I have this one obsession of getting rich without working hard in life. Essentially, I aim to be a male version of a tai tai. What's a tai tai you ask? It's a Chinese word to described "a privileged wife who married to a wealthy man". I know now that this obsession of mine would never become a reality. I was not born into a rich family, I don't have any flair in business, and I think I'm comfortable enough to remain as a working salary man in government sector until the day I retire.
I'm okay with what I have now, to be honest. I learned to be appreciative with what I still have and not lost. I learned to be grateful with whatever rizq that Allah give me. But to be really honest, I daydream of being filthy rich. HAHA. Who wouldn't? I often fantasize that some random old man who I rescue after getting into an accident while driving on the highway is actually a rich old tycoon who is so grateful of my timely intervention, he insists on giving me 10 million ringgit and won't say no for an answer.
"Ahh, what a dream that was".
I fantasize so often on daily basis and it feels so good that I feel satisfied with just having that fantasy. It's as if I already am rich from having a lot of money. But no, I am not rich. I am, again, enough, but it doesn't hurt to be rich, does it?
So I decided that if I cannot be rich, I want my children to be rich.
And their children to be rich as well.
And their children as well. On and on and beyond.
There's this term I read and I got inspired with it. It's called:
⭐⭐ GENERATIONAL WEALTH ⭐⭐
The wealth is not for me. It's for my generation that's to come. Is it sad that I won't live to see that money? Yes. Will I be happy on my deathbed or microseconds from dying that my children will get a sizeable chunk of wealth? I don't know, I'm already DEAD. But it fits the purpose of this train of thought.
So, how to do this generational wealth? What do I have to do?
Generational wealth is not something new. I've read that Chinese are doing it for a long time now with their life insurance. It's not something Malays are actively doing for the past 10 years because we are a bit apprehensive with life insurances. But now there's a lot of takaful products in the market. All takaful products are syariah compliant and therefore it's okay for us to take takaful.
Okay, first, a disclaimer. I am not a takaful agent or anything. I merely have a life coverage takaful that I want to talk about here. I am not going to promote anything.
What I aim to kickstart this generational wealth is essentially a hibah. A hibah is wealth that you dedicate specifically to someone when you're alive. It can be anyone. It bypasses the faraid (Islamic inheritance law). Faraid is not a bad thing. But with what I have now, the amount of wealth that I accumulated will not amount much. With how the inflation tanks up and the state of our economy currently, I am lucky if I'm able to leave behind wealth of more than 600k.
For my future children who stumble upon this blog entry and still don't understand what I said in my will (Wow, me, making a will? This is so trippy time-travelly stuff):
- My active takaful plan right now ensures that upon my death, the hibah is divided between all of my children. At this time of writing this down, my takaful is just nice for only two of my children. If (or when) I have more than two children, I need to revise my takaful plan.
- Why only for two children at the moment? Because the monthly takaful contribution I am giving right now is already 12% of my monthly pay slip. Remember this: Life and medical takaful should not be more than 15% of your monthy income.
- How much hibah is enough for my children? At this moment, if I have two children, each will get 1.8 mil ringgit.
- You read that right. 1.8 mil each.
- But here's the kicker. With that hibah you got, it's still peanut money. 1.8 mil can be spent completely in less than 3 transactions. This hibah is not for you to spend. Not directly, no.
- Ideally, by the time you read this you already had obeyed our instructions to transfer them into your main saving account. I've checked that Tabung Haji accepts unlimited amount of savings. I recommend you transfer the hibah here considering zakat simpanan will automatically be taken care of by them.
- Do not touch this hibah. We would have made sure that you are already independent by the time you received this hibah in terms of education and career. Do not depend on this money. Continue your careers. If I have daughter(s), here's my advice - keep your hibah a secret from your husband. I don't make this plan for your husband to use this money. The best solution is to marry rich HAHAHA but hey, character and piety are more important in marriage.
- Anyway, wait for one complete year of transferring the hibah you got into your main saving account. Your aim should be the dividend.
- I know dividend is decreasing year by year. But I hope that you will only use the dividend as added income. That way you will never be out of money. Let's say you only get 3% dividend (make sure to minus 2.5% for your zakat simpanan first!). 3% of 1.8 mil will get you 54k. Divide that by 12 months and you should have RM4,500 monthly for you to spend or save.
- Imagine, 4-5k monthly. It should be enough to settle your car and house loans. You can spend on cosmetics or travelling. I recommend you use up to 1k of it to pay for YOUR takaful life hibah contribution.
- THIS IS THE NEXT EQUALLY IMPORTANT STEP that you have to do, which is to continue doing this generational wealth for your kids. Aim for total hibah that can give your children 1-2 mils EACH. Start choosing which takaful product for life coverage you want to take by the age of 30 to 35, BEFORE you get any chronic medical illness like diabetes mellitus or hypertension.
- Now, your portion of hibah that you got from me can be passed down in two ways: faraid or hibah. Faraid is hukum Allah, so whatever injustice you might feel or if some of our relatives being cruel you cannot blame the system itself. Faraid is faraid. For hibah, you have to transfer the money before you pass away. Drill these instructions into their heads - only use dividend money and not the money itself.
- Make sure to threaten them that unless they graduated from universities and having a job, they won't get any hibah wealth from you HAHAH okay kidding but please stress it out that they have to be independent from tai tai money.
It is my daily daydream, hope and wish that in just 2-3 generation, all of you will be able to comfortably living a tai tai life I never get to have. This may sound far-fetched to some of you, unrealistic or perhaps a case of 'thinking too far too soon', but this is my dream. I am entitled to dream, even if it not meant for me.
I may also be wrong in some aspects, whether it to be technical or factual. To all of you who are reading this and find the steps to be incorrect, or if you have altogether a different way of achieving a tai tai life, please drop a comment here!
