I Have Moved - My Last Post Here!

The few readers who visit my blog must be wondering my I have stopped posting here - To all the readers/visitors of this blog I would like to tell you that I will no longer be blogging here - You can continue to read my posts at desinotes which is at http://www. desinotes.com which I have acquired recently. Desinotes is a much more established blog and has a loyal reader base. Needless to say I am excited with my new platform for blogging at Desinotes.

I do hope you will continue to check out my musings at this new domain. Do subscribe to the RSS feed of desinotes and let me know what you think of desinotes.

Carlos Slim Helu is Now World's Richest

Bill Gates has lost it at last – He’s given up his number one slot to Carlos Slim Helu the Mexican telecom mogul who is now worth a staggering $68 billion. Carlos is at the helm of Telmex, América Móvil and Grupo Carso. Bill Gates is currently worth $59 billion.

How did Carlos move up? Telecommunications is booming and his company América Móvil’s stock has jumped rapidly in the past few months adding to his fortune. It is estimated that Carlos Slim and his family have an 8% share in Mexico’s GDP. Carlos had last year overtaken Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway to take the second place. Let’s hope Carlos also gives away his fortune to charity much like Gates and Buffett.

For now Gates is no longer at the top - Enough Bill, you have enjoyed the view from the top for long enough. Move over!

I've Become A Father!

There is good news on my personal front – I became a father to a baby girl for the first time. Shubha delivered a 2.82 kilograms baby normally after 9 hours of grueling labor. It’s a nice feeling. Indeed an exciting feeling. Considering that both of us are thinnies a 2.82 kg baby I felt was quite normal. Baby and my wife are doing fine. People say the baby looks a lot like me. They say it’s lucky for her and lucky for me if a baby girl takes after the father! She has already brought me some luck - I just changed my job! I am leaving a few photos of her...

Mothers Day – 10 Things Your Mom Might Have Told You.

Mothers Day has arrived – I am sure you will agree that your mother told you all these things!

1. Work hard: She must have told you this umpteen times – There is no substitute to hard work. The harder you work the luckier you get.
   
2. You can do whatever you want: She told you to set goals and write them down so you that you stood a better chance of achieving your dreams. She told you that if you set your mind to something you can do it. Did she not tell you? Are you implementing it now? For creating wealth, for a better job…?
3. Don’t be late: Obviously she was referring to your school and to be there on time. Are you making it to work on time? Are you disciplined now? In how many realms of your life are you implementing it as a grown up?
   
4. Have a place for everything: Keep things in their place; so you will find them when you want. She asked you to be organized. How organized are you now in your work, in your finances..?
5. Don’t be afraid: She told you not to be scared and not to be self effacing. It won’t take you anywhere. Ask for help when required is what she told. There are situations in which you need others help. A lot of people miss out on a lot of things because they are not getting correct advice. Take advantage of the professional and the more learned and the more successful if you ant to succeed. Are you doing it?
6. Be what you are. Be yourself: She told you to be your own self and not ape others. She told you to say what you wanted to say. She asked you to think for yourself, coolly calmly even in the worst of situations. Try to take some time and listen to your own voice.
7. “Practice, Practice, and Practice”: Practice makes a man perfect. To maintain your high level of skills or to perfect skills and beat the others in this dog eat dog world you have to work hard and practice like a mad man. Mediocrity is not the prescription for success.
8. Take your time: Don’t be in a hurry: Take your time. Ponder over important matters. In money or in relationships it is easy to get fooled and get conned. Check your facts. Take a little time to make a decision. This usually comes with age but learning this early gives you an edge.
9. Have you done your homework?: Whether you are looking for the best mortgage rate in town, the best auto loan deal or an investment in stocks you are considering; doing your homework thoroughly makes you a superior individual. You are one up on others. It puts you in control. You get in control by doing research and educating yourself on the things that interest you and that require you to do so.
10. There’s a lot more to life than money: Your mom knew the importance of an extra dollar but she knew even better the importance of the other valuable things. Relationships and values are above money and above all else.
    

Now apply these to your day today life, to your finances and to all the other areas. You can only move forward I suppose…

Tips to Implement Your New Year Resolution!

Did you make a New Year resolution? Well; I did make a couple and shall try to honour them! In case you made some; here are helpful tips to keep up the promise you made to yourself.

1. Don’t make the mistake of aiming for something unattainable and difficult. You will not be able to keep up the resolution that you made. Be realistic. Stick to resolutions that are within reasonable bounds and that you can stick to.
2. A resolution should be planned well in advance. Take some time to reflect on what you want to achieve for the following year. Ideally resolution should be made a few days before the end of the year and not on the 31st of December. In fact this post is a little late to recommend this tip!
3. Make a thorough plan of how you will achieve the resolution or deal with it. For example if you want to quit smoking; gear yourself in every way to achieve it. Make a back up plan; find the means to achieve it. Have the resources necessary to do it.
4. Write it down in a list so you will stick to the resolutions you have made. This will keep you motivated and help you to say focused.
5. Speak about the resolution that you made. Tell every one about it; share it with similar people who have made resolutions. Get the necessary support from folks and friends.
6. Track your progress; reward & compliment yourself over the year if you are able to stick to the resolution. This is necessary to move further and accomplish your resolutions fully.
7. Don’t put yourself down if you are not able to implement what you promised to yourself. Take it one day at a time!
8. Try not to give up mid way. I know this is easier said than done; but you must make serious effort to live up to your resolutions. Keep trying.
9. According to data available; 63% of people keep their resolutions after two months. 67% of people make three or more resolutions. Top four resolutions: Increase exercise. Be more conscientious about work or school. Develop better eating habits. Stop smoking, drinking, or using drugs. People make more resolutions to start a new habit, than to break an old one.

Hope the above helps. Go on and do what you want to do!

Credit Card Skimming: Guard your Card

Another news item about Credit Card frauds. As I already said it happened to me very recently.

Have you ever wondered why your bank calls to inform you that your credit card will be replaced, especially after you return from an overseas trip? Credit card issuers have hotlisted several countries where transactions could be dangerous, because of duplication of sensitive customer information. Among those are Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Hong Kong. Read More...

Also check out my earlier related posts:
Hacking of Credit Cards
Fraud on my Credit Card

Wipro's Architect, Azim Premji's Words for Success

This is an inspiring read from the software behemoth Wipro's chief Mr. Azim Premji.
Read on, Premji's 7 step formula

Hacking of Credit Cards - How They Do It.

I had said in my previous post Fraud on my Credit Card of how my credit card was hacked by tricksters. Today I came across this interesting article on card hacking.

Have you ever noticed those transactions of 99 paise or Rs. 1 in your credit card statement? If yes, then your Credit card is being hacked...
Read More...

Fraud on my Credit Card - How it Was Done

Sometime in the middle of last month I logged into my online bank account to look up the outstanding on my Credit Card. The amount outstanding on my card should not have been more than 10% of my credit card limit. To my utter shock the outstanding was 90% of my card limit with just 10% limit available! My heart missed a beat. I scrolled down the statement on the screen to see the details of transactions. A fraudster had made 7 transactions on my card in United Kingdom in well known supermarkets like Sainsbury’s, Tesco and a couple of others. Four transactions were in London and 3 in some other city. Also these transactions were not online (internet) transactions. I pulled out my wallet to see if my credit card was with me. It was very much there; safe in its place. I immediately called the bank toll free and explained that these were not my purchases! A trickster had made purchases for around GBP 550 using my card details in the UK. Needless to say I got the card blocked and had a new one re-issued. Fortunately for me the card was issued by the bank I work in; so I managed to have the amount reversed. Also luckily the limit on my card was low, so the cheat could not get much.

According to the bank fraud management such frauds are possible by capturing the data of the credit card by a skimming device which looks similar to a normal POS machine. Thus the cardholder’s details could be captured and a duplicate of the card could be made. I understand this is more rampant in some far eastern countries as well as some South Asian countries. I had traveled to Sri Lanka on a holiday some 6 months ago and I suspect that this must have happened there. So card holders; beware of such frauds apart from the regular online frauds that are so common these days. Whenever your card is being swiped keep an eye on the machine used. Do not move away from the cashier until you complete the transaction. If you do travel to other countries; the safest thing to do is to have your card replaced after you return. Also keep tracking your card online on a regular basis.

Debit cards are more vulnerable to fraud. We were victims of one such fraud with our debit card. Colleagues can turn into enemies. My wife’s debit card was stolen from her bag and it was used to make a purchase of an expensive mobile phone worth $600! So ladies beware! Don’t keep your debits/credit cards in your vanity bags! This time we were unlucky as we did not get any reversal of the transaction, being a debit card which is as good as CASH.

Friends; take care of your plastics!

Photo Melange!