Let’s face it that currently we are in the digital era. Even the richest man in the world stored their wealth electronically. So these digital data are extremely confidential and if you got the right “key”, every single details of you can be revealed!!! This remind me of the movie "Die Hard 4", if you have the control on these digital data, basically you are in control of everything.
What is the 1st thing that crosses your mind when u sees the gadget above?
Well for me, I thought it is some kind of PC converter. But the shocking truth is, it’s a device that captures any key pressed from the keyboard a.k.a “Black Device”.
What we had witness above is the evolution of crimes whereby criminals starts to use their 6lbs brain on ways to obtain/steal sensitive informations.
We might have the latest virus, firewall, security systems installed in the pc, but back to the root, you will still use a keyboard to type!!! (Unless you have a touch screen :p).
Lastly frens out there, be alert on the on the “Black Device” when you are in a Cybercafe, Airport n etc. It will just take 1 Careless to lose Everything.
Just give it a thought... ;)
I am slow,
When my boss takes a long time,
he or she is thorough
When I don't do it,
I am lazy,
When my boss does not do it,
he or she is busy,
When I do something without being told,
I am trying to be smart,
When my boss does the same,
he or she takes the initiative,
When I please my boss,
I am apple polishing,
When my boss pleases his boss,
he or she is cooperating,
When I make a mistake,
you're an idiot.
When my boss makes a mistake,
he's or she only human.
When I am out of the office,
I am wandering around.
When my boss is out of the office,
he's or she on business.
When I am on a day off sick,
I am always sick.
When my boss is a day off sick,
he or she must be very ill.
When I apply for leave,
I must be going for an interview
When my boss applies for leave,
it's because he's or she overworked
When I do good,
my boss never remembers,
When I do wrong,
he or she never forgets
Today is a sad day for me...
A good old fren of mine had just left us.
His name is Chew Kar Wai, 29.
He's a very happening, cheerful, happy go lucky guy. It feels good when you ard with him.
Its sad that he had to end his journey with us but a new journey is awaiting for him.
There will be a prayer ceremony on 15/10/2008 @ his house, Batu Gajah, Perak.
His funeral will be on the 16/10/2008 morning.
For those who are reading this, Hope you can pay respect for him for the last time.
For those who don't know Kar Wai, kindly spare 1-2 mins to pray an wishes him.
Thank you
We will missed you very much and you will remain in good memories. R.I.P.
JULY 20th, 1979 ~ OCT 14th, 2008
"KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Wednesday announced the new price for petrol is RM2.70 a litre, effective midnight tonight 04 June 2008
The 40% increase in petrol price is part of the new fuel subsidy plan the Prime Minister announced at 5pm Wednesday.
The price of diesel goes up to RM2.58 from RM1.58."
Well this will be the biggest headline for year 2008.
Now lets do a quick math. An average m’sian will consume at least 100 litres per week. Currently our petrol is residing at RM1.98, so per week will cost RM198. With the new price increment it will now cost RM270 per week. This actually transalate an extra expenses of ~RM300 per month. So is RM300 a lot? Well for some ppl its equivalent to their monthly expenses for food (RM10 x 30days).
To bring this further, an average income for msian would be RM3K. Just for the sake of petrol, it will cost RM1K and if we include the montly car installment i.e RM500, 50% of the earned income is gone!
You will see 95% will be complaining.
You will see them start to Protest.
You will see them start to Boycott.
You will see them in anger.
You will see them in fear.
You will see them disappointed.
You will see them helpless.
You will see them played the role of “victim”
As time pass, they will start to accept the fact and there’s nothing much they can do about it and businesses as usual.
Few years down the road, the same headline will re-occur and the ‘So What's Next?’ be repeated.
So What's Next?
STOP being a victim! If what you are doing currently doesn’t improve your financial situation, isn't it time to improvise your strategy?
So What's Next?
Ever wonder why most house have a back door? Obviously it is for the case of emergency. If all the while you only have a single stream of income, it's time to build your "back door". It definitely required time to create additional streams of income but let's not create excuses of not having one! You are not to be blame of not having one now, but few years down the road and you still don't have any.... who's to blame?
Cheers!
Little amounts can make a large difference to your finances.
As gasoline and food prices continue to rise, the squeeze to make family budgets balance each month becomes more of a struggle. After the big savings have been found and taken, smaller savings have to be found to make ends meet.
This can be frustrating as it can feel like everyone is being nickled and dimed to death. That's why it's important to realize how these small amounts can make a huge difference in your overall financial health.
You've likely heard about the little ways to save money a million times. Money-saving advice includes standards like packing your lunch instead of buying it at work, skipping the Starbucks and making your coffee at home and watching videos at home instead of going out to the movies. While you may have grown tired of hearing them, they are still as true as ever and even more important when the economy is struggling.
Saving small amounts of money is good advice for everyone, it's not as essential for people that are currently living well below their means. If you spend $5 on a cup of coffee each day, but you're still able to put away five times that amount toward your savings, that coffee splurge isn't going to hurt as much as for someone who isn't saving anything. For those that are barely making ends meet, spending small amounts of money can be the difference between deep debt and a nice retirement account.
When you are faced with a budget that isn't balancing, you have two main choices: earn more money or cut more expenses. Unfortunately, many turn to a third alternative. When they can't seem to make their budget balance, they decide that it's acceptable to place the difference onto a credit card. Even though the monthly shortfall in the budget is small, placing it onto credit cards is one of the worst financial moves that a person can make. The result will be a downward cycle that will not only keep you in debt, but also create a tremendous amount of stress.
There is often a false assumption that saving $10 and spending $10, although opposite, are relatively the same. For example, if a person saves $10 a day, after a month their account will have $300 while if a person spends $10 a day, that will result in a debt of $300. While on the surface this makes perfect sense, the problem lies in that these numbers fail to take into account the interest that can be gained or charged on this money. It is this failure to understand the concept of compound interest and the dramatic effect it can have that greatly changes these results.
It's important to understand that it takes very little to start sinking into debt. For most people, spending $10 a day would not be considered extravagant spending by any means, but $10 can result in tens of thousands of dollar of debt. It's simple to see when you compare the results of what happens when one person saves $10 a day while the other spends $10 a day that he doesn't have.
If a person were to save $300 a month (approx. $10 a day) and invest it to get a 5% yearly return, that person would have $20,402 in the bank after five years. On the other hand, if a person ends up spending $300 a month more than he has and puts it onto a credit card that he doesn't pay off over the same 5 year period, that person will owe $36,259, assuming a 26% credit card interest rate. After five years, the difference between saving $10 and spending $10 each day results in a $56,661 gap in net worth between the two.
Add another five years to the same patterns, and the results are even more dramatic. After 10 years, the person who saved $10 a day would have $46,585 in the bank, whereas the person whop spent the $10 he didn't have would be $167,470 in debt, resulting in a net worth difference of over $210,000.
Of course, there are many other factors that could alter these calculations. The interest you can earn and what your credit card interest rates are will vary from this example. There is a minimum amount that the person would need to pay on a credit card each month. If debt to this extent began to occur, the person would have their credit cut off long before this amount accumulated and would likely need to declare bankruptcy. The point is that over time, small amounts added to debt can result in far more debt than most people realize.
Once you learn that saving a small amount and overspending a small amount aren't simple opposites, you understand the importance of having a budget and strictly sticking with it. If you are able to fight through the hard times and keep your budget balanced, then you set yourself to reap great financial rewards when the economy finally turns around.
Copyrighted, TheStreet.Com. All rights reserved.
This is strange...can you figure it out? Are you the 2% or 98% of the population?
Do the following exercise, guaranteed to raise an eyebrow. There's no trick or surprise.
Just follow these instructions, and answer the questions one at a time and as quickly as you can!
Again, as quickly as you can but don't advance until you've done each of them.
Now, scroll down (but not too fast, you might miss something)
2) Multiply that number by 9
3) If the number is a 2-digit number, add the digits together
4) Now subtract 5
5) Determine which letter in the alphabet corresponds to the number you ended up with(example: 1=a, 2=b, 3=c,etc.)
6) Think of a country that starts with that letter.
7) Remember the last letter of the name of that country.
8) Think of the name of an animal that starts with that letter.
9) Remember the last letter in the name of that animal.
10) Think of the name of a fruit that starts with that letter.
Now, go to the comment section to reveal the answer. I will continue my post at there ;)
Let me ask you a few questions
While you are walking in the street and you saw a $100 note on the floor will you pick it up?
Next if the $100 note had been crumpled as if a person crumpling a rough paper and throw it to the rubbish bin. Will you still pick it up?
Worst still, if the crumpled $100 note had been step by a foot as if a person to pull off a cigarate. Will you still want pick it up?
Well, I’m not sure about you, but I’m definitely picking it up because I know that $100 note still have a value of $100 regardless of its condition.
If we turn the situation around whereby the $100 note is merely a blank piece of paper? Will you still pick it up? I bet NO! Why? Simply because it's full with wrinkles, dirty and worthless.
Now what is the catch here? If you notice carefully, there’s a common characteristic between these two items, i.e. both are made of paper!
This same goes to us, most individual are given the same set of biological hardware (brain, 5 senses, hands, legs n etc) but we are “valued” very differently in different aspect. Most often at the end of the day we are value by a price tag.
Why creating values within ourselves is important? One of the crucial reason is we are living a competitive society that will keep on evolving from time to time. Let me give u a metaphor.
In the following years, these are the popular medium used for music/video industry.
1900 – Gramophone Records
1963 – Cassette Tapes
1983 – Compact Disc, CD
1992 – Mini Disc
1996 – DVD
Present – Blue Ray Disc/ HD-DVD
Notice that each time a new technology is created, it would required lesser time than the previous and the earlier technology will start to obsolete. This same goes to some career that exist in the past that didn’t exist anymore now! So don’t be surprise that the job/expertise/career that we have presently will obsolete in future!
So how do we increase our values? Let me ask you the following.
When is the last time you read a book, newspaper, magazine n etc?
When is the last time you ever attend a course, training n etc?
When is the last time you ever go out and network with different group of ppl?
When is the last time that you dare to do things differently from what you used to do?
Even you are a $100 note now, your value will slowly depreciate as time goes on. The next generations will be more aggressive and willing to work twice harder just to get half of you what you get.
Lastly, the $100 note is merely a blank piece of paper but after being imprint, it make so much difference in values. So you still in a position to imprint yourself to make a difference in your life.
"Live Life to the Fullest" - Ernest HemingwayCheers!!!
One day when I’m driving and i heard this advertisement in the radio that sounds like this.
I believe on our day to day routine, it can be categorize as following
1/3 x 24hours = 8hours = Sleep
1/3 x 24hours = 8hours = “Free Time”
I use“Free Time” as a term where by this is the time that we can use for our personal advantages.
Now imagine if you start working by the age of 20 and retired at 60. You actually have 1/3 x 40 years = 13.3 years of “Free Time”. Well this haven't minus off the extra working hours (OT) you work for your company, the time you stuck at traffic jam, your dinner time, your TV/Movies break, afternoon nape and so on. So let’s translates all these in time perhaps 3.3 years and you left 10years of “Free Time”. Now don't forget we are assuming that we start the calculation by the age of 20 years old. What if you are currently 25years old now? Or...30years old now? Your probably finished up all your “Free Time”. Scary? Still in “Relax” mode? Still procrastinating?
What is the first thing that crosses your mind when someone told you about Credit Card? I’m not sure about you but I hear a lot of painful experiences
“I’m so stress up on figuring out how to repay my debts”
“I need to sell my car just to pay my debts!!!”
“I can’t control my expenses when using it”
“I already “cut” all credit cards”
Now if you notice, majority people can’t resist the temptation of having extra credit spending when they have credit cards. Sadly, this often leads them to become a “slave” to credit card whereby they need to work very hard each month just to payback their debts.
When we talk about debts, not necessarily all debts are bad. There are good and bad debts. For e.g. an Education Loan is a good debt, as you are spending money that cant afford presently for a better future. In contrast, if you abuse credit card, you’re actually spending your future money that you can’t afford presently. Now that’s really a bad debt!
Why 2 credit cards only not more than that? The idea here is for you to focus on one single card and an additional as a backup for the case of emergency. You know emergency do happen and you don’t got stuck in a situation when your main card has insufficient credit.
Why need to pay when you can get it for free? If you really can’t find any “Free for Life” cards, just make sure you set a least 2 months reminder in your mobile phone before the credit card expired (Annual fees will be imposed for renewal) so that you can cancel it and re-apply again.
This is to ensure that you have easy access to your account so that you can have a rough estimation of your expenditure.
Cable TV bills
Phone bills
Internet Broadband bills
Insurance
Petrol
The purpose of doing this is to make sure that your monthly fixed expenditure is handled automatically by your “slave”. This also ensures that you didn’t overspend your future money!
Cheers!!!
Well have you ever wondered when you are driving and your dream car pass by... and what are first thing cross your mind? Well answer yourself honestly before reading ahead ;)
Majority will think that the owner of the car must be an outstanding person, they must be very hardworking, they must be great in what they are doing, they must be very smart, they must be the “lucky” ones and so on….
Or even worst… some might think, this crazy b*stard must be out of his mind, “I rather buy a house instead of that car”, “the petrol $ must be killing them”, “won’t they scared being robbed driving such a nice car” and so on…
Notice these 2 groups of people behave very differently. The first will have an aspect of “envy/respect” and another as “criticism/discourage”. But these groups of people shared a common thing i.e. they have “limiting believes”.
Well we can’t blame them, especially those who are pretty “season” in employment, corporate world, their so call dream (if they have one) that once “I’m possible” had become “Impossible”. These 2 words look the same but have very different meaning! Also these people are in an environment that is “Subject to Negative Influences”. Often you will heard them complaining, blaming, cursing, backstabbing, you name it, they got it. They just love being the role of “victim”.
Moving forward, I’m sure that you do cross someone that you know who was once label “lazy” in school and have poor grades but now they seems to be more successful financially. Have you ever wonder WHY? The only reason that I found out is because they understand how the game of money is played. Each game has its sets of rules so does money!
Now, looking to our education system, do we have a subject on money? I’m not sure about you, as far as I recall there were none in mine. Since young we’re are taught to study hard, score as much flying colors as you can and this will secure you a “high pay” job or even better start your own business. “Stay away from investment as they are risky”, “You will get burned in stocks” and many more. Well anything wrong with this? From my perspective, we are train to be a perfectionist to serve the “Master” whom is good in playing the money game.
In reality, we are merely human, and human do make mistakes but the problem is we are trained to hates mistake/failure. Guess what most people will do? They will stop making mistake by do “nothing”. Reason is simple, they have this phobia of making mistakes. It feels goods not to make mistake right? :p. Let me give you a metaphor, look at an infant when he/she on the stage learning to walk. Have you ever wondered why an infant will learn to walk? Why not just crawl for the rest of their lives? It’s already in our natural instinct, from each fall/mistake/failure we grew stronger and stronger. But sadly, most people are still crawling financially when they can actually walk and even run!
You see none of us are ever taught how to make money, how to invest money or how to manage our financial and yet money is the most important subject in our lives especially when your “FAMO” scholarship ends. (FAther and MOther :p). I know some “stubborn” will say “Not everything is about money”, but don’t you agree that you can do lots of thing IF you had the money ;). Some might take years to figure it out, or maybe some will never figure it out. My best advice is to go out and network with the “right” people. Your Networth = Your Network. These people often have a different way of thinking and have totally different strategies. They could be your drop out ex-classmate, financial adviser, your rich neighbor and etc.
Cheers!!!
For some reason… a lot of people came to me for financial advise although I’m not a financial adviser or something…. haha I’m getting lazy to repeat, repeat n repeat again… so let’s blog it.
Next I’m sure you met a lot of people that tell you about their big dreams, they want to retired young, they want to be millionaires etc, etc n etc. This leads to my second questions to them, “Is $100K a lot?” Majority of them replied me “What I can do with $100K? Given in the current economic situation you barely can do anything with $100K.” Now the best part… Do you have $100K now? NOPE they answered. Well I’ve been whispering to myself, isn’t their dreams contradicting with what they are saying? If I get the equation right, With $100k = barely can do anything with it, Without $100K = don’t even think about it :p.
Now back to my initial question i.e “Do you understand how you value money?” Let’s put it this way, if you strike a $100K lottery, what are the first few “Most Wanted” in your wish list? Guess what, most of them give me the “eeerrr” sound. The problem with people now is they are unsure what they want even if they have the money! If you are one of them, I have a simple advice to offer you. All you need to do is to be more “sensitive/alert” to yourself. Whenever you crossover a particular thing that caught your interest or attention, notice if you will start thinking it twice, for the third time and so on, notice if you will start fantasize about it, notice how long does your fantasy lasted? If your fantasy keep growing and growing or in other words you will not get bored of it… this might be your “Most Wanted”.
Let me give you real life example: Whenever the GF and I was driving and this cute yet cool little car pass by, the GF definitely will shout “Mini Copper!!!” then follow by “Vroom Vroom” as if she was driving it. Then we will start to discuss about the various colors that we saw and as always, the discussion ended with a Mini Cooper S, red in color and 2 white strips in front of the bonnet. The desire goes stronger each time and the GF doesn’t get bored about it.
Isn't that a hotty!
Now, what’s the whole point here? If you understand your desires, your “Most Wanted”, your dreams, call it whatever you want…you need to translate these into figures (money). Now bring back the $100K again, you may plan to yourself a house ($50K), upgrade yourself a more comfortable car ($30K), OR for those are single, upgrade to married ($30K) ;) and maybe have a spare cash ($20K) in case for emergency. I believe this is quite a common path in the journey of our life. So understanding your desires actually leads you to understanding how money is value for you!
Moving forward, let me intro you my “Rules of Three”. The “RO3” is accidentally created when I’m setting up my medium term goals. Assuming that I’m planning to get a house ($50K) for my future wife, a wedding ($30K) and some spare cash ($20K), let’s translates it into Three years financial goals.
First Year ($20K)
------------------------
$20K = $2K x 10 months.
Notice I just use 10 months for a full year as I’m giving myself extra 2 months buffer for unforeseen expenses (Doodads), E.g. car broke down, insurance renewal, anniversary presents and etc.
Now in order for us to saved $2K each month, our income should be at least Three times of the amount saved. Some of you might think why must it be Three times? If you ever buy a car or a house, your monthly income must be at least Three times of the monthly installment. Reason is simple, 1/3 is for your fixed debts, 1/3 for you living expenses, 1/3 is for your free cash on hand.
Hence your Income
$2K x Three = $6K
Second Year ($30K)
----------------------------
Well we definitely need some improve compared to previous year. So lets raise it to $30K
$30K = $3K x 10 months
Hence your Income
$3K x Three = $9K
--------------------------
$50K = $5K x 10 months
$5K x Three = $15K
Lastly, I would like to emphasize, that the art of financial quotient is no "Rocket Science" but a habit. If you can’t squeeze 1 cent out of a dollar, forget about hundred, thousands, even millions.
“Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle
Cheers!!!
This reminds me the "One" of the many showroom houses that me and the GF have been searching for the past years.
On the left is the 2.5 storey and the right is the standard double storey terrace namely Ametis Terrance. It's situated at Bukit Puchong 2 and on the right hand side just before the LDP-Cyberjaya toll. Poket not deep enuf YET so have to go with the 2 storeyFor some reason i'm extremely "particular" with the car porch. It must at least able to accommodate 2 cars side by side. And so far this is the "One" that suits my requirement. Most of the showrooms that i've visited... definitely got 1 ugly pillar that surely doesn't allow you to park 2 cars.
The living room is kinda spacious but is not the most spacious among those i had seen. But overall squarish and suits the GF's taste.
Yea..isn't it obvious... thats the kitchen... and after transformation (show room)....
So at least i see what's the potential the kitchen would be and the GF is happy about it... as for myself no feel ... hahaha i'm not the 'chef' :p
Well time flies, these pics are taken March 2007, the "One" is 85% completed as of April 2008 and expected to be delivered by August, but i'm bit conservative... hopefully can be completed as our Christmas present. :D... Worst.... as 2009's Angpow.
As for now.. i wrap up the chapter for the "One".
Cheers!
Well... finally i decide to allocate some of my time to BLOG :D. Guess its a good way to seize some memories.. getting older now... memory not "power" already. I bet few years down the road... this will remind me some good memories i had.
For bros n frens out there, occasionally visit my blog... just to update ourselves ya (i'm definitely will visit yours) ;)
Cheers!!!












