Increase your financial IQ

Everybody can increase their financial IQ. Financial IQ is very important as you can easily understand and interpret the financial vocabulary and jargon.

For example, you must know words like bull and bear if you want to invest in stock market.
If you want to invest in Real Estate, you must know all the words that can be used so it will be easy for you in the future.

How can you learn this words. Gain this knowledge by reading lots of books. I really recommend Robert T. Kiyosaki books. You can also learn in the net. There are a lot of blog that teach us all about financial.

This is the one of the blog, Financial Plan & Product blog, Esprit De Corps and many more. Just Google it and there will be tons of information waiting to be digest by your thought.

Another Financial Blog

Some of you guys might want to know some of the financial tools available in the market. It is as important as planning your finance because financial planning needs a suitable financial tools. Like building a house, you need all kind of tools and material. It is the same as planning your financial.

Here is the blog that might interest you. A blog that talk about financial product that available in Malaysian market right now.

Financial Plan and Product

It is actually my fathers blog. I am the one who ask my father to do this blog as a way to educate people on financial planning and the products itself. Maybe he wont venture into the investment product but he will so some review on some products that consumer in Malaysia can take advantage of and learn how to use the product wisely. Have any recommendation on others financial blog? Just comment on this post

Some financial tools

Overdraft is a great financial tools especially to a business people.

Why??

Because the overdraft facilities can track where the money go. So basically, the overdraft facility can help them to calculate the expenses as well as the income.


What is overdraft (OD)?
An OD is a credit facility that the bank gives, it is the same as personal loan but overdraft charge the interest when to the amount that you used so if you used just 1k so you just pay 1k of the interest.

Lots of people thinks that the OD can be used by business people. They were wrong. The OD can be a great tools for people who wants to plan their financial properly. Financial mistakes that everybody seems to make is that they did not monitor where their money gone so with OD, they can track where the money gone and for what purpose.

Can everybody use OD?
As stated above, all people who don't have any CCRIS or CTOS can use OD but they must learn to do it. What is the mechanism and how to use OD properly so it can benefit you and not the banks. So learn from the expert, from the person who have an experience or a Financial Planner like Aziz CFP.

Conslusion?
OD is a tools for your financial planning. It is not the solution.

Step in Financial Planning

To make a plan for your financial, you need a target. What is your target? For example, your target is to get a car worth 50k. It is important to have a realistic target that is suitable with your financial condition and salary. Then state the time frame on when do you want to buy that car. For example, you want the car in 1 year times, so in that particular year, you can plan and save the amount of money require to pay the down payment of the car and to make any platform to make monthly payment of the car.

After that, make a plan to achieve the target. You can use suitable financial products in the market such as an overdraft and ASB to make your platform. This is how it works, with all the money you save in 1 year, you but ASB and convert it to ASB certificate. After that, take the certificate to a bank that offer an Overdraft (OD) facility that accept ASB as a mortgage. The OD/ASB is your platform to pay the down payment of the car and monthly payment. In this way, you pay using your platform and did not touch any money that you get from your salary.

With this, you are saving money by saving in the ASB and in the same time, you use that money in the form of OD. The plan is to have a platform that equivalent to 30% of the car value and pay the car using the platform.

Then, u need to implement the plan. This is the most important part of the financial planning. You must implement the plan that you do or given by. The plan will be useless if you did not implement and the plan must be followed accordingly and with discipline otherwise you may face a problem or the plan can simply fail.

Of course, all this things have their own risk and obstacle so we must not demoralize by all the obstacle we face. After a certain period, we can review back the plan that we use and if the plan have fail or face problem(s), we can go back to step 1 and do everything back all over again.

Type of risk you can take

Before you rub your hands, dig in your heels, and execute your financial plan, there is another basic principle you need to constantly remember and that is, the higher the return on investments, the higher is the risk involved.

This is a fundamental principle of investment, the risk reward trade-off associated with every investment

decision you make.

When you buy or sell an investment product, you always have the risk of losing your money. It is just that the degrees of risk vary with each product.

Generally, the products that promise the most returns (like futures and options and high flying stocks) are the most risky investments - so that the more risk you take with them, the greater is your potential reward, but you also have a greater chance of losing money. The reverse applies: with safe products like bank deposits and bonds which give small or steady but hardly glamorous returns, you have less chance of losing your money because they are less risky, but your potential return is also less. This is what it is meant by trading risks for rewards.

As an investor how risky your investing becomes depends on you. Or rather how much risk you can tolerate. Risk means taking a chance, with the outcome not guaranteed to be in your favour. Tolerance is how comfortable you feel with an unfavourable outcome. Whether you can afford to take risks and to what extent depends on how secure you are financially (that means your net worth, your income and future earning potential), your personality and your financial goals.

The investment books never fail to include investor risk profile quizzes to help you determine your risk tolerance. Do these tests to find out what kind of investor you can comfortably be: conservative, moderate or aggressive. An aggressive investor would take bigger risks looking for larger gains. A conservative investor would seek out safer investments and be content with having his investments earn a steady income. An in- between moderate investor is cautious but is willing to take some risks for a better return.

For a quick inkling of how well you stomach risks, use the sleep test. Can you invest your money into an asset and still sleep soundly at night? If you can't, then that investment is not for you.

Understanding Investment Risks
But what are all the risks that investors like you have to face?
One is fundamental risk, which applies to all investments. It is the risk inherent within a business enterprise and is affected by how well managed the company is and how it fares competitively in its market. The best way to minimise the effects of this risk on your portfolio is to diversify; that is, invest in different companies in different industries within the same asset class.

Next is market risk, also known as technical risk, which relates to how well the market of your investment fares in regard to economic factors like business cycles, inflation, unemployment. For example, real estate may perform better than stocks at a particular period of the economy. Again, managing market risk means having a balanced portfolio - diversifying across asset groups and monitoring the economic scene with a view to identifying the winners and losers.

Interest rate risk is how your investment responds to interest rates. Contrary to common assumptions, interest rate risk does not only affect the bond market. It affects the stock market too; while stocks have other factors that directly affect them, they will frequently react in the same inverse manner as bonds to interest rate moves.

Inflation risk is the risk that inflation will outpace your investment to erode the value of your investment dollar. It is a purchasing power risk. So you would have to look for stocks, real estate and investments that will, over time, beat the inflation rate. And also remember to factor in inflation when you are calculating the expected returns from your investments to get a true picture of your gain.

And lastly, liquidity risk is answering the question how fast can I convert my investment assets into cash at full value? Bank deposits are at the low end of liquidity risk while real estate investments are locked at the high end. Shares and unit trusts are pretty liquid, requiring a few business days to receive your money upon selling them.

Which Investor Type Are You?
Here are some examples of investor risk profiles and the typical investments matching their personalities and objectives.

Investor Profile
Typical Investments

Highly conservative
Government securities, bank-backed securities,
trustee securities

Conservative
A broader range of income-only investments, debentures, corporate bonds, certain insurance products

Middle range
Ungeared property, growth shares, investment-linked trusts (with growth emphasis), international investments

Entrepreneurial
Geared property, growth shares, investment-linked trusts (with growth emphasis), international investments

Speculative
Options trading, futures, exotics, collectibles

Note: The above table is an indication only. To be accurate, other characteristics and factors need to be taken into consideration, and there is also overlap. Hence, some investors would disagree with the categories of investments matched to the risk profiles.

Root of Financial Planning

We have cover the meaning of financial planner and what he/she can do with us.

Now, we will talk about the root of financial planning.

Saving..Saving..Saving..

Now, why saving is important. Because something happen to us, somethings that require money, we can use the saving money for the emergency purpose. Savings in Unit Trust, Insurance, and Fixed Deposits can grow your money with the dividen that they give. Other tools for financial planning is investment. But it must be a very good investment. Here in Malaysia, especially for Malay, must invest in Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB), for the Chinese, they have Amanah Saham Nasional (ASN) to invest.


Because ASB is the best investment product in Malaysia. The dividends that PNB give is guaranteed by Malaysian Government and yearly you will get 7% or above. Though some issues has been raised about the integrity of ASB and the 'HALAL" status, it is confirmed "HALAL" and it is a must to for the muslim to invest in ASB.

Most financial planner will provide plans that can give you ability to make saving, to pay bills, to pay all the debts and buy some properties though before this you cannot make all the things that he plans.

Who is your financial planner

Do you have a financial planner?

Nowadays. Lots of people cannot plan their financial correctly. If they plan it, they may fail or did not do what they are plan. Thats why we all need financial planner nowadays. We need someone who know all this stuff. We need someone who can guide us correctly to achieve our dream.

Though in Malaysia, financial planner is something new especially to Malays. Chinese people is more advance in financial planning as they have started century ago. Just look at the financial gap between Malays and Chinese, the Chinese rarely have financial problem. They can buy big cars, big house because they have their financial planner. That is the force behind their success.

Recently, Malay started use financial planner service. They are very fortunate to have the one and only true blue Malay financial planner that is Aziz Ibrahim CFP. Lots of people problems that he have solve. Mostly have pay all the debts, can start having a healthy savings and buy some property. My father as an example. Before he get his service, he have a lots of debts, mainly credit cards and personal loans. We don't have any house but only dreams. After month of using Aziz Ibrahim plan. My father have pay all the credit cards debt, can buy a house in Putrajaya and have a 4 figure saving monthly. Thats like a miracle.

You can know more about Aziz Ibrahim Financial Consultant by visiting BebasHutang Blog.

What is Financial Planning

Financial Planning in Malaysia is not really exposed as in United States where Financial Planner is a common thing. For Malaysia, is new and the only person who giving the service of a true blue Financial Planner is Aziz Ibrahim. He have his style and plan that is really effective and no risks.

Okay, 1st of all what is Financial Planning. Financial Planning is a process where an individual plan their future in achieving personal target and financial by building & implementing the financial plan. The process it self can takes time and your guts.

What is the objective of financial planning?

1. Stabilize your financial to fight inflation.
2. To buy current needs.
3. To pay for education.
4. To finance your need when you retire.
5. To have financial back-up when you have an emergency

Do you have succeed in achieving the objectives above? If not, you certainly need a financial planner.

My financial blog

I have tons of information about financial planning that I want to pour into my personal blog, MalayTeenMind but I really did not want to jumble up personal blog with my financial advice content. So I created another blog for just this purpose.

I am not a financial planner, financial advisor and I am not selling any products. This blog will give you some useful advice about personal financial planning and mainly to Malaysian and especially Malays.

I will try to post content twice a week.