HOW CAN I MANAGE COMPULSIVE SHOPPING and SPENDING ADDICTION (SHOPOHOLISM)

What is compulsive shopping and spending?
People who "shop 'till they drop" and run their credit cards up to the limit often have a shopping addiction. They believe that if they shop they will feel better. Compulsive shopping and spending generally makes a person feel worse. It is similar to other addictive behaviors and has some of the same characteristics as as problem drinking (alcoholism), gambling and overeating addictions.

Compulsive shopping or spending can be a seasonal balm for the depression, anxiety and loneliness during the December holiday season. It also can occur when a person feels depressed, lonely and angry. Shopping and spending will not assure more love, bolster self-esteem, or heal the hurts, regrets, stress, and the problems of daily living. It generally makes these feelings worse because of the increased financial debt the person has obtained from compulsive shopping.

How can you tell if you are a compulsive shopper?
Shopoholics, when they are feeling "out of sorts, shop for a " pick-me-up." They go out and buy, to get a high, or get a "rush" just like a drug or alcohol addict. Shopping addiction tends to affect more women than men. They often buy things they do not need. Holiday seasons can trigger shopping binges among those who are not compulsive the rest of the year. Many shopping addicts go on binges all year long and may be compulisve about buying certain items, such as shoes, kitchen items or clothing; some will buy anything.

Women with this compulsive disorder often have racks of clothes and possessions with the price tags still attached which have never been used. They will go to a shopping mall with the intention of buying one or two items and come home with bags and bags of purchases. In some cases shopololics have an emotional "black out" and do not remember even buying the articles. If their family or friends begin to complain about their purchases, they will often hide the things they buy. They are often in denial about the problem. Because they can not pay their bills their credit rating suffers, they have collection agencies attempting to get what is owed, may have legal, social and relationship problems. They sometimes attempt to hide their problem by taking on an extra job to pay for bills.

How do you control and treat this condition?
It is recommended that spending addicts seek professional counseling or a self-help group to deal with this problem. Addictive behaviors tend to come in clusters, so if you have an eating disorder, a problem with drugs or alcohol, or gambling, you may be a candidate for shopping addiction. Many communities have credit counseling centers that will also help with shopoholism.

How do I prevent shopping binges?

• Pay for purchases by cash, check, debit card.
• Make a shopping list and only buy what is on the list.
• Destroy all credit cards except one to be used for emergency only.
• Avoid discount warehouses. Allocate only a certain amount of cash to be spent if you do visit one.
• "Window shop" only after stores have closed. If you do "look" during the day, leave your wallet at home.
• Avoid phoning in catalog orders and don't watch TV shopping channels.
• If you're traveling to visit friends or reltives, have your gifts wrapped and call the project finished; people tend to make more extraneous purchases when they shop outside their own communities.
• Take a walk or exercise when the urge to shop comes on.
• If you feel out of control, you probably are. Seek counseling or a support group such as Debtors Anonymous.

CAREERS IN LIFE INSURANCE

Choosing the right career may seem daunting when you are below 20, but one must make the right decision and have some focus even before entering the university. Different careers will satisfy you in different ways and suit you at different times. Your career is your whole working life, which can be made up of a wide range of occupations and involve many changes in direction.



You may be at the crossroad, thinking which industry would suit you best.

How about a career in the life insurance industry?
It is not an obvious choice but if you dig deeper, you may be surprise at what you find. Life insurance is a dynamic, expanding, and maturing field that offers a combination of the major considerations to make the job truely rewarding over the long term. Often, the clear definition and importance of life insurance is unknown to the layman. Therefore, most individuals dare not get involved in this industry.

What is life insurance??
Life insurance is primarily a means of protection for individuals against financial loss as a result of a premature death, permenant disability or certain illnesses. It may also provide retirement income/old age security (annuity) or a return on investment (investment-linked products).


As the growth of life insurance in the industry is expected to continue, a career in life insurance gives the opportunity of excellent industry prospects. As the demand for skilled personnel in life insurance is very high, long term job security is assured. A career in life insurance is not only challenging, but it also carries the satisfaction of helping others secure their financial standing.

Is life insurance only about sales??
Many people associate it job in life insurance with sales and marketing. However, like any other financial institution, Great Eastern offers a wide range of jobs. The major professions represented are the actuary, marketing officer, underwriter, investment officer, claims officer and health care professionals. In addition, we also require talent in the areas of servicing, information technology, human resource and training.

Apart from being an industry that offers succesfully careers and established professions, Great Eastern also offers opportunities for professionals development through professional qualifications in life insurance, such as Life Office Mangement Association, Malaysian Insurance Institute, Chartered Insurance Institute and Registered Financial Planner. It opens up resources for the staff’s and agents’ self-development. Moving forward, we are looking towards an organizations which will portray the staff and agents as professionals to cater to the growing financial needs of the public.


Ms Nancy Lim, Senior Vice President and Head, Human Capital of Great Eastern Life Assurance (Malaysia) Berhad explains, “A career in insurance can be explained in three simple words- Life is great! That’s the motto by which Great Eastern staff live and work in a company that is celebrating it 100th birthday this year. If you enjoy personal interaction and understand different people’s life styles and financial needs, you will thrive here.”


She also added, “If you are attracted to deep learning curves and being part of a team that is expanding regionally, then you will really enjoy life at Great Eastern.”


Great Eastern is the largest and oldest life insurance company in Malaysia and Singapore. Its workforce numbers 1,500 in Malaysia and Great Eastern looks for graduates with good grades and a great attitude. Show potential, ambition, along with energy and good personal values and Great Eastern will teach you the industry know-how you need to succeed.

In line with the release of the STPM results, Great Eastern Life is offering attractive international, overseas and local scholarship to outstanding students to attract young and bright Malaysian performers into its organization. For those who are looking for that exciting career and potentially foreign assignment, you can log on to www.lifeisgreat.com.my

Moral Decay Among Muslim Teenagers in Malaysia

Nowadays, we can see Muslim teenagers around us, not only dressed in improper attire but they also behave in rude ways. They seem to forget their culture and religion. For them, freedom and happiness must be their first aims. Their tradition culture and religion should be left behind because they only restrain them from achieving total freedom in their life.

For example, in Edisi Siasat 2006 program dated on 30th April 2006, they shot a videoclip in one of nightclub in Kuala Lumpur area. From that scene it showed female and male teenagers dancing in wild manners without notice that there was a camera capturing their bad and wicked behaviors. With sexy luxury casual dressed the female teenagers without any shame danced in the group of man as they are high-class entertainer for male teenagers there. According to Edisi Siasat’s host they just took ecstasy and felt energetic and excited. They were able to dance the whole night without break. Some of them are studying in higher institutions and come from elite families.

Therefore, nowadays we witness moral decay not only happening to low class people without high education. But it is also happening to elite, high class and professional group to achieve particular aims and satisfactions. And we can say that most of these problems occured to Muslim teenagers. When these social problems have spread among our teenagers, all of us started to show fingers to parents. But in this situation we should not blame each other. Instead, we need to find out the solution to reduce or to stop these problems. As great scholars stated “Every illness have its remedy”.

When we ask this “Millenium teenagers” regarding these issues they will say “ooo….. Government must put Closed-circuit Television (CCTV) at all areas in town and the authority should increase their efforts to solve this criminal issues…” But if we think deeply, how much CCTV could help the authorities to solve this problem? Should government spend the expenditure to make sure that all areas in town in the whole Malaysia has CCTV? This suggestion is unreasonable. Should we put all these burden to the authorities and government? What is our role to protect ourselves in this moral problem? That’s are the thinking of our “millennium teenagers”. This assumption is one of the factors for moral decay among them.

 According to Russell Kirk in Wikipedia website, moral decay can be defined as the loss of an aim or object in life such as life values or moral values. From this definition we can simplified that moral decay is a decline of moral values . According to Al-Ghazali this moral decay happens when there is an inverse relationship between prosperity and moral decline. Its occurrence influenced by hedonistic worldview and lifestyle . From that statement we can say that moral decay or moral incline happens when wealth, physical and emotional satisfaction and pleasures become as the fundamental goals in our lives.

In my opinion, the main cause of this problem is devoid of Islamic values. This is because Islam is the way of Muslim life. Islam is a complete religion where it gives us guideline through Qur’an and Sunnah which cover all aspects in human life. It is including the way we behave in our daily life. As Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. said,

'This Deen or way of life is easy'; 'Make it easy, don't make it difficult; 'Let people rejoice in being Muslims and not run away from it'.

According to Tn. Hj Nik Mustapha Bin Nik Hassan in his article ‘Lets stregthen our ethical practice’, “Islam is of the view that moral acts are not distinguishable from religious acts. The more religious an individual is, the more morally upright he will be . It means Islamic teaching is not just focus on how to lafadz (recite) a kalimah (statement) Lailahaillallah Muhammadur Rasullah (There is no God except Allah, Prophet Muhammad is a Mesanger of Allah) correctly, and perform other Ibadah (deeds) like praying, fasting, paying Zakah and performing Hajj (Pilgrimage) in the right way. In Islam Ibadah is cover every single act in our daily life and every Ibadah has their own method to perform them. Therefore, have good attitude and manner is a part of Ibadah. The way we perform Ibadah is refer to our Prophet Muhammad S.A.W because he is a best model for us. His good manner and attitude were declared by other scholars even from other religions. Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. very particular in the way he communicates, he sleeps and even the way he eats. All the actions have the right way to perform.

As Allah have stated in Quran,

“Ye have indeed in the Messenger Of God a beautiful pattern (of conduct) for any one whose hope is in God and the Final Day, and who engages much in the praise of God”(Al-Ahzab 33:21)

Nowadays, some of Muslim teenagers have forgoten all these teaching and they seem never heard about the moral conducts that have stated in Islam. Their lives are full with meaningless freedom and happiness. As a result, most of them have involved in social problems such as drug addict, suicide, illegal sexual intercourse, loafing without any benefit intentions, illegal motor racing and others. All these problems occurred around us.

Therefore, we should take note from the speech of Dato’ Sri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi during Courtliness Campaign. As he said that to bring back moral values in our life, we have to start practice it individually, and then bring it to families. After that it will effects to society and nation .

Simply said, the responsible in turning to the path of Islam is on our shoulder. We as Muslim should upholding and practicing the values and norms preached by Islam. We need to strengthen ethical practice in our life. All of these values and ethics have stated in Qur’an and Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad S.A.W and his companions. The Prophet S.A.W was sent as a teacher and as a role model for all of mankind. He was sent as a warner of Allah wrath and punishment, a bearer or good tidings, as well as a guide to Paradise.

I have been sent into this world to perfect the best of moral conduct in human behavior, to educate and purify them (74:2).

When we has strength hold in Islamic teaching, it easy for us to invite and teach our children. It is because Islamic environment which has cultivated in family will make them easy to understand Islam. Besides, Islamic practice will result the Islamic values such as Amanah (trustworthy), generous, tolerance and feel of respect among the family members. All the family members also know their own responsible in the family. The father is responsible to give Nafkah (breadwinner) for the family members, take care for his wife and children, teach them about Islam, give them educations and others. The mother is responsible to take care the welfare and maintenance of her husband, give birth and growing the children. The children also should respect their parents and their siblings. When they are growing up and their parents getting old, they should take care their parents and as their parents caring them when they small. All of these are the small part of the responsible in family institution. When the all-family members follow all the Islamic teaching, this family will achieve the success in world and hereafter. This scenario also will invite the rahmah (blessing) from Allah.

When all Muslim family in Malaysia society follows the right path of Islam, Insya Allah (By Allah Willing), all the outside bad culture will not easily influence our society. This scenario will lead others to respect Islam as a formal religion in Malaysia and Insya Allah (By Allah Willing) the dream of our Prime Minister to see our teenagers, as a strong basement for our country development will become true.