We get the message "Ubah Gaya Hidup", everything just hike up when fuel price increased. House is getting more expensive, stocks market is unstable, banks may increase interest rates. Political drama keep going on and economy isn't getting better, our country is in a mess. It seems like we had no idea what's gonna happen next.

Despite all the negativity that kept pouring in, "Ubah Gaya Hidup" living better for less seems impossible to be truth. In other perspective, a tough time could means a good time to make a difference in your life, a positive change.

How to take advantage in a bad economy?
Many of us are trimming their expenses and going out less, many has cancelled their yearly vacations from their to-do-list, you can utilize this time around to go travel with smaller crowds, MATTA Fair is just around the corner, visit and grab the cheapest package as fast as you can.

Invest, if you have money in your bank account, this would be a buyer paradise to invest in real estate, there may be many houses out for "lelong" and you can get a good location due to many empty lots available. Another opportunity would be starting your business, a great time to serve the market who would like to spend less for more, or perhaps look for a market that has the most number of businesses closing down and start building the root from there by researching the reason and find the solutions to cater for the market needs this time around.

Start a blog and earn money as people would be spending more at home surfing the internet looking for information and ideas to improve their life, aims for something that people would like to read such as money, entertainment, personal development and daily solutions method.

If worst come to worst, you can take this opportunity to explore working abroad where currency is much stronger. If you really have too many expenses you can't cope and in bad shape due bad economy, this could be a good idea to think about.

After all, economy wouldn't be bad all the times, we can make use of the bad times to learn and the good time to save so that we can handle it in future. "Ubah Gaya Hidup" to kicks the bad habits out and cultivate good one.

Recently announced that Malaysia's annual inflation (CPI) rose to 3.0 percent high in April due to higher food price. This is the highest level in 15 months, the food index jumped 4.7 percent for the first four months of 2008 compared with the same period last year. News sources from TheMalaysiaInsider and more statistics from Department of Statistics Malaysia.

Our hard earn money is getting smaller due to unpredictable economy, we don't know what is going to happen next. Rice is increasing and yet government may increase the petroleum price soon, all this uncertainties will just loom back to us as a consumers.

If you are clueless about what's Consumer Price Index (CPI), you may refer Consumer Price Index as Cost of living index or more exact an index that traces the relative changes in the price of an individual good (or a market basket of goods) over time. Furthermore, our national unemployment rate continues to remain steady at 3.2% for the month of December 2007, it's not so bad after all. But, I have read somewhere an article that says inflation increase will lead to decrease of unemployment rate, which mean that the current unemployment rate at 3.2%, if this is to decrease then we should expect more inflation in the future. Here's the hint that is telling us it's coming more and more, the increasing food prices and recent global upsurge of petroleum prices.

My god, it seems like we are unable to avoid inflation, but it's not too late if you can take opportunities from the advantage of it, to keep up with the inflation. What's your plan? No doubt that fixed deposits are still the most popular form of “investment” in Malaysia. Let's see the best available fixed deposit rates for amounts up to RM 1 million on offer at the moment (source: Bank Negara consumer website www.bankinginfo.com.my - updated 29/8/2007):

If the above rates are not what you are looking for, you may consider investing in mutual funds or stock market. It may definitely higher that the above rates, just bear in mind, you need to invest in yourself first before you start to invest, know what you are investing is the rule of thumbs of investment. However, know your risk tolerance level, investment option is a greater risk, you may want to consult an experience financial planner before taking this step.

Lastly, it's all up to you to put your money in investment opportunities or not. After all, we are actually losing money with the increasing of inflation and decreasing of "buying power" that we had discuss earlier.