Link Roundup #37: 10 Things to Know This Week

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. Half of millennials and 75% of Gen-Zers have quit jobs for mental health reasons  – CNBC

The data came from US demographics, but mental health is universal and this discussion is applicable to us Malaysians as well.

I don’t have solutions, but I agree with this gentleman’s sentiment:

I’ll say it again: If you hate your job stop blowing the money that they’re paying you. Stack that money so you can put it into things so you eventually won’t need that job anymore. Spending recklessly while working a job you hate is STUPID. Stop bullshitting.

— Zigg ♻️ (@XaviercMiller) October 6, 2019

But of course I admit that’s a priviledged way of looking at it. Some people truly can’t afford to quit their jobs because non-negotiable commitments are too high.

So here I want to say… employers, take care of your employees. I can give many reasons why you should – happier employees are more productive, etc – but at the end of the day… the reason you should take their wellbeing into consideration is because they’re fellow human beings.

2. Budget 2020: 16 Things That Might Affect YOU, Financially – LoanStreet

So… Budget 2020 or Belanjawan 2020 happened, didn’t it? Many news outlets covered it. This article from LoanStreet is the funnest one to read out of them all, very clear and concise and edutaining.

Definitely click on the article to have a read. I have my favs too:

3. How to make yourself work when you’re not feeling it – The Ladders

Sharing for this brilliant infographic!

4. 5 Brilliant Productivity Hacks You’ll Wish You Learned Sooner – MyDomaine

The productivity tips are truly brilliant and something everyone should know! They are:

• The Pomodoro Technique
• The Top 3 Rule
• The Pareto Principle
• Plain Boxing
• Saying No

Click the article to learn more about each of them 🙂

5. Typical Meal For KL’s Poor: Rice, Fried Eggs, Soy Sauce – Galen Centre

This is an article about child nutrition. That’s what they eat on a daily basis. Malnutrition shouldn’t happen in our country – we throw out a LOT of food – yet it does. ‘According to the United Nations agency’s State of the World’s Children 2019: Children, Food and Nutrition report, 20.7% of children under five in Malaysia suffer from stunting, 11.5% from wasting, while 12.7% of children (aged 5 to 19 years) are obese.

6. Why Budget Cooking Tips Are Useless For Low-Income Families – HuffPost

And no, low-income mothers can’t just ‘spend more time to prep food for their children’. As much as they want to, they can’t, they tend to also be poor in another resource – time.

“The most time poor people are the poor. They have longer commute time, longer hours at work but cannot outsource it. This adds to their material poverty” @Jayati1609 #MYTimeUse

— Khazanah Research Institute (@KRInstitute) October 3, 2019

7. A trio of economists have won the Nobel Prize for their work in fighting global poverty – World Economic Forum

Which makes this news extra timely. I’m exceptionally happy hearing about the 2019 Nobel Economics prize not just because its work in the field of global poverty, but also one of the winners is Dr Esther Duflo, ‘only the second female economics winner in the prize’s 50-year history, as well as the youngest at 46’.

Hear her talk about social experiments they conducted in the below TED Talk, recorded 9 years ago. It’s fascinating how heavy subsidies in preventative healthcare, such as vaccination and providing nutritious foodsource – work in alleviating poverty.

(Therefore, I’m a big supporter of gov’s decision to provide meals to schoolchildren)

8. The Myth of the Frivolous Female Spender – The New York Times

This article struck a chord because it’s so true – shopping are viewed as ‘women’s activity’. In popular culture, many consumables like fashion and beauty products are marketed as justifiable ‘just because’ spending, something to take the stress off daily life. At the same time, grooming products for men are marketed as power and status symbols.

You can make the argument that the difference is due to psychology between genders, but I’d argue back: which perpetuates which? Does media/marketing not influence behaviours and expectations?

I’m not saying marketing for women should be more like marketing for men. We’re different, after all. I’m just saying, frugal people like me can’t relate.

9. Malaysia’s Halal Crisis – Asia Sentinel

“SME proprietors and F&B managers told Asia Sentinel that JAKIM officials routinely request cash payments above the statutory fees in order to guarantee registration.”

“A Muslim Lebanese butcher from Australia was setting up a halal choice meat cut butchery in Kuala Lumpur for retail and distribution. A JAKIM official requested a RM50,000 payment for registration. Due to the company’s policy of not paying bribes due to the firm’s religious moral philosophy, investment in Malaysia was immediately aborted. ”

“Companies have found bucking the system by complaining only leads to drastic consequences, like have their operating licenses suspended and being put out of business. ”

… Doesn’t that anger you? What the hell, JAKIM?

(I’m even angrier knowing that JAKIM will receive RM1.3 BILLION allocation from Budget 2020. Please report corrupt practices, that’s the Islamic way.)

10. The Millennial Urban Lifestyle Is About to Get More Expensive –  The Atlantic

If you are a tech-savvy Millennial especially living in urban areas, your lifestyle have been subsidised by big tech investors. You and I know this, and we LOVE it.

Unfortunately, you and I also know that good times are not going to last. Already, some types of cash incentives are a thing of the past.

I miss Grab rides discount codes 🙁

— Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror) October 10, 2019

So… grab what you can, while you can. Here are some of my referral links to services Millennials like 😛

—

That’s it for this round, catch you next time! Want to submit a link you thought was great? Reach out to me on FB or Twitter.

To read past link roundups, please click here.