4 positive habits to improve my financial savings in 2023

Assalamualaikum

Due to several factors occurring globally since a few years back uhuk uhuk covid uhuk uhuk, it was not a surprise when the economy was predicted to decline in 2023. Apart from the deadly infection and rising inflation, the global warming in general affected the production of most stuff as well. And now we’re saddled with price increase everywhere, for everything.

Even my occasional guilty pleasure, the mini Coca Cola, has increased by 20 cents now huhu

The impacts of inflation are hard on working community who had their own monthly income, so you could say it is even harder for a jobless bum like me, who sometimes do small odd jobs every now and then for a small chunk of payment. Yet, it’s a wonder how it never stopped me from buying stuff. Whyyyyy do I keep spending money as if my father is Jeff Bezos lol 

And so…let’s revamp our financial habit for this new year of 2023. Though we’ve literally entered the third week of January, resolutions relating to finance are evergreen. So it is never too late to have a new financial resolution in any point of the year haha

1) Consistently save a particular colour of money notes

I have done this before and it worked GREATLY, so you bet I will do it again.

How?

I’m bringing back my Green Savings (Tabung Hijau) from my days as a student. 

Remember how I used to save the green RM5 notes in a bottle before and refrained myself from ever spending it until I was satisfied with the accumulated amount? Yes. I am doing that again.

It's my third time starting this collection again after 1.0 in diploma and 2.0 during degree hehe

It was a bit hard now since I had finished my studies and no longer receive the educational loan, plus I am also not yet employed. Hence, there was no steady inflow of money for me to receive and spend that would result in me getting more of the green notes. However, I do try my best to save any RM5 I get from whatever money that I could legally obtain 😂

This saving method is definitely suitable for people of any walk of life, including students. If RM5 is too high for some people, they could also save the blue notes with lower value (RM1). Meanwhile for those who have more income and more means to save, they could start on Red Savings for RM10 notes, Orange for RM20, Turquoise for RM50, and Purple for RM100.

Honestly, it does not really matter what colour of money notes we save, the keyword is, CONSISTENT. And also, DISCIPLINE. It is a struggle refraining myself from using the money but it was also WORTH IT to see stacks of green money in my secret bottle.

2) Separate and invest

With today’s technology where we can go cashless and spend money through alternatives such debit cards, e-wallets, and online banking, the risk of me going utterly broke is VERY high. I once went to a festival in UUM campus with only $10 planning “I will only spend this much today”, only to end up paying for $7 more of grilled lamb through QRpay using my phone.

So much for cutting down on my spending 🙈

Hence, it is crucial to separate the money accordingly and keep the remainders somewhere faaaaaar away from our savings account 😂 And so far, I have placed my savings from the above Green Savings in two places, Amanah Hartanah Bumiputera (AHB) through Maybank and in Tabung Haji. 

Both amounts so far are not much. But I'm still glad I have that much saved by myself 😁

Some people said Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB) is better in terms of ROI. But AHB is easier for me in terms of zakat since it will be managed by AHB itself, unlike ASB's that we have to calculate ourselves. Plus, AHB’s additional investments could be done through Maybank’s website which is also convenient for me. But just you wait. When I have the chance, I’ll definitely buy ASB’s shares in bulk haha

3) Side jobs for additional income

This is rather normal nowadays though it shouldn’t have been as most households could no longer sustain themselves on single income. I think a budget that can feed a family of 6 before might have been able to feed only 4 people now. Sad thing seriously. Kudos to the people supporting their big families because it’s hard for me to even support myself huhu

Luckily our current technology makes it possible for us to get more side jobs that involve less physical labours. Instead, we mainly need a smartphone, good internet connection, and potential products.

I, for one, have registered as an Affiliate for Shopee and Involve Asia. The tasks are rather simple. Just convert a product link into personalised affiliate link and promote it to people. Any purchase made by other people through that link would award us some commissions. But I do not have much followings and influence on social media so the links expired just like that lmao

Luckily, I still have my blog. So there were a few chances of me gaining some income through my writing. Big thanks to the people who always visit my blog because their traffic help generated some dollars in Google Adsense. The money is slow to accumulate as it is considered as passive income, but I’m generally just glad because at least it’s better than getting nothing ✨

I also have my online craft shop on Instagram~

If you’ve read my entries about quilling art lately, that’s because I’m an experienced quilling artist of 8 years and would like to share my knowledge with others. I do accept commissions through my Instagram so if you’re looking for a unique gift for special someone or want to spruce up your space with colourful paper arts, hit me up okies 😉

4) Have a specific goal to save

I. Am. A. Bad. Procrastinator.

Sometimes, when I have something I want to do, I’d overthink stuff about how to do it until I finally got overwhelmed anddddd lost my motivation. Like that time I learned how to draw, what were needed for it, how should I go about making a sketch and everything, then I doubted myself if I would ever achieve it, and finally I gave up and said, “Let’s do it later.”

It’s the same with financial planning.

I’d think of saving xxx amount of money and already plan ahead on how I should do it. Then my self-doubts barged in and I began thinking “What if I need the money now? For this and that?” So I eventually put it off with “Let’s save when we have more money later.”

Do I actually have that more money later? Not really lol

So there’s a need for an additional intervention to help the procrastinator me set my path straight.

For that, I've been using the online calculators in Savings Calculator’s page to get a clearer insight of what I need to do. They have two easy-to-use calculators to help us to set our Savings Goal:

“How Much” - It estimates the amount of money we should save each month based on our targeted duration. We just need to input the amount that we wished to save, the current amount we have in our savings, and how long will we try to keep.

The interest rate can be changed according to each country we're in or banks we're using

So let’s say I have RM250 now and I’m trying to save RM2000 within one year, I would have to save almost RM145 each month. Quite reasonable.

“How Long” - It estimates the months that would be taken to get our desired savings based on our planned monthly deposits. It requires the amount that we’re targeting, our currently saved amount, and how much monthly deposits we are willing to make.

So if I want to get the same savings of RM2000 but would make a monthly deposit of RM50, I would achieve my goal in almost 3 years later… it sounds soooo long huhu

To be honest, I preferred the “How Much” calculator more. Since it emphasised on “WHEN” we want to achieve the goal, it has this intense compelling force that “If you want this much money in a short amount of time, then you MUST save this amount every month. No excuses! 😡"

Whereas the “How Long” calculator is based on our willingness to deposit monthly and me, being weak, would put the lowest amount possible. So, when it said my goal would take YEARSSSS to be met, I felt discouraged and the procrastinator in me would think, “It’s only a small amount, and since it would take years to finish anyway, why not just use the money now? 😈"

Then the goal would never be met because I would keep stalling to save the money. Gosh. Such bad financial attitude lol

Therefore, the “How Much” calculator would be the go-to for me. As an easily-distracted person, slight pressure is always needed to keep me in check so I won’t forget my goals 😂

These methods have worked great so far to help me get by. Plus, it's a relief I can still live rent-free in my parents home so the spendings I need to do are relatively low. Nevertheless, hopefully I would get a job soon so I could increase my savings and better prepare for the challenging economy in the future 

Pray for me 😆

Thank you for reading
Bye and Assalamualaikum.