Money Talks - it’s not everything, but everything is money

Job description: Make virtual goods in online games to sell to players

Earnings: more than RM400 per month (average)

Size of industry: 500,000 persons, 80% in China. Already comparable in size to India’s outsourcing industry!

Global market size: estimated USD500 million, but true size could easily be twice as big!

Outlook: very bright, growing rapidly. Has become a significant economic sector in many developing nations so much so that gold-farming has been cited as an early exmple of the “virtual offshoring” likely to become more prevalent as people spend more time working and playing in cyberspace.

Mitigating factor: considered illegal by gaming companies

Source
The BBC, 22nd Aug 2008

After huffing and puffing for 1 hour, with practically the whole nation watching on the edge of their seats, Lee Chong Wei defeated Kim Hyun Il 21-18, 13-21, 21-13 in the semis and is guaranteed at least a silver medal.

Therefore, he’ll be only the sixth Malaysian who’ve ever won an Olympic medal, after Razif and Jalani Sidek (1992 Barcelona Olympics bronze medallist), Cheah Soon Kit & Yap Kim Hock (1996 Atlanta Olympics silver medallist) and Rashid Sidek (1996 Atlanta Olympics bronze medallist).

As special as it is earning an Olympic medal, there are the monetary rewards too.

As mentioned back in June by the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Malaysian gold medal winners will get RM1 million “incentive.” It used to be RM160,000.

For teams sports, players of a winning team would get at least RM150,000 each.

Apart from the one-time payment, and presumably a barrage of other awards like Datukships, land and more money from others, gold medal winners would also get a monthly pension of RM5,000. It used to be RM3,000 per month.

He explained that the huge jump is justified because:

to win a gold medal is not easy because the competition is getting tougher. We can see that from one Olympics to another, the standard is increasing. We should therefore set a higher target, and provide a more attractive incentive.

In fact, other countries have even bigger incentives, like Singapore who offers S$1 million (>RM2 million) to gold medallists.

Lesser medal winners should not fret either.

Source

Silver medallists will get RM300,000 one time, and RM3,000 per month.

Bronze medallists will get RM100,000, and RM2,000 per month.

I took down Advertlets from my only blog running it some time ago (probably 1-2 months ago already) after reading about the many negative comments about the company.

Then today I received an envelope from HSBC KL. I had no idea - because I don’t have any account with that bank.

Then, upon opening the envelope, lo and behold:

So, will this make me return to Advertlets? Well, I think I’ll run the other Malaysian web advertising company’s product exclusively first, then compare them.

Final decision should come in a month or two.

Terry Ng of kineda.com mentioned that the design took him 30 minutes on photoshop. No too fancy stuff, just the line “There is No Charge for Awesomeness,” taken off the movie Kung Fu Panda.

Then he posted the design for sale at RedBubble.

So far, less than a month later, he’s sold 85 shirts for a profit of USD628.85.

He said you control the price and decide your level of profit. RedBubble doesn’t charge commissions but rather a base price of USD19.95 per shirt. Terry set his markup to 37% i.e. profit of USD7.41 per shirt sold.

He compared that with a local printing shop, where production costs would be lower. Still, selling via RedBubble entailed much less work. For every shirt sold, they’d send you a notification email.

RedBubble is not only for tshirts, you can also sell other art: photos, designs and illustrations in the form of framed prints, mounted prints, greeting cards or even posters.

Terry said it’s easy money, why not give it a go???

source

In 2006, a survery on smoking in Malaysia was conducted by the Health Ministry.

Result:
- Malaysians spend RM8.59 million on cigarettes every day
- that’s equivalent to 33 million sticks
- youths aged 13-17 formed the bulk of smokers: 422,710 of them male & 45,807 female, spending RM272,132 on cigs daily
- More than 2 million adults in Malaysia are smokers.
- Number of smokers in Malaysia is increasing because of “various tactics deployed by tobacco companies in promoting cigarettes, influencing many to take up the habit.”

Source

Bernama reported on 21st May 2008 that former Ustaz Zulkifli Yaacob, 44 is now a livestock entrepreneur in Pasir Mas, Kelantan earning RM50,000 per month.

He operates the “Sunnah Ternak” goat farm at Kampung Rong Chenok.

His 450 square feet [I'm not sure if this is a typo or not] farm is apparently the largest goat farm in Malaysia and has about 2,500 goats of various species. Not bad for a farm which started only 1 year ago with 500 animals.

He has 15 workers comprising farm hands, veterinarian, manager and accountant.

They all stay at the quarters located at the centre of the farm. They need to be at the farm round-the-clock to keep watch over the livestock.

Zulkifli said he started with an initial capital of RM1.5 million to set up the farm.

His motivation to start the farm: to turn Kelantan into the country’s major mutton producer.

The animals are kept in two huge enclosures built at the cost of RM900,000. Each hold over 1,000 goats.

Breeds at the farm include Jamnapari Anglo and Jamnapari Cross.

He also has some sheep from the Barbados: Pull Marino and Dambagarul breeds.

Zulkifli also practises the “pawah system”: sharing his livestock with others, particularly the unemployed graduates: allowing 5 pregnant nanny goats to be reared by an individual. After they given birth, they are taken them back but the individual is allowed to keep the kid goats as livestock. So far, 250 animals at his farm goats were bred under the pawah system.

He plans to increase the number of livestock to 20,000 over the next 5 years and to turn the farm into a safari-style tourist destination.

A course on commercial goat rearing would be held at the farm from June 2008: open to all. Fee: RM180 per person, room and board included. For unemployed graduates the fee is even cheaper: RM50. Interested? Call him at 019-9678787.

Source

A good advice: Don’t overindulge your “feeling poor” state of mind. Things like flipping through shopping catalogs and going to the shopping mall will definitely make you feel like wanting to buy things. Even if you can afford them, remember that the point is this: most of it is beyond your reach. Why not, instead, do things that offer a sense of well-being eg, invite friends over to your place, or take a walk at the park.

More tips

The top advice should always be: pay off all balance on your credit cards every month. Never go beyond the interest-free 30-day grace period. Hence, you get to use the credit card’s money without paying them anything for the privilege. Do this, and you will save thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of dollars in needless interest payments.

Click here for more tips

Staggering. Even with all the food and grocery price increases, people still spent more in 2006 than in 2007.

Shoppers (Malaysians + tourists) spent almost RM67.1 billion in 2007, a 12.8% increase from the year before. It was the fastest growth since 1991.

Tourists accounted for 10-12% of the total.

For 2008, the forecast is even more: RM71.8 billion.

Most of purchases went to:
-”specialty subsectors”, eg toys, fitness equipment and optical products
- fashion and fashion accessories.

Source
New Straits Times, 14th May 2008

As revealed in the Dewan Rakyat on 8th May 2008 by Zulkifli Noordin (PKR - Kulim Bandar Baru):

The government is paying a total of RM1.14 million each year to 3 government advisers:

- Petronas adviser Dr Mahathir Mohamad: RM180K per year => RM15K per month
- Women and Social Development Affairs adviser to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi: Datuk Shahrizat Abdul Jalil: RM404,726 per year = >RM30,000 per month
- Religious adviser to the PM: Datuk Abd Hamid Othman: RM549,675 per year => >RM45,000 per month.

Source:
Malaysiakini, 8th May 2008