DianaTan.net

If I were a millionaire, I will surely invest in gold bullion, which is a good hedge against inflation compared to currencies. But, alas, I am no millionaire nor million hair. Just a normal working executive working in her home office for a sports surfacing company while moonlighting in writing articles and blogging. My goal is to save up enough money for retirement later on so that I will enjoy my golden years and not woeful years in life begging for money. As an aside, it was published in the newspapers recently that beggars in Malaysia make about RM1,000 – RM10,000 per month from the generosity of the Malaysians. They collude with syndicates here who brought them in from China with the promise of a job, but instead forced to beg on the streets. And after realizing how easy it was to get money from begging, they want to continue to do so.

Rich people like my uncle in Singapore will probably choose gold bullion as an investment. But for less wealthy people like me, will probably choose a gold ring or bracelet. Some small items of gold that I can keep away safely at home without going to the bank. I have other forms of investment like my government bonds or also known as treasury bills with interests or coupons to collect every month and my fixed deposits. These are my small investments for my retirement. As I don’t have children, I need to work hard and save more for my golden years ahead as I cannot depend on kids to support me. Now my parents are lucky because they have the 3 of us siblings to contribute RM600 each every month for the household expenses. Hence they are able to watch Astro and eat out every night plus buy food back for lunch every day.

I guess this is common practise in Asian countries where children will have to contribute financially to the retired parents in their old age. Anyway, gold will appreciate in value in due time and I hope to make more investments in gold through my Public Bank Gold Savings Account which I can only withdraw 1 year later.

I was looking through the newspapers and came across a terrace house on auction near my home. For the price offered and the locality, I am not attracted to buy it up since people are still staying in. There might be problems to evict the previous owner and it might become messy. So, no, I will put my money in the bank and earn interests. But if you intend to sell your house, then you might like to check out the link above – simply enter your zip code and it is easy peasy.

I have bought and stayed in a 3 room HDB flat in Singapore and it was so small like a pigeon hole. Whatever you say, can be heard next door and there was no privacy. At that time, I stayed alone though I shared the costs with my sister. The flat has long been sold for some profit and I was very relieved when everything was settled. There are many people who sell their house in order to upgrade to a bigger home. It is fine as long as you can afford it and plan well in terms of finances such as whether you can afford to pay in the long term or not in case you lose your employment.

Hence, selling your house need not be a chore anymore with all the technology being set up to make life so much easier. You can then have a peace of mind doing the things you love and continue to do so.

Some months back, I bought a discounted book on Video making for Dummies. Yes, it was the Dummies range of books that teach you to do lots of other things written by various authors. After reading the book, I managed to create my first video using Microsoft Vista and used DVD ripper to extract some songs from my collection of CDs just for the movie. The DVD ripper was easy to use and comes with my computer. Even the movie maker was part of the package of Windows Vista that I have never explored before. It is part of my hobby to learn new stuffs and this is one of them using the computer.

By using the DVD ripper, I am able to extract out my favorite songs from my CD collection and add them here for visitors to view. It is in one of my old posts and if you have been following my blog, you would have come across it some months ago. I managed to add credits and scrolling text that moves from top to bottom with slide transition.

I am happy with my own achievement as this is self taught – all from reading the Dummies book bought from MPH. At least, after reading, I managed to do the basic necessity to create my very own first movie and uploaded to Youtube for public viewing. I certainly love to explore new tricks and tips on the computer and enhace my IT skills.

Last night, I reached Penang after driving from Tapah to Bukit Merah and help my colleague who was tired from too much driving in KL. We met up with a potential client at 12:00midnight until 2:00am to discuss about his sports courts. There were 7 of us who met up at A&W, a 24 hour outlet near our place. I guess they are night owls and nocturnal. While we are rather sleepy and had to get dressed up at this God forsaken time just to meet up and discuss matters with them. And they could only meet up with us after they have ‘sembahyang’ during the Puasa month. And today, I have to type of revised quotations and fax to my supervisor to check before emailing it out and hopefully, they will confirm soon. This is our third time meeting up.

I have decided to eat less now since last week and lost about 2 kg. My doctor has advised me to lose weight since I am now overweight as I love food too much. But I have to have better self control and eat less since I don’t exercise even though I have a tread mill at home. I might even go for a healthy weight loss diet to cut down on those calories. Losing weight is not easy but putting on weight takes no effort. I need to lose much weight to an ideal weight about 65kg or even less if possible. Now I am eating about half of what I used to eat and my weight will surely go down but ever so slowly.

I have a food blog and watching those tempting photos remind me of the good food I used to enjoy. But I need to refrain from eating too much for a better health. When you have healthy Body Mass Index (BMI), you won’t get sickness or contract diseases so easily. Most of the sickness come because of unhealthy diet and lack of exercise or sedentary lifestyle. Hence, I need to have more discipline to eat less from now onwards. Life is not about eating but to have healthy heart and body to do the necessary tasks each day and to enjoy life to the fullest – being free from sickness and disease.

I have been a collector of coins and stamps since I was young. But my stamps collection is much bigger than my coins since I could get free stamps when people send letters to my parents. My hobby has kept me busy and usefully occupied. In my later years, my wealthy uncle in Singapore who is a doctor gave me gold coins during Chinese New Year instead of ‘ang-pows’ or red packets of money. The gold coin is about 10gm and round in shape. These are my small collection of treasures since childhood and I will cherish them in my possession. The other day, someone was interested to buy my stamps but I am not willing to let them go since they remind me of my childhood.

My mother’s church friend’s son who studies in UK and graduated with a Master’s degree could not pass any interview and has not been working since graduation. What a waste! He is about the same age as my youngest sister. I guess he is just not blessed to hold a job. Perhaps he has very high expectations and salary during the job interview that they could not afford him. Being the only son, his parents did not pressure him to take up lower paying job like working in Mac Donald’s. I guess he is lucky that his parents love him regardless of the situation and still support him when they are still alive.

With the inflation rate at about 4%, and your value of money decreasing by the year, have you ever considered to put your money to buy gold instead? Gold is a good hedge against inflation and the value of gold has been increasing steadily for the last 10 years. When I was small, a gram of gold costs only RM21.00 which has now balooned to RM126.00 per gram. So, if you have invested your money in gold at that point in time, you would have made money today. India is the biggest consumer of gold with its citizens wearing gold accessories to look attractive. I have also open a Gold Investment Account with Public Bank and bought about 40gm of gold to be put in the bank for at least 1 year.

Yesterday, my first ever Nuffnang cheque arrive in the letter box and I promptly banked it in my account at Public Bank. The amount was for RM50.82 and after deducting RM1 for the charges, it came to RM49.82. Nevertheless it is still money from blog advertisements. I am elated that though the amount is not that much compared to other bloggers, to me, something coming in is better than nothing at all. Just click on the image above to enlarge the picture for a clearer view! Thank you, Nuffnang! Your programme certainly rocks and that is why so many bloggers are turning to Nuffnang compared to Adverlets. This is proof that Nuffnang definitely pays its fellow bloggers