Tweaking to make ends meet

Not really to make ends meet actually.  Our ends always meet, Alhamdulillah.

This month however is a bit challenging.  My credit cards are overwhelmed with charges of cancelled and last-minute replacement flights for Eid break with refunds, if any, of the former still on the way, thanks to the US war on Iran.  In short, if I don't do anything, all of my salary this month will completely go towards settling the credit card balances.  So here are my strategies to help ease the financial challenge.

1. Maybank Ezypay plus.  From time to time like now, Maybank is running an interest free with zero upfront fee when we convert our purchase to six-month installments.   I talked about this before.  A new trick that I learnt to maximise this benefit is to perform the conversion on the day your monthly statement is going to be out.  This way, the purchase amount will be reversed on the same day, but the first installment will only begin the next day and will be in your next monthly statement because of the processing time.  In my case, I managed to reduce the due balance from some RM14k to only RM3k+ after converting the ticket cost of our KUL-RUH journey.  So, so good.

2. There is a similar offer here for AlRajhi credit card holders.  It is called Tasaheal.  However, unlike Maybank, AlRajhi allows conversion to installments after the statement is out, as long as the due balance has not been paid in full.  Obviously, the first installment is going to be in the next monthly statement.  The offer is not as interesting as Maybank though.  I had to pay SAR49 upfront fee plus SAR7.35 VAT and the interest free offer is only for 3-month installments.  Well, good enough because I am converting SAR11k+ 😅.  I had to otherwise pay some SAR30k for credit card alone this month.

These strategies will allow me some space to breathe.  I can also have some cash buffer while waiting for the next few months, which are going to be very exciting because they are summer months where you're going to enjoy paid vacation 😁.  Alhamdulillah thumma Alhamdulillah.

How much do I passively make a month? A snapshot.

When I talked about getting my money to work for me, I really mean it.  Ever since, I will always look for investment opportunities that will make my money work harder and harder for me.  From time to time, I also rearrange my investment portfolio in order to optimise the returns.  

After some time, I think it would be interesting to know how hard the money has worked for me 😁.  I summarise my investment portfolio in the table below without the capital of course just to get some idea on how much, at least, I am getting a month.

Since this post is not sponsored, I will keep the investment names hidden.  This is not my complete portfolio.  I only include investments that guarantee returns (realised) here and exclude those that fluctuate (unrealised) and those that do not credit returns monthly e.g. EPF & ASNB.  Also, all of these investments are shariah compliant.

Name	Description	Profit in January 2026
V	Micro-investment platform	RM29.40
FS	Crowdfunding (debt funding) started in 2024	RM319.00
C	Another crowdfunding started last year	RM111.22
B	Similar to V.  It is also giving 3x bonus points that are convertible to cash, and the profit here has taken that into calculation	RM73.74
ARM	Savings account that is giving > 2% p.a. profit	RM11.08
TG	Can be considered as a savings account that is giving > 2% p.a. profit and credited daily	RM50.66
AM	Savings account with promotional profit rate of > 2% p.a.	RM26.35
K	Savings account with promotional profit rate of > 2% p.a.	RM9.60
ARB 1	Savings account that gives > 2% p.a. returns and credited daily	SAR46.93
STC	Savings account that is currently having promotion and giving > 2% p.a. returns	SAR117.52
ARB 2	FD that matures in 3 months and I've started this more than 3 months ago and now consistently getting return every month.	SAR306.25
Total		1,101.75

Alhamdulillah.  The data have it that I did make more than 1k last month.  Though only slightly more.  More than enough to settle the monthly bills.

Lecturing in Saudi

Yes.  I’m back into the workforce not long after posting about surviving early retirement 😂.  It’s not about money for sure.  I was ready for a complete retirement.  It’s just that I somehow have a feeling that I may be able to contribute for a couple more years before attempting to retire again at 50.  My LinkedIn status has always been ‘career break’ since July 2023, not ‘retired’.

When a matching and interesting opportunity came by early this year, I just tried my luck.  Everything went smoothly and the rest is history.  I was hired starting from 17 August 2025.  Below are my discoveries so far.

❤ Salary.  Even the basic salary is higher than my last drawn gross salary and that is only half of what I get.  Allowances constitute the other half and all are income-tax free.  Zero deduction.  WYSIWYG.

❤ Lots and lots of leaves.  60 days of annual leaves.  Yes, you read it right.  You don’t get this even after more than 20 years of working in Malaysia.  On top of these, about two weeks each of eid leaves and leaves for the whole of Ramadhan too.  Basically, I only need to work for eight months and get paid for 12 months 👀.  Too good to be true.  I hope it is true.

❤ Lots and lots of cosy cafes.  This may depend on the institution.  I can find cafe in almost every corner and there is a food court too that includes popular fast food restaurants like KUDU.  Lots of snack vending machines too.  So rich.  So nice.  So fat?  Huh.

❤ Flat system.  I’m not sure what to call this but here, you’re not addressed by your rank.  Whether you’re an associate professor or assistant professor, you’re a Dr.  You get the same office and the same loading.  KPIs are the same for all PhD holders.  Depending on the kind of person you are, you may like or dislike this.  I love it and am very comfortable with it.

💔 No mid-semester break.  It’s a straight 15-week of classes followed by two examination weeks.  Can hardly breathe.  I guess after so many leaves including the whole of Ramadhan, you can’t afford to have more breaks.

💔 Very very few public holidays.  To be honest, only two.  The founding day and national day.  For someone so used to so many public holidays, these are scarce.

One year experience with Funding Societies

In the search for an alternative investment instrument that can potentially gives higher returns than the EPF, I stumbled upon Funding Societies.  Crowdsourcing was one of my research areas, so it is not that difficult for me to understand the mechanisms behind it.  The experience is not bad at all.  In a year, I’ve managed to gain more than RM2k returns from a total of RM 50k capital that I gradually increased from few hundreds initially.  As of today, my annualised profit rate is 8.8%.

Returns growth to date.

However, like any other investment types, it is not without risk.  The risk is when the issuers (SME companies that make loans) default payment.  The Funding Societies team will do the necessary and take appropriate actions if that happens and we will be informed.  Nothing we can do beyond that.  Fortunately, for me, all such issues have been resolved.

My practice is to balance between guaranteed loans and non-guaranteed loans.  The former has lower profit rate (but still higher than most other instruments) but repayments are guaranteed.  For non-guaranteed loans, I will take time to go through the factsheets before investing.  I will only invest in companies that have excellent (prompt) repayment track records.  This will help to reduce defaults, although there is no guarantee.  My advice is to avoid setting the auto-investment bots, unless for guaranteed loans. 

How to avoid unit trust’s sales charge?

If you’re used unit trust investment, you will notice that there is sales charge that comes with its subscription, usually deducted from the total amount.  That means, the number of units are purchased after deducting this charge from the total amount invested.  The sales charge can range from 1.5% to 3%, which can be significant if you are investing a large amount.

I recently found a trick to skip this charge.  Very simple.  Purchase the unit trusts via KWSP (EPF) i-Invest feature.  EPF allows its contributors to use up to 30% of their Account 1 (now Retirement Account) balance for the purpose of unit trust investment.  Based on my experience so far, there is no minimum amount required and all unit trusts purchased so far via -Invest are free of any sales charges.

If you’re concerned about using up your EPF savings, fret not because you can always voluntarily contribute up to RM100k/year to make up for the ‘lost’.  One of the cons that I can think of is that, you are limited to the list of funds that EPF has approved i.e. funds that are regarded as safe.  These usually exclude the high-risk-high-return ones.

Mission 1300

This is another challenge that I’ve created to keep my brain working.  I have SAR1k that I want to keep in my multi-currency account.  Sadly, it only accepts deposit in RM.  So I had to sell the SAR first before I can keep it in the account.  I sold the SAR1k and was paid RM1220 based on the exchange rate at the time.  Now, I want to buy back the SAR1k and of course I won’t be able to get it with RM1220 due to the spread.  At the current rate, I will need around RM1300 to buy SAR1k, hence the mission.  That is about RM80 or 6.5% more.  Can I possibly get it without using my own money?

Fortunately, there is a number of options nowadays for investments that offer high liquidity i.e. that allows you to withdraw anytime, as early as T+1.  I tried and compared three options.  The newly launched Maybank goal-based investment (GBI) and Halogen crypto currency-based fund (subscribe here), and a regular savings account that offers 3.88% p.a. profit.  GBI is like a portfolio comprising a maximum of five funds that you can choose and determine their respective percentages.  Most importantly, all of them, at the time of writing, are free of any subscription/sales charges.

 

Option	Buy date	Buy price (RM)	Sell date	Sell price (RM)	Return (RM)
GBI	13/05/2024	1220	31/05/2024	1249.33	29.33 👎
Halogen	15/05/2024	1220 (NAV 1.2048)	31/05/2024	1557.61 (NAV 1.5382)	337.61 👍
Savings	15/05/2024	1220	31/05/2024	1221.94	1.94 👎

Halogen is therefore clearly the winner in this case at this time around and managed to meet my target.  I finally bought the SAR1k happily ever after at RM1292.20.

RM24k challenge

Hi,

It’s all about money and wealth portfolio growth now that I don’t have much else to think about during my spare time.  What would you do if you are offered a free loan to be paid back in six interest free installments?  With no upfront charges nothing.  Sounds too good to ignore although I’m not in the need of one at the moment.

Maybank recently launched the triple offers, one of which is the EzyCash-i i.e. the free loan mentioned above.  Not sure how they will benefit from this.  May be in the hope that people default repayments, resulting in interests :). Just a guess.  Based on my available credit limit, I can get around RM24k.  Should I grab the offer, at the very least, I can put it in a savings account that bears no less than 3.8% profit p.a.  Based on my rough calculation, that’ll give me some RM320.29 (1.36%) upon the last repayment, which is better than not doing and getting anything.

However, I have wilder idea that will allow me to have more than that after the last repayment :p. It’s not without risk though.  Let’s see.  I will update you on this six months from now, Insya-Allah.

Getting your money to work for you …

Today, I am going to talk about getting our hard earned money work harder for us.  Basically, make it get more money for us.  Of course you earn something by just leaving it in your savings account somewhere.  But how much can we get?  At most 1% per year but most of the time, the rate is a lot lower than that.

We can invest more actively in stocks for example, but as we know, the risk is higher and it takes time for you to get the rythm and start making money.  Another not so passive, low risk option is by taking advantage of banks various campaigns and promotions as they compete to attract potential customers/investors.  For this, you may want to do your own research or subscribe to portals that can do this for you such as RinggitPlus.

Here is one example that I can share with you.  Let’s assume that you have RM10,000 available for passive, low risk investment.  If you just leave it in your savings account that gives 0.25% return, you will get RM25 after a year.  Early this year, I found two attractive offers.  Al Rajhi Islamic savings account* that gives 4% return, which is extremely rare and RHB Islamic fixed deposit* that gives 3.8% return after six months.  The former offer lasts for only three months from 1 January 2024 to 31 March 2024 and the later for two months from 31 January 2024 to 31 March 2024.

*Link may not work after promotion ends

What we can do in this case is to put the RM10,000 into Al Rajhi account for the first three full months from 1 January to 31 March that will yield RM99.45 return (4% x 10,000 / 366 x 91 days).  Withdraw the 10k from the savings account on 31 March and put it into the RHB fixed deposit that will give you RM191.04 (3.8% x 10,000 / 366 x 184 days) upon maturity after six months.  You will get a total of RM290.49 after nine months, which is equivalent to 3.87% per year.  You still have three more months after that to look for somewhere else for your money to work for you.  The return is certainly more than the RM25 or RM100 if you manage to get savings account that gives 1% return.

This option is of course if, for some reasons, you have ruled out ASB and EPF.

Some words of advice though, if the offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  Don’t be greedy.  Stick to only known and verified financial institutions.

Road to Makkah

Alhamdulillah, it's our turn to perform Hajj this year, 1444H/2023M.  Our turn was supposed to be last year, which was delayed due to COVID-19.  Didn't expect it to come so soon actually, considering no Hajj in 2020 and 2021, and half the quota in 2022.  Nevertheless, Alhamdulillah.  We are ready, Insya-Allah.  I've been making the necessary preparations, including walking for about 8 km a day to get me physically used to walking back and fro the Jamrahes for four days in Mina.  May Allah ease.

Today’s 8 km

I am also testing the performance of the mineral sunscreen that I'm planning to use there.  It's the Supergoop Mineral Matte Screen SPF 40.  So far so good.  Looking fine after 2 hours of walking and sweating under the morning sun.  It is a tinted sunscreen but leaves neither lines nor cast.

Passed the challenge

L’OREAL Glycolic Bright two-week challenge

It has been some time since I last share about my skincare journey.  It has been a mixture of feelings and achievements actually.  Confused and wonder why none of the many products that I have tried and finished is giving significant results.  There were even breakouts, resulting in more darkspots.  Sigh.  Overall, I’d say that my skin is in better condition now, although the spots that I want to get rid off are still there.  They fade very slowly and are very stubborn like me.

I’m leaving for Ho Chi Minh City in two-week time for a work trip and I think it would be a good idea to start a new challege that will end by then.  So, I found this two-week L’Oreal Glycolic Bright challenge, a new set of products from L’Oreal to combat dark spots.  It comprises cleanser, serum, day cream and night cream.  I’m going to get myself the trial set, which is already pricey for me.

The trial set.

Looking forward to a brighter me in Ho Chi Minh City :). If not, hopefully it doesn’t get any worse than now.

Sunscreen and sunblock

Eversince becoming conscious with hyperpigmentation, sunscreen has become my best company.  It is important to prevent new pigments from forming while treating the existing ones, though I’m fully aware that sun is not its only cause.  Searching for one that really suits my requirements is challenging though.  Some sting the eyes and skin, some leave white cast and pill.  

The sunscreen below is one of my favourites that I’ve used up completely, twice.  It’s Biore UV Aqua Rich Watery Essence SPF 50+ PA++++.  It is always satisfying to be able to use up everything till the very last bit of it.  Worth every penny.  But I’ve changed to another brand as this one gives me glossy finish.  

Finished!

From this journey, I also learn about the differences between suncreen and sunblock.  In short, sunscreen is chemical and should be put on 15 to 20 minutes before sun exposure.  The protection is via the reaction between the chemical ingredients and the skin.  Sunblock is physical and adds another layer of protection upon application.  Thus, you can apply it right before sun exposure.

Invisalign journey update - refinement phase

After what seems to be an endless hiatus, I am now in the second phase of this journey; refinement.  I received the refinement set today after about 6 weeks with the worn out last aligners from the previous set.  The refinement set comprises 15 pairs, which is to my great relief.  If everything is fine, this journey would end in about four months.  Actually at this juncture, I am already happy with how my teeth look like.  

My latest smile :)

Nevertheless, let’s get to the finish line.

Spotting a spotless face

These are going to be the last two addition in my quest for a spotless face.  The spots that I have on my face are just as stubborn as I am.  I think I’ve tried everything safe that I can get hold of, but none seems to be giving the visible result that I’d like to see.  Nevertheless, there’s no new age spot appearing on my face until today either.  That is also to me, an achievement.

I’m intrigued to try Cyspera’s Cysteamine despite the ridiculously high price tag after reading the instruction.  Slathering thinly over the spots on dry, uncleansed face for *15 minutes* before washing it off.  Wow.  I hope there is something potent in it unlike others that will eventually work for my face.  As for tranexamic, I’m just going to give it a try and use it alternately with niacinamide.  Let’s see if there is anything visible after 16 weeks.

Counterfeit The Ordinary niacinamide 10% + zinc 1%?

This is the last thing that I hope to happen when buying items online from Shopee and I’m afraid it has just happened.  Counterfeit products.

I have a hunch that The Ordinary niacinamide 10% + zinc 1% that I bought might not be authentic when I noticed spelling error in the direction.  Not acceptable to me for such a well known brand.  Seller, when contacted, did not give the answer I wanted and kept repeating “We only sell original product bla bla …”.

Spelling error

I stopped applying immediately.  I bought the product again, but this time from the authorised retailer and of course at a higher price.  Once arrived, I started to make the comparison and the findings are shocking.

The authentic one (left) has no spelling error

The authentic one (left) is clearer and has lighter texture

Also, the smell of the counterfeit product is horrible.  If not counterfeit, the product may have expired or damaged.  Either one can cause undersirable effect on your skin.  Becareful.

30-day SOME BY ME Yuja Niacin Brightening Toner Challenge

This challenge is just for fun 😆.  After so many tries before, 30 days actually don’t mean much for a visible change, in my opinion.  But well, why not?

So, I’ve just got this that I bought from Shopee.  Where else?   

Reason for buying is because I’ve to look for an alternative to the Bodyshop Drops of Light essence lotion that has been discontinued.  I start applying today, 1st March 2022.  So my skincare routine changes slightly as below.

1. Morning face wash with kojic acid soap
2. Toning using SOME BY ME Yuja Niacin brightening toner
3. Eucerin booster serum (all over the face)
4. Eucerin ultrawhite spotless spot corrector (on the spots only)
5. Mosturise with existing Bodyshop Drops of Light day cream
6. Banana Boat 80+ SPF sunscreen (reapply twice during the day every about 4 hours)
7. Evening face wash with kojic acid soap
8. Toning using my existing Bodyshop Drops of Light essence lotion
9. The Ordinary apha arbutin 2% + HA serum (on the spots only)
10. The Raw arbutin 2% + niacinamide + glutathione serum (all over the face)

I start by applying in the morning only since this new toner contains niacinamide and I’m already applying The Raw niacinamide at night.  I will apply both morning and night when I run out of the Drops of Light essence lotion, which is expected to be soon.  On top of these, I also exfoliate my skin twice or thrice a week using existing Bodyshop Drops of Youth liquid peel that has already expired actually.  Let’s see if it gives me anything by 31st March.

Having gone this far with no really noticeable, consistent improvement, I have to admit that I’m dealing with super stubborn dark spots.  They like my face so much and just refuse to leave.

My spotless skincare routine

It has been almost four months since I started the journey to spotless.  I’ve been trying a number of different products and haven’t seen much improvement.  I am not that patient actually to wait for months before seeing the result of a product.  I would eagerly start to try another one when the one I’m using is not showing any improvement.  Because there are just too many in the market to choose from.  My bad.

However, I think I can now begin to have a skincare routine routine that I can stay with for a few months until I see the results or give up.

1. Morning face wash with kojic acid soap
2. Toning using my existing Bodyshop Drops of Light essence lotion
3. Eucerin booster serum (all over the face)
4. Eucerin ultrawhite spotless spot corrector (on the spots only)
5. Mosturise with existing Bodyshop Drops of Light day cream
6. Banana Boat 80+ SPF sunscreen (reapply twice during the day every about 4 hours)
7. Evening face wash with kojic acid soap
8. Toning using my existing Bodyshop Drops of Light essence lotion
9. The Ordinary apha arbutin 2% + HA serum (on the spots only)
10. The Raw arbutin 2% + niacinamide + glutathione serum (all over the face)

Plus a good night sleep.  I am not using any night cream for the moment to allow some time for the skin to breathe.  I usually sleep with aircond off, so it doesn’t cause any dryness.

Hope to see some positive results in a few months.  Although I am okay to wait for a year or two, the cost that comes along with it is something, especially for Bodyshop and Eucerin product lines.  Thanks to Shopee for making it more bearable.  Hope to be able to share good results soon!

My Invisalign journey

I am embarking on another journey 🙂.  A journey to straighten my teeth, especially the upper ones.  I think my two main front incisors at the top are too big and a bit protruding. Because of the size, even small overbyte can be obvious.  They're not too bad actually.  It's just that I think it'll boost my confidence even more if I can have them properly aligned, especially now that we are making more and more online appearance where our faces and mouths are closer to the cameras than ever before.

Captured at a speech I gave
during an online conference

Upon discussion with the dentist, the two incisors are actually of normal size.  But the other two incisors at the sides of them are smaller than average, which make the former two look bigger than they are.  So, it’s these latter two that need to be made bigger.

So, for my case, the Invisalign treatment is divided into two parts.  The first one is mainly to space out the upper teeth to make way for the super small teeth to be enlarged, cosmetically.  The second part is the real journey to straighten them.  So half way through, there will be a rescan for me where another set of trays will be printed, at no additional cost.

My byte before the treatment

After the first scan, I received 25 sets of trays altogether that I am not going to wear all.  I will only be wearing half of them, for about 3 months or so.  Once enough spacing is obtained, the super small teeth will be enlarged and after that, there will be a rescan and I will be receiving a another set of trays to complete the treatment.

The dentist also said that for my case, I can change the trays every week.  Good news.  Looks like I can move my teeth faster and hopefully the journey can be shortened too.

Month 1 - 6/12/2021

With this other journey, I will no longer be too preoccupied with the journey to spotless.  Hope both will end well.

Experimenting with upside down planting

This is an option when space is limited where we can not only look at the ground for the needed planting space, but also the space above the ground.  Using used bottles that are cut into half (or quarter depending on how much soil do you want to put), we insert seedlings into them such that the leaves pass through the opening of the bottles like below.  We then create the holes such that the bottles can be hanged.

Day 1: 17 July 2021

Used bottles are abundant at our house and we have this one kaffir lime that has grown so big with lots of branches and twigs such that it offers lots of room for hanging the makeshift pots.  So I have no reason not to give this a try.  Note that this technique is only suitable for plants that creep or climb.

Stages of a long bean

This is what, among others, keeping me occupied during this work from home period.  First thing every early morning before starting my office routine, I wake up looking forward to see the progress of each plant that I grow.

Long beans grow at dedicated stem, different from where the big leaves are.  The stem shoots from between the main stem and the stem of the leaves.

Flowering

Like most other vegetables, it will first flower.  Once bloomed, the flower will fall and you will see the tiny little bean like below.  

Blooming

Drooping before falling

Tiny long bean appearing

Mandarin orange anyone?

After the successful attempt with lemon, well, at least so far, my edible garden adventure continues with another species in the series, mandarin orange.  A pack of them bought recently tasted so naturally sweet unlike others before.  So I decided to try to grow some.  

I collected some 12 seeds from one orange.  I dried them under the sun for a while, the same technique used for the lemon seeds last time.  I peeled three of them and left the rest as they are.  Just to see if this makes any difference.  Experiment.  As usual.  Scientist at heart.  I then covered them with moistened kitchen towel folded according to my creativity and put them in a not-so-tight container for about two weeks to hopefully germinate.

The 12 seeds

The reused container

Putting it on the blog also helps me to keep track of the important dates.  So next update would be by the end of the month, some two weeks from now.