Versa Cash Newest Promotion - 4.9% per annum

 In case you have not signed up to Versa (wrote about it here), maybe this will pique your attention. 

With interest running high, the more you keep in your bank, the less valuable your money will be. Best to put it somewhere with better interest rate. And, for me, Versa is the place to go. 

It is an fully mobile app that help you put your money into a money market fund by Affin-Hwang Capital Asset Management.

And with this special promotion, you will get 4% per annum from 1st Nov 2022 until 31 Jan 2023. While it seems to be very short period of time, your money will continue to work for you no matter how much keep it there.

And the best thing is, if you sign up with my referral code (X3Q3UGR8), you will get "free" RM 10 when you put in RM 100 or more. I will get RM 10 too.

This is my referral link.

Personal Finance Terms You Should Know

This are the personal finance terms that you should know. It is not completed but good to have. Hope you enjoy it.

 

• Active management - A type of financial portfolio strategy that involves frequent hands-on strategic intervention (buying and selling assets) from a financial adviser.
• Amortization - The process by which the amount due on a loan is reduced over time. Generally a higher proportion of each payment goes toward interest when you begin paying off the loan, with an increasing proportion going toward principal over time.
• Annual Percentage Rate - Annual percentage rate (APR) is the total amount it will cost you to borrow money, be it through a loan, credit card, or other instruments, each year. It takes the amount of interest you'll owe and adds it to any other relevant fees.
• Annual Percentage Yield - Annual percentage yield (APY) represents the total amount of interest you'll earn on an investment or savings account in a year, including the effects of compound interest.
• Appreciation - An increase in the value of a particular asset over time.
• Asset - An item a person or entity owns that has financial value or is expected to have financial value in the future.
• Asset allocation - The mix of different financial vehicles (such as bonds, stocks, ETFs, cash, mutual funds) that an investor can spread their money across. It's important to maintain an asset allocation that's in line with your risk tolerance.
• Balance sheet - A document that provides prospective investors with a summary of a company's financial standing by detailing its assets, liabilities, and shareholders' equity.
• Bankruptcy - A legal proceeding that gives a person or business who can no longer pay their debts a chance to be released from the responsibility of paying those debts.
• Bear market - A way of describing the state of the stock market that indicates that stocks are declining in value overall.
• Blue chip - A term used to refer to companies whose stock is considered a solid investment. Maybank, Axiata, Kuala Lumpur Kepong, and Nestle are blue-chip companies.
• Bonds - A type of investment that is essentially a loan from the investor to the bond issuer ( such as the Malaysia government or a corporation). The bond issuer pays back the invested money, with interest, at specified intervals of time. Bonds carry less risk than stocks.
• Bull market - A way of describing the state of the stock market that indicates stocks are increasing in value.
• Capital gain - The profit that results from selling an asset that has grown in value.
• Capital loss - The loss an investor experiences when they sell an asset that has lost value.
• Cash flow - The movement of a person's, household's, or business's money (coming in as income and going out as expenses).
• Fixed Deposit - A financial instrument that locks away cash so that you can't use it for a certain time in exchange for a higher interest rate. Returns on FDs are guaranteed.
• Index - A tracker that measures the market performance of a particular sector, often by using a group of different securities to represent a theoretical investor portfolio. The KL Composite Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average are indices.
• Index fund - A mutual fund made up of investments that reflect a market index, which gives investors built-in diversification. Index funds are known for their low fees.
• Inflation - The percentage by which the cost of goods and services increases and the value of money decreases over time.
• Initial public offering (IPO) - The first time a private company offers shares of itself to investors at large.
• Liabilities - Money that an individual or entity owes someone else.
• Management fees - Money paid to investment managers and/or investment advisers in exchange for managing investments.
• Mortgage - A loan you take out to buy a piece of property, where the piece of property is the collateral. That means if you fail to make payments, the lender can seize the property.
• Mutual fund - A financial instrument that uses a pot of money from many different investors to buy a diversified mix of stocks, bonds, and other securities.
• Net worth - The total value of all of your assets (wage income, investments, property) minus the total amount of your debt.
• Passive management - A hands-off investment strategy where the investor sets up a portfolio to reflect a stock index, often through ETFs and mutual funds.
• Premium - The amount you pay monthly to maintain insurance coverage.
• Price-to-earning (P/E) ratio - The measure of how a company's current stock price relates to its current earnings per share.
• Principal - The dollar amount of money you deposited into an account or borrowed, not including interest.
• Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) - A public company that owns a series of properties that generate income. Investors can buy shares to gain exposure to real estate.
• Recession - A prolonged period (at least several months) of declining economic activity.
• Refinance - To replace a loan, such as a mortgage, with a different loan that has a better interest rate or other more favorable terms.
• Return on investment - ROI is a measurement of how much a particular asset has grown in value since you bought it relative to how much you paid for it.
• Risk tolerance - The measure of how much market fluctuation an investor is willing to take on in their investment portfolio. Risk tolerance depends on many factors, including how close a person is to retirement, what other goals they may use the money for, and their general disposition.
• Robo-adviser - An online service that offers financial planning and automatic investing operated by algorithm, generally with a much lower fee than a human financial planner.
• Stock - A type of investment that, when purchased, gives you partial ownership of the company. Also known as a share.
• Yield - The earnings an investment returns to its owner, expressed as a percentage. Yield can include interest and dividends.

Tax Relief 2021

Well, it is that time of the year again for those who are able and earning a certain amount of salary every year, we have to pay our income tax.

But fear not, we have our friendly "Tax Relief" by LHDN Malaysia (Sorry, not Spidey) to help us out.

Tax relief basically help us to reduce our taxable income and reduce the tax we need to pay.

We are all good citizens and we should pay our taxes. But our government is good to, giving us many tax reliefs.

Hope this tax relief infographic is able to help you with your income tax submission this year.

 

How to spot an Investment Scam?

Not too long ago, a friend of our family has confined to us that they were scammed of more than RM 150,000 by someone in the same group. We didn't know all the details but it makes me thinking of these scams that are happening almost on daily basis (just that we don't know) and how we could actually avoid being scammed. 

How to know if it is an investment scam?

Clue 1 - Amazing returns

Any investment that promises returns that are greater than what investment markets are able to generate should immediately sound alarm bells. If the investment promises to double or triple your money in a short period of time, runaway as fast as you can. 

Clue 2 - Jargon and pressure

Investments that use words such as ‘exclusive offer’, ‘select’, ‘elite’, ‘limited offer’ or ‘opportunity of a lifetime in their marketing material is trying to put pressure on you to give them your money asap. The longer it takes for you to decide, the higher chance that you may not "invest" with them. Thus, they want to get your money and go missing. Knowing this, runaway as fast as you can.

Clue 3 - Private bank account

A legitimate enterprise, it would hold a business account with a reputable financial institution. If the bank account of the investment is held in the name of a private individual, be suspicious. runaway as fast as you can. 

Clue 4 - Physical address

The physical address of the organisation should also appear in all their marketing material, including websites and brochures – but don’t take the printing of a physical address at face value. Use Google maps to look up the address and locate the actual building. Many legitimate companies pin their physical locations on Google maps as an added measure of credibility. If it looks weird, runaway as fast as you can.

Clue 5 - Investors recruit more investors

Many multi-level marketing (MLM) schemes and Ponzi schemes operate a business model which requires each ‘investor’ to recruit more ‘investors’ in order to keep the scheme afloat. If the scheme involves any form of recruitment, it is likely to be some form of a pyramid scheme. So, runaway as fast as you can.

Clue 6 - Complex business models

The company should take time to explain their business model to you, including underlying assets and how income will be generated. The business model should be wholly transparent and easy to understand. Investment scams are notorious for their complex business models and technical jargon. If you don’t understand how your money will be used to generate investment returns, runaway as fast as you can.

 

The Green Challenge, Round 2

2021 has ended and do you remember the green challenge that I have posted early 2021. In the year 2020, managed to "save" 50 pcs of RM 5, which let me saved RM 250. It was a fun experience and I have invited anyone who wishes to join this challenge for 2021. So, here is my Green Challenge, Round 2 report card.

In 2021, I managed to "save" 53 pcs of RM 5. This is equivalent to RM 265, which is 6% more than 2020.

It was a nice experience to have this intentional saving challenge. Now that we have saved up some ringgit RM 515, we are moving to the next step, which is to invest and let it grow. My first option to "invest" nowadays is using "Versa".

Versa (read my article on Versa here) is an alternative of Fixed Deposit, where the ringgits are put to work in the money market (short-term debts issued by bank in order to accumulate a short-term cash-pile to make up for their shortfall in their daily deposit reserve).

The great thing about Versa is that you can earn up to 2.46% of interest per annum, and the interest is credited to your account every other day.

As long as you have a smartphone that can download the app, you can sign up as a investor with a minimum deposit of RM 1 only. And if you use my referral code (X3Q3UGR8), both you and me will be able to get a bonus of RM 10 as bonus once you deposit RM 100 into your account.

How to increase your net worth in 2022

As a start, you must know what is your net worth. To calculate your net worth, you need at add all the value of your assets and minutes out all your liabilities.

Net worth = Assets - Liabilities

Method 1

The first way of increasing your net worth is to increase your assets. What are assets? Assets are things that you own that increase in value over time, or things that you own that earn income for you.

Assets that increase in value includes properties (like the home that you are staying), limited edition collectibles. Assets that earn incomes for you includes securities such as shares in publicly traded companies, fixed deposits, rental properties, intellectual properties, etc.

You can either save and invest, buy, or you can produce it yourself. As long as it belongs to you, these assets will generate some incomes for you.

• Caution: please do your due diligence before buying anything. Remember that all investments will have done risks involved.

Method 2

Another way to increase your net worth is by reducing your liabilities. Liabilities are things that you buy with credits and would need to pay back with interests. Things that you own and depreciate over time are also a type of liabilities.

Debts are what we get when we buy things in credit. And usually, we would be using credit card, personal loans, mortgages and car loans to pay for what we are buying. Eventually, we would need to pay for the credits plus interests. The amount of interests that we are paying will depends on the time we choose to pay off the credits. It also depends on the interest rate of the debts. The higher the interest rate, the more that you will need to pay for it.

So, if you have a high interest rate debt, the more you pay it down, the more you will save in interest rates. In another way, it means that you are earning more because you are paying less.

When you reduce your debts, your are reducing your liabilities and at the same time, increase your net worth.

Method 3

The third way of increasing your net worth is by saving up. By reducing your expenses, you are effectively increasing the numbers of ringgit available to invest and increase your assets. But be cautious not to overly deprived yourself by cutting off everything. Give yourselves some rewards. Reduce spending on what is not necessary but keep those that keep you moving and happy. Be truthful to yourselves on this.

Versa - Digital Cash Management

I have been looking for alternative for Fixed Deposit for a long time. I don't think FD is a good option due to the long lock-up time. I heard about Stashaway Simple, but I think the process to get into it was tedious thus, I didn't do anything with it.

Then, I came across Versa and after using it for a while, I find it very easy to use. Furthermore, the returns that I am getting it great.

A bit of information about Versa:

• Established in 2021
• Regulated by Securities Commission of Malaysia
• Earn up to 2.46% interest per annum (on par with FD)
• Any Malaysians aged 18 and above can start saving/invest via Versa from as low as RM1
• Can withdraw anytime without being charged any penalty fee.

How it works:

1. Versa help investor to put their money into the money market (short-term debts issued by bank in order to accumulate a short-term cash-pile to make up for their shortfall in their daily deposit reserve).
2. Versa invest the money they got from investors into Affin Hwang's Enhanced Deposit Fund and earn similar interest rate to FD as returns.
3. Versa give the earning back to investors.

Versa is a safe place to use as it is under the regulation of Securities Commission of Malaysia. The cash deposits from investors are held by HSBC (Malaysia) Trustee (a third party trustee).

What else you need to know about Versa:

• Withdrawal will take 1 or 2 days, depending on the time of withdrawal.
• It is not Shariah-compliant.
  

As long as you have a smartphone that can download the app, you can sign up as a investor with a minimum deposit of RM 1 only. And if you use my referral code (X3Q3UGR8), both you and me will be able to get a bonus of RM 10 as bonus once you deposit RM100 into your account.

Versa: https://versa.com.my/

Keeping up with the Shah

Have you ever wonder why you are unable to save and invest even though you are making decent Ringgit from your works? Also, you might, or might not, realize that you are spending too much of your Ringgit and frequently upgrading your stuff to the latest and greatest in the market.

These are indications that you might be "keeping up with the Shah".

"Keeping up with the Shah" is adapted from "Keeping up with the Joneses". It is a kind of mentality by which we try to keep up with our vision for success, and it usually revolves around keeping up with our neighbours who seem to be more wealthy than us. It is the constant interpersonal evaluation of haves and have-nots and comparing our material accumulation and visible signs of wealth with our immediate relatives, friends, peers, and neighbours.

In the era of social media, this Keeping-up Mentality has grown dramatically. This is mainly due to the increased exposures to other peoples’ spending habits and our corresponding increased desire to “keep up.” The more we look at how others are spending, the higher the desire to keep up with them. Other people will have the same mindset when they look at how we are spending and would try to keep up with us. This, in turn, increase our own expenses and the cycle would never end.

However, if we can realize what is actually happening, we can actually break away from this cycle. Instead of the never-stopping desire to spend, we will be able to control ourselves and step out of the cycle. We can make better use of the money to enrich our lives. We can buy assets that would, in turn, produce income for us.

To remove ourselves from this endless cycle, we must, first and foremost, tell ourselves that we do not need to keep up with anyone. We can have things that others have not but before that, we must first build our foundation. We would need to buy income-producing assets so that there would come a time when these incomes would be able to pay for the things that we want. Even if you can't pay for all of it, these income-producing assets would help in reducing the money that you need to take out from your own pocket.

In the end, if you want less by no longer keeping up with the Shah, you will be happier and happier.

PEMERKASA

Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has announced the Rakyat Empowerment Programme — or Pemerkasa — an initiative that aims to revitalize the economy

Yesterday, Prime Minister Muhyiddin said the government has allocated RM20 billion for the program, of which RM11 billion constitutes direct fiscal injection.

Here are the highlights of the initiatives under the PEMERKASA programme:

• The government will allocate RM5 billion more into the immunisation programme in order to hasten and achieve the herd immunity target in December 2021, compared to the initial target of the first quarter of 2022.- With the ongoing immunisation programme, Muhyiddin said the government may no longer need to implement the statewide or nationwide MCO.

• Employers who conduct COVID-19 tests on employees will be allowed additional tax deductions.

• To ensure businesses' sustainability, the government has agreed to continue Geran Khas Prihatin (GKP) or GKP 3.0, whereby eligible small-medium enterprises (SMEs) will receive a one-time payout of RM1,000.

• For those who have lost their job during the pandemic, the government will allocate RM300 million to pay unemployed Malaysians RM600 a month for a maximum period of six months.

• For gig economy employers, they will receive RM200 for every employee they employ during this period.

• The National Employment Council (NEC) targets to create 500,000 jobs.

• The government will extend tourism tax and service tax exemption on accommodations provided by hotel operators until 31 December 2021.

• The government has agreed to offer a one-off Geran Bantuan Khas of RM3,000 to more than 5,000 travel agencies registered with the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture (MOTAC).

• Homestay operators registered with MOTAC will also receive a one-off cash aid of RM600.

• Hotel operators, theme parks, convention centres, shopping malls, local airline offices, and tourism agencies will enjoy a special 10% discount on electricity bills.

• To help reduce the burden of companies facing financial problems, the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) has agreed to increase the indebtedness threshold from RM10,000 to RM50,000.

• SSM will waive business registration fees for the B40 group and university students who want to venture into entrepreneurship.

• Meanwhile, the Malaysian Co-operative Societies Commission (SKM) will provide financing incentives of up to RM100,000 without collateral to help affected companies.

• Households that purchased smartphones or new devices for schoolchildren will receive a subsidy of RM300.

• The government will offer a one-off RM500 cash aid to the B40 group who have lost income during the pandemic.

• An additional payment of RM500 will be given to Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat (BPR) recipients who earn RM1,000 and below.

• There will be a temporary shelter in Taman Desa, Kuala Lumpur to help out those who don't have a place to live.

• RM100 million in e-wallet credits will be given out to low-income households so that they can purchase basic food items.

• The retail price of RON95 and diesel will have a ceiling price of RM2.05 per litre and RM2.15 per litre respectively.

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The Side Hustle Series 4 - Tell the World

There is a saying that said, "if you build it, the customers will come to buy from you." For those that have started some sort of business, you know that this saying is not true at all.

 

No matter how good you built your products, if no one knows about it, no one will come to buy it from you. So, if you want to sell your products, you will have to tell the world about them. And the best way to tell the world is without spending any money.

While it may not be easy in the past, the current world has changed so much that there are a lot of methods available to you to use to promote your products to the world without using any money. The only thing that you need to put in will be your time.

Social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, blogs, etc have become a part of our lives. And these platforms help a lot to spread the news. And best of all, it is free to use.

Also, another way to get people's attention is to give some samples for others to try. If the product is good, it will definitely capture the audience's attention and, hopefully, convert them into your customers.

In The Malaysia Dividend Champions List, we also gave some samples for free so that potential customers would know what they are paying for when they sign up as a subscriber.

Many people would have forgotten that the services are also very important. When you give good services, the customer would be happy, and in turn, will share about the good experience that the customer got from you. This is called word-of-mouth marketing. It is the same on the other end. If your services suck, it will be spread even faster.

En Bursa and You

En Bursa is a businessman. If you are participating in the stock market, he is your business partner, whether you like it or not. For your information, he has bipolar disorder. 

Each day, with the exception of the weekend, En Bursa will knock on your door and presents you with an offer. On a good day, he is full of optimism and believes that the future is so bright that he will offer to purchase your stake at a premium. But when he is on the depressive mode, he sees nothing other than a dismal future for your partnership. He wants to get out of it as soon as possible. Thus, he is prepared to sell to you his stake at a highly reduced price. 

The metaphor above is developed by Benjamin Graham (and localized by Yours Truly) which reflects how the stock market will radically change according to the emotion of all the participants of the stock market. Those who participate in the stock market would often find themselves caught up in waves of over-optimism. This can quickly lead to greed and, in turn, would drive the price of stocks through the roof. There are also those days where investors would find themselves weighed down by pessimism and rapidly being overtaken by fear. As a result, stock prices plummet, often to lows never seen before. We, investors, are human beings after all, and all of us are not immune to various emotions that can create havoc.

The Green Ringgit Challenge

Hello 2021.

We are now in a new year and to kick off this new year, let us have a look at this challenge that I did personally for 2020.

More than a year ago (2019), I came across this Challenge to save money. I felt that it could be fun, so I told myself that I would do that challenge for 2020.

The challenge is very simple. I will keep every RM 5 (that is why I call it the Green Ringgit Challenge) that pass through my hand (if it belongs to me). It started very slowly because I don't use can much but somehow, at the end of 2020, I managed to keep 50 pieces of RM 5. When I did the maths, it means that I managed to save up RM 250 in 1 year. It may not be a lot to some but still, I'm proud of myself to be able to save up this RM 250.

With 52 weeks in a year, it means that I almost find one RM 5 every week.

The only thing that I can say is that if I'm able to save RM 250 with this method, you can do it too. If you want to bring it up a level, you can do the following challenges:

The Red Ringgit Challenge (RM 10)
The Orange Ringgit Challenge (RM 20)
The RM 50 Ringgit Challenge

As for me, I have decided to continue with the Green Ringgit Challenge for another year. Will try to beat the 50 pieces records.

Would you want to join me in this Challenge?

Is lottery our God of Fortune?

Who are not intrigued by the thought of striking a lottery and get rich? Chances are, you would have bought some lottery tickets before just to test your luck. Maybe you are still buying it religiously every week.

Many people that went to buy the lottery would view the seller at the counter as their God of Fortune. But is it really as what you think? God of Fortune supposed to be giving you a fortune. But when you are buying the lottery, are you getting any "fortune" from them? Or are you giving your "fortune" to them? 

But if you really look into the possibility of winning the lottery, you would soon realize that the odds are actually against you. For a game of four digits (4D), there are a total of 10,000 combinations so, if you buy one number, the probability of winning is 1 over 10,000 or 0.01%. I am not sure about you but for me, that percentage is very, very low. 

Do note that it does not mean that you will win it once after buying the same number for 10,000 times. Every time you buy, you have the probability of 0.01% of winning.

So, the best thing that you should do is to save up these monies and invest it in right places, such as SSPN (if you have a child), money market or investing in REIT or some of the blue chips stocks such as PBBANK, MAYBANK, or TENAGA. This way, your money would be able to grow.

The Side Hustle Series 3 - Use other people's Ringgit

As discussed in the previous posts, it does not take money to make money. What it actually means here is that you don't need to use your own Ringgit to make more Ringgit for yourself. Don't get me wrong here, I am not asking you to steal other people's Ringgit. It is another method of doing business.

For some business idea, it is possible to use someone else Ringgit to makes Ringgit for yourself. I don't mean it in any way that is deemed illegal, such as robbing the bank or cheat someone off their lifetime savings. I am not asking you to go and take a loan from the bank or loan sharks. Those are technically suicide for your side hustle and yourself. So, please don't... It is not worth it.

Rather, I am referring to get part of the Ringgit from your customers first. Let me share an example.

Makcik Kiah is starting a homemade nasi lemak business. It is a make upon order business to make sure that the nasi lemak will be freshly cooked. When an order of 100 packed of nasi lemak comes in, Makcik Kiah might not have the Ringgit to buy for the required ingredients. It is unwise to borrow from others. What do you think is the best option for Makcik Kiah?

The best thing that she can do is to take a deposit from the customer. Maybe around 50% upon confirmation. That way, Makcik Kiah will have enough Ringgit to pay for the ingredients.

Another advantage of this is actually to get the commitment from the customer. Imagine if Makcik Kiah pay for the ingredients and once the nasi lemak are made, the customer have a change of heart. He didn't honour his part of the deal. When this happened, Makcik Kiah will have 100 packs of nasi lemak that no one wants. She can still sell it somewhere but it needs to be cheap so that people will buy. The unsold nasi lemak will be considered a loss in the business.

With the advance payment, the chance of default by the customer will be much lower. Even when the customer defaulted, Makcik Kiah still has the advance payment to cover for the ingredients.

It is also very important for us to keep our end of the deal. Else, the customer may make a police report, and we will land into a bad situation.

If you have not read the rest of the Side Hustle Series, you can check out Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

The simple maths to achieve Financial Independence.

Financial independence is where your stash of Ringgit is able to provide you with enough Ringgit to pay for all your expenses without the need for you to work at all (unless you want to). The stash of Ringgit would usually be invested somewhere with a minimum return of at least 4%  (the higher, the better).

For you to be able to achieve financial independence, there is only 1 factor only. And the factor is (drum rolling), your savings rate, as in the percentage of your take-home pay.

WHAT? WHAT IS THAT?

To put it simply, it is how much of the pay that you are saving.

For example, if your salary is RM 36,000 per year and after all the expenses are being deducted, you still have RM 3,600, then your savings rate is 10%. If you still have RM 18,000 after all the expenses, then your savings rate is 50%.

To find out how long would it takes to achieve financial independence, we would have to make some assumptions to proceed.

• Assumption 1 - You can earn a 5% investment return after inflation during the savings years.
• Assumption 2 - You will live within the 4% safe withdrawal rate after retirement.
• Assumption 3 - You will want your stash of Ringgit to last forever.
• Assumption 4 - Your net worth is RM 0.

Below is how many years you would have to work until you achieve financial independence according to the different savings rates. 

As you can see, if you can increase your savings rate, you would be able to achieve financial independence faster. 

So, how do you increase your savings rate?

There are two factors:

1. Increase your income.
2. Reduce your expenses.

While both of the above are important, you can start working on increasing your savings rate by cutting down on your expenses. Tracking down all your monthly expenses would give an idea of how much is your expenses (and how much you are saving at the moment). Look into your expenses and think of how you can reduce it. The more common methods are changing mobile phone plan to a cheaper one, eat at home instead of eating out, cut subscriptions that you don't use often (gym, Astro, Netflix), and take public transport if possible. The reason is simple to start reducing your expenses because of its double effect:

1. Increase the amount of money you can save.
2. Reduce the amount that you need every month for the rest of your life.

With this, you would be able to achieve financial independence faster!

The Side Hustle Series 2 - Don't Just Sit There, Take Action

This is part 2 of the side hustle series that I am writing to guide those that want to take the side hustle method to increase your income. If you have not read part one, the link is here.

Now that you have validated your idea (or even if your idea is not validated), it is time for you to make your idea into something concrete. With the advancement of technology, especially the internet, it is possible for you to start something without paying a single cent. Remember that your main aim is to create a mini-experiment, not the final product. This mini-experiment will let us know if the idea that we want can become a viable side hustle or if it is not something that the market is looking for.

Storytime

When we started The Malaysia Dividend Champions List, we started with the most basic structure. We only have a few parameters that are critical to our needs. We didn't focus on the aesthetic factor because it was not important yet. It took a while for us to get it to be acceptable for our soft launch. We called it the beta version. Once it was launched, we continue to improve it week after week. By the 10th issue, what we deem good has been created. Thus, we launched the official product on our 11th issue. Still, improvement continues to take place with feedback from our subscribers.

The main idea here is that it is okay to launch a not complete product as long as there will be continued improvement taking place. Let your customers know about it. If it does bring value to them, they will not mind. The customers may even help by giving constructive feedback to improve it.

 

It is important to get the product into something tangible or it will continue to be an idea in your mind only. And when someone else does the same thing and succeeds, you would only have yourself to blame because of your inaction.

But if your side hustle actually takes off, you will have to think of the following:

1. What do you think about your side hustle?

2. Do you like it?

3. Do you mind taking the time and effort to continue this side hustle?

4. Does it bring you the joy that you hope for?

5. What now? Do you have any plans for the future?

6. Would you want to continue with this side hustle?

7. Would you want to bring it up to the level of a full-time business?

Again, take action. At least even when you failed, you can tell others that you have tried but it was not meant to be.

If you have not read Part 1 of the Side Hustle Series, you can click here.

The Side Hustle Series 1 - Validate That Idea

There are many ways to increase our income. Some prefer to invest in the stock market for passive income, and others would work on a side hustle. There is no right and wrong way. Each has its pros and cons. This article will be a series of articles that will discuss mainly on starting a side hustle.

Let's admit it, we all have that one big idea that we believe will change the world. Some of us may have more than one. I personally have quite a few and at least one of it has become a small side hustle for myself. I was lucky because I took action on the idea. And the results are showing that I am on the right track.

Have you taken the action for your big idea?

Many of us would not dare to take action because we have been told that to start something, we need to have Ringgit first. (And for those that did, chances are, it didn't work out.)

This thought came from the saying that "It takes money to make money" but it is not real. Do you know the origin of the saying? It was to by a comedian for a play as a joke! And yet, many of us actually choose to believe that it is true.

And because of this saying, there are a lot of "starting a business" guide on the internet would tell you that you would need a business plan prepared by a professional first because that's the way it should be. In the business plan, you will put in a lot of information. You would find out that you need a lot of Ringgit to start because you will need to rent/buy an office (not forgetting the furniture and all related office items), registered the company, print name card, etc. according to your business plan.

I am sorry to tell you that this is all BS. It is on the internet to makes you believe that it is real so that you would engage the professional to write a business plan for you. What happened in the end? You will pay a certain amount of Ringgit to the professional even before you start.

You don't need a business plan to start. You need an idea to take action on. With the power call internet, it has become so easy to take action without breaking the bank. I started mine with 0 (zero) Ringgit.

But I have so many ideas. Which one should I focus on?

It is easy to feel overwhelmed because we are not sure which idea we should focus on. It was the same as mine and in my opinion, the best way is to focus on an idea that came about from our own needs.

In early 2020, I was looking for ways to find the right companies to invest. I was particularly intrigued by the idea of dividend growth investing where we invest in companies that pay out increasing dividends on yearly basis. This concept leads to the creation of the US Dividend Champions List and many similar lists have been created for a few other countries. Unfortunately (or should I says, fortunately), there is no such list in Malaysia yet (at least I don't know). So, I took the time to start researching the market and after a few months, I have established basic criteria and more than 30+ companies are able to meet these criteria.

With some help from my partner, we work out the concept into "The Malaysia Dividend Champions List" and we start promoting it to the world. It takes a while for it to start moving (people signing up) but things have been steady now. All these are done without using a single Ringgit to start but it does take a lot of our time.

Our own story for "The Malaysia Dividend Champions List" is just one of the side hustle that was started without putting in a lot of money. Some started without any Ringgit and yes, it can be done.

So, if you have an idea that you wish to test if it is workable, you can try to pitch the idea to your relatives and friends. Most of the time, you will not get real feedback because they don't want to hurt your feelings. To counter this, tell them how much you are charging for it and ask if they will sign up right there and then and become your first customer. When real Ringgit is involved, you will get their true feedback. If they rejected your idea, don't be dismayed. Use the feedback to improve your product/services or the reason to stop and focus on the next idea.

If there is at least one who signs up, you already have a winner. You have validated your idea.

Side note - even when you didn't confirm your idea, it is okay to move on to the second stage to build up your idea.

Check our Part 2 of our Side Hustle Series here.

Most Fuel Efficient Cars in Malaysia

What is the most important thing that one should look at when buying a car?

Many people would mention the brand, the model, the design, and a lot of other factors.

I personally felt that what is most important is actually how fuel-efficient is the car. Why? Because you will be driving the car for many years and that one thing that is constant is the fuel that you will pump into the car. If the car is not fuel-efficient, ringgit will flow out of your pocket faster than you realize. 

For example, a car with a fuel-efficiency of 5L per 100 km can go double the distance compare to a car with a fuel-efficiency of 10L per 100 km. Same distance but double the price. I would have nothing to say if you find paying more is nothing. But for me, and most of the people who are more financially literate, it is never a good idea to pay more. The extra money can be put to good use for a better future.

Below is a list of some of the most fuel-efficient cars in Malaysia.

• Est. 4.7L/100km - Perodua Bezza 1.0 Standard G – A/T
• Est. 5.2L/100km - Suzuki Alto 1.0 A/T GLX
• Est. 5.2L/100km - Mazda 2 Skyactiv 1.5 SDN
• Est. 5.3L/100km - Mitsubishi Mirage 1.2 Sport (2014)
• Est. 5.3L/100km - Ford Fiesta SE with 1-liter EcoBoost A/T
• Est. 5.6L/100km - Honda Jazz 1.5 S
• Est. 5.6L/100km - Kia Picanto 1.2 A/T
• Est. 5.8L/100km - Proton Iriz 1.3 MT
• Est. 5.8L/100km - Hyundai i10
• Est. 6.0L/100km - Nissan Almera 1.5E A/T
• Est. 6.2L/100km - Myvi 1.3 Standard G – A/T
• Est. 6.3L/100km - Toyota Vios 1.5G
• Est. 6.5L/100km - Volkswagen Polo Sedan 1.6
• Est. 7.5L/100km - Honda City 1.5L S

I got the information from imoney but I rearrange it to show the most fuel-efficient car first. Of course, there are many more cars that are not listed here. If you have any idea of other fuel-efficient cars that should be listed here, please let me know.