Latest artwork designs in May 2010 - Banners for Family Day and Homecoming Night

These are two latest banner designs for Family Day of my neighbourhood, Taman Desa Indah and Homecoming Night for nearby school alumni, SMK Sg Kertas. The Family Day banner was designed to portray a happy moment of the day. The homecoming night uses catchy colours to attract passerby.

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Artwork Designs for Majlis Tilawah Al-Quran Peringkat MISC Ke-11

MISC Berhad will organise Majlis Tilawah Al-Quran Peringkat MISC Ke-11 on 2 June 2010 (19 Jamadil Akhir 1431H). The competition is opened  to all MISC Group staff and their family. I have had another opportunity to contribute my design for this auspicious programme. The committee requested the theme colours to be purple, pink and white. Please have a look on the following designs:

Backdrop

Banner

Bunting

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Rising house prices: coping with the big tickets

Mahal betul rumah sekarang berbanding dengan 4 - 5 tahun yang lepas. Dua hari yang lepas jiran sebelah beritahu rumah yang selang satu rumah mahu dijual dengan harga RM330K (that's about 13% capital appreciation per annum). Dua tiga minggu yang lepas seorang sahabat ajak beli rumah di Bangi. "Jom sheikh, temankan ana beli rumah!" Ingatkan berapa harganya untuk terrace link house. Sekali harganya RM489K. Boleh buat banglo di kampung halaman (tanpa hiasan bunga-bunga dan ukiran). Macam mana agaknya situasi anak cucu kita esok ye?

Extract from Star Property, 8 May 2010:


ALTHOUGH there are buyers who have no qualms paying the prevailing high price for their dream house in a well sought after location, many Malaysians are really worried about the rising house prices and wonder how they are going to manage.

There is certainly cause for concern as a property is a big ticket item and paying for it takes up a big chunk of a person’s income. Depending on how much downpayment has been paid for a property, mortgage loan repayment can easily takes up to 40% of a borrower’s monthly paycheck.

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Lack of sleep linked to early death: Study

For the last few weeks, I don't have enough sleep plus lesser quality time with family. Thanks God that tomorrow Friday was declared as public holiday for us!

LONDON (AFP) – People who get less than six hours sleep per night have an increased risk of dying prematurely, researchers said on Wednesday.
Those who slumbered for less than that amount of time were 12 percent more likely to die early, though researchers also found a link between sleeping more than nine hours and premature death.

"If you sleep little, you can develop diabetes, obesity, hypertension and high cholesterol," Francesco Cappuccio, who led research on the subject at Britain's University of Warwick, told AFP.

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Top Reasons to Refinance Your Property

My ex-staff has a home loan with the following facts:

• Current principal outstanding – RM70,000
• Current interest rate – BLR + 0.25% (6.05% based on current BLR)
• The best part is the market value of the property now is RM150,000 compared to purchase price for 6 years ago at RM90,000.

So, he approached me to discuss on opportunity that he may exploit from this situation.

First of all, my suggestion was for him to get a revision on his interest rate from his banker based on the current market offering of BLR – 1.80%. However, the reply is not in his favour i.e. the bank only offered him BLR + 0%. Since the loan is subsidised by the employer for about 30%, the effective interest rate charged on him is about 4.3%. This rate is still higher than the market rate of 4.0% - 4.2%.

So, the second step was to look on the possibility of refinancing his property with a better package with opportunity to get extra cash out from the same property. Easily he can get about RM50K from this refinancing.

So we sat down together doing some analysis with all available options. The results will depend on the strategic implementation and market condition later on. I hope with a proper financial planning and management, he will succeed in accumulating wealth and enjoy a better life.

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Traffic Jam... It's too late already

In my humble opinions, the electronic board/Variable Message Signs (VMS) should be installed at all entries to Kuala Lumpur to update road users on forthcoming traffic situation and congestion. Currently many of the board are available at so called strategic location that by the time you read the message, it is already too late for you to divert your journey. You are trapped in the traffic jam and have no other choice except to follow the flow.

It happened to me this morning. I was caught in the traffic jam at Jalan Kuching while rushing to my office. My aim was to arrive at 7.30am but turned up to be at 8.45am. The slow queue puzzled me upon entering Jalan Kuching from Duke Highways. Luckily I got this answer upon approaching Jalan Tun Razak Exit. The message on ITIS electronic board said “Kenderaan rosak 1.5km di hadapan. Lorong kiri terhalang”.

I believe that the situation could be better if the system relays the traffic information before any exit of the highway so that you can maneuver your car and find the alternative ways. So, DBKL and highway concessionaire, please buck up and review your system for efficient driving experience. Help city folks to optimised their fuel spending and time. Just my two cents.

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How to check market price for your car?

Month of May, the month that I have to renew my road taxes for my car and bike. Actually, the actual dates for renewal for both are in April based on original purchase dates. But due to peak season for my department, I inadvertently missed the dates last year and only renewed when the time was free in May. But the good thing was that I got a new same due date for both and I rode both of them freely without tax for about one month. Can it be extended further this year? I wish I could do so that I can synchronised the date with my other car which due in October. Aha… tax avoidance behaviour. Perhaps if you continue this habit of extending a little bit of your payment, you might save one year insurance and tax cost for your car at the end but bearing all the related risks.


Whilst surfing today, I found a good website to check the current market price for your car. This is useful for the purpose of renewal you car insurance/takaful for road tax renewal or perhaps for selling your car or buying the second hand car for your second……. So with this information you can manage to get the best out of your insurance/takaful without being overcharged unnecessarily.

Please visit SNiK Autoclaims

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Banner Design for MISC Berhad's Finance Mini CSR at Hulu Selangor

This is my latest masterpiece for MISC Berhad's Finance Mini CSR at Hulu Selangor i.e. Seminar Kerjaya. It is for banner printing with the size of 3' X 7'.

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