Money

Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money. ~Cree Indian Proverb

Monday 28 January 2013

Onion absorbs Flu Virus?

    
    As I said, health is the most important things of your wealth. Guard it well especially Chinese New Year is around the corner when the spike in Flu is likely catalysed during the gathering .  Lately, my friend ask me to try this at home since I was sneezing all these days.  You never know home is a breeding ground for bacteria and virus!

Put a bowl of  Onion slices at Living room, Bedroom and places you spend time in.  You can fork the slice and put them in vase as décor like in the pictures.

Occasionally, I can smell the natural onion fragrance around the rooms... hey... not bad! Try it. At the time of writing, red onion sold at RM 3.00 per kg.  After all, the best defence against the flu is having a strong immune system.






Saturday 26 January 2013

Tapir Cipan 馬來貘 四不像 Baku 食夢獸 Drowzee

    
    The Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus), also called the Asian tapir, is the largest of the four species of tapir and the only one native to Asia.  Out of all tapirs, Malayan Tapirs are the closest to extinction.  It is because the forests are disappearing. Living in small numbers in small forests, it's hard to find food. They're also have trouble in finding mates. Their numbers are becoming smaller.
    
    In China, recorded in Ming-history document 明代馬歡的《瀛涯勝覽·舊港國篇》classified Malayan tapir as Heavenly Creature due to its appearance partly similar to deer and partly resemble pig; however, it is vegetarian.
    In Japan, Tapir turns into the Dream Eater creatures originally base on BAKU a supernatural being that devour dreams and nightmares. Even Nintendo created the Drowzee, a bipedal and Hypnosis Pokémon in its video game.
    
    In Malaysia Cipan is the most honourable species after all(at least for me).  Why?  
Quoted lunaticg.blogspot
"The Malaysia RM500 Cipan (Malayan Tapir) Conservation Proof 1976 gold coin (KN6) graded PCGS PR69 DCAM with a realized price of SD6400 at Monetarium Auction in Singapore on 26-10-2012. The coin he won is the most expensive Malaysia commemorative coin won in auction. The total price for the coin including 15% auction premium will be approximately RM18,403. The highest price paid so far in auction for any Malaysia commemorative coin or Malaysia gold coin. Some people were saying that the price is still lower then Malaysia market price since it is very hard nowadays to find RM500 Tapir gold coin and the PGCS PR69 grade for that coin.
...In 1975-1976 the Royal Mint UK together with the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) and IUCNNR (World Wildlife Fund, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) issued a 12 pieces collection of silver proof coins, two each from six different countries (Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Sudan, Venezuela & Zaire). In 1974-1976, 24 countries mint 1 gold and 2 silver coins (In total 24 gold coins & 48 silver coins) for Wildlife conservation series with each coin featuring an endangered species from that country. The countries that were invited to issued conservation coins: Afghanistan, Botswana, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Fiji, Falkland Islands, Gambia, Indonesia, Jordan, Malawi, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mongolia, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Seychelles, Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand, Venezuela, Zaire and Zambia." Unquoted.


Technical Specifications:
Face value: RM500
Alloy: Gold .900 proof
Diameter: 34mm
Weight: 33.437g
Thickness: 2.6mm
Mintage: 508 pieces

Thursday 17 January 2013

Sunday 13 January 2013

$1 trillion Platinum Coin, No Substitute for Congress BUT....

At White House daily briefing (Jan 09), NBC News' Chuck Todd pressed Press Secretary Jay Carney to rule out that option, and while Carney said there is "no substitute" for congressional action on the debt limit, he arguably did not rule it out!

Previous thread:
(Could $1 trillion Platinum coin solve US debt crisis?)

Wealth of Wealth


Global Risks 2013 - Eighth Edition by WEF



The Global Risks Report 2013 analyses 50 global risks in terms of impact, likelihood and interconnections, based on a survey of over 1000 experts from industry, government and academia.

This year’s findings show that the world is more at risk as persistent economic weakness saps our ability to tackle environmental challenges. The report highlights the below as the most likely global risk overall.
  1. Wealth gaps (severe income disparity) 
  2. Unsustainable government debt (chronic fiscal imbalances) 
  3. Extreme weather, from Hurricane Sandy to flooding in China, respondents rated rising greenhouse gas emissions 

The findings of the survey fed into an analysis of three major risk cases: Testing Economic and Environmental Resilience, Digital Wildfires in a Hyperconnected World and The Dangers of Hubris on Human Health. In a special report on national resilience, the groundwork is laid for a new country resilience rating, which would allow leaders to benchmark their progress. The report also highlights “X Factors” – emerging concerns which warrant more research, including the rogue deployment of geoengineering and brain-altering technologies.

Download the full report here.


Tuesday 8 January 2013

DanaInfra Retail Sukuk (ETBS)

     Malaysia’s first exchange-traded bonds and Sukuk (ETBS) launched today is expected to offer an annual return of about 3.7 per cent. The offer will be from Jan 8 until Jan 18

(to be continue...)

    And the catch is...the profit rate will be determined at the close of the book building of the institutional offering Jan 18!! What interest me again is the tax incentive! see below.



Sunday 6 January 2013

Augmented Reality (AR)

  I visited an antique shop somewhere in PJ yesterday. I came across an British sovereign gold coin and it really excited me. I asked the owner if it was genuine gold and she replied that it was real 22K gold which used to be given by parent in olden days to child who studied abroad. This is because the sovereign gold coin was widely traded semi-numismatic gold coins in the world. They are also the official coinage of English Royalty and since been first minted to honour Henry VII in 1489 they have been issued for all English Kings and Queens since.  
  
     Production of Sovereigns stopped in 1991 due to the rise in the price of gold. The gold in sovereigns was worth more than the face value of the coins. Also, interesting to know that 1933 was the first year in over a hundred that no sovereigns were produced throughout the whole empire.

     There are many recorded fake or counterfeit gold sovereigns in circulation. Worst in scenario is to come across fake sovereign coins where the gold is replaced or alloyed with a substitute metal to look like gold. Such fakes can be relatively easily detected by measurement and weighing using jewellers scales.

   Unfortunately, owner didn't have any scales to verify the weight(i.e. 7.9881g).  Well, given a benefit of doubt on cashing out RM1450 is worth the money, I decided to take pictures using my smartphone and try to see if there is other way to identify a real gold from a fool gold.

No such luck....

But what if I have an AR equipped Smartphone with me! Remember Terminator?! 

2013 is a year to expect for Augmented Reality in the market. Then I would have this when I point my smartphone on it....HOW NICE.




52-Week Saving Challenge

 Week 1

Saturday 5 January 2013

Could $1 trillion Platinum coin solve US debt crisis?

US Fiscal Cliff      
After the tax hikes passed, the next spending cut is postponed for another 2 months, by which time US Congress must cast a vote on country's debt ceiling. A side track of US fiscal cliff, somebody proposed to have a Platinum Commemorative Coin to solve the debt crisis!

Anyway, the influential New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has already dubbed the idea a "gimmick." 

However, it prompts me to look into Platinum investment!!! cos it is quite undervalue now. Look at the the chart below...



CombiBars for jittery investors (dubbed Chocolate bar)









Product Concept / The Story Behind It

  The idea of detachable bullion CombiBars™ came in the summer of 2010. Due to global banking and european currency crises, more and more investors started to demand a higher number of small bars rather than few larger ones to increase their flexibility in the event of an economic crisis or to simplify future trading.
  Once they were patented, ESG, the German company Heimerle + Meule and the Swiss Mint Valcambi joined to produce and market the divisible bars worldwide.

  It was reported on Dec 21 (Reuters) - "Private investors in Switzerland, Austria and Germany are lining up to buy gold bars the size of a credit card that can easily be broken into one gram pieces and used as payment in an emergency."

"The rich are buying standard bars or have deposits of phsyical gold. People that have less money are buying up to 100 grams," said Michael Mesaric, CEO of Valcambi 
full article: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/21/swiss-gold-idUSL5E8NL4N820121221 

This money of last resort is for scary world.  The popularity among buyers can serve as indicators too (i.e. Abundance, Fear, Bank Run or Hyperinflation etc). Now Switzerland, Austria and Germany are reported to be the Nation welcoming the introduction. If this phenomenon is spreading to Asia, we can expect the hyperinflation is around the corner.

Wednesday 2 January 2013

1976 Conservation Proof Silver Coin (Seladang & Enggang)

These coins are legal tender in Malaysia.


PROOF Silver Set Year: 1976 
Material: 925 Silver
Size:RM25 (42mm Dia.), RM15 (38.61mm Dia.)

Edge: Milled
Weight:RM25 (35g),  RM15 (28.28g)

Mintage: 7,500 sets

For Sale
Price:  550 USD
Contact: virtualwork20@gmail.com

for more info, pls go to http://www.malaysiancoin.com/2012/12/syiling-pemuliharaan-hidupan-liar-1976.html

Tuesday 1 January 2013

Survivor Investing Part II

The method of Survivor Investing

   Once upon a time in a village a man appeared who announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10. The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys went out in the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish and villagers started to stop their effort, he announced that now he would buy at $20.This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching moneys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The price was increased to $25 and the supply of monkeys became so scarce that it was difficult to spot a monkey let alone catch one. 

   The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business his assistant would now buy on behalf of the man.  In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers, "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man comes back you can sell it to him for $50."

   The villagers squeezed up with all their savings and bought all the monkeys.Then they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere!

Housing Bubble

Houbble in USA (2007)