Jin's Gallery

Here are all my paintings which made my life joyful. I do enjoy every single second while I paint so I would like to share my happiness with you. I am bit shy to show all the paintings but I am happy to share them with you so I hope they can make you feel good, too.

How to live longer & healthier

'Eat, Fast And Live Longer'

One of my gym buddies and also a colleague sent me an email quite early morning to wake me up while I was starting at my fuzzy computer screen at work, and he urged me that I have got to watch the program, “Eat, Fast And Live Longer”.

As he knows I am a gym junkie and very conscious on heath matters, he thought I would enjoy the program and actually he was absolutely right. I asked my husband to watch with me and we both enjoyed it a lot. The program appealed us because it was all about  most of people’s primary dream,  ‘How to live longer with a high-quality health’. No one will wish living longer with poor health conditions. Do you wish to live healthy and longer? If you do, have a look at the program and share the idea with your loving ones because this program will show you a crucial idea to achieve your wish.

The program was pretty amazing. The broadcaster lost 8% body fat in 5-6 weeks. I truly know how hard it is to lose even 1% of body fat. And all his blood test results showed a huge reduction on probabilities of heart disease and cancers. Essentially the program suggested that we can do one of the following three fasts’ options:

Extreme 3 day fasting:

·         Needs to be done once a month

·         For three days you can’t have anything to eat except for black tea in the morning and miso soup for dinner

One day on and off fasting:

·         For the entire time

·         You can eat anything you like on the first day and the second day you can only have 600 calories

Two days on and Five days off (more manageable):

·         For the entire time

·         Five days you eat normally

·         2 days you fast and you only consume 600 calories

You can view the program via the link blow.

http://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/26189891642/Eat-Fast-And-Live-Longer

As a person who is not a health professional but very interested in healthy life , how I interpreted what this program wanted to say is simply “EAT LESS”. We eat more than necessary.  Unnecessary food intake can damage our healthy life and only can offer unbearable life threatening diseases so let’s think about our food intake and eating habit. I hope you enjoy the program as I did and encourage yourself to change your eating habit. Remember that you own your body and you are the only one who has got a power on your health.

How to get cheap flight tickets (Bali, Ho Chi Minh)

Day -69

I can cheerfully announce that we have purchased our FIRST flight tickets from Sydney to Bali (Indonesia) and second flight tickets to Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam) from Bali. According to our plan, we are flying to Bali on 4/7/2013 and Bali to Ho Chi Mihn on 26/7/2013. It is very exciting to set up the dates and having clearer ideas on our journey as we booked 2 flights so far, but I can tell you that booking flights requires so much time and effort especially if you need to travel on tight budget. I have been trying hard to find  best value tickets (Minimum flight time and low cost) by contacting travel agencies while searching travel web sites diligently by my own so I can revalue the offers from the agents. I found many people around me choose a travel agent and relay on his or her advices or offers instead of putting their efforts to get better valued tickets. I would recommend you to have ownership on your travelling. Firstly, this kind of approach most likely costs you more. Secondly, when you are involved in the preparation process of travelling, you will learn many valuable things for your next trips and you will earn exclusive emotional attachment to the trip.

As I mentioned earlier, it is good to contact local travel agencies as they have special deals sometimes so I contacted 2 Indonesian travel agencies in Sydney. Unfortunately, our travel dates are sitting in the middle of school holidays (as I had to postpone by 2 weeks to comply my boss’ request/order) so there were no special deals they could offer. The cheapest ‘one way’ ticket to Bali was $820. I rang ‘Flight Centre’ and a travel consultant offered me $620 for a direct flight to Bali. I told her that I found a better deal of $554 on the web and she replied that they can match the price if I send a screenshot of the $554 deal. I still don’t get what is the point to use Flight Centre services by sending a screenshot of better deal when I can book it directly on the web. Anyway, the ticket price went down by $266 per person so far so it was worth effort. I went on on-line again with flexible dates this time (3-4days earlier or later). What a surprise?  I found a best deal with a budget airline, Jetstar (http://www.jetstar.com/au/en/home). $394 per person (including $35, 20kg check-in baggage charge) and a direct flight which will save two of us by $320 and our precious time. I had to follow Jetstat booking steps very carefully as there are plenty of hidden traps such as pre-paid seat selection, meals, insurances, donations, etc...  but at the end I was very happy to find the very best deal. I went through similar steps for the tickets to Ho Chi Minh and I was again lucky to find a great deal with Jetstar, $162.13 per person (including $26, 20kg check-in baggage charge) and the shortest trip to the destination. I was very proud of myself that I found the best deals for us and also that I proved my involvement and efforts could bring positive outcomes. Therefore, I would like to share with you some tips for ‘how to get cheap flight tickets’ based on my personal experience.

1.       Compare Local Airlines and Budget Airlines : You never know which one you will get the better deal from unless you try. I got far cheaper tickets and better services with Thai Airways for the last three trips to Thailand through local travel agency. Air fare can be very different based on seasons so try to avoid the busy seasons but if you can’t, the best will be contacting local travel agencies to get their best offers first and compare with budget airlines’ offers on their website.

2.       Flexible dates (a week) : Make your travel dates flexible at least a week unless you have to keep the certain date. Oftentimes, the fare can be very different for a couple of days earlier or later. My airfares to Bali and Ho Chi mihn were different by $50 to $150 per person. If you travel with your family or a group of friends, the saving you can make by changing dates can be considerably big. I have found week days are cheaper (except Friday) and Sundays are cheaper than Fridays and Saturdays.

3.       Time is money : Some friends of mine are even more frugal  than me and often find very cheap tickets with a very long flight time (2 or more stops). I don’t agree with their argument that they have got a better deal. Cheaper deal doesn’t always mean a good value deal. Time needs to be considered as money. To cut your trip cost, you spent more time unnecessarily on the flight or at the corner of the waiting area cannot be considered as a wise choice. Try to find a flight as short as possible unless you want to stop over the places to look around or spend days there. Avoid wasting your valuable time will make you enjoy your trip more.

4.       Watch out extra costs : Many budget airlines offer a very good price but they certainly know how to drag money out from you. There are many hidden traps so be aware of extra costs. You need to be extra careful when you go through the steps to finalize purchasing tickets not to get caught by the tricky extra costs. They expect (wish) you to miss pre-arranged services which will increase actual flight ticket price. They are already chosen/ticked and included into the total  so you need to cancel or untick the services. You can get bit annoyed but remember that there is nothing for free.

5.       Avoid using credit cards : Try to avoid using credit cards for payment unless it is necessary as you will get charged fees. Most of time you can choose other options such as direct debit, Poli, Paypal, etc... I normally use Poli which will be connected into my bank account directly and transfer the money to their account. It is easy to use and no fees will be taken out. When I purchased tickets to Ho Chi Minh, there were no options except credit card payment so unfortuately I had to pay credit card transaction fees on the top of ticket price ($5 per person). Five dollars doesn’t seem big but you can buy a meal in Bali (for two). It is all about your attitude on your money.

6.       Confirm! : Don’t forget to confirm your booking and payment. Normally you will get the confirmation via your email but sometimes it can go wrong. Just after I made a payment for Bali tickets, my computer suddenly started updating and I didn’t know whether the payment went through or not. I could check that the money was taken out from my bank account but I didn’t get any confirmation so we had to contact Jetstar to track down the payment and booking. It took quite long time to find out but eventually everything was fine. It is always good to make sure, isn’t it?

I hope my tips can help you out when you buy flight tickets. Hereunder are my Itineraries to Bali and Ho Chi Minh. Exciting!!!

Sydney to Bali

Bali to Ho Chi Minh

Leave request

Day – 74 (Again?)

Yes, I have got 74 days to go ‘Again’. There were some timing issues on my leave request from my bosses’ side (which I haven’t found any clear reason yet) and I was asked to delay the start date by 4 weeks. It was quite frustrating that I needed to change/reconsider my plan with unreasonable reason (which they think very reasonable). Therefore I had to negotiate and compromise my leave start date to be delayed by 2 weeks. What else I could do as an employee except listening and doing what I am told to do but I am proud of myself that at least I tried to negotiate and cut by half.

Anyway, finally I have got a verbal approval and I can start up my exciting journey. Yesterday, I read about Cody McKibben (http://www.thrillingheroics.com/blog/)who has been travelling since 2008 and enjoying his special/unique lifestyle (most of people can call it ‘Crazy’) and I was proud of us that we have made this decision. I know this is not a life change decision but I trust trying to walk out from ordinary pathway will coach us new vision and unforgettable experiences into our life. “We have to do this because we have got only  one life.” This is my husband’s statement when I told him that I am excited but also nervous, and I nodded my head several times. Yes, we have got only one life, don’t we?

Recently, we have been busy on preparation for our long trip. We are crossing out our to-do lists one by one. We chopped a tree that grew so fast and wide, and covered half of our front garden, changed an old laundry door to a new door, painted outside window frames, sold my ‘cross trainer’ workout machine, organised all the bills to be direct debited, found out a way to suspend our private health insurance, organised dates for cancellation of our gym membership, booked an appointment with a doctor for vaccinations and decided our destinations. There are still many many things are waiting for us to be done which is bit of pressure but I feel quite excited and energetic doing things for us and our freedom. It would be wonderful that we all can live doing what we want to do, which makes us happy and lively but reality is very often far away from our wishes so we need to put efforts to make our life better.

Roughly our journey will look like this.

Bali (3 weeks) – Cambodia/Vietnam (2 Weeks) – Europe 5 countries (6-7 Weeks) – Korea (2 Weeks) – China (1 week)- India (4 weeks), and back to Sydney.

Sounds excellent, doesn’t it?

Leave Request sent on 19/04/2013

                                                                        Painting!!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

After farewelling my sister’s family who came to visit us from Port Macquarie (Approximately 400 km up north from Sydney) for the Easter break (I can’t believe that it was already 3 weeks ago.), I could finally enjoy quietness. It was a very pleasant time to be with them but having/entertaining two little kids, 2.5 year old girl n 4 month old boy were quite challenging for us. I have to admit that our life style is quite self-centeredness without kids so every time they come, we need to be ready, especially mentally.

The Easter break was started by their visit. As always, I hid Easter eggs around my house early morning and let my family to find them. Of course, there were rewards for the best one who found the most and for the second best one. Funny thing is I started hiding eggs 4 years ago for kids but adults are enjoying more than kids including my 68 year old mum. She was so keen that I had to whisper her to find at least one. Returning back to childhood for 10 minutes can be priceless happiness.

Preparing and having food together is always one of the best parts of get-togethers. Main event for this Easter what I want to talk about happened after the lunch. As usual, my husband pulled out a ‘weird idea’ (He thought it could be a ‘special idea’.) while we were still munching fruits.

“Why don’t we write down our 5 goals and we can check them next year?"

I knew he wanted encouraging all of us to live meaningfully with goals but I was not sure how my family would take his awkward suggestion. How surprising? None of them even tried to against his proposal and started writing down their 5 goals which they wish to achieve within 3 to 5 years of time. They were giggling at each other, looking over others goals and wrote down their goals on the paper like school kids in front of a teacher.

These are my family’s goals which they wish to achieve within 3-5years time.

Eventually, the weird idea made this year Easter very special as we all had a chance to think about what we want to achieve in the future. Thinking about what we want to do, where we want to be and how we want to make our life different made us to take our life more seriously. Every single second is our opportunity. If we don’t catch it, we will lose it. Next year I will pull out the lists in front of everyone and remind/assess what we wished to do/be this year. I would like to recommend you to practice this with your family or close friends. Encouraging and supporting each other to get better can be truly valuable. I truly wish today, all of us can be better than yesterday.

How to overcome depression and anxiety - 10 tips

Looking for happiness?

Happiness will not come up to you unless you try to find it.

“How can you be smiling all the time?”

“How can you be so energetic?”

“How can you deal with your stress that you don’t look stressed at all?”

Whenever some of my friends or co-workers ask me this kind of questions, I show them a bigger smile instead of telling them “You really don’t know me, mate, do you?”

No one is always happy and no one has no problems in their life. The difference is how to deal with the problems. As I mentioned earlier in one of my early blogs, I had a serious personal problem on the top of unsolvable hopeless issues at work. I was very depressed and anxious. I did not know how to get over the situations and how to release my depressed and anxious feeling. It was frustrating that you know you are in trouble but you don’t know where to go, what to do, how to escape from the desperate situations. I was simply hopeless. Now? I am still carrying on the personal problem and different type of stresses from work (It sounds like nothing has been changed, doesn’t it?) but I am heaps happier and lively so that I can handle my feeling better and easier. Therefore I would like to share with you ten practical tips on how to manage depression and anxiety based on my personal experience.

1.       Accept/admit your feeling; No one is perfect and no one can be always happy so it is perfectly okay you to feel down. If you deny what is your feeling, you will not have any chance to learn how to deal with the feeling. If you deny and hide depression/anxiety, they will get deeper and more serious so that can damage your daily life as well as your relationships. When you are allowing your worries as it is absolutely acceptable, you will feel better and have power to learn how to cope with your daily struggles. It will be also helpful in avoiding more severe depression and anxiety.

2.       Deal with it now; Do not leave your stress or depression too long. I left them with myself more than 2 years as I thought they would go as time goes by. I simply ignored my unwell mind and feeling, and forced down them into the dark. I thought it will be okay, but it was NOT okay. One day in the middle of day, I noticed that my hands were shaking and my eye lid was blinking (I was very stressed out.). I always thought about myself as a strong person but I was not strong enough to take all the stresses and emotional ups and downs, and it caused a serious impact on physical health. So do not leave them too long with you. As soon as you are aware of the symptoms such as uncontrollable feelings and anxiousness, start looking for ways to get over it. The earlier you start the better chance you will have in order to manage your stress and anxiety.

3.       Don’t blame yourself; Many people who are suffering depression/Anxiety tend to blame themselves as I did as well. I blamed myself, incompetence, unsuccessful, hopeless, etc... I blamed my luck and I blamed anything around me. Of course, it didn’t help anything. It supported me to get worsen. Until I convinced myself that it was not my fault and I can’t control everything, I couldn’t see any light. You need to accept that there are some things in your life you simply cannot control. It wouldn’t matter how hard you try and how much effort you devote to solve the problems. There are/will be always some things beyond your control. So don’t blame yourself nor worry too much about things you can’t control. Your worrying will not impact on the result anyway. Try to remind yourself that you can’t control everything and don’t victimize yourself as you are the most vulnerable person who needs to be nurtured the most at this stage.  

4.       Be active; I know some people would oppose to my ideas of being active. I do agree that someone could say “I don’t feel like to move even one finger now. How can I be active?” but you need to push yourself to get out of the spot where you feel stuck. Honestly, you need to be the major key to open the door to the happiness which you have been looking for. People around you can help and support you, but if you are not ready, nothing will be changed. I know it is hard but try to be active. Go out for a walk or run to get some fresh air, join a gym for getting fitter, and participate social events to make yourself useful. Simply move more. How can you think about problems when you have to think about how to breathe while you are running? Exercise helped me the most to fight with my depression. When I am sweating and out of breath, I feel free and I appreciate myself/my body more and realise I am the centre of the planet. It there is not me, there will be nothing. Being active will change your mood and improve your daily experiences.

5.       Seek help; Share your worries with someone else. It can be your family members, friends, colleagues, or anyone who you feel comfortable to talk to. If you do not want to talk about your feelings to someone who you know, seek a professional help. I was discussing a lot with my husband as he knews the most about me but sometimes, I found bit hard(uncomfortable) to express my deep thoughts to him so I searched for professional helps. At the end of the day, speaking out my feeling and thought were more helpful than professional advices. I felt lighter after talk about my feelings even though the advices did not resolve my problems. Also their rational advices opened my mind and gave me a new point of view.

6.       Take a break;  When you feel depressed and anxious, even your daily routines can be irritating. You may feel that life is meaningless and doing same things can trigger your stress level. You need to have a break and change. Having a break from your daily life will not take away your problems but it will make you more relaxed and give you a chance to alter your thoughts on situations. Depression and anxiety often create bigger worries than actual they are as your judgement can be affected by your feeling. Changing your circumstances/surroundings can refresh and energize you and it will help you to think bit more rational.

7.       Keep away from “What if....?” ; As I mentioned earlier in one of my blogs, please remind yourself that you have got  power in only present, not in the past, not in the future. You can control only now. We all have enough things to deal with at the moment. You do not need to worry about future problem, “What if...” which can happen to you but unlikely to happen to you. Don’t try to buy future worries and live in fear now. You can deal with them when they come. Keeping “What if I cannot....” thoughts will develop poor thinking habit and it will allow your mind to get depressed with the endless negative possibilities. Try to think what can happen in reality.

8.       Be positive; I acknowledge that being positive is very hard especially when you feel down but we need to make an effort to think positively. I am certainly stronger and control my feeling better than before, but I still experience depression occasionally. Whenever I feel down, I try to remind myself how good I am and what I can do well rather than pushing myself down. Oftentimes I tell myself to be positive. It will not be easy at the beginning but keep practicing it and try to believe it. Being positive can be the most powerful medicine. It can be bitter but it works, I promise. Think positive ways and talk positive words.  You are a beautiful person and you can do whatever you wish to do. When you are positive, you will find out that your life is much brighter than you thought.

9.       Find out what you enjoy to do; When you are depressed, a good thing can be that you very close to yourself (too much is problem but let’s take a positive point) and it is a good time to find what you like doing. I start painting which I had forgotten that I could do for a very long time. My husband encouraged me to do as it kept away me from the endless negative thoughts. I am not a person who can sit still but painting can keeps me calm very long time and place me in a happy mood. I started going to the local gym at the same time. I do exercise regularly to keep my body and mind healthy. When I do what I like to do, I feel the world is mine and I feel confident, comfortable and valuable. Unquestionably, my loving hobbies helped me to keep myself balanced. Find things make you smile. Find things which can carry away your negative thoughts and transform them to affirmative thoughts. 

10.   Read books or blogs about someone’s overcome stories; You might feel like you are the only one who has unsolvable and endless problems but that is not true. Look around other people’s circumstance and listen carefully to their incredible stories. You will realize that you are not the only one who suffers. Theologically, life supposes to be fair and generous to everybody but in reality it can be very unfair and cruel sometimes. I have a friend who is so lovely and lively. She is generous and nice to everyone. She is always in happy mood and it brightens up everyone around her. However, one day she said that she couldn’t walk out from home for 3 months due to her depression so she had to even send away her only son to her mother during then. When I heard her story, I felt so connected to her and comfortable to discuss about my problem. Knowing I was not the only one have a harsh time discharge me from desperate feeling of failure. Read and know about someone who had similar problems and got over them. They will inspire you and bring you new power to deal with your issues.

I hope the tips from my personal experience can lead you to be closer to Happiness.  I do admit that it is hard to overcome mental breakdown and I cannot say that I am absolutely safe from the danger and threat but I am constantly trying to cheer up myself. Every single moment is valuable and it is pity to push it down to the darkness. Please remember that when you are ready to welcome, happiness can visit you and stay with you.

                                                                       Lucky Koi

Global Financial Crisis (GFC) Victims

About a month ago, my husband and I were lying on couch and enjoying our precious evening after the long day of work, and watching a documentary about “New homeless people generated by the GFC (Global Financial Crisis) in USA”. The documentary showed how people in America have been struggling to keep up their daily life without home after losing their jobs and houses since the GFC in 2008.

I am not going to talk about the GFC and its severe impact on people’s life as my profession would not allow discussing about it profoundly. I feel sorry that the people have to deal with such a hardship to only survive every single day. However, while I was getting into the stories, endless curiosity was raised in my mind.

‘How did they become homeless when they had jobs for years?’

‘How could they lose the house after couple of months they lost their jobs?’

‘Where are the savings?’

‘How could they end up to the positions that they have to move around motels to motels when they had expensive cars, a luxurious life style and even a yacht?’

‘How they could lead themselves to be down to that much desperate and helpless situation, because of losing a job?’

‘How.....?’

‘What should be blamed for? Only the GFC?’

Some people declared that they had a high class living standard. They had even a yacht and luxurious cars, expensive gadgets and comfortable life style before they lose their jobs so I couldn’t understand how losing jobs could transform their high class life style to homelessness in a very short time. Is this only because of the GFC blaming? I cannot say that the GFC would not give any impact on their current life and their current financial situations but I would like to think about the story from a bit different angle. How about the people’s attitudes and plans on their financial situation, and their future? How about their approaches on dealing with unpredictable hardship?

Nothing can be permanent and nothing can be always right. As we all know our life is full of ups and downs undeniably. Modern society offered unlimited opportunities to us but nothing can be secure as the changes are uncontrollably fast and outcomes are unpredictable. So anything (especially sudden job lose) can happen to anybody, even to YOU and ME. How often can you see people around you who get sudden redundancy options or lose jobs by company’s financial difficulties nowadays? 

Therefore, this is the time to think about what we can prepare or avoid doing to get less impact on our life when we have to face the unexpected financial shocks.

1.       Save! Save! Save! ; Quite often how much you can save is more important than how much you earn. I have seen so many people around me who earns a lot more than I do but their financial situations are standing on the edge of bankruptcy. They obviously know how to make money but don’t know how to save. If you don’t save money, money will slip out without any alarming as water in a vase with a whole.  With empty hand you cannot fight with a financial hardship that can come and attack you at anytime. Saving is power and it will support you while you are having difficulties. You need to save at least 20-30 percentage of your salary. Of course it can be depend on individual’s circumstances but remember that ‘the less you save, the longer it takes.’ so try to save as much as you can.

2.       Be yourself; Be aware of who you are and what you can afford will be starting point. Driving a luxurious car, buying an expensive bags and brand clothes, going to posh holidays will not make/ lift up your social status. Be yourself and be free from other people’s perspective. Many people buy things which they have to pay months and months (which means they can’t afford) as they don’t realize they victimize and squander their future. If you cannot afford it, do not buy it. Do try to disguise yourself with meaningless goods which can be your financial burden. Before buying, ask yourself if you do need it or just you want to have it, or you want to be shown as a person who you wish to be. Also ask if you can afford to buy it.  Having more things can give you very short term pleasure but it often brings you a financial misery for a very long time.

3.       Educate yourself about money;  I have noticed that many people don’t like talking about money and they feel  awkward to expose their financial position. Also many people do not want to know /even think about how to manage THEIR money and THIER financial situations. You need to know about money and learn how to manage your money. I don’t say that you need to study ‘Finance’, ‘Commerce’ or ‘Accounting’. I want you to be interested in your money and educate yourself to manage your money wisely. If you have money in your saving accounts, do search and find the best offer (highest interest). If you have mortgage, find out a mortgage who proposes the lowest interest.  If you have to use your credit card, find out what is the interest rate you need to pay back on the top of the money you borrowed ( more than 18%). If you have superannuation, before putting aside the annual statement, read it properly and find out your investment options are relevant to current financial movement. Try to be familiar with property market movement, current stock market trends, news about world finance. You don’t need to be an expert but you need to know about YOUR money. When you know and talk more about your money, you will realize the value of money and you will get ownership on the money.

4.       Keep a frugal life style; Watch out your spending. How often we buy things which are not necessary, which makes you regret, which brings you financial burden.  If someone can buy anything as their purchasing doesn’t affect their current and future life, they can buy but not you who needs to think about tomorrow, next month, next year’s budget. Keep your life standard lower. You will be very surprised when you realize that you do not need that many things which you used to think very important to have as you learn how to live modestly.  I am not saying you need to be tight on money so you shouldn’t buy anything. What I wanted to say is spending wisely. Do not waste money which you earned by scarifying your precious time and life. Would you choose to change a luxurious car with 10 years of your precious youth and life? Frugal life style will free you from most of the financial issues.

5.       Make a plan for your future; do not live for only today or this week. According to a study, more than 40% of households are living paycheck to paycheck. Unfortunately, bad things don’t discriminate anyone. Losing a job, being sick, being injured, etc... can come to anyone at anytime. Sadly we cannot avoid those unfortunate situations so we need to be ready for the bad time. Make a financial plan for your future. You need to know where your finance will/needs to be standing in next year, 3 years time, 5 years time, and 10 years time. If you do not have any plan, your financial situation cannot be managed as there is no goal and direction. The plan doesn’t need to be big or complicated. Set a simple goal which can meet your financial needs in your future. Luck never comes to you when you are not ready. When you plan it and try to accomplish the plan, the luck you were looking for will be with you.

6.       No debts; If you don’t have money do not spend. Don’t buy anything with changing your future earning such as credit card purchases.  Many people think it is fine to buy things which they cannot afford at that time with credit cards. Monthly instalment doesn’t seem too much and people choose the option without awareness of actual payment. Quite often this kind of option cost you far more than you buy with cash and you need to pay interests (more than 18%) on the top, and sometimes also pay a high penalty (in case you missed the payment). This type of purchase will create you a poor buying habit and highly likely put you in a harsh financial situation.  It is very simple to remember ‘ Don’t buy if you don’t have money’. You can simply think that you will be fine to buy the goods and fine to pay for a year but do not  forget that you will need to buy something next months, and your debts will be accumulated while you don’t realize it, and you will be stuck in the debt swamp. Try to avoid any unnecessary debts. Debts are very often crueller than you expected.

7.       Be responsible for your future; We all are getting old (don’t want to believe this but it is a fact). Unquestionably, one day we will need to leave workforce due to aging or declining health, and live on our saving (including superannuation) or social security payments.  According to a report by AARP in 2012, three out of five families over 65 retirees are relaying on Social Security as they had no retirement savings. I cannot imagine living on the minimal payment and struggling every single week when I am over 65. However, if you do not prepare for your future now when you are health and young, you will not have any other choice avoiding this obvious distress situation. Many people around me do not want to think about it as it is quite stressful to even imagine and leave it to until they have to face it. Please have an ownership on your life and future. Current society does not allow us to pass our responsibility on to anyone (even our own kids, they need to stand on their own feet) and it will be getting tougher and tougher. Make a plan for your future as you are the only one can help yourself.

Ready for Freedom?

Day -72


72 days to go... (07/04/2013)

Our preparation for our long wanted break has been started. Both of us have not got official approval from our bosses yet but we are already on track. I have informed my family and some friends about our plan. I didn’t get lot of good cheer as most of them cannot understand why we are doing this kind of unusual affair when we are comfortable in our current life, but no one really stepped out and tried to stop us. Which was good enough to me as I didn’t have to explain or tried to persuade anyone that we are not running away from our current positions and we are looking for better ways to rebuild our life more valuable as it is too precious to waste.

When I was a kid, I thought we all are entitled to have freedom and anyone can enjoy it anytime we want. However, finally, I have learnt that freedom can be owned by only people who have prepared and earned to have. So, we are now preparing things for enjoying our hard earned freedom.

First thing, we need to think about was our 65 Koi fish that we have been growing for more than 4 years. I really wanted to keep them as long as I can but it was unavoidable decision to let them go as there are many things need to be done on a daily basis to look after them. So we took some photos of them and put an Ad on Gumtree in the morning with a hope somebody can take them and provide a lovely home.

What a surprise! Within 10 minutes, views were gone up to 10 and calls started coming, and in 2 hours time, two guys from Pots Point came took 15 of our Koi fishes. Within 24 hours, the rest of our fish has gone for their new homes (one from Singapore and the other one was from Taiwan). It is not easy to stare at the empty/stillness pond as they were with us over four years but I am glad that we have found them for good homes where they will be well looked after. Also, I am proud of that we have completed our first job for our exciting journey. We got over $2,000 from the sale and the money will be usefully used for our trips.

Second thing we did was putting our place for a rent. While we are away, if we can get $600 per week rent, that will be very helpful funds for our trip so we put the Ad on Gumtree as well. You can see the Ad via the link below.

http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/brookvale/property-for-rent/upper-duplex-fully-furnished-beacon-hill-brookvale/1017253641

There are quite many things for us to prepare and be ready for the journey ahead but frankly, it is a  precious excitement to be ready for freedom. I feel great that I know I am working towards to what I want to do. As I promised earlier, I would like to share with you our unforgettable journey from the beginning to the end so you can share our freedom and also dream about YOUR TIME even though you can’t have it right now.  

                                                                          Koi Fish