What to Expect When You're Expecting

Children are a blessing, you have settled in as a couple and your little bundle of joy brings great joy. As you shower your new addition with love, you wonder if you can provide the best for your child's future.

The cost of raising a child can be enormous. Needless to say, food, clothing and education are essential to the rearing of a child. The bad news – the cost of all three is on the rise.

There are many variables when it comes to calculating the cost of being a parent, including providing food, shelter, transport, education and healthcare. It also heavily depends on what type of lifestyle you are in.

Raising a child in Malaysia or anywhere else can pressure the finances.The numbers calculated do not take into consideration the costs for child bearing and funds forked out for college or tertiary education.

The bulk of any parent’s expenses of raising a child consists of having to finance their cost of living and education.

Before having kids, it's important for both parties to discuss what type of lifestyle they want, how many children they wish to have, who should take care of the children, what type of education their children should get and whether there's a need for a bigger house and car when the family grows.

While I believe that those who really want kids will always find a way to afford it, there may be some truth to this premise. Having a family is a life-changing emotional decision, with emotional rewards and consequences. But planning for parenthood is a process that must be backed with logic and proper planning to avoid nasty surprises.

Note:-  Children is a gift of God

The Wealth of Nations

 

Malaysia has been among the best performing economies in the world after achieve it independence in 1957. However, Malaysia is quite far from where it wants to be to achieve Vision 2020. 

Malaysia rapid-growth economy jump started via a formula by taking advantage of cheap wages makes a low-income economy competitive in labour-intensive manufacturing. Factories sprout up, creating jobs and increasing incomes.
 

However, that growth model eventually runs out of steam. As incomes increase, so do costs, undermining the competitiveness of the old, low-tech manufacturing industries. Country like Malaysia then move “up the value chain,” into exports of more technologically advanced products, like electronics.

To get to that next level – that high-income level – an economy needs to do more than just make stuff by throwing people and money into factories. The economy has to innovate and use labour and capital more productively. That requires an entirely different way of doing business. Instead of just assembling products designed by others, with imported technology, companies must invest more heavily in R&D on their own and employ highly educated and skilled workers to turn those investments into new products and profits.

South Korea is probably the best current example of a developing economy making the leap into the realm of the most advanced. Companies like Samsung and LG are becoming true leaders in their fields.The country relied exports to create rapid gains in income, but they did so differently. South Korea, from its earliest days of export led development in the mid-1960s, had been determined to create home-grown, internationally competitive industries. Though Korean firms supplied big multinationals with components or even entire products, that was never enough – Korea wanted to manufacture its own products under its own brands. The effort was often a painful one – remember Hyundai’s first disastrous foray into the U.S. car market in the late 1980s and early 1990s – but Korea is where it is today because its private companies have been working on getting there for a very long time, backed in full by the financial sector and the government.

Malaysia, on the other hand, relied much, much more on foreign investment to drive industrialization. That’s not a bad thing – multinational companies provide an instant shot of capital, jobs, expertise and technology into a poor country. MNCs, however, aren’t going to develop Malaysian products; that has to take place in the labs and offices of Malaysia’s private businesses. But those businessmen have been content to squeeze profits from serving MNCs and maintaining their original, assembly-based business models.

Malaysia needs to change what it has been doing economically for the past 55 years, the government need to slice apart the bureaucratic red tape that stifles competition and suppresses investment, bolstering the education system so it can churn out more top-notch graduates, and funneling more financial resources to start-ups and other potentially innovative firms.

As conclusion, Malaysians must be reminded that we live in a very competitive and globalised world where the ambition of enjoying high economic growth is also the aspiration of many under-developed and developing countries. Therefore we must aware on our own ability and set the target that we affordable to achieved and everything must through a strategic planning in order to achieve the target.

Das Kapital

Recent Malaysia Budget 2013 is basically a continuation of the practice over the past few years; Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak pledged to boost help for the poor to cushion the impact of inflation by promising it'll reduce the impact of rising costs on Malaysians.

Our poverty level looks good on paper but woefully ignores reality. Statistics are supposed to accurately measure our economic environment, so that in this case, pin-point policies to deal with poverty can be crafted.

An income that is necessary to buy a group of foods that would meet the nutritional needs of the members of a household. The income is also to meet other basic necessities such as clothing, rent, fuel and utilities, transport and communications, medical expenses, education and recreation.

Take a quick glance at Job Street’s salary report a fresh graduate is only able to earn about RM2500 per month. With living costs having risen exponentially in recent years, how are we expected to take out a decent living with these figures?

Today considering our public transportation system is still yet to improve; a fresh graduate must own a transportation to commute to work. This situation requires Malaysian to choose between buying a car or a house first, and many have committed to own a car first. Petrol costs RM 1.80 per litre and most of the roads are toll roads. It will cost easily around RM 300 for a average home to office.

It will easily cost them around two years of their salary to put down deposit for a local car. If we take into consideration their living expenses and other commitments, it may take them even longer to settle their car loan. Hence, it has left them with very little option but to take the maximum car loan financing tenure of nine years.

For young graduate in Malaysia, buying a car is more expensive both in real terms, and in terms of debt-to-income ratio due to the purchase price of the car are expensive because of tax . In reality, it means they have to either purchase a car with lower price tag or commit to a longer term loan to own a car, which cost them the opportunity of owning a home.

When Malaysian spend a substantial amount of their salary paying for a car, they are left with little savings to own a house, and their house affordability level decreases over the years as prices rise due to inflation.

Unfortunately by the time they can afford to purchase a home, be it three, five or nine years later, the price of a property would have escalated due to among other things, inflation, higher construction cost and higher land prices.

For example, an apartment today costs roughly about RM250,000 — translating to a R25,000 deposits. With an average salary of RM3,000, one may perhaps save RM500 per month (after deducting expenses) and take up to 50 months to save up for an apartment. That’s 4 years! How would young married couples cope with such costs?

Since most middle-class Malaysians earn within this average, it’s easy to see how one would be hard-pressed to afford a house, especially since property prices continue to skyrocket.

While it may be safe to say that their salary would also increase, generally speaking the increment may not aligned to the rate of inflation. In most cases, owning a home will be a huge debt lasting 30 to 40 years of housing loan repayment.

It should be in the government’s vision to ensure that Malaysian is paid well enough to buy a house and feed themselves. This is not even scratching the surface of the problem as there are many other Malaysians who earn less than RM3, 000 or even RM1, 500 for that matter.

Without stringent enforcement and specific policies to reduce income inequality and increase equality of opportunities, efforts to meet the 2020 target would be futile if not everyone can benefit from the increased economic growth.

Note:- Das Kapital, by Karl Marx, is a critical analysis of capitalism as political economy, meant to reveal the economic laws of the capitalist mode of production, and how it is the precursor of the socialist mode of production.

My Big Fat Malay Wedding

A couple of days ago, I read an interesting news paper article about how much dowry is enough? What is the proper 'rate' to give? What would be appropriate?

A wedding should basically held up as a lodestar of bringing families together and of realizing a couple's dreams, but the "happily ever after" myth that permeates Malay weddings was powerfully dispelled.

Most couples want to begin their married life auspiciously and free from the problems. However, it is not uncommon to hear about married couples who go into debt just to get married.

Behind the happy images of the big fat Malay weddings getting progressively bigger and fatter lurks the unpalatable truth of dowry and wedding cost. Dowry is a social evil in which the families of Malay brides can make such a big demands of the groom. Sometimes, the parents of the couple may expect a grand wedding celebration. The parents may want to show off to the relatives or friends and therefore expect no less than a grand wedding feast.

Bride price, also known as bride wealth, bride token, is an amount of money or property or wealth paid by the groom or his family to the parents of a woman upon the marriage of their daughter to the groom. (Compare Indian dowry, which is paid to the groom, or used by the bride to help establish the new household, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage.) The agreed bride price may or may not intended to reflect the perceived value of the girl or young woman.

Malay-Muslim tradition in Malaysia dictates two kinds of wedding dowries — the “mas kahwin” and “hantaran perkahwinan”.  

Mas kahwin prices in Malaysia are fixed by local state religious departments. It is compulsory in Islam for a man to pay dowry to the woman on entering marriage. 

Hantaran, on the other hand, is a tradition and technically optional. Hantaran was normally use by bride family to support their wedding functions. These bride prices are increasingly seeing young Malay couples heading to the wedding dais shackled by debt as they struggle to deal with the rising living costs

The sharp increase in prices of essential commodities, vegetables and food products has made catering costlier. Despite skyrocketing prices, relatives of the couple make specific demands about the delicacies to be served.

Due to the expensive rent of marriage halls and food costs, now days there will be a joint function. A wedding is supposed to be a once in a lifetime occasion. The couple may have no problem about spending whatever amount it takes to organize a special and a memorable wedding for themselves. They may decide to invite all their friends and relatives and hence need to accommodate a lot of people.They may decide to do their banquet at a hall instead of under a canopy in front of the house.

Yet this crazy spending for just one day, by two people, who are obviously smitten to even think logical; taking vows to spend the rest of their lives in wedded bliss…

A couple may decide to get married thinking they have sufficient savings fund to cover all the necessary expenses. However, they may fall for the various marketing gimmicks giving them the promises of the perfect wedding. The couple may end up paying extras for the wedding photos, the banquet, wedding rings or jewellery, clothing, preliminary celebration, honeymoon, etc. If they had a budget in the beginning, they may end up being over budget in the end.

The above are common scenarios on how a couple can get into debt when they get married. There are several ways for them to acquire the money and some of the common route is to use their credit cards, borrow from their parents or relatives, borrow from friends, take out a personal loan, etc. Depending on how big is their wedding debt, it may take years for them to repay or settle it.

I am a cynical realist who believes extravagant romanticism is only for the foolhardy. While you guys battle out the pros and cons of a big fat wedding, I am still trying to plan my own simple wedding.  

Note: Even to initial cost to hire Foreign Maid from Indonesia & Philippine in Malaysia now at RM 5000. What about having a wife?

Formula Malaysia

Today our nation is celebrating its 55rd Merdeka Day. Like in previous years, the special day this year will be celebrated with parades, firework displays, shows and performances.

Here, all Malaysians are encouraged to show their love and respect for the country by flying the national flag, especially in front of their offices.

Today, Malaysians are reminded of the high price our forefathers had to pay for the country’s independence not just on National Day but everyday of their lives. We must be grateful for the peace and harmony we are currently enjoying in the country.

Although the pains of sufferings linger on in the older generations who lost their loved ones in the country’s struggle against communism, many young Malaysians are unaware of the price of Malaysia’s independence. If the British government in Malaya and our forefathers had lost the war against the communists during the emergency, our llives today would definitely have been different. 

First it is important to remember where we come from. We were a poor agricultural country. We knew nothing about industries. But while some of our neighboring countries equivocated and debated about foreign direct investments we welcomed them warmly to Malaysia. It did not matter who owned the facilities; the point was that they created jobs for Malaysians. One measure of our success is that there are now two million foreign workers in Malaysia

 

From the time of pre-independence, Malaysia has proven that its people can co-exist in a spirit of unity, harmony and tolerance. The tolerance among our people has been exceptional and if we look at our beginnings, racial interaction and religious tolerance have never been our problems. Time and again, Malaysia has been cited by the international community as a model of inter ethnic co-existence. It is this spirit, this model of racial unity as the foundation of our national solidarity, that we must all strive to restore and preserve.

When our beloved father of independence Almarhum Tunku Abdul Rahman founded Malaysia, he talked of the different races as part of one big happy family.

The best formula to ensure the success of our country is for the people to be disciplined, bold and courageous in facing challenges. Today, we must pledge ourselves to uphold integrity and we must not fail in this urgent quest to bring back the core values of acceptance and unity.

We need to rekindle the legacy, promise and ideals of Bapa Malaysia and the founding fathers so that all Malaysians may live together as members of a truly just, fair, progressive, united towards vision 2020.

Merdeka!

Good Behavior and Morality

 

I read the front page of The Star newspaper and had a big shock that Reader's Digest rated our country at the lowest level Again! 6 years ago we ranked 33 out of 35 major cities in the world for being 'Ugly Behaved'. Now we are worst off and dropped to 34 out of 36. I personally don’t agree with the quote saying ‘Malaysians are rude’ because I believe that Malaysians are not rude, they are just not very helpful with strangers.

Malaysians have always been known for their excellent behaviour. But, now things seem to have changed drastically. It seems that not much consideration is given to good values and virtues by people. 

Before we start blaming others for jumping queues, not holding the door, ignoring traffic rules or not cleaning up their mess in a fast food outlet, let’s honestly ask ourselves if we too aren’t guilty of committing any of the above. It’s okay if the answer is “yes” — because, what’s more important is that we are now more aware and are therefore unlikely to repeat such discourteous behaviour.

When being courteous, we are also being respectful to our fellow human beings, regardless of how we feel and whether they deserve it or not. If you are not feeling up to it, consider this: successful people are the ones who have high regard for others, regardless of their social and economic status. They know that when they are polite, somehow the day will go much smoother. They can then focus on what they do best — making a successes of themselves.

Have you heard of the “Waiter’s Test”?  It was said that to see a person’s true personality, one can observe how he interacts with a waiter. Is he rude and demanding, or is he polite and appreciative? The true hero is the one who appreciates and respects others around them.

It’s also about common courtesy because the irony is that courtesy in our society is far from common. We don’t pay much thought to little gestures that matter a lot to others. Like smiling and saying "Thank you".

We need to be considerate by letting the lady behind you at the cashier pay first because she has only one item to check out.or holding the door for the person behind you. When we do simple things like these, we can see how grateful people are for this unexpected show of courtesy and we just hope that they take that lesson with them, and pay it forward.

Charity begin at home, every parent has the responsibility to ensure that a new cycle of courtesy begins in our own home. Expose our children to courtesy by being role models.

In light of Holy Ramadan, let’s make the rest of our days re-instilling courtesy in our lives. Don't let us forget, Courtesy and Morality (Kesopanan dan Kesusilaan) is part of our National Principle.

Free Education

Recently, we are being heard about the hot debate regarding PTPTN issues between the opposition and our government. As far as I know, this is one the big manifesto from opposition that they want to apply and they promise to make it happen if they win in the next election. The issue is about demolishing the PTPTN and makes it as a free education.

To abolish PTPTN and government-loan systems as well as set up free education in Malaysia. It sounds great on paper but unfortunately; carrying it out may not be as simple.

These are only two of the better-known models of higher education financing – but it is already evident that there are numerous possible policy configurations. The efficacy of a policy solution depends on national circumstances. As such, we urgently need to evaluate Malaysia’s educational circumstances in light of other models, and in interaction with other policy spheres, such as tax structures and the labour market. 

To make the decision will need to cater fhe increasing number of students every year and It also must include the factor for the increasing tuition fees pushed upwards by inflationary pressures.

When these two factors combine, it will mean one thing: the total amount of cost will keep increasing every year.

Unless Malaysians in general got bored of sex or God forbid there is a famine, war or an epidemic, our population will continue to grow. And unless we are in a prolonged recession that causes deflationary pressure to bring our prices down, then tuition fees will continue to rise

Whether free education is the right alternative, it is still open to debate. But the issue at hand is - PTPTN, more suitable mechanism to manage higher education financing must be found to create a better policy in giving education finance.

PTPTN serves to finance the need for higher education for hundreds of thousands of students year after year. The money loaned-out is used primary to settle tuition fees as set by the institution of higher learning.

Perhaps government need to look into standardize the tuition fees for public university as it is now very from one to another. UiTM for example have the lowest tuition fees compare to other public universities in Malaysia.

For private collage, government should look into regulate to insure that the tuition fees in not overprice and based on the quality of course deliver.

For critical professional courses like accounting, engineering or medic that provide twin programme with international university in private collage, government should at least subsidize a percentage of the cost of the tuition fee as part of incentive for the student.

Student loan (PTPTN) is still relevant to cover the cost of living however the government should work out a plan to minimize the cost for student to borrow so it will not burden the student in the future.

We can improvise the PTPTN by changing it to an Islamic interest plan and dropping down the level of interest. In issue of repayment, PTPTN could take a leaf out of the EPF’s mechanism that deducts a certain amount of money from a graduate’s monthly salary until the loan is settled and makes it compulsory. Waiting and expecting defaulters to pay back on their own initiative will be a long and painful process that makes no difference to the current situation.

The only reason why PTPTN is facing so much trouble is because of its lack of enforcement in loan recovery. Though the corporation has tried many methods, including blacklisting that prevents defaulters from leaving the country – this has been met with criticism and backlash by the very same people who borrowed from the money

Personally, I do believe that the Malaysia can move towards free education but surely it will take time to create a very good framework.

As for parents, it’s a good thing if we just can start to open a bank account for our children education in the future. It is far more better way than just to brag out of an issue like this. I believe we have better things to do and better thing to think of.

Note: Still working to repay my MARA loan

Cradle to career

Malaysia’s vision is to become a developed nation by the year 2020. Central to the fulfillment of this vision is enhancing the productivity and competitiveness of the country. This will involve both moving up the value chain into higher value-added industrialization and services, and developing new areas of competitive advantages. A major precondition for competitiveness is the availability of skilled workforce through the provision of education and training. 

Recently, Malaysia is preparing national level education reforms based on tactics pioneered in the US that are successfully raising student success throughout the school system, from very early childhood through completion of university or college.

The "cradle to career" approach of the Strive framework involves, among many measures, identifying specific interventions such as day care or home visits by social service workers that best prepare a child to start kindergarten on the right foot. The students are then helped to meet carefully tracked indicators of critical progress in, for example, math and reading proficiency along their educational journey.

Malaysia’s Prime Minister proposed reforms would help ensure every child enters school well prepared, eliminate disparities in academic success, and link the community and family supports available to students—all important steps in the transformation of Malaysia's economy with greater human capital in science, technology, and innovation.

But despite the Malaysian government’s concerns, surprisingly, very little is being done to rectify human capital issues. They are being drawn up on the assumption that skilled workers are readily available: the areas specified for moving up the value chain are those dependent on high-quality labour.

On top of all this, there are complaints that fundamental education reforms have diluted the spirit of nationalism and the rights of the majority. In 2002,  the direction was that science and mathematics be taught in English, with the medium of instruction otherwise remaining in Bahasa Malaysia. The reason for this sudden shift was so Malaysians could be better equipped to keep abreast of developments in science and technology, making Malaysia more globally competitive.

But now the teaching of science and mathematics is revert back to Bahasa Malaysia. This is representing yet another flip-flop in the government’s education policy, is also unprofessional in its approach towards strengthening the level of English. Again, the resulting implications for the development of human capital are not good.

 

Nevertheless, the quality of undergraduates remains an issue in Malaysia, since the students find it difficult to grasp the English language. Private sector companies in Malaysia continue to complain about graduates’ communication skills in general, and English skills in particular.

Poor English standards may affect Malaysia’s international competitiveness, saying that multinational companies may struggle to find graduates with good English. Our generation will have to face international standard and competition in terms of job market, as part of globalization.

  

A labour force that is educated, creative and innovative is the foundation for economic growth. Unless education reforms, including the teaching of science and technology in schools, are approached in a realistic and far-sighted fashion, it may be difficult to achieve substantial changes.

Note: Still speaking broken "kele-lish" (Kelantan English) in Australia