Productivity

Week 4.2 Productivity

Assume you have 1 oz of gold, anywhere you put it is still 1 oz of gold. Maybe less if you happen to scratch it and lose some gold. On top of that you still need some money to safe guard the gold such as putting it in safe deposit box, lock it in safe, hide it etc. All these are cost to you. Yet, many people consider gold as an investment. Thus, something is very wrong here. Precious Metal has negative productivity.

One properties of gold is it cannot be printed out of thin air. It can be must be physically mined and it is limited in quantity.  Thus gold is appreciating in value because lot of paper money is printed out of thin air everywhere. Since gold cannot be printed, over time the price of gold will increase faster than paper money.

Thus, gold will serve as a protection of wealth, preservation of wealth rather than an investment. It is an insurance policy which has no recurring premium other than storage fee.

The more correct assessment of value will be gold to oil ratio or gold to energy ratio. How many oz of gold to buy 1 barrel of oil?

What is productivity then?

Here is the definition of productivity from Wikipedia. 
Productivity is a measure of output from a production process, per unit of input. For example, labor productivity is typically measured as a ratio of output per labor-hour, an input. Productivity may be conceived of as a metric of the technical or engineering efficiency of production. As such, the emphasis is on quantitative metrics of input, and sometimes output. Productivity is distinct from metrics of allocative efficiency, which take into account both the monetary value (price) of what is produced and the cost of inputs used, and also distinct from metrics of profitability, which address the difference between the revenues obtained from output and the expense associated with consumption of inputs.^[1]

Productivity means bringing value to customer.

Food stall operator turns some raw meat, grain and vegetable into ready to eat food for factory worker. Factory work will have more time to spend in their work. His cost is RM2 per plate of rice but he is selling it at RM4 per plate. Since the food stall operator is making some profit, over time he will be able to feed his family, buy a house or car. That is productivity. Food stalls existed long time back in China.
Off course, there is a limit to how much profit can the food operator can make because he only got a few workers, the number of customer is more of less fix. Whatever surplus he made should be able to sustain his lifestyle. Any surplus money re-invested into his business is not going to add to his productivity/profit. Law of diminishing return.

In our life, everybody have productivity. Let said you spend all your years to become a musician, not everybody can compete with you, only a musician can compete with you. Thus, as far as music is concern, your productivity is better than others. Nobody can compete with you unless they willing to go through the long tedious training. Thus, your productivity is your job. In order for you to stay in your job, your company must be making some $$. That works well in private sector environment. No comment on government job. However as usual, there is a limit to how much your company can pay you. If you are network person, person who can bodek well then maybe your pay is higher lah. There is also a limit to what you can do for your employer. Anything extra may not worth the effort. Law of diminishing return. Over time as you move on in your career you may amass some wealth. What you going with it? Well, buy some gold as insurance lah. This is not going to make you rich. It’s just an insurance policy to preserve your purchasing power.

In order to be rich, you have to be in business which generates productivity. However, it very difficult to identified it. Once it is identified, you must execute it quickly. Over time people will replicate your idea and price war will begin.
 
Lesson learned: Precious metal is not an investment. It is just a tool for you to preserve your purchasing power.

Action Plan: Continue to do what you good at to earn your living. If you are a doctor, then be a better doctor, a lawyer then be a better lawyer. Anything extra, buy gold and silver. At the mean time, look around for some business which you can venture into.

Coin Capsule

Week 4.1 Coin Capsule

If you collecting silver and intend to dispose it off sometime in the future, it is better to source some air-tite or coin capsule now while the shipping cost still low and still reliable. Just keep it somewhere. Later when silver is USD50 or USD100/oz it is difficult to find a tube buyer. You may have to sell oz by oz. These few ringgits extra are worth the expenses. It’s helps in selling your product. It also helps in protecting and slowing down the oxidation process of the coin. My experience told me that people prefer to buy new coins rather than old coin. Little bit dirty or tarnishing also they won’t want it.

Coin capsules are quite bulky to ship, thus shipping may be expensive. There are few sources where you can source your coin and bar air-tites from.

a. http://www.air-tites.com/

b. http://www.coingallery.co.uk/

c. http://www.lighthouse.us/epages/lighthouse.sf/en_US/?ObjectPath=/Shops/leuchtturm_us/Categories/US/US_2281/US_2395

d. Others

Evaluation

1. http://www.air-tites.com/

If you want the best quality product at low price then you should choose this one. Air-tites coin capsules is quite tight once you put the coin inside it, it’s quite difficult for you to open it. It comes in two versions, one with ring and another one without any ring. Those air-tite capsules with ring enable additional protection from external air. The problem is the ring is quite expensive because it is just plastic foam and the ring size is fix. If you have special cutter you can also make your own ring. I have spent 1 whole day in various hardware shops, yet I still unable to find the suitable cutter. Let me know if you can find one. FYI, only www.air-tites.com is selling the air-tite capsule for silver bars. 

Here is the air-tite photo

Normally, they have a policy of not sending you the tracking number until you disputed or query them after some time. Then only they will send you the tracking no. They will send via USPS priority services with online tracking number.

Problem

It is quick bulky thus shipping is very expensive. Try to order just 250 pcs USD80/- + shipping USD45/- then it is just below RM500/-. The extra shipping is more worthwhile compared to going to KLIA to clear the item and paying the additional tax. The tax for coin capsules is 20%.

2. http://www.coingallery.co.uk/

Andy is a nice person to deal with. If you want the cheapest coin capsule in 20pcs or few hundred pieces, you can get it from him. The coin capsule is from lighthouse. The shipping is quite reasonable. The lighthouse airtight is quite loose and not as good as www.air-tites.com. It is very easy to open and close. Good for storing coins which is constantly open.  You may want to use a selifon tape (loytape) to seal the coin capsule to prevent air from going inside the coin. Payment via paypal. The coin capsules comes in boxes of 10 capsules, thus it is 50%-75% less bulky then air-tites.com. The coin capsule is packed in closed form.

here is the light house capsule photo

3. http://www.lighthouse.us/epages/lighthouse.sf/en_US/?ObjectPath=/Shops/leuchtturm_us/Categories/US/US_2281/US_2395

It is the same product as http://www.coingallery.co.uk/ . I never ordered from them before. You can give it a try.

4. There is a product I brought from Numis Coin Shop at Maju Junction, KL. The coin capsule ring is programmable. Thus, these coin capsules can fit many different sizes of coin on a single capsule. It the best coin capsule I have seen. The price is RM3.50/per capsule. Nevertheless, you can nego with the shop owner.

5. Factory

There are a lot of factories in Malaysia and China dealing with plastic product. You can ask them to do the coin capsule for you.  A minimum order of 10,000 pcs for Malaysian factory, not sure about factory in China. The problem is the cost of the plastic mould and also product quality problem which you may need to follow up. I visited one factory, I was told the plastic cost may be around 20cents or even less. The main cost is in the mould. If you can solved the mould problem + the cutter problem then probably you can be in the coin capsule air-tite business. I’ve given up on these. I have given you the first hint. If you are in plastic industry (workers, engineer, technician does not have to be the owner) why not give it a try on ebay. Ask your factory to manufacture the product which you can sell. You can sell international wow! We have a relatively cheap postal service. It cost USD5-6 to ship a registered postal world wide.

Credit Card Charges

Week 3.2 Credit Card Network

A simple flash simulation that explains the credit card process

http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/how-a-credit-card-is-processed-1275.php

There are 3 parties involved in the commission structure

a)      Acquirer : The bank which loan out the credit card terminal to the merchant so that they can accept VISA or Master card

b)      Issuer :  The bank that issues the credit card.

c)       Card Network : VISA, Master, AMEX (American Express)

Normally the merchant is charged 2-4% commission from the sales of their product. Let assume a 3% commission rate equally shared among the stakeholders. 

If both acquirer and issuer are from the same bank,

a)      Bank will get a 2% commission.

b)      More services can be done such as give special offer, discount, free installment, point redemption etc. The routing is simple as it just goes through a single bank. That’s why only certain bank card got special discount at certain merchant.

c)       E.g UOB point redemption is only available at BHP petrol station because BHP petrol chain acquirer is UOB bank.

If you do a cash advance at ATM machine using your VISA card, there is an upfront interest of 2% because some commission is charged by the acquirer bank and CARD network as well. When you buy something with free 6 months installment, the 2% commission is actually being paid upfront by the merchant.

http://www.pbebank.com/en/en_content/personal/promotions/flexipay.html

For some bank cash advance via phone, I doubt the payment goes through the credit card network. It is just an internal transaction within the same bank. There is no merchant to pay the 2% commission and there is no interest free loan correct! Thus the only way is to charge the customer an upfront interest.

Normally for bullion business, the merchant (seller) has to pay the credit card commission thus some of them are willing to provide discount 1.5%-3% if payment is made via cash or bank wire.

Hope this explains most of the thing. I could be wrong.

Getting a Personal Loan To Invest. Credit Card Cash Advanced

Week 3.1 Getting a Personal Loan To Invest. Credit Card Cash Advanced

Just like any properties investment.

Invest now with your future saving.

 Do it if you are confident.

Credit card is another option for anyone to forward spending your investment. The best deal is EON Bank call for Cash. If you can get a better deal than this one, let me know. If the nominal (effective) interest rate is more than 10% per annum then there is no need to consider.

My choice is the EON bank Call for Cash 6 months deal, the interest rate is 2.99% after 1% rebate it is 1.99%.  For those who cannot afford 6 months can take the 12 months deal, the interest rate is 4.99% after 1% rebate it is 3.99%. There is zero transactional cost no stamp duty etc. Everything can be done over the phone. Just add RM2 for inter-bank fund transfer. The maximum loan amount must not exceed the credit limit of your credit card. The fund should be transfer to your account within 3 working days.

6 months deal

For RM10,000/- loan, the upfront interest of RM199/- is payable on the first month.

The remaining balance is paid in 6 monthly installment of RM1666.67 from 2^nd to 7^th month. The nominal (effective) interest rate is 7% per annum. Thus, it the best deal in town. No transaction cost.

You saw UOB is selling gold at attractive prices now but you have no cash to buy. By the time (6 months later), you have the cash, the price may have gone up a lot. Thus, you can borrow some cash now from your credit card via EON bank call for cash to buy the gold. Within 6 months, if the gold price goes up by 3.5% you break-even. Is it a good deal? Think about it.

12 months deal

 The 3.99% interest is payable on the first month. The installment is payable starting from 2^nd to 13^th month.

For RM10,000/- loan, you pay an upfront interest of RM399/-.  The remaining balance is paid in 12 monthly installment of RM833.33.  The nominal (effective) interest rate is 8.1% per annum. Thus, it the best deal in town.

Within 12 months, if the metal goes up by 8.1% you break-even. Is a good deal? Think about it. If it is a good deal then it time to get your EON Bank credit card now.

Caveat

You must pay your installment on time if not the bank will charge you 2% interest on whatever due to them.

All Call for cash application is subjected to EON bank approval.

If EON bank remove the 1% interest rebate then you may have to recalculate the nominal (effective) interest rate again to see whether it is worth while to get the loan or not.

Note: If you buy at peak prices, you be worst off.

Lesson Learned:

A tip if known by the masses is no longer a tip. Thus, progress depends on how early you execute your ideas when you get to know it.

Getting a Personal Loan To Invest.

Week 3. Getting a Personal Loan To Invest.

For those who are very sure on certain business venture or investment, you may want to consider getting a loan personal loan to finance such venture. The ground rule is that the nominal annual interest rate must be less than 10%.

For example, if the nominal interest rate is 10%, if you put RM100 in the bank on 1^st Jan 2010, by 1^st Jan 2011, the interest should be RM10.

You can check out the definition of interest rate at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interest_rate

The inflation rate is not factored in because it differ country to country, product to product etc. There are just too many factors to consider.

Many banks are offering personal loan at special interest rate.

If the interest rate is 10% flat, you must multiple them with 1.8 (rough figure only. Actual value may varies from 1.6 – 1.9) thus, the nominal interest 18%. Thus it is not worthwhile. If you can receive a nominal interest rate of 18% then you don’t have to work already. It is better than most of the things in world today.

The only worthwhile personal loan for precious metal investment is Bank Rakyat and Bank Islam Personal loan. If the flat interest rate is more than 5%, then no need to considerlah because there are some additional charges involved.  However, the loan is only open to government staff and GLC related company such as Tenaga, Telekom etc. For GLC related company, the salary deduction is done via BIRO ANGKASA. The staff must be working with the company for more than 6 months. If your company allows salary deduction via BIRO ANGKASA then most likely you may be able to get the loan. Just drop by your Human Resource Department and ask. OK.

I also consulted few of my Malay friends and the internet forum. Apparently, bank Islam has a bad reputation in certain Internet forum. For Bank Islam, if you leave the government or GLC while serving the loan, Bank Islam will raise the interest rate to non-government interest rate which is much higher by at least 2.5 – 4% nominal interest rate. For Bank Rakyat, I was told there is no such issue. Thus, you may want to get a Bank Rakyat personal loan before you resign.  Thus, I stick with Bank Rakyat. Choose the maximum loan amount you can get for 3 years.

My choice will be 3 years personal loan from Bank Rakyat.

Tenure	Member	Non-Member
1 – 3	3.25	3.3
3 – 5	4.25	4.3
6 – 7	4.75	4.8
8 – 15	4.85	4.9

Note: Some GLC has a restriction on the amount of loan allowable to their staff. For government staff it is 75% of their nett salary (after deduction of all expenses). For some GLC, the limit is 40%.

On top of that, there are additional compulsory expenses upon approval of the loan. Let assume you take a RM100,000 /=loan for 3 years at 3.3% flat rate.

Your monthly repayment is RM3052.78 for 36 months

a)      RM4/- stamp duty for each RM1000/- loan. Thus, if you take a RM100,000/- loan the stamp duty will be RM400/-

b)      Takaful Insurance coverage for the loan amount payable to Bank Rakyat. For RM100,000/- loan for 3 years for age 30 may cost about RM600.00 (estimation only). That why no need guarantor.

c)      2 months pre-pay deposit.

d)      RM12 for ATM card.

e)      RM100 petrol toll etc.

All these are deducted from the RM100,000/- loan amount. Thus, you only getting

Loan Amount	$100,000.00
Stamp Duty	$400.00
Takaful	$600.00
2 month deposit	$6105.56
ATM card	$12.00
Etc expenses	$100.00
Nett Loan Amount	$92,782.44

RM92,784.22 loan disbursed repay via 34 months installment of RM3052.78. What is the nominal interest rate?

According to my calculation the nominal interest rate it is 7.78%

It is double the initial advertised value of 3.3%.

Then if the interest rate is 5.5% then the nominal interest rate may come up to 11-12%, thus, it is better to go for Ar-Rahnu pawn-broking scheme which can be terminated any time when the cash is available.

If you wish to terminate the loan, I was told that you can only get back the remaining portion of the interest. Stamp Duty and Takaful is gone. However there is no black and white on these. Even a copy of the loan agreement was not given to the applicant.

Note: Upon close termination of the loan agreement, either you resign just in time for your last installment or make sure you contact BIRO ANGKASA so that no over-deduction is done. I’m not sure on how the reimbursement work in case of over-deduction and the time-frame involved. Hopefully someone can enlighten me on these.

Lesson learned

Think hard before you seek for any refinancing. Do you own calculation? If not in the end all your rewards goes to the bank. You are just a debt salves.

Jangan membabi buta saja. Nanti, you kerja sia-sia saja. Kerja percuma untuk bank.

 

Getting a Temporary Loan To Invest. Ar-Rahnu Schema

Getting a Temporary Loan To Invest. Ar-Rahnu Schema

What do you do when you run out of fund to buy precious metal when there is a major price correction? I first get to know this scheme via jutawanemas.com website. I ‘m sure a lot of Malays friend already know about this.

You can pawn your gold via Ar-Rahnu scheme to various Islamic banks. There are few banks offering these services, they are Bank Rakyat and Agro bank. The interest rate is much lower than credit card.

http://www.bankrakyat.com.my/arrahnu

http://www.agrobank.com.my/ar-rahnu

1. Bank Rakyat

http://www.bankrakyat.com.my/arrahnu

The details are below

Max Loan Amount	$100,000
Effective Interest Rate	13.8%
Minimum charges	½ month of leasing.
Lease charges	75 cents per $100 of gold value per day
Lease Period	6 months
Extension	6 months by paying the lease fee.
Malaysian only

FYI, not all branches accept bullion coin. Only some Ar-Rahnu Exchanges accepts bullion gold. This branch below accepts bullion coin.

Ar-Rahnu X'Change
BANDAR BARU SENTUL
22, Jalan 14/48A, Off Jalan Sentul
Bandar Baru Sentul
51000 Kuala Lumpur
Pegawai Petugas : Rusngaton Hj Hassan
Tel : 03-4043781
Faks : 03-40442546
Email : rahnu_sentul@bankrakyat.com.my
Tarikh Beroperasi : 7 Disember 2006

From time to time, there is a policy change in what kind of gold coin or bar acceptable by them. In 2008, they accept everything, then in 2009 due to Etika Emas issue they refused to accept gold bar mainly Pamp Sussie 100g. Sometime in 2009, they don’t accept even UOB gold. As off now Jan 2011, they do accept gold sold by various local bank in Malaysia but does not accept Public Gold bar. There may be some reason behind it maybe it is prevent excessive leveraging among those who sells gold bar.

2. Agro Bank

http://www.agrobank.com.my/ar-rahnu

The details are below

Max Loan Amount	$50,000 $10,000/day
Effective Interest Rate	13.8%
Minimum charges	Not sure.
Lease charges	75 cents per $100 of gold value per day
Lease Period	6 months
Extension	6 months by paying the lease fee.
Malaysian only

The terms and condition is almost the same as Bank Rakyat. Make sure you call them up first before you go. This is to make sure that the bank accepts the gold coin to be pawned. In my last visit in 2010, they do accept Public Gold Bar.

3. Advice.

Having said all that, the purpose of pawning is to temporary relieve your cash flow position and also to enable you to stock up more precious metal at lower price. You should try to minimize the period of pawning as the interest rate is quite high. The average annual return for gold is about 10 – 18% per annum depending on when you buy it. If you factor in the buy and sell spread imposed by the banks, then the return may be within 5 – 15% depending on when you buy and sell. Thus, by pawning these gold, you can actually make a lost, in most case you may just barely break-even but lose all your petrol and time. Think about it.

For new kid on the block, those who just started off with precious metal, one should buy with own saving and not pawning it. Once you become more technically well-verse then you can opt for pawning. Just be aware from experience, most people end up pawning 2x longer than they should.

If you have some saving in gold bullion and needed some cash for a short time while waiting for your annual bonus, you may want to consider pawning it. If you do the calculation, the buy and sell spread for the physical gold at UOB As at 17/02/2011 09:34. $4396 (bank Sells) and $4211 (banks buy). You lose RM185 of 4.2%. For 4.2% interest, you can get free pawning at Ar-Rahnu for about 4 months. You also have to consider the hassle (time and petrol) of retrieving the gold from your safe, pawned it at Ar-Rahnu, the process of retrieving it back at Ar-Rahnu and put back the bullion into your safe. Think about it. Have this option available to you?

Lessons Learned

Don’t pawn your gold unless you really have to. In most cases, all your effort goes into servicing the interest. Those who pawned are those who are in trading business where they can make 1-5% profit in buying and selling goods every weeks or month. The more they pawned the better. For example, a gold agent got a ready buyer for 5 units of 100 gram PAMP Sussie gold bar. He will make about 1% profit out of the sales, so he pawned his gold to Ar-Rahnu, get the money buy 200 gram of PAMP Sussie then sell to the buyer, get the cash then make the 2^nd trip lah. Do you have this opportunity or network? Definitely not for most of you, so buy gold and store it somewhere safe and don’t think off it until you need it.

A venture to Ebay.

A Venture to Ebay. Week 2.1

Many people ask about ebay and the venture into it. How was the experience ?

Business Model

Ebay is mainly for slow moving goods.

You don’t sell bread, newspaper in ebay.

You mainly sell collectibles in ebay.

Buyer requirement

It is the last shopping option for anything. If you cannot find it in supermarket etc then this is the last place to find it. I believe most of the collectable items can be found in here.

Are you a collector? Do you have the money to buy it? Is the price reasonable after including all the postage cost?

If all these conditions are fulfilled, then it is the time for you to buy it from ebay.

Seller requirement

Do you have something unique to sell? Well, what is your intention? If your intention is just to have some fun and experience then you can always find something to sell. All you need to do is “JUAL MURAH2” “Sell cheap”. I ‘m sure you have some old stamps, coin, notes clock, phone card etc to sell.

The Process

Probably you may want to have a full cycle of buying or selling experience on Ebay listed below.

a)      Buy/Sell from/to someone in Malaysia. Cash on Delivery

b)      Buy/Sell from/to someone in Malaysia via postal delivery (registered mail or postlaju or EMS) and electronic bank transfer.

c)      Buy/Sell from/to someone oversea using registered mail or EMS and receive the payment via paypal or pay via credit card or paypal

d)      Use various selling options such as buy-it-on and auction.

e)      Receive money from paypal transfer back to your credit-card.

f)        Return item to the seller.

g)      Reimburse buyer the money

h)      Have some buyer complaint experience

i)        Hopefully not, have some seller complaint to you.

These are some of the experience you will get. Depending on your interest, time and commitment you may not be able to experience all the above items. Nevertheless after, you have gaining some experience you can call yourself an ebayer. Certified E-Commerce Citizen. Believe me some people teach/talk e-commerce, don’t even have an online banking facility and never brought anything for the network before. Come-on lah, you have little to lose to explore in the greatest shopping of the world. That is ebay. Worst come to worst, you maybe lost RM20/= for some coins etc. Note: I didn’t ask you to buy a gold coin ok.

The Experience

The overall experience will enable you to assess what option ebay offers to you.

a)      A venue for shopping for collectable items. Rare item.

b)      A venue for you to dispose off unwanted item to recover some cost.

c)      A venue for you to do some part time business

d)      An exploratory venue to determine the viability of your product before putting more resources into it

e)      A venue for a serious part time or full time business

f)        A meant for you to establish yourself and your reputation in the network as a unique seller i.e. “Prominent stamp collector /trader”. Nobody cares about buyer.

From auction, you can see how customers behave in respond to the pricing of the product. From your experience, you can decide how to auction away your items to achieve the maximum revenue.

Buying different kind of gold

Week 2. Buying different kind of gold

Where to buy gold when you make an oversea trip be it a business trip or a holiday. One of the best places to buy is in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong

Bank of China
http://www.bochk.com/web/market/trading_rates/precious_metal_trading_prices.xml?section=market&level_2=trading_rates&fldr_id=279

It is probably a good idea to grab some gold panda 1/10 oz since the spread is not that big and I think gold panda future pricing is good. Nevertheless, this is just my comment. Most of the time, gold panda coins are sold out first. Few years back in 2008, the bank limits the purchase of 1 oz gold per customer.
So far, I have never heard of anyone be able to source silver maple from Bank of China despite the price is always listed there. Always no stock. Tell me if I’m wrong. If you can show me something, then maybe I can at least “belanja” you a makan.

Hang Seng Bank
http://bank.hangseng.com/1/2/rates/gold-prices

A gold places to get some gold eagle at low price. Often it is out of stock.

Other Banks.

There are few others bank selling some gold nugget, but you can get from UOB so not worth-while for me to talk over here.

Macau

Bank of China
http://www.bocmacau.com/en/fimarkets/fm1/201001/t20100107_937839.html

Probably you can grab some platinum coins there.

Zhuhai

Bank of China

I heard from my customers that he was able to source 1 kg silver panda as well as some other metals from Zhuhai. It may be bank of China or some other source. He refused to disclose more info to me. So, you are left hunting elsewhere for more info.

Australia

Perth Mint. More to numismatic products.

New Zealand

http://www.nzmint.com/bullion

You may be able to get some gold kiwi from there.

If you have trusted friends or relative in these places or travelling there probably you can ask them a favor from them to buy and deliver on your behalf. Despite all the persuasion and extra cash given, none of my good trusted friends of mine take it up. In fact after asking, they seems to scare of you every time you bump up with them. I have long stop asking for such favors as I am sick and tired of it, so just buy from Kitco lah. That time when I want to buy Gold Buffalo was at USD800+, I waited and waited then when it became USD1100++ then only I buy. What to do?  There is a saying.

When got $, price is not right.

When no $, price is right.

When got $ and price is right, no stock.

The rest of the places such as Dubai, UAE etc I never been there and I have no information on it. If you got any do let me know.  Share2 lah.

Decisions.

If you got pretty of cash, maybe you can buy 1 oz each of different patterns with popular brand one.  If you want to collect let me give you a rough count
Gold eagle, gold philharmonics, mexico 50 pesos, maples, kijang, singlion, Krugerand, buffalo
Each year different pattern one.
Gold maple Olympic 2008, 2009, 2010.
Gold maple 5x99999
Gold Lunar Rat, Ox, Tiger, rabbit,
Gold Nuggets, Britannia, Panda
You count lah. Easily 20ozs x 4.5 gain each = thus about RM90K already.


If you short of cash one then you should stick to UOB gold.  If you want to be numismatic a bit, maybe every year Sept to Feb time frame go to UOB and get some nuggetslah. Collect silver is better and more affordable.
Selling is bad!

Cause most people only willing to pay at UOB price. Some kaya rich one may pay you extra RM200-RM300/oz. That the verdict for all the trouble you gone through. Just buy for yourself. Force saving make you susah/difficult to dispose. Help U to save $$$$$ for long2 time. Think about it kaya man.


You can also buy various gold bullion from Kitco, but the freight charge is enormous since the shipping is done from Canada. Online fedex tools will be able to give you the estimated shipping cost. I ordered from them few years back in 2008, it took them 3 months to deliver my goods. Things may have change now. You tried your lucklah.

Kitco themselves has two main vaults in USA and Canada. For international sales, the order will come from Montreal, Quebec Canada as Kitco may want to avoid the complex USA export requirement and procedures. If not mistaken the procedure is applicable for export over USD2500.00.  USA vault is meant for USA market only. That‘s why sometimes for certain goods, the description shipping to USA or shipping to non-USA only is stated because certain vault ran out of stock

Lesson learned.

Just buylah when you got the $$ don’t wait until rock bottom prices. When it low enough just buy and hold. There are lot of people waiting in an infinite loop and never take a day to make their commitment.

How does it Begin.

Week 1.How does it Begin.?

Let me tell you the history on how things begin with silvermalaysia. How come all the sudden you end up doing something totally different from your profession.  Well, back in mid 2006, when I was doing a training I get to know one of the colleagues who told me about investing in gold bullion. I started to google around and found both UOB and Maybank is selling gold bullion. Later I begin to ask more questions and he told me that if the price goes up more than RM60/oz then you make some profit. When I looked at the prices, it was RM2200 to RM2300 per oz in 2006.


As many investors do, I will some calculation that if I buy bullion I need additional cost on safe deposit box, travelling time etc. I might as well save all my saving in my loan account which charges me 7+% per annum. No worries, no additional cost and do nothing but save about 7+%/per year. This is a decision which I regretted 1-2 years later. I was later told by my friend in late 2006 that he calculated the return on gold is 12.5% per annum.

Not only that during that time I also learned about other related topics such as peak oil, Petro Dollar, fiat currency etc. I was extremely depressed to learn all that, nevertheless life goes on. I begin to talk to most of the people but they don’t listen. After some time I come up with a motto.

 If you believe it something then get it done. Don’t wait.!!! Take your Shot!

After procrastinating for about 1.5 to 2 years, I finally made the decision to buy some bullion at UOB by withdrawing some cash from my loan account. However during that time March 2008, the price is at the peak. I asked the clerk, I was told that only Maples are available, the rest was sold out. So I took the maples. I was a bit greedy during that time, I followed my friend move when he make a purchase I also make one. It was a dumb choice. Make your own decision next time. Over the next 6 months, I was making paper lost. I brought quite a bit at RM3200++, the next day it went up to RM34++/oz, I was greed lah! I think it can go higher. I was wrong. Then the prices went down all the way to RM3000++ to RM2700++ in August 2008 but I already ran out most of my cash for the bargain purchase. I ‘ve learnt my lesson.

Lesson 1. If you believe it something then get it done. Don’t wait.!!! Take your Shot

Lesson 2.  Do cost averaging, buy few oz each time and spread it to over a period of time. This helps in averaging out your losses.  Don’t do bulk purchase unless you are technically sound.

Lesson 3.  You can listen to others but do your own judgments and make your own decision.

Till then CU next time.

Note: Identities will not be disclosed due to privacy reason.