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

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

Web 2.0 is set to be embraced by Enterprise 2.0 as businesses prepare to spend nearly USD5 billion by 2013 (that’s 5 years away) on social networking tools.

Over half of the companies in North America and Europe see Web 2.0 as a priority for next year.

Full story

UPDATE 1.00pm, 9th January 2007

As of now, OK already.

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UPDATE 7.31pm, 7th January 2007

As of now I STILL can’t access advertlets website the usual way (but I could in an *unusual* way).

Going to www.advertlets.com directly, I will still be redirected to apps.advertlet.com [full URL here]:

But the twist is that, at the top it says: “This domain name expired on Jan 03, 2010.”

As far as I know, 2010 is 2 years away. Then why is the sentence in the past tense? What is going on?!

If instead I go to www.advertlets.com.my, the advertlets website will be displayed but only for a few seconds, before I will be redirected again to the above site.

Then I found that forcing the browser to stop loading the advertlets website BEFORE it gets redirected, I will be able to login as usual.

But that isn’t an elegant way of going about it.

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UPDATE 10.19pm, 6th January 2007

Up till now I STILL can’t access advertlets website.

Josh Lim has set up a temporary blog to inform of updates in resolving the issue. There, he wrote, timestamped about 1am, 5th January that things will be back to normal in one hour or less. Well, it definitely has been much more than an hour as I write this!

Some people are not happy with either Nuffnang or Adverlets: payment delay issues.

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I thought my browser was hijacked - going to some websites I will be redirected to adbaaz.com:

But then I realised that this would only happen if the sites have advertlets ads in them. Other sites are perfectly OK.

When I went directly to advertlets, I was confronted with:

The domain advertlets.com expired on 3rd January 2008 and was not renewed?

Doublechecking confirms this.

However, they have until 13th February to renew it, before it’s up for grabs.

Still, this does not speak well for the company at all!

This afternoon I got the following forwarded SMS (verbatim, except names and IDs):

Frm a fren mr exxxx cxxxx - To all my associates. Dubaimlm is giving out FREE credit card with a USD 500 awarded upon signup. Im shring this wth u. pls login w.w.w.dubaimlm.com and my id. II0044xxx. gd luck. tq exxxx. pls signup ur geng too.

Even before checking things out deeper, alarm bells already started ringing:
- beware of anything that says “free” in big letters, and anything the promises free money.
- misspellings and improperly constucted sentences in SMSes are common, but it suggests lack of professionalism on the senders’ part.

Later, digging deeper, I can say the following: do not join this!

The site is affiliated with one Phil Picollo, a notorious scammer.

…that was back in 1973. She got started after attending a seminar about traditional healthcare and the use of “jamu.”

Of course she was, and obviously still is, passionate about these 2 things.

She started the business in her garage, producing and distributing products with a capital of USD25 and 2 workers.

Many of her family members were not supportive, but her husband (a civil servant) was.

A few years later, she already had 50 workers and needed to move out of the garage.

But she couldn’t get a bank loan. So she soldiered on, saving up money. With the money saved after many years, she set up her own manufacturing plant.

She said:
- you need to knowledgeable and keep up with demands of modern consumers in a rapidly changing local as well as global market.
- all problems can be overcome through hard work, perseverance and continuous improvement.

Mustika Ratu is now a public listed company with 3,000 employees. It gets its raw materials from its own plantation.

Later she expanded to other areas of traditional healthcare, including beauty & spa business, franchising her spa, both locally & overseas.

She obtained her PhD in Economics at the age of 79. Truly, age is never a barrier.

Dr Bra Mooryati was born in January 1928. She is also a senator.

Source
Daily Express, 14th November 2007, Page 5 (local section)

Permodalan Bumiputera Sabah Bhd (PBSB) is (or was?) the investment arm of Yayasan Bumiputra Sabah (YBS).

On 10th November 2007, Daily Express reported the following:
- former GMD Mohd Shukur Abd Mumin was hired by PBSB on 1st July 2001 on a 37-month contract. It was supposed to end 31st July 2004.

Basic salary: RM11,025/mth
Housing allowance: RM1,500/mth
Entertainment: RM1,000/mth
Annual contractual bonus: RM11,025/yr
Annual gratuity: RM11,025/yr
Transport allowance: RM8,800/yr
Housing loan interest subsidy: RM7,933/yr

That would work out to be about RM16,700 per month.

- However, his contract was terminated only 5 months later.

On 7th March 2003, the executive chairman of YBS, Datuk Amirkahar Tun Datu Hj Mustapha was quoted by Daily Express to have said that PBSB was presently insolvent and its closure was imminent. Its liabilities then have exceeded its assets by RM30 million.

Source
Daily Express, 10th November 2007, Page 4 (Local section)
Daily Express, 7th March 2003