Malaysia's Weekly Personal Finance Summary - April 15 2019

Intro

We're starting to change up the way we present the information so it becomes much easier to read. That said, let us know what you think - do you feel like you're still learning from this?

Question of the week

Have you ever been scammed by someone into buying a financial product?

Let us know in the Facebook group

From Us

The huge differences in contracts that most people do not pick up on
Someone in the past reached out and asked about the Prulady insurance product (that we're super excited about) and was asking about this other benefit that we didn't know about.
Worried that we weren't living up to our promise (of always having your best interest at heart), we immediately called our financial advisor planner and asked her about it.
It turned out that there was another product similar to Prulady and when our advisor said it's inferior, we didn't just take her word for it.
Instead, we got her to give us a copy of all the similar products to it got her help to break down all the differences.
The results were shocking. There is a huge difference between one product and the other. In this specific case, the premium was 75% more!
Which is why we decided to create a comparison of all the female insurance products.

This is also a good reminder to always get a trusted professional to help you navigate the financial world, especially if you have no interest in spending dozen of hours researching it yourself. And if you don't know anyone you can trust, leave a message and we will direct one of our vetted partners to help out.

Money in Daily Life

The Advantages of Stealth Wealth and How to Practice It
What is Stealth Wealth ? If in your daily life, you don't really do anything at all to give off any signs of financial security.

Benefits:

• You're not spending much money at all on keeping up appearances.
• You spend a lot less time on such things, too.
• You're most likely to actually be received well in social situations if you feel comfortable.
• You're not typically targeted for things like "investment opportunities".

Principles you can live by:

• Buy items based entirely on what's genuinely useful to you, not what others might think of it.
• Have a wardrobe that are comfortable and well made.
• Drive a used car, but not a rusty beater.
• Keep your appearance low maintenance, but clean.
• Live in a modest home.
• Buy things that meet your own needs.

11 Tips to Cultivate Good Spending Habits
Bad Spending Habits:

1. Emotional purchases -Forming a kind of emotional affection for the product.
2. Spontaneous purchases - instant gratification.
3. Spend the most money on rogue online shopping.
4. Spend money on frequent eating out at expensive places.
5. Buying more than necessary.
6. Succumb to peer pressure so you can be "one of the boys".

Good Spending Habits:

1. Keep a simple and minimalist lifestyle.
2. Create and stick to a budget.
3. Wait for 3 days before buying any non-necessity products.
4. Decide your main reason for wanting to have wise spending habits.
5. Show gratitude for what you already have.
6. Search around and compare before buying.
7. Stop the unhealthy habits and/or addictions that cost you substantial money.
8. Spend wisely.
9. Haggle or negotiate for a better price.
10. Find someone to account to.
11. Remember to enjoy spending your money!

12 Excellent Money Hacks For Ya

• Create a point system that ranges from 1 (NO!) to 10 (YES!) in spending money.
• Take pride in saving when others spend.
• Rooster Money App that tracks my kid's allowance, and the odd jobs I am offering to pay them extra for.
• Flip and sell a car around tax time.
• Cover all my medical expenses out-of-pocket, letting the HSA funds stay invested.
• Put $20 a week in a Child IRA from birth until their 19th birthday.
• Have an automated system which checks my Google spreadsheet to see if a milestone is crossed.
• Buy a new Camry and drive it for 12 - 14 years.
• Buy a smaller house.
• Rent a cottage for 20 years.
• Save up every time you don't drink.
• Offered my oldest the $20 to do all the chores so I can have more sleep.

Here's Why a Rainy Day Fund Should Be in Your Forecast
Rainy Day Fund vs. Emergency Savings Fund:

• A rainy day fund is an amount of money set aside for small expenditures that are outside of your normal living expenses.
• An emergency fund is a larger financial safety net - usually equal to three to six months of living expenses.

How Much Money to Keep in a Rainy Day Fund:
Experts suggest $1,000 as a starting point. It should equal the highest amount you can expect to pay for a rainy day need.

How to Save for a Rainy Day Fund:

• Set up a direct deposit: Create a separate direct deposit.
• Download an app: Sign up for an app that saves for you.
• Transfer cash monthly: Set up an automatic transfer that occurs once a month.
• Create a rainy day fund jar: Every time you have spare change, throw it in a jar or piggy bank.
  Replace some discretionary spending.

The Pros and Cons of Becoming a Rideshare Driver
The Pros:

• Late-night driving can be lucrative because of increased demand when passengers may have been out drinking.
• Some drivers stick to daytime hours. When you need to make more money, drive more hours.
• Some of the networks now allow the driver to set a destination and get trip requests heading in the same general direction,to maximize both your time and mileage driven.

The Cons:

• Driving for rideshare means more fuel costs, more wear and tear of consumables such as tires & brakes, and might be replacing your vehicle sooner.
• Inviting total strangers into your personal vehicle.
• You can end up with very smelly foods that would stink up your car.
• You're purposely placing yourself in traffic.

The Bottom Line: It could be a good fit for someone in a temporary cash crunch and who isn't worried about the longer-term impacts to their transportation budget.

The Return On Rent Is Always Negative 100%: Here's How To Live For Free

A family bought their home in 2013 and sold it in 2019. Not only was the family housing free for eight years but they were also paid $941,000 to live in San Francisco.

Some Takeaways On Getting Paid To Live:

• The return on rent is always -100%.
• Buying a home may be easier than investing the same amount of money in the stock market because you're buying a tangible asset that may improve the quality of your life.
• Renting and investing the difference in the stock market and other assets is a great idea, but people often fail due to a lack of financial discipline.
• Time is your friend when it comes to owning a property.
• To live for free, you've got to take risk.
• Living for free strengthens the real estate market further.

Want To Have Your Money Accelerate Your Goals?

Sign up for our free program and get ready to have your money fuel your aspirations.

Grow Your Wealth

An Idiot's Guide to Money: Stop Being Broke, Start Building Wealth
There are 10 chapters for this book:

• I Just want to be normal! - Breakdown of average UK spending using real statistics.
• Action - Reaction - 7 Step action plan
• Shop 'till you drop - How to change your buying habits.
• The true cost of a night out -What it costs to go out on a Friday night as single guy in UK.
• Happy and healthy - the financial impliations of maintaining a healthy lifestyle
  I* nvest - Invest not only money but in educating yourself.
• So you want your own home? - The shared ownership and help to buy schemes in purchasing your home.
• Everyday I'm hustlin' - Quick chapter on side hustles.
• The simple things -Simple habits that should be turned into routine that can help increase your wealth.
• A whole new world - a glimpse into the future.

'Good Debt' vs. 'Bad Debt'
What Is Good Debt?

• A mortgage for property increases in value while you own it or even generates rental income.
• Student loans for higher education should help you qualify for better jobs.
• Investing in an existing business, either as partner or in the form of stocks, would pay you dividends.

The Parameters for Healthy Debt

• The debt must be limited and won't continue increasing.
• The debt interest rate must be stable.
• The debt should be incurred for something that's likely to appreciate, like a house or business.

What Is Bad Debt?

• Credit card debt - for any purchase with no lasting value.
• An auto loan for a vehicle that starts to depreciate and lose value after the purchase.
• Payday loans has steep interest charges and short-term payback windows force many borrowers to roll over their loan and becomes a vicious cycle.

Using Your True Hourly Discretionary Income to Make Smarter Purchases
Calculate your own true hourly discretionary income.

• Count the hours you work during a given year.
• Add in how many hours you commute each year. Double it, then multiply that by the number of
  days you work each year.
• Add in things like time spent working at home, traveling, doing things like entertaining clients and so on
• Next, how much do you make in a year?
• Subtract from that every single required expense. These are costs for taxes, commuting, work clothing, personal clothing, food and water, rent, utilities etc.
• Think about all of your expenses.
• Total up all of those expenses over the course of a year and subtract that total from your salary. That's your annual discretionary income.
• Then, divide that annual discretionary income by the number of hours devoted to work-related tasks in a year. That's your true hourly discretionary wage.

FYI

All the Financial Tools I Use for My Own Money Management (Malaysia-Specific)
Pre-loaded/Loyalty cards

• For public transportation: Touch N Go
• For bubble tea: Tealive BInfinite

E-Wallets

• For food and entertainment: Boost, Fave and GrabPay
• For e-hailing: GrabPay

International money transfers/payments

• To receive money: Paypal and Payoneer.

Investment

• Unit trust
• Gold: HelloGold, Maybank Gold Investment Account and gold jewellery
• Crypto: Bitcoin, Ether, and a few more.
• P2P Financing: Funding Societies.

Retirement

• Unit trust

Insurance

• Medical card: AIA Public Takaful.
• Personal accident: EZCover Takaful

Budgeting app

• Expense-tracking: Money Lover.

We too are huge fans of ewallets; particularly using BigPay as we've already saved 600 using this amazing ewallet and prepaid card.

Cool Opportunities

BigPay - The Best Travel Credit Card for Malaysians?
If you ever travel out of Malaysia and use your credit card, then this is BIG (pun intended). AirAsia has released BigPay, a prepaid mastercard that you can easily top up through the BigPay app and be able to use instantly.

But more importantly, BigPay charges you at the real exchange rate (which means they charge no fees). This is something you won't get if you were to go to your bank or some exchange counter.

In fact, I've already saved over RM 10,000 using this card (you can read about it in our BigPay Review)

Anyway, if you don't have one yet, you can sign up for free and get RM10 free when you use referral code B7D3YNZPGO.

A way for females to get free insurance
We were talking to our super humble financial advisor friend one day and she started talking about some insurance product for females that provides coverage for all these female related illnesses. But more importantly, the contract also states that all the premiums will be returned at the end of the contract.

Seriously something for all females to consider!

Building a financial roadmap
For those who are lost when it comes to tracking your net worth and using it as a way to create the ideal life, this is something you should check out.

We have worked with a financial advisor to lead you through building your own financial roadmap by yourself online.

And if you want them to do it for you (at a huge discount), you can make the request as well.

Check it out here!

Talking to an Independent Financial Adviser
A big issue when you work with someone who calls themself a financial advisor is you do not know if they really have your best interest at heart. That's one of the main reasons why I never work with any (the other one is that most of them get trained to say what the company wants and thus, do not know of all the other cool opportunities out there).

However, I've been talking to an independent financial adviser the last few months and I do believe that not only is she knowledgeable, but also super open to sharing her knowledge.

If you're interested in talking to her, join our facebook group and ask your questions. She will definitely find time to pop by and answer them.