here are my observations from the experiment.
- Having limited budget to spend is one thing, having to eat cheap local food is the challenge. As a lover of western food, I had to only leave that to once or twice a week occasion. This is the main challenge for me as growing up, I may save on drinks when dining out, but always enjoy and have lots of nice food that I wish or crave for often.
- I was able to save money from eating home-cooked food provided by mum. If I had to cook every meal, then probably the cost is more.
- Socializing and eating out with friends is possible, only if you have generous friends or all of you go out to mamak or roadside shop. Otherwise, on minimum wage, a normal meal of RM30 at mid range cafe is already 3% of monthly income.
- I was able to survive and not waste money on movies, as now movies can be downloaded free via internet. Not being a frequent cinema goer helps too.
- For someone who do business, I was able to push many of my expenses / shopping as business expense. Example internet cost. For normal employee, this is not possible.
- Phone cost could easily burn your budget. But as I have switched to prepaid u-Mobile RM18 per month plan, this saves a lot. Only thing is RM10 topup only last for 20 days, so each month phone bill is still about RM30. This gives me free calls, sms and data. However, it is easy to finish the call time when you have to use it for business calls, so I had to rely on my unifi phone account.
- My golf club payment system is sign first, pay next month (30 days credit). That way, my cash is preserved for the month. If I have to survive on cash RM900 per month, that would be difficult.
- Having credit cards allows me to pay expenses and get points, which later on can be converted to free vouchers. Also, it minimise carrying of cash. People on minimum wage does not have this luxury.
- Someone on minimum wage who owns pets..I really pity the pets especially cats. Most likely the cat will be eating scraps. And will not be able to get proper medical treatment when sick. A trip to the vet for my cat on 7 March, cost RM61.20. That excludes their monthly meals which could amount to about RM300 for 5 cats.
- Being able to drive, having a fully paid car, means I could spend less time waiting for public transport [bus/train] to arrive. But it does mean being stuck in jams. A person on minimum wage could use the time waiting and on public transport to work on a part time business, if they are smart to take this advantage.
- There are many free parking spots in Malaysia, you just need to be willing to look for it, and walk.
It's not difficult to make money in Malaysia. To survive on RM900 per month is much more suffering.
From attending Millionaire Mind Intensive, one main thing I remember from T Harv Eker's teaching is "What You Focus On Expands".
Meaning if you focus on saving money all the time, you will feel that your funds are limited, the universe sees that you are afraid of not having enough all the time, and that becomes your reality.
If instead you focus on making more money, you will have multiple ideas and opportunity open up for you to make more money, and the universe helps you to grow your money, and so this becomes your reality.
