A New 2014 Year is upon us!

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kensomuse wishes everyone a very prosperous New Year!

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2013 has been rather tumultuous, hasn’t it? With a general election that had every politician promising heaven and earth then subsequently breaking them one at a time once the dust settles, it was a year of hopes & dreams, rallies and Gangnam style in Penang, of invasion and evasion, political propoganda (with sudden blackouts) and hazardous haze, religious tension and Lego murals. If the fact that we haven’t dropped to the level of rioting and national curfew is something worthy of being “bersyukur” about, have we gone to making excuses until that extent? Well, at the very least Malaysia is growing …. if not economically then at least political awareness. We are being pushed out of our comfort zone and I suspect it will continue to be so come 2014.
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There is no secret that 2014 will be tough for the common folk of us. Where once, those who pick up a cup of Starbucks on their way to work may now resort to a plastic packet of coffee from a mamak stall. Where once, it was possible to pass one toll, stop by a petrol station to ta-pow a packet of nasi lemak, then pass another toll with RM5, we may find the cost of such a trip double if the news of the toll increase is anything to believe. Where once, we gave RM8 for our child to take the daily commuter ride to school, recess break food and commute back, the daily allowance may very well be RM10. If only our salary goes up by that much.

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And that’s not the worse. Essentially, it will cost us more to buy what we usually buy in our daily affairs. The value of the Ringgit will drop further if everyone is spending so much more to sustain the present economy and this is bad. Another word for this phenomenon is inflation and if left unchecked, our salary’s worth gets smaller while cost of product (be it food or services) will spiral out of control (sounds like what we’re facing now, eh?). We keep complaining that our salary should be higher to match the inflation rate (like that’s ever going to happen as companies struggle to survive) but if the government don’t arrest this fall, we may very well be heading the direction Greece took a few years back.

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And the quickest, fastest measure the government can do this is by increasing interest rates to discourage spending. If not this year, you can well be sure that come next year when the GST hits, the current Base Lending Rate  and car interest rates will be adjusted. We’re now enjoying car interest rates between 2.3% – 3%. Those old enough would remember back in 1997 financial crisis, the car interest rate shot up to 11%-12%.  Hopefully we’ll not see such a drastic move ever again but one should never take things for granted. So the next time when the latest iPad or iPhone is released, please think twice and setting your priorities right before deciding if you’re part of the inflation problem or solution.

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So, in wishing all of kensomuse’s readers all the health and wealth in the world, don’t drive like a maniac and behave like petrol is free in this world, don’t tailgate like you’re trying to set the Guiness Book of Records of the closest bumper-to-bumper distance at 200kph, treat every empty carpark and midnight petrol stations with extreme prejudice, use more double signals to thank other road users who let you cut in front and last but not least, kensomuse apologises for any shortcomings and promises that in 2014, kensomuse.com will have a lot more exciting activities to keep you entertained.

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XOXO

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