While surfing my visitors' log (thanks to statcounter, I can haunt all of you =P), I saw a surge in my stats for yesterday. I was rather excited, till I saw several links like:
D:/My%20Documents/Assignment/Audit/reading-interim-forensic-audit-report.html.
(Notice the word "Assignment?")
Not that I mind that if any of you using my entries on Transmile as reference for your assignments, but do be mindful that whatever I wrote is of MHPOV (a.k.a. My Humble Point of View).
So please, I urge you to do your own research on the scandal and do not quote me in your assignments. You might end up getting a "Fantastic" grade if my views were wrong.
Now, that doesn't sound good does it?
Anyway, all the best cracking your heads on Transmile. I have a hunch it must be due very soon.
My father and I had a ‘small’ tiff the other day on what I should invest (small as in, despite whatever I say, my dad always win and I end up shutting up anyway). Every time I told him I’m going to buy unit trust, he would tell me to buy stocks instead. *Sigh*. The only thing common in that conversation was Warren Buffet – a guru to both of us.
As an ex-broker, he doesn’t believe in letting other people managing his money - yup, he is his own fund manager.
While I would love to follow his footsteps, I have my personal setbacks as well. Firstly, I don’t have time to look out for good stocks to buy a.k.a. too busy with what we all call ‘personal life’. Secondly, I don’t like speculating short term and I don’t have much to start with. With these reasons, I decided to go against him and buy unit trust bond fund anyway.
So, last Monday I sat with a bunch of unit trust salesmen laying the card of my intention. Some may ask, why not cut out the middleman? Well, I needed opinion and wanted to invest. I could never go straight to a company and buy bonds because I'm such a small dot in the capital market. Vehemently they preached me to buy some equity funds invested in China, which I’m not keen of after SCI fell. I resisted to buy what they insisted as best buy. I wanted my bond funds regardless.
To prove them wrong (or rather, to convince myself that I know what I want), putting my basic economic knowledge to the test, I challenged them with statistics. I asked the group sales manager to display all their unit trusts performance pre-recession 1996 up to 2000. Surprise, surprise, all equity funds were making losses except for bond funds. I'm amazed to know I beat their sales pitch with my very-rusty-logiconomics.
Guess whatever I learnt in uni is of some use after all. :D
After much debate and they admitting defeat, being nice, :P, I didn’t leave them sore with bruised egos and empty handed – instead, I handed them a cheque worth whatever I could squeeze from my almost barren savings.
I hope I’m doing the right thing. Like a typical moslem, I should just tawakkal je lah kan?
I begin to notice that despite writing on random topics, I do have a great need to write on something 'serious' or 'work related' every other day. Not sure if someday I'll ever be a serious writer. Well, to start with, not sure if I'm up to mark with expert bloggers out there. I happen to know some basic economics and statistics being compulsary subjects when I took my accounting studies. After achieving mediocre grades for my degree, I realised one thing - I despise technical subjects and definitely have problems appreciating rules and standards.
Which can only mean that I'm neither a jack-of-all-trades nor a master of any. I'm just hanging somewhere in between which is pathetic.
Being uncertain of what my potentials are, I sort of accepted my fate of having to resign and 'rejoin' my education sponsor a no-choice choice - it's pay or rejoin sort of thing. To repay a debt valuing as close as a unit terrace link is definitely a hefty sum for me. I soon realised that it is I, who limit myself to this choice. I took the easy way out instead of exploring world's other offerings. While I find comfort by that my sponsor is doing extremely well financially, deep down my inklings say this may not be best of choices. (Now I kinda sound like what a friend wrote in his blog, an ungrateful overseas scholar, wishing to run away from her sponsor. Come to think of it, at least, I'm not MIA and I do report to them when asked.)
Secretly and enviously, I admire people who know what to do with their lives and sucessfully doing so. I hope by the time I realise what I'm best at, it's not too late to make it big.
Right now, I can only take Steve Job's advise applying to something non-job related - going the beach and have fun. Can't wait for my year end trip to God-knows-where-cause-I-haven't-planned-yet!
Happy Year End Holidays people (that includes Raya Haji and Christmas).
Today is the first time China's key stock indicator, Shanghai Composite Index slipped below 5000 points (down by 4.4%) following the bear market in the US. Finally, the subprime "disease" has spread to the Asian market, a year since the outbreak in 2006.
Also seen is the investment guru (and second richest man in the world), Warren Buffett bailing himself out a month ago due to surging prices. Leaving China, he warned investors several days later to be cautioned on Chinese Stocks. Well, he was right then, and has been right for God-knows-how-many-times.
It'll be a matter of time now before it hits us. Six months to a year from the first downward trend in KLSE will be a good time to invest in stocks as prices are low and so is investor confidence. Meanwhile, bond funds will be in the uptrend soon, though, returns are lower than equity funds.
So, I'm looking into buying bond funds soon hopefully, to make some bucks out of it.
I implore to you all salesman not to be too honest when asked to guess a lady’s age. Imagine the turn off when I was told looking 5 years older. *Ouch*
Being brutally honest means another slip of opportunity.
Speaking of which, maybe that’s the reason (looking slightly older and not immature) occasionally, I get random encounters by married man seeking my companionship. These are typical Malaysian men, bald with “oversized” tummies (and I do mean by buncit as in, really buncit). Most of them flirt with their wedding bands on. Of course, I refused to get involved with any of them, except one, which was unintentional.
I was awakened from my afternoon nap one day by a lady’s wailing on the phone, purporting that I “stole” her husband. Frankly, I never felt it was the tiniest bit being my fault. For one, her husband was only 27 and yes, there was no wedding band. Being very young at that time, I was oblivious to some obvious signs he is married.
I suppose now I can only understand why I was brutally accused by that woman at that point in time. Imagine, after taking care of him and his kids – preparing meals, washing clothes, sweeping floors etc, her husband still cheated with his pants on. I was lucky enough to know this early and by the time things grew fonder I was prepared. Of course, I smacked him the minute I found out, a real hard one.
The only thing I regretted was telling him his wife called. I knew not he would beat his wife for confronting me. And I knew not what happened after that and I’d wished of not knowing so.
That was some years ago. Several encounters after that, I grew smarter. I learnt that married men:
- Are decisive. They tell you where to rendezvous instead of the other way round.
- Are almost always unavailable. They contact you when they are “convenient” (typically office hours or when they are “in town”).
- Say they want to be your friend
- Then, pour out their marital problems to you to gain sympathy.
- Later on, say that they’d wished they’d met you before meeting their wive(s).
If they never confess being married, first and second facts still apply.
Funny that I noticed, most of them are in their thirties and forties - not particularly rich (royalty or not) and living beyond their means. Perhaps, just to show that they are “capable” of having more than one wife. I bet, their current marriage must have bore them till they had to seek “entertainment” elsewhere (a.k.a. makan luar). It’s sad to know that for some men, having one wife is not enough. I pity those ladies who are fooled by their cheating husbands (pants on or not). And no matter what the excuse was – failing marriage, misunderstandings, cheating wives etc, as the head of the family husbands should sort the problem first before looking for another. Even if it means to start over or getting another wife, start with an honest clean slate. At least, be fair to the kids and the other wive(s). But as some said, easier said than done when “love” blinds all judgements.
Hence, the more reasons to use the brain. I thank God for giving me brains to encumber temptations from these charming, dashing (and some, buncit) and eloquent men. I think not taking from others what is not mine. I think not wanting karma of an unfaithful husband. I think not company of these men as I am already content with someone (never married and single). =).
So girls, if you are in the same boat as I was, do not date or marry an already married man, unless you are willing to face the consequences. They aren’t a bed of roses, I assure you.
P/s: I do not condone polygamy, but if someone else is doing so, I would be the least bothered (unless he is my husband or father, of course).
I've decided to move on. Got my notice done, just sitting in my drawer to pass it to my boss tomorrow. Short and sweet, nothing fancy, no drama. Just goodbye.
3 months from now I'm outta here. If only the notice period is shorter. Well, guess it will pass in a flash.
*Sigh*
Out of boredom I'm changing my look for today, which includes a haircut.
There have been days when I would drag myself to work, to fulfill my obligation to this unfulling job.
Only this morning, it's the most draggy day of all. I woke up rather late with my head feeling as though I was ran over by a bulldozer. Definitely took my time going to the bathroom and getting ready for work and then it hit me.
I lost my handphone the other night and still figuring out what really happened. I remember holding it for the last time in my car, coming out from the car and going back in. The next thing I knew it's gone. The reason for being so sentimental about this is it's the only thing I bought when I got my miniscule bonus last July. Yup, it's only 3 months old.
It's been two nights now since that incident. I'm feeling rather peaceful with no late night pranks and unknown caller phonecalls, everytime having to tell them "You dialled the wrong number". I realised that my phone number is so easy that some people just decided to either prank me or just misdialling for some reason.
It's the second time this year that I lost my phone and heck, I now have to get a new one. There goes my savings.
So what, it's just a handphone right? Well, it's not just a handphone, after loosing the first one, I painstakingly took the time finding out my friends' numbers which is more valuable than the phone itself. Well, I guess I'll leave it this time to jodoh. If our friendships are meant to last, they would call or I would end up calling them anyway. For now, I'm enjoying the peacefulness of having not to layan prankcalls.
Funny that I also realised sleep has not helped to rest me. I suppose as I grew older, more things worry me which means restless nights and very weird dreams. I even dreamt o my half baked resignation letter, which again, is sitting in my lappy, waiting for me to finish writing it. Only 2 weeks left to submit this letter to my boss and I'm still sitting on it.
Oh, the only thing that cheered me up a little today was the traffic. Yes, it's lame, but having not to drive bumper to bumper is haven, especially when I need not to rush for leaving the house 15 minutes before official working hours start. Glad that some ya'll still on leave.
Speaking of leave, I've got 10 days leave to clear by year end, which I'm so looking forward to.
Guess today I don't feel so down afterall. Nak cuti :).
Recession is coming. Bad news to many, good news to few. I’m having mixed feelings anticipating this “wave of doom” for two reasons:
I took an interest variable loan with ASB to reinvest in ASB, which could mean higher monthly repayment rates. Ouch.
Secondly, I can’t wait for share prices to go low enough for me to invest.
Still, I think most of us will suffer than gaining anything.
The US Subprime Credit Crunch – it’s a sign
If you have read the business section in the Star or the Edge, few months back, many depositors in UK and US were queuing up to withdraw their life savings from banks which some on the brink of or filed for bankruptcy. This, I believe, is the start of our economic tsunami - the credit crunch affected the European and US economy.
In purview of my limited knowledge of economics, the credit crunch emerged due to non-performing loans in the subprime market. The US Central Bank has been raising interest rates to curb spending and encourage savings. While raising interest rates are bonuses for depositors, it’s a pain to borrowers, which in turn, making a lot of defaulters, especially in the subprime market.
The subprime loans, or shall I explain in lay man terms as the non “A grade” loans or loans to people with credit history problems, are defaulted simply because people can’t pay up. The interest rates rose too high for them to pay back the loans. Being subprime, the banks charge a high interst rate to reflect the high risk of these loans. So with rising interest means, a top up on the base interest which is already high.
Of course, the banks seized the defaulters’ assets and supposedly tried to sell them but because the property market has slowed down, the banks found themselves unable to sell at the value they expected. Hence, the banks are caught in the web of sluggish cashflows, hence, went bankrupt or on the brink of it. The share market panicked, depositors started withdrawing their savings, scared of loosing their money. The banks dried up, so was the economy. Borrowing is less, spending is less, jobs are less, shares trading are less. This panic also infected the entire US, UK and Europe share market which also saw the downfall of Citigroup’s CEO.
(and I sense someone is smiling for having an influx of Citigroup's former clients :D)
Does it affect us?
Waves of the credit crunch has not hit us hard yet, probably due to one thing: the world’s economic activities are no longer centered around the west. You know what I'm talking about - CHINA. China has been experiencing double digit economic growth for the past few years and so long as they grow, we grow too.
So my verdict? A recession is coming, but not as bad as the ‘97 one.
I had a great urge to write something about the US credit crunch before these questions blurred away my trail of thoughts.
I hate making decisions and I hate being at a "major" crossroad.
On one hand I have an 11 years bond to serve my education sponsor who might just throw me in the deserts of Sudan or barren lands of Turkministan should I join them. One the other hand I have a very, very mundane back office job, so-called FBI of the firm which I'm pretty good at (I think) and hated for.
Of course, I have yet to rummage through millions job adverts out there which could bring better opportunities than those two above.
Boringnya. It'll take months of thinking, information hunting and eliminating before I can make a decision and be happy with it. Of all major decisions I've ever made, I think this is by far the most critical one. It's a matter of whether I'll make it (by joining/staying in the right organisation, to grow and harvest knowledge from) or break it.
Unfortunately, I've got less than a month left to do the sorting. If only there's a sorting hat to the job.
*Stressed*
I'm done with trying to get along with some people. No matter how hard I try to make peace with people, there's bound to be war and hatred. C'est la vie, c'est comme ça. Yin and yang is law.
Thought I should share an interesting email from a friend few weeks back. I haven't vouched the truthfulness of these facts, but anyway, here goes:
There was a one hour interview on CNBC with Warren Buffet, the second richest man who has donated $31 billion to charity. Here are some very interesting aspects of his life:
1. He bought his first share at age 11 and he now regrets that he started too late!
2. He bought a small farm at age 14 with savings from delivering newspapers.
3. He still lives in the same small 3-bedroom house in mid-town Omaha, that he bought after he got married 50 years ago. He says that he has everything he needs in that house. His house does not have a wall or a fence.
4. He drives his own car everywhere and does not have a driver or security people around him.
5. He never travels by private jet, although he owns the world's largest private jet company.
6. His company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 63 companies. He writes only one letter each year to the CEOs of these companies, giving them goals for the year. He never holds meetings or calls them on a regular basis. He has given his CEO's only two rules.
Rule number 1: do not lose any of your share holder's money.
Rule number 2: Do not forget rule number 1.
7. He does not socialize with the high society crowd. His past time after he gets home is to make himself some pop corn and watch Television.
8. Bill Gates, the world's richest man met him for the first time only 5 years ago. Bill Gates did not think he had anything in common with Warren Buffet. So he had scheduled his meeting only for half hour. But when Gates met him, the meeting lasted for ten hours and Bill Gates became a devotee of Warren Buffet.
9. Warren Buffet does not carry a cell phone, nor has a computer on his desk.
His advice to young people: "Stay away from credit cards and invest in yourself and
Remember:
A. Money doesn't create man but it is the man who created money.
B. Live your life as simple as you are.
C. Don't do what others say, just listen them, but do what you feel good.
D. Don't go on brand name; just wear those things in which u feel comfortable.
E. Don't waste your money on unnecessary things; just spend on them who really in need rather.
F. After all it's your life then why give chance to others to rule our life."
After reading this, I still don't see myself living without my cell nor computer. He can live without any, but I'm pretty sure his subordinates can't. Imagine analysing share prices using calculators, pen and paper. Nearly impossible.