Budget Update: August 2019
Budget Update: August 2019
Have you ever used learning as an excuse to NOT do something? Like, in a “oh I can’t possibly do that yet, I’m still learning about it” way.
Yeah. Hi. Can I join the club?
Creating video content is that thing that I’m forever ‘learning’. So far, in the last couple of years, I’ve:
- Asked many people for advice
- Bought some equipment
- Bought a video-editing software
- Bought and went through courses (including one in August designed to conquer the fear of being on camera, a course called ‘Confidence on Camera’)
- Made a looooong list of possible video content angles
And yet – and yet! – at time of writing, I still can’t bring myself to actually do it. The only reason why I have a Ringgit Oh Ringgit Youtube channel set up (if you want to be an early subscriber…) is because I need a place to house a collaboration video done with HelloGold.
On one hand, ok fine baby steps. On another hand, this baby needs to grow the hell up.
Someone smack some sense into me please. Or suggest video content you want to watch, maybe that might help. I don’t know.
Yay of the Month:
- In terms of spending breakdown, I spent the biggest chunk (almost half) on travel, which makes sense. My family and I went on a trip to Perth and then I turned a work trip to Penang into a weekend getaway. Travel is something I don’t mind spending on, so no complaints there.
- August 2019 was my best-earning month ever. I generate income from sponsored posts on Ringgit Oh Ringgit website, and in August 2019 I had a record FOUR sponsored post, in addition to incomes from writing work and speaking gigs. Income from website traffic increased too (no idea why, but I’ll take it).
- On that note, shoutout to all these amazing companies which hired me <3. Click on the links to see the posts we collaborated on: Affin Hwang Investment Bank; HelloGold; Great Eastern Takaful; Touch ‘n Go; and PIDM. I enjoyed working with them so much, I was inspired to write [PERSONAL] How I Get Great Clients Who Pay & Treat Me Well article.
- Finally hired an accountant to go over my tax records, something I wanted to do for ageeees ago. Happily, she said I’ve been doing my taxes right.
- Read just one book, but a good one: 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari. I liked the part where he said schools nowadays are ill-equipped to prepare students for future work, because we have no idea how work in the future is going to look like. Instead of technical skills (which may be redundant by the time they finish school), it’s a good idea to teach the ‘4Cs’ instead: Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, Creativity.
- Had the official book launch of Money Stories from Malaysia: Volume 1 at Borders Malaysia! This event was so important for me that I hired a photographer to capture our moments, and I’m glad I did – pictures turned out beautiful! View the album here.
- So I was on BFM’s Ringgit & Sense show, hosted by Roshan Kanesan.You can listen to the podcast on the BFM page, or at Spotify at this link.
- Finally did a couple of things on my digital marketing checklist: automated 5x postings per week via Socialbee for Facebook (which I managed to get a sweet lifetime deal), and set up Linktree for my instagram (I can finally put more than one link there, yay).
- My face! On a playing card! Thank you Jason from Bitcoin Malaysia team! Get it for just RM25 instead of RM59 during the pre-order period here!
Nay of the Month:
- Remember that freak storm in Subang area, where roads flooded hard? Yeah my place got flooded too, and I live at a condominium. What happened was the rain was heavier than what my balcony drainage could handle, so the the rainwater pooled and flooded my whole place. Cleaning up after that SUCKED.
- Annoyed but resigned to the fact that I wasted money by buying things I didn’t use up to the max, namely (1) phone data, and (2) luggage allocation while travelling to Perth. Yeah yeah I got peace of mind but does that justify the RM300 I wasted I DON’T THINK SO.
- Indulged in a lot of food. It’s easy to do that when you’re travel… My excuse: ‘they don’t sell this back home’ -_-
- Met up with a chiropractor for the first time to get a second opinion on my 10-year on-off knee pain, which doctors have dismissed. So apparently, I have been living with hip subluxation or misaligned hip all this while. The imbalance puts extra pressure on my right knee, which causes the pain. So yeah, I’ll be spending some money for treatments in the coming months. Not complaining though. I’m glad I finally got a diagnosis, rather than being told I simply need to lose weight by other doctors. Fat discrimination is real.
Things to Look Forward to:
- Continue working on Money Stories from Malaysians: Volume 2!
- Doing some volunteer work 🙂
- Doing my second Pecha Kucha talk, this time in Melaka! Melaka peeps, come drop by 🙂 More info and tix purchase here.
- Keeping things light and easy before October rolls along. I have a ridiculous number of things lined up in October, it’s not even funny. More info will be posted soon in Ringgit Oh Ringgit FB page.
- Doing my next baby step for Ringgit Oh Ringgit Youtube channel
Lastly, I want to give a reminder to everyone. The number of ‘personal finance influencers’ in Malaysia are increasing, as are companies doing ‘thought leadership’ as a strategy.
That’s good, but never, ever, follow their advice blindly without your own research. That includes what I say too. Always think of our underlying agenda. How we will profit out of it. If the things we say makes sense. Don’t put anyone on a pedestal, you hear me?
Signing off. Have a lovely September everyone.
—
To read about my past monthly budget update, click here. Graphs are taken from my expense-tracking app Money Lover (how expense tracking works)
First YT videos are always gonna be cringey to look at no matter how much you try to be prepared.
10/0 would watch your channel. Very few are able to give me comprehensive information like The Financial Diet does (before they started allowing other contributors apart from Chelsea) but even that isn’t localized.
Been following your blog for almost two years I think (?) and it’s been realllyyy helpful 🙂
Thank you for the support Kat! Be nice even if the videos are cringey okay TT_TT
ohh the knee pain and subsequent diagnosis of misalignment of hip same here..but couldnt afford to pay for the chiropactor.
You too? 🙁 Now that I have this, I’m looking out for more info. Will share on RoR when I find them
Just wanna say that I love your BFM podcast! It’s not too formal/heavy, like listening to a friend talking. 🙂
You’re so sweet, thank you so much Aiena! Awww comments like yours make me really really happy lah