Every Christmas, kids will go crazy over one toy or another. I remember how parents fought over the last Tickle Me Elmo three years ago. This year, they are fighting over the last Zhu Zhu off the shelves in shopping malls across the United States.

What are Zhu Zhu pets? They are furry electronic hamsters and come in a family of four designs. Toy stores and shopping malls are selling them for $9.99 a piece, though I am not sure if this price includes Zhu Zhu accessories, or just the hamster alone, but to get Zhu Zhu pets at this price, you would need a huge dose of luck.

But like all popular merchandise, what you cannot find in your local store, you can find them on eBay. Enterprising people who managed to get their hands on Zhu Zhu pets are selling them on eBay for as high as US$40. Would you willingly pay four times the retail price? Well, you would if you have a whining child at home!

Zhu Zhu pets are electronic hamsters, like I said and some people have asked me what “Zhu Zhu” means. If I am not wrong, it is Chinese for “rat rat” or “mouse mouse” or “mice mice”.

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While at first I wanted to purchase a used car, with the proposal to implement various new conditions under the National Automotive Policy that discriminate against older cars and their owners, I am now looking into buying a new car.

Actually, there are many offers now that make buying a new car a little more realistic for many of us compared to a couple of years ago. I also came across an easy loan repayment scheme from Maybank and if we purchase a Myvi, they will even throw in a gps device for free!

I came across this offer about a week ago but just now, when I tried to look for further information, the offer is not available on the website of Maybank anymore. I wonder if the offer is still valid. If not, what a waste!

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It is too bad that when the home loan interest rate was at a low point, I was not able to look for a property to purchase. When the economy is lackluster and property prices go down, that is actually the best time to buy. I had wanted to buy a small apartment in Kuala Lumpur but it has been a difficult find. That’s why it’s pretty unfortunate that I am unable to lock in to a home loan with a lower interest rate.

At this point, even though the economy is still soft, interest rates have gone up slightly. It would be more difficult to purchase a property when interest rates go back up to pre-recession days. Anyway, it’s not possible to turn back the clock but I will continue to search for a property that would meet my needs and requirements first, and then see how it goes. It is still viable to purchase real estate now even with the higher home loan interest rate.

My friend, Stacy, is planning to go into insurance. She said since her youngest child will start school next year, she would have more time to devote to her job. At the same time, as an insurance agent, she determines the number of hours she puts into the business so she could still provide the attention and guidance for the children and help them with their school work.

Stacy, however, cannot decide the kind of insurance she wants to deal with. There are so many different types, it’s best to specialize in one or two only. Perhaps she could sell rv insurance, she said. It’s not as common as life or medical insurance and hence, less competition.

Well, I don’t know. If she wants my opinion, I would say that she should sell the most popular insurance products. It would be more profitable and would encourage her to put more effort into the business.

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A couple of days ago, a friend told me that he was not able to log in to the internet banking website of RHB. He said that the website has implemented a new security feature that asks customers a “secret question” in a move to counter phishing websites. But the implementation ran into a hiccup which caused users the inability to log into their accounts.

I thought that this never happened to the website of Maybank2U and Public Bank before but how wrong could I be? I was not able to log into my Maybank2U account the whole of yesterday. Well, I don’t exactly know how long the site went down, I just know that each time I tried, I was not able to log in.

The failure of websites of banks to function is a cause for concern. We utilize the services of online banking because we trust the banks but when something like this happens, you realize how vulnerable the money in your bank account is.

Well, what I couldn’t do yesterday, I will try to do today. Thank God I wasn’t going to pay my credit card bill or I would have been charged interests when it’s no fault of mine.

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A friend, who runs a small business as a network marketer and pretty successful with it, sought my help in taking her small business online. Sue, who sells various health products from slimming to colon cleanse and some other organic supplements, said that if she could have a small online store, she would be able to reach out to more people, hence increasing sales.

Of course this is easier said than done. Many people have the misconception that an online store runs by itself, sort of like on automatic mode. Well, sometimes it does, often times, this isn’t the case. One would need to spend a lot of time on an online store, especially initially.

I am not sure if Sue is serious about this and if she would really work on it. You know, I hate to spend time on something and then discover that the owner doesn’t even maintain it. That’s disheartening!

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