How Money Changes Our Life?

Since I achieved my FREEDOM two years ago, my life has never been so easy before.  Ya, I am still working full-time with an aim to continue to have contribution to my country rather than for money to meet my daily obligations or sit at home and do nothing.  Meanwhile, I also able to allocate more time for my family, my hobbies and my favorate works during my free time.  One of my hobbies is reading and it has been years for me on no reading books about financial planning as I already have one (which was designed by myself) and achieved it.  When I browsed through MPH online bookstore last month and came to know a book by Azizi Ali which is entitled "Money Changes Everything - Get Rich, Live Rich, Die Rich".  I recall the first book that encouraged me to kick-off my route to Financial Freedom was Azizi's "Millionaires are from Different Planet".  Of course, the journey was not easy but I faithfully achieved it finally and I share all my experience in my book, "FREEDOM".  Without second thought, I ordered a copy of "Money Changes Everything" to observe if there is anything else I could further enhance from what I have been doing.

It is indeed an very interesting book and Azizi gives his recommendations in his own way with supporting facts.  After finishing this book, I confirm that I have done the following:

1. Pay myself 10% of my monthly income to allow me to have more buffer or to invest whenever the time is right
2. Have at least 12-month worth of fund as emergency buffer in order to make myself ready for any life unexpectency
3. Have sufficient insurance coverage for my wife and myself to ensure our kids are taken care of financially for any life unexpectency
4. Don't buy those highly charged unit trust which will lower down my return
5. Read books and attend workshops or seminars on money matters to refresh and enhance what I know while to learn what I yet to know
6. Have multiple sources of income.  To me, beside full-time salary, I have income from book royalty (I am the author of three books), dividends (from stocks, REITs and no-loading unit trust investment), interest return (trust accounts, savings accounts and fixed deposit accounts) as well as business income from my online coaching course
7. Invest in shares.  I have my stock investment system and it has been generating impressive return for me.  I am sharing this in my Invest Bursa Course
8. Invest in gold for better risk diversification and potential capital gain
9. I am debt free and the feeling is really...really great
10. Have time to get along with my family and do what I love to do
11. Take a good care of my health.  Recently, I achieve my BMI within healthy range with diet control and having more exercise.  My current BMI is 22 (which was used to be at 24).  I jog at least two times a week with minimum 30 minutes each time.  This is to ensure my heart and muscle are working fine.  Having a balance diet by eating healthy foods but still enjoy those "not-so-healthy" food once a while (To me, life is short.  It is just too hard to myself if I restrict myself too much)
12. Drink lots of water
13. Having annual medical checkup
14. Never engage financial advisor.  I learn, I do and I learn again from mistakes to fine tune my skills and plans
15. Avoid big loss on investment.  I have my system to do so and is sharing in my Invest Bursa Course
16. Having will to minimize the hazzle to my family

However, there are some points that I do not totally agree with and they are:

1. Buy term insurance only.  As a matter of fact, when I come to term insurance, its premium is slightly higher than investment-linked policy in terms of cost to protection.  Same as Azizi, I do not expect to get back anything at the end of the policy term but expect to get the maximum protection with less premium paid.  I treat buying insurance as an expense but not an investment.  My advise to everyone is to look around and compare the pros and cons of each insurance policy as well as corresponding premium charged before jumping into conclusion
2. Invest with substantial amount of money into good investment to ensure impressive monetary return.  Well, I think this is very much subject to an individual's condition.  I believe the risk on investing substantial amount at once is too risky as nobody will know where will the market go.  I do have my very own stock investment allocation strategy and I will share this with my Invest Bursa Platinum Members
3. Invest in real estate to earn big.  I am not a fan of real estate investment.  Part of the reason is that I hate debt.  Especially when real estate investors like to use debt as a leverage on having multiple properties.  To me, life and investment are full of uncertainties.  Too much exposure on debt might result in difficulties in life should the investment turn south.  Therefore, I invest in REITs instead in order to have impressive dividend gain and I very much satisfy with it.  What I agree with Azizi is that we have to know how to let go some opportunities.  Since real estate investment is not my cup of tea, I decide to let go and concentrate on other investment that I specialize in

I am a normal like everyone of you.  If I can do it, so can you.  Learn, do and fine tune, you will be able to get there.  See you at the finishing line :)