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Author: Chee Shi Teo

Published on Leave a comment on How To Avoid Facebook Scams And Protect Yourself – Part I

Facebook is one of the most popular social media.

People like to use Facebook to reach out and get in touch with others.

A lot of people are using Facebook to conduct their businesses and trying to gain as much as traction as possible.

Because of the popularity of Facebook, cybercriminals also use this to prey on their victims.

With so many users of this social media, cybercriminals treat this as their gold mine for them to get their victims.

If the cybercriminals can successfully catch a fraction of the users, it is a golden harvest for them.

What are the common scams in Facebook?

1. Phishing scams.

Phishing scams happen all the times, especially in Email, normally when you receive an email with a link, especially from an unknown sender, the best advice is to delete the email straight away.

The worst that can happen is you go and open the email and click on any link in it.

This may also happen in Facebook feed you are browsing, sometimes some fake Facebook account posted a news feed and you click on the link, that is the end.

You have activated the phishing malware embedded in the link.

The purpose of the phishing scam is to extract the information in your laptop or computer.

Now the cybercrimiinal is more sophisticated, they may engage you to talk in Facebook Messengers.

Once you are in continuous exchange of messages with them on Messenger, they may send you a link, since you have been in messaging with them, you may lower down your guard and decide to click on the link.

End result? whatever important information you have in your laptop/computer, especially your banking details, login details, credit cards details will be accessed by them.

2. Romance Scams

Romance scams are quite rampant in Facebook nowadays.

It becomes worse when Facebook allows user to open fictitious account, sometimes, you may think the profile of an account is a pretty lady, in fact, it is a man who is out to scam his victim, especially those who are love sick, or have preferences for females.

They think they can prey on the females, without realizing they are actually the target of the cybercriminals.

When the hook up is done, both parties will get into conversation and the "lady" will try to show she has been having a hard time, and need some help to tie over the predicament she is facing.

I have come across the following modus operandi a few times.

you would have some pretty faces who wanted to add you as friends, so you agreed to add them .

next they would message you via messenger and tell you they were seldom on Facebook and asked for your WhatsApp.

so you added them on WhatsApp, and they started chatting with you on that social media.

after chatting for a few days, the game started, during the first few days, the "lady" would tell you how she was dumped by her friend and now she needed to find her own living by working hard.

then telling you what work she was in and having one assignment, needed to get it done the soonest possible.

another day later, telling you that she encountered a problem and needed to purchase something online but not able to do so.

so she needed your help so that she could complete her work.

The moment she mentioned getting her an Apple Gift Card, that was the red flag telling you this was a scam.

another one which I came across was, she was having a meeting about investment.

She already opened an account but due to the work and company policy, she could not manage that account and needed you to help to administer the account.

3. Lottery Winning Scams

If you opened any Facebook page, you could see a lot of Pages about winning on gambling.

there were so many now on Facebook Pages and if you joined, they would send you a link.

The moment you click on the link, that would be the end of your personal data in your laptop.

4. Job Scams

this is a very common scam in Facebook, someone would post a job vacancy and promising so much in such a short time.

Cyber Criminals are cashing in on the current job market, since there are quite a lot of people who lost their jobs during the height of pandemic, and every one was desperate to try to get a job so that they could put food on the table for the family.

in desperation, people may just respond to the advertisement for the job and provide the personal details to the scammers.

5. Shopping Scams

Facebook has evolved from one simple casual social networking tools into a large e-commerce tools for businesses to tap on the resources to increase their revenue.

Since every one is jumping into this platform to cash in on its popularity, cyber criminals also decided to set up bogus accounts representing certain brands, and using that to phish for information of the unsuspecting customers.

The scammers would post some out of this world offer which raised the impulse of people to buy, the too-good-to-be-true offer would blind the conscience of the people, then this would be the end for people.

6. Fake Friends Request Scams

Facebook does not really check on the identity of a person who opened an account with them, to them, the more accounts being opened, the better it would be, especially those business related accounts or PAGES.

They needed accounts holders to open more PAGES and promote the PAGES, the more account holders spend, the better for them.

Even though the accounts may not be a real account.

most of the time, we could detect that a lot of have pretty ladies as the profiles pictures and most of the times, the faces were the same.

When you accepted the friends request, you would want to look at what they posted.

a lot of them in their posts, you would see a lot of links or websites, and if you click on that, and your antivirus is good enough, it would flag the alert of the potential risks involved.

in my next post, I will be talking about the followings:

1. How to avoid Facebook Scam.

2. What you can do to be more alert.

3. What you can do if you are a victim of the scam.

For the time being, do give me your feedback and share your experience in the comments section below.

Published on Leave a comment on How To Detect Online Work From Home Job Scams

Work From Home

This is a common term used in the last two years or so, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, when it was a preferred working mode to avoid infected with the virus.

When you search for a job opportunity in this time of the year, you will tend to find one preferably can work from home.

Because of this, scammers also know how to cash in on this and try to scam the innocent and genuine job seekers.

During COVID-19 when so many have lost their jobs and trying to find employment, some will become desperate and will grab any job opportunity comes along.

Hence , how do you know the job opportunity is genuine and real job instead of fake job?

Scammers pose as companies, recruitment agents offering you fake jobs claiming you can work from home in this trying time.

How do people usually look for job opprotunities?

  1. using online job portals.
  2. using job postings on human resources recruitment websites.
  3. advertisements of job vacancies in printed media or social medias.
  4. WhatsApp messages of jobs opportunities.

How do you detect the scams in the work from home postings of jobs?

there are some signs and indications if you can see the postings or advertisement of jobs carefully, you can detect the scams or fake jobs.

If you can notice the following clues, you may be able to detect the scams in the job advertisement

  1. The job is too good to be true.
  2. There is little information on the company.
  3. Contact number in the post cannot confirm the legitimacy of the job offer.
  4. There are bad review online about the company.
  5. The employer is too eager to hire.
  6. You have to pay to work.
  7. The employer want to conduct interview only using WhatsApp messaging.
  1. The job is too good to be true.

If the job offer states that you can do it from home and they pay a very good remuneration even though you may not have the necessary qualification or experience for the job.

Job description indicated that the job is very easy but have good pay, you should use your own instinct to determine whether this is a scam or not.

2. There is little information on the company.

Sometimes the company may put its website domain in the job posting and when you check the website, it does not seem like a genuine website of the company.

Some scammers have the effort to display a website of the original company and thinking the job applicants will not detect the different from the genuine company website.

If you apply through the link given , you may fall to the scam of the scammers who may use the phishing malware to infect your device the moment you click on the link.

3. Contact number in the post cannot confirm the legitimacy of the job offer

Some of the job advertisements have the contact numbers, however when you try to contact, either by phone or email, you fail to get the necessary reply.

When you check the website, you will notice the contact is not correct and you are not able to reach the right person or the recruiting person.

4. There are bad review online about the company.

if you are able to read the review online about the company, you may find the reviews of the company are not encouraging, a lot of bad reviews, some people who have been cheated may just state as such in their reviews and warn future applicants to be careful of it.

5. The employer is too eager to hire.

If you apply for the job and within minutes you receive the phone from the company and the person on the other end of the line is so eager to talk to you, this may sound an alarm in your head.

Normally when you apply for a job, especially online application, you may only get a reply after a few days instead of within a day or two.

if the caller said he or she wanted to talk you to find out more about you and so on, this may give you an indication that the job offer is not real.

6. You have to pay to work.

sometimes, you may come across some jobs, once they decide to hire you, however they insist on you making some payment to process some documentation, especially if the job posting is oversea.

The potential employer may want you to remit some money for the processing of the work documentation and relevant papers, this is to ensure you have a valid documents to work in foreign country.

Should not this at the cost of the employer? you may ask, if they insisted that you need to pay and they will reimbursed you later, or once you come on board,

The advice is you should not proceed with this any longer.

7. The employer want to conduct interview only using WhatsApp messaging.

I have come across potential employers insisting on conducting interviews using WhatsApp messaging.

And when i asked why didn't we use WhatsApp video calling for the interview, the recruiters said her device did not have the said function!!!.

You will find the interview can drag on for days and conversations were on and off.

The recruiter who claimed to be the Director in charge of Human Resource would only reply to messages on and off.

she would claim she was busy doing some other things while conducting the messaging interviews.

The interview will go from official and move to some personal matters and she may claim to share your interest and slowly will try to get you to invest in what she is investing.

Normally it is a cryptocurrency trading and the platform she gives you is not that professionally set up at all.

you may read more about that in HERE.

Conclusion

By being careful, you can protect your identity, your finances and your wellbeing.

When a prospective employer is asking you to fill up an online application form, it requires some personal data such as:

  • your bank account number,
  • your date of birth and
  • those of your family members,
  • chances are this is a scam and if you click on the link, you may subject to phishing attack.

Do not give out any personal information other than the basic such as the phone number.

Some scammers are using the legitimate job portals to post fake job openings, if you are selected, do some due diligence on the company.

With the availability of the internet nowadays and the amount of information easily accessible, it is quite easy to do some background check on the companies.

One of the alert signal will be the email domain from the so called HR or hiring personnel, it is very unlikely that the company does not have its own email domain.

It is no harm to be extra careful and pass on the job opportunity if you are not sure, rather than be sorry later after you find you have been scammed.

Published on Leave a comment on Telephone Scams

Brief Explanation

What is telephone scam?

Many people lost their money via telephone scams, some of them even lost their life savings to the scammers.

Scammers prey on the greed and ignorance of the victims, and without knowing the true facts , sometimes out of fear, they decide to remit money to the scammers as ordered.

Scammers will threaten the victim and their main objective is to get your personal particulars and money.

They will try to commit identify theft and get hold of your particulars.

What are the common phone scams?

Phone scams are getting more rampant and frequent.

In this COVID-19 pandemic challenging time, phone scams are even more frequent, most people will use phone to procure their daily needs and so on.

Phone scammer will jump at the opportunity to scam innocent victims.

Common methods used by scammers are:

  1. impersonating they are calling from police station.

Scammers called and claimed they were calling from police headquarter and there was an unsettled summon need to be settled.

and they would ask for particulars and remit money to clear the summon.

2. Callers claimed they were calling from Ministry of Health

With the pandemic going on, scammers impersonating as official from Ministry of Health and asking victim to confirm particulars for the vaccination.

3. Calling from reputed banks

Callers claimed they were calling from a reputed bank and something was wrong with your accounts and they need to verify the particulars.

4. Loan and financing scam

Scammers called and offered some low interest financing and with attractive repayment package, the catch is they required particulars.

What should you do when you received such calls?

  1. Hang up the phone

Normally when some one called from unknown number it would be better just hang up the phone, no need to waste time to entertain the callers.

for example, if you are in Singapore and the caller ID showed +65, you would know it was a scammer call, as local call would not show the country code.

2. Talk nonsense with the callers

every time when i received a call from "MOH" I would ask him who was the Minister of the country, and if the call was from "Police HQ", i would ask who was the Commissioner of Police!!!

every time when the called heard my question, they would cut of the phone calls.

3. Block the numbers.

Scammers may use internet app to make the call, and you need to know your mobile system well and block the calls.

4. Spoofing

sometime called might use the latest technology to disguise the caller ID, so it all depended on the recipient to make his judgement and decided whether the calls were a scam.

however, you may want to check the caller ID at HERE

DON"T DO THE FOLLOWINGS:

  1. When some one asked you to remit money via Western Union or MoneyGram, do not do it.
  2. Callers asked you to give your personal particulars, do not do so.
  3. Do not give remote access to your computer to people.
  4. Make sure you have your password and user ID with you and NOT give it to another person.

Finally report the scam to the REAL POLICE.

Published on Leave a comment on Ask, Believe, Receive

This is the creative process that is as old as time itself. It’s been mentioned in every religious text and spoken of by mystics, philosophers and Law of Attraction teachers throughout the ages.

I’m sure you’ve heard of it too.

It’s a simple three step process that many people see as the key to manifesting everything they want.

And of course it is.

But, there’s more to this creative process than meets the eye.

In over 10 years of studying the Law of Attraction and Manifestation, I’ve learned that the way most people are using the creative process is backwards. When you start by asking for what you want you shift your focus away from the truth of this process.

The real key to manifesting everything you want is being ready and willing to receive.

I can hear you saying you’re ready. I thought I was too.

I’d asked and asked. I’d worked hard to expand my mind to believe that it could happen for me. I focused my thoughts on the abundance I knew was coming. I did everything I thought I needed to do to make the Law of Attraction work for me.

Nothing happened.

Well perhaps not nothing, but nothing substantial. Nothing life changing. And certainly nothing that felt like my ‘prayers’ had been answered.

I became disillusioned and felt like giving up. I very nearly did.

But somewhere deep within me, there burned a tiny flame. A spark that told me I was missing something. A spark that told me there was something more …

So I went searching for it.

Have you ever heard the saying, ‘Seek and you will find?’

Well I found the missing piece of the puzzle and it changed everything.

Because I had the creative process backwards.

I’ll let you into a little secret.

The Law of Attraction and Manifestation is all about Energetic Alignment

You could call it vibration or frequency. Not the vibration or frequency of your thoughts but the vibration or frequency of your energy.

How do you know what your energetic alignment is?

You’ll feel it as your core emotional state.

It’s important to understand the difference between your emotional state and your emotions.

You’re emotional state is your ‘all the time’ energetic state.

It’s the way you feel in your body most of the time. The way you feel when there’s nothing particular going on. When you’re just going about your day. When life is just humming along and there’s nothing to spark a specific emotion. You probably won’t even notice how you feel because it’s your ‘normal’.

But your energy is always vibrating.

It’s your life force. And it’s manifesting your life.

Emotion = E-motion. Energy in motion. Or more specifically, your energy in motion.

When you feel an emotion, you’re really feeling your own energy move in response to something or someone else.

The event, circumstance, or person is simply the trigger that sparks your energy into motion. Each time you act or *react from the energy spark you’re feeling, you either reinforce your existing energetic alignment or realign your energy to a new vibration or frequency.

*(re-action = re-enacting a past experience as if it’s happening today)

Your Energetic Alignment is your Energetic State

It’s the vibration of your energetic state that is manifesting your life

Ask, Believe, Receive

Your Energetic Alignment signals what you BELIEVE

What you BELIEVE is what you unconsciously ASK for

And you will always RECEIVE whatever you unconsciously BELIEVE and ASK for

It will happen automatically

It can’t be any other way.

This is the Law of Attraction in action.

Getting ready to RECEIVE is the act of Energy Re-alignment

How do you do that?

Start by becoming aware of your thoughts, emotions and actions.

Instead of pushing away the ‘negative’ thoughts and trying to change them, listen to what they have to say. Your thoughts are literally your energy communicating with you in words. Behind every thought there’s an emotion. And emotion drive action.

Your thoughts and emotions will always match because it’s your energy you’re experiencing. When you pay attention, you can connect with the energetic alignment that is manifesting your life. You can learn what it feels like.

And that knowledge frees you to make a powerful shift in each and every moment.

It frees you to release and replace.

To repair and restore.

To realign and recreate your life anew

Abundance is your birthright

Your wish is my command!

Just sharing a good message from Allanah Hunt

Published on Leave a comment on The 5 Languages Of Love
We all want to be loved.
And the opportunity to give love in return.
But what happens when the love you give is misunderstood or the love you receive doesn’t feel like love to you?
We give love to others in the way we wish to receive it but in many cases our desire to make someone else feel loved, backfires.
No matter how hard you work to show your partner how much you care about them, they just don’t feel loved

According to author Gary Chapman, there are 5 core love languages.
Each of us understand one of these languages but may completely misunderstand the other 4.
Learning the different languages and listening for the one that your partner understands can have a huge impact on your relationship.
When you know what someone needs in order to feel loved, you can use words and actions to demonstrate your love in a way that they understand.
Speaking the language of love is a key component in avoiding misunderstandings, resentment and conflict.
When we feel loved, we want to do more for the other person. And so the cycle of love grows and blossoms.
Our most basic emotional need is not to fall in love but to be genuinely loved by another, to know a love that grows out of reason and choice, not instinct.

Which love language do you speak?

And which one does your partner speak?

Words Of Affirmation
One way to show love is to speak in a way that affirms the other person. You can do this by complimenting your partner.
“Your hair looks beautiful today”
“ I love how you look in that suit”
“I love how you make me laugh”
Verbal appreciation is one of the most powerful languages of love there is.
When you pay someone a compliment it lets them know you see them.
That you notice them and appreciate them.

 Quality Time
Just because you live in the same house, doesn’t mean you spend quality time together.
You may sit in front of the television together in the evening but there is a big difference between quantity and quality.

Quality time involves giving your undivided attention to your partner.
Time without distractions and outside of your usual routine. Think back to when you were first dating. You wanted to know everything you could about them; you couldn’t get enough of each other.
But the busyness of life has a way of getting in the way of love.
Or more correctly, the demonstration of love that we each need in order to feel appreciated.
If your partner’s primary love language is quality time, make the effort to go on a date, go for a walk by the beach or through your neighbourhood.
Remove yourselves from the distraction of your routine and take the time to be completely present with each other. There is no surer way to reconnect and reignite your passion.

Receiving Gifts
Love is not about money but for some people, the act of giving is a key component in feeling loved.
Valentines Day may have become overly commercial but the intention behind it is pure.
It’s a chance for you to show your partner how much you love them through the giving and receiving of gifts.

But why wait until Valentines Day?

When you give an unexpected gift, it lets your partner know that you have been thinking about them.
That you know them well enough to find the perfect thing they will love.
If your partner’s face lights up when you give them a gift, then you can be fairly sure this is part of their core love language.

Acts of Service
For some people the greatest demonstration of love is to see you do something you know they will appreciate.
This may be as simple as cooking a meal once a week, or taking care of the kids for a few hours on a Saturday so your partner can have some time to themselves.
Or it could be giving a foot massage, cooking a special meal or simply emptying the dishwasher.
This is not about stereotypes and role definition but about making the time to do something to make your partner’s load a little lighter.
Making the effort to share the load really lets your partner know that you see how hard they work and that you are there for them.

Physical Touch
We have long known that physical touch is a powerful way of demonstrating love for your partner.
Embracing, kissing, holding hands and sex are special acts which you do not share with anyone else.
For some people, physical touch is vital. Without it, they don’t feel loved.
Physical love allows these people to feel secure in their relationship with their partner.
It can be as simple as touching their hand as you walk through the room they are sitting in. Or a hug and a kiss each morning and evening as you leave and return to house.
It doesn’t take much time or thought but can mean so much to your partner.
It is so easy to fall into routine with your partner and forget to show them how much you love and appreciate them.
But for a relationship to survive, both people must feel loved, seen, appreciated and secure.
Without this, arguments and resentments can arise creating friction that runs like an undercurrent through your relationship.
And when someone doesn’t feel secure and important to their partner, they may look for that feeling somewhere else.
Knowing your love language and discovering the love language your partner speaks, is a powerful way to transform your relationship and reignite those feelings of love that you are looking for.


Published on Leave a comment on How To Elevate Work From Home (WFH) Amid Covid-19 Pandemic?

Work From Home, a phrase which normally associated with people who use internet to earn some passive income and achieve financial freedom.

Before COVID-19 Strike

Well, that was before 2020, that was before the COVID-19 pandemic created a big mind set change in people conduct their business.

Last time when you told people that you worked from home, the impression given to people was:

  • you were not having a normal job,
  • you were using internet to earn a living, or commonly known as Internet Entrepreneur.

After COVID-19 Strike

Covid-19, a pandemic which forced a lot of businesses to close their office premises or operating outlets, since one of the effective method to contain the spread of this was to curtail the movement of human.

To do that, one of the effective way was to ensure the business outlets close their offices and business outlets.

Staffs need to work from their home so as to reduce the risk of getting infected while commuting to their work place.

With the advancement of technology, office staffs can actually use  internet to do their work, after all when they are in the offices, they are also using internet to access the required information or communicate with fellow workers.

In view of this, with most of the work done online, as long as you have internet connection at home, you will be able to carry out your work from home.

Why work from home?

Work from home reduce the human interaction and thus reduce the transmission of the pandemic through close contact.

Governments encouraged people to work from home, so that the public transports and the malls would have fewer people mingling around.

The New Normal post COVID-19

Therefore, nowadays with the new normal, Work From Home is no longer the privilege of those who earn their living having their businesses online and transacted through internet.

Now if you ask a person whether he works from home, next you need to know

  • whether he is working for himself or
  • he is just another office worker who has to work from home

So for those businesses whose staffs have to work from home, or can work from home.

What are the advantages and disadvantages you can derive from working from home?

Photo by Andrea Davis from Pexels

Pros of working from home.

1. Safer for the staffs who have to work from home.

They do not need to join in the rush to commute to office,  and get infected accidentally due to close contact with people who may be the carrier of the virus, or who does not know he is sick.

2. Businesses still can continue to operate.

Staffs are still doing their work even though they are not physically in the office to work.

3. Companies need less big office space.

By having staffs to work from home, companies suddenly find out -  they do not really need such a big office space to accommodate the staffs, hence, they can reduce their rental on office spaces.

4. Companies' save on utilities bills.

With most of the staffs work from office, electricity consumption will be less since they will not need to have all the air conditions on.

5. Savings on Office supplies.

Since staffs are working from home, those companies which provide beverages and so on will save quite a lot on this.

Con of workings from home.

1. Less interaction among the staffs, may mean the rapport among the staffs may not be that good.

2. Messages and instructions from the bosses may not be conveyed promptly and clearly, any further clarification may not be possible.

3. Productivity of the staffs may not be as effective as in office due to some distraction at home, some females staffs may need to attend to house chores or issues at home or family matters such as kids' matters.

4. Meeting conducted over video conferencing may not be as effective as the physical in person meeting where ideas can be shared freely.

5. For some staffs, this may create some weight issues since less walking or movement and too comfortable for them at home.

6. For some building owners, this can be a not welcome news and development for them, since their tenants may decide to cut down their office rental space once the current tenancy is over.

There are a lot of service office facilities offering full services to cater for those who only need a room office instead of a big office space.

7. It can be bad news for staffs who are sick or medically not well, the boss may say after all you are working from home, while in between your rest, you can do some work!!!

What are the challenges we face working from home during COVID-19 pandemic?

1. Balancing between working life and family life

When both are working from home, we can face the following situation:

  • different working style or business,
  • with different works or video meeting to attend to,
  • attend to the needs of the kids at home.

This is quite a challenge for both husband and wife to work out.

2. Do you create a work environment at home?

This is something a lot of people working from home has to deal with.

If they do create a similar working environment, then:

  • they may have to face it 24 hours a day,
  • instead of just 8 hours as working in the office.

Then how to have normal family home life?

Without looking at the work?

and have your rest to recharge your energy?

3. Being cut off from co-workers

The link and cordial relationship and rapport with co-workers is not there.

If you need to talk to your co-worker:

  • either to discuss on work issue or
  • just to catch up for latest in life or whatever,
  • you can only hear the voice or via video conference.
4. Do you dress up while working from home.

A lot of people tend to dress casually at home even work from home.

If there is a need to have video conferencing, then dress up a bit.

Sometime the worker may have no choice,

Why?

The boss wants to have a video call!!!

The staff will have no choice but to dress up properly.

Can every business work from home?

There are some who can work from home, there are some businesses which require the staff to work on site.

Whether work from home is good or not,  and whether the quality of work is up to the standard or not, depends on one's own judgment.

For those who like to have colleague surrounding them, and who like instant answers and replies, work from home is definitely not his cup of tea.

At the end of the day, balancing between working life and family life in the same place for 24 hours a day, that is a big challenge and shift in mind set.

Published on Leave a comment on What Are The Key Components Of Financial Planning?

Financial Planning and its key components

What is Financial Planning?

Financial Planning is a process whereby one tries to determine his financial status, and set a financial goal and means to achieve the goal set.

As one old saying usually quoted – "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

To put it simply, without a proper financial plan, a person will not know his financial needs and wants now and the near future.

Overall, we will be more focus in our daily financial requirement and will have the meaning goal to strive for if we have good financial plan.

Why do we need a financial plan?

To organize and plan our financial requirement in a more orderly and structured manner, ultimately we need financial plan.

By having good financing planning, we can work out our objectives, policies, procedures, program and budget our financial activities,  at the same time to ensure we have an effective and adequate financial measures.

The importance can be outlined as-

  1. It enables us to have adequate funds.
  2. We have a balanced inflow and outflow of funds and as a result have a stable cash flow.
  3. Helps us in ensuring we have growth of funds and in the long run we can have better survival in any financial crisis.
  4. It ensures that the surplus of funds are easily invested in instruments which generate good returns.
  5. Eliminates any uncertainties with regard to changing market trends which can be faced easily through enough funds.
  6. Reduce the uncertainties which can be a hindrance to any ventures we want to embark in.
  7. Financial planning plays an important role in our daily life and we need to pay serious attention to it.
  8. Financial planning will help us in a long run, especially in time of crisis.

What are the main components of Financial Planning?

  1. Debt management
  2. Risk management
  3. Investment planning
  4. Tax planning
  5. Retirement planning
  6. Estate planning

All things considered,  if we follow the above six points to work out our financial planning, generally speaking, we do not even need to consult financial planner to devise a plan for us.

Benefits of Good Financial Planning

  1. We can become more discipline, set our priority and work diligently towards the goals we set.
  2. A good financial planning especially in this COVID-19 pandemic time can help to give protection to us for unexpected illness and loss of income.
  3. We can enjoy financial freedom when we retired and do not have to worry about money.

Conclusion

In short, we only live once, so we need to make full use of our live now and enjoy ourselves by having a good financial plan.

Published on Leave a comment on Investment Scams – How Can You Safely Avoid?

Investment Scams, is it common in today's environment?

How do we avoid investment scams during this COVID-19 pandemic when everybody is desperate to make more money?

With this COVID-19 pandemic creating havoc in everyone's life and businesses,

  • most people are affected badly,
  • some even lost their earning power,
  • some are short of financial resources and desperate to find ways to increase their income.

What people will do in desperate situation?

  • Some people are looking at ways to earn a living,
  • or improve their income,
  • others will think of investing in some financial instrument,
  • they hope this will be the way to go and earn more income.

Why do people invest?

With the bank interest rate at all time low, people will believe putting their money in the bank will not give a good return.

Human being by its nature, will always look for high return on investment.

Hence we will tend to look at investment instrument to boost up our returns and make more money.

Therefor in the eagerness to go after high returns on investment, people tend to forget the basic rules of investment.

The saying of Too Good To Be True especially those schemes which promised return of investment of more than 10% per month.

Some reports of the Investment scams and their methods

In the News published by The Straits Times of Singapore on 3rd April 2021,  under the heading - Promised Big Returns, Only To Leave Many High And Dry.

The Straits Times reported that a total of 15,756 scams in 2020,  and one of the scams involved cryptocurrency trading platform.

There are quite a few such platforms in Singapore.

MAS - The Central Bank of Singapore, more commonly known as Monetary Authority Of Singapore, does not regulated some of the platforms of cryotocurrency.

Even the Prime Minister of Singapore also said in his Facebook page that some platforms used his profile, see the link .

You can see those scammers will take whatever actions and tricks they can, in order to get people to invest in their platform.

Every day, we can read about people being scammed, and with internet now more popular, and easily accessible in everywhere, it is even easier for scammers to take advantage of human greed and cash in on this.

How do we detect and learn how to spot investment scams?

You may want to consider the following points:

1. Risk Factor

Every investment carries risk, and if someone tells you, what they offer do not have risk or very low risk, go back to the basic motto of investing -- Too Good To Be True.

What do you need to do when you come across such a plan?

  • With internet and other resources, if one come across such an investment plan,
  • do carry out your due diligence and research,
  • especially for those investments plan, which claim to offer very good return with low or no risk.
  • If this is being offered online,
  • you can not even meet up with the promoter of the plan.

it is advisable to just drop this plan.

2. Prove of track records

When someone promote their investment to you, and claimed they can generate good and high returns,

Please carry out the following steps to check

  • do ask them to show documentary proof,
  • that they themselves have used the same plan,
  • and generated so much profit,
  • Meanwhile to make sure the proof being shown are statement from a Trading House or Bank,
  • which showed the promoter account with the transactions,
  • if the promoter of the investment plan is not willing to provide such a proof of track records,
  • hence, it is advisable to walk away from such investment plan.

3. Regulatory Framework

For any investment scheme, we need to ask the following questions:

  • Is the scheme is approved and monitored by the Center Bank of the country?
  • where the investment plan is originated, are there any chances the scheme is a scam?
  • even if it is not a scam, can the investors get back their money?
  • Moreover, Is the investment money protected?
  • What happen in the event the investment go south and fail to generated the returns as promised?

4. Guaranteed Returns and Investment

If the investment plan promised guaranteed return and investment amount is protected, all the more we need to carry out a thorough due diligence.

  • Check with the relevant authority of the authenticity of the plan,
  • Who are the people behind the plan,
  • Are they on the white list or not.

5. Influence Tactics

Some plan will always tell you the offer is expiring in one or two days,  if you do not take advantage of it, you will lose a lucrative return or discounts being offered, which on the surface of it, look like a good bargain if you invest now and can get an even higher return than promised.

This tactic is to take advantage of human perception that scarce opportunity is a good item, and should take advantage of it.

6. Referral Scheme.

Some investments scheme offer referral scheme, that is, if you bring in certain investors, the platform will reward you some monetary rewards, or certain percentage of the invested amount of the investors you bring in to the plan or scheme.

It is quite unusual for any scheme to offer commission to investors who bring in investors to the scheme, if it is a legitimate scheme, all they need to do is to just publish a prospectus and let those who are interested to invest in, no need to incur additional cost for the plan.

7. What Are Available For Investor To Verify.

In Singapore, one can always go to Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) website to check on the validity of the investor plan, and if it is an oversea plan, they always search on the net with website like the SEC alert list such as .

1. https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/general-resources/news-alerts/alerts-bulletins/investor-alerts/investment-0

2. https://www.usa.gov/scams-and-frauds

These are just some issues about investors scam which we should be aware of.

You only live once, thus, it is important that we do not waste our life savings to scammers, in our eagerness to generate more returns on our investment.

Investment scams

To understand more on what we can do to detect fraud and scams, perhaps you want to learn HERE

if you have any ideas or wish to share your experience, do share it below in the comments section below.

Published on Leave a comment on Goal Achievement

What is Goal Achievement?

With goal achievement, it certainly creates satisfaction.

Our wonderful life usually happens in the journey towards attaining ours goal.

To attain our goals, we take action based on inspiration, hope and motivation.

However living a wonderful life can happen, regardless of achieving a goal or not.

So if you embark on some fitness program to keep yourself fit, and achieve the goal of reducing your weight, say from 80 kg to 67kg, then go for it.

Assuming 67 kg is your ideal weight, and if you can achieve the goal, it will be a huge satisfaction, and you accomplish your mission.

I have seen my friend trying her best to do some flat belly exercise, and does not seem to get anywhere .

One day, she tried out something, which I have been telling her to do, and it seemed it worked!!

This is just one of the examples of achieving goal set.

Goal Settings and Goal Achievement

In our life, we set a few goals since birth, since the day we started to know our surrounding.

As we enter school age, we set goal to have better grade.

Then we set goal to finish our education at tertiary level.

After that, we start our working life, we set another goal, to reach certain level in corporate world, if you are in the corporate world.

For those who are self-employed, earning passive income in online world, or self-made entrepreneur,  and making  money online, we will set our goal of so much per night.

So is goal setting that important?

Goal setting is just one tool we use to achieve our target.

We  use  goal setting as a barometer to focus on the task we have in hand.

Just like in Wealthy Affiliate journey, some set the goals as follows:

  1. how much money to make per day.
  2. The amount of money to make per week.
  3. What will be the amount we are aiming for per month.
  4. The goal of money made in a year.

We have a sense of satisfaction, the feeling of mission accomplished, when we achieved our goals.

However, the start up may not be smooth sailing, as people thought it was.

Without hard work and hours spent, focusing on setting goals,  trial and errors, we say we have achieved our goal, once we see the light at the end of the tunnel.

goal achievement

10

Published on 10 Comments on COVID-19- What Can We Do Post This Pandemic?

What is COVID-19 and How Has It Affected Us?

COVID-19, a term used to describe the pandemic happened in 2020 all over the world.

The most searched word at the moment and the dreaded word in almost every one's mind.

So what is COVID-19? and what has it done to change mankind thus far?

COVID-19 or Coronavirus as we initially called this virus, or some people referred to it as Wuhan Virus, since it was from  the City of Wuhan in China.

Effects of COVID-19 

Because of this virus, it changed a lot of things in this world,

  • force human to make changes, and
  • discard their usual lifestyle,
  • some businesses even had to change their mode of operation, and
  • some were forced to close down being badly affected by this.

Governments all over the world initially treated it as just another flu type of virus and some were ill prepared for this, eventually every country decided to follow China's way of dealing with this pandemic by locking down the whole city.

Lock Down, Restricted Movement Stay Home Order, Circuit Breaker

To deal with the human traffic so as to curb the spread of this COVID-19 pandemic, there are so many names or terms used, such as:

  • Locking down the city,
  • restricted movement,
  • stay home order or
  • circuit breaker as Singapore decided to have a more subtle name for their action.

One of the lock down effect was the closing of border, and this restricted the movement of people from one country to another, even for country with proximity like between Malaysia and Singapore, which was linked by a causeway,

One the busiest border crossing in the world, whereby at least 300,000 used the causeway to move either way between the two countries, it was practically deserted during the MCO (Movement Control Order), the term used by Malaysia, and Circuit Breaker, the term used by Singapore.

Industries Affected By Lock Down

The first industry badly hit by this closing of borders is the airline, most of the airlines decided to cancel their flights, and have the air crafts grounded, the only flight operating was mostly the cargo plane, which carried the essential goods from one country to another.

What To Expect Post COVID-19?

Now people are talking about post COVID-19, what is going to happen, and what can we learn from it.

Impact

SARS had some impact on human.

When at the height of it, people were talking about being hygienic and so on.

Cleanliness was the top priority, even in some restaurants, they would not have the cutlery on the table until the customers were at the table, places like Pizza Hut used to have the fork and knife on the table, even though there were no customers, but during SARS, they decided to keep all the forks and knife.

And now COVID-19, the situation was worse, restaurants had to close and only allowed takeaway.

Luckily with the advance of technology, and the emergence of APP, people can now order food online, and APP to search for food delivery, and most of the food outlets decided to work with the delivery companies, this is to ensure they still have customers during this challenging time.

Work From Home

Work from home became a norm for most of the companies.

This may become the norm even after post COVID-19, this will definitely affect the office building owners, as their office rental incomes may be badly affected post COVID-19.

Once the lease period expired, some companies may review the need, and decide to cut down the size of the office space, since most companies have already had ample practices during the lock down, and work from home for few months, this will help the companies to save quite a substantial amounts on rental payment for office space.

With the reduced office space,  less electricity consumed, less office stationery used, the productivity of the staffs may improve also, it may also help to improve work life balance, especially in Asia countries, whereby working long hours in office is the norm.

Adapt & Innovate

Business will have to adapt to the new norm in operating their businesses, after learning from the lock down and making changes during the lock down, if the businesses are not prepared to deal with the new norm, they will be phased out post COVID-19.

The one which can adapt faster and be prepared during the lock down, and hit the ground running after the lock down, will be the one which will gain more and achieve a greater height.

“Times and conditions change so rapidly, that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future” – Walt Disney

https://www.pexels.com/@samerdaboul

Even though times are bad, and difficult for most of us, especially those in business, when COVID-19 affected every one in one way or another, however, this not the time to cry and whine about it, so much uncertainty about the future, and how to survive in this uncomfortable situation, we have to start taking stock of the situation, and learn something from this, the earlier we accept this, and move on and start making changes, innovate and adapt to the new norm, the earlier we come out victorious and stronger, to face the challenges ahead.

To move forward, we need to make profound changes, and move out of our comfort zone and innovate.

In scientific term, as stated by the American physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn, a concept called Paradigm Shift, which means a fundamental change in the basic concepts and experimental practices of a scientific discipline.

We can relate the changes we need to make to survive COVID-19 as a paradigm shift, since we need to make a profound change in a fundamental model or perception of ways we do our works and live our life.

What Businesses Should We Do In Case We Want To Start A New Business?

discuss business@cheeshi

During the lock down or Circuit Breaker as in Singapore, only certain businesses are allowed to continue to open, the rest needed to work from home or shut down completely.

Businesses involved in food and beverage, basic groceries, logistic, medical supply, health care, waste management, transport and telecommunication business are still open during the lock down.

Food stalls, fruits stalls, vegetable and meat sellers are doing brisk business during the lock down.

Super markets and groceries shops are also doing good business during the lock down because people still need to buy the necessities.

long queue at supermarket check out, @cheeshi

Restaurants, coffee shops and hawkers center operated in the following manners:

  • can only cater for people who buy foods for take away, and
  • no dine in is allowed, and
  • this created good business for delivery people.

For manufacturing entities, during COVID-19, it is obvious that those involved in health care and medical supply businesses are in great demand.

Factories involved in manufacturing surgical masks, disinfectant, gloves, medical PPE, ventilators and medicine were operating during the lock down.

On the other hand,  those in other types of manufacturing which are not essential would have to stop operation.

We can see from this lock down, what types of businesses still need to operate, and no need to take forced rest.

What Types Of Businesses Are Badly Affected?

COVID-19 affected Hotels business badly since the borders are close, travelers could not cross over from another country, if the lock down last few months, the hoteliers will have problem surviving unless they have a lot of cash reserves.

What about Transport business like taxi and buses?

Fewer people were taking the transport because of the stay home orders, they will only ferry the people who are in the essential business.

taxi returned affected by COVID-19 @cheeshi

As mentioned earlier, one of the badly hit is the airline, no cross border traveling mean the airline need to ground their planes and in the case of Singapore Airlines (SIA), SIA re-designated some of their crews to help out in hospitals, to attend to those who were not in emergency medical care, this is to enable the professional and trained nurses to attend to COVID-19 related cases.

What Can We Look Forward To Post COVID-19?

  1. 1. Change of business model

If the business wants to survive post COVID-19, what do they need to do?

  • They need to innovate and
  • adapt to the new norm, and
  • adjust the business model,
  • take action and
  • create results
  • instead of stand still or
  • shut down completely and
  • blame the pandemic for the chaos.

  1. 2. Prepare for the future

In time of crisis like what COVID-19 has created, it is important that business people

  • show some better character in this high stakes challenge, and
  • focus on objectives that can produce results.

And here I quote the Singapore Minister favorite words – to think two steps ahead, we also need to set long term goals in order to meet the uncertainty and challenges ahead.

  1. 3. Embracing new digital solutions and technology

This is the time

  • to review and
  • analyze what we have been doing, and
  • make adjustments and
  • adapt
  • so that we can be well-prepared for the future and
  • no time to whine on the losses and
  • lost opportunities.

https://www.pexels.com/@pixabay

  1. 4. Have a good game plan

Post COVID-19, we must have

  • a good game plan
  • so that we can focus on our primary objectives and
  • focus on our secondary objectives,
  • prioritize key initiatives and
  • take action
  • to ensure we meet the clear targets despite the uncertainty and so many unknown factors.

We learn along the ways, and make amends, so that we do not lose our focus on the task ahead.

Just like what Sir Winston Churchill said “ Don’t let your crisis go to waste!!”

You may also wish to read and learn about COVID-19 in my post, please HERE

WallStreet Forex Robot 2.0 Evolution

If you have any questions or wish to share your experience on this topic.

Please feel free to leave your comments, questions and your experience in the feedback space below.

I would be glad to get back to you and thank you for your feedback, comments and sharing of your experience.