Money Talk and Insights

Save lots of money.

Learn to invest it.

Secure the bag.

Avoid losing money.

Become rich.

Gross simplification, but seriously, that is what it takes.

It is true.

You need to absolutely be able to identify the difference between an asset and a liability.

But, that is not hard at all.

An asset is capable of making you more money.

A liability loses you money.

I am going to toss a few examples of assets, and a few of liabilities:

ASSETS (Intrinsic)

- Having a strong, fit, healthy body. (A healthy body nurtures a sharp mind)

- A disciplined habit of daily study. (A sharp mind leads to effective decision making)

- Humor (A huge component of charisma, which enables you to make allies/friends and reduces your stress. (Which keeps you alive longer)

ASSETS (Extrinsic)

- Savings (you maintain the habit of saving some money every month (Most of us suck at this basic thing)

- Transportation (You are capable of getting to and from your job)

- Books (Widens your perspective, helps you find other assets. "Oh, I didn't know that idea existed, I could implement that in my life, new asset.")

- You own a house. (This is your property. You could lease it. You could sell it. The value appreciates over time.)

LIABILITY

- Having zero money (Self-explanatory)

- Spending on frivolous activities (We are all guilty of this. "Oh, I got a shiny paycheck, let us blow it.")

- Toxic environment 

- Eating out all the time (This has got to be the worst culprit; $50 in groceries can last you 2 weeks if you are smart, and you just spent that all in one dinner. Also, that bottle of wine you got at the restaurant that cost you $20? You can get that at the local alcohol shop for $7)

The point is, most of us are dumbasses when it comes to our money.

A fraction of rich people inherited their money.

A fraction had immense help in building their wealth.

And, most importantly, FEW, very FEW people in history became rich working from the true bottom.

What is the true bottom?

Uneducated family background, dirt poor, zero opportunities, scrape, and crawled.

But it has happened.

Those are the real people you learn from.

Earning money is one thing, maintaining it is a whole other ball game.

Strive for intelligence, strive to get better, never settle.

That is if you want to play the game.

You can play whatever game you want!

Don't let people rope you into something you don't want to do.

You don't have to be rich.

You don't have to do anything.

Live within your means.

Research suggests that most people reach their happiness threshold on a $70K annual salary.

If you are smart, you don't need a lot of money to find freedom.

Because the assumption is that more money = more freedom, and to a large extent, that is true.

But if you chase money, you might miss life.

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Obviously, from the looks of it, the statement above is not from me. Though I edited a few of it as I was re-writing it here. 😆

That is a YouTube comment from "Flavio Lujan" in a video summary about the "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" book of Robert Kiyosaki that I watched.

You know, aside from watching different videos, I love reading comments as well.

I see a lot of insights and that one up there is an example.

But one sentence from it is what I always instill in my mind every day.

"LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS."

Of course, I have an ideal lifestyle, but that does not mean I should live it in reality if that is beyond my capacity right now.

If you want something beyond your means, work smarter. 

You see what I did there? I wrote work smart, rather than work hard.

Ever questioned the happenings in your life where you think you've done everything you could, but the result is not the way you expected it to be? Worst is you got the opposite result?

Maybe because you worked hard but did not think it through enough.

I am not excluding myself from that.

When I get depressed and stressed, most of the time is because I did not think through my actions or I have become complacent about my current standing.

But I also need to find balance, because I often go overboard and overthink things which makes me more stressed and depressed.

I also want freedom.

There was an event that made me think through my life again, about my aspirations and goals, and whatnot.

There I remembered the ideal lifestyle that I was aiming for.

I was too preoccupied with what I am doing in the present that I forgot about what and why I am doing this.

And because I am not alone in this anymore, so that somewhat changed a little.

But of course, travel is still part of it.

But that event made me realize that hey, I am getting older, everyone around me is getting older, my friends, family, and loved ones.

I'd like to spend more time with them and cherish the moment.

I might get married in the future too, have my own family and children.

Most of my time will probably be spent with them.

I will need to work less, but I couldn't compromise my source of income.

My ideal lifestyle will come in handy: work anytime I want, but I could still earn it as passive income.

E.g. writing e-books and selling them online. You will spend your time writing it, but once it is published, people from different parts of the world can buy it and, you will earn even while you are sleeping. 

Of course, that is just an example. It does not mean I will sell e-books. I just learned it from attending Jon Orana's webinars about e-books and passive income from years back.

But that gave me the idea that I do not have to work, work, work for 8 hours or more a day to earn a decent income.

You can allot time for work and let that earn for you.

Just like this hobby of mine which is blogging.

I write whenever there's something that I could share, and when people read it, with the ads, Google AdSense gives me a little somehow. (But I don't see this as work though so this might not count)

Another example is the YouTubers.

You upload videos, and as people watch it, you earn. (Of course, that is just the tip of an iceberg but you get what I mean?)

What I mean is you don't work for an hour just to earn an hour's worth.

You can work for an hour and the result could go a long way.

I'd like that as well.

And I am thinking about how I can integrate it with my profession.

Because even if I will have my own family in the future and spend most of my time with them, tending to their needs, doing household chores, and whatnot and my priorities will change, I would still like to practice my profession. 

And I love my client. She's a blessing to me.

Hmmm.

But anyway, as I was reminded when I overthought things, especially things that haven't happened yet, in other words, my imagination:

Matthew 6:34: "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Life is more important than the things I worry about.

Just live in the present, have fun with it, live it to the fullest (even during this pandemic...)

Do what you can, give it your best, and let Him do the rest. 😊

Also, don't forget to invest. 😝

The market is down due to the global crisis, so this is a great opportunity to buy, buy, buy stocks as the prices are low.

Hold on to it, and when we get through this pandemic, the market will be back up!

I will have a separate post about this, so that's it for now~!

Carpe diem!

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