We begin this New Year with dampened enthusiasm and dented optimism. Our happiness is diluted and our peace is threatened by the financial illness that has infected our families, organizations and nations. Everyone is desperate to find a remedy that will cure their financial illness and help them recover their financial health. They expect the financial experts to provide them with remedies, forgetting the fact that it is these experts who created this financial mess.
Every new year, I adopt a couple of old maxims as my beacons to guide my future. This self-prescribed therapy has ensured that with each passing year, I grow wiser and not older. This year, I invite you to tap into the financial wisdom of our elders along with me, and become financially wiser.
* Hard work: All hard work bring a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.
* Laziness: A sleeping lobster is carried away by the water current.
* Earnings: Never depend on a single source of income. [At least make your Investments get you second earning]
* Spending: If you buy things you don't need, you'll soon sell things you need.
* Savings: Don't save what is left after spending; spend what is left after saving.
* Borrowings: The borrower becomes the lender's slave.
* Accounting: It's no use carrying an umbrella, if your shoes are leaking.
* Auditing: Beware of little expenses; A small leak can sink a large ship.
* Risk-taking: Never test the depth of the river with both feet. [Have an alternate plan ready]
* Investment: Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
I'm certain that those who have already been practicing these principles remain financially healthy. I'm equally confident that those who resolve to start practicing these principles will quickly regain their financial health.
Let us become wiser and lead a happy, healthy, prosperous and peaceful life.
My comments:
On savings, it does not apply to those who just make ends meet. If I earn just enough, how can I save before I spend?
On Borrowing, how true. Just heard of this food seller who made lots of money but is an inveterate gambler. He lost all and had to borrow from a loan shark. Now the loan shark made him his money-making slave rather than forcing him against the wall.
On spending, I am more inclined to relate to the second part 'you'll soon sell things you need' in terms of share investments. If I put all my money in shares (result of averaging costs), when I need money to spend, I am likely to sell those shares which have better prices, and these invariably are those better shares which I need as investments!
How should we judge a government?
In Malaysia, if you don't watch television or read newspapers, you are uninformed; but if you do, you are misinformed!
"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing." - Malcolm X
Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience - Mark Twain
Why we should be against censorship in a court of law: Publicity is the very soul of justice … it keeps the judge himself, while trying, under trial. - Jeremy Bentham
"Our government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no
responsibility at the other. " - Ronald Reagan
No comments:
Post a Comment