ASX Money - My New Blog!

Hello, my friend. How are you? It looks like I'm no longer updating this blog for a while. Probably no one is reading this now since the average visitor for this blog is only 10. From few hundred down to ten now. So sad... 

This is probably my last post here because I have a new blog now! It is called "ASX Money" where I focus on investing in Australian stock market. I will most likely dedicated my time there. If you miss me, you can go there! But it is likely you're Malaysian and you won't be interested in ASX Money. :) However, most my stock investment learning is pretty generic. Yeah, go there if you're interested in stock.

During this pandemic, I have started investing in Australian stock and I have learned a lot. However, sometimes I"m not sure I have learned it. So I think it may be good for me to document what I have learned and blogging seems like a good way to achieve it. It can also keep me motivated. 

Alright. Signing off now! See you!

How To Play Money Game?

When I backed to Malaysia last month, I heard a lot about this "Money Game" term which I've never heard before in the past. I don't think that is an official financial term but that is probably only used in Malaysia (maybe Singapore and China too?) In short, money game is basically a high investment return scheme. In other words, it is known as "Get-Rich-Quick" scheme which is a more proper term. For example, you invest certain amount of money, you can get back 20% of return every month.

What so sad is many are believing money game is actually real and claim that the founder is a genius. We can't blame them because there are actually physical proper office which makes people think they're real? We are not talking about 1 or 2 money game companies but more than 300 of them listed by our Bank Negera Malaysia (BNM) as illegal investment company. Sometimes I just curious, if BNM already know they're illegal, why no actions being taken? Could this be political related?

Good news is these money game companies start getting main media attention recently. Many people have started to aware those schemes are basically not real but in fact is merely a fraud based on the pyramid scheme especially they start not getting back their money. Maybe this is just my hope but in reality, perhaps the awareness of the truth of money game is still at very low level in Malaysia. It seems like this is something that can't be fixed because I have been hearing this since I was a kid!

Well since this is unfixable (although deep in my heart I really hope this can be fixed), I think I may as well teach you how to play this game. At least, I can share with you from my perspective how I will I play this game if I really want to. Here are the only 3 simple rules that I come up which I think you must follow them if you're serious in money game.


Rule 1: Understand Money Game is A Scam

The best investor in this world can only make 20-30% return annually. What make you think this company can make 20% a month for you? Yupe, that is why he is a genius. He makes probably 40% a month and give you 20%. This number basically way too off from the reality. If you can't accept this is scam, this money game is NOT for you.

Rule 2: Invest Like Giving A Donation

You have to imagine like giving a donation. It is basically something that you won't get back. If you don't get back the money, it is fine. If you're okay to donate $1K, then invest $1K or else don't invest at all.

Rule 3: Make Sure The Company Has Lasted for 1 to 1.5 Years

Well this is just my guess. You need to do a little bit research, how long this company has lasted. If it has been just lasted for few months, don't invest. Lasting for more than 1.5 years, don't invest too. Only invest those companies that has lasted between 1 to 1.5 years and don't ask me how I come out with this number. This is purely my gut feeling based on very limited personal statistical data.

Rule 4: Do Not Top Up Your Investment

Make sure you don't top up additional investment. If you really want to invest more, look for another company that meets Rule 3 criteria above. Topping up basically defects the purpose of Rule 3.  Either you don't top up or look for another company if you really want to donate more.


Hope this post is useful to you. Last but not least, I highly recommend you to learn to be a real investor. Don't invest in this kind of no-effort high return investment. If you really want no-effort investment, just invest in Fixed Deposit or Mutual Fund using the dollar averaging strategy. Good luck!

Everything Is Negotiable In Australia?

I learned that almost everything is negotiable in Australia and is this a good thing? I personally don't like it because it requires you do extra homework before you make a deal.

The trick is you need to "SHOP AROUND". What you really need to do is don't go to the shop you really want to make a deal with first, shop around to get the cheapest price and finally only go to that shop for final negotiation. This usually goes like this:

• What is the cheapest you can give me? If the given price is cheaper than the cheapest price that you have in another shop, it is clearly you don't do enough homework (this usually won't happen).

• Tell them that you get this price from another shop (show them the proof), what you can offer? If they offer the same price, ask them again if it is the same, why do I need to buy from you? Then, they will usually give you lower price again.

• Ultimately if you repeat the above steps couple of times, then you will definitely get the cheapest offer.

Utility bill is the one I did it recently which I did not aware it all until I was told. Can you imagine utility bill also can be negotiated? The highest discount among all my friends is 18%. So I gave them a call and start negotiating. At the end, we got 23% discount but with condition of 1 year contract.

• They first offered me 15%, then I told them that all my friends get 18% from another company, then they offered me 18% with a contract. 

• I responded no. I don't want to tight to any contract with a discount. Then, the person in charge can't make the decision and need to escalate this to his/her manager. This is the crucial steps and make sure you go beyond this step. 

• After the manager's approval, they offer me 23% discount with 1 year contract which then we had accepted the offer. I believe there was still room for negotiation but we didn't proceed it further (e.g. we can hang up and use this as baseline to negotiate again with another utility company) 

This is really applicable to also everything which includes electronic stuff, car insurance, car, home loan, utility bills, lawyer fees and etc. Can you imagine it is really almost everything? If you don't negotiate, they won't specifically offer you. Take the utility bill example above, I have saved 23% by just giving them a call.

I don't really like this system and it is simply waste of time. It doesn't have standardization too. However, if you really want to save, do your homework and remember to get the proof to support your negotiation. I guarantee that you will get a lot more cheaper price than normal people get because majority of people here don't negotiate. Good luck!

Conveyancing Solicitors in Sydney Is Worst Than In Malaysia

I'm so surprise that conveyancing solicitors that we have met so far in Sydney are actually worst than the one we know in Malaysia. They're not just bad but simply unprofessional. It is almost like anyone can be a solicitor...

We have been changing our solicitors for 3 times and eventually find a acceptable one with the drawback that the legal fee is 4 to 5 times higher.

Why I say so? Here are few incidents that I faced:


First Property

• Missed the important letter about DA approval final date is delayed. This was extremely important because this basically tells you that you have the right to rescind the contract.

• Did not understand the right of purchaser to rescind the contract and gave the wrong information that the right to rescind the contract is the developer when a DA approval final date is not met. 

At the end, we rescinded this contract but this delayed us for more than 6 months because of missing to inform us when the DA approval was delayed.

Second Property

• Did not read the contract at all. During contract briefing which was less than 10 minutes, he did not highlight the most important clause in the contract that the GST was excluded from the property price. There were also some other unacceptable clauses that required us to pay more were not being explained at all.

This solicitor was from Malaysia and also the worst solicitor that I had ever met in my life. Although we chatted like a Malaysian, but his service was totally unacceptable to me. Technically no legal service was provided at all, just a normal chit-chat Malaysian style service...

We ended up didn't buy this property because of GST exclusion which we found out ourselves.


Third Property

• Kept missing email from seller's solicitor and did not want to admit and address that. Our agent had to request the email to forward to us every time and we passed it to our solicitor.

• Too many errors in the contract and said that is basically okay without a proper reason given. Many of our concerns on the contract were not addressed at all and kept saying that "this is how it was done".  The obvious one is many clauses mentioned in the contract were basically missing and can't be found anywhere in the contract, this is okay and this is how it was done? Oh my god..

• Push us to sign the contract before addressing our concerns. This is the worst part and obviously he did not stand on our side.

We ended up change this solicitor to another one which was better but of course the legal fee is a lot higher too. There are few clauses that do not side us at all were not explained by our previous solicitor.

The whole contract was being rewritten but the legal fee went to the seller directly. We signed the contract eventually and waiting for the settlement date at this moment.


Key Learnings

• Getting a right conveyancing solicitor is like shopping but we need to keep in mind that we're the customer and we have the rights to change our solicitor if we think that he doesn't represent us well.

• Depends on how complicated of your contract. If you're buying sub-sale off-the plan property, those kind of contract is the most complicated one (which is our case in third property above), then my advice is you must get a good solicitor. 

• However, if you're buying off the plan property from a reliable developer directly, the contract is the same for everyone. In that case, you do not need to worry that much about the contract. You can take risk to go for cheaper legal fee option provided you're comfortable with it

I think what I experienced here is simply because the property market in Sydney is spoiled. The property market is too hot that nobody cares about the contract. If you care, you missed the opportunity to buy. People just sign and go ahead without thinking much. Many solicitors just copy and paste from their previous contract and apply one contract to every thing. That explains why there are so many irrelevant clauses and mistakes in the contract.

If you're lucky, everything goes smoothly. If you're not, you could end up trouble to pay GST that you're not supposed to pay (which is the biggest trap in my opinion) or many other issues.

What is DA approval in Off The Plan Property?

The interesting thing about property sale person is they won't tell you everything unless you ask. We learned a lot along the process of buying a property in Australia. One of the very most importing things is "DA Approval, it stands for "Development Application Approval"that we didn't aware of.

All off the plan properties require DA approval before the developer can start building a property and usually the major factor of delaying a property completion is due to this DA approval. All off the plan property contracts protect developer for this DA approval delay. That means if the DA approval is delayed, they have the rights to delay the sunset date (i.e. worst case date of property completion).

If you ever want to buy an off the plan property, the first question that you want to ask is, have this property already got DA approval? If yes, the risk of delaying the property completion is low (assuming this is a reliable developer) or otherwise is high.

This is also another way of probing how well the sale person understand the property that he or she is selling. If he/she doesn't know the answer, it basically tells he/she is not knowing the property enough.

Bad Experience With AirAsia

This is the first time I have a very bad experience with AirAsia and my conclusion is their customer services and web interface is really bad!


Useless Live Chat

• It always error out multiple times when we try to add-on meal. We need to attempt couple of times. Not sure about you guys but this has been happening to me in the past too.

• Internet banking payment is so buggy. It worked for us for increasing luggage weight but not on add-on meal. It worked in the past but not this round unfortunately. There were no confirmation message but it had been charged. So this ended up we paid twice for nothing. So we needed them to address this ASAP.

• Live chat is completely useless. We waited for one hour since it was out of working office hour and the response was just fill up the e-form. We told them that we need immediate attention and the response was they can't do anything other that filling up the e-form and wait for the reply. So why you need live chat at all if you can not address the problem live? 

• We filled up the form with the proof of internet banking transaction. The automated e-form reply says it can take up to 14 days to response. What? So I had no choice but waited until tomorrow to call their call center during working hours.

Useless Call Center

• The representative person that we talked to had no common sense at all. He said he didn't see payment from his side and ask me to pay again. I told him, I've already paid twice and there were no record, what makes you think the third payment works? I insisted I"m not going to try that again because I knew the result is going to be same and I wanted the refund. He responded for the refund, I have to wait for the response from the e-form which takes up of 14 days. Oh my god... 

• I kept proposing options (looks like I need to solve the problem myself) - cancelling the add-on meal is not an option too because is not allowed (such a stupid system) and not paying is not an option too because we can't board the flight if there is still a pending payment. It ended up the solution was I paid using another method (i.e. credit cards) and they will deal with my refund later.

Refund Process Is Screwed

• After 1 week+, I'm still in the refund process but I can't stop blogging about it. During this process, my booking balance has negative value (due to the refund amount value) and this causes me can't make any modification on my booking. Speechless...

Conclusion

Now I finally understand why some people complain so badly about AirAsia and don't want to take it anymore. It is their customer services especially when thing goes wrong. Also, what is the use of twitter and live chat if you can't provide instant support? Please remove it completely. 

Having said so I have to remind myself, it is a low-cost airline. You pay for what you get. So I can't complain much. I very likely still take AirAsia flights because of $ :( but I do hope AirAsia customer services can be improved one day.

Tips To Get An Australian Job Offer Before Permanently Move

Before I migrated to Australia, the general impression that I got is "it is quite easy to get a job in Australia". This is due to the fact that they are lacking of professional talents and that is the reason why they have the immigration policy to attract global talents. Really? Demand is more than supply and it is definitely an employee market, isn't that common sense? Not at all...

If you ask anyone who has already landed here in Australia, I guarantee that 99% of them will tell you that it is very hard to get a job in Australia. Since it is so hard to get a job, 99.9% of them will tell you almost impossible for you get a job remotely in Australia because the chance is very close to 0%. So forget about demand and supply, it is an illusion. I will cover the demand and supply topic in my next post on this which is kind of interesting. 

This post is really to share with you my personal experience on how I got an Aussie job offer remotely from Malaysia before I permanently landed here in Australia.  However, please do keep in mind that, I still do not recommend what I did because the chances is really very low as most people said. I still consider what happened to me was a "luck". Yes, it was really lucky! What you can do is give a try first. If it doesn't work out, it is still better for you to migrate first,  then only look for a job. This increases your chances of getting an interview.

Tips start now...


Resume Writing

I assume you already have a good resume and what I cover here is what I did differently to increase the chance of the recruiters calling me. 

• Don't put Malaysia's phone in your resume. What I did is register a Skype phone with Australian number (yes, you need to pay a bit for that) and put your Skype phone in your resume.  Your Skype phone should starts with +61 and this basically you can't really tell the difference from normal Australian phone. 

• Don't put Malaysia's address in your resume too. Putting address in your resume is not a requirement. You don't really have to do that. I wouldn't recommend to put an Australian address too (e.g. your friend's address in Australia) because technically you're not staying in Australia. That is like a cheating. You may ask isn't that using Skype phone cheating too? Not really, you can explain that the Skype phone is easier for recruiter to call you instead of calling an international phone which incur charges for them! 

• Indicate you already have an Australian PR VISA in your resume which proves that you already have rights to work in Australia. Most recruiters won't sponsor you a VISA and assume you already have the working rights.

The first 2 tips above are extremely important because you don't want to miss the opportunity for them to call you. I recruit people before so I understand. Every time I see an outstation address or phone, it is very unlikely I will call them. 


Making Use of Your Initial Landing

When you receive your PR approval, within a year you need to do your initial landing. Initial landing means you need to touch down in Australia but you are not required to permanently stay in Australia yet.  So I made use of this initial landing and got my first interview (which is by luck too). 

• Decide a date for your initial landing. The best date in my opinion is Q4 (around the end of November or early of December)  or Q1 (around the end of February or early of March). Q1 has the most active recruitment activity but it is also known to everybody. This means you have a lot of competitions too. Q4 is a good timing (in my opinion of course) because of less competition. People usually don't change job in this time frame and some companies already have hiring budget for the following year. So I definitely recommend Q4 but just make sure it is not too close to Christmas. I got my job offer in Q4 but I don't really aim for Q4 because I didn't know all these by that time, it was just purely by coincident. 

• Once you have decided the date, start the job hunting when it is close to the date. Maybe around 2 months before your initial landing. Do it aggressively until when you have chance, inform them the date that you will be in Australia for face to face interview. If you still can't get an interview, don't give up because you can still do it during your initial landing. You can contact them (either phone or email) that you're already here and ready for an face to face interview and hopefully you can secure an interview. I was so lucky at that time that I got only one interview. Yes, luck again which I have mentioned many times. 

Hope this is helpful! This is the most common question people ask me many times and basically this is how I did it. Yes and I still believe it is luck because I din't get many interviews. I almost lost this chance because they contacted me very late, just 2 days before I flew back to Malaysia. 

Hopefully you are as lucky as I am. If not, you can still do the conventional way which most people do, move first and look for a job later. However, I would recommend you to have 1 year of expenses fund (around $60k - see my previous post here) and secure a job first before your entire family move over. Good luck! 

2015 Expenses Update in Sydney

Previously I posted "living expenses in Sydney for 2 adults" is around $54.7K might not be completely correct due 2 adults expenses only started actually in May. So, my 2015 expenses may be more accurate for 2 adults instead.

My expenses in 2015 was $67K, it is about 22.5% increase as compared to my expenses in 2014. If we converted to MYR, it is about RM 200K per year. So instead of RM150K that I mentioned previously, you need RM 200k per year to survive in Sydney.

Here is the breakdown:

We travel quite often and back to Malaysia twice a year. That contributes quite high number of expenses (i.e. > 20% of our expenses). Hopefully this information is useful especially for those who plan to migrate to Australia. It is not cheap, so be prepared. Good luck!

Note: FYI - The breakdown is not as accurate as in my previous 2014 expenses breakdown because I no longer track every single detailed item but overall spending is still accurate. You should refer to my 2014 expenses for more accurate breakdown data if you're interested.

2016 Resolutions and Review

Wow, time flies. I have migrated here in Australia for 2 years. It has been 2 years I don't have a resolution. Now I think it is time to start for 2016! Before that, let's do some reviews.


What happened in 2013 & 2014?

• Still have a job luckily but fail to get another job offer with higher pay. I have been looking for maybe almost a year. :( Few key things I learn during this process:

• For experience hiring, most recruiter look for "direct matching" experience that you have. If you don't have a direct matching skills and experience, your chance will be low. Maybe close to zero?

• Programming test and aptitude screening test is extremely hard. I failed most of these tests. They're not expecting you score >80% mark but maybe more than that? This is especially true for certain industry (i.e. financial market trading). I only managed to pass maybe 1 out of 5 of these tests, then my phone interview failed. The hiring process usually goes like this, screen test, phone interview, then face to face interview with another round of technical test.

• Unlike in Malaysia that I know, most of them don't have pressure to hire. They set a bar, whoever pass the bar, they will hire. So their positions are always open. This is just my guess only. I think is true especially for those larger companies.  

• Still manage to save more than 50% of our combined income. Thanks to my wife who is capable enough to earn higher than I do. I hope she can earn more and more and yes, I don't mind eat "soft rice"! 

• Traveled to so many places within Australia. I have been Tasmania twice, Uluru, Canberra, Adelaide, places within NSWs(e.g Parkes for satellite dish, Young for cherry picking, bush walking, beaches and more). Thanks to my wife again who loves travelling and plan almost all travels that we have.

• Bought an off the plan apartment but it is only ready in early of 2018. Maybe a wrong move? We initially wanted to buy a property that we can move in immediately. Maybe this is good too, because loan application needs to look at your credit record which I don't have. So I can take times to build up my credit record here.

• Back to work again, I got promoted to Senior but with very little increment (i.e. less than 5%). It was still a great achievement but now is kind of in a comfort zone already.

• Had a posture problem that cause various health issue. Maybe that's the symptoms of getting old. :(

• Created one Android game but only have 10+ download. :) Well, this is my third app.  I guess this is something that I want to focus in 2016.

2016 Resolutions

• Fix posture problem, sleep, sit and walk properly. Now I only realize posture is so important, Measure of success: No headache more than twice in a year

• Develop more Android games or app. Need to focus on this because this is something that I really like and can also create more job opportunities in furture. So I need to develop some skills. Measure of success: 5 apps and at least 1 app hits >5000 downloads

• Experience in AirBnB (Stretch goal). Since I'm getting old, need to start thinking of how to build a second income that do need so much effort from my physical body. Measure of success: Move out existing place and have 3 tenants. 

Yes, 3 resolutions only and I think it is good enough. In fact, these 3 goals are already very hard to me. :D Maybe one more unwritten resolution is update this blog.  I don't want this blog dead. The other blogs that I have is fine but not this one. Okay, at least 2 posts per quarter. I hope this is not so hard.

Good luck and happy near year!

How much you need to earn to own a house or unit in Australia?

This is how much you need to earn per year to survive in Australia! It is based on the current (Dec 2015) median price and of course this is just a guideline.

City	House	Unit
Sydney	$154,482 (median: $840,000)	$115,862(median: $630,000)
Canberra	$106,666(median: $580,000)	$76,689(median: $417,000)
Darwin	$105,792(median: $575,250)	$84,597(median: $460,000)
Melbourne	$104,643(median: $569,000)	$86,436 (median: $470,000)
Perth	$101,149 (median: $550,000)	$80,000 (median: $435,000)
Brisbane	$89,655 (median: $487,500)	$73,011 (median: $397,000)
Adelaide	$77,241 (median: $420,000)	$62,528 (median: $340,000)
Hobart	$64,827 (median: $352,500)	$50,574 (median: $275,000)

Source: www.realestate.com.au (Dec 2015)

Maybe one day I should move away from Sydney after selling my property for retirement? Something to think of...

Citibank in Australia is NOT Good

When I first rented a first property here in Sydney, my rental agent surprised that I was using Citibank and he told me that usually local here don't use Citibank. At that I just listened and continued to use Citibank since it was my favorite bank but not until this incident happened...


Why I say Citibank is not good? 

Firstly, they rejected my credit card application without giving me any reason although I met all the criteria and didn't have a bad credit record. So I called them and they asked me to appeal. They have a specific channel for that. So I write a formal letter to appeal and they never got back to me after many months.

At one point, then my account was promoted to Citigold (this is when your saving reaches certain amount) where there is a an dedicated account manager to serve you. So I called him and told him about my situation about my credit card application and I asked for the reason of rejection.

Account manager: We don't know the reason but you need to ask the one who handle this credit card application for you. Do you know who handle your case? 

Me:  A banker in Citibank Queen Victoria Building (QVB) branch. 

Account manager: You need to find him and ask him.  

Me: No way, what is the point that I having account manager who can't do anything for me? I"m not going to find this person. Either you help me to figure that out or I will change to use different bank. 

So this guy never responded me after that. So I started to switch my saving to Commonwealth Bank and eventually I got my credit card application approval there.

About one year later, a lady banker called me to do survey on my account manager to basically rate him from 1 to 10. So I gave him everything 1. The lady actually surprised and I told her the reason. The next day, my account manager called me.

Account Manager: Is there anything I can help?  

Me: No. Why you call me suddenly?  

Account Manager: No, just want to check with you if you need any help.  

Me: No. I don't need any help now. 

He didn't seem like know the actual reason why I"m not satisfied. He just knew that I rated him low so he called. Huh? I thought I already told the lady? Anyway, I really didn't need his help anymore. After few weeks, he called me again and the conversation went exactly the same like before. I think after 3 rounds, then he stopped. He never called again.

Summary 

Based on this incident and experience that I had with them, now I know why locals do not use Citibank. Perhaps this is a chicken and egg problem (i.e. less customer, less services?). Their service is pretty bad actually and no accountability. It is definitely not as good as Citibank's service in Malaysia. Of course this is merely my opinion and doesn't represent all.

Having said so, Citibank is still my favorite BUT only for this Citibank Global Transfer Feature which I talked about it in the past. I still promote this feature to everybody who wants to transfer money from or to Malaysia because I find it very convenient and cheap.

Understand Excess Reduction in Car Rental

You may or may not know about this excess reduction in car rental every time when you are travelling. In fact, a lot of people misunderstand that this in an insurance and I'm confused myself too when first I started renting car here in Australia.

In fact, this is NOT an insurance at all but maybe it can be related to insurance. For example, if you don't pay for this excess reduction, you're still insured. In case of anything happens, the maximum amount that you need to pay is $4K. No matter what happen, you won't pay more than $4K. Isn't this already covered?

You pay this excess reduction fee to reduce the $4K to $500 for example. So, in case of anything happens, you won't pay more than $500. You can also pay this access reduction fee higher to reduce the $4K to $0 so that you won't pay a single cents.

There is a catch here, you still won't be covered although you have reduce to excess to $0. For example, you break the rental contract by driving in the unsealed road.  This depends on whether there is such limitation on the contract and also depends on place that you rent a car. We have such limitation while renting a car in Tasmania. They usually will explain that to you clearly.

Another common thing is you don't drive the car but let other to drive. It depends on you contract whether you have added another person to drive the car or only you're the only one can drive the the car. Also, violating traffic laws is another common one which causes you break the contract.

Should you pay for this excess reduction? It is really up to you. What you should ask yourself is if there is any major accidental happens, are you afford to pay $4k? If yes, you don't need to pay any excess reduction fee. I personally have never paid for it. Most importantly, don't "assume" this excess reduction is an insurance fee, it is NOT. You have already been covered although you don't pay it!

Beware of Non-compete Clause in Your Offer Letter

This is something I learned lately while searching for a job especially for the job that posted by my company's competitor. So the conversation goes like that:

HR: What is your limitation?

Me: I don't have any limitation. I'm a full time permanent employee. I just need to give  4 weeks notice.

HR: No, I mean limitation such as what is the period you're not allow to join our company due to non-competition contract.

Me: Huh? I'm not sure about that but I believe is none. I need to go back and look at my offer letter and get back to you.

HR: Yes, give me a call when you find it out.

So I went back home and checked. You need to search for this few keywords (e.g. non-compete, non-competition) in your offer letter. It turns out that I can't join any of my company competitors in NSW after 12 months I leave my current company. So I called him back the day after. Since I was not 100% sure, I also copied the clause and sent it to him in email to confirm.

ME: I think if I understand it correctly, in my offer letter, I'm not allow to join your company within 12 months after I resign. I send the clause to you, can you please help to confirm?

HR: Yes, you understand correctly but normally employer can only hold an employee not more than 3 months and they can't stand legally to hold you for 12 months. Can you no working for 3 months? You can join our company after 3 months. You may also want to check with your lawyer.

Me: Let me think about it and I will get back to you.

I think for a while, I think it is not worth to take such risk. Furthermore, I can't be jobless for 3 months. So I decided not proceed with it. The HR called me back after few days I didn't get back to him, and I had no choice telling him not to proceed. So sad!


Key Learning

• Read your offer letter carefully especially on non-compete clause
• Negotiate to change or remove the non-compete clause in the offer letter

Sometimes it also depends on whether you are at right position to negotiate because you may lose the job. I will say as long as you're employed, you should negotiate this. I definitely will do it next. Ultimately  I want to remove this clause completely and if can't, I will aim to reduce the period to 1 month.

But now, I'm stuck...

P/S: I ask around people here it turns out employer suing an employee for non-compete clause is common here. So luckily, I didn't take the risk.

Buying Electronic Items Saving Tip In Sydney

I just learned this tip last month when buying TV in Sydney that we can actually get discount by showing the lowest price that you can find in internet. They will offer you at that lowest price or sometimes lower even though the item is already at offer price. For my case, I was lucky enough the get the lower price than what I proposed. Maybe this is because of the sale person who sold me this TV is also a Malaysian and I guess he earned less commission then? :)

As far as I know, 2 retailers that allows you to do this which are "Bing Lee" and JB Hi-FI. Any others? I bought my TV from "Bing Lee" because I don't find a lot of famous brands sold in JB Hi-FI at that time. Bing Lee has almost everything that I"m looking for.

Bing Lee is only available in NSW and JB Hi-FI is across the Australia I think. If you come across any other retailers that offer this kind of service, please share it with me. This reminds me how I bought my electronic items for my first home in Sungai Petani, Malaysia. :) Have a nice long weekend!

Where to Invest Property in Sydney?

If you ever want to invest or buy a property in Sydney (yeah, I know is expensive), one of the things you can look at is the "potential" of  that area. But how do we know where has the potential?

This website has the answer: A Plan for Growing Sydney

This is especially very useful for those who're not familiar with Sydney. It basically has all the detailed development plans all the way from the main city to suburbs.

The simplest way is the property that you buy must at least has some colors on the map! :) The one with "Priority Precinct" has the highest potential in my opinion. There are totally 10 of them.

In general (base on my observation), the property price by Sydney region in descending order as follow:

• City center
• Eastern Suburbs
• Northern Suburbs (further away from city is cheaper)
• Inner West 
• Rest of the Western Areas (further away from city is cheaper)
• Southern Sydney
• South-western Sydney

If you look at the map again, you can tell the focus development area is mostly at northern areas. So my recommendation to invest is this area. City center is good to invest too but it maybe too expensive in your budget. Just my 2 cents. :)

Company Title - Is it different from Strata Title?

I came across this "Company Title" term when looking for a property in Australia particularly for apartment property. It seems like not all apartments are strata title, some of them are actually company title. What are the differences?


Company Title vs Strata Title

• Unlike strata, you actually do NOT own the title. The company owns it and gives you the share so that you have the rights to stay on the certain areas of the property (e.g. house unit). 

• If you want to sell your property, you're required to get the approval from the board of directors of that company. For Strata title, you can decide whether you want to sell it or not by yourself and you do not required to get approval from anybody.

• Getting loan from bank is harder for company tittle as compared to strata title due the appreciation value.

• Company title properties are usually cheaper, I guess that is the only benefits. What else?

• It is also easier to address issue with the management of the company title as compared to the strata title manager? I'm not sure how true this is and I personally think they're the same. 

Given the only benefits of company title is "cheap", I'm not favor in buying company title property. Also be careful of buying an apartment, don't always assume it is always strata title!


P/S: I"m not sure if Malaysia has such thing. I know there is an investment scheme to own a property or hotel and you're giving some kind of shares too. Maybe that is a similar thing? For apartment buying in Malaysia, the common trap that we want to avoid is commercial title unit - see my previous post here.

Living Expenses in Sydney For 2 Adults

If you wonder how much living expenses in Sydney, this is the right place for you. I have started to track my expenses since January last year and I think it is good time now to share with you so you have general idea how much you need to prepare if you want to live in Sydney.

This is my living expenses last year, the total expenses for the entire year is $54.7K.

The start up cost is around $8K as you can see that in January. Majority are for rental bond and also buying some furniture. I rent a studio for $520 per week (includes water, electricity and gas) located in an extremely convenient place. I can walk to office and I can buy everything that I want within very close walking distance.

Starting from February to April is the living expenses for one adult which costs around $2.8K per month. Starting from May, the living expenses are for two adults. To average the living expenses from May to Nov, the living expenses is around $4.4K per month. The good thing about having couple is you don't multiply by 2 from the living expenses for one person! :)

Note: I don't include the expenses in December  because that is vacation expenses that we had in Adelaide for around 8 days. That's why you see the sudden jump in December! :)


Living Style

• One adult walks to work and another one travels to work by train (less than 1 hour including walking)
• Do not own a car, travel with public transport most of the time
• Bring lunch box to office every day, eat out only when there is special occasion (every quarter perhaps)
• Cook dinner most of the time and eat out occasionally, 2-3 times a week approximately
• Travel to new places within the New South Wales state (i.e. NSW) during weekend with public transport (~ twice per month)
• Travel out of NSW by rental car in mid of the year (just 1 day) and travel to Adelaide by flight in the end of the year (8 days)
• Back to Malaysia for vacation once a year

Let's break down the expenses:

Housing is rental which consists of 55% of the total expenses, followed by food (18%), transportation (10%), leisure (6.8%) and the rest of the spending are less than 5%. As you can see, rental is expensive here unless I want to move out from city but I will spend more on transportation and time. So it may not worth it.  

Further breakdown by food, transportation and leisure below:

Food is quite optimized already since majority are from Grocery unless we don't eat outside at all? Maybe just simply eat less, I think I eat a lot which is not really good for the health. 

"Transportation G" stands for transportation general. I think those are car rental expenses including fuel. Maybe that can be cut down but I will need to cut down my vacation.

Leisure spending is mostly related to vacation. :)


Summary

My yearly expenses is $54.7K, assuming worst case that you don't get a job in Sydney for a year, you will need to spend that amount of money. It should be lesser since you don't travel like I do now. So I will say $50K expenses per year should be good enough for 2 adults. If you convert that to MYR, it is around ~RM150K.

Let me know if you have any questions, I am happily to share that with you. Here I wish you happy new year and stay healthy always!

[Updated 13 March 2016]: 2015 Expenses Update In Sydney

Suburb Demographics for Immigrants in Australia

The first thing that we do on surveying a suburb in Australia is we always look at it's demographics.

This website (i.e. Where Australia's Immigrants Were Born) is pretty cool that it basically list out the top 3 birthplaces for immigrants in all over the places in Australia.  I only came across this after I have decided to buy a property but nevertheless I think this is still useful for many of you especially if you plan to buy a property in Australia.

You can click on the different city and zoom in to the detail as you wish. It gives you an overview of who are the dominant in that area. Looking at Sydney as example, you can see that China and England dominate many places where city area is usually surrounded by Chinese.  Further away from city or near beaches are usually dominated by England based on my general observation.

Good luck in your survey!


P/S: The property that I bought is in Macquarie Park and it turns out Malaysia is listed as top 3. I don't aware of this at all when I purchase this. :D

What is Off The Plan Property?

This is a new term that I learn since landed here in Australia.

Off the plan property basically means property that has not yet been constructed. So it also usually means, the property is directly sold from the developer. However this is not all the case. Sub-sales from a buyer could also can be off the plan property as long as the property has not been constructed. This is important because I misunderstood that buying off the plan property "MUST" be directly from developer.

A lot investors here buy off the plan properties and resell them again later. They are very smart, and they will know when is the best timing for sub-sales. For example, they grab all the 1-bedroom apartment in the market very fast and resell it when there is no more sale directly from developer. So buyer who really wants 1-bedroom apartment will have not choice but to buy from them.

Nevertheless if I knew about this, I would have just wait for the sub-sales option which gives me more options to choose. We wanted a 1-bedroom apartment but ended up with buying 2-bedroom apartment because all 1-bedroom apartment was sold out at that time and just left some units that we don't like. Please note that buying from sub-sales also means you're buying property that is more expensive than initial launch from developer. I guess no choice if you miss the boat.

Speaking of this, I realize I have been always buying off the plan property since my first house in Malaysia. Maybe I should talk about this why off the plan property is good for me. Anyway, I hope this sharing is useful and have a nice weekend!

How to Pass Driving Test in NSW or Australia?

I got my NSW car license few months ago and I took the test twice. This is considered not bad already because I heard many usually fail couple of times. But having said so, I could have passed it the very first time if my first driving instructor didn't give me the wrong instructions. Too bad, I met a wrong instructor. So, the key learning is, don't 100% rely on instructor unless you get a very good one but the problem is you won't know. :)

Here are some tips that I'm going to share with you which I believe will be very useful to you if you're coming from a country like me (i.e. Malaysia). I think it applies to most Asian countries maybe except Singapore? Some rules are different and some even doesn't make sense at all in my opinion. I will explain later.


(1) Always Give Ways to Right at Roundabout 

Not sure about the rule in Malaysia but I always apply US rule in Malaysia. The rule that I always follow is:

• Whoever reach the roundabout junction has the higher priority and you must stop before you enter the roundabout. If both reach the junctions at the same time, the vehicle at the right has higher priority to enter the roundabout

I know it does not work in Malaysia sometimes but at least this is safe. Unfortunately, this rule that I understand doesn't apply here. I think it doesn't apply to Europe too. The rule is like this:

• Must give way to right in all circumstances and you must NOT stop if you're not suppose to give way

If you're at 3 and there are cars coming at 2 (even not reach the 2 yet), you must give way to them. Assuming there is a very long queue at 2, you must wait until all the cars at 2 are clear, then you can only enter the roundabout. Does it make sense? I prefer the US rule, who comes first, who has the privilege to enter the roundabout.

Wait, there are some exceptions which I think it makes it more dangerous. If cars from 2 have indicate signal that they want to exit to 3, you don't need to give way to them. It means if you stop your car at 3, you fail! Similar to cars at 1 which have already entered the roundabout and have no indicator to right (means they go straight and want to exit at 3 - not exiting at 4),  you must not stop your car. What? What if they forget to indicate they want to exit at 4, I asked my instructor? She just told me, that is their fault. Alright, what if the indicator is malfunction? It is their fault too because you're can't drive if your indicator is not working. Oh my god, driving like this so dangerous...

This rule is dangerous because it simply assumes everyone follows the rules. If one doesn't follow the rules, it is going to crash! Anyway, just remember this is the roundabout rule in Australia although it doesn't make sense (at least to me). You just need to get used to it. The key is not to stop at roundabout if you're not suppose to give way. You just need to slow down a bit and move forward. It takes me sometime to get used to this.


(2) Change Lane and Indicator

I don't how you use indicator to change lane or to turn right. I will indicate right signal as long as I want to change to right lane and when there is a chance, I turn my car to right entering to the right lane. Wrong!

The rule here in Australia is different. The purpose of indicator is not to tell people you plan to turn right but is to tell you have already decided to turn right and you're turning now. So after you indicate right signal, you must turn right immediately. This means if you're not able to turn right for whatever reasons (e.g. there is a car behind you on the right), you can not indicate your signal! What? What if the right lane is in long queue again but you want to change to that lane. Yes, you can't because you are not safe to turn right. Oh boy...

Most instructors explain the 3 checks (i.e. back mirror, side mirror and shoulder check) but they fail to explain the purpose of indicators that I mentioned above and also the purpose of these 3 checks. These 3 checks basically to ensure that you're safe to turn right or left. If it is safe, you indicate the signal and turn right immediately. If it is not, you continue to do these 3 checks until you have chance to turn right.

Can this kind of driving survive in Malaysia? Indicate signals and turn immediately is the most dangerous driving that I have known since I know how to drive. This is how accident usually happens. After you indicate the signals, you always turn very slowly and gradually to the right lane. That's the safest way of driving in my opinion. If there is a hazard, those cars behind you will definitely horn you and you can get back to your lane safely.


(3) Observation is Important

I failed my first test because of lack of observations or maybe no observations at all. I thought I have observed very well because I drive extremely safe and avoid any potential hazard. :) If you want to pass the driving test, you must always look around when you're driving. Yes, always look around although your car is completely stop. This is what they test on you for observation.

If you're passing the intersection and you go straight, you must look at the right and the left junction very quickly to ensure no hazard. If your car is stop, start to look around, left and right, mirrors and etc instead of focusing at one spot. Then, you will pass your observation test! Oh I almost forget, make sure you turn your head not just your eyes so that it is clear to the instructor that you have done your observation. :)

This tip is very important, because many instructor don't know about this at all unless you're lucky enough to meet a good one.


(4) Hold Steering Wheel Correctly

Whenever I turn, I like to put my hand inside the steering wheel and turn. I also failed this because my first instructor told me this is completely fine as long as you hold the steering wheel with 2 hands. It is hard to explain, just don't hold the steering like this even with 2 hands. :)

I hope this is useful. Roundabout rule is the most common one and I believe most instructor will explain that to you but not for the purpose of indicators and observation. I think holding steering wheel correctly may be common too but somehow my first instructor just thought me wrongly.  So I think tip (2) and (3)  are the crucial one because no one is going to tell you that. If you're an experienced driver like me, giving these 4 most important tips, I don't think you will fail the test. I fail mine because of not aware of (2), (3) and (4).

If you have any questions, please leave your comment. I hope I can help more people passing the test. Good luck!