Wednesday 30 April 2014
Labels:
budget
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cut cost
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expenses
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frugal
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money
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personal finance
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savings
,
wealth
"C'mon you have to eat something nice, don't be so stingy."
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Does cutting expenses and save money mean that you're stingy?
Here's the deal. You go to work, hanging out with colleagues in the workplace. And right after 1pm your colleagues asked you out for lunch together.
"Let's go to this Japanese restaurant down the road, I feel like eating Ramen" one of them said.
For your info, that Japanese Ramen noodle soup cost RM18.90 (excluding government tax & service charge of 16%).
You told them, nahhh....you'll just 'tapao' (pack) from the food stall nearby the office.
*******************
Frugality means, I love to spend my money elsewhere rather than to spend just for a Japanese Ramen. I save up my money for a greater future. If I eat a cheaper lunch meal, I could have save a little bit more for my savings. With extra savings, I could've dump in more for investment. With higher investment returns I am one step ahead to being wealthier.
Which is why I have been mentioning in my earlier post that we should always record down our expenses, pinpoint any unnecessary expenses. And AVOID it at all times. This is not stingy, this is frugal.
"Take note of this, frugal people have much better chance to be successful than a stingy people"
Recently, I've read this book by Ramit Sethi, self-proclaimed personal finance advisor. He pointed out the distinctive traits of STINGY vs FRUGAL.
*You can find out more about Ramit Sethi from his website:http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/
So which one are you? Stingy? Frugal?
So which one are you? Stingy? Frugal?
If you are neither both that's fine. But PLEASE don't be a mindless money-spender. Its much worst than being stingy. 'Nuff said!
Monday 28 April 2014
Labels:
dream
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entrepreneur
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happiness
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happy
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life
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passion
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planning
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wealth
10 Signs You Are Ready to be an Entrepreneur
The confession of an entrepreneur. You may think that you are prepared to venture into entrepreneurship. But deep down in your heart you are still doubting yourself, whether your heart is guiding you the right path...
These 10 signs will tell you are ready to quit your full-time job and venture into the entrepreneur's game.
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*Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
These 10 signs will tell you are ready to quit your full-time job and venture into the entrepreneur's game.
- When you wake up in the morning, first thing you thought of it, "I don't want to go to work!"
- You start day dreaming in your office, thinking of whatever potential business you could have done if you're not working full time.
- You have the desire for this - independence, success, passion and hunger (NOT FOOD!)
- You want to show the world that you are different from most of them. *Pareto 80/20 Rule - 80% of the employees work for 20% of the business owners.
- You have identified an unmet need/solution, which has the potential to be launched as a business
- You do not have huge commitments that force you to stay on your full time job.
- Your family and spouse are supportive of your dream.
- When you have a circle of entrepreneur friends who have "been there, done that". Encouraging you to go for your dream.
- You understand that you are have to focus and work 200% harder than your current full time job.
- You are ready to take the risk, not fearing that you may lose it all should this entrepreneur dream fail you.
If you have 10 signs above, my friend, you are already an entrepreneur. You just didn't know it yet!
By the way we only live once in our lifetime, we should live the life we always wanted.
"Regretting not pursuing our passion is WORST than the regrets of failing one."
Step out there and change the world.
*Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Thursday 24 April 2014
Labels:
budget
,
cut cost
,
expenses
,
money
,
personal finance
,
planning
,
savings
,
wealth
How much do you save? A guide to budgeting - PART 2
If you have read my previous post, you would have the idea of cutting expenses in order to save more. And that is the core 'essence' of budgeting.
So the next question would be: How to do budgeting? Where should I start?
Here's how I will show to you:-
STEP 1:
Create a monthly budget planner.
STEP 2:
So here you go, a simple step to budgeting.
Do not delay. Do it today, do it right now, after you finish reading this.
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So the next question would be: How to do budgeting? Where should I start?
Here's how I will show to you:-
STEP 1:
Create a monthly budget planner.
- Inside this monthly planner, you will include all your expenses and how much do you save.
- I will illustrate a simple table for your reference:-
- Why do I need budget planner? Of course you do! So that you know how much you spend. And be aware of the unnecessary spending you made every month. See it with your naked eyes only you'll take action.
STEP 2:
Set a target how much you should spend every month.
If you can do better, track it by weekly or daily. So that you can take control of your spending.
We can start by daily food expenses:-
- Monday - RM 15 (breakfast + lunch + dinner)
- Tuesday - RM 15 (breakfast + lunch + dinner)
- Wednesday - RM 15 (breakfast + lunch + dinner)
- Thursday - RM 15 (breakfast + lunch + dinner)
- Friday - RM 30 (breakfast + lunch + dinner). Since we love TGIF, you may set a higher expenses on Friday.
- Saturday - RM 100 (food + entertainment)
- Sunday - RM 50 (family day)
That makes up to RM 960 a month for food. At least you know where you will spend, you can control your budget more carefully.
*********************
Yes I know, I know. Looks simple, but its tougher to get it done.
Isn't it the same to everyone of us? Steps are simple, but the process is the hardest.
"The only way to do this is to start doing it now! If you wait, you gonna forget about it the next minute."
Do not delay. Do it today, do it right now, after you finish reading this.
You do this, you are doing better than 90% of fellow Malaysians.
Wednesday 16 April 2014
Labels:
budget
,
cut cost
,
expenses
,
money
,
personal finance
,
savings
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How much do you save? A guide to budgeting - PART I
Most people earns their income working for a monthly pay. Meaning to say, you only earn your income every end/middle of the month in the form of 'salary'.
Let's assume a scenario of Joshua, 36 years old, staying with his wife and a 3-year old son. At the end of the month, he'll receive a salary of RM 15,000. Table below shows how much net amount he'll receive after all deduction (unwillingly deducted!).
See how much we pay for tax??? Perhaps with this net salary of RM 10,772.75, he'll use it to pay for all his regular expenses.
*If you want to find out more on your net salary, refer to this site:
Our local self-help books always assume small amount when they list out table like this. Forget it! Let's make this as realistic as possible. Expenses will be high in real life.
Here's a summary of what he's gonna pay.
TABLE A:
This poor fella Joshua will only have RM152.75 left for the month. And this happens every month. You might think this is an extreme case, but are you sure? This is happening to many people without them realizing!
If Joshua did not calculate his expenses every month, he will never realize why he can't make any savings. All he does is to work and pay for expenses to make ends meet. He can't save more without knowing why...
What if rainy days do occur that he needs certain amount of cash immediately, where can he get those dough? Not from the sky of course.
Its a very sad case. But we can save this guy. How??
Its just a simple solution. Start budgeting.
Based on what we can see from the table, there are certain variable cost we can reduce. (We can't reduce fixed cost like insurance, house & car loan since its been pre-determined). By reducing all these variable cost we can reduce the expenses after the equation.
Let's reduce the variable cost according to Table A.
- Internet - degrade the Unifi plan to 5mbps - RM149
- Telephone bill - downgrade the plan. If he has an expensive data plan, reduce it - RM100
- Utility - less hour of air-conditioning, switch off lights that are not in use, etc - RM150
- Gym membership - if he got a gym in his condominium, use it! - RM 0
- Weekend entertainment - reduce the entertainment cost. Maybe outing every fortnight instead of every week - RM800
- Weekday food expenses - if he spend RM30 every day. Cut it to RM20 - RM400
- Divide a 30% of house loan repayment with his wife - RM1540.70
Good gracious. After going through all this. let's recalculate how much he spend:
TABLE B:
Cutting down his expenses he can save an amount of RM1913.05 exponentially!
Normally we don't see how much we spend until we point it out clearly in paper. This is why most of us do not have enough savings!
"If we just spend a little bit of time to plan for monthly expenses. It helps us more than we can imagine."
Next topic will be on 'how to do no-brainer budgeting' every month.
Monday 14 April 2014
Labels:
happiness
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happy
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health
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life
,
malaysia
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money
,
stress
,
wealth
My blog title says it all. This blog is all about managing our personal finances and work life balance. My whole purpose of putting all these in writing because this is what I have been practicing.
Be it a Head of Director of a banking industry or a Project Manager in an oil and gas company, or even a Fund Manager in an investing firm. They may want the same goal, which is to earn money and retire early. Okay, let's say that they are the best example to manage personal finance...but do they practice good health too?
According to Happiness Index 2013, Malaysia dropped its rank from 51th in 2012 to 56th place in 2013. Malaysians are unhappy. There are politics, economy, health, etc to worry about. So much to cloud our mind that we forget ourselves.
We forget that being happy is not just about everything out there. Its about the inside, our inner self... Being healthy, being financially well-off and a happy relationship. Is as simple as that.
This is why I am writing it! I hope to share my idea of work life balance. This is the main point!
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How to pick a piggy bank and when to eat a cookie?
Piggy bank is our wealth.
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Cookie jar is our health.
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My blog title says it all. This blog is all about managing our personal finances and work life balance. My whole purpose of putting all these in writing because this is what I have been practicing.
We all can see it around us. There are always wealthy Malaysians among our circle of network, so smart at managing wealth. There are also people who continuously being health conscious and taking care of their fitness. But how many of us are integrating both of this together? Perhaps less than 10% of Malaysian population.
"Its sad to know that most of us are busy racing to earn money all day and all night, forgetting our health."
Be it a Head of Director of a banking industry or a Project Manager in an oil and gas company, or even a Fund Manager in an investing firm. They may want the same goal, which is to earn money and retire early. Okay, let's say that they are the best example to manage personal finance...but do they practice good health too?
We forget that being happy is not just about everything out there. Its about the inside, our inner self... Being healthy, being financially well-off and a happy relationship. Is as simple as that.
This is why I am writing it! I hope to share my idea of work life balance. This is the main point!
For those who have always been managing personal finance and maintaining healthy lifestyle all these while, you have my biggest compliment and praise for being such a good example. I hope that my blog can serve as a reference for you in near future.
While for those who have yet to do the above, its not too late, my brothers and sisters. I wish that my blog can motivate you or improve your life further.
I want to continue doing this. And I will always want to share my experience in regards to personal finance and staying up with a healthy lifestyle.
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