Cheanu's Official Blog » Money Awareness http://blog.cheanu.com I'm passionate about leadership, personal finance, personal development, home-based business and living life. Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:56:56 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 The Difference http://blog.cheanu.com/money-awareness/the-difference/ http://blog.cheanu.com/money-awareness/the-difference/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:01:38 +0000 Cheanu http://blog.platinum4life.com/?p=222 Jean Chatzky says that anyone can prosper in even the toughest economic times… if they possess the key traits and abilities that will set them apart. She calls these traits The Difference, and in her new book Jean describes how you can go from the person who lives paycheck to paycheck to the person who lives in comfort.

Do you have The Difference? And, if not—how can you get it? Jean shares the eight things that matter most to help you become financially free.

Happiness and Optimism

Some people believe money leads to happiness. Not true. Once you’re living comfortably, more money doesn’t buy more happiness. The reverse, however, is true: Happiness leads to money. And success. Likewise, so does optimism. Both enable you to solve problems, conjure ideas, take long-range consequences into consideration and come back and try again if you miss the first time.

Resilience

People who have moved from a bad financial situation into comfort or wealth have resilience. They can overcome—on the job, in their personal lives, with their finances. They don’t deny the bad things that happen, but they’re able to turn their focus to things over which they have control with the belief that they have the ability to effect change. The good news is you don’t have to be born with resilience—you can learn it by controlling the things you can control and letting go of the others.

Connectedness

Ever heard of social capital? It’s the asset created when relationships between people change in ways that lead to action, generally for good. It’s an important component of The Difference, and the wealthy and financially comfortable not only have more of it than people living paycheck to paycheck, they know how to use it. They cast a wider net, socializing with neighbours, co-workers, people who can help them advance financially or in their careers. To get your share of social capital, you have to make time for people and put yourself forward as a leader.

Passion

It is a key element that moves people from a life of financial struggle to one of financial success. The wealthy, simply put, want it more than the rest of that. Some want it in the form of money, but most are quite passionate about the careers they choose to pursue. And, at a time where doing what you love may seem not so possible, it’s important to know you can learn to love what you do.

Intuition

Over the years, your brain has scored up scads of patterns, information that tells you that if one thing happens, something else is likely to follow. We feel these signals in our gut—and we call them hunches. They are really our intuition, a sixth sense that is more developed in the wealthy than in anyone else. You can learn to bring yours forward by adopting strategies like giving your intuition a little room to breathe: Jean herself says she has the best aha! moments when she’s not searching for them.

Habitual saving

The wealthy people in our study certainly have the funds to be crazy spenders, but most are not. Both wealthy and financially comfortable individuals say that saving more money has been an “absolutely essential” financial goal as an adult. If you’re not a habitual saver already, The Difference will show you how.

Invest in stocks

Jean did the research for this book when housing prices were cratering and the markets were falling out of the sky. Yet, one lesson emerged again and again: The wealthy understand the need to take risks in the market—in good times and in bad—in order to make their money work as hard as they do.

Gratitude

The Karma Kickback. The people who get rich—and stay rich—are not just grateful. They practice gratitude by giving back to their communities, to organizations they believe in and the people they care about. Even if you are thinking of something you view as mundane—like your job—when you think about it as a gift, you focus on what life might be if you didn’t have it.
Source: Jean Chatzky on Oprah.com

]]> http://blog.cheanu.com/money-awareness/the-difference/feed/ 0 4 Steps To Getting Richer http://blog.cheanu.com/money-awareness/4-steps-to-getting-richer/ http://blog.cheanu.com/money-awareness/4-steps-to-getting-richer/#comments Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:11:41 +0000 Cheanu http://blog.platinum4life.com/?p=161 Financial expert Jean Chatzky wants you to stop making excuses and get richer! She has four simple steps anyone can follow to the path of financial success.

1) Maximize Your Income

  • Set an income goal.
  • Ask for a raise.
  • Work an extra hour a week.
  • Learn more about making more.
Image via Wikipedia

2) Spend Less Than You Make

  • Pause before you purchase.
  • Pay bills on time.
  • Use a debit card.
  • Shop around.
  • Find extra money for your savings.

3) Invest Money You Don’t Spend

  • Save automatically.
  • Earn more interest.
  • Build your money confidence with Jean’s investment basics.

4) Protect Your Money

  • Get insurance.
  • Get a will.
  • Get an account in your name.
  • Learn how to better secure your future.
Source: Jean Chatzky on Oprah.com

Read also: How To Automate Your Income

]]> http://blog.cheanu.com/money-awareness/4-steps-to-getting-richer/feed/ 0 Standard Of Living Will Be Hit, Says Dr Mahathir http://blog.cheanu.com/money-awareness/standard-of-living-will-be-hit-says-dr-mahathir/ http://blog.cheanu.com/money-awareness/standard-of-living-will-be-hit-says-dr-mahathir/#comments Fri, 06 Jun 2008 22:00:37 +0000 Cheanu http://blog.platinum4life.com/?p=53 “There will be inflation and the standard of living will go down. That’s the effect the higher fuel prices will have on the people,” said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. “The rakyat is already burdened by the rising cost of living. We cannot justify the increase by saying that our fuel price is still lower than Singapore,” he said.*

Almost everyone I know are discussing, angry or complaining about the recent increase in petrol price in Malaysia. People are already contemplating to get by the increasing cost of transportation by suggesting various means such as car-pooling, buying a fuel-saving car, taking public transportations, or even cycling to work. Well, I must say that these are valid moves to reduce our daily expeneses. BUT… how long can we continue doing this to keep reducing our standard of living? This is a defensive financial approach towards our personal finances.

There is another way.

We should start taking the offensive financial approach instead, so that we will not be cornered at the end of the day, only to realize that we are in a serious state of financial disaster.

There are a lot of highly paid people who are still poor, or are drown in debts and high monthly commitments. They are not incapable people. In fact, most of them are at managerial levels or running a group of salespeople.

The main reason that had led to many people’s poor financial lives is that they are trading time with money.

Look around. What are those basic living expenses which had increased in price since the past 5 to 10 years? Are there any of your monthly expenses which had been increasing steadily within the past 5 to 10 years? How much had they increased? How much more do you think they will increase?

The only way we can keep coping up with the ever increasing cost of living while maintaining or increasing our standard of living, is to be offensive in our financial approach, and not to be defensive all the time.

Build Your Super Income Pipeline!

www.myunlimitedincome.com

Be different. Be respected.
Be a Platinum Networker.

* Source: The Star Online

]]> http://blog.cheanu.com/money-awareness/standard-of-living-will-be-hit-says-dr-mahathir/feed/ 0 Join The Wellness Revolution http://blog.cheanu.com/money-awareness/join-the-wellness-revolution/ http://blog.cheanu.com/money-awareness/join-the-wellness-revolution/#comments Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:18:04 +0000 Cheanu http://blog.platinum4life.com/?p=34 The Biggest, Fastest Business Trend in 2010—See It Now

How much would you pay for a glimpse of the future and
get into the trend before it starts to boom worldwide?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Check out—www.myunlimitedincome.com

]]> http://blog.cheanu.com/money-awareness/join-the-wellness-revolution/feed/ 0 I Need An Income Source That Outlives Me! http://blog.cheanu.com/money-awareness/i-need-an-income-source-that-outlives-me/ http://blog.cheanu.com/money-awareness/i-need-an-income-source-that-outlives-me/#comments Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:36:51 +0000 Cheanu http://blog.platinum4life.com/?p=21 “Do you know how much of monthly instalment I need to pay for all my debts? $10,000 a month! Just my past business loans and personal loans alone… not counting my monthly instalments for my car and house,” my friend Andrew* told me today. He’s in his 30′s with a wife around his age; a father to a 7-year-old boy. Andrew cried, “If something happens to me, how are my wife and son going to go through their lives?!”

“Do you know if there’s anything on earth that keeps paying my family long after I’m gone?” Andrew asked me. I replied without hesitation, “Yes, absolutely!”

Andrew owns a car accessories shop that can only be operated smoothly with his presence in the shop (much like almost all traditional businesses). His income can merely pay for his family’s basic living expenses. Since his wife is helping him in his shop, they have only one source of income—and that is from his shop that needs his attention to run daily.

I came across an interesting book later today, that read:

The rich create businesses;

The middle class create their own job; and

The poor work at a job.

This book then explained that:

  1. Rich people get richer because they created businesses that in the long-run are not attached to them. They can leave their businesses for as long as they wanted it and yet enjoy an income stream that keeps flowing in to their bank account even if they are not physically involved in running the business. This is the real meaning of “passive income”.
  2. People in the middle class get more in debt because they have not learned the real meaning of a business. Most of them came out of employment and started to venture into a business and tell the world, “I’m my own boss”. Yet what most of them didn’t realize is that they have merely created a job for themselves to work on. A job is never accomplished without you putting in your physical effort, and personal time to attend to it. And what’s more real is that, you don’t get paid if the job is not done. Eventually, the middle class end up having a “job” that they have created for themselves, believing that they are running a business (a business that is far from within the context of the rich’s definition) and get into deeper debt in the long-run due to the increasing bank/personal loans taken to maintain the business and the ever increasing interests that stack on year after year.
  3. The poor are at least a little better than the middle class because they don’t incur large debts as they didn’t even start their own business that needs large funding from banks and other financial institutions. They merely work for money, no matter how much they are paid—how high a position they are “labelled” by their employer—they are always trading time for money. If something happens to them that takes away their ability to work, e.g. major accident, technological advancement that replaces their job, company take-overs, mergers, retrenchments etc. they will suffer a permanent loss of income from their existing job. Of course, if they are still capable of working, they can keep looking for other jobs to start over again with, but the point here is that, they are still trading time for money. They can’t stop doing what they are doing or their income stream will stop flowing.

In short, the rich focus on the long-term. They have a vision for their future. They think of positive “what if’s” and act on the idea that provides them with a better future. They know it’s hard to work at something—anything—at the beginning. Their mindset is so different that they understand this: if it’s hard to work at anything at the beginning, why not work hard on something that is worth their hard work?

Why don’t you work on something that pays you and your family continuously even long after you’ve stopped putting effort and time into it? The rich understand the real meaning of “time-compression”.

That is why you can see the really wealthy ones are really hard-working in building a business. They understand the concept of “time-compression”. They are willing to put in extra time, extra effort and extra dedication to build their business at the beginning because once they’ve built it and it’s up and running, they can stop working so hard and still enjoy an everlasting income stream that keeps flowing in to their bank account. This is the “time-compression” concept. Otherwise, how do you think they get to maintain their wealthy lifestyle yet having the free time to enjoy their wealth as if they don’t have to work at all?

But the poor are hard-working in working at a job and the middle class are hard-working in maintaining the “job” they have created for themselves. If all the rich, the middle class and the poor stop working, only the rich gets paid over and over again, while the poor don’t get anything. Worse still, not only do the middle class don’t get anything if they have stopped working, they still need to pay up their ever increasing debts. Plus, they have much higher commitments than the poor due to a higher (and more costly) lifestyle. That’s why the middle class are in a more dangerous financial situation than the poor.

My friend, Andrew is a classic example of a typical family from the middle class. Those of you whose situation is similar to Andrew’s should take a serious look at the options you have in front of you and start doing something that the rich people do—build a real business.

As Andrew was desperate to find an answer, I said to him, “Why don’t you take a look at a business venture that pays you over and over again even after you’re long gone? At least you can be rest assured that your family will be taken care of because you know very well that you can inherit your income source to your love ones. What is a better gift to pass on to your love ones than a solid, consistent cash flow that keeps paying them even if they don’t have to work on it after you’re gone?”

“Take a look at www.myunlimitedincome.com today.

Because your future starts today.”

Be blessed.

* Note: Although this is a real story, however the name has been changed to protect the privacy of individual involved.

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