Hurmm..... looking at the title above, I think most of my friend would be thinking
"is he up to this??" ..and perhaps you might wonder as well.
Well, okay.. if you would ask me about it, I would say... yes! Yes, if you are still not having any successful Financial Planning yet or if you are still wandering every month 'where did all my money go
ahh?' or if you still within the communities bracket who likes to utter '
biasalah,
ujung bulan kan...
mana ada usin...' and definitely YES if you are not up to my peers.
^.^ well, I'm not that good to be really fully satisfied with, but I believe at least I'm above the average..
One thing for sure is that I'm not an expert in this field and not even close! but hey, do you really have to be an accountant to be able to handle your money properly? or do we have to master major in economics to be able to understand that the world is truly facing the
greatest financial and economical crisis ever and no country will be able to fly above it as if it was Christmas or just
Halloween ~
yada! yada!
Naaa.. I'm not an expert! so if you stumbled here
accidentally while looking for the best expert advices and super tips and best-
secrets regarding finance, well sorry friend, I'm not the man, you may leave and peace alrite.
On the other hand if you belong to some categories I mentioned earlier in my 1st para, then I love to invite you to continue reading, and as well as if you are my friends or want to be my friends or you have a 'feel' ^.^ while reading my title, then by all means please continue reading. I'm not promising anything
yada yada rah rah here, but
suffice for me to say that "I think I have a nice simple Financial Planning formula' that if I have a friend in need I would definitely share about it.
Alright, here goes.. if you really want to go ahead on this, please relax and have a coffee or snack or anything to relax you, because this one is pretty long and plain narrative :D.
Basically everyone or most people love to spend their money wisely (I say most as I know few persons who doesn't give a
damm about where their money goes). For the majority who want to spend their money wisely and if you are one of them, most probably you would have at least a basic formula / method that you use when managing your money. I'm talking about things like a simple book keeping or a any similar financial documentation format (normally using Excel) you use to produce your budget and keep track on all your pennies. If you don't even have this, you are in BIG trouble! you should trust me on that.
Seriously, if you really haven't got any sort of financial practices, I suggest you to go grab one of the best selling book in Malaysia by
Azizi - Millionaires are from different planet. He will make your butt uneasy on your soft sofa or cozy office
furnitures. His book was my 1st and only mentor on financial planning and I found it when I was around 26/27 yrs old, pretty late actually (yeah, nobody advice me anything about finance before).
However, knowing the basic such as Income vs Outcome, debit - credit, expenses, saving, loan, etc.. and
arranging those in a nice excel spreadsheet monthly
won't help much. That is just basic, and basic is just that - a basic. I tot my financial will be okay once I applied those but I was wrong, month to month to year I still suffer some medium size 'financial turmoil' in my own small world.
Until
ONE FINE DAY, I
accidentally discovered my old book while doing some house cleaning (a book which I bought long time ago but never read about), wonders do work in life bah. Very seldom I will do house cleaning but I did it that day and I found a
'diamond'. I read it through and
walllaaa! I was smiling to my self :D, it was like Hallelujah! feel as if 'I was born again - in financial spirit', if I can put it that way. It was touching actually as I felt strong confidence to be able to manage my income INTELLIGENTLY and I was right.
So what did the book says to me?
Among others the book says:
* that in order to be rich, I got to
B R E A K the law. The Parkinson's Law which says
"expenses will always meet income" in a more simple term, the more is our income the more is our expenses. Have any of you guys experience that?? got a little pay rise or some extra income and soon the expense raise immediately (as if it was on race) and end up with just able to-meet-month-end scenario.
* that even if all the wealth in the world are divided to all the people in the world, in no time all the wealth will be back to its original place, that is in the hand of the rich people.
Because the rich people knows what to do with their money and the poor don't. As the famous
hush goes 'rich will get richer, and the poor will get poorer'.
Pernah dengar gini? it's very seldom we hear people complaint/blame to themselves but it's always the mistakes of others.
* that to be rich is NEVER dependent on the bank balance but always about
being rich as a person. The secret to be a millionaire is to be a millionaire as a person, not by bank balance. Ever heard a person with lots of money but live miserably? just google it. Happen to most lottery or jackpot winner who end-up worst then before they won anything. (I got one
living example - my own friend. He won almost 700K from 4d tickets and after just three months, his situation worsen, believe me.. I mean it really worst. It's pain in the #@* to look at).
*and the book says lots more good stuffs... but I think you want to know the most important of all and that's what I want to share too. It is the
formula, and the formula is simply...
10-30-30-30
(if you are well inform about this then it's good, I hope you don't mind to put up a comment
yah)
What's the explanation about this? very easy and well justified.
- 10 is 10% of your income
must be used to help the needy. Some people call this tithing. The point is you must give back, give it back to the people. Some might consider a weekly donation (e.g donating in church on every
Sunday) is good enough, but actually it's not. To give back means to really give the 10% to the one who really in need. It could be anybody, but best to start with the families then friends, communities and etc.
One
VERY IMPORTANT condition here is that
you must give it away freely, not as a loan or as a borrowing. If you are done that and later someone bump you for help, if you can't help just refuse it politely. If someone ask you for lending -
NEVER, Never ever lend your 10%, just give it away.
- 30 is 30% of you income
must be sufficient to cover all your monthly life expenses.
Ini yang
buat orang slalu terngaga besarrrr hohoho! nvm just relax... This includes your F&B, utilities, loan, what-so-ever but ALL your monthly expenses.
When I 1st saw this I almost had a heart attack, there's no #@%*ing way for me to do that.. but actually there is a way, just read on.
- The next 30 is another 30% of your income must be used for
SAVING and INVESTMENT. Repeated - SAVING and INVESTMENT ONLY! save in few ways at least, you name it
ASB, Fixed D., Current Account, what ever ways but save it. And according to your preference, some portion of it must be used on investment and the best recommended investment by the book is
to invest on your own self. Improvised your self, go for training, courses, read books, etc. you will invest in properties and etc once you reach the 'level', so invest in your self. If you are not sure what to invest, put the money in saving 1st. Invest it only when you are sure.
- The last 30 is the remaining 30% of your income and
this is what I like the most and it is very important.. The last 30% must be used for nothing else but for your LEISURE! yeah,
for FUN and ADVENTURE, that is for your enjoyment (of course for you and family if you have one). And it must be
a quality leisure activity, a quality enjoyment which you really want to do and will be among your best experience.
It is in such portion because '
we must plan and act for the future while in the same time we must also enjoy our life today as much as we have invest and save for the future'. There's no use of saving all your money and die rich but never manage to use the richness to appreciate life. We must enjoy today for heaven knows if we still have tomorrow or not.
It's all about balance. The point is to design a
lifestyle that YOU LOVE TODAY and would LOVE TO HAVE in the future.
Now, what if your monthly expense exceed 30% of your income?? mine was actually overshoot more than 50%..
uhhh /pains! /pains!
Never mind if it exceeds. The formula 10:30:30:30 is actually the ideal situation. That is the target. However you must start to apply the formula immediately. Start with what ever is left. Say if your income balance after portioning for all your expenses, is only RM 10 left +.+ just divided the balance RM 10 to 10% for the needy, 50% for saving and investment and 50% for leisure i.e RM 1 : RM 4.5 : RM 4.5.
Vital is, the
amount for saving and investment must equivalent with your fun and adventure at all time. What you save and invest for the future must equally spend to your enjoyment TODAY. For Today is a what we have and tomorrow is guaranteed to no one.
This what the book call as '
Fine-Tuning the Formula'. Adjust your financial to meet the formula until at the end hopefully you will reach the ideal 10:30:30:30. Adjustment you financial could also be a cost cutting of monthly expenses and getting more monthly income form extra work and other sources.
So that's it ladies and gentlemen! I have applied this formula and it works well 'so far' and it makes me smile and it makes me feel better.
One last tips though, if you want to incorporate your spouse income into the plan, make sure to have a good
discussion with your partner. Both party must well understand and agreed. There must be a harmony in the family in applying it, after all that is what financial planing is meant for.
Now you know it and next big challenge is
to really put it into practice. Formula is again just a formula. 100 books is just 100 books rite. To obtain the results, action must be in
motion.
Okay, tell me what do you think about this. Would you give it a try? or if not, perhaps you have a better suggestion? would you please share your thoughts with me. I would really love to hear others say on this.
Thank you.
***************************************************
Did you gained 'anything' from my sharing?
bah, minum 
dulu..
