Link Roundup #6: 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. Here’s How Much Money You Save by Cooking at Home – Forbes

The data is from US, but it’s still a fascinating read. They compared between restaurant, meal kit delivery (not common in Malaysia I think) and cost of ingredients and found that you can save up to five times more by cooking all your meals at home! Another point of interest: ordering protein-based meals from restaurants are more worth it if compared to carb-based meals.

Granted, the US does not have our mamak slash cheap food culture. You can get food relatively cheap here. Personally I’m a big fan of rice + dhal, and that’s fairly nutritious and maybe cost a few ringgits at the most.

Whether we’re willing to give up our food obsession is another story, though. Trying out different cuisines is practically a national hobby.

2. People are slamming Forbes for putting Kylie Jenner on its list of ‘self-made’ billionaires – Business Insider

Can I just share my tweets about this. This is my personal thoughts on the topic. No intention to convert anyone, just a POV that, for once, don’t insult the Kardashian/Jenner clan.

I am annoyed of people who make fun of Kylie Jenner (and the whole clan)

They are extremely business-savvy. They saw the demand and monetised the shit out of it. Product creation and distribution takes a high level of organisational skill

Who’s superficial now? https://t.co/FSJaPpKSqq

— Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror) July 12, 2018

I’ve thought about it and decided to defend Forbes’ use of ‘self-made’ label for Kylie Jenner

Simply because her business’ growth rate far, far exceeds a normal company’s growth rate. Far beyond any investment she could have made

So yeah. She created that wealth

— Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror) July 12, 2018

This lead to a follow-up question. I like Ramesh’s take on it.

I have long thought about this too. I think the best gauge generally is how much one multiplies what one starts with. So a person who starts with RM1000 and makes RM100k (100x) is more successful in my book than one who starts with RM1m and makes RM3m (3x) over the same time.

— Ramesh Gopal (@rameshgopalkr) July 12, 2018

3. How A Fine Artist Built A Million-Dollar, One-Person Business That’s True To Her Vision – Forbes

Rare insight into how a creative professional scaled her business without a team. I think she must be a great person – usually successful solopreneurs are successful because people want to support them. They tend to show transparency and professionalism.

EDIT: Holy cow. Her art legit gave me goosebumps. Check out her Instagram. I want one.

4. Science: You Get 150 Friends and 25 Places (So Choose Well) – Inc

This article didn’t really explain the 150 friends part, but still a great read. Look:

“At first, the team followed 1,000 students and found that, actually, they each went to only 25 separate locations. The students might add a new place to their repertoire, but when they did an old place would fall out of favor. Surely, this must just be just campus-bound kids, the researchers thought, so they expanded their study to tens of thousands from all walks of life around the globe. The results were the same, surprising the researchers.”

Fascinating. I’ve never thought of it that way. I’ve never thought of making places I visit often ‘count’. I simply thought it was unlimited in the first place.

Must be more choosy about where I choose to spend my time. I don’t really want to be in places that drain me.

5. How to cook rice in small portions without having it stuck to rice cooker  – Amalina Aziz FB 

For slow Malay readers:

•  Step 1: Wash rice
• Step 2: Fill half of the mug with rice (note: maybe less than half if your mugs have wider base). Add enough water
• Step 3: Place mug(s) in rice cooker. Fill the rice cooker with water until about half full
• Step 4: Turn on rice cooker and wait for it to cook

I’m sharing this because: (1) holy crap that’s genius and (2) it went viral and was republished at many (Malay) websites, and most of them DID NOT PROPERLY CREDIT HER AS CONTENT CREATOR. This makes me so mad. Content creation is a low-cost way for small businesses to generate leads for sales. These websites took that away from her.

So rather than backlinking to those websites and giving them traffic, I’m sharing her original post. She sells Cath Kidston bags and purses (probably not original). Go have a look if you’re into that sort of thing.

 6. Want to Love Your Job? Read This Article – Quartz

Everyone wants to have meaningful jobs, but the author argues that ‘the only thing worse than working is not having a job.’

I am dedicating this link to everyone out there who finds your job ‘boring’. Yet you may not be in the position to look for other jobs, or perhaps your dream job is out of reach at this point in time.

You know what they say – if you can’t change the circumstances, change yourself. The author invites you to take pleasure in completing tasks – no matter big or small. Focus on the pleasures of working, instead of what you hate about it. Mindsets matter.

7.  Suzy Welch: The only 3 times it’s OK to work just for the money – CNBC

A nice follow-up to #6. Because yes, I get it, it’s easy to say ‘just enjoy the work la’ when it’s not me doing them.

The only three times it’s OK to work just for the money, according to Suzy Welch, are:

1. You’re in a deep financial hole
2. You have a strategic plan
3. You’re an ‘effective altruist’ (someone who works so they can be a generous philanthropist)

Which one are you?

8. Why Are Books At BookXcess And Big Bad Wolf So Affordable? – Rojak Daily

I love Big Bad Wolf book sales and BookXcess. I’ve taken mornings off just to take the train to Amcorp Mall and spend a couple of hours choosing books.

This brilliant article explains their business model and why their books are priced so cheaply. The founders found a way to both make a profit while benefiting people at the same time.

Bless them. We need more people like this.

9. How Couples Divide Expenses – Business Insider

We asked couples how they divide expenses pic.twitter.com/plAGPThYI8

— Business Insider (@businessinsider) July 1, 2018

Confession: I’ve always cringed when people assume couples need to merge their finances completely. I guess that’ll work for some, but not everyone.

A couple in here shared how it’s natural for them to not combine their finances. Thought that was cool. I like that joint credit card idea too for dates and shared expenses like groceries.

10. How to Make Piles of Money Using Instagram – Bloomberg

In my Why We Can’t Stop Spending Money article, I explained how ridiculous it is to expect us, mere individuals, to resist combined sales and psychological strategies honed by companies over the years.

Mass media channels like TV and print had their turn. Now it’s all about social media strategies. Companies attend classes on digital marketing just to learn how to optimise sales, from best hashtag practices to taking advantage of certain algorithms to using influencers for widest reach and engagement.

Read this article to find out how Instagram is implementing business-friendly practices. Try to spot them the next time you browse Instagram.

---

That’s it for this week, 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.