Hello!

Good day everyone.
Especially all of you beautiful people.
How's your day?
Please stay warm and stay well.

This is my entry for Steem Women's Club Contest #5.

Thank you @steemwomensclub for holding this contest and also @cryptokannon who came up with this idea.

In Malaysia, if the woman is not working but take care of the house and her family, we called her, 'suri rumah' meaning the flower that bring happiness to the house.

Though it can loosely translate as housewife in English. Lol 😆😆

In this modern world, it's quite rare for women not to be working especially when they live in the city. It's hard to find a housewife in KL (one of Malaysia's biggest city) unless they already have passive income that would allow them to stay at home and take care of the house and family. Though most riches already have a maid for that.

So, I have an interesting question.

What is the difference between a maid and a housewife?

In my own humble opinion, nothing can compare to a housewife. Even before I have a husband, I think so highly of a housewife. I also look high of a maid. In fact, my wish is to become a super maid cause I'm bad with housework and cooking. Lol. 😆😂

Hanaukyou Maid-tai

Anyway, the main difference between a maid and a housewife that can come across my mind is, the payment (I'm keeping my post as 13PG as possible). A maid needs a payment of money while a housewife needs acknowledgements or love. As a side note, in Islam, a husband need to 'pay' his wife for doing the housework as it is actually indeed the husband's work to take care of the chores. Interesting eh?

As for me myself, I rarely work for free. Whenever people need my assistance, I will be charging them though not much. Just so that I won't be bullied by them. I've seen how women been monopolize just because they're too nice. I don't want to be too nice as I don't want to be bullied.

But why do I do housework for 'free' or without money payment?
I cook, I clean up, I take care of the baby, take care of husband's need etc. Why do I have to do that? Even Islam said that it isn't my job. Well, I did it cause it makes me happy (and my husband sometimes also give me more nafkah or in easy word, pocket money + love. So, that's triple happiness. Lol 😆😆)

A happy mother is a happy home.

How to make a mother happy? Compliments. Birthday gifts. Help out. Listen and talk to her. Appreciate her. Basically do what one do to make another happy. If it's too hard and you're to shy to ask your friends then just ask Mr. Google. He'll give you some ideas. Simple yeah?

Should women help with family livelihoods?

I strongly believe that the answer is yes but if only it makes you happy. If you're not happy doing the chores, there is a problem in the relationship. Maybe people in the house not helping enough. Please sit down together and talk. Home is suppose to be a warm place.

Me and my family on vacation last year. Well, not really. I had a short course and they were on vacation. 😅

How do you help with family income?

I work. I have a main job and many side jobs. Lol 😆😆.

Now, 20-30% of my income is for home. Bills and food. Usually if I have bonus, I would definitely give some to my mum. Twice last year, I only took 10% for myself.

When you take care of your family, abundance will come your way.

I once had an income of MYR500 per month that's around $124 USD and I spent nearly half of my salary for our house bills - electric and water. I was co-living with my mum (still am) and my brothers were still in school back then. My mother didn't force me to pay, it was quite opposite really but I want to do it myself to fulfill me. It was a hard time for me. My mum already has an income 10x my salary back then. I'm very poor compared to my mum. 😆😂

After my husband living with us starting November last year, I feel a bit ease with money as he pays the house bill for our part. Hooray!!

As now everyone is working, we divide the bills. The extra money is for our future saving. I'm so happy. 🥰🥰

Why should women invest?

My husband always tell me that he couldn't keep the money, he would spent it for some luxurious item (not really) so he needs me to make a saving for us.

I invest in our health care and long term saving. I have 3 saving+investment portfolios in 3 different company. It ain't much. Only around $124 - $248 USD for each portfolios.

Our health care insurances are only around $62 USD a month. It's not even $100 USD a month but it actually quite a lot for us. That's 1/4 of my monthly salary. Lol 😆😆

Health care is so expensive nowadays. I think it is a good thing to invest in one. There is also a family plan that works for the whole family. I already study the family plan of some insurance company in #malaysia, I think individual is better for three of us. Cause we have different needs.

I also have some gold and silver saving. Gold and silver are non renewable, so the price will keep going up unless someone found a new mine. Still, the mineral will be out eventually.

So, I opt for gold and silver saving rather than money saving. In my country, many banks offer this gold saving program and will keep the gold ourselves so it is quite convenience. I also keep the silver in an account. I don't want to be rob. 😅😅

This is where I usually keep my investment save.

I've use my investment for my wedding, our honeymoon, my brothers & sister wedding, the so much needed money for my pregnancy and baby birth, child support and so on.

To be honest, the dowry that I got from my husband was 5 pieces of dinar gold (4.25g each) that cost less than $200 USD each that time. I've pawn them a few times using ar-Rahnu - an Islamic pawn more than a few times and I still have them all. Now, one of them cost nearly $300 USD in only 3 years. So yeah, I think gold and silver is a good long term investment and I'm glad I make some gold & silver saving (and trading too).

How do you invest in Steemit?

I try my best to

• make at least 2 LID reports (a program offers by SteemAlive community) daily
• curate some good posts
• make some meaningful engagement
• make 2 post daily
• enter at least 1 contest weekly

Though I'm only able to tackle the first one right now. So, I might up it to 5 LID reports per day. 🎉🎉

I'm also trying to recruit at least one person per month. Last year I got some people interested and I'm still following up with them.

I think being a woman is too much hardwork but being a guy is also a hardwork. Women and men should work together to create a happy home and with a happy home comes abundance.

Thanks for reading.

To know more about me, you may click here.

I invite @tenguhatanga, @alegnita and @ngoenyi to join this contest.