Can you be middle-class and earn $250,000?

http://www.newsweek.com/id/155951

Sorry, Pal, You're Rich
Can you be middle-class and earn $250,000?
Aug 27, 2008 Updated: 7:42 p.m. ET Aug 27, 2008

As we know from the work of Cornell economist Robert Frank, people rate their well-being not so much based on how much they make and consume, but on how much they make and consume compared to their neighbors.

After all, you have to compete with them for status and for important positional goods such as housing and schools.

And here the CNBC crowd has a point. It is certainly true that in a few ZIP codes and neighborhoods, brandishing a $250,000 salary is like bringing a knife to a gunfight.

There is a significant number of rich people—including a healthy contingent of filthy rich people—in places like New York City and San Francisco.

If you want to live in a neighborhood where starter homes cost $1 million, and you want to send your kids to private schools, and you want to go on great vacations and have a beach house, then $250,000 likely won't cut it.

For people in this situation, the knowledge that they're doing better than 98 percent of their fellow Americans is little solace when the investment banker down the street has just pulled down a $2 million bonus.

The Most Important Quadrant

You want to learn how to operate from all quadrants.
Being able to sit on both sides of the table allows you to see both sides of the coin.

The Most Important Quadrant

Mike already had a personal investment portfolio of over $200,000 by the time he was 15. You had nothing. All you had was the idea of going to school so you could get a job with benefits. That is what your dad thought was important.

Ridch dad reminded me that his son Mike knew how to be an investor before he left high school.

"I never tried to influence him in his choice of careers," said rich dad."I wanted him to follow his interests, even if it meant he did not take over my business. But whether he chose to be a policeman, politician, or a poet, I wanted him to first be an investor. You'll become far richer if you learn to be an investor, regardless of what you do to earn the money along the way."

Years later, as I met more and more people who came from well-to-do families, many of them said the same thing. Many of my wealthy friends said that their families started an investment portfolio for them when they were very young and then guided them in learning to be investors - before deciding what type of profession they wanted to enter.

贝南奇好心做坏事

格蛇利用自己过去做咗联储局主席十八年嘅经验，喺度单单打打；
贝南奇因熟读1929至32年嘅华尔街危机，而过分热心bailouts。

佢不但挽救贝尔斯登，连房利美及房贷美亦救埋；并向各银行提供4000亿美元嘅抵押贷款，7月30日仲宣布，延期到2009年1月先至赎番；去年9月到今年4月高速减息，将利率由5.25厘降到2厘，搞到全人类对美元冇晒信心，引发咗全球性通胀。

其它央行嘅热心程度唔少得过贝南奇，例如英伦银行、欧洲央行及瑞士国民银行都参加集体bailouts行动。

各个国家更透过主权基金纷纷注资有问题嘅金融机构，反正系蚀人民嘅钱，对自己无关痛痒，蚀完又再注资；真系 what a wonderful world!

各国央行bailouts，以及主权基金注资，可唔可以阻止美国、英国、西班牙及爱尔兰嘅楼价下跌？答案系唔得嘅。


Record drops in U.S. home prices continue

How To Create Multiple Sources Of Income

3) Tips Of The Month - How To Create Multiple Sources Of Income

Several years back, I was introduced to the idea of multiple sources of income (M.S.I.). It is a powerful concept.

It's the way the rich create their wealth.

It is what the rich has always known about wealth creation but the poor don't.

In this article, I'm going to share some of my understanding and experience in creating multiple sources of income......

Most of us started with a primary source of income (P.S.I.), that is your JOB. The problem with a JOB is that you are often exchanging time for a salary. You work 8 to 5 to help your boss to create one of his M.S.I. in exchange for a monthly pay. The moment you stop working, your P.S.I. stops.

The concept of M.S.I. is to create multiple sources of extra income until a day when your M.S.I. exceeds your P.S.I.. This is when you quit your job and work for something that you are truly interested in. Of course, you can continue to work on your P.S.I. if you like the work. But that would be a choice rather than a need.

Please note that not all extra income streams qualifies for M.S.I.. For example, working night shift at 7-11 is not an M.S.I..

Below are the criteria that a multiple source of income must satisfy:

1) It must be a form of passive income

Passive income is an income that you can earn on a regular basis with little effort required to maintain it.

Some traditional examples of passive income are:

- Rental income from property;
- Dividend from stocks;
- Royalties from publishing a book or from a patent;
- Profit sharing from businesses that you own, provided you are not the one running the business;
- Recurring commissions from your sales (including insurance products and MLM products).

Some examples of online passive income are:

- Sales from your own ebooks and other digital products;
- Recurring commissions from your online sales (including affiliate sales with recurring earning potential and online network marketing);
- Adsense income;
- Profits from the online businesses that you own, provided you are not the one running the business.

Your M.S.I. must be a form of passive income so that you can spend more time building more M.S.I.

Imagine each M.S.I. you build require your full time attention all the time. How many M.S.I. can you build?

2) The 'working hours' must be flexible

"Working hours? Kenneth, I thought we are not talking about JOB here?"

Yes, M.S.I. is not a job. But M.S.I. still requires you to work!

You need to put in a lot of initial efforts to build an M.S.I. in order to get it up and running. The maintenance effort should be little once it is established.

Personally, I believe that internet marketing is the best form of M.S.I. because you can work anytime you want. You can be spending 3 hours every night, figuring out how to make money online or how to build a website. That's fine. It's part of the process. At least you are growing your knowledge in this industry at your own pace without affecting your P.S.I..

3) It must be fast!

If your M.S.I. takes 6 months of planning, 3 months to draft a business proposal, 5 months to seek funding and 12 months to produce the first prototype and 3 years to see your projected breakeven, you are not likely to succeed.

For your first few M.S.I., think small. I know all the gurus ask you to think BIG, but many people think too BIG and never get started. Think small and get your first few M.S.I. established. Once you have the experience, you can move on to something bigger.

But when I say fast, I'm not saying overnight! 'Fast' means you can see money coming in after 3-6 months of 'hard work' (not after 3-6 months of joining a program and do nothing).

Avoid the temptation to "get rich quick". Trust me. Whenever I do something with the intent of getting rich quick, I lose money. But whenever I do something with the intent of building a passive income, I make money. The idea of "Get Rich Quick" seems to be cursed!

How I Build My M.S.I........

I have two favorite M.S.I. They are 1) any form of online passive income and 2) property rentals.

Property is a no brainer. Just find a property where the rental can cover the monthly installment. The only problem is the down-payment, which takes time to accumulate.

Online M.S.I. is more exciting and the ROI (return on investment) is huge, but you need to spend some time to establish it.

I try to establish two online M.S.I. a year, excluding all the mini websites that I'm building.

Two M.S.I. a year..... that means I spend 6 months of my full attention on each M.S.I.. I hope this fact tells you something.

If you ever got into something and quitted after 1 month, please don't say you have done your best.

Internet marketing is booming. If you are willing to learn and work hard, there is never a shortage of money making opportunities. Focus on building passive income rather than immediate cash. This is the surefire way to build your multiple sources of income.

http://www.emailcashpro.com/200808.php

选择职业要注意五点

选择职业要注意五点
投资有成功有失败；上述同勤力系无关。
成功嘅投资者都了解商业及股市周期而加以利用，不会喺去年10月全身投入，明白潮起潮落嘅威力。
冇人喺商业周期低潮ringthebell，例如喺2001年叫你买金及资源股；亦冇人喺高潮时发出all clear嘅讯号。
一切都要自己心领神会；升市三五七年便要小心，任何升市短嘅三年，长嘅七年。
投资成功第一守则系人地头脑发热时，自己最好行开D。

宾州大学调查发现，67%大学毕业生，冇法适应今天嘅job market，可以话系学非所用。

搵到一份人工15000元嘅工作，年年加人工5％，每年把15％收入储起嚟，每年又喺投资市场赚10％回报，到五十五岁开始踏入退休年龄时拥有几多？答案系大约800万元。

上述仲未扣除买楼供款及结婚生仔嘅供书教学开支；亦未计未来三十年通胀率蚕食嘅购买力（香港三十年前嘅100万元购买力，相等于依家嘅3000万元）。
Not bad, but it is still bad!

青春本身系无敌，喺选择职业之时要注意：

一、唔好投身前途有限嘅行业；例如我老曹喺1968年放弃咗纺织业，投身证券业，虽然当年喺纺织厂收入较证券行高30％；

二、唔好投身嗰D唔肯扩充嘅企业，公司唔怕细，最重要系老板要有野心；1973年我老曹放弃咗《明报》，投身《信报》，1973年《明报》老板已冇野心，反而当年行止兄却野心勃勃；

三、唔好畀工作搵你，而系你去搵工作，向自己心仪嘅企业发自荐信，努力进入自己认为有前途嘅公司，而非到job market搵工做；

四、入咗公司后，了解公司嘅目标及方向。协助公司早D达标及追随公司嘅方向（如自己方向同公司唔同，请早D走人）；

五、专注及增加职业上所需嘅知识，建立自己嘅人际关系，年轻人应该肯捱肯博，勇于表现自己，建立自己嘅团队（一群想法相同嘅年轻人互相鼓励，齐齐上位）。

多D交际，少D打机（或睇电视）。

如冇法喺三十岁前赚100万元，你嘅前途已令人担心。
三十岁前投资不妨博D（但唔好借钱），甚至输到乜都无晒亦可从新嚟过，但唔好忘记三件事：
Be good（对朋友要好，同时有良好嘅态度）；
Be honest（唔好呃人，人地会记你一世）；
Be happy（几时都要快乐，今天输钱，明天忘记，因为快乐嘅人才会幸运）。

只有咁样，你先至可以脱颖而出，五十五岁（或六十五岁）退休前可以讲句我对今生无悔！
如果唔系，你可能就同宾州大学调查中发现嗰67％大学生嘅情况一模一样———人到中年万事忧。

分析员唔系金手指

今年8月同去年8月有乜唔同？除咗北京举办奥运嘅热潮外，最大唔同系股票分析师嘅地位。去年8月，股票分析师个个都有金手指，大行推介边只股，边只股嘅股价便升到唔清唔楚；今天股票分析师早已唔见咗金手指嘅魔力，唔少更变咗千夫所指；尤其系Accumulator依家变咗I killyourlater。唔少分析师重新执位（由甲行跳去乙行）或患上严重失忆症，唔记得一年前自己讲过乜嘢。一年前人人喺度讲港股直通车，港股P/E应同沪深A股睇齐（当年A股嘅P/E最高系五十倍）。今天分析师认为，沪深A股嘅P/E应同港股嘅P/E睇齐（依家国企嘅P/E十六倍），真系一个嘴巴两片唇。

勇于认错、永不改过，系股票分析师嘅特有性格。
随住形势改变，不断修正自己嘅睇法，从来唔固执己见，先可以喺变幻莫测嘅股市中生存。
如你以为股票分析师真系咁醒，而委托佢地帮你理财，系阁下士刁拔。
去年10月至今，如亏损少过20%，已经跑赢咗毕非德（连毕非德亦蚀咗20%，你话D股票分析师嘅成绩会系点），今年唔少分析师已由年薪几百万变咗失业人士。

我老曹无意讥讽股票分析师，因我老曹亦系呢一行出身，只系话畀各位知，我地唔系金手指。喺牛市中个个都可以做股神，熊市一嚟我地都变咗牛鬼蛇神！
四十年股市生涯，我老曹亦曾被人封做股神，亦一度被打成牛鬼蛇神。
学习凡事处之泰然，只要无愧于心即可。
股票分析师既唔系股神，亦唔系牛鬼蛇神，只系普通人。

http://blog.caihuanet.com/html/85/85-1859.html

5 Passive Income Streams

5 Passive Income Streams

1. Rake In Rental (Real Estates)

Always buy a completed property BELOW the market value.

2. Make Clever Investments (Paper Assets)

$10,000 invested in a stock that trades @ $1 with a dividend yield of 6% (yield is the annual cash dividend divided by the stock price) gives you $600 a year.

3. Go into Cyberspace (Web Properties) / Cash in on your talents

When someone wants to buy my e-book/digital products, all I need to do is collect the money through a credit card processor like PayPal.

Sell digital photos online, via CDs / Royalties from books or songs that you have written.

4. Build a Business (Business)

If you have a good idea for a software product that will help people do something faster / easier or teach them something, then you may have found a potential.

Franchising is where people are paying for your idea of a biz operation, and therefore a good tool for expansion and getting recurring income.

5. Leverage the sales of others (Business)

a.k.a. Multi-level marketing / Network marketing



The trick to finding focus and making multiple streams of income is to "work on one thing at a time" (FOCUS - Follow One Course Until Success), and work at it until it is at the next plateau.

Are you Part of the Revolution?

Are you Part of the Revolution?

Great wealth, vast fortunes, and mega-rich families were created during the Industrial Revolution.

The same is going on today during the Information Revolution.

The only difference is that because of the Information Age, these young people went through the same phases faster ... and maybe so can you.

It took me years to go through the phases, and in fact, I am still going through them.

I find it interesting that today we have self-made multi-millionaires and billionaires who are twenty, thirty and forty years of age; yet we still have people forty and over having a tough time hanging on to $50,000-a-year jobs.

Are you mentally prepared to be an investor?

Money will be anything you want it to be. Money comes from our minds, our thoughts.
Such undertaking was not to be taken lightly.

You start as I did. You start without any money.

All you have is hope and a dream of attaining great wealth.

While many people dream of it, only a few achieve it.

Think hard and prepare mentally because you are about to learn to invest in a way that very few people are allowed to invest.

You will see the investment world from the inside rather than from the outside.

There are far easier paths in life and easier ways to invest. So think it over and be prepared if you decide this is the path for your life.

The Five Phases of Becoming a Sophisticated Investor

Just as there are houses for the rich, the poor, and the middle class, there are investments for each of them.

If you want to invest in the investments that the rich invest in, you have to be more than rich.

You need to become a sophisticated investor, not just a rich person who invests.

The Five Phases of Becoming a Sophisticated Investor

1. Are you mentally prepared to be an investor?
2. What type of investor do you want to become?
3. How do you build a strong business?
4. Who is the sophisticated investor?
5. Giving it back

You cannot teach someone to be a sophisticated investor. But a person can learn to become a sophisticated investor.

It's like learning to ride a bicycle.I cannot teach you to ride a bicycle, but you can learn to ride a bicycle. Learning to ride a bicycle requires risk, trial and error, and proper guidance.

The same is true with investing.If you do not want to take risks, then you're saying you do not want to learn.

And if you do not want to learn, then I cannot teach you.

This is for people who are students of investing, students who seek their own path to wealth, rather than look for the easy road to wealth.

Getting very close to the Engine of Capitalism

The following is a list of some of the investments in which so-called "Accredited Investors and Sophisticated Investors" invest:

1. Private placements
2. Real estate syndication and limited partnerships
3. Pre-initial public offerings (IPOs)
4. IPOs (while available to all investors, IPOs are not usually easily accessible)
5. Sub-prime financing
6. Merger and acquisitions
7. Loans for startups
8. Hedge funds

For the average investor, these investments are too risky, not because the investment itself is necessarily risky, but because all too often, the average investor lacks the education, experience, and excessive capital to know what he or she is getting into.

I now tend to side with the SEC that it is better to protect unqualified investors by restricting their access to these types of investments because I made some errors and false steps along the way.

As a sophisticated investor today, I now invest in such ventures. If you know what you're doing, the risk is very low while the potential reward can be huge. Investments such as these are where the rich routinely invest their money.

Investing in these investments is about getting very close to the engine of Capitalism.

In reality, the investments are not risky,it is the lack of education, experience, and excessive cash that makes the average investor risky.

An accredited investor

An accredited investor
This investment is for accredited investors only. An accredited investor is generally accepted to be someone who:

* has a net worth of $1 million or more, or

* has had an annual income of $200,000 or more in each of the most recent years (or $300,000 jointly with a spouse) and who has a reasonable expectation of reaching the same income level in the current year.

Not only are these guidelines tough,but the minimum amount you can invest in this investment is $35,000. That is how much each investment "unit", as it is called, costs.

But money alone does not qualify you to be a sophisticated investor.

A sophisticated investor knows the 3-Es:
1. Education
2. Experience
3. Excessive Cash

Our banker always says "I know" what we do, but for some reason, he does not do what he claims he knows.

The Irony in the Big Picture.

I chuckle because I see the irony in the big picture.

People invest because they want to get rich.

But because they are not rich, they are not allowed to invest in the investments that could make them rich.

Only if you are rich can you invest in a rich person's investments.

And so the rich get richer. To me, that is ironic.

I think it is really to protect the poor and the middle class from themselves.

Because there are many more bad deals than good deals.

If a person is not aware, all deals - good and bad - look the same.

It takes a great deal of education and experience to sort the more sophisticated investments into good and bad investments.

To be sophisticated means you have the ability to know what makes one investment good and the others dangerous.

And most people simply do not have that education and experience.

Thinking on both sides of the coin

While the average investors thinks "Play it safe and don't take risks", the rich investor must also think about how to improve skills so he or she can take more risks.

The rich investor must have more flexible thinking than the average investor.

For example,while both the average and rich investor must think about safety, the rich investor must also thinks about how to take more risks.

While the average investor thinks about cutting down debt,the rich investor is thinking about how to increase good debt.

While the average investor lives in fear of market crashes, the rich investor looks forward to market crashes.

While this may sound like a contradiction to the average investor, it is this contradiction that makes the rich investor rich.

The rich investor is very aware that there are two sides to every coin.

The average investor sees only one side. And it is the side the average investor does not see that keeps the average investor average and the rich investor rich.

How can you be rich

Types of Investors

The Accredited Investor
The Qualified Investor
The Sophisticated Investor
The Inside Investor
The Ultimate Investor

1. How to start with the problem of having not enough money,
2. how to make a lot of money and
3. how to handle the problem of too much money.

How can you be rich if you think $200,000 is a lot of money?

If you want to be rich investor, you need to see that $200,000, the minimum dollar amount to qualify as an accredited investor, is just a drop in the bucket.

Investing Like a Rich Person

Investing Like a Rich Person

"I cant afford this land either. But my business can."

The richest investors in the world do not buy investments, most of the 90/10 investors created their own investments.

The reason we have billionaires who are still in their twenties is not because they bought investments.

They created investments, called businesses, that millions of people want to buy.

Averages are for average investors

"Because the mutual fund my money is in has "averaged" over 15% per annum for the last two
years.

Averages are for average investors

The federal government of the United States insures our savings from catastrophic loss (similar
in Malaysia - http://www.pidm.gov.my) but it does not insure our investments.

"What advice would you give the average investor?" His reply was, "Don't be average."

一块田地, 一颗钻石

一块田地，
如果种不了麦子，那么可能适合种豆子；
中不了豆子，可能适合种瓜果；
种不了瓜果，撒上荞麦种子，一定可以等到它开出鲜花。

多年的农作经验告诉我，一块田地，总有至少一种类型的种子适合它，种那种类型的种子，就能等到好收成。

哪怕是一颗钻石，如果找不到体现自己价值的最佳位置，最终也只能和铺路的石子无异。