Link Roundup #40: 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. 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’.
2. 11 Productivity Tips for Remote Workers – PR Daily
Remote working is not just for the self-employed anymore. Quite a few workplaces now implement optional office days between Mon-Fri – a best-of-both-worlds solution for those preferring paid employment too. If you’re new to it and struggling to be productive, recommend you to read the article for some solid tips.
For me, my best productivity tip is still the to-do list system in my notebook. That plus looming datelines and pressure to earn as much as I can while I can in this unpredictable field.
3. Learn About Kakeibo: The Japanese Art of Saving Money – Refinery29
The Kakeibo is a ‘budgeting journal’, invented back in 1904 by Hani Motoko, Japan’s first female journalist, and was designed to help busy women keep on top of their finances.
Honestly it looks like just another ‘write down your budget’-type advice, but I have to remind myself not to dismiss it too easily. Thre is value in added insight into the Japanese psyche. We all know how systematic and efficient the Japanese is. I want *that* in my budgeting methodology.
They just released the English-language version of the book. I’m going to look for it.
4. 4 incredibly simple things happiness scientists say you should do instead of buying things – Fast Company
The four things are:
- Spend time in nature
- Meet a friend
- Do something creative
- Exercise
Simple in theory, need the reminder for the actual execution. Don’t forget that we all live in a world where we are constantly bombarded with messages that basically say we’ll only be happy if we bought X, Y and Z; and *of course* shopping is a legit stress-busting activity.
Unlearning that is an ongoing process.
5. How to Set Boundaries When Your Family Is Bad With Money – Lifehacker
MUST-READ for anyone who is frugal but have spendthrift parents, siblings and even close friends!! Money topics can be tricky to navigate while maintaining good relationships with them.
I quite like this one: ‘..a lot of clients had to pull back on their relationships with their siblings because of their financial choices. If you get to this point, it’s important not to shame the person for their financial choices. (Instead,) “Lead by example”’
6. This striking percentage of couples regret combining their finances – especially the higher-earning partner – Ladders
TL;DR – 1 out of 5 couples regret combining their finances, and the higher-earning partner regret it 29% of the time.
But that also means 4 out of 5 couples DID NOT regret combining their finances, and the higher-earning partner DID NOT regret it 71% of the time. You can play around the statistics to make it fit your narrative :/
I’m actually on the ‘let’s not merge’ camp, but I can see how a joint account would be handy for shared expenses and expense-tracking purposes.
7. Your Face Alone Tells People Whether You’re Rich or Not, Research Shows – Inc
“..the subjects were able to sort them into rich and poor with 68 percent accuracy–much more than can be accounted for by random chance.”
Then,
“Although subjects could always make the most accurate determinations from entire faces, the researchers found that mouths, and to a lesser extent eyes, gave participants the greatest ability to correctly categorize people in the photos as rich or poor.”
The mouth area, huh? Why is that? Is perhaps a full set of teeth (though hidden) is an indicator of diet and health? The study also mentioned how ‘people were (guessed to be) wealthy when their neutral faces seemed to subtly reflect happiness and well-being.’
I like how the article ended with a call to recognise this as a possible bias, which has real-life consequences – ‘it means people who start out without a lot of money will have a harder time landing a well-paying job, and if they’re entrepreneurs, perhaps a harder time getting financing as well.’
Let’s be aware of it. It’s another layer of addressing wealth inequality.
8. A Cheapskate’s Guide to Building Your Own Peloton Bike for a Fraction of the Price – MEL Magazine
Two reasons why you should read this article:
- I love a good ‘how to get the experience from this expensive item for cheaper’ tutorial, and
- The writer is hilarious
For context, a Peloton – that’s the fancy exercise bicycle with attached screens – retails at $1900 (!!). His hacked version of a Peloton costs $150. Lol.
9. If You Can’t Find a Spouse Who Supports Your Career, Stay Single – Harvard Business Review
Obviously this topic struck a chord with Twitterjaya – it got 1.3k RTs at time of writing.
And for good reason. Take a look at the findings of the study:
“It’s not that these husbands don’t see themselves as progressive and supportive.. But often caught by trade-offs they were not expecting. They are happy to have successful, high-earning wives. They applaud and support them — until it starts to interfere with their own careers.”
— Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror) November 28, 2019
“As one woman put it, “He has always said to me, ‘You can do whatever you want to do.’ But he’s not there to pick up any load.”
— Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror) November 28, 2019
A commentor said, relationship is all about give and take. You’re right. Me and other women are ready for the taking part, finally.
10. The StockMonger’s Nov 2019 Update
I enjoy reading other Malaysian personal finance bloggers’ monthly budget and self-reflection reviews. So it saddens me to share that The StockMonger have decided to discontinue his posts. The last one will be a review of his 2019 Resolutions in the first week of 2020.
Will look forward to that. I’m sure he took a lot of time to decide so will respect his decision. Let’s wish him all the best going forward.
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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.
For monthly expenses, I and partner decided not to join our account since each of us has our own monthly commitment for example mortgage. Meanwhile, for sharing categories like groceries, utilities and vacation, we will split into half. However, for our retirement plan investment, we are joining it to reap higher dividend, we record down how much each of us had contributed for just “in case”. If everything goes as we planned, we will enjoy our retirement together.
Sounds like you have setup a healthy system with your partner, taking into account all possibilities, even the not-so-nice-to-think-about one. All the best to you and family Lin 🙂
Great post, loved reading it. Good for a short read. Btw I love no. 4!
Thank you for the support, Wina! I like no 4 too 😀 (but the marketing industry dont lol)