The best credit card to have …
i was alarmed to read that some 50% of credit card holders who had been declared bankrupt were mostly 30 years old and below.
Here’s an excerpt from the report i came across here.
“Out of the 3,548 people declaring bankruptcy by credit card, 1,774 belong to those aged 30 and below,” said Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, director-general of the Department of Insolvency Malaysia.
So young and so soon and these people who are supposedly to have “a whole life ahead of them” are already insolvent. This does not augur well for their future unless they can claw themselves out of their stifling financial pits — and i hope soon — without the help of any family member, friend (even if one can afford to kiss a sham plea for a loan ‘goodbye’), whoever (never the Ah Longs as they, one can bet one’s life on, will charge interest rates that are designed to ensure near-impossibility in loan settlements).
Only when one goes through the pain of restoring oneself through one’s effort only then will the lesson be well-learned. Otherwise it will be history repeating itself because it’s so easy to con one’s way out of a self-inflicted dilemma. Let’s be fair, no other person should become a victim of another’s spendthrift ways and sweet-talk. Fullstop.
Having said that, i will not hesitate to belanja a destitute friend makan i can afford. Also, i will try help the same friend to fish rather than be the one giving fish over a prolonged period. No cash will ever change hands no matter how sorrowful the story goes because it’s better ‘to be cruel in order to be kind’ to hammer home a message.
Anyway it’s good to remember that most people often have unlimited needs wants but the means to them are usually limited. (A basic economic theory that’s been exploited to the hilt by hidden persuaders to leach on this human weakness for their gains. They hardly fail with the impatient and the wannabes by casting out baits made even more attractive to snap at with easy money. Money one doesn’t have now but can have access to instantly. Money on credit cards, with an unseen rope attached that can become a noose when one is less than careful.) It’s disconcerting to see how many young people today get caught up with the with-it lifestyles and the newest and bestest of traps that have caught their fancies and continuously chasing after the latest models with their plastic cards. And when that behaviour extends to the car (though realistically not many can pay for one with a plastic, the same principle applies), one can be sure it’s the guaranteed quickest way to a life of self-inflicted misery which could have been avoided.
So, to cut a long story short, what’s the best credit card to have to help one avoid the pitfalls of living-it-up and beyond one’s means?
No, the card does not have a brand that begins with an M or a V or has the name of a bank on it. It’s the one with the good old Chap Agong (with no disrespect to His Majesty of course) on it.
When one has the cash, anything also can buy la and one doesn’t have to be suckered with the bait “In life certain things just cannot be bought (with money); for everything else there’s….”
But still, whatever one does when flushed with cash, it’s always smarter to stay out of trouble at all cost.
i am a malaysian 
You are right, use cash, no money don’t spend.
The problem is there are to many shopping mall
to tempt these youngster to live on credit.
Nowadays,youngsters are not thrifty and they tend
to join the crowd,live beyond their means and end up
in misery.
nowadays, many malaysians are living from hand to mouth…..the real problem is real wages have fallen….when i started work in the 70’s my graduate pay was around a thousand bucks a month…not very much different from what a graduate gets today…however, inflation over the years have eroded the value of the ringgit…when i started work i bought a datsun 1200 for 6k..the cheapest tin can now is about 40k…to survive many malaysians are living beyond their means simply because their income fail to match their daily needs….a car is no longer a luxury….thanks to our rotten transport system….our ringgit has depreciated against major currencies….imported inflation is a problem… it is not a bad idea to have a minimum wage or a government scheme to top up the earnings of the low income group to meet the minimum wage in order to give them a decent living standard.
Ketua Pemuda Gerakan ketinggalan zaman, kata MB Kedah
ALOR SETAR, Jun 25 — Menteri Besar Kedah, Datuk Seri Azizan Razak menyifatkan Ketua Pemuda Gerakan Kedah, Tan Keng Liang ketinggalan zaman apabila terus mengajak orang menyertai BN.
“Semua sekarang nak tinggalkan Umno dan BN untuk menyertai PAS dan Pakatan Rakyat. Tiba-tiba dia pula ajak masuk BN, pelik sungguh,” kata Azizan kepada media dalam satu majlis di Gurun hari ini.
Azizan mengulas gesaan Tan yang meminta DAP dan PKR menyertai BN bagi membentuk kerajaan baru di Kedah dengan meninggalkan PAS.
Ini kerana, kata Tan, kerajaan Kedah dibawah pimpinan PAS sekarang meminggirkan orang bukan Melayu di Kedah.
Menurut Azizan, Tan ketinggalan dalam banyak hal termasuk isu kouta 50 peratus untuk orang Melayu apabila tanah rezab Melayu diambil untuk projek perumahan di bandar Alor Setar.
Tan juga, kata Azizan, ketinggalan dalam isu pusat penyembelihan babi di Mergong.
Sebelum ini, Azizan berkata, yang tidak adil adalah kerajaan BN sebelum ini yang telah meluluskan tanah rezab Melayu untuk projek perumahan tetapi menetapkan hanya 20 peratus sahaja kouta untuk orang Melayu.
“Ini tanah rezab Melayu, bukan tanah pegangan bebas. Untuk tanah pegangan bebas, mana ada syarat itu,” katanya.
Dalam isu pusat penyembelihan babi di Mergong pula, pusat yang terletak di Pasar Mergong ini, walaupun telah bergerak selama lebih 30 tahun, namun ia tidak pernah mempunyai lesen yang sah dari pihak berkuasa tempatan.
Aktivitinya pula mendapat bantahan orang Melayu yang turut ke pasar ini kerana bahan-bahan buangannya dibuang dalam tong sampah yang sama dengan penggunaan lain dan sebahagiannya dialirkan ke sungai berdekatan.
Ekoran bantahan itu, Majlis Bandaraya Alor Setar telah mengarahkan pusat penyembelihan ini dipindahkan ke tempat lain.
Ekoran itu, persatuan peniaga babi ini telah membuat rayuan kepada Menteri Besar Kedah untuk memberikan tempoh kepada mereka sebulan untuk mendapatkan tempat baru.
“Menteri Besar telah menulis surat kepada Datuk Bandar Alor Setar agar rayuan mereka ini diterima. Jika selepas sebulan mereka tidak dapat kawasan baru, itu masalah mereka kerana mereka yang meminta tempoh sebulan,” kata Setiausaha Akhbar MB Kedah, Helmi Khalid yang dihubungi hari ini.
Menurut Helmi, satu kawasan baru telah dikenalpasti untuk dijadikan tempat penyembelihan babi ini iaitu di satu kawasan dalam Kampung Cina Pendang.
“Pejabat MB telah bersetuju dengan tapak baru ini jika mendapat kelulusan khasnya dari Jabatan Veterinar. Surat juga telah dihantar kepada Yang Dipertua Majlis Daerah Pendang agar permohonan ini diluluskan jika mendapat sokongan dari jabatan-jabatan berkaitan,” beritahu Helmi.
Sementara itu, hubungan antara parti-parti dalam Pakatan Rakyat di Kedah sangat baik, kata anggota Parlimen Jerai, Mohd Firdaus Jaafar.
“Oleh itu, saya yakin pancingan Tan itu tidak akan dimakan oleh sahabat-sahabat saya dalam PKR atau DAP. Orang sekarang nak tinggal BN dan nak masuk Pakatan,” kata beliau.
Tentang isu-isu yang dibangkitkan, Firdaus yakin ia akan adapat diselesaikan dengan baik Oleh MB Kedah.
“Sabarlah, isu babi ini sensitif dan tidak siapa mahu babi diternak atau disembelih di sebelah rumah mereka sekarang dengan wabak selsema babi ini. Jadi kena bersabarlah supaya kawasan yang dijadikan kawasan ternak dan sembelih itu nanti benar-benar sesuai,” katanya.
Dipetik dari Malaysia Insider
Credit card is a financial trap under the guise of financial liberation!
The root issue is that education systems all around the world do not teach financial education. We teach everything from religion, accounting, literature, genes, engineering, and sex, but not on finances. Why? I believe this is the entrapment of every race and tribe, without knowledge the people perish. What we end up with poor pastors and poor accountants and poor teachers. What can an employee teach another employee? How to get a good job with a good boss in a good company (HAHAHAHA)
My husband, an engineer, thought it was sheer genius to charge his credit card with RM5000 every month, and pay RM1000 every month. In his job he calculates the cost of manufacturing down to the last 4 decimal point, but in his personal finance, he is a fool.
How many people know about investment portfolios – asset, paper assets, and precious metals amongst other passive income multipliers? They are only taught that EPF is a sound retirement income. The rest of their financial education comes from insurance and mutual fund salesmen, not forgetting the loan bankers who are actually salesmen who are in debts anyway.
Ask anyone on the street today and they will tell you that our RM is backed by gold (WHOAHOHOHOHOHO). What is real money and paper currencies…There is almost no understanding of inflation and deflation (print excess paper currencies vs reduce paper currencies).
Today there won’t be a great flood like in Noah’s time. But the tsunami of inflation (a bag of wheat will cost a day’s wages) and wiping out of savings/assets may just wipe us out.
In these days of austerity plus relative stress about having debt, many individuals balk about the idea of making use of a credit card in order to make purchase of merchandise as well as pay for a vacation, preferring, instead just to rely on a tried as well as trusted procedure for making transaction – hard cash. However, if you have the cash there to make the purchase completely, then, paradoxically, that is the best time just to be able to use the credit card for several motives.