Weekly, monthly & more: How your pay schedule affects you

 

Photo by Vitaly Taranov on Unsplash

Let’s say you had a job as a cashier at your local grocery store that paid every two weeks. You quit that position and got a new job in an office, but this one pays once a month instead. What gives?

There are different kinds of pay schedules that determine when and how often you receive your paycheck. Businesses usually set their pay schedules to benefit themselves. Payroll management entails labor and costs, so companies will go for the option that is more convenient and saves them money. 

Employees (as opposed to freelancers) don’t normally get to decide how often they get paid, so it’s critical to factor your pay cycle into your weekly or monthly budget, especially if you live paycheck to paycheck. Will you have your money when you need it?

Here are four common types of pay schedules:

Kinds of Pay Schedules

Weekly Payroll

Some businesses pay their employees weekly, which means employees receive their income on Fridays. This schedule is more common amongst freelancers, contract workers, and trade industries like construction and manufacturing. These job types commonly have irregular hours, so it makes sense to pay workers according to a shorter time frame.

While weekly schedules are a favorite amongst employees because it means you have more regular access to your money. If you drained your bank account on bills last week because it was the end of the month but want a night out with your friends, no worries — you get paid on Friday, so you can afford that night out as long as you save enough for your upcoming expenses.

However, most businesses avoid the weekly system. Payroll vendors frequently charge money every time a company (their customer) runs payroll. Doing so weekly takes extra time to process, so companies will opt for more extended periods to reduce costs and add convenience.

Bi-Weekly Payroll

A bi-weekly pay schedule means you receive your paycheck every two weeks. This cycle amounts to 26 or 27 paydays per year. Many businesses prefer bi-weekly timelines because they save money processing payroll and can calculate overtime more easily (each paycheck accounts for approximately 80 work hours). As such, bi-weekly payroll is more common amongst businesses that pay their employees hourly.

Bi-weekly schedules are not challenging to manage, but two months out of the year will have three paydays instead of two. Accountants need to factor in these paydays when calculating voluntary employee deductions, like healthcare, which are equal in a bi-monthly pay schedule.

Bi-Monthly Payroll

Bi-monthly pay means your employer pays you twice per month, also known as semi-monthly. As such, you might receive your income on the first of and in the middle of the month (likely on the 15th), or in the middle and end. A bi-monthly pay schedule entails 24 payments per year, which makes it distinct from bi-weekly. If you earn $45,000 per year on a bi-weekly cycle, your paychecks (not accounting for taxes and deductions) will be around $1730.77 each, whereas your paychecks will equal $1,875 on a semi-monthly schedule. It’s the same amount of money but divided differently.

Bi-monthly payroll is common for salaried employees. Calculating deductions is easy for accountants, and you always know which dates you will receive your income.

Monthly Payroll

You guessed it — monthly payroll means your paycheck comes in once a month. This format is ideal for businesses because it makes accounting easy and reduces processing costs, but it’s disadvantageous for employees and contractors because they have less frequent access to their money. If you work a job that pays monthly, you need to be extra careful with budgeting because you’ll only receive your income in lump sums 12 times per year.

How Does Your Pay Schedule Affect You?

Your pay schedule does not affect how much you get paid in a year, assuming you work the same number of hours either way. However, your pay cycle does influence how often you have access to your hard-earned money, and therefore the way you budget.

For example, let’s say you paid all your bills last month and now don’t have much left in your savings. Your job pays you bi-weekly, so you’ll have enough money to pay the first round of next month’s expenses, but your next paycheck won’t arrive in time to pay the rest. Now you’re in a tight spot.

One option is to make an early paycheck request from your employer. If your employer agrees, they will provide you all or part of your paycheck before they usually would, allowing you to pay your bills, but it lengthens the time between your next paycheck.

Another option is to use financial apps. Your job’s pay cycle is out of your hands, but you can control when you get paid with apps like Earnin. Earnin allows you to take out up to $500 of your earnings per pay period. This way, you won’t have to worry about missing a bill because your employer’s pay schedule isn’t in your favor, and you won’t have to pay mandatory fees for convenience.

Your pay schedule affects your ability to pay expenses and for recreation, so it’s important to know how often you’ll receive your income when applying for a job or managing your finances. Though your pay cycle might not always work in your favor, there are ways you can control having access to your money.

Restrictions and/or third-party fees may apply, see Earnin.com/TOS for details.

This article originally appeared on Earnin.

 

Malaysia year 2021 national and state public holidays

The official 2021 national and state public holidays in Malaysia has been announced by Cabinet, Constitution and Inter-Government Relation Division (BKPP), Prime Minister Department.

There are 14 days of national holiday (12 national holidays, whereby Chinese New Year and Hari Raya Puasa have 2 days of holiday respectively, and all the rest are 1 day).

2 of them fall on Friday, 3 fall on Saturday, none fall on Sunday, and 1 falls on Monday. Most of the states will have around 4 state holidays in addition to the national holidays.

Chinese New Year falls on Friday and Saturday (12th and 13th February 2021). Since Saturday is already an off day for most people, the actual Chinese New Year holiday in year 2021 is only one day on Friday. I believe many people will take a few days leave during the period.

Hari Raya Puasa falls on Thursday and Friday (13th and 14th May 2021). That forms a pretty long 4 days holiday, when combining with the Saturday and Sunday weekend.

Deepavali falls on Thursday (4th November 2021). If taking a day leave on Friday, you can also enjoy a long weekend holiday.

Click here to download the table of Malaysia year 2021 gazetted national and state public holidays.

6 tips for gifting money to family members this holiday season

 Photo by Kira auf der Heide on Unsplash

Money is a go-to for many people when it comes to gift-giving. It’s not the most personal gift you could give, but if you’re not sure what the recipient would like, you can spare yourself from guessing incorrectly and allow them to spend the money however they choose. 

However, the etiquette surrounding giving money as a present, especially during the holidays, is frustratingly unclear. Many families have experienced some tension or a dramatic outburst because someone didn’t understand the unwritten rules. To avoid offending a loved one this year, follow these tips when gifting money: 

Give What You Can Afford 

Of course, give according to your means. Don’t feel obligated to drop $100s on your nieces and nephews if you can’t afford it. Even if your siblings give your kids a significant amount of money, shrug off the pressure to match them. Generosity is proportionate to what you have, not the dollar amount itself. 

Better yet, plan a budget that accounts for all of your gift-giving each holiday season. Other gifts cost money anyway, so set aside a specific amount you can afford for your entire family. Write down how much you spend on physical or experiential items to get an idea of how much cash you can give to friends and relatives who won’t be receiving something else. 

Be Mindful of Your Relationship With the Recipient 

Cash is not an appropriate gift for everyone. As mentioned previously, it’s not particularly personal, so giving your significant other an envelope with $50 or a gift card to a department store probably won’t go over very well. Giving money from one high-earning professional adult to another could also be interpreted rudely; cash is usually for people who need it (a check would be preferable in this case) or children who are excited about the freedom it entails. 

So, your cousin’s child who just turned 10? Cash is perfect. Your cousin herself who’s not in any debt? If you’re close, then something more thoughtful would be better. 

Consider the Recipients’ Needs 

When gifting money to family members, consider what they will use it for. It may be that it’s none of your business, but a relative who is struggling with money would undoubtedly appreciate a bit of extra generosity (especially if you’re in a position to be generous). 

Giving loved ones financial aid during the holidays is where things get really tricky. Make sure your intended recipient is open to it, first — not everyone is willing to admit they need help — and give an amount you believe would make a legitimate difference (remember that gifts are tax free under $14,000 or $28,000 if you and your spouse give as a couple). You don’t have to give naked money, either; it’s possible to pay for expenses like college tuition or medical bills directly. It would also be kind to introduce your relative to a family finance app that helps them improve their overall situation. 

If you want to know how to send money anonymously because your family member might be embarrassed about needing assistance, then you can use a money transfer service like WesternUnion. You can also make a new email address your relative won’t recognize and send it to them via PayPal or Xoom, a Paypal service. 

Make Gift Cards Personal 

Gift cards are popular ways to give money as a present. Sometimes it’s nice not to have endless possibilities of how you could spend a gift — if you have a gift card to a bookstore, then you have to spend it at that bookstore. It’s a roundabout way of buying someone a book; they just get to decide which. Gift cards are a mid-way between the safety of giving someone cash and something more personal. 

On that note, make sure the gift card you buy someone is for a business they would gladly shop or dine at. Your loved one won’t appreciate a gift card to Starbucks if they hate coffee. Put the card in an envelope and include a note so your recipient doesn’t feel like you made the minimum effort. 

Be Polite If Not Everyone is Included 

If you’re a grandparent gifting money to grandchildren, then you need to treat them equally and give the same amount to each. If you are someone younger and don’t need to distribute your generosity equally amongst your relatives, then it’s wise to be polite about it — that is to say, discreet. Don’t flaunt your gift-giving to relatives who aren’t receiving anything from you, and ask them not to say anything. You’ll save yourself a lot of resentment. 

Be Creative With Presentation 

Because money is a generic gift (however practical), put a little effort into its presentation. Make dollar bills into origami shapes. Put cash inside balloons and make children pop them. Hide money at the center of a 3D puzzle. Freeze bills in a block of ice for a pun on “cold, hard cash.” The way you present your gift can add extra layers of thoughtfulness, intimacy, and fun. 

Gifting money to family members comes with a set of rules no one really understands, so just remember to be considerate, don’t feel pressured, and find a way to add a personal touch.

This article originally appeared on Earnin.

Mirror displaying handphone screen on monitor and vice versa with WiFi connection using LetsView

If you are using an iPhone or Android phone, and you want to duplicate and show your handphone's screen on your computer monitor, laptop screen, or even smart TV screen, together with audio forwarding, you can easily do that with a free software called LetsView.

The beauty of LetsView is that it can also do the other way round, to duplicate your computer screen onto your handphone. This is pretty useful to make use of your handphone or tablet as a presentation control device, which you can control your computer screen (which can be in turn projected out to a large projector screen) by touching your handphone screen. You can perform drawing and highlighting with LetsView too.

LetsView can also perform computer to computer screen mirroring.

All you need is:

• Download and install LetsView, free of charge, in both the screen mirroring source and destination devices. Supported systems including Windows, Android, Mac OS, iOS, and TV.
• Connect both the devices into the same local network. The network connection can be using WiFi or LAN cable. It can work across VPN tunnel too.
• Run LetsView in both devices.

Running LetsView app in smartphone is pretty straightforward. When the app is able to detect another device in the same local network running LetsView, you will eventually step into the following screen.

Phone Screen Mirroring means to cast your phone screen, together with phone audio, to a computer screen.

Computer Screen Mirroring means to cast your computer screen to the phone.

The screenshot below is captured from my computer monitor, showing the LetsView software displaying my phone screen on it.

When your phone screen is placed in landscape mode, the mirrored one on computer screen will also be displayed in landscape mode.

In your LetsView computer software, you also have the option for Phone Screen Mirroring and Computer Screen Mirroring. If you choose Computer Screen Mirroring, your computer screen, as well as your computer audio, will be mirrored to another computer running LetsView. The receiver will need to key in the PIN code as shown in LetsView of the source computer, for security purpose.

Before the computer screen starts to mirror to the receiver, a confirmation dialog will popup on the screen of the source computer, and you'll need to Allow it to complete the process.

The source computer can choose to either mirror the entire screen to the receiver, or just to mirror the screen of an application currently running on it.

Here is how the screen of the source computer will be shown in LetsView of the receiver computer.

LetsView is pretty useful when you want to work with your computer, while at the same time need to have a glance to your phone's screen from time to time. By showing the phone's screen on your monitor, it is very convenient to see what is on your phone's screen even without touching your phone.

This is also useful if you want to show both your computer screen and your phone screen to your audience in a presentation or live streaming session.

On the other hand, by mirroring your computer screen to your phone or tablet, you can transform your phone/tablet into a pretty powerful presenter device to remote control your computer screen. You can even write or draw on your phone's screen, and make it appears on the larger screen, by using LetsView whiteboard and drawing utility function.

Fixed Xiaomi Redme AirDots left earbud no sound problem

When you put on both the earpieces of the Xiaomi Redme AirDots wireless earbuds, by right you just need to Bluetooth connect to the right earpiece (Redmi AirDots_R) and the left earpiece will connect itself automatically to give you a stereo audio experience.

After some times of usage, I noticed that my left earpiece no longer automatically connects to the right earpiece to form the stereo audio, and it has no sound unless I connect to Redmi AirDots_L, which will in turn causing the right earpiece to have no sound.

Here is the fix to solve the problem:

Step 1: Unpair the Bluetooth device Redmi AirDots_R (and Redmi AirDots_L, if any) in your handphone's setting, or any other device that paired with the Redme AirDots earbuds.

Step 2: Shutdown and reset both the earbuds together.

Long press the button of both the earbuds together for at least 15 seconds. You will see the red and white lights of both the earbuds flicker alternately and then go out. Very important - do not release yet! Continue your long-press, after a while, you will see the red and white lights of both the earbuds flicker alternately again, and then go out.

You need to hold your long-press until the red and white lights would not turn on again.

In my first few attempts, I failed this Step 2 and the problem still remain unfixed, because I thought it was done after one time of lights flickering and go out. It turned out that there will be second or even third round of lights flickering and go out cycle, before the reset process is totally done.

Step 3: Put back both the earbuds into the charging box. Wait until both of them enter the charging state (red light on). Let the charging to continue for at least 5 seconds.

Step 4: Take out both the earbuds from the charging box. The left earbud should now be trying to pair itself to the right earbud, and the right earbud should now be trying to seek for a pairing device.

Step 5: Go to your handphone's Bluetooth setting, search and pair with Redmi AirDots_R. Your problem should be fixed by now.

Closing credit cards can be good for your credit score

You’ve already heard everything that there is to know about improving your credit scores. Conventional wisdom says to pay all of your bills on time; don’t have too many cards; have a good mix of credit types; and never, ever close any credit cards. That last isn’t always true though. Closing your credit cards can sometimes raise your credit score.

    

Yes, closing a credit card can adversely affect your credit score, but if done wisely, the impact might actually be a positive one.

When the credit agencies calculate your credit score, there are a number of different factors that are considered.  Some of the major ones are:

• Length of your credit history
• The number of open credit lines
• Debt to available credit limit
• Your payment history
• Average age of your credit cards

The bullet point that we will pay attention to here is the final one: the average age of your credit card. The credit agencies basically look at all of your open credit cards to calculate the average age.

Consider for a minute the following examples.

1. Our test subject, let’s call her Sandy, has a student credit card that she has had for 10 years. The card terms are horrible but it’s her oldest credit card so she’s afraid to close it. Chase Bank offered a sweet new credit card with a nice 0% introductory rate that she would like to take advantage of. She applies and gets a new credit card. If she has no other cards, what is the average age of her credit cards? --- The answer is 5 years.

2. Once the 0% rate offer expires, Sandy convinces Chase to offer her a rate of 1.99% for another year.  After the year is over, the interest rate jumps to 22.99%. Knowing that she can get better offers from a competing bank, she drops the new card in the trash like last week’s leftovers.  If she closes the card opened in just one year ago and keeps the one opened when she was a student 11 years ago, what is the average age of her credit cards if she has no other cards? --- The answer is 11.

By closing the new credit card, I, uh, I mean she, has increased the average age of her credit cards.

Here’s one rule to adhere to when closing credit cards: if you can, never close your oldest credit card. It doesn’t matter if it’s an old student card that you haven’t dusted off since Super Mario Brothers was the hottest video game in the stores.

On a side note, a trend that I’ve noticed is banks closing credit cards that cardholders are not using or drastically reducing the available credit limit.  They do this because they are not making money from you, and you are tying up available credit. They would rather transfer that credit card to someone else up to their eyeballs in debt who likes to hear the sweet sound of the cash register every time they swipe their credit cards. Hang on to that grandparent of a credit card with a death grip because it will help to increase the average age of your credit cards.  You don’t have to keep a balance on it, but make a purchase using that card once-in-a-while to keep the bank happy.

One last thing. Don’t forget that the number of credit cards that you apply for also impacts your credit score. This is called a “hard inquiry”. Those inquiries will stay on your credit report for two years, but the updated FICO scoring model, used by most lenders, counts them the most during the first year.  Also, if new credit applications are clustered together within a short-time period, the impact to your credit score will be minimized. If you will be dropping your newest card to get a better deal on another card please consider applying for a new card once the last inquiry has fallen off of your credit report.

As you see, you don’t always have to be held hostage by a credit card.  Getting rid of a credit card really can positively impact your score if done wisely.

This article originally appeared on Earnin, a community-supported, earned wage access app that allows people to get paid for the hours they’ve already worked, without waiting weeks for their paycheck.

The difference between TikTok and DouYin

DouYin (斗音) is a short-video sharing social media introduced by ByteDance in China in 2016. In mid-2017, ByteDance launched DouYin's international counterparts called TikTok.

Although both DouYin and TikTok are sharing the same app icon that looks like below, they are in fact completely separate app, with respective user base and content.

Initially, both of them looks similar in functionality. Just that, DouYin operates and serves in Mainland China, and TikTok operates and serves the rest of the world outside Mainland China.

You can find TikTok app in Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Amazon App Store,  Huawei App Gallery, etc. but you can find DouYin app in those mobile apps marketplace.

To download and install DouYin, you can visit to DouYin official website and click on the respective download button there for iOS or Android.

DouYin is opened to users from all around the world, which you can register an account and verify your identity using a mobile number in your own country.

Over the times, DouYin and TikTok have been developing separately, and now also have quite a lot of differences in looks-and-feels as well as functionality.

The main difference between TikTok and DouYin is still their separated user base, which results in totally different content uploaded by the separated community.

The user interface and content in DouYin is in Chinese. You can find thousands of official account of Chinese celebrities there. Chinese singers are also using it as one of their channels to release and promote their songs.

There are several leaderboards in DouYin's search function, as shown below.

On the other hand, the user interface in TikTok is English, and the content can be multilingual. There is no leaderboards in TikTok's search function yet. In fact, you can find a list of trending hashtags there.

There is no issue for you to install both TikTok and DouYin in your phone, and register as user in both of the app separately. You just need to treat them as different apps sitting together in your phone.

Online free personality test to get accurate description of who you are and why you do things the way you do

Since the dawn of time, humans have drawn up schematics to describe and categorize our personalities. 

From the 4 temperaments of the ancient civilizations (sanguine, choleric, melancholic & phlegmatic) to the latest advances in psychology, we have been driven to fit the variables and complexities of human personality into well-defined models.

The 16Personalities website developed by a small group of enthusiastic researchers in Cambridge UK, NERIS Analytics Ltd, provides a free online personality testing tool for all of us to understand ourselves better just by answering a few questions and get a pretty detail result about our personality type, role (i.e. our goals, interests, and preferred activities) and strategy (i.e. our preferred ways of doing things and achieving goals).

The analytical model used is based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which in turn based on Carl Gustav Jung's theory of psychological types. It also incorporated frameworks from other renowned researchers, including Socionics, Keirsey Temperament Sorter, Linda Berens’ Interaction Styles, etc.

You can click here to visit the 16Personalities website and press on the Take the Test button there, to start your personality test and get your instant result report.

You will find yourself in one of the 4 roles of analysts, diplomats, sentinels, or explorers.

Each of the 4 roles is grouped by 4 personalities respectively. And each of the 16 personalities can be further analyzed into 2 different strategies. Therefore, there are altogether 32 strategies available in this model.

If you are curious about the statistical information of the personality of the people around the world which has taken this test, which can be further zoomed in to regional and country level, here is the link to show the big data result.

Maxis officially supports Voice Over LTE (VoLTE) calls, finally

Among the major mobile carriers in Malaysia, Digi is the first mover in Voice over LTE (VoLTE) service, enabling voice calls, video calls and SMS to be handled through 4G LTE network since a few years ago, in 2016. UMobile had also followed suit in 2017.

Without VoLTE, only data is handled by 4G LTE. When the phone is calling out or receiving an incoming call while it is in 4G LTE network, it will need to temporary fall back to 3G network to handle the call, and revert back to 4G LTE network after the call hang up. The switching from 4G to 3G will take some times (can be as slow as a few seconds). You can experiment and feel the latency time by putting 2 phones together and make a call from one to another, then calculating how long you need to wait to pick up the call.

Celcom and Maxis are among the last to offer VoLTE service to their subscribers. Celcom has made available VoLTE service to selected iPhone models only in March 2020.

Now, Maxis finally also rolls out VoLTE to both Maxis postpaid and Hotlink postpaid subscribers who use selected iPhone and Android phones that support VoLTE function. Currently supported brands include iPhone, Huawei, Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, ZTE, and Vivo.

VoLTE enables much faster call connection, since both of the connecting phones no longer need to fall back to 3G network to establish the call.

The voice quality will also improved by making good use of LTE higher bandwidth. If the caller and recipient phones are both using VoLTE, the call can be established with High Definition (HD) voice quality.

When you are on VoLTE call, switching between voice and voice call is possible. Your Internet activities and data transfer also won't be affected during the call, unlike the previous GSM call that will pause your Internet activities during a call.

Note that your phone needs to be within the coverage of 4G LTE network in order to enjoy the benefit of using VoLTE. If the phone is connected with 3G network, its call will still be using the traditional GSM method.

Tips to rent out condo / apartment unit with good rental return

Despite the current relatively soft rental market, it is still possible to have above-average rental return for your invested new condominium / apartment unit.

I am sharing the tips below based on my own experience, which worked well with me, and hopefully will work with you too.

Tip #1: Choose lower unit when buying new condominium / apartment

It is a common developer's practice that the higher the floor, the more expensive will be the unit of the same layout type.

Higher floor has better scenery view, which can see further away. If you save your cost on this by buying a lower unit, you can use the saved money to do better renovation, and also to furnish the unit with more furniture and electrical appliance.

In addition, lower unit is normally nearer to the car park and also to the Ground Floor. In the event of a long waiting lift, or lift under maintenance, you have the advantage of using the staircase to reach your car park or Ground Floor, without having to walk down too many floors.

This is also of advantage to your tenant during fire drill exercise, as there will be fewer floors to walk down to the evacuation area.

Tip #2: Choose a unit that less likely to be blocked by neighbouring building

When you choose your unit, make sure that it's view won't be blocked by neighbouring building, either presently or in the future.

This is because blocked unit has much lesser scenery view, less privacy as it can be seen from the other building, and dimmer sunlight.

You can ensure that your view won't be blocked by future development by choosing a unit that is facing the sea, or a lake, or a river, or low-rise landed properties, or golf field. Avoid facing a vacant land, which you won't know if there is another high-rise building erected in front of you in the future.

Tip #3: Choose smaller unit with 2 bedrooms or 3 bedrooms

Smaller unit has a cheaper selling price than larger counterparts in the same building. As the building maintenance fee and sinking fund is directly proportional to the area taken by the unit, you can also enjoy a cheaper monthly maintenance fee and sinking fund by investing in a smaller unit.

The ideal size is between 800 sqft to 1000 sqft. Depends on the floorplan layout, it is possible for you to partition a 2 bedrooms unit into 3 bedrooms. If that is the case, you will be of more competitive advantage to invest in a 2 bedrooms unit, having the option to convert it into a 3 bedrooms unit if required by your tenant.

Smaller unit is easier to get tenant who are either individual, couple without kid, or small family. You will have better bargaining power on the rental price, since your cost is lower.

For larger unit, your demand will be from larger family, or you will need to allow for sub-renting. Otherwise, since your cost is higher, if you are not willing to lower down your rental price to be on par with the smaller unit's rental price, it will be more difficult for you to secure a tenant.

Tip #4: Choose corner unit

Based on my own experience, usually the smaller units in a condominium / apartment are also corner units.

Chosing corner unit has the following advantages:

• You will have more windows, brighter sunlight, and more external views.
• All your rooms are likely to have external views. For intermediate units, it is common that one or more rooms will have corridor view, or even without any window.

Tip #5: Choose a bare unit

Certain development projects allow buyers to choose whether to let the developer to furnish the unit with built-in furniture and kitchen appliance, or to leave it as bare unit.

For investment purpose, it is strongly advised to go for bare unit, because:

• Every developer renovated unit will have same type of furnishing, making them look the same to the potential tenants who view the unit. There will be no difference and uniqueness.
• You can't control the quality and material used by the developer's contractor who furnishes the unit. In many occasions, I found people complained about substandard furnishing they got, and they regretted for not choosing a bare unit.
• By having a bare unit, you have good control on getting your trusted renovation contractor and/or interior designer to provide good quality furniture and fitting, nice looking design, and having a unique design different from other units. You also avoided the situation of having portion of standard renovation that you dislike.

Tip #6: Make sure your unit's electricity tariff is of residential rate

If you are buying a residential unit in a service apartment, it is very likely that your electricity tariff by default is of commercial rate, which is much higher than the residential rate. You can apply for the tariff conversion online pretty easily by following the steps as written in this article.

Your tenant will be happier to know that the electricity tariff of your unit is of residential rate rather than commercial rate.

Tip #7: Renovate and furnish your unit into fully furnished or close to fully furnished

This is the key of getting a relatively better rental than your neighbours in the same building. Your unit needs to make a difference and need to be more tempting to your potential tenant.

Your renovation and furnishing need to be practical for daily living. You need to supply your tenant with all the daily living essentials, such as ceiling fans, air-conds, sufficient lighting, refrigerator with sufficient capacity, washing machine, drying machine (if it is difficult to find place to dry clothes with direct sunlight), kitchen cabinets, wardrobes, etc.

Although you might not need to choose to supply with high-end electrical appliance, it is better to provide good quality and branded one. Firstly, they are more presentable to your tenant. Secondly, the chances of breakdown are probably lower, and in case of warranty service is needed, you are likely to have better after-sales service from branded products.

It is a very good selling point if you could make your unit a comfortable and convenient place to live in, with the comfy feel of "home" to your tenant. It needs to be presentable and honorable for your tenant to welcome his/her guests visiting to your unit, a.k.a. your tenant's sweet home.

To give you an idea, below are 2 pictures of the kitchen area of 2 of my invested units respectively.

Tip #8: Take nice photos and videos to advertise your unit

Whether you want to rent out your unit by yourself, or through property renting platform such as SpeedHome, or using property agents, you need to take nice photos and videos to advertise your unit.

You will need altogether 3 sets of photos and videos:

• Your unit
• Highlight your unique selling points.
• Highlight what's your difference compared with other units.
• Highlight its security features, such as: digital door lock, invisible grilles, etc.
• Highlight its privacy features, such as: curtain & blinds, soundproof, etc.
• Provide good impression to potential tenant to fell that "this is the comfy home to live in".

• Your condominium/apartment
• Highlight your building's unique selling points compared with other neighbouring buildings.
• Highlight how presentable is it to visitors - parking, visitor waiting area, OKU considerations, etc.
• Showcase the common facilities - swimming pool, sauna, gym room, children playground, recreational facilities, sports facilities, social facilities, etc.
• Showcase the security and privacy.
• Showcase the convenience.
• Showcase the friendliness of residents, quality of management office and security guards, etc.
• Interesting events, functions and happenings in your community - festivals celebration, parties, marriage occasions, BBQ, educational events, etc.
• Available high-speed broadband Internet service providers, the more choices the merrier - UniFi, Time, Maxis, Astro, Fiber@Home, etc.

• The nearby surroundings of your condominium/apartment
• Convenience stores
• Eateries and restaurants
• Sport facilities - badminton, tennis, basketball, volleyball, soccer, golf, stadium, etc.
• Recreation places - parks, lake, riverside, hiking route, etc.
• Clinics and shops
• Marts, morning market, night market, ...
• Shopping mall, commercial area, banks, ATM machines, ...
• Kindergartens, schools, colleges, universities, daycare centres, tuition centres, ...
• Medical centre, hospitals, police station, fire brigade, ...
• LRT/MRT stations
• Traffic condition
• Surrounding community

With all these in place, I believe you will be able to get a good tenant with a good rental return too.

Use Hekasoft to backup, migrate, optimize and maintain your profiles and emails in web browsers, email clients, Skype, uTorrent, and more...

I used to make use of a freeware called MozBackup to backup my user profile in Firefox and Thunderbird. The backup file can then be copied and restored in another computer, which is an easy and perfect migration, especially to all my emails stored in my Thunderbird profile.

Unfortunately, MozBackup has no longer been maintained since 2012. It stopped at version 1.5.2 Beta 1.

Luckily, I've found another freeware called Hekasoft Backup & Restore, which you can download here.

Hekasoft can do everything that MozBackup did for backup, restore and migration of user profiles and emails. In fact, Hekasoft supports much more software and equipped with more powerful functions.

It supports a vast variety of Chrome based (Chromium) browsers, Firefox based (Gecko) browsers, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Lunascape, and more.

In terms of email clients, it supports Thunderbird, Postbox, eM Client, Incredimail, etc.

It also supports FileZilla, qBitTorrent, uTorrent, Skype, and some other software.

Beside the normal backup and restore of the user profiles of the same software (such as from Thunderbird to Thunderbird), either in the same computer or restoration in another computer, Hekasoft can also perform migration, optimization, plugin management, bookmark URL maintenance, and profile switching.

The different of "migration" from "backup & restore" is that, when we backup & restore, it is performed within the same software (eg. from Google Chrome to Google Chrome), while migration is to duplicate the profile settings and contents from one software to another (eg. from Google Chrome to Vivaldi).

The "optimize" function in Hekasoft is used to clean up the caches, crash reports, telemetry, dump files, etc. of the selected software, such as Thunderbird.

The "dead link checker" will dive into the bookmark URLs of Internet Explorer, report on problematic URL links, and enable deletion to those dead links.

The "plugin scanner" is dealing with the plugins, add-ons and extensions of web browsers.

The profile switcher enable easy switching between different default user profile of the software, such as Thunderbird. You can also create new profile, clone profile, and delete profile with it.

I strongly recommend Hekasoft to be your powerful tool to perform backup, restore, migration and maintenance to your web browser, email client, file downloader, Skype, etc.

Pay TNB electricity bill and other bills online with e-Wallet (Boost, GrabPay, TnG eWallet) using POS Malaysia App

There used to be several online channels that you are able to pay TNB electricity bill online by using your e-Wallet money. Unfortunately, most of those online channels no longer accept TNB electricity bill payment since a few months ago.

Besides, it is also very hard to find an online channel that can pay for Indah Water sewerage treatment bill using your e-Wallet money.

Luckily, this has been made possible now with POS Malaysia App, which you can find in Google Play Store and Apple App Store. It supports bill payment using Boost, GrabPay, TnG eWallet and also FPX bank transfer.

You don't even need to create a user account to make bill payments in POS Malaysia App. Just tap on Bill Payment and follow the steps to make your bill payment.

Currently available bill payments through the app including:

• TNB electricity bill
• Water bill in various states
• Indah Water
• Astro
• Maxis
• Celcom
• Time Internet

You will need to provide information about your biller's Account No. and payment amount before reaching the payment page. Option is given for you to save the biller's Account No. in the app, so that you don't need to key-in the long chunk of number the next time you want to pay to the same account.

Yoodo unveiled customizable unlimited data plan on top of existing high-speed data plan

Yoodo has been known to offer high-speed data plan with usage quota that has uncapped speed and uncapped hotspot tethering.

Now, Yoodo has unveiled a new customizable unlimited data plan on top of the existing high-speed data plan, so that users can configure their data plan at the best of their need.

The maximum speed of Yoodo unlimited data plan is capped at either 3 Mbps or 6 Mbps.

Current price for 3 Mbps unlimited data plan is RM35 per month, and for 6 Mbps is RM43 per month.

Both of the 3 Mbps and 6 Mbps unlimited data plan come with:

• Free 2GB of hotspot tethering quota
• Free 2GB of data roaming quota
• Free 50 minutes of voice call

Additional hotspot tethering quota, voice call minutes and SMS quantity can be purchased by user configuration in Yoodo app.

Yoodo SIM card is available for free and will be sent to your address, just click here to order it. You can also buy the Yoodo SIM card at 99 Speedmart at the minimal price of RM2.

New users who activate their Yoodo account using this referral code "cwqhp2909" will get free 7GB of high-speed data quota during first subscription month.

Fixed Windows 10 problem of not detecting any keyboard and mouse at login screen

Yesterday morning, when I booted up my desktop computer running Windows 10, I was stuck at the login screen because the keyboard and mouse are totally not functioning. It had taken me more than 2 hours to fix the problem.

The symptom:

• The keyboard is not detected by Windows and not functioning. Pressing the Num Lock and Caps Lock will not toggle the LED light on the keyboard.
• There is also no mouse cursor on the login screen.
• The keyboard and mouse are functioning well if reboot into BIOS screen. This indicated that the problem is not with the keyboard or mouse or USB port, but something is wrong with the Windows system.

I have tried the following methods, but all of them failed to resolve the problem:

• Change to connect to different USB port of the computer produced the same result.
• Change to use another keyboard/mouse is also the same.
• When using a wired mouse, the LED light on the mouse is illuminated, indicating the mouse is getting current from the USB port of the computer without problem.
• Press the power button to shutdown Windows, and then start it up again, did not help at all.
• Boot up with Windows 10 USB Recovery Drive, the keyboard and mouse were working fine. Perform a Start-up Repair did not find any problem.

How I finally fixed the problem?

I unplugged the computer power cord from my UPS and plug it directly to the wall socket. Then, switched on the computer.

When the computer reached the Windows login screen, cut off the electricity supply by switching off the wall socket.

On the next reboot after Windows encountered such an "unexpected power off", my keyboard and mouse are finally functioning again.

I know that this action of forcing unexpected power off was quite harmful to the computer hardware as well as to the Windows system, but it somehow managed to trigger an automatic repair during Windows startup which fixed the keyboard and mouse issue.

When everything was back to normal, I connected back the power supply of the computer to my UPS and tried to find out the cause of the issue. It was caused by an unsuccessful automatic update of "Cumulative Update Preview for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8 for Windows 10 Version 2004 for x64 (KB4570721)". 

The update was then done manually after some precautions taken. It was successful and required a reboot. Luckily, after the reboot, my keyboard and mouse are still functioning well.

Hotlink Postpaid has increased data quota without additional charge since 5 September 2020

Hotlink Postpaid by Maxis has been around for quite some times, offering 3 different packages with different data quota limit, namely Hotlink Postpaid 30, Hotlink Postpaid 40 and Hotlink Postpaid 60.

All the 3 of them come with unlimited calls and unlimited SMS. The Hotlink Postpaid 60 plan also comes with an optional mid-range Android handphone bundle.

In August 2019, Hotlink had upgraded their Postpaid 40 and Postpaid 60 plans with additional high speed YouTube data, without additional charge, as shown in the middle table below.

Now, Hotlink has just upgraded all the 3 postpaid plans again with additional data quota, from 5 September 2020 onwards, without additional charge, as shown in the bottom table above.

If you have observed your monthly data utilization carefully, you will note that the YouTube quota in these Hotlink postpaid plans actually encompasses all the Google services, including YouTube, Play Store, Gmail, etc.

This upgrade is somehow seen as a response to the upgrade of Celcom XP Lite Postpaid Plans to include unlimited YouTube since early July 2020.

My Prolink PDC66001 60 watts 6-port USB charger with QC3.0 fast charging support

I was looking for a replacement to my Belkin B2E027 4-port USB charger and finally bought the Prolink PDC66001 60 watts 6-port USB charger.

There are many brands and models of multiple port USB chargers available in the market, varying in quality, price, charging speed, and safety features. My considerations in choosing a multiple port USB charger includes:

• Reliability - Prolink is a trustworthy Singapore brand with many decent ICT products.
• Safety - Prolink PDC66001 is IEC and Singapore Safty Mark certified. It comes with S$1 million product liability insurance. Its IntelliSense feature provides protections against over-voltage, over-current, over-temperature, overload and short-circuit.
• Total number of charging port - its 6 charging port is more than the 4-port Belkin B2E027.
• Charging speed - Prolink PDC66001 has 2 Qualcomm certified QC3.0 fast charging ports and 4 more 5V/2.4A charging ports.
• Total output power - Prolink PDC66001 has a maximum output power of 60 watts, while most other multiple port USB chargers are having maximum output power of 30 watts or even lower.
• Availability of 3-pin UK plug - Prolink PDC66001 comes with a 1 meter long AC power cord with 3-pin UK plug.
• Price - I find Prolink PDC66001's price of around RM100 quite reasonable.

Its size is pretty small, about the size of a mouse, making it very easy to be carried along while traveling.

Its QC3.0 charging ports are differentiated from the other ports with green colour.

Each of the Prolink PDC66001 product has its own serial number. Registration for its 12-month warranty can be done online on their website.

How to instantly make the background of photo & video transparent

A company called Kaleido AI GmbH in Vienna, Austria has successfully made use of artificial intelligence (A.I.) technology to effectively remove the background from the main object(s) in any photo and even video, awesomely making the background transparent, without the hassle of using any greenscreen.

In most cases, the conversion can be instantly completed within a second, and the result is impressively promising!

The product/service that makes photo background transparent is Remove.bg. It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux as a software, very useful to perform bulk images conversion, which you can download from this webpage: https://www.remove.bg/windows-mac-linux

It also has an Android app which you can click here to download and install it from Google Play Store.

Alternatively, you can also upload your photo to their website, just by a simple drag-and-drop action, to perform online conversion. The URL is: https://www.remove.bg/

Remove.bg provides API for integration, and its plugins are available for Photoshop, Zapier, Integromat, Figma, WooCommerce, Drupal, Sketch, and even Visual Studio Code.

Remove.bg sells credits for image conversion, 1 credit for 1 image conversion. If you don't need high resolution converted image, the converted preview image up to 0.25 megapixels is free of charge.

Below are some examples to give you an idea about what can be expected from Remove.bg background removal service.

Original photo:

Background removed:

Original photo:

Background removed:

Original photo:

Background removed:

Kaleido AI GmbH's A.I. technology for background removal is not only applicable to images, but also can be used for videos as well.

Currently, only online conversion is available for videos. The service name is called UnScreen, and its URL is: https://www.unscreen.com/

Below is a sample video provided in UnScreen website to see it in action.