Life's Goals

We all attend motivational courses at least once in our life time, but a lot of people would have attended numerous courses. And after awhile it is more like an addiction towards these courses, it happens most often to people who seek career in the insurance industries and direct selling business. Are these courses beneficial to the attendees? Most people will give a solid yes without even a blink of the eye, why? Because all attendees will feel recharged after the course and energetically continue to pursue their career, this is very great, but then if we look deeper, motivation shall come from within ourselves. And what is within us? Then it boils down to the goals in life, which is the most favorite topic of all motivators, goals setting.

They will ask you to list down what you want to achieve and by when? Everybody will start to take a pen and paper to write down what they want, and most of the time is mostly material objects, like cars, houses, vacation and so on. They start to work on it and achieve it, then the car is not big enough and the next goal is to acquire a bigger, and will never end. One day this person will sits down and ask himself, did I achieve success in life?

Then he will ask himself what success is and what are the goals in life? This is an age old question in life, but there is no definite answer to it. But if we look closer into ourselves it is all about having a good life and always feels good about it. Very vague isn’t it, but nobody can answer it, to answer it, we need to look into the seven goals in life.

1. Financial Goal – By achieving financial goal does not means an enormous sum of money, but is about achieving financial freedom.
2. Physical Goal – Is about having a good health to see through your life time. And this good health will gives you the energy to carry out your missions in life.
3. Family Goal – Are you having a healthy and a happy family life?
4. Mental Goal – Are you acquiring new knowledge, keeping abreast with changes in our world, and using this knowledge?
5. Human Relation Goal – Are you having a good circle of friends, and this circle of friends will always welcome your presence?
6. Social Goal – Are you contributing for the good of the societies, and helping the needy, which in short is, are you philanthropy?
7. Spiritual Goal – This come into play, for you to attain a peaceful self, do the good things in life, as all religions teaches us to be good and morally strong.
   

Only by attaining the above seven goals, then only we can consider ourselves to be having success in life, and there is no yard stick or bench mark to measure it, it all comes from within us.

Consumerism Pattern

What is consumerism pattern? It involve how we buy things, how businessmen sells their products. The consumers' patterns mainly revolves around our desires, thoughts, emotion and skills and behavior towards SEX( Scheduled/Spontaneous Emotional Experience) also plays a role.

Consumerism is define as an over indulgence in consumer spending which give rise to consumers buying unnecessarily.

How a selling process starts? It all started when somebody have something to sell. This person who has the things to sell will crack his head on how to sell it. The sellers will always create or trying to convince you that you needed their products and hence, gives rise to impulsive buying. The person who sells what people needs will most probably end up poorer than people who sells what people want.

What is buying? The process starts when a person have a needs or wants to purchase a certain item which he feels is necessary. This will give rise to impulsive buying when a person in confused between his needs and wants. This emotion will motivate or initial him buy the product. But after careful analysis on the function of this product, and how it will help him in his daily life, very often we will found that this particular purchase is more of a need rather than want.

When we are motivated into buying items based on emotion, the joy of having it is quite short live. This will generates further desire to purchase an upgraded version of the model which have features which you feels that you needed it.

All human beings have invisible floodgates within them; these floodgates control their emotional, thoughts, skill and desire. The emotional floodgates control how you feels towards someone special, how emotional you feel to an object or ideas. If your emotion is controlled, this person might not be able to feel your love; this will caused numerous problems in a relationship, whether it is marriage or business partners. This paper will only touch on business activities only, however, the way we handle our business will indirectly affect the way we handle our personal affairs.


A lot of businesses faced problems because the owner makes too many emotional decisions and too emotional attached to their ideas and business plans. Emotion should practice with care and considerations an over flow of emotions will give unnecessary stress on the business. Example; when a project had faced with some hitches. The project manager thinks of a method that can resolve it, but then numerous factors had pointed that his idea cost too much and might not be effective. But, this project manager is too emotional attached to his idea and force a go ahead, if the idea pulls through, but at what cost, if not what are the consequences? This is a case of unable to control their floodgates of emotion.

The Overlooked Subject

Financial intelligence is a subject not taught in schools.

Mathematics and Science are subjects. History and Geography are subjects. The Languages, Arts, Physical Education, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Agriculture and Architecture are subjects. Even Beauty and Skincare, Flower Arrangement, Hairdressing and Auto Maintenance are subjects.

Subjects take TIME to learn. It can take anything from 6 months, for example, Flower Arrangement or Ancient Massage, to 20 years. To be a doctor you have to go to school at age 7 and graduate at age 27. We are not born to know subjects, unless we are geniuses. Even geniuses like Mozart still have to study the Music subject formally.

There is one critical subject that is not taught in school. Neither is it taught anywhere outside the school. That subject is called Financial Intelligence. Some professionals mistake this subject as Accounting, Financial Management, MBA, Economics, Management, Commerce, etc. No, these subjects may be part of the syllabus of Financial Intelligence but they are not the subject. Financial Intelligence teaches us things like Assets and Liabilities, the differences between the Rich, Poor and Middle Class, and Investing.

Just like any other subject, Financial Intelligence takes time to learn. Contrary to what most people believe we are not born to know this subject.

We do not know whether this subject is as important as Medicine, Engineering or Law. But one thing is certain; not knowing this subject may cause a lifetime of hardship. One who has mastered this subject will have the power to do good to mankind. In 2006 Warren Buffett donated 85% of his wealth of US44 billion towards charity.

Financial intelligence is an overlooked subject.

The Dark Side

There are many books written on positive thinking, right mental attitude and self-help. This is because there is indeed a force that chains people to the dark side so that they are not able to succeed in our money world.

Napoleon Hill once said, "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve." The reverse is true. We cannot acquire the skill to make $600,000 a year if we are trapped in an unbelieving $60,000-a-year brain. The two most powerful words on earth are none other than, "I can't".

You can choose to break free because it is our Creator's will that we live a life of abundance.

Can you see yourself associating with any self-limiting attitudes mentioned in Robert Kiyosaki's best-selling book Rich Dad Poor Dad mentioned below?

Poor Dad says, "The love of money is the root of all evil."
Rich Dad says, "The lack of money is the root of all evil."

Poor Dad says, "We can't afford it." (Brain stops working.)
Rich Dad says, "How can we afford it?" (Brain starts working.)

Poor Dad says, “The reason why I’m not rich is because I have you kids.”
Rich Dad says, “The reason I must be rich is I have you kids.”

Poor Dad says, “When it comes to money, play it safe, don’t take risks.”
Rich Dad says, “Learn to manage risks.”

Poor Dad always said, “I’ll never be rich.”
Rich Dad says, "I’m a rich man," even when he was broke at times.

Poor Dad says, “I’m not interested in money. It doesn’t matter.”
Rich Dad says, “Money is power.”

The Poor work harder, take a second job but accept a smaller pay.
The Rich keep using their brains to think of new ways to make money.
OUR BRAINS make the difference between whether we are rich or poor.

Do not be encaged by self-limiting attitudes. Break free today!

You Need Two Jobs

Working to get income means working for our company. Working to pay tax means working for the Government. Working to pay our liabilities means working for the bank. We should work for ourselves!

In 1974 Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s stunned the world when he said, "My business is actually real estate and not hamburgers!” Today many people know that McDonald's make more money in real estate than selling burgers. That is their actual business.

Now, in order to be rich we need to look for another job for our money to work, while doing our daily work. That should be our actual business, not our day job.

Money working at the bank's time deposit account will get only a very low pay of only 3% a year with no other benefits.

Money working at properties may get paid about 10% a year in rental plus high bonuses in terms of appreciation.

Money working at the stock market may get dividends, bonuses in the form of capital appreciation and other benefits such are rights and bonus issues.

Money working at a business as capital will get paid in profits.

Find a job for your money today. That's how the rich do it.

Get a good job for your money today.

The Only Way to Retire

Asset means residual income.

Yes, for those of you who are still not sure exactly what assets are all about; assets put money into your pocket. That is what residual income does!

Residual income simply means that you are getting paid many times for doing work once.

Elvis Presley went into the recording studio once and gets paid each time his album is bought. And that means millions of times.

Walt Disney makes Pirates of the Caribbean once and each time it is screened anywhere on the planet they get paid.

You buy a piece of property once and you get rental each month for a very long time.

Warren Buffett studied hard to find a good company's shares to buy at a cheap price and he is rewarded with high dividends and capital gains year after year.

Bill Gates licensed his software to IBM and many other organizations and individuals including you and me. He also gets paid millions of times.

JK Rowling writes a book on Harry Potter and gets paid millions of times.

Internet marketing gurus sell products and services over the internet and get income over and over again.

Network marketers can have hundreds or thousands of down line associates working for them while they sleep and generate millions in residual income.

Businessmen and industrialists generate profits by having money as well as people working for them.

Assets generate residual income.

Breaking the Three Generations Curse

You may not have heard of it but the "three generations curse" is a proverb in Asian countries, particularly among the Chinese. The first generation earns it, the second accumulates it and the third spends it. It is no less true in the west although we may not have a fancy name for it.

Some are lucky to be born on the right side of the coin but they never figured out the way to get there.

They soon find themselves back on the wrong side of the coin. And because they have not figured it out they plunged back into the rat race reserved for the poor and middle class.

The way to break free of the three generations curse is just to accumulate assets! With assets you gain back your financial freedom. And thereby regain your time freedom.

You can break the "three generations curse" by acquiring and accumulating assets.

Eighth Wonder of the World

Albert Einstein once said that the eighth wonder of the world is compound interest. He also says that it is the greatest mathematical discovery of all time!

The simplest way to riches is to save and invest. Save. Invest. Save. Invest. It might be boring but I'm sure you have heard of some old, uneducated ladies who have gotten rich just doing this. They beat some college professors with their sophisticated methods. Einstein was right.

$10 a day can grow into a million...

in 74 years with a time deposit rate of only 3%.
in 34 years with a good property investment rate of 10%.
in 20 years with a good stock market dividend and capital gains rate of 20%.

Our parents were right when they said, "Live on less than you earn. Invest the surplus. Avoid debt. Build long-term security." It is not the exciting get-rich-quick rabbit but the tortoise laughs slowly all the way to the bank. Einstein foresaw it.

The eighth wonder of the world is compound interest.

Red Line

The maximum speed your car can go is up to the red line on your speedometer. If you go faster than that your engine may blow up.

Many people, including the rich, operate their finances constantly at the red line. They spend money as fast as it comes in.

Earn $800, take a bus
Earn $1,000, get a small car
Earn $1,500, get a medium-sized car
Earn $2,000, buy a condominium
Earn $2,500, change into a bigger car
Earn $3,000, get married
Earn $3,500, have kids
Earn $4,000, change the house
Earn $4,500, spend more credit card
Earn $5,000, time to change car again
Earn $5,500, buy a more decent house
Earn $6,000, buy a golf membership

Not enough money? Do overtime, get a second job, do network marketing.

When they reach retirement age they still don't have any assets.

Doctors say the problem today is stress caused by working too hard and not having enough money. One doctor says that the biggest cause of health disorders is "cancer of the wallet". When people feel financial anxiety what do they do? They hurry off to work and work hard. Or, they shop for house or car to buy or go play golf.

More money will not solve the problem, if cashflow management is the problem.

You will have no money left to buy assets if you live constantly on the red line.

The Difference

Do you know the difference between the poor and the middle class?

The poor have expenses only. He does not qualify for any liabilities like housing loan, car loan or credit card. Whatever the poor earns as income is fully used to pay his bills and expenses. The poor live in fear of losing money, try to be cheap and live frugally.

The middle class have liabilities besides expenses. The middle class guy even thinks that some of his liabilities are assets, that is, his house and his car.

If we have more money but increase our expenses and liabilities, we won’t be rich. The rich, poor and middle class go broke because they lose control of their expenses.

The following is a survey done by the US Dept of Health, Education and Welfare. By the age of 65, for every 100 people...

36 are dead
54 are living on government or family support
5 are still forced to work
4 are well off
1 is wealthy

The middle class have liabilities besides expenses.

Secret of the Rich

The rich have assets.

What exactly is an asset? An asset is something that puts money in your pocket. Examples of assets are real estate or property, stocks and shares, mutual funds or unit trusts, time deposits or fixed deposits, bonds and business.

The rich have real estate that give them rental income.
The rich have stocks that give them dividends.
The rich have mutual funds that also give them dividends.
The rich have time deposits and bonds that give them interest.
The rich have business that generates profits.

The rich became rich because they build up their assets.
The rich stay that way because they keep accumulating assets.

Your house is not an asset because it does not generate income or put money into your pocket. Even paying it up fully does not make it an asset.

The rich have assets.

The Great Misunderstanding

The Great Misunderstanding in our money world is thinking something is an asset when it is actually a liability. Liabilities cause recurring expenses like monthly instalments, interests, repair, maintenance, insurance, taxes and depreciation.

Most people suffer financially when they buy liabilities and think that they are assets. This minor oversight causes a lifetime of financial struggle. Just because something is listed under the asset column does not make it an asset. Don't feel bad. Many adults including very qualified professionals always get asset and liability wrong! This is because the accepted method of accounting allows liabilities to be listed under the asset column.

Before we can be rich we have to be financially skillful. Understanding accounting is part of financial skill. With this skill you can create your own luck.

One who cannot read a financial statement will have the least money and the biggest financial problems. An average investor cannot distinguish between a security and an asset. Don't be average.

Your money life will spin out of control if you have nothing under the asset column, huge liabilities and many items under the expenses columns.

Mistaking a liability for an asset may cause a lifetime of financial struggle.

Edgewater

In 1923 a group of America's greatest leaders and richest businessmen held a meeting at Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago. Among them were:-

Charles Schwab, head of the largest independent steel company
Samuel Insull, president of the world's largest utility
Howard Hopson, head of the largest gas company
Ivar Kreuger, president of the International Match Co., one of the world's largest companies at that time
Leon Frazier, president of the Bank of International Settlements
Richard Whitney, president of the New York Stock Exchange
Arthur Cotton and Jesse Livermore, two of the biggest stock speculators
Albert Fall, member of President Harding's cabinet

Twenty-five years later, nine of them (all listed above) ended up as follows:-

Charles Schwab died penniless after living for five years on borrowed money
Samuel Insull died broke living in a foreign land
Ivar Kreuger and Arthur Cotton also died broke
Howard Hopson went insane
Richard Whitney and Albert Fall were just released from prison
Leon Frazier and Jesse Livermore committed suicide

No one can really say what happened to those men. If you look at the date of the meeting it was in 1923, just before the market crash and the Great Depression in 1929. We suspect that it had a great impact on these men's lives.

We believe that it is possible that these rich and powerful people may at the same time lack financial intelligence. And money without financial intelligence is money soon gone. - Rich Dad

It is not how much you make, it is how much you keep.

90/10 Rule of Success

90/10 Rule of Success: In any field, less than 10% of people will excel.
- Andrew Chia

Observe the fields of study, sports, money-making or even hobbies and you will find that this is not far from the truth. Understanding this rule will encourage us to strive to be among the 10% who succeed. It will also guard us against complacency as we will not want to be among the 90% who fail.

Rich Dad's 90/10 Rule says that 10% of the people had 90% of the money. Wall Street Journal (13th September 1999 issue) says that 90% of all corporate shares in America are held by 10% of the people.

In the United States, statistics show that 90 out of 100 businesses fail within the first 5 years. 9 out of the remaining 10 fail in the next 5 years.

Thought making money is easy? Now you know the odds. Take up the challenge. Go for it. Make a commitment not to stop learning something new about making money each day.

Be amongst the 10% who succeed.

Be Hungry!

All of us want to be rich. But before we get down to seriously learning about money we need to understand the first criteria for success in any endeavor, that is, hunger. Hunger creates the passion essential to produce excellence in any field, be it studies, sports, business or simply hobbies.

Do the following statements echo what is in your heart?

I hate being poor.
I hate being ashamed of being poor.
I hate being forced to work all my life.
I hate not being able to do what I want.
I hate not being able to buy what I want.
I hate not being able to go where I want.

I love being rich.
I love being proud of being rich.
I love to be free to do my hobbies.
I love being able to help my loved ones.
I love being able to buy what I want.
I love being able to go wherever I want.

We cannot tell anyone how to get rich if they do not know why they want to get rich.

Hunger creates the passion needed for success.

Women Don't Need Men

Women today either marry late or they don't marry at all. Statistics from many countries especially developed countries like Singapore show that many women marry after their thirties compared to the early twenties or even in their teens less than half a century ago.

The world today is very different compared to yesterday. For example, yesterday only straight sex is acceptable. Today we can hardly keep track of the variations. We not only have heterosexual but homosexual, bisexual, transexual, transvestite, gay, lesbian, pondan, bapuk, hermaphrodite and many others. All are clamouring for acceptance and recognition. The world has since been more understanding and tolerant to other sexual inclinations.

Not only the marriage age has gone up but the divorce rate also has shot up. In America, at least one third on all marriages ends up in divorce courts. (Some say the actual figure is as high as 50%). In fact there is a standing joke that says that marriage is the present tense of divorce.

Woman today are also different from her sisters of yesterday. Yesterday she can accept her man having affairs. In China for example, a wealthy man can have "three wives and four concubines". It is perfectly acceptable. Today, she says, "over my dead body".

Women of yesterday are not independent. They depend entirely on their husband for their livelihood. One of the main factors is education. Women were not given the chance to go to school. They are therefore not able to command jobs and earn high income. They have to stay at home and answer to every beck and call of their husband.

Today, women are educated, can command a good job and earn enough to support themselves. In some cases they even earn more than their husband. They are now independent. That's why today they do not need to get married for economic reasons. They do not need to put up with all the "nonsense" by their husband.

In Asia, a lot of women nowadays do not even get married because of many stories by their friends who have less than a fairy-tale ending with their spouses.

Men therefore have to work double hard to win the hand of their dream lovers. They are now less of the weaker sex compared to before.

Difference Between Man and Woman

Men are generally more promiscuous than women. A visit to Adultfriender, the largest adult social networking site in the world started in 1996, reveals that there are 90 men looking for women but only 10 women looking for men. At last count (June 2008) Adultfriender has more than 24 million members.

Why is this so? The logical explanation is that it is nature's way of propagating the human race. If we use a little bit of our imagination we can see that men need to be more horny. If the situation is reversed, the world today would have a population of only 0.7 billion instead of 7 billion. I cannot expound more on this because it would be crude.

Most men can love a few women at the same time. They don't see anything wrong as they have lots of love to give. They can spend the time and money on the women that they love. However, most men marry only one woman and they don't have affairs. This does not mean they don't love many women. Maybe they just can't afford the time and the money.

Some men love only one woman; usually their wife.

Some men sleep with many women but they love none of them. They just need to fulfill their lust. It doesn't mean anything more.

When man looks upon the woman for the first time, they just only think about sleeping with her. They may or may not fall in love with her later. Men think about sex every six seconds. When a man says, "Can I buy you a drink?" he means can I have sex with you.

Most women love only one man; usually their husband. They feel bad if they love another man other than their husband. Women are generally faithful. Furthermore, they are more sensitive to other people's opinion. They are afraid of other people calling them a slut. Therefore, they cannot tolerate if their man love another woman. Just as every woman must not cheat on their husband, so every man also must not cheat on their wife.

Some women love more than one man. They have affairs with other men; sometimes other women's husband. They don't mind because they have enough love and time for another man other than their husband.

Some women sleep with many men but they also love none of them. They just need to fulfill their lust. It doesn't mean anything more.

A woman usually falls in love with guys who are kind, gentle, loving and considerate. Even though they also think about sex, they put love first. When a woman says, "Can I buy you a drink?" she means can I buy you a drink.

If a couple is aware of the above differences they can communicate better. For example, the Clintons are understanding about each others sexual needs and are more tolerant. Otherwise, couples will need to carefully hide their true feelings from their partner.


Improving Your Vocabulary

A kid asked his father, "Dad, what's the difference between confident and confidential?" The father replied, "You are my son, that I'm confident. You see your friend over there? He's also my son. That's confidential."

Your thoughts

Positive thoughts always