malaysia Archives - Ringgit Oh Ringgit

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malaysia

28 ^th
October

8 Malaysia-Based Personal Finance YouTube Channels to Follow

Posted by Suraya - 2 Comments

I’ve compiled Malaysia-based personal finance Twitter accounts to follow, and Malaysia-based personal finance Instagrammers, so now its personal finance Youtubers and Youtube channels’ turn!

Note that I have intentionally excluded other personal finance media and figures in Malaysia who (1) don’t use English as a medium, (2) don’t publish videos on a regular basis, and (3) is too product-focused.

This names in this list links directly to their Youtube channels and appear in no particular order. If I missed out anyone, do let me know (or leave a comment with a link to the profile!)

#1 – Suyin Ong

16 ^th
September

3 Ways to Get A High Salary in Malaysia

Posted by Suraya - 21 Comments

Recently, I had the opportunity to facilitate a financial management workshop for WOMEN:Girls NGO. One of the questions I asked the group who said they’d prefer to be employed (rather than be self-employed) is what they think they can do to earn a high salary in Malaysia.

And I don’t know if it’s just that particular group, or if this is the common view among the overall population, but they seemed to think that the way to earn a high salary is to basically:

Be good at the job
Be loyal to the company
Get rewarded with promotions in due time

At this point I was like, hmm how do I tell them nicely. Even the sponsors who were sitting at the back of the room (folks employed at a big cosmetics company) were laughing good-naturedly, mouthing ‘no’.

11 ^th
September

Revealed: My Business Expenses as a Blogger in Malaysia

Posted by Suraya - 2 Comments

How much do you think professional bloggers in Malaysia spend to maintain their website and work? Go on, take a guess.

I don’t know about the rest, but for me, the amout is RM1.1k per month on average.

How did I get that figure? Well, I know that I’ve spent RM56,438.67 in Business expenses from June 2015 until the time of writing (September 2019).

17 ^th
July

What’s Its Like to Work From Home (4 Years Update!)

Posted by Suraya - 12 Comments

Wow, it’s been almost four years since I work from home full-time. The last time I wrote about it, I was only one year in!

It’s still a little bit surreal. Like many of you, I grew up thinking that 9-6 working days is the default. It’s even more surreal when I remember that this work from home thing was an accident. The plan was actually to do a bit of freelance writing to make some extra income while I find myself a new, stable job.

Then somehow work turned to more work and I just never stopped and here I am? Sometimes I still catch myself thinking ‘ah how nice would it be to work from home wait Suraya you do work from home you dolt’.

01 ^st
July

[SPONSORED] Malaysians Share Scams in Malaysia They Fell For (or Almost)

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Your parents are right.

No matter how much we may want to deny it, there *are* bad people in this world. People who don’t think twice about taking your money from you through illegal and unethical means. They do it easily, without guilt or remorse.

This article is a compilation of anecdotes by real people, who were scammed or almost got scammed. Thank you to all who contributed.

15 ^th
May

[SPONSORED] The Beginners Guide to Warrants in Malaysia

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On 27 April 2019, I attended my first warrants-specific talk.

The event was called Demystifying Structured Warrants, which is apt tbh. I’m a complete beginner in this financial instrument. I know almost nothing about it.

This was my second engagement with the Kenanga Investment Bank, after writing about the Market Outlook Symposium 2019: Smart Investing or Dare Betting? investment event back in January 2019.

I’m happy to report I liked two out of two Kenanga-organised events so far. Good content. No fluff, just lots of good info. Then they gave free food some more.

Like the first article, this is a sponsored post, but all opinions are mine. It’s great that I can share what I learned about warrants from the event, as someone completely new to the world.

#1 – What is warrants?

This is the textbook definition:

Does that make sense to you? I kinda sorta understand… ish. It’s a very theoretical financial instrument. I feel like I’m learning quantum physics.

08 ^th
May

The Real Answer to ‘How Much Should I Spend On A Car?’

Posted by Suraya - 8 Comments

How much should I spend on a car? I’ve thought about this question many, many times.

The answer is simple: whatever is the amount, I should make sure that I can afford it. Like every other purchase.

But it’s also not that simple, because if it is, how come 1 out of 4 bankruptcies in Malaysia is due to car loans?

If you’ve been wondering how much you should spend on a car and avoid it being repossessed by the bank, here are some answers. Thanks to all contributions from the RoR audience!

#1 – How many % of monthly salary to go towards car payment?

06 ^th
May

Link Roundup #26: 10 Things to Know This Week

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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. 6 things you must organize to be healthy, wealthy, and happy – The Ladders

Sometimes I’m not sure if I’m a ‘go with the flow’ type of person, or an organised person. I guess I’m a little bit of both, like most people.

On a scale between 1-10, how well-organised are your environment, money, relationships, health/fitness, spiritual life and time? Answering that is like doing a regular checkup, a self-assessment.

If you’re giving yourself a low score, the checklist in the article is pretty helpful to get you back on the right track.

15 ^th
April

Affordable Housing in Malaysia: 6 Alternatives to Consider

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This article is dedicated to everyone who ever uttered the phrase: ‘I can’t afford housing in Malaysia, it’s so expensive!‘

Which, if I’m honest, is the majority of you, at one point or another. It’s one of your favourite complaints. The default, almost.

(You are right though. It is expensive, especially in Kuala Lumpur and Penang. According to Khazanah Research Institute, property prices in Malaysia is ‘severely unaffordable’ at 4.4 times the median annual household income in 2014. A more acceptable range is 3x.)

(Having said that, Malaysia’s housing market is nowhere near as bad as the Top 10 most unaffordable locations globally. Hong Kong is 20.9 times (!!!) the median annual household income as of 2018)

But still, ok, just because we’re not the worst doesn’t mean the situation is good for us. What can you do if you can’t afford the housing in Malaysia? What are your options when it comes to living situation?

Here are some alternatives.

#1 – Pick one: A Just-OK place in the city OR A Great place far from the city

10 ^th
April

Malaysians Share Actual Unpopular Opinions About Money

Posted by Suraya - 21 Comments

It all started when I posted this on Ringgit Oh Ringgit’s Facebook and Twitter page:

It got some pretty freaking amazing answers. Rather than losing them forever in social media, I thought I’d compile them and turn it into unpopular opinions: money edition-article. Thank you so much for everyone who gave me permission to post their answers here.

Here are some unpopular opinions about money, in no particular order:

#1 – ASB and EPF will no longer deliver high returns

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