Money Stories from Malaysians: Volume 1

100 Pages·2019·4.21 MB·English

by  Suraya Zainudin

Money Stories
Vol. 1

Curated by SURAYA ZAINUDIN
Copyright © 2019 Suraya Zainudin Communications
Published by Suraya Zainudin Communications
Subang, Selangor
ringgitohringgit.com
Cover design & illustrations: Yvonne Low
http://yvonnism.tumblr.com | https://www.instagram.com/yvonnism
Layout: Anna Tan
teaspoonpublishing.com.my
ISBN: 978-967-16886-0-1

Printed by:
Angel Printing House
56-1 Jalan PJS 11/28A
Bandar Sunway Metro
46150 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except brief extracts for the
purpose of review, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher and
copyright owners. It is also advisable to consult the publisher if in any doubt as
to the legality of any copying which is to be undertaken.
CONTENTS

Foreword and Acknowledgements
1 Look Out for Naila, World! – Jouhari Ali 1
2 In Memoriam – N.T. Cloever 9
3 Necessary Expense – Sarah Anne 19
4 Cigarettes – Eu Leon 33
5 An APP-xpensive Mistake – Sumi S 39
6 Condo – Aina Izzah 47
7 Managing Finances While Doing A PhD – Juntaki 59
8 My Family’s Experience with Ponzi Scheme – Jonathan Kam 67
9 How Much is a Mother’s Job Worth – Chan Ai Sin 73
10 For the Greater Good – Suraya Zainudin 81

FOREWORD AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, THANK YOU FOR BUYING THIS BOOK. You have no
idea how much it means to me. Money Stories Vol. 1 is not just a passive
income project (no shame in admitting this!), it’s also an act of
reclaiming the personal finance topic for everyday Malaysians.

I don’t know about you, but I grew up thinking that money is a shameful
topic to discuss, let alone share publicly to the world. I was led to believe
that the only people who are ‘clever with money’ are the people who
understand the jargon-heavy pages in finance and business sections in
the newspapers.

That’s not true at all. It took me a long time to unlearn this.

In doing Money Stories, which contains ten fiction and non-fiction
personal finance-themed writing work, you and I are basically agreeing
that yes, everyone has money stories, it’s not an exclusive subject
reserved to ‘experts’ who study banking and financial planning and
economics. These are not your usual money stories, too—the ten
Malaysian authors (including yours truly) tackled multiple genres,
including fantasy and alternative universes, but all of them share the
same theme: personal finance.

I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to: Anna Tan, my editor who
turned these stories from good to great; writers Jouhari Ali, N.T.
Cloever, Sarah Anne, Eu Leon, Sumi S, Juntaki, Aina Izzah, Jonathan
Kam and Chan Ai Sin for their clever interpretation of the theme;
Yvonne Low for the illustrations; and everyone who is supportive of this
project from Day 1.

Enjoy the stories. Reach out to me at [email protected] if you
have any questions or simply want to chat about your money journey.

LOOK OUT FOR NAILA, WORLD!

Jouhari Ali

Every parent loves telling stories about their children. How smart and
well-behaved their children are. How proud they are of them.
I am no different.
A lot of times, the parents would also share and show party tricks
they taught their children. Here, I am different. I am here to tell you
what my daughter taught me.

Through unfortunate events, Naila’s mother wanted a divorce just a day
after her second birthday. I complied.
Usually, in a Muslim divorce, the mother would always get custody of
the children. Second in line would be the child’s maternal grandmother.
Only then the Syariah courts will consider giving custody to the father.
During the divorce process, we were asked by the court what was to
happen to Naila. Naila’s mother received full custody, but she agreed to
let Naila live with me. I was overjoyed.
My living situation then was not what you would call “normal”. I was
living with three other guys, friends of mine since college. They were all
young and single men. But thankfully they were more than happy to
accept Naila and me. For a few short, amazing years, Naila was living
with me and her three wonderful uncles.
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Soon enough, the guys got married and moved out. If you don't
count our cats, Naila and I were the only two left in the four-bedroom
house. The rent was ridiculously cheap, so we just kept staying there
until I bought an apartment. A new place for us to call home.

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Look out for Naila, world!
Naila was seven years old when we moved into the new apartment. She
had just started Standard One. There were no lifts, but there was a small
pond and a jogging track. We got the best view of the pond from our
apartment's balcony on the fourth floor, where we could often see a few
anglers. Once in a while, the group would start screaming out loud like
Ronaldo had just scored a goal. Naila had never experienced fishing
before and was naturally curious about what they were doing.
A father and daughter moment, I thought. My father had taught me how
to fish and this would be an amazing opportunity to pass the knowledge
to her.
One day, I got us fishing rods and supplies, and off we went to the
pond with our new gear, bait, and a small bucket. She was so excited
about her first fishing trip, even though the pond was just a few metres
from our building.
Before we started, I went over the safety precautions. I showed Naila
how sharp the hooks were, what to look out for, and how far she needed
to be from the edge of the pond. I told her to always follow one rule:
never stand closer than your body’s length to the edge. Why? Because, if
you were to fall over, you would still fall on land, not in the water. There
were additional rules. For safety reasons, Naila was not allowed to bait
the hook or cast the line, but she could reel it in if anything bit.
I could see fishing lose its appeal to her with those kinds of rules.
After a while, she seemed more interested in digging for worms along
the bank of the pond. I told her that’s a great idea—we wouldn’t have to
buy worms the next time we go fishing.
As Naila dug for worms, she invited other children passing by to join
her. Most of them did. Soon enough, our group became a digging party
as kids started to get the word out that they were allowed to dig for
worms, and there was a responsible adult (me) watching over them.
Naila forged many friendships that day.
A man, all docked in fishing gear, noticed the excitement and came
over. Naila struck up a conversation with him too, and offered to sell the
worms she just dug up for RM1 each. Even though Naila had no idea
what the going rate for worms was, she had business in mind and was
brave enough to market her wares like it was second nature. I simply
thought she was cute.
My mouth dropped when the man made a counteroffer. He said he
would pay RM1 for two worms, but they had to be big ones. I didn’t say
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a word during the whole negotiation, but I thought the guy was cool for
playing along.
The kids came into a huddle and decided RM1 for two fat worms
was indeed worth their effort. The man bought four worms and nodded
my way. I smiled back. We both knew he did not need the worms. He
could have gotten fifteen for RM2.50 at the shop just across the street or
he could also have dug them up himself for free!
Naila and her friends made RM2 that afternoon from their only
customer. I was proud of her. She made her first business transaction
like a champ and I was there to witness it, just a few feet away, frozen in
amazement.
Later that night, Naila revealed that her worm business was more
exciting to her than her fishing career (she caught one fish). Not trying
to give her false hopes in the profitability of this venture, I explained
how the worms were not really worth that much and the man was just
being nice. Naila was undeterred. She told me she and her friends were
planning to dig up more worms to sell to other anglers the next day.
Predictably, her first business venture was not successful. Not from
the lack of trying—it was just a simple case of supply and demand.
Anyone could have dug the worms up for free, plus she was selling it
above the market price.
Still, she had fun making friends while digging up those worms. The
ones that were still alive by the time we went home were put back in the
ground by a tree.

Let me tell you about her second business venture: selling ribbon
bracelets. By that time, she was eight.
Naila was supposed to bring ribbons for her school’s art class, so we
went out to get some. Picking her up from school the next day, I noticed
a clear plastic bag full of coins. From what I could see, there must have
been around RM10 worth of coins.
I asked her where she got the money. I thought she must have won a
ribbon-making contest at school or something. Instead, she said that she
had learned how to make ribbon bracelets in art class, made a few, and
sold them at fifty sen each.
Again, I was shocked and amazed. I admit I was sceptical.
“Everyone brought ribbons to school, everybody learned to make the
bracelets, and you managed to sell them today?”
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