The Richest Man in Babylon

About ten years ago, I read a very interesting investment book titled The Richest Man in Babylon. It is one of the sources where the book Rich Dad Poor Dad written by Robert Kiyosaki is based on. I was dissatisfied with the book written by Mr Kiyosaki. Therefore, I look for the sources. To my surprise, The Richest Man in Babylon gives me more clarity, new insights and inspiration. No wonder the book is one of the top five main references in personal financial growth.

After reading the book, I realised I should spread the knowledge to Malaysia's population and as many as possible. But I suspected not many people will be able to 100% understand the written English language especially to the younger generation. Thus, I decided to do the translation into Malay language. Those who are interested to get the book preview can go to this link. The filename is MANUSIA TERKAYA DI BABYLON 2017 - Mukahdimah v2. If you are interested to get the full version, you can email to me at zulfakar@gmail.com.

One of the most important topic in the book is to pay attention to secure your wealth. Many people become poor or fail to have personal wealth growth because they are easily being manipulated to throw away their wealth. They are unaware that most of their expenditure are misguided especially today there are so many subtle advertisement on spending the money unwisely, quick rich scheme, and mismanagement on the long term plan.

Those who have not read this book, I strongly recommend to read it at least three times!

Teaching Chess for Primary School

I have been requested to train the chess team from Sekolah Kebangsaan Taman Universiti 4. As part of my social works, I accepted the job. The school has a bunch of talented students. However, they lack of practise and theoretical exposure.

There are two or three students who are quick study. But, we have limited time to prepare for the tournament. Two weeks before the tournament day, we spent almost every day to practise. In addition, I spent one of my weekends to teach them.

The girl's team has limited number of members. So, I asked for the juniors to attend.

Meanwhile, one of my daughter took part in the tournament in secondary school section. She won the 10th prize. She could do better if she was willing to spend more time to learn and practise.

House for Rent at Bandar Seri Alam

A terrace house for rent at the location below:
1. Address:
    No. 53, Jalan Gunung 8,
    Bandar Seri Alam,
    81750 Pasir Gudang,
    Johor
2. GPS Location: 1.5094316,103.8615301
3. Strategically close to UiTM, UniKL, International Schools and shopping complex (Tesco, Today's Market etc.)

Dimension: 22' X 70'
1 and half storey
3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms (1 bedroom and 1 bathroom on the ground floor while 2 bathrooms and 2 bathrooms on the top floor)

The internal of the house:

 The main door

 The main hall

The main hall and window

The main hall to the upper level

The kitchen with large room

The large space in the kitchen

The kitchen with table top

The bedroom in ground floor

There is also large space on the right of the kitchen 

The extra space on the right of the kitchen

The extra space

 The main hall from the kitchen

 The main door from the kitchen. The store room is on the right.

 The main hall on the left

The stair

The stair to upper level

The hall on the upper level

 The right room on the upper level

The right room on the upper level also includes its own bathroom

The master bedroom on the left at upper level

The master bedroom on the left at upper level with bathroom

The master bedroom on the left at upper level with bathroom

The hall at upper level from inside the master bedroom

Banana Tree Bearing Fruit

After more than a year, one of my banana trees is already bearing fruit. It is kapas banana or loosely translated to cotton banana.  My daughter is very excited as shown in the picture. I also planted horn banana (pisang tanduk) and gold banana (pisang emas) at the same time. It looks like cotton banana is the easiest to adapt to the new land.

The banana fruit has five sikat (a group of banana at the same level). It will be a while before the fruit can be harvested. After a few weeks, the heart (jantung) does not produce any more new banana sikat. So, I cut the heart, and let the horn dried for a few minutes. Then, the horn was boiled and ate with a special gravy made from fried peanuts. Some people complain the cotton banana boiled horn is bitter. But, my wife cook is delicious! The good news is there are many 2nd generation of banana trees surrounding the main cotton banana tree.

Meanwhile, I have successfully planted 4 tapioca trees.  Three out of four survives and grow well. One of the tapioca tree branch was broken. So, I used the broken branch to plant it in the one hole which was not successfully grew before. Now, I have 4 tapioca trees.

What do I learn from my gardening? Diversity is important to ensure continuous food supply. I should also do so in property investment. So far, I have been focusing on investment of houses, shop lots and land. I should window shopping more on other type of property. It is a matter of looking for a new opportunity.