Money Group - Reading Post 2

The soul of money brings to light some interesting issues that I have never considered. For instance, how much money is enough money? What do we do when we have reached our goal - that is, if the target net worth does not increase as we continue to work harder. The book suggests that once we have reached the target net worth we were looking for, we should devote our time towards certain causes and values that we hold dearly. In short, once we are done making money, we make money work for us. That is a logical view to consider; however, not everyone is as charitable. After all, many wont be satisfied donating their money away after slogging to earn it.


Extrinsic Rewards VS Intrinsic Rewards

Another point that I would like to highlight is the attitude involved when one sets a "target" net worth. I feel that when you set a final target like that, you could get easily satisfied and lose the hunger to succeed and do even better. Many successful businessmen have suggested that they don't really have a target they set. Instead, they fall in love with the work process. This, in a sense, rewards them intrinsically rather than extrinsically. What do I mean by that? Extrinsic rewards are what many people work for. Some do it for grades in school, some do it for money, some do it for a better body, and the list goes on. On the other hand, intrinsic rewards feed your "soul". These are rewards of no material value, but many seek them. Why? Because it motivates you.

Ultimately, when its all said and done, I believe the best thing to do is select a job that interests you. A job that is challenging enough to motivate you, but not too simple as it will bore you. Give it all you got, and never look back.

Money Group - Random Post 1

Firstly, I would like to apologize for the late post. I've been extremely busy these last 2 days because I had to pack and clean my apartment. This has been an extremely troublesome process, and the rude management was not making it any easier.

One thing I did not understand at all was the way the cleaning charges work for the apartment. So before moving out, I got professional cleaners to clean the house, and the job alone cost me about $100. The job looked excellent, and the apartment was spotless; however, when I did an apartment inspection with the maintenance guy, he told me that I would still be charged for cleaning. I was extremely appalled! I challenged him to find a spot that he was unsatisfied with, but he could not find one. Instead, he told me that it was management's policy and he had nothing to do with it. 

In the end, after a heated debate with the management, they agreed to waive the $300 cleaning fee that was deducted from my security deposit. This was one of the many hiccups and problems I encountered during my move. I could ramble on, but I'm going to save everyone's ears from bleeding out. 

Hope everyone is having a better week than I am!

money post 1

The first chapter made great sense to me as it talked about how most people separate their soulful lives from their financial lives.

Soulful lives & financial lives

So what exactly does soulful or financial lives actually mean?

Much like a moral compass, soulful lives refer to the morals and beliefs that guide many of us to do the right or ethical thing. On the other hand, financial lives refer to the greedy behavior that many have towards money.

Soulful lives VS Financial lives

In short, there is a stark difference between the two, and during the quest to attain wealth, many end up sacrificing one to attain the other.  Don’t interpret it wrongly though, this does not necessarily mean that one would have to do immoral things to attain money (such as con others for wealth).

This could also mean that parents end up working so hard to earn money that they forget about their kids at home to fend for themselves.

I think it is important to always realize why we are working in the first place. Whenever things get too stressful or we have to make big decisions that involve money, we should always take a step back to see if the prospective money is worth the sacrifice. Don’t end up in your last days wishing that you worked less or spent more time with your family.

random post 2

Finding an apartment is one of the most troublesome things I've had to do the past year. Here are some improvements that I think should be done:

1) All apartment listings should always come with a rough price estimate. It makes no sense to put "Call for pricing" because I would have to trouble myself with calling the apartment, and the apartment leasing agents would have to waste their time attending to me, and giving me information which I could have acquired online.

2) While searching for apartments, I found this pretty neat service that allowed online users to view the 3D model plans. This is very similar to the google maps street view. Here is another efficient system which would help leasing agents save time.

With more efficient systems like that in place, the building owner would have to employ less leasing agents to show prospective clients around, and most of the work is done by the customer. I hope more apartments would consider adopting a system like that.

Needs of humans vs needs of plants

I have always been a proponent of Capitalism as I believe no other entity, single or group, can create a more efficient market system. The needs of humans are bountiful and limitless so how do we decide what to produce? How can we be sure that we are producing the correct quantity? Is it too much? Is it too little? We don’t want to be creating surpluses or shortages. Ultimately, there are just way too many factors to list and think about.

Fortunately, through the free market forces that capitalism inevitably creates, 4 seemingly complex amounts are efficiently calculated.

1.     Quantity of goods to be produced

2.     Quantity of goods to supply

3.     Equilibrium price

4.     Equilibrium quantity

Knowing what these 4 numbers are, will help consumers, suppliers and producers determine what goods to produce and how much to charge them for any type of good—there is no other method that is more efficient. Therefore, when I read about how the author’s family decided to move from Arizona to the Southern Appalachia because they were unsatisfied with food industrialization, I was baffled. Why would anyone try to go against capitalism? After all, the only reason food has been industrialized is because there is an extremely great demand for it; demand that came from the needs of consumers.

If Nebraskans want oranges, then a market will be created, and producers or distributors will start establishing channels to ensure that oranges are provided for Nebraskans. Similarly, if Californians need water in their dessert-like climate, then pipelines will be built to meet the growing demands. There is nothing “unnatural” about it. To me, the real fault lies with consumers who demand that such goods be created. Just like everyone in corporate America, producers are just trying to make money on products that have a demand.

All that aside, no chapter left a greater impression on me than chapter 3. In that chapter, I learned about how food industrialization was creating very worrying problems for the future. Just like humans and animals, plants go through natural selection too; by breeding plants selectively, humans are ruining the gene pool. We are creating more resistant plants that will survive the toxic chemicals used to kill other living creatures like insects. What happens when these plants become so resistant to toxic chemicals? What happens to our infants who have less resistant immunity systems? Similarly, just as genetic diversity has helped humans reproduce so successfully, plants require the same too. Yet again, another problem is created through selective breeding.

Much like a double-edged sword, everything comes with a price—but which is the more hefty price? Do we satisfy the needs of humans or the needs of plants?

Random blog post 1

It is estimated that there are 42.1 million smokers in the USA. Out of the total population of 319 million, that is a staggering 13% of the total population! No wonder so many people are trying to qui smoking. However, from the CDC website, it is reported that 480,000 deaths annually are caused, either indirectly or directly, by smoking. If we take the 480,000 deaths over the 42.1 million smokers, that would mean only slightly over 1% of smokers die annually because of their death-inducing habit. I believe that 1% is an extremely small number, so does this mean that smokers should not worry about dying due to smoking cigarettes? Why are so many smokers trying to quit then?

Reading post 1

Not too long ago, Singapore was a fishing village. It was commonplace for everyone to locally grow or catch their food—be it meat, vegetables or fruits. I was born in the time period after—during the time of great technological advancements. I never saw farms or overcrowded fishing boats; instead, all food was acquired at the supermarket.

When I first came to the US and saw the locally grown produce at the farmer’s market, I could never understand why anyone would choose the locally grown fruits that had already been shared by insects over the perfectly sculpted deep red apples at the supermarket. This belief was however altered after reading Steven Hopp’s accounts about the detrimental properties of pesticides and herbicides. I now understand that these “perfectly sculpted” apples came at a great price, which would harm both my body and the environment.

One sentence that I found amusing was the way the author described the way desert creatures survived on “vapor and their own life savings”. This sentence frames the great hardships that desert creatures have to endure in a light-hearted way with great accuracy. 

Job

As part of Singapore’s National Defense Act, every Singaporean male has to serve in the army for two years. The types of job ranges from clerks that complete administrative duties to soldiers who camp in the jungle for weeks at a time. From the time of enlistment, we are grouped into different categories based on our current medical conditions, education levels, and of course fitness levels. However, before we can be posted to our appropriate jobs, everyone would have to go through the basic military training program for three months.

For most Singaporean males, once they have been posted to their respective categories, they would remain there for the rest of the twenty-one months; however, because I was injured during training, the type of job I was given became one that I would consider a “hybrid” job. To understand why I call it a hybrid job, I would have to go through the entire process of how soldiers are categorized.

As said earlier, to determine which category is best suited for each soldier, there are three main factors the country takes into consideration:

1.     Current Medical Condition

2.     Fitness Level

3.     Education level

Current Medical Condition:

When a soldier goes through the physical screening process, he is placed into either a combat program or an administrative program. As I had no known health issues, I was placed into the combat program. 

Fitness Level:

The next consideration, takes a soldier’s fitness level into account to decide whether he is capable of rigorous activities like camping in the jungle for weeks at a time or whether he would be take jobs that require less physical exertion like engineers or technicians.

Education Level:

The next screening process uses the soldier’s education level to determine the type of rank the soldier can attain. If the soldier has attained a post-high school degree or diploma, he would be in the running for the prestigious “Officer Cadet School” where they will be First Lieutenants after completing the course, or “Specialist Cadet School” where they will be Third Sergeants. As I fulfilled the post-high school degree requirement and was an extremely fit soldier, I was enlisted into the Officer Cadet School.

Once I was in Officer Cadet School, I would remain at the rank “Recruit” for nine months till I have completed the course—only then will I be a commissioned officer. Here is when things started to get a little more complicated for me. I got injured halfway through the course so the camp’s doctor had no choice but to kick me out of the officer course. As a result, because I did not complete the course, I did not get the officer rank I wanted, and was now a recruit who had to be transferred to a new job post. An error in the system transferred me to a job that was reserved for commissioned officers that undertook administrative duties. However, as I was a recruit, I did not have the clearance levels that officers would normally have. This put me in a very uncomfortable position because I was given tasks that required me to delegate work to other soldiers. Usually, this would be a very easy task because these soldiers would be of a lower rank than the officer, but because I did not complete the officer course, I was a mere recruit and almost all these soldiers were of a higher rank than I was. I desperately wanted to file a complaint but decided to suck it up because my time in the army was coming to an end.

My job title was a POL officer, which stands for Petrol, Oil and Lubricant officer. This job required me to order the needed POL for the army base, keep track of the accounts, and ensure that everything tallies up at the end of the month. Usually, an officer would be able to delegate the work to his men, and if the job were not up to standard, the officer would be able to punish his men to ensure that no mistakes would occur again. However, since I was a recruit, I could delegate the work, but could not punish my men for poor work. As a result, I ended up completing most of their work because it was more efficient for me to do so instead of pleading with them to do a better job.

As a result, during my time as a POL officer, instead of being a delegator/supervisor, which was supposed to be my primary job, I was mainly a purchaser, a negotiator, and an accountant.

I was a purchaser because I would literally have to purchase all the POL requirements of the army base. The primary job for this posting was simple and straightforward. I was to average out the usage for every month and purchase 10% more for an extra allowance.

Being a negotiator taught me a lot actually. I had to negotiate with my men to give them incentives to complete the job. Also, since I was a much lower rank than most of them, I had to give them the respect that their rank commanded. This involved understanding the office politics and being able to quickly differentiate the nice and responsible people from the mean and irresponsible ones. Of course, the main objective was simple: seek out the nice and responsible people and steer clear of the mean and irresponsible ones as they would usually turn in poor work.

Tallying up the balances of the POL every month taught me to be meticulous. While the job seems like a really mundane one, a lot of focus needs to be given because once a single entry is missed, the entire account will not balance out and I would have to retrace my steps and redo the spreadsheet. Ultimately, while I did not gain any technical skills from this hybrid job, I learned how to quickly sum a person up and categorize him. This was perhaps the most useful skill I gained from the army.