Showing posts with label budget. Show all posts
Showing posts with label budget. Show all posts

Friday, 23 May 2014

Labels: , , , , , , ,

Want to save money? Here's 6 things you should do

Posted by Unknown at 7:00 pm No comments :
We all know that saving money is part of the essential way of life. You can earn as much money as you possibly can, but without saving it all goes down the drain like water. 

Perhaps you already know that you should be saving money. Or maybe you wants to save even more than you already did. Higher expenses and price of goods getting more expensive all the time. It just wouldn't stop! You can't seem to find a way to control your expenditure any more. Sometimes you didn't even realize that you did not have much money left, and its only the second week of the month! Salary is not until the end of the month.

Saving money comes from cutting your spending. All you need to do is just to follow the "life-saver tips to saving extra bucks". I am going to show you. Make it a habit and subconsciously you may realize you have a fatter wallet than before.
*Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

1st Life-Saver Tip - Cook your own meal. 
I can't deny food is the giant that burns a hole in your wallet. What's more, food consumption made daily, hence, you need to first save on the money spend on food. Try to spend more time cooking at home. If you're a busy person, perhaps arrange a ratio of 4:3 over dining out and cooking at home. 4 days of cooking, 3 days of eating out. 

Assuming you have to spend $10 every meal when you eat out. Cooking at home may just cost you $6. You saved $4 for a meal. Now, calculate how much you can save for 3 meals in a day, for 4 days. You saved about $360 in a month! 

2nd Life-Saver Tip - Make a weekly budget
I can't stress how important is this. Setting up a budget keeps you in control. Each week, estimate how much you are going to spend. And set a budget of how much you are likely to spend on variable expenses (such as food, clothes, entertainment, etc). 

Yes, I know this is tedious. By reading the title it turns you off. But if weekly budget sounds too tedious for a busy person like you. Try starting out with a monthly budget first. You won't notice at first,.but you will see the effect at the end of the month. It works like magic!  

3rd Life-Saver Tip - Don't buy on impulse
When you first saw the things you want to buy, pause. Wait for another day before you buy it. The point is, you may not even know if you really need it. It may somehow be an impulse emotion. If you wait for another day you may forget all about it, thus save you 200 bucks! 

4th Life-Saver Tip - Plan for big-ticket items
Let me explain. Saving doesn't mean you need to be frugal. The good news is that you can still buy your big ticket items! But, you must plan for it.

Big ticket items such as cars, luxury items, gadgets or designer clothes requires planning purchase stage. How much do you have left after buying it? Can you survive the remaining days before your next income? How much does it mean to you to own this item? 

5th Life-Saver Tip - Credit card is the Angel and the Devil
A simple notch, if you are a good money planner, credit card gives you plenty of benefits. There are many banks offering discount on merchants or retailers that you can take advantage from. If you want to use it, find credit cards that offer benefits for your necessity or daily spending. Such as cash back value for grocery shopping, or pump of gas or petrol for your vehicle. 

But if you care less about credit cards benefits, please do not use a credit card at all. Use cash instead. 
And if care less and insist to use credit cards  because it makes you look good and prestigious...use at your own risk. 

6th Life-Saver Tip - Make it a habit
You can save if you are consistent. If it was done for a month just because you're running out of money, it won't last. It may happen perhaps the next 3 months again. By saving money, I mean consistency. Make it a habit, changing your lifestyle through all these life-saver tip and trust me, you will worry less about money than you did before!
Read More

Saturday, 17 May 2014

Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

The truth about owning a car

Posted by Unknown at 10:23 pm No comments :
This is a very controversial topic, I would say. A simple question to raise to everybody. 

Is it good to own a car? Yes or no? 
My answer a is big NO.


 Can you believe it if I tell you, ever since graduated for more than half a decade...I have not own a car yet. 

Yes, I know I know....you probably reason out saying that you need car because you need it to travel to work. You need it because its more convenient. You need it because its part of life. 

I understand, and I have to agree some people were forced to own a car because of travel distance to work. Thanks to our atrociously, shamelessly poor Malaysian public transport infrastructure. Now many of us need to own a car and owe for debt. A very bad debt.

My piece of advice, if you do not need to own a car, never buy (ohh....i mean borrow loan) for a car! NEVER!  

If you were meant to enjoy life and have car for fun and life, then this post isnt for you anyway, because its all about cost saving. 

Here's my 5 reasons why you should not own a car:-

  1. Car is a bad debt. The moment you bought your very first car, the price of the car immediately drop.
  2. You don't just pay for car instalment. You pay for your car insurance, car petrol, and car maintenance.
  3. If government raises petrol price again, your expenses gradually increase, because your car needs to feed!
  4. Car instalment loan interest rate is fixed. No matter how much more outstanding you owe the bank, they still charge you the same interest rate. Means bank already earn your money very beginning.
  5. Tendency to hangout is higher. What is the point if you own a car and you don't drive out? So it means hangout more, spend more, and save less money. 
I don't mean that forever you should take lrt or bus anywhere else. It sucks if you were forced into such situation your whole life. (Neither would I do that).

Here are 3 reasons when you should own a car:
  1. When you are able to pay a lot more downpayment or pay by cash. The lesser you owe the bank the better, because interest rate is fixed. You don't want to let bank take your money away!
  2. Your car helps you to earn MORE money. Yes is true. Own a car if it helps you to earn more money despite car insurance, petrol and maintenance.
  3. Your lifetime commitment is lesser. You own a house, paid off clean, or rented out for passive income. Your business is taken care of. You have very little commitment...then car is no problem for you.
Yes some people can have many other reasons to own a car. A status, glamour, show off, reputation, etc, etc. Common isn't it? Not unfamilliar. 

No wonder Malaysia's car ownership is the THIRD highest in the world. 

Feel proud? Hold on...you should read this one below. 

It says that Malaysian car is second most expensive in the world. Its ashamed if somebody wants to own a car because they want glamour and willingly spend so much money for a high-end car. And struggling to dig his/her pocket to pay off loan.

"My advise, PLEASE don't buy a car if you can't afford or do not need one. "

Read More

Wednesday, 30 April 2014

Labels: , , , , , , ,

Does cutting expenses and save money mean that you're stingy?

Posted by Unknown at 10:00 am No comments :
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.

"C'mon you have to eat something nice, don't be so stingy."
*******************

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?

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!
Read More

Thursday, 24 April 2014

Labels: , , , , , , ,

How much do you save? A guide to budgeting - PART 2

Posted by Unknown at 7:00 am No comments :
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. 
    • 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:-
  1. Monday - RM 15 (breakfast + lunch + dinner)
  2. Tuesday - RM 15 (breakfast + lunch + dinner)
  3. Wednesday - RM 15 (breakfast + lunch + dinner)
  4. Thursday - RM 15 (breakfast + lunch + dinner)
  5. Friday - RM 30 (breakfast + lunch + dinner). Since we love TGIF, you may set a higher expenses on Friday.
  6. Saturday - RM 100 (food + entertainment)
  7. 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.

*********************

So here you go, a simple step to budgeting. 

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.

Read More

Wednesday, 16 April 2014

Labels: , , , , ,

How much do you save? A guide to budgeting - PART I

Posted by Unknown at 10:30 pm No comments :
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:
http://www1.malaysiasalary.com/salary/salary-calculation-for-2014-in-malaysia.html 

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.
  1. Internet - degrade the Unifi plan to 5mbps - RM149
  2. Telephone bill - downgrade the plan. If he has an expensive data plan, reduce it - RM100
  3. Utility - less hour of air-conditioning, switch off lights that are not in use, etc - RM150
  4. Gym membership -  if he got a gym in his condominium, use it!  - RM 0
  5. Weekend entertainment - reduce the entertainment cost. Maybe outing every fortnight instead of every week - RM800
  6. Weekday food expenses - if he spend RM30 every day. Cut it to RM20 - RM400
  7. 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. 

Read More
Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )