你拥有你要的人生吗？Are You Having the Life You Want?

栽自新洲日报活力副刊2017年11月29日第A10页

人活着的意义是什么？难道就只是天天为了生活而忙忙碌碌？可悲的是这真的是大部分人的生活写照。

The Real Meaning of Early Retirement / Freedom

When talk about early retirement, I come across many books and internet articles on how to achieve this financially.  As a matter of fact, finance is only part of the equation.

Here, I would like to share what is the real meaning of early retirement (at least to me):

1: Am I wanting to have early retirement and why?

A: YES, YES, YES.  I have been planning for this for years and I finally achieved this at the age of 40 financially.  Why?  This is because I would like to have more time to do what I like to do which I can't do so when my time is sold for living.  When I was an full-time employee, at least 8 hours of my day are sold.  Therefore, beside full-time job, I did not have sufficient time for myself as I would be occupied by other tasks in my life (sending/picking up kids to/from schools and/or tuition classes, settling bills and other family matters etc) while I still need at least 6-hour resting time every night.  My life was busy but created no value as I could not enjoy it at all.  Routine tasks had been making me felt so dull.  I could only enjoy my life if I become the master of my time.  That is the motive of me for early retirement.

Miracle of Stable Investment Return

A number of my readers and students are asking for stock investment tip.  Why they do so?  Simply because they are expecting to earn big within short period of time without doing much work.  Accept the fact that there is no free lunch in this work.  What you get is totally depending on what you have input.  You give peanuts, you'll get monkeys.

When we were kids, our parents might keep telling us that we should study hard IN ORDER TO HAVE BETTER LIFE IN THE FUTURE.  In other words, we have been taught on input and output.  The same is applicable to stock investment and there is no shortcut.

你50岁还要烦钱吗？Are you still struggling for money at the age of 50?

栽自新洲日报投资致富2017年11月6日第27页

看了这个报章标题，有些感触。就在几天前，我去了间银行去存放定存。因为我要得到更好的利率，我便向大厅的一位Officer询问。谈好后，该名Officer没让我拿号码排队，而是直接将我的资料及批准的利率交到收银员那儿处理。看来这位Officer的来头不小。在等待定存收据时，我便和她聊了起来。当她问我在哪儿高就时，我说我是自由工作者（Freelancer)。（其实我目前我还是全职工作者。那为什么我会说我是自由工作者呢？那是因为在不久的将来，我将会是我自己的主人。现在是时候让自己习惯这样说了，好让心里有个准备。）那位Officer好不羡慕。她说她也希望能像我一样。后来我才知道那位Officer是原来是该银行分行的经理。

该如何分配：退休基金？孩子教育费？医药费？

栽自2017年10月9日新洲日报-投资致富第32页

很多财务规划师都一而再，再而三的劝大家尽早为孩子的教育费规划。但在很多情况下，人算不如天算。就拿我本身为例。在25年前，我父母因我们三兄弟都想前往澳洲攻读大学课程。老爸老妈没多说一句，拼了命让三个孩子拥有了澳洲大学的学士文凭。至到今日，我们还是对他们为我们的付出感激不尽。

How Much Do You Need???

One day, while chatting with a friend after lunch, he shared with me on how he was dissatisfied with the current corporate management. He is about my age. So I suggested him to quit his job. Yet, he replied, "I am not like you.  I will do so soon after I pay off my housing loan." When I further asked him if he knew how much he needed to be "himself", he suddenly speechless.

真的需要那么多吗？

2017年9月25日，我在一家报章的财经版的专栏里看到一个询问。询问者今年40岁。想在60岁退休并得到财务自由。这位询问者说他们一家四口（两夫妇和两个10岁以下的小孩）月花费为RM6,570。该财务师用5%的通膨率及4%的投资回酬率来加以计算，得到的结果是该询问者需在60岁前拥有近RM590万来应付每年RM21万的生活费。这每年RM21万的生活费并不难计算。只要将现在每月RM6,570的生活费乘以12再以复利5%持续20年既可得到。可为何需要RM590万的退休金才能支撑呢？在计算上，道理很简单。以RM590万的退休金乘以4%的年回酬率就可得到。该询问者目前只拥有不到RM50万的投资加现金。也就是说他必须在20年里多存RM540万。是的，该顾问的确是说需要多RM540万，也就是半个RM1,000万（不是RM100万）。对许多人而言，若半个RM1,000万那么好存，那全世界将没有穷人。

你“要”的是什么?

一天中午，我和一位好友同事用餐时，聊起下属管理的话题。原因是他有一位经理下属，非常自我到目中无人的地步。她以自我为中心的态度已让许多人不敢恭维，甚至连公司高层都睁一只眼闭一只眼。无可否认的是我们的高层无视员工的心理而让事件自然平息。其实他们没看到的是平息的背后是在累积着大量的不平衡。不好好地处理这不平衡将会带来不可预知的后果。钻不出牛角尖的就会耿耿于怀，又或是与之为敌。恶性循环将持续下去直到崩坏。

人生目标

很多人在很多时候会自然的把不如意无限量的放大，把自己当成琼瑶小说里的主角，有着别人无法理解的坎坷命运。认为他人都不了解自己因而遇到的种种的阻碍及挫折。怨天尤人，埋怨为何上天对他那么不公平，因而到处找人发泄。被盯上的倒霉者就成为他的垃圾筒任他倾倒。这样一方得到了释放而另一方则装下了满满的垃圾因而制造了下一个的“不平衡”者。我本身就有着类型的朋友。说实话，我并不是很喜欢和这类型的人有频繁的接触。但在很多情况下，当事人并不晓得他所做的对另一方带来的负面影响。

退休生活试验

2017年丁酉鸡年，我拿了十天的长假。目的主要是要借这时机与家人朋友好好聚聚，二来是要借这十天长假来试验一下退休生活的感受。在此来分享一下我的感想。

在这一个多礼拜来，说真的，除了吃吃喝喝之外，我的生活还挺充实的。第一，除了年初一外，我每天都做一个小时的晨运。我每天早上六点左右便起身梳洗。在6:30am出门运动前会喝一杯温开水。为了更有效的消耗新年期间吃喝的热量，我的跑步圈数从之前的15圈增加到20圈。一圈约为250米。换句话说，每一天我都跑了5公里，这还没加入快走热身。结果是我的跑鞋都快“瓜”了但我的感觉良好。每次跑步时都会从开始的慢跑逐步加快。我这样做的目的是要训练自己的耐力和保持我的肺活量。汗流浃背和气喘如牛后是一身的轻松。下来便是做拉筋运动好让我全身的筋骨灵活。之后再慢慢的走回家，在让身体从高运动量后开始休息并沿途欣赏住家四周的一花一草。回到家后，正好来个热水澡。不亦乐乎。

现在该投资什么？

我上周见到了一位好朋友，并进行了很好的交谈。其中，他与我分享他在任何种类的投资都是非常保守。他非常不愿意踏出他的投资第一步因为他很害怕损失。事实上，他已婚但没有孩子。他也有良好的收入，也没有多少债务。

我告诉他，与其他同龄的大多数人相比，他的财务状况已是很好。他的主要缺点是他从来没有渴望学会如何投资。他同意我的看法。他一直认为投资是一个非常复杂的学科但我不同意。我进一步告诉他，他害怕投资是因为他缺乏相关的知识。要克服这一点，唯一方法就是打开他的心结去学习。他可以从书中学习，参加研讨会以及和志同道合的人一起研究。如果他愿意学习和参与，他将能够看清他的投资。

Where to Invest Now?

I met up a good friend last week and had a nice conversation.  During the chat, he shared with me that he had been a very conservative in any kind of investment.  He was very reluctant to move his first step to investment simply because he was very scared of losing.  As a matter of fact, he is married with no children.  He is also a decent income earner without much debt holding.  

Therefore, I told him that he is at a better financial position as compared with the other majorities with the same age. The major shortcoming of him was that he never has a desire to learn how to invest and he agreed with me.  He kept thinking that investment is a very complicated subject to learn and I did not agree with him.  I further enlighten him that he was afraid of investment simply because he did not have much knowledge about it.  The only way to overcome this is to open his mind and learn.  He can learn from books, attending workshops and seminars, and get around with people with same interest.  If he is willing to learn and get involve, he will be able to see the investment he had learnt clearer than anyone who did not do so.

Investor vs Speculator, Which One are You?

I participated a cross country run held at my daughter's primary school on 14-Jan-2017.  It was very crowded.  Of course, I met a number of old friends there.  One of my friends, who is also a reader of my book, asked me on whether I am writing a new book.  I told him that, instead of writing, I teach so that I could guide my students proactively according to my investment philosophy instead of letting them to guess based on their perception on I wrote in my books solely.

Advice from Personal Financial Adviser?

Few days ago, I went to a foreign bank to have a fixed deposit placement as they were offering an attractive risk-free rate as compared with other banks in Malaysia then.

When I requested for a queuing number, the bank staff gave me a number to see a Personal Financial Adviser.  I wondered why and would like to see what is the catch.

心得分享：孙子股市兵法（冷眼 著）

每一次读冷眼的书，就像长辈苦口婆心的劝告我们什么该做，什么不该做。不久前，冷眼出了他的第四本书《孙子股市兵法》。书的内容就是以孙子兵法的角度去剖析股票投资该有的正确态度。

全书共336页。内容贯彻的是冷眼的投资心得。借此机会，我来与冷眼的一些股票投资概念来做个比较。

一、冷眼鼓励投资者除了多读公司的年报、研究报告以及报章的资料外，最好养成每天读完上市公司文告的习惯。若你是股东的公司的文告，必须细读。你有意参股的公司的文告，只需略读。至于你无意参股的公司，只需游览其文告，以找出是否有新的发展既可。