Lomba Blog Depok - Top 10 -

Tulisan yang sama, dalam Bahasa Indonesia

I didn't make it to the TOP 10! But I'm not disappointed at all because through this event, I have met many great bloggers and it means so much more to me than winning the competition.. :-)

However.. Mother made it to the TOP 10! And she is rounding everyone up to vote for her.. well, I AM rounding everyone up to vote for her.. ;-)

Don't vote blindly.. Go to her BLOG

and read her POST that is in the TOP 10..

Then, you can VOTE for her in the competition website.

Mother's post being competed under the group 'IBU RUMAH TANGGA' and her post title is "B.H. Yess." It is shown like this on the voting list:

http://binmas.blogspot.com/2010/02/blog-post.html 

By voting for mother's post, you are not only supporting her to win the competition, but also supporting the activities of the Senior Citizens Group 'Dahlia Senja.' Mother always posts activities of the group on the blog. So far, the blog has intrigued the interests of the local government and elderly care support organization. Your visit will spread the interests further and hopefully will bring new and brighter future of elderly care program in our country.

Happy voting!

Indonesia Visit Museum Year 2010

Yes, that's right. This year is Indonesia Visit Museum Year.

It just happened that our sons, Ariq and Aza love going to the museums. There are a lot of museums in Indonesia, you can always start your museum journal with the ones located in your city.

We visited four museums last week and here is the journal of our visit to the first two; The National Museum and The Museum of Jakarta History.

If you are worried that your children will be bored during the visit, you can rest assured that they will not! Children WILL have fun with everything they experience. It always amazes me how my sons are having great times at the museums, as if they were having a field day at Timezone.. ;-)

Here is the link to our journal..  Museum Visit.. :-)

Just tell me, Mum!

This story was the first time I realized that children were not to be underestimated.. They are as human as we are -adults-, and we learn from them as much as they learn from us. So, we should start listening to them..

I never try to pretend otherwise.. I'm just a regular woman, with all my emotional ways in handling things.. I tend to talk 'too much' when I find my children do something 'unacceptable' -trying to make sure they know that whatever they were doing was not good, and they shouldn't do it again-.

Repeating warnings and advices are never good, especially for children. I heard it often enough, said by experts of children education. However, trying to stop talking when I'm already 'ignited' is not easy.. It was like being torn into two.. Have the children understood of what is expected of them? Alternatively, are they just plain bored listening to me?
I just wanted to make sure that my children would NEVER do the same mistake again.. but I was proven wrong when one day, my 5-year-old talked back in a casual tone, during my steamy 'explaining' of his mistake..

"Mum, whenever you are talking fast and a lot, like this, I don't understand what you are saying. Can you just tell me what it is you want me to do, and I'll do it?"

All in a sudden I lost my words. I closed my mouth and looked at him. He repeated his words, "I mean it, Mum. I don't understand. All I hear is noisy sound coming from you. Just tell me what I have to do."

So many times I heard the advice to talk short and clear sentences to children. So many times I heard the advice to 'direct' children towards what they CAN do, rather than 'forbid' them to do what they CANNOT do. It was not easy to do.. until that time.. when I heard it from my son, in his 'language'..
I never thought that I would hear it coming from a little child.. my own son.. and he was only 5 years old at that time! I didn't have to guess, it must have taken all his courage to say it to me.. Suddenly, I felt something different in me.. a feeling of RESPECT to my son, for saying this difficult thing to me, which opened my mind..

So, I made up my mind to try new ways of communicating with my children..

Was I successful? Well, it didn't happen overnight, but I managed to 'cut myself out' whenever I saw a hint of boredom in my sons' faces during my 'speech.'

Lately, I still remind my sons, to stop whatever mischief they are doing, as soon as I tell them to stop. They can ask me why they can't do it after they have stopped doing it. If they don't stop right away, I might get angry and when it happens, it's hard for me to stop talking.. and they will be tired of listening..

Children will always be children.. and.. I will always be me.. but now, we are in a better understanding. I have learned to talk in shorter sentences to my children -most of the time-, and when I forget, they have learned that they are allowed to say to me, "You're making buzzing sound, Mum! Just tell me what I need to do!"

'Me-Time'

I'm writing this article in Indonesian. For my English-speaking readers, you can find many interesting and useful articles and tips about 'Me-Time' in About.com. Here is a link to one of the great articles in the website, and this one is an article where my comment was published (yes, I'm happy about it!)

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Akhir-akhir ini saya banyak membaca artikel tentang 'Me-Time' untuk ibu rumah tangga.. Juga ada teman yang curhat tentang kurangnya 24 jam dalam sehari untuk bisa punya waktu untuk diri sendiri.. Saya jadi terpikir untuk menuliskan pengalaman saya waktu ikut suami tugas di luar negri dan pembantu hanya datang beberapa jam saja setiap 2-3 hari sekali..

Betapa berharganya 'Me-Time' yang awalnya saya kenal dari suami hanya sebagai satu selingan yang menyenangkan..

Begini ceritanya..

Bangun tidur langsung masukin baju kotor ke mesin cuci.. Sambil nunggu cucian selesai, nyiapin sarapan dan nyuapin si kecil sarapan.. Setelah suami berangkat kerja, mandiin si kecil, jemur cucian, bersih-bersih dapur dan rumah.. dst.. dst.. -terbayang 'kan?.. daripada saya tulis satu-persatu kegiatan saya dari pagi sampai malam..-

Misalnyapun saat itu ada pembantu dan pengasuh anak, tetap aja selalu ada yang harus dikerjakan.. terutama, main dengan anak-anak -bagian dari kehidupan ibu rumah tangga yang saya paling suka-. Intinya, tidak terbayangkan untuk bisa meninggalkan rumah untuk waktu yang lama.

Tiba-tiba saja, pada suatu akhir pekan, suami bilang, "Kemarin, May, adiknya Jeff baru datang dan minta ditemani cari baju. Sekalian kalau kamu mau belanja atau jalan-jalan."

Reaksi pertama saya, "Nanti si kecil berulah gak ya dibawa belanja gitu?"

Suami saya menjawab tenang, "Jangan dibawalah.. Dia biar di rumah sama saya. Kamu aja jalan-jalan.. refreshing.."

Ha?? Jalan-jalan? Refreshing? Ninggalin anak, ninggalin suami, ninggalin rumah.. kok aneh?! Saya 'kan ibu rumah tangga.. kenapa jadi jalan-jalan dan refreshing??!!

Suami saya kayaknya sadar kalau saya bingung. Dia langsung bilang, "Kamu perlu keluar rumah. Ganti suasana supaya tidak jenuh. Sekarang belanja, kapan-kapan nanti ke salon, pokoknya keluar rumah sendiri atau sama teman."

Hmm.. saya pikir-pikir seru juga kali ya.. Akhirnya, saya pergi menemani adiknya teman kantor suami yang baru datang itu. Seharian itu saya merasa senang. Saya jalan-jalan dengan seorang teman yang sama-sama perempuan dan karena saya sudah agak lebih lama tinggal di kota tersebut, saya bisa membantu May mengenalkan tempat-tempat yang mungkin ia perlukan di kemudian hari, seperti pasar, supermarket, dll.

Waktu pulang ke rumah, anak saya cerita kalau ia dan ayahnya makan ayam goreng -seperti KFC gitu- dan mereka main game PS. Rumah lumayan berantakan dan pakaian kotor masih menumpuk.. Hiyaaaa.. mau pingsan rasanya!

Belum sempat pingsan, suami sudah senyum-senyum lagi, "Itu masih ada nasi dan ayam di meja. Nanti malam gak usah masak, nanti kita beli take-away aja."

Saya ngangguk-ngangguk pasrah.. hati memang senang, tapi kaki pegal setelah jalan seharian.. hehehe...

Sambil saya main-main di kamar dengan si kecil, tiba-tiba saya mendengar bunyi mendengung dari arah dapur. Ternyata suami saya mulai mencuci pakaian. Saya cepat berkata, "Besok aja saya cuci, sekarang cape banget."

Suami saya tertawa, "Saya sih gak cape, tadi 'kan cuma main seharian, tapi saya gak bisa seperti kamu, sambil main, sambil nyuci, sambil bersih-bersih. Tapi tenaanngg.. abis ini semua cucian nanti saya jemur, besok kamu tinggal nyetrika."

Saya jadi ikut tertawa. Benar juga.. mencuci dengan mesin cuci sebenarnya tidak melelahkan hanya makan waktu saja. Menjemur pakaian juga ternyata suami saya bisa mengerjakan dengan lebih cepat.. mungkin karena tenaganya lebih besar? Atau mungkin karena saat menjemur dia tidak sambil nyuapin anak atau nungguin masakan matang? Hmm..

Itulah pertama kalinya saya berkenalan dengan 'Me-Time'.. waktu untuk SAYA.. ganti suasana dari rumah ke luar rumah.

Waktu itu, saya tidak terlalu memikirkan seberapa pentingnya 'Me-Time' itu. Baru akhir-akhir ini saya jadi tersadar betapa sesuatu yang begitu sederhana itu sesungguhnya sangat penting. Memang yang sering dibicarakan adalah 'Me-Time' untuk ibu rumah tangga, tapi sesungguhnya semua orang perlu 'Me-Time', yang intinya adalah keluar dari rutinitas -melakukan sesuatu untuk menyenangkan diri sendiri- agar tidak jenuh.

Sekarang, saya sudah terbiasa dengan 'Me-Time' dan saya mulai bisa mengenali tanda-tanda saat saya memerlukan 'Me-Time'. Tanda yang paling jelas adalah, pekerjaan yang sangat sederhanapun bisa terasa amat sangat melelahkan dan kejadian yang biasanya bisa membuat saya tertawa, tiba-tiba saja terasa membosankan atau bahkan mengesalkan.

Berhubung sekarang saya sudah berada di tanah air, 'Me-Time' saya pun jadi lebih bervariasi, tapi perencanaannya harus lebih rapi karena suami saya perlu 'Me-Time' lebih daripada waktu kami di luar negri dulu -berangkat dan pulang kantor naik motor kena asap jalanan sudah cukup untuk membuat setiap pekerja memerlukan 'Me-Time'-.

Langkah awal yang kami ambil adalah mengajarkan anak-anak bahwa tidak setiap saat kita pergi sekeluarga.

Ada saatnya Ibu atau Bapak pergi sendiri, ada saatnya Ibu dan/atau Bapak menemani anak yang punya keperluan sementara anak yang lain tinggal di rumah, ada saatnya Ibu dan Bapak harus pergi berdua sementara anak-anak tinggal di rumah, dan nanti, ada saatnya anak-anak pergi sendiri tanpa Ibu dan Bapak.

Awalnya anak-anak bingung. Anak saya yang tertua -waktu itu umurnya 6 tahun- bilang, "Aku gak mau pergi sendiri, aku mau selalu pergi sama Ibu."

Suami saya tertawa, "Sekarang kamu senang pergi sama Ibu. Coba aja beberapa tahun lagi.."

Anak saya bertanya lagi, "Memangnya aku boleh pergi sendiri?"

Suami saya menjawab cepat, "Sekarang belum boleh, tapi beberapa tahun lagi, kamu juga gak akan suka pergi sama Ibu atau Bapak."

Anak saya diam. Dia belum sepenuhnya mengerti. Tapi, setelah beberapa kali ditinggal dan diberikan kegiatan alternatif, seperti ekstra waktu untuk main game, atau beraktifitas dengan nenek/kakeknya, akhirnya anak-anak mulai mengerti bahwa merekapun harus punya 'Me-Time'.

Setelah beberapa waktu, anak-anak mulai terbiasa dengan konsep ini. Itu berarti saatnya untuk langkah berikutnya, yaitu mengenali diri sendiri dan keluarga kita.

Pada saat kita terbiasa dengan 'Me-Time,' kita akan lebih mengenali apa saja kegiatan yang kita anggap menyenangkan. Di samping itu, kita mulai bisa melihat kegiatan apa saja yang disukai oleh pasangan dan anak-anak kita. Seringkali di antara kegiatan-kegiatan itu ada yang mirip atau sama dan dari situ kita bisa sesekali mengadakan kegiatan bersama -tapi jangan terlalu sering.. kalau terlalu sering tidak jadi 'Me-Time' lagi nanti-.

Jangan lupa bahwa menjadi bagian dari satu kelompok -di rumah maupun di tempat kerja- tidaklah menjadikan kita kehilangan identitas pribadi. Kita tetap memiliki kepribadian unik yang terdiri dari rasa, minat dan bakat yang seharusnya terus kita pelihara sebagai satu pribadi yang utuh.

Diskusikanlah 'Me-Time' ini dengan pasangan dan anak-anak -kalau mereka sudah dapat diajak diskusi- kemudian mulailah lakukan. Jangan tunggu sampai salah satu anggota keluarga terlanjur merasa terlalu jenuh untuk mencoba hal-hal baru.

Selamat ber-'Me-Time' dan 'Having a Great Time'

10 Tips Berhemat di Supermarket (original source in English)

The original source of this article is/Judul asli artikel ini adalah '10 Tips on How to Save at The Grocery Store'

Kenyamanan dan kelengkapan pilihan di supermarket sering membuat perasaan kita terbagi dua, senang dan takut untuk berbelanja di supermarket.

Senang, karena dengan satu kali kunjungan kita bisa mendapatkan semua (atau paling tidak sebagian besar) barang yang kita perlukan dan kita tidak perlu terlalu khawatir untuk membawa anak-anak saat berbelanja.

Takut, karena banyaknya pilihan seringkali membuat daftar 'keperluan' kita berkembang jauh melebihi yang kita rencanakan di rumah!

Berikut ini, ada beberapa tips yang saya ambil dari artikel di atas, dan saya coba sesuaikan dengan situasi di Indonesia saat ini, agar kegiatan belanja kita di supermarket lebih terasa menyenangkan daripada menakutkan..

1. Hindari supermarket premium (importir)

Perhatikan sekitar kita. Banyak jenis supermarket dengan variasi produk yang sangat luas. Kita tidak perlu terpaku dengan 'mengharuskan' diri berbelanja ke supermarket papan atas.

Supermarket standar seringkali memiliki pilihan produk yang lebih sesuai dengan kebutuhan kita sehari-hari, termasuk bahan-bahan segar yang dipasok (hampir) setiap hari (ayam, daging, ikan, sayuran, dll.)

Supermarket papan atas seringkali membebankan biaya produk impor mereka ke produk-produk lokal untuk menekan harga produk impor mereka. Hasilnya, kita harus membayar lebih tinggi untuk produk-produk yang bisa kita dapatkan dengan harga lebih murah di supermarket standar.


2. Hindari membeli produk setengah jadi

Sekarang ini, supermarket di tanah air mulai menawarkan produk makanan matang atau setengah jadi seperti di luar negri.

Sesekali mencicipi mungkin tak masalah, atau kalau kita memang sedang sibuk dan tak sempat memasak di rumah. Namun untuk jangka panjang, produk setengah jadi ini sebenarnya sudah memuat biaya bumbu dan proses dan markup (profit) yang membuat harganya berbeda jauh dengan apabila kita membeli bahan mentahnya dan membumbui serta memasak sendiri di rumah.


3. Hindari membeli produk yang sudah dikupas/dipotong

Buah-buahan dan sayur-sayuran yang sudah dikupas atau dipotong sudah memuat biaya pengupasan/pemotongan di dalam harganya. Seringkali, kenaikan harga karena 'proses' ini cukup tinggi dan mengakibatkan ekstra pengeluaran yang tidak perlu.

Kalau sulit menemukan sayuran atau buah yang diinginkan yang belum dikupas/dipotong di supermarket, ada baiknya mempertimbangkan untuk membeli di warung atau tukang buah.


4. Membeli dalam jumlah banyak

Untuk produk-produk yang memang rutin dipakai di rumah, selalu pertimbangkan untuk membeli dalam jumlah besar sekaligus (untuk 2 minggu atau 1 bulan). Harga kemasan dan biaya produksi biasanya tidak berbeda untuk setiap produk yang menyebabkan produk-produk dalam satuan lebih kecil akan memiliki harga lebih tinggi (secara prosentase) dibanding harga produk satuan besar.

Contohnya, membeli 1 kemasan minyak goreng 2 liter akan lebih murah daripada membeli 2 kemasan minyak goreng 1 liter. Karena biaya kemasan dan produksi minyak goreng 1 liter dan 2 liter sebenarnya sama, membeli 2 kemasan 1 liter, kita membayar untuk 2 kemasan dan 2 kali produksi. Sementara membeli 1 kemasan 2 liter, kita membayar untuk 1 kemasan dan 1 kali produksi.

Tips ini juga berlaku untuk produk-produk seperti; butter dan selai (ada yang kemasan besar, ada yang kemasan kecil-kecil seperti di hotel).


5. Hindari membeli air kemasan

Kalau tidak terlalu diperlukan, tidak usah membeli air kemasan, apalagi selain yang ukuran galon. Harga airnya sendiri tidak seberapa, namun kita harus membayar jauh lebih besar untuk setiap kemasan yang kita beli.

Jangan lupa juga, setiap kemasan plastik yang kita beli juga merupakan tambahan limbah plastik bagi bumi kita.

Kalau memang diperlukan untuk keperluan minum di rumah atau di jalan, lebih baik membeli air kemasan galon dan sebuah botol air minum yang cukup besar (750ml. atau 1.000ml.). Botol galon akan di-recycle oleh perusahaan air minum, sementara botol air minum yang baik akan bertahan lama untuk pemakaian sehari-hari kita. Pada akhirnya, kita akan berhemat dari membeli kemasan-kemasan botol PET yang sesungguhnya hanya akan menjadi limbah saja.


6. Jangan terpaku pada merek

Di masa sekarang ini, merek-merek baru di berbagai produk kerap bermunculan dengan harga yang bersaing dan kualitas serta rasa yang tidak kalah dengan produk-produk yang sudah kita kenal lama.

Produk lokal juga sangat banyak yang sudah sukses melalui program pendampingan dari produsen-produsen handal internasional, sehingga kualitasnya terjamin dan rasanya tak kalah dengan produk impor.

Bertahanlah dengan produk/merek papan atas yang biasa dikonsumsi, hanya bila memang selera keluarga tidak tergantikan oleh produk lain, daripada produk (baru) yang sudah dibeli tidak habis dikonsumsi.


7. Perhatikan musim

Salah satu keuntungan berbelanja di supermarket dibandingkan dengan berbelanja di pasar tradisional (mungkin) adalah tersedianya produk-produk yang sedang 'tidak musim' (terutama buah-buahan).

Sah-sah saja kalau kita memang sengaja mencari produk-produk yang sedang 'tidak musim' tersebut dan bersedia membayar lebih tinggi karena memerlukannya. Namun demikian, kita perlu selalu mencermati musim yang sedang berlangsung di sekitar kita untuk keperluan berbelanja sehari-hari.

Produk-produk yang sedang 'musim' pastilah sedang panen dan itu berarti harganya lebih murah daripada kalau sedang 'tidak musim'.


8. Memasak bersama

Seringkali kita tinggal tidak sendirian. Entah kita tinggal dengan orang tua/keluarga, atau bersama-sama beberapa teman di rumah kontrakan/kos.

Ada baiknya bila memang kita bisa berbelanja dan memasak bersama-sama dengan orang-orang lain, karena seringkali apa yang kita beli dari supermarket tidak akan seluruhnya kita perlukan untuk diri kita sendiri.

Berbelanja dan memasak bersama (kalau seleranya kebetulan sama/mirip) akan sangat membantu usaha kita untuk berhemat dalam berbelanja di supermarket.


9. Perhatikan kupon hadiah dan penawaran dari supermarket

Sekarang ini banyak sekali penawaran diskon dari supermarket dan produsen-produsen. Ada yang berbentuk kupon, hadiah produk dan diskon langsung. Supermarket juga selalu menurunkan harga untuk barang-barang yang sudah mendekati masa kadaluarsa tapi masih aman untuk dikonsumsi.

Ambillah brosur/selebaran supermarket sebelum mulai berbelanja dan perhatikan penawaran apa yang mereka miliki hari itu atau tanyakan pada 'customer service'.


10. Menganalisa berbagai supermarket

Tersedinya berbagai pilihan supermarket di sekitar kita memberikan kita satu kesempatan yang baik untuk bisa meneliti dan menganalisa, yang mana yang paling cocok dengan pilihan selera dan keuangan kita.

Simpanlah bukti belanja untuk dipelajari di rumah. Supermarket mana yang menawarkan harga-harga lebih murah dan supermarket mana yang memiliki paling banyak produk yang sesuai dengan keperluan/selera kita. Pertimbangkan juga jarak masing-masing supermarket dari rumah dan biaya yang perlu dikeluarkan untuk mencapai supermarket tersebut.

Buatlah catatan untuk jadwal belanja berikutnya. Jangan lupa juga untuk mencatat produk apa yang sebaiknya dibeli di pasar atau warung dekat rumah.

Catatan:
berbagi jalur supermarket dengan teman/keluarga/tetangga juga dapat menghemat biaya transportasi, agar kita tidak perlu mendatangi tiap supermarket untuk mendapatkan semua keperluan kita.


Semoga artikel ini bisa bermanfaat.. ;-)


Disarikan dan diterjemahkan dari LearnVest Living

Interesting articles..

Knowledge can be found every where.. and we should never stop looking for it..

Is it an excuse I am using to stop writing my own articles and start translating others' to post in this blog?

Absolutely NOT!

The truth is.. I come across interesting blog posts written by other writers every day.. and some of those articles are discussing interesting (and important) topics that never come across my mind..

Therefore, I believe that I should share it with all of you.

Whenever I post a translated article, I will always properly cite the relevant sources for the articles that I translate, so that all readers can benefit from the articles. However, I will be honest from this point, that I will not translate the original article per word.. instead, I will take parts of the article which are relevant to the situations in Indonesia.

As always, I look forward your comments and suggestions to improve this blog..

Thank you and have a nice day :-)

Credit Card Tips (2)

I was planning on continuing my post about insurance, but I decided I should not bore you with the same topic in the same week ;-)

So, I will talk about credit card in this post, and continue the insurance discussion next week.

Last week I talked about how to manage credit card payments when you have a sudden need to make a large amount transaction.

This time, I will try to discuss some points that should have been put forward BEFORE the previous post..

The things that should be considered by individuals or families before deciding whether they need a credit card in their financial life..

Why should I have a credit card? My life is complicated enough without one!

This is a comment that I often hear and personally, I can't blame the people who are saying it! Credit card came into our world without the right 'first impression' and it ended up being used without the correct 'manual'..

The main ideas that people have about credit cards are:
1. you can buy the things you need/want now and worry about paying for it later,
2. the more you use it, the more 'bonus points' you will receive.. which you can exchange with various gifts when you have certain number of points, and,
3. you can have discounts at various places (supermarkets, restaurants, outlets, etc.)

Point number 1 is definitely the wrong idea, while points number 2 and 3, even though they are not wrong, still, these advertised purposes of credit cards ARE NOT the main purpose of credit cards! These are just the additional benefits of having a credit card..

The actual main purpose of credit card is TO BETTER MANAGE YOUR CASH FLOW because credit card:
1. has the ability to 'bridge' the timing difference between your salary pattern and spending pattern.
2. provides services that can assist your payment schedules
3. has the ability to provide a quick solution on emergency situations

So, why the banks (or other credit card issuers) never really advertised credit cards with their main purposes?

Well, isn't it obvious? It won't sell! People who have sufficient financial knowledge background probably have about half-a-dozen other alternatives that serve the same purposes with credit cards (financial managers, diversified financial portfolio, or even the simplest self-scheduled payment patterns, etc.) .. ;-)

However, for majority of people, credit card can still provide the personal 'cash flow management service' at a reasonable fee (the annual fee).

So, how does this work?

OK, let's take a look at this example..

Here is what a common family cash flow looks like

		Date Details 5 Electricity Bill 10 Grocery Shopping 15 Phone Bill 20 Insurance (annual) 25 Salary

So, the person must go to the Electricity Company by the 5th to pay the electricity bill,
then, take money from ATM to prepare for shopping on the 10th,
then, go to the Phone Company on the 15th, and,
organise the insurance payment on the 20th.

Some people are okay with this monthly routines (either having an assistant or having the time to do these themselves), but.. some others might not have the advantages of having an assistant or time (especially living in Jakarta, lining up to pay the electricity and phone bills can take half-a-day each).

Some other people choose to have a direct-debit bill payment, which is the bills will be paid directly from the person's bank account. This method works well for people who have a same/similar amount of routine expenses to pay every month and high discipline to set the money aside, untouched for billing at the planned time.

Now, for people who are struggling with schedules, paying some of these bills late will mean DISCONNECTION of services (I'm talking about electricity and phone), while other necessities that come in-between salaries might cause a slight 'shake' of cash flow during the month.

For these situations, credit card is a good option to choose. Once you have listed your monthly bills that you want to be paid through credit card, your credit card will always pay them on time and you will never be late in paying your important bills.

Nowadays, some banks offer the billing date options too for your credit card. You can choose whether you want to be billed on the 10th, 20th or 30th. You can ask your bank about this service and decide which date is better for you (depending on your salary date).

Now, you only need to take ONE trip to the ATM to pay the credit card bill and that's it!

The advantage of centralised billing is that you can easily track your spending trends and make future plans. You know how much you spend on your routine expenses (based on your credit card bill and statement) and you can make plans with the rest of your salary -for savings or holidays, etc.-..

Alright, that was about the 1st and 2nd main purposes of credit card. Now, we move to the 3rd main purpose.

Referring back to my previous post on credit card, it was clear that health treatment in a case of emergency can be arranged more easily with the presence of a credit card.

Most hospitals (especially private ones), require either a health insurance membership card or a credit card to prove that patient CAN cover for the health treatment provided by the hospital. Without either of these cards, patient can be held untreated for a long time! Certainly we do not want this to happen to ourselves or our loved ones..

Some credit card actually have hospital plans for hospital treatments or hospitalisation, where the total bill can be paid in installments; 3, 6, 9 or 12 months (or even longer periods of time). You should ask about this when you apply for a credit card.

Are there other important benefits of credit card?

Nowadays, credit card issuers must compete against others in providing better services to the credit card holders.

Most credit cards now have formed partnerships with various shops and outlets in providing planned purchase service. With this service, credit card holders can purchase goods without paying in full at the time of purchase, instead they can pay in installments over certain period of time.

What you need to remember is that, while this is a great way to purchase things that you need without shaking your cash flow too much in a certain month, you still need to be careful about:
1. the real necessity of the the goods you are purchasing
2. the amount of money that you will have to commit to pay each month until you have paid the goods in full.

Moreover, these planned purchases are sometimes accompanied by a small interest (although a lot of credit card now offers 0% interest for planned purchase). If this is the case, then you need to think it over, whether you should purchase the goods you need with your credit card, or just save up for a few months and purchase it with cash (the money you have saved).

When the goods you are purchasing are for your small/home business (equipments, inventory, etc.), then the small interest might still be worth it. But when it is for something that you will only use for leisure (home entertainment, etc.), then you might want to look around for alternatives before you make you purchasing decision.

The main idea that you need to remember is that credit card is there to provide simple financial management assistance to individual or families who need it, NOT to make your life more complicated.. :-)

Have a nice day!

Insurance.. Precaution? Investment? or.. Unnecessary Expense? (2)

First, I would like to apologize for the late posting of this post... :-)

Second, I will get right down to business. As promised, I will talk about insurance from clients' perspective.

What do I mean by that?

Well.. everybody (or family) has specific needs in life, driven by each person's unique situations, opportunities, objectives and choices.

While insurance, as a financial buffer, is simply one of the many financial strategies that can be applied, or added, to a person's (or family's) financial management as a part of the whole financial planning.

When it is carefully and correctly chosen and applied, it can be a great protection and additional investment in the future. However, when it is badly chosen, it can definitely cause further problems.

Hmm.. am I making any sense?

Let's see..

As I mentioned in my previous post about insurance, these days, insurance industry is getting more and more competitive and insurance companies need to make good offers to gain the interests of prospective clients. The most visible part of the competition is, how much return these insurance companies are capable and willing to give back to clients after years of contract.

At the same time..

Prospective clients need to recognize their financial situation as a whole to be able to make the best financial decision on how to structure their financial investment and how they should diversify it.

First, prospective clients need to make a list of properties, they need insurance cover for and for how long.

Second, they need to decide how much of the properties' values they would like to be covered for.

Third, these data need to be cross-calculated against the whole income and other financial strategies applied by the prospective clients or families.

Hmm.. I guess I should give a clear example..

It is something like this..

When you feel the need for an insurance in your family arises (for house, vehicle education or life), start looking around for the type of insurance that fits your needs. Remember to look for:

1. Combined packages: education+health, life+health, house+contents, vehicle+accidents, etc.

2. Additional benefits: how much cash benefit that you can receive from the investment part of the insurance package and after how long.

Then, cross-check it with your current financial situation:

1. How much of your current salary you are prepared to set aside for the insurance (after allocating for daily needs, routine payments and savings).

2. Make a list of dates which you would like to receive the benefits from the investment part of your insurance (children's school entrance payment due dates, family holiday final booking due dates, your retirement expectation year, etc.)

ASK the insurance agent to provide you with TWO or THREE possible choices of premiums that are likely to be met by your calculation.

Remember!

Insurance, even when it is combined with an investment plan, should NEVER be your only or main choice for investment.

Your personal or family investment should consist of a number of diversified choices, such as, savings, short-term and long-term time deposits and/or gold. If possible, properties or land and stock or share can also be considered.

The reason for this is..

Insurance is not savings, although it has an investment part of it. The premiums that you pay each year consist of two parts, insurance cover and investment benefit. Therefore, trying to achieve the full amount of your future needs from an insurance would cause you to pay a high premium, and there is almost no flexibility in regard to the timing of when you can withdraw your benefits.

What you should do..

Secure one-third to half of your future needs with an insurance+investment package, while at the same time, open a new savings account in your bank to achieve the remaining amount of that you aim for.

Whenever you have the enough amount in your saving account to open a time deposit, open one. Time deposit offers higher return than a savings account, so you will benefit more from your money.

Another alternative..

Banks also have programs called 'planned savings', which are aimed to reach a certain goal that you set for a time in the future; school entrance fee, holiday, etc. With this type of saving, the bank will withdraw a planned amount of money from your main account each month for the length of the saving plan.

Savings account, time deposits and planned savings account are good choices to diversify your financial investment (and its risks) and to complement your insurance+investment package.

A good combination of financial strategies applied to your investment can help you secure and grow your wealth for a long time. Not only you can plan your future well, you can also enjoy your life after retirement comfortably.

If you have any additional thought to add to this post, please fill in the comment form below.

Thank you for reading and have a nice day!

Insurance.. Precaution? Investment? or.. Unnecessary Expense? (1)

Yes, I know.. repetitive calls from insurance agents can be very annoying, especially when the calls are blind calls, and you are not considering taking insurance.. ;-)

However, what if you are thinking about having an insurance policy, but you feel that you don't know enough about it, and you are not sure how to decide about which type of insurance you should choose?

What we need to understand, to begin with, is that insurance is 'transferring part of our future risks to a third party (insurance company)'..

Why do I say 'part'? Because, we still have to pay a regular fee to the third party as a bind. This regular fee is known as a premium.

There are different types of risks that can be covered by insurance, some common examples are:
home/building against theft or fire,
vehicle (car/motorcycle) against theft, break down or accident,
health for hospitalisation or accident,
education for future plans, and
life in cases of accident or death.

There are also other types of insurance, but in this post, I will only discuss the common ones.

There are certain aspects that will be taken into consideration to decide the amount of premium we have to pay for the insurance we take, for instance:
total value of building and contents, in the case of building/home insurance,
age and make of vehicles, in the case of vehicle insurance
age and health condition, in the case of health and life insurance
age of child(ren) to be insured and how much to be collected at due date, in the case of education insurance.

All these aspects are explicitly stated in the insurance application form, and your insurance agent is able to explain in more detail if you need more information.

Once all your details are collected by the insurance agent, the agent can then tell you (based on the insurance company rule) how much premium you need to pay for each insurance period. Most insurance policies require annual (yearly) premium payments, while others, might present their calculation in an annual amount but allow clients (you) to pay in monthly or quarterly installments.

Referring back to the point where I mentioned that having insurance is 'transferring' part of risks to a third party is the only way to save you the shock of learning about the amount of premiums you have to pay for the insurance you need.

Insurance cannot cover any risks suffered by their clients, unless they accept enough money from clients to re-invest in other businesses to grow their profits. Insurance companies are businesses, and more than that, insurance companies are running a high-risk type of business.

Therefore, if the insurance company who approaches you offers a very low premium for a high coverage that you ask, BEWARE! You really need to check further any relevant details about the insurance company background!

However, in this era, with the strong competition in the insurance industry, insurance companies need to 'manage' their clients' expectation very well and make offers that can benefit their clients more.

This condition, resulted in various packages of insurance that do not only require premium payments by clients for insurance cover as a benefit, but also offer additional benefits, such as, retirement savings or investments.

How is it possible?

Here is how..Insurance companies, as a business entity, must ensure their ability to keep running and paying their clients' insurance covers whenever their clients claim it. At the same time, to stay competitive against other insurance companies, they have to keep the premium they offer as low as possible. Therefore, insurance companies must re-invest some of the money collected from their clients in other businesses after allocating the necessary amount to be placed in another insurance company, to insure their business.

The amount that insurance companies invest in other businesses is aimed to generate ongoing profits to support their main business, which is covering people's assets and lives (clients' insurance policy). From this operation, when successful, insurance companies can do a lot more than simply pay clients' claims. They can also offer some return to clients, at least to give back some (or all) premiums that have been paid by clients after a few years.

These types of packages give better offers when clients choose the long-term insurance policy (10 years or above). Some of the common packages are:

health insurance + retirement package, where you have to pay a premium for the health insurance until the age limit (usually around 55-60 years old), and you can collect the retirement benefits a few years after (usually between 75-90 years old). With this type of packages, you might still be covered for sickness or hospitalization up to the benefit collection age, although not all insurance has the same rules.

health insurance + education savings package,where you have to pay a premium for the health insurance until the age limit (usually around 55-60 years old), and you are entitled for some part of the total benefit payout when your children are entering new stage of education (entering elementary school, junior high school, senior high school and university).

The types of packages offered by each insurance company are different, so you should have a look at more than one company to find the one that suits you the best.

A new development of an insurance package is health insurance + unit link. This type of insurance is directly linked to a set of investment units (shares/stock) that are chosen by the insurance company's investment managers.

This type of insurance is riskier than the saving packages, although whenever the share market is going well, the unit link investment is going well too and clients can reap high profits from their investment linked to the insurance.

Why is it riskier?

Here is why.. by offering a unit link insurance policy, insurance companies are transferring back to clients, some of the risks they are facing when they are re-investing their funds to support their business. So, rather than offering a set amount of money, they will pay clients in later years, insurance companies offer clients the choice of having limited control over their wealth invested in the insurance companies. By doing this, insurance companies are limiting their loss, if the businesses they re-invest in suffer losses or even go bankrupt.

Clients having unit link insurance usually are not allowed to change the units (shares/stock) placements. However, they can choose how much (in percentage) of their premium to be allocated in the share market and/or money market. This gives clients some (limited) control over their money invested in the insurance company.

The fact that clients have some control, means that they need to be in a position to take decisions to protect their own wealth. Therefore,clients must have sufficient knowledge about financial markets and keep themselves up-to-date with any development in the financial market, in order to ensure the safety of their investment linked to their insurance policy.

Having discussed about various types of common investment policies, I hope this post can provide some useful information for any of you wondering about insurance.

I will discuss more about insurance from clients' perspective in my next post.

Have a nice day :-)

A quick observation..

In this post, I would like to put forward some thoughts to continue my previous post about specialisation in high school education.

At the end of 1st year senior high school, I was selected to be in a student exchange program. Ten students from my senior high school were sent to a private school in Australia to study there for one month. Upon our return, selected students from the Australian high school would come to our school also for one month.

During the exchange program, I learned about the different things about the 'school-life' of Australian and Indonesian students.

The most obvious difference was of course the moving-class system.. which we found tiring.. :-P

There was also a time when the student who was paired with me was not well for a couple of days, and for those days, I successfully got lost in-between classes..

The positive thing was, we realised that having a moving-class system, students can have more freedom and independence in deciding the subjects they want to specialise on.

At that time, we only thought that it was the main advantage of the moving-class system, but as I started university, I understood the bigger picture..

I had to face reality when I graduated from high school of not being able to enter national university. The differing opinions between my parents' and my own about which university I should choose led me to an 'unusual' path taken by a child in my extended family.

The national universities my parents asked me to take entrance exam to rarely accepted students from social-science stream into their Accounting faculty. As expected, I didn't pass the Math exam for one reason only.. I did not do 'Science Math' in high school.. which of course I didn't, since I chose social-science stream and I did 'Economic Math' instead (as prescribed by the curriculum)!

At the same time, I couldn't accept the offer from another national university, which accepted students from social-science stream into its Accounting faculty, because my parents considered the university was too far from Jakarta (with my final grades, I was entitled for school's endorsement for a place in a national university out of Jakarta -about 12 hours travel time- without entrance exam).

Having denied the chance to enter three national universities (with two being the closest ones to home), I had to consider private universities, which I managed to enter without difficulties.

However, the better option was still waiting for me..

When I was asked by my high school to deliver a talk about experience in studying in university, a few representatives from an Australian college were also there at my high school. They were introducing a new program for overseas students who wanted to study in Australian universities.

My English teacher quickly introduced us, and after a quick interview, the representatives decided that I was fit as a candidate and they would like to meet my parents to follow up the enrollment process.

Despite the distance between Indonesia and Australia, when I told my parents that I was accepted as a student in an Australian university, they quickly agreed! I was really glad about that.. :-)

Anyway.. this led to another observation about a different education system, compared to the one I was used to in my own country.

Once I started studying in Australia as a university student, I saw something interesting.. very interesting..

Some students were not only doing one degree at one time, but two.. Some of them were doing 'Commerce/Law', 'Law/Medicine', 'Agriculture Science/Economics', 'Accounting/Computing'.. etc. ..

Combinations that could not happen, with the way high school curriculum was structured in Indonesia at that time..

When I asked local students, how did they structure their high school subjects to be able to do that? They answered me that they discussed their interests and strength with their academic counselor to decide which subjects to take in high school, to enable them to pursue more than one major in university, so that they would have comparative advantage once they graduated from university.

WOW!

So, it was not only about moving-class system, but also an education system where students are treated individually, depending on their strengths and interests, so that they could achieve their highest potential in the future.

In Australian high schools, when students want to major in science, they can still take an elective subjects from social science area, such as, Economics, History, Anthropology, etc. Therefore, their observation and people skills are developing throughout high school years along with their scientific analysis skills.

Similar situation with the students who want to major in social-science, they can still take an elective from science area, such as, Science Math, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, etc. Therefore, their scientific analysis skills are also developing throughout high school years along with their observation and people skills.

This way, either side loses less than if the curriculum is strictly prescribed.. :-)

Moreover, students can have more options in their life later, long after they graduated from high school.

I am not saying that the Australian system in the perfect one, because each system would only best applied in respective country, after considering skills and knowledge in demand in each country. I am only saying that each country should really consider treating students as separate-entity from others, special in characteristics, interests and strengths. Because these students want different things in life.

These days, I have seen many positive developments in Indonesian education system. For one, specialisation is now only introduced in final year of high school. Therefore, students up to 2nd year (year 11) are doing the full set of high school subjects. I have to admit that on one hand, this might be a burden for some students, but on the other hand, it gives students wider options, as they would be studying both sides of streams for the whole 2nd year (in Indonesia, 2nd year of high school is where the study load is the heaviest , because half of 3rd year is focused for preparation for university).

The only consideration for both high school and university is to make their expectation gap narrower. High schools need to prepare their students to be up to the university's expectation, while universities need to make some adjustment programs available for high school students to catch up with subjects they did not have the chance to study in high school.

The example I learned from university system in Australia was that they have TAFE (Diploma programs) and Foundation program, where students can have one to two years preparation to enter university, if they lack a background subject. For example, a student whose major was in social science in high school, but he/she wants to study 'Computer Science'. The student can enter a TAFE or foundation program that offers science subjects, then, once he/she has the certificate of the program, the student can enter the university program he/she wants.

Indonesia also have diploma programs, but the structure is a little different from Australian TAFE. However, this is not the purpose of my post.. ;-)

Two, there have been many more technical school and colleges for students who are confident of what they want to pursue in life and want to focus from a young age. These schools and colleges are, in a way, a much better alternative to the 'science' and 'social-science' streams in high school.

The consideration for industries is to open as many options as possible for the technical schools and colleges graduates to pursue their career from the path they have chosen.

While the consideration for universities is that they should have a system where students from these technical schools and colleges can continue their education in university much later than high school graduates, if they choose to, considering that they already have the necessary background skills and experience needed for the degree pursued.

Three, students are now more proactive in searching for the skills and knowledge they need. It is evident by the existence of many out-of-school courses, such as, foreign languages, computer programs, arts, business and management, science clubs, etc., and the quantity of students enrolling in various programs offered by those course places.

In the future, if these course places can certify and guarantee the level of competency acquired by their students, then universities can also develop a system to take their certifications into consideration for students enrolling in their degree programs.

Learning is really a never-ending process in our life, including improving the education system itself..

I was just an average student in university, but throughout my study time in Australia, I saw so many Indonesian students excelled in their studies (in Indonesia and in Australia). It opened my eyes that with each step of improvement in Indonesian education system, the younger generations who are more critical in thinking and learning, will have far better chances in gaining a better future.. :-)

Go Indonesian Education!!

Specialisation of skills or limiting knowledge transfers..

People often say that education system every where in the world needs improvement.. lots of improvement.. Well, I can say that education system in Indonesia really needs lots of improvement.. It is currently going through a lot of changing as a process of trying to improve, and I hope each change will lead to a significant improvement.. :-)

One of the things I've noticed since I graduated from high school is the knowledge and skills gap between the students graduated from science stream and social-science stream in high school. This gap, in my personal opinion, is completely unnecessary and avoidable (at least to some degree).

This gap I'm talking about is probably felt by a lot of Indonesian high school graduates, but unknown to high school graduates in other countries.. This is because of the structure of senior high school curriculum in Indonesia.

In Indonesia, in 2nd year of senior high school -equivalent to year 11- (now from 3rd year of senior high school -equivalent to year 12-), students must choose whether they would like to take science stream or social-science stream. At a glance, this was a good thing, to help students focus on the areas they want to pursue in further education. However, their are downsides of this structure..

Both science stream and social-science stream are conducted as fixed-packages, where all subjects have been strictly prescribed by the Department of Education and there is no elective (either from the chosen stream or cross-stream).. Moreover, in national-standard schools, students stay in one particular classroom, where the teacher of the subjects will come to when the subjects take place. Therefore, it is impractical to have elective subjects.

This strict specialisation, at the end of the day, presents several problems.

The first problem, it forces students to have strict limitations in choosing the area they want to pursue in university.

In most cases, graduates of science stream are considered 'fit' to choose any area in university, including economics, accounting and finance, and social studies, having the strong mathematical-analytical skills.

At the same time, graduates of social-science stream are considered only 'fit' to choose areas related to humanities, social studies and languages.

Some universities do accept social-science stream graduates with good grades into their economics or accounting/finance faculties, but some others only accept science graduates, even though for a fact, economics and accounting are only taught in social-science stream (not in science stream).

The first problem leads to the second, where the structure misleads students in guiding them in choosing the right path in high school. A lot of students felt that it was safer for them to choose science stream if they are considering to do economics or accounting in university.

At the same time, students who decide to choose social-science stream (or are forced by the schools to take it) have to bear almost 'a life time' consequence, of being considered a '2nd class graduates' for not having the necessary scientific skills and knowledge. Of course in reality of life this mindset is questionable, but in academic world, this is causing a big problem!

The real situation is, which I see as the third problem, the gap between expectation and real competency level of university students and graduates.

Often, students are not satisfied with their own skills, ability and knowledge because of the lack of complete set of knowledge they need to have in pursuing their life.

On one hand, science stream graduates often feel that they are struggling in the 'management side' of working life. The struggle is hard in university for the ones end up choosing economics, accounting/finance or business/management at university level, and for the ones who choose the scientific areas in university, the struggle is felt once they enter working life.

On the other hand, social-science stream graduates often feel the frustration of not understanding the 'too-focused scientists/technical people' whom they have to work with in their every day life..

University is a learning place for people who have already gone past their crucial 'development' stage. Lecturers and tutors do not transfer mindset and psychological encouragement as much as school teachers because the learning stage of the students they teach are obviously different.

What we lack in learning at school level, CAN NEVER be replaced at university level or after!

It is a good thing that nowadays there are postgraduate business/management programs for employees from non-business background who are pursuing further career in management areas. However, the change of mindset is harder when we are already an adult and are used to a certain style of thinking structure for a long time, but at least there are ways to catch up with the lack of skills.

The final problem now is, for the social-science stream graduates, there are no postgraduate programs that offer science programs!

When I decided to choose social-science stream, not only I had to face opposition from the school and family -because I had the sufficient grades to enter science stream-, I also had to give up my favourite science subject, Chemistry.. and this meant for life..

Business degree graduates might excel in writing essays, conducting surveys, doing presentations and leading a discussion/meeting, but, whenever I read a research paper done by a science graduate, I can clearly see a difference!

Science stream graduates possess a highly structured thinking process that it is almost 'written on their faces'.. while social-science stream graduates are very open to 'open-ended' discussions..

There should be a balance in there somewhere to make sure that high school graduates are 'all round' people who are ready to take the challenge of the real world!

I believe that one subject.. just one subject.. from cross-stream can change this problem, -maybe not entirely, but at least to some extent-, to create a better life in Indonesia.

I try to imagine, if in science stream, students are given a chance to have a feel of the 'open-ended' mindset -conducting surveys, having open project discussion, calculating business budgets and marketing products- .. it might help them to understand the 'other side' of the their world.. Subjects like macro economics would definitely show science students how things in life often happen outside expectations and people need to be ready for those things..

Then, I try to imagine too, if social-science students are given a chance to take up one science subject by choice, -physiscs, biology or chemistry-.. it might help them (including me) in understanding the thinking process of scientists/technical people.. A careful, thorough and detailed observation is needed to complement the 'risk-taking' approach in business world..

I know that there are some students who are mature enough to understand their upcoming needs in future life and try to equip themselves with skills and knowledge they are not given by school, but in most cases, high school students -being children at final stage, if I may say-, still need assistance in preparing them to face their future and it is the adults' responsibility to provide them such skills and knowledge (by adults I mean, parents, teachers and Department of Education).

Providing a more balanced education is what education system in Indonesia needs to do -among other things-, and I would really love to see this come true in the future.. :-)

Have a nice day, everyone!

Is internet really better substitute for books?

I came across a very interesting blog post this morning from a website that I have been following for some time because the owner always presents thought-provoking ideas about life and useful information in the world of technology.

The post was written in Indonesian, but basically it was talking about how the ease of finding information on the internet has made people have less interest and diligence in reading books. The concern of this issue was that information found on the internet is mostly not in the same depth of analysis or width of knowledge as books.

I have to say that I agree with this opinion, although, I have to put forward a slightly varying opinion too.

As a stay-at-home mother, I often feel that the need to find information about various things is more important than learning about one or two major things at a great depth. The reason for this is because the knowledge that I need to acquire is mostly for satisfying my children's curiousity about every thing they come across with every day.

Children's thirst for knowledge is so challenging these days that mothers like me can never turn away from any kind of information, while time constraint in any typical days makes it almost impossible to pursue any particular interest at great depth (it is even difficult to finish reading a book in-between daily routines).

One thing I luckily experience though, my husband likes to read and he forwards to me the important information from the books he reads and he highlights the important points throughout reading. That way, when I do have the time to open the book to search for any information at greater depth, I can do it much faster and right on the spot.

Reading books is VERY IMPORTANT, even in this era of advanced technology. What more important is the spirit of knowledge building and sharing, knowing that after receiving that little bit of information from the internet, we should have the curiousity like our children to always know more, and once we do have the knowledge, to share it with others.

Internet is a great starting point to find any kind of information we need to know at any point of time, even in the tiniest second a stay-at-home mother can spare, however, the process should not stop there. The thirst of learning and love for reading that we have developed from our younger years should be nurtured and passed down to our children.

I know that this is not an easy thing to do, considering the amount of interactivity the internet offers which attract us (and our children) more than books, plus, prices of books are much higher than monthly internet connection, but this is a challenge we need to overcome. One of the ways is by having a spirit of knowledge sharing, which we should start within our own family.

I believe this is really one dream worth fighting for.. :-)

Girl films for boys??? Are you kidding???

Hmm.. I'm not!

This was a short conversation between Ariq and his classmates last year (when he was still in KG-B) during the home visit to our house..

"Everyone.. let's watch a film!" Ariq asked his friends to sit in front of the television.

"What is your favourite film?" One of his teacher asked.

"Do you have Ben10?" One of the boys asked.

"No, I don't." Ariq answered.

"What do you have?" One of the girls asked.

"Little Einsteins, My Little Ponies, Strawberry Shortcakes, Diego." Ariq answered again.

Then they decided to put 'Little Einsteins' on. The girls cheered, but of course half of the boys decided that the fish pond was more interesting.. ;-)

Of course this situation did not last forever.. about half a year after that, Ariq started to like Ben10, Transformers and other boys films..

About two weeks ago, he saw a trailer of 'Barbie and The Three Musketeers', and he asked me to buy the DVD for him, so I did.

It turned out that both Ariq and Aza like it.

I asked them why they like the movie, and they answered, "Four beautiful girls in pretty dresses, successfully taking down the bad guys!"

The impression that Aza had was even further, he was really touched with the scene when Corrine (Barbie) was hugging her mother before she left for Paris. During the scene, Aza suddenly hugged me.. :-)

I think back to the choices of girl films that I bought for Ariq, which he really liked.. 'Strawberry Shortcake: the episode when she went camping with her friends', 'Dora: the episode when she rescued the Prince', 'My Little Ponies: the episodes when the ponies helped the boy rescued the princess and the episode when they had to rescue some ponies from the evil circus'.. then I realised something, boys are boys no matter what, but as kids they need and want to see the whole picture of life..

Films like Ben10 and Transformers certainly interest boys with their 'power', 'heroic' and 'strength' sides of life, which are directly attached to all boys.. but, as human beings, boys need to see the other side of life too.. subconsciously, they want to see 'beauty', 'love' and 'colours' as part of their thinking and imagination process..

Boys most probably won't enjoy fairy tales like Cinderella or Snow White much, but they do enjoy other classics like Pinocchio. The same with current films, they might not like ALL Barbie, Strawberry Shortcake or My Little Ponies, but there are some ideas in those films that are not conveyed by boy films in general.

Some things that I notice from Ariq's questions make me sure that he needs to watch both types of movies.


These are some of his questions from watching Ben10:

"Mum, why Ben and Gwen are living with their grandpa instead of their own parents?"

"Mum, are Ben and Gwen friends or cousins? Why do they keep spilling ice cream on each others' head?"


These are some of his questions from watching Strawberry Shortcake:

"When we are camping, we don't need to be afraid, right Mum? Because the shadows are not ghosts.."

"Camping looks fun! Will I go on a camp one day?"


These are some of his questions from watching Barbie and The Three Musketeers:

"So, it's not only boys who can do moves like that, Mum?"

"Why wasn't she allowed to join the Musketeers? That's not fair!"


The ideas conveyed by each type of films are different and the objectives are different too..

I remember when I was younger, my sister and I used to watch boy films like Voltus-V, Kamen Rider, Power Rangers, etc. Watching those type of films gave us the motivation to be strong, and not afraid to face competition in life to become the best in what we liked to do.. also, we liked seeing the good-looking actors in the films (obviously..)

At the same time, we enjoyed watching the fairy tales too, because we liked how the princesses looked like, their dresses and their hairdo.. it all gave us the idea of how being beautiful, graceful and proper were supposed to be.

Yesterday I asked Ariq, "Do you tell your friends that you have the Barbie DVD at home?"

He answered, "The girls are excited, the boys are embarrassed, but I'm not worried! I like the movie."

Now, I can see that boys are just the same.. they can appreciate strength and beauty the same way at the same time if they are given the same chance to learn about both.. Moreover, I'm glad to see that Ariq is confident in doing what he likes despite his friends' opinions.. :-)

Credit Card Tips (1)

"Oh no! The credit card statement is here again! I couldn't pay it in full last month, and now, it seems that my bill hasn't gone down a bit at all!"

That's right! This exact situation has happened to a lot of people. One of the common reason is a family member gets sick and needs immediate medical attention. Fortunately you have a credit card on your name so your unwell relative can receive the needed treatment without delay.

The scary thing is, as can be guessed, THE BILL!! Nothing about medical treatment is cheap these days and not everyone (especially in countries like Indonesia) is covered by medical insurance. It is almost like a death trap.. if you don't pay, you don't get treatment, but if you pay, you might have to live in debt for the rest of your life..

Anyway, most people WILL and DO choose to live in debt rather than live with an illness for most people believe that money can be found easier when we are healthy.. that is true!

So, don't panic if you are forced to use your credit card (or even max it out) to help yourself or your family member in the case of medical emergency. The important points you need to keep in mind is:

1. Discuss the patient situation with the doctor
A thorough doctor analysis will help a lot in giving a good idea on the treatment needed by the patient and the budget needed.

2. Discuss it with someone else
Another family member or a friend to talk to will be able to give you a different opinion or complete your plan. The more options you have, the better decision you will make.

Some of the options worth considering are the hospital fees, specific treatments (might need transfers to another hospital), the number of specialists needed by the patient, routine medicines, etc.

The other thing to consider is, how many family members are prepared to help out with the bill, both short-term and long term.

3. Make a calculation
Once you have the complete information about the patient's treatment needs and the available budget, then you can set a rough payment plan to present to the other family members.

~~ In the case of long-term illness, points 1 to 3 should take place BEFORE the patient is taken to hospital. However, in the case of sudden illness, points 1 to 3 might take place AFTER your credit card is scanned for billing by the hospital, otherwise the hospital will not accept the patient for treatment. ~~

4. Following up with the payments
Whatever you decide to do, you will still have the billed amount by your credit card to pay. Some credit cards offer installments while others don't. In the case that your credit card doesn't offer installments, you need to be ready to pay some portion of the bill each month to make sure that the bill goes down (and NOT UP) the next month.

When you receive your credit card statement, you need to have a look at three things:
* Total of the bill
* Minimum payment
* Finance charge

Then, there are a few things you need to remember:

1. NEVER pay for minimum payment amount only, unless you are planning to pay the total bill in full BEFORE the bill due date!

2. ALWAYS pay before the bill due date

The reason for the first two tips is because any amount of the bill that is left unpaid after the bill due date WILL be charged an interest or finance charge in the next bill on top of your usage. These interest and charges will very quickly build up into your total bill amount.

3. You can USE THIS simple calculation to help you bring down your next bill (credit card interest in Indonesia is approximately 2.5%-3.5% per month, with cash withdrawal and late payment fees approximately 4%-6% per month):

First, add your minimum payment and finance charge (which most probably come up to around 15% of your total bill).

Second, add some portion of remaining bill to make up for an amount that is roughly around 20%-25% of your total bill (the more portion you can pay each time, the better).

Do this calculation for a few billing periods until you can see the downward pattern of your bill.

4. Try not to use your credit card until you have successfully brought down your total bill to a reasonable level (similar amounts to your regular bills -without the emergency case-). If you really have to use your credit card for some extra expenses, you need to be sure that you can pay these additional expense in full in the next bill (on top of the remaining bill).

These simple tips should help you from suffering a long-term and building up credit card bill as a result of an emergency spending.

I am not giving any tips in 'real' accounting calculations on purpose. I am only trying to share from past experience.. based on a little part of my education :-) .. In any case you would like a complete calculation or you need to set a payment schedule, you need to see a finance expert/finance manager to help you with it.

If you have any suggestions or advice to add, you are more than welcome to put it in the comment form..

Have a nice day!

Family Finance Tips

I have always meant to put simple family finance tips in this blog but so far I haven't and that is very bad of me.. So now, I will try to do the 'right thing'.. :-)

One of my excuses was that I was waiting for the 'more knowledgeable' author to start posting about finance in this blog, but as he is still swamped with other assignments (the real ones from work), I have to stay patient about his involved in this blog..

My other excuse is that I don't know how far I can help you, since my knowledge is widely based on personal experience, as I am not a finance practitioner -although I do have an accounting degree.

Anyway.. trying to help is always better than doing nothing, and I am confident that you will consult more than one party/source in the process of making a fully-informed decision so, here it comes.. my first family finance tips.. (more will be coming in the future).

Have a nice day!

Learning to Save at Timezone

What??? Learning to save from Timezone?? Are you joking??? The only thing happens in gaming arcade is spending money, not saving!

Calm down, parents.. :-)

First of all, I didn't say "Let's save at Timezone".. because obviously it's impossible! I only said "Learning to Save at Timezone".. why?? Because it is the perfect place to teach our children the concept of saving in the logic that children understand.

Second, I'm not trying to teach you anything, I'm writing this post mainly to share my own experience with my sons, Ariq and Aza. So far, I don't have any 'problems' with Timezone.. In fact, I sort of enjoy the place myself too.. ;-)

Now let me explain more clearly..

When I came back from Yemen with Ariq, the reality for me was, I was 3-month pregnant, away from my husband and I didn't drive! So, when any one of Ariq's grandparents was available, I could take him to the zoo, the beach, etc., but when I took Ariq out by myself, the mall was the safest option for me (close to home, easy access to transportation, variety of choices of food and kids' entertainment).

Ariq was 3 years old at that time..

After our first trip to the mall (and Timezone), I started thinking.. If I could not control Ariq's spending in the gaming arcade, and soon he wouldn't be my only child, it would become hard to keep up with 'family entertainment cost'!

Then, I noticed something interesting when we went to the mall during school holiday, at Timezone's entrance there was a big banner saying "100% credit on purchase over Rp 60.000,00" (about US$7.00). I found an idea that I really hope Ariq could understand.

I slowly said to Ariq, "Honey, Timezone is having a discount because it's school holiday."

Ariq looked excited, "Wow! That's good then. Can I play?"

I nodded, "Of course! I also have an idea. If I buy a lot of credit today, you can play here a few times without having to buy anymore for a long time."

Ariq looked confused, "How? How can I play without buying credit?"

I thought, Yesss! This is my chance! And I said to him, "If you obey me when I say that your credit for today is up, we will have enough credit to come here again next time."

Ariq did not totally understand, but I didn't want to confuse him more, so I made a quick calculation in my mind (each machine costs around Rp 2.500,00 -about US$0.20), 10 games would cost around Rp 25.000,00 and said to him, "You can play 10 games each time we come here."

He quickly agreed. Well, he was still very young at that time and there were very limited choice of games that he could play, so 10 games were enough to entertain him.

I started the 'alarm' once he had played 7 games, so he started choosing the ones he really, really liked. Then, we stopped and I started exiting the arcade. I took a quick chance to show him the credit reading (at the credit checking machine) and explained to him the balance. By then, he understood what I tried to explain to him when we entered the arcade.

Was the process complete just like that?

Of course not!

Kids are not computer program.. They are so much smarter than any AI!

The next time we went to Timezone, he negotiated after the 10th game, so I had to put a limit on the negotiation (I usually gave 1 or 2 extra, but no more that that!). There was also a couple of times when he was being difficult because he was already getting tired and sleepy, but being a child he insisted on playing instead of going home.. So, I had to be consistent and I got him home and later on made him promise not to behave like that again.

Once Ariq was older (about 5 years old), he also started to understand the concept of game tickets (the tickets he earned for playing games on the machines). He exchanged them for drinks and snacks after he was finished playing and kept the rest until he could exchange them for something else; school stationery or toys.

Ariq is now almost 7 years old and Aza is 3.5 years old. I don't have to struggle teaching Aza the concept of saving when we go to Timezone, Ariq has been telling Aza when they have to leave the arcade because their credit for the day is up. And of course, since Ariq is speaking in 'children language', his explanation is much easier for Aza to understand.. ;-)

When my husband came home and we went to Timezone together, he was worried about how much we would spend there. He almost fainted when I told him how much credit I purchased because there was a discount.. I asked him to watch the children after their 10th game.. and he was very surprised!

Ariq calmly asked me, "Credit for today is up?"

I nodded and answered, "Yes. Get your brother, please."

Ariq nodded and turned to Aza, "Aza, today's credit is up! Let's go!" And Aza followed Ariq out of the arcade.

My husband asked me, "How did you do that?"

When I told him my experience with Ariq four years ago, he asked me, "Wow! They understand it!"

I smiled and said to him, "Don't underestimate children! They are people, humans, just in smaller body.."

One little tip for parents when going to Timezone.. Play with your kids on the machines! One or two, if not all..

When they see you play, and you say that it's enough entertainment for you, it sort of gives them an idea that the same amount of entertainment should be enough for them too, or at least a signal that the end of their playing time at the arcade is coming up very soon.. I find this more effective in teaching my children not the be addicted to gaming arcade (rather than giving a strict time limit while watching them play).

Some options for parents: street basketball, rowing, hit the mouse, deer hunting, table-hockey, soft-play area (with younger children, where available).

So many things around us these days, which can either help or harm us, and it all depends on us how to perceive it. I used to come to Timezone with Ariq and found myself as the only mother playing there, but lately, I saw more and more mothers play with their kids there. I see it as a good thing (as a stay-at-home mother, I find playing with my kids at a gaming arcade is one good alternative of refreshing activity when we don't have much time to plan a proper outdoor/other activities).

What you need is a little calculation of how much you would like to spend in the arcade and how often you plan on going there. Then, discuss the concept with your spouse and children.

Don't forget to watch out for discount banners or offers from your credit cards or other sources.

Timezone is there to provide family entertainment, not to add to family stress.. :-P