 |
| Starting the year with a bang! |
Leverage isn't just about money and can be a lot more. Taking the plane instead of driving may cost more, but the time saved is something that cannot be bought, that's leveraging to save time. The theme today is about time, how we spend our time defines our lives. Our comfort zone can leave us doing very little and our minds will in time give us plenty of reasons to be unproductive, leaving us to feel better of ourselves. If you look back in the last few years and can only think about a handful of things that you can be proud of, maybe you haven't leveraged on your time enough. Nobody in this world has the extra hour in a day so within the given 24, how much have you done? Put aside work, what have you done that you can proudly tell people or even proudly remind yourself? Rich Dad says people get rich at home, not at work. And yet, rich does not necessarily point to only money. Rich can also mean feeling the sense of fulfillment of what you value. So by no particular order, here are 10 things I think people should do for a more fulfilling 2016 and beyond.
1) Exercise and eat healthy
People who know me can easily associate me with being more health conscious compared to the average human being (although I might not be on the best side of the health charts). They tell me I only live once so I shouldn't think too much about what I eat. That will hold true in the short term. Having a longer view, you only live once, so don't mess it up with poor decision making. I've seen so many people regret things they have done in the past and there was no chance to recover from it. Knowledge and resources about good health are free over the internet, so the access to information is not the problem. The problem is getting people to understand the implications with their actions before it's too late. There are countless of articles about having a healthy intake. Don't worry, eating healthy and paying more attention to your food is not going to make you less happy, take my word for it. A little less fat, oil and sugar is going to make you happier than you know. Making it a habit of taking control of what you eat will feel effortless as time passes. The theme of food these days is to 'eat clean' and that's a great way of improving the quality of our intake. The same holds for exercising, there is no need to explain the benefits of exercising but the push to get people to do it. Exercise can take so many forms and is not necessary expensive. Last but not least, all will not be good without enough of the ZZZs. Staying healthy will be make everything better, yes, everything.
2) Be able to explain your financials in one minute
Savings, investment, insurance, loans, credit cards, emergency fund, retirement, good debt, bad debt
If you know what the above items mean, congratulations, you have paid some attention or immersed yourself with knowledge. But let's go one step further, can you locate all of the applicable items to you easily? Now that's where people get stuck. In her book Women & Money, Suze Orman says a person's life can be defined by how well they organise their belongings. If their things are in a mess, it probably reflects their life. That statement made such an impact on me that I made big changes after that. The idea is to clear all the clutter in life and consolidate all your important belongings, only then you'd be in a position to make a good plan. When your things get organised and you'll find new spaces in your life, house or room, that's when you will realise you've been surrounding yourself with a lot of deadwood and preventing better and newer things from coming into your life.
To do list
- If you have more than 5 bank accounts, it's highly likely some of them are inactive. Close all of them which you have not used in the last 6 months.
- Know every investment you have and consolidate all the latest statements to know the current market value. Reviewing your position and investment strategies comes next.
- Gather every insurance policy you have and summarise all the benefits and current cash value of each policy. Pay extra attention to insurance policies you are STILL paying every year. Seek the help of a financial planner or a knowledgeable person to evaluate whether what you are paying for is still relevant and sufficient with your current state. Review all policies every five years.
- Know exactly how much you are owing on every loan you have. Compile all the latest statements and know the latest balance. Have a look whether the current interest rate you are paying is competitive. Ensure all your loans are promptly paid. For 'bad debt' (as defined by Rich Dad) loans, if you happen to have any, pay extra attention to it. Try to restructure them to obtain the best effective rate. Review your commitments to see whether they are still manageable.
- Treat credit cards like bank accounts, cut up those you have not used in the last 6 months (of course remember to call up your bank). Less statements, less junk mail, less charges, less cards in your wallet, less security worries and more space in your mind for better things. Know your latest balance on your existing cards and make sure they are fully settled by the due date.
- Suze Orman defines an emergency fund as 8 months of your living expenses, including your loan installments . If you have that already, good on you. If you don't, it's time to build one.
- Compile all the statements of your retirement funds and know exactly the latest balances of the last 12 months. Review your retirement contributions yearly.
Taking control of your financials and facing the reality will give you the best chance to improve your financial position regardless where are you now. Time to get organised and you can definitely describe your financials in less than one minute!
3) Network
If there's is a recipe for success, networking will be very high up the list. If there is a way of getting up the 'ladder' in the corporate world, politics or society, networking would be most pivotal to getting there. Today, the internet is the most powerful tool in the world because it connects the entire world. By being the largest network in the world, the ability to leverage on it creates unlimited potential. Like how politicians attempt to network with people during their political campaigns, it's pretty obvious what they are trying to achieve. But networking doesn't have to be for a specific purpose, it can be something open ended. Some people boast about how many Facebook friends they have, but how many of them have they spoken to in the past year? Or how many of their phone numbers do you have? That number probably comes to half the 'actual' network that person has. Networking provides opportunities and references which makes life a lot easier. Think about the successful people that made it where they are because of one person in their life. It's only possibilities with networking and it's your effort to make it happen.
4) Read, more
The newspapers are a requirement so that's not sufficient to go further. Warren Buffet learned investing from Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor and the rest is history. Successful people read lots on their way to success and still do when they become successful. It is by no means a perfectly lit path to success after reading, but the enrichment from the content will get you far ahead and quicker. I've personally have been inspired by some fantastic books in the last few years. My best tip is to summarise the takeaways from books after intervals and that allows you to keep the positives you have read. Have a read at books that can bring you forward and get you to the next level. It's truly one of the biggest open secrets out there.
5) Learn a new skill
Sometimes what we don't know can be a source of our weakness and confidence. If one day at work they organise a salsa dancing competition, how would you feel? For a person like me who has zero dancing capabilities, I would be terrified and be feeling insecure. For people who are self-conscious (like me), I would be in a mental struggle. But what if you spent a month learning to dance factually learned how to? That feeling of accomplishment can be very positive for yourself mentality. Using a different part of your brain and having an additional skill will give you a feel good factor for a long time. When you reflect on it in the future, you'd be so glad you did it. Whether it's public speaking, playing a music instrument or even getting your car into a side parking, think about how good you'll feel once you could do it. Learning to cook and learning to change a guitar string by watching videos are some of things I've experienced and felt good about in recent years. There are many things you can do where failing doesn't cost much, so go for it!
6) Invest smart
The world revolves around money and undoubtedly having an extra digit in your bank account can change your life. Investing should not be confused with gambling although both carries risk. The biggest reason anyone should invest is to achieve financial freedom or at least financial security. There is no superior investment in this world, only superior investors. Asia's queen of property Renesial Leong is a great example of how wealth can be accumulated through real estate. She doesn't believe in the stock market, but does it mean it's not a good place? Well no. In fact, many billionaires in this world made their fortunes from listing their companies in the market. Of course, to them listed or not doesn't bother them too much as long as the business is doing well. Investing carries risk and that puts a lot of people away. From my point of view, risk of investing can be managed through proper education and experience. It's the investor who is risky, not the investment. People like Yap Ming Hui has pushed for money optimisation, which is the heart of financial planning. In short, money optimisation is to maximise your dollar given a certain amount of risk and that can even prevent any losses. Investing by using the proper tools and skills will reduce risk to manageable levels, while being able to generate most optimised returns. So if you intend to have fruits in your garden, it's time to plant the seeds and take good care of it.
7) Understand people
People skills bring people from good to great. Humans are by far the most complicated living creatures to understand because everyone is so different, even twins can be quite different. The skills of understanding people starts with empathy - the ability to share someone else's feelings. Empathy is the foundation of communication. I've learned from John Maxwell how people successfully communicate and how it made them great and effective leaders. Having the ability to understand people will get you closer to people and will give you a better perspective of YOURSELF. You'll start to understand which areas you are good and weak at. Taking steps to change yourself and understanding others for the better will ultimately lead you to having good people in your life. (This helps you with number 3 as well). Everyone Communicates, Few Connect by John Maxwell is a fantastic read to improve on this aspect.
"People don't know how much you know until they know much you care.". - John Maxwell
8) Be generous
It may sound counter-intuitive, but giving, not receiving, makes you happier. Firstly, a word about giving. Think about a type of business, what is the key function of that business? It's providing something, and that's giving (I didn't say for free). Let's say the business is a restaurant and it serves decent food for good value and serves hundreds of patrons a day, wouldn't 'giving' make the owners happy people? If the Apple iPhone inventors decided to keep the phone to themselves and be the few 'cool' ones on earth, how would their life turn out? Luckily for their generosity, everyone now knows Apple in a non-fruit definition. Being charitable, a form of giving, means we don't hope for anything in return, but rather we seek the satisfaction and happiness in giving. Giving is something that has to come from the heart, it needs to be real. When companies do CSR activities, people will think whether they are doing it for a good cause or trying to improve their image. But regardless which way it is, the act of giving is already a good step. For those of us who are lucky to be where we are, how about making an impact by giving back to cause that we care about. Not everyone in this world is naturally generous, but it doesn't take one to give back.
9) Bring those dreams back
If there is a reason why we don't do things what we love, I can assure you one of the answers is not having the time. Dreams will remain dreams if we do nothing about it. Do yourself a favour and write down or even draw out what you dream of. Do you dare to describe your dreams? If you can't, then achieving it will have zero chance. Think about your childhood or even times that have passed, is there anything you've always wanted? Like a trip to Maldives or meeting someone famous. You'll be surprised that you could struggle to put a list out because you never put enough believe in it. Time to remind yourself of your dreams and take action!
10) Practice Buddhism
For the benefit of doubt, I used the word Buddhism instead of meditation because Buddhism is a 'state of mind' or a 'way of life'. To my understanding it does not relate to a religion. Robin Sharma's The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari taught me about building spiritual strength and how we take control of our minds to achieve happiness in life. The 'state of mind' achieved by Siddhartha Gautama (also known as Buddha) remains the pinnacle of what the people practicing Buddhism are trying to achieve. The state of Enlightenment is achieved through the practice and development of morality, meditation and wisdom. Only our actions, what we say and what we do, can determine whether we are practicing Buddhism, not merely how consistent we are with our prayers (That's my view). In short, always do what is right in life and meditate for good spirituality.
Bonus: Be Thankful
The past few years in our lives would be very different if we compared with different people. What I realise over the past few years is how infrequent we take the time to count our blessings and express our gratitude towards people who have helped us along the way. We've seen so much agonising and horrific events taking place in this world. It's become too easy to take what we have for granted. Let's take the time to be grateful with what we have and make the extra effort to show people that we appreciate and are thankful to them.
It has taken awhile for me to learn life lessons along the way and I'm glad to be quoting from some of the best lessons I've acquired along the way. I hope the ideas I have put forward will be of good value to you. Have a great 2016! Thank you for reading.
~deyao~
It has taken awhile for me to learn life lessons along the way and I'm glad to be quoting from some of the best lessons I've acquired along the way. I hope the ideas I have put forward will be of good value to you. Have a great 2016! Thank you for reading.
~deyao~
