Terap

This is terap. Only found in Sabah, as I was told by my husband.

He doesn't like it. In fact, his whole family does not like terap. They said it smelt like electrical short circuit.

My husband's family came from Perak, West Malaysia. My brother-in-law married a Sabahan. One day, she bought a terap and kept it in a corner in the house. When the terap fruit has ripen, it gives out very strong smell. When my husband's family noticed the strange smell, they thought there was a short-circuit somewhere. Eventually, they found out that the smell came from terap. That was the first time they saw terap. That was a bad first impression. That's why the whole family doesn't like terap until now. lol.

I bought this terap for RM5. I ate it all by myself!!! Superb!!!

Coconut Drink From Kota Marudu

Two young coconuts for RM5!

The coconuts are from Kota Marudu.  I brought along a water container to hold the coconut water. It will take me hours to open the coconuts with a cleaver. The local trader does it so easier. I must remember to snap a photo for my readers (especially those from overseas) to see how the traders crack the coconuts with a cleaver.

Coconut water is God's gift for us in Kota Kinabalu. The water from 2 coconuts is about 1 litre. The coconut flesh was superb. So original and refreshing!

Local Grown Banana - Pisang Emas

As usual, after church, we went to Foh Sang to buy banana and coconuts. The kadazan (local ethnics in Sabah) from Kota Murudu gather here to sell banana and coconuts.

I bought a bunch of pisang emas (golden banana). It only costs me RM1.50. The banana is very fresh. In the hot climate here, the banana normally lasts at most 2 days after ripen. I prefer to eat banana as compared to imported fruits as such low value local fruits don't use chemical fertilizer and preservative. The fruits also ripe on the tree. Excellent!

When Pocket Is Tight

My friend is facing financial difficulty since 2 years ago. Listening to him, I guess it is due to inappropriate money handling in the family.

Our children grow up observing how we handle money. If we give them whatever they ask for as long as we can afford, they learn our way of spending money. My friend has no wise habit of saving. He buys many insurance policies. He has the impression that buying insurance is saving money. When he was in his prime years, he could afford many policies. His earning power is not as good as a few years back. He is now lagging in premium payment. I suppose the policies will lapse one after another.

My friend also brought along the whole family for holiday in Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and China. Holiday is costly for his income. His children must have thought that their father is wealthier than their other friends' fathers.

My friend starts to feel the pinch of his pocket when his children ask for new handphone, smartphone, notebook, iPad. When one child asks for it, he has to buy for other children. He has not learned to say no to his children.

Eventually, he starts drawing from his overdraft. When monthly family expenditure is more than income, he feels the chill seeing the monthly overdraft statement. I can see that he is afraid of losing his house which he is drawing the overdraft from. He is worried about his children's spending pattern as they don't understand why their father are moody over their requests now. I really feel sorry for him as the whole family is under a great deal of tension.

My advise to him is to stop satisfying his children's requests. They are all working now and they should live on their own income. The insurance policies need to be revised. My friend has stopped premium payment.  Instead of lapsing the whole life policies, my advise to him is to convert the policies to either paid-up policy or extended term assurance. Drawing from overdraft to pay for whole life policies when your children have all grown up don't serve much purpose. And there is no point paying premium for your children's whole life policies.

I believe family should value their relationship. The whole family should understand their situation now, and agree to settle the overdraft by cutting down unnecessary expenses. It is still not too late. In fact, there is nothing shameful to explain to the children of his situation now. Isn't it better to face the problem together, than to to face the situation yourself?

My House Is Not For Sale

We bought our house 22 years ago. Before we got married, we looked for a house. Never owned a house before that, and never calculated the costs of buying a house. Two young adults from humble families, looking for a house to start a home. Just so happen that this house is located in today's prime area, cornered house, with ample of spaces for more than 5 cars to park, and a backyard for me to do my washing and grow some vegetables. Perfect for a person like me who prefers to work and stay at home.

Since several years ago, property prices have gone up so fast in KK. Many friends drop by will tell us how much my house worth. Some even suggested that we should sell the house, buy a smaller one, and keep the cash.

We always thank the Lord that we managed to pay off the house in 10 years. Since both of us were from humble families, we do not mind saving every cent to pay the installment. With God's blessings, our payroll enabled us to settle the loan faster than we expected.

Our children grow up in this house. There are many things for them to remember. I am still keeping the markings that they made since they were very young. From the markings, we can see how fast they have grown. The toilet door was slightly damaged by my elder son when he was in the primary. I left him with the Indo maid when I went to work. The maid teased him and he was so angry that he chased after the maid with a ruler. The maid escaped to the toilet and he hit the pvc toilet door with the ruler. The mango tree grew up together with them. Bits and traces in the house bring back memory.

My house is my home. If there is no strong reason, we wouldn't sell off our memory. Other people look at our house as an investment property. We look at our house with sentimental value. After all, assets can be in many forms. Why should I convert my fixed asset into current asset? Property price will sure keep on growing but value of money goes the other way.

Nevertheless, it is not very polite to suggest to anyone to sell their house if they are staying in that house.

Genneva Gold - A ponzi scheme?

The Edge Malaysia (Oct 8 2012) has a cover story on Geneva Gold.

There is a Genneva Malaysia Sdn Bhd branch in Times Square. I am aware of agents selling Geneva Gold in Kota Kinabalu. Many times, new investors are encouraged by existing investors when monthly dividends are received. Investors normally don't ask mcuh. My relative has a coffee shop in Foh Sang. Many business transactions of all types transact at the coffee shop.

To my surprise, it is estimated that there are 60K Genneva clients with investment more than RM3 billion. It is also selling in Singapore, Hong Kong, China and Philippines. There was a picture of our former PM holding a Genneva gold product at a corporate launch in 2010 in the presentation slides. It is quite hard to disbelief and to forgo such a good investment.

I feel sorry for the investors who have put in so much money, life saving, retiring money, EPF money, perhaps borrowed money from friends or banks to such investment. I sincerely hope that even if the company is running its business not according to law, there is still enough money to pay back to the investors.

Meanwhile, check your other investments with Bank Negara and Security Commission. You could have friends and family members who can assist you to understand what your other investments are. Even your unit trust investment and insurance policies, look for someone else who stay neutral to evaluate for you.

Investment in Direct Selling etc

When we do any kind of investment, bear in mind that the money that you part with can bring you more money or can make you poorer. This is investment. If you can't afford to lose your money, don't do any kind of investment.

Special attention is to people who are above 40 years old, particularly for those who can't seem to get a good pay job or who feel that the later part of of their life is impossible to find a job, or to start a business.

For my past 20+ years, I have been invited to listen to 'successful' testimonies from direct sales, 'opportunity not to be missed' investments, at least twice per year.

I don't mind spending some time to listen to them because I don't want to be rude to my friends and relatives. After all, every time when I give them a chance to share, I am giving them a chance to practice their presentations, and to answer my questions to think about what they are sharing. However,  I don't criticize them because I know when some one already in the 'investment', they must have put some money into what they think is bringing them hope.

About 3 years ago, a friend in her 40s joined a direct sales selling some kind of supplements magic to eye sight. She has never asked me to listen to her presentation as she knew that I would search the internet for information if in doubt of anything. I also prevailed in my biology class in high school. Since she is an active church member, her prospects are church members of those 40+ and less educated. These people would have developed problems of eye sight at these age. A friend said after drinking the 'potion', he could see clearly. However, it is not a cure. You need to drink daily to 'maintain' your eye sight. As usual, products from direct sales are never cheap. She was quite good at recruiting members and within 2 months, her commission was more than RM10,000 in a month. She showed her statement to my husband.

Anyway, because of the high 'maintenance' cost, most would only buy 1 time to entertain the agent. I don't know how she is now but her husband said that she is now selling Hong Leong insurance. Guess direct sales  business did not maintain, in fact, direct selling never lasts long.

I was invited to listen to seaweed investment in Tawau. I was shown pictures of the seaweed farm and photos of both local and oversea investors visiting the farm. The agent told me how I can invest in terms of 'units', contracts will be given, and commission will be distributed, things like that. I personally feel that any firm wants to raise capital to expand their business, it should not be raised this way. I just asked him how much they want to raise. He said no limit. What kind of business when you want to raise money and there is no limit to it? I read in the paper last year that there was such company under investigation. However, I was also told by my husband that his sister was invited to join in such investment last month. I am disappointed that the authority is never strict enough and persistent to stop such activities to let many ignorant to lose their hard-earned money.

Sabah Local Coffee

Sabah is famous for Tenom coffee. There is only one coffee factory in Tenom. My aunty was married to Tenom. Most of the Tenom people earn their living by planting fruits, not much coffee. As I was told, the coffee trees are gone with oil palm trees as the price of oil palm is good, and less care is required for oil palm trees. In fact, most coffee bean used are from our neighbouring country - Indonesia. Since Indonesia is just next to us, there are traders who bring over coffee beans to sell. Mostly Arabica.

You might think that since coffee bean is so easily available in Sabah, Sabahan will have the best coffee. No, no, no. If you go to coffee shop, you will be disappointed.

During my father's time, I remember when I was still young, most coffee shops were owned by Hai Nam Lang （海南人）. The taukeh would make coffee themselves, wearing white singlets and short trousers up to their knees. For every cup of coffee they made, they would discard the coffee powder already used, and spooned fresh coffee powder into the muslin they used to filter the coffee. Then they would scoop hot water to run through the coffee powder in the muslin. The coffee was collected with mug. You could order kopi-O (with sugar), kopi kao (thick coffee with sugar), kopi (with condensed milk), kopi C (with ideal milk). When you walked into a coffee shop, you walked into the aroma of coffee. I can confidently tell you, it beat Starbucks.

How does the coffee shop look like now? The person making coffee are mostly Indonesian ladies. When you order coffee, they WILL NOT discard the used coffee powder. They may or may not add fresh coffee powder into the muslin. They may just run through the used, stale, coffee powder with hot water. What comes out is black liquid sweetened with sugar or condensed milk or ideal milk. Some even soak the muslin in a jug of hot water. When you order coffee, they will just pour for you the 'soaked dark black liquid'.

Most people are not fuzzy about coffee here. They just drink as long as it is dark in colour, including my husband. What a pity! The real coffee culture is gone!

Choose a unit trust fund

What are the criteria to choose a unit trust fund? When your consultant recommends you, ask the below questions. By the way, don't buy new fund because there is no track records.

1. Past performance - even though past performance is not an indication of future performance, we still believe that it is more likely for a fund with good past performance to perform better in the future. You can also study the sharpe ratio, r-squared, beta, standard deviation if you are savvy investors.

2. Annual Expense Ratio - compare that with other funds of the same group. e.g local equity fund compares with local equity fund

3. Front end sales charge - different fund houses may have different sales charges for the same type of funds. Choose  lower sales charge funds so that you have more capital to invest in.

4. Certain funds may have high Sales charge but low annual expense ratio. Others may have low sales charge but high annual expense ratio.

5. Fund size - if the fund size is too small, the fund managers may have difficulties to do diversification and allocation.

6. Top 5 holdings - if you like, you can check what are the top stocks holdings of this fund. Just check. In Malaysia, we may have some listed companies that need attention.

7. Switching fee - When we do asset allocation, switching will occur. Take note that switching can be expensive if you have many funds to switch at asset allocation. Public Mutual gives a number of free switches to their Mutual Gold members but if you have too many switching to do, it will still incur unnecessary expenses.

8. In insurance policies, we can appoint nominees in case dxxxh should occur and the nominees can receive the compensation. How about unit trust? Ask your consultants. Or write a will to cover for that.

Working As Unit Trust Agent

I am an insurance agent and also registered as a unit trust consultant. However I am never very active in promoting insurance and unit trust. For the past 10 years, I only managed to hit my target to maintain my licenses. :)

Nevertheless, I can tell you that I am more knowledgeable than many of the top sales insurance agency managers and unit trust consultant managers out there in the market. LOL.

Ha2. I just like to attend classes, seminars, motivation talks. Both these 2 fields allow me to gain a lot of insight by attending the many free (or minimal) educations they provide. I even obtained Register Financial Planners license and now registered as Financial Adviser.

I gain a lot because my knowledge has enabled me to better my financial situation. I am now well planned with my own financial matters.

How do unit trust companies teach their consultants how to choose funds for their customers? Most common used method would be to pick the high return funds at certain periods to show to the customers. Then, at the launch of new funds, will do a good projection of the funds with some deduction of sales charges. One Agency Manager even said it doesn't matter what fund to choose, they are all the same. 

Anyway, it really depends on consultants' experience, knowledge and code of ethics when comes to selling of funds. If you meet a consultant who sees only commission and oversea trip incentive, then the customers would be the loser. I would suggest that if you were to invest a lot of money plus EPF in unit trust, do ask a lot of questions. And educate yourself. There are many useful website to guide investors. Happy investing!

Beta

There are 5 principal risk measures of unit trust performance. They are alpha, beta, r-squared, Standard Deviation and sharpe ratio.

Beta measures a fund's sensitivity to movements in the benchmark index.

Before you read Beta, make sure R-squared should be at least 0.85. Otherwise, beta doesn't reflect the fund's sensitivity to the benchmark index.

a fund with a beta of 1.5 tend to gain 1.5% for every 1% rise  the market and lose 1.5% for every 1% decline in the market.

Thus, if beta is 1, then it imitates the benchmark index completely.

R Squared

R-squared is a historical measure which indicates how closely a fund's past fluctuations have correlated with the fluctuations of its benchmark index. R-squared vales range from 0 to 1.0, or 0% to 100%. In Public Mutual, we are using 0 to 1.0.

0 means that a fund's returns have noc correlation with a benchmark's fluctuations while 1 indicates that a fund's return s are completely correlated with the benchmark's return.

Thus, if R-squared is less than 0.7 (my opinion), there is no point to look at Beta, as beta measure a fund's sensitivity to movements in the benchmark index.

More useful R-squared is more than 0.85. It indicates the fund's performance patterns have been in line with the benchmark.

Sharpe Ratio

I am learning the ratios to better myself in unit trust investment.

The Sharpe ratio is a risk-adjusted measure of return that is often used to evaluate the performance of a portfolio. The ratio helps to make the performance of one portfolio comparable to that of another portfolio by making an adjustment for risk.

E.g. Fund A  15% return
        Fund B 12% return

Is Fund A better? Fund A is better if it doesn't take higher risk than fund B. Risk adjusted return will tell you which one is better.

Fund A standard deviation 8%
Fund B standard deviation 5%
risk free rate is 5%

Sharpe ratio for Fund A is (15%-5%)/8% = 1.4
Sharpe ratio for Fund B is (12%-5%)/5% = 1.25

This means to say Fund B is able to generate a higher return on a risk-adjusted basis.

A ratio of 1 and more is good, 2 and more is very good, and 3 and more is considered excellent.

Public Mutual does compute sharpe ratio in the consultant's software. I don't know where to look for this reading in any public domain.

Unit Trust Consultants

I passed my unit trust exam with FIMM many years ago. I have attended many unit trust training sessions at Prudential Unit Trust (now call Eastspring), Public Mutual, AmInvestment, RHB etc. Of all the training sessions, the trainer and managers will ask you to sell, sell, sell. They will teach you how to answer objections. Tell you what are the common objections and how you should prepare yourself for such kind of objections. They will show you how good the performance of their investments are. When new funds are launched, they will tell you blah blah blah, so that you feel that the investments are good for your friends and customers, and they you go, following what they have psycho you.

My sales volume has never hit the targets for oversea trips. I feel that when I sell unit trust, I am asking my clients to trust me for the return of their investments. I don't feel comfortable because after attending so many trainings and listening to so many sharing from 'successful consultant', I haven't seen the trainers have emphasized on making good returns for our clients. 'Consultants' will extract good performance of the past years' record, or pick on successful investment of their clients to persuade their clients. Even the managers are selling this way. I feel that most of the unit trust and insurance agents in Malaysia are not up to the level of being responsible 'advisers'. I would say many are merely good 'sales person'.

Extraction Of Virgin Coconut Oil

I live in a land that coconuts are grown along the seaside. Drinking fresh coconut water is really a blessing in Kota Kinabalu. Cheap and easily available.

My husband mentioned to me the benefits of virgin coconut oil (VCO) a few months ago. I didn't pay a lot of attention as I was taught that coconut oil has bad cholesterol. VCO came to my attention when I was trying to find out why sometimes my wok smokes a lot. Finally I found out that the type of oil used was the culprit. I read about smoke point of different oil, and how heat can damage the oil. Now I know that different type of oil has different smoke point. Once the oil passed its smoke point, the oil becomes damage and harmful to our body. For example, olive oil is meant to be good for our body. However, if we heat olive oil in high temperature, the good oil becomes bad oil.

Back to VCO. At the tip of Borneo in Kudat and Kota Marudu, the locals plant a lot of coconut trees. They are hard-core poor farmers. A few NGO helped to set up a VCO processing centre for the locals to extract VCO. I remember when I was young, I went to Keningau as my aunties and uncle were living there. They kept coconut oil in the house as disinfectant like iodine. The locals always apply coconut oil on their hair. The coconut oil smelt very bad. Because of that, I have never like coconut oil. However, VCO changes my perception. My brother in law brought along some boiled vegetables sprinkled with VCO on Saturday night. The VCO smelt 清香fragrant。I love it.

Again, back to VCO. Now I understand the coconut oil extraction method can affect the type of coconut oil quality. Apparently, VCO doesn't go through high temperature heating. It involves a simple process.

First, 10-15 matured coconuts are grated using the grater machine. The grated coconut is then sun-dried for three hours, after which it is ready for oil extraction. The dried coconut is fed into the oil expeller machine, and then cold-pressed to extract oil that flows down into a container. It is then filtered to obtain clean oil. And the end result is virgin coconut oil—pure, raw and crystal clear, without any chemicals added, and with a sweet aroma.

There is no heat treatment—the grated coconut is dried naturally in sunlight. This differs from refined coconut oil (hydrogenated coconut oil), obtained by boiling the copra of which the oil is yellow in colour with a thick odour.

VCO can be obtained through traditional fermentation method, involving the natural separation of the coconut oil from water using gravity. This can be done at home. First, coconut milk is expressed from freshly harvested coconuts. The coconut milk is then allowed to sit for approximately half a day. The water separates from the oil and sinks to the bottom, while the lighter coconut solids float to the top. In between the coconut solids and the water is a crystal clear layer of completely unrefined coconut oil. The oil is warmed for a short time to remove any remaining moisture, and then filtered. The result is a clear coconut oil that retains the distinct scent and taste of coconuts.

There are many claims that VCO provide many benefits. I am yet to try it out, for my aging skin, my gum and the old age spot. Since it is easily available, I should give it a try.

Endowment Plan

Endowment Plan is sold by many insurance agents as a saving products. Customers are easily to be persuaded. I believe most people want to save money and get good returns from their savings and they are willingly persuaded by insurance agents and bank staff to commit in endowment plan.

Our trainers in insurance companies will teach us not to mention 'insurance products' when we sell endowment plan. It should be addressed as 'saving plan'. I try but I give up cheating myself because insurance is always insurance. If the primary element of an insurance product is not insurance, then something is wrong.

Anyway, the reasons that I don't encourage endowment plan as a financial planner due to the following:
1. Once you have committed, you must faithfully pay for the duration of the payment term. As like other insurance products, the distribution cost for the first few years are expensive. Once you stop, you lose what you have paid before.
2. It is unlike saving in the bank if the sales person try to compare with the bank deposit returns. You can't withdraw your money for the 'money saved' (premium) in your endowment plan, while you won't lose your capital in the bank saving account.
3. The sum assured is very low
4. An endowment plan projects high returns. If you only take the guarantee maturity value into consideration, it is quite similar to putting money in FD.

Worst still, many of the 'cash return' insurance products are package whole life. What is the point of locking your money with insurance company and getting the annual 'cash return'? The 'cash return' shrinks every year because the value of the same amount money depreciates over time.

What is Ponzi Scheme 庞氏骗局

What is a Ponzi Scheme? It is a scheme that looks good at the surface with irresponsible motive behind. It is sweet in the beginning but end up bitter at the end.

Ponzi Scheme promises an above normal rate of return, but not so high as to be unbelievable. The setup is not transparent as to how the return is to be generated. The scheme will convince some investors first and the promised return will be given for a few or many periods. These investors will invest more, and bring along their friends and relatives. Typically, those earlier investors will earn. The later investors' investment will be used to give to the earlier investors. Until such time that the holes are too big to cover, or the ponzi scheme master is happy with the amount of money he is holding, he will just disappear, or change the scheme, or change the man behind the scheme.


Doesn't it sound familiar? Even direct selling is patterned this way. Maddoff  is a famous example in 2008 in US.

Even though we perceive the US people more knowledgeable than us in Malaysia, they still fell prey to this kind of scheme. Be practical, the hard earn money when invested, must exercise due diligent. Otherwise, just leave it in Fixed Deposit. Though sound unintelligent, but better than falling prey to ponzi scheme.

Is Genneva Gold a Ponzi Scheme?

I have heard about Genneva Gold from my clients. They asked me whether I have any investment in gold in Genneva. I came to know gold investment a few years ago reading the monthly magazine called "Money". From there I only knew that I can invest in gold via Public Bank Berhad and Maybank Berhad.

Prior to that, I thought to invest in gold, you need to buy in the form of gold jewelry.

I called up these two banks to find out how to invest gold in their banks. In general, it is very much like unit trust. There is a difference between buying and selling price. To open a gold investment account, your initial investment would be to purchase 10 gms of gold (about RM1790 now). Subsequent investment is 2 gm (about RM358). This is affordable. The banks will give you a gold saving account book for records. You do not have to keep the physical gold yourself. Since these banks have licenses from Bank Negara Malaysia to trade gold, you are rest assured. If you want to withdraw, you can sell the gold back to the bank, or withdraw in the form of physical gold.

Similar to unit trust, you wish for a return by hoping the gold price will rise eventually in the long run. You can check the gold price in the internet. They are the same globally.

Unlike Genneva gold, the company promises you very good return. I was told 2% monthly. In a year, you get a return of 24%! The agent told me that they get 1.5% of the customers' investment! If the customers do not sell back their gold, and renew their license, they continue to get 1.5%!

This scheme has attracted a lot of investors. Quite a number of investors invested their life saving because the monthly dividend is really attractive. If you are retired and withdraw your EPF of RM200K to buy Genneva Gold, you get RM4K monthly for your living expenses. Your agent will get RM3K from your investment. Doesn't that sound good? Better than rental income if you wish to purchase a house for rental. Where can you find a house that cost you RM200K and give you a monthly rental income of RM4K?

However, when investments are too good to believe, hold back and ask yourself this question. How do they make money from my investments to pay me dividend and the agent commission? Does gold price really rise so fast? Look up information in the internet. Plenty of discussions going on in the internet. 

Emergency Cash Fund

Who are among those who lapse their life insurance policies easily? 

From my experience, most of the lapsed policies are owned by young adults. My young adults customers are mostly at least having tertiary degree at local universities. I noticed that once they lost their jobs, they stopped their premiums immediately. However when I meet them for appointments, they are normally quite well-dressed and equipped with the latest phone.

My advise to these young adults would be to keep 6 months of emergency cash fund. This means to say that if you are out of job for 6 months, you still have this saving of emergency cash reserve to keep you through. This assumes when you lose your job, you will be able to get another one within 6 months time. You estimate how much you need to spend every month. Do not underestimate. Multiply this estimation with the number of months you think will get you back to a job.

As you get older and more fuzzy about jobs, you must keep more emergency cash fund.

Draw up a worksheet to record your daily expenses. At month end, you will know how much you require in a month. Remember to consider some expenses that recur once a year like your motor insurance, road tax renewal, land assessment, PA insurance and fire insurance.

职场增值 Increasing your value at work

A Singaporean motivational speaker was invited by a KK church to conduct workshop  on increasing your value at work. Every attendant has to pay more than one thousand to attend the 2 days workshop. I heard that the respond was very good. The church said that this speaker charged more than RM5000 for similar workshop outside the church, and this was a very special "discount" for church members. After the workshop, the pastor asked the participants to share. The participants were excited and motivated, and many said value for money.

However, one church member who has been life insurance for at least 30 years, was fury after the workshop. He said he has attended so many similar motivation talks in life insurance industry. And why should the church members including the elders stood up clapping their hands welcoming the entry of the speaker. The speaker is neither God or Jesus!

After a few months, the same workshop was brought to the seminary. Charges remained above RM1000. I signed. Many Christians in KK are innocent. I should not question them but I think some people became regular church goer or cell group members because they just want to belong to somewhere. Perhaps church is perceived as a safe place to belong to. Do churches more like clubs to non-christians?

Mr.Wong's Personal Financial Planning's Workshop

Mr. Wong KS is a well known Financial Planning speaker in Chinese speaking community. He was a regular financial planning speaker at Ai-FM. He was also invited to give talk and to conduct workshop in Kota Kinabalu and Tawau.

I had listened to his talk several times over the radio. I like his sharing. Because of his popularity, he was invited to conduct workshops at one of the church several times in Kota Kinabalu. Mr. Wong KS charged RM3300 for the workshop. If you want to attend the same workshop again, you pay 1/3 of the original price. I personally find this very, very expensive. Surprisingly, many people are willing to pay for that amount of money in order to know how to manage their money. One of my customer attended his workshop, and called me to tell me now she knows what she wants for her life insurance. When I met her up to review her policy, she told me that she wants to increase her critical illness cover to RM100K. Naturally, I asked her why RM100K? She said Mr.Wong said so. In Kota Kinabalu, most people are very innocent. They come to adore a person easily. And whatever the person said, they just follow faithfully without asking why.

My customer continued to tell me that her income will be allocated according to 2116 formula. 20% saving for financial independence, 10% for protection, 10% for children's education and 60% for living expenses. This is a good guideline, but keep in mind that this is a general guideline. If I have big income, there is no need for me to spend 60%. I can save more. If I am a single person, I don't need so much protection.

Nevertheless, at least, by attending the workshop, these attendants are more aware of their spending and their investment, hopefully.

Hong Leong Income Builder Plan

Sharon is 22 years old. She does not have a steady job. She is still depending on her parents when her odd jobs income do not meet her expenses. In fact, Sharon is spendthrift. She likes to buy branded clothes, go clubbing and drink at starbucks.

Her friend, Magdalene is also 22 years old. Through Sharon's social friend, she came to know Magdalene, who has just started to earn extra income by joining Hong Leong Assurance as life insurance agent.

One day, Magdalene called up Sharon to have lunch with her. Magdalene showed her concern for Sharon's way of spending, and encourage her to take up Hong Leong Income Builder Plan. This plan is popularly promoted by HLA agents as well as HLB's sales officers. Magdalene proposed to Sharon that she should save RM200 every month with her for 12 years. On the first anniversary, Sharon will start getting dividend from HLA.

Sharon went home to ask permission from her mother to take up the plan, and her mother agreed. After paying for 2 months, Sharon was not in good term with her mother. Her parental assistance of pocket money halts.

When Sharon talked about this with me, I pointed out to her that this saving plan is a wrong choice for her. She should keep her money in the bank as she doesn't have steady income. Furthermore, an insurance saving plan is not a good idea for saving at all. When she needs money, she will not be able to withdraw the premiums that she has paid. She should have deposited her money in the bank. It is also ridiculous to ask premium from mother to 'save' in the saving plan.

I notice that many consumers when heard of the product name "saving", they will assume that it is similar to saving account in the bank. Agents or bank officers will seldom point out to them that they are at a loss should the policy be discontinued.

On my advise, Sharon stops the plan losing a few hundreds. When I called up the young agent, she even told me that Sharon can get back 70% of her premiums paid. From here, I concluded that this young agent doesn't even know her products well, how can she give correct recommendation to her customers?

I wish Bank Negara has better control of the insurance agents and bank officers selling insurance plan. Should there be any complaint or mis-selling, the premiums should be refunded to the customers.

Children's Money Sense

From my observation, how children handle money matters are learned from parents.  Most family in Malaysia have 2 children. Sometimes you see 3 or 4. We live in a small family unlike our generation. We affect each other everyday.

Many young generations do not seem to value money as much as we do. If they don't have enough, they will go home to ask from their parents. Our society is sick.

My friend bought 3 cars for her 3 children aged 19 to 22 so that they don't fight to use the car. She is now paying 3 hire purchase, plus maintenance, petrol, motor insurance and road tax renewal. Her son likes to speeding while driving. Once she saw her son on the road, she was mad. Her son denied. Thanks to the CCTV at the highway that sent him 2 summons for speeding. Brave enough, he asked her mum to pay for the summon, though he has started working.

Why is our young generation getting irresponsible?  Are parents to blame? Have we sent them to the wrong education that they didn't learn Chinese proverbs to grow up respecting the elders?

Hot Shower Make Skin Dry

My beautician friend told me that I should not wash my face with warm water. The temperature makes skin dry and cause problems with skin eventually.

After that, I keep my observation. True enough, after shower with heater for a few days, I can feel my skin drier.

My colleague went to Korea for holiday. When she came back, she said that the Koreans have good skin. The tour guide told them that Korean prefer cold drink rather than hot drink, and that was the reason for good skin. It sounded illogical, probably there is some truth to that?

Anyway, living in the equator, the climate is always hot and humid. Day in day out, we are under the sun most of the time. In the car and even in the house. My house has full sunlight. I don't need the lamp throughout the day except in the kitchen and in the toilet. Sun is bad to skin.

The skin specialist I went to a few years ago told me that sun is the worst enemy of our ladies' skin. She has nice skin without any blemishes. I think she is the only skin specialist who practices as beautician. She has very good business, and she only works half day. She asked me to carry an umbrella where ever I go. She does that. Even crossing the road, she uses her umbrella. She even uses sunblock in the house!

In order to maintain beauty, a lot of efforts are required, and money to buy all those beauty products. I don't want to spend money on beauty products as that would be long term expenses. I just be cautious of the sun.

The Westerners come here for sun, and we are here afraid of sun. Ha!

ABC

This is ABC. It stands for Ais Batu Campur. Ais = Ice, Batu = stone, Campur = Mix. Or ice cube mixed.

We had this in Malacca 2 years back. There is a street where you can find many tourists. This ABC was very good. Crunched ice with lots of thick santan (coconut milk) and gula melaka (palm sugar). Very cooling after a hot and tiring walk.

Bougainvillea

This Bougainvillea was given by my sister in a pot. The root has grown pass the pot. It is healthy, but do not flower. There are two species in this plant. White and purple colour. 

I wish it can bloom one day. Anything that I need to do to let it flowers?

Another Rat Caught

Caught another rat outside the kitchen. I think it has been hiding under the washing machine for quite long. No wonder I smelt animal hair like dogs not washed for long. And I saw traces of food behind the washing machine. Got you!

My son leaves it on the grass to let it dies from rain and sun, and without food.

This rat tried to squeeze itself out from the small hole.

Pot Plant

What plant is this? I was given this plant about 3 years back in a small pot. This is suppose to be a pot plant. I placed it next to the fence and it grew up very well. Having a plant nicely grown in my backyard is rare. I just let it grow to add some greenery scene to my backyard.

Avocado Plant

Got some avocado from my hubby's auntie two years back when she came to KK. As usual, if she dropped by my house from Tenom, she would give me fruits.

I like to eat avocado with honey. Normally I'll cool the avocado in the fridge before I scope it out to eat with honey or sugar.

I threw the seed at my backyard and it grew into about 1 foot tall. My hubby helped me to dig it out and grew it somewhere in the middle of my backyard. It grew very well up to about 7 feet. The leaves were vividly green. I just like to look at the tree to see it grow.

After several days of heavy raining, I noticed the leaves drooping. It seemed as though the leaves had no strength to lift up their happy faces. In a few days, the leaves became brown, the tree is dying.

My part-time Indonesian maid asked me why the tree dies. I don't know. I can't grow papaya at my backyard as well. After a certain height, the papaya tree dies just like the avocado tree. I suppose the root is rotten with the soaking water underneath.

It's quite sad to see a healthy growing tree suddenly dies away.