Seven Steps to Financial Abundance - My Comments

After a prolong duration of overworked life, I've decided to step a step back and concluded that work isn't everything. I've a life to live. :) Hence, I've started my reading plan all over again lately. I recalled reading the book - Secrets of Self-Made Millionaire by Adam Khoo, probably more than 1.5 years ago. So, picked up that book and started reading...

Money Personality Type

Money Personality Type: "People always relate success with money. Every successful people are rich people! Somehow, I find it quite true as well. Most of the success..."

Here's my friend's post on the Money Personality Type which we've learnt during the MMI. so.. Which one is yours? Actually, I remember that I've only heard 4 main types during the event so perhaps the 5th one about the "Amasser" is added by my friend.

Understanding the Root Cause About Your Money Believes

Have you ever asked yourself, the following questions?

• What is money?
• Is it just a piece of paper?
• What can you do with it? - Take out a piece of your biggest note inside your wallet and think about it...
• What did your parents share with you about money?
• What is wealth?
• Is it just about having lots of money?
• Is it important to you?
• What can it do for you?
• What's your impression of rich people?
• Are they nice or greedy?
• Are they generous or stingy?
• Do they con others or help others?

Only after you've answered those questions that you can have a much clearer picture of your impression on your current financial situation.

(Adapted from Millionaire Mind Intensive...)

Lessons from the Cashflow Game

After playing and facilitating Cashflow Games, I understand more about the various ways to achieve financial freedom. There are really many lessons that I've learned from the game itself. For those that does not know about the game, here's a brief description, the main aim of the game is to get out of the rat race and into fast track. Which is like get out from our employee cycle (rat race) to achieve financial freedom (fast track) in reality. There's still a pint of luck that's required to win, but the key to it is still in identifying the good deals from the bad deals.

Some of the lessons I've learnt are:

• It'll be much easier to get out of the rat race if we, the players can collaborate with each other during the game. 
• The lower our expenses, the easier to get out of the rat race.
• If my monthly cashflow is low, I would need to aim for higher "savings" amount to buy the good deals that I want.
• If I have a monthly cashflow is higher, usually, my pay might be higher and same goes for my expenses and hence, sometimes, I need to use higher leverage to make things work better when I do get a good deal.
• If I keep taking small deals, it'll take a much longer time to get out of the rat race as compared to taking a bigger deal when I have enough money to do it.

The main lesson you will learn from the game is that how you play the game is actually a reflection of how you are playing the money game in reality. By understanding yourself more, it does help in fixing issues that you may not have realized on your own.

In fact, there's even a version for kids that I think parents should get for their kids so that they are educated in the way rich thinks from a younger age. Last time when I'm young, there's only monopoly and I only get to pay at my cousin's house as we couldn't get one. In fact, no one ever gave us a debrief on how to win that game and we really need to figure everything out ourselves. How I wish that I get to play such a game when I'm just a kid!

But do take note that in reality, things are not as simplified as the game itself. It's the idea that's important and when we know about the strategy, it actually takes much longer in reality to get the results when applied as our loan system isn't that simple. I'm still wondering, is there a Singapore version to this game?

Wealth & You

I personally would like to recommend the book "Nice Girls Don't Get Rich" to not just women but also to nice guys as well. Why? Because it's the nice factor in the play that doesn't make you rich, especially when you are too nice when it comes to money.

For example, you are taught to be nice instead of being powerful, so you give helping hand to almost everyone in your workplace and ended up doing everyone else's work on their behalf. That's what happen to the "便利贴女孩" initially in the "命中注定我爱你" show. She contributed her time, her life and even her money to whomever that are nice to her. Then they just took her for granted. She did the most work but she won't be considered for promotion or pay raise despite being the most hardworking of them all as she worked hard, not smart. And because she's too nice, she probably won't ask for even a well deserved pay raise. Just because she's probably not sure if she deserves it! How sad huh?

As for you, if you are still working and do want a pay raise, start asking for it! Before you ask, think of the ways and things you can do to justify the pay raise. I'm sure your boss would love to have you add more value to the company and towards their own promotion / pay raise. And this is the direction that you are looking at if you want a pay raise. Work towards proving your capability and get others to notice your capability!

• Start by making others notice you. Improve your image professionally. Dress as corporate as possible but it must match the way your boss or their superior dress. Follow their standard in order for your boss to see you as their par. (That's why one of my friends did and it works)
• Offer help to your boss as it's your boss that decides your promotion and pay raise, if you do have extra time. Of course, you have to do the additional task assigned to you well and finish at least slightly earlier than expected to make your boss more impressed and notice you.
• Be friends with your peers and respect each other.
• Avoid doing personal things in the office.
• Think of what else you can do that make you more deserving in the upcoming promotion or pay raise and ask for it especially during your appraisal period, or when you want it to happen. As long as you can justify and your boss agrees with you, he/she will be more willing help you on it.
• Build a good relationship with your boss so that he/she is more of a friend to you rather than enemy. They must like you as a person.

Good Luck!

Do the Self-Assessment in chapter 1 to find out more about your behaviour in terms of wealth. :)

Most importantly, you have to do some form of investment for your income or savings in order to achieve financial freedom and from then on, you would need to worry about your future anymore. See my financial freedom posts for more info.