FACTS of Life & Death...A REAL Statistics in Malaysia

Everybody has always been working harder and harder day by day for accumulation of a fortune.

Sometimes to an extend they forgot true fortune is to be able to wake up every morning knowing that you are still alive and still capable of aspiring.

Have you ever seen or took an opportunity to know the statistics on Malaysians' mortality/death rate which keep increasing year by year? And do you know, how many people diagnosed with diseases each year?

Mortality Rate & Total  Diseases Diagnosed in Malaysia (2010/2011)

Average 6,500 people died from ROAD ACCIDENTS on a yearly basis;

70% died from CHRONIC DISEASES and DAMAGED ORGAN;

50% of premature death due to the FOOD;

10,000 people died related to STROKE, HEART ATTACK & KIDNEY FAILURE;

6,000 people died per year due to LIVER DISEASE;

3 million people diagnosed with HIGH CHOLESTEROL;

40,000 new CANCER cases each year;

2.1 million people diagnosed with DIABETES;

Average 110 new STROKE cases every day; and

In the next decade, 270 million Asians suspected to face death due to  CHRONIC "LIFESTYLE" disease.

Are YOU one of the contributor to the above statistics ???

NOW…let us look at the ratio

1 in every 4 Malaysians faces the risk of any CANCER

1 in 19 womans in Malaysia has a chance of getting BREAST CANCER

6 in every 100 Malaysians are diagnosed with DIABETIC related diseases

1 in every 10 Malaysians have KIDNEY related diseases

In every hour, there are 6 Malaysians are hit by STROKE

More than 50% of critical illness such as HEART ATTACK, CANCER, STROKE etc strike at your prime age, e.g. 30 – 45 years old

TODAY, ALL of us are at risk of getting the above DISEASES and DEATH…IF it happened to YOU, are YOU willing to dig YOUR own pocket money/savings to get the preferred treatment which are meant mainly for your children’s education or for YOUR own retirement purpose? DO YOU??? And IF YOU DO, is this savings enough to pay for the treatment? Anyway, do YOU know the current COST of the treatment in MALAYSIA??? Here…have a look at this:

CURRENT COSTS of Medical Treatments in MALAYSIA

CANCER : Up to RM400,000

KIDNEY FAILURE : Up to RM150,000

MAJOR ORGAN TRANSPLANT : Up to RM100,000

LIVER TRANSPLANT : Can go as high as RM400,000

CORONARY ARTERY BYPASS GRAFT : Up to RM40,000

ANGIOPLASTY : Up to RM20,000

This post is not intended to create fear but to give a transparent view to you of the above statistics and its true costs of your health. This post mainly to give awareness to all my beloved readers the fact of our life surrounding us which we may forget to look into it or simply doesn't bother about it.

The QUESTION is...what had you done to face this reality (i would say its a reality because it can happen to anyone of us)...

What would happen if YOU:

- fell ill or had an accident, injury or were unable to work?

- were diagnosed with critical illness?

- were to die and let others with the burden of debt?

If there is an INSURANCE PLAN which can take care of these medical costs when these unexpected situations happened and ensure that YOU are adequately covered, would YOU be lucky enough then?

So, GET YOURSELF INSURED...

Source: Statistics from WHO Official Website & Ministry of Health.

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I Married You For Better Or Worse, But Not For Lunch

Article from Forbes Online Magazine, written by Robert Laura, a Retirement Activist.

That’s how one of my workshop audience members commented when asked how he planned to manage his relationship with his spouse during retirement.  Another woman exited my presentation, walked all the way to her car, and then walked all the way back again just to say, “I wish my retired husband had been here to hear your talk so he could figure out how to get his lazy butt off the couch.”

I wish those were the only examples of what happens to couples when they retire, but comments such as, “As long as he’s out of the house by 10 AM, retirement should be good” are almost universal.

While many current and soon-to-be retirees are aware of the potential dangers of being left with nothing to do but alphabetize their wife’s spice rack, or making the mistake of scheduling things for their husband that conflict with his golf league, there are a number of conversations couples need to have, and work through, in order to avoid becoming the odd couple during their golden years.

Everyday life in retirement generates its own assumptions and stereotypes. People often create mental images and visualize what their daily activities will be once retired, yet they aren’t always effective in communicating them, which is exactly where relationship problems usually stem from. If, for example, you assume you and your spouse will eat every meal together … you’ll both agree on how often you’ll watch the grandkids … and equally divide up household responsibilities … but these issues aren’t discussed before you retire … they can become points of contention and cause conflict later like the example of the woman who made it a point to share her frustration about her retired husband on the couch.

A host of potentially damaging assumptions and stereotypes can be resolved by taking retirement planning beyond dollars-and-cents considerations to include proactive discussions with each other, family members, and friends.  By taking the time and energy to do so at the beginning, couples can establish a strong retirement foundation from which to build on throughout retirement.

In my book Naked Retirement and Retirement Wellness workshops, I encourage couples to ask themselves a series of questions to help initiate retirement conversations, establish shared expectations, eliminate mental assumptions, and strengthen relationships.

1) What does your perfect day and a perfect week in retirement look like? 

Consider what time you will wake up and go to bed; if you’ll eat breakfast, lunch and dinner together; what errands and household responsibilities need to be done each week and who will do them; and discuss how much alone time each of you may want or need.

2) What does your job provide that you will miss in retirement? 

Think about the mental, social and physical aspects of your work.  Which are important to you?  What steps can you take to either maintain or replace them?

3) How will you identify yourself during retirement?

Reflect on the last time you were introduced to a retired person. Did they identify themselves as such?  If so, what was your first impression of them?  How would you like people to refer to you once retired?

4) What will you do with your time during retirement? 

Assess whether or not you will need to maintain a structured schedule or if you can effectively go with the flow. Be mindful of the fact that too much unstructured time can sometimes lead to the dark side of retirement, including addiction and depression.

5) How will you stay connected with family and friends who are still working?

Be sure to consider how moving or spending extended time away from them will impact relations with family and friends.  What interests do you share that you can use to maintain the relationship out of the workplace?

6) How will your retirement plans affect your family? 

Be sure to discuss if there will be more or less visiting, what role you will play with grandkids, and how will you communicate these plans to your family.

7) What role will your physical and mental health play in your retirement?

Consider what healthy habits you hope to incorporate into your retirement and what bad habits need to be monitored or curbed?

These questions can be a great starting point for developing open and healthy communication patterns between couples and between retirees and their friends and family. They can also serve as fundamental building blocks to re-build upon should retirement plans change. Whether it’s an illness, an accident, sudden wealth, or a child moving back home, there are a myriad of things that can alter retirement living. All of which make having healthy and dynamic relationships just as important as a traditional dollars-and-cents retirement plan.

Source: Forbes Online Magazine

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10 Questions To Ask Before Buying Long-Term Care Insurance

Dear Readers...the following story appears in the July 17 issue of Forbes magazine...feel free to read it as it might give you a guidance on buying long-term care insurance...

 

Few financial products are as misunderstood as long-term care ­insurance. These policies are complicated and expensive and cover a risk that most of us would rather not think about: the need for help with personal assistance in frail old age or if you ­become disabled as a younger adult. But they can be a critical piece of your retirement planning, and if you are in your 50s or 60s, long-term care (LTC) insurance is a product you should at least consider. Here are some questions to help you decide.

Will you need long-term care?

Almost seven of every ten of us will need some sort of personal assistance after age 65, and we’ll need that help for an average of about three years. For many people, however, the assistance needed will be relatively modest, can be provided by family members and might not be covered by LTC insurance anyway. That’s because to qualify for LTC benefits you must need help with at least two of five “activities of daily living,” such as getting in and out of bed, bathing, dressing, eating or going to the bathroom. What’s more, you’ll need it for an extended period, since policies typically don’t cover the first 90 days of care. On the other hand, 20% of seniors will need care for five years or more, and 5% will spend more than $100,000 of their own money on this assistance.

Will the government pay?

There is lots of confusion about ­government coverage of long-term care. Medicare may pay for limited nursing assistance after you have been hospitalized. But neither traditional Medicare nor Medicare Advantage managed care nor Medicare Supplemental (Medigap) will pay for long-term services for someone with chronic disease.

Medicaid does pay for this assistance. But to qualify you need to have very limited financial assets (less than $2,000 in most states) and limited income (this varies widely among the states but is rarely more than a few thousand dollars per month). In addition, while all states have Medicaid home-care programs, they often are severely underfunded, have long waiting lists or provide limited services. Thus, if you can’t pay or don’t have ­insurance, your only government-funded option may be Medicaid in a nursing home. And in an era of budget-cutting, Medicaid benefits may become less generous.

What’s your net worth?

If you have limited income or less than $200,000 in assets, don’t buy private insurance. Medicaid will provide a safety net for you. And remember, if you purchase at 60 you’ll likely need enough retirement income to keep paying premiums for 20 years—and those premiums are certain to increase over time, perhaps outpacing your ability to pay.

If you have a nest egg of $2 million or more, you probably can cover any care you will need out of pocket and can skip buying LTC insurance.

If your wealth is somewhere in between, you could self-insure for long-term care costs by filling a dedicated pot of money (beyond what you’ll need for regular retirement living expenses) that can be used for care if needed and otherwise can go to heirs. But that requires the discipline to put aside extra money each month for years.

When should you buy?

At 45 you can expect to pay about $100 a month for a policy that pays $200 a day for three years. If you wait to 65, you’ll probably pay about $250 a month and are more likely to be rejected for coverage because of your preexisting health history. But you’ll pay for 20 fewer years. For most people the sweet spot for buying may be in their mid- to late 50s.

How much coverage should you buy?

Let’s say you’ve decided to buy. What kind of policy should you think about? LTC policies are typically defined by how long they pay benefits and how much they pay each day. So you might see a policy that covers, say, $150 a day for three years. Policies also come with a deductible, sometimes called the elimination period. This is typically 90 days, which means the insurance will not pay for the first three months of your care.

The average cost of a nursing home now exceeds $200 a day and in some areas tops $300. Home health aides hired through an agency cost about $20 an hour. The Society of Actuaries estimates that an average man will face a period of severe disability of about 18 months, while for women it will approach three years. Think about how much of this you can fund yourself. Do you want a policy that covers all of your daily needs, or do you want to self-insure for part? Do you have a family member who will provide some care or will you have to pay for all of it? As always, the more generous the benefit, the higher the premium.

Watch the fine print. Some policies will pay up to the daily amount but won’t allow you to carry over unused benefits. So if you have a $200-a-day policy but care costs only $80, you lose the difference. But with other policies—sometimes called pool-of-money coverage—you won’t lose untapped benefits. Thus, when you buy a $200-a-day, three-year policy, you are really purchasing $219,000 in benefits ($200 x 365 x 3).

Should You buy inflation protection?

Absolutely. If you buy a policy at 55, you are unlikely to claim benefits for 25 or 30 years. Over that time the value of your benefit could easily erode by two-thirds or more. You’ll pay higher premiums, but consider buying a compound annual inflation rider of at least 4%.

Is a group policy a better deal?

If you can buy group coverage through your employer, it may—or may not—be a better choice than buying on your own. Shop around. Employers rarely help pay premiums for LTC policies, as they do for health insurance. So you’ll pay the full amount either way. And unlike health policies, group long-term care rates can be more expensive than ­individual ones. That’s because group policies often require only limited underwriting and so carry more risk for insurers. On the other hand, if you have health problems, a group policy purchased through your employer may be the best deal available to you.

Do combo products make sense?

Some insurers offer annuities or life insurance with a long-term care rider. These so-called combo products, which attempt to add a long-term-care component to an annuity or life insurance, are worth considering, especially if you have a high net worth. They can provide flexibility and assure some income for a surviving spouse if it turns out you don’t need long-term care. But these policies can be complex and often come with very high fees. ­Another alternative is longevity insurance—an annuity that pays out only after you turn 85, when you are most likely to need long-term care. In general, basic annuities are a better buy, especially for men, than stand-alone LTC insurance.

What if your insurer folds?

There has been tremendous consolidation in the industry over the past decade, and you should consider the possibility that the company you buy from today won’t be around when you go to claim years from now. If your carrier goes out of the business, your policy may be transferred to another firm. In the worst case, most states have special funds to protect you. However, those funds have never been stress-tested.

Should you buy?

The answer, for a large group of middle- and upper-middle-class boomers: It depends. Unlike health and auto insurance, which everyone either should or must have, LTC insurance is a financial product that works for some but not for others.

Consider your own tolerance for risk. And ask yourself why you’re buying. To make sure you get needed care in old age? To protect assets for heirs? To make sure you’re not a burden on your kids? The answer could go a long way to helping you decide what, if any, type of LTC product to buy.

Source: Forbes Online Magazine

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Supercharge Your Learning Power

Article from Star Classifieds, The Star, dated 5th July 2012. Written by Nishant Kasibhatla, a world record holder and the only Grandmaster of Memory and International Master of Memory in Singapore. He is a trainer, speaker, author of a best-selling book and the director of Memory Vision Training Company in Singapore. He conducts training in information and memory management, speed reading, critical thinking and other peak mental performance workshops.

There are SIX ways to remember what you have learnt;

LEARNING is an integral part of life. In any profession, learning skills can be a priceless asset. It can lead to improved productivity and profits for any organisation.

The importance of learning in this information age is best summarised by American writer Alvin Toffler in his famous quotation: “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”

In the corporate world, “learning agility” is the latest buzzword.

Here are some specific ways to improve your learning ability:

1. Have the right mindset

Many people believe that learning is a tedious activity. They equate learning with pressure.

Starting with such a mindset will increase the difficulty of learning and produce poor results. Eventually these people conveniently choose to stay away from newer learning opportunities.

How do you change this mindset?

Simple. Ask: “What’s in it for me?”

Think about how the information you are about to learn can benefit you in your work or personal life.

The more benefits you can think of, the easier it will be to learn. Then you will enter into a magical state where you will be looking forward to learning rather than staying away from it.

2. Pay attention

It is said that the true secret of memory (and learning) is the art of attention.

If you can pay 100 per cent attention, you can learn anything faster and more easily.

One easy way to pay attention is to try visualising the information you want to learn.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so if you are learning about leadership principles, for example, visualise yourself employing these principles with your team.

If you are learning about a sales process, visualise yourself employing the various stages of the process.

If you are learning about your company’s values, visualise yourself living those values.

You will then find that you are paying more attention and the whole learning process becomes fun and easy.

3. Associate

Mr William James, a Harvard psychologist, called the human mind “an associating machine”.

Association is the mental glue that helps you “stick” the information in your brain.

In the context of learning, association means linking “what you want to learn” with “something you have already learnt”.

Use the Internet or talk to your colleagues to find illustrations, examples, anecdotes and case studies that are related to what you are learning.

This will help you to make new connections in your brain.

 

4. Teach

You might have heard that the best way to learn something is to try to teach it to someone else.

You may not really want to teach it, but just imagine that one of the objectives of learning that information is to be able to teach it to your colleagues or team members later on.

You will find that the quality of learning increases substantially. Later on, you can choose to teach it, share it or discuss it with others to reinforce the information.

5. Revise

Research indicates that we forget as much as 80 per cent of what we learn within the first 24 hours of learning it. What a waste of time, effort and mental energy!

To be able to learn and retain the information for a long time, you have to revise the information a minimum of two times. The first revision should take place on the same day of learning and the second revision on the next day.

6. Apply

Knowledge is power only when you apply it. Don’t be an info junkie who is always on the lookout for the latest technique or the latest mantra in your field of study or interest.

While it does help to keep up to date with the latest information, there is no point in learning new information unless you apply it in your life.

It is better to learn one principle and apply it immediately than to learn 101 principles and just feel good about it.

As Confucius said: “Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Let me do and I understand.”

When you apply what you learn, you will understand the concepts well.

Source: The Star, 5th July 2012

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The Truth About Productivity

Article by Tim Wade, picked from The Star newspaper, dated 3rd July 2012. Happy reading...

One of my favourite sayings is from a speech given by Albert E. N. Gray in 1940: "Successful people formed the habit of doing those things that failures don't like to do." True Productivity is about doing what is necessary to achieve the desired result in a particular timeframe. If there is something lacking in your life or business, it is probably because you have avoiding doing what is necessary to get it. Here are 3 examples.

FATNESS

First is "Fatness". I don't know about you, but my mirror would always show me at least one area that has some extra padding that I wished would magically disappear. The truth is that I knew how to change it, I just didn't liked the process. So I avoided it. I busied myself so that I don't have time to do it. Alas, if only I had time. It's clearly Time's fault. Avoidance: successful. True Productivity: zero. Result: failure. So who is truly accountable? Time to accept the truth.

BROKENESS

Second, "Broke-ness". Recently I was speaking about priorities, processes, psychology and financial results with an audience of business leaders in Japan. At one point I illustrated how you can be earning a fortune and still be broke. This is often because we set a goal in our mind and we forget to reset it when we arrive.

"The Broke Cycle" is a very funny 3-minute clip illustrating this on my website. It shows how goals need to be re-set. Otherwise we unconsciously sabotage ourselves so that we can pursue the old goal again. That's why your income can plateau, or people stay in debt, or cashflow never gets past breakeven.

True Productivity comes from being very clear of the new objective and why it's important. What is your true outcome? Be truthful.

MESSNESS

Third is "Messness". Messness is a symptom of comfort experienced through disorganisation. Disorganisation is an indicator of inappropriate processes. Poor processes lead to wasted time. Wasted time means that more could have been done in that time. Doing more in the same amount of time is being more productive. If you want to be more productive, you need to learn and apply systems that will serve you. Don't comfortably insist that your current way works best for you while moaning about the poor results. Increase your awareness of the true reality. Clear up as much clutter as you can in twelve minutes. Then focus on what truly matters, distraction free.

NONESS

Success comes from doing more than is expected. While I said I'd give you 3 examples, here's a 4th to reward you for choosing to learn, understand and for committing to apply at least one of the things you have just agreed with.

"No-ness" is the habitual thought, or expression, of saying No to an opportunity or request. We say No a lot. We're conditioned to say No. Our parents said No to us when we were children to protect us from setting ourselves on fire. Yet these days we say No to all the wrong things. We say No to change, No to possibility, No to opportunities. We say No to exercise, No to saving, No to learning more. Most importantly, we often say No to accepting personal responsibility and accountability for our results.

NO! Wrong. It is nobody else's fault but our own. Accept responsibility. Seek learning. Attend programmes. Read. Learn. Apply. Yes.

YESNESS

Wow! You must be a committed person to get a fifth example! Well here it is. There are some people who say Yes for the wrong reasons too. There is a character in my V9 profile called The Sufferer. The Sufferer says Yes to everyone because Sufferers define themselves by the opinions of others. By saying Yes to the requests of others, they believe that they are more liked.

However, they can get into trouble when they end up taking on too much work and cannot complete on time. This makes them disliked. So they seek to be liked again by saying Yes to more things and they drown themselves in missed deadlines and feelings of inadequacy. They end up being extremely busy but unproductive.

Saying Yes is great if you qualify it by managing expectations and establishing clarity over priorities. Then focus on completion.

 

KNOWGODONESS

Let's complete with the words of Mr. Gray once more: "Successful people formed the habit of doing those things that failures don't like to do." To be a Truly Productive person, your habitual actions must (and will) speak louder than your words. And that's the truth. But you already Know that. Now: Go. Do.

Tim Wade is a motivational business speaker and productivity trainer, with clients such as Microsoft, Motorola, AIA and American Express. He is President of the Asia Professional Speakers Singapore. Tim Wade drew from his Psychology and corporate management background to develop the V9 profile. V9 helps individuals and teams determine their default mindsets and identify their behavioural styles which contribute to their positive or negative results. He then shows them how to improve productivity and performance with specific skills and strategies. 

Source: Classifieds, The Star, 3rd July 2012

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The POWER of PERSUASION

Article by Pamela Wigglesworth, a Singapore-based corporate trainer, speaker and founder of Experiential Hands-on Learning. Article extracted from The Star, Star Classifieds, 25th June 2012.  

In today’s corporate world, most positions involve making presentations — to clients, colleagues or management. And the truth is, we are, more often than not, judged by how we say things rather than what we say.

Presentation is more than simply standing at a podium and running through a series of PowerPoint slides. It is about engaging the audience and presenting your ideas in a clear, concise and persuasive manner.

A persuasive presentation should change the emotional state of the audience so they believe and feel a decision must be made immediately.

Your role as presenter is to motivate and encourage the audience to act, think and feel differently as a result of what you have said so they will take some form of action.

Vital elements 

To do this, you must understand the different elements of effective communication. There are three components of the message you deliver: your words, your tone of voice and your body language.

When you are designing your presentation, the words you choose convey only 7% of the message. It is important that what you say to your audience must be conveyed in the proper sequence. Your content may be brilliant, but it can be boring if your message falls flat.

Tone is the second component — 38% of a message is contained in the speaker’s tonality and emphasis on various words.

By deliberately changing your tone of voice, you can transform the entire message and how you affect your audience. This is where practising both soft and harsh tones can have an impact on the outcome of your presentation.

The last component of your message is body language. About 55% of your message is contained in your non-verbal communication. Visual impressions are very powerful — posture and non-verbal communication such as eye contact, facial expressions, appearance, movement, body language and gestures play a major role in your ability to communicate.

Here are eight things you can do today become a better presenter.

1. Put yourself in the audience’s place. 

If your presentation is boring to you, it will be boring to them. Instead of asking “What do I want to say to these people?”, you should be asking, “What decisions do these people need to make?” and “What information do I need to provide so they can make an informed decision?”

By starting with these questions, you will be in a better position to create content which engages your audience.

2. Match your presentation style to the size of your audience. 

Successful presenters match their style to the presentation situation.

Ballroom-style presentations are for larger audiences and the main objective of such presentations are to entertain. They are appropriate for imparting information to a large crowd such as that gathered in a hotel ballroom.

Conference-style presentations are for smaller audiences and the objectives of these presentations are, by contrast, to inform and usually have a focused goal.

The objective is to try to get the audience to take a specific action: buy the product, approve the proposal, implement the recommendations or make the investment.

3. Know your audience. 

Ask yourself the following questions: Who is likely to take action? How much does my audience already know? What would their likely response be? Is what I’m proposing in their best interest?

4. Use an attention-grabbing opening. 

Some of the ways you can open the presentation include using a quote, giving a statistic, asking the audience a question or citing a current news story or topical publication. A great opener will set the right tone.

5. Use visuals to enhance your presentation and support your message. 

Visuals help your presentation make things happen. Clear pictures multiply the audience’s level of understanding and help the listeners’ recall days after the presentation. Visual aids add impact and interest to a presentation.

6. Prepare slides that are clear and readable. 

Use a minimum font size of 20 to 24 points. Use pictures, graphs, tables and props whenever you can. Limit the number of words and use large, bold letters. Stick with commonly used fonts such as Arial, Helvetica or Tahoma.

7. Close the presentation well. 

As you come to the end of the presentation, summarise the main points. Leave the audience with something to think about. If specific action is needed, get them started right away.

8. End with a statement of purpose. 

What you say last is what is remembered most.

The purpose statement provides one to three key points you want your audience to remember. Use opportunity to drive home your key points one final time.

Apply these simple tips and you will be well on your way to becoming a great presenter. — Singapore Straits Times/Asia News Network

Source: The Star, 25 June 2012

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