I initially planned to write this article after successfully moving to Australia. However, considering the lengthy waiting times - it's been almost two years and I'm still waiting - I decided to share my experiences now. Another reason for the delay was not having a clear answer to the common question, "Why Australia?"

I figured it might be better to release this article now, even though I'm still in the midst of the process. I’ll update it as I go and share the backstory in a separate article later. Today's article will focus on two things: the WHATs and the HOWs. I won't be discussing the WHYs and the WHENs, as these are still unclear at this juncture.

Considering the complexity of Australia's visa landscape, I can only discuss the visa categories I researched when planning my move, so this information will be most relevant to skilled professionals in Malaysia. Just to call it out - as I'm not a registered migration agent or lawyer (note: they're both very different roles), I won't be able to share personalized advice with you but I hope that, at least, the experiences and circumstances of mine would help you to better figure out what next to do.

At least that's what I found very useful (more on the resource groups later) throughout my journey by reading others' experiences sharing and connecting a dots or two. Enjoy the read!

Australia's Visa Immigration Process?

Migrating to Australia may seem complex, but it is not too hard to navigate it by yourself if you understand the concept. Australia's government did a good job of providing comprehensive steps and clear documentation, guidelines, and steps to follow throughout the process which was helpful for me.

Unfortunately, this was also daunting to many given the many pages to consume & read - and after all, we humans have a very short attention span nowadays (only 8.25s, worse than a goldfish!). This was often cited as the main reason to go for a Registered Migration Agent/Lawyer which will often cost aplenty. I'll briefly cover this topic later as well.

Here's a quick overview of some of the key steps for migrating to Australia.

Eligibility and Points System

Like most of the developed countries, Australia adopts a similar approach when it comes to bringing in skilled talents into the country through a points-based system. Points are awarded based on key factors like age, education, work experience, and English proficiency. Hitting the minimum points threshold is your ticket to participate in the migration selection process.

Whilst there have been discussions about Australia revising its points-based system to align more closely with other Five-Eyes Nations, as outlined in the Migration Strategy 2023 Whitepaper, it remains a points-based system. This ensures that the candidates they select align closely with Australia’s needs.

Skills and Occupation Lists

Your skills and qualifications need to be validated by Australian authorities. The Skilled Occupation List (SOL) plays a crucial role, listing all the professions that are in demand. This list helps determine which visa category you might be eligible for.

Generally speaking, Healthcare professionals or Teachers are always in demand and will almost always get priority processing (in a matter of weeks) vs. other occupation classes (at least 12-18 months for in-demand occupations, or 2-4 years for low-priority occupations).

Thankfully for me, ICT professionals are still kind of in demand, not in the priority processing queue but at least still on their list with tolerable allocations with approx 12-18 months waiting time. Some roles with abundant of supply (i.e. accountant) might be on a tougher side, considering the very limited grants that they have per year.

Visa Categories

There are several visa types that people generally consider when planning their migration to Australia which can generally be fitted into three major buckets: Skilled-Independent Stream, State-Sponsored Stream, or Employer-Sponsored Stream.

Skilled-Independent Stream

This category includes visas like the Skilled Independent Visa (subclass 189) which do not require employer sponsorship. Applicants must meet specific criteria based on their skills and qualifications, with a minimum of 65 points score.

This is for those who like to do things their way with zero strings attached. If you get an invitation for 189, you're damn lucky (except if you're from Healthcare or Teaching) considering the shortage of invites in the last two years due to the significant build-up backlogs from the previous government.

Hence you can imagine the competition around this space - not many will get even an invitation even if they meet the "minimum 65 points". Just to give you some perspective, even if ICT roles have a higher chance to get invited than, say, Accounts, they may only get invited when they have at least 100 points, way above the minimum threshold. You can find the numbers published by the government here.

It's a dog-eat-dog world...

State-Sponsored Stream

This category includes visas like the Skilled Nominated Visa (subclass 190) or Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) Visa (subclass 491) and later transitioning into Permanent Residence (Skilled Regional) visa (subclass 191) where a specific Australian state or territory nominates the applicant based on the labour needs of that region. The applicant must meet the criteria set by both the state and the federal government.

Unlike the Skilled-Independent stream, this visa does come with a few strings attached such as requirements to live & work in the region/state if approved. Still, it's a very strong and viable alternative for those finding the competition for 189 too fierce.

With state sponsorship, your chances of getting an invitation can significantly increase, especially if you're struggling to hit the high points required for the 189. While you do need to commit to living and working in the sponsoring state for a couple of years, it’s a small price to pay for a better shot at making Australia your new home.

Additionally, the state governments may also have their own lists of in-demand occupations and criteria for nomination, which can sometimes be more favourable than the federal requirements. Plus, the added benefit of state support can ease your transition into the Australian workforce.

It's about playing the long game and being strategic - sometimes having a few strings attached is worth it to secure your place in Australia.

Employer-Sponsored Stream

This stream includes visas like the Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186) and the Temporary Skill Shortage Visa (subclass 482), which require an Australian employer to sponsor the applicant. The employer must meet certain conditions, and the applicant must fulfill the job requirements set by the employer and the Australian government. UPDATE: On December 7 2024, the Skills in Demand (SID) visa replaced the Temporary Skills Shortage (TSS) visa but concept shall largely remaain the same. For specifics please refer to official Australian Immigration website.

Finding an employer willing to sponsor an offshore candidate with no Australian experience can be challenging, but if you manage to secure a sponsor, this pathway is one of the fastest and most certain routes to move and work in Australia.

The key advantage here is the direct link to employment, which can significantly smooth your transition into the Australian workforce. Once sponsored, you can work towards permanent residency within 2-3 years through the subclass 186 visa. This pathway provides a clear, structured route to not just living in Australia, but fully integrating into the professional landscape.

Employers sponsoring you must also meet specific conditions and must demonstrate that they can't fill the position with a local candidate (Australian Citizens or Australian PR holders). While it might sound like a lot of red tape, for many professionals, this stream offers a faster, more assured way to start a new chapter Down Under as this is something that we can keep trying until we find the willing employers (vs. waiting forever for Federal or State Government's invitation which may never come).

Which Visa Stream is the Best?

Generally speaking, Skilled Independent Visa (subclass 189) would be rated as the "best possible visa" to get as it provides you with a one-step permanent residency with no restrictions, followed by Skilled Nominated Visa (subclass 190) which is very similar but with certain state obligations (staying/working in that state).

Following that, you can't go wrong with either Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) Visa (subclass 491) or Temporary Skill Shortage Visa (subclass 482) temporary work visa as both provide you with a guaranteed pathway towards Permanent Residency in 2 or 3 years via through their respective Permanent Residency Visa counterparts: Permanent Residence (Skilled Regional) visa (subclass 191) / Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186)

Due to the extreme competitiveness and the huge number of people trying to migrate into Australia the last decade, it's always better not to self-impose limits on the categories that you'll be attempting for and keep your options open.

Remember this, securing an invite is a step closer to achieving your migration dream (vs. just waiting forever for an invite). Do whatever you can to maximize your score, especially those within your control such as maximizing your years of experience in relevant industries, scoring flat 8's on your IELTS exam, staying single OR married with a skilled partner (just kidding!), etc.

Application and Processing

I'll cover this more in-depth in the next section, but generally speaking, you'll usually need to prepare some of the pre-requisite tests/documentations/papers so that you qualify to express your interest to the Australian Government (Federal or State, or sometimes both) that, yes, you have the intention to move there.

If you get selected, you’ll then be invited to apply for a visa. This involves submitting a detailed application along with necessary documents to prove your claims, undergoing health and character assessments, etc. Unfortunately, this is also the part that many may give up - as the wait for an invitation could be as short as a day, or as long as a couple of years, or it may never come.

Permanent Residency – Is It Ever Green?

One part that confused the heck out of me was how their permanent residency system worked, and often many people think that the permanent residency lasts only 5 years, and every 5 years you'll have to "renew your PR" as you do your passport.

It doesn't work like that - at least in Australia's case, your permanent residency is... permanently yours once granted to you. Upon the first grant, you'll usually be asked to make your first trip Down Under within the first 12 months to "activate" your permanent residency, following which you'll have total of 5-years "travel visa" activated starting from the day of the first grant (not your first trip!).

After the lapse of the five years, few things can happen:-

1. If you're still within Australia and have no plans to travel outside of Australia, you don't need to do anything. You're still a legitimate resident as a PR Holder and can stay in Australia indefinitely.
2. If you're still within Australia and have plans to travel outside of Australia, whilst your PR lasts your lifetime, you won't be able to return to Australia should you leave the country without a valid "Subclasses 155 or 157 Resident Return Visa".
3. If you're still outside Australia - the same situation applies as Scenario #2 above. But if you haven't been staying in Australia, it'll be very tricky for you to get your Resident Return Visa approved - don't risk it!

Think of the Resident Return Visa as your "Passport" to enter Australian Borders as a Permanent Resident. You don't need a "Passport" if you don't plan to travel overseas, and you'll need to make sure you have it ready should you choose to travel out of Australia. That's how my lawyer explained it to me and immediately the concept was clear.

To put it simply, you don't want to catch yourself in a situation where you are outside Australia but without a valid "travel facility" to return home to Australia.

Resources and Support

And now the last part, before we delve into the specifics. If it is not made clear to you yet, fortunately, or unfortunately, in Australia's case, it is not mandatory to use a registered migration agent or lawyer to represent you. Many have gone with the do-it-yourself (DIY) route (myself included) to save money as generally speaking it'll cost double if you opt for an agent/lawyer to represent you.

However, if you've already started feeling dizzy reading the high levels above, don't worry, it's not you. It's just the complex migration landscape that Australia’s Department of Home Affairs had set themselves onto. This is also the reason many shunned away from the DIY route.

It's entirely possible to DIY yourself - you just need to read aplenty - which fortunately their website offers a wealth of resources to help you navigate this journey. But if you decide to go with an agent/lawyer, please MAKE SURE that they are registered migration agents/lawyers and ask for their MARN ID, which you can look up on Australia's government website here.

One key difference to call out between a migration agent vs a migration lawyer - an agent merely helps you with specific advice / administrative activities to facilitate your migration process, but a lawyer would be able to do all that plus advise you from legal perspectives, represent you in court, etc. Of course, a lawyer would generally cost more and hence many opted for agents to represent them - but you also have to pick the right agent.

As I opted for the DIY route, I won't be able to comment much on ways of working with migration agents/lawyers - but as with many of the posts I've seen on Facebook / Reddit Support Group, even if you delegate, you must still do your research and cannot fully delegate. It's not like you throw money and the problem is not yours anymore, at least not the case for immigration and visas.

Remember this, if your agent fucks up, it is you and your record that will get into trouble with the government. I've seen people getting permanently blacklisted from Australia (and the Five Eyes countries) because of careless mistakes from their agents representing them, ultimately costing them their migration dream FOREVER in this lifetime not only for Australia but also for the other Five Eyes countries (US, UK, NZ, Canada).

If you're DIY-ing, it's good to join support groups like Australian Visa & Immigration Discussion Group on Facebook or /r/AusVisa on Reddit to read about others' experiences but like everything else that you read on the Internet, please always bring your salt filter (take it with a grain of salt, ha-ha!) and do your homework from official government website!

Now, let's move on to the sharing of my personal experiences when applying for the Australian PR visa, with some other tips.

My Journey: Navigating the Australia Visa Application Process

When I first started the whole process, I told myself that this would be a long marathon and not a short sprint, and I'm so thankful that I did that.

As of writing this article, I'm coming close to the two-year mark of the process and I'm still barely done yet with the whole visa journey and am still waiting for my visa grants.

Of course, all I need to do now is just be patient and hopefully someday in the near future I can update this article and officially close this chapter off but till then.

Step 0: Crafting My Migration Blueprint

There are few things that are important before you start. You'll need to first the layout the groundwork and create a solid strategy for your migration journey. In my line of work, we usually call this the Project Initiation and Planning phase.

Things to consider are such as my personal circumstances:

• going alone vs. with a partner?
• what timeline am I looking at to move to Australia?
• how do I break news to my family members' on my plan to eventually move out?
• what was my travel history for the last 10 years?
• what visa options and pathways would work for me, and what is my plan B/C/D in case if I don't get the "best visa" with a direct PR grant?
• how much points do I have, based on the points calculator? where else can I maximize my points to stay competitive?

The first step usually involves determining your current points using the Department of Home Affairs' Points Calculator then coming out with a strategy on how to maximize your points.

After that, I'll need to decide if I want to do everything myself or engage an agent or a lawyer to do everything for me. I initially opted to do everything myself so that meant countless hours of reading historical posts on Facebook Groups or Reddits, filtering information and trying to scour experience sharing from real agents/lawyers, or individuals detailing their experiences as those had proven to be very useful.

One particular post that I still remember is this post from an ex-Immigration Officer on Reddit which was very useful insight and helped me to shape my strategy.

Additionally, whilst I still prefer the DIY route, given some complexities on my end (which I can't share publicly yet but don't worry, it doesn't apply to most people I know today), I also decided to seek some professional advice through consultations with migration lawyer ensuring that everything that I put in plan is in order and nothing is left out.

On the travel history part, yes, you did not read it wrongly. I purposely put it here as I only found out later during the application step itself that I had to compile the list of travel history - as mine was pretty intensive the last 10 years, I had to backtrack from multiple sources: Old Passport Stamps, Flight Tickets, Email Trails, Expense Claim History, Google Map Location History, etc. YOU NEED THE EXACT DATES OF TRAVEL FOR EACH AND EVERY TRIP YOU HAD DONE THE LAST 10 YEARS! But don't worry, you'll have months to prepare it now that I've told you upfront. Don't be like me scrambling to dig out my travel history during the visa application (step 5) itself.

Once all that is done, it's time to jump into the Project Execution & Controlling phase.

Cost & Time: MYR ~1.1k / ~1 month

Step 1: Skilled Occupation Eligibility

Now that the high-level plans are set, I'll need to check and make sure that I'm eligible to move and finalize some of the preparation activities that need to be done.

Some questions I've asked myself are:

• which "skilled occupation" gives me the highest chance of securing an invite?
• do I have enough "job experience" with the preferred "skill occupation"?

As I'm qualified as an ICT professional, things were easier for me since there's only one approved body to assess my skills the Australian Computer Society (ACS). You can look for your skilled occupation list here which also tells you who are your possible choices for assessing the body who will be assessing your employment experiences to prove that you're indeed a skilled professional.

I crawled through the 21-page (then) guideline for applicants from ACS on what the requirements to get assessed as a skilled ICT professional, including how they calculate my experience years.

In the case of ACS, they will only start counting my experience years AFTER my graduation, and the first two working years experience will also be deducted for "training" purposes. In simple words, only working experiences 2 years after my graduation will be considered as "skilled experience" to qualify as a skilled ICT professional.

Once that's done, it's getting my documentation sorted in order to prepare for the ACS Skilled Migration Assessment. I won't be listing out their requirements here, as requirement changes over time but generally speaking, these were the documents that I had to prepare, colour scan, and compile into corresponding PDFs (one file per category).

• Personal Documents: Passport, NRIC, Drivers' License, Birth Certificates, Resume
• Academic Documents: Degrees & Transcripts
• Employment Documents: Last 10 Years worth of Employer's Reference letter (with detailed Job Title & Description specified), Payslips, Bank Statements, EA Forms or Tax Slips, EPF Account Confirmation Letter in English (only last 6 years unfortunately)

Just for the record, the total pages totalled about 98 pages. That's how extensive they want to go to when it comes to checking your documentation. Again, check the latest guidelines - things may be added or removed on a month-to-month basis depending on the assessors.

In my case, I didn't translate anything but for EPF specifically I requested a formal written letter in English from them confirming my accounts' existence and also my employer's name for last 10 years, but due to their policy they can only retrieve records up to the last 6 years (which was good enough for me). I also decided to get two of the skilled occupations assessed which doubled the cost but proven to be unnecessary in the end as I was lucky to get an invite very quickly.

Cost & Time: MYR ~3.3k / ~4 months

Step 2: English Proficiency Test

Since my skilled assessor (ACS) does not require English Proficiency Evidence as part of the requirements, I could do this step in parallel whilst waiting for the skilled assessment results (which took me 4 months of waiting). For some professionals (i.e. Engineers I believe?), English Proficiency Evidence were requested as part of the documentation to be submitted so they had to first finish up the English test.

There's nothing much to say here, some people are naturally good in English (I had an acquaintance scoring flat 9's on all 4 categories in IELTS with only 2 weeks prep), and some are not. Unfortunately, I belong to the latter category and had to spent about 1.5 months preparing my English.

There are two types of major tests that people usually choose from - either IELTS English Test by British Council/IDP/Cambridge English or PTE English Exam by Pearson are fine as both are recognized by the Australian Government. Some swear by IELTS (myself) and others PTE - depending on where your strengths are, you may prefer the IELTS exam formats or PTE exam formats. Additionally, I also went for IELTS Academic in case if I ended up pursing further studies, but some people preferred the IELTS General which has easier Writing Tasks so if that works out for you, it's also fine!

Whatever you choose, do not underestimate and get very familiar and comfortable with their (odd) test formats. You cannot (usually) just go in and wing it due to the expectations on the exam formats. I opted for IELTS test as I wasn't made aware of PTE back then, but had I been given the choice again, I'll probably still stick with IELTS. I prefer their exam format which are more clear-cut and split but their markings are very strict, especially speaking and writing.

Some very useful prep materials & sites that I had used, listed in no logical order:

• E2 IELTS (YouTube / Online Practices / Spotify Podcasts)
• Mini IELTS Tests for mock tests
• British Council Mock Exams (given free practice questions as part of the package)

As mentioned above, I went with the British Council when I sat for my IELTS exam. There were some unfortunate incidents (technical issues on their end) resulting in my first exam results being null & void, and having to re-sit for the whole thing again (traumatic I must say), but at least they acknowledged the problem on their end and agreed to addressed the whole issue amicably so I'll give them credits for that.

Cost & Time: MYR ~1k / 2 months

Step 3: Lodging an Expression of Interest (EOI)

After at least 3-4 months of waiting, finally, all the prerequisites are in order. Armed with my IELTS results and skills assessment letter, I was able to finally lodge an Expression of Interest (EOI) through the SkillSelect system in August/September. Note that you CANNOT submit an EOI without first having a valid English Test Results and Skilled Assessment Letter as a Malaysian.

As part of the EOI lodgement, I was required to self-declare some of the details of my work experience, education, and other personal info to show I was a good fit for the country and at this point, I do not (yet) need to submit any documentation (which I already had prepped in earlier steps anyway)

Just one tip that I have learned from various Facebook Groups & Reddit Posts - check your state requirements. Some state will NEVER pick your EOI, if you indicated interest in multiple states & federal invite as they think that you may not commit to their state. To avoid such problem, many of us submit multiple EOI's, one for each state (if we qualify).

Since the submission is free and this is merely an expression of interest which does not guarantee an invite, in my case, I submitted at least 4 separate EOI's to maximize my chance of securing an invite, aligning to my Migration Strategy. Each of them would have a unique EOI ID generated:

• 189 Visa (Skilled Independent)
• 190 Visa (State Sponsored) for Victoria
• 190 Visa (State Sponsored) for New South Wales
• 190 Visa (State Sponsored) for Canberra

I did not lodge any EOI with some states (i.e. Queensland, Northern Territory, Western Australia, or South Australia) either due to their very specific requirements in Fiscal Year 2023-2024 requiring candidates already onshore or having already secured employment in their state; or due to the lack of prospects in the region for ICT professional (I don't see myself living there). You can also see that I am being slightly picky and excluded the 491 Visa as I much prefer to live & work in the City rather than in Regional Areas.

Again, how many EOIs you submit will largely depend on your profile, your strategy, and the temperature surrounding Australian migration policies at the time of application. In my time, it was a very tight competition due to the government reducing the migration target by 50%-80% so I decided to spread my bet beyond the Golden 189 Visa.

Once you have submitted, you'll get a confirmation email from SkillSelect and all you do is sit back, relax, and make sure your documents don't expire while waiting (and proactively renew them if you have to). The wait can be brutal if you're unlucky, I've seen cases where people waited for 2-3 years for an invitation to apply. In my case, I was f**king lucky to get an invite within 4 months. Make sure to again re-check the requirements from the state, some will also require you to lodge a similar Registration of Interest on the State Government's website (such as the case for Victoria).

Cost & Time: FREE / ~5 months

Step 4: State Nomination (Pre-Invitation Phase)

Not everyone will go through this phase, as it depends again on the requirements laid out by the state which may differ from one to another. In my case, the state was interested in my EOI and wanted to do some fact-checking before sending me the official invite to apply for the visa (through the Federal Government a.k.a Department of Home Affairs).

In short, they are checking and "trying" before they "buy". I had to go through another round of state nomination review & approval process and their ask is very simple - prove whatever I have claimed in my EOI to them.

In some states (which happens for mine too), they will also ask you to prove that you can meet their additional requirements laid out earlier - which was why I mentioned the importance of checking the states' specific requirements before even lodging the EOI and getting ready those documents.

I submitted all the documents which I had already prepared previously during the Skilled Assessment step to the state, plus some additional niche ones which were part of their specific ask such as proof of offshore residency, employment contract, past 6 months bank/credit card account statements with everyday spending. Some states will also charge you for this service as it costs them people and time to verify your documents submitted.

Had I submitted EOI for the other states (such as Western Australia or South Australia), I'll probably get rejected at this step since I don't meet their specific requirements (being onshore or having employment secured in their state)

I was expecting a long wait as the state government mentioned that it may take up to 6 weeks. But to my surprise, the whole state nomination approval took me only less than a week. Within a week, they approved my nomination, congratulated me, and sent me the official invitation to apply for a visa through the Department of Home Affairs. Note that at this point, it does not yet indicate any form of approval for the visa - I merely got the "ticket" to lodge my official visa application and pray/wait for the grant.

Whilst waiting for the state approval, I also kickstarted some official documents' translation process in parallel. Whilst the translated documents were not needed for all the steps prior this, however, I knew that for the official visa application, I'll need to at least have my Birth Certificate translated. As a precaution, I also translated my SPM Certificate and School Leavers' Certificate in case I need it in the future for other purposes.

For translation within Australia, you MUST use services recognized by the Australian Government which is NAATI certified or if done outside Australia, must be recognized body so I went with ITBM which is one of the recommended bodies by the Australian Consular in Malaysia, costing me MYR ~100 per page and ready within a week. Still cheaper than engaging Australia-based NAATI-certified translators.

Cost & Time: MYR ~1.3k / less than 1 week

Step 5: Invitation to Apply & Visa Lodgement (Visa Application)

With the official invitation at hand, I can now finally lodge my visa application with the Department of Home Affairs. Basically, once the state government finalizes their decision to invite you (for 190's or 491's) or if the federal government decides to invite you (for 189's), you'll receive a system notification email from SkillSelect notifying you that you have been invited and requesting you to proceed with the final application, furnishing all details, provide the necessary evidence, and complete the payment.

Documentations-wise, it is submitting again the same/similar set of documents that I had done in the last two rounds, with a few additions this time around such as a Translated Birth Certificate, a Recent Passport-Format photo of myself, and a Police Check (in Malaysia we call it Sijil Kelakuan Baik or Certificate of Good Conduct issued by Wisma Putra).

If you don't have a Police Check done yet, don't worry, just proceed with the application for now and do it (fast) whilst waiting - the Immi Officer won't open your file so soon anyway. As of writing, it takes at least 6 - 18 months for an officer to be assigned to your case after application unless you're from a priority occupation (healthcare or teacher).

For payment, most of us from offshore would most likely be paying it using our Credit Card - just remember that there'll be additional card surcharges imposed by the Australian government, not to forget also your bank's charges such as unfavourable exchange rate or additional conversion fees on top, usually ranging to a total of 1.5% - 2.5%.

Upon completing the payment, your visa application will officially be submitted and you can track your progress via ImmiAccount.

At the same time, you'll also receive an message from SkillSelect that your EOI has been suspended. Don't worry about SkillSelect going forward, as you don't need it anymore.

One thing to note tho - if you had submitted multiple EOIs in the past as I did, remember to also log in into the OTHER EOI ID's in SkillSelect to withdraw or suspend them, as there's no point at this juncture for you to receive further invites from any other States/Federal Government. This is both to provide opportunity to others whom may need it, and also not to receive invitation for visa of lower tiers (for example if you submitted EOIs for both 190 and 491, no point getting 491 invite going forward).

Another tip I can give you - you DON'T NEED to start and finalize your application form all in one go. You can always save the draft and revisit it - so make sure that you prepare and check 999 times but submit it only once! It's always to play it safe rather than finding out later that you've forgotten something, attached the wrong file, or filled up the form wrongly.

Cost & Time: MYR ~15k / less than 1 week

Step 6: Medical and Police Checks – The Waiting Game Begins

Medical Check

Once you have submitted your application, you may also notice that there's a section requesting your action: Health Examination Needed. You cannot simply use any other annual screening reports that you have done as those are useless to the eyes of Australian Government (I found out the hard way and paid for unnecessary fees to do additional screening last year).

Simply put, the Health Examination can only be done after you lodge your visa application, which you'll see in the Action Required section. Follow through the steps (I don't have the print screens anymore, unfortunately) and make your Health Declarations, which will generate a HAP ID for you. This is extremely important as it will be required for the medical centre to share information with the Australian Government.

With the HAP ID, you can now proceed with the appointment with selected medical centres by region which you can find more information on their website. For Kuala Lumpur, LifeCare Diagnostic Centre at Bangsar South was appointed so I pre-paid MYR 365 for their online packages by selecting the appropriate package according to my visa type (in my case, it was PERMANENT VISA - ABOVE 15 YEARS OLD - NON-HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONS), went to the centre, and done within a couple of hours.

The results will be updated back to your ImmiAccount within 1-2 weeks after the test, so don't worry even if the status still shows "Pending". Eventually, it will go away and show Health Clearance provided (if there's no issues).

Police Check

As for Police Check (Sijil Kelakuan Baik or Certificate of Good Conduct), just visit our Wisma Putra website on https://ekonsular.kln.gov.my/login and then follow through the steps there to apply for a certificate. The waiting time varies - I've done it twice so far and both were approved / ready for collection within a month.

Essentially, you fill-up the form and provide them with the reasons for your application, they'll process it and either request you to furnish more evidences on why you need it or approve it straightaway. To save time, make sure you explain very clearly that you're requesting this as part of Visa Application for Australian PR/Visa and attach the Application evidences to them.

Once they've approved it, you may or may not receive an email from e-Konsular stating that your certificate is ready for collection hence it is important to frequently login into eKonsular to check latest status. You'll have to make the payment (MYR 20 only) online before you can collect.

Visit Wisma Putra @ Putrajaya and go straight to the SKB Collection Counter, get a Number, wait, and you're pretty much done.

Remember to print both the Collection Slip and Payment Receipt if you're doing physical collection - you'll need to bring physical printed copies for both of it during the collection day.

UPDATE MARCH 2025: They have recently introduced Digital Version of collection method - exact same step as above but choose "Digital Download" instead of "Collect @ Putrajaya". I did it for my 3rd renewal in 2025 considering the soonish-to-expire certificate and was pleasantly surprised that I can now download directly from eKonsular rather than driving all the way down south.

Wait, Wait, and Wait.

Whilst waiting - it is important for you to keep track in case any of your important document expires. In my case, my passport expired shortly after the submission so I had to renew it and inform immigration through ImmiAccount and since the Police Certificates in Malaysia are tied to my passport, I had to revisit Wisma Putra to have a new Police Check issued too.

For those that like to go above and beyond, some people (myself included) also attach in advance the Form 80 and Form 1221 as there was some sharing in the past where some (not all) of the applicants received a S56 (Request for More Information) from the officer to fill up either one or both of those forms, resulting in additional 2-4 months waiting time after the receipt of S56. So to avoid that, many of us submit these forms pre-emptively even though it is not mandated as part of the requirement.

You may also want to consider informing your employer (if you're on good terms) that you're currently undergoing such a process, as they may or may not receive calls/emails from the Australian Immigration Officer requesting verification of your employment.

It is also extremely important at this stage that you start keeping track of your Years of Experience (after deducting the years that your assessor deducts) and be very careful in your career going forward until you get your visa grant.

I almost accepted a lateral transfer/move outside of my nominated occupation and had I done that, my years of experience would have stopped accumulating from that point onwards and for every month that Australian Government drags their feet on my application, I will start losing "years of experiences" since they only look back the last 10 years' worth of experience, with the first 2 years deducted for "training purposes" at the time of processing the visa. This is extremely sensitive for me considering that my years of experience barely made it into the >8 years mark and I can't afford to lose any months working in non-related professions due to the slow processing by the Australian Government.

Other than that, life goes on. It's also important for you to consider your circumstances - more specifically, your marital status as this will have a huge implication on the application if it changes during the waiting game. For example, as a single application with no intention to bring a partner, I was allocated 10 points in the Skill-Tested stream but if these circumstances change and say, I am married (or has a partner, de-facto or not) where my partner is not skilled/qualified, I will get fewer points than that which is a common cause for visa rejection.

This is the part that gets extremely tricky especially with the long visa processing times, as immigration expects us to put our life on hold until they've vetted through the visa application.

Cost & Time: MYR ~0.6k so far / Timing Unknown for now, with lots of Patience Needed.

Wrap Up

So that's pretty much it! As of writing this article, I'm still awaiting the visa grant so I'll do further updates once I've unlocked the next steps. All things considered, I have spent at least MYR ~21K to date on the whole visa application process inclusive of all the random miscellaneous charges. Had I not opted for the DIY route, the figures could easily be 50% to 100% higher than what I am paying.

Considering the ever-changing landscape of Australia's Migration landscape, the article can be considered as outdated before it was even published as the migration landscape is ever-changing. I'm merely sharing my personal experiences which are accurate at the time when I went through these processes. You need to consult directly the Immigration Home Affairs' official page for the latest news & requirements to check what is needed.

If you are not confident in doing it yourself (it's easy in my opinion, you need to just invest some time to read aplenty), perhaps it's better for you then to consider professional services offered by Registered Migration Agents or Lawyers, which will easily x1.5 ~ x2.0 your upfront visa costs due to the service fees charged by them.

Still, even if you engage a professional, it doesn't save you from having to do your own research. You'll still need to check their work to ensure that everything is in order. Damage is on you, not them, if things screw up, and it'll affect your immigration records history PERMANENTLY not only for Australia, but also the other Five Eyes country (Canada, New Zealand, US, and UK). People have been innocently barred for life due to their agent/lawyer's mistake, a mistake which affects their potential pathways in the lifetime.

Nevertheless, I hope this article was helpful enough to get you started and pursue your Australian dreams and hopefully, we'll all get our dreamed permanent residency or work visa sooner than later!

As always, thanks for reading and I will see you again in my next post! If you haven't already, be sure to follow me on my Instagram, Facebook and YouTube for the latest updates!

Cheers,
Gracie

Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute migration advice. For advice tailored to your specific circumstances, consider consulting a registered migration agent or migration lawyer. To find a registered migration agent, visit the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority (MARA) at https://www.mara.gov.au/.​

The post Guide to Migrating to Australia for Skilled Malaysian Professionals appeared first on Ringgit Freedom.

Skip through the first part if you dislike rants, you have been warned! Like, really looooooong rant considering YNAB was once one of my most loved tools over the last decade.

YNAB, I've had enough. It's time to move on.

The sentence above summarizes how I've been feeling the last few weeks, when YNAB, again announced another shocking price increase so that "they can continue to release new features". Look, I understand, inflation sucks. The same loaf of whole wheat bread which used to cost us RM3.20 in the past now costs us RM4.50. And that's inflation and I get it.

What frustrates me is how YNAB has been handling the whole situation, which can't help but make me feel that either the founder has been so out-of-touch with the community, simply doesn't care and wants to maximize his profits/squeezes, or is just being forgetful and forgot why their story of starting up YNAB - dedicated to helping change lives. I understand that YNAB itself is a business and not a charity organisation, but their endless greed with near-zero valuable upgrades since 2015 disgusts me, to say the least.

Just to share some context, YNAB was started both as a tool (excel spreadsheet) and a mindset/method (the YNAB four rules) in 2004, and gradually evolved into a beautiful desktop/mobile-based app with one-time purchase (YNAB4 @ 2011?) and later a web-based app with a subscription model (New YNAB @ 2015). I joined them and became their "cult" in 2013, when I found out how simple was it to budget using YNAB4 without feeling like I'm constraining myself - more on this part later. Probably the best $15 that I've spent during a Steam Summer Sales.

I don't have issues with app developers going for a subscription model, as it's how most software companies today sustain their business. The problem I have is how they've handled the transition, and also how they treat their cult fan base that has been following them since the early 2010s (myself included). In 2015 when they released their "New YNAB" app, gone with them were the days of one-time purchases, which was fine. I decided that I liked YNAB enough, and since they're giving their loyal fans a 10% lifetime discount, pricing the annual subscription at only $45/year, I decided to support their business, paid for it, and moved on with my life.

Aside from supporting YNAB's business, I moved along with their WebApp subscription model as I believe that is the way forward for most businesses, and had faith that they'll continue to develop the products for the better good. Scour through Reddit and you'll see countless mentions of "Reporting" feature lacking in YNAB4 (and the New YNAB) - and that was promised during the waves of migrating to new tool, as this enables them to deliver better features through a more sustainable platform vs. Adobe AIR/Flash-based YNAB4 App.

Fast forward to 2024 today, a good 9 years later, the feature is still yet to be seen or delivered - with roadmaps no longer publically published on their website recently, and most ironically: this feature was made available in 2016 through open-source collaboration - the YNAB Toolkit. It really makes you think - if random contributors can develop custom reports within 1 year after nYNAB's release, what have the YNAB team been doing with their profits over the last 9 years? Let's just recount the new major features nYNAB has released over the last 9 years: Bank/Card Direct Sync (selected banks in supported regions - not available in Asia anyway), Targets & Progress Bars, Loan Calculator, The Blurple (Coloured Theme), Buttons Changes, etc. 9 FREAKING YEARS!!!!!!

Anyway, to make matters worse, they've decided that the profits were too lucrative, and decided to continually hike the prices despite the rather disappointing developments over the last 9 years.

• In 2016, what used to be $15 one-off app purchases has become a $50/year subscription model, but thankfully legacy users get a 10% lifetime discount
• In 2017, they increased the price from $50/year to $87/year, but promised to keep the original price for YNAB4 supporters
• In 2021, they decided to double their annual subscription price of legacy users from $45 to $89 after discounts
• In 2024, yet another price increase from $99 to $109 before discounts.

Since 2021 I have stopped proactively recommending YNAB to my friends, let alone readers, considering the unreasonable pricing strategy. Think about it - Microsoft Family 365 Subscription in the US costs $99.99/year - with up to 6 licenses for you and your family with total of 6TB Cloud Storage included. Put this into perspective and consider the weak MYR currency - $99 means plenty here.

I sucked it up in 2016, and again in 2021, but, not this time. YNAB, I've had enough. It's time to move on.

//END OF RANT//

What's a Zero-Based Budgeting?

Ever found yourself scratching your head, wondering where exactly your hard-earned ringgit went by the end of the month? If you're nodding right now, it's high time we talk about Zero-Based Budgeting, a strategy that could revolutionize how you handle your finances. In layman's terms, Zero-Based Budgeting is also seen as envelope-based budgeting where you assign monies you have at hand to a purpose (category), effectively giving every ringgit a job.

1 - 1 = 0

(Income - Budgeted = 0)

Unlike the usual budgeting methods where you adjust last month’s expenses to guess this month's, Zero-Based Budgeting requires you to start from zero every single month based on the income you have received. Only actual incomes that you have at hand.

Now, you might be thinking, “Why all the fuss every month?” or perhaps "I don't have the time to track every single transaction!". But look, here's the thing: Zero-based budgeting pushes you to justify every expense. It makes you ultra-conscious of where your money is going. Think of it like giving your finances a monthly audit, except less scary!

For example, let’s say you allocate RM500 for dining out. Too much? Too little? Just right given your social plans? This method doesn't just keep your financial goals in check but adapts to your ever-changing life scenarios, making it a dynamic buddy in your quest for financial freedom.

Most importantly, personal finances are personal. You must always make it work for you and ensure that you prioritize what's important to you, as Ramit Sethi calls it: "Your Rich Life is Yours". Some people enjoy fine dining, some prefer gadgets, and some prefer experiences instead. You do you.

It takes a bit of discipline, but it'll be a total game-changer once you have mastered the art of Zero-Based Budgeting. Imagine ending up with extra cash for investments or a holiday at the year’s end just cause you budgeted smarter!

To wrap it up, Zero-Based Budgeting isn't just about tracking expenses—it's about making your money work exactly how you want it to. It's all about control, and in the financial journey we’re all on, control isn’t just nice; it’s necessary. Less stress, more fun.

What's so special about YNAB Methods?

Now, the traditional envelope-based budgeting had existed many years or decades ago, and many people (including my mom) had used it so YNAB was definitely not "special" in any way. Except, they were. They were beyond just simple software tool offerings and went into the space of philosophies and methods, or their more famously known "YNAB Four Rules" when they first started.

Rule#1: Give Every Dollar a Job

In short, the whole principle of Zero-Based budgeting is explained above.

You must only budget with the monies you received into respective categories so that you can "trust" your budget file and spend confidently the monies you have, irrespective if you're on a daily/weekly/monthly wage.

Rule#2: Save for a Rainy Day

In short, you plan for both the expenses which are either: known-knowns / known-unknowns / unknown-unknowns.

• Known Knowns: Things like insurance, road or property taxes, and utilities are some examples of known-known expenses that will happen, but infrequently.
• Known Unknowns: On the other hand, things like vehicle/property maintenance, medical bills, dentistry visits or appliances breaking down are some examples of known-unknown expenses.
• Unknown Knowns: There'll also be things that you should know, but somehow completely forgot about - at one point I forgot about the existence of Property Taxes until I found out the two years overdue!
• Unknown Unknowns: And lastly, our favourite "6 to 12 months emergency fund" topic - I see these as unknown-unknowns. Such as suddenly losing my job, COVID-19, or getting hit by a truck (literally) resulting in huge medical bills.

If you don't anticipate and plan for these expenditures to come, you'll just get stressed out and a billshock™ when it hits you, hard. Like the saying always goes - when it rains, it pours. So the whole idea of Rule#2 is to prepare yourself both financially and mentally to handle whatever life throws at you - which brings us to Rule#3.

Rule#3: Roll with the Punches

Rule 3, out of the YNAB textbook, is perhaps my favourite rule of them all. And I quite literally rolled with their price-increase punch this time around.

In simple words, we're all humans and there's no way to plan & execute perfectly. Even AI as an algorithm/computer makes mistakes. Ever prepared for budget, realizing that you went overboard and overspent on certain categories, got upset and in the end, went into the "F*CK THIS SH*T" mode and gave up budgeting altogether? It happened to me many times before I was introduced to this philosophy.

Basically - whatever life throws at you, you adapt and adjust accordingly. Overspent on gadgets because I bought an iPad last month (really) out of impulse? Fine, no luxury meals or salon the next X months, and move the monies from other categories to fund my iPad purchase so that I don't overspend the month's total budget. As long as my total budget is still within my income (after mandatory savings/investments), I am free to spend in whatever way I want. Fancy fine dining? Move some monies there from... Salon?

That's why I really like Rule 3 the most, out of all four rules.

Rule#4: Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck

I believe the graph above is pretty self-explanatory. Rule 4 is nothing but to build enough buffer that you live on last month's income. That way, when you receive your income say in May 2024, you budget all that amount to be used in June 2024 so that come June, you are technically spending May's monies. Rinse and repeat.

Once you stop living paycheck to paycheck, it's mind-boggling and you realize just how much unnecessary stress you have put yourself into.

Of course, the rules have changed over time and their latest Four Rules looked slightly different to what is written above, but the principles are mostly the same. These were the reasons that I was motivated to give Zero-Based Budgeting a try, despite the discipline required. If you're interested to take some read (mind you this was in 2014), check out their old YNAB Way book published by Jesse Mecham in 2014 - at least when his sole purpose was to drive greater awareness & help as many people as possible.

Over the years, I simplified my approach to ease my data entry so that it's easier to maintain my discipline. For example, I don't track down the exact balances across my 456534 different bank accounts/credit cards/e-wallets. Rather, I simply create one On-Budget (more on this later) account named "Monies" and all spending irrespective of the payment method will be documented here instead.

The YNAB Alternative; A Real Contender to YNAB - Actual Budget

In the past, most people (myself included) had to suck it up with YNAB despite their outrageous price increase without much developments - mainly because we just couldn't find any other product offerings in the market that does zero-based budgeting well. Quite frankly, I was very sceptical when I forced myself to scour the market again in 2024 to look for a real alternative to YNAB.

But after trying out the open-sourced variant of Actual Budget (free!), my perspectives had changed completely. I no longer view Actual Budget simply as "another YNAB Alternative" but rather, as a true contender in the zero-based budget space. I mean, just look at this side-by-side comparison below:

Yes, we can argue that YNAB is/was the market leader and started the whole cult following fan base (myself included) and made the whole envelope/zero-based budgeting more approachable to the general public, and any other apps that came later are simply "just another YNAB clone". But that's how most products/technology today grow ain't it? Due to competition. Just like how Tesla started the whole EV & self-driving bandwagon and later, all the other car manufacturers came out with their own EV cars - some with improved battery cells at cheaper prices.

Quick introduction about Actual Budget - the founder started Actual Budget as a side gig and slowly grew it into a solid product over 4 years, with aims to build it differently than most SaaS as a local-first finance app (and succeeded in building it).

However, as a business, it was difficult to sustain as a one-man team alongside his full-time job, plus at $4/month which is an acceptable price for a subscription but without volume, it simply does not generate enough revenue to warrant hiring full-time developers to support the project.

And that's when he decided to go open source with Actual Budget to leverage the power of the community. And truly, that was probably the best decision he has made for the overall finance community - as Actual Budget (Community Edition) truly shined with support from various community members.

Actual Budget Features

In this article, when referring to Actual Budget, we're talking about the Community Edition which is 100% open-source and maintained by the community. We're not talking about the now-deprecated Commercial Edition. Some additional contexts are summarized below:

When it comes to the features, I will probably leave you with the blog post published by the open-sourced Actual team: https://actualbudget.org/blog/2024-07-01-actual-vs-ynab

But in my view, Actual (Community edition, not to be confused with the now deprecated Commercial edition) is perhaps the second most polished zero-based/envelop-based budgeting app in the market today.

Some features are still under development and rightfully so, leaving the UI/UX experience to be less than desired but at the pace of Actual's Community development since 1.5 years ago, it'll be just a matter of time before Actual catches up (or even surpasses) YNAB.

In short, Actual has these features:

• Free and Open Source.
• Access your Budget on the Web, Mobile Progressive WebApp, or Desktop App.
• With 100% local-first data storage focused on privacy. Can optionally enable end-to-end data encryption with a 2nd layer password (just like WhatsApp). In short, no one can ever snoop over your data, and you don't have to trust any words from anyone / any corporation including your hosting provider.
• Ability to sync your data online with self-hosted options. You may need to pay some fees to host it - more on this later.
• Multi-Month Budget View and native Envelop/Zero-based budgeting support.
• Reporting w/ ability to create Custom Reports (beta).
• Scheduled Recurring Transactions.
• Advanced Payee & Rules setup to simplify/automate transaction creation.
• Bank/Card direct integration (for selected banks via SimpleFIN/GoCardless only - not applicable for Malaysia).
• etc.

If you're coming from YNAB4 or nYNAB, then Actual will feel like home to you. If you're new to Envelop/Zero-based budgeting, then there'll be some transition period where you may need further guidance but the good thing is, envelope-based budgeting is not new and this topic has been discussed everywhere irrespective of tools used (YNAB4, nYNAB, Actual, or other Envelope-based Alternatives.

Personally, I've been budgeting using zero-based since 11 years ago so there's almost zero friction when I migrated (aside from discovering the technicalities since it's a different tool/software).

How to Setup Actual Budget?

You'll have to decide whether if you're planning to migrate from YNAB4/nYNAB, or start afresh. Of course, if you're not using either one of those today, then your only option is to start fresh (which by the way, is often the most recommended approach as it helps you to have a clean-slate budgeting rather than being daunted by historical messes.)

I've personally started afresh multiple times when I screwed up my finances, but this time around since I'm still on a streak since 2019 (as you know, from my blog updates) so I had no plan to start afresh so I imported all my historical data from nYNAB. Surprisingly easy.

1. Prepare your Data in YNAB4/nYNAB (optional)

Skip this if you're not planning to import your historical data, or you simply do not use these tools today.

Depending on which version of YNAB you're currently using, your instruction differs slightly:

• If you're on legacy YNAB4, simply navigate through File Explorer to your sync folder containing YNAB files, and look for your BudgetName.ynab4 folder. Compress it into a .zip file and you're done.
• If you're on modern nYNAB, simply use the JSON Exporter for YNAB, authorize your account's API access, then download the .json file and you're done. Just make sure the file you downloaded is not 4 bytes and are of reasonable file size.

2. Setup Server to Host Actual Budget

For those of you who prefer to tinker around with self-hosting options, I'll redirect you to Actual's comprehensive documentation here: https://actualbudget.org/docs/install/

But if you're like me - either less technically inclined or simply just being lazy to tinker more stuff, just go with the simplest PikaPods-hosted option at approx. $1.4/month (or $16.8 per annum - still $92 cheaper than paying for nYNAB annually plus you get to own your data).

It's really easy. Firstly, create an account or login through PikaPods. New Users will also get a free $5 welcome credit, enough to last you for three and a half month's worth of hosting!

Then go through their One-Click Setup: https://www.pikapods.com/pods?run=actual.

• In 'BASICS' tab, just give the app an name, and I'd pick their EU server (since it's relatively closer to Malaysia compared to US server).
• Leave the 'ENV VARS' alone and go straight to 'RESOURCES' tab and select 10GB storage, keeping the rest at lowest setting (you don't need more, as the server is only used to sync files and not for processing).
• It may take a minute to set up and once it's done, just hit "Open Pod" or access the website directly following the auto-generated domain name.

The best part with PikaPods is also that they'll manage all the server administration works for you in terms of infrastructure maintenance as well as updating the Actual software, though they will usually wait 1-2 weeks after release to ensure that everything is stable before pushing the updates automatically to you.

3. Launch Actual Budget

Use the Domain that was generated for you earlier to access your budget - and make sure to bookmark this in case if you forget! When you launch it for the first time - you'll be prompted to set up a password for the server.

This will be prompted for anyone trying to sync data to your server, and you should keep it to yourself unless you want anyone else to have the ability to sync (download/upload) your budget data to their local browsers on desktop/mobile.

4. Import your Data or Start Fresh

If you're coming from YNAB4/nYNAB - then simply import the budget file you've prepared earlier.

Otherwise, you can just click Start Fresh to set up your new budget file. You can also View Demo to get a gist on how the app works using dummy data.

6. Navigating Actual

Whilst I won't go through each and other details in today's post (I'll write a dedicated post separately once I've used Actual long enough to provide my long-term review/feedback) but here are some of the basic call-outs which I think will help both new Zero-Based Budgeting users or YNAB Refugees.

Settings & Configurations

Once you set up your budget, the first thing that you should do is configure settings to your liking under "More > Settings". Be sure to turn on End-to-End Encryption if you prefer extra privacy as it'll give you the same peace of mind like how WhatsApp does it - only you can access the data with the 2nd tier password to keep it safe. The server will see nothing except gibberish encrypted data which cannot be decrypted without your keys.

Personally, I've also turned on some of the experimental features (note: Custom Reports and Split in Rules are now officially live in the new version from v24.7.0 onwards so you won't see those toggles anymore). Eventually, these features will make it into the official release once bugs / UI / UX are optimized, so don't touch these unless you know what you are doing.

Accounts

First thing is to create an account - this is basically where you will input your transactions (spend money or receive money). There's few ways to do it - some like the extra precision and keep track of all their 10 different bank accounts/credit cards/e-wallets by creating all of them individually in Actual. Some, like me, have grown to enjoy simplicity with minor trade-offs in accuracy by creating only one single account to spend from, irrespective of payment method.

One thing to call out is the differences between "For-Budget" vs. "Off-Budget" which you need to choose when creating an account - simply put,

• "For-Budget" accounts track your spending and will affect your planned budget.
• "Off-Budget" accounts are merely used for other tracking purposes and would not impact your budget - such as tracking your investments.

There's many nice way to utilize both of these accounts (such as transferring money from On-Budget "Wallet" account into Off-Budget "StashAway" account, and spending it from your "Investment" Budget Category which I'll demonstrate later.

Budget, Groups and Categories

You have your accounts, now you manage your budget and plan your spending.

Remember, plan only with the money you have received (which is why Fresh Start is often recommended) and over time, build up enough buffers that you can Live On Last Month's Income.

As an example, assuming I have RM1,500 as the income recorded on 1st July, my wallet now has RM1,500 for my to plan my budget for the month.

Throughout the month, there would have been multiple spendings across various categories recorded in my wallet, or even transferred to another account (example: a transaction entry of -250 categorized under 'Investment' and also transferred to Off-Budget account Stashaway. Note the small arrow -> in the Payee).

And these are basically envelope-based / zero-based budgeting in a nutshell. Even if I accidentally (or intentionally) overspend in any category, I can simply move monies around so long as I do not exceed my net earnings for the month. In another word, the next time you decide to splurge on something - check if you have category balances, and simply forget about the existence of your bank account.

Schedule & Recurring Transactions

From time to time - we may have recurring bills that we'll need to enter every month, or those that happens once a year which we may accidentally forget from time to time. That's where the Schedule & Recurring Transaction comes into place. And boy, Actual took it to the next level, beyond even what YNAB4/nYNAB can offer out-of-box today.

There's so many advanced rules/capability that you can tweak with Schedule, but keeping it simple we'll use the TNB bill earlier as an example. I can simply create a schedule with an approximate / range / exact amount that happens on a certain date / certain day of the month or week and repeated on a predetermined window, and Actual will remind me from time to time to clear my bills.

6. Setting Up Mobile WebApp

Probably one of the most important questions - does Actual support Mobile App? Yes and No!

No in the sense that you don't go to the Apple App Store / Google Play Store to "install' it as you normally would, but Yes in the sense that Actual has native Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) that can be installed on your phone and behaves exactly as any other apps natively.

The only differences are the steps to install it are... pretty unconventional. Similarly, navigate to the website that was generated for you earlier (or the custom domain that you've set) to access your budget from any browser of your choice - Safari, Chrome, etc.

Once you're in, just click share/more (depends on IOS or Android) > Add to Home Screen and give it a name, then you'll see it "installed" in your app library just like any other app. It has both auto-cloud-sync feature with end-to-end encryption enabled (should you choose to) as well as local-copy of data in case of internet inaccessibility.

7. All Other Features & Advanced Features

There are so many other features but it's simply too much to cover today - so hopefully these would be sufficient to either get you started with Actual or move you from YNAB to Actual.

In case you need further help or support, always check out their documentation which is already very comprehensive: https://actualbudget.org/docs/. If you ever run into any issues, they also have a strong active community in Discord where you can chat with other users / volunteers to seek help.

For those interested, another blogger has also written about their experiences and some tips on migrating from YNAB to Actual Budget, so do check it out if you're interested in this topic: https://samw.dev/2024/07/01/actual-for-ynab.html

Wrap Up

The post went longer than I initially planned for, especially the ranting part. But I've been wanting to write this topic for so long, and I'm glad that YNAB managed to push me to the edge - both to migrate out of it (after their ridiculous pricing strategy) and write this article.

For those of you who've been doing envelop/zero-based budgeting, I promise you'll enjoy using Actual Budget as much as I had, especially if you came from YNAB4 or nYNAB. Actual Budget, whilst still undergoing developments for some of the features, has already come a long way and can put up a fight with nYNAB for sure.

If you're new to envelop/zero-based budgeting, don't worry too much at this stage, and just Roll with the Punches. Slowly but surely, with enough discipline, you'll love to grow this model, especially during emergencies, when you realize that you've had the budget to handle whatever is thrown at you. I've personally been following many YNAB success stories and I'm sure Actual will do the same, given the similar feature offerings.

All in all, whilst I am disappointed (again and again) with where YNAB has been heading since 2015, I definitely cannot deny that YNAB as a psychological method, and a tool, has helped me to achieve the great heights I am in today. Without YNAB, I'll probably still be struggling from paycheck to paycheck, getting unnecessarily stressed by bills and all.

It's just that, after almost a decade of being abused (pricing and lack of features development-wise), I've decided to end the "relationship" with YNAB for good. Nothing personal. At least now that I've managed to save $90/year (or ~RM425/year in today's exchange rate), I'll have the opportunity to review my budget (Rule #3) and see where else I can best use these savings... perhaps more good food for my mom?

As always, thanks for reading and I will see you again in my next post! If you haven't already, be sure to follow me on my Instagram, Facebook and YouTube for the latest updates!

Cheers,
Gracie

The post Zero-Based Budgeting: Migrating from YNAB to Actual Budget appeared first on Ringgit Freedom.

I came across this terminology in one of the workshops that my company have organised a few years ago, and it had really left a very deep impression on me. Back then, I was amazed by the concepts of writing a letter to yourself, from your imagined future.

Unfortunately I ended up forgetting to write it as I was too busy chasing deadlines and ended up forgetting about MYSELF. So here I am, trying to bridge the gap.

The concept is really simple - just write a letter dated in the future, and think about what your future self would tell your present self today.

Why write a letter from your future self to your present self? Well for one, it forces you to really navigate through the deepest of your thoughts, barring all the fears or constraints or limitations you have placed yourself today.

All things are created twice.

First, mental conceptualisation & visualisation.

Then, the physical construction.

Stephen R. Covey

Through this technique, I am indirectly manifesting the concepts and visualise it in my head and perhaps then I will be working towards it subconsciously.

I'm curious how I'd feel when I read this letter 10 years down the road, that's if the blog still exists by then.

The Letter - From My Future Self to My Present Self

23 August 2031

Dear Gracie,

I am YOU, except from the future. Hope you are not too shocked from receiving this letter. If I recall correctly, you're still in battles with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.

It is now the year of 2031 for me. I can't believe that more than 10 years have passed since you have then decided to get your shits together back in 2019. Remember the seed idea of achieving financial independence that you have planted? It has really taken off well, and I have now amassed way more than what we initially planned to, enjoying the fruits of our hard work!

Everything indeed seemed impossible when we first started. I guess sometimes you just have to go with the flow, and have a little more faith in yourself, eh? You deserve to love yourself more, have more faith in who you are and embrace your true self. Who cares what others think? You've already came so far anyway.

Think about hundreds or thousands of people still being inaction towards accepting their true selves. Why did you ended up taking 5 steps forward, achieving what most people believed to be impossible; but then took another 10 steps backward and back into hiding after all your efforts and hard works?

Love and Family

Those who really care or love you will never judge you. Those that judge or hurt you - why do you want to even care about them? Leave them be, and just be yourself comfortably in your own skins. I'm now married to my husband, whom loved me wholeheartedly for who I am, regardless of who I was in the past. You'll just know it when you finally meet him. Ahh... The butterflies in my stomach, I can still remember it. It felt exactly like when you met our first love more than 18 years ago. Remember THAT feeling!

I really can't wait to see you meet him in your life. His presence has really changed me and opened up my heart to love myself more, being in NOW AND HERE, and also loving each other. It helps also that we ended up having a couple of shared goals, including financial or migration plans. It's so much easier to plan and do things together, rather than taking everything on my own shoulders.

Ohhh, speaking of which, you know about "that thing" that we've always been worrying about? Turns out that in the end, you just need to find a legal way to workaround it. No need to get too hung up on that. We're now parents to our lovely child (legally adopted) - something that I once believed to be impossible given our infertility genetic defects. Can't believe that I've obsessed over it for a few years and having created my own source of unhappiness. Thanks to the efforts you put in over the years, all these are now nothing but a past.

Unfortunately, that also means that you'll have to save more money to tackle these issues as they surface. Yes, it's unfair but you'll just have to suck it up. Life's never really fair anyway - at least this is something solvable with money and we just need the "outcome" right? 😉

Work and Migration

I am happy to also tell you that, after some serious and long considerations, I have decided to quit our then high paying job, as it was really taking a toll on my mental health (despite the good pay). Little did I know that was the next best thing that could've happened to me.

After quitting the job, I ended up spending more time to think about what I really wanted, and started executing the plan to actually migrate out of Malaysia rather than just talking about it. Doing all these whilst running a side business in parallel is really crazy, and until today I didn't know how I've had coped with it. That was really one of the hardest moments in my life, but definitely nothing like the 2016 crisis that almost destroyed us inside out.

Having him around me definitely helped - as he have supported me throughout the ups and downs of the journey. I guess the pressure to put rice in my stomach have also fuelled the motivation to drive further, faster.

What business did I start? I'll let YOU figure it out yourself - a hint: you already knew the answer deep inside, even if you are brushing it off today. Something that you truly enjoy doing, and time just flies when you actually spend time doing it.

You're definitely on the right track - write more, love yourself more, and one day the door will just open itself and when you realise - you'll definitely get the sensation of "what took me so long?!?".

Well at least I did.

I'll see you in a decades time... Oh wait, a decade later it'd be 2041 for me and 2031 for you. Can we ever meet in our lifetime?!?

Until then, take care and stay safe! Remember to love yourself more!! *hugs*

p/s try to stay in touch with those that cares about you. I know how introverted you are, but make small gestures! They'd appreciate it knowing that you're still well and alive. And who knows - you might end up inspiring more of your friends on the FI movement unknowingly - that have always been your strength.

With Loves,
Gracie from 2031.

The post A Letter From My Future Self appeared first on Ringgit Freedom.

Here's the top 30 things I have learnt (or maybe, the first 30 that popped up in my heads ?) as I officially turned 30 years young this year!

They say 30's the turning point in our life, for the better (and worse). I'm curious how the tides will turn in the next decade of my life.

p/s the list are randomly sequenced based on where my train of thoughts take me to

1. Know when to seek help - especially when you're going through a depression. There's absolutely nothing wrong in seeking medical help - be it for physical or mental.
2. Love yourself more. It's okay if you need to re-prioritise your life and focus on yourself more, for once, in your life, before others. Without self-love there won't be any energy left to love others.
3. Self-awareness can really be a blessing in disguise - for it helps you to better understand your true self, who you truly are within. But it can also be a curse IF you are held back by your own beliefs (or disbelief) and being inaction towards it.
4. Everybody will shape their own opinion about you. No matter how loud they talk about you, most people don't really care about you - for what they want is to enjoy the process of gossiping. Know to differentiate those whom are there FOR YOU vs. those whom are there FOR GOSSIPS.
5. Don't live under other's shadow. People who likes you, will like you. People who hates you, will hate you no matter what you do. You don't need to live your life to constantly please others. Live your own life the way you want it, as long as it does no harm to others for life is too short to be wasted. Why care so much about societal expectations or others' view about you?
6. Rage and anger breeds hatred - and blind ones' sight. When you are angry, sometimes it is better to shut up and chill over the pillow rather than saying things that make you regret your entire life.
7. Your mindset shapes your behaviour. Our minds are truly powerful - it can unlock new possibilities for you, but can also limit your options. Rather than saying "I can never get there", ask instead "How can I get there?"
8. Compete with nobody else but yourself. It's perfectly okay to be inspired by others and try to mimic their successes, but never follow blindly and lose yourself in the process. Take inspiration, then create your own path toward successes.
9. It's never too young, too early, or too late to start learning - for learning is a continuous journey from the day we're born to the day we leave the world. Strive to be 1% better version of yourself every single day and it will compound greatly over time. When you look back, you'd realise how far you've come! You'll never know when the additional knowledge gives you an edge when you needs it the most.
10. Action speaks louder than word. Dreams are crucial as it helps to shape our thoughts in building our own future - but nothing is more crucial than taking action itself to fulfil the dream. Mental conceptualisation is just an image if nothing is constructed physically.
11. Your life is in your hands. Take full responsibility of your own life. While you can never control 100% of what's happening to you in your life, you can however control 100% of your responses toward it.
12. Sometimes it is inevitable in life that we have to take a fall. No matter how steep the fall is, what's more important is to learn to pick ourselves up as quickly as possible.
13. Just because every Tom, Dick and Harry is doing something doesn't make it right. Never follow the crowd blindly - and always be guided by your own inner compass. If something doesn't feel right, it probably is.
14. Be the change you want to see. If you see something in life that bothers you, then start stepping up first from you yourself and make little changes.
15. You are your own worst enemy. It is extremely difficult to please ourselves and we tend to only see the worst version of ourselves. While a healthy dose of self-doubt helps us to challenge our thoughts process making sure that we don't take things for granted; too much of it does more harm than good.
16. Repetition builds habit. Choose wisely on what we want to make into our habits for our time is limited. If you spend your entire free time building up bad habits, you'll forever be in the loop of doing the exact same thing. Break out the habit and do a 30-days challenge if you need to.
17. Remember to take days off and recharge. We have worked hard enough in our workdays, and sometimes even the weekends doing side projects, side hustles, or household chores. Allow yourself to recharge from time to time - and don't guilt trip yourself for doing nothing once in a while!
18. It's good to plan for worst case scenarios. But never let the fear of these scenarios hold you back - as long as we're well prepared to handle whatever life throws as us, why stop along the track?
19. Persistence triumphs everything else in life. Forget about big dreams if you don't persist - if you give up along the journey before reaching the destination, you will never reach your destination. The persistence to continuously move forward regardless of challenges are vital to successes.
20. Seek to understand first. Otherwise, tolerate and respect others. With advanced revolutions the human race has today, there will be thousands and millions of different opinions on the same subject. Some are scientifically proven, some are pure myth - there won't be a day in the foreseeable future where all human races will have a single shared belief, vision, or ideologies. Learn to co-exist with others and always respect the differences, even if you do not agree. No need to take it personally.
21. Think from others' shoe. Easier said than done - sometimes all we need is just to take a step back and to put ourselves in others' shoe, to understand where they are coming from and why they said/did certain things. Over time it helps to broaden your perspective to see things in thousand different ways.
22. Learn to prioritise your life. You can't have everything in life - that's how the world works. You get something, you lose something. Learning to properly prioritise your life will be a huge step forward. Just as Mark Manson said: "Most of us struggle throughout our lives by giving too many f*cks in situations where f*cks do not deserve to be given."
23. Learn to appreciate small things in life. Sometimes we spent too much time thinking about things we yet to have, but have completely forgotten about what we already have. Learning to appreciate things in life, no matter how small it is, will make our life more fulfilled. Especially things we usually take for granted.
24. Experiences shape perspectives. Always be courageous to take on new challenges outside of your comfort zone. Whatever you have learnt is kept in your own pockets, building up your breadth of perspectives and ready to help you when you least expect it.
25. Pay Yourself First and always spend responsibly. It's okay to spend on things you like as you have earned it - but never neglect your future just to satisfy your current self. You don't have to live frugally and starve yourself today either. Strike for a healthy balance between spending today vs investing for future. After all this is a financial blog, how can I not include these!?!
26. Lifestyle creep is the beginning of endless spiral. If you get stuck in it, you'll forever be caught in the rat race trying to chase after the next-shiny-things. When you're too busy keeping up with the Joneses, you slowly eat away your future peace of mind.
27. Never spend what you cannot afford to lose. Be it taking up a loan beyond what you can financially commit, knowing the differences being able to afford the monthly instalment vs. if you can actually commit financially, or taking up margins to invest into something you are clueless because everyone else is making easy money from it.
28. People say money is root of all evil. I don't buy this notation. That's like saying medicines (drugs) are root of all addictions; weapons (guns) are root of all terrorist attacks; or entertainments (games or videos) are root of degraded society. It all boils down to how we prioritise our life and what do we do when the power is in our hands. Money can be used for charitable causes, as it can also be used to breed war, hatred, and all other disgusting things in life.
29. Don't sell your soul to your Company. No, I am not saying that you should slack off at work. In fact, give it 125% of your efforts and do your best that you can at work, even if it is something new to you and requires learning-on-the-fly - everything you learnt in the end is kept in your own pockets. However, remember to draw the line between your work and your personal growth, and always leave room to grow yourself personally. If the work is no longer fulfilling or challenging, perhaps it's time to move on.
30. Not planning at all, is planning to fail. No matter how care-free we are in life, we need some sort of planning to carry us through, just like a compass. Whilst the granularity of the plan varies by individual, we need something that keeps us going and move forward in life. Otherwise we'll be like a headless chicken trying to navigate through life, without a single clue.

I hope you have enjoyed reading the short piece this week! Don't hesitate to share this to your friends too! What do you like / agree / disagree the most amongst these 30 lessons? Leave a comment below.

As always, thanks for reading and I will see you again in my next post! If you haven't already, be sure to follow me on my Instagram, Facebook and YouTube for latest updates!

Cheers,
Gracie

The post 30 Lessons I Have Learnt Over 30 Years appeared first on Ringgit Freedom.

If you have not read my story yet, I basically restarted my journey towards financial freedom in late-2019, after realising that I cannot go on with my never-ending splurges.

Fast forward to March 2021, I have finally crossed the "zero" net worth marks! If you had asked me a few years ago whether if I would reach this milestone today, frankly I wouldn't be sure; or probably I might just laugh it off calling it impossible.

On a completely unrelated note, I decided to add these achievement badges to my newly compiled page My Achievements and really treat my financial freedom journey like a game ?. As I progress further in the Game of Financial Freedom, I will continue to "unlock" new achievements along the way. 

Looking back, some of these easy-to-understand principles are really hard to apply at times, as we continuously try to balance priorities in our life. 

By sharing my top 5 money lessons that I have learnt throughout my journey towards achieving my first milestone of Zero Net Worth, I hope that it will help or inspire you, one way or the other.

These top 5 money lessons will be sorted in the sequence from the least impactful (#5) to the most impactful (#1) towards achieving my first milestone - though everyone might have different circumstances and your sequences may differ slightly from mine, and that's okay too!

Without further ado, let's get started!

Lesson #5: Rebuilding My Safety Net

Perhaps it's the timing or just purely coincident. In less than 3 months after restarting my financial journey, COVID-19 started making its way beyond China and unemployment starts to hit record highs.

That is also when I realised that I have been living from paycheck to paycheck without any emergency funds to fall back on in case of unfortunate events. Whilst I am fortunate enough not be impacted by the pandemic; it was still a good wake-up call for me, like a slap to my face, to start rebuilding my safety nets in the event of unfortunate downfall.

The general guideline is to build at least 3 to 6 months worth of essential expenses (i.e. not including your lavish/nice-to-have lifestyles) during the unfortunate event. So far I'm halfway there, sitting at my 3-months mark and my immediate focus first half of the year will be to tap on the momentum and double it to 6-months worth.

Emergency Funds are like our safety net - you'll never know when you need it.
But when you do, it'll at least soften the impact on you.

TAKEAWAY LESSONS #5

Lesson #4: Escaping Lifestyle Inflation Whirlpool

When I was still working on my finances in the blind (i.e. without doing budgeting), from time to time I always have the impression that there's still plenty of leftover monies to be spent, so I ended up shopping for extra stuff subconsciously.

The same goes for all of my past merit increments - whenever there was a pay raise, my brain will trick me into spending more unconsciously; thinking that my purchasing power is greater now. 

And just like that - bit by bits, over some time, I was sucked into the whirlpool of lifestyle inflation without even realising that I am in one. Like a hamster on a wheel, chasing for my unlimited material wants.

I realised it in early 2019 but it was hard to get out, especially after tasting the sweet things in life. To make things worse, typically the increase in my expenditure will outpace the payraise that I am getting and as a result, I ended up spending more than before and saving even lesser. Only when I forcibly taxed myself, things started to get back on the right track.

Just because I can afford more now,
doesn't necessary mean that I should spend more.

TAKEAWAY LESSONS #4

Lesson #3: Don't Forget Your Taxes

As the saying goes - two things that are certain in our lives are death and taxes. The first thing that happens to all our incomes are the taxes from the government. Regardless of its shapes or sizes in the form of personal or business income taxes, all it does is to siphon away the monies before it even reaches our eye.

But why stop at only paying the government, when we ourselves are the main character in our lifes' journey!?

When applying this concept to ourselves correctly (i.e. self taxation / paying yourself first), it can become a very powerful tool. By hiding monies from our own eyes, we will be able to trick our brains to live by with less.

This has been one of the most effective curbs against my problem of never-ending lifestyle inflation. I started my "self taxation" with a "minimum flat tax amount" which goes into emergency savings or investments, and later evolved it into flat monthly budget expenses including self taxation.

This way, even if my income grows further in the future (in line with inflation rates), I wouldn't accidentally fall into the trap of lifestyle inflation again as the total expenditure is forced to stay flat. This also means that any additional income - be it bonuses or raises, will automatically go into my emergency savings or investments, further accelerating my journey towards the goal.

Paying yourself first is one of the surefire way to hide money... from your today's self.
Your future self will thank you later.

TAKEAWAY LESSONS #3

Lesson #2: Have End Goal in Mind

Not having any goal in your mind is akin to driving around without knowing your destination. While it might be okay to do wander around once in a while, to gain exposure and new perspectives as well as learning new things; it will not help in the long run.

Frankly speaking, I am still struggling with this as well. I have a very vague picture of what I want to achieve in the next decade, but at the same time I'm also afraid of the unknown so I've mostly been navigating around with an eyepatch on.

Having said that, it helps to at least have that end-goal pictured in your mind, as your brain will subconsciously remind you to pursue your desires toward that direction.

I know the kind of lifestyle I want to have - not being tied to workforces, ability to game/stream as I like, managing an investment portfolio that will be self-sufficient in maintaining my lifestyle without downgrading, but potentially emigrating out from Malaysia.

With these consideration factors, although extremely vague (even for myself!), I was able to come out with a stretch goal for myself to hit $1MIL net worth by the end of 2024. It's tough and stretched, but not entirely impossible - either I expand my income sources, or extend my investment returns.

Having a goal, even a vague one, is better than having none.
They act as your compass, guiding you towards the north star.

TAKEAWAY LESSONS #2

Lesson #1: Persistence to Keep Going Forward

To me, this is definitely the hardest part to continue sticking to the budget and delaying gratifications as much as possible. I have personally given up on my personal finance journey at least twice in the last 8 years and I hope that it will not happen again in the future.

This time around, I tweaked a few of the components of my personal finance journey, hoping in exchange that I'll be able to stick around forever:

• simplifying my budgets not to induce burn-outs
• having a clear end-game that I want to achieve and stay focused
• sharing my journey in hoping that it will help inspire others
• treating the art of "Budgeting" as a game

All these give me the strength that I needed to keep going forward one step at a time. Not to forget also to start building in rewards mechanism as part of my budget (rather than getting the feeling of being punished) so that I still get to enjoy life as it whilst spending responsibly. 

Keep going at it and don't give up.
But don't forget to love & reward yourself along the way.

TAKEAWAY LESSONS #1

Wrap Up

While this is a relatively short reflection post than some of my other articles - I hope that you will find it useful one way or the other. Although Zero Net Worth is just a starting point - but it is one of the milestones worth celebrating in our financial journey. 

As always - thanks for reading and see you again in my next post! If you haven't already, be sure to follow me on my Instagram, Facebook and YouTube for latest updates!

Cheers,
Gracie

The post 5 Money Lessons towards Zero Net Worth appeared first on Ringgit Freedom.

I was fortunate enough to be invited by Michelle to her podcast episode where we chatted on various personal finance topics including some of my personal stories and Ringgit Freedom's origins and plans moving forward.

But before we jump into our episodes, let us first have a quick introduction of Michelle and Her Duit podcast.

Table of Contents

1. Her Duit by Michelle Chin
2. Gracie’s Her Duit Stories
   • Part 1: Beginners Guide to Stock Investing Abroad
   • Part 2:Coping with Expectations, Jealousy, and Depression Around Money
3. References
4. Wrap Up

Her Duit by Michelle Chin

Michelle started Her Duit to help more women to learn and take charge of their personal finance through raw, honest, relatable stories from each other through her podcast episodes Her Duit Stories where she interviews everyday Malaysian women on how they have been navigating the skewed landscape of money; as well as personal finance experts who know how to speak to women the way they want to be heard.

In Her Duit's podcast introduction, Michelle shared in depth on why she decided to start her podcast journey and why this topic is so personal to her - do check it out below!

You can find more of Her Duit episodes on her Instagram, Facebook and Spotify.

Gracie's Her Duit Stories

Being my usual introverted self - when Michelle first reached out and invited me to join her in one of the podcast episodes, I was both excited to share but also nervous at the same time - worrying that I may not be able to hold a conversation well.

Turns out that I was overthinking - as the whole podcast indeed feels just like a long casual coffee chat! Without further ado let's jump straight into the two podcast episodes where myself and Michelle chatted on various personal finance topics.

Part 1: Beginners Guide to Stock Investing Abroad

In the first episode - Michelle and myself chats on various topics related to investing overseas from our rationale of international diversification, how to start investing overseas, watch-out areas on brokerage selection, to some of the common misconception when it comes to investing abroad.

Take a listen below!

* thanks Michelle for the podcast intro & timestamp below!

Timestamps

03:07: Gracie answers 5 quick-fire questions
08:56: Why should you explore investing outside of Malaysia?
10:48: MUST LISTEN if you are actively contributing to EPF
12:22: How should people start investing outside of Malaysia? What to do?
16:16: How did Gracie decide on her brokerage for her international stocks?
20:43: Gracie’s investment philosophies for investing abroad
24:51: Common misconceptions about investing abroad
26:58: Gracie’s valuable lessons investing abroad

Podcast Intro

All over social media and the news, we see headlines of companies outside Malaysia increase, from Gamestop to Tesla to Alibaba to Zoom.

Have you wondered how on Earth do you get to buy stocks from these companies? Investing in companies outside of Malaysia is not that straightforward (a few caveats aside, like investing in ETFs through robo-advisors).

First, we need to register for a brokerage account and go through their verification process, which can take weeks to months. Beyond that, we probably need to have a good amount of capital before even considering buying individual US stocks.

Then, you have to figure out how on Earth do you most affordably convert your hard-earned Ringgit into currencies like USD or SGD, and not lose too much money before finally being able to buy your coveted Apple stock.

Today’s episode breaks down these complicated steps into simple ones, with Gracie, the founder behind RinggitFreedom.com. I invited Gracie over to share her journey towards finding the right brokerage for her, after her very extensive research into brokerage accounts abroad that are available to Malaysians.

Part 2: Coping with Expectations, Jealousy, and Depression Around Money

In the second episode - I shared with Michelle some of my personal stories on how I got started into the habits of personal finance; having money conversations with close ones; managing depressions and knowing when to seek help; and Ringgit Freedom's origins and plans moving forward.

For those sitting on the fence, we also chatted about how one can go about getting started to take charge of their journey towards financial freedom.

Take a listen below!

* thanks Michelle for the podcast intro & timestamp below!

Timestamps

01:43: How did Gracie start her personal finance journey? 
04:02: How did Gracie start investing? 
09:46: The calm before the storm: expectations & depression 
15:30: Will Gracie have changed anything to change her destiny? 
17:27: What Gracie will change about buying a property 
18:01: Handling a fight with a friend over money conversations 
21:25: What would she tell her friends to help them with their money journey? 
24:37: The origins of Ringgit Freedom 
26:23: Why did Gracie choose to hide her identity? 
28:28: Gracie’s definition of financial independence 
31:14: Gracie’s financial goals for 2021 and beyond 
34:15: Ringgit Freedom: what’s coming up next? 
35:15: Final words of wisdom from Gracie

Podcast Intro

In this episode with Gracie, we talk about her money journey extensively. 

From how she had to metaphorically bang into walls as part of her learning journey in personal finance, having to buy a house to meet her mom’s expectations and dreams, climbing out of spiralling depression and taking charge of her life again and her aspirations for herself financially. 

If you are looking to be inspired by Gracie’s wisdom, her experiences and her learning, wait no more!

References

Throughout the podcast, some of my previous articles were mentioned and I'll link them here so that it will be easier for your further reading if haven't already!

1. Malaysians, COVID-19 and their EPF savings
2. Malaysia International Brokerage Comparison
3. Investing in International Stocks via TradeStation Global
4. Getting Started – Financial Freedom for Malaysians!

Wrap Up

I hope you have enjoyed our episodes of podcast - it have really been an honour to be able to share to more audiences on my personal journey as well as vulnerabilities to more audiences and together we will be stronger onto our financial journey!

Let me know in the comments on your thoughts on these episodes and whether if you'd like more of these in the future!

If you haven't already, be sure to follow me on my Instagram, Facebook and YouTube for latest updates!

And of course, not to forget to follow Michelle's Instagram, Facebook and Spotify for more of Her Duit episodes!

Until next time!

Cheers,
Gracie

The post Her Duit Stories: Gracie's Money Journey and Ringgit Freedom appeared first on Ringgit Freedom.