Co-Contribute to increase your super fund.

ATTENTION : This post is written for those whose income is less then $58,980.  If you earn more then $58,980, don’t bother reading this as you are not eligible for the government co-contribution.

I got a letter few weeks back informing me that AXA has received the co-contribution from the Government for 06/07 financial year.  It took them more then half a year to process the co-contribution.

For those who has started working, you should have heard about co-contribution.  Although many has heard about it, how many people is actually is making used of the fund that is allocated by the government? The reason co-contribution exist is assist eligible individuals to save for their retirement. Under the co-contribution scheme, the Government contributes $1.50 to super for every $1 in after-tax or personal contributions by a low-income earner. The maximum co-contribution is payable to those earning up to $28,980 a year. The amount is reduced by five cents for each dollar of income over $28980. The maximum co-contribution phase out at an incresed upper threshold of $58,980.

Example :

If you are earning $40,000/year,  with the maximum contribution, you will be getting

$1500 – ( ($40,000 -$28,980) x $0.05) = $949 if you contribute ($949/3 *2) = $633 within that financial year.  You will need to contribute $77.75 in a month.

If you decide not to contribute, you should be thinking what kind of investment actually gives us 150% in return in a year? Do consider not to contribute only if you are making use of the  $77.75 to generate you more then 150% profit in return. If not it will be better off putting the extra money into the super fund.

Part of our income has gone to tax and now government is putting an offer back to us. There is no reason why people does not grab this offer. 

Lessons from the 1987 market crash

This article is taken from the Star, Business section, dated January 30, 2008. The word that you should take note on in this article is “Cash is KING” when the market is down. During recession when people cant meet their repayment, bank will just put the house to auction and that is the time when you have money you will be able to buy a house at a cheaper rate. As share prices goes down, that is the time you are able to find cheap shares around. Have you heard of YTL Corp before ? How did YTL Corp manage to acquire Lot 10, Star Hill and JW Marriott during recession period ? When other company was doing badly in their business during recession period, that was the time when the company make use of the cash they have on hand to acquire property at a cheaper price. Most people sees opportunity when the economy is good. But when you have cash on hand during recession, it will be a better opportunity compare to the good times.

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TAIPING GROUP: YTL to buy properties from ailing firm
—————————————————–
Construction and power group YTL Corporation may emerge as
the “saviour” of financially troubled property group
Taiping Consolidated when it agreed to buy properties and
possibly participate in Taiping Consolidated’s
restructuring scheme yesterday.

YTL Corp yesterday said it had entered into a sales and
purchase agreement to buy three prime properties — two
shopping malls known as Lot 10 and Star Hill and the five-
star JW Marriott Hotel — from Taiping for 323 million
Malaysian ringgit (S$137.7 million) in cash.

In addition, YTL Corp managing director Francis Yeoh Sock
Ping said the group is interested in taking a strategic
stake in Taiping “as a vehicle for future business
development”. However, he said the purchase of a stake in
Taiping is subject to the completion of a due diligence and
a viable scheme approved by all interested parties of
Taiping.

Taiping Consolidated secured a six-month court protection
on July 30 and is currently trying to put in place a scheme
of arrangement with its creditors. Analysts estimate
Taiping’s debt at some RM600 million, of which RM370
million are short-term.

A separate statement by Taiping Consolidated to the Kuala
Lumpur Stock Exchange yesterday said the sale of the three
properties is the first stage of its restructuring scheme.
The second stage will see a capital reduction and
subsequent injection of fresh capital into the company,
including from YTL should it agree to take a stake in
Taiping.

Source : http://bankrupt.com/TCRAP_Public/981022.MBX

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Written by: OOI KOK HWA

Investors need to be cautions and hold more cash because cash is king when the market is down.ARE we heading for a bigger market crash like the one in 1987 or have we seen the worst of the market corrections?The recent global stock market crashes, especially the big sell-off on the Hong Kong market, prompted investors to recall the big market crash in 1987. In this article, we will look into the causes of the US crash.

In 1987, the rapid technological progress and reduction of entry costs to the market caused a real expansion and entry of many new investors into the US stock market.

As a result, the crash in 1987 was partly attributed to over-inflated prices generated by a speculative bubble during the first nine months. The US market experienced more than 30% gains during the period. At the peak, the average price-earnings ratio was about 30 times.

G. William Schwert, in his research titled Stock Market Crash of October 1987, postulated that the various strategies involving stocks with options or futures contracts on stock indices (called “programme trading”) led to an unusual level of selling volume on Oct 19, 1987.

As a result, the specialists were unable to find enough buyers to meet the demand of sellers. The lack of liquidity caused further big drop in prices. Traders were caught by surprise by the speed of the price drop.

On Oct 14, 1987, the US reported the largest trade deficit. To a lot of investors, it was hard to understand how the announcement of its largest trade deficit could cause such a big sell-off in stocks. One of the possible reasons was the potential reversal of the trade deficit. Lowering trade deficit might imply lower capital inflows, which would cause lower stock prices.

The largest fall in the US stock market happened on the Black Monday of Oct 19, 1987. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 22.6%, or 508 points, within a day. It was the largest single fall since 1929, in both absolute and percentage terms.

In Malaysia, the KL Composite Index (KLCI) tumbled 12.4%. The main reason behind the fall was on the night of Oct 18, a soldier ran amok with an M16 in Kuala Lumpur. This triggered a panic. Then, as a result of the overnight crash in the US, the KLCI plunged another 15.7% the following day.

Could we have predicted the recent market crash?

A lot of investors were unable to escape the recent crashes. Retailers did not know how to deal with their money after selling stocks. Furthermore, most of them would not sell anything as they could not spot the exact top of the bull market and sell out in time.

Harry D. Schultz, in his book titled Bear Market Investing Strategies, highlighted that there were signs of the ending of a bull market or the beginning of a bear market.

According to him, one of the most important indicators was investor sentiment remained bullish while the economic fundamentals started to get worse. Investors ignored all the negative aspects of the companies’ fundamentals.

Besides, business leaders, brokers and advisory services were bullish as well. They would view any downturn in the stock market as a temporary setback and healthy correction.

In addition, the aggressive rate reductions by the US Federal Reserve might confirm that the US economy was heading towards a recession.

Besides, the stock market might be trading at high volume but not much change in prices. Normally, this implied that long-term investors were selling stocks while short-term traders were supporting the market.

The US bear markets have been as short as two months and as long as five years, the average being about 18 months. Hence, we need to be cautious and hold more cash because cash is king during the down market.

Source : http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/1/30/business/20165550&sec=business

Suzuki Night Market

 
 Suzuki night market is held every year during summer time. The market runs on every Wednesday starting from November 28, 2007 till 27 February, 2008. The market starts at 5.30pm till 10.00pm at Queen Victorial Market, Melbourne. You should visit Suzuki Night Market to know about multiculturalism. They have food ranging from Spanish , Turkish, Italian, African, Indian, Chinese, Dutch and more. Performance starts abit later and there were people singing and playing songs. One thing good about the culture here is that every is sporting enough to actually start dancing.

More Photos

Times when my mum tought me how to run.

When you hear there is war happening, RUN.

When you are at the wet market, and all the si lai start talking about it, RUN.

When you are at the security company and you find it hard to squeeze your way through the counter, RUN.

These are the few things that I still remember very clearly.  I was being told about this more then 10 years ago.  Do you know that am I referring to ? Those are the few things my mum mention to me about the share market. I guess it is no longer applicable as everyone is doing e-transaction.

What is the interest rate trend like now ?

Lately bank interest rate has reached 8.93% and another raise is expected in February 2008 after the governor of the Reserve Bank made it clear about controlling the inflation. The interest rate is the highes ever since Nov 96. The only way government is able to control inflation is to raise the interest rate. This is to encourage people to save money in the bank rather then spending it out at the market. The economy boom in Australia has just past us. There is a cycle for economy. There was an economic recession that hit much of the world beginning in 1987. During then I was too young to know anything about the things happen in the global economy. As I grew older, my parents used to tell me the things happen during then as they had been through it before. In 1997 there is an East Asian Financial Crisis. During then I was old enough to understand what was going on. I always believe that the economy cycle repeat it self every 12 years. But 1997 crisis happens earlier then expected. It is a lifetime experience to go through once as you will know what are the indication to look for before something happen. Property wont get effected much. But for those who gets involved in shares, you will need to know when to get out of it as shares is never a long term investment. During an economy crisis, shares that worth thousand of dollars will ended up to be worthless. Have you read the news about what happened to centro ? There will be many more company that will be in such situation during bear market. To be in involved in business, most of the company do borrow money from the bank. As interest rates goes up, companies who are in debt will have difficulty in making their repayment. Sometimes you will be wondering how can a quarter of a percent raise does effect anything. If a quarter of a percent raise happens a few times in a year, the impact towards their debt may be quite significant. Usually people have the most confident during the peak of the economy. But I always believe that this should be the time that we should be caution on what will happen next. As interest rates starts going up, this should be the time people should start thinking how to reduce their debt and not create one. Inflation, interest rates, shares and property are all co-related. To know what happens on each component, you will need to find out what happens to the rest of the component. At this point of time no one knows the answer. Different people perceived things differently as well based on what has happen. I believe 95% of the people will perceived that the property price will still go up this year. This perception is normal as people perceived the situation based on the past and the fact is that last year the price did went up for more then 25.2%. I wonder what is the thought of the other 5%.

Current Interest Rate

Variable Rate
ANZ	8.77%
NAB	8.69%
Westpac	8.72%

Date	RBA Official Cash Rate	Bank Std Variable Rate
Nov-07	6.75	8.57
Aug-07	6.50	8.32
Nov-06	6.25	8.07
Aug-06	6.00	7.82
May-06	5.75	7.57
Mar-05	5.50	7.32
Dec-03	5.25	7.07
Nov-03	5.00	6.82
Jun-02	4.75	6.57
Apr-02	4.50	6.32
Dec-01	4.25	6.07
Oct-01	4.50	6.32
Sep-01	4.75	6.57
Apr-01	5.00	6.80
Mar-01	5.50	7.30
Feb-01	5.75	7.55
Aug-00	6.25	8.05
May-00	6.00	7.80
Apr-00	5.75	7.55
Feb-00	5.50	7.30
Nov-99	5.00	6.80
Dec-98	4.75	6.50
Sep-97	5.00	6.70
Jul-97	5.00	7.20
May-97	5.50	7.20
Apr-97	6.00	7.20
Mar-97	6.00	7.55
Dec-96	6.00	8.25
Nov-96	6.50	8.75
Aug-96	7.00	9.25
Jun-96	7.50	9.75
Dec-94	7.50	10.50
Nov-94	6.50	9.55
Oct-94	6.50	9.50
Sep-94	5.50	9.50
Aug-94	5.50	8.75
Jul-94	7.00	9.75

Sand Sculping Australia

Went for a sand sculptures exhibition at Frankston Waterfront. They brought in 3,500 tonnes of sand to create a spectacular display of sculptures. This year sculpture team is “Fairytales & Fables”. 19 talented sculptors from Australia and around the world worked for almost 3 weeks to bring the exhibit to life. The exhibition will be going on from 19 January to 6 April. Entrance fee is $10 for adult.

Final verdict : worth while going just for the experience. But looking at the pictures that I posted in picasa web will probably save you 10 bucks.

Photos : http://picasaweb.google.com/winsonlee8/0801128TripToFrankstonAndMornington 

Diesel vs Petrol

I gonna write about BMW once again. Today on the road I saw a BMW 530d. During then I was wondering why does people buy a 530d instead of a 530i. I always think that fuel efficiency for petrol is always better compare to diesel. Probably because all heavy duty vehicle back home uses diesel and it emits lots of carbon monoxide to the air. When I saw BMW 530d on the road , I was thinking that there are something on 530d that I will need to find out. First thing that i found out about 530d is the fuel consumption. It is more efficient compare to 530i. The next thing will be the huge torque advantage (369lb ft vs 221 lb ft) over 530i. I manage to find an article that wrote about the advantage of diesel over petrol and the technology used in making the fuel consumption more efficient.

Models	530d	530i
Engine
Cylinders	6	6
Valves	24	24
Capacity	2,993 cc	2996 cc
Maximum Power	160 kW / 218 bhp / 4,000 rpm	200 kW / 272 bhp / 6650 rpm
Maximum Torque	480 Nm / 1,750 rpm	315 Nm / 2750 rpm
Fuel Consumption
City	10.3l / 100km	13.6l / 100km
Highway	5.9l / 100km	6.8l / 100km
Combined	7.5l / 100km	9.3l / 100km

Source : http://www.bmw.com.au/

As little as fifteen years ago, the diesel/petrol conundrum didn’t really exist. Diesels were slow, unrefined and fit only for taxis. It didn’t matter that they were cheaper to run than the petrol equivalent, because to stop at the black pump was to become a social pariah. But in the past few years, new technology has revolutionised the diesel engine so that they’re now a genuine and desirable alternative to petrol power.

The most significant technological breakthroughs concern the development of direct injection and common rail turbodiesel technology. Direct injection, as the name suggests, is a process by which the fuel is injected directly into the combustion chamber. The fuel supply can therefore be controlled more precisely, improving the efficiency of the combustion process. The latest common rail systems can also operate at a much higher pressure, further enhancing the detonation process. The result is more performance with improved fuel efficiency.

No less important has been the development of pre- or ‘pilot’ ignition systems. A tiny quantity of fuel is injected into the chamber and ignited before the primary combustion takes place. This minimises the harsh “knocking” or rattle sound traditionally associated with diesel powerplants. As a result, the latest diesel engines are now all-but as refined as their petrol equivalents.

The traditional image of diesel has been utterly transformed and it hasn’t taken drivers long to catch on. Executives who once sneered at the thought of a diesel car, are now revelling in the performance, refinement and fuel economy of the latest six and eight cylinder turbodiesel engines.

The petrol-powered BMW 530i and the diesel 530d cost similar money. The 530i has more power (258bhp vs 218bhp) but the diesel has a huge torque advantage (369lb ft vs 221 lb ft). In real world driving conditions, it’s the 535d that’s the faster, more engaging companion. And that’s before you consider the fuel savings – the 530d achieves an average of 40.9mpg, 8.8mpg more than the 530i. The diesel 5-series is not just more enjoyable to drive; it’s also cheaper to run.

This diesel-mania is even infesting the racing community. We’ve had diesel racers before – VW even sent a diesel van to the track – but they were no more than a token gesture, a marketing gimmick to appease the do-gooders. But now Peugeot is committed to building a diesel-powered Le Mans racer and Audi might well follow suit. They reckon they can achieve performance and economy, which in a 24 hours race is crucial.

Some commentators have suggested that we’re entering the age of the diesel, but such proclamations might be premature. Much of the technology that’s being used to such fine effect in modern turbodiesels is also beginning to filter into petrol engines. The Volkswagen group, for example, already offers a range of direct injection petrol engines that offer improved fuel economy and lower exhaust emissions. Audi’s Le Mans winning R8 was powered by a direct injection petrol engine, and a road-going derivative is employed to fine effect in the Volkswagen Golf GTi.

Sports car manufacturers will continue to favour petrol over diesel power. Petrol engines tend to weigh less than the diesel equivalent – an important consideration in a high performance car – and their free revving nature makes them more fun to drive. Many sports car drivers also continue to prefer the sonorous roar of a performance petrol engine to the more muted, deep bass mutterings of a diesel. Don’t expect to see a diesel-engined Ferrari rumbling down your high street anytime soon.

And while Le Mans may soon be populated by diesels, sprint racing will continue to be dominated by petrol power. A diesel-powered F1 car remains a preposterous suggestion, unless they change the rules. The point is not that diesel is about to replace petrol, but that for the first time we have a genuine choice. That can only be a good thing.

Source : http://www.castrol.com/

Dinner at Davids

Havent been making personal post for quite a while. Probably because my life is too boring to post anything up. If you asked me what I have been doing ? Has been doing reading most of the time. Hunting for information that I need. I would like to make the blog more informative rather then just on my daily life. I would have to agree that most of us had enter a different stage of life. Last time when we were in uni we used to talk about uni and muiss. Now there is no one time that we didnt talk about work or property. I guess the next stage of our life, we will be talking about marriage and kids. I am no where near there yet. =P Went to Davids Restaurant for dinner. First time trying out this place and the food wasnt too bad. Proportion of the food was quite huge. The food there is something different compare to what we usually have for dinner.

Still waiting for a reply from my friend whom I suppose to meet. Send her two sms she still yet to reply me. I wonder if tomorrow lunch is still onz.

Evolution of my life in Technology World

I started on registering my own domain at the age of 16. My first domain was mp3planet.ws. During then p2p is yet to be popular and many people download songs off from the website. Webhosting is so expensive during then. I was paying around US14/month. When p2p is around, mp3 website started to lost its popularity. Songs is accessible in a easier manner. Maintaining a large song database is not an easy task. New songs comes out every single day and putting new songs in the website is just too much of work. But during then online advertisement brings great benefit to website. There is company that pays US0.20 for a click on the bannner. Security wasnt that tight and you can practically asked people or friends to click on the banner to put money into your pocket. As I was using dialup during then, IP address for every single click will be different. If you apply to be a online affiliate from the advertising company, you should be familiar with linkshare, befree and CJ during then. There is 101 ways people tried to cheat money out of these advert company. One of the software use was cheatzrus which was created by one of the smart ass people. The software was created using mIRC script. People who knew about the software will join this channel and as all of us have an unique ip address, it will make in such way that people in the channel will goes through the advertising link that you put up. This process is automated where people does not need to be physically clicking on the link. After a while all these advertising company knew about it and they strengthen their security system. That was when the cheatzrus era ended.

The next domain i had was techcommunity.us. Installed xoops script on the server. I was quite fascinated with the script. So I decided to just had a webserver and play around with the script. It is an online community script where you can install different kinda of plugin to suit your needs. After that, there is when I had winson-talk.net when bloging is popular. Some people sets up their own private blog on a paid hosting. So I decided to have a try and see as private blog provides greater flexibility on the things you can do to your blog. As for my personal blog, I changed from xanga to personal blog to blogspot to personal blog to wordpress. I did not keep some of the archieve that I have for my blog. Some of the experience that I posted, I did not want to bring it over to my new blog. As my life is always interesting and I went through different sort of experience and some of the interesting experience I would prefer to leave it behind. Blogspot I deleted it totally as that was the worse part of life I have been through. I stop blogging for 3 months before I started on wordpress and only lately people knew about the existence of winsonlee.wordpress.com. After trying to play around with the blog only I realise that wordpress does not give me the flexibility to do things that i want.

What are the things that I found out that I couldn’t do in wordpress ?

1) I can only choose template that is being defined in the list.

2) I cant change css code for the template. WordPress requires me to pay in order for me to change the css script.

3) I cant put an external hits tracker.

4) I cant put a chatbox.

5) The post box is far too small then what i want it to be. I have data up in the post and I need to refer to it in order for me to write about it. Instead now I ended up using notepad and writing my blog referring to the data I paste it on the notepad.

6) Last but not least, I cant put google map in frekin word press. There are place that i would like to refer to using google map.

That is when I thought of putting my blog onto a private server again. I have been hunting for one ever since last week. Finding a hosting server is easy. But finding for a good hosting company that provides good support and has all the features that I want is hell difficult. Sad to know that winson-talk.net domain is taken. Else I would want that domain again. Currently they only have winson-talk.com. Somehow I just dont like .com. But if that is my only choice I would just grab it instead. Next entry I will post up the detail of the hosting company that I found and the deals that I got with them.

Did I mention that porn website was one of the project that I have created ? I have never told anyone about this before as this topic is quite sensitive. Till now I cant believe that I did that. I have created it but ended up I decided not to get it onto the web. During then I was only form 5.  If you do realize  porn industry in the web has the largest market share and porn advertising company can pay you few times more then the normal company.  During then I was thinking but of course it did not comes to my mind to know what is right or wrong.

High demand suburbs

	Top 20 Growth Suburbs (Annual)
			Dec 07 median	Dec 06 median	Annual Change
	1	Blackburn	$745,000	$455,000	63.7%
	2	Flemington	$597,500	$377,250	58.4%
	3	Braybrook	$355,000	$225,500	57.4%
	4	Burwood	$710,000	$457,500	55.2%
	5	Essendon	$865,500	$563,000	53.7%
	6	Carnegie	$851,000	$556,250	53.0%
	7	Brunswick West	$680,000	$445,000	52.8%
	8	St Kilda East	$860,000	$578,000	48.8%
	9	Ringwood East	$462,500	$313,500	47.5%
	10	Mount Waverley	$707,500	$480,000	47.4%
	11	Coburg	$540,000	$367,500	46.9%
	12	Seddon	$595,000	$405,000	46.9%
	13	Caulfield North	$1,330,000	$905,500	46.9%
	14	Glen Waverley	$687,000	$470,000	46.2%
	15	Kew	$1,307,500	$898,750	45.5%
	16	Woodend	$432,000	$300,000	44.0%
	17	Altona North	$425,500	$296,000	43.8%
	18	Gisborne	$387,000	$270,000	43.3%
	19	Richmond	$789,000	$551,000	43.2%
	20	Rosanna	$600,000	$421,500	42.3%
	Note: Only suburbs where a minimum of 30 sales recorded in each quarter are included.

source : http://www.melbourneleader.com.au/article/2008/01/26/28369_mev_news.html

During my previous post I wrote about the median growth rate at major city like Melbourne, Perth, Sydney and Perth. Today I was looking at HeraldSun and they wrote about the median growth rate for individual suburb. I was suprise to see that there are 7 suburbs that growth rate is more then 50%. Blackburn achieve growth rate of 63.7% for the year of 2007.