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.