Morning ...  what are the 'latest'?

Lahad Datu : A nice small town, abandoned ... as some distance away, some battles going on. Read that 2 + 5 policemen got killed so far. So sad. army is moving in ... more bloodshed expected. Hope they could get some peaceful settlement. May peace prevail ... but men with their egos, they like to make claims!!

Will it affect the markets?

New lows : BHIC reaching new lows .. Biosis and Smartag too. Sendai ... and many more nearing to new low such as YTLPower, MAS ... KNM ... many more.

Market is still in cautious-mode, despite it shows some buying coming in. The uncertainties of GE and Suluk, making many retailers in anxious-mode ... should we be moving in to capture that small rebound? Or is it moving to 1680 levels again ... and we do not want to miss the 'rally'? pre-election rally, anyone?

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Last week was 'different' ... I m trying to do something not common for a week, such as going for an hour lunch(normally just 10-15 minutes) and do some reading(Dilbert!!) ... then for weekend, I did not on my pc ... no blogging(haha ... minus the Sat and Sun blah-blah ...) only checking on my FB using ipad. Went for nice dinner with family ... BangkokBeat was nice ... and one of our fav restaurant, Bubba-Gumb(I like prawns). Saturday morning ... before my classes, we went for jogging in the playground. Great ways of doing something different!!

Financial freedom : I was glad to share with my wife a simple conversation about 'money'. Just merely 3-4 years ago, she will be stressed due to 'lack' of money to use. Today, she is slighly more educated about money. As I am slowly teaching her about personal finances, she will be given the 'freedom' to use ... some allocated amount of money. I have increased the 'ceiling' substantially. So, she feels she is financially free now. Great feeling ... when you do not need to think of buying that fav fish to cook as it is 'costly' ... or wanting to buy some clothes/shoes. Once we learn to be simple, and understand that we actually needs very little items, we will not continue to spend more and more on items.

A good example is ... my kids toys. My boy is so privileged. Always wanting to buy something new and more toys. Yes ... he is failing to appreciate what he is having. So, I have told my wife many of times ... it is not the money that we could afford(or not) ... it is the characters we are building in him. He got so many toys that he can't even appreciate anything much anymore. All he wants is a new one, see? Slowly, I think my wife start to get my points ... after few years of trying to explain simple concept of lives.

I am glad ... when patience paid off. I have to be patient ... and to teach finances to 'normal' people is difficult. Buying into many things is not living ... it is in-fact giving us the un-neccesary stressful situation. Having the control of our urge to buyings ... and knowing that we are trying to balance our living, into a more simple ones ... could make us a happier person. I do hope to teach my kids that ...

How do we measure 'financial freedom'? As our expenses should be relative to our abilities to earn ... we should still place maximum amount we should be spending one certain items such as food, clothings/attires, entertainments, gadgets, etc etc.

Example : If one is earning RM5k, a once a week dinner of RM50 is ok ... then if we are earning RM10k, once a week dinner of RM100 is ok too.

So, in her view, we are achieving our financial-freedom .. thats feeling is great!! In my view, we have not achieve that ... as I do still need to work whole day and whole week ... to exchange my time with 'money' ... to earn, save and invest. One day ... I do know, if I am persistent ... I will feel financially free too ... without needing to worry much about financial ... for my kids' education, health and wealth being.

Live below your means ... as the most common words telling us. I will maintain that.

Have a nice day and week ahead. May not be able to write due to tight schedules and wanting to do more un-common things.

TEH