by Penny on November 24, 2009
I was on the lookout for a current account with any local bank and found that most current accounts need an introducer before you can open an account with the bank. Not really wanting to go through the trouble, I found the perfect solution in CIMB Prime Plan.
CIMB Prime Plan is a current bank account that comes with cheque book facility and ATM card. The best feature for me was that it needed no introducer so that I could just walk in to any CIMB Bank branch and get my account up and running right away. That’s what I did after checking out some of the basic features.
The account offers some interest on balances above RM5,000. I don’t remember at what rate the interest rate is, but it’s definitely nothing fantastic. But that doesn’t turn me away as most current accounts don’t usually offer interests anyway. However, one needs to take note that if the bank account balance is anything less than RM5,000, a monthly RM10 will be charged.
To open the current account under the CIMB Prime Plan, you only need to deposit a minimum of RM1,000 and show prove of your identification. All in all, I had everything settled in under half an hour, including applying for an online banking account through CIMB Clicks.
Speaking of online banking, I also like the fact that interbank GIRO transactions with CIMB Clicks only cost RM0.50 per transaction. I know of other banks that charge a lot more and I think RM0.50 per interbank GIRO transaction is one of the cheapest rates around.
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by Penny on November 3, 2009
After reading Secrets of The Millionaire Mind, I gave myself a few weeks of break to absorb the learnings from the book and then I started reading The One Minute Millionaire book. You must think I’m quite serious about becoming a millionaire with all the titles I’ve been reading. Yes of course I’m serious. Wouldn’t you want to learn how to be a millionaire too?
Anyway, whilst it took me a very short time to read Secrets of The Millionaire Mind, it took me a long while to read this one. The One Minute Millionare book is written in quite a different way to cater to the different styles that people learn from. Written by Mark Victor Hansen (perhaps you would recogise that name from the Chicken Soup For The Soul series) and Robert Allen, this book is written in two formats to cater to the styles I talked about.
On the left side of the book’s pages the content is written up as lessons on how to amass your wealth. On the right side of the book pages unfold a fictional story about a widowed mother who needs to make a million dollars in 3 months time. So depending on the kind of reader you are, you can read either of the format that suits you best, or both the formats in order to appreciate the lessons more.
Basically The One Minute Millionaire book talks about lessons on how to make money in a short period of time. And throughout the book, it also talks about how to do it the enlightened way. This was what I learned about the book before reading it. So now that I’ve completed it, do I think it is a worth while book to spend time reading and re-reading? Read the rest of this post for a review and what I think of this book.
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by Penny on October 8, 2009
I was reading this month’s issue of Personal Money magazine and one of the feature article for the month under the Investing Insights column talks about 6 Malaysian high-yield stocks that are relatively low in risk. These stocks are considered resilient and yields between 5% to 6% per annum.
They do seem to be better yielding than money sitting in the fixed deposit but are they for you?
The 6 high yield stocks are listed below:
1. Panasonic Manufacturing Malaysia – Stock price RM12.20, dividend 6.5%
2. Amway Malaysia Holdings – Stock price RM7.35, dividend 5.4%
3. DiGi.Com – Stock price RM22.10, dividend 4.5%
4. British American Tobacco (BAT) – Stock price RM45.90, dividend 5.8%
5. YTL Power International – Stock price RM2.21, dividend 6.8%
6. Guinness Anchor – Stock price RM6.54, dividend 6.3%
The stocks listed above aren’t for me. For one thing, a lot of them are very pricy! And of the 6, the cheaper stocks seem to have higher dividend payouts than the more expensive ones.
What are the resilient and high-yielding stocks in your portfolio like? Any of the above in hand already?
by Penny on October 6, 2009
If you are an investor in the stock market in the past, you would 100% go through a stockbroker or remisier to do your stock trading. These days, with the advancement of technology including the improved internet security systems, you do not need a human stockbroker to do the trading for you. You can buy and sell shares online.
Most banks offer online stockbroking services these days and all you need is to sign up for an account, open a CDS account for RM10 and you can trade online. This is provided you stick to the terms and conditions of trading on that account which normally requires you to have some account balance in your banking account with the bank.
Trading via a remisier will typically cost you more in terms of fees incurred to buy and sell. Online stockbroking rates are cheaper. Of course, it comes without saying that when you have the service of a remisier, you may pass on the monitoring to the stockbroker and trust that he or she will act accordingly to your instructions. I guess that’s where the extra fees come into play versus using an online system to buy and sell stocks.
I have both, a remisier and an online trading account. But I still prefer to pay more fees and have a human do the work for me. I use the online trading account to watch the market real time as well as some other functions that come with it.
How do you trade – do you use a remisier or do you prefer to be more hands-on and go for online trading via a stockbroking account?
by Penny on October 5, 2009
Kudos to The Edge for recently coming up with a relatively good property related site called The Edge Property. The site features property related articles, news, research reports, tips and advice, real estate deals, etc. It’s all related to the property market so what you need is most likely addressed on this site.
If you have not already visited this site, give it a look through. I’m sure it’ll be worth your while to get so much information for free. Once you register for a free account, you can make use of features to look up archives on the site, post your comments to articles, etc. Even if you don’t sign up, it’s a good read whenever you need some information on the property market outlook.
I’ve signed up and am looking forward to read and learn more about the property market from The Edge Property. I’m not a property investor nor am I looking to buy anytime soon, but I do find this site very useful to keep in touch with and learn all about properties.
