When I graduated from Victoria University of Wellington in December 2003, I had only NZ$300 left in my pocket. I spent NZ$200 to treat my friends a good meal and bought them farewell gifts before I returned to Kuala Lumpur (KL) the next day after I attended the graduate ceremony. In addition, I graduated with a study loan of RM50,000 which would require me to commit for monthly repayment 1 year after my graduation. At that moment, I was just a naïve 20-year old fresh graduate without knowing which direction I would be heading to.
In KL, I was staying with my elder brother who was still studying in Help College and we were staying at Damansara Heights (DH). Rental expenses in DH was as high as RM500/room. My brother took care of the rental, then I took care my own spending on meals, transportation and other spending. My first job was financial planning attached with AIG and I quit the job in 2 months as I realized I couldn’t do sales of insurance. During these 2 months, my new cell phone and expenses in meal cost me close to RM1,000, which exceeded my remain leftover NZ$100 (approximately RM200), so I had to borrow from my father to cover the short change.
Eventually I was offered to be a Graduate Trainee Officer (WTF, GTO!?) in April 2004 by the Securities Commission (SC) and attached to the corporate finance department of a merchant bank. As a GTO, I did not receive salary but allowance of RM750 from the SC, and this GTO program lasted for a year. Few months after I commenced the work as GTO, my brother graduated from his study and he was moving out from DH. By then, I had to support myself in KL with a pathetic allowance of RM750.
I subsequently shifted to Wangsa Maju and rented a place to sleep at a cost of RM100/month. I shared a room with 4 fellows. Life was tough, but I was still able to save RM50/month for repayment to my dad. Until today, I'm still proud that I could save RM50 with an income of RM750 only, and most of my friends didn’t believe of my RM50 savings/month.
I still recalled the breakdown of living expenses during the time when I was earning RM750. There was no EPF because the amount was allowance instead of salary income.
Income: RM750
Rental: (RM100)
Food: (RM360)
Phone/Internet: (RM50)
Transportation/LRT: (RM90)
Fund to parents: (RM50)
Insurance: (RM50)
Net Savings: RM50
Everything seemed settled except my study loan coming due for monthly repayment in year 2005. As my family was poor and my parents are retiree and not able to lend any more financial support to me, I had to find my way out or else I'd be in financial woe.
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