Book Review: 20/20 Money by Hanson

This is a book that I think every investor should read through first before any investment. It provides inside views of various market pitfalls that lead to poor decision making.

He highlights that human memories are wired for the short term and is very easily affected by emotion and some other external factors. Therefore, he suggests us do not trust our memory but only believe what you actually see with support of facts. As markets are full of “noise”, you will be very easily misled and make wrong decision.

Insurance: Whole-Life Policy or Investment-Linked Policy (Part 1)

I believe many people are confusing in the sense that they have no idea on how to choose among different insurance policies.  Should it be terms policy, whole-life policy or investment-linked policy?

In my previous posting, I explained that term is suggested based on its feature of affordable premium with great protection.  Right now, for the first part of this title, I would like to share with you about the differences between whole-life and investment-linked policy.

Insurance: Protection or Investment?

Insurance should be treated as a protection rather than an investment tool. Insurance provides instant cash to the dependants of the insured, to help minimize the impact of unforeseen circumstances. Therefore, insurance is very important in terms of protection as long as it is not overused.

Book Fair

My wife and I visited Popular Mega Bookfair Expo in JB yesterday. May be it is school holiday, the center was quite crowded even though it was just a normal working day.

To exercise the spirit of continual learning, we bought quite a number of books that have cost us a few hundred dollars. By the end of the day, we felt very happy about what we got although we were all very tired.

No Excuse

People like to stay within their comfort zone and that is why many people only can do the same thing again and again, year by year, without any improvement.

I always request my staffs to learn proactively in order to equip themselves to meet future challenge. However, most of the time, the reply I received were negative. They just gave as many excuses as they could just to escape from learning new things or exposure of new area of work. At the end of the day, I still have to settle most of the problems by myself. I am now still continued to couch them to have positive thinking and I hope the changes will come in one day.

Investment: Do Your Very Own Investment Plan

Do you have any investment plan before you carry out any investment? Do you have a target what are you going to achieve with this investment plan? Well, if you do not have one, do it now, by yourself.

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.