The Choice is Yours

I would like to share a story I have heard recently.

There were two men who wanted to learn from the famous Zen Master in Japan who was known to be able to answer any question.  As they were approaching where Zen Master was, they had yet to prepare the question to ask.  Out of the sudden, a man saw a low flying bird.  He jumped up and caught the bird.  When they were seeing the famous Zen Master, the man who caught the bird questioned the Zen Master to tell them whether the bird in his was dead or alive.  The Zen Master stood up and bowed to the two gentlemen and said, "If I would tell you that the bird in your hand is dead, you'll let it go and claim that I am wrong.  However, if I would tell you that the bird in your hand is alive, you'll squeeze it until it is dead and I would be wrong again.  Therefore, the choice is in your hand."

eDividend

I believe eDividend, which was proposed in 2010 Budget, is the most effective service to be provided to share investors.

For years, I have been worrying about loss of dividend cheque as a result of loss in mail as they are all sent by normal mail.  Even though loss in mail is an uncontrollable factor to us, we have to realize that we will be penalized for the loss.  We need to inform respective share registrar and pay a penalty of RM5 for cheque replacement even though it is not our fault.  Thanks for eDividend, all dividend payment will be credited directly into our designated bank accounts.  According to Bursa, the bank-in date will be the same as dividend payment date and we are safe on the risk of loss in mail, penalty and save petrol on going to the bank for cheque deposit.

The registration is now on and is FOC until 18th April 2011.  There might be charges for registration after 18th April 2011.  So, prepare a copy of your IC and a copy of your bank statement (for current account) or savings passbook and visit your brokerage company to fill up an application form.  That is all.  All your dividend will be banked into your account for payment after 1st September 2010.

Happy investing.

Are You a Victor or a Victim?

I believe this is human nature. We blame whenever things are not going along the way we are expecting. Worst still, we sometimes tend to justify what happened.

For me, blaming and justifying are actions of giving excuses. In my previous post, I explained that excuses are providing “protection” on us not to learn from problems or mistakes. In other words, excuses are preventing us to seek for continual improvement. Under this scenario, people tend to claim themselves as victims. The bottom line, they are stepping backwards but not ahead. All they have “learned” are complaining.

Four Factors that Affecting Your Route to Financial Freedom

In my previous post, “What does Financial Freedom mean to you?”, I have highlighted there are 4 factors need to be carefully considered when generating financial plan with clear vision. These 4 factors are:

Available resources: We need to know where we are now. This information can be obtained from our personal balance sheet. In balance sheet, we can clearly see what assets and liabilities we are holding as well as our net worth. Also, we need to look into our personal cash flow statement to understand our fund movement as well as cash availability. In other words, we are getting information about our financial strengths and weaknesses. Of course, what we need to do at this step is to enhance our strengths and overcome weaknesses with clear goal in mind.

What does Financial Freedom Mean to You?

Ask yourself this question. What is the definition of Financial Freedom to you? Having millions of dollars? Having your dream cars or houses? I bet the list will go on. Now, calm down and think again. What does Financial Freedom really mean to you?

I would like to share my definition of Financial Freedom. For me, it means to have adequate financial resources to fund my requirement on good life. From here, I can conclude that the required financial resources are varied from individual to individual as each of us have different requirement on good life. Have you noted that there are two elements to achieve Financial Freedom? They are “good life requirement” and “financial resources”.

Savings Plan, anyone?

Quite often, I hear from my friends that they have bought savings plan for retirement and/or children education. When I inquired the reason for them to do so, the reply were either have no idea on investment or the insurance company will take care of them when anything happen. For a financial knowledge sound individual, these myths are disaster.

Are we all millionaires?

Have you ever realized that what is the amount of money that passes your hand in your life?

We received our petty cash from our parents during our school time. We worked part-time during holidays when we were in high school and university. We are now working full time and/or part time to earn for living. Do some calculation and you will realize that you have earned more than a million dollars by the age of 55. This figure is even before consideration of any increment of your income.

Option

Since the day we born, we have to make decision. When cause and effect come into the picture, each decision we opt for will lead us to different result output. When we were students, for example, we have options on either studying hard or playing hard. If we studied hard, the outcome would be outstanding exam score with praise while we lost our playing time and vice-versa. In other words, each option will come with sacrifice in order to allow us to move ahead towards expected result.

Ways to Become Richer

I always am informed by my friends who keep complaining about money not enough. They are living in a life of paycheck to paycheck. Their happiest day of the month is the pay day and their face turn sour two weeks later. They blame employer, company policy, inflation, taxation etc in order to express their dissatisfaction.

Debt – a Tool or a Woe

Nowadays, we keep receiving message from public media that encouraging us to buy things on credit or do credit card balance transfer. In other words, these activities have more or less stimulate consumers to buy anything they want (but not essential need) by raising consumer debt. In this case, are we using debt (credit) as tool to get something that we don’t really need?