Author

Suraya

My Total Income and Expenses in 2018

Posted by - 16 Comments

Doing a tally of my total incomes and expenses for the third year in a row! In this annual series, I’m as financially naked as I can be – you’ll know how much I earned for the whole of 2018 and what I spent on during the year.

Seriously, I love that I keep such meticulous record of my financial data (even though it’s nowhere near perfect, but perfect is boring and not to mention impossible). I love that I can share this information with you, so you get to see how record-keeping is beneficial in practice. FYI, incomes are recorded via a Google spreadsheet while expenses are recorded via my expense-tracking app Money Lover.  If you’re a regular reader, you should already be familiar with my expense breakdowns anyway – I post them every month.

Income in 2018

Continue Reading…

Link Roundup #18: 10 Things to Know This Week

Posted by - 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. This Is What Life Without Retirement Savings Looks Like – The Atlantic

One of my biggest fears in life is being forced to work to cover my living costs when I’m old and in pain. This article interviews people who are exactly in that situation.

Read the article, then note how you feel. For me, it was fear, helplessness and renewed motivation to work my ass off while I’m still young – in that order. If I have this much time to plan, I don’t have any excuse for letting the worst-case-scenario happen to me, do I?

Continue Reading…

Budget Update: December 2018

Posted by - 16 Comments

Budget Update: December 2018

Happy new year! Welcome, 2019! Thank goodness I didn’t go out on New Year’s Eve, or I would’ve spent more than RM6000 in December 2018 for sure!

December 2018 was… alright. A mix of extreme happiness and extreme apathy; a strange, emotionally confusing month. I pushed the limits of my mental strength, and found it. In the same month, I tried to: go to the gym regularly, maintain a strict diet and quit smoking, all on top of my regular schedule and work. It exhausted me. I felt like I was not really ‘there’ most of the time.

I’m glad I found my limit though. Now I know what I can and cannot do, and be more careful when implementing multiple challenges at once (even though they’re all technically good for me). As of time of writing, I’ve decided to stop the strict diet (keto btw) because it’s beginning to be quite damaging to my mental health. At one point, my cravings got so bad I spent an afternoon making a list of food items I that I ‘cannot’ have but really want. It came up to 37 items.

Any of you tested your capability to follow through a strict self-development routine? How’d it work for you?

Continue Reading…

Where Do People Get the Money to Afford Their Amazing Lifestyles?

Posted by - 10 Comments

Is it just me, or do you also feel like other people have better lives than yours?

Based on their updates on social media, it seems like everyone is sporting new outfits, getting new blings, updating home decor, buying new toys, traveling to new places, enjoying nice food at fancy restaurants…

And your sad self wonders, why am I not doing as well as they are? What else do I need to do to bust my ass in order to afford those nice things in my life?

This article is all about guessing how and where other people get the money to afford their amazing-looking lifestyles. I’ve racked my brains thinking of all the possible ways. Here they are:

Continue Reading…

Link Roundup #17: 10 Things to Know This Week

Posted by - 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 e-wallet infinity war in Malaysia – Everything you need to know about e-wallet starts here… – ecInsider

First of all, the article’s accompanying image though hahahahhahahah:

The image kinda describes the e-wallet scene in Malaysia right now – there are so many players that you can’t help to wonder who will ‘disappear’ and who will make it in the end. The author’s predictions, backed with pretty solid arguments – is #5 as listed in its table of contents.

  1. The dawn of the e-wallet infinity war
  2. Does e-wallet provider need a license in Malaysia?
  3. What is BNM’s policy on e-wallet?
  4. Who are the e-wallet providers in Malaysia?
  5. Which e-wallet providers will stay in the long run?
  6. Will Malaysians use e-wallet?
  7. Understanding e-wallet 1-2-3
  8. Why should retailers & etailers care?
  9. How to differentiate Static vs Dynamic QR payment?
  10. Who will win: network-based or card-based e-wallet?

There’s a link in the article, right near the end, which points you to the e-wallets in Malaysia Facebook community. I’ve personally learned a few e-wallet-related money hacks from the group, can recommend *thumbs up*

E-wallet deals also appear a lot in BestDealsMalaysia.com.

Continue Reading…

Calculating the Amount I Need to FI/RE in Malaysia

Posted by - 17 Comments

FI/RE = Financial Independence/Retire Early. That’s the dream, isn’t it? Imagine waking up in the morning, thinking, eh, I don’t feel like working today, so you just… don’t. And still be okay financially, with no consequences.

I want that. I want that so bad.

The topic of financial independence and early retirement has been on my mind for the longest time, but I admit I’ve pushed it back time and time again. I’m afraid to find out the amount I need to get there. I’m afraid the number will be too big that it’ll discourage me, instead of motivating me. I’m afraid to think of the sacrifices I have to make.

Which is why I’m forcing myself to write this article. Let’s force out all those jumbled thoughts and put them in a linear, clear format.

Calculating how much I need

Continue Reading…

The Exact Steps I Use to Build & Launch BestDealsMalaysia.com in 7 Days

Posted by - 4 Comments

Excited to share with you my latest website project, BestDealsMalaysia.com!

I built and launched this deal-finding platform in seven days, but had the idea since 2009-2010, when I was still studying in the UK. At the time, I was a big fan of HotUKDeals.com, ‘UK’s biggest deal-finding community’.

That’s not an exaggeration. HotUKDeals has over 3.5 million fans on Facebook. People really do love user-submitted deals that can be sorted by votes.

To be honest, I’m surprised there weren’t any existing equivalent of HotUKDeals.com in Malaysia. I’ve looked and searched for years, until finally decided to make it myself.

This article outlines the exact steps I use to build and launch BestDealsMalaysia.com.

Continue Reading…

[SPONSORED] What Rich Malaysians Do With Their Money (That You Don’t)

Posted by - 4 Comments

According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia, the T20 in this country received 46.2% of overall income share in 2016, while the M40 and B40 received 37.4% and 16.4% respectively.

rich malaysians

Image credit to DOSM

Looking at the statistics, you can’t deny that rich Malaysians must know something that the rest of us don’t. I mean, the top 20% can’t have gotten almost half of all the income in Malaysia by accident.

I am greatly fascinated by the money mindset that the rich have. Not their lifestyle, mind you – looking rich is not the same as being rich – but their mindset: what they learned from their parents (if they were born rich) or from life experiences (if they worked hard to get there).

Here are some things that I’ve learned about rich Malaysians.

#1 – They buy time

Continue Reading…
Close
Ringgit Oh Ringgit