Saving up for Golden Years

As I am not married and already in my late thirties, the only way is to save up much money for my golden years since I don't have children who can help support me later on. Right now I am contributing RM600 to the household expenses for my parents and they are lucky that the 3 daughters are working and paying monthly for the expenses. Hence I have to save up every penny now and not squander them unnecessarily for my old age retirement plans. By then, my boss may be too old to drive around any more and the workers are getting older by the years. I sincerely hope that there will be a business model to take in new blood who can continue the prosperous business of building sports surfaces for a very long time.

What the Heck! No one picks up telephone at Penang SOCSO

I have paid the worker’s SOCSO company contribution for April 2009 and until today, 12th of May, I have yet to receive a receipt and form for May payment from them. SOCSO stands for Social Security Organisation that was established in Malaysia to make monthly payments to workers becoming disabled in the course of their employment. It is like a form of insurance. Today, I tried to contact the numbers that I have in the SOCSO letterhead and they have changed to a new number that is non-contactable at all and simply send a thank you message and hang up when you select all the options! Even the operator number leads to automatic message with no one to pick up the phone! I don’t know who is the director or head of department for SOCSO but they sure try to find ways to automate their telephone calls with no single person to pick up calls and attend to enquiries. This is surely the ‘makan ular’ (lackadaisical) attitude of the staff who is missing in action! Typical of the Malays who are so lazy, and depend on the UMNO government to take care of their needs to the exclusion of other races. I am still wondering how sincere is the government in advocating 1Malaysia concept.

Happy Easter Sunday

Yesterday was Easter Sunday and my church in Georgetown Baptist Church put up a wonderplay play with a short movie of the Passion of Christ showing Jesus before his crucifixion. It is also a time to forgive previous grievances and hurts done by others. Easter is to celebrate the resurrection power of Jesus when he died at the cross and he is now alive in Heaven. One day, when all Christians die, they will reunite in heaven and stay there for eternity - which is a very very long time. While it is better to stay in heaven where there is no sorrow, pain or death, it is good to make ourselves useful here on here promoting the Kingdom of God by preaching to our loved ones so that they can be saved from eternal damnation in hell and by tithing.

Recent Order

I just got a recent order for writing 4 articles from a client in United Kingdom. And his payment is very prompt because the moment I emailed him the articles, he will immediately send me payment via my Paypal account. I have written many articles for him and he is my repeat client. Just 2 days ago, I got a new order from him, but had to postpone writing the articles as today I had to travel down to KL for an interview tomorrow about some issues. And he kindly allowed me to hand in the articles next week when I return. Writing articles keep me usefully occupied while earning some pocket money. And the requirements are not stringent at all.

Oasis Dried Up but other Opportunities are Open

Gone are the days when I was making a substantial amount of money each day from doing paid blogging and writing articles. My online work has becomes scarce like an oasis being dried up. With the global recession and economic upheaval, it would become worse and I can only depend on Google Adsense to make online income which took months to hit USD100, the minimum for payout. But thank goodness, I am also selling Herbalife, a slimming product plus cosmetics through my blog and this has make more than RM1,000 for me since last year. All my contacts are from emails sent to me to request for orders, money paid online to cash bank into ATM and then the order is also done online through my supplier in KL. All Herbalife delivery are through courier service when clients have to pay additional RM20 for the products to be delivered right to their door steps.

Going to Langkawi in a Short While

I am going to Langkawi by Firefly which was booked and confirmed last night. It takes about 30 minutes to arrive from Penang Airport to Langkawi's Airport. We need to take measurement for a sports court for a customer before flying back the next day on Sunday. Most likely, we will stay overnight in Langkawi after doing the necessary. This is a short business trip. And I just found out from my sister that a return trip by boat is about RM100 plus. Had I known that earlier, we would have taken the boat and save us about RM620 for 2 persons return by flight plus airport tax.

Financial Meltdown

Since late last year, we have been bombarded with a slew of news of job cuts, credit crunch, lay-offs and financial meltdown of big institutions like banks that have been around for more than 100 years. Millions will be jobless this year as more and more companies retrench their staffs especially in USA, Europe, China, Singapore, etc. Malaysia is not spared from this punishing economic woes though the government refuse to admit that recession has come to our shores. Every day, as I read the newspapers in business section, I see more job cuts everywhere and people are getting desperate. Families with young children to feed are turning to the parish priest of our local cathedral of the Holy Spirit to share their stories in the hope of securing new employment. According to Pastor Joseph Prince, prosperous economies previously will be awakened while developing nations will rise up.