In my most recent post, I shared a personal finance model template for financial planning and projection of your future net worth, income and expenses. I also mentioned that I have my own model suited to my personal needs. I've been modelling my future net worth for over 9 years (and tracking finances without projections for almost 20 years). Every year, my model evolves as assumptions are refined or updated. I've also overhauled the structure several times as my needs…

“I don’t let people do projections for me because I don’t like throwing up on the desk.” Charlie Munger This post is a continuation of my Developing your Financial Plan Series, so do read the previous posts if you want to learn more about designing your financial goals and creating a financial plan. Last year I developed TheWealthMeta Personal Financial Model to educate and inspire others to develop proper financial plans and incorporate the plan goals into a simple financial model.…

How do you save hundreds and thousands of dollars, as well as time, sweat, stress and heartache, when buying property?   First, don't buy investment properties. The past ~10 years' subpar performance in Malaysia will likely continue for the next 10-20 years.  Second, don't buy. Rent. It's "cheaper". Even after the mortgage is paid off.  Third (and the point of this post), if you are going to buy a place to call home, the better option is to purchase a subsale…

Yes, that's right. Everyone in the ecosystem, from patients to medical suppliers to doctors, contributes to the medical inflation problem in Malaysia. Everyone is talking about medical premiums significantly rising and much of the blame is on insurance companies. Unfortunately, they're an easy target. They're only part of the problem. Let's look at the facts issued by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the Ministry of Health (MOH), presented to the Malaysian Parliament1. The table below shows the premium increases across…

In my previous post about building your own financial model, you would have seen that for some of the input data, the numbers that you would use can be quite subjective. For example, what rate of return should you use for investing in stocks, or what inflation rate should you use for regular expenses? This post will look into the art of using assumptions figures that suits your circumstances (note I didn't say the right or accurate numbers, as there…

March 2025 Update: I have developed an enhanced version which may suit more complex scenarios and assumptions. Click here to access V2 of the model. In the early stages of my personal finance journey, I learnt how to build and use basic personal finance tools. I had budget templates, income/expense trackers, mortgage calculators, and so on. Over time, I realised that I wanted to forecast what would happen in the future. How long would it take to pay off my…

In my previous post, I wrote about calculating how much you need to save/invest based on your SMART goals. In this post, I want to cover how you use those expenses, savings and investment targets to form a budget. As you start to form a budget, you also need to link it to your actual income. If you're not earning enough currently, what do you do? This post will hopefully join those dots together and help you figure out the…

This post is a continuation of my Developing your Financial Plan Series. In my previous post, I talked about how to set SMART financial goals. As a recap, financial goals can be anything you want them to be, as long as they're Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. Hopefully, you've taken some time to write down a few SMART financial goals. Don't worry, you can always add or refine your goals as your situation evolves. In this post, I'll cover…

When I was young and started working, I had no idea what to do with my money, how much I needed to save and invest, and where to put it. I was lost and had no financial direction. This was the case even though I was in stockbroking, looking at money going in and out of the market every day. I was saving some money and buying a stock or two, but it was a bit of a crap shoot.…