My Route to Financial Freedom

One of my university majors was Finance. The reason for me on choosing this was that I like to explore all the possibilities and probabilities. I like figures and get around with them but I hate Accounts. I don't mean Accounting figures are meaningless but, to me, the process of doing this is rather boring. One good thing on Finance is that I could justify the figures by adding in assumptions with is not allowed in Accounts. In short, Finance allows me to carry out some assumptions to justify my analysis.

2019 Happy New Year: 2018 Financial Review

Happy New Year in 2019!

It has been another year. Recall from what I did for the past one year, after recalling my resignation at the request of the company's directors, the company is yet to honor what they promised a year ago. So, while the same old problem is still not solved, the workload has doubled or tripled. My body has been giving me some hints. Without proper adjustment, I am afraid that the consequences will be unimaginable. It’s too late to regret by then. Before I have made a big mistake, I must take a good look at what I should do from now on. For me, health is the greatest asset. No matter how much money I have, I just can't buy my lost health. Another thing is that since I am yet to attain the age of  50, I have lots of grey hair. This has shown how much pressure from my work.

一年又这样的过了：我的2018年财务回顾

2019年，新年快乐！

兜兜转转又一年了。回想一年前，在收回辞呈后，一年就这样过了。老实说，老问题还是没解决的同时，工作量却倍增。一向注重健康的我，身体已给我一些预警。再不好好的调适，唯恐后果不堪设想。到时后悔也来不及。在还没促成大错前，我务必要好好思考下来的路该怎么走。对我而言，健康是最大的财富。不管我多有钱，都买不回失去的健康。还有一个让我无法释怀的是，我还没50，已是满头灰发。由此可见，我的工作压力有多大。

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.

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。

Myth of Credit Card Cash Rebate

I have been holding cash rebate credit card since 2008.  If you follow my blog closely, you should understand that I treat credit card as cash and cash rebate as a discount.  I believe it is essential for us to do so especially in the regime of high living cost we are experiencing now.

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.

Beware of Money Traps

Do you face scenario like this.  You have your financial targets but have no idea on how to achieve them.  Therefore, you try to seek for clues to get "high" return.  Unfortunately, if you are unsure what you are doing, the chance of falling into traps are high.  Hence, when come to investment, you have to beware of traps around you.

How To Earn 12-Month Fixed Deposit Rate Every Month?

You may have your idle fund and earns almost nothing in your savings account.  You also know that inflation will eat up your purchasing power if you continue to put your hard-earned money in savings account.  Furthermore, you know that fixed deposit is giving more attractive return than savings account but still unwilling to lock it with longer maturity period in order to meet any emergency requirement.  What could you do then?

Do You Need Help?

The keyword of this blog is "DIY".  Yes, years of experience is telling me that the only person I could trust when come to money management and investment is myself.  My logic is very simple: No one in this world knows me better than myself.  This is my philosophy and what I have been emphasizing in my books and stock investment course.

Money Management

Is one million dollar enough for you?  Well, for some, one million dollar is too small while, for others, it is a day-dream amount.  The sufficiency of this one million dollar is subject to the money management skill of each individual.  There are people who earn millions, or even billions, a year but still claiming "money not enough".  Only money management can provide the answer.  In fact, money management should be considered more like a skill on how to spend money than how to earn.

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?

Money Management: Is Branded Equals To Extravagant?

Four years ago, I bought a vacuum cleaner from an electrical shop. To be frugal, I requested the lady boss to recommend more economical model. She suggested to a XXX brand which I never heard before and she claimed that many of her customers have been using that model without problem. Therefore, I bought one.

Within half a year, the cleaner totally broke down after using it for 2 times only. Since it is within warranty period, I send it back to the electrical shop for repair. They took 4 month to get the cleaner fixed but it broke down again 3 months later after it was repaired. Since the warranty period has over, I went to another electrical shop to buy another “branded” one. It is still totally functioning now after 3 years of purchase.

Money Management: Emergency Buffer

Life is full of uncertainty. Therefore, your life might be miserable without emergency buffer. For example, how long can you sustain your current lifestyle without a job?

Under normal circumstances, we should keep at least 6-month worth of living expenses as our buffer. If your monthly expenses are $2,000, you should have at least $12,000 as a buffer in you savings account.

If you do not have one, start now. Do not invest until the buffer is well accumulated.

Be prepared.

Money Management: Is rich equivalent to lots of money?

Is a high income earner a rich man? Is a person who is driving a big car and staying in a big house a rich man? Is blue collar’s life hard as they are earning less?

Not necessary.

If you spend every single cent you earned and involve in huge credit card outstanding, the financial condition of this white collar is actually worse than those blue collars with savings.

Take an example. Say a white collar earns $10,000 a month. He will not have any savings if his monthly spending is at $10,500. He has no savings but need to spare another $500. On the other hand, a blue collar with $1,000 monthly salary, he will be richer than the white collar if his monthly spending is at $800. The blue collar will be able to save $200 every month while the white collar has to work hard to pay off his debt.

The bottom line is, high income does not mean rich. The true meaning of rich is how much you can save but not how much you earn.

Shall we plan ourselves to become “rich” man?

Money Management: Smart Kids

One day, my eldest son asked me out for fast food. I agreed to bring them on the coming weekend. My son further then asked, “Daddy, who will pay?”

What a smart kid. He will rather opt to drop the meal if I ask him to pay.

Be a good parent, we should always convey the right message on value of money. Most of the things can be bought by spending money but some cannot. For example, a family gathering is invaluable in monetary value but money is only a bridge for us to opt for a good place to achieve this purpose.