rightcoastconservative

Want to save more from Tax? Read on…     Although this article is somewhat considered late for individual tax-payers this year, this could be useful next year anyway. When you buy insurance, besides getting the comprehensive protection and a worthwhile investment that will keep you financially stable should the unexpected happen, one more feature are very important for every tax payers.   Under Malaysian Income Tax Act 1967, you will also enjoy tax relief benefits provided. These tax incentives are given by Malaysia government to encourage us get have a protection plan, thus, inducing a good living life among Malaysians.   So what’s tax deductible? How much? Premiums on life insurance and/or deferred annuities. Premiums on education or medical benefits. How much tax relief? - Up to Rm6,000 for life insurance premiums and EPF contributions. - Up to Rm3,000 for medical and education policies premiums.   You may qualify for tax relief under Education policies if...

Still getting dividends by cheque? Get them paid quickly and directly into your bank account.   As part of an effort to enhance payment efficiency, all public listed companies (PLCs) on Bursa Malaysia will required to pay the cash dividends to their shareholders starting September 2010 . Such payments will directly credit into shareholders’ bank account under the eDividend initiative. Why? Such measure will provide shareholders greater convenience and faster access to their dividends, while PLCs will also benefit with eDividend’s lower cost . It eliminates the need for them to visit the bank to deposit dividend cheques, which are posted to them, as well as the problem of misplaced, lost or expired cheques. How? Shareholders can provide their bank account details to their stock brokers for the purpose of eDividend via the submission of an “ eDividend Form ” from 19 April 2010 onwards. The forms can be obtained from their stockbrokers or downloaded from Bursa Malaysia’s eDividend w...

Warning: This article is very complicated, and, DO NOT read if you aren’t a curios person… The story: Goldman                 = Goldman Sach I                              = Hedge Funds You                         = Investors Apples                     = CDOs Bet                          = Credit default swap Hal ehwal Pengguna = US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Goldman sells you a packet of good and bad ap...

Recently, market talk has increased on the possibility of an approval of a sports betting license in Malaysia. What? Malaysia? YES … Introduction to Sports Betting… For “kaki bola”, sports betting definitely not a strange activity for them – I am not saying that every ‘kaki bola’ also bets. As long as there was demand, almost any kind of sports in the world can become a common interest for betting. Example, tennis, baseball, badminton, golf, F1 racing, and even sepak takraw… Of course, we can not left out world’s most popular sports – football. According to some estimates, the illegal gaming syndicate market size is about RM10 billion , similar to the current 4D market size, of which the majority is from sports betting.    Further liberalization of gaming industry? In Malaysia, 4D is the only legal betting activity that existed, besides going up to Genting Highlands. On the whole, further liberalization are positive, given that this would help enlarge the government revenue p...

After months of speculations and rounds of discussions, all the European Stars reunite at last, as shown in EU flag. On 12th April 2010, the euro zone nations have agreed on a Euro30 billion rescue package for their heavily-indebted partner - Greece. The finance ministers of the 16 European Union nations, who have euro as their common currency, finalized the details of their bail out plan for Greece. The annoucement comes amid mounting concern in the financial markets about the cash strapped Greek government's ability to service its staggering debts of more than Euro400 billion, thus, pulling down euro to very low level recently. How was the package like? Under the package, it will cover a 3-year fixed 5% interest loan and the amount of the loan could be increased over the next 12 months. The European loan is likely to be shared proportionally based on the breakdown of the ECB's capital. The IMF will complete the plan with a Euro15 billion loan at an adjustable rate based on th...

Recently, many of my friends asking me why Ringgit suddenly is rising so fast in value? Well, this is not a bad question though for Malaysians. In contrast, for those who working overseas, and converting to Ringgit regularly, would become poorer as a result. In fact, many Malaysians working in Singapore especially, might think that RM is generally weakening against SGD over the long-term. It's TRUE if you are saying since "Dot-Com" burst.  Could this be a turning point now? From the graph above, it shows clearly that the trend of decreasing value of SGD against RM. Reasons being that optimism of Malayisan economy is going to grow faster than many predicted. This has whetted foreign investors' appetite for local assets, including stocks and bonds. World Bank recently raised its forecast for Malaysian economy to grow at a faster rate of 5.7% this year, compared with its earlier forecast of 4.1% made in November. As a result, local equity and bond markets are ...

Tag: "Achieve higher potential returns by investing in 30 choice stocks". Yet, Public Mutual is launching another new equity fund which focuses its investment in 30 choice stocks listed in domestic and regional markets with the aim of achieving potentially higher returns over the medium to long-term. The fund is suitable for aggressive investors. What is Alpha? Alpha is defined as excess returns obtained as a result of certain investment strategies undertaken by a fund. One of the strategies for a fund to achieve alpha or excess returns is via "focus investing" which involves maintaining a concentrated portfolio of up to 30 stocks that are expected to outperform the broader market over time. Funds which practise focus investing are suitable for investors with higher risk profiles seeking potentially higher returns as the fund's concentrated portfolio may result in increased volatility over short-term periods.  To achieve increased diversification, the fund my in...