You never answered any of my questions

Oh yes, knowledge is power. You can lose all your money in one day, but u cant lose your knowledge unless u have alzheimer. With the right knowledge, u can always start all over again. The people who thinks money is the root of all evil are dumb because they never had money to begin with.

Im planning to start this insurance cum life saving thing from maybank+Ing.

I've heard from a few consultant and from 3 ( great eastern, prudential and ing), apparently maybank-ing is the only one where u invest a certain amount a month and u get to see your fruits after 3 years.

and the percentage is around 10-15 percent and it has been consistent a couple of years. This yaer im not sure but they are projecting somewhere aroudn 13 percent.


ANyone can advise me if this is a good plan to start my saving/investment portfolio?


I plan to start it in mid year after settling my commitments. Its around 300-400 bucks monthly which i think is a good deal as the 3rd year i get 6000-7000 as profit and i still have my root money inside to roll. Maybe this devident i can invest in something else to expand my portfolio


please do advise sifu's

I'm more vested in properties, but let me just share my personal philosophy with you with rgds to insurance. It's still your decision to make.

1. With rgds to insurance - it's all about risk mgmt. As such, I never go for investment linked policies or hope for any sort of return from my policies etc etc. Any potential returns from my policies is an ancillary benefit of policy ownership. To me, insurance is only a form of risk mgmt in case any adverse incidents were to happen.

2. I NEVER buy bancassurance or any sort of insurance product distributed by the bank. I only buy from a full time agent / agency owner. Why? Simple - I want nothing but OUTSTANDING & Quality service. If I'm in trouble - I just need to bang the table and scream to my agent - and he or she will go all out to help me. If i buy it from a Lucy at a Maybank branch - oops, she just resigned 2 months ago....let me pass u to someone in ING - and the ding donging just keeps on getting better and better.

Just my opinion. Good luck.

Yup. I'm getting it through the agent and not through the bank. Offcourse i know to the bank, im a small fry. But to an agent, its income and we know how income is to a person.

True the policy that is being put on the table is 2. First is the insurance itself and another is the life savings etc. Even tho i pull out i still get 80 percent plus the devident so i still make some money there.


I need to learn to diverse this out. Im just 26 this year so i assume this is a good step before i go further. Anyone else with good comments as Pheoni above?

I appreciate all comments...bad or good. I'm learning

hi fox,

before you commit yourself into it, read the fine prints of the fund before you buy. It is not as profitable as it is and moreover, you too know that the current market situation.

How could you know that it can yield 10-15% returns after 3 years? Read carefully. These are all marketing gimmicks. They are called investment link - insurance policy.

A lot of aunties dunno about it and they buy it purely from mouth to mouth recommendations.

Just be careful. They are still many ways to diversified your money. Go to the bank and the CS or personal banker will help you it in. In these times on uncertainties, dont tie yourself to something like 3 years. Make it liquid as banks nowadays are smart. They promise you that you can get this returns but they only want your money. The most heartaching when they send you the prospectus of the performance of the fund.

Dont rush. They are still many ways to accumulate wealth.

Take care & good luck.


P/s : I am one of the buyer of these funds and its now UNDERPERFORMED.

This post has been edited by clement8115: Jan 27 2009, 08:24 AM

bro, the website you promoting is about forex... i don't think it is suitable for you to post it in this section...

Few Step to save some money~
Original Link
Kindly let know if i re-post this~

1.Set savings goals. For short-term goals, this is easy. If you want to buy a video game, find out how much it costs; if you want to buy a house, determine how much of a down payment you’ll need. For long-term goals, such as retirement, you’ll need to do a lot more planning (figuring out how much money you’ll need to live comfortably for 20 or 30 years after you stop working), and you’ll also need to figure out how investments will help you achieve your goals.

* Kill your debt first. Simply calculating how much you spend each month on your debts will illustrate that eliminating debt is the fastest way to free up money. Once the money is freed from debt payment, it can easily be re-purposed to savings.

2. Establish a timeframe. For example: "I want to be able to buy a house two years from today." Set a particular date for accomplishing shorter-term goals, and make sure the goal is attainable within that time period. If it’s not attainable, you’ll just get discouraged.

3. Figure out how much you’ll have to save per week, per month, or per paycheck to attain each of your savings goals. Take each thing you want to save for and figure out how much you need to start saving now. For most savings goals, it’s best to save the same amount each period. For example, if you want to put a $20,000 down payment on a home in 36 months (three years), you’ll need to save about $550 per month every month. But if your paychecks amount to $1000, it might not be a realistic goal, so adjust your timeframe until you come up with an approachable amount.

4. Keep a record of your expenses. What you save falls between two activities and their difference: how much you make and how much you spend. Since you have more control over how much you spend, it's wise to take a critical look at your expenses. Write down everything you spend your money on for a couple weeks or a month. Be as detailed as possible, and try not to leave out small purchases. Assign each purchase or expenditure a category such as: Rent, Car insurance, Car payments, Phone Bill, Cable Bill, Utilities, Gas, Food, Entertainment, etc.

* Keep a small notebook with you at all times. Get in the habit of recording every expense and saving the receipts.
* Sit down once a week with your small notebook and receipts. Record your expenses in a larger notebook or a spreadsheet program.

5. Trim your expenses. Take a good, hard look at your spending records after a month or two have passed. You’ll probably be surprised when you look back at your record of expenses: $300 on ice cream, $100 on parking tickets? You’ll likely see some obvious cuts you can make. Depending on how much you need to save, however, you may need to make some difficult decisions. Think about your priorities, and make cuts you can live with. Calculate how much those cuts will save you per year, and you'll be much more motivated to pinch pennies.

* Can you move to a less expensive apartment or house? Can you refinance your mortgage?
* Can you consolidate your debts so that you're not paying as much interest?
* Can you save money on gas, or give up a car altogether? If your family has multiple cars, can you bring it down to one?
* Can you get a better price on insurance? Call around and make sure you are getting the best price you can. Consider taking a higher deductible, too.
* Can you drop a land line and only use your cell phone?
* Can you live without cable or satellite TV?
* Can you cut down on your utility bills?
* Can you restrict eating out? Buy food in bulk? Cook more at home? You might be able to save a lot of money on food.

6. Reassess your savings goals. Subtract your expenses (the ones you can't live without) from your take-home income (i.e. after taxes have been taken out). What is the difference? And does it match up with your savings goals? Let's say you've decided you can definitely get by on $1500 per month, and your paychecks amount to $2300 per month. That leaves you with $800 to save. If there’s absolutely no way you can fit all your savings goals into your budget, take a look at what you’re saving for and cut the less important things or adjust the timeframe. Maybe you need to put off buying a new car for another year, or maybe you don’t really need a big-screen TV that badly.

7. Make a budget. Once you’ve managed to balance your earnings with your savings goals and spending, write down a budget so you’ll know each month or each paycheck how much you can spend on any given thing or category of things. This is especially important for expenses which tend to fluctuate, or which you know you're going to have a particularly hard time restricting. (E.g. "I will only spend $30 a month on movies/chocolate/coffee/etc.")

8. Stop using credit cards. Pay for everything with cash or money orders. Don't even use checks. It's easier to overspend when you're pulling from a bank or credit account because you don't know exactly how much is in there. If you have cash, you can see your supply running low. You can even bundle up the predetermined amount of cash allocated for each expense with a label or keep separate jars for each expense (e.g. a bundle/jar for coffee, another for gas, another for miscellaneous). As you pull money from a jar for that particular expense, you'll see how much remains and you'll also be reminded of your limit.

* If you need to have credit cards but you don't want the temptation of having them available to use day-to-day, restrict that section of your wallet with a note or picture reminding you of your savings goals.
* Credit cards are not inherently evil; it's all about your self control. If you use them responsibly (i.e. completely pay them off every month), you can benefit from them. But the reason most credit card companies make money, however, is because people end up spending money that they don't have. Unless you are one of the people who can religiously pay off the balance in full every month, you're better off foregoing the promotions that credit card companies use to lure you in (cash back, introductory APR, airline miles, and so on).

9. Open an interest-bearing savings account. It’s a lot easier to keep track of your savings if you have them separate from your spending money. You can also usually get better interest on savings accounts than on checking accounts (if you get interest on your checking account at all). Consider higher-interest options such as CDs or money-market accounts for longer savings goals.

10. Know where your money is. And how much of it, too. If you accidentally overdraw your bank account, you will incur hefty bank fees; worse yet, the place you paid with that check may slap a bounced check fee on top of that, and send the check in again, resulting in a second overdraft fee from the bank! So just a few cents missing to cover that check could result in over $100 in fees. To avoid that, you should always know how much money you've got in your account(s), so you never cut a check for more than what you have.

* Look into checking and savings accounts that pay interest. Also, consider CDs (certificates of deposit) for longer-term savings with low risk.

11. Pay yourself first. Savings should be your priority, so don’t just say that you’ll save whatever’s left over at the end of the month. Deposit savings into an account (or your piggybank) as soon as you get paid. An easy, effective way to start saving is to simply deposit 10% of every check in a savings account. If you get a check or sum of cash, say 710.68, move the decimal point one place to the left and deposit that amount: 71.07. This works well and requires little thought; over several years, you've a tidy sum in savings. Over decades, you'll be a millionaire.

* You can set up an automatic transfer from your checking account to your savings account.
* Many employers allow you to deduct savings from your paycheck. The money is directly deposited in your savings account so you never even see it on your paycheck.
* You can also have investments for retirement taken directly out of your pay, and the taxes may be deferred with this option.

Hi Guys,

I think now i start to take my personal financial management seriously. Hehe, may be grow older liao, know the important of $$ and i wish i could enjoy freedoom to travel anywhere and free to live my way, not to be super rich, but at least reasonably good.

Currently I start tracking my expenditure with www.expensr.com . I found this tool nice to use, hope it would eventually help me to control my expenditure and assisting me to improve my savings/investment portfolio.

I am quite curious on how actually we control our expenses? I know we would cut cost for those unnecessary, but sometime i think something is nice and good to have, and i could afford it, then i spend on it. The expensr have a function for me to put my monthly budget, and monitor the progress. I find it's great but i not sure how should i make a proper budget to have a good control.
*I do not spent on clubbing, drinks and etc. Also i do not watch tv.


For e.g., my current budget will be similiar to this:

Parents and siblings : 700
House Rental : 300
Insurance : 300
PTPTN : 300
Books : 300
Transport (Fuel and Maintenance) : 300
Food : 1000 *I know the food expenses is huge, hopefully the daily tracking can help me to reduce it.
Entertainment (mainly travelling) : 500
Sport : 300 (mainly on supplements and sport equiments)
Health care : 200 (toiletries, facial...etc)
Ultilities : 115 (internet + line), 50 (mobile phone)

Please give me suggestion or comments for a better budgetting. Thanks.

wah toto u really earn a lot

you dont hv any savings?

mind telling how much is your income?

your income could be 10k+ who knows....

Do you know Maslow hierarchy? know how to differentiate what is need, what is want. food is a need, bur shark fin soup is want. shelter is need but luxury apartment is want.

so go figure, you don't need insurance to survive, I don't have any insurance policy for one and I'm still healthy and sound.

books, why you need books when you have internet? you can find anything in the internet and it doesn't fill up spaces

200 for toiletris??? are you like metrosexual gay who spend on make up, top end toilet papers as well?

ah_suknat,

Ya, i heard of Maslow hierarchy, but sometimes really a bit difficult to control discipline. I know most of time i just spent easily, that's y i would like to manage it properly. My income is not 10k++ but still able to have some savings if i not exceeding those budget.

Anyway, I think insurance still something that a need in Malaysia. Last time i do not trust insurance and dun like insurance. But after doing more reading, i find it's worth to have some basic insurance (life + critical illness + accident). I think the RM 300 is still worth. (Oh ya, my insurance premium is more expensive due to overweight. I do not have medical issue or cholestrol problem, but they still categorize me as higher risk!)

I think it's worth to spend some on books, it's different reading from books compared to internet. Well, may be this only applicable to me who may be a bit old-minded. I find reading book would give me better picture and complete story, also it help me to better.

Ya, i agree toiletris is a bit too much. Followed friend to do facial then start buying those stuff...

I do not know if these reasoning is defensive, but just try to explain my thought.



Syd : Hehe, ok la. Last time i have not much saving. But now start to have saving every month, target around 2k month.

wah.. tats a lot...

u r just fine ... toiletry is not too much if your look, appearance etc is important in what you do for a living. metrosexual guy is the best a male can be in this modern age.

insurance is a must, whoever say no now will regret MORE than whoever 'waste' money in insurance now.

your budget seems ok, eventually your contribution to your parents and siblings will turn into your own family growth. when things go bad, you may cut those and they will understand if they love you as much you to them.

as for the food, u can start to be more innovative, go look for food as good but cost less is quite an interesting journey ... cut stuff like starbuick, coffee bean etc. there are better coffee out there ...

don't cut on books neither, just narrow down to the Right and more quality books/magazines. but if you didn't finish the books you bought last month, then its time to 'reduce'

if the purpose of asking is to save then you may have started with the wrong feet. The right way is to save First then spend later, not to spend budget and see how much you can save. in addition to that, you should setup a system to 'automatically' save your monthly income before you even touch it. wherever you are saving should also be a place which is not convinience to withdraw ...

http://malaysiapersonalfinance.blogspot.co...al-finance.html

mtsen : Thanks for your comments.
Ya, i have to cut starbuck.

I still searching for a way to do the automatic saving properly. The e-banking standing instruction charge RM2 for every transaction, a bit reluctant to pay it. Currently i just put a e-FD every month once i received my pay.

Wah toto, based on wat you say, you must be earning a lot

anyway, so nice of you to give your parents & siblings 700 each mth.

Books and insurance maybe you can cut down to 150 each.

for food 1k is a lot.

If I lump entertainment, sports & health care together, it is 1k already. try to cut 30-40% off. then you'll have extra 1k to save


can we do it manually? I'm not sure maybe you can check it out with the bank

Hmm.... earning i think ok kua, there is still a lot of people earning more. It's our responsibility to contribute to family ma. Now bachelor life still no prob, later dunno lo, haha. I think may be need to setup some passive income for parents, if possible.

Ya, we can do the standing instruction manually. At least i know it's easy to be done at Maybank2u, anyway, RM 2 is charged on each transaction!

Pls correct me if I'm wrong.

1. You do not seem to have any mortgage payments - So i presume u do not have any investment properties.

2. I do not see any allocations for equities / stocks.

3. Your savings - I presume are mostly in cash. Do u have any investments other than Insurance? (Which one would argue is a risk mgmt tool, not an investment)

4. For my own budgeting - My Savings are AFTER mortgage payments and stock investments and other expenses

5. Your rental is approx RM 300 only....which is good.....And u do not seem to have any commitments....U should be saving at least 60% of your gross income at this stage. (From my own personal experience)

Are you anywhere close?

Hi Phoeni,

Yes, now i just about to build saving and building my investment portfolio, thru typical pyramid. (Savings -> FD -> Bond Fund -> Equity Fund -> Stock/Properties)

1. Yes, I do not have mortgage or any investment properties.

2. Currently I do not want to take the risk at such uncertain market, with my limited economy knowledge. Also I would like to have some good base (FD/Saving = 3 months salary, and some fund) before I go into Equities/Stock. From wat i heard so far, the economy might be recovering by mid or end of this year. So my short term plan is to have sufficient cash (on top of my savings) to dump into equities /stocks, or properties, by end of this year.

3. Yes, mostly in cash and FD. Nowaday FD oso just like cash, can uplift any time. I only bought some capital protected fund before the economy serious downtime, now i still reluctant to put my money into fund or other investment tool yet.

4. Hmm... may be your way is right, but i think i need to have the base (3 month salary of savings) before i go into more risky investment.

5. Hehe, ya, this month i just paid off my 2nd hand car loan, so now totally no commitments. I still sharing a rental house with colleagues, so my rental is low.

You are right, if I control my expenses and only spend for very basic living needs, it is possible to save 60% of my income. Honestly speaking, this change is possible but currently i am reluctant to do so. Some expenses might go to enjoyment, but i think most of my expenses are going to help me improves knowledge (books), vision (travelling - mainly backing), and health & appearance (sport and etc). And sure, these are for life satisfaction.

The question that wandering in my head is: whether I just finding excuses to make me feel good regarding my expenses?
I hope this is not the case, however, i wish to have more comments and suggestions.

Nobody is denying u the simple luxuries and necessities of life. Books - go for it! The occasional metrosexual treatment - go for it!

However, my point is simply this - considering u do not have any investments and commitments, and are still learning - your savings rate should be much, much, much, much, much higher vs. the avg Joe.

that's it.