Euphoria in the stock market

The Malaysian stock market has been going through the roof and achieved a nine year high. Will the bulls slow down? Your guess is as good as mine. We should be cautious in any investment decision. At a time like this, we would very much want it to carry on moving up. The sudden rise in the stock market is mainly due to a re-rating by foreign funds. Money is pouring into the Malaysian market. Stock prices are rising and it is very tempting to get your hands dirty. Lets not be the last one holding on to the stock.

Talking to people

I am in an industry that it is important to talk to many people. I have to let people know about what I am doing and at the same time educate them about investment. It is strange that there are people who are so afraid of investment in unit trust but will put their money on some hot market tip from a friend who is equally weak in understanding company performance and market trends. Investing in Unit Trust has the following advantages: Diversification, Professional Management, Liquidity, Ease of Transaction and Capital Gains.

So be a wise investor and protect your nest eggs.

One planner in every family

It is a pity that so few people are into financial planning in Malaysia. A lot of heartache can be avoided if financial planners can reach out to more people to educate them in their financial plans. I was at a recent financial planning seminar and some statistics and facts that were given was very encouraging. It was noted that the equity(stock) market is the best investment a person can put their money into. In the long run (5 to 10 years), the equity market can give a return of more than 10% return per annum. The next interesting fact was that the reason for investor not achieving this return was that they run too fast when a crisis hit. The basic principle of investment is to buy low and sell high. However when the market is low (soft), people are less likely to invest because the fear of market going lower. STOP AND THINK! How much lower can it get. Equity market over time improves and the strategy is to invest on a regular basis fixed amount of money or what the financial planners call DOLLAR COST AVERAGING. Do this and you will be surprise on how your wealth will grow over time.

People are very careful with their money and trusting someone else to handle their money is difficult. Here is where education and trust comes into the equation. If one family member put in extra effort to learn about managing and investing the money in a safe and well diversified portfolio of shares (using Unit Trust schemes) then he or she can share the benefits of investment with other family members as the family members would trust him or her. This would be ideal as all the family members would benefit from it. Give it a thought.

A reply to a dear friend

Life outside is not that all rosy but it is an option to get away from a 9 to 5 job or rather 9 to 12 job. Starting any new venture is a lot of hard work but if you are doing something that you are passionate about and enjoyable it is not call work but it could be your mission in life. My work now involves meeting people, the more people I meet the better the chances of connecting with them and advising them on Financial Planning and the benefits of investing in Unit Trust and getting better life protection.. When it benefits them, then I will get what I deserved. So it is important in my line to look at the benefits these products will bring to people's life. Of course the next would be a high level of service quality. I also do financial coaching for free because my client will only see value in what I do for them if I educate them. I coach them to do a self evaluation of the net worth, a cashflow budget and tracking their expenses, planning their retirement, children education and protection plan.

I would like all my friends to benefit from what I do, just like you would want to see me being successful. As I said earlier, this is a business of meeting people, so if you have some friends who you may know are looking someone to advice them on their retirement, children education and protection plan do refer them to me so that I can be of service to them. As you know I do not hard sell, so you do not need to worry about these referrals getting annoyed because you have given their names and contact to me. It will be a pleasant experience to them and a chance to gain some financial knowledge. I would love to meet up with you one day just to talk about financial coaching.

Meanwhile, some words of encouragement to you. Things may not be as bad as it seems. The grass always looks greener on the other side but they may be artificially colored green. When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. If you are thinking of doing something on your own, my advice is for you to take a self assessment of your strengths and weaknesses and also you financial net worth and your future retirement plan and children education plan, not forgetting your protection plan. Only with this knowledge and knowing what business to go into, you make that decision to quit your job.

How it began

I started of working as an Accountant and subsequently got promoted to higher levels. My last position was a Group Financial Controller in a Public Listed Company. I was not getting any satisfaction from my job. Year in year out the same routine, month end accounts, quarterly reporting and yearly audit deadlines and budgeting. I put in long working hours.

During the last two years, I was thinking about my personal life and found that I was spending very little time with my family. I decide to do something about it. I did research on businesses that can be carried out even after you reached 55 years old without causing too much stress on yourself. I also look out for business that can give you passive income, ie., income that will still flow into your pockets even though you do not work.

I also found that many people were wrongly advised by their insurance agents and unit trust agents. I strongly believe the society should understand more about financial planning. It is now my passion to talk to people about financial planning and how they too could invest in profitable investments such as unit trust. I have also found that many people have the wrong perception about unit trust and insurance.

I am involved in the Financial Planning industry since 1998 and ever since I began to realize why so many people in developed countries invest in unit trust/mutual funds. The benefits are tremendous. It is definitely better than savings using Fixed Deposits or some insurance plan call educational plan. Many people said that it is even better as compared to leaving your money in Employee Provident Fund. It is a pity so many people have left their hard earned money sitting in unproductive investments vehicles or using the wrong vehicles to achieve their financial goals.

I found the ideal business which I am passionate about.