It seems impossible to get a dream job nowadays. However, you might be able to get one if you really work on it. Speaking from my experience, I would like to share some tips with you.
1. Interpret your dream
Many people do not even know what they want. 90% of the job seekers are putting monetary rewards as their main consideration in seeking a better job. Before moving into that, list down what you really want for your new job. (in terms of exposure, traveling requirements, job function, career path) You will be surprise to find that you actually wanted more, than just money.
2. Knowing your destination
It is such ironic that everyone seems to know how to answer the popular interview question of "how do you see yourself in 10 years?", but do not really know what they are answering. Most of the interviewees came prepared which such question. However, most never really ask themselves such questions throughout their entire career life. Where you want to go? Do you see yourself as a future entrepreneur, skilled expert or manager? Knowing your direction helps you to focus on the job function you want.
3. The Time Race
We always contradict ourselves with different goals. Some common examples are statement such as, "I want to be a manager in 5 years time" and "I want to try different job roles to know what I am suitable for". Changing different roles is just an excuse to buy more time as you are unsure of what you really want. Let me tell you a fact, what fits you the best, end of the day, is what you are best at. If you don't think you like to do what you are best at, forget about excelling in your career. You will always be a mediocre.
4. Job Function, Company, Remuneration- Choose 2 out of 3
Fulfilling all your 3 requirements above for your first few jobs is like hitting a lottery. My advice, choose 2 out of 3 above. Why specifically 2 but not 1? Having two of above brings you closer to your dream job. If you only have one of them, you will need to try to fulfill the other two in your next job search. This is tough, as your salary requirements is moving up along with time. Any mistakes in choosing your career will not only costs you your job, it will also costs you time.
5. Get to know the right headhunter
80% of my experiences with headhunters are bad. Some headhunters just call you up to get FREE ADVICE from you about the job description(JD) given by their clients. Some will take your CVs and pass round to a few employers at the same time to try their luck. Most of them do not care about your career. They are more client-focused and they care more about their commissions. This is why they can always find GOOD talent for industries but always fail to provide the RIGHT candidate. Try to submit your CVs to a few headhunter and locate one or two good ones. Better still, check with your friends on their experience with headhunters and get them to introduce you to the good ones. Just drop me a comment if you need any recommendation from me.
6. Know your job well
Dream jobs are meant for those who can handle their job well. You can be hired as a CEO but are you able to increase the company's profit growth by 10 % per annum? You will only enjoy your job without high levels of incompetency stress. Most jobs are deemed to be stressful not because the employers are mean. It is simply because many of those are incompetant and yet taking up jobs that are beyond their capacity.
7. Be confident but don't think too highly of yourself
Dreaming of a job that pays you high salary, flies you around the world in business class cabins, able to work from home and comes with a huge team for you to command? Are you dreaming? No, it is not impossible! Once you have identified your strength, you will only need to identify the right company that is profitable enough to match your requirements. Be confident of yourself but never expect all companies to be able to afford what you want. Check out their annual reports (if they are listed) or audited accounts (from SSM for RM10) if you are really concern about the companys' profits.
Good luck in your job hunt!
Showing posts with label surviving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label surviving. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
How to Pitch?
Coming out with great ideas is hard, but evangelizing and convincing others about your idea is even harder. Pitching is an art, which takes time and effort to pick up. However, learning some tips and tricks on pitching will definitely help to put you on fast-track in mastering the art.
Being a 3-times award-winner of international business plan award and a 2-times recipient of government venture grant (sounds a bit arrogant, do i?:)), I hope to share some tips on pitching with my readers.
1. Refine your idea
Great ideas originates from crude ideas. Crude ideas are normally flawed and comes with plenty of rooms for improvement. Before pitching your idea, try asking yourself a few pragmatic questions. What problem does the idea solve? Does the idea have any adverse effect? Does your idea benefit the mass market, or just a handful of people? Will the idea bring huge benefit in relative to implementation cost? If you still can't think of enough questions to refine your idea, try going to Gallery SmartShop and check on all their creative products. Ask yourself what you products you will buy and why you buy it, if you are given an RM2000 voucher.
2. Focus your area
Having an idea or solution that solves a few problem at once is superb beyond any doubt. However, an idea which covers a wide range of problems will certainly involve more pitching. Pitching is about getting others to intoxicate with your idea. Therefore, it is important to define your pitching scope. Without setting some borders to your idea, you be pitching for 10 minutes just to get to the center of your idea. This rule will help you to ensure your audience does not *yawn* at your pitch.
3. Identify your audience
It is always a part and parcel for me to identify the audience or panel of decision makers before I pitch. Doing some quick research on your audiences will increase your chances in pushing the idea through. I was once faced with a panel of 15 joint decision makers which comes from different background. I actually did a quick research on 10 of them in order to capture their attention from various perspective. The effort was actually paid off.
4. Build your pitch
Pitching is like telling a story you can't wait to share to your friends. You will finally gain the satisfaction after telling the story by having responses such as "wow', "wah", "really?". Well, at times, they might find your story to be boring too. This is what exactly you want to avoid during a pitch. A good pitch requires proper structure, which builds up from a teaser to the climax. Think about your idea, can your audience grasp your idea it in a 5 seconds, 1 minute or 5 minutes pitch? Let me give you a real-life idea which I am currently working on in 5 seconds.
"Shipping books from Amazon.com at RM5 only instead of USD10!"
Do you think you want to know more? Haha, find out how in a few more months time! (I am developing the solution now.) Restructure your pitch for 1 minute, 5 minutes and 10 minutes session. Try to get the gist out of your idea within the specified period. So , have you started working on your 5 seconds tagline now?
5. Practice it
I know a very senior executive(one of the "C"s) in Samsung Group who still practice his pitch repeatedly before facing the audience. It is normal that your confidence will build up after structuring your pitch, so as your egoisim. You might be over-confident with your idea. Believe me, things are very different when you are facing your audience especially when the phychological factor kicks in. Be it a job interview or business idea presentation, your balls tends to hide during the pitching session and you might be performing only partially as good as what you had expected. Therefore, practice and improve on your pitch for at least 15 times before the actual session. If you feel weird speaking to the mirror, try pitching to your best friend or partner, it helps.
6. Be confident while delivering your pitch
Before we dive into this step, ask yourself, are you confident with your idea? Having confidence in your idea holds the key to delivering a good pitch. Forget about pitching if you are not even confident with your idea. If you are still not convinced about your idea, go back to step 1. If you are convinced, the next step would be building your confidence. I still remember vividly how I defended my arguments in one of the venture funding approval session. I thought my chances were slim after the "cynical" approval session but I got the grant in the end. Moral of the story, be prepared and do not give up easily.
I hope to share more about pitching the my coming posts (especially on some tips during the actual pitching session). I hope you enjoy this post and do leave your personal tips/comments if you have any!
Being a 3-times award-winner of international business plan award and a 2-times recipient of government venture grant (sounds a bit arrogant, do i?:)), I hope to share some tips on pitching with my readers.
1. Refine your idea
Great ideas originates from crude ideas. Crude ideas are normally flawed and comes with plenty of rooms for improvement. Before pitching your idea, try asking yourself a few pragmatic questions. What problem does the idea solve? Does the idea have any adverse effect? Does your idea benefit the mass market, or just a handful of people? Will the idea bring huge benefit in relative to implementation cost? If you still can't think of enough questions to refine your idea, try going to Gallery SmartShop and check on all their creative products. Ask yourself what you products you will buy and why you buy it, if you are given an RM2000 voucher.
2. Focus your area
Having an idea or solution that solves a few problem at once is superb beyond any doubt. However, an idea which covers a wide range of problems will certainly involve more pitching. Pitching is about getting others to intoxicate with your idea. Therefore, it is important to define your pitching scope. Without setting some borders to your idea, you be pitching for 10 minutes just to get to the center of your idea. This rule will help you to ensure your audience does not *yawn* at your pitch.
3. Identify your audience
It is always a part and parcel for me to identify the audience or panel of decision makers before I pitch. Doing some quick research on your audiences will increase your chances in pushing the idea through. I was once faced with a panel of 15 joint decision makers which comes from different background. I actually did a quick research on 10 of them in order to capture their attention from various perspective. The effort was actually paid off.
4. Build your pitch
Pitching is like telling a story you can't wait to share to your friends. You will finally gain the satisfaction after telling the story by having responses such as "wow', "wah", "really?". Well, at times, they might find your story to be boring too. This is what exactly you want to avoid during a pitch. A good pitch requires proper structure, which builds up from a teaser to the climax. Think about your idea, can your audience grasp your idea it in a 5 seconds, 1 minute or 5 minutes pitch? Let me give you a real-life idea which I am currently working on in 5 seconds.
"Shipping books from Amazon.com at RM5 only instead of USD10!"
Do you think you want to know more? Haha, find out how in a few more months time! (I am developing the solution now.) Restructure your pitch for 1 minute, 5 minutes and 10 minutes session. Try to get the gist out of your idea within the specified period. So , have you started working on your 5 seconds tagline now?
5. Practice it
I know a very senior executive(one of the "C"s) in Samsung Group who still practice his pitch repeatedly before facing the audience. It is normal that your confidence will build up after structuring your pitch, so as your egoisim. You might be over-confident with your idea. Believe me, things are very different when you are facing your audience especially when the phychological factor kicks in. Be it a job interview or business idea presentation, your balls tends to hide during the pitching session and you might be performing only partially as good as what you had expected. Therefore, practice and improve on your pitch for at least 15 times before the actual session. If you feel weird speaking to the mirror, try pitching to your best friend or partner, it helps.
6. Be confident while delivering your pitch
Before we dive into this step, ask yourself, are you confident with your idea? Having confidence in your idea holds the key to delivering a good pitch. Forget about pitching if you are not even confident with your idea. If you are still not convinced about your idea, go back to step 1. If you are convinced, the next step would be building your confidence. I still remember vividly how I defended my arguments in one of the venture funding approval session. I thought my chances were slim after the "cynical" approval session but I got the grant in the end. Moral of the story, be prepared and do not give up easily.
I hope to share more about pitching the my coming posts (especially on some tips during the actual pitching session). I hope you enjoy this post and do leave your personal tips/comments if you have any!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
How to Survive Retrenchment?
Most of us are lucky. We have never tasted the bitterness of retrenchment in our entire working life. However, as many firms are undergoing major organizational restructuring in order to cut costs, the risk is adverse. Adding salt to wound, a lot of companies have freeze hiring. Thus, retrenchment is something many people may have to face, whether they like it or not. Here are some tips to help you cope with retrenchment if you land yourself in such a situation.1) Face It, Not Face Off
The initial reaction you will encounter would be shock and anger. You are shocked that the firm is willing to lay off a good employee. But you need to understand that this is not personal, it's business. After that, you might feel depressed that your firm did not value you as much as you though they did. You may even feel a depreciating sense of self-worth. But there is one thing you need to do - you need to get back on your feet. Share your feelings with your loved ones, your spouse and family. Do not carry the burden alone. Your family will be there to support you and help you work things out during these difficult times. Once you have accepted the reality of your retrenchment, you need to find out what to do next. How are you going to cope with it?
2) Assess Your Finances
While sharing the bad news to your family, you may also need to tell them that there is a need to adjust your current lifestyle to survive financially. You may get a nice severance package when you were laid off, but refrain from spending it on luxury items that depreciates in value such as a new car or a long vacation. Instead, you need to spend on things that will help you make more money. For instance, you may want to invest the money to make it grow or set up a business to make more money. As a family, look into how your family can save money by cutting down on daily expenses or switching brands.
You may think that you have enough to cover for the next 6 months, but the reality may be different. The amount you have may not even last that long. Besides looking at your cash flow, also assess your debts, savings and assets.
It is also important that you get enough medical or hospitalization coverage for you and your family. Since you have stopped working for your firm, you may find that no one will cover your medical expenses. Get one as soon as possible. The last thing you would want to do is to have to fork out lots of money on medical expenses during these times.
3) Skills Training
Assess your current skills to see if they are still relevant in the modern job market. If they are not, you may wish to upgrade your skills with extra training so that you can land yourself another job easily. In addition to technical expertise and knowledge upgrade, you also need to learn to refresh your resume writing and interview skills to help you clinch the next job. Also, the Malaysian government has been kind enough to offer free skill retraining program for laid off workers. So, let's just grab the opportunity and make yourself a more valuable asset to your future organisation.
4) Positive Attitude
It is important to have the right attitude from the beginning in order to cope with the situation. You may be retrenched but it does not mean the end of the world. Continue to network with friends and ex-colleagues to be in the loop about what is going on in your industry. You may wish to ask them to look our for a job opportunity for you and get their recommendation. At the same time, you may want to seek help at employment agencies to get another job. They may offer you a temp-to-perm job. Start off with the temporary position and if you do a good job, you will be employed full-time. Be open to various opportunities available. Don't waste time feeling sorry for yourself; you've got a life ahead of you.
5) Be flexible
You may find that there are limited job opportunities in the industry you worked in previously. If that is the case, you may have to find work in a different industry. Be flexible. You may have to undergo more training, experience a drastic pay cut, or irregular working hours. In order to get the next job, show your employer that you are willing to be flexible about these things. It is important to take whatever job you can get at this moment and continue to look for other opportunities as you go along.
Coping with retrenchment is never going to be easy. But if we take certain issues into perspective, it might be easier to cope. Having the right mindset is the most important tip I have here. From there, you need to formulate a plan to streamline your finances and look for another job. All the best!
Excerpts from: Sydney Hazelton
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Being calculative for the wrong reasons
City folks are calculative, in certain sense. They calculate the tolls that they are able to skip by choosing different routes to reach their destination. They calculate how much points they could earn on Bonus Link when making a decision to purchase a product. They figure out which computer shop to visit from lowyat.net before purchasing digital peripherals. They try different ways and spent a lot of time convincing their banks to waive the credit card annual fees.
We are always calculative on little things that are well publicised. Everyone in the city knows about toll-skipping routes, you will looked dumb for not knowing that. Even ladies shop often in Low Yat nowadays. We often overlooked the non-obvious stuff when we choose to be calculative. I will bring out a few simple examples.
Most of the people working city owns more than one bank account, even there is only one which is active. This is partly because most of us opt to have a career change every 2 to 3 years. Most of the companies insist their employees to have accounts with the bank they dealt with. Many therefore ended up with 3 or 4 ATM cards. I know of a friend who owns 8 ATM cards. Are you aware of how much an ATM card cost per annum? It is RM 8 per annum, regardless of your usage(for most banks). 8 cards would mean RM 64 per annum. You will seldom notice it because it is automatically deducted from your bank account. You will not feel the pinch as it is a minimal sum compared to your savings in bank. Do you really need all your ATM cards ? For your information, my ATM card is also my credit card. I pay RM 0 for ATM facilities although my daily withdrawal limit is capped to RM 3000. Of course, my credit card annual fees are normally automatically waived by the banks without even needing me to call them. (I only stick to one credit card to focus my spending on one card)
Many know how much they paid for their road tax every year but not their car insurance. We always get runners to renew our insurance and road tax without knowing much about the details. Do you know that your car value depreciates year by year ? This results in lower insurance premium. However, most drivers are not aware of this. They paid whatever standard amount which is advised by their insurance agents. The premium for RM80K and RM60K can be very different. Are you aware of that?
The list of examples will never end if I decide to cite every one of them. Advice for the day, it's good to be calculative at times, but not for the wrong reasons.
We are always calculative on little things that are well publicised. Everyone in the city knows about toll-skipping routes, you will looked dumb for not knowing that. Even ladies shop often in Low Yat nowadays. We often overlooked the non-obvious stuff when we choose to be calculative. I will bring out a few simple examples.
Most of the people working city owns more than one bank account, even there is only one which is active. This is partly because most of us opt to have a career change every 2 to 3 years. Most of the companies insist their employees to have accounts with the bank they dealt with. Many therefore ended up with 3 or 4 ATM cards. I know of a friend who owns 8 ATM cards. Are you aware of how much an ATM card cost per annum? It is RM 8 per annum, regardless of your usage(for most banks). 8 cards would mean RM 64 per annum. You will seldom notice it because it is automatically deducted from your bank account. You will not feel the pinch as it is a minimal sum compared to your savings in bank. Do you really need all your ATM cards ? For your information, my ATM card is also my credit card. I pay RM 0 for ATM facilities although my daily withdrawal limit is capped to RM 3000. Of course, my credit card annual fees are normally automatically waived by the banks without even needing me to call them. (I only stick to one credit card to focus my spending on one card)
Many know how much they paid for their road tax every year but not their car insurance. We always get runners to renew our insurance and road tax without knowing much about the details. Do you know that your car value depreciates year by year ? This results in lower insurance premium. However, most drivers are not aware of this. They paid whatever standard amount which is advised by their insurance agents. The premium for RM80K and RM60K can be very different. Are you aware of that?
The list of examples will never end if I decide to cite every one of them. Advice for the day, it's good to be calculative at times, but not for the wrong reasons.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Getting Rich Quick in the city
If you are approaching 30 and still not belonging to the group of rich, powerful and famous, do not be disappointed, many are with you.
This is NOT an entry telling you about how to get rich quickly. It is an entry speaking out what most of the early twenties young working adults had in their mind when they started their working life in the city: to get rich quick.
There is no shortcut for success. I have joined at least 2 MLM companies before and I know how hard people work towards their success. I also know some of their "scam" tricks on how to attract more members. Fortunately, the products I bought from direct sales membership are usable and effective for me and my family (though I did not continue to use them now anymore, the products are really good, it's just too expensive).
It is not the case for many. Many loss their hard-earned savings by investing into scams and memberships. They will not tell you their story as it is not something to be proud of. Some of them chose to create "fact exposure" sites which are widely publicised as they felt that it's their obligation to warn others about some flawed investment scheme.
Some of the young entrepreneurs found themselves to to be in trouble by trying to slaughter the golden goose. So, how should you decide what's the best for you in order to live comfortably in the city?
1. Be Patient
I have been through the early 20s stage. I must admit, 20s is a very competitive stage in life, especially for young graduates who works in the city. You don't have much experience and yet try to prove yourself to be more successful than your peers. You want to own an Altis when your peers are driving Vios. Many who are impatient to make their first pot of gold eventually loss their "investments" to some "professional scams". I grew up in the era of dotcom bubble during my early 20s, where many young, successful entrepreneurs are featured by the media. I have too, been given the limelight by main stream media featuring my startups during the early 20s . However, I have learned to be patient and analytical throughout the years in order to move to the next level. My advice for the early 20s, analyse the "opportunities" offered to you carefully before investing your time and money. Yes, time and energy is all you have when you are young and use them smartly. They will translate to success and money if you make your decisions wisely. Learn from other's experiences and try to create opportunities for yourself rather than buying into one. I will blog more about creating opportunities for yourself in my future entries.
2. Be Focused
Many will try everything to get rich and famous. Most of the people in their 20s will have similar philosophy of life: "never try, never know, so try everything and you might hit the jackpot". Ask any of your friends working in the city, 8 out of 10 of them will tell you that they have joined an MLM, unit trust or insurance company as agents before. However, probably only 1 out of 10 of those who joined remains as active member now. It's hard to achieve what you want in life if you are not focused. Trying out everything is not the solution to get something out of your life. I have told myself that I would like to improve the quality of people's life through technology. I am still sticking to that goal.
3. Be Balanced
My ex-neighbour never gave up persuading me to join his MLM business. I have nothing against MLM companies, as long as they sell their products honestly. One of the factors I chose not to join is because of the imbalance workload in MLM working environment. He drives a C Class now, bought just after 6 months joining the MLM company. Frankly speaking, his C Class does not come in easy. I knew how hard he worked. Ever since he joined the MLM network, I hardly seen him at home. He came back at 3 or 4 am almost every night, even during the weekends. Though he claimed that his working hours are flexible, it's not flexible at all to me. Weekends has to be dedicated for work and you usually spent your time in talkshow events at night. You hardly have time for your family. Always strike a balance in whatever you do, maintain a healthy lifestyle, you will never regret doing that.
Though it is hard to make yourself rich quickly in the city, there are still ways to guarantee yourself a comfortable lifestyle in the city. I hope to share more about this in my future entries.
This is NOT an entry telling you about how to get rich quickly. It is an entry speaking out what most of the early twenties young working adults had in their mind when they started their working life in the city: to get rich quick.
There is no shortcut for success. I have joined at least 2 MLM companies before and I know how hard people work towards their success. I also know some of their "scam" tricks on how to attract more members. Fortunately, the products I bought from direct sales membership are usable and effective for me and my family (though I did not continue to use them now anymore, the products are really good, it's just too expensive).
It is not the case for many. Many loss their hard-earned savings by investing into scams and memberships. They will not tell you their story as it is not something to be proud of. Some of them chose to create "fact exposure" sites which are widely publicised as they felt that it's their obligation to warn others about some flawed investment scheme.
Some of the young entrepreneurs found themselves to to be in trouble by trying to slaughter the golden goose. So, how should you decide what's the best for you in order to live comfortably in the city?
1. Be Patient
I have been through the early 20s stage. I must admit, 20s is a very competitive stage in life, especially for young graduates who works in the city. You don't have much experience and yet try to prove yourself to be more successful than your peers. You want to own an Altis when your peers are driving Vios. Many who are impatient to make their first pot of gold eventually loss their "investments" to some "professional scams". I grew up in the era of dotcom bubble during my early 20s, where many young, successful entrepreneurs are featured by the media. I have too, been given the limelight by main stream media featuring my startups during the early 20s . However, I have learned to be patient and analytical throughout the years in order to move to the next level. My advice for the early 20s, analyse the "opportunities" offered to you carefully before investing your time and money. Yes, time and energy is all you have when you are young and use them smartly. They will translate to success and money if you make your decisions wisely. Learn from other's experiences and try to create opportunities for yourself rather than buying into one. I will blog more about creating opportunities for yourself in my future entries.
2. Be Focused
Many will try everything to get rich and famous. Most of the people in their 20s will have similar philosophy of life: "never try, never know, so try everything and you might hit the jackpot". Ask any of your friends working in the city, 8 out of 10 of them will tell you that they have joined an MLM, unit trust or insurance company as agents before. However, probably only 1 out of 10 of those who joined remains as active member now. It's hard to achieve what you want in life if you are not focused. Trying out everything is not the solution to get something out of your life. I have told myself that I would like to improve the quality of people's life through technology. I am still sticking to that goal.
3. Be Balanced
My ex-neighbour never gave up persuading me to join his MLM business. I have nothing against MLM companies, as long as they sell their products honestly. One of the factors I chose not to join is because of the imbalance workload in MLM working environment. He drives a C Class now, bought just after 6 months joining the MLM company. Frankly speaking, his C Class does not come in easy. I knew how hard he worked. Ever since he joined the MLM network, I hardly seen him at home. He came back at 3 or 4 am almost every night, even during the weekends. Though he claimed that his working hours are flexible, it's not flexible at all to me. Weekends has to be dedicated for work and you usually spent your time in talkshow events at night. You hardly have time for your family. Always strike a balance in whatever you do, maintain a healthy lifestyle, you will never regret doing that.
Though it is hard to make yourself rich quickly in the city, there are still ways to guarantee yourself a comfortable lifestyle in the city. I hope to share more about this in my future entries.
Why having hard time to look for food in the city? Now, everyone can cook!
Most young working adults living in the city do not cook. Eating out has become a norm for many working class city folks. Sometimes, you just run out of idea where to take your dinner. With rising inflation, many hawkers and restaurants are either hiking their food prices or cutting down their food preparation cost. Neither is good for us as consumers. Well, we will need to eat everyday. So, what can we do ?
Learning how to cook can help to ease some inflation burden while helping you to de-stress yourself. I find cooking helpful in releasing your tension especially when you do your cooking during the weekends.
Learning how to cook is easy. Learning how to cook your favourite Malaysian food is especially important especially when you are in some foreign land. I have picked up some cookings tips and figure out some recipes from the following websites.
http://www.deliciousasianfood.com/
http://myhomerecipe.com/
http://imbinitchy.blogspot.com
http://steamykitchen.com/
http://www.rasamalaysia.com
Want to taste my cooking ? I am planning to run a pot luck at my place, anyone joining ?
Learning how to cook can help to ease some inflation burden while helping you to de-stress yourself. I find cooking helpful in releasing your tension especially when you do your cooking during the weekends.
Learning how to cook is easy. Learning how to cook your favourite Malaysian food is especially important especially when you are in some foreign land. I have picked up some cookings tips and figure out some recipes from the following websites.
http://www.deliciousasianfood.com/
http://myhomerecipe.com/
http://imbinitchy.blogspot.com
http://steamykitchen.com/
http://www.rasamalaysia.com
Want to taste my cooking ? I am planning to run a pot luck at my place, anyone joining ?
Friday, August 1, 2008
Addendum: Inflation, BLR, OPR, FD Rates
Bank Negara has just published their latest report on Malaysian economy. As per my previous entry on inflation and real FD return rates, I would give you a clearer picture depicted from the BNM report. Picture is worth more than thousand words,:).
Real FD return rates is decreasing since Sept 07'.
MYR is depreciating against major currencies since early of the year.
So , what are going to do with your Fixed Deposit in Ringgit Malaysia? :).
*all images above are cannibalised from BNM's latest report
Real FD return rates is decreasing since Sept 07'.
MYR is depreciating against major currencies since early of the year.
So , what are going to do with your Fixed Deposit in Ringgit Malaysia? :).
*all images above are cannibalised from BNM's latest report
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Looking for true friends in city
It's hard to get true friends in the city, especially when you have started your working life. You can't appreciate the meaning of true friends anywhere better than the city.
I had a friend who stays close to my hostel room during the university days. We were quite close to each other back then as I always dropped by his room for casual chats. We nearly lost touch after graduated as both of us are busy traveling and working. (there is no Facebook yet back then) However, I tried contacting him a year after we graduated. The conversation sounds like this:
Me: Hey, brother, how are you doing?
My friend: I am fine. How about you?
Me: I am fine too. Just thought of catching up with you, have time for a cup of tea?
My friend: Sure, but what you want to SELL to me?
Me: Huh? SELL to you? I am not selling anything to you, just catch up with you and have a gathering.
My friend: Sure or not? You are the first person who told me this after graduated.
Me: .............................................
It's not hard to come across "long-lost" friends who calls you for a "tea-session". I have friends who calls me up to introduce insurance plan, MLM, "investment-link", credit cards, mortgage plan, Iraq dinars, fitness membership (by the way,i heard YogaZone got into trouble lately), get-rich-quick scheme, discount vouchers, magazine subscriptions etc., you name it. Some called me for help to ease their cash flow problems or borrow my car for emergencies. I gave in most of the time. Everyone needs a rice bowl to survive in this city. If you can help your friends not at your expense, why not ? This explains why I had applied more than 10 credit cards.(which most of them I had canceled to date)
City is a cold place. Leaving your hometown for opportunities in the city can be depressing especially if you do not have true friends in your city life. Your parents and siblings are not there to give you a listening ear or a helping hand. Coping with city and working stress alone is definitely not easy.
"无事不登三宝殿" (wu2 shi4 bu4 deng1 san1 bao3 dian4, it means people don't look for you without a reason). I can truly appreciate this Chinese proverb now which existed since 5000 years back. 90-95 % of your friends are mostly "business-related" . It's a norm as everyone in city fights for survival and might not have much time for you on non-beneficial activities. I am fortunate to have a few true friends which consists of my ex-classmates, ex-house mates, ex-uni mates, ex-colleagues and CG (cell group) members. I appreciate them a lot for their support, listening ears and helping hands in needy times. So , how can you get true friends in the city?
1. True friends shares similar values
You might might share different stories with true friends but you always find it interesting to listen to their stories. You might not have the same dream and vision but you are always keen to know how they think.
2. True friends tells you the truth
Conversation with friends tend to be superficial especially in city. There is typical two types of answers when they are asked about their current life. "Business is extremely good and life is great like never before" or "I am not as good as you la" . True friends shares their success and struggles with you.
3. True friends thinks of you when they need someone to listen to
I give "platinum status" to all my true friends. I never cease listening to their problems and trouble, because I felt privileged to be the first group of people they think of when they need someone to talk to.
4. True friends thinks of you when they have something nice to share
Be it a nice dumpling or home cooked dessert, they always call you up to share nice things with you.
I always encourage my friends to join my CG(cell group). One of the reason I liked my cell group a lot is because most of us comes from foreign states. We share the same feeling of not having our family members around, we share the same stress of coping with city life.
True friends can be found in groups of people with same hobby or ideology as well. You can find a true friend even in the driving range. You might also meet a true friend during a back-packing tour. True friends can even be found from blogsphere as you might share the same ideology,passion and values with other bloggers.
Last but not least, business partners can also be true friends if both parties are not selfish in nature. Anyway, you do not want to have a selfish business partner, right?
To all my true friends, i dedicate this post to you,:).
I had a friend who stays close to my hostel room during the university days. We were quite close to each other back then as I always dropped by his room for casual chats. We nearly lost touch after graduated as both of us are busy traveling and working. (there is no Facebook yet back then) However, I tried contacting him a year after we graduated. The conversation sounds like this:
Me: Hey, brother, how are you doing?
My friend: I am fine. How about you?
Me: I am fine too. Just thought of catching up with you, have time for a cup of tea?
My friend: Sure, but what you want to SELL to me?
Me: Huh? SELL to you? I am not selling anything to you, just catch up with you and have a gathering.
My friend: Sure or not? You are the first person who told me this after graduated.
Me: .............................................
It's not hard to come across "long-lost" friends who calls you for a "tea-session". I have friends who calls me up to introduce insurance plan, MLM, "investment-link", credit cards, mortgage plan, Iraq dinars, fitness membership (by the way,i heard YogaZone got into trouble lately), get-rich-quick scheme, discount vouchers, magazine subscriptions etc., you name it. Some called me for help to ease their cash flow problems or borrow my car for emergencies. I gave in most of the time. Everyone needs a rice bowl to survive in this city. If you can help your friends not at your expense, why not ? This explains why I had applied more than 10 credit cards.(which most of them I had canceled to date)
City is a cold place. Leaving your hometown for opportunities in the city can be depressing especially if you do not have true friends in your city life. Your parents and siblings are not there to give you a listening ear or a helping hand. Coping with city and working stress alone is definitely not easy.
"无事不登三宝殿" (wu2 shi4 bu4 deng1 san1 bao3 dian4, it means people don't look for you without a reason). I can truly appreciate this Chinese proverb now which existed since 5000 years back. 90-95 % of your friends are mostly "business-related" . It's a norm as everyone in city fights for survival and might not have much time for you on non-beneficial activities. I am fortunate to have a few true friends which consists of my ex-classmates, ex-house mates, ex-uni mates, ex-colleagues and CG (cell group) members. I appreciate them a lot for their support, listening ears and helping hands in needy times. So , how can you get true friends in the city?
1. True friends shares similar values
You might might share different stories with true friends but you always find it interesting to listen to their stories. You might not have the same dream and vision but you are always keen to know how they think.
2. True friends tells you the truth
Conversation with friends tend to be superficial especially in city. There is typical two types of answers when they are asked about their current life. "Business is extremely good and life is great like never before" or "I am not as good as you la" . True friends shares their success and struggles with you.
3. True friends thinks of you when they need someone to listen to
I give "platinum status" to all my true friends. I never cease listening to their problems and trouble, because I felt privileged to be the first group of people they think of when they need someone to talk to.
4. True friends thinks of you when they have something nice to share
Be it a nice dumpling or home cooked dessert, they always call you up to share nice things with you.
I always encourage my friends to join my CG(cell group). One of the reason I liked my cell group a lot is because most of us comes from foreign states. We share the same feeling of not having our family members around, we share the same stress of coping with city life.
True friends can be found in groups of people with same hobby or ideology as well. You can find a true friend even in the driving range. You might also meet a true friend during a back-packing tour. True friends can even be found from blogsphere as you might share the same ideology,passion and values with other bloggers.
Last but not least, business partners can also be true friends if both parties are not selfish in nature. Anyway, you do not want to have a selfish business partner, right?
To all my true friends, i dedicate this post to you,:).
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
The Wish List
I love to be young. I am easily satisfied during my younger days. I am delighted when I got my first mountain bike, overjoyed when I bought my first car using my hard-earned money during university days. It's very hard to describe my joy in words. However, I am supposed to celebrate joyfully upon settling my home loan last year but I wasn't really overjoyed. The only feeling I had was, relieved.
One of the hardest thing to to overcome in city is temptation, and one of the hardest thing to achieve is satisfaction. I have to admit human are greedy in nature but temptation makes it even harder for people to survive happily in the city. I can still recall vividly that the best ice-cream in my hometown were Walls and Nestle. (FYI, my hometown is a small town with a population of about 100,000). There is no Hagen Dazz, Baskins, NZ Natural, you name it. Peer pressure makes it hard for you not to taste them, especially if you are a young working middle class. What makes it worse is that once you have tasted them, you will never be able to appreciate Walls and Nestle again. Life is hard, our decisions are always contradicting, huh?
To satisfy all your needs, you will have to earn more. Some chose 0 % payment scheme to satisfy their needs while some work day and night just to afford higher taste. I knew this will never end. I knew I couldn't afford everything I wanted. I came out with a solution for myself, a wish list.
My wish list is supposed to make myself happy in every milestone of my life while helping me to control my spending habits. Some milestone were based on accumulated wealth while some were based on personal achievements. The wish list is meant to be a reward scheme to make my family and myself happy especially when I have achieved certain milestone. Wish list is also a way to drive myself harder to achieve something in life in order to enjoy the carrots.
I will probably share my wish list as snippets in future entries. If you are finding yourself in a dilemma to own something you wanted a lot, create a wish list. You will be happier, someday.
One of the hardest thing to to overcome in city is temptation, and one of the hardest thing to achieve is satisfaction. I have to admit human are greedy in nature but temptation makes it even harder for people to survive happily in the city. I can still recall vividly that the best ice-cream in my hometown were Walls and Nestle. (FYI, my hometown is a small town with a population of about 100,000). There is no Hagen Dazz, Baskins, NZ Natural, you name it. Peer pressure makes it hard for you not to taste them, especially if you are a young working middle class. What makes it worse is that once you have tasted them, you will never be able to appreciate Walls and Nestle again. Life is hard, our decisions are always contradicting, huh?
To satisfy all your needs, you will have to earn more. Some chose 0 % payment scheme to satisfy their needs while some work day and night just to afford higher taste. I knew this will never end. I knew I couldn't afford everything I wanted. I came out with a solution for myself, a wish list.
My wish list is supposed to make myself happy in every milestone of my life while helping me to control my spending habits. Some milestone were based on accumulated wealth while some were based on personal achievements. The wish list is meant to be a reward scheme to make my family and myself happy especially when I have achieved certain milestone. Wish list is also a way to drive myself harder to achieve something in life in order to enjoy the carrots.
I will probably share my wish list as snippets in future entries. If you are finding yourself in a dilemma to own something you wanted a lot, create a wish list. You will be happier, someday.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Snippet: Leapwalking.com
Career development is very crucial for every one to survive in the city. I have not been focusing much on career development thoughts. My friend, Boon, has a great blog that focuses on career development with analytical views on various career related issues. Visit his website at http://www.leapwalking.com You will surely benefit a lot from his advice.
Having a mentor at different stages of your life
I am learning to appreciate things I have learned in the past as I get older. I am an engineer by training. However, I started appreciating finance at the age of 21. I moved on to history, geography and now economics. When I was young, I couldn't understand why people did their PhD in history. It was boring to me. At different stages of life, you learn to appreciate the usefulness of different knowledge domains and starts to apply them in your daily life.
Having a mentor at early stage of your working life helps you to appreciate these faster and easier. I had started to have mentors after entering university. My first mentor Dr. Ewe gave me advice on entrepreneurship when I started my first techo-venture at age of 18 . I learned a lot from how to lure venture capitalist, striking an elevator pitch to writing professional business plan in the early days of my university life. I thanked Dr. Ewe for his enthusiasm and guidance in bringing up the future generations of technoprenuer in Malaysia.
During the final years of my university life, I met Mr. Yap, an ED of a public listed company in Malaysia. He was kind enough to mentor me on starting up new companies and running a profitable business. I had a great lesson on startup essentials and know-how on maintaining a successful business cycle. I thank him for his patience with a young punk like me.
I met my ex-CFO, Mr. Chew, who was also a Finance Controller in a listed company years later. Cool and quiet person, he is a great mentor in guiding me on financial management and stock market investment. Having graduated from engineering studies, financial management is a total stranger to me. I started learning about the basics of financial management from my cool mentor when we got closer in a trip to Ipoh. I continue to learn about ways to control operational cost as well as to increase company's profits from a financial standpoint. Terms such as technical analysis and fundamental analysis were added to my dictionary throughout the mentoring process. I was trained to be a shrewed investor. I wouldn't say I am a financial expert now but my financial knowledge are much superior than my university peers thanks to Mr. Chew. I opened my first CDS account after knowing him and my stocks portfolio has been multiplied by 800 % since then.
Ms. Lee and late Elder Cheng were my spiritual mentors. Their guidance and teachings has kept me walking in a righteous path throughout my career and life. Being successful in your life without ethics leads to emptiness. I thank them for planting ethics and God's word in my life.
Good mentors are important in shaping your thinking and character. They fill your innocent mind with useful tips and advice which can be applied for lifetime to make you a better person. I could never imagined myself to be what I am today when I moved from a small town to the big city of Kuala Lumpur. My mentors gave me substantial survival skills to survive in a city. I certainly hope I could mentor the younger generation someday.
Having a mentor at early stage of your working life helps you to appreciate these faster and easier. I had started to have mentors after entering university. My first mentor Dr. Ewe gave me advice on entrepreneurship when I started my first techo-venture at age of 18 . I learned a lot from how to lure venture capitalist, striking an elevator pitch to writing professional business plan in the early days of my university life. I thanked Dr. Ewe for his enthusiasm and guidance in bringing up the future generations of technoprenuer in Malaysia.
During the final years of my university life, I met Mr. Yap, an ED of a public listed company in Malaysia. He was kind enough to mentor me on starting up new companies and running a profitable business. I had a great lesson on startup essentials and know-how on maintaining a successful business cycle. I thank him for his patience with a young punk like me.
I met my ex-CFO, Mr. Chew, who was also a Finance Controller in a listed company years later. Cool and quiet person, he is a great mentor in guiding me on financial management and stock market investment. Having graduated from engineering studies, financial management is a total stranger to me. I started learning about the basics of financial management from my cool mentor when we got closer in a trip to Ipoh. I continue to learn about ways to control operational cost as well as to increase company's profits from a financial standpoint. Terms such as technical analysis and fundamental analysis were added to my dictionary throughout the mentoring process. I was trained to be a shrewed investor. I wouldn't say I am a financial expert now but my financial knowledge are much superior than my university peers thanks to Mr. Chew. I opened my first CDS account after knowing him and my stocks portfolio has been multiplied by 800 % since then.
Ms. Lee and late Elder Cheng were my spiritual mentors. Their guidance and teachings has kept me walking in a righteous path throughout my career and life. Being successful in your life without ethics leads to emptiness. I thank them for planting ethics and God's word in my life.
Good mentors are important in shaping your thinking and character. They fill your innocent mind with useful tips and advice which can be applied for lifetime to make you a better person. I could never imagined myself to be what I am today when I moved from a small town to the big city of Kuala Lumpur. My mentors gave me substantial survival skills to survive in a city. I certainly hope I could mentor the younger generation someday.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Working Overseas & Migration: Are you in?
If you are below 30s, something must have crossed your mind before. Migration. It's the trend for the young working adults now and the trend is spreading virally.
I used to hear stories about my relatives and friend's parents working in foreign countries during the 80s. Many of them migrated and some came back during the late 90s. The favourites are Australia, New Zealand, Japan, US, UK, Singapore, Canada and Saudi Arabia. The rich ones will uproot their family and migrate to developed countries while the poorer ones simply work in countries that can provide them with more income. In the 80s, economic instability and currency conversion rate was the driving factor for the migration wave. Today, the economic factor is still present but there are more reasons behind this new wave.
12 of my friends have left to other countries this year. Also, I am seconded lately with my family to work in MENA region. Officially, I am an expatriate now, :). 4 of my other friends are leaving by August. There are more to go. Different reasons are cited by my friends for leaving the country. Why the migration and job secondment wave is hitting Generation X in Malaysia?
1. Air Asia Factor
Low cost air carrier or better known as Air Asia in Malaysia makes it possible for middle-class or even lower-middle class to travel by air. I used to envy my friends during my school days when they tell me about their traveling experiences. I used to imagine how the air cabin looks like but my maiden flight was way below my expectation. My parents used to tell me that if I want to fly to other countries, I will need to earn a lot or join a good company. Air Asia changes everything. The air-traveling landscape has changed much since the millennium. Many Generation X had the chance to travel at least to nearby countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar and Hong Kong to experience a different culture and lifestyle. I am blessed to be able to set foot on 16 different countries. After observing the culture and lifestyle of different people around the world, many just have the impulsive thought of spending a year or two in some foreign land. Yes, we want to see the world, and feel it. Low-cost air carrier has opened our eyes to the world and we want more now. We want to experience a different place rather than visiting. Air Asia has also given many a good reason to fly back to their homeland more frequently, taking away the concerns of losing touch with friends and family.
2. Diminishing of national pride
Nationalism started since the 19th century, marking the end of imperialism. Enterprises and businesses used to be indirect tools for new imperialism but is slowly fading away now. In the past, people worked hard for their country to "conquer" the world with their products and businesses. Malaysian Proton bought Italian Augusta which is sold to the Germans now. Americans are selling Budweiser to Belgian brewers and GE Plastics to Saudi Arabians. American owned Jaguar is sold to Indian TATA now. It's hard to distinguish who owns what now but the new owner will always try to impose control by swapping the senior managements. Today, you are not sure who you work for anymore. You might be working for a Malaysian company, which is later sold to the Italians and later to Middle Easterners. Today, you feel less proud of your country and other peoples country. Vietnam, China and India are growing economies but you will not feel proud to be their citizen. Of course, with what's happening lately, you feel less proud of being a Malaysian now. Many used to chase the American Dream, but the Green Card's demand is getting lesser now. Today, people care lesser about working and contributing in and for their homeland. Money, security and personal experiences comes before nation building.
3. Wide-spread of User-Friendly Communication Technology
Call any Malaysian number using www.flekx.com and it cost you nothing. Communications cost is zeroing now. I still remember having pen-pals from Finland when I was 13. Ask any 13-year-old teenager today and they will tell you to socialise in Facebook. We are changing our communication tool from letter-writing to telegraph to phones to internet voice calls and now to video calls. The classic verse to end an overseas phone conversation used to be, "we have talked too long and it's getting expensive, guess i need to end the call now". Today, our conversation end like this,"my ear is hot liao la, bye bye". The advancement of communication technology has brought everyone closer. People are less concerned about communication problems after leaving their homeland. Even Indonesian maids can afford to call back everyday now.
4. Rising Education Levels
Our parents used to be proud of having HSC or Diploma certification. Anyone who graduated from university will leave their name on the ancestors association's wall of fame. This is not the case for today's education. Throw a pebble and it might hit an undergrad on the street. The rising of education levels has 2 major effects in driving the migration rate. First, it's harder to get a job now. Second, your knowledge and skill sets can be deployed anywhere in the world. Salary scales has been quite stagnant for the past 10 years. It's getting harder to look for a decent-paying job now as compared to 10 years ago. Graduates are forced to work with lower wages as they do not have much options. Experienced expertise and knowledge workers will look for decent paying jobs in overseas to make their experiences worthwhile.
5. Historical Mirror Factor on socio-politics
Politics. Be it Anwar or Najib, TDM or Pak Lah, all we want is a foresighted leader, a prosperity-and-security-conscious leader. We studied Sejarah (history) from Form 1 to Form 5. What has the history taught us? History told us that Philippines and Indonesia are stronger and more powerful than Malaysia. Riau and Sulu Empire used to conquer the "Kepulauan Melayu". Their currency is much stronger in the 80s and 90s compared to what is today. Reformation and chaotic politics has brought down the nation. Political chaos has inflicted burdensome socio-economic problems. We have a very close mirror to predict what will be happening soon to Malaysia if the political problems doesn't end. As what Sun Tzu says, "Fleeing" is the best option.
6. Globalisation of Developing Economy
I have just finish reading the book, "The World is Flat", by Thomas L. Friedman. Globalisation is affecting your daily life whether you like it or not. Many Malaysian companies are venturing to less developed countries to fight for survival. One of my friend is seconded to Cambodia as Financial Controller for a listed company in Malaysia. He is still below 30, this is a great opportunity for him to gain his experience as an FC. Globalisation has given opportunities for many Malaysian companies to venture out. As a result, many young working adults are given the opportunity to prove themselves at young age, as the more experienced group in their 40s has more family obligations and considerations. Given a chance to be a country manager at age of 28, would you go to a less-developed country to venture your career?
There are far more reasons than the ones mentioned above for people to leave their homeland. Be it a migration or secondment, survival is what you need in a new environment. I will talk more about surviving in a new city with a different culture,language and lifestyle in future entries. If you have some time spare, do vote for my migration question on the sidebar, "Given a chance to be in senior management at 28, would you go to a less-developed country to venture your career?"
Good luck to all my friends who decided to venture out.
I used to hear stories about my relatives and friend's parents working in foreign countries during the 80s. Many of them migrated and some came back during the late 90s. The favourites are Australia, New Zealand, Japan, US, UK, Singapore, Canada and Saudi Arabia. The rich ones will uproot their family and migrate to developed countries while the poorer ones simply work in countries that can provide them with more income. In the 80s, economic instability and currency conversion rate was the driving factor for the migration wave. Today, the economic factor is still present but there are more reasons behind this new wave.
12 of my friends have left to other countries this year. Also, I am seconded lately with my family to work in MENA region. Officially, I am an expatriate now, :). 4 of my other friends are leaving by August. There are more to go. Different reasons are cited by my friends for leaving the country. Why the migration and job secondment wave is hitting Generation X in Malaysia?
1. Air Asia Factor
Low cost air carrier or better known as Air Asia in Malaysia makes it possible for middle-class or even lower-middle class to travel by air. I used to envy my friends during my school days when they tell me about their traveling experiences. I used to imagine how the air cabin looks like but my maiden flight was way below my expectation. My parents used to tell me that if I want to fly to other countries, I will need to earn a lot or join a good company. Air Asia changes everything. The air-traveling landscape has changed much since the millennium. Many Generation X had the chance to travel at least to nearby countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar and Hong Kong to experience a different culture and lifestyle. I am blessed to be able to set foot on 16 different countries. After observing the culture and lifestyle of different people around the world, many just have the impulsive thought of spending a year or two in some foreign land. Yes, we want to see the world, and feel it. Low-cost air carrier has opened our eyes to the world and we want more now. We want to experience a different place rather than visiting. Air Asia has also given many a good reason to fly back to their homeland more frequently, taking away the concerns of losing touch with friends and family.
2. Diminishing of national pride
Nationalism started since the 19th century, marking the end of imperialism. Enterprises and businesses used to be indirect tools for new imperialism but is slowly fading away now. In the past, people worked hard for their country to "conquer" the world with their products and businesses. Malaysian Proton bought Italian Augusta which is sold to the Germans now. Americans are selling Budweiser to Belgian brewers and GE Plastics to Saudi Arabians. American owned Jaguar is sold to Indian TATA now. It's hard to distinguish who owns what now but the new owner will always try to impose control by swapping the senior managements. Today, you are not sure who you work for anymore. You might be working for a Malaysian company, which is later sold to the Italians and later to Middle Easterners. Today, you feel less proud of your country and other peoples country. Vietnam, China and India are growing economies but you will not feel proud to be their citizen. Of course, with what's happening lately, you feel less proud of being a Malaysian now. Many used to chase the American Dream, but the Green Card's demand is getting lesser now. Today, people care lesser about working and contributing in and for their homeland. Money, security and personal experiences comes before nation building.
3. Wide-spread of User-Friendly Communication Technology
Call any Malaysian number using www.flekx.com and it cost you nothing. Communications cost is zeroing now. I still remember having pen-pals from Finland when I was 13. Ask any 13-year-old teenager today and they will tell you to socialise in Facebook. We are changing our communication tool from letter-writing to telegraph to phones to internet voice calls and now to video calls. The classic verse to end an overseas phone conversation used to be, "we have talked too long and it's getting expensive, guess i need to end the call now". Today, our conversation end like this,"my ear is hot liao la, bye bye". The advancement of communication technology has brought everyone closer. People are less concerned about communication problems after leaving their homeland. Even Indonesian maids can afford to call back everyday now.
4. Rising Education Levels
Our parents used to be proud of having HSC or Diploma certification. Anyone who graduated from university will leave their name on the ancestors association's wall of fame. This is not the case for today's education. Throw a pebble and it might hit an undergrad on the street. The rising of education levels has 2 major effects in driving the migration rate. First, it's harder to get a job now. Second, your knowledge and skill sets can be deployed anywhere in the world. Salary scales has been quite stagnant for the past 10 years. It's getting harder to look for a decent-paying job now as compared to 10 years ago. Graduates are forced to work with lower wages as they do not have much options. Experienced expertise and knowledge workers will look for decent paying jobs in overseas to make their experiences worthwhile.
5. Historical Mirror Factor on socio-politics
Politics. Be it Anwar or Najib, TDM or Pak Lah, all we want is a foresighted leader, a prosperity-and-security-conscious leader. We studied Sejarah (history) from Form 1 to Form 5. What has the history taught us? History told us that Philippines and Indonesia are stronger and more powerful than Malaysia. Riau and Sulu Empire used to conquer the "Kepulauan Melayu". Their currency is much stronger in the 80s and 90s compared to what is today. Reformation and chaotic politics has brought down the nation. Political chaos has inflicted burdensome socio-economic problems. We have a very close mirror to predict what will be happening soon to Malaysia if the political problems doesn't end. As what Sun Tzu says, "Fleeing" is the best option.
6. Globalisation of Developing Economy
I have just finish reading the book, "The World is Flat", by Thomas L. Friedman. Globalisation is affecting your daily life whether you like it or not. Many Malaysian companies are venturing to less developed countries to fight for survival. One of my friend is seconded to Cambodia as Financial Controller for a listed company in Malaysia. He is still below 30, this is a great opportunity for him to gain his experience as an FC. Globalisation has given opportunities for many Malaysian companies to venture out. As a result, many young working adults are given the opportunity to prove themselves at young age, as the more experienced group in their 40s has more family obligations and considerations. Given a chance to be a country manager at age of 28, would you go to a less-developed country to venture your career?
There are far more reasons than the ones mentioned above for people to leave their homeland. Be it a migration or secondment, survival is what you need in a new environment. I will talk more about surviving in a new city with a different culture,language and lifestyle in future entries. If you have some time spare, do vote for my migration question on the sidebar, "Given a chance to be in senior management at 28, would you go to a less-developed country to venture your career?"
Good luck to all my friends who decided to venture out.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Enhancing Value of Your Neighbourhood
I stay in Puchong. This year marks the 10th anniversary of my stay as a Puchongnite.
When I made my decision to own my house in Puchong 6 years back, it's was really tough to tell people that you actually bought a house in Puchong. Back then, it makes you look stupid investing in a place full of mining pool and shady shoplots-some are even renovated into dodgy pubs. IOI mall has so many vacant lots and their anchor tenant, The Store, could not even survive. Many asked me why I bought a place in such areas (a.k.a low-class-area). Many recommended Subang USJ to me at that time. My answer was simple, without help from anyone, how can you afford to own a landed property in Klang Valley after working for only 2 years?
I have never stayed in a strata property before in my life-time (my entire hometown has only 2 blocks of residential apartments) and I came from a foreign state where landed freehold properties are halved the price of Klang Valley's. It's really tough to make a decision to own a relatively expensive piece of property in the early days of your working life. However, I knew I wanted a freehold, mining-free, gated landed property in Klang Valley and the properties that fits into the category are getting scarce day by day.
Setting price factor aside, one of the reason I bought a place in Puchong instead of Subang is because Puchong has plenty of land. You might be surprise with this reason as it contradicts with the normal rule of economics where scarcity increases the value of goods. I knew about this, I know Puchong's property value might not appreciate fast. However, when I look at Subang from Google Earth, the entire area was very well planned with little space for roads and highways. Most of the land are built with landed properties and you hardly see any vacant land plots on the map. The Subang's population will be saturated and the commercial properties are not doing well here. Subang is definitely a no no for me to stay as I hate traffic jams. On the other hand, a future city with vacant lands gives the future city mayor a chance to plan for a better city. I always tell my friends that Puchong will be a bigger city compared to Subang in years to come. I chose Puchong.
Some of my major concerns when buying a house during my early 20s:
For sure, you do not want to stay close to foreign labours, drug addicts or prostitutes. Also, you want your next generation to study with other kids who are brought up in a good family. The question now would be, how can you be sure about your neighbourhood when you are buying a newly developed property.(the neighbourhood has not been established yet).
Of course price factor does come into the picture, but we have to take price factor aside in this discussion. (or I will just stay in Kenny Hills) My best friend bought the same area two years after me and we started to promote Puchong to friends. Most of our university mates are working as professionals now and I ended up having most of my university friends staying in Puchong now. I am very surprised as my housing area are now occupied by doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, professors, lecturers etc. Even better, 10 % of them came from my hometown and many of them came from my home state. I am satisfied with my neighbourhood now as everyone are very co-operative and we have a very good security management.
A peaceful and friendly neighbourhood greatly enhances the pleasure of your stay in a particular housing area. A good neighbourhood also increases the value of your housing area indirectly. It is therefore important to do your part to create a pleasurable neighbourhood. Some of the things my residential committee and neighbours does:
I love Puchong.
When I made my decision to own my house in Puchong 6 years back, it's was really tough to tell people that you actually bought a house in Puchong. Back then, it makes you look stupid investing in a place full of mining pool and shady shoplots-some are even renovated into dodgy pubs. IOI mall has so many vacant lots and their anchor tenant, The Store, could not even survive. Many asked me why I bought a place in such areas (a.k.a low-class-area). Many recommended Subang USJ to me at that time. My answer was simple, without help from anyone, how can you afford to own a landed property in Klang Valley after working for only 2 years?
I have never stayed in a strata property before in my life-time (my entire hometown has only 2 blocks of residential apartments) and I came from a foreign state where landed freehold properties are halved the price of Klang Valley's. It's really tough to make a decision to own a relatively expensive piece of property in the early days of your working life. However, I knew I wanted a freehold, mining-free, gated landed property in Klang Valley and the properties that fits into the category are getting scarce day by day.
Setting price factor aside, one of the reason I bought a place in Puchong instead of Subang is because Puchong has plenty of land. You might be surprise with this reason as it contradicts with the normal rule of economics where scarcity increases the value of goods. I knew about this, I know Puchong's property value might not appreciate fast. However, when I look at Subang from Google Earth, the entire area was very well planned with little space for roads and highways. Most of the land are built with landed properties and you hardly see any vacant land plots on the map. The Subang's population will be saturated and the commercial properties are not doing well here. Subang is definitely a no no for me to stay as I hate traffic jams. On the other hand, a future city with vacant lands gives the future city mayor a chance to plan for a better city. I always tell my friends that Puchong will be a bigger city compared to Subang in years to come. I chose Puchong.
Some of my major concerns when buying a house during my early 20s:
- Price & Budget
- Crime Rate & Security
- Neighbourhood
- Landed, Tin-Mining-Free, Freehold
Of course price factor does come into the picture, but we have to take price factor aside in this discussion. (or I will just stay in Kenny Hills) My best friend bought the same area two years after me and we started to promote Puchong to friends. Most of our university mates are working as professionals now and I ended up having most of my university friends staying in Puchong now. I am very surprised as my housing area are now occupied by doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, professors, lecturers etc. Even better, 10 % of them came from my hometown and many of them came from my home state. I am satisfied with my neighbourhood now as everyone are very co-operative and we have a very good security management.
A peaceful and friendly neighbourhood greatly enhances the pleasure of your stay in a particular housing area. A good neighbourhood also increases the value of your housing area indirectly. It is therefore important to do your part to create a pleasurable neighbourhood. Some of the things my residential committee and neighbours does:
- Pay security management timely
- Keep the roads clean
- Organise seasonal events
- Alert every residents on any burglary cases within the neighbourhood
- Alerts the security when suspicious foreign labour found wandering around (they climbed over fences sometimes for shortcuts, as what they claim)
- Do not simply park their car outside your house (it's very annoying, and part of the reason being, a young neighbourhood generally has less cars)
I love Puchong.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Should we change our lifestyle?
"Change your lifestyle!" This is what the government urges Malaysians to practice during this everything-is-going-up era. Personally, I don't agree with this statement. What does it mean by changing your lifestyle? Let me give you some example:
1. Instead of eating fragrant rice, change to brittle rice.
2. Instead of driving your car, ride a bike.(with no bicycle/motorcycle lanes on trunk roads)
3. Less movies, more RTMs & TV3s(or pirate DVDs)
4. Less Starbucks and mamak, make your own coffee
5. Buy less books and papers, view online (how about poor people who don't even have broadband?)
6. No Baskins/ HagenDazs, consume low quality ice cream with more chemical and trans-fat
7. Less fresh food , more canned food
8. Less overseas vacation, more Cuti-cuti Malaysia (becoming a frog in the well)
9. Use RON 95 instead of RON 97 petrol, take in more sulfur dioxide.
10. And many more downgrades.......
Come on. Everyone can downgrade, but we do not want to be forced to downgrade. Philippines has better standard of living compared to Malaysia 30 years back. What happened now? Yes, they downgraded their standard of living. They flee their countries too, working in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Middle East etc. Do we want that to happen to us Malaysians?
We have been enjoying 20 years of prosperity from rich natural resources which is going to be drained out very soon. What's more left for us ? Nope, we don't have world-class Malaysian owned technology, product or knowledge. This leaves us with nothing. All that we can do is to CHANGE and DOWNGRADE our lifestyle! What else we can do? I will share on my thoughts about how we can maintain our lifestyle while going through this tough time in next entry. :) Leave your comments!
1. Instead of eating fragrant rice, change to brittle rice.
2. Instead of driving your car, ride a bike.(with no bicycle/motorcycle lanes on trunk roads)
3. Less movies, more RTMs & TV3s(or pirate DVDs)
4. Less Starbucks and mamak, make your own coffee
5. Buy less books and papers, view online (how about poor people who don't even have broadband?)
6. No Baskins/ HagenDazs, consume low quality ice cream with more chemical and trans-fat
7. Less fresh food , more canned food
8. Less overseas vacation, more Cuti-cuti Malaysia (becoming a frog in the well)
9. Use RON 95 instead of RON 97 petrol, take in more sulfur dioxide.
10. And many more downgrades.......
Come on. Everyone can downgrade, but we do not want to be forced to downgrade. Philippines has better standard of living compared to Malaysia 30 years back. What happened now? Yes, they downgraded their standard of living. They flee their countries too, working in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Middle East etc. Do we want that to happen to us Malaysians?
We have been enjoying 20 years of prosperity from rich natural resources which is going to be drained out very soon. What's more left for us ? Nope, we don't have world-class Malaysian owned technology, product or knowledge. This leaves us with nothing. All that we can do is to CHANGE and DOWNGRADE our lifestyle! What else we can do? I will share on my thoughts about how we can maintain our lifestyle while going through this tough time in next entry. :) Leave your comments!
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Preparing for recession
How can you prepare for recession?
1. Keep your job. If you don't like your job, tell yourself, you just need to bite through the recession.
2. Increase income stream. You can blog, proof read, edit content, pick up more freelance jobs to decrease your debts.
3. Budget. We tend to have a mentality of "i-am-okie-as-long-as there-is-leftover-for-this-month-income'. We don't really budget our cashflow. Create one now and cut off unnecessary expenses.
4. Call up your bank to reduce interest rates if you have a property. If you bought a property 3 years back, your loan interest can be as high as 7% per annum. As banks are getting competitive now, some banks are even offering a 4.8 % per annum interest rate for the entire loan tenure. If you are still tied to a 5-year locking period loan, write to your bank to reduce your interest, a penny saved is a penny earned!
5. If your housing loan is free from locking period, REFINANCE it! HSBC offers you very competitive package now!
6. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Never always count on a single source. Diversified your investment, sources of income or even you business deals.
7. Start saving in high interest yield banks! Standard Chartered Bank offers you very competitive Flexi Deposit rates through e$aver Account !
8. Balance transfer your credit card loan to a lower interest rate bank if you have any card loan!
9. Recycle. Always purchase refill packs and use both sides of your paper. ;)
10. Indulge in small ways. Admit it, we will go crazy if saving like mad without indulging ourselves once a while. Indulge yourself in small ways. For me a Perrier with lemon after a days work makes my day!
11.Always look for vouchers. Credit cards and membership card provides hefty discounts for dining and retail. Always browse the websites for latest promotion. Why pay more for the same thing?
12.Buy and Sell in Lelong.com or Ebay. Your jacket is too small? Thinking of throwing it ? Convert it to cash! If you are thinking of purchasing a new gadget, tr to search it at auction sites. For a month or two old gadget,you can even get a 30-40% discount for the same thing.
13.Diversified your investment. Hedge your wealth. I will talk more about hedging in future. Many people do not know what to do before a recession even they anticipated it. Hedge your funds! Try investing in gold, you can open a GOLD account in Maybank, Public Bank or Ambank. Since gold price was tagging at USD600/oz few months back, I have been asking my friends to invest in gold, now it is near USD1000/oz!
14. Beware of REITS. If you invest in REITS. Pull out when recession is coming. You never know what can happen to properties during a recession. It much better to keep liquid cash.
Hedging is an interesting game. I will talk more about hedging in the next few posts. Believe me, if you play it right, you can even thrive during a recession!
1. Keep your job. If you don't like your job, tell yourself, you just need to bite through the recession.
2. Increase income stream. You can blog, proof read, edit content, pick up more freelance jobs to decrease your debts.
3. Budget. We tend to have a mentality of "i-am-okie-as-long-as there-is-leftover-for-this-month-income'. We don't really budget our cashflow. Create one now and cut off unnecessary expenses.
4. Call up your bank to reduce interest rates if you have a property. If you bought a property 3 years back, your loan interest can be as high as 7% per annum. As banks are getting competitive now, some banks are even offering a 4.8 % per annum interest rate for the entire loan tenure. If you are still tied to a 5-year locking period loan, write to your bank to reduce your interest, a penny saved is a penny earned!
5. If your housing loan is free from locking period, REFINANCE it! HSBC offers you very competitive package now!
6. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Never always count on a single source. Diversified your investment, sources of income or even you business deals.
7. Start saving in high interest yield banks! Standard Chartered Bank offers you very competitive Flexi Deposit rates through e$aver Account !
8. Balance transfer your credit card loan to a lower interest rate bank if you have any card loan!
9. Recycle. Always purchase refill packs and use both sides of your paper. ;)
10. Indulge in small ways. Admit it, we will go crazy if saving like mad without indulging ourselves once a while. Indulge yourself in small ways. For me a Perrier with lemon after a days work makes my day!
11.Always look for vouchers. Credit cards and membership card provides hefty discounts for dining and retail. Always browse the websites for latest promotion. Why pay more for the same thing?
12.Buy and Sell in Lelong.com or Ebay. Your jacket is too small? Thinking of throwing it ? Convert it to cash! If you are thinking of purchasing a new gadget, tr to search it at auction sites. For a month or two old gadget,you can even get a 30-40% discount for the same thing.
13.Diversified your investment. Hedge your wealth. I will talk more about hedging in future. Many people do not know what to do before a recession even they anticipated it. Hedge your funds! Try investing in gold, you can open a GOLD account in Maybank, Public Bank or Ambank. Since gold price was tagging at USD600/oz few months back, I have been asking my friends to invest in gold, now it is near USD1000/oz!
14. Beware of REITS. If you invest in REITS. Pull out when recession is coming. You never know what can happen to properties during a recession. It much better to keep liquid cash.
Hedging is an interesting game. I will talk more about hedging in the next few posts. Believe me, if you play it right, you can even thrive during a recession!
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