The Investment Analyst

There was once when my brother and his bumiputera wife (now ex-wife) contemplated taking up a loan package from a local bank to invest in the ASB. I'm afraid I'm not very well versed with the exact details of the transaction, but if I'm not mistaken it had something to do with borrowing some money from the bank which is then to be deposited into ASB. 

The returns from the investment in ASB is then utilised to pay the bank. The gains from the ASB investment is big enough to offset the interest charged by the bank so that the investor still ends up with a positive returns. However, it goes without saying that the gains would be smaller when compared to an investment where the investor uses his own money, since he will get to keep the entire gains from ASB without deductions to pay the bank.

The question that begs to be answered is whether this is a smart investment approach?

In the last couple of weeks, several people on my facebook friends' list have shared an interesting post about the above investment scheme. It is written in Malay, if you are keen to read more, check it out here. It's apparently an analysis by an investment analyst, although I have to admit that I haven't investigated the author's background. But even if he is not a qualified investment analyst—and I'm not saying that he isn't—the post does reflect someone with some knowledge in investment.

The article goes on to analyse the investment scheme as outlined above, and then finds that in the end the bank makes more profits than the individual investor. 

He then poses the question: Siapa yang untung sebenarnya? (Actually, who gains?)

And then he answers himself impressively: Bank!

A paragraph later, he poses another question: Yang rugi [?] (The loser)

And again he answers himself: Anda sebenarnya!!! (Actually, you!!!)

Therefore, he concludes, it's better to invest with your own money; don't use borrowed money to invest.

Well, I'm not an investment analyst, but I know a little bit about mathematics. In fact, a zillion years ago, when I was in school, maths was my favourite subject. But for those who really know me well, they would also know that I'm a keen observer of psychology; about people in general. 

However, before I go into psychology, let me just say that I disagree with the author of the above post. The point is that a gain is a gain, and it is as simple as that! So let me give my answers to his questions based on the investment model in his article.

Question: Actually, who gains?

Answer: Both the bank as well as the investor because the latter still ends up with more (although the bank gains more)

Question: [Who} loses?

Answer: Neither, based on the model.

Now let me share my thoughts on the article as a whole. It bears no resemblance to reality! The truth is that the majority of people just don't have it in them to save up enough capital to the extent of enabling them to invest with their own money. Otherwise, there is no need for the government to establish the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) as a means of forced saving scheme. 

I said majority, not all. Of course some people are the weird ones—I have a friend whose father came from China before the formation of Malaysia. He started working as a labourer, saved some money, then started a small business. He maintained his lifestyle and saved every single sen he earned. When he died, he had several shops and a successful wholesale business. This is one very rare example. But for each such example, there are hundreds, perhaps even thousands more of those who couldn't do it the same way.

Most people just don't have the saving habit. An office clerk can suddenly buy a cellphone worth more than a month's salary. A fresh university graduate drives his own Kancil within the first month he gets a job. I think the Investment Analyst is just too naive in his analysis and totally disregards human nature. The reality is that most people will need to borrow money—and yes, incurring interests for the loan—to start a business, or any investment as a whole, to buy a house, to buy a car. Otherwise, they will never start a business or investment, never own a house, a car.

Borrowing from the banks is not necessarily a bad thing. You get the opportunity to open doors to realise your potential. Sure, you will have to pay interests for the loan (sorry, nothing is free), but while they make money, you too can make some money. Surely that's a whole lot better than you not making money at all?

The Danger of Procrastination

Everyone has the same amount of time per day, and we can't be everywhere or doing everything at the same time. We always find ourselves in situations where we need to deal with either urgent or important matters. Some matters may be urgent but not necessarily important, and vice versa; but some are both urgent as well as important to deal with.

A friend of mine was a very active sportsman and he had been running marathons, ultra marathons and other multiple endurance races. He had conquered several ultra trail marathons and seemed impossible to fall sick, especially since he's just in his thirties. I raced the Vibram HK 100 in Hong Kong together with him last year and he finished the 100km of gruesome hilly terrain about 2 hours before me.

But far from having a perfect body, actually he had serious hypertension (high blood pressure), and had been under strict medication. He registered for the Vibram HK 100 again this year, but he had been quite occupied with other recent races including the Penang Bridge International Marathon, and the Beaufort 60km - A Bridge Too Far. However, things weren't looking too well—he ran his worst time ever for the full marathon in Penang, as well as declined quite substantially in Beaufort when compared to the previous year. It was obvious that he needed to embark on an intensive training programme if he were to do well again in Hong Kong later this month. In fact, he needed to train urgently.

As part of his training programme, he decided to train at our famous Mount Kinabalu. That was of course a brilliant idea, since there will be many, many hills and stairs in the Vibram. Unfortunately, it so happened that a few days before he went for that mountain workout, he ran out of his hypertension medicines. 

Now some people are unaware of the severity of hypertension. Yes, the training was urgent, but the medication was important. And in this particular case, the medication was urgent too! The tragedy was that my friend procrastinated on getting his hypertension medicines for the sake of the mountain training. He had barely started his mountain climb about a week before Christmas when he suddenly collapsed to the ground. He was then rushed to the Ranau Hospital and then transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital here in KK where doctors found a blood vessel in his brain had ruptured. Christmas day and New Year day had come and gone, and he had undergone 2 surgeries but hasn't regained consciousness up to now. Things are looking bleak, but friends and family members are praying for a miracle that he would recover somehow.

I'm sharing this with my readers because I know many of you are active in sports like my friend and I. The reality is that contrary to popular belief, even sportsmen are not immune from illnesses. In fact, we have to be extra careful with our bodies because of the amount of stress we subject them to on a regular basis. Whenever there is any hint of problem, seek medical help as soon as possible. Procrastination in this case is the biggest enemy, because it may mean a matter of life and death. If you really love sports so much, then take good care of your body—it's the only one you've got.

3 Weeks in Canada—Things I've Noticed About Them

I've just arrived home from a 3-week vacation in Canada. Well to be specific, Langdale, Gibsons, which is about a 40-minute ride by ferry from Vancouver. Apart from the cold weather in the winter, I've noticed some interesting things about the Canadians in general. Although I'm still very exhausted from the ravages of the long journey home (I arrived in KK this morning), and before my old brain forgets what I want to say, I'd like to share with my readers some of the things that stood out from the rest while I was there.

Display of Huge Cars

I've had the opportunity to swim in an indoor pool. It was a small 20-metre pool which was OK for a lousy swimmer like me. But the thing that was something of a culture shock to me was the fact that the men were going around totally in the nude in the changing room. Let me tell you that these white men were huge, and I'm not even talking about the size of their bodies!

Some friends had suggested that I join the party by taking everything off too—so as not to be the odd one out, if you know what I mean—but although I'm not exactly shy to be seen by other nude men, I was rather concerned that I would be the main attraction by being the smallest of the lot. And again, I'm not talking about the size of my body. Think of it as attempting to display my Austin Mini or Proton Saga kelabu car when in the company of those who drive the likes of huge Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

Size of the Population

I'm not talking about the number of people in the country. Rather, I'm talking about the size of their bodies. Although Malaysians are very quickly getting fat and obese, I've noticed that a very high proportion of the Canadian population are made of fat to obese people. I'm not sure if it has something to do with their diet or lack of physical exercise (or even both), but I have the impression that a random toss of a stone in the street could land on a fat Canadian somehow!

Hospitality

I suppose all the countries in the world have their shares of rude and bad-manners people, but when considered from the general point of view, the Canadians are certainly friendlier than the Malaysians. Total strangers smile and greet you with "Hi" or "Good morning" in the street. Their shop assistants are more than willing to help you when you enter their stores; and everybody is equal regardless of gender, race and religious beliefs.

Disabled People

When walking in the streets, you are more likely to bump into people with walking aids or sitting in a wheelchair; the latter may be electronically-motorized. You see them even during the winter. It's quite an eye opener as we don't have very many of these people in the streets of Malaysia. But that is quite expected because our country is just not as friendly as Canada in terms of facilities for disabled folks. Practically everywhere in Canada you see special facilities for disabled people—you have special seats for them in buses; public toilets specifically constructed for the disabled in mind; entrances and exits in public places can be opened and closed by the press of a button (apart from door knobs); pavements and pedestrian walkways built with ramps for wheelchairs etc.

These are some of the interesting things I've noticed during my 3-week survival in the frozen world up north. 20 years ago when I last visited Langdale, I said my next visit would be during the summer. But as fate would have it I ended up visiting during the winter again! Thinking of the dreadful long journey, sitting for mind-boggling eternity in the planes, I'm not sure when is my next visit, if ever again! But if indeed there is another visit, I will try much harder to make in during the summer; and this time maybe cover more parts of Canada too.

Oh I'm so tired now. I need sleep! Will sort out the photos taken during the trip, but to some of the ladies out there, I'm afraid I don't have any shots of the changing room at the swimming pool. I'm so sorry.

Good night, folks!

A Post For Men—Surviving The Laundry

Mia and JJ had just departed for Vancouver yesterday evening for a month-long holiday. I will join them next Friday. Come to think of it, I should have arranged to fly together with them yesterday. Now I will have to make that long journey to Vancouver alone next Friday. 

After I sent them off to the airport, I decided to catch a movie, and of all the movies, I ended up watching Hunger Games: Catching Fire. I'm not really a big fan of that movie though, just as much as I'm not a big fan of the Twilight flick （to me, Edward Cullen is just too sissy). I suppose these movies are good merely for killing time. But it's beyond me how Katniss Everdeen can never run out of arrows no matter how many she'd used.

Anyway, there's a strange feeling of liberation now that Mia and JJ are not around. It's as if I suddenly have so much space at home; I can do as I please. But then loneliness soon crept in, and in less than 24 hours, I'm already missing them both! 

That's not all—it suddenly occurred to me that now that I'm on my own, I will have to deal with the laundry, and wash all those dishes in the kitchen sink! They're piling up fairly quickly, by the way. Unfortunately, I still need to go to work next week, so this morning after I came home from cycling I somehow, miraculously, mustered enough courage to check out the washing machine behind the kitchen. 

Now it's been years ago since the last time I used a washing machine. In the good old days, I could only afford the most basic of washing machines. It used to cost a few hundred bucks and was able to do the job very well for years. It hadn't very many functions on it, just the good old-fashioned type; you just throw in your dirty clothes, pour in some detergent, close the lid, and leave it alone to do its job. Then about half an hour later, the clothes were ready to be hanged for drying.

Little did I know the washing machine that I have at home now is the more modern type. The first thing that I noticed was the many, many buttons to press. I spent some minutes trying to figure out which button was for which function; and apparently there are many functions. Gone are the days when the machine simply turned the clothes round and round clockwise and anti-clockwise, drained the water, rinsed and then spin-dried. No, it's not that simple these days. They are many options available. There are options for woolen clothes, silk and some others; water temperature, and even the spinning speed can be controlled too. There are several other buttons on that forsaken machine which I haven't quite figured out yet, but maybe if I'm lucky, I might learn a thing or two more in the coming days before next Friday. 

A chore that usually takes about an hour for Mia to accomplish, I struggled and spent almost 5 hours today. I think I would have finished the job within half the time at leisure if I were to have used my own hands to wash the clothes. I spent a good 15 minutes just trying to figure out how to open the lid after the machine had stopped. But later on, I realised that it will automatically unlock itself a few minutes after it had finished washing. I think Mia would be pleased to know that I did not damage the lid.

I'm quite happy with my accomplishment for today, until I suddenly remembered that I will have to iron my own office clothes too! Horror upon horror. Let's see if I can do it without burning my shirts and pants. Damn! I really should be in the plane with Mia and JJ now—they should be arriving in Vancouver in a few hours' time.

Oh well, it's time to start checking out the iron. Let's see how many buttons are found on it!

Modern Music

It's been like a hundred years ago when music was still music, and songs were still songs. Those were the good old days...

Last Saturday I clerked a closed treasure hunt for a bank. It was organised in conjunction with their annual family day, and the hunt was one of the team-building events that they had for the day. It was a whole day event, and it culminated into a grand dinner party in the evening which was attended by the VIPs of the bank. Ordinarily, the answer presentation would be held shortly after the hunt, but in my case, the presentation was scheduled during the dinner at about 8pm.

Now as you'd probably know, it is customary here in Malaysia that the VIPs are hardly ever on time when attending such events, and as the result the programme for the night had to be adjusted to fit into the now limited timeframe.

After the several speeches by the VIPs, I thought I would be up next, as it was already approaching 8:30pm. But that was wishful thinking, as next in line for the evening's programme was a life band performance. I was given to understand that this particular band performs regularly in a local club, and apparently they're quite good.

The ladies had extremely tiny dress; it made me wonder why bother with the clothes at all. I can't remember when was the last time I saw a life band performance. I sat there waiting for my turn, and when the music started, it was horrifyingly loud—I thought my eardrums would burst. Several musical instruments all seemingly vying to be louder than each other. Then when the singers started their songs, I couldn't make out a single word; I had no clue what the heck were they shouting about. And these people were supposed to be one of the best in the market. I can't imagine what the lousy ones are like. Seriously now, can the audience really enjoy these performances?...I mean, really?

Well, it was already past 9pm by the time I was up for my presentation because the singers had to stop for a short break. I rushed through my presentation, and wrapped things up in 15minutes I think. After that, I was happy to leave the venue before the band continued its performance. I arrived home at about 10pm and was in bed by 11pm. I managed to catch a few hours' sleep, but had to be up again at 4am for my 25km run starting at 4:45am.

I'm thinking perhaps if I consumed a few shots of strong liquor and became drunk, maybe the loud meaningless noises can sound good, I don't know. Hell, maybe the ladies can appear like they're without clothes too; not that there is much difference with that little piece of clothes they had on anyway.

Modern music—if that's what it's called—is an almost impossible thing to enjoy; yet so many people enjoy it! It's one of those big mysteries that can't be explained. Thankfully, however, my eardrums are still intact.

Malakoff Powerman Duathlon Asian Championship 2013

Perhaps this comes a little late, but I’m presently up against a bit of laziness in blogging. I was trying to search for some of my photos during the event, and then when I eventually found some, I somehow did not have the mood to blog. Instead, I’ve been spending quite a lot of time surfing the net, playing online games, as well as trying very hard to keep up with my training!

Anyway, I returned to the Powerman this year with some of my friends, including Teo Chen Lung, Paul Lee, John Chin, Hana Harun and Judy Liew. Anslem and Amy also joined again this year. Another friend, Aldillah from Labuan, also joined. Douglas was supposed to have joined too, but he had to withdraw at the last minute. A few days before the event, I was told that Doug had arranged with the organizer to give his slot to Ahmadul Tahir. Of course Ahmadul doesn’t need any introduction; most endurance athletes in Malaysia would have heard of him. He’s been in the business of endurance sports like forever. Although he’s racing the veteran category, and not training as hard as he used to, he’s still an athlete to be reckoned with!

After setting up our bikes on the eve of the event, we had a short ride to the race venue. On the way back to the hotel, however, Hana had a puncture in her rear wheel. Teo had to offer his spare tube and Ahmadul helped with the chores. The rest of us took turns helping to pump the tyre. That night, there was some excitement as they tried so hard to search for spare tubes for the race. Hana and Judy had spare tubes for the race too, although I don’t know why. I mean, Hana didn’t even know how to detach her rear wheel, let alone change the tube which was inside that wheel. And even if she did know how to, she did not have a CO2 or hand pump to inflate the tyre anyway. But of course women are not meant to be understood anyway, so I’ll leave it at that lah!

Well, it was still dark when we started from the hotel to the race venue the next day, arriving there with about half an hour to spare. We duly pushed our bikes to the respective spots within the transition area and prepared our stuff for the transitions. Then, since I had a few minutes left before the flag off, I decided to visit the toilet. To my horror, there were long queues at the toilets. A number of them in my group were also there in the queues, especially Hana who’s cursed with that curious bouts of diarrhea when excited. I sometimes wonder if she’d get that same reaction when sexually excited, but there was no time to think of all those—as I emerged from the portable toilet, it was already countdown for the flag off. As I was rushing to the starting line, and Hana was still daydreaming in the toilet, the start horn went off, and a huge procession of excited athletes passed the starting arch. 

My friend Teo, who’s training for an Ironman race next year, was supposed to be in the crowd, but I did not see him. For the benefit of those who’re new to this blog, Teo has a special talent in conjuring up killer face expressions during his races. Check out his half marathon finish in the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon earlier this year as reported here. And here are some shots of him in the recent RHB 10km run in KK. 

However, for Powerman, he’s determined to start slower—a strategy which he had hoped could stretch him long enough to survive the last running leg without walking. You see, he raced the Desaru Half Ironman distance last year, and had to walk almost the entire half marathon at the end. He wanted it to be different this time! 

 I started the run with what I felt was a decent pace of about 5min/km, but about 3km into the race, I realized that I was running a little too fast. Accordingly, I slowed down slightly. It was a humid morning and it didn’t take very long for my sweat to drip like a leaking tap! The following photo was taken just as I completed the first loop (thanks Mohan), and I was still feeling fresh then. 

 I eventually finished the 11km run in about 56 minutes, and was still feeling fine. 

While in the transition area, I saw Amy finishing her run. I took my time changing my shoes, putting on my helmet and ate an energy gel, before pushing my bike out of the transition area. But once I was on my bike, I swiftly built up speed. The plan was to maintain an average of about 31-32kph for the bike leg. But in order to achieve that average, I would have to hit approximately 35-37kph on flat roads as I was expecting to slow down substantially when climbing some hills. However, my calves seized up on one of the climbs about 20 mins into the bike leg, and I had to slow down a bit. But later I increased my speed again to achieve my 31-32 kph target. 

Unfortunately, when I dismounted my bike at the end of the 64km ride, both my quads suddenly froze, and I had to spend some minutes to rest them while I changed my shoes at the transition area. I tried to run anyway, but only to stop again after about 50m. The nightmare of cramps that I dreaded so much had become a reality after all. De javu—It was as painful as the tail end of last year’s Powerman, and I knew that I’d be walking a great deal during this final run of the race. At about 3km into that final 11km run, Amy caught up and finally overtook me! But my main concern then was to survive the cramps and blistering hot sun. 

In the end, I took a horrifying 1:23 minutes to finish the 11km. What a big relief! My total time for the race was 4:30, and I’m happy to say that at least I’ve improved over last year’s time by about 3 minutes. A very small improvement, but PB nonetheless! 

Paul finished a few minutes after me, followed by Anslem and Judy. We waited a little longer, wondering what has happened to Teo and Hana. Well, Teo’s strategy did not quite work out as planned—he ran a cautious race, but about halfway into the final 11km run, both his quads seized up and he was reduced to a walk anyway! Eventually, he had to stop to seek help from the volunteers. Two women helped him by applying sprays and some ointment. Teo was on cloud nine, enjoying the moment with two women massaging his quads. I can only imagine the smile on his face, probably trying very hard to suppress the dreaded killer face from manifesting, much the same way Dr Bruce Banner tries hard to suppress the hulk. In fact, I fancy that Teo was even at the verge of getting sexually aroused, when suddenly Hana came passing by. That must have been a rude shock for Teo, and he had to cut short his pleasant godsend moment. He resumed the race again, but Hana, having gotten over her diarrhea problem, was just too strong on the small hills approaching the finish line. In the end, Teo had to content finishing after Hana; and this time, with a rarely-seen normal smile instead of his intimidating killer face.

Ahmadul had finished much earlier than us, and got 5th in his category. 

John Chin finished a little slower than last year, but still way faster than the rest of us anyway. Aldillah escaped the 5:30 cutoff by a few minutes, having suffered cramps during the last running leg of the race. 

Overall, it was a fun-filled event. It’s also the last race for me this year as I embark on serious training for a major challenge next year. The good news about having no race around the corner is that I can focus more on a proper training programme. But the bad news is that there’s sometimes the tendency to become lazy to train. Besides, I’m going for a long holiday to Vancouver for almost a month in December, so I’m not sure if I can find the time to slot in my training. In any case, I will just have to train whatever I can, however little. Bring it on!

 

The Struggle For A Fairytale

The house next door has finally found new occupants recently. It didn't take very long for the rest of us living in the vicinity to notice a peculiar thing about the new comers though—they quarrel all too frequently. At times, there will be loud screams at odd hours of the night, doors banging and all. We have had visits by a couple of policemen on those little funny motorbikes too. I'm not sure what those policemen thought they could achieve. I arrived home from work one evening, and two policemen were there; and the woman was crying loudly. She was eventually escorted away by the policemen to who-knows-where, but the next day there she was again. This evening, we heard loud quarrels again—I'm not sure if somebody will end up dead sooner or later.

It reminds me of my parents when I was still a very young boy all those years ago. It's strange that I have the tendency to forget some events as recently as just a few weeks ago, yet I can remember quite clearly the trauma of seeing my parents fighting all the time. At the height of it all, mom grabbed a knife to defend herself. Or was it for the purpose of stabbing dad? After all, I'm guessing he might have deserved it anyway. I can't remember the exact details, but I can still remember the pain of seeing my parents like that.

It wasn't until many more years later before my parents' divorce became a reality. I felt very sad for a long time. But as the years passed, I had a strange change of mind; I started feeling happy for my parents—especially my mom—that they decided to go their separate ways when it was still not too late to do so. Mom was eventually able to find love again and remarried a few years later. And dad, well what can I say, he remarried too, although I can't vouchsafe that it had much to do with love. Seeing my parents today, I really can't imagine how the heck did two very different people end up getting married in the first place!

Some people fall victims to infatuation and mistake it for love. The fairytale idea of "love at first sight". And then they take the big plunge; they get married. But eventually they realise that the marriage is nothing like the fairytale love story that they had imagined after all. I once wrote about a similar topic as posted here.

We are just human; we all make mistakes. But how should one deal with the mistake of marrying the wrong person? How many people actually have the guts to admit his or her mistake and call it quits while it's still not too late? So in the end, he endures the miserable relationship; or rather whatever's left of it. He struggles to keep it going in the hope that somehow some sort of miracle will happen and make it work again eventually. 

The never-ending quarrels for years and years, and still the struggle to keep it going. And then one of these days about 30 or 40 years down the road, when he looks back at his life, he is suddenly haunted by the question: Was it really worth it to endure for that long to live up to the fairytale love story?