How boyfriend and I accumulate our wealth by using these simple money-saving tips

It was a hot afternoon in May’20, and my boyfriend and I had just finished cooking lunch at home. He was feeling extremely uneasy and hot due to his thick hair that hasn’t been cut for the past 1 month. The usual barbershop that he always frequent was not open due to the MCO lockdown.

“Can you help to cut my hair?”, he looked 👀 at me.

“I’d never cut anyone’s hair before. Are you sure you want me to do it?”, I said.

“Let’s do it,” my boyfriend replied, and immediately sent me some YouTube learning videos for me to study on.

Fast forward to today, this is the 7th time I help to trim his hair even though the barbershop has been reopened. The reason being is not because I did a better job than his professional barber. It is merely because he could save thousands of dollars by having me to trim his hair every 3 weeks for the NEXT FEW DECADES. Not to mention, the transport cost and waiting time he will need to spend if he visits the barbershop.

The only tools (CAPEX) that we need are the hair shaver and hair scissors which cost us around RM 100.

Here’s the simple calculation on how we get to save at least RM 10,000 for the next 40 years, without even considering the inflation of barber cut cost.

Previously every 3 weeks, he will visit his barber which is approximate 18 times a year.

RM 15 for 1 hair cut x 18 times x 40 years = RM 10,800 (i.e. RM 270 per annum)

Oh well indeed, he is the one that get to save the money and for myself, his happiness is my happiness especially when he is satisfied with my hair cut service. However, if he pisses me off sometimes, I will use this opportunity to design a special hair cut for him. 😊

Before and after – I don’t dare to trim too much on my first attempt HAHA

Back to last year November, my boyfriend was cracking his head to plan for my birthday during this pandemic season. Before we shifted back to Malaysia, he would bring me to restaurant to celebrate my birthday when we were in Singapore. This year, due to pandemic, we decided to celebrate at home. When we both were surveying the cakes, I realized birthday cakes are so expensive. A 6-inch mix fruit cake can easily cost more than RM 100. 😫

Just for your information, I am living in one of the largest cities in Malaysia, the standard of living here is considered very high. In the end, I decided to pop another suggestion to him.

“How about you bake me a cake?”, I asked.

“Which flavor do you prefer?”, he asked, with confidence.

“Are you sure? You never bake anything before”, I questioned him even though I was the one that gave the initial suggestion.

He gave me a wink, and I wasn’t sure what he meant 😐.

Well, the next day we went to purchase the ingredients, and luckily parents have existing baking equipment, so we need not spend any single penny on them.

TADAAAAAAAAAAA

It is so called the “High Class Earl Grey Cake” that I’ve requested.

Surprisingly, it turns out pretty good (perhaps because he had been watching multiple baking videos n times on YouTube XD). After the first bite on it, I realized it was a correct decision for him to bake for me XD. From that moment, baking cake on birthdays would be our new tradition. #birthdaybakingchallengebyhotcup

Back to the topic on how we accumulate our wealth by using these simple tips

By applying some of these saving tips, we get to save RM 470 per annum (i.e. RM 270 on haircut and RM 200 for birthday cakes), equivalent to approximate RM 40 per month. If we would have opted to invest RM 40 per month in an investment vehicle which generate 10% annual return, we would be able to generate an end balance of shocking RM 222,000 in 40 years’ time. This is the power of compounding interest, and interestingly, only 9% of this ending balance is attributable to our cumulative monthly RM40 contribution.

"Ten Bucks is a lot of money. So you need to respect it." - by Mr. Money Mustache

Above diagram is a screenshot of how I arrived with the figure by using an investment calculator.

From a recent publish, it was revealed that some 32% of Employees Provident Fund contributors have less than RM5,000 in their Account 1, with another 10% having between RM5,000 and RM10,000. This is a worrying concern for our general public, especially for those who falls under this 40th percentile and has no other retirement savings. People tend to neglect the power of a simple RM 10 or RM 20. However, these are the small saving efforts that will ultimately contribute near 25% of a million-dollar retirement basket (based on above example).

Of course, there are many money-savings tips for couples other than the two that I mentioned above. Couples could always go for cheap dates such as hiking, movie night at home, video game marathon, or even have a cooking competition (I wanted to try this next time!).

Sometimes, it can be difficult on deciding how to handle finances in a relationship as each individual has different income and priorities. For us, we always discuss our savings goals regularly as we want to focus in accomplishing our goals together (i.e. buying our first house!). In order to achieve our savings goals, we would go for monthly “budget date” where we discuss our budget and savings for the month (e.g. planning on how to fulfill all 3 pillars for OCBC 360 account to achieve 2.15% interest p.a.). By having regular “date” to talk openly about savings, spending and investing, we sincerely feel that we both are working in a team and it is much easier to make progress towards our goals.

Lastly, share with me any of your creative ways on how to save money as an individual or as a pair!

“A millionaire is made ten bucks at a time. Each ten is a critical brick in the Early Retirement castle you are building.” - by Mr. Money Mustache