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Friday, October 31, 2008

Thus, the amount of money that you want to make, and do make during your lifetime of working, is dependent upon your beliefs, attitudes, values, and career choices. If you value helping people in need, you can anticipate a particular salary over the course of your career. As long as your values are more important than what you are paid, your choice is fine. But, you cannot set a goal of making a million dollars a year, make a career choice that pays $40,000 per year, and expect to be happy with your career decisions and the money you make over time.

Almost everyone thinks that they should make more money than they do. But the amount of money you are paid by your employer is dependant upon a number of factors discussed in: The Scoop on Salary Increases: What Pay Raise Can You Expect From Your Employer?.

About’s Joshua Kennon tells you: How to Become Wealthy: Nine Truths That Can Set You on the Path to Financial Freedom. I’m writing these tips to help you have the money you need to follow his strategies. He and I agree on the first step you need to take to make more money.

Change How You Think About Money to Increase Income Potential

Money is what you are paid to do a job and accomplish goals for an employer. Or, money is the salary you pay yourself as a self-employed business person. Money is neither the root of all evil nor is it a panacea for all of your pains and the world’s ills. It is simply a tool that allows you to attain the standard of living you choose to pursue.

Money enables you to provide for your family’s basic needs and to raise and educate your children. Money allows you to support philanthropic causes about which you are passionate. Money allows you to travel, purchase items you want in your life, and pursue hobbies and interests that engage you. Money allows you to retire some day if you choose.

Consequently, getting more money is not just okay; it’s fundamental to the plans you have for your life. Asking for a higher salary when you change jobs is expected. Requesting an increase in pay from your current employer is your right. Choosing a career that will pay a higher salary and thus, a higher lifetime income, is all right.

Change How You Think About Yourself to Increase Income Potential

While you don't want to define your character by the amount of money you make, you do need to have the mind set that whatever you can earn, you are worth. If you think of yourself as a $30,000 a year employee, $100,000 is quite a mind leap. Be prepared to make the choices throughout your career that will enhance your ability to earn more money. As an example, asking your manager for a raise can daunt the courage of even the most confident person. Yet, if you never ask for a raise, you are "settling" for what your organization offers you.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

How Low Can The Bourse Go

The global economy turmoil has cause most of the stocks breaking few year low. And the low keep going lower. Then a lot of people started asking me, "Do you think it is time to buy stocks now?" Well, I do not know. In fact, no one will know how low can these stocks get. During the pessimistic environment, those financial advisor or economist will reduce or downgrade certain companies. It always happen this way. When it is good, they will say that there is possibility of reaching higher and higher, until it burst. Then during economy turmoil or bearish environment, they will say, the low will get lower. The only thing we can do to avoid losses is to accumulate the stocks of prospective companies and to average down when it gets lower. Only we ourselves know how risky we want our investment to be and judge the situation with full of wisdom. Remember...... "Price is what you pay. Value is what you get." by Warren Buffett? This quote is to remind us that we are to judge how much we are willing to pay for the share of a company and how we see the value in it. Remember, opportunity always come and knock on our doors. If we think we cannot lose, then it is best to stay away from the stocks until we are comfortable. Else, we can start to accumulate, and when it rallies.......we sell on strength. Even if it does not rally, we can hold and keep for long term, provided the investment is not based on speculation. Or we can set a cut-loss point if it is speculation type of investment. Always remember.......we will not know how low it can go before it moves up.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Going Green Can Save Money As Well

Over the weeks, I've been thinking what else we can do to earn more money besides working, investment etc. To earn more money, the easiest way is to invest. But as a salary drawing guy, the capital that I have is actually quite limited. Most of my salary will go to monthly commitment like car loan, education loan and also daily expenses like food. The leftover of the money is either for investment or savings purposes. This could mean only one thing, reducing expenses will automatically increase the amount for investments. How to reduce expenses when most of my expenses already fixed? Can it be further reduced? Then I realized that actually going green can also reduce my expenses a little though not very significant. How am I going to implement going green project?

First of course is to reduce the usage of my car. By reducing the usage of my car, we can reduce the CO2 and CO emission. Next thing that come in my mind is reducing electricity. I'm trying to save energy as much as possible, which is why I will take a look at the need of some of the electronic devices that I have. Do I need to use my laptop? Yes, of course, it's for my work. Do I need to use my desktop? Well, I do go online some time using my desktop, but I can actually try to reduce the usage of the desktop. I also need to take a look at the necessity of my bluetooth headset, which i use it most of the time when I drive back to Ipoh from Kulim. Do bluetooth headset a necessity? I believe that the normal headset is sufficient. Although nowadays, people are pushing towards wireless, I believe normal headset is as good as the bluetooth headset.

Going green not only push towards energy conservation. I also plan to eat more green food, vegetables and less meat. My cholesterol level was a bit high during my last medical checkup, which prompt me to eat healthier. Well, seems now I can get my plan going by reducing meat and have more vegetables. Besides eating healthier, I get to save some money also. I remember that vegetables cost a lot cheaper than meat. In my cafe alone, most vegetables are priced at RM1.00 or RM1.20 compares to the chicken which cost about RM1.60 to RM 2.00. 60 cents different could lead to about RM36 of savings monthly if I stick to my current appetite of ordering about 3 different dishes per day.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Tackling the transport costs

Phew.....will be getting a long break. 2 public holidays for Hari Raya, an annual leave and 2 weekends break. When I came back yesterday, I read Personal Money on tackling the transportation costs in the midst of petrol price hike. There are a few ways to tackle, one which is going natural, which means using the natural gas vehicles (NGVs). While NGVs seem to be a real money savers, do take note that in Malaysia, only SELECTED Petronas stations have the pump. So, you will need to join the queue of taxis. Besides that, there's the cost of installing the tank and the system to the car, which can cost a bomb, and will void the warranty given by the car manufacturers. If the car no longer have the warranty given by the car manufacturer, one can opt to install, but the real question is, will this really save a lot of money in the long run, after the Petronas given the comment that the price of NGV might go up accordingly with the petrol price. Secondly, we can opt for Hybrid cars - green cars. But as we all know, the price of a hybrid is beyond the reach of an average salary man. Finally, we can also opt to buy better fuel consumption cars like Vios and City, and currently Perodua is promoting Viva and Myvi as fuel friendly cars. One must realize that Vios and City are not cheap, and Viva and Myvi is without the boot, which can be a real issue when it comes to long holiday where we need to pack the boot with our luggages. So, there's a lot of ways to tackle the transport costs, but the issue is, when we try to reduce the transportation costs, are we at the same time increasing other expenses? One very clear example is getting a City and Vios. Both car cost about RM80k and the service is slightly higher than the local cars like Perodua and Proton. Local cars only cost about 40-60k. There is actually no specific answer to this. It's all depending on the individuals. Some are saying taking public transportation. But do public transportation in Malaysia really convenient? Maybe one can try to be in my shoes, and see whether public transport exist.