//offtopic
errr....may i know the reason why rm2000 is low? what's the reasonably salary? maybe i'll update my resume and negotiate during interview.

This post has been edited by quintessential: Nov 18 2006, 06:11 PM

//offtopic
dun mind and never mind one. If your price tag is inexperienced. RM2k is fine. As you got to be trained. If you are really experienced ASP people. Then only you could negotiate... keep low profile first before you got your knowledge. Learning period just 1 or 2 years. After that, if you are capable by that time... RM 4k or more job anytime at you. Patience is the key for trainee. i made one mistake before. dun hope you repeating it...

After having less than 2 years of experience. I plan to ask some where below that price too.

Ermm guys back to topic.

msia salary is too low
expenses is too high
even how good u micro
sometime ur fren bday or celebration
easily spend up rm50 per person
if you need to paid family
cost for buying home commodities also high
toothbruth,shampoo,toilet paper
everytin add up is a huge amount
so far i can only manage to save Rm300 a month
kl expense living also high
RM5 + a drink Rm1
sometime u out with colleagues jst cant be too cheap skate
haha

my recommend is find way to earn more money
like wat i am doing now
wan mlliionaire of cuz no
at least can cover ur expenses




This post has been edited by soulmad: Nov 19 2006, 05:42 PM

A very interesting topic indeed this is =)

Anyway here are some personal finance tips that i can give which hopefully can help.

The most important thing actually in financial management is to have a sustainable income for the unknowing future. First thing any one should do before investing in shares or mutual funds would be managing their personal "self" finance first.

You can do so by first establishing what most people call "emergency reserve". As the name might self-explain, emergency reserve is strictly only to be used when times of emergency (i.e. accident of urself or family members) and not for buying new handphones when they come out . How to establish a emergency reserve is fairly simple. Simple equation would be 3 months of your expenses. So taking an example:

Lets say your average starting pay as a degree holder would be RM2,200

Lets break down an average persons expenses here for a month
- Petrol RM30 x 4weeks
- Food RM168 x 4weeks
- Lodging RM500 x 1 month
- Entertainment RM300 x 1 month
- Other expenses RM200 x 1month

Addin that all up wud rougly give u a figure of RM1,792 per month which clearly shows you that an average salary payer of RM1,800 would barely have enough money to spend

Anyway, since your salary would be RM2,200 that would mean you have savings of roughly RM408 per month. When creating a emergency reserve, it is always better to put aside these money into savings and NEVER touch it unless absolute necessary.

Looking at the above example, your minimum emergency reserve should be at LEAST RM5,376 or round it up bout RM5,400 and this should be put into Fixed Deposits (FD) broken down into 5 SEPARATE certificates.

Why separate you might ask? well its because if you were to put all the amount in one certificate, should you plan to withdraw the money incase of emergency, the penalty that you would incur plus the loss of interest would be greater. Since the bank rules states that min deposit into FD are at RM1,000, they have no rights to not allow you to split them into 5 separate one. Should they not allow you, go to other banks. As simple as that.

The best part of this emergency reserve is taht it does not only applies to adults or working people but teenagers and college students as well. And for your info, im still a college student =)

Now after that you have set a emergency fund, lets now look at ways to protect our future. Depends on whether you're a risk taker or risk avoider, my advise is to get insurance. Alrite, alot of people are ranting on insurance matter as it seems that insurance are sign that you're going to die fast or bad omen to some old thinkers. To me, insurance is to protect your future the best way. Should anything happen to you, at least your parents/love ones are safe from anything which is what you definately want right?

Insurance are best bought when you're young because the premiums are generally lower than those paid by more elderly. Aside from that, if you're working and submitting tax returns, you can claim EPF/Life Insurance Relief of up to RM6,000.

So now, you have reserve and insurance and looking for some real investment. Very simple tip that i always believe is that you can gain anything if you're not willing to sacrifice. If you're just thinking of getting easy money without doing anything, then you definately can gain anything. Even robbing the bank takes effort, planing and skill. You can just blindly walk into a bank with a ruler and expect to get millions out rite? So be realistic.

Now. Im rili against direct selling (no offence to those doing it) as their utter rubbish and non-sensical. If you were to ask them for a simple financial statement, i doubt they can actually produce one. There is no prospectus and all that you noe is what they tell you. Kinda hard to believe honestly. Never believe that there is ZERO risk and 100% return. If you do, again, its time to start being more realistic.

There are many different types of ways to gain financial freedom ligitamately. There are long term and short term. Short terms would be speculating in shares while long term would be investing in funds/shares.

There are a variety of funds out there and you might be asking, how do i noe which to invest in and whether they are good or not? Well, honestly speaking i can't really tell you which are the best and which are the worst. But my advise would be, go for reputed investment bank like CIMB or Public Mutual. When you're there, listen carefully and read tru the prospectus very thoroughly and make sure understand all its terms and condition.

Well thats all i shall post up for now.

Cheers
SheZZaR

actually micro management DOES help. usually it won't help if the person is resistant to changes.

Saving is not a problem for me but saving how much is the problem. I have 1.7k only after EPF.

RM350 - Rent
RM66 - Streamyx
RM100+ - Handphone
RM300 - family
RM600 - foods

RM300 left?? Haven't include other special events within the month Planning to invest on FD but not sure how good the ROI is compare to other savings/investment

RM 300 left is pretty good.

but RM 600 for food?

Wow! Nice one! seems really good for micro-managing.

Would be cool if anyone can convert this into a web version.

May I know whether you have education loan or car loan?

This is by far the best advice I've ever followed since starting work. Every month I'm putting aside RM300 (in other words I'm "paying myself" RM300), and you can really see the difference after a while! For example, after just 4 months, you already have RM1200. Keep that up for a year, and you have RM3600 already!

What I do is I transfer the money everytime I get my paycheck to another bank account where I dont have an ATM card or online banking account, so that I discipline myself not to touch that money. Trust me, it works.

This is sweet. Thanks for sharing!

Since PNB have the facilities deduct my monthly salary to save to my ASB, I'm have no worry about not saving any every month.

Yes, nett salary maybe lower but It's worthy.

yes, this is helpful especially to those who can't control themselves.

another issue i'd like to bring up is credit card. without proper understanding / mindset towards credit card, it usually spells doom to finance. i have a few friends that actually had to cancel their cards due to such reasons.

IMPO "Pay yourself first" approach working if you already make a budget AFTER making the allocation and have the pure intention not using it in any circumstances. I've made my mistake before and now have to save more to pay the "debt" back!!!

If it means cutting your weekly ritual of shopping unnecessary clothes and other tempting goodies, so be it. Think before purchase, DO YOU REALLY NEED IT?

Keep track each cent you are spending, some might think it's ridiculous but a moderate calculative mentality might save you more. Remember you are not cheap, just saving your hard earn cash. But sometimes (and I repeat sometimes!!!) you can pamper yourself. No harm done.

RM350 - Rent
RM66 - Streamyx
RM100+ - Handphone
RM300 - family
RM600 - foods


rent = rm350 - too high la.. find cheaper room.
foods = rm600 - try to reduce this.

u can easily save rm200 -300 if u manage to find a cheaper place n food

i've been in the Credit Cards hell hole before, thank to some tight budgeting and hard months, i finally can free myself from its grasp, cancelled the cards straight away and never look back, just keep 1 or 2 for emergency usage.

in KL, rooms are rather pricey. even in the late 90s, my rented room was like RM 400 so i'm not surprised of this pricing.

however for the food, if RM 600 for himself / herself then it's on the high side cos that comes to like RM 20 per day already.

it's amazing how much making your own food saves you. a pack of Ayamas nuggets is less than RM 10. bread about RM 1.50. that can last for quite a few meals already.

actually it's all about mentality. CCs are like "ok the card pays for me now, i can pay later" - the thing is a lot of people miss out the part that what you spend now will be deducted from you the next month.

for me, since my 1st day of using CCs i always treat it as cash. every time i use the card, i take note of the amount charged and immediately treat it as part of next month's cost already.

this way i won't over spend as i know what i've spent for and such.

This is a bit high, if the calls are not related to your job.

btw guys, after reading all your posts, i noticed that few of u actually allocate money for personal/guilt/"wants" purchases?

to be frank, most guys are gadget freaks and are probably into computers/phones/cars/hifi etc
as for the ladies, i believe clothing/makeup/slimming lessons are definitely a monthly expenditure


im just interested on how you guys deal with this.. do you set a fixed amount monthly to spend? if so, how much issit? having your monthly earnings will oso help
else, do you save for 6months and spend it all? (reminds me of eating maggi mee + bread in college whilst saving to get that latest mouse/gfx card/ram blah blah )

I'd like to know guys

can any1 kind enough to share out the Personal Budget Planner ??

it's on rapidshare n i can't dl it.. blocked by company

thanks