Link Roundup #76: 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. Working 55+ Hours A Week Kills 745,000 People A Year — The Covid Pandemic, Gig Economy And Teleworking May Be Making It Worse, WHO Warns – Business Insider

Are you working a lot? As in, 8-11 or more hours per day?

I’m not trying to scare you, but it might be the thing that kills you.

Just look at these key stats:

• 745,000 people died from stroke and heart disease in 2016 as a result of working more than 55 hours a week. In most cases, the deaths were recorded years or even decades after people had worked the long hours; the increased risk of dying from stroke is 35% and ischemic heart disease is 17% higher, when compared to those working a 35-40 hour week
• Men made up the overwhelming majority of these deaths, almost three quarters, with people living in South East Asia and the Western Pacific also significantly affected
• It is estimated that 9% of the global population are currently working such dangerously long hours. The WHO said this figure is still increasing

Some of you might say, oh I like to work, I like to stay productive. But is it possible you are taking productivity a bit too far?

2. 9 Signs Toxic Productivity Is Impacting Your Life – The Healthy

“Toxic productivity is the inability to do something just for the sake of doing it. All actions must always have a goal or an objective that leads to a sense of personal improvement or achievement.” – Erika Ferszt, an organisational psychologist who specialises in toxic productivity and the founder of Moodally, a workplace mood-management program

There’s a difference between healthy productivity and toxic productivity. If you’re not sure how the latter looks like, click on the article to find out the signs.

Personally, I thought I have a healthy mindset towards productivity. But I still recognise a few of those red flags in myself.

3. Never Have an Unproductive Day Again With This Simple Hack – Next Big Idea Club

Or perhaps you have the opposite problem – you think you’re too unproductive. I kind of get it – I have trouble focusing and prioritising too.

If that’s the case, you might benefit this simple hack:

• Write down up to 6 items in to-do list (if the task is too big, break it down into chunks)
• Rank them by importance
• Do them by order of importance
• (my input – when done, call it a day and rest)

4. The 2 spreadsheets I used to grow my side business from $900 a month to over $10,000 a month in one year – Business Insider

As a solopreneur, I am fascinated by the systems other solopreneurs or small (more like micro) business owners do to keep track of their business. I’ve found that some people make it really complicated, while others keep it simple – no judgement, both are fine as long as it works for them.

In this article, she shared two of the spreadsheets she used. They are:

• Income tracker (I love that she calls it ‘abundance tracker’), and

• Profit and loss tracker

I have my own system to track business incomes and expenses, but I really should maintain P/L statement. Every year I scramble around income tax time.

5. How COVID-19 Changed Our Saving and Spending Habits – Investopedia

The pandemic created a tale of two economies: Those who were able to save and those who struggled to make ends meet.

The article is US-specific, but the above sentence is applicable for Malaysia as well. Which one are you in this pandemic – the one who is able to save money or the one who is struggling?

Those who are able to save – congratulations, you’re one of the lucky ones. If you’ve hit your savings goals and have enough to sustain for a few years, then consider spending and/or donating graciously to small businesses and those who are struggling.

6. The pandemic killed business travel. For the sake of the climate, it should stay dead – Fast Company

Something to keep in mind, especially for those of you in decision-making positions in bigger companies which used to go on or send employees on business travel all the time. We only have one planet.

7. Check Your Financial Privilege – Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin price went down recently. I wasn’t bothered, but many did, because they lost *some* money.

Dude. It’s only money. You were not supposed to invest more than what you can afford to lose anyway.

(Many Bitcoin) critics are.. wealthy citizens of advanced economies, where they benefit from liberal democracy, property rights, free speech, a functioning legal system and relatively stable reserve currencies like the dollar or pound.

In reality, only 13% of our planet’s population is born into the dollar, euro, Japanese yen, British pound, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar or Swiss Franc. The other 87% are born into autocracy or considerably less trustworthy currencies. 4.3 billion people live under authoritarianism, and 1.2 billion people live under double- or triple-digit inflation.

If the only thing you lost is money, then consider yourself already lucky. People in Nigeria, Sudan, Ethiopia and many others don’t have such luxury.

8. Twitter mulling paid service called Twitter Blue, finds researcher – The Guardian

As a Twitter addict (follow me at @surayaror), this development excites me!

(I only hope they have localised and cheaper pricing for Malaysia because ~RM14 per month is kinda steep for digital subscription)

Twitter is calling their upcoming Subscription Service “Twitter Blue”, priced at $2.99/month for now, including paid features like:

Undo Tweets: https://t.co/CrqnzIPcOH

Collections: https://t.co/qfFfAXHp1o pic.twitter.com/yyMStpCkpr

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) May 15, 2021

9. Report hike in premium for medical insurance policies – News Straits Times

People with medical insurance, were your premiums raised recently?

If yes, send (1) the name of the insurance company, (2) current annual insurance premium and (3) new annual insurance to premiuminsurance@fomca.org.my so FOMCA can launch a national campaign to urge Bank Negara Malaysia to stem the increase in medical premiums.

“It was wrong and unacceptable for insurance companies to raise premiums to make excessive profits at a time when consumers were suffering” – President of The Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association (FOMCA)

10. WHAT’S IN YOUR SPA ?! – iherng

And last for not least, sharing this amazing video by Sean Tan, explaining the content of your property’s SPA (Sales and Purchase Agreement). There’s a lot of good info in here, so check it out if you’re a property owner/want to be one!

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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.