Berapa Murah Itu Murah?

Kita saban kali digalakkan untuk membandingkan harga untuk mendapatkan harga yang terbaik yakni yang paling murah. Kita mungkin betul dalam membandingkan sesuatu produk atau servis dalam menilai harga terhadap apa yang ditawarkan namun ada juga masa tertentu kita menilai tanpa membandingkan dengan apa yang patut dibandingkan. Contoh paling ketara adalah apabila membeli sebuah kereta di mana kita mungkin membandingkan jenama yang sama tetapi keperluan yang berlainan. Sebagai contoh kita mungkin akan membandingkan harga sebuah kereta Honda City dengan Honda Accord di mana ianya berada dalam kategori yang sememangnya sudah lain. Jadi, apakah model yang patut dibandingkan sekiranya ingin membeli kereta yang sama famili dengan Honda City? Ya! Anda tepat! Kereta yang mungkin boleh dibandingkan adalah terhadap Toyota Vios, Kia Forte, Chevrolet Cruze, dan seumpamanya.

Sedemikan juga dalam menilai sesebuah takaful yang ditawarkan, servis yang ditawarkan oleh peguam dalam membuat transaksi beli rumah, servis yang ditawarkan oleh perancang kewangan bertauliah, dan banyak lagi. Contoh yang boleh diambil dalam perkhidmatan takaful, sebagai seorang ejen takaful yang bertauliah amatlah penting dalam menasihatkan produk yang paling sesuai dengan klien berbanding kepentingan sendirinya untuk mencapat target jualan semata-mata. Saya tidak menafikan terdapat banyak ejen takaful yang amat membantu dalam membuat pilihan produk takaful berpandukan keperluan kita. Selain itu, dalam memilih peguam juga janganlah berkira dalam membayar yuran guaman sekiranya servis yang ditawarkan amat berbaloi. Bagaimanakah untuk menilai sama ada amat berbaloi atau tidak? Bagi saya daripada pengalaman peribadi, amatlah penting dapatkan rujukan daripada kawan-kawan yang pernah menjalankan urus niaga dengan peguam yang disarankan itu. Di sini saya ingin kongsikan pengalaman agak pahit bagi saya dalam menjalankan transaksi pembelian rumah di mana peguam yang dilantik memberi sejuta dan satu alasan dalam melewatkan urus niaga tersebut. Untuk pengetahuan semua, salah satu alasan yang kerap diberikan oleh peguam tersebut adalah saudaranya yang baru sudah meninggal dunia dan setakat menguruskan transaksi pembelian rumah tersebut, sudah hamper 20 saudara peguam tersebut telah meninggal dunia. Oleh yang demikian, jadikan diri anda agak cerewet dalam memilih peguam dalam menguruskan transaksi pembelian rumah anda.

Begitu juga dalam memilih produk-produk yang ditawarkan oleh pihak bank di mana perlu memihak kepada kita yakni boleh membina lebih banyak kekayaan daripada produk yang ditawarkan itu. Dalam menilai dan membandingkan mengenai harga sesuatu produk atau servis tidaklah kepada harga semata-mata. Saya sebagai seorang jurutera dalam memilih sesuatu teknologi perlulah dinilai daripada keperluan teknologi tersebut dan seterusnya baru kepada harga. Justeru itu, saya sarankan supaya dalam menilai sesuatu produk atau khidmat perlu kita membuat “technical bid evaluation” supaya ianya boleh memenuhi kriteria kita. Selamat mencuba dalam membuat penilaian dan perbandingan supaya kita lebih tahu terhadap apa yang diperlukan daripada apa yang ditawarkan semata-mata.

Cash-flow

Why we always talk about cash-flow? Why flow? What would be the main criteria for the health specifically on our blood circulation system? How about our plumbing system? How to judge our plumbing system is good enough? How about the traffic? What is the main criteria to claim that our traffic is good? YES!!! The answer is very simple where the FLOW is the main criteria to gauge the healthiness of all the above mentioned. Hence, the main criteria to gauge our health level in our financial report is the cash-flow. Some would say that this cash-flow is only applicable to business and not for individual which salary based source of income. Great! Let us discuss further about the cash-flow that we can apply in our day-life.

I believe most of us have read my previous article on Saving - Part 1 and Saving - Part 2 which is the main criteria to start our investment portfolio. I also have published on our first investment would be our steady savings which can be read here. As highlighted earlier where people may claim that cash-flow is only applicable for business and not much related to person with salary based source of income. This scenario is not really a credible scenario because the first investment portfolio is via our saving, you may read Investment – Savings. Hence, cash-flow for an individual as a start will be the amount allocated for the savings every month. If you noticed that you can’t able to manage your cash-flow at least with certain amount to show the positive cash-flow then you have to develop attitude towards investment mindset, you may read here to have some idea.

When you have developed to have positive cash-flow from your monthly income which is your salary based income source then with some capital you have developed from your saving you may start our investment portfolio. Bear in mind that when we discussing about the investment portfolio, it is not necessarily to be portfolio creating millions of dollar in our cash-flow but at least something positive which could be just RM 1. As we discussed earlier, we’ll find that our portfolio slowly will give more and more cash-flow which ultimately will create our multi-million wealth portfolio. How to reach that? Be patient and passionate with our goal to achieve our financial freedom. Remember the double-P!

Attitude Vs Investment

Success in investment are partly or I would say that contributed by our attitudes. As time flies, we’ll see more money in investment, if can’t control our attitude might end-up with disaster. That is the reason I always emphasize that better to be not rich instead of being poor. If you notice, in anything if you have problem with your attitude then you’ll face the disaster. This is regardless of the tools or mechanism that you could have is the best available but due to attitude can be totally disaster to you. In this case, don’t limit to finance subject matter only, for example on driving attitude; even you’re driving the best car in town but if your attitude is not tally with your class of your car then all the safety features promoted by the car manufacturers are waste.

This attitude is the one will guide parallel with the financial planning we have developed or being developed. Hence, most of the time we need somebody professional to guide us with discipline so that the goal can be achieved. This is because when we have the professionals with us then we have to follow their plan for us to see the results as we’re paying to them for professional fees which could be very costly but very effectively. From there we can develop our attitude to be more constructive manner to achieve our financial freedom. What I’m writing here is based on my personal experience where before I’ve got my personal financial planner my saving will not be long-lasting because normally at the third month I’ll use my savings to pay-off all my bad debts. By having professionals with us, we indirectly able to educate ourselves to allocate our savings totally for savings so that it will be our platform to start our investment. Now it’s very difficult for me to withdraw the savings for any unnecessary expenses which are mainly bad debts.

So, what I would say about how attitude is affecting our investment portfolio is mainly on managing our cash-flow and the first cash-flow we have to prove that we are good in our attitude against investment by maintaining our savings progressively. From there we have capability to develop our positive cash flow in our investment portfolio.

Investment - Savings

I believe most of us believe that the key element to start investment is start with investing in knowledge. I have written about investing in knowledge in previous article(s). What would be the next step or next level of investment after we started some research on knowledge either by reading, listening, attending seminars, etc.?

I also have written on savings which really important before start investing in something halal and legitimate. It is really important for us to have some savings before we start our investment and I believe most of us know the importance of it. What? Not really sure? Then, I suggest to read again on my previous articles on savings Part 1 and Part 2.

My personal opinion before we start invest, we should have our reserve fund for at least 6 months to sustain without any source of income. All these are not something to be developed overnight but it is possible if we practice very “healthy” Lifestyle over the time. Whoever really willing to start with some investments but there is none of savings then it’s like to construct a house without the pillars. How is it possible to have a house without the pillars? So, answer to yourself honestly before you take any further action. Always remember that better to be not-rich than poor! Why?! Spare some time and think about this.

I know there are people will claim that we can’t go far just by saving and I totally agree with this statement. I also believe in that where we can go nowhere just by saving. Again, remember that savings is one of the foundation before we start investing after we invested in knowledge. Why all these are important? Spare some time and read Real Investment.

Loans

Do we need loans in our life? Is it important in our life? Some says, it's not recommended to have loan or many loans. I believe most of us have heard or seen about good debts and bad debts right? So, how to know whether the loan we are acquiring is good or bad? Simple concept on this good and bad debts is on the impacts from these two (2) debts/loans; good debts/loans is something can make us richer and richer, whereby bad debts is something can make us poorer and poorer.

As discussed earlier, there are so many products in banking world and to be more specific; they are so many loan types based on needs and requirement. Sometime due to our knowledge level, we may acquire bad debts. This may happen accidentally or unfortunately. Another rule of thumbs is that it is very to get good debts and it is very easy to get bad debts. Sounds good so far? Let us discuss further in upcoming articles.

Lifestyle

Why lifestyle is very crucial towards achieving our financial freedom? How exactly it affects our process to achieve our goal? How does rich practising their lifestyle and how about the other side? Not clear about the other side? Well, the poor I meant.

 

There are always myths are about the rich and the poor. Rich always are blamed to be too greedy and stealing money from others to become richer and richer. Poor always claim that they are always being discriminated by rich in most of the places. As long we believe that this myths are true then definitely we cant be the rich because we always see the rich is the villain and the poor is the hero.

 

Personally I don't agree with all the myths because I want to be rich and want my family, relatives, friends, and whoever reading this to be rich. Why don't you go back on some history of the rich people where they started with very poor family but ended up with indefinite wealth. No need for me to mention it here because almost all of the top 100 richest person in the universe are from poor family background.

 

 

So, what exactly the main criteria is differing between rich and poor? YES!!! The lifestyle of these two (2) different people is totally different! I believe that some might be thinking that "obviously different because rich spending like nobody business and the poor is spending wisely".

 

If we analyse wisely of this rich people's lifestyle, they have very systematic or proper recording of all their expenses. Why? Spend sometime and read some of my previous articles on Saving, Earning Vs Saving, Levels of Financial Freedom, and lot more. You will find the key elements on how to be rich slowly and steadily. The rich people also practising very systematic book keeping to monitor what is in and what is out. Most of the time, active income from rich people are untouchable or recirculated for investments. Last but not least, rich always allocate some portion of their wealth to be shared with others via charity.

 

How about the poor? Hmmmm.... They don't have proper recording at all, no book keeping, no traceable records, and always rely on active income only for their life. Hence, spend more time to invest on knowledge prior to take action to avoid unnecessary mistakes. Best of luck for us buddies! 

Importance of Networking

Why do we need connections for this finance subject matter? How exactly can we benefit by having all this networking or connections? How many connections normally in general we have to have when dealing something related to investment subject matter?

 

First of all we must have our friends or/and relatives which practising very good personal financial planning where we can start developing our network from them. Why is from them? It's simple because they must have somebody more professional dealing with this subject matter. Normally they should have they financial planner where most of their actions are guided by this professionals to minimize the risks based on their personal experiences or lesson learnt from other clients.

As our skills is being developed in this field even we are not the experts but slowly you'll see that more skilled people are surrounding you where can be benefited from them. Start with products from banks, you'll see bankers start becoming your friend or network. My point here is that make friend with them even sometime can be annoying because of the sales skills from them. Hehe! Don't worry because they are professionals and fully aware if you have any specific products that you are looking for. Remember that we want to get rich a bit faster by using all this products offered by the banks.

 

As you go further, you'll find more people will become your contacts and more importantly this professionals will be part of our team in developing our wealth. Who are these professionals? Do you want me to name it here or in future articles? Alright folks, let me list them here but will explain further in upcoming articles so that we can team-up with them in future. Other professionals that we must have connections are lawyers, real estate agents, investors, and valuers (I might be missing some professionals that might crucial in developing our wealth).

Consistency - Part 2

We have discussed on acquiring knowledge and experience consistently by reading, sharing, and asking. So, now it’s the time to take action! We have discussed about Savings in previous article which is key element before we start develop our investment portfolio. Hence, how it can be done and materialized? And more importantly is consistently!

I believe almost all of us are earning salary or monthly income consistently and why not we reflect it into our saving too! It has very powerful element in order to success with consistent saving. People always emphasizing on steady (or consistent) income but hardly people emphasizing on consistent saving. Hence, again as highlighted in my previous article on Earning Vs Saving where I emphasized on the percentage of saving compared to the actual amount because it shows the CONSISTENCY. Again I would like emphasize here that we must consistently allocate our hard-earned money (steady income) for steady saving to ensure we can expedite to develop our investment portfolio.

Our way forward towards financial freedom is mainly to develop consistency on saving from our consistent active income. By having this steady income, must ensure that we can have consistent saving too on monthly basis. When we can develop our consistent saving automatically we can generate passive income consistently (with assumption no money is spent from saving dividends). As we develop further, there will be consistent passive income higher than our steady active income (please read Levels in Financial Freedom). You’ll see the miracle when we do it consistently from beginning, where financial freedom is just ahead of us and it’s possible to achieve.

If you notice, this CONSISTENCY will actually develop attitude to achieve our goal toward financial freedom. Anything we want to develop must develop from attitude, not specifically only finance subject matter but anything on earth. So, key element to success is attitude which has to be developed from habit which actually CONSISTENCY. Hence, when we can do it consistently you’ll see that you’ll slowly, steadily, and consistently will develop your investment portfolio. Let us start do it consistently!

Consistency - Part 1

How consistency does important to us? How does it affect to our goal to achieve financial freedom? What it does? What are the benefits if we are consistent in doing something good for us?

You may have noticed that I’ve been telling the knowledge is very important to achieve our goal to be free financially. So, how can we get this knowledge CONSISTENTLY? We must align with latest information in investment world on banking products available, portfolio available, etc. And definitely all these are halal and legitimate! In order to equip with latest information or knowledge we have to ensure to read, share, and ask people CONSISTENTLY. When we read we know something new is available in the market or something we know is already obsolete in the market. When we know something new in the market we may want to share with our colleagues and later may ask them whether they are familiar or new to them. If they are familiar with our latest information, things get easier because we have someone can explain further on the information so that easier to digest. When we easily digest the information, then it is easier for us to take action which ultimately will give us the results.

When we develop our consistency in reading, sharing, and asking, we’ll benefit without noticing it. From this consistency we can develop discipline internally to keep on reading to gain more knowledge before take into action. Why is this so important before take action? Huh?! It’s simple because we can see the impacts based on lesson learnt people have shared from the readings. We may share our colleagues and they might have experienced it in reality and could be our benchmark prior to take action.

Since we go on with reading, sharing, and asking consistently we are indirectly gaining experience by reading to others experiences. Experiences are something very precious because they may save you from very big disasters. We must be very thankful if there are people to share their experiences even they are charging us with some amount. I would suggest to get this experience by reading so that we have ample time to digest and later we can ask somebody more familiar. This could be more efficient and economical!

While acquiring the knowledge and experiences by reading, sharing, and asking; you may indirectly have developed passionate and confidence in investment. This leads to develop interest in subject matter which is in this subject related personal finance and investment. It could be a bit difficult at beginning but believe me, you’ll feel the sweetness by doing it CONSISTENTLY!

Kepentingan Kewangan Peribadi – Bahagian 3

Cara menguruskan aliran tunai kita akan mencerminkan kesihatan kewangan kita dan seterusnya akan dinilai oleh pihak-pihak bank sekiranya kita ingin menggunakan kemudahan-kemudahan yang disediakan oleh mereka. Cara pemikiran dan perbualan dalam dunia kewangan juga akan memberi impak yang membina atau membinasa dalam mencapai hala tuju kita untuk mencapai “financial freedom”.

Ini adalah kerana produk-produk yang ditawarkan oleh pihak bank amatlah membantu sekiranya kita dapat menganalisa produk-produk tersebut untuk memanfaatkan seadanya. Kebiasaannya kita akan dihujani dengan panggilan-panggilan daripada “tele-marketing” untuk pinjaman peribadi di mana ianya pra-lulus. Apakah yang dimaksudkan dengan pra-lulus? Anda tepat! Tepuk la tangan sikit untuk diri sendiri, apa salahnya. Pra-lulus selalunya adalah permohonan yang anda tidak pernah memohon tetapi anda ditawarkan kesan daripada kesihatan kewangan anda yang baik dengan bank tersebut. Saya selalu akan menolak tawaran tersebut kerana ianya bukan untuk keperluan kita pada masa tersebut dan ianya lebih kepada “tangkap muat”. Oleh yang demikian, haruslah berwaspada dengan produk-produk atau servis yang ditawarkan melalui “tele-marketing”.

Apakah produk-produk yang kita inginkan dalam mereliasasikan impian untuk mencapai “financial freedom”? Pada asasnya kita perlulah selesaikan hutang-hutang yang menggugat kesihatan kewangan kita sama ada dengan mengambil kemudahan (hutang baik yang dirancang) daripada bank-bank. Ada yang sarankan dengan selesaikan hutang-hutang yang amaunnya sedikit dan seterusnya menyelesaikan hutang yang paling besar. Hutang jahat atau dalam bahasa kesihatannya adalah kuman yang perlu dihapuskan demi menjamin kesihatan kita. Apabila kita mula berkecimpung fenomena hutang-dalam-hutang, saya ingin tekankan di sini bahawa kita perlu bertindak dengan nasihat pihak professional kerana silap langkah makin parah jadinya.

Alhamdulillah kita dapat selesaikan paling tidak satu hutang (hutang yang paling kecil) dan dalam proses untuk menyelesaikan hutang-hutang yang lain. Sealiran dengan misi menghapuskan hutang-hutang lapuk, kita juga perlu mengasingkan satu amaun untuk simpanan dan seterusnya melangkah lebih jauh untuk misi pelaburan. Misi-misi ini tidak mungkin tercapai sekiranya kita tidak menggunakan kemudahan-kemudahan yang disediakan oleh pihak bank. Oleh yang demikian, amatlah penting untuk memanipulasi kemudahan yang ditawarkan untuk kebaikan kita dan ini hanya mungkin dengan ilmu sama ada diri sendiri atau melalui khidmat nasihat pakar dalam bidang perancangan kewangan. InshaaALLAH saya akan kupas sedikit sebanyak mengenai kemudahan “overdraft” yang membolehkan kita untuk bergerak lebih laju tetapi dengan had laju yang boleh dikawal.

Kepentingan Kewangan Peribadi – Bahagian 2

Seperti yang ditulis sebelum ini mengenai keseimbangan tunai adalah amat berkaitan dengan kesihatan kewangan kita. Ini adalah kerana keseimbangan ini adalah hasil daripada sikap kita dalam pengurusan kewangan kita. Pengurusan kewangan kita akan menghasilkan keseimbangan dalam aliran tunai kita sekiranya diurus dengan ilmu yang sentiasa berkembang selaras dengan kemudahan-kemudahan kewangan yang ditawarkan dalam pasaran terkini. Bagaimanakah semua ini mungkin?

Dalam menghasilkan keseimbangan aliran tunai kita yang sihat, perlulah kita dapat perhalusi aliran masuk dan keluar tunai kita supaya ianya dapat dikawal untuk memaksimumkan dalam simpanan dan pelaburan kita. Dengan pengurusan kewangan yang rapi, kita boleh mengesan ke mana hilangnya wang kita walaupun hanya RM 1. Mungkin ada yang menyatakan bahawa adalah amat cerewet untuk mencatit setiap satu perbelanjaan bagi setiap bulan. Namun, mesti ada hikmahnya dengan melakukan semua ini yakni wang untuk simpanan dapat dimaksimakan. Saya tidak menafikan ada yang meletakkan sebahagian amaun untuk perbelanjaan untuk setiap bulan supaya tidak leceh untuk menguruskan setiap perbelanjaan tersebut. Walau bagaimanapun, amaun tersebut dapat dikesan dengan memberikan segala senarai perbelanjaan supaya ianya lebih rasional kerana agar tidak terlampau rendah atau terlampau tinggi daripada perbelanjaan.

Setakat ini segala pengurusan kewangan yang dibincangkan adalah berdasarkan pengetahuan yang asas daripada gaji yang masuk setiap bulan dan perbelanjaan yang keluar setiap bulan. Ianya dapat dioptimumkan lebih lagi sekiranya dapat menggunakan kemudahan-kemudahan kewangan yang terdapat di pasaran. Ianya akan dibincangkan pada masa akan datang.