How to be rich and successful?

Over my years of financial advisory, I can say that I have met quite alot of people. And this year has been a pretty eye-opening experience for me. In just this quarter, I have met up, advised and consulted quite a handful of people. All of them are good people but what I realized from most of them is saddening.

Maybe we were not trained in school and not taught at home and topic of money is not brought up with friends... but I can see that all of us are paying the price. I am blessed that I am in this field and am exposed to my Mentors' teachings thus I have learnt how to manage my money properly. But it saddens me to see that there are still alot of people out there who are still unaware of that thin ice they are putting themselves on.

Of course, I have extremely savvy investors and very diligent savers but that's just a mere minority of them. I used to expect that the people who are educated would be able to understand money management techniques or principles. And in my starting years as a Financial Advisor, to my surprise, they can be the hardest nut to crack. I guess there are so many "teachings" out there that may have clouded their perception. But nevertheless, in such economy climate, I think it's best to go back to basics.

I deeply and strongly believe that the simplest way of investing is SAVING. Yes I know, I can hear all of you moaning out there about interest rates and etc. But frankly, in this climate, how many more ways are there? Let's talk about safer instruments for now. Alot of people are afraid and I don't blame you and many out there are at a total lost of what to pick and which to pick and when to go into or come out of the market! so with so much uncertainty and yet we need to meet our basic necessity of investing, what else more than a safe instrument for this time? SAVE.

You can choose the highest interest-paying bank which will pay you at best 2% or you can choose a safe instrument that can help you ride out the economy crisis like an endowment which could pay 5 to 8%.

I can hear all the murmurs about American International Group (AIG). Well, there are many more insurance companies out there : Prudential, Great Eastern are the 2 other bigger boys left.

Still you would need to follow the 6 systems in Money Management Techniques Part 3 -

System 1 : Financial Freedom Fund (Triple Fs)
System 2 : Long Term Saving
System 3 : Short Term Savings
System 4 : Tithing
System 5 : Reward
System 6 : Expenditure

Do what the rich and successful people will carry one doing.

I have talked to multi-millionaires in Singapore and Malaysia and I figured this...

Successful people are willing to do that which unsuccessful people are not willing to do.

All the rich and successful people are willing to do that extra mile, study about their investments, pay for their brokers, save, invest be it good times or bad.

All of which the unsuccessful people are not willing to do! I hear them complaining about the economy, how the government should help them, how they should not spend and also not invest for fear of the economy, how they should not invest in their own future just because they want to save for the rainy day.

But isn't this THE RAINY DAY?

Successful people are not willing to do that which unsuccessful people are willing to do.

Successful people are not willing to put off their plans for their success, they are not willing to just procrastinate and mop around, lamenting about the economy crisis or lament about the paper loss of their investments.

However, unsuccessful people are willing to shelf their saving plans, chop off their endowment, liquidate their investments all because they are afraid to ride it out and they want to grab and hold every single penny.

I am sure that there are some who needs to do all this to make ends meet. But the majority I'm referring here still have jobs, still have earnings yet they make the most unwise decisions at the most crucial time.

I am a little saddened by their actions. However, I am not willing to give up and am going to press on, just because I am blessed to be in the position to advise about financial matters, I will continue to do so because of my beliefs and my principles.

I very much still want to help all of these people understand and realize that they can and am able to manage money just as well as the rich and successful people.

Many times I have seen and I have done so myself that I would want to HAVE all the money in order to DO what the rich and successful do, then I can BE rich and successful. (HAVE -> DO -> BE)

Or many fall into the illusion to DO what the rich and successful people do in order to HAVE what they have so that we can BE rich and successful. (DO -> HAVE -> BE)

In face, the right way and the only way for us is that we need to do is to BE rich and successful, BE like them, DO what they do, mimic all you can, because once you BE, then you'll DO and you'll HAVE. (BE -> DO -> HAVE)

So stop procrastinating and start BEING rich and successful!

God Bless!