MongKok Studytour video presentation

Just thought that I ought to post this on my blog too~

Great video courtersy of Liang Ke of AIESEC in Guangzhou

What do I see in a future partner...

A friend asked me today what I look in a potential gf.

Well, I replied her that preferably a age gap of not more than 5 yrs. Then she queried why, I replied because of mentality, she then quote me what happens if the gal is 10 years younger but had a much more matured mind; well, that kindda shake me a bit to realize that she's somehow right. I'm looking for a mature individual and age don't really matter that much; although more of the time maturity comes with age.

This incident made me realized the importance of questioning what we want rather than leaving just as it is - with a clear vision will one be able to pursue that ultimate aim.

About Canada

Interesting Advert that Felix used in his culture introduction of Canada during AIESEC Ripples Conference in HK

Post Ripples Conference Reflection (Part 1 - Macau)

Well, the 8 days in Macau/Hong Kong has flew in a flash.

Indeed it has been a testing moment, from conference application to booking of flights, accommodation, itenary. Planning for one person can be a simple task but when it expands to many people, that's where the challenge sets in.

I will write some short summaries in the following few days, today I'll start with

Macau

Attractions
A one day pre-conference trip in Macau, we visited the St Paul Ruins - seeing the magnificent Catholic architect that had left the world impressed, it had indeed been an eye opening experience to learn that more that 300 years ago such a big accomplishment can be achieved as well as gone in a flash through a fire.

The fort at the top of the hill is also a great attraction, with real cannons from the early 18th centuries (think they might work if they are loaded)

Culture
Food-wise, I found that Macau is quite similiar to Hong Kong - Canto dishes, Dim Sum and Pork Chop buns, not really exotic but still good.

Casinos - Macau is really flooded with Casinos, almost everywhere on the Macau island. It is really a sight seeing all the neons flashing and all the high pitch sounds emiting from the jackpot machines - really gets people excited.

First AIESEC overseas conference...

Feeling a tinge of neavousness

Less than 72 hours before my first AIESEC Overseas Conference
Less than 30 hours before my departure flight from Singapore
Less than 24 hours to submit my AIESEC exchange application

It's this sort of situation that makes one more aware the preciousness of time.

Anyway, watch out this blog for upcoming photos and stories~
 

Feeling inspired...

Early in the evening was the Info-talk for the AIESEC exchange. It is definitely a fruitful event as we had almost half of LKC theatre half filled, which according to some of them is much better than what we had in the previous years.

I have always found the AIESEC events inspiring in the sense that the presenters will fire you up with their charismatic as well as with the vision of AIESEC - to develop leaders of tomorrow. Indeed, I find that what AIESEC visions is what I'm looking forward to, leaders of tomorrows which has the network and skills to bring change for the better.

Well, time to tighten-up preparation for the AIESEC exchange before I leave for the Ripples conference in HK. So looking forward to the trip to Hong Kong ^_^

Time of confusion....

So many things so little time
how?! how?!
Things to settle
Urgent and important
1) FYP related matters

Urgent
1) Things to bring for HK trip
2) AIESEC internship application

Good to get done
1) Read up lectures and assignments

Have you tried using checklists?

As the new year starts, perhaps we should revise the ways that we get things done and see if there are new methods of improving what we are doing so that we could spare more time to squeeze in more fun and interesting stuff.

Boost Your Productivity With Checklists by Steve Pavlina

A checklist is a documented system, process, or procedure for completing a particular task. If you've ever followed a recipe to prepare a meal, you've used a checklist. Here are some of the benefits of using checklists to enhance your personal productivity:

* Save time - By creating a checklist, you'll save time whenever you execute the same task. It's usually easier to complete a complex task by following step-by-step instructions instead of trying to recall everything from scratch, especially if the task is performed very infrequently.
* Reduce mistakes - Checklists help you avoid mistakes, especially errors of omission, because you can check off each step as you complete it.
* Improve consistency - By executing the same steps in the same order every time, you'll achieve more consistent results.
* Optimize processes - When you document a process in writing, it's easier to recognize opportunities for improvement. Individual steps can be rearranged for more intelligent grouping.
* Delegate tasks - As easily as you can share a recipe, you can hand a checklist to someone else as a means of training him/her to perform a task.
* Reduce cognitive burden - A checklist frees you to focus on the action steps without the mental burden of remembering what comes next, so it's easier to enter the highly productive flow state.
* Reduce procrastination - A tedious or complicated task doesn't seem so bad once you've broken it down into a step-by-step process. Reduce the tendency to procrastinate by focusing on just the first step.
* Increase confidence - Quickly scan your checklist to verify that every step is complete, and avoid that sinking feeling you may have forgotten something important.

Here are some practical examples of how you can use checklists:

* Back up your hard drive
* Complete your tax return
* Handle your personal accounting (pay bills, balance checkbook, file receipts, etc)
* Perform routine maintenance on your home or car
* Write a blog entry (spell-check, proofread, select categories, etc)
* Daily routine tasks (email, forums, web sites, voice mail, etc)
* Your favorite goal-setting process
* Your gym workout routine
* Your house cleaning routine
* Your travel packing list
* Your master grocery shopping list
* Preparing for a date
* Preparing for a meeting
* Decorating for the holidays

The next time you perform a recurring task, take a few minutes to create a checklist by documenting your action steps. Checklists can be documented on paper or on a computer or handheld device, so use whichever format is most convenient for you. Over time your collection of checklists will make your life significantly easier, allowing you to get things done instead of trying to remember what to do.

You must be what you want to attract

Another empowering article from Jim Rohn, hmm, how should I apply this to my life?
This will be an on-going question...

Personal Development by Jim Rohn

To attract attractive people, you must be attractive. To attract powerful people, you must be powerful. To attract committed people, you must be committed. Instead of going to work on them, you go to work on yourself. If you become, you can attract.

We can have more than we've got because we can become more than we are.

The big challenge is to become all that you have the possibility of becoming. You cannot believe what it does to the human spirit to maximize your human potential and stretch yourself to the limit.

Pity the man who inherits a million dollars and who isn't a millionaire. Here's what would be pitiful: If your income grew and you didn't.

The most important question to ask on the job is not "What am I getting?" The most important question to ask on the job is "What am I becoming?"

It is hard to keep that which has not been obtained through personal development.

After you become a millionaire, you can give all of your money away because what's important is not the million dollars; what's important is the person you have become in the process of becoming a millionaire.

Income seldom exceeds personal development.

What you become directly influences what you get.

About ILP (Investment Linked Policy)

A question that I posted on the fundsupermart.com forum.
I though the answer is beneficial to those who are going to buy some form of insurance or do some form of investments

My Question
With regards to ILP, I had a question in mind; I heard that for ILP the premiums are invested into unit trusts and insurance charge are paid via the sales of the units - the highlight - what happens when your premium exceeds the units you had?
Do the insurance company charge
a) Difference between the premium you paid / units left and the insurance charge OR
b) All insurance charge are capped at the premium you pay?

Doesn't seemed to be the correct place to ask, but I think it's an important question.

Reply:
Hi All,

I have a huge ILP from AIA. When I purchased it, I was new to investment and didn't even know what a Unit Trust was. That was back in 1999. I am okay with an ILP concept but to be honest I am not impressed with the commission charges that are usually prevalent of in such ILP policies is ridulous. Off memory, I only had 20% of my $600 monthly premium going towards purchasing Units, and 80% to the sales person and other admin charges. However, I think new ILPs may have improved since so no need to totally discount them.

In answer to the above points:
(A) The way a typical ILP works is this. Let's say you insure yourself for $500,000. Premium is $500 / mth. On the 1st month, you pay your premium, and we pretend out of the $500, $100 goes to misc charges (includes commission, etc), and all $400 goes to purchase of Unit Trust. Then on a monthly basis, a deduction is made from the $400 of units purchased, for payment of the insurance premium, eg., 2 units pay for death insurance, 5 units for critical illness. Thus your guaranteed insuance amount if $500,000. The non-guaranteed is the units in the Unit trust that has been invested net of cost of insurance ie., the $400 - deducted unit amount. This $400 will change based on the performance of the Unit trust it is invested in. Hence over time, over many years, your insurance will 'grow' in value via guaranteed insurance payout due to death, etc of $500,000 and the non-guarantee amount $$ of your unit trust. Non-guarantee is definite payment but the amount if non-guaranteed.
(B) insurance charges are capped is a bit misleading. You pay a fixed amount say $500 / mth for the next 40 years. However, the insurance charges which are deducted from your units can increase over time. For example, my critical illness charges increase with my age, and this is defined in my policy booklet.

The problem with all the misunderstanding is I feel insurance people do not tell you the real model and they paint it as fixed $ payment over 40 years. My AIA guy actually told me that my $600 / mth payment gets cheaper as value of $ decrease over time due to inflation. He failed to tell me the increase of charge.

First Week...

Sigh~ Just barely 2 days into the final semester and I can feel the heat... arg... 4 Prescribed electives + a core + FYP. What I can say is that this is a super combination. Moreover, the subjects aren't as interesting as in the previous semester, so I think it'll take more effort to study. Strategy for this semester - be average, clear all modules and get out of NTU.

And to think that I actually go and think of doing Masters after my basic degree, I think I'll have to review that after my NS. Maybe go for some CCNP level certs first after that.

More of what I need to adapt is the change of my dinning kakis. All of them gone in a go. Haha~

I need to get myself de-stressed, drop me a call to chit-chat if you can... lol

P.S. 2 more weeks to The Ripples Conference in HK. Yahoo!

1st "pink bomb" notice for 2007

Sigh~ Just started the year 2007 and my dear friend Jason MSN this picture

on the following line, he tells me "I'm getting married" I gave him the "..." and he starts pouring in all the plans for the big day. (He's getting married this coming Oct. I'm happy for him but I'm kindda irritated, nothing to do with him though. Period.)

Dictionary of quotes

Starting a whole new dictionary of quotes for archival.

"We dream for the future and live in the present." - Jim Rohn

"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance." - Confucius

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit” - Aristotle

"There no mountain too high, ocean too wide... It's the will of the heart and the commitment of the soul..." - Moi?

"Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right." - Henry Ford

"故天将降大任于斯人也，必先苦其心志，劳其筋骨，饿其体肤，空乏其身行，行拂乱其所为，所以动心忍性，曾益其所不能。人恒过，然后能改。困于心，衡于虑，而后作；徵于色，发于声，而后喻。入则无法家拂士，出则无敌国外患者，国恒亡。然后知生于忧患而死于安乐也" - 《孟子·告子下》

"My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you I the best place for the next moment." - Oprah Winfrey

"Leaders aren't born; they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that's the price we'll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal." - Vince Lombardi

"A man can be as great as he wants to be. If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done." - Vince Lombardi

"If you want something bad enough, you will get it" - Anonymous

"Persian Officer: Fools! Our arrows will blot out the sun.
Stelios: Then we will fight in the shade!" - 300

"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're better than that!" - Rocky Balboa (The movie)

Today is a new life. Shut the doors on the past and the future. Live in day-tight compartments.”- Dale Carnegie

To Have More Than You've Got, Become More Than You Are - Jim Rohn

"You make the world a better place by making yourself a better person." - Scott Sorrell

Some IQ Test

Crappy IQ test... Well, maybe I'm complaining coz my IQ appeared low... lol

Your IQ Is 110

Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Above Average Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius Your General Knowledge is Above Average

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

How Abnormal I am...

I must be too free, taking this sort of idiotic quiz...

Should spend more time doing my project....

You Are 24% Abnormal

You are at low risk for being a psychopath. It is unlikely that you have no soul. You are at medium risk for having a borderline personality. It is somewhat likely that you are a chaotic mess. You are at low risk for having a narcissistic personality. It is unlikely that you are in love with your own reflection. You are at low risk for having a social phobia. It is unlikely that you feel most comfortable in your mom's basement. You are at low risk for obsessive compulsive disorder. It is unlikely that you are addicted to hand sanitizer.

How Abnormal Are You?

Investment education

In order for one to be in a good financial health, education is very important. In fact, I think it is so important that you should start as young as possible.

I have listed some sources for those who are pro-actively managing their fiscal aspect of their life
Financial Forum (Fundsupermart)
Articles related to insurance
School of Investments (Fundsupermart)
Adam Khoo's Book (You could get the book at most bookstores in Singapore, it's quite a worthwhile buy)

I'll update this page from time to time. ;)

WSJ Article - afterthoughs

I was reading this article on Nortel's CEO Zafirovski, his struggle to keep Nortel afloat while facing the many crisis that comes along.

Somehow, after reading, I felt inspired, it reminded me that it takes more than capability to make it to the top. One needs a strong mind, a strong will and a good strategy to as well as a hint of optimism to win the war.

Well, time to hone my skills in these areas.

Happy New 2007!

Wishing all my friends a happy 2007!