Chit-Chat on Saving

Hi. I'm back. It has been a long and busy week. OK. I would like to write a bit about savings. Just a chit-chat.

I started working in October 2007 with a basic salary less than RM2K. Plus all the allowance and mileage claims from outstation work, I've managed to rake some additional income which sometimes could exceed my basic salary. However, being very young and lack of financial knowledge, I've successfully managed to save NOTHING. Hahaa..

This would be quite a regret later in my life but it is not too late when it comes to learn to get back on the healthy financial track.

I have acquired some debt after my marriage and spent the first year trying to get it all settled. This is my second year, and I could say, I have managed to get over the obstacles. It is not quite easy and it is not that hard as long as you know how to do it.

I'm not going to teach you how to save money right now but I could share with you what have changed since I have developed the saving habit.

• I feel less worried that my car is going to broke down in the middle of the road or highway. It is an old Nissan Sentra and I've been broke before when the car kena masuk bengkel.
• I feel more interested about money. Interested to learn on how it works, how to get more, how to save more and a thousand how lagi lahh..
• I sleep better.
• I'm more keen to help others in need, give sedekah and appreciate what I have.
• I feel liberated. It's like I could do whatever I want. *Not quite yet. Maybe after I have saved enough for my Emergency Fund - which I'll write about later.

 That's all for now. I need to get back home and cook for berbuka. Hee..I'm a great cook by the way.

Selamat Berbuka. Thanks for reading.

Expense Tracking - Categorization

Hi. I'm back. OK. Just to continue about tracking your expenses which is the first step in managing your money. I'm not going to talk about budgeting because that step should come later. It is important to get the feeling first before going deeper.

For me, expense tracking is the most crucial step that nurture your discipline in managing your money. If you don't have the spirit or feel the urge to know where your money goes, then there are very few reasons you should feel compelled to manage your money.

When should you start tracking your expense? You better start now.

Firstly, you need to a big piece of paper, or a small notebook, or an Excel template, whichever suits your fancy. Start with today's spending and categorize it accordingly. Jot down, or key in where each single ringgit goes (or even cents if you are a freak like me) in it. From your karipap breakfast to your cigarettes, from your gula-gula to your toilet charge, from your tambang LRT to your goreng pisang in the evening. *If you are working in an office using a PC or laptop, tracking your expense during the working hour will make you look like a very really so hardworking staff. Hee..

And then, give each item a category. For example, your Breakfast, Lunch, goreng pisang and Dinner can be categorized as Eating or Makan-Makan. Up to you laa kawan. This should be applied to all other thing such as tambang LRT which you can categorize as Transportation.

The reason I love using Excel to track my expense is that you can use the filter function only see the exact category you wish. I've talked about the Excel template which I've used here.

Next, keep on doing this for 3 days. You can update your tracking daily or weekly but from my experience, to develop a good habit, buat hari-hari laa kawan. After 3 days you can already see how much you are spending on major categories such as your food, transportation costs and cigarettes. Keep on tracking your expenses for a month and you could have a data on the percentage of your money spent on these categories as well as other categories such as Entertainment, Sewa Rumah, Parents etc. After 3 months, you can have a very good sense of how well are you segregating your money to those categories.

This will be a very good basis, or kayu pengukur for you to allocate you money when you learn about budgeting. I've been tracking my expenses since 28th August 2011 and I could say I've got a very good data on where my money goes. If I can do it, then of course you pun boleh juga.

The next step after you have completed the first challenge of tracking your expense is to stop wasting your money. Let's talk about that some other time. Just a summary of my rantings:

• Tracking your expense will nurture the discipline in managing your money.
• Start to track your money TODAY!
• Categorize your expenses so you could know where your money goes.
• Keep on tracking until you could see a trend or know the percentage of your money spent on each category.
• Stop wasting money.

Thanks for reading.

Expense Tracking - Knowing is Empowering

The first thing and the most important step in managing your money is to know your money. Kenali duit anda. Berapa banyak yang anda dapat hasil dari kerja anda atau sponsorship papa dan mama. Berapa banyak yang anda spend and on what.

Kesilapan terbesar yang aku buat sebelum ini adalah not knowing where or what have I spent my money on. I've been earning quite a lot from my work in the early days but the lack of knowledge on spending wisely and saving left me with an empty pocket pada masa yang memerlukan - masa dah tergedik-gedik nak kahwin. Hee.

That is why I started to track my expenses. Every cents of it, every single day. Sekarang dah 2 tahun lebih and I've already got quite a good data to analyze my spending pattern. From the analysis you can see where you money goes and actually do something about it - make better decision on how to spend your hard-earned money. You can control it only when you know it.

Aku rasa the best way to track where your money goes is by using Excel. It can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. There's a number of good templates you can get from the web. But after using a few of them, I'd say the one from Vertex42 is the best. You can visit their page here.

I've made some major tweaks to the template that I've downloaded and suit it for my own use. Yang aku suka is that the categories can be customized ikut suka hati jadi there's a lot of flexibility to suit to your needs.

They also have a lot of other good templates so please godek-godek sendiri. *I'm returning them a favor for the awesome template I stumbled upon 2 years ago.

I'm not going to suggest other tracking method since this is the only method that I've use thus far and it's super effective. Hahaa.

So, what's your favorite expense tracking method?

Introduction.

Hi.

My name is Ahmad.

I'm just an ordinary guy. And I'm writing here just to share my thoughts, experiences and stories.

Aku tergerak untuk berkongsi dengan semua about what I've been through for the past few years especially on my journey to become financially stable. 

Sebagai seorang budak Melayu from an ordinary family, I have to admit agak sukar mendapatkan guidance or tips from people around myself on how to manage your money properly. Nobody is really willing to share with others, probably takut diejek or downright ridiculed. And everything spirals downwards. Aku rasa semua orang pun ada masalah yang sama.

I started to realize that I've been managing my money poorly the moment I've set my mind on getting married back in 2011. Thus, the journey started.

And now I'll share everything with you with hope that you'll get some benefit out of it. I've read somewhere that the journey is better to be walked with others and sharing will make it a lot easier and fun. I'm giving it a try.

Dan kebanyakan blog di luar sana banyak yang provide tips separuh hati made me feel challenged to share with you what's I've been through tanpa prejudis.

Aku cuma budak Melayu yang biasa-biasa. I'm not an expert. I'm just Ordinary.

Let's walk together. Jom jalan sama-sama.

Ahmad Ordinary.