Chocolate Fair, GST and Personal Finance.. Personal Target 2010

I've learnt something new from my Budget 2010 seminar that two things in life that are sure, death and tax :). Tax is the mainstream income for the government. For those out there who care less about tax before this, i think, you should take attention for the tax in the future. GST = Goods and Services Tax of 4% will be impose in 2Q 2011. Just imagine all the goods that you purchase and the services that you receive will be impose with tax of 4%. I don't think I can survive with the current salary i received now. There's some goods and services that exempted from the 4% GST as below table:-

So, as a consequence from the seminar, I wondering how I can prepare myself to face the GST in 2011. I'm planning to have baby this year, that will need me to save some money, and put aside some of the salary as backup. I'm also planning to buy my own house in 2011, insyaallah. I need to plan carefully my personal expenses and income. This is the tough part, where I need to plan a detail budget for me and my husband. We need to cut some of the expenses that is not necessary, example my astro bill. I think i need to cut all those channel that i haven't seen for almost more than 2 months. I also need to cut my electricity bill. I did follow the tips from OPRAH, on how to save the electricity consumption. Just shut off all the plugs that are not needed. Never leave your charger on when you already plug off from your gadget. The savings from astro and electricity bills approximately rm25-30 per month.In a year i could save around rm300++.

oh, what a bored topic to discuss. this post takes me more than 2 weeks to finish it. hahaha. well, here goes another thing to save electricity, charged all your gadgets at your own office. i think maybe you could save around rm5 per month maybe. but, do not practice this in emergency cases.

for water, i could save usage of water by washing all my laundry at one go. i wash my laundry once a week, divided into three machine. all coloured clothes, all white clothes and another one for the delicate clothes. guess this usage only charge me about rm7 per month including other water usage at home.

if you combine your phone line with your love one you could save your phone bill almost 50% less than usage of prepaid cards. believe me, i've been thru all the prepaid and postpaid thing while courting. i also did jump from one operator to another operator but finally, i choose to stay with maxis. :) yup, at last maxis did appreciate their loyal customer like me, by giving discounts of rm30 every month for 6 month, after jumping around to another operator.

what is the purpose of all the savings i'm doing currently, is to collect some amount to buy my dream house. i wish i could own my dream house, a double storey house with some land so that i could have my own garden to relax after a hectic day at the office.
now, every weekend, i spent the whole sunday looking for a place to buy. i've been to alam damai, damai perdana, cheras perdana, taman puteri, taman lagenda emas, ( maybe 3/4 of cheras already been explored!) to find the suitable place for us. been to sri petaling and bukit jalil. but i think it's too far from kl.

wish i could own a place like this one...

 other factors that important to take into consideration before buying the house, are :-

1. is there any school nearby the area?

2. amenities, such as mini market, clinic, and public transportation is available nearby

3. easy access to and from kl, and travel period must be less than 1 hour. if more than that, should cross out from the list

hope my wish to own a house will come true someday. amin.