A Bang for the Buck

I've got all these books and it cost me so much lesser than what I was meant to pay! When life begins as an entrepreneur, I should step foot somewhere. And discover that I need to develop some of the necessary skills, that is through books.
Hence, I stepped into this good old-fashioned wholesale bookstore that sell books that were dirt cheap. I never regret a single penny spent. What have costed at least USD10 was slashed at 70-80% of its price.

EAT PEOPLE by Andy Kessler, anti Warren Buffett. Somewhat a good entrepreneur read. I need to start somewhere at least. I don't see a reason why I shouldn't start here.

 MARKETING GURUS. Teaches all the fundamental from reputable marketing gurus such as Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, etc. I believe that despite the change of age of our world, knowing some fundamentals will prove much good . Isn't it so??

 Packed with knowledge, I am all out and all motivated. Yes, I know life is going to be so exciting right now. I've created something out of nothing, and hence begins my journey of entrepreneurship. As the saying goes by Lao Tzu, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with  a single step"

Investment that everyone is doing

Earlier I was looking through Robert Kiyosaki’s book, Cashflow Quadrant. The book illustrated some forms of investing that was always been practiced by average people among us.

That practically caught my eye! So I am sharing my thoughts and also facts on how average people think AND how successful people commented otherwise in a real world aspect.

Most average people have invested in either 3 or all of these investments I am showing below:

1.Education

Most average people invested in education as part of their investment. They invested into professional education; enrol in their Masters and PhD’s so that they get a professional career that offers thick paycheck.

Response from the real world:

While it may be true, education is a great tool of investment. But it may results to chance. Take an example this person graduated in his/her Master. Brought up a state-of-the-art CV to a prospective company. After being hired, he/she will be competing against his/her fellow colleagues. And a company hierarchy comes in a pyramid style.

Out of 10,000 executives, 1000 are promoted as seniors.

Out of 1000 seniors, 100 are promoted as managers.

Out of 100 managers, 10 are directors

Out of 10, maybe 2 are MDs…

So against all odds, to become financially free, this person has to fight his/her way up the ladder to enjoy life being wealthy.  If he/she’s lucky will get promoted. If unlucky enough maybe they will just work for the next 30-40 years of their life to survive.

Investing in education ALONE is taking chances, not helping to build wealth.

2.Invest in Family

Some families may want to build a decent family. They support their children all the way up to college. This is part of their investment so that in return these children will continue to support the parents.

Response from the real world:

This may not be a perfect family lifecycle. As the global trend and lifestyle is changing, it is becoming very difficult for families to handle the living expenses and medical expenses of parents.  So the end of the day, both parents and children still working hard to support each other.  

3.Government retirement plan

Some people will continue to work for company and leaving a portion of their salary into government retirement plan such as 401k (named as EPF in Malaysia).

Response from the real world:

It may sound sensible to leave a chunk of money for the government to invest. These people may have to rely on the government to return the money back to them. This is taking chances to hope that the economy and country’s future development is positive. One may not know how much return they can get until they receive the money. AND they may know even know if this money is SUFFICIENT for retirement.

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Whether you agree to it or not, these are the 3 forms of investment being practiced by people in the Industrial Age or older generation. Since that we are in the Information-Age where things are moving differently, hence these forms of investment are risky.

I am stressing that doing these 3 forms of investing are fine provided there are other sources of investment to help you build the passive income.

It was sad to know that some people to work 30-40 years until they retired. They relied their income in these 3 forms of investment, although they know its not helping them…Wake up!!

US economy improving slowly says Feds

Now this is what I am talking about, issues of natural disasters, speculative selling, and profit taking are finally slowing down. Things are moving at a slightly natural flow.

Yesterday the Feds announced in minutes that economy is slowly improving. This is an indication that cyclical sector is slowly moving upwards once again! Hah, after weeks of sufferings!  


Well as for now, industrial stocks is picking up already, after yesterday’s closing on NYSE. And I have mentioned in my previous post that cyclical stocks were sold down mercilessly. 


BUT now....if you have liquid cash, its time to slowly targeting cyclical ones that is very cheap right now. Industrial and energy like Caterpillar and Sandridge are one of them.

Question here, why am I looking into economy in US rather than Malaysia??! 

Simple question with simple answer. US being a leading economy dominator will affect most of the countries around the globe. Especially those relying on US economy to boost its country’s growth. Malaysia being a developing country is attracting the support from US, this is an indicator that Malaysia economy is partially related.

Malaysia launched Invest Malaysia New York 2011 (IMNY 2011) event in New York yesterday attracting fund managers, brokers, MNCs and bankers to invest in local companies. So like it or not, if this prove to be successful, we can’t avoid NOT looking into US economy!

You can do homework; try to look at the result of NYSE stock index.  If it rise up high today, KLSE index will rise as well the next day.

This is just one of my simple indication, but bear in mind I am not an economist who went through comprehensive research to justify anything. I am just a simple investor.

Are you happy with your job? No? I tell you why

"If you are one of those who believe that hard work and honesty alone will bring riches, perish the thought! It is not true!" Napoleon Hill

Again another quote from Napoleon Hill. This one caught my attention, because it was undeniably true! Napoleon Hill explained this quote in his book Think and Grow Rich in 1937. And after more than 60 years, his quote is still true about what is happening in our real life. Hard work do not bring you joy, happiness and wealth. It only makes you feel tired, unhappy and POOR!

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Have you encountered a scenario like below around you?

Adam had a family of 3, and a loving wife. He was promoted last year and bought a house with his savings and extras from his salary increment. Each month he had to pay for mortgage for a semi-detached, and expenses: spend 3 meals a day for family, children's education, utilities, car, insurance and weekend entertainment.

In order to cover expenses, he told himself he needs to work hard for his career. Work on projects until late night to please clients, therefore making the bosses happy.

Slowly, he realized the money is not enough to fund for family expenses. He realized he needs to work HARDER to get promoted again and earn more increment. Therefore he pitched in more sales and work on project even harder. Few days of sleepless nights, sometimes he needs to work on weekend and gave up entertainment on weekend.

He hardly see his children anymore. By the time he reached home it was 1am, children were asleep. He woke up at 7am and go to office again to work. Health begins to deteriorate because of the lack of sleep. His wife started to find a job to support the family's mortgages and education.

Doctor advised him to work less as his high-blood pressure will result to a critical level of stroke. He decided he needs to work lesser. He changed his job, sold his home for a smaller low-end house. No longer able to go for weekend entertainment and sometimes have to skip dinner to have only 2 meals a day.

While both parents were at work, nobody can take care of the 3 children: Lisa 1 year old, Harry 3 years old and Dominique 5 years old. Bringing them to day care needs even more expenses...and story goes on. One day he said to himself, "FML...!"

Is his life happy at all?
All he wants is to work and support his decent family. But despite what he wants, he did not get it.
What is wrong here?
He shouldn't get married?
He shouldn't have children?

Of course NO! What he did wrong here is that he work HARD. And he work hard ONLY.
He set a wrong objective of 'working hard to lead a better life'.

Don't be surprised this is what you always see around you!

Yes, we would like to have a better life, but working hard is not the solution. While we work, we need to find a way of working that can give us what we want.

Assuming his option here, a wife and 3 children. What he can do is to have lesser expenses, smaller commitment, use the money to grow for more money. The solution? Its in all my previous posts...

Is Silver still safe??

Yesterday we have witnessed the sharpest fall in commodities’ share.

Earlier headlines in articles and news clouded the word, ‘Buy Gold! Buy Silver!’. But what they never tell investors were that, they should ‘Buy it BEFORE its too late!”.  Now we are witnessing the sharp fall. Traders or fund managers who have bought it last few months were taking profits from commodities, after the dropped in oil price hinting economic recovery.

I bought into cyclical markets and have not sold it since months ago. People may want to take advantage of short-term profit, buying silvers, buying into short term fall, they can go ahead in the past, but NOT NOW!

We have seen today that oil price traded below $100. Japan’s rebuilding effort slowly picking up, middle-east tension is not a surprise anymore…Things are slowly getting back to normal.

If anyone does not believe it this case, look at how much sharp fall commodities have presented. Most of the time they went reversed with the cyclical market. Most likely economic recovery is on its way.

We shall see as things move on, I am still cyclical in this situation.