Now what?!..

Hiya folks (ladies and gentlemen :))

what now ya.. last time (couple months back) my cam broke down. Since then my updates getting pretty slow.. abes pamacam mo updates.. nda dpt sya gambar gambar bah.. tinguu seja..zzz

then about weeks back, my one and only beloved laptop broke down - to the core! 1st was devastating virus attack, reformatted, then suddenly krekk krekk krekk krekk... tuutttttttt the Hard Disk was dead!

I bring to the IT shops but none willing/able to fix or nor even to recover the data...

Worst of it ~ I haven't backup my documents; photos, videos, songs, everythinggg in my laptop for the last 2 years!! .... unbelievable!

so.. now what?!.. life goes on lorr :P

I got plenty of sharing to makes actually, my garden, sports, outdoors, party, etc.. etc.. many happening of good and very interesting things! Well, apa bulih buat lah kan ^.^

For the time being, I'll be facebooking every now and then.

Cheers!

Worry my ass!?

Have you been worrying a lot lately??

Morning worry, afternoon worry, evening worry, night worry, tomorrow worry again.. huh!!

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Most of us worry too much on 'what others might think' on what we do, what we wear, what we watch and etc.. etc..

I personally think the word 'worry' on what others think should be change to 'care' on what others might think.

'Care on what others might think' means we are aware of the responsible and accountability, means we are matured when taking the choice. While 'worry' give a so-bad picture about what might happen, it does not reflect maturity but carries negative aroma.

The cousin of 'worry' is 'afraid', and afraid of what might and what will, is endemic in the society today.
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Pampered in the comfort zone for too long, the society are unwilling to take risk to jump to the other side. It is strangely difficult to sit in front row when we are used to sit at the back or middle row (the comfort zone) - in church, meetings, forums etc.

People are afraid of critics and comments as well as afraid of giving out comments and critics. We usually hear the 'no comment' or even worse the 'silent protest' from the audience. It's somehow uncomfortable to voice out, so they stay quite.

Behold!

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People are afraid of how they look. They read the 'beauty magazine' to get tips on how to look beautiful and end up feeling ugly. The magazine tells them that blonde hair is a yes and white or black hair is a no. Aren't we all beautiful in our own ways?.

China's most respected Teacher, Confucius quotes "Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it" how true..


The UNCONVENTIONAL WORLD RECORDS nominated that this person is the ugliest person on earth...



But, that is only from his/her view. To some, that might be different (and we are not sure if there's a photoshop work in the photo, right?) - no offense to worldrec.info btw.

Even if you looks damm beautiful to others, some will just say they had enough of you.



except for the one in red, talk about how many of those two being dumb ^.^
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The fact is what ever we do, there will always be some who will disagree or hate it.

We do the right thing - people still complaint
We do the wrong thing - people also complaint.

Conclusion??

Be a matured good citizen - lets just do the right thing and leave the complaint alone.

Even God is full of love and still many disagree with God.


I like to end this sharing with a twisted story of
'The Pastor's Ass'

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The pastor entered his donkey in a race and it won. The pastor was so pleased with the donkey that he entered it in the race again, and it won again.

The local paper read: PASTOR'S ASS OUT FRONT.

The Bishop was so upset with this kind of publicity that he ordered the pastor not to enter the donkey in another race.

The next day, the local paper headline read: BISHOP SCRATCHES PASTOR'S ASS.

This was too much for the bishop, so he ordered the pastor to get rid of the donkey. The pastor decided to give it to a nun in a nearby convent.

The local paper, hearing of the news, posted the following headline the next day: NUN HAS BEST ASS IN TOWN.

The bishop fainted.

He informed the nun that she would have to get rid of the donkey, so she sold it to a farmer for $10.

The next day the paper read: NUN SELLS ASS FOR $10.

This was too much for the bishop, so he ordered the nun to buy back the donkey and lead it to the plains where it could run wild.

The next day the headlines read: NUN ANNOUNCES HER ASS IS WILD AND FREE.

The bishop was buried the next day.

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Being concerned about public opinion can bring you much grief and
misery even shorten your life!


So friends, be yourself and enjoy life!

Stop worrying about everyone else's ass and you'll be a lot happier and live longer! Have a good happy Monday!

Yeah! Thanks God it's Monday!

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Feel free to comments. Constructive comments are highly welcome!

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Decent Financial Planning / Management

Hurmm..... looking at the title above, I think most of my friend would be thinking "is he up to this??" ..and perhaps you might wonder as well.

Well, okay.. if you would ask me about it, I would say... yes! Yes, if you are still not having any successful Financial Planning yet or if you are still wandering every month 'where did all my money go ahh?' or if you still within the communities bracket who likes to utter 'biasalah, ujung bulan kan... mana ada usin...' and definitely YES if you are not up to my peers.

^.^ well, I'm not that good to be really fully satisfied with, but I believe at least I'm above the average..

One thing for sure is that I'm not an expert in this field and not even close! but hey, do you really have to be an accountant to be able to handle your money properly? or do we have to master major in economics to be able to understand that the world is truly facing the greatest financial and economical crisis ever and no country will be able to fly above it as if it was Christmas or just Halloween ~ yada! yada!

Naaa.. I'm not an expert! so if you stumbled here accidentally while looking for the best expert advices and super tips and best-secrets regarding finance, well sorry friend, I'm not the man, you may leave and peace alrite.

On the other hand if you belong to some categories I mentioned earlier in my 1st para, then I love to invite you to continue reading, and as well as if you are my friends or want to be my friends or you have a 'feel' ^.^ while reading my title, then by all means please continue reading. I'm not promising anything yada yada rah rah here, but suffice for me to say that "I think I have a nice simple Financial Planning formula' that if I have a friend in need I would definitely share about it.

Alright, here goes.. if you really want to go ahead on this, please relax and have a coffee or snack or anything to relax you, because this one is pretty long and plain narrative :D.

Basically everyone or most people love to spend their money wisely (I say most as I know few persons who doesn't give a damm about where their money goes). For the majority who want to spend their money wisely and if you are one of them, most probably you would have at least a basic formula / method that you use when managing your money. I'm talking about things like a simple book keeping or a any similar financial documentation format (normally using Excel) you use to produce your budget and keep track on all your pennies. If you don't even have this, you are in BIG trouble! you should trust me on that.

Seriously, if you really haven't got any sort of financial practices, I suggest you to go grab one of the best selling book in Malaysia by Azizi - Millionaires are from different planet. He will make your butt uneasy on your soft sofa or cozy office furnitures. His book was my 1st and only mentor on financial planning and I found it when I was around 26/27 yrs old, pretty late actually (yeah, nobody advice me anything about finance before).

However, knowing the basic such as Income vs Outcome, debit - credit, expenses, saving, loan, etc.. and arranging those in a nice excel spreadsheet monthly won't help much. That is just basic, and basic is just that - a basic. I tot my financial will be okay once I applied those but I was wrong, month to month to year I still suffer some medium size 'financial turmoil' in my own small world.

Until ONE FINE DAY, I accidentally discovered my old book while doing some house cleaning (a book which I bought long time ago but never read about), wonders do work in life bah. Very seldom I will do house cleaning but I did it that day and I found a 'diamond'. I read it through and walllaaa! I was smiling to my self :D, it was like Hallelujah! feel as if 'I was born again - in financial spirit', if I can put it that way. It was touching actually as I felt strong confidence to be able to manage my income INTELLIGENTLY and I was right.

So what did the book says to me?

Among others the book says:

* that in order to be rich, I got to B R E A K the law. The Parkinson's Law which says "expenses will always meet income" in a more simple term, the more is our income the more is our expenses. Have any of you guys experience that?? got a little pay rise or some extra income and soon the expense raise immediately (as if it was on race) and end up with just able to-meet-month-end scenario.

* that even if all the wealth in the world are divided to all the people in the world, in no time all the wealth will be back to its original place, that is in the hand of the rich people. Because the rich people knows what to do with their money and the poor don't. As the famous hush goes 'rich will get richer, and the poor will get poorer'. Pernah dengar gini? it's very seldom we hear people complaint/blame to themselves but it's always the mistakes of others.

* that to be rich is NEVER dependent on the bank balance but always about being rich as a person. The secret to be a millionaire is to be a millionaire as a person, not by bank balance. Ever heard a person with lots of money but live miserably? just google it. Happen to most lottery or jackpot winner who end-up worst then before they won anything. (I got one living example - my own friend. He won almost 700K from 4d tickets and after just three months, his situation worsen, believe me.. I mean it really worst. It's pain in the #@* to look at).

*and the book says lots more good stuffs... but I think you want to know the most important of all and that's what I want to share too. It is the formula, and the formula is simply...

10-30-30-30

(if you are well inform about this then it's good, I hope you don't mind to put up a comment yah)

What's the explanation about this? very easy and well justified.

- 10 is 10% of your income must be used to help the needy. Some people call this tithing. The point is you must give back, give it back to the people. Some might consider a weekly donation (e.g donating in church on every Sunday) is good enough, but actually it's not. To give back means to really give the 10% to the one who really in need. It could be anybody, but best to start with the families then friends, communities and etc.

One VERY IMPORTANT condition here is that you must give it away freely, not as a loan or as a borrowing. If you are done that and later someone bump you for help, if you can't help just refuse it politely. If someone ask you for lending - NEVER, Never ever lend your 10%, just give it away.

- 30 is 30% of you income must be sufficient to cover all your monthly life expenses. Ini yang buat orang slalu terngaga besarrrr hohoho! nvm just relax... This includes your F&B, utilities, loan, what-so-ever but ALL your monthly expenses. When I 1st saw this I almost had a heart attack, there's no #@%*ing way for me to do that.. but actually there is a way, just read on.

- The next 30 is another 30% of your income must be used for SAVING and INVESTMENT. Repeated - SAVING and INVESTMENT ONLY! save in few ways at least, you name it ASB, Fixed D., Current Account, what ever ways but save it. And according to your preference, some portion of it must be used on investment and the best recommended investment by the book is to invest on your own self. Improvised your self, go for training, courses, read books, etc. you will invest in properties and etc once you reach the 'level', so invest in your self. If you are not sure what to invest, put the money in saving 1st. Invest it only when you are sure.

- The last 30 is the remaining 30% of your income and this is what I like the most and it is very important.. The last 30% must be used for nothing else but for your LEISURE! yeah, for FUN and ADVENTURE, that is for your enjoyment (of course for you and family if you have one). And it must be a quality leisure activity, a quality enjoyment which you really want to do and will be among your best experience.

It is in such portion because 'we must plan and act for the future while in the same time we must also enjoy our life today as much as we have invest and save for the future'. There's no use of saving all your money and die rich but never manage to use the richness to appreciate life. We must enjoy today for heaven knows if we still have tomorrow or not. It's all about balance. The point is to design a lifestyle that YOU LOVE TODAY and would LOVE TO HAVE in the future.

Now, what if your monthly expense exceed 30% of your income?? mine was actually overshoot more than 50%.. uhhh /pains! /pains!

Never mind if it exceeds. The formula 10:30:30:30 is actually the ideal situation. That is the target. However you must start to apply the formula immediately. Start with what ever is left. Say if your income balance after portioning for all your expenses, is only RM 10 left +.+ just divided the balance RM 10 to 10% for the needy, 50% for saving and investment and 50% for leisure i.e RM 1 : RM 4.5 : RM 4.5.

Vital is, the amount for saving and investment must equivalent with your fun and adventure at all time. What you save and invest for the future must equally spend to your enjoyment TODAY. For Today is a what we have and tomorrow is guaranteed to no one.

This what the book call as 'Fine-Tuning the Formula'. Adjust your financial to meet the formula until at the end hopefully you will reach the ideal 10:30:30:30. Adjustment you financial could also be a cost cutting of monthly expenses and getting more monthly income form extra work and other sources.

So that's it ladies and gentlemen! I have applied this formula and it works well 'so far' and it makes me smile and it makes me feel better.

One last tips though, if you want to incorporate your spouse income into the plan, make sure to have a good discussion with your partner. Both party must well understand and agreed. There must be a harmony in the family in applying it, after all that is what financial planing is meant for.

Now you know it and next big challenge is to really put it into practice. Formula is again just a formula. 100 books is just 100 books rite. To obtain the results, action must be in motion.

Okay, tell me what do you think about this. Would you give it a try? or if not, perhaps you have a better suggestion? would you please share your thoughts with me. I would really love to hear others say on this.

Thank you.


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Did you gained 'anything' from my sharing?

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"Learn mistakes form others, we can't live long enuff to do it all by ourselves"

Such a strong and essential tips especially to those whose life had just 'begun'. Many people says that - man's life begins at 30.. some says 40.. some says 50. so I think as soon as the person reach maturity as a person (attitude & thinking) not by age - he/she should be handling his/her life with extra careful - after all life is so fragile - we can't be 'too careful'. To make sure we can handle our things and life much much better - we need to learn more lesson from everyday life.

Few months back I went to the cemetery in my kampung to pay a short visits to my father's grave - then I went around to see some other new graves I noticed. There were numbers of names on the grave that shocks me - they were my friends whom I still feel their presences and I can still picture their smiles and jokes, but they are actually 'no longer existed' . Then I recalled most of them (if not all) died of accidents and health problems (cancers). My father passed away due to cancer too - colon cancer. Life is so fragile - I learned lessons from their life story.

What attracted me to blog about this title isn't really because of that went-to-the-grave experience, but it was somehow related in a bigger picture. Actually I want to make a topic that everyone can share their 'mistakes' so that everyone can learn and get improvised generally.

If the word 'mistakes' sounds too bad or the experience is just too embarrassing to be shared - try to just produce the 'lesson learned' or the 'tips' so that others (or at least myself) would gain the benefit. I think people will appreciates that a lot. After all that's what the wise says;

"learn mistakes form others, we can't live long enuff to do it all by ourselves".

and furthemore;

"Lessons are repeated until it's learned"

I just hope that any sharing here are originals - it is easy to find nice "I've learned this and that's... copy pasted from the net.." (that is welcome too but please re-word it :P), but original stories / tips would be most welcome.

I'll kick off sharing (all sharing from comments will be incorporated in this post bearing your tag. & will be updated regularly)

Lesson 1 (By DA)
(Happened to me a while ago) When you planed to re-finance your car or to buy your spouse car (ini biasa orang laki-bini buat untuk dapatkan extra cash). Do it 1 month or few weeks before expiry dates of the car's road-tax. This is true specially when dealing with family car where the main point is just to get some cash n not to really sell away the car. By this you will be able to save from paying extra cash for the insurance purposes, because a new car owners MUST buy a new different insurance. Jadi jangan kena double payment for insurance. In my case I have just renew my road-tax last months and this week I plan to re-finance my car - akhirnya I have to pay a new insurance coverage again (walhal baru last month sia renew road-tax and insurance - bengong). So avoid it.

Some extra consideration - if that car has some 'bruises' and 'scars' here and there, just sent your car to 'accident' and then send for touch-up or fix anything broken/not functioning, UNDER insurance coverage (mcmana mo buat tu pandai-pandailah :P). You are actually optimizing your insurance. Because once change ownership, the car will have a new insurance and you will have to pay the premium without any discount. So when you plan to re-finance a car, make sure you really re-NEW the car :D.
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Lesson 2 (By DA - added on 7 Nov 08)
I remember my only digital camera................ which is now R.I.P :(
It happen after I sent it to the Service Center for minor fix, but instead of repairing it 'they make it a major blow!' It was my only Sony Cybershot. I send to Sony service center in Damai, they sent it to K.L, and when it back to Sabah, it's dead!. I query and complaint - they sent it back to K.L, and later K.L told me to pay RM 600 to fix it.. zzzzzzz they blow it (and they don't want to admit it) and now I have to pay for it.. waaa =/

Since I can't afford it (sebab kalau RM 600, bagus lagi beli baru..), they don't want to fix it! At the end I lost the cam. Wherever I go now, I only have my eyes to capture the images... sob sob sob.. /sigh

Becareful when sending your things (especially electronics) for fix, make sure you show to the counter 'what really working and what not'. Sometimes they might end screw-up and don't want to admit it. Better still bring along a witness and let him/her sign any documents as well. Kalau mau lagi bagus, kamu bergambar-gambar lagilah sana dalam tu center for more proof :P.

Haiya I seriously need a digi cam now....





* This post is also posted here.

Gained any insight from my sharing?

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Help to reduce my burden to get my camera fix, photography is my passion and I'm dying without it...

or simply visits the advertisement of your interest.Trimas @ million thanks :D

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