Desmond Ng

THE 60 Percent Solution (continued from previous post)

This budgeting plan was created by a person called Richard Jenkins after realizing that his household finances worked best when his family’s so-called “committed expenses” were kept to a manageable level. After some experimentation, he decided that level was 60% or less of his gross pay.

Committed expenses include:

1. Basic Food, Clothing, Transportation

2. All Household expenses

3. Insurance premiums

4. All taxes, income tax, road tax etc.

5. Charitably contributions

6. All Bills, including phone bills, tv bills, electricity bills

Remaing 40% should be divided so that 10 percent go to each of the following:

1. Retirement Savings

2. Emergency fund Savings

3. Short term savings for irregular expenses like Vacations, New Gadgets, Gifts, Mahjong

4. “Fun Money” to be spent any way you want.

The very important or initial stage of financial planning is actually being in control.

Many people fail in this stage as they tend to overspend or basically have no idea where their money disappeared to.

There is two kinds of budgeting system that has been used and proven to be effective. It is the 60% solution & the 50/30/20 plan.

Which one is more suitable for you?

If you:

• Typically get through the month without running out of cash
• Only occasionally get surprised by a big bill
• Usually don’t carry credit card debt
• Feel like you’re doing okay financially but would like to do better

… then you should adopt the 60% solution!

However, if you:

• Live paycheck to paycheck
• Often run out of money before you run out of month
• Constantly get surprised by big bills
• Have credit card or other high-rate debt
• Have no idea where your money goes

… then you need the 50/30/20 plan!

Basically, what this plans can give you are a systematic allocation of your income so that you are aware of your spendings, efficiently using them, ready for tight situations and lastly let you be in control of your money.

It will take quite awhile to write out the plans, so I will write about each plan in my next 2 posts. Stay tuned for it!

I am sure everyone is familiar with the term MDRT aka Million Dollar Round Table.

MDRT is actually a recognition of insurance salespeople and financial advisers who are hard-working and did well. The requirements increases every year and after qualifying for 10 years, you will be given the Lifetime membership to MDRT.

For example, the requirement was a commission earning of S$75,700 in 2006. *There is quite a misconception that MDRT means achieving a million dollar, which is not true, the “Million” is just a term”

This year it is around USD$81,8000.

Court of the Table is the level 2 of this prestigious awards. In 2008, the requirement is USD$245,000

Top of the Table is the HIGHEST recognition. In 2008, the requirement is USD$490,800.

You must be thinking:  “WOW!” Both CoT and ToT is quite an income to get!

Initially, I also felt quite amazed by the income. Most people are happy with a $10k/mth income and getting $30-50k/mth would be delightful.

Of course, in exception of CEOs and Business Owners etc.

However, my friend showed me a website that seriously made my jaws dropped.

That is s.eriously.com

These people are Internet Marketers. They work from home, in their casual wear, flexible timing and they earn $300k/mth. After all the speeches by MDRT, CoT, ToT touching stories, there are normal people out there that are earning their annual income Monthly.

I have a number of friends that have already started Internet Marketing and after a series of hardwork, they are achieving quite a comfortable income! Calvin Woon, who started 2-3 years ago, drew a 5-figure paycheck last month! Ivan Ong, who started only for a year, is also drawing a 4-digit income now…

This passive income generator which hardly requires any start up capital is great for many retirees and young entrepreneurs. Online Businesses are now getting more popular and the internet allows penetrating a global market!

If you think that earning an income online is a myth, think again…

*turns off the Alarm Clock*

“7.00am already? So fast… I’ll just snooze for 5 more minutes while I think about what I wanna do later. What should I complete later? It feels so good to be under the blanket… Actually, I think I can wake up 15 minutes later. I’ll just rush through my morning routine later… I didn’t had enough sleep yesterday anyway. My body still don’t feel rested enough, I should just let my body wake me up…”

Later…

“Shit… I’m late!”

Have this ever happened to you before?

Do you wanna find out the secret to waking up early?

Take a look at steve pavlina’s site  as he teaches you strategies to wake up early as a habit! I read it, tried it and really found it very useful!

Never in my life have I asked: What is the difference between a Job & Career?

To me, they are the same… until I heard this phrase from a friend of mine:

“A Job is something you worked for the sake of working and just to earn the income whether you like it or not.”
“A Career is something you enjoy working for, has passion for and something you know you want to continue in.”

I believed all of us have a dream career inside us. Something that we always wanted to start on, to do but never had the guts to because of financial security.

It could be a salsa dancer, clothing retail shop, CEO of Temasek Holdings or even teaching.

If you still don’t know your passion, ask yourself this. If you have unlimited money, what would you do? You could say holidays, new houses, resorts, spa and all kinds of enjoyment… but ultimately after 1 year or 2 years of this kind of life, you will be bored. After that what would you do?

There is a way to start a business or career in any passion. If you like dancing, you could start a dance class business. If you like teaching, you could start your own tuition business etc. The thing is, when you have a passion for something, you will always be doing more then expected. You do not need a superior or boss to tell you to do A and not do C. You will automatically execute that!

So why stay on a JOB you do not like and know you will not be there for long? Start thinking about your passion and dream Career now and start a Career Planning. What are the things you can do to start heading towards this dream and pursue it daily!

Of course, there’s always problem with financing a business. For those that has nothing to lose, good for you… you can start today!

For those that has families and responsibilities, start planning and saving for a business accumulation. On top of your retirement, education, protection and lifestyle goals, it’s time to start setting aside an amount to start what you love! Speak to your financial adviser and ask him for assistance.

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Today was one of the most unlucky and worst day ever to me! I believe all of you had your bad days before… Thinking back on those days, was there something you could have done better?

There’s this story that always reminds me not to get affected when something unlucky happens and I’ll like to share:

You woke up in the morning and dressed up smartly and head to the dining room for breakfast. Just when you are about to leave, your dear son spilt milk on your whole outfit by accident! Angrily, you screamed at your child and spent 10minutes complaining about it. After that your son starts crying and you spent another 5minutes saying sorry and you realised you are rushing late!

You changed up quickly and ran out of your house and drove off to work. With the eventful happening, your temper was still in high tide and you started speeding. 15 minutes down the expressway, your luck worsens… you see a handsome white knight beside you telling you to pullover. Great… Now you get fined.

“Mr, may I have your driving license?”

What’s the worst that could happen? Exactly, you forgot your wallet in a rush out from home.

Thinking Back…

What if you just told your son a “Don’t be so careless next time.” and went to your room and changed peacefully?

Just this one correct action and you won’t be late, won’t be caught speeding and won’t forget your wallet.

Sometimes its not the fact that we had a series of unfortunate events but rather continuing the wrong attitude and mindset.

Of course there are times when its pure bad luck for the day, like what happened to me! (I’m NOT sharing! =P)

However, my inner voice comforts me and say, “Woah! You used up all your bad luck in a day! The next few months is going to be GREAT!”

What would your Inner Voice say?

Self Improvement is a very important thing that we really have to adopt in our lives. If you notice, most religions emphasize a lot on personal development. How to think more positively, Controlling emotions etc.

Just today, while listening to 93.8FM… they had a short session on communicating with parents which I found really interesting.

What was broad casted was that when young we listen to our parents more but as we grow older, an inner voice develops and we start to listen to this inner voice more. This is the time when we start to rebel as we firmly believe in what the inner voice wants or says. Hence it is very important to develop a healthy and positive Inner Voice.

Basically, I think Inner Voice is your Real Personality that has been growing since young and nurtured by the environment around you. It is like what you see in cartoons… the angel & devil that pops out of their head.

However, I feel that we all only have 1 Inner Voice and how this inner voice talks to you will shape your future.

If your inner voice is a negative one where he always tells you: You can’t do it; Take revenge on him; It’s all his fault, not yours; Everybody hates you; Your life is miserable.

If your current inner voice is a positive one: No point dwelling on this, what can be done instead; Tomorrow will be a better day; He didn’t mean it; You are partially at fault, help rectify it; There’s still a lot of people that loves you; Your life is challenging and fulfilling; Just give your best; You will achieve it one day.

What is your inner voice tending towards?

It is really important that you develop, nurture and train your inner voice to be positive. I am one of the life examples. Although I am a happy go lucky person, my old inner self during my 1st 19 years has quite a mixture of negative voices. It was only until early 2007 that I started reading lots of Self-Improvement Blogs, Books, Articles. Trust me, my path was totally shaped. I became much more hardworking and learnt the importance of planning for the future and the importance of lifestyle goals.

In fact, I really believed that if you are eager to learn, a tutor/mentor/teacher will appear. (happened to me)

Hence, in this new year… I would urge for everyone to start nurturing your Inner Voice for the better. Best things is, lots of blogs/articles/seminars are free! Just google it and you can start reading them daily.

Wishing everyone a Merry & Happy 2008 AGAIN!