I want to stress on the word self-made millionaire. This mean, in order to be a millionaire by our own effort, we must remember this number one rule. Life below our means. To be clear, we must live moderately. I believe many people will be against me. Most people believe that millionaires life in a luxuries life, drive a fancy sport cars and allow their young wife shopping 24 hours non stop. People, our perception had been distorted by the media.
Yes, only minority millionaires live this way, and they never can sustain their wealth. Now, we don't want to be that person. We work hard for our money and we want to protect it. We want to grow and sustain it. We want our kids and grandchildren also do the same. That is what we want to be. Meanwhile, there are three types of people who tend to live in a luxuries lifestyle and shortening their wealth period. Remember, we don't want to be in this group. I believe, if you belong to one of this group, you are lucky, it's time to get out of it.
Group number one is what we call the false rich.Most of them, they are from the professionals and high executives who earn a very high salary, but spend as much as what they earn. Sometimes more. These people, they drive a latest luxury car, fly in the first class and dine in the finest restaurants. They appear to be very rich and successful. But the reality, they are very weak in accumulate their wealth and they have a very few positive cash flow assets. Basically, they just one to two paycheck away from broke. I promise, I don't want to be in this group in my life.
Group number two is the people who inherited their millions. This bunch of lucky bums are people who don't have to break their sweat to earn money. They are people who win a lottery. They are people who married to a millionaire. They are people who inherited them from their millionaire's parent. This people, to be honest, they don't understand the value of money. They spend like there is no tomorrow. Most probably, within a few years, they will be broke. Again, I promise not to be in this group.
The last group is the people who are the highly talented celebrities. These people are the ones who earn their millions not because their financial intelligence but due to their talent in singing, acting or sports. Due to the millions come easily to them, they tend to spend all of it. Unfortunately, no matter how much they earn, eventually they may wind up broke and in debt. Some of the examples are like Mike Tyson, MC Hammer and Michael Jackson. You can google up and read their financial story. I believe, you also don't want to be in this group.
In a nut shell, we must live our life below our means. Don't try to showoff your wealth because once you be like that, there is no turning back. You will always be in that trap. So this is when people said prevention is better than cure. Always be moderate in our life because that is the key to be a millionaire. I believe, it is okay to sometimes we spends a little more than usual, but always keep in mind to watch the cash flow. I know my father belong to the first group, and I learn my lesson. :)
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
I love to be in Civil Engineering!
Tonight, I want to share with you how I ended up studying degree in Civil Engineering in Universiti Teknologi Petronas. Don't worry, this thing have a very close relationship with my financial future. The truth, everything was a great coincident. I never thought in my life that I want to be a civil engineer in the future.
When I'm in my secondary school, my ambition was to be a surgeon or neurologist. At that time, my father was my role model. I want to be a respected person and a rich-looking people like him. To make long story short, I apply to UTP for Civil Engineering course. My plan was just to experience the interview sessions and get some friends there. I got lucky, UTP send a letter to my home saying that they accepted me to study there. The day I got my real SPM result, I consult with my father whether I need to go to UTP of not, and he give me a green light.
A few days before I went to UTP, I consult my father again. I told him that I really like business. I also want to be a doctor. To be honest, my Biology was not so good compare to my Physics and Additional Mathematics. That's the reason why I put aside my dreams to become a doctor. About business, my father told me that I can learn business by myself. I said okay, maybe I can take MBA after I graduated in order to improve my financial literacy. I'm trying to be flexible with my father's opinion. It is ironic how a doctor don't want his own son to be a doctor too.
Then I ask him why he want me to be a civil engineer, rather than a doctor. He said, he has many engineer friends and most of them are richer than him. Being an engineer, you don't have to always be in office, sometimes you come to the construction site, meet clients and do other stuffs. He always compare with his life, became a doctor, you have to be in office and meet patients to make money. If you are not there, you got no patients, means you got no money. It is very hard for a doctor to work for more than one clinics at one time. But for engineers, work for more than one projects are possible.
Now, after reading a lot of business books, I found one similarities. When come to investment, most of them will talk about properties like land, house and apartment. In order to give a great advantage to me, I must think how my profession in the future (civil engineer) can be manipulated in properties. I might use my specialties to improve the value of a property. Everything is just a matter of being creative and flexible. Thank god I'm taking civil engineering.
p/s- only Allah knows what will happen in the future but it is our responsibility to give the best in whatever we do. If we want to be rich, we will work for it and Allah will give it. Nothing is impossible.
When I'm in my secondary school, my ambition was to be a surgeon or neurologist. At that time, my father was my role model. I want to be a respected person and a rich-looking people like him. To make long story short, I apply to UTP for Civil Engineering course. My plan was just to experience the interview sessions and get some friends there. I got lucky, UTP send a letter to my home saying that they accepted me to study there. The day I got my real SPM result, I consult with my father whether I need to go to UTP of not, and he give me a green light.
A few days before I went to UTP, I consult my father again. I told him that I really like business. I also want to be a doctor. To be honest, my Biology was not so good compare to my Physics and Additional Mathematics. That's the reason why I put aside my dreams to become a doctor. About business, my father told me that I can learn business by myself. I said okay, maybe I can take MBA after I graduated in order to improve my financial literacy. I'm trying to be flexible with my father's opinion. It is ironic how a doctor don't want his own son to be a doctor too.
Then I ask him why he want me to be a civil engineer, rather than a doctor. He said, he has many engineer friends and most of them are richer than him. Being an engineer, you don't have to always be in office, sometimes you come to the construction site, meet clients and do other stuffs. He always compare with his life, became a doctor, you have to be in office and meet patients to make money. If you are not there, you got no patients, means you got no money. It is very hard for a doctor to work for more than one clinics at one time. But for engineers, work for more than one projects are possible.
Now, after reading a lot of business books, I found one similarities. When come to investment, most of them will talk about properties like land, house and apartment. In order to give a great advantage to me, I must think how my profession in the future (civil engineer) can be manipulated in properties. I might use my specialties to improve the value of a property. Everything is just a matter of being creative and flexible. Thank god I'm taking civil engineering.
p/s- only Allah knows what will happen in the future but it is our responsibility to give the best in whatever we do. If we want to be rich, we will work for it and Allah will give it. Nothing is impossible.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Let's play Cashflow 101 online!
To be honest with you, I'm not the game kind of a person. Like most of my friends, they like to play games very much like Pro Evolution Soccer, Warcraft and Need For Speed SHIFT. My room mates back to Universiti Teknologi Petronas, he is the god of Need For Speed SHIFT. But this holidays, I found a new game which involve personal money management. Something like Monopoly, but this one is far more real.
It is a Cashflow 101. This game was invented by Robert T. Kiyosaki, one of my favorite author. For people who seek for financial knowledge, this game will give you a very practical understanding of your own finance. I believe most of us, we are either from a poor class or middle class people, and we have our own perception about money. One of it is, we always thought that we have to work harder to make more money.
This is where this amazing game came in. In order to change our financial level, we first have to change our attitude on money. This game teach us to think like the rich. The rich always think, if they want to make more money, they have to make sure the money work for them. Not like us, we work for the money.
In order to make money work for us, we must have some passive incomes. Passive income in this game where we get money by renting some properties. Most of us, we use our money to buy liabilities. Just bare in your mind, anything that can put money in your pocket is an asset, while anything that can take your money away is a liability. So, the strategy is to accumulate as much assets as possible to gain more passive income.
In this game, you will also learn about income statement and balance sheet. In the income statement, there will be your income amount and your expenses which both in form of monthly basis. Your income is determine by your profession which can be a doctor, web designer, school teacher, lawyer, pilot army and many more. If you a doctor, of course your income will be more, but your expenses also will be more. This is the truth in the real life. In the expenses part, it is where you have your taxes, home mortgage, school loan payment, car payment, credit card payment and many more.
For the balance sheet, this is where you put your assets and liabilities. Remember what I've told you about the difference between assets and liabilities. When you buy a property and it give you a positive cash flow every month, it is an assets. When you buy a car, and you need to pay the car monthly, it is obviously a liability to you. In order for you to get out of the rat race, you have to accumulate as much as possible assets that can give you a positive cash flow. Sometimes you have the opportunity to sell your assets and enable you to get more cash. That cash you use to buy another assets which can get you more passive income. This is what we call delayed gratification.
I believe that for you to totally understand the concept, you must play the game as often as possible. I also provide half an hour everyday to play the game, just to make sure that I have the right mindset about money, which is "make money work for us". Just click here to play the game. I you are not the member of Rich Dad, you have to register first. Don't worry, it is free. Enjoy!
It is a Cashflow 101. This game was invented by Robert T. Kiyosaki, one of my favorite author. For people who seek for financial knowledge, this game will give you a very practical understanding of your own finance. I believe most of us, we are either from a poor class or middle class people, and we have our own perception about money. One of it is, we always thought that we have to work harder to make more money.
This is where this amazing game came in. In order to change our financial level, we first have to change our attitude on money. This game teach us to think like the rich. The rich always think, if they want to make more money, they have to make sure the money work for them. Not like us, we work for the money.
In order to make money work for us, we must have some passive incomes. Passive income in this game where we get money by renting some properties. Most of us, we use our money to buy liabilities. Just bare in your mind, anything that can put money in your pocket is an asset, while anything that can take your money away is a liability. So, the strategy is to accumulate as much assets as possible to gain more passive income.
In this game, you will also learn about income statement and balance sheet. In the income statement, there will be your income amount and your expenses which both in form of monthly basis. Your income is determine by your profession which can be a doctor, web designer, school teacher, lawyer, pilot army and many more. If you a doctor, of course your income will be more, but your expenses also will be more. This is the truth in the real life. In the expenses part, it is where you have your taxes, home mortgage, school loan payment, car payment, credit card payment and many more.
For the balance sheet, this is where you put your assets and liabilities. Remember what I've told you about the difference between assets and liabilities. When you buy a property and it give you a positive cash flow every month, it is an assets. When you buy a car, and you need to pay the car monthly, it is obviously a liability to you. In order for you to get out of the rat race, you have to accumulate as much as possible assets that can give you a positive cash flow. Sometimes you have the opportunity to sell your assets and enable you to get more cash. That cash you use to buy another assets which can get you more passive income. This is what we call delayed gratification.
I believe that for you to totally understand the concept, you must play the game as often as possible. I also provide half an hour everyday to play the game, just to make sure that I have the right mindset about money, which is "make money work for us". Just click here to play the game. I you are not the member of Rich Dad, you have to register first. Don't worry, it is free. Enjoy!
Monday, June 14, 2010
The 4 Levels of Wealth
I started to thinking about getting rich is when I was 13 years old. I swear I knows nothing about life when I was in my primary schools. Everything was so nice and easy till I don't remember having any hard time. Then I get into one unique boarding school called SM Sultan Abdul Halim. The reasons my secondary school is so unique for me is due to its structures and landscapes.
I never found any school that is so different structurally(is this word exist?). There is mosque inside the school. There is big eye at the entrance. There is a medium-sized pond besides the eyes with a cute cottage-like structure. The building have numerous holes which I try to total up the sum of the holes but I forgot the numbers. The mosque shape is like a semi-cylinder coffin. There are three blocks for the male students to stay which from the top, its look like the tip of the satanic spears (the one like at MU's logo). I think if I study the whole structures of Jenan(this is the other name for my school), I can create a very mystical stories and relate it with the buildings. One more thing, there also a huge keris(Malay tradisional small sword) besides the hall(the hall's wall have a colorful geometric pattern). To make long story short, you better come to my school to experience it yourself.
We back to our business which is my personal money. When I'm in form 1 (13 years old), I really sure that I wanted to be rich so badly. Twice every month, my mom will come to visit me and give me RM50. My dad is so busy with his job that I don't think he got time for me. But I'm consider to be so lucky because most of my friends, their parents never come (because their home is very far). For a kids like me at that time, I always wondering how I'm going to pay back all the good deeds that my parents gave to me especially my mom. When I'm going to be independent? 13 years is a damn long period of time. And guess what, she keeps giving me pocket money till I'm 17. My father also do the same sometimes.
So, every night I keep on thinking about money. How to get it, how to make it more and how to protect it. That's when I develop this reading habits. I love to read books about money and self-improvement since I'm 13. I promise to myself to be rich and I want to give my parents the gift that no child can give. I want to bring my parents to Hajj and enjoy eating as much pistachios as we want, I want to bring them to Paris and let both of my parents fall in love for the second time, I want to bring my parents to Antarctic and make friends with the cute penguins and I want them to be the happiest parents in the world. How to do that? By becoming rich and wealthy.
Then I ask myself, what is rich? Do you know what is rich? In order to be rich, we all must have the clear understanding of wealth. Once we understand, then we can put our actions, ideas and time in order to be rich. According to one of my master(Adam Khoo), there are 4 levels of wealth.
Level number one is Financial Stability. The requirement to become Financial Stability is when you have accumulate liquid assets (like cash in hand or saving account) that enough for you to sustain your basic expenses for 6 months. This also include that you already have the required insurance if you have family in case something happen to you. For example if every month you need RM500 in order to have a very simple life(this example is just practical for students like me), that's mean you must have at least RM3000 in your saving account. If yes, you already achieve Financial Stability. Congratulation! So, now we need to move to the next level.
The second level of wealth is Financial Security. You have achieve Financial Security when you have a passive income that is equal to your expenses. Passive income means the side income that you get by very little involvement. It can be your online businesses, properties rental, multi level marketing, books royalties or many more. For example, if you have an online business, and your business can provide you with monthly net profits of RM500, you are already consider to achieve Financial Security. Our life just secure, but we need more than secure, right? We need more! (Just like Chipsmore) So,that's bring us to the next level.
This third level is what we call as Financial Freedom. This is what most people talk about. The benchmark to this level is when you already have enough passive incomes that enable you to live in a current lifestyle. You may need RM3000 in order to wear the branded shirt and jeans, driving your dreams car (Kancil is my dream's car as a student) and bring your girlfriends to shopping. That's means, if you stop working now, nothing happens to you. You can continue living your current lifestyle with your girlfriend(don't plan to have another one) because your passive income is working for you.
And lastly which is the ultimate level of wealth, is what we call as Financial Abundance. This is my ultimate dreams. In order to be in this level, you must have a lot of passive incomes which enough for you to life your life according to your fantasy. This is when the dreams come true. This is where the millionaires and billionaires are. In their life, they always busy with their vacation's planning and thinking what cars they want to drive for next month. Magically, most of them are still doing their work. Why? Because they love what they are doing and they keep on doing it even they already achieve Financial Abundance. To be clear, we must have an example. If you want to travel around the world every month, and you need at most RM20,000 for that, you must make sure that at least your monthly passive income is roughly around RM50,000 in order to cope with your imagination's lifestyle.
So, from this moment. If people ask you whether you want to be rich or not, you tell them that you want to be financial abundance. And, if they don't know what is financial abundance, tell them to read my blog. I'm just kidding, you teach them what that means. Cool?
p/s- Most people nowadays live like they are in Financial Abundance, but in reality they are not even in Financial Stability. This explain why they are always broke and they will broke till death.
I never found any school that is so different structurally(is this word exist?). There is mosque inside the school. There is big eye at the entrance. There is a medium-sized pond besides the eyes with a cute cottage-like structure. The building have numerous holes which I try to total up the sum of the holes but I forgot the numbers. The mosque shape is like a semi-cylinder coffin. There are three blocks for the male students to stay which from the top, its look like the tip of the satanic spears (the one like at MU's logo). I think if I study the whole structures of Jenan(this is the other name for my school), I can create a very mystical stories and relate it with the buildings. One more thing, there also a huge keris(Malay tradisional small sword) besides the hall(the hall's wall have a colorful geometric pattern). To make long story short, you better come to my school to experience it yourself.
We back to our business which is my personal money. When I'm in form 1 (13 years old), I really sure that I wanted to be rich so badly. Twice every month, my mom will come to visit me and give me RM50. My dad is so busy with his job that I don't think he got time for me. But I'm consider to be so lucky because most of my friends, their parents never come (because their home is very far). For a kids like me at that time, I always wondering how I'm going to pay back all the good deeds that my parents gave to me especially my mom. When I'm going to be independent? 13 years is a damn long period of time. And guess what, she keeps giving me pocket money till I'm 17. My father also do the same sometimes.
So, every night I keep on thinking about money. How to get it, how to make it more and how to protect it. That's when I develop this reading habits. I love to read books about money and self-improvement since I'm 13. I promise to myself to be rich and I want to give my parents the gift that no child can give. I want to bring my parents to Hajj and enjoy eating as much pistachios as we want, I want to bring them to Paris and let both of my parents fall in love for the second time, I want to bring my parents to Antarctic and make friends with the cute penguins and I want them to be the happiest parents in the world. How to do that? By becoming rich and wealthy.
Then I ask myself, what is rich? Do you know what is rich? In order to be rich, we all must have the clear understanding of wealth. Once we understand, then we can put our actions, ideas and time in order to be rich. According to one of my master(Adam Khoo), there are 4 levels of wealth.
Level number one is Financial Stability. The requirement to become Financial Stability is when you have accumulate liquid assets (like cash in hand or saving account) that enough for you to sustain your basic expenses for 6 months. This also include that you already have the required insurance if you have family in case something happen to you. For example if every month you need RM500 in order to have a very simple life(this example is just practical for students like me), that's mean you must have at least RM3000 in your saving account. If yes, you already achieve Financial Stability. Congratulation! So, now we need to move to the next level.
The second level of wealth is Financial Security. You have achieve Financial Security when you have a passive income that is equal to your expenses. Passive income means the side income that you get by very little involvement. It can be your online businesses, properties rental, multi level marketing, books royalties or many more. For example, if you have an online business, and your business can provide you with monthly net profits of RM500, you are already consider to achieve Financial Security. Our life just secure, but we need more than secure, right? We need more! (Just like Chipsmore) So,that's bring us to the next level.
This third level is what we call as Financial Freedom. This is what most people talk about. The benchmark to this level is when you already have enough passive incomes that enable you to live in a current lifestyle. You may need RM3000 in order to wear the branded shirt and jeans, driving your dreams car (Kancil is my dream's car as a student) and bring your girlfriends to shopping. That's means, if you stop working now, nothing happens to you. You can continue living your current lifestyle with your girlfriend(don't plan to have another one) because your passive income is working for you.
And lastly which is the ultimate level of wealth, is what we call as Financial Abundance. This is my ultimate dreams. In order to be in this level, you must have a lot of passive incomes which enough for you to life your life according to your fantasy. This is when the dreams come true. This is where the millionaires and billionaires are. In their life, they always busy with their vacation's planning and thinking what cars they want to drive for next month. Magically, most of them are still doing their work. Why? Because they love what they are doing and they keep on doing it even they already achieve Financial Abundance. To be clear, we must have an example. If you want to travel around the world every month, and you need at most RM20,000 for that, you must make sure that at least your monthly passive income is roughly around RM50,000 in order to cope with your imagination's lifestyle.
So, from this moment. If people ask you whether you want to be rich or not, you tell them that you want to be financial abundance. And, if they don't know what is financial abundance, tell them to read my blog. I'm just kidding, you teach them what that means. Cool?
p/s- Most people nowadays live like they are in Financial Abundance, but in reality they are not even in Financial Stability. This explain why they are always broke and they will broke till death.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
9 Habits Of The Millionaires
According to one of Adam's book, there are seven steps to become financially abundance. Now I only want to talk about the first step (I'll save the other steps for my next post). The first step is to adopt the million dollar mindset. Our mind is our biggest asset which it may determine how we manage our finance. If we have enough financial knowledge, then we can easily accumulate the other assets like properties and stocks. The most important thing is we can avoid big financial mistakes which can make us bankrupt. That is the worse financial scenario that can happen to a man.
Millionaire think differently than us, the average classes. For example, everyday when we do something in our life, we tend to face a lot of problems; like our house area have a lot of cockroaches and there are to much teenagers fooling around with their motorbikes. On the other hand, millionaires see this as a big opportunities. To be more specific, they see this problems as a money making opportunities; it is profitable if they made a pest control business and futsal court for the teens. This mindset is what we need to have.
Besides that, millionaires have another good mindset which they love failures. I know it sounds weird. But let me explain further. Most of use, we do financial mistakes. I also do some of it and I admit it. We experience being fooled by our friends to join the quick rich scheme. We experience being fooled by someone who pretend to be a rich multi level marketing businessman and convince use to join his pyramid scheme. (I know some MLM's companies are good). We also experience being fooled by someone from internet sending spam email asking use to pay RM50 so that we can get RM350 net profits in returns. This all are our failures. And because all of this failures, most of us just give up on their finance. They said, it is impossible to become a millionaire. But to the millionaires, they are actually make much bigger mistakes than us but they never give up or even sad. They look at it as a learning experience where they will never get fools anymore. Then they educate themselves with the knowledge of finance. And that is what we should do.
And if you already have both of the millionaire mindsets, it is not enough. You need to practice their habits. Below are their nine habits that we need to follow:
#1. Always exceed expectations
To be a millionaire, this is a must. Always exceed people's expectation. We must set a high standard if we want to do something. For example, if our business partner expected us to gain RM5000 net profits for a month, get more than that, make it RM10,000 at least. And if we own a business, and we provide a service to our clients, give them a life changing experience which is far beyond our competitor's standard. Then we can charge more. Most business people tend to think, if they reduce the price, they can become more competitive. This is wrong. Millionaires don't do this. They increase the price but, they triple the qualities and efficiencies. This is what clients want, they seek for qualities, not a cheap price.
2. Be proactive
Most people including me, always reactive. We wait for something to happen, then we act according to the situation. This what make our performance limited. We always depend on our environment and react from it. This is a totally different case to a millionaire. Millionaires are proactive. They don't wait for something miracle to happen, they are the one who make the miracle happen. Next time, we should be the one who control the situation. Be brave and smart at the same time.
3. Take 100% responsibility
Millionaires never depend on other people, they are the one who people's depend on.
4. Delayed gratification
Delayed gratification means you delay your joy. Save your money first. If you have a fix income, control your cash flow and save at least ten percent of it. You can't expect to start your own investment if you can't even save your own money. Most people, professionals especially, when they start working, they tend to have instant gratifications. They use half of their money to pay monthly installment for their latest BMW cars. They bring their beloved girlfriend to shopping. Long story short, they spend more than they invest. They will ended up broke. Millionaires don't do that. They save and invest much more than they spend. Initially, they just live a moderate lifestyle, when their assets provide enough passive income, then they can buy whatever they want without using their hard work money. This is their secret. (My father don't know this)
5. Do what you love
Adam give a very simple tips on how to know whether you love your job or not. Ask yourself all this questions. Do you want to do the job even if you have all the money in the world? Are you going to do that for free? If both of the answers are yes, then go on, you are on the right track to become a millionaire. I also still searching for the job that I love. I love to kill cockroaches because I hate cockroaches so much. I love to talk (you know me). I like to dreams. I like to read business books and self-improvement books. I like kids (I'm not saying that I'm ready for a kid). I like weird buildings. So, I must think of businesses that related with the things that I like. You should do the same. List all the things that you love and start thinking what business might suit you.
6. Acting with integrity
Always be honest. Why? Think of this. You take 20 years to build up your credibility and trust from your clients, but it only take 5 minutes of your dishonestly to destroy your credibility.
7. Be 100% committed
8. The ability to turn failure into success
It is not how far you fall that matters, it is how high you bounds back that matters.
9. Respect and love money
p/s- Being a millionaire is not easy, and that's why only 5% of the populations are millionaires. So, believe me. Don't afraid to be the minority because this minority are the one who control the majority.
Millionaire think differently than us, the average classes. For example, everyday when we do something in our life, we tend to face a lot of problems; like our house area have a lot of cockroaches and there are to much teenagers fooling around with their motorbikes. On the other hand, millionaires see this as a big opportunities. To be more specific, they see this problems as a money making opportunities; it is profitable if they made a pest control business and futsal court for the teens. This mindset is what we need to have.
Besides that, millionaires have another good mindset which they love failures. I know it sounds weird. But let me explain further. Most of use, we do financial mistakes. I also do some of it and I admit it. We experience being fooled by our friends to join the quick rich scheme. We experience being fooled by someone who pretend to be a rich multi level marketing businessman and convince use to join his pyramid scheme. (I know some MLM's companies are good). We also experience being fooled by someone from internet sending spam email asking use to pay RM50 so that we can get RM350 net profits in returns. This all are our failures. And because all of this failures, most of us just give up on their finance. They said, it is impossible to become a millionaire. But to the millionaires, they are actually make much bigger mistakes than us but they never give up or even sad. They look at it as a learning experience where they will never get fools anymore. Then they educate themselves with the knowledge of finance. And that is what we should do.
And if you already have both of the millionaire mindsets, it is not enough. You need to practice their habits. Below are their nine habits that we need to follow:
#1. Always exceed expectations
To be a millionaire, this is a must. Always exceed people's expectation. We must set a high standard if we want to do something. For example, if our business partner expected us to gain RM5000 net profits for a month, get more than that, make it RM10,000 at least. And if we own a business, and we provide a service to our clients, give them a life changing experience which is far beyond our competitor's standard. Then we can charge more. Most business people tend to think, if they reduce the price, they can become more competitive. This is wrong. Millionaires don't do this. They increase the price but, they triple the qualities and efficiencies. This is what clients want, they seek for qualities, not a cheap price.
2. Be proactive
Most people including me, always reactive. We wait for something to happen, then we act according to the situation. This what make our performance limited. We always depend on our environment and react from it. This is a totally different case to a millionaire. Millionaires are proactive. They don't wait for something miracle to happen, they are the one who make the miracle happen. Next time, we should be the one who control the situation. Be brave and smart at the same time.
3. Take 100% responsibility
Millionaires never depend on other people, they are the one who people's depend on.
4. Delayed gratification
Delayed gratification means you delay your joy. Save your money first. If you have a fix income, control your cash flow and save at least ten percent of it. You can't expect to start your own investment if you can't even save your own money. Most people, professionals especially, when they start working, they tend to have instant gratifications. They use half of their money to pay monthly installment for their latest BMW cars. They bring their beloved girlfriend to shopping. Long story short, they spend more than they invest. They will ended up broke. Millionaires don't do that. They save and invest much more than they spend. Initially, they just live a moderate lifestyle, when their assets provide enough passive income, then they can buy whatever they want without using their hard work money. This is their secret. (My father don't know this)
5. Do what you love
Adam give a very simple tips on how to know whether you love your job or not. Ask yourself all this questions. Do you want to do the job even if you have all the money in the world? Are you going to do that for free? If both of the answers are yes, then go on, you are on the right track to become a millionaire. I also still searching for the job that I love. I love to kill cockroaches because I hate cockroaches so much. I love to talk (you know me). I like to dreams. I like to read business books and self-improvement books. I like kids (I'm not saying that I'm ready for a kid). I like weird buildings. So, I must think of businesses that related with the things that I like. You should do the same. List all the things that you love and start thinking what business might suit you.
6. Acting with integrity
Always be honest. Why? Think of this. You take 20 years to build up your credibility and trust from your clients, but it only take 5 minutes of your dishonestly to destroy your credibility.
7. Be 100% committed
8. The ability to turn failure into success
It is not how far you fall that matters, it is how high you bounds back that matters.
9. Respect and love money
p/s- Being a millionaire is not easy, and that's why only 5% of the populations are millionaires. So, believe me. Don't afraid to be the minority because this minority are the one who control the majority.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
My rich dads and my poor dad.
Read the title carefully, and you will realize the existence of "s" at the rich dad and no "s" at the poor dad. It is not a typing error, it is what it meant to be. This issue is kind of sensitive since it's involve dad, and that means its involve family. Things I wanted to declare here is, when it comes to money, everything is personal. So, I do take money matters personally. Even when it comes to my dad.
If you know Robert Kiyosaki, this is where the original title came from which is "Rich Dad Poor Dad". He produce a lot of financial books which is far different than any financial books. Now, let's focus on the title. In my life, I have one poor dad which is my own dad. I have several rich dads which I don't think they know me, but as long as they teach me something useful about personal money, I will call them my rich dads.
My poor dad use money differently compare to my rich dads. He is a doctor and I believe his income is much more than average people. He don't buy any house even for us to stay or for renting purposes. We stay in a house inside a secondary school where my mother is working. We rent the house. Instead, my father use the money to buy a Mercedes C class which look so cool to him. I don't like car so much since I learn from Azizi Ali that car is nothing more than a tool to bring me from A to B so why should I spend half of my money for car. The truth is, my real father have no financial knowledge and this explain why he can't manage his own money very well.
Now, I wanted to introduce to you some of my rich dads. My first rich dad is Azizi Ali and he is a pilot. He has wrote many books especially in personal money management and properties. I know, since I am 20 years old and I have no experience buying a property, his book make me become really excited about properties investment. I really want to have a life like him. A moderate life but financially abundance. One day, I also want to write books and be a financial consultant like him. The best thing about him is, he is not a people from finance background (I told you he is a pilot) but he manage to take MBA and ChFC. I recommend you to read all his books. My favorite books from him is the properties combo pack which I not really understand some of it. I guess I need to read it again and again so that every lesson he thought really sticks in my mind.
My second rich dad is Robert T. Kiyosaki, which is the one who comes up with the phrase "Rich Dad Poor Dad". He teach me about the four cash flow quadrants which are employee, self employed, business owner and investor. I never know about this quadrant before I read his book. Now in my life, I wanted to be an investors, not an employee anymore. He also invent a cool board games called Cashflow 101 and Cashflow 202. Up to this moment, I just played the Cashflow 101, next time I'll try the 202 version. If you want to experience playing the game online, just click here. It is really fun for people who don't have a formal financial background like me to learn about income, expenses, assets and liabilities while playing the game. The best thing about this online game is, it is worldwide, so I also experience playing with people from Mexico, China, India and Africa. You better give it a try.
My third rich dad is Adam Khoo. He is from Singapore. This person is one of a brilliant student in his university. The good thing about him is he is so young and energetic. If I'm not mistaken, he manage to get his first million when his age just twenty something. Imagine how great his life would be. I wonder how he manage to have the spirit to do things differently than others. Some of the lesson that Adam teach me is about delay gratification. Rich people, they a people with patience. They don't buy expensive toys immediately even if they have money, instead they buy assets. This assets will make money work for them and enable them to own expensive toys without any burden. Adam also teach me about passive income and the power of leverage. A great example of passive income that apply the power of leverage is writing a book and use internet for marketing purposes. That is why I think, if I want to be rich, I must write books.
To make long story short, who ever my rich dads are, I will never love them more than my poor dad. I have a great dad and he is very responsible with whatever things that he do. I believe, I can't blame him why he don't have enough financial knowledge since this is one of the disadvantages of our education system. I hope I can be much better than my father in term of financial knowledge and my financial success. God bless me and my father.
If you know Robert Kiyosaki, this is where the original title came from which is "Rich Dad Poor Dad". He produce a lot of financial books which is far different than any financial books. Now, let's focus on the title. In my life, I have one poor dad which is my own dad. I have several rich dads which I don't think they know me, but as long as they teach me something useful about personal money, I will call them my rich dads.
My poor dad use money differently compare to my rich dads. He is a doctor and I believe his income is much more than average people. He don't buy any house even for us to stay or for renting purposes. We stay in a house inside a secondary school where my mother is working. We rent the house. Instead, my father use the money to buy a Mercedes C class which look so cool to him. I don't like car so much since I learn from Azizi Ali that car is nothing more than a tool to bring me from A to B so why should I spend half of my money for car. The truth is, my real father have no financial knowledge and this explain why he can't manage his own money very well.
Now, I wanted to introduce to you some of my rich dads. My first rich dad is Azizi Ali and he is a pilot. He has wrote many books especially in personal money management and properties. I know, since I am 20 years old and I have no experience buying a property, his book make me become really excited about properties investment. I really want to have a life like him. A moderate life but financially abundance. One day, I also want to write books and be a financial consultant like him. The best thing about him is, he is not a people from finance background (I told you he is a pilot) but he manage to take MBA and ChFC. I recommend you to read all his books. My favorite books from him is the properties combo pack which I not really understand some of it. I guess I need to read it again and again so that every lesson he thought really sticks in my mind.
My second rich dad is Robert T. Kiyosaki, which is the one who comes up with the phrase "Rich Dad Poor Dad". He teach me about the four cash flow quadrants which are employee, self employed, business owner and investor. I never know about this quadrant before I read his book. Now in my life, I wanted to be an investors, not an employee anymore. He also invent a cool board games called Cashflow 101 and Cashflow 202. Up to this moment, I just played the Cashflow 101, next time I'll try the 202 version. If you want to experience playing the game online, just click here. It is really fun for people who don't have a formal financial background like me to learn about income, expenses, assets and liabilities while playing the game. The best thing about this online game is, it is worldwide, so I also experience playing with people from Mexico, China, India and Africa. You better give it a try.
My third rich dad is Adam Khoo. He is from Singapore. This person is one of a brilliant student in his university. The good thing about him is he is so young and energetic. If I'm not mistaken, he manage to get his first million when his age just twenty something. Imagine how great his life would be. I wonder how he manage to have the spirit to do things differently than others. Some of the lesson that Adam teach me is about delay gratification. Rich people, they a people with patience. They don't buy expensive toys immediately even if they have money, instead they buy assets. This assets will make money work for them and enable them to own expensive toys without any burden. Adam also teach me about passive income and the power of leverage. A great example of passive income that apply the power of leverage is writing a book and use internet for marketing purposes. That is why I think, if I want to be rich, I must write books.
To make long story short, who ever my rich dads are, I will never love them more than my poor dad. I have a great dad and he is very responsible with whatever things that he do. I believe, I can't blame him why he don't have enough financial knowledge since this is one of the disadvantages of our education system. I hope I can be much better than my father in term of financial knowledge and my financial success. God bless me and my father.
Friday, June 11, 2010
You are greedy!
One lovely morning, you wake up and as usual, you open up your email and you found something wonderful. Out of nowhere, one anonymous guy send you an email asking help from you. That person wrote in your email that he is from Sudan, he now have a war back there, but he from a rich family. He have USD150 millions with him and he need your help to keep the money until everything back to normal again. In order for him to trust you, you just need to pay him USD100 to proof that you are reliable and can be trusted. Wow! Then you think USD100 is just nothing compare to USD150 millions. One more thing, he promise to give you 50 percent of the money as a way to thank you (he want to give you USD75 millions!). You thank to god because of the email.
You know what, you are greedy!
Another story.
One day, one of your best friends come to you. He said you are going to be rich because luckily he found a new type of investment which can double your investment in 6 months. He don't know exactly how they do it, but it is proof to be true. Last 6 months, he said he already paid them RM100 and now after 6 months he get back RM200. "See! Don't you get it? This thing can bring us to millionaires planet. ", that's how your best friend convincing you. He tell you more. "Imagine if we invest RM100, 000 and after half a year, we will get back RM200,000. And if we don't use the money, we invest it back, in a year we already accumulate RM400,000. What if we invest for 2 years? I already calculate it, we got RM1,600,000. That's mean we can be a millionaire in 2 years." Now you see the plan. But you don't have any money, but your parent have a house which cost RM150 000. That is more than enough.
You know what, you a greedy!
Now I will explain why I said you are greedy. In this world, people who want a lot of money without working, we call them greedy. That is both situations is all about. It's about you wanted to be rich without doing any work, just wait and get the money. That is not how this world work, no one will paid you money without you giving any benefit to them. But why people still believe in this both situations even they realize that it is weird?
They reason is because when people are greed, their mind cannot think. They only see the money. Logic don't exist anymore in their life. They live in Wonderland together with Alice. Their eyes had been closed by the huge amount of money. And they start to become stupid. Even the most genius person in the class can become a dumb ass when they become greedy.
Now I will explain to you about the first situation. It is all about the internet scam. Nothing real. Don't be greed. Just think wisely. If you were the Sudanese guy, and if you have USD150 millions with you, you will never ever give USD75 millions to no one just like that. It is way too much and why you risk you money to the person that you don't even know. For me, I better dig a secret hole and keep all the money inside it. I remember the coordinate and after everything turn back to normal, I'll dig it back. I just need to make sure that the hole is deep enough and I'm lucky enough to be save after the war. That's it.
The second story. It is what we call as a Quick-Rich-Scheme. Or QRS. It is just an acronym, nothing complicated. To be realistic, if I were you best friend and I really found that kind of investment, why should I tell you about that. I better invest it myself and when I got the money, I will give a thousand to all people that I know. And for you, I will give a million just because you are my best friend. Besides, the point why your friend asking you to join and pay the money because it is how that scheme work. They pay the previous people with the money from the new people that join it later. Even if this QRS really works, I believe the banks will bankrupt because everyone can be rich and no one need to lend money from them. Our government can't just let that happen.
So my advice, be realistic and don't ever greed because greedy people always poor. The millionaires, they are not greed. They work harder and smarter than anyone else, that is why they are rich. They even donate the money to lazy people who always dreams to be rich. But lazy people never learn. They keep on saying rich people are greed.
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