Hi all,

I'm starting this thread for Financial Management. not that i'm in financial problem, neither am i a finance guru or something but i do see that once a while there are complaints in Jobs & Careers of low-pay and so on so forth.

With this in mind,

the objective of this thread is to
1. for people with financial management problems to seek help
2. for others to share their experience (and help those that need)



OK so let me start - i'm the type of person that micro-manages my finance and i've been doing this even during the time of my studies. even now as i run my own business, the micro-management aspect is more important than ever.

i find that micro-managing has been very helpful, especially in boosting my savings and allowing me to buy items that i want.

as a start, it's good that you monitor your finances by taking note of your spending pattern. then of course compare it to your incoming $$$ like your salary. this way you'll know how much you have left each month.

notice that i placed taking note of "spending" ahead of "incoming $$$". this is because cost a.k.a. spending is the part that always goes awry when it comes to finance and it is the are that could and should be improved. on the other hand "incoming $$$" is almost always constant (people with fixed wages).

keep in mind that financial management is not just about deciding when to part with your $$$, sometimes you do have to change your lifestyle in order to save $$$.

in fact, one should plan ahead when it comes to finance so that you don't end up in a jam when $$$ is really needed. for example if you own a car, then you'd better have $$$ read for situations like accidents or breakdown of car part(s).


----

alright, i've limited time to type and can't share that much now but i hope even this little information has been informative.

NOTE : title chanced to "Financial Management". Thank you dreamer101 for pointing that out.

This post has been edited by goldfries: Nov 16 2006, 12:10 PM

Yes, finance management is so important, as I'm facing the problem you mentioned, my income is not enough to cover my expenses. If there is any guru or experienced guys here, please share your valuable experience.

well, tell your problem la. i already gave you part of the solution already.

how much do you earn? how much do you spend?

for me when i started, i only earn RM 1.4k per month. i'm blessed to actually have my family staying in KL already by then (we're from Kelantan) so i actually cut some cost there.

however different people have different commitments and available facilities, thus you should do a check on your lifestyle, see what can be sacrificed to improve your finance.

no one likes sacrifices, however some times you really have to do it for the sake of your $$$.

another skill / trait / ability / whatchamacallit that one should acquire (haha. RPG style, i want Level 10 Discount / Overcharge!!! ) is to be able to discern between necessity and luxury.

This post has been edited by goldfries: Nov 16 2006, 11:12 AM

I earn 1.5k after my EPF and SOCSO deduction. Petrol and tolls take me 400 a month, about 200 for mobile phone, 88 for streamyx, 120 for insurance, car maintenance average 40 a month, 200 for education loan, 200 for family. I know I need to change my lifestyle to reduce my expenses, but I have no idea how to...

that's a lot of travelling there.

1. your 400 per month travel + toll is for going / coming back from work? or doing company stuff? if doing company stuff then ask for claim (if possible).

how's your car's FC? for RM 73+/- i can do around 450 - 480km on my 10 year old Satria 1.3 manual. also i try to practise better usage of my acceleration and stuff so that it uses as optimal fuel as possible.

2. same as #1 for your mobile phone expenses. 200 per month is a lot, you call / SMS friends a lot or for work purpose? for me, i use Celcom's postpaid package, allocated # of minutes per fixed cost each month. i closely monitor my phone usage based on my bills so that it works out best for me.

3. food - where do you stay? do you eat outside most of the time? it's amazing how simple pack of bread and peanut butter (and other spreads) and even other forms of home-cooked meals could help you cut your cost.

In order to effectively reduce your expenses, you need to categorise your expenses into 2 types:- Fixed expense and variable expense.

leekk8, for your case:
Fixed expense
- stremayx
- insurance
- education loan
- family

Variable expense
- petrol and tolls
- mobile phone
- car maintenance
- meal (u left out this!)

Since fixed expense is constant expense monthly, what you can do it to reduce your variable expense.

From what i can see it, your petrol & tolls and mobile phone take up a huge ratio of your expenses.

For petrol & tolls, i know sometimes it's difficult to travel without own transport to work. But try to reduce those unneccesarily driving during night time or weekends. Plan your journey to have the best cost-effective route. Eg, do your shopping/purchase once instead go several trips. Take public transport if possible.

What job are you doing currently? RM200 for mobile phone is too high if you are not attached to sales/marketing job.
If you are using prepaid, maybe you could sign up postpaid and find a suitable plan for yourself.

As goldfries mention, the first step to successfully reduce your expense is to track your expense. Jot down your daily expenses and make it a habit. Then you will be surprise to know how much you have actually spend daily!!

Juz imagine, how good if you hv extra 200-300 in pocket saving from these expense. Always use this to encourage and control yourself when u are trapped in a shopping delemma.

And finally, the most important factor to archieve your goal is
DECIPLINE!!

Just sharing my 2 cents

yup. in fact you could also include other factors like
1. best time to travel to a destination by considering what time the route is less congested, thus saving time and petrol.
2. consider the time and destination as well, for example the weekend (Sunday) jam at 1-Utama car park could lead you around and about for quite a while on low-gear thus resulting waste of petrol.
3. consider the weather too, though unpredictable, sometimes it's better to U-turn and abort a plan instead of going head on. especially when you foresee there might be flash-floods causing terrible jams and such.

Thanks for your all advices. I will try to reduce my expenses. Actually I need transport and phone for work purpose. So, I plan to take my claims (around 200) for saving purpose. Anyway, the claims are not given every month, sometime it takes few months and I get in the accumulated amount once few months.

I understand having a budget is very important in financial planning.

Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad Poor Dad is a good book give concept about financial management

This post has been edited by lipkhin: Nov 16 2006, 03:34 PM

But then again do you actually need 200 for phone every month? It's pretty high IMHO and the company doesnt reimburst you? Since you mention you mention that you use it for work purposes you should be entitled to claim all of it right? And why the claims are not given every month?

Petrol, tolls, mobile phone bills, car maintenance... your company should bear the cost(of course as to what you doing is for the company usage). That is what a company for a employee. Think carefully for this... it's your rights as an employee.

RM 88 for Streamyx. If mate online from home. And your "SEWA" is RM 26 one, account lesser than 1 year. You could change your plan to the same Streamyx connection package with price only RM 77 per month. New package I think. But if your account is more than 1 year, then (if only) dun mind just cut it. And apply a new one with a cheaper charge plan. Because it's every month RM 11 saved. Time passed like aeroplane!!! I've been using Streamyx for 2 years without any single awareness at all.



cheers,

Salary adjustment as a technical support (RM1700)

 RM300 - family & bills
 RM250 - PTPTN
 RM150 - foods & ciggies
 RM150 - transport
 RM250 - miscellaneuos

i save rm600 every months. i'm very lucky because i live with my parent, no social life, take public transport to work and little commitment. i wanna save money because i plan to migrate to perth, australia.

This post has been edited by quintessential: Nov 17 2006, 01:13 PM

.... quit your ciggies.
Would you mind use some explanation as for PTPTN means??! Some members might understand what you meant. But not all, atleast one ignorant member(me) here dun know...

Mist is a mist. Thus, your RM 250 is added to your 600. Make it RM 850.

PTPTN - education loan

You CANNOT save money if you pay your self last. There is NO bad consequences if you do not save. So. "pay yourself first" is the best money saving technique. Google that phrase to find out about this technique.

Just hide $50 from yourself every month as soon as you get your pay check.

Dreamer

Try to think there are many great things in life is free. Eg
1. Walk in the park.
2. Chick seeing.
3. Playing with kids.
4. Making love. (not the paid one of course)

If more of a perceptions of how you see things make the difference. You can save a lot of money by that.

Oh and yes, hattrick football management game.

And linux, and Opensource software...

This post has been edited by vergas: Nov 17 2006, 09:04 AM

sorry, it's not mist, it miscellaneous. means i'll use it for weekly mamak, prepaid reload etcetc. ptptn is education loan, my only commitment so far. for ciggie, i'll quit it gradually, but hey, at least i dont go clubbing rite, else i'll waste rm200 in one day.

as per mentioned by dreamer101, i'll "pay myself first" by settle the remaining ptptn loan using my savings. after it's settled, i can save already.

next month, i'll be working as asp.net programmer with rm2000 monthly salary and thanks god, the place is accessible by rapidkl, so i need not to buy car.

This post has been edited by quintessential: Nov 17 2006, 01:30 PM

i've got a good personal budget planner in excel file from forwarded mail, can tell me how to upload it?

-EDIT-

i got it


[attachmentid=157560]

Personal Budget Planner - rapidshare



credits to whoever made it

This post has been edited by beebee: Nov 22 2006, 01:31 PM

I see.
Cool, ASP programmer!! I heard that, can get high paid on this post. Congratulate you on that. When you got your experiences,... you could try oversea. Singapore there, last time give S$4,000=RM 8,000 for ASP Staff. Is this still correct for the current market?! Last time my paid is RM 700 per month, then also slowly increased one. My first gain is golf picker. Get my first 10 bucks when I was 10 years old.

This post has been edited by edifgrto: Nov 17 2006, 05:11 PM

for ur info RM2000 is not high for asp.net programmer.