Auntie Fatin just finished her first degree from UM. She’ll be known as Malaysian Geologist very soon. It might be soon enough that Abiy keep on brainwashing her on how to treat money since her very first paycheck, almost every single day. It’s not because Abiy want to membebel that much, but it’s part of the wasiat from his dad (arwah last puasa) that he needs to fulfill.
I still remember the moment when I graduated from UTP. Just like other graduates, I keep on dreaming what kind of lifestyle I can get after working; hottest gadget, branded handbags & nice blouse.
inderal
You have your own pocket money to spend (tak payah tunggu duit scholar/duit mak ayah); which I already have long list of items to buy from my very first salary. It doesn’t take so long when I realized, ‘eh, mana duit ni’ by the end of the first 2-3 months working.
Do you face the same problem?
Until I read “Rich Dad Poor Dad” book (I bet most of you must have read it already). The biggest lesson I learnt: “Don’t work for money”. That time I’m not surprised with the term “Let the money work for you”, because that’s mostly been abused by unit trust/mutual fund/insurance agents to get your money invested under their referrals. Luckily I’m not one of them.
Though I first stumbled with the term “Don’t work for money” back in 2005, only recently I really appreciate the meanings behind the statement. And these are some of them:
Work with Passion
Work with passion is not just about securing your dreamed job in a dreamed company. To me, it takes more than that. Some of them can be:
1. Don’t care much about salary in the beginning of career. Rather, focus on building your expertise. Most companies spent millions of dollar to train their staff. Grab that opportunity!
2. Don’t compare your basic salary with other companies when you first started. This can de-motivate you & lose focus. After all, if you think you are too good for the company, why stay?
3. You company is not your ATM machine. If you think so, you tend to take advantage of the company for pure monetary reason whenever you short of cash (e.g. minta outstation etc).
Gosh, I think HR people will love me for these!
On the other hand, if you have your own business, focus on how to serve your customer than thinking too much on sales/ profits. Obviously you want to make the most money out of your customer but also more obvious than that (which business people tend to forget the most) is you are not getting any money if your customer doesn’t like your business at all.
I can’t stand my sad feeling when “kena pancung” makan at our kedai makan and promise ourselves not to have dinner/ lunch in that shop ever again. I bet this must’ve happen to you too. If you are running a business (MLM or anything), I’m begging you please don’t make your customer feel like a victim. Stop pitching your customer to death, they need fresh oxygen to breadth!
Start Modest Living
If you can recall, the “Rich Dad” used to live in very old house with rotten chair in the beginning of his business live. On the other hand, the “Poor Dad” has been living quite comfortably in the beginning. However, these two situations changed all together by the end of their lives. I like to relate this with rabbit & turtle race.
We don’t have imported cars or even high end local made like most of our colleagues do. Instead, we prefer to use MyVi 1.0 (semput habis kalau naik bukit). I don’t know why, but it seems to be so funny till our makciks & kampung’s friend keep on making it a joke “hah, engineer pun pakai MyVi 1.0 je?”
We personally believe that the first 5-15 years of career is critical. People get married, blessed with kids and most probably start thinking where to settle down within this period. Only then, you can have clear direction where to go and start spending whenever you see fit the purpose (than just mere emotion).
Therefore, as much as possible, we try to “detach” our self from money in this period. And therefore, we try our best to avoid huge financial commitment & keep our expenses as low as possible. This kind of assurance can give us good sleep at night not worrying our investment value fluctuating that much.
Though we don’t know if we can reach the “Rich Dad”status anytime sooner or not, I still think it worth pursuing.
Stop Living Cheap
Living cheap is not the same as saving money from useless stuff. Rather, it’s about limiting your mind by the amount of money you have. How many times you’d visited a bookstore and find a great book that you’ve been waiting for life! However, you find the price is not cheap enough that you shy away from reading the book till the end.
At this juncture, you only consider the face price of the book (RM50) which I think you should consider the value you’ll get by investing that RM50.
For example, everyone is talking about wanting higher return from investment. The truth is I find most of them are not willing to invest in themselves first hand. They are not willing to spend hundreds of ringgit educating themselves about the topics but surprisingly have no problem letting someone they don’t know thousands of ringgit to manage their money (through unit trust kind of things); which still have no guarantee & minimum control from your side.
It has no difference like buying a house. The brick & mortar, toilet bowl & the painting cost is not that expensive. With cheap Bangladesh & Indonesian labor, a housing developer can build a house for only RM50K. Including the land cost, probably can reach RM100K. But why you are willing to pay >RM250K?
Every time you are paying your car loan or home mortgage, you are not paying for the steel or wall. Instead, you are paying for the convenient to move around (senang balik kampung kalau ada kereta) and for your own comfort to sleep at night (takda la nak menumpang rumah orang). The same concept applies for other value-added things.
So don’t be cheap on yourself on thing that can change your life. Seek on value and not cheap things again. Kalau cheap & have value definitely is the best choice la. stretch your thinking a little bit once in a while cos only then, you’ll discover the other side of the coin.
Am I membebel too much already? Need to stop now…
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