Insurance Policies in Malaysia, and Australia.

When one is neither a resident of here, nor there, sometimes there are just some plans that can be difficult to make. However, Providence sometimes provide us good network connections to make sound decisions. Thank You, God!!

Anyways, these are some tips that Richard, a high school mate (who's currently in Brisbane) threw out:

• If you already have life insurance policy in malaysia, just get the basic medical/hospitalization policy in Australia. This is for taxation purposes, as clients are normally not allowed to make the same insurance claim from more than 1 party.
• Insurance agents don't necessarily have to check really how many insurance policies you have, but they will do this when the client wants to lodge a claim. 
• It is up to the client to be aware of this as the law does not prevent more than one provider from selling the policy to them. The law only prevents clients from making a claim with more than 1 provider.get the most basic one in australia for taxation. 
• From other news I heard, it is possible to make claims on as many life insurance policies (but can you really afford it?), but claims for hospitalization/medical is limited.  

POLICIES IN MALAYSIA ALREADY?
The Australian Government provides a basic universal health insurance, Medicare. Private health insurance in Australia is limited to those services not covered by Medicare or to services provided in private hospitals.

The Australian Taxation system encourages middle to high income earners to take out Private Health Insurance. While most taxpayers pay a 1.5% Medicare Levy, an additional 1% Medicare Levy Surcharge is payable by those taxpayers who earn more than $50,000 and do not have Private Health Insurance. (From Wikipedia).

As such, Richard tells me that if I already have life/savings insurance in Malaysia, to just stick with it, and get the basic ones in Australia for taxation purposes.

Malaysian endownment and insurance policies are not taxable, and clients can still get their money back on maturity in the later years. They are written way better than Australian policies....!

So yeah, even if you are migrating to Australia, it is still worth thinking getting a policy (that you can service on a yearly basis), and enjoy shopping like a king on your retirement when you do come back to Malaysia for a visit!!

(This is purely my perspective, and not a financial advice. For that, you'd have to refer to your Financial Planner for more information!!)

Investing: The Basics II

Here are some links I found to jump start on the research to finding out more on investing.

Investopedia: Investing 101.

Investopedia: Start Investing with 1,000 Dollars.

What is a Managed Fund?

(More to be added...)

Investing: The Basics I

I have referred to the Investment pages as per the information given on the Commonwealth Bank site, to provide a check list on the basics of investing to start my research on investing on.

There are about four categories, or asset classes. 

• Cash (e.g. money in the bank, bank bills)
• Fixed interest (e.g. government or corporate bonds)
• Property (e.g. residential, commercial or industrial property trusts)
• Shares (e.g. Australian or international shares).

These four asset classes can be separated into two broad groups – defensive investments and growth investments.

Defensive investments

Cash and fixed interest are generally classified as defensive investments. The main features of defensive investments are:

• Aim to provide regular income and do not usually grow in capital value
• Aim to experience only slight fluctuations in investment returns and values over short period.
• Returns are generally lower than those of growth investments over the medium to long term.

Knowing my personality, I personally prefer investments which provide fixed investments which provide regular income, and for starters, am pretty much risk free,
as I do not really want to be bothered with the hassle of checking the 'board" to see if prices have risen, or gone down on a weekly, much less on a daily basis. (Time is money, as they say....)

According to this list:

• Your reasons for investing
• Your performance expectations
• How long you intend to invest (investment time frame)
• Your knowledge of investment markets and past experiences
• How you feel about sudden increases and decreases in the value of your investments.

At my stage in life, my reasons for investing would include that I would be saving towards a goal- i.e. intention of marriage, house and car.
As for performance expectations, due to my low level of risk tolerance, I would rather just let there be a safe haven for my income to be 'stationed' at whilst earning compound interest.

My knowledge of investment markets and past experiences is almost close to nil. My experience with investment has so far been limited to Term Deposits, and compound interest. Safe investment, you may say.

I am, and would not be too happy about the decrease in the value of my investment, like any other person who earns a salary. Who would anyways?

As for investing in a product with a higher risk, I believe that would come with experience. For now, let me continue reading up on this issue before making a decision on what I would do with my salary...

Simple Savings- Saving away for the rainy day. ^^

Not exactly the theme of the website, but it rhymes. Anyways. 

Was googling the world-wide-web, and found this Aussie portal called  Simple Savings.

It is an Australian-New Zealand based website which offers a lot of tips, as well as an Aussie and Kiwi pdf. version of a "savings calendar". The calendar proves to be an effective visual aid in helping people keep to the habit of finding ways, as well as providing other tips and themes and ideas to develop this cost-cutting habit for twelve months of the year.

The Simple Savings website reminds buyers to learn to say ‘NO’ is very valuable to wasteful spending,
to kiddies’ demands, to telemarketers and ‘NO!’ to time wasting, and through that, individuals would be able to we can say ‘YES!’ to a happier and peaceful life.

Check it out to save for the rainy day. ^^