Safe to save

Found this article in Bangkok Post, My Life vol1 - 22 May 08.
For someone, I think this would be the well-known/classic story but I still cannot accomplish all of them. So, just write them into my blog and gimme my own rate & action!

• Know what you have earn & where the money goes
  
  Write down what you spend & classify them into categories: food, shopping, rent, travel, entertainment, education, healthcare, utility bills, debt service
  Then you will have a good estimate of what your saving capacity is.
  
  Rate: F - Even though I did try to do for months, I broke my rules in the end of last year.
  Action: Do it again! Also, keep my written excel sheet simple as much as it should.

• Set your saving target
  
  Genrally, it is recommended to set aside 10-25% of your earnings for saving & future investment.
  This mean you may need to trim certain spending to match the target.
  
  Rate: D - I'm not so in the comfortable area in saving concrete amount of money. Some of my saving money went away with unnecessary in some time.
  Action: Excluding, provident fund, paying for a condominium (it's classified a debt not saving), I should have 10% in every month.

• Pay credit card in full and on time
  
  Do you know that the interest and collection charges combine can range from 18-30%+?
  
  Rate: B - Mostly pay in full except the time that it was over 20k (ATM can give me money with that number). Only one time late w/ extra charges.
  Action: Will pay before the deadline, I need to have a clean history of credit bureau as I have to contact bank for personal loan in next 2 years.
  
• Examine your debt unnecessary debt put extra burden on your budget. So settle it if you can.
  
  Rate: C - Few times that my money was went away with unconscious stuffs.
  Action: Lessen starbuck coffees, read the existing books, use more internet for reading news, conciously use mobile phone, iron clothes in a batch and sometimes go to Chiangmai by bus/train.
  
  
• Minimize your tax - LTF, RMF, provident fund & Life insurance
  
  The higher your tax, the more benefit you have from your tax saving
  
  Rate: B+ - Provident funds (9.75% of my salary), LTF and Life insurance are my collections.
  Action: Have a concrete portion for LTF in each month (3-5% of salary). This will be good for DCA. Performance bonus should be firstly spent for Life insurance.
  
• Extra earning goes to extra saving, at least some if not all.
  
  For example, you ought to reinvest your dividends regurly.
  
  Rate: F - Don't have a second channel for getting money yet. Although put the money into Mutual fund but the ROI is so f**king great, cannot beat the inflation rate ley'.
  Action: Keep searching a biz. It's supposed to be born by the end of this year!
  
• Separate your saving account from your spending account.
  
  Rate: N/A - Not sure this will impact my saving na. Anyway, let's try and see what it will happen.
  Action: Pay 200 baht (ATM fee for a separated saving account) for a lesson and evaluate in the end of this year.