KTMB Online E-Ticket Purchase System

With the existence of internet nowadays, there is almost nothing impossible. Groceries, food delivery, shopping, cinema tickets, submitting application form and so forth can all be done using internet which definitely has made your life simpler and less hassles. 

Kereta Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) which is the main rail operator in Peninsular Malaysia is now providing the service where travelers can purchase their train ticket via online!

How to purchase KTM train ticket online?

1. Log in to https://intranet.ktmb.com.my/e-ticket/login.aspx
   
   
   
   
2. For first time user, you would need to register an account first. If you are current users, you can simply log in to the system directly.
3. Once you are logged in, click on the "Ticket Reservation" and start filling in the ticket details eg. origin, destination, journey date etc.Click "Continue".
   
   
   
   
4. Once you come to the payment page, you have the option to use credit card to make the payment.
5. An email that shows your train and payment details will be sent to your mailbox within 30 minutes.

[Tip 1]: Train ticket can be purchased at 4 hours in advance before departure.

[Tip 2]: One user account only allows a maximum of 6 tickets purchase at once.

[Tip 3]: The payment currency depends on the origin of the place, i.e. if you are travelling from Malaysia to Singapore, payment is in RM$; if you are travelling from Singapore to Malaysia, payment is in SGD$.

[Tip 4]: The name and IC of the passengers must be correctly filled in.

[Tip 5]: Minimum ticket reservation fees is RM or SGD 20.

We hope you are now equipped with the skills on how to purchase KTM train ticket online. Cheers.

What You Might Not Know About Touch 'n Go Cards

Touch 'n Go is a smart card mostly used in Malaysia to pay for the toll expressway and highway fees. However, did you know there are way so many other uses/ interesting facts about Touch 'n Go cards besides paying for the tolls? Here we would like to summarize them for you as follows:

1. Purchase and pay using Touch 'n Go Card
   You can treat your Touch 'n Go Card as Debit Card to pay the stuffs you buy at most of the outlets now. It is in fact more convenient that using credit/debit cards as you can also pay using Touch 'n Go Card even it costs only RM 1. How cool right?
   
   
2. Photocard Service
   You can have photocard service with your Touch 'n Go card, which is basically the same as the original card except that you can personalise your card with your very own photos to make your card to be the only and unique one! How? Bring your photo either in a thumb drive or directly from your digital camera. Then, fill up an application form at the Customer Service Centre. The card costs RM 21.20 each with a one year of warranty period.
   
   
3. My Kad - Touch 'n Go
   If you don't prefer to carry many cards on your wallet, you might consider to use your My Kad as Touch 'n Go Card. Yes, you can do that. You can actually reload your My Kad and then just use it exactly the same as Touch 'n Go Card.
   
   
4. Expiry Date of Card
   There is an expiry date for your Touch 'n Go card, though it is quite long, i.e. usually is 10 years period. 
   
   
   [Tip 1]: To avoid card deactivation and imposition of dormant fees, you should ensure a minimum usage of once a year.
   
   
5. Online Card Registration
   You can register your card online at here to enjoy your rebate benefits and even check your transaction online. The registration is simple and should take less than 5 minutes to complete it.

[Tip 2]: You can't use your Touch 'n Go Card twice consecutively when using for public transport service, i.e. you can't help your friend to pay for his transport fees using the Touch 'n Go Card after you have just used it. It will not work.

[Tip 3]: Many users still have no ideas where to reload their card with any service charges. Here we have summarised out some of the famous outlets that you can do your reloading without other charges:

• CIMB ATM Machine
• Touch 'n Go Spot
• Touch 'n Go Hub
• Tesco
• KK Supermart
• Watsons
• Petronas Station
• Self Service Kiosk (SSK)
• The Alice Smith School
• Mammamia Ice Cream
• Guardian Pharmacies
• Touch 'n Go Pos
• Airport Coach
• Bangsar Village Parking Sdn Bhd
• Bank Negara Malaysia

Hope you are now equipped with better knowledge regarding your Touch 'n Go Card. You should now have better reason to own a Touch 'n Go Card. One card, One convenience.

Ways to Pay Off Your Debt Efficiently

With the increase in price after GST implementation together with the currency depreciation, cost of living for Malaysians are getting more challenging especially for those young generation. As a result, young teenagers might use their credit cards more often or not even have enough money to pay off their bills such as cars or housing payment.

Here we would like to show you the ways to pay off your debt efficiently.

1. Know where you spend your money
   
   
   After you got your salary, you should always do a tracking record of all your daily expenditures. Identify all the fixed costs first, e.g. rental, public transport, petrol, etc. Then, record down where exactly you spend your money for daily. Yes, include even a RM 1.30 newspaper or RM 5 coffee. With the records, you are able to understand where do you spend most of your money on besides the fixed expenditures. By doing so, you should then try to reduce that unnecessary portion so that you have additional money for those other debts.
   
   
2. Lower the fixed expenses
   
   
   Try to lower down your fixed expenses slowly from time to time. For instance, you can find a cheaper place to stay if you are renting a room. Or, you can take initiatives to save electricity or water to reduce the amount paid for your housing bills.  With lesser fixed expenses, you are more likely to have more money available.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Use your credit card wisely
   
   
   You need to understand that credit card is only for you to delay the payment itself, and you still have to pay it at the end of the deadline. Hence, make sure you don't overspend using your credit card buying unnecessary stuff such as concert tickets or cars when your budget is tight during that time.
   
   
   
4. Sell your lower yielding investment
   
   
   In the case of urgency, you might want to start selling off your investments that are only yielding a relatively lower investment return. For example, if your investment only yields 5% but you are paying for your debt of 10% interest rate, then it is a better choice to sell those investments to pay off your debts instead.
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Definitely say no to procrastination
   
   
   Make sure you pay off your debt based on the due dates. Do not delay and pass the due dates and end up paying more interests. Get your payment due dates written on your notebooks or set as a reminder on your phones. You don't want to use your hard earned salary to pay for those incurring higher interest which you are not supposed to pay in the first place.

Unless it is really necessary, try not to take out your own savings to pay off the debts. You might need the savings for other more important things. Hence, the best way to pay off your current debts is to stop incurring more debts and pay off your debt efficiently on time. 

How to Maintain Employees' Contribution Rate at 11%

As you might have known, our prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak recently announced Malaysian employees will be contributing 3% less for their Employees Provident Fund (EPF) every month for two years when he unveiled the revised Budget 2016.

[Tip 1]: The reduction in employees' contribution rate (from 11% to 8%) will be effective from March 2016.

While there is a slight excitement as monthly net income is slightly higher now, this also means our retirement fund is kept lesser than last time where we have to contribute 11% of the salary to the retirement fund. Hence, it is debatable and employees start thinking if this is a good strategy. 

Nonetheless, employees will now have the option of maintaining their contribution rate to EPF at 11% by following the simple steps below.

How to maintain your employees' contribution rate at 11%

1. Click here to download the application form.
   
   
   
2. Write down your details including your EPF no, IC number, Name and Signature under Section B (Maklumat Ahli/Pekerja)
3. Pass that to your employer and you are done.

You can actually see that under Section B where you have 15 rows to fill up employees' names. This is saying if you have other colleagues that wish to maintain the contribution rate, you all can just fill up once in this form and pass to your employer rather than doing it separately/individually. Employers will then forward it to the nearest EPF branch.

[Tip 2]: Employers' contribution rate of 12% (for those earning above RM 5,000) and 13% (for those earning below RM 5,000) would remain unchanged. 

[Tip 3]: This reduction in employees' contribution rate will be imposed from March 2016 till December 2017.

How to Get Your Employees Provident Fund (EPF) Statement Online

No idea where should you get an EPF statement for your loan or credit card application? Even you know where the EPF kiosks or machines are, you might just feel lazy to wait in a long queue don't you?

Here is how you reduce those hassles with i-Akaun registered at KWSP website!

[Tip 1]: Click  KWSP Log In here to get you started.

How to register an i-Akaun with KWSP?

1. You will first need to obtain the Activation Code at any EPF Kiosk or Counter nearby by using your MyKad or contact the EPF Management Centre at 03-8922 6000.You will then receive the Activation Code via message.
   

   
   
   
2. Next, click the "i-Akaun Activation (First Time Login)".
   

   

   
   
3. You need to agree the terms and conditions before you can proceed to the following page. Kindly complete the details of Member ID No (i.e. IC number) and EPF number together with your activation code that you have obtained from step 1.
   [Tip 2]: Note that the activation code will only last for 30 days, so please register it by then
   

   

   
   
4. Fill in your new account personal (eg. user ID) and security details which includes 3 secret questions and answers. Lastly, pick one out of the 5 images plus a secret phrase.
5. You are done!

Print Your EPF Statement

All you then need to do is to log in at the i-Akaun of KWSP website. Key in your user ID and you will have the secure image appeared. Type in your password to log in. After that you can clearly see the "Please click here to check your EPF statement" to get your statement. You can view it online anytime and the bottom of the page has a "print" button for you to print the statement anytime using your printer. How easy your life is with i-Akaun?

[Tip 3]: System will only display the statement for two years.

Good luck for the registration!

TM E-Bill Registration

Starting from 1 January 2016, there is a RM 2 charge for TM's printed bills. This charge is applicable to Broadband residential and SME customers of:

1. Streamyx 
2. UniFi

[Tip 1] Although there is a RM2 charge, customers subscribing to only TM telephone service continue to have the printed bills for free.

In view of the charges applied on the printed bills, consumers are encouraged to register for E-Bills instead, which will be an electronic version of your monthly bill. E-Bill is free of charge as compared to printed bills.Upon registration, you will be receiving E-Bill via your email starting from your next billing cycle. You can register using a few methods:

1. Sending an email to help@tm.com.my
   This is considered an effective method as TM staff tends to respond your email within 24 hours. To even shorten the processing time, you are encouraged to include the following details in your first email sending to TM:
• Contact person (It can be someone other than the account holder)
• Contact number
• TM telephone number
• Account Number 
• Full name of account holder
• IC/Passport/BR number of account holder
• Full billing address
• Preferred e-mail address (This is important as the E-Bill will be sent to this email address upon success)
  
  
2. Walk in to TM point outlets
   There are quite a few TMpoint outlets that allow you to do your E-Bill registration. One of the most popular and flexible outlets would be the UTC KL at Pudu Sentral in which it opens from 8.30 am till 10 pm daily except for public holidays.
   
   
   [Tip 2] To view the full list of TMpoint outlets, kindly visit here
   
   
3. Call 100
   If you want to avoid the hassle and long queue, you might consider calling TM at 100.The good thing is calling 100 using your home telephone is free of charge. However, as TM consistently receive a high volume of customer calls, you might have to be patient while waiting for the TM staff picks up your phone. The waiting time could be up to 30 minutes. Anyway, please get ready with the information as stated in Method 1 to make the process quicker once the call has been picked up.

Once completed, note that you will only start receiving the E-Bill the following month after your registration. However, for those new customers (i.e. those who are not TM customers prior to 1 June 2015) will automatically receive their first bill via email. 

In order to view your historical bills online, you are also encouraged to register under TM online. Click here for the registration. Upon registration, you are able to manage your TM services, view and download your bills at anytime, pay your bills and upgrade your package etc. 

[Tip 3] Register under TM online does not mean you are entitled to having E-Bill sent to your email. You would still need to request for E-Bill registrations via the methods aforementioned to avoid the RM2 charges for printed bills. 

Let's begin a new year avoiding unnecessary expenditure. Again, we wish you a happy new year!

Source: https://www.tm.com.my/Pages/Home.aspx

 

EduSpace: The New Way of Home Tutoring

Worry about the coming exams? No ideas on how to handle language exams? Being stuck at Math questions that make you feel like giving up? Study stress? Thinking of having a good companion/mentor that guides you for your study? 

Are you passionate about teaching/guiding friends but you can hardly find people surrounding you that needs your help? Thinking of working some part time jobs during university long term break? Planning to get some revenue to pay off part of your education fees? Looking for a job with earning that matches your professional skills?

Proudly present you our one-stop tutoring platform: 

EduSpace:The New Way of Home Tutoring

EduSpace is a platform that connects parents/students and tutors in a hassle-free way. We aspire to build a country-wide agency that could fulfill even the most specific requirements from parents/students and tutors.

How do we work?

EduSpace presents the first among all, EduPoints Program, a three tier ranking system to recognise dedicated and experienced tutors as well as to provide a clear expectation to the parents on the quality of tutors in each ranking. Through EduPoints Program, tutors are encouraged to continuously improve themselves as they are entitled to higher tuition rate as their ranking increases.

The rating systems work with the following simple 4 steps:

1. Tutors are rated under EduPoints based on their experience
2. Tutors are then categorised into either ★,★★ or ★★★ tutors based on total EduPoints collected
3. Parents are able to choose tutors with their preferred number of ★
4. The tuition rates would be based on the tutor’s number of ★

Example

As a parent, Helen is looking for an English tutor for her Standard 3 daughter. Based on the table "Tuition Rates by EduPoints Program", the tuition rate will be charged per hour based on the tutor's number of ★, i.e. in this case, Grace can get a ★ tutor for RM 30 per hour, or a ★★ tutor for RM 35 per hour; or a ★★★tutor for RM40 per hour. She prefers the tutor to have teaching experience and thus she decided to get a ★★tutor. 

As a tutor, Jimmy needs to first come out with total EduPoints based on the table "EduPoints Ranking Criteria". Say he is a school teacher and he has more than 5 years of teaching experience. Based on the EduPoints Program, he will earn 5 EduPoints for being a school teacher; earn 10 EduPoints for having more than 2 years of teaching experience. This brings a total EduPoints of 15 which EduSpace would categorise him as a ★★ tutor.

We, as EduSpace, will screen our database and found that both Helen and Jimmy should connect as their profile matches to each others. Matching process will be carried out and if both accept the offer, Jimmy will be tutoring Grace's Standard 3 daughter for RM 35 per hour.

What can you do now?

If you are parents/students looking for a private home tutor, click Request for Tutor

If you are looking for tutoring jobs, click  Join as Tutor

If you wish to know more about us or get more updates from us, like our EduSpace Tuition Facebook Page now.

Still confused? Send us an email at admin@eduspacetuition.com or whatsapp/call us at +6018 311 4711.

Help us share the page or comments below if you have any recommendations.

How to save money from daily activities?

With the instability of our economy recently, everyone is trying hard to trim a few bulks from their daily activities. After all, saving some is better than none. Hence, here we come the top 5 simple but essential ways for you to refer on how to save money from daily activities.

1. Have an expense app for record purpose

Set aside the amount of money that you would need to meet your commitments at the beginning of each month. Your commitment can include utility or phone bills, rental, transport fees, car loan, own saving amount or even, the amount of money that you would bank in to your parents' account. Deducting out all these from your monthly net salary would give you the amount of money that you can spend on food, entertainment, shopping, etc for the month. Next, divide it by the number of days of the month to get an indication of how much you can spend per day. You can then use one of your phone app to help you track your daily expenses. Recording down the expenses using phone could track your expenditures with least effort. Tracking your daily expenses also means you can then have an analysis on what kind of expenses you spend most. Most importantly, you know how much you should spend particularly when it is closer to the end of the month in order to not spend more than what you have left. 

[Tip 1] I personally found that "Pocket Expense Personal Finance" phone app is so far the best app that I would recommend to track your daily expenses in an easy way. In case you might forget to record down your expenses , this app can actually remind you by sending notification daily. 

2. Before buying something, ask yourself 

Consumers are always intrigued by the sales advertisement. Without any doubt, sales advertisements are often a tempting one that sometimes you just can't control yourself. However, asking yourself a question before doing the purchase might help you make a true decision. Ask yourself this question "Yes, this is cheap. But, do I really need this? Or I am still good without having it?" before buying. This can avoid the extra spending that you make when you think the product is worth buying in terms of price but in fact you don't really need it.

3. Wait for discount before buying

This is more applicable to buying those luxuries or less urgent stuffs. Lets take an example of you thinking to purchase some formal clothes for your work. This task is a to-do-task yet less urgent that you can still wear your existing clothes for next few weeks. Hence, why not you just wait until there is discount for the clothes? Discount on clothing is usually great and you do save quite a bit especially when you are thinking to buy a few. Same idea goes to your other purchases say your weekly groceries. Try to be loyal to a certain groceries shop by signing up as their member in order to get better discount and faster services.

4. Own two bank accounts

Owning two bank accounts would help you save quite a bit and it could build up to be a noticeable amount of money after a while. How? Treat one of your bank accounts as the saving money account, i.e. transfer the monthly saving amount to this bank account for saving purpose. In other words, do not spend this money in the account unless for emergency. Meanwhile, the other account would be just for your normal expenditure use. This step can clear your way between spending and saving, and thus successfully saved your money from daily activities.

5. Use public transport to work

This might be hard for someone who stays quite far from public transport. However, if you are one of them, you might consider to park your car beside the nearest train station to avoid congestion. In this way, although you have to spend some on your public transport fees, you have saved a lot from your petrol. Using public transport to work can then save your money compared to driving to office every day.

[Tip 2] If your public transport fee for LRT/Monorail has exceeded RM100 per month, then you might want to purchase the one-month unlimited call to set your monthly public transport fees to be at a fixed amount every month.

Hope the information helps and wish you have fun reading and learn them today.

10 Ways to Earn Extra Money in University/College

Coming from middle class family, I totally understand the financial constraints that we met in our college time. With the increasing education costs and living expenses, we could not fully depend on our parents. If you are a 80s or early 90s, life will be slightly easier with the help of PTPTN. 

However, starting November 2014, only children of BR1M recipients able to apply for full loan.  This changes will see a reduction of 5% to public institutions students and reduction of 15% to private institutions. Click here to view the news.

Instead of constant lamenting, we ought to think ways to fill in the discrepancies.

Here are 10 ways to earn extra money in university/college.

1. Tutoring

If you have good academic performance, you can offer tutoring services to juniors in units that you excel. There is no costs involved and only some pre-reading required. Plus, it enhanced your communication skills and enlarge your network with junior.

Otherwise, you can opt to tutor primary/secondary schools children. If you have a passion in teaching, this might be a good time for you to gain experience. If you like children, it would be a double plus, as you are doing things you like.

2. Restaurants/Cafes

The most mainstream part time job is non other than being waiter/waitress in restaurants/cafes. No costs involved and only required your energy and time. Plus, it gives you working experience and the chance to serve other people. My own experience told me that you will meet various kinds of people and in the end, you will learn to treat other people well, which is so important to a well-being.

If you are passionate in coffees or baking, it is a good chance to learn a skill by working in a restaurant/cafe. I learnt different types of wine and restaurant management systems during my time.

3. Weekend promoters

In Kuala Lumpur, there are always exhibitions which required weekend promoters. The pay is usually per day and is highly flexible. It also trains your 'selling' skills which will be important in many careers. Of course, you will also have many contacts from different companies and networks. Most importantly, these jobs are flexible and will not affect your studies.

4. Multi-Layer Marketing

You can join multi-layer marketing such as AmWay to increase your passive income. Besides teaching you selling skills, they have constant meet-up to enlarge your network and talks to keep you inspired (not only in selling, but in life too). Besides, this job can be continued even after you graduated. However, noted that there are annual membership fees involved.

5. Insurance/Property Agents

If you are serious, you can spend some time applying for insurance agents/property agents license in your uni time. Starting early, you are earning commissions by the time your peer friends graduate. Also, it helps you expanding network and your 'selling' skills not mentioning the lucrative commissions.

6. Partial Internship

If you are really passionate with what you are studying, I recommend you to find a part-time internship. It might be rare but I do think some small companies are willing to for cheap labour. For example, my friend who is studying Quantity Surveying works in a construction company. Besides gaining industrial experience earlier, you might be able to find a mentor to help you with career. You are already one step ahead than your peers.

7. Working in University ( Admin, Residential Advisor, Research Assistant)

If you have no luck with all of the above so far, try to work in your university compound. Are they looking for some admin staffs? Are you a suitable candidate for residential advisor? Keep your eyes and ears open, you might able to get some part-time jobs in the university. The best thing working in uni is you save your time and costs travelling.

8. Online Business

Online business has been a trend lately and with the advancements in the virtual world, doing online business is easier than ever. Sell some things that you are passionate about. For example, if you have high fashion sense, you could sell dresses/accessories or if you are gadget fans, you can sell phone accessories. It involves costs for getting inventories but will give you entrepreneur experiences.

9. Selling crafts

If you are arty enough, consider selling some crafts. It could be printed t-shirts, customized shoes, jewelry, customized notebooks, etc. The ideas have no end. Customized items are valuable and people willing to pay for it. If you aimed to be designers, it could be your first portfolio that will add extra colours in your resume. Again, you are already one step ahead than your peer friends.

10. Selling bento/baked goods

Do you like to cook or bake? Make good use of your talent by selling your products. Living far away from home, some of your classmates might dread to have a home-cooked meal. Fulfill their desires by selling bento or inviting them to have dinner at your house. Believe me, home-cooked meal is always better than outside food. Plus, you just have to cook more portions when you prepare your food.

If you are good in baking, you can sell cookies during Raya or Chinese New Years or some people just love cookies anytime in a year. 

Of course, the above only serve as ideas and there are a lot more. More importantly, you should think of what you like to do and what you are good in doing. Monies will always follow.

7 Simple Tips to Save You Money on Transportations

Recent news from the Star SPAD Seeks to Increase Public Transoprt Fares will give many gloomy face. With the fuel price and public transport fees hiking, it is not easy to survive in the city. Not mentioning the withdrawal petrol subsidy next year and GST implementation, it certainly adds burden to middle income class group especially those fresh graduates who have minimal income but incur similar hike in expenses like others without any "give out" from government.

Here are 7 simple tips for you to save some cents on transportation costs.

Budgeting

You could start by thinking of how much you spend regularly on transportation. Personally, I drive to LRT station and take LRT to my workplace on weekdays. The parking fees at the LRT station is RM 4 per day and the return trip of LRT is RM4.20 per day. Also, I will need to refill RM30 petrol weekly. This sums up to RM 284, roughly 10% of my salary on transportation per month! 

Here's the tip, if you are using LRT for almost RM 100 per month, you might as well using unlimited pass which cap your usage at RM100.

Think of how much you spend will give you a rough idea on how much you use. Thus, you will make more careful driving plan to prevent unnecessary trips. For example, run multiple errands on one go instead of several different trips.

Planning

I have make it a habit to refill my petrol tank on weekends every week to enjoy 5% cashback from Maybank Amex. If I know what is ahead, then I could fill my tank as necessary on prior.

It also helps me to keep track my fuel usage. 

Avoid driving in rush hour

If your working time is flexible, you might as well choose not to come to office during rush hour. Perhaps come into office 30 minutes later or earlier.

Car pool

On weekends outing, take turns to offer rides between friends, so that only one car is used each time. Once, two friends and I drove 3 cars to meet up which is a huge waste. Make it a habit to car pool.

Send your car to regular maintenance 

An efficient engine could use fuel more efficiently. Also, it promotes road safety and avoids towing your car if it breaks down in the middle of the road.

Avoid putting heavy things in the bonnet

Heavy things such as golf equipment and children pram should not be kept long term in your bonnet. You will have to step harder on your accelerator if your car is heavy.

Maintain your tyres pressure

Flat tyres consume more fuel and make your car feels draggy. Check pressure table on the right of the driver seat to find out the optimum pressure.

Start an Investment - Mutual Funds

Through reading any financial book or blog, they will say the same thing; "Start saving and investing when you are young". But the million-dollar question is "How to start investing?"

To answer that question, one will require experience, skills and knowledge before start putting the money to work for you. But it seems so difficult and time-consuming that people always put it away until future unknown date. 

Every thing starts with a baby step and this is what I do. I put aside a fixed proportion of my salary for saving and investment purposes. Half of it goes into fixed deposit and the remaining into a mutual fund by auto direct transfer. In long term, I would have accumulated sufficient fund to achieve my financial goals. How does that sound?

Why I started with mutual funds

1. Diversification
Given a limited amount of capital, it is hard to diversify properly of the investments thus inducing specific risk into the investments. Mutual funds provide a well-diversified portfolios in unit.

2. Expertise and management skills 
Investment managers of the funds are skilled and experienced ensuring your money is invested in well-mannered.

3. Easy
With a professional investment manager, you don't have to track the stock prices everyday. This is suitable for busy people who wouldn't have much extra time.

4.Access to investments that otherwise not available
With the pooling of funds, individual can now access small and big, domestic and overseas investments.

The drawbacks that you need to consider

1. Management fee
Your investment will be charged for the management fees depending on the funds

2. Low return
Mutual funds are for long term investments. If you looking for high risk and high return, mutual fund might not be suitable.

To start investing in mutual funds

1. Decide on the purpose of your investments. Is it for your marriage fund, first home fund, child schooling fund or retirement?

2. Decide on how much risk you can tolerate. This  is affected by your age, nature of income (steady or uncertain), number of dependents and existing wealth.

3. Research on which provider that you wanted to join.

4. Decide on which fund you would like to join. 

5. Read the prospectus of the fund to ensure that you are aware of what risk you are exposed to.

6. Invest in the fund. Decide on whether you wanted to invest in lump sum or regular investment.

7. Put it aside and check it once in awhile. 

It would not happen if you are not starting. Take the first step now by reading more about investments!

4 Steps to Set Up Monthly Budget

A good budget is just as good as a pair of fit jeans. Too loose, you spend more than you have but too tight, you suffocate yourself and you won't follow it at all. So, the key is to set a realistic budget that you can stick to it.

Step 1: Identify your income

This should take into account the SOCSO, EPF and tax to get your net income that you can use every month. RM 3000 is not RM 3000 at all, you only have RM 2600 to use after all those little suckers.

Step 2: Identify your necessities

Necessities do not include Starbucks and movie tickets. Necessities refer to savings, funds for investment, monthly debt repayments such as car loan or mortgages, petrol, rental, bills and utilities.

Step 3: Backward calculate how much you have daily

The remaining is the money that you can spend without feeling guilty. Divide it by the number of day in a month, you shall get a picture of how much money you can use per day. This money should be able to cover your two meals and miscellaneous buying that you want. Having said that, if you really wanted to buy yourself something expensive or to indulge in luxuries, you will have to plan which days you will spend less.

Step 4: Track every spending

Tracking where your money go is important as it tells you which spending is not necessary and to prevent over spending. Tracking is not difficult with the help of apps in mobile phone or just a simple excel worksheet.

Be in control of your own finance  is the first step to become rich.