10 Ways to Reduce Your Expenses and still Maintain Your Standard of Living

You can keep your car, your mobile phone, credit cards, and the air-conditioners at home but you can still reduce your monthly expenses. Here are the ten ways to do it:


1. Free TV instead of subscription: You still can watch all your favorite programs without subscribing to Astro and the like. By the way, do you have all the time in the world to sit all day long to watch TV? Watch less or stop watching and move more or do other meaningful things.

2. Get books from the library instead of buying: After reading a book you may not want to read again. Loan the books from the library and return after reading. There will be fewer books to take up space at home to collect dust. Magazines are also available free in your local library

3. Eat at normal restaurants instead of high-end ones: The quality of food is the same if not better but you have to pay 15% more (10% service charge and 5 % service tax in Malaysia).

4. Grocery shopping: Buy house-brand items instead of popular brands. House- brand goods are quality products but they cost very much less.

5. Avoid branded items: Shop for the less exclusive brands instead of those expensive brands for items ranging from household items to apparel and footwear. Look for durability and comfort instead of just the brand.

6. Use less air-conditioner but fan more: Switch on the air-conditioner for a limited time and then let the fan do the job to circulate the cool air inside the room. 

7. Walk more but drive less: Take the opportunity to move your body more often to shape up and use the car less to save petrol and maintenance cost. 

8. Jog or home gym instead of club membership: Enjoy the fresh air and sunshine when you jog instead of a paid membership in a stuffy room with many people perspiring. You can save even more by getting your own home gym. There is no need to travel and waste petrol and you can do it at home anytime you want 

9. Use your credit cards to save but avoid credit: There is no need to cut your plastic cards. Credit cards are great saving tools. You will end up paying less for petrol and grocery items. Just pay fully and promptly every time.

10. Communicate: Talk less with a mobile phone but a tweet or write more on the wall. Spend less on the phone bill and communicate more online for free. 


You maintain your current lifestyle but you reduce your expenses tremendously and you also get healthier.  

Source: http://www.allaboutlivingwithlife.blogspot.com/2010/09/10-ways-to-reduce-your-expenses-and.html

7 Advantages to Continue Working When You Retire

According to an article, As First Baby, Boomers Retire, Many Facing Personal Finance Disasters, more than 10,000 baby boomers a day have turned 65 since January 2011, a pattern that will continue for the next 19 years. However, 60% of baby boomers don’t have enough for retirement. What can you do to fortify your financial independence and make ends meet? The only viable solution is to continue working. There are several benefits when you delay your retirement:

1. Work longer, less time to retire: When you continue to work, you trade off your retirement years. It means you will need less money to spend when you finally retire. 

2. A Source of income: There is a source of income when you work. It means you can continue to live the usual lifestyle without dipping into your retirement fund.

3. More savings: When you work, part of your income will go to save as budgeted. The longer you work, the more you will save and the more interest you will be able to earn and accumulate. This will be a new source of a fund when you do retire. 

4. Less retirement fund is required: Since you have shortened your retirement years, you will need fewer funds for your retirement and you also have additional funds to cushion future inflation. 

5. Meaningful life: Work gives you meaning in life when you enjoy what you do. You are confident of yourself and look at life with a brighter perspective.

6. Happiness: You feel good about yourself because you are leading a useful life and at the same time you are self-supporting. 

7. Better health: A change in lifestyle may be bad for your health. There will be emptiness if you do not fill your time with useful things to do. When you work, your mind is working and alert. More likely than not, your working life will be good for your health mentally and physically. 

It is a blessing when you have reached your retirement age and you still can hold on to a job that you like and enjoy because the unemployment rate in America is still very high today at 9.2 in June 2011

Source: http://www.allaboutlivingwithlife.blogspot.com/2011/07/7-advantages-to-continue-working-when.html

CTOS credit score card roll-out in Q1 2015

CTOS

KUALA LUMPUR: Credit reporting agency CTOS Data Systems Sdn Bhd will roll out credit scorecards by the first quarter of 2015 in a bid to benchmark credit profiles of individuals. Details of the credit scorecards are yet to be finalised.

The scorecard will provide a three-digit number that measures the probability of repayment of a borrower through information gathered by CTOS.

"But we hope to launch it earlier, because I believe that there is a need in terms of consumers understanding of their creditworthiness," CTOS CEO Eric Chin told reporters at a media briefing here.

He explained that the scorecard, called CTOS-FICO score, will be a more sophisticated way of evaluating the creditworthiness of individuals and SMEs in a bid to promote a positive credit culture in Malaysia.

CTOS in collaboration with FICO, which is a pioneer in credit bureau scoring technology, will be the provider of bureau scores to credit grantors in Malaysia.

Through that, Chin said, one with a strong score could potentially leverage for better interest rates from banks, transforming the credit market to be more consumer-driven.

CTOS, which is registered with the ministry of finance, collects and processes information from public resources and its subscribers in relation to the creditworthiness of individuals and businesses.

It also provides business intelligence and credit risk management solutions to businesses with banks, financial institutions, law firms, utility providers and telecommunication companies as clients.

Chin said the credit reporting agency industry in Malaysia is in its infancy, with substantial opportunity to grow its products and service offering.

"Malaysia stays at the data and information provision level, but should move up to analytics and decision support level," he noted.

Eric said CTOS is looking to grow its SME customer base by five-fold from the current 3,100 to 15,000 and increase its product range such as credit score, fraud score and credit capacity index to banks.

Chin is optimistic about loan growth in the banking industry, whereby access to credit is a fundamental element that fuels economic growth.

"This year there is a bit of moderation, but with the ETP (economic transformation programme) projects coming in, we're definitely optimistic on the loan growth," he added.

Creador is the largest shareholder of CTOS with a 70% stake and a total investment of over RM200 million.

Creador founder and CEO Creador Brahmal Vasudevan stressed that Creador is a long-term investor in CTOS and will stay on for at least five to 10 years.

He expects CTOS, which posts about RM60 million revenue annually, to register 20% growth in profits and revenue, helped by its strategic plans.

Creador is a private equity firm and its investment portfolio includes Bonia Corp Bhd, GHL System Bhd and Oldtown Bhd, to name a few.

When asked of new investment targets, Brahmal said Creador's focus will still be on the consumer sector, citing that the group "is working on a few things".

"Hopefully by early next year, we can share something … We would like to look at areas like retail, consumer products and so on," he added.

Brahmal said there is an intention to list CTOS in the future, but it won't happen within the next one to two years.

Top Rules of Thumb For Retirement Savings

Saving for retirement

Saving for retirement can be intimidating. There are so many different plans to choose from, different investment companies to manage your plan, restrictions on who can contribute and how much, tax rules to follow, and paperwork to keep track of – not to mention investment decisions to make after you’ve gotten your plan set up. The best way to handle this complex but essential process is to break it down into small, manageable steps. With that in mind, here are the most important rules of thumb to follow when saving for retirement.

1. Start Saving Now

Ideally, you would have started saving for retirement the moment you started earning income, which for many of us was at 16 when we got that after-school job at the mall or the movie theatre or the sandwich shop. In reality, you probably needed the money for short-term expenses, like the payment on the car that got you to your job, nights out with friends, and college textbooks. It probably didn’t make sense, or even occur to you, to start saving for retirement until you got your first full-time job, had kids, celebrated a milestone birthday, or experienced some other defining event that got you thinking hard about your future. No matter what your age today, don’t lament the years you didn’t spend saving. Just start saving for retirement now. The sooner you start, the less you have to contribute each year to reach your savings goal.

2. Save 15% of Your Income 

A good rule of thumb for the percentage of your income you should save is 15%. That’s after taxes and before any matching contribution from your employer. If you can’t afford to save 15% right now, that’s OK. Saving even 1% is better than nothing. Each year when you file your taxes, you can reevaluate your financial situation and consider increasing your contribution. If you’re older and haven’t been saving throughout your working life, you have some catching up to do, and you should aim to save 20% to 25% of your income for retirement if you can. But if that’s not realistic, don’t let an all-or-nothing attitude defeat you. Just getting into the habit of saving and investing, no matter how small the amount, is a step in the right direction. See Retirement: What Percentage of Salary To Save? for detailed advice on saving.

3. Choose Low-Cost Investments

 Over the long run, one of the biggest factors in how large your nest egg becomes is the investment expenses you pay. The most common investment costs are the expense ratios charged by mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, and the commissions for buying and selling. The expense ratio is an annual percentage fee you’ll pay for as long as you hold the fund. If you have $10,000 invested in a fund whose expense ratio is 1%, your fee is $100 a year. You can find a fund’s expense ratio at an investment research website like Morningstar or on the website of any company that sells the fund. When choosing a fund, the rule of thumb to follow is the closer the expense ratio is to 0%, the better. That being said, it’s reasonable to pay closer to 1% for certain types of funds, like international funds or small-cap funds. There are two simple ways to minimize commissions. One is selecting commission-free investments. If you buy a Vanguard index fund directly through your Vanguard account or a Fidelity mutual fund directly through your Fidelity account, you probably won’t pay a commission. The other is buying and holding investments instead of making frequent trades – another good retirement strategy we’ll address momentarily. Get the lowdown on index funds and read our mutual fund tutorial if you don’t know anything about these popular investments.

 4. Don’t Put Money in Something You Don’t Understand

 If the only investment you currently understand is a savings account, park your money there while you learn about slightly more sophisticated investments like index funds and exchange-traded funds, which are the only investments most people need to understand to build a solid retirement portfolio. Don’t ever let salespeople or advisers talk you into buying something you don’t understand. They might have your best interests in mind, but they might just be trying to sell you an investment that will earn them a commission. Until you educate yourself about the different investment options, you’ll have no way of knowing. Even putting your money in a relatively simple investment like bonds can backfire if you don’t understand how bonds work. Why? Because you might make irrational, emotion-based buy-and-sell decisions based on what you hear and read in the news about how the markets are performing short term, not based on your bonds’ long-term value.

 5. Buy and Hold 

 Adopting a buy and hold investment strategy means that even if you choose investments that charge a commission, you won’t pay commissions very often. This rule of thumb also means that you won’t let your emotions dictate your investment decisions. When people follow their emotions, they tend to buy high and sell low. They hear how high a stock has gotten, and they want in because it seems like a great investment – and it is if you’ve already been holding it for years. Or, when the economy slides into a recession, people panic about how far the Dow has fallen and dumped their S&P 500 index fund at the worst possible time. Numerous studies have shown that you’re better off keeping your money in the market even during the worst of downturns. Over the long run, you’ll come out far ahead by leaving your portfolio alone through the market’s ups and downs compared to people who are always reacting to the news or trying to time the market.

 The Bottom Line 

 While there’s a lot to learn about saving for retirement, understanding how to save and invest your money is one of the most important skills you’ll ever develop. It means leveraging all the hours of research you’re doing today into years of leisure time in the future. It also means being able to take care of yourself without having to depend on another source that might not be able to provide for you, whether that’s the Social Security system or your children. Keep in mind these top five rules of thumb for saving for retirement and you’ll be well on your way to a financially comfortable future.

Source:http://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/112814/top-rules-thumb-retirement-savings.asp

Will - 7 Reasons to keep it up-to-date

Do not think that when you have drawn up your will you have taken care of your estate. Your financial status, the people around you change and so are your wishes. Here are the 7 reasons that you need to update your will from time to time:

1.Marital status: You were single when the will was written and now you are married. So the will is no longer valid. The same rule applies to divorce and remarry.

2. Additional members to your family: When you have promoted yourself to fatherhood, you have to reallocate your wealth accordingly.

3. A member of your family or your beneficiary passes away. It is necessary to update your will as well.

4.Substantial changes in your wealth: You have acquired more wealth and so you have to redistribute your wealth accordingly.

5.Your executor: He has died, moved away, or is no longer a suitable candidate anymore.

6.Your appointed guardian: He may not be around or is no longer suitable to look after the interest of your minor children.

7. Your wishes change with the time: Situation changes and so are your wishes. Your previous will may not reflect your current wishes.

The simplest and effective way to update your will is to write a new will to supersede the previous one. This article also reminds me to take a look at my will.

Source: http://www.allaboutlivingwithlife.blogspot.com/2008/08/will-7-reasons-to-keep-it-up-to-date.html

Easy and Effective Way to Update Your Will

Last Will and Testament

Have you ever taken a good look at your will? How long ago it was written? More likely than not, most of the items mentioned in your will are no longer relevant or applicable. It is time for you to rewrite your will to replace the previous one. Here is the way to go about it:


 1. Appoint your executor and trustee: It is prudent to appoint a reliable and trusted executor and trustee. My executor and the trustee is Amanah Raya Berhad. It is a public trust company established under the Public Trust Corporation Act 1995. It has branches all over Malaysia.

 2. Provide a list of all your assets with supporting documents and the persons to be distributed to for each item:

a. Immovable assets: land and buildings.
b. Movable assets: motor vehicles, savings accounts, current accounts, share trading accounts, wealth management accounts, insurance policies, PayPal account, AdSense account, websites that attract passive income, retirement accounts such as your Employee Provident Fund in Malaysia.

3. Appoint a guardian and a substitute guardian (optional) for your minor children: Most likely it is your spouse. 

4. Check the draft: A draft is sent to you by email. Go through the draft carefully and identify errors to be corrected.

 5. Execute: When the draft is accepted, you will be asked to sign the will at their office. A duplicate copy of the will be given to you for your safekeeping while the original copy is kept at their head office.

 6. Items not covered: Do not worry about items not mention in the will or assets subsequently acquire, because there is a clause stating that: I further direct all my residuary estate whatsoever and wheresoever situate, movable or immovable over which I may have any power of testamentary disposition and not specifically mentioned under this will to be distributed to….


 I have recently rewritten a new will free of charge because I am a customer of Amanah Raya Berhad. It is a good move to update your will to show your care and concern for your loved one

Source: http://www.allaboutlivingwithlife.blogspot.com/2011/10/easy-and-effective-way-to-update-your.html

You and Your Will

“To mitigate complications and aid in the procedure of devolution of assets after death, a ‘will’ has to be well planned and drafted.”
― Henrietta Newton Martin

A will is a person's last instructions for his property to be distributed according to his wishes plus other instructions to be carried out. The person who makes the will is a testator.

Why do you need a will?

1. Look after your assets and your family: A will will allow you to take care of your family and your assets in the future the way you want it to be.

2. It's lawful to make a will: You are exercising your right to write a will. By doing so you are able to appoint an executor of your choice to handle your affairs after death. You can also engage a guardian of your choice for your children who are still below the full legal age.


3. Fewer hassles: With a will, you can be sure that your assets will be distributed smoothly and quickly.

4. Flexibility and control: While you are alive you are in control of your assets. You can dispose of part of it or sell all of them or draw up a new will to replace the previous one. The will is only effective upon your death.

Source: http://www.allaboutlivingwithlife.blogspot.com/2007/12/money-you-and-your-will.html