2010 February | Malaysia's Financial Blogger | Financial Freedom Ideas

Can You Survive With Salary RM3,000 If You Have Family? [ March 16th, 2010 ] | 297 views | Leave a Comment

Do you think that you can survive with salary RM3,000 in Malaysia nowadays. Based on my personal survey, I noticed that in Malaysia, the average family income is RM3,000 per month. But, I do understand that there are still many families whose monthly income does not reach RM3,000.

monthly_salary

In order to make calculation simple, let’s take RM3,000 as the figure:

Electricity bill: RM40 (Assume no air-con, no water heater)

Water bill: RM10

Phone bill: RM100

Family meal: RM900 (3 meals on RM30/day)

Car repayment: RM450 (A Perodua Myvi, 5 years repayment)

Petrol fees: RM150-200

House repayment: RM550 (Assume living in low medium cost apartment)

Personal insurance: RM400 (combination of you and your wife)

Total monthly expenses: RM2,650

All the above calculation have not taken into account when you have own children. Besides, the EPF and income tax haven’t deducted. So, do you think family with salary RM3,000 enough to survive? Obviously, you will say cannot, am I right?

Leave a Comment | Posted in » Economic Analysis

Withdraw PayPal Funds To Malaysia Bank Account

I usually leave my PayPal funds until I need a little bit of extra cash then only cash out, it is not good to practice like that. Now, as a Malaysian, we are not just only can withdraw the Paypal fund into credit card/debit card but also can withdraw into local bank account directly.

Those Internet savvy now can withdraw their PayPal fund to Malaysia Bank Accounts through bank swift code. Based on the information that I’ve obtained from Paypal official site, I only know that the transaction will take up to 2-3 days, and a fee of RM3 will be charged if your withdrawal is below RM400. If your withdrawal is above RM 400, you will be waived from the fees.

Below is a step-by-step guide on how to withdraw funds to your Malaysia bank account:

Step 1: Login your PayPal account.
Step 2: Click “My Account” then “Withdraw”.
Step 3: Then, click “Withdraw to your bank account” link under the options.
withdraw_paypal_fund_to_malaysia

Step 4: Next, enter the amount in USD you want to withdraw and select your bank account. If you still not yet add the bank account, then proceed to step 5 else go to step 7.
Read More …

February 28th, 2010 | Posted in » Paypal | 4 Comments | 401 views

CIMB Bank Fixed Deposit Campaign

2 days ago, my friend Thian Thian come to visit me and from the conversation, i only know that she is working in CIMB bank now and provides me the latest information about the CIMB newly launched product - “Go for Gold” which is a nationwide deposit campaign. I never heard about this campaign before but I am eager to get more details from her, she said that you would stand a chance to win the prizes if you make deposit with CIMB Bank.

She also explained to me that with every incremental deposit of RM1,000 during the campaign period, you will entitled to get 1 entry for the contest.

cimb_fixed_deposit

As an fixed deposit account holder, they will enjoy added bonus during this campaign period, customers will get the interest of 2.45% per year on their 8 months fixed deposit placement. For me, the idea is very simple which encourage more people to deposit in bank; the more they put into fixed deposit the higher chances of winning.

CIMB “Go For Gold” Campaign

February 25th, 2010 | Posted in » Bank & Investment, My Saving Plan, News & Announcement | 3 Comments | 939 views

How To Calculate Monthly Car Payment?

If you are planning to buy a car and want to get a good deal you should do some homework, you need to learn how to calculate car payment ahead of time. You can calculate your monthly car payments or estimate the total cost of your car purchase by following the car payment formula.

car_payment_calculator

For example, you borrowed RM40,000 for your new Honda City for 5 years, with an interest rate of 2.9%. Then, you are expected to pay RM763.33 monthly for the next 5 years (60 months).

Steps On How To Calculate Your Monthly Payments

February 22nd, 2010 | Posted in » Finance Tips | 2 Comments | 1,104 views

Good Financial Habits Equals To Good Credit Score

Nowadays, having a healthy credit score is absolutely essential for everyday life. If you have a bad credit history then you need to have credit repair before applying loan to purchase a car or a house so that you won’t end up with paying a higher rate of interest.

fix_credit

Remember that if you want to fix credit quickly, you need to realize that there is no easy and quick solution. You should be organized and disciplined enough so that able to clear off your debts by restricting your spending habits and paying your bills on time. Or you can try my way, pay extra instead of paying just the minimum amount on the loan.

February 21st, 2010 | Posted in » Other | Leave a Comment | 544 views

Malaysia Car Price Reasonable or Not?

For those who bought foreign car like Nissan Sentra, Toyota Vios, Honda City, Toyota Altis, Honda Civic etc, they would pay higher car prices due to our high import duties on foreign cars. Besides that, they would also pay for higher petrol price sooner (Start from 1st May 2010). Do you think this is ridiculous?

Malaysia_car_price

Another situation: Let say the car price increased due to the raw materials cost increased, or it costs more to ship the parts to Malaysia for assembling but it still maintains the car price, means there will have lower quality control. Do you feel satisfy with that? I feel that most of the car company will make use of this tactic, just end user do not know!

Buying cars is probably the heaviest expense for middle class people over the long term. Most families will buy a house only once but a car may be changed every 8-10 years. This will end up buying at least 2 cars.

Unfortunately, our government has become addicted to impose high taxes on foreign cars and so lifting protection for Proton. Sadly, I don’t see any political can try to start this process to bring our car prices down to world market level. Malaysians will continue to pay unreasonably prices for cars in the future.

import_duty_tax
Read More …

February 19th, 2010 | Posted in » Economic Analysis | 4 Comments | 1,099 views

How To Pay Monthly Car Installment Using Online Banking?

Most of the people won’t have the capability to make car payment using cash and it always pay by monthly installment. Many usually have to pay a down payment on it. For me, i will choose to pay less monthly, so i will put at least 50% down payment.

Pay Monthly Car Installment Using Public Bank

Since I’ve had my bad experience with Maybank, so i won’t use it for my online banking. Currently, my most favor online banking is Public Bank as i found a lot convenient and lower charges than Maybank. For your information, I pay my monthly car installment using Pbebank since it’s more hassle free and save me some travel expenses as i no need to travel to any Public bank branch to make payment.

Step By Step: How To Make Car Installment Using PbeBank?

Step 1: Go to Payment/Recharge -> Loan/Financing Payment -> To Open 3rd Party Accounts

pay_car_installment

Step 2: Click “Request PAC” button.

pay_car_installment

Step 3: Key in your PAC now.

February 16th, 2010 | Posted in » Finance Tips | 3 Comments | 832 views

Wedding Ang Pow Market Rate

According to traditional Chinese customs, ‘Ang Pow‘ is the symbol of prosperity and we give them during wedding as a wish to the couple. And of course to help them offset their wedding dinner costs as well.

WeddingAngPow

Do you know what is the market rate for wedding Ang Pow today? My friend will be holding her wedding dinner at hotel somewhere in Penang. Although she is not the closest friend of mine but I still want to give her a reasonable amount.

February 13th, 2010 | Posted in » Finance Tips | 1 Comment | 1,064 views