This page lists resources that I find helpful, and would sincerely recommend. I’ve had extensive experience with all of them, in my quest to optimize my life. Hopefully you find value in them too.
Investing
Bitcoin & Cryptocurrencies
Luno: The easiest way to get started investing in Bitcoin and crypto. Fully approved by the Securities Commission, Luno is the first and largest digital asset exchange in Malaysia.
Use my special code MRLUNO to get additional RM 50 when you Instant Buy RM 500 of Bitcoin (for new Luno customers).
Robo-advisor
StashAway: Wanna invest, make passive income but don’t have the time or interest to learn? Then a robo-advisor is probably right for you. StashAway is the first and best robo-advisor in Malaysia. Easy to use, low fees, and they’re licensed with the government (meaning your money is pretty safe). What’s there not to like?
Click here to enjoy a 50% discount on fees for 6 months (up to the first RM 100,000 you invest).
P2P Lending
Funding Societies: Have some spare cash you’re willing to lend to small businesses and make some extra money? Better still, do it all online. It’s called P2P Lending, and Funding Societies is the largest platform for this in Malaysia. I especially love their auto-investment bot, which does all the investing automatically for me.
p.s. P2P lending is a high-risk investment, so make sure to do your own research first and proceed with caution.
Get a special RM 30 bonus when you sign up here (and invest RM 1,000).
Credit Cards
Maybank 2 Cards: The Maybank 2 cards are still the best credit cards in Malaysia. Free for life, 5% cashback on weekends, and 5x Reward Points on almost all transactions. The annual income requirement is low too — anyone who earns RM 2,500 a month qualifies for the Gold card.
Still recommended for anyone who’s looking for a first credit card.
Resources Used on mr-stingy.com
Cloudways: mr-stingy has been hosted on Cloudways since 2018. They’re a cloud hosting platform which provides speed for a very affordable price. Wonderful customer support as well. Highly recommended if you’re looking to take your website to the next level.
Packages start at $10/month, and there’s even a trial period for you to try for free.
Bluehost: mr-stingy was hosted on Bluehost from 2014 to 2017. I initially signed up because Pat Flynn (see below) highly recommends them. My experience with them was great: easy-to-learn website, excellent performance and great customer service.
If you’re looking to start a website, Bluehost is probably the easiest way to start. Click on the icon above for a discounted price of $3.95/month.
Blink WordPress Theme: Like the design on mr-stingy.com? It comes from a group of very talented designers called Codestag. Not only are their designs beautiful, they’re reputable for producing highly-optimized code, ensuring great performance.
Check out their other awesome themes here.
Unsplash, Pexels, IM Free: For high-quality free images that I use with my blog posts.
Free Web Headers: The web headers on this blog and my Facebook page come from this awesome free resource.
Ben Nadel’s Privacy Policy / Terms of Service Generator: Used to generate the privacy policy and terms of service for this blog.
Becoming Awesome
Mark Manson’s Blog: I’ve been a fan of Mark Manson’s writings for a long time. IMHO his best work is in the realm of men’s development a.k.a how to become a better man (probably due to fact that I can relate to him in many ways). He’s moved on to a more gender-neutral perspective nowadays, but his content remains meaningful, entertaining and genuinely helpful. My favorite blog in the world.
Models: Attract Women Through Honesty, by Mark Manson: The best book I’ve ever read on becoming an attractive man. Contains honest, actionable and non-creepy advice for doing better in love. I highly recommend this if you’re a guy struggling with girls, and want to improve. Women will love this book too.
James Clear: Long before his #1 bestseller “Atomic Habits”, James Clear was already publishing hit article after hit article on self-improvement. Come here for powerful — yet simple and practical — principles on how to build a better life.
Barking Up The Wrong Tree: A minimalist blog — packed with scientific advice on how to be happier, achieve more success, and generally be more awesome in multiple areas of life.
Mastering Money
iMoney.my: The best (and prettiest) Malaysian financial comparison portal. Come here to compare financial products like loans, credit cards, and insurance plans. So you can get the most for your money. Also includes a really easy-to-understand learning center, which includes some of my articles.
GenX GenY GenZ: The ultimate resource on credit cards for Malaysians. Written from an entertaining first-person perspective — a deep mine of information on the best credit cards, and how to maximize them for your benefit. Yes, credit cards can actually help you save money and give you all sorts of cool privileges when used rightly.
Books
Full Article: 10 Books That Changed My Life
The $100 Startup: Reinvent The Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future, by Chris Guillebeau:
One of the most inspiring books that I’ve ever read. The writing itself is simple, but the material is remarkable: case study after case study of people who successfully make a living on the Internet, doing what they love. It makes you ask the all-important question:
“If they can do it, why can’t I?”
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead, by Brené Brown:
If you’ve ever felt ashamed, insecure, or had low self-esteem — this book is for you. Professor Brené Brown leads us on an emotional journey: teaching us why we feel shame, how it disrupts our lives, and what to do about it. And paradoxically how our greatest strength is when we are most vulnerable.
This book will make you love others better. But more importantly, it will make you love yourself more.
On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, by William Zinsser:
Whether it’s an office email, a formal report or your blog, writing better will make your life better. This is the book to learn writing. The book that professional writers refer to themselves.
Sometimes when reading this book, I feel like standing up and giving a standing ovation.
Better Shopping
The Wirecutter: Like reading reviews before you buy stuff? Wouldn’t it be useful if you could speak to multiple expert reviewers for their opinions before you buy stuff? And what if an ingenious expert himself spoke to multiple other experts, got their opinions, and summarized all the information for you in the-mother-of-all-reviews website? Well, that’s what The Wirecutter is.
Blogging
Smart Passive Income: The founder, Pat Flynn calls himself the crash test dummy of online business. But in reality he’s the ideal whom most bloggers aspire to become: 1. Write blog. 2. Create following. 3. Monetize. 4. Earn “passive” 5-figures a month. 5. Share how to do it. Check out his site for transparent, no-bullshit advice on how to create a profitable blog.
Problogger: For tips from the legendary master blogger himself, Darren Rowse.
WordPress Plugins
These are the WordPress plugins that I use on mr-stingy. Guess what, they’re all free!:
- BackUpWordPress: For automatically backing up all your hard work.
- Google Analytics by Yoast: For analyzing my blog performance.
- Google XML Sitemaps: To help search engines find my website.
- Jetpack by WordPress.com: To allow WordPress.com features on my website.
- MailPoet Newsletters: To manage newsletters for my email subscribers.
- StagTools: Adds functions to beautify the Blink WordPress theme.
- TablePress: For creating tables within blog posts.
- W3 Total Cache: Install this to drastically improve the speed of your website.
- WordPress Related Posts: For serving up “You may also like” articles to readers.
- WordPress SEO: For improving SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
- WP-SpamShield: To eliminate spam comments.
- WP Smush: To “smush” images into smaller sizes and help improve website performance.
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Some of the above are affiliate links, meaning if you click and sign up for something, I’ll get a small fee. But at absolutely no cost to you.
You should check out Mr. Money Moustache and The Art of Manliness too! They’re awesome! =)
Thank you Si Han!
Yes, they really are! I love them too…
I currently live in a small town with no bookshop. Yes. But my bible is The Elements of Style by Strunk & White. I just got a used On Writing Well in the mail. It is the 1998 edition but I will get the 30th Anniversary edition one when I leave this kampung.
Nice!
It seems that GenX GenY GenZ is no more.
Yeah, he retired. That sucks. 🙁
Doing a renovation on my site! The natural way of doing it – is asking what would Aaron do? Thanks for the compilation.
No problem bro… I actually have been using some new tools recently. When I have some time I’ll try to update this too!
Bro – you link to GenXGenYGenZ is going to a phishing site (as confirmed by themselves) https://genxgenygenz.com/news-flash/
You might want to update the link.
Thanks Danny. Appreciate it! Have updated the link accordingly.
Hi Mr. Stingy. I have a nine year old Myvi and the problems are endless. Could you recommend me a mechanic who could check my car and let me know if I need to get a new car or if I can repair this one. By the way, thanks for your write up, learnt a lot.
Hi Sophia — will email you my mechanic contact details.