Financial Planning - 6 Simple Things You Can and Must Do

Here are 6 simple financial planning actions you can and must take.


1. Have an emergency fund

 2. Save for planned expenses, i.e. car maintenance, household maintenance.

 3. Reduce your debt and work towards being debt free.

 4. Save for your retirement

 5. Save for your kids' college years - start the day they were born

 6. Get adequate insurance coverage

99 Quotes on Money

1. Too many people spend money they earned..to buy things they don’t want..to impress people that they don’t like. –Will Rogers
2. A wise person should have money in their head, but not in their heart. –Jonathan Swift
3. Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants. –Epictetus
4. Money often costs too much. –Ralph Waldo Emerson
5. Everyday is a bank account, and time is our currency. No one is rich, no one is poor, we’ve got 24 hours each. –Christopher Rice
6. It’s how you deal with failure that determines how you achieve success. –David Feherty
7. Frugality includes all the other virtues. –Cicero
8. I love money. I love everything about it. I bought some pretty good stuff. Got me a $300 pair of socks. Got a fur sink. An electric dog polisher. A gasoline powered turtleneck sweater. And, of course, I bought some dumb stuff, too. –Steve Martin
9. An investment in knowledge pays the best interest. –Benjamin Franklin
10. I will tell you the secret to getting rich on Wall Street. You try to be greedy when others are fearful. And you try to be fearful when others are greedy. –Warren Buffett
11. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery. –Charles Dickens
12. Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. –Thomas Edison
13. What we really want to do is what we are really meant to do. When we do what we are meant to do, money comes to us, doors open for us, we feel useful, and the work we do feels like play to us. –Julia Cameron
14. I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for ten years. –Warren Buffett
15. A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore. –Yogi Berra
16. Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one. –Benjamin Franklin
17. Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time. –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
18. Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune. –Jim Rohn
19. Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. –Ayn Rand
20. Financial peace isn’t the acquisition of stuff. It’s learning to live on less than you make, so you can give money back and have money to invest. You can’t win until you do this. –Dave Ramsey
21. It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor. –Seneca
22. It’s not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It’s the customer who pays the wages. –Henry Ford
23. He who loses money, loses much; He who loses a friend, loses much more; He who loses faith, loses all. –Eleanor Roosevelt
24. Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. –Franklin D. Roosevelt
25. Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that. –Norman Vincent Peale
26. It’s good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven’t lost the things that money can’t buy. –George Lorimer
27. You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you. –Maya Angelou
28. Buy when everyone else is selling and hold until everyone else is buying. That’s not just a catchy slogan. It’s the very essence of successful investing. –J. Paul Getty
29. If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability. –Henry Ford
30. If all the economists were laid end to end, they’d never reach a conclusion. –George Bernard Shaw
31. How many millionaires do you know who have become wealthy by investing in savings accounts? I rest my case. –Robert G. Allen
32. I made my money the old-fashioned way. I was very nice to a wealthy relative right before he died. –Malcolm Forbes
33. Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. –Steve Jobs
34. The real measure of your wealth is how much you’d be worth if you lost all your money. –Anonymous
35. Money is a terrible master but an excellent servant. –P.T. Barnum
36. Try to save something while your salary is small; it’s impossible to save after you begin to earn more. –Jack Benny
37. Wealth is the ability to fully experience life. –Henry David Thoreau
38. The individual investor should act consistently as an investor and not as a speculator. –Ben Graham
39. I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it. –Thomas Jefferson
40. You must gain control over your money or the lack of it will forever control you. –Dave Ramsey
41. Investing should be more like watching paint dry or watching grass grow. If you want excitement, take $800 and go to Las Vegas. –Paul Samuelson
42. Every time you borrow money, you’re robbing your future self. –Nathan W. Morris
43. Rich people have small TVs and big libraries, and poor people have small libraries and big TVs. –Zig Ziglar
44. Never spend your money before you have it. –Thomas Jefferson
45. The stock market is filled with individuals who know the price of everything, but the value of nothing. –Phillip Fisher
46. Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it. –Benjamin Franklin
47. It’s not how much money you make, but how much money you keep, how hard it works for you, and how many generations you keep it for. –Robert Kiyosaki
48. I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. –Thomas A. Edison
49. If you don’t value your time, neither will others. Stop giving away your time and talents. Value what you know & start charging for it. –Kim Garst
50. Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. –Steve Jobs
51. The habit of saving is itself an education; it fosters every virtue, teaches self-denial, cultivates the sense of order, trains to forethought, and so broadens the mind. –T.T. Munger
    
52. Don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.” –Joe Biden
53. If you live for having it all, what you have is never enough. –Vicki Robin
54. Before you speak, listen. Before you write, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you invest, investigate. Before you criticize, wait. Before you pray, forgive. Before you quit, try. Before you retire, save. Before you die, give. –William A. Ward
55. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. –Winston Churchill
56. Wealth after all is a relative thing since he that has little and wants less is richer than he that has much and wants more. –Charles Caleb Colton
57. Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. –Albert Einstein
58. It is time for us to stand and cheer for the doer, the achiever, the one who recognizes the challenge and does something about it. –Vince Lombardi
59. It’s not the situation, but whether we react (negative) or respond (positive) to the situation that’s important. –Zig Ziglar
60. A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him. –David Brinkley
61. Let him who would enjoy a good future waste none of his present. –Roger Babson
62. Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway. –John Wayne
63. Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. –Mahatma Gandhi
64. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. –Mark Twain
65. It is our choices, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. –J. K Rowling
66. The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus. –Bruce Lee
67. Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success. –Dale Carnegie
68. The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me. –Ayn Rand
69. Don’t let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning. –Robert Kiyosaki
70. You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. –Steve Jobs
71. Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end you are sure to succeed. –Abraham Lincoln
72. Screw it, Let’s do it! –Richard Branson
73. If your ship doesn’t come in, swim out to meet it! –Jonathan Winters
74. People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily. –Zig Ziglar
75. A real entrepreneur is somebody who has no safety net underneath them. –Henry Kravis
76. As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big. –Donald Trump
77. The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. –Vidal Sassoon
78. Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. –Winston Churchill
79. Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning. –Benjamin Franklin
80. If plan A fails, remember there are 25 more letters. –Chris Guillebeau
81. Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. –Ralph Waldo Emerson
82. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step. –Lao Tzu
83. Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it. –Oprah Winfrey
84. Believe you can and you’re halfway there. –Theodore Roosevelt
85. The Stock Market is designed to transfer money from the Active to the Patient. –Warren Buffett
86. I’m only rich because I know when I’m wrong…I basically have survived by recognizing my mistakes. –George Soros
87. Persist – don’t take no for an answer. If you’re happy to sit at your desk and not take any risk, you’ll be sitting at your desk for the next 20 years. –David Rubenstein
88. If you took our top fifteen decisions out, we’d have a pretty average record. It wasn’t hyperactivity, but a hell of a lot of patience. You stuck to your principles and when opportunities came along, you pounced on them with vigor. –Charlie Munger
89. When buying shares, ask yourself, would you buy the whole company? –Rene Rivkin
90. If you have trouble imagining a 20% loss in the stock market, you shouldn’t be in stocks. –John Bogle
91. My old father used to have a saying:  If you make a bad bargain, hug it all the tighter. –Abraham Lincoln
92. It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan. –Eleanor Roosevelt
93. The four most expensive words in the English language are, ‘This time it’s different.’ –Sir John Templeton
94. I’d like to live as a poor man with lots of money. –Pablo Picasso
95. Fortune sides with him who dares. –Virgil
96. Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame. –Arthur Schopenhauer
97. If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free. If our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed. –Edmund Burke
98. No wealth can ever make a bad man at peace with himself. –Plato
99. My formula for success is rise early, work late and strike oil. –JP Getty

Budgeting in 4 Simple Steps

This is really easy but many do not do. It takes responsibility and perseverance and just like exercising, you see the pay off later.

1. Know your real income - do not leave anything out including tax refunds and bonuses.

2. Track your spending - now that you know how much you have, you must also know where you are spending. Again, do not leave anything out.

3. Cut out the wants - after doing no 2, you probably have a pretty good idea where your money is going and this is where self control comes in.  Buying another 2 pair of shoes when you already have 10 is a want, the same goes for that high - end vacation to Paris.

4. Set a Goal - what are your financial goals? How much you want to have when you are retired. How about that dream house, education..

5. Review and adapt - this is important. Review your income, your spending, your wants and needs and your goals. 

Top 5 Reasons People Go Broke.

One of the saddest things you can witness in life is seeing people who had everything losing it all.  Here are 5 reasons why, and I was surprised by the first one on the list.

1.Medical Expenses - It is interesting that a Harvard study shows that 62 % of all bankruptcies is this - even if 78% of filers had some kind of medical insurance.

2. Credit Card - Is anyone surprised? 

3. Job Loss - In itself this is does not cause problems. What get most people is that they are usually not prepared for it. 

4. Overspending. 

5. Unexpected Expenses.

Why Women Retirement Needs Are Different

Women have the same financial desires a men.  Among others life and retiring to a comfortable life is common to both sexes. However this does not mean that women's retirement planning is the same as the men's.

Here's why  :

1. Women lives longer - That is what the statistics say. In every country on the  this earth - women outlive their male counterpart.

2. Women earn less. This is a fact - women make less money than men doing exactly the same work.

3. Time taken off from work - Women are more likely to take time off from work to raise children or to take care of the elderly

4. Increased medical expenditures - Living longer means higher medical cost.

If you are a woman, keep his four points in your mind while planning your retirement,

10 Richest Women In The World

10. Johanna Quandt 

Net Worth  $12.8 billion

Holds a considerable chunk of BMW stock and is on the company’s supervisory board.  Her husband, Herbert Quandt,  was a German industrialist who took over BMW and saved it from going bust. He died in 1982 leaving his fortunes to Johanna and their two children. 

9. Laurene Powell Jobs

Net Worth  $14 billion

The widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs, Laurene Powell Jobs is well-educated. Jobs is also the largest single shareholder of Disney stock, which has helped boost her net worth considerably.

8. Anne Cox Chambers

Net Worth  $15.5 billion

Anne Cox Chambers is the owner of Cox Enterprises, a privately-held media conglomerate. Inheriting the company from her father, Cox still sits on the company’s board at the age of 94, and had served as an ambassador to Belgium during Jimmy Carter’s presidency.

7. Abigail Johnson

Net Worth  $17 billion

Abigail Johnson is the president and CEO of Fidelty Investment. Fidelity was founded by her grandfather Edward C. Johnson II. She joined Fidelty as an analyst and portfolio manager in 1988 and slowly worked her way up. 

6. Susanne Klatten

Net Worth  $17.4 billion

The daughter of another woman in this  list, Johanna Quandt. Klatten is the richest woman in Germany, and owns almost half of BMW along with her brother and mother. 

5. Gina Rinehart

Net Worth  $17.7 billion

Australian mining heiress Gina Rinehart is the richest individual in Australia Her father, Lang Rinehart, discovered rich iron and coal deposits in parts of Australia, building mines to extract them and becoming immensely wealthy. 

4. Jacqueline Mars

Net Worth  $20 billion

Yes, she is of the candy empire Mars. Jacqueline Mars, the daughter and granddaughter of the company’s founders and together with her brothers, Mars oversees their candy company’s continued success into the 21st century, which has brought in more than $33 billion in sales.

3. Alice Walton

Net Worth  $34.3  billion

 Alice Walton is one of the heirs to the vast Wal-Mart fortune.  She has  given billions to charity and used her wealth to support educational reform initiatives. 

2. Liliane Bettencourt

Net Worth  $34.5  billion

Bettencourt, is the daugther of founder of L’Oreal At 15 years, she was mixing shampoos and beauty products.  Now 92 years old, Bettencourt has become a philanthropist and lives in Paris.

1. Christy Walton

Net Worth  $36.7  billion

The title of the world’s richest woman belongs to Christy Walton, the widowed wife of John Walton, one of the heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune. She is also the 8th richest person in the world ( as of March 2015)

What Investment Can Do For You

Basically there are 2 ways to make money, working and making your asset/money work for you.

Working for money, either for someone or in your own business is straight affair. You work and you get paid.

Making your asset/money  to work for you is called investing. And you accumulate asset by investing. There are many places you can invest, mutual fund or unit trust as it called in certain countries, stock market, bonds, real estate or in a business. It doesn't matter where you invest as long as it is a venture that will  make you money in the mid to long term future.

So, let us look what investment can do for you.

1. Investing the surest way to create wealth and achieve financial freedom

2. It helps you to fight inflation.

3. It helps you to retire without worrying about making money

4. It can help to pay for education

5. You can invest to take that dream vacation

Achieving financial freedom must be everyone's single most important goal. Whatever amount you have in your mind, it should mean that you do not have to worry about money any longer. Investing is the easiest way to achieve this.

Why Invest in Unit Trust?

Why Invest in Unit Trust?

•  Professional Investment Management
The fund managers who take care of your unit trust funds have access to information and statistics from leading economists and analysts. Consequently, they are in a better position than individual investors to identify opportunities for your investment to grow.

•  Diversification
Unit trusts allow you to broaden your portfolio. With your nest-egg spread across a basket of securities, your overall investment risks are reduced.

•  Liquidity
An investor can sell his units, wholly or partially, at the following trading day's unit buying price. Units have a high liquidity, that is, they can be readily converted into cash.

•  Ease of Transactions
Unit trusts provide investors with a simpler, more convenient and less time-consuming method of investing in securities. The paperwork that comes with managing your own portfolio of shares and bonds are handled by the fund manager.

•  Security
The interests of unit holders are protected by the appointment of an independent trustee to hold the fund's assets on behalf of the unit holders. The trustee will also ensure that the fund manager will always manage the fund in accordance to the Deed of the fund and the Guidelines issued by the Securities Commission.

•  Affordable and Flexible
The minimum initial investment amount is low as compared to investment in shares and/ or bonds. Furthermore, additional investment can be made in even smaller amounts than the minimum investment amount.

Book Review - Social Animal

Every winter the great and the good meet in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum. And every night during that week at Davos, there are constellations of parties....”

“At the molten core of the party constellation, there is always one party that form the social Holy of the Holies – where former presidents, cabinet secretaries, central bankers, global tycoons, and Angelina Jolie gather to mingle and schmooze.... The Davos social universe, like social universe everywhere, consists of rings of interesting and insecure people desperately seeking entry into the realm of the placid and self-satisfied”

You will find these scathing words  second last chapter of David Brooks’ wonderful book titled The Social Animal: The HiddenSources of Love, Character and Achievement.

In this compelling book, David Brooks tells a story of two fictional characters, Harold and Erica. Theirs is a story of emotions, intuitions, genetic predispositions and deep inner longings.

By following Harold and Erica from infancy to old age, we learn how the unconscious mind plays a big part in our lives. 

What makes this book an interesting read is that it is part a novel and part science primer.

David Brooks is a New York Times columnist as well as a commentator on PBS NewsHour. His other books are Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They GotThere (2000) and On ParadiseDrive: How We Live Now (And Always Have) in the Future Tense (2004)

Daily Healthy Things

There are simple daily routines you can do to enjoy better health. I have listed here the 5 that I have found most beneficial.


1. Get a good breakfast

2. Exercise

3.Drink Enough Water

4. Quality Supplement

5.Establish regular sleeping habits

How To Control Your Expenditures

Your finances are in a mess. You feel you have no control on your expenditures. Everything is so expensive and you are in the verge of giving up hope of ever building the dream house of yours.

I am not going to tell you that by reading this entry you are going to solve all your money problems. I am just going to share one simple tip that can help you control your expenditures

Write down daily where you are spending your money.

I have been doing this for 3 months now and this makes me conscious of where I am spending my money. I keep my receipts for the day and the next morning I jot down my expenditures for the previous day. This makes aware that I have spend a certain amount of money yesterday and acts as I reminder for the day to keep my spending within a certain amount. At the end of the week I total up the week's spending.

By doing this, I know exactly how much I spend on each item. And at the end of the month I know how much I have spent and where I have spent my money.

By writing down my expenditures I am aware where I can cut down and this helps me to save.

It takes a bit of discipline to this everyday, but don't lose heart if you skip a day or two - just remember to write it down the next day.

I chose mornings to do this, but you can do this any time of the day. Pick your own convenient time, just remember to total up every week and every month.

Try this and tell me.