1. Live a frugal life.

- Knowing the value of your Ringgit means every penny counts. Live a frugal life by being wise in every money-related decision. First, make a mental list of your monthly and yearly subscriptions, and what you pay for every month. Then decide whether it is really important to be subscribed to any of these. For instance, do you really need cable TV subscription or magazine subscription when you spend most of your time at the office or outside of your home?

TEH : Live within our means ... many will be saying such or we have heard of such advises. It is a good financial advise we all should heed, especially if we are young, in our twenties ... or still in mid-thirties. I would say ... how I wish to know these simple concept ... of being well, financially.

Nothing is too late ... I started to THINK about my bad financial situation when I was 38, after I got married(and marriage is costly, ok? tho mine is the simplest one due to tight budget). So ... slowly I force my financial-idiotic brain to THINK on how to earn more, how to save ... how to invest ... how to do more and use less.

One could search the net for such materials to read or get good books to read. One of my first book about financial is RDPD, the popular Robert. Then, Milan's and Adam's books. These are just materials as guidance and one will not get rich reading these books.

I was reading Azizi Ali's "Millionaire in me" ... year 2006 ... and I kinda like the way he writes. One day, my father-in-law asked sarcastically ... one could be millionaire by reading books? Err ... I never respond to many comments on my financial change in my mindset ...

Now ... back to the 'frugal' part ... I am reflecting on my spendings ... and current buyings. ouch. Am I still frugal? I could not afford anything at all when I first came back from KL nearly 4yrs ago ... I was heavy in debts(personal and credit-cards ... heavy losses in markets too as I was a newbie).



Think ... if one is FORCED to be frugal, it is not a choice. Paying mininum amount every month on the credit-cards(got 3 then) is not what anyone want. To reduce our expenses ... using basics and getting the better discounts for things we are buying. Always saying NO to BUYING, unless it is necessary.

Living within our means ... could means, we have allocated 10% of our income as saving, and if our income is not huge, we should control ourselves from buying expensive items ... or so-called fine-dining. Control the bills too ... every aspect of USING MONEY. That is being frugal to me.

Recently, I do start to buy many items that I like ... such as speakers, earphones, headphones, home theater ... hmm ... assembled a good pc, bought two notebooks, a Samsung tab, a smartphone ... these are gadgets. And they are not cheap. Are they necessary? Should I live frugally and use the old-items?

Income vs expenses ... I do use 'percentage' for my monthly budgets. Do have a habit of planning for our monthly expenses so that we could know how much we are earning(averagely per month) and what are our expenses could be. Can we increase our income? Can we reduce our expenses?

Let's take a CAR LOAN as an example : Assuming I am earning RM6000 ... and paying my Proton car loan around RM600, that would be 10% of my income, right? Ideally, car-loan should be 5% of our income!! So, in other words ... my car-loan is RM600, I should be earning averagely RM12,000 per month. Hmm ... how many percent of Malaysians earning RM12,000 per month?

But, you could see most of young grads or working adults car-loan exceeding 10% ... or even 20% of their salary, right?

This is one example I am seeing myself as frugal ...to maintain less than 10% of my income allocated for car-loan(a depreciating asset). Either we increase our income OR get a cheaper car. I do not drive but ride second-hand bike to office.

House-loans ... should not be more than 20% of my income. House and car are always largest of loan we are taking. So, if one asked why am I only staying in low-medium cost apartment ... it is because that is all I could afford. I am paying RM1700 for my house-loans. Assuming my income is RM6000, it exceed my 20% quota, right? ouch.

Controlling these two largest items is very important. That is 30% of our income or should be LESS than 30%. If one bought a house, took a house-loan and manage to rent out the house, that is great ... but we still need some money for the differences(bank-loan and rental) and maintenance.

I will NOT change my Proton for years to come ... and if I do, it has to depend on how much I am able to earn then. The rule of NOT more than 10% of my income holds. If I am going to drive ... say, a Honda Civic, taking RM2k loans per month ... I have to be earning averagely more than RM20k? Yeah ... when I am able to change a car, it really means my income is huge enough ... as I am still living frugally(below my means).

Dinners ... this is another large expenses for me!! Somehow ... I enjoyed to bring my wife-kids for nice dinner in restaurants. Mere 4yrs ago and when I was in Sabah ... I could not really afford dinner at a restaurant ... not even once a month!! I am still a very simple person when it comes to food ... I could take chicken-rice or mamak-mee daily for my meals ...in food-stalls. I will always still enjoy the simple way of having a teh-tarik ... but these days, I 'reward' myself by taking my family to dinners in any restaurant, to try whatever food they like ... and seeing my wife being happy with that, my kids enjoy it ... that makes every ringgit worth it!! I m determined to reduce the makan-expenses next year as I have overspent in this area ... great to be reminded to be ... frugal.

Bills ... electricity bills, water bills, phone bills, unifi bills ... if you have a family, and the only breadwinner, you will understand all these bills need to be paid every month. Again, I place it to be less than 5% of my income. Otherwise, we have to cut here and there ... if I am using RM6000 .. 5% is only RM300? Kidding me ... haha.

NOTE : RM6000 is being used as recently media been saying that average middle-income Malaysians earning RM6000. My salary is still way below RM5000, for your info.

Another goal I do have is to save 20% of my income every month, and put them in my trading accounts(for trading and investments) ... in this case, I am almost reaching 20%, but still fell short. So, another new year resolution here!!

20% saving, 20% house-loan, 5% car loan? 5% bills? Food another 15%? Kids 10%?

What about household items? What else? Books/magz?

Membership subscriptions? Entertainment?

I really do not use money much ... as I will make sure I stay 'frugal'


How I wish I could be with more of frugal-living individuals ... most of my colleagues are teachers and teachers are very bad when it comes to personal-finances. Yes, I do wish to join such fugal communities. Invite me, please ... or I will create my own frugal-group?

Buy only during sales, get discounted items ... I do not mind wearing second-hand shirts-pants(please donate to me if you have the extras to be given away. Thanks!!)

Time to write my financial resolution and re-adjust my monthly budget for next year. I hope to increase my income by 10% and reduce my expenses by 10%.

Can I just do it? Wanna join me ... especially those young 20s-30s? If I could get myself out of debt, doing so well now, what are your excuses? What?? Tempted to buy the latest Samsung Note3, using credit-card loan for it?

Live your life ... you way, then.

TEH