While the plan was to have at least a day and a half on the island, and that plan we messed up, I made the best of the time available. Which is how life is, right? Not everything will go according to plan. If they don’t go according to plan, great. We meant getting to bed a bit later and getting up earlier to enjoy the beach and pool. So even with the limited time, I still had a great time.

What surprised me though were prices though. Malaysia used to be quite affordable for us locals. As a student years ago, I saved up enough money to go for budget trips with my friends. We call them “economy trip” then. On such trips even though we can afford a bit nicer food and drinks, we try to get as low a bargain as possible. We had a lot of fun and got a real kick out of such trips. We even bragged how little we spent back in those days.

Fast forward to today. I found that the locals are perhaps pricing things for foreigners. Those with larger purchasing power, who might not bat an eyelid to be charged US$ 80 – 100 for a room. As a result, the locals like me find things a bit steep. At such a time like this, I wish that I have more money to spend on holidays. Not that we can’t afford it but the thought of paying steep prices turns me off.

This brings me back to the point about planning and having mentally prepared to spend money. If you read back to a post I wrote titled Rich, Yet Poor, some time ago, a lady by the name of Hetty Green, a millionaire several times over but choose to life like a pauper. That is no way to live. If the sole purpose is to accumulate money without spending it, why do it in the first place. Perhaps money give people a sense of security. The more money you have in the bank means you are more secure. This argument might be true to some degree but I think it give only a false sense of security. I think most of us place our security in the wrong things and I’m guilty of it to some extent. By the way, Hetty Green is not the only one. There are quite a few of such people around.

One reason I think it happens for me is that perhaps have not drawn up this years budget. Yeah, yeah, I’m guilty of that one too. With a budget, I reckon it will alleviate such thinking as to spend as little as possible. With a budget set for things in the future, it would be easier to spend money you have. Not money you don’t have. See this article about the Rich and Stupid. Perhaps stupid is too strong. Silly would be more appropriate.

So, in closing, 2 tips here:-

1. make the best of what you have in any situation
2. make a budget and spend some fun money once a while

While the book is great in many areas, there are some areas you need to be careful about. I almost got sucked in.

I’ve written about using your time effectively and about whether you should do something just because everyone is doing it. So back to the book, the great thing about the 4HWW is there are some tips everyone can use to be more effective.

Tips that are worth reminders as we start 2010 include:-

• the 80 20 principle which is more that proven, that says “80% of any outcome comes from 20% of the effect” or also know as the Pareto principle
• Parkinson’s law (no not Parkinson’s disease) which says any task expends to fill the time allocated to complete it (this is a great one)
• to how to reduce time interruptions from co worker
• getting on a low info diet

plus many more. One of my favorite is the tip on avoiding or reducing meetings. That alone would be worth the price of the book. I’ve applied some of what I read to my own life albeit not zapping bad habits like multitasking and I would say it helps. I would certainly recommend you get a copy of this book.

On the other hand, here comes the “con” part. If you are not careful, you can get sucked into thinking you want to live like Tim Ferriss. Maybe that’s just me. I have a tendency to very quickly get convinced of ideas that moves against the popular grain.

Anyhoo, if you have found your purpose for your life, I found that the book can distract a person from that goal if applied incorrectly. Applied correctly, it will help you a ton.

One last word and I believe this is crucial point as made in the book as well as my own observation. The present believes about retirement. Even before I read the book, I already noticed that people live quite long after retirement. And if you want to do something, why not do something productive and you can still earn money after you retire. Perhaps be an advisor or consultants of sorts from your previous working experience. There are plenty of opportunities.

Personally, I can’t imagine sitting at home all day and do nothing but watch TV and surf the net. In the book, Tim talks about breaking up retirements into smaller chucks spread out over the years instead of working the best years of your life and then, when you are too old to walk, then only to visit places and see the world. I think this point is very valid. It also affects how you save money for your retirement.

I would suggest that while you want to put aside money for retirement IF you really can’t or don’t want to work (and just want to watch TV all day), you should also develop some skills and hobbies now that help you pay some bills later on.

If you are an avid gardener, how about have a class on teaching city dwellers how to garden up above in their condominiums. If you are good at photography, you can teach beginners. There are those who really don’t know basic stuff like shutter speed and f-stop. You need not be that great expert to teach the basics. Think about it and see if you can do this over the course of 2010.

Here is another article I wrote about lateral thinking for income.

I did an interesting exercise a few months ago. The exercise helped me relook at goals versus desires. I know that there are ton’s of articles and books and numerous things people talk about Goals. How you must have them, looking at them etc.

For this past year, although I wrote down some goals at the beginning of 2009, I didn’t pay much attention to them. In my last article, I share with you my insights to goals for me. This year, I really didn’t pay attention at all to what I wrote down The result at years end is that my income dropped off quite a bit. And I really need to focus in 2010 or else the income will drop further.

The reason for the drop is I’m trying to redesign myself with regards to work and income. Anyhoooow, with the exercise I did several months ago and now that I know I need to focus, I brought out the good ole “Goal Card”. The one the successful people always tell you to carry and look at every day several times a day.

I’ve done that in the past but it never worked. However, this time my card is called Goad & Desire card. It has a twist. As a result of the exercise and new understanding, I decided to write down on the Goals column, things that within my control and Desires column, stuff that I can’t.

Well the experts always say, you can control it if you work hard enough or dream about it enough aka TheSecret. (Ooh I’ll be stepping on some toes here). I believe to earn $X amount by when is out of your control. Being a sales person, with enough data, you “can” gauge the ratio of sales activity (within your control) eg calls you need to make, to result in sales. While the ratio thing does work, you still can’t control who will buy and how much. Or if you get hit by a truck and be out of action.

So, the things I can really control, my Goals everyday, will be having a positive attitude, to have faith, to be focused, to be transparent and to take bold action. The Desires (things that I can’t control but look forward to accomplishing) will be perhaps a holiday overseas, a certain level of income, a new car etc.

I invite you to consider this. I’d certainly like to hear from you if you have done something similar.

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Anyhow, I have little text files from 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005 and 2008. The most recent one is a mindmap. Not sure what happen to those in years in between. I might have them written down on some of my notes in my old journal.

Seeing my old goals was interesting. It gives you insights to who you are back then. What you thought was important. It is also interesting to see how your goals evolve over time. Some of the goals which I held on to for many years, now is no longer important. For me, I noticed that as I grow and change, priorities change. Some of the goals I accomplished much later than the date I set and I even had a goal to have a girlfriend. Yeah, right! What a lousy goal since I have no control over that and my social skills are … let’s not go there. Enough to say that the goal did not happen at the appointed time. I did find my better half over 6 years back and it been great.

Back to the point I want to make with this article. I’m at the point to putting down some short term goals and it feel a bit scary initially. Looking back, while there was a time I felt down & disappointed when I did not achieve the goal then, and somewhat kicked myself, at this point, not achieving the goals is okay with me. And I’m  beginning to see that while goals give direction, it is not the be all and end all.

I looked through some of the goals and wonder what it would be like if I got them. Perhaps it would give some new experience e.g. having a sports car and show off a lot (okay gotta keep pride in check) but other than that, I don’t see much benefit it would bring to me. Some might say, I’m trying to comfort myself. Well, maybe but I don’t think so.

Like I mentioned, goals gives direction only. That too direction can change. Looking back, while I think that goals are important, they are much overrated. They cause you to grow, to learn, to change. While the less important goals 10 years down are left on the wayside, I realized, some more important ones came true albeit later.

What about you? Do is to keep your goals list of yesteryears? How do you relate to goals after a decade of setting them?

My brother who works in Shell will be one of those at risk of being cut. Just sometime ago, I thought he had a great job, well paid and good benefits. I think this comes as no surprise but then, even as a pessimist, to me things have begun to turn around. Perhaps I was wrong. All the cash injection into the world economy might not have been enough.

Still the lesson here great as things are, it is always good to have a plan B. Or a plan C for that matter. The article is here. Develop your skills wherever you work and make those skill portable. If not, then make use of your free time and develop a hobby that can pay.

What about you? Do you have a plan B?

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So we bought tickets for the dinner, which by my standards are for the well heeled to say the least. It was a new experience for us. The event was attended by some VIPs (perhaps 10 to 20 percent of the crowd). How I knew? There was only a few of them bidding during the auction.

What I did not expect during the dinner was raffle ticket sales as well as an auction, since we already paid a handsome chunk of change to eat. I have a sneaky suspicion the event was organized by pro’s for this kind of thing. I had to say there was no hardcore pressure of any kind for us to buy anything and no, our table did not once participate in the auction.

Anyway, what I learned during the event.

Tip 1. If you want to support any cause, calculate what you can and cannot afford and stick with it. While you may feel bad if you cannot contribute, I reckon it is better than to pay the price financially and emotionally later on.

Tip 2. While you might feel you have to buy something, in this case raffle tickets, you can always spread the price out among friends instead of bearing the whole bill. This is what we did and somewhat got us off the hook for not buying any at all

Tip 3. If all else fails and you find it hard to say no, run to the gents or the ladies. No, we did not do this but now that I thought of it, I reckon I share it here.

Tip 4. If you feel pressure is over the edge, look at Tip 3 and maybe next time, you might want to reconsider supporting the cause. If you know the person well enough, then some feedback is for them will do them good too. No point raising funds now and losing the important people, the backers right.

Tips 5. Just send them a check. Then you don’t need most of the tips above.

Hope these tips on how to survive a fund raising event help you manage your funds better.

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I read this verse in the bible

Ecc 11:4  If you wait until the wind and the weather are just right, you will never plant anything and never harvest anything (Good New Bible)

which says that you cannot wait for perfect conditions to start something. This applies to everything be it to invest, to start something that’s on your heart for some time. While I always pray and kind off wait to get more information before embarking on major decisions, there comes a time to just do it. No matter how much research or information is gathered, it will never be enough. The world is changing too fast for that.

Having said that, your personality makes a difference in starting. People with a choleric temperament will tend to jump into things while a melancholic will tend to take much longer to decide.

Anyway, whatever it is, you still have to start or you will never harvest anything!

Here are five applications you can check out. http://lifehacker.com/5362829/five-best-time+tracking-applications

I got distracted from using my new camera and web surfing looking for software to do editing etc. I guess that can’t be helped to a certain extent. If I don’t know what I can or cannot produce form my tools, then I’ll eventually hit the wall. The thing is, is that I have a habit of collecting tools and information too early without being productive immediately. Then also along the way, I found myself browsing sites with nice photographs. Sigh.

Anyhow, that’s sort of behind me. Time to get back to the path. The lesson I learned here is to know a bit of yourself. Time yourself when you planned on getting “distracted”. Any new thing in your life will distract you from what you must do. Sometimes, you can’t plan it. Like when there is an accident or a new child arrives to your family.

I guess, that what Seth Godin will call “The Dip”. Any changes you do will first take you lower than where you are before it takes you higher. If at all possible, don’t take too long a dip.

1. Start a blog & make money! 
2. Join this company! It has a great reward scheme!
3. Start a business!
4. Be a business owner!
5. Migrate
6. Be a web 2.0 consultant.

and you can make some money, since it is the in thing, you should ask yourself, “Should I blog? Should I start a business? Be a consultant?”

Why? Did anyone tell you the time it takes to maintain a regular blog? Or the things you need to go through to start a business and keep it profitable? Probably not.

What ever you think is a good idea at the beginning, ask yourself this.

1. Is this something I really want to do?
2. Am I good at it?
3. Would I enjoy it?

If your answer is no or maybe, then probably not a good idea to get started.