How much is Enough?

In the world today, we are being brainwashed to think that we should have more and more. We should have more things, more money, more social media likes, more food, more gadgets, more of everything.

Success in life is often judged by external indicators like luxury items, popularity, salary, or status items. But, in reality, these external indicators are actually poor guideposts because they are not the real indicator of true wealth, contentment or positive lifestyles. The reality behind the shiny facade is often debt, money worries, stress, poor health, and dysfunctional relationships.

Understanding the reality, we need to reject this acquisition mindset and the consumerism that everyone is being caught up in. Thus, in order to restore balance as we pull back from our lifestyles of excess, we should strive for a more moderate lifestyle and care less about what other people think about us. With this, we may experience greater fulfillment and happiness.

Never enough

The problem with the current society is what we have is never enough. We would want more of everything. Collectively we are better off and have more than any generation before us, but it still isn’t enough. Even when we have everything we need, we are told that we must have better, upgraded versions of our endless possessions.

The race for more is a vicious cycle. The more we buy, the higher our expenses will be. Thus we need to work harder and longer to pay for these expenses, resulting in less time to enjoy life and more stress. Then, we would spend for more goods and services to compensate and make us feel better. And the cycle repeats again and again.

Striving for a more simple life

Instead of running the never-ending race for more, it would be better for us to strive for a more simple and moderate life. 

Life is not about how fast you get to the end. Rather, it is a marathon that we would take time to enjoy the scenery and companionship of your family and friends.

By understanding that more does not mean better is one of the first steps. There are many times that when we take things easy, we would be much happier.

Take a step back and stop everything that you are striving for. Take your time to look into all these goals and activities. Do you really need them or it is just a wants? Would it really make you happier? Does it improve your life by a large margin? Is there something similar that can give you just as much happiness?

Take an example of myself. My dream car when I was young was actually a Honda Civic. But the cost of buying that new car then was about RM 100,000 which is an exorbitant amount of money that I could not afford. So, instead of working endlessly to pay for the installments, I look into other alternatives that are more affordable. In the end, I bought a new 2003 Perodua Kelisa (which I still own until today). This Kelisa is still as good as it used to be and even until now, I am happy with it and have no thought of selling it, even if the one buyer is willing to pay double or triple the current price.

This article is first published in Radical Ringgit.

Insurance 101 - What is Insurance anyway?

Insurance is an arrangement whereby a company or government agency would provide a guarantee of compensation for specified loss, damage, illness, or death. In return, those that bought the insurance will make a payment to the company call premium periodically. 

For Malaysia, we also have Takaful, the shariah compliant version of insurance. The concept of Takaful insurance is based on the Shariah laws whereby a group of participants mutually agree among themselves to guarantee each other against a defined loss or damage that may inflict upon any of them. These participants will be contributing a tabarru’ or donation into the takaful funds. Takaful emphasizes unity and co-operation among the participants.

What insurance basically means is that you as the policy owner would pay the insurance company a sum of money (called the premium) periodically. In return, the insurance company would undertake to protect you, by compensating you for the damage or loss of what you have insured. The insured items can be your house, car or yourself, in case of illnesses or death. 

Insurance would help you manage your risk. That is the reason it is also called a risk management system, where the risk is transferred to another party.

The 3 most common types of Malaysian insurance are:

• Medical and Health
• General
• Life

1. Medical and Health Insurance

This is the most basic insurance that covers you in case of illness or injury due to an accident or illness. It covers all medical expenses and, if necessary, hospitalization cost which can be quite overwhelming if you don't have enough savings to pay for the bills. This insurance is the most critical insurance that everyone needs.

2. General Insurance

General insurance protects things that are valuable to us. Valuable things such as our homes, our cars, and other possessions are insured under this insurance. Most of us get general insurance for our car or motorcycle when we purchase them for it is mandatory in Malaysia to buy insurance for the vehicle that you own. Also, when we bought a house with a loan from the bank, the bank will require you to purchase a house owner or fire insurance.

3. Life Insurance

Life insurance is a policy that pays out a sum of money (sum insured) to the beneficiaries upon the death (or other circumstances such as critical illness or permanent disability) of the person insured. It would be a good idea for you to consider purchasing life insurance once you have covered the basics of health and motor insurance. Life insurance is highly recommended when you start earning more than what you spend and when you have responsibilities such as spouse or kids.

By knowing the basics of insurance, you will be able to understand your needs better. This will help you in your search for the right policy. If you need more help in buying insurance, contact an insurance agent.

This article is first published in Radical Ringgit.

Who is Dave Ramsey?

In the world of personal finance and money, chances are, you already know who is Dave Ramsey. He is a radio personality turn author and public speaker who uses his own story of financial turmoil that followed by tremendous wealth as a way to teach others about personal finance.

The reason why he is so popular is that he understands the motivation people need to get out of debt. He breakdown the steps into 7 steps that he calls the Baby Steps:

• Step 1: RM 1,000 in an emergency fund.
• Step 2: Pay off all debts except the house by utilizing the "The Debt Snowball" method.
• Step 3: Three to six months of savings in a fully-funded emergency fund.
• Step 4: Invest 15% of your household income for retirement.
• Step 5: College Funding (e.g. SSPN-i)
• Step 6: Pay off your home early.
• Step 7: Build wealth and give.

Step 1: Save RM 1,000 in an Emergency Fund

Dave recommends starting off by focusing all your attention and energy on saving up $1,000 in an account and label it for emergencies only. By doing this he is able to get people to have a “small” win first, which will encourage them to continue the next baby step.

Step 2: Pay Off All Debt Except Your Mortgage

Baby Step 2 is all about psychology. This step is one of the most important ones that show his power of motivation by using something he calls “The Debt Snowball“ method. This method gives people quick wins from the start and keeps people motivated because the majority of people will be staying in this step for several years before they can get rid of their consumer debt altogether. The quick wins will help to keep the people motivated so they can continue to stay the course.

"The Debt Snowball" method is where you would list down all of your debts (except for your mortgage) from smallest to largest. Next, you would make minimum payments on all the debts and put every extra Ringgit towards the smallest debt until it is gone.

After the smallest debt is paid off, you would move on to the next smaller debt on your list. With this second debt, you would add what you were paying on the smallest debt plus the minimum payment you were already paying until it is paid off. Repeat this process with all the debts on the list until you are consumer debt-free.

When you start paying off the debts one by one, you will see that the snowball would start growing. It will cause the brain to release dopamine and serotonin (neurotransmitters) whenever you win something. These neurotransmitters will cause you to want to continue the process more and more.

Baby Step 3: Finish The Emergency Fund With 3 To 6 Months Of Savings

Once you are debt-free, you would have a good stash of ringgit(the money you used to pay off your debts) for other use. On Baby Step 3, this stash of Ringgit is best used to build up your emergency fund of 3 to 6 months of savings. Dave claims that by doing it this way, we're reducing the risk of having to go back into debt if we experience an emergency. If you do not do building up this emergency fund, how would you handle an emergency? Would you pull money from your children's college fund or get into debt again?

Once you have completed this step, you are now able to protect your family from major financial emergencies.

Baby Step 4: Invest 15% Of Income Into Retirement

It's natural for us to want to put our kids ahead of ourselves. But what if you end up without sufficient retirement income because you made the college funding a higher priority? You would have to depend on your kids to take care of you. Won't it be better for you to take care of yourself?

So before you begin doing anything with the excess money left over from paying off the consumer debt and building the emergency fund, Dave suggests that you invest 15% into your retirement accounts. For us Malaysia, this is in addition to our KWSP/EPF. If you are not sure where to invest in, you can look into the articles I have written on Wahed Invest here and here.

Baby Step 5: College Funding For Kids

By the time you reach this step, you should:

• have an emergency fund with 3-6 months of expenses
• be debt-free (except a mortgage)
• be investing at least 15% or more of your gross income

Now that you have your finances in order, it is time for us to put some money into our children's college education. It is a good thing that we actually have SSPN-i and SSPN-i Plus which are tax-advantaged accounts for educational expenses. How much should the amount be is up to you to decide? Tertiary education in public universities would be much cheaper compared to private colleges or universities. It is best to save more.

Baby Step 6: Pay Off Your Home Early

Dave recommends that you take any extra money coming in after you've progressed through the other Baby Steps in order, and throw it towards the mortgage. The faster you pay off that mortgage, the more interest that you would be saving once you have clear it.

Baby Step 7: Build Wealth And Give Generously

Yes, you have finally made it to Baby Step 7. You don't owe anyone anything and now it is time to really start building wealth and help others.  Dave actually wants us to reach this step and become financial independence.

Dave mentions that to build wealth, one should invest in both mutual funds and real estate but before you move in and start buying shares in every single company in Malaysia, read up on investing books or search the internet for what those who are financially independent do with their money.

Never forget about giving. The meaning here is to give to help others.

This post if first published in Radical Ringgit.

The American and the Fisherman

I have listened to this story many times and I would love to capture the lesson that I got from it. Here is the story first.

......................................................

An American businessman was standing at the pier of a small coastal Malaysian village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large Asian seabass. The American complimented the Malaysian on the quality of his fish.

“How long did it take you to catch them?” The American asked.

“Only a little while.” The Malaysian replied.

“Why don’t you stay out longer and catch more fish?” The American then asked.

“I have enough to support my family’s immediate needs.” The Malaysian said.

“But,” The American then asked, “What do you do with the rest of your time?”

The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a short nap with my wife, stroll into the village each evening where I sip teh tarik and play guitar with my friends. I have a full and busy life, sir.”

The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, you could buy a bigger boat, and with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, and eventually, you would have a fleet of fishing boats.”

“Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the consumers, eventually opening your own can factory. You would control the product, processing, and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Kuala Lumpur where you will run your expanding enterprise.”

The Malaysian fisherman asked, “But sir, how long will this all take?”

To which the American replied, “15-20 years.”

“But what then, sir?”

The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.”

“Millions, sir? Then what?”

The American said slowly, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a short nap with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip teh tarik and play your guitar with your friends…”

..........................................

I know that you may have read a slightly different version of this story but the lesson is still there.

Money, while it is important, is not everything. There are many things that are more important than money. For me, the most important thing in my life would be my family and I would rather spend more time with them. 

How about you? What is most important for you?

This post is first published at Radical Ringgit.

How to set a SMART Financial Goal

It is always a good thing if we could have goals for our personal finance. But a lot of times, many people (me included), does not know how to set our own financial goals.

Today, we would like to share how we can actually set a SMART financial goal.

The Acronym SMART actually stand for the following Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Relevant and Timebound. Let us look a bit more detail into each of them.

Specific: State exactly what you wish to buy/accomplish with the money you save.

Measurable: Indicate the exact dollar amount you need to accomplish your goal.

Attainable: Identify the steps necessary to reach your goal.

Relevant: The goal must be meaningful or you may lose motivation to stick with your plan.

Time-bound: By when do you want to meet your goal?

Now that you understand how a goal should be, you would no longer set a goal such as the following:

"I want to save a lot of money."

Instead, your goal should be something like the following:

S: I want to save for a down payment for a Honda City.

M: I plan to save RM 6,000 for the down payment.

A: I will reach my RM 6,000 goal by saving RM 250 from my monthly paycheck.

R: The commute to work takes more than 2 hours each way. Using a car, I can reduce the commute time to 1 hour only.

T: By saving RM 250 a month, I will save RM 6,000 in 20 months, or 2 years.

The SMART Financial Goal will be as follow:

“I plan to save RM 6,000 for a down payment on a new Honda City by saving RM 250 from each monthly paycheck for 2 years.”

Be sure to record your monthly savings for your SMART goals on your spending plan spreadsheet.

16 Ideas to Kickstart Your Finance in 2020

With the start of the new year, there are some actions that you can take to kickstart your finance on the right path. I have prepared 24 ideas that you can take for the year 2020.

1. Declutter your house (or room)

We may have not noticed but over the years, we may have bought many things that we might have forgotten now. So, take a weekend and start cleaning and decluttering your house.

Items that you no longer need can be categorized into the following:

1. Trash to throw.

2. Stuff to donate.

3. Stuff to sell.

The idea is really simple because, once you clean and declutter your house, you will have more living space and for that stuff that you can sell, you will get some cash back. 

More importantly, you will get to see the stuff that you have purchased and not using (making it a waste of your money) and would give you a reminder to think properly before your next purchase.

2. Automate your savings.

As I have written previously, many of us have a mindset where we will save whatever money that we have left at the end of the month. However, the reality sucks and even before the end of the month, most of our money would have been used up, making it not possible for us to save. The reason why this is happening is because of our habit. We can still see the money in our bank accounts, so we subconsciously think that it is still okay to spend.

So, to make savings works, we should set aside our savings at the beginning of the month and that is where automate your savings comes in. Set a certain amount of money to be transfer to another saving accounts (or investment like Wahed Invest) at the beginning of the month and live your life with whatever you have left. Truth be told, you will not miss that amount of money that you have saved, seriously.

3. Try budgeting for a month

If you have not tried budgeting yet, you should try it. The simple way is to track where your money went for the previous month and budget accordingly for the coming months. Again, it makes you more conscious about your spending and lowers the possibility of overspending.

4. Review your Budget

The only thing that is constant in this world is God and changes. So, our lives today may not be the same as last year. You might have changed to a new job or have a new baby in the family. So, your budget should change according to your current life.

5. Eat at home

If you have been tracking/checking your spending/budget, you would soon realize that a big portion of our spending is on eating out. A meal for a family of 3 would cost about RM100 and that is a lot of money. But if we are eating at home (not delivery from restaurants), the cost would be much lower. My family's meals at home usually cost not more than RM 25 per meal. That is a lot of savings and imagine doing that for 20 days, you will be saving about RM 1,500.

6. Cancel memberships/subscriptions

There are many things that we love in our lives and looking at that small cost, we would not think twice to sign up for membership or subscription. Gym membership and Netflix subscription are things that are good to have but do not necessarily need. Instead of the gym, go and run at the local park and instead of Netflix, watch videos on Youtube. It is just as good. 

7. Limit guilty pleasures

Every one of us has a soft spot for certain things that we have much pleasure with, even if we know that it may not be good for us. Items such as cigarettes, beers, chocolates, sweets, etc are such items. We know that it is not good for us but we still fell for the temptations. But instead of stopping it altogether, we can put a limit on it so that the temptation would not be too much to bear. Imagine the money you can save just by limiting your guilty pleasures. My chocolate addiction cost me RM 50 per week but by limiting my chocolate intakes, my cost for chocolates is down to RM 20 per month.

8. Save Your Spare Change

Whenever we use cash, there is a high chance of us getting some spare changes back. Many would take it that these spare changes are not much but over a certain period of time, we can actually save a significant amount of money. It has been my habit to save my spare changes and over a period of a year, I would have accumulated about RM150 just from spare changes. It is an easy thing to do. Every day when you get home, whatever spare changes that you have in your pocket, put it into a piggy bank (or whatever container you like) and leave it. At the end of the year, you will see a significant amount of money that you can use.

9. Use Cash Back Apps

Whenever you purchase something online, it is best to use a cashback app to get some cash back. We have Shopback in Malaysia and over the years, I have managed to get RM300 cashback with another RM 327 still pending. Use my link to sign up and get RM5 cashback bonus.

10. Make Your Home Energy Efficient

New technology means a new way to make our home more efficient. When we moved into our new home last year, we choose to use LED lightings, air conditioners, water heater and even oven that has a 5-stars rating which is more cost-efficient. And when we are more mindful of the usage, we managed to bring down our electricity bills from almost RM 90 per month to slightly more than RM 50 per month.

11. Wait 24 Hours Before Buying

A lot of times, we would have an impulse to buy certain items. That is a reason we would have many items in our home that we hardly use and have to be throw away, donate or sell when we clean and declutter our home. But by waiting for 24 hours before buying, we may have a second thought about buying and high chances, we would choose not to proceed with the purchase. But if we still think we need to buy that item, chances are, we really need it.

12. Consolidate Your Debt

If you have debts all over the places, such as a few credit cards and personal loans, it is hard to keep track of all of it. A good thing to do is to consolidate the debts into one. There are two advantages to doing this. First, you only need to track one instead of many. Second, it is possible for you to get a lower interest rate and save money on your interests.

13. Use Savings To Pay Off A Loan

If you have a loan that is about to clean and you have enough savings to clear it, do it. You will be able to save on interest and for the coming months, you will have additional cash for other things. I would suggest you save or invest the additional cash.

14. Invest

The best time to start investing is yesterday. The next best time to start investing is today. The earlier you start investing, the better it is for your future. That is the magic of compounding interest.

If you were to ask me where to invest, I would gladly inform you that I would much prefer to invest in the US market. There are many ways to do that and the easiest way that I could find right now is to use Wahed Invest (look for the app in Google Play Store and use my referral code (limwei1) and you will get RM40 after you keep your investment (RM 100 minimum) for at least a month). Wahed Invest is a robo-advisor that provides halal investment and you can read more in my review here and here.)

15. Turn Your Hobby Into Cash

Everyone has a hobby and if it is possible for you to turn your hobby into cash, then you would be earning money while enjoying your hobby.

16. Refinance

Refinancing your mortgage is a great way to save thousands in interest and also potentially lower the monthly payment at the same time. For example, if you have a RM 200,000 fixed-rate mortgage at 4.5%, you will be paying RM 1,013 a month. Over a period of 30 years, you will be paying RM 164,813 in interest, and that is assuming you don’t make any extra payments along the way. But if you refinance the same loan into a new 20-year mortgage at 3.5%, you will only need to pay RM 719 a month and save almost $300 a month. Do note that this doesn’t take into account the interest savings you will get as well.

This article was first featured in Radical Ringgit.

4 Ringgit Myths You Need To Know

Myth 1 - You have to be rich to start investing

In the mind of many, one has to be rich to start investing. Many thought that to start investing, one would need to have a sizable amount of Ringgit. But the fact that with new technology, investing has become easier and the minimum amount is lower. Robo-Advisors such as MyTheo, Stashaway, and Wahed Invest make it very easy to start investing with just RM100.

*Bonus: If you invest RM100 in Wahed Invest using my referral code (limwei1), both you and I will get RM40 bonus each after maintaining the RM100 for 1 month. 

Myth 2 - I don't earn enough to save

It is possible for everyone to save no matter how much is the income. The real question is are you willing to save? The easiest way to save is to allocate a small amount for saving when you received your salary and make do with the balance for the rest of the month.

Expenses = Income - Saving

You can start by saving as little as RM50 and slowly increasing the amount as time goes by.

Myth 3 - The safest way to keeping my money in a savings account 

While it may be good to have some money in a savings account, to keep all that you have there is not recommended. Many people do not realize that the bank is paying you interest at an average rate of 1% per annum for the money that you keep it the savings accounts. Also, the average inflation is about 3% per year. So, every year, your purchasing power is actually reducing by 2%. So, unless you need your money in the coming 3 years, do not keep it in your savings account. 

Myth 4 - Credit card is evil

The truth is, a credit card is just a tool, not being good or evil. It is how we use a credit card will determine if the credit card is a friend of a foe. Credit card it good when we need to purchase something of high value but you must be able to pay off the amount at the end of the month. Otherwise, the interest that you need to pay for the outstanding amount will totally kill you.

This article is first published in Radical Ringgit.