Father Sez

We all have our own systems for time management.

Some of us have checklists, some use diaries, some use electronic whatchamacallits, some just balance everything in their heads. 

I used to make use of diaries but now I use an Excel calendar, and a daily list. I find this system to be so much more efficient. My system is built up like this: 

a)  Year Template 

I have built an Excel calendar for a year. I call this “Year by Week Template”. 

This is done with a column each for Monday – Sunday, hence representing a week. Since they are in Excel, the columns can be as long as I want them to be.  

The weeks in turn are replicated 52 times to represent a year. 

The dates are all connected by formulas. Since I do not know the date of the first Monday of each year, I leave the date blank. The date for Tuesday is linked to Monday by the formula : +(previous cell) + 1. This formula is copied till Sunday, and the Monday of the next week linked to the Sunday of the week before, etc.  

I have 52 of these. It’s actually quite easy to do, since after doing one week, we copy down and it becomes 2 weeks. These two weeks can be copied into 4 weeks, and then 8 weeks etc. 

And when we key in the date for the 1^st Monday, the dates for the rest of the year get filled up. 

b) Filling up the Big Rocks 

This “Year by Week Template” is filled up with the “big rocks”, i.e. dates of the children’s birthdays, our wedding anniversary, other key dates like insurance expiries etc.c)   Starting 2008 by Week 

Sometime around October or November 07, I saved the “Year by Week Template” as “2008 by Week”. So now I still have the “Year by Week Template” and another copy named as the “2008 by Week”. 

I key in the date for the 1^st Monday for the year, and the Excel formula fills up the rest of the dates automatically. For 2008, 31^st December 07 is taken as the 1^st Monday of the year. 

d) Now the 2008 Rocks 

I note the school holidays and other special events, if any, in this 2008 by Week file. This file now becomes my diary for the year. 

e)  Weekly Planning 

Some time is set aside on each Friday to plan the week ahead. Things to do are noted in the respective day of the coming week.  Each week, I also go through the plans that have been made to achieve the goals set for the year. Anything that needs to be done during the particular week is updated in the weekly schedule. 

Each week I print this weekly schedule and use it as my base for my daily planning. Some items need to be repeated, weekly or monthly. For example, balancing of bank accounts etc. These are just copied and pasted in the week or month ahead.  

f)    Daily Planning 

I prepare the daily list for any day on the evening before. Since it is basically a copy of the particular day from the weekly list, this exercise takes less than 5 minutes.  

The daily list is handwritten and I cross out things as they get done. If I need to follow up on something, say a couple of weeks later, it is immediately updated in the particular date of the 2008 by Week file. Things not done just get carried forward to the next day. I do make an effort to settle the “biggest rocks” for the day. 

g)  Long Range Reminders 

We all have long range items, like expiries of driving licenses, passports etc. These are listed in a special section in the 2008 by Week and get carried forward yearly as the case may be. 

I have used this system since 2004, and I have hardly tweaked it, since then. Perhaps those better versed with technology may have easier systems.

But this has worked for me.

5 year old Sam and his Mum, Lynnae at Being Frugal have just hosted the 2^nd ever Carnival of Financial Goals. 

Interspersed with pictures of their town and motivational sayings by Sam, (clearly a very wise young man), the Carnival lists a great number of goals various bloggers have resolved to achieve in 2008. 

Examples that I personally considered inspiring and / or educational are listed here. 

The Digerati Life’s business, financial, job and personal goals.  Some of her goals may seem to depend a little on factors outside her control. In which case, Mike of Four Pillars suggests that we should list them more along the lines of a wish. 

Brooke at Dollar Frugal has listed 4 specific goals and intends to review them using Groundhog Day resolutions rules. The rules call for the goals to be reviewed on the 1/1, 2/2, 3/3 etc.  

The lady with the PhD and a black belt in taekwando to boot, is sick and tired of her debts. She has given herself a time horizon of December 09 to eliminate completely all her non mortgage debt and has set herself interim targets to shoot for.    

Patrick has taken the factors outside his control from the equation, as he describes his financial goals and how he intends to achieve them in 2008.  

The Glblguy has listed 10 specific and very focused targets as his goals for his blog for 2008. His blog has a mission or should I say, tag line, which I am completely in alignment with. “Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.” 

Whilst many books tell us about how to set goals and such, it is quite rare to see such a number and variety of real life examples.  

Just for this experience, this Carnival is well worth a visit. 

And our very best wishes to everyone who participated and may all their goals, resolutions and wishes come true in 2008!   

And a special vote of thanks to Sam who stood in for his Mum most admirably.

On December 17^th, 2007 I helped bury a dear friend. 

He was a gifted fellow. He had handyman skills that MacGyver himself would rate an “A”. He had great skills at raising flowering plants of any sort. He reared colorful fishes. He built a “koi” pond in his house and raised the koi fishes until some of them wee almost as old as my youngest child. 

He was careful with money. Not cheap, but careful and frugal. 

As an employee of our National Oil Corporation, he had been sent for all kinds of training courses. Corporate equivalents of the ones people like 007 go through. 

He had the uncanny ability to break down complex problems into little sub problems which were then solved systematically. 

He had traveled literally the roads less trodden, the Silk Route, the jungles of Myanmar and the villages of Surabaya amongst others. Very well read and well traveled, he would regale us with stories such as those of the uncanny skills of the Indian hermits, like how he had seen them sleeping on a branch of a tree without falling off. 

He was the one I called my “wisest friend”.  

He died at 10 am on the 17^th December 07 at our General Hospital. His wife and all his three girls were with him when he breathed his last. 

As the funeral arrangements were being made, (as a Muslim, he had to be buried as soon as possible), my mind wandered on what were the really important financial things that I had to do as the head of my family. 

i)                  Write my will 

Islamic law has different views on distribution of assets, if the deceased did not leave a will. Brothers, sisters, parents and even grandparents get included and it may become quite a complicated matter. It seemed that no one knew if my friend had left a will. So in addition to the grief, there was also concern about the family finance over the coming days. 

ii)                Make sure there is a house to shelter my family 

My friend had already paid off whatever mortgages he had on the house. However, the charge on the property by the financiers had not yet been removed and the title was still under his name. This would bring the issue of the “family house”, being included under the heading of “pool assets” to be distributed under Islamic Law. Hence putting some worries in the minds of the bereaved family.  

iii)              Sufficient and easily accessible cash in hand 

I have no doubts about my late friend’s emergency fund. However, the funeral and immediate expenses needed cash. Whilst the amounts may not be big, cash was still needed.  Financing the family expenses over the period until the issue of the will, the distribution and insurance claims etc. are sorted out is another major matter of concern.  

Zen Habits featured an article titled “Big Rocks first, double your productivity this week.”   

To quote Leo,  

The Big Rocks are the major things you want to get done this week. A report, launching a new website, going to the gym, spending time with your spouse and kids, achieving your dreams. These Big Rocks get pushed back from week to week because we never have time to do them — our days fill up too quickly, and before we know it, weeks have passed and the Big Rocks are still sitting on the side, untouched. 

He was referring to our planned output for the week, and how the big rocks represented the important things that had to be done. 

Extending the same principle to my financial life, I should get the big rocks out of the way first. And these big rocks are, in my view:- 

The Will 

My wife and I have done our will. We have appointed administrators should anything untoward happen to both of us. This matter has been discussed at a family meeting. All our children are aware of the administrators that my wife and I have selected.   

So this big rock has been taken care of. 

House 

The house we live in is under a mortgage. It has a MRT assurance attached, so that in the event of any untimely event, the loan would be paid off, by the insurance.  The house itself is under the ownership of our family company, whose shareholders presently are my wife, the elder two girls and me.  

Another big rock out of the way. 

Sufficient and easily accessible cash in hand 

The funeral expenses are quite small. So I am sure, this will be sorted out without any problems. For the subsequent period say, till the insurance claims etc., are sorted out, the family living expenses should be catered for.

In our family I am the sole breadwinner. So this is a major big rock. Whilst most of our assets are in our joint names, some of the unit trusts have been shifted into my wife’s name. This should be sufficient to take care of family expenses in the interim. 

I only wish it had not taken the death of a dear friend to get me to check up on these.   

Sometime ago, I wrote about the 5 stages of a child’s life and how it relates to their financial and life education. 

I listed the stages as : 

a)    My Mommy knows everything stage,

b)    My Mommy knows most things stage,

c)     My Mommy does not have a clue stage,

d)    Maybe I should ask my Mommy stage and

e)    I wish my Mommy was here, she’ll know what to do stage. 

My elder two girls are now in the 4^th stage. Thankfully the 3^rd stage of their life went by without any major disruptions in our family. 

The younger three were in the 1^st stage, until recently, very recently.  

And this is how I found out. 

Since 2005, it has been a yearly practice for me to sit with our three younger kids and together draw up their goals for the next year.  These goals are some things the children and I agree as important. We review them about 3 times a year and the children will promise to try harder to meet the goals and life goes on. 

This year, the youngest two girls, Nana and Ain drew up their goals, after our usual discussion.   

Not so Abang, our only boy who turns 14 this January 5^th.  When he and I first started talking about the goals for 2008, (sometime around November 07), he asked for additional time. He then kept on postponing.  

Today, he came out and told me that he has his own goals.  

It looks like my little boy, our Tuan Muda (“Young Master”) has now moved on to the 2^nd stage of his life! I am part sad and part happy. My son has just come of age!  

Am I worried about my son’s seeming lack of interest in goals? Not at all.  

Last year, as part of his English improvement exercise, he read Anthony Robbins’ “Notes to a Friend”. Every Saturday and Sunday, he would write about 4 – 5 pages down and them read them to me. He has finished the book now. Now he is going through Sean Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens”. 

I am sure some of the points in the books are seeping into him steadily.

And besides, he has told me that he does have his goals. 

My son likes, as so many other boys his age, to play video games. This activity is taking up an inordinate amount of his time, and has been the subject of a number of scenes of displeasure with his mother. Other than this little thing, our Tuan Muda is a great young man and I have every faith in him.  

In fact, whilst working in India, a business acquaintance who was also an amateur fortune teller, told me that one day, my wife and I would be looked up to and become famous as being “Our Tuan Muda’s parents”. (When I told this story to my wife and my much younger son then, he beamed with pride).

Well, at least my son has agreed to write down his goals and also agreed to show them to me, but much later. So for now, he has managed to get me off his back. 

Thankfully, I am aware of this subtle but so important change in Abang’s life. Now that Abang is entering the second stage, I have to treat him a little more as an equal. The treatment when he was in the “My Mommy knows everything stage”, may no longer be suitable. 

And for now, I have to get used to my son now being a young man!    

I am sure the goals we plot and plan to achieve during the year 2008, will not all have the same levels of difficulty. Possibly some may be easier to do or take a far shorter time to do, than others. 

Similarly major goals may be broken down into a number of sub goals, or as NCN puts them, as micro-goals.  

Say, someone wants to have a 2008 goal as – “Learn more about investments and investing during the year.” This goal may be broken down into sub goals.  

Then,  

Step 1 – Do some research and identify the books I should read, and prepare a list. 

Step 2 – Buy or get the books. 

Step 3 – Read book 1 in week 1 and so on… 

So a relatively complex goal can be broken down into smaller parts which can be tackled more easily. 

Then why not, make the goals less complex in the first place? Why not just have micro-goals that says “Do research…..” etc. 

Well, this is what I have done. 

For 2008, I have some major goals, some not so major ones, and some micro-goals.  

My micro ones for 2008 are :- 

a)  Learn how to draw graphs in Excel. 

This one has been bugging me for quite some time, and I never got down to learning it. Everyone who knows graphs says it is so simple…blah, blah, blah. I have to get this out of the way. So for 2008, a goal it is.  

b)  Learn how to scan documents and save them in my computer. 

This has been another painful issue. Whenever I want to post some documents in this blog, like a page from my daughter’s goal book, I have to ask colleagues or my daughter to help out. No more is this going to be an issue. Learning this is now a goal. 

c)   Learn how to take digital photos and download them into my computer. 

Hah! Bet you are saying, what a Neanderthal, this guy is. There are still people like me all over the place. And in this digital world, unless undigitized people like me get up and do something about it, we’ll get left further and further behind.  Well, I am no longer going to be left behind. 

d) Learn Photoshop 

Why? Because Simple Dollar said so. I am a great admirer of his blog and Trent should know what he is talking about. This is also part of meeting my most audacious goal for 2008.

e)  Learn how to make Yogurt 

I just love yogurt. Those sold in the shops inevitably have sugar and stuff. With 3 young (and usually hungry) children in the house, purchase of yogurt has to be done wholesale, and that is a bit heavy on the wallet.  

And looking at what Wikipedia has to say about yogurt, it looks like I am on a good ticket.  Why don’t I learn to make yogurt myself and cut out the manufacturers, middlemen’s, distributors’ and retailers’ profits? 

My sister in law makes the most divine yogurt. She has told me a number of times that it is easy to do.  This year it shall be done. 

Well, these are my micro, or little, or baby, or simple goals for the year. Maybe achieving these simple ones will act as motivators for me, whilst I plod on the grander goals.  

And maybe I’ll keep on adding micro-goals as these get done and as the year progresses. Or maybe I’ll just tell myself these are part of my goal of learning 3 or 4 new things a month.

2007 ended with a grand PF do hosted by Were in Debt.  

There was so much to read and so much to learn. So much to be inspired by. The posts that I particularly enjoyed reading are listed here.

The Montana innkeeper talking about fueling the fire of passion. To do what we love, to have the courage to make a life which is no less important than making a living.  

Free from Broke did a double take, when his little girl asked him for a credit card. And the little girl was just 7!!! And guess what? She wanted the card because she could buy everything with it!! 

Good reminder to all of us with children….Let’s start teaching our children about finance, including credit cards at an early stage.  

Madison shocks us all by disclosing the number of accounts she has. But she manages the 181 of them without too much of a bother since she has a system set up.  

Lynnae of Being Frugal gives sound advise on how to get an emergency fund going even if money is tight. Her words remind me of a common proverb in our country. “Little by little a mountain is formed”.  

Mr. and Mrs. Credit Card have set 2 major financial goals for 2008. They have no credit card debt, so their namesakes don’t feature in the 2008 goals.   

The Honest Dollar gives his views in how 2008 is likely to be for stock market investors and warns us to watch out for the 3 major mistakes. 

Moolanomy’s Pinyo wrote a guest post in MMND on how to retire on less. Ah! Finally an answer to the ultimate problem many of us may have.  

These are just my personal preferences. There are lots and lots others, covering Credit Cards, Your Accounts, Fresh Ideas, Goals for 2008, Investing and Others. 

It should be worth your while to check this Carnival out. 

Though he acknowledges as being in debt, the King of Debt has spared no effort to make this Carnival a grand and fitting end to 2007.  

I think a round of applause and a bow is in order.

Thank you, King!