The Right Mindset

When I was in my first trimester pregnancy with my first born, on the initial check up at the government clinic, I was asked by a nurse: 'Do you plan to breastfeed? If yes, niatkan (say you wish - not necessarily to voice it). Through my experience, those who did niat during their first few months are very likely to succeed compared to those who are not or those who do so at later stage.'

Creating a mindset that I could do it.

One of my favourite reality shows are the battle faced to loose weight. The participants will be guided to lead a healthier lifestyle to ensure their success even after the show is over. There are also show to revisit the participant few years after the program.

Another reality shows are home make over or clean house make over. The participant house will be redesigned or cleaned. Similar to the weight loose program, the sequel program will visit the participant house few years later to see the latest development.

In those reality programs, the battle to loose weight was won but to maintain it is another battle that plenty of the participants did not achieve. The home make over or clean home show also captured living areas which was not as what it was after the success to turn it to the pleasing condition.

These shows that you could lead the horse to the water but you can't make it to drink the water. Even with the right guidance from those with great influence, it is not the ultimate condition for one to excel. 

A person has to be in the mindset to want to change and to want to succeed.

Being able to have a right financial mind is still a battle to me. I am still praying I would eventually make a right decision with my hard earn money and the right decision becomes second nature. I could do it with minimal advertisement influence, without any distraction from my young ones and make it a habit as something di bawah minda sedar (unconsciously making the decision as it has become a habit).

Brewing the right mindset is part of a journey toward a better financial shape. I still need those financial books to act as motivators.

PTPTN summary

It has been approximately a year since I managed to paid off my student loan debt through the 20% rebate program with full settlement. Upon the final payment, I was told that the finalized amount will be issued within six months after that date.

I would check the online statement from time to time to remind myself that it is possible to finally be able to settle the debt. It act as a form of motivation for me in black and white.

Unfortunately, the statement shows there is amount due to me amounting to RM 76.55. It is a small amount, not an issue. However it is disappointing when they go all out to chase outstanding payment due to them but keep silence when they are doing it. A friend of mine faced the same issue and now its my turn to faced the music.

I finally went to the OSC to inquire on this in August, long after the six months period of finalization. I filled in a form and provided my bank account number to have the balance transferred to my bank account. A very straight forward and simple process. They must have encountered this issue numerous times. The lady at the counter handle my questions with breeze. 

Me: What will happened to the balance if I do not request for it? 

The lady: It will remain there. 

Well, thankfully they do not have any grace period for refund. Probably it is not so bad after all. They are quiet lenient compared to financing institution when dealing with those in default. Unless you want to count the days lost when you could have used the balance to finance other debt.

I was told that the amount will be transferred to my account within 21 days. However, it took less than that duration for them. It was merely about 2 weeks. Kudos.

Alhamdulillah.

KWSP / EPF

Kumpulan Wang Simpanan Pekerja (KWSP) or the Employee Proficent Fund (EPF) is a body which governs the Malaysian employee.

Under this fund, the employees and their employers are required to contribute to the account. The fund will be used for investment and the gained profit will be distributed among its contributors. This retirement account may be withdrawn when its account holder reached 55 years old.

I personally have used this account to register my hajj and purchasing my first property. My lack of saving forced me to use this alternative route to apply for pilgrimage. Registration with Tabung Haji to perform pilgrimage requires RM 1,300 balance in ones account while using this method, a KWSP statement to show balance in the contributors account will be sufficient.

Further, KWSP provides others opportunity for its contributors such as withdrawal to pursue higher education.

This account will sure provide a peace of mind to certain level as it provides income when an employee retires. However research shows that up to 70% of contributors will need other resource of income when they retired as this fund will not be sufficient for them to lead a cushion life upon retiring.

Will I be among the 30% when I finally retired in 25 - 30 years?

Human Milk Soap

Last month, I begin to store expressed breast milk (ebm) for the new born. There are few expired ebm dated September 2013. Sadly, I am too sentimental to discard the milk. My elder child would not accept ebm since he turns one and I have been giving away to a friend's child since then. My boy would only accept direct feed, I have been pumping to maintain my supply. The remaining three packets was left untouched to its expiry.

 

To make space for the fresh ones, I decided to turn the expired ebm into soap upon reading about its process here and here. Previously I would add the expired milk directly with warm water in the baby tub.

 

The later method which I opted has lesser ingredients, just a bar of soap and milk. I decided to forgo the fragrant and colouring ingredient. My bar of soap was a round soap from previous hotel stay.

Method

Cut the soap into small bits.

Add milk.

Put it in a pan on slow fire until soap melted.

Fill the mixture into ice cube tray.

Put a layer of baking sheet on top of mixture

(I skipped this part and now my guess would be; the purpose is

to have a smooth surface, without leaving any air bubbles)

 

The small soap and 3oz of milk create 5 cubes of this.

 

The texture is not as hard as normal bar soap, a little 

over dose of milk would be my guess for its soft texture.

 

That was my first attempt. It did occurred to me to try the other recipe if I ever get my hand into lye- the key ingredient to create soap from scratch.

 

Mother's milk is a taboo in producing cosmetic products and soap, the Islamic Development Department of Malaysia (Jakim) ruled, Berita Harian reported.

Jakim director-general Datuk Othman Mustapha said the authority had also take into account guide-lines of the Health Ministry's National Pharmaceutical Control Bureau before making the decision.

The guidelines stated breast milk or any material of human origin could not be used in cosmetic products, including soap.

Othman was responding to an earlier article of the daily that breast milk soaps were making waves in China.

 

I came across this article on the Star news paper on 26th July 2014 after I made the soap. There would be no second attempt in soap making from human milk for me in future. I am still sentimental about throwing it down the drain. In future, any expired milk from the freezer would be plant fertilizer i.e. down the earth instead of down the drain.

Zakat Fitrah

Eid Mubarak

Berlalu la sudah Ramadhan,

Sebulan berpuasa,

Tiba Syawal kita raikan,

Dengan Rasa Gembira.

Today is the first of Syawal. Today, the third baby turns 45 days.

I did not make any preparation. No new clothes except for the boys as they can no longer fit their baju Melayu. No baking, if any would be done may be later of the month. Did I even get pahala bonus during the lailatul qadar? I only have heavy heart living the holy month of Ramadhan and I pray I will be given the opportunity to perform better in next Ramadhan if there is next Ramadhan for me.

Truthfully, this year's celebration is not much of a celebration with the war going at Palestine and the brought down of MH17, both happened in the holy month of Ramadhan. Not to forget the earlier incident of MH 370, the never ending kidnappings at East Coast Sabah and many shrinking 'tongkang' departing the peninsular to neighboring country (ironically for celebration of the month of Ramadhan and Syawal).

The holy month of Ramadhan marks the performing of third pillar in Islam which is fasting and followed by performing Zakat Fitrah.

Definition of Zakat Fitrah:

Religious tax/alms/zakat paid on the day when Muslims break the fasting period at the end of the month of Ramadhan. This alms is known as Zakat al-Fitrah

(islamicnet.com)

Zakat dari segi syarak pula ialah mengeluarkan sebahagian harta tertentu diberikan kepada asnaf-asnaf yang berhak menerimanya setelah memenuhi syarat-syarat yang ditetapkan oleh syarak apabila terbenam matahari akhir Ramadhan sehingga terbit matahari esoknya.

 Syarak defines Zakat as giving part of certain wealth to asnaf who are qualified upon fulfilling Syarak conditions when the sun set at the eve of end Ramaadhan untill the rise of sun on the following day.

(Lembaga Zakat Selangor)

Zakat dari segi istilah fiqh bererti "Sejumlah harta tertentu yang diwajibkan Allah diserahkan kepada orang-orang berhak"

Zakat fitrah itu wajib dengan sebab lebaran pada bulan Ramadhan

 Fiqh defines Zakat as "An obligatory act (wajib) to give a part of certain wealth to the deserving"

Zakat fitrah is obligatory because eid at the end of Ramadhan

(Hukum Zakat, Dr. Yusuf Qardawi)

There are twenty seven verses in the Quran paired second pillar in Islam, perform five daily prayers with Zakat:

                                    

Waakimusolaata Waatuzzakaat

And perform As-solat and give zakat

Dan dirikan solat, dan tunaikan zakat

Giving zakat, the fourth pillar of Islam. The act of giving in the name of Allah is like a seed which grows seven spikes, in each spike is a hundred grains (2:261). It is a fact that the act of giving will make one becomes wealthier.

OPR, BLR and BFR

On the 17th July 2014, the Bank Negara of Malaysia (BNM) has finally made a move to revised the overnight policy rate (OPR), hence changing the  base lending rate (BLR) to 6.85% from 6.6%. The last revision was made in 2012. The BLR changes made by the BNM for the past 25 years could be refer to the graph below BLR (1989 - 2014) by BNM.

 

As shown in the graph, the rates was highest at 10.50% in 1998 due to recession (it actually peaked at 12.27%). There are some years where changes are made up to 3 times a year, however the graph reflect only the percentage that was used most for the year.

The changes of OPR caused uncertainty to the final lent amount. In the event of base financing rate (BFR) i.e. Islamic financing, the final amount will not exceed the final agreed amount financed. The BFR will definitely change upon any amendment to the OPR, however the uncertainty of final amount to be paid is not an issue.

Lost and Found

My previous post on books is based on borrowed books from the library which I belong to for the past one decade. During those period I did not encounter any problem with the library. However things took turn when I failed to return a book. I have lost it. Since I never sees it, I didn't take any action to rectify the matter.

I did consider to purchase another as replacement but I never get around to actually buy one. The most disappointing part is, I didn't get a chance to read it before its disappearance. Sadly, I have not been to the library since then. I no longer have access to the books that are on my 'to read list'.

When hubby and myself rearrange the furniture before the arrival of our bundle of joy, we found the book sandwiched between the bed mattress and its bottom frame. I read books before going to sleep, but how it managed to sneak underneath? Still remains a mystery to me.

Till today, I still have the book. I have finished reading it but the book is yet to be returned. I called the library to inquire on the possibility of purchasing the book instead of return it to the library. I was told that I still need to pay the fines (20
¢ /day) on top of the book price.

If I took the inisiative to call the library the moment I feels that it would be sometime before I found the book, I could have purchase it from the library instead of paying the fines. Now instead of having a book I still have to pay the fines.

If I were to reflect on those one decade or more, I would say I have got my money back as this is the first occurance ever. All the books I managed to read during those years should be able to cover the fines which I estimated at about less than RM 30.00. The book retail value is at RM 39.90.

If it were a book that I bought, I would not mind having it disappear before having it resurface few years later.

Well, it kind of making me value books more in future if there is any lesson I learnt from all of this.