The Malaysian PF Community Archives

[SPONSORED] I Tried Bursa Marketplace’s Mirror, Learn & Trade Platform

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The idea behind investing in the stock market is easy – buy shares from companies you like, wait for it to grow, and earn a profit through dividends and/or increase in value.

(You can also make money if the share price goes down – that’s called shorting, but that’s not halal and more suitable for more advanced traders so let’s not go there).

But if the idea is so easy, then why do I find it intimidating?

Bursa Malaysia knows that many people have the same feeling. Part of their mandate is to attract more investors to the Malaysian stock market, so they come up with various initiatives, including educational ones, to help us overcome that fear.

The latest initiative – Bursa Marketplace’s Mirror, Learn & Trade Platform or MLT Platform for short – may be the coolest one yet. I tried it out. Here’s what I thought of it.

#1 – Choosing who to mirror is the first step

27 ^th
November

Ringgit Oh Ringgit XMAS GIVEAWAY 2019: Cash, Cash Vouchers, Books, Financial Planning Sessions and More!

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Welcome back to the Ringgit Oh Ringgit Xmas Giveaway! It’s the season to give, give and give!

What prizes are available in this year’s giveaway?

Here are prizes available from all sponsors. You can enter one or ALL of them, up to you. Prizes:

1 x winner for RM100 in AEON Cash Vouchers from Ringgit Oh Ringgit – yours truly 🙂
5 x winners for Tengku Noor Zakiah: Malaysia’s Pioneering Stockbroker Book from Kenanga Group – the award-winning investment bank!
1 x winner for RM100 in MPH Vouchers from Silent Confessions by Syaza Nazura – the blogger behind Fresh Grad 101 series!
1 x winner for 1Y MyPF Premier subscription + Licensed Financial Planning Consultation worth RM1120 from MyPF – the personal finance platform and licensed financial planner
1 x winner for RM100 worth of clothes from Marquise.my (regular size) – my sister’s shop!
1 x winner for RM100 worth of clothes from Malaysia Plus Size (plus size) – my other sister’s shop!
1 x winner for RM300 Cash + 2 x winners for RM100 Cash + 10 x winners for Financial Roadmap sessions from moremoney.my – personal finance education platform
2 x winners for I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi Book from Kewangan Graduan – Twitter-famous personal finance education platform
1 x winner for The Innovators by Walter Isaacson Book from The Pelham Blue Fund – the anon group doing stocks and warrants trading on Bursa Malaysia
3 x winners for RM50 Parkson vouchers from Mun Hong – fellow personal finance blogger
3 x winners for Enam Angka Menjelang Dua Puluh Lima Book by Azraei Muhamad aka #FinancialGory – Twitter-famous personal finance education platform
9 x winners for 2020 Planners worth RM79.90 each from EverydayPlanners.com
1 x winner for The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason book + Muji 2020 Planner in Black from Suyin Invest – personal finance Youtuber!

Note: Interested to be a sponsor? Contact me 🙂 The service is FREE for purchasers of Money Stories for Malaysians: Volume 1 – Platinum package and for fellow personal finance bloggers/ content creators. A fee is charged for everyone else – all donated to charity.

How to enter and win the Xmas giveaway

18 ^th
November

[SPONSORED] Investment-Linked Products, As Explained By the CEO of Life Insurance Association of Malaysia

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As part of an outreach campaign, members of the financial media – including personal finance bloggers like yours truly – were invited to the office of Life Insurance Association Malaysia and treated to a first-hand presentation of the latest update within the investment-linked products industry.

Even the CEO of Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (or LIAM for short), Mark O’Dell attended the meeting. He’s like the top boss in the insurance industry. His background is very, very impressive. Happy to report he was approachable in person.

Let me share with you how LIAM explains investment-linked products. It’s quite clever.

Investment-Linked Products, explained using Nasi Lemak

30 ^th
October

Malaysians Share the Biggest Credit Card Expenses They Ever Made

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Ah, credit cards. The enabler of reckless spending, yet such a useful financial tool when utilised right.

How useful is useful? And how enabling? I had to ask. Naturally, I turn to the RoR audience – I wanted to know the biggest swipe they have ever made on their credit cards. Not just that – I also asked if they themselves thought it was a good decision.

Here are their answers. Thanks to everyone who contributed!

28 ^th
October

8 Malaysia-Based Personal Finance YouTube Channels to Follow

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I’ve compiled Malaysia-based personal finance Twitter accounts to follow, and Malaysia-based personal finance Instagrammers, so now its personal finance Youtubers and Youtube channels’ turn!

Note that I have intentionally excluded other personal finance media and figures in Malaysia who (1) don’t use English as a medium, (2) don’t publish videos on a regular basis, and (3) is too product-focused.

This names in this list links directly to their Youtube channels and appear in no particular order. If I missed out anyone, do let me know (or leave a comment with a link to the profile!)

#1 – Suyin Ong

14 ^th
October

5 Interesting Info I Found in the Bank Negara Malaysia Website

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So I got bored one night and decided, hey, this is a good time as any to dick around in the Bank Negara Malaysia website.

Why not? I’m curious about what information is available on their website. Like many of you, I know that BNM plays an important role in our financial ecosystem, even if I don’t know how exactly.

First impression of the homepage – nice layout, easy enough to navigate. The lack of https in http://www.bnm.gov.my/ bothers me a little bit, if I’m honest.

(All images in this article were taken from the Bank Negara Malaysia website. Please don’t sue me.)

As I clicked around, closing down tabs with too many words on them – remember, I’m doing this activity for leisure – I found some pretty interesting stuff. Here are some of them:

#1 – Proper handling of banknotes

09 ^th
October

5 Ways to Buy More Time, According to Malaysians

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Isn’t it amazing that you can use your money to buy more time?

Using money to buy time, as a concept, did not come naturally to me. When I was younger, I spent a lot of hours looking for the best deals.

This money approach went on until I ran out of things to cut from my expenses. Looking back, I could’ve used all that time to make extra money, or learn high-income skills

(but hey it’s not good to dwell on the past)

The realisation that money can be used to buy time also forever changed my attitude towards money. Despite being obsessed with personal finance, I no longer glorify money in itself. What’s the point of having money if I have to work all the time? What’s the point of having money if I can’t spend time with loved ones, or make them happy?

I’m not alone in this view. Recently, I asked the RoR audience about the expenses they’re happy to pay for because it saves them time. Here are some of their answers, republished with permission.

#1 – Paying to avoid the queue or long drives

25 ^th
September

13 Malaysians Share How They Diversify Investments

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What did you pick as your first investment? Your second? Third? And so on?

As always, when I got curious about anything personal finance, I turn to the crowd. I asked the RoR Facebook community about their first, second and third investments. How did they interpret the common advice to ‘diversify your investments’, and how does the order look like?

18 ^th
September

Malaysians Share Where Their Interest in Personal Finance Came From

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How do members of the Malaysian personal finance community first get interested in personal finance? What sparked this fascination for money management?

I was curious, so I asked that question during a mini-forum in Ringgit Oh Ringgit FB page one day.

The answers were as varied as you’d think. They were so interesting, I reached out and asked if I could compile them here. Here you go – why Malaysians got interested in personal finance, in their own words.

#1 – From the school of life

28 ^th
August

[SPONSORED] I Asked Hard Questions to the CEO of PIDM

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As I sat down with Rafiz Azuan Abdullah, the CEO of PIDM or Perbadanan Insurans Deposit Malaysia and asked my questions, it occurred to me that this man is truly at peace with doing a thankless job.

If you’re unfamiliar with what PIDM does, they are basically a government authority that provides protection for your deposits, as well as takaful and insurance benefits in the unlikely event a PIDM member institution fails.

For example, let’s say Bank X somehow goes bankrupt and you have RM10k saved there. As Bank X is a PIDM member bank, PIDM will make sure you get your RM10k back immediately.