A friend of mine just told me Dockers @ Gardens is having sales, selling stuff for quite cheap. My family went to Jusco member sales yesterday. And ISETAN KLCC has been having sales once every 2 or 3 months, since about a year ago.

The funny thing is, there are still a lot of people buying things like there’s no tomorrow! Economy bad? Recession? Great depression coming? I don’t think so. Consumer power is still very strong in Malaysia. Everytime there’s a SALES, you will see a lot of people queueing up to pay at the cashiers. My sister told me that yesterday in Jusco, there were many people with whole trolley full of single item – dish washers, curtains, pillows, bags, etc (no milk powder).

Seriously, those people are either rich, or they forgot one thing which is very important – situation is becoming desperate all over the world. The world economy is collapsing. More and more people are becoming jobless and cash (or at least liquid assets) is king now. Buying a whole trolley of bed sheets? Unless that auntie is going to sell in eBay, I don’t see a good reason for that.

The trick that these companies used on us is that they are trying to pull down the price of their products in order to convince people that “it’s now or never”. And people will certainly fall into their traps, thus buying even though they might not have enough money to survive. In the end, the companies earn, the buyers suffer due to their own short-sightedness. I don’t blame the companies since they are doing the right thing (for themselves). I just feel people should start educating themselves more and think properly before buying, whether they really need those stuff or not.

Or at least, read (and remember) the news. Even our EPF money is not safe now. Better have a backup plan fellas.

This is a question that has been troubling many people for the past few months. And it might actually continue to next year or 2010. I will not give you a straight YES or NO answer because it might be too risky for me to do that. In the US, even companies like Lehman Brothers and AIG ended up in big trouble….so it’s near impossible to actually predict which company will retrench and which will close down.

What one can do, however, is to check thoroughly the company background and future plans. The recession in US is actually a double-edged sword. Some companies might close down or start downsizing, but there are also companies such as HP and ACS who decided to cut the jobs in the US, and offshore most of the jobs to Malaysia. This is good news for us.

What about the smaller companies? That’s even more difficult to predict. You need to see what is the CEO’s direction and his dreams. You also need to know the company’s financial condition and the characteristics of the CEO, whether he has the capability to excel. You’ll need a very motivated and smart CEO to go through this difficult time.

And for those companies which have been mentioned over and over again in the US…such as Citibank, AIG and GM, then it would be best for you to check out the company’s plan for the Malaysia office – whether to close it, or to shrink it, or to expand it.

In the end, I can only say this – follow your gut feelings. If you feel that it will be fine and it is something you really want, then go for it. Just make sure you have some money for rainy days. All the best!

The bailout by the US government has been approved. I expect the share to go up a little this week. Elsewhere, governments across the world have been spending a lot to help failing companies in order to avoid the economy from crashing down. But I don’t see this as a long-term solution.

Firstly, the governments only have THAT much money to save the failing companies. Unless their treasuries have bottomless $$$, I don’t see that this behavior can last long enough to be able to lift the worldwide economy.

Secondly, they’re only saving the failing big companies. It’s very unfair for other big companies which did not do THAT bad. And it’s even worse for those small companies. Who are helping them? And I can foresee that more people will lose their jobs because the “help” cannot reach that many companies.

Back to Malaysia. Our share market has not been doing well since the March 8, 2008 election. It’s partly due to our slumping worldwide economy, food shortages…and also due to our political issues. Our inflation rate is already record high (i think highest in 27 years? I forgot what I’ve read this). The government was pretty oblivious when they first announced that our inflation rate was under control. Well, at least now, they’re being honest to themselves. Furthermore, do bear in mind that our Bank Negara has not increase the interest rates.

That’s why things do look a little gloomy in 2008 and 2009….and maybe the situation will continue till 2010. So if you’re looking to buy shares now…wait for the next big drop which will possibly cause some panic selling. Go in, buy some good dividend-based blue chips….and wait for at least 12 months. If you’re not willing to wait that long, then hold on to your money. Put in FD for short term investment…maybe 3 – 6 months but not more than that. Why? Because I think sooner or later, our Bank Negara would have to increase the interest rates…….which will definitely increase the interest rate for Fixed Deposit. And at that time, you will want to have your money ready.

And if you’re already in the stock market for now….you can either sell or let go when the shares go up again after the US bailout….. or keep it for 1 year. Short term profit taking is simply too risky now. So please be cautious and don’t get burn like I did.

If you’re looking to change job, do it now. The job market in Malaysia is still OK since most of the multinationals are slashing jobs in their home countries…….and adding jobs here due to the cheaper labor fees. Smaller companies tend to be a bit risky.

And if you’re like me, who are planning to start own business soon, then make sure you have enough financial support to last till 2010 or later. And make sure you have ideas which will capitalise on the current situation. A lot of great companies were started in the last recession…in the 1997-1999 period. So, if you want to do it, do it now…else you’ll have to wait for another 10 years.

Just my opinion.

p/s…….. latest update. The bailout suggested by the US government was rejected. The US market dropped 777 points….7%. Worse things will follow soon.

p/s…….. banks in Europe are undergoing tough times as well.

As of today, the only hybrid car available to Malaysians is the Honda Civic Hybrid, which used to cost around RM 162k. After the announcement of Budget 2009, the import duty has been removed and the excise duty has been reduced for hybrid cars…..this is to help promote the usage of hybrid cars and also to help boost the hybrid car market in Malaysia.

After the Budget 2009, the RM 162k Honda Civic Hybrid will cost around RM 120k. That’s quite a huge reduction and I personally feel that this will definitely help increase the sales of the model (Honda only sold 16 units since its launch in August 2007).

And just recently, Proton has suggested that they, too, will come out with a hybrid car – Gen 2 Hybrid.

Seems like the hybrid car industry is starting to show some promises in Malaysia….and that can only be good news for all of us since fuel price is not that cheap here (for now).

But will the price reduction really increase the sales rate of hybrid cars? Will the “discount” tempt a customer like me to buy a hybrid car?

It will, but not now. Here’s why.

• It is still very expensive. Not many people can afford a RM 120k car. Furthermore, people who really want to save petrol would normally go for cheaper and smaller cars.
• Possible future price reduction? The 16 person who’ve bought the car earlier must be feeling the “sting” now. And who knows, maybe after I buy this RM 120k car…it might be reduced again?
• Thus, brings us to the next point – no second hand value.
• It’s quite a new technology……..and a very new technology to Malaysians. CBU is good since it’s fully imported but I do have one doubt…….our local service centers, can they handle the maintenance and the servicing? Some of the Honda service centers cannot even handle normal cars like Civic and City (there ARE few very good ones…but the same question, can they handle the new technology’s maintenace?).
• Honda normally gives free service for 1-3 years. What happens after that? Will the service fees be very very expensive? I don’t think I dare to pass the Honda Civic Hybrid to a local mechanic for servicing.
• What if there’s a problem with the car? Do I have to import the parts all the way from Japan? Are the parts very expensive? And can the Honda mechanics here repair/replace those parts?

Those are few of the major concerns that I could think of. For myself, the fuel price now is not THAT BAD yet…not to the extent that it’ll convince me to spend RM 120k to buy a hybrid car.

Last but not least, I believe that hybrid cars will be quite popular in the future…but just like other trend setting stunt….the process will take a while. It’s not easy to ask us, the customers, to replace something (the cars with current technology) we’ve known for decades with something that we hardly know (the new hybrid technology).

But that’s just my opinion. What about you? Or is RM 120k still very expensive for you (it’s a fully imported CBU)? I know it is still quite expensive to me.

p/s…….. I’ve put Honda as an example here because they are the only car company with a hybrid model. Same will apply to Proton (if they managed to come out with GEN 2 Hybrid) and Toyota (I thought I’ve heard from somewhere that they are planning to come out with a hybrid model as well?).

p/s…….. some of the information above was retrieved from here – “Slow start seen for hybrid cars“

Wawasan 2020, also known as Vision 2020, is a Malaysian dream………..a dream of Malaysia being a developed nation with an economy which is 8 times stronger than that of the 1990s. It was first proposed by our former prime minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad in 1991, during the tabling of the 6th Malaysia Plan.

We’re already in the year 2008, 17 years after the Vision 2020 proposal….which also means we’ve passed the halfway mark to achieve Vision 2020. The halfway mark should be the middle of year 2005.

So, how far have we progressed? We’ve constructed the building which used to be the world’s tallest building – Petronas Twin Towers, in 1998. We’ve also constructed KL Sentral in 2001, started Multimedia Super Corridor in 1996, built Light Rail Transit system (LRT) in 1999, and Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in 1998. Those were the significant ones.

But since 2000, things have been a little bit quiet….(except for the Monorail which is a little bit unstable at times).

Is it because our leaders have forgotten about this Vision 2020 thing? Or because they’re too occupied with other issues? Or maybe it’s because they think 2020 is too optimistic for them….2040 might be a better year?

Anyway, from what I can see, our country is very very far away from being a developed country. Singapore is a developed country and look at how much difference between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. We’re much more disorganized than they are. That is why in my opinion, Malaysia is still considered as a “developing” country….and has a lot more to go before we can achieve Vision 2020. We used to be “more developed” than Thailand…but now, they’re better than us. As of now, we’re actually competing with the likes of Vietnam…which, 10 years ago…was still considered as a 3rd world country.

So what happens to our Vision 2020? Why are we progressing so slow? Shouldn’t someone be doing something to keep this momentum going before we start to lose our “vision”?

Take a look at our current condition…..and see if people can start realizing that we’re actually quite far away from achieving our Vision 2020…maybe too far away. And before we knew it…it might already be 2020 and Malaysia still has nothing to show to the world. That would be a very very big disappointment.

For now, let us all hope that our government will remember the Malaysian dream for an ideal nation, for a developed nation….the Malaysian dream called as Wawasan 2020.