Disqus - Latest Comments for jacques

Re: An introduction to French social security

jacques — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:57:37 -0000

Bonjour, as long as you still are a French national - i.e. have a French passport - you can apply for the CFE.

Re: APRIL Mobilité

jacques — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:43:51 -0000

For temporary visit yes you would be covered with your Spanish insurance thanks to the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). If you plan to move to France, then you'd have to check with your insurance to know if they do offer protection if you move there.

Re: Amanah Saham Bumiputera - Malaysia’s Best Unit Trust ?

jacques — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 03:44:22 -0000

Tough question to answer as it depends where you are located (Malaysia or abroad) and how you plan your probate. The best is for you to check the ASNB website (http://www.asnb.com.my/english/deceased.htm) and get in touch with them to get a direct clarification. A good lawyer may also be a good idea to prepare your will and probate.

Re: Amanah Saham Bumiputera - Malaysia’s Best Unit Trust ?

jacques — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:00:14 -0000

Hi
You are not eligible for ASB as you are not a Malaysian

Re: General Insurance Premium Rebate, the Saga Continues…

jacques — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:02:16 -0000

If I refer to your original posting "Duit Kopi", why should BNM arrange for a "win-win" situation ? If it were to do so ,we would still have one loser: the customer.

And I'd like to think this measure will give an incentive to insurer to improve their servicing. Or at least provide an online quote facility - which would then lead to online comparison websites like in most western countries. Not a bad thing IMHO.

Re: Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2009

jacques — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:05:31 -0000

Thank YC - my point exactly !
Seeing how the Haze is, I hope it won't impact you too much the 28th

Re: Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes (QROPS)

jacques — Wed, 06 May 2009 22:21:56 -0000

Hi VJ
Unfortunately your situation is not one I am familiar with. I passed your question and contacts to one of my english colleague who helped many of his compatriotes with their QROPS. He should be able to help you.

Re: Friends Provident 2008 Results

jacques — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:29:43 -0000

Hi Summer,
Unfortunately FPI is only available to expatriates. A Malaysian living in Australia or Singapore can contract with them. A local Malaysian can not. The only international alternative is Hansard, who recently got approved by the MoF and LOFSA. But I don't think they have brokers in place presently, and the minimum to start something with them in 20K per year.

Re: Personal Finance Forum for Malaysians

jacques — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 22:14:30 -0000

You don't need to pay forum posters for it to grow. What you need is to be present, engaging and let people express themselves freely. With time, a few members will become regulars and then the snowball can start...

I would also integrate it better within your blog. It looks kind of like a second website presently, and you'd get a lot more participation if people could use their facebook / disqus / other profile to post instead of registering a new identity.

Re: 5 Essential Traits for Community Managers

jacques — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:12:45 -0000

Very good post. The main nugget of wisdom still is your No.1 essential trait. Loving your community and service will help you breeze through the 4 other steps

Re: KWSP Declares 4.5% Dividend for 2008

jacques — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:23:55 -0000

Very interesting post.
By international standard, 4.5% return for 2008 sound pretty good. Even considering low risk investments. So KWSP apparently held itself pretty well...

What's more worrying is your opening at the end... And we are not the only one worrying:
http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story...

Re: Getting Things Done - Review

jacques — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 10:48:35 -0000

Thanks for the tip cjw.
Unfortunately, I am a linux / thunderbird zealot.
Which means I don't use outlook.

Re: The Problem with Mortgage Refinancing

jacques — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:43:24 -0000

Thanks for the link :-)

Re: The Problem with Mortgage Refinancing

jacques — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 06:33:43 -0000

Hi Fauzi. Good idea to share our portfolio break down here.
For now we keep things quite simple. We focus with my wife is on topping up our mortgage reimbursement. The mortgage reimbursement surplus represent roughly 20% of what we would pay for rent. Another 30% goes into overseas FD and ASB. The remaining is invested in an offshore ILP with diversified funds, mostly index and trackers. Here you are :-)

Re: The Problem with Mortgage Refinancing

jacques — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:52:34 -0000

Thanks Ong
Glad to discuss this with you.
My post is exactly to warn people who may use this financial tool indiscriminately, and too aggressively.

Re: Getting Things Done - Review

jacques — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 05:12:42 -0000

Thank Dan, will try it out. Unfortunately the Malaysian internet is too slow to use these kind of website efficiently. I tested "Remembered the Milk" and quite liked it; yet, I had to com back to my Excel Sheets in the end...

Re: Royal Skandia Open Letter

jacques — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:42:58 -0000

Hi Saji,
By investing 300 US$ per month you enjoy the benefits of dollar-cost-averaging.
Yes your principal may have been affected, but the loss only is potential until you realize it.
What you should do is contact your adviser and Skandia and ask them for a review of your portfolio so you know where you stand. Should your strategy not have changed, and your position allow you to, I'd advise continuing the 300 US$ per month until the end of your contract. I would even advise you to increase your monthly investment to build nice positions over the next months / year when the market will continue to rumble.

Re: The Perfect Storm for Scams

jacques — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 05:02:44 -0000

At the same time, we are going to see more and more ponzi going down. Madoff like schemes always face problem when they have to return funds to their investors. With the current run for safety, we'll see more and more ponzi going bust... While new, more creative ones, will take advantage of the new situation.

As for the "minority", I'd say it is the contrary, the way a ponzi work always get the base of the pyramid to swallow most of the losses. Hence the majority always lose. Even more so when governments have to step in.

Re: Bernard Madoff and his little Ponzi…

jacques — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:55:07 -0000

Very good conclusions Jose.
This is why websites like www.fool.com and other are so important. They will ensure more transparency.

Unfortunately no one can ever be 100% safe from a Madoff like affair. His structure was complex enough to fool even big players like Santander or HSBC which are known for their conservative and risk-averse approach.

Re: Selamat Hari Natal !

jacques — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 23:49:18 -0000

That's a good idea !
Email me and we arrange

Re: Soft and Hard, Approaches

jacques — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 22:00:17 -0000

Someone's reading Seth Godin ;-)

Re: Choosing Your Offshore Bank Account

jacques — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:36:00 -0000

If you follow those guidelines, offshore accounts are very safe.

Re: Wan Tan Mee

jacques — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 05:59:18 -0000

I don't know whether laptops, internet and calling rates are cheaper in Malaysian than in China or Hk. What I'm sure of is that they are much cheaper than 10 years ago ;-)

Re: Wan Tan Mee

jacques — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 21:22:39 -0000

To put your calculation in perspective
With an annualised inflation of 8.5% over the past 15 years, your RM1 Wan Tan Mee would now cost RM3.13
Unfortunately, the power of compounding also work for inflation...

I agree with you that inflation in Malaysia is badly calculated. And it most certainly is a two figure one. But calculating inflation is a very hard and imperfect process. For a higher priced bowl of Wan Tan Mee, we enjoy much cheaper laptops, internet, calling rates etc.

The problem here is that BNM is not free enough. Too much political interference.

Re: Economist Weekly - Health Care, Tourism and Globalisation

jacques — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:57:53 -0000

The Malaysian website is one of such strategy. Remove some of the big hospital marketing so as to work on a national scale. Instead of working against each other for a small crowd of expatriates, they join force and offers packages all-in-one. Operation, stay, hotel on a single website where all the information is easily available.