One Utama Shopping Centre e-Duit Raya Promotion

I was in One Utama Shopping Centre and saw a sign saying that for every RM20 of e-Duit Raya purchased online through their online store OneShop, they would match it and give another RM20. This promotion was, however, only for the first 200 online transactions.

I decided to try my luck and purchased RM20 e-duit raya and guess what --- a few minutes after I received my e-Duit Raya gift card in my email, I received another email telling me that I was given a RM20 e-Duit Raya rebate also via an online gift card!

It basically means that I got my RM20 e-Duit Raya gift card purchase matched with another RM20 e-Duit Raya! Woohooo!!! I'm a happy bunny as that means more shopping money for me!

The e-Duit Raya, when redeemed, will be transferred into my existing OneCard account which can be used as a debit card when shopping in any of the participating shops (and there are many) in One Utama Shopping Centre.

Takeaway of the day: It pays to read the signages, sometimes :)

Investing

I like to keep my excess foreign currency after I return from a holiday overseas. Today, however, I made the brave decision to exchange some of my left over foreign currency. I plan to make the money grow by investing it when the opportunity presents itself :)

A Dollar in a Jar

I've started putting a dollar in a jar each time I go out walking instead of taking the car to run errands or get lunch/ dinner. In that way, I'll be motivated to make more than one trip a day on foot! :)

It's my way of motivating myself to exercise more.

achievement!

I sold my first two online books in the wee hours of the morning today!!! :)

Okay, so I didn't make a lot of money but it worked --- my little online shop (http://myusedbookshaven.blogspot.com/) is actually generating business! Ka Ching!!!  :)

Season Parking Deposit

I finally got my deposit back for the season parking card last Saturday :) It's been almost a year now since I left that place and should have claimed my deposit back a lllooonnggg time ago but never got around to doing it until earlier this year. I've got cash!!! 

Paying Me

This is what I do nowadays: for everything that I save when I shop or when I get a service done which I would otherwise have to pay someone else to do (i.e. manicure, pedicure, hair color, etc), I put the amount that I saved away into my savings account. In that way, I'll not only be buying things on discounts but I'll also be building up my savings at the same time.  

Make your Credit Card Work for YOU!

Credit cards are not bad things if you use them wisely. I pay mine in full each month as I see no reason why I should let them charge me interest for my purchases. I make sure that I have the money to pay for whatever I buy each month which means that every purchase needs to be thought of in advanced, in short, planned.

Let me tell you this: I didn't start out this way. I have had my fair share of credit card debt in the past which I worked very hard to pay down and off. I put a running tally of my credit card balance on my fridge. It gave me a constant reminder of why I should control my spending and at the end of each month, I would happily extract the amount that I paid and watch the outstanding balance reduce. For me, that was motivating.

Well, all that, I am proud to say, is in the past. Now, I make my credit cards work for me. I'm currently using my Maybank Amex a lot as each ringgit that I charge earns 5 treats points. I also pay my bills using my Maybank Amex whenever possible such as my Streamyx, phone and DBKL bills. In addition, I make sure that I pay my bills and make purchases over the weekends so that I get to enjoy the 5% cash back rewards. The cash back is capped up to RM50 a month and that adds up to a savings of RM600 a year!

The 5 treats points given for every ringgit spent adds up pretty quickly too and with 2000 treat points, you can redeem a RM10 voucher from one of the retailers participating in the treats points program. So yeah, if you're like me, you'll be saving a huge amount of money if you make your credit cards work for you instead of what most people out there do, work hard to pay off their credit cards.

In case you belong to the latter group, you might want to think about going on a shopping diet and concentrating on paying off your credit card debt instead. You'll be surprised to see how paying twice the minimum payment is going to cut down not only on the length of time that it'll take you to finish paying your debt but also how much less interest you'd be paying the credit card company. There are many calculators out there to help you figure out how long it'll take you to pay off your debt. Click here for one such credit card calculator.

Another way you can save on paying interest on your credit cards is if you use the zero% balance transfer programmes that banks offer from time to time. You've got to be very disciplined though. No going out on ANOTHER shopping spree just because credit card A's balance is zero now. Remember, if you use your credit cards, make sure that you have the means to pay them off NOW. Don't think about paying for purchases that you make now with future income because what that's going to mean is that you'd have even less to spend when the future comes because you have to pay for a purchase that you made months ago. Wouldn't that be such a drag?

Use your credit cards wisely. Make them work for you. Don't work for them! 

Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny by Suze Orman

This is one of the many books that I read two months ago but failed to blog about until now.

I went out specifically searching for this book at my favorite discount bookstore, BookXcess, in Amcorp Mall. I guess it was my lucky day 'cause they had it in stock! In case you're wondering, the original price of the hardcover book which I purchased was RM99.90 but I got it for RM19.90 at BookXcess.

This is my very first Suze Orman book although I have watched her giving financial advice to women on Oprah numerous times in the past.

Women & Money contains loads of helpful financial advice. Suze wrote this book especially for women because many women are clueless when it comes to financial matters. She explains, for example, the difference between good debt and bad debt.  We hear people talking about good debt and bad debt often but do you know what they really are? Good debt is money that you borrow to buy an asset which will appreciate in value over time. Bad debt is money that you borrow not used to buy an asset. The ultimate example of bad debt is credit card debt. Going by this definition of bad debt, borrowing money to pay for a car loan constitutes as bad debt because a car doesn't appreciate in value! Now, isn't that an eye opener!

She covers a lot of areas in this book such as retirement investing, must-have documents, protecting your family and your home and the financial aspects of commitment which includes relationships/ marriage/ kids.

No doubt that many of the advice written in this book is for the American woman, but I found many of the advice useful as I only have to adapt the same concepts into my local context. It is about how to think about finances is what I take away. After acquiring the bigger idea, I can adapt what I learned to my day-to-day living.

In short, Suze asks women to imagine what's possible --- to imagine what life would be like when we make the choice to take control of our finances and not remain clueless. Power to women!

Make Money Not Excuses by Jean Chatzky

This is another book which I picked up at the last Big Bad Wolf warehouse sale.

This is a personal finance book written by a woman for women. Most women make excuses as to why they are not actively involved in the management of their money and what this book does is tell women to stop being passive and start taking an active interest in managing their money.

This book is full of financial advice that are do-able. She gives a breakdown on how you should funnel your expenses according to the various expense categories:
Housing               35%
Saving                 10%
Living                  25%
Transportation     15%
Debt Repayment   15%

Housing includes not just the mortgage payment for your home but also the cost of living there such as taxes, insurance, utilities and repairs.

Living expenses include things like clothing, food, donations, entertainment, gifts, travel, etc.

Transportation includes not just payment for your wheels but also gas, insurance and maintenance.

Debt Repayment are payments for debt which don't include payment for your home or your car.

There are also maps to a million throughout this book that illustrates how much you'd earn if you put in a certain amount of money away to invest each month and shows what the amount will be in 10, 20, 30 and 40 years' time.

For example, if you could save $10 a day, which is $70 a week, and you put it away to invest at 8 percent, it would be 55,615 in 10 years, 179,062 in 20 years, $453,069 in 30 years and $1,061,266 in 40 years. Amazing, huh?

I'm inspired to save!!!

And oh, by the way, she has a website (click on the link) where you'll be able to find more money advice.

I Will Teach You to be Rich by Ramit Sethi

To be honest, I had absolutely NO idea who Ramit Sethi was when I purchased this book. I only discovered that he's big in the US when I visited his website and youtube and found a bunch of his video clips which were aired on TV in the US.

This is a book which I stumbled upon in the last Big Bad Wolf Warehouse sale. I'm really glad I purchased it.

Okay, the title of the book is kinda corny, but the RICH in the title has more to do about having enough $$$ to lead a rich life doing what you love instead to being RICH in just the monetary sense.

This personal finance book explains in simple terms many things I didn't know before reading the book --- the difference between mutual funds, index funds, lifecycle funds, stocks and bonds, the importance of diversification, asset allocation, dollar cost averaging, etc.

He also offers a lot of common sense advice (but as you and I both know, common sense is not so common anymore) such as why you should have a credit card (it's not all bad, as many people think), the importance of having your investment portfolio diversified and typical asset allocations by age.

He even gives you a script for what to say when you call up your credit card company to negotiate with them for a late fee waiver (note: this is only if you've been paying your bills on time and have missed a due date once and not for repeat offenders!).

He also asks, "How you're going to spend your next $100?" --- now that's a question that forces me to think about how I've been spending my money and how I would like to change my spending habits to include my plans for my future.

I particularly loved the way all the information was presented in the book which made it enjoyable to read and not dry like most of the other personal finance books out there. This is a must have personal finance book if you're clueless.

Here's the first chapter of this book which is entitled Optimize Your Credit Cards (click on the link) which you can download FREE!!! My guess is that you'll be hooked once you've read the first chapter and will want to purchase the book.

Have you really SAVED anything lately???

Here's an interesting thought --- a savings in not a savings until you actually SAVE it!!!

You know how most people say they saved X dollars when they purchased something during a sale? Well, here's an interesting thought --- it isn't a savings until you actually put the money that you "saved" away into a savings/ investment/ retirement account.

Otherwise, you didn't save anything. You only paid less for the item!

With that thought in mind, I'm putting the RM180 that I would have otherwise paid towards my annual fee credit card into my investment account (for those of you who are unaware read this post).

So... have you really saved anything lately???

Budgeting: The Envelope System

Here's something that I used to do many, many years ago. I learned this from a friend who I saw practised it (that was how I learned --- by watching).

In the beginning of every month, I would label a few recycled envelopes (earth friendly!) the categories of money in my budget such as travel, fuel, food, clothes, etc. Then, in each envelope, I would put in the amount of money that I had budgeted for each category for the month.

Each time I wanted to buy or had to pay for something, I would take out the required amount from the envelope. When I had extras in the envelope at the end of the month, I would take that money out and save it.

It's a wonderful simple system that puts you in touch with reality if you want to keep track of your spending because when the money's gone in the envelope, it's gone. It gives you an honest reality check about your spending habits.

Dealing out cash makes it more intimate as opposed using credit cards which tend to feel like nothing much when you're paying at the point of sales and not only that, you tend to overspend with credit cards because there isn't a reminder of what the limit for your spending is for the month unlike the cash in envelope where you can see your depleting money levels.

Try it, and you'll be surprised at how much more careful you are with your cash.

   

a great bargain site

i love bargain hunting and am always looking out for a good deal.

WeBUY is great group buying website that lets you enjoy services and experiences without having to spend too much money. In fact the prices offered on the site are 50% - 90% off the normal retail prices.

The bargains include restaurants, fashion, hotels, spas, travel packages, go karting lessons, entertainment, etc.

There is a time limit for each bargain offered (there is a clock on the page below the bargain which will tell you how much time is left for you to act to buy the bargain). When you see something you like, just click on the "buy" button. The bargain will only be activated if the minimum numbers of buyers is reached.

Buyers will only be charged if the deal is activated. You will not be charged for deals that aren't activated due to insufficient responses from other buyers.

I just purchased a full set of high tea with pastry lunch which comes with a further RM5 voucher for the next visit at The Tea Republic for only RM11 (yup, hard to believe considering that it is located in the Bangsar Shopping Centre).

I've never been to The Tea Republic and I figured that RM11 is a small price to pay to sample the food, atmosphere and services offered there.

WeBuy is currently running The RM203,000 WeBUY Community Giveaway Project  where every person matters as they are offering cash giveaways to be credited into your cash wallets if the number people who buy the deal (which is on 100% discount --- yes, it costs you ABSOLUTELY NOTHING --- it's FREE!!!). This system is based on breaking a number of tiers in order to activate the cash giveaways as more and more people "buy" the deal.

At the present moment as I'm writing, 1572 people have bought the deal which means that the RM5 tier has already been unlocked. As more and more people buy the deal, more money monetary tiers will be unlocked resulting in more money in our respective cash wallets. The number of people targetted to sign up for the deal is 10, 000 which will unlock the maximum tier which will get us all RM20 credited in our cash wallets. There are still 57 days 16 hours 29 minutes and 13 seconds to go as I write this post.

Do yourself a favour and sign up today!

the best credit card deal in town at the moment

I've got a Maybank credit card account that charges me a annual fee which I'm not too happy about. Although I've got nothing on it, i don't want to close the account.  However, I'd rather not pay the annual fee charges (it's bad enough that we have to pay the RM50 service tax on each of our credit cards as required by the goverment).

I've been doing some research on credit card deals and found that the Maybankard 2 cards gives you the best deal at the moment.

These cards come in platinum as well as gold. You get two cards when you sign up : an American Express and a choice of a Mastercard or Visa.

These are offer a lifetime free waiver of annual fees and the current finance charge is only 8.88% per annum which is the lowest finance charged offered in the current market.

You pay only RM50 service tax for BOTH cards instead of RM50 for each card.

On top of that, you get 5% cash back when use your American Express card during the weekends.  There is a limit to the cash back that you can earn though --- it's only up to RM50, but still, it is still savings and it all adds up.

If you're into point collecting, the Maybankard 2 American Express card rewards you with 5X the retail purchase amount spent on the card.

I'm all for saving money and if i can get the same services from the same bank for less money, why not?

I'm kissing my annual fee credit card goodbye and hello, Maybankard 2 cards!!!