Hi! I’m Nick.

Well, for the last 100 years, every productivity study in every industry has come to the same conclusion: after about 40 hours in a week, the quality of your work starts to degrade. You make mistakes. That’s why working 60 hours may not save you time or money: you’ll spend too much of that time fixing the mistakes you shouldn’t have made in the meantime.

Malaysia - The young, single and independent consumers are planning to save more, according to the latest MasterCard survey on consumers' saving priorities.

Well, the young and single Malaysians of today have gone through at least 1 'big' recession. Saving is just the first step, 'saving wisely' is another matter.

it’s really up to the individual to behave ethically in business and no amount of regulations imposed will come to anything

People who are born with a silver spoon in their mouth can fall victim to what Buffett said his father has called a "silver dagger in your back," which leads to a sense of entitlement and a lack of personal achievement.

To be financially wealthy and to raise modern children with good values and ethics is possibly one of the hardest tasks in the world. In a corporate world, a wizard like Warren Buffett can do the tango blindfolded around it - or so the speak. But to raise a child to understand the circumstances of a complex world, that requires great foresight and the know how of leading by example.

Life has more meaning than the constant escalation of material wealth. There must be escalation in everything else as well - to be a better parent than the previous year, to be built better friendships, to be of better health, etcetera, etcetera.

Life philosophies should never be forgotten through age.

One of the cruel facts of life is that it gets harder when you get older.

Hopefully, by sharing a few of these bad money moves, it will prevent others from doing the same. And don’t worry, if you are over 30 and still doing these things, it is never too late to start living frugal.

This is a solid article, full of great information in an easy to read list. Heck, the stuff on this article should be thought to our teenage children and give them the preparation needed for a future that is not dark and jaded. The best gift of all.

The United Nations has quietly upped this year's peacekeeping budget for earthquake-shattered Haiti to $732.4 million, with two-thirds of that amount going for the salary, perks and upkeep of its own personnel, not residents of the devastated island.

Anyone shocked by this? I'm not. In any organisations, personnel cost is a large expenditure - especially if the personnel are specialized to reconstruct a country, to mend trauma, to keep civil order.

How can we make these global aid efforts to be more lean and effective?

the government has used an unrealistically low poverty line income to decide who comprise the poor. Should there be a readjustment of the poverty line to a more realistic figure, it is likely that several hundred thousand Chinese households (as well as a larger number of Bumiputera and Indian households) will fall into the “poverty” category.

I have always wondered for years whether the remarks made that Malaysian-Chinese are well to do, even if they are poor they aren't as poor (as the other Malaysian-races). With some limited first hand on the field knowledge with the extremely desperate and poor Malaysians of all races, it hits me hard and makes me wonder whether or not I've seen the absolute worst. Because, heartbreakingly I've seen slump residents with very poor living conditions, diseased and earning very low. If that isn't low, what is? Thoughts raced through my head.

Thus, when people make a remark that Malaysian-Malays and Indians are poorer than their Chinese counterparts - I seriously beg to differ, hogwash.

The disparity is widening across the board. With the middle-class increasing substantially: colleges are booming, private schools are filling, and computer stores are importing rapidly to meet the demand of a tech-savvy generation - all of which are well aware of how to make money and with the means to source for new knowledge. We can scour the internet and dig into our nationwide libraries to find studies made and opinions of subject leaders from around the world. We are gifted to have the means to visit a free library.

An person in poverty needs to worry about the next meal, the next payday, just everyday survival. Gaining knowledge is a matter of living it at a limited potential. If the middle-income group can feverishly complain about our education system and seek knowledge elsewhere (internet, books, tutors, overseas, etc.), what about the poor who can't afford this 'luxury'? Are we so selfish to cast a blind veil and forsake them? It's not like our country is high on the social mobility list.

Poverty is economic slavery. No one gains from it, and it knows no prejudice - every Malaysian can succumb to it - much like corruption. We need to realistically up the people in poverty to the lower-income group or higher. Are we civic conscious enough as a nation to do just that? or is our life fueled by the constant daily-routine of job progression?

In the subject of poverty and economy, I'm no expert. So it's great to see people like Dr Lim to write insightful articles such as the quote above; that works to solve Malaysian fundamentals.