3. Plan your Work and Work your Plan
This is the easiest part and the most important part of the process. Action. Since you have defined your long term, medium term and short term goals, chosen the path, you need to take short term goal and determine the set of activities that will be required to achieve the goal.Determine the number and sequence of steps you will need to achieve this short term goal.e.g I want to make a million dollars net worth in the stock market in 5 years, Long term Goal = 1000000 in 5 years i.e 31 May 2014Medium Term Goal = 50000 in 2 years i.e. 31 May 2011Short term Goal = 2000 in 3 months i.e 31 Aug 2009
To achieve this I need to start with a sum of at least 1000 SGD to make it more realistic and achievable.Next I need to choose a vehicle that will let me make that amount of money in 3 months.Options are a good way of making that.To do so, I have to learn and practise dummy trades using options before I do actual options trade.One small mistake and I can lose the whole capital. Its wiser to spread and diversify your risk across mutiple options instead of putting all your money into one option.A single options trade can make as much as 300% profit if you plan and execute it properly.
Do your due diligence,plan the set of activities and consistently follow on a daily basis.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Writing a Financial Freedom plan
1) Setting the Dream :
Writing your financial freedom plan is just like planning a trip. You need to know your destination,clearly and precisely, estimate the time you will need and plan your way to reach there. Exactly the same way when you sit to write a financial freedom plan, you need to have your goal or destination in mind. This is your benchmark or goal post against which you you will constantly monitor yourself.It could be anything like having a passive income of $10000 a month or buying that multi million dollar dream house or a Ferrari, BMW, Lamborghini, Porsche or a month long world tour in the finest hotels and destinations, or international eductaion for your children or buying house and taking care of your parents or donations to charity etc.The list can be endless but whatever your dream is, make it an emotional dream, the thought of which inspires you,that brings tears to your eyes,one that gives you the adrenalin rush, the fire in the belly kinda feeling.This is gonna be your fuel cell, your everlasting source of energy in your voyage to your destination.Once you have made your dream clear in your mind,put a date to it.
Dream + Date = Goal
My Goal is achieve that $10000 a month in passive income within the next 5 years,and I am gonna do it whatever it takes to achieve that.No one can steal that dream from me.
Well this goal is a long term goal, so you need to break it into smaller goals like medium term goals and short term goals.
Medium term goals are goals to be achieved in next 1-2 years. Short term goals are goals to be achieved within the next 1 to 3 months.
Now that you have set your medium and short term goals, you can now set out to think on the paths to achieve your goal.
Hot Tip: Write down your top 5 goals in a piece of paper and carry it in your pocket! You will be AMAZED to see the results!
2)Choose your path
There are many paths you can take in your journey to financial freedom.You can trade in stock markets, buy real estate,gold, currency markets, internet business etc. Take the path which excites you the most and one which would like to go on.Once you have chosen your path, do your research on the path. If you want to get into real estate, do some due diligence in checking related material on the internet, buy books, audio cds, study tax laws etc. Join forums where you can meet people who are involved in similar activity. Associate with them and you will learn more than you could ever on your own.Take up some good training courses in the area that would help you to understand the area better.
Personally I am big fan of Robert Kiyosaki. He has shared his wisdom in such plain words in his books and audio cds that anybody can learn and follow it. Of course, it needs a lot of commitment and persistence. To begin with, I would suggest play the cash flow game devised by Robert. He recommends playing it at least 10-15 times and learning to get out of the rat race. Believe me, you will have the time of your life when you will see your real life decisions being reflected in the game. In addition, it is great fun to play. I love playing it and keep playing it every now and then.
Helps me to get my perspective right !
Writing your financial freedom plan is just like planning a trip. You need to know your destination,clearly and precisely, estimate the time you will need and plan your way to reach there. Exactly the same way when you sit to write a financial freedom plan, you need to have your goal or destination in mind. This is your benchmark or goal post against which you you will constantly monitor yourself.It could be anything like having a passive income of $10000 a month or buying that multi million dollar dream house or a Ferrari, BMW, Lamborghini, Porsche or a month long world tour in the finest hotels and destinations, or international eductaion for your children or buying house and taking care of your parents or donations to charity etc.The list can be endless but whatever your dream is, make it an emotional dream, the thought of which inspires you,that brings tears to your eyes,one that gives you the adrenalin rush, the fire in the belly kinda feeling.This is gonna be your fuel cell, your everlasting source of energy in your voyage to your destination.Once you have made your dream clear in your mind,put a date to it.
Dream + Date = Goal
My Goal is achieve that $10000 a month in passive income within the next 5 years,and I am gonna do it whatever it takes to achieve that.No one can steal that dream from me.
Well this goal is a long term goal, so you need to break it into smaller goals like medium term goals and short term goals.
Medium term goals are goals to be achieved in next 1-2 years. Short term goals are goals to be achieved within the next 1 to 3 months.
Now that you have set your medium and short term goals, you can now set out to think on the paths to achieve your goal.
Hot Tip: Write down your top 5 goals in a piece of paper and carry it in your pocket! You will be AMAZED to see the results!
2)Choose your path
There are many paths you can take in your journey to financial freedom.You can trade in stock markets, buy real estate,gold, currency markets, internet business etc. Take the path which excites you the most and one which would like to go on.Once you have chosen your path, do your research on the path. If you want to get into real estate, do some due diligence in checking related material on the internet, buy books, audio cds, study tax laws etc. Join forums where you can meet people who are involved in similar activity. Associate with them and you will learn more than you could ever on your own.Take up some good training courses in the area that would help you to understand the area better.
Personally I am big fan of Robert Kiyosaki. He has shared his wisdom in such plain words in his books and audio cds that anybody can learn and follow it. Of course, it needs a lot of commitment and persistence. To begin with, I would suggest play the cash flow game devised by Robert. He recommends playing it at least 10-15 times and learning to get out of the rat race. Believe me, you will have the time of your life when you will see your real life decisions being reflected in the game. In addition, it is great fun to play. I love playing it and keep playing it every now and then.
Helps me to get my perspective right !
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Road to Financial Freedom
Happy New Year and a warm welcome to all you voyagers reading this blog. Its been quite some time since I posted updates on my voyage ahead.I have been contemplating various options to the path I want for financial freedom.Well what is financial freedom? the freedom to choose to spend your time the way you want to. On our honeymoon last month, I was wondering what it would be like to have every day of my life like this.Is that possible?
There are some key questions you should ask yourself if you are into a job,just like me.
Does my job allow me to spend my time the way I want? No matter how terrible I may feel,I have to take still make my way to my job.Is my job that bad? Honestly no, the work I do involves a good mix of techno functional and management skills, a coveted job that many may want to have, and it is my job that gives me money to pay all my expenses.
Do I want to do the same job all my life or maybe get promoted and do what my boss does today? No, however lucrative I wouldn't want to. Moreover, when I stop working the income will stop too.
Does my job make me enough money to save for my retirement? Well thats very hard to tell.No matter how much I save inflation takes it away making all the savings and investments look so meagre.
The above reasons make it all the more important to have a plan, the financial freedom plan, a plan that will lead to the kind of life I want to live without having to work for money.That is possible if the passive income(to the unitiated, passive income is money which works for you e.g. rental income,income from stocks, bonds, royalty,real estate etc.) from other streams is enough to take care of mine and my family's expenses. To actually record your income and expenses into an excel format, you can do a google search to find a lot of sample expense organisers on the internet.
Then you can put the income and expenses columns on a separate excel sheet along with two more columns for assets and liabilities below them as shown.
Income
Do I want to do the same job all my life or maybe get promoted and do what my boss does today? No, however lucrative I wouldn't want to. Moreover, when I stop working the income will stop too.
Does my job make me enough money to save for my retirement? Well thats very hard to tell.No matter how much I save inflation takes it away making all the savings and investments look so meagre.
The above reasons make it all the more important to have a plan, the financial freedom plan, a plan that will lead to the kind of life I want to live without having to work for money.That is possible if the passive income(to the unitiated, passive income is money which works for you e.g. rental income,income from stocks, bonds, royalty,real estate etc.) from other streams is enough to take care of mine and my family's expenses. To actually record your income and expenses into an excel format, you can do a google search to find a lot of sample expense organisers on the internet.
Then you can put the income and expenses columns on a separate excel sheet along with two more columns for assets and liabilities below them as shown.
Income
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Expense
Expense
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________________
Assets
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Liabilities
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________________
Assets
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Liabilities
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Those who have read Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad Poor Dad would know how important this is.This simple step is your first step to financial freedom, i.e taking stock of your personal situation.By doing the above you are building your personal financial statement or balance sheet.
A brief overview on the items in the balance sheet:Assets by definition are those items that generate income, while liabilities create expense.Our homes, cars, etc. which we term as assets are not actually assets but liabilities since we need to pay for the maintenance of these items, which is an expense. In Kiyosaki's words, liabilities take money out of your pocket every month while assets put money into your pocket.
A house would be an asset only when it generates income for us i.e only when you let it on lease or rent, not when you are staying in it.
There are a wide variety of assets to invest in e.g real estate, stocks, bonds, derivatives,gold,commodities etc.
The simple trick to achieving financial freedom is simply to reduce your liabilities and create more and more assets that generate passive income.You may ask if this is so simple then why there aren't many people doing it.The reason is ever since we have been in school we have all been taught to get good grades and get a job.I was a high ranking student at school and college and have been doing well in my profession.But over the years I have been exposed to the teachings of Kiyosaki and have broadened my vision for my future. After having created the financial statement, the next question is how do I write such a plan.
(To be continued...)
Saturday, May 3, 2008
The Psychology of Winners
rsAt a recent seminar for investors that I assisted as a coach, the presenter Adam Khoo disclosed secret about winners that I or you wouldn't have otherwise known. These were his exact words "Success is 70% Psychology and 30% Knowledge,Skills,Tools etc"
Adam Khoo is a self-made millionaire by the age of 26,CEO of Adam Khoo Technologies and other businesses with a combined turnover of 20m, and a best selling author.
He and Conrad Alvin Lim, my trading guru are the authors of "Secrets of Millionaire Investors", a Singapore best seller. Conrad's story is an amazing story of a man who not only pulled his life from bankruptcy on track within record time but also took on the mantle to create great traders like him out of novices.I consider it an honour and privilege to be associated with these two great men and getting the opportunity to learn from them.
Adam Khoo is a self-made millionaire by the age of 26,CEO of Adam Khoo Technologies and other businesses with a combined turnover of 20m, and a best selling author.
He and Conrad Alvin Lim, my trading guru are the authors of "Secrets of Millionaire Investors", a Singapore best seller. Conrad's story is an amazing story of a man who not only pulled his life from bankruptcy on track within record time but also took on the mantle to create great traders like him out of novices.I consider it an honour and privilege to be associated with these two great men and getting the opportunity to learn from them.
"Success is 70% Psychology and 30% Knowledge,Skills,Tools etc"
What this means is even with the whole knowlege in the world, intelligence, talent, tools you still cannot achieve success unless you have the right psychology. That explains why there is only one Bill Gates or a Warren Buffett in billions. Does that mean you or I can't be that ? Yes we can if only we have the discipline and psychology that Bill Gates and Buffett have. The difference between them and us is that they play to win. Well of course everyone plays to win,no one plays to lose. Yet 99% of the time we enter into a new venture not wanting to lose.
Lets see what we do when we encounter a failure.We find all kind of excuses to reason for failure .e.g., I tried, it doesnt work . I can't do it. Its not meant for me. When winners encounter a failure they don't go down giving excuses but say thank you and learn from their failures. When encountered with a failure, they change their strategy like we saw in the last post.Prepare a plan, put it into action. Achieve results, good or bad, learn from them. Continue to do this till they get what they want. After failing 99 times in attempting to invent the electric bulb,Thomas Edison said I now know 99 ways how not to create a light bulb. Like they say, the darkest hour is just before dawn. Yet when everything looks bleak we give up. Winners don't give up, they go back to their desk and come back with a new plan.That exactly is the difference between winning and losing. Many a time my own light dies out and I want to give up. But I dont wanna die(lose), I wanna win. Thats why I am sharing my ideas and plans with you all. In the darkest hour when I want to give up, maybe one of you will light me up and push me forward to go for it.Yes, it is your own discipline and commitment to achieving your goal is what will lead you to your goal.So do not fear failure, embrace failure like a hero and come back with a fresh start.
The question is how you ensure that you remain committed to your goal. Like we said earlier, declare it to the world and put yourself on the line. Make your goal a MUST for yourself. I have personally felt my strength, abilities and achievements enhanced when faced with adversity or challenges or compulsive situations. The reason why most winners achieve what they want is because they are Driven by Strong Purpose. So create the purpose, why you want what you really want. When you think abt the purpose, this purpose will inspire you to achieve your goal.Your purpose could be anything , to give your family a better future, buy an expensive house or car for yourself, go on a world tour, do something for the community like a school, hospital etc.
The more you delve on your purpose the more you will be driven to achieve your goal.
Check out the below link for some interesting videos for insight into Psychology of Winners from Robert Kiyosaki, the author Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
http://www.richdad.com/RichDad/RichContent.aspx?cpid=65
Njoy !
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Where do we start?
Hey again ... I know most of us think how do we achieve what we want ?
Well the first thing to do is get the idea clear in your head as to what you want from your life ...
Once you are clear abt it write it down .... and visit it , revisit it day after day and think how are you gonna achieve it .... Do one thing ... Declare it like I have done .. .Declare it to the world that come what may, you will do whatever it takes to reach it ... And see how magically it works .. By doing this u will put urself on the line and push urself to achieve it ... every time a friend , a sibling asks you abt it, you will only be driven to achieve it....
If your goal is a significantly big one , split it into smaller quantum goals and think of ways to achieve your first quantum goal ... akin to crossing a big puddle wherin you put one stone at a time and step on it and then put the other and so on till you reach your destination .. so much so to say ... easier said than done ! huh
Alrite .... lets take my example I wanna be a billionaire ... poof ... there comes a genie, so shall be it master, and I am a billionaire .... if only I were Aladdin with a magic lamp. Day dreaming ... huh ... Nay before I become a billionaire .... I need to become a millionaire ...
Well that sounds a lot more easier ... Yes n No .... Yes for obvious reasons .... Yet the gurus say its difficult to make your first million, once you have learnt to make ur first million, the rest just follow ... well rite ... by the time you have made your first million, you would have learnt what works and what not. It is this learning thats gonna make you the remaining 999 million.
So well how am I gonna make my first million ? Well the easiest way to make a million is start with two million .... hehehe very true isnt it ? Alas, my dad isnt a big man to give me two million nor do I have any rich relative whos gonna give it to me ... So I need to earn my first million .... How do I earn my first million ? Work ? Hmm that I already do ... and the money that comes in goes out of the window in paying my rent, electricity, phone, credit card bills ... and i m broke at the end of the month .... Sounds familiar? Work harder no good .... doing part time jobs wont help ... At the end of it will be slogging for a paltry sum ...
So what I need to do is generate new streams of income which take little or no time of mine and yet give me a neat income ... to say the least a liitle more money in my pocket .. the gurus call this passive income ... Yeah the money that works for you, and not the other way round.
So how do i make money work for me ? Look around you and you will see hundreds of opportunities that can spin money for you .... stocks, real estate, internet marketing etc. choose the one that holds ur imagination, spin a business around it ... of course there are lot of sites around which can brief you up on what you r looking for .. Check out richdad.com for some interesting basics. Another good site I found is entrepeneur.com ifyou wanna know about how to become an entrepreneur. Go ahead educate urself , develop ur strategies, take ur actions,
if not successful, learn from results, change ur strategy and repeat .... till u achieve what u want.
GOAL
!
STRATEGY -> ACTION -> RESULT
^ _____________________/
Well the first thing to do is get the idea clear in your head as to what you want from your life ...
Once you are clear abt it write it down .... and visit it , revisit it day after day and think how are you gonna achieve it .... Do one thing ... Declare it like I have done .. .Declare it to the world that come what may, you will do whatever it takes to reach it ... And see how magically it works .. By doing this u will put urself on the line and push urself to achieve it ... every time a friend , a sibling asks you abt it, you will only be driven to achieve it....
If your goal is a significantly big one , split it into smaller quantum goals and think of ways to achieve your first quantum goal ... akin to crossing a big puddle wherin you put one stone at a time and step on it and then put the other and so on till you reach your destination .. so much so to say ... easier said than done ! huh
Alrite .... lets take my example I wanna be a billionaire ... poof ... there comes a genie, so shall be it master, and I am a billionaire .... if only I were Aladdin with a magic lamp. Day dreaming ... huh ... Nay before I become a billionaire .... I need to become a millionaire ...
Well that sounds a lot more easier ... Yes n No .... Yes for obvious reasons .... Yet the gurus say its difficult to make your first million, once you have learnt to make ur first million, the rest just follow ... well rite ... by the time you have made your first million, you would have learnt what works and what not. It is this learning thats gonna make you the remaining 999 million.
So well how am I gonna make my first million ? Well the easiest way to make a million is start with two million .... hehehe very true isnt it ? Alas, my dad isnt a big man to give me two million nor do I have any rich relative whos gonna give it to me ... So I need to earn my first million .... How do I earn my first million ? Work ? Hmm that I already do ... and the money that comes in goes out of the window in paying my rent, electricity, phone, credit card bills ... and i m broke at the end of the month .... Sounds familiar? Work harder no good .... doing part time jobs wont help ... At the end of it will be slogging for a paltry sum ...
So what I need to do is generate new streams of income which take little or no time of mine and yet give me a neat income ... to say the least a liitle more money in my pocket .. the gurus call this passive income ... Yeah the money that works for you, and not the other way round.
So how do i make money work for me ? Look around you and you will see hundreds of opportunities that can spin money for you .... stocks, real estate, internet marketing etc. choose the one that holds ur imagination, spin a business around it ... of course there are lot of sites around which can brief you up on what you r looking for .. Check out richdad.com for some interesting basics. Another good site I found is entrepeneur.com ifyou wanna know about how to become an entrepreneur. Go ahead educate urself , develop ur strategies, take ur actions,
if not successful, learn from results, change ur strategy and repeat .... till u achieve what u want.
GOAL
!
STRATEGY -> ACTION -> RESULT
^ _____________________/
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Back to Basics
A Big Hello to all you Guys n Gals out there ... To all of you who dream .... and dream to make it big ! Well ... to dream is fine .... to put yourself on the line and to push yourself to the limits to achieve it is what makes all the difference! So here I am ... to put myself on the line and push myself to achieve my dream to become a billionaire and roam around the world.
Yes I have dreamt abt it ever since I was a teenager ... like every teenager does .... only that now its a more mature objective rather than just a dream .... with a plan to achieve it.
As I set out on my journey that promises to be thrilling and an equally strenuous one, invite you folks to join me on this interesting voyage. So watch out this space for the adrenalin rush .....
Faster your seat belts .... as we go vrrrrrrrrrooooooommmmm !!!!
Yes I have dreamt abt it ever since I was a teenager ... like every teenager does .... only that now its a more mature objective rather than just a dream .... with a plan to achieve it.
As I set out on my journey that promises to be thrilling and an equally strenuous one, invite you folks to join me on this interesting voyage. So watch out this space for the adrenalin rush .....
Faster your seat belts .... as we go vrrrrrrrrrooooooommmmm !!!!
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