Life, Travel, GRACE

We have been having home cooked meal for most of the time in these few years. Occasionally we will have packed food from nearby restaurant which cost a little. If one has opted to dine out, it would cost a family of 4 around RM30-40. That was few years ago. Unfortunately, things changed. The value of Ringgit has depreciated much since last year. We just had Bak Kut Teh for dinner last night. We had a two-pax portion. The price came in at RM50. I was surprised with the cost. Because I think the cost will be much more cheaper in Klang for two pax. Because if we have simple "big fry", it won't cost that much. Even if we go to a decent restaurant for nasi lemak, it won't cost that much either. Perhaps Bak Kut Teh is really an expensive meal? Probably that Bak Kut Teh stall should be blacklisted from my dinning list? Anyway, there was a survey on the purchasing power conducted by a local media recently. The value of RM50 has shrunk. Food is not as cheap as it used to be. ...

As published in The Star paper... We already have the world's second most expensive beers' prices. Now cars also? By Alan Tan IN about 3 weeks’ time, we will be celebrating the New Year.  Each New Year comes with new resolutions and new goals. Some would plan to own big ticket items such as a house or a car as part of their resolution. If your plan is to own a new car, finish reading this article before nailing down that resolution.  Owning a car in Malaysia is expensive. In one of my previous articles, I highlighted that Malaysia was ranked second in the world where owning a car is expensive.  But what many do not know is by how much, relative to homes. Yes, homes in Malaysia are expensive too, but relative to Australian homes and cars, our cars are 10 times more expensive than those sold in Australia compared to homes. Let’s do some simple math together.  Khazanah Research Institute (KRI) reported that the median house price in Malaysia is about RM250,000. T...

Interesting illustration on debt settlement in an economy system: A merchant happened to come across a village on one of his travels. This village was not doing well economically. Business was slow, jobs were hard to come by and many people were in debt. He stopped by an inn to see if he likes it enough to stay for the night. He put a $100 bill on the counter as deposit to the innkeeper to allow him to inspect the available rooms. While the merchant was busy checking out the rooms, the innkeeper went out, taking the $100 with him, to see his supplier. He gave the money to his supplier to pay his outstanding bills for supply of goods to the inn. After receiving the $100, the supplier then gave it to his employee as wages which he had owed for a long time. The employee then went home and on his way met his neighbour who had lent him money several months ago. He repaid the loan from his neighbour with the $100. The neighbour who took the money then went to the inn wher...

The Big Mac's index has been updated for this year. This is the gauge comparison of purchasing power of a country against the US dollar (USA literally). Big Mac in Malaysia cost USD2.42 a piece compared to USD4.07 in the USA. Well, it's not that expensive. Who says our food price is increasing and getting expensive these days? We are still far better than a lot of countries (Wait until you see the price index chart. Then you will know why they said our stuff prices are increasing). Hong Kong and India have the cheapest Big Mac though. I bet you would want to live in Hong Kong, not India. Cheers. PS: Don't let this piece of info passed to our ministers. They will brag how good is our economy.

I've heard people investing in gold lately. Particularly because gold price has risen sharply. This year alone it has risen 20% or more. I read an article and couldn't help to agree with the analysis about the weakness of gold investment. Here are the lists: 1. It produces no income. This should be a bad news for gold investor. Don't expect to receive dividend from buying/ investing gold. If you are lucky, you will get appreciation of the gold value. 2. It has witnessed a long periods of underperformance. History speaks it all. As quoted: after gold price reaching a record high of $850 per ounce in January 1980, gold prices fell over 40% in two months. It took gold 28 years to reclaim the $850 level. Will we see a repeat incident of gold's historical head fake? 3. It has high ownership cost. Unless you invest gold in paper form, you will certainly have to pay higher ownership cost for acquiring gold (physical gold -be it gold bar or jewelery etc). Transaction cost, comm...