LOVE/RELATIONSHIPS:
Take away love, and our earth is a tomb.
--Robert Browning
LEADERSHIP/SUCCESS:
Outstanding leaders go out of the way to boost the
self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe
in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish.
--Sam Walton
MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION:
The world is moved not only by the mighty shoves of
the heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny
pushes of each honest worker.
--Helen Keller
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
POSITIVE THOUGHTS FOR TODAY
LOVE/RELATIONSHIPS:
Be curious, not judgmental.
-Walt Whitman
LEADERSHIP/SUCCESS:
The great use of life is to spend it
for something that will outlast it.
-William James
MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION:
All life is an experiment.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Be curious, not judgmental.
-Walt Whitman
LEADERSHIP/SUCCESS:
The great use of life is to spend it
for something that will outlast it.
-William James
MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION:
All life is an experiment.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
SOAR AS HIGH AS YOU LIKE
SOAR AS HIGH AS YOU LIKE – BUT FOR GOD’S SAKE,
GET YOUR SAFETY NET IN PLACE FIRST!
by Rajen Devadason
Money isn’t the most important thing in life,
but it’s reasonably close to oxygen on the ‘gotta have it’ scale.
Zig Ziglar
Have you ever been to the circus and watched aerial artistes go through their motions on a high wire act?
If so, you should also have noticed, at least in passing, that the safety net strung out directly below the acrobats serves a rather important function.
To succeed in our financial lives, we too need a ‘safety net’. In my Malaysia-based financial planning practice, I insist that each carefully selected client puts in place a reserve fund of between 3 and 12 months’ expenses.
I call this reserve fund an emergency buffer account. Its purpose is to provide fiscal and emotional stability during times of economic upheaval.
You see, for most of us normal people, our biggest asset is not anything that shows up in a conventional net worth statement.
A net worth statement is nothing more than a simple listing of material assets and liabilities, which allows for quick calculation of your net worth position. (It’s quick because your net worth is mathematically derived by this simple formula:
NET WORTH = ASSETS minus LIABILITIES
Typical items that show up on the plus side of a net worth statement are key assets like cash, stocks, mutual funds or unit trusts, vehicles, gold, real estate and jewellery. Normal liability line items are home mortgages, credit card balances, car loans and family loans.
All these are important, but the biggest asset a person has is not one of the key assets I mentioned. The biggest asset for most of us is our capacity to earn money for 20, 30 or 40 years at our jobs.
Yet, let’s face it, most of the money most of us will ever earn quickly evaporates as personal expenses, interest charges or taxes.
Clearly, to be successful financially, we have to reduce that seemingly persistent rate of evaporation. Let me be blunt:
Our long-term future wealth can only be built from the bricks and mortar of the financial surplus we set aside each month.
This surplus should usually be invested in assets that fluctuate in value. It has been historically proven through more than 200 years of equity market data that those who are most able to ride the ups and downs of markets are the ones who tend to accumulate the most wealth.
But to be able to ride those nerve-wracking but eventually profitable fluctuations, you must have a safety net whose strong strands are made of cold hard cash. This safety net is your emergency buffer account.
However, if you’re concerned that you don’t know enough about investing to risk putting down real money in real investment markets, then what you need as much as an emergency buffer account is an education programme.
My FREE e-book 26 Books to Take YOU All the Way to the TOP! is an ideal resource to help you begin a five-year self-study programme in personal finance, economics and investing.
You are welcome to download this e-book at the main page of http://www.rajendevadason.com. Just scroll down to the E-bookstore section, click on its icon, and follow the download instructions.
Now, as I was saying about the ups and downs of markets, you will find that fluctuations in investment asset values usually go hand in hand with the dips and rises of the general economy.
The perverse side of Nature that has caused Murphy’s Law (‘if anything can go wrong, it will’) to gain such wide prominence is that in most cases when you need extra cash because of a downturn in your personal, internal economy, the entire external economy also chooses that moment to falter.
The only way to safely ride the bumps in our economies - general and specific - is to have our financial safety net in place.
So, look at your own circumstances, check your various bank balances, other savings and investment balances and figure out just how long you can last if a catastrophe takes place today that stops you from actively earning a living for one full year.
Be honest now, can you last a week, a month, three months, six months, nine months, or a year?
Only you can answer that question.
I hope you do just that because the answer you give the person you see in the mirror will help you confront honestly where you are in your life’s financial journey.
Again, your willingness to invest resources in educating yourself is directly correlated to your chances of long-term success in the financial arena. If you see yourself as a rookie in this field, then my very first book, Your A-Z Guide to the Stock Market – And all You Need to Know About Capital Terms, is a great resource. It contains 1,001 terms that are usefully cross-linked to help you take a self-directed journey of financial self-education. (If you would like to order a copy, do drop my associate Steven Poh an email at mailto:steven@i2media.com.my).
PRACTICAL STEPS YOU CAN TAKE!
Now, here are my guidelines on emergency buffer establishment for your consideration:
If you are employed by an established, healthy company that is unlikely to go bust anytime soon, put in place savings amounting to between three and six months’ normal expenses. If your boss loves you to bits and can’t get along without you, three months is plenty. But if your boss would love nothing better than to tear you to bits and spit out the pieces, err on the high side!
If you are self-employed, running your own business, make sure you have at least six months’ expenses available in savings if your business is in good shape with many clients who pay on time. If business is shaky, then opt for an increased buffer size. Having a full year’s reserves is generally more than enough for most people.
Warning: It may take as long as three years to build this buffer. So, keep at it and save diligently.
And remember, your emergency buffer is for emergencies, not for exciting ‘opportunities’ like a great sale at the local department store! Having your buffer will give you financial stability.
This stability will help you weather the ups and downs of the investment markets.
Just one point before I conclude: If you currently have very little saved as a buffer, you are in a financially precarious position.
It is imperative that you reduce your near-term expenses and build up your reserves as fast as you can to your targeted sum.
For most people, doing so usually takes anything from 12 to 36 months. It’ll be a long slog, unless you suddenly have a massive bonus land on your lap or have an investment go ballistic.
Do yourself a favour. Don’t bank on or hope for some strange occurrence to provide you with the funds needed to weave that safety net. Just do the work and set the money aside in a safe place where yields may be low but certainty of return is high.
GET YOUR SAFETY NET IN PLACE FIRST!
by Rajen Devadason
Money isn’t the most important thing in life,
but it’s reasonably close to oxygen on the ‘gotta have it’ scale.
Zig Ziglar
Have you ever been to the circus and watched aerial artistes go through their motions on a high wire act?
If so, you should also have noticed, at least in passing, that the safety net strung out directly below the acrobats serves a rather important function.
To succeed in our financial lives, we too need a ‘safety net’. In my Malaysia-based financial planning practice, I insist that each carefully selected client puts in place a reserve fund of between 3 and 12 months’ expenses.
I call this reserve fund an emergency buffer account. Its purpose is to provide fiscal and emotional stability during times of economic upheaval.
You see, for most of us normal people, our biggest asset is not anything that shows up in a conventional net worth statement.
A net worth statement is nothing more than a simple listing of material assets and liabilities, which allows for quick calculation of your net worth position. (It’s quick because your net worth is mathematically derived by this simple formula:
NET WORTH = ASSETS minus LIABILITIES
Typical items that show up on the plus side of a net worth statement are key assets like cash, stocks, mutual funds or unit trusts, vehicles, gold, real estate and jewellery. Normal liability line items are home mortgages, credit card balances, car loans and family loans.
All these are important, but the biggest asset a person has is not one of the key assets I mentioned. The biggest asset for most of us is our capacity to earn money for 20, 30 or 40 years at our jobs.
Yet, let’s face it, most of the money most of us will ever earn quickly evaporates as personal expenses, interest charges or taxes.
Clearly, to be successful financially, we have to reduce that seemingly persistent rate of evaporation. Let me be blunt:
Our long-term future wealth can only be built from the bricks and mortar of the financial surplus we set aside each month.
This surplus should usually be invested in assets that fluctuate in value. It has been historically proven through more than 200 years of equity market data that those who are most able to ride the ups and downs of markets are the ones who tend to accumulate the most wealth.
But to be able to ride those nerve-wracking but eventually profitable fluctuations, you must have a safety net whose strong strands are made of cold hard cash. This safety net is your emergency buffer account.
However, if you’re concerned that you don’t know enough about investing to risk putting down real money in real investment markets, then what you need as much as an emergency buffer account is an education programme.
My FREE e-book 26 Books to Take YOU All the Way to the TOP! is an ideal resource to help you begin a five-year self-study programme in personal finance, economics and investing.
You are welcome to download this e-book at the main page of http://www.rajendevadason.com. Just scroll down to the E-bookstore section, click on its icon, and follow the download instructions.
Now, as I was saying about the ups and downs of markets, you will find that fluctuations in investment asset values usually go hand in hand with the dips and rises of the general economy.
The perverse side of Nature that has caused Murphy’s Law (‘if anything can go wrong, it will’) to gain such wide prominence is that in most cases when you need extra cash because of a downturn in your personal, internal economy, the entire external economy also chooses that moment to falter.
The only way to safely ride the bumps in our economies - general and specific - is to have our financial safety net in place.
So, look at your own circumstances, check your various bank balances, other savings and investment balances and figure out just how long you can last if a catastrophe takes place today that stops you from actively earning a living for one full year.
Be honest now, can you last a week, a month, three months, six months, nine months, or a year?
Only you can answer that question.
I hope you do just that because the answer you give the person you see in the mirror will help you confront honestly where you are in your life’s financial journey.
Again, your willingness to invest resources in educating yourself is directly correlated to your chances of long-term success in the financial arena. If you see yourself as a rookie in this field, then my very first book, Your A-Z Guide to the Stock Market – And all You Need to Know About Capital Terms, is a great resource. It contains 1,001 terms that are usefully cross-linked to help you take a self-directed journey of financial self-education. (If you would like to order a copy, do drop my associate Steven Poh an email at mailto:steven@i2media.com.my).
PRACTICAL STEPS YOU CAN TAKE!
Now, here are my guidelines on emergency buffer establishment for your consideration:
If you are employed by an established, healthy company that is unlikely to go bust anytime soon, put in place savings amounting to between three and six months’ normal expenses. If your boss loves you to bits and can’t get along without you, three months is plenty. But if your boss would love nothing better than to tear you to bits and spit out the pieces, err on the high side!
If you are self-employed, running your own business, make sure you have at least six months’ expenses available in savings if your business is in good shape with many clients who pay on time. If business is shaky, then opt for an increased buffer size. Having a full year’s reserves is generally more than enough for most people.
Warning: It may take as long as three years to build this buffer. So, keep at it and save diligently.
And remember, your emergency buffer is for emergencies, not for exciting ‘opportunities’ like a great sale at the local department store! Having your buffer will give you financial stability.
This stability will help you weather the ups and downs of the investment markets.
Just one point before I conclude: If you currently have very little saved as a buffer, you are in a financially precarious position.
It is imperative that you reduce your near-term expenses and build up your reserves as fast as you can to your targeted sum.
For most people, doing so usually takes anything from 12 to 36 months. It’ll be a long slog, unless you suddenly have a massive bonus land on your lap or have an investment go ballistic.
Do yourself a favour. Don’t bank on or hope for some strange occurrence to provide you with the funds needed to weave that safety net. Just do the work and set the money aside in a safe place where yields may be low but certainty of return is high.
DON’T LET GO OF YOUR DREAMS
DON’T LET GO OF YOUR DREAMS – NOT AGAIN!
by Rajen Devadason
Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there,
wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to
dream before.
Edgar Allan Poe
You wake up screaming!
Your spouse calms you down; reassuring you it was just another nightmare.
Even as you settle back and start drifting into slumber again, you wonder why the only dreams you have nowadays are bad ones.
What happened to your once fertile imagination that was able to conjure exciting, almost always enjoyable dreams; pleasurable mental movies you could play against the screen of your inner eyelids day or night, awake or asleep?
The problem so many of us face in daily life is one of encroaching walls; figurative rock faces that creep toward us inexorably, leaving us with less and less room to manoeuvre.
If you remember the trash compressor scene in Star Wars where Han Solo, Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker are trapped, we’ll be on the same wavelength!
When we were younger, it seemed our imaginations allowed us to roam the world, making it our stage or better yet our playground.
But we allowed ourselves to grow up - and not always in the right way. Many of us have lost the ability to dream big, great dreams that fuel mental excursions.
And that’s tragic, because those exciting journeys within our skulls are the only things that permit us to grow beyond the normal confines of our too often drab lives.
Thankfully, none of us has totally lost that ability to dream and imagine. I can prove it!
When you’re stuck behind a desk that seems to have grown shackles that attach themselves to your ankles and wrists, don’t you readily dream of a better place, a better way of life?
The problem is those dreams tend not to last too long. Someone or something is always crashing into our reality, bringing us back to earth with a rather hard bump.
But if we want to lay claim to a life that is bigger than the one we now live, we must recapture that long-lost childhood facility to dream good dreams for sustained periods.
You see, being able to see beyond things as they are now, through rosy mists of future probability and then perceiving them as they might be, is the common denominator of life’s big winners.
If they can do it, so can you, because all of humanity shares that God-given endowment. As Stephen Covey puts it, “In addition to self-awareness, we have imagination - the ability to create in our minds beyond our present reality.”
If you use your ability to imagine properly, it will expand into one of the most potent time management tools at your disposal - your capacity to idealise and dream of a better future.
Of course, we all know people who do nothing but dream. I’m not asking you to become such an airhead. I’m saying you need to give yourself permission to look beyond perhaps the grey, drab walls of your existence and ask yourself if this is the rich, abundant life God created you for.
Most people would have to say NO.
That would be a great first step.
The second is to grant yourself permission to daydream actively for short spells at a time - even if it is only for 30 seconds while stuck in a traffic jam. (Of course, if you commute to work using public transport, you have even more time at your disposal.)
So, get a dedicated little notebook and jot down whatever comes to mind during these brief, but precious mental excursions.
MY OWN EXPERIENCE
I remember doing a similar exercise about a decade ago, when I felt trapped in a great paying job that was nonetheless squeezing every drop of joy out of my life.
And so I dreamt and wrote, wrote and dreamt, and then wrote some more.
If you think that a similar exercise will help you detect what’s important to you, then you really should get to know yourself better by tapping into your dream bank.
I consider this so important that Step 2 in my e-book 5 Steps to a Saner Life is DREAM.
Most people know how to dream at night. But they have a problem retaining their far more vital lifetime dreams within a solid framework for awakened review.
Such a pragmatic framework allows those who know how to go about it well to follow up on those dreams, to prioritise them, then to take action on the most exciting ones.
Are you among those who want to recapture lost dreams but are not sure how to do so? Then, 5 Steps to a Saner Life includes a starter list of such dreams. It contains the outrageous mingled with the challenging and practical. You can buy your own copy of this great e-book by returning to the main page of http://www.rajendevadason.com, and scrolling down to the E-bookstore section.
After a long while of working through practical exercises of dream harvesting, I began noticing a pattern in where my thoughts kept taking me.
I spent a long time charting my dreams and thoughts. Then came the time to stop dreaming and to take action!
I had to gather my courage and walk away from the security of that soul-sapping high-paying job onto a path only dimly lit by the lamp of those written dreams.
Since then, some months, even years, have been very hard. But looking back, it’s been worth it to get from there to here.
I’m not asking you to quit your job. Just to give yourself permission to start to dream again.
And then to have the courage to pursue the right dreams.
In this context, I love what Benjamin Franklin once wrote, “To be thrown upon one’s own resources is to be cast into the very lap of fortune; for our faculties then undergo a development and display an energy of which they were previously unsusceptible.”
And so, the way I see it, finding the courage to reignite your latent ability to dream and having the discipline to record those dreams is just a tiny, tiny step away from giving yourself permission to truly start living again!
by Rajen Devadason
Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there,
wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to
dream before.
Edgar Allan Poe
You wake up screaming!
Your spouse calms you down; reassuring you it was just another nightmare.
Even as you settle back and start drifting into slumber again, you wonder why the only dreams you have nowadays are bad ones.
What happened to your once fertile imagination that was able to conjure exciting, almost always enjoyable dreams; pleasurable mental movies you could play against the screen of your inner eyelids day or night, awake or asleep?
The problem so many of us face in daily life is one of encroaching walls; figurative rock faces that creep toward us inexorably, leaving us with less and less room to manoeuvre.
If you remember the trash compressor scene in Star Wars where Han Solo, Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker are trapped, we’ll be on the same wavelength!
When we were younger, it seemed our imaginations allowed us to roam the world, making it our stage or better yet our playground.
But we allowed ourselves to grow up - and not always in the right way. Many of us have lost the ability to dream big, great dreams that fuel mental excursions.
And that’s tragic, because those exciting journeys within our skulls are the only things that permit us to grow beyond the normal confines of our too often drab lives.
Thankfully, none of us has totally lost that ability to dream and imagine. I can prove it!
When you’re stuck behind a desk that seems to have grown shackles that attach themselves to your ankles and wrists, don’t you readily dream of a better place, a better way of life?
The problem is those dreams tend not to last too long. Someone or something is always crashing into our reality, bringing us back to earth with a rather hard bump.
But if we want to lay claim to a life that is bigger than the one we now live, we must recapture that long-lost childhood facility to dream good dreams for sustained periods.
You see, being able to see beyond things as they are now, through rosy mists of future probability and then perceiving them as they might be, is the common denominator of life’s big winners.
If they can do it, so can you, because all of humanity shares that God-given endowment. As Stephen Covey puts it, “In addition to self-awareness, we have imagination - the ability to create in our minds beyond our present reality.”
If you use your ability to imagine properly, it will expand into one of the most potent time management tools at your disposal - your capacity to idealise and dream of a better future.
Of course, we all know people who do nothing but dream. I’m not asking you to become such an airhead. I’m saying you need to give yourself permission to look beyond perhaps the grey, drab walls of your existence and ask yourself if this is the rich, abundant life God created you for.
Most people would have to say NO.
That would be a great first step.
The second is to grant yourself permission to daydream actively for short spells at a time - even if it is only for 30 seconds while stuck in a traffic jam. (Of course, if you commute to work using public transport, you have even more time at your disposal.)
So, get a dedicated little notebook and jot down whatever comes to mind during these brief, but precious mental excursions.
MY OWN EXPERIENCE
I remember doing a similar exercise about a decade ago, when I felt trapped in a great paying job that was nonetheless squeezing every drop of joy out of my life.
And so I dreamt and wrote, wrote and dreamt, and then wrote some more.
If you think that a similar exercise will help you detect what’s important to you, then you really should get to know yourself better by tapping into your dream bank.
I consider this so important that Step 2 in my e-book 5 Steps to a Saner Life is DREAM.
Most people know how to dream at night. But they have a problem retaining their far more vital lifetime dreams within a solid framework for awakened review.
Such a pragmatic framework allows those who know how to go about it well to follow up on those dreams, to prioritise them, then to take action on the most exciting ones.
Are you among those who want to recapture lost dreams but are not sure how to do so? Then, 5 Steps to a Saner Life includes a starter list of such dreams. It contains the outrageous mingled with the challenging and practical. You can buy your own copy of this great e-book by returning to the main page of http://www.rajendevadason.com, and scrolling down to the E-bookstore section.
After a long while of working through practical exercises of dream harvesting, I began noticing a pattern in where my thoughts kept taking me.
I spent a long time charting my dreams and thoughts. Then came the time to stop dreaming and to take action!
I had to gather my courage and walk away from the security of that soul-sapping high-paying job onto a path only dimly lit by the lamp of those written dreams.
Since then, some months, even years, have been very hard. But looking back, it’s been worth it to get from there to here.
I’m not asking you to quit your job. Just to give yourself permission to start to dream again.
And then to have the courage to pursue the right dreams.
In this context, I love what Benjamin Franklin once wrote, “To be thrown upon one’s own resources is to be cast into the very lap of fortune; for our faculties then undergo a development and display an energy of which they were previously unsusceptible.”
And so, the way I see it, finding the courage to reignite your latent ability to dream and having the discipline to record those dreams is just a tiny, tiny step away from giving yourself permission to truly start living again!
Thursday, April 06, 2006
INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHTS
Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one so that when we finally meet the right person, we will know how to be grateful for that gift.
******************************************
When the door of happiness closes, another opens, but often times we look so long at the closed door that we don't see the one which has been opened for us.
******************************************
It's true that we don't know what we've got until we lose it, but it's also true that we don't know what we've been missing until it arrives.
******************************************
Always put yourself in others' shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it probably hurts the other person, too.
******************************************
The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.
******************************************
Happiness lies for those who cry, those who hurt, those who have searched, and those who have tried, for only they can appreciate the importance of people who have touched their lives. Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss and ends with a tear. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past, you can't go on well in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.
******************************************
source : www.superlaugh.com
Contributed by nitya
******************************************
When the door of happiness closes, another opens, but often times we look so long at the closed door that we don't see the one which has been opened for us.
******************************************
It's true that we don't know what we've got until we lose it, but it's also true that we don't know what we've been missing until it arrives.
******************************************
Always put yourself in others' shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it probably hurts the other person, too.
******************************************
The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.
******************************************
Happiness lies for those who cry, those who hurt, those who have searched, and those who have tried, for only they can appreciate the importance of people who have touched their lives. Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss and ends with a tear. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past, you can't go on well in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.
******************************************
source : www.superlaugh.com
Contributed by nitya
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
DAILY POSITIVE THOUGHTS 4.4.06
LOVE/RELATIONSHIPS:
Don't marry the person you think you can live with;
marry only the individual you think you can't live
without. --James C. Dobson
LEADERSHIP/SUCCESS:
Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried
is the true failure. --George E. Woodberry
MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION:
In faith there is enough light for those who want to
believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't.
--Blaise Pascal
Don't marry the person you think you can live with;
marry only the individual you think you can't live
without. --James C. Dobson
LEADERSHIP/SUCCESS:
Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried
is the true failure. --George E. Woodberry
MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION:
In faith there is enough light for those who want to
believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't.
--Blaise Pascal
Saturday, April 01, 2006
DAILY POSITIVE QUOTES
LOVE/RELATIONSHIPS:
The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.
--Gilbert K. Chesterton
LEADERSHIP/SUCCESS:
What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a flair
for the thing that you are doing; knowing that it is not
enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain
sense of purpose. --Margaret Thatcher
MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION:
If you take responsibility for yourself you will develop
a hunger to accomplish your dreams. --Les Brown
The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.
--Gilbert K. Chesterton
LEADERSHIP/SUCCESS:
What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a flair
for the thing that you are doing; knowing that it is not
enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain
sense of purpose. --Margaret Thatcher
MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION:
If you take responsibility for yourself you will develop
a hunger to accomplish your dreams. --Les Brown
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