Portfolio Rebalancing Strategy

Apart from asset allocation decision, financial experts around the world are advocating periodic portfolio rebalancing to bring your investments portfolio that has deviated from the target asset allocation back in line. In short, portfolio rebalancing is the action of selling of high performing investments to buy lower performing investments, with the condition that the fundamentals of lower performing investments are still intact. While this logic deviates from normal human psycology, what portfolio rebalancing is doing is basically to sell high and buy low. With periodic portfolio adjustments, we can take advantage of the system to take profit devoid of our emotions in making investment decisions.

Public Mutual PRS Funds Explained

Public Mutual is the fourth private retirement scheme (PRS) provider in Malaysia that launched their PRS funds on 26 November, 2012. Public Mutual will have two PRS schemes, conventional and Syariah, of which each PRS scheme will have 3 core funds, namely Public Mutual PRS Growth / Public Mutual PRS Islamic Growth, Public Mutual PRS Moderate / Public Mutual PRS Islamic Moderate and Public Mutual PRS Conservative / Public Mutual PRS Islamic Conservative funds.  In this article, I will focus on the conventional PRS funds.

Public Mutual PRS Growth Fund is targeting those investors below age of 40 years old or have high risk profile. This fund will mainly invest in combination of index/dividend/growth stocks. 20% of the fund's NAV can be invested in warrants, while up to 40% of the fund's NAV can be invested in existing Public Mutual unit trust funds. 20% of the equity portion of the fund can be invested in Asia Pacific markets.

Manulife PRS Funds Explained

Manulife Asset Management Services Berhad is the third private retirement scheme (PRS) provider in Malaysia that recently launched their PRS funds. As a beginning, Manulife will have 3 core funds, namely Manulife PRS Growth, Manulife PRS Moderate and Manulife PRS Conservative funds. Manulife PRS Growth Fund is targeting those investors below age of 40 years old or have high risk profile, while for Manulife PRS Moderate Fund is a balanced fund targeting those investors between the age of 40 - 50 years old or have moderate risk profile. Manulife PRS Conservative Fund is a fixed income fund with a small portion of equity investment, is meant for those over 50 years old or have low risk profile. Manulife PRS Growth and Manulife PRS Moderate funds will have up to 30% of equity allocation for investments in Asia Pacific markets.

CIMB-Principal PRS Plus Funds Explained

CIMB-Principal is the second panel member that launch Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) to the public in Malaysia, after Hwang PRS Solutions.  CIMB-Principal PRS Plus comprehensive offerings comprise of five funds based on investors risk appetite and investment styles (do it for me vs do it yourself).

At launch time, three core funds, namely CIMB-Principal PRS Plus Growth Fund, CIMB-Principal PRS Plus Moderate Fund and CIMB-Principal PRS Plus Conservative Fund will be available to those investors who prefer do it for me investment style. This means that CIMB-Principal will manage the fund allocations depending on the preset investment objective and asset allocation. The other two non-core funds, CIMB-Principal PRS Plus Equity Fund and CIMB-Principal PRS Plus Asia Pacific ex Japan Equity will be available to investors who are comfortable with higher equity exposure and would like to manage their PRS portfolio in a more active manner.

Scam Alert: iPanelOnline

Updates: I finally received a feedback from iPanelOnline, saying that my account was deleted due to inactivity. Question is I've been participating in many surveys and have accumulated many points. What is considered inactivity? So, guys, please be aware that one day, your account might be deleted as well without warning.

I was a member of iPanelOnline survey web site for over a year and have introduced many friends and acquaintances to this survey site to earn some side income. Things went smoothly for over a year and I managed to withdraw some money from iPanelOnline to my PayPal account twice.

However, for the past 3 months, I could not login to my account anymore. When i tried to request for lost password, I was notified that my account do not exist. I even tried to contact the customer service of the web site, but so far I've got no response. My account was never restored. This, to me, is a scam. So far, this is the first web site that let me down....scammers!

So, for those who have subscribed to iPanelOnline, do remember to withdraw your money regularly. Even if something screw up later on, you will not regret leaving your cash accumulated with iPanelOnline and they're gone the next day.

HwangIM PRS Funds Explained

HwangIM is the first panel member that launch Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) to the public in Malaysia. Hwang PRS Solutions, comprising four funds based on contributors' risk appetite and needs, are targeting guided annual return of between five per cent and 11 per cent. At launch time, three core funds, namely Hwang PRS Growth Fund, Hwang PRS Moderate Fund and Hwang PRS Conservative Fund. The fourth non-core fund, Hwang AIIMAN PRS Syariah Growth Fund will be launched at a later date.

Hwang PRS Growth Fund is targeting those investors below age of 40 years old or have high risk profile, while for Hwang PRS Moderate Fund is a balanced fund targeting those investors between the age of 40 - 50 years old or have moderate risk profile. Hwang PRS Conservative Fund is a fixed income fund with a small portion of equity investment, is meant for those over 50 years old or have low risk profile. Hwang AIIMAN PRS Syariah Growth Fund is a feeder fund for existing HwangIM fund, Hwang AIIMAN Syariah Growth Fund.

Private Retirement Scheme vs Regular Savings Plan

Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) was soft launched by the Prime Minister in July as an  additional financial tool to supplement our sole retirement funds, EPF. After the initial hoo-hah, the hype about PRS has cooled down with not much information on the details of the PRS available to the public. However, you can refer to this booklet for some basic info and Q & A on PRS.

Since we've got this simple booklet to explain everything about PRS, I'm not going to dwelve in details about PRS. What I'm interested in discussing about is the comparison between PRS and Regular Savings Plan (RSP). Typically for a PRS investment, we are talking about regular top-ups to the retirement funds with your spare cash, be it on monthly/quarterly/one-off basis. This is basically the same principle as RSP.

Now, as an investor, if you already have active RSP with one of the fund houses or via online unit trust distributors, such as Fundsupermart, you might be wondering, should i cancel my RSP and invest in PRS? As a quick recap, let's look at the advantages and disadvantages of investing in PRS:

Hwang PRS Launch

HWANG Investment Management Bhd (Hwang IM) has become the first of the eight appointed Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) providers to roll out its PRS products and services.

Hwang PRS Solutions, comprising four funds based on contributors' risk appetite and needs, are targeting guided annual return of between five per cent and 11 per cent.

Even though there is no minimum dividend policy, unlike the minimum 2.5 per cent that the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) offers and the funds are not capital-guaranteed nor protected, Hwang IM is confident that like other funds it manages, the PRS funds would perform just as good.

"The sound principles and good safeguarding policies put in place by the Securities Commission to some extent provides for a viable framework for this scheme to succeed. But like most things in life, nothing is guaranteed," said Hwang IM chief executive officer Teng Chee Wai.

Fundsupermart Referral Program

Fundsupermart Malaysia (FSM) has launched a referral program for their existing account holders to encourage the account holders to introduce new clients to FSM. This is how FSM referral program works:

1. FSM account holder submit the name, phone and email address of potential client to FSM.
2. FSM will send an email to potential client with an activation link to open an account.
3. Potential client fills in account opening form and activate online FSM account.

It's as easy as that. Of course, you cant run away from submitting from some supporting documents when submitting the account opening form. So you might ask, what's the catch for all this trouble?

AS 1Malaysia Declares 6.6 Cents Dividend for FY 2012

Amanah Saham Malaysia Berhad has declared a dividend of 6.6 cents per unit for Amanah Saham 1Malaysia (AS1M) for the financial year 2012. The income distribution will be reinvested in the form of new units and will automatically be credited into the unitholders' accounts on October 1.


As a comparison, last year's dividend declared was 6.5 cents.

For comparison of historical dividend payout between ASW 2020, ASM and AS1M, please refer to this article.

Source: Bernama

ASW 2020 Declares 6.6 Cents Dividend for FY 2012

Amanah Saham Malaysia Berhad has declared a dividend of 6.6 cents per unit for Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020 (ASW 2020) for the current financial year ending August 31. The income distribution will be automatically credited into the unitholders' accounts on September 1. Investors will be getting their payment vouchers and annual reports by mid October.


As a comparison, last year's dividend declared was 6.5 cents.

Source: Bernama

iHerb Rewards Surprise!

Few days back, I got a nice surprise from iHerb, a USD 100 reward, from an online contest in their web site, which i'm not even aware of. My initial suspicion is that this could be another email spam asking the public to click on some links in the email etc.

Here's the email i got from iHerb:

Tokio Marine Life Health Care Supreme Schedule of Benefits & Premium Table

Health Care Supreme is a yearly guaranteed renewable medical and health insurance rider that can be attached to individual life and investment-linked policies from Tokio Marine Life. This medical plan is renewable up to age of 80.

The unique selling points of this medical card are as follow:

1. Insured can opt to increase room & board by 50% with a loading of 7.5%. For example, if you purchased a medical card with room & board rate of 200, you can enhance your medical card by adding the upgrade room & board option to increase room & board limit to 300 at the cost of 7.5% more premium.
2. Insured can opt to increase annual limit by 50% and lifetime limit by 100% with a loading of 5%. For example, if you purchased a medical card with room & board rate of 200, you are entitled to annual and lifetime limit of 100,000 and 400,000 respectively. You can enhance your medical card by adding the upgrade annual & lifetime limit option to increase annual & lifetime limit to 150,000 and 1,500,000 at the cost of 5% more premium.
3. Up to 15% discounts on premium for no claims discount from third year renewal onwards.

Comparison of Medical Card Panel Hospital

Out of so many medical cards available in the market today, how do you select the most suitable medical plan for yourself? Apart from analyzing the coverage of the medical plans as listed in my Medical Card Comparison article, there are also many other aspects have to be checked carefully before you sign on the dot.

Based on excellent comment from Wi1s0n in my article mentioned above, one of the points that we have to consider is the list of panel hospitals that is covered by the medical plans. It is worth to note that even though a hospital is covered by a particular medical plan, it does not mean that the specialist that you are seeking medical advice from are approved by the insurance company. Therefore, it is advisable for you to get hold of the panel hospital list as well as the approved specialist list from your insurance agent.

Comparison of Family Personal Accident

Personal accident (PA) insurance policy is one of the critical component of insurance planning for a person, but it is often neglected and overshadowed by the more popular insurance in the market such as hospitalization and surgical medical plans. With PA insurance, you can protect yourself or your loved ones financially in the event of accident that results in hospitalization, disability or death.

There are many types of PA insurance in the market, such as classic PA, travel PA, driver PA, family PA, and etc. In this article, we are focusing on family PA plan, i.e. personal accident insurance that will include both insurance owner and spouse as well as all the children in the household within a single policy.

In Malaysia, most of the PA plans are sold by general insurers. This article intends to compare some of the main features of the family PA plans offered by some of the leading general insurance companies in Malaysia, such as Allianz, Lonpac, Chartis, Tokio Marine, as well as life insurance companies like AIA and ING. For the purpose of this article, we will assume that the insurance owner will purchase a family PA plan with the accidental death payout of RM100,000.

Here's what he will get from the family PA plans mentioned above:

Note: To open the spreadsheet in another tab, click this link.

From the comparison table above, the boxes highlighted in Yellow are the advantages of the features of each family PA plan if compared to the same feature of competitor family PA plan.

As you can see, every family PA plan has similar features with differentiating amount of coverage. It is important to note that there is no such thing as the "best" family PA in the market, but rather the "most suitable" family PA plan for you. When i mean the "most suitable" family PA plan, i mean that the coverage offered is within your comfortable zone and within your budget.

For me, I tend to focus on factors such as payout amount for accidental death, accidental TPD, medical reimbursement, accident hospital income, weekly benefit, prostheses, corrective dental/cosmetic surgery, and renewal bonus. The remaining features are nice to have, and in fact add to the cost of insurance.

In my opinion, family PA plans from AIA, Allianz and Chartis Insurance stand out from the competitors by packaging their plans to focus on core factos as mentioned above. However, the premium for these family PA plan are well above the average market rate. If you are looking for a more balanced family PA plan with reasonable premium, notable mention are Lonpac FlexiCare, Kurnia Perfect 10 Plus, AXA SmartCare Prime, and QBE FlexiCare.

To get the details about each family PA plan, please follow the links below:

• Allianz Shield
• AXA SmartCare Prime
• Berjaya Sompo Family PA
• Chartis Essential PA
• ING Family PA
• Kurnia Perfect 10 Plus
• Lonpac Family Protector
• Lonpac FlexiCare
• MPIB Family Accident Protector
• OAC Family Protector
• QBE FlexiCare
• Tokio Marine Family PA Partner

Disclaimer: The information published is for your reference only. Please refer to your insurance agent for the most up to date information.

Stock Review: AMWAY (6351)

In my previous article on stock selection criteria, I am using stock grading system as advocated by Infinite Wealth, which is basically based on fundamental analysis. According to Infinite Wealth grading system, a stock with grading of 9 stars and above is worthy of investment. A quick recap on the stock grading system is as follow:

• Turnover
• Net profit after tax (Net PAT)
• Net profit margin (NPM)
• Cashflow from operation (Cashflow Ops) 
• Cash ratio (= Asset/Liabilities)
• Average net dividend yield (Net DY)
• Average ROE (ROE)

Amanah Saham Malaysia Unitholders Get 6.5 Sen Dividend

Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd (ASNB), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), has announced a 6.50 sen dividend per unit for Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM) for the financial year ending March 31, 2012.


The income distribution was higher than the 6.38 sen per unit paid last year, PNB Chairman Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid said today.

He said the income distribution would involve a total payout of RM820.24 million, an increase of 8.6 percent compared to the RM755.05 million paid out last year.

"The payment will benefit 546,341 unit holders who currently hold 12.62 billion units of ASM," he told a press conference here today.

Up until March 21, ASM has recorded a gross income of RM978.32 million.

For comparison of historical dividends distributed by Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020, Amanah Saham Malaysia and Amanah Saham 1Malaysia, please refer to this article.

Source: Bernama

UPDATED: Comparison of Medical Cards from Leading Life Insurance Companies

Updates (as of 10/12/2012): Increased overall lifetime limit of Great Eastern Smart Medic.

This article intends to compare some of the main features of the standalone and investment-linked medical cards (i.e. medical riders that is attached to an investment-linked life insurance) offered by some of the leading life insurance companies in Malaysia, such as ING, Prudential, AIA, Great Eastern, Allianz, and AXA-Affin Life. For the purpose of this article, we will assume that a non-smoking male with the next birthday of 30 years old wants to purchase a medical cards with a room & board rate of RM 200 per night.

Here's what he will get from the life insurance companies mentioned above:

PruFlexi Med Schedule of Benefits

Hot off the shelf, Prudential recently launched its latest medical rider, PruFlexi Med, that can be attached to PruLink One or PruLife Ready investment-linked policies. PruFlexi Med is another alternative medical plan to the existing PruHealth medical rider. In fact, both PruHealth and PruFlexi Med are pretty similar in terms of coverage.

So, what is PruFlexi Med medical rider all about? The list below briefly summarize the features of this new medical rider:

iHerb Review: My Experience with Online Vitamins Purchase

Updates (29 Mar, 2014): I've been using DHL Express shipping services with a minimum cost of USD 8 for around 1.5kg of parcel weight. Shipment will arrive in 4 - 5 days and so far I have no issues with Malaysian Custom Department.

I've been buying vitamins and supplements from our friendly neighbourhood stores and pharmacies for as long as i can remember. However, I've been pondering recently whether i should try to source for vitamins and supplements online for cheaper alternatives. I stumbled across one of the larger online vitamins and supplements store that shipped to Malaysia at a very reasonable freight charge, iHerb.

I digged through the Web and found some reviews on the online store iHerb, here and here. With quite promising reviews from the consumers, I took the plunge and ordered 3 bottles of fish oil capsules from iHerb. The amazing thing is the price of the fish oils are so much cheaper AND the shipping cost to Malaysia is only USD 4 via International Airmail (depending on the shipment weight). The drawback is that there is no tracking of parcels for this cheap shipping alternative. Apart from that, the first time you order from iHerb, you need to verify your credit card with iHerb. What you can do is to call your credit card call centre and ask them the 6-digit authorization code for the online purchase that you've made. Then, go to this Contact page and feedback to iHerb on your authorization code. I prefer to use Live Chat to connect to the iHerb representatives which typically comes online around midnight Malaysia time. Once the representative has verified your authorization code, your parcel will be on the way to you!

Comparison of Deductible Medical Cards

This article intends to compare some of the main features of the deductible standalone medical cards offered by some of the leading life and general insurance companies in Malaysia, such as Hong Leong Assurance and Tokio Marine. For the purpose of this article, we will assume that a non-smoking male with the next birthday of 30 years old wants to purchase a RM10,000 deductible medical card with a room & board rate of RM 200 per night.

Here's what he will get from the deductible medical card mentioned above:

UPDATED: How to declare tax for unit trust dividends?

Updates (13/3/2012): Added clarification on tax liabilities on distribution/dividend declared by unit trust funds

For those who have invested in unit trust funds (either using cash or EPF), many of you would have received dividend vouchers/warrants from the trustees of the unit trust funds. These dividend income (both reinvestment & cash out) have to be declared as an income (filed under Dividend field of the Borang BE).

A typical dividend voucher contains information such as:

• Trustee company name
• Warrant/voucher number
• Payment date
• Year/period ended
• Taxable income
• Malaysian tax
• Single tier dividend (which does not need to declare as income) and etc.

If you are using e-Filing for income tax submission, this is how you can declare tax for the dividends that you received for unit trust investments:

Hong Leong Assurance Major Medi Schedule of Benefit & Premium Tables

A lot of times when we sit down and have a relook at our insurance coverage, more often than not that the insurance policies that we bought years ago are insufficient to meet current needs, especially those hospitalization and surgical medical plans. In order to meet future inflation of medical costs, we are in need of a supplemental medical plan that will act as a top-up plan.

Hong Leong Assurance (HLA) Major Medi is an affordable and yet comprehensive medical plan that is designed to cover the cost of hospitalisation and surgical up to age 99 years old. HLA Major Medi medical card can be purchased either as a standalone medical card, attached as a rider to a traditional life policy, or as a rider attachable to investment-linked plan. HLA Major Medi medical card comes with the option of deductible of RM5,000, RM10,000 or RM15,000.

The unique features and advantages of HLA Major Medi medical card is listed as below:

The Edge-Lipper Malaysia Awards 2012

The Edge-Lipper Malaysia Fund Awards for the year of 2012 was held recently to recognize top performing unit trust funds in the country. Only funds that have been doing well for the past three and five years are recognized, and the winners are determined based on the Lipper Leaders ratings for Consistent Return, a risk-adjusted investment performance return measure developed by Lipper.

CIMB-Principal emerged as the best overall fund group for this year's event while Public Mutual won the most awards for the ninth consecutive years with a total of 8 individual awards. AmInvestment fund group emerged again as the best bond fund group.

For full analysis of the results, please see this document.

First payment from Nuffnang

I've joined Nuffnang ads network since I started and have not been making much money for a long time until recently. I've made my first withdrawal for during end of last year and here's the proof of payment. While it may not be much, it's much welcomed to supplement my side income pool of money.

Hong Leong Assurance MedGLOBAL IV Schedule of Benefits & Premium Table

Hong Leong Assurance (HLA) MedGLOBAL IV is a guaranteed renewable comprehensive medical plan that covers your hospital and surgical needs up to age 85 years old. HLA MedGLOBAL IV medical card can be purchased as a standalone medical card, as a rider to traditional life insurance policy or as a rider to investment-linked policy.

The advantages of HLA MedGLOBAL IV medical card is listed as below:

1. Guaranteed renewable up to 85 years old.
2. No co-insurance.
3. High annual and lifetime limit.
4. Cancer treatment, kidney dialysis and organ transplant cost, subject to annual and lifetime limit.
5. A good list of panel hospitals.

My Stock Selection Criteria

Referring to the previous article on my investment philosophy, I focus my stock investment on high growth dividend stocks that yield at least 5% p.a. as well as REIT stocks. To further narrow down the list of investment grade stocks, I will highlight the criteria that i use to filter through the stocks in this article.

One resource that i use extensively in my quest to find my investment grade stocks is Stock Performance Guide from Dynaquest. This book provides segmental information, corporate structure, business activities, latest developments and future prospects of listed companies in Bursa Malaysia. It also contains investment and financial statistics data about each listed company. The data that i most commonly use from this book is Dynaquest rating and 5-year dividend yield range. You may get this book from here or any other major book stores in town.

Schroder: Go for dividends

A convergence of global and domestic influences makes 2012 an opportune time to invest for dividends in Asia.

Schroder Investment Management Ltd said its research showed that Asia, besides boasting the strongest economic fundamentals in the world currently, also had one of the highest dividend yields globally. It was second only to Europe, where the unfolding debt crisis continues to raise questions about dividend sustainability.

“Despite the market's obsession with share price appreciation, historically almost two-thirds of long-term equity returns in Asia have come from dividends,” Lee King Fuei, a Singapore-based fund manager for Asian equities at Schroder, argued in his latest report on the outlook for Asian equities for 2012.

UPDATES: SSPN Historical Dividend Rate - 2012 Dividend Rate!

Skim Simpanan Pendidikan Nasional (SSPN) is the government guaranteed national education savings account which is available for all Malaysians. There are some advantages of investing in this scheme, as follow:

1. Tax relief on savings in the scheme up to RM6,000 - you can actually shaved off up to RM1,500 from your tax submission (based on maximum tax bracket of 25%), depending on your current tax bracket.
2. Free general insurance up to maximum RM50,000 - only for depositors with deposits of a minimum RM1,000
3. Higher dividend rate as compared to fixed deposit rates and tax exemption for dividend

When to give your fund manager the axe

Investing a bit in mutual funds is a bit like running a pro football team. Everything is fine if you make the playoffs or see the progress you expected, but if a season ends and the numbers are ugly, you want to fire the coach.

That’s what many stock mutual-fund investors are going through now. Dim 2011 results from fund managers is enough to convince them to “Throw the bums out.”

Alas, that knee-jerk reaction to raw numbers can create problems.

My Stock Investment Philosophy

As mentioned in the previous article, I've started my journey into stock investment, starting from year 2010. When i first started, I invested into some hot stocks at that moment like all newbies. So over the next few months, I was basically trading from one hot stock to another without much objective and direction. Over time, there were times when i won some pocket money and lose tons more.

Then, I stumbled into a book by Lai Seng Choy called "Infinite Wealth". This book will teach you HOW to select an investment grade stock and WHEN to buy your chosen stock. I personally find the criteria that Mr Lai used to narrow down the list of stocks for investment very useful. Since i consider myself a long term investor, I do not think the WHEN to buy section is really applicable to me too much. However, it is still a good read for traders. I highly recommend that you buy this book and have a good read. It's light enough for casual reading, but yet packed with useful information.

Over the past one year, I'm still trying to figure out the set of criteria that is working for me, as well as the type of stocks and risks that I'm comfortable with. There will be lots of finetuning over time to find out the best methods that works for me.

Financial Review - Year 2011

It's a new year and a good time to look back on the year of 2011 to review my financial standings, i.e. what I have done great and what needs improvement. Here's the review for my financial situation:


The Great Stuffs:

1. Expenses: Compared to year 2010, expenses further decreased 8.6% despite the ever increasing inflation and larger spending amount during the year end sale 2011. Actually i surprised myself that i still manage to cut down expenses year after year.
2. Savings: Compared to year 2010, savings increased 20.5% over the year 2011. Again, this is great achievement despite the meagre increment and higher inflation in the year 2011. So far, I've managed to save on average 44% of my net household income.
3. Net worth: Compared to year 2010, net worth increased 31.2% over the year 2011. This is mainly due to the disposal of an investment property.
4. Stocks investment: Stocks portfolio has grown 2.5x mainly due to higher allocation to stocks investment. I cut some losses during the market riot in August, and yet still managed to churn out positive gains over the year 2011.

Tokio Marine Medic Plus - Affordable Supplemental Medical Card

Are you constantly looking for the best medical card in the market? More often than not, you will find that some of the available medical cards have pretty extensive coverage but always lack in some other aspects such as out-patient kidney dialysis and cancer treatments. Even if you can find the perfect medical card, the cost of maintainig this medical card could be too prohibitive over the long term.

An alternative to finding the best medical card is to find one medical card that is the most suitable for you, and then find another supplemental medical card that can cover for whatever that is lacking in the first medical card. That is where Tokio Marine Medic Plus medical plan comes into the picture.