Semblance of Order
In reality, this is not implemented all the time and it is evident from the statistics which tell us about innumerable mortgage delinquencies. How then will you avoid deviating from the “old saying”?
Effective money management skills are called for.
Mortgage loan calculators can be of good help along with judicious spending habits. (please take note of the combination)
Dissect, Analyze, Solve
I was looking at my financial duties for 2010, staring as far out as December, when the imminence of what I have to pay struck me: huge life insurance premiums.
Do you have the thought that sometimes you may have bitten more than you can chew?
Years ago, when I bought those policies, business was good and was not yet bogged down by recession woes. I felt I could do anything – be anything, buy anything. My financial planner convinced me of the wisdom of obtaining life insurance (my second attempt at it). For peace of mind, she said. And I did have it. I remember thinking while driving one day that my family will be okay if… But now, that same thing that gave me peace of mind is shattering it.
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.”
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.
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.
It was not an easy exercise. There is that little notebook that you need to haul with you everywhere. And you have to be on your guard everytime – I know I still have a dollar here, where did it go? And there’s the hubby that you have to nag to please write every little expense when you know he will not because he does not want to.
He still does not want to.