You just replied to a 2 year old post.

Is your home worth RM700k on the current market or is that your loan amount? Let's not consider it an asset until you decide to sell it. Until then it would be still considered one of your liabilities (servicable loan, maintenance, utilities etc.) if you intend to stay in it.

I see you've paid off your car since there isn't any car loan. Good!

I assume your home is not ready yet? Seems not to have any utilities bill in your commitments. Nor do I see any parent's allowance which would mean your parents are well off on their own. Good for them.

There is no mention on your current savings or investments. I assume your home is your only 'investment' as of now. If you don't have any emergency savings, please start one (minimum 6 months of expenses ++). Should be achievable very fast at your current spare cash excess.

No credit card is good!

No mention of future planning like getting married, having kids or any home renovation, if you do have plan for it, save up a sum for it.

While with RM2.4k/month savings as spare cash, it would be best you settle a sum for emergencies. Try not to overburden yourself with additional loans until your emergency/ future plans savings are up and ready.

Seems like you have a well managed budget currently.
- You don't have any additional loans other than your home loan which is 30% of your net pay.
- You got no credit card balance to settle
- You've a paid off car
- Your family commitments are minimum

Next step is to save up your war chest for future investments, be it either properties, stocks, funds etc.

You replied to a 1 1/2 year old post. FYI.

Being a videographer means you tend to travel a lot for functions. So I guess transportation and TnG is un-avoidable. But make sure you claim your 20% rebate for TnG if you travel often.

You have both food at RM 400 and also groceries at RM400. I assume groceries include for your GF as well. You can opt to spend less here by buying less of those expensive groceries if there are any.

Others at RM200 I assume for other in-frequent activities or groceries or maintenance.

How many months before you finish paying for your camcorder? RM500 seems to be the biggest fixed cost and from your info, is used for freelance work. If your freelance work is more during a particular month, try to pay off this item as the work you are doing is directly connected to this fixed cost. Similar to freelance work costing you your transport and TnG allowances. Try and budget and price your freelance work to these costs and see if it is actually paying enough/worth the effort.

Your basic pay from your regular job is the limit you should use to manage your expenses. If you depend on your freelance/part-time job to manage your expenses then it will only cause you head-ache as it is not constant. So if you earn RM2.5k month from your consistent salary, your expenses should not exceed this! Your part time job should be helping you, not adding to your costs of living. (RM500/month camcorder)

Your freelance work for the entire year should be ideally covering your costs of paying the camcorder and travelling expenses every month. RM500/month means RM6k per year. Your freelance work is earning you how much per year? Is it covering your costs of your equipment and transportation costs? Are you making a loss/profit in this business? Your equipment as a professional videographer should cost at least RM10k, so I assume you are paying for this RM500/month.

This post has been edited by skiddtrader: Feb 18 2012, 09:26 PM

I don't understand what is integrated TnG? AS far as I know, if you use more than 80 times a month on tolls, you can get a 20% rebate. The rebate will be credited back to your TnG card.

If your camcorder got 4 months left, you should be able to see some improvement in savings soon. Using your earnings from the freelance job and saving it is a good idea provided you have enough to cover your expenses.

Basically you need to cut down on expenses somehow, either by eating less, yumcha less, buy clothes less etc. Some adjustment needs lifestyle changes. For example some people like to get a RM30 haircut every month, a lifestyle change will mean you find a cheap barber and cut it for RM10 instead of a fancy saloon. Instead of yumcha in Oldtime, go yumcha is small mamak shop etc. This options make you look cheap but this is up to you how much you want to sacrifice to save. Some people got no social life and save a lot. Some people don't go dating instead watch TV at home. Some people just stop spending all together.

Next you need to increase your earnings either by charging more for your freelance by providing more options in your packages. Do overtime if there is in your normal work. Try to find other customers or network with other videographers for opportunities in big events like corporate events for your freelance work.

It's hard to grow income from investments if you got not much savings to begin with, so I would suggest you save up first before going for next step in wealth generation.

Your HP account if possible try to get a main line and sub-line to reduce costs and sharing of credit.

Your best way of reducing costs is to know how much you incur costs in the first place. So start a excel file of a 555 book to note down EVERY expense you incur. Including daily toll, yumcha, buy newspaper, petrol etc. This is tedious at first but when you see how much you actually spend in a day it will surprise you, then you can then try to reduce it. For example, I used to spend up to RM40 a day on average. I started reducing slowly and manage to get the lowest at RM25/day on average over a month. Your phone bill can show you how much costs you incur in a daily phonecall/sms etc

Good luck!

Is it a good plan for retirement? No. I personally don't think so. You put in almost 100k over a period of 10 years. Anything happen to you like you lose your job in between, you forfeit right? ANd I doubt you get anything back. Unless you die.

Is it a good life insurance plan? No I don't so either. If you are insured and you unfortunately die in the 1st year, you only get payout 58k. Why so little? Isn't life insurance nowadays at least 100k regardless of how long you have been paying?


At least in my humble opinion. Maybe the fund experts can help. But me looking at it from a returns point of view for a RM100k deposit after 10 years of loyal payment at the risk of losing it if you don't pay, not worth it.

Since you did not state your desired returns from your 200k cash savings, I assume you are hoping to make something better than the FD rate.

If I was in your position where your current house is already paid for and have a large amount of cash savings, I would buy another property for investment. Not necessarily be an expensive property but something that can generate income. Since you have already a place to call home, the 2nd property can be an investment and potentially provide you another form of income if the yields are good. It can also be seen as a education asset for your children next time they want to study overseas or whatever, you can sell the house.

Investments in gold/silver have it's own risks. I do suggest you really read more about it and decide how much risks are you willing to take before putting anything in.

Unit trusts whether ING or PB Mutual also has its own risks. Some say it's lower because it's being managed by a fund manager. Whatever the case, always read as much about it and the evaluate the risks involved. Unit trusts also has annual fees regardless of how well the fund is doing. Meaning you can be losing money in the fund but still be charged your annual management fees.

Just wanna congratulate wongmunkeong on his ELITE status. Keep up the good work.

You do realise you are in a wolf's den here. Actually trying to convince people in this particular thread about supposedly too good to be true investments will get you eaten alive.

Please don't bother wasting your time and go troll somewhere else.