My Oyster 123

When you reach age 75, you need to withdraw all your EPF savings and not park in EPF because you will not get any more dividends. By age 80, if the savings are not withdrawn, it will be transferred to the bank. The rule has recently been implemented and published in the press for the public to know. So, here is a reminder for those who missed out reading on it in the newspapers.

Last year 2009, we got about 5.45% interests rates for the dividend from EPF, which is higher than the current Fixed Deposit rate at around 2.75% which is low and will not beat inflation at around 4%. Some sources even put the inflation rate at 6% but personally, I think that is too high.

For inflation rate of 4%, it takes about 18 years for your money to become half its value. While for inflation rate of 6%, the your money becomes half of its value in 12 years! This is scary and that is why we need to save as much as we can while we are still working and gainfully employed. Otherwise, your retirement years will be woeful and not golden years.

In previous years, you cannot withdraw your money from Paypal to your Malaysian bank account. You need to go through third party companies like Accent or Virtual Money Inc. to take out cash from Paypal. It was very troublesome for Malaysians with charges incurred but recently a few months back, you can transfer your US dollars in Paypal account to any Malaysian bank. You will not be charged any transaction fees for amount at least RM400 or around USD132 that is transferred. It is a blessing in disguise that Obama became US president and relations between Malaysia, Indonesia and USA have improved a lot along with more business opportunities amongst these countries.

I still remember having to go through online contacts like Sapiens Bryan to cash out my Paypal money for a reduced amount to pay for his charges at around 2%. I have had bad experience of tranferring USD75 from my Paypal to an online friend who cheated me and never send me my money and we lost touch from there onwards. During Dr Mahathir's time, relations with USA was at its lowest with this mamak blabbler-mouth keep criticising the USA as if championing for himself. A lot of big online USA companies prefer to do business with Singaporeans than Malaysians and we lose out in this aspect.

For instance, if you want to sell on Clickbank, you cannot find Malaysia as the country to select in the form to sign up or to become an affiliate. Likewise for many other notable online sites from USA to earn some money via the internet.

Do you have the determination and diligence to make money online? Those who are successful never give up and continue to pursue their dreams. They will find all the ways to make money regardless of the cost like time and recreation. They don't mind giving up watching television or enjoy their hobbies and look relentless in their pursuits for more money. With the internet, the opportunities are infinite and you need to surf around to learn more. This is known as Piaget's self discovery learning method. It is the best form of learning by pushing yourself to work harder and smarter.

Sammy, a sea turtle, hatches on a deserted beach and tries to climb out of the hole where he hatched. Being caught by a seagull, he struggles for his life and manages to escape, as the seagull clashes in the air with a another seagull, also carrying its prey, who turns out to be a female hatchling sea turtle, Shelly.

Sammy falls onto an old raft and gets carried into the open ocean, losing Shelly. In the ocean he meets another hatchling, Roy, who tells him the story of a "turtle paradise" on an island called "Lapagos", and they together start their voyage there. Later, the two get caught by trawls. Sammy is released back into the sea by the fishermen, but loses Roy.

Washed onto the shore in California, he is picked up by a hippie woman and lives as a pet in the hippie commune with Vera, another female sea turtle, who is older than Sammy, and Catoff, a cat, who claims to be French. On a Christmas evening the hippies draw a peace sign on his shell to sign him as the peace ambassador. When the hippies see that Sammy and Vera won't mate, they release Vera. The police evicts the hippie commune from the beach, and Sammy decides to return back to the sea.

There he meets Vera and a young female sea turtle who is attacked by a shark. Vera and Sammy save the turtle who turns out to be Shelly, his childhood friend. They decide to travel together to the paradise islands, but Shelly gets lost in the sea.

Vera tells Sammy to swim to the "cold waters". Sammy finds an old refrigerator drawn by the humans and uses it to travel to Antarctic. An albatross he meets on his journey tells him that the paradise island can be only be reached through a "secret passage where the fresh waters run". In the Antarctic waters Sammy meets a fin whale who barely escapes a harpoon from a whaling ship.

The harpoon destroys the refrigerator, but Sammy is saved by the anti-whaling protesters and placed into the sea animal shelter where he finds Shelly, Catoff and people from the hippie commune (who now work in the shelter). The ex-hippie recognized the peace sign on Sammy's shell.

Shelly and Sammy are released into the ocean. They decide to find the secret passage and use it to travel to the paradise island. They manage to find the passage (which turns out to be Panama Canal) but get separated as they try to pass a lock. As he searches Shelly, Sammy encounters two sea turtles that urge him to help their friend who got trapped in an intermodal container. Sammy rescues the turtle, who turns out to be his old friend Roy. They swim together to a wrecked Spanish galleon where Roy lives with Rita, his girlfriend.

Being told about Shelly, Rita remembers her and advices Sammy to search for her in the galleon. Sammy finds Shelly being courted by another sea turtle. Disappointed and upset, Sammy returns to his friends only to find out that the turtle who courted Shelly is a playboy but has a strong relationship with another female. Together with Roy and Albert, a shark who lost his teeth, they set up a fake shark attack on Shelly to let Sammy save her again and win her heart. Shelly and Sammy then reunite and, along with Roy and Rita, return to the beach they hatched.

The closing scene of the movie shows Sammy helping one of his new-hatched grandsons to climb out of the hole.

A collector of coins is known as a numismatist and I am a numismatist since I was small. I also collect gold coin and have one gold coin given to me during Chinese New Year by my rich uncle who works as a doctor in his clinic in Singapore. The gold coin was about half an ounce in weight which is of moderate size. It is a worthwhile investment to buy gold coins which is a very hedge against inflation. If the inflation rate is 4% a year, then using the rule of 72, it takes 72/4 equals to 18 years for your money to become half its value. This is scary and therefore you need to find ways and means to increase your savings and beat the inflation.

This blog has reasonably good traffic and if you like to advertise here, the prices are below:

Just a link - USD5 per month
125 x 125 button - USD8 per month
200 x 200 small square - USD12 per month
250 x 250 square - USD15 per month

Since I am also a web designer, I am able to design the static button/small square/square banner for you if you don't have any for free if you intend to advertise here. To contact me, email Diana.Tan(AT)gmail.com for more information and I shall be happy to oblige you.

This blog is updated at least once a week on most Sundays. With submission to Innit, traffic will improve further. If you have any suggestions, feel free to email me and we can discuss further.

Based in Penang, I work in my home office as an IT executive for a small sports surfacing company while moonlighting part time as a virtual assistant, article writer and blogger. I have been working from my home office since 2004 that is equipped with multi-function printer, scanner, copier, fax machine, LCD monitor, desktop computer, laptop and digital camera. If you need articles written on any topic, feel free to email me diana.tan(AT)gmail.com I shall be happy to accommodate you.

Previously, I have worked in the banking and education sector in Singapore for about 6+ years before calling it quits and came back to settle down in Penang - my home town. I am happy to work from my home office now and have been with the same company since February, 2004.

If you want reviews of your product or services, feel free to drop me an email at diana.tan(AT)gmail.com and I shall be happy to oblige. You can also contact me if you need a virtual assistant for overflow work or any other computer work to be done like editing photos, removing background, creating PowerPoint presentations, financial calculation using MS Excel Spreadsheet, corporate profile creation, brochures on specific products, resume writing, setting blogs, web page design, etc. or just any other work do to with the computer.