TeeHK_Tee, nope, never had CFP or CFA "training" before - read a lot, tested / simulated a lot & thunk (past tense of think?  ) a lot about these though. Had to - no one in  my circle of friends & family had such knowledge, skills and thoughts, thus DIY to help myself and them + got severely fed-up with being conned silly by (sales) agents of mutual funds, insurance agents (forced savings my foot), mortgage agents (with hidden clauses & costs), etc. There are 1 or 2 very good ones that i can trust though, AFTER i became more learned about financial stuff - not all are bad but about 80% are "sales" oriented only.

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Added on May 21, 2011, 6:29 am

SilverfoX, i can't remember per se - it's all in my spending tracking (Excel). Going foggy , thus every income & expenses tracked via Excel.

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Added on May 21, 2011, 6:32 am

Ah! A fellow engineer (measure twice, cut once). Remember to inject inflation into your calculation too yar - Sum = Principal * (1 + rate of inflation %)^years away from 2006 (2011 for kindie). And yup, my little sunshine girl is on my Avatar - she's so ugly but adorable (cute) 

Hi guys,

I'm 24 years old - Employed since May 2009.

Salary: RM4300
Savings: RM2600

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Total savings in cash form: RM1,000.00
Total savings invested: RM35,000

Total returns on investment = 32% (since Aug 2010)
Total months I can live without an income (upon liquidating all investments) = 30 months

Just want to share the lessons of personal finance I have learned so far:

1. Constantly increase your personal income.

2. Constantly increase your returns on investment.

3. Increase your spending at a rate (pace) slower than your income increment.

4. Increase your savings at a rate (pace) faster than your income increment.