Ekimkee

New Year Resolution Does Not Work!

2012-01-26T15:59:00.000+08:00

When I re-read my previous post again, it seems like New Year Resolution is a failure? Don't you think so?

Apparently all the new year resolutions that I have set over the past few years, they don't seem to work at all. You must wonder why I suddenly mentioned so.

I have bought and read a book named 'Winning The Game of Life' recently. The author advice us to set a goal for ourselves. After the goal is determined, we need to think how to achieve it. After we found out the how to, he taught us a secret, which is to make a habit to read your goals out at the beginning of each day and reflect at the end of each day on whether you have move closer towards it.

I have totally agreed with it. To solve a problem, you are not only have to think about it, but you have to action as well. Since most of the goals cannot be achieved over night, we have to monitor our progress, adjust what is necessary and keep moving on. Never give up.

And that's why I've to agreed that New Year Resolution will never works, because we are only get excited when we written it down. And we look at them again in the end of the year.

Now, we have learned this secret to achieve our goal. Let's write them down, print them out and stick to the place that we can see everyday, i.e. bathroom, bed, desktop, car, etc to remind ourselves about our goals set, as well as read it every morning and review it every night.

All the best! =)

Are You Ready for 2012 Resolution?

2012-01-02T17:53:00.001+08:00

Happy new year, folks!

I could not believe another year has come! When I recall what have I done in 2010, I could not recall much. Overall, 2011 is considered a tough year for me. My career falls to the bottom and I lost my direction. I have yet to walk over it until now. I have also failed to achieve all my 2011 resolutions target.

I know. If I don't do something about it, I think it won't make a change or improvement. Whatever it is, I really want to take this opportunity to thank to my career mentors, who advice and taught me when necessary. Due to my limited intelligent, I only managed to learn some from them.

For 2012, I dare not to set more than 3 resolutions. I just need 3 and I really want to achieve them this year. Well, might as well just let me just share my 2012 resolutions with you here.

Resolution #1 - Develop new career path

I have lost my direction over the past 1 year due to retrenchment. And the way I work seems totally not align with the boss and company's direction. I have tried my best to improve, but end up it's still a failure. I think it's time to develop a new career path while it is still possible (getting older).

Resolution #2 - Improve existing attitude

Attitude determines a person's success and failure. To approach success as well as become a leader, a person needs to build and maintain aggressive and positive attitude. I'm trying to build it over the past 6 months, but it's still a failure. I look forward to possess this attitude in 2012.

Resolution #3 - Get a Girl Friend

I won't feel shy to tell you. I'm not young anymore and it's been single for quite some time. So it's really the time to find a partner, but I'll still put my career is still my #1. I believe I just need a little bit of aggressiveness, courage, effort, time and luck, this can be achieved!

Hmm, after review these 3 resolutions above again, I don't think they are difficult to achieve anymore this year? It's all about determination and action. I will let them come true this time!

How about yours? Are you satisfied with your 2011 resolutions? What about 2012?

If you don't act on it, it is just another year.

Happy 2012 and all the best for our new resolutions!

The Sharing of A Local Successful Businessman

2011-12-26T00:53:00.001+08:00

We always heard from successful businessmen saying that we need to be perseverance, proactive, aggressive, hardworking and creative in order to be successful. This is because they have experience and walk through them. I believe it is true.

Nonetheless, we seldom heard they shared that religious is part of the success. I just came to know there is one businessman shared about it. This man gave all of his success and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, no matter anytime and anywhere.

This businessman is Tan Sri Francis Yeoh, the man behind YTL Corporation Ltd. He is one of the most influential businessmen in Asia. YTL Corporation business varies from restaurant, cement supply, property developer, construction, shopping centers, hotels, REIT, Internet broadband up to power and water utilities all over the world. Of course, the most well-known and making money business would be the power and water utilities.

Francis Yeoh’s family is non-believer in the first place. He came to know Jesus Christ when he was 16. When his family business was in deep crisis, a pastor shared with him that the God can help him to solve his problem if he believe in Him and seek help from Him. And the rests are the history.

If you would like to see how a businessman success based on his religious, or if you are yet to receive Jesus Christ as a personal Lord and savior, you may really want to watch 45 minutes of Francis Yeoh and his sons’ sharing. The interview conversation is 97% in English.

You may think it sounds fake, just because you have yet to receive the blessing and help from God. Imagine he is a repudiate businessman and he has to maintain his integrity. I also heard a few successful local businessmen sharing the same thing with me. So I believe them. Once you get the blessing from God, you will like Francis Yeoh and sharing the gospel to others.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Warren Buffet's 26 Lessons Part 3

2011-12-11T19:37:00.000+08:00

Here's the final part of Warren Buffet lessons. That's all his sharing? Well, let's keep it simple but they should work.

Lesson 14: Beware of consequences

Any important decision will cause consequences, no matter investment or daily life. When you make any decision, you must think about consequences.

Lesson 15: Don’t judge based on appearance

Never judge a person based on appearance. If you make a mistake on this, you will lose what you expected.

Lesson 16: Keep learning and growing

Learn, learn, learn! If you want to maintain competitiveness, you must continuously learn everyday.

Lesson 17: Look for solution, don’t only know how to say NO

A successful person always be aggressive and passion, look for different possible solution and they never say no.

Lesson 18: Wrap up yourself appropriately

If you want to gain other’s respect, you must respect other first. If you want to be liked by others, you must make yourself cute.

Lesson 19: Too good to be true is not true

You must be clam and mature enough when you face seduction. If someone guaranteed that he/she can help you make big return or grand prize, you must not believe easily.

Lesson 20: Venue decides business opportunity

You need a good venue to do business and attract customer. If the venue is not good, it won’t be outstanding even everything is good.

Lesson 21: The better the business also need advertisement

No matter what product you are selling, you need a good advertisement in order to leave a good impression to others.

Lesson 22: Invest what is necessary

New things normally will just hot for a while. You should always spend on something that is really need.

Lesson 23: Be honest

Business policy is very simply. Be honest and integrity, fair price and don’t cheat.

Lesson 24: Do you what understand

Keep awake, don’t invest something you don’t understand.

Lesson 25: Provide good service to maintain competitiveness

The most important to do business is to have good services and treat customer as your partner.

Lesson 26: Price Decisive Power

If you have the say to raise the price, and you won’t miss existing customer, you already have a very good business!

Warren Buffet's 26 Lessons Part 2

2011-12-04T19:12:00.000+08:00

Here's the 13 lessons I learned from Warren Buffett's Secret Millionaire Club. Enjoy.

Lesson 1: Savings is rule #1 to get rich

The more you save, the more capital you have to face future opportunity and unknown risk.

Lesson 2: Always have a plan first

Everything should have a plan, and need to make sure the plan is executable. A good start equals to half success. A wrong plan can caused a failure.

Lesson 3: The best payback is don’t borrow money

Debt is a problem. If you borrow but you can’t payback, it is bad.

Lesson 4: You need to have responsibility and do what you afford to

Need to evaluate your financial capability, over spending will cause your finance collapsed.

Lesson 5: Discover what you have passion with and what you like to do

Find something you are passion and interested, which can truly develop your talent. Insisting your dream is the only way to success.

Lesson 6: Only right decision will bring you success

There are too many decisions in your life, but only the right decision can bring you to success.

Lesson 7: Find a partner to assist you

One person unable to do a successful business, you need a good partner to make the job easier.

Lesson 8: Learn to listen and ask

Success has close relation with excellent communication. The best communication method is to raise question and listen.

Lesson 9: Stand on giant’s shoulder to look further

If you want to be success than others faster, you need a right mentor. Learn from the success person can make you learn more and deeper.

Lesson 10: Shortcut won’t make you successful

If you want to be successful, you must be discipline, perseverance, and never think of run shortcut and be successful within a short period.

Lesson 11: Learn from mistakes

Not only you need to learn from self-mistake, but learn from others’ mistakes as well.

Lesson 12: Never give up

You still need to continue to attempt even though you make mistake. This is because today’s mistake will bring tomorrow’s success. Failure is not the end, but a new beginning.

Lesson 13: Be Creative all the time

When you face bottleneck, you need to think of the way to be creative. A better way is always comes out from the continuous attempts and improvement.

Warren Buffet's 26 Lessons Part 1

2011-11-27T11:36:00.001+08:00

Warren Buffet has shared his knowledge to gather wealth to the public in the shareholders meeting on May last year. What surprised the media is that he made his knowledge into series of video named Warren Buffett Secret Millionaire Club and share it to the public for free. The main purpose of these videos is to train up kids' financial knowledge.

If you want yourself or your kid to be success in growing wealth, you should spend some times to watch it and do something. Altogether it has 26 episodes available to watch on YouTube. The most interesting part is Mr. Warren recorded his character voice by his own!

I have shared the first episode below. Or you can also visit SMCKids for full details.

I will be sharing the lessons key points in my coming post.
Have a nice weekend, folks.

Are You Agreed With Lee Kuan Yew?

2011-11-19T21:33:00.000+08:00

Earlier on last year, ex-Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew laughed a country which only know how to import blue collar workers will not get very far. Well, Malaysia is well-known in importing blue collar workers from Indonesia, Philippines, Indian, Thai, etc.

Look at where Singapore and Malaysia today, is Lee brought up the right point? Let's take our education as an example.

Our government always complaints that many of our professionals do not return to serve in our own country but prefer to work overseas. They advice them to come back and they should be patriotic to the country. Due to this problem, Malaysia is seriously lack of professional like doctors and engineers. While at the same time there are lots of graduates could not find a job after came out from Universities and Colleges. Why is that?

Our government allocated a lot of budget providing primary and secondary education to all Malaysian for almost free, which is 6 years in primary school, 5 to 6 years in secondary school and perhaps 1 to 2 years in Form 6. It provide almost free training to all Malaysian for 11 to 13 years.

For top students who scored many As in SPM or STPM, about 60% of them export to other countries, and nearly 30% of them absorbed by Singapore for FREE. Free means the Singapore Government provides these top students full scholarship and grant them Permanent Resident'ship a couple of months before they graduated. They don't even have to apply PR if their result is good.

Our Government trained the potential professionals for 11 years, but Singapore only train them 4 years where they will work for Singapore for the next 20 to 30 years or even for the rests of their life.

So who is smarter now? I'm totally agreed with Mr.Lee. Well, it's time for our Government to wake up and improve. It looks like we desperately need smarter leaders who care for Malaysia's future. But too bad, they are away from Malaysia.

Be Creative?

2011-11-13T17:54:00.001+08:00

Don't you think everything and everywhere is having competition now? Education, career, business, etc. Nothing is easy. If you keep it simple, perhaps it is insufficient for us to stand out than others or attract others.

So what is the solution that guarantee us to win? Be creative. Yes, be creative, even you are a beggar!

Entrepreneurs, When is Our Turn?

2011-10-30T15:45:00.000+08:00

I have many friends, and 80% are male. I have to admit that male is commonly easier to make friend with compare to female. But that's not our topic today.

How many of you is an entrepreneur? I've tried to become an entrepreneur 4 years ago but I failed terribly. Time flies like rocket that a couple of months more, I will be turning to 32. I'm still work with others for a living today during this golden career age.

How many of your friend is actually an entrepreneur? I have 1,000 over friends, and in fact only less than 5% of them are entrepreneur. This 5% is excluding of success or struggling entrepreneur. This proves that entrepreneur is a niche market.

When you listen to entrepreneurs' success story, you feel excited because what they shared are really touching and interesting. It may be motivated you to become an entrepreneur as well. Unfortunately, because of comfortable zone and fear of taking risk, most of us choose to listen only without action.

I always give myself an excuse of not becoming an entrepreneur is that I don't have a product or service to let me work with. Even I have worked in the IT industry for 10 years, I also always give myself an excuse that IT industry is too competitive and the profit margin is very low. Yes, full of excuses but yet the excuses are perhaps quite true for me to consider properly before really become an entrepreneur. My previous failure is because I act too fast without much consideration.

Anyway, I believe relentlessly keep learning, listen more, see more, read more, think more and share more, it will helps to improve our thinking and business mind. To nurture an aggressive and positive thinking is also vital to make us firm and last longer. Financial planning skill is also indispensable to run our business and cash flow. Dare to take risk is also a strong supplement to boost up the confident to do business.

After spending 3 years to turn from a sick and useless person towards this direction. I feel that I'm half way there. I'm not sure when I'm confident to come out to do my own business again and stuck with a lot of excuses, but definitely I have to keep moving and stay ahead of others.

I hope I can materialize my entrepreneur dream before I'm 35. I know I can make it. How about you?

Lesson Learned From A Friend

2011-10-16T17:06:00.000+08:00

I have a friend. I named him Han. He is an entrepreneur who has been working so hard day and night for 3 years. He is married with a 2 years old child.

He seldom stays at home. He rather stays in the office to work till late night from Monday to Sunday. After work, he normally He normally call his friend out for drink till mid night.

Know him for about a year, he never mentioned about his house and talk about his family. I'm curious about it for long.

One of the night last week, he finally shared about it. He doesn't want to mention about his living place. He is living with his wife's parents and brother couple. 8 people sharing a small and broken rented house. They are the poor, including Han. Han is an entrepreneur and his company has made some handsome money. But he has reinvested almost all money to let his business to grow further.

I wonder why he always does not take shower. He shared that his house pipe was broken and the landlord has no money to fix it for many months. He only can take bath when nobody is using the water, which is mid night.

His wife's family don't like him, because he doesn't like the way they live and act. They have different culture of living. That's why he doesn't like to stay in the house.

He has brought a house recently and plan to move in mid of next year. He decided to give up his wife family, and only bring along his wife and daughter.

Why I want to share this real story? I found out 2 things from his story.

1) If you don't like other, other won't likes you too. If you feel that other still like you, perhaps you still have value or he/she is fake.

2) Some people like to talk about how good they are in front of you. You may envy them. But you have yet to see the worst of their side. So be glad that you are still yourself.

Gets Paid To Sleep On The Job?

2011-10-09T20:49:00.000+08:00

He has the best excuse to sleep on the job.

Lee Jia, 27, earns 10,000 renminbi (RM5,000) a month just to test the comfort level at hotel rooms.

Besides sleeping, he checks out the scent of the rooms, the cleanliness, the brand of toiletries and the type of TV programmes available.

Lee, a Chinese national, as saying that his job was more than just sleeping in hotel rooms and that it could get stressful at times. His job, he said, required him to observe well his surroundings.

Lee, who loves travelling, said he would then write a review of the hotel and its facilities on his blog. “You need to be highly focused and articulate to observe every detail in order to produce a comprehensive report,” he said.

Hey, is there anymore vacancy?

Hardworking Doesn't Bring Success?

2011-09-24T23:54:00.000+08:00

Everyone understands that hardworking will bring success. But that's not really true.

I must admit that my father is a very hardworking person. He started to come out to work when he is 15. He works day and night and almost 7 days a week for the past 50 years. He is 65 this year. What he is today?

Today, he is still working as a site supervisor without any savings for retirement. He used to be a millionaire. Unfortunately, he faced a great business failure 13 years ago. Not only that he lost everything overnight, he also generated some debts. My family sold everything we can sell. Fortunately we did not need to sell our only shelter.

When I went back to my hometown early this month, he shared with me that he is regretted of what he did. He did not learn how to invest when he was rich. He did not plan how to grow his money, but only continuously do his hard work.

I seems like also facing the same fate recently. My hard work does not return me any reward, just because I did not achieve the target. Without achievement, others won't see your hard work but see you as a failure. The fact is cruel. As a matter of fact, I just don't do enough thinking and lack of aggressiveness.

Like what Malaysia's richest man Robert Kuok said, 90% of success is from the combination of hardworking, intelligent (thinking). Hardworking alone is insufficient to make you success. You must compliment with intelligent. To obtain intelligent, you must be aggressive, continue to learn new things, and learn how to think.

I hope I've learned a valuable lesson. It's time to start to learn how to think and act more aggressively from now on. If you agree with me, let's switch on this button together.

How To be Success in Business?

2011-09-18T16:59:00.000+08:00

Few days ago, I noticed someone shared a link regarding an exclusive interview on a TV program with the Malaysia's richest man, Robert Kuok, a very low profile 89 year-old business man who is well known as king of sugar and hotel.

The TV program is in mandarin from Beijing, China and the interview session is lasted for about an hour. The program is talked about his past experience, how he overcomes the hurdles, problems, how he respected his mum and how he contributed to the society and so on.

I like to watch this kind of interview. This kind of interview and experience sharing from the one of the most successful businessman in Asia like Robert Kuok, is valuable for us, especially their advice because they have walked through it.

Overall, when the host asked him is it really rely on luck in doing business, he emphasized that 90% is rely on hardworking and keep thinking (brain). 10% perhaps rely on luck. If you tell it to a normal person, he will just merely agree with it. I shared this video with a successful businessman, a friend of mine, he immediately said yes and I can feel from his expression that he experienced what has been mentioned.

He also mentioned that business is about courage. You really need to take risk and courage to act on it.

Everyone knows how to strive. We can strive for everything. But not everyone know how to keep thinking. Most of the time, we wasted our effort because we did not do enough thinking but just based on blind hard work. That's what I really need to think about it, and it's time to start to work it out right now before it is too late.

In summary, Robert Kuok advice us that if we want to success in business, hardworking, and keep thinking. And of course, do take calculated risk and courage to go for it.

If you know mandarin, perhaps you can watch the full 50 minutes video here.

Apology To Dear Malaysian

2011-09-11T14:55:00.000+08:00

One lady is sorry for ignoring the homeless while another apologizes for not supporting the national football team. One man apologizes to his children for smoking while another says sorry for talking at the cinema.

The message, simply, is that forgiveness doesn't change the past but it certainly brightens the future.

That tagline of Digi's “Dear Malaysians” ad campaign, which urges Malaysians to apologize and seek forgiveness from one another during the coming Hari Raya, has become a big hit.The video has moved many, with more than 47,000 people sharing it on Facebook since it was launched on Tuesday night.

The three-minute video shows an array of people holding up cardboards with written apologies for past mistakes.Many admitted to having shed tears after watching the video, which has singer-songwriter Min'Z providing vocals for the background song.

The poignant video has also prompted many to post apologies for various misforgivings on social networking sites. Many have apologised for their bad driving habits and parking skills while some have said sorry for not keeping in touch with their friends.

Wong, associate creative director of advertising agency Naga DDB that came up with the campaign concept, said that since Hari Raya, Merdeka and Malaysia Day were around the corner, there was no better time to spread the joy of forgiveness.

“All of us make mistakes but how often do we try to atone for them?” he asked.

“It was not meant to be a tear-jerker but to hit a raw nerve. Many people can relate to not apologising enough.” Wong himself was in the video, where he apologises to a taxi passenger for not returning a wallet he had found a long time ago.

New Species for Local Scam

2011-08-28T10:20:00.000+08:00

No doubt, I have shared with you quite a number of scam cases. We have heard of the Nigerian 419 scam, the AL-Globo lottery scam, but the Bukit Aman scam must surely be the mother of all scams.

A syndicate posing as police officers from Bukit Aman has been ripping off unsuspecting victims of hundreds of thousands of ringgit by claiming that they are being investigated for alleged money laundering. Their latest victim is an elderly woman who lost about RM260,000.

Relating the ordeal, the woman who only wanted to be known as Margeret, in her 60s, said she received a phone call on Aug 18 from a man claiming to be a police inspector from Bukit Aman. She said the “officer” told her that she was being investigated by the Hong Kong police over dealings with two drug dealers there. “The officer told me that if I did not cooperate fully with police investigations, I would be extradited to Hong Kong to face charges for the offence,” she told The Star yesterday.

Margeret said the officer then passed to her the number of a senior police investigator in Hong Kong to verify the matter. “I called the number given and a man claiming to be a police officer warned me that I was being investigated together with 28 other people for alleged dealings with drug dealers there,” she said, adding that the man told her to cooperate fully with the police here.

She said she then received another call from a senior police inspector in Bukit Aman who asked her to transfer all her money into an account provided by them. “They said this was to help them verify that the funds were not linked to drug dealers in Hong Kong,” she said, adding that she transferred a total of RM260,000 from five separate banks to the police here.

Margeret said the officer told her to transfer any additional funds she had to facilitate police investigations failing which she would be arrested. “I told them that I had an additional RM128,000 in a fixed deposit account in Temerloh, but I could not withdraw the money until the next day.”

Fearing something was amiss, she lodged a police report and the news came out.

From the passage, it sounds that Margeret is stupid and too ridiculous to just bank in her money to other people's account. Well, scam is catching human behavior, being greedy and scared. Perhaps the success rate is 1 out of 100 or 1,000, depends on the awareness or attitude. But still, the cost for them to try is very low. That's why this kind of scam is still exist.

I don't want to laugh her, because I'm also very greedy and fallen in the trap of Forex scam twice before. But the amount of money I loss is very small compared to Margeret. Again, I hope this kind of post sharing can create awareness and make us away from scam.

Selamat Hari Raya to all Muslims and happy National Day, folks!

How Much Do You Need For Retirement?

2011-08-21T18:46:00.000+08:00

FOR 30 years, Mazlan Ahmad worked as a technician in a factory. When he retired at 55, he had RM155,000 in EPF savings and about RM20,000 in the bank.

In the first year upon retiring, he spent about RM30,000 of that total. At the rate he was going, Mazlan, 57, knew the money would not last long. So he decided to go back to work for his former company last year.

“Luckily I don't have anything to pay off such as my house or car. Also, my children are all grown up,” says Mazlan, who feels that he can only retire if he has RM1mil in savings.

For the lower income group, RM1mil may seem beyond reach but to others, especially those living in the cities where cost of living is much higher, it may just be the minimum amount one would need to have in the kitty before thinking of retiring.

According to the Global Ageing Report by The Nielsen Company released in February this year, about 56% of Malaysians retire, or express their wish to retire, before turning 60. However, only 21% believe they are financially ready to retire. Another 44% are unsure while 35% are currently not financially set for retirement, according to the report.

For instance, many have yet to settle their housing loans or they live in rented accommodation. With prices of fuel and food spiralling, it is not an easy ride for retirees who also have to worry about medical expenses.

Given that the average life expectancy of a Malaysian is 74 years, retirees have about 20 years of living without income to “worry” about. This is after taking into account that they have settled their mortgages and car loans and do not have to worry about their children's education.

Rajen Devadason, a Securities Commission-licensed financial planner with MAAKL Mutual Bhd, estimates that between 80% and 90% of middle-aged urban Malaysians will need between RM500,000 and RM5mil to retire well in the next three decades.

“Most people will never succeed in building a retirement nest egg of that size because they are not pursuing it as a major life goal with dogged determination,” he opines.

Echoing Devadason, Yap Ming Hui, managing director of Whitman Independent Advisors Sdn Bhd, believes that those in urban settings such as Klang Valley would need at least RM1mil to retire.

He says if one spent about RM4,000 a month, a million ringgit could last about 20 years after taking into consideration inflation. “A million ringgit in 20 years won't be that much because of inflation,” he adds. Most Malaysians rely on their EPF savings to pull them through their golden years while pensioners survive on half their last drawn salary.

According to the 2010 EPF report, most Malaysians have an average RM146,000 in savings by the time they retire. More worryingly, a survey by the EPF showed that 70% of retirees use up all their EPF money within three years of retiring. And 99.9% of the contributors reportedly withdraw their EPF savings in a lump sum once they reach 55.

“Many Malaysians think their EPF savings are sufficient but they definitely need more than that. Quite a lot of people have to work again because they can't really afford not to,” says Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency (AKPK) CEO Akwal Sultan.

Author Azizi Ali, who wrote the book Retire Rich, says the propensity to spend after retirement might even be more than when one is working.

“Do you spend more during weekdays or weekends? Most would say weekends. When you are retired, every day is like a weekend,” he says, adding that most people don't even have 50% of what they need for retirement. “This is scary, yet many people don't realise this. To be poor in old age is the ultimate prison. If you are young, at least you can work.”

It is for this reason that people have to start financial planning for retirement as early as possible, and Devadason believes those who manage to hit the million ringgit mark when they retire are those who began saving and investing in their 30s or 40s.

“Every person who is willing to sacrifice short-term thrills for long-term value can build up a savings and investment portfolio that eventually exceeds RM1mil,” he says.

Yap points out that most Malaysians tend to under-save or under-invest. “It won't matter how much you earn if you can't save money. One should always live within their means,” he advises, adding that salaried workers should save at least 30% of their gross income.

The second rule, says Yap, is investing so that money will grow higher than the rate of inflation. “If you put your money in a fixed deposit account, you are going to get about 3%. What if the inflation is 4%? “But if you put your money into something that grows by 8%, your money will grow 4% (after deducting 4% for inflation),” he elaborates.

There are many investments that grow faster than the rate of inflation; like property, the share market, unit trust funds and commodities such as gold. The golden rule of investing, of course, is not to put all your eggs in one basket, says Yap.

“For example, it would be dangerous to concentrate everything on property or the share market. What if property prices go down or the share market collapses?”

Both Devadason and Yap recommend investing EPF Account One savings in portfolios such as unit trust funds. Furthermore, Yap suggests investing this money in equity or balance funds.

(EPF guarantees at least 2.5% although in 2010, these returns were 5.8%.)

“More often than not, those with long-term investment time horizons exceeding seven years have succeeded in that goal of earning compounded returns above those of EPF,” says Devadason.

Financial advisor Cheong Mei Kay, who gives advice onwww.mckeycheong.com and deals mainly with clients from the ages of 19 to 35, finds that many in this age bracket don't think about retirement. “I believe they are aware but they don't take any action. They tend to think it's still too early for them to think about retirement,” she says.

Cheong, 24, usually tells her young clients to start allocating a certain portion of their income for retirement. “Young people usually know how to spend and don't save as early as they can. I would advise them to do so when they start earning.” Cheong says while many people accumulate wealth, it is more important to grow it.

Her advice to youngsters is to start with some low risk investment or savings like fixed deposit or a saving account in an insurance company before attempting medium-higher risk investments.

“It's like building a house. You must build up the base first.”

Airbag In Your Smart Phone, Anyone?

2011-08-13T23:16:00.000+08:00

Many of us have experienced the problem: We get careless with our mobile phones, they slip out of our hands, and all of a sudden we’re back at the store replacing a shattered device.

Well, none other than Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has a solution for us: Airbags for phones and other portable devices. Or springs, or a propulsion system.

No joke. And, of course, we know this because he wants a patent on the technology.

A patent application made public this morning lists Bezos and Amazon VP Greg Hart as the inventors of “a system and method for protecting devices from impact damage.”

It starts with a safety monitoring system that would use a gyroscope, camera, infrared beam, radar or other sensors to detect such things as motion, orientation and distance from other objects — then determine in a split second if the device is at risk of damage from impact.

One idea (shown in Fig. 2B above) is to embed one or more small airbags inside the phone, according to the filing. If the device is at risk of damage from a fall, the airbags would instantly inflate via an embedded cartridge of compressed air or carbon dioxide. The monitoring system could either detect which side of the phone will hit the ground, and deploy the airbag there, or pop airbags out of multiple sides of the device.

The patent application goes further, suggesting the possibility of reorienting the device in the air, by expelling gas, so that it lands on the side where an airbag is deployed.

But wait, it gets even nuttier. In another example cited in the application, springs would be deployed instead of an airbag (Fig. 4 above).

And finally, the patent filing outlines a “propulsion element” that would also expel gas to “cause a gentle or safe landing”.

The patent filing was originally submitted in February 2010, but just became public. Whether or not any of this ever becomes a reality remain to be seen. It seems like a reach to expect airbags in the next Kindle version, or in Amazon's rumored Android tablets, but who knows?

At the very least, it’s more evidence that Bezos & Co. are thinking a lot about mobile devices these days.

Top 10 Hollywood Movie Mistakes

2011-07-31T12:29:00.000+08:00

Hang on, it's not really top 10, but just that I would like to share some movie mistakes from 10 movies with you in this post. Enjoy.

So whose fault is that?

Did you watch Captain America lately? It inspired me to have this post. After Roger transformed, his pant seems like changed without the look of stress. I hope it's not copy and paste from incredible hulk?

Have a nice weekend , folks!

The Problem With Local Fresh Graduates

2011-07-24T12:02:00.000+08:00

Poor attitude, including asking for too much money, is the chief reason why employers shy away from hiring fresh graduates. Another common complaint is that many graduates are poor in English.

A survey by online recruitment agency Jobstreet.com showed that 55% of employers cited unrealistic expectations of salaries while 48% of them said poor English was the main reason why Malaysian fresh graduates from both public and private institutions remain unemployed.

“While previous surveys named poor English as the main cause for unemployment, bad attitude has now topped the list,” said its chief operating officer Suresh Thiru. He said their attitudes were so bad that some did not even bother to inform the companies if they were running late or unable to attend scheduled interviews.

It was announced that the number of jobless graduates had increased from 65,500 to 71,600 although the overall unemployment rate had dropped from 3.4% last year to 3.1% during the first quarter of this year. Another study by recruitment agency Kelly Services showed that fresh graduates asked for flexible working hours and expected their work to accommodate their personal life, not vice versa.

Its marketing director Jeannie Khoo said employers were also turned off by the lackadaisical attitude and lack of drive to improve among many of them. “They have the misconception that they can earn high salaries at entry-level. They enter the banking industry expecting to earn RM3,000 while the market rate is only RM2,200,” she said.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Malaysia head of recruitment Salika Suksuwan said some candidates had many offers in hand but acted unprofessionally in rejecting job offers — by not turning up for interviews or the first day at work.

“We sometimes have to call them and remind them about a scheduled interview when they didn’t turn up,” she said. Talent Corp CEO Johan Mahmood Merican urged fresh graduates not to make demands on their salary. “It is more important to join a company that can develop your skills and prepare you for future opportunities,” he said.

What do you think?

10 Proven Ways To Improve Men Attractiveness

2011-07-17T12:29:00.000+08:00

I just read the article below regarding 10 proven ways to improve men attractiveness. Perhaps you already knew most of the ways mentioned below. But I still found it is interesting and would like to share it with you. I'm not sure whether they can help, but definitely some of them are and I only practicing 3 points among them.

Men, if you would like to improve your attractiveness, perhaps you may want to try them out.

1. Remove Excess Body Hair

A study conducted that investigated women's preferences regarding men's physical traits found that when shown photographs of men with varying amounts of body hair, women gave higher ratings to those with less and less. Ratings for attractiveness tended to decrease as the amount of chest and abdominal hair increased. To look better topless before a big date, shave the night before, wax a couple of days earlier, or start investing in laser hair removal or thinking about other hair removal trend in general.

2. Brood For Short-Term Pairings

In one study, when women were asked to rank photographs of men in terms of carnal sexual attraction rather than for long term relationship potential, the women selected men who looked broody or proud as being more appealing than smiling men. The takeaway message here is that if you're looking for a short-term fling or a one night stand, being a little moody might make things easier.

3. Smile For Long-Term Relationships

Non-ovulating women seeking long-term relationships find feminized male faces attractive. Evolutionary psychologists postulate that a warmer, more inviting male face may suggest an increased tendency toward prosocial behavior (more likely to stick around for the long haul). Men in the market for a serious, committed relationship should therefore aim to demonstrate that they're a nice guy. The quickest way to look like you're able to look good in potential wedding photos, of course, is to smile.

4. Wear Shoes With Half-Inch Heels

Although your female friends might tell you that personality is what really counts, research has revealed that women show a strong preference toward men who are taller than them. This finding doesn't mean you have to be a pro basketball player to have lots of luck with the ladies, but it does suggest that you can waste less time finding a date by confining your search to women who are a couple of inches shorter than you. You can also give yourself more of a height advantage by slipping on a pair of loafers with a half-inch heel.

5. Stand Up Straight

Similar to the way women show a tendency toward taller men, they also look for men with superior posture. There may be several reasons why improving your posture could increase your chances with the opposite sex. Notably, straightening your spine obviously makes you seem taller, but it also might make you appear more confident, more dominant and more open to being approached.

6. Create A Masculine Jaw

Women in the most fertile phase of their cycle appear to prefer men with chiseled jawlines. Scientists hypothesize that the high testosterone levels responsible for the appearance of masculine facial traits at puberty also suppress immune functioning, meaning that men with this facial feature may have strong immune systems and therefore be a good catch from a genetic perspective.

Men with small chins can use facial hair to create the look of a more prominent jawline. More specifically, a beard that covers the chin area will add volume to a smaller face and make it seem very manly.

7. Use Facial Hair To Promote Symmetry

A huge body of research supports the notion that women find men with symmetrical faces more attractive. Scientists theorize that facial symmetry may be a signal to women that a man is healthy and therefore a good choice for a mate. To create a more symmetrical-looking mug, try playing around with the hair on your face.

Men who favor a clean shave, for example, should take care not to leave patches of hair on their faces. Those with beards and mustaches can experiment with different looks to determine which styles help create more balance between the two halves of their face. Finally, don't forget to tweeze your brows as grooming them is one of the quickest ways to significantly alter your appearance for the better.

8. Use Clothes To Create A V-Shape

In study after study, v-shaped bodies are deemed more attractive by women. The ideal v-shaped body has a waist-to-hip ratio of approximately 0.9-1.0 and a chest-to-waist ratio of around 1.33. While exercising should represent your primary strategy for achieving your ultimate body, you can also fake a better body with the right clothes. To give the impression of broader shoulders, invest in a couple of well-tailored blazers and live in them. If your focus is on slimming your torso, favor v-neck tops that skim over your body so it doesn’t fit too loosely or tightly.

9. Don't Put On Too Much Cologne

The way you smell may play an important role in whether or not a given woman will be attracted to you. Some studies on the science of scent and attraction have suggested that women unconsciously use their sense of smell to determine how different genetically a man is from them (essentially, the more different your genetic material is, the more attracted to you she will be). The trick here is to let your natural smell come through as much as possible in order to attract a woman with whom you'll have dynamite chemistry, so spritz on cologne with a light hand.

10. Exercise

If you consider yourself a player or you would like to become one, it's time to start logging more time at the gym, as studies have shown that women looking for a short-term fling gravitate toward muscular males. Fortunately, as long as you're willing to put in regular sweat sessions and eat properly, a cut body is an achievable goal for most guys. Do be careful, however, not to overdo it, as research has shown that women prefer toned men to ultra-muscular guys.

Okay, that's about the 10 proven ways. I found 1, 5, 6 and 10 are quite useful, because I saw some male friends around me demonstrated them and they works very well with the combination of talk confidently and being funny.

If you want to be success, don't think too much but action. Have a nice weekend, folks!

Love Keeps Cheng Going

2011-06-26T10:07:00.001+08:00

A GONG Xi Fatt Choi banner still hangs across the front door of the cheery yellow brick and wooden house in the backwaters of Balik Pulau, Penang, four months after the lunar new year.

The scene reflects Cheng Mah Kim’s optimistic approach to life, but it belies the 71-year-old’s heart-wrenching duty of caring for her three bedridden children.

Cheng and her husband Lee Teik Hun, 78, are too busy to take down the banner because they’re preoccupied with caring for Chuan Beng, Khai Loon and Siew Kee. It’s a 24-hour job but this mother is not one to feel sorry for herself.

At times, the elderly couple relies on the kindness of neighbours and those who know about their plight for assistance. But mostly, they do everything themselves, including cooking, bathing and feeding the children.

The house they have been living in for the past 10 years was the result of a charity drive organised by a Chinese vernacular daily, non-governmental organisations (NGO) and community leaders.

“I have no reason to complain,” Cheng says. “We get RM300 a month from the state welfare department and we have a roof over our heads.

“That itself is such a blessing. We are very grateful to all those who have helped.”

Despite her years and ailing health, Cheng starts her day at four every morning and usually turns in only after midnight.

“At my age, I can’t really sleep in anymore. I get up and prepare breakfast for the kids – they really love coffee.

“Then I give them each a sponge bath. We can’t carry them to the bathroom so this will have to do,” she adds.

Lee will then go to the nearby market on his motorcycle while Cheng cooks the rice at home.

“Teik Hun usually comes back with fish and I’ll just prepare a simple dish for lunch and dinner.

“The kids can be picky. Sometimes they only want to eat bread,” says Cheng, who was in a wheelchair when The Star visited her home recently. She had fallen down a few days earlier and was struggling to dress the children. Her legs were swollen.

Cheng suffers from high blood pressure, constant migraines and pain in both legs. Teik Hun is diabetic. The couple used to sell pasembur on a three-wheel cart when they lived in Jelutong years ago.

“I wish we could continue hawking but then who will take care of the kids?”

Chuan Beng is 43 and his brother Khai Loon is 34. Sister Siew Kee, 38, has a cheeky smile for visitors. But the three of them can barely speak.

“They all had high fever when they were young. The doctors told me they had suffered epileptic fits,” explains Cheng, who speaks Hokkien and a smattering of Bahasa Malaysia.

“I don’t really understand the medical reasons for their condition. I tried sending them to a day-care centre for special kids when they were young but stopped because they refused to go.”

The proud mother says her family makes do with what they have. Their one luxury is Astro because the children are “addicted” to watching TV.

“All this is God’s will. No point worrying about tomorrow. Until the day I die, I will care for my children. It’s not that I don’t want to send them to a nursing home but whenever I try to explain it to them, they will wail and refuse to eat. I don’t want them to die of hunger at an unfamiliar place,” Cheng says.

Her niece, Belinda Lee, adds that the couple has two other daughters who married and left home and are unable to care for their siblings and parents. A fourth daughter died of illness.

“What my uncle and aunt need most are volunteers who can come around to the house a few times a week to help with their children,” Lee says. “The problem is that my cousins are not used to having people around. But, eventually, they will need to move to a nursing home when their parents are gone.

“That is why we are praying that there are Non-Government Organizations that can help prepare them for the inevitable so when the time comes for them to go live in a nursing home, they will not be traumatized.”

Now you know how lucky are we? Yes, we are. ;)
There is nothing much to complain about, but to solve the problem is the most important thing to do.

Father's Day

2011-06-19T14:13:00.001+08:00

It's Father's Day today. Are you celebrating with your father today?

Father, he is a very special person to me, not only because he is my father, but what he has sacrificed for my brother and me.

I remembered when I was very young, around 5-6 years old, my family is very poor. My dad worked as a car sales man where my mum is a housewife.

We used to gather at my grandma's house during weekend. In one of the weekends, my cousin's parents bought a new robot toy to him. The robot is just the latest cartoon shown on the TV that time. I did not know how much it costs during that time. He was very happy and play with it the entire day. My brother and I were so envy about it by watching him to play it.

After we are looking at the robot for a couple of hours, my cousin invited us to play along. But we did not know the cousin's parents dislike what we are doing. They complained to our parents. My dad did not say anything, but immediately bring us to the supermarket to buy the new robot to us to play. So eventually we are playing the 2 robots in the same shelter. My brother and I were so happy because this is the first robot we owned.

After that, I got to know from my mum that the robot is quite expensive. Since we know we are poor, my brother and I never requested our parents to buy any toy for us. Perhaps that's why I remembered this case the most in my mind. Of course, I also remembered he sacrificing a lot to my family and myself.

My dad is 65 year old this year. Due to a serious business failure in his early 50's, he still need to work 7 days a week for a living of my family although his remaining debts are cleared. I felt very sorry that I'm helpless, yet to success in career/wealth and unable to bring him any comfortable life right now.

As I'm working in the neighbor country and I unable to celebrate father's day with him today, I've transmitted some money to my brother to arrange a celebration program for him. I hope he enjoys his day.

Happy father's day, dad.

Quick Way to Reduce Temperature in the Car?

2011-06-10T21:34:00.000+08:00

Most of the times, you feel very warm when you get into your car which exposed under sun for long time in the afternoon. So what is the best way to cool it down in the shortest time?

One Japanese professional invented a method. Perhaps it's not an invention. It's just a method. You must watch...

Yes, it looks like an idiot. But, will you do it? I definitely won't.

Aggressive Attitude Ruled?

2011-06-05T17:25:00.001+08:00

How important is it to possess an aggressive attitude?

I was working in a semi-government IT company and worked 5 days a week for 10 years. Even though I'm doing partial sales, I don't have sales quota to achieve and everything is slow and relax. The laziness and lack of aggressive attitude have been rooted in my mind and body firmly.

After I lost my good job, I'm now working as a very challenging and stress position right now, a sales guy who has a marvelous quarterly sales quota to achieve and subordinates to manage. It's just too busy to cope with this job. Well, perhaps that's the reason my blog post is getting lesser recently.

I know it is very difficult to overcome something firm for 10 years. Somehow when I see others who able to make it and be a better person, I also want to try it. But my favorite strategy is that, I always give up in the middle of the game. I keep thinking that I want to quit, as soon as possible. Apart from being lazy, lack of aggressive and discipline, I don't like challenge as well. I like to do simple things but in hope to get great return.

At this point of time, I realized aggressive attitude and hardworking are very important, not only to me to make a living, but to everyone who is looking for success in their career.

Aggressive attitude is the motor to success. It’s not only think aggressively but also act aggressively. Every day you wake up, you would be aggressive, in terms of thinking and communication. It’s always within your heart, if you possess it.

So, are you a person who has aggressive attitude? Let's run a test.

1. I watch at least 1 hour news daily.

2. I read newspaper daily.

3. I read weekly news magazine weekly.

4. I'm having bad mood occasionally for the entire day.

5. My job is very boring.

6. I encountering bad temper every hour or few hours.

7. I like to get along with pessimistic people and pity on them.

8. If anything goes wrong, I always blame on others.

9. If there is something wrong or in trouble, I will share with others.

10. If I angry with someone, I try not to talk to him/her not less than 4 hours.

11. I bring personal problem to office, and discuss with colleagues.

12. I always make the worst assumption.

13. My mood can be affected by bad weather.

Yes for less than 2: Your attitude is aggressive.

Yes for 3 to 6: Your attitude toward aggressive is soft.

Yes for more than 7: You are seriously lack of aggressive.

Well, I scored 6 with Yes, damn it.

Advanced Email Scam?

2011-05-14T22:04:00.002+08:00

If you read my previous post regarding New Scan Has Arrived, I touched about common scam methods as below:

1. Africa wealth scam via Email

2. ATM card scam by recording your PIN number

3. ATM PIN number scam via SMS

4. Credit card scam via Email & phishing web site

5. Hong Kong jackpot scam via phone & SMS

6. Credit Card abuse scam via phone & SMS (added in April 2009)

There is a similar method discovered in the local market lately. I have saw 4 similar scams in the newspaper this week alone. Yes, you did not hear me wrongly, it's SIMILAR METHOD, but still, it works effectively.

Basically this new scam method is very straight forward. You had received an email and claimed that an irregular activity had been detected on your bank account. You are required to confirm and verify your information by clicking on a link in the email.

You must be wonder most of the local banks do offer SMS or token based 2-tier authentications. Without the 6 digits authorization code sent to you from the bank, there should be no transaction confirmation. It sounds quite safe when the bank introduced this security feature to us 4/5 years ago. From the newspaper detail, I believe the fraudsters already found their way to breach them.

The victims described that they only click on the link in the email and then they found out their money in the account went missing. As per report, after 2 minutes of clicking the link, the victim received an SMS from bank system confirmed that the maximum daily fund transfer has been done.

Whatever security measure introduced by bank, it's just to minimize the fraud. It's not 100% safe. So we need to protect ourself. Anyway, I received a lot of similar emails for this case, just to share with you one of the sample here and I hope we won't become the next victim.

Have a nice weekend, folks.