I am Christy Ng, I am...

The founder of ChristyNg.com a women's shoes & handbag company. I'm just another entrepreneur trying to survive this horrific business environment now - wish me luck!

1. What is your best investment and worst investment?
My best investment was starting my business - ChristyNg.com a shoe & handbag company which sells online & in retail stores. I started off with RM10,000 as capital and managed to grow this to an ecommerce company which ships globally. We have 7 retail stores today.

My worst investment was buying a strata office lot in a mixed development where the developer abused our sinking funds. Not all starta mix developments are bad, I have come across good ones but one should be very cautious and stay away from strata properties managed by the developer / developer’s family as a lot of conflict of interest and fund abuse can happen due to ill management.

2. What was your first-ever investment? (and how did that go)
My first investment was buying my apartment in Bandar Utama. I bought it for 200k in 2009. It's valued at around 700k now and it's fully paid up. I'm getting a decent rental return on this as well till this very day despite economic uncertainty. I never had any difficulty renting it out as the location is strategic and convenient.

3. Your investment no-nos (why not and what happened)
Never invest in Strata property where the developer still owns majority share units. In my case, the developer appointed themselves as the property managing agent without having a valid property license by LPPEH. He then pays himself a hefty fee of 500k per annum. Our electricity bill for our common area is 2.6M and his payroll is very inflated - 2.9M . The developer pays a lower maintenance fee and sinking fund fee for the assets owned by him and his family whereas all of us pay a much higher fee.

4. What is your context for investing?
I love investing in businesses especially eCommerce & retail. I love building good products which people love and enjoy. I also see tremendous value investing long term in companies which have a solid foundation & track record via the stock market. I also invest a proportion of my personal and company cash in good fund houses via instruments like money market.

5. Your investment philosophy and approach
All good investments need time and one should avoid speculating in the share market or expecting fast returns. There is no easy or fast overnight money. Diversify your investments and ensure your investments are liquid. Have your investments diversified from long term, medium term and short term with different levels of risk profile which suit your appetite depending on your individual means & station in life. With the Covid-19 pandemic, a good investment to me is something that I can cash out at immediately at any time when the funds are needed. Remember, never put all your eggs into 1 single basket!

Follow Christy-
Instagram, Email

About “This is How I Invest” - As Fi Life’s motto is “Buy Term (Term Life Insurance) & Invest the Rest”, this series features how different personalities “Invest the Rest.”

Subscribe to our newsletter for more content on Personal Finance and Investment.