#54 - Part-time

03.07.2010

I have been thinking about this for quite some time. Rather than keep on lamenting that the salary isn’t enough to cover my commitment, why not take some action? Currently there are few ways to increase the income that I can think of:

a) insurance - my agent said that apart from the annual RM12k quota to be fulfilled in order to continue being an agent, an agent can also take up mortgage and car insurance package in order to earn the commission but it’s not in the 12k quota. My only concern was that whether I can keep on widening  my social circle to find clients or not. And I wouldn’t want to think “Hey, this is a potential client” when meeting new friends. Felt insincere!

b) tuition - should be the easiest but one drawback was that I am not well-versed in Mandarin. I can speak but when it comes to reading, it’s a bit limited. And most parents who want one-to-one or home tuition would prefer Chinese-proficient tutor. I had thought of trying tuition centre but one drawback was that your time is tied up. If you have something coming up, you can’t excuse yourself by simply changing the time as the it involves a whole bunch of students. If it’s one-to-one tuition then it will be easier to change the time. Nevertheless, you are still tied up with the tuition time.

c) MLM a.k.a direct selling -  I hate MLM cos you need to keep on asking ppl to join in as your down-line if you want to maintain a good income. And usually those involved in MLM will end up buying the product themselves to try it out before demonstrating or recommending to others or because they want to earn the points and redeem it later. In short they are actually earning on their own money spent earlier. That’s the trick with MLM. Their main income comes from the recruitment of new member and from the sales of products, mostly which are over-priced after some ’superficial’ claims such as ‘organic’, ‘natural’ etc.

d) On-line selling of clothes, bags etc. - You will need to have capital for that. And when your items can’t sell, you gotta absorb the cost, it’s just part and parcel of the business trade. And you gotta find reliable supplier too.

e) Investment - unit trust, stock etc. Gotta be knowledgable and follow closely current market condition in order to analyse which is suitable for investment. Better still if you have remisier or stock broker or financial planner as advisor. They can teach you one or two things to be aware of. But of course, there is always a risk with everything. Only use spare money (which I don’t have currently after forking it all out for the car) and not those which you are supposed to pay your monthly commitment with.

People always say ‘No Pain No Gain’. I was thinking that the best path for me is home tuition but I haven’t taken any steps yet as I don’t know where to start. My friends suggested me to paste the notice to offer home tuition at my mom’s shop. Might be doing just that.

But then, my insurance agent also approached me and asked me to consider insurance. It sounds interesting but with my current position, I am not sure if I can spare my time for it. Since it will require whole lot more commitment as the insurance market is also quite saturated. And I wouldn’t want my client to call me while I am in the middle of my work or meeting. Somehow, my work is still my main income generator. Argh… all these may sound like excuses but I am seriously contemplating to increase my income!

I seriously need some opinion. But it feels good to be able to rest at home during weekends after tiring weekdays at work. Nevertheless, no pain no gain. If wanna earn more money, definitely need to sacrifice some leisure time and do something fruitful indeed! Haiz… I prefer to be kids when I don’t have to think of all this but …… where is the fun if we don’t grow up right? Life has so much more interesting aspects to offer to us, just waiting for us to explore!