A Pain For Malaysian Parents?

The strengthening Ringgit Malaysia is not doing Malaysian parents with children in Australia any favor. Although the ringgit was at RM2.95 against US$1 recently, it stood at RM3.22 against A$1.

Teacher Carey Lee, 54, now had to fork out around RM20,000 more a year compared to 2009 when the exchange rate was 2.9. She said she might consider bringing her son back to Malaysia if he did not do well. Lee is paying around RM100,000 a year for his studies there.

Banker David Chan, 54, said there was little Malaysian parents could do. “It's painful that things cost the same on a dollar-to-dollar basis. For example, a plate of noodles costing RM5 is also A$5 there. That's RM16 after conversion,” he said, adding that his son still had four years to go in Adelaide.

Accountant Thomas Wong said he was amazed that the Australian economy was still strong despite the massive floods and fires there. He said his son's school fees had jumped from RM28,000 per term to RM32,000 in the 18 months he was there.

Writer P. Steven, 43, said his burden was eased slightly after his daughter got a partial scholarship this year. “She also moved out of the campus residence to a house. That's cheaper. She also uses a bicycle to get to campus,” he said, adding that the exchange rate was a continuous worry.

It was reported last month that there are some 23,000 Malaysian students in Australia.

With the sky-high tuition fees and expenses because of currency exchange, I was wondering why many parents still sending their children to Australia as there are already so many Universities and colleges in Malaysia itself. 

If quality is the major concern, perhaps it is very true. I would also rather send my children to Australia or United Kingdom if I'm afford to do so. But I'm not afford to, and money value we are earning is getting smaller and smaller. 

With limited income, high inflation and started to invest late, it's really no point to force myself to bear for the sky-high children oversea education fund while taking care of my retirement fund. To me, I would support local study, it's not the same quality but at least it is affordable. 

Ultimately, the career success and earn money are not all about quality, but it's rely on individual effort. 

All the best, parents.

Making A Decision

Are you good in making a decision? 

Making a good decision is not born but made. In fact, there is no good or bad in making a decision. It's all about how much time you take and how much you know about your decision made. 

The more in-depth you understand about it, the faster and more confident you will take to make a decision. For example, which stock counter should I invest in? If we know the stock counters well, we will know when and which counter we should buy. We have trained in a robotic way to make decision for daily routine.

On the other hand, most of the time we are stuck in making a decision because we don't have much detail about it, or we cannot see what is the future picture after we make the decision. We are in doubt to decide if there are too many uncertainty. For example, should I resign from my current job and join the other company because my boss treating me very bad? Will the other company's boss treating me the same way? Will I have a better prospect by joining the other company?

Decision is even harder to make, if there is a pressure behind. For example, my boss will screw me up if I make the wrong decision. Worst come to worst, I've to reimburse the loss from my salary!

We used to seek a lot of advises from experts. But sometimes, experts advises won't help much, if they don't understand the picture you are looking for. Different people have different opinions, so experts advise is based on their own opinion and experience. It's for our reference only, just like the investment tips. I used to listen to my expert friends to invest in Forex by showing me how fast the return. I hit it twice and I lost more than ten thousands dollars in just a couple of weeks.

There is always have better ways to make decision, as long as we don't give up. For me, I would think about the consequences after making the decision. I think about the worst case would happen after the decision is made. If I think this is a better decision and I can accept the worst case, then this should be it. For example, if I'm to invest in Forex, I'm taking the risk of losing all the money invested in this Forex. If I'm okay with it, then  I'll take it.

Besides, time is the most crucial component is making a decision. Of course, the faster the decision you make, the more efficient you are. However, sometimes the information we need or our thinking pop-up late. We only realized it after quite some time. In a nutshell, the more time and effort you spend to look into the source of the problem and alternative you have, the better decision you will able to make.

I hope these tips would help you make a decision better. 

Of course, we know it is a lot more complicated in making a decision in real life, especially related to your career, money or relationship. We always wish we can act aggressive and think out-of-the-box. We cannot escape but we have to walk through it anyhow. Anyway, we should be glad that this is not like the decision made in Three Kingdom which involving many human lives.

Sometimes, apart from the tips above, decision does need a little bit of luck and blessing from God. So do pray to God before you make the decision, you will be good. 

I've been thinking of a decision thoroughly for 2 weeks, and I have just make up my mind. It's very difficult, but I just have to face it. And that's why I chose to write this post and share with you today. 

Stress Release With Pillow Fight?

Are you feeling stress from your work? I'm very stress this entire week. I released my stress via listening to music and share my stress with my close friends.

Is there a better way? Well, if you are in one of the happening cities, may be you can participate Pillow Fights.

Pillow Fights is held every 2nd April in certain countries.

In this day, you can hit the person you don't like, hit the opponent you like, hit the stranger as crazy as you want. It seems to have a lot of fun. The smile from the everybody's mouth is so real.

It's too bad that it is only held once a year. If you missed it, perhaps you need to wait till 2nd April next year, or organize your own stress release day with your friends and colleagues. 

Ah ha, I pity the cleaners who will need to clean tonnes of furs and pillow after the event.

Have a nice weekend, folks!

Car Pollution Can Damage Brain?

We are generally aware that car pollution may hazarded our health. But how about our brain?

According to the recent US researches, Being exposed to highway pollution can cause brain damage in mice akin to memory loss and Alzheimer's disease. Scientists recreated the airborne pollutants that come from the burning of fossil fuels and the weathering of car parts and pavement, and exposed mice to the harsh air for 15 hours per week over 10 weeks.

The tiny air particles were "roughly one-thousandth the width of a human hair, and too small for car filtration systems to trap," but exerted massive damage on the brains of the exposed mice, said the study. "You can't see them, but they are inhaled and have an effect on brain neurons that raises the possibility of long-term brain health consequences of freeway air," said senior author Caleb Finch of the University of Southern California.

Scientists found that the exposure resulted in "significant damage" to neurons involved in learning and memory, and they detected "signs of inflammation associated with premature aging and Alzheimer's disease." The study is published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives. More research is necessary to determine if the same effects could be seen in humans.

"Of course this leads to the question, 'How can we protect urban dwellers from this type of toxicity?' And that's a huge unknown," Finch said.

With more cars increasing on the road and traffics are getting worse everyday, our healths are definitely encountering more risks compare to last time. If brain damage is another serious risk that we need to consider, perhaps going green is the only solution? 

What do you think?

A Story Of Never Give Up

It's great to hear stories from others. I would like to share with you a story of 'never give up' today, where I heard it from my friend. Never give up story makes us realized how thing can be turnaround and resolve when we are in doubt. 

"One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried disparately for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided that the animal was very old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just was not worth it to retrieve the donkey. 

He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. Everyone grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement he quieted down. 

A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing; he would shake it off and takes a step up. 

As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on the top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off."

I believe you have watched '127 hours'? Life is going to shovel all kind of dirt on you, the trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a steppingstone; we can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up, shake it off and take a step up.

Have a nice weekend, folks.