So many cars on the road

The average Malaysia families living in the city typically owns two cars at least. One for the husband and the other for the wife. Sometimes there would be a third car, which is allocated for their children to drive to college.

Cars are not cheap in Malaysia, a car owner have to stay committed to spare at least RM300-RM500 a month for the next 3 to 5 years, that is only for a locally manufactured cars; which we assume was taken from old Milo cans (but now they sell in plastic refill bags only, are cars now made out of recycled plastics?). The monthly payment will increase from RM500 to RM900 if the potential car buyer fancies an imported car (depending on the brand and model).

On top of the monthly payment, there's also extras that is needed to get the engine running. Money for petrol (that increases every so often), insurance, road tax, maintenance, tolls and unnecessary accessories. So overall the cost of covering a car for a month is roughly RM1000 to RM2500. That's a lot, if you think of the amount in McDonald's visits, it is enough to feed all the kids that came to your house for Hari Raya with Happy Meals.

By the number of jammed up highways during the recent Balik Kampung exodus, we have A LOT of cars on the roads, which means our people think they can afford to own a car. This view is also supported by the fact that it is almost impossible to find a decent parking spot at the supermarket during weekends and there's traffic jam for no apparent reason on the Penang Bridge, exit to Damansara Utama, Tambak Johor, Tanah Merah.

On the other hand, some of us are forced to own a car due to the inefficiencies of the public transport. Some people I know had to spend one hour and take 3 different transportations to get from A to B, when with a car only needs 20 minutes. The problem with our public transport is that it is slow, not far reaching, expensive and not travel savvy.

Public transportation is slow because the bus gets stuck in the traffic jam created by the people who didn't want to take the bus to work. People don't take the bus because the bus system doesn't follow a time table. Therefore, commuters can't plan their travel. The buses can't have a time table because they're always stuck in the traffic jam. If there are no cars, there's no jam, and it would be able to travel faster and be on time. But since the bus system is not working that way, it's better and faster to drive to your destinations. When everybody wants to do the same, the roads get clogged up. This is a classic case of chicken and egg situation.

Public transportations are not far reaching. When I was studying/working abroad the Uni and the workplace was a walking distance from the bus stop. Unlike here, you'd have to walk a considerable amount of distance that equals to a cardio workout to get to the nearest bus stop. I don't know why that is so. Public convenience is key to good management. Same goes with rubbish bins (topic lain dah ni), if you place rubbish bins like 500m away from each other, I can bet there'll be rubbish strewn every 100 meters between those two bins.

Public transportation is expensive, I would say so if you had to pay RM10 for a 1hr ride on public transportation. Time is money. A bus ride from Pen to KL is RM40/RM60 per trip. Sometimes I think AirAsia can beat that price and they'll take you to your destination faster.

Public transportation are not travel savvy. Not chic. Who wants to come out of a bus smelling like diesel? When I was abroad, mums used to go the city pushing their babies on prams on a bus. There are also compartments for you to place your bicycles or shopping bags in the train/bus itself. Simple and yet convenient.

I hope to see the day we are able to rely on public transportation to go to places. But is it only a pipe dream? Would it affect the sales of our local car manufacturers and make them roll their mats (gulung tikar)? I'd rather put my RM1k up for investment than paying for a metal case with wheels that depreciates yearly.

Just some thoughts that came up to me when I spent 30mins just to find and frakkin' parking space. I have a decade worth of experience as a driver. And in that span of time I've only received 4 summons and I've got all of them when my car is not moving --> when it is parked at the wrong place and at the wrong time (illegally). This unnecessary expenses could have been avoided if there was enough parking space for everyone or there's a decent public transportation that could help me to get there. 

Money Management

Just a reminder for myself...

Here's a rough guide on how I should breakdown my monthly income. An uncle said, it's easier to start if you've just started work since you've got less debts, no morgages, etc.. practically start from scratch.
Analysing the pie chart below and my current situation right now, I can scrap 35% allocated for housing and spend it for other causes... hehe...

Whatever it is, to key to keep yourself out of the red is to prevent yourself from having any debts... don't keep yourself from paying up that credit card debt, or buying by debt.. having interest is not interesting at all... huhu..
The best way is to pay cash. But somethings seems impossible to pay by cash. i.e new Honda City..

I'm not saying I can't buy things if I can't pay with cash (eventhough it's the best way), take up a loan, it's allright, but pay promptly and pay it fast... instead of paying monthly, pay evey fortnightly.. if you do the calculation, it'll buy you off an extra month in one year..

And if currently there's an outstanding debts that needs to be settled. Payoff the one that has the highest interest rate, it's the highest priority. The settle the smaller ones..

In anyway, if there's some extra cash in hand, it's a good idea to store it away in ASB.

image taken from:
BALANCE: Money Management