In my previous posting “Are You an Active Saver“, I wrote about a survey result concerning Malaysians’ financial situation. The conclusion is that we Malaysians are not saving enough for the future. You may belong to this group that is not saving enough if you agree with any of the statements below.
- I do not know where my money goes each month
- I do something everyday that wastes money
- I do not know my own weaknesses
- Spending on big items like a car, a house and even groceries are dragging me down
- I am wasting money carrying debt
In reality, these are the issues that need to be addressed and tackled everyday. These are the obstacles that may have been blocking your ability to preserve some money and save for the future. You may be earning a reasonable amount of money but still find it hard to save money.
How do you improve your financial situation?
The answer is by improving your financial literacy or financial IQ. Robert T. Kiyosaki, the author of the book “Increase Your Financial IQ”, advocates learning to solve financial problems to learn, grow and become more knowledgeable in order to become rich.
According to Kiyosaki, rich people view financial problems as opportunities to enhance their financial IQ or increasing their financial knowledge. Hence, having better knowledge means being able to solve more complicated problems and make more money.
On the other hand, the poor regards money problems as problems. They feel victimized which is compounded by their failure to solve their problems. Consequently, the problem stays and worsens and the poor becomes poorer.
A rich person may not be able to solve all his money problems but instead of ignoring them or walking away, he refers to others who are experts in the field to solve them and learn from the experience.
Lastly, everyone has financial or money problems even the rich people. Those who choose to face and solve the problems will fare better compared to those who choose to ignore or pretend they don’t exist.
Read other articles by Jacquelyn at WParent.com on parenting matters and Tips4Everyone.com on solving marriage problems.
7 replies to "Malaysians Not Saving Enough Money"
Malaysian not saving enough? Of course! How can an average wage earners saved enough here in Malaysia with their not too impressive pay cheque but facing ever increasing prices for necessity items? Take house per say, isn’t a house a necessity? but since when Malaysian’ wages increment rate could possibly match with the incremental rate of properties. I just went to see an IJM project in Penang weeks ago and was surprise to see that they charged RM 575 per sq ft for a 1050 sq ft condo!!! the same condo around the corner by the same developer was only cost RM390 per sq ft 6 months ago! The only thing i could think of when reading this post – all the average wages earners are basically trapped in their own rat race (something Robert T. Kiyosaki shared in his book too!) To me…before we can even talk about saving money, we have to talk about how to earn the money to even give us the luxury of saving enough, with proper financial planning, for our retirement age.
To add on.
It is NOT Malaysian Not Saving Enough.
It is YOUNGER GENERATION of Malaysian Not Saving Enough.
CEO of Bursa Malaysia is trying hard to get retail investor below age 40 to participate directly in the stock market. Why? Because with statistic and data, they can SEE that not many young adult having CDS account with active transactions (investing).
If you read enough annual report of banks, you will notice the deposit in banking system is in a increasing uptrend. Who puts their money in banks?
I came across rich normal uncle and aunty parking their saving in bank, always go to bank to “renew” the FD slips.
Too many attractive (instant gratification) things for young people to park their hard earn (if any) to someone else’s bank account.
Apple computer.
Broadband.
iPhone. iPod.
Nice restaurant.
Gears etc…
Holidays and traveling.
Cars
Most young people just don’t read enough to get financially ready for the retirement.
Strong discipline need to be practised and developed. In order to achieve my saving goals, i will educate myself by reading your blog and also purchase financial books nearly every months.. it really worth and i never regret it..
Reading is the most economical way to get knowledge.
The trick is to sit down, write down for a month or two on every single thing that you spend money on. You will notice that you spend a lot on unnessary items and things that we really do not need. That money can be saved. Pay up your credit card debts and avoid high interest rates. And most importantly, pay yourself first when the salary comes in. We all know the cost of living is getting higher, hence, we need to create multiple streams of income and cannot just rely on a single income. There are various ways to do this and KC’s book and articles teaches you.
KC: Great job on this blog and your books. I am a fan. Cheers!
I think it is also the main concern of many university students.