Unit Trust Dividend for March 2013

Public Mutual dividend for March 2013.

Fund Name	Code	Distribution		Growth %
		Cent	%
Public Regular Saving Fund	PRSF	5.00	7.83	6.74
Public Aggressive Growth Fund	PAGF	2.50	3.71	2.53

Public Mutual Dividend for 31 Jan 2013

Public Mutual dividend for Jan 2013.

Fund Name	Code	Distribution		Growth %
		Cent	%
Public Index Fund	PIX	5.00	7.50	5.44
Public Islamic Optimal Growth Fund	PIOGF	1.25	4.40	6.54
Public Enhanced Bond Fund	PEBF	5.00	4.90	5.28
Public Money Market Fund	PMMF	2.50	2.50	2.93

Public Mutual Dividend For 31 Dec 2012

Here are the dividend statement for Public Mutual funds for year ending 2012.

Fund Name	Code	Distribution		Growth %
		Cent	%
Public Savings Fund	PSF	2.00	6.24	11.49
Public Focus Select Fund	PFSF	1.50	5.40	17.52
Public Islamic Savings Fund	PISVF	1.00	3.70	12.08
Public Islamic Enhanced Bond Fund	PIEBF	5.00	4.58	5.22
Public Strategic Bond Fund	PSTBF	3.50	3.40	3.87
Public Islamic Strategic Bond Fund	PISTBF	3.50	3.40	3.66

PRS - Private Retirement Scheme (Updated)

This is a follow up to my earlier post related to Private Retirement Scheme (PRS). More detail are available now since some PRS Providers launched their PRS Funds recently. And so I have updated the retirement investment comparison table accordingly.

Please note that the whole discussion here is about investment option for retirement. There are many financial goal, like planning for education, planning for vacation or wealth preservation...etc. But the goal here is to compare the newly launch PRS Scheme with other retirement planning option already available in the market.

The options I have chosen for comparison are:-

• Unit Trust Investment - direct investment with private unit trust fund managers.
• PRS Scheme - the new scheme.
• EPF Unit Trust Investment Scheme - Investing in unit trust using funds from your EPF account 1.
• EPF  - the mandatory retirement saving directly deducted from your monthly salary.
• EPF Voluntary Contribution - The scheme by EPF to allow non wage earner to save for retirement.
• Annuity - insurance plan, I have not included it in the table but I will mention it briefly.

Please note that the new PRS Scheme and the EPF Unit Trust Investment Scheme are basically unit trust investment at it's core.

So here we go:-

	Direct Investment in Unit Trust	PRS Scheme (New!)	EPF Unit Trust Investment Scheme	EPF - Salary Deduction	EPF Voluntary Contribution
Participation	Voluntary	Voluntary	Voluntary	Mandatory	Voluntary
Capital	Cash	Cash	Withdrawal From EPF Account 1	Mandatory Salary Deduction	Cash, 60K annual limit from yr 2013
Returns	Potential high return or loss	Potential high return or loss	Potential high return or loss	Min 2.5% p/a
Guarantee Returns	No	No	No	Min 2.5% p/a
Time Horizon	Mid to long term	locked for up to age 55	Mid to long term	locked for up to age 55
Withdrawal Age	Anytime	Age 55	Anytime, but revert to EPF Account 1 while below age 55	Age 55
Early Withdrawal	Any time	Account B (30%) only once a year.	Any time, but will revert to EPF Account 1 while below age 55	Account 2 (30%)  only once a year.
Early Withdrawal PENALTIES!	Non	8% Penalty	Non	Non
Fund Choices	Variety of choices	Very limited choices	Limited Choices	Not Applicable
Performance Track Record	Available	Not available (new sets of funds)	Available	Available
Additional Government Incentives	Non	RM3000 Tax Relief	Non	RM6000 Tax Relief
Service Charge*	5.50%	3.00%	3.00%	Non
Annual Management Fee	1.50%	1.50%	1.50%	Non
Annual Trustee Fee	0.06%	0.06%	0.06%	Non
Annual PPA Admin Fee	Non	0.04%	Non	Non
Annual PPA Fee	Non	RM8	Non	Non
PPA Acount Open Fee	Non	RM10 one time	Non	Non
Switching Fee	RM25	RM25	RM25	Not Applicable
Switching Frequency	Unlimited	1 switch/yr **	Unlimited	Not Applicable

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*   Public Mutual's rate, other providers' charges may differ.
** Switching not allow within first year of investing.

Is PRS a better scheme?
While, I think if the PRS in its current form is better than other options, than the government won't have to give additional incentive to lure investors. The bait is the RM3000 tax relief.

How much is my real saving from the tax relief?
It depend on your own personal tax rate. See example:-

Your Taxable Income	Tax Rate	Maximum Saving on RM3000
2,500 - 5,000	1%	30
5,001 - 20,000	3%	90
20,001 - 35,000	7%	210
35,001 - 50,000	12%	360
50,001 - 70,000	19%	570
70,001 - 100,000	24%	720
100,001 and above	26%	780

Is the tax saving a lot?
It depend, RM30 maybe a lot for some and RM780 may be too little to others. Important thing is, don't get distracted from your main purpose of investing in this scheme. Remember retirement? Which is more important? What you want?, a one time incentive or a scheme that will more likely meet your retirement goal?... Both!!? I wish for that too :-))

Why 8% penalty for emergency withdrawal?
It is to deter you from withdrawing early. Otherwise you will frequently have all kind of emergency withdrawal resulting in less fund for your retirement. See, how much these private companies care for your financial well being ;-)  Did you cry "... but it is my money in the first place"? Shut up!, who ask you to invest?

What is EPF Voluntary Contribution?
It's a scheme design to allow non wage earner to save money in Employment Provident Fund (EPF) for their retirement. Not terribly popular either. But if you are investing for retirement and you are fan of schemes where you lose the right to access your own money, than the EPF Voluntary Contribution scheme in my opinion is a better option compare to PRS. Coincidentally, after PRS launch, the EPF Voluntary Contribution amount is limited to RM60,000 a year from year 2013. I mean why limit this one now? Guess somebody wants you to invest more in PRS instead.. ;-)

Why scheme like this are not popular?
I guess people are getting financially wiser. Choices for investment are plenty now. And people like their right and freedom to manage their own money the way they feel is best for them. So, any scheme that says Government know best, take your money and lock you out, is naturally less appealing. Worst example of this is PRS where you are also penalized for wanting use some of your own money for emergency.

So why do some people invest in such scheme?
They must be...... :-x

Okay, in what situation will this scheme worth considering?
Say I'm filthy rich..., okay maybe just rich (minus the filth), and I have park all my cash in many investments and still have some. I will take only RM3000 from the left over and put it in PRS. Also because I am very sure that I will not face any emergency serious enough, forcing me to take 30% from the PRS fund and pay 8% penalty for using my own money. Not rich?, stay away from this plan, for life is not perfect, emergencies do happen. And in those difficult times, I don't feel like letting some profit oriented company rubbing salt to the wound.

What is Annuity?
Annuity Plan is basically an insurance plan for retirement planning. You pay premium for a fixed period say 10 or 15 years before you retire, and than the plan pays you a fix return for the next 10 to 20 years or lifetime depending on the plan's structure. Interestingly, Annuity Plan also enjoy a Tax relief of RM3000. Best part is, unlike PRS Scheme, Annuity Plan gives guaranteed fixed return. So, while Annuity and PRS both entitle you a RM3000 Tax relief, Annuity gives guarantee and PRS gives no guarantee only more fees. Competition already started between Annuity and PRS as reported in the media "PRS funds vs annuity plans."

Any disadvantage of Annuity?

• First, remember, at the core, this is an insurance plan. Meaning, you are buying a plan and paying a premium for 10 to 15 years. If you miss payment/premium during this period, your policy will likely lapse, resulting in loss of premium paid so far and end of your retirement plan.
• Second, understand the correlation between Risk and Return. Higher risk higher return, lower risk lower return. Annuity with guaranteed feature is naturally a low risk low return plan. The risk to you is the return the plan pays you after 15 years may not be enough to sustain the rising cost of living at that time.
• Really guaranteed? Please read the fine print of such products and make sure you understand what they meant by guarantee. Hope the following article caution you on this- Guarantees Aren’t Always Guaranteed

Remember, this article is only about retirement planning/products and specific in comparison to the newly launched PRS scheme. Hope the comparison table is useful for your own decision making. And some of my opinions are just my opinions. And if you find any mistake or anything missing, please notify me, would appreciate it very much.

Thank you :-)

Public Mutual declares RM106 million of income distributions for November 2012

Fund Name	Code	Distribution		Growth %
		Cent	%
Public Select Alpha-30 Fund	PSA30F	2.00	6.24	8.81
Public Far-East Dividend Fund	PFEDF	0.50	2.39	-5.94
Public Islamic Sector Select Fund	PISSF	2.00	7.06	10.15
Public Islamic Alpha-40 Growth Fund	PIA40GF	1.50	5.42	13.51
Public Ittikal Sequel Fund	PITSEQ	1.25	4.52	10.40
Public Islamic Asia Leaders Equity Fund	PIALEF	0.75	3.10	3.79
Public Islamic Mixed Asset Fund	PIMXAF	1.50	5.19	6.33
Public Islamic Infrastructure Bond Fund	PIINFBF	4.0	3.80	3.80

Is Fixed Deposit effective in preserving your wealth?

Fixed Deposit should be wisely used for short term purpose. For example a place to park your money for immediate future use, like purchasing a house, car, education expenses or as emergency fund.

To use Fixed Deposit as a long term saving tool is not advisable because inflation in the long term will erode the purchasing power of your money. The effect of inflation is demonstrated in this table.

Year	Nominal FD Rate (A)	Inflation Rate (B)	Real FD Rate (A -B)
2002	4.0	1.8	2.2
2003	3.7	1.1	2.6
2004	3.7	1.4	2.3
2005	3.7	3.0	0.7
2006	3.7	3.6	0.1
2007	3.7	2.0	1.7
2008	3.7	5.4	-1.7
2009	2.5	0.6	1.9
2010	3.0	1.7	1.3
2011	3.2	3.2	0.0
2012	3.1	2.0	1.1
10-year Average (2002-2011)	3.5	2.4	1.1
5-year Average (2007-2011)	3.2	2.6	0.6

For an asset to be useful as a tool to preserve value, it must maintain its value over long term. Financial assets such as stock, bond or unit trust and physical assets like real estate, preserve value over the long term. FD on the other hand is good in maintaining the nominal value of our saving but the real value of savings will depend on the inflation rate.

Since Malaysian generally save more and the economy benefit from this high saving level, and if global interest rate remain low, FD rate in Malaysia is expected to remain low at about current level.

So if your intend is to preserve the real value of your wealth over long term, FD is not the right saving instrument due to low rate of return relative to the inflation rate. A Bond Fund could be a better option for this purpose as it generally offer higher return relative to FD.

Thank you  :-)

Malaysian Private Unit Trust Company Statistic

Here is a little statistic for private unit trust management companies in Malaysia. Not surprisingly Public Mutual retain it's number one position in both overall and individual fund category as of July 2012.

Best Islamic Fund Manager in Malaysia

Public Mutual was again awarded as the best Islamic fund manager in Malaysia.

Dividend for Public Enterprises Bond Fund (PENTBF)

Public Mutual Berhad declare dividend for one fund for financial year ending 30-Sept-12.

Fund Name	Code	Distribution		Growth %
		Cent	%
PUBLIC ENTERPRISES BOND FUND	PENTBF	0.25	2.48	1.95

Private Retirement Scheme (PRS)

By now most of us already heard about the new Private Retirement Scheme announced by PM which should available beginning from Sept or October 2012. There are still some details being iron out, and that may cause a delay in implementation.

With so many schemes in the country now, it can be confusing. Here I have summarized a comparison between PRS and three other collective investment schemes for retirement, common to us. They are EPF, EPF Investment Scheme and direct investment into Unit Trust Funds.

The aim of this comparison to help us see differences in PRS. And for that purpose, these selections seem suitable.

	Direct Investment in Unit Trust	PRS Scheme (New!)	EPF Investment Scheme	EPF
Participation	Voluntary	Voluntary	Voluntary	Mandatory
Capital	Cash	Cash	EPF Withdrawal From Account 1	Mandatory Salary Deduction
Return	Potential high return and loss	Potential high return and loss	Potential high return and loss	Return below personal inflation rate
Time Horizon	Mid to long term	Long term	Mid to long term	Long term
Withdrawal	Any time	Account A (70%) at age 55 Account B (30%) at any time	Any time, but revert to EPF Account 1 while below age 55	Account 1 (70%) at age 55 Account 2 (30%) at any time but for limited use.
Penalties	Non	8% penalty for withdrawal before age 55 from Account B	Non	Non
Fund Choices	Variety of choices	Very limited choices	Limited Choices	Not Applicable
Historic Performance Report	Available	Not available (new sets of funds)	Available	Available
Service Charge	Yes	Not Finalized	Yes	No
Annual Management Fee	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Additional Government Incentives	No	RM3000 Tax Relief for up to 10 years	No	RM6000 Tax Relief

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I believe the above are the immediate comparisons an investor may look for. I will try to post other related detail in the future. News about PRS is widely available in the mainstream media, but for alternative viewpoint, here is a site you could visit and read the comments left by their visitors - click here.

Here some more information if you are interested ...

Main parties involve in the PRS scheme:-

• Security Commission (SC) - Provide regulation for the scheme.
• Private Pension Administer (PPA) - Maintaining transaction record for all PRS funds and consolidate reports for investors from all PRS Providers.
• PRS Provider - Unit Trust Funds management companies approved to provide unit trust funds for the PRS scheme and with whom the investors will deal with.

Currently there are 8 approved PRS Providers, they are:-

• From bank base
• AmInvestment Management Sdn Bhd
• CIMB-Principal Asset Management Bhd
• Public Mutual Bhd
• RHB Investment Management Sdn Bhd
• From insurance base
• American International Assurance Bhd
• ING Funds Bhd
• Manulife Unit Trust Bhd
• From investment base
• Hwang Investment Management Bhd

Thank you :-)

Public Mutual Dividend For FY 31-Aug-2012

Here are the dividends for Public Mutual funds for financial year ending 31-August-2012.

Fund Name	Code	Distribution		Growth %
		Cent	%
Public SmallCap Fund	P SmallCap	6.00	7.79	12.84
Public Indonesia Select Fund	PINDOSF	1.50	5.32	12.72
Public Sukuk Fund	PSKF	2.25	2.14	4.75

Recuerdos de la Alhambra - Francisco Tarrega

Francisco Tarrega

This is one beautiful piece of music played on classical guitar. Composed by Spanish guitarist and composer Francisco Taregga in 1896.

Recuerdos de la Alhambra simply means Memories of Alhambra. Built in the 10th century in Spain, Alhambra Palace is a beautiful architecture, and an inspiration for many songs. It was declared an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This piece is a real challenge to play. It require a guitar playing technique call tremelo. It involve all three fingers plucking a single notes rapidly while the thump play the melody. I tried and still can not get it right. Still need lots of practise.

Alhambra Palace

But I found out that there is also a version without the tremelo and luckily found the TAB for it too. It was much easy for me to practise this version.

You can download a pdf copy of the TAB at www.ritaclara.com. While songsterr.com have feature that let you played the TAB, and listen to how it should sound. But you can't download a copy unless signing up for their membership.

Ricuerdos de la Alhambra without tremolo can be downloaded from Ultimate-Guitar.com. It is a gp file, so you will also need the GuitarPro software or TuxGuitar software to view the TAB and play it.

I found the YouTube video of Johannes Moller's live performance in Sweden, present this classical piece very nicely.

Hope you enjoy them too :-)

Hovering Bike - modern magic carpet

Hover Bike by Aerofex - Video

There are many names for these machine, among them Flying Platform, Flying Skateboard, Hoverboard, Hover Bike and Modern Magic Carpet ?-))

There are all work base on the same principle. A powerful downward force produce by air thrusting from two rotating blades or jet engine to lift the vehicle. The tricky part is how to keep the vehicle balanced once it is airborne. And how to stir it in the direction you want to go.

Interestingly, the driver (or pilot) can control it by simply tilting his body in the direction he wants to go. While since it uses our body's own balance for control, I guess strictly no drink and drive on this one. Can you imagine the balancing effect ;-)))

The hover bike (lets just call it hover bike for now, since most of these vehicles being demonstrated carry only one person) is not something new. Seems like the US army has been experimenting with it for long but don't find them suitable for combat use yet.

But how about adopting it for civilian use? I guess, the vehicle got to fulfilled at least these three requirements prior to public use. First, it should be within the price range of the masses, second, the controls have be simpler for layman use, third, it must be able to carry some loads. While, just like conventional vehicles, I guess the hover vehicle can be made in various capacities too. Maybe measure by the weight it can lift?

X-Jet Demo Video

The model created by Williams International called X-Jet is very impressive in terms of control as demonstrated in this video. But this one uses a mini jet engine that can speed up to 100km/h.

All other models are using propellers, which is more suitable for civilians use. But only X-Jet's control look smooth so far.

Hopefully it will be made to run on batteries. Since moving forward, almost all civilian vehicles will be running on electricity. Better focus R&D resources on electric motor and battery not fossil fuel engines.

Practical Usefulness
A hover transport vehicle will be especially useful and practical in places where it is difficult to built road or too remote a place to built one to. And it is good for the environment too, since there is no need to fall trees or lay concrete to built road and bridges. And it can travel on all surface, rocky, wet, muddy, flood, river or sand. Lets hope this technology will become reality very soon.

I am imagining travelling into some deep forest settlements in Sarawak. I suppose I can reach a place faster than four wheel cars.

Hopefully engineers will also figure out how to reduce dust, especially for urban use :-)

Here are some videos of earlier attempts at land hovering vehicles:-

• First Flying Platform - 1955 Hover Board
• A prototype by Polish
• Hummingbird Flying Platform

Unit Trust Statistic in Malaysia

Here is the statistic for private unit trust companies in  Malaysia as of 31-May-2012. Once again and still Public Mutual Berhad way ahead in the industry in term of managed fund size and market share.

Boab Lullaby - Australia

Australia, a beautiful movie with multi layered stories which include World War II, Bombing of Darwin, monopoly of cattle business, the "Stolen Generation" half-Aboriginal children, a love story...etc. The breathtaking sceneries and sound tracks. You can get more details about the movie at Wikipedia Australia (2008 film).

This post is about a soundtrack from the movie called Boab Lullaby (or First Kiss), what a beautiful piece of music. And there is the ukulele tune played at the beginning and end of the sound track. It was played few times in the movie during quiet moments of the story.

Many suggest that Boab Lullaby is actually only the ukulele part of the sound track. The whole sound track itself is called "First Kiss". But I don't see "First Kiss" listed among the sound tracks from the movie. It is all confusing.

"First Kiss" sound track from Australia (2008 Film)

And Boab Lullaby itself is said to be originated from the song Such Great Height by Iron and Wine. I tried strumming it on ukulele and it does sound similar.

Here is a link to a version of the Such Great Height played plucked on guitar. Here is the chord for ukulele version. Try it yourself.

Anyway, I enjoyed both the movie and sound tracks. Hope you enjoy them too... :-)

Public Growth Fund - PGF - 2012

The Public Growth Fund launched in about 28 years ago in 1984 is considered a very stable fund with long history of good performance. This financial year however, the performance is not in par with funds in similar category.

This is suspected partly due to the fund's exposure of about 20% into China market. The fund"s objective is to achieve long term capital appreciation with income considered incidental. As such a single financial years performance can not be the measure to it's long term objective.

Here is the fund review for Public Growth Fund for second quarter of year 2012.

Public Growth Fund (PGF)

Mars exploration, another giant leap for mankind

First image by Curiosity from Mars 

Mars exploration and understanding Curiosity's "Seven Minutes of Terror".

The Curiosity rover landed succesfully on Planet Mars at 10:32 p.m. PDT Sunday August 5 (1:32 a.m. EDT; 0532 GMT Monday August 6). And beam back first picture of the surface of Mars with the rover's shadow.

The NASA's mission to send a robotic rover named Curiosity to planet Mars was a success with the help from thousands of scientist from around the world. Another big step forward in space exploration for mankind.

Imagine the science and technology know how needed to send and land a rover on a planet which is about 225 million km away from Earth and with harsh climate. How about controlling the craft from Earth? A radio signal send from Earth takes about 14 minutes to travel the distance to Mars.

The most challenging part of the mission was the landing. Descending to Mars's surface from speed of 13,000mph to 0mph within 7 minutes from the moment the space craft  first touch Mars atmosphere. The craft have to land itself as programmed to do. The crew is unable make adjustment for any unforeseen circumstances. Since it takes 14 minutes for signal to reach Earth, by the time the crew get the news that the craft touched Mars atmosphere, it may already have landed or crashed. Nasa called this "7 Minutes of Terror". Watch this video to appreciate it.

Dividend for Financial Year 31-July-2012

Public Mutual Berhad declared dividend for financial year ending 31 July 2012 for 9 unit trust funds.

Fund Name	Code	Distribution		Growth %
		Cent	%
Public Growth Fund	PGF	3.00	6.22	-9.83
Public Australia Equity Fund	PAUEF	0.50	1.93	-3.11
Public Optimal Growth Fund	POGF	1.25	1.08	9.09
Public Far-East Property & Resorts Fund	PFEPRF	0.50	2.21	9.28
Public Islamic Opportunities Fund	PIOF	2.25	6.56	7.27
Public Islamic Select Enterprises Fund	PISEF	2.00	4.93	10.93
Public Bond Fund	P BOND	5.25	5.02	6.54
Public Islamic Select Bond Fund	PISBF	5.00	4.69	5.26
Public Islamic Income Fund	PI INCOME	3.50	3.24	5.02

Somewhere Over The Rainbow on Ukulele

I think the best version of this beautiful song played on Ukulele is by Israel IZ Kamakawiwo, a Hawaiian.

Ukulele is a small guitar shape instrument but with only 4 strings. It produce a happy and warm sound when strummed. Good for playing and sing along.  Popularly associated with Hawaiian culture and songs.

You can of course play any songs with the ukulele (or uke). The small size also make it convenient to bring along and played during outdoor activities like camping.

The best and simple chords for this song I found so far was at ukulelehunt.com. This site got plenty of ukulele songs with chords and tabs, so do browse around. Here is the direct link to the pdf file for somewhere over the rainbow.

For the strumming pattern, watch the video to get an idea. Ultimately, use any strumming pattern that you enjoy and feel comfortable.

Happy strumming!... :-)

Politicians Are Like Diaper

They should be changed often for the same reason... :-))