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    Saturday, July 24, 2010

    Seri Perencanaan Keuangan Keluarga: Mengantisipasi Risiko by Safir Senduk

    Seri Perencanaan Keuangan Keluarga: Mengantisipasi RisikoSeri Perencanaan Keuangan Keluarga: Mengantisipasi Risiko by Safir Senduk

    My rating: 4 of 5 stars


    Safir Senduk probably may not be Indonesia's first financial planner, but he certainly is the first financial planner who popularize the subject of financial planning and make it accessible as a general household topic.

    His Seri Perencanaan Keuangan Keluarga (Family Financial Planning Series) covers wide-ranging personal finance topics from investment to child education fund and retirement. My review this time is on his topic of insurance, which he dubbed Mengantisipasi Risiko (Anticipating Risk).

    In this book, Senduk introduces readers to the basic purpose of insurance, that is to cover risks which could render an individual's finance in disarray. He counters the popular myths of insurance in Indonesia -- such as its association with gambling -- and points out the most common mistakes people make in purchasing insurance products, like taking too much coverage or too little.

    I like Senduk's Financial Planning Series because of its topic-specific material, conciseness, and sufficient case studies. While calculation examples made in his book can be too aggressive or too conservative, readers are expected to understand the concepts and apply them to their own respective financial cases.

    This book is published in Bahasa Indonesia. My particular edition has the author's signature in it even though I bought it from Gramedia's book shelf.

    View all my reviews >>

    Friday, July 23, 2010

    Hari Yang Indah

    [Di pertengahan minggu ini, gue lagi beres-beres lemari buku di kamar. Pas lagi sibuk ngasih stempel diri (kentara narsis & posesif), gue nemuin buku Kumpulan Cerpen Kelas 1-A SMU Islam Al-Azhar 1 (1996/1997). Wahaha.. kocak nih, ada cerpen yang gue bikin 13 tahun yang lalu pas gue masih duduk di bangku SMU, masih kelas 1 pula. Enjoy!]

    Hari Yang Indah

    Bel sudah berdentang tujuh kali, Pak Sido tampak santai memukulkan benda besi bulat lonjong yang kekuning-kuningan itu ke lonceng di depan kantin sekolah. Dia menganggap lonceng itu sudah seperti barang kesayangannya sendiri. Tiap pagi dia tak lupa membunyikan lonceng, begitulah ia menyebut benda bulat berongga dari kuningan yang tergantung di depan pintu kantin itu.

    Namun bukan itu yang membuat Pak Said tersenyum-senyum, beliau adalah Guru Pendidikan Moral Pancasila, begitulah dulu ia dikenal. Sekarang ia dikenal sebagai Guru Pendidikan Pancasila dan Kewarganegaraan. Ia sudah terkenal dengan sebutan itu sejak dua tahun yang lalu, saat pemerintah sedang gencar-gencarnya melakukan, atau bisa disebut juga menggalakkan, wajib belajar sembilan tahun.

    Lima belas menit berlalu dan Pak Said belum beranjak juga dari tempat duduknya di dekat pintu gerbang sekolah. Bangku itu memang sepi sekarang, tapi siang nanti tentu yang duduk di bangku itu bakal berjubel. Maklumlah, bangku itu memang disediakan bagi mereka yang menjemput anak-anak maupun "Tuan Muda" mereka masing-masing.

    Pak Said baru beranjak setelah ada suara ramah menegur dari belakang, "Pak, Pak Said, kok masih di sini saja, Pak? Setengah jam lagi Bapak nanti kan mengajar di kelas 2 C. Apa tidak ada baiknya kalau Bapak masuk ke ruang guru dan menyiapkan segala sesuatunya. Biar nanti nggak terburu-buru, ya kan Pak?" Ternyata Ibu Kepala Sekolah yang menegur. Pak Said menjawab dengan sedikit tergagap, "Ba..., baik Bu, saya akan segera masuk." Mendengar jawaban Pak Said, Bu Inah tersenyum seraya meninggalkan Pak Said, tetapi sebelum ia membalikkan badannya ia berkata dengan ramah pula, "Kalau begitu, saya duluan ya Pak?" Pak Said tersenyum dan membalas, "Baik, silakan Bu."

    Setelah Bu Inah terlihat membelok ke ujung lorong, Pak Said buru-buru menengok ke kelas 1 B lewat jendela belakang kelas itu. Tampak olehnya Bu Sari sedang mengajar di kelas itu, rupanya sedang menerangkan kepada anak-anak, bagaimana cara membuat cerpen yang baik. Pak Said melihat ke sekeliling kelas seraya bergumam sendiri, "Endang masuk, Uwi masuk, Yeyen masuk, Nino masuk juga. Hmm... pasti si Alie tidak masuk sekarang."

    Melihat tidak adanya batang hidung Alie, Pak Said bergegas meninggalkan kelas 1 B dan menuju ke ruang guru. Begitulah kebiasaan Pak Said, hampir setiap hari beliau melihat keadaan kelasnya. Sudah tiga tahun kelas itu dipimpinnya, maka tidak heran jika kelas itu menjadi satu kesatuan dengan dirinya dan menjadi tanggung jawabnya pula.

    Bel berdentang lima kali, tanda pergantian pelajaran. Tapi Bu Sari tidak beranjak dari kelas 1 B karena memang ia mengajar selama dua jam pelajaran. Dan sudah jadi kebiasaan Bu Sari untuk mengabsen murid-murid pada jam pelajaran kedua. "Akim, Eppe, Lembi, ...," masing-masing menunjuk tangan seraya menjawab, "Hadir, Bu!"

    Saat Bu Sari memanggil Alie, dari arah pojok kiri terangkat jari dengan malu-malu. Pada saat itulah meledak tawa kelas 1 B karena model rambut baru Alie yang kocak. Mungkin karena itulah Pak Said tidak mengenali Alie sehingga mengira Alie tidak masuk sekolah.

    Teman-temannya menggoda, "Wah, jangan-jangan Popon juga ikut-ikutan model rambut baru. Ha.. ha.. ha.." Memang hubungan mereka berdua sudah di luar kepala anak-anak SMP Negeri 82. Tapi sebenarnya di antara mereka tidak ada hubungan khusus seperti pacaran atau berkeluarga. Mereka hanyalah sahabat dekat sejak kecil, namun memang sejak tiga bulan yang lalu isu itu sudah merebak di seantero sekolah. Tapi bagi mereka berdua, isu itu sebenarnya malah semakin memperjelas keyakinan mereka berdua akan perasaan di dalam hatinya masing-masing.

    Sewaktu bel berdentang tujuh kali, jam di dinding menunjukkan pukul 09.15, maka berhamburanlah dari berbagai kelas batalyon-batalyon yang bersiap menyerbu kantin sekolah. Kantin itu demikian besar sehingga sekalipun diserbu berkali-kali juga tidak akan pernah roboh. Meskipun demikian, setiap harinya serbuan terhadap kantin itu tidak pernah berhenti.

    Dari arah kelas 1 B keluar seorang anak berambut botak, yang dipanggil Alie oleh teman-temannya, ke arah kelas 1 A di seberang lorong. Di pintu kelas 1 A sudah menunggu anak perempuan dan melemparkan senyumnya kepada Alie.

    Alie menyapa, "Halo Popon, sudah menunggu lama ya? Sorry deh! Tugas cerpen dari Bu Sari banyak banget jadinya gue telat keluar, sorry ya?"

    "Nggak apa-apa kok, tugas dari Bu Ida juga banyak, tadi gue ada tes lisan sejarah sampe gagap-gagap. Pokoknya lucu deh!" balas Popon sambil tertawa kecil mengingat pengalamannya sewaktu di kelas tadi. "Kalau begitu, kita langsung aja ya?" tanya Alie. Popon menjawab dengan senangnya, "Oke, yuk!"

    Dan dari kejauhan terlihat mereka berdua berjalan menuju halaman belakang sekolah yang sepi. Sementara hiruk-pikuk di kantin sekolah tetap terdengar sampai ke pintu gerbang.

    Oleh: Yoga Prakasa

    [Kentara yah ga cocok nulis cerita fiksi... eheuheuheu...

    Udah narasinya banyak deskriptifnya, tokoh banyak yang ngambil dari kejadian nyata, alurnya juga biasa dan ngga ada konklusi. Binun euy...

    Pas nyalin aja juga pake ketawa cekikian. Coba dianalisa, karakter gue ada ga di cerita itu?]

    Wednesday, April 07, 2010

    Pages

    Early this year, Blogger has launched Pages functionality into its blogging customization. With a revamped indrayudha blogspot, I've also added Pages into my sidebar navigation.

    I intent to use Pages as complementary space to further classify my postings into specific topics. Since my blog spans into multiple categories which can take me to write a topic into multiple postings across periods in no particular order, it should help to put them into a specific Page. The Page in question then acts as an anchor, a static index pointing out to the topic's postings which already been scattered in the blog.

    Categories and Labels do help in classifying blog postings, but there will be instances where the topic is specific enough to warrant its own Page. As my first Page, I have posted My Investment Portfolio Allocation where I put my postings on the securities I use to build my retirement portfolio under my own framework of 5 themes of asset allocation, which I had thought of a year ago.

    Monday, March 29, 2010

    New Template: Watermark

    The first time I wrote a post in 2004, I was using Blogger's Snapshot Tequila template, with green-colored theme. Three years later, I overhauled my blog. Employing Blogger's No. 565 template at the time. Today, three years after, I make-over my blog yet again.

    I have asked the question since 2007, on when Blogger would update its template portfolios as they became stale very quickly. Lo and behold, they gave the answer couple weeks ago. And such an opportune time, as I had been contemplating on the redundancy of keeping two blogs. Well, Blogger has bought itself a new lease on life. I'm keeping my homepage for sure, now powered by Wordpress CMS. But, I'm also keeping my Blogger still.

    I use a new template, Josh Peterson's Watermark, on a theme color traditional to all incarnations of this blog, green. Starting today, until perhaps, 2013?

    Tuesday, March 16, 2010

    (Almost) 90 Days Looking for Love?

    A former colleague from work, who happens to be a close friend, invited me for lunch couple days ago. I knew it wasn't going to be a catch-up session, and I was right. She was confused, about her love life, a very recent fling.

    She was just recovering from a failed relationship, the one where the other person left for a marriage with somebody else. Not that the guy was committed in the first place, but that was not the point. Another man showed up just in the right time, offering comfort, or so what everybody thought. I know the guy, not too close, but he was also a former colleague from work. He was not much of a difference, less commitment and more confusion. A fight ensued several days before, and the relationship was in an awkward position. Neither one of them want to make the first reconciliation move.

    I told her what was on my mind given the situation. I talked left and right, but she summarized it best on her own. A simple and objective, but unfortunately a bit cold truth. It was almost 90 days, but the two of them had not figured out what they want from the relationship. I have been in a "going-nowhere" relationship before, and I realized that it should not take too long to make up your mind. If neither one of you are sure, then was it worth fighting for?

    Love is not always smooth, lasting love requires sacrifices and some ego-busting. Love does not recognize ego, but that does not mean you don't have self-worth. Love got tested most often during tumultuous time, when sacrifices are required. When one party gives up too easily, then does the test tell you something? If the love is worth fighting for, then both of you will fight to defend it. Lower your egos for each other, but remain respectful of each other's self-worth, and of your own.

    And lastly, your loving partner will chase for your affection. Motives may be in question, but there will be times when motives got tested. When you love your partner, you will fight for her love, and when you know what you want from your relationship, then both of you will fight for your love to each other.

    The talk wasn't that succinct, but she helped me out sharpening it. Good luck to you, my friend. May that lasting love come after you very soon! All that you find along the way are part of the journey.

    Sunday, February 21, 2010

    A Year Later, Twitter

    One year and 2,605 tweets later..

    I didn't realize it has been one year since I jumped at the microblogging bandwagon. A tweet was directed to me earlier this afternoon by @jak_twop_1000,  which I thought at first to be a machine, but turned out to be conversational. My foray at the Twitter world turned out to be fun (aside from the occasional "floods"), and very useful. I have been using Twitter mostly as news aggregator just like Google Reader or similar RSS aggregators, that's why I didn't tweet that much (you think 2,605 is a lot? well, wait until you see my 10,000+ tweets of my friends, yeah those in just a year).

    The way the aggregator thing works is that I follow several Twitter accounts belonging to news station and field experts. Therefore, all I need to do in mid-afternoon at work or night at home is just look at their tweets to get the latest updates and links. I can then follow the link to a more comprehensive writing. For this purpose, I use a software application instead of directly read them from Twitter. This is because Twitter has limited showings and it takes a bit long to show more tweets. Plus, the app I used allows me to flag the tweets I like but rather read it some other time. The software I used is Socialite by Realmac, which was EventBox before they got bought by Realmac. Honestly, I kinda like EventBox better because it had less bugs and caused less stress.

    Second, I also use Twitter as bookmark, like del.icio.us. The way it works is that I put a favorite star on those tweets I like to bookmark or tweets those articles I found on the web myself. This is why my tweets are dominated by finance and investment related news and websites.

    What's for the next one year? Well, more or less the same I think, unless I got the sudden urge to post more of my original writings. Until next year...

    Wednesday, November 18, 2009

    Vote Earth!

    A global election is taking place, between Earth and Global Warming. Your vote will contribute to a global mandate for action on climate change, to be presented to world leaders at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, set on 16 December 2009. What's your vote?

    "Because global warming is not about what country you're from, it's about what planet you're from."

    Sunday, June 07, 2009

    Walk the World

    Today, on 7 June 2009, hundreds of thousands of people across the globe in 24 times zone walks together to raise funds and awareness for United Nations World Food Programme's work to end child hunger. The event is named 'Walk the World', one of the biggest global events against hunger. The WFP walk in Indonesia is also sponsored by the national philanthropy organization Dompet Dhuafa.

    WFP's school feeding programmes provide meals to over 20 million children each year, giving them the food and the motivation they need to go to school and build a better future for themselves.

    Alternative to 'Walk the World' is 'Walk the Web', where each dollar donated on 'Walk the Web' counts as a mile walked, with WFP's target to achieve 25,000 miles walking distance around the world. I am unable to join the walk itself today, so I've made a small donation, with a glimmer of hope, that it'll make a difference in the life of a hungry child.

    Looking forward to join again next year. See if you can find my photo in the Wall Against Hunger, if not, look closely.

    Sunday, March 29, 2009

    Earth Hour 2009

    Yesterday night, my friend and I observed the 2009 Earth Hour, from 20:30 till 21:30, Jakarta's time. Along with us, 83 countries the world over were participating, turning off lights for an hour to raise awareness of global warming.

    In Jakarta, the local government committed to turn off the lights in 5 of the city's icons: the City Hall, the the National Monument, the fountain of Arjuna Wiwaha, the Youth Statue at Senayan, and the Welcoming Monument at Hotel Indonesia roundabout. I suppose you can guess where I was from the video?



    And this is the scenery when all the lights were turned on again:



    I know there are some of you out there questioning the purpose of such event, and if it could really curb climate change. Well, directly? It's not nearly enough.

    The event was held to raise awareness for the public at large of efforts that can be done to stop global warming, and to raise their curiosity of climate change, its dangers, and measures to be taken to save the planet.

    For the act was so simple, yet done en masse it would put a dent in the amount of carbon emitted in one day. Imagine the possibility of more complex, concerted, and conscious efforts could have done?

    Friday, March 06, 2009

    The Big Freeze

    I came across a video on Financial Times website. The video is a report by investment editor, John Authers, on the financial crisis that has hurt the world's economies, developed and developing alike. A financial crisis that was rooted from the US subprime mortgage sector.

    As Mr. Authers said, it may started from US subprime mortgage, but the implication is far and wide. Financial companies are collapsing, bringing with them others in different industries. As purchasing power hit by streams of layoffs, profits across the board are tumbling down. In an interconnected economy, the effects are felt globally and rapidly.

    As Americans spend more than they earned, fueled by ever-increasing debt, the momentum has carried them deep in debt. So deep, that it would take years to unlever it. Historically, housing price has always been increasing, but in drying demand caused by mortgage defaults, price no longer holds. Since the price is declining, would that increase further defaults as people holding mortgage higher than the actual price of their homes?

    James Melcher of Balestra Capital, called the subprime mortgage meltdown a year ahead, profiting tremendously from crisis. Mr. Melcher believes that the worst may have yet to come. People are desperate to believe the market has bottomed, that it can only go up from now on. Opportunities to profit?