ABCs of Personal Finance
Exploring Melbourne with a Stronger Ringgit?
Exploring Melbourne with a Stronger Ringgit Latest news about ringgit? These days, every media seems to be so happily supporting and reporting about ringgit. Latest
Exploring Melbourne with a Stronger Ringgit Latest news about ringgit? These days, every media seems to be so happily supporting and reporting about ringgit. Latest
I wanted to drive to some places during the weekends, so I rented a car. Take a look at my MG3. Brief review? Fuel consumption is on the low side, it sips and not gulps. Driving wise, erm… do not drive too fast. Power wise, erm… climbing hills not its specialty. On a straight flat line, pick up is good. Size wise, pretty good for a small car and it looks bigger when it’s right beside a Polo or a Mazda 2 for example which are supposed to be same class. My Melbourne friend told me that this is presently the cheapest car an Australian could buy. The price is even cheaper than used car of similar size but the typical Japanese, Korean or American brands! Haha.
However, we do not need that much of money to enable the next generation and the next and well, next, next and maybe another 350 generations??!! The below shows how a Hong Kong property tycoon thinks well ahead to ensure the wealth in the family is preserved for hundreds of generations to come. Do read and understand how this clever man left his fortune to the next generation.
I arrived in Melbourne last Sunday and will be in Melbourne for around 10 days. I met my friend who shared with me that she was staying in a townhouse and she explained that a townhouse meant that the owner of a big piece of land decided to sub-divide the land and build units within the same land. Her home is one out of 16 other units within the same piece of huge land. In other words, this particular house on one piece of land was demolished and 16 units of townhouses are now on the same piece of land. Do read a brief explanation below:
Yes, these days, millionaires do not really mean that much because of inflation unless if the million is in US$ or UK Pound or even SGD. However, how rich is really rich and what can the richest in the world do for the poorest in the world? Here is one little suggestion from Oxfam which said that just one year of what billionaires made for one year can lift all the world’s poor out of poverty. I repeat, just one year worth of earnings from the billionaires in leading economies is ENOUGH to lift the WORLD’s poor out of poverty. Means they would have enough to eat and a place to stay. That’s all… Read on.
If we retire at the age of 60, we need to have enough funds to live comfortably for the next 20 years. This is based on typical life expectancy in the future which is quite real. If we like to reduce the number of years from 20, then we just need to work till 65 and we need just funds for 15 years or if we work till 70, then we need funds to be just 10 years. We can definitely live longer but for planning purpose, we should use a number and that’s life expectancy lah. So, what is the age that you want to retire also determines whether RM1 million is enough.
How much do you spend in the morning for breakfasts? RM10? RM5? Maybe skip the drinks and it could be cheaper too. These days, if I drop by any Chinese kopitiam for breakfast, it will easily be over RM10 per pax. One Wan Tan Mee and one Teh C Panas will be a total of RM12. I still remember when it used to be way below RM10 for this combo when I was younger.
New baby, new expenses. Where got money for property? An old friend told me that having a new baby means extra expenses. I agree. Then,
My late father sent me to school everyday in his Honda motorcycle. I think that was when I was in my primary 1, 2 and 3. Once upon a time, 4 of us were on the same motorcycle. My little brother in front, my father behind him, followed by the skinny me and then my mother at the back. WOW. Haha. Okay, it was just within the little town Teluk Intan yeah.
Results from Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM)’s Financial Capability and Inclusion Demand Side Survey 2024 showed that 61 percent of Malaysians face difficulty to raise RM1,000 as emergency fund. This seems to have gotten worse as it was 52 percent in 2018 and 47 percent in 2021. Briefly, this meant that we have even more Malaysians who say they could not raise RM1,000 as emergency funds. Many reasons were stated including rising cost of living and even the possibility of overspending too.
The customer service number should be in your handphone because if you lose your card, you will need to quickly call the call centre to stop the card before any further usage. If there’s a fraud and you received the SMS, they usually say call the number at the back of your card. Well… what if you do not carry the card with you? This is why the first thing we should do is to save the number into our handphone. I know, these days we can go online to search for the number but which is faster?
Before we spend beyond our earnings, please remember that money which we overspend today will mean a much bigger ‘loss’ the future. For example, if I put in RM10,000 into the self-contribution for EPF, this RM10,000 could have turned into RM17,081 10 years later based on an average of 5.5 percent dividend returns from EPF. This is a 70 percent gain over 10 years due to the compounding effect despite EPF declaring just 5.5 percent every year for the next 10 years. If we used it now, then we are spending our future RM17,000.