My Total Income and Expenses in 2017

In January 2017, I posted
My Total Income and Expenses in 2016
 article and was blown away by supportive comments – you guys actually liked reading an analysis of my personal income and expenses for the whole year.

So here’s how 2017 turned out for me, based on my financial data. Incomes are recorded via a Google spreadsheet while expenses are recorded via my expense-tracking app
Money Lover
.

Income in 2017

Total income in 2017
: RM170,718.33 or an average of RM14,226.53 per month. Happy to report that I significantly increased my earning. Last year, it was RM76,151.19 or an average of RM6345.93 per month.

My second year of
self-employment
 was a profitable one. That’s good, because I went on an all-out ‘earning mode’, so to speak. It was exhausting, and I came close to burning out a few times, but it was worth the effort. I’m also glad I took the time to optimise this website as a passive income stream – all the Google Adsense and referral links really do add up.

Can’t believe this all started by just offering
my services
 online.
Here’s how you can start earning online too
.

In 2018, I don’t actually want to ‘earn as much as I can’. I want to take it slow, earn where I can, but mostly focus on personal projects and self-development. Will share those plans in later articles 🙂

Expenses in 2017

Every month, you guys get to see my spending breakdown via
these reports
. I love doing these, because I get to assess where I spent my money. A diary of sorts, except it’s not conveyed in words but in spending data.

Zooming out to the year view, a different type of analysis can be retrieved.
What you spend on is an indication of your priority.
It gives a deeper insight of who you are as a person. I want to get this message across because I want you to find out who you are via this method, too.

Total expenses in 2017:
 RM102,820.26 or an average of RM8,568.36 per month (rounded up to RM8600 per month). In 2016, I spent a total of RM58,154.24 or an average of RM4846.19 per month (rounded up to RM4900 per month).

Holy mother of dragons, that translates to 76% increase! That is a big increase! Huge! What did I spend on in 2017?

Breakdown of expenses:

And here it is sorted by categories, from highest to lowest:

Breakdown and comments on each expense category

1) Business – RM21,651.24 or RM1804.27 per month, on average

Not surprised. I wasn’t stingy with business expenses in 2017. The whole ‘you have to spend money to make money’ thing, that’s true.

Things included in this expense category:

Virtual assistant

Books

Professional proofreading software

Transportation to various events, meetings and networking opportunities

New phone and laptop (Related:
4 Best Tips I Got From You Guys When I Wanted to Buy New Laptop)

Website hosting and domain name renewal

Facebook advert for the
Budget 2018 Lepak Session

Entrance fees to conferences

Memberships to trade organisations

Exam fee to get Certified Bitcoin Professional

Online courses

I also had to absorb some losses from a non-paying client

It’s high, but I ain’t mad. These expenses helped me earn the highest annual income I’ve ever had in my life.

2) Donations and Gifts – RM15,225.41 or RM1268.78 per month, on average

This category took first place in 2016, but I’m glad it got second place for 2017 🙂

Aside from the usual
zakat
 contribution, there’s a definite increase in gifting activities. Looking at my data, I bought and paid for a lot of things for my loved ones and friends.

P/s- If you’re a friend slash acquaintance of mine and reading this – you have helped me a lot, from telling people about this blog, to giving me feedback and advice on my work. I’m very, very grateful for your support. Thank you.

3) Utilities & Rent – RM12,781.83 or RM1065.15 per month, on average

No surprises here. Gotta stay somewhere.

I’m kinda sorta considering buying a property for own stay – lots of incentives to boost the property market in 2018. Do you guys have property recommendations? My requirements:

Budget: RM600k and under, preferably including renovations (or if not, a semi-furnished place)

In Klang Valley and well connected to business areas

Walking distance to public transportation and amenities like groceries and banks is a bonus

Freehold or leasehold I don’t care

Have a balcony (and ideally have a nice view)

Ideally 1000 square feet and under. I don’t really want a big space.

If you have suggestions, share in the comments section 🙂

4) Dates/Travel – RM10,077.32 or RM839.78 per month, on average

Almost doubled from last year! Crap, I’m getting too used to paying extra for better services and experiences. Gotta scale back in 2018.

In 2017, I went to
Langkawi
,
Ho Chi Minh
,
Rainforest World Music Festival
 and the
Maldives
.

5) Insurance and Medical – RM8,5670.31 or RM713.36 per month, on average

I have medical card and PA insurance – wrote about them
here
. Additionally, I got
braces
 in 2017, so that added a chunk to this expense category.

6) Misc Needs – RM7,240.79 or RM603 per month, on average

Misc Needs is a category for random ‘must pay’ things that don’t really fit elsewhere. I have to pay these, or I’ll either go to jail or will pay for it in some way or another. For me, these include:

Tax payment

Personal grooming like facials, sunscreen, shampoo and makeup

Stationaries

Clothes, shoes and underwear

Clothes alterations

Haircuts

Phone cases

Passport renewal

Devices like hair dryer, washing machine, waterpik (water flossing thingy) and vacuum cleaner

Replacing kitchen stuff like water filter, chopping board and kitchen scissors

Replacing home stuff like bedsheets

Home and laptop repairs

Sports equipment and accessories

Cat scratching post

7) Misc Wants – RM6,902.89 or RM575.24 per month, on average

Shit, I bought a lot of things that I strictly didn’t need. A category to improve on in 2018, definitely!

I bought:

Steam and mobile games (Dream Daddy ftw)

Tobacco

Clothes and shoes that I strictly didn’t need

Face masks

The biggest waste of money was the derma filler for RM3,600 – cosmetic fix injections to reduce my eye bags. It lasts only for like a year or so – not something I plan to continue at this price. Why did I do this. Why.

8) Groceries – RM5,096.04 or RM424.67 per month, on average

Not that big of an increase from last year, good. I try to buy good-quality products for health reasons, and make meat consumption a treat rather than an everyday thing.

9) Loan Repayments – RM5,028.78 or RM419.07 per month, on average

Monthly deductions for my 25-year ASB loan and paying off the remainder of IKEA instalments for home stuff bought when I moved back to KV in 2016.

Technically I’m still paying instalments for my laptop, but that’s in the Business category and not included here.

10) Social – RM4,502.62 or RM375.22 per month, on average

Paying for meals with friends. Sometimes we split the bill, sometimes I just pay for the group. If I can still afford this in 2018, I will continue. It makes me feel like Santa.

11) Public transportation – RM2,074.95 or RM172.91 per month, on average

Gotta go places. This mostly goes to Grab and Uber.

12) Petrol, Parking & Toll – RM1,550.11 or RM129.18 per month, on average

When I use my friends’ or family members’ cars, I fill ’em up.  No 11 and 12 combined is still cheaper than car ownership, I’m okay with this.

13) Mobile – RM1,118.70 or RM93.23 per month, on average

It got higher because I switched to Maxis postpaid (the RM128+GST per month one) around the middle of the year.

14) Food – RM969.27 or RM80.77 per month, on average

The reason why I’m no longer losing weight. These are not groceries, not makan sessions with friends and family, not dates, just pure lack of discipline to resist snacks when I’m out and about. At least it’s the last one in the list.

Conclusion and self-reflection

I’m effectively saving 39.77% of my income. I’m happy with that savings rate. Let’s just call it 40% and call it a day 🙂

50% of my expenses in 2017 went to Business, Donations & Gifts and Utilities & Rent. That’s alright. I don’t think Business costs will go up in 2018 – on the contrary it’s likely to go down. No plans to buy new gadgets and some things I’ve already paid in advance.

Categories I need to reduce expenses are: Dates/Travel, Misc Wants and Food – they cumulatively make up almost 17% of 2017’s spending.

The rest of the categories, I just need to be mindful of them and make sure 1) No one is taking advantage of me and 2) The expenses are worth it and provide value to my life.

Well that’s it folks! Thanks for reading until the end. Now the big question is – what kind of person are YOU, according to your financial data? If you don’t have detailed info, just share with me what you think are your top expenses 🙂

Related:
My Total Income and Expenses in 2016


My Total Income and Expenses in 2019

Welcome back to my total incomes and expenses report, now in its fourth year! In this annual series, I’m as financially naked as I can be – you’ll know how much I earned for the whole of 2019 and what I spent on during the year.

Seriously, I love that I keep such meticulous record of my financial data (even though it’s nowhere near perfect, but perfect is boring and not to mention impossible). I love that I can share this information with you, so you get to see how record-keeping is beneficial in practice.

This article is divided into two big sections: incomes (recorded via a Google spreadsheet) and expenses (recorded via my
expense-tracking app
).  If you’re a regular reader, you should already be familiar with my expense breakdowns anyway – I post them
every month
.

Income in 2019

My total income in 2019:
RM93,995.20, or an average of RM7,832.93 per month. Note: This amount is
gross income
, not
nett profit
. Remember, I’m self-employed, so I have business-related expenses.

To be honest, I didn’t know how to best record my 2019 income. There are some straightforward transactions – sponsored posts, ad money, writing jobs, consultation and speaking fees etc – but there are also things like:

Book order for Money Stories from Malaysians: Volume 1 from MPH Distributors.
 Technically speaking, they ‘bought’ the books from me to resell in the bookstores, so the five-figure amount I invoiced them is included in the above amount, however
it has not been transferred to me yet
. I’m a bit worried because I know that
unsold books will be sold back to me
, and in the end the decision to sell the books in bookstores might even cost me money because I still have to pay them the 5% distributor fee

Money earned from referrals
, which goes straight into various investment platforms, notably Funding Societies and Wahed Invest. Combined, I made ~RM47k in referrals from these two alone, which I did
not
 include in the total income of the year because the money is immediately reinvested. Accountants, should I include this amount in my total income for the year or nah?

Aside from those two major headaches, I’m happy with my 2019 income performance. I had a loose ‘earn RM100k for the year’ goal and although I didn’t achieve it (Idk, did I?), my conscience is clear. I turned down a couple of high-paying work opportunities in 2019 and while losing those income sucked, I’m happy I remained true to my values.

2019 was also the year that I tried my best to balance work/life
balance
 integration. As much as possible, I made sure to make my work fit my life, instead of the other way around. I had so many amazing life experiences:

published a book,

went to
Luang Prabang
, Perth and Bali with loved ones;

took trips to Melaka, Genting and Penang;

got sponsored on a press trip to Estonia;

went on a writer’s retreat in Ipoh;

attended various workshops and conferences;

and worked on new and existing projects.

It was an incredibly memorable, fulfilling year. Thank you for joining me in this ride and helping me stay accountable.

Expenses in 2019

Total expenses in 2019:
 RM82,376.74 or an average of RM6,864.73 per month

Breakdown of expenses.

From here I can see that my top three expenses make up almost 60% of my total spending! So if I want to cut back on my spending (I do), the efficient way is to drastically cut back here, not penny pinch on the other categories.

Here are my expenses sorted by categories, from highest to lowest:

Breakdown and comments on each expense category

1) Utilities & Rent – RM15,515.55 or RM1,292.96 per month, on average

Considering my rent is RM1200 per month, that means I’m only spending RM92.96 per month on average on electric, aircond and water bills. That’s alright, right? I don’t think I can cut this expense any lower.

2) Business – RM15,262.85 or RM1,271.90 per month, on average

If I earned an average of RM6,864.73 per month, and my business expenses averaged RM1,271.90, then that means my
nett profit aka salary per month in 2019 was RM5,592.83
.

Things I paid as business expenses in 2019:

Facebook ads

Ezoic Premium, an ad-optimisation software

Book printing (the biggest chunk! 1500 books for RM6600)

Editing fees for Money Stories from Malaysians Volume 2

Translation fees to translate Money Stories from Malaysians Volume 1 into Malay

Voice and speech coaching sessions

Grammarly Premium

Domain renewal

Conference and workshop tickets

Memberships to organisations

Writers’ retreat

Books

And other misc expenses

This is yet another category that I *don’t* want to scale back on, because you need money to make money.

3) Dates/Travel – RM14,881.89 or RM1,240.16 per month, on average

Hmm. Ok fine, numbers don’t lie. As much as I hate to admit it, I guess I was travelling and eating out too much in 2019. Something to scale back in 2020.

Mental note: no more than RM500/month on dates/travel from now on. Make it work.

4) Donations and Gifts – RM7,608.62 or RM634.05 per month, on average

In previous year’s annual report, I made a note to significantly reduce my donations and gifts to max RM1000/month. I guess I achieved that goal.

In 2019, the two biggest chunks (about 40% of total) of my Donations and Gifts were (1) Zakat and (2) money to replace my parents’ broken house gate (split with sister). The rest were birthday presents, wedding gifts, family dinners, souvenirs, things like that.

I’m okay to increase this expense category a little bit. Also there’s something I’ve been meaning to do for a while now: to give my parents monthly spending money. It’s time. In fact I should have done it sooner.

5) Groceries – RM5,943.81 or RM495.32 per month, on average

Simplistically speaking, my cost per homemade meal is just RM4.95. I’m very happy to know that, since I do make an effort to eat healthy and buy quality ingredients 🙂

(How I got that figure: RM495.32 divide by 100 homemade meals per month)

6) Insurance and Medical – RM5,452.62 or RM454.39 per month, on average

RM113.33 and RM53 goes to medical card and personal accident insurance, respectively.

The rest are costs related to new diagnosis of curved spine. I paid a couple thousand for X-ray and chiropractor consultations.

I’ve since stopped the chiro sessions, but looking for insurance-covered options (if any) or cheaper treatment options.

7) Public Transportation – RM4,529.28 or RM377.44 per month, on average

This no-car lifestyle is so cheap! I’m happy to continue paying for LRTs, Grabs and
SoCars
 😀

8) Misc Needs – RM4,253.23 or RM354.44 per month, on average

Misc Needs is a category for random ‘must pay’ things that don’t really fit elsewhere. I have to pay these, or I’ll either go to jail or my professional life will be jeopardised.

In 2019, the following expenses got logged as Misc Needs:

Tax payment

Cat food and cat litter

Protein powder (maybe I should move this under groceries)

Replacing home stuff like toilet brush

Stationaries

Cordless vacuum cleaner

Buying a new fridge since I poked a hole during defrosting AGAIN

Stocking up on toiletries and skincare like shower gel, shampoo, sunscreen etc

Eyebrow threading

Parking fines

Watch battery replacement and repair

Travel adapter

Credit card service tax

And other misc stuff

9) Misc Wants – RM4,148.21 or RM345.74 per month, on average

Misc Needs, on the other hand, are random ‘nice to have’ purchases. Not strictly necessary, but I still wanted them

In 2019, the following expenses got logged as Misc Wants:

Teeth whitening strips

Radio/speaker

Shoes, clothes, bags, makeup

Books

Steam games and controller

Home decor

Netflix

And other random stuff

Is this… an okay amount to spend on what’s essentially vices? How much do you spend on things you want (not need)? Should I maintain, reduce or increase? Idk, let’s see :/

10) Social – RM4,253.23 or RM354.44 per month, on average

I’ve developed some good friendships, so going forward I’m happy to continue spending (within reason) to maintain our relationships. My friends bring a lot of joy and meaning to my life.

11) Food – RM1397.79 or RM116.48 per month, on average

Embarassing expense. This is the food expense that’s NOT part of groceries, dates, travel or social activities. It may be time to admit food delivery is my vice and something I should stop immediately because this expense is completely unnecessary and wasting money!

12) Mobile – RM960 or RM80 per month, on average

My data consumption increased A LOT since I got Netflix (around Sept 2019). I used to consume 30-40GB per month, now its nearer to 75GB per month.

All I can say is, switching to Yoodo was a good financial decision for me. I like tweaking around my data plan, reducing next month’s data quota if I know I’ll be travelling or if Yoodo’s doing free data giveaway (I got free 20GB/month for at least like 3 months).

If you want to try Yoodo out too, get FREE RM 20 when you sign up using my
referral link
 (I get RM20 too).

Conclusion and self-reflection

2017’s savings rate:
39.77%
. 2018’s savings rate:
-48.95%
. 2019’s savings rate:
14.1%

Volatile much? Maybe aim for consistency, Suraya?

Action plan for the year:

Earn RM100k by end of June 2020.
 Why not. Never try never know.

Get sponsors for the RinggitOhRinggit podcast!
 Get over your fear of rejection Suraya and just do the cold-calling/cold-emailing, anything to get leads and potential sponsors. Capiche?

Launch and sell books.
 Please buy Money Stories from Malaysians: Volume 2 when it comes out! And please buy volume 1 in bookstores if you haven’t!

Goal: at least 25% savings rate
(percentage of money left over after income minus expenses)

Significantly reduce food purchases.
 Not groceries. Food.

Well, that’s the end of it. Thank you for reading my income and expense report, folks. How was your 2019 like, financially speaking? What tweaks are you making to incomes and expenses, going forward? Let me know in the comments section!

Related:

My Total Income and Expenses in 2016

My Total Income and Expenses in 2017

My Total Income and Expenses in 2018


My Total Income and Expenses in 2020

Welcome back to my total incomes and expenses report, now in its fifth year! In this annual series, you will see a review of my financial year- how much I earned and what I spent on throughout the year.

The financial data presented here is nowhere near perfect (but perfect is boring and not to mention impossible), but I love that I can share this information with you, so you get to see how record-keeping is beneficial in practice.

This article is divided into two big sections: incomes (recorded via a Google spreadsheet) and expenses (recorded via my
expense-tracking app
).  If you’re a regular reader, you should already be familiar with my expense breakdowns anyway – I post them
every month
.

Income in 2020

I earn my living from various income sources, which you can check here:
[VIDEO] My 8 Sources of Income As a Malaysian Blogger

In 2020, I recorded

RM71,149.42 in gross income (not nett profit). Remember, I’m self-employed, so I have business-related expenses.

If you take out business-related expenses in 2020 (RM31,874.32; breakdown in Expenses in 2020 section below), I
effectively earned RM39,275.10 or RM3,272.93 per month in 2020.

The amount is lower than I wanted, but hey. The fact that I still had work in the first year of pandemic is already something to be grateful for.

I know I should have done something to earn more and hit my RM100k nett profit goal
so I can brag about it
 but to be honest my mood to earn kind of dissipated during the pandemic and never came back :/ I wonder if any of you feel the same. I know I’m not particularly ambitious in the first place but this lack of semangat is somewhat worrying.

Expenses in 2020

According to my expense tracker,

I spent RM124,305.93 for the whole of 2020. If you exclude business-related expenses (RM31,874.32), I
effectively spent RM92,431.61 or RM7,702.63 per month in 2020.

Yes, I spent more than I made in 2020.
 More than twice over. I broke the #1 personal finance rule, earn > spend, and I’m not even sorry about it.

For one, I’m
happy with what I spent on
. I remained frugal except for one category, which I spent lavishly on – Donations & Gifts. I’ll expand further below.

Secondly, 2020 was an
absurdly good year for my investments
 – my net worth
still grew
 despite me overspending. It’s absurd and ridiculous and yes I’m lucky AF that things turned out well. I’ve decided not to keep all that luck for myself and didn’t want to hoard money for hoarding’s sake, so I spent it.

Here are my expenses in 2020 sorted by categories, from highest to lowest:

The top 3 expenses made up 69% (tee hee) of my total 2020 expenses

Breakdown and comments on each expense category

1) Donations and Gifts – RM37,547.23 or RM3,128.94 per month, on average

Before you say, oh wow Suraya that’s a lot – let me just stop you – I’m not *that* altruistic. Sure, I paid my zakat and made small donations to various charities, but the majority of my Donations and Gifts went to my family. In 2020, I:

Paid my parents’ electricity bill (it’s around RM800-900 per month.. I know.. I’d love to lower this expense but I also know they use a lot of aircon so I can’t say anything, I want them to be comfortable..)
Paid for renovations for a room at family home (also used as bridal room, so really I benefited a lot from this)
Contributed to my dad’s dusun project at kampung land
Gifted an expensive massage chair to mom for her birthday (shared with sisters)
Contributed to meals and gifts for celebrations like birthdays etc

Even though I regret none of these expenses – after all, much of the money ultimately flowed back into the economy, which is good yes? – I do want to balance this giving spirit with a dash of reality. I was lucky that 2020 has been a financially good year for my investments therefore my finances are still strong, but I know I can’t keep this up if I continue to earn the same income.

2) Business – RM31,874.32 or RM2,656.19 per month, on average

Because you need money to make money. Things I paid as business expenses in 2020:

Facebook ads
Ezoic Premium, an ad-optimisation software
Book re-printing for Money Stories from Malaysians Volume 2
Hosting and domain renewal
Various marketing tools
Memberships to organisations
Books
New website design
And a new business venture which I don’t want to expand on yet 🙂 Watch this space

3) Utilities & Rent – RM14,517.61 or RM1,209.80 per month, on average

Bless my landlady, during when MCO 1.0 hit, she agreed to waive 1 month rental for me.

4) Wedding – RM12,062.09 or RM1,005.17 per month, on average

Temporary category, obviously 🙂 Again, thanks for all the well-wishes!

Related:
I Spent RM12,062.09 For My MCO Wedding (Cost Breakdown Included)

5) Groceries – RM7,166.25 or RM597.19 per month, on average

Spending almost RM600 per month on groceries is more than worth it, considering the joy, source of creative outlet and health benefits I get out of the whole process.

What 'mundane' activity do you genuinely enjoy?
Mine is grocery shopping. I love everything about it – allows me to be creative via cooking (I like figuring out how to use up odd ingredients!), lets me enjoy delicious food at cheaper price and satisfies my shopping mood!

You?
— Suraya ringgitohringgit.com (@surayaror)
December 16, 2020

I wonder how much my groceries will now cost, now that I’m buying for 2 people. Common sense says it’ll double, but let’s see.

6) Dates/Travel – RM4,910 or RM409.17 per month, on average

I barely went anywhere in 2020 (though admittedly nor do anyone else). Much of this expense were recorded in December, when we went for a honeymoon in Langkawi.

(Defensively, I have to say this: we self-quarantined for 2 weeks after returning home)

7) Misc Wants – RM4,217.25 or RM351.44 per month, on average

Misc Needs is a category for those random ‘nice to have’ purchases. Not strictly necessary, but I still wanted them. I didn’t realise it, but I bought quite a lot in 2020. Small expenses really do add up.

In 2020, the following expenses got logged as Misc Wants:

Netflix
Books
Clothes
Makeup and skincare
Hair perm
Massages
Home decor
Courses
Jewellery
Teeth whitening session
Steam games
House plants

Alright, I
have
to be mindful of this expense. I can’t keep using pandemic-induced anxiety as an excuse to keep buying unnecessary stuff.

8) Misc Needs – RM3,128.96 or RM260.75 per month, on average

Misc Needs is a category for random ‘must pay’ things that don’t really fit elsewhere. I have to pay these, or I’ll either go to jail or my professional life will be jeopardised.

In 2020, the following expenses got logged as Misc Needs:

Tax payment
Renew driving license
Home maintenance and organisation
Replacing home appliances (my kettle died TWICE ahahaha)
Office chair
Masks and sanitiser gels
Stocking up on toiletries and skincare
Fire extinguisher
Financial calculator for CFP
Credit card service tax
And other misc stuff

9) Insurance and Medical – RM2,339.89 or RM194.99 per month, on average

Added on Critical Illness plan since November 2020. Currently, my monthly commitment for insurance is:

Medical card – RM113.33
Personal Accident – RM53
Critical Illness – RM172

Related:
9 Things You MUST Know Before You Buy Insurance in Malaysia

10) Public Transport – RM1,827.42 or RM152.29 per month, on average

… Not a bad amount, for someone who doesn’t have a car. Mostly spent on Grab rides and renting cars.

Related:
SOCAR Review: 7 Tips to Get Cheap Car Rental in KL, Penang and Johor

11) Social – RM1,477.50 or RM123.13 per month, on average

Treated family and friends to meals.

12) Food – RM1,237.20 or RM103.10 per month, on average

I track Food expenses as (1) they correlate to weight gains and (2) are NOT part of groceries, dates, travel or social activities.

RM103.10 per month is quite high for my taste. Something to lower in 2021.

13) Pets – RM1050 or RM87.52 per month, on average

Worthwhile expense. The buggers make me happy.

14) Mobile – RM950 or RM79.17 per month, on average

My data consumption pattern fluctuates, but I know I need around 70-100GB per month.

One of the things planned in 2021 is moving to our new home, where we’ll invest in home wifi, which means this expense will be significantly lower around Q4 or 2021 or so.

I like that Yoodo gives me the flexibility to increase/decrease my data as my data needs change. If you want to try Yoodo out too, get free data when you sign up using my
referral link
.

Conclusion and self-reflection

Annual savings rate (aka percentage of income saved; higher is better):

2017: 39.77%
2018: -48.95%
2019: 14.1%
2020:  -135.34%

If I’m an investment, you should stay far away from this kind of performance. Volatile AF. No consistency.

But that’s life. We can learn all the personal finance theory available and still make ‘bad’ financial decisions. In my case, I know that I should have earned more than I spent but I didn’t, and in fact I increased my spending. The only reason why my finances are still OK is because of savings plus amazing ROI from investments.

What will 2021 bring? Will I continue to be lucky? Or will the luck run out? Either way, I know the
only
way to be financially safe in any financial climate is to have sellable skills. No matter how
lazy
 apathetic about work I may be, I have no choice but to find new areas to love and be passionate about (some which I included in my
21 for 2021 list
).

Well, that’s the end of it. Thank you for reading my income and expense report, folks. How was your 2020 like, financially speaking? What tweaks are you making to incomes and expenses, going forward? Let me know in the comments section!

Related:

My Total Income and Expenses in 2016
My Total Income and Expenses in 2017
My Total Income and Expenses in 2018
My Total Income and Expenses in 2019


My Total Income and Expenses in 2018

Doing a tally of my total incomes and expenses for the third year in a row! In this annual series, I’m as financially naked as I can be – you’ll know how much I earned for the whole of 2018 and what I spent on during the year.

Seriously, I love that I keep such meticulous record of my financial data (even though it’s nowhere near perfect, but perfect is boring and not to mention impossible). I love that I can share this information with you, so you get to see how record-keeping is beneficial in practice.

FYI, incomes are recorded via a Google spreadsheet while expenses are recorded via my expense-tracking app Money Lover.  If you’re a regular reader, you should already be familiar with my expense breakdowns anyway – I post them
every month
.

Income in 2018

In the
My Total Income and Expenses in 2017
 article, I wrote: ‘In 2018, I don’t actually want to ‘earn as much as I can’. I want to take it slow, earn where I can, but mostly focus on personal projects and self-development.’

I did just that. In 2018 alone, I produced
my first theater show
,
organised a writing competition
 to
self-publish a book
 and created
a deal-finding website
.

I also traveled to
Hong Kong
 and Japan, danced at music festivals, went on retreats, attended workshops, funded my parents’ umrah and only took on jobs that fit with my schedule. It was an incredibly memorable, fulfilling year.

My total income in 2018:
RM70,739.14, or an average of RM5,894.93 per month.

Some notes about my income in 2018:

It’s a good amount, I’m grateful. However, it’s also
lower
 than what I earned in 2017 AND 2016 (RM170,718.33 and RM76,151.19 respectively).

The majority of the earnings came from (1) sponsored posts, (2) writing projects, and (3) ad money.

No doubt I had fun doing ‘just what I want to do’ for the whole of 2018, but I can’t continue that approach anymore. I need to hustle hard, need to step it up in 2019 so I can get
financially independent
 faster.

So with that note, I need me some of that #abundancementality mindset, that juujuu which attracts wealth and abundance. If you see it, please send some my way pls thanks the very much.

Expenses in 2018

How I got my total expenses in 2018
: I use an expense-tracking app and simply compiled all the spending data in 2018.

Total expenses in 2018:
 RM105,369.41 or an average of RM8,780.78 per month (rounded up to RM8,800 per month)

I know I spent more than I made in 2018 way before the year ended
.

I’m quite ashamed of this fact, but accountability is accountability, I’m not going to conveniently edit that part out from this article. Knowing that 2018 was a year of ‘fun’, I should have scaled my expenses back, but I spent more even more than the previous year (I spent RM102.8k in 2017).

In short, I got used to my lifestyle upgrades and didn’t know how to live on a lower amount.

That’s bad, but at least I now know this about myself while I’m still young. I still have time on my side to work my ass off and play catch up.

Breakdown of expenses:

And here it is sorted by categories, from highest to lowest:

Breakdown and comments on each expense category

1) Donations and Gifts – RM29,871.58 or RM2,489.30 per month, on average

The biggest chunk of my expense in 2018 was RM15,580 for my parents’ umrah. If you’re interested to know the motivation, I wrote the background story in the
October 2018 budget update
 article.

And then the rest is just the usual: zakat, gifts to friends and family, donations to organisations I like, things like that.

…Is there… such a thing as giving too much money away? I’m aware that sounds like the most annoying humblebrag ever, but please hear me out: I’m torn between ‘the more you give, the more you receive’ narrative and the ‘only give away what you can afford to give away’ narrative.

Err… any advice?

2) Business – RM18,306.25 or RM1,525.52 per month, on average

If I earned an average of RM5,894.93 per month, and my business expenses averaged RM1,525.52, then my nett profit aka salary per month is just RM4,369.41 :/

Things I paid as business expenses in 2018:

Facebook ads

Ezoic Premium, an ad-optimisation software

WhiteSmoke, a proofreading software

Domain renewal

Technical support when my website went haywire (from the ever trusted
ClickWP
)

Attending the Female Entrepreneurs Movement Bootcamp (FEM Bootcamp)

Fees for my upcoming book’s editor

Fees for my upcoming book’s illustrator

Memberships to trade organisations

Laptop instalments (paid off!)

Virtual assistant (although I decided to stop using a VA since May 2018)

Writers’ retreat

Books

Transportation to various events, meetings and networking opportunities

And other misc expenses

My business expenses in 2019 is likely to increase, since I plan to ramp things up. Oh dear God please give me good ROI on those business expenses.

3) Utilities & Rent – RM14,964.63 or RM1,247.05 per month, on average

Gotta live somewhere.

4) Dates/Travel – RM7,603.03 or RM633.59 per month, on average

My personal life sure was interesting in 2018. That’s all I’m going to say.

5) Insurance and Medical – RM5,501.81 or RM458.48 per month, on average

Mostly the money goes to my medical card, PA insurance and braces instalment.

6) Misc Needs – RM5,281.97 or RM440.16 per month, on average

Misc Needs is a category for random ‘must pay’ things that don’t really fit elsewhere. I have to pay these, or I’ll either go to jail or will pay for it in some way or another.

In 2018, the following expenses got logged as Misc Needs:

Tax payment

Cat food

Replacing a lost security pass

Replacing home stuff like towels

Stationaries

Phone screen cover

Stocking up on toiletries like shower gel, shampoo, sunscreen etc

Eyebrow threading

Replacing my broken bed and broken stand fan

SSM renewal

Replacing old jeans, tank tops etc

Sports equipment and accessories

Replacing phone charger cables

And other misc stuff

It’s good to know my Misc Needs expenses
can
 reduce – it averaged RM660 per month in 2017. Although I think it’s due to luck and timing too :/ I mean, if I’m slapped with a RM1000 fine or go to jail, obviously I will pay the fine right :/

(touchwood)

7) Groceries – RM5,271.53 or RM439.29 per month, on average

Kind of the same amount from the previous year. My groceries bill is kind of consistent, wow.

According to my app, I logged 117 transactions for groceries alone. That means I go grocery shopping an average of once every three days. I don’t know what to make of this info LMAO. Oh well, I love grocery shopping, never mind <3

I have to say HappyFresh (
my review
) is just such a godsend. I get to make purchases from Mydin more often (they tend to be cheaper than other supermarkets), and also plan my meals around items on sale easier. Love it a lot, 10/10 would recommend.

8) Social – RM4,948.80 or RM412.40 per month, on average

Eh? What? I’m not a social butterfly or anything, why is this expense category so high?

Ohhh no wonder. Top social-related spends for 2018 were:

Kevin Hart stand-up show

Birthday treats for family and friends

Good Vibes

Hong Kong trip

Skytrex Shah Alam

I’m not quite sure if I want to scale it back. I like doing all these – they’re the best parts of my 2018. RM400+ per month is such a small price to pay for such good memories.

9) Public transportation – RM4,148.21 or RM345.74 per month, on average

My public transportation costs doubled from 2017! But I also pay way less for No 12 – Petrol, Parking & Toll, so I don’t mind the increase.

10) Misc Wants – RM4,028.83 or RM335.74 per month, on average

The amount is lower than the previous year, but since I’ve recently quit smoking, I think I’ll save more money for this category in 2019 🙂

Aside from tobacco (estimate RM80-100 monthly), a lot of my ‘wants’ in 2018 was beauty products, clothes, shoes and books. I kinda splurged on hair – permed my hair twice in one year (around RM500 in damages). Something to stop doing.

A win: Exchanged my Maybank TreatPoints with 2 x RM200 Lazada vouchers, so I used those to buy some home stuff. I enjoyed that guilt-free spending very, very much.

9) Loan Repayments – RM3,468 or RM289 per month, on average

Monthly deductions for my 25-year ASB loan. Technically I’m still paying instalments for my laptop until August 2018, but that’s in the Business category and not included here.

10) Mobile – RM1,320.50 or RM110.04 per month, on average

I switched from Maxis postpaid (RM128+GST per month) to Yoodo and now average about RM70-RM85 in monthly payments. It’s nice because I can increase/decrease my data usage for the next month if I know I’ll be using more/less.

If you want to try Yoodo out too, get FREE RM 20 when you sign up using my
referral link
 (I get RM20 too).

11) Food – RM532.22 or RM44.35 per month, on average

Reduced by almost half compared to 2017! Good job for not snacking as much when you’re out and about Suraya! (Why did you gain weight tho??!)

12) Petrol, Parking & Toll – RM120.05 or RM129.18 per month, on average

Significantly reduced.
I paid RM1550 for petrol, parking and toll in 2017, and less than 10% of that in 2018. I just didn’t use cars that much in 2018.

Conclusion and self-reflection

2017’s savings rate:
39.77%
. 2018’s savings rate:
-48.95%

Ouch.

Ouch ouch ouch.

I dipped into my savings so hard in 2018, you guys. I took around RM35k from my savings to make up the difference in income.

The thing is, I
love
 my life. I
love
 my lifestyle. I don’t want to make drastic downgrades and changes in 2019, I want the same amount of fun and happiness and joy.

So that means I have no choice but to work hard and increase my income. Remember the
only
 mantra to successful financial management? Spend less than you earn, earn more than you spend. I need to focus on the second part of that mantra in 2019.

Action plan for the year:

Reduce my donations.
 Limit it to… say RM1000 per month. That’s still a good amount right? As far as donations go?

Do more sales work to promote my services and get more clients.
 In 2018, I’ve relied mostly on clients approaching me. Imagine how much I can earn if I make the effort! 1 x new client per month is a doable target.

Launch and sell books.
 Please buy Money Stories from Malaysians: Volume 1 when it comes out! You get 10 short stories, including one of mine! My short story in there is set in a dystopian Malaysia that implements universal basic income 😀

Goal: at least 25% savings rate
(percentage of money left over after income minus expenses)

Well alright. Saying is one thing, doing is another. Wish me the best! And share with me ONE thing from your 2019 money action plan in the comments section!

Related:

My Total Income and Expenses in 2016

My Total Income and Expenses in 2017


My Total Income and Expenses in 2016

I truly believe that personal finance is beyond just simple, boring money. They show insight of who you are, as a person. They show what you decided were important enough to spend money on, and serves almost like a diary.

Well, this is my 2016 diary. It’s a bit nerve-wracking to show them, so be nice ya 🙂

Income in 2016

Total income in 2016:
 RM76,151.19 or an average of RM6345.93 per month.

2016 was my first year of self-employment, and it’s been good. Most of my income came from either writing services, advertising/sponsored post services, or affiliate marketing. I’ve written reports, press releases, interviews, online and offline articles, scripts, and also provided rapporteur, editorial and SEO services.

It’s important to note here that during my earlier months of self-employment, I barely made any money. In fact, my income for January 2016 was RM0. Since then, it steadily increased (thank God). My best month was November 2016 at RM17911.27 (close to 24% of yearly income), and that was the result of months of negotiation and pending invoices being processed.

I’m lucky that self-employment turned out to be profitable for me. Before this, my previous job paid RM3500 per month. Here’s my
spending breakdown
 during the time, during October 2014-September 2015.

Related: Here’s how I got
started in self-employment.

Expenses in 2016

This is the fun part! Dissecting my spending for the year brings me back to those moments – some I’ve already forgotten. It’s a fun thing to do, almost like reliving 2016 all over again. I remember specific purchases I made when I felt happy, or sad, or annoyed, or bored.

Total expenses in 2016:
 RM58,154.24 or an average of RM4846,19 per month (rounded up to RM4900 per month).

This covers all expenses, as much as I know, but I might have missed some expenses, so that’s why I rounded it up. I track my spending via my expense-tracking app Money Lover (
review
).

Breakdown of expenses, in a pretty chart:

I used to have 16 categories, but as I cleaned it up, it turned out that they can fit into 14. Here are the top eight, from highest to lowest:

Breakdown and comments on each expense category

1) Donations and Gifts

Once again, my biggest expense was Donations and Gifts. At RM13,423.89, I average about RM1118.66 per month. This surprises me, a little bit, in a very surreal way. I thought I didn’t give away enough, actually.

Looking at my expense report, I see how I got this amount: I paid zakat, helped my dad out, and paid for my parents’ multiple bills (mostly electric and water bills).

Please someone tell my parents to switch off the aircon when not in use TT_TT

2) Misc Needs

RM10213.13?? RM851.10 per month?? How????????????????

This category, made for unavoidable life expenses, is for expenses that don’t really belong anywhere else. For 2016, this included:

Furniture, home items and electrical appliances for new home in Klang Valley

Self-care items like dental floss and shampoo and stuff

Phone

A new mattress

Dentist bill

Rental stamping fee

Laundry (back when I don’t have washing machine)

Non-optional clothing, including my outfits for
my sister’s wedding

Paying off my blacklisted number

Spaying my cat

Some fines and bank fees

Gosh, unavoidable life expenses do add up, don’t they? Maybe I should make different categories, but most of the above are not recurring enough to warrant its own category :/ If you have suggestions, I’m all ears.

To be fair, many of the expenses above is my own fault. I moved to Ipoh then moved back to Klang Valley. Moving is expensive. Thank goodness for friends who help you move, if not this would’ve been higher.

3) Dates/Travel

RM5952.95 or roughly RM496.08 per month for dates and travels. I went to
Krabi
and
Osaka+Kyoto
. Worth every cent <3

I plan to travel in 2017, too, so let’s see how this category will be affected.

4) Utilities & Rent

RM394.66 per month, on average. Ipoh was cheap to live in!

Now I’m paying a lot more than that for my accommodation in Klang Valley. But I figure, hey, it’s worth shelling out more for a comfortable place, now that I work from home (this is my excuse :P).

For a comparison between my KL and Ipoh living cost, read
here
.

5) Groceries

RM344.51 per month on groceries. I’m happy with this amount!

I’m pretty frugal when it comes to groceries (see my guide to groceries
here
). I like the cheap+healthy+keto combo, so I’m glad I got to eat relatively well in 2016 for just this amount. There were a lot of eggs lol

(This doesn’t include food I bought for myself while going out or during social activities, though).

6) Loan Repayment

ASB loan repayments. Sigh, ~20 more years of this.

7) Business

RM3500.28 for the year. Includes membership fees, website, software, business cards, VA services, and other things. I thought this category would be higher, actually.

I expect this amount will increase in 2017. I’m starting to get more Malaysian clients and attending more events.

8) Social

Going out with friends and families. RM256.32 per month. I think this is alright, and it is a big jump from RM151.43 previously. I still feel a lot of FOMO though (fear of missing out). I wonder if it’ll ever go away…

Here are the next six categories:

9) Misc Wants

Misc wants is a category for ‘I want but I can’t fully justify it’ purchases. At RM252.71 per month, this is a bit on the higher side. I have to reduce my expenses in this category!

I spent on:

Tobacco (money waster, I know)

My abandoned aquaponics project

A garment steamer (because I decided that I’m ‘over’ ironing. Sigh)

Clothes and bags that are not strictly ‘needed’

Facials and cosmetics (also not strictly ‘needed’)

App purchases

Note to self: please, please quit smoking, you junkie.

10) Insurance and Medical

Medical card and PA insurance. I wrote about my insurances
here
. These are grown-up expenses, I can live with this.

11) Parking, Petrol & Toll

RM147.33 per month for this category. It’s funny because I don’t actually have a car. Mostly I spend for parking, petrol and toll when I borrow my friend’s car and fill up the petrol and Touch N Go in exchange.

It’s kinda high, but I’ll be damned if I don’t contribute. An ex-friend of mine, back in college, used to take advantage of me and request free rides all the time without helping to pay for anything (and I’m not the type to ask). I never want to be that person.

12) Public Transport

On average, I spent RM117.32 per month for public transport. Mostly Ipoh-Shah Alam bus trips, but now in 2017 this is mainly Uber, Grab and LRTs.

Sometimes I feel pressured to have a car, but I don’t think it’s a good financial option for me now. I still dream about my dream car (Suzuki Vitara) a lot, though.

13) Mobile

RM86.41 per month. This is OK, right? Right??

I used to have prepaid (
how to get cheaper prepaid
), but now I’m on a
postpaid plan
. I pay the same amount monthly, more or less, but get more data.

I’d love to switch to cheaper mobile plan but unfortunately that’s not possible now. My place, as awesome as it is, charges commercial rates, which means all internet packages are the more expensive business ones. I’m not going to pay RM180 per month for mediocre internet, so phone internet it is.

14) Food

RM53.75 per month for snacks (like Chatime. I’m legit sad they’re closing), all of them going to my waistline *cries*

To be fair, it used to be RM61.91 per month, so it’s a small victory I guess.

Conclusion and self-reflection

As I write these out, and compare them to my old budget just 2-3 years ago, it shows how much lifestyle inflation can creep up on you. I used to spend RM2888.03 on average, per month. Now it’s RM4900. That’s almost 1.7x more! In 3 years!

Here’s my old budget:

Salary: RM3500

Minus: Spending (RM2,888) + EPF (RM385) + SOCSO (RM14.75) + tax deductions (RM33.60)

Total left from salary: RM178.65

And this is the new budget:

Salary: RM6345.93

Minus: RM4900 (not including EPF or SOCSO!)

Total left from salary: RM1445.93

…I now spend more than I made in my old budget.
As a self-identified frugal person, I’m not particularly proud of this fact.

But on the flipside,

I have more disposable income per month

I no longer have housemates

I can afford to support my friends’ businesses

I can afford to donate more

I can afford to go travelling

I should stay put in one location, at least for a few years (until I’m bored and feel like living somewhere else), so I’ll save on moving costs

I don’t think I have to make any big purchases for a while (mattress, fridge, couch etc)

Some business expenses can be deducted (I think)

I don’t have to get much ‘business’ clothes

I contribute more to investments

Generally, I’m happier and more stress-free

I apologise if this post seems like bragging in any way, but I’m genuinely fascinated by the insights that my spending habits gave me. I’m glad that, at the end of the day, my biggest expense is still donations to people I love.

Like I mentioned in my
11 things I learned about self-employment in Malaysia
 post, I’m now in ‘earning money’ mode rather than ‘saving money’ mode. Now I’d rather earn more than save more. I think I can probably cut down 20-30% of my expenses if I really try, but I’d rather not live miserably and miserly.

Truthfully, I still have trouble digesting my sudden increase in disposable income. So far I’ve chucked most of them in various investments, because I don’t know what to do with them and I feel uncomfortable seeing them not doing anything. I wonder how other people deal with their disposable incomes, after life expenses? Do they actively look for things to buy? Do they save up for properties? Do they party it all away? It’s fascinating how money amplifies a person’s personality.

With that thought, I’m signing off for now. I would love to hear how you decide – consciously or unconsciously – to spend your money and disposable income. If you feel comfortable sharing, do comment.


5 Reasons Why Malaysians Are Underpaid

It’s no secret that many Malaysians are underpaid.

This is not an opinion, this is data. As of May 2022, the minimum wage in Malaysia was increased… to a measly RM1500 per month (from RM1200). According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia, the median salary for Malaysians in 2021 was just RM2,250.

(Note: median salary is a better data point as the average salary in Malaysia differs based on age, education level, industry, gender, geographical location and more. Learn more in the
Salaries & Wages Statistics
 page)

Which is funny (in a sad way), considering that amount is not even enough for a single car owner in Klang Valley to live a meaningful life. They would need to earn at least RM2570.

Note: You can check the
Belanjawanku budget guideline
 to find out how much other household breakdowns approximately needs at the minimum, from singles to couples with children to single parents to elderly.

But… why
are
 Malaysians underpaid? Why Malaysia salary so low?

This part is a bit harder to answer, and I don’t want to fall into the knee-jerk reaction and just say many Malaysian employers are stingy (although they are – see point #4).

Here are 5 reasons why Malaysians are underpaid. Points #1-3 are taken from Bank Negara Malaysia’s Policy & Outlook 2021 document titled
Getting the Great Reset Right: Structural Labour Market Issues in the Post-COVID-19 World
, while the rest taken from news sources.

Reason #1 – Prevalence of the low-cost production model and high dependence on low-skilled foreign workers

Reason no 1 as laid out in the BNM document is absolutely out of your control. It stated: ‘..the prevalence of the low-cost production model and high dependence on low-skilled foreign workers discourages productivity enhancements, depresses wages, and encourages the creation of low-skilled jobs.’

In short, the more Malaysian industries *needs* foreign workers, the lower the salaries will be, especially for low-skilled workers.

(P/s- I don’t like the term low-skilled. This is just a capitalistic term to underpay manual labourers. They can do things the rest can’t)

Side note: DO NOT BLAME FOREIGN WORKERS FOR YOUR LOW PAY

Blame the people who capitalise on their labour, instead – these are the same people who say locals don’t want to do these types of work, when in actuality, locals are just more willing to quit jobs where they are abused for low pay, while the migrant workers *had* to stay because they are stuck.

According to migrant workers advocacy group Tenaganita and as reported in
The Rakyat Post
, ‘the abuse faced by these migrant workers included passport retention, unexplained and illegal wage reductions, heavy indebtedness to labour brokers and excessive overtime work.’

Not to mention the foreign workers paid A LOT for the ‘privilege’ of getting work here. According to
Malaysiakini article
, about 500,000 (!!!) migrant workers were cheated in ‘government-sponsored scam’:

“..each applying migrant had paid an average of RM6,000 to the vendors,” said Tenaganita’s director Joseph Paul Malaimauv. “Those who did not obtain the work permit lost all the money that they had paid and in most cases they also lost their passports which they had handed over”

Reason #2 – Low creation of high-skilled jobs

Reason no 2 is also kind of out of your control. I’ll just share this whole part from the
Getting the Great Reset Right: Structural Labour Market Issues in the Post-COVID-19 World
 document, which quotes multiple data sources:

Malaysia’s share of high-skilled job creation
declined to an average of 27% in the period 2010-2019
, from approximately 51% in the previous decade. This corresponds to 86,200 employment gains per annum between 2010-2019, while the number of graduates in Malaysia has increased by an average of 151,000 persons per annum over the same period.

These figures complement findings from a Khazanah Research Institute study, which showed that
95% of young workers in unskilled jobs and 50% in low-skilled non-manual jobs were over-qualified for the occupations they were in
.

The most recent Graduate Tracer Study by the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) suggests a similar story, revealing that approximately
 one-third of graduates end up in mid-skilled and low-skilled occupations.

Ultimately, this suggests that the economy has not been creating sufficient high-skilled jobs to absorb the number of graduates entering the labour force, leading to skill-related underemployment.

You don’t need me to tell you that the lower the salary you start with, the slower your income progression tends to be throughout life.

Reason #3 – Significant mismatches between skills required by industry and those that workers possess

Reason number 3 is the ‘simple’ case of people having skillsets that many companies don’t particularly need… and thus won’t pay for.

As per the same BNM document,

According to an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) study on skills imbalances in Malaysia,
employers reported shortages in communication skills (e.g. oral expression and writing), social skills (e.g. social perceptiveness and social orientation), and physical abilities (e.g. static strength and stamina)
.

In this case, there are *some* things a person can do. It is very common nowadays to switch specialisations and industries – easier said than done, but there are many courses one can take where they can get qualified in a different field altogether, where work opportunities are more abundant.

If you are early enough, you could also avoid or switch your major and avoid the skillsets that are lower in demand.  In the Graduate Tracer Study as conducted by the Ministry of Higher Education, and summarised by
Dr Muhammad Hisham
, he stated:

Out of eight field of studies surveyed by MOHE, the top three register the highest number of unemployed graduates are social sciences, business and law (14,665 or 15.6%); engineering, manufacturing and construction (8,950 or 11.4%); and sciences, mathematics and computing (4,113 or 12.8%)

If you want more information on Reasons #1-3, I invite you to read BNM’s
Getting the Great Reset Right: Structural Labour Market Issues in the Post-COVID-19 World
 document. Now let’s explore other reasons why Malaysians are underpaid.

Reason #4 – Malaysian employers are stingy

I didn’t say this, BNM did. In a nicer way of course.

According to Bank Negara Malaysia’s 2018 Annual Report and
as reported in NST
,

Malaysia’s current wage productivity levels are misaligned… if a Malaysian worker produces output worth US$1,000, he would be paid US$340.
The corresponding wage received by a worker in benchmark economies for producing the same output worth US$1,000 was higher at US$510
.

Further analysis reveals that most industries in Malaysia compensate workers less than those in the benchmark economies, even after adjusting for productivity.

That report came out years ago, but the situation didn’t get better. In February 2022, Utusan reported the President of Malaysia’s Trades Union Congress (MTUC) claiming
Malaysian employers only contribute 25% of GDP as wages to employees
, compared to Singapore (40%), the Philippines (76%) and Indonesia (84%).

EDIT: Thanks reader
syzvvn
 for sharing a more updated data. According to
Bernama
 and media release, ‘Compensation of employees contributes 34.8 pct to the nominal GDP’ in 2021.

Image source: https://www.dosm.gov.my/v1/index.php?r=column/cthemeByCat&cat=266&bul_id=NDYzci9qQnJaZDlYelVaalpnRzhQQT09&menu_id=TE5CRUZCblh4ZTZMODZIbmk2aWRRQT09

Look, I’m not saying companies should give ALL their profits to employees, I understand that business is business, not a charity. But at least compensate workers as per their productivity output – how about earmarking 50% of company profits towards employees wages and benefits?

If SMEs I can understand (especially those barely making a profit), but it’s not like the bigger companies can’t afford the wage increase.
Malaysian GLCs’ CEOs make 300 times the employee minimum wage
. And
the average Malaysian CEO makes 148x the average CEO salary.

No matter how you twist it, Malaysian employees salaries are so laughably low. But why isn’t it increasing?

Probably because…

Reason #5 – The Malaysian Employers Federation is very vocal

I mean, I get why Malaysian Employers Federation would be pro-employers. It’s in the name. I’m not shocked by that.

But I am shocked by how actively anti-employees they are.
Everyone (most of all, them) should know how
productivity

is tied to employee wellbeing
. Employees can’t produce their best results if they are worried sick about living costs.

Proof? Sure. In a meta-analysis of independent studies covering the wellbeing and productivity of nearly 2 million employees and the performance of over 80,000 business units, originating from 230 independent organisations across 49 industries in 73 countries, the
results suggest a strong positive correlation between employee wellbeing, productivity, and firm performance
.

Again, employers *should* know this. Yet look at how hard they fought against raising the minimum wage from RM1200 to RM1500 in 2021:

Malaysian Employers Federation is really vocal about not raising minimum wage. Why is that?
pic.twitter.com/DIILPvEmrV
— Suraya: bestselling Bergaji & Pokai book (@surayaror)
November 2, 2021

I don’t know why Malaysian Employers Federation is so hell-bent on being anti-employees. Look at these other headlines:

21 March 2022 in The Edge –
MEF urges govt to delay minimum wage hike implementation

12 August 2022 in NST –
MEF urges govt to defer reduction in weekly working hours

17 August 2022 in The Edge –
MEF urges govt to delay enforcing Employment Act amendments, estimated to cost RM111 bil per year

All I can say is,
you reap what you sow
. High-skilled people with savings (or people who just had enough) will continue to refuse low salaries and find better opportunities, either online or abroad. Thank you globalisation and the internet.

While we’re at it, here’s your regular reminder that employee loyalty is only reserved to companies with fair financial compensation, benefits and thriving work culture. If not, no need to be loyal, you don’t owe them anything, find somewhere else.

In the end – What YOU can do to get paid more

Honestly, you can make noise (and you should, or they’ll think we’re fine with this), you can do advocacy, but ultimately only
strong political willpower
 can change all the systemic issues that impact workers’ salaries, from direct (move towards living wage etc) to indirect (lower/free childcare costs, lower living costs, etc).

And even if things do change for the better, you have to remember these changes will be
gradual
, not immediate. It’ll take time. You won’t get living wage overnight. You won’t get social protection overnight. Your living costs won’t be drastically reduced overnight.

As such, the responsibility to
earn higher salaries
 – for the sake of your own futures – will still fall onto your own good self.

Some employers will take it upon themselves to offer better salaries and
benefits
 so they get better hires, but other employers will continue to offer low salaries (because it’s legal, plus all the other reasons above), so you have no other choice but to be employable, you just don’t.

(The good thing is, it’s not hard to be employable? Just look at what good employers offering high pay and good benefits complain about – critical thinking, problem-solving skills – then work on that and you’ll be better than 90% of others competing for the same high paid jobs)

Sorry to end it on this note, but you know what? You’ll be fine – lots of things you can do. Upskilling. Job-hopping. All those things.

For those who feel kinda hopeless and perhaps lacking savings and desperate to take any jobs, even low-paid ones, I can only point you to this article:
Resources for the Financially Struggling in Malaysia

All the best everyone. Let’s continue to push the government to do better.


oh shit, are we in a recession?

Recession. Hard topic to cover. I am so torn between ‘don’t create unnecessary panic’ and ‘don’t be in denial’.

Are we? Are we not? What’s the definition anyway. Oh, ‘a period of temporary economic decline during which trade and industrial activity are reduced, generally identified by a fall in GDP in two successive quarters.’

Okay I’m no economic expert or nuthin’, but I think there’s a good chance of that happening, caused by reduced country revenue due to falling oil prices and I dunno, A GLOBAL PANDEMIC halting most economic activities in public spaces.

To the government’s credit, they’re doing all they can to mitigate. They’re assuring us they’re doing all they can. The economic stimulus is being rolled out.

But let’s be clear. Now it’s not about thriving and growing, but about risk management and avoiding worse-case scenario. Being overly optimistic in this kind of environment is just stupid.

So let’s keep it real. Don’t mean to brag but I have been spending A LOT of time online, just observing the situation and your reactions, and this is what I saw:

Your net worth probably went down

Unless you’re keeping ALL your money in cash (bank notes, savings accounts), I would be really surprised if your investments and net worth are not affected in this market.

Our stock market went down – there goes your EPF returns. Global stock markets went down – there goes your PRS and roboadvisory platform returns. Property market has been down for ages.

‘Hedges’ are also not dependable. Crypto went down like crazy (traitor!). Even gold, the traditional safe haven – went down!

Personally, I suffered quite a hit.

My net worth just reduced by a third overnight hahahah

It’s really not funny, I don’t know why I’m laughing, but if this is my coping mechanism then so be it. Better than depression I guess

— Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)
March 13, 2020

The only people who are happy with the market are traders, who make money with market volatility (and damn the market is volatile), and cash-rich people, who are waiting to pick up cheap stocks and soon, properties.

You’re lucky if you’re still working/making an income

Work is no longer something we complain about. It’s more like a blessing nowadays –
not everyone has it.
In fact I would even go as far as to say that having work to do/being employed is a type of flex.

View this post on Instagram

Reposted from @myhellogold . Reviewing my own answer in here. I said that financial independence is choosing to work if I want to, and choosing not to work if I don’t want to . Now that COVID-19 is in full blast, work is… an amazing distraction. A type of joy and a blessing, even . I’m also thinking how it’s a privilege to still be working, to still have an income source. Not all self-employed individuals can say that . Funny how it takes a recession to finally appreciate work 😌 hang tight everyone, we can do this

A post shared by
 Suraya Zainudin
 (@surayaror) on
Mar 16, 2020 at 2:02am PDT

I honestly can’t imagine being in industries that are heavily impacted, like aviation, retail and tourism. I can only hope you have enough savings to last you a while, and/or have a strong support network. There is some assistance from the government but that can’t be enough.

If your income is heavily affected, allow yourself to be sad for 5 minutes (because let’s face it, it is horrible) then get right back into action mode, because life still goes on despite how you feel. Go through my
Earning Money
 articles – there are lots of ways to make money even in a crappy economy, I promise.

Your definition of ‘reasonable comfort’ is about to change

There are two types of people with disposable income: those who live beyond reasonable comfort, and those who think they don’t and are lying to themselves.

Like many people – and yes, even you, don’t think you’re above statistics – I have been living with excesses. Sure, I tell myself that ‘oh but you know I don’t live
extravagantly
, like the 1%’, but fact is my fridge and pantry do contain RM70/kg Australian cheddar cheese and RM80/kg Colombian ground coffee.

(Groceries is my weak point. Your version might be tech or fashion or whatever else)

If we’re entering a recession, all of our purchasing habits will have to change. Either by necessity, as in we just can’t afford it (and you better make the cost calculation earlier rather than later, so you don’t get into unnecessary debt), or via cultural shift (people spending lavishly and showing it off in social media will be considered tacky, doing it in poor taste).

Extravagance is out, frugalism is in

Like I said in the previous section, people who show off their wealth during a recession will be considered tacky. Some will do it anyway, and we will make them famous, because hey we love obsessing about people we hate slash secretly want to become (whether that’s rich or worry-free).

To be fair, this extravagance -> frugalism shift has been happening for years. You might realise it, you might not and I don’t blame you – frugalism lifestyle gets rebranded into catchy names, like FI/RE and minimalism and small home movement and zero waste and #vanlife and capsule wardrobe and whatnot.

(No, really. Whatever you’re into, there’s a community for it. Look it up:
25 Personal Finance Subreddits For You To Find ‘Your People’
.)

But yeah. Expect a lot more lifestyle content to promote frugal values in this upcoming recession. I’ve seen the phrase ‘the joy of missing out’ being thrown about. As someone who does struggle with FOMO and want to experience everything life has to offer, I’m quite happy with this new mindset shift. Was overwhelmed by the choices anyway.

Personally I find myself revisiting this old article of mine:
23 Things That I Can Do At Home, Instead Of Spending Money
.

Can the ultra-rich save us?

My final thoughts for this commentary piece. Sure, we’ll do all we can. Personal responsibility and all. We’ll try to earn more, save more.

But what if that’s not enough?

The ultra-rich came up with the funds to rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral SO FAST. Where are they now? If anything, I read that record number of CEOs of the world’s biggest companies stepped down.
Over 200 CEOs stepped down in January 2020 alone
. They’ve abandoned ship.

Closer to home, have any Malaysian billionaires donated to the Tabung COVID-19 yet? I’m looking at those in the
Forbes Top #50 Richest Malaysians list
.

Sure, not my money, not my place to tell them what to do, but in this type of situation? Really?

Reminder: 52% of Malaysians have difficulty to raise RM1,000 as emergency funds, and only 24% of Malaysians are able to sustain living expenses for at least 3 months or more if they lose their main source of income (10% can sustain for more than 6 months). Source:
Malaysia National Strategy for Financial Literacy (2019-2023) document
.

Telling people to save money now won’t help. It’s almost condescending even.

I sincerely hope I’m wrong and they’re already doing risk-mitigating work behind the scenes. I really, really hope so. Because lots of people are going to be hit HARD if the recession hits.

I guess only time will tell. But based on what I see, we’re still caught up in petty squabbles (read:
[PERSONAL] Malay and Money: A Reflection
) and profiting off each other while defending our right to earn under capitalism, so my hopes for humanity is at an all-time low if I’m honest.

That’s all I have. Sorry to end this so bleakly.


Asshole Shoppers who Haggle Aggressively with Individual Sellers & Small Businesses

Real talk: there’s a special place in hell for people who finds satisfaction in getting the Lowest Possible Price (TM) via haggling with individual sellers & small businesses. These persistent assholes
revels
 in getting the trader to hang their head in shame and disgrace, forced to accept an extremely low profit margin in order to make a desperate, survival sale.

This happens a lot to individual sellers & small businesses, and right here, right now, I’m going to address it. Rule of thumb:
DO NOT HAGGLE WITH INDIVIDUAL SELLERS & SMALL BUSINESSES, WHO ARE JUST TRYING TO MAKE A LIVING. PAY THE BLOODY FULL PRICE.

These people are Mudah sellers who need to sell their belongings to make it through the month. They are the mobile  booth renters at shopping malls who can only afford to employ bored-looking attendants. They are the vendors who rely on seasonal bazaars. They are the traders who keep their stock in the back of their car (and had to pack and leave at a moment’s notice when DBKL comes to check permit). They are the mothers and fathers who sacrificed their careers to be a full-time housewife/husband for the sake of kids but ended up having to start business from home in order to keep up with household expenses. These are the aunties/uncles who peddle their wares table to table, while you were eating at the restaurant.

Obviously the list above is non-exhaustive. But these are people who NEED the profit margin to be financially better.

Asshole shoppers typically say something like this (Malay-centric because taken from own experience).

“Alaaa kasi la discount lebih sikit, kalau tak saya beli dari orang lain la”

“Harga online masa tu lagi murah. Kalau you match I beli sekarang”sh

“Kurang lagi RM10 je, boleh la”

*pretends to leave to pressure seller to lower price*

Please don’t be that person.

I’m ending this post with a brilliant video from India about this horrible behaviour. Please don’t do it. Buy less if you can’t afford to buy a lot, but buy in full price. Don’t demean their time and effort to earn money.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZcPtI7McjY&w=560&h=315]


So You Can’t Afford Retirement. Now What.

According to EPF’s chief strategy officer,
only 3% of contributors can afford retirement
.

3%. 3 people, out of
one hundred.
 The T3.

To say that most Malaysians are effed, or will be effed, is an understatement.

What’s more, the 3% figure doesn’t even take into account people who
don’t
contribute to EPF, such as the millions of gig workers and people working in the informal sector. If you factor them in, it’s likely even more Malaysians can’t afford retirement.

Suck.

…Now what?

The best solution (that will probably never happen)

The best situation to happen right now to fix this lack-of-money-for-retirement problem is:

(1) everyone gets higher salaries, AND
(2) government policies that reduce the cost of living and improve social protection, AND
(3) everyone to save money aggressively and only spend on needs, not wants

Realistically speaking, none of those will happen, at least not at the speed and level we want. And it certainly won’t happen while the Malaysian Employers Federation is hell-bent on maintaining RM1200 minimum wage.

(Speaking of which, how are they so influential anyway? It’s not like we’re silent about wanting living wage. It’s not like think tanks and financial institutions like BNM, EPF, AKPK etc didn’t conduct research about the importance and need for increased minimum wage. How do they wield so much power to just stop the minimum wage from increasing?)

(Like, do they just see
EPF’s Belanjawanku
 Expenditure Guide, and went like, nope we still believe RM1200 minimum wage is enough?)

“Yeah!” Some of you said, “Employers are horrible! Give us higher salaries!”

They should definitely provide at least living wage to all employees, but remember:
if higher salary is the only answer, you wouldn’t have high-income earners in huge debts.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)

Important: getting into huge (consumer) debt it’s not due to lack of willpower and discipline alone. In addition to yes the fault of human desires, high-income earners are also targeted more by advertisements, because they are part of the ‘affluent customer base’.

In short, when you have higher salary, more marketers will show you ‘the dream’ (house, car, travelling lifestyle etc etc) and the perceived affordability of said dream (they will tell you something is ‘
from
RMxxxx’, don’t they?).

If you are exposed to these ads on a super regular basis, of course you will be tempted. Especially if your friend group (or desired friend group) also has the same lifestyle. This is the basis of my
Why We Can’t Stop Spending Money
 article.

Related:
Where Do People Get the Money to Afford Their Amazing Lifestyles?

The more realistic solutions

I believe that giving everyone higher salaries, lowering the cost of living and improving social protection are just some of the solutions, not
all
 of the solutions. This issue is too complex to just have one easy solution.

What can we do about it?

Tbh, beyond making noise and doing some activism work, there’s not much any of us can do about it. You can be angry (and you should), but if they’re not raising salaries and lowering the cost of living, then ultimately it’s up to us.

So that brings us here. What are realistic solutions to not having enough retirement savings?

Two options come to mind: working beyond retirement age and/or choosing an extremely low-cost lifestyle. Let’s expand both of these.

Option 1: Working beyond retirement age

If you’re not part of the 3%, then the traditional idea of working until you’re 55/60 years old and then retiring is no longer applicable.

If you’re up to the challenge, you can of course try your best to join the 3%. There are many ways to earn money nowadays and the world is abundant. You can steadily
increase your salary
 and/or earn more via
side income
.

But if you can’t work or don’t want to work for whatever reason (I am sympathetic to
less fortunate people
 but not to complainers), then the only way forward is to accept the fact that you’ll be working beyond retirement age.

Once you get over the initial denial, it’s not the worse scenario actually. If one manages to find a fulfilling job (providing for family counts as fulfilling), it will still be a good life. Personally, I’ve already accepted I might need to work forever as well.

Option 2:  Choosing an extremely low-cost lifestyle

The second option is risky on its own, if not done together with Option 1 because low-cost lifestyle is not NO cost lifestyle. Plus emergencies can always come up.

However, it is possible, so I’m just sharing the possibility out there.

You could:

Opt out of modern life, like the man featured in my
Can We Live Without Money In Malaysia?
 article
Choose certain lifestyles with cheap or free accommodation, as shared in my
5 FREE or Cheap Housing in Malaysia
 article

Either way, both these options have something in common: they need the support of a strong community. So you better be the friend/neighbour/person who helps people from now, because that will make it easier for others to help you if/when you need it. I mean, do you want to help out a person if they treated you horribly in the past? I guess not, right?

Tbh this isn’t the worst situation to be in either. Being strong in community equals being rich in relationships, aka the meaning of life. You can still absolutely still be happy living a low-cost lifestyle, as long as you don’t compare yourself with others (even rich people aren’t happy when they compare themselves to people richer than them!)

What other options are available for people who can’t afford retirement?

Aside from the two options above, what other options are available for the people who can’t afford retirement?

Don’t give me ‘govt should do this, employers should do that’. Yes, they should. Yes, I’m as angry as the rest of you over the situation, which could be better but isn’t. But I don’t want to spend too much time being angry without doing something about it.

So, let me know in the comments. What do you plan to do, if you know you’re not saving enough? What’s your Plan A, B and C if your money in golden years run out?


Why We Can’t Stop Spending Money

Look up any commentary or news piece about poor Malaysians and the (sad) state of our finances, and you can find discussions about our self-control.

Apparently, some of us lack self-control so much that we simply can’t help buying all the H&M clothes and trying out all the Starbucks drinks against our better judgement.
That, said the commentators, is the reason why many of us complain too much about the cost of living, so stop complaining and just buy less lah!

This shallow reasoning makes me angry.

Are we simply going to ignore decades worth of behavioural economics research that is used to influence our purchasing behaviour and habits? Or do we just not take into account thousands of people employed in big companies whose jobs is to develop and execute sales, advertisement and marketing strategies?

And you expect me, a mere individual, to be able to resist all these combined efforts and temptations, 100% of the time? And tell me I lack willpower?

Factors that Led to Us Spending Money

I want to make something very clear. There are spenders among us, who really do consider shopping as a legitimate activity for
every
 weekend (and even weekdays). There are people who battle shopping addictions. There are people who continually make new purchases after new purchases, just to feel good for that moment, just to distract themselves from whatever hardships they’re experiencing.

To which I’ll just counter back: not my money, not my place to advice.

This opinion piece is more for people like myself –
people who actively make efforts to save money, yet sometimes still fall prey to shiny new items that we rationally know we don’t need
.

Recently, I read a book entitled
Bargain Fever: How to Shop in a Discounted World
 by Mark Ellwood. I picked it up expecting to find bargain-shopping tips, but what I got instead was the historical evolution of retail strategies, and how it got better over time. It’s a great book, I highly suggest it. Look for it at Book Xcess at Amcorp Mall, PJ.

Here are a few things I got out of the book, related to strategies used by companies to encourage us to part with our money.

The role of price consultants

Price consultants advise companies about product pricing. Way back, the accepted pricing strategy was cost of producing item + reasonable profit markup. Nowadays, it’s more to ‘the highest amount people would pay for them’.

Because the latter is a lot more flexible, price consultants have devised ways to sell the exact same product to people with different price motivations. This is how a garment that costs RM10 to produce can sell for RM100+, RM50+ and finally RM10+ during stock clearances.

It’s almost scary reading about how price consultants can engineer, induce and manipulate dopamine rushes – the type that we get when we come across ‘good deals’ (in quote marks because in many cases, they aren’t actually good deals). When we get those dopamine hits, that’s it, our resolve weakens, and we are much more likely to buy things we may not need.

Price consultants use many strategies. Like, did you know:

A product with
$9.99 price tag sells 10-20% more
 than a product with $10 price tag? It’s the ‘9’ ending that somehow tell us the item is a value item, even though it may not be the case

The ridiculously-priced item in the menu is not designed to be sold, but rather designed to
appear
 cheap
 next to the other offerings. In other words, the RM95 Lobster Truffle Extravaganza makes the RM25 burger looks downright affordable. This applies to many shops, including fashion and accessories

Shops like to display
three options
 – cheap, medium and expensive – and knowing many of us usually pick the in-between (to not appear cheap but still not splurging, we tell ourselves). The highest profit margin tends to be the middle one.

Labelling items as bargains
 or cheaper than usual even though they’re the usual, exact same price.

Using
time-sensitive promotions
 will increase sales (even if it’s a fake price reduction).

Related:
10 Manipulative Advertising Techniques You Should Know

As I type this out, I realised I have fallen for these tricks more times than I care to admit. For example, I like Uniqlo – I think of it as a shop that sells quality and value-for-money clothes. Did I get the ‘value for money’ part from their price tags, which tend to end in ‘.90’?

I have also bought grocery items not on my grocery list simply because the products were labeled on sale at the shops. More than once, I found out they actually sell for more or less the same price at other places.

And I have felt good about ordering that RM25 burger after deciding against the RM95 menu items. I felt so good about saving that money (hah!), I even ordered dessert with the money I saved (hah!!).

So price psychology is one aspect explaining why we shop more excessively than we have to. There’s more.

The role of technology

This segment is broad, but I’ll do my best in explaining how technology is used to encourage your spending.

Firstly, the use of technology in
data collection
. Companies can now profile and study your purchasing habits, and send you personalised offers. I certainly received coupons from Tesco that encouraged me to make an additional, unplanned trip just to use it up.

They can even predict what you’re likely to buy in the future – read up
this case
 about a dad who rage-complained to Target for sending coupons for baby products, when his teenage daughter was indeed hiding a pregnancy!

Secondly,
algorithms
 – AI or otherwise – that ‘adjusts’ prices according to variables like time, location and even your device. Did you know that some prices, like flight prices – are
higher for Apple users
? This demographic have been targeted as high spenders, thus y’all are paying more than what others are paying.

Thirdly, technology that
 advertisers use to target you
. You know this already, I’m very sure you get a shit ton of ads every day. You even get it from this website, because I earn passive income by allowing advertisers to reach you finance-conscious folks.

But here’s the shitty part – I actually
like
 receiving targeted ads. I like discovering things I might like, and sometimes I do. So in this case, it’s more like me wanting to be angry but actually not. Yeah privacy and all that, but.. *runs out of excuses*

Okay, anyway, my point is that technology both increased the relevancy of ads, AND the frequency of you discovering it. It’s like casting a thousand fish rods – it’s stupid to not expect any bites!

Where Do We Go From Here

No freaking idea. I concede defeat. I will now refuse to beat myself, and my generation up for not saving as much money as we should. We will always have flaws, we  will always experience momentary lapses in judgement, and if we create financial damage out of it, well that sucks, but it’s not the end of the world.

Wait, hold one. I do not concede defeat, not fully anyway. I understand I cannot fully win all the battles, but I CAN reduce the casualties. I just have to be more diligent with purchases. Set clear wants/needs boundaries. Recognise the price strategies in the wild.
Reduce my technology usage
. Okay let’s start with these first.

What do you think? Do you beat yourself up for failing to stop spending money? Do you see now how it’s not all your fault?

Related:
8 Rules to When You Should Splurge and When You Should Skimp


Are Malay Graduates and Job Seekers being Discriminated in Malaysia? Yes, finds this study.

High number of unemployed graduates,
 especially Malay graduates are not news in this country. We hear them blaming everything but themselves. But what if the Malays are indeed being discriminated against?

Yeah right, I muttered at first, as someone who is sometimes ashamed by my own race (how could I not, when I’m assumed to be ‘easily swayed and confused’ half the time?). EDIT: I’ve since penned the
Malay and Money: A Reflection
 article, taking ownership of my heritage

Trying to keep an open mind, I read this study, and was quite puzzled by the findings. It was entitled ‘
Discrimination in high degrees: Race and graduate hiring in Malaysia
‘ and was published in the Journal of Asia Pacific Economy by UM and UKM researchers. Here’s the paper abstract (bold is my own):

This paper investigates
racial discrimination in hiring fresh degree graduates in Malaysia through a field experiment
. We send
fictitious Malay and Chinese resumes to job advertisements
, then analyse differentials in callback for interview attributable to racial identity, while controlling for applicant characteristics, employer profile and job requirements.

We find that
race matters much more than resume quality, with Malays, Malaysia’s majority group significantly less likely to be called for interview.
 Other factors, particularly language proficiency of employees, language requirements of jobs and profile of employers, influence employer biases.

Applicants fluent in Chinese fare better, and Chinese-controlled and foreign-controlled companies are more likely to favour Chinese resumes, indicating that cultural compatibility explains part of the discrimination.

Malay resumes tend to be perceived and prejudged adversely, and employers’ attitudes towards public policy outcomes, particularly pertaining to education quality and employment opportunity in the public sector, also account for the observed racial disparities
.

Let me simplify that for you:

When researchers sent fake resumes of Malay and Chinese fresh graduates, the Malay applicants are much less likely to be called back for an interview. Employers perceive Malays negatively, think that they have lower-quality education and always have the safety net in the form of government jobs to fall back on.

Huh. I’ve never been pro-Malay, but I hate discrimination more. How was the research conducted to come to this conclusion?

How the research was conducted

The research:

Sent over 3000 fake resumes, divided into 4 categories: AA Malay, AA Chinese, BA Malay and BA Chinese (AA = Above average; BA = Below average).

CGPA, university, language and technical skills were randomly assigned.

Sent the resumes to job vacancies in finance and engineering sector

Did not include other races

The researchers:

Found that in general, AA applicants get more callbacks than BA applicants. Interestingly,
AA Malay have lower callback rate than BA Chinese.

Showed that Chinese resumes received 22.1% callback rate on average while Malay resumes received 4.2% callback rate on average.

Malay applicants for engineering jobs get the lowest callback rate at 2.9%

Malay graduates from private universities get the lowest callback

Showed that UTAR graduates get higher callback rates, but there is no penalty for UiTM degrees

Malay resumes stating proficiency in Chinese get higher callback rates.

English and Malay proficiency and good English in cover letter have ‘negligible impact on call rates’

Calculated callback rates among Chinese, foreign and Malay-controlled companies. Malays get lower callback rates in ALL of them.
Even Malay-controlled companies favour Chinese applicants 1.6 times more than Malays.

As I read, it dawned to me the long-forgotten early struggles in my career, where I struggled to hear back from potential employers despite sending job applications after job applications. I thought it happened to everyone. I thought all job seekers faced the same problem.

Was it… caused by my (very Malay-sounding) name instead?

What caused this?

The research said that the data generated cannot give conclusive reasons. But some important points to highlight:

Cultural compatibility and language ability matters.
 Employers with predominantly Chinese employees perceive that Malays are less likely to take jobs offered anyway (or quit within a few months), as Malays have the tendency to feel uncomfortable in these settings. The researchers theorise that Malays prefer environments where their religious customs and spoken language in work environment are catered to.

Malay applicants are negatively prejudged.
 This explains why BA Chinese get higher callback rates than AA Malays. No conclusive reasons are given, except that the negative stereotypes may be reinforced by past experience and lack of contact between these two groups to prove otherwise.

Appears to be the result of pro-Malay affirmative actions.
People tend to think that Malays have lower-quality education and higher opportunities in the public sector anyway. This is a very complex issue, and further research is needed, but the researchers suggest that
pro-Malay policies may in fact hurt Malay graduates’ job prospects
.

What does this mean?

For the longest time, I have thought, ‘Man, Malays are complainers’ when they say they can’t get jobs or get high pay or have limited opportunities. I thought: ‘The PM is Malay, the Parliament is majority Malay, the Kings are Malay, the policies are pro-Malay… what more do you want?’

There’s substantive proof now to back up this discrimination claim.
22.1% callback rate vs 4.2% callback rate is a big difference
. 1 in 5 Chinese applicants get called for interview, while less than 1 in 20 Malay applicants get the same. Remember that the quality of resumes were already factored in.

Less callbacks means less opportunities, more likelihood to take lower-salary but stable jobs, and being stuck in lower-economic power for longer time.

This is only one research though, and I’m happy to be pointed to other studies to disprove this or question the methodology of this research (for example, I didn’t like that it only compared Malay and Chinese resumes). But until then, won’t you agree that discrimination is discrimination?

How now, brown cow?

I hate the blame game, so I’m going to end this with a few suggestions on how can we level the playing field a bit more, so
deserving
 Malay candidates get equal and fair chance in the job market, too.

Employers (of ALL races):

If your employees are predominantly composed of a single race, get more diversified.
Diversified workplaces earn more profits
. It’s literally to your advantage to have a racially-balanced workforce.

Know that you (even Malay employers) have a negative bias against Malays, and that potentially makes you lose out on those good Malay candidates.

Malay graduates and job seekers:

If you have Chinese proficiency, put it in your resume. If you don’t and have difficulty getting callbacks, take Mandarin classes at the same time. This research proved that Chinese proficiency increased callback rates.

Make more friends outside of your race. Make more friends outside of your race. Make more friends outside of your race. You’re the majority. It’s up to you to reach out to others, not the other way around. Actively attend and network in events, not just Malay-organised events. Be a good friend, be a respectful person.

Even though you believe in your faith and race 100%, stop making remarks that make you sound stupid, non-accommodating and even violent.
Be easy to work with
.

HXSM
 illustrated some stereotypes of Malay behaviour. We are often portrayed as intolerant, close-minded bunch. There’s a grain of truth in that, unfortunately.


The (Unintended) Harmful Consequences of ‘Do Your Own Research’

Confession: I say ‘Do your own research’ a lot. I say it on this website, I say it in my social media posts, I even say it in person, after someone asks me for financial advice.

I repeat it often because it is considered good practice among personal finance content creators. It is even used to sign off, in a ‘I’m done now, ok bye’ way: Bla bla bla. Remember, not financial advice, do your own research. NFA, DYOR.

However, an exchange during a webinar with the good folks at
Institute of Capital Research Malaysia
 got me thinking. They asked, ‘but even if you don’t mean to, people who look up to you will still take what you say as financial advice. So what do you do?’

I have to admit, that hit me hard. I didn’t know what to say, and mumbled something along the lines of ‘but by saying it my responsibility is done’. Which isn’t a very good answer.

So that brings us to,

When is it financial advice, and when is it sharing personal experience/sentiment?

 I always maintain that personal finance as a topic is NOT the sole domain of financial experts. EVERYONE should talk about personal finance. Normalising money conversations is one of the most important, if not the most important thing in producing a financially literate and responsible society.

Another reason to talk about money – if you don’t, then the financial content available will only come out from financial organisations and service providers, who don’t necessarily act in your best interest because their business interests come first (nothing wrong with that).

 So now that we have established that, the question is: where is the line between financial advice and sharing personal opinion?
And is saying ‘Do your own research’ after sharing said opinion enough
, when there are harmful – even though unintended! – consequences?

The (Unintended) Harmful Consequences of Saying ‘Do Your Own Research’

I listed them out. Here are 8 unintended yet harmful consequences of saying DYOR that I can think of:

1. It’s an easy way to avoid responsibility and consequences.

Aka ‘I already told you to DYOR, so why didn’t you?’

2. It is usually silent on where to do said further research.

Thanks for the reminder to learn more, but where are good places to start?

3. And even if further materials are provided..

Do they only
serve to prove one’s ‘advice’
, or do they give alternative viewpoints as well?

4. It leaves people at the mercy of marketing strategies.

Do you think the financial advice you googled for is on the first page of Google by chance? No, they search engine-optimised the heck out of it, with the hope that you’ll buy their products eventually.

In the same vein, financial companies also implement various referral and affiliate programs to encourage people to promote them. The incentives are so attractive that I share my own
referral links
 all the time. #meta

5. It neglects the human tendency to mistake confidence for competence.

Yes ‘DYOR’ is essentially good practice but not when you get info from incompetent people who happen to be confident. (This is also
why mediocre but confident men get promoted or viewed as leaders more
)

6. It scares people and delays them from taking action

As they have to do this massive task of doing the research first.

How are you supposed to ‘invest as early as possible’ if you are told to ‘know EVERYTHING you’re investing into’? Heck I still don’t know what EPF invests in exactly but most of us have our retirement money there, don’t we?

7. Good intentions =/= good outcome.

I could share something which I thought is wonderful, and it could be the worst possible option for someone out there.

8. It shifts the blame

When people make mistakes, they are just dismissed and told off for not doing enough research. Isn’t it is far better for companies to design good products in the first place?

Those are the ones I can think of right now; there may be more.

But most importantly, I found out that
saying NFA and DYOR is basically… useless
.

What constitutes financial advice, according to the SC

Sections 2.2 of the Securities Commission’s
Guidance Note on Provision of Financial Advice document
 is clear in saying that NFA DYOR disclaimers do NOT void someone from responsibility. If someone takes your recommendation, it is, for all intent and purposes, considered as advice.

(shoutout to Izwan Zakaria of law firm
izwanpartners.com
 and
startuplawblog.my
 (shares resources for Malaysian startups) for sharing this document with me)

What I am doing to be a more responsible personal finance content creator

(Important: I’m aware many people aside from myself say Do Your Own Research. I’m not calling anyone out, only myself.)

Throughout all my years being a personal finance blogger, I’ve probably contributed to ALL of the harmful consequences, even though, again, I didn’t mean to. And even though I said I blog about personal finance
for my own sake more than for your education
, I can’t stop the negative consequences, only reduce them.

I believe that anyone can contribute to personal finance chatter regardless of financial background (or lack thereof), but the guilt weighed on me so much, it factored into my decision to finally taking the
Certified Financial Planning (CFP)
 course.  What started as a hobby may now end up as a career in financial planning advisory. (Maybe. I don’t know yet).

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is (1) I’ll be more mindful with what I say, and (2) I’ll maintain my style of writing and continue sharing my notes and experience with various financial tools and opportunities. If it sounds ‘advice-y’, it’s only because I can back it up with experience and/or research.

But! Do Your Own Research is still better than It Depends

This is my opinion, but no matter what, Do Your Own Research disclaimers is still better – WAY BETTER – than ‘it depends’.

'it depends' is a really annoying answer to almost all personal finance questions but it is also the right answer
— Suraya ringgitohringgit.com 🏴 (@surayaror)
February 12, 2020

‘It depends’ dulls the conversation, even though it is technically the right answer.
 And I argue that bringing excitement to personal finance is what is needed, more than technical accuracy.
Don’t underestimate fun – it leads to consistency.

So that’s my stance with NFA, DYOR. What do you personally think of the phrase, when you hear people saying it?