Credit Control

My wife and I were having a meal yesterday and had a lil chat about our finances. We're both controlling our spending in wake of the wedding dinner coming up soon. It's gonna be a major drain on our piggy banks and we figured it's better to get a head start.

Guess what? We both have totally different approaches to managing our expenditure. I usually try to carry as little cash around as possible. If I need to make a "big" purchase, it involves a trip to the ATM machine or using the dreaded credit card. My wifey commented, that my bank charges for ATM withdrawals after a certain limit. Well...that is another "motivating" factor for me to spend less actually. Why give your hard-earned cash to a financial institution, who is making millions already right?

Her approach, reminds me of my secondary days. She prefers to withdraw the estimated sum of cash, which should see her through the month in one transaction. However, she doesn't carry that much around of course. For me, the temptation of having it still lying around somewhere can be a bad thing. Which explains why I stopped her version of financial planning when I started working. Also, money in the bank still "works" for you by generating some form of interest. Money in your wallet does not "grow" and has this tendency to disappear unfortunately (X_X)

You will be surprised how well, a close to empty wallet, has on spending. I've walked into a shop a couple of times and picked an item wanting to purchase it. Suddenly, it dawned on me that I don't have enough in my wallet and placed it back on the shelf etc. Talk about potong stim right, but hey it works!

I would say my main financial woe (and many other Malaysians) are transportation costs. Petrol and toll fees are a killer. I'm seriously considering a diesel pickup truck like a Tata Telcoline Euro II now. Cheap Indian parts and diesel powered. I still can't escape the death grip of tolls though. It wouldn't be so bad if the roads are actually well maintained with the profits they are racking in, but I guess a pocket has developed a hole somewhere.

Sigh...for once I wish I could strike the lottery and have some breather. Anyone of you dreamt of 4D lately? Care to share?

Honeymoon suggestions anyone?

Wifey and I are still cracking our beloved heads on our honeymoon planning. It was a pretty easy decision in the beginning. She wanted to go back to Thailand for *ehem* shopping and mua for the food.

Then we decided to scratch it and try out Bali instead. At the very last minute, we chickened out and decided Thailand would be a safer bet seeing how I'm quarter Thai I suppose. The final choices were Trang, Phuket and finally Koh Chang. Somehow, Koh Lanta cropped up as well and this just added +100 to complication. Accomodation was one thing, getting there is gonna be nothing short of a miracle especially from Malaysia.

We've pretty much laid it to rest for the time being as our main focus was on the wedding photos and now the upcoming biggie in April. Still have yet to meet with the hotel reps and we're waiting for the wedding cards to be printed. So much to do with so little time.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see. "A boat arriving at the jetty, will naturally adjust" - Translated from a chinese saying. Wish us luck...lots of it.

The "official" donate to Nawooz-must-eat Fund

In the past 2 months, I realized why some people actually borrow money from loansharks or Ah Longs. I myself nearly took up a personal loan with a financial instituion looking at the zeroes I'll be missing from my meagre savings soon.

Nothing can prepare you for the sheer blood-sucking involved in wedding preparations. A sincere tip for any guy, who is planning to get hitched. If you think you have enough savings to weather the insane costs of a wedding. I suggest you get a calculator and sit your behind down and work the actual figures.

There is the engagement ring, wedding ring x2, bridal photography @#$$!@#%^$#%&, wedding dinner, wedding card invitations, car rental, ang pows, dowry etc. The wedding rings and the engagement ring were fine with me. Hey, diamonds are a girl's best friend right and they are forever (unless you decide to take a diamond-bit drill to it XD). The bridal photography can only be described as daylight robbery. For the package amount, I could buy custom made gowns for her in China and she gets to keep 'em. Car rental is a pain if you are poor-assed like me and drive a small compact car. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed with the "hidden" costs, which I was told will creep higher as D-day draws closer.

OMGOMGOMG!!!! I still have so much to do and so little time left. Anyone knows of a good honeymoon retreat. I don't need locations like Robin Leach's Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous cause I'm neither rich nor famous. I have been doing some research and my choice is limited to Sabah, Bali, Thailand or some Third World country where my Malaysian Ringgit is worth two cents.

Wonder if my credit card company will extend my credit limit to VVIP or something...

Anyhoo, any kind soul willing to donate to the Nawooz-must-eat Fund will be my saviour. I'll even sing for my supper, if you can stand the raging thunderstorms that it will bring :D

Back to calculator-button pushing and some wallet-busting. Cheers all. IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK!