I believe all of us have read newspaper and listened to news from many sources everyday.  The economy nowadays becomes weaker due to many reasons.  From fuel price crisis, real estate industry in US to political issue .. causes the world economic slowdown.  

World economic slowdown has given a huge impact to many industries in the world.  Declining of Stock market, higher unemployement rate, recession, criminal rate increase due to increases of jobless people, bankruptcy and taken over of few major international corporation in the US (ie. Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, AIG..).  It affects us too who live in Malaysia!

In Malaysia, our Government has announced that whoever earning a monthly salary of RM2,000.00 has been categorised as a low income group.  In other words, we need to have an income of RM3,000.00 and above in order to live averagely in Malaysia.  But the question is how to increase our monthly income if our current employers do not plan to give us a wage increase in the near future due to this economic slowdown?

Look for other job with a higher pay?  I personally think that this is NOT a good solution.  Employers nowadays are trying to cut their cost to employ more staff.  If you quit your current job, you may face problem finding a job for yourself.  Besides, employer will mostly keep the old staff if there is any retrenchment happen in the company.  So the chances of new employee being retrenched from the company is higher if compared to old staff!  Not worth to take this risk if you have a lot of commitment to take care of.  

The best and only solution is to have a multiple streams of income.  Depending only on a job to finance your monthly expenses has never be enough if compared to someone who has a multiple sources of income, do you agree with me?  The reason being is that if you lose your main income one day, you still have other sources of income to support your monthly commitment eventhough it might not be your major income.  You can look for other job without hurry and not feeling panic at that critical moment.

Even if you are not the main breadwinner at home, and just want to earn some extra pocket money or to help up in the family, you too can look for other sources of income.  They are mainly students, housewives, retirees.. or anyone else who has more time to earn some “extra” money! 

Question again!  How to increase your disposable income?  I will reveal some sites where you can look for genuine part-time opportunities in Malaysia.  Do check out my next post for more information.

Lantern festival is around the corner.  It is a chinese festival celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth Chinese Lunar Calendar or 14 of August 2008 in western calendar this year!  Lantern festival is also known as Moon cake festival or Mid-autumn festival. 

Like previous year, this meaningful festival is celebrated with different types of mooncakes and lanterns with different design!  I still remembered when i was still a kid, i always look forward for this meaningful festival, as i can eat my favourite mooncakes and played with my neighbour’s friends with my lantern custom-made by my father (hehe…it was my school art project)!!!   We hung our lanterns around the fence of our houses and on the tree outside of houses, and sat on the floor covered with newspaper, sang songs together, and lighted up candles around the fence too!  At the same time, we shared our mooncakes together!  Our parents joined us too to socialise with our neighbour!  I will never forget this happy moment in my life!  My happy childhood with my neighbour friends!

In my memory, i used to have my own lantern with fish design, bird design and even batman design too (eventhough i was a little girl..)!!!  In olden days, there were lanterns made by empty can or tin, puked with holes on the side of the can and tighted with a string so that it can be carried using a stick!  I believe it still can be found nowadays especially in small rural village! 

Today, we can find many types of mooncakes in the market.  Other than tradisional baked mooncakes, there are “ping pei” mooncakes, “jelly mooncakes” ..etc with different types of filling too!  The mooncakes now cost more expensive if compared to olden days (more than RM11 per piece depending on the brand)!  So my mom decided to make her mini “ping pei” mooncakes with coconut filling today (see photo below)!  Yumyum…it is delicious!

Children in urban area nowadays are happier and have “better life”, as they have at least minimum one lantern each!  There are lantern powered by battery which cost more than RM10 for one!  It is for their safety purpose as candles are more dangerous.  Not like children in rural areas, they can only afford to buy a tradisional or handmade themselves their own lanterns.  Therefore, children should learn to appreciate what have been given by their parents!

Other events come along with this festival are informal lantern parades and guessing lantern riddles, which often contain messages of good fortune, family reunion, abundant harvest, prosperity and love.

In short, it is an ideal festival for all of us to reunite with our families and appreciate the elderly effort in bringing us to the world and flourished us with their endless loves and cares, educated us with knowledge, so that we are able to handle our lives confidently in the future and becomes what we are today!  

So now it is our turn to show our loves and cares to them too by spending our time to have dinner with them on this coming Sunday!  Trust me, our parents are happy to see us to visit and spend time with them than other physical things given to them!

Good News for this coming Hari Raya festival!!

Petaling Jaya City Council has organised a recycling campaign for this coming Ramadan bazaars in four different areas. Those who trade in three cartons of 72 empty drink packets of any brand will get one free carton of sweetened drinks in this Drink Packet Recycling Campaign.

The objective of this recycling campaign is to increase the awareness of recycling or the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) among the public. It can also help to reduce the amount of waste destined for the dumpsite during Ramadan.

The recycling campaign is started from Sept 2 to 28, and will be held at Jalan SS6/1 at Kelana Jaya, Jalan 14/28 at Section 14, Jalan PJS 2/3 at PJS 2 and Jalan Cecawi 6/19 at Section 16 in Kota Damansara on different dates respectively starting from 4pm till 7pm.

Besides, there will be a lucky draw on the last day at 6.30pm for every campaign location. Attractive prizes will be given away for three lucky winners on that meaningful day. A total of RM1,200 is up for grabs.

On top of that, there are other interesting events include the guessing competition which will reflect the 3R message. A notebook made out of recycled paper will be given to whoever brings in every five boxes of empty drink packets of any brand. While a free shopping bag will be given to those who trade in ten boxes of drink packets. However, those who manages to bring 30 cartons worth of empty drink packets will get a lucky draw ticket and 12 cartons of free drinks, and much much more…

So hurry, grab this golden opportunity to join this recycle campaign in order to help government to create an environmental-friendly place to stay!

Be reminded: Do not throw away any empty drink packets! Collect them and have fun with your rewards!

For more information on the recycling campaign, please log on to www.mbpj.gov.my

While waiting for the heavy rain to stop before rush home after work, i make used of my time to stuff my brain with current issues from today’s newspaper. 

I came across an interesting article, and wish to share with you all.

A survey has been conducted by Canadian insurer Sun Life Financial, and the results shown that Asians believe in order to retire comfortably at their early age, one must have at least 100 times of their monthly salaries in their savings.   The survey was conducted among respondents in India, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia and the Philipines.  

Indonesian is among the population who save more for their retirement, at least 345 monthly salary set aside in their reserve fund, where there was no provision for health coverage after retirement.

While most Chinese has the desire to retire early at age of 50s, if compared to Indians who see themselves retiring in their early 60s.  Chinese prefer to retire early so that they can enjoy their lives after retirement.  However, chinese ”long term” plan of early retirement is defines as only up to five years whereas for most Indians it is seen as greater than 10 years.  In other words, Indians are more well plan in their life after retirement if compared to Chinese. 

Only 36% of the population in India wish to stop working and retire early, while in China, majority of them which is 55% or more from their population plan to retire early and enjoy leisure.

In short, Chinese are looking for early retirement if compared to others, because they may think that life is too short, and wish to enjoy their lives after so many years of hard work in the workforce and wish to experience the true meaning of living in this world besides working for money to support their day to day living.

In conclusion, early retirement for everyone is possible provided you have a good plan for it.  It is advisable to seek for professional advice from license financial planner or insurance agent on your early retirement plan so that your goal for retire early can be achieved!

Honestly, are women supposed to observe an ‘expiry date’ for marriage? Is AGE the factor to determine this so called ‘expiry date’? What is the ideal age to get hitched? What happens if they fail to get married after the date? Are they supposed to rot? Or turned sour or perished?

All over the world, women dream of happy marriage, fairytale alike wedding, princess look-a-like wedding gowns, knights in shining armors charging over and sweep their feet off…*snap snap*….come back to real life! I believe life can be just as simple as 1,2,3 if we care for ourselves and not what others think. Many women rushed into marriage just to satisfy, not themselves but others surrounding them. Do they really know the meaning of marriage? Has it ever occur to them that marriage signifies long term loyalty, lifetime partner and commitments, heavy enough that require two individuals’ strength to carry on as a couple? Why are they rushing into all these? Do they not fear of making the wrong decision, a lifetime decision?

Long ago, our great grandparents marry out of arrangements. Some are happy together and some are unfortunately not. In the modern days, many marry out of love but are still unhappy with their marriages and the rate of divorce increases year by year. Why is this happening? Marriage from love, isn’t it supposed to be more long lasting, happier & cherished? What has the word ‘marriage’ became of?

Venice*, a 31 years old attractive lash with stable job income, having a dream every women wanted - a loving & understanding husband, a romantic wedding and a wonderful family. She could never have believed that this dream shattered when she found out she had agreed to marry out of her race with age! Out of her ridiculous idea of not wanting to drag on a relationship and instead planned to marry Kevin* he knew for only 2 months! Of course the deal was that Kevin must agree to start planning and saving for the marriage, else the relationship ends there and then.

So the chronicle began with a loving & caring, understanding and detail-oriented, soft-spoken man with extensive ideas that made her happy every single day but all these changed after awhile, after a short 6 months. They began to argue and his words were more harsh and hurtful as the fights continued throughout the relationship week by week, month by month and soon enough it’s THE time to sign the papers as lawful couples. She tried to continue without doubts, thinking that her decision and choice made was right just to realize that the relationship was then worsened where they had more and more fights with more and more intolerable words. Now, here’s the interesting part - there were not much of chemistry for intimacy involved even in the beginning because all she wanted was to be married and with all the fights and hurts she gathered, his touches actually disgust her! How is she supposed to continue from here? It was her own decision and she had no option but to let herself sink into the ‘well’ she dug for herself, deeper and deeper, burying herself in the dark, just to preserve the whole scenario of a well prepared bride-to-be and pretend to be the happiest woman alive.

Why is this happening to Venice? Was it her own fault? What was her reason to rush into marriage? Though she had broken hearts before but could she fall back to those bad incidents in her previous relationships and make it THE reason to marry a person she barely knew … to race with her age or simply to hurt herself even more and live in misery, having no faith in love and marriage, pick & match and get over it, get over life? Is this what Venice wanted for the rest of her lives?

I believe all of us should take charge of our own lives. We should never rush into crucial decisions unless we have thoroughly thought it over. Marriage is about 2 persons becoming 1 and is definitely a difficult hurdle to jump over together with unless they are strongly bonded. In any relationship, love for each other is of utmost importance because love forms the foundation to a stable and healthy family whilst understanding each other forms the body of a well established family. Loyalty forms the conclusion of ‘all’s well ends well’ family.

Obviously, Venice didn’t marry out of love but she was sure that his partner did, at least in the initial 6 months. However, how could she have thought that personality, characteristics and everything else not known to her could shatter her dream in the end. Not knowing a partner’s real personality here proves to be catastrophic. No doubt, he loved her but it was only in the beginning and when he was sure that she is to marry him and that once they are lawfully registered as husband and wife, he changed drastically, to being himself. They marry out of a deal, no one is at fault.

A friend once told me a joke that a wise couple in love, upon their decision to get married, should sign at the Registry of Marriage in one room and immediately followed by another signing ceremony in another room for divorce, just in case in future, things don’t work out, the couple could skip the hassle! (laugh)…What a good idea!

*Name is changed for privacy purposes

Article contributed by Vivienne Jee

First Internet Millionaires Bootcamp by Gobala Krishnan

After a whole day attended the internet millionaires bootcamp by Gobala Krishnan yesterday, I am now free to write something to share with you all what i have learnt from that internet marketing seminar.

I reached Armada Hotel at 8.20am on 16 August 2008, it was already a lot of participants registering themselves at the reception counter. The seminar started at about 9.00am and ended at 6.00pm in the evening. This internet marketing seminar in Malaysia was very successful conducted and has about 40 participants enrolled for this event. Although the schedule for this seminar was very tight due to time constraint but Gobala managed to cover all topics on time.

The topics covered in the malaysia internet marketing seminar were as below:

1. Introduction of Internet Marketing for Beginners
- Internet Marketing Myths
- Internet Marketing Models
- Basic essential skills for Internet Marketing

2. The Power of Keywords
- Importance of Keywords for internet marketers
- Keyword Research Tools
- Keywords in your domain name and website

3. Domain Name and Web Hosting
- Registration of domain nama
- How to select a “good” domain name for your website
- How to select a “good” web hosting for your website

4. Basic HTML
- Why HTML is important in internet marketing business
- How to create a basic HTML page
- How to upload files to your website

5. Blogs and Blogging Tips
- Introduction
- How to blog like a Pro?
- How to create Blogs in a second
- What is a blog “plug-in”, widgets, and themes are?

6. Google Adsense
- What is google adsense?
- Signing up of Google adsense
- Monetization of your website with google adsense

7. E-Books Creation
- How to create Salespage
- Copywriting Tips

8. Affiliate Marketing Tactics
- What is affiliate marketing?
- How to make money from joining affiliate marketing?
- Types of affiliate products
- The best affiliate marketing program to join
- How to be a Super Affiliate?

9. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
- What is SEO and the importance of it in internet marketing business
- Ways to improve your SEO
- Do and Don’t in SEO

10. Outsourcing on the Web
- Why and what should you outsource?
- What not to outsource?
- Where to find outsource freelancer?
- Outsourcing Tips

11. Banking for Online Marketers
- Withdrawing, saving and managing profits from online business

and much much more…

The information shared by Gobala during the bootcamp was very informative and useful especially to those “Beginner” in internet marketing business, who wish to find out what internet marketing is all about, and how to make money online the effective way from a successful internet marketer in Malaysia.

Of course the participants in this internet marketing seminar are with little or without knowledge at all in internet marketing. Some of them already have their own website but making no or little profit from it, and some of them have zero knowledge in internet marketing but wish to make some extra money to cover their monthly expenses, some even hope to build their business from internet marketing. No matter what categories they were falling in, they have the same intention to attend the internet marketing seminar which is to learn how to make money online from the internet.

I highly recommend this internet marketing seminar to “Beginners” who wish to start their internet marketing business from scratch. I am awaiting for Gobala Krishnan to organise more internet marketing seminar for intermediate and advance level in the near future.

At last, I wish to Congratulate him and his team for making this internet millionaires bootcamp a great success!!! Well done!

Blood type A, B, O, and AB… which type are you from?

Blood Type A, B, O, AB… Which type are you from?