Pay Yourself First

Summary – How to avoid zero balance in your bank account by end of month
I don’t know about you, but when I first started working, I can’t seem to be able to save money. I received my paycheck, withdraw some to pay this, another some to pay that. By the time I reach the next paycheck, the balance in my account is zero.

Then I think to myself : “Of course la, just started working, obviously will spend a lot to establish myself. I’ll wait for my next increment and by then I must have extra money to be saved every end of month”

2 years passed by just like that, and with all the increments, revision and bonus, I still have zero balance at the end of the month. Now something is wrong!!

Later I learnt of a concept which is “Pay Yourself First“. Buying a new handphone is not considered paying yourself first ya :). Every month when I got my paycheck, I must take out some money and put it in another bank before anything else. And just forget about the money ever saved there.

I’ve already practised this for quite some time and guess what, my lifestyle seem to automatically adapt to my budget, rather than the other way around. Previously, I considered this an impossible thing to do and I may end up drawing the money out of the bank (Actually I really forget I got the money there eheh).

Well it’s very true what they say – “Lagi besar periuk, lagi besarlah keraknya”

————— Personal Note ————————–
A true confession from me. I am a shopaholic. Not in the common way, I don’t go to the mall buying everything I see, but almost everytime I will think of something to buy, how to spend money. laptop, ram, 320GB HD, domain name, car accesories, and many more. I don’t really need them. But it give me great pleasure when I am on a shopping spree. Luckily I still have some control on this. Anyone else out there the same with me?


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Time Travel To See Hang Tuah

summary – Impossible things now may be possible tomorrow
What if suddenly we found a time machine and go back to see Hang Tuah. He then asked us how is the life in the 21st century. We may answer like this.

  • We can chat with anybody from anywhere in the world (via internet)
  • All information ever existed can be search in mere seconds (via internet)
  • We can see what happen around the world the moment it happen (television)
  • We can cook without fire (microwave)
  • We can fly (aeroplane)
  • We can travel around the world in less than 80 hours

Think about it, for us these are nothing new and very common. But to Hang Tuah, he must think that we are just bluffing him. There’s no way all that is even possible.

If we travel back even further, maybe to the caveman period, they may even think that we are supernatural being or even god with all these common technology.

That is why I always believe that in time we will understand the mystery of God’s creation that is now assumed to be unexplainable and spiritual. For example :

  • Other dimension – where djin and satan resides
  • Space travel at speed faster than light – israk mikraj
  • ESP – extra sensory perception

Now if only there are people researching this.. hm

Note – Hang Tuah is a Malay legendary warrior back in the 1400

————— Personal Note ————————–
I am actually a big fan of Hang Tuah’s legend. I may not support him in some decision he made like the execution of his brother, Hang Jebat. I don’t even know whether he existed or not. But, in an indirect way I think he is still the main motivation for me to study silat during my study. I still remember, my colleague and I actually go to Kuala Terengganu four or five weeks before our final to participate in the training organized there 🙂


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Summary – Another point of view on Father’s Day etc
Father’s day is approaching. Malaysia sure has a lot of celebration. Mother’s day, Teacher’s day, Father’s day, Valentine etc.

Technically the celebration is meant to educate us to be more appreciative.Very true.. and I can’t imagine of better way of doing it. But don’t you think we have to review that approach as now we only appreciate teacher during teacher’s day, our independence on Merdeka day, our spouse on valentine. The other 364 days were spent without any effort to cherish them. Instead of making us appreciate them all the time, we waited for the day to come to appreciate them.

The method of celebration must also be reviewed as you can see throughout the nation, people are celebrating it by mean of spending money. Can’t we appreciate them without or with minimum spending of money. It is somehow rooted in our way that to celebrate I must buy his/her something new. Sellers obviously will take this opportunity, cannot blame them.

A lot of things should be reviewed. Or we will end up being a robot, doing the same thing without ever understanding the reason and its meaning. Like shouting MERDEKA!!! like mad every August but we hate our Malaysia to the guts.

Again, I am not against celebrating these days. I think it is a wonderful idea with very noble intention. For me, appreciate doesn’t have to be a trip to oversea, gift or cards (even though, people nowadays prefer to be appreciated that way). it’s when ever I go the extra mile for them happily and they know deep down they are appreciated any days in my life.

————— Personal Note ————————–
You know I am celebrating and appreciating when the words “CELEBRATE” and “APPRECIATE” are repeated seven and nine times respectively in my post hehe


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Summary – Forced sleep produce nightmare
I have my own theories on this. We can all agree that mind is a very wild thing. To put it at ease will be a very difficult task. Sometimes the nightmare we had just doesn’t make any sense. We are not sleeping in fear but still the nightmare comes.

I believe people had nightmare because they sleep not because they wanted to sleep but they forced themselves to sleep. “Tomorrow I need to work, I must sleep, MUST”. The mind is very wild at the time so no wonder it reacted with the nightmare. Somehow people from previous generation know about this. That’s why they relate having nightmare to not washing your feet. Scientifically, why do we ever need to wash our feet before we sleep?

1) to clean it up so that our bed will be clean? – possible
2) to cool it off so the comfort will help us sleep? – possible

I choose to believe that washing your feet is a cooling down session for your mind. The action itself is telling the mind (in the most persuasive way) that you wanted to sleep. Then with all the “doa” you recite, the mind will immediately prepare to go to sleep mode. And lastly we recite the “kalimah syahadah” which is supposed to be the last word we utter for the day before we sleep. This will subconciously tell the mind “Good night and sweet dream” 🙂

————— Personal Note ————————–
When I was a kid, my nightmare almost always involved two beast (usually elephants) running toward each other with me in the middle of the head on collision. Very short but at the time very scary hehe. Usually it is a sign that I will be down with fever the next day. Do you have any reccuring nightmare.


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