Freelance

Sometimes, it's not easy to take up freelancing as a permanent job. After all, there is a BIG RISK involved, all the more if you have a family to support.

I believe most people venture out for freelance job in their early adult life. Most of them are probably just university students while some have just graduated. Freelancing will not be appropriate for people who are not financially stable, if you need it as a permanent job.

Freelance is something like starting a business on your own. If you have business, you have money. For freelancer, if you have projects, you have money.

Most people like to imagine themselves doing freelance job because of the benefits that freelance job can offer:

• Flexibility of time
• Most freelancers do jobs that they like and enjoy
• Working time is not fixed.
• You can go for holiday any time you want

No doubt about it, freelance offer what most people find it difficult to have..."free time".

But if you want to venture on this road, you must first take note of the risk.
Ask yourself...how are you going to support yourself if you don't have any projects for a few months? Will money be a problem for you?

It is crucial to understand these risks before one even consider about 'freelance'.

I am currently a freelance writer and blogger as well, but I don't depend on all these for my survival. These are what I consider as my extra income. (side income). Well, it's easy for me to do this as I'm still a university student and not much commitment is involved at the moment but things can be a little different for people who have family. There is a need to have a fixed income. Even as I started to venture into freelance, I made sure that I had stable income through my "private tuition" classes.

Freelance is definitely a way to push you further ahead of your peers, but it'll be wise not to be lured into freelancing without much preparation.

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Basics to investment

Before you invest, it is important to understand the basics to investment. The basic to investment is not something that you can understand without much hardwork. If you want to truly learn the basic to investment, you need to learn about various terms and understand how certain things work.

What You Should Know
Before you invest, it’s important to be as informed as possible about securities and markets. Further, you must stay informed and monitor your portfolio. This Financial Guide tells you what you need to know about markets and securities, and provides some basic suggestions on choosing an investment.


The world of investing can seem mind-boggling for a beginning investor and the amount of information required to be consumed can appear daunting. How do you decide what type of security to invest in? For example, should you choose stocks, bonds or some combination of investments? Should you invest in mutual funds? How do you choose a particular fund, stock or bond? How do you assess the risk to your money? So, if you want to master the basics to investment, here are some guidelines for you.

HOW SECURITIES ARE BOUGHT AND SOLD

The term "securities" encompasses a broad range of investments, including stocks, corporate bonds, government bonds, mutual funds, options, and municipal bonds. Investment contracts, through which investors pool money into a common enterprise managed for profit by a third party, are also securities. Securities may be traded on an organized exchange or traded "over the counter" between investors.

Exchanges

Securities are bought and sold in a number of different markets. The best known are the New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange, both located in New York City. In addition, six regional exchanges are located in cities throughout the country.

A corporation’s securities may be traded on an exchange only after the issuing company has applied to the exchange and met any listing standards relating, for example, to the company's assets, number of shares publicly held, and number of stockholders. Organized markets for other instruments, including standardized options, impose similar restrictions. The exchanges facilitate a liquid market for securities where buyers and sellers are brought together. Listing on an exchange, however, does not constitute approval of the securities or provide any assurance as to risk and return.

Over-The-Counter

Many securities are not traded on an exchange but are traded over the counter (OTC) through a large network of securities brokers and dealers. In the National Association of Securities Dealers' Automated Quotation System (NASDAQ), which is run by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), trading in OTC stocks is done via on-line computer listings of bid, which asks prices and completes transactions.

Like the exchanges, NASDAQ has listing standards that must be met for securities to be traded in that market. Similar to an exchange it provides a "meeting place" for buyers and sellers. The typical investor generally will not know whether their security is bought or sold through and exchange or over the counter. The investor engages a broker who arranges the transaction in the appropriate market at the desired price.

Brokers

If you buy or sell securities on an exchange or over the counter, you will probably use a broker, and your direct contact will be with a registered representative. The registered representative, often called an account executive or financial consultant, must be registered with the National Association of Security Dealers (NASD), a self-regulatory organization whose operations are overseen by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and with the states in which the broker is conducting business. The registered representative is the link between the investor and the traders and dealers who actually buy and sell securities on the floor of the exchange or elsewhere.

HOW PRICES ARE ESTABLISHED

How are the stock prices that appear in the financial section of the newspaper arrived at? Market prices for stocks traded over the counter and for those traded on exchanges are established in somewhat different ways.

Exchange Prices

The exchanges centralize trading in each security at one location—the floor of the exchange. There, auction principles of trading set the market price of a security according to current buying and selling interests. If such interests do not balance, designated floor members known as specialists are expected to step in to buy or sell for their own account, to a reasonable degree, as necessary to maintain an orderly market.

Over the Counter

In the OTC market, brokers acting on behalf of their customers (the investors) contact a brokerage firm which holds itself out as a market-maker in the specific security, and negotiate the most favorable purchase or sale price. Commissions received by brokers are then added to the purchase price or deducted from the sale price to arrive at the net price to the customer.

In some cases, a customer's brokerage firm may itself act as a dealer, either selling a security to a customer from its own inventory or buying it from the customer. In such cases, the broker hopes to make a profit on the purchase and sale of the security, but no commission is charged. Instead, a retail "mark up" is added to the price charged by the firm when a customer buys securities and a "mark down" is deducted from the price paid by the firm when a customer sells securities.

Bid and Ask Prices

In both cases, a stock is quoted in terms of bid and ask. The bid is the price at which the market or market maker is willing to buy the security from you. Similarly the ask is the price at which the market or market maker is willing to sell the security to you. Not surprising, the ask price is higher than the bid price. The difference between the two is called the spread. For example, if a stock is quoted 18-18 ¼ , this means that the investor could sell the stock for $18 a share or purchase the stock for $18.25. The higher the spread the more the market maker profits and the higher the cost to investors. Heavily traded securities typically have narrow spreads while infrequently traded securities can have wide spreads.

I think it probably is too much for you to learn the basics to investment, so I guess here is where I shall stop...:-)

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Holiday is over, now time to work...

I gave myself a short break after my final examination. Now that I had my break, I definitely feel more refreshed and am ready for working. I'm not the type settled for a job especially since I have plenty of time. I'm currently a private tutor and I have flexible time since I don't have to be working 8hours a day.

Anyway, I was just looking for a few options....part time blogger, freelance writer, and probably doing a bit of small business.

Well, I was thinking of working as a promoters for those fairs held in my hometown. The good thing is the pay is much better than usual. And there is not a need to be standing everyday in shopping complex. Just once in a while. This gives me the time to continue teaching my students and doing my other daily activities.

I guess that's all for now from me....will be searching for some part time jobs...if you have any good ideas, do drop me a comment here ya?

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Recession hit...what next?

I'm doing some research in the internet on the current economy situation. Seems terrible and honestly, I'm thankful that I've yet to embark on the working world yet. It probably is a better route to remain in the tertiary education to earn more skills, as well as knowledge. After all, it'll help to create a ME that's more analytic and critical at the situation or circumstances that I might be facing.

I used to ask my mom about what it takes to be successful. Being a conservative as she is, she told me that it requires "hardwork" but really, is that all it takes? I wonder...and yet I knew that it's that inspiration from such mothers that will push me forward. I'm thankful to have such supportive and caring mother. Well, I guess this post is suitable since Mother's Day is so near....should acknowledge our mother's effort in bringing us up...right? oops...I'm getting side-tracked now...aiks!!

is this what our Earth becoming? sinking??

Well, back to the title...now that recession hit even in Malaysia...what's next? For those in Perak, maybe you're more caught up with the comical political scenario

Cops going against the civilians...we still have time for such politic game...

Well, I think that's what happen when we're too caught up with our own life....Ipoh town has never really been that "active" and probably that's why we're not too aware of the hit. But for those in KL, especially fresh grad that finds it hard to find jobs, these 'politic games' definitely has nothing to do with them.

I'm not the type who care nothing for my state but I guess for now, that's nothing that I can do. So it's better that I stay alert on the current economy flow.
Well, the question still goes back to what's next after this hit? Recovery as history shows us? I believe so but how will these continue to lead us onto?

I believe the Earth is a sinking system that eventually will lead us to a fall so great that has never been seen before. Trace back to history, we'll see how great nations fall at the peak....and I believe it'll come a time when the Earth will fall....probably that's how the idea of "Matrix", "IRobot" and other future sort of movies come up with. The idea of how mankind will fall.

Look at countries like Indonesia, Thailand, and now drawing closer to my own country, Malaysia...politically unstable. USA, the giant of this era....probably is slowly fading...What about China? The supposedly upcoming giant. But history tells us how China fall again and again due to their own battle within. India was a mess itself as well....only the rich seems to be enjoying much there while you can see how the poor suffer to their death.

So my conclusion? Yes, the world is slowly sinking....people try to make a difference but it is definitely not working. Probably if we watch Batman: Dark Knight, we'll see what it means by a failed community.

And like the Batman, we'll need a "hero". At least a figure of a hero...something that America's president, Barrack Obama is trying to achieve. It's not a bad effort but it's not good enough.
I believe it'll be an effort of a community. Probably something that online communities could afford to create....maybe in blogosphere? Some sort of ideology spread through the net? something like that and we all need to be aware...the days of our "unseen consequences in our action" has long gone. The judgement day is coming soon....not as in end of the Earth of that sort...but something like that and we all need to learn to deal with that, sooner or later...

Good luck!!

our aging planet? is it still in balance? time will tell!!

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Back to blogging...

It seems quite a while since my disappearance. And I guess that's what happen when there are too many other commitments. But somehow we will learn to manage all these commitments sooner or later. It's good to be learning it now.

Anyway exam was good. I'm glad it's over and I can have the time to be blogging here....the internet connection inside the hostel was terrible. Sigh!!

It'll be good to be able to share my experience inside the hostel but I'll leave it for the coming post...was rather sleepy after a whole night of lepaking!! haha! :-)
Cheers for the exam's over!!

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