NorthEast

No man is an island, no one can live in isolation. We need, first and foremost, a family, and then many great friends. Life is a cobweb of people getting together.

Soon turning to 6 years old Xin Nning has gradually developed her own personality and preference. She now express stronger desire in what she likes to do, the kind of haircut she preferred, selective in extra-curriculum activities (she prefers swimming, painting, and what else ...???), and list goes on. Occasionally it crosses my mind on what her peers are doing and how Xin Ning fairs in comparison. Is this mental comparison healthy though (I believe normal for most parents)? How should I help Xin Ning navigates through what she likes, those activities she has not been exposed to and may develop a liking to it once exposed, and those activities her peers are better than Xin Ning?  My personal preference is to have her develop the reading skills with "I Can Read" and Arts especially painting but are these enough to help her develop her thinking and creativity? In addition, would like to expose Xin Ning to some outdoor activities such as trekking, exposing her to childr...

Tomorrow I will be starting a new career in Shanghai for at least a year. The opportunity came at a timing less than ideal given our family has just celebrated the arrival of 欣蒽, and 芯宁 is now enjoying her sister's companion; all the good reasons for me to be at home. At the same time, 丽晶and I are both doing so well together. Like our past successes, we always need to keep ourselves on the toes and be prepared to take up new challenges that could represent a greenfield for our family. Nelly took up the challenge of being a Private Banker after her surgery in 2005, I took the risk of jumping into Operations at the time banking is most unstable in 2008 and we had just overjoyed with 芯宁arrival. Looking back we are glad to take up the challenges and enjoying the fruits of our decision and hardwork. I guess now this is another huge leap of faith for me, again, and this time it is Shanghai. It will be a challenging career and tough time managing being aw...

After almost 3 weeks looking after Xin En, and seeing how Xin Ning reacted towards her little sister, I can't help but feeling proud and love the girls more. The feeling is derived from the gratification and proud seeing Xin Ning's continuous affection towards Xin En and her spontaneity in defending her little sister. Both Nelly and I are extremely delighted to see how these two girls are getting on with each other, so far. We will be patient to see them growing up and surely will enjoy the journey with them.   Daddy and Mommy love both of you very much.

In just less than a month, I am probably going to start a new post in Shanghai office, taking care of Trade Finance and Cash Solutions operations. Whilst excited with the opportunity there are several reasons I am feeling a little divided on the following: 1) Leaving family behind especially the three adorable ladies at home 2) Uncertainly on the term of the contracts 3) The extend of the challenge at work I have been thinking of whether to bring the entire family over or to travel back and forth, and after much consideration the latter prevail for following reasons: 1) It helps keep wife on payroll which serves our family as an insurance in the event my career hit a bump and we still have a bit more to go before we could declare financially free 2) Food safety in Shanghai or China at large is worrying moreso Xin Ex is an infant and on-going health scare 3) Having Nelly being a full-time housewife, while could be enjoying at beginning, could turn into boredom when children grow...

Being a Malaysian, married to a girl originated from Indonesia and now a proud Singaporean, who is born on 31 August, in itself is a symbol of national importance. That was 2004. Fast forward to May 1, 2013, I am again about to claim a coincidence of great importance. On 2 May (tomorrow) Nelly and I are excitedly welcoming the arrival of our new born, and 3 days later (May 5, 2013) Malaysians will head to polls to decide the next government. For us, the arrival of second child will coincide with another significant event in our family, that is, I am awaiting my relocation to Shanghai, a move which I think will boost my career prospect and enhance my experience in a great way. During the very same week, on this Sunday, Malaysians are gearing up to cast their votes in what many have predicted as the closest battle between the incumbents and the Oppositions led by Anwar Ibrahim. For the first time since Independence the National Front government is facing a real prospect of losing its...

How could I cut all the noises in my head and just live by holistic principle of full contention, expectation-less, and enjoy everyone as it comes?

Few things came into my mind when this topic pop up: 1) Do I have enough financial means to raise this child, giving him / her the best I could afford, when job is hardly secured? 2) What will happen to old days nest egg if we were to allocate substantial resources to support Xin Ning and her brother / sister? 3) Could I be fair to both of them in term of material provision in which I have a wish to provide them top-in-class education and leave them with an equal assets / wealth to launch them to ensure their stay ahead? For all the considerations above, I do have some inclination towards having a second child for following reasons: 1) Giving Xin Ning a companion and an opportunity to pick up responsibility being an elder; to look after the younger sibling 2) I know having another child will have fulfilled Nelly's wish given how happy she is being a mother and all the fun generated from looking and spending time with Xin Ning This is a complex situation and I am amazed to ...

Last week, Nelly and and I have begun to see how our apartment at M@P is gradually to feel like a home. A few aspects of the apartment have caught a better side of Xin Ning; the yellow light at walk-way to common room, the height of switches means she can now switch on/off the lights at ease, pink writing table, and the purple curtain she has chosen finally got fixed. Nelly, on the other hand, is excited with the prospect of living at M@P that comes with vast space, resort-like layout, a big pool (Olympic size), and its close proximity to St Nicholas Primary School. I, too, am excited with the fact it is situated next to Upper and Lower Peirce which helps bring nature really close to my weekend running regime. One other interesting point about moving into M&P is the on-going discussion among netizens on where is the nearest MRT station for next Thomson MRT Line. An engineer from Poh Lian, the main contractor for the project, has speculated with confidence that it is somewhere n...

Marriage, to me and people around me, is more a traditional call once a person attains a certain age and in my case it was 31. Years later, i have begun to realise 'marriage' is far from just fulfilling a tradition or family call. Living in a uber cosmopolitan society and a city-state like Singapore, everything in our daily activities revolve around transaction. From the moment the bread and butter is served on table, to taking bus or train to work, lunch, dinner, and even a small personal indulgent called 'Kopi-O' worth 90 cents; all these transactional activities call for exchanging and circulating of money within the society. And these particular transactions are meant for me but the concept in itself is universal. Given I am pretty low maintenance in term of cost of living, these transactions are within my mean. Now think about having 2 persons' transactions in a household, it does not take long for us to conclude the transactions could easi...

Time flies. Xin Ning is now 4 years old. And we are about to move into our first brand new apartment, and pretty excited about it. With the move come a new school for Xin Ning, Carpe Diem. Both Nelly and I are hoping she will enjoy this school and make best use of the new learning experience and environment, and make more friends. Next target is to get her into St. Nicholas Primary; this will be a tall order but we will remain hopeful. Intend to keep this blog alive so promise to visit and post more. Got to go now.

China has posted 10.7% growth rate for the last quarter year-on-year. This rate of growth, by any standard, is above impressive and give rise to inflationary pressure on China's economy. The government is now confronting with serious challenge in containing assets bubble and rapid increase in prices of daily consumable goods and services. My view is the government will soon perform withdrawal of its massive stimulus package amid gradually, and begin the tightening of credit creation to reign in lending activities, particularly to property sector, consumer credits, and speculative investment activities. Having said that, any measure to cool the economy invites unwanted potential surge in unemployment, which could threaten the societal stability that form the pivotal hold for the government's stability. One other concern is should the cooling effect proved to be potent, the 'over capacities' in China manufacturing could pose deflationary risk and this problem could only g...

China has surpassed US as the biggest car market in the world with 13.6 million cars sold last year. Assuming the average size engine is 1.5L, with average monthly petrol consumption at 60 litres, the annual petro consumption for these 13.6 million cars will be 9.8 billion litres. On average, 1 barrel of crude oil could process out 19.5 gallons of petrol (1 gallon:3.785 litres) so it will take 504 million barrels of crude oil to produce 9.8 billion litres of petrol. On daily term, China will require 1.38 million barrels of crude oil to power these 13.6 million new cars. What do you think of China's appetite for oil consumption in the future?

Tan Sri Robert Kuok Hock Nien (born 6 October 1923, in Johor Bahru, Johor), is an influential Malaysian Chinese businessman. According to Forbes his net worth is estimated to be around $10 billion on May 2008, making him the richest person in Southeast Asia. He is media shy and discreet; most of his businesses are privately held by him or his family. Apart from a multitude of enterprises in Malaysia , his companies have investments in many countries throughout Asia . His business interests range from sugarcane plantations (Perlis Plantations Bhd), sugar refinery, flour milling, animal feed, oil and mining to finance, hotels, properties, trading, freight and publishing. Robert Kuok Hock Nien's notes on the past sixty years (On the occasion of Kuok Group’s 60th Anniversary 10 April 2009) (1) My brothers and I owe our upbringing completely to Mother. She was steeped in Ru-Jiao – the teachings of Confucius, Mencius, Laozi and other Chinese sages. Ru-Jiao teaches the correct behaviour f...

Recently we made a trip back to Pematang Siantar, some sort of annual visit for us, and spent a good week there with family and friends. The town has not changed much physically, but the variaties of shops have somewhat improved. I have made several observation during a week along there: One observation is price hike. I have noticed an over the board increase in food prices. These days, the popular Mie Pangsit, is selling at least Rp10,000 (SGD 1.50); I consider this price expensive given the fact I could enjoy a bowl of noodle in hometown for 2/3 of that price though it is not similar noodle to compare. Another observation is the frequent power outage. As far as i can remember, the power outage is a norm in Siantar so no surprise to find most big shops are having electric generators powered by fuel as backup. I wonder if this is a sign of power shortage to a growing economy of Indonesia or simply due to inefficiency in power distribution, or both? Third observation is the condition of...

Investing your own money is a complicated and potentially dangerous business. One slip in the tricky world of stocks and shares can prove very costly. So Times Money offers a guide on how to survive and profit in the investment jungle. 1) Buy low; sell high. 2) Don’t chase performance. If you like a stock or fund, buy on the dips. 3) Run your winners. In other words let your profts roll up and don't be in too much of a hurry to kiss goodbye to your best-performing investments. 4) Cut your losses before they become excessive. 5) Never get too attached to a share or a fund. As the late Sir John Harvey Jones once said: “You sometimes have to kill your favourite children.” 6) In general, think long-term. As Warren Buffett, the great US investor once said: “Never buy a stock unless you would be happy with it if the stock exchange closed down for the next 10 years.” 7) But don’t let that stop you reviewing your portfolio regularly. You need to check that your portfolio is properly balanc...

Some investors might think they have had a rough ride on the stock market over the past seven or eight months. But the recent share price gyrations pale into insignificance when compared with the biggest stock market falls of all time. 10) Wall Street 1901-03: -46%The market was spooked by the assassination of President McKinley in 1901, coupled with a severe drought later the same year. 9) Wall Street 1919-21: -46%There were fears that the new automobile sector was becoming overheated and that car ownership had reached saturation point. 8) Wall Street 1906-07: -48%Markets took fright after President Theodore Roosevelt had threatened to rein in the monopolies that flourished in various industrial sectors, notably railways. 7) Wall Street 1937-38: -49%This share price fall was triggerd by an economic recession and doubts about the effectiveness of Franklin D Roosevelt's New Deal policy. 6) London 2000-2003: -52%The UK took sixth place in the table with a 52 per cent market fall betw...

Some investors might think they have had a rough ride on the stock market over the past seven or eight months. But the recent share price gyrations pale into insignificance when compared with the biggest stock market falls of all time. 10) Wall Street 1901-03: -46%The market was spooked by the assassination of President McKinley in 1901, coupled with a severe drought later the same year. 9) Wall Street 1919-21: -46%There were fears that the new automobile sector was becoming overheated and that car ownership had reached saturation point. 8) Wall Street 1906-07: -48%Markets took fright after President Theodore Roosevelt had threatened to rein in the monopolies that flourished in various industrial sectors, notably railways. 7) Wall Street 1937-38: -49%This share price fall was triggerd by an economic recession and doubts about the effectiveness of Franklin D Roosevelt's New Deal policy. 6) London 2000-2003: -52%The UK took sixth place in the table with a 52 per cent market fall betw...

What's in the future for investors--another roaring bull market or more upset stomach? Amazingly, the answer may come down to three simple factors. Here, the world's most celebrated investor talks about what really makes the market tick--and whether that ticking should make you nervous. By Warren Buffett; Carol Loomis December 10, 2001 (FORTUNE Magazine) – Two years ago, following a July 1999 speech by Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, on the stock market--a rare subject for him to discuss publicly--FORTUNE ran what he had to say under the title "Mr. Buffett on the Stock Market" (Nov. 22, 1999). His main points then concerned two consecutive and amazing periods that American investors had experienced, and his belief that returns from stocks were due to fall dramatically. Since the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 11194 when he gave his speech and recently was about 9900, no one yet has the goods to argue with him. So where do we stand now--with the stock...