Exam oh Exam

Waduh waduh waduh.....dah menggeletar dah tangan ni. Lama sgt tinggal kerja2 pasal property ni sebab exam punya pasal. Aku tengah prepare untuk sit for my professional exam in financial industry that is CFA. It stands for Chartered Financial Analyst.

Walaupon dulu aku ni grad Mechanical Engineering, tapi bila dah almost 4 years working in financial sector, aku rasa jiwa aku bukan lagi ke arah engineering. Mula2 tuh agak pelik jugak, buat engineering tapi keje dalam line financial. Lama2 ramai pulak yg aku jumpa orang yg grad engine tapi join keje dlm financial industry. And yg aku perasan (in my opinion), engineers are more analytical especially when dealing with numbers and also when handling with complex spreadsheets. Financial bussiness memang everyday main ngan numbers!!

Anyway, CFA ni ada 3 levels. Aku baru nak amik CFA Level 1. Wife aku dah sit for this exam last June and she passed. She will continue with her CFA Level 2 next June 2010. Kena la gilir2 amik, kalo tak Aqil sapa nak jaga kalo dua2 mak bapak sibuk belajar. I find it quite difficult kalo buat study part time ni. Dulu kat university belajar full time tuh mmg best la. Takyah pikir apa, belajar je!! Skang ni mmg lain, dengan anaknya, kenduri kawen sana sini, keje kat opis lagi. Tapi yg slalu support aku is my dearly Wifey! Juju la yg selalu push aku utk study utk CFA ni. InsyaAllah, kalo ada rezeki aku pass Level 1 ni.

Sambil2 belajar tuh, bila break kejap tuh, ada la aku layan auction listing. Aku target hujung December ni nak beli lagi satu property. Seperti tahun2 sebelum ni, kebiasaannya bonus untuk aku and Juju akan masuk bulan December. InsyaAllah, kalo rezeki bonus maintain mcm tahun2 sebelum ni, boleh la aku top-up balik OD aku and wife sampai penuh. Lepas tuh boleh cargass balik shopping rumah.

Biasa hujung tahun ni bila dapat bonus, ramai orang plan pegi cuti2 la, shopping2, jalan2, renovate rumah dan mcm2 lagi. Tapi activity itu semua pada aku akan pakai duit yg agak byk and akan habis mcm tuh saja. Tak salah kalo kita dah reserve duit awal2 for specific purposes for example utk family holiday. And tak salah jugak kalo kita ni dah mmg kaya and byk duit and boleh aje buat instantaneous decision untuk beli itu dan ini. Tapi, as for me yg masih dlm middle income group ni, semua perbelanjaan mestilah dirancang dari awal. Always remember this..."Only buy things that you really NEED, not things that you really WANT". Kita kene betul2 differentiate these two words. Bila dah tau the difference, baru la concept "Delay Gratification" boleh di apply dalam hidup korang.

Biasanya juga, bila masuk tahun baru nanti, akan ada salary increment. Jadi aku ngan juju dah set nak TAMBAH lagi amount potongan gaji masuk ke ASB kitorang monthly. Also remember this..."Always pay yourself first before you pay for something else". Bila dapat gaji tiap2 bulan tuh, bayarlah pada diri anda sendiri terlebih dulu yg dah berhempas pulas keje selama sebulan (i.e. bayar gaji kat diri sendiri via savings). Tak kesian ke dgn diri sendiri. Ini tidak, dapat je gaji, terus bayar itu, bayar ini, belanja situ, belanja sini, beli itu, beli ini....last2 utk diri sendiri ZERO. Mindset macam ni kita kene ubah. Sebab apa, ada orang yg gaji besar pon, duit still tak cukup2. Bila gaji besar, of course nak kereta besar, nak rumah besar, nak handphone canggih etc. Everyone akan automatically adjust expenses masing2 with their income level. My point is that, bila ada salary increment tuh, terus potong the incremental amount and terus masuk savings/ASB. Maintain je the level of income that you had before. Kalo tak buat mcm tuh, trust me!! Tanpa korang sedar, tau2 je hujung bulan duit gaji yg dah ada increment pon tiba2 je abissss. Sebab korang akan adjust lifestyle korang dgn pertambahan gaji korang.

Actually, cerita kat atas tadi tuh is how me and my wife started with property investment. No personal loan no nothing. Only with our pure SAVINGS!! That's it. And now both of us rasa puas hati because, all the SAVINGS have now been forced to work very hard for us. Through ASB, we got yearly dividend. Without taking out the SAVINGS from ASB, we used other people's money through ASB/OD to invest in property where we got extremely good Return on Investment via rental income and capital appreciation. Let money work extremely hard for you!!

Sometimes, some people are just so lucky where they literally have almost everything that they need in life through their parents' wealth. Ada yg parents bagi rumah untuk tinggal lepas kawen, ada bagi kereta, ada yg parents ajak join family business, ada parents yg bole tolong support itu dan ini, etc. We really envy these people to be honest. Those yg parents bagi kereta and rumah, they literally have no commitment to the banks. Dah la takde commitment, gaji bulan2 masuk pocket bulat2. Perghhhhhhh memang TerbaDarLad!!! (TERbaik DARi LADang: ini abg ipar aku cipta!!hahaha). Korang pon sure jealous kan. Hahahaha. Tapi apa2 pon, ini semua adalah REZEKI masing-masing. What really matters is what we actually do with our wealth. If you do not do anything with your wealth from now, your wealth will be shrinking as time goes by. Now is YOUR time to enjoy the wealth created by your parents, but what about your own child? what about your child's education fund? your retirement expenses? your medical expenses? your annual family holiday? maintenance expenses for your big cars and huge bungalows and what not? Let us together plan our financial and wealth NOW to ensure that our own kids would be able to enjoy the same benefit as we do in the FUTURE to come.

Semoga segalanya akan di permudahkan oleh-Nya. Amin.