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HAFIY, FAHRY & DANNY

Best Bet For Our Money

once i was approached by somebody promoting insurance policy. what attracts me was "if you buy this policy, even if you have a small cut on your finger, you'll be protected. and if you cant afford to pay the full premium, you can choose half or a quarter" i just said "thanks, i dont think i need".

no offense to any insurance agent, but i just took him as a marketer, and as advised by Seth Gordon 'all marketers are liars'.
1. do you go to clinic for a small cut on your finger? to me a handiplast will do.
2. you pay half, and you expect full coverage? silap2 after i discharge from hospital or even after my death pun i have to pay the hutang for medical.

new to the field of working, we dont have much money. our salary is just enough to make ends meet. thus, we have to be smart enough in saving money.
1. saving for emergency.
2. saving for future use.
3. saving for our children.
4. saving for medical purposes.
5. saving for retirement.

i knew that we have to be smart in spending and saving our many because:
1. we are just working.
that makes our salaries are no that big. and we are not working with an organization that pays us RM5k per month :P
2. we just started a family, and it's keep on growing.
so many things to be expect when you have a growing family.
4. we have many things to do, and many unexpected things to expect.
we just started our life, and in this turbulence world, we can't predict what will happen. even the oil price is getting lower and over although OPEC announced that they'll cut the production (will they really cut it??? will they???).
5. we started our life with RM0.00, with no 'allowance' from our parents.

we forecast that those reasons will probably cause us:
1. have to pay for something in big amount, and we need the money urgently.
2. get opportunity to buy a nice house/car with cheaper than market price, but need a huge downpayment.
3. in our sisters/brothers need money in huge amount and seek for our help.
4. aob.

so we have to be smart in spending, as well as saving. (in our current situation) we don't have to live in frugality, but just always pay for what we need, occasionally pay for what we want, and try to avoid to pay for lavish things.

in term of saving, the 'safe' methods we play:
1. save in a safe place.
2. save in a place with no ATM.
3. save in a place which give you some returns.
4. save in a place which not cause you to lose your capitals.
5. save in a place where you can withdraw your money anytime you need.

why a word 'return' there? because we have to play with inflation and credit depression. what can you buy with RM50 today? and 10 years back, what can your buy with that amount? day by day, our money loss its value, and average Malaysian inflation rate is about 4% per year. in 30 years, RM1000,000 will valued like RM60,000 today. how many losses we have to face if we ignore the depreciation factor? and there's many instruments don't cover inflation such as saving account, fix deposit, insurance endowment, and even gold.

that's why before deciding to 'put money somewhere', or to invest, knowledge about personal finance is very significant.