Irwan’s

As our market is going through uncertainties both in politic and economic itself, people are flocking to investments that are able to hedge such uncertainties. Many opt for bonds that offer security but less-than-inflation rate of growth. However, there is one vehicle of investments that strive in the time of political and economic struggle. It’s gold.

Before you jump straight into this golden arena, there are few things that you have to know. This guide will ensures that you will be better prepared in Q&A session with your investment advisor.

Question. What kind of gold should I buy?

Answer. Gold comes in many forms. So you have to know which suits you best. First we have bullions or gold coins. In Malaysia, the only bullion coins is Kijang Emas. It’s available through local banks. You can get more info from Maybank page.

If you are not keen to keep the coins by yourself, you can save the hassle by opening gold investment account, like the one offered by Public Bank. This gives peace of mind and reduces unnecessary risk of keeping the real gold in your house.

Q. When should I buy?

A. If you read online articles, they will tell you that it’s always the best time to buy gold. Most probably because those people the ones selling gold. However, it’s quite true but I won’t give you that straight answer. Gold is a limited expensive metal, is not a derivation, have resilient value and rather high liquidity. Besides, the value of gold usually strives when inflation rate increases, currency is having debasement or future economic prospect is in gloom. All of these put gold as a preferred investment when other investment vehicle fail to offer enough confidence to investors.

Q. How much should I buy?

If you would like to have gold as part of your investment, it’s best to consider it as a low risk low return investment. Having said that, I would say 10-30% is a good range when economic is having a good time and you can increase it if you are expecting economic slowdown. That’s it if you are a speculative investors, if not, just do regular investment on gold and you should be fine.

Q. How about gold stock?

A. Gold stock are shares of companies that deal with gold mining, extraction, processing and minting. While it’s closely related to gold, it’s still stock, not precious metal. If the stock rides on the bull market because of gold, you are lucky but it doesn’t offer the same qualities that people seek by investing in gold. So make sure you know what you are doing.

Q. Where can I track daily gold price?

A. Kitco has a good graph of daily gold price movement on their site. Check it out.

Q. Ok, I’m interested, what should I do now?

A. If you are ready to make gold investment, go to nearby bank and ask them about it. You’ll learn a lot more when you already have basic of gold investment.

Good investing

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Who says a city can’t have a waterfall? Today is the official launch day for NYC’s waterfall located just under the Brooklyn Bridge. For those city dwellers who had never saw a live waterfall, here is your chance.

Here’s the video but it’s not featuring its full glory, which happens at night.

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I just finished watching Germany vs Turkey match. I know how much unrelated it is but somehow I feel energized to write. Perhaps it’s my coffee. Anyhow, let’s make it engineer-like goals to sizzle up this blog.

My goals have to be specified. First, I’m going to make at least 1 posts in every 2 days or worst case, 3 posts per week. If not, all of you have the right to scold, nag, anything, you even can ask me to go out for a movie(if you are a girl :p), it’s on me.

Second, I have a great list of suggestion from my previous post. Some suggest me to write about fuel and minimum wages. I’ll try to tackle those issues in next posts.

Third, I need a new theme! I hate this theme. Do suggest me a new theme please.

Fourth, where are my adsense? I’ve been losing out months of adsense revenue because google stop displaying my ads. I contacted them just now and I am waiting for a good news.

That’s all for the time being. Thanks for reading this

-irwan

I’m quite unmotivated to write in this blog nowadays. I’m not busy, have nothing much to do, but yet, the urge to write is still not here. Maybe I have writer block but I’m not really a writer who was writing a thicken plot of a murder and then stumbled upon a wall that block the continuation of the story. Or I just feel complacent about an insignificant number of articles that are heavily commented. No matter what’s the reason, there aren’t many good articles coming out of me.

So I hope someone out there could suggest a topic that might spark some interest in me to write about it.

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It’s quite disappointing that after a long, hopeful waiting, Iphone 3G won’t be officially launched in Malaysia. It’s sadder still, our southern neighbor, Singapore, is included in the official release soon. Heck, even Botswana is included.

However, as we already know, Malaysia is full of dedicated Iphone bringers. I myself will try my best to fulfill Malaysian’s hunger of these ’Twice as fast. Half the price’ Iphone. I’ll update with the link to my bulk later.

Update: Many news confirm that activation for the Iphone will be on the spot. Meaning they won’t let you leave the store if you don’t activate your phone. At the moment, there is possible way for me to conduct my bulk yet.

Even more Update: The best place to get Iphone is New Zealand as its iphones are officially unlocked. So no need warranty-voiding hack or sim-adapter hassle. However the price is not very nice and friendly now as it’s retailed at 979NZD and 1129NZD for 8gb and 16gb respectively.

Let’s cut the chase. What’s new on Iphone 3G.

1. 3G speed.

It’s 2.8x faster than slowball EDGE and you can browse while you are on a call.

3.8x faster in downloading attachment.

2. Enterprise features.

More features for enterprise users such as activesync support, push email, calendar and contacts.

3. GPS!

It’s not assisted GPS anymore. It’s the real GPS like garmin and tomtom. Now you can use your iphone to navigate in a car. update: there is no turn-by-turn feature. You will just be aware of where you are.

Now you will have a pulsing blue dote that follow you every step you take.

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