Menjana Pendapatan dari Pelbagai Sumber

Ramai orang boleh menjawab apakah pekerjaan mereka. Tetapi persoalan akan menjadi lebih rumit untuk dijawab apabila ditanya apakah pekerjaan sambilan mereka.

a) Pekerjaan utama

b) Pekerjaan sampingan

c) Pekerjaan berdasarkan hobi

d) Pekerjaan berdasarkan hobi ke 2

e) Pekerjaan berdasarkan peluang segera

f) dan lain-lain

Ramai memberikan alasan mereka tiada pekerjaan sambil agar mereka boleh fokus kepada pekerjaan yang ada. Tetapi ramai yang tidak menyedari, ramai jutawan menjadi kaya kerana mereka mempunyai lebih satu pekerjaan atau lebih satu sumber pendapatan. Sesetengah pakar motivasi menceritakan seseorang jutawan memerlukan tujuh atau lebih sumber pendapatan. Atau lebih tepat, ramai jutawan menjadi kaya kerana mereka mempunyai pelbagai sumber pendapatan.

Di dalam keadaan ekonomi yang merundum, semakin ramai melakukan dua atau lebih kerja serentak untuk menambah pendapatan. Jika perancangan lebih awal dilakukan, pekerjaan kedua, ketiga dan seterusnya seharusnya membantu kualiti hidup. Sebaliknya, sekiranya pekerjaan sampingan cuba dikekalkan di sepanjang karrier, hanya musibah akan menanti anda. Melakukan pekerjaan sampingan yang sama hanya akan menyebabkan "Diminising return". Sebagai contoh, semasa saya baru menjadi pensyarah, pendapatan pensyarah sampingan adalah RM100 sejam. Selepas 20 tahun, pendapatan pensyarah sampingan masih tetap RM100. Saya memaksa diri berhenti mengajar secara sampingan semenjak 2014. Jadi, tenaga dan masa saya boleh digunakan untuk berehat, memikirkan strategi dan menjana pendapatan lebih tinggi dan berterusan.

Tetapi ramai tidak sedar ciri-ciri di dalam pelbagai sumber pendapatan sampingan.

1. Pelbagai sumber pendapatan bukan bermakna semuanya mesti dilakukan sepanjang masa. Jika anda mempunyai dua pekerjaan yang sentiasa mesti dilakukan sepanjang masa seperti pekerjaan dua shift sehari, anda harus bertanya kepada diri sendiri berapa lamakah anda sanggup bekerja selama dua shift dalam sehari? Setahun? 5 tahun? 10 tahun? sampai pencen? Anda bukan robot. Sila bangun dari tidur.

2. Setiap pendapatan sampingan mempunyai jangka hayat dan kewujudan waktu yang terhad. Oleh itu, sangat penting untuk merancang priority hidup anda. Sesetengah pendapatanan sampingan mempunyai waktu dan tempoh tertentu perlaksanaannya. Jika pendapatan sampingan hanya untuk kerja dua shift di kilang, kesibukan kilang juga bermusim.

3. Setiap pendapatan sampingan mempunyai faktor kesesuaian yang berlainan seperti:

   - seasonal seperti di atas

   - faktor umur: umur semakin tua menyebabkan sesetengah pekerjaan sampingan tidak sesuai, semasa umur muda lebih banyak pilihan pekerjaan berdasarkan tenaga dan masa yang banyak tetapi apabila usia meningkat pekerjaan sampingan berdasarkan pengalaman, ilmu dan masa yang sedikit menjadi keutamaan.

   - faktor keluarga: pekerjaan sampingan akan menyebabkan anda kekurangan masa untuk keluarga. Tetapi pekerjaan sampingan yang flexibel akan memberikan lebih banyak masa untuk keluarga seperti ejen insuran, ejen hartanah dan sebagainya.

   - perubahan ekonomi negara: setengah pekerjaan sampingan tumbuh seperti cendawan apabila ekonomi negara semakin rancak seperti ejen hartanah, ejen permohonan pinjaman, pendidikan dan sebagainya.

   - perubahan polisi negara atau syarikat: sesetengah syarikat tidak mahu terikat dengan pekerja-pekerja tambahan, sebaliknya pekerja kontrak atau separuh masa digunakan. Perubahan polisi negara juga membantu sesuatu pekerjaan akan bertambah peningkatan gaji seperti kemasukan buruh asing, pertumbuhan bidang ICT, semikonduktor dan sebagainya.

4. Pekerjaan sampingan yang mudah bertahan adalah pekerjaan yang berdasarkan minat

   - perkara sukar menjadi mudah kerana minat

   - perkara mudah tapi leceh tetap mudah jika minat

   - hobi yang berterusan sangat bagus jika boleh menjana pendapatan sampingan

   - sesetengah pendapatan sampingan memerlukan perancangan lebih awal atau persediaan awal

5. Senarai pekerjaan-pekerjaan dan pendapatan sampingan yang saya lakukan:

   i. (23 tahun) Pensyarah

  ii. (25) Penulis aturcara

 iii. (22) Consultant 

 iv. (10) Teaching and training part time

      - (stop) university: UTM, UTHM, UMP

      - (6 dan  sekarang jarang-jarang) training for companies: Kriptic Devices, Zal Computer, Kelab komputer sekolah

      - (lebih untuk kerja kebajikan) chess

      - kursus pendek: microcontroller, PLC, visual basic, IC Design 

  v. (8) Mengasaskan dua buah syarikat

 vi. (25) Menyewa rumah sejak 1998

vii. (14) Melabur hartanah melalui pembelian bangunan kedai

viii. (2) Tourist guide

 ix. (14) Palm oil plantation

  x. (5) Manpower supply

11. (15) Service repair

12. (15) Paperwork for tender, grants and operational setup

13. (20) Selling agent such as property, computer

14. (25) Software development

15. (4) Invest: bela lembu 

16. (3) Jual baja dan benih

17. (30) Melabur dalam ASN dan ASB

18. (10) Melabur dalam Bank Rakyat

19. Professional Chess player (4)

Nota: dalam kurungan adalah tempoh masa pelaksanaan, kebanyakan aktiviti bukan berterusan tetapi tempoh tahun aktiviti tersebut masih berlaku.

Semua ini tidak mungkin saya lakukan serentak atau berpanjangan bertahun-tahun. Jadi, rancang pekerjaan sampingan, pelaburan dan hobi anda untuk masa depan.

Happy New Year

It is still fresh to say a happy new year. I was exhausted during the last week of the year 2017 to compile my whole 2017 year works, and submit them in the online record. Most of the time, I forgot what have been done. Worst, it is difficult to find the proof for every work especially when they were done months ago. Some of them, I managed to print pdf file and store in my hard disk. But, most of the time, I was busy chasing to finish my tasks. When, we are busy, it is normal other tasks will also appear at the same time.

For 2018, I hope to do my work including my investment more systematic. In order to do that a better work planning is needed. I have to increase the usage of cloud computing and smartphone. It looks like my utilization of academic blog really help me to spread the information to relevant parties in a more efficient manner. Hence, in 2018, I should use the academic blog more frequently. For my personal blog, sometimes I have original idea to do my market survey and investment more effectively. But, this blog is shared to all viewers around the world. I need an alternative mechanism to share my ideas to those only essential.

Another thing, I must have a better planning for my academic, investment and business. They are all interrelated. As usual, one plan is not sufficient. I should have an alternative plan, and also a back up plan. To do this, I need to be in the zone of creativity, list all the possibilities that came into my mind, analyze the relationship, prioritize them, and focus the goals to be achieved. The most difficult part is ideas are not easily come by when you need it. So, you should appreciate the sources wherever you can get any idea.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A house an investment worth to die for

Last week was eventful with shopping campaigns. Some people were willing to queue for days in order to buy not necessity stuffs such as branded smartphone, clothes, shoes etc.

It was a joyful moment for these people as stated below.

In some places, there were incidences where people fight to buy and or fall sick while buying.

If you want a more detail analysis of black friday violence, you can read it here.

Now, how much are you willing to fight, queue and sacrifice to buy a house or invest in a property for your future?

But for sure looking at the sales figure, during these Black Friday, a handful of people become millionaires and billionaires. And definitely, they are not those buyers:

For me, it is the best and cheap entertainment for me to watch idiots fulfilling their desire!

Work harder to settle loans or just laid back and blame the economy

I used to believe loans are bad for personal use. Once a loan was made, I felt happy for a while since my objective to acquire things have been achieved. After a few months, the burden to pay the monthly installment will kick in. I will lost new opportunity to buy other things or invest the excess money. One thing for sure, I have to work harder and smarter to get more income. So, when I want to buy my second home, I calculated I must have a consistent part time income every month.

The question is what kind of part time job should be done. Well for starter, I started with my available skills which is electronic design. Initially, I just followed my friend work on designing automation system using PLC. It was an expensive solution at the time. I want to use custom made microcontroller based design. But, I have difficulty to find the resources at the time. Since the profit was still reasonable using PLC, we save a lot of development time.

At the same time, my hobby was to learn to write programs for Microsoft Windows operating system. It was a hard thing to do at the time since www was at infancy and there was almost no book on it at the time. During my degree program, it was not part of the curriculum. It was a big challenge for me but I love it. After several months learning the tools, my friend asked for my help to build a simple database for Ms Windows OS. It was an instance yes answer even though it was not much. But the experience and the thrill to produce something out of my hobby were really exciting! Another friend of mine ask me to translate the learning process in Bahasa Malaysia and teach his staffs. It was a new challenge to me because I have never teach programming before. Then, my electronic projects demanded me to integrate the electronic designs with database and GUI.

So, my hobby have become my consistent part time job. Even though it was difficult, I really had fun doing it plus the profit keep increasing over the time. And since it was my hobby, I have no problem to accept any new challenge until I manage to reverse engineer Variable Message Signage (VMS) for Perbadanan Putrajaya. My part was worth about half a million but the total project cost was more than six million. It was huge for me.

At the mean time, my property investment worth and rental fee kept increasing. So, I believe if I did not do any property investment, I will just laid back on the couch and enjoy the TV and video shows every weekends. Why bother to find more money when my salary as a lecturer was stable enough.

People willing to spend hundred of thousands for luxury but they are looking for free how to buy and invest in property

Everytime I read people who are looking for help to buy property, I felt disgusting. Most of them are willing to spend thousands of Ringgit Malaysia or sometimes more than a hundred thousands RM but they cannot use their own money to sharpen their brain to learn how to buy and invest in property. In one hand, their priority is luxury which they always redefine as necessity. It is as if they are going to die if they don't own a car. What a crap mindset. If you don't agree with me, please feel free to stop reading. I don't want my knowledge to be spread among these kind of people. For them, it is always other people's fault for their misery in life. For these kind of people, they should pour out the water in their glasses before they really learn from me.

I am willing to say this because I have done it. I sold my car and bought a motocycle so that I can accumulate my salary to buy my first house. I wished I didn't buy my new car until my first child was born. I made a mistake to buy the new car just after I bought my first home. If not, I should have my first shop lot much earlier.

No sacrifice, no victory!

It is always a repetitive cycle each time you want to achieve something bigger in your life. The sacrifice is bigger and harder especially when no family members of your's have done it. I am the first in my family who further study for master even though I'm the youngest. Some of my friends and relatives said I was crazy especially when they learned my former bos gave a RM600 raise in order to convince me to continue work. Soon after I finished study, my siblings followed.

I am the first in my family who bought a shop lot. At the time when my salary was not even reach rm5,000, I found a formula to buy a shop lot. Even my wife didn't know about it until the day I  got the shop lot's keys!  It was really crazy.  If you just learn the normal mathematics in class, it was an impossible. To achieve something bigger, your mathematics must be creative. Or else, you are just a normal worker. For normal thinker,  don't ever dream to get a 30% salary increase. The rest is history.


Beli kereta berpuluh ribu rm boleh bayar, harta yang susut nilai pulak tu. Ilmu beli rumah tak sampai rm3,000 yang boleh menjamin masa depan kenapa mesti minta percuma? Pahala pun ada percuma ke tanpa usaha?!

To start Property Investment is as hard as to start a PhD

I started my 1st property investment after I had worked for more than two years and before I started my master study. I didn't have much knowledge in property investment at the time. But I strictly followed my father's advice to buy a house as soon as possible after started to work. It will be a waste of money if I spent a lot of money on paying a car but I have not buy a house. Buying a house will also ensure I spent only on essential.

My first house was under affordable category

I bought my second house after a year I have finished my master study. Although I already have a house, I didn't live in the house because it is far away from my work. It was a no brainier decision to invest on a second house when it is only less than ten minutes to work. The hardest part was to find some capital and reorganized my financial.

My second house is one and a half storey

With two properties, I thought it was enough for me to live comfortably. But, life was not easy especially when you were only a few years growing your own family. In addition, the house I lived in cost almost double than the first house I bought. This means I spent more than the return I got. But, what was done is done. To compensate the expenditure, I did a lot of extra works such as design consultation, trading, charity work and teaching to industry.

This also remind me, my master qualification does not make me a master in property investment. Having two properties does not make me a master in property investment. Both of them were just an introduction in property investment. I always thought I need a lot of money to invest in more property. I need a better plan. In 2002, I realized in my surrounding area, investment in shop lot is better than houses. At the time, the moment you buy a house, you lost about 20% of the value if you want to sell the house in two or three years. But, shop lot prices keep increasing. I also need to learn more especially from those who already invest a lot more in property.

My first shop lot

Although I have done many engineering designs for industry where some of them are world class designs or projects, something was missing. The same feeling can be felt in my property investment. Sometimes, it was not due to lack of knowledge or skills which prevent us from excel in our fields. I felt there was the need to improve my thinking process or also known as philosophy. After some convincing from my peers, mentor and university's policy, I decided to further study for my PhD in 2008. I was reluctant to further study because I was afraid it will prevent me from my commercial activities. Now, I realized how wrong was I. Within a year of furthering study, I found a formula to buy a shop lot! Now, the real property investment began!!

Knowledge In PhD more valuable than Property Investment

It is common to find people who inherit property from their parents sold the property for the money. Without sufficient knowledge, people will always choose the money first rather than exploring how to generate income from the property. You may have RM200,000 by selling the property. But, RM200,000 may not last for even a year.

I already have two houses when I finally decided to further study for a PhD in Electrical Engineering. My specialization areas are electronics or to be more specific are Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), Compiler, and embedded system design.

Whenever you pursue for a knowledge, God will always reward you in many ways. Within a year of doing my PhD, I found a way to buy a shop office with only RM1,000 down payment.


I submitted my thesis on the 30th August 2016.

Towards the end of my thesis submission, I managed to buy a two storey house and another shop office. Beside polishing my skills and knowledge to PhD level, I managed to accumulate a lot of knowledge in property investment. Although I am just a lecturer without any rank, my property investment is quite a big accomplishment.

Submitting a PhD thesis is a very hard work. Many of my friends gave up without finishing their thesis even some of them already published some of their works. Preparing for the Viva is a lot harder than I anticipated. I still need to do a lot of works, search for the latest research publication, preparing the slides, practice and practice. However, the slide presentation preparation is less stressful than completing the thesis.

My Viva-voce presentation was done in the 2nd May 2017. It was started at about 9.10 am and lasted until about 1.15 pm.

Now, I am more comfortable when people call me Dr. Zulfakar!

Here is one of video clips that motivate me to complete my PhD:

Sometimes, I wonder how can I bought all those properties. Part of the answer is here.

Learning is a never ending process. Knowledge is also Wealth!

PERUMAHAN RAKYAT JOHOR SULTAN IBRAHIM

Today, 22.3.2017, the Sultan of Johore or Sultan Ibrahim officiate the Perumahan Rakyat Johor at Galleria Johor Bahru. A lot of people attended the event as shown in the pictures. Even the early birds have difficulty to find the best spots to witness the event.

 Those who came late or even an hour before the event started at 2.30pm, the roads lead to Galleria already jammed with cars. They barely moved.

This is the best picture I can get of the development. It could be the first among the coming development under the foundation.

However, those who came are definitely not only hopeful buyers but there are also Sultan's fans and tourists. The Galleria is full of people.

The event is only to officiate the new housing scheme for Bangsa Johor. Those who are interested either they came to the event or not, they can register at SUK Perumahan or go the the website. SUK Perumahan wiil award the housing certificate for those who are qualified and selected. The creteria is based on:
i.   Malaysian citizen, live in Johore for at least 5 years, with minimum age of 18 and above (priority will be given to those who were born in Johore or Bangsa Johor)
ii.  Single or married
iii. One application for each married couple
iv. Applicant or couple who have not own any house
v.  Household income is based on the type of houses:

Type       House Price                                            Estimate Income
Type A   RM130,001 - RM150,000      Maximum RM8,000 per month
Type B   RM100,001 - RM130,000      Maximum RM6,000 per month
Type C   RM70,000  -  RM100,000      Maximum RM5,000 per month

//will update later for more info
  
All applications must go through SUK Perumahan. The application form can be obtained from SUK Perumahan. Bank Rakyat will process the applications which successfully get the certificate from SUK Perumahan.

Those who are interested and qualified for the program, you can register in the address below:
http://www.yayasansultanibrahim.org.my/

I would like to give credit to people who distribute the pictures and information above since many people cannot make it to the Galleria due to traffic jam.

Preparing my former Home for a new Tenant

CoopCity, Bandar Penawar, Kota Tinggi

Today, I was invited to attend the pre-launching sales of a new development known as CoopCity. The event was held at New York Hotel, Johor Bahru. This is a medium size development at Bandar Penawar, Kota Tinggi which is about 65 acre land development. All of the properties will be on leasehold. It is strategically located very close to the Petronas petrol pump station of Bandar Penawar.

It is a mixed development area consists of low cost houses, medium cost houses, shop lots and commercial area. It will be developed in four phases. Some of the houses are 20'X70'. Some of the shop lots are two, three and four stories. The four stories will be built with a shared lift. I don't have the details of the houses and shops now. But, I will update the information later.When I asked is there any gated guarded houses, the phase III is still under planning to be a gated guarded area.

The development area is about 15 minutes drive to RAPID pengerang. The good thing is, the development area is only about 5 minutes to the exit of Kota Tinggi - Pasir Gudang - Senai highway. The bad thing is, it is unclear how the development area will be connected to the main road of Kota Tinggi - Pengerang. It is also not clear how the development area is being organized in respect to the neighbouring development areas. Currently, there are two other adjacent lands will be developed. Hence, it is not clear how the properties to be developed will be oriented to the main and trunk roads.

I will update later with more details.

Create you credit card pin numbers

Create you credit card pin numbers

In 2017 onward, we do not need to sign on any resit when making a purchase using a credit card. But, we must use pin number. Although Bank Negara directive was to begin using the pin numbers on 1^st January 2017 onward, some retailers already make it compulsory to use them in this month. So, you better hurry up registering your pin numbers.

In case you miss placed the pin number posted to you by your credit card companies, you can still be able to create your own pin number by login into online service. I just created my Citibank card pin numbers. The direction to create the pin numbers are not that clear in Citibank web. So, I create the notes here so that if I forgot my pin numbers, I must ensure I did not forget how to recreate one via online in the future!

Step 1: You must login into your online account. You can easily create one by following the instruction if you still do not have an online account.

Step 2: At the main menu on the top, select Services.

Step 3: Then select Create Card PIN

Step 4: An OTP numbers will be sent to your hand phone.

After keyin the OTP number, click send

Step 5: Now, you are at the actual page to create your credit card pin number.

Choose the pin numbers wisely, and keyin the numbers twice.

Click CREATE CARD PIN on the right bottom

Upon successful, an OK indication will come out.

You can repeat the process if you forget the pin numbers.

Today I tried my Citibank pin number and it works. The notes here are important. If I forget my pin numbers, I can repeat the process above. There is one thing you have to be careful when you want to enter the pin numbers in a shopping complex. There are many people around unlike in a ATM machine. So, you have to be careful there is no people around you.