Employee Provident Fund (EPF) – Part 3

We have discussed about the impact on the profit rate charged by banks is normally lower for higher loan amount and vice versa. Before we further, let us see what are available withdrawal types for housing loan so that nothing is missed out in our discussion here.

•          Withdrawal to reduce or settle outstanding housing loan
•          Withdrawal for buying house
•          Withdrawal for monthly installment on housing loan
•          Withdrawal for flexible housing loan

Again as highlighted earlier, withdrawal to reduce or settle outstanding housing loan will be the best option based on criteria for less hassles and for better profit rate on our financing products. Withdrawal for buying house is very common for the first time purchaser because of the down-payment issue if can get something attractive deal from the developer or owner.

The next one is on monthly installment on housing loan where our monthly installment will be paid via our money from account two (2) in EPF based on total amount available when submitting our application. Let me illustrate from monetary value, say we have RM 12,000 in our account two (2) and our installment is RM 800, then EPF will pay on standing instruction by depositing into our saving/current account so that can be paid to our housing loan account. This is how it takes place on withdrawal for monthly installment.

Last but not least on withdrawal for flexible housing loan where this is almost similar to previous to pay on monthly basis and it has very tedious procedures and not all banks offering through this scheme. Since there is not much benefit from this withdrawal, no further discussion I want to highlight here.

In conclusion, I may say that the best option could be withdrawal to reduce or settle outstanding loan based on all the justifications we have seen earlier. You may judge accordingly and choose whichever the best suit with your need.

Kepentingan Takaful

Pertama sekali saya bukan seorang penjual pakej takaful tetapi mempunyai takaful bagi menyiapkan diri untuk kecemasan khususnya dalam membiayai kos perubatan. Saya juga mempunyai prinsip saya sendiri dalam memilih produk-produk takaful yang mana ejen-ejen mungkin tidak setuju. Apa-apa pun buatlah keputusan setelah analisa dibuat berdasarkan sumber-sumber ilmiah yang bermanfaat. Bagaimanakah untuk mendapatkan sumber-sumber ilmiah tersebut? YA! Anda tepat! Teruskan baca artikel ini bagi mendapatkan sedikit sebanyak garis panduan untuk maklumat yang lebih terperinci.

Siapakah yang paling arif mengenai takaful di sini? Bagi saya bukan semua individu arif semua bidang dan ianya mengikut kepakaran khusus seseorang individu tersebut. Dalam kes ini sudah semestinya, ejen takaful adalah pihak lebih arif mengenai produk mereka kerana mereka dilatih mengenai produk-produk yang akan dipasarkan kepada pengguna atau klien mereka. Selain itu, risalah-risalah produk juga akan memberikan maklumat yang kita inginkan tetapi mungkin agak samar-samar kerana perkataan yang digunakan mungkin agak mengelirukan kita. Di manakah kita boleh dapatkan risalah-risalah tersebut? Layarilah laman-laman syarikat yang menawarkan takaful untuk mendapatkannya di samping maklumat tambahan dalam laman tersebut. Namun begitu, seperti yang dibincangkan di atas, sesetengah perkataan dan ayat mungkin mengelirukan kita seterusnya memerlukan penjelasan yang terperinci. Siapakah individu yang kita boleh hubungi untuk mendapatkan maklumat tersebut?

Setelah membuat sedikit sebanyak analisa terhadap produk-produk takaful, bolehlah hubungi ejen-ejen takaful yang kita kenal atau melalui talian yang dipaparkan dalam laman sesawang untuk mendapatkan penerangan. Saya sarankan agar tidak mudah terpengaruh dengan janji-janji manis yang melebih kerana bukan semuanya di dunia ini datang dengan mudah. Oleh yang demikian, kita boleh menilai seseorang ejen dalam menerangkan produk-produk yang ditawarkan oleh syarikat takaful mereka. Ada yang menyatakan bahawa produk merekalah yang terbaik berbanding yang lain dan mulainya mengutuk syarikat-syarikat takaful yang lain. Sekiranya anda dihampiri oleh individu-individu seperti ini maka saya sarankan supaya mengelak daripada sambungkan perbincangan atau penjelasan yang anda inginkan. Untuk pengetahuan sama ada anda sedar atau tidak, terdapat ratusan atau mungkin ribuan ejen-ejen yang ingin tawarkan khidmat mereka. Dalam menilai seseorang ejen sama ada bersesuaian dengan anda, jarak perlu memainkan peranan yang penting kerana dalam urusan tadbir sekiranya berlaku sebarang tuntutan.

Kesimpulannya, kita perlu tahu apakah keperluan kita bukan tawaran yang diceritakan oleh ejen-ejen dan sentiasa berbalik kepada keperluan kita. Bagaimanakah untuk mengetahui keperluan kita? Luangkan masa untuk membaca dan menganalisa produk-produk yang ditawarkan dalam pasaran. Jangan sesekali membeli produk-produk takaful semata-mata kerana orang lain membeli kerana keperluan masing-masing adalah unik. Akhir kata, berkawanlah seramai yang mungkin dengan ejen-ejen takaful kerana maklumat yang dimiliki oleh mereka adalah sangat berharga dan ianya boleh membezakan berlian di dalam tambunan kaca.

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.

Levels of Financial Freedom – Part 3

We have seen from level four (4) to level three (3) was like a magic where suddenly have some passive income but very minimal amount and cannot be used as our core income in our life due to insufficient amount. So, we can move ahead for higher level?

Again to achieve higher level is not something can be achieved overnight but will take some time and efforts to reach there. Now, to be in level two (2) where our passive income could cater our expenses or is higher than our expenses will be more challenging because we have trained ourselves to spend more than 50% of active income (very common scenario). Remember that our passive income still lower than our active income in this level two (2) but somehow able to cater our expenses. In this level, our passive income not possibly from dividends only but should be some other means like in property investment, businesses, etc. Bear in mind that all these must be halal and legitimate so that we are seen as the most handsome or beautiful person financially.

Similar to level three (3), we could reduce first our expenses so that we can develop our confident level to go ahead for sourcing some means of passive income. There so many means where we can get passive income but ensure we are well equipped with knowledge so that risk and loss can be minimized. Don’t simply attempt without knowledge, and the worst part is don’t simply acquire knowledge without taking any action (I hope you can get my point). Once you’re taking action, then experience will follow and you’ll find your skills much better than the beginning of your involvement.

Great! Now we have reached level two (2) and eager to go for level one (1) where anyone in this earth are looking to be in this level. What is the main difference? Obviously, passive income more dominant than active income and it could be passive income is much higher than total of active income and expenses. How it could happen? This is something like from level four (4) to level three (3) where the skills play a role to acquire more means of passive income; you’ll experience once you have reached level two (2). Many more to come on this passive income in future articles. So, stay tune with me!

The key element to be financially free here is that we must be very passionate and patient in achieving our target because there will be so many challenges along the way. Always remember “where is will, there are multi-ways”.

Levels of Financial Freedom – Part 2

We have discussed about the worst level or stage of the ranking in financial freedom ruler. Wow!!! It seems like music chart where we have ranking will be changing by weekly basis and similarly our aim to move on to be the best level in financial freedom ruler.

The next level or level five (5) will be the expenses is equivalent to the active income or the monthly salary received by us. This seems like not an issue but ultimately will affect our goal to achieve financial freedom. What would be the possible ways to bring our level to next level (level 4)? Exactly! Similar approach like we did to move from level six (6) to level five (5). What? Forgot? Yes, then you have to read, read, and read even the same materials until we take it into action.

After we have cut expenses and increase our income (mainly active income), we should able to move to level four (4) where our expenses is less than our active income which may put under savings which ultimately will be used as our fund or capital for investments. All this lift-up process of the levels will not happen overnight but will take some time and we have to be passionate and patient to move steadily. Remember about consistency!

So, we have some savings from surplus of our active income and we should have put somewhere to give us some return which is mainly some dividends because at this level this is the only potential passive income for us (even there are potential better investment with proper planning). Without noticing it, we have moved to level three (3) where we have some passive income but definitely much lower than our expenses.

Let us digest first these three (3) levels here before we proceed higher level which are level 2 and ultimately level 1. Digest here is not only read, read, and read but also understand prior to take action. Definitely later we must take action to make it realistic. Whoever have reached this level, CONGRATULATION! We’ll move ahead to higher level soon.

Levels of Financial Freedom – Part 1

How can we gauge our financial freedom level in life? Are we healthy enough financially? How to optimize it? What are the supplements can be taken to improve our healthiness? All these are important because we can only improve if we are able to detect our own loopholes. It’s not sufficient only by knowing the loopholes but must know how to rectify it so that our goal for financial freedom can materialized as we planned.

I personally segregate level of financial freedom into six (6) different levels by referring to our active income, passive income, expenses, and savings. How all these four (4) items are very important? These are the tools can gauge our attitude and reflect it into our financially healthiness which can be rectified if we have certain “diseases” which may be harming our goal to achieve our financial freedom.

The worst level ever in financial freedom is where our expenses is more than our active income. What? Where is our passive income? My friend, if there deficit in our balance sheet, it shows that there is no other income except our active income. In this situation, the most probable causes are due to bad debts and money spent to unnecessary items, i.e. updating gadgets based on latest available models which ultimately reflect our bad habit in finance subject matter. So, how to rectify it to be at the best level or at least one level higher than this worst level? You may go on How To Start Saving - Part 1 and How To Start Saving - Part 2 as a starter to rectify your "illness" and comment if have some specific area to be discussed.

We will discuss more on the remaining five (5) levels in the next coming article Levels of Financial Freedom – Part 2. List down all our passive income, active income, and expenses so that we can gauge our level if we are lucky enough not to be in this level. Again! Remember that money could be the Cash King but knowledge is the QUEEN to manage our wealth wisely.

Excuses

Anything human made will have both pros and contras. So, as human being we must able to differentiate so that we can really benefit from those human made ideologies, products, etc. Similarly as we discussed for our savings that possibly implemented might be impossible for some other people. What would be potential causes to make it impossible to this group? Hehe! Back to the topic of this article, which is "Excuses". So, identify our excuses so that we can eliminate this culprit (excuses) to make our plan for savings to be possible.

Why is this culprit can exist and stopping us from taking action so that our dream can be materialized? Attitude? Education level? Be precise with the "education" my friend! Yes! Financial education level! What else could be the potential causes spreading this virus among us and stopping us from being rich?

How is this culprit or virus can be reduced and ultimately eliminate from our attitude in order to start implement our target for financial freedom which is the basis fundamental is by savings? Again, as highlighted in previous article on How To Start Saving - Part 1 and How To Start Saving - Part 2 we must very particular on our inflow and outflow to monitor the exact flow of our money. Hence, "Excuses" is just matter of attitude and can be eliminate slowly with some level of knowledge in finance subject matter.

So, how we can eliminate this virus from our attitude in order to achieve our financial freedom? Let us discuss in new article to be published soon. Coming soon!

How To Start Saving – Part 2

Let say you have started saving part of your net monthly salary but not consistent over the time because of some circumstances. What would be the scenario this could happen? Before that, any of us experienced it? Answer honestly so that it can be rectified. Be honest, nobody is perfect in doing anything. As a human being, people tend to do mistakes. So, learn from the mistakes to lift ourselves one (1) level higher compared to others that never attempt at all.

This scenario could happen if we started our saving with very high portion whereby it is not possible to allocate such huge portion if this is our first experience to allocate our income for the savings. Hence, be realistic with our intention where we could start with 5% our income then slowly develop discipline to maintain monthly saving. From there, we can gradually increase our saving based on annual basis with another 5%. Bear in mind that this is the portion or percentage whereby the absolute figures (savings) could be higher if there are salary increment or adjustment on annual basis.

How to increase the percentage of our savings from first year to the following years? As discussed earlier on salary increment or adjustment, there are lot more ways that we can increase our active income (hard-earned income). Some might ask how it is possible if we are just an employee with fixed monthly income and no other source of income. So, how is it possible? Is it a joke? Haha! Have you done with your laughing? Then, let us discuss how we can get extra income by maintaining our permanent job. Be frank, to discuss about how to get additional income could be a separate topic with more than 200 pages but let us just brainstorm what could possibly be done to increase our monthly income.

Definitely there are people good are certain area and willing to share it with others and the mean of doing so can be called as tuition or consultancy. So, by teaching to others with reasonable fees could surplus our normal monthly income. Great! Now you have extra source of income besides normal routine job. What?! You can’t teach? Then, you might sell something by buying in bulk and selling at retail price. Obviously we must ensure those are halal (for Muslim) and legitimate in our country.

There is indirect way to increase our saving which is by reducing our expenses, it could be unnecessary which might not be really needed but due to some circumstances we’ve been buying or subscribing. Hence, by stop buying or unsubscribing will give extra value to our savings. Again it is not difficult to allocate some portion of our salary for the savings where if we could do both scenario; increase active income and reducing expenses. By doing so, we may can allocate saving up to 20% because it is very rare case we need more than 50% of our salary if properly manage our expenses.

Last but not least, discipline and consistency is the crucial part in developing our skills for the financial freedom. All these only can be achieved with passionate to follow our plan systematically and consistently. Don’t wait my friends, start doing it because the moment you started you’re not too late.

How to Start Saving – Part 1

Key element to start to be financially free is discipline to do saving from the active income. If a person doesn’t has any saving then it is difficult to get along the right track for financial freedom. Why it is very important to start with savings prior to investment or to achieve financial freedom?

Whoever we are, how old we are, it is not too late as long as we just started a minute ago. The key point is that we must start have savings. It could be very difficult for us if we never practised to allocate our salary for the savings with so many monthly commitment to pay. If we have done it before then it is very practical for us. It would be much more helpful if we could make it as a habit to allocate part of our salary for the savings. For those who started career with less than a year could be much simpler to discipline ourselves by assuming no commitment in place yet.

It is very simple to start saving if we can follow our plan by listing our net salary with all the monthly expenses. Again it is not about the amount but percentage and consistency throughout our life towards our goal to achieve financial freedom. By listing the numbers, we can easily illustrate our savings because most of the time will not lie to us unless we lied to ourselves on the numbers. Clear? Or not really clear? Or totally blur? What I meant here is that we should be honest with listing so that more reasonable plan can be implemented. Let say we just started our career with no experience in savings, then don’t be too optimistic to put more than 50% of our net salary. I’m not saying it is impossible but we don’t drive start with higher gear to drive faster but we should start with lower gear to get speed and then slowly we’ll speed by changing to higher gear.

For instance, take an example to get better picture on it. Case study; Afnan started career as an engineer with salary of RM 2,000 and force himself with saving of RM 1,000 whereby the living cost itself could be more than RM 1,000 with current market price for rental, transportation, foods, etc. Hence, he has to be realistic when giving driving force to allocate his salary for savings. So, what would be the saving percentage? I would suggest to go for 5% or 10% first then slowly develop skills to increase the portion as time flies. As time flies, don’t increase lifestyle but increase the saving portions and we can see the effect really tremendous without we notice it.

As highlighted earlier, when we allocate our money for savings, consistency play a big role towards our goal to create our investment portfolio and ultimately to achieve financial freedom.

Knowing the Rules

One of key element to achieve financial freedom is via knowing the rules to be rich. We must fully aware and knowledge about the rules in financial matter including banking, taxation, etc. How we can benefit from knowing the rules?

To answer on how we can benefit is mainly on how we can fully utilize the rules to protect our savings or investments. As a footballer, he must know the rules on do’s and don’ts when playing for a team. Before ahead with skills, we must fully aware all relevant rules in any fields. Similarly, we must know the fundamental in finance subject matter then develop the skills as experience grows.

Experience in finance subject matter could be developed directly from own experience or indirectly by reading, attending talks, etc. Gaining experience not necessarily would be something positive but negative as well from both ways either direct or indirect. However, applying both experiences appropriately could lead to awesome results where almost all risks taken are measurable risks and able to minimize it. Rule of thumb in finance subject matter or developing investment portfolio it is recommended to gain as much of negative experiences from secondary sources.

How can we define our secondary experiences to avoid this happen to us while executing our tasks towards financial freedom? As highlighted earlier, we must able to gain somebody else experiences via reading books, attending talks, seminars, chatting, etc. which normally this well-known investor have published their books to be shared publicly so that people can benefit from their previous loopholes.

Gaining secondary experiences can be one of the way knowing the rules in developing investment portfolio where there could be something totally new to us since we are not familiar with the particular investment area. Hence, whatever investment portfolio we’re developing we must know the rules which is must be obviously legitimate in our country and it is halal for Muslims. Again, educate ourselves with knowledge so that we’re always up-to-date with latest rules and always conscious with any potential opportunities.

Define Your Basis

What we know about our basis? Why exactly we need the basis? In whatever scenario when comes to execution then we must have very clear basis so that we know what are we doing instead of what others know what we’re doing.

People always want to be rich and super rich. Very little people want to be not-poor because they don’t have clear basis in their financial goal. It’s good to be rich or super rich but it is essential to be not-poor so that no body hurt either physically or emotionally.

To be rich we must define our basis or step-by-step way forward to be rich or at least to reach financial freedom. In order to reach that, we must develop our basis to be followed along the way. How can we achieve this if we don’t have saving to start investment. How to get start saving if we don’t have proper to basis to follow? So, we must first define our basis prior to start saving which later lead to our investment portfolio. The basis could be modified and updated further once we start getting our minor goal based on our basis.

Let say we want to start with some investment in property but have no capital to start and what would be the strategy to define our basis? Definitely the property’s price will be the first basis for us to follow then will dictate the next basis which to acquire the amount of fund for the down payment of the property. Later the amount for down payment will be the following basis which we have to follow so that we’re on the track to get materialize our first investment portfolio. When defining the basis, the duration to accomplish the goal is a vital basis. So, we must define the basis how long we need to accumulate the down payment amount. From the duration we can define the monthly saving to be allocated for this investment portfolio.

To illustrate the scenario let us consider an example of case study. Let say Afnan want to buy a property worth of RM 120,000 as the first property and the first basis will be the property’s price. Then second basis will be the to accumulate down payment amount of RM 12,000 which later dictate following basis which is timeframe. If Afnan wants it to be materialized within a year then he needs to discipline himself to allocate monthly saving of RM 1,000. Hence, when Afnan follows step-by-step of his basis that he developed earlier obviously it’s not impossible to achieve his dream towards financial freedom.

Always remeber that when defining our basis, it must be rational so that it is feasible to follow and implement. So!!! What are you waiting for if you can define your own!