First surprise, the website itself was not user friendly. It did not display nicely in my firefox and the information was not straight forward. Still, I found my way around.

I started with the idea to run a 10K. Not that impressive, I know. But on 10K I could run with my wife and frankly, while I can run 10K easily, the stretch to 20 may be a bit much. Still, I started thinking about it and getting motivated to run the 20. After all, with a little dedication and two months training in front of me it should not be too difficult.

So I went to check the registration process and fees. Everyone told me it would be RM40, I though ok, sound a fair deal to me. Unfortunately, the RM40 deal is only for Malaysian citizens. Foreign passport holders fee goes up to USD40. Even if you live in Malaysia, have a work permit, pay your taxes and all, still USD40. I was pissed. So pissed actually it tainted the all experience.

I spent some time checking the run, their “run for a cause” concept, questioning myself whether I was going to run 20 or not, started gathering motivation and other, only to discover that I was a wallet to be plucked. Like so many times in Malaysia.

It really gave me a bad image of Standard Chartered and the KL Marathon thing. Should it rain on the day, I wouldn’t feel bad for them…

It is my first in Malaysia, and I have to say, Xmas under the tropic has a different feel to it. It has its good points, no jet lag, spending time at the pool…. But it simply does not replace a good, snowy, family Christmas back home.

To compensate, we are having some friends at home and cooked some french delicacies. We going to have a blast ! Hope you too

Selamat Hari Natal,
Merry Christamas,
Joyeux Noel

Of course, some of the posts are about personal finance, financial advisers, and how to get juices out of the current market conditions… I joined the which strategy for fund investment discussion and gave my take on the Adviser / Investment situation (one of my posting is here-under). Dare to join the discussion?

Markets have a tendency to not go as per exponential graph. Historically they go in cycles of 20 years. 20 years of bear markets, 20 years of bull markets. We are currently mid-way through a bearish one – since 2000 actually. Hence your bad experiences with Lump Sum. The idea in such a market is not to invest lump sum in markets, but to build positions by cost-averaging over the next few years to rip the rewards when the bulls start seeing red. It may take 5 to 10 years before that… which is not ideal for people considering retirement or already enjoying their mojito on the beach.

The best, as always, is to not have all your eggs in the same basket, and plan your investment with different terms strategically. FD and others “sure” things should get a faire share to ensure cash flow over the next few years (now to 3/4 years), but market investment still is a good approach for LT. And by LT I mean really long term. Not trying to plan for 5 years only, but more likely 10 or more. And should the markets be good in 5, crystallize the profits and diversify, if not, keep going until you have the possibility to do so.

And this is I believe a decent financial planner should not show exponential graphs. They end up deceiving their clients, making things worse.

As a side note, I also think that we find a lot of horror stories online because people tend to react a lot more to losing money than making it. Hence the bad ratio of horror/good stories we find online. My humble take

It marks the end of the Ramaddan and is as big as Christmas back home.
Most Malaysians go back to their Kampung (village) to celebrate with their families and share Rendang and Lemang prepared over the past few days. I just came back from my wife’s family place and had a great time – Slightly over-ate, but the Rendang was simply too yummy !

Wishing you all a great Hari Raya!

hari raya di kampong - by jengae

Economics

As often, I found one of the best analysis of the past few days  to be in The Economist. Their financial crisis – What next? article is a great summary, and take a step back and try to assess the situation. Its intro is particularly punchy

Finance houses set out to be monuments of stone and steel. In the widening gyre the greatest of them have splintered into matchwood. Ten short days saw the nationalisation, failure or rescue of what was once the world’s biggest insurer, with assets of $1 trillion, two of the world’s biggest investment banks, with combined assets of another $1.5 trillion, and two giants of America’s mortgage markets, with assets of $1.8 trillion. The government of the world’s leading capitalist nation has been sucked deep into the maelstrom of its most capitalist industry. And it looks overwhelmed.

I also invite you to read their 9 page special report on the financial crisis – Wall Street Bad Dreams.

Markets

Markets are hit. They are bearish, moody and keep don’t really know on which feet to dance. A lot of my clients are calling me to check how the latest events affect their portfolio. It doesn’t for 90% of them. The reason is that we use a long term, strategic approach to investing. We are not in for the quick buck. The Lessons from the Lost Decade in Stocks article from Morningstar summarize pretty well the way we work.

Lesson One: The long haul may be longer than you think.
Lesson Two: Diversification is your friend.
Lesson Three: Dollar-cost averaging is your other friend.
Lesson Four: Save more.
Lesson Five: Minimize expenses and taxes.
Lesson Six: The past isn’t always prologue.

But there is one thing I feel is dangerous in the current market, Shooting The Messenger – in this instance, Shorting (Maybe Fred should have titled his post “Shorting the Messenger” – eheh). Shorting is seen as one of the reason for the spiraling financial situation today. But it only is viable as long as a purge is needed. Their business is to warn others, to shed light on potential areas of financial crimes. They make money cleaning up the markets. And we do have a need for a clean-up. 

Malaysia

Finally, a few words on the current Malaysia situation. Over the past few months, the government and oposition have been at each others throat. The governing coalition is facing the very real possibility of losing its grip on power to the opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim. This change would be possible thanks to Democratic rules being enforced. A good thing. But now, both sides are playing a silly game of Bluff and counter-bluff. Let’s hope this things get sorted out before Raya (end of the Ramaddan). Raya is the most important celebration for Muslims and is a great opportunity to tighten bonds and invite everyone to share – Muslims and non-Muslims.