Your Money or Your Life?

A robber, with a gun, confronts you in a dark alley in the early hours of the morning, with no other soul in sight. "Your money or your life?", he says in that criminal voice which scares you to almost death. Classic situational scenario you are familiar with.

What would you do? Run for your life with the $1,000,000 in your pocket? Or just handover the $1,000,000?

Unless you are Superman (whereby you can catch the bullets coming towards you), or one of those sort of heroes, you would be better off to just handover the money. You can then fight (or make money) another day. Agree?

But what about in normal, everyday life? When there is no robber?

Can you still have your money ($1,000,000), and have a (happy) life? Or do you believe, that if you have money, money cannot bring you happiness?

Can you do something that you love, and at the same time make money? Or is doing something that you love, an entirely different proposition from making a living (making money)?

In this financial paradigm, if you love travelling, what you do is to work hard until you retire at 60 or 65. After you retire, you go travelling around the work (using the money you saved from working hard). That is why if you go on a tour (say, in Europe), you find that the majority who join the tour groups are in their sixties or seventies (from the U.S.A.). Some with canes to help them walk.

Isn't it possible to have lots of money (not $1,000,000 but perhaps $10,000 extra a year), to go and have an overseas holiday every year. When you are still in your twenties or thirties rather than in your late sixties or seventies?

Is it possible to never have to get a job, but still have as much money as those having a job? Without receiving government money? Such as unemployment benefit or disability payment. Or an insurance payout because you were involved in an accident? What do you think?

Well, a person like Dr Dolf de Roos is one such person. Just after completing his doctorate in electrical engineering, he was offered a job at $32,000 a year (this was a sizeable amount because it was in the last century, ok?). He rejected it.

Why? Because he had just (the week before) netted $35,000 from a real estate deal he had completed. He worked one week on the deal. He could then afford 51 weeks holiday if he wished to (compared to working for the $32,000 job offer). Does he have a job? No. Never. Does he work? Yes. Smart.

A former high school teacher gave up her teaching position. So that she could teach her passion for creativity. Of using magic to teach mathematics. She has shared the stage with professors (even of mathematics) at international fora.

Does she have a job? No. Does she work? Yes. But her work is her passion, so it is more enjoyable. It does not seem like work.

Oh yes, her income from conducting a one day training equals what she used to be paid for one month (as a teacher). Did she go into her passion because of the good money? Or did the good money follow her passion?

The moral of the story? You can have your cake and it it too! You can have both your money and your life!

You can be poor and miserable. You can also be rich and happy. The good news is: the choice is yours!

I wish you Success in your undertakings and Good Health and Wealth to you and your family. Take care!

P.S. Dr Dolf de Roos is the author of many books on real estate investment; amongst them is Real Estate Riches.

You Have Ups and Downs? the Economy Too?

I cycle for exercise. The wheels of the bicycle go round and round. Hmmm ... why are we talking about my Sunday morning Rubberman bike rides?

Ooooohhh ... ok ... we are going to talk about cycles. Not only for exercise (bicycles). But also for our financial planning (economic cycles). For our investment (property cycles). Menstruation cycles ... no, no ... I will let my Gynaecologist friends write about this in their blog ... hehehe ... you should give them a chance too (to write about cycles).

You should expect, based on history, to undergo one depression and two recessions in your life-time. Your life-span is 75 years - if your don't misuse and abuse your body ... hehehe!

Of course, your personal depressions can be more (karaoke girl-friend left you, mistress left you, wife left you, kids left you, mummy left you, money left you, ...). Here, you should think about an economic depression. And economic recession.

What's the difference between an economic recession and an economic depression? You may realise that there's a recession, when your neighbour loses his job. A depression is when you lose your job. A depression is a more severe form of recession. You get more severe headaches (after finishing your severance package).

So, how can you avoid a recession, or a depression (worse, isn't it)? Simple, if you think it out logically ... don't have a job!

No job? "My daddy and mummy told me to study hard, and get a good job with security", you say to yourself. Well, with the present Information Age (and Knowledge) economy, a safe secure job is no more a reality if you are in developed countries like the United States of America.

In some countries, like "Malaysia - Truly Asia", you can still get a safe secure job in the (government) civil service. But whether it is a good job (in terms of salary and benefits), is subject to interpretation and your personal propensity to spend (economist's terms for whether you are a big spender or careful saver!).

If you don't have a job, what are you going to do? Be a hippie ? Well, that was in my time - in the 1960s. You were born too late, baby!

Robert Kiyosaki (and all the other millionaires too, I believe) recommends that you become an investor. "But ... but ... nobody told me to be one." Yes, no one asked you to be one because school teachers are employees. Maybe, one teacher in a million is an investor.

Anyway, it's never too late to learn. There are numerous training programs and seminars teaching you to be an investor. Property investment. Stock investment. They will teach you that there are monthly cycles, yearly cycles, ten-year cycles, etc. (Of course, the best for health is daily bi-cycle...hehehe! ... just to keep you awake).

When you have enough knowledge about cycles, about ups and downs, about booms and busts, you will be able to survive. If you are into properties, you make money whether the market is up or down. If you are into the stock market, or options trading, you will make your money - whether there's a boom or a bust.

Non-investors have a hard time, especially recently. In October, the TV showed some workers in the United States of America lamenting that they have lost 50% of their retirement savings (or investments), because of the stock market melt-down starting in September 2008. Robert Kiyosaki (and quite a few others, of course) knew that this economic depression would come.

What's the secret of successful investors? They have the knowledge - so you make sure you read books and attend training/seminars! Investors also learn how to manage risks (so that their investment risks are minimal or zero!).

The moral of the story? Up and downs is a fact of life. Of your life. Of the economic life. Of the business life. When you realise this - not only during the bust-time, but especially during the boom time - you prepare yourself (Be Prepared - your Boy Scout's motto ... remember?). Your life would then be plain sailing. Or smooth cycling (for road - compared to mountain - cyclists like me ... hehehe!).

I wish you Success in your undertakings, and Good Health and Wealth to you and your family. Take care!

P.S. I asked a property millionaire whether it is a bad time to invest in real estate, given the economic depression which is coming very very soon. He replied, "No. It simply means that we will have more raw materials (auctioned properties) to choose from, for our money-making machine."