Malaysia's Weekly Personal Finance Summary - Jan 17 2019

Intro

Over the past few weeks (well months), we've been filming a bunch of videos with our financial planner partner, IPP to tackle all questions related to insurance. From what it is, to who can qualify, to the nitty gritty parts of understanding it.

Our goal is to help you not only get the answers to your question, but to potentially help you understand what you should consider that you might never have thought of before.

The first video will be out on Tuesday 22 Jan on our facebook page and our youtube channel.

Question of the week

What is the most frustrating thing about insurance? Share with us and see what others are finding frustrating at our facebook group.

From More Money Malaysia

The first video will be released on our facebook page and our youtube channel. People in our free facebook group will also be notified when it's live :)

Money in Daily Life

These Money Habits Will Supercharge Your Budget

"I had to stop thinking about exercise as something I did and start treating it as part of my identity. Instead of saying 'I exercise three times a week', I would tell myself 'I'm the type of person that never misses a workout'. "

This blog goes over a bunch of different money habits that other people are using to grow their wealth. There are a few good ones that I really resonate with such as doing a quick rundown of my current budget and seeing if I'm overspending or underspending.

Another good one is: ""I check my budget every morning over tea (associating it with another existing habit makes it easier)."

Check out the list and see which ones are worth trying out yourself!

Here's What Car Accidents Really Cost You

Three-quarters of all drivers have been in an accident. Three-quarters of drivers also believe they're well covered by their car insurance policies. Unfortunately, this might not be so. A recent Esurance study found that it's not uncommon to shell out more than $1,000 after an accident - and spend 20-plus hours dealing with post-accident demands.

This blog post does a good job in breaking down some of the key components of car insurance. The key components are:

• Is my vehicle protected in the event of a collision?
• Does it cover backup transportation?
• Are you actually covered enough in the case of you being at fault?
• What do you have to pay out of pocket?
• Have you already done your research for a local mechanic?

Growing your wealth does take some risk. But this is one of those risks that can be completely avoidable if you're willing to pay a bit more. Of course, the decision is yours.

On a side note, have any of you been in an accident? How much did it cost and was your insurance able to cover it?

9 Personal Finance Resolutions for 2019

Have you set your financial plans in motion for 2019? Do you have goals to achieve, wisdom from the year past, and actionable items for the year ahead? Have you gone through your 2019 review with your financial advisor?

(On a side note, if you are looking for a financial advisor, there are a few in the facebook group)

Which of these 9 personal finance resolutions do you think would make sense for you?

• Pay yourself first
• Prepare for rainy days
• Live debt free
• Get adequately protected
• Know your worth
• Write your will
• Define the "why" in your finance
• Invest in your future
• Simplify with an advisor

For me, it's getting adequately protected. I am planning to get better medical coverage than what my company is currently providing me as well as getting myself an annual travel insurance plan (as I plan on being out of Malaysia for at least 3 months this year). The total cost of all this will also be ~RM700 so it's totally worth not having to worry about anything!

Image from Shutter Stock

Grow Your Wealth

There were no good blog posts to share this week. If you ran into something, share it on the facebook group and we'll add it to the sites we check!

FYI

10 Malaysia-Based Personal Finance Twitter Accounts to Follow

These are all twitter accounts that tend to write in BM. I can't really understand it, but I do trust Suraya from ROR!

Cool Opportunities

BigPay - The Best Travel Credit Card for Malaysians?
If you ever travel out of Malaysia and use your credit card, then this is BIG (pun intended). AirAsia has released BigPay, a prepaid mastercard that you can easily top up through the BigPay app and be able to use instantly.

But more importantly, BigPay charges you at the real exchange rate (which means they charge no fees). This is something you won't get if you were to go to your bank or some exchange counter.

In fact, I plan on only using this when I go to Toronto in December.

Anyway, if you don't have one yet, you can sign up for free and get RM10 free when you use referral code B7D3YNZPGO.

Talking to an Independent Financial Adviser
A big issue when you work with someone who calls themself a financial advisor is you do not know if they really have your best interest at heart. That's one of the main reasons why I never work with any (the other one is that most of them get trained to say what the company wants and thus, do not know of all the other cool opportunities out there).

However, I've been talking to an independent financial adviser the last few months and I do believe that not only is she knowledgeable, but also super open to sharing her knowledge.

If you're interested in talking to her, join our facebook group and ask your questions. She will definitely find time to pop by and answer them.

Ready to get the highest quality information so that you can make the right choices? Check us out on moremoney.my