Money Wise

Saving For Sunny Days

Living Within Your Means

Living for the day has its attractions. The fact is, however, that we all would like to enjoy nice long lives. But in order to have nice long lives, we need to be able to support ourselves financially. That means having to save. if you are young now and have just entered the workforce, chances are the temptation to spend all your salary on clothes, eating out, going on holiday, and buying yourself a car will be too strong to resist. Understandably too!

But if you put aside any of your present income, you will not be able to cope with unexpected expenses, and your money will not grow sufficiently to meet your future needs. These include:

Buying your own home:

Chances are, you will want to have your own home. You may need to get a mortgage for it, and will have to pay this off. Then, once you move in, you will have monthly bills for electricity, water, Astro, etc, plus also food and laundry to take care of..

Starting a family:

When you get married, if your spouse is also earning and both of you pool your resources, your expenses may go down a little. But having children increases it dramatically again! You need to plan for: your gynae’s bills during pregnancy, basics for baby (milk, food, diapers, clothes, cot, car seat, etc). And then comes their education.

Education:

Today, everything from playschool to university carries a significant price tag. A large number of Malaysians are completing their tertiary education overseas, and you need only to go to the websites of some of better known universities in Australia, Britain and the US to get some idea of what the fee structure is like. To cope with their expected education expenses, more and more new parents are starting an education plan for their children from the day they are born.

Retirement:

No matter how much you love your job, you will have to retire some day. This may seem like something too far in the future to worry about now, but sooner you start saving for retirement, the more comfortable it will be. What’s more, advances in medicine and public health mean you are likely to live longer than your mother or grandmother, hence will need more money thatn they to see you through your golden years.

Emergencies:

All of us will have unexpected expenses in the course of our lives. This could be anything from needing a new roof for the house to medical expenses or a job layoff and sudden loss of income. You need to put aside for these emergency to avoid going into debt.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 at 10:45 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.