When one is rich enough not to worry about returns

All of us know that buying cars must be the worst investment (if at all it can be described as such), because of the high depreciation and maintenance costs. But then if you are rich enough and do not need to know how to spend your billions, then it is a totally different story...

Everyone is familiar with the Sultan of Brunei and his love for cars.
The man is known to own a collection of 7,000 high performance cars valued at over "$5 billion".

According to the Daily Mirror, as of June 30th 2010, he owns 604 Rolls Royces, 574 Mercedes-Benzes, 452 Ferraris, 382 Bentleys, 209 BMWs, 179 Jaguars, 134 Koenigseggs, 21 Lamborghinis, 11 Aston Martins, and 1 SSC.

Wondering just where his fleets of cars reside?

Well, the Sultan parks his collection in five (5) aircraft hangars near The Empire Hotel.

Just one of his many exoticars:

If he drives just one car daily, it will take him 20 years to drive each and every one of them; lucky for him no need to pay road tax.

As a comparison, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are known to be ready to give a substantial portion of their wealth to the people.

Among celebrities, there are those sensible and not so too, according to this Star report:

Major Chinese dailies reported that Mandopop star Leehom Wang would not spend his hard earned money on material things.

“Buying sports car ... I think it’s meaningless.

“There are many people who need our help. I work with World Vision and every year, I want to help the needy more.”

Although Wang, who is also an actor and film director, has made a fortune, he has spent his money wisely.

The artiste is currently driving a second-hand car, worth NT$60,000 (RM6,075). It was a present he gave to himself on his 33rd birthday last year.

Also, his house has only a bed, a computer and some music equipment.

To save the environment, Wang had not bought any new clothes for the last 15 years.

During the interview, he showed the pair of socks he was wearing and said it was a present from Jackie Chan.

Other superstars have a collection of cars in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Among them, Cantopop star Aaron Kwok has 13 luxury vehicles worth over RM100mil including five Ferraris, two Lamborghinis and a Mercedes Benz SL-class.

Jay Chou’s collection included a Mercedes Benz SLR722 (about RM3.8mil) and some antiques.
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Proton... proto... potong jalan

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Live to work

We need to eat to live, yet some people would prefer to live to eat.

Most of us need to work to be able to afford a certain lifestyle, yet some people live to work only...

Father was a hardworking man who delivered bread as a living to support his wife and three children. He spent all his evenings after work attending classes, hoping to improve himself so that he could one day find a better paying job. Except for Sundays, Father hardly ate a meal together with his family. He worked and studied very hard because he wanted to provide his family with the best money could buy.

Whenever the family complained that he was not spending enough time with them, he reasoned that he was doing all this for them. But he often yearned to spend more time with his family.

The day came when the examination results were announced. To his joy, Father passed, and with distinctions too! Soon after, he was offered a good job as a senior supervisor which paid handsomely.

Like a dream come true, Father could now afford to provide his family with life’s little luxuries like nice clothing, fine food and vacation abroad.

However, the family still did not get to see father for most of the week. He continued to work very hard, hoping to be promoted to the position of manager. In fact, to make himself a worthily candidate for the promotion, he enrolled for another course in the open university.

Again, whenever the family complained that he was not spending enough time with them, he reasoned that he was doing all this for them. But he often yearned to spend more time with his family.

Father’s hard work paid off and he was promoted. Jubilantly, he decided to hire a maid to relieve his wife from her domestic tasks. He also felt that their three-room flat was no longer big enough, it would be nice for his family to be ablt to enjoy the facilities and comfort of a condominium. Having experienced the rewards of his hard work many times before, Father resolved to further his studies and work at being promoted again. The family still did not get to see much of him. In fact, sometimes Father had to work on Sundays entertaining clients. Again, whenever the family complained that he was not spending enough time with them, he reasoned that he was doing all this for them. But he often yearned to spend more time with his family.

As expected, Father’s hard work paid off again and he bought a beautiful condominium overlooking the coast of Singapore. On the first Sunday evening at their new home, Father declared to his family that he decided not to take anymore courses or pursue any more promotions. From then on he was going to devote more time to his family.

Father did not wake up the next day.

Tale of the unexpected...

Horror at Old Bentong KL road - Chilling Real story!!!

This happened about a month ago near Karak. A guy was driving from KL to Kuantan and decided not to take the Karak Highway as he wanted to see the scenery along the old road. The inevitable happens and when he reached the hills his car breaks down - he's stranded miles from nowhere. Having no choice he started walking on the side of the road, hoping to get a lift to the nearest town. It soon got dark and started to rain very heavily. And pretty soon he got wet and was shivering. The night rolled on and no car passed by.

Suddenly he saw a car coming towards him. It slowed and then stops next to him - without thinking the guy opened the door and jumps in, glad to be out of the wet and cold. Seated in the back, he leaned forward to thank the person who had saved him. He realizes there is nobody behind the wheel!!!

Even though there's no one in the front seat and no sound of any engine, the car starts moving slowly. The guy looks at the road ahead and sees a curve coming. Scared almost to death he starts to pray, begging the Lord for his life.

He was still in shock, when just before the car hits the curve, a hand appears through the window and turns the steering wheel! The car makes the curve safely and continues on the road to the next bend. The guy, now paralyzed in terror, watches how the hand appears every time they are before a curve and moves the steering wheel just enough to get the car around each bend.

Finally, the guy sees lights ahead. Gathering his courage he wrenches open the door of the silent, slowly moving car, scrambles out and runs as hard as he can towards the lights. It's a small town.

He stumbles into a kopi tiam, and asks for a drink, and breaks down. Then he starts talking about the horrible experience he's just been through.

There is dead silence in the kopi tiam when he finished relating his experience ..... . . . .
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......and that's when Jaswant and Gurbit Singh walked in. Jaswant pointed and said 'Look Gurbit - that's the idiot who got into our car when we were pushing it.'

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Benevolent dictatorship: why not Singapore?

Tun Dr. Mahathir could have used Singapore as an example instead of China. Was it too close for comfort that his style of authoritarianism failed to uplift the living standards of Malaysians as compared with Singapore under his arch-rival Lee Kuan Yew?

"Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad cited China as an alternative to democracy saying that dictatorship could very well be the model of success where democracy had failed. He said that the Beijing Consensus which was authoritarian was more effective as compared to the democratic model of Washington Consensus and it has brought China to the forefronts of the global economy. Dr Mahathir was speaking at the Umno organized event entitled ‘Creation of the Global Citizen: Media Liberisation and the New Political Realities’."

Many people have pointed out that China never hesitate to use their firing squads on citizens convicted of corruption.

Singapore used the law to bankrupt political opponents.
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