Malaysia's Weekly Personal Finance Summary - Nov 21 2018

I've been really bad at keeping everyone updated here on Steem - I'm sorry. However, there should be less chances of forgetting to update you all here as I've now put it up on the list of things to update once I create the initial newsletter.

That said, there are also some huge things that have happened since last update!

From More Money Malaysia

A new partnership here at MMM
It's been really hard to stay quiet the past few weeks. There were so many exciting things that we've wanted to share… And now we can!

Ever since we launched Money 101 (the free program that teaches you the fundamentals of money), we've been wondering what exactly is it that we can do to really help you create the ideal life you want. It was also around then that we started getting a few different people approach us to see if we'd be interested in working with them.

And as we thought about what it was we could do, we continued to entertain these conversations and got a chance to meet some really cool people. Then it suddenly clicked.

If you were like us, you can see how money was important to creating that ideal life. However, you didn't know where to start, what you needed to do, where you were on this journey.

But what if we could help give you that "you are here" marker on your financial journey? What if we could help show you what your financial future looks like based off where you are, and what you might consider doing in order to get to where you want to be?

And it just so happened we were talking to a few different financial planners, whose profession is all about helping people create that roadmap for the financial life.

So we started focusing in on those conversations. We learned what they stand for, what their values are, and their business practices. Luckily, we found not only a financial planner, but a whole company, that we could connect with. And because we were also talking to the head of the company, we were able to really strike up a really great partnership that we know you would simply love.

In other words, we're proud to announce a partnership that will allow you to get some great insights into your life!

Money in Daily Life

The New Rules of Personal Finance?
This blog gives his opinion on the 4 commonly debated things in personal finance:

1. Renting vs buying a home
2. Investing vs paying off debt
3. Required saving rates
4. What is considered good and bad debt

He offers some good insights so if you're interested in any of those topics, give it a quick read!

Don’t be broke: 5 wealth mindsets for a Rich Life

Here are the five mindset shifts that you can employ today that’ll help you get on your way to a Rich Life.

• Focus on what you can control
  Instead of giving up at the first sign of failure and finding comfort in complaining, a successful person rises up to the occasion. They’re not content with being a passenger in life. They want to be the captain of their own destiny.
• Adopt a growth mentality
  Do you have a growth mindset or a scarcity mindset? This question is important because it’s what separates the successful from the unsuccessful.
• Spend consciously
  There’s a difference between people who consciously spend on things they love — even if they’re expensive — and people who simply buy whatever they want and deal with the consequences later.
  This ties right into one of the core beliefs here at MMM: spend less on the boring to spend more on the exciting
• Focus on the Big Wins
  There are just a few Big Wins in life where — if you simply get them right — you almost never have to worry about the small things. If you can focus on these seven Big Wins, rather than 50 little things, you can have an insurmountable edge in life.
• Earn more money
  There’s a limit to how much you can save — but there’s no limit to how much you can earn.
  Another one of the the topics that is a core belief at MMM: Find ways to maximise your earning potential early because that will easily become the best way to grow your wealth long term.

We've just scratched the surface of this article so give it a read when you have a chance and let us know which idea really got you excited!

Join the conversation!

Grow Your Wealth

How to Invest Using a Robo-Advisor (in Malaysia) and Why

Think of robo-advisors as software that invests your money automatically. Automatically being the keyword here. All you need to do is bank transfer money to the robo-advisor, just like how you would top up an e-wallet.

Robo advisors have actually been a thing in the west for awhile. So now that it's available in Malaysia, this may be one of the best things that have happened for the everyday person.

Anyway, this post goes over some of the key things that robo advisors allow you to do. The most important parts are:

• Everything can be automated
  Automatically give a portion of your income to the platform and they will invest it on your behalf
• Extremely cheap
  There are no sales fees and management fees are typically < 1%; making it much cheaper than unit trusts
• Get access to index funds
  One of the biggest struggles I've heard people have in Malaysia is the inability to buy into an ETF (exchange traded fund) that tracks an index fund. Well with robo advisors, you now do!

The blog actually goes into a bit more depth so take a read!

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.