In His Time

I have so much to spend by end of this year but so little income coming in. The compulsory spending would be for my youngest sister’s wedding which will be held a day before my birthday. Not only I have to save for her angpow but I need to buy gold for her tea-ceremony session. This will be the last wedding in the family; I can’t be giving only angpow. Furthermore, I am the eldest in the family. Relatives will be whispering behind my back of I just hand to my sister angpow unless I wave to them a 4 figure cheque.

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When I see the price of gold keep on increasing, I am so tempted to convert my children’s Personal Savings account to Golds Savings account or buy gold coins because in long term, the return would be much more than the paper money. The Personal Savings account interest is so little.

Since savings for my children is for long term; they won’t be using the money until they go to college and that is another 10 to 15 years to go. Just imagine if the price of gold keeps on increasing; by them, their savings would be doubled or even tripled! I think I will go to the bank tomorrow!

My children has one blue elephant piggy bank from Hong Leong Bank. However, the piggy bank is filled with their daddy’s coin; not theirs. And they love playing with them, especially when the play with their toy cash register. Their daddy have another container on the study table is filled with rare coin. When we weren’t looking, Barnabas will climb up there and throw out all the coins in it! Children wouldn’t know the value of rare coin. To them, everything is a toy. Must get daddy to lock that container, if not the coin will really become rare and undetectable.

Many of us don’t really think about investing for our future unless and until the children come. All of us have some kind of investment to secure a good future for our children especially when it comes to their education. What more if you plan to send them abroad for their tertiary education. Besides trust fund, bond, insurance, fixed deposit, stocks, have anyone thought of buying gold as an investment?

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The other day I went out to buy breakfast with Clarissa but she kept urging me to bring her go shopping. I told her that I do not have extra money for that. She then told me that she has a lot of money. I asked. “Where?” “In my elephant” she replied. That’s hubby’s piggy bank! Thank God she did not claim our checking account hers yet!

Time is bad now, everything is increasing price and companies are looking for ways to reduce cost. I hope not through retrenchment. We all need the money to feed our children.

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What do you do to invest for your children’s future? Some say, education insurance is not sufficient because our Ringgit depreciates. The more daring ones will go for options trading. Others put some money in unit trust, bond and fixed deposit. As for me, since I do not earn as much as the rest, I still go for education insurance. Not for the return but for the assurance that if anything were to happen to me that prevents me to earn money for them, as least they have some money to future their studies locally. Apart from that, I bought an apartment for each of them. Btw, we have not buy one for our son. No money now lar.

I am finally going to be a full time SAHM pretty soon. The boss has found my replacement and I am keeping my fingers crossed that she will turn up this 15th and stay. Then I won’t feel obligated to stay any longer. Some working mom would love to have the option of working half day. Well, the fixed income will still be there but half day with my children, nothing much I can achieve except guiding them in their homework, making sure they take their nap, wake up to play and a short time for reading. No time for teaching and no time for me to prepare my teaching material. So I decided to sacrifice my “secured income”.

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Since the day my girls were born…errmmm…even before they were conceived, I have always wanted to send my girls to Ballet School. Something that I did not have the privilege to attend. It is quite costly for a middle income family then and now. If my dad were to invest in silver way before I was born, maybe he could afford to send me to a Ballet School.

Would it be too late for me to invest in gold or silver now? The price is sky high. Hubby kept scolding me for not heeding his advice years ago to invest in them.

I know a blogger that has a webstore that sells lingerie but I was so surprise to learn that another blogger friend of mine; a guy, senior citizen just started a webstore that sells lingerie too!

It seems that lingerie is selling like hot cakes over the internet. That is why he jumped into this lucrative business. He even offers to guide me on how to start one. I have to put that on hold first. I need to spend as much as my time with my children; no time to promote this kinda business.

As much as I want to own a new car, I do not want to be in debt for 9 years. Since I am no longer working full day and soon will totally stop, my income depends on blogging only which is very unpredictable. What if no one rents both my apartment, then I will be more burdened financially.

Again, I have to put on hold that dream, that desire to drive a brand new car. I have to be content with my current old junk. I was thinking, since the body of my old junk is very strong and solid, I would just get a used engine from midwest auto recycling to replace the current ones. I am sure my car can “fly” after getting a new heart.

My girls followed their uncle and grandmother to visit Shannelle (the 27th grandchildren) again.

That night after I bathe them, Belle said this…

“Mommy, we are bigger now, you must buy a bigger car.”

I wonder whether her uncles told her to tell me about it or she memang wanted a bigger car because the rest of her cousins’ daddy have bigger cars.

So I told her that bigger car is very expensive and mommy cannot afford it unless someone bless us with gold bullion.

“Oh! Bigger car is very expensive ya, Mommy.”

“Yes.”

That’s the end of our buying bigger car conversation and this is not the first time she asked for bigger car. I am sure in time to come she will ask again. Hopefully by then, we could afford too buy bigger car or even gold bullion.

With 3 children, a MIL and a maid, we can’t travel together in one car unless we own a MPV or a van. I am planning to buy one MPV but with 3 children, I am a little bit tight financially.

I am undecided whether to get a used car or a new car. With 50k, I can get a new Proton but that is just a sedan car. With that amount of money too, I can get a MPV but used car. As in terms of maintenance, obviously a Ford Radiator is more costly than a Proton radiator unless I can get them straight from the manufacturer.

If only my old junk not given us any problem anymore.

Where next after Genting? If I buy a new car, then no more vacation for a very long time. If I don’t buy a new car, we can even afford staying at Vacaciones Hoteles after a year or 2 savings.

I pray that God will really bless us financially. I can have enough for my children’s education, for a new car, and a yearly vacation. If can’t go oversea also never mind. As long as I can afford to bring my children out from here for a day or two. They are very excited about our coming vacation. They behave so well!

The children are very excited when I told them that we are going to Genting Highland to play at the theme park. “Mommy, I do not want to ride on the roller coaster. It is so scary.” Belle said. Aiya, no fun like that. I am aiming for the roller coaster. If I have more moolah, I would want to ride on a bigger and more chikek roller coaster if I can get good deals on Orlando Hotel.

Anyway, I am been using this coming trip to threaten encourage them to do their homework and behave well!

Before the maid came we were planning that once she is here we would start swimming again. The children would have to stay behind with the maid while we swim. They are too young to tag along.

Now after the maid is here, for almost 4 months already we have not step foot at the swimming pool. Reason being, the public swimming pool is quite far from our house.

Another option is to join the hotel’s swimming club. Maybe with Sports Credit Card Offers, we could get discount on the membership fee. I better give them a call. If not, no swimming until I became a huge fat lady.

Let’s do some year end reflection on my spending. This year I really swipes. A LOT! A few of the bigs ones. I upgraded my broadband to 1Mbs which comes with free PC, I bought a laptop, a LCD monitor, a leather office chair and lots of dinning out.

I thank God that I have a few credit cards. In less than 3 months time, even if I wanna get the Sports Credit Card Low APR, I can’t apply for it as I have no proof of income anymore even though I will be earning, more than my current income (I hope) coz I have no more payslip. But it is ok, I must control my spending after resigning.

Because of Belle, I sold my Kancil and drive an old junk that is older than me so that I would have extra money to save for rainy days after spending to buy her necessities.

Because of Phoebe (Belle’s cousin) who is going to kindergarten next year, her parent bought another car, a Honda. When I heard Honda, the first thing that came to my mine; the parts must be expensive. They told me that it is not really expensive. Parts like Accord Radiator is more easily obtainable and less costly compared to Alfa Romeo, the car that they thought of getting in the first place.

As Melaka (or also known as Malacca) would have its own Marine Theme Park in 2 years time, I am sure there would be an increase of marine based activities. Come to think of it, Melaka was famous for its port in the past. It was the most important port in the South East Asia region because of its strategic location. The Straits of Malacca was named after Malacca. The past is past and marine activities has decline until now. Hopefully with the Marine Theme Park, marine activities would increase in Malacca.

Talking about marines, there is one organization that is asking people to Donate Boat to the organization. Yes, boat donations. The organization is involved in helping children and youths and is looking for various supports from the public. One of the ways that they raise supports for their programs is by accepting boat donations and then sells the boat on ebay. With the sales they want to create and distribute absolutely free of charge Children’s Animation DVDS.

Maybe when the marine theme park is completed and I have my own boat or canoe. I am thinking of going for canoeing with my husband along the Melaka coast. Once we can afford a few other boats, I can Donate my Boat to Boatangel for their programs.

I came back from the bank and supper, this is what I saw, my son has fallen from the top bed! Poor boy. Instead of picking him and putting him back on his bed, this Mommy snap his pic and post it here!

Something that he can look back when he has grown up and know that his Mommy abandon him to look for money and food!

Oh ya, my transaction from Paypal to Public Bank Debit Card is successful. It took 5 working days and the exchange rate that I got is 3.3. Not bad eh. This reminds me that I need to disable the popup blocker for the Public Bank website. Irritating lar, each time I wanna key in my login id, there will be message for me to disable the popup blocker.

My girls kindy already closed for the year and I have not paid their next year’s kindy fee, books and uniform. I shy to tell the principal I have no money, so I make dunno only! :ol: Unless he can accept credit card which he doesn’t.

The amount is very big for me; almost RM1200. My paycheck will only clear on 27th so, I can’t write cheque to pay coz in my current account is left with less that RM600. If I am living in US, very easy to get fast cash. I can get online cash advance within the next working day. Since I am not, make my face thicker and pay when the school re-opens next year.

BIL just came back from Phuket Island and Pangkor Island. He sponsored his mother and MIL plus SIL. Hello! You forget to sponsor us is it?

They spent more than 15k for the both trips. I guess it must be the profit from the options trading. He is actively involved in it and did ask us whether we would want to consider investing in it. We wanted too but at that time we do not have much cash to spare to invest. If not, I think we have already gone for our family holiday or even our much awaited second honeymoon.

Money is going out really like water and I am short of cash now. I owe my children’s kindy almost RM1200 for their school fees, uniform, books and insurance. And I have my medical insurance going due this 25th! Christmas is the time of giving. Yes! Giving to the insurance company.

How can I save money on insurance arh? How to save when you need to spend? The insurance rates increases each year because our age increases each year too. I need to start hunting for better Medical Insurances Quotes before it auto renew this Christmas! I have not much time left! Argghhh!!!

December is a month of spending and my children demands of new toys added to it. I think I have pampered them a lil bit over the past few month by buying whatever they wanted when I bring them shopping; mostly toys.

This month, I can’t afford to do the same unless I win big from online casino but then I don’t gamble. Paid post, not much income with all my blogs’ page rank gone zero. So I have been saying “No” to all their request.

“Mommy I want princess bag with roller.” “Sorry Belle, that bag is very expensive.”

“Mommy, I want purple Barbie doll bag.” “Sorry Clarissa, they don’t sell purple Barbie doll.”

So far, Belle is very understanding. Just the mention of the word “Expensive”, she won’t demand for it but not Clarissa. I think it is time for me to teach the meaning for “Expensive” to her. I hope she would want to understand it. Actually, many things she understands but she refused to accept it. She only chooses to hear what she wants to hear.

My BIL own a truck and he really spends money on the truck to make it look more cool and shining with chrome truck accessories. He takes pampered the truck more than my sister! I wonder who is his first wife. My sister or his beloved truck.

Thank God hubby is not like that. To him, a vehicle is just to bring him from one destination to another. He won’t spend extra besides the basic. Good also lar; then we have extra to spend on our children’s education and some cash in the bank if the car breaks down.

Every time we meet friends or relatives, the first thing that they would ask is about hubby’s business. We tell them honestly that the business is not making a loss or does it make much profit; just enough to cover the operation cost.

Maybe we should seek assistant from Axiom Capital Group, Inc, one of Boston Investment Banking. It is a merchant-banking firm with a goal of investing directly or providing corporate advisory services, is to maximize potential return to shareholders through superior management and strategic allocation of resources. The firm’s investment-banking services include merger & acquisition advisory, capital sourcing (corporate and real estate), and turnaround services.

All of us have some kind of investment to secure a good future for our children especially when it comes to their education. Besides trust fund, bond, insurance, fixed deposit and create more blogs to write paid post, have anyone thought in gold investing?

If you look at the trend, gold has always been increasing. If it drops, only a little bit then, it will increase again. Our paper money can loose it value but I doubt gold and silver will loose it’s value. Banks are keeping gold as reserved for the paper money that they produced. Buying gold has been recognized for centuries as one of the best ways to preserve one’s wealth and purchasing power.

So anyone wanna join me?

When I was in school, I was a Girl Guide. One of our activities is visiting the old folks home and help them clean their compound and mingling around with them, making them less lonely. I had a chat with the administrator of the home and she told me that it is very challenging to run an home for the elderly. You can forget about huge profit because some of their children can’t even bother to come visit their parents, and some even don’t pay for the service. I understand that there is an assisted living software that help makes assessments, service documentation and billing easy. I wonder whether this will help her.

Well, well, well, the holiday season is here. The school holiday started today. Thanksgiving will be on November 22 then Christmas on December 25 followed by New Year 2008! This is also the mark of the beginning of spending money, buying gifts and feasting.

It is easy to buy gifts for children, just get them any toys they would be happy but for their parents, the only special gift that I can think of is the gourmet basket. Yup, FOOD!!! Don’t buy photo frame, towels, bottles, containers etc, they have lots of it. Buy chocolates, cookies and fruits, food will always makes people happy unless you have no teeth to eat lar.

A neighbour passed away few days ago. My girls kept asking me why there were a lot of cars at house, what happened, why the old lady die, why are they going to bury her and the “why” question.

One of her questions is quite interesting. “Mommy, the old lady got work or not? If she is not working, she has no money to buy her coffin, how?” Hmmm…should I tell her that she might have bought the burial policy when she is still working? Nah…Belle won’t understand what is policy and insurance. So I just tell her that she has a lot of children and her children buy the coffin for her. I also told her that when I die, she must buy coffin for me too!