The Right Attitude Towards Money

I Want The World

2011-03-09T20:20:00.001+08:00

Recently I went shopping. As I was passing the Kids department, I saw this kid fussing away, pleading and asking the mom to buy him a toy. He was pulling his mother's arm, and when that did not work, he fell on the floor and started rolling.You could tell that the mom was so ambarrassed that she eventually gave in.

How about us? Did we cry, scream, threaten or accuse our boss/parents/God when we want something? Search your heart if you have done the above before.

In life why don't we always get what we want? Is it because we are unlucky, is it because we did not work for it, is it because of fate? Here we take a look at some points that we may ask and check ourselves.

Motive - Firstly before anything else we need to check our motive of wanting something? Always ask if its a 'Need' or a want? A 'Need' is more justified whereas a 'Want' is something that you can really do without. Also be sure that what you need is noble.

Is It Realistic? - Wanting to gain all richness of the world will be unrealistic. When you find yourself wanting something, make sure it is realistic.

Are You Ready To Receive It? - If God were to grant you what you wanted, are you ready to receive it and handle it. For instance a person who wants a high paying job, but it involves being away in a foreign country for 2 years, is he okay with it. Can he handle the chance of lifestyle? Or perhaps a couple who wants a child, are they able to spare time from work and social life to cope with the baby? You may be surprise that most people want something but are not prepared to make necessary changes to handle it.

Responsibility - Another neglected area. I see this quite often. For example, 'He wants a car but does not want to look after it', 'They want a house but does not want to clean and maintaing it', 'He wants a wife, but does want to love her or understand her', 'He wants a high paying job but does not want to do any work'. I think you are familiar with some of the examples I wrote here right. To summarise, if you want something, be sure to take full responsibility for it. Don't expect others to do it for you. If you can't handle it, you taking more than you can chew.

Prioritising - Once you have what you wanted, how will you prioritize it? Will it totally consume your time, money and attention? Whenever you have something new, you should know how to put it into your schedule without affecting other areas of your life as much as possible.

Will You Share It? - Here I am not talking about sharing your wife ok, hehe. But whatever that can be shared or use to bless others, will you be generous to do it?

Will You Work To Attain It? - We have to put in effort to get what we want. If you are not willing to work for it, don't dream about. Everything needs effort. Just like health, you want good health, you have to put in exercise and eat healthily.

Are You Thankful? - I know of some people who are just not thankful, once they have something they want more and they never appreciate what they had. They just seem like a Blackhole who wants to suckup everything. It is so difficult to satisfy them. And of course these people will keep wanting all their lifes.

Are You Making Excuses

2011-02-11T20:12:00.000+08:00

Have you found yourself making excuses? I once attended a Self Improvement Seminar, the speaker went up on stage and started with this statement "Who wants this 50 dollar note", the whole auditorium packed with 500 over attendees were quiet, finally a lady put up her hands. The speaker continued "Lady come here and take it", she hessitantly got up from her seat, walked to the stage and collected the 50 dollar note. Everyone was in disbelief that the speaker actually gave her the money. WOW!!!

Why did the other 499 participants (including myself), did not lift up our hands, why didn't we go up to the stage to get the money?? Because we did not believe, because we told ourselves that "he is not serious" and there must be a catch. Are you like that?

Excuses stops one from succeeding. I have seen some people who are so negative and keeps giving excuses to everything in life. When they do not have something, they give an excuse that they are born unlucky, when they failed in doing something, they say they are not gifted. I was like that too, when I did not have friends. When I did not have enough money, I made excuses, when I could not complete a task or job, I made excuses, hehe. My life was so limitted, there were so many things that I did not do.

Excuses destroys opportunities. When I was so good at making excuses, I turned down many opportunities to go for trips with friends or even hanging out, I told them I was tired or did not have time. Actually I was sitting at home lonely and in my self pity mode. The funny thing was, I wish to get married and have a family one day, but how will it happen if I do not go out and make some friends. My first step towards my dream was stopped by my very own excuses.

Making excuses is sometimes a habit, you have to break it. Before you say no, think carefully and respond sincerely. If you have watched the show 'Yes Man', where Jim Carrey was always saying no to everything, he made his life so much more interesting when he started saying 'Yes', but of course don't just blindly say 'Yes' to everything.

Faith creates opportunities. My breakthrough in life came when I read this verse one day from the Bible. It says 'I could do all things through Christ who will strengthen me', of course 'all things' refers to things which are right, beneficial and pleasing to God. This verse totally blew excuses out of my life. There were things which I thought could not work, dreams which I thought was not for me, promises which I thought was only for others, now it was possible for me to receive and witness these miracles for myself. Each of us should realise that this promise or gift from God is real and it is there, we just need to reach out and receive it.

Just do it. Don't you feel that it is tiring making excuses after excuses. Sometimes it helps to push yourself to just do something, don't come out with an excuse, just get the thing done. This way you will have progressed a step in life. Observe how others have done it and learn from them. If it worked for them, it may work for you. Keep trying and don't give up, although you may fail.

7 Steps On How To Cope With Changes

2011-01-31T17:39:00.001+08:00

Happy New Year to all MT readers. Please forgive me for my absence from blogging. Truly as what they say a “Child changes everything”. In these few months since my last post I have been occupied and coping with a new family member (my son). To sum it up, the experience of being a father is joyful, satisfying, tiring, stressful, humbling and divine.

Both my wife and I are going through changes in our lives, those days where it was just the two of us, going out for dinner, shopping and holiday trips has now taken a backseat while we cope with our new life and schedules. Family and Friends surely made the coping easier with lots of advise and support, really thank God for them.

The thing is this, in life, there are bound to be changes, it happens everyday, everywhere and in all situations. Let us imagine this scenario. You are driving along a highway when suddenly the car beside you changes lanes and moved into yours. How will you react to this change. Will you press the horn and start cursing, ease on the brake and allow the car to come into the lane thus avoiding an accident or just keep moving straight and ram the car, hehe and hope to settle the issue with a fist fight? How we react to the change, determines our life, our decision on what to do determines our future. Just as a shooter who twists his hand slightly while firing a gun will cause the bullet to miss its target entirely. The same is with our life, where everything may be going on fine until we make a wrong decision and wreck our life entirely.

Be it in Investment, Health, Relationship, Career, Finances or any areas of your life, when changes happens, have an open mind and determination to face it and cope with it. Remember, stress comes when we do not know how to cope with changes.

1) Be cool – The first step is to always be composed, let your heart be filled with peace. When your thoughts and emotions are clouded it is impossible to make a good decision. I once heard a story of how a lady ran straight to the wall when someone shouted ‘Fire’, while there was an open door a few feet away from her. Be patient, be still, when you are still, you can see things clearer.

2) Analyze your situation – To cope with a change, you need to know what has changed. Find out more about the situation, to what extend it has affected you. Were there any changes to your finances, status, health, family, relationships and etc. When you consider every area of your life, you will be able to access the extend of the change. Try to step out of your problem and take an outside view of your situation, this way you can also see what is affecting your life clearer.

3) Seeking help – This step requires humility, but it provides the best solution when taken. Look for a person whom you can confide in. Someone who has gone through such situation. Talk to them and present to them your issue, be clear and open about your thoughts and what you are going through. Then listen to them carefully, take notes or remember their suggestions.

Read up and research on the subject that you are facing, this is the best opportunity to gain new knowledge and experiences. You safe lots of time and mistakes if you follow this step.

4) Make a decision – With all the research, analysis and advises, now it is time to decide what to do. When making decisions, it is important to put away selfishness, greed, jealousy, hate and other destructive emotions. Some people fear making wrong decisions thus postponing their problems. Your decision may not be the best, but when you consider the risk, pros and cons and decide, you are better than making no decision at all. Avoid implementing too many decisions at one go, you may solve the problem but you may end up confused and not knowing how you rectified the situation. So take it step by step.

5) Give yourself some time – Each of us have different capabilities and are able to solve problems at different speed. Do not push yourself too much, set a time to work on the plan and have an idea of when you would like to achieve your goal. Some common mistakes that we make is that we compare our capabilities with others and then hate ourselves for performing slower. If you keep doing this, you will find that you will hate yourself more and more. Motivate yourself to improve yourself according to a target that you set for yourself, not according to other’s target, it also gives you more satisfaction when you achieve your goal.

6) Stick to your decision – Implement your decision, make it work and do your best. Learn all that you can from the implementation of your decision. Don’t keep changing your mind, it will just create more problems.

7) Analyze and chart your development – Your decision does not just end there, you need to constantly evaluate the performance of your decision. Fine tune your actions if need to and continue to flow with the plan.

In the end you would know if you have coped well with the change when you are happier and not pondering on the matter again and again. If you are able to turn a bad situation around into a positive one, you have learned how to make the best out of the worst. We could not stop changes from happening, only thing we can do is to face changes head on and prepared.

Do You Have A Friend?

2010-11-26T10:32:00.001+08:00

Let us do an exercise. Which friend comes to mind if I were to ask you who is your friend? Now that you have a friend in mind, what are the attributes that he/she has, name them? In most cases you will find that the attributes that they have are usually selfless, kind, generous, supportive, fun and happy, loving, understanding, respects you, accepts you for who you are and there with you when you need them. If however your friend seems to have the opposite of those mentioned, please beware, hehehe, it could be a sign that they are using you. No offense okay, there are many kind of friends and do read on and share some comments if you have an unique friend okay.

Let me share
Since young I was taught to be independent. Not to rely on anyone and to be able to do things on my own. If there was something that needed to be done, chances are you will see me doing it on my own. I will try not to ask for help. That is the default thinking I had. In fact I was so good at it till the point I thought that I do things better than others and if others were to help me, they just make things worse, Frank Sinatra’s song ‘My Way’ seems to speak about my life.

To make matters worse, I had this thought that the less friends I have, the less problems I will have. You know people are imperfect and they tend to bug you. You just want to scream “leave me alone, solve your own problems, I have enough trouble of my own”. I started to compare my life with others, looking down on those who are less smarter or successful than I. I was quick to see other’s weaknesses, made fun of them and even imitated them.

Things continued on until I turned 17, the peak of my depression, yes, DEPRESSION. All those years, when I was in my Rambo or Lone Ranger mode, the one who was really suffering was actually me. My loneliness caused me to make excuses for what I am going through. I did not know how to make friends, and everytime when I talk to somebody, I will be waiting for the moment when that person will just make a quick escape because of my boring self centered conversations. Needless to say, my suffering increased and I started to look at other’s fault, so that I could justify not being their friends. I became proud and lonely, thinking that I could do everything on my own (in actual fact I don’t know lots of things).

My life changed when I met my mentor. You see He was different, He knew me when I was young and I was not close to Him, but He did not give up on me. All the time when I was looking for acceptance around me, He already accepted me for who I am. I mean, I wasn’t handsome or somebody popular, I was in fact striving to be somebody back then. I wanted to be Jason Priestly (Beverly Hills 90210), I wanted to talk, walk and look like him. I don’t enjoy being a skinny, four-eyed kid. I hated my life…. But my mentor kept being there, He told me “you are you, you are special and there is only one you in this world and universe. You are already unique and significant, why do you need to be someone else. Those stars whom you idolize, they are human too, having problems of their own and in search of who they are. So stop acting like somebody and be yourself”. At that moment, I knew this Guy was different, the words He said spoke to my heart. I felt a sense of relieve, a burden lifted off my shoulder, an expectation of having to meet criterias of Hollywood stars just disappeared.

Why do we need a friend?
Before I proceed with the transformation in my life, let me just share that we all need friends. Even gang members or thieves knows that they need buddies. A friend supports you. In life, we will tend to make mistakes or come to a point where we are uncertain about some decisions, ladies will agree with me that they need a friend to give some feedbacks while shopping. A friend will be there, to help you make the right choices. When you are afraid, they will share your fears, when you are unhappy, they will listen and comfort you. When you do not know how to do something, you can always ask them. I realized that the more I open up to them, they will open up to me too. So if you want a friend, you must be a friend to others. There is a saying that goes ‘People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care’. One day you may need help, and on another day, they may need your help. Just like how we bloggers support one another, you read their post, they read yours. Hehehe.

How to choose a friend
Now that we know that having a friend is crucial, we should also be aware that your friend will make you or break you. What it means is, if you have the right friends, you will have a good life, if your friends are bad influences, your life will crumble fast too. Most parents are careful to watch whom their kid mixes with, and this is true, because bad company brings bad influences. I know of stories of well behaved and smart teenagers who suddenly changed because their friends influenced them with alcohol, drugs and sex.

So how do we tell if he/she is a good friend? Remember a friend loves you, they want the best for you. They do not demand anything in return, they will not make you feel obligated to do something. They give you time, support, money, encouragement, advises and more. They listen to you, they respect you, they do not intend that your life be harmed or destroyed, they are not jealous and want you to be all you can be.

True friendship comes when you sincerely open up to one another. There is no better bond that true love among friends. I am sure you know that there are Hi/Bye friends, those whom you don’t really connect with and you will not open up to. But if you want a true friend, you gotta to be a true friend to others.

Continuation of my life
After my burden has been lifted, I could see things clearer. My problems were still there, I did not have much friends, I was still a skinny four-eyed kid. But because I realize I was special in my own way, I started to be gentle with myself and accepted myself. I analyzed my life, my shortcomings, my lacks, my health, my dreams, my goals. I told my mentor my current problems in my life and He was a good listener indeed. I felt important, He was giving me His time listening to me, and as I talked to Him, I started to have ideas of what I would like to do with my life, starting from joining a Gym, wearing contacts lenses, volunteering for Dramas (by the way I love acting, remember I love to imitate others, hehe).

Slowly, I started to enjoy my life because I was true to myself and my body and my mind seems to be working together to achieve goals (usually my mind dreams and my body is lazy to carry out any of them). My mentor will always be there when I acted, He was my gym buddy and He reminds me to walk righteously and honorably at all times (what a true friend indeed), He corrects me when I have wrong intentions or about to make mistakes.

Since the time when I realized that my Mentor was my true friend, I started to live my life the best that I could. He told me that I only have one life here on earth, and to make the most of it. And I know in my heart that this Mentor of mine lays down His life for me, that is the degree of His love and friendship for me.

I would like to share with you this song, which is cute and meaningful. My friends and I performed this in church on Frenzday. But too bad we did not record it.

Want To Link

2010-11-11T16:20:00.002+08:00

I have just posted a new Page. One that honours all MoneyTraits readers and appreciate all who frequently visit MoneyTraits.

As for those who wish to have a link to their Post. Please feel free to check out this page too. Do email to me to put a link to your page. Please make sure that your Blog/Site does not contain sexual, political, individual/personal attack or hate elements.

http://moneytraits.blogspot.com/p/readers-appreciation-links.html

7-Steps To Achieve Your Goal

2010-11-03T17:05:00.000+08:00

Recently I heard of a story of how a ‘Stock Market King’ who made lots of money during the 80’s and suddenly lost all his money as quickly as how he made the fortune. When he started trading shares, he relied on insider information and gut feelings. But somehow after he had made some money, greed took over. This caused him to place more money into stocks without proper research and self control. And soon, due to the slump in market, he lost everything, home, kids and his dreams. Now he roams the streets, homeless. Ever come across stories such as this?

This can happen to any of us, it can be through stocks, bad business ventures, ‘Get-rich-quick' schemes or even because of success itself.

You see not everyone knows how to handle success. What is success? Success in simple term means ‘Achieving your goals’. So you might say, ‘I have a goal and a dream’, that is good but what caused you to have that dream, is your dream noble, is your dream self-centered, and what happens after you achieved that dream? (suddenly there is silence). I guess all too often we just have a dream and not think about the long and shorts of having dreams.

1) Having a dream – I remembered when I was young, I did not have a dream. Life was miserable, not because I was suffering or had lots of problems, my problem was, I did not have a dream, I did not have a purpose in life. Needless to say, life was so boring and lonely. At times I did not want to wake up from my sleep because, in my sleep, my dreams were more interesting than life. All this changed when I started to find a new meaning and purpose to life, and then I started to dream. I started to set goals for myself. I asked myself what I wanted in life. Am I going to let life pass me by or am I going to set a goal and tell myself I want to achieve and see it come to past.

Dream dreams, list down what you would like to see it happen in your life. Don’t give yourself excuses first, just dream. Many great inventions starts off like that.

2) Checking your dream – Okay now, let us come back to earth a little, looking at the list of dreams, start asking yourself which are the ones that you can make happen. As for the other dreams, do not strike it out, we want to be able to review those later again. Look for dreams that are challenging yet you can work on. These possible dreams that you have identified are now your ‘GOALS’. And they can be categorized as ‘Long Term Goals’ and ‘Short Term Goals’.

Once again, a reminder, please make sure your dreams and goals are noble, not to destroy, rob, steal. It should not be driven by greed, jealousy and pride. It is not worth it, achieving your dream/goal while creating conflict with others or using them as stepping stone. Your guilty conscience will in the end destroy you. Let your dream and goals be of Love towards others, blessing them and bringing them joy.

3) Working towards your goals – Just like Soccer/Football, we need to know what is our goal, once you know it, you drive your life, thoughts, actions, heart towards the goal and score. Tell yourself it is worth it. If you don’t work towards it, who else will do it for you? Put up reminders (pictures, short goal messages & etc) to realign yourself each day of your goal. Set aside some time to look into your goal. If your goal is to build a successful blog, then make time each day to think of articles to share or to build and expand your skills in blogging.

4) Persistence – Again like soccer, there will be opponents who would want to stop you from scoring. Be persistent, try different ways to score. Part of the fun in working towards your dream is when you face problems and are able to overcome it. Of course provided you do not give up and keep persevering. My mentor said to me, ‘In life there will always be problems, it is what you think of the problem and how you face it that will give you the strength to overcome it’. Of course I am blessed that my Mentor has always been with me through my problems and giving me counsel on how to overcome problems. But He is very careful not to solve the problem for me, He makes sure that I make the effort to solve it on my own.

5) Achieving your dream and maintaining success – Wow, such joy to see that you have achieved your goal and dream. Take sometime to relax and enjoy the moment, you have succeeded. You deserve it. Give yourself a pat, don’t deny yourself self-gratification. If you are not going to encourage yourself, who else will? This will also give you strength to face the next challenge.

After all the celebration and enjoyment, remember that your success needs maintenance. If you do not put constant work in it, it may fail and you may lose it. Everything on earth changes, don’t take for granted that your success will always be with you. Be alert and keep striving to make sure your success stays with you. Make it an attitude, like the ‘Stock Market King’ that I mentioned earlier, his downfall was that he started with a shaky foundation and after success, he introduced bad attitudes of greed and was impatient.

I have also read about how some Celebrities started off humble and gained popularity. But once they had it, they lost track of life and started dabbling with drugs and women. Sadly many popular people in this world forgets where they come from and allow pride to take control of them.

6) Share your dream – If you have success in what you do, remember to share it. The joy is in sharing and giving others the same opportunity of success. Not everyone has the same dream as you, but for those who do, they will thank you and remember you for life, because you were generous to show and guide them to success. What joy it will be for you to give to others freely. The Lord will bless you bountifully and with more, because you please Him.

7) Keep dreaming – Achieving a goal is not the end. Review your list of dreams again and work on another goal. Keep having new dreams. But don’t dream too many dreams until you neglect working on it. Else you will spend your life dreaming but not achieving anything. hehehe.

Have fun and keep dreaming.

How To Deal With Online Surveys

2010-10-05T19:09:00.004+08:00

I started with <Online Surveys> a few months back, dreaming that I will be flooded with lots surveys to fill out every day. But reality is, you will have to wait and login to the <Online Survey company> to check if there are surveys available. And I also found that some companies are rather dormant when it comes to sending or getting surveys for the members to fill out, perhaps they are not very active in getting surveys consistently. So if you are relying on Online Surveys to make a living, please think carefully, but continue reading below to find out how you can still make some part time money.

Survey companies - Some of the Survey companies which I found consistent were GlobalTestMarket and Planet Pulse, these two companies sends you 3 - 4 surveys per month each to your email. And these 2 companies pays quite high for surveys too. Of course the number of surveys received also depends on whether the survey relates to your country and profile or not.

How to increase Online Survey Income - Some people join lots of online survey companies with the hope that they will have a steady stream of surveys to fillout. This can and does work. Another proven way is to constantly update your profile, when you do this, Survey Companies are able to match your latest profile with the requirement of their customer and thus invites you to participate in the survey.

Be quick – Remember surveys are open to many people around the world. To be able to participate in it, you need to be diligent in opening your emails to check if there are new surveys to fill out. Surveys do close very quickly, especially for popular Survey companies.

Do not lie – Survey companies are very good at detecting if you are lying or not. Survey questions are designed to note your opinion and at the same time countercheck if you are consistent in your answers. Some people for the sake of wanting to complete the surveys, would lie. So please be genuine when giving your opinion. If you lie, it would only cause the Survey company to lose future surveys from their customers.

Be active in referring and recommending – Referring others is the best way to ascertain constant flow of income. Though some surveys are not targeted for you, but they may be suitable for your referrals. So when they fill out the surveys, points can be added to yours. So do write blogs or invite friends through emails to join you in Online Surveys.

Expose yourself – You will find that after completing some surveys, you tend to be more sensitive to your surroundings when you go shopping. Expose yourself to what’s happening around you and to new products out there in the market. Attend product launches and road-shows. All these will help you to complete the surveys better.

Persistence – Do not give up and enjoy completing surveys. Your opinion matters and don’t just do it for the sake of money. But rather think of it as spare income. Your effort and time will be rewarded when the cheque comes.

6-Steps On How Couples Can Manage Their Money

2010-09-29T13:49:00.003+08:00

Have you heard of this saying 'What is yours is mine, and what is mine is also mine' in a marriage? Haha, we tend to laugh about this when the wife says it to her husband. But when the husband says that, we tend to perceive that the husband is a male chauvinist. So does the phrase holds any truth to it? Does it mean that the man loses everything when he goes into marriage or a relationship?

In many relationships and marriages, money is the biggest problem and cause of divorce. Two people with different spending habits, lifestyle and priorities coming together as one is not going to be easy. Some find that it is so easy to be transparent about family, work but when it comes to money, that is a no-no (you don’t touch my money I don’t touch yours) zone.

No wonder that many marriages and relationship ends up breaking because of this. When there is something that both cannot agree on or understand about each other, there is bound to be accusations, distrust, feeling of unfairness and stress. Sometimes one of them will feel the burden of being the sole breadwinner in the family, while the spouse does not do his/her part in money at all.

Here is how a couple can be successful in managing their money. Follow through these 6 steps. These steps do not guarantee that you will not have financial problems, but at least you will have lesser problem managing your finances.

1) Understand each other’s spending background.

2 different people will have different background in handling and viewing money, and of course this is part of their attitude towards money. Are they a big saver or a big spender? Can you imagine if one loves to buy stuff and while another loves to invest, they will have disagreement on how money will be used. The question is not whether they should spend or safe, the question should be how they spend or save.

They should talk about their believes on money (..money brings happiness, money is not everything,…), what is money to them (..is money a necessity, status,…), how did their parents handle money (a lot of our beliefs on money is learned from our parents), what is their personal goal for money (..millions,billions,mansion,…), how far they are willing to go to get money (..work 24hours, rob,…)

When these spoken, the couple will be able to see where they are coming from and will then be able to agree on their finances together. Of course if your spouse is thinking of robbing and killing to get money, you must give him some counsel and not encourage him.

2) Build communication and trust.

The key to a strong partnership is communication. When done effectively, it will be as a strong seal that will weather through the storm. In life we will face all sorts of storms, sweet moments and adventures. It takes strong communication to bring them through all sorts of seasons.

The same goes for money, in different phases (wedding, house, kids, and retirement), money is required in different ways and magnitude. Communication will bring about understanding, planning and agreement, with this, they can face life together.

3) List down your priorities.

After communication, the couple can right now sit and make a priority list. This list should include long term and short term goals that they would like to achieve, long term goals will be like house, kids, investments, insurance, whereas short term goals are groceries, holidays, buying a TV, and …. When preparing this list, both should be sincere in voicing out their needs and wants. Be as detailed as possible in listing down these. Any surprises will cause a shock in your relationship. Can you imagine one day your husband coming back with a new car, and it was not even in your priority list.

With all the items in the list, go through it and plan which should and can be done first. Fulfilling these items one by one will strengthen your relationship. Just as how it gives soldiers the sense of brotherhood when they complete missions together.

4) Be open with each other’s income.

The moment of truth is here. Let each other know how much you are making. This is by no mean a comparison to see who is better, or who should take command. Each of us has different earning capability. The one who makes more money should be humble, and the one who makes lesser money should be grateful.

Once you have known each other’s income, you should also know each other’s current commitments such as phone bills, gym subscriptions, car loans, …. Be gentle with each other when discussing each other’s spending and commitment. Don’t judge, but encourage.

5) Select a method of managing your money together.

Now that you have come to this stage, you are ready to choose a method on how to manage your money together. There are a few ways.

Center pool – Works for couples who are both working or with income. Both agree to contribute an equal amount/percentage of their salary towards a pool (or a joint bank account). This money will be used to tackle the items in their priority list. Whereas the remaining money from their salary, they are free to manage it for themselves through investment, savings and funds. Of course if one of them chooses to put in more into the pool, he/she can do that, but this does not give him/her more power or say in how the money is to be used.

One party manager – For this, you will need to identify who is better in managing the money, this person should be responsible in making sure that the money is well invested, budgeted and kept. Usually a large amount of money for the family will be passed on to this person and he/she will disburse and plan for the family. This method is helpful when one of them is too busy or does not have relevant knowledge in handling money, or when there is a sole breadwinner. Even if he/she is empowered to handle the money, that person should update the spouse in the progress of how the money is managed.

Movie Popcorn style – Remember how some people will go-Dutch in getting things when watch a movie (one pays for the ticket, another pays for Popcorn). This method is also practiced by some couples. Where they will decide on who pays for what in a family. The one who earns more may pay for house-loan, car-loans, whereas the one making less can pay for the utility bills and groceries. This method requires good communication and trust, or else we will have a situation where one is unhappy because he pays for the expensive stuff while the other is not as stressed. I would recommend caution when using this method, marriage may not be as easy as ‘going to the movies’ at times.

Combination – This is a combination of the 3 styles above. Using communication, discretion and planning to choose which style to use for which situation. I know of a couple who uses the one-party-manager style when it comes to investment and important stuff, center-pool for kids education, toys, holiday airtickets, Movie Popcorn style for shopping and holiday purchases.

6) Hardwork and sacrifices –

Finally, everything takes time and hardwork. We are to work out our marriage and relationship. Without effort, nothing works. But the good news is, with practice in time it will become a habit and things will seems effortless. Persevere and grace will make it all work.

My mentor taught me, no matter which style we use, it is important that there is agreement and accountability between the couple as to how they spend the money. The most important ingredient in a family or relationship is not money but love. Love comes from trust and commitment.

Sometimes ladies tend to be more meticulous and detailed and naturally better in managing money but the man should also take responsible to know and be aware of the financial situation at home. If the opposite takes place, the husband should update the wife on financial situation and spending. Well all the best, and may these steps work for you.

Breaking news on Global Economy

2010-09-25T10:14:00.014+08:00

Here is a video clip of Mike Maloney making an address to bankers at the 8th International Banking Forum in Russia. His presentation is easy to understand and gives a good idea of what is happening in the Global Economy.

Michael Maloney, an former Dyslexic sufferer who learned how to invest his acquired family estate (after the Financial Planner he hired made his family's value and portfolio dropped). Aspiring to be a good steward of his family's possesions, he started to learn more about investing. This brought him to discover that history repeats itself and when a currency inflates too much, trouble is coming. He also learned that there are timings when it comes to investing. By authoring a book called 'How to invest in Gold & Silver', he is commits himself to sharing whatever he learns to stay on top of the economy.

Please watch this video with an open mind and judge for yourself if what is spoken is really happening.

Personal Financial Statement

2010-09-22T18:28:00.001+08:00

Some people will find this part unnecessary and tedious, but I would say this is the most critical. Not knowing your financial Ins and Outs, is like saying I don’t care if it is raining outside or snowing. You will find suddenly your money will just disappear. You won’t know where it went. So this step is worth the hassle to evaluate where you are at. And of course it is the right attitude towards money.

I have attached a sample of a Financial Statement here in Money Traits. The amount in this Statement is for illustration purpose and there is a brief description next to the amount.

The top column speaks about expenditures. This can vary from person to person, I have listed down some common ones. Of course if you have kids, the list is longer. Do remember that this Statement is on monthly basis, if you have some annual commitments, you should divide them into 12 so that you can fill into this statement.

Do remember to make allowance for yourself, that is Savings and money for Investment.

At the bottom, you should put in your incomes. This are monthly income for your full-time work and other sort of income that you may have.

Now right at the bottom, you will find if you have a positive or negative cashflow per month. If you are in the negative region, you should be careful and work on the category which you can still minimize. For instance, you can control your Shopping, Handphone usage, or entertainment.

If you are at the positive, you can choose to store and save up the money for rainy days. Update this list each time you come to different phases of life (marriage, kids, retirement…)

Personally I find this helpful, when I started work , I started this habit of keeping a Financial Statement list. And whenever I consider purchasing a car or house or any other commitments, I am able to immediately see if I am in the +ve or –ve.

So hope you enjoy preparing your own Financial Statement.

Updated the Giving and Sharing page

2010-09-19T16:53:00.000+08:00

Hi friends, finally I have added the Giving and Sharing page, it was empty for awhile now.
In the future I will be updating some of these pages and will let you know when I have done it.

By the way, did you noticed that Gold has hit higher than its old USD1260/oz record? Now it is at 1275/oz. There may be some corrections in a few more days to come, it usually happens like that, but in the long run,
it may hit USD1300/oz end of this year.

There are some news that Japan may be selling more of its USD receives this week. Which means USD may fall a little bit. Do be careful if you are into Forex.

As for the Stocks, Dow Jones were trading sideways. A little bit uneventful. Hold your money, don't move into stocks yet. Do position yourself for something better. For those who have already made some profit from stocks, you may want to liquidate a little and wait until Stocks drop again.

A Community

2010-09-16T07:52:00.005+08:00

Well, I started out blogging not long ago and I found that it can be a lonely thing. Especially when you put in a Page Click Counter and found that the only one visiting is 'You'. Sob Sob. Every morning you wake up and the first thing you do is check your blog to see if there are new visitors, only to discover that the count has just increase by 1.

So how do we overcome loneliness? How to we get Search Enginees to at least put some indication that you exist in this Virtual World, aarrgghhh. Well there are a few ways.

If you noticed, there are not many followers in my Google. hehe, (please support me in this, add yourself by clicking on this on button located on the right sidebar). And to have visitors clicking it may be hard.

I have found that the easier thing to do is to join a Blog Community. It is here where you find good friends who are just like you. Without a community, you are an island and it is sad. This is how you start. Start by clicking on this - <JOIN MYBLOG COMMUNITY>.

And then follow the instructions, update your profile, put a nice picture of yourself (don't be like me, I still could not find a nice picture of myself, so my Yucca tree is representing me), hehe.'Add your website', and start looking for some friends.

You will find that the members here are very "supportive". They will checkout your website, give you some encouragement. When you have added some friends, message each other and ask for feedbacks. You noticed that I am not so lonely anymore after joining this Blog community. And I am sure the same it is for you.

Myblogcommunity neighbours, thank you so much for your support and visits. You are the best!!!

Just like your hero

2010-09-14T18:18:00.004+08:00

When I was a kid, I had dreams of saving the world like Superman. I will put on a towel (as though a cape), l will walk, talk and pretend to fly around the room like him (of course my parents did not know that I even jump from the table, hoping I would really take off-in the air). He was my mentor and my hero.

In the same way, investment is like that, we should mentor those who have already succeeded. Not that we
must walk like them or talk like them, but we should try to understand and handle investments the way they do. What made them successful was their attitudes towards money.

Choose a mentor carefully. He may or may not know you personally (Superman did not know me! Hehe) But ask yourself if this mentor is a respectable man, is he doing things the right way to achieve his goals, is he an honorable man, is he a man who loves his family, does he give to people who are in need. Ascertain his strengths and weaknesses. Was his initial background before being successful similar to yours?

Once you have found that person, buy books and do an in-depth research on him, find out his ways of thoughts, his style of investment. Take small steps and try to follow his style as much as you can (you may not have his financial capacity to invest). Just like Kung Fu movies, as you mimic your master's moves and styles, you will learn faster without having to make much mistakes. In the end you may not have his success but at least you are closer to success. However you could be more successful than him.

Personally, my current mentor (no not Superman) constantly teaches me that money or profit is not everything, our motive and attitude speaks louder. What is for a man to gain the whole world but loses his honor or principals in life. He said that one day I may make a profit, and on another I may lose it on something else, we cannot have everything or hold on to our possessions forever. The important thing is to be faithful with what we have n live well. “What we do echoes in eternity”…

Know your real motives of investing, are they noble? Are they driven by love for others, to care for them and to provide for them? Or is yr heart driven by jealousy, greed or a need to prove yourself (as the Singaporeans calls it Kiasu). The question of why you are doing it for will drive you far. It will keep you going when things does not go the way you thought. It will give you joy and a sense of purpose even without your millions.

I have read so many blogs that talks about enriching your pocket but find few that talks about enriching your attitude for richness. I hope u r blessed by this sharing.

Just starting out blogging

2010-09-11T08:19:00.003+08:00

Since I started blogging (not too long ago), I have found that there are indeed numerous ways of making money from the Internet, and another idea is through blogging. Well I have yet to make any money out of this since I started blogging recently, in fact I am still learning how to do many things with a blog.

So not only does a blog allows you to express yourself, but if you have something interesting to share, does not feel bored typing and like to put little pictures or videos here and there, I think you should give it a try.

Blogging is all about the number of viewers and how you can get them to come back for more. Think about it as starting a little online gallery where you give talks and show pictures, videos, ideas or just simply talking about yourself (even nonsense). I recently heard from a friend about how her colleague earns from blogging by just writing trivial things in her daily life (eg. ‘here is a picture of me drenched by the rain’), huh!!! Guys, it is not a sexy photo of her okay!!

Of course we need to be disciplined and set aside a time to put in some new post regularly. The more post you put, the better chance the Search Engines will find you. Make your articles interesting. Join in some Blog community and share what you have written. Create links to other sites, and they will link back to you, the more inbound links the easier you are detected. So the word, ‘No man is an island’, seems applicable to blogging. Check out some of link on the sidebar for Blogging tips.

Finally, let us all enjoy what we are doing. Let us not blog for the sake of money or popularity but let it be us sharing our interest, reaching out to new friends and leaving a footprint in the virtual world, that speaks about us.

New record for Gold

2010-09-08T14:28:00.000+08:00

Gold is set for another chance to hit an all time record. Touching USD1258/oz, it may well hit a new record above its USD1260/oz as early as this week. The current uncertainty in Dow and USD has caused many to invest into Gold. Whereas can we park our money in nowadays??

Online surveys

2010-09-07T21:45:00.002+08:00

I have just completed the page on Online Surveys - Internet Income. Hope you will check it out and do remember to click on Online Surveys Listing to try out some genuine and rewarding Survey companies. You are on your way to creating passive income. All the best.

Do you believe the stocks?

2010-09-05T07:38:00.002+08:00

If you have been monitoring world indexes, you will find that the Dow is heavily dependant on news report or quarterly reports. One day it goes up, and on another it falls. It is as unpredictable as the weather. Furthermore September is usually the worst month for stocks.
The best thing during this time is to get out of stock and get into some long term investment like Gold, Forex or even Fixed deposits. With USD being lower now, you may want to seize the opportunity in grabbing some cheap USD related investments, Forex and Gold may be good.
When things are clearer by the end of the year, you will be well positioned to make a longer term gain in stocks.

Thought of Gold?

2010-08-29T07:47:00.002+08:00

While it seems like you could tell how the Global Economy getting better, you have to rethink again. These are times of uncertainties and its effects can be seen in World currencies and stocks. Look at the Dow Jones and you will see the stock investors sentiments which fluctuates daily or weekly according to the economic reports. So if you are thinking of moving your money into stocks, is it really the best time?

Many have thought of buying physical gold or investing into gold related stocks recently. This is because gold is the last refuge when currency falls or when stocks falls. Gold becomes something that protects the value of your money.

By saving in gold, you will benefit from the risk of sudden currency drop. This is because gold is traded globally and it is not dependent on one single country. It also helps as a hedge against inflation.

I just read a report that recently Vietnamese Dongs has dropped and many Vietnamese are resorting into buying gold to protect their assets. The amount of gold that they are buying may even surpass India and China.

In the long run, if you are thinking of diversifying your investment, consider a certain percentage of your assets in gold. It is bound for increase, but slowly and with some daily of monthly fluctuations of and on. You need to be patient.

Recently many banks have began to offer Gold Savings Account, where you can convert your money into gold (depending on the daily gold price), the more money you put in, the more gold you have. Some banks even allows you to pay an additional fee and withdraw physical gold.

2010-06-19T13:05:00.006+08:00

Dear Friend,

I would like to share with you on how money can be viewed and managed. And as you know, there are so many areas of money that we can discuss, but to begin, I have made a few pages here that categorizes some of the common ways.

As I have just started this blog, some of the pages may still be empty, but I will do my best in putting it up soon, so that we can share our experiences.

My sincere hope is that I could encourage you to be a better manager of the money that you have. Remember the money is never ours, just like a dream, one day when you wake up, all you could bring with you is the memory of the dream. May you have a happy, fulfilling life.