Friday, December 22, 2006

SIMPLE TIPS ON SAVING.

Employing some simple tips on your finances can often make a huge difference in your savings effort. While saving means giving something that you want now a pass, it will reward you greatly in the future. What you need is a consistent long term savings program which can help you in achieving your missions. Savings comes in very handy in times of emergency and uncertainty. No one can predict when they will lose their supposedly secure job or the next economic downturn. Financial experts agree that you should set aside between three to six months of expenses for unexpected events and needs.

Money invested in savings will grow beyond what you put in, due to compound interest. In short, it means that over time, your money will grow more than what you put in initially. However, it is very important to note that inflation can reduce the return on your money.

No doubt, eliminating or even postponing your purchase needs a lot of discipline. However, practice makes perfect. So we include here some helpful tips to get you off the ground.

PAY YOURSELF!
We hear this often. Pay yourself first before anything else. But most people are just not doing it. It is recommended that you have a standing instruction with your bank so that whenever your salary is deposited into your account, a portion is directly transferred to another account. The principle is easy, what you don’t see, you don’t spend!

SAVE IT!
When your next job raise comes, save it! If you’ve been raised 15%, then save all that 15%. This can be done by maintaining your current lifestyle and not indulge in luxury you can’t afford. The same goes for bonus payment. When you get a month bonus or two months bonus, save all of it or at least most of it.

PAY YOUR CREDIT CARD!
Ok, so an entire article can be dedicated to paying off credit card debt. But here, I want to stress the utmost importance of paying off your credit card debt first. By paying off your credit card, you will save an enormous amount in INTEREST! Remember, the interest rate for credit card in Malaysia is at 18% per annum. Just so that you realize how high that is, a fixed deposit only give returns of an average 3% per annum. Think about it.

TRANSFER TO LOWER INTEREST RATE!
This is very important for those of you having a huge credit card debt. There are many banks offering balance transfer. You just need to shop around and determine what works best for you. Transferring to a card with a lower interest rate can help to shorten the time of repayment provided that you keep your discipline. It will also save you a lot of money in the long run.

KEEP YOUR CAR!
Thinking of getting a new car? Who wouldn't be tempted to? With our higher earning power and more affordable cars around it really is a temptation. However, I would urge you to keep your current car…or at least for a year or two longer. Whenever getting a new car, people would usually upgrade to a better and more expensive car. So by keeping your car longer for a couple of years, it would save you a lot of money.

QUIT SMOKING & DRINKING!
With the government increasing cigarette and liquor tax every year, you can only imagine how expensive this ‘hobby’ of smoking and drinking can be. Plus, it will do your body good if you quit this bad habit. If you can’t stop entirely, do cut down on the quantity. You will live a healthier life and your bank account will be healthier too.

STEAL FROM YOURSELF!
Take RM 3 from your wallet everyday and put it somewhere safe and out of reach. Do the math and you would have RM 1095 in a year. Just don’t get into the habit of stealing from someone else.

WRITE A SHOPPING LIST!
Whenever you go shopping, make sure you shop with your list and STICK to it. This will keep you from impulse buying that you will regret on later.

EAT IN!
Everybody knows it’s cheaper to prepare and cook your own meals than eating out.
SOURCE FOR AFFORDABLE ENTERTAINMENT! This could be visits to museums or parks. Go for walks or jogs. What about borrowing a good book from the library? You could also go for movies during movie night.

STOP YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS!
Don’t we all subscribe to something that we don’t really need? What about that subscription to the entertainment magazine? Or do we really need pay TV when we’re out at work most of the time?

GET CHEAPER INSURANCE!
This is especially true for young single working adults. You have so many choices to choose from. Start with a cheaper insurance and you can add on to it once you start your own family.

SAVE YOUR TAX REFUND!
For those of you who are paying tax I only have one thing to say : SAVE YOUR TAX REFUND!

POSTPONE YOUR PURCHASES!
Often, the act of postponing your purchases will kill off your desire of purchasing it at all later on. But there are days when you just feel that you have to purchase something. If that happens, consider on fewer features on your items of choice.

PAY CASH!
If you can’t clear your credit card balance on time, use cash for your expenses.
SAVE, SAVE, SAVE! Finally, remember that the more you save, the more and faster your savings will grow.

Article from http://www.ringgitandyou.com

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Some interesting & true facts

The average chocolate bar has 8 insect legs in it.

There are 206 bones in the adult human body, but 300 in children (some of the bones fuse together as a child grows).

The human eye blinks an average of 4,200,000 times a year.

It takes approximately 12 hours for food to entirely digest.

Ants do not sleep.

If you keep a goldfish in the dark room, it will eventually turn white.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike each year than all the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.

The busiest shopping hour of the holiday season is between 3:00 pm and 4:00 pm on Christmas Eve.

The largest McDonald's is in Beijing, China - measuring 28,000 square feet. It has twenty nine cash registers.

A snail can also sleep for three years.

According to Genesis 1:20-22 the chicken came before the egg.

Brushing your teeth regularly has been shown to prevent heart disease.

Your nose and ears never stop growing.

The average person laughs 15 times a day.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Who are you to give up?!?

Who are you to give up? Who are you to not working hard? Who are you to not appreciate of what you have? Aren't you grateful? I found this true story very touching and inspiring. To those who feel like giving up in whatever things they are doing, please spend some time reading it. I think it helps.

YOU ARE WHO YOU THINK!
-NEVER GIVE UP, MY FRIEND-

My name is Nick Vujicic and I give God the Glory for how He has used my testimony to touch thousands of hearts around the world! I was born without limbs and doctors have no medical explanation for this birth "defect". As you can imagine, I was faced with many challenges and obstacles. "Consider it pure joy, my Brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds." ....To count our hurt, pain and struggle as nothing but pure joy? As my parents were Christians, and my Dad even a Pastor of our church, they knew that verse very well. However, on the morning of the 4th of December 1982 in Melbourne (Australia), the last two words on the minds of my parents was "Praise God!". Their firstborn son had been born without limbs! There were no warnings or time to prepare themselves for it. The doctors we shocked and had no answers at all! There is still no medical reason why this had happened and Nick now has a Brother and Sister who were born just like any other baby. The whole church mourned over my birth and my parents were absolutely devastated. Everyone asked, "if God is a God of Love, then why would God let something this bad happen to not just anyone, but dedicated Christians?" My Dad thought I wouldn't survive for very long, but tests proved that I was a healthy baby boy just with a few limbs missing.Understandably, my parents had strong concern and evident fears of what kind of life I'd be able to lead. God provided them strength, wisdom and courage through those early years and soon after that I was old enough to go to school.


The law in Australia didn't allow me to be integrated into a main-stream school because of my physical disability. God did miracles and gave my Mom the strength to fight for the law to be changed. I was one of the first disabled students to be integrated into a main-stream school. I liked going to school, and just try to live life like everyone else, but it was in my early years of school where I encountered uncomfortable times of feeling rejected, weird and bullied because of my physical difference. It was very hard for me to get used to, but with the support of my parents, I started to develop attitudes and values which helped me overcome these challenging times. I knew that I was different but on the inside I was just like everyone else. There were many times when I felt so low that I wouldn't go to school just so I didn't have to face all the negative attention. I was encouraged by my parents to ignore them and to try start making friends by just talking with some kids. Soon the students realized that I was just like them, and starting there God kept on blessing me with new friends. There were times when I felt depressed and angry because I couldn't change the way I was, or blame anyone for that matter. I went to Sunday School and learnt that God loves us all and that He cares for you. I understood that love to a point as a child, but I didn't understand that if God loved me why did He make me like this? Is it because I did something wrong? I thought I must have because out of all the kids at school, I'm the only weird one. I felt like I was a burden to those around me and the sooner I go, the better it'd be for everyone. I wanted to end my pain and end my life at a young age, but I am thankful once again, for my parents and family who were always there to comfort me and give me strength. Due to my emotional struggles I had experienced with bullying, self esteem and loneliness, God has implanted a passion of sharing my story and experiences to help others cope with whatever challenge they have in their life and let God turn it into a blessing. To encourage and inspire others to live to their fullest potential and not let anything get in the way of accomplishing their hopes and dreams. One of the first lessons that I have learnt was not to take things for granted.


"And we know that in all things God works for the best for those who love Him." That verse spoke to my heart and convicted me to the point where that I know that there is no such thing as luck, chance or coincidence that these "bad" things happen in our life. I had complete peace knowing that God won't let anything happen to us in our life unless He has a good purpose for it all. I completely gave my life to Christ at the age of fifteen after reading John 9. Jesus said that the reason the man was born blind was "so that the works of God may be revealed through Him." I truly believed that God would heal me so I could be a great testimony of His Awesome Power. Later on I was given the wisdom to understand that if we pray for something, if it's God's will, it'll happen in His time. If it's not God's will for it to happen, then I know that He has something better. I now see that Glory revealed as He is using me just the way I am and in ways others can't be used.


I am now twenty-one years old and have completed a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Financial Planning and Accounting. I am also a motivational speaker and love to go out and share my story and testimony wherever opportunities become available. I have developed talks to relate to and encourage students through topics that challenge today's teenagers. I am also a speaker in the corporate sector. I have a passion for reaching out to youth and keep myself available for whatever God wants me to do, and wherever He leads, I follow. I have many dreams and goals that I have set to achieve in my life. I want to become the best witness I can be of God's Love and Hope, to become an international inspirational speaker and be used as a vessel in both Christian and non-Christian venues. I want to become financially independent by the age of 25, through real estate investments, to modify a car for me to drive and to be interviewed and share my story on the "Oprah Winfrey Show"! Writing several best-selling books has been one of my dreams and I hope to finish writing my first by the end of the year. It will be called "No Arms, No Legs, No Worries!"

I believe that if you have the desire and passion to do something, and if it's God's will, you will achieve it in good time. As humans, we continually put limits on ourselves for no reason at all! What's worse is putting limits on God who can do all things. We put God in a "box". The awesome thing about the Power of God, is that if we want to do something for God, instead of focusing on our capability, concentrate on our availability for we know that it is God through us and we can't do anything without Him. Once we make ourselves available for God's work, guess whose capabilities we rely on? God's!

God Bless!

Sunday, December 17, 2006

How to overcome stress?!?

I came across a few website as i was looking for some infomation on how to overcome stress. I thought i can some tips likes share your problem with your friends, go for vacation etc. Who knows? This are some of the websites i found:

Seminar, CD and DVD teach you how to overcomestress

This one better- 90 days money back guarantee

This one even better! 100% customer satisfaction

Come on lar... people who are understress need some tips to overcome it. If ask them to buy products some more, i think they will become even more stress!

So, the solution for to overcome stress is to buy CD, DVD or attend seminar! Better choice a product with 100% customer satisfaction!Thank you!




Saturday, December 16, 2006