In London, there was an awesome Science Museum which sold plenty of puzzles and brain boggling puzzles. I bought an IQ Test from Dynamo House to try because I like those puzzles and think they're fun. They require our minds to think logically but not in a direct line.
If you enjoyed the Legs Puzzle that I posted up a few months ago, you may like to try some of these IQ test puzzles:
Puzzle 1: Mary had a number of cookies. After eating one, she gave half the remainder to her sister. After eating another cookie, she gave half of what was left to her brother. Mary now had only five cookies left. How many cookies did she start with?
11-22-23-45-46 ?
Puzzle 2: A spaceship received three messages in a strange language from a distant planet. The astronauts studied these messages and found that "Elros Aldarion Elendil" means "Danger Rocket Explosion" and "Edain Mnyatur Elros" means "Danger Spaceship Fire" and "Aldarion Gimilzor Gondor" means "Bad Gas Explosion". What does "Elendil" mean?
DANGER-EXPLOSION-NOTHING-ROCKET-GAS?
Puzzle 3: John, twelve years old, is three times as old as his brother. How old will John be when he is twice as old as his brother?
15-16-18-20-21?
Puzzle 4: The price of an article was cut 20% for a sale. By what percent must the item be increased again to sell the article at the original price?
15%-20%-25%-30%-40%?
Enjoy and I'll post up the answers in a few days (or weeks) time =)
Friday, November 30, 2012
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Establishing Goals And Dreams
Yesterday I posted a recap of 2012.
Mr SMG looks up from his iPad in surprise that I finally updated this blog, reads it and then grumbles about how going snowboarding in Canada and Colorado is unfeasible due to our commitments and plans for 2013. It is rather disappointing to know that we may be missing a few snowboarding seasons.
We will be going away to Singapore in a few weeks time, having returned from Europe not long ago. So can't afford to jet off to multiple holidays plus an overseas wedding in addition to buying a freakingly expensive house in Sydney.
I'm rather trepidacious about the potentially monstrous mortgage and have compiled several what-if worse case scenarios if anything goes wrong - what I'll liquidate first (the emergency funds in the mortgage offset), liquidate secondly (my stock portfolio and his managed funds) and liquidate as last resort (my apartment).
I'm being overly dramatic though. We can still afford the potential house mortgage for approximately two years with both of us not earning any direct income from employment before we hit the wall and need to liquidate the illiquid assets such as my apartment. So yeah, haven't bought the house yet but have already crunched the various scenarios into a pile of crumbs already.
So here are my rough goals(again) going forward into 2013, reposted with edits:
1. Something massive x 2 (could I be more 007 like? lol)
2. Buy a house
3. If time+budget+life permits, travel South East Asia (Thailand/Cambodia/Vietnam)
4. Work on side hobbies (photo props/card designs/iPhone apps) and get them launched
Just remembered that I also did a recap of 2011 goals which you can read about here.
Oddly enough, the goals that I hadn't fully achieved in 2011 were all achieved in 2012.
The goals that I haven't fully achieved in 2012 will undoubtedly be achieved in 2013.
Below is a how-to guide on how to set goals and objectives if you don't know how or you wish to learn how. Remember, that all goals must meet the S.M.A.R.T criterias of being specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. You can always sneak in some pie-in-the-sky goals like I always do...you just never know what may come true ;)
Setting Goals And Objectives:
1. What do you want to achieve in the long term 5-10 years from now?
2. What do you want to achieve in the medium term 3-5 years from now to achieve your long term goals?
3. What do you need to do in the short term, today-3 years time to achieve your medium and long term goals?
4. Establish your dreams and goals for various categories such as: family, friends, personal relationship, career, health, finances. For each of those categories, break them down into what you want for the long term and what you need to do in the short to medium term in order to realistically achieve those long term goals.
Note that the time periods are just a guidance and you don't have to set long term, 10 year goals.
However Robert Kiyosaki writes that you need to start off with what and where you want to be in 5-10 years time before you know what you need to do for the next few years to get to where you want to be. (It's blatantly obvious that I've been reading Kiyosaki's books eh?!)
Example Of How To Set Your Goals
A friend of mine tells me that he wants to buy a house. I asked him when does he hope to buy one? He says he doesn't know when and he's got no idea when or how he can afford one. I asked him a few questions to sort out what he wants:
* Which area does he like and wish to buy a house in? Coastal
* What type of house does he want? At least 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and 1 carpark
* What are the prices of houses like that in the area he wants to buy in? $500,000
From those answers, we deduced that:
1. He'll need to save up 20% of $500,000 as a deposit
2. He'll need to save up 5% of $500,000 for the miscellaneous expenses such as legal fees, stamp duty, mortgage duty, pest and building inspections, settlement fees etc
3. Therefore he'll need to save up at least $125,000 to buy a house
4. How much can he save each week? $125,000 divided by what he can save weekly or monthly will determine how long it will take him to realistically achieve his long term goal.
Example: If he can save $800 per week, then his goals would look something like:
$125,000/$800 = 156 weeks worth of savings = 3 years worth of saving
1. Long term goal- buy a $500,000 house in 3 years time
2. Medium term - save up at least $41,666 annually
3. Short term - save up $800 per week
So instead of drifting along with the idea that he wants to buy a house in the near future, he can set realistic goals and KNOW that he can buy one in three years time IF he saves $800 weekly.
Mr SMG looks up from his iPad in surprise that I finally updated this blog, reads it and then grumbles about how going snowboarding in Canada and Colorado is unfeasible due to our commitments and plans for 2013. It is rather disappointing to know that we may be missing a few snowboarding seasons.
We will be going away to Singapore in a few weeks time, having returned from Europe not long ago. So can't afford to jet off to multiple holidays plus an overseas wedding in addition to buying a freakingly expensive house in Sydney.
I'm rather trepidacious about the potentially monstrous mortgage and have compiled several what-if worse case scenarios if anything goes wrong - what I'll liquidate first (the emergency funds in the mortgage offset), liquidate secondly (my stock portfolio and his managed funds) and liquidate as last resort (my apartment).
I'm being overly dramatic though. We can still afford the potential house mortgage for approximately two years with both of us not earning any direct income from employment before we hit the wall and need to liquidate the illiquid assets such as my apartment. So yeah, haven't bought the house yet but have already crunched the various scenarios into a pile of crumbs already.
So here are my rough goals(again) going forward into 2013, reposted with edits:
1. Something massive x 2 (could I be more 007 like? lol)
2. Buy a house
3. If time+budget+life permits, travel South East Asia (Thailand/Cambodia/Vietnam)
4. Work on side hobbies (photo props/card designs/iPhone apps) and get them launched
Just remembered that I also did a recap of 2011 goals which you can read about here.
Oddly enough, the goals that I hadn't fully achieved in 2011 were all achieved in 2012.
The goals that I haven't fully achieved in 2012 will undoubtedly be achieved in 2013.
Below is a how-to guide on how to set goals and objectives if you don't know how or you wish to learn how. Remember, that all goals must meet the S.M.A.R.T criterias of being specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. You can always sneak in some pie-in-the-sky goals like I always do...you just never know what may come true ;)
Setting Goals And Objectives:
1. What do you want to achieve in the long term 5-10 years from now?
2. What do you want to achieve in the medium term 3-5 years from now to achieve your long term goals?
3. What do you need to do in the short term, today-3 years time to achieve your medium and long term goals?
4. Establish your dreams and goals for various categories such as: family, friends, personal relationship, career, health, finances. For each of those categories, break them down into what you want for the long term and what you need to do in the short to medium term in order to realistically achieve those long term goals.
Note that the time periods are just a guidance and you don't have to set long term, 10 year goals.
However Robert Kiyosaki writes that you need to start off with what and where you want to be in 5-10 years time before you know what you need to do for the next few years to get to where you want to be. (It's blatantly obvious that I've been reading Kiyosaki's books eh?!)
Example Of How To Set Your Goals
A friend of mine tells me that he wants to buy a house. I asked him when does he hope to buy one? He says he doesn't know when and he's got no idea when or how he can afford one. I asked him a few questions to sort out what he wants:
* Which area does he like and wish to buy a house in? Coastal
* What type of house does he want? At least 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and 1 carpark
* What are the prices of houses like that in the area he wants to buy in? $500,000
From those answers, we deduced that:
1. He'll need to save up 20% of $500,000 as a deposit
2. He'll need to save up 5% of $500,000 for the miscellaneous expenses such as legal fees, stamp duty, mortgage duty, pest and building inspections, settlement fees etc
3. Therefore he'll need to save up at least $125,000 to buy a house
4. How much can he save each week? $125,000 divided by what he can save weekly or monthly will determine how long it will take him to realistically achieve his long term goal.
Example: If he can save $800 per week, then his goals would look something like:
$125,000/$800 = 156 weeks worth of savings = 3 years worth of saving
1. Long term goal- buy a $500,000 house in 3 years time
2. Medium term - save up at least $41,666 annually
3. Short term - save up $800 per week
So instead of drifting along with the idea that he wants to buy a house in the near future, he can set realistic goals and KNOW that he can buy one in three years time IF he saves $800 weekly.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Birthdays And More Birthdays
Tis' The Season To Be Birthdays
It's been birthday season for the past few months going into Christmas.
Haven't even had time to contemplate the Silly Season because of Birthday Season.
What have you been up to? Christmas shopping? Just to let you know in advance, this post has a little bit of everything to compensate for the weeks I haven't been prolifically blogging.
The Aussie Economy
Our Aussie economy is in a slump right now and it would be foolish of me to ignore the potentially darker economy heading our way. Maybe we're in a slump because we mutilate ourselves, economically speaking. We buy goods online from overseas and that means local retailers(one of the biggest employers in Oz) are struggling and this translates to cut labour hours and reduced income for retail employees. All this flow on effect leads to reduced consumption. It's the circle of economics 101.
Travelling and More Travelling
Mr SMG and I will be travelling again in a few short weeks to Singapore. We're actually driving south with a group of friends next weekend. So much happening. There was a looooong hiatus from blogging because we were in Europe for several weeks. I can't even disclose exactly when we'll be travelling because there are other third parties out there who know where I live. That's what happens when you post under your real name duh, *smacks forehead*.
I had good intentions of posting up some holiday snaps but it's been crazy busy even though I supposedly have almost all the time in the world. Over the last few months, I've been thanking my younger, sagacious self for looking after my older self. I could not be in my current position of relative comfort without my younger self prudently investing madly(juxtaposition intended lol).
Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda
Yours truly has been preoccupied with an iPhone app idea. Will that venture take off or crash and burn?
I won't even shed any tears over how my dear friend Mr Z and I could have been gazillionaires already if we had bought Apple shares back in 2006/2007. He and I could have had ten million each under our belts if we had chosen that route but when the road is forking, you never know which road to take until it's too late. Who could have foreseen the successful, phenomenal Apple product releases of the iPad and iPhones? We knew Apple's imagination and creativity was starting to ignite back then, but as you know, coulda, woulda, shoulda. Oops.
An Early Christmas Pressie For You
What can I give my readers for Christmas? Maybe a wry comment to go easy on the credit card and Christmas gifts if you think you may end up with a financial headache in January. Go through your recurring bills and find more competitive offers out there, ask for a price match and save yourselves thousands of dollars. What else hasn't been said?
New Years Eve Resolution For 2013
Okay, so I'm one month early =) Why wait?
If you've got NYE resolution from back in January, maybe reflect on those and what you've achieved?
I look back at what I posted in January 2012 about my NYE resolutions:
2. Nope; didn't buy the house
3. Yep; few travel destinations were travelled
Two out of three ain't bad I guess. It would have been sweet to achieve all three but I'm still happy overall about 2012 =)
Got some MAJOR plans for 2013:
1. Something massive x 2 (could I be more 007 like? lol)
2. Buy a house
3. If time+budget+life permits, go snowboarding in Canada/Colorado
(Mr SMG says this is pie in the sky and I should have omitted this one >.<)
4. If time+budget+life permits, travel South East Asia (Thailand/Cambodia/Vietnam)
5. Work on side hobbies (photo props/card designs/iPhone apps) and get them launched
What about yourself? Are you happy with 2012?
It's been birthday season for the past few months going into Christmas.
Haven't even had time to contemplate the Silly Season because of Birthday Season.
What have you been up to? Christmas shopping? Just to let you know in advance, this post has a little bit of everything to compensate for the weeks I haven't been prolifically blogging.
The Aussie Economy
Our Aussie economy is in a slump right now and it would be foolish of me to ignore the potentially darker economy heading our way. Maybe we're in a slump because we mutilate ourselves, economically speaking. We buy goods online from overseas and that means local retailers(one of the biggest employers in Oz) are struggling and this translates to cut labour hours and reduced income for retail employees. All this flow on effect leads to reduced consumption. It's the circle of economics 101.
Travelling and More Travelling
Mr SMG and I will be travelling again in a few short weeks to Singapore. We're actually driving south with a group of friends next weekend. So much happening. There was a looooong hiatus from blogging because we were in Europe for several weeks. I can't even disclose exactly when we'll be travelling because there are other third parties out there who know where I live. That's what happens when you post under your real name duh, *smacks forehead*.
I had good intentions of posting up some holiday snaps but it's been crazy busy even though I supposedly have almost all the time in the world. Over the last few months, I've been thanking my younger, sagacious self for looking after my older self. I could not be in my current position of relative comfort without my younger self prudently investing madly(juxtaposition intended lol).
Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda
Yours truly has been preoccupied with an iPhone app idea. Will that venture take off or crash and burn?
I won't even shed any tears over how my dear friend Mr Z and I could have been gazillionaires already if we had bought Apple shares back in 2006/2007. He and I could have had ten million each under our belts if we had chosen that route but when the road is forking, you never know which road to take until it's too late. Who could have foreseen the successful, phenomenal Apple product releases of the iPad and iPhones? We knew Apple's imagination and creativity was starting to ignite back then, but as you know, coulda, woulda, shoulda. Oops.
An Early Christmas Pressie For You
What can I give my readers for Christmas? Maybe a wry comment to go easy on the credit card and Christmas gifts if you think you may end up with a financial headache in January. Go through your recurring bills and find more competitive offers out there, ask for a price match and save yourselves thousands of dollars. What else hasn't been said?
New Years Eve Resolution For 2013
Okay, so I'm one month early =) Why wait?
If you've got NYE resolution from back in January, maybe reflect on those and what you've achieved?
I look back at what I posted in January 2012 about my NYE resolutions:
"a huge promise to make, a house to buy and a few travel destinations"1. Yep; the huge promise was made
2. Nope; didn't buy the house
3. Yep; few travel destinations were travelled
Two out of three ain't bad I guess. It would have been sweet to achieve all three but I'm still happy overall about 2012 =)
Got some MAJOR plans for 2013:
1. Something massive x 2 (could I be more 007 like? lol)
2. Buy a house
(Mr SMG says this is pie in the sky and I should have omitted this one >.<)
4. If time+budget+life permits, travel South East Asia (Thailand/Cambodia/Vietnam)
5. Work on side hobbies (photo props/card designs/iPhone apps) and get them launched
What about yourself? Are you happy with 2012?
Friday, November 9, 2012
Traffic Stats: Over 100,000 visits to SMG
Sorry dear readers. Haven't been posting consistently. Just wanted to say that I thank you for visiting, for reading and for subscribing.
Just thought I'd do a quick post to say that my Google Analytic traffic stat has hit over 100,000 visits to this humble site. It may not be a super huge number but it means that I'm writing something that is of interest or of use to you as readers.
Even without posting regularly, the views last month was crazy at 15, 696. The figures are growing exponentially.
My 'statcounter' is only tracking visits to the main homepage(almost 47,000), whereas Google Analytics track visits to all parts of my blog, including archives.
Just thought I'd do a quick post to say that my Google Analytic traffic stat has hit over 100,000 visits to this humble site. It may not be a super huge number but it means that I'm writing something that is of interest or of use to you as readers.
Even without posting regularly, the views last month was crazy at 15, 696. The figures are growing exponentially.
My 'statcounter' is only tracking visits to the main homepage(almost 47,000), whereas Google Analytics track visits to all parts of my blog, including archives.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Harvesting, Pruning and Eating Your Basil Plants
A friend of ours was showing me his super healthy, potted herb garden.
I envy folks who live in houses. House gardens are much more conducive to gardening than most balcony gardens. Our balcony gets windy most days because of the height and proximity to the river so we get a lot of wind which causes the soil to dry out and harden.
Anyway, for anyone curious about how they can prune or harvest their basil to eat, I'm posting some pictures below of how we harvest ours. All varieties of basil, mint and rosemary thrives on being cut back so that their side buds can grow bushy. Pruning them to eat also prevents them from flowering so that you can enjoy eating them for several months.
It's tempting to let your beloved plants to grow unchecked and uneaten but before you know it, they'll start flowering and it's all over unless you cut all the blooms off before they start seeding and dying off. As you can see below, it doesn't matter where I cut, as long as I remove the flower and cut just above the leaves/shoot nodes:
Cutting your basil or mint plants (it doesn't matter which variety you grow):
1. Decide how high you want your basil plant to grow and aim to lop off at the height you desire
2. Identify the two big fat leaves at the node and the little baby shoots growing from the stem
3. Cut just above the two big fat leaves and the baby shoots and lop the top off
4. Eat
As you can see, our dear friend Peanut, gave us this Thai basil plant months ago. It was too hard to eat Thai basil all the time so it ultimately started flowering because I wasn't pruning them back diligently. I've been stir frying, having basil in the soup, basil in rice paper summer rolls and have been taking a break from basil so they started flowering.
I envy folks who live in houses. House gardens are much more conducive to gardening than most balcony gardens. Our balcony gets windy most days because of the height and proximity to the river so we get a lot of wind which causes the soil to dry out and harden.
Anyway, for anyone curious about how they can prune or harvest their basil to eat, I'm posting some pictures below of how we harvest ours. All varieties of basil, mint and rosemary thrives on being cut back so that their side buds can grow bushy. Pruning them to eat also prevents them from flowering so that you can enjoy eating them for several months.
It's tempting to let your beloved plants to grow unchecked and uneaten but before you know it, they'll start flowering and it's all over unless you cut all the blooms off before they start seeding and dying off. As you can see below, it doesn't matter where I cut, as long as I remove the flower and cut just above the leaves/shoot nodes:
1. Decide how high you want your basil plant to grow and aim to lop off at the height you desire
2. Identify the two big fat leaves at the node and the little baby shoots growing from the stem
3. Cut just above the two big fat leaves and the baby shoots and lop the top off
4. Eat
As you can see, our dear friend Peanut, gave us this Thai basil plant months ago. It was too hard to eat Thai basil all the time so it ultimately started flowering because I wasn't pruning them back diligently. I've been stir frying, having basil in the soup, basil in rice paper summer rolls and have been taking a break from basil so they started flowering.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Henderson Poverty Index And Household Expenditure Measure
Have you heard of the HPI (Henderson Poverty Index) or HEM (Household Expenditure Measure)?
HPI and HEM are the living expense amounts that lenders use in their mortgage calculators to see how much you can borrow.
Some home loan lenders have started using the HEM to calculate the maximum size loan you can borrow based on your income. Using HEM in calculations means individuals can borrow more while it's the inverse for couples, that is couples can borrow less when the HEM is used.
When you apply for a mortgage loan, the paperwork will ask you to state your living expenses and how much you spend. With those figures, they will compare it to the appropriate category in the tables below and take the higher figure to use in their mortgage calculators.
If you're single, is $1105 per month sufficient to meet your living expenses?
If you're a couple, is $2032 per month sufficient to meet your living expenses?
Source:
1. homeloanexperts.com.au
HPI and HEM are the living expense amounts that lenders use in their mortgage calculators to see how much you can borrow.
Some home loan lenders have started using the HEM to calculate the maximum size loan you can borrow based on your income. Using HEM in calculations means individuals can borrow more while it's the inverse for couples, that is couples can borrow less when the HEM is used.
When you apply for a mortgage loan, the paperwork will ask you to state your living expenses and how much you spend. With those figures, they will compare it to the appropriate category in the tables below and take the higher figure to use in their mortgage calculators.
Living expenses for single adults
| Household Segments | HPI | HEM |
| No Dependents | $1250 | $1105 |
| 1 Dependent | $1717 | $1430 |
| 2 Dependents | $2159 | $1560 |
| 3 Dependents | $2601 | $1889 |
Living expenses for couples
| Household Segments | HPI | HEM |
| No Dependent | $1817 | $2032 |
| 1 Dependent | $2284 | $2583 |
| 2 Dependents | $2726 | $2704 |
| 3 Dependents | $3168 | $3137 |
If you're single, is $1105 per month sufficient to meet your living expenses?
If you're a couple, is $2032 per month sufficient to meet your living expenses?
Source:
1. homeloanexperts.com.au
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Sharing Is Caring: Co-op Websites
Sharing Is Caring
As more and more apartments are built, the traditional concept of houses and neighbourhoods no longer apply.
Apartment dwellers can be faceless and quiet. Sometimes you might bump into a familiar face sharing the lift with you. Some are friendly while some prefer to keep to themselves. Is this a vision of the future or will the sharers and community sort start fighting back to bring community back into our lives?
Children use to play out on the streets together. Neighbours would swap recipes and borrow items that they needed. Nowadays, with the fear about children being kidnapped or injured, the helicopter parents who hover over their kids, the bustling lives that we lead, the long hours that folks work and all the technological gadgets that keep us voluntarily addicted indoors, we no longer socialise as much with our neighbours.
If you ran out of sugar, which one of you readers would feel comfortable enough to knock on your neighbours door and borrow sugar? If you were going away on holiday, would you be comfortable enough to give your house keys to your neighbour to help with tasks such as feeding the dog and watering the plants? If you have a child, do you feel confortable enough to ask them to mind your child for 30 minutes while you pick up something from the local shops?
It's no wonder that social sharing through swapping and community gardens are making such a comeback. There are folks out there who wish to engage in sharing, renting, borrowing, bartering and giving their stuff away for free. They wish to reconnect with their local neighbourhood, to help and be helped in return should they ever need help.
Sharing Can Be Financially and Environmentally Smart
By sharing or giving away items that you no longer need you can reduce land fill. Sharing items you don't use frequently or simply trading your skills for someone else's skills are ways that you can be environmentally friendly whilst also saving you some money.
Sites Where You Can Share
As more and more apartments are built, the traditional concept of houses and neighbourhoods no longer apply.
Apartment dwellers can be faceless and quiet. Sometimes you might bump into a familiar face sharing the lift with you. Some are friendly while some prefer to keep to themselves. Is this a vision of the future or will the sharers and community sort start fighting back to bring community back into our lives?
Children use to play out on the streets together. Neighbours would swap recipes and borrow items that they needed. Nowadays, with the fear about children being kidnapped or injured, the helicopter parents who hover over their kids, the bustling lives that we lead, the long hours that folks work and all the technological gadgets that keep us voluntarily addicted indoors, we no longer socialise as much with our neighbours.
If you ran out of sugar, which one of you readers would feel comfortable enough to knock on your neighbours door and borrow sugar? If you were going away on holiday, would you be comfortable enough to give your house keys to your neighbour to help with tasks such as feeding the dog and watering the plants? If you have a child, do you feel confortable enough to ask them to mind your child for 30 minutes while you pick up something from the local shops?
It's no wonder that social sharing through swapping and community gardens are making such a comeback. There are folks out there who wish to engage in sharing, renting, borrowing, bartering and giving their stuff away for free. They wish to reconnect with their local neighbourhood, to help and be helped in return should they ever need help.
Sharing Can Be Financially and Environmentally Smart
By sharing or giving away items that you no longer need you can reduce land fill. Sharing items you don't use frequently or simply trading your skills for someone else's skills are ways that you can be environmentally friendly whilst also saving you some money.
Sites Where You Can Share
- Neighbourhood sharing: thesharehood.org
- Sharing work spaces: the-hub.net
- Travelling: airbnb.com
- House swaps: houseswap.com
- Social lending to peer groups: lendinghub.com.au
- Trading sites where you can buy or get stuff for free: Ebay.com or gumtree.com.au
Monday, October 15, 2012
Fashion Entrepreneur: Net-a-Porter Natalie Massenet
If you've never heard of Massenet, then you may have heard of the luxury fashion site Net-a-Porter that was sold in 2010 for 350 million pounds, netting Massenet 50 million pounds for her share. Massenet is the founder of the elite fashion shopping site.
Daughter of a US journalist and English model, wife of an investment banker and just 34 years old when she leapt into the world of online retailing back in the early dotcom days of 2000. Graduate of U.C.L.A and former fashion editor.
Net-a-Porter has been designed as such that the value of sales and the location can be viewed immediately by staff. Online shopping sales spikes on rainy days, during lunch times, after 9pm and on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays because new stocks are released on those three days. During the early years of operations, she talks of "desperate hand wringing, tears and pleading with brands".
Massenet says, "You'd go all the way through a pitch and say: 'And then you can click and buy it from pictures and it's delivered anywhere in the world.' And they'd listen and they'd nod and then afterwards they'd say: 'Just tell me one more thing: where is your store?' "
Massenet is a proponent of positive thoughts and how it can influence your life, "the power of your thoughts can influence how events turn out. I’m a positive person—when bad things happen, I can see the silver lining. As a result I think I’m very lucky, even though I probably have as much bad luck as anyone else, and that translates into seeing opportunity."
Unlike other businesses that struggled through the financial crisis starting in 2008, Net-a-Porter experienced meteoric growth. From 2008, they increased their staff head count from 600 to 2000 and turnover increased by over 60%.
Despite the troubles that Massenet encountered in the beginning, together with her partner Quinn, they believed in their idea and their concepts. What they have now with Net-a-Porter is a leading, luxury shopping portel with editorials from famous names in the publishing field such as Lucy Yeoman, previously editor of Harpers Bazaar.
Sources:
1. SMH Money
2. fashion.telegraph.co.uk
3. http://www.smartcompany.com.au
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Importance Of Sleeping
There's so much to do, watch, see and read and not enough time in the day right?
You may have heard about how important sleep is right? Every now and again, I struggle to fall asleep so sleeping tips are really useful.
Rapid eye movement, commonly abbreviated to REM, is deepest during the first four hours of sleep. REM and dreaming are very important because it assists in developing memory consolidation. A person sleeping for 8 hours has more REM than one who sleeps for only 5 hours.
However, we can 'survive' on 90 minutes sleep because that is one full sleep cycle. If you can sleep for up to eight hours each night then you can get the benefits of five sleeping cycles.
There are three main categories of insomnia.
1. Transient insomnia- ranges from a few days to a few weeks. Triggered by environmental factors such as noise and temperature
2. Acute insomnia- ranges to a few weeks and can be triggered by anxiety, worries and stress
3. Chronic insomnia-lasting a few years and is dangerous because it impacts on health, safety and quality of life
According to the Women's Health magazine study on sleep, 25% of us sleep for only six hours or less each night. In 2009, one of their surveys found that 44% of Australians had insomnia in the six months period leading up to the survey.
There have been plenty of studies done on sleeping patterns and its effect on us and on lab animals. The University of Chicago conducted a study that involved keeping rats awake. It took two weeks for all of them to die. (Why are we still being cruel to animals for something like this?!).
There was a 17 year old boy in the US who stayed awake for just over 18 days and by then he was suffering a range of symptoms such as "hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, slurred speech, memory and concentration lapses."#
Other health issues resulting from poor sleep or lack of sleep are diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeats, inflammation issues (arthritis and bowel disesaes), anxiety, obesity, mental illnesses and depression.
If you're having difficulties getting to sleep, there are some useful techniques that can be utilised:
* Wake up at the same time in the morning so that your body will be eager to tell you to go to bed at night
* If you're having trouble falling asleep, don't lie in bed, get up and read or do something that doesn't involve watching TV and you will get sleepy again
* Try not to use sleeping pills because they reduce your confidence in your natural ability to fall asleep
* Sleep when you're tired and don't wait until you're finished doing whatever it is you wanted to do
* No TV, mobile phones or computers at least for one hour before bedtime, they both expose our brains to 'blue light' which suppresses the release of melatonin, the hormone which tells our body when to sleep
* You would rather be a little cool than too hot
* Don't worry yourself over not being able to sleep. The US National Sleep Foundation's study concluded that, "poor sleepers will often think they've been awake when in fact they've been asleep"
* If you're a worrywort, then write down all the list of things you have to do and the worries that are plaguing you before you go to bed and then it may cut down the time you spend in bed thinking about those issues
Bonne nuit...
#Womens Health, August 2010
You may have heard about how important sleep is right? Every now and again, I struggle to fall asleep so sleeping tips are really useful.
Rapid eye movement, commonly abbreviated to REM, is deepest during the first four hours of sleep. REM and dreaming are very important because it assists in developing memory consolidation. A person sleeping for 8 hours has more REM than one who sleeps for only 5 hours.
However, we can 'survive' on 90 minutes sleep because that is one full sleep cycle. If you can sleep for up to eight hours each night then you can get the benefits of five sleeping cycles.
There are three main categories of insomnia.
1. Transient insomnia- ranges from a few days to a few weeks. Triggered by environmental factors such as noise and temperature
2. Acute insomnia- ranges to a few weeks and can be triggered by anxiety, worries and stress
3. Chronic insomnia-lasting a few years and is dangerous because it impacts on health, safety and quality of life
According to the Women's Health magazine study on sleep, 25% of us sleep for only six hours or less each night. In 2009, one of their surveys found that 44% of Australians had insomnia in the six months period leading up to the survey.
There have been plenty of studies done on sleeping patterns and its effect on us and on lab animals. The University of Chicago conducted a study that involved keeping rats awake. It took two weeks for all of them to die. (Why are we still being cruel to animals for something like this?!).
There was a 17 year old boy in the US who stayed awake for just over 18 days and by then he was suffering a range of symptoms such as "hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, slurred speech, memory and concentration lapses."#
Other health issues resulting from poor sleep or lack of sleep are diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeats, inflammation issues (arthritis and bowel disesaes), anxiety, obesity, mental illnesses and depression.
If you're having difficulties getting to sleep, there are some useful techniques that can be utilised:
* Wake up at the same time in the morning so that your body will be eager to tell you to go to bed at night
* If you're having trouble falling asleep, don't lie in bed, get up and read or do something that doesn't involve watching TV and you will get sleepy again
* Try not to use sleeping pills because they reduce your confidence in your natural ability to fall asleep
* Sleep when you're tired and don't wait until you're finished doing whatever it is you wanted to do
* No TV, mobile phones or computers at least for one hour before bedtime, they both expose our brains to 'blue light' which suppresses the release of melatonin, the hormone which tells our body when to sleep
* You would rather be a little cool than too hot
* Don't worry yourself over not being able to sleep. The US National Sleep Foundation's study concluded that, "poor sleepers will often think they've been awake when in fact they've been asleep"
* If you're a worrywort, then write down all the list of things you have to do and the worries that are plaguing you before you go to bed and then it may cut down the time you spend in bed thinking about those issues
Bonne nuit...
#Womens Health, August 2010
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Who Has A Weekly Spending Challenge?
How much do you spend weekly? Have you ever recorded exactly how much you spent each week? Daily? On simply food or on everything?
Fiona Lippey, co-author of The $21 Challenge and creator of the popular money management site for households, Simple Savings started trying to save over a decade ago.
She realised how much she spent on food and has been cutting back accordingly. I couldn't survive on $21 a week unless I dumpster dived or ate a cabbage diet. Even if I did either of those options, it wouldn't last long because neither options are inherently attractive.
Good ideas that you can extract from her ideas are to make a list of everything you have in your pantry and your fridge categorising which food items can be used now, later or must be thrown out. After you've done that, you can start planning your meals on what you already have.
Our pantry is full of food and ingredients. Occasionally I open up our pantry and pull up a few items and leave them out, intending to cook them in the forthcoming weekly meals. Planning meals aggressively have never been part of my lifestyle but maybe I should try the technique so that I don't end up throwing out food and ingredients that expire uneated and unused.
Maybe we should all take a look at our pantry and fridge today and see what meals are lurking in there without having to stock up...
Fiona Lippey, co-author of The $21 Challenge and creator of the popular money management site for households, Simple Savings started trying to save over a decade ago.
She realised how much she spent on food and has been cutting back accordingly. I couldn't survive on $21 a week unless I dumpster dived or ate a cabbage diet. Even if I did either of those options, it wouldn't last long because neither options are inherently attractive.
Good ideas that you can extract from her ideas are to make a list of everything you have in your pantry and your fridge categorising which food items can be used now, later or must be thrown out. After you've done that, you can start planning your meals on what you already have.
Our pantry is full of food and ingredients. Occasionally I open up our pantry and pull up a few items and leave them out, intending to cook them in the forthcoming weekly meals. Planning meals aggressively have never been part of my lifestyle but maybe I should try the technique so that I don't end up throwing out food and ingredients that expire uneated and unused.
Maybe we should all take a look at our pantry and fridge today and see what meals are lurking in there without having to stock up...
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