It is been quite awhile since my last update on this blog. Maybe because all my plans on money saving that I laid down in this blog has work marvelously that I do not even bother to look for other money savings tactics that I can update into this blog. :)
Sorry for all my readers that long for updates on my blog. However, I am still open to answer questions about how to lead life into debt free through email. I love to share my ideas for those who looking for ways to improve their financial life.
For those whom had read through my diaries on how I reached a financial haven, let me update all of you on what my tips have done to my life.
Money tracking
I still keep track of my money flow. As I highlighted earlier, I used my phone to write notes on money flow which I can transferred to Excel file anytime I have free time. I used to transfer the information to Excel daily since the file can help to calculate my daily budget which I direly need to make sure my daily spending do not exceed my budget. But after 1 year plus of doing that, subconsciously my mind consistently maintain its daily budget spending even though I do not calculate them daily. Now, I only update the Excel once every 2 weeks but so far, none of the update showed me that I spend more than I can afford. I guess once the spending discipline burnt into my habit, my spending is automatically tamed.
AKPK
It has been 1 year and 8 months now that I hold account with AKPK. I received bank statements every month and it showed very consistent reduction in my loan to bank. AKPK maintain paying all the banks the money as indicated in my AKPK agreement. Those bank that will send updates every months through statements are AEON, RHB, AmBank, EON, Hong Leong, HSBC and Standard Chartered. All these banks, except AEON, showed in their statement that they charge very low interest rates which the monthly payment have no problem to handle. Thus, my loan balance keep on reducing every month. Only AEON still charging 18% interest rate and the loan balance keep on increasing because the monthly payment is too low to handle interest rate. I approached AKPK councellor on this and they tell me to just ignore the bank statement and the interest rate since once AKPK tracking showed that they have paid AEON full amount, they will get AEON to waive all the unnecessary charges.
Maybank is one of the bank which do not send monthly statement. But, they keep on updating my account online through Maybank2U. From the online account, it showed that AKPK payment were paid every month and amazingly, Maybank did not change any finance charge at all. Seems like they gave the best deal through AKPK so far.
Other bank such as BSN, Citibank and Alliance will not send monthly statements but they will send yearly statement showing how my loan balance is reduce upon payment from AKPK. All these updates kept me sleeping like a baby at night knowing that all my bank loans will some day hit zero and I will be debt free.
House Loan
From all my surveys online on housing loan, I know that my current CiMB home loan is not the best. I was undergoing their locking period for 5 years, so I cannot changed my house loan to other bank without penalties. However, that will not stop me from trying to reduce the interest that I am paying them.
CiMB offered to lower my monthly payment due to lower BLR. I know that this will not do me any good since lower monthly payment will increase tenure and increase total interest that I paid to them. So, since my previous monthly payment were already budgeted, I kept paying the previous monthly payment amount even though they told me that I can pay less now.
I also withdraw 10% from my KWSP (EPF) to settle some of the house loan. This is very important since having lower loan balance means lower interest per month. In long run, even though I did not get the 4.5% of dividend for my KWSP, that money will help to lower my house loan balance thus lower my interest paid to bank. I might not gain money, but most importantly I do not lose too much money too.
My Personal Life
My personal life have been such a wonderful experience since. I do not afraid of money anymore since my discipline have tackle all my bad spending money habit. Everytime I want to spend on something, I survey for best offer. I have always satisfied with all my spending since I know that all my spendings is only on best offer around.
Recently, I add air conditioning to my house since I cannot tolerate anymore with the high temperature the world is getting to. I also got new handphone since my old one already damage after 3 years of its service. The best thing, these spending were taken out from my savings money which was well budgeted for the spending. I budgeted $1,200 for aircond and get $950 deal. I budgeted $1,000 for handphone and end up getting one for $500. The money savings ideas is so burnt into my mind that I constantly able to see all potential good deals.
I was sent to Germany last months due to work. EUR is 5 times higher than MYR. I never imagine how I could survive there if I was flooded with my money problem. However, 3 weeks there had been amazing experience. I maintained a healthy budget and come back to Malaysia without having any money problem and even manage to save a lot of money. I make sure that I only spent what my company supports me and very less of my personal money flow to EUR. 3 weeks there without spending money in Malaysia actually saved my budget since I came back with 3 weeks of budget never been used.
I maintain 10% of my salary to go to ASB and a few month later, my savings will reach 6 months of my monthly salary. That will be enough for my emergency fund and should be enough for me to take up ASB - Overdraft. I hope that ASB-OD will work as a tool for me to further speed up my savings for my retirement. If so, I reached my short term goal of having 6 months salary of emergency fund and I am on a good direction of reaching my long term goal for retirement plan. As for my medium term goal for debt free, no worries at all since AKPK will be there to help me reach that goal within the next 3 years.
Again, I would like to invite all my readers to take action today, changed your habit and change your life to a better, most beautiful experience of freedom from financial prison. All you have to do is to ACT NOW!! Best of luck.
