Magnify
So I ask my questions, no matter how silly or how dumb it sounds. Doubt is also an element that I constantly entertain in my mind, so I confirm and re-confirm until the thing has no choice but to sound true.
So on the day that I got my credit card statement and alarm bells were sounding in my head, I picked up the phone and called Citibank direct.
Hop In
I was not entirely convinced (I did not really understand).
To further dispel the mystery of this so-called staple – Mutual Funds – I did some further reading and some interviews. It is simpler than I thought.
Mutual Funds, turns out, is an investment vehicle where people can pool their resources to take advantage of the magic of larger numbers, that is, because a lot of people invest into “the fund”, they have a large number, and thus, the mutual fund manager – a professional who will manage the investment – can get better rates of return for them. The mutual fund manager trades the “pooled” money on a regular basis and the net proceeds or losses are then typically distributed to the investors annually. As my friend Salve Duplito said in one of her articles in MoneySmarts, with as little as USD$100, the regular John or Juans can get their feet wet in an instantly diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, or both.
A sort of safe haven for the cautious investor.
Influencing Your Destiny
We were taking the cursory city tour and the tour guide very carefully pointed out the building in the distance with a hole through it. She said that a Feng Shui expert was consulted when it was built and she said that there was a dragon that lives in the mountain behind the building. To keep him happy, there should be a hole in the center of the building so that he can easily go in and out whenever he wanted. It became the site of the former Repulse Bay Hotel and known as Repulse Bay’s famed “building with a hole”.
I was fascinated. A dragon!
On her website, Lillian Too explains that the Feng Shui practice is described in colorful dragon metaphors and that that Master Yang Yun Sang’s (Founder of Feng Shui) emphasis was “…on the shape of the mountains, the direction of water courses, and above all, on locating and understanding the influence of the Dragon, Cha’s most revered celestial creature.”
Be-Ribboned
I had to laugh at the incredulous look on my sister-in-law’s face as I shook my head from side to side. She could not imagine that we would want no surprises or take no surreptitious trips to the market to find that certain something that would delight a lover.
We have taken the same route with my daughter, who chose her Monopoly game board (discounted), Here and Now Edition (electronic banking instead of paper money!), with care, over a coveted Baby Alive (she thought it was too expensive – I am so proud of her). We bought it and wrapped it together and I do not think her excitement waned or was lessened because she still waited for “the day” until she could play with it and play with us (she lost during our first game and wanted to cry but won during the second and got her confidence back – we do not believe in letting her win just because she is a kid).
Bloom
Here are some words from the experts on how to set up your financial goals and clean up your financial house:
Turn Desires to Gold
At the beginning of Bob Proctor’s program Six Minutes to Success, he discusses about the six ways in Napoleon Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich of how to turn mere desires into realities.
Saving Fish From Drowning
Some of my choices were made for me.
Some times, I am thankful. Other times, I struggle with feelings of resentment. The unwavering, hovering influence, decision-maker-cum-ones-who-always-want-to-have-the-last-words-in: the parents, a lover, relatives, friends.
All good meaning. All who think they are better, that they know better.
Illimitable
We were in highschool and sitting in the girls’ quadrangle talking about everything and nothing, and my bestfriend, the smartest in the batch, blurted out those words out of the blue. I looked into her eyes and saw only sincerity.
I furrowed my brows and wondered way into the night about those words. She believed.
A thought: maybe I could believe too.
Planting Season
T. Harv Eker, author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind.
Oddly, I find myself thinking the exact same thing.
What comes out of the mouth of people usually would give you a hint of how they are doing financially. Yes, the Rolex, the expensive suit and the expensive cars only serve as smokes and mirrors – illusions that should not matter because it can be bought at credit (and at terrible cost). It is the words that a person spews that could give you a window to his financial soul – past, present, future.