This article is a biased view colored by my life experiences and does not represent the billions of infinite perspectives that permutate every second globally. It may be unpalatable to some people as it affects them in some ways publicly. Conversely, others may implement these insights for the benefits of themselves and their loved ones in private.
Warning: Contains mild disturbing themes.
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[ Poor Person’s Traits ]
[ How do the poor work? ]
[ What do poor people do for money? ]
[ Fortune Tellers ]
[ Unexpected Life Events ]
[ Financial Troubles ]
[ Paying Off Loans ]
[ Frenemies ]
[ Lending and Borrowing Money ]
[ Dark Side of Investing ]
[ Dark Side of Parenthood ]
[ Dark Side of Marriage ]
[ Motivation ]
[ Money Buys Freedom ]
[ Desires ]
[ Decision Making and Philosophy ]
[ Wisdom ]
[ Friends ]
[ Pregnant ]
[ Kid’s Food ]
[ When Your Child Turns Four ]
[ When Your Child Turns Eight ]
[ Work Benefits ]
[ Car for Teenagers ]
[ Before Marriage ]
[ Wedding ]
[ Snippet of Marriage Life ]
[ Household Management ]
[ Home Improvements ]
[ Appliances ]
[ Climate Control ]
[ Decorations ]
[ Lights ]
[ Water ]
[ Internet ]
[ Environment ]
[ Cooking ]
[ Packed Lunch ]
[ Supermarket ]
[ Medicals & Personal Hygiene ]
[ Outings ]
[ Entertainment ]
[ Gambling ]
[ Shopping Research ]
[ At The Store ]
[ Shop Second-Hand and $2 Shops ]
[ Security ]
[ Tech ]
[ Transportation ]
[ Holiday ]
[ Outlandish Ways to Save Money ]
[ Education in Personal Finance ]
[ Rich Person’s Traits and Behaviors ]
[ Charity ]
[ Advisers in Personal Finance ]
[ Wills and Estate Planning ]
[ Insurance Protection ]
[ Bank ]
[ Credit Cards ]
[ Savings ]
[ Contracts ]
[ Entrepreneurship ]
[ Tax ]
[ Jobs ]
[ Risks ]
[ Investing ]
[ Art Investments ]
[ Real Estate ]
[ Retirement ]
[ Related Personal Finance Articles ]
[ References ]
[ Poor Person’s Traits ]
The richest man in the graveyard is stupid. [author unknown]
Does not exercise; eat unhealthily, and oversleeps — numb their feelings of inadequacy with substance abuse, e.g., drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol.
Has a “blame others for all bad things that happen to him or her” attitude and are abusive and disrespectful to everyone. Angry and jealous of rich people and do not self-reflect for his/her ineptitude.
Why are we quick to condemn the poor’s incompetency and unfortunate life events, yet do nothing to help arrest the roots of their suffering?
Works hard; take debts to buy luxury goods to impress others to obtain their approval; buy things to throw away after a few months; works hard again. Repeat cycle until no one hires him or her. Wrongly justify spending all their money on purchases is to help recover the economy from depression.
Habits are formed by peer pressure and culture.
Thinks: “You only live once, and you can’t take money with you after death. Why not enjoy it?”
What if your money runs out, and you are still alive?
Live in rental properties and has a big TV.
Have no purpose in life and consistently polish social media.
Family and friends didn’t teach the poor person how to seek wealth from a young age.
Is it sensitive to discuss money with your loved ones?
Conversely, do you gain knowledge from your degree to get a good career without your professor sharing his or her knowledge?
Take mom’s hard-earned money to go to the karaoke lounge to sing, “Thank you, Mom — song” Keep taking money from parents without a word of “Thanks.”
Evil heart or ignorance?
Treat their friends and pets better than their parents.
Don’t gift money to parents but buy expensive gifts for financially independent celebrities.
Are you poor?
[ How do the poor work? ]
Wrongly thinks that if he or she gets a good University degree and stay loyal to a company, he or she will be rewarded with a rich retirement.
Unfortunately, based on the business register database, most companies don’t last more than five years.
Does not volunteer or donate to charity.
Only interested in activities that have monetary or other benefits to self?
Thinks the only way to get money is via physical or mental exertions.
Ignorance?
Exchange his own time for money. When the hands stop, the mouth stops.
Is an employee who isn’t financially free. Started work at 14 years old and is still broke at 30 years old.
Why didn’t your friends point this out to help you?
Is irresponsible.
Does things slowly in poor quality.
Does not deliver work on time.
Clock watch.
Waste time.
Late for work.
Form cliques and gangs in the workplace.
Spends most of his or her time politicking.
Manipulate others to do his or her work.
Steal the credit.
Push blame to others.
Use company resources to do personal or dodgy things.
What are the root reasons in one’s upbringing over the years that result in poor work ethics?
Thinks about how to get money all the time, because, without money, he or she cannot survive. Sell sex to people with sex diseases for a few dollars to buy stale bread to eat.
This is the sad part about life. How can we help?
[ What do poor people do for money? ]
Commit crimes for pleasures, out of habit, or to survive.
Work in a job they hate.
Marry for money.
Manipulative behavior that creates pain and suffering.
How can we protect ourselves and help create wealth so everyone can prosper?
[ Fortune Tellers ]
Use your superstition to bedazzle and bankrupt you.
Other than the devil, humans, and God, looking into your reflection will tell you who is the root cause of your suffering.
Conversely, faith in God does provide consolation and reduce violent crimes that may harm the lives of your loved ones and you.
[ Unexpected Life Events ]
The only things that you have control over life are your thoughts and your reactions to events.
National or Global economic changes.
Pandemics.
Natural or human-made disasters, e.g., your house gets burnt down.
Relationship problems.
Job loss.
Unforeseen life events and financial disasters, e.g., you got cheated.
You or your loved ones get cancer or other health issues.
Infinite other circumstances.
[ Financial Troubles ]
Seek professional advice.
Send electronically every piece of digital and written down organic advice you gathered from everyone to both your lawyer & financial adviser a week before meeting them.
Meet both lawyer & financial adviser in the same meeting to list your options.
Are you in a crisis to survive on a low income? Visit the Moneysmart website:
Free calculators and tips to help you take control of your money and build a better life.moneysmart.gov.au
Need help to sort out your money? Are you in a crisis to survive on a low income? Visit the Moneysmart website. [here]
Unabashedly, seek social support to help you save and invest.
Ask for loans from your family and friends with personal contracts and pay interests to them.
This is insecure and often result in relationship failures.
Money arguments cause many divorces and family breakups.
Don’t think about relying on others for help. Most people, including your family, will abandon you when you are living in poverty.
Eliminate toxic family members.
YouTube examples of toxic people.
Donate or sell your unwanted items via messenger group(s) to your family, friends, and colleagues by posting the item’s photo, price, and deadline.
Each family member takes a screenshot of the income/expense graph from the bank app. Share and compare with each other via secure messaging app, e.g., Telegram [ explore here ] to encourage savings and on-time habits rectification.
Why not use peer pressure to motivate and improve each other?
[ Paying Off Loans ]
When you don’t have any money, you would know who truly loves you and how precious money is. [reference]
Pay off your highest deductible interest loans.
Sell everything you got except things you need for your profession. Check out eBay & Amazon. If you are desperate, try Cash Converters.
Cut or sell gym membership as well as all Netflix & other subscriptions.
Eat at home on instant noodles, rice, beans & vegetables.
Cut drugs & alcohol.
Reflect, log your experiences & learn from this.
Journalling helps with your mental health.
Join a church to seek help from Christians & God.
Seek help from charity groups, e.g., Salvation Army & Vinnie’s
Ask Government welfare or social security departments for support.
[ Frenemies ]
Will you lend money to a beggar where you think it’s likely you won’t get the money?
Ignore and eliminate bad and negative friends.
Frenemies get you to spend more money by influencing you into vices, and sneering at your frugality. They will never lend you money when you are in hardship. The poorer you are, the better they feel about themselves. When you beg them to lend you money, they gain tremendous pleasures in declining you the loan.
You will be discarded.
If people are taking money away from you, the problem is you are letting other people into your life without scrutiny.
Stop trying to live up to people’s expectations and manipulative words.
See a doctor, counselor, or a psychologist if you have self-esteem issues.
Please do not be affected by your friends or frenemies teasing; ask yourself: “Do they give me any money or benefits?” If not, why let them bother you? Discard them.
Your loved ones should provide respectful advice, unconditional love, and support, not discouragement and attacks. That’s how “love” is spelled in loved ones.
[ Lending and Borrowing Money ]
Gold flees the man who would force it to impossible earnings or follows the alluring advice of tricksters and schemers or trusts it to his inexperience and romantic desires in investment. [reference]
Never borrow money from loan sharks. Dig an early grave by borrowing from John to pay Jack.
You get a short-lived pleasure from the purchase of luxury items and decades of immense pain from quick-growing credit card debts and loan shark beat ups.
Seek help from the police who will help mediate and give you referrals to help you pay back the loans via installments. The harassments and beat-ups will stop.
Why gift money to family and friends when they are neither genuinely homeless nor disabled?
Never gift or lend a lump sum of money at one go to anyone, not even your family.
You won’t get the money back, and the relationship will sour.
If you think $10 is nothing, try borrowing $10 from each of your supposedly good friends and family and monitor their body language and reactions.
Take a year to observe the small actions of the person.
Review his or her past relationships and life history.
[ Dark Side of Investing ]
[author unknown]
If you were a scammer/criminal before you were rich, you would be worse when you become rich. If you were an ethical worker before you become rich, you would be a better human that helps others and charities. Money is not evil/materialistic; some humans are evil/greedy.
People who make decisions on your behalf will rarely be deciding it in your best interests.
You also lack the opportunity to gain experience to learn how to make the right decisions, thus increasing your exposure to future financial disasters.
Your friends, family, and colleagues may give you investment misinformation as they are fake friends or bad people.
The radio or TV may broadcast what shares to buy to recoup losses from the sinking company, or the radio station’s boss could allegedly be bribed.
[author unknown]
Beware the politics expert that doesn’t have a successful track record of running a business or country. The celebrity expert that can’t sing or dance.
Don’t make investment decisions based on radio, TV, friends, family & colleagues sources. What works for others may not work for you.
Others may profit based on luck. The market changes every microsecond.
You sacrifice your relationships with your loved ones when you lose money.
This image is an example of a falsified bank account balance. Other doctored images could include grand houses, fast cars, and luxurious parties of opulence to lure unsuspecting victims to part with their money via fake schemes.
The younger you are, the easier it is to scam money from you.
When the victim is bankrupt, he will resort to crime. Repeat.
Romance scammers get the partner to put their salaries into their bank accounts, so the partner gets tax less. Scammers disappeared with the victim’s life savings.
Do not trust your money to a 21-year-old life or financial coach.
If you know of a 50% guaranteed return on your money, the last thing you will do is to let the secret out. Why would you believe in advertising that someone offers you a deal with guaranteed high returns on your money quickly? If they are so rich, why do they need to advertise for customers?
If you have business secrets of making money, would you teach it to other people? If not, why would strangers show you for a small fee?
When an acquaintance rings you to ask for your money for an investment/business scheme, it often leads to your losses. The critic/schemer will try to cherry-pick the 1% wildly successful cases and obscure the 99% failed schemes that bring families into poverty and hardships.
If it is too good to be true, it is too good to be true. High returns on investments and get rich quick schemes are often scams leaving you penniless.
Don’t put all your money in a single investment. Don’t buy investments just because other people say so, or are doing the same, use critical thinking and research skills. You will lose your money when you invest in portfolios you do not know well. Conversely, there are plenty of advice online, e.g., personal blogs by unaccredited people, to put all your money into one investment.
Don’t believe everything you read online, even if someone says he is an authority in the subject as you cannot verify if it’s true. Don’t believe everything that is mentioned in this article; do your research to check.
From a Machiavelli’s view, allegedly, this significantly benefits the scammer’s profits. He can take a large sum of money at one go. Thus always seek accredited advice before making any financial decisions.
Invest under accredited financial advisers’ advice to avoid mistakes that may bankrupt you. On the other hand, beware of scammers masquerading as experts to help you. They often seek to sell you a product to then disappear.
Cybercriminals are known to peep into big server data, CEOs, and ministers’ data to inside trade on properties, shares, businesses, and other ventures.
Google, how does a scammer look like and update your knowledge on the types of scams there are. It takes less than 20 mins.
Conversely, if you are rich, are you likely to commit crimes which will land you in prison thus losing your fortune?
[ Dark Side of Parenthood ]
With time, you can make more money. Even with fortunes, you cannot buy back lost time.
Kids cost at least USD 250,000 from birth to age 18. They may not leave your house till 40.
When parents pass too much money to the kids, it will teach the child to be lazy.
Conversely, who wants to be poor?
Parents are busy with businesses where the children are lonely & bored at home and neglected. Their sadness makes them easy victims to be led astray by bad people.
The internet is a high-risk portal for criminals to reach and influence your naive children into vices. Set parental controls and protect your children like a hawk.
The child that turned bad will spend all of the parent’s hard-earned money on vices and crimes.
Parents often hide their money problems from their children, but it extends the children’s money naivety. Get your kids to help you to pay your bills.
Children mirror parents. If we have poor money habits, children will have bad money problems where we have to foot the bill for their problems.
Children may influence family members to eat junk food, substance abuse, risky behaviors and vices to get a more significant share of their inheritance early.
Run.
[ Dark Side of Marriage ]
Don’t leave the management of your wealth to your partner.
If your partner no longer loves you and was to abandon you, run off with your money, or suddenly died, you will be left hanging without any wealth management skills to fend for yourself.
Sometimes, people upgrade their partners to a younger and sexier version when they become wealthy and abandon their original partners.
Spendthrift. If you earn 1 million dollars a year, and your partner spends 1 million dollars a year, you will both be homeless without money for medical bills when both of you are old and jobless.
Live on one partner’s income after marriage.
Agree on allowing unquestioned small discretionary spending for each partner to avoid petty arguments.
Ask your partner: What is the real reason that is making you angry?
Google: “ 5 Whys ” investigation technique to understand the root cause of your partner’s anger.
[ Motivation ]
Set aside a week to eat the cheapest food and wear the cheapest clothing and ask yourself if this is scary — the contrast will make you more appreciative of life [author unknown]
[ Money Buys Freedom ]
The only thing that money gives you is the freedom of not worrying about money [reference].
Money is necessary as it allows us to seek pleasures and avoid pain.
Money gives you the power to be free. Based on empirical evidence, without money, other people and life circumstances will control you like a puppet. On the other hand, when you are rich, you will often worry about losing your wealth via lawsuits, manipulation, or entrapment.
There is no demographic discrimination in money, as everyone loves and needs money. Money is neither evil nor good.
Blaming money for evil human acts is a form of red herring [ learn more ]. It’s like a pencil that a toddler used to draw art or a human that uses a pencil to stab another in the eye. A pencil is an object that doesn’t have legs. It’s human behavior that is evil.
All countries run on money, businesses, and human hierarchy. The oppressed seek to avoid oppression from the oppressors. But when the oppressed come into power, they often become the oppressors.
Such is human nature; such is life.
Conversely, without proper organization, wouldn’t the world be in anarchy?
[ Desires ]
Shopaholism and money woes are often rooted in emotional and psychological issues.
Great wealth is obtained by having few wants.
Delay instant gratification. If you enjoy a little now, you suffer a lot longer later.
Google “What causes shopaholism”.
Identify and overcome your fears, guilt, and insecurities so you won’t buy beyond your means to feel better for a while.
Buy coffee for your trusted family and friends and ask for their honest advice about your money habits and problems via 1 on 1 sessions.
[ Decision Making and Philosophy ]
We tend to opt for immediate short-term gains at the expense of long-term benefits. [author unknown]
The first or last ordering of options affect our decisions.
Don’t rush making decisions, ponder. [reference]
We only live for less than 100 years, where Earth has existed and will continue to live for more than millions of years.
Scientifically, human life is limited. If we spend most of our life being unhappy about money, when we become a millionaire, how much time do we have left to be happy? Will our decades of frugal habits change suddenly so we can enjoy our amassed fortune a little? What if we were to suddenly die in an accident?
Conversely, it makes fiscal sense to have a sufficient buffer for unexpected financial disasters.
If material things that we can see are important, what is the value of air that keeps us alive, but we cannot see?
[ Wisdom ]
[author unknown]
The journey to financial freedom begins with a single step.
The poor man and billionaire ratios are similar. Billionaire spends all his or her money to take up billions of dollars of debt to live until 188 years old. He or she passed away, leaving nothing but debts to his or her poor children.
Explore your family secrets, stories from your parent’s youths, and surprising facts about your grandparents when they were growing up.
Instead of buying gifts for your parents, transfer money to their bank account and tell them to save it for their retirement or medical expenses.
Share budgeting ideas with family and friends.
[author unknown]
If you do what you’ve always done you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.
[ Friends ]
If your friends or family become successful in life, will you not feel a tinge of jealousy and incompetency that brew hatred?
In the same way, your friends may intentionally and unwittingly give you misinformation and sabotage your path to success.
Don’t follow the masses; most people are not financially free.
You are the average of five of your best friends. Imagine where your best friends will be in five years, that’s where you be or worst. If you want to be rich, you need to befriend rich people.
Eliminate toxic friends that cause you stress.
Giving free sex to a man or woman is not a financial plan.
Give money to your workers or your family only, not to friends. Networking friends are not friends.
[ Pregnant ]
Time your pregnancy, so your babies are at least six years apart, so you don’t have to pay two or three children’s university fees at once (financial disaster). What if one of them wants to do Masters or PhD degrees?
The more money you spend now, the much lesser money you have for the family’s future and unforeseen financial disasters.
When you are planning to have babies, prepare for your baby’s retirement.
Buy prams and baby items from your friends and relatives who have children.
Don’t buy toys for your child. Invest the toys’ money for his future Ivy League University degree. Why buy toys when they don’t remember much about their childhood?
[ Kid’s Food ]
Mix fruit juice with water. Your kids won’t know the difference.
Ain’t we sneaky. Hehe.
[ When Your Child Turns Four ]
Teach your child good habits when they are young.
Teach your child to be a good human first, then to be a good student. If they are wealthy but unethical, they will not care for and pay for your old age and medicals.
Teach your child about money every day and how hard it is to earn money.
Teach your child about people skills and how to smile frequently.
Get your child to order, pay for his/her food, and count the change at the food court, and to pay for groceries at the supermarket.
Get your child to do housework for small rewards. To turn off the lights and aircon/heater when no one is in the room. Pay your child on a tiered points system based on their work attitude and quality of service.
Instead of buying a coloring book, it is cheaper to DIY print out a coloring sheet from websites.
If evil people don’t have the heart to have or bring up their children. How do evil survive over thousands of years?
[ When Your Child Turns Eight ]
Play Cashflow for kids by Robert Kiyosaki with your child. [explore here]
Explore other video games, board games, e.g., Monopoly and family activities to teach your child financial literacy.
[ Work Benefits ]
If you work as an accountant for schools, you may get free tuition fees for your children.
Sometimes, being honest to your prospective employer that you have young children or you are pregnant may lead to unemployment. It is then smart to lie, thus creating cultural seeds for the company’s next financial catastrophe that bankrupt the business owner(s).
Conversely, no one likes someone who is honest to a fault.
[ Car for Teenagers ]
Don’t buy your teenager a motor vehicle. Teach your child to save and invest for it. Not to mention risky sex and drink driving that endangers the lives of your child and others.
You feel grief and suffering from losing your baby to a motor vehicle accident.
Conversely, you also don’t want to lose your piggy bank (your child) that pays for your retirement.
[ Before Marriage ]
You never know if a wealthy or poor man truly loves you as you cannot scientifically read human thoughts.
Discuss life goals and money plans (up to 100 years old) before you get married.
Never open a joint bank account with your family, children, or partner. If they love you, they will respect your decision.
If you marry your partner on materialistic grounds, your partner may abandon you when you are older and ugly for someone younger, sexier, and more obedient.
Open and honest communication and ground rules are important for trust building. Marriage is about give and take from both sides. Not one partner taking from the relationship all the time.
If you are in a relationship with a sociopath, run.
[ Wedding ]
Please don’t pay for your children’s wedding, let them learn how to save & invest money to pay for their wedding.
Don’t hold a wedding dinner; do a small celebration with close family. Alternatively, announce your wedding date and times with a clause for attendees to pay for his/her meal at the dinner.
If you need to buy things or hold events as an indication of love and romance, you should soul search and ask yourself if your relationship is based on true love that have the fortitude to stand the test of time and hardships.
[ Snippet of Marriage Life ]
Partner A: You will probably spend the money, and we will have this money argument again next month. I give up.
Partner B: If You can predict future actions, what’s tonight lottery numbers? 🙃
Nothing is absolute in life bar death and taxes [reference].
I would correct that in some countries, the extremely poor, the very wealthy, the incarcerated insane and criminals at large do not pay tax.
[ Household Management ]
One will become truly frugal only after one have experienced poverty.
Wear and use one type of item until it is broken before buying another item of the same kind.
Pay your bills on time — schedule phone reminders to pay bills.
Identify any hidden charges or cancellation fees before switching the internet or phone service providers.
[ Home Improvements ]
You always get more month at the end of your money. [author unknown]
When your salary increase, you notice home/lifestyle improvements that you want. Your expense will also increase.
If one have not experienced hardship, he will not know how precious money is. If one have not farmed rice, one will not know how much hardships went into farming rice.
[ Appliances ]
Buy energy-efficient electrical appliances. Unplug appliances, e.g., iron immediately after use. Cheap whitegoods often result in high utility costs over the long term.
Eliminate buying a dryer and dry your clothes outdoors.
There’s no shame in penny-pinching when you have the last and longest-lived laughs as spendthrifts tend to lead short lives ending in decades of immense pain and suffering.
[ Climate Control ]
Double-check that the fridge door is closed. Seal the door/window gaps.
Keep room doors closed.
Keep the climate control your home around 24 degrees.
Heat/cool only the rooms that you are using.
Install wall cavity insulation.
Eliminate central heating. Install quality solar panels and dual aircon/heating overhead machines in each room with auto turn on/off human sensors and timers. Look into converting the central heating system to work with solar panels.
Set the daily timer to auto turn off the aircon/heater at midnight as you won’t feel discomfort after you have fallen asleep.
Clean air-con filters regularly.
Triple glaze your windows.
Instead of buying an expensive winter jacket, wear a water repellent jacket with a hoodie over sleeveless autumn down feathered vest.
Put on an extra jumper and slippers if you are cold instead of turning on the heater.
Having sex keeps you warm and snug in cold weather, so you save lots of money from using the heater for hours.
Conversely, if you get a baby, it will cost you at least USD 250,000 for 16 to 50 years.
[ Decorations ]
Only buy things that make more future money. Not decorative, exciting, and good to have fun products or services. Beautiful stuff inside the house doesn’t grow your wealth.
Take cost savings and invest.
[ Water ]
There are millions of people globally that earns less than a dollar per day who can barely afford water, let alone three meals a day.
Avoid letting the water tap run when you are showering, brushing your teeth, or shaving. Reduce shower time and eliminate taking a bath.
Set a washing machine to clean your clothing with cold water.
Install dual flush systems in your toilets.
Fix a leaky tap immediately.
[ Internet ]
Use the free Wi-Fi in the malls and libraries during the day. After the shops and libraries have closed, go home and read books at home or have real human conversations with family or over the phone with your friends.
Why not spend less time online and more real-world time on working and socializing with your colleagues and boss?
[ Environment ]
Why rinse an empty milk carton before dropping into the recycle bin where not everyone, especially the less educated or the people with bad values, don’t rinse the carton?
Isn’t rinsing the empty milk carton a waste of precious water where millions of poor people globally don’t even have money to buy water?
[ Cooking ]
If you take care of your body, your body will take care of your life.
Plan week’s meal in advance.
Bulk cook and freeze the excess food.
Use a cooking pot with clip and lock lid for faster cooking times and reduced gas bills.
Cut your daily expense by half by learning how to cook.
YouTube, what home-cooked packed lunch is easy to make. Find out which food will remain food-safe at room temperature for hours.
Eat porridge at night to save money on rice. You will sleep soon so you won’t feel hungry later.
Cut meat out from lunch. It’s healthier.
Stop smoking, drinking alcohol & eating fast food.
Alternate between rice and porridge meals. Get a multi-functional rice cooker. After cooking rice, scoop the rice out. Add water and raw rice to the leftover rice bits to cook porridge for the next meal to turn waste (leftover rice bits) into savings.
[ Packed Lunch ]
Practice portion control, and your meal costs will reduce. It’s good for your health too.
Use BPA free disposable cutlery and container during your busy period.
Pack your next day lunch sandwich the night before and put it in the fridge. Store in an ice packed sleeve the next day.
Cook frozen prata in the morning, spread peanut butter on prata, and pack it.
Buy pasta from the supermarket and heat up in the microwave at the University.
Turn stove off early to soak 99% cooked eggs in hot water for ten mins to finish off cooking.
Eat fruits, nuts, and biscuits only.
Pack coffee, milo, and tea in a thermos.
Learn how to make delicious sandwiches.
Stir fry vegetables and tofu will fill you up just as well as meat.
Please don’t waste money buying parsley or other herbs as you don’t taste them.
The night before, boil soup with chicken slices and leftover rice, cool and store in the fridge. Microwave to reheat the next day and pour it into the thermos container.
Don’t buy meat to make soup. It is a waste of money. Drink miso soup instead every few days.
Soak instant noodles in clean room temperature water for 30 mins to eat to eliminate the cooking costs.
Pack cereal for lunch and buy a bottle of cold soy milk to pour into takeaway containers.
Put a can of tuna in your backpack as a backup.
Drink home boiled water in a BPA free bottle instead of soda.
Top up your giant water bottles from water coolers at the libraries.
[ Supermarket ]
Don’t buy meat that is too cheap to be true. It might not be the meat that you think.
Bulk buy store brands.
Don’t go shopping when you are hungry.
Don’t go to the supermarket unless you have a grocery list with you.
Don’t buy bottled water.
Bring reusable shopping bags to the supermarket instead of buying bags.
Don’t buy vitamin water.
Buy grocery online to eliminate impulse buys.
Supermarkets give out free food samples. Go for a few rounds, and you can skip lunch.
Be careful of free food samples that may cause food poisoning. It’s often prepared by underpaid or inexperienced sales staff.
[ Medicals & Personal Hygiene ]
Buy cheaper generic medicine as prescribed by your accredited doctor.
Don’t buy too many medicines at once as drugs expire quickly. Save money by not purchasing additional medication unless advised by the doctors.
Most supplements are placebo unless instructed by an accredited doctor.
Be wary of alternative medications that are not prescribed by your doctor. Why don’t the billion-dollar pharmaceuticals sell alternative medications at a high price in the pharmacy if it can cure cancer? Why didn’t the doctor prescribe it? Why isn’t the alternative medications widely used?
Achieve your money goals by visualizing the amount of pain and suffering for lack of money for millions of dollars of retirement and medical surgery.
Perform regular check-ups with the doctor.
Save on sunscreen by wrapping your head with a cloth.
Use the library or cafe toilet’s water sink to wash your body with a towel.
Shower only once a day after work.
Cycling may save you money but significantly increases your risk of being hit by motor vehicles, resulting in disability, job loss, poverty, or excruciating death.
From a Machiavelli’s view, your colleagues that influence you to cycle, may intentionally or unwittingly increase your risk of accidents thus eliminating their competition for their promotion and salary increase.
[ Outings ]
Eating frugally or salads every meals may allow you to live long and pass away with lesser pain. Scientifically, human life is limited.
Instead of choosing either extremes of indulgence or deprivation, why not take the middle way by simply going for a small treat once every month?
You don’t need to spend money or buy gifts to commemorate happy events. Why not give praises or red packets of cash?
Movies = $20 per person, motor vehicle depreciation for driving to and fro, petrol costs, impulse buys, restaurant meals, alcohol, and health risks from drink driving = $500 per family per outing (estimated).
If you cook at home, e.g., $50 hotpot, rent a movie for 10, play reusable board games, and have conversations with each other = $60.
Outing cost of $500 minus home entertainment cost of $60 = Savings of $440.
Using a compounding interest calculator [ view here ], by eliminating outings and reallocating the cost savings into investment portfolios, you will gain $400,000 (estimated) by year 30.
How many years will you have to work in your job after daily expenses to save till $400,000?
Ask members what their budget is instead of asking them what they want to eat.
Pay for family outings with your credit card to earn reward points, so your family bank transfers their share to you. Don’t do this with friends as some friends may not pay you back. You save hundreds of dollars by not going for the outing compared to the minuscule reward points benefits.
Take a low-cost picnic with your family.
Don’t borrow money to banquet on food.
Spend carefully when dining out.
Limit to 1 main dish and two rice to a family. Do not order drinks.
Dine clean Indian food often as they give gigantic portions at a lower price.
Eat out for breakfast or lunch instead of dinner.
Meet up for coffee or dessert instead of eating main meals out.
Eliminate dining out by packing your home-cooked food.
Reduce eating out to once a week or a month.
Don’t go to restaurants that charge a cakeage cover charge for bringing your birthday cake.
Instead of buying McDonald’s meal or a burger, buy 2 or 3 cheaper hash browns to fill you up or eat fries for lunch.
Eat two Mcdonald’s ice cream for a meal.
Instead of buying snacks, have an early lunch.
Buy cheap leftover food from the food court before they close.
Ask cafe staff to add 2 or 1 teaspoon sugar to your pure espresso, so it tastes sweet with no extra milk cost incurred.
Stop buying coffee out. It’s more than $3,000 a year.
[ Entertainment ]
Scientifically, our brains work in two modes: executive focused mode and diffused mode. To excel, we need to take breaks to let our brains masticate the information we have absorbed to create insights and breakthroughs.
There’s little value in memorizing the textbook verbatim as it doesn’t create significant value that people will pay money to buy your products or services.
Thus alternating between relaxation and work is important.
Borrow free music CDs/movies/video games from the public library.
Rewatch content.
Instead of buying video games, save money by watching YouTube video game walkthrough.
Ask your loved ones to tell you only news that will affect you, and it’s within your control to take action to the benefits of you and your loved ones.
[ Gambling ]
Do not gamble, don’t buy the lottery or go for horse racing.
Google “Wikipedia Gambler’s Fallacy” — People think that if betting on Big keeps winning multiple times, the next time will be high chance or 100% Big. They bet all their money on Big and lose everything, not knowing that the chance of Big and Small is less than 50% each time.
Replace high-risk gambling hobby with a more rewarding investing hobby.
Conversely, there is no 100% fool-proof way of making money in the world. No job, business, or investment can guarantee that you make money forever.
There are risks and probabilities in every part of life and gambling. You may bankrupt from gambling, but you may also be bankrupted by getting emotionally cheated or from employees’ embezzlement from your business.
If you know how to discipline yourself, it’s far less likely you will fall prey to any addictions.
[ Shopping Research ]
If you want to feel rich, just count all the things you have that money cannot buy. [reference]
The search for perfection is expensive.
Buy things that will save you a lot of money and time.
When you buy a product, it doesn’t just cost you $x; there are associative costs.
If you don’t need the extra functions, don’t pay for it.
Buying online is often cheaper than from retail stores.
Expensive items tend to last much longer than cheap things most of the time. Identify the cost per hour usage ratio of the item by doing a google search.
Don’t buy things that quickly lose their value after you bought it. Cars lose at least 30% of its value the minute it’s driven out of the dealership.
Google, e.g., best headphones 2020 year. Read reviews on the best brand. Look for a product that fits your budget.
Ask trusted friends, family, relatives, colleagues for advice and research in forums and on product reviews website [ here ] before you buy expensive items.
We buy things we don’t need, with cash we don’t have to impress people we don’t like, thus sinking us deeper into the death trap with each credit card accrual of outstanding interests. [reference]
Shop around and delay buying until the last day of the sale. Preferably, eliminate buying.
Keep a list of items you want to buy during the year then buy those at lower prices during Black Friday and Boxing Day. You will lose interest in buying most of the items on the list.
Check whether the item you want to buy is in stock on the store’s website before you go down physically to the store to pick up.
If the product you want to buy is expensive now, wait till sales or don’t buy it.
Always check the product brand’s website for the latest product models or versions. The version sold in stores is usually older, as they need to clear old stock.
Don’t chase the latest fashion.
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
[ At The Store ]
Cheap is often an indication of poor quality. Imagine that you are a business owner, customers are not your family.
Will you sell a product for $100 when you can quickly sell it at $300?
Why do you think someone who smiles at you and know you for less than ten minutes, will give you such a good deal when you wouldn’t?
After a stressful day of work, going to the mall leads to hefty debt, where you have to work decades longer and harder to repay the debt.
Don’t spend more than twenty dollars buying things each day.
Don’t shop when you are stressed or depressed. You don’t need to spend money to relieve work stress. There are free alternatives.
Don’t buy gifts for your loved ones without consulting them. If they don’t like it, you will waste your money. Bank transfer money to gift them.
Paying in installments, you still have to pay for it in the end.
If you stay away from the city, you won’t be exposed to advertising to buy more.
Instead of buying twenty good to have $20 items. Save $400 to buy one rare item.
Most items in the luxury departmental store are made in China. Items sold in Asian $2 shops are also made in china. An excellent purchase depends on your foresight and experience. If not, send back for a refund.
Buy and collect small items of furniture and other items for your future home now, don’t buy junk you don’t like simply because it’s cheap.
Do not make more than one unplanned purchase a week.
Call or message your partner before you buy it.
If you are unsure if you have already bought the item displayed in the retail store, don’t buy it. There will always be a cheaper and better version soon.
Ask the price before you buy a product or engage a service.
Always haggle.
If the product you want to buy is slightly damaged, ask for a discount.
Smile and ask for a discount.
Say: “I give you $200 cash for that.”
Test all product parts and functions before you buy them.
If you have a bag, why buy another luxury bag with the same amount of space?
No matter how good a deal, buy one thing once.
Always check your receipt to ensure that you are charged correctly and have earned reward points.
Don’t buy items that require dry cleaning.
When you are in the retail store, use your phone to price compare with similar products online.
Wrap receipt around gift card and slide into wallet pocket so you won’t be tricked out of your gift card balance.
Avoid buying electronic photo frames as printing photos ($0.10) are easier and cost lesser electricity bills.
Before buying, wait for seven days, ask yourself if you still want to buy, then ask yourself if this is a “need” based item, or a “want to have” item.
Do a No Spend Year.
[ Shop Second-Hand and $2 Shops ]
Your wives or husbands are not virgins when they marry you. Your food court and restaurants cutlery and plates that you put inside your mouth are not brand new.
Buy second-hand except for undergarments, skirts, pants, shorts, and jeans.
The money from your purchases will help unfortunate orphans, and reduce crime to protect you and your loved ones.
Buy from the second-hand shop for Christmas Kris Kringle to gift to others or agree with everyone to donate Christmas gifts in the form of cash to charities for orphans.
You can find excellent textbooks at less than $10 in the charity’s second-hand shops.
Instead of buying a new trolley bag or repairing, it’s cheaper to buy one from the second-hand charity shop.
If you need to wear a belt for an emergency, you can always buy from second-hand shops or Asian $2 shops.
Buy shoehorn from Asian $2 shop.
Buy unique/antique/trendy cheap products from the second-hand shop to resell online.
[ Security ]
What’s the point of buying treasures when you are so busy working most of the time; have it locked up; not viewing the items most of the time and worried that your house would be robbed and possibly harm to you and your loved ones?
Purchasing expensive luxury items to walk on the streets and posting photos of your luxury goods to social media and telling friends where you live invites robbery and potential murder.
[ Tech ]
Everybody has 24 hours in a day.
Technology brings distant strangers close and pushes loved ones away from us.
If the item doesn’t grow significant future money and save time for you, don’t buy it.
Eliminate buying big TV by watching movies on a laptop.
Buy gadgets in installments.
Borrow your family and friends’ old devices.
Use free productivity apps, e.g., Google Drive, Google Suite, and Microsoft OneNote.
Always choose a monthly subscription for the first month to see the pros and cons of the software to determine if you need it.
Set a daily phone image pop up reminder to remind you why you are saving and investing.
You don’t need to upgrade your phone every year.
Buy phone plans online.
Google “Free Wi-Fi phone calls” to call overseas for free.
Turn on power-saving mode on your laptop and phone.
Charge your gadgets and high storage portable battery packs at the retail, telecommunications stores, or at the libraries.
If you have a family member who is a student, bundle your entire family home broadband and mobile numbers under the student’s name to get cheaper plan rates.
Don’t buy new gadgets unless the gadget can make future money or help humanity; wait till you need it. Technology prices fall quickly, and the product’s functionalities get better every six months.
Wired head/earphones incur lesser electricity costs without Bluetooth waves (alleged long-term health risks) through your body.
If there are two editor’s choice apps in the same category, select the cheapest.
Use your phone’s messaging app search function to locate keyword, e.g., $300 to retrieve the message as evidence in the financial argument with your partner.
[ Transportation ]
The beauty of public transport is that it gives you hours daily to self-educate via audiobooks with noise-canceling headphones or via reading.
When you drive, your brain is occupied with operating the machinery and creates daily mental fatigue and stress that significantly reduces your productivity.
Mountains are built from tiny grains of sands that the eyes can barely see. Self-educating for twenty mins each day for ten years, and you would know more than most people that have stopped learning after they graduated.
With knowledge comes power and increased earning capacity.
Not to mention the reduced safety risks from vehicles crashing into you or compensation lawsuits that bankrupt you if you hit others when you drive.
Instead of taking a taxi home yourself, pay your friends a small sum of money to drive you home.
Sell your motor vehicle and take public transport.
Walk short journeys or take the bus or train rather than driving the car right next to the store.
Don’t leave the car idling in stationary traffic.
Car share on regular journeys.
Google “Real cost of running a car” plus the cost of buying one. Something that any car salesman will not tell you.
Do not drive or drive less.
[ Holiday ]
Make vacations out of work trips.
Alert to business opportunities even when you are on vacation. [reference]
If you stay overseas and you visit your family often, exchange money with each other to eliminate losing money to the foreign currency exchanger.
Don’t think of global travel until you have at least $10 million.
Take vacations that are within your means. It’s ok not to go on vacation every year.
Singapore’s 30 Bencoolen hotel is situated in the best location with great amenities and food at excellent rates. [ explore here ]
Holidaying causes you to be in an excellent mood. Dopamine is exploding in your brain cells, leading to risky behaviors, impulsive spending, and credit card death traps.
[ Outlandish Ways to Save Money ]
Why not buy an apartment near a vast park in a safe suburb for you and your partner and another apartment(s) next door or downstairs from your home for your children or grandchildren?
Eliminate plants, trees, and the lawn from your front and backyard to reduce the cost of garden maintenance.
Install laminated sign next to wall phone: “Significant charges for overseas calls.”
Use the phone’s torch to walk around the house at night to save electricity.
Reduce devices’ brightness to minimum readable levels.
Use one dedicated cup for drinking. Thus, fewer cups to wash that consume lesser dishwashing liquid and water bills.
Eat “raw food diet” except for raw eggs and meat for two meals to eliminate the costs of cooking and hassles.
If you live alone, turn off the fridge & buy small portions of fresh and canned food. Eat out healthily.
Skip a meal occasionally to save money to invest for retirement when you are 18 years old. You won’t die, and you won’t be obese. It’s healthy. [reference]
Hide your credit card by clipping it under your bra strap.
Take out the used cigarettes’ tobacco and roll into new ciggies.
If you laser and burn off the roots of your beard and mustache, you eliminate time and monetary costs from shaving and supermarket impulse buys.
Have your family, including yourself, shower once every two days during winter.
[ Education in Personal Finance ]
Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. [Calvin Coolidge]
People who are lucky to be rich begins with a burning desire to learn about money.
Identify your life’s purpose; determine what resources are available to you; inventory your strengths, weaknesses, soft and technical skills; identify your personality traits; who can you approach to help you.
Men can bankrupt you, but an educated man always regains his wealth quickly.
Thus, education pays the best dividends. [author unknown]
Personal finance is not taught in schools, begin your journey by identifying what needs changing in your life.
Set aside 20% of your salary for your self-education and networking budget.
Do not blindly listen to a single person; use critical thinking and research skills to consult several different organic and digital sources widely. Google “How to critical think” and “How to research.”
Find out what type of investments, compounding interest, how to budget your expenses, what percentage of your income to save, what kinds of insurances are adequate for your life stage, and how to set life, professional and financial goals.
We suffer from our ignorance, arrogance, and stupidity with money. [reference]
Find out the percentage of billionaires who are PhDs and the percentage of billionaires who do not have a doctorate. Billionaires do not teach us about money. Why is that?
Educational materials taught in Universities tend to be a few years behind the industry practice.
Obtain the highest degree you can afford and seek professional training from your employer.
Take a commerce degree and seek training in sales jobs. Money comes from the right words at the right time. We sell to our partner on why they should do the chores. We sell to our friends on what restaurant we prefer to dine in.
We sell to our kids why they should study. We lie to our kids that studying is for their future; however, it’s so that the kids will be rich enough to support our retirement and medical bills in our old age.
We make up reasons to sell to ourselves to justify our impulse purchases. All the items we have in our house and around us are the result of successful sales. Thus being able to sell and identifying when people are selling products, services, and ideas to you are essential.
Not everyone intelligent or hardworking is wealthy. Luck often plays a part. [Reference]
Learn effectively by learning how to learn. [explore here]
Go to your local public or university library to read books written by doctors and professors.
Go back to University, take a short course, or do an online accredited degree (call potential employers human resource department to verify if the online degree is recognized before embarkation).
Read a free University library book about critical thinking and understand what does it mean by “red herring” in conversations. [ view here ]
Read about tax laws.
Read the news, internet, and talk to people to regularly learn about the global movement of money, people, and work. You will then know which cities to invest and where to find work.
Read on personal finance, words of wisdom, sayings, proverbs, and wealthy and successful biographies.
Read everything written and said by Warren Buffet and Bill Gates.
If you want to be rich, don’t do what rich people say. Instead, watch what they do. Study their life stories.
Look for the moments they made a big leap and see what they did and how they did it.
This will tell you about the actual steps. [reference]
Study at least one hour a day for the rest of your life.
Study in a silent environment. Don’t play music, especially music with lyrics while studying.
Watch YouTube videos on wealth creation and listen to good audiobooks while doing low-value activities like housework and traveling on public transport.
Identify your emotional reactions with money by consulting people around you.
Network with wealthy people, but don’t be deceived by scammers pretending to be rich. Learn from other people’s mistakes. Take people who have experienced the last recession for coffee.
A poor friend cannot teach you how to be rich. Don’t let your poor friends influence you into poverty so they can feel better when they are with you.
Buy A5 sized 200 GSM printing paper as flashcards is cheaper than buying cardboard flashcards.
The internet is full of misinformation that is intentionally or unwittingly shared by bad people to reduce their jobs competition (fixed mindset) or for malicious pleasures.
Use good judgment and research skills. Cross-check across different digital and organic sources widely.
[ Rich Person’s Traits and Behaviors ]
Knows what is “time value of money” [ reference ]
Sees barriers and problems as business opportunities.
Knows money is essential to avoid years of homelessness, pain, suffering, and early death for him/herself and loved ones.
Knows that one must first achieve financial freedom before he can help others.
Is ambitious, confident, positive, resourceful, and disciplined.
Are passionate and likable. Will you promote an employee you like or dislike?
Takes ownership of his or her work and mistakes.
Does more than he or she is paid, does not waste time, exercises, read, eat healthily, create and review goals, wakes up early, maintain relationships well, saves money, do not procrastinate, return missed calls immediately, make happy birthday and life events calls to everyone, volunteer for a charity and donates money to charity.
Know excellent works are often the labor of passion because if you do what you love, you think about it 24 hours a day.
Have significant amounts of cash, shares, properties, and other assets.
Have several passive income streams and have the ability to turn $5,000 to $50,000 even after losing all his/her wealth.
Has a gigantic personal library.
Smiles to people from all walks of life even to people they dislike.
Internally shrewd and cynical, externally friendly, and charming.
Takes the initiative in self-learning and lifelong learning.
Consistently practice his/her craft.
Always think of how to earn more money than the last month.
Thinks anything is achievable.
Use money, other people’s labor & intellectual capital to create wealth for him or herself and benefit society in the process.
Prepare for bad times in good times.
Striving for wealth is not the only dimension of life. Wealth is important to avoid pain and suffering.
Conversely, we cannot bring wealth to the after-life.
[ Charity ]
A kind heart alone doesn’t pay the bills. [Tsai, 2020]
Don’t donate to religions. Save and invest wisely, after you have gained financial freedom, retired, write in your will to donate 50% of your children’s inheritance to religious institutions and charities.
If you donate while you are alive, should you or your loved ones suffer a financial disaster, you can’t get your donated money back from charities that you have donated to. Long-term immense pain and suffering await.
[ Advisers in Personal Finance ]
Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway. [reference]
Read personal finance books and on forums, e.g. reddit before engaging a financial adviser.
It’s preferable to engage financial advisers who are middle-age professionals.
It’s wrong to believe that if everybody knows about personal finance, it will reduce the amount of business and profits for the financial advisers. If everyone is wealthier, then there will be more money for the financial advisers to manage, resulting in more commissions and a lesser amount of work.
On the other hand, if everybody is poor, crime rates will rise; therefore, fewer people will be able to afford financial advisers. People will commit crimes that will threaten the lives of the elites, the advisers, and their loved ones.
Do not simplify things when you can make them complicated.
This makes the financial industry sounds intelligent and makes you feel amateurish when it comes to money.
When you feel like a beginner, it is easier to take your money. [author unknown]
Seek financial planning by engaging a financial adviser to plan your estimated expenses from current to end of life (100 years old), e.g., home mortgage, business loan, children’s education, life, accident and medical insurances/professional indemnity insurance, lifestyle expenses, medical bills, funeral expenses, and children’s inheritance, unexpected long term medical conditions, being scammed or sued for bankruptcy.
If you need the money and have difficulties selling a piece of land, ask your advisers for a referral to wealthy people to buy your land to reduce your monetary damage.
Some financial advisers are biased to sell certain bank or insurance products that may not be in your best interests, so they get paid a hefty commission. Will you not do the same if you can maximize your benefits if you are in advisory?
Seek financial advice from different accredited financial advisers.
Price is often an indication of quality. The cheaper the advice, the less personalized it is to your circumstances.
Conversely, how would you feel being paid $50 for delivering $300 worth of work?
[ Wills and Estate Planning ]
Do not let anyone (not even trusted family members) apart from an independent established legal firm to manage your will.
Don’t let your family members know which legal firm is in charge of your will.
Do a will now.
Look up and consult your financial adviser on whether binding or non-binding nomination suits your circumstance.
You have the right to alter your will whenever you want.
[ Insurance Protection ]
Know that your medical insurances don’t cover 100% of your hospital and surgery bills forever.
Sometimes, you wouldn’t get paid a cent.
Conversely, there are millions of people who have been paid billions from their claims.
Buy life, accident, and medical, professional indemnity insurances. Shop around for insurances.
[ Bank ]
Why did the banker quit his job? Answer: he lost interests. [reference]
Comb through your credit card statements with a fine-tooth comb and call the bank on dubious transactions to get your money back.
Find out about “Westpac bank’s money tips” here.
Compare the savings rates for your bank accounts every six months.
Choose a bank with no account keeping fees. Use Australia’s healthcare or other concession cards to have your account keeping fees waived.
Don’t take cash advance from the ATM.
Give me control of a nation’s money, and I care not who makes its laws [reference]
Every Sunday, withdraw $x from the ATM as the week’s spending money.
Avoid incorrect bank transfers by placing the recipient’s bank account number displayed on your phone next to the bank account textbox displayed on the laptop screen to reduce errors.
Test transfer $1, verify recipient received $1 with correct transaction description, then transfer the rest of the money.
Schedule and automate your bank transfers, so your salary gets divided into different budget accounts in order of importance:
- Investment budget [ largest — set up auto bank transfer of a portion of wages a day after pay date ]
- Tax budget
- Healthcare budget
- Emergency funds
- Education and professional networking budget
- Loved one’s relationship maintenance budget
- Parenting budget
- Legacy for your children budget
- Lifestyle expenses
- Spiritual budget
- Charity budget
- Impulse spending budget [ smallest ]
Future generations pay for the sins of our forefathers from their overprinting of money.
[ Credit Cards ]
Don’t use a credit card, leave your debit card at home for online shopping.
Use cash when you go out. There is a lower risk of fraud from credit card skimming.
Pay off your credit card debts as soon as possible. Contact the bank and town council for financial hardship plans.
Kills you as its interest rates can spike high suddenly anytime.
It is bad debt as you buy things that don’t make you future money.
Students wrongly think of credit cards as free money.
Conversely, Credit cards offer cashflow and convenience.
But like everything in life with poor management and addiction, you can even drown from drinking too much water or debt.
[ Savings ]
The art of wealth is not in making it, but in keeping it. [reference]
The seed of great fortunes begins from retaining five cents.
Don’t buy things when you feel the first discomfort. Observe if the discomfort lasts more than seven days and if recurring. It will pass, and you will forget it like how you have forgotten most of what was written at the beginning of this article. :)
Ensure your expenses are less than your income every month.
Tally and categorize your expenses monthly and cut your highest cost by 50%. Repeat.
Tally your credit card quickly by doing a total count of the number of transactions on your statement to match the number of receipts you have.
Happiness is found when one has the luxury to spend and save within the same month. [author unknown]
Use a pen and paper to log your daily expenses (factually) no matter how small.
Simplify your budget. Less effort means a higher chance that you will stick to the budget longer.
Don’t change everything at one go. Make one small change per week.
Rule no. 1: Never lose money. Rule no. 2: Never forget, rule no. 1. [reference]
Reward yourself with a little treat when you have successfully adhered to your budget.
Teach budgeting skills to your family members by getting them to pay for their things.
It’s better to save a little everyday decades earlier than to save a lot of money per month decades later.
[ Contracts ]
Do not sign on the spot, read everything including the fine prints. Bring the contract home.
Consult an accredited lawyer or financial adviser.
Find out what is “Contract cooling off period.”
Never sign the lives of your family and yourself away by agreeing to be a guarantor. Don’t be gullible.
[ Entrepreneurship ]
Don’t let the opinions of the average man sway you. Dream, and he thinks you’re crazy. Succeed, and he thinks you’re lucky. Acquire wealth, and he thinks you’re greedy. Pay no attention. He simply doesn’t understand. [reference]
We are taught to buy, invest, and work in rich people’s companies and borrow money from the banks owned by the rich, but not how to be rich.
No fortune was created alone.
Use the least amount of money and the most amount of resources to implement the least risky strategy to gain the most amount of money.
Before letting someone enter as a business partner, ask the person what benefits he or she can offer to you?
Use your brains and people around you to figure out how to obtain resources.
Give the awards and recognition to employees, so they work harder to make you richer.
Learn how to assemble a team of subject matter experts with ethical values and motivate them to work towards a common goal.
Create insights, products, and services that solve problems encourage spending, which boosts the economy, thus improving everyone’s quality of life.
The sad part about cheap food in Singapore is that the people providing the delicious food are paid poorly.
Sell products and services to grow capital to buy real assets like lands, real estate, shares, or other businesses.
Save and invest business profits during good times so there will be cashflow to tide the business in bad times rather than spending the profits on women, fast cars, or depreciating liabilities to end in bankruptcy and homelessness.
When the business doesn’t make money for a quarter, ruthlessly shut down 95% of the branches and labor. Plan to liquidate to switch to the next big thing.
If you target wealthy people for your business, you will have a hard time. If rich people are not thrifty, why are they rich now?
Eliminate air-conditioning costs by locating your office near the sea for the free breeze.
Christians rarely make good businessmen or partners.
Why? If you run your business in accordance to true Christian values, you will be giving all your profits to every poor Tom, Dick and Harry with a true or made up sob story.
When your business are in difficulties, will Tom, Dick, Harry or your fellowship lend you millions of dollars that they may not get back to save your sinking ship?
[ Tax ]
[ Tsai, 2020 ]
Tax, Inflation, Retirement Expenses, and Debt cause you to struggle T.I.R.E.D-ly.
Check with your accountant on what you can claim from work and tax office if you work from home.
If you are low income and contribute $1,000 to your superannuation each year, Australia’s government gives you up to $500. Check with your local accredited accountant.
Remember to set up a monthly budget to allocate funds to pay the annual tax.
If you get a tax refund, don’t spend it on partying, women, buying products and services.
Invest your tax refund wisely by consulting an accredited financial adviser or ask for a referral from your local accountant.
[ Jobs ]
[ author unknown ]
If hard work is the secret to financial freedom, each farmer and construction laborer will be a millionaire.
If you don’t have $10 million, don’t ask your boss for work-life balance.
Never outshine your boss, or you will lose your job.
Many highly educated people lose their jobs when they are older and more expensive.
Find entry-level work in the financial services/advice industry and learn what practical advice helps people become wealthier.
[ author unknown ]
We have to work seven days a week because we eat seven days a week.
Look at how much you can learn and earn before going into a job.
If you don’t have other streams of income, you have no bargaining power, and that makes you a slave tied to your job.
There is no job safety, with millions of unemployed people competing for jobs globally.
Find legal and reputable side hustles or gigs.
Work for your friends and relatives.
If you want to be stress-free with free time, you need to be wealthy enough to quit your job.
[ author unknown ]
Don’t hate the rich; when did your poor friends give you a job?
You don’t need to be a citizen for the ministers to treasure you. You only need to create wealth for the country and the ministers. Look at how well-paid ex-pats are treated. If you are poor, anyone or even your family may treat you poorly or cut you out of their life.
Don’t confuse the country’s strong currency with good wages. Wages could still be low.
If there are no jobs locally, why not work in another country.
[ Tsai, 2020 ]
Idle hands beget evil thoughts. The unemployed poor, criminals, and the financially free rich are idle.
Outwork and outwit in your current job. If your boss doesn’t increase your salary, work for his competitor.
Work blue-collar jobs on weekends & weeknights. Supermarkets, cleaning industries & factories are hiring. If you drive, you can do delivery.
Volunteer for projects.
Improve your knowledge of the industry’s encyclopedia.
There is plenty of work in the countryside.
Prioritize short travel times to work over living in a big home.
Google “Sunset industries” and “Dead-end jobs.” Do not work in these jobs. [reference]
Consolidate your superannuation from your multiple jobs into one superannuation to eliminate account fees.
[ Tsai, 2020 ]
Most people don’t think hard because it is hard. That’s the reason why most people are slaves to their jobs.
[ Risks ]
If there isn’t any risk in investments, why isn’t everyone wealthy?
Risks come from not knowing what you are doing.
Risks are mitigated by knowing what needs changing.
If there aren’t any realised risks in life, why would anyone be working in dangerous jobs, prostituting, committing crimes, and cleaning the toilet?
[ Investing ]
Profits subject to unexpected market conditions — see the disclaimer below.
The rich get richer by continually reinvesting asset profits back into assets. [reference]
After you have received your salary, take 20% to invest.
The house you are staying in that does not generate passive income is not an asset. [reference]
You can use your own money or other people’s money to make more money.
Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful. [reference]
The world runs on money; we have limited time. Are you investing your time wisely on matters that will bring you future incomes?
Sell everything you own to create cash to invest in properties and shares.
A good deal from a bad man is a terrible deal. [author unknown]
Look at the company’s annual report, current financial position, plans, realistic forecasted earnings, and the future industry trends in comparison with their competitors.
Invest your salary increase.
Reinvest your paid out dividends back into the shares. Hold long term. Buy blue-chip stocks only. Seek advice from an accredited financial advisor before action. [reference]
Keep your expenses low and investment budget high.
It’s no secret based on historical data and news that the shares market will crash every few years. So will property prices fluctuate? Find out.
Invest earlier to be wealthier.
[ Art Investments ]
Why buy art when you can visit museums?
Save and invest a portion of your salary in a portfolio over 50 years to buy a piece of rare art for your children’s pleasure and legacy. Don’t buy multiple low priced art works.
[ Real Estate ]
Don’t take a mortgage that is more than 2.5 times your gross income. [ reference ]
Install weatherproof home doors/windows metal shutters on new and existing properties to increase its sale value.
Don’t pay builders a lump sum of money to build your real estate. Pay them weekly for reaching each progress milestone.
Buying prime real estate is good debt because it makes you future money.
Should you take a fully sponsored free flight to view property investments?
Talk to multiple real estate agents to understand the market.
Don’t just look at the location of prime real estate. Look at the crime levels of the suburb and its surrounding neighborhoods.
Never co-own a property.
Buy a house within your means and choose a weekly, if not the most frequent, loan repayments in a year. Make additional repayments after you have sufficient emergency funds.
The renters in your investment property will pay for your mortgage.
Negotiate rental increases.
If renting, move out, and stay with family & friends.
Be prepared that no one will rent your property and give your income to pay your mortgage for years.
[ Retirement ]
What if you live till 120 and your money runs out at 60, and the government no longer provides welfare?
Start planning your retirement now. If you plan for retirement when you are 50 years old, you are too late. However, better late than never.
Find out what is “Reverse home mortgage.” [ explore here ]
$1 million is insufficient for retirement. Work till you drop dead.
Manage your investments like a hawk daily after you have retired.
Make peace that you have to work till you die because you don’t have $10 million for retirement and medical funds. Conversely, pain killers are subsidized by the state.
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[ References ]
Making money made simple by Noel Whittaker.
My Life Experience.
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Read writing from Jianfa Ben Tsai on Medium. Every day, Jianfa Ben Tsai and thousands of other voices read, write, and…medium.com
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Thank you, and God bless you and your family.
Best regards,
Jianfa
Disclaimer: This article is general information and is not intended as personalized financial/legal advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong to Jianfa and not Jianfa’s employer, company, committee, other groups, government(s), or individual. The information portrayed may be inaccurate. Consult an accredited financial/legal professional before making any decisions.