Not The Time To Panic But Time For Wise Investments In Bursa

The current sluggish momentum in the local bourse is not because of any fundamental weakness but more due to jittery investors sentiments, said CIMB-Principal Asset Management Bhds chief investment officer, Raymond Tang.

The local market has already factored in the impact of the financial meltdown in the United States and Europe, he said, adding that it is also adjusting and taking into account the recession that is expected to take place in the United States.

"I think our market is less volatile, (but whether) it has bottomed, I think it is still too early to say (no one knows) how much further the engine (financial market in the West) has been damaged," he said during a briefing on how to invest in a difficult market.

At 4pm the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index shed 18.89 points to 947.17. CIMB-Principal year-end target for the Index is 1,000 points.

Hence, it is not the time to "panic" but the time to make wise investment decisions as it has been proven that when the market goes down it will rebound and there will be gains to be made.

Tang said even during the massive downturn, the local bourse did not take a nosedive like the other regional markets.

"Malaysia's market fell far less then the neighbouring countries. If you see in the last two weeks, the local bourse fell between six and seven per cent versus the neighbouring countries, which fell 20-30 per cent. But, of course when the markets rally, we go up less."

For Malaysia, it is more of a "pot hole" and not a "bump."

"Hold on for a while because the whole market is in chaos. So, explore the situation and be less panicky. Those with a clearer mind will profit compared with those who panic," he said.

Investors should also focus on a 3-5 years time horizon, said CIMB-Principals chief executive, Datuk Noripah Kamso.

It is just time to slowdown a bit, take a look around and when things are fine, move ahead, Tang said, adding that even CIMB-Principal has deferred plans to launch about two funds, of which one is a real estate fund.

"The funds were planned for last year, we deferred it for six months, then another six months as there is no point selling funds at the current market situation," he said.

As for funds exposed to the global market, he said CIMB-Principal has positioned itself in companies that will survive recession.

On the other hand, Noripah said CIMB-Principal has reached out to the investing public via its new Flagship Fund initiative to enable the investing public to invest defensively during the current market volatility. The flagship fund consist of eight core funds with consistent long-term risk adjusted returns. She said the funds are widely diversified across different sectors and assets.

10 saving tips

10 tips on how to cut your spending and convert it to become your saving.

1. STOP smoking.
Smoking are bad for your health and it is real money waster.

2. Don't buy any newspaper
Just read it on the internet. Reading news on the internet is free and imagine how much can you save a month if you buy the newspaper everyday. If one newspaper cost you RM 1.20. You can save RM 1.20 X 30 days = RM 36 per month and RM 432 per year.

3. Use energy saver bulb
Some company who sell the energy saver bulb claim that you can save 40%-50% of your monthly electric bill if you change all you bulb and use energy saver bulb.

4. Bring food from home
Encourage yourself and your kids to bring food from home.

5. Don't use aircond especially during rainy season
Rain will make the surrounding temperature go down and result in colder surrounding. Aircond use a lot of electricity especially higher horsepower aircond.

6. Wash your own car
Sending your car to car wash will cost you around RM10-20 nowadays. Instead of sending car to carwash. Wash your car. It can be your weekend activity. And it burn your fat too.

7. Don't hire a maid
Instead, do it yourself and of course with help of the family members. If you have kids, you can ask them to do the dish after eat and do the laundry.

8. Plant for food
You can plant some vegetables like chili, curry tree and lots of small tree yourself.

9. Buy bulk
By buying some item that you used every monthin a large quantity, you can save some money. Buy at MAIDIN Subang Jaya where they offer some item in bulk and the more you buy, the less the price.

10. Iron all your clothes at once
Iron use a lot of electricity and you can save your electricity bill by ironing all your clothes at once.

Write what you spend

When a person write their expenses and their income for personal financial review, most of them will notice that their expenses is more than the income or the expenses is too high than they expected. The person will not know where the money gone and sometimes 10 sen a day can make you lose RM 365 a year.

So how to trace where your money gone and how to cut your expenses?
One good exercise is by write all your expenses from thousand ringgit to 10 cents.

Why bother to write even the smallest amount of money?
Because when the amount of 'sen' (eg. sweet you buy from a convenient store) added up on one week can become 7 ringgit and if the seven ringgit one week for the whole year is about RM 365.

What is the effect on you if you write all your expenses?
You will become cost conscious and you can save thousand of ringgit a year.

This method require a self decipline to works and eventually you can make a saving per month and have some emergency fund, retiree saving, investment fund and become happy, healthy and wealthy.

Study loan defaulters to be blacklisted

The student who dont pay their PTPTN will be named in CTOS system. By looking at this article, even PTPTN seek help from CTOS to make the borrower pay their loans.

Recent news that the Malaysian government did not authorized CTOS will make some of people who have named in CTOS systems happy. But the most important lesson from these two story that if you want to make a loan or even borrow from someone, make sure that you pay back what you borrow. If not, the banks will not give you a loan or you will have created a bad image of yourself to the lender.

If you think you cannot pay back what you borrow, then don't borrow or make loans at all.