressing love in THEIR language.

Lesson #2: Remember the Compliments, Forget the Insults
In any relationship, there will be times when you get into a heated disagreement and start saying nasty things to each other… ‘ I hate you’, ‘get lost’, ‘you’re so stupid!’, ‘what’s the hell is wrong with you’, ‘are you mad?!’ etc… There will of course also be times when you say the sweetest things to each other.

If you are the kind of person that remembers all the bad stuff like an elephant and keeps replaying those hurtful images in your head and keeps those lousy feelings at the back of your heart, then your relationship may not last too long. Every time you get into an argument, you will tend to recall and bring up the past, reinforcing and intensifying all those lousy feelings all over again. Pretty soon, looking at your partners face will trigger all those bad feelings. This is known as ‘anchoring’ in NLP.

I have learnt that no matter what painful things you may have done to each other, you have to learn to let go. Learn to forget and forgive. Disassociate emotionally from it. A technique I learnt in NLP (known as the scramble) has really helped me to do this. Know that when our loved one is in a bad state of mind, they will say things that they do not mean. Don’t take it personally. They are not a bad person, but merely in a bad state of mind. Instead, remember the great moments and the loving words they say and keep playing these great feelings in your mind until it gets fully associated to your partner. Every time you see them, you will feel amazing. This love conditioning is what makes love in a marriage grow over time.

Lesson #3: Choose to Be Happy
Many of us make up mental rules in our head of when we should/should not be happy. Many of these rules involve our partner having to do something that meets certain expectations we have.

Here are some examples.
When he/she buys me something…then I will feel happy
When he/she hugs me…then I will feel happy
When he/she does xxxx…then I will feel happy
When he/she says xxxx…then I will feel happy

Here’s the problem. People do not always act/say or behave the way we expect. When they don’t, we get angry or upset. If you are constantly in a lousy mood, your partner will not enjoy being around you, as you will make them feel lousy as well. No one enjoys being around a grouchy depressed person. That is a sure way to kill the relationship. Take charge of your emotions and choose to be happy!
Even if you partner does not act in the way you expect, focus on what you love about the person and put yourself into a positive happy state of mind.

People love people who make them feel good about themselves. What my wife loves about me is that I constantly choose to be in a happy and positive state. Whenever she is around me, no matter how bad she feels, she feels my happiness and that makes her feel good as well. Constantly think of how you can light up your partner’s life.

Lesson #4: Win Arguments By Avoiding It
The next lesson I have learned is that you can never win an argument with your partner. Even if you argue and prove that you are right, you have ‘lost’ the bond and the love… the very thing that is the most precious to you. You would have made your partner lose and feel bad. That should never be the intention in a relationship.

Whenever my views clash with my wife (which is pretty often) and we feel an argument coming on, we avoid it by focusing on what is the outcome we really want. We focus on our ‘good intentions’ and what we have in common. This way, we never bother about who is right or wrong. Instead, we focus on compromising to get what we both want.

Lesson #5: Act Like It’s The Last Day on Earth

What I find kills most relationships is when partners start to take each other for granted. We stop doing special things for each other. We stop saying, ‘thank you’. We stop writing love notes and surprising each other with it. We stop telling the person how much they mean to us.

I don’t know about you but I have come to realize that life is really very very short. In the last two months, I have experienced the death of two friends who are not that much older than me. Like the blink of an eye, 10 years have come and gone and the next 10 will equally zoom past as fast. Through these experiences, I have come to realize that our time together is so limited, so why waste it being unhappy or arguing over petty things?

This has always reminded me to live each day as if it were my last. To treat my wife as if it was the last day we had together. So even though we have been together for 16 years, we don’t take the time we have together for granted. We still make each other feel very special with ‘love notes’, ‘surprise gifts’ and the playfulness of a young couple.

So, whether you are married or in a steady relationship, I hope what I have shared can be of value to you and I wish that your relationship journey will be as happy and enriching as mine.

My company just launched our first ever TV advertising campaign for our famous ‘I Am Gifted!’ Program that empowers students to achieve top grades and develop the mindset and life skills to succeed in the future careers. In will be shown on the Singapore National Tv networks (Channel 5, Channel 8 and Channel U). It features two of my students who attended the program 4-6 years ago and have gone on to realize their respective life dreams. I wish them all the best and thank them for their endorsement. It is success stories like these that inspire me to keep on sharing my ideas with the world.

It is a common strategy to rebalance your investment portfolio in order to reduce investment risk and lock in the profit. This is especially true when investing in unit trust, which is the easiest way to get you started investing in various classes of investment vehicles without much up-front capital.

Now, the question is: How often should you rebalance?

Annually? Monthly? or even weekly?

For the sake of convenience, most investors prefer to rebalance their portfolio in a yearly basis. Moreover, if switching and repurchasing of funds are involved, you will need to pay extra administration fees, which eventually eats into your portfolio returns.

The research team at Fundsupermart had conducted a research to observe if more frequent rebalancing will improve returns.

The results:

• The best return is obtained on annual rebalancing.
• The shocking result is that the more frequent you rebalance, the return drops, although not significantly.

It shows that you can do more with less – get higher return with less rebalancing.

If you are interested to read the four page report, download the pdf file here.

This article is posted at: KCLau's Money Tips

Frequent Rebalancing Doesn’t Improve Portfolio Return

Well the question is usually "How much money should we take with us when we move country?"

This question that often comes up when people are moving country and there is no quick and easy answer. Even knowing your costs in your home country may not be of any help since everything can change when you move country. However what you can do is get an idea of the expenses that you are going to have in your new country.

Draw up a budget where you live now (simply list all your income and expenses either in a spreadsheet or on a piece of paper). This is to remind you of what you’ll be looking for when you move country.

Check out the rental (or mortgage) in the places you are looking to move to by finding good website in google (or another search engine). For Australia try realestate.com.au or domain.com.au since they have sales and rentals. Don't forget to include a rental deposit or bond in your calculations and this may be higher than you expect if you have a pet as well.

Find a website or forum that has a cost of living section (for Australia check out the Australia Forum on Expatforum (yes I am a moderator on there). If you can’t find the costs that you are looking for don’t be afraid to join online forums and ask questions. I wish some of the great forums were around when we were moving country!

Prepare a rough budget filling in and the expenses that you created on the home country budget. This gives you an idea of what your expenses will be.

Don’t forget to include any loans that may be left behind. When thinking about loans also think about the exchange rates between countries. For example at the moment someone would need to earn roughly 1.5 Australian dollars to pay back 1 British Pound and that’s before exchange rate fees.

For income this can be more difficult. If you are moving to a new job then you know your salary but make sure that you know what your salary will be AFTER deductions.  Check out the tax websites for the country you are moving to – for Australia this is the ATO. Some tax websites have calculators so that you can work out what your roughly what your income will be after deductions

If you don’t know your salary yet, check out some job websites and see if they list salaries. For Australia some of the best known job sites are Seek, CareerOne and the government jobsearch.

If you are self employed then at least you know what you need to be earning to cover your expenses. Online forums can be great way of finding out what trades are charging if you are in a trade or check out some online advertising with your competitors.

Once you have an idea what your income and expenses will be monthly (or weekly) then you can work out what you feel comfortble taking with you when you migrate. Personally I'd want enough to keep me going around six months since you may not be entitled to any benefits in your new country (depending on visa) if things don't go according to plan.

When to check whether you can afford to live in a new country?
Of course you need to know what visa you can use to get into a country but I would suggest that even before (or at the same time) that you need to know whether you can afford to live there. There is no point is spending time (and money in some cases) to get into a country if you actually can’t afford to live there. It breaks my heart to think that some people move country only to struggle financially since it’s seems harder when you’ve little or no support network when you move.

This is some of the planning you can do at home but of course there are financial advisors and planners who can help you with the detail. Good luck to you if you are moving country since we've 'been there and done that'. With a little planning you can move to a new country knowing that you can live there without any financial worries.

This is a guest post by Louis Teo, a bright young man who managed to take control of his finances after being in debt.

Coming from a mid-income family, getting the opportunity to work with a multi-national company while tertiary studies fee 90% being sponsored by employer means a lot to me, a young 19 years old fresh STPM school leaver at the time. By taking the offer, I can achieve my dreams to earn big bulks of money, drive big car and live in a luxurious house, because this company promises greater career prospect.

Bank account is like a transit

All my dreams started to fade away when I realize that the income earned always not enough to cover my lifestyle. The reason why not enough is because I like to buy branded stuff and live in luxurious lifestyle. No matter how hard I work, my net worth will become “~RM0” at the end of the month. For me, bank account is like a transit place for the money. Once the money goes in, in less than a month time, it will go out. Sometimes even worst, it will go out more then what it supposes to. (I am spending my future money with credit card due to uncontrollable spending habits) Worst! Right?!

I have been living with this lifestyle for 2 years. I started to realise I need to save money when I find out that I don’t have initial capital to buy a house. By merely listening to friends advise, I took up my first ever investment, which is buying an investment-linked insurance. But I don’t feel comfortable after that. I have many sleepless nights because I am afraid of losing money.

Find a mentor

One day, I took up the challenge to search for “What is Investment-linked Insurance?” And I found KCLau Personal Financial Blog that explains about it. I clicked on it to read the article. I found the article very impressive and this prompted me to start browsing his blog to look for other articles. Wow!! I found lots of interesting articles which I have been looking for. I signed up for his newsletter, read his book preview. Folks, you know what? My journey to financial freedom begins.

I bought “Top Money Tips for Malaysians” book as Christmas present for myself end of 2009 and started to read it. Amazingly, I complete reading the whole book and even read repeatedly for 2 times in less than 2 weeks time. I am so impressed with practical tips provided by KCLau, he wakes me up I can be my financial genius, not financial idiot. Ask yourself, you want to be financial idiot or financial genius? I bet you will answer: “I want to get control of my money, I want to be financial genius”. If so, you must read his book.

Get financial education

Besides, I also spend a few hundreds of ringgit to buy Aziz Ali’s series of financial book. Yes, it cost me quite a lot to buy the books, but the money spend is well worth to increase my financial knowledge. For me, money spent to make myself becoming more “asset” and not more “liability”, is worth, it is worth!

I practice the tips learnt from the books and now I am on the correct path towards my financial freedom dream. I am happier and I always thankful with what I have now.

My Money Tips for You

Below are some of my tips to KCLau blog readers:

1. PAY YOUSELF FIRST. You are the most important asset to yourself, so you must pay yourself before paying other bills.

2. Make sure you have at least 3 months of equivalent emergency fund, preferably 6 months. Some may ask why 6 months? Ask yourself, the chance to get the 2nd job if you got sacked from your 1st job is higher in 3 months or 6 months? The answer is always 6 months.

3. Start your investment as soon as possible. You will lose if you don’t start early. Read the story of twin brothers, James and Jeremy (Pg 3) in KCLau’s “Top Money Tips for Malaysian”

4. Make sure you know what you are investing. Don’t invest in something that you don’t know or too complex to manage.

5. Divide your saving into separate accounts for separate objectives. Don’t mix them up. In this way, you are much clearer with the amount that you are lacking for each objective. It looks tedious, but if you don’t separate it, you will be tempted to spend your money.

6. If you are a working employee, make sure you read “The Millionaire in Me” by Azizi Ali. You will be amazed how an ordinary employee can be millionaire at your retirement age. The book teaches us how to remain an employee and still become a millionaire. (*Note: this book is one of Azizi Ali’s best-seller)

7. Tips No.7? Subscribe to KCLau’s newsletter and stay tuned with more practical personal financial tips. It’s free, by the way! So why not signing up?

This article is posted at: KCLau's Money Tips

Money Tips from a Young Employee

Nowadays most banks calculate your mortgage interest on daily rest basis. Years ago, monthly rest interest is a norm.

You are advised to get a home loan which the interest is calculated on daily rest basis. But most people don’t really understand what is the advantage. This post is to explain the difference to you in simple terms.

Example:

You are serving RM1000/month for a home loan. The outstanding loan amount on 1st of April is RM100k. On April 20, you make a capital repayment of RM30k, and reduce the outstanding loan to RM70k.

Daily rest versus Monthly rest interest calculation

Daily Rest

Your loan interest will be calculated based on the previous day’s outstanding balance.

If based on daily rest interest calculation, you will pay lower interest charge on 20th April onwards.

Monthly Rest

Your loan interest for the current month will be calculated based on the previous month’s outstanding balance (which consists of principal and interest not paid, if any).

If based on monthly rest interest calculation, you will still pay interest for RM100k loan until 30th April.

More references:
Differences between monthly and daily rest
Daily vs Month rest – forum on Lowyat.

This article is posted at: KCLau's Money Tips

Monthly Rest Vs. Daily Rest Interest Calculation

It is very easy to get caught up with our obsession on money. Everything that we do or decide is somehow related to our finances. For example, can we afford a detached house or a terrace house? Can we go overseas for a vacation or just a simple trip within the country? Can we afford to eat out everyday or just once a month? Even a simple decision like what to eat for lunch today means determining how much money you are willing to spend.

Hence, it is no wonder that everyone is so focus and busy on achieving a certain level of wealth as everything seems to cost money. In the pursuit of personal wealth, it is very easy to be angry and unhappy when we think about what we do not have or what we have not achieved yet. Consequently, we forget to be thankful for what we have at the present moment.

Some things to be thankful for

Below is a set of questions to ask yourself and if you answer “yes” to some of them, then you should have something to be thankful for. In those areas, you are more fortunate compared to a lot of other people.

• Can you afford to buy food on a daily basis to ensure that you do not go hungry? About one sixth of the people on earth (~ 1 billion) suffer from continual hunger.

• Can you afford USD2.50 for your daily sustenance? According to the World Bank, about half of the world’s population survives on less than USD2.50 a day.

• Do you have clean water to drink everyday? About 1.2 billion people do not have access to a clean water source according to the World Bank.

• Do you know how to read and enjoy the full benefits of that important skill? According to a UNICEF report, about 1 billion people entering the 21st century do not know how to read or even sign their names.

• Do you possess you own home or are you able to pay the monthly mortgage without worry? In the US, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that one in eight households was either facing foreclosure or in default in the second part of 2009.

• Can you settle your credit cart debt in full every month? About 60% of Americans carry a balance every month according to a Federal Reserve survey which is a cause of constant worry.

In addition to the above, we Malaysians have a lot of other things we can be thankful for like living in a peaceful and beautiful country. We also have easy access to a reasonable healthcare and education system. In personal life, you can be thankful for your health, your loved ones and your good friends. Once in awhile, give yourself a break and just appreciate what you have now.

Read other articles by Jacquelyn at WParent.com on parenting matters and Tips4Everyone.com on solving marriage problems.

This article is posted at: KCLau's Money Tips

Are You Thankful?

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Since the introduction of the RM50 service fees chargeable on every credit card you own, most of us had cancelled some redundant credit cards.

As banks are losing their customer fast, they are coming up with different strategies to retain their customers, including this (email from a reader):

Chronology of event:

1. on 22-3-2010 I made a call to Citibank to request for cancelling my card, they told me i need to wait for 3 working days for their cancellation department to contact me to proceed.

2. on 25-3-2010, I finally got a call from their cancellation officer, and he was offering me some ‘promotion’ so I could consider not cancellation my card. I told him I need time to think.

3. on 27-3-2010, the office called me again and I told him I considered the promotion and decided to still cancel the card, and he said to proceed to do that he needs to ask me some ‘verification questions’. My reaction was ‘You are the one that called me, why do I need to be ‘verified’?‘; but he insisted, so I try to answer all questions. I could answer the first 2 questions, but the 3rd question
was ‘When/where was the last time you made the transaction with the card?’; I told him I don’t remember anymore since I have a few cards and I have not been using Citibank Card for a while. He insisted me to answer that question before he can proceed, and I insisted I that I don’t remember and suggested him to ask another verification question.

He didn’t, but finally said ok, he will proceed with the cancellation, and the procedure is that I have to go to Citibank website, and download a cancellation form, and fill that in, and fax it back to Citibank, and it will take 2 weeks to process that cancellation.

My complain for Citibank:
1. Their officer were the one that called me, yet he still needs to ask the 3 verification questions, and when I could not answer one, he insisted that he cannot proceed with the cancellation unless I go check and get back to him on the info he needs, eventhough I offer him to ask another question, he just was trying to delay my cancellation.

2. Given the situation when he finally said ‘ok lets proceed with the cancellation’, all he asked me to do was to go online, download a cancellation form, and then fax it back to them, and then wait for 2 weeks for them to process and get back to me! If this is the standard
‘cancellation procedure’ from Citibank, why can’t they tell me the first time when I called on 22-3-2010? After going through so many steps, and they told me all I need to do is to go through this cancellation process again and wait for 2 weeks?

3. This morning 29-3-2010, I called Citibank again and request to talk to their cancellation department supervisor to sort this out as I am really uncomfortable with this, they just keep telling me all of them are out and no one is available to talk, and just asked me to wait for 3 working days for them to call me back.

4. I am afraid with the long waiting to cancel the card, by time when it is being processed, we will be charged the government tax already. If that is the case, who will bear the tax?

When you are trying to trick your customers, you bear the risk to lose not just one customer’s trust, but all the prospects and customers who hear what she said, and read what she wrote. Especially when it is written on the web, it is indexed by Google and appear long enough on the Internet search result.

I am feeling that this blog is not just a place where you can search for personal finance information, it can also serve as a platform to voice out your concern, suggestions and dissatisfaction. If the big corporations don’t care about their customers, I can at least inform thousands of you who should be aware of it.

Do you have any story to share? Just email your story to me.

This article is posted at: KCLau's Money Tips

Citibank delay credit card cancellation

This title sounds contradictory to financial intelligence.

As what we all understand, you need to save money to get richer. That involves spending less than you earn and save whenever possible.

Let me tell you a story. In fact, I didn’t make up this phrase on my own. I heard it from a close friend. And he is not ordinary people. He is the best in what he does in Penang. When someone with his status, wealth and ability said this, there must be some wisdom in it.

He plans his oversea trip one year ahead. When you open his calendar, you’ll find that he knows which part of the globe he will be going to (mostly for vacation) in the next 12 months. He is travelling for fun almost every month. For some of the trips, he asked me to join him.

Sometimes I will join him, sometimes not. Some of the trips are luxurious and expensive, such as cruise vacations in the Europe. If I am going with him, I will be bringing my wife along. It costs RM12,000 per person for the cruise vacation. I will need to fork out RM24k if I join him.

“No”, I said I can’t join him because RM24k is a lot of money. I think spending RM24k in 10 days is a luxury.

As you might have guessed, this was his reply:

“Money not spent, is not yours.”

We spend money in exchange for a certain value. The “value” we desire may be something materialistic, or a service that improve our life in certain ways.

What he means is that you will only get the values when you spend the money to do the exchange.

The truth is that the amount of wealth you have does reflect your life value. The more money you have, the more you can spend to increase your value further.

What do you think?

This article is posted at: KCLau's Money Tips

Money not spent is not yours

Time Management - where does all your time go?

It amazes me that as I write this it's already the middle of April - where has this year gone already? Ever find yourself wondering the same thing. This simple to use spreadsheet is simply to make you aware of where you are spending your time so that you can decide whether to make any changes. It can be used in conjunction with roles spreadsheet if required.

Simply enter the activities you do on a daily basis and the time it takes you. You can either estimate the numbers of enter actual figures over a week. The figures are then displayed on a graph to show you where you are spending your time. Some of it may surprise you - I know it surprised me when I did it and I made changes to focus more of my time on what I actually wanted to do!

This spreadsheet can be used in Microsoft Excel or in any other spreadsheet software such as OpenOffice Calc.

There are two parts to this spreadsheet since one shows how compound interest works for you when you are saving and the other sheet in the spreadsheet shows how compound interest works against you in the case of credit cards. Some of the values can be changed so that you can alter the spreadsheet for your personal circumstances.

To download the file to your PC, right click on link and chose 'Save As' or 'Save Link as' (depending on browser):

{reg} Free Time Management spreadsheet{/reg}

{pub} Please register (or log in) to download {/pub}

To download the example spreadsheet

To download the file to your PC, right click on link and chose 'Save As' or 'Save Link as' (depending on browser):

{reg} Free Time Management example spreadsheet{/reg}

{pub} Please register (or log in) to download {/pub}

Roles in Life - how are you spending your time on your priorities?

Are you spending your time how you want to? If not then this spreadsheet may help you decide your priorities. It displays your roles, priorities and the time you spend on the them as a graph as well in a table.

This spreadsheet can be used in Microsoft Excel or in any other spreadsheet software such as OpenOffice Calc.

This spreadsheet is simply to help you be aware of where your priorities lie at present and what changes you want to make (if any). There is an example spreadsheet with some values filled in on Day one as well so you get the idea although a guide is included in the spreadsheet.

To download the file to your PC, right click on link and chose 'Save As' or 'Save Link as' (depending on browser):

{reg} Free Roles in Life spreadsheet{/reg}

{pub} Please register (or log in) to download {/pub}

To see an example

To download the file to your PC, right click on link and chose 'Save As' or 'Save Link as' (depending on browser):

{reg} Free Roles in Life Example spreadsheet{/reg}

{pub} Please register (or log in) to download {/pub}

This is a comment from a reader asking for help on this page about bad experience of claiming car insurance.

Yesterday, my sister was parking her car in parking lot. A lorry in front of her had banged her’s car twice when reverse. Luckily that time, she wasn’t in the car.

One of the shop owner saw this accident and quickly call my sister come out. My sister got shocked- a girl first time facing this incredible happens. The driver said don’t report and wish to settle. But at the end, he rejected to pay any maintenance bill.

My sister had lodge a report on the same day. The police said if the guy didn’t come to report, my sister can’t claim to his insurance. The next day, the guy called up to my sister and said that he had asked his friend and he will not go to report cause his lorry was not much damaged. In fact my sister’s car is more serious (Viva) after bang by lorry. And he said this will not affect when he renew his lorry road tax soon.

Is this fair? We have the lorry driver information such as office address, contact number, name and plate number. The police can’t do anything on it? Won’t this affect to his road tax renewal? My sister can’t claim for her own car insurance too after she call to the AIG?

Please kindly advice. Thanks.

What is your suggestion for her? Anyone with the similar experience before?
Tell us in the comment.

This article is posted at: KCLau's Money Tips

Car Insurance Claim – Help Please??

I have been a fan of DIGI for years. But no matter how good or great a company is, there will be complaint.

Here is a story from a reader:

I am a frequent business traveller and will always have roaming when I am oversea.

March 4th 2010 when I returned from US via HongKong, at HK airport, I was charged a very wierd RM9.00 charges.

Weird charges by DIGI

Notice the time difference of only two seconds between the calls.

I made a call to DIGI and the biling department called back and said the charges are for Miss-call alert service. When I was in HK, someone called me, and I didn’t answer. So the call was ‘automatically’ diverted to Digi in Malaysia and then Digi Malaysia ‘automatically’ sent me a sms to notify me of the miss-call. And for that, they charged me RM9.00. I told them it is not fair, I have never opt for miss-call alert, this service was provided by default when we sign up the Digi service, and we were never alerted of the high charges when travelling! Morever I have been travelling frequently and I have never been charged like this. Imagine if I have 10 miss-call when I am travelling, I will be charged RM90!

I would like to bring this to your attention as this is a very unreasonable charge and as a comsumer I feel cheated and unfair treatment.

I would like DIGI to explain why such high charges for just a miss-call alert, and have them review their ‘default’ service that came with such unfair high charges. And as a consumer I was never alerted of such charges but just thought it is a free service Digi provide!

It is the way you handle the small little details that differentiate your company’s image from your competitors. Whenever there is a problem faced by your customer, that’s the perfect time to show how much you care. What you did now will stay on the web permanently, forever.

Digi, if you are reading this, it is never too late to rectify the problem. Contact me if you want to do something for your customer.

Update 14 May 2010:

Digi had agreed to waive the sum of RM9 on a goodwill basis.

That’s very kind!

This article is posted at: KCLau's Money Tips

Weird Charges by DIGI [Complaint]

When I was aged 13+, I had the good fortune to learn two powerful lessons from a group of mentors that would forever change my life and contribute to the immense wealth and success that I enjoy today.

Lesson 1: Success Does Not Happen By Chance…But By Choice

The first lesson I learnt was that success does NOT happen by chance (unless you are one of the lucky few who are born rich). If you continue to live your life one day at a time, doing what everyone does, doing things the way you have always done them, DON’T EXPECT to wake up 5-10 years from now and find yourself highly successful and wealthy.

If you want to be rich and successful anytime in the future, you have to make that choice and commitment RIGHT NOW. Once you decide to be rich and successful, you will tend to make very different choices in your life. You will start to think differently and behave differently. For example, you will start to open your mind to learn new things (e.g. investing, financial planning, business).

You will start to take different actions. Instead of watching TV the whole night, you will start to surf financial websites and read about stock investments. Instead of reading FHM magazine and the sports section of the newspaper, you will start to Fortune Magazine and The Money Section. You will start to discuss different topics and hang around different kids of people. Instead of gossiping and chit chatting about trivia, you will start to talk about business ideas, economics, business ideas etc..

Instead of just doing your minimum at work, you will start to take initiative and do alot more than expected. What will all this do? It will start to move you towards wealth and success and it will only be a matter of time before you begin to see your life change positively. You will start to become more confident, more motivated. You will start to get promoted faster, see your business profits increase and your wealth multiply.

Lesson 2: Success Can Be Learnt.
The second lesson I learnt is that Success is a learnable topic. You CAN learn how to be successful. The best place to learn how to be successful in any given area is to study and model those who have already achieved the goal that you want. By learning from those who have already found the way, you greatly cut short your learning curve and accelerate your results much faster than the average person.

The reason I have been so successful at making money, business, leadership, making friends, relationships, public speaking etc… is because I have constantly sought out and learnt from gurus such as Anthony Robbins, Dale Carnegie, Brad Sugars, Warren Buffett, Donald Trump, Jay Abraham, Michael Gerber etc…

Do you realize what all the experts I learnt from had in common? They were all foreigners to a Singaporean Chinese like me. The challenge was that at the time, they were no Asian experts I could model and learn from. So, as much as the lessons these experts could teach me was powerful, I had to constantly find ways to adapt what they taught to the Asian environment. For example, I had to adapt Warren Buffett’s investing strategies to the Singapore stock market, which doesn’t work quite the same way as the US market. I spent years finding ways to adapt Jay Abraham and Michael Gerbers great business strategies to the Asian business landscape, which is again so different.

If you are a local Singaporean or an Asian (Malaysian, Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese etc…) for that matter, then I have great news for you. You have a once in lifetime education opportunity that I never had in the past. You have the opportunity to meet and learn from a group of Asian self-made millionaires in a two-day Wealth Expo to be held in Singapore from 22 to the 23 of May 2010. I have managed to get all these inspiring role models to come down and share their knowledge and experiences because they are all close friends of mine. Some of them, I have known for over 10 years!

What makes it exciting is that they have all created tremendous wealth and success starting from nothing. and they have done it in very different ways. Some of them made their fortune in the sales industry while another made his fortune trading in the Forex markets. Some of them have achieved their success at a very young age (before 30), while some having become millionaires after the age of 40. Some of them have first class honours degrees from top universities while others dropped out of secondary school.

Collectively, they prove that ANYONE can achieve tremendous wealth and success, provided they follow the two powerful principles I talked about. #1: Decide and make the commitment that you want to be successful. #2. Be willing to learn and model the success strategies of those of have already succeeded. Of course, there is the third ingredient, which is to take MASSIVE and CONSISTENT ACTION. After all, there can be no sustainable results without hard work.

Let me introduce just a few of my friends who will be at the Singapore Wealth Expo to you…

Yeo Keong Hee, CFA
I first met Keong Hee 13 years ago when we both served in the same platoon during our National Service days in the Republic of Singapore Air Force. He was one of the most brilliant people I have ever met. He is a genius with an IQ of 156 and a member of MENSA. I later bumped into him again at the National University of Singapore where he graduated with a first class honours degree in Engineering and was ranked among the top 3% in the university.

He later went on to work for the Government Investment Corporation (GIC) of Singapore as an analyst. At that time, he started out trading foreign exchange currencies (forex) as a hobby (with a capital of US$10,000) and as a way to make some side income. Within one year, he mastered the skill of trading and was making more money than his full time job. he had turned his US$10,000 capital into US$300,000. This guys now works a few hours a week from home and makes an average of US$15,000 to US$20,000 a month. At the age of 30+, he bought a huge piece of land and built a multi-million dollar bungalow where he trade at home from. Definitely, someone you want to learn from. find out more at www.keonghee.com. He is going to show you how anyone can learn to trade forex profitably in today’s uncertain financial markets.

Merry Riana
I first met Merry 9 years ago when I gave a talk at the Nanyang Technological University Singapore. She was a 19-year old student engineering undergraduate at the time. Merry’s background and rise to success is truly inspiring. Merry was born to a humble family in Jakarta, Indonesia. During the racial riots of 1998, Merry’s parents feared for her safety and sent her to Singapore to continue her studies.

She studied hard and managed to qualify for a $40,000 study loan to the local university. Besides her study loan, she had hardly enough money for personal expenses. She had less than $10 a week to get by on. She skipped meals, ate instant noodles and wouldn’t even think of shopping or watching movies like her peers. Driven by a strong desire to give a better life to herself and her family, she joined the insurance sales industry upon graduation.

She said that when she heard me speak at her university, she became really inspired to become a self made millionaire herself. She was thinking, ‘if Adam can do it, why not I?’ So she studied NLP and modeled some of the most successful sales people in the industry. Her results were astounding. Despite having no family in Singapore, hardly any friends outside of university and a weak command of English at the time, she closed over $500,000 in sales in the first year and was awarded ‘Top New Advisor’ award by Prudential. She earned over $250,000 in income in that first year and paid off her study loans.

By the age of 26, she was featured in the Sunday Times for Making her First Million at Age 26! Since then, she has started her own company and is now a successful entrepreneur of a multi-million dollar financial services company (Merry Riana Organization). Come and learn how you too can overcome tremendous odds and build your fortune in sales and business. You can read more about her at www.merryriana.com.

Conrad Alvin Lim
I have known Conrad for more than 12 years as well. Conrad used to own a successful outdoor media company in Singapore in the 1990’s. In 2000, during the recession, his company went bust and he was declared a bankrupt. He sold his home and car and shifted into a 3-room HDB flat with his wife and two children.

At the age close to 40, with an incomplete ‘O’ level certificate and a registered bankrupt, he could not find a job. To make ends meet, he became a self-employed videographer and photographer. Then, in 2004, he started to get interested in the stock market and began the process of learning how to become a professional stock trader. Starting with a capital of less than US$2,000, he started trading stock options from his home. From humbly making US$10 a day, he progressively honed his skills and made up enough to finally pay off his debts and was discharged from bankruptcy in March of 2007.

Today, he is respected and reputed to be one of the most successful online traders in Asia. I have managed to convince him to come down and share his story and how anyone, with the right mindset and discipline can overcome any financial setbacks and achieve their financial freedom. He has a blog at www.conradalvinlim.com

If I tell you the personal stories of all these amazing experts and role models, this post will probably become a mini-book. So, let me just summarize who are the rest of the people you are going to have a chance to learn from…

Jason Wee, CFA
Former Head of Research for Small Caps, CLSA
Trainer of Some of Singapore’s Top Stock Analysts
Self-Made Millionaire Investor
Topic: How to Invest in Undervalued, High Growth China Stocks

Patrick Liew
CEO, HSR International Realtors Pte Ltd
(HSR is Singapore’s Largest Real Estate Agency)
Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winner
Asia’s Leading Real Estate Investor & Coach
Topic: “Singapore Property Market Outlook: How Much Higher Can It Go?”

Fabian Lim
CEO, Asia Internet Academy
One of Asia’s Top Internet Marketing Specialist
First & Only Certified Search Engine Optimization Trainer in Asia
Topic: How to Create a Six-Figure Income Online, Even Without Experience

Joey Yap
Founder, Mastery Academy of Chinese Metaphysics
One of the World’s Top Fengshui Consultant and Trainer, speaking to an audience of thousands at a time from Frankfurt to New York.
Best-Selling Author of Over 30 Books on Feng Shui and Chinese Astrology
www.joeyyap.com
Topic: Maximizing Your Luck and Avoiding Misfortunes in the Chinese Astrological Year of the Tiger

There are going to be a lot of other speakers lined up to talk about profiting from commodities, smart insurance planning, how to position your investment portfolio for 2010, protecting your investments in the event of another downturn and a whole lot more…

and of course, you have yours truly, Adam Khoo hosting and speaking at this two full day event personally. I am going to be talking about how to select and buy high performing stocks at huge discounts and developing the winning mindset of a successful investor and wealth accumulator.

What Is Your Investment for This Rare Learning Opportunity?
If you ask me, the years of experience and accumulated knowledge that these people have is worth millions to anyone willing to learn and apply their secrets. Even if you could learn from all these financial experts individually, it would probably costs you thousands of dollars. Yet, the investment for this two full day event from 22-23 May 2010 (9am-8pm) is as follows:

PRICING DETAILS
VIP SEATING: SGD199.00 …Seats are Going Fast
GOLD SEATING: SGD69.00…Sorry. SOLD OUT
GENERAL SEATING: SGD29.00…I don’t know how long the seats will last
Venue: Singapore Expo Hall 2

P.S. The reason why we are able to price the tickets so low is because this event is heavily subsidized by sponsors

If You Want to Grab a Place Before It Is ALL SOLD OUT, book online right here.

You can also call my Singapore Office at 65-62740105 Immediately (during office hours of course) to book your seat. If the lines are all jammed up, send an email to info@akltg.com and someone will call you back.

Hopefully, there are still seats left by the time you have finished reading this BLOG post.

See You There!

I just opened an investment account with Fundsupermart on last Tuesday. On the next day, I received a phone call from Fundsupermart to verify my information. On Saturday, I received the password slip from courier service. Now, I can get started to invest in unit trust online.

In this post, I will show you how to make use of their Regular Saving Plan.

What is Regular Saving Plan (RSP)?

RSP is not something new. If you have invested with other unit trust companies before such as Public Mutual and CIMB, it is known as the monthly regular purchase of unit trust funds, through bank auto deduction, GIRO or standing instruction.

Why invest using RSP?

There are several benefits to invest using RSP:
1. The Regular Savings Plan (RSP) utilizes the dollar cost averaging (DCA) concept of investing which is the practice of investing a fixed amount of money regularly regardless of market conditions. In the case of RSP, the investments take place monthly. Using a fixed amount of say RM500/month, you will buy fewer units when the market is soaring high. But when the market is down, you will be able to buy more units because the fund price is lower. You will end up with a lower average purchase price overall.
2. When you participate in RSP, you’ve triggered a system to automatically invest your money. As human being, we need an automated system to do something good for us in the long term. In this case, our saving is long term, disciplined and automatic.

What is so special about Fundsupermart RSP?

Since you can practically do standing instruction to invest regularly with any unit trust company, why choose Fundsupermart?

Here are some benefits Fundsupermart provides:
1. The sales charge is much lower, only 2% maximum for loaded funds, vs. 5.5% maximum front load at most fund houses.

2. You don’t need to invest at least RM1000 in a single fund as initial investment. At Fundsupermart, you can start with as low as RM100/month.

3. You can do all this entirely online.

4. Some banks impose a fee (normally RM1-2) for every transaction of direct debit, but Fundsupermart absorb the fees and we as investor don’t need to pay the extra fees for the transaction.

How to apply RSP?

Step 1: Open an account with Fundsupermart.
Obviously, you need to have an investment account with Fundsupermart before you can proceed with RSP. Please refer this page for account opening.

Choose your investment account

Step 2: Apply for RSP

Click “Apply” under “Regular Saving Plan” menu.

Apply for Regular Saving Plan

Step 3: Select the fund
If you don’t know which fund to start with (there are more than 100 funds to choose from), just take a look at the list of recommended funds in your account.

Find the recommended funds

Choose the fund house and the specific fund to invest

Step 4: Read the prospectus
It is a requirement that investor read the prospectus before making any investment decision.

Download and read the prospectus

Step 5: Choose a payment method and set the monthly amount
You can choose to deduct automatically from your bank account (only Maybank or CIMB) or the money you’ve transfer to Fundsupermart that’s parked in Cash Management Fund.

Set the monthly amount

Choose the bank for direct debit

Remarks:

- it is easier to use Maybank direct debit because they accept the printed form. As for CIMB, you will need to get the original form from the banks.

- Maximum DDA Limit – I’ve called Fundsupermart regarding this. It is an amount that determine how much can Fundsupermart debit from your account for investment. For example, if you set the limit to RM100, and now you are investing RM100/month in RSP, when you want to setup another RSP for a second fund, you will have to fill up the DDA form again. If you set a higher limit say RM500/month, when you want to setup another RSP, you will not be required to email them the DDA form again. This is just for your own convenience.

Step 6: Print the Direct Debit Authorisation (DDA) form
You shall print out the form, scan and email to clienthelp.my@fundsupermart.com.

Or you can also mail the hardcopy form to the address shown.

Click "Print" to print the DDA form

That’s all you have to do now. Fundsupermart said that they will take at least 1-2 months to get your RSP application due to the time needed for your signature verification at the banks.

Happy investing!

Disclaimer:
This article is not to be construed as an offer or solicitation for the subscription, purchase or sale of any fund. No investment decision should be taken without first viewing a fund’s prospectus. Any advice herein is made on a general basis and does not take into account the specific investment objectives of the specific person or group of persons. Past performance and any forecast is not necessarily indicative of the future or likely performance of the fund. The value of units and the income from them may fall as well as rise.

This article is posted at: KCLau's Money Tips

Fundsupermart Regular Saving Plan

Whenever the economy takes a nosedive like the recent recession, consumers are forced to change their money habits. In a way, the recession has done a good thing in making consumers face the harsh reality on their bad spending habits. In a study done on American consumers, below are some things that have changed significantly.

• More and more consumers have learned to differentiate on what are the important essentials from the frivolous wants. More and more people prefer to make cash purchases and cut back on loans or credit card debt.

• Window shopping used to be popular as a way to relax and get out of the house. However, people are now mindful and aware that this past time tends to make them spend money unnecessarily.

• Consumers are going back to basics. Getting the latest gadget does not seem appealing anymore. For example, a cell phone is just a simple phone for communicating rather than for browsing the web, checking emails, etc. Some people have even stopped their cable TV or paid programs altogether.

• Living together has also become popular. To save on rent, some people willingly sacrificed their privacy and do not mind sharing spaces. Children who have moved out of the house are also moving back in with their parents.

• Daily luxuries have also taken a beating such as foregoing the daily pack of cigarettes. A pack of smokes cost about $5 and besides saving money, it makes sense to kick the bad habit. Some smokers have also resorted to buying their own personal machines for making their own cigarettes which saves cost in the long run.

• For people who love to eat, cutting back on food consumption does save money. From reducing outings to restaurants to reducing the portion of food consume and going for simpler dishes or meals.

• Print media has become less popular as people are cutting back or cancelling their subscriptions to printed materials. They prefer surfing the web to get free news and information.

• Cancelling visits to the doctor, cutting back or discarding medication are also part of reducing cost. This is especially happening for those who are unemployed or those without health insurance coverage.

• Stop dating? Believe it or not, dating has also taken some impact. Expensive dates are a major no, no. Simple outings like going hiking are in instead. The worst case scenario for some people is to stop dating altogether until their financial situation improves significantly. Looking for employment or having a stable income is more urgent compared to enjoying a social life.

What about you? What lifestyle changes have you made?

Read other articles by Jacquelyn at WParent.com on parenting matters and Tips4Everyone.com on solving marriage problems.

This article is posted at: KCLau's Money Tips

Reality Bites