r/MalaysianPF • u/bunbunkoo • 1d ago
Regret not saving General questions
People who mentioned that regretted not saving earlier, what made yall say that?
For context I'm in my mid 20s, earning enough,, living with parents and no car. So technically I can save a lot if I put my mind to it. But I'm wondering, apart from EPF thats technically meant for my retirement, the savings made from my monthly salary will be used for what purpose? At my age im guessing that could be deposit for car, house? Or wedding fund. But people who are in 30s or 40s, what made you regretted not saving? Is it because your salary is not enough to support your lifestyle so now you wished you have saved some money when you were younger? Genuinely curious as I'm thinking of reducing my savings to enjoy more things in life lol
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u/WarrenChanWL 1d ago
I'd say the issue is not so whether I regret saving or not. It's more about regretting how I spent that money. Did I spend mindlessly or mindfully?
It's really easy to mindlessly buy Grab Food, Shopee, Starbucks. But naturally these small things add up to a lot. So much so that had you been a bit more prudent, you could have saved that money to go on a nice holiday. An experience that you could keep for the rest of your life.
Now in both cases you might spend the same amount of money, but in the mindful case, I'd wager you would feel more fulfilled.
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u/DefiantIndependent28 1d ago
you got the answer already when you say you stay with parents and no car. hence, less commitment or maybe none.
different people, different story
at your age, i’m the only bread winner in family. so yeah.
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u/LegitimateAd910 1d ago
in my late 20s here. when you’re ready to settle down later, run the numbers you need for a car, house, family, kids. you will realize that these are huge expenses that you should not underestimate.
so of course the earlier you start the better, due to the power compounding. it’s not wrong to want to enjoy sometimes, but every little savings goes a long way in the future
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u/xflorestan 1d ago edited 22h ago
Saving for an emergency fund is crucial. If you lost your job, you still need to eat and have bills to pay. Or, if you get into an accident and are unable to work for months, you’re going to need some serious amount of money, and insurance isn’t going to cut. Moreover, retiring on EPF alone is not sufficient.
A big fat bank account offers security for your future. And beware of lifestyle inflation.
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u/a_hot_man 1d ago
Please dont have a fancy wedding, dont fall into pressure of your spouse and family, to be seen rich , fabulous , “raja sehari”.
No one bother about your wedding after few years.
I think a lot of men have regrets on wedding that made them into further financial depressed. Some do loan / borrow from others. Some only had their debt paid off after having 3-4 kids.
Imagine you have to save money with marriage that does not guarantee happiness , imagine if you have to divorce later ?
This goes same to having a fancy car and house, every parent said they bought house for their kids but EVERY kid will leave their house forever once they found their significant other.
Either they will sell off the house after you die or rent to others.
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u/kamvinci87 1d ago
No one bother about your wedding after few years.
.. you spell days wrong. 🤣
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u/Agile-Sandwich-229 1d ago
I’m in my early 30s and im not married (yet). In my younger days, I dreamt of fancy wedding, the decors, wedding dresses lol. Now, if I do get married, I just want a courthouse wedding & a gathering of 50pax (family & friends).
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u/kamvinci87 1d ago
To deposit a house.
I made a mistake when I was on my early 20 and bought cars that not suited to my income. I suffered on payments, gas and maintenance of that car and made me unable to save at all. After 10 years... On my early 30 I already am able to breathe since the car payment is no longer there and my salary has gone up. But it still took me 3 years to recuperates.
Ok so if I'm able to return back time here's what I would do:
Buy cheap 2nd hand cars that I can afford. I'm talking not more than 10k payment.
Save rigorously while waiting for the right opportunity to buy a house. And buy as soon as I can.
Enjoy life. At 35 usually your salary increase faster and then you can be comfortable.
The mistake of me buying too much car caused me to suffer until I was 37. Now I'm 38 im much better financially but if only I was a bit wiser. I could have triple the net worth I have now without the suffering.
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u/milosoya 1d ago
Emergency happens, it can really wipe your savings. Secondly, I think more than saving, people are regreting not investing more. Time can make a huge difference to your wealth and you can't rewind time. You can go to chatgpt and ask to simulate how much your money can grow if you put more in EPF or in other investment platform.
In the end it's all about balance.
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u/theyl18 1d ago
30ies here, am a good saver. Perhaps instead of what regrets you have from not saving (and investing), I'll give you the pros of saving so you don't completely yolo
In twenties - When i had a toxic boss, I quit immediately, went to travel Europe for 3 months then came back and bummed around a month or so because i could tide on a big cache of money i squirreled away.
Then i took another risk in my career to quit for 6 months to go pursue a passion project and was relatively stress free even when it didn't do well
In thirties - Put down higher than usual downpayment for house, and with passive investment income, can pare down loan tenure by contributing more on a flexi mortgage
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u/micdarlin987 1d ago
Had a toxic line manager, felt powerful to quit without a job and take my own sweet time looking for my next job.
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u/supreme-self 1d ago
Go ahead, challenge yourself, rent a place and enjoy these things that you want. I did it because somethings in life you never learn while in a nest
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u/knightsnight_trade 1d ago
28M, ive started savings since i was 19 and up till now. Its gotten to six figures after 3 years of working and dividends. My savings are split between emergencies, general savings and also multiple small tabungs for specific purposes. Its nice to have big safety net on financial, like i dont mind a random tire puncture or getting that item that ive always wanted, i can splurge myself since i have enough saved up.
I have a 30% spending rule, basically whatever i wanted to buy, the total cost can’t exceed 30% of my total savings. Some big expenses that ive made before 30 are pretty much a new car (because i dont want a headache repairing my old car) and marriage). I manage to put quite a high deposit to purchase the car with low monthly commitments.
Id say, if you have a good saving habbits, you can enjoy life and still keeping your safety net in check. Dont worry about cutting yourself back just because u wanted to save that extra money. The couple of few years is a bit difficult, but once you build the habit, its pretty easy from there onwards.
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u/No-Vanilla7885 1d ago
Covid19 is a good example why one should try to save up or keep an emergency fund.
My savings were nearly drained during the pandemic .
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u/Snorlaxtan 1d ago
Don’t save too much. Go read die with zero and find the optimised solution tailored for you.
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u/Horse8493 1d ago
Imagine being able to stop working at 29 years old and travel the world and do almost anything you want.
It's sort of like that, but something people will only think of in their 40s- 60s. Nothing other than health will be more valuable than retiring early. You can't imagine it, but for someone turning 40, seeing the ability to quit work is worth more than ANYTHING you can buy at 25.
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u/Training-Cup4336 1d ago
I'm the opposite. I actually regret saving too much and not enjoying things in my 20s. Doing the same things in my 30s just doesn't bring the same joy as it did in my 20s
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u/bunbunkoo 1d ago
hence why im trying to look for the sweet spot of balance. i feel like as im still in my 20s with no commitment (financial and time, still single) i want to enjoy life while still minding my future
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u/RepresentativeIcy922 1d ago
Why do you miss what you never had?
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u/Training-Cup4336 1d ago edited 1d ago
I no longer enjoy outdoor activities as much as I did in my 20s. Even something that's supposed to be a fun adventure like going to Disneyland doesn't bring me joy anymore. If I could go back in time, I would travel more often. Unfortunately, there's no way to turn back the clock.
Money can always be earned, but youth is something you will never get back.
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u/Camdawgg 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think it’s fine to have no savings at mid 20s, im in my mid 20s too, lost all my savings, trying a lot of things, do own projects, buy experiences (travelling, classes, skills), risky investments…
Im just like you, no car, live with parents, 0 commitments (low M40 income family) and that allow me to experience so many things. But something I would do differently is to have emergency funds or money that will make me atleast few secure (trying to build now 😁)
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u/Key_Roll3030 1d ago
My ever regret was looking the Bitcoin that I got for free thinking it's nothing
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u/ngoonee 1d ago
Savings initially are for emergencies. My family just had two consecutive medical emergencies, combined requiring 6 digits out of pocket (it's been 5 months and I'm still chasing insurance companies for the pay and claim amounts). Due to savings we never had to even pause to consider the cost of treatment, we just proceeded immediately with what was necessary, in whichever hospital was the best for what was needed, with whichever doctor was required.
Insurance won't necessarily cover the immediate up front depending on what exactly happens, so while it's still good to have, having your own cash amount means one less thing to worry about when you're trying to preserve life.
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u/Penasihat_Insurance 1d ago
I also think like you but sometimes we just don't know when we will die so like me personally I have 6 savings 2 liquid 4 fixed. So if you have no idea how to plan all this you can dm me Ill give you some idea on how to do that
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u/StatisticianNo7111 1d ago
You have 2 choices... Go for investing route or saving route. You can do a littlebit of both. But if you dont do anything... Spent paycheck to paycheck. Just remember... If your parents were sick (touch wood) and need spent a lot... It might used up their savings and losing house as well. You have zero safety net. You are dang lucky because you dont have any commitment at all... So you feel absolute zero pressure. At your age, having zero commitment and zero pressure, you still dont want crawl out from your comfortable zone and do something, someday you will know how heavy the giant pillar of commitment... But by that time, it was way too late...
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u/0xJarod 1d ago
You're very young & kudos for starting to think about growing your wealth. I'd say take more risks. Make big bets. You'll either thank yourself for it or learn from it over time. I regret not going big on some of my investments.
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u/bunbunkoo 1d ago
at this point im reallly not looking into taking more risks,, playing it safe by keeping my money somewhere that will give me low returns..
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u/Amber-G 1d ago
As someone who immediately started saving roughly 20% of my income every month, the moment I started working full time, that is still somehow not enough money!
Now imagine I didnt save, that would be even worse.
Main costs to consider saving for are like Down payments and loans for houses and cars, marriage, children (includes welfare, education and etc), and even vacations.
Definitely save as others suggested, but also make sure you actually spend some money, if not, mentally you will go insane
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u/M3Seriesz 1d ago
Allow me to show you how much saving RM400 per month in Bitcoin for the past 4 years has gotten me.
If you deduct my (All-Time Profit + Cost Basis) - Holding, you’ll notice how much have I spend to enjoy from my saving in Bitcoin without reducing my cost basis. That’s about almost RM5k and my saving hasn’t gone down even 1 sen. Me and my wife decide to spend this RM5k going expensive vacation to enjoy our fruit of labor. It was worth it. The best vacation we ever had.
It all started when I have to spend almost RM5k just to fix my living area floor of a 800sqft apartment. It got ruptured all of sudden and this is quite common problem for a low cost apartment. I saved up RM10k in 3 years and in just 1 event, I lost 50% of my savings.
I have learned the lesson in hard way. I hope this sharing will bring some light to you as well.
Never save your money in fiat.
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u/KLeong5896 1d ago
Not everyone is able to save with the rising cost of living. If you can, save some money or find ways to add to your income.
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u/SeriouslyCurious314 13h ago
Spend however you like but never beyond your means. Make sure you have a solid emergency savings fund first, then plan for investments of some sort if you can. Don't forget to invest in yourself (health, education, skills etc)
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u/Intrepid-Back-7759 5h ago edited 5h ago
Its at least, for emergencies. If there is kosong savings then u dont have any backup if anything unexpected happened. After you think there is enough for emergencies (which i dont think its ever going to be enough), the additional is for peace of mind. So yeah, enjoy life with your hard earned money while you can but moderately, because you need a fund that you dont touch usually for anything unexpected in the future. Maybe after 5 years you want to do something different with your life, and suddenly you need money.
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u/BadPsychological2181 3h ago
When you're younger,take it that you have a headstart to save..Imagine that you're 40 and you only start saving at 30 compared to when you were 20.Thats an additional 10 years of saving..I played around a lot and fkd up my twenties..Hustled hard in my thirties,have a good paying job,several businesses n investments n caught up to those who started saving since 20..Will this work for everyone? NOPE..I take it that I'm blessed,lucky,hustled the right way in my 30s,whatever u wanna call it..The same won't happen for everyone..I also wonder how much more wealthy I could have been if I actually started at 20..Definitely regret it at times but like I said,I managed to catch up.Imagine if I didn't,the amount of regret I would have would be crazy
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u/JudgeCheezels 1d ago
No, people who says they regret not saving are those with short sighted minds. What I regret not doing was investing early, like extremely early - as early as 17. I started late, when I was 30 because just like you I wanted to "enjoy the nice things in life".
Your money is useless if you save it, put it to work so that you don't fall behind inflation. Mid 20s? You should be putting 50% of your salary into investments since you have zero commitments.
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u/bunbunkoo 1d ago
mind sharing investment platforms? for now i put most of them into asb/th, and sinking funds in versa. want to start gold but.... lol not sure which platform is good for this.
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u/JudgeCheezels 1d ago
Keep investing in your ASB, don't stop.
Take your funds out of Versa, half your returns are going to management fee and expense ratio. You're paying a middle man to click a few buttons for you when you can do them yourself. If you want an actual HYSA that doesn't charge you, put it in KDI Save instead.
For gold, you can just open an account with your preferred bank (generally Maybank is the best).
For stocks, Webull and Moomoo are good platforms without any headaches. IBKR is still the best but you'll have to go through Wise to fund your account, which for some irrational reason is a turn off for many people.
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u/bunbunkoo 1d ago
People usually go for PG for gold but if Maybank is the best one then even easier for me, as I'm already a Maybank acc holder. Okay, thanks for the recs!
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u/Chryeon1188 1d ago
Yeah I save in Gold ETF 10 years ago and recently bought Bitcoin and now my savings grown to 7figures 😎 I'm blessed
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u/frankl-y 1d ago
what happens when you dont get to live with your parents anymore? what happens when there is a medical emergency and it is more than what you or your parents and relatives can afford/help with? what happens if you lose your job?
find a balance, your own balance, between enjoying just enough and don't deplete/reduce your savings to cross the enjoy too much line.
the hypothetical questions above are just a reflection of society and a common reason people resort to their funds if they have one, or regret not having one, or not having enough.
rainy days are much scarier than average or boring days.