This has been circulating on the net for a while now but I just read it. Whether its true or not I find some of the points worth repeating to those who wish to read and learn. If you do not read it too seriously, it might just lighten your day! Have fun listening to the world’s richest man…….

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule #1 :
Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule #2:
The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule #3:
You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule #4:
If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule #5:
Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule #6:
If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule #7 :
Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule #8:
Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule #9:
Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule #10:
Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule #11:
Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

If you want to retire comfortably, it is definitely too late to start planning at age 40 not to mention wanting to retire rich and young. I asked myself “Why do we do that?” Merely because we are too busy with our daily life and kept putting off planning for our retirement because the word “retirement” sounds too far away?

Retirement is in fact the most important phase in one’s life and I felt strongly that the timeline for retirement should begin the minute we finished college. Right, young people out there must think I am being ridiculous. You have not even started to earn money or gotten your first job, why should there be thoughts of retiring……

You are absolutely right, and that how the statistics ended ….”leaving it too late to plan for your retirement”.

I was just suggesting that you start to plan towards your retirement. I am a strong believer of the phrase “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail” and it is necessary to include a retirement timeline to your aspirations and your life’s goals.

Everyone should plan for their future and if your future plans include how and when you want to retire, it will help you have a clear view of how rich or how young you will retire. Planning this step of your future will definitely encourages and pushes you to achieve your life’s goals faster and more effectively.

“You start to live once you do not need to earn to live!!”

Here is something I found in my newspaper clipping collections and I wish to share this piece of booster with you, a winning essay by Gan Hong Leong of Bentong, organised by SIDC published in the Focus column of The Star:

Words of Advice

For all stock market investors and speculators out there, here is Gan’s advice:

Value for money you must insist

Buying in a downtrend you must resist

The trend is your friend

Follow it to the very end

Holding on to falling stock is unwise

Cut your losses quickly is advised

Never kill the golden goose when you have one

Never sell prematurely, let it run for once

Undervalued unpopular stock is never a fancy

Glamour stock is the choice normally

Join the crowd; enjoy the ride, if you wish

Be careful though, lest you fall out and vanish

The market is most tempting at the top

Lock in your profit before volume has a good drop

Sell your stocks when you love them most

Take your money and let the deal be closed

Buy when volume traded is at its lowest

The market will then be at its dullest

Investors should buy low and sell high

Traders should buy high and sell higher

Someday you will know what I mean

By then, you are a stock market dean.

And for those who are still waiting for the right time to enter the stock market, you will probably be thinking that this is logically the right time to start your stock accumulations and by watching the happenings in the world, the movement of world markets it will be able to guide you to some money making trend.

Also, some will be thinking, “Will the price drop further?” “Shall I wait a little longer?”

Well, for small players and common people like us who just want to invest our spare money to earn some good money, we are always at the tail end of the game. When we go in to buy the good stock that just came out in today’s news, we are actually buying from the big players who already have their pie and eat it.

With the impending news of a threatening recession, are we sane to go into stocks investing, but you thought, the prices has gone so low, its almost tempting.

Yes, by all means, go ahead to accumulate your portfolios but be forewarned —- “You must watch the chart”. Monitor the downtrend on where and when it will end. Look out for stocks with a promising growth in the future and has a growth record of at least 10 years. Watch the price range and determine the price worth you putting your hard-earned money into.

Be patient and try not to be rash… its worth all the work you are going to put in doing your stock survey.

Happy Watching the Chart!!!

Have you ever pondered how the rich gets richer? Or how the poor gets poorer?

My personal opinion is that both questions have the same answer. Let’s not waste time in “poor getting poorer” but if you do have the time to survey the poor, you might get to learn from their mistakes and how not to make them. I feel it is better to learn first hand from the rich and find out how the rich gets richer.

As you can see from today’s stock market volatile situation and it is admittable that it is now not so easy to make money just from investing in stocks or the mutual fund as it is very closely related to the market trend.

Let’s learn from the already self-made millionaires of the world. What are they characteristics and their attitudes towards life:-

80% of the world’s millionaires are

Physically:

• ordinary people (like you and me) who make it on their own and in his/her generation.
• Their wealth is accumulated slowly and steadily.
• Only 20% inherited their wealth and the rest never inherited a single cent.
• Most wear inexpensive cloths, drive home-country made cars
• About 50% of them still live in their first purchased house
• 20% of them are retired, 55% self-employed, remainders are working professionals
• All of these millionaires invested approximately 20% of their household income yearly.

Emotionally:

• They have winning attitude
• They always think positively
• They are always questioning to better themselves
• They are always on the look out for better and sure investment opportunities
• They do not take risk; only calculated risk
• They are the doer
• They have the “never-say-die” way of life

After studying the physical and emotional aspect of self-made millionaires, the question we should pose to ourselves is “How can we be like them?” Majority of us spend more than we earn. We are always lamenting about not having enough and we are probably spending our next pay check before it even arrive, thus creating a debt situation.

We live beyond our means, we spend more than we earn while self-made millionaires do the opposite, they spend less than they earn.

They live beneath their means.

Very simply put: They simply spend less !!

And continuously looking for ways to make money out of the money they did not spend.

If you need to learn more, you may want to read some of the related posts in this blog under the category of “Wealth Creation”. Be warned – it is not easy to do what the millionaires do but it is simple. Have fun changing the way of life.

It is also true that we spend as much as we earn if not more. There is never enough. If you have been working for 10 years and more, you can make your own comparison.

Assuming that you were earning just $24k annually 10 years ago, you get along fine with your income and expenses and now 10 years later if your earning has increased let say to $60k annually, I am sure you are not just spending $24k but that you probably are spending $60k or even more. If you are spending more then this will equate to the fact that you are in debt.

Conclusion here is, if you are one of those who said to yourself that you will start saving when you are earning more, stop it, because it will never come to that. If you do not have a financial plan in place, each time your earning increase you will have this other thing that you need or something that you are committed to. And “poof” there goes that additional amount of money you have.

So, are you a spender or a saver?

Savers

If you are a saver, fine and good but just saving your money is not enough to guarantee you a good retirement plan that will give you the lifestyle you are so used to now.

Read about “Put your money to work for you” and some of the posts here under “Invest” category. Find out how you can put your savings into earning money for you over the next 20 or 30 years before you opt to retire.

Spenders.

Spenders beware! Are you in the high-income, low net-worth category? It’s time to make drastic changes if you are reading this and you are aware that you are spending too much. Similar to people with tendency to violence, they are born with an extra “y” chromosome. You are probably born with a defective chromosome maybe a “s” chromosome . You are born to shop, shop and shop. Or you may be suffering from a sickness called “shopaholic”. Following are2 ways to help you fight your “sickness”, they can work but it takes some will power:-

1. Pay yourself first – before you can get your hands on your money end of each month, commit by auto-transfer the amount you want to put away to a special account where you have taken out with no “ATM” card. (Read about some posts here in “Wealth Creation” category).

2. Lock away all your credit cards. Credit cards are meant for convenience and building your credit score but if you are unable to control your spending, the best way is to get rid of the spending avenues. Keep only enough cash for you to get by daily and by all means avoid window shopping. The temptation may be too much for you to resist the inconvenience of running to the bank. After a while you will hopefully (depend on individual and the strength of your will power) get use to your forced new lifestyle of minimum buying and live with this new found lifestyle comfortably.

At times, when we come to the crossroads of our lives, where we turn is what we will make out of our lives therefore it is important that we make the right choice. Most people will not take the road less traveled due to the fear of the unknown.

Fear of the Unknown

Among all the fears, this is the most potent to human advancement. If you do not know whether you are suffering from this fear then you won’t be able to “cure” it. Ask yourself truthfully whether you are afraid to venture into the unknown; whether you would take up a task you totally do not know anything about or you will accept a job that you have no idea how to do? Beware this fear as it may stagnate you. Stagnate your mind and soul and keeping you stuck on a spot. Get out of it, try a little adventure and feel the exhilaration.

I read the book, Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and here are some of Rich Dad’s words of wisdom:

• You are what you Think.
• A job is a short-term solution to a long-term problem.
• A highly paid slave is still a slave.
• Why climb the corporate ladder when you can own the ladder?

Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something - Plato

All these wisdom words are good and fine. I suppose we need to understand them and learn to use them to our advantage, to guide us along and to help us make an effort to change our ways of thinking. That is what wise words are all about – a guide and constant reminder to take the right turn.

Watch this — Building Life

I watch this slide-show by an anonymous writer and I find it to be true to life. Whatever we choose to do in our life, we need to do it with our heart, otherwise, we will end up like this excellent carpenter with immaculate carpenter skill but who built his own house shoddily.

Remember, your life is yours to live. You don’t live it for your parents, your spouse or even for your children. Evidently how you live and die rest fully upon yourself in your own two hands.

Be a master builder of your own life and allow the next generation to emulate your good example by living a healthy, wealthy and happy life. Take care of your own health, work hard to build your financial wealth and while doing both stay happy.

Famous and smart celebrities have the privilege of saying “The question here is not at what age I wish to retire but its at what income I want to retire”. If this ring true for you, you’re blessed.

In fact, it is no fun to retire at your retirement age; be it 55, 60, 65 or even 70. Think about it, how much fun you are going to miss by the time you wait for your retirement age to retire, let say at 60 on the average. If you are young now you probably would not be able to imagine what its like to be 60. Go look around and take a person at that age now and find out how his/her physical, mental and health abilities are.

Majority of us would take our retirement age for granted. We accept that we will retire when it comes the time that we need to retire. Or that we will retire when we are not employable. But, the question here is “Is this how you want to live your life?” Are we allowing an “accepted fact” to rule our lives?

Let’s change our thought patterns, let’s think out of the box a bit for now. Let’s say you live a simple life and that you will survive comfortably on a constant income of $5,000 per month without having to work. How can you plan towards that kind of residual income?

Of course with that kind of income you can only take care of your daily expenses and maybe can afford to save up for an annual holiday. You will have to have your medical insurance intact, just in case you get sick and the better bet is to keep yourself healthy by eating right and exercising regularly.

You will need a $1.2 million to put in a bank earning you a 5% interest to have a monthly $5,000 earning. You got your answer. But it’s not that simple. You will need a lot of planning financially in order to achieve that goal.

Seek a financial planner’s assistance or if you are savvy with money management and have your own financial education, read some of the posts here and seek out what can work best for you.

Happy working towards your retirement!!!

The last day of the year; 31^st December, always give me that feeling of underachievement. Of not doing enough or not completing all that I intended to. It gives me the déjà vu feeling, that I have been on this road before. Why?

It is time for reflection….. had we done what we had set ourselves to do at the beginning of the year or had we done enough for ourselves and for others?

Your Successes

Have you been successful in some of your endeavours; if you have, are they good enough for you, is it up to the standard you want? Are all your successes beneficial to you and to others? Are they good enough for you to repeat over the coming year?

Your Mistakes

If you fail in some of the ventures you have got yourself into this year, are you able to learn from these mistakes (I feel strongly about calling mistakes failures as I believe no one will ever fail, you just miss your target). Mistakes are there for us to learn, we learn not to repeat them and learn to correct them so we make them into successes.

There is No Comparison

I would urge everyone who is on their venture to become successful to avoid comparing yourself with others. You should compete with yourself and not others. Do not compare yourself with your friends, neighbours or even siblings. Set your own standard and target and the only person you compete with is yourself. Everyone is different in their making and everyone succeed at their own pace. You will only get frustrated if you start comparing yourself to others and that will definitely be detrimental to your mental health. You do not want or need that.

I find reflecting a very good way to move on with our lives especially if there are obstacles that we have encountered and reflections give us time to heal and repent and it is good for the soul… have a fun time doing that on the 1^st day of the year.