Prosperity and Chinese New Year 2011

The economic wound caused by US sub-prime crisis might have started to recover but in Malaysia consumers are still not feeling safe to spend more for this upcoming Chinese New Year 2011. For some reasons Chinese's spending behaviors for this festive season are somewhat reflective to the country economic condition.

FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI  has gone down for more than 30 points in 2 weeks (prior Chinese New Year) and  the pointer is expected to go down further unless cash-rich investors decide to buy in some bluechips at low price. I read a newspaper article saying stocks listed i  Bursa Malaysia offer lower rate of return than debts, theoretically debt is less risky than stock and risky investment should promise higher return. However, I'm not able to verify the statement so we shall see. 

In a nut shell, Chinese have not been spending the way they used to. Textile and apparel industry has been complaining about the raising cost of production and low demand, result in lower profits or even loses. 

Afraid of intelligence property infringement, businesses also reluctant to play CNY music and further reduces the so-called 'CNY atmosphere'. 

Nevertheless, I wish all readers and haters of this blog Happy Chinese New Year and a fruitful year ahead.

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RM3000 is benchmark for high-income

A minister named Mustapa Mohamed said RM3000 will be used as benchmark for high-income jobs. He also said its a reasonable income for working class in Klang Valley and its probably considered as lucrative for someone from places like east coast and east Malaysia.

I immediately recalled what my mum told me (complained to me actually). She said:"You must study harder you know? Study hard so you can get good pay in future. Everything is about money now. Do you want your wife and children to die of hunger? Your father and I work so hard only earn about RM5000 per month which is barely enough to offset all the expenses and house loan."

My family own a Proton car and my parents only use the car to travel to work place. My mum is a typical housewife so she cooks everyday. My family barely go for shopping (not even window shopping). We do not have Astro at home. Even though we have air-conditioner but we seldom use it. My parents have 3 children who are currently studying. My brothers' get RM5 each as their daily pocket money. My mother also said:"Everything becomes so expensive, petrol increased everything else follows. Last time when I was small 5cents can buy a bowl of noodle already."

Housewives are actually good economists. They are observant and sensitive to price changes in market. Don't believe you can ask your mum:"How much is 1kg of sugar nowadays?" or go shopping for grocery with your mum, she will make sure that your value of money is maximized. Even though they might not know the term inflation but they certainly can feel it and try their best to preserve their money's value. But even they think RM5000 is barely enough to survive. How about RM3000? How about the inflation? Is RM3000 worths more than RM1000 of 20 years ago?

p.s.
I am completely aware of the statement made by Mustapa - You won’t be rich (with RM3,000) but you can survive.And RM3000 is only an initial benchmark, which will be improvised and adjusted to a higher level. I have no intention to take his words out of the context to create negative perception towards him or ETP or the RM3000 benchmark. I merely wanted to point out the pitfalls of this benchmark, where inflation is not being emphasized.



source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/high-income-job-bar-set-at-rm3000/

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