If you are planning to get yourself a new house or property investment, then this is a good opportunity for you to take survey on the properties you like. This kind of event showcase sure will have a lot of lucky draws, and door gifts. If you want to know more, you can check for the program details and schedule below:

Date: 19th to 21st March 2010

Time: 11am to 9pm

Venue: Penang International Sports Arena (PISA)

Admission: Free

Previously, there are more than 200 booths showcasing the products of over 100 exhibitors. There will have many types of property such as residential, commercial or industrial units, it’s depending on user’s budget and preference to make decision. I believe that this time would not be less than that.

As I known, a lot of popular exhibitors such as Airmas Management Sdn Bhd, Ivory Properties Group, Mah Sing Group, PDC Properties Sdn Bhd, Sunway Grand Sdn Bhd and etc will be there.

So, please don’t let this golden opportunity slip away from you. Probably I will go there to do some property survey, which may help me in my property investment plan.

In order to make calculation simple, let’s take RM3,000 as the figure:

Electricity bill: RM40 (Assume no air-con, no water heater)

Water bill: RM10

Phone bill: RM100

Family meal: RM900 (3 meals on RM30/day)

Car repayment: RM450 (A Perodua Myvi, 5 years repayment)

Petrol fees: RM150-200

House repayment: RM550 (Assume living in low medium cost apartment)

Personal insurance: RM400 (combination of you and your wife)

Total monthly expenses: RM2,650

All the above calculation have not taken into account when you have own children. Besides, the EPF and income tax haven’t deducted. So, do you think family with salary RM3,000 enough to survive? Obviously, you will say cannot, am I right?

However, I have one friend who works as technician with the salary RM1,500 and his wife works as operator monthly gained about RM800. Total is only RM2300!!! But they still can survive with that! Malaysian Boleh !!! So, there’s nothing is impossible in this country!

Honestly, Malaysia is one of the lowest salary range country. You try to compare with our neighbour country, Ringgit to Ringgit and Singapore dollar to Singapore dollar…In Singapore, you can get Char Kuey Teow for S$3, Malaysians can’t get that in KL city, but you still possible to find it in certain area in Penang.

I heard a lot of forumer keep on discussing about this issue recently - KWSP steal citizen money! KWSP allow monthly withdrawal from EPF account 2 for the monthly housing loan repayment. But, from their discussion, some of them said that the withdrawal plan is actually a SCAM! I am sure you will feel keen to know more on this issue, right? Let me share with you what I’ve heard:

We take an assumption here:

If you have RM50,000 in your EPF account 2 and your monthly housing loan’s installment is RM1000/month. KWSP will approve your application of withdrawal from your EPF account 2 of RM50,000 and pay you RM1000/month for the next 50 months.

The only thing that KWSP did not inform us in detail is that when the application was approved, will the total amount RM50,000 is removed from EPF account 2? In the other words, it appears to be transferred to an unknown account to effect the monthly payment?

After my careful calculation, I found out that there’s huge impact to us if it was true:
You will lost the dividend gain. Let say the KWSP dividend is 5%, then you will lose RM2,500 in dividend during the 1st year. Based on the above example you will lose more than RM10,000 over the 50 months period!

The above is just my rough assumption and I do not have any evidence to show that they will transfer our money to unknown account. Anyway, this is just my personal sharing, do not panic and please keep thinking positive with KWSP Malaysia since a lot of Malaysians these days do not even know how to save, and get themselves into debt before 30. EPF forces us to save 11% of our salary each month and the money will come back to us guaranteed at 55 plus dividend so that we can retire comfortably.

Here are some of the savings account interest rates obtained from the banks’ latest updated information:

So, from this comparison, you will found that Maybank Basic Savings Account offers better interest which is 0.25% for balance <= RM10,000.

If you still insist to keep your money into savings account, then you can go ahead. For me, it is wiser to keep a minimal amount of your money in savings account, just good enough for your regular spending or emergency spending.

My Bad Experience With Maybank

Previously, I had nothing but compliments for Maybank. Over the counter transactions were efficient enough. However, an incident about a week ago totally changed my perception. It all happened a few days ago when I wanted to deposit money into Maybank Fixed Deposit. I found out that the Maybank counter staff keep on talking with other customer even I am the first customer that should be served first. I do not like this kind of scenario due to my serving time being shared with others.

Honestly, I’m one of those Malaysian who love Singapore too! Though I knew working in Singapore is much more stressful and tough compared to Malaysia, but I think that’s what really challenging about it and eventually we’ll be exposed to more useful working experiences. I believe Singapore provides a better foundation for solid working experiences, especially in multi-national company.

Based on my personal experiences, Singapore is very safe too! I can feel that there will be lower crime rate. In addition, Malaysians working in Singapore has a better deal than Singaporeans because they don’t have to do national service.

Hence they move higher and faster than Singaporean, what do you think? Singapore is a good place to work in due to everybody is treated equal. Although I am not like about Singapore living expenses but I believe that there’s great place for you to get the job satisfaction.

How Singaporean Employers View A Malaysian Employee?

However, do you know how would Singaporean employers view a Malaysian worker who keens to work in Singapore? As I known, if you are the potential Malaysian employee, which can bring value to their company, then your possibility of being hired is very high.

Sometimes, Singaporean employers want foreign workers to have good attitude and need you working to put in extra hours for free, they need you to fit in with their company culture, and be able to be in control. So, have you get ready to work in Singapore?

Last time, my ex-employer manager told me that his friend can earn RM20k salary per month. But, do you feel that he can save lot money from his income? Based on his situation, after deducting tax and EPF, he gets only RM12k++ per month, and he mention that his living cost is quite high as he owns a Honda Accord and a RM600k home in KL. He likes to play golf as well and all in all expenses about RM11k per month. Thus, he manages to save only less than RM1k per month for a rainy day. Do you think he is good in financial management?

In my opinion, if the job that a person is doing now is for his/her passion, then it’s fine. With RM 20k income per month, monthly EPF should be around RM 4,600 (RM2,200 + RM2,400) and around RM 55,200 per year. After retired, the EPF amount probably will be around RM 1 million. Probably that is the reason he/she saves only RM 1k per month.

Anyway, if you have better idea, then try to think of buying property and don’t keep too much cash which deflate in value. That’s the rich people thinking all the while.

Besides that, you can claim up to RM10k tax deduction for the loan interest that you paid (if you are eligible). It’s the news from Budget 2010. But, I think it is eligible for those who buy the property between March 10, 2009 and Dec 31, 2010 only. If not mistaken, you can enjoy the tax deduction incentive for 3 consecutive years. If you know more about it, kindly give me some information.

Those Internet savvy now can withdraw their PayPal fund to Malaysia Bank Accounts through bank swift code. Based on the information that I’ve obtained from Paypal official site, I only know that the transaction will take up to 2-3 days, and a fee of RM3 will be charged if your withdrawal is below RM400. If your withdrawal is above RM 400, you will be waived from the fees.

Below is a step-by-step guide on how to withdraw funds to your Malaysia bank account:

Step 1: Login your PayPal account.
Step 2: Click “My Account” then “Withdraw”.
Step 3: Then, click “Withdraw to your bank account” link under the options.

Step 4: Next, enter the amount in USD you want to withdraw and select your bank account. If you still not yet add the bank account, then proceed to step 5 else go to step 7.

Step 5: Fill in your name, bank name, bank routing code, and bank account number.

Step 6: After that, you will be asked to review the details. Click “Add Bank Account” button if everything is OK.
Step 7: Click on “Continue” button to review your withdrawal information and then click on “Submit” button

Step 8: After you clicked on the “Submit” button. Your withdrawal request is pending to process. So, you need to wait for 2-3 business day and your PayPal money should be in your selected Malaysia bank account.

Note: If let say your provided details not correct, PayPal will charge RM15 if the funds are returned.

If you want to know how to withdraw fund into credit/debit card, then you can try to visit this iCalvyn.com site.