It’s amazing when you think about it.

A sequence of genes come together to form your DNA. This unique sequence is the evolution of countless generations before you, making you truly one of a kind.

When you start life as an embryo, this DNA sequence tells your first cells to form your brain, your heart, your spine.

As the months go by, you form legs, all your organs, hands, hair.

After you are born, your DNA continues to map out the growth pattern for your body. All through your childhood, your DNA will determine how you grow and how you look like.

Your DNA will determine how good you look, your type of body shape, how muscular you can be. A certain percentage of the population will strike genetic lottery and achieve fame as athletes, models and celebrities.

When you reach your early teens, a switch will turn on and you experience puberty.

They tell us that nobody is perfect, and this is also true of our DNA. Hidden in our genetic makeup are weaknesses and risks for certain hereditary diseases.

These insidious genes will give us higher chances of heart disease, hypertension, gout, diabetes. They can also cause our body to be more vulnerable to certain cancers.

When you reach a certain age, the same DNA can turn on you. Your body starts to break down. Somehow your body can no longer function the same way it did when you were 10 years old.

At a certain predetermined age, your DNA will trigger a kill switch, and your body begins to die.

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I’ve been feeling a bit depressed about my health lately. Since I turned 30 a few months ago, it seems like I’m getting some old men ailments.

I feel like my DNA is plotting against me, that somehow a switch has been activated in my body.

Somehow my insurance companies know about this 30 year old switch too. All my premiums have increased.

Honestly some of these problems started years ago, and I’ve either ignored them or never took them seriously.

I just hope it’s not too late to reverse the damage.

I hope it’s not too late to start exercising, to eat healthily, to reduce stress and to take care of my body.

I hope those of you reading this will take care of your body before it’s too late.

Photo BY: clix

Before we got married, some helpful friends advised us to get a king sized bed for our master bedroom.

I don’t know if I was too naive or romantic, thinking only in the short term. I declined, saying that a queen sized bed was big enough for the two of us. If we had kids, we would all cuddle together as a family.

I was so wrong.

Nowadays Poey Chin and I hardly spend a whole night together on the bed.

Rachel has her own mattress beside our bed, but often she will want to sleep between Poey Chin and me. I guess she feels secure there.

The problem is, she will sleep sideways and will be kicking either me or Poey Chin.

Putting her down on her mattress will not work sometimes, because she wakes up crying and climbs up to the bed by herself.

So, end up one of us will have to go sleep on Rachel’s mattress.

And now we have another baby on the way, I have no idea what to do.

So here’s an advice for you new couples: get a king sized bed.

It may seem like a lot of space now, but you will need all the real estate you can get when you have kids.

Photo By: ddrccl

It’s the end of the year. Another batch of secondary school students will graduate soon.

Many of them will have a general idea of their career choice. Some will have several options. Some have no choice due to financial constraints. Some have no idea at all.

I don’t envy the position and choices they are faced with. The decision they make will cost their parents a lot of money and will influence the next few years of their lives.

How do you know which career is best for you? How do you choose a career after graduating? How can you find your industry? What are the best jobs?

Do you follow your heart, or follow the dollar sign?

I think about this fact and think back to my schooling days in SM Subang Utama.

I remember many friends who were not sure of their career choice. Some of them went for a matriculation or A-levels program (I suspect) just following the crowd.

The Christmas Present

I was about twelve years old. Uncle Johnny gave me a BASIC programming book as a Christmas present. On the cover was a robot on skis going down a snowy slope.

The book was about 80-100 pages, and it was filled with code that I didn’t understand. I was so fascinated by the games that could be made with this programming language called BASIC.

I looked at the pages and imagined that I was playing the games. I studied the programming code, and then I understood what they were supposed to do even though I didn’t know some of the commands.

Somehow, the logic printed on those pages made sense to me.

I remember Uncle Johnny telling me that a programmer can do many things, can create interesting systems.

At that time I did not have a computer.

My First Computer

We got our first computer when I was 14 years old. It was an Intel 286 16MHz running on 1MB RAM.

I remember spending a lot of time on the word processor writing stories that had elements of Star Wars in them (I was already a level 3 geek back then).

Then my friends introduced me to games. I spent countless hours over the skies of Iraq dispensing hellfire missiles and killing enemy helicopters in an A-10. I terrorized the skies of North Korea in an F-15 Eagle.

I laughed at the mishaps of Guybrush Threepwood, and built formidable turret defenses in Dune 2. My friend MH even figured out how to hack the saved game files with a hex editor to give unlimited gold.

I destroyed countless death stars and star destroyers in an X-Wing. I escaped from a Nazi camp in Wolfenstein 3D.

One thing I learned on this PC: mastering the MS-DOS operating system. Within a year I was reformatting the PC. You will be surprised how quickly you can learn how to configure an OS to maximize memory if you are limited to 1MB RAM.

I remember going for every MicroFest.

The Second Computer

A few years later, the 286 computer was damaged by lightning. My dad bought me a 486 with the luxurious amount of 4MB RAM.

This computer came with a CD-ROM drive, and it had SOUND!

Ahh, the countless hours I spent on Command and Conquer, Day of the Tentacle, and many other games.

I asked my dad to buy me a C programming book I saw in MPH because I wanted to do some serious game programming. He bought it but scolded me for wasting so much money on expensive books and computer software.

I guess from his perspective, he was spending all this money and I was only playing games.

I totally stopped playing games for 1 year to prepare for SPM. What a long year that was. After SPM I booted up my computer and went on a gaming binge for weeks.

My Career Choice

When it came time for me to choose my career choice, I naturally chose software programming.

This was an easy decision for me because:

1. It was easy for me to think like a computer. Not dumb and obedient (haha) but structured and logical.
2. I didn’t mind spending the rest of my life working and playing with computers.
3. People kept telling me that Info Tech was the next big thing.
4. I had a sense of geeky superiority. I guess the same feeling you get whenever you’re good at something. Others call this confidence.
5. There were 3 plus zero courses offered at local colleges. I saved my parents money, by not choosing to study overseas.

The Influence of Games

I’m sure you can see how much time I spent on games. My wife totally disagrees with me on this, but I feel that the time I spent playing computer games was not wasted at all.

The positive influences:

1. I learned what user-friendly software means.
2. Each game is a new world to explore. I gained so much knowledge that you don’t learn from school books.
3. I took time to master the hardware and operating systems to get the most computing power possible.
4. I expanded my imagination.
5. I learned how to work really fast.

Of course, there are negative influences as well:

1. Lack of exercise
2. No social life
3. Sleeping late
4. Spending too much time on the computer
5. Always touching my nose

I will not allow my kids to have as much freedom with computer games as I had. Reasons:

1. Honestly the games nowadays don’t teach you much. Either its about killing, some animated eye candy, or mindless and tedious Flash games.
2. Computers are so powerful nowadays, there’s no more need to learn about the hardware or OS.
3. I don’t think programming will be a viable career choice. Today, there are computer programs that can write other computer programs. In 30 years these will be so advanced that programmers will be out of jobs.

Conclusion

I may sound corny, but I think my career chose me instead of me choosing my career. You can say it is my calling.

I was made for programming. My brain is wired for it. I love doing it and I get paid for it.

At this point of my life, I am doing less of programming. Slowly, my role is to lead others to do the programming rather than doing it myself.

I am no longer able to spend the long hours at work, now that I have a wife and one and a half kids.

I don’t have any regrets. I enjoy my work, and it has been very rewarding. I have been fortunate to find a very good work place.

I hope that I have justified my dad’s ‘investments’ in my computing adventures. Time to repay his generosity in whatever ways I could.

If I had to do it all over again, I would still choose programming.

I have to end this chapter of my autobiography here. I got to check on my Facebook games before I head to work.

Photo By: Celiece Aurea

In last week’s budget, Prime Minister announced that there will be a RM50 service tax on every credit card, and RM25 for every supplementary card.

One way to avoid this service tax is to cancel your extra credit cards. Many of you are thinking how to cancel your credit cards or charge cards.

This post is a simple guide to cancel your credit card.

The first decision to make is reducing the number of cards you hold to a minimum. This might be one or two credit cards. Which cards do you cancel?

1. Cancel cards that charge you annual fees (or unwilling to waive their annual fees). You can easily get free-for-life credit cards.
2. Cancel cards you hardly use. As in less than two transactions per month.
3. Cancel cards if you don’t use the special discounts or benefits.
4. If you pay bills online, keep the card that allows you to pay all your bills.
5. Those of you who are frequent travelers may want to keep a card from an international bank. I had an experience where my local bank card was not accepted in a store in Hong Kong.
6. Cancel cards from banks with poor service, or don’t offer convenient repayment options

How To Cancel?

Here are four simple steps to cancel your credit cards:

1. Read the terms and conditions of for your credit card. If you can’t find the terms and conditions, check out the bank website. They will tell you how you need to return the card to the bank.
2. Settle any outstanding amount
3. Write a polite letter (refer next section)
4. Destroy your credit cards and dispose. Check out how to securely destroy your credit card in 15 slices. (If you want to return your card to the bank, some banks specify cutting only in half in their terms and conditions)

Update: Some have suggested to me that a phone call will do, but in my experience, banks still want a letter. My theory is, they want to make it as inconvenient as possible.

A Sample Letter

Just copy this into your favorite word processor and fill in your details accordingly. Some other excuses you could use are: not using the card anymore, or you have taken a credit card from another bank.

You may want to attach your destroyed credit card in the letter (personally I feel this is optional).

<BANK CARD CENTRE>
<BANK CARD CENTRE ADDRESS>

<YOUR NAME>
<YOUR ADDRESS>

27 October 2009

Dear Sir/Madam,

RE: CANCELLATION OF CREDIT CARD FACILITIES

I have been using your credit card facilities since 2007, and I am happy with the excellent convenience and benefits.

Unfortunately I have to cancel my credit card because I do not want to pay the credit card service tax <OR PUT ANY OTHER EXCUSE HERE>.

Please cancel the following credit cards effective immediately:

4444 5555 6666 7777 – <Principal Card Name>

4444 5555 6666 8888 – <Supplementary Card Name>

I would appreciate a written confirmation after you have completed the cancellation process.

Thank you.

Best Regards,

<SIGNATURE>

<NAME>
<IC NUMBER>
<EMAIL ADDRESS>
<CONTACT NO>

The Retention Call

A few weeks after mailing your cancellation letter to the bank, you might receive a call from the credit card retention department.

Usually they will offer you some great offer, like a free upgrade to a platinum card, or waive annual fees, or increase your credit limit.

Just decline with a firm but polite reply.

The Confirmation

The bank might send a letter to you to confirm that the credit card has been cancelled.

If not, you may want to give customer service a call.

Once you get the confirmation (preferably in writing), you are done!

Photo By: Sanja Gjenero

Everyone seems to be talking about budgets now. First there’s the big Malaysian Budget 2010. At work we have to prepare our department budget for next year.

I don’t plan on preparing a personal budget for 2010. I’ve thrown my personal budget out the window.

Not literally of course. My budget is on a spreadsheet. I can’t throw it anywhere. But I’ve stopped trying to track down where every single sen went.

Why?

The personal budget was a terrible influence on my life. Felt like I installed a software into my brain that had trojans in it. It did achieve its objective: to see where my money was going. But at what cost?

I had to spend time updating expenses to the various spreadsheets and budget software. I had to crack my head trying to remember what I spent money on (and when I can’t remember I would bug my wife to remember for me).

Then I had to ensure that the numbers matched the actual money I had in my various accounts. Picture me at midnight counting my few pieces of dollars and coins, and then trying to figure out why I was short of RM2.40.

It became a tedious chore for me right from the start.

I became very calculative and stingy. My wife could not stand it. Even my mother could not stand it. Relationships suffered. Arguments over money erupted over a few ringgit.

I became a scrooge. Don’t picture the rich Scrooge McDuck. Picture a man buried still clutching his money with his cold lifeless hands.

I contemplated gathering rain water to flush my toilets. I turned off the lights to save on the power bill and used candles instead.

I bought only one packet of food to share with my wife instead of having one each. I didn’t cut my hair for 3 months.

Freedom

One day I was sitting there updating my spreadsheets and juggling all the receipts flying around, trying yet again to account for some missing money. I just gave up.

I left my budget in cold storage and have not logged in to my budget software since then.

Not having to track every sen feels liberating. I feel lighter, happier and less grouchy. I think my family enjoyed being around me a bit more.

No more arguments over money have come up since. I think if I continued down the scrooge path, my wife would leave me.

I started to open my eyes and my mind. Life wasn’t just about accumulating wealth or controlling expenses. There were things which were equally important.

Money isn’t something you hoard, it’s something you can also use to have a good time.

After all, there were always new things coming up that were not in the budget. Things needed to be repaired. Weddings and birthdays came up.

Still In Control

While I don’t have a a personal budget, it doesn’t mean that I’m spending indiscriminately.

I’m still in control of my finances from a high level.

Instead of a budget, I now live by a spending plan.

I know how much I need to save and invest every month. I know the maximum amount I can spend each week.

The only thing that has changed is, I don’t care about the details.

How I Do It

Even though I’ve abandoned my budget, I still had some basic information to fall back on.

I guess preparing the budget in the first place help me to gather all this information.

I know exactly how much I need each month to pay all the bills. I know how much I need to save each month to achieve my future goals.

I set aside a certain amount of cash each month, and I give myself a weekly allowance.

These can probably be reviewed once every year as income and expenses change.

I still monitor my credit card and bank balances every few weeks to make sure everything is in order.

Conclusion

A budget is just one of the tools that we use to manage personal finance.

I do realize that budgets help many people, including even you.

Countries and companies need budgets because they are held accountable for every sen.

If you’re new to managing your personal finance, budgets may even be the best place for you to start, to see where you stand (or sink).

I think a budget is best used for planning purposes. Use it to allocate your money. Use it to see how you are overspending.

But I would advice you not to restrict your life and quality of life to a budget. Don’t let it imprison you. Be creative to find ways around a budget.

Life is too unpredictable. You never know what will happen tomorrow.

What do you think? Should I get back to my budget? Or was I just doing it wrong from the start? Have you found budgets useful? How do you faithfully keep following your budget?

Doctor said Poey Chin is now 7 weeks pregnant, baby will be due by June 1st 2010.

Today on the ultrasound we saw baby’s tiny heart beating. Baby’s size is now about 11mm.

Everyone is so happy now,  but Poey Chin has been going through a few weeks of heartburn, nausea and vomiting.

Soon baby Rachel will no longer be baby.. she will graduate to be Rachel jie jie.

I can’t get by a day without reading about the latest iPhone applications or read how some blogger is using their iPhone.

Each time I see the word iPhone, I go to YouTube and start looking at iPhone reviews. Just wishing, just longing for one.

And then I will go to the Maxis website to look at their iPhone plans, and continue wishing, continue longing…

The Figures

I looked at several options.

1. First of all, I had to decide which model of iPhone I wanted. It came down to two choices, the iPhone 3GS 16GB or the iPhone 3GS 32GB.
2. Next, I had to choose from one of the Maxis rate plans. The best choices for me were:
   - A supplementary phone line with iData 1 plan (250MB usage per month)
   - A supplementary phone line with iData 2 plan(500MB usage per month). The iPhone is slightly cheaper if you lock for 2 years.
   - A Hotlink prepaid account that comes with 500MB free data per month for 12 months.
3. I estimated that the phone would last for 3 years (before I was compelled to upgrade) so I calculated the cost over 3 years.
4. I put the numbers in a spreadsheet, which looks like this:

iPhone Comparison Chart for Maxis Plans

To summarize (in case you are not a numbers type of person):

1. The difference between an iPhone 3GS 16GB and 32GB is RM500.
2. You have to pay an extra RM100 to reduce lock-in period from 2 years to 1 year.
3. Over 3 years, you pay RM220 extra to get 500MB bandwidth per month, which is a fair deal.
4. The iValue plans cost the most, but would not suit me since I won’t be making calls

Why Do I Want One?

Looking at the thousands that I have to spend, the next question I asked myself was, why do I really want one?

My answers were:

1. App Store applications look really interesting (especially the games!)
2. I can use it while I’m waiting, or when I’m travelling
3. GPS
4. Camera
5. It’s got cool factor

The Next Best Thing

The next natural step for me, was to take a look at the iPod Touch. The iPod Touch can also run App Store applications like the iPhone.

The obvious benefit for me was I didn’t have to sign up for any new phone lines or data plans. I could happily remain as a Yellow Fellow.

With a price difference of RM3550 (the 3 year cost of owning an iPhone 3GS 32GB versus an iPod Touch 32GB), what extra value does the iPhone provide?

1. It has phone, texting and MMS functions
2. GPS
3. Compass
4. Camera
5. Free OS Updates
6. Slightly faster performance

BUT, the features I really wanted were:

1. App Store applications (the iPod Touch can do this)
2. Mobility (ditto)
3. GPS (I already have a semi-useful GPS)
4. Camera (I already have several digital cameras)

The Killer Question

It is already quite obvious by now, that I don’t really need an Apple iPhone. The iPod Touch will meet my requirements quite nicely.

Which leads me to one last question.

Will I have time to use it?

Taking a serious look at my current life style, I really don’t have time to spend on another device.

The last thing I need is another gadget to divide my time and attention.

Final Decision

And so it is with a sad and heavy heart that I have to pass on the Apple iPhone and the Apple iPod Touch.

At the most, I could get the cheapest iPod Touch 8GB just for fun. But probably not.

With the facts staring at me, it’s hard to justify spending the money.

Perhaps things will change in the future. I will see if I can justify spending on an Apple Tablet.

One last thing. I hope no one will misunderstand me. I don’t mean that the iPhone or iPod Touch are not good devices to buy. I want one sooo much!

It’s just that in MY situation, at this point of time, I can’t afford one.

Poey Chin’s father has been diagnosed with lung cancer.

Poey Chin is really sad and depressed. I feel worried and helpless. How do we handle this?

We have consulted with specialists both in Ipoh and in UMMC and the result/advice is pretty much the same.

Due to old age, some treatment options are quite risky. The family is still deciding which treatment to pursue, or if they even want any treatment.

So far the only options are chemo and radiotherapy, or alternative treatment (someone recommended ozone therapy).

It’s a difficult choice.

Do you take the risk of chemo and radiotherapy, which could cause pain (and even kill you), for a small chance of controlling the cancer growth?

Or do you live peacefully and enjoy high quality life for a limited time?

If  you have experience, heard anything, know anybody or know of any websites regarding alternative treatment for lung cancer, please contact me via email or Facebook message (or you could leave an anonymous comment).

For example, you want to save enough money for your child’s education in 15 years time. How do you know how much to save?

I have written a simple future value calculator based on the future value formula:

FV = PV(1+i)ⁿ

Where:

FV = Future value of money
PV = Present value of money
i = Percentage of interest per period
n = Period (years or months)

Now, don’t get too worried about the math. Future value of money is the future value of the money you have today.

To calculate future value, we normally use an estimated annual inflation rate in the i column.

If you want to use this calculator to estimate compounded return of investment, you would put the expected annual returns in the i column.

There are quite a few methods for future value calculations, but I find this the simplest.

Future Value Calculator

Present value of money
Interest per period (%)
Period (years or months)
Future value

Warning: Using this calculator can cause stressful and sleepless nights. I bet you didn’t know you needed so much money!

If you wanted to estimate how much your child’s education will cost, you will put in a present value based on the current education cost.

Let’s say a local college degree will cost RM35000 per year. Multiply by three years and you will get RM105000.

Let’s put in a conservative inflation rate of 4.5%, and assume we have 15 years before your child finishes secondary school.

Using the calculator you will see that you need to accumulate RM203,204!

Spreadsheet FV Function

If you are using a spreadsheet program, you can use the FV function to achieve the same.

The Microsoft Excel Future Value Calculation formula is:

=FV(i, n, pmt, PV)

Where:

i = Percentage of interest per period
n = Period (years or months)
pmt = Fixed payment amount. Use zero for future value.
PV = Present value of money

Conclusion

I hope this can help you in your financial planning.

As I have mentioned, you can really get worried looking at the huge numbers.

Don’t worry too much. You should be fine if your savings and investments give you returns that beat the inflation rate.

Note: You are free to embed this calculator on your website as long as you retain a link back to this web page.

Just copy and paste the script below:
<br /> <table width=350 border=0 style="border-width: medium medium medium medium; border-spacing: 1px; border-style: solid solid solid solid; border-collapse: separate;"> <tr> <td width=60%>Present value of money</td> <td width=40%> <input id=pv width=20 maxlength=10 value=0.00 /></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Interest per period (%)</td> <td> <input id=i width=20 maxlength=3 value=0.00 /></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Period (years or months)</td> <td> <input id=n width=20 maxlength=3 value=0 /></td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Future value</strong></td> <td> <input id=fv width=20 readonly=true value=0.00 /></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan=2 align=center> <input type=button value=Calculate onclick="document.getElementById('fv').value = Math.round (document.getElementById('pv').value * Math.pow( (1 + (document.getElementById('i').value/100.00)), document.getElementById('n').value ) * 100) / 100;" /> </p> <input type=button value=Reset onclick="document.getElementById('pv').value='0.00'; document.getElementById('i').value='0.00'; document.getElementById('n').value='0'; document.getElementById('fv').value='0.00'" /></td> </td> </tr> </table> <p><a href="http://www.adinochang.com/archives/future-value-calculator.html">Future Value Calculator</a> by <a href="http://www.adinochang.com">Adino Chang</a>

Technorati Tags: Future Value, Calculator

(Originally published on my frugal blog on June 3 2009)

In my previous post I pointed out to you how we must have financial goals before we even think about investment.

Today I’m going to show you how to set financial goals for your own life.

What Are Your Financial Goals?

Now, you may ask me what goals qualify as financial goals. The answer is: who do you want to be, and where do you want to be in the future?

Do you want to be someone who is financial independant, someone wealthy, sponsor of your children’s education, a philanthropist, someone who retires in Langkawi island?

Then there are several major events in life that will cost a lot of money. Examples are wedding(s), buying property, buying cars, children education, and retirement.

All these should be part of your financial goals.

Setting financial goals is as simple as following the SMART acronym.

SMART

The SMART way to set financial goals (or any goals for that matter) is to define goals that are:

1. Specific
2. Measurable
3. Ambitious
4. Result Oriented
5. Time Bound

Specific

I wrote a bit about being specific in the previous post. To be specific means your financial goal is clear, unambiguous and targeted.

An example of a specific financial goal would be:

Have enough passive income to support me and my wife’s retirement.

Measurable

A measurable financial goal is one which you can measure in terms of amounts, quantities or quality standards.

Adjusting our previous example to become measurable would be:

Have RM8,000 monthly passive income to support me and my wife’s retirement.

This amount is just a number I picked out of the air, of course.

How will you know the exact amount to put in your goals? For example, how will you know how much retirement income you need when it is so many years ahead?

It’s difficult to estimate sometimes. You can use my future value calculator to assist your calculations.

Ambitious

The sky is the limit when it comes to setting financial goals. Try to set goals that are challenging, but at the same time be realistic.

Set a balance between something that is out of our comfort zone, but not so difficult that it becomes demotivating.

Let’s make our sample goal a bit more challenging:

Have RM10,000 monthly passive income to support me and my wife’s retirement.

Result Oriented

Your financial goals should be meaningful and productive to your life and those around you.

Do not set goals that have little or no value.

Time Bound

A time-bound goal means you have to set a deadline for yourself.

This is important, because this will determine how you can plan to achieve those goals.

Having a time-bound financial goal can also help to overcome procrastination.

A final adjustment to our earlier example will be:

Have RM10,000 monthly passive income by the year 2030 to support me and my wife’s retirement.

Your deadline can also be adjusted to be more ambitious.

Milestones

The next thing I like to do after writing down my financial goals is to define milestones for each of those goals.

For example:

2015: RM2,000 monthly passive income

2020: RM4,000 monthly passive income

2025: RM7,000 monthly passive income

2030: RM10,000 monthly passive income

This has two advantages. First, it can help you to check your progress as time goes by. Second, a seemingly impossible task can be broken down into smaller achievable steps.

I like to break it down further into a 5-year plan, a plan for this year and then a quarterly plan.

If you can’t find a way to set milestones for your financial goal, then your goal might have to be revised to become measurable or time-bound.

Review and Adjust

Periodically take a look at your financial goals to see how you have progressed.

If you are on track, imagine how good you will feel! If you are falling behind, perhaps it’s time to make extra effort.

I leave it to your personal preference and creativity to measure your progress and motivate yourself.

Financial goals are not set in stone. There is nothing wrong with changing goals when your life situation changes.

Just make sure you are not changing the financial goal because you are giving up.

Doggy Bag

You have seen how easy it is to create or improve your financial goals the SMART way.

I have even shown you how you can break down your grand master plan into manageable milestones.

Now I leave you to work out your financial goals. It would be best to write them down somewhere instead of keeping it in your head.

Once you have your financial goals in place, THEN you can start to plan how you are going to achieve those goals.

That’s where financial planning and investments come into play.

Photo By: marmit

I’ve been watching late night reruns of the Transformers on Astro channel 611 for the past few weeks.

Somehow, the cartoons don’t looks so cool any more.

Nostalgia

It’s strange how I can still remember name of the characters after 20 years. I have even forgotten some of those characters existed!

I see Ramjet, SeaSpray, PowerGlide, Omega Supreme, Grimlock, the Insecticons…

So it is with a warm feeling of nostalgia that I remember the cartoon.

My mind drifts to memories of my childhood, of playing Transformers and watching cartoons at my grandmother’s house. I remember playing with my cousins.

I even remember my old Transformer toys.

I remember how I used to drag my parents to the toys section in the mall to stare at Transformer toys, wishing, just wishing I could have all the toys I want.

Nowadays I drag baby Rachel to Toys R Us, pretending to get toys for her. But when nobody’s looking, I stare at the Transformer toys, wishing, just wishing I could have all the toys I want.

Cracking the Illusion

Then I start to see the imperfections.

I see how the animators got a bit lazy. If you observe, you won’t see all the transformers transforming. The camera zooms in to one robot transforming. Zoom out, and everyone has transformed.

You also notice “re-used” animations. Why do all the poses look so familiar? Why do they walk the same way? Why are transformations viewed from the same angle?

Once I even saw StarScream change colour from red to blue, back to red between shots.

I understand that these are normal tricks of the trade used by animators in the old days when everything was drawn by hand.

But this wasn’t the Transformers I remembered. My memories looked much better than this. My childhood visual memories seem to be like high definition, and what I see is like a 16 bit GIF animation.

Why? Why? Why?

In the second season, the transformers have moved into a city. There, they get involved in mundane things like foiling car thieves.

And then you watch a scene where they have a battle inside a shopping mall.

In one episode, things get philosophical when the transformers are accidentally transported to an alien world where they become toys for an alien boy. In the end, the Autobots fly back to earth in one of the boy’s toy rockets.

I wonder how many millenia it will take for them to arrive back on earth, on an inter-stellar flight with a chemical rocket.Maybe they modded it with hyperdrive.

Then there is the classic question… why don’t you kill each other if you hate each other so much? Why spend precious seconds gloating rather than make the killing blow?

Where does Prime’s trailer go when he’s in robot form?

How do the transformers grow and shrink?

I Still Like Them

All these minor issues aside, I continue to enjoy watching the Transformers cartoons. At the very least, they bring back some nice memories for me.

The imperfections I mentioned are only cosmetic and surface layer. The core concept of robots that can transform is still very interesting, proven by two blockbuster movies.

After all, nothing can be perfect, and in all fairness to the hard working people who worked on this, they did get better as their success (and budget) increased.

Technology was also a limitation, and we cannot expect old cartoons to look like our modern cartoons. After all, even movies were in black and white in the old days. But we can’t say that those black and white movies were no good.

It may seem like I’m contradicting myself, but I’m just trying to view the topic from both sides.

+Level Up!

INT + 1D6, WIS + 1D4, STA -1D24 -6, DEX +1D21, STR = 0

*blink blink* What just happened?

I think I’ve just leveled up as a geek. I can’t believe I wrote a 650 word post on the Transformers.

And threw in a durian joke somewhere, too.

P/S: I’m currently catching up on M.A.S.K. re-runs at YouTube!

(Originally published on my frugal blog on June 1 2009)

“Why do I save money? Why do I invest? It’s hard work!”

“Sometimes it is so hard that I just feel like giving up. Why do I have to ’suffer’ today and live without the things I want?”

“Why do I have to ’sacrifice’ so many things when others seem to be enjoying life?”

“Am I doing the right thing?”

Do you ever find yourself feeling the same way, or asking the same questions?

You’re not alone!

The simple answer is, we invest and save to achieve our financial goals!

Now let me ask you, what are your financial goals? Do you even have goals?

Financial Goals

Before you even spend a single cent in investments, you must determine what your financial goals are.

A financial goal or a target is simply this. Who and where are you going to be in the future?

Now, many people go on with life without really planning or setting financial goals. If you ask them what their financial goals are, you will probably get these answers:

1. I want to be a millionaire
2. I want to own a house and two cars
3. I want to retire by the age of 45
4. I want financial freedom
5. I want to send my children overseas for their education

What’s wrong with these goals? These are in fact noble and well-intentioned goals.

But these goals are not specific enough!

Being Specific

Imagine if you wanted to start a business, and needed investors to provide some start up capital. When they asked you for a business plan, you reply with:

1. The business will make millions
2. The business will expand to two outlets
3. You will get your money back with a lot of profits

Do you think anyone will invest? No, for the simple reason that you are not specific enough.

How many millions are you talking about? 1 million or 10 million? When will the business expand to two outlets? In 2 years or 20 years? How much profits are you talking about? And what’s the ROE?

Goals and Investment

So what has setting goals got to do with investment? Everything!

(I seem to be using the exclamation mark a lot today!)

You can only invest effectively and wisely once you know what your financial goals are.

Let me use another analogy. If you wanted to go to your neighbour’s house, you will probably walk. If you wanted to go to the city you would drive or take public transportation. If you wanted to go to Hawaii, you would have to fly there.

But if you didn’t know where you wanted to go, how would you know which form of transport to take? Will you choose the most popular, follow what the rich people are using or pick the one that is hot on the news and media?

Different investment vehicles have pros and cons, and which one you use will depend on your specific financial goals.

This is why there can never be one investment that suits everyone.

Taking Goals Seriously

Another aspect about the financial goals is how much priority you give to achieving your goals.

If we don’t take our goals seriously, then we will NEVER achieve them.

How many New Year’s resolutions are broken because there was very low commitment or lack of motivation?

To really achieve your financial goals, you have to first set goals that can motivate you. Make sure these goals are constantly on your mind. Every financial decision you make should reflect these goals.

Financial Planning

After you have set your financial goals, THEN you can start to plan HOW you are going to achieve that goal.

This is where financial planning comes into play.

I will talk more about setting goals in my next post, and more about financial planning in subsequent posts.

Doggy Bag

Today I’m going to introduce a new feature called the doggy bag. Doggy bags are used at restaurants when we can’t eat and digest all the food at once. We take the food home in a ‘doggy bag’.

In today’s post, I will leave you with something to take away.

Think about your financial goals. If you have not seriously put some thought into it, spend some time really thinking or discussing with your spouse.

If you already have financial goals, think about the last time you actually took the goals seriously.

Technorati Tags: Financial Goals, Saving, Investing

Photo By: Svilen Mushkatov

I realized that my financial knowledge is not wide enough. I may know (or I think I know) about interest rates or minimizing debt, but I realize that there is so much more to learn.

From what I have read so far, one of the best investments we can make is investing in our minds. Investing in our financial education will help us make better financial decisions and filter out the scams.

If we are starting out in the world of investment and wealth building, we should ‘invest’ our time and money in financial education before we invest a single ringgit.

It really pays to know what you are doing. If you know what you are doing, investment becomes less risky. You can then maximize returns.

In the course of my reading frenzy, I have discovered that I have made some mistakes in my investments.

All that time wasted (although I didn’t lose money). But my returns could have been better.

It is with this frame of mind that I wish to share some of the wonderful resources that I have found. In the next few weeks I will begin a new series called Personal Finance Education.

I hope to share some important investment concepts that I’ve read about. I will also do some book reviews. Finally I will let you know some frugal ways to increase your personal finance knowledge.

November 17 2006

We went out for a date to celebrate our dating anniversary. I brought her to the Curve where we had lunch. We passed by a jewelry shop. Poey Chin asked me, “when will you propose?”.

I said, “next year dear… we need to save more money.”

With disappointment on her face, we proceeded on our date and I fetched her home after dinner. On the way back, I told her I wanted to check our condo (which was under renovation). I told her there was some electrical problem the day before, and I wanted to make sure it was fixed.

So we went to our condo, and I asked her to test the lights in the master bedroom.

She turned on the light, and the first thing she saw was the giant teddy bear that she told me she liked previously. She turned around and I was holding the huge bouquet of roses in one hand, and a ring in the other hand.

I got down on my knees and proposed to her.

The photo you see was taken when we were back at her brother’s house.

Pre-Wedding Photos

Complete photo set: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4

Bridal Photos

Complete photo set: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4

June 15 2007

My best friends and I had my bachelor party in Kota Kemuning. I remember being really nervous on that day, and really really stressed.

Planning a wedding is no joke. There are hundreds of things to follow up on!

I remember I could not sleep at all that night.

Receiving the Bride

Early in the morning, we went to fetch Poey Chin from her house to my parent’s house.

Personally it was a very emotional morning. We were a late due to a traffic jam on the LDP caused by a broken down truck.

After the required ‘trials’, we had a tea ceremony for her family. We arrived at my parents house and completed all the tea ceremonies slightly before lunch.

More photos.

Wedding Ceremony

We said our vows in a simple wedding ceremony in Sheraton Subang. This was it, the moment we had been waiting for. This was the beginning of our lives together.

Read more.

Honeymoon

We had a rather humble honeymoon in Cherating.

To me, travel overseas can be a really stressful experience. I didn’t want us to quarrel on our honeymoon, so we agreed to go on a local honeymoon first.

The idea was, we could go for a nice honeymoon overseas one year later.

We did not plan for baby Rachel to arrive one year later! Poey Chin tells me she feels cheated. I’m sorry, it was bad strategy.

Today

We are still happily married. I’m still trying (and failing) to be the best husband I could be.

We have Rachel who takes up a lot of our energy and romance seems to be something we only see on TV.

Our story continues…

A Quick Update

I’m sure you would have noticed by now that I have merged posts from my frugal blog back to my main blog.

If the topic of personal finance is not your cup of tea, please do bear with me. There are only four more posts scheduled for the next couple of weeks. Fresh posts will resume shortly.

If you’ve never visited my frugal blog before, do stay tuned for my next four “republished” posts. They are the best of my best.

Being Focused

It feels better to be focused. Initially I thought having more blogs equals more blogging income. The result was I ended up neglecting all the blogs and subsequently income was halved.

Now there is just one voice nagging me to publish a fresh post each day.

Things have also changed in the past one or two years. Facebook and Twitter have become quick micro-blogging alternatives.

Social networking sites could have made blogging redundant for some.

My life is much simpler maintaining just this one blog.

Moving Forward

I feel like such a “manager” when I say that. That’s what my bosses say all the time, “moving forward…”

This blog is almost three years old. I believe that it is time to alter some of the subjects I write about.

My life has changed. I’m now a father and my mind is filled with different things compared to three years ago.

I’m preoccupied with getting a grasp on fatherhood, of improving my wealth, of moving ahead in my career.

Getting older also means that I’m thinking more about the past.

What Is This Blog About

I ask myself… what else can I blog about? Seriously, there are thousands of bloggers out there who do a better job blogging. Every conceivable topic has been blogged to death a hundred times.

The answer is a few other questions.

What do I want to be known for? What comes to mind when people think about Adino Chang? What benefits can my readers get? How can give them more value?

These questions will be on my mind every time I draft a blog post.

Thank You

I want to end with a word of thanks to my readers. Sometimes I go back and  re-read the comments you leave.

It brings a smile to my face when I remember the times we shared jokes, and I’m touched by how you leave me helpful advice and tips.

I thank those silent readers who regularly read my posts. I don’t know who you are, but the stats tell me that you are here with me.

I hope my re-focused blog will give you all a better reading experience.

Image By: srbichara

This week’s Frugal Friday tip will show you how to make your own cotton balls from a roll of cotton. Frugal Friday tips are short and easy frugal tips you can pick up as a weekend project.

If you have a baby, you will need to use a lot of cotton balls. Cotton balls come ready-made in stores, but it costs about two times less if you make them yourself.

Making Your Own Cotton Balls:

1. You will need a roll of cotton.

2. Pinch off a small portion of cotton, about the size of your thumb.

3. Roll the cotton into a ball by wrapping it around your finger.

4. Keep cotton balls in a container. You can do this as you’re watching TV or just sitting around.

Conclusion

Now you have plenty of cotton balls to use. The best part is knowing you saved money by making your own cotton balls.

Thanks Poey Chin for the demo!

Technorati Tags: DIY, Cotton Balls, Frugal Tips

When you cook, do you ever wonder if you’re cooking too much?

Sometimes I never know how many potatoes to put in, how much rice to use or even how much fruit to prepare. I wonder the same thing when I have to prepare food for a party or social gathering.

I found this cool web utility called the Perfect Portions Planner that will calculate for you how many portions to prepare.

All you have to do is:

1) Select the food to measure

2) Enter how many people you are cooking for

3) Get your portion details

Simple! I’m going to use this the next time I have to prepare food.

Apple will release their latest operating system, Mac OS X Snow Leopard on August 28th.

You will be able to get an upgrade copy of Snow Leopard for RM109, or $29. You could get it for even less if you bought your Mac recently.

From what I’ve read, Snow Leopard is Apple’s answer to Windows 7 (which will be released in October 2009).

Looking at the features, I don’t see drastic changes on the user interface. Most would agree that Apple has worked to improve the features they already have, rather than adding new features.

Check out this comparison between the Windows 7 upgrade path and the Snow Leopard upgrade path. There are 66 different upgrade combinations in Windows.

Just 3 combinations for the Mac

What’s New

1. 64-bit OS. This allows faster processing and the ability to use huge amounts of RAM (up to 16 terabytes, or 16,000 GB!). Nearly every built in app has been rebuilt in 64-bit.
2. Better thread management for multi-core CPUs. This means your dual-core or quad-core CPU can function more effectively, and be used to do tasks at the same time.
3. OpenCL allows applications to utilize the full power of graphics processors.
4. QuickTime X. A new version of media player.
5. Chinese character input via multi touch trackpad.
6. Improvements to Expose and Stacks.
7. Built in support for Microsoft Exchange email.
8. Faster bootup and shutdowns. While this is well and good, bootups and shutdowns were already fast in Leopard.
9. Smaller footprint, which means Snow Leopard will use less disk space on your computer.
10. Improved Services menu that can match the right service options with the current application (I hardly use this feature).
11. Improved iChat that uses 1/3rd of the bandwidth.
12. Safari 4 (you probably got this already)

Read the detailed list (and screen shots) of Mac OS X Snow Leopard refinements.

Windows 7

Allow me to briefly detour to explore the new features in Windows 7.

From what I understand, it has many exciting features as well. Some of them are:

1. Improvements to security management console
2. A new task bar, that will function almost like the Dock
3. New features added to Aero interface (looks really interesting!)
4. Improvements performance for multi-core processors
5. Built in support for virtual hard disks
6. Windows Powershell, which is a administration console
7. Easily disable features you might not need, such as IE or Windows Media Player.

An upgrade will cost you between RM420 (Premium) to RM770 (Ultimate)

Will You Upgrade to Snow Leopard?

Personally I don’t see much value in upgrading the OS. If it has been running fine all this time,  then I don’t need to spend some money to upgrade.

I may want to, but I don’t need to.

In my case, I don’t see how any of the new features justify an upgrade.

I think I will wait for others to upgrade, read about their experiences and then I will decide.

How about you? Will you upgrade? Have you upgraded? Share your experiences here.

(Originally published on my frugal blog on July 9 2008)

The 1 sen rounding mechanism has been implemented in Malaysia without any major issues. However, being a frugal beagle I can’t help but to highlight some problems that I have come across.

I know that a few sen is not worth much, but frugal beagles never let a cent go to waste.

Recently, fellow blogger Paris B fell victim to a petrol station in Jalan Ipoh, where the station allowed a faulty petrol pump to stay in operation, allegedly short changing each customer by1 sen.

But that’s not what I want to highlight today. I noticed problems that occur due to a misunderstanding of the new policy.

1. One Sen Coins Not Accepted

I was shopping at Giant hypermarket a few months back, and I wanted to use up my 1 sen coins. The cashier did not want to accept my coins.

Actually they cannot refuse, because 1 sen coins are still legal tender, according to Bank Negara guidelines. The Central Bank of Malaysia Act 1958 (1994) refers.

The purpose of the rounding mechanism was not to eliminate the 1 sen coin altogether, but to reduce demand so that Bank Negara won’t have to mint new coins anymore.

2. Bills Rounded For All Payment Methods

In my TNB bill, I noticed that the 1 sen coin rounding mechanism is applied, even though I pay via online banking.

Again this is not right, because the Internal Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry (KPDNHEP) guidelines say that the rounding mechanism applies to over the counter cash payments only.

Conclusion

I know that there’s no point arguing over 1 sen. However, it’s sad to see how policies can cause disadvantage to some parties without clear guidelines and follow-up enforcement.

You should read my post 1 Sen Coin Myths and Facts You Must Know to familiarize yourself with this policy.

Technorati Tags: Malaysia, 1 Sen, Coin

Photo: Dan Shirley

(Originally published on my frugal blog on July 7 2008)

If you’re bored of Solitaire or Minesweeper, I have found another way to find full version computer games.

I have written before about downloading free games.

Wikipedia actually has a list of commercial computer games released as freeware. If you take a look at the list, you will find a list of computer games released in the 90s.

I found downloads for games like Railroad Tycoon, Simcity, The Elder Scrolls: Arena, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Star Control II.

To download the games, look for the download or developer website link under the External Links header in the individual game’s wiki entry.

The Frugal Beagle loves Wikipedia!

Photo: Jordi Soro