Monthly Financial Update Dec 20

“The reason that man is seldom satisfied with his salary is that when it increases, he increases his expenses.”

Yes, finally the year 2020 came to an end, it was a tough year for many of us. 2020 also provided us a chance for deep reflection what has gone wrong in our finances. We finally realized there were some rainy days in life. Always have an emergency fund to cover at least 6 months of typical spending. Going through this pandemic, I am considering of keeping at least 24 months of my expenditure in future.

INCOME

I was surprised to get about MYR550 from my investment in Australia. These are my small holdings in Australia banks stock which I invested a few years ago. My Singapore holdings of REITs and banks paid about MYR17K in dividends this month. And I was equally elated to get another MYR150 from TransferWise affiliate because another 3 readers signed up through my link again.

Another reader of this blog signed up BigPay (my referral code: QF8HGEUJGF) after reading my post on credit card and I made MYR10! And yes, I made USD 2 from my Google Adsense in December 2020.

My USD-denominated portfolio of ETFs paid me about MYR2400 ( 1USD:4MYR) as dividend. I also received honorarium of MYR500 from a drug company by chairing an evening medical talk back in October 2020.

The month of December 2020 was a good month for me in term of passive income.

EXPENDITURE

My expenditure on food and grocery every month is quite constant. However, I spent a bit extra in terms of food due to Christmas Eve and New Year Eve celebration with family members.

My family also took a short trip to Bentong, Pahang during Christmas break. We really enjoyed our short holiday with friends, we spent about MYR 2000 for this 3-day trip.

I bought paint ( about MYR 150) and painted our front gate together with my sons. For the Christmas and New Year, I spent about MYR 1000 for my sons’ Christmas presents and my wife’s favourite cosmetic products.

I upgraded my family medical insurance and paid a total of MYR5000 for that. The donation amount in Dec 2020 was MYR 200.

My December 2020 saving rate was 65.00% and out of the 65% I saved, all went into my stock investment and EPF.

CONCLUSION

I hope to save more for months to come but MCO was just re-introduced in Penang and certainly hospital business would dwindle again.

Please stay home and stay safe fellow Malaysians, hope all of us will go through this difficult moment again and emerge stronger in future.

Mehmet Murat ildan once said: “Enjoy the darkness, gloom, wetness on a rainy day because somehow soon the sun will come out! While watching a movie, don’t close your eyes in some sections, watch the whole movie, live the whole life!”