Tips

Packing List for Travelling with Kids – Minimal and Optimal

Aug 17

During our 4D 3N Singapore Trip last year. One big expendable luggage bag, one bagpack and 1 handbag

Hari Raya is just around the corner. I love packing clothes and stuffs for travelling but, light packing for 4 of us is almost impossible. Essential items like milk, milk’s bottle, diapers, clothes,munchies [biscuits, bread, vitagen etc] almost cater for 1 bag, not mentioning our essential as well

Although it local travelling or just going back to hometown, i just hate if i miss our kids essential items and to me, everything is very important and a must have in the luggage bag. However, here a few tips that i just found out how to minimize and optimize your items for travelling especially with kids and long hours driving . This is for 1 weeks packing list for drive travelling with kids

[1] Hand Carry/ Portable/Light bag for emergency
Provide a small bag to put all necessities during emergencies, for example,
* 2 spare clothes if your child is vomiting
* Diaper at least 4pcs,
* Formula milk in the milk dispenser & milk bottle,
* Hot and cold water,
* Munchies [biscuits, bread, vitagen, chocolate]
* Travel pack toiletries
* Towels & handkerchief
* Medicine, Minyak angin cap kapak
* Wet cloth wipes
* Gadget/ Toys
* Plastic Bag – in case your kids want to puke, just grab one from you bag. Also may use it as wetbag to put soil diapers

[2] Luggage Bag Packing List
Toiletries & Personal Care [packed together, in a ziplock bag]
* Tooth paste, toothbrushes,
* Nail clippers,
* Children’s medicine/ Your medical card
* Birth control, vitamins,
* Insect repellant[mopiko]
* Deodorant
* Moisturizer Cream / Lotion

Technology Stuff to Bring / Toys
This is very important as to entertain the kids and to ensure they full occupied during the long hours trip. Kids happy, parent less worries and headache

Clothes
Packing clothes is most challenging part when you traveling with kids. Some expert recommends “traveling light “and that’s great advice. However, I prefer to bring along enough clothes that we never need to waste time to do shopping for new clothes. But the choice is yours!

Clothes for Kids
* Plenty of shirt
* Fews jeans / denim
* Sleepwear
* Underwear
* Socks

Clothes for Grownups
* 3 shirt and rotate.
* 2 jeans / denim – wrinkles free
* 2 Sleepwear
* Sweater & Sock

Tips :
[1] Bags will hold more if the clothes are rolled rather than folded . Rolled your clothes
[2] Avoid white/ clear color shirt, easy to get dirty and need of changing
[3] Just soak your shirt after use and hang it. In the next morning you may wear it again

75 Useful Websites For Moms and Dads

Jun 02

Now the information is closer than ever. I wake up every morning, slide to unlock my iPod, read news and blog before having breakfast with my family. Before I close my eyes for a good night sleep, I go on to more relaxation reading website like Dooce and GameSpot.

The internet saves me a lot money these days. And I have never spend a dime on a car magazine like KERETA to know info about new interests in car world, I can have free tech article to digest by clicking Engadget, and my hunger for personal finance tips has come to an end when I read TheSimpleDollar blog.

So I came up with the idea to collect and put into one post the list of websites to share with you. This are the several websites for Mom and Dad and I’ve found out that they really worth reading and bookmarking. So I breakdown into several categories for easier reference;

Save every cent on petrol: effective tips for early 20s

Apr 23

Do you feel the heat when you heard the news that crude oil has crawled to $114 per barrel? I wish I don’t want to use car for commuting to office but I live in a residence area that has unacceptable public bus services where the buses schedule is not time-efficient and I really don’t like about it. However, I surf the website and I found useful tips and advices that can be apply to my usage of petrol. Here are the notable tips on how save money that found on while surfing on the internet. If you’re not in the mood to read right now, you can watch the video instead:

How To Save Money On Gas

1. Brake slowly.
Press your brake slowly and you’ll save some petrol. If you drive fast and brake when get near to traffic light, your petrol consumption is not efficient.

2. Turn off your air condition.
By not using air condition will save you significant petrol usage and you will appreciate the air outside. But I guess it is not appropriate if you turn off air condition during the sun is seven inch from your head. We live in a country where hot and rain throughout the year, don’t get dehydrated by a mid-day sun.

3. Drive slower.
Change your attitude and your driving habit. Try not to drive too fast, you’re getting nowhere and there’s nothing to chase. I know young people love to drive fast, but the more you hammer your fuel pedal, the more petrol you’ll burn.

4. Drive Manual Transmission
The purpose of driving manual transmission is to keep low of rpm. Try shifting your gear before you reach rpm 3. Believe me, you’ll save every penny on petrol bill. I regularly use gear 2 for start and then shift to gear 4 instead to keep rpm low.

5. Turn On Autocruise.
When you hit the highway, it’s better for you to switch on auto cruise so you get better mileage when you travel to your long-distance kampong. It maintains your speed plus your petrol. My Kelisa doesn’t have that advance driving mode so I will enjoy the experience of auto cruise.

6. Avoid idling.
Your petrol is consumed where your car is going nowhere. Turn off your engine if you out of your car for over 10 minute. You’ll waste your petrol economy about 19% and it also bad for environment because stillness car produces excessive carbon dioxide, bad your health too.

7. Your petrol cap is closed tighly
Don’t you ever left your fuel cap behind or at the roof of your car. It’ll make your fuel evaporate slowly and you’ll waste RM15 for new fuel cap.(I had left it many times)

8. Inflate your tires to the specified level
My Kelisa’s standard level is 29 PSI. I check regularly on tyre pressure once every two weeks. Your deflated tyres will create dragging, make your car moves slower, fuel inefficiency, and may hurt your tyre’s life. Know your tyre inflate level saves you money.

9. Carpool
One way to save petrol and your money by not using your car. Use other people’s car and you’ll be benefited from this. Get to know your colleague deeply during carpooling and save petrol usage for a day. Less car, less traffic.

I found a surprisingly unusual tip from opentravelinfo.com on How to Save Money on Gas – 29 Tips. One of his point of saving money is to follow big truck in front of you, it can reduces your car drag. Here I quote some of the article

”..Ride the slipstream__This driving technique has given me some excellent mileage when I used to commute long distance a long time ago. Obviously, it requires a bit of skill and it’s not exactly recommended, since you should pay attention to the road and we all know, most people who read this just don’t. However it is probably one of the best “secret” fuel saving tips I can give you. This technique is frequently used by race car drivers to gain speed and truck convoys to save fuel. Every car has a certain amount of drag (or wind resistance). This drag, the rolling resistance of your tires (see below under maintenance) and the friction in your engine are the three main causes of reduced efficiency. A car moving through the air causes the air to split around the car and turbulence behind the car (the slipstream). If you drive your car into another cars slipstream, both cars will save fuel (less turbulence). The following car saves the most gasoline. Now remember, I am not advocating to tailgate. However, you can try to find a large truck (more turbulence and a longer slipstream tail) and slip in there. Now you can still keep some distance (unlike the NASCAR driver) and still save gas. However, many people cannot regulate their speed without braking (see above). In this case you are probably better off just keeping your distance and not braking..”

Top 5 Time Management Tips That We Should Follow.

Apr 16

I’ve wasted my three years of university life by not taking serious about my study, I could see my overall result was very terrible and I am not very proud of it. My life turned out to be chaos and disorganized, I always forgot want to do and I was doing things that completely wasted. I wish I could back time and fixed it but I can’t. Time is very precious to us; no one can turn back time. Our life become well organized if we success in managing our time competently. It’s time for to take in charge of our time by taking tips that I found very helpful and practical.

1. 12 hour to better time management.

‘’Here, then, is the backbone of a good system you can implement in 12 hours (or less). Give yourself a week or three to get it up and running, and see if the time you invest in it now isn’t returned to you several times over down the line.’’

This post asks us to sit down and take your time to list everything down that occur throughout the year from electric bill due date to reminder your love one’s birthday. This post advice us for set up proper calendar, set up password system that effective, and create checklist for recurring tasks. It can be useful GTD tool for our messed up schedule, it only takes 12 hours to better time management.

2. How Do Spend My Time?

Trent of thesimpledollar revealed his timetable and I want to say that this is the best personal timetable ever. He spends a lot of time doing research and writing. His timetable consists a lot of productivity values such as exercise, doing puzzle, listening to audiobook, and reading. I try to follow through his timetable but I found that I have a problem with waking up in 4 am in the morning, I felt dizzy and I couldn’t stand to fight the sleepiness. Trent tells us that your schedule should match with our interest. If you not passionate about what you do, you may not be able to follow what you have planned.

”This doesn’t work without passion. If I wasn’t passionate about my main job, my writing, and my family, this would have never worked. I would have found reasons to let something down. If you’re going to try to effectively juggle so many activities at once, make sure they all fill you with passion.”

3. 11 solid ways to improve your Time Management Skill

‘4.Concentrate on One Thing: The human mind works more efficiently when it is focused. As we’ve seen before multitasking is actually a disadvantage to productivity. Focus on one thing and get it done. Take care not to bleed tasks into each other. At times, multitasking may seem like a more efficient route, but it is probably not.’

This post focuses on improving your time management that already existed. Your time management is not working recently you might consider this tip because it may gives great impact on productivity. The best tip is No. 4: concentrate on one thing. My opinion is that multitasking raise the level of productivity only at your best performance time. You will lose concentration and you will not focus.

4. Managing your time effectively

Spend your quality time with your priorities because that is the time you can boost your creativity effectively. Fill up your quality time with your first priority task. This post also advices us to concentrate your time with important tasks only and eliminate tasks that are inappropriate. Your time management should be flexible if any unpredicted things happen.

‘’ If learning and getting good grades are high on your priority list, then you will have to budget time for attending classes regularly, for preparing, studying, and reviewing, plus additional time for papers, reports and other special assignments.’’

5. Beating procrastination.

This article help you to avoid procrastination no matter what. Your productivity may decrease, your important task has passed the dateline, or your project might not complete as promised if you not implement appropriate steps to overcome procrastination. One of reason we procrastinate is finding a good ‘mood’ to start a task or a project. Mindtools.com offers you 3 simple steps to battle with procrastination

”To have a good chance of conquering procrastination, you need to spot straight away that you’re doing it. Then, you need to identify why you’re procrastinating and taken appropriate steps to overcome the block.”

Never give up

For those who never run their life on schedule before, it takes some time to deal with slot of time and timetable. You might fail to follow your own schedule because you are new to it. Don’t give up on implementing new system in our own life; you should encourage yourself to remain resilient if you really want to spend your time efficiently.

Bonus tips:Link to other time management tips

+8 ways to avoid managing your time effectively – This tips that I found very unusual but make sense. It shows you tips on managing time from different kind of perspective

+Clocking in:Managing your time on the job

+Ehow: how to manage your time

+How to manage your time for teachers

+Dartmouth college has a useful article about managing your time.

How to Buy Cheap Air Asia Ticket.

Apr 10

Every time you read newspaper and see that mesmerising advertisements of Air Asia ticket price;0.05 sen to fly to Bali or Phuket. You probably get excited when you read them and couldn’t wait to purchase a ticket or two. And then it hits you so hard when you realize that your chosen destination was no longer cheap and it’s really frustrated. But you can buy it low if you know how. The key success of buying cheap ticket is, to buy 3 months earlier.

Things that you need before you buy flight ticket.

1.Credit Card. You need a credit card to perform transaction. If you don’t have any, buy debit card instead.
2.The internet. Even if you want to buy ticket at the Air Asia counter, they insist you to purchase online. You really need the internet connection and you have familiar with the purchasing transaction. For the first time buyer, you can read the guidelines to buy flight ticket online.
3.Vacation plan and checklist. Be sure that you already well planned your trip to avoid unwanted things happen during vacation. It’s better to plan a vacation on a budget. Make the checklist of travelling to make sure you’re not leaving your favourite trousers or t-shirt.

Tips on buying cheap Air Asia ticket

1. Purchase 3 months early from your travel date.
After I’ve done several clicks on Air Asia website, I guess that to get a cheap price, you have to set a permanent date and buy it 3-5 months earlier. You will not enjoy the benefit of low price if you buy ticket for three days or one week earlier.

2. Look for weekdays schedule to get cheap ticket.
They only offer you cheap ticket for Monday to Friday flights. I rarely find cheap ticket on Saturday or Sunday. Lets call it luck if you find it low on weekend.

3. Avoid unneeded charges before you purchase.
Be careful when you enter the transaction process, there are some extra charges that you can avoid like express boarding and unnecessary insurance. Just unchecked the boxes before you hit the purchase button.

4.Be careful and enjoy your holiday.

Warning.
1. Don’t buy any food or any merchandise on flight, they charge you triple than usual price.
2. Don’t keep any valuable items in luggage bag, I’d lost a handphone from previous flight.
3. Air Asia practices free-seat for any flight, you have to be quick to select your favorite spot.

Air Asia is the second company that offers international and domestic flight service in Malaysia. The company is well known with unbelievable low price of ticket (I don’t really know how they managed to get profit, but Air Asia net income reached almost double this year.)

I regularly buy tickets from KLIA to Kelantan. It only costs me 35 ringgit per ticket to fly my wife’s kampong and I purchase it 4 month before the date of flight.

Seven sins in financial world.

Apr 08

Lawra rowley wrote an awesome article about The Wages of Financial Sin Is Debt (Among Other Things) on yahoo!finance.

The article is all about handling your money inefficiently can put you through ”a life of living hell”. We can read the stories of famous people like Mc Hammer who has an outstanding debt of over 12 millions and still not be able to pay back and Michael Jackson urged to sell off his Neverland Ranch and all his wealthy stuff to pay off the debt. See, no matter how good you are in the way of making money,if you fail to manage, living extravagant life , your money will knock you down so hard that won’t be able stand up.

”Commit these violations, and you’ll create a financial hell on Earth for yourself”

..and the seven deadly sins are:

Sin No. 1: Failing to identify what thy money is for.

Set up the priority list about what to do with your money by the time you received your paycheck rather than buy things that you don’t need.

”If you never take the time to figure that out, and don’t set priorities and write down specific goals that you want your money to help you achieve, I guarantee you’ll never run out of ways to squander your
cash.”

Sin No. 2: Not living within thy means.I

It’s all about budgeting, your expenses must not exceeds your your income or else, you will make your own ‘hell on earth’. Track your spending wisely, save your money, and live like the average people.

”The temptation seeps into the unconscious through the subliminal
seduction of television, advertising, fashion, the neighbors’ kitchen
renovation, the number of luxury cars in the parking lot at work, or, in my case, a few mouse clicks. ”

Again. Stick to your budget, kill your temptation and don’t let it stay on your mind.

Sin No. 3: Believing that material wealth will solve all thy problems.

Don’t buy expensive things like BMW car that you can’t afford to buy just to show off to your friends.

”We think money is power, status, security, freedom, or a host of other things. ”

Sin No. 4: Shopping while feeling sorry for thyself.
My friend got frustrated about his bonus payment recently, and he bought the expensive phone (HTC phone) that he didn’t need. He said that he really need to buy something nice for remedy because he only entitled half month salary bonus this year.

”A new study finds that people who spend money while sad or self-absorbed unconsciously overpay. This differs from the more well-known phenomenon of retail therapy. ”

Life is full good things and bad things, you have to face it. If bad things happened, learn how to overcome sadness. Don’t buy luxury items when you feel heart-breaking, it only makes you feel more miserable when you look back into your financial situation in future.

Sin No. 5: Not saving for college because thou expects financial aid (or a higher power) to take care of it.

”A study by AllianceBernstein Investments found that 87 percent of parents believe scholarships and grants will pay for at least part of their children’s undergraduate expenses. ”

I already made my financial moves of saving for my son’s college fund.It is my responsibility as a father to contribute some money for my son’s higher education. Every child should have the right to enter a college or university and they should get financial aid from their parent.

Sin No. 6: Receiving a whopping refund after filing thy tax return.

Sin No. 7: Not saving for thy golden years.
Saving for retirement is a vital step for us because we don’t know whether we can financially support ourself when we get old and grey. Educate yourself on how much to you want save your retirement and how to make it work.

photo:Deathreference.com

Understanding Economics

Mar 26

This post offers you simple explanation on what is economics, microeconomics, and macroeconomics.

Economics:

“the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses.”

-lionel robbins

”Economics is the study of how individuals and societies choose to employ those resources: what goods and services will be produced, how they will be produced, and how they will be distributed among the members of society. ”

-Britannica Concise Encyclopedia

Simple explanation: to observe how people like you and me making decision to fulfill our need and wants in the world of limited resources, and how a group of people determine to provide an adequate basic needs for society.

Microeconomics:

”a branch of economics that studies how individuals, households, and firms make decisions to allocate limited resources”

-wikipedia

Simple explanation: The study focus on basic economic player such as company (Petronas), individuals (you and me), and a household(a social unit living together) making choices and decisions while the resources are limited.

Macroeconomics:
”Study of the entire economy in terms of the total amount of goods and services produced, total income earned, level of employment of productive resources, and general behaviour of prices.”

-britannica Concise Encylopedia

”Macroeconomics is a branch of economics that deals with the performance, structure, and behavior of a national economy as a whole.”

-wikipedia

Simple explanation: Observation of an economy, example economy of Malaysia. Macroeconomics has an extension study of how a country handle and manage unemployment, national income, rate of growth, GDP (growth domestic product), inflation, and price level.

Economics is one of favorite subject when I was at University. It could really teach us about certain economics behavior. I am interested on how the government play role in economics; to decrease unemployment, to increase productivity, how they making decision, on what policy they have to implement.

All these things happen around us everyday, we could see whether it is good, or it is ridiculous decision the government made on certain issues.

What you don’t know can hurt you financially

Mar 25

These questions were created by Laura Rowley for us to answers. Ok, let me answer all the Qs.

1. Suppose you had $100 in a savings account and the interest rate was 2 percent per year. After five years, how much do you think you would have in the account if you left the money to grow: More than $102, exactly $102, or less than $102? My answer: More than $102.

2. Imagine that the interest rate on your savings account was 1 percent per year and inflation was 2 percent per year. After one year, would you be able to buy more than, exactly the same as, or less than today with the money in the account? My answer : less than today with the money in the account

3. Do you think that the return than a stock mutual fund.” following statement is true or false?: “Buying a single-company stock usually provides a safer. My answers: true

After done checking with the answers given, I only score 2 out of 3 answers. It shows that only I have a basic knowledge in financial, I guess.

This article gives me a lot of reason to think and revise my financial situation. Actually there’s a lot things that we don’t know can hurt us in financial ways.

The author wrote about what we don’t know about financial

· How the credit card balance to can be double in a matter of time.

· Inflation can devaluate our currency.

· Manage to handle risk diversification of investment.

Here’s some good advice that I think we should follow:

· Keep track of your spending for a month or two.

· Sign up for your 401(k) – As known as EPF in Malaysia.

· Put a number on your ultimate goal – your money should be equals to 12 times of your income for retirement.

Please read the full article: What you don’t know can hurt you financially

Cooking our own meal. Save time vs. save money.

Mar 13

We know that the consumer goods are increasing recently. With the non-consumer goods are likely to escalate as well, me and my wife decided to cook at home rather than eat at restaurant.

But there’s other thing needs to consider and that is time. It is as valuable as money also. Money can be regenerated but time is irreversible. You cannot turn back the time no matter what.

Cooking at home does save you a lot of money. You can see the differences if you dining out. Let’s see if you eat restaurant, the price of a cup of rice is RM1.20. A cup of rice only costs you RM0.20 if you cook at home.

Cost of meals if we eat at restaurant:
Fish (2 persons) = RM 5.00
Chicken (2 persons) = RM6.00
Vegetable (2 persons) = RM 3.50
Total = RM14.50

And if we cook at home:
Fish (2 persons) = RM1.50 (saves RM3.50)
Chicken (2 persons) = RM2.00 (saves RM4.00)
Vegetable (2 persons) = RM1.00 (saves RM2.50)
Total = RM4.50

We save about RM 10 a day if we cook our own meals. In a year, we save about RM3600.

Cooking at home may eat up your time over an hour if you want to serve 3 dishes of food. Dining out actually save you a lot of time. Just choose any meal that you have in mind, call up waiter and order. In 15 minutes, your food is well served and ready to eat.

You save 1 hour when you eat at restaurant but cost you about RM7 per person (RM14.50/2). For one hour, you can many productivity things like writing, exercising, email answering, reading and many more.

As my opinion, eat at restaurant is for busy people whose time is precious and valuable item and it is not a good decision to cook at home despite it saves money.

For the ones who have family like us, it is the best for our money to cook at home plus we can spend time together doing the activity that we love.

My Ringgit has gone wild and uncontrolled.

Mar 03

Last month’s expenses exploded suddenly because of unexpected events happened. Emergency situation and other things turn out beyond my expectation. Here, I list down what have occurred last month:

+My eyeglasses frame was damage, went to repair, and break again. RM 160.00
Consider it emergency case because it broke unexpectedly and I can’t live without my eyeglasses, I’ll go blind. So I have to use my emergency fund to pay a new frame because my current frame can’t be repaired.

+Labour fee: RM420. Prepaid call card in case of emergency: RM60.00. Massage for new mom: RM150.00 Other Medical Expenses: RM 110.
My wife had delivered our cutest little baby on February. I already separated for labouring budget in emergency fund and I don’t have to worry about insufficient money when it comes to medical expenses.

+Flight for Balik Kampung : RM86.00 + RM285.00
I planned to visit my parent-in-law and share our happiness of our newborn baby. Ok, I’m not supposed to use emergency fund for this kind of purpose, but I have no money left. I reluctantly used it and I know I broke the emergency fund rule.

+My little nephew throw a rock to my back glass pane of car for fun: RM350.00
At that moment, I felt furious and I really spanked my nephew for doing that thing. New back glass pane cost RM350.00. I really need to use the car and so I drew out my emergency fund.

I’m glad I have emergency fund that covered all these unpredicted expenses and I feel a little bit relief because my regular monthly cash flow ran smoothly without heavy distortion. As at 3rd march 2008, my emergency fund decrease 70% and it may be takes a while to recover. My goal for the next three months is to concentrate on raising emergency fund and I’ll set aside my money for RM300 a month.

What I’ve learned from this situation.
++Unexpected things happen and we need to get prepared when they come.
++Emergency fund is useful when in case of emergency.
++Emergency fund is a mandatory thing for everyone.
++It gives you financial safety net, so your cash flow didn’t blow up.
++Don’t use your emergency fund for fun, travelling, high tech gadget, and others.

I might be in the financial stress if I don’t make an emergency fund a few years back. I’m very thankful because I have no money problem when handling unexpected event.

Living with one income: Tips from Parent.com

Feb 28

My wife and I discussed about whether my wife want to be 24/7 mom, quit her day job and take care of our baby.

After I did the calculation at stay-at-home calculator, my result didn’t show positive figures. It is better for both of us to work because my income alone is inadequate to tolerate with our cost of living.

Parent.com gives us tips and strategies on how to live with one income, but it told us that we have to watch our financial situation more carefully.

These are the tips and strategies:

++ You need to cut spending, so start with the cuts that will offer the biggest payoff. We need to live with tight budget. It also considers move to less expensive neighbourhood. But I need to think deeply about moving out.

++ Know what’s really important to you. I know what’s important to me. Family security and health is my no.1 priority. Saving and emergency fund come in second.

++ Work on building a stash of cash for unplanned emergencies — especially unplanned medical emergencies. I’m working on it. My strategies run as it planned

++ Cut your car insurance premiums

++ Take your spending off of auto pilot. I’ve been monitoring our both personal expenses, groceries, and others carefully

++ Shop with a list — and be militant about sticking to it. It becomes my habit to write a listing before enter a shopping mall.

++ Reign in the small stuff. We set an allowance or pocket money for both of us and keep it separates from home expenses and groceries.

++ Put your money in envelopes. Great idea. Ok, I’ll give it a try using this method.

++ Look for creative ways to make up the difference between expenses and income. Good idea on getting a part-time job. I’ll try to evaluate whether our family needs more money or needs more expenses to cut.

++ Know your tax situation.

++ Make sure you can make do without benefits.

How to use credit card for daily expenses

Feb 25

Many people thought that using credit card is a first step to bankruptcy if you just mount up the credit balance. The interest is ridiculously 18% – 27% and it can bury you deep into huge unpleasant debt and you can’t get back. But if you use it wisely, you may find credit card isn’t that bad like other people said. For me, it gives you a lot of benefits and I commonly use my credit card to pay my daily expenses.

How to use credit card for your regular expenses

+take advantage of interest-free period.
Pay your balance in this period of time. My credit card has the 20-days interest-free period and I fully utilize it to pay off my balance. See what is interest-free period or grace period

+make sure balance is zero every month.
Financial charge occurs after the interest-free period expires. Do not waste your money paying interest that you can surely avoid. Pay full amount of balance every month.

+make a list of things that you really need.
To make sure that you’re not desirably swiping your card for any unneeded item, make a list before you enter the shopping mall. Just fight your temptation whenever you see something nice and interesting. Remember, stick to the list.

+Pay bills through credit card.
I usually pay electric bill, Internet connection bill, and water utility through credit card every month.

+Avoid buying things that you cannot pay back.
Do not use your credit card for buying something that values more than your monthly income or something that you can’t afford to pay back in a month.

What are the benefits of using credit card wisely
+Increase Credit rating
If you use credit card regularly and pay the balance accordingly, your credit rating is likely to increase and you can easily apply for any loan.

+Gain bank’s confidence
The bank sees you as a discipline customer and the bank gains confidence in you. Your reputation rises as you pay your credit card statement regularly without a miss.

+Pay your regular bill in one account
It is convenient to pay your bills in one account. It’s better if you do an automatic debit from your credit card rather than pay bills through over-the-counter method. Save money, petrol, and time.

+Get redemption points from credit card instead
Take a look at your credit card offers for gifts and other benefits. My credit card (Maybankard Visa) offers treat point in every ringgit I spend. Accumulated point that I’ve collected can be traded with gifts and items show in the catalog.

Beware, do not use credit card for the purpose of
Please no matter what, do not use credit card for
++borrow cash money from credit card.
++buying new luxurious hand phone.
++pay your down payment of your new car.
++purchase laptop and computer.
++buy game consoles: PS3, nintendo, xbox.

But if you do so, you may dig your own grave of debt. Credit card may gives you a lot of benefits if you use it wisely. One of the big advantage that I mentioned above is credit card can increase your credit rating.

Other articles on how to use credit card wisely.

My rules of using credit card on myopenwallet.net
Bankrate.com has an interesting article about this topic

Build up an emergency fund

Jan 23

At 2.00 a.m., I was still planning to build up emergency fund for this year. I afraid that I’m too late to build it up. My fear rose when something bad has happened to my friend and he didn’t has any reserve money for that. His car broke down, he has to pay over RM 1000 to auto mechanic because the radiator needed to be replace. Now, he has no other choice but to utilize credit card.

Therefore, I plan for my emergency fund to prevent any uncertainties come around in future.

Short Term Goal
For this year, I need to set aside at least RM 1000 for emergency fund. To achieve the short term goal, it require RM 90 a month to contribute. That about 4 %-5 % of my monthly salary. (RM3/day)

Mid Term Goal.
After total up my daily expenses, car loan payment, housing loan payment, and other things like credit card debt, student loan, and bills for six months, I need have reserve money at least RM 9000. So I have to save about RM 187.50 per month to complete my goal in four years. (RM6/ day)

I need to achieve my short term goal first and then continue saving for mid term goal.

Long Term Goal
After I complete my mid term goal, I will go on with this huge mission – to save RM 60 000. That figure equals to a year salary of my wife and I. This goal is hard to stay on the track because of the big amount plus the cost of living will escalate over the years. My wife and I will do our best to achieve this goal. This goal requires me to drop RM 300 a month in 12 years (If 8% interest compounded). (RM10/day)

I’m thinking several reasons why I need seriously to build up emergency fund plan in my life:

Unexpected event happens and it will cost me a lot of money. What if lighting strikes my house and damages all home applications in my house? I will have a financial distortion that month.
Act as a burden relief. I already have many debts surround me – 2 car loans, a housing loan, credit card, and student loan. I don’t want to add up any figures if something big happens.
Can be a cushion to my budget. If my refrigerator happens to be damaged and needed to repair. I don’t have to add up to my monthly budget.
If I get fired or lost my job. I do really need the financial backup if I lost my job and waiting for new job to land. That’s why I need backup money equivalent to 6 months of expenses.

Remember, emergency fund is only to use when only it is emergency. Do not use it as a car down payment or resource for shopping spree. Only use when emergency happens!!

Learn more about build up an emergency fund. Learn this. Or read this.

Disposable Income, How to increase it

Jan 11

Disposable Income does have a significant influence. Ok, I agree. Even if your income is six figures but your debt just as equal as your income, it only brings trouble to your financial health.

Andrew Beattie mentioned 4 ways to increase my disposable income.

1. Get Raise / a second job. “Working two jobs in tandem can be physically and mentally draining, but it will bring more money in when you need it.”

At this moment, the only way I can bring more money to home is to work overtime at my office as a second job replacement. My employer pays me decent money for overtime. A second job doesn’t worth it for me. (RM 15.00 x one hour plus 12.50 meal allowance). I get double when Saturday and triple if I work on Sunday.

2. Start a Business. “Much like a raise or second job, running a business will you more demands on your time and require more effort”

My wife and I have a plan to open an online store at ebay.com.my and lelong.com.my. It is small and legitimate way to boost my income. We plan to sell miniature items that I can get easily in bulks, back at my wife’s hometown, Kota Bharu.

3. Investing Income. “Investing is a great way to increase your disposable income in the long run, but it won’t do wonders for your immediate situation”

I already invested some of my money into unit trust fund investment, PUBLIC CHINA ITTIKAL FUND. If my calculations are correct, I will get about RM86,248 when I’m at 40 just by saving RM100 per month.

4. Spend Less. “The best way to increase your disposable income is to protect the money you earn by spending less.”

I have to sacrifice my interest of buying DVDs and luxury clothes in order to achieve one of my goals (spend less and less). Other unnecessary things are dining out, go to cinema, and ASTRO TV subscription.

Conclusion ? “If you know how to spend less than you get, then you have the philosopher’s stone.” Benjamin Franklin.

Read Full Article here.

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