Category Archives: The Basics Of Finance

Increasing Your Financial Intelligence Series: Ways the Prices of Security Are Being Manipulated

September 15 10:56 pm ,

Five years ago, I would not have given it any thought.

In fact, if I come across finance terms, I would hardly give it a glance.  Worse, it would not even penetrate my consciousness.  I would not even see it, period.  But it is true what they say.  What you do not understand or know at first, if you keep at it, it would have no choice but take on meaning.

With a little help from Investopedia and the Securities and Regulations Code (SRC), let me share with you the ways by which the prices of securities (stocks, for our purpose) can be manipulated.

Do not be fooled.  The business of stocks or securities is serious business.  The big boys make the stock market their playground, their very own money mill, if you please.  If you are not careful and fall prey to their schemes, well, you can kiss your hard-earned money goodbye.

But the point of education is to make you more aware of the pitfalls.  Half of winning is knowing.

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Increasing Your Financial Intelligence

August 21 8:08 am ,

 

The Money Maze: Exciting, Amazing, Discoverable

The Money Maze: Exciting, Amazing, Discoverable

My friend Robert Kiyosaki said I should invest in increasing my financial intelligence.  By invest he meant put in money, effort, and more importantly, time.

Financial intelligence is the foundation of great wealth. It is the understanding of money and how it works in the present day world.  Understanding that debt is not merely debt, but that it could be good or bad; and assets are sometimes not assets but liabilities; and that expenses should be increased and income decreased to maximize the tax laws written by the rich for the rich.  It is seeing not what is there but the totality of the picture.  It is listening to the story of numbers, and using more numbers to create an extraordinary future.

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Accounting, Math and Newscasting

August 18 1:34 am ,
The Universe Says Yes

The Universe Says Yes

I used to love numbers and would spend countless hours doing my trigonometry exercises.  I could not explain it except that I (probably) had the genetic predisposition for it – dad was an accountant.  I could have been one too, but for some twist of fate, it was my younger brother who became an accountant (okay, okay, he’s also pretty good in Math) because I wanted with all my heart to become a newscaster, and shunned what I now call my lost inner talent.

In one desperate (yes) moment to get into a tax law firm, I told my interviewer that my dad was an accountant and my brother was an accountant. Silence. Without batting an eyelash, he told me, “Maybe I should hire them”.  He’s got a point.

Imagine my surprise when they hired me.

Imagine my surprise (!) when Robert Kiyosaki mentioned in Rich Dad, Poor Dad that if he were to do everything all over again, he would be an accountant.  And that this is the course he would recommend to kindergarten students.

The destiny that I denied.

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Posted in: Life Stories, Mentors, The Basics of Finance , Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

Time Management for Entrepreneurs

August 12 11:45 pm ,

 

Capturing Time

Capturing Time

I am overwhelmed.

The problem with having a finger in too many things is that it is a problem –you end up going around like a headless chicken, not knowing which tail is up and why, missing appointments, wanting to miss appointments, day ends up unproductive because the enormity of everything threatens to engulf you and not doing anything seems so very enticing.

Warren Buffett said: “We enjoy the process much more than the proceeds.”

But he is Warren Buffett, and he has a team of lawyers, tax planners, financial advisers, accountants and analysts, not to mention secretaries and people who will do anything for him, at his beck and call.  He is not a one man like team like you and me – starting entrepreneurs that we are.  Pending a Warren Buffett status, we have got to get a hold of ourselves, and time.

After all, they say, time is all in the mind.  It can contract and expand at the turn of the mental dial.  Now, how to find that mental dial…

Enter time management.

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Shopping and Hunger

July 28 11:02 pm ,
Feed Your Hunger

Feed Your Hunger

I am not a shopper-shopper.  For some reason, having a million bags strung over my arm (or D’s) or spending precious hours trying on dresses after dresses or shoes after shoes do not appeal to me (D, please do not shake your head – yet).  Unless I am hungry.

There was a time before our financial planner (the dark ages), before reason reigned supreme.  One of his earlier lessons was some words of caution: “Do not go to the mall when you are hungry.” Huh?

He explains: the hunger gives off an emptiness sign to the psyche and the psyche goes haywire and the emptiness needs to be filled – instantly.  This is transmitted to the brain, and since the main activity at hand is shopping, the mind fools itself into thinking that the hunger will be satiated by buying.  It is correct, to some degree; the buying will stave off the hunger.  But the relief is merely temporary. After all, the stomach is still hungry, and the hormone ghrelin is still running out of control in the bloodstream.

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Grow Rich, Play Monopoly

July 14 12:44 am ,
Under the Sun, Playing

Under the Sun, Playing

It’s a funny thing. I have known Monopoly since I was a young kid. I enjoyed it, yes, and tried hard to get playmates to play with me but we usually get bored early in the game so we end up, always, not finishing it. We did not even care who won. But I did not know it could have such an impact on me. It was just a board game, after all, and board games do not really teach skills. Apparently, this one does, and I learned to look at Monopoly – and games – in a new light.

Fast forward to 20 years after. I read Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Kiyosaki said in that book that one can learn the basics of finance with Monopoly, such as “trade four green houses for one red hotel.” I could not believe my eyes as I was reading, I know this game! I immediately downloaded it to my Treo and played, and played, and played.

At home, at night, at traffic when my car is at a standstill – every chance I got, I played. And then, finally, I got it.

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