Dear all,

Need your independent opinion on my financial status and how can I improve further.

Basically, I'm 26 this year and working at a Bank.

My Incomes:

Net Salary: RM4,500
Rental income: RM1,250 (1 year contract starting April 2014)

Total: RM5,750

My expenses:

Housing loan: RM1350
House rental: RM360 (inclusive utilities)
Car loan: RM450 (Preve)
Food & Groceries : RM600-RM1000 (Let's take RM1000 to be prudent)
T&G: RM100 (Use LRT to work)
Insurance: RM250 (Medical and use the insurance to cover housing loan if anything happen instead of taking MRTA. Hence, need higher limit and therefore higher monthly commitment)
Phone & Astro: RM100 + RM60
CC installment: RM480 (will end in August and September this year.)
Car Oil, Maintenance, Parking: RM300

Total: RM3,990

Surplus: RM1,760 roughly

Savings & Investment

RM10,000 in shares (only in UMW Oil & Gas counter) and RM1,000 in UT (Kenanga Syariah Growth Fund, put in last week with annual return of 23.12%)

Background

I can do saving but I'm bad in managing my expense. I always use my saving or CC to buy gadgets. I was in huge debt of around RM11K last month. As my priority is to rid off CC debt first, I have used my EPF and deposit from my tenant of RM3K to settle the CC debt.

Now, I'm almost CC debt free. So, I can now focus to build up my saving and investment portfolio.

My target

I prefer to put my money at places that force me to save/invest or hard for me to withdraw out my fund. That is why I invest in property, UT and shares.

At the moment, I'm in the process of applying another housing loan but it will not cause any CF constraint coz the interest will be capitalized for 4 years i.e. during construction period. Have to pay around RM2200 starting from Year 4. I want to invest into this property coz besides no significant impact on my CF, the construction period is pretty long which allows me to save on RPGT if I want to flip it once it is completed.

I can't put my money in ASB (I'm Malay btw) coz my dad is using it for his retirement fund. It has reached the allowable limit.

Btw, I may get married next year. So, may require significant sum of money for that of around RM15-20K. The makan-makan side will be sponsored by parents fortunately.

What's now

So guys, what do you think should I do with the excess fund of around RM1,760? Should I put everything into investment and withdraw the fund when I need it for my wedding?

Or should I put separate fund for investment and wedding?

And on the investment, what kind of investment should I focus on? I am leaning towards UT though...

This post has been edited by hullabaloo_bard: Apr 7 2014, 04:54 PM

Tq. That's an option. So, should I put everything in it first or based on proportionate basis?

Tq for the suggestion.

Would it be wised if I use the surplus of RM1,700 according to below approach:

Saving: RM700
UT: RM1,000

*Will not invest in shares anymore coz of my trigger happy attitude.

So, by let's say by May next year, I will have:

Saving: RM8.4K (So, the remaining wedding fund will come from other sources like bonus)
UT: RM13K (inclusive existing UT of RM1K)

One more thing, should I rather use fund for UT for ASB2 first or maybe split 50/50?

This post has been edited by hullabaloo_bard: Apr 8 2014, 10:28 AM

50/50 on investment.

No use I put my wedding fund/savings of RM700 in ASB2 when I will still take it out next year.

So, based on your opinion, will it be good? Or should I park the my saving/wedding fund into ASB2 first?

On the property, it will have no installment to be paid for the first 4 years and it will not eat up my RM1760 until Year 4. So, by the time the installment starts to kick in, I may able to cover it with my salary increment or just sell it off.

About the CC, it is not a outstanding sum. It is under CC installment for scheme for my laptop and hp. So, still has to service the installment of RM480 every month.

On the groceries, yes I know it is on the high side (roughly RM33 per day or RM11 per meal). The lowest I have tried is RM600+. Will try to drop it lower.

On the transportation, I still use car during weekend and sometimes go back to kampung in Melaka. And, one more thing, Preve drinks fuel like nobody business specifically during traffic jam. Need to figure ways to reduce this transportation cost.

About the ASB2, it can be done using simple standing instruction to Bank.

This post has been edited by hullabaloo_bard: Apr 8 2014, 12:55 PM

About the house, it is not under DIBS. Its under bank package where the interest during construction will be capitalized during construction period.

On the return on property, yup, it is negative now. It is a landed actually and the yield for landed not as good as condo. Now the value is plus minus RM100K above the purchase price. The value still does mean anything CF wise coz it is just a paper gain.

About the food, I'm have under weight issue. My weight is just 48KG. So, need to consume food at above average level. Will figure out how to replace current consumption with cheaper replacement.

About the car, still have to keep coz I still need to use it occasionally for work purpose. Not feasible to use only one car in future coz different working hours most probably. I work in the Bank and she works in hospital.

About CC installment, will get penalty for early settlement if not mistaken. Will continue to pay it monthly coz as long I pay on time lump sum every month, it is interest free.

So, I guest I need to focus to buck up my savings first.

And the next question is....

Should I:

1) Stop investing first and solely focus on bulking up my savings until it reaches certain limit; or
2) Do investment and savings on 30/70 basis with favor towards savings; or
3) Do investment and savings on 50/50 basis.

And I guess the best place to do saving is through ASB2. Right?

Tq guys . Great to have somebody to kick around some ideas. I guess I have to prioritize my fund towards savings first before anything else.