5 % Income to society and charity

Problem : I started practicing the 6 Jars financial management 2 mths ago. But I have yet to make up my mind where the money goes. I thought of MINDS first, i always believe in the power of mind. It can help us do wonders ie invention of electricity, planes, medical technology etc. But the people who are intellectually disabled, their choice or power to think properly are taken away permanently. Last Saturday, i went for the monthly voluntarily art & craft session with singapore children society. First time we got a child from MINDS, and i was assigned to take care of him, name : mike(not he's real name). He's unable to speak and likes to clap his hands. I was kinda of lost initially how do i go about teaching him ? How do I balance the attention between him and other children in my group ? It started well initially, one of boy actually partner him and take pretty good care of him. He taught mike how to count the ang bao packets needed. how to fold etc. I was amazed. After awhile, mike start to lose interest and started grabbing the scissors and staple which i kept keeping him away from those. I cant manage both him and the rest of the children at the same time as request for help. Help came and i was 1 on 1 with mike. I tried to teach him on the steps but when we complete the base of the lantern, he suddenly smashed it and tore off the base. I was like ........ a little pissed off why he do that ! but calm myself almost immediately he might not have any idea what's going on. I cant imagine what his families member are going through.

Research : 
Society for physically disabled - http://www.spd.org.sg/

Movement for the intellectually disabled of singapore - http://www.minds.org.sg

Sam's Experience : 
These organisation all seem profitable(or rather having excess) in their financial reports. I think largely contributed by government grant. I was pretty reluctant to contribute after seeing their financial reports. But if everyone have that thoughts how are they going to maintenance the daily operating cost and program/workshop cost and the space etc. Thus I made my first $50 contribution to society for phyiscally disabled. Waiting for the MINDS to get back to me on online contribution methods.

the pursuit of happyness

Heard about this movie from conrad's Wealth Academy Trader preview. 

It was base on a true story of Chirs Gardener

(from wikipedia,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Gardner)

He was a medical equipment salesman. Whose life was getting from bad to worst to terrible to horrible to miserable to sadness to helpless to .....

A pivotal moment in his life occurred, after a sales call to a San Francisco General Hospital, when he encountered an impeccably-dressed man in a red Ferrari. And asked him 2 questions,

What you do you do ?

How did you do it ?

When a man is at this lowest and bad things happen one after another again and again and again, there's 2 choices, 1)he blame the everyone else; why this have to happen to me (i did that too, why me?) 2) take responsibility and persevere (learning and practicing)

Events that happen or people you encounter happen for a reason. 

Chirs Gardener

The pursuit of happyness full movie (online streaming, take quite awhile to load though) - http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/UPy6IWjwOck/

Wishing all a weekend full of happiness !

Inspiring Stories - Ryan Lee (XMI Founder)

An inspiring story by Ryan Lee the founder of XMI, the mini speaker.

 Like some of you, i saw these speakers around in the market some time back. But didnt know it was doing so well. He started the business with $30,000 loan from his brother and another $30,000 from his american express credit card in 2006.

In the first year, company profit was $800,000. And hit $4.5million in profit for the second year. And end 2009, company hit sales record of $13.5million.


http://www.channelnewsasia.com/eyeonbusiness/features/xmi.htm

Money Management - 6 Jars

Problem : When I get to expose to wealth book, remembered the first was rich dad poor dad, who moved my cheese, secret of self-made millionaire etc. Understand the importance of saving first then spend. If you don't control and track your spending, somehow it will consume all your earning or even exceed. Flash back 5 + years ago when I was an engineer and I came across adam khoo website and downloaded a couple of excel files which he used to track his finances. I start using it and diligently update the financial statement spreedsheet. When I start to track i became conscious on my spending, and somehow my bank account was growing by the months. After about a years plus i started to get lazy and stop it totally. Before i know it, i was badly in debt. Until 2010 i started to update it again but laziness kick in again after a few days. Apart from tracking the expenses and saving. I came across a book by T Harv Eker, Secrets of the millionaire mind. I learnt another money management skills which I like it alot, called 6 Jars (how to apply it ? will speak of it briefly under the how), Both techniques I learnt and applied before but I stop. 2011 is the time to apply and live these money management skills

Why : If I dont care about my own finance, track and accountable for it, who will. Thus I have put this into the 21 days habit program. It's like running my personal finance as a business. What are the cost/expenses (food, transport, entertainment, medical, gift, grocery etc) and what are the revenue (basic salary, dividend, royalities, business, investment etc) ? what are the opportunities to create new revenues ? At the end of the day, profitability.

How : 
1) Track personal expense daily(leave a comment here if you are interested on the spreadsheet), using the excel spreadsheet or if you have iphone, you can download expenses tracking app ie(ixpenseit) http://www.ixpenseit.com/or iBearMoney (http://ibearmoney.com/)
2) 6 Jar Management
Monthly when you salary is credited to your bank account.

10 % - Financial freedom Account (used only for investments and buying or creating passive income streams. Money is never spent, only invested. Also, have a Financial Freedom Jar where you deposit money each day ($1, $10, loose change)

10 % - Play account (Use this money to nurture yourself. Use it for extra-special things in your life. The only guideline is that you must spend the money every month. Use it each month in a way that makes you feel rich!)

10% - Long Term Saving (Put 10% into your LTSS whenever you receive money, such as your salary. The money inside LTSS can be used for major expenditure such as savings for your children’s education, buying a house for yourself, keeping aside contingency funds)

10% - Education account (Set aside money for your education (school, seminars,etc.) or your child's education.)

5% - Giving (Put 5% into your Give account whenever you receive money, such as your salary. You can use the money for donations to charities, use it to help someone in need. Giving is important. If you choose to give 10%, take the extra 5% from your NEC and change the % allocated for NEC from 55% to 50%)

55% - Necessities (Put 55% into your NEC whenever you receive money, such as your salary. You should use the funds inside your Necessities account to settle all your essential bills such as phone bills, electricity, clothings, eating, driving, travelling, hair etc. If you cannot survive on 55%, simplify your lifestyle. Instead of driving a car, perhaps you can take public transport, or drive a Honda instead of a BMW. Buy Converse jeans instead of Armani. There are people who cannot live on 55% NEC when they started the JARS system but over time, these same group of people are able to simplify their lives and live on 50% or lesser!)

Sam's Experience : 
Been consistent on the expenses tracking so far, updating it daily. Started applying the 6 Jars on Nov Salary but still confuse if i should transfer the money out from the main account to individual bank account for the different Jars. For the Dec 10 Salary, using the percentage allocation, i will transfer money allocated for play, education, and necessities to another bank account as these money will likely to be consume by month end. Whatever balance, will be offset in next month transfer.

ie Dec - left with $400 balance
Jan breakdown of play, edu and necessities ie calculated to be $1000, so the transfer amount will be $1000-$400= $600 (the $400 will be credited back to financial freedom account)

3 Jan 2011, I was researching which organisation to contribute the 5% giving, didnt know that there's so many helpful organisation around in Singapore (wonder where they get the funding) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_voluntary_welfare_organisations_in_Singapore

First, i thought of red cross(http://www.redcross.org.sg) and second I thought of MINDS(http://www.minds.org.sg) people who are intellectually disabled, I believe all who are able to think properly, have a choice but not these people. Third I thought of those old folks who are sick and nobody to take care of them (no idea which organisation support them).

21 Days Habit program

Problem : There's been alot of thing i told myself that i want to change ages ago, some examples include, waking up on time when the alarm ring no snooze, read the news daily, do exercise daily, update my financial statement, clear my personal/work email daily, blog something of value daily, enforce my subconscious on things i want to achieve, so many on the list. But its always the same thing, i have the drive for a few days then i will skipped a few days then remembered and do it once or twice then down in the memories lane. Or the worst, i procrastinate then tell myself later, tml etc.

This time round is my 2nd attempt on the 21 days habit program written by celestine chua refer to the how on her blog topic on this. My first attempt was like 3 or 4 mths back whereby i want to wake up on time but fail miserably. The past few days have been different, i feel the hidden power in me to change or rather its because of the event that happened. I m able to see it positively (thanks to those books that i have reading and audio program)

From 7 habit of highly effective people and Adam khoo's teaching, We cant or have little control about things that happen to around us or to us. But we can have control of our state or thoughts, how we interpret the events that happened. ie some time back i was complaining why my boss sound so pissed and kinda harsh on his tone on why i did this and did not inform him or why you are not putting this as priority. My interpretation was, why me ? i have already tried my best to do so much why still not happy ? I have so much things on hands, it overflowing. The feeling sucks man and when i tried to explained he will says you are not listening. Yucks i m writing so much on this lol i still have bad feeling on this ?

Or the way I could interpret as he's teaching me on things i did not see and miss out. I could be more efficient and learn the technique of asking for help. He wants to groom me, why so many people out there he choose me to do it. The change of seeing it, the feeling change to positive energy !

Ok i m drifting abit far from the topic, back to the 2nd attempt on the 21 day habit program. I have wrote a list of things i want to form into a habit.

1. Read news daily
2. wake up when the alarm ring NO SNOOZE
3. Daily exercise (push up)
4. Millionaire hour daily (update financial statement)
5. Drink 2 litres of water daily

Now i m thinking should i start one at a time or all together. Looking at the above i challenge myself to do all at the same time. But this time I m going to track the result daily and update here.


Why : I want to prove to myself i can change my habit. I have the capability to achieve all these, I can achieve whatever i set myself to achieve.Why i want to openly declare this, also another technique I learn, when I declare publicity on something, it put myself on the line. If i dont do it, people will know.


How :
http://celestinechua.com/blog/cultivate-a-good-habit-in-21-days/

Sam's Experience :
One term to note : the activity or in my case activities must be performed daily, if for some reason i skipped, i have to redo everything from day 1.

Tracking

topup Paypal account 4 steps

Problem  : I want to buy something online via auction site but my paypal account doesnt have enough money.

If you are a savvy online shopper, then paypal wont be unfamiliar to you. But if you not, i would suggest making online payment via paypal especially buying from auction sites.

Lets say you bid for an item in an auction and win the bid. If you did not receive your goods or seller does not response to you. You can hold the payment payment(not sure about this) or open a dispute case.

Any reason, its easier for seller to setup payment option such as paypal compare to credit card.

Sam's Experience : If you are staying in singapore and wish to topup your paypal account, here's the steps( theres a video too but think you have to login to your paypal account to see it)

https://www.paypal.com/sg/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/Marketing/general/DBS_Topup

Pretty straight forward,
step 1 : login to your dbs/posb account.
step 2 : under payment service, select topup paypal
step 3 : enter the paypal customer reference no and confirm
step 4 : select topup and enter amount

Quotes of the day (28 Dec 2010)

when you want to do something and negative thoughts or fear arise in your head, just keep telling your mind, "I CAN, I CAN, I CAN .... " it's empowering !

Car servicing - Mitsubishi lancer Ex

Problem :My Xiao Hong aka Mitsubishi lancer Ex is long overdue for servicing. Current mileage at 87000km ++ i think. I used to do the car servicing at cycle and carriage but everytime i sent xiao hong for servicing, in my mind "its gonna be another big cost again". I dont have the records with me right now but average servicing will cost around 290+ SGD plus they will tell me this and that need to replace another few hundreds. So on average about 500+ spent. I want to look for a more competitive pricing for car servicing.

Why I want to learn it ?
If i need to do 4 servicing each year, base on the above average it will cost me 4 X 500 = $ 2000 just on servicing !

If i find another workshop that offer the same quality of service or even better at a more competitive price, ie
300+ on average, 300 X 4 = $1200
There's $800 worth of saving for other things =D

Research :
Article 

http://www.lancermotoringclub.com/showthread.php?t=17976&highlight=Kaki+Bukit
http://www.huatleeauto.sg/Services.php

Video


Podcast


Sam's experience :
Day 1 (27 Dec 10)
Had visited the lancermotoringclub few months ago to search for good workshop to service my xiao hong. Remembered that I came across a workshop that was highly recommended for good service and competitive pricing but just cant remember the name. I know it's somewhere in kaki bukit. Thus i visit the forum again and try to search for it, finally i found it. It's huat lee, visited their http://www.huatleeauto.sg/Services.php and it ring a bell in my head. (haha i remember better by pictures) Look for the contact number and wanted to make an appointment for servicing and found out that the contact is actually in my phone all this while.

Day 2 (29 De 10)
Man i procrastinate or somehow lose  my focus, only call the workshop 2 days later and found out that they are fully booked till next week. Will be going down on next Wed 5 Jan 2011 at 0930hrs

Essence

Speed reading

Problem : So much information to read every single day, from emails, SMS, message on whatsapp, facebook, books, newspaper, magazine, contract/agreement and the list goes on.

"I want to master the skill of speed reading, but i do not know how" like many others out there, I read word for word. ie the example i would read, I....want...to...master or if you think reading in your head is much faster (reference form web call it vocalization which is a subconscious habits we learn)

Imagine the amount of information you need to read every single day. For example, I take about 5 sec to read "I want to master the skill of speed reading, but i do not know how" imagine i m able to master speed reading and reduce the time taken to 2.5 sec which improve my speed of reading by 2 X ! that very powerful here's

why its important ? : ie if Sam used 2hrs each day on reading information (can be anywhere consolidated), with effective speed reading skills, he can read the same amount of information using only half the time which is 1hr.

1hrs a day
360hrs in a year ( that 15 days man!)

Now I have identified the problem and the reason why i want to solve, next ? find the solution

Here's my research
Day 1 (26 Dec 10)
http://www.mindtools.com/speedrd.html
video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPOIZ6DGXWE


Sam's experience
Day 1 (26 Dec 10)
started applying some technique with a book that was place on my desk for a long long time.
1) use my sight to read instead of word for word sub vocalisation.
2) using the technique taught by this video, finger as a index to scroll through the text and reading "1,2,3,4"

I manage to try it on 3 pages and as the video says, i wasn't able to comprehend the information but definitely the speed of reading a page significantly reduce. Practice make perfect, i will continue to try and revise accordingly.

Essence

Farmville Share links 9 Dec 2010

To Farmville friends, here's the share link for the day
3 Lonely Animals

#1

#2



Fuel Refill:

#1 

#2

#3

#4 


2 Centipede:

#1

#2



1 Rhode Island Red Mystery Egg :

#1



1 Black Foal:

#1



1 Holstein Calf:

#1


1 Baby Turkey:

#1



1 Morning Glory Bushel:

#1



1 Starfruit Tree:

#1

Farmville Egg Grab 7 Dec

1 Rhode Island Red Mystery Egg :

#1: http://apps.facebook.com/onthefarm/reward.php?frHost=565696323&frId=2u86r6itqum8sc4gokg0048oc&frType=EggFriendReward

Exhausted and consumed

Overwhelm with work again so much things to do and firefighting everyday. Operation tasks are really time consuming. Calls keep coming in throughout the day and i keep getting interrupted trying to finish up whatever i m working on in office. Sometimes it really take awhile to catch back what you are working on after the interruption. How to be effective and focus on things that really matter?

7 Habits of highly effective people - one of the habit "first thing first" (4 quadrant) its so true, the first quadrant(important & urgent) aka the firefighting task will grow massively till a point that consume the whole of you. Need to put time into quadrant 2 things that really matter and prevention.

Free Mystery Eggs

Hi guys, here's the link to the mystery eggs I gathered by visiting my farmville neighbour. Anyone know how long is the validity of the eggs, I read from some site saying it's about a day, is that true  ? I know each egg link can be claim by 5 neighbour friends.

treasured golden egg
black egg
white egg
white egg

egg 1
egg 2

Farmville Day 1 - Eggs

Dear all farmville friends,

Farmville have been around for quite some time but I only started it like 2 weeks ago. Seriously, its becoming addictive. I decided to pen down what I have learn (tips/strategies) I learnt in this blog (been dead for years =| scroll of revive casted!*!*!*!)

I m level 30 in farmville currently, well there's alot of tips in my mind that i think would be helpful to share but I need some time to pen them all down. I will started off by writing down daily question/ideas/useful tip learnt about my farmville experience.

Today I m gonna share some freebies (very useful) - Eggs there are different types of farmville eggs you can get

Type of eggs :

[to be fill]

Type of loot you get when you hatch the egg [to be fill *i just got one wind mill today that can be sold for 5000 coin hoooray =D]

How to get eggs :

1)visit your neighbour's Chicken Coop

2)click on the facebook egg link share by your friends

I m lazy to post the type of eggs, think there's a black mystery, a rhode blah blah enjoy =D

Egg 1

Egg 2

Egg 3

Egg 4

PS : To my knowledge each link only work for the first 5 person who click on it, so fastest finger win =D

And you need to be under my friend list.

Do let me know if the above work as it's my first time trying.

How to Convert to OPC car in singapore

OPC aka Off Peak Car
I bought my current mitshubi lancer-ex in Sep 2007 when I was an onsite engineer. With the transport allowance and mileage claim I decided to buy the lancer-ex

The 1.5Litres Red Colour Sport Edition Lancer-Ex cost SGD$66,488. I took a 5 year loan with monthly installment of $656

My xiao hong accompany me for a year till June 2008 which i switch my career and become a IT sales executive. The car allowance was higher this time but no more mileage claim.

In May 2009 I manage to sell myself into my dream industry the gaming industry. Start off with public transport as my job duties does not require me to travel around. I thought i could just parked xiao hong at home. But the monthly installment can be pretty huge without the car allowance. After some months, my job needs require me to drive and i started to claim for petrol and parking. Thought i will be able to balance my income but misc cost like servicing, road tax, ERP, insurance, wear and tear replacement, fines adds up to be a heavy burden. Not including the ongoing monthly insurance which i have another 2.5years to pay.

Thus I decided to either convert my car to OPC or sell it off as I wont be using it for work anymore but i would like it to be for after office hour used, weekends and holiday season.



source : http://www.lta.gov.sg/motoring_matters/motoring_vo_policynschemes_offpeak.htm#1

Blogging education part 1

Questions to get more comments interaction with readers

what you think ? how do you feel, what will you do, what's your opinion, what's your story

Very first step of creating online income - "what do you want ?" Goals/target
Somewhere i learn setting SMART Goals
* S Specific
* M Measurable
* A Attainable
* R Relevant
* T Time-bound

Sam is committed to make SGD$30,000 online by 31 Dec 2010.
SGD$30,000 equal to approximate USD$22,000
which is
$423.07 USD per week
$60.27 USD per day
$2.51 USD per hour
$0.04 USD per minutes

GOLDEN question : What do i need to do make $60.27 USD per day
1) google adsense - already register

2) nuffnang ads - already register

3) Private advertiser - get sellers contact who wish to advertise. sellings AK cards, merchandise.

4) Sell my own products - create animal kaiser guide book

5) Promote other's products - what's is relevant to my blogging topic?

source

10 things i wish i know - commenting and start networking early

8th wonder of the world - Power of Compounding

A few weeks ago I came across this article which it state "Einstein calls the "8th wonder of the world." Well upon reading that line my interest went deeper as I was aware about compounding until I read an example demonstrating the true beauty of compounding.

Article link : Power of compounding

Interesting tools - with ROI, compounding calculation : Compounding calculator

Know the rules, play the rules ERP

How many do you have to visit CBD and orchard area and going on expressway in short going to crowded places at peak hours and you have to pay for using the road. ERP(electronic road pricing)

Here's the operation hours and rates for ERP Gantries in Singapore

ERP operation & rates

source : http://www.onemotoring.com.sg

Happy Day-BM Z4 on my hand

Finally i can have my "dream car" -BMWZ4. I really feel happy to have it beside me. I m trying to drive it but it is too "small" for me...Haiz...I think i need to "keep fit" already.She is wearing a red shirt with the shinning hair make me like her so much!!!Someone who love it sure will agree with me cause too "expensive" but i still can bring her back after paying $200,000 / 5263. BMWZ4 is mine !!!

keep Burping - find the remedies

Bibi was burping just awhile ago and she kept drinking water which is suppose to work for some people. But the effect on her seem useless.

Thus some result from google search on curing burping
1) 1 cap of vingear
2) Hold your breath for as long as possible and repeat until burping is gone (work for bibi)
3) Drink lots of water