How to Retire

--- Something interesting to share that will definitely be happening for us, "the young ones", just round the corner !!! A very pragmatic approach…............ HOW TO RETIRE 4 Pre-Conditions for Retirement I retired in year 2000 at age 52. I am now 61, thus I can claim that I got more experience at retirement than most! I thought I should share my experience with mariners because I have seen too many friends and neighbours who became so bored that they have become a nuisance to their spouse and children and to others! A few of them have solved the problem by going back to work. They were able to do so because they have a skill/expertise that is still in demand. The rest (and many are my neighbours) live aimlessly or are waiting to die - a very sad situation, indeed. You can retire only when you fulfil these 4 pre-conditions: Your children are financially independent (e.g. they got jobs), You have zero liability (all your borrowings are paid up), You have enough savings to support your lifestyle for the rest of your life, AND most importantly, You know what you would be doing during your retirement. DO NOT retire till you meet ALL 4 Pre-Conditions. And of course you should not retire if you enjoy working and are getting paid for it! The problem cases I know of are those who failed to meet Pre-Condition #4. When asked, "What would you be doing during your retirement?" some replied, "I will travel/cruise and see the World". They did that, some for 3 months and then ran out of ideas. The golfers replied, "I can golf every day." Most could not because they are no longer fit to play well enough to enjoy the game. Those who could, need to overcome another hurdle - they need to the find the "kakis" to play with them. It's the same with mahjong, bridge, badminton, trekking and karaoke - you need "kakis"! Most could not find others who share their favourite game and playing/singing alone is no fun. AND when they do find them, a few of them found that they are NOT welcomed like my obnoxious neighbour whom everyone avoids. Thus if you are into group sports or games, you must form your groups BEFORE you retire. You need to identify your "kakis", play with them and discover whether they "click" with you. The less sporty "can read all the books bought over the years". I know of one guy who fell asleep after a few pages and ended up napping most of the time! He discovered that he did not like to read after all. We do change and we may not enjoy the hobbies we had. Routine Activities To Fill Your Week For most people, your routine work activities are planned for you or dictated by others and circumstan ces. When you retire, you wake up to a new routine - one that you yourself have to establish as nobody else would do it for you! The routine to establish should keep your body, mind and spirit "sharpened". A good routine would comprise: a) One weekly physical sport - you need to keep fit to enjoy your retirement. If you are the non-sporty type, you should fire your maid and clean your home without mechanical aids. Dancing and baby sitting are good alternatives. b) One weekly mind stimulating activity - e.g. writing, studying for a degree, acquiring a new skill, solving problems or puzzles, learn or teach something. You need to stimulate your mind to stay alive because the day you stop using your brain is the day you start to die. c) One weekly social activity - choose one involving lots of friends/neighbours. Get yourself accepted as a member to at least 3 interests groups. Unless you prefer to be alone, you do need friends more than ever as you get older and less fit to pursue your sport. d) One weekly community service activity - you need to give to appreciate what you have taken in this life. It's good to leave some kind of legacy. With 4 weekly activities, you got 4 days out of 7 covered. The remaining 3 days should be devoted to family related activities. In this way, you maintain a balance between amusing yourself and your family members. Any spare time should remain "spare" so that you can capitalise on opportunities that come your way like responding to an unexpected request to do a job or to take advantage of cheap fares to see places or to visit an exhibition. Mind stimulating activities Most judges live to a ripe old age. They use their brains a lot to decide on cases. I am sure MM Lee's brain works overtime. He's 80+ and still going strong. In "Today" you would have read of 2 inspiring oldies. One is a granny who learned to play the guitar at age 60 to entertain her grandchildren. She's 70+ today and those grandchildren have grown to play with her. Another is an Indian radiologist who on retirement, qualified as an acupuncturist. He's age 77 and still offers his services (by appointment only) including free ones to those who have no income. I guarantee you that they are happy people who discovered a "2nd wind" to take them to the sunset with a smile on their faces. Mind stimulating activities are hard to identify. They require your will to do something useful with the rest of your life, a mindset change and the discipline to carry it through. Your Bucket List Despite your busy routine, you will at times be bored. Then it's time to turn to your Bucket List. Your bucket list contains a list of things to do before you kick the bucket. They are not routine and are usually one off activities. You need them to have something to look forward to. These include anniversaries, trips (and pilgrimages) , visits to friends and relations abroad, re-doing your home, attending conferences (related to your hobbies), acquiring a new set of expertise. 4 such activities that are spaced our quarterly would be ideal. Retirement Is A Serious Business If you can afford to retire and want to, do prepare to live to your fullest. You need to be fit to enjoy it - therefore get into shape now. You do not want to get up on a Monday and wonder what to do each week, therefore identify your set of weekly routine activities now and try them out to confirm that they are the activities that you will be looking forward to doing each week, week after week. You bucket list of "rewards" or "projects" or "challenges" is needed to help you break away from the routine thereby make live worth living. Start listing what you fancy and refine it as you chug along in your retirement. You will have so much fun, you would wish you were retired since your turned 21!

My engagement day (Saturday, 23rd October 2010)

(1) After 3 years of knowing each other and 5 months in serious relationship, finally my girlfriend and I moved on further in our relationship with an engagement ring :)

(2) The ceremony last Saturday took place at her family's house in Telok Panglima Garang.

(3) Thank you for being the one for me, my dearest girl! :-D

GUIDE TO A BETTER LIFE

GUIDE TO A BETTER LIFE   This is amazing, Randy Pausch 47 yrs old, a computer Sc. lecturer from Mellon University died of pancreatic cancer in 2008, but wrote a book ‘The last lecture” before then, one of the bestsellers in 2007. What a legacy to leave behind… In a letter to his wife Jai and his children, Dylan, Logan, and Chloe, he wrote this beautiful "guide to a better life" for his wife and children to follow. May you be blessed by his insight. POINTS ON HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE Personality: 1. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about. 2. Don't have negative thoughts of things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment 3. Don't over do; keep your limits 4. Don't take yourself so seriously; no one else does 5. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip 6. Dream more while you are awake 7. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.. 8. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner of his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness. 9. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others. 10. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present 11. No one is in charge of your happiness except you 12. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime. 13. Smile and laugh more 14. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree. Community: 15. Call your family often 16. Each day give something good to others 17. Forgive everyone for everything 18. Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6 19. Try to make at least three people smile each day 20. What other people think of you is none of your business 21. Your job will not take care of you when you are sick. Your family and friends will. Stay in touch. Life: 22. Put GOD first in anything and everything that you think, say and do. 23. GOD heals everything 24. Do the right things 25. However good or bad a situation is, it will change 26. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up 27. The best is yet to come 28. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful 29. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it 30. If you know GOD you will always be happy. So, be happy. While you practice all of the above, share this knowledge with the people you love, people you school with, people you play with, people you work with and people you live with. Not only will it enrich YOUR life, but also that of those around you. Remember, GOOD THINGS ARE FOR US TO SHARE.....!!!!!!

 

Pencil vs Camera - Creativity at its best!

Tsunami at workplace

(1)     Suddenly, a ‘tsunami’ is raging inside my workplace, when few ‘hardcore’ persons inside several sections in my workplace tendered resignation letter.

(2)     It started with a dear friend from Stamping, one from QC, and suddenly two persons from my section, one is an executive level.

(3)     It was said that whenever somebody resign, it will usually initiate a wave of resignations. This in my opinion happened due to uneasiness inside co workers, which has been kept and built up throughout their working days..waiting to be released. When a ‘spark’ created, it initiates a wave of unstoppable fire spreading. When you see somebody’s ‘misery’ being lifted up, you feel that you want to taste how he/she feels, and quickly search for an opportunity to do so.

(4)     Like it or not, this is the usual scenario happening inside a workplace, especially in factory/manufacturing environment. People, especially younger generation will not hold on to a job for very long, unless the have a reason to do so (marriage, family commitment, contract etc).

(5)     Some people said that works are all the same, regardless which company you are in. I’ll say this is true, but searching a job that will most suit you is important too. One can’t work with full efficiency with a sense of dissatisfaction on their job or workplace. For example, relationship with co workers, type of job, benefits being given to them etc.

(6)     However, it most difficult to satisfy a human being..and this is a fact that nobody can deny. And there is no guarantee that you new workplace will give enough satisfaction that you crave for. The only thing you can do is to list down all merits and demerits, and consider which one is better. My advice is not to be too eager when deciding to change your job. Your mind and body health are at stake! Remember, money isn’t everything…eventhough I constantly try to remind myself of this.

(7)     If a company can give you flexible time…you can go to pray anytime you want, go back home without much problems stuck inside your head, you feel comfortable with your co workers..then for me this should be the workplace that you should choose, rather than receive tremendous amount of money..but having to ‘sell your soul’ for the sake of the company.

Bill Gates speech: 11 rules your kids did not and will not learn in school

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it! 

Rule 2: The world doesn't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself. 

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both. 

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. 

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity. 

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them. 

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room. 

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life. 

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time. 

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs. 

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Wisdom Words..

"Islam mengagungkan ilmu;
mencarinya sebagai ibadah,
belajarnya sebagai tasbih,
menelitinya sebagai ijtihad
& mengajarnya kepada org lain sebagai suatu sedekah"

Sayyid Sabiq