Friday, 31 January 2020

The American and the Fisherman

I have listened to this story many times and I would love to capture the lesson that I got from it. Here is the story first.

......................................................




An American businessman was standing at the pier of a small coastal Malaysian village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large Asian seabass. The American complimented the Malaysian on the quality of his fish.

“How long did it take you to catch them?” The American asked.

“Only a little while.” The Malaysian replied.

“Why don’t you stay out longer and catch more fish?” The American then asked.

“I have enough to support my family’s immediate needs.” The Malaysian said.

“But,” The American then asked, “What do you do with the rest of your time?”

The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a short nap with my wife, stroll into the village each evening where I sip teh tarik and play guitar with my friends. I have a full and busy life, sir.”

The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, you could buy a bigger boat, and with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, and eventually, you would have a fleet of fishing boats.”

“Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the consumers, eventually opening your own can factory. You would control the product, processing, and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Kuala Lumpur where you will run your expanding enterprise.”

The Malaysian fisherman asked, “But sir, how long will this all take?”

To which the American replied, “15-20 years.”

“But what then, sir?”

The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.”

“Millions, sir? Then what?”

The American said slowly, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a short nap with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip teh tarik and play your guitar with your friends…”

..........................................

I know that you may have read a slightly different version of this story but the lesson is still there.

Money, while it is important, is not everything. There are many things that are more important than money. For me, the most important thing in my life would be my family and I would rather spend more time with them. 


How about you? What is most important for you?

Monday, 20 January 2020

The 5 Pillars of Radical Ringgit


We have been doing a lot of soul-searching on what we would like Radical Ringgit to achieve because up until now, we do not have a real goal to move forward with. The last post on SMART goal makes us think a lot. We think about what is important in personal finance for ourselves and we come up with 5 pillars that we will focus on Radical Ringgit. The goal is to make personal finance accessible to all people who are looking for information.


These 4 pillars are not foreign to all personal finance people but to state it out clearly, we would be able to move forward with a better sense of direction and goal. The four pillars are as follow:


  1. Reduce spending
  2. Increase incomes
  3. Invest wisely
  4. Optimized everything
  5. Protect your assets

Moving forward, we will categorize our new articles with one of the 4 pillars. 


Wednesday, 15 January 2020

How to set a SMART Financial Goal


It is always a good thing if we could have goals for our personal finance. But a lot of times, many people (me included), does not know how to set our own financial goals.

Today, we would like to share how we can actually set a SMART financial goal.


The Acronym SMART actually stand for the following Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Relevant and Timebound. Let us look a bit more detail into each of them.

Specific: State exactly what you wish to buy/accomplish with the money you save.
Measurable: Indicate the exact dollar amount you need to accomplish your goal.
Attainable: Identify the steps necessary to reach your goal.
Relevant: The goal must be meaningful or you may lose motivation to stick with your plan.
Time-bound: By when do you want to meet your goal?

Friday, 10 January 2020

16 Ideas to Kick Start Your Finance in 2020


With the start of the new year, there are some actions that you can take to kickstart your finance on the right path. I have prepared 24 ideas that you can take for the year 2020.

1. Declutter your house (or room)

We may have not noticed but over the years, we may have bought many things that we might have forgotten now. So, take a weekend and start cleaning and decluttering your house.
Items that you no longer need can be categorized into the following:
1. Trash to throw.
2. Stuff to donate.
3. Stuff to sell.
The idea is really simple because, once you clean and declutter your house, you will have more living space and for that stuff that you can sell, you will get some cash back. 

More importantly, you will get to see the stuff that you have purchased and not using (making it a waste of your money) and would give you a reminder to think properly before your next purchase.

Friday, 3 January 2020

Wahed Invest - Progress Review

Update 24 February 2020: Wahed Invest referral bonus has been reduced from RM 40 to RM20. 

Have you invested in Wahed Invest?

Well, I did. You can read my registration process here.

It has been almost 2 months and I am happy to say that I am very satisfied with how my investment has progressed.


3.65% or RM5.1 gain after 54 days. For me, that is a really good gain. What else can I ask for?