hi guys,

I am working in one MNC for over 1 year already. I have just got my increment this month. My new salary is RM 3.2k without deducting the EPF, tax and SOCSO (previously is RM 2.7k) so after deduct all those stuff should be rm 2.9k like that.

Here is my breakdown of my expenses for each month.

Food - RM 600 (eat with gf and friends)
Offering to church - RM 320
Utility bills - RM 400 (maybe more a little bit sometimes)
Petrol - RM 300
Toll - RM 50 (estimation only)
Entertainment - RM 200


Total is RM 1870.

I can save around RM 1000 per month. Is it consider good enough or should i cut other expenses now?

Please share your thoughts.

After deducting tax, EPF and Socso, should be about 2.4K-2.7K left. I can say if you can save RM1K per month I really . Until now I'm saving way less than that
Anyway, good to see that you give offering to church as well Keep it up


This post has been edited by jasontoh: Oct 21 2010, 05:05 PM

you can save around 30% of your salary..your doing good...

is offering to church a must for you ? RM320 is quite a lot ...

Thanks for contributing to the church.
Well,personally i think you're doing well for savng Rm1000 per month.Time to do investments.

a tithe is 10% of your gross income

thanks. hope i can say more next time..

Yeah but i want to know more investment.

it is called tithe.. 10% of your each month total income.

investments? i am looking at unit trust or ASN. can tell me more?

yeah.. you christian too?

If you know nothing about investment, better start learning first. Investment != easy money. In fact, there are more people losing money in "investment" almost every now and then, but again, we only hear the story from the successful ones. For investment, very difficult for people to guide you as different people has different risk tolerance. I would say I love stocks best because it gave me the highest return, vs unit trust although I only have very less experience in Unit Trust because I am overly confident in my stock pick .

No need to rush into investment, just read more about stock investments and stuff like that, and hopefully next time can see you joining me spamming Stock Exchange forum

do kindly scroll thru the replies

http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=1304838&hl=

After starting to work for 3 weeks in the new company, I'm now making some adjustment on the monthly budget

Salary = 3,500

Bonus = (Unknown. I will save all the bonuses anyway if rewarded)

EPF = 280 (=3,500*8%. I choose to pay 8% salary for my own EPF portion, whereby the company will pay according to the statutory rate.)

Home contribution = 350 (=3,500* 10% salary to parents)

Food = 540 (=18*30, previously i planned 5 per meal and 15 per day for food, however I don't find any cheap restaurants nearby Jln. Raja Chulan, so I have to fork out 3 extra for lunch. Maybe after I get use to the working environment and know which restaurants or stalls provide economic and cheaper food other than going to Pavillion, then only I can spend less on lunch…>_<!!)

Rental = 300

Transport = 100 (I have decided to defer owning a car. Now I walked from home 10 min to LRT station, and take LRT to KLCC. After that I walk another 10-15 min to reach office, just treat it as an exercise.)

Insurance = 250 (might plan to cut 50 on insurance the new company provides some kind of insurance coverage for the workers)

Internet+phone = 100 (=hand-phone prepaid of 30 + celcome wireless of 60, make the sum total approximately 100)

Investment magazine subscription = 60

Others = 120

So each month I can save RM1,400, of which could have exceeded my previous plan to save 20% of the salary after deducting car installment+car expenses. The reason I aborted the car plan is because I plan to save up to 50% of my salary, too bad that with current pay I can only make it max to 40% with my best effort. I hope after going through the probation or working a year in the firm, I could have achieved the 50% savings plan with additional salary increment then, assuming my expenses will not increase in tandem with the increment.

My next move is to save for a 3 to 6-months emergency fund ranging from RM6,000 to RM8,000. After achieving my plan for setting up emergency fund in the next 5 to 6 months, then only I can take the subsequent savings to continue accumulate my investment portfolio.

how much savings you have in bank now and how many years you have been working?

Currently I have about RM3K sitting in cash+savings a/c. I have not much cash because I have been studied for the last 2 years full-time, just spent about RM4k recently for buying a new PC and new stuffs for the new job and I was over-investing during the bear market.

Before starting this new job, I have been working for 4 years and then continue further full-time studied a professional certification for another 2 years. Just completed the study 2 months ago and now come out to work again.

Nah I'm well read

Good job, Sir.

O/T
may i know what professional certification requires 2 years full time commitment?

The professional certification exam that I was taking in the last 2 years is the CFA program. It is indeed designed to be a self-study program but it requires the candidates to commit a lot into reading. Afraid I cannot handle the study while working, that why I decided to take the program full time.

Of course there was another reason I quit job and full-time study. It was because my ex-company (an IT firm) was not doing well during the financial crisis which happened since year 2008. The management of my ex-co. had declared there would be no bonus for the next 2 years and salary increment would be ceased for at least a year (According to what my ex-colleague had told me after 2 years I left the company, he had not received any bonus and salary increment for the 2 years).

Thus I decided to resign from the job at July-2008, and I knew it was not easy to find another new job during financial crisis, so I decided to make a full commitment into studying and hoped I would complete the program as soon as possible, and if I completed the program in the next 2 years, most probably the world economy should be recovering and thus it would be a good time for me start to look for financial related jobs, this was what I planned during the last 2 years.

i see.. then good for you then. i am still looking for investment now..

Thanks sir..

Hmm.. quite interesting story. i think it is time for you to come out and work because the economy is recovering now...

Why you and your brother need two laptop in the first place?

Why your handphone bill so expensive?

Why use RM 88 Digi broadband??

good job on micro planning, but I can see a lot of stuff are not counted in, are you in a relationship? entertainment? other food stuff etc

but normally when people are talking about emergency fund, usually its based on your salary, not your savings....so your 3 month emergency fund is around 10k...0r 20k for 6 month

I'm now single, and I'm not a smoker nor heavy drinker. Since I have no car to drive out, so I wont go out entaining too frequently. Maybe every friday/saturday night I will vbe out to play dota with friends for few hours but I don't think it would cost me alot. Or I would go and shop at KLCC/Mid-valley (since they are accessible via LRT/KTM) during weekend, most probably I might buy a book/magazine to read or watch a movie, I think that won't cost me alot as well. And I have a habit of treating myself to have nice food in good restaraunts once a 2-week, normally I don't spend more than RM30. And all these extra cost on food+entertainment are taken care by the "Others" categories of which I have put in a budget of RM120. Of course sometimes people mght over-spend due to unpredicted circumstances, I'd try to control the over-spending amount below RM50 to RM100 of which will not seriously erode my saving plan.

BTW, my emergency fund is based on my monthly expenses, not salary. Currently my estimated living expenses are RM2,100. By taking the EPF portion of RM280 out from the RM2,100, then my non-working living expenses would be RM1,800. So my 3-month to 6-month emergency fund would be ranging from RM5,500 to RM11,000. Most likely I would be taking the 3-month plan.

This post has been edited by kinwing: Oct 27 2010, 05:58 PM

Hi PPZ,

If you mind to read my previous thread, indeed I'm working now , just started to work no more than 1 month.