sooyindotcom

I’m on leave tomorrow…and the first thing I’m going to do in the morning is to backup the database for my blog! The damn thing died on me 2 hours ago and scared me half to death. I couldn’t access WP nor phpMyAdmin. I thought I’d lost all my posts! Looks like it’s probably a glitch in the database server, since all of a sudden, I can access everything again (not that I’m complaining!)…

I must, I must, I must backup.

Thanks, JacJac for your…err…helpful suggestions…*grin* And ES for calling to check if everything’s ok!

The rumbling of thunder and the dark clouds was more than enough warning for me to lift up the phone and give hubby a call to come pick me. And not a moment too soon! By the time he arrived, it was literally pouring cats and dogs and a few other animals as well. In the few steps it took from the office lobby to hubby’s car, I got all wet from the rain and stepped into a huge puddle of water at the kerb. Yuck!

Along the way home, we passed by the Masjid Jamek LRT station. There were many people huddled together at the entrance…and no wonder, as the water levels were rising fast and very extremely gross brown sludgy and contaminated water was overflowing onto the road. Surprisingly, the roads were rather clear…I think most people chose to remain in the office and sit out the rain. Not me…I’m working in an area which is notorious for floods and I for one do not enjoy being stuck in the office till 10pm.

As we reached Jalan Parlimen, the smooth flowing traffic slowed down somewhat, due to flooding of one of the lanes. The two-lane road was reduced to one with cars trying to cut into our lane to avoid the flooded area. But the worst was still to come! As Jalan Parlimen merged to Jalan Duta, the traffic drastically slowed down. As we moved further along the highway, we saw the reason why: Half the road that we were travelling on had become a river. Seriously! All the cars were keeping to the far right of the four-lane road as drains overflowed and pipes spewed brown muddy water. I was groaning and wishing that I had my camera with me…all I had to take photos with was my phone with its shutter speed of Turtle KM/H. Nevertheless, I snapped away (though I found out later that most of my shots were blurry…wasted!).

Strangely, the road on the other side for the oncoming traffic was devoid of cars. What happened to the usual Jalan Duta jam? Well, as we looked closer, we saw that the whole road was flooded. The water level was as high as the kerb, and the lone building there (a furniture shop) appeared to have water flowing in. A few brave souls still decided to drive…err…float their cars through…even one or two motorists! It was absolutely surreal. I mean, you read about it in the papers, and this is probably nothing compared to some of the floods that has happened in KL, but nothing beats having front row seats!

And guess what? As soon as we finished gawking at the opposite side, we found that the road we were on was slowly but surely being taken over by the flood as well. From being half river-half road, it had turned into full river! I saw a styrofoam cup floating happily alongside our car as hubby manuevered his way through the flooded stretch of road. Finally, the worst was over as we turned off into Jalan Semantan.

What an experience!

Ok…bank balance not looking tooooo good.

Anyways, I just played with another financial calculator.

I thought…since I need RM2,688,088.55 in savings by the time I retire, let’s see how much I need to earn…no, wait…how much I need to save every month. The site had another calculator so I clicked the link and filled in the blanks…

# of years till retirement: 27

Investment return rate: 5%

Amount I need to save every month to meet my financial goals?

RM30,975

*WTF?*

Ok…try again. This time, I tried playing with the # of years till retirement to see if I can bring down the amount that I need to save closer to my current salary.

# of years till retirement: 45
Amount I need to save every month to meet my financial goals? RM44,726.84

*That so can’t be right. Try again.*

# of years till retirement: 99
Amount I need to save every month to meet my financial goals? RM283,378.99

*You gotta be $hitting me!*

# of years till retirement: 2
Amount I need to save every month to meet my financial goals? RM123,484.04

Then I realized, this calculator also has a 5% inflation rate built in. So the lesser the time to my retirement, obviously, the more I need per month. But the longer the time, the more the inflation, thus, the more I need per month as well.

And so at that very moment, it became glaringly obvious…

I HAVE TO WORK FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!!

And that’s only for me. My kids don’t need to study ah? And I can’t fall sick. Ever. Cause I can’t afford insurance.

Sux.

Gtg. Have to get a good night’s sleep to start my life of eternal drudgery tomorrow.

PS: Jacjac, you should really try this. It puts all our spending on bags and clothes into painful perspective…

I was playing around with a financial calculator…

If I work till 55 (right…I can so see that happening!)

and live another 30 years

and spend RM2,000 a month (see…there…there…I just saw a pig fly!)

and get a 5% investment return rate on my savings

and assuming a 5% inflation rate…

I need a whopping RM2,688,088.55 in total savings to support my lifestyle when I retire.

Hubby laughed when I told him. And said *see…buy somemore Gucci and LV bags lar*…

Crapcrapcrap.

Seriously? Correct or not wan that calculator?!?

*Goes off to check bank balances*

I’m a Shokubutsu girl. Green tea extract, to be exact… As vain as I profess to be, when it comes to shower gels and shampoo, I never really bothered…in fact, if I didn’t highlight my hair (which led me to be introduced to the L’oreal range, followed by Sebastian, followed by the current one that I use now which has a name that I can never remember), I would probably be still using my trusty J&J shampoo (no more tears, k?)! As for shower gels, I usually just follow what hubby uses, though once in a blue moon, I’d indulge in a tube of Body Shop’s Strawberry Body Scrub…but more for the smell than the scrub, I have to admit! And more often than not, after once or twice, that tube will end up lying unused on the bathroom shelf.

(continue reading…)