Great Eastern Umrah/Hajj Takaful

Sudahkah anda bersedia menunaikan haji/umrah? haha tiru ayat pamphlet di tangan. I've been meaning to post about this Great Eastern Takaful plan for the past two weeks and now here I am, writing about some financial asset that will bore your weekend out. Okay takla boring sangat considering that sooner or later, we might start pondering about doing hajj/umrah in the future. The sooner the better. I mean, unlike Indonesian, orang kita selalu pegi buat hajj/umrah lambat-lambat. Sedangkan time muda and kita time sihat walafiat la kita sepatutnya pergi.

Before I begin discussing about this i-GreatAmal takaful, I should make it clear that I don't have any affiliations or relations with Great Eastern nor any of it's associates. I am not an insurance agent and I didn't receive any kind of payment or commission from GE. I am just promoting this product as a goodwill. With that being cleared up, let me tell you what this takaful plan is all about. The mechanism of this takaful is similar to the usual conventional insurance, but unlike the latter, it is a shariah compliance scheme. So you don't have to worry about having your premiums invested in channels that goes against the Islamic law.

There are two things you have to decide during the initial subscription of the takaful. You have to decide the amount of your monthly payment and your period of subscription. For example, you pay 50 bucks a month for 20 years. As soon as you sign up and made your payment, (you're required to pay two months payment in advance, then continue paying on the third month) you are entitled to up to eight benefits and perks from this takaful plan. There's life and total permanent disability coverage. I am not going to discuss the amount as it depends on your monthly payment and premium.

So kalau jadi apa-apa yang tidak diingini, our benefactor akan dapat la duit compensation tu. And there's double coverage if you past away or suffer TPD while doing umrah/hajj. As long as you're in KLIA and Mekah during your pilgrimage, you're entitled to a double multiplier compensation. For example, if your life coverage amounted to RM 40 000, should anything happen to you during pilgrimage, your benefactor will receive RM 80 000. Incidents during the Hajj is quite common, goggle it. I mean, it won't hurt if we're extra prepared right? And ouh, ada jugak manfaat badal. Kalau pemegang polisi tu meninggal dan tak sempat pergi tunai haji, automatically GE akan arrange upah haji untuk pemegang polisi yang meninggal tu.

And there are other cash benefits. Macam manfaat qurban, after the 10th year they will give the holder a sum of money to do qurban. Preparation cash, where you will be given a a certain amount of cash untuk persediaan pergi buat hajj/umrah but only up to two times maximum. And lastly manfaat ihsan, where a quick cash is given to your family should you past away for janazah management. And upon maturity of your takaful, the payment that you had made throughout the years would be given back you, plus a little return. Though Im not sure what was the % return, but when we did the calculation a friend told me it's less than ASB's.

I think this should be a good investment to make. Kalau kita dah ada life insurance pun, still it won't hurt to be covered considering that we only have to pay from as low as RM 50 per month. And kalau kita tak sempat pergi tunaikan haji pun during our holding period, think of it as a free-risk investment. Duit yang kita dapat upon maturity tu dah cukup untuk ambil pakej haji baiduri-nilam. Or even pakej zamrud kalau simpan monthly banyak. Tak perlu sign up untuk muasasah, sebab yg tu ada waiting list. Lambat. Tapi kalau ambil pun apa salahnya. Ikut preference dan kemampuan masing-masing. EnshaAllah. 

*kalau ada salah mana2, tolong betulkan. 

** I heard tabung haji pun offer similar saving plans. tp tak sure la mcm mana. 

The Enforcer

I have to admit. I ain't got much of a talent playing football. I'm not very good at dribbling, my first touch is erratic and my passing is not crispy and clear cut enough. But there's one thing I'm good at, and love doing. Physical battles. I love tackling, winning an aerial battle and go shoulder to shoulder with the opponents. I would like to think that I am the enforcer of team, the role that we often hear in ice hockey. The first person to get the team out of trouble and the first person to get the team into trouble.

Many people played down the importance of an enforcer in a team. To them this type of players lacked skills  and simply just complete the namelist. But I beg to differ. An enforcer is crucial for the team because he is the one that brought in physical presence to them. He is the back bone of the team and provides a safety net for the team. He anticipates movements, steal the balls and always be available when his team mates need attacking reinforcement. An enforcer also may as well dictates the tempo of the game. When he steals the ball, he can either launch a quick counter attack, or simply hold up the ball and pass it around so that his team mates can recover.

Players like Gattuso, Vieira, Tiote and Pepe are some of the most underrated enforcers in the modern era. When the team wins, their contributions were always deemphasize let alone recognised. I have always enjoyed watching them play and try to emulate their style on the field and futsal court. I love watching every challenges and tackles they made, getting the team out of trouble. Of course, these type of players might also get the team into troubles. On too many occasions, an enforcer might committed too many fouls resulting in cards and dismissals. But of course, committing a foul without getting railed from the referee is now a necessary arts or skills in the modern game.

Me included. I enjoyed lunging aggressively to an opponent, making him eat the grass without receiving a telling off from the referee. It's a way of telling your opponent "I'm untouchable and you're in my pocket. So steps off before you eat more grass". But of course, when emotions run high and momentum is snowballing I can't help myself getting into troubles. Throughout my footballing moments, I had started several fights and brawls but luckily, I had never received a red card. I love winding up the opponent to get his head off the game, and when I see a moment of vulnerability, and voila. The brawl started. That's why I never get red carded. Because in the end, referee will assume that I'm the victim, instead of the culprit.

This gives a lot of psychological advantage for the team. But tread carefully, as this strategy might backfire. Silap haribulan, kita yang kena kad merah. And silap haribulan, the opponent dengan suma gangster kampung dusun nanti tunggu kita kat kereta kita. lulz. 

Post Rawak

1. For a long time I've been wanting to re-play Skyrim: The Elders Scroll. I already finished the game but I reckon it would be a great game with high re-play value. Last time I used a warrior so this time I was thinking to start off as a magician. Since I was kind of busy with assignments and tests, I put all my gaming activity on hold. Until at least final exams are over. Now that I had finished the exams, I am reluctant to play. Padahal dulu punya dok simpan niat and punya dok tahan temptation untuk main. I don't know why, maybe my gaming preferences had change. I don't like these hack and slash, beat'em all adventure games any more. Even the latest Devil May Cry that's recently out doesn't tempt me at the slightest. These kind of games consume lots of time, and with me being busy and all, I think that's why I migrated to play more short-duration but repetitive games like PES and dota.

2. Recently a few friends have been asking me why I like to use the name 'mellyzul' in virtual life. Some said that it sounded like a girl's name. And some even go the distance throwing banters at me saying how gay I am. I already lost count on how many times I tried to explain this. So, Im writing this up so in case if there are people asking me in the future, I can simply link them this post. Okay here goes. You know how in Anglos countries, they would call people's name in short form. Macam Robert jadi Bob, William jadi Bill, Frank jadi franky, michael jadi micky. So that's kind of how it works. Although my name's is spelled with an 'i', my friends pronounced it Azmel, or mel. Hence, deriving into Melly. Another simple example is Rio Ferdinand's twitter name. RioFerdy. 

3. I went to Great Eastern recently, where they were trying to promote their takaful products. One of the saving plan they were trying to promote was this i-GreatAmal fund. Untuk buat haji or umrah. I dont know about other states, but in Penang, the Malay community still shy away from the insurance industry, even the takaful ones. So majority of their agents are non-malay. And there's this Chinese agent who tried to pitch her sales to me, asking me to sign up. In her closing pitch, she said something like ' Tak apa maa, you sign up, you jangan anggap ini sebagai expenditure maa. You bayar lagi ini investment, Allah kasi you rezeki'. I smiled at her because she really did her homework, and she worked her angles well. It also made me ponders about the recently 'penggunaan kalimah Allah among non Muslim' issue. Tapi betul jugak, takkan dia nak cakap 'Takpa tokong to'pek kong nanti bagi lu rezeki". In certain context and in certain aspects, I think the usage of Allah should be tolerated by us Muslim. Wallahua'lam.

One messed up boy

I finally got the chance to watch this forum just recently. I added the video months ago to my 'watch later' list but I didn't have the time to watch it as I was pretty much occupied with rl stuff. Plus this video's like three hours long. The only way I could watch it is if I were to divide it into separate session. But then I'll forget about each panelist poi, making me unable to weigh in their opinion fairly. It's titled PRU13: Masa Depan Islam, and was discussed by four bright and intelligent panelists in the form of Dr. Ridhuan Tee, Dr. MAZA, Dr Fadzli and Ustaz Fathul Bari.

I won't jump into the political bandwagon here, as I always hope that this blog never delve into those kind of things. Let's just say that after listening carefully to these panelist, and after aligning their points of view with my perception of the world and my ideals, I had came up with my own judgement and opinion. I have great deal of respects towards each panelist, no matter their affiliation or political party and I listened to them with an open mind. Cuma kesian jugak la dekat Ridhuan Tee, sbb asyik kena bash, provoke and boo dengan penonton. He did fine actually, his only mistake was that he didn't know his audience.

But I'm intrigued with what he said in the forum. He mentioned an old maxim. I was aware of this so called maxim for quite some time but I didn't really think much about it. It sounded something like this:

Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. 

Regardless of the context he said it, whether he wanted to simply share the quotes or wanted to take a swipe at the audience, it really got me thinking. I looked back at my recent sns posts and realized that lots of them were post regarding current events. Mostly sporting events like the elclasico, Australian open and my footie tournament. Boy, I do have an average mind. lol. Unlike some of my friends who constantly share quotes, philosophies, ideas and information, I tend to shy away from posting any of those things in the web.

I am slightly annoyed with those kind of posts too. For example there's this friend of mine who constantly post about how to invest and make money; and shared links of articles from his financial gurus etc. It annoys me in the sense that aku selalu bersangka buruk dgn orang.

'Look at this clown, post pasal macam mana nak buat duit, tapi dia tak kaya-kaya pun.'

'Look at this poser, post pasal munakahat, tapi awek keliling pinggang.

So the thought of that I will come off with a bad impression as I did to other people hinders me from discussing any ideas. Aku bersangka buruk yang orang akan bersangka buruk terhadap aku. 

Astaghfirullahala'zim. Forgive me ya Allah. 

Another reason I tend to shy away from posting post regarding ideas was because that I'm afraid that people would take me seriously. As in I would strike them as someone who's serious all the time. Being as it is, people already thought of me as a no-nonsense kind of guy. Probably because of the age, or probably because they thought that budak finance suma pandai-pandai blaka, so better dont mess with them because they're uptight. But I want people to mess with me, and I want to be treated like I'm younger an equal. I am really one messed up boy.