Budgeting is one hard thing to implement :)

Me and my husband decided to really work with our budget since we are expecting our baby by end of september, and there must be lots of things needed to be spend on baby.

We are actually planning to change the car, but think about it again, it will be another never ending debt. We decided to hang on with our car, and pray that she won't give us another heartache for being 8 years old car :).

There so much to budget..our baby, our new house, our car,husband moving back to Sabah for good..etc. So maybe do it one at a time. And one best practice is, to pay all the debt first..car loan, housing loan, education loan, and all the loans you have. Then only you will live happily ever after :D .

Being 30

Being 30 in 2 months plus now and i'm already feel the stress ha ha. I'm no longer so called women-in-their-20s but move a level up :).

When i was in my 20s weekend means go outing having fun with my friends. Thinking which movies haven't watch, do my hair do my nails.  And after work will waste with hanging out with friends at some cafe.

Now weekend is about planning and executing. Trying to squeeze all the time i have to get more info, knowledge and money :D. Movie day turned to seminars, classes or reading some investment book. Haha. Well looking at the amount of saving in my account , it won't survived me long enough, and im already 30! 

But of course i will always have time for myself, well i have to reward myself for all the hard work i did hehe. Like going for a cruise this weekend, oh i so can't wait! :) 

Business lessons from a 9 year old.

This beautiful and inspiring story is taken from Jonathan leger's blog.

There's a boy who lives in my neighborhood named Ian. I don't know him well, but he looks to be about eight or nine years old. Despite his young age, this boy has a remarkable business sense. Let me tell you what he's accomplished.

One day I got home from running an errand and found a flyer in my front door. We get quite a few of those so my first instinct was to throw it away, but a picture on the flyer caught my attention. The picture was of Ian standing in front of the sign for the school he attends.

This caught my attention for two reasons. First, the picture was not a professional photo, and almost all advertisements have professional photos on them, so this stood out as different. Second, Ian put his own picture on it, and he's very young, so that stood out as well.

The flyer was offering what Ian calls "Trash Can Valet Service." Trash gets picked up in my neighborhood on Thursday morning, and each home owner is required to get the trash cans back to the house and off the road by Saturday night. But so many people were forgetting (or failing) to bring their trash cans back in a timely manner that the President of our Home Owner's Association had to email everybody with a "reminder" (more like a warning) that they needed to make sure they get their trash cans back in time. This is a requirement because I live in a nice neighborhood and it keeps everything looking nice and clean.

Ian, being the genius marketer he apparently is, saw a need — people weren't getting their trash cans back in time. So he figured he'd offer to haul the trash cans back for people for a small fee ($1 per can per week). In my case it costs me $4 a week because I have two regular trash cans and two recycle bins. Is it worth it for me? Absolutely! Just saving me the time and inconvenience of having to worry about it is well worth $16 or so a month.

But wait, it gets better!

Ian is only eight or nine years old, and he's not a big kid. The trash cans weigh a fair amount even empty, because they're big. On top of that the trash cans are tall, and Ian isn't. He'd probably wear himself out trying to manually haul all of the cans from the long driveways to the houses. But he doesn't do that.
No, Ian rides his kick scooter around the neighborhood to his clients' homes, and he lays the trash cans down one at a time on the back side of the scooter. He then rides his scooter to the house with the trash can rolling behind it like a trailer (the cans have wheels). Not only is this much faster than doing it by hand (I've watched him do it — he's quick!) but it's also a lot easier on Ian, so he can haul more trash cans than he would be able to do manually.

I'm telling you, this kid is brilliant.

I'm not sure how many clients he has, but even with only eight clients having three trash cans each (most of my neighbors have three) this pre-teen is making almost a hundred bucks a month with an hours work after school once a week! That means at eight or nine years old he's earning $25 an hour.
Ian is very reliable, never missing a day, and he does a great job. His service is worth every penny.

So let's recap. This extremely young, savvy marketer did the following:

1. Saw a need.
2. Created a product (in this case, a service) to fill the need.
3. Contacted his target market.
4. Worked smarter rather than harder to increase his earning potential.

That's a great formula for success in any business.

 If you always complaining on never have enough money, then think again.Have you actually did your best in your life? Or you only complaining but never do anything about it..Too shame to do any 'no-class' job. Some people rather complaining everyday, yet still wait for their small monthly pay just because they so ashamed to do 'kampung' work (because its stinky..so ewww and dirty)..

Well the choice is yours!

Are you a woman.. yet?

i was reading a magazine when i come to this interesting fact about 'How do you know if you had become woman'..(well..a little bit sound like that :P )

1. Girl : Spend, spend, spend
Woman : Earn, Save, Spend

2. Girl : Wear something to attract people attention
Woman : Wear something for herself.


Well, how true is that ladies? :)

Personally, i do agree. I was a girl, spending any money i owned, even dare to ask my mom for extra allowances when i was in college. ha ha. yep, and i do regret it now, thinking on how hard the money earned. eurgh! yea, getting older is to get wiser..i work so hard to get my salary in every month, and save first and well, maybe spend some for me to reward myself:). And plus, being the eldest sister, i really need to spare for my younger siblings...Try be the elders sister, you will know how it feel :D!

When i was in high school years, everything is about, who has the prettiest dress, and ha ha i can buy designer's T-shirt just to impress people. But now, yea, its like, as long as i feel good wearing it, i don't care what people think about it. There's so many important things i need to do with my money instead of buying expensive clothes..But of course occasionally i will buy one or two :D

My aunt once told me..'If you never start to take a responsibility on your younger siblings, you will never had the feeling of being respected as an elder sibling. Once you take care of them, you will find yourself gaining more that you can think of, because of the challenge. And automatically you will be more mature handling your life. So be grateful.'

uhmmm...ha ha...okiess....hmm..:P

How to save money

I always wanted to have the consistency on saving same amount or (even increase) every month. But..well, ha ha..there's always a BUT..

How la...I did try, and of course i can save..but well, its not enough..i had calculated, and i need to save triple amount that i save now, to make me well prepared with my financial future. Ha ha ha!

Well, maybe some of us don't really bother about saving. But trust me its really important. I bought me and my mom's life insurance some years back so that at least something is spare for us if just in case someday we need to pay high hospital bills.


I remember when i was a child, i always hate when my mom said "We can't afford that, we don't have money". But think back, she was planning everything for us (me , my 2 younger sisters and my brother) for our universities fee, mostly. She even had the 'expenses book', where she wrote everything that she spend monthly.

Well, it was sad to finally realize, how much she had actually keep herself from buying the things she wants because she knows all of us will need the money for our studies. being in the situation where i work and have to save money, trust me mom, i know the feeling now :P

My little sister always said i am almost like mom, with the word-of-the-month 'We can't afford it'..Ha ha..yep, sister, we can't afford it. Its for your own good!

If i have my own child one day, i will teach them the way my mom teach us, saving. We can't afford everything. Ha ha..well that's good tho, if not, i might become a spoil brat now..


This is a good article we all should think about. As i keep telling my self , Save and just spend on necessary things. It won't make you stinky, because you know when and where to spend.

Emergencies:

If there's one certainty in life, it's that unexpected things can happen at any time. Whether it's a natural disaster, an unplanned illness, the loss of a job, or a bad investment, the financial repercussions of an emergency situation can be debilitating if you aren't properly prepared. A well established savings account can help prevent a financial crisis when these situations arise.

Debt Prevention:

The main reason that people go into debt is because they make purchases that they can't afford. In these instances, they usually turn to credit cards (which charge high interest rates and are often hard to pay off). A well-funded savings account can allow you to purchase the items outright and avoid the pitfalls of borrowing money.

Plan for the Future:

Everyone has something that they are striving for. Whether it's money to buy a new car, pay for an education, or fund an early retirement, many of the things that we want can end up costing a good deal of money. An efficient and disciplined savings plan can help you achieve those goals sooner and without the drawbacks of debt.

P/S : Planning budget for my new house now..and ...hmmmm....money..money..money :)

10 more possible reasons you aren't rich

Here are 10 more possible reasons you aren't rich:

1. You care what your car looks like

2. You feel you deserve to live a certain lifestyle

3. You lack diversification

4. You started too late

5. You don't do what you enjoy

6. You don't like to learn

7. You buy things you don't use

8. You don't understand value

9. Your house is too big

10. You fail to take advantage of opportunities

The list of reasons you may not be rich doesn't end at 10.

Caring what your neighbors think, not being patient, having bad habits, not having goals, not being prepared, trying to make a quick buck, relying on others to handle your money, investing in things you don't understand, being financially afraid and ignoring your finances.

Hmmm think about it...:)