Suraya, Author at Ringgit Oh Ringgit

Author

Suraya

17 ^th
July

What’s Its Like to Work From Home (4 Years Update!)

Posted by Suraya - 12 Comments

Wow, it’s been almost four years since I work from home full-time. The last time I wrote about it, I was only one year in!

It’s still a little bit surreal. Like many of you, I grew up thinking that 9-6 working days is the default. It’s even more surreal when I remember that this work from home thing was an accident. The plan was actually to do a bit of freelance writing to make some extra income while I find myself a new, stable job.

Then somehow work turned to more work and I just never stopped and here I am? Sometimes I still catch myself thinking ‘ah how nice would it be to work from home wait Suraya you do work from home you dolt’.

15 ^th
July

Guide: How and Where to Invest in ETFs in Malaysia

Posted by Suraya - 6 Comments

Some questions I get with surprising regularity nowadays are (1) is ETFs a good investment, (2) is ETFs in Malaysia good, and (3) do I personally have investment in ETFs.

And the answer to that is, so far, (1) yes, (2) depends, and (3) not yet.

Let’s go deeper a bit into each of the questions.

Is ETFs a good investment?

10 ^th
July

Everything I Got Rid Off In My 30-Day Decluttering Challenge

Posted by Suraya - 7 Comments

I describe myself as frugal, but ~~once in a while~~ often, I cross the ‘cheap’ line.

And I don’t want to be cheap. Being cheap puts me in a scarcity mindset, as opposed to the abundance mindset. You can’t be someone who is both ‘I believe I can earn as much as I want’ and ‘why buy the better option when the cheap option exists’. They’re contradictory of each other.

In May 2019, I started a 30-day decluttering challenge with the following objectives:

08 ^th
July

Link Roundup #30: 10 Things to Know This Week

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Accelerate your personal finance knowledge with this regular feature on Ringgit Oh Ringgit – the Link Roundup! I promise you’ll find these 10 links informational 🙂

1. 20 Professional Skills You Can Learn for $30 or Less – Entrepreneur

What can’t you learn online? Seriously, what an amazing world we live in.

You already know that, of course. But the sheer number of options available can also be crippling sometimes. I certainly get my fair share of analysis paralysis whenever I want to decide what to learn next.

If you’re feeling professionally stagnant, check out this article for 20 new skill ideas. It ranges from digital marketing, communications, technical, investing and more.

03 ^rd
July

Budget Update: June 2019

Posted by Suraya - 2 Comments

Budget Update: June 2019

What a memorable month. More about that under ‘Yay of the month’ section below.

For the past few months, I’ve battled my ‘solopreneur’ identity quite a bit. I feel like I should take advantage of this momentum I’m having and expand, get a team under the Ringgit Oh Ringgit brand. I thought of hiring a team of writers and video editors, create more content.

But slowly, through personal reflection, I figured out that (a) I’m really happy being a one-person team, (2) I have no desire to be the boss of anybody, and (c) having a team would require an office, and I worked so hard so I didn’t have to *go* to an office every day.

Maybe I’ll change my mind in the future. Maybe that’ll still happen, out of necessity or change of heart. But for now, I’m loving the way I work. I can still outsource if the workload gets too much. I can still collaborate with other people to create content that I can’t personally create.

Any of you consider yourself solopreneurs? Do you plan on staying that way or planning to expand? Let me know in the comments section.

01 ^st
July

[SPONSORED] Malaysians Share Scams in Malaysia They Fell For (or Almost)

Posted by Suraya - No Comments

Your parents are right.

No matter how much we may want to deny it, there *are* bad people in this world. People who don’t think twice about taking your money from you through illegal and unethical means. They do it easily, without guilt or remorse.

This article is a compilation of anecdotes by real people, who were scammed or almost got scammed. Thank you to all who contributed.

26 ^th
June

(At Least) 17 Money Calculations You’ll Make In Your Life

Posted by Suraya - 2 Comments

Throughout your personal finance journey, you’ll inevitably do some money calculations.

For some people, this thought stresses them – their immediate reaction is ‘I don’t want to do it! I’m not good with numbers!’

I blame high school maths. I think it made many people think that these money calculations are harder than they actually are.

I’ve compiled here some money calculations. Go through them, and tell me – how many are *actually* hard for you to do?

1. Home Loan Calculator. You do this calculation when you’re starting to shop around for a property, to find out the estimated mortgage / home loan repayments per month that you’ll have to make.

24 ^th
June

5 Things I Did To Reduce My Damn High Groceries Bill

Posted by Suraya - 4 Comments

Cook at home, they say. Then you’ll save money, they say.

Then why is the groceries bill still too damn high?

I personally got myself into this predicament – in April 2019 I found myself spending RM767.95 for groceries?!? For one person?!

Because it *was* abnormally high, I told myself to get my shit together. It kind of worked – in May 2019, the amount went down to RM480.20. Guestimating 100 homemade meals a month, that’s RM4.80 per meal.

And – not to brag or anything – I eat well. My meals tend to be healthy, I try my best not to sacrifice nutrition. I think I’m doing well, because I haven’t been sick in years actually.

Here are some changes I made to lower my high groceries bill. As the numbers show you, they worked!

#1 – Eat everything I bought challenge

19 ^th
June

Link Roundup #29: 10 Things to Know This Week

Posted by Suraya - No Comments

Accelerate your personal finance knowledge with this regular feature on Ringgit Oh Ringgit – the Link Roundup! I promise you’ll find these 10 links informational 🙂

1. The Radical Plan to Save the Planet by Working Less – Vice

This is my first time being exposed to the degrowth movement, and while I’m still learning more about it, I have to say… I like it. For far too long, we as a society have measured ‘success’ by how well we’re doing financially and economically, rather than our happiness and well-being.

And it *is* true that the planet can’t sustain our current lifestyle and consumption.

17 ^th
June

Malaysians Share Cheap Things They Have Done

Posted by Suraya - 8 Comments

Frugalism is a good trait to have. Wealthy people tend to have frugal characteristics. In the classic The Millionaire Next Door book, the author found that while wealthy people may have lots of money, most of them don’t look rich.

That makes sense, since you don’t get rich by spending all your money away correct or not.

But this is not an article about frugalism. This is an article about cheapness, it’s lesser cousin.

I observed something. Many people, while trying to be frugal and be responsible with their money, would do things that are considered cheap before they learned to become more frugal.

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