Link Roundup #7: 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. Shoppers with Strong Religious Beliefs Spend Less and Make Fewer Impulse Purchases – Harvard Business Review

What an insightful read! The study was conducted in the US, but the sample size is big and the research was thorough. I believe the conclusions are applicable to our Malaysian context, too.

If I were to self-rate myself, religiously speaking, from a murtad-to-ustazah scale, I’m probably something like a 6 or 7? Does this mean if I get more religious my financial life will improve further? Penny for your thoughts. 

2. Order Fulfillment Services in Malaysia and Why You Should Use Them for Your E-commerce Business – Entrepreneur Campfire

If you sell products online, you should know about fulfilment services. It’s a type of service where you can outsource storing, packing, shipping and returns to a third party. Imagine how much time you can free up, so you can focus on marketing and growing your business!

This article compiles three fulfilment services available in Malaysia and how much they cost (at time of writing).

3. Is It Really Easy To Steal Money From A PayWave Card? – SoyaCincau

I saw a viral video showing a man using a PayWave card terminal. You might have seen it too.

The video showed how the man in glasses completed a transaction simply by lightly touching the other man’s ass. I’m being factual here, no matter how that came out.

SoyaCincau argued that this scam tactic was blown out of proportion. They argued that (1) only registered merchants can do that, so you’ll always find out about the transaction and dispute it with the bank and (2) it won’t work if you have multiple NFC (Near Field Communications) cards together, such as your Touch N Go cards and IC card, which many of us keep with PayWave cards in the same wallet.

That’s cool to know, but I’ve also received a couple of additional comments about it via Twitter. Take it however you wish:

• To do this scam, the criminal must be near you. Like, be really near you. Wouldn’t you notice when someone touches your ass? (Note: counter-argument – criminals know ways to distract people)
• You can use aluminium foil or RFID wallets to avoid these cases (Note: interestingly, this article explain why RFID wallets is a scam, because there are almost no RFID crimes??)
• The biggest issue is not the PayWave card, but how easily RFID cards in general can be cloned. (Note: When I googled ‘cloning RFID cards’, the first article was literally a step-by-step instruction wtf)

I personally don’t have a PayWave card, and I’m not particularly keen to get one. Not because of security reasons, but because I don’t like how easy it is to spend money on it. Will it encourage me to make more higher-value purchases? I don’t know, and I don’t really feel like testing.

4. My terrifying deep dive into one of Russia’s largest hacking forums – The Guardian

Also on the topic of illegal activities. Such a fascinating read. The author went into an underground hacking community and reported – not to scare you or anything – ‘from passports to credit cards, nothing is safe’. If they want to target you, they can and they will.

May the odds be ever in your favour.

5. I’m a Professional Sugar Baby. Here’s What It’s Like to Get Paid to Hang Out With Rich Guys – Money

This article takes me back to my Tumblr days, where I followed a ton of sex workers’ accounts. At first it was curiosity, perhaps even a sense of escapism. Later on I simply got wildly impressed by how some of the ladies turned their services into a highly profitable business. I have so much respect for them, and since learned that professionalism will set one apart, regardless of the industry.

I have no judgement at all for women (and men) who use their beauty and charm to get ahead financially, as long as no one gets hurt. I am extra impressed if they do it to finance their education and graduate without debt.

6. We Lost RM20k From A Single Trade So You Won’t Have To: Lessons Learned – Pelham Blue Management

I found out about Pelham Blue Management website recently – they’re an anonymous group of trading professionals based in Malaysia (I assume) who document their stocks and warrants trading in detail. Their fundamental and technical analysis writeups impressed me.

The scale of their trades is worth sharing – they frequently make five-figure wins and losses. This particular article reflects back at one of their recent losses. Great read, very insightful.

7. A Stanford researcher says we shouldn’t start working full time until age 40 – World Economic Forum

The ‘Stanford researcher’ is not ‘just’ a Stanford researcher. She’s Laura Carstensen, the founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity.

This article challenged the way I think, how I’ve always accepted life around me – start work in early-to-mid twenties, then retire by 60 (or even earlier in Malaysia). An excerpt:

“We need a new model,” Carstensen says of the current norms around career pacing. The current one “doesn’t work, because it fails to recognize all the other demands on our time. People are working full-time at the same time they’re raising children. You never get a break. You never get to step out. You never get to refresh. . . .We go at this unsustainable pace, and then pull the plug.”

I’ll admit it. My obligations to my career, relationships, family, etc  all at the same time IS overwhelming.

8. American tech giants are making life tough for startups – The Economist

A must-read if you are, or want to be, a startup founder. You may not know about the kill-zone yet. You must.

9. It’s impossible to lead a totally ethical life—but it’s fun to – Quartz

The money you spend to lead your life reflects your values. You know this already. Shoutout to everyone who actively reduce the amount of disposables they consume, and choose vegetarian over meat-based meals whenever they can.

If you are this type of person, you may think of how you can better all the time. You just don’t want to damage the environment further, or contribute to slave labour. You may even stress over it.

Don’t stress. You’re doing good. Keep it up.

10. What’s the Effect of Social Media on Your Finances? – Bitches Get Riches

And finally, a fun read about how social media affects our finances, nicely divided into pro/cons arguments. I agree with pretty much everything in here, including the free entertainment part (con: varies in quality), the personal finance community part (con: always encouraged to buy something), and the constant inspiration part (con: jealousy over other people’s lives).

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.