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.