Widget : How Much Tax Can I Save ?

Half of year 2011 has already passed. Have you ever thought of your next tax filing yet ? If you only take a look by next year, then it may be too late for you to optimize anything anymore. Try below widget and see how much the impact may be for you ! Just enter your total annual income and see how much tax you can save simply by planning early !!

This is a FREE widget provided at http://howMuchTaxCanIsave.co.cc/

The Right Truth behind Donation

From time to time we hear about how rich people donate their wealth away. Some donate whole of their wealth, some half and some donate just enough to optimize their tax planning.

Most people would think that the rich has too much, hence they want to give some away since they can't use it anyway. That ... would be 20th century mind set.

The fact is ... the rich who donates, is not only rich, but also smart rich. Whatever they have now, they can continuously have it at anytime. Hence it doesn't really matter if they give anything away tonight, they will have it again tomorrow morning.

That would be the ultimate power of passive income, or smart income.

Once you know how much you 'really' need, you 'find a way' to keep your needs fulfilled without doing anything much. Then whatever extra comes in is the one you can easily donate away without filling any pinch. Yet many will feel much appreciated because it means the whole world to them.

So in short, you can really see which rich man has smart income in him and which rich man is barely surviving with his active income, by seeing the way they donate.

Now, let me ask .... do you think USA rich men is smarter or China's rich men ?

Easy Retirement

This is an extract of what I read in today's newspaper. More and more people start to carry this type of alternative concepts about retirement especially in this 21st century. You can't say its wrong. As a matter of fact, its a rather SMART way to go. But lie within is a huge hidden risk.

The titles in above newspaper read:

1. you don't need much during retirement, coz your liability has reduced
2. living frugal is not hard, mentality is the key
3. you don't need to prepare to retire ?

By the time you retire, you probably don't have any more house loan or car loan to serve. Your body does not allow you to earn that much anymore. Chicks don't get attracted even if you sit in a Porsche. The bigger house you live in the harder it is for you to take care of it. In short, many people plan to 'maintain' their CURRENT lifestyle when they play for their retirement. The fact is you WILL NOT live the SAME lifestyle even if you are financially able to.

Basically the idea of save or accumulate enough so that you can STOP WORKING one day is solely base on the assumption you don't really LIKE what you are doing. You are just doing it for the sake of money or future retirement. Hence when you no longer need that money, you will want to stop working. But what if you REALLY LIKE what you do for a living ? Would you stop even if you have enough money for the rest of your life ? Be it Bill Gates, Warren Buffet or that happy old man by the street ... the answer is obvious. You will keep on doing what you like even if you retire or don't HAVE TO DO IT.

And if you have been doing something that you like for so long, the chance is that you don't really need to worry about living expenses since a long time ago. Incoming cash flow will persist and hence you don't really need to worry or prepare for a retirement. Coz you don't want to retire !!

What do you think about this easy retirement methods ? In contrast to the fundamental of save, invest and accumulate until you have enough to fight against the inflation etc. ?

Which do you prefer ?

Recession over, what's NeXT ?

Sometimes I feel very depress when my prediction comes TRUE.

For those who don't know yet, Malaysia is going through a transition where political power could potentially shared between 2 parties; instead of just one-side-say-it-all like the past 50 years. Unfortunately, the initial phase of this transition has ended in a way when our new Prime Minister has strategically resolved it.

At the moment New Economy Model was presented, I immediately sensed the game err they plan to play. Because exactly the same game plan has been played in USA before. While it is true that Malaysia CAN become a developed nation by adopting those moves but it has also been proven that such finance structure is NOT sustainable. Just see what has happened in USA and what is happening in Europe.

Although as if recession is over now, actual effective inflation experience the SHARPEST rise in last 2 months, as high as 25% to 50% if you visit hypermarket often. That is not the worst. What is happening now is that major manufacturers are deceiving consumers in large scale openly. While their products have inflated severely, they run advertisements and promotions as if their products are ON OFFER ! All these are done as part of the exercise to smoothen the transition into a developed nation, hence they have government support behind the scene at all cost. Ahem ... at consumer's cost that is. While these are nothing new to those who have seen it all, but sadly ... there are more consumers falling into it than realizing it at all.

As mentioned in what can we do when bully by the big boys, there is probably nothing much we can do to STOP anything now. So there are just a few things we can probably watch carefully and ride on so that we can get a piece of the pie too ...

• Property will rise drastically. Wherever you are staying right now and despite how much you like it, it may become more worth while to sell it off in the next 10 years. So do plan ahead where you may want to stay 5-15 years later. This may become your LAST and ONLY ticket when the nation is developed and you are still under developing.

• Double your salary in the next 2-3 years. If you wait till the wave carries you, you will always stay behind. You salary WILL increase AFTER the effect of inflation fully kick in. But by then, your increased salary will mean much less. So you really have to think for yourself now. If you are really royal to your employer, your employer should have seen this coming too and take care of you but did it ?

Other than that, derived finance products like futures, options and forex will over shine proper financial planning so much that a lot of weird and ad-hoc theories will surface out. Most people will no longer be able to differentiate what the real proper investment is. On the other hand, that is due to more and more improper investments will actually obtain real returns for the new few years. So if all you care is to get more money, then it should fine temporary.

Hence, MalPF only has one advice to all. Be deviated all you want, just remember to engage an exit strategy and keep yourself in high cash flow condition.

When to go beyond "Salary" ?

When your personal income increases, you start to pay more taxes too. It was mentioned before there are certain income Stepping that one should watch out for to optimize tax planning. For example, as your total annual income is approaching MYR 100,000 in Malaysia, you are most likely to be paying maximum taxes like a company's ie. 27%.

So you pay about MYR 15,000 taxes so your net income become MYR 85,000 ( exclude other deductions for the purpose of this article ). Then you will proceed paying your due diligences like house loan, car loan and all your other expenses etc. Lets say those total up to MYR 73,000 so you would have a remaining income of MYR 12,000; Or MYR 1,000 a month.

As mentioned before, if the taxation laid upon a business is similar ie. 27%, then perhaps you can create a business of your own. Then sell yourself back to your current employer doing exactly the same stuff so that it has no impact what so ever to your employer's operation (*1).

As a business owner, you should deduct all costs incurred in order to perform your business (job) before you come up with a profit, which is then taxable. Lets say MYR 50,000 of your expenses can be qualified as business expenses. Then you may end up with paying less tax ie. MYR 13,500

$100,000 - $50,000 = $50,000 x 27% = $ 13,500

There are still MYR 23,000 expenses that are not classified as business expenses, hence you will end up with a remaining income of $13,500; instead of just $12,000 if you keep your 'job'.

$50,000 - $13,500 (tax) - $23,000 (non biz expenses) = $13,500

In this scenario simply by changing the 'mode' of how things work can save you a thousand or two. As you may have noticed, the difference is not that big. Hence, if you have been working whole your life; Annual income of MYR 100,000 is the magic number where you should start thinking if you want to continue working a job or start building something of your own.

This difference will become significant as your salary increases beyond MYR 100,000.

However, there are quite a handful of knowledge and skills you will need before you can make a switch like this successfully.

• setting and maintaining a business will cost money
• no employer means no one pays your EPF
• security, liability, risk and reward will have different meanings
• classifying business expenses is an important skill
• all business expenses should help the business grows
• pay yourself maximum non taxable salary, pay yourself EPF ...

In real and practical world, a smart guy doing this would NOT only save a thousand or two. But the actual tax saving should be 50%-80%, ie. from $15,000 to $3,500.

(*1) There WILL BE some impacts to the company especially account and human resource wise. In short, the company saves money by not paying you EPF and other cost to maintain an employee. Hence in practical world, one would ask for more than $100,000 when converting from an employment to a contract staff.

Most of you will think it is NOT possible to switch from an employment to a contractual staff without affecting the operation and yourself, only a few of you will start to think how to make that happen. Like wise, I can assure you that some has already made that switch successfully, although just a handful. But none of them were given any guideline or magic numbers like this article. So you are now equipped better than them. Hope you can get something out of this ...

Living Standard @ Personal Finance Level

Like inflation, Living Standard can be a big number where GDP, poverty rate, income growth inequality, life expectancy are involved. But as far as personal finance is concern, what you should really care is your very own personal living standard.

Simply put, living standard is your ability to sustain how you live your life. At one hand this can be calculated very much similar to Living Cost and the increase of living cost over time is inflation. So is living standard the same as inflation ?

But it should be the opposite instead. One would want lower inflation but higher living standard. So what has gone wrong in the formula ?

The keyword is "ability". If you are NO longer ABLE to sustain how you live your life when inflation kicks in, you are facing the risk of lower living standard. Inflation is an external factor. Your ability to fight the inflation will determine your living standard. When your ability increases faster than inflation, your living standard is raised.

Most of the time, this ability is associated to income. The more money you get the less you need to worry about how expensive the stuff has become. Although vastly applicable but earning income is NOT the only ability one can have.

Says the food and rent have been increasing rapidly. You have to rent a smaller place and eat at cheaper places. You change your lifestyle, you are having a lower living standard now.

On the other hand, another guy is facing the same inflation challenge. Instead of moving to a smaller place, now he rent a bigger place and sublet it to collect higher rent. He starts to grow his own food at his spare time. He changes his lifestyle, but he is having a higher living standard now - staying in bigger place while paying the lower rent and eating healthier food.

Which of the above is living cheaply and which one is living frugally ?

Sometimes creativity and innovation plays a vital role in achieving higher living standard, both in generating higher income and also how one can live his life.

Getting Rich is NOT part of Personal Finance

One of the hottest topics in personal finance is to get rich, and usually to get rich fast! Its human nature that we pay attention to what other pay attention to. Some love to follow blindly on get rich fast scheme, some make big money out of it and some others hate it. Either ways, get rich fast scheme is part of our lives now.

The only thing MalPF asked everyone to do is to setup an automated saving system. On the other hand a hot sexy attractive person asked you to follow the 'method' and you shall be RICH. There is no doubt which choice is more appealing to make; a dull saving idea vs an exciting venture.

The fact is that no matter how rich you become, it has NOTHING to do with your personal finance. Getting Rich is to increase Income substancially. And Income is a Pre-requisite of Personal Finance but NOT a part in it. This understanding may not bring much difference to most but for some who spend their whole life pursuing richness, it may just be a live and dead switch; As showcase in Why the Rich suicide.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to get rich. It is even OK to get rich FAST! After all, in income generation, the key factors are creativity and innovations, where no rules apply except your own. But if you think getting rich will solve all the other problems, then the problem starts to root in you. All effort put into getting rich is ONLY to increase income. Without a system on how to use it and retain it at a personal level, you haven't achieve your optimum yet.

Getting Rich itself may carry this deadly inherited problem, however Getting Rich has a superb by product - Positive Attitude and Self Confidence. Even after a long haul journey and ended with no success, people who focus on these by products rather than the money itself, will always stay happy and content. Which eventually give them energy to do the whole cycle again. Until they get what they want. These by products, however, do not exsit in get rich FAST.

It is BEST if a person has a solid personal finance while she is pursuing the Rich. Each of the success and failure add values to her personal finance. The journey to become Rich and stay Rich is usually the most steady for this kind of people.

However, the good thing is, you don't have to have personal finance before acquiring your Richness. You just need it right before you lose your Richness. Acquiring personal finance while you are Rich is, honestly, faster and easier. The only contradiction is if you have acquired rich without personal finance in mind, it is most likely you wouldn't emphasize on it while you are enjoying your rich.

Passive Income Defined - Part 2 ! Effort

It was mentioned before that passive income means obtaining money repeatly while spending minimum effort.

What does minimum effort mean ? Can it be measured ?

Well, lets see. Effort can be classified into two;

1) qualitative - when you have a 'great' idea ! Brain power !

2) quantitative - when you work HARD for it !

Everyone has some good ideas at some point of time. When a good idea hits homerun, it flies like no one's business. It could bring to great wealth or great fame. Either way, this such good idea is hard to pre-determine and would only be known after the effects kick in. Hence your smartness is hard to be measured for planning purpose.

For some of those who have tasted success beofre, they would know that any great idea would also take some hard labour to turn it into a reality. It may be as simple as trying to convince someone on the smart idea itself. But nevertheless need to do something after idea conceiving stage.

Assuming all hard labours are similar by nature. Afterall, you are justing using your energy for something, without the brain. Hence, hard labour can be easily measured using time. For example, you may spend 30 minutes when opening a FD account, then perhaps using 5 minutes to monitor the monthly interest payment. So over a course of 5 years, you would have used 5 and a half hours in total.

Everyone has some worth in dollar sense. If you are working and your monthly salary is $3,000. And you actually work 40 hours a week resulting a monthly productive hours of 160. Then your productive worth would be $3,000 divided by 160 which is $18.75. Meaning if you spend one hour to do some productive work, your time cost is $18.75 per hour.

If we use 24 hours and 30 days a month, then your life worth would be $ 3,000 divided by 720 (24 x 30 ) = $4.17. For every hour you live, whether doing something or not, you have earned $4.17.

You may use either productive worth or life worth, its only a matter of philosophy.

If we use productive worth for the FD example earlier, 5.5 hours would imply 5.5 x 18.75 = $103.12 worth of effort spent over the 5 years; or an average of $20 a year. If the guy had save $10,000 with 2% FD rate, then he would get back $200 a year. $20 effort to earn $200 income is 10 times. The Effort Income ratio is said to be at 1:10

If you are a retiree, you probably do not have any productive worth. Lets say if you also have $3,000 income consistently from whatever source, then your life worth would be $4.17 as calculated above. With this your FD effort cost is only $23 over 5 years or barely $4.60 a year. In this case, effort income ratio is 1:43

With such a calculation, a few concepts have become more concrete;

1. The MORE money you save in FD, the more passive it becomes. If you only save $1,000 on above example, you probably cann't say you are earning passive income at all. Perhaps you may even be losing by spending too much effort monitoring it. On the other hand, if you were saving $100,000 instead of $10,000 then the young worker ratio may become 1:100 instead of just 1:10

When effort needed is the same,

increasing capital on passive income

will make it more passive.

Which is also the typical term people refer as "Money earns Money"

2. The period of consideration is important. For example in the FD example, if you only save for one year. then the effort income ratio is only 1:7 instead of 1:10 if you save for 5 years.

1.5 hour x $18.75/hour = $28.12. Earning $200 interest out of this 28.12 is 1:7.11

Likewise, if you leave your FD there for 10 years, the ratio will go up.

The longer you let the right finance vehicle runs by itself,

the more passive the income becomes.

3. The FD interest earned, although in same amount, but it is much more worth while for the old retiree to do it than the young worker. The young worker could have just work extra 2 hours to earn the same as FD's return in a year. The retiree on the other hand has not much to do anyway.

Not to mention some retirees do NOT have $3,000 income consistently, in that case the effort income ratio would even be much higher. In MalPF's world, any investment that can provide a 1:100 effort income ratio is considered a Passive Income.

Be reminded this is only refering to the 'minimum effort' portion. A true passive income has to happen repeatly. So winning jackpot in casino is not a passive income unless you actually have a way to win every month.

There may also be a few other not so direct implication on passive income after this exercise ;

1. Usually passive income starts with high effort in the beginning, then eventually the effort lowers to its supposed minimum level while the income starts to kick in. The more effort you put in the beginning, the higher chance to have a higher passive income in future. But it may also takes longer to reach there.

2. Passive income is a very personal thing. What works for you may not work for others. Its all about your current situation, your passion and what you do best. For example, if you are a talent in collecting rent, you may only need 5 minutes to do it. On the other hand, a shy landlord may need to make a few trips and a total of 4-5 hours a month to collect one payment.

3. If you have capital in the beginning you need less effort. Like wise if you have no capital, you will have to use a lot of effort in the beginning. Like most of the human networking programs ...

Have you run your own numbers yet ? Is your income really passive ? Or have you been worrying too much about it ?

Try read this article, it may help making your income more passive ... simply by NOT KNOWING about it once the right finance vehicle is setup.

Passive Income Defined - Part 1 !

Are there such thing as totally passive income ? As in you do absolutely Nothing and money comes to you ?

To earn fix deposit interest, you will actually have to walk right up to the bank, go through all those paper work, spend some time there to open an account. When you want to use the money you earn from the interest, you will have to go to the bank again to withdraw it. Not exactly as 'absolutely nothing'.

So many may argue there is no such thing as total passive income. But then again, that is only a matter of definition. Although it is a good thing to believe there is no Free lunch in this world, but the true definition of 'passive' is NOT "No effort" at all. It actually means 'with minimum effort'.

So Passive Income is a type of income you obtain repeatly with minimum effort.

In finance world ( NOT personal finance ), passive income is instinctively associated with rental income. This is the main reason why most people carry on the miss conception of property investment as a passive income vehicle into personal finance. This is another article but in short, rental may become a passive income but property investment is NOT.

So what does Minimum Effort actually mean ? Generally there are a few responds;

1. Do Once: Like the Fix Deposit example, you only do some work once and then enjoy the monthly interests without any more work needed. Hence the effort is minimum in long run.

2. On the way anyway: Collecting monthly rental income is relatively an easy task especially when you have a good tenant and the property is just next door. So you were just passing by anyway, collecting extra income while doing other things is really neglectable effort and therefore considered as minimum.

Minimum effort is when you FEEL like not doing much. Guess what, you will most likely feel like that when things are smooth and great going.

For example, when opening a fix deposit account the traditional way, you may actually feel cumbersome of all the paper work and may be frustrated that you have to repeatly mention the same information. Only when the account is finally opened and the interest starts to come in, you feel it was just all just minimum effort anyway.

So minimum effort has a Time factor.

The effort of collecting rental income may become not so minimum anymore when the tenant starts delaying payment; No one answer the door bell and you have to make a few more trips. Partial payment, broken items, wall repaint and other not-so-smooth-going experience may change your effort to not-so-minimum anymore.

If this so call 'minimum effort' or 'passiveness' is so subjective to experience and highly affected by the cycle of good-bad times.

No wonder when someone shout certain business can generate passive income, the other person will say no and yet both of them have very good points supporting their views. Its because they have different 'feeling' and may analyse the business at different time points.

Among all these uncertainty of feeling and potential changes over time, how can we reliably determine if an investment can provide passive income and if its worth it or not ?

Luckily in MalPF, there is a measurable way in defining 'Passive Income'.

... Read Part 2 ...

What Michael Jackson has contributed to MalPF ?

The concepts that MalPF preaches which were influenced greatly by Michael Jackson ...

Income is NOT a part of personal finance

Richness has NOTHING to do with Financial Freedom

The ONLY thing MalPF wants you to do

Money earns Money is NOT be the only passive way

In the past 27 years, MJ has earned 120 billions. At the time he passed away, he left 12 billions while carrying a 14 billions debt. Resulting a net of owing 2 billions debt.

If even 120 billions is not enough to let one person simply spend as he wishes, do you still think getting rich is the key solution to TRUE financial freedom ?

But wait, guess what saves Michael's finance status ?

The change of his living status ultimately update his royalty tax status as well. Just the past few days alone may have already gathered more than 2 billions, not to mentioned an estimated collection of 100 billions in time to come.

Can you see the differences between active and passive income yet ?

source : 988 Radio

Personal Finance in 1Picture

I started this Blog with very fundamental talks on personal finance on lay man write up. I have to apologize if recent posts have become quite cryptic and speculative. So let’s get back to some of the unfinished fundamentals on personal finance.

First you must have an income. Income can be any form of received money including pocket money for kids, household money received from bread earner, begged etc.

No matter how you get your income, you must setup an automated system to save part of your incom; BEFORE you do anything else ! Remember you need your ASS - Automated Saving System.

In today standard, this automated saving system should give you some interest, preferably matching fix deposit rate.

No matter if your income makes you a Rich, Average or Poor person, if you don't have an ASS you may find yourself in trouble one day. Some even cost them their lives.

Once you have enough money in your ASS, ie. can substain your lifestyle for 3, 6 or 9 months. You will need to start thinking about Money Earns Money - MeM. 'Passive' is the keyword. Something that you do once now and enjoy a life long extra income in future.

There are standard methods or PF tools to achieve MeM. Each level up the pyramid requires more learning. Entering into any of this with the wrong preception or knowledge may bring negative MeM.

At this stage, many will tell you high risk high return, low risk low return. While they are not wrong, but that concept is not entirely helpful to your personal finance. In order to focus on what can helps, you may need 21st century understanding on Risk.

Further in future, you may see that MalPF will preach that

1) Personal Risk is what you know, the more you know the better it is, irrelevant to what PF tool it is

2) PF Tool Risk is fixed no matter who invest in it, irrelevan to who you are

Bundle together that 2 concepts result one simple action to position yourself well in MeM - keep learning ( the easy part ) and learn the right stuff ( the harder part - due to Rich Conspiracy ).

There are 2 BIG parts in MeM. The part mentioned above is Earn 2 with 1 or Doubling your money - MeMx2 The crucial part left out here on purpose is Time - which is also the variable for individuals.

We use Rule of 72 to quickly calculate this variable. For example, it takes 6 years to double my money if I get 12% return from my investment.

So far MalPF model works well without the need of setting goals. However MeMx2 is the part where you may see a distinctive difference between a person do it with goals and another without.

Should one still find it hard to find own goals, simply follow the magic number - 7. Setup 7 MeMx2 accounts for the following:

1. Car

2. House

3. Family

4. Education

5. Retirement

6. Charity

7. Holiday and Travels

The good thing about none goal specific MeMx2 is that they are flexible and interchangable. You should start all 7 accounts at once even if you think you don't need it. Even putting in 1 cent a month into each account is better than putting 10 cent into one investment account only. ( No, this is NOT diversification, this is just broaden your availability when you don't have a target, like spreading a fish net when you don't have a hook/bait )

The second part of MeM is to Buy 100 with 1 or Secure Future Money - MeM100. Also commonly treated as insurance. While MeMx2 urges us to learn more, gain more knowledge but there are always something we haven't learned yet or will never able to 'finish' learning. Hence for all the stuff we don't know, we apply MeM100 to it.

This is especially useful when you have goals in MeMx2. For example, I want to save $100 a month for 20 years with 12% return so that I can get my $100,000 for my retirement. So I can buy a $100,000 insurance just incase if I lost my ability to save that $100, I will still get my $100,000 regardless.

There are 5 big areas in MeM100:

1. Die Early

2. Living Dead

3. Fail to Die

4. Accident

5. Income Replacement

If you still don't have clear goals in life up to this stage. Then you will not be able to have an optimized Personal finance plan ie. Buy Term Invest The Rest. You would probably go for something traditional called Whole Life Plan. Its not bad at all for someone who cann't even figure out a single goal after 20+ years of life. Try This ...

and this is what this picture is all about ... ( may be not All but the nutshell yes )

The most long lasting business model

If not mistaken, it was 2,300 BC and 4,500 years ago (no, not a mistake, these are the actual years).   Once upon a time ...

Caby  is a smart man, he understands human nature very well and decide to make a fortune out of it.  Today he is only focusing on the 'greed' part.

He collects $1 from every man he meets and promise to pay half of them $2.  At first, people have doubts and only a handful people join.  But when half of them are paid double the money they put in, words start to spread and everybody rush in like no one business.

Although it was clearly implied that another half will get nothing out of the $1 they paid, but soon the other half start to compalin that this is a scam.  Caby is a smart man, he starts to alternate paying another half of the people double the return.  As far as the people concern, they pay $1 twice and they are guarantee to get back $2 in second round anyway.  So the worst is break even and if 'luck' is on their sides, they can get paid $2 for the $1 they put in.  They can stop playing and immediately earn 100% return !

But who is happy with $2 ?  Illogical but true enough, everyone realize they will keep on playing and all they will ever get is a break even, but everyone still think they can earn 100% return.

You are breaking even at best but

you still think you are winning 100%

at the same time

Finally, the business model works and sustain itself.  Caby is a smart man but he hasn't earn a single cent doing this yet.  He is calm, he waits, for the real phase to kick in.

Finally Greed kicks in.  $2 is not enough anymore.  People start to demand higher pay out.  Caby is a smart man, he starts explaining how the system work.  That if higher payout is made, less people will get paid.  People agree.  People still want higher pay out.  4, 8, 16, 32 ... very soon you start to see games like 3D, 4D, Magnum all over places.  By now, the size is just too big that people cann't keep track of who play and who get paid.  Caby is a smart man, he knows exactly how the money flow and start to get his share out of this whole business model.  As long as there are people, this business model will continue and Caby is a rich smart man.

That is not the end, that is not even the main part of the story yet ... the story starts when there are some smart people among the players.  They start calling this business model gambling and saying all the bad effects it can bring.  Despite that it is a bad thing they say, they didn't say we should stop totally.  They just say we should regulate it.  Normally people would say, "Bad ! Don't do it !", what kind of people would ever say, "Bad, do it under my control, then its ok" ? - - -  Yeap, Politician.

After regulation or in another word, under the umbrella of the protection of a country, this business model grows even bigger and sometimes its an international investment event around the globe.

Ok, now back to the good guys who say don't do it.  Which is also the juice in this story.  Caby is a smart man.  He said to these anti-gambling guys, "what if I pay out according to who need it most?"  Good guys ponder a little bit but after a long haul of exactly what need is and how to determine who need it first etc.  They settle in.  Now the business model has changed and become ...

You pay $1 a day, 365 days a year and should you has the 'need' one day, you will get $100,000 !  Different group of good guys have different needs so many different kind of variation of games are put in place.  Some said the need is 'when I lost my income', others may say 'when I die, pay my family please'.

It turns out Caby is smarter than he think he is.  Now he has one business model for all the greedy illogical guys and another model for the good guys.  Both type of people think they are well taken care off.  As long as there are people, no matter if all of them turns saints or evil, Caby is a rich baster !

Its the most long lasting business models ever built ...

~ Caby is a made up word from 2 big nations, one still exist today, another is a legend.

Insurance, Good or Bad ?

The most confusing financial vehicle in this blog is probably the Insurane element.

Sometimes insurance was cursed here, sometimes this blog says you must have it ... Sometimes I say Don't Buy IT !   Then follow by Yea, You Should Sell Insurance ...  "what in the world is your REAL standpoint on insurace !?"

First of all, "Insurance" doesn't even make it to my wealth pyramid.

but then later I explain Insurance plays a 'supporting' role in protecting the goals you want to achieve or already achieved in life.  ( read here )

I also touch on the "return" of insurance by Comparison among Insurance, Fix Deposit and Mutual Fund.  Since my proposed solution in Personal Finance is to have your very own portfolio, on the insurance part, I propose Buy Term Invest The Rest. to get the best out of all from above comparison.  ( but not suitable for everybody )

I also highligh some of the pit-falls in today's insurance industry

1. Higher than FD insurance is A FAKE marketing talk ! ( case 1, case 2 )

2. But then sometimes it is possible ( case 3 ) with a twist in it

3. Trap in Investment Link Products 

and the solution is to invest monthly instead of yearly 

(but not for traditional insurance)

Then confusion starts when I put up quite a funny article basically saying, "Want to settle your bad debt ? Sell Insurance !".  When someone are in doubt, I even re-assure them with small talk.

So to sum all above up and hopefully can clearify somethings ...

Buy Insurance for Protection - Good !

Buy Insurance for Return - Bad !

Sell Insurance to earn Income - Good !

Don't forget I mentioned before Income is NOT a part of Personal Finance Plan.  So if you have faith in that, you wouldn't have this kind of confusion.  Buying insurance is a part of your finance plan, Selling it, is NOT !  It doesn't matter what the source of your income is, your life plan stay the same.

So recommending you to sell insurance has nothing to do with recommendation to buy.  Different rules apply in Income topics.  You need to be smart and hard working in generating income.  In personal finance, its ok to be dump and lazy when its done the right way - the simple way too.

You may also want to check out other related articles

Different Types of Insurance

The Most Cost Effective Insurance in Malaysia !

Rich Dad  : 4 Types of Income

The 5th type of income Rich Dad didnt mention

Get Out Of Bad Debt

I briefly touched on how to reduce bad debt in a case study about a middle income guy.  And most of us are the Average Joe, so no doubt the questions of How to Get Out Of Debt persist.  Furthermore, there is a book saying that 21st century is all about Debt.

Ok, lets start with the boring, "You shouldn't have got into bad debt at the first place !"

Sorry but Honestly, personal bad debt is a pure mistake on greed and ignorance.  Bad debt is not a personal finance problem.  Its the opposite of personal finance.  As mentioned before, the only thing you MUST do in Personal Finance is to setup an automated saving system right after your income.  Bad debt is the reverse !  By using up more than your income even before the income comes in.

That would be the FIRST thing one must understand, realize and FEEL it !  Else it is not going to be any helps in reducing bad debt.  It will just come back again and again.

Secondly ofcourse we can blame it on the education we received.  Off the 12 long years of FREE and compulsory education, we didn't learn a single thing about bad debt, not to mention automated saving.  Although its not a personal finance problem, it is a global trend and it becomes a national problem where it affects our daily social life.  Crimes rate increase.  You lose job, I die.

Ok, now that we take responsibility of the problem and we get someone to share the burden, we can now look at it face to face.

The problem originates from Income, so the real solution is within income as well.  But before that, lets review some of the common advices :

1.  categorize debt by different interest rates

12-18%  Credit Card or Ah Long debt

4-8%  Car Loan ( car's actual rate is 1.9x of published rate )

5-7%  House Loan

2.  work on the highest interest rates category first

including transfer all the high interest rate loan to lower rate like using house loan to pay for credit card debt

3.  within the same category, pay off the smallest amount first !

4.  call up banks and ask for waiver or reduction

other than that, there are some uncommon methods and services offered by private agency.  Basically they work around these methods:

1.  Pay a little more monthly, cut down total number of years to save on total sum

2.  Instead of paying 18% to credit card, borrow from them and you pay only 16% etc.

3.  Changing interest calculation method from daily rest to monthly rest etc.

It is possible to have some businesses out there sincerely come up with plans to help people reduce debt.  Afterall, the ultimate benchmark for world best stock investors is only 15%.  So it makes more sense to run a Ah Long business than starting a company like Warren Buffect's  BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY

However there are more businesses out there taking opportunity out of these ignorant debtors and further exploit them to the limit by squeezing every penny out.  So my advice is approach these agencies with care, only work with those who can provide you clear figures / numbers how the system works and then you send the figures to me for verification.

Most countries have also setup proper agency to provide similar helps like above private ones.  That is a must know for poor debtors.  In Malaysia, you must go to AKPK personally and ask them to help you face to face.

Ok, lets get back to this blog.  Just a reminder that all above are the common methods debt adviser would have shared with you.  They are effective ... to contain the problem, not really solving it.  This blog stresses that personal bad debt is NOT a personal finance problem.  Its problem is from income and the solution is to work on income.

So what you really need is to focus on Getting More Income to pay off the debt.

No one can go back and change a BAD beginning 

but everyone CAN create a successful ending !

And you bet double the effort is needed to correct a small mistake.

Some may curse by now what a stupid recommendation. 

"If I could earn more money, I wouldn't be in this debt at the first place !!"

Well, thats why and how this article is written.  You must first admit and take resposbility for your own mistake, then you can also blame someone for it and now you should face it to solve it yourself.  Including thinking positively how every single suggestion comes in, despite how stupid some of them may sound.

Fortunately, there are proven methods on how to increase income to solve debt.  All you need is as mentioned above, expect double extra effort to come.

Statistically 3-5% of people who started a business end with great finance success.  The unique difference in this 3-5% of people is their smartness and ability to adapt to changes.  Lets face it, how smart we are is something imprinted within us.  Its not something we can change overnight.  By the time we are as smart as we should be, debt rate has already compounded to sky level.  Afterall, if we have the smartness in us, we wouldn't have reach this bad debt situation anyway, would we ?

On the other hand, people who 'join' a human network business has 20-30% success rate.  Off the other 70% who didn't make it even though they are in the same human network business as those who make it, is because they didn't spend enough effort on it.

A Human network business that you can 'join' includes multi level marketing, insurance and mutual fund agents.

If you are serious about solving your bad debt which you admit was a mistake on your part.  Then you better focus on increasing your income.  And if you don't know how to increase income on your own.  You better temporary forget about all your preception on MLM and insurance agents.  Join them and really spend a good amount of effort on it for 2-3 years.  I guarantee you will solve your current debt problems.

Forget about morale, forget the right thing to do, forget about helping others, you have to even forget about finance planning as a matter of fact.  Your focus should be on solving your debt and you are just 'working' toward it.  You don't have to 'like' your work in this case as long as it can get you off this bad debt which is killing you.  You probably don't like your current job anyway.  And since you are already in bad debt, you probably been brain wash by some incorrect ideas.  So what's wrong being brain wash by this MLM and insurance ?  While your brain is already filled with get into bad debt procedures.

After all, both income and bad debt is NOT a part of personal finance planning.  One is the pre-requsite and another is the oppositive.

Among the 3 choices above, insurance is the safest and best choice if you don't know which to pick.  

Although MLM is  perfect in concept but in practical world, MLM is still new and there are still a lot of bad apples in MLM industry.  Since insurance industry is older and better regulated, there are really no BAD insurance companies out there, there are only less good choices.  Mutual fund is more toward finance planning or investment ideas, immediate and short term reward on mutual fund sales are less encouraging.  So to sum all up, insurance industry is the most suitable human network business for people to join to reduce their debt.

Take an example to solve a $20,000 bad debt.  You probably need to make a total sales of $60,000.  Assuming each sale is $2,000 then you will need to make 30 sales.  In order to make 30 sales, you may need to make 150 attempts.  Assuming each attemp needs 4 follow ups, then you need to prepare for 600 sessions of work.  Assuming each session is 2 hours, you will need to spend 1,200 hours in order to solve your $20,000 debt.  Now, if you spend 3 hours a day, 7 days a week, your debt can be settled slightly after a year. 

If above example is not acceptable, then you will need to have the smart in you to entrepreneur about how to get the extra income you need.  But just to beware, the 'smart' you think you have in you may be is the 'smart' that gets you into bad debt at the first place.  Just beware ... but don't let any wild imagination stop you when pursuing income.

Lastly, if you setup an automated saving system, then you are more likely to solve your bad debt problem too.  Exactly why would probably require another long topic on human psychology.  But in short, setting up such a saving system implies you already solve the 2 most original fault in bad debt, greed and ignorance.

Good luck all, I know this is a tough topic and not many people will agree but nevertheless its already proven solving many bad debts again and again.  Although these people never come back and help me propagate the right finance planning ideas, but they did get their debts solved.

Why do Rich People commit suicide during recession?

This is one of the articles publised in our latest FREE ebook ( eMoney Tips Apr 2009 edition).  Click here to download now !   There are many more interesting articles in there. 

Just want to leave comment ?  click here !

Allow me to start by expressing my sincere condolences to …

Adolf Merckle (March 18, 1934 – January 5, 2009) was a businessman, and one of the richest people in Germany.[1] He was educated as a lawyer but spent most of his time investing. He lived in Germany with his wife and four children. Merckle made a speculative investment based on his belief that Volkswagen shares would fall, when, in October 2008, a support of Volkswagen by Porsche SE sent shares on the Xetra dax from €210.85 to over €900 in less than two days, resulting in losses estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars for Merckle. Adolf Merckle committed suicide on January 5, 2009 by throwing himself in front of a train near his hometown of Blaubeuren

Patrick Rocca seemed to have it all. A poster boy for Ireland’s Celtic tiger economy, he lent Bill Clinton his helicopter whenever he was in Ireland for a round of golf and rubbed shoulders with Tony Blair at gala dinners. Mr Rocca, 41, died from a single gunshot to his head at the family home in Holmeleigh, an exclusive residential enclave on the edge of Dublin’s Castleknock Golf and Country Club. His end was as swift and dramatic as the reversal of fortunes for some Irish banks, including Anglo Irish, which the Government is nationalizing and in which Mr Rocca was said to be heavily invested. He waited until his wife took their children to school before he shot himself in the head.

Outside Chicago, real estate mogul Steven L. Good was found dead in his Jaguar, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Good was the chairman and chief executive officer of Sheldon Good & Co., a major U.S. real estate auction company. The death comes amid great turmoil in the country's real estate industry. In his role as chairman of the Realtors Commercial Alliance Committee, Good commented on tough conditions last month at a business conference.

René-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, also known as Thierry de la Villehuchet for short (born in Saint-Malo, France in 1943, died in New York City, New York USA 23 December 2008) was a French nobleman, money manager and businessman, and one of the founders of Access International Advisors (AIA Group). The AIA Group is a research analyst investment agency that specializes in managing hedged and structured investment portfolios that involve commercial physical and biological research.[1][2] On 23 December 2008, de la Villehuchet reportedly committed suicide.[3] He was found dead in his company office on Madison Avenue in New York City.[4] His left wrist was slit[5] and de la Villehuchet had taken sleeping pills, in what appeared to be suicide.

The list just goes on and on …

Don’t get me wrong, it is not like ALL rich men go kill themselves when things go wrong. People who lost their life during this Great Depression are mostly NOT rich people actually. Neither is there any disrespect to these people here. These souls were all once great men and some were even indirect great mentor to me personally. It takes a very special and strong characteristic for a person to reach this big, this rich and this successful in life! A very strong driving force indeed. Unfortunately, sometimes this same characteristic drives them over the edge also.

Of course each of them would have a very personal reason for what they did and the absolute truth is that we will NEVER know what really happen! However, knowing some of them personally and even served some of them before, they probably won’t mind if these of their recent LAST stories can be used to instill some good for the rest of us.

Some people would say the cause is Greed. Some would say just a bad day, One Big Bad Turn. Some surviving financial experts even blame the deceases with all kind of cursing words. However, the most neutral comments come from psychologists who study human and society behavior and most of them said, “A block in mind that is stronger than all other beliefs at that particular moment”. There are many possibilities for the ‘block’. It could due to pride, lost of confidence or many others. But the fundamental is THEY THINK They Lost More Than They Could Afford in whatever they care most !

Well, whether they think wrongly or they really lost that much or they lost what they care most …

… that is all due to Lack of a Personal Finance Plan!

One may have great passion, great forecast and great business plan which include one of the world’s best financial plans for what they do best, but unfortunately NOT a PERSONAL one. As a matter of fact, most of their decisions were correct and that was how it got them to where they were – a large empire! Sometimes in business it takes guts to overcome risks. And every cycle in a business major decisions making may mark a new era or fall flat on their faces to start all over. Like a rolling snow ball. It gets bigger and bigger rolling downhill but it only takes one small valley to slow it down or sometimes completely shatter it.

Take a step back, it is actually NOT fair to claim they DO NOT have personal finance plans at all. They do have insurances and investments, what more could they possibly should have had? Sometimes it’s the little difference that makes a big impact.

Its due to Lack of a REAL SOLID Personal Finance Plan !

Income shouldn’t matter in your personal life long plan because they changes and may change out of your control! If you follow the model shown below, income is NOT a part of personal finance plan. Income is a pre-requisite but it is not a PART IN your personal finance plan. So no matter how much or how little income you are earning now, you can practice personal finance planning and you should. The first step to start is to setup an automated way to save your income, either in percentage or a fix amount depends on how consistent and the type of your income. ( read more in malaysiaPersonalFinance.blogspot.com ). So no matter how much you are earning, if you do not have this first step setup, you are most likely NOT have a REAL SOLID Personal Finance Plan yet even if you have bought insurance, mutual funds, stocks and properties.

So if you are still responding, “I could have easily earned more in my business/investment” when someone is “selling” you personal finance vehicle, you are most probably do not have a REAL SOLID ground at a PERSONAL level yet. You are still focusing too much on Income and not your life long plan.

If you are still comparing and deciding whether to buy a property or mutual fund, gold or insurance etc. You may still not able to distinguish the difference between income and personal finance plan.

If you still think multi-millionaire is your main target now and thinking hard all sort of ways to get rich without setting up the First Step mentioned above, you are still missing one big point in your life. One that may save your life and retain the happiness of the people who love you … ONE day !

So go now to setup a standing instruction transferring part of your income into another account that you have limited withdrawal capability. Then forget about it most of the time in any particular year.

Livermore told anyone who'd listen to follow his Wall Street strategy -- increase your position as the market moves in your direction, and quickly cut your losses. But he often failed to heed his own advice. He lost two fortunes, accumulated a third, and lost that, too. In 1940, in the bar of the Sherry-Netherland Hotel in New York City, he shot himself to death, leaving $365,000 in debts and a rambling, 8-page suicide note to his second wife. "I am a failure. I am a failure. I am a failure," it said.

The 65-year-old Frenchman, an aristocrat and professional investor, was deeply shamed and depressed, friends and family said. He felt he had ruined the lives of his clients, many of whom were friends. His brother, Bertrand, called his brother's suicide an honorable act. "At first he thought he'd be able to get the money back," Bertrand said in a Paris phone interview with The Associated Press after his brother's death. "Gradually he realized he wouldn't be able to. He trusted Madoff completely."

old note :

This is an article written and will be published in a FREE ebook in the making in respond to kclau .... once the ebook is released or my submission is rejected, the content of this article will be released in this post. Stay tune .... while enjoying the other contents.

Thank you for your time !