Jean Galea | Page 76 | Health, Wealth & Happiness

Climate Change

Last updated: February 24, 20201 Comment

I’ve recently watched the documentary produced by Leonardo di Caprio: Before the Flood.

I’m fully convinced that climate change is the biggest threat facing humanity today. I recommend you watch this documentary, it’s excellent and will show you the extent to which politics and greed have destroyed this planet.

So what can we do about climate change? We can, of course, support politicians and groups that are working to stop this wanton destruction of our environment. Moreover, we can vote with our money. What I mean is that the purchases we make help influence the supply chain of products.

If we continue buying meat, for example, we will encourage the big industrial agriculture companies to continue to rear the animals that give us this meat.

Did you know that the global livestock industry produces more greenhouse gas emissions than all cars, planes, trains and ships combined?

It might sound strange because we tend to think of pollution and climate change as being caused by machinery and means of transport. While those are certainly causes of pollution, the livestock industry is a bigger cause of concern.

Appetite for meat is rocketing as the global population swells and becomes more able to afford meat. Meat consumption is on track to rise 75% by 2050, and dairy 65%, compared with 40% for cereals. By 2020, China alone is expected to be eating 20m tonnes more of meat and dairy a year.

These are crazy and unsustainable figures. To put things into perspective, take a look at the chart below showing land use, freshwater consumption and emissions from agriculture and production for plant-based vs animal-based foods.

Diet shifts could have large benefits in terms of global warming, apart from being good for you.

I’ve always tried to stick to a healthy diet and lifestyle, but knowing the above I will now make further tweaks to my diet.

Entrepreneurs like Elon Musk are also working on the climate change problem. In this documentary, Di Caprio visits Musk’s Gigafactory in the Nevadan desert. The Gigafactory is the latest project of Tesla founder Elon Musk. Once at full operation by 2020, the vast factory aims to be producing annually 500,000 electric vehicles and batteries/cells equal to 85 GWh/yr. A hundred of these factories would produce enough sustainable energy to power the entire world.

Bravo Elon Musk, I love what he is doing and we need more entrepreneurs with grand visions like his.

Coming back to the topic of food, which I believe is where our choices can have most impact, here’s what action I’m taking.

I have decreased my consumption of beef; eating it at most once a week. I’ve also eliminated dairy completely apart from the occasional yoghurt.

I’ll also be trying to eat locally-sourced foods as much as possible. In this global economy of ours, food is transported over thousands of miles to reach us. This causes pollution from the means of transport, and of course also means that that food is not as fresh as locally sourced food.

It’s good to see that change is happening, and I’m excited to be part of this change myself. If you love the documentary and want more material to dig into, I can suggest a great book that I’ve just finished reading myself: This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein.

Best Accessories for the Hubsan H501S Drone

Last updated: July 29, 201917 Comments

I recently got a Pro version of the Hubsan H501S, which is a fantastic quadcopter at a very affordable price.

This is my second quadcopter, the previous one being the Hubsan H107L. The H501S is a big step up in terms of size and features.

With this more expensive drone, I took some time to learn more about this hobby and the technicalities surrounding it.

Most of my reading ended up being focused on batteries and battery care. The Hubsan H501S comes with one battery for the drone itself, and no batteries for the transmitter. Since one battery gets you around 20 minutes of flying time, I immediately ordered three more LiPo batteries; they’re exactly the same as the one that comes with the drone. You can use 4 AA batteries for the transmitter, but I found out that getting a dedicated LiPo battery is much more convenient. It lasts more and is more convenient to charge.

That brings us to the topic of charging. The charger that comes with the H501S is a cheap one that really is not very reliable nor does it take the best care of your batteries. If you want your batteries to be correctly charged each and every time you need to get a high-quality balance charger. I opted for the SkyRC S60, which is a very popular option. It’s economical and very easy to transport around due to its compact size.

So what is balance charging anyway? A balance charger will check the voltages of each individual cell in your battery and ensure they all have the same voltage. This is a critical factor to monitor as if one of the cells voltage increases or drops below the required voltage range the battery could get damaged, or worse, catch fire. You don’t want your new hobby to end up burning down your house, so do yourself a favor and get the balance charger. One additional function of the SkyRC S60 is that you can discharge batteries to the optimal capacity for storage. It’s not the best thing for batteries to be stored at full capacity.

One additional function of the SkyRC S60 is that you can discharge batteries to the optimal capacity for storage. It’s not the best thing for batteries to be stored at full capacity.

To connect the transmitter LiPo battery as well as the drone’s batteries to the SkyRC S60 charger, you will need a couple of cables:

Next thing I got is a Realacc LiPo battery bag. It’s a fireproof bag that you can use to safely store and transport your batteries. It’s also a great idea to put the batteries in the bag while charging. Charging time is when most fire accidents happen, so it’s a critical time to have the batteries in the bag. If a battery catches fire, the fire will be contained in the bag. Also, never charge these batteries unattended. Make sure you’re around to jump in and take action in case of fire or smoke. Always better to keep things safe.

The next accessory to get if you want to get better photos and videos is the gymbal for GoPro cameras. This is especially worth buying if you already have a GoPro (or similar) camera and you want to use it on your drone as well. Although it is referred to as a gymbal on the product page, this is more of a cage for your camera than a real gymbal. You’ll get much better photo and video quality, but it’s not to be compared to what you’d get with a real (and much more expensive) motorized gymbal.

Finally, as I discovered shortly after receiving the H501S drone, you will need a good solution to carry the drone and all the accessories around, unless you want to use the box it comes (very unpractical and doesn’t look cool). The best solution is the hard shell backpack case bag. The protective foam inside is made to fit the standard transmitter but can be easily modified with a sharp knife to fit the advanced transmitter as well. A cheaper alternative is the Realacc suitcase box.

Enjoy your H501S! If you have any questions regarding the accessories, leave a question below.

How to Buy Cheap Electronics in Malta

Published: November 18, 201616 Comments

Malta has the most expensive consumer electronics in the EU. However, you don’t need to be paying the high prices at local shops for your laptops, sound equipment, hardware, etc.

The solution is, of course, to shop online.

Shopping at Amazon

I highly recommend using Amazon for all your online shopping needs. You can not only buy books and electronics from Amazon, but pretty much anything else. Many Maltese buy clothes from Amazon too, for example. There’s much more choice than the local shops, and you can easily send the stuff you don’t like back.

Amazon has the most amazing support and customer service I ever encountered. Say for example you order a book and it’s received slightly damaged because the postman didn’t take good care of it, or it just got damaged during the shipping process. All you need to do is file an issue with Amazon and they’ll either give you a refund or send you another copy. It happened to me more than once and Amazon staff have always been super helpful in finding a resolution.

On another occasion I ordered a piece of hardware that never got delivered, even though it was sent via courier. Again, all I had to do was contact Amazon, and it was them who dealt with the courier. In the meantime, they just sent me the hardware once again and apologised profusely for the inconvenience.

I hope that convinces you that there is absolutely no problem with shopping online at Amazon. If anything, you’ll get better support and customer service than you would at your local shop.

Which Amazon site to use

Now Amazon doesn’t have a site specifically for the Maltese islands, so you will need to choose a site dedicated to one the bigger countries in Europe. There are several options, but most people will drift to the Amazon.co.uk website, simply because it is in English and has the biggest range of products.

Beware that the prices on Amazon.co.uk are in GBP, and since the exchange rate between GBP and EUR is always fluctuating, you might not be getting a great deal. On the other hand you might be lucky and profit from a weak British pound. The easiest way to check whether you’re losing or gaining from the exchange rate is to search for the same product on Amazon.es or Amazon.de (Spanish and German Amazon sites). It will take the same time to arrive to Malta and postage rates are the same for most products. However since the Spanish and German sites sell their items in Euro you will be able to compare and see whether it make sense to buy in GBP from the Amazon.co.uk site or to buy in Euro from Spain or Germany.

Hope that helps. I have used Amazon for over 10 years now and I get all my electronics from there, including expensive items like photographic equipment and laptops.

If you have any questions about shopping online at Amazon just leave a question below, I’ll be happy to help out.

Visit Amazon.co.uk | Visit Amazon.de

Other Sites for Getting Electronics to Malta on the Cheap

Apart from Amazon, there are other sites that can be ideal for particular niches. I tend to use Amazon for any kind of purchase, be it electronics, shoes, clothes, or household goods.

When it comes to electronics, though, in addition to Amazon I also check the following websites:

These are Chinese websites, although they have a limited supply of their stock available in European warehouses. Shipping tends to be slower than Amazon, but you can use expedited shipping to get your items within 5 business days. Note that you will usually have to pay VAT on the products’ arrival to Malta. This applies mostly to the higher priced items; on smaller items they just let them through usually. In the case that you’ll need to pay VAT, the delivery person will collect the VAT in cash when he delivers the item to you.

These two websites are also not limited to electronics, but you won’t find the same range as Amazon. On the other hand, if you know that the product you want is manufactured in China, the chances are that you’ll find it at a lower price on Banggood or Gearbest rather than Amazon, since you’re cutting out the middleman in Europe.

Mastering Your Time

Published: November 07, 2016Leave a Comment

We all know that once a certain level of basic income is reached, time starts to become the major constraint as everyone has the same 24 hours a day.

While our waking hours are more or less fixed, we can definitely optimize things to make the most of them. Do you think you don’t have time for some things you want to do? Think about the following:

Children aged 2-11 watch over 24 hours of TV per week, while adults aged 35-49 watch more than 33 hours, according to data from Nielsen that suggests TV time increases the older we get. The average American watches more than five hours of live television every day.

When I first read that I was shocked. While this study was done in the USA, I’m sure people in other nations are not doing a much better job at using their time wisely.

Booking your time in advance

I recently interviewed Curtis McHale on the Mastermind.fm podcast, and one of the key takeaways for me was the importance that Curtis gives to his time. In fact, he books time slots for the whole week in advance. I’m not just talking about his work day, but also time spent with his family, personal time etc. Absolutely everything must be planned for in advance.

This might sound like a rigid approach, but I like it a lot and am trying to implement it myself. Of course unexpected things will always crop up but then you can shift things around that. Most of our days are pretty regular and for most of us the unexpected big things will be few and far between.

Curtis’ method is especially useful for self-employed people and entrepreneurs who usually have almost total liberty on how to spend their days. Many times I struggle with seemingly stupid decisions that waste my time and use up energy that can be better employed elsewhere. For example, when I wake up in the morning, many times I have to decide whether to train in the morning or the afternoon, and what kind of exercise to do. This might sound silly to you but I’m sure you can find other areas in your life where you have a similar problem with deciding on how to best use your time.

[Read more…]

📈 Best Online Brokers for Investors Resident in Europe in 2020

Last updated: May 30, 202022 Comments

Online trading platforms offer a wealth of convenience for investing at any point in time and also provide lots of information about the market minute by minute, helping you make the best decisions.

For active trading as well as long-term investing these are the best platforms I’ve found:

DeGiro

Low-cost broker with incredible prices. You’ll need to be comfortable with their practice of loaning out shares though which is the way they compensate for the low fees. Perhaps not a great option for keeping large amounts there, but a good way to make cheap trades and transfer them to a more secure custodian.

eToro

A unique platform that allows you to do copy trading and free stock trading. You can also buy cryptos on eToro. I have written an in-depth review of eToro which you should look at in order to learn more about this platform.

Calamatta Cuschieri Live Trader

This broker is located in Malta and has a decent interface. They are quite reliable and have good support, however the interface is pretty old and relies on having the Flash plugin installed in your browser, which most browsers now block by default. This is my biggest issue with them.

The disadvantage with CC is that you will have to pay a fee if you decide to transfer your positions to another platform further down the line.

SaxoBank

The Danish giant has a physical presence or local partnerships in many European countries. It’s a great platform that works well on laptops as well as mobile devices.

I would highlight the fact that if you don’t trade for more more than six months they will charge you USD 100, so you need to buy/sell something at least twice a year.

If you’re a Maltese investor, you can access SaxoBank through Bank of Valletta as they have a partnership with them.

Other Online Brokers

There are of course other good online brokers in Europe, two others which are worth a mention and have come highly recommended are the following:

Interactive Brokers – 10 euro a month for maintenance costs, so not recommendable for buy and hold. They are however the most well-respected broker worldwide and if you invest more than €100k they will waive the 10 euro per month fee.
Robinhood – A new app-based broker in the US with probably the cheapest fees. Only available to US investors right now.
Freetrade – Similar to Robinhood but for UK-based investors.
Ninety-nine – Another low-cost app soon launching in Spain.
Trading 212 – A fast-growing zero-cost trading platform in Europe.
Exante – Another Malta-based broker which has some good reviews but has also been involved in a fraud case with the SEC in the US. While Exante was exonerated, company insiders were still embroiled in the charges.

These two are both cheaper for trades compared to CC and SaxoBank. I always recommend looking at all the fees and factors though, because what works best for me will not necessarily work best for you, depending on your location and investing strategies.

Have you found any other great online trading platforms? Let me know in the comments section.