Wednesday, February 25, 2015

10 things you should never say during presentations

Mr. Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten shared in his blog about the 10 things you should never say during presentations, which I found is very inspiring.

Here are the 10 no-no, and I believe most of us had said some or all of such sentences in our presentations before. Watch out!

  • I’m very jet-lagged / tired / hungover
  • I’ll get back to that later
  • Can you hear me? Yes you can!
  • I can’t see you because the lights are too bright
  • Can you read this?
  • Let me read this out loud for you
  • Shut off your phone / laptop / tablet
  • No need to write anything down or take photos, the presentation will be online later
  • Let me answer that question right away
  • I’ll keep it short
Why Boris thinks that those sentence shouldn't be said during presentation? Click here to read the source article in his blog to find out more.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Win a Samsung Galaxy S6 or HTC One M9 or LG G Flex 2 in Choose Your Own Next Gen Android Giveaway

Pocketnow is currently holding The Choose Your Own Next Gen Android Giveaway for you to win a next generation Android smartphone.

 The winner gets to choose whichever of the following phones they want:

  • Samsung Galaxy S6
  • HTC One M9
  • LG G Flex 2
It only takes one step to win: submit your email address in the giveaway website. Click here to enter The Choose Your Own Next Gen Android Giveaway website.

Official Giveaway End Date: 20 March 2015 11:59pm (PST)

Sunday, February 8, 2015

EPF declared 6.75% dividend for 2014

The Employees Provident Fund (EPF, a.k.a. Kumpulan Wang Simpanan Pekerja, KWSP) Board, with the approval of the Minister of Finance, has just announced a dividend rate of 6.75% and RM39.08 billion gross investment income for financial year ended 31 December 2014, which is an increase of 11.66% compared with RM35.00 billion in 2013.

The 6.75% dividend amounted to a total payout of RM36.66 billion where RM5.41 billion was required to pay every one per cent of dividend rate for 2014. This was 10.53% higher compared with RM4.91 billion paid for every one per cent dividend rate for 2013, in tandem with the rise in contributors’ savings.
 
EPF global investments, forming 23% of total assets, had contributed 33% towards their total income for 2014.
 
The 2014 gross investment income was mainly driven by Equities in the domestic and global markets covering both emerging and developed countries. The asset class recorded an investment income of RM22.91 billion in 2014, up 17.37% compared with RM19.52 billion in 2013, and contributed 58.63% to the total gross investment income in 2014. Almost half of the income of the equity investment is derived from EPF’s global portfolios.

Majority of the EPF’s investment assets were placed in low risk fixed income instruments as this asset class provided a stable stream of income in the long run.
 
Loans and Bonds contributed RM7.57 billion in income, compared with RM7.51 billion in 2013. This rise was attributed to the performance of the global portfolios by both internal and external fund managers. Malaysian Government Securities and Equivalents recorded RM6.59 billion in income, registering a rise of 6.14%, compared with 2013. Meanwhile, Money Market Instruments posted an income of RM619.65 million.
 
Real Estate and Infrastructure contributed RM1.39 billion in investment income in 2014. This inflation-linked asset class, which the EPF has started invested in since 2010, has over the years been showing encouraging performance and is a 22.31% increase from 2013.
 
As at 31 December 2014, the EPF’s total investment assets stood at RM636.53 billion, up 7.91% from RM589.87 billion in 2013.
 
 

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