I keep telling myself that I should be blessed to have a zero car loan, 2 emergency fund accounts, a full time job generating RM1,000 income every month, some online income and a hubby who is bringing home RM2,000 a month, BUT, I keep thinking about what has been bothering me for the past few weeks.

First, I Feel Like Quitting My Current Accounting Job. Way too much work to do! I feel that my stress is mounting with the load of increasing workload of unrelated work like photostating, answering phone calls, keeping records after records, …

I keep convincing myself that I am contributing some of my time and effort to the school, so it’s okay with the current RM1,000 monthly salary. BUT, spending 8 hours on week days and 4 hours on two Saturdays for just RM1,000 is just, sigh, … ==

Maybe if I quit my job and work 8 hours a day online, I can get that RM1,000 too. Maybe not! I don’t know.

I don’t know because my online income has fluctuated from making more than RM2,500 a month to between RM1,200 (low season) and RM2,000 (peak season).

I would just say goodbye to my current job if I made RM2,500 a month, but the fact is that I don’t. It’s between RM1,200 and RM2,000, so it’s risky and uncertain.

Second, Hubby Has Turned Part Time Due To His Health Problem. From making RM2,000 a month, he will get around RM1,000 a month.

With about 50%’s cut on his salary, it makes thinking of quitting my job even harder. T.T

I have been praying to God for improving my online income from Google AdSense earnings, Amazon advertising fees and the latest Vemma nutritional drink products.

I have also been praying to God to help make selling the house to our tenants or their friends easier/faster. Sell it so that there will be no more mortgage installments, quit rent fees and overdraft facility interest charges that consume RM850 every month!

Without any car loan and home mortgage installments, hubby and I just need to tackle our AKPK monthly repayments of RM680, flat rental RM270, internet and phone line fees RM110, cell phone charges RM65, RM50 utility bills and meal expenses.

See, I am not always the one who inspires/motivates you? I need to be motivated too and now! ==

Hubby’s plan of turning to becoming a part-time teacher didn’t come true. For the time being, he is still a full time teacher taking the same amount of salary but with fewer classes. ^.^

I am grateful that the school principal is very concerned about his health and financial conditions.

Although hubby has repeatedly told the principal that earning a part time salary will not affect our finances, he still thinks hubby deserve to be paid a full time salary.

It’s my hope that hubby’s health condition can improve little by little by i) drinking fresh juice twice a day, ii) consuming Chinese herbs every day, iii) taking slow, deep breaths more often throughout the day, and iv) giving himself less stress.

Although hubby is still getting a full time pay for the time being, I still see possibility of him turning to part time teaching should his health condition get worse.

I am constantly praying to God to heal hubby while at the same time, I am pushing myself to work harder on my niche blogs to bring in more Amazon sales and Google AdSense earnings.

To increase sales and earnings, I have recently invested on BuildMyRank aka BMR to help with building backlinks. 10 free links during trial period, then there is US$59 (roughly RM180) subscription fee per month.

I have also gone back to using InstantArticleWizard aka IAW to help with generating short snippets to be submitted to BMR although the version I am using is still an old one, that is 2.37. It’s a one-time payment when I first bought it, but now, it’s $7 for a 7-day trial, then US$77 per year.

Ya, I got in early for IAW, but I got in late for TheBestSpinner aka TBS. I paid $7 for a 7-day trial, then US$77 per year.

Also, I am praying that our house gets to be sold to the current tenants to free us from any home mortgage burden. Having freed from zero car loan since last July, hubby and I have been hoping to sell the house as well to further release us from loan burden.

Imagine if the home mortgage was gone as well, phew, then our monthly expenses will drop to RM2,000 or less. AKPK repayments amounting to RM680, flat rental RM270, internet fee RM110, utility bills RM50, meal and grocery expenses RM800, …

Mmm, the amount of meal and grocery expenses can be cut down a bit! How nice if the school had free accommodation for staff! @.@

I am supposed to blog about my situation next week, but I can’t withhold it any longer. I need to let out of my worry/concern a bit so that I won’t keep thinking about it.

So, what is it that has been bothering me since last week? Well, it’s hubby’s decision to turn part time after suffering constant dizziness and headache.

Since two months ago, he has been plagued by dizziness or/and headache very often. From once a week to two times a week to now, almost every day!

The initial blood test shows that it’s his ESR that causes all the dizziness and headache.

According to the doctor’s advice,  he should cut down on his workload and stress simultaneously so that he can sleep better and longer at night. Decreased workload also means he will have time to rest and do exercise. Subsequently, his health condition will get better.

Switching from full time employment to part time basis means hubby’s income will be slashed by half. Instead of bringing home RM2,200 per month, his income will be RM1,100 or even less.

Will the decrease of RM1,000 affect our finances and thus bring us more debt? Of course not. It’s just that our plan of hitting RM10,000 for our Joint Account Fund, RM10,000 for our E-Fund account by the end of the year will be slowed down tremendously.

This means the amount of RM1,000 that could previously be saved up is gone with the wind. It’s RM12,000 a year, you know.

Hello, Vedis the AKPK DMP Blogger, you have come a long way, so please stay positive!

I am thinking if there are ways to squeeze out RM500 or more to be saved up. What about cutting down on eat outs? What about working even harder on building links to my niche blogs so that they can bring in more sales?

Phew, thank God that hubby and I are in AKPK Debt Management Plan! I am even grateful that we have zero car loan and the home loan installment is partially paid by the existing tenants.

What am I hoping/praying? I am praying to God that there is a way I can still keep saving for the emergency funds at my current speed.

I did make a few 2010 New Year Resolutions. They were not 100% achieved, but I did do my best to reach at least 50% for most of the goals.

In year 2010, I vowed to beep up my big emergency fund to RM6,000, that was 3 months’ living expenses. Did it go down in a blaze of glory? Of course not. I hit 50% of the RM6,000 goal.

In year 2011, my resolution is to fully fund my big emergency fund with five months of expenses or RM10,000 in my family’s case. It’s quite an achievable amount because of the existing amount saved in bank plus 12 months’ rental equivalent to RM4,800 plus a small portion of hubby’s monthly salary.

To be frank, had hubby and I not been in AKPK debt management program, it wouldn’t have been possible to stash away extra money as big and small emergency fund savings!

Of course, changing to a smaller cc car that required no car loan did help save up more money. From paying RM820 a month to zero, how do I feel? Great! ^.^

Speaking of emergency fund accounts, I have 2. One is for big emergencies and another is for small emergencies. There were quite a few small emergencies like two car repairs and a heater that sucked out about RM1,500 from the small emergency account.

Due to the above unavoidable expenses, the balance in the small emergency account shrank to about RM3,000 as of 31.12.2010. My resolution for the small emergency fund account is to beep it up to RM10,000 in year 2011. It can be achieved provided there aren’t many unexpected expenses.

2011 New Year’s Resolution – Fully Funded Big and Small Emergency Funds (RM10,000 Each)

Did you make any financial New Year’s Resolutions this year? What are they?

Just came back from opening another personal savings account. Now I have 2 personal savings accounts and a joint account with hubby.

Since enrolling in AKPK’s debt management programme, hubby and I have been able to practice the ‘Pay Yourself First‘ golden rule of personal finance to save up for emergency fund.

The amount hasn’t reached our goal of 3 months’ expenses (RM6,000) yet due to the arise of small emergency expenses like car battery replacement, auto services, leaking pipe and toilet fixes, broken window pane repairs, overdue assessment tax and other numerous fixes and repairs.

With our recent change from a bigger cc car (1996 2.2 Toyota Camry) to a smaller cc car (1995 1.5 Proton Wira) that is free from auto installment loan, it’s expected that we can save up more money as emergency fund.

Besides this money of RM820, we will also start seeing monthly rental of RM400 from our Ipoh house starting this September. RM1,220! Of course, this amount of money will be disposed of more responsibly and appropriately compared to last time.

In future, 30% of hubby’s salary and my income will be transferred into 3 separate accounts according to the ‘Pay Yourself First‘ rule.

1. 15% will be transferred online into our Joint Savings Account for big emergency until the fund reaches the goal of 3 months’ expenses, that is RM6,000.

2. 10% will go into an E-Fund Account for paying small emergencies or/and personal debts.

3. 5% will be transferred online into an Investment Fund Account for investing in stocks or/and mutual funds. As I have both the Public Bank share trading and Public Mutual fund accounts, what I need is some capital to start investing.

All in all, we spent about RM800 on car inspection, seat cushion refill, title transfer and new auto insurance.

Hubby and I have talked about what we should do with the RM820 (monthly auto installment payment for the previous car) since there is no more car loan installment payment starting this month. Can you believe it? We are out of auto loan debt!

Here’s kinda what we’re thinking:

A. Toss 1/2 in the emergency fund until the fund is equivalent to 6 months’ expenses.

B. Let hubby keep the other 1/2 and see if he will save up for the car body spray that costs approximately RM600. Put the monkey on his shoulder. ^-^

Have you thought of trading in your big/expensive car for a smaller/cheaper car that can reduce your monthly car payment to a more affordable one or better still, instantly settle your existing auto loan balance once and for all?

I had been waiting, waiting, waiting and finally the buyer deposited the money into our auto loan account to settle the remaining loan balance of RM12,000 this morning. Phew, what a relief!

According to the bank officer, we will get the release letter by Friday afternoon. This means the transfer of title and registration can only be done on Friday afternoon or Monday morning.

From next week onwards, our car (1996 2.2 Toyota Camry) will belong to hubby’s buddy while his car (1995 1.5 Proton Wira) will be ours. He sold his car to us for RM8,000 while we sold ours to him for RM20,000.

Starting next month, there will be no more car loan monthly installment of RM820 and yearly road tax renewal charge of RM560. It’s really a burden lifted from our shoulders.

I am so grateful to have sold the car at a reasonable price successfully. Now I am waiting to receive good news from the school for a full time job employment.

If I am employed, there will be extra RM1,000 every month to be saved as emergency fund.

God has to be kidding with me. Just as I was so blessed with my personal savings, rental income and increasing online income (AKPK DMP Blogger is Back to Financial Track Slowly and Steadily) , boom, my Google AdSense and paid review earnings dropped tremendously.

Yes, a sharp decline in my online income! From making around $1,000 a month to less than $300 now! Boo hoo hoo. This is totally unacceptable as it came out of no where and caught me off guard.

All of a sudden, the online assignments given by an advertising network dropped by 70% starting 3 weeks ago. And then my Google AdSense earnings began to see a decline from more than $10/day to $5 a day to, oh my God, less than $1 today!

If there still aren’t many online assignments this week, it’s for sure that I must look for a full time job to supplement my online income that falls to less than $300 or RM1,000 a month.

This RM1,000, plus hubby’s RM2,000 ++ income, is simply not enough to pay our AKPK debt repayments (RM680), auto loan (RM820), home loan installment and bank overdraft charge (RM525), flat rental (RM270), internet connection fee (RM110), utility and cell phone bills. Besides, there are still meal expenses and groceries.

A cut of 70% on my online income! Is it temporary because of the 2010 FIFA World Cup fever? I don’t know.

If the advertising network I am working for still gives out very few online assignments this week, I think I will have to start making appointments for job interviews.

God, are you showing me your new plan? If so, it has got to be a better plan than the one I am having now, okay? Have faith in You.

Day 27 of 30-Day Challenge of Tracking Every Dollar & Cent:

Breakfast – RM2.50
Lunch – RM8.40
Dinner – RM7.80
Total Spent: RM18.70

Day 28 of 30-Day Challenge of Tracking Every Dollar & Cent:

Breakfast – RM3.20
Lunch – RM7.90
Dinner – RM7.50
Total Spent: RM18.60

Day 29 of 30-Day Challenge of Tracking Every Dollar & Cent:

Breakfast – RM2.50
Lunch – RM11.50
Weight Loss Powder – RM39.90
Chicken Essence – RM64.90
Dinner – RM9
Total Spent: RM127.80

Day 30 of 30-Day Challenge of Tracking Every Dollar & Cent:

Breakfast – RM7
Lunch – RM5.90
Fruits – RM4
Dinner – RM8.20
Fluorescent Lights – RM119 (for house in Ipoh)
Total Spent: RM144.10

* AKPK debt repayments of RM680, car loan installment of RM400 and Streamyx broadband access service bill of RM112 are fixed payments.

05.05.2010 3.19 p.m.

Finally, the much anticipated book, Tip-Tip Kewangan Untuk Rakyat Malaysia, which was written by K.C. Lau, arrived at my doorstep this afternoon!

It’s a 353 mm x 250 mm envelope that’s too big to be stuffed into my mail box, so the postman left it on my door mat. Inside the envelope were two books sent by K.C. Lau.

One being his own book, Tip-Tip Kewangan Untuk Rakyat Malaysia while the other one, The 8-Day Internet Wonder by Edwin John.

I personally requested K.C to send me these two books for reviews because the topics fit my blog, www.FreeDebtManagementProgram.com, perfectly. My blog covers topics like credit card debt, AKPK debt management plan, emergency fund, saving money, spending, expenses, income streams, …

05.05.2010 6 p.m.

Okay, I am ready to share with you some of the tips!

As you can read from the title, Tip-Tip Kewangan Untuk Rakyat Malaysia, it’s written in Bahasa Malaysia. No sweat if you are a Malaysian, right?

There are 4 parts in the book:

Bahagian 1: Tip Kewangan Bijak
Bahagian 2: Tip Menjana Wang
Bahagian 3: Tip Menjimat Wang
Bahagian 4: Tip Melindungi Wang

As I am currently in AKPK debt repayment plan and very interested in picking up more saving money tips, I jumped to Bahagian 3 first.

Bahagian 3 – Menjimat Wang (Tip #13 – #17):

Tip #13 – Miliki Kereta Pertama Anda Secara PERCUMA. I totally agree with buying used/second hand cars to save money!

The first car hubby bought was a new one, Ford Laser 1.5, with RM826 monthly installment. He paid a total of more than RM55,000 for a 5-year auto loan and when he sold it, he got back only RM21,000.

The second car was a used Proton Wira 1.3, with RM620 monthly installment. The selling price was RM28,000 and it was at RM15,000 after 3 1/2 years.

The third car is a used Toyota Camry 2.2, with RM820 monthly installment and RM594 yearly road tax. It was bought before we  got into very deep credit card debt.

During the time of struggling with increasing credit card debt, we did think of selling it to cut down spending, but we couldn’t. The amount of car loan still owed to bank was simply larger than the car selling price; there’s still a need to fork out a few thousand ringgit.

Now that with less than RM14,000 car loan to go, hopefully it can be paid off without difficulty by August 2011.

Go to ‘AKPK DMP Blogger’s Book Review: Tip-Tip Kewangan Untuk Rakyat Malaysia by K.C Lau’ – Part 2.