As the saying goes, “a wise traveller never despises his own country” [Carlo Goldoni].

I have just completed the “cuti-cuti Kuantan” plan with my friends. Funny that I organised a trip to my own hometown, but it was fun. We had a great day at Sepat beach and Sungai Pandan waterfall. We had great dinner at the famous seafood area Tanjung Lumpur, and we had one civilised lunch at the biggest mall on the east coast side, the East Coast Mall.

From cuti-cuti kuantan, posted by Farah Inani on 3/03/2010 (132 items)

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I do hope we can organise such trips at other places in the future.

It looks like I am heading for a personal economic recession, if my financial records are held to be accurate and reliable.

A quick read-up on Wikipedia revealed that recession, or otherwise called economic downturn, is defined as “a period when GDP falls (negative real economic growth) for at least two quarters.”¹ It is noted that “some economists prefer a definition of a 1.5% rise in unemployment within 12 months”, but that indicator may not be applicable for my personal financial records, since I am not looking into being unemployed anytime soon.

Am I heading towards a recession? My financial records are telling me so. I discovered that for the past three months, I have personally registered deficit budgets for each month. In December 2009, I registered a deficit of RM 493; in January 2010, deficit of RM 734; in this month alone, it stood at RM 1,813 and growing. Obviously there are justified reasons for the excess of expenditure over income, but if we hold on to the recession indicator, it’s already a quarter of negative (personal) economic growth.

It could not be helped that some of my budgeted items have been completely spent just a lil’ bit a month after the first half of the financial year. I have busted my clothing, home electrical, home kitchenware, and travelling budget; while my personal care (ah the cost of vanity!), food dining, social responsibility, and computer budgets are running wild.

I am not complaining of not enough money, because I know that my current salary is more than enough to support my living. What caught me in this possible recession is my lust for perfection – in terms of look, health, happiness, and living – while wanting to have it as fast as it possibly could have come. It looks like I need to put some brake on my past-paced life, for I need to enjoy what I have now.

Come July this year, I am looking to see if I manage to turn the tide on my financial standing and gain considerable savings out of it – I have a PS3, a new LCD TV, and a sound system listed in my wish list for this year.

A wise man will re-evaluate his choices once he reached his limit.

(1) It was about time that I reached my treadmill limit – a limit of speed that I could not breach on my first attempt, after a series of steady increase that have seen me running from the speed of 6.0 km/hour to 9.2 km/hour in less then a month. It was a monumental leap of speed that I have gained, but it will about to be a tough challenge ahead.

Today, I attempted the non-stop 30 minutes treadmill run at 9.4 km/hour. It was fine for the first 10 minutes, with me managed to perform my additional 1 km/hour burst for a minute. It was into the 20th minutes that I felt the strain. I had to slow the speed down to 8.5 km/hour. Merely 5 minutes after that, I had to cut short my planned duration due to signs of me reaching my limit.

Not only I had to cut short the exercise, and had to skip the customary weight lifting and machine-assisted exercises as well due to a level of fatigue that I had not felt for quite some time. It was not helping much that I felt a bit dizzy while I was at work, plus the mounting pressure that accumulated from office works and office politics.

(2) It was about time that I realised how dangerous it is for my savings account to reach it’s lowest limit, especially when it is linked to my major credit cards. Due to heafty imposition of service charges by the solicitors and evaluators for my housing loan, I was left with less than RM 400 in my bank account. It could not be helped that my major debtors are tight with cash as well.

Today, I had to help settle the Sports and Recreational Club (SRC) booking for badminton courts for this Saturday’s mini carnival. Somehow or another, I had to settle the payment fast – and luckily I had asked the facility manager if they accept payments in the form of online bank transfer. With an additional RM 300 deposited into my account by the SRC’s presiden