A True Story About A Doctor & His Money

Today we have another reader, MOfrust who would like to share his experience in his personal finance. Despite his academic in a medical and science background, MOfrust found that he is lacked in knowledge in finance.

From time to time, we do receive some stories submitted by readers. The stories we received are mixture of experiences of success and failures with money. We would like to thank MOfrust kindness to share his experience, we welcome other readers who are willing to share theirs in our blog.

Read on to learn more about MOfrust’s story…

As a medical graduate, I never really new much about finances. I was studying under a government scholarship and all they wanted out of me was to study, study, study. I just needed to pass my professional exams and get my MBBS degree. I was guaranteed a job at a government hospital. Money wasn’t that much of an issue, then.

Despite the hellish work condition as an intern, or houseman as we were called then, I earned a decent income. Taiping was a rather sleepy town with a very low cost of living. By right, I should have been able to save loads of money. Due to my financial incompetence, I wasn’t really sure where all my money went.

Here’s what I did with my first RM 8,000 backdated pay check.

1. I bought a 32 inches LCD TV. It set me back RM 1600. But because the place I stayed at did not have a decent free TV reception I had to fork out another few hundred dollars to subscribe to Astro. I was paying an additional RM 100 per month and I barely watched the TV. When I was home, I would be too tired to watch TV. At other times I would be busy being on call. What a waste.

2. Ever heard of vacation clubs before? I was so naive then. A salesperson called me one day and sold me a LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP for a vacation club for RM 500. With the membership, I was able to get discounts to any hotels or resorts in Malaysia. I was totally hooked. I tried using it a few times and realized that it was all nonsense.

Yeah, I was getting some discounts. But what I got was some not so nice hotel stays minus the breakfast. After a year, the company went bust and there goes my lifetime membership.

3. This third one is the worst. I have no idea where all that other money went. I spent recklessly and treating friends for meals at some posh restaurants so frequent, more than I needed to. But I did not know exactly where each Ringgit went.

These were all very expensive lessons for me. After a year or so, I started to read financial books from the likes of Robert Kiyosaki, Azizi Ali and KC Lau. Only then that I realized that keeping my finances in check is as important as all those medical knowledge that I studied.

It’s not something that is taught in school. And I’d like to thank people like KC Lau for trying to impart this knowledge. God willing, I will try to impart some financial knowledge as well.