To laugh or not, it is up to you.  But some folks in China know how to not to take life too seriously.

 

 

神人年年有，今年特别多！

 

Hi girls, try cook like her sometimes.

  

This is how they learned to eat.

At four months old:

 

 

At 3 years:

 

 

 

Now as grown ups:

 

 

Yummies are just within my reach.

 Thank God, no diapers on.

 

 

Don't waste any more time at a times like these!  

Majoon can make you forget everything.

 

Nothing is going to stop this game!

 

 

I am guessing that he is on his way to get married.

 

 

The designated area for communal beggars or beggars in Communist society.  

 

No capitalistic competition here.  

 

Nationally Approved Fortune Telling Service center

 

 

 

You will flunk!   If you had planed on cheating here.

 

 

The Official Chinese news paper!  

It is the perfect reading for monkey.

 

How to Fund Your Retirement With Passive Income

By Joe Udo | U.S.News & World Report LP – Fri, Aug 15, 2014

Here is the standard formula for retirement saving. Many financial planners recommend that you save 10 percent to 15 percent of you income for retirement as soon as you start your first full-time job. Save for 40 to 50 years, and you'll probably have enough retirement savings to replace 80 percent of your income. After retirement, you can withdraw about 4 percent from your retirement fund every year. This will draw down your nest egg, and hopefully it'll last long enough until you don't need it anymore.

Here are the rules of thumb for retirement saving.

-- Save 10 percent to 15 percent starting in your early 20s.

-- Save until you can replace 80 percent of your preretirement income.

-- Draw down 4 percent annually.

Of course, that's just the general guideline, and you need to plan your own retirement. There are a few problems with the rules of thumb. First, many people can't save 10 percent to 15 percent of their income in their 40s, let alone in their 20s. Second, 80 percent of your preretirement income is actually a huge amount, maybe much more than you initially thought. Finally, you might outlive your retirement portfolio if you retire at the wrong time. If you retired in 2008 when the stock market dropped nearly 35 percent, then you started your retirement years in a big hole. Withdrawing 4 percent in 2008 would have decreased your retirement portfolio and reduced the future earnings by a large amount.

An alternative to the established retirement planning model is to fund your retirement with passive income. Instead of focusing on saving a huge amount, you can focus on generating income outside your day job. It will take a lot of time and effort, but hopefully the passive income will be able to cover your monthly expenses at some point.

Here are some sources of passive income:

Rental properties. Many investors have been able to retire from their full-time jobs with rental income. It can be difficult to get started because you'll need a substantial amount of money for a down payment. One way to start in the rental property business is to rent out your old home when you move. You're familiar with the home and can probably manage it yourself.

Dividend stocks. Many companies in the stock market will send their investors a regular dividend payment. For example, AT&T will pay $1.84 dividend for every share. The good thing about investing in dividend stocks is that you can start small. If you have $1,000 to invest, you can buy AT&T and receive a steady 5 percent dividend every year. Fifty dollars might not sound like much, but the dividend income will increase as you add more to your dividend portfolio.

Business income. Another way to generate passive income is to build a business and hire employees to run it. This is very difficult because it's hard to be passive about a business you own. Employees will need supervision, and many businesses will go downhill if you don't pay attention.

Bonds. Investors can also lend money to the government and other private corporations. Currently, interest rates are very low, so the rates of return on bonds are also quite low.

Certificate of deposit. You can also lend money to your bank or credit union for a fixed term (three months, six months or one to five years.) CDs are very safe because many banks are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The return is also currently very low due to interest rates.

Peer-to-peer lending. A relative new way to generate passive income is to lend your money directly to borrowers via peer-to-peer lending companies like Prosper and Lending Club. The investor acts like a bank in this case. The interest rate is much higher than CDs and bonds, but the default risk is also much higher when you lend directly to borrowers.

These are just a few common ways to generate passive income, and you're only limited by your imagination. You can create products like a piece of art, music or a book to receive residual income. You can also sell some of your old stuff on eBay and create a storefront if that works well. You can even rent out a spare room if you don't mind having a roommate.

The good thing about retirement with passive income is that you have more control. You control your monthly expenses, and you can reduce those to accomplish your goal faster. You can try different ways to generate passive income and stick with what you're good at. Some people are really good at rental properties, and some people are more comfortable with dividend stocks. The best part about passive income is that you don't need to draw down your nest egg, so it has a better chance of lasting the rest of your life.

Of course, there are some negatives. It's generally difficult to generate enough passive income to cover your cost of living because the rate of return is not very high. Generally, you will need to save much more than 10 percent to 15 percent to generate substantial passive income. Passive income can also decrease over time if you don't pay attention to it.

Retiring by passive income is an alternative model that might work for some people better than others. If you are willing to explore different possibilities and enjoy managing your passive income streams, you'll probably like this model more than following the usual rules of thumb.

Joe Udo blogs at Retire By 40 where he writes about passive income, frugal living, retirement investing and the challenges of early retirement. He recently left his corporate job to be a stay at home dad and blogger and is having the time of his life.

4 Signs You Need To Quit Your Job

By Emmie Martin | Business Insider – Sat, Aug 16, 2014

Bored at work? Might be time to quit.

Quitting a job is no fun. And it certainly isn't easy.

But if you dread going in and you're constantly bored, it may be time to start looking for a position elsewhere.

In a recent LinkedIn post, Robert O'keane, an international search consultant for Charles Francis Cooper, writes that if we ignore the signs that we've outgrown our jobs, "we run the risk of living our life in a stale career or being forced to move on."

Here are four warning signs that it's time to get out:

1. You feel like you can't win. 

If you find your role has become confusing, or that people in senior management situations give conflicting feedback, you may want to start thinking about your next move. "No one wants to be stuck in a situation where they can't win and if a job makes you feel like this why not look at moving on?" O'keane asks.  Your job should make you feel exhilarated and challenged, he says. "Like you are succeeding in something rather than like you are fighting a losing battle and not achieving anything."

2. You've lost interest. 

O'keane says your job should keep you challenged and engaged, but if you're mentally checked out when you should be working, it's probably not a good fit anymore. "It's important that your job pushes you and keeps you interested," he says. If your current position doesn't motivate you, it might be time to look for one that does. 

It should also be fun, he says. "Y ou should laugh at work and enjoy your time there. If you find that [it has become] less and less enjoyable, then maybe a change of scenery is what you need."

3. You question every move.

Everyone makes mistakes from time to time, but if you second guess every decision you make at work, your job is likely creating more anxiety than it's worth, O'keane says. "When you get to the stage where you are doubting what you're saying and you're wondering whether people around the table will agree with you, move on," he says. You should be confident at work; not perpetually nervous. 

4. You dread going to work.

If you never enjoy yourself at the office or dread returning to work after the weekend, something's missing from your career. Work doesn't have to be the most exciting component of your life, but if there's absolutely nothing you look forward to, consider looking elsewhere. "If you find that your time at work is becoming less and less enjoyable, then maybe a change of scenery is what you need," O'keane says. 

To my dear young ciku, let me tell you why am I so negative…in dealing or seeing things..to encounter something.
If you want to achieve a major goal, conventional wisdom says to think positive. Picture yourself delivering the perfect presentation, and absorb the energy of the audience. Envision the ideal job interview, and imagine yourself on cloud nine when you get the offer. Although these strategies sound compelling, it turns out that they often backfire. Many of us are more successful when we focus on the reasons that we’re likely to fail- do u understand young fellow!?
In a series of clever studies, psychologists compared strategic optimists and defensive pessimists. If you’re a strategic optimist, you envision the best possible outcome and then eagerly plan to make it happen. If you’re a defensive pessimist, even if you’ve been successful in the past, you know this time could be different. You start picturing all the things that could go wrong. What if I spill coffee on the interviewer? What if I accidentally deliver the presentation in a foreign language? What if I forget my own name?
Most people assume that strategic optimists outperform defensive pessimists, because they benefit from confidence and high expectations. Defensive pessimists were more anxious and set lower expectations for themselves in analytical, verbal, and creative tasks. Yet they didn’t perform any worse – like me.. We used to tell you that “we walked on bridges more than the distance you walked on tar road” & “we ate more salt then the amount of rice you eat”.( that’s why we have high blood pressure! kahakaha)
At first, I asked how these people were able to do so well despite their pessimism, Before long, I began to realize that they were doing so well because of their pessimism… negative thinking transformed anxiety into action. By imagining the worst-case scenario, defensive pessimists motivate themselves to prepare more and try harder.
Strategic optimists and defensive pessimists succeed under different circumstances. If you’re a defensive pessimist, or you’re attempting to motivate one, the strategies that prove effective are often the reverse of what you expect.

the weirdest relationships ever…kahakaha

In life, don’t expect anything from anyone.
Because expectation, when not fulfilled, gives you pain.
When you get something without expecting it,
It gives you pleasure.
Keep doing your part
And leave the rest to UFO

Friends are people you choose.
They can feel even more intimate than with other relationships, because our best friends know all our character (good & bad) and still hang on us. They don’t need us to be anything for them but ourselves. They believe in us, cheer us on, support us and truly acting in friendlier term with us; those are the good ones.
I have some good ones—which have been in my life over 40 years. I’m blessed to have them—I only wish they didn’t live an hour away.
I’ve had many friendships through the years, all kinds: I’ve had party friends, needy friends, spiritual friends, gossip friends, negative friends, snobby friends, distant friends, quiet friends, wild friends, co-dependent friends, “black” as well as “white” and many more.
I’ve been a good friend and I’ve been a shitty friend. Sometimes I gave more or sometimes I took more, but it was nothing in the eyes of friendship cos they know I am not a bully.
I’ve also had friendships that were out of convenience and really were acquaintances, I just didn’t realize it at the time.

Friendships can be based on many things, some of which are positive, some negative. Sometimes circumstances change, you change jobs or move. Maybe your kids aren’t friends with each other anymore and your friendship fades away too.

My problem was I often held on for dear life to a connection that was no longer there. So plain & naive of myself. I just wonder why when we (a group of us) were together, we  shared ( after a while, I knew we, as a group cooperation we didn’t get what was supposed to get to share- something and a lot more are not surfaced to share) My weakness being trusting too much on a particular mental ( sharing sense)
I’d try to get together with someone and he/she/they would have excuses about why he/she/they couldn’t get together. One person doesn’t make a friendship and you certainly cannot guilt someone into being friends. It didn’t matter why they didn’t want the friendship anymore, it hurt a little- as the saying, this is a free world ma!
Any rejection sucks, especially if you care about the person and cherish the times you had together.
Maybe i didn’t like everything about them, but I’m not looking for a perfect person. You may know that people come into your life and fade out, but there’s always a broken friendship that feels like a difficult break-up.
I was talking about this topic to a dear friend of mine who I met last year—how awkward it can be when there was no event that precipitates this friendship to be distanced. This can be to a lesser degree when an acquaintance avoids you and you wonder what the hell happened.
Did I say something to offend them? Did they hear some rumour about me? Why don’t they like me anymore?
I wonder which would be more uncomfortable: to know the reasons why or that empty space of wondering.( Not that I think many would have the balls to tell you what the deal is.) Maybe sometimes they don’t even know.

What I have learned on an energy level is that friends are a match.

When you change or they change, sometimes you don’t match anymore. Whether interests change, personalities change or something else, on some energy level things shift. It still stinks, but it’s easier to not take it personally to see this. I know there are many reasons why friendships break up: they are jealous of something, you make a choice they don’t like, you were being a pain in the a#@. Or maybe they think u are better than them, more qualified –oh ya  soon I will be a MBA holder! Mind you., happier than them...Are these people making use of us (our services, our jokes…) a “ touch N go”  kind of thing??
Whatever it is, true friendship can withstand the ups and downs of life.

And sometimes these beasties break-ups, big or small, teach us something about ourselves. It’s different for everyone, but you can ask yourself things like: Was I a good friend? Was I true to me? Was I a negative person to be around? Why is this bothering me so much? Do I feel like I did something wrong? Do I feel like I am not good enough in some way? It can bring up a whole lot of issues, old feelings and strong energy (anger, resentment, blame, sadness, doubt, guilt, shame, regret, jealousy, fear, etc.) that comes up to heal.
There is some gem that you will get out of any situation that challenges you.
Ultimately, you have to be your own best friend. There is no such thing as the perfect, ideal picture of a friend because people expect different things. Sometimes we may be the one that needs to distance themselves from a toxic individual—you really have to honour what is right for you, just like others have to do what’s right for them.

Once the initial pain of a friend breaking up with you is over, when you can see more clearly, then you can heal.

Forgive them on a higher level to free yourself and allow another beautiful friendship to fill that space. Picture a version of yourself that’s angelic—your higher self—and then picture theirs. On that level, in your mind, tell them, “I forgive you. I wish you all the best. I like you.” This provides a form of closure.
You can’t expect a formal closure like a break-up with a lover; with a friend break-up you, don’t get your answers. If you still can’t get past the “stuck” hurt feelings, write them a FB notes that shares all of your feelings before doing the higher self exercise. Then click it, releasing it to the Universe, to be done with it once and for all, your healing supported by the Universe.

Once you do these exercises, don’t keep talking about the person or the friendship that no longer is. Move on. Take the high road. It’s healthier for you. Get past the right or wrong and focus on things that make you feel good and not bad.

Hopefully there won’t be a next time, but if there is, maybe you’ll notice an energy shift in your relationship where you feel that things are changing and you can talk about it. You can share your feelings and maybe even have a fuller, richer, deeper, more fulfilling friendship, past all the superficial stuff.
Don’t close your heart if you are hurt or feel betrayed- which I never did but just got  a lot to ponder here, it’s so worth it to stay open to the possibility of an awesome new friend- like u!