,I’ll move on to Freedom from debt should be our primary aim to achieve true happiness. Borrowing can increase our wealth, but we need to be prepared for possible downsides. To promote financial literacy, the Bank of Thailand has come up with the “savings planner”, a document for recording your monthly income and all expenses, ranging from food, lottery tickets, transport and allowance to parents to medical expenses. At the end of the year, the sums indicate which expenses can be trimmed the following year.
Then comes a big question: how much we should save? When is “enough” enough?
The Stock Exchange of Thailand has offered a formula to gauge our financial health: Preferable net wealth = age x annual income x 10 per cent. You list all assets, ranging from cash, saving deposits and gold to houses. From this you deduct all liabilities, such as mortgage and hire-purchase loans.