PSP3000-2: EKONOMI KELUARGA DAN PENGGUNA (FAMILY AND CONSUMER

ECONOMICS)

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT: MY FAMILY ECONOMICS HISTORY

LECTURER’S NAME

DR NORZALINA BINTI ZAINUDIN

STUDENT’S NAME MATRIC NO

WAFIN WARDAH BINTI AZMI 217153

SEMESTER 1 2023/2024

FACULTY OF HUMAN ECOLOGY

UNIVERSITY OF PUTRA MALAYSIA

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................2

2.0 DISCUSSION......................................................................................................................2

2.1 Impact of Economics on Personal Life............................................................................2

2.2 Past and Present Economic Decision Making..................................................................3

2.3 Past and Present Economic Conditions............................................................................3

2.4 Past and Present Career Trajectory...................................................................................3

2.5 Relation between Economic Conditions to Choices Regarding Education and Careers.4

3.0 CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................4

4.0 REFERENCE.......................................................................................................................5

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1.0 INTRODUCTION

A family economic history is a chronological discussion of economic decisions and

choices made by the ancestors that have affected current economic circumstances or
conditions. This activity is a biographical sketch that emphasizes economic decision-
making and its consequences. In this paper, I am going to discuss about the impact of
economics on personal life, compare and contrast past and present economic decision
making, compare and contrast past and present economic conditions, compare and
contrast past and present career trajectory, and economic conditions to choices regarding
education and careers.
The person that I chose to be my respondent was my mother. Her name is Sufiah binti
Husain. She is 58 years old and was born in Muar, Johor. She has twelve siblings and she
is the youngest. Her father, which was well-known as Atok Husain was a teacher, while
his wife, Atok Chik (mother), was a full-time house wife and never went to any school
before. After taken Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM), she persuaded her studies in Diploma
of Agriculture and then in Bachelor of Economic Resources at the same university. She
then worked as Language Planning Officer at Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka for 18 years,
before quitting the job.

2.0 DISCUSSION

2.1 Impact of Economics on Personal Life

As she used to be an officer, she had her own salary to pay for what she wanted.
During her time, the wages she got was enough to support her life since economic
growth back then was quite stable. She could also take a loan out to buy assets and
any highly expensive items. Now she depends 80 percent on her husband’s pension
funds (my father) to buy anything. She has additional income from renting house to
other people. She also uses her savings that she saved when she was working, for
example Kumpulan Wang Simpanan Pesara (KWSP) and Amanah Saham Berhad
(ASB) and buy goods with cash. She could not take any loan since she has no longer
getting fixed monthly income. In addition, the cost of living has risen, and it is
important for her to be more rational and smart while spending money to goods and
services.

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2.2 Past and Present Economic Decision Making
In this part, she highlighted on the impact of technology towards decision making
in buying goods. During past time, we had to visit the physical store on our free time
especially during weekend, and only pick the needs rather than the desires. Compared
to past, in this present time the movement of technology has grow rapidly since we
have online shopping. Sometimes we buy goods based on their appearance and
attractiveness, and not on what we really need. Even though online shopping do save
our time and cost on petrol, but still it affects us on our total spending. Additionally,
today’s living culture has changed a lot. We spent a lot on electric billing especially
when we have lots of electrical appliances such as air-conditioner, water filter, smart
television and also on gadgets, including gadgets accessories such as monthly mobile
data payment and also wifi connection since they are part of our necessities. She also
said, electrical bill during past only cost her around RM50 per month, but now
RM200 to RM300 is considered as normal.

2.3 Past and Present Economic Conditions

Back then when she was a school student, her dad was the only person who worked
for money, while her mother stayed at home and taken care house chores. Her father
still able to support her siblings while working as a teacher. When she was in primary
school, a piece of cake only cost her 5 cents, and she always bring 10 cents to school
per day. Goods price was much cheaper and lower compared to present market price.
This is most probably because she stayed at village and goods price were not high
compared to city. She also mentioned that we could buy a full trolly of goods with only
RM50 back then, but today RM50 would only benefit us with few items of goods, and
we must spend around RM300 to RM400 to get full trolly. Price level has risen and our
Malaysian currency value has fallen due to several factors including inflation rates,
interest rates, debts level, and also political stability. Today’s situation forces both
husband and wife to work in order to support the cost of living. Especially for newly
married couple, they have to struggle to pay rent and transportation cost, also it would
be hard if they are staying at city with basic wages.

2.4 Past and Present Career Trajectory

During the 40s to 50s era, it was so easy to find a job since there were only few
number of people that went to school, or even university graduates. She said, “job is
looking for people”, and also during her era in the 90s, she got her job offer easily and

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 had to compete with few people only. What happened today was totally different.
Number of competitors increasing day by day, school is mandatory for everyone and
there are millions of university graduates. It is so hard to get the right job with good
salary since we need to compete with lots of skilled and talented people, or even when
we get the job, it could be not in line with the course we took in university, or in the
worst cases, lots of people are unemployed even though they are degree holders.

2.5 Relation between Economic Conditions to Choices Regarding Education and

Careers.
After finished school, she dreamed about being an officer. She had to take degree
in order to be an officer since the salary would be higher compared to the Sijil
Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) leavers. This was a great opportunity for her to support
herself and her family, as her parents getting older and her dad already retired from
being a teacher, and get better life in the future. In this part, the opportunity cost that
she had was, she spent three years in diploma, and another four years in degree to get
better payment in job. After graduated from degree, she got an offer for position as
Language Planning Officer at Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, her position needed her to
write about economic dictionary, and her dream did come true.

3.0 CONCLUSION

To sum up everything that has been shared above, I could tell present economic
condition are highly impacted by the movement of technology. Everything costs us more
since technology getting higher, so our spending also higher. Plus, political issues could
be the reason since our government changes every five years, their style in governing this
country also changed. Even job offers increase, our country still facing unemployment
problems since we are flooded with too much university graduates, and the competition
getting harder. Our country also dealing with debts and inflation that affected our
currency value. Life changes over time, in 2020s era, men and women have to secure at
least one job to support living costs, and this would continue in the future.

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4.0 REFERENCE

Sabi, M. (2023, November 6). Application of oral history to economics: Family Economic
History. Teaching and learning economics.
https://serc.carleton.edu/econ/interdisciplinary/examples/72389.html.

Wardah, W. [Wafin Wardah]. (2023, December 9). PSP3000-2: MY FAMILY

ECONOMICS HISTORY. [Video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/etccEanQ-VU?
feature=shared

Way, M. M. (2018). Families: Economic Functions and Decision-Making. In: Family

Economics and Public Policy, 1800s-Present. Palgrave Studies in American
Economic History. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-
137-43963-5_2