When Tara Meilina was still single, she never thought of allocating some of her monthly income for investment.

She mostly spent the money on fun—hanging out with friends, shopping or pampering herself at a beauty salon.

“I would run out of money even before the month ended, and then would ask my mother for a soft loan,” the 34-year-old said.

But when she got married four years ago, Tara started to carefully plan her finances - writing down all of her expenses and searching for every investment opportunity she could get.

She and her husband set up an automatic debit from their account to invest in gold, mutual funds, Islamic bonds and deposits.

“I’m buying gold to save money for the education of my daughter in the future. We decided to invest in gold because its value will keep increasing over the long term,” Tara said.

On mutual funds, she said her husband was usually the one who regularly monitored developments.

The couple also invests in property. After marrying, they bought an apartment in Depok, West Java, for Rp 270 million (US$ 23,622), which they rent out for Rp 2.5 million a month to cover the mortgage payments.

“As an asset, the apartment’s value has increased up to around Rp 300 to 400 million,” Tara said.

Tara does not stop there. She and her husband plan to expand their investments by purchasing a plot of land and opening a franchise that can generate a bug daily cash flow to line the family’s coffers in the future.

“I choose these kinds of investments because I think they are the most feasible,” she said.

Unlike Tara, who started planning after she got married, the pop violinist Maylaffayza said that she started thinking about the importance of investing when she was single.

Originally believing that her savings would be enough to cover all her expenses, the 37-year-old said that her family had to struggle to pay the medical bills for a sick relative.

“My parents didn’t have any investments, and the money that we had in savings was apparently not enough to pay the bills either,” she said.

Maylaffayza said that she realized that she could not only rely on savings and needed to start expanding her financial profile.

“I didn’t know what to do initially until a friend who is also a financial planner told me about the choices that I could make,” Maylaffayza said.

She followed his suggestions and tried to open a certificate of deposit first. When she got married, she started to invest in mutual funds and buy bonds together with her husband.

“Mutual funds were an alien thing to me – I was totally clueless about it. But I started to read business magazines, surf the Internet to find out more about what it was and how it worked,” she said.

“It took a year for me to learn.”

When Tara Meilina was still single, she never thought of allocating some of her monthly income for investment.

She mostly spent the money on fun'€”hanging out with friends, shopping or pampering herself at a beauty salon.

'€œI would run out of money even before the month ended, and then would ask my mother for a soft loan,'€ the 34-year-old said.

But when she got married four years ago, Tara started to carefully plan her finances - writing down all of her expenses and searching for every investment opportunity she could get.

She and her husband set up an automatic debit from their account to invest in gold, mutual funds, Islamic bonds and deposits.

'€œI'€™m buying gold to save money for the education of my daughter in the future. We decided to invest in gold because its value will keep increasing over the long term,'€ Tara said.

On mutual funds, she said her husband was usually the one who regularly monitored developments.

The couple also invests in property. After marrying, they bought an apartment in Depok, West Java, for Rp 270 million (US$ 23,622), which they rent out for Rp 2.5 million a month to cover the mortgage payments.

'€œAs an asset, the apartment'€™s value has increased up to around Rp 300 to 400 million,'€ Tara said.

Tara does not stop there. She and her husband plan to expand their investments by purchasing a plot of land and opening a franchise that can generate a bug daily cash flow to line the family'€™s coffers in the future.

'€œI choose these kinds of investments because I think they are the most feasible,'€ she said.

Unlike Tara, who started planning after she got married, the pop violinist Maylaffayza said that she started thinking about the importance of investing when she was single.

Originally believing that her savings would be enough to cover all her expenses, the 37-year-old said that her family had to struggle to pay the medical bills for a sick relative.

'€œMy parents didn'€™t have any investments, and the money that we had in savings was apparently not enough to pay the bills either,'€ she said.

Maylaffayza said that she realized that she could not only rely on savings and needed to start expanding her financial profile.

'€œI didn'€™t know what to do initially until a friend who is also a financial planner told me about the choices that I could make,'€ Maylaffayza said.

She followed his suggestions and tried to open a certificate of deposit first. When she got married, she started to invest in mutual funds and buy bonds together with her husband.

'€œMutual funds were an alien thing to me '€“ I was totally clueless about it. But I started to read business magazines, surf the Internet to find out more about what it was and how it worked,'€ she said.

'€œIt took a year for me to learn.'€