About Me

Dear readers,

I was an IT executive for a year and currently I'm working as a control engineer. My journey as a working adult has made me realize that there are unprecedented wealth of knowledge in the world and I've barely scratched the surface of it. 

Not long ago I came across the psychological concept called the Dunning-Kruger effect. It essentially illustrates the cognitive phase of people throughout their journey in gaining knowledge. 

Safe to say that in these past two years, my experience as a working adult has humbled me in many ways. I now have a newfound respect for people who are really grinding their way to make ends meet. My admiration for them grows deeper especially when they have found their true calling in what they do. I too aspire to find my own meaning in life and live through it in full content; Living through my own Ikigai.

At this current stage, "Valley of Despair", I have trained myself to be an open book. I've set aside all feeling of self-entitlement and to really accept constructive criticism in going through the learning curve of life. I'm willing to learn everything and anything in life and I humbly ask for your guidance. 

In the current state of the world right now, the only thing that keeps me going is my family. They are my strongest WHY. The reason why I wake up in the morning and work. The reason why I strive to be a better person and practice the habit of aggregation of marginal gain. The strongest WHY to get me through any hardships in this world.

I seek to throw myself out there and squeeze all the opportunities that life has to offer. I appreciate all guidance and help that I can get and looking forward to more adventures ahead!

Things I Want To Do

Hello world,

I'm a huge fan of the idea of optimization. Anything optimization related can get me excited and that includes, the idea of refurbishing, restoring or recycling. Thus, I want to list the activities that I would like to do or learn because I feel like this will give me happiness.

1. Urban farming and aquaponics
2. Repairing/refurbishing laptop, desktop, phones and gaming consoles.
3. Car maintenance/upgrade.
4. Home automization for efficiency
5. Health activity progress.
6. Furniture and general carpenting.

Here's the list that I could came up at this point of time. I wish to be the jack of all trades in these areas because I will feel happy if I can create things using my hands.

Thanks for dropping by!

Identity

Hi friends,

Have you ever wondered who you truly are? If you were to describe yourself, how would you put it into words?

I've been referring to few key interest in my life as my 'life bubbles'. However, recently I've been listening to podcast about life optimization and they were discussing about the the idea of designing your life. Part of the conversation stems around focusing on doing the things that reinforce your identity.

Identity here essentially means the meaningful things you do most in life.

I think that this is the more appropriate language for me to use when describing my 'life bubbles'. Now, what's my identity?

I want to be a runner, a personal finance enthusiast, a macro-value investor, an optimizer in life and a nice person.

That is what I want right now.

What's your identity?

Pulling Your Lever

Hi friends,

I just cut my nails and now it feels so comfortable to type on my keyboard!

I've been trying to get myself to listen to podcast again. I really love the idea of having background sounds to fill-in the silence while also teaching me a thing or two about life.

Recently, I've been binge listening to The Motley Fool content. In general, their topic of discussion revolves around personal finance, investing, and a little bit of insight into the whole causes and effects of the economy. 

One of the things that I distinctively remember in one of their episodes was about your ability to "pull the lever" in order to react based on your current financial circumstances. 

Some simple examples of pulling the lever includes, cashing out any profitable investment to keep extra cash at hand or to divert all incoming dividends income towards your emergency fund to beef up your cash cushion. These are the most typical lever that you could pull in order to sleep better in this tough times.

After listening to that episode, it gave me the motivation to take advantage during this crisis. Things will ultimately get worse before it gets better. As of right now, I am consistently deploying extra cash into my emergency fund and into the market. The amounts are small but I believe that building this habit will instill proper attitude towards building wealth. This is the lever I chose to pull.

Making progress in this matter is the only thing I look forward to everyday.

I hope you have your own thing to look forward to after pulling your lever in life. Cheers!

Al-Insyirah

Hi friends,

Fear has engulfed me this past few days. I'm constantly worried about many stuff.

1. Facing a berated supervisor.
2. Not performing at work.
3. Getting fired.
4. Living through this excruciating work for the rest of my life.
5. Getting sick.
6. Family getting infected with the coronavirus.
7. Family losing their source of income.
8. Living through a cycle of stress due to inconvenient circumstances created by this constant worry.

I boast myself to be the source of positive vibe. I like to believe that I have a positive factory within me that can constantly churn out positivity whenever I need some morale boost. However, lately it seems like churning out those positivity seems to get a little bit harder as day goes by. 

I wish for many things right now so that I could feel better about myself and for the things around me. But I know nothing will come if I don't work for it.

So this is me telling myself, to trust the process. To go through the learning curve of adapting to life, to the best of my ability. Or at least as consistently as I can possibly commit. 

Because for every hardship comes ease. Verily, with hardship comes ease.

Idea Of Being Energy Efficient

Hi friends,

I hope you are doing well. I hope that this pandemic hasn't extinguish that flame hope for a better future. News are getting scarier by day. Best for us to block the negativity and focus on the things within our control. Practicing good hygiene, having a still mind and always on the move making progress in your everyday routine. 

In the spirit of making progress, I'm here today to write about some ideas that I've been having in mind. Ideas that spurs based on real life situation that forced me to think about what I can do to make everything a little better. 

The weather is getting hotter here in Malaysia and it seems like the heatwave is never ending. I can feel that it's getting worse because I've been sweating just by laying in my bed. As such, this has got me thinking, "Why is my room so hot?"

The most prominent reason that threw itself at me was that my room has poor ventilation. It only has one large window but that window is most of the time kept closed. Since the window is just beside my bed, keeping it open when I'm asleep would be a huge safety hazard. That's why, I have came up with several solutions to overcome this problem. I may or may not act on this solution because I don't have the financial means for that. But I do like to think about this because it gives me some sense of satisfaction.

Since the biggest constraint in this situation is the financial means, lets start with the easiest most cost effective ways of solving the heat problem in my room. Then, we'll gradually proceed with other potential solutions that could be better than the cheaper alternative.

1. Putting an exhaust fan. The purpose of an exhaust fan is to draw hot air out from your room. So ideally, an exhaust fan should be placed at a higher level and facing towards the side of the building with the largest wind blow. Hot air rises and thus the exhaust fan will suck the air out from the room and be carried away by the wind. In theory, this should at least balance out the temperature inside and outside of the room. If we want to go a step better, you can opt for a dual direction version of an exhaust fan. Not only it can suck air out from the room, it could also suck cold air in from the outside at night time. The best way to operate this is to attach a timer that automatically changes direction of air intake every 12 hours.
2. Evaporative cooler system. I got this inspiration after buying a mini air cooler. The idea behind this evaporative cooler is that there's a damped layer of honeycomb textured paper behind the blade of a fan. So when the blade spins, it pulls the "coldness" from the damped honeycomb layer. Thus, blowing cool air. This takes a step higher than an exhaust fan because there's a step incorporated that tries to introduce cool air in a room. However, the challenge on operating an evaporative cooler is that it needs water to dampen the honeycomb layer for the presence of cool air. Hence, for the system to be fully automated, it needs to be connected to a water source where a buoy can control the amount of water in its tank. Slightly complicated but works significantly well than a regular fan. There's also the aspect of ensuring the water is cooled for maximum cooling effect. Easiest way is to put cool substance such as frozen bottle of liquid and change it from time to time. If you'd like to push this idea a little bit further, you can create another system for creating this chilled water by running the water underground, storing it in a tank, let the heat from the water dissipate into the ground, then pumps the relatively chilled water back up into the evaporative cooler tank. Another aspect to think about when installing an evaporative cooling system is to decide on the cool air distribution into the room. Will it be through a duct being wrapped around the walls of the room or from a central opening to the middle of the room? Considerations such as air volumes, dead zones and cooling time should be examined here. Personally, since my room is small, a single blowing vent is enough to keep the room cool with the expense of air circulation. However, a simple wall mount fan could easily increase air circulation.
3. Mini air conditioner. Air conditioner is pretty self explanatory but I don't prefer the typical split units you see in the market. If I could, I want an AC that doesn't consume a lot of power and it should be as efficient as possible. But usually the only logical AC that fits this mold is a portable one and even then, it still has its limitations such as slow cooling effect relative. 

This whole post might seem an overkill for a simple problem. One could easily put in a good quality ceiling fan and get it over with. However, my dream is to have my own system of ventilation that perform its function well while being energy efficient. I dream of connecting it to a solar system that comes with huge packs of batteries. For the time being, I dream to have a separate solar system where it could just be a few panels hooked up to a solar generator. I feel like that could be a good start before having a total solar system integrated with a house and the grid. 

That's all the thoughts I have to write today. Thanks for reading, friends. Stay safe!

Pause And Some Reflection

Hi friends,

Lets take a pause so that I can reflect on my game plan in investing.

I'll ask myself a series of questions that would help convey a good idea behind my journey towards financial independence.

As I'm starting to write this, the time is 4.38 PM. It's 30th March 2020 on Monday. Typing from the sofa of my livingroom due to this Restriction Movement Order (RMO).

What do I really want right now?
I want to come out ahead in this recession.

How do I mean by that?
I want to be part owner of a good business that gives out dividends and appreciate in price over time. Buy low, hold, collect dividends, sell high.

Why do I want it?
I want to be ahead in this recession because I see this as the best and rare opportunity for me to build my wealth. The earlier I start, the lower the share price I buy, the better the chances for me to succeed.

How do I plan to do this?
I plan to dollar cost average throughout this recession. Ideally, committing to a weekly purchase but also setting aside some reserve for lump sum capital deployment when share price hits a certain lower limit. The lower the price goes, the bigger the lump sum payment I plan to commit.

Where am I getting the capital?
30% out of my salary and dipping into savings for the small lump sum deployment.

Why do I want to be rich?
I don't want to be financially dependent on other people. I don't want to live paycheck to paycheck. I don't want to owe anyone before getting money. I want to live off of my investments' dividends. I don't want to get taxed because I prefer community donations. I want a passive income.

What will you get out of this?
I will get the peace of mind because I will be stable financially. I will expand my options in terms of careers. I will also expand the activities in life and experience.

In conclusion, this recession is also the best time for me to build a habit of committing to a framework in regards to investment.

That is all. Thanks for reading!

Opportunist

Hi friends,

I hope you all are in good health. This pandemic is really making me anxious as I think about what's going to happen to the world moving forth.

I recently watched Contagion where it tells a story about a pandemic and I have two key take aways from the film.

First, they destroyed Gwyneth Paltrow for me. I hate her character in the movie.

Secondly, I feel like the caharater Jude Law is playing in the movie is the perfect embodiment of the idea of an opportunist. Hence, the inspiration of this post for today.

Growing up, I've always believed that I can be a billionaire one day. All throughout my teen life, I would do whatever I can to work towards being a billionaire. Back then, I would save more than half of my allowances and I rarely splurge on myself. In fact, my goal was so ambitious, I didn't just want to be the richest person on Earth, I want to be so rich that it extends the denomination of trillionaire. Quadrillionaire or quinitllionaire maybe? 

However, as I grew up, I wanted to make a concrete plan on making the right step towards becoming a billionaire. As I chart my plan, first by breaking it up to making a million, then breaking the sums down to the amount it takes to garner that million within five years time, and then I break it down further into the monthly income that I need to achieve in order to meet the goal, I realized that the idea of becoming a billionaire is absurd. It's so farfetched to me and I can never be one. 

This realization hit me quite hard. My thought went paralyze as I kept dwelling into the fact that there is no way I can reach my dream that I've been chasing after ever since my teenage days. Took me some time to finally accept this fact and keep moving forward with my life, searching for something more realistic as a goal. 

As I dig deeper into the ways that I could still be rich, I slowly learned that what's important is the journey. Every simple decision in life, every routines, the frame of mind in approaching the goal, those are the most essential trait to have. Because life is not just about the destination, I would argue that the progress, the journey, the adventure would be more meaningful at times. That's what makes the destination even more special.

I understood that the process towards being wealthy starts with a shift in the frame of mind that accepts that there is no shortcut. To be wealthy, most often that not, it involves proper planning and consistency. In general, that is the key. However, on a rare occasion in a lifetime, opportunity knocks on your door and you have to act quick to get them.

The the character that Jude Law plays in the movie grabs the opportunity infront of him and milk them right to the core. Earning him plenty of wealth in the process. It is acknowledged that some of his method questions one's moral compass, but if you look further into the idea of how he thinks on the repercussions of the current cataclysmic event, it proves that you can do some preparations now in order to get ahead especially in times of economic turmoil. 

If there's any takeaways that I want to emphasize in this post is this, if you can think of the causes and effects of a certain situation, and link that train of thoughts to other sector/segments of the general economy or a broader idea, you could almost identify the opportunity slots for you to slide in and benefit from it. I think that's my current interest for now. It's about learning to invest from the viewpoint of macroeconomy where one have to combine the fundamental and technical analysis skills, understanding the cyclical/seasonal cycle, identifying the business stages, predicting behavioral finance/economics and etc. I believe that the progress towards wealth will be more meaningful to me if I can manage to connect the dots, solve the puzzle and be wealthy from it.

A very simple example from the movie is snatching the healthcare and food&beverage stocks before a pandemic is declared.

I'm currently in love with this idea.

Anyway, that is all for today. Stay safe, my friends. Don't forget to take care of your hygiene and practice social distancing.

Thank you.

Sapura Energy Analysis

Hi friends,

Today, I would like to discuss about one of the stocks that I've already put my limit order on. I want to write the thought process as to how I've arrived to the decision of putting an order on this stock.

The first stock that I put a limit order on is Sapura Energy Berhad (SAPNRG).

I have to admit, I don't usually set my eyes on companies that gives out low dividends. I've came across this company several times in the past and looking at how low its dividend yields are, I quickly shrugged of any further effort of looking into it.

However, ever since the dramatic drop in the stock market lately, almost all of the companies I'm looking at right now have their dividend yields blew up. As a person who values dividends more than growth, this has certainly got me excited. Although, I am aware that at depressing times like this where the future economic prospects are looking bleak, the possibilities of dividends being cut or cancelled are very high. Based on this awareness, I will always tell myself that the next year or so, I should not be expecting any dividends. Instead, what matters to me now is to grab wonderful companies at wonderful prices. 

Lets look at some of the ratios relating to the performance of this company. Ratios like what I'm about to write here gives a good idea in terms of a company's intrinsic value and its financial strength.

There are 8 things that I look into a company before I make my decision to buy them. Here are the data that I gathered based on when the price is RM0.08 per share:

1. Graham Number ratio: 0.09

2. Price to book ratio: 0.11

3. Dividends yield: 6.66%

4. Price to earnings ratio: N/A

5. Current ratio: 1.34

6. Piotroski score: 2

7. Market capitalization: RM1.67 billion

8. Payout ratio: (Couldn't find it online)

Looking at this data, right of the bat the strongest reason for buying this company is that it is very cheap. For a company to have a book ratio and Graham Number ratio that low means that the company is extremely undervalued by the market. A good idea to portray this cheapness is to imagine yourself buying an item for 11 cents but having a potential of selling it back for RM1. Another strength of this company is because of its high dividends yield. Being a conservative investor, a dividend of 5% is enough to make me content on my investments. Anything higher than that would be a great bonus.

Unfortunately, that is as far as the strong qualities of the company goes. In other aspects of it, I would say that Sapura Energy is performing poorly below par. The two most obvious ones are its PE ratio and Piotroski score. Since the company hasn't made any profit as of late, we are unable to identify its PE ratio. Thus, this would've been a deal breaker for any investors because no sane man would ever buy an asset that doesn't earn anything. Another area where this company performs rather poorly is on its Piotroski score. This score represents the financial strength of the company and from this score, it could give us a good idea on whether its financial is positively generating or negatively generating income. Having a score of 2 out of 9 means that the company has a rather poor financial strength. 

Now that we've briefly touched on the strong and weak points of the company, all that's left is the quality of the company that falls on the neutral side of the spectrum where it neither performed spectacularly nor it is a deal breaker. Sapura has a current ratio of 1.34. So this means that its current asset is about 30% higher than its current liabilities. So the reason why I'm looking at this ratio is because on a worse-case-scenario, even if the company goes bankrupt, it could still sell all its current assets to cover its current liabilities while having some extra buffer for its investors. This is how I'm trying to mitigate the risk if a company is in its insolvency. Other than that, a market capitalization of one billion ringgit or more gives a good idea of how big the company is. A company with billions on its evaluation tends to have serious people at its corporate level that would do their best in avoiding any bankruptcy. Essentially, being in a situation where they are too big to fail. The last ratio, which is the payout ratio, was unfortunately unable to be determined. I couldn't find the ratios anywhere online so there's no comment on that.

So where am I going at here? What's my conclusion? Well, I have to admit, Sapura is the only company on my list where I lean more towards my "gut" feeling rather than what the analysis tells me. There's a part of me that keeps on thinking on the upside should thing bounces back after this depressingly low evaluations. Being the only stocks on my list that trades in a single digit cents, I have decided that I want to jump on this bandwagon, hoping for the value to increase when the global issue that we are experiencing now is done and dusted. 

Though by buying the company would totally go against my principle of investing, I have set a very strict rule for myself on the price that I am allowed to buy. I have set my limit order to be at RM0.02. Yes, I will only buy this company if the price per share drops from 8 cents to 2 cents. Seems highly unlikely, right? Well that's the strict rule I have imposed on myself on when I can buy Sapura. Even if it doesn't hit the 2 cents price per share, I would be totally okay if I didn't buy it. The reason being? Because the prospect of an energy company that solely depends on oil is not something that I see being beneficial in the next decades to come. If it hits 2 cents and my limit order goes through, I'm happy because I'll get it at a bargained price. If the trend reverses and goes up higher, I would still be okay because there are still a couple more stocks that I have on my watchlist to purchase.

That's my thought on Sapura Energy. Hope to post more about other stocks on my list. 

Thank you for reading, friends. Have a good day staying indoor!

Focusing On Affordability Due To Limited Funds

Hello friends,

I have some quick updates regarding my investing plan in this time of market distress.

Before I proceed, I just want to express a disclaimer that I am very thankful for being in my current financial position right now. In essence, I have some money that I managed to squeeze out of one of my emergency fund and channel it into the market. I'm saying this because I do acknowledge the position of luxury that I am in right now due to various fortunate reasons such as I have no dependencies, I still live with my parents, my frugal nature and a recently stable job. Having these thoughts at the back of my head, I will always tread cautiously as to not to take my blessings for granted. So without further ado, lets proceed with my investing updates.

So I've been making some calculations today and I realized that my funds isn't as huge as I thought that I could've muster. This has direct result in terms of my selections on the business that I want to own. The question that I'm facing right now is not just about the best business to buy, but also which business that I can afford while being cheap?

So allow me to explain a very simple concept that I used to have some confusion about. Cheap and affordable are the two words that are often misunderstood and may used interchangeably by mistake.

A cheap business refers to how high in value that a company is able to give you relative to its price. On the other hand, an affordable business is one that you could afford as of your current available liquidity. So for example, a company trading at RM10 but with a PE ratio of 5 is considered to be very cheap. But in order to purchase that company, you need to purchase at least 100 units which equals to RM1000. From this example, the company is cheap but not affordable. Similarly, if a company is trading for RM1 but its PE ratio is 20, then by a simple glance it would seem that the company is expensive. However, since 100 unit of the company is only RM100, it is very affordable. So in general, a good company is gauged to be the cheapest one that you can find as it represents greater value for your money. But a cheap company may not necessarily be affordable.

So this is the problem that I'm having right now, with my limited fund, my constraints in choosing a high value business is more restricted because I need to prioritize affordability first before its cheapness. As a result, some of the wonderful companies are slightly out of my reach. 

The easiest way to combat this would to go after the cheapest company regardless of its affordability. Though the rationale would still justify the actions, I would severely compromise the diversification aspect of investing. And that is definitely something that I wouldn't risk. 

As of right now, there is only one company that I found that perfectly meet the balance between cheapness and affordability. I'm happy to say that I've already put my limit order somewhat below the market value just to squeeze a tad bit more of value in the purchase. 

This action may seem as I'm timing the market to which at some degree, I do agree with that. However, in the depressing state of the market right now, my margin of safety is relatively high and even the market rebounds before it hits my limit order, I already have another fair value of the stock that I have in mind at which I am more than happy to accept it. I have also put in place a limit order for several other stocks and thus, the waiting game begins. 

As I'm going through this bear market, I'm also writing out my thought process here so that I could get a birds eye view of my frame of mind as I try to figure out the best way to approach this event to be successful on the other side. 

My goal as to writing all these down are such that I want to instill a behavior within me that tries to decide on the best set of choices that leads to a good outcome. In essence, aiming to make a good decision. I believe that making a good decision is always the best step to take even if it doesn't lead to a good outcome. 

That's all what I want to say for now. Stay safe and wash your hands.

Corona Crash 2020

Hello friends,

I have very mixed feelings as I'm writing this post. A lot of things has happened this past few weeks and they are nothing short of extraordinary. Three major thing happened and they all have some convoluted effects as a result. Corona virus, stock market crash and I got a new job.

March of 2020 will forever be known as the end of the 11 year bull market as many has acknowledged that we are all in the bear market now. This happened because of the black swan, Corona virus (Covid-19), event and the depressing downward surge of the world oil prices. As I'm writing this post, my head is twirling with questions about the uncertainty of the future. My hands are trembling as I think about the things that I should/could do in order to protect myself. My inner peace are constantly thinking about how to turn this whole event into a beneficial one. So I'll try to breakdown things slowly based on what goes through my head right now. At times like this, I don't even have time to think about doing some preparation on writing this post. Eventhough I've been preaching about the quality of preparedness as being an almighty trait above everything else.

So here's what's constantly on my mind. I am in my mid twenties. I want to achieve financial independence. Thus, I have a relatively long investing horizon. One of the tried and true way is through investing in the stock market. According to the greatest investor in the world, Warren Buffett, the best time to be greedy in investment is when others are fearful. Conversely, a smart investor should be fearful when others are greedy. As I reflect on his points, I made a simple conclusion that this Corona crash would be the best time for me to be greedy as I've read many times that millionaires are made in time of stock market distress. However, what's really bugging me is that I don't have any cash sitting on the sidelines to participate in this depressive market evaluation. It disturbs my conscious as I feel like I'm missing out on this huge "sale" in the market. As I try to reason with myself to not be in a stressful state of mind, I made some quick plan in order to still be able to participate in this sale. Historically, bear markets average out within 14 months in duration. The shortest bear market was about three months and the longest bear market was a little over two years. Though there's no telling of how long this 2020 crash will be, the least that I can do is to prepare to dollar cost averaging down in the market for the duration of at least 14 months. Hence, here's my plan.

1. I will allow myself to only buy 5 equities in this period. This is to conform to Warren Buffett's idea of choosing only the best company that adhere to the concept of value investing. By limiting my purchases, I won't be going around thinking that I have to buy everything just because they have low PE ratios. Instead, all of my purchases would be backed by deliberate thought process and valid reasoning.
2. In terms of monetary deployment, not only I will only deploy when the equities meet my strict requirements, I will also start the deployment in very small amount and gradually increase my purchases when the market dips deeper. I already have a few stocks on my watchlist and I'm planning to start with as little as one lot (100 units).
3. In terms of purchasing frequency, I'm planning to be fairly lenient on this because I'm willing to spend a little bit more on the transaction cost if the dips came more frequently than expected. This month alone, we have seen the market hit the circuit breaker 3 times. This occurrence is unprecedented knowing that the previous financial crisis only hit the circuit breaker once in a given month. I will start with monthly purchases but if opportunity presents itself, I might grab the lows as frequent as once a week, provided that my fund allows me to do so.

In essence, these are the guidelines that I'm telling myself. They are somewhat vague in some areas but I hope to convey a good idea whereby I stick to purchasing businesses below its fair value and not to go on a relentless spending spree without a proper conviction and justification.

The second thing that's lingering on my mind right now is in regards to the pandemic we all are facing, the Corona virus. I have to admit, I was adamant at first to the idea of going out of my way to breaking the chain of viral. My selfishness kept creeping in my head, telling me that my youth is enough to justify that I need not to worry. However, I knew things are getting serious when news about a few people in my city has succumb to the virus as well. News like these are making me paranoid especially when I see my close relatives are starting to show its symptoms like flu and coughs. Things start to get really worrisome when there are shortages of deterrent items such as hand sanitizers, disinfectants and face masks. Knowing that we are not equipped enough with the proper deterrent, it has increase some level of discomfort as I'm feeling a little too exposed and helpless. Nevertheless, I am also aware that there are plenty of ways that we all could do to combat this spread even without the proper deterrent because at the end of the day, your hygiene is the most important. So simple things like washing your hands, taking frequent showers and not touching your face are still the precautionary steps that we all could do. 

After reading through many sites and clickbaits, I'm guessing that these precautionary steps are the best ways for us to instill in our daily habit at least for another year. I often hear that vaccines could take awhile to concoct. As of right now, all that we can do is to practice proper hygiene. 

The third and final thing that's always on my mind is about my new job. Thankfully, I just managed to secure a job as a project engineer. The job scope entails me to work on building management systems (BMS). So that includes the whole spectrum of BMS systems ranging from the design, implementation & construction, and maintenance of the project. However, it's a very interesting dynamic right now because with the recent 'restriction of movement' being declared by the government, I'm currently working from home. There are definitely many challenges to working from home mainly due to distractions of entertainment and fairly easy access to bed, but it's a fun experience and I'm truly learning on how to have a better control of myself. So far, everything is very good. Friendly colleagues, good supervisor and good pay. I really hope that things progress towards the better but I always tell myself to always prepare for the worst. 

That is all my rant for you today. Hope that you are in good health physically and financially in this tough times. Just remember that dark days will pass and there's always light at the end of the tunnel. 

Stay safe!

Job Hunting Progress 2

Hi friends,

I'm here to update you about some good news on my job hunting progress. As it stands, I've had 7 interviews and I've already gotten accepted by 2 of them. This is very exciting news to me because I've been feeling a little down lately mainly due to no income stress. But thankfully things are starting to progress towards the better.

I've listed some key information about the interviews I've had and compiled them in a simple table that you can understand. (Click on image to enlarge)

From the table above, you can see that the industry of choice for my interviews were mainly in the electrical engineering sector and financial related sector. I feel very happy about this list because it shows that I'm not limiting my career opportunities based on my educational background. I've decided to open up myself to the financial related industry because that's my passion. Other than figuring out ways to optimize engineering related problems, I also like to optimize/benefit from any knowledge in the finance sector to increase my wealth.

I noticed that the thing that gives me utmost satisfaction in life is when I work towards optimizing my tasks to the maximum.

My educational background is in the sustainable energy sector and I love the idea of optimizing energy production because by doing so, I get to save money on my everyday energy utilization. Hence, helping me towards increasing my net-worth.

I also love the idea of optimizing my finance because that's the most direct way for me to progress towards financial freedom. If I learn on how to optimize taxes, optimize big ticket item loans or optimizing every aspect of financial planning, I believe that it help towards achieving financial freedom as well.

Anyway, I digress. Back to the table above, there are still a few results from the interview that I'm still waiting for their answer. The ones I'm still waiting for their response would be under the "Results" column where I wrote "Pending". As you can also see from the table, there's one result came in as a "Failure". This is because during the call screening, I couldn't answer their questions regarding coding languages and integrated circuits. So I admitted my shortcomings in that area and they've decided not to proceed with me as their candidate.

As for the two "Success" I've received, I'm happy to say that I decided to proceed with the building management engineer because that's what I'm more passionate in. The job scope, according to what I've been briefed, was to essentially design an energy efficient building. The process starts from designing and all the way to construction and maintenance. I could definitely see myself getting excited about integrating renewable energy concepts in a building. The other "Success" I had was for an insurance adjusters position. In theory, the job scope is very interesting because I need to learn about the business nature of many industries before being able to assess any insurance claim related to their business. From that perspective, I could also see myself getting excited because I love learning how every industry makes money and maintain their cash flows. However, the only reason why I declined that offer is because the salary package is slightly lower than the engineering job.

Well, I'm grateful for this results I'm getting. I think I'll be perfectly content if I get rejected from the other companies. Any success I'm getting from here on would be a great bonus and I'll be forever more thankful if I ever got them.

Something interesting that I want to comment about throughout this job hunting journey is that I no longer find interviews as being something really scary. I don't know why but I feel very comfortable during all of the interviews I've had so far. I no longer feel nervous and restless like I usually do back when I went for scholarship interviews. This is very interesting to me because I always hear people getting nervous before an interview. I truly hope that this version of me stays because getting nervous for an interview is tiring.

I also acknowledge that part of the reason why I'm not nervous is because the companies that interviewed me were all small and medium enterprise. Maybe that could be the reason but I'm not going to dwell in this too much.

Anyway, that is all for today. Thank you friends, for reading. Hope you're having a great day.

Investments In People

Hi friends,

Just want to write a quick update about something I recently learned.

For the first time ever, I think that investments that you make in people give more return than investing in monetary form.

I've been observing the good deeds that a close acquaintance of mine have been performing and indeed the goodness does comes back around. Although the returns may not be in monetary form, it does present itself in other valuable form that is arguably better than getting money.

I'm thinking of incorporating investments in people too in my portfolio in preparation for the feeling of goodness one can get from giving and that unexpected gifts one may received.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Running Progress - February 2020

Hello friends,

Here's an update on my running progress.

As you can see, there is little to almost no progress at all in January. I'm a little bit ashamed of myself for such terrible progress but life happens. My pathetic excuse this time would be due to me succumbing to dengue fever. And because of that, I was in no form to run and so I decided to just rest.

However, I'm proud to say that I've bounced back in February. I feel relieved that I've hit that 100 km mark again after so long of not hitting it. There's this little part of me wouldn't quit screaming because it feels like I've redeemed myself. Though it took awhile, but I managed to fall back to my regular routine.

March is already here and so far I'm getting a decent start. Everything is progressing according to schedule and I just know that this month I would nail it. The months that I'm quite nervous about however is April and May. Knowing how the month of Ramadhan has severely impacted my progress last year, I'm still feeling a bit hesitant if I could overcome the challenges of being in those months. I haven't really prepare a detailed plan on going through Ramadhan but I do have an idea or two in terms of clocking the kilometers. The plan would either to run some kilometers just a few hours before iftar or to run at night after iftar. Still deciding on which approach would be the best.

I guess that's all the updates I have on my running. Here's a progress snapshot from the Adidas app. Cheers!

Job Hunting Progress

Dear friends,

I would like to write about my job hunting progress. I feel the need to express it somewhere because I would like to look back at this post one day and be reminded of the hardships, gratitude, convoluted feelings and all other experiences related to this meaningful learning curve.

I've been out from the work force since November 2019 because I wanted to search for a career that is more inline with my passion, which is either engineering or being in the finance industry. 

So right after my long vacation ended, I was actively searching for jobs in January 2020. I started with a strategy that only targeted huge companies. The criteria pretty much being The Big Four in their respective industries, or any company that has a huge market capitalization or global footprint. With this strategy, I proceed with writing cover letters that are highly specific to each companies. At that time, I believed in the quality of my applications rather than the quantity of my applications being introduced in the market. I kept going at it for the whole January and eagerly waited for replies. As I waited for any response, I slowly lose hope in myself and began to question many things in life. It has gotten to a point where I've given up in sending more applications and instead, carry on with my unhealthy routines of sleeping in every morning.

But after a wake up call from a friend of mine, I immediately realized that it's no ones fault for this setback. The only blame I could point to was myself. You see, I've been very adamant on my strategy of focusing on quality that I don't even consider other possible strategies out there. It took someone to show me a better result to fully convince me that I've been going at this whole job hunting strategy the wrong way. After absorbing many advice, I understood then that as a (relatively) fresh graduate, I just have to start somewhere. Where I start doesn't necessarily need to be a good place. It doesn't need to be a multi-billion dollar company. It doesn't need to offer the perfect working environment. It doesn't have to be perfect. What's important is that I just have to start. I'll always remember this quote that says,

"To be good, you have to start. To start, you don't have to be good."

So after that epiphany, I used up my last January budget of RM70 to pay for the priority application on Jobstreet. I flooded my resumes to 140 companies, and still counting. Within a week, I have received 3 interview invitations and 1 online assessment test from companies. I am happy because this new approach works vastly well compared to my previous strategy. I'm also content because I still get to include a quick pitch in every application so that there's still that element of personalisation which I believe will always be an important factor when it comes to networking with others. Human touch is essential to break that virtual barrier. 

So as it stands, I've passed the first interview and awaiting for the offer letters and other relevant documents. I still have 2 more interviews coming and I just finished the online assessment. I could've done better on the online test but I'm still happy with the preparations I've made over such short time. 

Tomorrow is a new day and I plan to send in more applications until I find the best offer.

Thanks for reading friends. Hope things are going well with your life affairs.

Lesson With Your Words

Hi friends,

There's something about February that makes me a little bit more outgoing than usual. I tend to reach out to old friends and get myself updated with their affairs. I see it as a healthy way to reconnect with old acquaintances and maybe lit up the old friendship flame.

However, what I may think is good, may not actually be the best case to others. 

So today I reached out to an old friend and figured that the best way to immediately crack the ice again was through humor. And what better way to go at it than by going full on satire and sprinkle some sarcasm at it? I figured that throwing around some inner-circle-jokes like the old days would definitely spur up the old friendship flames. But immediately after that, I can sense a huge push back and I regret my words scornfully.

As I dig deeper into the reason for this, I found out that I had essentially verbally abused his passion. I'm pretty sure that things will never be the same again.

And here I thought that the best way to ignite a conversation is to treat them as your bestfriend. I realized that this is totally on me and I must make truce. I also need to reconsider my definition of 'the best way to interact with my bestfriends'. But as of current, this feeling of having done wronged to someone is very unpleasant. I feel like melting away like Rimuru Tempest and hide under a rock.

Moral of the story, no matter how close you think you feel with someone - after a long time of having no interactions - time and distance will change them. So before you engage in any interactions, make sure you do a profiling on them. Make yourself approachable and gauge their advancement towards your inquiries. Gradually inquire more but never interrogate. Get their updates but never invade their space. Once they break through your glass ceiling first, you carry on with your own crack on his ice.

Words are powers, always use them wisely.

Other Approach Than Stock Buybacks

Hi friends,

I've been reading a lot on Warren Buffet lately because I wanted to pick his brain and learn from his method of investing. What better way to learn than to observe what the Oracle of Omaha has to say for himself, right?

After sifting through several articles, I've gotten into sections where Warren Buffet explains his ideas on what should be done on the investment earnings that an investor receives. In general, there are 3 ways that an investor should do to benefit from the earnings that their investments have made:

1. If the cost of getting profit is cheap, it is rational to reinvest all of those earnings.
2. If the cost of making profit is expensive, distributing dividends to shareholder is rational.
3. If the share price of its own stock is undervalued or is at fair value, stock buyback is rational.

Based on the 3 ways of managing earnings, I have some stifling thoughts about the stock buybacks. Personally, I'm not sure if I would agree on doing so because it seems to me that stock buyback results in an artificial growth in the share price by limiting the outstanding shares in the market.

It is at this point where I agree more with Ray Dalio's definition of assessing value of an investment at hand which is by increasing the level of productivity in its business. The approach to increase productivity could derive from optimizing various aspects of the business model be it the delivery of goods and services, or by increasing labor incentives. If I were to suit the options in hand on ways of handling earnings towards my preference, I would lean towards distributing incentives to the labor force to increase morale or to put the cash on the money market just so to prepare myself when opportunity strikes on my stock watchlist. Either of these choices would derive more value on the investment at hand.

However, I'm sure there are more details that I'm missing out when it comes to the benefits of stock buybacks. Knowing my limit of knowledge right now, I'm keen on exploring more on the best ideas on optimizing earnings to maximize profits, be it directly or indirectly.

I still share similar views as Warren Buffet as his overarching idea of value investing is still something that resonates close to my belief. It is only in the case of stock buybacks where I'm just not looking to him eye to eye. Regardless, Warren Buffet is still executing what he preaches as we all know the amount of cash that Berkshire is sitting on. Even with his behemoth cash pile, he still haven't made any considerable acquisitions, including buybacks. Instead, he's just waiting on the sideline waiting for the next best deals, which to me is rational.

I've been obsessing about the investment world because I hope that I could have my own investment portfolio that's enough to sustain my life. Wish me luck, friends!

Fin.

It Yearns

Dear friends,

I have always thought that I've lead life with above average understandings of my emotional quotient. Equipped with this belief, I've lead life focusing more on myself rather than the effects of the outside environment bears on me. 

However, that belief has vanished as of today due to some verbal query from a close source of mine that noticed an incidental change in my behavior. As it turns out, the way I react to negative input from the environment is by ignoring the negative input and the source from which it came from. As a result, it has some unforeseen implication towards what I believe as a solid coping mechanism. By ignoring the source, I'm distancing myself further and zoning them out. Quite also, zoning myself out.

As I question myself as to what benefit I'm getting from this, I still believe that by focusing on myself more, maybe the negative input from my environment would stop or maybe they will even improve their projection towards me. But the more I thought I was making progress through improving myself, the outside worlds seems to act better in focusing on themselves rather than seeing the milestones I've covered. It is as it seem, I'm being defeated by my own plan of actions that was initially put in place as a silent retaliation towards them. 

Even though I understand that my life shouldn't be of bother to what is perceived by them, I secretly still yearns for their acknowledgement. This, is something that I absolutely couldn't comprehend. Mulling over this fact has made me question my above-average level of understanding in my own emotional quotient that I boasted. At the present, I truly feel like I know nothing of my own emotions.

Regardless, I will forever cherish this day as it is a very special day to me.

Your friend,

J.

Overall Running Statistics 2019

Hello friends,

I'm feeling a little better now so I want to take this opportunity to update on my 2019 running statistics.

In essence, I have run a total of 970.23 km. Although I initially aimed for 1200 km, so that means I fall a bit short from the initial target, I'm still proud of what I've achieved. Considering what life has thrown at me, I still managed to complete 80.85% of my goal. 

Often every year, everyone makes a new new year's resolution (yes, you've read that right with two "new"), but I think I'm not going to make a new year's resolution and instead, I'm going to focus on polishing my performance on my old resolution. So for 2020, I hope to run a total of 1200 km. I can anticipate a few hurdles infront of me and the challenge for this year is to figure out a way to overcome those hurdles namely, Ramadhan and haze. 

So here are some statistics on my run for you statistics nerds with graphs as well.

In this table, you can see some of the metrics that I keep track of to see my running performance and if there're any improvements. Unfortunately, the data is not complete because sometimes I forgot to save the monthly progress on the Adidas app and all the nitty gritty details are gone. This happens because I'm only using the free version of the app so that's one of its limitation.

From this gathered data, I know that my average pace falls just under 8 minutes per kilometer and my average distance per session is 6.85 km. I am content with this stats though I promise myself that I will always strive to make progress. So if I could improve to a pace of about 7 minutes 30 seconds, that'd be great.

From the data, I also know that my average distance per month is 85.45 km. Hopefully, I can improve that to 100 km per month in 2020.

Here's a bar chart for the distance I've covered monthly in 2019. The distance for some of the months were severely hindered and if you're curious as to why that happens, you could refer to the table above for "My Pathetic Excuse". I'm a firm believer in the concept of the internal locust of control that states that the outcome of any activity is directly correlated with the actions put-forth by your own and less correlated with the surrounding situation. However, I also believe that in order to improve my actions, hence having more power over my internal locust of control, I also need to know the difficulties that I'm facing with myself. By knowing what external factors that is affecting my internal locust of control, I can be more prepared for myself as to not be affected by the external causes that affects my internal self. I hope this make sense. 

The bar chart above is a lot similar like the one previously with the only difference is that it summarizes my whole running journey dating back from September 2018. If I were to include the distance covered from 2018, my total running distance accumulates to 1367.23 km. It gives me a sense of satisfaction knowing that I've crossed the 1000 km mark. This serves as a small reminder to myself when I'm a little down that I can do it because I've literally done it before.

That is all for the running updates. January 2020 is fast approaching its end and I haven't had a good start like I hoped to but I'm positive that things will go better if I focus on the bigger picture and just keep moving forward. 

Thanks for reading my friends. Stay healthy and lets conquer 2020 together!

Learning Outcome From Being Sick

Hello friends,

It has been awhile since I've post anything new. That's because I've succumb to dengue fever and I've never felt so weak in my whole life. Being ill was no fun and I realized that I've taken a lot of my health for granted. Thankfully it wasn't so severe to get warded. Just plentiful of rest and drinking a lot of water were required. I just knew that there is no cure for dengue. You just have to get a lot of rest for your body to naturally run its course. Safe to say now that I'm recuperating well but still experiencing a mild post dengue fatigue. Hopefully it will wear off in a few days.

There's a few things that I've learned while I was sick. Mainly about diet and having a stronger feeling of gratitude in the small things in life.

During the period of illness, my appetite was strangely gone. For the first time ever, I don't enjoy eating, especially rice and chicken (which is usually my favourite!). It came to a point where even the smell of them could make me feel uneasy in the stomach. So instead, my appetite grew naturally towards the healthier foods, mainly fruits like oranges, apples and watermelon. It's like my body is telling me it needs those healthy nutrients to heal. At that time, it's like I have this strong connection to my body that I've never felt before. Instead of my gluttony, the whisper towards the positive is what took the best of me. It was definitely weird because I was as sick as I've ever been but deep down, my body was at its pinnacle of self-control. It's a beautiful conundrum that I'm glad to experience it. Still now, I have control over the things that I eat and I think this might be the reason why I'm recuperating well. 

Also, being sick has made lost the sense of time because pretty much all I do was sleep and rest. So gone were all those routine activities such as running, planning and all other sorts of fun activities. During that time, being bedridden with nothing to look forward to was the most devastating feeling I've ever felt. When I have absolutely nothing to look forward to in my day to day routine, it feels like I'm going through days with no purpose. So I did what needs to be done, which is to at least keep one thing in mind so that I have a small purpose in life. I kept track of the dates. The outcome from keeping track of dates is that I've become more appreciative towards time. The more I think about time, the more I feel sad because you can never get back the time that has passed. Being an optimizer, I feel like I'm wasting a lot of my time doing things that are not productive. And that has gotten me feeling sadder. However, as Tony Robbins would say, "you are what you feel", so I focused on the good things I've done with my time. Namely, the investments that I've made progressing towards my financial independence. If I were to think about a year ago, before I started my investing journey, I has absolutely zero knowledge and money in investments. But fast forward to today, I'm proud of my progress and feels excited to progress even more. 

All in all, I'm glad that I got some good learning outcome from this not-so-pleasant-experience. What's important now is that I want to be more grateful with my health by always taking care of it through running and a balanced diet. 

I guess that is all the rant I have for today. Stay healthy my friends!

The Financials Of Having A Car

Hello friends,

Hope it's not too late for me to wish you happy new year! It's 2020 and it's that time again where everyone is at their peak of motivation and devising their new year's resolution. Hope 2019 has taught you more about yourself so that you could improve in 2020.

So for my very first post in 2020, I want to write about the financials attributed to owning a vehicle. It's not going to be a comprehensive coverage on all of its cost but I hope this could give you a good idea on at least the maintenance aspect of it.

Disclaimer: I don't technically own this car. It's my parent's car but everyone in the family drives it. So that means we have a shared responsibility over this car. However, all the cost regarding the maintenance was borne by my parents so I'm just the one who execute the activities of bringing it to the auto shop.

So without further ado, here's a table that I keep track on the cost of maintenance of the car.

Click the photo to enlarge

So as from the table, the total cost of maintenance that I've made over the course of October 2018 to January 2020 is RM3,216.85. If I break it down into annual expenditure, it would be:

• 2018 - RM1300.65
• 2019 - RM1510.30
• 2020 - RM405.00

After being "responsible" for owning a car, I have experienced firsthand on the upkeep that I have to do revolving the car which includes maintenance, insurance & roadtax and cleanliness. In short, I have concluded that owning a car is absurdly expensive. I would not recommend for those with tight financials to own a car because it's a triple whammy for your financials. A car depreciates in value, you have to pay interest on it (if you purchase through a loan) and it has high operational & maintenance cost. 

After being "responsible" for this car for a little over a year, it has been the major consumer on my budget plans. Thank god I don't have to pay its monthly installments because that would render me broke. 

Nevertheless, I've learned a lot throughout this experience and here are a few take aways!

1. Always buy a secondhand car, preferentially that's 2 to 4 years old. By doing so, at least you've purchased the car where it has run down most of it's depreciating period. 
2. Buy a car without interest. So the idea here is to reduce the affect of the triple whammy I mentioned earlier. If the first point tries to hedge over the depreciating aspect of it, this second point tries to hedge over paying interest on the car. So that means, buy it cash. Or if you want to go next level financially savvy, pay for the car using a credit card and immediately pay off your credit card. This is a perfect way for you to rack up those credit card points, especially if you're chasing after the signup bonus' minimum spending requirement.
3. Always go for general auto shops, only after the end of your warranty period. When I first got the responsibility of taking care of the car, I figured that it's for the best if I could send it for repairs at its authorized service center. So that's what I did throughout 2019. It took me a whole year to finally realize that the cost of their repairs were absurd. I finally got a wake up call after the engine mounting of the car was severely worn out that it shook the car vigorously to the point that I couldn't even hear my car radio properly due to the noisy vibrations. When I asked for the cost of the repairs, the authorized service center quoted me RM1400 which was ridiculous! After that incident, I quickly made a quick Google search for other auto shops and give them a call. After several calls, I finally found the cheapest auto shop and quickly jump on the opportunity. I came, asked for them to change the engine mounting, waited for an hour and a half, and then I a drove home smiling knowing that I only paid RM600 for it instead of RM1400. So the lesson here is, if your car is no longer under the usual 5 years warranty, skip the authorized service center and just go to any general service center. Make a good rep with them and earn their trust. Have a conversation about your car and learn at least the surface level of your car's maintenance. All in all, just enjoy the learning process and don't worry about the cost because it will always be cheaper than the authorized service center. Also, go to the service center as soon as it opens to avoid waiting in line. Saves you a lot of time especially if you only have Saturdays to spare.
4. Renew your road tax and car insurance online. For road tax, just use myeg.com.my. It has an interface that's stuck in the 90s but it's straightforward and it works. Have them delivered the road tax to your home and you'll save all the hassle. For car insurance, look for insurance company that has an online presence and renew your insurance directly on their website. By doing so, you'll save 10% because there's literally no middleman (the insurance agent).
5. There is always ways to save on gas. The least that you could do is to own a loyalty card. I'm currently using Petronas MESRA card. Based on my calculations, I could save about 3% monthly by collecting their points and make a redemption for gas. Also, there are a lot of gas promotion due to the eWallets galore that's happening right now. For instance, Boost's promotion of RM5 cashback for fueling at Shell for a minimum of RM40. That's 12.% return for every fueling! So make full use of it while it lasts.  

So I guess that's about it for now regarding the things I have to say in relation to the financials of owning a car. Just keep these points in mind when you're deciding on buying a car. I'll add in more details probably later when I have more interesting findings. That is all for now, thank you for reading my friends and have a great year ahead.

Fin.