Plan for life - Financial

Suddenly it popped to my mind about when to use and invest money. We need to follow the graph of stock market and inflation.

Normally will follow this rule:
Stock market : Up------->Down------------->Up
Inflation : Up------->Down------------->Up

Reason, during economic downturn, people no money to buy stuff. Sure no inflation and might have deflation. Buying house and other high price item like collectors item (Transformers) might be good time during financial down turn.

So which bring us to:
Stock market : Up------->Down------------->Up
Inflation : Up------->Down------------->Up
Spend : save money--->Invest or SPEND!!!----->save money

What you can spend:
a)house
b)collector's item
c)vacation (during downturn, oil price drop so surcharge is lower)

Thanks for reading this.

Just banked in money to my loan account

Just went to AIA to bank in RM3000 to my loan account since its daily rest. Hopefully it is better than to have Canon 40D lying around without me using it to the fullest. Somehow, after this fiasco, I'm a bit reluctant to buy anything anymore. Hopefully this feeling linger longer...

Starting to feel the pinch...

Today I went to Tesco and after fews observation, I've decided that our inflation is getting out of hand. I'll just talk about instant mee. Last time, when its promotion, the price is around RM2.xx. And sometimes it drop to RM1.xx. But what happened now is, during promotion, the price is RM3.xx. Normal price is RM4.xx. That's almost 30% inflation based on instant me.

Fresh milk is RM4 to RM5 now compare to RM3 last time. While the price of Fragrant rice have increased ever since the time of shortage of rice to around RM4x.xx to RM5x.xx compare to RM3x.xx last time.

This might not be felt yet by middle income group but definitely make those lower income group suffer.

Threat of recession is very real and couple with inflation, we're seeing the worse of both world.

Hope that Avago is not retrenching people or else, I'll need to eat instant mee everyday eventhough the price have increase. I'm glad I sold my Canon 40D by the way.

Advice for person before buying anything...

Can you make yourself to use it everyday?

As for me, a few things I bought which I don't use everyday:
a)Canon 40D
b)Digital Piano
c)Cross trainer
d)Video camera
e)Electronic dictionary

I somehow did not use them everyday because either I'm busy or
I'm lazy. So actually buying new stuff involve changing of status
quo. Like you every night watching TVB series. But after buy piano,
you cannot watch series but need to practice piano. So, can you
sacrifice your TVB series watching status quo?

A lot of status quo can't be changed unless you really have the
determination to change. Unless there's enough determination, don't
waste money to buy anything at all. Besides wasting money, you might
waste your time by forcing yourself doing something that challenge
your status quo.

With this thinking, I might not be buying anything at all for the time
being. I'm going to concentrate on few things:

a)piano
b)learning chinese using the dictionary
c)work

Besides status quo of watching DVD...and surfing webs...

In the mood of selling....(2)

And in continuation of selling mood, I just sold off the biggest price tag of photography equipment I owned. Canon 40D is sold at ridiculously low price of RM2650. I also sold him Extreme III 4GB card for RM85 which is ridiculously low price. Not sure why I have impulse selling (together with impulse buying, I've very expensive bad habit).

But I learn something from this whole episode. That what you think you like is not what you really like.

By the way, I'm going to sell 18-55 IS this Wednesday for RM300. I still have remaining legacy of photography equipment which is the 58mm Kenko Pro-1D filter. Will sell it slowly.

I'm glad I've unload the camera. Something I still don't like about dSLR is the tendency to have dust inside the camera. I saw some dust in viewfinder and I really hate to see it eventhough it does not affect the photo. Glad that the buyer of my Canon 40D is not fussy about the dust in the viewfinder.

I'm now a happy man which around RM3k in hand. Hopefully those stash of cash is not fake money...

In the mood of selling....

To be consistent with worldwide mood of selling, I've just sold my recently purchased tele lens Canon 55-250mm IS for RM600. Its a low price compare to RM730 I paid for it. So I lose RM130 in the process but gained the fun of using it for 2 months.

I still have 18-55mm IS for sale for RM300 and above. This means I won't lose any money on this lens. But unfortunately, selling my beloved Canon 40D will prove to be money losing process. I bought it for RM3200. But I take it can fetch RM2600 or below which means I stand to lose RM600 and above.

But thinking if I get back RM2600 and then putting it into my house loan, I might tend to get 10% in the value which means I'll just lose RM600-RM260 = RM340 which is not too shabby and in long run of compouding interest, I'll even get more. However, I still couldn't find a buyer.

However, there goes my photography hobby. I just can't feel like plunking so much money on this. I just feel I don't have time. I still need time for other thing such as for my piano hobby and other stuff. I'm already 30 and I think I need to concentrate on one hobby. I feel I diversified too much until I'm not good in anything at all.

At 30 years old, this will be turning point for everything.

1 hobby.
1 carreer.
1 gf/wife? LOL

Funny antics in US financial bailout

While banking institution trying to merge with one another in US, we're seeing funny things happened. Citigroup, the owner of popular Citibank, are asked to buy Wachovia bank with government money after Wells Fargo Bank decided not to buy it. But before Citigroup able to buy it at USD2.6 billion, Wells Fargo decided to pay USD15 billion to buy Wachovia. Citigroup become mad and decided to sue Wells Fargo and Wachovia because they are playing with Citigroup feeling :P. But why blame Wells Fargo and Wachovia. USD2 billion vs USD15 billion. Sure enough Wachovia or whoever in the right mind will pick Wells Fargo.

Original statement:

Vicente in Miami comments on "Citi Seeking At Least $60B For Busted Wachovia Deal":

Citigroup (C) wants to make a quick and easy $60 billion from Wachovia (WB) and Wells Fargo (WFC), rather than generating "normal profits from operations."
First, Citi wanted the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to fund the purchase of Wachovia (the bank only) at the expense of Wachovia's shareholders, employees, and customers. Now, Citi wants to suck out as much as possible from these two fairly healthy financial institutions.
FDIC Chairman [Sheila] Bair must put her foot down and put an end to these unacceptable shenanigans by Citigroup, otherwise it will set a bad precedent within our banking system.

Another statement:

Backed by a government guarantee, Citigroup last week believed it had sealed a $2.2bn (£1.2bn) offer for much of Wachovia until Friday, when Wells Fargo swooped in with a $15bn agreed bid for the entire company.

Buying now is officially stopped

After so much buying frenzy over few years, I think I'll stop the habit. Now is the time to enjoy the thing I've bought instead of enjoying the buying habit. :P

My buying habit is now officially closed. Mark my word Soo Sean!!!