AhYap’s Blog

I knew this girl on 8/8/2003. It was a Friday. I went to her office to make a payment for my Anthony Robbins seminar. I was actually looking for Renie, one of the seminar’s consultants. And she is a part time staff of Renie. I remembered when Renie call me in the morning, I told her I can’t find a friend to accompany me to the seminar. She ask me to bring my girlfriend and I told her I did not have one. I ask her to recommend one for me and she seems so excited and told me she has one in her office! A form 6 girl who will come to the office after school.

So I went to Renie office at about 4pm in the evening and for the very first time, I meet the girl of my life. My first impression is, she is very sweet. And my first conversation with her is, “Your mummy not in ar?” and I forgot how she answered. But I remembered it is a very short sentence and she just sat there doing nothing (I thought she would at least call for Renie. Actually Renie already know I have came).

I didn’t talk directly to this girl for quite a long time because I am having long conversation with Renie. Just for some moments I will stare at her and she just keep smiling all the time like a doll and reading her newspaper. Sometimes, she will stand up and walk to another table to change another section of newspaper. She wear a slipper with her stocks on and she seems to walk in slow mode.

Later Renie went away for another Anthony Robbins preview and she let us alone. So this is the first time we are alone. We start to know each other, starts from our name, school and some background. I learned how to write her name.

Later it started to rain (rains is a very important phenomena in our love story because it gives chances all the time). I remembered her cute face when she is shocked with the rain. She will need to take a bus to tuition later. Of course, as a gentlemen, I offer to fetch her (see, I take full grip of my chances and how the rain helps). So we chat until 7.00 and I took her to tuition with my ADA4868. This is the first time I fetch a girl in Ipoh.

The conversation in the car are not that special but I remember at a moment she get excited and says, ‘haiiii lo’ (agree on what I say) and that push the button on my heart more. Before we say bye bye, I say I will look for her one day.

Long time ago, I blog my Investing Story – Part 1 where I mentioned that I have made a little money from the KLSE when I get started. I got over-confident and lost a lot more later when Najib became the deputy prime minister. Aih, Najib.

The first stock that I bought was Maxis! Why I suddenly told you about Maxis? Because the 2nd richest man in Malaysia, Mr Ananda ‘Gates’, announced yesterday that he plans to buy out the WHOLE company!

His suggested price is RM15.60 per share and he expects the buyout to be completed in 2 months. So everyone can sell their Maxis shares to Ananda at RM15.60 in 2 months. (They are selling at RM15.30~RM15.40 at market right now, so people who want to hold for the next 2 months can make like 1~2%)

AhYap, in 21 November 2003 bought 1,000 shares of Maxis at RM6.95!

Wahahahahaha!

Today is 05 May 2007, that’s exactly 3 and a half years (3.5 years).

Bought RM6.95, Sold RM15.60, total return = 124.4%! Compounded yearly return is 26% for the last 3.5 years! That’s better than Warren Buffett performance. ENVY?!

Wahahahahaha!

But unfortunately, AhYap sold his 1,000 Maxis Shares in less than 2 weeks after he bought them at RM$7.40, making a profit of 4.7% only after brokerage commissions and fees. At that time, AhYap was so proud of himself because he thought he had beat the 1 year Fixed-Deposit rate of 3.7% in just 2 weeks.

… … …

I am quite sure that 9 out of 10 people are short term focused. That’s normal. Who likes to wait? Do you like to wait outside of the restaurants for your turn? Do you like to wait in banks? Do you life to wait in traffic jam and traffic lights? No one like to wait, they want to be quick. And that includes money (that explain why pyramid schemes and other money cons still works very well today).

If you think 10 years from now is hard to imagine, do this exercise. Think 10 years ago. 10 years ago, where are you? How long do ‘10 years ago’ feel to you? Most people will feel like it is just yesterday! And you will feel the same for today 10 years later! The same for 20 years and 30 years later! Sooner, you will be there.

For those who are short term oriented in everything of their life (work, investing, relationship, health, etc.) Herbert Stein has a good phase for you (BTW, I don’t know who the heck is Herbert Stein).

“We woke up to discover that we were living in the long run, and were suffering for our failure to look after it”.

When we make some mistakes, we will regret and hate ourself. But soon we will forget about it. The BIGGEST REGRET in our life, is not the mistakes we made, but the THINGS THAT WE DIDN’T DO THAT WE SHOULD HAVE DONE! 10 years, 30 years or 50 years later, you will forget about the mistakes you make long ago, but will regret on the things you should have done but you didn’t. If you agree with it, you will be more willing to take actions TODAY, more willing to make mistakes TODAY, so you won’t have to regret when you are old.

I might have sold my Maxis, make stupid mistakes in buying some stupid mutual funds … but I have been very hardworking in learning more about investing (I read almost 20 books on this topic alone in the last 6 months). 30 years from now, I will not regret if I sold my Maxis earlier, or lost a lot of money when Najib became the deputy prime minister, or the 12% I lost in options trading for the last 2 years … I will regret if I do none of these, and have my money just sit on a 3.7% fixed-deposit for 30 years where the same $2 that I put in today will only worth $6 where a pop-piah today that cost $2 today will also cost $6, 30 years later after inflation.

I think many people will have $1,000 today. What $1,000 will become after it is compounded for 30 years?

1% – $1,348 (savings account)

3.7% – $2,974 (fixed deposit)

5% – $4,321 (bonds)

8% – $10,062 (stocks, mutual funds, real estates)

10% – $17,449 (stocks, mutual funds, real estates)

15% – $66,211 (stocks, Phil Town)

20% – $237,376 (stocks)

25% – $807,793 (stocks, Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, Tan Teng Boo, Mohnish Pabrai)

30% – $2,619,995 (not many people can do this)

Are you happy if your $1,000 that you put in today became $237,376 30 years later? I don’t think any insurance policy can beat that kind of protection to yourself, your family and even your grandson.

Let’s say I continue to blog for 30 years and you keep reading for 30 years (I need to give you Ang Pow if you do that). Say I have put my $1,000 down today and it become $237,376. And I blog about it! While you, who read my blog today and 30 years later, put the same $1,000 in an FD and got $2,974, will you want to kill yourself when you read my post? I think you will never visit AhYap.com again to avoid being reminded of what you didn’t do where you should have done, 30 years ago. You regret.

And remember 30 years is the length of most of our housing loan! If you are willing to wait 30 years to fully own your house, you can definitely wait 30 years for your investment to become $237,376.

At last, if you make $237,376 30 years later, remember to give me ang pow or buy me some pop-piah! I am sure I will still be alive. But never come to me if you lost all your money!

I talked about BEST BRAINS in my last post on Why Malaysia is so stupid to dump away our best brains and give to Singapore (but didn’t charge Singapore for any money). I want to explain to you what I meant by best brains.

What are BEST BRAINS? Do you like add math in SPM? I can never finish my add math in all my exams even in SPM. But a friend of mine can finish it and check the answers for 3 times and still have the time to look around! FINISH + CHECK 3 TIMES + LOOK AROUND.

Can you memorize phone numbers? I went to a phone booth with a friend. We saw a paper ads sticked to the phone booth regarding a house rental. We just had a glance on it. 2 months later I suddenly thought of the ads and wished that I had copied the phone number. Know what? This friend of mine thought for 2 seconds and recalled the phone number! I doubt the accuracy but after we made the phone call, it is correct!

We took a subject called Islam Science in Uni. The notes given by the lecturer was so terrible that he can write 100 words in 1 one sentence with all kind of subjects, objects, verbs and adjectives in it! I don’t even have the brain to read it smoothly. The same friend of mine, can memorized the whole sentence word by word in mere seconds.

Do you have friends that don’t need to study much for exam but can get very good results? Do you have friends that can listen in the boring lecture and understand everything the lecturer is teaching?

BEST BRAINS are those people who can do something that seems RIDICULOUSLY easy to themselves but RIDICULOUSLY hard for someone else. You can also call it TALENT.

Yesterday, I talked about Singapore refusing the landing of AirAsia and why Malaysia is doing a lot of similar stuffs. Today I want to talk our our education and universities, in relation to Singapore.

Our government complaints that many of our knowledge workers (engineers, doctors, etc.) don’t want to serve in our own country but prefer to stay overseas. They say these people should be more patriotic.

Our government also complaint that we are lack of knowledge workers. While at the same time there are many graduates that can’t find a job.

The most STUPID mistake that our IGNORANT government is doing in EDUCATION -

Our government spend a lot of money providing FREE primary and secondary education us. That is 6 years of primary school, 5 years or secondary school and 2 years more if they take form 6, total to 13 years! 13 years or FREE EDUCATION and TRAINING!

Let’s take my school as an example. I study in Sam Tet, Ipoh which is considered one of the good school. In 1997 when I finished my SPM, there were 18 students getting 8As and above (maximum 10As only at that time).

6 of the 18 are now exported to Singapore. Singapore gives them full scholarship, let them choose the exact course they want to study and give them Singapore PR few months before they graduate! You don’t even need to apply for the PR! (some of them went after form 6, some of them went immediately after SPM to Junior College)

Malaysia trains these smart students for 13 years. Singapore train them for 4 years ONLY and have them work for Singapore for the next 30 years.

Who is smarter? Malaysia or Singapore?

Why they want to ’selfishly’ go to Singapore and don’t want to serve our own country?

1. Singapore give them scholarship so they don’t need to worry about money. They don’t need to worry that PTPTN will reject his loan.

2. Singapore give them the exact course they want so they don’t need to worry that they can’t get into the course they want in Malaysia.

3. Although Singapore has only 2 universities, both of them are far better than ANY one in Malaysia. UKM is currently bragging that they are the Top 200 Universities in the word, ranked #185 ahead of UM #192. Singapore only have 2 universities and they ranked as follow – NUS (National University of Singapore) #19, NTU (Nanyang Technological University) #61. Anything for the Malaysians to be proud of?

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But the primary reasons are still #1 and #2, the UNCERTAINTY that the Malaysia government is giving to these SMART BRAINS. They are worried about the future and they need to plan for their future too. If Singapore can give them the promise and certainty, why would they want to take the RISK of rejection from their own beloved country Malaysia? (How hurt does it feel when your own country doesn’t appreciate you?)

Every year we have a lot of STPM straight A students complain that they cannot get into Medicine (doctor). The Goverment says that if they allow all straight A students to go into Medicine, then other student with poorer results will not be able to get into medicine.

Well getting straight A means they are the BEST students with the BEST brain and medicine is usually consider the BEST course (and tough to study!). What sense does it make when the BEST STPM students are not GUARANTEED by the government to take the BEST course? Then what is the point of having the exam at the first place?

These BEST brains are the one who will be contributing the most to the country when fully utilized. They represent the future of Malaysia and they deserve the TOP attention. They should be given the VETO power to choose whatever course they want and not by a randomly picked-by-luck system. Keep the picked-by-luck system for your ordinary students, why RISK losing your BEST BRAINS?

Imagine what are the benefits we are getting by just focusing on keeping our BEST BRAINS from being stolen by Singapore! It won’t break the quota system even slightly because we are talking about the Top 1% people only. Apply the quota system to ordinary students like me! Put me and soufulow on the quota system, don’t RISK our BEST BRAINS! Just risk me! 

I have a lot to say about Singapore in relation to Malaysia. Most of us has been brain-washed by our politicians and puppet-doll-newspaper to think Singapore is the BAD GUY. While Singapore might be the BAD GUY, what we didn’t notice is that Singapore is also the SMART GUY! On the other hand, Malaysia look ridiculously STUPID in many aspects.

One of the hottest topic is the refusal of the Singapore government to let AirAsia land in their airport. I hate this myself because I do hope to fly cheaply to Singapore. BUT, before you think Singapore is selfish, do you know Malaysia is doing the exact same thing in MANY MANY ways?

Truth #1

Malaysia is building the double-track train system that connect the whole peninsular. Johor government refused to let the double-track to be connected to Singapore. They want it terminated at Johor Bahru. They are afraid that most people will actually ride directly to Singapore and will not stop at Johor, thus reducing the money flow to Johor and at the same time benefit their ‘enemy’ Singapore!

Isn’t that selfish? Isn’t that the same as Singapore refusing the landing or AirAsia?

Truth #2

We are so patriotic that almost all Malaysia families that own a car will own a PROTON! We are so patriotic that we actually need to pay a lot more money to buy a lousy car just because it is ‘Made In Malaysia’. We can’t own a better Toyota at cheaper price like Thailand citizens because we have to subsidize Proton. We have to ‘love’ our country because ‘Malaysia Boleh‘ Make Car. (Proton still lose money after 20 years of operation while Mitsubishi make a lot of money by selling engines to Proton. And we still can’t make our own engine. So technically we don’t make our own car, we make our own car cover only.)

There are lots of Nissan Sentra in Malaysia. Do you know there is a model called Nissan Sunny? You can’t find one here because if it is allowed to be sold in Malaysia, it will be too cheap!

Our government has disallowed other car manufacturers to compete equally with Proton. And who pay the price? We! The drivers!

Isn’t this the same as Singapore protecting their own airline company?

Truth #3

Digi is the most well run mobile company in Malaysia, their marketing and growth outperform Maxis and Celcom (run by TM – Tak Malu). But because they are 60% foreign owned, they are not awarded the 3G license and the WIMAX license. If you are standing as a mobile user and internet user perspective, do you wish Digi could have won both licenses so we can benefit from this great company? Or you want your service provided by Tak Malu that also provide your fucked-up STREAMYX connection?

Isn’t this the same as what Singapore is doing to AirAsia? While AirAsia can benefit even Singaporeans, they choose to protect Singapore Airline instead of benefiting their own people. Our government want to make our own national car and we have to drive lousy car that is more expensive and yet more dangerous on the road because it is made by recycled Coca-Cola tin.

(At least Singapore is launching a new budget airline call Tiger Airline to benefit their people)

Truth #4

Most of us will have a Maybank account because it is the largest bank in Malaysia. So probably you must have dealt with a Maybank staff before. What kind of treatment do you get? How long do you need to wait just to place a Fixed Deposit? How long do you need to wait to apply for an ATM card?

The last time I close an FD, it took the staff 30 minutes just to serve me alone! It took me another 30 minutes to reapply my lost ATM card. And that time doesn’t include waiting for my turn! It is just the time the staff took to do my work alone while letting a lot of other customers waiting!

If you have been to a Singapore bank, you will actually thought you are in a Hotel! The bank staffs will wait for you at the entrance! They will do anything you need while you sit on the sofa reading your favorite newspaper. In Singapore, customers is the boss. In Malaysia, customers is the slave.

This is happening because Malaysia banks are over protected by the Government. Only until recently Citibank are allowed to setup a few more branches. Before this, Citibank only have 3 branches in the whole Malaysia. So again, why Government choose to protect local business, we pay the price.

Isn’t that what the Singapore government is doing to AirAsia?

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If Singapore Government is selfish, what about our Government? While Singapore Government might have been selfish, they have actually done a lot of great things for their people which we can only dream of! They are SELFISH but they are SMART too!

I use fucked-up Streamyx. You probably use Streamyx too. TM has a monopoly of the last mile connections. Unlike other countries, Malaysia has not passed any legislation for the unbundling of last mile connections. This gives little chance for other third party companies to compete with TMNet and has thus created an unhealthy business environment.

Look at our crime rates! We have tons of notebook thieves wandering around KL. We have tons of snatchers planning to snatch your mum’s handbag. We have tons of robbers that want to break into our house everyday.

Compare our Internet connection with Singapore!

Compare our crime rates with Singapore!

Compare our public transportation system with Singapore!

Compare our local universities with Singapore!

Compare our Ringgit Malaysia with Singapore!

Compare our Police with Singapore!

WE ARE FAR FAR BEHIND! WAKE UP MALAYSIANS! WAKE UP! We both started at the same time! We can’t blame our population and size because we will then need to compare ourself with Japan and Korea, which is even more scary!

(Japan need to recover from World War II and they don’t even speak English. Korea have to fight Communism and have their country split into half and they don’t speak English as well.)

WAKE UP MALAYSIA! Just talking ‘Malaysia Boleh’ is not enough, we have to work hard and PROOF IT!