MONEY MASTER

Key Developments: Trump’s tariffs take effect:  25% duties on imports from  Mexico and Canada , while  China faces a 20% tariff increase  on top of existing levies. China retaliates  with  10%-15% tariffs  on US goods and  export restrictions  on 25 US firms. Canada and Mexico vow countermeasures , with  C$30 billion in immediate retaliatory tariffs  from Ottawa. Market turmoil ensues , as global stocks slide and investors flee to safe-haven assets. US recession fears rise , with businesses warning of  supply chain disruptions  and  higher consumer prices . North America: Trade Friction with Allies Canada’s Swift Response Prime Minister Justin Trudeau  condemned the tariffs, calling them a  violation of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) . Canada retaliates with  25% tariffs on C$30 billion (US$20.7 billion) in US goods , targeting: Beer, wine, and bourbon Home appliances Florida orange juice Ontari...

Credit card can be friend as well as foe, as mentioned previously in Credit Card - Friend or Foe (Part 1) , Credit Card - Friend or Foe (Part 2) , Credit Card - Friend or Foe (Part 3) and Credit Card - Friend or Foe (Part 4) and while a credit card comes with numerous benefits and flexibility to one provided that the user uses it well; can be rewarding to him or her as well. Having said so, there are several costly mistakes that one should avoid at all cost - as those mistakes will eventually lead one deeper into the debt pit. 1. Avoid Paying Only the Minimum Payment Typically on a credit card statement, one will see two type of balance due; total balance due or some known as the statement balance as well as minimum payment due. The minimum payment due is usually RM50 or 5% of the outstanding balance. Imagine only paying 5%, with 95% of the outstanding will be charged a hefty interest rate. Piling up debt in this way shows the incapable to repay the debt thus hurting the credi...

This post continue from the past 3 post about the credit card:- Credit Card - Friend or Foe (Part 1) Credit Card - Friend or Foe (Part 2) Credit Card - Friend or Foe (Part 3) While part 1 and part 2 mentioned mostly on the pros of the credit card, part 3 talks about the con of using credit card in which I will talk about it in this part. Aside from high interest and a lot of hidden charges, swiping credit card actually give one the false sense of affordability when it comes to buying "wants" products rather than than the necessities. What are the things that we can consider as "wants"? These are the things like the hot gadgets that just released to the market, like the Apple iPhone and iPad, the latest Samsung S4 and many more. These "wants" products are usually not cheap, especially in Malaysia which can cost almost a month of salary, but there is one feature in credit card, in which I mentioned in Part 2 as the pros, if used wisely - the easy ...

I read about an article on Mr. Money Mustache and how he retired at 30 and it was actually an inspiring article to me, and I'm pretty sure that most of us can learn from him. Inspiring in the sense that I aim to retired by 30 before I started to join the workforce, and unfortunately at 30 now, I still don't feel comfortable retiring. There are few reasons that I don't feel comfortable; the first being not accumulated enough invest able cash and investment assets in which can generates the amount of cash that I need to have my current lifestyle. Another reason is I'm still aiming for property and still paying for my property; in which will increase my expenses. So, I look into the advice of Mr. Money Mustache and learn something; though I cannot emulate him 100%, I'm sure there are some key learning from him. The article is as follows:- Meet Mr. Money Mustache. Hundreds of thousands of readers follow his bold advice on his self-titled blog — and for good rea...

Previously on Universal Rule of Personal Financial Management:- #1 - Spend Less Than You Earn #2 - Earn More #3 - Never Depend On Single Income   The rule of personal financial management #4 is more on the mistake that most people made when deciding on the insurance premium that suit them, and most of the time people either over-insure themselves or pay an excessive premium for insurance because they do not know how to optimize their money. For example, consider two insurance products for a person at age 35: term insurance for RM500,000 will cost RM1,625 per annum, whereas a whole life policy will cost RM14,225 per annum. We have to understand that the idea of getting insurance cover to protect our loved ones from financial hardship in case of an untoward event; which is the reason why we should go for the lowest possible premium and then investing the difference between the two premiums to optimize our money. Many have chosen the wrong premium mainly due to g...

Earning more, especially from linear income usually not sufficient for one to be financially independent. A very simple reason being, your linear income is finite and there is a limit on how much you can get from salary. Next, age will be the limitation for one, and before we know it, it is time for us to retire from the workforce - and this is also assuming one does not get retrench before reaching the retirement age. One of Warren Buffett's famous quote on earnings is "Never depend on single income. Make investment to create a second source". It's true that one should not depends on single income, by saying this does not mean that one should work very long hours or do the extra mile by working for different companies or having multiple part-time jobs. Like the famous investor say, make investment to create a second source. There are many types of investment; properties, stocks, funds or commodities. Different investment comes with different risk and return....

The first universal rule of personal financial management is to spend less than what you have earn, but that alone is not enough. It is good for one to be able to control his or her own temptations from the materialistic world. However, as we know that the inflation actually drives a lot of things to become more expensive, hence living within means will not be sufficient. The next universal rule of personal financial management is to earn more. This one is a little bit more tricky than spending less than what you have earn especially for the working class because the salary is limited to what companies can offer. Even if this rule is not easy to apply to our life, we should really plan and think of the ways to earn more. There are reasons why earning more is important, in fact, it is as important as the rule number one which is to spend less than what you earn. Companies which are focusing on cost control will doom to fail in the future because there is no growth in the compa...

While I'm planning for this year financial goal, I realized that there are certain rules for personal financial management which won't go wrong to almost everyone and at any situation. In fact, I found that these rules are so real and these rule are so simple that we all know deep inside of us, but whether we can apply those rules in our life will be another story.   Well, the first and most basic rule of personal financial management is to spend less than what you earn . When we look at this rule, we would have think, "Oh come on, everyone knows this". True, spend less than what you earn makes much sense as we cannot spend the money that we don't have - provided we do not own a credit card. Once you have a credit card, it is very easy and tempting to spend more than what you can earn, and before you realized, you have already swiped up to the credit limit, which can be up to two to three times of your monthly salary for most cases. Spend less than what...