Suraya, Author at Ringgit Oh Ringgit

Author

Suraya

23 ^rd
December

13 Referral Programmes You Can Use to Earn Money (Up to RM200++ Each)

Posted by Suraya - 6 Comments

One of my favourite things about being a writer is the creativity I can apply during the content creation and monetisation process. There are so many ways to earn money!

And you know what? Anyone can write. And everyone has a network of friends and family to tap into. It’s just a matter of doing it well, in a ‘everyone likes to buy but no one likes to be sold’ kinda way.

In this article, I would like to share with my fellow content creators – both current, future and even casual ones – the referral programmes that I have experience in using, plus the amount of income they have generated for me so far.

I’m also giving links of posts containing the referral links so you can have a sense of what types of content do well, and which do not. Knowing what *doesn’t* work is part of learning too.

Some disclaimers before we start:

18 ^th
December

Link Roundup #41: 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. 13 Things Rich People Never Waste Their Money On – Family Handyman

The 13 things are (prepare to feel defensive):

Impulse buys
Extreme inheritances
TV channels and video games (do NOT take my Netflix and Steam away from me!!!)
Luxury brands
An over-priced home
Buying instead of renting
Pricey grooming
Multiple credit cards
Late fees
Things that don’t last
Stuff over experiences
Retirement (basically, the rich don’t plan on quit working, so you better like what you do)
Gambling

Click on the article link to read the justification for each.

16 ^th
December

[Personal] 5 Things I Learned in my 20s: Advice I’d Give to My Younger Self

Posted by Suraya - 6 Comments

Wow. 2020s is coming. It’s weird to be welcoming the year that is also used to signify ‘the future’, isn’t it? It feels crazy to be entering a new decade, even though I know that’s just how the normal, brutal, unstoppable passage of time works.

(YES I KNOW TECHNICALLY THE NEW DECADE STARTS IN 2021 BUT LET ME HAVE THIS OKAY)

I’ve spent the 2010s being in 20s and early 30s, and learned so much, though I know there is much more to learn still. Please indulge this writer’s self-reflective post – I’ve always wanted to write something in the ‘for my younger self’ style.

Dear younger Suraya, if you could do it over, please take this advice which older Suraya learned from experience:

11 ^th
December

How to Avoid Polygamy in Malaysia: Add it in The Taklik

Posted by Suraya - 11 Comments

You already know that Islam allows a Muslim man to take up to four wives simultaneously in a practice called polygamy.

You may not know that Islam also allows wives the right to refuse husbands permission to marry more than one wife by adding it in the taklik.

This is a completely accurate, yet not that well-known piece of information.

In this age where the polygamy privilege is routinely being abused by irresponsible husbands – causing the wives severe financial and emotional distress – I hope to share widely the rights that women already have under Islamic laws, which she can exercise for her own protection.

09 ^th
December

[SPONSORED] I Tried Bursa Marketplace’s Mirror, Learn & Trade Platform

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The idea behind investing in the stock market is easy – buy shares from companies you like, wait for it to grow, and earn a profit through dividends and/or increase in value.

(You can also make money if the share price goes down – that’s called shorting, but that’s not halal and more suitable for more advanced traders so let’s not go there).

But if the idea is so easy, then why do I find it intimidating?

Bursa Malaysia knows that many people have the same feeling. Part of their mandate is to attract more investors to the Malaysian stock market, so they come up with various initiatives, including educational ones, to help us overcome that fear.

The latest initiative – Bursa Marketplace’s Mirror, Learn & Trade Platform or MLT Platform for short – may be the coolest one yet. I tried it out. Here’s what I thought of it.

#1 – Choosing who to mirror is the first step

04 ^th
December

Link Roundup #40: 10 Things to Know This Week

Posted by Suraya - 4 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. How to Improve Your Resume According to Science – The Ladders

Amazing infographic. I particularly liked this one – ‘Don’t include a photo unless requested. Candidates (are perceived as unprofessional and) face 88% rejection rate if they do’.

02 ^nd
December

Budget Update: November 2019

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Budget Update: November 2019

I spent RM5066 in November 2019 – top 3 expenses were Rent & Utilities, Business and Public Transportation – all functional expenses. Quite happy with my spending decisions for the month. You can see the deeper breakdown below, in the yay and nay sections.

Here I want to take the opportunity to share my thought process for future work decisions. By this point in my career, I have given so many talks that I can give the following presentations from memory:

Investment options for Malaysians
Budgeting tips and implementation
How to charge clients
How to publish a book
Starting and growing a website
Digital marketing for content creators
Personal branding
And more

Doing presentations and talks still make me go dub dab dub but what they say is true – the more you do it, the better you get at it. And feedback so far has been good and very very encouraging.

I had few discussions with friends and fellow colleagues and it’s been increasingly clear that I should pivot from providing writing services (my main service offering for the last 4 years) to providing trainings, workshops and consultations in areas related to personal finance and digital marketing.

I’ve already been doing the consultations on as-requested basis so it’s not like there’s no demand. As for writing work inquiries, I can always pass those to writers in my networks, who are always looking for jobs. Not an issue.

What do you think? Is there anything that I’m not considering before I make the switch and edit my Hire me page?

27 ^th
November

Ringgit Oh Ringgit XMAS GIVEAWAY 2019: Cash, Cash Vouchers, Books, Financial Planning Sessions and More!

Posted by Suraya - 5 Comments

Welcome back to the Ringgit Oh Ringgit Xmas Giveaway! It’s the season to give, give and give!

What prizes are available in this year’s giveaway?

Here are prizes available from all sponsors. You can enter one or ALL of them, up to you. Prizes:

1 x winner for RM100 in AEON Cash Vouchers from Ringgit Oh Ringgit – yours truly 🙂
5 x winners for Tengku Noor Zakiah: Malaysia’s Pioneering Stockbroker Book from Kenanga Group – the award-winning investment bank!
1 x winner for RM100 in MPH Vouchers from Silent Confessions by Syaza Nazura – the blogger behind Fresh Grad 101 series!
1 x winner for 1Y MyPF Premier subscription + Licensed Financial Planning Consultation worth RM1120 from MyPF – the personal finance platform and licensed financial planner
1 x winner for RM100 worth of clothes from Marquise.my (regular size) – my sister’s shop!
1 x winner for RM100 worth of clothes from Malaysia Plus Size (plus size) – my other sister’s shop!
1 x winner for RM300 Cash + 2 x winners for RM100 Cash + 10 x winners for Financial Roadmap sessions from moremoney.my – personal finance education platform
2 x winners for I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi Book from Kewangan Graduan – Twitter-famous personal finance education platform
1 x winner for The Innovators by Walter Isaacson Book from The Pelham Blue Fund – the anon group doing stocks and warrants trading on Bursa Malaysia
3 x winners for RM50 Parkson vouchers from Mun Hong – fellow personal finance blogger
3 x winners for Enam Angka Menjelang Dua Puluh Lima Book by Azraei Muhamad aka #FinancialGory – Twitter-famous personal finance education platform
9 x winners for 2020 Planners worth RM79.90 each from EverydayPlanners.com
1 x winner for The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason book + Muji 2020 Planner in Black from Suyin Invest – personal finance Youtuber!

Note: Interested to be a sponsor? Contact me 🙂 The service is FREE for purchasers of Money Stories for Malaysians: Volume 1 – Platinum package and for fellow personal finance bloggers/ content creators. A fee is charged for everyone else – all donated to charity.

How to enter and win the Xmas giveaway

25 ^th
November

SOCAR Review: 7 Tips to Get Cheap Car Rental in KL, Penang and Johor

Posted by Suraya - 6 Comments

So that happened. You sent your car to the workshop and will be carless for a few days. You have to go somewhere far and the Grab fare will be too high. You need to pick up a person (or an item) in person.

Either way, You. Need. A. Temporary. Car.

I get into one of these situations sometimes, and it’s really mafan. Usually I just bite the bullet and resign to paying high Grab fares but this time around I decided to give the car-sharing platform SOCAR a try.

And let me tell you. It solved my problem so well, and saved me so much money, that I decided to do not just a SOCAR review but also include tips to make the cost even CHEAPER for you. What can I say – I am a personal finance blogger 😀

Here are my 7 tips you can use to get the most value for money out of your SOCAR car rental:

#1 – Pick the cheaper car model

20 ^th
November

Link Roundup #39: 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. Microsoft Japan’s 4-day workweek experiment sees productivity jump 40% – CNBC

This article went VIRAL in social media, for good reason – who doesn’t want an extra day off per week?

So I thought I’d use this space to dig a little bit behind the headline. Here’s what I found:

‘Productivity’ was measured in sales per employee, and 40% increase in sales is no joke
They capped in-person meetings to 30 minutes
They reduced operations cost: ‘23.1% less electricity used and 58.7% fewer pages printed over the period’
The experiment ‘also incorporated self-development and family wellness schemes’

Would this work in Malaysia, you think? I don’t know. Obviously Japan and Malaysia’s working culture is different – we work hard of course but they literally invented a word which describes dying by working hard (‘karoshi’).

However, common sense tells me that it wouldn’t hurt to at least try to reduce our meeting time, no?

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