1.I parked my savings in ASB ( I'm Portuguese mixed Chinese parentage)
2. RM35.5K , ( still gonna bargain)
3.Living in Setapak area.
4.Loans = nil


Wow your bro, have a strong will power, of not wanting the car. I really dislike the question, " so when are u gonna get ur own car ?" , you're 25 and no car ??. It's time to think like an adult.

Believe me, I had my first credit card at the age of 24 . After rejecting it since i started working.

Furthermore I'm planning to diverse my investment in CIMB Investment tools or Public Mutual as no point keeping eggs in one basket. But I cant decide which is suits me. I'm an total idiot when comes to investment . Investment for extreme dummies , perhaps

Anyways , I have not test drive the car. Just doing some R&D . Perhaps some advise on buying a 2nd hand myvi ?

Hmm here are the stuff that you need to consider :
1) Dont just look at the year of the car, check the mileage as well. Usually used cars are priced on age but personally I think a 5-year car @ 50,000km mileage is a lot better than a 3-year car @ 100,000km mileage.
2) You'll have more bargaining power (more discount) if you pay cash or put higher downpayment
3) Download a loan calculator and see how much interest you have to pay for minimum loan (2 years? and another one for 4-5 years) with different downpayment. Compare it to the discount that you can get. Calculate the opportunity cost (interest lost on ASB). Make your decision.
4) Then calculate how much you have to pay every month for your car installment. Add maintenance, petrol, toll and parking cost. Compare it against % of your monthly salary. I personally like to keep my car expenses below 20% of our household's nett monthly income (car is used by both my husband and I). If it's too high then consider a higher downpayment.
5) Parking in Dang Wangi area = expensive
6) KLCC area to Setapak = heavy traffic. I used to live near Setiawangsa area and worked in KLCC area myself.
7) If I were you, normal days I'll just take LRT and during odd hours I'll take the car cause usually off-peak parking is cheaper, no jam and no need to worry about missing LRT.

Here's some fun calculation for you : http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...post&p=33115907

For investment, I prefer to max out my ASB first before moving on to other UTs. UTs generally has a lot of hidden fees (fee when buy, fee when sell, fee when switching) that will eat out the profit. Please do not invest in something you dont understand. Try to read and learn more before committing

And btw, dont buy a car because of other people. After you buy a car, they'll find something else to pick on, say "when are you going to get married", "when are you going to buy a house"

Cheers!

Syd G i like this quote! Cherly, pls think twice before u decide to buy a car. Car will depreciate. Don't buy because of other ppl.



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Syd G : Thank you for your advice , makes me wanna think carefully

It's a Year 2006 , with a mileage of 40,000 KM. It's between a need and want

Need : Working hours are not fixed
Want ; Itchy hand ,seeing everyone has one makes me wanna have it


Chung80 ; Tq for the advice . It's kinda annoying at time . Some of my friends earning lower than me also have a car . Contemplation is there to get one

I've been working for a few years now and i don't own a car, not because i can't afford one, but i just don't need one. I walk to office, and for the times i wanna go out, my parents girlfriends were nice enough to give her a car.

Personally i think owning a car is one of the worst things you can do financially, in Malaysia. It costs way too much to pay for the instalments, petrol, parking, servicing etc. To justify it, you either need to have lots of disposable income or you absolutely need to have it.

I always think in terms of ow many % of my monthly income i need to put into feeding this beast, and does that translate into the same % of improvements in my life because of it?

Yeah, i agreed, I remembered the days i don't have my owned car yet, Oh my god, My income everything just doing fine, What i was happy because every month of the income, and i will just minus the money that i will spent for my daily eat foods and drinks only..I was terrible save money that part of time. Since after back to my Head Quarter based in subang jaya. I force to have a transport since that is no way for me to take cab neither bus. It most costy and pricey. Every month have to do payment for the car loan.. Ahhh !!! Eventhough i can afford to pay for it but sometimes calculate and count it back. It is a lot after few years later

But in SARAWAK it is compulsory for you to own either a car or motorbike. We don have much public transport.

Since you are young, you may start do some investment which will appreciate in future, i think this is much more worth it!

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I wrote about Monthly Spending Guidelines in my blog. One can refer to see that they are spending over for a car. However, it remain as spending guidelines and not my real budget.

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Added on April 21, 2010, 9:57 pmI know how it feels to be left out of the privileges of getting public transportation. Previously I used to debate about getting a car/motorbike with others as some people just don't know how it feels to be in places where there is no public transport. Anyway, I always recommend to get a car instead of a bike because of safety and rain etc, but always there are others who will say that we are getting car because we want "face", which I totally disagree. And today I read on newspaper, there are about 6K fatalities from accident each year, and 60% are motorcyclists. IMHO, I believe if we earn enough to get a car, might as well get it. No point keeping so much cash when you have higher % to be in the fatality list, because eventually you cannot bring the money with you.

This post has been edited by jasontoh: Apr 21 2010, 09:57 PM

Just sharing with you... One of my client (Malay lady) also trying very hard to borrow some personal loan from different bank. All come back with the reason ' no personality'.... She dun understand what is that meant and no one can help her... She mentioned it to me in one day and telling me that she is 'very clean', no housing loan, no credit card, no car loan and her pay even more than 3k recently... She is so disappointed with the bank... I just asked her one question 'Do you submit tax?' and she said 'No!'... I ask her 'why?'... She told me that she has kids of 4 so she is under the limit and she assumed that she dun need to pay... In addition, she resigned quite oftenly... These are the reasons that the bank cant get her personality... She dun declare her income at all... She dun have the source of income... How bank can trust her that she is able to pay back the tax... Nowadays, the bank will not trust on the payslip, they will always look at ur Borang BE and EPF statement.. Coz you can't hide ur salary from these...

So do u open a tax file already?

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Added on April 21, 2010, 11:47 pmIf you dun spent money, the money is not urs...

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Added on April 21, 2010, 11:53 pmYou should reset ur mind that 'thanks god coz I have a car'.... because of the car, u can done ur job, because of the car u can easily moving around... because of the car, it create a lot of convenience and safety to u... U will feel u make a right choice when u pay for the instalment... It is really help u to generate a lot of 'income' rather than the installment...

This post has been edited by sherrytam: Apr 21 2010, 11:53 PM

A car sometimes can be termed as a Need , other times termed as a Want.

If you have a need for a car, then it is justified to get one.

But the next question is What is your affordable and comfort level ?

If you cannot afford a big branded car, then I shall say it is a WANT, not a Need. Something that a person cannot afford to have one according to his or her earning power.

And generally most people do not need a big and branded car, but they rather WANT to have one or more.

If they can afford them , why not ?

No one is stopping them anyway.

Often in life we have more Wants than Needs, so a form of planning is needed.

Just my view.

This post has been edited by SKY 1809: Apr 22 2010, 12:29 PM

yeah true,, our wants exceeds the needs and that's where rationality comes in. To separate from needs and wants.

Can afford to pay for a car, but still pain in the ass at the same time.

Car installment RM2K per month, the car value depreciates RM500 - RM1,000 per month.

Assuming that I have 10k cash, what is the best thing to do with it?

This post has been edited by pojam: Apr 26 2010, 12:37 PM

You have the 10k cash?

If you like bikes, get a good ZZR - it's back-friendly, very reliable for long distance traveling and u wont need to pay parking

The rest of the money put aside for your baby emergency fund of RM1000, continue paying down your debt (except for PTPTN, just pay according to schedule) and if you have extra money, build your real emergency fund of 3 months worth of expenses.

Any extra gravy you have, save up for your wedding (you never know .. ) / buy a car etc. You'll be in better shape a year from now.

Cheers.

This post has been edited by Syd G: Apr 26 2010, 12:39 PM

I have 1k salary, and I have no spending, everything paid by company, I save 70%, the rest just for my food and stuff i wan to buy. My life is very simple since there's not much entertainment around

Hi, (Thanks Syd G.)

Yes I have 10k cash.

My PTPTN is actually not that much anymore, am also considering paying off a lump sump (it's around 1700++, need to check but it is definitely under RM1800).

As what I have read so far, I will try to kill off my debts and after that will focus on building positive cash flow.

Regarding the emergency fund - yes. That is my first priority right now. Build up my emergency fund.



Also, I am very naive - can you explain how the principal and dividends thing works?
People say it's okay to spend the dividends but try not to disturb the principal (in the case of ASB/ASW/AS1M units).


Oh and as for the ZZR, thank you for the suggestion. I need to take a car because my hometown is in Kelantan, it's a 6 hour drive.
Plus, I have a girlfriend and I wouldn't want to ask her to pillion ride with me.

Oh and thank you for reminding me about wedding budget! That one is going to be a killer!
I don't understand why weddings cost so much, and I will definitely try to have a "as-cost-saving-as-I-can" have.
Although wedding does not only involve me. It involves my family and her family, and I'd have to think about what she and her family wants.
It'd be wrong to deprive her of a wedding that she would want, although she herself is from a finance background so I suppose we can talk it over

Better not spend much on the event and save up for the honeymoon right?

This post has been edited by pojam: Apr 25 2010, 11:00 AM

OK Kelantan then a bit tricky.. if Kuantan diff story

You can pay off your PTPTN if it's that small. Dont care much about if people tell you the interest rate so cheap and you're better off saving money elsewhere.. it benefits you physiologically than financially.

If you have no idea about investing, FD or (if you're Bumi) ASB are the best way to start off. Just put money in there first and make decisions when you're more financially savvy later.

I wouldnt call it 'wedding budget' tho since it's not just about the wedding itself.. there's honeymoon and you gotta factor in the fact that she'll move in with you and possibly needing you to find a bigger place to rent, new furniture and etc. Throw a baby into the mix and you'll have a financial breakdown if you're not prepared

There's also money issue that you need to discuss with your future spouse - how you're gonna manage the bills, savings and retirement etc but we'll cross the bridge when we get there

Any suggestion for a student to put his extra cash into? Need advices for normal bank investment programs that might suit myself (e.g mutual funds, unit trust) Sometimes layman terms are easier to understand than reading all the theories lol.

Well, I would suggest you park your money either in FD or PNB's funds. While you do that, you can take the time to learn more investment knowledge along the way until you are ready to commit in a more risky investment (Equity etc).