Ala Carte menu to get out of poverty

This content isn’t 100% original, I read it somewhere or watched it somewhere, I can’t remember. But I would like to share this with my readers even though it’s not original, why not, the concepts are pretty good.

I have included my own interpretation.

You don’t need all 6 but you will need a combination. But will you become a millionaire by doing all these? No guarantee, but these will definitely send you out of poverty.

Pioneering

Among all 6 routes, this is the most difficult and this journey is filled with hard knocks. Everything in life shares a common trait; it involves a pattern of movement. Until such time, such event unfold to change the pattern, it will continue to move in that certain pattern. Like the stock market, whether it’s a bull or bear market for the big trend, unless a correction occurs, the stock will continue to move accordingly to its trend. The change as defined in Elliott Wave theory is known as the corrective wave which will change its preceding pattern. 

Example: You are in the third generation of the family, and none in that line of family is wealthy or everyone in that lineage is poor. You are in queue No.3 in this line; you are here because no one in this line has done anything different to change the fortune of the family.

There must be a pioneer in this lineage to create wealth and break off this dreadful sequence. To create something out of nothing is the most difficult. As mentioned many times, in my previous posts, I have mentioned: they are the rags to riches you know. The few fortunate ones. To break off is not easy and most don’t.

You need ideas, business acumen, network and a huge risk appetite

If you can’t do that, you can only hope that your offspring will do that someday. But fret not, this is not the only way out, though the ideal way, there 5 more routes below for you. You will need a combination of a few and not dependant on just one way.

Helper

Someone who will lend you a hand when you fell. Do you know anyone who will do that for you? I guarantee no 100% of the people you know will do that for you. Do you have 10 names you can rely on?  The ideal scenario is when you have some really influential friends around. A lot of things in life require money including getting out of a bad situation. Things will be different if you know 10 poor men; they can’t help much only to give you moral support. And don’t get me wrong, you are not going to make friends because they are rich, but what I mean is that it will good if you have a few of such friends.

The ideal helper is not necessary a friend, he can be anyone like an associate or former colleague and former boss.

Here’s a list of ideal helpers for your reference:

1. Bosses/Ex-bosses
2. Colleagues/Ex-colleagues
3. Ex-girlfriends/boyfriends
4. Government officials
5. Good friends (preferably more well off than you are, you are penniless, you get it?)
6. HR manager/personnel
7. Middle management
8. Top management
9. Centre of influence (someone with a big network of associates)
10. Professionals

You are bound to know some of these people, be sincere and make friends with them. You need knowledgeable, influential, street-wise, positive, hardworking and ambitious people around you. You will be motivated to do better for yourself and most importantly they are more likely to have the means to lend you a hand when you need it. You are not insincere because you choose your friends this way; put yourself in the wrong company or environment and your life will be wasted.

Wisdom

Priceless and often neglected, intelligence seems more desirable over wisdom. It’s a misconception that intelligence is essential for making money while wisdom isn’t. When Buffett says “Be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy”, it is not intelligence but wisdom.

And you don’t need to grow old to attain wisdom. Here’s a shortcut:

Write down your goals and what you want to do in the future. And for a moment, imagine you are a 70 year old man, forget who you are now. “Look back” at what you have written, will this 70 year old man do the same thing over again if you were given the chance to redo everything.

Wisdom amongst these 6 routes is vague compared to the other options, it is not easy to picture what wisdom can do to get out of poverty. Another way is to seek advice from the seniors, mentors or those have done it. Benefit from their experiences and add those to your list of options.

Don’t aim for the sky, be realistic and take a step-by-step approach. Everything happens in sequence, you can’t skip and cut corners.

Short cut is usually the longest journey.

Do not:

1. Do something out of your competence.
2. Believe in short cuts to make money.
3. Believe in fast money schemes.
4. Believe in free lunch.
5. Think that you have to be unscrupulous to make money.

Wisdom is bliss and not everyone has it; if this is out of your reach, use other combinations.

Ambition 

Don’t let adversities control your destiny. No matter how unfavourable your environment is, ambition will gets you out of it. Set a goal or a mission, pen your mission statement, your ambition will be the driving force behind you, one day you will be out of poverty. The stronger your desire the faster you get moving.

You must be believe that you are better than others and being in your current situation is only temporary, you didn’t ask to be here and you are definitely not here because of your incapability. 

I believe that this is unlike the rags to riches I have mentioned only a few lucky ones make it but ambition will definitely turn your life around and it’s not about luck. Even if you can’t achieve 100% of what you want you may end up with only 80% which is still better than where you were. That 80% may provide for your life with what you have never dreamt of.

Spend most of your time developing your competitiveness.

Decide early what you want, how much you want to earn per month and which skills you will need to achieve it. Aim to be a professional and nothing else.

Mentality

This in my opinion is the most important. A positive attitude to everything. Positive about your own capabilities. If you think you can’t find a way out of poverty, be positive.  There will always be a way out but if you are not positive enough you wouldn’t notice its existence.

You have to believe that you deserve more and you can have more.

And during the way out of poverty, difficulties and obstructions are inevitable, without a positive attitude there’s no way you can cope with them.

The positive attitude thing has been written by umpteen times by many authors, I don’t want to repeat the same thing again so I shall stop here.

Righteousness 

The worst thing that could happen to a poor man is the lack of righteousness. I am not suggesting that you should become someone’s hero. Does that make you rich? No. That will not help you make a penny more. But, crime arises because of poverty – the lack of money.  What’s worrying is that poverty may force a poor man into desperation and commit crimes to make his livelihood. This will throw him into a bottomless pit and most of the time he will not get out of it.

Stay righteous and keep your integrity, keep yourself safe from the long arms of law. This will determine whether the above 5 routes will fall in place or out of reach. I must conclude that this is the basis.

Deep pocket – Singapore Budget 2009

22 January 2009, Obama’s inauguration, big day for the Americans, big day for the world. Watched the ceremony via CNBC.

All eyes on the new President and his policies to change America.

Another big event for Singaporeans. Our Budget 2009 is out today – 22 January 2009.

Summary:  http://sg.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20090122/tap-singapore-budget-c3bb44c.html

Full news http://business.asiaone.com/Business/News/My%2BMoney/Story/A1Story20090122-116472.html

My thoughts on Budget 2009

I have some mixed feelings about the Budget, Singapore is not likely to manage the free falling economy.

Spending more money is also not going to help us either (the same old thing-spend more when economy is down) , Singapore, a small country (population is barely 4 million)with very little resources, our consumer goods are mostly imported, by spending more, we are going to stimulate import while export is down. Until our major trading partners – USA and China recovers, we are not going to make a comeback.

Back to the topic….

Government is going to double *GST credits for Singaporeans.

Goods and Services Tax (GST) – Similar to VAT. In case you do not know why GST credits, here’s a short explanation:

1 July 2007, Government increased GST from 5% to 7%, a 2% increase. To help households cope with the increment, the Government gives rebates in cash to Singaporeans. Around $300 per individual, a rough figure (amount depends on household income etc..), it’s hardly of any help since the increment is permanent while the offset will only last for a couple of years.

Back to the topic….

This year the Government will double the payout. The impact will be minimal for Singaporeans, I just hope that there will be no other increment in the cost of living until we recover.

*CPF housing grant will be increased to help new home owners.

CPF – Similar to 40I(K)

Also a tiny amount, but according to the Government’s policy – every Singaporean gets to own a house, so I guess they want it the same way even in a bad time like this. I am not going to comment further, read the full news if you are interested.

Lastly I really hope that we do not need to dig into our reserves but unfortunately we were given no choice. $20.5 billion package is a small amount compared to what other Governments are giving in their respective countries but I guess this is the deepest we have gone.

Fortunately, our Government manages money well thus now we have the resources to tide over the bad situation. I am glad that we have a good Government that response efficiently to crisis.

In the last financial crisis, the Government did not dig into the reserves and got criticised for not doing so but they were proven right, it’s time for rainy day.

We recovered very well from the last crisis.

I am contemplating the idea of a career switch recently, good luck to me, and hopefully the worst will be over very soon.

Stocks or Property

The two most popular investments and also the most common methods for investments. Property is often portrait as the more lucrative investment among the two, and more than often a tool for the rich man’s portfolio.

Though property investment looks more lucrative but buying a property for investment doesn’t make good sense to me.

If I were to look at the growth of the two – stocks and property, it’s clear to me which is better for my portfolio. One is virtual and the other Real (tangible).

Pace

Property reacts more slowly than stocks in any market and there is no exception for this rule. Should a construction stock grows 10% in the last quarter of the year- September to December, real property prices will most probably gain in June to December the following year, it’s approximately 6 to 12 months behind stocks gain. For relevance comparison, I will stick to construction/property stocks only.

Property prices will pick up only after the rises in stocks and fall after the stocks declined. Regardless of rises and declines, stocks always lead and followed suit by property prices. And in terms of speed, virtual growth is always faster than Real growth.

Property will be good for the slow and steady investor.

Virtual vs Real

It doesn’t take a genius to tell you that stocks are virtual assets while property is Real – at least tangible. No matter how you classify a stock, it’s nothing more than virtual. Both investments report paper gain/loss as long as the investor does not realise his investments and in my opinion I would prefer to buy something Real than virtual. Tangible assets give me a better sense of ownership.

Virtual gains vs Real returns

While it is very possible to witness a stock grows tenfold it is not possible for property. A construction/property stock could grow ten times – 1,000% and in contrast property prices will not grow 1,000% in any market, in any economy. Virtual gains (stock) will always be greater than any Real returns (property).

Given the same amount of capital for both investment options, I am likely to have a bigger margin for my returns from stocks than property investment. And risk is relative; my exposure to losing money will be greater in stocks than property.

Stocks only

I will buy a property for my family, some place comfortable for them to live in, nice and cosy and that will be the only objective for me to buy an estate. Doesn’t matter if the market is going up or down as long as my objective remains, there is no profit or loss for me in any market conditions.

Unless cash rich and I have a couple of millions on hand to buy an estate, and let my money sits around for a few years before realising my profits, acquiring a property through mortgages, loans and monthly instalments for investment don’t make sense to me.

Stocks will remain my No. 1 vehicle for investment despite what I have mentioned above, though I stand to lose more from stocks investments but the upside is apparently more attractive. Faster gains and bigger margins. 

2009 Chinese New Year – Awful year ahead

We are back to the ground again. I may be wrong about the Capricorn effect happening in early 2009 but I was right when the market has proven to be superstitious yet again.

Stocks indices rallied in early 2009 but short-lived. The markets revealed weakness in confidence and market fundamentals.

More structured unemployment is expected.  The economy is unlikely to recover until October this year and most probably turns for the better only in 2010.

In Singapore, we are about to celebrate the Chinese New Year on 26 January 2009. The first day of the lunar calendar. And each year we have a lot of celebrations for the New Year – 2009 is the year of the Ox.

But, the mood is not there anymore, many people I have known are very pessimistic about the New Year, and the common priority is job security which is a luxury now. You are lucky if you have one and if you don’t, you may have to beg for it. Kay from Money Talk has posted a news article on the performance of Singapore indices during each Ox year stretching all the way back to 1973.

So we are in another Ox year.

Never mind if you do not know what an Ox year means. It’s just some astrology calculation, click here if you are curious. 

Whichever the case, pure coincidence or jinx. Common sense says 2009 is going to be painful and miserable.

When the CNY comes, I don’t know if I should get excited or worried. With global jobs migration, more competitors are expected and we will have more leavers moving overseas for jobs employment as well. Celebrate for a day and have fun but when I wake up the next morning, sorry, back to reality. Economy is still going down.

1 year is short when time is good but hell if you are out of job or have a mountain of debts to clear.

Last deed by gunman

One Eyed Dragon, Tan Chor Jin was hanged last Friday for shooting his friend to death. But this man though showed no remorse throughout his trial did something out of the blue. Tang Wee Sung was jailed 1 day for buying kidney (he needs a transplant).

Tan wanted to donate his organs after his execution and one of the beneficiary is believed to be Mr Tang.

A good deed from the killer for whatever reason.

I have least expected something like this to happen. He killed someone, a cold blooded killer (you don’t expect someone like him to do anything good) but his entire perspective changed just before his death.

How do you define a school?

Congratulations! You have graduated with First Class Honours.

You have spent a few years in University striving for your first Degree.

You have spent a few years in technical school or college striving for your certificates.

You were “promised” or “sold” the idea of having a high qualification puts you ahead of the rest in the rat race. Paper chase is proven many throughout the history that paper holders do have an edge over the rest.

But I am puzzled over a course like Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurship. I mean do you go to school, hoping to learn or trained to become an entrepreneur? Will you become a successful businessman after completing a course like that? It’s either you are born to become one or trained by someone in the family (like your dad) to run a business. Do Professors know how to run a business?

In my pure economics sense, schools are nothing but factories that churn future labours for the market. If you want a shortage in manpower, just remove the schools, you remove the labour which schools are supposed to provide for the job market. None are trained to be businessman, everyone who went through the system are trained to become employees. Why would you need 500 vacancies for an accounting course? You need to throw 500 of them out into the market to fill up the job vacancies.

 

 

So, this is one factory where raw materials (candidates) are procured for production (training) and tested (exams) by the QCs / QAs for quality control. Once you have qualified (passed), the QC gives a stamp of quality assurance (qualifications) and sends the stocks (graduates) into the market for sale (employment).

The QC says these are good stuffs we can market them now. Some were thrown into the supermarkets, the grocery stores, the mega stores and the premium stores. None of them have equal value, some were undersold or oversold.

The school is one huge factory for mass production to suit the demands from the market.

Having a degree could mean better than not having one but streetwise is more important for winning the race. But I would rather know 1 Bill Gates or 1 Buffett than to having a straight A degree. It’s better to sense where the money is than knowing where my work desk is. I too, was “sold” the idea in the past that having a good education is essential for getting ahead. I am still upgrading myself today because I really enjoy gaining new knowledge not because I will achieve more because of my education. I grew out of that lie already.

I am one of those “canned food” …can I be a Coke? At least I can be sold for $10 at a country club. Whichever way, my value isn’t determined by me rather by how much the market is willing to pay me.

Does the school train me to create my own value? In a way, I can create my value which will only be fulfilled if someone out there is willing to match the “price”, so in the end, my value is still not determined by myself.

Ask the millionaires, billionaires, businessmen and smart investors whether a good education will bring me to their levels.

Whatever the school taught me would have been close to their expiry dates when I am done with my training. Then the same knowledge will be reused to teach those who came after me. It’s also a recycle bin.

The rich man and his maid

This will be a very short post about a funny random thought.

I walked past a private estate today, a short cut to my destination. Dogs were barking while I strolled past, I wasn’t too concern about the dogs as long as they don’t exploit any openings which allow them to dash out and pounce on me.

Then, I was next to this house, I saw a maid “ushering” her boss out of the house with his briefcase, shortly after that the boss drive off in his luxury sedan. A thought struck me. One of those rare occasions when I felt “enlightened” suddenly.

I was thinking….

That boss went off to work and most probably long hours to earn a good income to maintain his house. Is that the owner of a company or one of those senior managers? Whichever way, he slogs to pay for his private house.

That maid stays in the same house, slogs for 10 hours a day (maybe) but she doesn’t need to pay for the private house she is staying. She is paid to stay there.

Who is more fortunate? The boss who pays to live in a bungalow or the maid who doesn’t need to pay a single cent to stay there?

A frivolous post.

It’s tough at the top – The last of the tycoons

Img source: Problogger

You may have already read the news about the suicides of several tycoons. The saying goes “The bigger you are, the harder you fall”.  Or the other saying “Birds will die for food and men will die for money”.

It’s pretty unfortunate for these men and their families: Steven Good, Adolf Merckle, Thierry Magon and Karthik Rajaram (at least a millionaire).

They have the wealth that everyone thirsts for, if not for the unprecedented financial crisis, most people will still envy what these men have achieved. The envy ends when these tycoons ended their lives. They have the wealth but lost it when the stock market stumbled.

Being at the top has a huge price to paid for, not only the price of getting there but also the price of falling from the top. It can be tough at the top.

The face of failure is too big for them to handle. I supposed in these cases the main culprits are the egos, face values and primarily the mental states. It requires a tough mind to accept failures and apparently the stress took over.

I have always thought that tycoons, businessmen, CEO, CFO etc…the top people have the ultimate brain prowess to handle humongous stress and criticisms. But the news has just proven me wrong. Mental toughness is not a privilege.

What happens if at that juncture of suicide, the mental states of these tycoons are positive? Instead of “losing fortune means losing everything” to “losing fortune is not a total loss”. I mean family is priceless, life is priceless and the will to withstand the setbacks is priceless.

I am not them so I don’t know what it really means when a billionaire loses his fortune. I may not be able to take it should that happened to me and it’s easier to comment on what have happened than to go through the same crisis.

I cannot point my finger and say they are foolish. When money is larger than life, mishaps always happened. 

The market is where fortunes are made and lost, it’s part of the game and game is part and parcel of life. You buy big when you can afford it, your stakes are high and you will fall harder than anyone else. To look at the positives when you are down is not easy.

I will stand by what I have said “Mental toughness is not a privilege”. Anyone who thinks, including myself, it’s tough getting to the top, think again, it’s even tougher to stay at the top and not come down. 

Change

I have this flaw in me which I have noticed but done nothing to change. I have to admit that I am not a charitable person. I could hardly recall when was the last time I made a donation.

Being caught up in the rat race, I could hardly notice anything else except for my own bread and butter. I am not noble for sure and I don’t want to sound like one. It’s one of those time when you sit back and reflect on what you have missed out in life, what you could have done but did nothing because of the opportunity costs involved. I remembered once, I spent around $500 on a MP3 player without a blink. It wasn’t a regretful spending spree for me but come to think about it…what could this sum of money do for an old man, dumped by his own children and has to live his days without a house.

It isn’t a spiritual awakening for me.

Can I do something for the needy with the resources I have? I have decided to make some donations to the old folk’s home. At least, that’s what I can do for them. I really feel something for the old folks, they have spent at least half of their lifetime contributing to our society and yet when they are down and out, no one in the society could reach out them and give them a lift. It’s somehow incredible to know how negligent people can be.

I am still a capitalist at heart and I care for my money. I can’t do a Buffett for the charity but if I could make someone’s day even though it’s not my day, I think I should do something within my means.

P.S: This is not my typical kind of post so just bear with me.

Do you actually make money from blogging?

It’s an ageless question. I have read this everywhere…..from Yahoo Answers to Blogcatalog and forums.

It makes me wonder if those so-call experts are really making what they have claimed. Most bloggers don’t make money I believed. It’s not a matter of wrong strategies deployed but rather most of us started blogging without the thought of making money from blogging.

I have read many articles on Make Money Online but they all said the same thing. I would like to have my blog monetize but then to do it just for the money is not motivating enough. I failed at marketing.

SEO is like the doctrine for any aspiring Make Money bloggers but then despite the boast that SEO is the key to traffic, I remain skeptic about how a blogger could make money from Adsense or other blog marketing tools just by driving traffics to their blogs without interesting topics to convert them into regular readers. Most of the posts I have read are not original, simply put, the authors somehow copied from each other to churn enough posts to attract traffic or at least to make their blogs look content rich. You will find repetitive contents which discourage you to read another post of the same thing.

Nevertheless, I would like to have a profitable blog in the near future but it will not be possible if I have nothing to sell. Affiliate programs are not really appealing to me since they are as good as spams.

And I will most probably stand a better chance if I am using my blog to showcase my CV or I have a brick and mortar business and the blog serves as an advertising platform.

Since blogs have less credibility than “traditional” websites, it’s going to be very difficult to sell anything through this platform.

Forget about the big figures you saw, creating income via blogs is not going to work for everyone. I guess like any industries or sectors only a small percentage of the bloggers actually make it. It’s like trying to become a rich man it takes more than just hardwork, what we have seen are the minority who have make it and most of them failed.

I have not gone into into MMO blogs so I am not sure how much money a blogger  spend per month to keep the blog profitable. There must be hidden costs involved which are not presented to fellow bloggers.

Don’t assume it costs nothing, there’s no free lunch because the economic system doesn’t allow that to happen. Everything comes with a price so does MMO blogging.