*Open Letter to Dato' Abdul Wahid Omar*

Having something like this happening again in my lifetime is almost impossible but that is not going to stop me from speaking out and hopefully being heard. This time I would like to address this open letter to no other than Dato' Abdul Wahid Omar, CEO of Maybank.

Dear Sir,

I hope that you understand that your company is not the favorite for any Malaysian. Like me, we use your services because we are forced to do so. It is not because of your excellent customer service, innovative products or facilities. You just happen to be one of the biggest (although not for long) thus you take your customers for granted.

Your credit card business is a joke. Your company expects people to go to their branches to collect their credit cards when other banks send credit cards straight to their houses. Sometimes these cards are sent to us without even applying for such a credit facility.

Your selected branches are open on certain weekends although they are more of a waste of time, energy, resources and costs more than anything at all. The amount of transactions that you allow on a Saturday are so small that the costs far outweigh any return on investment that you hope. Such leakages should be something a man of your caliber should spot with one eye shut.

Your re-designed branches are also somewhat not customer friendly. Putting your banking hall for normal customers on the first floor of a building places it out of reach of the elder generation and also the disabled when lifts are not provided. Is it so hard to have a lane for the elderly or the disabled on the ground floor of your branches?

Your business model is so unfriendly to customers that just to get a simple account statement to be printed on a blank piece of paper will take 2 days with costs as it would need to be routed or generated by the HQ. If that is the case, why do you even bother having branches if everything has to go back to the HQ?

Your standards for selecting employees is also called into question. I have known a case in particular with your TTDI branch in which your teller's tried to cheat a pensioner collecting her pension on not once but 2 occasions! Lucky that she was able to see through the trick but how many others have been duped by your employees?

Your customer service is poor and you have done nothing to improve it. You accept the fact that people and companies tend to come to you because of your size (and not your reputation) so all the complaints from your customers fall on deaf ears. As for your initiative on Corporate Social Responsibilities or CSR's, they're almost non existent.

Do take heed sir that no empire lasts forever and the past few weeks have shown that no company, no matter how big they are, are too big to fail. Your competitors are catching up and gaining on you and if you're not careful, you'd be clutching at straws soon.

I and many among my fellow Malaysians would prefer to bank with your competitors than with you. It is not too late for change and improvements but maybe we, your customers are not your main priority.

Yours truly,

Hyelbaine

*Doogie Howser Started It All*

Have you ever wondered who began the whole online journal or diary or by the more common name; blogs in the first place? You can point to your favorite blog that you’ve been following for the past 10 years or more and argue that he or she made it famous but I have my on take on who that person really is.

Well, it maybe a fictional person for what it’s worth but in my view, the person who may have sown the seeds of blogging all those years ago was in fact none other than your very own Doogie Howser, MD. Aahh, I can see a few light bulbs suddenly being lit up there which mean my theory may have some substance.

The whizkid of the show played by the now much older Neil Patrick Harris was famous for finishing off an episode of the tv series by punching in his computer his thoughts for the day. I’m not too sure but it did look like it was the WordStar application to me though I maybe wrong in that.

While we’re on the topic, how about the same very show is also responsible for the glut of “dramedy” regarding a MD’s life such as ER, Chicago Hope or in more recent times Scrubs and Grey’s Anatomy.

My god mother once said to me that one of the best ways to improve one’s English mastery is to write a journal, diary or a couple of paragraphs before heading to bed just to keep the mind sharp with practice. Whether she was also influence by the same TV show from the 80’s I'm not too sure.

Of course thanks to the show so many aspired to become MD’s and many do but they are those like me who end up just being a so called blogger. Truth be told I’ve never been consistent in writing down about my life. I’ve started a few journals or diary when I was growing up but those never seem to last for more than 2 to 3 months.

Surprisingly, Baine’s World has been around for an astonishing 4 years. Having said that, they were some lean years in between and I really never got going again after the earlier boom years of 2004 and 2005 until this very year. I’m amazed that this year alone, I’ve managed to write more posts than the past 3 years combined.

So yeah, all those mushroom bloggers you see lately (especially this year onwards) may or may not be part of those who have blogged for a good 5 years but I do believe, we do owe some inspiration for the boom of the blogging world to the guy who scored perfect for his SAT’s, graduated from Princeton at 10 and became a doctor at 14.

Cheers!!! :D

*Cash is King - Part 2*

Thank you so much for the comments, IM’s and email on my last post, it was really appreciated. I’m glad that it was a great benefit for you because it just goes to show, there’s a bigger problem affecting this country that what is in the news lately.

And yes, the disclaimer at the end of the page IS there for a reason and is no laughing matter. If you've read my previous posts than you know what people can and would do depending on what they read or hear or listen and this is especially among Malaysians.

So to the second and final part of Cash is King. The previous post pretty much harped about what not to do with your assets while this post is with the hope that the following could somehow maintain the value of your shringgit in such trying times.

Again, these are my views of which some of it I bounced off of my de facto CFO, Mr. TK:

Fixed Deposits: Normal savings account earns you close to nothing unless you have a gazillion shringgit while money under your pillow earns you dust. If you can do without liquidity for a short period of time, FD is the best way to maintain the diminishing value of the shringgit. Banks under the PIDM is a total must for everyone.

Trust Funds: I know I mentioned about this in my last post but funds provided by PNB are almost a sure bet against inflation and the devaluation of the shringgit. A lot of unit trusts sell the “capital preservation” tag line lately so look at the performance of the company, the costs of the fund and also your risk exposure before jumping in.

Interest Rates: Your shringgit will always be unable to appreciate enough to cover the cost of interest payments that you may have that continues to increase. Credit cards, car or worse personal loans are pegged at such high interest rates that unless you clear them off, the value of the shringgit will only mean you’re paying an even smaller amount in value than you think.

Stocks: Again I touched on this in my last post but if you are a long term investor looking for returns 5 years or more from now, this MIGHT be the time for you to jump into the stock exchange. Potential gains that could be realized would far outweigh any of the previous options above albeit at an extremely greater risks. Personally, I'd continue to wait and see how things pan out.

Basically as the title of the post suggests, cash IS king. If things gets worse from here on out, cash is no longer king but the queen, the royal prince, emperor, ministers and even the “tukang karut” for all I care. I once read that in such bad times, the best way to make or find some money is to save it.

Now is also a good time to look if you still need all 200 channels on your Astro or if you need that huge postpaid plan on your mobile or having food outside at the fancy restaurant every weekend or 10 credit cards or the deceptive current account with high fees but very low interest rates. It’s all draining the wealth from you.

Try having as much liquid assets for what you might need for the next year or so. These should be in cash or equivalent instruments that are secure and of course liquid. Now may not be the best time to increase one’s wealth but maintaining it would be a greater achievement. Any additional income from safe places such as FD’s would be an added benefit indeed!

Good luck to me, you and everyone as we face what are such uncertain times for our wallets ;)

Cheers!!! :D

PS>> As at time of writing, the KLCI is teetering at 1003.51 points, not far off from where I’d thought it would be on my last post with 2 more full trading days to go.

Disclaimer:
The entire post above represents the personal view of the blogger entirely. The blogger is not part of any bank, investment arm or financial institution that may stand to gain or lose from the personal views expressed in this post. The blogger shall not be responsible or liable for any damages or losses incurred as a result of using the comments and views found in this post.

*Cash is King - Part 1*

I had a nice chat with my de facto (its bandied around a lot lately the term isn't it?) CFO, Mr. TK over at our normal mamak hang out which coincidentally has now been renamed to PJ Ibumee. Why this is done? I guess they wanted to push their brand globally thus the change in its name.

TK is of course my counterpart whenever I need to check on the economy, financial and other economic related stuff. We bounce off ideas and share our success and also failure stories. It was about time that we caught up with the Malaysian economy; the stock exchange in particular of which it is in what is a downward spiral.

We came up with a few “action items” for my financial plans for the short to near term ie: between now and 2013. I would just like to share with you some of it in the hopes that maybe it would be beneficial to you and your own financial planning.


Stocks. If you have it, consider dumping it. If you bought with cash and your reserves are high, you can consider holding on to it but if you bought shares via credit, loan or the ESOS options, cut your losses. We expect the KLCI to further wane and may even breach the 1000 point mark due to world economic conditions and also the favorite “political instability” lame excuse.

Unit Trust Funds. If you purchase these instruments in bulk by timing the bottom or the bottom-up, you might want to again sell it off and cut your losses. However, if you follow the standing instruction (SI) option of investing, go on. The latter's concept of dollar-cost-averaging would mean you continue to accumulate units at cheap or competitive prices. Lately the trend of newly launched trust funds have been “capital preservation” rather than “capital growth” which shows how tough things are even for such safe instruments.

Commodities. Leave it alone. Yes prices of crude oil and gold has come down significantly in the past few weeks and there are a number of commodities related funds which are heavily advertised but we believe that you're better off without it. Commodities is still an area of ridiculous speculation where prices are easily 20% to 30% contributed by market speculators alone rather than actual demand/supply principles.

Property. This is a tricky one. House prices in the US are at all time lows and to wish something similar to happen in Malaysia brings all the issues effecting the US into our shores. Everyone wants to buy property at low prices but that is usually accompanied by other issues. Prices of building materials is not going to come down anytime soon so those lucky enough to buy property that had locked in prices much earlier would be at a significant advantage. If the price is right, you're financially sound and the property ticks all the check boxes of a good property, seriously consider it.

My next post would hopefully be able to help the few readers here find ways to counter the effects of stagflation and also the depreciation of the “shringgit”.

Cheers!!! :D

Disclaimer:
The entire post above represents the personal view of the blogger entirely. The blogger is not part of any bank, investment arm or financial institution that may stand to gain or lose from the personal views expressed in this post. The blogger shall not be responsible or liable for any damages or losses incurred as a result of using the comments and views found in this post.

*Stand Up 2 Cancer*

What a welcome relief! For once, I did not have to sit through an hour of more and more irritating and annoying shambles being played on the TV. For once, I need not cringe at the thought of having to look for an option to pass my time despite the plethora of channels on Astro most of which of course, is just re-runs.

I watched the 1 hour tele-cast organized in support of StandUp2Cancer.org earlier this evening. It was an event organized to not only raise awareness but also funds to find a cure for cancer research and to hope that one day, there will be a solution for the decease.

I sat down with the Mrs and she commented that Malaysian artists wouldn't be able to pull off what the western artists did. She believes and I agree that our local artist, most of them at least, are just not smart and intelligent enough to understand such a deep and meaningful cause. Maybe that's why we haven't organized such an event in Malaysia too often for what is a worthy cause.

I'm not boasting but I do play my part in the search for a common cure for cancer, however remote it may seem. While I do not donate in terms of cash I have donated my spare CPU cycles to the United Devices cause and currently I'm supporting The Rothberg Foundation For Childhood Diseases cause with my spare CPU cycles.

It was indeed a welcome relief to be able to watch TV about something that means so much more to so many other people that continue to be bombarded with the same old noise and utter rubbish that continues to distort our daily lives here in Malaysia.

What was on for one hour that I was so glad to be able to comfortably turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to? Why the local Malaysian news trash of course!

Cheers!!! :D

*Buaian For The Adult*

We’ve been in la-la in it at least once in our lifetime. Normally we spend at least a good 5 to 7 hours in one of those way back when our feet were no bigger than our mother’s palm and we had skin as smooth as baby’s skin without having to spend hundreds of Shringgit on beauty products.

That is of course called the “buaian” in Malay or cradle for those who may not be familiar. A rudimentary contraption that is made of a few springs (depending on the weight of the baby), a hanger like type thingy and of course the “kain pelikat” or sort of a cloth that is used to cradle the precious life.

Most of us naturally grow out of the “buaian” by the time we start walking on our own without looking like the marshmallow-man or having to grasp onto something else to keep us vertical.

When I look back at pictures of my nieces and nephews, they always seem so calm and relaxed in the “buaian” something I believe so many of us adults now wish we can achieve when we close our eyes.

Of course getting into one of these now would be utterly ridiculous and the closest thing we have is of course the hammock. Sadly, it’s normally found near a tree on a beach rather than a home in KL. However, some have found an alternative that provides the same rocking, cooling and calming feeling of the buaian or cradle.

What is it I hear you asking?

Why it is the car of course! Other wise known as the motor vehicle and to some automobile. Come on, you must agree right? How many time’s have your passengers on a road trip reach “Ayer Keroh” before you actually reach that location in Melaka?

Come to think of it, it provides all the items a "buai" does right? I mean the A/C cools you down, the seats are comfortable and the wonderful uneven roads we have in Malaysia literally rock you to sleep.

Of course when you’re doing most of the driving most of the time, these experiences are few and far between indeed. Maybe you should swap places the next time to enjoy the feeling again eh?

Cheers!!! :D

PS>> Sorry I don't have a pic of it, tried to transfer it from my phone but can get my laptop's blue tooth to work :P

*If They Could Only Realize*

These are trying times indeed for a lot of us. So many uncertainties floating around makes you wonder if today would turn out the way that one had planned it out to be. How so many long for a bit of piece and quite so that one could struggle on with life.

The month of Ramadan is the holiest month of all. One could make up for so much of the wrong doings and man’s inefficiencies. He has granted such a month for all to realign one’s self to Him as it is so easy to go astray.

Having said that, man still find it so easy to cheat, lie and continue in their sinful ways despite the constant reminders all around us. So many continue on their distracted ways and views oblivious to his calling.

I feel sorry for these people, I feel sorry for their family, friends and children. For He has said in the holy Quran how “They shall give the riches in this world so that they shall astray further from the one true path” and yet they do not heed the warnings.

The month of Ramadan is not necessarily a “get out of jail” pass like so many think it is though it would certainly help those who have been whispered by the devil. It is not just about fasting but in fact it is so much more than that.

I feel sorry for the people who continue about their lives without knowing or realizing that they have strayed so far away. For only He has the ability to light the flame in one’s soul and He also has the right to further darken a man’s soul.

For their sake and also everyone’s, I hope they realize that this is a special month. I hope that we are all not too late.

Happy Ramadan to one and all ;)

Cheers!!! :D