hai sifus... need some advices on maximizing my savings, or maybe some investments;

I'm a gov servant, currently my 'gaji bersih' is around rm2.1k (after deduct epf those things), and here's the breaking of total expenses each month, roughly
- car loan - rm470
- internet/telephone bills - rm295
- petrol - rm120
- food/family house expenses (since I'm living with my parents anyway) - rm200
- personal uses - rm100
- asb saving - rm500

That left me around 300~ each months..
Rm300 I kept in bank just in case of other stuff needed, like my sister's expenses, etc

Questions;
- Is just investing on ASB is enough? Or should I try saving in m2usavers, or maybe other banks? Fixed deposits, etc?
- I'm trying to buy a house next year, that's why trying to maximizing my savings, before applying house loans, should asks which price ranges should I get for?

Thanks

First of all, you need to identify your financial goals? What are they?

Eg. To have a house by the age of 35.
To be financially free with an income of RM5000 per month at the age of 45
To marry in a couple of years, have a kid in two years after marriage

Once you have a purpose only then you can decide what you should do and how you should do it.

For example, my financial goal is to retire at 50 with a fully paid double storey house with a small garden and to have a minimum income of RM5K per month until the age of 100. To do that I intend to save 100K per year until I retire. So all my investments are geared towards earning and saving 100K per year.

millionaire next door solves it all

how you guys do your savings.. so much compared to mine..

My loans
-I just bought an apartment which I rent it to others with loan of RM341 monthly and rent the apartment at RM550 per month.

-I have 2 different ASB loan valued RM50k each with monthly payment at RM298.

my monthly saving is unstable.

other expenses are
-parking = RM6 per day * 20 = RM120
-petrol = RM50 per week * 4 = RM200
-food = RM5-RM7 per day * 20 = RM140
-toll = RM4 per day * 20 = RM80

so, I left with ~RM900 monthly excluding entertainment.

My question is how to get RM30k end of next year around November?
Will sell the apartment next year and hopefully it will brings me the cash I want.

To save 30k by next year November, that is about 12 months. So 30k/12 months is about 2500 a month (assuming you have no savings at the moment). Perhaps do some extra work to earn some side income?

Just my 2 cents.

When you mentioned the rent of RM550 per month, does that include you paying for the monthly maintenance? If it does that means your return is lesser. You also have to calculate the cost of maintaining the apartment (repairs) and the assessment fees.

The way to save more is to earn more than you spend. So the strategy should be twofold...increase your income and decrease your expenses. Increasing your income includes increasing the returns on your investment.

In your case your goal is to save RM30K at the end of one year. At the moment you can perhaps save RM500 per month. As you need to save RM2500 per month, this means you need to increase your income by RM2K. You can earn this by selling your property (Make sure that you sell with a profit of at least RM30K) or get another job that allows you to bring in an additional 2K per month. You can work either at night or during the weekends. If you can work during the weekends for at least 8 hours a day with RM30 per hour, that would earn you an additional RM1920 per month.


When I was much younger, these are some of the jobs I did to earn money to pay for my university fees:-
1. Telemarketing (I could earn almost 3K a month with commissions but you have to be persistent and thick faced)
2. Wrote papers for government proposals. This was very lucrative. I earned up to 5K per paper. It is hard work and deadlines must be met. Once I worked on a paper for three straight days without sleep (just 15 min power naps)
3. Babysitting and Tuition (I used to do babysitting at night for tired moms who want to go out - I charged RM10 per hour. I think the rates are much higher now)

This post has been edited by cynthusc: Nov 8 2012, 12:23 PM

Thanks for such a word.

For the rent, is excluded maintenance which is RM70 monthly. All I can depends now is to sell the apartment with the right price at the right time. I can get higher than 30k if I sell it according to market price. That is the lowest I can get. Hopefully this will be correct way.

The bold part, can you PM me some details about it? I have no idea about that.

Thanks cynthusc

Hi sifus, I need some advice on how to maximize my savings,

I currently earn 2K per month after deduct epf and socso.
My spending is as follows:-
Rent house: rm210
Pay my mom:rm200
eating: rm10x20 days:rm200
miscellaneous:rm200
sometimes got sales, i dont where my money all gone in a month.
sometimes i have the urge to backpack, i go backpack ~rm500/trip (very seldom, 2-3 times in a year)

i dont have a car, no house.
I plan to buy a car early next year, whether it'll be viva or myvi only.
I plan to buy a house in the next 3 years, now I already work for 1 year.

I currently save in asb around 300-500/month.

if I buy a car, I won't be able to save money that much and my plan to buy a house could be delayed. So, which part should I tackle to achieve my goals?

IMO you should NOT buy a car. Once you have a car, you will not be able to save much. You will spend at least RM200 per month on petrol and even more on tolls and parking. Yearly maintenance as well as road tax and insurance will set you back at least RM1000 per year. Continue saving and work on getting the skills to increase your income. Work for at least five years and save your money. If you can save RM1000 a year for the next 5 years with a return of 4% per annum, you will have RM66K saved up. Then you can buy a second hand viva for RM20K and have 40K towards a house. Don't make the mistake of many young graduates now by getting yourself into debt just because everyone has a car.

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Added on November 9, 2012, 2:30 pm
For the government proposals, since I have friends in the government service and their English skills are not very good, they pay me to rewrite their proposals. 5K may seem a lot but we are talking about 500 pages of rewriting, rephrasing and even adding ideas. The only reason I was given the job was because of my educational background and language skills. If you don't have these skills, it would be very difficult for you to get those jobs. In fact there was one assignment where I had to go through close to 1000 pages in one week and was paid a lot of money. You also have to have excellent word processing and typing skills...we are talking about 60-70 words per minute. You also have to read and re-read everything so your reading speed must be fast and accurate. I can read 200-300 pages a day. It is not something I trained for but it is because I was a mega bookworm as a kid.

This post has been edited by cynthusc: Nov 9 2012, 02:30 PM

[quote=cynthusc,Nov 9 2012, 02:07 PM]
IMO you should NOT buy a car. Once you have a car, you will not be able to save much. You will spend at least RM200 per month on petrol and even more on tolls and parking. Yearly maintenance as well as road tax and insurance will set you back at least RM1000 per year. Continue saving and work on getting the skills to increase your income. Work for at least five years and save your money. If you can save RM1000 a year for the next 5 years with a return of 4% per annum, you will have RM66K saved up. Then you can buy a second hand viva for RM20K and have 40K towards a house. Don't make the mistake of many young graduates now by getting yourself into debt just because everyone has a car.

---

Added on November 9, 2012, 2:30 pm

Like that ah..but some jobs required us to travel, and need a car. Public transport in Malaysia not really dependable. Now, I'm travel by bus and public transport only. I'm not really in need to buy a car, but I might need it if my job required me to have it..if I have a car, my target to buy a house will be delayed..haih.

[quote=ninja88,Nov 9 2012, 03:56 PM]
[quote=cynthusc,Nov 9 2012, 02:07 PM]
IMO you should NOT buy a car. Once you have a car, you will not be able to save much. You will spend at least RM200 per month on petrol and even more on tolls and parking. Yearly maintenance as well as road tax and insurance will set you back at least RM1000 per year. Continue saving and work on getting the skills to increase your income. Work for at least five years and save your money. If you can save RM1000 a year for the next 5 years with a return of 4% per annum, you will have RM66K saved up. Then you can buy a second hand viva for RM20K and have 40K towards a house. Don't make the mistake of many young graduates now by getting yourself into debt just because everyone has a car.

---

Added on November 9, 2012, 2:30 pm

Like that ah..but some jobs required us to travel, and need a car. Public transport in Malaysia not really dependable. Now, I'm travel by bus and public transport only. I'm not really in need to buy a car, but I might need it if my job required me to have it..if I have a car, my target to buy a house will be delayed..haih.

[/quote]

What kind of job do you do that requires you to travel a lot? Are you in sales? To me if you work in an office and have a generally 9 to 5 job, you don't need a car. If you are in sales and your company expects you to travel then they should pay for your transportation costs i.e. car, petrol and toll allowance. Otherwise it is not financially sound to buy a car at your salary. Don't buy just because your job MIGHT NEED IT. Is it a need now?
If in the future you start working in a job that needs it, then that job should pay much much more i.e. 4-5K to allow you to afford a car.

If your house is too far from where you work, move nearer or get a job nearer to where you live. The point is don't put obstacles in front of your objectives. Once you tie your money up in a car loan, you will not be able to save and even worse you will start relying on credit to pay for your necessities. Don't just follow the herd. Most of the young graduates now have very little or no savings, have a large amount of debt and often ask their parents to help them pay for their debt. Sacrifice comfort now when you are young to save for your future.

This post has been edited by cynthusc: Nov 9 2012, 04:57 PM

Thanks for the tips! I really appreciate it.

Telemarketing as in direct sales?
Im currently a student now at the age of 19 and applying for full ptptn loan of Rm48k
I need to repay it around RM350 per month for 15 years which include the interest.
i know studies should be the main priority for me now.
I seriously need to find a side income to repay those loans first.
Could you give me some advice on this? any part time jobs?

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Added on November 10, 2012, 2:00 amMy salary is RM500 per month as a part-timer(general clerk) and I work for half day only which is after lunch. I'm currently a college student now which my classes are quite flexible, thats why I could find a job after my class.


Salary : RM500
Allowance : RM250

Expenses :
Food : RM12 per day. (30days = RM360)
Public Transport = RM40 (30days)
Phone Bill = RM58 (with data plan)

My aim:
Repay PTPTN loan in the future. (unless I get a first class honour in my studies which is really difficult to achieve)
Invest in stock market/unit trust.

This may sound stupid to some of you guys as Im just a student here and asking for advice on personal finance. I'm the type of person who wanna plan for my future (after I graduate). Please dont laugh at me for thinking on such a way. Your advice would be much appreciated. Thank You!


This post has been edited by jericholuke: Nov 10 2012, 02:00 AM

Telemarketing is marketing or selling through the phone. I use to sell hotel memberships. It wasn't easy as you often get rejected. It is often a numbers game. The more you call, the more you close. I used to work from 2pm until 9pm.

Your clerical job, how many hours do you work? It looks pretty low to me. I used to pay my part time staff who worked for me from 1-6pm RM700 per month. I suggest you look around for better part time jobs. Search the net as well as use your contacts. You can definitely earn higher. Most important is that when you get a job, you have to do your best, learn as much as you can, work hard and don't be too fussy.

Your phone bill is high. As a student you should not get a data plan. Just get a basic phone with prepaid.

Yay, i agree with cynthusc. I would recommend you to look for better alternatives cuz i believe that there are still many better options out there.

By the way, as a student now, I will encourage you to INVEST in your KNOWLEDGE with the money you left. For example, read alot of books, attending seminar about business and investment. As all these knowledge you learn will eventually accompany you forever. It forms a strong foundation for your future

haha my monthly salary is RM500 per month, my work probably starts from 2p.m to 5.30p.m. (approximately 3 hours), i go to work straight after my class. Is RM500 really that low? its just a general clerk position. yeah if there's a higher pay job, i'll consider it as long as I get to learn while working, thats the most important part.

regarding the phone bill, I signed up for U-Mobile U58 but I didnt use much of the data and my latest bill is RM14.95, suprise suprise.

Thanks for your advice!

well,
i am just doing part time job currently...
I plan to buy unit trust from public bank with a start up of 5k n then top up rm100 every month....
i am 22 this year and have a loan of 48k from ptptn....
i hope to increase the top up when i working in the future...
anyone think that tis investment is good??thanks

If you are planning to look into longer term investment, means this moneis are not intend to use for say >5 yrs. Then I would say, go ahead as it most probably will give you better returns than FD (depending which fund you buy also la). Good because you are trying to discipline yourself to save RM100 every month!

Straight forward and no need to be genius to learn UT investing. You can then learn other investing vehicle and decide next time if UT is your cup of tea.

i forgot the unit trust name, it will invest in malaysia n other foreigh countries as well bt then I chose the low risk low return....
These monies are not planned to use until I retired....
The purpose I invest in this is because I planned to have some spared cash when i retired or use it as a downpayment if i buying a house since nowadays house prices are super high...
thanks for the reply...=)

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This post has been edited by Itu_Dia_Man: Jan 27 2013, 08:44 AM