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Hi,I am Anthony.
Let me join in this discussion about tax and increasing cost of living.You mentioned a pensioner. The only pensioners i know in Malaysia are government pensioners and they are well paid because it is index linked to inflation. Malaysia is too young to have private pensioners.but if there are private pensioners i stand corrected.
My father was a govt servant, and so got a govt pension, and all his medical bills were paid by the government and his pension went up with inflation. Now of course inflation is down but he was very comfortable with what he got in his pension. And he is not a high earner while he was working being a lowly lecturer in a teacher training college.
We his children contribute to big one off expenses like house repair and renovation but he managed very well with day to day expenses. But my parents are very frugal. They dont smoke or drink alchohol.They dont eat out and that saves a lot of money.The pensioner who told you he cannot cope anymore… has he got children and are they working? if they are working why they cannot give him money?
If you have a young family it will be tougher for you. If you are working you can cope. But if you have been feeling rich before and buying your children everything they want, stop it now. Stop buying their love. You may fool yourself into saying you want the best for them. Don’t believe that. When you were young you did not have those things they have now, and you were happy so why do you think your children will be different?
From young let them know that what they want costs money and if they have it they have to do without somewhere else. If you have been spoiling them before it will be more difficult for them to change and accept less, but better you do it now than when they are older and get influenced by their richer friends and out of your control.
Better tell them clearly that they are supposed to help with money when you grow old and they start earning money. Teach that clearly to them so they know what is expected of them.
My mother taught us that by saying to us…’ help your younger brothers and sisters and each other when u start earning’. And i got from there that i must help my parents when i start earning.
The GST is only for goods and services. it is something you can avoid if you dont buy the goods and services.
The business man is having a tougher time, as people will cut down on their purchase, and he wont be able to put up the costs to pay for the GST tax. He deserves more sympathy but i doubt many will have any sympathies left over to give to him. haha.Anyway businesses will come and go. It is the natural nature of doing business.
Naturally all the above comes with a disclaimer that it is my view and nobody have to agree with it if they dont want to. haha. Tell us how you would cope instead.
You are inviting me to talk about politician……
my parents has always been very strict with my pocket money. so i have to earn my own by doing work here and there if i want to get the things extra. yurp, money is not easy! hope the kids understand that nowadays
just read bout it..4%..not bad.
A smile from SJ =)
Anthony, what is the meaning of living a life as a rich man? What is a rich man? To be specific we need to agree on a definition first . Anyway, i prefer the phrase living a life of dignity with adequate resources to eat two square meals a day and the option of being able to buy a copy of the local papers if one feels up to it without being in debt or needing to grovel for one’s needs.
Pension received is about 50% of last received basic salary without all the added allowances etc received during the days of active employment.
This particular guy has a daughter who can barely support her own family and a son having the same financial problems. Some importers find other overseas market cheaper and this eats into local markets and there is the govt legislation involved with conservation issues.
Medical attention may be free but the waiting period can be as long as four months just to have an appointment to meet a specialist at the GH. Dental treatment other than extraction would also entail a wait of a few months. I remember I made an aqpppointment for a senior at the End of November and was given an appointment for the beginning of April.
Of course there are the private medical centres which demand a deposit on admittance. Assuming a pension of RM1000, with prevailing prices in the market place, it wont be easy to cut corners.
Transport to these medical centres cost money as one is usually not so mobile and a bus is no longer feasible for long distance travel.
As one ages one needs more care than a son or daughter can give. Remember they are still living and earning a living to feed their own hungry brood. They cannot be with the dad all the time.
Diapers alone can cost more than RM150 a month.
hi bengbeng, thanks for giving me info about the pensioner and the medical care given to pensioners by govt hospitals.
remember we are making discussion and kopitiam talk about it, so everyone please dont take anything i say personally. lets just discuss it like it is a debate. ok? lotsof people are coping, and it would be great if they write in and tell how they do it.
let me clarify that remark of mine about rich. i meant to say this… Before the credit crunch, people have been feeling rich, (though they might not really be rich) and so indulge their children by buying them all kinds of expensive toys. it is a mistake i think. now it will be difficult to tell their children they cannot have any more. it is harder to go back to doing without when u have encouraged them to think anything they want they can get.
Now back to the pensioner…and relying on free govt medical treatment.
it seems it is the long time of waiting before getting the appointment that disturbs people and make them think it is not working. but once your senior was seen she got very good care judgeing from what u posted some time ago. right?
I think everyone should know that there is no harm in waiting. There is a lot of waiting in life, and in fact i find that in life if u have patience, u will enjoy it more.
A lot of health problems are chronic, not acute, and wont be much affected if u have to wait a bit before being seen. sometimes all it needs is time, and the problem goes away when the appointment comes.
old age is a chronic problem. So a lot of treatment of the illness of old age is palliative. Can see what i mean? there is no cure, only palliative treatment. the only reason to hasten an appointment and be seen by a doctor is if the pain cannot be controlled. most pain can be controlled with pain killers and that is what the doctor will give u , even if they see u earlier.
i know all this sounds like i m unforgiving and have no kind heart to listen to others suffering. but old age is painful, sooner or later the body will fail, and u will get pain. there is no cure for old age. it sounds defeatist to say that, but it is a fact of life.
just pray that u die before it gets really bad. that is what i pray for. not for me to live a long life gradually getting more aches and pains as i go old.
anyway, we are talking of how to cope with money problems as one gets older and rely on meagre pensions.
i dont know how the pensioner u mention spends his income of Rm1000 a mnth. my father’s pension is about that much and he saves a lot of that. so if that pensioner cannot make ends meet, maybe we should ask him to have a good look at his budgetting. But perhaps there are other factors in his life, so we cannot really say much about it not knowing the full circumstances.
I am thinking perhaps he likes his cigarettes and his beer, and his gambling, and who knows, who are we to deprive him of those small pleasures in his life, all to save some money? right? but it means he must accept that his health will deteriorate faster than if he did not smoke, and also that money will be spent on those habits and so he will run short. if he thinks it is worth it, well so be it. just dont blame anyone else if he runs short of money at the end of the month.
that is one example to explain why he cannot live on Rm1000 a mnth.most people who have debts have some form of expensive habit; We dont know everything about his life and what he spends his money on but if he cannot cope on Rm1000 a mnth he got some expensive habit in his life.
it might be he just does not know how to budget.
it is a common failing amongst a lot of people.
another thing is to find a means of getting income. that is something many people can really look into.
anyway, just some thoughts about it. be glad if someone can show me I am wrong in my views.
the trouble is i have seen many people who say they cannot cope but when i go deeper into the details of their lives or even observe them i see they spend extravagantly and dont even realise it.
My dear Anthony, the GH asked us to send senior to a private hospital. or she would die within 24 hours and asked us to prepare ourselves for her impending death. the reason was because the Sibu GH one of the best in Sarawak has no such equipment nor such a specialist. in the end so far we have spent more than 120k just on medical bills not including other recurring expenses. Ah, the marvels of govt medical care. they r understaffed n short of funds and equipment. They cannot help it. They are dedicated but stretching themselves as far as they can go. The last time I was warded in GH i was asked to discharge myself early bcos of overcrowded wards and asked to arrange transport to any nearby facility on a daily basis until i was better.
RM1000 for a pensioner to maintain an existence is not much. Minus diapers left over is 850. Minus food is 850-450= 400 ( RM15.00 a day is quite conservative including breakfast, lunch and dinner and perhaps some fibre from fruits : he cannot go to market do marketing or cook etc to save money as it is too tiring ) taxi trips to GH n do other chores cost money too. It is impossible to walk to the bus stop simply because there is not one available nearby or at least one he can walk to with the energy that he has.Then there are the other expenses like electricity, water, telephone( please don’t tell me he doesnt need a telephone as it is the only link to life in case of an emergency ), minor stuff like toilet tissue papers, soap, hair cream, replacing watch battery minor minor n minor stuff which occur rarely but grouped together cost a little bit when there is little to spend on luxuries. washing powder for laundry, toothpaste, shaver, occasional visits to the dr after office hours cos the GH only accepts patients at the accident n emergency section for really serious cases and then there is the taxii involved for the long distance. forget aout an ambulance. a private ambulance cost a minimum of RM25.00 ) – honestly Rm1000.00 is really not that much much nowadays. Thai rice which cost 26 a year ago now cost about 46. the cheapest low quality rice which used to cost 17 is now 24. Many popular canned food have doubled in price. Eggs, chicken, meat, fish etc too have gone up up n up recently. Even newspapers have become a luxury. You would b surprised many just read the papers in the office rather than pay for their own papers. Charity organizations have found their supply of donors shrinking. Cheap fish normally used to feed cats when u were in Malaysia have now shot up to RM7.00 to Rm10.00 per kg. Chicken feet, chicken head et which used to b given free or thrown away are now sold. Fruits too have gone up in price. We are talking about a man who has not bought any thing new for years.
Then there are the occasional wedding invitations which courtesy requires a small ang pow even if unable to attend, maintainence of the home like calling for a plumber, electrician etc when things go wrong. Anthony when we r young n mobile there is much we can do to limit costs but when one’s energy is sapped n limited, one has to respect the factor of convenience and not move around for the best bargains. Even a trip in a car can cause giddiness and need to lie down due to travel sickness.
I think times have changed in recent years especially in the past year or two.I think I also wouldnt want to live too long beyond my productive years. It is a scary thought. i wouldnt like to burden Benghui and his family.
RM1000 is enough if none of your children asking money from you – whether for isi minyak kereta or for buying their rokok or even for their meals,i.e not all pensioners are lucky.
in my opinion, with RM1000.00 the situation could b tight in future with escalating inflation , the free float of petrol prices and 4% GST
When my 2nd daughter was studying in Cyberjaya she used up RM1000 a month just for rent, transport, some course materials and food. And she was trained to live frugally while at home. (She went to school with bread and a bottle of water & didn’t buy canteen food.) I can’t see how it is possible for a pensioner and a wife to survive on that amount unless they are living in a paid-up house with existing transport system or his own car in Sungai Petani. Definitely not in KL.