Reportedly, there’s an increasing demand for their services – I’d take that to mean there are more incidences of the cheating spouse in Malaysia nowadays.

People are willing to cough up to RM1,500 per day for “proof of unfaithfulness”, which will be used to start divorce proceedings. Perhaps a photo of 2 couples kissing, deftly captured with a flick of camera switches is enough for that.

A spokesperson for a top local detective agency, Kay Spy Solutions was quoted to have said that they get 100 enquiries every month for such services, mostly from the women.

This state of affairs seem to corroborate what the Durex Sexual Well-Being Global Survey 2011 reported, which was that Malaysians are ranked third among 36 countries when it comes to being involved in extra-marital dalliances: a third of Malaysian men and perhaps surprisingly, close to 40% of Malaysian women admitted to being unfaithful.

Now that the popular social network site is nearing its IPO, Choe is set to become a multi-millionaire. To be exact, his share is thought to be worth around USD200 million (RM600 million).

In his blog, Choe described himself as the “highest paid decorator alive”.

Choe, who started on his art in his teens, is already well known:
- his work is displayed in galleries all over the world, and he’s still being engaged by Facebook to paint its offices – currently decorating the new offices in Menlo Park, California.
- he is the creator of the cover art for Jay-Z and Linkin Park’s multi-platinum 2004 album Collision Course.
- his 2008 portrait of then-Senator Obama is now on display in the White House:

The salary cuts will reportedly be backdated to 21 May 2011.

But so well paid is Lee that even if his salary is cut by a third, he is still the world’s highest paid leader by a mile.

Lee currently earns SGD3 million a year – that’s around RM7.2 million a year or RM600,000 a month.

That will be reduced to SGD2.2 million – that’s around RM5.3 million a year or RM440,000 a month.

That is still about 4 times bigger than the world’s second best paid leader, the Hong Kong Chief Executive, Donald Tsang, who is paid USD550,000 a year (RM1.65 million a year or RM137,000 a month).

In comparison, the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is paid about USD500,000 a year while the world’s most powerful man, U.S. President Barack Obama is paid around USD400,000 a year (RM1.2 million a year or RM100,000 a month).

Even more amazingly, even mere ministers in Singapore earns double that of the US president. Their starting salaries, even after the mentioned cut, is SGD1.1 million a year (RM2.66 million a year or RM221,000 a month), meaning they can afford to buy gold even more than the so-called Defender of the Free World.

[photo credit: The Age (Aust)]

Today he’s famous in Australia: he’s listed by The Age Melbourne Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in 2012.

In 2007, he founded OzHut, an online retail business.

In a mere 4 years, its revenue jumped to RM8.4 million.

His assistant, Kevin Field receives a salary of RM50,000 a month and foreign musicians in the ensemble, of which most of them are, get between RM16,000 and RM24,000 monthly plus two-month annual leave.

Petronas, being the principal benefactor of MPO forks out approximately RM3.5 million a month or RM42 million a year to maintain the MPO, including wages and benefits to the Malaysian management team.

On another note, the attire of the female members of the orchestra would probably be more striking if all of them wear Jovani prom dresses during performances.

Chan Fong, now 41, with a graphics design background, joined the entertainment world when he was in his 20s and used to work 18 hours a day doing things like hosting programmes and directing. Despite the long hours, he rarely earned RM10,000 a month. At that time, those mens diamond watches were still a long way off.

In 1997, he went into business (advertising) with a partner. As we all know, 1997 was the year of the Asian financial crisis. Back then, they referenced Yellow Pages and randomly mailed out proposal letters to people they thought were potential clients.

After getting several small clients, they landed a big one: a prominent water filter company.

In 2002, he went on his own through his company, 180 Degree Strategic Communications.

Today he employs 42 people and is involved in branding for about 30 big companies.

His advice to those thinking of getting into business:

Be prepared. Doing business is very competitive these days and involves a lot of hard work as there are financial and human resource issues that need to be looked into, among others. You also need to have at least 8 – 10 years of experience before setting up a business. People will only come to you if you have experience. Networking also requires time. Passion is important to succeed in business. Don’t always think about making money first. Think about how you can solve problems before thinking about a better life.

This is a huge amount by any measure, bigger than the total income of the world’s richest footballer, Lionel Messi who earns only half that!

This is made all the more amazing considering that in this day and age, bookstores are closing down due to tumbling sales.

Patterson created the character Alex Cross, the crime-solving single father. He also writes a lot for children.

2 years ago he signed a 17-book deal with Hachette worth a staggering USD150 million.

He moved more than 10 million books and more than 1 million Kindle sales in 2010.

Perhaps aspiring novel writers can take a cue from his advice given in an interview in 2009:

My only rules are that the story has a driving force and that individual chapters are holding my attention. I will at some point sit there and write “be there” on a lot of pages – if it’s supposed to be a romantic scene and I don’t feel anything, or if it is a scary scene and I don’t feel frightened.

The top 10 highest earning authors are as follows:
1 James Patterson – USD84m
2 Danielle Steel – USD35m
3 Stephen King – USD28m
4 Janet Evanovich USD22m
5 Stephenie Meyer – USD21m
6 Rick Riordan – USD21m
7 Dean Koonz – USD19m
8 John Grisham – USD18m
9 Jeff Kinney – USD17m
10 Nicholas Sparks – USD16m

For the record, JK Rowling earned USD5 million in 2010 even though she did not publish any new books. That’s nice – the money keeps rolling in while you focus on your motorhome repair. And she’s sure to make a comeback in the top earners’ list when the Pottermore ebook versions go on sale in autumn 2011.

These guys earn up to USD1.5 million a year, thriving in Hong Kong’s high-stress education system, where up to 50% of all secondary school seniors attend private tutorials.

They advertise their services everywhere, including billboards and buses, claiming to magically transform no-hopers to straight A students, via flashy marketing tactics.

Richard Eng, 47 is one of the successful, so called “tutor kings” – he drives a Lamborghini, wears expensive watches and stays in a mansion. His tutorial company is called Beacon College and he has more than 100 tutors working for him.

Another is Kelly Mok, an English tutor whose good looks probably added to her popularity. She teaches at King’s Glory, one of the biggest tutorial schools in Hong Kong, carrying her Louis Vuitton handbag along.

At the very top is Real Madrid’s Jose Mourinho with EUR13.5 million/year. Compare that to the salary of the highest paid footballer in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid again!) with EUR12 million/year. Of course I think with all those endorsements, Ronaldo’s total income would easily dwarf The Special One’s.

In fact, the magazine reported that when everything is counted in, the world’s second highest paid player, and widely regarded as the greatest footballer alive, Lionel Messi, is truly the richest footballer, with a total income of EUR31 million in a year. Think that’s a lot? No, golfer Tiger Woods earns a mind boggling EUR53 million.

Back to manager, at second place is Real’s bitter rivals Barcelona’s manager Pep Guardiola who earns a more modest EUR10.5 million per year.

At third is Rafael Benitez (former Inter Milan and Liverpool coach) with EUR10.2 million, although when counted at the end of 2011, it could drop due to his current status.

At fourth is England’s national coach Fabio Capello, with EUR8.5 million.

It goes without saying that those fat salaries enable these guys to afford to opt for the finer things in life, nice stainless undermount sinks for their homes for instance.

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According to the list:

- the highest paid footballer on earth, and the only one paid EUR1 million or more per month is Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid). Lionel Messi (Barcelona) is second and quite far back at EUR875,000 per month. Third is Fernando Torres (Chelsea) at EUR833K/mth and fourth is Yaya Toure (Manchester City) at the same amount. These 4 guys are the only ones getting paid at least EUR800K every month.

- the rest of the top 10: joint 6th: Kaka (Real Madrid) at EUR750K/mth, joint 6th: Zlatan Ibrahimovic (AC Milan) at EUR750K/mth, 8th: Emmanuel Adebayor (Real Madrid) at EUR708K/mth, joint 9th: Carlos Tevez (Manchester City) at EUR666K/mth, joint 9th: Samuel Eto’o (Inter Milan) at EUR666K/mth, joint 9th: Frank Ribery (Bayern Munich) at EUR666K/mth.

- perhaps surprisingly, England has the most players in the top 100 with 16 players. World champions Spain is second with a mere 11, followed by France (11), Argentina (10), Italy (9), Brazil (8), Germany (8), Holland (6), Portugal (4) and Ivory Coast (3).

- Park Ji-Sung is the only Asian player in the top 100, who is also the lowest paid of the lost, with EUR316K/mth.

- the club spending the biggest amount on player salaries is Manchester City, narrowly beating Real Madrid.

- the English Premier League is where riches are to be made – it hosts the most top 100 players. It leaves second placed La Liga far behind, and pays more than double what Seria A does.

- the highest paid English player is Wayne Rooney (5th) at EUR791K/mth, followed by John Terry, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard, who’re all paid EUR625K/mth

- most of the top 100 is made up of midfielders (40 of ‘em), the least being goalkeepers (6).

- the most expensive team in the world looks like this:
Goalkeeper: Iker Casillas
Defenders: Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Daniel Alves
Midfielders: Yaya Toure, Lional Messi, Kaka
Strikers: Frank Ribery, Cristiano Ronaldo, Fernando Torres

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