Sunday, November 18, 2012

挑房子跟挑男人一样!

你或许无法像有钱人一样,一栋一栋购屋当投资,一间一间炒房赚差价。

然而,买房子却是大多数像你、像我一样的小市民一辈子之中最大一笔投资、最重要一笔财富。

很多女性都希望能投资房地产或是购买房地产自住,开始真正独立又自主的粉领贵族生活。而对于聪明的女人来说,人生的两件大事就是挑一个好的男人,和挑一套好的房子。

你应该相信,只要看准时机、选对产品,买到会增值的房子,那么,是保障生活、累积财富的重要起点。

买屋是一笔很大的开销,许多人担心自己不能负担,或者一开始就觉得房价太高,根本买不起,又或者担心以自己的条件贷不到、利率条件不好。

租房子是为房东赚钱,缴房贷是自己赚钱,在房价节节高升的时代里,再苦也要为自己买一栋房子。

付房贷当定存
以前没钱买房子,领了薪水总是很容易浪费,但买了房子以后,你就会逼着自己先付钱。就算当月还完了贷款,有多余的钱,你还可以考虑是否再拿来归还贷款的本金,而不是就恣意花掉。
付房贷并不辛苦,这也算定存的一种,除非你的房子总价原本就超出你所能负荷的范围。女人买房子为的是自己,而不是为了炫耀,这点很重要,一定要记笔记。

与其担心这些,不如先了解如何才能“贷得到、贷得好、还得快、还得完”。

买房子基本上是一个人、一个家庭、一辈子的大事,不仅牵涉到你买房前的理财储蓄、购屋能力,还有买房后的财务、房贷规划;最后,是否挑对好房子,对你一生的财富累积更有重大影响。

很多人说,买房子最重要的三件事是“地点、地点、地点”。
事实上,除了地点,价格也很重要,因此要挑对时机进场;另外,你的购屋能力、财务规划更是关键。

一般人买房子往往忽略后两项,如果你能通盘考虑并做好这三点,其实,你绝对也买得起好房子!

住得舒适最重要
但是,房子到底要怎么挑?其实挑一间好房子,不如挑一间适合自己的房子,这个道理就跟挑男人一样。

很多貌美如花、事业成功的女人,总是在问好男人在那里,却看不到适合自己的男人就站在自己面前,常常怨叹全天下的好男人不是结婚了,就是还没出生。
所以,聪明的女人应该改变条件设定,找一个适合自己的男人,然后互相调整与磨合,最后这位适合的男人就会变成自己的好男人。

先求有再求好
同理可证,买房子也是一样,一步登天的机会不是人人有,千万不要妄想第一间房子就是帝宝,自己能负担的起比较重要。

那么咱们女人要怎么设定“适合自己的房子”呢?
首先,当然是房子的总价,这部分跟每个人的家庭环境、工作薪资,以及区域挑选有关。

你可以先寻求地点方便的舒适套房或是一居室、两居室住家,前提是贷款不要给自己造成太大的负担。而如果贷款的支付金额相当于你现在所支付出去的租金,最起码你能把消费转换成投资。

买不起市中心,可从捷运沿线着手,先求有再求好,买到梦想家一点都不难。

“适合”跟“好”,每个人定义不同,不过女人啊!请记住,买房子是开心的事,别让它成为压力,就像谈恋爱是甜蜜开心而不是负担。

不过当你购入第一间房子之后,该做的事情,不是忙着找下一间更大更贵的房子,而是该好好经营自己的家。

房子是冰冷的水泥很难有感情,家才会让人有安全感,营造一个舒适自己住起来开心的空间、有自然景观。

因为住处的舒适,会影响你每天的精神生活,但最最最重要因素,是要有家的感觉,这样无论住那里,都会安心、开心、幸福。

买房3要诀
第一次买房子的财务规划,起码应该掌握以下重点:
(1)不要耗尽所有现金,适当降低总价。
由于购屋预算会大量消耗既有现金,又会占用未来的现金流量,不要将所有现金一次用尽,只留下少许周转金,忽略长期的潜在财务负担。
即使买到宽敞的大宅,后续的财务压力恐怕会带来难以承受的恶性循环。
规划也必须设想到购屋的装潢等杂项开支,以及可能的利率波动等因素。
这些都会影响未来的支出水准,因此必预留财务空间。
(2)房贷三一定律:每个月偿还的房贷款金额,每以不超过家庭当月总收入三分之一为宜。
(3)利用拥有捷运系统的便利,以时间换取空间,就能在距离市中心较远处,找到单价较便宜、总坪数较宽敞的住宅。

罗凤琴/南洋商报

只涨不跌的投资?

好多朋友见面都爱打听投资的事情,是买房子赚钱多,还是买股票,或是收藏艺术品?
我想说,在你考虑这些以前,先看看你有没有做好人生必需的投资。

有没有只涨不跌的投资呢,我的答案是肯定的,以下罗列几个我认为就是非常好的永不亏损的投资。

第一项投资:儿女
人生每个人都有不少的角色,然而只有为人父母这个角色是不能替代专属于你的,谁也不能代替你来行使这一角色,儿女是上天所赐的产业,做父母是一项天赋特权。

孩子是真正唯有我们自己才能尽力也当尽的职责,渎职者必要买单。我们一生所能达到的最高成就,是把我们的儿女教养成为品德优良、人格可爱的人。

我们的丰功伟业,会逐渐被历史所遗忘;财富积蓄也不可能伴随我们进入永生。但我们所投资在儿女身上的精力,所提供给他们的家庭环境,所留传给他们的灵性品质,会在他们身上留下永久的痕迹。

将家庭建造成为一个兼顾智育、群育、德育的美好场所,儿女会有机会成为均衡发展的可人儿,成为父母一生最大的喜乐。

孩子的教育不见得是花多少钱去上贵族学校,而是你花了多少时间在关心孩子的成长。培养出成功儿女的秘诀,第一要紧的是,父母必须亲自实践家庭价值的重要性。

如果儿女好,穷家可以变富,反之富家必然变穷。每个人都是要老的,怎样教好子女是父母最重要的中长期投资。所以为着你的下半生,多拿出一些用在可有可无、可被替代的工作上的时间来享受这件回报悠长的工作吧。

第二项投资:健康
投资在你的健康上,我观察一些进入古稀之年的长辈,身体已成他们决定性的资产,不论财富、朋友、儿女如何令人满意,破坏的健康让他们的生活难言质量。

你现在投资在健康上的每分钟、每个硬币和每种好的生活习惯,都会以复利形式不断增长。
每个人都有个内在的健康银行,存的健康因子越多,每天收到的利息就越大,健康也越持久。

健康资金3来源
开源节流,合理利用你的健康资金。
记住:健康账户的透支,是最苛刻的高利贷,世界上没有人能负担得起这沉重的债务。凡事过犹不及。养生也是如此。

如果资金不够的人呢?想办法去挣钱。

你的健康资金有三个来源:第一是人的先天的本钱,父母给你遗传的,这个我们没有办法改变;第二是每天的“工资”,从一日三餐中得到的,这个“工资”的高与低,要看你的工作能力了。吃得健康,“收入”自然就高一点。

第三是你的“投资收入”,这个是靠你自己的养生智慧挣来的。合理地利用你的健康储蓄,投资在适合你的养生、健康活动上,自然可以让投资回报率水涨船高。

开源的同时,记住节流,不要让你的“支出”超过了“收入”。体质虚弱的人,要保存自己的元气,不要滥用,透支自己的体力。

就像装修房子,如果为了追求最好的效果而去借贷。虽然是暂时住上了美轮美奂的房子,可是欠下的债务总有一天会让我们失去整栋房屋。

不管人有多么忙碌,记住健康是你做一切事情的基础。
从今天开始,每天留出一点时间,为10年、20年以后的健康作一点努力吧。

第三项投资:公义和行善
投资在公义和行善上,生活中充满了各样的争竞和冲突,没有人能随随便便、安安逸逸地成功,我们生活在一个人际关系货币化的环境里,有用和无用成为人的判断力的基础,但是你仍会发现,闪现在生活中的公义和行善才是永不磨灭、撼动心灵的宝石,而且在上天那里也有永远的价值。

一般人常常觉得自己所拥有的太少,永远不满足,也吝于行善。然而求助者也许所求不多,只需要微少的东西而已!若不肯及时帮助遇到困难、逆境的人,往往会造成无法弥补的悔恨。
佛法说:“诸恶莫作,众善奉行。”行善,贵在诚意、贵在量力而为,也贵在随缘。

在我看来,人的一生中,最值得投资的就三样东西:一是孩子的教育,二是身体的健康,三是公义和行善。这些投资,再多也不嫌多,都是值得的。好好地投资在这三件事上面,你获得的将是一生的回报。

罗凤琴/南洋商报

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Tips on what to do after marriage

“Why? Because I love you, darling.” “Why? Because I love you, darling.”
 
“I do” is possibly the most romantic two words uttered at weddings. Romantic as it sounds, a whole new financial life starts for the two new individuals starting a lifetime together.
JOYCE CHUAH writes...

Bank accounts
Start a joint account for family expenses such as groceries, family holidays, mortgage, transportation, and schooling. It is still advisable to maintain your own individual accounts for personal spending and hobbies. This also allows you to track your own personal expenses and ensures that the family expenses are tracked separately.
Plan financially for unexpected events

Joyce Chuah Joyce Chuah
 
Decide how much is required if one of you was left to support your household alone, and consider whether or not life insurance would be appropriate. What about health insurance should you change your current hospitalisation benefits and increase critical illness coverage as your financial responsibilities increase when you are married?

Re-write your will and revisit named beneficiaries
You may have written your will as a single individual. When you are married, your will has become null and void. Rewrite it again as soon as you can.

You may also want to re-visit your named beneficiaries on existing will, EPF, private pension plans, insurance policies and any other assets you may have.

When you have established beneficiaries on these accounts, you can ensure that your assets are disbursed properly to the ones you love.

Financial responsibilities
Decide with your spouse how debts, assets, bills, and even savings will be taken care of. Create a family budget and look at your combined cash flow. What debt payments will you both have? How much can you save? Can you find ways to combine expenses, such as switching to the same wireless phone plan? Answering these questions together will help you develop the most realistic budget for your married life.

Matrimonial assets
Particularly if you are a Muslim, it is advisable to set up a declaration of matrimonial assets (harta sepencarian) to ensure that each partner is protected from any undesired third party claims on your assets acquired during your marriage.

TheStar/ Joyce Chuah

Rich or wealthy – which are you?

IN recent years, the level of household debt among Malaysians has been a matter of growing concern, as the statistics show that the average person is way over his head in debt.

Based on Bank Negara figures, the typical household borrowing is a shocking 140% of disposable income.

That's something to think about, as it means that at least half of Malaysians are struggling desperately with their finances. So, they probably have very little idea of how they can become financially free, let alone wealthy.

Incredible, isn't it? Most people we know would like to be free of financial worries and to enjoy a high standard of living, but so few seem to get it right.

The journey towards financial success begins by first knowing where you are. Strangely, many people in the middle class find it difficult to answer this question: are you middle class, financially free or rich?

In my latest book, Set Yourself Free: How To Optimise Money and Become Wealthy With Minimum Effort and Risk, I have talked about the money matrix, an intellectual tool that I have developed to help you understand the state of your finances and how you can move towards financial freedom, and eventually wealth. (see chart)

Think about the various elements in the money matrix for a while, and let the ideas being discussed here get absorbed into the way you look at money. How you view these situations will determine what you do to achieve your goals.

The vertical axis denotes your ability to generate an active income, which is described as your money-making ability. The higher your money-making ability, the more income you generate. You can take steps to increase your money-making ability by focusing your time, resources and effort on the area that you do best.

Compared to a general practitioner, a heart specialist is able to generate a higher income. Likewise, if you are a small business owner, you could concentrate on becoming a market leader in your industry.
Most people find it relatively easy to increase their money-making ability. In fact, some people become absolutely driven by it, thinking that it is the only way to resolve all their financial concerns. If you are wondering why so many people are constantly chasing their financial goals, but never seem to reach them, that's because they are focusing on making more money but not on optimising what they have!

People who adopt this mentality will always be stuck in the “rat race”. They cannot afford to stop working for fear that they cannot maintain their present lifestyle. If you are one of these people, it may be time to re-evaluate your priorities.

Money optimisation, as measured on the horizontal axis of the money matrix, reflects your ability to turn your active income into assets and then using those assets to support your lifestyle in the optimal manner. In other words, money optimisation is about making your accumulated assets work for you. The higher your money optimisation ability, the more assets you will accumulate and preserve.
To achieve financial success, you must fully understand how money making and money optimisation interact with each other. Let us look at the various sections in the money matrix:

Poor: You are in this group if you have low money-making ability and low money optimisation ability. Your income is low and you spend most of it on your living expenses. If you lose your current source of income, you risk being unable to look after your basic living needs.

Middle Class: In this group, you have medium money-making ability and low money-optimisation ability. Your income is above average but you spend most of it on a comfortable lifestyle. If you lose your current active income, you risk being unable to maintain your lifestyle.

Rich: You have high money-making ability but low money-optimisation ability. Your income is very high but you spend most of it on a luxurious lifestyle and your financial resources are not optimised. You will not be able to maintain this lifestyle if a financial disaster strikes and you lose your current active income.

When we understand the behaviour that puts us into one of these three categories, we will be able to take the right steps to optimise our money. Now, let us look at the column on the right, which shows the financial health status that a person can work towards:

Self-Sufficient: If you have low money-making ability but high money-optimisation ability, you can be in this category. You may have a low income but you manage your finances very carefully. You may live a simple life, but you do not have to depend on anyone else for your survival.

Financially Free: If you have medium money-making ability but high money-optimisation ability, you can be in this group. You control your expenses so that they do not grow in tandem with your increasing income. Instead, you focus on saving or investing your extra income and as a result, you manage to accumulate a reasonable size of assets to maintain your current living standard.

Wealthy: If you have high money-making ability and high money-optimisation ability, you are in the wealthy group. You have an extremely high income and enjoy a comfortable, but not luxurious lifestyle. You turn a very high percentage of your income into savings and invest it wisely. As a result, you generate a huge passive income which is more than sufficient for your living expenses. In addition, you have taken the necessary measures to ensure that your wealth can potentially last for generations.

The money matrix is, therefore, a guide to help you find out if you need to increase your money optimisation ability or money-making ability to improve your financial position. Without fully comprehending these two elements, many people feel lost and focus on the wrong things in their journey to seek wealth.

Let us take the case of Michael, who has identified himself as belonging to the middle-class section in the money matrix. Michael wants to get out of the rat race and be financially free. However, he makes the mistake of focusing solely on his money-making ability to generate more income, and ignores all aspects of money optimisation. Michael will end up in the rich section.

Along the way, if something were to happen to Michael and he stopped working, Michael may find himself back at being middle class, or worse, in the poor category.

If there's one thing which could help you achieve financial freedom, and eventually become wealthy, it would be this: you must not just focus on making more money, but must optimise what you have.

Thestar/Yap Ming Hui

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

30年后,谁养你

时间,它为所有人安排下同样的结局。没有人可以不老,但是,我们有权利选择如何老去:窘迫或宽裕,失落或幸福,捉襟见肘或舒畅坦然当然,这取决于我们是否现在就开始的安排。
当你年轻,可以选择任何一种自己喜欢的生活方式:穷忙或宅,独身或裸婚,丁克或三口之家,扛着房贷奔跑或享受旅游的率性,种种种种。但是,无论任何情形之下,总有一个问题随时可以砸到你,那就是:———30年后,谁养你?

30年,是个很长的时间吗?
对很多人来说,已经过去的30年如弹指一瞬,30年前的场景宛在眼前。可以想见,未来的30年,对现在的年轻人来说同样会转瞬即逝。
那个时候,我们的财务状况会如何?

靠什么养活自己?
生活将呈现何种场景?
你还觉得老年很遥远吗?还在悠闲地等待?
我们如何心系未来、经营当下?以及,我们如何把生命中的美好,体验到极致?

那么,开始吧。

避免没钱3方案
想要避免将来没钱可用的退休生活,你有三种选择:

1)期望你有非常孝顺而且很会赚钱的子女,在将来能够供养你。所谓“养儿防老”,就是希望孩子将来能够照顾父母。但在将来,可能每个子女的家庭负担都很沉重,是否还有多余的能力照顾父母呢?

2)你必须与命运做赌注,赌你退休后并不会活太久,无需在退休之后花费太多的钱。
3)现在就开始存更多的钱,同时以更聪明的方式来投资。
如果你选的是第三个方案,请你耐心地看完本章,相信对你的退休规划会有所帮助。

30年后谁养你?
今日的准备,决定未来的30年。
小时候,大人告诉你“努力学习,取得好成绩,上个好大学,你就能找到薪水高、待遇好的工作”。

如今,你毕业了,工作了,每天朝九晚五,力争上游,假日和朋友出游,偶尔锻炼身体,不时约朋友小聚、看电影、Shopping,虽然累点,也算过得有滋有味。

那30年后呢?你是否想过自己30年后的生活?牵着老伴的手在巴黎艾菲尔铁塔下细数往日情怀?还是蜗居在小房子中,每天白粥配咸菜?

维持75%退休前收入
每个人都会慢慢变老,但没有人希望今天的收入比昨天还要少;每个人都希望长寿,但是没有人愿意到老了还晚景凄凉。

你是否计算过未来30年,作为家长的你需要为子女准备多少教育资金、结婚资金?
你是否计算过退休之后如果要维持现有的生活水平,你需要多少资金?

你的理想退休生活模式如何?相信跟大部分人一样,都是想退而能休,无忧无愁地真正享受人生,或继续追求年轻时未圆的梦想,欢度人生的下回合。

不过,期盼又是否符合现实?大家有否未雨绸缪,为退休生活早作充足储备,好让自己日后能切实做到无忧、退休?

到底多少退休资本储备才算足够,甚至充裕?在计算时,可循五大重点作考虑及计算依据,包括退休年龄、寿命、退休后每月生活使费、通胀率及投资回报;不过,每个人的需与求各有不同,退休时需要多少资金才叫足够,没有一定标准。

一般而言,若退休后希望能安享退休前一样的生活水平,理财规划通常建议退休后收入比率至少达退休前收入之75%。

除此之外,很多意想不到的开支会接踵而至,比如旅游、医疗费、人情费……尤其是现在很多白领一族想提前退休,并且还要生活得有质量。

一般而言,若退休后希望能安享退休前一样的生活水平,理财规划通常建议退休后收入比率至少达退休前收入之75%。

除此之外,很多意想不到的开支会接踵而至,比如旅游、医疗费、人情费……尤其是现在很多白领一族想提前退休,并且还要生活得有质量。

储蓄投资养自己
“30年后谁养你”,答案似乎是唯一的:自己养自己。
要预留一定的老年护理费,不要指望子女病床前尽孝,要祝福他们未来有自己的美好人生。给自己一个承诺,不要增加孩子的负担。

为养老要做的准备,包括两种方式:一是将目前储蓄中的一部分,用做养老准备;二是将每年收支节余做定期定额投资。

由于养老计划追求本金安全、适度收益、抵御通胀、有一定强制性原则,所以要将养老储投与其他投资分开。用适度债券、平衡基金、保险等组合去实现。

保险产品相对其他产品收益率也许不算高,但最大的好处就是强制性,因为它退保成本高,也就是退出壁垒高,所以不会轻易将养老年金挪作他用,使得保险成为养老计划的重要组成部分。

平衡目前与未来收支
所有的养老计划,都是平衡现在与未来的收入与支出。所以,要在每月消费之前,为养老做一些储蓄,在考虑其他财务目标前,要考虑养老,外国理财专家称为Pay yourself first。
如果你想让晚年的生活像一首幸福自由的长诗,那么,现在是时候开始准备了!

祝愿大家长寿,也希望大家准备好长寿所需的大把银子。

罗凤琴/南洋商报