A new level of Frugality

Frugality in Kuala Lumpur has just gone one level deeper.  A saving of about $550 monthly, a 2 hours exercise sessions for FREE and an opportunity to explore natures within the city has just been proven recently with just ONE simple ACT !  As everything goes, there is some trade off or 'risk' too ...

Its Cycling To Work !

Mathew was a guy who suffers from a terrible 24.3% inflation in 2009.  After he started to follow this blog, he has learned a trick or two to keep things going smoother.  Today he is working as a top executive in a public company but situation hasn't changed much.  He is still in middle level income group.  After his 5 figures income divided by the number of people he has to support, his actual cash-at-hand per person monthly is much less than average personal income ie. $1,500.

Many staffs who worked for Mathew always complains about how tough their lives are and demand a salary increment without extra performance to the company ( while their single income is about $1,500 as well).  Mathew thinks it was obvious his staffs weren't educated well enough in personal finance so he decided to role model to show a point - live frugally.

He used to drive about an hour to work, commute about 22 km and then spent about $10+ for parking fee.  Now instead of doing all that, now

He cycles to work

After the decision was made, he first bought a huge term insurance to cover this temporary needs.  After all, he doesn't want his teaching to his staff to affect his even more important loves to his families.

Once the insurance is approved, he started cycling to work.  It wasn't easy.  He first followed his driving route.  It was dangerous as cars and motorbikes are cruising fast by, ignoring his existence.  But the good thing about cycling . . . is that its both a pedestrian and a driver.  So very soon he found a much shorter and safer path, only 12.1km instead of driving 22 km away.

It took him about one hour to cycle to work.  ( Above 2.5 hours was for walking time )  So practically this doesn't affect any of his schedule at all.  As a matter of fact, this improve the stability of his schedule.  Even when there is an unexpected traffic jam which would cause a normal 1 hour driving to 2-3 hours, his cycling time remains the same as 1 hour.

Mathew also lost 6-8kgs since then, has a much tougher built body now.  He used to pay a lot joining fitness centers etc. but never got the time to actually exercise because he is a workaholic.  Now he HAS TO exercise 2 hours a day.

Mathew also started a health diet to eat more veggie and fruits even before this cycling idea.  Thanks to this cycling exercise, his cycling route passed by a local market at Chow Kit ( one of the oldest and largest wet market in Kuala Lumpur ), he now manages to buy 5 star fruits for only $1, which fuel his breakfast and lunch.

There are much more indirect benefits he received since he started cycling to work.  But as everything goes, there must be some Cons that comes with the Pros.  Should one accident happens during his cycling commute, it would most probably cost him his life.  While he was well aware of the risk, he took action to insure against that rick and he also find ways to improve his own skills and awareness to maximize his own safety.

There are quite a lot of tips and tricks he has developed since he cycles to work.  If you were moved by this article and wanted to try this too . . . be warn ahead, there is some risks involved.  Do spend some time to buy me a cup of coffee so I can share with you whatever those tips and tricks are so that you can minimize your risk and maximize your return / saving / investment.

	Driving	Cycling
Time	1 hour	1 hour
Petrol	$10 per day	$0
Parking	$5 - $10 per day	$0

I am just glad living frugally in a city like Kuala Lumpur has just gone one level deeper.  With tons of other extra benefits and with only ONE major risk that a person who really cares can mitigate easily with skills and experience.

Have you managed to find any innovative ways to cut your expenditure or increase your saving by 25% !?

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Group Term Insurance sample reviews

A few years back, there was only ONE sensible Group Term Insurance which is the one that has been offered by Public Mutual since many years ago. But when I recently look for more choices, I found some nice surprise equivalent offers if not better ...

Etiqa-Public Mutual offers Group Term Life with PA at the following premium

Plan	Table Of Benefits		ANNUAL PREMIUM
	Term Life	Personal Accident
A	50,000	50,000	RM170.00
B	100,000	100,000	RM340.00
C	50,000	N/A	RM152.50
D	100,000	N/A	RM305.00
E	150,000	150,000	RM510.00
F	200,000	200,000	RM680.00
G	150,000	N/A	RM457.50
H	200,000	N/A	RM610.00

in short it is RM 327.87 protection for each RM 1 you pay. The terms are pretty standard as a group term insurance. However, if one day you are no longer holding any of their mutual funds, your coverage will stop automatically too.

MSIG -Stand Chart Individual PA offers RM 492 for 1 million so it is RM 2,032.52 protection per ringgit. But it only covers very specific damages by accident. If you die like Teoh BH or die while detain in ISA, no payment shall be made. Death not caused by accident is NOT covered too.

e-insuran offers quite interestingly easy-to-use build-your-own protection ...

RM 150,000 Life for RM 285

RM 150,000 Personal Accident for RM 142.50

RM 150,000 Critical Illness for RM 307.50

Add all 3 coverage together, 5% tax and RM10 stamp duty would need a premium of RM 773.75 => RM 193.86 coverage per ringgit. But you need at least 5 person to be entitled for this 'group' insurance.

Great Eastern - Public Mutual offers Mutual Life Plus 2,

Plan	Sum Insured	Annual Premium
1	RM100,000	RM 550.00
2	RM200,000	RM 1,100.00
3*	RM300,000	RM 1,650.00
4*	RM400,000	RM 2,200.00
5*	RM500,000	RM 2,750.00

which is RM 181.82 coverage per ringgit.

Group Takaful could be interesting but there is no rate info online.

Sadly speaking, none of the above can be purchased online with a click with credit card. Almost all of them has convoluted, tedious and rather no-service oriented purchase process. There was an old saying ... insurance without agent tried not to pay no matter what, insurance with agents will try to pay for those who claim first.

Please be reminded that Term Insurance has no saving element so its best to adopt buy term invest the rest in your portfolio, else the longer it runs, the less advantage you have.

Also don't forget the trick to become an insurance agent yourself to save the commission to yourself ..

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HLA Guarantee 12.5% saving plan

Hong Leong Assurance offers a plan that guarantees 12.5% return. Basically you only need to save $3,932 for 6 years and you are guaranteed to receive $500 every year starting from the 1st year for 35 years.

So 500 out of 3,932 is more than 12.5%

$500 x 35 years would give a guarantee amount of $17,500. If you do not withdraw this money, it will accumulate more interest. On the 35th year, you will get $50,126 instead of just the $17,500.

In addition, there is a dividend payout where the minimum is expected to be $200. Not guarantee but pretty guaranteed as in insurance layman terms. With the most conservative assumptions etc. you will get more than $105,000+ at the end of 35 years.

Most of the older readers should know this trick by now. There is no such thing as insurance saving that gives guarantee and higher than Fix Deposit return in normal circumstances.

If you save the same $3,932 in a bank account that gives you 1.72%, it will give you a total $41,082 on the 35th year; equivalent to the guarantee yearly $500 plus capital preservation. So the guaranteed return you are really getting is less than 1.72%. Because your capital is NOT guaranteed in this plan.

If you keep the $500 and go for the guarantee $50,126 return at the end, that is equivalent to 2.35% return. Currently bank is offering 2.5% FD rate for annual renewal.

Lastly if you are really getting back $105,862 at the end, that is equivalent to 4.72% annual return.

Consumers need to know what the effective rate is when comparing plans. For crying out loud, insurance field agents please upgrade yourself and calculate what the real effective rate is. May be you don't need to tell everyone about it but when some personal finance savvy consumers asked about it, it is more reputable if you can give some valid figures.

4.72% is NOT a bad return at all. But 35 years is too long.

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Malaysian Life Expectancy

I found this in one of the un-published drafts ...

Life expectancy at birth : male 69 / female 74

Healthy life expectancy at birth (2003): male 62 / female 65

Probability of dying under five (per 1 000 live births): 12 = 1.2%

Probability of dying between 15 and 60 years m/f (per 1 000 population): male 197 = 19.7% / female 109 = 10.9%

Basically a male Malaysian can expect to live healthily until age 62 and then drag 7 years before dying at age 69. Likewise women may drag 9 un-healthy years in average before passing away. Some people may have planned for their departure. But almost all people forget their lives WILL NOT just END like that. Instead, it will most probably be a .... ... ... kind of ending. You will most probably be causing troubles to yourself, your family or at least to the society! Other than the finance preparation, what else have you done to prepare for your golden years ?

Also don't forget that there are 95% chances that Malaysian will most probably die of health issues. Most probably either your heart or lung will fail you earlier than any other causes ie. less than 5% chances we will be killed in accidents.

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