Link Roundup #67: 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. Does working from home make employees more productive? – The Economist
Tl;dr:
Yes, according to new research, and they should be paid accordingly
*Note: Yes I’m aware the research only measured employees’ productivity levels in a call centre in America, so it may not be the same in other countries and industries. Yet it’s an indication until more studies are done.
2. 28 Simple-Yet-Successful Mini Rules That Have Drastically Improved My Life – The Financial Diet
GREAT listicle, one of the better, non-generic ones. It’s nice to know that I’m already doing 10 or so mini-rules in the list (with variations to tweak my situation). Would love to start experimenting with #1, #4, #8, #19 and #28 this year.
3. MyPay Coin Deposit to bring unused coins back into circulation – Focus Malaysia
How interesting! An initiative to deposit your coins into your bank accounts, so it can enter ‘back into economic circulation and repurpose them for digital payments’. Apparently collectively there is RM3.5 BILLION worth of coins in circulation, much of it sitting idle in our homes and cars!
Would you use this service?
4. We Asked Delivery Bike Riders to Show Us Their Lunch – Vice

Malaysia was unfortunately not included, but fascinating article regardless – in some ways the struggles are similar (RM4-6 for a meal at the hawker stall in the Philippines, Thailand and Cambodia), in some ways wildly different (delivering via bicycles and cycling 60km per day as motorcycles are banned in Yangon).
5. 2020 Year In Review And What’s Ahead in 2021 – Ringgit Genie
Excellent review of the year – Ringgit Genie covered every important financial events that happened in 2020, including the stock market, loan moratorium, Penjana Economic Stimulus and more.
6. 10 small home projects to take on if you need something to do – Glamour Magazine
A great list for a frugal homebody like me! Many of the projects require minimal or no cost at all, and a clutter-free and orderly home is always a worth the effort. I believe in Outer Order, Inner Calm!
7. How to spend your money for maximum happiness – Popular Science
The article covered (1) buying time, (2) buying experiences rather than material items, and (3) spend on others. There are 2 more ways to buy happiness, which you can read in my How to Buy Happiness: 5 Science-Backed Principles to Know TODAY article.
Love the charts! Look at the lines – spending on experiences rates higher than spending on material items on ALL income levels.

8. The One Thing About Your Spouse’s Personality That Really Affects Your Career – Harvard Business Review
What is it about your spouse’s personality that predicts your income, promotions and even job satisfaction? Their conscientious level:
Conscientiousness is the personality trait of being careful, or diligent. Conscientiousness implies a desire to do a task well, and to take obligations to others seriously.
Conscientious people tend to be efficient and organized as opposed to easy-going and disorderly. They exhibit a tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement; they display planned rather than spontaneous behavior; and they are generally dependable.
It is manifested in characteristic behaviors such as being neat, and systematic; also including such elements as carefulness, thoroughness, and deliberation (the tendency to think carefully before acting)
Wiki page
So yeah. I know love is blind and all, but if you can, find someone conscientious.
9. 10 Ways I Declutter My Finances for the New Year – Figuringgitout
Speaking of which, someone conscientious would totally enjoy this article by Figuringgitout, then proceed to sort out their financial life by organising and decluttering.
10. Improve Financial Literacy by understanding the Dunning-Kruger Effect –
The Personal Finance Challenge
I know of Ruiz from a few years back, he’s a fellow personal finance nerd. He recently started The Personal Finance Challenge so feel free to check that out if you’re looking for a systematic approach to learning money management.
In this video, he talked about the Dunning-Kruger Effect. I like what he said about how we tend to think that a good deal of money advice out there is for other people, not for us; a classic case of overconfidence as we don’t know what we don’t know, therefore we only *think* we know enough, but we don’t (does that make sense? lol)
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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.
Just realised there’s my post right there! Thank you for sharing!
Thank YOU for writing it! Always enjoy reading your updates 🙂 🙂