Thursday, 22 January 2015

Wahid's three suggestions

Rocky quoted Minister in the PM's department Abdul Wahid Omar verbatim on the guy's thoughts following the 2015 Budget reboot here,

Revised Bajet 2015: We won't see twin deficits, says Wahid Omar


I'm actually only interested in the part where Wahid suggested three things a Malaysian like myself can do to help the country in this challenging time.

I already know about the other points that he made in the statement.

Okay, here were the three things suggested by Wahid as well as myself in the context of those suggestions.

1. Live within your means.
Optimise your expenditure. Keep spending if you can afford it.  Dont borrow if you dont have the capacity to repay.

I think I have always live like that.
I mostly use my credit cards just for filling up petrol.
I am actually quite frugal.
The only time I occassionally really spend more than I can afford is whenever I feel that I need to prove to that Chinese guy who sometimes dates me that I can pay for our dinner.
The guy always takes me to expensive places but it's nice to once in a while pay for the dinner instead of letting him do so.

However, this is actually my usual dinner at home whenever I got back late from work like last night,


- my landlady's leftover rice
- two fried eggs
- two cili padi
- half an onion
- a tomato, cut into four pieces
- kicap (soy sauce)

If my landlady doesn't leave me any rice, I usually just cook maggi.

2. Invest domestically
With the strong dollar, defer your overseas investments. In fact, this is probably a good time to bring back your monies from abroad to realise some gains. 

I don't have money to invest either here in this country or abroad.
I therefore think this one was really meant for the rich towkeys (including Malay ones).
The most I can think of in this context is for me not to go traveling overseas unless it's for work.
Anyway, I have not travelled overseas since two years ago.
Visiting my relatives in Singapore doesn't count, okay.

3. Think positive

These are challenging times. But we are clear on what we need to do to ride through this period of market volatility. Just follow through & do the right things. InsyaAllah, God willing, we will succeed. 


I am trying to think positive but at the moment it's quite hard.
Especially with all those crooks trying to kick out the good guys at PMO.
I hope the good guys win, so that I can be positive again about the country. Those few good guys at the PMO are the ones who still give me some hope about the administration of DS Najib Razak.

12 comments:

  1. Perhaps they should bar family of politicians from both divide from travelling overseas. That would reduce the forex exchange needs quite dramatically. Try telling someone living on RM1000 a mth with 3 kids to feed to 'spend within their means'. Love how these people make policies without bother getting to the ground to see and meet people. Gone are the days of policies makers that know what they are doing instead of outsourcing it to consultants.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't have to tell someone earning 1000 a month to spend within their means because they do. How to get credit card if you earn 1000 a month?

      Delete
  2. Annie, good.

    But other than just tightening belt, are there other things that we as a nation could do?

    There certainly are, and you can boil them down to these few words: OPTIMISE PRODUCTIVITY OF NATIONAL RESOURCES.

    Here are the 'low hanging fruits' of national resources that the government can straightaway address:

    1. Land. There are lots of land which could be put to productive use, yet they are not. infact many of them are titled lands (ie owned by someone).

    2. People. Put the fellas who can produce in charge of organisation or projects. These people must be business minded economists, managers at heart, and experienced. Take oil palm cultivation; there are lots of cos listed on the Bursa into it; but when the effectiveness of how these cos use capital is studied, you can see wide discrepancies. This applies whether it is a small business of less than 10 employees or the entire nation.

    The above can be quickly done if there is political will. But for Malaysia, I think not. And so do the great majority of international investment managers, probably including those from KWSP and Khazanah.

    Thus the withdrawal of foreign funds which runs down our forex reserves and currency exchange rate.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It is only the so called intelectual urbanites that always grumbles about the high costs of living cos by their own doing.The rural folks life is as usual as they are used to buy what they need and not what they want..To the urbanites it is the other way round,they are so materialistic and landed themselves into financial burden.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anon 9:49

      Agree 101%.

      People who grumble about cost of living... especially RISING cost of living... forget that their quality of life also rising. Smartphone more expensive than feature phone. Astro more expensive than FREE TV (RTM, TV3, NTV7). Fibre more expensive than ADSL, and ADSL more expensive than NO INTERNET. (Use public wifi lah!)

      Don't want cost of living to go up, keep your quality of life from going up! If you want more, you pay more lah.

      The tricks is... you pay more only when you make more. Then your quality of life and cost of living will rise in sync. Simple choice: MAKE more money or SPEND less money.

      Delete
  4. Wah, so frugal.You need to eat more meat, Annie.

    ReplyDelete

  5. You cannot listen only to one Bro, adinda Ms Annie.

    4. Abdul Wahab says:
    Caring for your health is cheaper than heath care, as medical costs continue to rise.

    Eat more quality food and try to reduce/ forgo the rice.
    ( investlah in more expensive fruit and greens )

    5 Abdul Wahub says:
    Spend today don't even count, for any our family in need .. who'll surely be there when you are down and out in future or dying


    Haji M Zin
    Alor Gajah DPH

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 6. Abdul Wahub says:

      Invest in equipment, think positive, and go for domestic fish . . . until we sort out 1MDB ok?

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV50r0NXLBY

      Delete

  6. Selupa cekap sama olang ,kalau ayam mahat jangan makan ayam lea aa . Boloh punya olang pon bolih pikir loor rr .

    Mau tanya itu LKS lah , apa mau buat maa aa .

    ReplyDelete
  7. If you take raw onion, you should include petai. Buy some good quality ones on your next trip to Cameron with that Chinese guy.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Can you remember remember my name
    As I flow through your life
    A thousand oceans I have flown
    And cold spirits of ice
    All my life
    I am the echo of your past

    I am returning the echo of a point in time
    Distant faces shine
    A thousand warriors I have known
    And laughing as the spirits appear
    All your life
    Shadows of another day

    And if you hear me talking on the wind
    You've got to understand
    We must remain
    Perfect strangers

    I know I must remain inside this silent well of sorrow

    A strand of silver hanging through the sky
    Touching more than you see
    The voice of ages in your mind
    Is aching with the dead of the night
    Precious life (your tears are lost in
    Falling rain)

    And if you hear me talking on the wind
    You've got to understand
    We must remain
    Perfect strangers

    ReplyDelete
  9. Invocation against envious despicable arrogant crooks . . .

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkkk9U8GtU8

    ReplyDelete