Rich Women

Read an article about "Capitalising on Women" from Islamic Finance, March 2010, the interesting title attracted my attention. In the article, it highlighted that women are getting richer and richer than men... Why? According to the research, in GCC alone, women hold U$40bn in personal wealth, of which U$12bn belongs to Saudi Arabian women. Out of U$12bn, 75% is sitting in cash deposits and 20% in unit trust. The reason why Saudi Arabian women are rich because they hold the keys to their family coffers, in another words, they control the wealth! I found it very interesting as I always thought that Saudi Arabian women have no say in any decision making, but I am wrong!

Leave aside Saudi Arabian, why women are richer now? Accumulated wealth has increased among the growing population of female professionals. Yes, it is true! Women today are well educated, even cleverer than some men. So, Men, please take note! The world has changed!

Nowadays, we can see more and more Financial Institutions launch “women” investment products, I believe this is because women are risk averse and therefore willing to commit to medium and long term investment. It is so called “easy money” to make from women!

I, the risk averse investor, believe in “play safe” rather “adventure”, that’s why I invested in Amanah Saham products, ie Amanah Saham Malaysia (“ASM”), Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020 (“ASW”) and Amanah Saham 1Malaysia (“AS1M”). Invest in Amanah Saham can give me at least 6% return p.a., even thought the interest rates have been declining, but it is still better than fixed deposit's rate. Why invest in Amanah Saham products? The main reason is it functions like fixed deposit with higher interest rate; it is fixed at RM1.00 (so far, the only unit trust in Malaysia has fixed price of RM1.00), so it is capital protected product.

ASW was launched by Tun M in 1990s', his motto that time was “Wawasan 2020”. So far, the past performance of ASW was considered good, thanks to the support of rakyat. Today, Naj is our PM, he created “One Malaysia”, that’s how AS1M born! When AS1M first launched, not many people keen to participate, WHY? Simple because it does not has track record. Investors do not want to take such risk… So, people took the “wait and see” strategy. Come to think about it, if AS1M does not perform well, what do you think it will happen in next election?

I am praying very hard so that my investments can bring my wealth next level!