~~Towards Barista FIRE~~

Recently I came across a post from Dr Wealth, written by JP, a Malaysian staying and working in Singapore for the past 7 years.  In the post, he shares 7 money advice he would have given to his younger self if he could turn back time.  As a Malaysian myself, who has been her almost my entire life since primary 1, I would like to share my thoughts on this post from my personal perspectives, and hopefully it may be fruitful and helpful to other Malaysians in the same situation. 1)     Know Why You Are Here I am in a very different situation as JP.  Personally I started my education since primary 1 in Singapore, all the way till university education.  As such, I am very much more growing up in a "Singaporean-way" more than the "Malaysian-way".  One prominent difference is the proficiency in Malaysia's national language, Bahasa Melayu.  Many Malaysian Chinese are proficient in English, Mandarin and Malay, but I am not.  Having my education ...

With the recent financial turmoil on-going, which includes (but not limited to) high interest rates, high inflation, shrinkflation, bank failures, company bankruptcies, mass layoffs etc, it further reminds us the importance of being financially prudent, and be responsible towards our personal finances.  This is highlighted recently by the Channel News Asia Talking Point program on " Millennials & Gen-Z: Young and In Debt.  Why? "  In order to be financially prudent and responsible, protective measures need to be in place to help us tide through any emergencies and unforeseen circumstances.  As such, I think it is crucial for me, and for anyone interested at this juncture, to relook into our personal finances to evaluate how satisfactory our financial safety net is, so as to ensure that we are on the sustainable financial journey. The base level is the 'Protection of Income'.  This, in my definition, includes insurance and emergency funds.  For myself, a...

I have never talked about insurance as part of my personal finance, because this is the part that I have failed.  I actually bought my first insurance at a relatively young age of 20.  However, I was ignorant at that time and my head told me that I needed help to be more disciplined in saving.  To do that, I needed money to be "kept" away from me, limiting my access to the savings.   I believe if you read to this part, you would have shook your head at my failed decision.  Yes, I went for both endowment plan and investment-linked insurance.  Worst case of all is, even after my agent (who is still my agent currently) tried to convince me to get hospitalization plan, I rejected the idea due to lack of funds, and at the same time, thinking that I was still young and things are alright as time was on my side. When it comes to insurance, things are always fine until they are not.  The drag continued till the day I was unfortunately diagnosed with chron...