How to Make Money

It's one of the books I've been reading during my summer vacation. Brings my mind back to the numerous Game Guides, Walkthroughs and FAQs that I've read to beat the computer games I used to play. Like How to Make Your First Million Zeny. But this one's for real life. And here's a useful gem from the book:

When young, put your money into savings. When married and with a family, take plenty of term death cover. With the kids at work, retain your death cover and establish an investment portfolio. When older, build up your contributions to your investment fund and reduce or eliminate your term insurance.

Paul Clitheroe, Making Money (2000)

Picture credit: bloomberg.com

The Picture Story Book

A mirror of reality.

My punctured bike tyre back in late March.
Cause: glass fragment (possibly bottle of beer). Fixing costs $8 for the new tire, $8 labour charge.

Fun before the REB (back in 1st semester), 2nd last day of exam (HP1).

A wrong choice. An example of a bad financial decision.
It's some kind of sauce+pork+noodles.
Through a friend's looking window (glass) in the city. 10:11pm, August '08.

Medical students in Brownless (corner of 1st floor) for group study, two weeks before 2nd sem exam starts.
Bored.

First Year Over

Hanging by a thread

My 2nd semester result was out today, which is actually a date postponed by 6 days from the original one set. But the wait matters not anyway; the result does.

Thanks be to God, who has been with me all through this ordeal, especially during those darkest times when I needed Him the most, and I - on my own - was least reliable. As declared by Daniel, wisdom and might are His.

My marks really do hang by a thread. At the very lowest threshold, just making it into the next grade up. And I am indeed very happy with them. 80 for NDM and 75 for HP2.
NDM = Nutrition, Digestion & Metabolism, HP2 = Health Practice 2

Picture credit: cheaplee.com

A head start?

Reminiscent of my gap half-year, which was not too long ago.

Occasionally I ask myself, have I had the upper hand while in Sabah? During my post-IB break, I at first was kind of frustrated with the overwhelming freedom that I seemed to have. Dad worked everyday. So did Mom. And my little sister did not have much of a break between stopping work and resuming study. But what about me?

That's when this blog blasted off. My MMORPG of choice then was PKO, because I thought the graphics were cooler than RO, and because my sister introduced me to it (many of the choices we make are because it's introduced by someone close, I bet). Church on Sundays, youth on Saturdays, plus some Sunday School ministry. And catch up with a few buddies every not so often. I did go to island trips which I would not have made if my friends from Peninsula did not come. And then there was work. Which is what I want to talk about.

My first ever paid job was a process server in a legal firm. Basically, that's a postman who retrieves people's signatures - you know, like those played in ice-breaker games. But the difference is that the job pays, because those people who sign are people who are sued. And within a few weeks I worked as a private tutor, teaching Form Six Mathematics T. I had only one student. Through the break, God gradually opened the way - that's how I choose to view it - and led me to tutor a total of 15 different students (in different timeslots though). My peak pay rate was unbelievable. And throughout, I maintained my delivery job. It was a time of true providence, because I reloaded my own phone and cared for my own expenses out of my own pocket.

Now that I'm in foreign land, as I ponder upon the rather smooth journey that I had, I ask, What kind of a head start did I get? What do you think?
I had my parents. They were the fundamental, pivotal factor in my time-money economy (well, after God, that is). You see, the availability of my parents' car means that I can go around and do stuff which are some distance away from the house. And they were working people with their own network of friends in the workplace. All they needed to do was talk about me, what I was doing, what I could do, etc., and soon enough I would get a student. And where do my students get tutored? At our house. And, oh, that legal firm? My aunt is there. That's why I got the job (but that's only one way of looking at it, of course).

My sense of economics is still with me. There's supply and demand, and prices linking them. I want some money now, and I want to give away some time. So I'm still hunting for jobs. God, give me something to do. By faith I ask and believe that I receive.

Happy holidays to those of you who are having it =)