Who to listen to?

Insurance agents and friends who are into fund and wealth management related businesses have approached me the past few months to consider signing up and to engage their services with regards to investments, be it mutual trust funds, forex trading, equities or stocks. I am no expert when it comes to investment but I do make it point to read up investment related articles. At times I wonder if those involved with investment such as fund managers are really that good then they would in actual fact have no need to approach others to keep their business activities afloat since they would have make tons of money themselves and retire comfortably so why go around struggling to look for new leads and customers? One common tactic used by financial advisers to convince customers is the so-called past performance indicator. Sad to say, most of the time looking at past performance alone does not guarantee nor does it help us make money now. Furthermore most of these financial advisers don’t even has the slightest clue as to knowing what was creating these incredible past performance. One needs to understand exactly what actually leads to the outstanding gains if one is to hope to replicate that performance over the next couple of years.
In summary I suppose we really shouldn’t be asking mutual fund managers or brokers about managing money. We should ask millionaires and billionaires who made their money buying and selling stocks, bonds, and real estate. With luck perhaps they'll tell us what to do and I bet the chances of it working and being successful is much higher than those so-called financial advisers. Last but not least, don’t be stingy when it comes to investing in financial knowledge. Invest time and money is necessary to acquire sound knowledge of wealth and financial management. We are better off managing our own financial well being rather than to depend on those so-called financial advisers and experts.

Posted are some of the great scenic views of China that I took some time way back.

In particular I am impressed with the suspension bridge located between two colossal and towering mountains.

Proactive

It’s been quite awhile since I last updated my blog. I am going to have busy weeks looking forward ahead. Why is that so? All thanks due to one of my engineer who will be going to be station in Suzhou for a year upon an ‘Ang Moh’ request. His short-term assignment of one year to Suzhou could not have come at the worst time indeed. Now I am left with no choice but to get personally get involved in software development project and day-to-day software maintenance and sustaining activities myself. I am a technically inclined manager, perhaps one of the very few managers in the company that still prefers to the hands-on to the typical people management role. Why would one engineer have so much impact on my team? Reason being that he is the only engineer in my team that received the software training from the US counterpart. Secondly he is a very resourceful and diligence in his work. I have always wanted to get myself personally involved with some of the software development projects but finds it hard to do so due to lack of software and hardware developments system.

Well, how do I feel about the whole thing? Nothing much except for the fact that I will be more occupied in the office, busier and has less time for tea break during weekdays. Sometimes I wish I could hit the jackpot and retired early to enjoy the finer things in life. I could imagine all the things that money could buy and the holidays I could take all year round. At times I wonder if it takes certain twist of events to make us realize that life is very unpredictable and that we should make full use of the good times on what we have to achieve our goals and dreams while we can. Without pressure and discontent in work life some of us may procrastinate and not make effort to set goals to improve our quality life so to speak. Most of us are contented to stay put within our own comfort zone. We hardly give a thought to our future so long as we feel comfortable with where we are.

Which of these would you prefer, to be push and driven into seeking new opportunities or to be attracted and drawn to pursue our goals and dreams, the push or the pull factor to start to keep the ball rolling with regards to achieving your goals and dreams so to speak? Anthony Robbins, the motivational speaker rightfully spells out in his book ‘ Awaken The Giant Within’ that most people procrastinate so long as they don’t feel any pain. Why wait to get ourselves to experience pain before we do something to improve our quality life? Isn’t it better to plan for the future while we are in still living within our comfort zone? Be proactive and preemptive in our desire to seek for better quality life by, through actions with regards to our goals instead of being reactive and just daydream about it so to speak.

Overwork

The Singapore ‘newpaper ‘ dated the1st of May 2007 reported the unfortunate and untimely passing of a 29-year-old woman whose cause of death was suspected probably due to work stress. Apparently the unfortunate woman collapses after 8-hour marathon working on laptop. When contacted, the woman’s superior told the deceased family the company did not overloaded her with work! What a pity for the woman lost her life due to work! I suppose people have different tolerance to work stress. Some people are more easily succumb to work stress while others has higher thresholds. I am okay with working on the desktop or laptop for over 12 hours! Know your limits and take the appropriate actions accordingly to safeguard your health.

The woman wanted to earn more money to take mum on holiday but struggled with her job. It sad to know that despite knowing that her health was deteriorating, she continues to push herself to the limit. Yes, money is important but so is our health. Yes, it is important to for us to do our best with regards to our job responsibilities and tasks, to put in extra hours if needed to get the job done; however we should be mindful of our health. I have friends and colleagues who spend long hours in stressful jobs, some are contemplating of looking for less stressful jobs elsewhere while some has resign to their fate and get so used to the stress job so much so it becomes part of their life. There are those who complain about their stressful work but do nothing about it.
There are those who stick on to their jobs despite the stress for the sake of the anticipated compensation benefits associated with work force reduction.

I guess in the end we should all ask our self what kind of life we want to live.
Do you enjoy what you do in particular to the nature of our job? Do you mind the stressful and the challenging nature of the job? Do you find ourselves stress out by the job? Are you in dire need of money so much so that you can’t do without the stressful job? Is age catching up with you so much so that you feel it becomes more challenging and difficult for you to compete with younger generations for getting new jobs? Do you live to work or work to live? Is it worth it to risk your health and happiness with regards to your jobs? Learning is life long experience. Invest time and money if necessary to upgrade yourself so that you will continue to become employable, even as you grow older. Far more important, equip yourself with the necessary skill-set that would enable you to have more choices with regards to job opportunities.
Bottom line, don’t get yourself stuck in a job you don’t like, don’t yourself get stuck in a stressful job that is detrimental to your health and disruptive to your personal life, and certainly please don’t get yourself stuck in the kind of job that does not guarantee you financial freedom and financial independent when you grows old.
For those who are looking for tips to getting rich, here’s a link to a free e-book on getting rich. Enjoy reading and cheers.

http://www.home-business-comparison.info/6extras/Secrets%20of%20the%20Rich.pdf