Maid To Order

While the whole world is wrestling with the economic crisis, we in Malaysia are all worked up about our Indonesian maids' crisis. Kinda puts a perspective on that issue now, doesn't it?

Honestly, I do not know what all the hassle is about. For me the proliferation of the Indonesian maids over the past years have led to more problems. I personally think that Indonesian maids are more trouble than they are worth so why don't we all just ditch the 'Maid mentality'?

Nowadays, everywhere you go you can see these maids. They are in coffee shops. They are in hawkers' centres. They are in shopping complexes. Has it gotten to the point where we cannot do without these maids? I'm sure that you've heard countless horror stories about these maids. How they run away or invite those Bangladesh or Indonesian or Nepalese construction workers to have sex on your bed or how they abuse the children under their care.

Going by the law of average, I'll say that these maids create problems almost everywhere they go! Have you heard any good stories about these maids? I sure have not even though some claim that there are good Indon maids out there. Based on general consensus, I think it's safe to say that these maids bring in more problems than they solve for those who hire them. What I am puzzled by is why these same people still insist on getting the maids?

These employers know that these maids will potentially run away. They know that maids can turn out to be lazy bums. They know that the maids might even conspire with others to rob their household. They know that they can potentially abuse the children put under their care and yet these employers still want to hire them? Is this madness or what??!!

Why put your family to such risks? Why expose your precious children to abuse? Because these Indon maids are cheap to hire? Are the low wages incentive enough to carry all these risks?

If we were to go back to the basics, we should know very well that maids or household helpers are a luxury. Back in the old days only rich households have maids. If we cannot afford to hire good help then why resort to getting bad help just because the asking price is low? Can't we find other solution to the problem? Do we absolutely need these so called maids?

Due to our reluctance to make sacrifices and adjustments in our own lifestyles we are now held hostage by our own mentality. We think that we cannot survive without them, thus we agree to cut-throat conditions set up by unscrupulous maid agencies out to make a quick buck. Why subject ourselves to this kind of exploitation? Why throw good money after bad?

Even when these maids come into our household, most often than not, they cause more problems than they solve. They can't even resolve the initial problem - i.e. help lessen the burden of chores - but bring with them more problems and dump them into our lives. We bend over backwards for them and yet our own problems are not resolved. That aside, we now have to deal with even more problems! So ask yourselves - are these maids really worth the price? I don't know about you guys but for me, I would not take one in even if you offered them for free. I'll rather live with less problems in my life, thank you very much!

Demystifying MLMs

MLM. A dread word for many. A beacon of hope for some and a mysterious fog for most. What is MLM? Well, it used to be called direct selling and evolved from door to door salesperson selling their products. Of course that was way back then and people used to just close their doors when they don't want to deal with the salesperson. Nowadays, the scene has evolved and many forms of alternate 'selling methods' have come up. What is certain is that the MLM industry have this shroud of mystery surrounding it.

Here I am attempting to demystify MLM from my own experiences in dabbling with this industry. First and foremost I will need to make a disclaimer these are merely my own point of view and if you do not agree with them than you are entitled to your own opinion.

MLM has always had a bad aura about it. This is due in part to the numerous fraud and scam cases that have at one time proclaimed themselves to be legit MLM companies or establishments. I am not here to teach anyone how to tell a scam from a legit establishment. You will need to do your own research on that. The other contributing factor is the numerous tales of 'failed' ventures that are lurking out there.

So is MLM a viable option? Can anyone hope to make money in an MLM? Well, that depends. When I say MLM here, I am refering to only legit companies. If you are unfortunate enough to be caught up in some kind of scam, then I am sorry.

Back to the question - Can anyone hope to make money in an MLM? Like I said, it depends. On the individual for the most part. It's like asking - can anyone hope to make money in a business? If you set up your own business, what are the chances that you will make it? The answer is - depends. So this is not an important question to ask. The more important question will be - are you prepared to make it work?

Whenever someone is trying to recruit a new member into an MLM establishment, they will usually tell you about the good things only. They will paint everything with a rosy tint. Fact is, it has the chances of succeeding like any other venture out there. Translated it means that not everyone that ventures into a business will make it.

All an MLM company is offering you is an opportunity. Whether or not you want to work that opportunity is up to you. Think of it this way - you're going into business for yourself. To make it work, you will need to do all the necessary work - like selling, marketing, servicing your clients, dealing with difficult people and etc.

Sounds like a lot of work? You can bet your ass on it! No one will tell you running a business is easy. If you say you don't like selling then why the heck are you running a business anyway? Is it because yor upline told you that you do not need to sell? That's all hogwash! Ever saw a company survive without selling anything? Nope? Well, neither has anyone.

So it's a business venture. You take away all the hype and the rosy tint, you will find a business at the core of it. You sell the products, you get profit. You recruit and train a downline, and he in turn sells, then you get a cut in his profit as the 'trainer'. That's all there is to it. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Forget all the plan and the points they offer you. It's all window dressing. You don't sell. You don't earn. Plain and simple.

What about all the 'you can do this part time and in x number of months you will be earning y amount of money' claims, you ask? That's all a hypothetical projection of how the business can turn out. There are no guarantees that it will work exactly as it was laid out.

So get your facts straight. You wanna go into MLM? Be prepared to work a business like a rational businessman. You got to have your capital laid out. You have got to have a workable business plan. You have got to sell and market your products. How you do that is up to you but you WILL have to sell. You have got to know how to expand your business (recruiting new members). If you are prepared to do all this, then you may have a shot! Else, you ain't gonna see money coming in anytime soon.

What about friends and relatives? Doesn't the plan say that if you get x number of people in, you will start making big bucks? Shouldn't you be getting them in also? Well, let's look at it this way - You open a restaurant. You friends and family are happy for you but does not want to be in a restaurant business. Do you moan and cry that your friends and family does not want to help you in your restaurant business? No right? You go about your business as usual and look for other people who are interested in a restaurant business to help you expand.

Think about it! If you substituted restaurants for the x number of people shown to you in those so called plans, you would be making big bucks too! If you opened x number of restaurants and each of them contributed y number of profits, you will be rich too wouldn't you? Of course! But first you will have to get your first restaurant up and running before you can jump to that point.

If you think about MLM from that point of view then it's all pretty simple. It's a business and will need to be treated like one. No ifs, ands or buts!

What about the large number of people who joined MLMs but failed to get anything out of it? It's just normal. Only thing is people tend to bitch more about MLMs than any other businesses. Lots of people venture into the restaurant business and failed. Lots of people venture into bakeries and failed. Lots of people venture into retailing clothes and failed. And yet there are still lots of successful restaurants, bakeries and clothes retails outlets that are doing splendidly. You just don't hear those who failed at these businesses bitch so much about them.

There you go! MLMs demystified! If after all this you come to the conclusion that MLMs are more trouble than they are worth then just know that not everyone wants to go into business for themselves. Everyone knows that in business, you can earn much more than being employed but not everyone is willing to put in all the hard work for the profits. MLMs are no different. No one in this whole wide world will offer you something that can make you big bucks without any hard work. Things like that just don't exist. If you've heard of one, it's probably a scam!

What Values Are We Passing On To The Young?

Father's day came and went. Mother's day whizzed by about 1 month ago. After the celebrations had died down, life settled down to normal again. But what is 'normal'?

I remember a story told to me years ago. It was about a man or a father to be exact, preaching to his son about the hazards of smoking. How smoking can cause cancer and other diseases. How it pollute the environment and affect the people around them. All the while he was puffing away on his cigarette! His excuse to his son - "I cannot stop now but don't you start!" Of course the story ended with the son as much a smoker as the father. Moral of the story : Our children learn from what we do, not what we say.

I wonder how many of us realise that the saying is true. Our children observes our actions and learn from them. If we preach one thing and practices the opposite, we have no hope of teaching our young the values that we preach but not practice.

A lot of kids and youngsters today have no manners and are rude. It doesn't matter who they are dealing with. They are just rude and cocky and arrogant. Where have they picked this up? From their parents of course! You see kids at playgrounds who jump queue and push their way around. The parents are no where in sight or more accurately, don't bother to correct their kid's behavior. I'll bet when these parents are facing queues themselves, they will be jumping queue and pushing others to get their way. What's worse, these adults may even snicker and laugh at those that queue up properly. Do you really expect the kids to behave well?

Behaviors of drivers on the roads are a dead giveaway on a person's character. More often than not, you see drivers weaving their way across the highways lanes, cutting queues, not bothering to give way to others and double parking just for their own convenience thus causing a congestion. It's all a 'me first' mentality. Imagine if you have a child inside the car. He/she will learn from the way you drive not what you say.

The newspapers are also not short on stories of irate parents taking actions on teachers who supposedly disciplined their child. There may be a few cases of bad apples where the teachers are indeed out of line but more often than not, the parents are the ones that are out of line. They threaten to take the teacher to court and charge them with child abuse or what not. What does this tell our children? That they can indeed break the rules if their parents are rich enough to hire a lawyer and sue all and sundry irregardless of who's really at fault?

I am sure that all the hoo-hah in the newspaper recently about the foreign maid's issue in Malaysia has not escaped most people's attention. Take a closer look. Do you see what they are debating about? It seems that in Malaysia, foreign maids are not entitled to even a day off in a week! I truly did not know that maids have to work seven days a week as I do not have one.

How insensitive of us! We demand weekends off from our own employers and demand all sorts of perks and benefits but we deem that foreign maids are not even fit to have one day off in a week??!!

Are these maids not humans like ourselves? Must they be forced to work without breaks? Is this how we should be treating our fellow human beings? Just because they come from a poorer country and did not have as high an education as us, we can practically 'enslave' them? Is this the message we hope to teach our young??!!

I hope that after all the celebrating and the festivities, we do not forget that we are role models for our kids. We must keep in mind that all that we do and say has a bearing on our child. If we want them to grow up into responsible, fine adults that uphold justice and integrity, we must also strive to be responsible, fine adults that uphold justice and integrity ourselves.

PONG

Does the name PONG ring a bell? If it does not then it's safe to say that you are either:

1. Born in the 90's
2. Are not very well versed in the computer realm

PONG is the name of one of the earliest video games available commercially. First released back in the early 70's it quickly became a hit. Looking back at it now you would probably wonder what makes it so appealing.

The game is very simple. The graphics is also very simple. It is a simulation of a ping-pong game and on screen you would just see two paddles (which are nothing more than 2 short vertical lines), one on each side of the screen and a ball (a white dot).

The aim of the game is to score more points than your opponent by making him miss the ball. So you get this 2 lines that can only move up and down each side of the screen and a dot bouncing back and forth between them until one of the players misses the ball and score a point. Still awake up to this point?

Goes on to show how people back then can be easily entertained. Of course life was much simpler then.

For those of you wanting to give the game a try, follow the link below!

http://www.xnet.se/javaTest/jPong/jPong.html

What They Did Not Tell You...

Going through life, one would tend to come across some advices that are deemed to be pearls of wisdom that we should take to heart. I'm sure most of you have heard these oft repeated advise in one version or another but what I've found out is that they didn't necessary tell the whole story...


1. Don't play so much. Study more/work harder. You'll have plenty of time for play and leisure when you are more grown up!

The above statement is usually shouted at kids or young adults by their parents or grandparents that do not take too much a liking in seeing their young charges spending time for leisure or playing. Generally, if you're doing something that they deem to be unproductive, this is the line you get. Then you'll be sent off to study or work or do other more 'productive' work.

I've found out that when they say more grown up they actually mean when you're about 60 or 70 years of age! When you're in your teens you will get nagged to study harder and not play so much. When you're a young working adult, you're nagged to work harder to establish your career first before thinking of leisure. When you're young parents you're nagged to be more responsible towards your family and not spend so much time chasing after leisure activities. So when's the time for leisure or play? Truth is if you follow this well meaning advise you'll only find that the only proper time you have for leisure or play is when you're retired and the kids have moved out with their own families!

So screw it! Enjoy your life as and when you want to. You wanna travel the world before you settle down? You wanna try professional mud wrestling as a career? Just do it! In the end it's your life and you're the one who has to live it.


2. If you don't study hard, you'll never find a good job!

This line is thrown out to make you study hard and get straight A's in your exams. Nothing less than distinctions in every subject can get this statement off your back.

What they did not tell you is that even if you did study hard, you may never find a good job either! If you have a basic education, then finding a good job or career or making a fortune for yourself is an option open to everyone. Excelling in your academics is no guarantee nor a pre-requisite for anything in life! Especially not a good job. When you're in the workplace you will soon realise that your academics matters for naught when it comes to advancing your career. It's about who you know and how you rub each other's back. That's how you get complete ignoramuses that have close to zero knowledge of their jobs as your bosses.

Study by all means and get yourself a basic education. Then find something that you truly like to do and have a passion for. If they don't have a job for your area of passion, create one for yourself! Be an entrepreneur and find your own fortune! In the case that at the very end you did not make it big, at least you've given it your best shot and you had fun doing it! Sure beats being stuck in a job that you don't like.


3. Honesty is the best policy. Sharing is caring. Always speak your mind when you know you're in the right.

We are always asked to be the model boy scout! To be truthful and honest at all times and in doing so we will be treated likewise by other people.

What they did not tell you that this only works in an ideal world. The real world is far from ideal! Not that I am asking you to be dishonest and selfish but you should have some reservations against all those that you deal with. Co-workers or friends or even family relations. Some people can be really devious and deceitful. We have to act according to the situation and respond accordingly so that we do not expose ourselves to harm. Ever heard tales of co-workers conspiring to put the blame on you? Or your best friend stealing your sweetheart away from right under your nose? 'Nuff said!

Thus we all should take any kind of advise given us with a pinch of salt. We should see if it can be applied to us and our specific situation and then act accordingly. Don't just follow blindly.

Robbed Of Their Childhood?

Anyone seen the latest advertisement campaign by Milo? I've heard them on the radio and seen the one in the newspaper and it emphasized on one thing - play.

The ad seemed to want to encourage parents to let their children play more. The radio ads featured the dads of Nicol David and Ester Cheah saying how their daughters benefitted from playing. I tend to agree with them. It's sad to see that nowadays parents are more concerned about how their children do academically than anything else.

Playing is almost out of the question for these parents. Who has time to play? More and more you hear parents sending their toddlers off to pre-school programs catering to children as young as 3 years old! There are programs to 'open up' their brains so that they can excel later on in their studies. Those kids whose brains are 'opened up' allegedly can do wonders like speed read with total comprehension and re-collection of articles that they flipped through in a book or magazine and even see through humans that block their view of a TV set!

So before a child even step foot into a kindergarten, then have go through 3 years of pre-kindergarten schooling. Then when they go to primary school, they will have tuition classes to attend, then piano lesson, then foreign language classes and what not!

Wow! It tires me even to read their schedule much less live them. No wonder the playgrounds and fields are deserted. By the time the child finishes all that academic education, it will be night already. It's sleep, school, extra-classes and homework day-in and day-out for these kids.

Imagine the stress these kids go through. They cannot just be kids and go out to play most of the time. So is it any surprise that a majority of these kids have bad eyesight, lack social skills and obese?

Maybe it's a good idea to take a hint from these ads. We should let our children play more.

Gambling or Gaming?

In the papers today, I read a reader's letter that states that gambling is okay and is not illegal. That if one earns his/her money legally and chooses to gamble away his/her earnings, then he/she is well entitled to it. The author of the letter also likens gambling to drinking coffee. He says that some people may need more than a cup of coffee to get them through the day and likewise some people need to gamble to get them through the day or week or month. Like a way to release stress or something.

Well, I do agree that no one has the right to stop anybody from gambling away his/her earnings but to condone the act of gambling is a little bit too far for me. You see, there's a distinction between sitting at a blackjack table to play the game and sitting at a blackjack table to gamble.

When you are playing, you're merely there to enjoy the game. When you are there to gamble, you're hoping to win other people's money. That's a big difference!

As with every game, there's a cost of entry to play it. If you play tennis, then you have to buy yourself a tennis racquet, tennis balls and rent the court to play. These are costs the game incurs. When you play blackjack at a casino, you don't need to buy any equipment buy you have to fork out some money as your ante. When you win at tennis, you have the satisfaction of beating your opponent but when you win at blackjack, there's hardly any sense of achievement as luck plays a big part. So to make the game a bit more interesting, they offer you a reward for winning, i.e. they will pay you a sum equal to your ante when you win. Take away the money from blackjack and it will quickly become a boring little game after a few rounds.

If you treat it as a game, you will know when to stop. At tennis you will stop when you're tired or when you've run out of money for to rent the court. When playing blackjack, you can stop when you get tired of the game or when you've run out of money for your ante. If that's the way you play blackjack, then's all is fine and dandy. You know that in order to play, you've got to fork out some money as the game incurs costs. So you play only for entertainment and you pay a fee for it. Just like going to the movies - you pay the tickets and go into the cinema to be entertained.

Problem arises when people start to be greedy. Since the game of blackjack or any game for that matter, offers a reward in cash for winning, some people may be playing in order to win some money. They go in and hope to make a profit from it. So they dish out their cash but they have no intention of losing the money. They only put it up to win money from the casino. That's when it becomes gambling. You're no longer playing for fun and entertainment. You playing because of your greed to win other people's money.

Now logically, trying to win at a game where luck plays a big part is a fool's errand. Odds will tell you that you can lose just as easily as you can win and there's no way to to tell when you will hit a winning streak and when you will hit a losing streak. Statistics will be of no help at all. But unfortunately, humans are not logical creatures. They are emotional creatures. So they will not listen to their brains.

When they lose the money they will get more and more desperate. This is because they are not prepared to lose the money. They need the money for something else. They are merely using it as ante to win more money. So the more they lose the more desperate they are to recover it. The game now shifts from winning extra bucks to winning back the sum they've lost. But there's a problem - you can't play when you have no money. So what to do? Solution - borrow money to play. As soon as you win back the amount you want plus the amount you borrowed, then you can stop. But what are the odds of winning? Sorry, logic has no place when a person is an emotional wreck like this so logic gets shoved out the window and the player continues to play with borrowed money. Disaster will soon loom.

The above scenario is when a person is losing money. What if a person is actually winning money? The odds are there right? Of course they are! So hey! Suddenly these gamblers are winning. Fine and dandy if they know to stop when they are ahead. But most times these gamblers are greedy. If they are not, they would not be gambling in the first place! When have you ever heard a greedy person say that they have won enough? So they continue to play in hopes that they continue to win but you can't keep winning. The game is not set up like that. You can't depend on skills nor strategy nor stamina to keep up your winning streak. All you have is luck and they say luck is a fickle lady so you're bound to lose if you continue playing. Thus the vicious cycle continues.

That's why I don't approve of gambling. If you're just gaming, then by all means go and enjoy your game but I cannot condone gambling. If you've ever done any research you will know that gambling has caused only grief and suffering. So don't gamble. It's not worth it and you're never going to see your money again.

You may ask me then how does a casino stay profitable if gambling leads only to losses in the long run? Dear readers, know that casinos are running a business. They are not gambling in the least sense of the word. They are merely providing you with a venue so that you can gamble. No one runs a business to lose money. With their huge capital investment, they can afford to have economies of scale. They do not go one-on-one against you. They have scores of blackjack tables running at the same time. They cover their losses on certain tables with winnings from other tables and they ensure that when the losers have paid the winners, they still have some balance left. In essense the casinos are trading. They buy low and sell high and keep the balance. That's business and there's a strategy to keep them winning unlike those who are gambling and depending purely on luck.

How To Get Out Of Debt

If you have been reading the papers lately, you would have seen the hoo-hah about the "Along" highlighted by the media. The "ahlong" or loansharks have been told to surrender themselves or face being exposed by the police.

There has been much arguments on whether the police are doing the right thing or not. I am not going to touch on whether the police are right or wrong. Rather I am going to touch on how to get out of debt.

The problem with these "alongs" arises when debtors cannot pay up. To retrieve their money these "alongs" will then resort to all types of tactics and some are downright illegal. So how to do avaoid these troubles? Easy! Stay out of debt! Then the "alongs" will not be able to do anything to you.

Now comes the more important question - how to stay out of debt? Easy! Live within your means! If you earn RM100 then do not spend more than RM100. Basic enough right? Logically, this should be a no brainer but unfortunately we humans are not logical creatures. We are emotional creatures and being emotional creatures we listen to our hearts more than we listen to our brains. Thus the problem arises.

When we see other people living the good life, we also want to live the good life. It matters not that we cannot afford the good life. It also matters not how other people are financing their good life. It's like monkey see, monkey do. They have, we must also have. So when they - whomever they may be - drives a big car, we also want to drive a big car.

So logic goes out the window when the green-eyed-monster takes over. We find ways to live the good life and care not even when those ways makes no logical sense. We borrow. Borrow from the banks in the form of loans - car loans, house loans, personal loans and also credit cards. To make matters worse credit cards are easily available and it matters not that the interest rates are sky high! Logic no longer appeals when you can drive the car of your dreams and live in the house of your dreams and wine and dine like kings! But many fail to realise that their dreams are built on a house of cards (credit cards to be exact) and it will soon come tumbling down as houses of cards are wont to do.

When one cannot repay the legal financial institutions, one may resort to illegal ones, namely the "alongs" in the story. They borrow from these "alongs" to repay the banks but logic will have it that if you cannot repay the banks, how are you going to repay the "alongs"? You've only dug another hole to fill in the previous one you have excavated. End result - there's still one huge gaping hole to refill.

Here's where an age old saying will reveal its wisdom - "When you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you do is stop digging!"

This means stop spending! It's time to review one's spending habit as there must be something wrong with it for it to have gotten oneself into a rut. It's time to cut up all your credit cards and then try to see if you could consolidate your debts. Get professional financial help if needed. In Malaysia there this thing called the AKPK (Agensi Kaunseling & Pengurusan Kredit) that gives free financial consultation.

If you can't afford the car, then sell it. If you can't afford the house then sell it and rent a cheaper place if needed. If driving a big car and living in a big house causes one to be mired in debt then it only makes sense to be rid of those things.

Use cash only. This is a great way to teach oneself how to budget. If you don't have the cash, you can't buy the item, period. Whatever it may be. So if it's a battle between food and a fancy dress, then let's hope one has enough sense to buy food first. If not then a couple of days of going hungry will quickly make the dress lose its appeal!

Then you will need to work out a way to repay the debts - it will be a slow and painful journey but those who presevere will taste the freedom of being debt free at the end of that journey. After that it's back to the basics again. Now that one is debt free, the next step is to stay debt free - i.e. living within one's means. One will never, ever go into debt if one spend only RM100 when one earns RM100. At most is one will not have any savings - but that's a much better position to be in rather than in debt.

The next step is savings. How to save? Easy! Don't spend all that you have! If you have RM100 then spending RM99 only will gain you a savings of RM1! Now, you're accumulating wealth! Big, big step from being in debt! Only thing is one must remember not to spend the savings senselessly. Also one must save first before one spend.

After a period of time saving, you will find yourself with a sum of money. Now you must decide what to do with that money. If you want to spend it pampering yourself, you're welcome to do it. At the very least it won't land you in debt. Though the wiser among us will usually invest the money so that it can in turn generate more money. If you learn to invest, then you've taken yet another step up in the financial education ladder - growing wealth.

These are the basic steps to becoming debt free and ultimately becoming wealthy. It's no rocket science. Of course those who are experts in growing wealth will teach one to use OPM (Other People's Money) and OPT (Other People's Time) to create and grow your own wealth but those methods are not without their own pitfalls and they still utilises the same basic principles.

Don't live above your means. Dont spend all you have. Save some money. Sounds like advise your grandfather gave you when you were in primary school now, doesn't it? Truth is, you've learnt all you need to learn about money back then, so put it to good use!