Knowing the value of each Malaysian Ringgit becomes more essential when you reach your twenties. When you're in your twenties, you slowly stop relying on your parents for support, as your regular school allowance gets replaced with the regular income you get from a job. Being in your twenties is also the time when various responsibilities kick in -anything from allocating parts of your income to household expenses, providing financial support to your parents, starting a family of your own, paying rent for living in an apartment near your office, or completing monthly installments on a new car. So with all these things to pay for, most of us need tips on saving money. Here are some ways on how adults in their twenties and above can extend their Malaysian Ringgit.

1. Live a frugal life.

- Knowing the value of your Ringgit means every penny counts. Live a frugal life by being wise in every money-related decision. First, make a mental list of your monthly and yearly subscriptions, and what you pay for every month. Then decide whether it is really important to be subscribed to any of these. For instance, do you really need cable TV subscription or magazine subscription when you spend most of your time at the office or outside of your home?

2. Get an insurance plan.

- Another helpful tip in extending your Malaysian Ringgit is to get yourself and your family an insurance plan. Even if you are a naturally frugal person and saving is a regular habit for you, you will still not be able to predict when a natural disaster can occur. Natural disasters can come in the form of earthquakes, typhoon and fire, but can also mean sudden illness, car or swimming accidents, unexpected death in the family, and many others. To be able to protect your savings from just being gobbled up by hospital bills and other necessary expenses for accidents and natural disasters, you should get yourself and your loved ones a medical insurance that can cover medical expenses so that you wouldn't have to be burdened with the full costs of hospitalization and medical bills.

3. Learn about the power of investments.

- After mastering the art of living a frugal life, you may want to level up your saving power by learning about the power of investments. When you save money in a piggy bank, you won't see your money grow as time goes by. If you want to see your money grow just by keeping it in one place, then you should try investing your money into investments that yield compounded interest such as a savings account, a fixed deposit account, a unit trust, or shares. Savings account that can yield 1 to 2% compounded interest, while a fixed deposit account can give you a compounded interest of 3.7% per year, and unit trust can offer 5-20% compounded interest Meanwhile, investing in shares can give you anything from 50-100% compounded interest. What's good about compounding interest is that the longer you keep your money in the account without withdrawing any amount, the bigger your money grows. You just have to note that accounts with bigger possibilities of returns for your account, such as investing in stocks and shares can also mean bigger risks of losing bigger amounts of money. It is therefore important to learn about investing and how to invest so that you can get maximized growth for your money.

4. Use credit cards wisely. 

- Finally, another good way to extend your ringgit and save money effectively is to use your credit cards wisely. It is a smart move to get credit cards to extend your money, but you should keep in mind that credit cards should only be used for emergency purposes, and should not be used at all just to gather reward points which, in the end, can only cost you more when it's time to pay your monthly dues. Always make sure to pay your credit card monthly dues on time every month, and when possible, try to zero out your balance or pay more than the minimum payment amount required. When you have fewer obligations to pay, you will see that it can save you money that can be consumed by late payment fees, underpayment fees, and other unnecessary costs you could have just easily avoided.

Follow these four tips on saving money faithfully, and you will see that after a couple of months, your debts will be significantly reduced, plus you will have more money for yourself and your loved ones to enjoy.

About the Author: 

This article is written by Compare Hero for CP's blog. Compare Hero is Malaysia's leading financial comparison website. Access the website and equip yourself with financial knowledge, compare and find out the best credit card and other financial plans for free.

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The author has been trying to e-mail me a few times but due to my crowded e-mail ... and many things to manage, I forgotten to reply to him. Yesterday, he e-mailed me again ... and I do like his persistence. And the above article is well-written ... glad that I replied to him.

to share with readers ... and will like to comment. Been some time I didnt write my blog, having a 'guest' writer will be great. Anyone else want to write and get posted in my blog?

thanks.

TEH