Why you want to burden your self with insurance? SInce it won't protect you anyway. For me I'll just cut it.
what loan is that? rm730? Housing?

Advance payment or what ever, it will park "nowhere". Best is pay the exact amount and when you get certain amount of money, tell the bank you are going to pay and reduce the principle.
Bank's T&C are always in favor to them. Check back properly.

Not sure is this the right place to ask, do appreciate the help and reply of everyone around here. Thanks in advance!!!

I'm a diploma student with zero financial knowledge with a very minimum commitment.
Having 5 digits in the bank account which I'm able to pay for everything without being dependent to parents. Currently having just PTPTN loan only, which I'm not too concern about it as I'll be able to pay it off when I graduate in my degree (graduate in 2017).

Taking into consideration currently working 4-6 jobs (part time jobs & online businesses)at a same time to pursue my diploma, take home income ranging from 4.5k to 6.5k per month.
*Income may vary due to availability of jobs, but has not be less than 4.5k*

I've allocated emergency fund of 3 months, currently with no commitment of vehicle & insurance (since it won't protect me, might as well make use of the money rather than spend it).

Due to lack of knowledge in finance, I took the initiative to search some reading materials to get better picture of financial planning & investment. Hence, not doing any investment currently, cash is sitting in the bank. Which I'd regretted I never start early enough to manage my finance.

If you guys are in my situation, what path will you take to fully utilize the cash to generate more cash and/or allocate it for better cash flow?
And also, is it advisable to invest with current economy situation?

Note: I'm not good in math and finance, so I'll need some time to learn from the basics before making any investment.

Unknown to your risk appetite (which is very personal and subjective)....try reading these links first before you decide.
Why do you invest?
Investing is not about picking the top-performing asset or the highest ranking fund. The purpose of investing is to make your money work for you. This requires investors to make informed, important and conscious decisions. Here are the questions that you must ask yourself before investing:

https://www.kenangainvestors.com.my/KIB/KIB...vestingFAQ.aspx

However, before you jump in and start investing your hard-earned money, there are several important things that you would need to know about yourself first.
•How much do you really need? (Future Planning)
•How much risk can you take? (Risk Level)
•How long are you willing to wait before you see profits? (Time Horizon)
http://www.fundsupermart.com.my/main/schoo...d.svdo?PageID=1

if the risk appetite is ok try PRS.....govt giving youth incentives...
PRS Youth Incentive RM500
PRS Youth Incentive is an initiative by the government to encourage young individuals to start saving early for retirement.... April 23, 2014

http://www.fundsupermart.com.my/main/resea...?articleNo=4558

Have a read of these and its links for better understanding while waiting for more value able responses.

1. Emergency Savings, best is to have 6 months worth but 3 months is OK too. No problems there. In fact you're having it while studying is already . I only had mine after graduation
2. Letting money sitting in the bank is fine, just place it in Fixed Deposits while you are learning on investments (Unit Trust, Property, Stocks, etc).
3. Learn more about the investments - understand them, then only proceed. It's never too late, I bet I'm older than you and I just started recently - the key point is as long as you are started, it's ok.
4. Once you understood more about investments and your own risk profile/risk appetite vs potential gains, then proceed to invest. Personally (currently) I'm investing max 10% of my savings, which I may increase over time when I felt more comfortable.

Here's some articles to get you started:
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/when-should-i-invest/
http://www.fundsupermart.com.my/main/schoo...alPlanning.svdo
http://www.investopedia.com/university/beg...r/beginner2.asp
http://www.moneysense.gov.sg/~/media/Money...tureEnglish.pdf

And lastly, although this is not investment, I believe there are a few good points / takeaways from budgeting (which I believe you already fully practice or semi practice it as evidenced from your esavings)
http://www.youneedabudget.com/method

This post has been edited by polarzbearz: Jan 24 2015, 06:59 PM

With rm4.5k, you need to put in rm500-700 for EPF, looks like you are self employed.
PTPTN loan best is settle it fast since you have the money. Then you got extra money to save after that.
Is wise that you never buy any insurance as it does not protects you when you need them.
Balance of the money you should keep in the FD or buy ASM type of fund that charging you 0%, not those funds that charging you.
Suggest to keep rm50000 in online FD, balance on hard paper FD that gives better interest. Online FD will be serve as your daily expenses and emergency fund. Make sure you have a FD matured every month.

If I have some foreign paper currency like EURO now, should I change them into MYR and invest them, or it's better to just leave them in EURO to hedge since MYR is still going down? Thanks!

Woh u can do that in year 2015?

I used to spent RM300/mth too when i was working in KL! BUT it was 6 yrs ago!
Breakfast: maggie/biscuit/gardenia bread RM5/week
Lunch: RM4+ (90% chicken rice cos its fill your stomach LOL + chinese tea, force to order cos eat at kopitiam)
Dinner:RM4+ (chap fan - always the same stall cos its the cheapest)

On weekends, of cos spend abit more BUT I make a budget to spend ONLY RM300/mth on meal.

I been doing that for 2 years! Now when i think bout it.... its like WOH! how i able to do that last time...

Here my situation,

Just moved in to my new house and already fork out 50k for furnishing, kitchen etc.

Fully paid my car this month. No loan except house loan now.
Simple said, now my wife and I can save RM4k-5k permonth.
I have about 25k saving (tabung haji) and my wife about 50k saving (mainly in KWSP).

Both working as government servant with decent salaries (gross RM13k combined, yearly increment about RM600 combined)

How can we manage our financial better? Been doing online part time business but the profit not much and time limitation because having a baby.
Just wondering how you guys can do so much works. Any tips on time management?

And also wondering why you guys said insurance is useless? Health insurance particularly?
Because yes if you dont get sick it pretty wasted but mine have saving. Also got case one of my friend been hospitalized and the total bills worth RM15k been settled by insurance.

Thinking into investment or properties. But still dont have gut to do it because of the risks.

My target is to retire by age 40 with 20k passive income and all i can think that can achieve this is by investment and properties

Continue doing what you are doing.
Greed will return to poor.

Hi supersound,
Its investment linked insurance...take the cheapest one. Will gain portion of profit when policy expired.
rm730 is accumulated amount for personal n study loan.

Trust me, with the amount you dump in and the amount you get back later, it will be way lesser than what FD gives.

Usually I keep it for future use if I happened to travel to that country unless u have loads of "cash" in foreign currency that you wish to gain the forex exchange.

It's something like 500 EURO, which turns out to be RM2000. Is it worth just keeping it 'under pillow' and not growing it?

yes, MYR has been down alot. i'm no currency expert but you do realise EURO is down faster than MYR? with QE coming EURO is like expected to go down, stay down for awhile. though vs MYR is more specific situation, requires more 'analysis'

I hope you notice what you have typed. Investment-linked insurance. English grammar will tell you it’s an insurance product first and foremost, which is linked to investment.

There is NO guarantee you will gain profit when it expires. Also, as far as I know, it expires at age 100. I doubt any of us will still be alive at that age. Looking at your situation, you might want to recheck your insurance policy. No point paying for insurance policy when you don’t even have enough in the bank.

Financial services provider marketed insurance as wealth protection. I agree. Now in your case, there’s not much wealth to be protected in the first place.

I’m not against insurance, I do think you need some protection element, especially a father-to-be. Then again, you have to make way for diapers and other expenses… so, something for you to think about.


This post has been edited by adele123: Jan 27 2015, 04:40 PM

see currency chart as at 23 jan
http://www.fundsupermart.com.my/main/artic...20150123_MY.pdf

Care to share how old are you right now? It seems that both of you are doing fine financially.
just a wild guess, doctor couple?

Hi, I would like to understand the reason and your perspective on why you said insurance will not protect you? Did you have experience of bad claims before? Or currently you feel you don't have that much commitment hence insurance is not important for the time being?

As someone who is working in the financial planning industry (not insurance agency etc2), wealth management is prioritize by the order of wealth protection, then wealth accumulation, wealth conservation and lastly wealth distribution. Insurance is considered as one of the main financial products for wealth protection. The reason to this is because if you are diagnosed with one of the 36 CI, you cannot work which stops a large(if not all) part of your income. You would also be faced with a huge medical fees to undergo medical treatment.

Insurance acts as an income replacement while you recover. Medical expenses are one the most likely incident that would eat up all our savings hence the reason one of the main causes of people gone into bankruptcy(base on AKPK) was making loans to pay for medical expenses. There's no point of accumulating wealth if it's all going to go down the drain paying for hospital bills hence the reason financial planners focus on this first especially for the mass affluent.

Even if you feel that insurance is not important for the time being, I would advice on at least buying a medical card for yourself. Good luck with your financial management. All the best.

Thanks for shedding some light, will do all the reading and do some extra homework about it. Thanks again.