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.