Mindset about MONEY

OK : I m going to re-phrase what my doc-friend(call him JL) ask a good surprising question. Teh, I have a ONE MILLION DOLLAR question for you.

What does it takes to be as knowledgable and as good as you are now?

*(I need to remind others and my friend JL that I m ONLY one year in KLSE and with only 20% knowledge, so ... I m NOT good at all in my trading/investment. Please understand that a ONE YEAR experience doctor, lecturer, engineer or what-so-ever could NOT claim they are good and experienced, right?? You work in an accounting firm as Financial Consultant for a year(with degree in Finance Management), will you be able to advise large companies on their financial prospects? THINK!!)*

I thought about it for a while, trying to recall what I have done to be where I m now. There were simply too many pointers and over-helming if I need to list out things I have done RIGHT or MISTAKES I have erred. Then, I concluded that the answer should be MINDSET.

Your MINDSET determines your success in almost everything you do, particularly things related to USING BRAIN. Many things we are doing we need to use of BRAIN. The ways you see things are VERY IMPORTANT as that is your MENTALITY. You may be smart enough to KNOW it, or otherwise ... you may want to remain being 'dumb' refusing to KNOW yourself.

Wrestling in WWF is NOT one of them. That is one of the brainless "entertainers" flexing muscles, and of coz we have many ridiculously stupid human watching it for hours(even to BUY its DVD), enjoying the violence in front of their kids!! The one earning MONEY is the man behind the management who exploits the stupidity of the whole society. That is HUGE business they are dealing with here. To add to the "fun", they will get those sexily clad females to talk rough, talk dirty and of coz showing their "assets". Human, particularly MALE love these. Simple MONEY making concepts : Exploit on the weakness of general male. They fantasizing of huge muscles(and they thought female loves muscles!!), lean body, ability to WHACK someone with their fists or kick-ass. They will be IMAGINING themselves doing stuff that beyond themselves in reality, and REALITY is painful ... hence, this is just ONE of the many of their escapade venues.

MINDSET about MONEY. How do you view MONEY is VERY important in trading/investing as we are dealing with MONEY. Every click of the mouse, I m transferring MONEY, buy or sell to someone. Demand/Supply took place and the one with stronger, yet right MINDSET shall prevail. This the MOST essential FIRST step if you ever think of benefitting from your investment. HOW far you could open your narrowed-mind(due to years of brain-washing from your surrounding people), the journey is in your control.

Say, you are those FEW smart ones(like JL) who understand this SIMPLE yet powerful money-welcoming concept, then you will have a head-start compared to MANY MANY(80% of our society) who still struggling internally regarding MONEY.

Therefore, CHANGE the way you see about money, and the WEALTH will be with you!! Am I guaranteeing you that?? Nope ... loooong way to go, but that is the FIRST STEP, in my opinion. Placing a good and right foundations are my KEY of learning and educating myself. No point you speak about Bollinger Bands(for those TA) or what EPS/PE/NTA values mean(for those FA) when you can't even UNDERSTAND you must MASTER your own mindset ... and taking advantage of the HERD MENTALITY.

Herd Mentality

This is again and again being said BUT human habits are hard to break. We have our new year resolutions at the beginning of the year(and done that YEARLY) but HOW many % of those with NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS really follow through certain % of their OWN resolutions. You may see in as GOALS.

"Herd" = Majority.

As I have pointed out that 80% of them are losing MONEY in markets, WHY would you be just one of them? IT DOESNT make any sense to me, but I recognised that MAJORITY will NOT make sense when it comes to MONEY. MONEY is a TABOO issue NOT to be known by others!! Not even your salary or income should be known by anyone, including your spouses!! WOW!! Also, MONEY that we spend ... many of the "HERDS" like to BUY things they ill-afford to SHOW OFF. WOW!! Amazing, isnt it?

MONEY is really EMOTIONALLY attached to all of us ... that we follow the HERDS without questioning!! If we do question about the "LOGIC", we will be seen as STUPID, WEIRDO ... all sort of names I could 'feel' people brand others for NOT being in the HERD. haha ...

I should know better as I defied human stupidity, but in return I m branded as STUPID. Haha. To me, it is a great joke and contradiction. I seems to always AGAINST the HERD in almost anything I do, as I m strong enough to accept their ignorance or lack of understanding of things they do, especially relating to MONEY. I should know too as I was one of them!!

Yes, in conclusion ... we do NOT think logically when it comes to money on how the money moves, how we could earn more by reducing our expenses and how we use our savings to INVEST intelligently. It is wealth accumulation ... then, we still have to educate ourselves about wealth management.

Incredible ... we are graduates, but we are NEVER being taught such basic concepts of personal finance. An economy lecturer could speak to you about other country demand-supply or economy situations, but fail in "micro-economy" in their own personal sense.

See it this way ... your whole family is MACRO and you individually is MICRO. Then, the economic lecturer will be considered as SMART enough to apply what he/she has been preaching to ALL his/her students. Is making money Science or Arts? Neither. It is BOTH, in my opinion.Are you still with me? I m answering him ONE MILLION DOLLAR question. You may NOT trust me, but I believe he is convinced that right investing MINDSET is the initial step. We have not even speak about profitting from markets. Please understand that MONEY WILL COME TO YOU when you have the RIGHT mentality about MONEY.I want to quote from REMNANT888's blog : Be the person who move the MONEY, not being moved by MONEY. Heard of it before? THINK over it deeply ... are you moving the money or the money moving you? Do you feel tempted to BUY that latest car and trade your car(with huge % losses) and tighten your belts monthly to pay the BANK for that new car? How low your FQ could be? Ignore me if you are the 20% those rich ones, or those 80% who still struggling about finances but refuse to listen.Belinda Carlisle - (We Want) The Same Thing

IQ : Visit http://www.highiqsociety.org/ to test your IQ.General Malaysians have an average IQ of 98. But, as you could be reading these lines, I shall place your IQ above 105 easily. Go to the site above for a free IQ test(you don't have to LIE or show anyone) ... if your IQ above 120, I will be glad as you will be more able to read my lines with better understanding and also could comprehend better any books you read. If your IQ above 127, they will provide you with free IQ analysis and invite you to be the elite of the HIGH IQ society. Interesting? Hehe ...Now, you DO NOT need to have high IQ to gain very much from investing. That is FACT. So, dont worry too much about IQ. I m pointing this out as many professionals(especially young ones) with considerable high IQ could NOT use their ability to think/analyse when it comes to MONEY. But, the higher your IQ, I could at least find it easier to explain some concepts which might be too "complex" for your brain capacity. I know I sound arrogant when I mentioned IQ to JL yesterday. He is a doctor, could even relate how he deal with his patients with economies ... so, I will rate his IQ as high.A high IQ person has a slight advantage : He/she could analyse fast, see beyond things that "normal IQ" person could see, could understand things in faster rate ... and yes, know how to relate two different situations and see the similarities. This is an advantage but not huge over others. Believe me that my idol Buffett might not has the highest of IQ but smartest(so far la) person in investing successfully for decades!!

EQ : This is related to your EMOTIONS. You can't say you DO NOT have emotions towards money. It could be obsession(greed), love and hate, fear of its evil roots ... MONEY will make us VERY emotional. I have "trained" myself to be immuned of money since I was in Uni year.During 97/98 crisis, many lost A LOT of money in KLSE. Many contemplating taking their lives as they feel that they lost 'everything'. Note that it is currently happening in MANY countries, particularly in China or those involved in Mad-off Ponzi scheme. Or in any GET-RICH scheme. WHY such a scheme could go far and making its "investors" BELIEVE they could get-rich-fast? WHO won't want to get RICH, real RICH FAST? Fast track your fiinancial brain? Don't you think so it VERY much involving EMOTIONS here? So, are you good in controlling your emotion when it comes MONEY? Your EQ becoming very crucial when it comes to taking control of our emotion. Being in CONTROL is VERY crucial when we make decision in our trading and/or investing decisions. When to BUY what ... and WHY?I m seeing the dive in markets as HUGE crisis-opportunities for anyone who know-how to take advantage on the situation. So, I m EMOTIONALLY charged ... excite by some economic news, listening to the flow of news ... but I m NOT sitting here blogging without have the control of my emotions. I have mixed feeling about the whole global economic situations, actually. While I know I could be in-FOCUS about my plans and get too excited about it, I m also feeling "pitiful" as I could NOT share with so many around me about this opportunities!! I could only TRY to convince them that all these "bad" years 2008-2010 will be my BEST years in my wealth accumulation stage. How I wish they will listen. Well, at least my friend JL starts to listen ... and sharing my 'experiences', and seeing HUGE opportunities ahead of us ... we share THE SAME THING --- a goal to be financially free.Perhaps I could start to charge tuition fees from my readers? haha. No free lunches, remember? In 3 or 4 years time, YES ... I will charge those come to me for knowledge, once I establish myself ... and proven that my hard-work really works? Do you think so? Hmm .... I don't know but I will continue to listen to those know-how and learn ...

FQ : With IQ + EQ, we need to increase our knowledge about MONEY. That will be FQ. YES, our EDUCATION system teaching us to be EMPLOYEES. Do read "Rich dad, Poor dad". That was one of my first MONEY-related book. It did not write about MONEY, actually but enlightening us about our EDUCATION system where we could never free ourselves FINANCIALLY ... and retire young IF we wanted to. We will be so-called stuck in our job routines and most of us DENYING that we work for survival ... or for the salary!! You may be a highly-paid manager or a simple lecturer like me. We still depends on our salary to keep-up with our lifestyle, agree?In order for us to be better-off than our colleagues or people surrounding us financially, we need to INCREASE our FQ. This is NOT in-born. IQ might be(but can be increased too) and EQ could be developed. FQ could be cultivated and re-learn ... take me as an example!! Hehe ...So, we need to have at least certain level of IQ, maturing to increase our EQ and we should look into to increase our FQ. I wish all the best ... and since I m giving "tuition" to JL, I will write about what I m sharing with him(only to certain extent as it will be too lengthy and boring for punters brain!! Haha).I shared with him my 5-year plan just now. This is the first time I shared with anyone at all. NOt even my wife know about my plans. WHY? Because my surrounding people are "normal" IQ with NOT strong EQ and quite a low FQ. It is not really possible to share with them.

My 5-year plan.

Year 1 : Change mindset. Earn as much as capitals. Learn to trade/invest KLSE.
Year 2 : Trade in foreign markets. Learn put/call options. Invest in US.
Year 3 : Look into to BUY property and learn to invest.
Year 4 : Wealth Management.
Year 5 : Teach 'investing' concepts. Have my own training center.