Actually i am not good at managing money. I was a money spender. Lavish. Specifically, when i was a college student. My parents covered my living cost, tuition fee, etc. I worked as a freelance journalist in my last year of study. I pledged to myself that i wont ask my parents for living cost. I want to be an autonomous woman. Haha! That was such a conceited, huh?
I knew its hard to earn money. But, knowing that earning money wasnt that simple made me more lavish. I was sooo excited by money i�ve got. I did shop clothes, books, and many things. I didn�t think that i need money tomorow, the day after tomorow, the day after the day after tomorow, and so on.
One day, i ran out of money when i really needed it. I experienced at taking debts. Worst financial experience i�ve got. Ask for debts to friends again? Oh, thats big NO NO!! I decided another solution. It was in Ramadhan month when muslims do fasting. Then i used my hobby. I like cooking, i cooked appetizer a lot for breakfasting. Then I sold it. Even it was quite difficult to sell, I got profit, though less. At least, i got lesson learned about how to sell and simple marketing method.
Talking about debt, Ambrose Bierce, was an American Journalist from 18th century, ever said; Debt is an ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slavedriver. I do agree. I used to be trappped on debts. Once you engange to debt, you will get more addict to it. Somehow, it will pull you down into deep misery because you have to return. Thats what I learned from my experience and �The Confession of Shopahollic� book. Rebecca Bloomwood, a character in the novel, is a success columnist in a lifestyle magazine, she has much money, and she has credit cards too. She really addicted to branded stuffs. She did shopping a lot. One day, she couldnt return the debts of credit cards, everything became worse. How does she fix her finacial problems? It would be better for you to read the novel, or watch it in movie :P
I believe that our sallary is always enough for living cost and investment. It depends on how we use and manage it. You dont believe? I interviewed a person in Gunung Kidul, a remote area distric in Province of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He works on his own farming, plants cassava and eggplant. No other income. His income even lower than worldbank poverty absulute terms. The bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US$1.25 per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 a day. It has been estimated that in 2008. He has his own house. Somehow, he can pay for his family necesary, pay for his children school tuition, and he lives happy. Be careful you people who work in welfare survey field, why? because welfare indicator in every person is different, depends on culture value, internal and external factors.
Now, i am working as civil servant far away from my hometown, i am living alone. For some people the sallary isnt enough to cover my necesary. I dont agree. I am thankful because i got a job i wanted, match to my passion. My sallary is more than enough. Even I can share a little part of my income to other and also spare it to invest in planned saving and mutual fund. The main aim of investment is to put money into something with the expectation of gain, that upon thorough analysis, has a high degree of security of principle, as well as security of return, within an expected period of time. The reason why i choose planned saving and mixed mutual fund is because they have lower risk than other mutual fund product. Another reason is because their requirements of initial investment isnt too much, minimum investment is 200,000 rupiahs, and you can top it up monthly.
In mutual fund, they have NAV that sometimes increases monthly, but sometimes decreases, it depends on rate of inflation. NAV stands for net asset value. This is the market value of one share of a mutual fund. It is calculated each business day by adding up the total market values of each investment in the mutual fund and then subtracting management fees and marketing fees. That total is then divided by the number of outstanding mutual shares. Outstanding shares are the number of shares owned by everyone who is currently invested. For example, a year ago, One NAV is 2,100 IDR, and i bought 210,000 IDR, it means i got 100 NAV. But now it increases to 25%, which is 2,600 IDR. If i want to sell my mutual fund this month, I ll get 2,600 x 100 = 260,000. Imagine when you top it up for years.
After three or four years you can use it if its realy urgent or you can sell your mutualfund and buy golds. From now on, i promise to myself to not take debts and keep on investing, no matter what financial problem I got. Trust me, its really important to invest your money when you got job. Faster better, younger better.
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