Personal Finance 101: Relevance of a water machine and a luxury car.
I saw a very interesting post by one of the Facebook pages which I follow and read periodically. Azizul Azli Ahmad gives many good personal finance tips which makes financial sense too. In Chinese, there’s a saying, “If your head is not big enough, don’t wear such a big hat.” In Malay, it’s “Ukurlah baju dibadan sendiri.”
Wealth is not just about finding more but also spending less
Actually, building up our wealth is not just trying to earn ever higher incomes. Many continue to spend more as they earn more. It should be more of minimizing expenses and in fact this is also why some are able to live a stable and happy life with a lower salary versus some others with higher salary but may be struggling in the final week before salary day…
I stopped paying car instalment 7 years ago
I paid in full after 5 years for my Persona 1.6 Manual and have driven it for the last 12 years. It has recently reached 151,500km. Thus, for the last 7 years, I have an extra RM600 every month which is more than enough for fuel, maintenance and even many extra dinners for my family. How much did I actually save? RM600 x 12 (months) x 7 years = RM50,400. Enough to pay for a totally new Proton Persona today. Haha.
Do I feel inferior versus someone driving a luxury car? I do think their luxury car is more comfortable! I also think someone they look more stylo than me. The only difference though is that I have a water machine at home. I am sure most of my friends driving a luxury car has a water machine at their home too. Haha. Happy earning and saving everyone. Life is ours and not to buy things we do not need to show off to people we do not like.
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