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Net worth is the value of what we own minus what we owe. Our money attitudes often subconsciously affect our financial behaviours and planning. Here are some flash facts.

In March 2025, the Youth and Sports Minister, Hannah Yeoh, reported that 5,272 youth below 34 were declared bankrupt since 2020. The trend has been increasing in 2024 despite the threshold of insolvency being doubled to RM100,000 in 2020.
In December 2024, it was reported that 52% of Employee Provident Fund (EPF) members below 55 have less than RM10,000.
The RinggitPlus Financial Literacy Survey 2023 revealed that 71% Malaysians save less than RM500 monthly and 55% spend exactly or more than what they earn. However, 70% indicated that they have control of their money.
Here are some common money attitudes individuals may adopt in varying degrees.

• You Only Live Once (YOLO)
  Individuals having a YOLO attitude adopt the behaviour of living for the moment as no one knows what the future holds. It also emphasizes living life to the fullest now. This could lead to low personal savings rate.
• Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO)
  FOMO is the compulsive urge to make comparisons with others to maintain social connections. It is often observed through social media influences. Feelings of low self-esteem can cause idealized relationships to keep up with trends to fill the void. They may experience anxieties and regrets if they feel they are not living up to society’s expectations. To overcome this, they may resort to retail therapy and materialistic purchases to overcome their insecurities
• Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE)
  The FIRE camp believes in making aggressive savings and making risky investments to retire early. They are willing to live extremely frugal lifestyles to achieve their financial independence as early as possible. Post retirement, the 4% withdrawal rule will apply to cover living expenses. However, there is no guarantee in investments, and huge lifestyle sacrifices are hard to sustain.
   

Is there a better way to save/invest and have a good life at the same time without going to extremes? Here are some tips to boost your net worth.

A good place to start is to prepare a manageable budget. While you cannot change fixed expenses (e.g. monthly instalments), there is room to improve in the variable (e.g. needs such as food, travelling, utilities) and discretionary expenses (nice to haves). The rule of thumb is to allocate 50% to needs, 30% to wants and 20% to savings. Mobile apps (e.g. MAE) can help. The budget should be challenging, sustainable and not cast in stone.

You are the greatest active income-generating asset, so start by paying yourself first. The rule of thumb is to save at least 10% of your monthly net take-home pay. Start building up at least 3 months of living expenses for personal emergencies (bank accounts and fixed deposits). Once you achieve this, you can start a regular investment plan to make higher-return investments according to your risk profile to accumulate net
worth.

Good investments are legal, take time and are the ones that you understand. The earlier the start, the more your money can compound and grow. However, beware of investments that sound too good to be true, they could be scams!

Examine your money attitudes and spending habits to ensure proper management of debts. Debts are akin to spending future money today. Ideally, your monthly debt obligations should not be more than 40% of your net take-home pay. Productive debt will add to your net cash flow (e.g. loan for a successful business, study loan which hopefully adds to your assets and ability to generate income) whereas unproductive debts are to finance lifestyle/luxury expenses that deplete monthly cash flows (e.g. credit card spending for vacations, latest smartphone, fashion trends).

To find out more, as a student, you can join the ºìÐÓÊÓƵ AKPK Club. The club collaborates with Agensi Kaunselling dan Pengurusan Kredit, Financial Planning Association of Malaysia and Malaysian Financial Planning Council to bring you meaningful personal financial planning events. Most of our Finance and Economics students have exemptions for the Certified Financial Planner and Registered Financial Planner examinations.

Upcoming in May 2025 is a new release by ºìÐÓÊÓƵ University Press that is packed with practical financial planning nuggets.
Don’t leave your financial future to whims, fancies and chance. Start early to boost your financial resilience and net worth.

Dr Joyce Nga Koe Hwee
ºìÐÓÊÓƵ Business School
Email: @email 

References

• Gupta,M. and Sharma,A. (2021) Fear of missing out: A brief overview of origin, theoretical underpinnings and relationship with mental health, World Journal of Clinical cases, 9(19), 4881-4889
• Malay Mail (2024, 17 December).How much do Malaysians need to retire comfortably? Here’s a complete guide
• RinggitPlus (2023). RinggitPlus Financial Literacy Survey
• RinggitPlus (2025, 13 March). Over 5,200 Youths Declared Bankrupt Since 2020.
• Rippe, B. C., Smith, B. and Gala, P. (2023). A psychological examination of attachment insecurity, loneliness, and fear of missing out as drivers of retail patronage among emerging adults., International Journal of Consumer Studies, 47,1838-1852.
• Nga, J. (2023).Personal Financial Planning : A comprehensive guide to personal financial planning in Malaysia, Scola Books: ºìÐÓÊÓƵ University Press.
• Nga, J. and Chong D. (2025, forthcoming). Building financial resilience: Simplifying personal Financial Planning, ºìÐÓÊÓƵ University Press.