These wise words came from Bill Gates, a person that needs no further introduction, somebody who had helped to change the world that we live in today over the past 20-30 years. How does this line of wisdom impacted me ? Well, simply, as I started moving into the arena of teaching and mentoring, with the confidence, skills and experiences in the field, it would be an easy trap into

~ “We think We Know Everything, in fact, We Don’t” ~

Does success make us so much better than the rest that we don’t seek to continuously improve our current skills and knowledge ? Do we think too smart of ourselves ? Have we grown too complacent ?

2010 has been earmarked as my year of mentoring friends and in 1 field of my skill and expertise, I took up the challenge with pride and honour, accepting students in photography, from a National Youth Achievement Award candidate to friends who recently entered into DSLR. Till date, I would have 4 students However, that does not mean that I know everything in photography yet, now I am exploring lomography, studio lighting and portraiture photography. Besides that, I have helped out with junior photographers that just entered the industry.

What other areas have I been involved in mentoring ?

- Blogs setup and advisory , SEO, Social Media

- Blog shop setup and advisory, internet marketing

When I stepped into this arena, it’s not daunting, it’s like a pilgrimage, a journey of an entrepreneur, Pay It Forward, Helping and teaching people, sharing the skills and knowledge. By transferring, teaching, guiding and mentoring, I will bring my current skills and knowledge to the next higher level too !

The financial crisis, the causes and aftermath are well documented and researched in today’s highly connected world, google any key words and many information and data would be easily available. It’s VERY IMPORTANT that we learned the harsh lessons of the financial crisis, realised our mistakes and remedy them, before we can embark on the road to recovery (that might be going slow).

First and foremost, remembering how it started, the timeline of the crisis done by CNN Business and Global Recession Timeline by BBC News, learning lessons of Lehman and 5 Lessons from the CRASH, great information and financial planning lessons for ALL. Do drop by this special insight reports by BBC News on the Special Report of the Global Recession.

Moving forward, the world economy and financial markets ahead are still uncertain, some experts said the worst of world recession is over – do check out the reports here. However, the world economy is still sluggish and most probably longer to full recover.

There are many lessons learned here, we all need to learn and move on, rebuild and grow again.

In the days ahead, the road somehow seem long, don’t despair

- Life still goes on, no matter how tough it is

- Let’s take stock of our life and appreciate our loved ones and our blessings

- Appreciate Mother Nature and her beauty

- There are people around us and in the world that has less of everything you have now and they would suffer more in this current crisis. Let’s all make a difference in their life !

- Take serious actions to plan for your future, save and invest prudently and strategically with professional financial advisory 

- It will only get better !

“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world — that is the myth of the atomic age — as in being able to remake ourselves.” - By Mahatma Ghandi

You …… YES ……. YOU ! …… You can make the decision to remake yourself and Upturn The Situation !

The markets had been in the spotlight of the newspapers, daily life coffee shop talk among the heartlanders, some world economies were suffering and hurting, bleeding so badly that some countries could almost went under. No need for me to add more stuff here, when I crystalised my thoughts and teachings, sharing would be done here.

A lot of outstanding To-Do-Stuff, many things stacked up, some uncompleted, some went beyond further than expected.

- Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon is coming on 7th December 2008, again, another 1 month of crash course physical fitness training and marathon training. My 4th Marathon till date.

- Holidays have been postponed due to prudence in spending and saving, reshuffling holiday plans. Sorry to disappoint any friends out there that I promised to visit.

- Book chapter reviews had slowed down, need to get back and continuously read, learn, upgrade, apply, fine tune and repeat the good steps, that would help in personal growth, development and career development.

- To be a Shining Light and direction for my clients under my advisory, consultancy and care, especially in this period of weak sentiments, slow economic growth and uncertainty.

- Planning something to help my alumni, Dragon Scout Group

- Finding volunteer male and female models for my indoor portrait photography learning shoot.

- Getting ready for entry into investments !!! It’s Time !!!

- Finding and settling down on a permanent template for my new photoblog. Do drop by and take a look!

- Any other outstanding matters that I blogged and posted and I had not completed.

A pretty long list of stuff ……………. Anything more that I missed out ?

This period of market downturn started approximately around October 2007, been going down for a year and probably sliding down more in the next 2 quarters. Putting your into a “Time Machine”, track back 10 years cycle 

1997 – Asia Financial Crisis

1987 – Recession 

1977 – Oil Prices Shock

These were approximate time periods of the world major events that severely affected the Asia Pacific region and in between the years, we had strong growth periods and investments produced great returns around the period 2003 – 2007. 

In this turbulent period, an investor (end consumer) must keep in mind

- Keep a cool head, separate your emotions from your brain, DO NOT PANIC !

- Markets will have periods of ups and downs

- Investments are for long term, with proper asset allocation and diversification 

- In a period of downturn and recession, investment would be “cheaper”, as an investor, you would be able to accumulate and purchase investments at very discounted prices. 

- Do a cash flow analysis, understand your Assets & Liabilities and Income & Expenses, re-analyze your entire financial portfolio

- Have faith and belief in the future, by investing, saving and planning prudently, tactically and strategically, you would grow and expand your wealth, assets and reduce liabilities

It’s a very tough period for all of us, from the end consumers to the corporate entities and world economies, we all are in these turbulence and turmoil together. As an entrepreneur, it’s also a test of my capabilities, mental toughness, emotional handling, situational handling, customer relationship management, consultancy and directional growth for the future.

Let’s all stay together and work on it together, united in strength, we would overcome the obstacles and challenges.

“Picks from the library: Personal Finance” by Ambika Raghavan, Senior Reference Librarian, National Library. The recommendations were :

Handbook for Stock Investors
Authors: Goh, Kheng Chuan.
Publisher: Singapore : Rank Books, 2008.
Call Number: RSING 332.6322095957 GOH
Available at National Library

Financial Bliss: a Couple’s Guide To Merging Money Styles And Building a Rich Life Together
Author: Holzer, Bambi.
Publisher: New York : AMACOM, American Management Association, 2007.
Call Number: RBUS 332.024008655 HOL
Available at National Library

Lifelines for Money Misfortunes : How To Overcome Life’s Greatest Challenges
Author: Pollan, Stephen M.
Publisher: Hoboken, N.J. : John Wiley & Sons, 2008.
Call Number: RBUS 332.024 POL
Available at National Library

I personally this initative is awesome ! This would get more people to start reading regularly and the recommended books would give people greater knowledge in managing their financial situation and thus increasing their financial literacy. Financial knowledge is wide and diversified, these three books are just part of it.

The level of financial literacy needs to be improved as Singapore surge towards to be a world class financial hub, every one of us need to raise our financal knowledge and literacy too, by growing together along with it. It’s also a very important form of overall planning for yourself, for your future.

Poor money management for couples along with communication and misaligned goals and objectives planning for the family is something that could lead to undesirable consequences. Therefore, it is very crucial and extremely important for a couple (with or without children, extended family) to sit down, discuss, plan and execute their planning for their financial future for themselves and their future generations with an independent financial consultant.

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail ………………… Do you plan to fail in your retirement years without sufficient retirement funds ? Do you want to take action ?

Now, take a step back, breathe deeply, relax and think deeply …….. By being very busy, are you hiding away from something that you DARE NOT FACE UP TO, something that you want to avoid ? When people ask you about such deep issues, do you react and snap at them with anger and irritation ?

If you are a parent with young children, are you always busy with them, their enrichment classes, tuition, toys, spending money on them ? However, have you ever planned for their future tertiary education ? Or are you avoiding this issue already ?

Laziness is the 3rd obstacle in a person’s quest towards Financial Freedom and to cure it, it would take just a little thing called Greed. By having a little more Greed, to have more money for your children education in the future and to have a wonderful gift for your children’s future because you love your children and want to do it for your children.

The human spirit and mind are very powerful, however, with a lazy bug eating into your mind and spirit, you would be shutting yourself from the various opportunities that would appear in front of you. With a little greed into your life, you would have the little desire to have a better life and making the progress and growth. Nevertheless, too much greed is not good. 

A quote from Eleanor Roosevelt, “Do What You Feel in Your Heart to be Right – For You’ll be Criticised Anyway. You’ll be Damned if You Do, Damned if You Don’t.”

(Adapted from Chapter Eight – Overcoming Obstacles, Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki)

All of us have doubts, in one way or another, some big, some small, nevertheless, it would be there hanging inside our heart and soul, depriving us on our journey to financial freedom. Therefore, overcoming cynicism is the 2nd key to understanding your obstacles to Financial Freedom. 

By surrendering to cynicism from oneself and others, we will fail to act on the necessary steps to move and grow foward, thus losing the opportunities appearing in front of us, opportunities that will open up the routes to Financial Freedom, not just one but many routes. With doubts and cynicism, you will only play safe and continue to be poor. 

Being cynical, you will criticise and keep you blinded from the opportunities around us, while for winners, they analyse, keep their eyes open and view all the different opportunities available that the cynics missed because they choose to “blind” themselves. 

Looking back, have you missed out on many different opportunities in your life or career ? Do you regret it ? Do you want to continue being a cynic and blame anything that makes you feel good and safe ? 

Or do you want to be a winner, open your eyes to the various opportunities around you and start grabbing them ? 

(Adapted from Chapter Eight – Overcoming Obstacles, Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki)

On a personal note, entering the career as an independent financial consultant, becoming an entrepreneur, I had my fair share of cynics, who looked at me and told me I WILL FAIL and they were friends of old, over the past 2 – 3 years, it had been a humbling experience for me. My personal growth, change, Emotion Quotient, communication, knowledge and learning had gone by leaps and bounds and yet I am still learning something new everyday now. I can’t said how much I had grown or change, will there ever be a tool to determine how much you had improved, changed or learned ?

Nevertheless, I will continue to learn, grow and improve, making breakthroughs and lifting myself and my results to a new and higher level. I will like to take this opportunity to specially thank the people who believed in me, guided and mentored me in my growth and learning as an entrepreneur + consultant. 

If we do not see beyond our shores, we will never see how HUGE the world is out there, the opportunities available and realised how small we are, if we choose to remain where we are, right now.

There are 5 reasons to us not achieving our route to financial freedom and financial success. Our first obstacle/reason is – FEAR

Ask yourself, do you like to lose money ? NO ! Nobody likes to lose money, in some stage in your life, you would go through a stage whereby one would lose money and it is applicable to all kinds of people from all walks of life. Nobody likes losing, the fear is actually and always there, however, the key point to note is – How do you handle losing ? The primary difference between a rich and poor person is how they handle  that fear.

If we hate risk and worry, we need to start early. Therefore, a basic principe such as regular savings as a habit is very good especially indoctrinating into the younger generation. It’s easy to grow rich if you start young. The power of compounding interest by Albert Einstein is one of the greatest wonders of the world.

However, how many of you have actually started to plan for your future ? How many of you parents have started disciplined saving habits teachings for your children ?

The reason why people are not financially rich is due to that fact that the pain of losing money is bigger than the joy of being rich. By understanding how to handle risks, losing and failure, you need to learn overcoming failures and turning them into rallying and inspiring calls for you to be more determined to succeed. 

Failure inspires Winners and Failure Defeats Losers, Winners BIGGEST Secret. It takes guts, patience and a great attitude towards failures to overcoming them and becoming successful.

If you have the desire to achieve financial freedom, followed by richness, you have to be focused and not balanced, by being unbalanced, you would make progress. Put a lot of your eggs into a few baskets and do not put your eggs into many different baskets.

Do you want to be a Winner or Loser ? Come join me in the quest to be a Winner in whatever I embarked on especially in my journey to financial freedom and success. 

(Adapted from Chapter Eight – Overcoming Obstacles, Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki)

Down the road, in conjunction with the growth and development of this site, I would be adding 2 new categories here, namely Essential Planning and Financial Advisory, the areas that I would be able to write and share with my readers here.

A hobby that I always have a strong passion for, travel and photojournalism, takes me to many different places in different parts of the world. There is always planning and an essential must have for me traveling overseas is Travel Insurance.

There are 2 travel insurance sites that I found really useful, do consider them when you planning your next travel trip.

Looking for travel insurance? Apply online and receive a free no obligation quotation today!

Purchase your travel insurance online with Direct Line

Looking foward to share more interesting and meaningful knowledge with my readers in the future. Do bookmark my site here and visit here often !