A quick one - Australia is proposing a once off flood levy tax of 0.5% for those earning over $50,000 and 1.0% for those earning over $100,000.
While deeply unpopular, it's an extremely elegant tax because it does two things.
1. Funds the flood relief without impacting other government spending. It's also tapping the public for funds like an 'insurance' policy, which is questionable...
The elegant bit:
2. Artificially depresses private consumption for a year. The elegance is that the pressure from the incredible increase in demand for resources to rebuild will put inflationary pressure on prices, but depressing private consumption will also have a miniature deflationary effect. Elegant.
The rub here is that the Reserve Bank of Australia will be less likely to be forced into a corner on having to increase interest rates to a level that puts pressures on people with home loans and debts.
The nice part is that by reducing pressure on debts and home loans is that the rest of the economy not tied up in the recovery isn't punished and you have a lesser likelihood of a two speed economy.
What this shows though is how awkward monetary policy is in modern times, it creates a 'rob Peter to pay Paul' lever that doesn't always work.
While I like the idea of the tax and I think they are a great idea, the selfish side of Richard says 'bah humbug' to all taxes. That said, we've done a great (or poor, depending) job of increasing disposable income. in 1990 you were effectively taxed 47% on every dollar over $50,000. Today it's 45% on every dollar over $180,000...!
If I use my back of the napkin inflation of 3.5% a year, $50,000 in 1990 is 'only' about $103,000 in 2011.
The internet just doesn't turn off... everything you write, do, take pictures of, or tag becomes a permanent imprint, even if you don't want it to.
I haven't written here in over two years, but that doesn't stop both my LinkedIn page and my personal blog rising to the top of the google searches for 'Richard Yong.'
It's a double edged sword being the most popular Richard Yong in the world (feel free to email me if you think this should be your title).
The upside is that this is my personal brand. I should make the most of it.
The downside is not making the most of it! I've given up a great opportunity for capturing my learnings form the last two years. What a waste!
I've done a lot of thinking and doing in the last two years, including failures like failing to make never working again a reality, successes like finding a passion and being valued for my work, failures like being unable to keep my discipline for fitness, but also successes like building a great panel of advisers who help me with things I'm not so good at.
Highlights in the last two years include:
Over time I'm going to share the learnings I've had and how both trying different things and a spot of luck have helped me have the best last couple of years yet. I still have steep hills to climb, and miles to go before I sleep.
I'll finish with one book I've loved the title of, 'What got you here, won't get you there,' I think it's a great thought. Just because you succeed today doesn't mean you'll succeed tomorrow with the same set of skills, so if you continue learning and changing you will always adapt to new challenges.
It's written by Marshall Goldsmith
Managers in shoulder padded jackets from the 90's were wrong when they said that multitasking would save us from the overload of work and stress.
In our distraction addled worlds, our brains have learned to cope with the myriad of distractions by compensating and multitasking. We compensate by juggling our phones while ordering a coffee, emailing while on the phone, texting while watching television, there are even people playing the flute while driving!
But did we lose the most important part of living by giving in to our need to squeeze every moment out? Did we forget the importance of focus and actually live in our lives?
I want to propose for a moment, the idea of monotasking.
Every single thing you do, you do without thought, or distraction from. Boring, interesting, it doesn't matter.
In popular psychology, monotasking is called being present. That's a great word, a lot of the time i find myself considering the past, thinking about the future, and the last thing i'm considering is where I am and what I'm doing, it's like im living inside my head.
One of the best exercises for coming back to the present, and focusing on what you're doing is to do just just that, come back to the present and realise what your five senses are telling you, pay attention to what you are smelling, hearing, seeing, tasting, feeling. The world becomes a deeper and richer place the moment you do, even if you're just walking down the street.
Start mono tasking today. You'll be glad you did.
Normal distribution. 68.27%. It's a fascinating number. Number of hours slept. Number of times someone knocks on a door. Number of times you roll over in bed. Your salary. Your number of bedrooms in your home. Most people will have or do all these things within a very narrow band. 68.27% of any population actually.
From day 1, when you are born, statisticians put you into the curve. Whether it's your weight, your height, your smarts, your money or your death. It all fits on the curve somewhere.
Normal is good. You're just like everyone else, no one is going to question you, because you're part of the 68.27% of the population.
Normal is safe.
Most advice is normal.
What's funny is that normal is so different for different people. Normally it's whoever you're brought up with. Researchers call this the 'normalisation period' when you are 'teaming.' In reality, it's about fitting in. People like people like themselves, and most of all people like to be liked.
I think it's more important to build your own normal. For me, that means I want to see as many groups, teams, people and have as many experiences as possible.
For some people they might be happy with their normal, and they'll either never want, or never will go out and explore the possibilities. Me? I kind of envy these guys, but also... I kind of don't.
Flickr Cred: viasta2
Once upon a time, 'Richard Yong' was a google search term for a crazy Singaporean politician criminal, some New Zealand model and a Richard Yong from Hong Kong's Face book.
No longer.
I've finally made it to the front page of google searches for Richard Yong.
Only 7 more ranks to hit the top!
Flickr cred: Ohmang75 and the criminal Richard Yong.
So I've heard a few things about how the market is going to go.
South.
20% drop? Maybe.
Financial's in Australia have dropped at least 10-20% in the last few weeks alone. The sky is falling. If I were still in stocks in Australia I'd get the hell out and make the most of 8% interest rates on cash accounts.
I'm not bailing yet on the markets. Video games are a recession's best friend. Unemployment rates soaring? Petrol prices hitting all time highs? I just hope the Jone's are staying home to play their Wii.
So. How exactly do stupid people make money?
Ok. I'm being facetious, I don't mean stupid people. I mean your average mom and dad investor who 'dabbles' in the stock market, or a Japanese house wife dabbling in some forex gambling. Basically your average white collar John Doe who reads the Weekend Business Roundup and has CNBC.
Stupid people make money by luck. If you had put in $20,000 into the stock market 8 years ago, and had thrown darts at a board of investment picks you would have doubled your money. Blindfolded. Even after all the recent falls.
Stupid people have been lucky. And good for them, you don't need to be a genius to get on the gravy train, and nor should you need to be. You can bet that if there is a a gravy train, I'll be the first one on.
An article recently criticised the generation of stupid investors educated on a staple diet of CNBC, Bloomberg and Jim Cramer. It mentioned how they are the ones stuck like deer in the headlights right now. They were brought up on looking at P/E ratios (price to earnings) but either forgot, or don't care about where the E came from. Trust me earnings matter.
Funnily enough, the same investors, also worked in the white collar firms, and funnily enough, these execs also forgot that where the E comes from is more important than just making loads of it.
So it's come full circle, we educate a generation of stupid people, we put stupid people in charge of our firms and we ask them to invest in our firms. In the gaming world, they call this GG.
Now don't take this the wrong way. I'm not labelling an entire generation of people as not smart, or incapable of functioning as sentient intelligent human beings. Stupid is a term I'm using for people who are obviously smart enough to make themselves money to invest. These guys might be lawyers, accountants or doctors, for all I know, or care. But I see it time and time again, people with a fortune to invest and their only explanation for their investing is 'it's a bank. Banks are good, right?'
Stupid people make money (except when the sky is falling).
The sky is falling.
Flickrcred: Motherpie
My Uncle owns a furniture store in Alor Setar, Malaysia. This isn't particularly remarkable, except it was also where I spent most of my swelteringly hot summer holidays, cooped up inside the only air conditioned place in town, the office. This was where I learned the basics of credit.
I can vividly remember the stale smell of the off white wall paper, the cool bare polished concrete floor and the rhythmic rattle and hum of the twenty year old air conditioner, beating time to my 'busy office work.'
In the corner, on the ground, sat an odd looking print.
The vignette was made up of two contrasting scenes, one was a large, rosy cheeked, coated business man smoking a pipe, and the other, a poor skinny man with an empty safe. The motto on the fat rich man:
I never sell on credit.
Poor old skinny with his empty pockets proclaimed:
I sold on credit.
At 7, I had no idea what credit was. Over the years I spent there though, my parents taught me that selling on credit was a way of letting people have things now, while they could pay for it later.
Fast forward nearly 20 years, and the world is drunk on credit. Buy now pay later. Use your home equity, buy a new car. Borrow to get that whizzbang doohickey you always wanted. No money? sure we'll loan you 100% of the value!
It's all 'cheers, how you doing' when wages grow and assets appreciate and the gen X'ers cash their retirements out on their homes. But what happens when the party is over?
Well. For one, when no one wants to lend you anymore money, things start going awry.
Then you wake up. You've got a hangover, but you're not sure how you got to that point.
Sounds like drinking too much right? Well it's exactly what's happening now with Subprime (it's not over yet!). People went too far with selling on credit.
Everyone who sold on credit is now the skinny dude saying I sold on credit. The scary thing is, that they aren't so skinny, and aren't so easy to spot, they are your average white collar, suited, mom and dad. In fact, if they were there during the party, they've probably cashed out their bonuses and left shareholders (hrmm moms and dads too) out in the cold.
Here is a hilarious primer on the subprime crisis (retold by two stick figures, no less) that I totally recommend, it'll take 2 minutes:
http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=ddp4zq7n_0cdjsr4fn
Personally I've got a different view of credit. It's not about selling on credit. It's about the uses.
Credit is for:
Credit is not for:
These are my own little rules, I'd love to hear yours.
My hope is that these rules make sure, unlike most of the Financials right now, that I'll never be caught with my pants down.
Flickr cred: Regenade98
Doing the right thing is almost never about just doing your job.
It's easy to do your job, it lets you say I'm just.
I'm just a customer service assistant, packer, accountant, finance clerk, cleaner, checkout clerk or security guard. But that's how you lose the plot.
I've had an ongoing debacle with Lenovo.
On the face of it, it's a simple business.
Build and sell laptops. If you had to write a plot summary for the Lenovo movie, those would be the 4 words.
Some people they hire are fantastic. But everybody in Lenovo has a 'title.' That's great if it gives you something valuable to do, but not if it robs you of power. Worst of all, it should never distract anybody from your business (which is to build and sell laptops, just in case Lenovo staff read this and forgot).
Here are some real life quotes (not strictly verbatim) from Lenovo staff:
'I'm just in sales, I don't know technical, you'll have to ask the engineers'
'Sorry I know the website might say it's available, but it's actually not, there's no option in my process'
'I don't know about that sir, you'll have to ask someone else'
'Sorry sir, that's not possible it's not part of the process'
'Sorry sir, that's not in our policy to receive pdfs in emails, only faxes.' (Anyone spot the irony here?)
'I'm just in customer service, you'll have to ask repairs for an ETA.'
What if they started focusing on doing the right thing? They might take a leaf out of Vodafone and Optus who had the following to say to me:
'Look you are a great customer, I know we're not wrong here, and you're not wrong, we're sorry you had a problem, and look it's a waste of time for us to escalate this to management... I'm not suppose to do this, but look lets just waive the fee this once okay!'
'Oh it's disappointing that you're cancelling your account Mr. Yong, but let me check with my manager right now if we can waive your exit fee anyway, you've been with us a long time! Please wait one moment <brief pause> It's been approved, thanks for your patience sir.'
The conversation changes. Completely.
It's Friday, so relax. But on Monday, think about doing the right thing, not just your job description.
Next time you get asked what you do, whether you're the cleaner or the CEO, you might say 'I'm helping mums and dads save money,' or 'I'm helping make and sell the best laptops', 'Helping kids grow into good people' or 'I'm making sure our customers want to use us again.'
A hint for Lenovo: Fire everyone with the job description 'Sorry - that's not my responsibility', then spend that money on hiring half the number of people and give them the job description 'Goal #1 Help Lenovo make and sell laptops. Goal #2 Create and retain customers. Goal #3 Spend saved 'Sorry Men' money on creating and keeping good customers.'
You'll have spent $0 dollars more, and gotten rid of the Sorry Men.
Okay, so I live in an apartment right next to some office blocks.
I have a bad habit when it's late at night, of peering over at my office colleagues to see who is still at work.
Without fail, the lady in the picture (taken at midnight) is always there, even Fridays.
I decided it could only be down to a few reasons.
I really really hope so...
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
- John Lennon
A curious advertisement. A spinning lady. Is she spinning left, or right?
I clicked on an ad with that picture and was brought to the SAAB site. I'm sure the click through statistics are impressive. But that's what happens when you forget about trying to generate sales and start obsessing about generating clickthroughs.
Distracting someone on the net doesn't win you any friends.
Why not capitalise on the hard won clickthrough? How about a webpage about how the right and left brains work. Appeal to the two halves. Then invite them to see for themselves why a SAAB is so remarkable?
The ad didn't have my permission to take me to the SAAB site. I didn't even read the copy on the site. I'll probably never buy a SAAB.
But they got the clickthrough, so I guess an ad executive, somewhere, is punching the air in victory.
Do you value your time? How do you value it?
It isn't in dollars per hour. It isn't in your wage or salary. It's in how much you value yourself.
Here's an experiment, pretend that your time is the most valuable.
Funny things start happening. You start and finish things that matter, you start making other people's time matter, you become angry about wasted time. Here are some changes that come from valuing your time:
You start calling the CEO first. Chris Gardner started at Dean Witter Reynolds (American stock broker) and was given a client staff list, his manager said 'call every single one and offer our products'. Most brokers start at the bottom of the list, and don't call the CEO. Chris wasn't 'most brokers' and knew that by calling the CEO and scoring a meeting, he saved himself time. Chris Gardner knew the first rule of valuing his time, even at the bottom of the laddder. He's now worth squillions, and you might have seen his movie The Pursuit of Happyness.
Imagine all the remarkable people and businesses there would be if just a few started valuing time differently and started focusing on being awesome. I'll wager that people already doing this aren't worried about money. That's because remarkable businesses want someone remarkable.
Flickr thanks to PrAsAnGam