Link Roundup #82: 10 Things to Know This Week

Accelerate your personal finance knowledge with this regular feature on Ringgit Oh Ringgit – the Link Roundup! I promise you’ll find these 10 links informational 🙂

1.
The Simple Math of How to Retire with Millions
 – Foundation for Economic Education

In my article
How to Get RM10000 per Month in Passive Income (In 3 Steps)
, I oversimplified the calculations, to make them easier to understand.

However, if you are so inclined, you can calculate how much exactly you need to save for retirement (early or otherwise), factoring in inflation.

For example, someone who wants to have a nest egg of $6.257 million by the time they are 70 can lock away $65,600 at age 22 and never have to add another dollar – just let compounding do its thing.

This is something a financial planner can help to calculate for you. They can also calculate shortfalls in a client’s savings (common) and suggest the options they have, going forward.

2
.
Why Science Says Emotionally Intelligent People Follow the Rule of No Complaints
 – Inc

I’m glad I came across this article. It cemented what I already practice – avoid non-doer complainers. Learning how to nod politely and remove myself from circles of friends and acquaintances who love to complain (and do nothing about it) is one of the
5 important things I learned in my 20s
.

The researchers found that people who complained were in a worse mood, felt less satisfaction and pride in the work they were doing, and were significantly more likely to feel less happy and experience poorer self-esteem the next day as well.

To be clear, venting and sharing frustrations is fine. But it has to go beyond ‘my boss sucks’.
If you don’t like it, do something about it.

So instead of wasting energy by complaining, blow off that steam by talking about how you’ll make things better. What you’ll do next time. What you won’t do next time. Into ensuring you won’t need to refrain from complaining next time because you’ll find ways to ensure you won’t be in the same situation again.

3.
I Marie Kondo’d My House and It Helped Me Stop Mindless Spending
 – Apartment Theraphy

LOVE this article! Mindless spending is fun in small doses but also dangerous when you do it often. So why not curb it by… decluttering? Especially if you’re mindlessly spending on organisational tools and items.

This reminds me of a pretty mind-blowing ‘organisation hack’ I came across years back which I still use now. It’s something along the lines of, ‘declutter BEFORE you buy new containers’.

4.
3 Reasons You Shouldn’t Invest Like Warren Buffett
 – The Motley Fool

Yeah you probably want to be like Warren Buffet, who is famous for his value investing style of stock picking.

But you’re not Warren Buffet. And you don’t have to invest like him. Because:

You don’t have his stock-picking knowledge
You can’t afford the same level of risk
You probably have different goals

Just get low-cost mutual fund, unit trust and ETFs with exposure in multiple markets. Enough already.

Click the tweet below to expand the thread with more info. I also included a platform you can use IF YOU HAVE TO do stock picking.

I dunno who needs to hear this but if you don't have time to read financial statements n no industry knowledge, tak payah buat stock picking, tak payah pilih2 saham
Get mutual fund, unit trust, ETF (my fav cos low fee) w/ exposure in multiple markets – MY, US, China etc. Cukup
— Suraya ringgitohringgit.com 🏴 (@surayaror)
August 20, 2021

5
.
Get More Done: Try These 10 Simple Tips for Better To-Do Lists
 – PC Mag

To-Do Lists is a hardly new concept, but I like how practical and actionable this article is. There are tips in there that I can definitely use to improve my own system.

My own personal tip is to add on things that pop up throughout the day (happens every day so I embrace it), then check it off. I get satisfaction from seeing a lot of things crossed off on my to-do list 😀

Related article if you like this topic:
3 Productivity Tips Women (and Men) MUST Know

6
.
Duit Right: How to Fix Malaysian Political Financing
– New Naratif

Read the 6-page comic to learn about Malaysian Political Financing, key issues, call to action and more.

7.
Remote Work Statistics

Where to find remote jobs? Which one is the highest paid? What’s the fastest growing industry for remote jobs?

Find the data on this webpage. The data is current and updated monthly.

💰 Fastest growing + highest paid remote jobs in Aug 2021:
1 🐇Swift $125k +100%
2 ☁AWS $105k +204%
3 🏅Crypto $125k +54%
4 🕵QA $125k +50%
5 🐳Docker $100k +211%
6 🐀Golang $110k +110%
7 🤠Django $100k +220%
8 🛤Rails $95k +213%
9 🎨UI $98k +100%
https://t.co/9zlUun08Ba
—  (@levelsio)
August 21, 2021

8
.
9 Goal Tracking Apps to Help You Track and Achieve Your Goals
 – MakeUseOf

What a fun list to go through! I didn’t know there are many goal tracking apps out there, including this one called LifeRPG. Wow so fun to visualise your life as stats like that.

9. 15 Tips to Secure Your Cryptocurrencies! – CoinGecko Learn

Hey look it’s a CoinGecko and Girl Gone Crypto collaboration!

Crypto investors, skip this video at your own peril. Never at any point, no matter how pro you think you are, think you are above digital security advice.

10. A tip for buying over-the-counter medicine

Rather than Zentel (brand name), look for albendazole (active ingredient). Rather than Panadol (brand name), look for paracetamol (active ingredient).

Budget hack: when buying medicine, save money by looking for active ingredient rather than brand name
Example: this deworm tablet. Zentel brand is ~RM10/ single adult dose. Alternative brands can be RM4ish. Dosage sama, albendazole 200mg
I got this one. Choc flavour, sedap 😂👍
https://t.co/EvYgAkQlLQ

pic.twitter.com/VOX0TKJL0e
— Suraya ringgitohringgit.com 🏴 (@surayaror)
August 18, 2021

—

That’s it for this round, catch you next time! Want to submit a link you thought was great? Reach out to me on
FB
 or
Twitter
.

To read past link roundups, please click
here
.


Link Roundup #83: 10 Things to Know This Week

Accelerate your personal finance knowledge with this regular feature on Ringgit Oh Ringgit – the Link Roundup! I promise you’ll find these 10 links informational 🙂

1.
8 Signs That a Friend or Colleague Is Toxic to Your Mental Health
 – Fatherly

An important article compiling characteristics of toxic people and the way they make you feel, and most importantly, what you can do to distance yourself or even cut them from your lives.

This is more important to your personal finance than you think. Toxic people will sabotage your growth and manipulate you to spend more than you can afford to (and on them!)

2
.
I’m Self-Employed and Work From Home — Here Are 5 Rules I Set to Stay Productive and Avoid Burning Out
 – Apartment Theraphy

Where is this article when I first started my self-employment journey years ago! (But then again, perhaps I needed to burn out in order to appreciate how nice it is to not burn out, and take steps to prevent it)

All the advice here is gold. The 5 rules are:

Not everything needs to be monetised
Have a designated workspace
Always get dressed for work
Keep firm boundaries around your office hours (if you can)
Maintain a daily routine before and after work

If you’re working from home, how are you doing and are you applying the rules in your life? I’m pretty good at 1 and 3, and still working on applying 2, 4 and 5 well.

3. We Make $3K/Month Selling Trash – Vice

This couple fascinates me. So basically what they do is, they drive around and takes items thrown away that are still edible/in good condition then sells them online. They track dumpsters and trash days and everything.

I kinda love it as a side business. It directly reduces the number of items going straight to the landfill, and they make good money in the process. It’s probably one of the most eco-friendly side businesses you can ever do.

(It also shows how many items are thrown away even though they are in good condition, just because the shops just don’t want the hassle of donating/selling themselves)

4.
Nine psychological tricks to quietly make more money
 – Entrepreneurs’ Handbook

Keyword: quietly.

Nicely written article. I like the communication style.

5
.
Get More Done: Try These 10 Simple Tips for Better ToThe Secret Lives of Hoarders: What I Learned as a Professional Home Cleaner
 – Vice

It’s very rare for hoarders to be covered in the media with empathy and understanding, instead of as entertainment (ie ‘Look at how weird these people are’).

These paragraphs were very insightful:

..hoarding can affect anyone, certainly not only those who are grappling with scarcity, as commonly believed. Hoarders and their homes can look very different from one another. I have wealthy clients with “organized hoarding,” possibly because they have housekeepers who regularly help to pack and conceal the accumulating items.
..People with less money, on the other hand, are not as equipped to stave off visual evidence of their hoarding problem. They have neither dedicated housekeepers nor an abundance of space to hide their things.

6
.
Try this science-backed scheduling trick to relieve your anxiety
 – Fast Co

This is a practical article for those of you who worry a lot. It give the step-by-step guide on how to start practicing ‘deliberate worrying’, so that you can soothe your nerves better.

7.
Kongsi Women: The Women Who Built Malaysia
 – The City Maker by ThinkCity

Image credit KLAF 2018

..
the
kongsi
 women, also known as
lai sui mui
 (meaning ‘mud girls’ in Cantonese on account of the buckets of mud-like liquid concrete that they carried), were a unique tribe of female labourers making up about 60% of total workers on a site.
Working ten or more hours a day, with only two days of leave per year, the women worked tirelessly, carrying buckets or balancing pans on their head of premixed concrete and other materials, laying turf, polishing floors and more.

60%… I don’t know anything about these women labourers, yet they played a big role. Do I even know my country at all.

8.
Women can only succeed as leaders if they show these 3 emotions
 – Ladders

Oh look, yet another study that prove we indeed judge women and male leaders differently.

A new
study
 out of the Drexel University found that when females in positions of leadership express positive emotions, they’re seen as more effective leaders than their male counterparts. But if they show negative emotions, they’re seen as less effective.
Over the course of five studies amalgamated into one, just about 1,300 participants were asked about their opinions concerning what leaders’ emotional expressions said about their leadership skills. Female leaders earned lower ratings on the whole as leaders when they showed more anger, fear, and remorse.
On the other side of things, female leaders were highly rated when they were demonstrated cheer. Women who expressed pride or were described as calm, didn’t have higher or lower perceived leadership skills.

Tl;dr – Women leaders have to learn how to express anger and negative emotions in a way that reframes them as positive, so that she is not perceived as a less effective leader. At the same time, society must apply critical thinking to ‘we judge on merit not gender’ assumption.

9.
50 Tips to Break Out of a Career Rut and Make Your Day Job Feel Like Your Dream Job
 – Parade

A compilation of 50 quotes from people who specialise in advising people on dream jobs and career transitioning. Have a browse if you’re feeling ‘stuck’ in your career right now, maybe one of the tips will be the exact thing you need to break out of it.

10. How ‘Sex & The City’ Ruined Women’s Relationship To Money – The Financial Diet

Really enjoyed this critical analysis of Sex & The City and how it affect a whole generation of women’s relationship to money.

Don’t be fooled, the cultural effect is BIG. For example, many of the luxury brands were not household names nor desired before the series.

Have a watch. Maybe you’ll recognise how your own approach to money is directly/indirectly influenced by shows of this genre (doesn’t have to be specifically S&tC).

—

That’s it for this round, catch you next time! Want to submit a link you thought was great? Reach out to me on
FB
 or
Twitter
.

To read past link roundups, please click
here
.


Link Roundup #84: 10 Things to Know This Week

Accelerate your personal finance knowledge with this regular feature on Ringgit Oh Ringgit – the Link Roundup! I promise you’ll find these 10 links informational 🙂

1.
Why Buying the Dip is a Terrible Investment Strategy
 – Of Dollars and Data

‘BUY THE DIP!!1!’

No. That’s a horrible strategy. The maths prove it: invest every month > invest only during market dips.

(Even better is invest every month AND buy the dip)

2
.
The 9 skills that will help you ‘get promoted faster and receive top performance reviews,’ according to a career expert
 – CNBC Make It

Rather than expanding on the 9 skills, this article expands on the traits of an energizer. They  tend to do these nine things more
systematically
than others:

I strike an effective balance between tapping people in my network to get work done and connecting with them on a personal level, unrelated to our work.
I maintain a balance between what I ask for and what I contribute to the people I work with.
I consistently do what I say I’m going to do and follow through on commitments I make.
I am committed (and show this commitment) to principles and goals that are larger than my own self-interest.
In meetings and conversations, I engage others in realistic possibilities that capture their imaginations and hearts.
I’m fully attentive in my interactions, and show interest in others and their ideas.
I create room for others to be a meaningful part of conversations and make sure they see how their efforts will contribute to a plan.
When I disagree with someone’s plan or a course of action, I do so in a way that focuses attention on the issue at hand, and not the individual.
I maintain a balance between pushing towards a goal and welcoming new ideas that improve the process for reaching a goal.

The opposite of an energizer is a ‘de-energizer’, and they’re not fun to work with.

3.
Societies that treat women badly are poorer and less stable
 – The Economist

High numbers of domestic abuse cases. Sexual Harassment Bill objected by the Malaysian Employer’s Federation. Malaysian mothers blocked from passing on their citizenship to their children.

It sucks that we have to use the ‘don’t treat us badly because you’ll suffer too’ argument. It sucks that some of my sisters live with fear of being abused and killed, even by their own family members and romantic partners. It sucks to beg and fight for it but I’ll do it again and again just so we will eventually live in an equal society.

4.
6 Things to Know about Dividend Reinvestment Plan in Malaysia
 – Marcus Keong

If you’re into stocks, find out about the Dividend Reinvestment Plan. Apparently you can open an account online now!

5
.
Too much free time may be almost as bad as too little
 – American Psychological Association

Researchers analyzed the data from 21,736 Americans who participated in the American Time Use Survey between 2012 and 2013. Participants provided a detailed account of what they did during the prior 24 hours—indicating the time of day and duration of each activity—and reported their sense of well-being.

The researchers found that as free time increased, so did well-being, but it leveled off at about two hours and began to decline after five.
Correlations in both directions were statistically significant.

This is excellent information. Having time is good, but TOO much isn’t. The sweet spot is actually around 2 hours of free time a day.

The conclusion:

“Our findings suggest that ending up with
entire days free to fill at one’s discretion may leave one similarly unhappy
. People should instead strive for having a moderate amount of free time to spend how they want. In cases when people do find themselves with excessive amounts of discretionary time, such as retirement or having left a job, our results suggest these individuals would benefit from spending their newfound time with purpose.”

6
.
How digital-currency investors differ from the general population
 – The Economist

The study is US-specific, but WOAH. Given how crypto investors are given this bad stereotype of being rash and having ‘gambling’ mindset. The outcome of the study disproves that. Crypto investors (in the US at least) are richer and better educated than the rest of the adult population.

I wonder how’s the case in Malaysia.

7.
Meet Five Women Who Founded Their Own Businesses After They Turned 50
 – Martha Stewart

Here are some successful old women to serve as your business inspiration.  (Old is just a descriptor and not a bad word).

8.
6 Weird To-Do Tips to Improve Your Mood and Productivity
 – Make Use Of

I’m adding this here because I personally use tip #6 – Keep a victories list. I *LOVE* striking off a task off my list, it feels so good!

Sometimes, I even add unplanned and completed things to my to-do list just so I can strike it off lol. I mean why not who’s gonna stop me!

9.
I am worried about Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL)
 – Between the Money

Excellent article by Between the Money on BNPL (buy now, pay later services). You already know it is bad for impulsive shoppers. However even the ‘disciplined’ ones too may end up choosing the higher priced products and/or add more products where BNPL is offered.

For example, instead of buying the RM200 pair of shoes, you may get the RM600 one, split into 3 x RM200 payments, AND/OR buy the shoes PLUS some other accessories.

So, if you’re tempted to use BNPL, make sure NOT to upgrade okie.

10. Personal Finance Malaysia Creators that I follow and recommend! – The Personal Finance Challenge

Happy belated Malaysia Day! So thankful to the Malaysian personal finance community – in this space, everyone from different backgrounds shares helpful money tips with each other

We have grown so much in the last 10 years – when I first started, most of the content was from US and not applicable here! Now there are so many amazing personal finance content creators. I am very thankful and very much look forward to continuing learning from everyone 🙂

Special thanks to Personal Finance Challenge channel for including me in this particular list of PF content creators 🙂

—

That’s it for this round, catch you next time! Want to submit a link you thought was great? Reach out to me on
FB
 or
Twitter
.

To read past link roundups, please click
here
.


Link Roundup #85: 10 Things to Know This Week

Accelerate your personal finance knowledge with this regular feature on Ringgit Oh Ringgit – the Link Roundup! I promise you’ll find these 10 links informational 🙂

1
.
Peter Lynch: Far More Money Has Been Lost By Investors Trying To Time Corrections Than In All Corrections Combined
 – The Acquirer’s Multiple

Evergreen investing question:
when
should you buy that stock or mutual fund?

Answer: doesn’t matter, as long as you buy it
every
month.

That answer didn’t come from me, it came from Peter Lynch, one of the most famous investors in the world. This is what he said:

One of the worst mistakes you can make is to switch in and out of stocks or stock mutual funds hoping to avoid the upcoming correction.

Look at the graph below. It compares two investors: the Lucky Investor and the Unlucky Investor. The lucky one
always
invests during yearly lows, and the unlucky one
always
invests during the annual market high.

The difference in return on investment between the two? +8.4% for the Lucky Investor and +7.4% for the Unlucky Investors. So much work (and anxiety) into trying to time the market, for just a measly 1% difference.

That’s why I always advocate for
investments you can automate
, aka set and forget system. Put away RMxxxx every month, then forget about it. Go earn more so you can invest more. No need timing timing.

2.
The gender investing gap isn’t about confidence, it’s about compensation
 – Too Ambitious

Speaking of investing, let’s talk about gender. It is true that the investment space tends to be male-dominated, but remember:

Men aren’t better investors, they simply have more money to invest thanks to higher incomes, less unpaid labor and access to better benefits.

When women have money, we are just as confident and even better investors than men:

a
recently released
 analysis from MIT found that investors who are male or over the age of 45, or who consider themselves as having “excellent investment experience,” are more likely to dump their portfolio in a downturn.
a new
Stash analysis
 found that male Stash customers were 17% more likely to “panic sell” their investments during the early months of the pandemic compared to female Stash customers. In fact, female Stash investors were 63% more likely than men to
increase
their retirement investments during the pandemic.

These are US-specific data, but the underlying lesson is the same: Learn. Investing. From. Women. Not. Just. Men.

3.
RinggitOhRinggit and Her Duit on their best and worst investments, plus tips to start investing
 – Buro247

 On that note, Michelle from
Her Duit
 and I was recently interviewed by Buro247, the lifestyle magazine. We covered:

how we started investing
when we took it seriously
our investing ‘why’
best investing advice
worst investment mistake
best investment move in 2021
and more

Read our tips in the link above 🙂

4.
People with higher socioeconomic status have lower emotional intelligence, especially at high levels of inequality
 – PsyPost

A series of studies published in
Social Psychological and Personality Science
 found that people of higher socioeconomic status (SES) score consistently lower on tests of emotional intelligence, especially when they perceive high levels of inequality in their community. The researchers suggest that high SES and high subjective inequality promotes increased self-focus and less motivation to attend to others’ emotions.

… Are you surprised tho

5
.
New Report Reveals What Employees Will and Won’t Tolerate at Work
 – Inc

I’m not sure if The Great Resignation is also happening in Malaysia, but companies operating in urban areas and MNCs tend to follow Western work trends and culture. In which case, you might also expect certain things from your employers, like flexibility and good work culture.

6.
How Do Boundaries and Self-Esteem Affect Your Relationships?
 – Quick and Dirty Tips

This is a new and fascinating concept for me. In this article, Dr Monica Johnson explains The Relationship Grid(tm), which shows how relationships are affected by varying levels of boundaries and self-esteem.

(Why is this article here? Because your selection of life partner *will* impact your financial life. )

7
.
If you’re struggling at work, use these tips to tap your true passion
 – Fast Company

I don’t believe in ‘follow your passion’ (I prefer ‘follow your curiosity’ instead), but this is certainly one way to expand on the phrase, written from a personal point of view. This article might be useful for some of you – it turns a vague phrase into something more relatable.

8.
A Linguist Explains There Are 2 Conversational Styles. Knowing Which You Prefer Can Make You More Successful
 – Inc

The 2 conversational styles are cooperative overlapper and turn-taker. Find out what they are in the article.

But beyond that, I find this little part more interesting.

They did an experiment with female and male actors and asked people what they thought

“Women were judged far more harshly for their interjections.. while men were more often perceived to be simply enthusiastic about the discussion.”

Huh. Every day I find out how we treat women differently than men, for doing the same thing.

9.
The Top Online Learning Resources to Boost Your Career
 – Your Coffee Break

The 4 online learning resources that can boost your career mentioned in the article are:

Skillshare
Study Active
LinkedIn Learning
The Open University

10. I Made 16 Meals For 2 People On A Food Bank And Fresh Produce Box  – Budget Eats Series by Delish

And last but not least, enjoy this literal movie-length video by June from Delish on cooking with basic and cheap ingredients. I love her creativity, everything she cooked looks so good!

—

That’s it for this round, catch you next time! Want to submit a link you thought was great? Reach out to me on
FB
 or
Twitter
.

To read past link roundups, please click
here
.


Link Roundup #86: 10 Things to Know This Week

Accelerate your personal finance knowledge with this regular feature on Ringgit Oh Ringgit – the Link Roundup! I promise you’ll find these 10 links informational 🙂

1
.
How to Job Hunt (When You’re Already Exhausted)
 – Harvard Business Review

Figured this article might be handy for some of you. Hang in there, you can do this.

2.
South Korea’s millennials say their lives aren’t that different from ‘Squid Game’ as they face a crisis of mounting debt, unaffordable homes, and dead-end jobs
 – Insider

You watched Squid Game, I watched Squid Game, all of us were morbidly fascinated by the scenes and storyline.

It’s bleak, but the desperate-due-to-debt thing is real, according to actual South Koreans. One of the respondents in the article said he considers himself lucky that he manages to keep his debt under $50,000.

I can’t help but to compare to Malaysia, and wonder if the same thing will happen to us..

3.
Stop rambling. Here’s how the most successful people get to the point, says public speaking expert
 – CNBC

The trick is… to start your answer with ‘I believe that’. The examples given in the article show that it really works!

So simple, it’s mind-blowing.

4.
When Did Self-Care Get So Self-Indulgent?
 – Vice

Management consulting firm McKinsey estimated earlier this year that the “global wellness market” is
worth a whopping $1.5 trillion
, with annual growth of 5 to 10 percent. As your social media feeds tell you, wellness has turned into products to be consumed. When did wellness become all about buying more things? How did it become so wasteful?

That last line just about sums it up.

5
.
99 Cryptocurrency Terms Explained: Every Crypto Definition You Need
 – MakeUseOf

Since Bitcoin hit an all-time high again and all. It’s not going anywhere, so you might as well learn the terms. Then go and ‘stack sats’ – there are lots of
free ways to accumulate bitcoin
.

6.
Luxury brand Coach will stop destroying unwanted goods following TikTok outrage
 – CNN

They make you think that their items are expensive because of quality. That may be true (and maybe not), but its also expensive because they refuse to sell it for cheap.

In fact, it is common practice for these ‘luxury’ companies to destroy unsold products rather than reduce their price. They would rather their products be bought by the rich (or the pretend rich), or not at all.

Have to maintain that ‘not everyone can afford this’ image, right.

8.
What You Should Know About The 6 Stages To Retirement
 – iMoney

Were you aware there are 6 stages to retirement? I didn’t. Learn more about each stage and the process of finding your retirement number in the article above.

8
.
Psychology Says You Can Actually Sell Anything, So Long as You Use These 4 ‘Hidden’ Switches
 – Inc

The ‘hidden’ switches are:

Solution Switch: Show that your product is the answer to their problems.
Trust Switch: Become an authority figure
Likability Switch: Befriend your customer
Evidence Switch: Customers need proof, not promises

Generally speaking, I dislike marketing strategies that intentionally seek to manipulate their customers into buying their products. The only way to combat this is to learn about their tactics yourself, so you can make an informed decision before hitting that Buy Now button.

9.
5 Types of Passive Incomes You Can Consider (Ranked from Easiest to Hardest)
 – AKPK Urus Bersama Suraya

If you have a lot of ‘stuff’ and not a lot of capital, the most suitable passive income strategy for you is #2. You can rent out your car, room, parking space, machinery, entertainment equipment and more Learn more and see other ways to earn passive income in the article.

10) How Are Malaysians Doing Financially? | iMoney x Suraya (Ringgit Oh Ringgit) – AIA

Thank you AIA for having me in this chat, where Farhan from iMoney and I discussed the findings of the Malaysian Financial Health Survey 2021. Unsurprisingly, it could be better – while 86% of respondents reported saving and investing every month, only 50% can survive less than 3 months with no income, while 12% cannot survive for more than a month without an income!

I was happy to be able to give my 2 cents here: individuals are usually blamed for not saving enough money (‘no willpower’), when the bigger issue is more structural in nature (the economy, job opportunities, consumerism culture, etc)

Watch the 20+min video for ACTUAL solutions you can use to improve your financial life below.

Note: Get your FREE Financial Health Check at
https://www.aia.com.my/en/my-aia/insurance/portal/fhr/questionaire.html

That’s it for this round, catch you next time! Want to submit a link you thought was great? Reach out to me on
FB
 or
Twitter
.

To read past link roundups, please click
here
.


Link Roundup #87: 10 Things to Know This Week

Accelerate your personal finance knowledge with this regular feature on Ringgit Oh Ringgit – the Link Roundup! I promise you’ll find these 10 links informational 🙂

1
.
Mindless Habits That Are Wasting Your Money
 – HuffPost

Excellent article that compiles many habits that may be derailing your financial plan right now. Of all the suggestions, I thought these were the most relevant (some are not applicable to Malaysians):

Buying things just because they’re on sale
Engaging in microtransactions
Not keeping track of subscriptions
Constantly updating your wardrobe
Grocery shopping without a plan
Failing to pay bills on time
Buying aspirational clothes
Letting your mood dictate your shopping
Not making your own lunch or coffee
Going on sprees
Forgetting about peak hours
Tossing receipts (and not reviewing them, may even get charged extra)

2.
China Wants People To Buy More Stuff. These Chinese Millennials Say ‘No More.’
 – Vice

We keep hearing how people in China record higher and higher sales during major shopping events like Singles Day. But some of them are just… tired.

I can relate. I, too, am exhausted of having items promoted to me, telling me I’ll be a better version of myself with said item, implying that I’m currently not.

3.
This 30-year-old visited every country in the world. Here’s how he paid for it
 – CNBC

I follow Drew Binsky’s channel for years now and am happy that he achieved his goal of visiting every country in the world!

Have always wondered how he pays for everything and curiosity answered through this article. The answer is: Youtube income ($20,000-40,000 a month), brand sponsorship ($15,000-20,000 per video – he deserves it, he uploads DAILY videos!!), merchandise and travel hacking course. Based on his latest updates, he’s also working on adding a couple more streams of income: book and NFTs.

How he manages all these between travel and 23 employees is beyond me. I wonder what system he uses. Wow.

4.
Writing can improve your mental health – here’s how
 – World Economic Forum

Many people struggle with mental health at different points in their life. Therapy is expensive, and not everyone can summon the willpower to exercise, so here’s another method to manage mental health – through writing.

Personally, I practice journalling and free writing, and love it. Always feel better after a session of ‘dumping it out’ on paper.

5
.
I Went From Making Extra Income With Affiliate Websites To Building A $360K/Year Business
 – Starter Story

Malaysian team, global audience! Jerry Low and team is behind
WebHostingSecretRevealed
,
HostScore
, and
HideandSeek
, which brings in 700,000 visitors per month(!!!) and $30k per month!

6.
How to disappear from the internet for good: 6 things you need to do
 – CNet

With every culture, there is a counter-culture. What’s the counter-culture for online culture? Being offline and proud. And this article teaches you how to erase remnants of your digital footprint as well.

8.
7 Life-Changing Reasons You Should Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone More Often
 – YourTango

Are you feeling stagnant? Are things just too… monotonous?

It’s not wrong to have a routine, but as they say, calm waters don’t make a good sailor. Do something that improves your life, even if it’s hard.

8
.
4 Habits of the Happiest People Rarely Practiced by Most Workers
 – Inc

The 4 habits are:

Practice self-kindness
Learn to be grateful
Forgive others
Slow things down (exercise patience)

9.
Negotiating Salary? Here’s A Simple Yet Powerful Trick, According To A New Study
 – HuffPost

The trick is… to pause for 3-9 seconds during a negotiation.

In a series of studies in which pay negotiations were simulated in conversation, Jared Curhan, an associate professor of work and organization studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his colleagues found that this extended but brief silence can facilitate a “shift from default, zero-sum thinking to a more reflective, deliberative mindset, which, in turn, is likely to lead to the recognition of golden opportunities,” their paper concludes.
In other words, when one person pauses to think during the conversation, it can help them to see talks as more than a tug of war and move deliberations forward to a favorable outcome.

10)
How does your personality type affect your income?
 – BigThink

The highest-earning Myers-Briggs personality type? ENTJ at $60k annual income on average. The lowest? INFP at $34k annual income on average. The data is taken from a survey from over 72 thousand people, so I’d pay attention.

These are the personality types, average income advantage and the traits most correlated with income advantage.

And this is the percentage of each type earning $150k and above

Regardless of your personality type, know this: you can still make big bucks if you use your natural inclination to your advantage. It’s a matter of using your skillsets and tools well, and learning how to adapt to extrovert-centric world.

That’s it for this round, catch you next time! Want to submit a link you thought was great? Reach out to me on
FB
 or
Twitter
.

To read past link roundups, please click
here
.


Link Roundup #88: 10 Things to Know This Week

Accelerate your personal finance knowledge with this regular feature on Ringgit Oh Ringgit – the Link Roundup! I promise you’ll find these 10 links informational 🙂

1
.
The Real Reason You Avoid Looking At Your Credit Card Statement
 – Refinery29

Term of the day: Money avoidance. It’s when you feel uncomfortable and frustrated by your financial life (credit card debt, spent too much last month etc) and avoid checking your bank account and doing something about it. You pretend the problem is not there.

2.
If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich? Turns out it’s just chance.
 – MIT Technology Review

If you’re smart but not rich (yet), don’t beat yourself too hard. It’s just luck.

The wealthiest individuals are typically not the most talented or anywhere near it. “The maximum success never coincides with the maximum talent, and vice-versa,” say the researchers.
So if not talent, what other factor causes this skewed wealth distribution? “Our simulation clearly shows that such a factor is just pure luck,” say Pluchino and co.

This tells me 2 things: (1) we really have to stop thinking multi-billionaires are more talented (and more deserving of their wealth) when they are just luckier, and (2) wow is it really down to luck? That sucks.

Until I found out you can make your own luck.

3.
The ‘serendipity mindset’: how to make your own luck
 – The Guardian

You can make your own luck by adopting the ‘serendipity mindset’; welcoming the unexpected and connecting the dots. In the words of Dr Chistian Busch, author of
The Serendipity Mindset, The Art and Science of Creating Good Luck
,

“Serendipity is smart, active luck,” he says. “It’s when you see something in the unexpected and connect the dots. It’s different from blind luck, which you can’t really influence.”

I really love the suggestion to actively seed for opportunities by giving out ‘hooks’ to people you meet.

“There’s always that dreaded question: ‘What do you do’,” says Busch. “You can say: ‘I’m a journalist, but recently I started reading about philosophy, and what I’m really interested in is exploring science.’
He’s given you three potential ‘hooks’. He’s seeding potential dots so that you can connect them. You could respond, ‘Oh what a coincidence, I just started reading this book on philosophy and I want to set up a book club.’”

That is such a practical and genius way to connect with more people, who may help you get to where you want to be (and vice versa)!

4.
Trapped in the Metaverse: Here’s What 24 Hours Feels Like
 – WSJ

Like everyone else, I’m intrigued by the Metaverse concept as well. Glad to stumble upon this journalist’s experiment where she spent 24 hours in VR and switched between virtual worlds (and avatars) using VR headset.

After watching, the only thing I feel like trying is the game. Seems fun as heck.

5
.
I lost my first job ever to depression: Here’s how I healed
 – MadnessTBH

Highly appreciate this raw post on the reality of trying to keep a job while battling depression. Hope it helps anyone out there to keep trying to find methods and medications that may work for you

6.
Kedah bans all 4D shops
 – FMT

So Kedah has effectively banned gambling in the state. As much as I agree that gambling is a social ill, I also know that the activity will only go underground. Human behaviour is not that easy to change. Addiction is not easy at all to fix.

If you (or someone you love) *must* gamble, use DeFi platforms like PoolTogether. Even if you don’t win the lottery, the platform will still return your participation fee aka cost of your lottery tickets to you.

Look up no-loss lottery.

7.
Use This 1 Easy Hack Every Day to Become a More Positive Person, Backed by Research
 – Inc

People tend to gravitate to likeable people, who also tend to be positive people.

How do you be more positive? That’s a million-dollar question, but this is a pretty good start: changing your vocabulary from consequence thinking to value and opportunity thinking.

The article gave some really good examples of how it looks in practice. If you tend to be on the negative side, and want to be more positive, then this article is a good read.

8
.

This 5-minute trick can help you get the job
 – Fast Co

This article is for those of you who are not as good looking as your peers. Read the article – it makes a good case for using power poses during job interviews, which may give you the edge you need to equalise human’s natural bias and preference for favouring the more attractive person.

Oh yes, good-looking people do have it better.

On average, good-looking people earn
higher pay
, receive higher performance evaluations, and have a better chance of being
promoted
. To our chagrin, even better-looking professors get
higher teaching evaluations
. Particularly dismaying is the evidence that more attractive candidates are more likely to be
hired in the first place
, meaning that this trend starts even before people have a chance to prove themselves on the job.

9. Mastercard set to launch Asia’s first crypto-linked cards that you can use anywhere
 – SoyaCincau

I had one of these crypto cards. They were around in 2016, got banned and blocked from operating (remember TenX? Or Wirex?) and now making a comeback in 2021 woah

10.
This Heat Map Of Klang Valley Shows How Much You Need To Make To Afford A Home In Any Area
 – Says

What a cool use of data analytics to visualise home loan eligibility!

This is how much you need to earn to buy a house based on location. You definitely need at least 10K to buy a house in KL city center, Mont Kiara, Hartamas, Ampang Hilir & Damansara Heights.
#geospatial

#HouseHunters

pic.twitter.com/lG78pKuH3c
— Crib (@cribdotmy)
November 11, 2021

That’s it for this round, catch you next time! Want to submit a link you thought was great? Reach out to me on
FB
 or
Twitter
.

To read past link roundups, please click
here
.


Link Roundup #89: 10 Things to Know This Week

Accelerate your personal finance knowledge with this regular feature on Ringgit Oh Ringgit – the Link Roundup! I promise you’ll find these 10 links informational 🙂

1
.
Salary Story: I Got Tactical With My Salary & Now I Earn 93k
 – Refinery29

A sharing by a young woman who increased her salary through negotiations and job changes. What makes it relatable is the redundancy phase where she lost her job during the pandemic, but got back on her feet again, landing a job with an even better salary.

Speaking of increasing salaries, don’t forget to read this one:
3 Ways to Get High Salary in Malaysia, Regardless of Your Background

2.
5 easy, proven ways to break bad habits (and create better ones)
 – Fast Co

It’s more like, easy* with an asterisk, but solid tips can be found here (oh, if only breaking bad habits is that easy). I myself have a goal of creating healthy habits but can’t seem to convince myself that I am someone who no longer puts junk food in my body (Tip #2 – True behavior change is identity change) nor able to make exercise ‘obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying’ (Tip #3)

Still, learning the theory is part of the habit-building process. Gotta know them so you can do Tip #5 – Reflect on your progress to master your skill.

3.
Does Money Buy Happiness?
 – Female in Finance

This post was featured in Of Dollars and Data’s
My Favorite Investment Writing of 2021
 compilation, and I’m now sharing it here because the writing is so personal. She wrote from the perspective of someone who has a lot of money, but didn’t have her health.

Excerpt:

I didn’t have friends who would come over to help me. No one invited me to anything anymore because they knew I couldn’t do anything. No one checked in on me. In fact, I realized maybe some people weren’t meant to be my friends if they can’t help me at my worst, so I even cut some “friends” out.
I still had a lot of money though.
To make matters worse, about 6 months into this accident, I started to struggle with other areas of my health. I had trouble breathing, vertigo, I was chronically fatigued. Was this depression from not being able to walk? No. It was worse.
I still had a lot of money though.

Hope that made you think as much as I did.

4.
The Case for A Fair Work Act, Part 4: Ensuring Fair Contracts
 – The Centre

“Minimum wage should be increased!!”

Yes… but how?

Financial activists, meet policy research. The awesome folks at The Centre have been laying the foundation for Fair Work Act, including the legislation that needs to be introduced, updated and passed so that employee rights are improved.

5
.

How To Use The Grey Rock Method To Shut Down Toxic People, From Experts
 – MindBodyGreen

Working with or co-existing with toxic and narcissistic people that you can’t avoid? If yes, you NEED to know the Grey Rock Method, just to keep your own sanity.

It’s tough. Hang in there.

6.
The 5 Stages of Emergency Fund: Which Stage Are You In?
 – Marcus Keong

Nice explanation of emergency fund, benchmarks, and mini-milestones in the process of fully-funding your emergency fund.

The flexi-home loan one is something I recently found out – from Hann Liew of RinggitPlus. Read how it works, in his words, in the
Personal Finance Chit Chat show
 transcript.

7.
5 Crypto tools for investors you might need
 – Tokenize

There are good crypto tools in here, some which I personally use. In particular, I want to point out the Greed and Fear Index tool.

Now, don’t take this as law or anything, but as a general rule, Extreme Fear is a good time to buy crypto and Extreme Greed is a good time to sell crypto.

8
.

My Dad Judges My Husband for Not Making More Money
 – The Cut

A new type of modern-day dilemma: what does one do if the female partner makes significantly more money than her spouse, but the older generation (like in this case, her father) are still stuck to ‘men must earn more’ mentality?

These things are happening in real life, and will continue to happen with more frequency. All of us have to get used to it, but none of us know what to do or what to say if it happens to us or friends/family, so reading this case study will somewhat prepare you for it.

9. Imposter syndrome: you’re worth it, even if you don’t always think so
 – Financial Times

The only chart I care about from this article is this one – the gap in confidence between male and female leaders by age.

See the confidence gap? Women consistently feel less confident than men. Why is that?

According to the article, it’s because..

..because of a
widespread tendency to see bravado and charisma as a sign of leadership potential,
according to Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, a business psychology professor at University College London and Columbia University.
Those with a quieter leadership style are often overlooked.
Women are less likely to overrate themselves
, he argues. Accordingly,
many ill-suited men get top jobs
.
Arrogant people even use humble-bragging as a means of stealing some of the social equity of the underconfident.

My takeaway is this: when women say they ‘can be better’ at something, I’m just going to assume she is at least of expert level. And when men brag too much about their ability, I’m going to think he’s average at best.

10.
I Bought a $150,000 Passport that can Travel the World
 – Yes Theory

And last but not least, a fascinating insight into the process of passport-buying. I’m so happy for him – he will no longer be restricted from many countries just because of his nationality (he’s from Egypt) nor forced to join the military!

That’s it for this round, catch you next time! Want to submit a link you thought was great? Reach out to me on
FB
 or
Twitter
.

To read past link roundups, please click
here
.


Link Roundup #9: 10 Things to Know This Week

Accelerate your personal finance knowledge with this regular feature on Ringgit Oh Ringgit – the Link Roundup! I promise you’ll find these 10 links informational 🙂

1.
We Put Klang Valley’s Ride-Share Apps In A Head-To-Head Price Test
 – Vulcan Post

Surprising fact no 1: There are (at least) five active ride-sharing apps operating in the Malaysian market. Five!

They are: Grab, MyCar, MULA, EZCab and Dacsee. LOVE this article comparing the prices plus waiting times for each of them. I’m already a Grab and MyCar user – I think I’ll install EZCar too because the price looks pretty good.

2.
How Busy Marketers Can Make Money on the Side
 – Entrepreneur

I’m a writer, but I also consider myself a self-learned digital marketer. This article helped me brainstorm money-making opportunities I could explore. Especially the paid speaking opportunities part – didn’t know they could pay that much! Apparently you can make more than $20,000 per keynote speech overseas, woah!

Those are overseas rates though. Do you know how much speaking gigs pay here in Malaysia? Any contribution appreciated, just add them in the comments section!

3.
7 Money-Saving Meal Prep Tips, According to Instagram Influencers
 – Time

Solid meal-prepping tips + pretty pictures = <3

Random confession: I love grocery shopping because it’s one of the rare occasions when I get to shop my heart out without feeling guilty. I enjoy trying out new ingredients, and over time I’ve developed a nice rotation of healthy, quick and fairly cheap meals that I really enjoy. Examples:

Baked salmon (miso-ginger, lemon-mustard, etc)

Perfect omelette [+ any protein/veggies]

Garlic stir-fried greens

Gulai [any protein/veggies] #noghoripride

Roast chicken (I make soup/broth with the bones, too!)

Just pair the above with either brown rice, wholegrain bread or pasta and I’m set. Each cooking session feeds me anywhere between 1-5 or more meals.

Do you meal-prep? What do you usually make?

4.
8 Instagram Accounts That’ll Help You Save (Not Spend!) Money
 – Apartment Therapy

Instagram has never really been the home for personal finance content but I think we’re seeing a shift here! Love this list – it includes The Financial Diet, The Broke Millennial and Budget Bytes, which are portals I’ve loved for years now. If you’re on Instagram, definitely follow them! Their posts may help you reduce those spending urges you get while browsing Instagram!

5.
7 Quotes That Will Make You Rethink Your Personal Finances
 – The Motley Fool

Love these quotes, especially number #2 – “Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people that they don’t like.” – and number #4 – “Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”

I need to print these out. Still catch myself wanting to buy things that others buy, even though they’re not ‘me’ per se. Last month I considered buying a branded luxury bag. The one that cost thousands one. The urge is not there anymore, but it comes and goes.

6.
What Amazon and Uber Teach Us About the Disruptive Power of Convenience
 – Inc

Business owners reading this, here’s your biggest takeaway – convenience sells. Don’t compete on just price. Offer less friction for your products and services.

The author outlined the 6 principles of convenience. Here they are, copied in full:

Reduce friction.
 Make it easy to do business with you. Some companies make this the focus of their value proposition.

Technology.
 Leverage technology to create a smoother customer experience.

Self-service.
 Let customers own their experience if it makes their lives easier.

Subscription.
 Like a magazine or newspaper that shows up on a regular basis, there may be a facet of your business that can operate under a similar model. For example, a hardware store could automatically deliver air conditioning or furnace filters every six months, rather than making the customer remember to come in and buy them.

Delivery.
 Literally, take your product or service to the customer.

Access.
 This encompasses logistics, hours of operation and availability.

Click on the article to read the four questions that can assess your convenience factor. Question #2 is thought-provoking.

7.
What I Learned Tracking My “Wants” For 30 Days!
 – Budgets Are $exy

Awesome personal finance post, emphasising on the ‘personal’ part! Even someone as seasoned as J. Money was surprised by what he spent in his ‘Wants’ category!

I think I’ll do a similar post about my own ‘Wants’ category! Look out for that!

8.
Whether a Husband Identifies as a Breadwinner Depends on Whether He Respects His Wife’s Career — Not on How Much She Earns
 – Harvard Business Review

Insightful! Let me just copy+paste paragraphs that summarise the whole thing:

“My
research
 suggests that while some men fall back on the classic identity of a breadwinner, others respond to this tension by adopting the modern identity of what I call a “breadsharer.” Research on dual-career couples often focuses on how spouses balance their earnings or work hours, but my research showed that these groups of men
differed most fundamentally in how they perceived the
social status
 of their wives’ work
 — its worth and prestige in society. This perception in turn shaped how men described the financial value of their wives’ work.”

“These different interpretations of the social status and financial value of their wives’ careers provided men with different ways of approaching their own careers. Breadsharers sought to remain professionally flexible to maximize their ability to respond to their wives’ career opportunities, and were hence
 uncommitted to any particular pathway and open to leaving their organization
. Breadwinners, however, seeing no need to be flexible around their wife’s career,
tended to be more committed to achieving success within their organization’s hierarchy
.”

The article did not touch on which type of husband is ‘better’ in their careers (although you and I know which type women will prefer to marry).

9.
Online grocery landscape in Malaysia
 – ECInsider

So many awesome information I didn’t know about! The article lists nine major grocery stores and lists whether they sell through their own platform, through e-marketplaces (Lazada, Shopee) and through delivery providers (HappyFresh, Honestbee).

I DID NOT KNOW GIANT AND COLD STORAGE IS UNDER THE SAME GROUP OF COMPANIES WUT

I ALSO DID NOT KNOW THERE ARE GROCERY STORES WITHOUT PHYSICAL STORES OMG (and they’re called ‘pure-play’?? First time heard that term!)

10.
9 surprising things I’ve learned in 5.5 years of freelancing
 – Tam Henderson via Medium

I’ve been a freelance writer for almost 3 years now, and foresee myself continuing this work. Reading Tam’s piece is like peeking into my possible future! Love her style of writing, love the quality of her
business landing page
. It’s amazing to see how professional freelancers go above and beyond when selling their skills, making clients come to them instead of the other way around. Not gonna lie, major brain crush.

That’s it for this round, catch you next time! Want to submit a link you thought was great? Reach out to me on
FB
 or
Twitter
.

To read past link roundups, please click
here
.


Link Roundup #90: 10 Things to Know This Week

Accelerate your personal finance knowledge with this regular feature on Ringgit Oh Ringgit – the Link Roundup! I promise you’ll find these 10 links informational 🙂

1
.
Your helpfulness at work is hurting your job performance
 – Fast Co

Being a helpful person is good… until it’s not, because people keep asking for your help and you can’t get your work done, affecting your KPIs.

If this trait describes you, then check out the section in the article talking about strategies to prevent collaboration overload and burnout.

2.
Does Budgeting Actually Help People Save Money? This Experiment With a Huge Fintech Company Suggests … Not
 – Global Fintech Series

“(Budgeting made) no significant difference (positive or negative). Plus, budgeters were overly optimistic. They made budgets 25% lower than their regular spending, then continued spending exactly as they had.”

So they’re saying, budgeting doesn’t work. Instead, what works is:

(1) applying the “number of times per week” rule (e.g., “I’ll only dine out once this week”)
(2) being part of supportive community (like this one!), and
(3) automatically transferring out your savings to another account that you don’t use

What do you think? Does traditional budgeting usually work for you?

(For me I still think budgeting is handy to at least get the ballpark figure for spending in different expense categories. But on its own maybe not enough, still need other strategies so one actually sticks to it).

3.
8 Employer Red Flags to Look for Before Accepting a Job Offer
 – MakeUseOf

The red flags are:

No formal agreement
Verbal promises
Unclear company goals
Inappropriate personal questions
No employee handbook
Vacancy due to mass layoff
Rude or sarcastic interviewer
No strong company values

What red flags, from your own experience, would you add to the list? Top of my head, I’m thinking no EPF/SOCSO, minimum wage offer (the fact that employers can, by law doesn’t mean that they should), and safe working environment (of course).

4.
This Infographic Breaks Down Careers In Finance, From Hedge Funds to M&A
 – Visual Capitalist

What does ‘working in finance’ mean? I wondered, and this infographic does a good job of explaining the different players and how everything fits together.

5
.

Annual reviews can be fraught for women. Here are tips to help you prep.
 – The Lily

This part tho:

Women may also underestimate their performance at work. Laura McFadden, an executive leadership coach, says that in their self-evaluations,
women tend to grade themselves lower than men do
.
One study
 found that men rate their performances 33 percent higher than women — even when their performance is equal. Researchers found
this gap in self-promotion persisted
 even when workers were told their actual performance and how they rated among their peers.

So women, whatever score you put in self-assessment, add a bit on top of that.

6.
Challenge Yourself With a No-Spend Month To Save Money
 – The Balance

I *love* reading other people’s no-spend challenges but find that I can never do it for myself, I love spending freedom too much. So my strategy of choice is mindful spending rather than drastically quitting.

However, I also like the idea of doing no-spend challenge but for a specific category, like clothes or something.

Still sitting on the idea. Have you done a no-spend challenge before? How was it?

7.
I Tried a Meditation That Promised to Make Me Rich and Successful
 – Vice

I’m sorry but meditation for what now? Quantum jumping? Manifesting success through meeting the ideal version of you who lives in other dimensions? What the heck are y’all smoking. TikTok trends are wild.

8
.

52 Simple (But Delicious) One-Pot Meals To Make
 – Buzzfeed

Sharing because I’m salivating over the Lemon Garlic Shrimp and Rice recipe.

(Ps I don’t know if you know this but you can use rice cooker to make many one-pot recipes. Easy to make and wash up, and excellent for meal prepping)

9.
More than emotional intelligence is required to work remotely—you also need this 1 thing
 – Fast Co

This is my first time hearing about virtual intelligence! If you work from home a lot, this article is worth a read.

10.
What Do You Put on White Rice? | 10 Countries Answer
 – Beryl Shereshewsky

People: Do you like international cuisines?

Me *scoops rice on plate*: Yes

This is such a great video, and it’s always fun to experiment with a staple and cheap ingredient too!

That’s it for this round, catch you next time! Want to submit a link you thought was great? Reach out to me on
FB
 or
Twitter
.

To read past link roundups, please click
here
.


Link Roundup #91: 10 Things to Know This Week

Accelerate your personal finance knowledge with this regular feature on Ringgit Oh Ringgit – the Link Roundup! I promise you’ll find these 10 links informational 🙂

1
. Landing a remote job is getting competitive — here’s how to stand out as an applicant
 – CNBC Make It

I’ve said this once and I’ll say it again: you don’t have to migrate to earn more money. You can just find a high-paying remote job that pays in USD (or EUR or whatever), and live in Malaysia. This arrangement can give you a pretty good life.

Admittedly getting that remote job is not easy. Hopefully, the tips in this article can help you land one!

People who want better opportunities but can't physically leave Malaysia (family, ability etc), go find remote working opportunities on
https://t.co/Nha0vlqCrl

https://t.co/bCRFvm5SuT
— Suraya | suraya.eth (@surayaror)
November 16, 2021

Or you can also
make your money online
, like I did.

2.
I Didn’t Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt
 – Next Big Idea Club

New day, new term: productivity guilt. Where you feel guilty for resting because you should be doing
more
, even though rationally you know you’re only human.

3.
“I’m Not Good at Anything:” How to Combat Low Self-Esteem
 – Very Well Mind

People who have low self-esteem tend to take lower-paying jobs and stay in abusive relationships, which obviously will impact their financial life.

If you think you have low self-esteem, please make sure to read this article.

4.
Still avoiding life admin? How to motivate yourself to do even the dullest of tasks
 – CNBC Make It

What ‘life admin’ is was never clarified, but I liked the part where the writer differentiated between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and how people who tend to rely on extrinsic motivation HAVE to find strategies to increase intrinsic motivation during this age of social-distancing.

Anyway, if you find it hard to convince yourself to do something because you’ve always relied on peer pressure, then this article is a good read.

5
.

The customers who repeatedly buy doomed products
 – The Hustle

Did you know there’s a name for the subset of customers who tend to buy products that are doomed to fail? Apparently, the ‘~25
%
of customers consistently buy products that end up flopping within 3 years’ are called harbinger customers. There is a direct correlation between the product they buy and the reduced probability of that product’s success!

Really enjoyed this read – the data behind their purchases is so fascinating!

6.
You’re not imagining it, people are more rude at work. Here are 4 ways to fight it
 – Fast Co

Dealing with rude people at work? According to
a study
 by Portland State University, ’employees who experience or witness incivilities are more likely to be uncivil to others — a worrying trend that could intensify as people return to in-person work.’

Hope the tips in the article can help you deal with it better.

7.
How I scaled my freelance business to $10,000/month
 – The Next Web

Don’t let the ‘free’ in ‘freelancer’ fool you. Lots of people earn serious money from freelancing. I do too (even though I prefer the term ‘self-employed’).

Some really good advice here on scaling your freelance business, aka improving upon good, solid foundation (as opposed of just starting out). In a nutshell, the strategies are:

Raise your rates
Drop low-paying clients
Book regular, long-term clients
Specialize
Set value- and project-based pricing
Change your mindset
Market yourself

Click on the article to learn more.

8
.

Simps Are Organizing to Worship Women With Their Crypto
 – Vice

First thought: Really? Of all the things you can do with your money,
this?

Second thought: Who the hell am I to judge? As long as they don’t go into debt into this, just have fun. Life is short.

9. Money printing ‘robs’ working class, makes rich richer
 – FMT

This is an opinion piece from K.Karthigugan arguing how money printing in Malaysia disproportionately affects the poor. The whole 6-part series is worth a read. It’ll make you think very hard about the financial system we live in.

10. Ibrahim Sani’s Notepad: Suraya Zainudin on Creator Economy

And last but not least, it’s me on Ibrahim Sani’s Notepad show on Astro Awani! We talked about Ringgit Oh Ringgit and the creator economy.

That’s it for this round, catch you next time! Want to submit a link you thought was great? Reach out to me on
FB
 or
Twitter
.

To read past link roundups, please click
here
.


Link Roundup #92: 10 Things to Know This Week

Accelerate your personal finance knowledge with this regular feature on Ringgit Oh Ringgit – the Link Roundup! I promise you’ll find these 10 links informational 🙂

1
. If You Use These 6 Phrases a Lot, You’re a Better Leader Than You Think
 – Inc

Leadership is more than these 6 phrases, but this is a great starting point. They are:

“We could not have done it without your hard effort.”
“I could use your advice on what direction to take.”
“How can I help?”
“I trust you.”
“Honestly, I don’t know.”
“What do you need from me?”

Read the article to understand the justification.

2.
7 Phrases Emotionally Abusive Partners Use To Control Their Relationships
 – HuffPost

Did you watch Tinder Swindler? I did too, and horrified at how the scammer financially abused his partners. Financial abuse starts with emotional abuse, so take 3 mins to read this article to identify how it looks like. Who knows you’re in such relationship right now (I hope not, but if yes, LEAVE).

However, what that dude did was more evil, more psychopathic. You’ll be thinking but how could someone even do horrible things like that but remember psychopaths literally don’t care if they hurt you as long as they gain from it.

I’ve shared this before and will share it again: please learn how to spot psychopaths, so you can avoid them.

Psychopaths are predators who lack empathy and harm others for fun and profit. It is estimated that 2-4% of the population are psychopaths
Learn how to spot them early. If not, they will eventually use you for their own gains
pic.twitter.com/fTI5NWZLoK
— Suraya | suraya.eth (@surayaror)
September 29, 2021

3.
He insists on splitting bills, even amid his raises and spouse’s massive pay cut
– The Washington Post

What do you do when your partner earns (way) more than you, but insist on splitting bills evenly?

This is a very real dilemma within dual-income households. You should know what’s acceptable behaviour and what isn’t, and what you can do about it.

4.
It’s not just you. Science explains how your focus is more scattered now and how to get it back
 – Fast Co

The first bolded subheading got me – ‘Your attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen.’

I – and you as well, let’s face it – are having trouble focusing, and it’s systemic rather than a personal weakness. Each social media platform and web portal wants you to stay as long as possible on their site, so they implement tweaks to make you crave to get back there. This is how the internet works now.

And now your brain is messed up. It’s hard to focus.

Like all problems, the first step is acknowledging the damage. The average RoR audience is 25-35 years old. We’ll be using your brain for a long time. This is common sense, but needs to be said – we have to take care of it, because no one else will.

5
.

A New Study Explains What It Takes to Stop Wasting So Much Time Online
 – Inc

The post is worth reading in full, but tl;dr – research showed that the more videos you watch, the more you’ll want to watch, so ‘
don’t let yourself go on a streak’.
It’s fine to watch a video, but keep it at ONE video.

The same applies to other content.

6.
Consumers Aren’t Willing to Give Up Convenience to Shop Their Values
 – Enterpreneur Asia Pacific

We claim to make buying decisions based on our values, but in reality, most people are swayed by fast shipping and the lowest price.

Well aren’t that a stab in the ol’ conscience :’)

7.
How to Want Less
 – The Atlantic

On that subject, I’m a big believer in living a fulfilled life without a lot of… stuff. In this beautiful essay exploration, the author wrote about the very human behaviour of constantly chasing the next thing that caught your eye, and never being satisfied for long. An excerpt:

Your goals are probably very different from mine, and perhaps your lifestyle is too. But the trap is the same. Everyone has dreams, and they beckon with promises of sweet, lasting satisfaction if you achieve them. But dreams are liars. When they come true, it’s … fine, for a while. And then a new dream appears.

Maybe they’re right – the key to happiness is appreciating what you already have, instead of chasing new things and commercial experiences.

8
.

I’m Unhappy at Work. Should I Quit My Job?
 – Vice

TL;DR – find career coach.

What? Really? Perhaps that’s a good suggestion, but I’ve never really seen people actually taking that advice? What do YOU do when you’re unhappy at work but can’t afford to quit?

9.
Feds Arrest Couple Who Allegedly Laundered $1 Billion in Stolen Bitcoins
 – Vice

Aside from the amount (the 94,000 bitcoins are worth $3.6
BILLION
at today’s rate), what’s cool is how they tracked down the couple, who tried hard to cover their tracks using these strategies:

Lichtenstein and Morgan laundered money using the following techniques, according to the document:
“(1) using accounts set up with fictitious identities;
(2) moving the stolen funds in a series of small amounts, totaling thousands of transactions, as opposed to moving the funds all at once or in larger chunks;
(3) utilizing computer programs to automate transactions, a laundering technique that allows for many transactions to take place in a short period of time;
(4) layering the stolen funds by depositing them into accounts at a variety of VCEs and darknet markets and then withdrawing the funds, which obfuscates the trail of the transaction history by breaking up the fund flow;
(5) converting the BTC to other forms of virtual currency, including anonymity-enhanced virtual currency, in a practice known as “chain hopping”;
and (6) using U.S.-based business accounts to legitimize activity.”

10. I Tried Furnishing My Empty Living Room For $500 – Goodful

Enjoyed this video showing the fun and challenges of furnishing one’s house for cheap, using secondhand marketplaces and listings. I think she did well, the place looks awesome!

That’s it for this round, catch you next time! Want to submit a link you thought was great? Reach out to me on
FB
 or
Twitter
.

To read past link roundups, please click
here
.


Link Roundup #94: 10 Things to Know This Week

1.
How Managers Can Support Employees With Long Covid
 – MIT Sloan

We are moving into endemic phase. It seems that lots of people getting Covid-19 is considered unavoidable as long as the death toll remains low(-ish).

However, the outcome of getting Covid is not simply death or complete recovery. There’s also the in-between recovered-but-still-in-pain situation, where some people suffer from prolonged symptoms, sometimes lasting even years. This is called long Covid.

It’s not a stretch to say more people than you think are suffering from long Covid, who still have to work. Hopefully they (you?) will have the support you need from the workplace, if you’re unlucky enough to get it.

2.
Stuck in a Mental Fog? 5 Research-Backed Ways to Clear Your Mind
 – Inc

Even if you manage to avoid Covid-19, you could still be affected by something that affected almost everyone during the pandemic – brain fog.

If your head frequently feels ‘foggy’, then read this article. It may help. At the very least, you’ll know what caused it – prolonged stress and anxiety.

3.
Here’s What Doomscrolling Is Doing to Your Brain – And How to Fix It
 – Science Alert

If you read the article above (#2), you’ll know doomscrolling is one of the reasons why we are experiencing brain fog.

This article goes a little bit deeper into what doomscrolling does to the brain. It’s not good…

However, I must say that doomscrolling is the reason why I chanced upon the Gender Pay Gap bot.

4
.

This bot is tweeting pay disparity data at companies posting about International Women’s Day
 – The Verge

The
Gender Pay Gap bot on Twitter
 is one of the very few things (if not the only thing) that cheered me during International Women’s Day. It exposed how much women are paid in UK companies, compared to their male counterparts.

Even though it’s sad to see many companies still pay women less (being paid 20-40% less isn’t uncommon..), it’s a nice change from the faux-celebratory messages and lip service we usually see from corporates. Now that the companies are shamed publicly, maybe some of them will take some steps to improve.

5.
When People Assume You’re Not In Charge Because You’re a Woman
– HBR

Gender pay gap is not the only thing we have to improve on. We also have to get used to women in authority positions. Let’s learn a new term: role incredulity.

Role incredulity is a form of gender bias where women are mistakenly assumed to be in a support or stereotypically female role — secretary, administrative assistant, court reporter, nurse, wife, girlfriend — rather than a leadership or stereotypically male role, such as CEO, professor, lawyer, doctor, or engineer.
In these instances, women must expend extra energy and time to assert and sometimes prove their role. Their words may lack the credibility and authority inherent in their position.
Role incredulity surfaced as a common theme in our research dataset of women’s stories from interviews, open-ended survey responses, social media posts, and public articles.

How to avoid this form of gender bias? Until proven otherwise, just assume the women you’re meeting with are the person in charge.

Another type of gender bias that you may have – looking down on househusbands.

6.
Local Media Criticised For Censoring Face of Househusband, Sparks Debate on Shame of Being One
 – World of Buzz

The other day I tweeted about how a local media implies being a househusband is shameful. It got quoted in WORLD OF BUZZ.

Listen, any household arrangement is good as long as the couple is mutually supportive and no one is taking advantage of the other. It doesn’t matter who’s making the money. Men who are househusbands, stay strong and don’t bother what people say. Keep being good dads and husbands.

husband and wife in supportive partnerships: *happily live their life*
malay tabloid: *implies that men becoming house husbands is embarrassing sampai censor muka*
Kadang2 kita OK je tapi orang yang sibuk tak suka hidup kita. Tabah je la lelaki, keep being a good dad & husbands
pic.twitter.com/krcrCgxiIe
— Suraya | suraya.eth (@surayaror)
March 10, 2022

7.
Financial Literacy Programs Ignore That Poverty Is a Policy Choice
 – Teen Vogue

Let’s move on to financial literacy. Look at wonderfully-written article arguing that poverty is the result of systemic inequality rather than individual choice:

…economic inequality isn’t driven by a knowledge gap. As progressive economists and advocates have said over the years,
poverty is a policy choice
— meaning that poverty is the result of things like rising housing costs and stagnant wages, a starved social safety net and the criminalization of
offenses that are often driven by need
, all of which could be addressed through more visionary policies.
Poverty is the result of capitalist free market principles that prioritize continued labor exploitation and resource extraction in service of increasing profits, regardless of the material impacts on people’s lives, their communities, and the planet itself.

I am in AWE that this article was published in Teen Vogue magazine. This is what our publications should be publishing. Not shaming househusbands.

8.
The parasite economy
 – The Economist

Here’s another piece of info that proves poverty and wealth inequality issue in Malaysia is systemic. Look at the chart below. Are we surprised that Malaysia is #2 in the crony-capitalism index? Are we?

This means that unless you are a crony, you’re highly unlikely to be a billionaire in Malaysia.

9.
Overhaul Needed for BNPL as Losses Mount up to US$ 5.2 Billion in APAC
 – FintechNews HK

Learning that BNPL companies are not making money and in fact making billions in losses is the schadenfreude I needed today.

Quinlan and Associates, an independent strategy consulting firm, estimates that in Asia-Pacific (APAC), the largest BNPL firms, including Australia’s Afterpay and Japan’s Paidy, are currently running average profit margins of -15% per annum (p.a.), while the more nascent players operating in emerging markets like the Philippines’ Cashalo and Indonesia’s Akulaku are suffering from profit margins of -100% p.a.
This means that under their current business models, APAC BNPL players are facing a combined loss of US$5.2 billion by 2025, the firm estimates.

However, it seems they are not giving up. They are figuring out ‘BNPL operations optimisation’ strategies including, I kid you not, targeting users who would use BNPL to buy big-ticket durables and luxuries.

Another proof that all these financing companies want is for you to buy more expensive things you don’t need.

10. How I Live on a $3200 Monthly Salary in Singapore | Budgeting as a Homeowner and Sole Breadwinner – Lisa’s Adulting in Singapore

And last but not least, I’d like to share this wonderful how-I-manage-my-salary video. Although she is a Singaporean and some details are not applicable for us Malaysians, I find her thought process very insightful. Loved the way she explained how she uses her budget template.

That’s it for this round, catch you next time! Want to submit a link you thought was great? Reach out to me on
FB
 or
Twitter
.

To read past link roundups, please click
here
.


Link Roundup #95: 10 Things to Know This Week

1.
The Motivating (and Demotivating) Effects of Learning Others’ Salaries
 – Harvard Business Review

How does learning your colleagues’ salaries make you feel? You could’ve learnt it in person, or via pages like
MalaysianPayGap
 on Instagram.

Learning that your peers with similar background, skills and experiences are making more than you (sometimes significantly more) can be motivating. It’s likely you will start to feel resentment to your employer and start looking for better opportunities and higher salaries.

However, it can be demotivating, too. In which case, it’s not a bad idea to read the article for more in depth explanation to what and how you’re feeling that way.

2.
I had pretty much given up on budgeting until a friend gave me a piece of advice that’s help me save over $5,000
– Business Insider

The advice is… budgeting weekly instead of monthly.

That’s quite insightful! Worth trying if the traditional monthly budgeting method doesn’t work that well for you, because let’s face it, 30 days is a long stretch of time and it’s easy for one’s motivation to run out halfway through the month.

Find tips to budgeting weekly in the article.

3.
A new ETF is investing in companies based on the character of their CEOs, and Tesla’s Elon Musk didn’t make the cut
 – Business Insider

This is too funny and unique to not include. The Return on Character ETF ‘ranks its stock holdings based on a character model centered around integrity, responsibility, forgiveness, and compassion.’

‘The fund, which is actively managed and rebalances its 75 to 150 portfolio holdings once per year, believes the scores distilled from its character model will deliver outperformance in the long-term’.

Some CEOs who are included: CEOs of Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon, led by CEO’s Tim Cook, Satya Nadella, and Andy Jassy, respectively. Other holdings in the portfolio include Costco, Berkshire Hathaway, and Nvidia.

Some CEOs who are NOT included: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg

The ticker symbol is ROCI, in case you’re looking out for it.

4
.

VPNs are digital ‘snake oil,’ expert claims — here’s why
– Tom’s Guide

Wait, what? I’ve been told that VPNs are necessary for optimum security protection all my life??

In 2021, Grauer and a team from the University of Michigan tested 51 consumer VPN service providers. Along with Consumer Reports colleagues, she made more extensive analysis of 16 major VPN brands, including CyberGhost, ExpressVPN, Hotspot Shield, IPVanish, NordVPN, Private Internet Access, ProtonVPN and Surfshark. (Grauer and Troutman both warned against using lesser-known VPNs, especially free VPN services that pop up in mobile app stores.)
Grauer found that of the 16 well-known VPN services she analyzed, 12 made
exaggerated claims
 about how much protection they really could provide.

Huh. So VPNs do give better privacy, but not necessarily enhanced security. Got it.

“When people ask me if they should use a VPN,” Grauer said, “I tell them no, they should use a password manager instead.”

(I use Bitwarden password manager. It’s good)

5.
How older workers can push back against the reality of ageism
 – CNBC

Fact is, if you’re lucky, you WILL be growing older.

And another unfortunate fact is, most people can’t afford retirement in Malaysia.

So it’s probably a good idea for most people to learn the tips and tricks to deal with and push back against ageism in the workplace, which you will probably experience – according to the article, ‘nearly 80% of older employees say they’ve seen or experienced age discrimination in the workplace’.

6.
Has globalization passed its peak?
 – DW

With the reality of climate change looming, and complicated geo-economic strains, I sometimes wonder if the choice and availability of products I am enjoying now will soon cease to exist. I mean, how do you manufacture said products if supply chain issues caused by irregular weather and politics cause raw materials to not reach its destination?

Get used to deglobalisation as a term, as countries and productions start to be less externally-dependent.

7.
You’d be a lot happier if you stop saying you’re so busy
 – Fast Co

It’s not about being in denial about your level of activity – if your schedule is packed, then it is packed.

It’s more about the choice of words. Saying you’re busy means you are overwhelmed, which isn’t great for self-autonomy and your sense of control = less happiness.

8.
Celebrities at this year’s Oscars got $138,000 gift bags — including a $50K private stay in a castle
 – Business Insider

Ah, the business of gift bags as a marketing channel. Yes, business. It costs the companies’ money (“anywhere from $4,000 to $50,000”) to include their items as gifts in the Oscars gift bag, which contained $138,000 in value.

(Most of that value though is in experiences – $50,000 private vacation in a castle in Scotland and a $15,000 spa retreat)

However, apparently not all items get redeemed, because gifts are taxable.

9.
42 Quick Habits That Have a Massive Return On Life
 – Hive

Just a list of life reminders. Good for a skim when you’re stuck, to remind you of what you should prioritise on.

10. Indonesians Are Trying to Make Crypto Halal – Vice

And last but not least, a Vice video on cryptocurrency use in Indonesia. I just find it fascinating how Indonesians justify using crypto when the local fatwa there has ruled crypto transactions haram, as they observed many use it for the purpose of speculation and gambling.

That’s it for this round, catch you next time! Want to submit a link you thought was great? Reach out to me on
FB
 or
Twitter
.

To read past link roundups, please click
here
.


Link Roundup #96: 10 Things To Know This Week

Accelerate your personal finance knowledge with this regular feature on Ringgit Oh Ringgit – the Link Roundup! I promise you’ll find these 10 links informational 🙂

1.
Are you tired of your job or is it actually burnout?
– Futurity

A great article to learn how to identify burnout, and its 3 distinct symptoms:

energy depletion and exhaustion
depersonalization and cynicism
reduced efficacy

2
.

The Surprising Impact of Meeting-free Days
– MIT Sloan

As nicely summarised by organisational psychologist
Adam Grant
,

‘Every workplace should have at least one day a week with no meetings—possibly more. 76 companies tested meeting-free days. Productivity & satisfaction increased, stress dropped, communication & cooperation improved. Blocking out time to focus is good for people and performance.’

I mean, look. Productivity increases 71% with just 2 meeting-free days!

3.
Best ways to manage your Duit Raya (so you can eventually buy your first home)
 – iProperty

Read this article if you’re lucky enough to still receive duit raya.

4.
Is Productivity The Worst Kind Of Procrastination?
– Refinery 29

I’m sharing this article because of these paragraphs right here:

As
one study
found, idleness aversion is a common modern-day phenomenon.
As humans, we will tend to do whatever it takes and to use any justification to keep busy, even if the task is meaningless.
The study also found that people were more likely to report feeling happy when kept busy than idle. And while this may sound like a call to keep occupied, these feelings aren’t necessarily genuine, but rather can be reflective of the core problem:
that keeping busy distracts us from actually processing what we’re going through.

5.
Music That Will Help You Focus While Working, According To Spotify Data
 – Digg

It’s lo-fi. #SavedYouAClick

6.
Youth investors not averse to risk, say financial planners
 – The Edge

Youth’s perception towards risk, as per investor survey by Securities Commission. It seems that youths view:

ASB = low risk
Stocks/shares = high risk
Unit trust/ mutual fund = high-medium risk
Bonds/Sukuk = high-medium risk (???)
PRS = medium-low risk
ETF, IPO, P2P financing = high risk
CFD = medium risk (??)

I’m surprised by how some investments’ perception, and that only 3% of youths say they have high risk appetite. What are your thoughts on this?

7.
Getting a 60% salary increment at my new job.
 – Silent Confessions by Syaza Nazura

Read how Syaza job-hopped her way into 60% higher salary!

8.
Women are less likely than men to be promoted. Here’s one reason why
 – MIT Sloan

This says it all:

“on average, w
omen received higher performance ratings than male employees, but received 8.3% lower ratings for
potential
 than men
. The result was that female employees on average were 14% less likely to be promoted than their male colleagues.”

That’s why they say. Men are promoted on potential. Women are promoted on results.

9.
15 Produk Trending Untuk Dijual Online pada Tahun 2022
 – Kartel Digital

If you’re looking to add a side income via online selling and dropshipping, check out this article. Awesome list of stuff that Google data shows is trending.

In case that’s too tech-speak for you, that means the demand from customer is already there. It is easier to sell what the customer already wants, rather than convince them to buy something they are meh about.

10. 6 People Who Have Ruined Our Relationship With Money – Financial Diet

And last but not least, a Financial Diet video on problematic money takes by people (and a show) usually marketed to give ‘good’ money advice. If you’re a fan of any of the below, you need to watch the video.

Ronald Reagan
Shark Tank
Dave Ramsay
Suze Orman
Winklevoss twins (this counted as 2 people)

Note: Chelsea said this better than I do, but basically it’s ok to admit there are some bits of wrong in people we like or respect. People aren’t God and not everything they say will be correct, all of the time, in all context.

That’s it for this round, catch you next time! Want to submit a link you thought was great? Reach out to me on
FB
 or
Twitter
.

To read past link roundups, please click
here
.


Link Roundup #98: 10 Things To Know This Week

Accelerate your personal finance knowledge with this regular feature on Ringgit Oh Ringgit – the Link Roundup! I promise you’ll find these 10 links informational 🙂

1.
How To Ease the 7 Most Common Triggers of Work-Related Anxiety, According to a Psychologist
 – Well and Good

Do any of these trigger your work anxiety?

Having a fear-based boss
Noticing coworker cliques
Experiencing technology issues
Giving presentations
Having a long commute
Going on work trips
Having to meet quotas

If so, you might want to read this article and find out what you can do to alleviate some of that anxiety.

2
.

I Plan for Everything. But I Didn’t See Inflation Coming
 – The Wall Street Journal

The change is particularly alarming for young individuals like myself. As people who’ve never experienced such high inflation in our lifetimes, we don’t really know how to cope, beyond cutting where we can and absorbing what price increases we can’t avoid. – Article writer, Julia Carpenter

This article captures really well the frustration of someone who tries their best to be financially responsible, yet is still at the mercy of factors outside their control, ie soaring inflation.

Yes, it’s tough. Sure, we’ll continue being responsible and make the right financial decisions, but it’s still tough.

Personally, I find these opinion pieces far more relatable than the overly motivational ‘tough times don’t last tough people do’-type of pieces.

3.
Handling Temptations – How to Stop Impulse Spending
 – Mr-Stingy

Impulse spending is a problem if (1) you don’t earn enough, and/or (2) you have too many desires.

The solution is (1) earn more and/or (2) reduce your desires.

Aaron Tang aka Mr Stingy expanded this a lot more eloquently in the article, have a read.

4.
Pandemic creates new billionaire every 30 hours — now a million people could fall into extreme poverty at same rate in 2022

– Oxfam International

“573 people became new billionaires during the pandemic, at the rate of one every 30 hours. We expect this year that 263 million more people will crash into extreme poverty, at a rate of a million people every 33 hours.”

So basically, it takes 459 thousand people crashing into poverty to create one (ONE) billionaire.

I was angry. Now I’m just numb.

5.
Someone Asks What Is “The Most Frugal Hack You’ve Discovered That Made The Most Difference” And 30 People Deliver
 – Bored Panda

Saving money is often presented as this ‘ugh’ thing but everyone’s tips in the article show contentment and even excitement. Love it when people enjoy being frugal 🙂 There is so much joy in maximising value (without taking advantage of/ abusing others and yourself).

Btw, which of the frugal hacks do you want to try? The ‘cut your sponges in half’ hack is weirdly calling my name..

6. ‘
Like a lighthouse for the lonely’: Chinese woman sells over 30,000 goodnight text messages at 15 US cents each to people needing comfort
 – SCMP

The woman from Guangdong province in southern China went viral in early May after the internet discovered she had made over 30,000 yuan (US$4,415) selling goodnight texts for one yuan (15 US cents) per message.

Question: Is what she’s doing ethical? She’s right in saying that she does provide a service, and the recipients are willing participants, who bought her service as a way to overcome loneliness.

Thoughts? Would you provide, or subscribe to such service?

7.
Investing in your health: how much does it cost to keep fit?
 – Stylish

This isn’t an article about the different costs of keeping fit. This article is about the over-commercialism of the fitness industry, which sometimes misleads you into thinking you NEED expensive gear and supplement to ‘do it right’.

Thought-provoking read.

8.
What it’s really like to work at Tokyo’s anti-procrastination café
 – Timeout

As far as themed coffeeshops go, anti-procrastination café shop Manuscript Writing Café is definitely one of the more interesting ones.

Of all the ‘anti-procrastination features’, the 3000*-yen-per hour surcharge imposed if you didn’t complete your work seems to be the most effective 🙂

*3000 yen is about RM100

9.
How to make better and faster decisions when you are struggling to keep up
 – Fast Co

One of those rare moments where the authors’ experience absolutely does the title justice. Behold, the co-authors of this article:

Katarina Berg, chief human resources officer at Spotify and also head of the Global Workplaces and Strategy Operations teams, AND
Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, PhD, the chief talent scientist at ManpowerGroup, a professor of Business Psychology at Columbia University and University College of London, and the author of Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (And How to Fix it)

Lots to study just from this one article, it’s so packed with mental models.

10. RM10k is NOT enough to live in Kuala Lumpur; family struggles in Malaysia – Mr Money TV

The title is a bit of a clickbait, since RM10k *is* enough for a family of 4 to live on in Kuala Lumpur,
according to Belanjawanku 2021
. However, Peter rightfully pointed out that RM10k is NOT enough for a comfortable life, even a modest one.

I think everyone new at household budgeting or planning to have children in the future should watch the household budget breakdown. You’ll have a better understanding of the different costs that a family needs to allocate and pay for.

That’s it for this round, catch you next time! Want to submit a link you thought was great? Reach out to me on
FB
 or
Twitter
.

To read past link roundups, please click
here
.


Link Roundup #1: 10 Things to Know This Week

Accelerate your personal finance knowledge with this new regular feature on Ringgit Oh Ringgit – the Link Roundup! Every week (or every other week, see how), I’ll share 10 curated links. I promise you’ll find them informational 🙂

Reading the latest

Salaries & Wages Survey

conducted by the Department of Statistics Malaysia with interest. Takeaways: (1) Median salary growth for the whole paid employee population (some 8.7 million) is 7.7%; (2) Salary growth in urban areas is almost double than rural areas (6.6% vs 3.6%); and (3) Men’s median salaries grew higher than women’s (8.2% vs 7%).
Employers reading this, please compensate your employees fairly, regardless of gender
. It’s only fair. Thank you.

Malaysia’s unemployment rate
 was 10.8% in 2017. That means about 1 in 10 of us can’t find suitable jobs! Biggest issue is ‘mismatch of skills’ – not surprised, I know many of you work in completely different industries than what you studied! Worrying statistic: 86.3% of available vacancies in 2017 was for low-skill work (which of course comes with low pay). How sad.

It’s gonna be
Ramadan buffet season
 soon! I like to find out about quirky themed buffets – like
Inside Scoop’s all-you-can-eat ice cream buffet
 for RM29 per pax. Do you know any others?

Here’s why you
shouldn’t leave valuables in a hotel room
 –
hackers have figured out ways to duplicate room keys easily
. Use the safe, if your room has one.

I’m tickled by TNB’s
14 tips to
save money on electricity
. See no 14 – advice on using ‘cold wash’ when doing laundry. Does ANY of us actually have ‘hot wash’ setting on our washing machines?

I shared the following statement on Twitter: if I could
invest in the marijuana industry
, I would.
There are so many positive signs and I believe it will continue to grow
. I thought it would be impossible as a Malaysian, but someone shared that he (a Malaysian living in Malaysia) bought Canadian marijuana stocks and it performed well. So, TIL. Don’t ask me how to do it, because I don’t know myself, but at least now you know it’s possible!

According to
this article
, you can get a
bigger hotel room with no extra charge
 by requesting for the corner room.

Heard of this
NZ-based eco-friendly startup
 that sells
solid shampoos and conditioner bars
. Thought it’s a brilliant way to cut my plastic usage! Do you know of any local brands that sell solid shampoos? Please share in comments, my shampoo’s about to run out!

It’s good to let your workmates know about your contribution to the workplace (and it reduces people stealing your credit, too). But you have to do it in the right way, or people will just think you’re showing off. Enjoyed reading
this article
, which lists three ways to
brag at work without sounding arrogant
.

If you’re looking for new skills to add to your resume, you can’t go wrong with
LinkedIn’s top 25 in-demand skills list
. Find them AND the online courses to learn these new skills
here
.

That’s it for this week, catch you next time! Want to submit a link you thought was great? Reach out to me on
FB
 or
Twitter
.


[HYPOTHETICAL] How I Would Spend My 1 Million Ringgit Windfall

What would you do if you get a 1 million ringgit windfall? Perhaps from lottery, perhaps from an insurance/takaful payout, perhaps from winning a court case, whatever. How would you manage the 1 million ringgit?

This is a fun thought experiment and frequently asked around in social media so I thought I’d take a stab at it. Here’s how I would spend 1 million ringgit:

First: TELL NO ONE

I would perhaps tell my spouse, but other than that, no one else will know about this windfall.

The reason is easy – I want to avoid people requesting to borrow money from me!

(Although I’m sure even if they somehow found out, I can avoid being guilt-tripped into giving them money. I already know the
strategies to decline financial requests
 🙂

Second: Hire Financial Planner (and discover 1 million ringgit is not enough to retire on :’)

The most practical thing to do is to
hire a financial planner
. I want to optimise the 1 million ringgit as much as possible, and figure the RM1k-3k++ rate is a worthwhile cost to pay for their professional services.

A quick one: If I had ever thought that 1 million ringgit is enough to live on forever, then my financial planner will have the unpleasant task of giving me the reality check –
1 million ringgit is NOT enough to retire on
. Not with my financial commitments, and especially not in the city.

So, I’ll have to follow a plan.

Third: Follow a personalised financial plan

For most people, you will reach a point where DIY financial management will only get you so far. Comprehensive financial planning is waaayyy beyond what investment you should do with the money.

IRL,
I took and completed the Certificate in Financial Planning
 and act as my own financial planner.  This is the type of advice I’d give myself (note: advice may vary; this is based on my personal goals not yours):

Suraya’s personalised financial plan:

In order, I should:

Settle all high-interest debt
, if any. That means pay off all credit card, personal loans first before anything else

Fund my emergency savings
. Set aside part of the 1 million ringgit to fund 6-12 months’ worth of savings that both
generate dividends AND easy to access during emergencies
. 24-36 months is better. NEVER touch this money

Look at my cashflow
 using the
50/30/20 budget template
 – am I spending more or less than I earn? Do I have a spending problem or an income problem or both? How can I spend/earn more effectively? If I optimise this, I can make the 1 million ringgit last longer!

Get the most comprehensive
protection plan
 that I can afford,
 within ~5-10% of my income

List all my assets and
calculate my net worth

– after the deductions so far (debt, savings, etc), do I have enough liquid assets to comfortably fund an expensive treat-yo-self purchase? Can I afford to use part of that windfall to travel? Or to buy my dream car?

Sort out my
estate-planning
. All-in-all, the paperwork will cost a few thousand ringgit

Optimise my taxes
 – what can I do to max out tax reliefs and rebates?

Figure out and rank my financial priorities
. Is it to quit my job/ switch career? Is it early retirement? Is it purchasing a house? Is it opening a business? Is it to financially support my family? It is common to ‘want it all’ so it is important to be realistic so I can achieve a few main goals that means the most to me

Invest the remaining funds
. Invest 90% of it in long-term investments (chuck in ASB or
ETFs
), and allow myself to play around with the remaining 10%, do whatever I want (invest in knowledge, attempt trading, whatever)

That’s the practical way to manage a 1 million ringgit windfall. Now all I have to do it follow the advice (which is a whole other story, but anyway).

If I
didn’t
 have financial planning knowledge, I think I would simply chuck your own 1 million ringgit windfall into investments, hoping it’ll grow into a bigger amount. Then if I want to buy something, I’ll get it. Like that’s it, that’s the whole plan.

How would YOU spend your (hypothetical) 1 million ringgit windfall?

What would you do differently, if you were to receive some windfall cash money? What would you spend on, and what financial goals do you want to achieve first? This is just a fun thought exercise, no harm doing it 🙂 Let me know in the comments!