Topic: How to save money. - page 180. (Read 345783 times)

Are you fuckingkidding me? You are crying about your wages but here in my country you have so low wage that you work 8 hours a day every fucking day except weekends and what do you get?
Fucking 300-400€ per MONTH!!!

I also live in the Southeast Asian Region, particularly in the Philippines. It is not an economic-progressive country and also not that slow in terms of development, but the living conditions are way below of what you have stated in here but still most people here cannot afford to live a "decent" life. To get a hint of how much on average does a normal Filipino individual need to have in order to get by a day, I'll give you some numbers.

To live decently in the Philippines--particularly in the urban area--you need to have at least Php 25000 ($500+) a month to satisfy your needs (and sometimes, you can buy what you want with that money) and other necessities in life. In terms of savings, the average cost that a minimum wage earner pay for is only Php 1000 (+ or - $25, and the figure came from what the pay slip of my father states) not much, yes, for a typical Filipino, but to the most poverty-stricken ones, it is already a big amount. So going back to what I'm saying, the costs for utility is $50, for the rent, it can go low from $25 (that's not a decent house to live in, believe me) or up to $200, depending on how big is the house, of course. As for the food, you can live with only Php 100 a day ($2-$3), and I must say that if you managed to do this, you can live in the country for long. So to sum it up, you have $175 to live within a month which is ridiculously low compared to what other country has. If every individual in our country follows a strict discipline on saving money, the number of poor people in this nation might be decreased. It is ideal for every person to have a job and earn some money, but the fact is most of the jobs here in the Philippines are underpaid, and a great number of Filipinos are still unemployed. With it, poverty sure is present within every corner. Also, I must admit that the Filipinos are spending too much on what they didn't really need; most aren't thrifty and just spend money on things that are in the trend. Colonial mentality is what fucked up this country big time. Most (if not all) Filipinos end up spending on things that they see on other countries rather than save their money for the future.

Living in the comunist country is hard. Your movements are limited. I suggested to you to live with your family it reduces your payments every month and you can save better. If your family is not on hongkong find a renting house and find a room mates so you can share to your roommates the bills and other payments.  If you have a wife your wife should have a job so she can help you. And always think no matter what happen. All is well

This thread is actually quite interesting to be honest, I live in Hong Kong and the "ENTRY" level salary for a Fresh Graduate is right now HKD $12,000 per month or USD $1,550. Now normal working hours are 9 hours inclusive of 1 hour lunch; so 8 hours a day for 5 days a week. That brings it to a hourly wage of USD $9.68.

Now at that salary level, you'll end up paying roughly USD $65 in income tax. Your company will provide you basic medical and dental which should suffice if you don't end up with a life threatening injuries. Per month, your wages will be deducted 5% (USD $77.50) for a Mandatory Retirement Fund which your company will also need to match; effectively giving you USD $155 per month towards your retirement.

This all seems decent; however, housing is not affordable in Hong Kong. A 150-200 sqFoot flat is going to cost you USD $775 per month to rent. Utilities (Electricity, Gas, Water) should be another USD $50 per month. After your Mandatory Retirement Fund/Accommodations+Utilities that leaves you with USD $647.50. There are other accommodations which are cheaper but for arguments sake lets make it easier.

That amount seems good; but you can never afford to save up for a down payment for an apartment or raise a family on this type of salary. Apartments to purchase in Hong Kong start are USD $580,000 for a 350 - 400 sqFoot flat. If you were a young couple on a basic salary able to pay USD $500 per month towards your loan of an apartment, it would take you 96 years not including any interest rates/fees. You'd be dead before you even paid it off. Most young people here live with their families because of these high living cost and rely on Government Subsidized housing which isn't being built at a fast enough pace.


I (Myself) am not a fresh graduate and hold a middle level position. I have come across many fresh graduates and feel that times are getting harder or that many are becoming unable to manage their finances. The OP say saving 20% is a suitable number, I myself save 40% of my monthly salary just for any emergencies.

Any other folks care to shed some light for Asia Pacific or even Hong Kong?

Reasonable. The problem is I don't know such companies. (I mean it's my problem, not companies')

I get what you're saying. What I rather should say is, in my opinion, there is a certain threshold of what you make that will make financial plans like this work. Below a certain yearly income, what you save will interfere with other monthly bills because you simply don't have enough funds to pay off bills, and on top of that save money.

Yeah its so risky , but invest it in the company that a surely guaranteed that your money wil earn a big profit . You can got a bigger profit if the interest of your company is compound interest it doubled your money or triple it.

I'd rather go with the second way despite the fact it can be risky.

Thanks for putting some ideas inside my head

AT THE SAME TIME


Damn it, the same thing happend with me last week when I decided to buy 60gb ssd. I had 1tb hdd already, but...

Sorry typographical error  .

U love what?

Like i said $8/h is only my example. And if you live individualy get a room with low rents and get a room mate so you can share your bills and other payments for rent. And few foods are enough to you. The 20% is the general/recommended. 20% of your salary is so very useful in the future and the 20% is only a cash reserved if you read the thread its only for emergency and personal interest.  So how you could say that you cant save? Your remaining salary will spend in bill payments,rents,food,transportation etc. $8/h IS ONLY MY EXAMPLE NOT A REALLY WAGE.

No one making 8 dollars an hour can possibly save money to cover having lung cancer. If this were possible, then Obama Care wouldn't be a thing and US citizens wouldn't run to Canada for health care. This alludes to the fact that one emergency, specifically a medical emergency, is all it takes for the savings to go out the window and for your financial plan to be completely ruined. I read the thread, and in most basic terms you referred to having a 20 percent savings of salary savings as reserves. On an 8 dollar an hour salary, it's extremely easy for budgets to over run with one another to the point where you are either withdrawing from that 20 percent, or not adding in 20 percent to begin with. Your referring to your 20 percent savings of salary to be a reserve for lifes obstacles, essentially, and what I'm saying is, what if that's not enough? For many people it isn't which is why savings are nonexistent to them. Everyone wants to save money, but on the salary they make, it's simply not possible. All financial plans need to be customized to suit a person's yearly salary and monthly bill. There aren't any financial plans that will work for everyone in every sort of situation imaginable.

On an average US working schedule, 8 dollars an hour would result in 16-17k a year. This type of yearly salary for a person living individually would be extremely tough to maintain which is why taking percentages of your wages and distributing them equally won't always work.
http://www.convertunits.com/hourly/8

pretty normal actually , I thought it's much more in california

This all depends on where you live exactley, so I assume you live in the midwest or somewhere is housing is super cheap.

Like a house is at most $20,000-30,000

If you were on minimum wage here on california, you cant survive due to the housing cost you`d have to get a room mate and thats the only way to do it. But even then, its still a struggle since other misc bills are not added.

Normal rent is $1,000 average.

Thats right think first your surroundings. Think if will they get affect or not. Its it better to live that you are happy what you are doing and you are not hurting the other's . And continue living with dignity and you are not doing wrong things.

Yes, of course the social aspects have been treated independently.  A good/helpful/kind/aware/generous/empathetic person adds to the prosperity of society, with or without financial wealth.

IMO, do what you are most passionate about, find a way that it can benefit others, continuously learn and become a master in it, and design your career around that.  It is much more difficult than getting a dead end job, but it's a much better way to live life.

Saving is not hard it is up to the savers.  And thats right if you dont have a wife, live with your parents at least you have a opportunity to make a happy momemts with them  and you can  bonding with them and you can take care of them even if you have a work. And you can pay the other bills of your parent totally you live with them and you can save more because of less payment . It all depends in you.

So if you really want to save money, this is what you`ll be doing to add on op`s $8hr.

Renting currently? Forget that, why waste $500 depending on where you live? (move back into your parents place) then just focus on minimizing on bills over the phone or downgrading a plan.

1. Phone plan
2. Internet service

I lowered my internet service from $50 month > $14.99 a month (time warner) plans that that they dont promote you call in to ask for the lowest possible.

This is the same done on phone plans as well, my t-mobile line used to be $50, but now its $40.

So you mean that wage $8/h is not enough to live in america right? and you said in other country in asia that $8 would have a great help to improved our life. Thats true $8/h is very useful in asian . it makes our lives better and convenient . Its greatly help to prospered our lives. But in asia even if you are unskilled or skilled labour, all are equal in community and also they have value . And also we thanks them because they working and they not doing anything wrong like gambling, robbing, snatching etc.

Yeah, the example is for North America - I live in Canada so I can give specific examples of minimum wage type (between $11-15/hr) jobs around here:

- working at a fast food restaurant in food prep or cashier (McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's, etc.)
- working at a grocery store or supermarket either stocking shelves or produce or cashier (Costco, Walmart, Loblaws, Sobeys, etc.)
- working at a clothing or footwear store (can also be commissioned)
- working at a hardware store stocking shelves (Home Depot, Lowe's, Rona)
- working at a call centre as a CSR

Of course, for these jobs, you can make more than minimum wage with time and seniority.  But for these types of jobs, you don't really need a particular education or knowledge or experience outside of what you will be trained for in the first week or two by the company.

Jobs like this usually have a high turnover, because as soon as you are able to get a better/higher paying job, you leave.  These are also usually not the most enjoyable jobs.

So for living in Toronto, a wage like that is VERY difficult to get by on.  Your residence would likely be subsidized housing, or a rooming house, or a basement apartment in the suburbs.  Then once you get into the suburbs, it's difficult to get around with public transportation, and you can't afford a car/insurance/gas/maintenance with minimum wage.  So instead of focusing on savings, I'd focus on getting a skill and being able to generate more income, if financial stability is your main goal.

For other parts of the world, where the cost of living is significantly less, then something like $8/hour might be a very decent wage that allows for a pretty good lifestyle.  I went backpacking through 8 countries in Asia, where $8/hour would make for a great lifestyle.