MONEY MASTER

Key Takeaway: Stronger wages and a resilient labour market are not translating into higher consumer spending, raising concerns over Malaysia’s domestic demand-led growth. AmBank projects private consumption growth of  ~5% in 2025 , but notes that sentiment remains subdued amid global and domestic policy uncertainties. Household Spending Trends Income growth vs. spending restraint : Wages have risen post-pandemic, but loan applications, approvals, and disbursements at the household level have tapered off in recent months. Weak sentiment : Tepid household spending reflects a  low propensity to consume , driven by concerns over US policy shifts, global geopolitical risks, and domestic supply-side adjustments. Implications for Growth GDP contribution at risk : With  private consumption making up over 60% of GDP , slower spending momentum could weigh on the broader economy. Forecasts : Official projections: GDP growth  4.0%–4.8%  in 2025. AmBank forecast: GDP growth...

Key Takeaway: Goldman Sachs cuts Australia’s GDP forecast to 1.8% for 2025 , citing anticipated spillovers from President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed 60% tariffs on Chinese exports . Goldman’s Revised Outlook Economic Growth: 2025 GDP forecast lowered from 2% to 1.8% , reflecting the impact on exports to China, Australia’s largest trading partner. Tariff Impact: Trump’s protectionist policies are expected to hurt China-Australia trade , creating broader economic headwinds for Australia. Monetary Policy Outlook Interest Rates: Goldman predicts the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will cut rates in February 2025 , reaching a terminal rate of 3.25% by November . Current market consensus expects easing to begin in May , highlighting Goldman’s more dovish stance . Inflation and Spending: Elevated rates (currently 4.35% ) have dampened consumer spending , contributing to the slowdown. Fiscal Stimulus and Election Dynamics Federal Election by May 2025: Voter-friendly policies could provid...

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...

If you are following, the Malaysian Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has announced the increase of petrol price.  Price for RON95 petrol and diesel will be raised by 20 sen per liter from midnight. While 20 sen probably doesn't send an alarming response, an increase of 10% in the petrol should be alarming.  The move is aimed at reducing the fiscal deficit, thus saving RM1.1bil per year for the Government, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. Najib said despite the increase, the government would still be subsidising 63 sen for RON 95 petrol. "The subsidy rationalisation will be carried out in many stages. The first is that the price of RON95 and diesel will be increased by 20 sen per litre from 12.01am Tuesday," Najib told a press conference after chairing a meeting of the Fiscal Policy Committee (FPC) on Monday. There have been talk of ways the government would do to help the lower income group in Malaysia but all of that ...

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 ...

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...

I am probably not the right person to be blogging about this because spending is really one of my weaknesses. But here are some of the ways that I find effective in helping me to spend less. 1) Think it through and search for more information... With the growing infomercials that are designed to give simple information while promoting certain products, the brain could be pressured and tricked into buying. Thus, it is important to give it a thought and think through. It is also advisable to search for more information on the internet....most of the time, you might realize that you don't actually need it anyway.  2) Search for cheap and discount goods... One might probably find it difficult to search for cheap and discounted goods but if you start take note of the prices, it is not long before you could identify the goods that have a good discount. Buy during festive seasons are good but one must be careful not to fall into the trap of spending more from th...

Today, I'm going to discuss about something practical about spending... Nowadays, almost everything revolve around money...and that includes your health and fitness. If you have money, you could easily pay for membership to join a gym, a yoga class etc. But here is the question that we must ask before we spend...should we pay for gym? Should you pay for gym? Should you pay for your fitness and health? I think that question depends on what is the purpose of joining a gym. A friend of mine who joined a gym membership was there to build muscles. That was the right move I believe as building muscles require the intensity in work out and it will be advisable to do it with a gym instructor. But if you are going to a gym for the purpose of health and fitness, I think it is not worth to pay for a gym. There are many people who went to the gym for running in the morning for the purpose of maitaining their health and fitness level, but this could be done for free in a lot of p...