Link Roundup #98: 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 Ease the 7 Most Common Triggers of Work-Related Anxiety, According to a Psychologist – Well and Good
Do any of these trigger your work anxiety?
- Having a fear-based boss
- Noticing coworker cliques
- Experiencing technology issues
- Giving presentations
- Having a long commute
- Going on work trips
- Having to meet quotas
If so, you might want to read this article and find out what you can do to alleviate some of that anxiety.
2. I Plan for Everything. But I Didn’t See Inflation Coming – The Wall Street Journal
The change is particularly alarming for young individuals like myself. As people who’ve never experienced such high inflation in our lifetimes, we don’t really know how to cope, beyond cutting where we can and absorbing what price increases we can’t avoid. – Article writer, Julia Carpenter
This article captures really well the frustration of someone who tries their best to be financially responsible, yet is still at the mercy of factors outside their control, ie soaring inflation.
Yes, it’s tough. Sure, we’ll continue being responsible and make the right financial decisions, but it’s still tough.
Personally, I find these opinion pieces far more relatable than the overly motivational ‘tough times don’t last tough people do’-type of pieces.
3. Handling Temptations – How to Stop Impulse Spending – Mr-Stingy
Impulse spending is a problem if (1) you don’t earn enough, and/or (2) you have too many desires.
The solution is (1) earn more and/or (2) reduce your desires.
Aaron Tang aka Mr Stingy expanded this a lot more eloquently in the article, have a read.
4. Pandemic creates new billionaire every 30 hours — now a million people could fall into extreme poverty at same rate in 2022 – Oxfam International
“573 people became new billionaires during the pandemic, at the rate of one every 30 hours. We expect this year that 263 million more people will crash into extreme poverty, at a rate of a million people every 33 hours.”
So basically, it takes 459 thousand people crashing into poverty to create one (ONE) billionaire.
I was angry. Now I’m just numb.
5. Someone Asks What Is “The Most Frugal Hack You’ve Discovered That Made The Most Difference” And 30 People Deliver – Bored Panda
Saving money is often presented as this ‘ugh’ thing but everyone’s tips in the article show contentment and even excitement. Love it when people enjoy being frugal 🙂 There is so much joy in maximising value (without taking advantage of/ abusing others and yourself).
Btw, which of the frugal hacks do you want to try? The ‘cut your sponges in half’ hack is weirdly calling my name..
6. ‘Like a lighthouse for the lonely’: Chinese woman sells over 30,000 goodnight text messages at 15 US cents each to people needing comfort – SCMP
The woman from Guangdong province in southern China went viral in early May after the internet discovered she had made over 30,000 yuan (US$4,415) selling goodnight texts for one yuan (15 US cents) per message.
Question: Is what she’s doing ethical? She’s right in saying that she does provide a service, and the recipients are willing participants, who bought her service as a way to overcome loneliness.
Thoughts? Would you provide, or subscribe to such service?
7. Investing in your health: how much does it cost to keep fit? – Stylish
This isn’t an article about the different costs of keeping fit. This article is about the over-commercialism of the fitness industry, which sometimes misleads you into thinking you NEED expensive gear and supplement to ‘do it right’.
Thought-provoking read.
8. What it’s really like to work at Tokyo’s anti-procrastination café – Timeout
As far as themed coffeeshops go, anti-procrastination café shop Manuscript Writing Café is definitely one of the more interesting ones.
Of all the ‘anti-procrastination features’, the 3000*-yen-per hour surcharge imposed if you didn’t complete your work seems to be the most effective 🙂
*3000 yen is about RM100
9. How to make better and faster decisions when you are struggling to keep up – Fast Co
One of those rare moments where the authors’ experience absolutely does the title justice. Behold, the co-authors of this article:
- Katarina Berg, chief human resources officer at Spotify and also head of the Global Workplaces and Strategy Operations teams, AND
- Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, PhD, the chief talent scientist at ManpowerGroup, a professor of Business Psychology at Columbia University and University College of London, and the author of Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (And How to Fix it)
Lots to study just from this one article, it’s so packed with mental models.
10. RM10k is NOT enough to live in Kuala Lumpur; family struggles in Malaysia – Mr Money TV
The title is a bit of a clickbait, since RM10k *is* enough for a family of 4 to live on in Kuala Lumpur, according to Belanjawanku 2021. However, Peter rightfully pointed out that RM10k is NOT enough for a comfortable life, even a modest one.
I think everyone new at household budgeting or planning to have children in the future should watch the household budget breakdown. You’ll have a better understanding of the different costs that a family needs to allocate and pay for.
