8th July 2020 - 7 min read
In my time as a certified charterholder, I come across clients whose financial queries range from “I have RM X in my account, should I buy a house or invest in the stock market?” to “I have RM Y in debt across home loan, student loan, and loan shark, and I’ve just been retrenched. What should I do?”. Normally, the services of a financial advisor/certified charterholder is chargeable by the hour, but in the spirit of cultivating financial literacy and making smarter money decisions, #AskHannAnything was born.
The queries posted in this series have been curated to cover an extensive range of issues, and all queries have been posted with consent and are not edited whatsoever (names may be changed for anonymity). With that, here’s this month’s top query! (Next month’s intro will be much shorter, I promise!)
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Hi Hann,
I am a 34-year-old Account Executive. Below is an overview of my personal finances, including my savings, investment plan, and expenses.
Savings/Investments | |
HLB Cash Account | RM3,700 |
HLB FD 12 Months | RM10,290 |
HLB FD 6 Months | RM1,000 |
HLB FD 3 Months | RM1,000 |
MBB Cash Account | RM2,919 |
Public Mutual | RM11,531 |
Amanah Saham | RM18,613 |
EPF | RM150,000 |
Total | RM199,053 |
Income | RM3,080 after deductions |
Monthly expenses | |
Parents & Utilities | RM600 |
Insurance | RM351 |
Daily expenses (toll/petrol/food) | RM400 |
Phone bill (postpaid) | RM35 |
Gym/yoga subscription | RM80 |
Health supplements/food, medical fees | RM200 |
Misc | RM200 |
Total | RM1,866 |
In addition to these, I also have the following one-off expenses each year:
I have been in my current job at an oil palm company (operating overseas) for 9 years, with a 2-year increment and bonus. However, I plan to change my job as the company is not doing financially well, although the company still pays my salary on time.
My car has been fully paid up, and I set aside RM500 each month for retirement planning and placed into Public Mutual funds.
I plan to use my 1-year savings for my wedding (estimated cost is about RM20k), which should be sufficient if it’s a simple wedding and we stay with family. I have already set aside the 12-month FD as part of the wedding fund.
For additional details, my boyfriend is currently a Grab driver, and earns around RM4,000 nett per month. Here’s a breakdown of his expenses:
For the wedding, my boyfriend is saving RM1k/month and I’m saving RM500/month. After that, we will continue saving this amount and I hope that I can own a house in Klang in the near future.
Please advise on a practical financial plan for my situation.
Thank you
Lee
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Hi Lee.
First off, well done on organising your finances well, having a reasonable savings habit relative to your income, and having a clear view on what you want to achieve financially. However, in order to create a long term financial plan, you should ask yourself several other questions:
This will give you a clearer picture that will help a financial planner to build a plan for you.
Meanwhile, having looked at your overview, I can give 3 simple ideas to follow:
Live the same, save more. By reviewing each line item of spending, you could be having the same lifestyle and yet have more money in your pocket. Just looking at the below, between the two of you, you could be saving an extra RM2,000+ without changing your lifestyle! For example:
Buy the right priced home. It is both a financial and emotional decision. To assist you in navigating the decision, here are some points:
Retirement/Savings Planning. Without knowing too much about your retirement goals, I can only give some basic tips, here they are:
For a detailed financial plan, please do have a think about those questions at the start and then consult a Licensed Financial Planner to create a long term financial plan for you.
#AskHannAnything is a monthly series where our co-founder, Hann Liew, offers advice to users who submit their personal finance queries. Want to pick Hann’s brain? Drop him an email at [email protected] with your queries. We will publish the most useful ones at the end of each month.
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