WELCOME NOTE
Where Is My Money? 💰
Hi! Jia Han here and I’m taking over this round as David is occupied making sure all of us are coping well with the third MCO 🥲. I hope you are pulling through MCO 3.0 just fine as well 💪.
In this week’s newsletter, we are going talk about Personal Finance (all about money, money and MONEY! 🤑), and in part of enriching the communities we are in, we wanted to share a couple of things that some of us in the company do to manage our finances. Perhaps it is only fitting if I start off with a little brief on myself before we go on.
At work 🤓, I’m helping the company spearhead new projects and product developments. I deal with different teams in the company, and I do spend a fair amount of time dealing with clients as well. Work is intense 😫, and I typically have very little time to mend my finances down to the detail.
Outside work however, I am a broke millennial 😵💸 digging around the internet for money hacks. Be it stacking cashbacks and rebates from credit cards/e-Wallets, to robo-investing and cryptocurrencies, whatever you name it, this boy right here has DONE it all! 💰💰💰 (show me the moneyyyy~).
So today I will be sharing with you some of my tips and tricks on how I optimize my earnings/spendings on a monthly basis. By no means do I expect you to follow this exactly, but I do hope you get to learn something new here!
CORNER TALK
Jia Han's rule of thumb to savings
The 50/20/30 Rule
There’s always dues to pay, and I make sure that every month I will be paying myself first before I can use my remaining balance to pay for anything else unplanned for. I maintain some form of Envelope System for this, and automate most of my expenses and savings wherever I can. Here’s how they are allocated:
- 50% – Fixed Expenses (Rent, Insurance, Maintenance etc.)
- 20% – Personal Savings/Investments
- 30% – Discretionary (Food, Entertainment, Gifts etc.)
Optimize and Maximize
After paying my credit cards, my cards will be used to maintain my e-wallet balances. These are just a few strategies I use to maximize the usage of them:
- Stacking Cashbacks where possible (BigPay -> Boost -> Fave)
- Offer to pay the bill first, and split the bill later (I use Splitwise for this)
- Dine-in at restaurants that are powered with e-Wallet payments
The loyalty points and rebates you’ll get from these 3 strategies will go a super long way. It’s in fact funded me a lot of free meals and cool gadgets! 🤭*runs and hides from colleagues and friends*🏃♂️💨
The Big Guns
The above is just a guiding compass for me to control my month-to-month spendings. I’ll be sharing with you 4 of my biggest categories on my budget and what I’ve done to optimize/manage them.
#1 – Home Maintenance
I live in a condo with my family in KL, and as a son freshly minted into the workforce, I offered to pay the maintenance fees and sinking fund for the house. Quite a lofty sum to be honest, and I’m truly blessed to be able to weather through it in my first year working.
Recently though, my condo implemented JaGaApp, and there’s our In-App Payment feature to allow residents to pay their maintenance fees through the app. It saves me so much time now!
How In-App Payment works in Jia Han’s Condo:
- Open JaGaApp
- Click on Billings and select the invoice you need to pay
- Pay via your e-Wallets/credit cards
- Sit back and wait for your next invoice! (easy like kacang putih 😂)
(P/S: If you’re wondering why your condo/neighborhood isn’t using this yet, speak to your JMB/RA today and share this with them. You don’t know what you are missing out until you try it. Not trying to blow our own horn here but it’s hella convenient to pay for your maintenance fees right on your mobile)
#2 – Insurance
My mom used to be an insurance agent, and since young, she always made sure I was fully insured with all kinds of covers. Since I started working though, she’s been giving me more autonomy on what kind of covers I should go for.
I happily settled with my mom’s life insurance agent for life and medical, but nowadays I’ve been using a platform called PolicyStreet. And guess what? You can pay with e-Wallets too!
PolicyStreet is a platform that allows a user to compare quotes for different insurance packages. Think of them like your insurance agent that sends you quotes like:
- Motor
- Personal Accident
- Road Tax Renewals
…and more!
All done in minutes! Super easy and rewarding process, especially when I get extra cashback/points on my e-Wallets! (You’re welcome 😬)
#3 – Savings
To be honest, I do not store a lot of my savings in my bank account. Most of my savings are deposited in an app called StashAway. If you haven’t heard about it, it is a robo-investing app that automatically manages your funds in a portfolio of investments, tailored to your risk appetite.
What it does:
- Invests your money for you
- Automates your savings and investments
- Rebalances your portfolio by market conditions
What I found after using StashAway for 2 Years
- Savings grew a lot as it is automated
- Seamless Deposits/Withdrawals
- Yields have been great! 📈
Good news for those who are curious to know more about Stashaway though! Our friend, Wong Wai Ken (Country Manager of StashAway) is providing an exclusive deal for all JaGaApp users. Newly signed up users via this link will be entitled to a 50% discount❗😲 from StashAway’s management fees (which is already low to begin with).
Aaaand if you would like to do your due diligence and learn more about StashAway before making the decision, feel free to sign up for one of their upcoming talks from their website! Some of which will be covered are:
- Finding out your net worth
- Listing and quantifying your investment goals
- Intro to the 5 main asset classes
- 4 Questions to always ask yourself before investing
- Timing the market – is that the right thing to do
#4 – Investments
As a 26-year old with adequate savings, I have a higher than average risk profile, and tend to delve into risker instruments. Cryptocurrencies stuck out to me for a few reasons, mainly:
- How secured and cheap it is to conduct peer-to-peer transactions
- How programmable the tech can be (especially in DeFi – Decentralized Finance)
- Borderless and trustless programs that redefines banking
While I do not expect you to understand cryptocurrencies just from this segment, a good place to start getting yourself some crypto is Luno, one of the few regulated cryptocurrency exchanges in Malaysia. I started off using Luno, and later on delved into the deeper parts of the space a.k.a. DeFi.
My Personal Opinion on Luno
- Super beginner-friendly
- Fees are affordable
- Quality newsletters for their users to educate you on the crypto scene
It doesn’t take a lot to sign up as well! If you are keen to give it a try, signing up with the promo code “LNJAGA25M” will get you an extra RM25 worth of Bitcoin for your first RM100 purchase in crypto.
Ending Note
And that’s a wrap! For the first part of our Personal Finance series at least. I hope you’ve gotten something out of this read. 🙂 If you liked what you’ve read, do look forward to our second part of the Personal Finance topic in our next newsletter in June!
We will also be bringing in our exclusive collaborations with our partners from OxWhite and Zalora! So stay tuned!
Until then, stay home, and stay safe! 🙏🏻
POLLING CORNER ✔️❌
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YAY, MORE FREEBIES FOR YOU! 🎉
Here is another treat for you! We work closely with interesting partners to make community living better, and more convenience! If you need to buy anything, join Shopee 6.6 sales for better discount!
For New Shopee Users:
Use code NJAGA66 to get RM15 Off with no min spend.
Promo code valid until 6th June 2021
For Existing Shopee Users:
Use code JAGA66EC to get 15% Coins Cashback with a min. spend of RM66 capped at 990 coins.
Promo code valid until 5th June 2021
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