Has the recession starts to ease

When I read the paper this morning and flipped through the classified section, it seems that the job market has recovered. There are more job advertised in the paper today than it was a month ago and we could simply hope that the worse could be over. There are however many people who still thinks that the situation is far from over but who can blame them after suffering from such a bad crisis.

Today is a beautful Saturday and it was fun watching people getting along with their lives and without realizing it people are getting back to their normal lives. There are people who are getting marry and in fact I was invited to one wedding sometimes this month and that ocassion alone can bring a little impact to the local economy. People will need to buy new clothes and new shoes for the the dinner and it is a good sign for people to gain confidence to spend again.

Now it is a good time to spend. If you have save enough cash during the last few months perhaps you can reward yourself with some gadgets you always dream of, like the new Iphone or simply change your old cell phone. You may want to get a new laptop or a new car as these items are on a good bargained price now.

Happy shopping

Taking advantage to invest in bumpy ride

It is time to ride back to the equity market and investors should not shy to invest their money in the better return in the equity and bond market.

The last few market crashes has taught us some valuable lesson on how manage our investment and it also has taught us that crisis could mean another window of opportunity for us to invest in cheapy and reap the return when the market recovers.

Have a safe investment journey and keep on moving forward.

Heat Wave of the El Nino phenomenon

Once again we are hit by the heat wave of the El Nino phenomenon and this could last until August. The heat is so intense as we can feel the sun as early as 7 in the morning and by mid day it is almost unbearable to stand under the sun. The El Nino is  the abnormal warm and dry weather in South East Asia and North Australia.

It seems that this phenomenon has becoming a yearly thing in the recent years and mostly due to the global warming. The temperature could rise by more than 3 degress celcius and it could be increasing in the future if steps are not taken to stop the global warming from becoming any worse.

Pollution, poor air quality and visibility maybe the immediate effect we may face right now and in some countries there are cases where people died because of the heat.

Lets start taking care of our earth and stop global warming.

Brawn GP Team is top of the world

Jenson Button again won the Formula One race in Turkey for the 6th time this season and positioned himself at very comfortable position of 61 points from the maximum 65 to make him the clear favouite to win the world championship in 2009. Barely 6 months ago Jenson and Ruben were not sure if they were able to race this season after the Honda Team decided to pull out from Formula One due to the credit crunch. Who could have thought a team that was assembled from in just weeks could possibly win almost all the races so far this year.

That is non other than the magic of the man who dare to take the challenge and who sees that success will come no matter in what position you are. The man is non other than Ross Brawn the team boss of the Brawn GP team. There is no question that this year Jenson will win the world championship and the Brawn GP team will become the new big boys in the formula one sports as we see McLaren are slowly drifting behind in the occupying most of the back lanes in most races. Congratulations to Jenson Button

Chicken a la Carte

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

This is a true story where people have barely enough to eat and everyday there are about 25,000 people die of hunger.Think for a while how we can make this world a better place to live.

Is it the right time to invest?

No too long ago we were talking about the recession and how bad it could affect us. Many of us lost our jobs and security and the numbers are even worst in the developed countries like the US. That is why we need to be ready for a major economic downturn like what we are having now.

When there is a downturn, there must be an upturn and likewise we should be ready for the economic upturn if we don’t want to be the one who is left without the chair when the music stop. Now everyone knows that. The big question is is it the right time now. No one in this planet can tell when is the time, but history does shows that economic recovery should come very soon. With a lot of measures and recovery plans by governments all around the world, there is no reason we can think that the recovery is not coming any soon that we want it to be. After all we sure will not let anything worse than the current state that we are having now.

If we have taken enough steps before the crisis or during the crisis, now it’t time to use the crisis to invest again. Normally that is what people do and we should do it now. We are in the second year of recession and things should be getting to normal on the third year, but when it comes to the third year, we are not able to invest at a low price.

What to invest? Properties of course. Houses and apartment are cheapers now as demand dropped and bank loans are cheaper too. It is now the time to collect some good properties and when things recover, people start to buy properties and we are in a good position to sell those we have.

Unit trust is the next best thing to buy after properties. Dow Jones have dropped to some 50% of its highest value and so are the rest of the world market. Investing in unit trust are much cheaper and safer way to invest and our investment are are spread out to a wide selection of funds and markets. Todays market are very wide and investors are able to invest throughout the world with the existence of many reliable unit trust companies nowadays.

Investing in equity or unit trust is more for a mid to long term to see the return of our investment. During the China boom in 2007, many investors are making fortune in China’s market and investors are coming from Japan and Asia countries to invest in Hong Kong and China.

We don’t want to wait for the Dow to reach the 10,000 level to enter the market, but we should enter and get some nice portfolio when it is still at the lower bottom of 8000 or below. By year end it may reach 10,000 where we can have a good return and by 2-3 years time, it may reach the 15,000 level where our investment could be double the value. And it is the same for other markets too.

So once again, it is the right time to invest, my best answer is yes.

2009 Formula One in Sepang Malaysia

We are only into the second race of the year and already there are many controversies and scandals involving around the team and the organizers of the Formula One. The Sepang GP was asked to start at 5:00 PM local time to allow TV viewers in Europe to be able to watch the race while having the breakfast on a Sunday morning. Already the decision was not very popular in Melbourne as some of the races complained of a low sun that could affect the vision.

Today in Sepang, it was not the case of the sun, but a thunderstorm that caused the Sepang circuit to turn into a river where the race had to be stopped and eventually suspended. Even if the race were to be restarted, there will not be enough sunlight to complete the race.

It was an exciting race indeed. Jenson Button from Brawn GP won for the second time after Australian GP last week. Now we can say that the Brawn Team really mean business and could be the main contender for the title in 2009.

Now where are the Ferraris and the McLarens. Both Ferraris are not in the points and Kimi decided to take early shower and enjoying some ice cream at the team garage. Nothing is right for the Ferrari right from the start.

The biggest gainer will be BMW’s Heidfeld and Toyota’s Timo Glock. It’s interesting to see Toyota to be among the top runners this year. We do hope more podium finish from the Toyotas.

Now where is that Lewis Hamilton. He had a very hard week. Started with a lie to the race officials in Australia and in Sepang Hamilton had a lucky break to finish in champioship points, but McLaren really need to keep focus if they want to be the big boys again. McLaren has more off the track incidents nowadays that has really affecting their performance. Not long ago they were involved in a spy incidence and now a top officials was sacked for deliberately asking Lewis Hamilto to lie to the officials.

In 2 weeks time, we will stop in China. I think the race will start a bit earlier,maybe 3:00 pm local time as they did in Australia. I want to see Jenson Button making it 3 in a row as I see the Brawn GP is the most fastest car now. But we will see the car reliability when the race start to head to Europe in a month or two.

Playing for Change “Stand By Me”

By Elections in April

It is not an April Fools joke but yes we are going to have 3 by elections. In the midst of the country and world all suffering from recession and economic uncertainties, we are still undecided of our leader or least to say who should lead us out of this economic slowdown. Many people are starting to get real tired of all these never ending play of elections and power exchange by politicians as till now we have yet to see any kind of progress or any significant move made by any leader for the recovery of the economy.

Well in fact there are some short term benefit from these elections as many jobless workers will be able to cash in some pocket money if they work as the party workers or do a little bit of side business during these campaign days.

I reckon there will be at least 2 more by elections in 2009 and as things seem hardly to settle down, Malaysia may face a sudden snap election very much sooner than anyone could have anticipated.

Nightfall