retirement Archives - Ringgit Oh Ringgit

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retirement

01 ^st
April

All the Financial Tools I Use for My Own Money Management (Malaysia-Specific)

Posted by Suraya - 8 Comments

The other day I was listing out all the financial tools that I personally use for money management in my notebook, and the list got kinda long.

That got me thinking – all of you must have your own money management system, right? Even if it’s in your head, even if it’s messy. You know, more or less, that the money in account X is for daily use and the money in account Y is earmarked for, say, retirement.

I did that list because (1) it’s good to know exactly what I have and what I use it for and (2) I don’t want to accidentally forgot about an account, which happens more often than you’d think (that’s why there’s over RM5.77 billion in unclaimed money???).

So here you go – an article compiling all the financial tools I use for my own money management. Please don’t @ me if any of them sucks for you – they’re just the best option for my situation right now – I’m not loyal to any of them and happy to switch to better solutions as and when it suits me. Also please don’t take anything here as investment advice.

The financial tools are arranged in this order:

Bank account
Credit cards
Debit cards
Pre-loaded/Loyalty cards
E-wallets
International money transfers/payments
Investment
Retirement
Insurance
Estate-planning
Accounting
Budgeting app
Other accounts with money inside it

Just to maintain some sort of neutrality, this article itself is free of referral links, but related articles and embedded social media posts may include links.

25 ^th
February

Link Roundup #21: 10 Things to Know This Week

Posted by Suraya - 2 Comments

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. Malaysia Hits Deflation for First Time Since 2009 Global Crisis – Bloomberg

The deflation IS JUST FOR JANUARY 2019. As someone on Ringgit Oh Ringgit FB rightfully pointed out, one month’s stats is not a trend made. Plus, the deflation only occurred because Transport category fell so much (-7.8%).

But still, while we’re on the topic, I wanted know if deflation is good or bad. Learning opportunity and all right. This short video is the easiest way to learn about the effect of deflation.

I hope this deflation trend doesn’t get out of hand.

07 ^th
January

Link Roundup #18: 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. This Is What Life Without Retirement Savings Looks Like – The Atlantic

One of my biggest fears in life is being forced to work to cover my living costs when I’m old and in pain. This article interviews people who are exactly in that situation.

Read the article, then note how you feel. For me, it was fear, helplessness and renewed motivation to work my ass off while I’m still young – in that order. If I have this much time to plan, I don’t have any excuse for letting the worst-case-scenario happen to me, do I?

18 ^th
June

Link Roundup #4: 10 Things to Know This Week

Posted by Suraya - No Comments

Accelerate your personal finance knowledge with this new regular feature on Ringgit Oh Ringgit – the Link Roundup! I promise you’ll find these 10 articles informational 🙂

1. The-Fuck-Over-Ability Index – Millennial Revolution

This content is so good I’m breaking my personal ‘no f word in the blog’ rule. The Fuck-Over-Ability Index is an actual calculator they invented to measure how ‘fucked over’ you are in your life. Said situation is calculated based on how much you need your job because you need to pay your monthly commitments, like mortgages and car payments. The higher your score, the more likely you will put up with your crappiest bosses.

The author admitted they were drunk when they discussed and created this lovely thing. This article is definitely in the category of dark humour.

13 ^th
February

10 Ways to Retire, From Awesome to Depressing

Posted by Suraya - 2 Comments

I’m just 28, but the idea of retirement have fascinated me for a while. I still don’t know how I feel about it. Sometimes I think that retirement is an entitlement for productive members of society, while other times I think it’s incredibly wasteful, even discriminative, to suddenly force someone out of a trade, profession or career due to her or his age.

Growing up, I simply assumed there is just one type of retirement. You serve your company for decades, then receive pension/retirement savings to retire at 55-60+ years old to make room for younger folks. I think many of us have this impression as well. This is the traditional formula in life, isn’t it? Birth, Play, School, Work, Family, Work, Kids, Work, Retire, Die.

This formula doesn’t particularly appeal to me, but I admit that I’ve never been drawn to the Kids part. My ideal family structure for now is DINK = Dual Income, No Kids. Also, I’d like to retire early and retire young.

Thankfully, I’ve met some people during my travels and read first-hand accounts of actual retirees (thanks, Internet). Some of them have kids, some of them don’t, but they do have one thing in common – they like the idea of being self-sufficient and not being a ‘burden’.

Here are 10 ways to retire. Some of them may overlap.

27 ^th
December

[SPONSORED] This is Why You Need to Use EPF i-Akaun

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This is a continuation of a series of sponsored posts about EPF and retirement. See the previous two articles here: Will You Fight or Flight? and What Actual Retirees Say.

Here I’ll share an EPF tool, called i-Akaun and why you need to use it. For the purpose of this article, I created my own EPF i-Akaun.

Click here for the original i-Akaun article on CompareHero.

How to Create EPF i-Akaun

For first-time login, get the activation code first. You can do this by:

Go to EPF counter or EPF Kiosk, or;
Call KWSP at 03-89226000. Press ‘0’ to talk to the nice operator, then answer some personal questions for identification purposes. They’ll send the code via SMS.
THEN go to the first-time login page here. (this page took me a while to find)
For subsequent logins after activation, click here.
Optional but handy – download the EPF i-Akaun app.

Reasons to Use EPF i-Akaun

1. View and check EPF statements

05 ^th
November

[SPONSORED] What Actual Retirees in Malaysia Say About Retirement

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In my previous sponsored post about retirement, I talked about the importance of saving up for retirement, because the fact is that the majority of Malaysians don’t have enough money to support their golden years.

Who best can show you the reality of retirement, than actual retirees in Malaysia? Here are 3 retirees, and what they’re doing now to financial support themselves.

The original article appears here. Read it. It contains more details of these retirees.

Mr Moothy. Age: 65. Spent EPF money for family. Returned to workforce.

Mr Moorthy bought property, but had to liquidate it to help his children’s finances. Because of a parent’s love, he had to return back to the workforce.

The consequences of not saving for ourselves can affect our parents.

29 ^th
October

[SPONSORED] Retirement in Malaysia – Will You Fight or Flight?

Posted by Suraya - No Comments

Earlier this month, I was contacted by CompareHero, who wanted my opinion on retirement in Malaysia. This is what I said:

“Not being able to afford retirement is scary to me. I can’t imagine how unbelievably stuck that must feel. I don’t want to be 60 and in pain but have to push myself to go to work every single day just to be able to pay for medical bills.

This is why I am a big fan of EPF, PRS and achieving financial freedom. And if the maths say I must start now, in my 20s, then I guess I must start now. Maths doesn’t lie!”

Link to original article.

Here are some things that I learned from the article.

EPF Basic Savings for retirement has increased from RM196,800 to RM228,000

According to the latest revision in 2014, to take info account higher cost of living and longer life expectancy, the amount that an individual now need in their EPF Basic Savings is now RM228,000.

13 ^th
December

FAQ: How to start investing in Private Retirement Scheme in Malaysia

Posted by Suraya - 54 Comments

In 2015, I took advantage of the PRS Youth Scheme, invested RM1000, and received RM500 from the government. The scheme have since expired, but I’d still recommend PRS just for the up to RM3k annual tax rebate. Let’s put all the stuff I researched about PRS into a compilation. Hope this helps someone out there!