Guten Tag Herr Wong,

That's what motivated me to stay here for 11 years and counting.  The right to education for every human being is enshrined in the constitution and must be provided to every individual regardless of social status, financial constraints and political affiliation.  Germans also hold on to the principle that education and the application of education is the only thing that can bring the country forward.  Therefore, education is free (EUR100 admin fee per semester, reclaimable and students can even get financial help "BAföG").

Have fun bringing up your children in German.

I'd be honoured to buy you a locally brewed cold one if you happen to be in my corner of the woods.

Going back on topic, the hot issue in Germany now is the so-called bracket creep (Kalte Progression).  More here.

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21601...h.jzfJe7s4.dpbs

You suffer like hell
go makan in soup kitchen to survive with 1k..

Not necessarily, it's just priorities
I can show you how to eat like a king, all you really need is 200-300 a month and yes soup kitchens, why not? some people's salaries are not even 1K, the fact that they are not starving obviously means you can survive on 1K.. besides what can you do with your little money except to grow it and pass it on to your descendants? otherwise you work all your life, marry, have kids who work all their life, and marry and have kids who... kind of pointless if you look at it this way isn't it? might as well break the cycle

True enough, but if you don't have kids, it can be your nephew or niece
Actually everyone should do everything once. Once you eat in a 5-star restaurant, you realize that every one of them is a glorified mamak stall lol. I swear if you come to my house for CNY you get better service (and better quality food) than them lol

My suggestion is to clear it all. This debt is not worth having. It's losing you money for no reason.

A true (normal) emergency rarely requires 30k instantly. If not instant, you can easily obtain loans.

Of course, we seeing this from the POV that u have a decent credit score.

Yea, that's Y i added the caveat at the end of my advise. It's really hard to advise given we have not enough info.

We all advise as if he were in our shoes (Navink) but that is rarely the case.
Maybe I'm naive lol but isn't that what credit cards are for? Emergencies. Since he has 16k in debt, it's better to pay it off and IF an emergency arises, he could use that credit card. That's FAR better than keeping the 16k debt (@15% interest) for an emergency "saving/investment" that only nets ~8%.
just to add: the reason for credit cards to exist is
1. to build ur credit score
2. to get benefits/discounts
3. (it's better not to use this, but...) emergency

Yup! As u said, neither is intrinsically wrong or right. It all depends on ur style. The problem with a fixed loan is that you can't save on interests unless u do a special write in (maybe). Or clear the loan.

The good thing about this flexi or semi flexi loans is that they let us keep the cash and yet still save on interest! Win win. Again, this already ASSUMES you have great financial management else it WILL be your doom. The great part about the loan is exactly as you put! It allows u to dump in ur bonuses. And the fact that your salary increases every year, u can put in more and more as you wish. Soon, your 35 year loan is actually left with only 20 years or less and you save hundreds of thousands in interest.

And the best part is that this account gives you the best 'guaranteed' interest rates ever. (Of course, your money does not grow. In this way, ur interest is interest saved rather than gained).

That's 2 years back only 4+ people go bankrupt and now >68 a day.
I have a friend also the same, borrow here borrow there but don't want to change his lifestyle.

2. insurance is necessary, i would say... but you don't need to pay RM200 monthly for a good medical insurance. at your age, <800 (a year) is more than sufficient to get a decent one. also if your company covers a decent medical benefit, i would say this can be put on hold a bit, or get a medical insurance with high deductible, then you pay little for potentially high coverage. if your company doesn't cover, then, might need to think about it asap. like i said, insurance doesn't have to cost much, just need to find the right one.

3. PRS is basically investment in unit trust. the difference between PRS and normal unit trust is tax relief (up to RM3k)... and PRS doesn't allow withdrawal before age 55 (similar restriction to EPF). since you are not paying a lot of tax, the tax savings you get is not worth locking up your money for so long. BUT... there's the PRS youth incentive which is why i'm putting just enough money (Rm1k) just to get that youth incentive (RM500).

so, unit trust can be another way of investing, and you can DIY, and please visit the Fundsupermart thread to read up on what the regulars have to say and DO YOUR HOMEWORK. 

PS: i'm your age, not sifu either. also... the other guy has an absolute hatred on insurance, very extremist opinion.

As you get older your POV changes. Products that you had decades ago are not the same as the ones you get today, and the needs have changed too.

When it comes to making any decision, and not just limited to financial decision, it is important that we make them based on the time that we live in and our own situations.

For example, for an older person who is nearing his/her retirement age, and have not taken any medical insurance before, it may be pointless to start now especially when he/she already has a medical condition.

For those those who are young, and dont know what their future situation, it is important to insure oneself appropriately. Saying that so-and-so is NOT important without taking a look at situation and condition of the person we are advising is rather foolish.

Medical insurance is still necessary as an individual to pay cost of hospitalization.

If not, the hospital bills are going to burn a hole in your wallet.

this is crazy talk.

Why would I prefer to spend paying a RM100,000 hospital bill with my OWN money when I can just maintain a medical card for RM200 monthly that covers me until I'm old.

if you're going to assume every bill is going to come in RM10,000 - RM50,000 then by all I means go ahead and use your cash if you think you have TONNES of surplus but I doubt any rich man would do that.

Buy insurance today, masuk hospital tomorrow, profit

Buy insurance today, masuk hospital 30 years later...insurance company profit

Simplistic view of insurance

do you guys think it would help if I make a video about insurances, the differences, the pros and cons between one and another? would it help people be more educated about the industry?

Previously have this idea of providing insurance info but after running some test on friends and family, it seems a lot of people still don't care much about proper insurance planning. They will just buy what the common buy and what their agent suggest even after explaining to them But again it might be my bad explanation 

So decided to put this mission on hold and focus on my own stuff    since they don't even bother to take control after getting such info 

So this thread is taking another turn? From managing lifestyle expenses to seriously managing money as consulting a licensed financial adviser?

"Proper insurance planning", instead of the usual debate whether the medical card is necessary or not?

A sub 2k in savings account to pay 1% of annual income for a financial makeover instead of the usual 'why don't you put into FD for more interest'?

I was 'entertained' by some of the bulls that were spread here; and there were some bs sales pitch here as well... and it's easy to spot them whether the posters identified themselves as agents or not.

When they do identified themselves, I tend to skip their posts... as they usually end up with the motive to sell themselves. Boring to read. 

I provide wholly financial-planning service at a rate of 1% of your annual income or you could ask anyone, including myself anything pertaining to your concerns about financial planning right here.

As for your current situation, you need to ask yourself if you need any fund for the short-medium-or-long term periods. Depending on these needs you can put your money in all sorts of accounts generating widely different returns but also at different risk-factors.

For example, the Unit Trust investments are best made for longer term periods due to its higher entry cost, however, it also gives better returns if your agent is productive and proactive. 

If you think you would need the money within the short term but does not want to leave it in the bank to generate less than 1% interests, there is always FD.

Let me know what you think.

Who says we're gonna use phone to scroll through spreadsheet?

And who says I did not enter details to perform tracking? And who says I enter details into spreadsheet through phone?

Don't make assumption bro

The reason I hated it is simple. It's not tightly integrated with the third-party mobile apps (for expense tracking, NOT budgeting).

Basically, I have to:-

1) Create my own spreadsheet and INTEGRATE these two aliens (my Budgeting spreadsheet and the imported Expense Tracking data from mobile)
2) Create the spreadsheet to compare actual spent vs. budgeted

And just for this, there's so much maintenance work required (on spreadsheet side).

I don't think I'm considered as one of those "who don't know how to use spreadsheet". It's just NOT WORTH the hassle when there's already some EXISTING software which can do two-in-one easily.

I understand that you're very well off successful person (with > millions in KWSP account), but that doesn't give you the rights to brag nor despite other's opinion.

You like to have your spreadsheet, go ahead. I had mine and I disliked the part where I have to "develop" and "maintain" (the technical side, NOT the data entry side, get it right....) my own spreadsheet