Choosing the Right Insurance Policies For Protection

Once you recognize the potential unexpected occurrences which could threaten your family’s financial security, you can plan for financial protection through the appropriate insurance policy. The following table shows the potential losses and the type of insurance available protect against each occurrence.

Potential Loss	Type of Insurance
My death	Life Insurance
Unable to work through disability	Disability Insurance
Driving my car, I collide with another car	Automobile Insurance
I am going to have a mojor operation	Health Insurance
My house burns down	Homeowner’s Insurance
I am unemployed and I need to make mortgage payments	Mortgage Payment Insurance.

My Safest Strategy to Invest in Real Estate

I play a very conservative game in real estate investment so the chances that I lost are very low. This is what I do. I will only buy a house if I have enough cash to buy the house. Assuming the house $300K, I will have $100K down payment and take the $100K loan from bank and finally invest the difference (which is $100K) in other investment (e.g. stock, mutual funds and etc.) to make sure the investment that I invest are higher than the bank's interest. Therefore, the chances that I lost in real estate investment is very slim and plus the property appreciation, how can I lost the game?

Speak to Your Inner Self in a Wrong Way

Speak to your inner self is a very powerful technique but very funny I realize some people use it wrongly. They use it in a wrong way to affect other person’s action with their own thoughts and they end up become very unhappy. For example, you talk to your inner self to insist that “John must be in love with you”. This is a form of manipulation and it is trying to have control over another person’s life which is impossible to most of us unless you’re really powerful as God. You don’t know what another person spiritual lesson is and you don’t have the right to interfere in another’s life process. You certainly wouldn’t want someone else doing it into you.

So, what is the right way? Instead, what you can say is, “My own true love will come to me…” and list the qualities you want in a relationship. That may allow the power within you to bring to you the perfect person to fit that bills who may or may not be “John”.

So, remember that you cannot affect a person’s actions with your thoughts – unless you’re extremely powerful which is unlikely the case. Talk to yourself to be the person that you want to be but not to force the other person to be the person that you expected who they are which is totally out of your control.

Cut Your Taxes In Half

Sorry if you are looking for something serious, you can ignore this post. This is simply a joke.

I used to complain about my taxes. That is before my accountant,
Ralph Norwood, gave me a surefire way to cut them in half.

Perhaps you can use the same method if you choose.

As usual, at tax time I grumbled about the high amount of money
that I paid each year in taxes.

I wasn't concerned about what my tax dollars paid for. I was
only concerned that state, federal, social security and other
deductions took a huge chunk of my money.

So like the vast majority of us, I complained.

I sat in the chair as the accountant crunched through the
numbers. Grumbling and complaining, I sat.

"I've got a way to instantly cut your taxes in half,"
Mr. Norwood said.

My ears perked up. I was at full attention.

In half! Did he realize how much money that would save me?

Had I missed a deduction?
Did he have a surefire tax shelter?
Was there a legal loophole that I was eligible for?

"How?" I excitedly asked.

"Simple, just cut your salary in half," Norwood answered.

That was over ten years ago, but it taught me a lesson that
I will never forget.

We complain when we are running short and we complain when we
are blessed with much. The key is, there is always something to
complain about and there is always something to be thankful for.

You choose.

Thank goodness I have a high tax bill.

Source: MountainWings.com

2 Solutions to Retire Rich

To retire rich, there are only 2 solutions. The first solution is to earn more. The second solution is to spend less.

To earn more, this is what you do:

1. Build a Second Income
2. Retire Later

To spend less, this is what you do:

1. Start Saving Today
2. Reduce Your Expenses Drastically
3. Move to a Cheaper Place

The steps look simple or sound simple but it is damn hard to achieve. Let’s look on the following to see why based on my personal experience.

Build Second Income

I have been trying very hard to build a second income but so far I don’t see any good progress. The second income that I got is not even 5% of my current income. Maybe my current income is too high? I will be a dead man, if I’m forced to leave my current employer now.

Retire Later

As for retire later, I’m not sure if this is really possible. Retire later means I extent my default retirement age. Instead of retire at 55, I can retire at 60 or 65. By extending my retirement age, I actually earn more and I save the extra money that I earn.

There are 2 things that I worry here. First, will I still be working until 55? Am I still as useful as when I was 30? Will I be laid off by my employer before 55? Second, what makes the company approve my retirement age extension? Opss, I almost forgot my ultimate goal is to retire by 40. I want to retire early instead. So why do I still consider this option? I want to avoid this option!

Start Saving Today

Finally I think at least I’m doing this very well on this. I have been start saving from the day I start working and use the saving to invest in stocks, mutual funds and properties. If you find saving is really difficult for you, I would recommend you to use the “Pay Yourself First” method. It is a very efficient method.

Reduce Your Expenses Drastically

The truth is that many of the things we accept as needs today are actually just wants. For example, 30 years ago, few of us had television sets in their homes. But today everyone has a TV in their homes. Not only just TV, people know moving towards to LCD TV including myself.

We all want a better life. So, should we have better life? Do not watch TV at all? I buy laptop instead of desktop because I want a better life. I now can update this blog by laying down in my bed. Should I buy Dekstop instead? Also, when I looked my expenses past few months, I bought a car, I bought some furniture, and etc. It looks like spending is really fun. Don’t you think so?

Move to a Cheaper Place

Move to a cheaper place might not be a solution to some of you but this is the one step that will make the most difference. If moving to somewhere else with lower living expenses and you are able to increase your net worth, why not we go to that place? The biggest problem I have right now is my current expertise or skill does not have any market value in the cheaper place that I want to move to. Move there but lower my income? What is the point then?

Related Posts:

• First Step to Financial Freedom
• Purely Saving is Not Enough, You Need Strategy
• The Secret of Wealth and Happiness
  

10 Steps to Financial Freedom & Independence

Financial freedom is a worthy target, and the quicker you get started down the path, the better your life will be.

STEP 1. – Taking Stock of Who You Are and Where you Stand
STEP 2. – Computing Your Net Worth
STEP 3. – Prepare Your Cashflow Statement
STEP 4. – Identify Your Financial Needs
STEP 5. – Determine Your Personal Risk Tolerance
STEP 6. – Put Your Investment Programmers Into Action
STEP 7. – Protect Your Investment Programmers
STEP 8. – Writing a Will
STEP 9. – Ordering Your Affairs
STEP 10. – Monitor and Review Your Investment Programmers Regularly

More detail of each step in next post if I have time :) ...

Understanding Hedge Funds by Scott Frush

This book provides a brief history of hedge funds. It also describes the differences between mutual funds and hedge funds from the point of view from novice investor. The books talks about the different hedge-funds styles and the tools fund managers use to identify and take advantage of profitable opportunities. It covers the legal and regulatory challenges posed by hedge funds and how best to monitor them and their managers. The final part of the book touches on the characteristics of hedge funds and their future. A worthy and educational read book.

US baby boomers want jobs satisfaction

Nearly 6 in 10 of US baby boomers (those born between 1946, and 1964) who intend to work after retirement say that they want a job that gives them a greater sense of purpose, according to a 2005 MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures New Face of Work Survey. Randall Hansen, a career advice writer for the website Quintessential Careers, comments that although baby boomers were the first generation to have a lot more career freedom, they fell into a job that they kind of hated of didn’t get as much satisfaction from. However, they stayed anyway because of commitments such as mortgages and their kinds’ college tuition expenses. However, they now see a prolonged career as a way to explore new interests or test untried talents.

Source: cnn.com

Chinese Marriages Cost More than US$16,000

In case you’re not aware, the key characteristic of Chinese people is “Face”. The Chinese people’s “Face” is the most important thing in their life than anything else. Whatever before they do something, the first thing to be considered is the “Face”. For those of you who are non-Chinese, you probably do not understand what the “face” exactly means. To simplify the explanation, “Face” basically means to show the very good side of you. For example, to show how wealth you’re even you’re not. Let’s read the following news and you understand why.

The average Chinese marriage costs 125,081 yuan (US$16,154), according to a survey on the development of the Chinese wedding industry. The survey by the Organizing Committee of the China Wedding Expo covered 60,000 newlywed couples, all of whom were married last year. The 125,081 excluded house and car purchases. Shanghai people tend to spend more on residential renovations, whereas Beijing people spend more on wedding photos, the feast and the honeymoon. Statistics showed that 86% of the couples earn less than 8,000 yuan (US$1,033) every month. Parents usually pay their children’s weddings.

Source: Beijing Morning Post

Assessing Your Insurance Needs

The question for most investors is “how much insurance is enough to cover all my needs?”. You need to prepare a lit of potential loses if something were to happen. At that point, you need to estimate a value that you believe will accommodate the lost. The estimate will provide you the basic for deciding on the type of policies and amount limits you need. The following table shows a sample listing.

Description of Potential Loss	If Loss Occurs, What Else Will Be Affected?	Estimated Value of Total Loss
My Death	Lost Wages, Mortgage Payments, Children’s Education, Car Payments, Retirement of Spouse, Medical Bills, Funeral Expenses Probate Expenses, etc.	$1,000,000
Accident that disables me	Lost Wages, Medical Bills, Children’s Education, Mortgage Payments, Lifestyle adjustments, etc.	$100,000 Year 1, 2 $254,000 Year 3 $100,000 Year 4 to 10 $22,000 Year 11 to Age 65
Home burns down	Loss of Personal Belongings, Loss of Artwork, jewellery, and other Valuables, Medical bills, etc.	$350,000
My spouse needs surgery	Medical Expenses, etc.	$200,000
My children need braces	Dental Bills, etc	$5,000
Driving my car, I collide	Car Loss, Medical, etc.	$60,000

For most people, death, accidents, disability, etc. are not pleasant subjects to discuss or even think about. For many, just discussing these issue is bad luck. However, any one of these occurrences could wipe out your family’s fortune. Once you have your list, you can plan for the future. If you want to ensure financial security for you and your family in the event of something bad happening, you have to plan and prepare for the unexpected.

How do you choose a job?

Choosing your first job is most important. This is because if the first job is well chosen, you will be able to adapt well to the organisation’s environment and make early contributions on the job. Needless to say, that will give you a very positive idea of the work world. But if you make a poor first choice, that will put you off and you will tend to lose confidence in what is out there.

To help you to make your first job chose wisely, here are some points for you to consider. What is the most important thing that I want in my first job? It is the opportunity to learn? Is it good starting pay that I am after? Is it some convenience that I am after in this job? Should I join a big company that has a great reputation? Should I listen to my persuasive father who knows best? Job seekers’ motivations vary and sometimes job seekers themselves are not sure what it is that they are after, except that they need a job

Consequently, they apply to any job that they see. Giving sufficient thought to choosing your first job is therefore very important because a wise choice can save you a lot of unnecessary frustration ad put you on the right career path early.

It is best to choose your first job based on a match between your training and the job tasks. Look carefully at the job advertisements and see what the responsibilities are before you apply. What is important also is to consider how much you want to build a career based on your tertiary training. There is nothing radically wrong if you pursue something outside your training, especially if your training is general. Ideally, the job should be one that pays you a reasonable salary and has great learning opportunities. Such great learning opportunities are evidenced by the investment that the company has put in its people through training and technology enhancement.

In choosing a job, you should consider 2 points the fit in the work itself and the fit in the organisation’s culture. It is easier to fit yourself into a job because the job content has a specification and you can learn what it requires to perform fairly quickly but it is a whole lot more difficult to fit yourself into the organisation’s culture because that is the part that is seldom clear and you have to be in the organisation to experience it.

Think Long Term in Your Career

One of the most common mistake most of us made is we never think of long term in our career. What do you want to do in 10 years from now? The basic question yet many people has never asked themselves and some even afraid to ask. Some are pretending do not hear it from their own inner voice. This is very Funny. Human sometimes scare to face the facts.

Many job seekers do not think long term and only think of the immediate job. They feel that if they start their first job in a particular profession, they will have to stay within that field forever even though they may work in different companies. This is what we all called, “Comfort Zone”. Thus, if they start as a trainee programmer, they think they will always stay within the IT profession and that may restrict their personal growth. This is not necessarily true unless they wish to do so by choice.

What Services Are Currently Outsourced in Asia?

If you are an employee, you need to know this especially if you’re from Asia. These are the current trend of outsourcing in Asia. So, you may wonder why I need to know this. Based on the data below, if you work in the IT field, there is 54% your company will outsource your whole IT department (unless your company is the outsourced company by itself). In other words which means you have 54% chances being layoff. You may be facing the most critical financial crisis in your whole life if you’re in this field. You need to feed your kid, your car, your house, your insurance and a lot more. So if you know this is probably going to happen, you can better plan for your defense strategy.

Let’s look at the data below:

1. IT Solutions – 54%
2. Accounting, debt collection, and/or tax processing – 35%
3. Data collection and/or report writing – 26%
4. Human resources management, including healthcare and benefit processing – 22%
5. Supply-chain management – 19%
6. Customer servicing, including after-sales service – 14%
7. Research & Development – 14%
8. Risk Management – 10%
9. Sales and/or marketing – 9%
10. Strategic planning – 5%

Source: KPGM International/Economist Intelligence Unit Survey – September 2006

Fastest Way to Get Rich by SwissCash

You may have heard of swisscash especially if you’re from Singapore or Malaysia which is currently very hot in these 2 countries and perhaps other countries as well. Yes, I’m talking about the website www.swisscash.net which claims at least 300% (basic investment scheme) return in 15 months. Dear swisshcash investors who really trust this scam website, please wake up! Think of it if the company can make 300% return in 15 months, why they still need you? Wait, they surely make more than 300% because the 300% is what they give you. Wow, this is amazing. Dear swisscash investors who understand the website is the scam, you’re in better shape. You at least know what you are investing for. You just need to make sure that you’re in top 20% of the game, you will the game. See my previous post regarding to the Pyramid Scheme.

They are many ways to get rich and I don’t deny investing in swisscash is one of the ways. Indeed, it is the fastest way that you can find in this world. However, in my personal opinion, the fastest way to get rich is to think of a business idea or invent something that people can benefit from. Perhaps I should say the founder of www.swisscash.net has done a very good job. Good job, Man! Be someone like him and I guarantee the fastest way to get rich. I tell you, this is not easy. How you do it illegally legal? You need skills, therefore there is no short-cut in this world but a lot of things SEEM to be short-cut but it is not. Nothing in life comes easy but if you really want become rich it will come to you as long as you don't give up. Be consistent and patient also one of keys to succeed.

Finally, if you get rich through success, then it will last, if get rich fast without success then it will be short lived with debt. But who knows? I would be wrong.

Should I go for MBA?

In my opinion, they are pros and cons whether you go for MBA or not. This is purely up to you and your environment. If taking MBA benefits you in your environment, you can go for it. However I just want to mention one KEY IMPORTANT point here while some people may disagree with me. If you want to have your OWN business, don’t go for MBA. You can forget about the MBA. MBA won’t help you much on this. However, if you want to work for someone else (i.e. being employed), you can consider taking the MBA and read the following article for the benefits of taking MBA.

MBA’s are for most people, about upward mobility. Some MBA graduates remain with their present employer, while others see the qualification a passport to move between companies, business functions and industries. Studies have repeatedly found that overwhelming majority of MBA graduated considered the development of board managerial skills, as opposed to specific technical ones, to be the main benefit of the qualification.

Before deciding to go for an MBA, one of the things everyone, especially smart investors, should consider is the degree’s possible return on investment. Various MBA alumni or graduate surveys answer this question and some of them reveal remarkable insights on the benefits of an MBA degree.

According to some survey, nearly 3 quarters of former MBA students were promoted while enrolled in their MBA program or after graduation. All survey respondents reported that they were promoted within five years after graduation. Furthermore, around 20% report on average annual salary increase of more than 50%. The average salary increase is between 16%-24%.

Other surveys showed that, in the United States, MBA graduates made around US$61,000 before earning the MBA degree and received a post-MBA salary of slightly more than US$86,000. That is a 41% increase. By comparison, the average annual salary increase at the executive and professional level in the United States, based on research by The Hay Group, is 3.7% (The Hay Group 2004).

Source: Smart Investor