Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by dreamer101

Online Classes help Int. Student Admission

dreamer101 — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 21:31:49 +0800

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/goo...0506_story.html

<< Through a nonprofit consortium called edX, Harvard, MIT, the University of Texas, the University of California at Berkeley, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell, Caltech, the Sorbonne and dozens of other elite universities have begun offering complete online versions of their highly sought-after classes, free, to anyone with an Internet connection. Among other topics, you can learn about computer science, matrix algebra, poetry and Chinese history from Harvard; engineering, mathematics and jazz appreciation from UT; principles of economics and data analysis from Caltech. Other online education platforms such as Coursera offer thousands of additional courses from elite universities, free.

These are not watered-down classes. I took a genetics course through MITx, the university’s branch of edX. It was the same class taught to freshmen in Cambridge, Mass. — the same lectures, homework assignments, midterms and final exam. MOOC success is much more likely to predict success in college classes than SAT scores, because MOOC success is, in fact, success in college classes.>>

1) What is stopping someone in Malaysia with good English to take those classes??

Nothing!!

<< MIT, long a leader in education technology, has been one of the first universities to take steps in this direction. In 2012, a young man named Battushig Myanganbayar was one of only 340 students out of 150,000 worldwide to earn a perfect score in a rigorous online Circuits and Electronics course. At the time, he was 15 and living in Ulan Bator, Mongolia.

All Battushig needed was an Internet connection and a teacher with an eye for engineering potential. After excelling in the MIT class, he took the SAT, and he’s now enrolled at MIT. Another Circuits and Electronics student, Amol Bhave from Jabalpur, India, enjoyed the class so much he created his own online follow-up course in signals and systems. He, too, was admitted into the 2013 MIT freshman class. >>

2) If someone in Mongolia and India can do this, how about someone in Malaysia??

THINK outside the box!! Be resourceful!!

Dreamer

Loan payment versus Interest Rate

dreamer101 — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 05:46:42 +0800

Folks,

In Malaysia, almost all property loan are based on variable interest rate. If RM fall further, in order to defend RM, interest rate will have to go up. In that case, what happen to the monthly payment to the loan??

A) The amount stay the same but the tenure will increase. For example, if it is a 30 years loan, you may pay for 35 years now.

B) Monthly payment went up in proportion to the interest rate increase

C) It could be (A) or (B) depending on the term and condition of the loan.

Thanks.

Dreamer

There is no Secret: Earn, Save, Invest

dreamer101 — Sun, 27 Jul 2014 09:41:10 +0800

Folks,

It is VERY SIMPLE but HARD.

Earn, Save, Invest

1) Earn

Earn as much as you can from your job or business. Study how to earn more from job and / or business.

2) Save

It does not matter how much you earn. If you do not save, you do not have extra money to invest.

3) Invest.

Invest on asset with your saved money. Asset is something that pay you. Aka, Cash Flow Positive. Liability is something that take your money away every money.

So, if a person EARN, SAVE, and INVEST, a person will have more and more money coming in. The law of compounding will work for the person.

This is NO SECRET. It is VERY SIMPLE but HARD. Do it long enough, you will get somewhere sooner or later. Doing is THE KEY.

Which path to do as to Earn, Save, and Invest is up to YOU.

Dreamer

Malaysia is entering Rapid Inflation Phase

dreamer101 — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 00:14:43 +0800

Folks,

This is for those people that are still sleeping. Price for many things in Malaysia are going up rapidly. And, this will continue for a while. It is not going to stop. So, if you are overstretch financially, you are in deep trouble. Now, if you are on the borderline, do not over-stretch yourself.

Do not think that you can take on the car loan with no savings and you will be fine. Your cost of living is going up and up.

This is a public announcement for the sake of people that do not know this.

Dreamer

Look for Specific Rich Dad's book

dreamer101 — Sun, 22 Jun 2014 21:52:02 +0800

Hi,

I had read almost all of the Rich Dad plus Rich Dad's adviser books. Then, I gave them all away. Unfortunately, now, I am trying to recall back a specific book that has a very handy and simple guide to evaluating investment. But, I forgot which one it is. I tried "Rich Dad Roor Dad", "Cashflow Quadrant", "Guide to investing" but so far no luck.

Specifically, I am looking for a book that say

Before you invest

A) Know how you make money

B) Know how you can lose money

C) Know when to buy (entry price)

D) Know when to sell (exit price price / strategy)

Thanks.

Dreamer

You as a product / brand

dreamer101 — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 05:21:50 +0800

Folks,

This is a discussion of what consist a person is. Aka, the BRAND of a person.

It consists of 3 parts:

1) What you DO or DO NOT DO aka your ACTIONS or INACTION

2) What you KNOW or DO NOT KNOW

3) Who you KNOW and WHO know you

(1) is your track record aka history.

(2) is your knowledge

(3) is your social network.

Dreamer

Does inflation matters to a person?

dreamer101 — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 21:41:33 +0800

Folks,

This thread is an attempt to educate

A) What is inflation in term of personal finance??

B) Why it may or may not matter to a person??

More to come..

Dreamer

Housing Loan Limit

dreamer101 — Sat, 28 Dec 2013 23:42:50 +0800

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/twenty...ty-six-rule.asp

Hi,

Could someone please enlighten me what is the latest rule follow by the bank in term of the maximum loan allowed to a person?? It used to be 28/36 rule but it might had been changed??

Does PTPTN loan number come into play??

Thanks in advance.

Dreamer

Why do we learn personal finance?

dreamer101 — Wed, 25 Dec 2013 10:55:56 +0800

Folks,

We spent a lot of time learning personal finance. But, the most BASIC and FIRST question should be WHY are we doing it?? What we hope to achieve and accomplish by doing this??

I will present some BASIC and TEXT BOOK answers to those questions. Everybody should contribute to this thread on their personal reason of getting interested in this subject.

Dreamer

4 purchases that determine your future

dreamer101 — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 10:06:10 +0800

Folks,

In general, the 4 biggest purchases in a person's life are

1) College education

2) Car

3) House

4) Insurance

And, depending on whether a person get a good deal and do those purchases CORRECTLY, they either get a head start in their lives or they are drown in debt hell.

Dreamer

Asset Allocation Investing using US ETF

dreamer101 — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 06:25:53 +0800

Folks,

In this thread, I provide the basic step to step approach on how to use US ETF to do asset Asset Allocation investing.

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/assetallocation.asp

The basic assumption here is the person has access to US brokerage and can any US stock including ETF.

https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snap...ntExt=INT#tab=3

https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snap...ntExt=INT#tab=3

The ETF to be used in this illustration are VT and BND.

If a person is convinced that they can time the market to buy and sell, this is not the approach that you want. This thread is for people that want a simple low maintenance approach to investing.

Dreamer

How to detect the LEVEL of a person?

dreamer101 — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 23:26:39 +0800

Folks,

On a separate thread, a person asked how to interview and decide whether a person can do the job. This is one of the skill and capability that is very useful in real life.

For example, you meet a stranger and that person claimed to be an expert in XYZ field. There are 3 possibilities here

A) You are an expert in XYZ field. Hence, you could use your specialized knowledge field in XYZ field to ask specific question to figure out he is telling the truth.

B) You know nothing about XYZ field but you still want to know whether he is telling the truth. But, you are an expert in ABC field.

C) You know nothing about XYZ field and you are not an expert in any area...

So, the problem is you want to be able assess the person quickly and effectively in a few minutes. How can you do that??

To add another dimension to this, what if you do not meet the person in Real Life?? Aka, you only know the person via e-mail and / or lowyat forum posts?? No body language and physical contact at all.

Is it possible??

Dreamer

Valuable and Cheap online college

dreamer101 — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 11:25:16 +0800

http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/2691041

Folks,

I posted link to where you can take free online classes from top universities and colleges in USA.

Enjoy!!

Dreamer

Valuable and Cheap online college

dreamer101 — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 11:18:33 +0800

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/01/opinion/...e.html?hp&_r=1&

http://education-portal.com/articles/Unive...ne_Courses.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/20/educatio...?pagewanted=all

Folks,

Useful link to learn stuff

Dreamer

Zen and Art of making a living

dreamer101 — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 04:03:40 +0800

http://www.betterworldbooks.com/9780140194...0140194692.aspx

Zen and the art of making a living by Laurence G. Boldt (2010 Edition)

Folks,

This thread is created to discuss some of the ideas in this book. I will post bit and pieces of stuff in this book and my interpretation.

Page 238.

<< "Reasons" Why You might not want to know what your life's work is.

1) Fear of failure>>

<< Fear of failure often results from a false definition of what failure is, and by extension, of what success is. If failure is defined only in term of ends, outcomes, and completions, then, the possibilities of failure is a real one >>

People do not and dare not pursue their dream because of the FEAR that they might failed. But, that is because they get caught in DUALITY:

A) Success

B) Failure

Aka, there is ONLY 2 possible outcome of their action.

What if you step out this DUALITY and choose the THIRD WAY. Aka, growth?? When you try something, you always LEARN something. It is a learning experience. And, if it did not work this time, you LEARN what does not work for YOU. It is still valuable. You are getting BETTER. You had grew and learn from this.

In this case, the ONLY WAY that you can fail is if you DO NOT LEARN anything.

Dreamer

"Average People are not rich"

dreamer101 — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 08:10:39 +0800

http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/2260865

Read above thread and discuss on this thread.

Folks,

I had repeated make this statement:

"Average people are not rich. Rich people are not average."

You have to CHOOSE between being Average or Rich. You cannot have both. And, it is a choice.

Now, the MORE INTERESTING QUESTION is if I am right, why do people CHOOSE to be Average??

What I did not tell you??

Dreamer

Gift among Family Member

dreamer101 — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 14:21:19 +0800

Hi,

Is gift among family member taxable in Malaysia?? For example, if a sister give and transfer 10 lots of shares to another sister, is that taxable??

Thanks

Dreamer

Paper versus Capability

dreamer101 — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 06:49:59 +0800

Folks,

You spent $$$$ and time to get a piece of paper. But, do you ACTUALLY only get a piece of paper or you LEARNED something??

People hire YOU to do a job. They CARE about what you can DO for them.

Case 1) You took some courses in marketing.

If someone asked YOU to market a widget, do you KNOW how to do it?? Do you at least know what are steps that you need to take??

Case 2) You THINK that you can sell.

What had you SOLD successfully??

Case 3) You learned XYZ programing language.

So, what kind of application that you KNOW how to write in this language??

In the REAL WORLD, everything even out eventually. Some people may or may not get good CGPA fairly. Some people MAY only be good at examination but learned NOTHING. But, it is CLEAR whether you have THE SKILL and CAPABILITY.

We have TOO MANY paper graduates!!! They got FOOLED into thinking that as long as they get that piece of paper, they lives will be smooth selling. Unfortunately, they actually have to have the CAPABILITY to do a job. People are paying people to DO A JOB. Not to collect papers.

So, while some people are cramming for exam, please make sure that you actually learn something too.

Dreamer

Average people are not rich!

dreamer101 — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 08:53:51 +0800

Folks,

Average people are not rich. Rich people are not average.

In I-Ching aka book of change, there is no good or bad. Every strength become weakness under certain environment. Ditto on weakness. World / environment are dynamic. Changes are constant.

From "Art of War" by Sun Tzu, know your own strength and weakness, half of the battle is won.

The KEY to career planning is to know WHAT you are?? What are your own strength and weakness?? What kind of career and environment allow you to be ABOVE AVERAGE?? What can you do that is EASY for you but HARD for others?? Conversely, if you are in an environment that DOES NOT FIT your personality and temperament, you could work very hard but you will not go anywhere. The best that you can be is AVERAGE in that career.

Most of times, people ask THE WRONG QUESTION!!!

If you ask the WRONG QUESTION, you will NEVER get the RIGHT ANSWER!!

You could be successful in ANY career / business as long as you can EXCEL and ABOVE AVERAGE in that career / business.

To do that, you need 3 things:

1) Motivation -> You LOVE that area. Then, you could INVEST the extra 10,000 hours to be VERY GOOD in that area.

2) Talent / Temperament -> You are born to be better than average people in doing this kind of stuff.

3) Environment / Industry -> You are working in a country / environment / culture / industry that appreciate YOUR STRENGTH and would not mind your weakness so much.

Do not follow the herd of cows.. Cows get slaughtered. They just go into any hot areas that pays well. They do not ask and care whether they could be ABOVE AVERAGE in that area. That is what AVERAGE people do.

Find out WHAT you are. INVEST on yourself to be VERY GOOD in the area that YOUR STRENGTH will be appreciated.

Dreamer

How to manage your boss?

dreamer101 — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:44:10 +0800

Folks,

Let's start this off with a story...

A & B work for Manager 1. Manager 1, 2, 3 are peers to each other.

A blast off an e-mail detailing B's mistake to Manager 1, Manager 2 , and Manager 3.

Okay. Let's guess what happened next...

Please comment what you see and think what will happened next..

Later on, I will explain what this story got to do with "managing your boss".

Dreamer