Financial Planning Q&A Part 2

Question:

Miss A is 30 years old with an annual income of RM40000. She has been in the work force for 5 years now, and she would like to buy a house for herself. Can she afford a house in KL?

Answer:

In Malaysia, most house purchasing is through financing from banks. Hence, whether Miss A can afford a house depends on whether she can obtain a mortgage loan from the bank. In general, there are various ways for the banks to approve a mortgage loan, one way is the 1/3 rule, which is RM4000/3 to get the monthly affordable instalment of RM1300 for Miss A. 

Based on the table below, if Miss A’s monthly affordable instalment is RM1000, she can afford a RM220000 house. In KL, with rising house prices, Miss A can only afford a house in the subsales market in the suburban region. 

Question:

Like most women, Miss B is a shopaholic. She is 26 years old and she love to shop online. She knew clearly the culprit was her credit cards but she could not control herself and she was in great debt. Suggest ways to help her to change from a shopaholic to a savvy investor.

Answer:

Online shopping indeed brings us convenience, however if we abuse it, it may bring us disasters! Miss B’s problem is twofold. First, she is addicted to shopping; Secondly, she has the wrong attitude towards credit cards.

It is widely believed that addicted to shopping is a form of behavioural problem. The victims believe shopping may bring them happiness, at the same time releases their stress and other problems. However, psychologists think otherwise. The doctors claimed that happiness derived from compulsive shopping can only be short-lived, it does not solve problems at all. A better way is to go out, engage in meaningful activities with friends, work place or even charitable organisations. This way, Miss B will shift her focus onto other people instead of “herself”, and the satisfaction derived from doing charity work is more meaningful.

Next, Miss B should learn how to control her compulsive buying behaviour by drafting a purchase list every time before she buys. This way she is able to differentiate clearly which items are the “needs” and which are the “wants”.  In addition, she should record all her expenses so that she can keep track of her own spending.

Finally, Miss B should understand that credit card is a tool for “payment”, not for “financing”. For a start, she should use cash to make payment instead of credit cards to control her purchases. With all these measures in place, I’m sure Miss B would transform herself from a shopaholic to a money savvy queen.