Just My Money Journey, Honey
In between I just fill up the space with random funny shit to give the impression of being active. And sometimes about my girlfriend.
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Showing posts tagged finances
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Very happy with January
Financially:
- Got RM30 for book sale (hopefully more will come)
- Got RM170 for clothes sales
- Got RM100 from dad (denied at first, but he insisted - this will go straight to my savings)
- Got refunded RM20 from bank (I didn’t tell you guys this, but when I had to close down my checking account, I had to pay RM20 fee even though it was not my fault. So I wrote an email complain last month and today I found out the money was refunded. So quite happy about that).
Total extra for January: RM320
And January is not even over yet!
Touching on the final point, if you had to pay a fee for anything that you find unnecessary, or unjustifiable, always complain and (if applicable) remind them how long you have been their customer. You might get away with it or get your money refunded.
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Family Finances (and a little angst)
Don’t read this personal angst-filled finances post. I’m angry.
Men in my family are spendthrifts.
Dad used to make a lot of money. But now he have been semi-retired (not by choice) due to lack of work.
Common sense would say that one would stop spending lavishly when there are less sources of income. But he have a lot of pride. He spends lots of money on his friends, on golf, on gadgets, on cars.
He have borrowed money from me twice this year. It’s very upsetting, since I know he uses it to ‘entertain’ his friends/business contacts. He had RM500 yesterday. Today he asked for money again from my sister (who have my mom’s ATM card, and is in charge of household groceries). He took another RM500 from her.
The other day when we were eating dinner to celebrate my graduating Masters, he offered my mom, my sister, and me a gadget each. He said, and I quote, “I’ll budget RM2500 each, so RM7500, on whatever you want”.
Please, dad, I want to believe that you have your finances under control, but realistically I don’t think you do.
My brothers, both of them, are useless (strong word to use, but then again my emotions are strong now). One just got a brand new phone, the Samsung Galaxy Note (retail price: RM2299) from my dad (which indirectly, is my mom’s money). I heard him asking mom for money yesterday. He got RM150. Today he asked for money again from my dad, who gave him RM250 (again, indirectly, is my mom’s money again). When asked what he did with yesterday’s money, he said that he bought a shirt with it. Done. Poof, RM150.
My mom is a teacher. In a public, government school. She now works to support all of us. I want to give her money again, but the thought of my hard-earned money from my very small salary last time, to be used by my father or my brother on completely unnecessary purchases… So now I resort to buying things exclusively for my mom, things that we need as a family (i.e. soap, laundry powder), or things that she likes (religious books). Today I arranged a plumber to come to fix up broken taps.
How do you talk finances to someone who has so much pride and ego and thinks he knows it all?
And yes I know he has a lot of pride - he used to have a few employees and two offices. Now he only have one and lost both offices. I helped him draft a work letter today, and he have the cheek to declare that I am his personal assistant, in my face and in the formal letter.
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Personal finances for the next few months
Quit job. No regrets, but having no income is… nerve wrecking.
Ironically, not working is stressful for me -.-;
February travel to Thailand will probably set me back RM1500. That includes emergency money.
But that does not include other monthly stuff I have to pay. Worse case scenario right now is not being able to find a job until March. So I have 2 months of unemployment with no cash in (horror!!)
My budget guesstimate is around RM3000 for the two months-
- RM1500 for travel
- RM300 for petrol use
- RM300 for dates
- RM600 for automatic monthly savings account contribution
- RM80 for automatic monthly donations to unicef
- RM20 for toll
- RM200 for misc
But being able to travel is nice though :) But budgeting for worst case scenario is… unpleasant. Still, it has to be done.
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Extra income
Maybe instead of cutting you can think of ways you can make extra income. Then you will be saving more and fill that gap where you think you need to do more.
I’m already listing all my items to sell. Eventually I’ll sell them off and make a profit.
I also believe in simplicity in finances - which means that the less headache, the better. Sure, I might make a lot of money if I do part time in sales or something, but no amount of money is worth the added stress and the reduced quality time to socialize.
I guess I’m kinda passive :/ But that’s ok, it works :)
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Things will be okay, if you want them to
This quote suddenly floated around in my head. I feel like it applies to many aspect of your life.
I’ve been stressing about a few things. Financially. Personal issues. Family issues.
But you know what? Yeah, I’ll be broke. But things will be okay.
I know I have backup money.
I know I have people around me who can help me out.
I know that I’ll be okay next month.
I know I have a lot of good things, too, going on at the same time that I should be grateful of.
Like, for example, today my boss okay-ed my Norway trip without using any of my annual leaves :)
And I’ll be put in a hotel for work, so free food there until the rest of the week :)
Focus on the good.
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Financial woes not too bad now
Remember when I complained of the hefty deposit I paid on this dream of an apartment?
Well, I recalculated my finances, and excluded ALL the ‘unofficial’ work money that I got. I have a sweet buffer of RM200 or so. Which will last me until the next pay day, and I’m happy about that!
There’s two reasons I’m particularly happy about it. One, because of the ethical implications - using money that isn’t technically mine first, even though I’m paying it back. It was eating me up, so it’s great, really great. Two, because I don’t need anything else (hopefully) until the end of the month. My fridge is well-stocked, my internet is up and running, my gas is full(ish), my phone has credit, and I have tobacco. In fact, the only thing I may have to buy is shampoo, I think.
Here’s to not owing anyone any money!
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Details about new job
- Nett wage is RM3xxx
- We have this thing called EPF (Employees Provision Funds) in Malaysia (or KWSP in Malay). Every working Malaysians are required to give 11% of their salary to this, employers contribute 13%, and the compounded money will be given when the person retires (55 years old).
- This effectively means that I’m saving RM792 EVERY MONTH for retirement! (If you can work out my nett salary from this I will be very impressed!)
- As I earn more than RM3xxx, I also have the option to not take SOCSO (general insurance for employees). I’m not too worried about this one. At the most, I’m paying RM14.75 (while the employer pays RM51.65). I’ll probably go to HR and ask about the…
- LIFE INSURANCE, PERSONAL ACCIDENT, AND MEDICAL CARD which the employer will be paying for! I’m quite happy I’ll be insured :)
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January Spending Recap
Its February tomorrow! Whew, so glad January is over. It was stressful. I finally got my pay last Monday, and I have no more money worries, at least not for now.
The picture is from the MyBudget app. I had to screencap twice to get all the categories, but now you guys can see exactly how much money I used for each one in January. I thought this might be better that the previous graphs, where some numbers can’t be seen. Oh, at the top is my net worth. The second row is how much I’ve collectively spent this month. Ignore the third one - because of how I use the app, it means nothing.
It was a very tight month, financially. We were skimping a lot, especially on dates and social activities. I think that it reflects on the total I used - it didn’t even hit RM2000! What really helped was the new housemate, who helped to reduce my rent share so much more.
There’s room for improvements, definitely. But I’m pretty happy with this. Feel free to leave your feedbacks! Do you guys even enjoy seeing this kind and this personal money management stuff? -
This is an emotional post
Just want to list out my thoughts and get everything out, my head is driving me crazy, there’s so many things I need to sort out.
- My car’s windshield was fixed. Good. RM580 out of pocket. I called a few places for quotations and this was the cheapest place. They even vacuumed my car for free. Amazing service, friendly staff. My tiny gripe? I refused to ask my dad if the car’s insured because I don’t want to feel like I owe my dad anything. I thought of asking so many times but I just can’t do it. Pride is an expensive emotion to have, people.
- My internet bill last month was RM399. Shit! My housemate have been watching stuff online and kept topping up the quota. It’s a lot to pay… I have to talk to him about it.
- My girlfriend have been laid off, mostly because of the government (the work’s depended on their OK, and they have been delaying and delaying and the company was forced to let staffs go). I’m sad for her.
- I put back RM1000 to saving account instead of RM2000 as planned. Turned out to be a good idea. I practically spent that extra RM1000 on the car repairs and internet bill.
- I spent RM170 for items that can be resold for at least double the price. I hope that this can be a great source of second income for me.
- Girlfriend bought slackline (it’s like tightrope, but flatter. Google it). She researched and got a good deal on a great brand. We spent yesterday trying it out. Of all sports, its not bad. There’s the initial equipment cost, but the following sessions is free.
- We are also trying to develop classes to try out for our long-term business plan. Lets see if we can follow through with it.
- This month will be tight. Even on my income, which is pretty good, I feel the pinch of living a balanced life for myself. How do families do it and still save? SO MANY things will come up, things that you have to pay for, because life happens. Fees, fines, repairs, holidays, replacements. Living is tough!
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