Last Updated on March 21, 2025 by Chin Yi Xuan
What’s your biggest achievement at 30?
It sounds small, but learning how to manage my finances has been my core achievement at 30.
Since I started working with my financial planner, Stev (from WealthVantage), I’ve been writing about my financial progress and growth every year.
This year, aside from sharing my progress, I’d also like to share how I manage my finances.
Let this article show that it is possible to grow your wealth with proper habits, discipline, and guidance from a licensed professional!
READ MORE:
Table of Contents
Progress in my finances (2018 – 2024): Net worth, Dividends, Expenses
(i) Net worth
In 2024, I’ve been lucky enough to make meaningful progress in my net worth, mainly due to a slight increase in earning power and an encouraging stock market.
Relative to last year, my net worth has risen by 78% in 2024.
Read on as I’ll share the principles and lessons that helped me grow my wealth in the next section.
(ii) Dividend Income (ft. my Freedom Fund)
Long-time readers of No Money Lah would know that I invest for dividends via my Freedom Fund.
Why? Because I think dividend is the closest thing to true passive income in life. (p.s. HERE is what I use to build my Freedom Fund)
A family incident in 2024 got me thinking:
When the time comes when your loved ones need your care & attention, are you able to put everything aside for them (yes, including work) for a prolonged period of time –
without having to worry about cashflow/money?
Long story short: 2024 is a year that reinforced my commitment to build my dividend income as a reliable form of passive income.
As of 2024, I am happy to share that my Freedom Fund has generated about RM7135.77 in dividend income. This translates to RM594/month in dividends – which is halfway to my short-term goal of RM1,000/month!
You can find out more about my Freedom Fund HERE.
(iii) Personal expenses
Well… I have certainly spent a lot more this year.
Top 3 expenses in 2024:
- To start, I’ve spent much more traveling in 2024. Among all, hiking Mt. Kinabalu, holidaying with my parents in China, visiting Mt. Bromo, and trekking the Annapurna Base Camp. (no regrets!)
- Family expenses come second, including monthly contributions to the family.
- Personal care continues to be my top expense as I hit the gym more frequently for my fitness routine, as well as monthly visits to my chiropractor.
My thoughts on increasing cost of living:
In 2024, I also noticed that most insurance companies had increased the premium for their medical cards in conjunction with rising medical inflation.
Personally, the monthly payment for my medical card has risen by 37.6%.
The lesson here is always to be prepared for little increases in expenses in life.
My 4 wealth principles at 30:
Before sharing how I manage my finances, allow me to share a few key principles that I’ve learned about wealth:
#1 Don’t disturb the compounding process
One key reason for the growth in my net worth this year can be attributed to the encouraging stock market growth in 2024.
Since I am clear that I am investing for the long term, I did not panic sell during the stock market sell-off in August (-9.75%), or the March-August Bitcoin drawdown (-33%).
Rather, I followed my investing routine by investing consistently (a.k.a Dollar Cost Average) each month.
This allowed my investments to enjoy the overall growth of 2024:
#2 Solid defense allows for a stronger offense
Building a solid financial defense line has also become a money principle that served me well.
A ‘solid’ defense line in finances refers to things like:
- Having adequate insurance coverage (life, medical, and critical insurance)
- Having an emergency fund
- Savings for different goals in life such as a house/car purchase, wedding and family matters.
When you have a strong defense line in place, it allows you to take more risks in life (eg. starting a business), and not have to sell your investments for cash during an emergency.
#3 True wealth = Freedom of choice
True wealth in life is having the choice to pursue what you want and spend time on what matters most to you.
As Morgon Housel, the author of ‘The Psychology of Money’ says:
“The ability to do what you want, when you want, with who you want, for as long as you want to, pays the highest dividend money pays.”
#4 When in doubt, get professional help from a licensed financial planner
An important juncture in my personal finance journey was when I started engaging my current financial planner, Stev, to guide my finances in late 2019.
Since then, Stev has guided me with all aspects of my finances, namely:
- Investments: Advised me on an ideal asset allocation for my age and risk appetite.
- Insurance: Guided me on the best insurance plans for my age & lifestyle – and kept me updated if my coverage is enough every year.
- p.s. Unlike insurance agents, a licensed financial planner can offer insurance plans from every insurance company – hence minimizing conflict of interest.
- Tax planning: Informed me of the latest tax rebates that I am entitled to for every new Budget.
- Estate planning: Stev has also helped me set up my will so my assets could be distributed smoothly in my demise. (Read my will-writing experience HERE)
p.s. Click on the button below to get your first financial consultation session – FOC!
How I manage my finances at 30 (with help from my financial planner)
My current money routine at 30 is an incremental refinement of my personal needs and goals over the years.
Generally, I split my finances into 2 spectrums – defense and offense:
#1 Defense
(a) Getting professional help for my will and insurance coverage
Often, the most overlooked aspects of finances are also the most important ones.
As you start owning assets like stocks, unit trusts, and properties, it is crucial to have a will in place so the assets can be legally transferred to your loved ones when you pass away.
I created my will at 28 with the guidance of my financial planner, Stev.
READ MORE: Why I wrote my will at 28
Meanwhile, I relied on Stev’s expertise to find the best insurance combination for my age and lifestyle.
At 30, I spend close to RM470 every month on insurance payments.
To get the most value for money out of the insurance policies, my policies are picked strategically as below:
- Life insurance (Payout on death & total permanent disability): We opted specifically for Term-Life Insurance, in other words – insurance coverage without the investment nature. Term-life insurance is cheaper than investment-linked products but will incrementally become more expensive with age.
- Medical card (Covers hospitalization expenses): We’ve also decided to go with a medical card that covers things like surgery and room & board with an annual limit of RM10m.
- Critical illness (Income replacement while recovering from illnesses like cancer): For this, we opted for protection that could cover my daily expenses for 3 years should I am not able to work due to illnesses like cancer.
What I appreciate about working with a financial planner like Stev, is he can find the best coverage from any insurance company, instead of being tied to a single company like typical insurance agents.
Here’s a glimpse of how Stev proposed a few combinations of insurance solutions for me in 2020:
(b) Automating my emergency fund, sinking fund, PRS, and EPF
The next layer of my defense line include things like my emergency fund, sinking funds, Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) fund, and EPF.
Generally, with the exception of EPF, I automate my monthly contribution to my emergency fund, sinking funds, and PRS fund. This can be easily done via apps like StashAway and Versa.
(i) Emergency fund (6 months to 1 year of daily expenses):
My preferred go-to place for emergency fund are low-risk money market funds like Stashway Simple, Versa Cash, or Moomoo Cash Plus as they offer competitive returns on par with FD, with the flexibility to withdraw anytime without penalty.
(ii) Sinking funds: In my late 20s, I’ve started to plan for many different short and long-term expenses in life and save for them accordingly:
- Short-term expenses: For expenses that I’d likely pay for in less than 2 -3 years, I usually automate my contribution on low-risk money market funds like StashAway Simple. Example:
- Tax payment fund
- Car maintenance fund
- Business fund
- Holiday fund
- Part of my big purchase fund (eg. car, property, future wedding)
- Longer-term expenses: For expenses likely to occur in more than 3 years, I usually automate my contribution on assets with slightly higher risk such as equities and commodities like gold:
- Family fund for family matters and emergency matters
- Part of my big purchase fund (eg. car, property, future wedding)
My favourite way to automate the whole process is through StashAway’s low to medium-risk SRI portfolios, or customize my own Flexible Portfolio on StashAway:
(iii) Private Retirement Scheme (PRS):
For PRS, I only deposit the amount just enough to qualify for tax relief, which is RM3000/year (or RM250/m). I rely on my financial planner, Stev, to recommend the best PRS fund for me.
READ MORE: Guide to choose a PRS fund
(iv) EPF: As a self-employed, I contribute to my own EPF via self-contribution every month.
Tips for self-employed:
Aside from enjoying the relevant tax relief (max RM4,000 per year) and incentives, contributing to EPF regularly is a helpful record while applying for things like a credit card or loan.
A few words about the defense side of my finances:
As a whole, 3 main themes of this section are guidance, automation, and foresight:
- Guidance: Get help from a licensed financial planner, especially for insurance and estate planning.
- Automation: Automate your savings wherever possible with platforms that allow you to do so, such as StashAway and Versa.
- Foresight: At 30, it is important to consider big expenses ahead in life. Are you planning to organize a wedding? Are you planning to buy a house? Will your parents financially rely on you when they get old? Thinking ahead gives you the time to save for these events and avoid you from being caught off guard.
#2 Offense
Every money invested in offense is meant to grow my wealth. There are 3 key sections to my offense:
(a) Building my Freedom Fund (Dividend Portfolio)
One way to achieve freedom in life is to have a consistent, low-maintenance passive income from dividends.
As such, growing my Freedom Fund has become my primary goal, especially in recent years.
As a routine, I’ll reinvest my dividends at the beginning/end of the month, and invest new capital manually through key trend or support & resistance areas.
(b) Growing my growth portfolio
My growth portfolio, on the other hand, consists mainly of ETFs that track the S&P500 (CSPX, VUAA), and NASDAQ-100 index (QQQ, QQQM) in addition to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
I shared more details on my investment approach and style at 30 HERE.
(c) Trading
Aside from investing for the long term, I also allocate some capital for shorter-term trading in the futures market.
A few words about the offensive side of my finances:
After a few years of investing, I’ve come to prefer Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) over picking individual stocks. Reason being, ETFs have their selection system in place that removes unqualified stocks regularly.
Essentially, this makes investing in ETFs relatively low maintenance (or passive) for me over picking individual stocks.
The lesson here is simple: Investing is about discovering a style that suits you. For me, I’ve come to learn that investing passively works best for my personality and lifestyle.
What is it like engaging a licensed financial planner in Malaysia?
Working with my financial planner, Stev, has been a major turning point in my financial journey.
Since we started working in late 2019, Stev has guided me in the aspects that I am not familiar with, such as tax planning, insurance, and the creation of my will.
In addition, hearing Stev’s perspective & wisdom about investing, money, and life have been very helpful in my financial journey.
Should you engage a financial planner in Malaysia?
If you are still uncertain, here are some questions for you:
Do you have important priorities in life that you want to pursue or dedicate time to without having to always worry about your financial status:
“Do I have enough insurance coverage?”
“Am I investing right?”
“Can I retire with what I am earning now?”
If yes, engaging a financial planner can bring massive benefits to your life.
Specifically, I am confident that a financial planner will add massive value to you if:
- You have tried to DIY your finances but still feel overwhelmed.
- You want to prepare your finances for the next phase in life (eg. marriage, retirement), but not sure how.
- You need help to organize your finances in place but you are unsure how or too busy to begin (investments, insurance, estate planning etc).
Yes, there are charges to engage a financial planner. But trust me, this will be an investment that’ll give you returns and peace of mind in multiple folds.
Check out the next section on how to get your first financial consultation – FREE OF CHARGE!
[EXCLUSIVE] Get Your First Financial Consultation Session – FREE OF CHARGE!
If you are keen to explore how a licensed financial planner can help with your finances, this is for you:
I am working together with WealthVantage to bring a FREE Financial Consultation Session to all No Money Lah’s readers!
- When you sign up for this FREE consultation session, you will learn more about your overall financial state.
- Not only that, you can gauge if a financial planner is going to add value in the pursuit of your financial goals.
Regardless, it is 100% FREE and you have zero obligations to take up the service if it is not suitable for you. Plus, you are doing your finances a favor for the year to come!
You can sign up for your FREE financial consultation session by clicking on the button below.
Disclaimers
This article is made possible through a collaboration with WealthVantage. Special thanks to Stev and the team for making this collaboration such an impactful one.
WealthVantage did not receive copy approval rights on this article – that means they are reading this article for the first time, right alongside you.
p.s. This post contains affiliate links, which afford No Money Lah a small referral if you sign up for any paid services.
None of the information contained herein constitutes a recommendation, promotion, offer, or solicitation of an offer to buy, sell or hold any security, financial product or instrument or to engage in any specific investment strategy. Investment involves risks. Investors should obtain their own independent financial advice and understand the risks associated with investment products and services before making investment decisions.
Any discussion or mention of an ETF is not to be construed as a recommendation, promotion or solicitation. All investors should review and consider associated investment risks, charges and expenses of the investment company or fund prior to investing. Before acting on this material, you should consider whether it is suitable for your particular circumstances and, as necessary, seek professional advice.
