Australia: How to Get the Government to Pay for Your Retirement

This only applies to Australia and I only found this out after talking to a wise man at Swan River. Thank you Robert.

In Australia, if you earn less than AUD$31,920, any extra money you contribute per year (up to a max of AUD$1,000) to your superannuation fund, the Australian government will match it dollar for dollar up tp AUD$1,000.

They key point of this is that this extra money is taken out of your monthly salary before your employer taxes your salary.

Understanding The Stock Market

The stock market is where the shares in companies are bought and sold, providing companies options to access capital, and investors opportunities to own a share of the company and enjoy potential gains from the company’s future performance. When you own a share of a company, you own a portion of the company. If the company makes profits, then the value of the share that you own rises, and vice verse if the company doesn’t make a profit.

The stock market offers people the opportunity to generate a separate income stream apart from their daily jobs, or income streams which are usually higher than leaving money in savings deposit accounts. But before you even think about buying and selling shares, you must know the fundamentals of the stock market and of trading.

Stock Exchange

You can only invest in stocks through a stock exchange, an organized marketplace where stocks are bought and sold under strict rules, regulations and guidelines. The most famous stock exhanges are the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange), FTSE International (London), Tokyo Stock Exchange and many more. The Malaysian stock exchange is called Bursa Malaysia. Bursa Malaysia has over 1,000 listed companies offering a wide range of investment choices to local and global investors.

Why Do Companies List on the Stock Market

The Stock Market was created by companies wishing to raise capital for their business. When someone says they have a listed company, it usually mean the company is listed on the stock exchange. All companies need cash to take advantage of growth opportunities. Many start-up companies however find themselves short of capital to fund expansion. One way to acquire this cash is to publicly float the company. This involves selling part of the company to private individual and institutional investors who are then able to freely exchange these stocks on an open market. Purchasing stocks in a company that is listed on the stock market is done through an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Once an IPO has been issued, you can contact the company (phone, fax or email) for a copy of the Prospectus and complete the application to apply for an allocation of shares. Or you can wait until the company is floated and buy shares on the open market. Besides the stock exchange, stock brokers will also have information regarding IPO’s.

Companies that are already listed can also raise additional money on the stock market by offering existing stockholders the opportunity to buy more stocks in the company. For example, a listed company wanting to raise additional capital might issue one new share at 5 cents each for every three shares an existing investor owns.

When you buy shares of a company, you are buying a portion of that company. When the company makes a profit, your share in that profit is in the form of a higher share price or a dividend. Typically, the number of shares that have been issued multiplied by the share price gives us how much a company is worth. Similarly, the value of the shares you hold is the share price multiplied by the number of shares your hold.

Online Unit Trust Portal Makes Debut in Malaysia

As of early 2009, Fundsupermart.com Malaysia, a on stop online unit trust investing portal operated by iFast Capital Sdn Bhd, a joint venture between iFast Corporation Pte Ltd of Singapore, OSK Investment Bank Bhd and OSK Holdings Bhd has made its debut in Malaysia.

This portal targets the mass market and also offers investors information such as market views, research articles and recommendations from its in-house research and editorial team as well as a fund analysis tool. It currently offers around 70 funds from eight fund houses.