Don’t give away or waste away your hard earned money so easily. Take time to find ways and means to avoid spending money unnecessarily. I know for sure some of us do not like this task and may even feel that life is too short to deprive oneself of some luxuries after a hard day’s work. Yes, this concept in life is fine. I am not suggesting you to be a miser but merely to be more conscious of where your money goes.

Here is a checklist of my own experience and how we can all save without feeling miserable.

continue reading "Save to Grow Your Money"

The first 4 rules were basically telling us to keep a cool head and to ensure we make good decisions as far as stock investing is concerned. Another aspect of being a successful investor is continual learning and having a good control of your portfolio. Stay cool by using your head, not your heart when dealing with your nest egg. Let’s take a look at the remaining 4 rules……

continue reading "Investing in Stock Market – Beat the Odds (Part II)"

Lets take a look at the first 4 “Don’ts” and see how they can help you keep a cool head when investing…..

Don’t panic

Past weeks, you may have read a lot of negative headlines about the economy of the world, how there may be a impending recession coming up, when and how nobody seems to be able to predict but everyone is talking about it. Do not panic. Panic clouds your brain. If you have stocks and funds in your hands, do not just sell and run. Do an inventory; some stocks are worth holding on to while others are not so strong in their fundamentals. Take stock and sell only those you do not intend to keep but sell it with a profit or only if you need to rid of this stock, at a minimum loss. This will take me to the next topic of not to be greedy.

continue reading "Investing in Stock Market - Beat the Odds (Part I)"

“If you know that you do not know”; this is knowledge in itself!!

Time and again, we think that we have already learned and that we have great knowledge but then, when you start to really listen to others you may realize that there are still a lot more to learn.

My grandmother used to lament this all too famous Chinese phrase (literally translated) “Eat till old, learn till old” meaning that there is no ending to learning. And there is another Chinese idiom (also literally translated) “The next mountain is even higher than this one” which means to say that “you may be smart but there are smarter people out there”.

These sayings are true and can be applied to investing and how to invest. Investing is a life’s journey and the destination is never in sight. You learn and get better as you travel along this road. You learn to differentiate the pebbles from the sands and the stones from the pebbles.

The next 2 postings will give you the 8 simple rules to follow that will help you along the fine journey of life. Let them guide you to a fun filled and pleasurable path…….

1. Don’t panic

2. Don’t be greedy

3. Don’t be impatient

4. Don’t take risk

5. Don’t be snobbish

6. Don’t worry

7. Don’t be out of perspective

8. Be specific 

Do you sometimes ever wonder “how on earth can people do what they do” even when there was failure upon failure. What motivates them? How do they go on and on? How? And you want to know. I think, basically, all you have to do is find your very own motivational trigger….

Watch this slide which a friend sent me in one of those all famous “Forward mail” :-

continue reading "My Motivational Trigger"

Today’s businesses have changed so much in recent years you are just not being able to catch your breath if you were not following them closely. At this time if you are still not computer savvy you definitely will be left out on a lot of new happenings. As things changed and the earth evolves, we need to change to fit in.

Paradigm shift is the term first used by Thomas Kuhn in his influential book “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” to describe a change in basic assumptions within the ruling theory of science. It is in contrast to his idea of normal science.

Kuhn used the duck-rabbit optical illusion to demonstrate the way in which a paradigm shift could cause one to see the same information in an entirely different way.

You must be wondering why are we talking about science. What has science got to do with today’s business.

Of course, the term “paradigm shift” has found uses in other contexts, representing the notion of a major change in a certain thought-pattern — a radical change in personal beliefs, complex systems or organizations, replacing the former way of thinking or organizing with a radically different way of thinking or organizing.

continue reading "Business Intelligence"

Are you one who will put off what you can do today till tomorrow. Are you in a habit of promising to do something today and went on with your daily routine and forget about what you have agreed to do?

Take note that sometimes putting off things you can do today till tomorrow might be detrimental to your financial health.

Here is a simple 3-questions checklist for you. Do not procrastinate any further. Use them to get your personal finance and life in order before any regrets:-

• Have you put up a financial budget yet?
• Have you put away an emergency fund yet?
• Have you taken care of your financial succession plan yet?

continue reading "Are You a Procrastinator?"

For those who are interested in going into property investment for the first time, please take time to understand how you are being charged for the loan by the bank.

What is Loan Amortization?

Wikipedia explains amortization as the process of decreasing or accounting for an amount over a period of time.

And if we are talking about real estate investment or property investment, amortization is a method for repaying a loan in equal instalments of which part will be interest due and the remainder will go to reduce the principal amount; the balance of the loan. As the loan amount is gradually reduced, a progressively larger amount will go towards reducing the principal.

For example, if you are taking a loan of $100,000 for 30 years at an rate of 6.75 (BLR (base lending rate of 5.75%) + 1%, the following is how your “Loan Summary” will look like. You will notice that you pay more interest than principal at the beginning of a loan period but at the end your payment goes more towards the principal. If you opt for 30 years to pay back your $100,000 loan, you only pay a monthly instalment amount of $648.60 but you ended up paying back $233,495.31 for a $100,000 loan of 30 years.

continue reading "Property Investment – What is Loan Amortization?"

What kind of investment advice does the Generation Y needs?

Does the Generation Y face similar financial problems as their parents? What kind of frustrations are they facing with their financial and investment experience.

Lets us take a look at what the younger generation can do to be financially free:-

continue reading "Investment Advice for Generation Y"

Baby Boomer Generation versus Generation Y
(1946 to 1964 versus 1981 to present)

After listening to a friend lamenting about his grown up kid and how disappointed he was with his attitude towards life, I came to the conclusion that there are definitely a lot of difference between these 2 generations. When the parents (the silent generation) of baby boomers did not understand their children, they called it “the generation gap“. Similarly, there is definitely a big gap between the b-boomer parents and the Gen-Y kids. The sociological trends definitely differ. The thought and spending pattern and style are also different.

continue reading "Baby Boomer Generation versus Generation Y"