Rising Costs – What can we do ??

We had the price of our petrol hike up as high as 40% yesterday, and we will expect an increase of electricity tariff around 25%. Many more cost rises to come.

Malaysian Trade Union Congress is urging that private sector employers to give their workers a salary increase up to 15% or cost of living allowance in view of the higher price of petrol and diesel. The point is can the private sector afford it? They too are looking at ever-rising costs

Instead of looking at your employers to save you from this ever rising cost of living, perhaps we have to learn how to “save” ourselves:-

1. Plan our monthly income and expenses, make sure we don’t overspend especially for those who rely heavily on plastic money

2. Cut down the unnecessary expenses, like cigarettes, movies, pub drinking. Well, if you were to notice, I merely say we should cut “down” and not “cut out”. I think it would be miserable if we only devoted our time in working and go completely without any form of entertainment to lighten up our days

3. Try to car pool whenever possible. This helps us to save petrol, save parking and save toll too. Did I not mention it will help save the world less air pollution as well

4. Ultimately, try to earn more. We have 600 agents registered as UT agents within this months, I guess this could be part of the motivation force! There are indeed many good income earning choices for us to choose from, if we are desperate enough

Anyway, here is a light-hearted advert I came across.., do a rough count, and yes, we are looking at roughly 40% increase of all the necessity consumer products for the last one year. Who would believe our inflation rate was less than 5% a year?