Life Plan Ver 1.1

If you recall, in my Life Plan ver 1.0 it was basically either do my MBA or go all the way with professional certification in the banking and finance field.

Today, out of the blue (well not really out of the blue, but nevertheless a bit unexpected), my girlfriend and I had an hour long conversation on marriage and my doing an MBA!

Points to note

1. If I do my MBA, we will get married AFTER I finish my MBA.
2. She wants children within the next 5 years.

3. Can I afford to repay the study loan for my MBA?

I definitely hope that after doing my MBA I will have better job opportunities that will allow me to repay my study loan within 7 years at 7.5% per annum.

4. What will I get out of doing an MBA?

Rather, what do I hope to get out of doing an MBA? On my top 3 list;

i) Better job opportunity,
ii) Knowledge,
iii) Self satisfaction.

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So where go points 1 and 2 fit into my Life Plan of the MBA varient?

1. Maintain current banking job. (start June 05)
2. Do a professional certificate in Credit Risk. (Jan 06)
Start preparations for GMAT.
3. Complete professional certificate in Credit Risk. (June 07)
Take the GMAT.
4. Apply for MBA. (June 07)
5. Complete MBA. (Jan 09)
6. Get Married!

So, total time to marriage would be about 3 1/2 years.

That would put me just nicely about 30 years of age, and my girlfriend at 32 years of age.

Too old? I hope not! Sounds like a good 3 1/2 year plan. Unless I'm being too ambitious.

Crash boom bang !

Rear ended a nice Lexus due to slippery road conditions. What a spoiler for the weekend, was looking to having a few good nights out and relaxing, but ended up having an accident instead.

Mainly my car was damaged, the Lexus' bumper seems incredibly tough and durable, nothing but deep scratches and a new paint job for the Lexus' bumper.

Cost of accident = 4 Hours, 250 Big Macs

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I have finally WiFi'ed my house! Although the wireless router/modem gave me massive headache to configure and took up 3 hours of my time.

Cost of Wifi = 4 Hours, 80 Big Macs

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Have made plans to go down to Singapore next weekend! Yay! Something to do with my girlfriend. Looks like we are not going on a frantic shopping trip (unlike the past 3 times) but more of a relaxation trip.

Although there is not much to explore in Singapore, it is an enjoyable place where you feel safe and comfortable. I really like Singapore for that, especially the security part. I would not mind working in Singapore. :)

Paper and Open Communications

Hi!

It has been quite a while since I blog'ed something. It also appears that most of the blogs that I read have been slow to post new updates. Guess everybody is getting busier with life.

I have been getting busy with work, working over the weekend preparing a proposal. In fact, paperwork and proposals and reports have been stacking up all over my table a bit too fast, a bit too much.

One of the interesting aspects of my job is that one day you may be looking and evaluating a 1 million Big Mac company and the next day you are rushing to put out a report on a 25 million Big Mac company. And as time passes on, reports and proposals and evaluations start to overlap, and the next thing you know *wham* you are at home looking at your 1 million Big Mac company because the 25 million Big Mac company was *urgent* and had to be finished ASAP in the office.

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I also have been relooking the communications in my bank

A) This is your target = 2 Big Macs, and to achieve that, you have to make 10 calls a day and even if you achieve 2 Big Macs after 1 call, you still have to make the remaining 9 calls; because that is the way we do things. If you have achieve your low target that we set, we want you to go and achieve more that is why we make it compulsary for you to make 10 calls a day.

B) This is your achievement target = 20 Big Macs, it is a high target and to achieve that, you have to make 10 calls a day because realistically you will not be able to achieve it without 10 calls a day.

Is it not more honest/transparent if the company used method B instead of method A when dealing with their sales team? If I were on the sales team, I would prefer the company to be more honest with the target that they set rather then them setting a lower target but forcing me to make the calls even when I have achieved my target.

Bad management thinking? or bad communication strategy?

A former HR consultant says that it is bad communication strategy on the company's part and that maybe it is a weird way of accentuating the positive (high possibility achieving the 2 Big Macs target) vs giving too daunting a challenge (20 Big Macs).

My opinion is that a company should be upfront with what they want their staff to ultimately achieve and be realistic about what the staff can achieve and challenge/reward accordingly. I wonder whether I would run a company the way I suggest...

On Friday You Came

On Friday you flew in
The weekend was coming
We had plans, we had things to do
It was exciting, we were together
Sunday was far away

On Saturday we caught a movie
We shopped a bit, we went around town
Places to go, people to meet
And lots of things to do
And Sunday was another day, another time

Sunday came too soon
We hadn't done much together
And it was time for you to go
We had gone out for a while
And the weekend had flown by

I held you tight
and didn't want to let go
Sunday had come too soon
and it was time to part

It was hard to leave you
Standing there waiting to go
I know it's just a matter of time
before I can hold your hand again
But baby, it hurts to say good bye....

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To those that have been a long distance relationship, guess maybe you know what I mean.

Deathspiral - still up for that beer? :)

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Life Plan Add-on : Hopeful Wannabe and The Quest for Integrity

I have run out of ideas for any new blog posts, so I will just share some thoughts I have discussed with my seniors.

The overall impressions that I have got about being a banker, you need to be analytical and detailed. Very analytical and very detailed. And it is true, you have to be analytical and detailed, actually, you should be analytical and detailed in every occupation; especially when in banking. A missed detail could cost lots and lots of money, I do not think that any banker accomplishes much by not paying attention to either of the two.

Imagine doing a credit risk analysis without being analytical or detailed.

"Yeah, he's worth about 3 to 6 million, company has been around for about 3 to 5 years, sometimes they buy land, not too sure whether they're going to build a factory or not. Maybe. They may want to merge with Company X, not too sure, I didn't really ask about that. And, oh, I'm not too sure what they produce, I think they manufacture cars."

There goes your chances for advancement.

So I am working myself up to being analytical and detailed.


"However, the most important characteristic is integrity."

This was statement was made some long contemplation by my boss.

Integrity.

How would I define integrity?

Integrity is doing the right thing. But "right" is defined by culture and society, religious beliefs and life experiences.

Anyway, I am no philosopher, so I will just stop there for the time being.

Anybody out there that believes they have integrity? If you think that you have integrity, please define it clearly for me. Can integrity be defined in absolutes? Or can integrity only be defined with Absolut? :P

I am now on a quest to learn what integrity is, and to have integrity.

Actually after re-reading my post, I feel that I should just have concentrated on integrity. :)

But nevermind.

Anyway, I would like to say hi to my new reader! Venus! Whoohoo! :)

The better plans of mice and men

Just a little bit on my thoughts regarding a company that I came across today.

Good strong company with strong growth, sort of a zero to hero kind of company. Established about 5 years ago, now looking at a turnover of about 6 million Big Macs (that is right, I have decided that I will use the Big Mac Index in my blogging to make it easier to estimate the relative value of things). Core area of expertise, waste disposal (of sorts).

Anyway, so they are all nice and strong, doing pretty well, and now they want to diversify, into.... biscuits. They want to spend approximately 1.5 million Big Macs to start biscuit production, under their own name.

What do biscuits have to do with waste disposal, I do not know.

Of course there are two main views on this

a) They are mad to go out of their core area of expertise and risk spending 1/4 of their turnover to do something that they have no experience in. We will tell them that they are mad.

b) They are entrepreneurial and should be applauded for looking out of their existing sphere of influence at other business opportunities. We should support their decision provided that they have a strong and well developed plan, are willing to invest in talent and are looking at a long term stand on it.

I am inclined for the second view, making me a bit rebellious in my bank.

But I also see it this way, if they did not take a risk in the first place to go into waste disposal, they might not be the successful company they are today. Their biscuit business might make them the Nabisco of the east.

Pool

I love the overall game of pool, whether it is 9-ball pool, or 8 ball pool, British or American.

I find that like most good games, pool is simple to play, but hard to master. At a higher level, everything becomes a factor - the lighting, the ball weight, how far your hand is to the cue ball. It can become incredibly complicated.

I have been playing pool for approximately 5 years (?), playing it on and off, never consistently, until I was in Australia last year, where I played it nearly everyday. It made me a lot of friends, taught me a lot and in some ways made me a better person.

Now I rarely play pool, mainly because I do not have the time, and I guess I regret being unable to play at the level of skill that I had before.

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Scrap all the thinking and moving on with life. I have got to do what I have got to do.... :)

Where Do I Go From Here?

Where do I go from here?

I have a rough life plan, broken down into various stages, time-lined, with various objectives that are to be achieved.

So I have taken to reading a banking textbook to broaden my knowledge about the banking system and how it works. Moving up from where I am is definitely not going to happen overnight and it will take patience and hardwork.

And if I am not wrong, I have to sit for the Credit Risk Professional (?) paper, or some form of certification that says I know the basics of Credit Risk; this is courtesy of my bank. It will be good to go for the training and to learn Credit Risk up close and personal.

I am some how lacking a social life at my workplace, and will probably have to up that a bit. Interestingly, my department is split into teams, but everybody works individually. Looks like my job is very much individual performance and not so much team performance oriented.

So much planning, so much going on, but somewhere far at the back of my head, I am not a banker....

Life Plan ver 1.0

1. Maintain current banking job. (start June 05)
2. Do a professional certificate in Credit Risk. (Jan 06)
3. Apply (internally) to Corporate Finance. (June 07)

4. Prepare for GMAT. (Jan 08)
5. Apply for MBA. (June 08)

5a. Should I not do an MBA, then register for other professional certification in Banking and Finance (June 08).
5b. Apply (internally) to Investment Banking. (Jan 09)

Total timeframe - 3 1/2 years

Too ambitious? Not enough details? Like to know more? Have questions? Think I am daft? Let me know. Of course, Life Plan is work in progress.