RuehYinn & Juleen @ blueepinkk.com

I was having coffee with TC and Calista at Starbucks not too long ago and during one of the discussion TC mentioned that only 10% of the working population pay income tax. I was kinda shock with the number and that intrigued me to investigate further. And I found these:-

Fact 1

True enough only 1.2 million or 11.4% of the 10.538 million working population in the country paid personal income taxes and a mere 38,500 paid the top rate of 28%.

Fact 2

Fact 1 is supported by the monthly income profile of Employee Provident Fund (EPF) contributors, which showed that 72% of them earn RM2,000 or less per month, accounting for only 36% of EPF savings.

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Chart 1: Only 28% of the EPF contributors earn more than RM2,000. The rest earn less than RM2,000 per month.

Chart 2: The same 28% who earn more than RM2,000 contributes 60% of total fund in EPF.

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Based on above facts, here are my conclusions:-

1. Approximately 89% of the working population in Malaysia earn RM3,000 or less per month (based on minimum RM2,500 chargeable income). In USD term, about 89% of the people earns less than USD850 per month (equivalent to USD30 a day). Therefore, we’re still relatively cheap and competitive compare to many other countries. What more, we have a lot of good quality work force since we have a lot of graduates nowadays. I called it Good Quality Cheap Labor (GQCL).

2. To be the top 1% earner in Malaysia, you need to earn RM250,000 a month. That is a lot of money for a month. But if you earn more than RM3,000, then you are the Top 10% earner in Malaysia. If you are in that category, give yourself a pat on the shoulder and say “Well done!!”

3. Lastly, no wonder so many people wanted to migrate. Who wants to stay in Malaysia and earn meek salary?

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Three days ago, my best friend, Damon who has migrated to Australia and is getting married in few days time asked me this question, “How can so many Malaysian afford nice car?”. I have hard time answering him. Seriously I do not know! He concluded that these people have illegal job to subsidize their living. He argued the topic with valid assumption and calculation. I applause him for that. But at the end of the day, I still don’t know what’s the right reason. I suspected many people have ways to escape from the tax system, and therefore, they are not captured by the statistic.

But what’s important is to work hard because apparently earning money is not easy. Now, I appreciate my parents more for spending so much money to send me oversea. Seriously it is not easy for them. Thank you, mum and dad.

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Don’t be too sad if you are a Good Quality Cheap Labor (GOCL) okay because apparently you aren’t alone!

You won’t be there too long if you work hard

Blueepinkk.com featured in The Malaysian Daily!!!!!

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Hahaha…ya dream on!! This is fake newspaper article using The Newspaper Clipping Generator at Fodey.com. What is true however, is this the 100th post. It was a long way and both Juleen and I still enjoy writing blog. Based on my current speed, blueepinkk.com will reach the 1000th post in 4 1/2 years. Hopefully by then we’re still going strong :-). Hehehe…

GOTCHA…..!

YOU HAVE BEEN PUNKED!

WHATEVER…

Today is an exciting day for me. I shall remembered it as the The Day When All Malaysian Rush to Gas Stations. When I say ALL, I mean ALL. It all began at ….

At 5.20pm:

BREAKING NEWS: Petrol will be RM2.70 a litre at midnight tonight.

The new price of premium leaded petrol (ULG 97) is RM2.70 per litre beginning midnight tonight, it was announced a moment ago. The price for ULG 92 petrol per litre went up by 74 sen to RM2.62. Diesel will go up by RM1 per litre to RM2.58. The 78 sen hike or 40 per cent increase for the ULG 97 petrol is still below the antiticpated RM4 per litre price projected earlier and among the cheapest in Asia. The announcement was made by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at a news conference. (NSTP, June 4 2008 )

At 6.30pm (As I was walking to LRT Station)

Normally, this road is only this congested when it is raining. Now look at the sky. It’s sunny. Next look at the pathway. It’s dry. Overall, it was a good evening.

Still don’t believe it is a good sunny evening? Alright, can you see that the two ladies sitting and gossiping (I assumed) by the side of the road?? Alright now you believe it was a good evening, but why the heck the road is so congested? It was so bad that the cars are virtually not moving at all. Not even moving from bumper to bumper.

Somehow, my 6th sense (as if I have, ha ha), told me something was wrong. And it was confirmed when I saw the condition in KLCC’s parking:-

The parking was relatively empty compared to the normal day. A lot of empty parking slots indicates many people has left. But why?

From 6.45pm - 9.45pm

Between this period of time, I was in LRT then KTM before I reached the Gardens @ Midvalley after all the squeezing in the train. I was at the Gardens to have dinner with Juleen and Cheryl Leong at Sushi Zanmai. I will be blogging about this restaurant and the food soon. This shall be my first attempt to become a food critic, so stay tune. Anyway, over the dinner more than half of the topics we talked about has something to do with gasoline. So much to talk about that I am convinced, we can write a research thesis about it. The title for the thesis will be “In Depth Analysis and Impact of High Oil Price in Malaysia“. Ha ha ha…

The girls went for a short shopping right after dinner. And…

At 9.55pm , when we were driving back home,

We realized we chose the wrong route home. Imagine, this was the condition in Bangsar at 9.55pm on the weekday. Absolutely not normal, right? The traffic flow was so slow that instantly I felt so sleepy in the car. Imagine, so slow that even Mr. Tortoise would travel faster than our car. As we drove a little further, we realized that the congestion was caused by cars queuing up to get into the gas station:-

We just find it amusing to see the scenario again and again at different gas stations. I guess that’s what kept us calm and steady in the car despite the traffic condition. Nope, we are not part of them because Juleen had already filled up her tank before 5pm… hehe…

1. Bangsar again…

2. At Section 17…

3. Somewhere at Petaling Jaya

In total, our journey from Midvalley to Bandar Utama took us one and half hour which normally take us mere 20 minutes.

At the end of the day, I am happy because of I am part of this historical moment in Malaysia.

What about my view on the fuel price increase?

To be frank, my heart was crushed and it was like a nightmare came true to me when the government announced the fuel price increase. Forty one percent (41%) increase in fuel is too much to bear, really. I pump on average RM300 a month and now I have to fork out extra RM120 per month for the same amount of fuel. That is a lot of money guys! Anyway, I guess instead of being adamant over the issues, might as well I look at the issues through the kids’ eye, assuming everything will be okay:-

P/S: Now I am more inspired to write the Part II of Fuel Saving Tips…but I am very sleepy… yawn…ZzzZZzzzzz!

When someone speaks, they want to be heard.

When someone writes, they want their writing to be read.

When someone blog, not only they want their article to be read and heard but also to be enjoyed with the hope more and more people will visit your blog in the future.

My blog is only few days old. I know I know, I shouldn’t expect much. But out of my curiosity, I’ll check on my blog stats. I want to know how many people visited my blog and who drive them here. However, I was a little disappointed today as only one person visited my blog. If I ever know who is that person, I think I will give him a hug and thanks…hahaha… because without him my heart will be crushed. You know it is pointless if you put up a blog but no one enjoy what you have on your blog. It is all about sharing, remember? So to cut the crap short, other than having good content, I need traffic…hehe…

Anyway, as I scroll down the blog stat page, I was shocked !!! You know why??? Because my blog is the center of the gravity. Really, I am not lying. See below:-

Haha… okay, I know it is lame. But, I still don’t understand why the search engine would drive that “poor” guy to my blog when I didn’t write anything about gravity whatsoever. However, it is so comforting and amusing to see the blog stats report today. Probably it is God’s way to encourage me to continue blogging. I am sure God has a good sense of humor, don’t you think so? My response to Him will be “I got it, Sir”.

Moral of the story:-

Success is the good fortune that comes from aspiration, desperation, perspiration and inspiration.
Evan Esar

Welcome to ruehyinn.wordpress.com. This is my first post.