My Financial Planning Experience (Part 4)

My study loan of RM50,000 was charged at a flat rate of 9% where I was required to repay this principal and interest within 5 years after my graduation from university. The study loan was a flexible loan where I could repay more than the minimum monthly repayment or a whole lump-sum in order to save interest costs.

However, my 1^st year in work did not even make me to save at least RM10,000 as I was only paid RM750/month, so repayment of RM50,000 study loan seemed impossible. I once doubted that the ROI for my tertiary education could be negative. Fortunately my working income jumped few folds after I completed the graduate training programme and the bank hired me as the permanent staff.

With stable income and fat bonus from the bank, I was able to save close to RM30,000 in the 2^nd year of work and invested these savings into shares listed in Bursa. I was able to settle the study loan and its interest with full repayment after working for 3 years so I could move on to next phase for a plan to possess my own assets. Over the years in my 20s, there was peer-pressure of having a nice car, fancy gadgets, fantastic holidays, delicious food etc, but I resisted all temptations to overspend with the will of being financial freedom earlier before age 40.

As I have shared in the previous post that I took a 2-year break for full-time study of the CFA programme commenced in year 2008, where my investment portfolio and savings were amounting to RM150,000. During the 2-year study, I got a lot of free time, hence I also engaged in other businesses and activities and these almost exhausted of my investment and savings.

The expenses breakdown of the 2-year study were shown below:

Examination and registration fees for the CFA Programme= US$1,500 (approximately RM4,000 to RM4,500 for all 3 levels)

Extra curriculum class for the CFA Programme = RM11,000 (for Level II & Level III)

2-year living expenses = RM30,000++

Travelling expenses = RM10,000++ (1 month to Thailand and 3 weeks to China)

Prawn rearing business start-up costs = RM20,000

Acquisition costs for 2-acre vacant land = RM70,000

The prawn rearing business did not work well and it was eventually written off from my book, left only 2-acre vacant land which is turned into a banana estate. The reasons I bought the 2-acre land due to attractive price and also this land is nearby my home town house and thus my father who is a retiree can spend his spare time in plantation.

I completed the CFA programme in August 2010 where I only had left with some pocket money of less than RM5,000, I realised I was just back to square one in my finances and this was the similar situation when I graduated from the university 8 years ago. I was broke and need a job to re-build my financial goal again during the time when the world economy was just recovering from a financial crisis since year 2008.