Malaysia Travel Blog: Discover Amazing Kuala Lumpur City Tour

Kuala Lumpur Travel Blog: Part 4

Kuala Lumpur Full-Day City Tour – Part 1

On the 18th of December 2018, my first full day in Malaysia was scheduled to start with the Discover Amazing Kuala Lumpur City Tour. The tour starts at 9, but I was expected to be at the Malaysia Tourism Centre (MaTic), No. 109, Jalan Ampang by 8:45 AM.

I took a taxi from the hotel to reach the Malaysia Tourism Centre. The Uber version of a taxi was called Grab. I had to install the app the night before, as Uber no longer operated in Malaysia. It was morning rush hour with moderate traffic.

After reaching the destination, I got a little confused because the Malaysia Tourism Centre was a big area and I was not sure exactly where to wait for my guide. I went inside the building and asked a few people I saw. They pointed me to a spot outside the building, but within the boundaries to wait.

After waiting for a while, the guide appeared. He directed me to the tour car we would be using for the tour. It seemed like I was the only one on this tour – not a bad thing.

The Discover Amazing Kuala Lumpur City Tour was a full-day, six-hour tour which would cover contemporary and ancient attractions in the greater Kuala Lumpur. We would be visiting the Petronas Twin Tower, the Batu Caves, Royal Selangor pewter factory, KL City Gallery, and the National Mosque.

$75000 A Year Buys You Perfect Happiness

Happiness Comes At A Price

First Published: ADawnJournal.com September 19, 2010

The Beatles said Can’t Buy Me Love, and that All You Need is Love but a recent study done by Princeton University found that while you can’t buy love, you can buy happiness. In the study, 450,000 Americans were surveyed and analyzed. Between 2008 and 2009, the study found that there are two forms of happiness. There is the happiness that comes from being content day-to-day and there is the happiness that comes from being satisfied with who you are and where you are in the world. The study was done by economist Angus Deaton and psychologist Daniel Kahneman.

The study discovered that having more money will not increase the contentment you feel on a day-to-day basis, but it will increase the overall satisfaction that you feel in your life.

Not only did the study find that, but it also found that there is a specific dollar amount that gives you the most happiness. Once you go over this dollar amount, the amount of happiness and satisfaction you feel does not increase anymore. Once you hit the plateau of $75,000, your day-to-day happiness no longer increases. So, if you have $1 million, you will have the same amount of happiness that you have at $75,000. Your overall satisfaction can still increase though.

One interesting fact is that the happiness you feel will be based on your income and where you are in a specific country. For example, in the United States, you would need to earn $163,000 in New York City to have the $75,000 level of happiness. In Chicago and Pueblo, Colorado, you would need to earn $84,750 and $62,000 respectively.

This doesn’t mean you are going to buy your happiness with things but money will help you feel better in your life. When you are living paycheque-to-paycheque in your life and you are wondering how you are going to pay your bills, you are often not very happy. However, as time goes on and you make more money, you will begin to feel better and happier. Waking up in the morning knowing you won’t lose your house will make you happier and more content. When you know you have enough money to go out for food, to buy some of the things you want and to go on vacation, you will be happier.

Now, that all being said, if you are going to be happy with your $75,000, then you cannot decide to just go and live a $100,000 lifestyle. You need to live within your limits because if you don’t you are going to suffer financial stress that is going to lower your contentment and happiness. Remember, live within your limits and that way you will be happy. In American right now, millions of people are living outside of their means and that puts immense financial stress on their lives and their families. You do not want that, so make sure you have your happiness at a price you can afford.

If you don’t make $75,000 you can still be happy, but that $75,000 limit is something you should shoot for to be financially happy and emotionally content within your life.

What Is A Reverse Mortgage?

Reverse Mortgage, Home Income Plan, or Equity Release Schemes

First published: ADawnJournal.com May 24, 2010

Home equity release schemes are becoming more and more popular Canada, Australia, the U.K., the U.S., and other countries as a way of boosting retirement incomes for those people who are finding it difficult to live comfortably on their govt. pension and have a significant amount of their wealth tied up in real estate property. They are referred to by a number of names colloquially, of which one is the “reverse mortgage”. This title has come about because just as a mortgage sees you paying money bit by bit towards the end goal of owning a house, an equity release scheme allows you to withdraw from a pot of money that you have paid into, with the end result being that you own none of your house, and will gain nothing from its sale.

One of the most popular ways to conduct a home equity release is to sell your home to financial institution who will then lease it back to you. You benefit from an immediate cash lump sum, which you can add to the govt. pension and any other pension you receive in order to pay the rent. If you have paid in a significant enough amount to your mortgage you will be able to use some of the cash lump sum to pay off the remainder of what you owe to the bank. If you are mortgage-free, you will have the entirety of what the financial institution paid you to do with as you see fit. It is important to find a reputable institution with whom to carry this out, however, as institutions have been known to default on their own mortgages, leaving their tenants in a situation of real difficulty.

There is some controversy over the morality of offering an equity release scheme, as many people consider that the deal is “mis-sold” by the institutions who offer it. Quite often, the amount that is paid for the house is less than two-thirds of its actual value, and that much less than the individual would be liable to receive if they were to sell it on the open market. What they gain from this is the opportunity to stay in their own home, but as mentioned above, the institutions offering equity release are not always wholly reputable.

If the sum total of all of this is to make equity release schemes look like some sort of scam, then that is not the intention. It is merely to say that when looking into home equity release systems it is generally beneficial to do a bit of background work, finding out from past customers how reliable, efficient and trustworthy the institutions you have spoken to are. If you get a deal from a reputable institution the equity released will allow you to use a more pro-active method of wealth creation which will potentially leave a lot more money for you to bequeath in your will should you wish to, or to enjoy retirement in style otherwise. It is worth speaking to an independent financial advisor to get more specific information to your case.

How to Raise Financially Responsible Kids

Teaching Kids Financial Responsibility

First Published: May 9, 2010 ADawnJournal.com

Teaching kids about money and financial literacy is an ongoing process and it is as significant as teaching kids about general education and other life disciplines. Grasping the significance and value of money at an early age will help kids to realise the importance of being financially responsible and respect money, thus helping them navigate their life more smoothly in financial terms. Today, I will discuss some simple steps you can take to make your kids financially responsible in later years.

Understanding Why Money Is Important – The first important thing you can do to is to make kids understand what money is and why it is important to be responsible with it. Explain what money can do; for example, it helps to live a good life, support family and friends, and it helps to support those who are in need and their favourite charities.

Start Early – Children are able to recognise and show interest in coins when they are 4+ years old. Grab this opportunity; when they start showing interest, help them identify different types of coins and bills. When you go for groceries and money exchanging deals, start letting your kids interact with merchants. This will teach interactions with others in general and in terms of money.

Action is Louder than Words – Talking nice things about money is not going to do anything unless you show your kids that you do what you say – and you believe in what you do. Don’t just tell them to stop spending wastefully; set examples by doing the same. Don’t just tell them to invest for the future; do the same and show them how you are doing it regularly in your mutual fund or investment accounts.

Be Careful with Allowance – Do not pay kids an allowance without giving them proper guidance towards how to spend it. Break down their allowance into smaller parts, such as 10% should go to the piggy bank, 20% should go to science magazines, and so on. It is recommended not to pay kids for regular house chores that they would normally do. They can get paid for special projects for which you would normally hire outside people such as mowing the lawn, cleaning the backyard, etc. – if they can complete it successfully.

Bank Accounts and Credit Cards – Bank accounts and credit cards are a part of daily living in the 21st century and kids should be taught about it once they are 7 – 10 years of age. Explain to them how banks and credit cards work, how and why credit cards charge interest, what to do to avoid paying interest, and so on. Open savings accounts for them, give them credit cards (with lower limits and supervision over how they use it), and walk them through towards becoming a financially responsible adult.

The Importance of Saving Money Early – Once kids start earning, teach them the beauty of saving money. Encourage them to save 15 – 20% regularly and continuously as they enter adulthood. Saving is a virtue that needs to be practised from an early age. If kids can make saving regularly a permanent habit, they will be able to reach financial goals much earlier and will live a happy life.

Learning to Spend Less – If there is one financial tip that is considered the number one tip of all time this has to be it: spending less than you earn. Teach kids to understand this concept and tell them that if they can follow it religiously, they will be wealthy one day.

Learning to Appreciate What We Have – We are privileged to live in one of the wealthiest countries on earth where abundance is everywhere, including riches. Many other nations are not as privileged as we are. Teach kids to appreciate and to become grateful for what we have and show them the joy of giving and sharing.

Keep in mind that “children do what they see.” Parents and adults can be role models by taking sound financial steps. The onus is on you to secure your kids’ financial future by guiding their financial journey through a solid financial roadmap from their early days.

A Brief History of Gold

Gold History

Gold has had an immense impact on humanity. It has caused the fall of nations, pushed the Age of Discovery, made some men rich and others poor. It is something that we all cherish and we all want more of it. It has a bloody history at times and as Led Zeppelin once said, all that glitters is not gold. Gold is amazing, beautiful and valuable but it is also something that has helped to drive our civilization in various good and bad directions.

Archaeologists have dated gold artifacts to as far back as 4,000 BC in the Balkans but most estimates of when gold began to be used by artisans goes back a few thousand years further than that. Various items like golden hats and the Nebra disk have been found in Central Europe since around 3,000 BC.

The Ancient Egyptians were in love with gold and gold was quite common around the Nile. King Tushratta of Mitanni said that gold was more plentiful than dirt in Egypt and it was in Egypt where the first gold production and mining began. Even the world’s oldest map shows a plan for a gold mine in it, proving the power gold has had on our civilization for the past few thousand years. The Egyptians would get gold through methods like fire-setting and they set up gold mines all along the Red Sea in the current location of Saudi Arabia.

Gold was mentioned within the Bible several times, including in the Book of Revelations where New Jerusalem is described as a city where the streets are made of pure gold. Gold began to appear in more than decorative items by the sixth and fifth century BC, especially in China where a square gold coin was issued. While the Egyptians may have been the first to mine gold, the Romans were the ones who really turned it into a mass-production method. Using hydraulic mining methods in Spain from 25 BC onwards and in Romania from 150 AD onwards, the Romans mined vast amounts of gold from the Earth. One of the largest mines that the Romans had was at Las Medulas in Spain, where seven aqueducts fed water into the mine to help the Romans get at the gold.

Over 1,000 years later, the European exploration of the Americas would be fueled by the quest for gold. Gold was very common in South and Central America, so much so that the Aztec called gold “god excrement” because it was a product of the gods. Sadly, the large amount of gold and the gifts of gold for the Spanish conquistadors only fuelled their lust for more. Gold was a big reason why the Aztec Empire fell and if it was not for gold, world history may have been very different.

In the 19th century, various gold rushes helped create some of the most famous cities in the world including San Francisco.

These days, while platinum metals are usually worth more than gold, it is still widely regarded as the most desirable of precious metals. For centuries it was the standard of currencies around the world and even today it is the symbol of purity, royalty and prestige.

Today, gold is mined on an incredible scale and 75 percent of all the gold ever produced was extracted in the past 100 years. Gold is so valuable that much of the gold mined throughout history is still in use, simply recast into different shapes and products by subsequent generations.

It is estimated that some 170,000 tons of gold are now available above ground and if we were to take all the gold ever refined it would form a cube that is only 66 feet on each side.