Dr. Honey: Time Of Love

Dr. Honey: Time Of Love

Dr. Honey: The Five Love Languages

Dr. Honey: The Five Love Languages

Achieve Tranquility in 5 steps

Hi everyone. I would like to share with you tips on relaxation because I believe that everyone should have gone through the 'stress' phase. However unavoidable, it could certainly be reduced.

1) Get in tune with your spiritual self
Accept that there are events that you cannot control. Do not blame yourself for everything that happens or do not happen. Accept that you have done what should be done and if things didn’t work out as you plan, its fine. We are human beings after all, not GOD.

2) Go for massage/ reflexology
This really worked for me!

3) Sleep well
For those have trouble sleeping, you can follow these tips (from my experience):
=p

• Do not entertain unwanted thoughts
• Listen to a soothing music
• Have a glass of warm water / warm milk
• Buy yourself comfortable, loose fitting nightwear
• Switch off all the lights (even dimmed lights could disrupt your sleep)
• Light up lavender incense, it is known to calm you and helps you to get good rest.

4) Eat moderately
Do not eat until you feel full. Eat until you don’t feel hungry anymore. Not only you can reduce your waistline, it can promote healthy blood circulation, which would hinder stress.

5) Reduce smoking and drinking (alcohol)
This is a temporary solution for avoiding stress. Remember, by avoiding problems, you can’t solve it. But learn to confront and deal with it.

These all tips based on my experience or my friends, but if you would like to add on, please do comment in the column below.

Have a great year ahead guys! =)

What should you know before getting yourself an unit trust?

1) Your risk tolerance factor

What is your risk tolerance factor? It is a combination of how much money you can afford to lose, your financial goal, investment time-frame, etc etc. Remember, a higher return comes with higher risk. There are few links (such as below) that can assess your risk tolerance factor. You can try them:

http://www.kipbiz.org/tools/riskfind.html

http://www.fmncc.com/content.cfm?ContentID=128

http://www.mmhabits.com/determine-your-investment-risk-tolerance/

Usually in every unit trust portfolio, there is determination of its risk. You can get in from the Fund’s website. For example, Public Mutual’s China Ittikal Fund has been categorised as Aggressive (High Risk). Knowing that your risk tolerance is high, therefore, you can choose your fund with more confidence. If you risk tolerance factor is low, you might not consider investing in the particular fund.

2) Your financial goal

Are you planning to buy a car, house, marriage or planning for retirement? How many years do you need to achieve your goal? This could have indirect impact on your investment. Take note that Unit Trust is most suitable for the medium to long-term investment. It means, for short-term investment, you can invest but can’t expect the money to double or gain a very high divident, etc.

3) The promotional period

Usually, newly launched fund have promotional period, whereby the price would be quite low compared to rest and the service charge would also be lowered. Be sure to ask your Unit Trust Consultant regarding the current and upcoming promotional period. This would also ensure that you abide by the ‘Buy when low, Sell when high’ rule.

4) Mutual Funds do have extra charges.

There are fees applicable for investing in a unit trust, and these will vary depending on where you decide to invest. You need to make sure you do your homework before investing in any one particular trust, so you know what to expect. Once you have done that you can organise your investment and keep an eye on it to see how well it performs on a regular basis.

The dividend income received by the unit trust fund is also subject to tax, however capital gains are generally tax-exempted. You should consult an independent tax consultant to enquire details of related matter on taxation for investing in unit trust fund.

5) Get yourself an experienced financial consultant

How to know whethet he is authorised or not? A registered UTC is issued with an Authorisation Card by FIMM which must be produced when approaching a potential client. If not, insist to see the same and ensure its validity.

You should expect the UTC to deal with you in an open, honest and professional manner. The role of a UTC is to actively provide information during his “interview” with you and thereafter, on an ongoing basis to review your portfolio of unit trust investment as and when the economy or your personal circumstance changes. He should recommend portfolios that best suit your needs, personal circumstances and financial goals.

6) Know when to switch your fund

Many of you may not realise there is a switching function. Yes, and learn how to use it. Therefore, when the tide rises, don’t just grin away. Remember, you won get the profit if you don’t sell. (Or, switch to another unit trust.) You may request the proceeds from the sale of your units to be reinvested in another unit trust fund offered by the same UTMC.

7) Understand the complex terms

Sometimes, the ‘complex’ terms may not be so complex after all. For example, One of the most common mutual fund terms is expense ratio. What does it mean? Expense ratio simply means the cost to operate your fund. This includes administrative fees, management fees and other expenses related to fund.

8) EPF to Unit Trust

There is a scheme whereby you could transfer some of your EPF money to unit trusts. You may sell your unit trust fund at any time in the normal manner. However, the proceeds from the sale will be paid by the UTMC directly to EPF, to be re-credited into your Account 1.

HAPPY INVESTING!

Mutual Funds For Me

If you are considering investing several personal finance choices, you must have considered putting your money into a mutual fund.

Well, what exactly is a MUTUAL FUND?

Mutual Fund is a group of selected stocks/bonds that are professionally picked by the fund manager. That's good news for amateurs since they do not need to have vast financial knowledge to pick the stocks/bonds since your fund manager does it for you! It is also very well known as unit trust, here in Malaysia.

The GOOD stuff

1) Diversified - You can discuss with your fund manager to assess your risk tolerance so that he could choose the right picks for you!

2) Peace of Mind - Assuming that our funds are managed by financial experts, we could at least have some ease of burden.

3) Since inflation rate is about 3%-4%, it doesn't make sense to invest in FD, therefore the best bet would be Unit Trust (less risky than stocks, but higher dividend pay than FD)

*I have read Irwan's blog and found this tip very useful:

The Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) theory suggests that smaller numbers of shares will be bought when the cost is high, while larger number of shares will be bought while the cost is low, thus reduce exposure to risk. However, research has shown that investing a lump sum according to DCA principles generally results in worse performance as compared to investing the entire sum at one time (Constantinides). -Wikipedia

For next blog, I wish to compare and contrast Mutual Funds available in Malaysia. Hope you enjoyed my blog and HAPPY INVESTING, FRENZ!