Hmm.. I see.
Coz I was wondering heavy contribution to the parents will affect our primary objective in Life as well ? Just a thought .. but some parents will also help the son/daughter to save money with their monthly contribution

Thanks.

Basically, our parents do not really need our monthly contribution to survive (talking in terms of middle-income family)...but yet, to me, as their children, we should 'hau sun' our parents. Last time they support us, now we have the ability & income to support or at least to contribute to the family expenses...why not?

How much to give it really depends...i would said, at least it is enough to cover yourselves punya food expenses in the family...if can contribute more, then give more. But dun be so stingy eat a lot, then give parents litlle bit only. The $ we give them in the end go back to us in food we eat, electricity we use, water we drink.

However, when contributing does not mean you have to give a lot until it burdens yourselves financially. So have to make budgeting well...when you have more income, then mer give more.

It might be whole different story for those who have to support their whole family..

My parent a government retired so got pension but still I feel responsible to give them some money. A small amount of money is nothing if compare to what they already given us.

Hmm.. agreed !!
A minor contribution to them .. wont really give much problem unless it will burden ourself financially. Thanks for the feedback,guys ..

Hi HughieRmX,

Now here is an issue that I've been thinking of.

We look into two side of country, western and eastern country. Western parents doesn't request part of their child's salary. As for eastern countries, let say Malaysia, most of the parents would ask for pocket money. Some will say is just to repay back on their hardship raising us, and some for lower income family would need the pocket money to help out partially on family expenses. For well being family, mostly they do not request at all.

So how to define that as our parent children, do we really need to contribute some? I would say it depends on our own hearts. If family really needed this amount of money to ease the burden of whole family...then is better to give some. If just to respect our parents, a lil amount is sufficient...as I believe our parents earns more than that.

So before wegive some pocket money to our parents, calculate how much you can fork up? Is all bout heart....But remember, once you put the price, will you be able to lower down if you facing financially?? Haha

For those parents/bro/sis in need, pls help to contribute back to your family, if possible.

For those not really in need, although a token sum of RM50/100 per month, your parents will be very happy deep inside. Trust me They might say/joke so small, not enough, do you have enough to spend, etc. but deep down... they are proud that their children are starting to earn and live on their own...

I have allowance of abt RM2k per mth.. During CNY, I give my mom and dad rm100 each for CNY.. Their reactions: Dad - big surprise that i was giving money to him.. he seems so happy.. Mum - Told me that it is ok not to give her coz she is working and has enuf to spend.. Like cute_boboi said, I know my parents are happy deep inside..

See ? Told you. Keep it up !!!

my parents are still making money, however i do my part to give them my offering. a few hundred each month.

Imo if you are capable, it is advisable to give back to your parents while you still can before its too late (if you know what I mean). Just my thought...

yeah... no matter how small the money you give, its doesnt matter, your parents will still be happy rite....

or buy something nice for them sometimes ... tats didnt cost much btw

the least thing we could do to show how we appreciate them is by giving them something precious..money,car,present etc.but that alone isn't enough,love is everything

need some advice here...currently, every month i left about RM350+ after deducting all the expenses. do u guys think i should invest into unit trust, insurance or just save it?

I would say, you can split it into 2...half for savings & half for investment.

It is always recommend to have an emergency/saving fund just in case you need $$ suddenly. Most people oso recommend that you should build up a saving that can last you for 6months without income.

The other part is to put into investment (i.e. Unit Trust, Bond, Share, etc.) so that it generate more income. Let the $$ you earned, work for you to generate more $$.

Insurance to me is mainly as protection for my family...anything happen to me, they still can hv some $$ to survive or to go through the hard time. If you are still very young, I think you can concentrate on building up your savings & investment....my 2 cents

It is advisable to save on the 1st day of the month, a certain % of your pay let say RM 350.00 . To put top piority on savings, then your mind would go on auto mode to cut expenses.

People say price of fuel going up again and facing a higher inflation , but i always spend my RM 1 spent as if it is RM 1.30, Why and how ?

1) buy new cloth with at least 30% discount.
2) buy good value HIFI items at half price.
3) buy good second handed PDA or gadget
4) drive a very small car
5) top priorrity to bring in more incomes through sales, rather than doing the shopping first on day to day basis.

If your top priority is to spend first, you always face a problem of with so little money left. Money is never enough even if you are earning 5 figures income.

Just my 2sen opinion.

P/S ; Even 2nd richer man in the world , Warrent Buffet is living a simple life. Google and read more of him.

This post has been edited by SKY 1809: Mar 1 2008, 12:32 AM

do you already have an emergency fund in place ? without emergency fund in place it is not advisable to start your investment. Reason is being. Normal investment profile will take a couple of years to see result and if in between now and the time you reap your results something happen to your income.. say you lost your job. then your investment plan will be effected. So my recommendation is to

Step 1 : Work out your monthly expense using a Monthly Cash Flow Statement

Step 2 : Multiple your expense by 3 months
( Assuming that if you lose ur job you need 3 months to get a new job )
These emergency fund needs to be easy to liquidate. So it should be
FD.

Step 3 : Decide on your needs for investment.
Make sure you state the needs in the following form

Example
Needs Name : Retirement
When to achieve : 30 years
How much ? : 1 million

So based on the amount and years you can actually calculate back how much you need to
save and what type of investment product you can use

Step 4 : Determine the investment mechanism to satisfy your needs. Normally you will look at the product's
past returns to know it return rates.

Step 5 : Review your investment plan. If require review your needs too.

Just my 2 cents..

I can totally understand the frustation of young folks starting out after college on their own.

Even more so if you do not have working parents or they are depending on you as well for money.

Though I'm no where near lots of people my age (or younger) in earning power, today I'm still aiming to be able to retire by 55 officially but I expect myself continue working one way or the other until I'm 60's.

I track all my expense for the last 8 years. I'm not 100% spot on, but about 95% and can be close to 100% on certain month. So I'm micro managing the funds and can be very stressful. Heck me and wifey can get into serious debate and arguement on the $$ (remember, lack of $$ is a major divorce rate contributor). Wifey is excellent on cutting down expenses (I truly love her for it) and me try to forecast as much as possible for our retirement.

So I know what we can spend and what not and life certainly get easier too when your salaried increase with years of working but so do overall expenses.

Irrespective how much you earn now, you must aim for something when you no longer in the earning category. Some invest, some do business etc etc. Some will ended up as salaried worker just like most of us. And don't forget to factor in inflation rate on your future money.

Bank Negara say 3%, I say more like 10%! Basically I slashed 2/3 off what I have in 15-20 years from now. So if you have Rm1000 in 15 years, that prolly can only buy about Rm300 bucks worth of good today!

So if you have a lifestyle that cost RM3k/mth, you better have RM10k/mth in 15-20 years.

Of course as you get to retirement age, you MUST not have any existing liabilities in the form of house loan (unless you are investor with a balanced portfolio), you kids already graduated, your insurance matured, etc. So whatever income you have then, will be purely yours without any extra deduction that you had when you are 30 or 40.

So if you look at your expense today, you will realised a lot of them goes to some one else ie the Bank. So get that off your list, you are halfway there especially housing and car loan.

Me and wife have full intention to sell off our landed house and move to a small apt when we hit 55-60 so those extra funds can be our retirement money plus old folks can't manage the house cleaning/upkeep when age catch up.

for those who have problem managing finance, it's time to

1. observe your pattern
2. note it (not having spreadsheet application is not an excuse. if you're reading this thread, it also means you can download OpenOffice. or heck, use notepad! or even pencil and paper if you need)
3. fix it.

Hey all, this is such an interesting topic and is highly relevant to the majority of lowyat.net forum.

My friends and I started a website called cekikdarah.com to help address this issue.

If any of you guys have anything worth sharing when it comes to best practices (money-wise), like how to finish paying PTPTN loan as minimum as possible etc, we welcome write-ins.

Thanks.

Hi everyone,

Do you want to become a millionaire??

What are your opportunities?

What you need is to design an effective financial plan for yourself, understand what your financial need is and define your goals.

How many months will you take to achieve RM1000K??Let says you are able to save RM1000 per month, you will need 1000months to achieve that.

I realized that only investment can do that if you want to become a millionaire before a age of 30.

So, everybody talk about investment, how much do you know about investment? What type of investment suits you the best?

Equities,bonds,unit trusts, shares, properties or others? You need to know your current financial situation and your risk tolerance.

You need to monitor your investment from time to time, and measure the performance to produce reliable results.

I found that it is really not an easy task to invest, so i think it is better to let experts to invest for us.

Finding a right person to invest for you of course is very important.

Do not trust any uncertified financial planners as they might lead you to the wrong direction. Only those who passed the CFP can be trusted.