What's Your Billionaire Age?

Source:yahoo finance
The concept of a billion dollars is pretty hard to fathom, which is okay because about 99.999% of us will never really have to deal with it. According to Forbes, the world has 1,011 billionaires out of nearly seven billion people, so it's not exactly an everyday occurrence. Those that do become billionaires seem to do it through a mixture of ingenuity, intelligence and timing, or they just inherit it. For the rest of us - those working average jobs, investing normally and living an average lifestyle - how long would it take to become a billionaire? Is it even possible?

If you're making around $50,000 per year, it won't take forever to amass a million dollars, and indeed, many people will be able to achieve that in their lifetime. But a billion dollars? That'd be 1,000 lifetimes, kind of. We'll check out a range of jobs in the U.S. and some typical investments to see how long it would take someone to become a billionaire. We'll be using the saving rate of 10% of someone's income for the year, which may be a little bit optimistic, but it gives a good picture of how long it takes to become a billionaire on an average joe's salary.

Teaching Your Way To a Fortune

There are more than one million teachers in the U.S. according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the mean salary for elementary and secondary school teachers is $55,210. If you're a teacher and are able to put aside 10% of your salary every year ($5,521) then it will take around 186 years for you to become a billionaire if you have your money in a long-term savings account paying 5% interest compounded annually. This means, if you start saving when you're fresh out of college and never touch the money, you could be a billionaire when you're 208!

If you invested in a more lucrative vehicle, like the stock market, you can become a billionaire much quicker. Looking at the returns of the Dow Jones over the past 40 years, there is an average return (CAGR) of 6.68% per year. If these returns are similar for the coming years, then the teacher who puts away 10% of his or her salary per month could become a billionaire in just 145 years. If you only wanted to become a millionaire, it would take you between 46 and 47 years in a 5% savings account and around 39 years if you followed the 6.68% returns of the Dow.

High Earners

It seems nearly impossible to become a billionaire making the salary of the average American teacher, but that's not really a surprise. How about if you're in a higher salary range, like a surgeon or another specialized doctor? An average anesthesiologist in the U.S. makes $211,750, according to the BLS, and if that anesthesiologist was able to put away 10% of his or her earnings every year into our savings account it would take around 160 years to become a billionaire.

And if that anesthesiologist put their savings into an index that tracked the Dow, it would still take more than a lifetime at 124 years. With that kind of salary it seems like you just can't get there on hard work alone.

To give you more perspective, it would take a postal worker (mean salary $48,940) around 188-189 years to become a billionaire using a savings account, and 146-147 years investing in the market. It would take a lawyer (mean salary $129,020) 131-132 years to make a billion in the markets, and 168-169 to make a billion in a savings account. So, when you think of it, whether you're a lawyer, a teacher, a postal worker or a surgeon, the great equalizer is that you'll never be a billionaire.

Out of Reach?

So, who can become a billionaire? How much would you have to have on hand every year to invest and be a billionaire at a time where you could still spend it? If you could put away $1 million a year, you're still looking at about 80 years of saving or 64-65 years of investing before the big payoff. Even actors and athletes who can make millions a year, rarely have the staying power to make it every year for 80 years.


So, sorry to come to such a heartbreaking conclusion, but it's hard for anyone to become a billionaire using traditional methods. To see a billion dollars during your lifetime (40 years of saving), you would need to put nearly $5.5 million into a fund that mirrors the Dow's average growth of 6.68%.

The Bottom Line

Though there are over 1,000 billionaires in the world, it's still an exceptional occurrence, and is owing to momentous business dealings, kick-starting an industry, inventing a much-desired service or concept, and other extraordinary events. For the rest of us, maybe we'll just have to make due with a million.

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9 Perkara Yang Perlu Anda Tahu Sebelum Memperbaharui Roadtax Kenderaan

Sumber: http://afyan.com/ver1/?p=638


1. Bilakah selalunya anda memperbaharui cukai jalan (roadtax) kereta anda?

Pengalaman saya selaku wakil takaful, ramai pemilik kenderaan yang melakukannya di saat-saat akhir sebelum tamat roadtax. Malah ramai juga yang melakukannya selepas tamat tempoh. Sebenarnya, cukai jalan boleh diperbaharui 60 hari sebelum tamat tempohnya. Ya, 60 hari! Tidak percaya? Sila lihat geran kereta anda. Oho….tentu ramai juga yang tidak pernah membelek geran kereta sebaik sahaja membeli kereta, bukan?



2. Jangan serah bulat-bulat kepada ejen takaful atau insurans.

Selalunya kita akan menyerahkan 100% kepada ejen takaful atau insurans untuk menguruskannya sehingga memperoleh roadtax. Sila semak maklumat perlindungan takaful atau insurans yang anda ambil supaya tidak diperguna. Selaku pengguna, kita berhak untuk mendapatkan segala maklumat berkenaan perkhidmatan yang kita bayar, seperti jenis perlindungan, sum-insured (jumlah perlindungan), NCD (non-claim discount) dan yang paling penting premium perlindungan takaful kereta.



3. Pastikan jumlah perlindungan takaful adalah mengikut harga semasa.

Jumlah perlindungan takaful atau sum-insured adalah hak pengguna untuk tentukan, bukan ejen. Ejen hanya mencadangkan dan jumlah yang sewajarnya adalah di tangan pemilik kereta.



4. Jangan over-insured.

Jika jumlah perlindungan diserah bulat-bulat kepada ejen, selalunya ejen akan meletakkan harga yang tinggi. Tidak guna untuk meletakkan jumlah perlindungan yang tinggi kerana sekiranya berlaku claim, anda hanya boleh membuat tuntutan mengikut harga semasa.



5. Tetapi, jangan pula below-insured.

Sebaliknya, sekiranya anda meletakkan harga perlindungan takaful kereta anda di bawah harga semasa, apabila berlaku tuntutan, syarikat takaful atau insurans hanya akan meluluskan sehingga jumlah yang anda insuranskan. Tetapi sesetengah syarikat takaful masih boleh mengambil kira sekiranya perbezaan jumlah perlindungan takaful dengan harga semasa tidak terlalu jauh sekitar 5%-10%. Contoh untuk perkara 3, 4 dan 5; Kereta Proton Persona yang dikeluarkan tahun 2008 yang dibeli pada harga RM 53,000. Pada 2009, harganya telah jatuh sekitar RM 45000.00 – RM 47,000.00. maka pemilik kereta tersebut hendaklah meletakkan jumlah perlindungan takaful atau insurans pada harga sekurang-kurangnya RM 45,000 dan jangan melebihi RM 47,000.00



6. Jadi, bagaimana untuk mengetahui harga pasaran kereta?

Jalan yang paling selamat adalah dengan anda menghubungi pihak bank, untuk mendapatkan nilai sebenar jumlah perlindungan kereta anda. Ini kerana pihak bank akan mengemas kini harga kereta setiap 3 bulan sekali. Cara seterusnya adalah mendapatkan maklumat daripada kedai kereta terpakai. Mereka mempunyai perkiraan harga kereta tersendiri. Cara paling mudah sekiranya anda malas untuk menghubungi pihak bank atau kedai kereta terpakai adalah dengan cara anda membelek ruang iklan di akhbar, majalah atau internet. Anda kumpulkan harga-harga kereta yang ada, kemudian anda cari purata harga kereta tersebut. Atau anda boleh juga mengambil harga tertinggi, dan harga terendah, kemudian bahagi keduanya.



7. Pastikan NCD (non-claim discount) atau NCB (non-claim bonus) anda mengikut apa yang sepatutnya.

NCD atau NCB ini adalah diskaun atau bonus apabila tidak berlaku kemalangan pada satu tahun tempoh perlindungan. Ia bermula dengan 0% dan maksimum 55% pada tahun ke-5 untuk kereta dan 25% untuk motosikal pada tahun ke-3.



8. Bagaimana untuk berpindah daripada insurans kepada takaful?

Ramai pemilik kenderaan yang berasa khuatir untuk bertukar daripada insurans kepada takaful dengan momokan bahawa mereka akan rugi kerana NCD akan menjadi 0%. Walhal ia tidak benar sama sekali. Anda boleh membawa nilai NCD anda daripada syarikat insurans kepada takaful dengan membawa bukti dokumen NCD yang lama seperti covernote atau renewal notis syarikat lama. Ia juga boleh didapati dengan menghubungi khidmat pelanggan syarikat insurans lama. Sebagaimana ditegaskan di dalam perkara ke-2 tadi, jangan serahkan bulat-bulat kepada ejen insurans atau wakil. Kadang-kadang berlaku apabila bertukar syarikat insurans, ada ejen insurans atau takaful yang mengambil kesempatan atas ketidaktahuan pengguna untuk memanipulasi perkara ini.



9. Anda juga boleh memindahkan NCD apabila menukar kereta.

Ini satu lagi maklumat yang jarang-jarang didedahkan. Selalunya berlaku apabila anda menukar kereta baru atau trade-in. Sebenarnya, NCD kereta lama anda boleh dibawa kepada kereta yang baru anda beli atau trda-in. Sebagai contoh, sebelum ini anda memakai kereta kancil 850 yang berharga RM 15,000.00, dan NCD kereta anda itu sudah mencecah 55%. Apabila anda bertukar kepada kereta baru, anda boleh memindahkan NCD 55% tadi kepada kereta baru anda. Bertukar kereta baru tadi, tidak hanya bermaksud kereta yang baru dikeluarkan, ia bermaksud kereta baru dibeli. Tidak kira kereta baru atau kereta second hand, atau second hand yang baru. Selalu berlaku ke atas pengguna, apabila bertukar kereta baru, NCD akan menjadi 0% kembali dan ia tidak didedahkan oleh penjual kereta merangkap ejen takaful atau insurans kereta tersebut. Jadi, di sinilah pentingnya serba sedikit ilmu pengetahuan sebagai pengguna untuk mengelak daripada diperguna.

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Now They Tell Us: Experts Say Housing Is A Lousy Investment And Always Will Be

Source:http://finance.yahoo.com
Well, the experts are weighing in again. And, once again, they agree: Housing is a lousy investment. And it always will be.

But wait. Just a few years ago, weren't the experts saying that housing was always a great investment? That house prices would always go up?

Yes, they were.

One thing you can be sure of with respect to market punditry is that experts will extrapolate recent trends into the hereafter. As will most people, actually. That's why, no matter how many times markets overshoot, people get burned.

But are the experts right this time? Will housing always be a lousy investment?

Of course not.

At some point, house prices will fall far enough that housing will become a very attractive investment, just as it was in the early 1990s, before the great housing boom began.

But the pressing question for those who are thinking of buying or selling a house today is whether we've reached that point...or whether house prices still have a ways to fall.

Most fundamental analysis suggests the latter. Housing inventories are still inflated (we built too many houses), and the end of the housing tax credit has removed one near-term incentive to buy. Interest rates are low, which has made houses more affordable, but, nationally, house prices are still above their long-term average.

Demographics are also becoming less favorable: As baby-boomers retire, many will seek to downsize, selling off second homes and moving into smaller residences. And with high unemployment and debt loads still crippling many consumers, it's not clear who will be buying the houses the boomers want to sell.

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Reasons Why You Should Pay Your Bills Online

Source:http://www.millionaireacts.com/2229/reasons-why-you-should-pay-your-bills-online.html
With the rise of internet and e-commerce nowadays, almost everything can be done online. You can trade stocks online, you can shop online, and you can also pay your bills online. It provides convenience and saves you time and money.

If you’re responsible for paying the bills, you probably know what’s involved - paperwork, clutter, and lots of time preparing your checks and falling in line. Wouldn’t it be great if you were never bothered with tedious bill-paying chores again?

Here are five good reasons to pay your bills online:

Convenience: The top most reason is convenience. The average household pays about five bills every month. You write a check and send it to the same company every month. That process takes some of your time each month. What’s more, most bank websites offer the possibility to even download payment records so you can keep track of your expenses.

Control. Ever been charged a late fee? You may know you paid on time but you can’t prove it. Once you’ve dropped that check, you don’t have control over the payment process. Some banks usually allow three days just to clear check payments. With online bills payment, you can schedule your bills payment.

If you want a bill to be paid by the 23rd, schedule it to be paid by the 23rd and it’s guaranteed to get there on time. You can control when money comes out of your account and you have a more detailed history that you can keep by hand.

Flexibility. Some online bills payment services have “e-billing” features which sends reminders to remind you on the cut-offs of your bills. With e-billing, bills are usually sent to your bank’s web site. The e-bill can meet you at the bank’s secure website and you can ask them to send an email to let your know when it arrives.

Even if someone could get to your email, all they can really do is to pay your bill. They can’t take money out of your account.

Security. A lot of people do not have the courage to pay their bills online because they do not trust the service itself. When you bank online, you’re protected by a lot of legislation and regulations. Banks are responsible for protecting you at an even greater level than with the checking.

To further increase the security when paying your bills online, do not tick the “remember password for sites” when using a Firefox browser in surfing the internet. I’ve recently visited a bank’s website using my own laptop and each time I logged in to my account, the username and password has already been remembered. I tried to clear both cookies and cache but it’s still there until I disable the remember password for sites option under security settings.

As for me, all my bills are consolidated and auto debited in one credit card for easy handling and monitoring. Instead of worrying about cut-offs of those individual bills, I just have to worry about the cut-off of my credit card bill to avoid late payment charges. I just need to check each individual statement of account when it arrives to my billing address to check for any disputes.

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Musuh utama Trader

`Musuh utama trader ialah perasaan tamak dan pertimbangan kurang waras. Ini biasa berlaku pada sesiapa pun. Bila nak untung, macam-macam dugaan timbul. Bila dah rugi pulak, macam-macam perasaan yang menguji. Yang masuk dalam bidang ni memang faham situasi-situasi sebegini. Kena ada clear goal, good proven system dan emosi yang teguh untuk berjaya dalam bidang ni. Selebihnya, berserah kepada Allah bila usaha dan keputusan dah dibuat.`..dipetik dari Rumah.net

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Azizi Ali: Property investment in the new decade

The times have been good for property investors in the past couple of years. Prices in certain areas, particularly in selected areas of Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya have risen significantly, some as high as 50 percent. And as a result of this rise, practically all property investors had made money. In fact, some people have seen their net worth jump up by 30 or 40 percent because of the price rise. For example, a young colleague who purchased their house two years ago saw the value of their house increase from RM950,000 to RM1.3 million today. Of course, the owner was all smiles when they told me the story.

I am happy for them. As an avid property investor, I have benefitted from the rise myself, so I am certainly not complaining. At the same time, I must admit that I have some reservation about the whole scenario. The price rise has distorted reality to many investors, including my colleague. Because the price climbed up as soon as he bought the property, and remained at a high level even today, his view on property investment is seriously distorted. He thinks that:

1. Prices will go up as soon you buy a property.
2. The gains will be in double digits per annum.
3. This is normal.
4. Prices always go up.
5. It is easy to make money in properties.
6. He is a super genius when it comes to property investment!



Long-term property investors will quickly point out that none of the above are true. That’s right – none! For starters, I can tell you the current situation is exceptional. It wasn’t like this five years ago, and certainly not ten years ago. I can also tell you that times are not going to remain this good forever. Prices do not rise to the sky, and interest rates do not stay low forever. In fact, interest rates has already climbed (or to use the toned down term of ‘normalised’) by 75 basis points already this year.

Why am I so sure of this? Simple; I have seen similar euphoria before (the first in the mid-1980s and then in year 1997 during the Asian Currency Crisis), and the story did not end well on both occasions. Like most bubbles, prices edged up slowly initially. The initial buyers made money and this attracted others to invest into properties as well. And as prices climbed higher and higher, the euphoria got to the levels that some people were rushing to buy because they were scared that the prices will spiral out of their reach if they do not act then. But when the market crashed, as all bubbles eventually do, a lot of people were seriously hit, a lot of money was lost, and that included seeing their properties being auctioned off by the banks.

I see the same story being repeated today. On top of the ever present dangers, there will be massive challenges in this new decade. There will be much turbulence in the coming days, and some of them will be unlike what you and I have seen or experienced before. This may include double-digit interest rates, multiple bank failures, currency crashes and explosion of the derivatives market.

As a result of the new challenges, the investors using the current success formula of buying five properties at one go (by paying the minimum down payment and borrowing to the hilt) will be seriously hammered. They will experience much pain, to put it mildly. Some people will lose their properties, some will lose more than money and yes, some will become ex-millionaires.

But of course, where there is danger, there are also opportunities. This will include a huge number of properties being auctioned and also getting huge discounts from distressed sellers.

For more information about Azizi Ali, visit www.millionairesplanet.com

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China Passes Japan as Second-Largest Economy

Source:http://finance.yahoo.com/news/China-Passes-Japan-as-nytimes-2766831302.html?x=0&.v=1
On Monday August 16, 2010, 12:20 am EDT

SHANGHAI — After three decades of spectacular growth, China passed Japan in the second quarter to become the world’s second-largest economy behind the United States, according to government figures released early Monday.

The milestone, though anticipated for some time, is the most striking evidence yet that China’s ascendance is for real and that the rest of the world will have to reckon with a new economic superpower.

The recognition came early Monday, when Tokyo said that Japan’s economy was valued at about $1.28 trillion in the second quarter, slightly below China’s $1.33 trillion. Japan’s economy grew 0.4 percent in the quarter, Tokyo said, substantially less than forecast. That weakness suggests that China’s economy will race past Japan’s for the full year.

Experts say unseating Japan — and in recent years passing Germany, France and Great Britain — underscores China’s growing clout and bolsters forecasts that China will pass the United States as the world’s biggest economy as early as 2030. America’s gross domestic product was about $14 trillion in 2009.

“This has enormous significance,” said Nicholas R. Lardy, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “It reconfirms what’s been happening for the better part of a decade: China has been eclipsing Japan economically. For everyone in China’s region, they’re now the biggest trading partner rather than the U.S. or Japan.”

For Japan, whose economy has been stagnating for more than a decade, the figures reflect a decline in economic and political power. Japan has had the world’s second-largest economy for much of the last four decades, according to the World Bank. And during the 1980s, there was even talk about Japan’s economy some day overtaking that of the United States.

But while Japan’s economy is mature and its population quickly aging, China is in the throes of urbanization and is far from developed, analysts say, meaning it has a much lower standard of living, as well as a lot more room to grow. Just five years ago, China’s gross domestic product was about $2.3 trillion, about half of Japan’s.

This country has roughly the same land mass as the United States, but it is burdened with a fifth of the world’s population and insufficient resources.

Its per capita income is more on a par with those of impoverished nations like Algeria, El Salvador and Albania — which, along with China, are close to $3,600 — than that of the United States, where it is about $46,000.

Yet there is little disputing that under the direction of the Communist Party, China has begun to reshape the way the global economy functions by virtue of its growing dominance of trade, its huge hoard of foreign exchange reserves and United States government debt and its voracious appetite for oil, coal, iron ore and other natural resources.

China is already a major driver of global growth. The country’s leaders have grown more confident on the international stage and have begun to assert greater influence in Asia, Africa and Latin America, with things like special trade agreements and multibillion dollar resource deals.

“They’re exerting a lot of influence on the global economy and becoming dominant in Asia,” said Eswar S. Prasad, a professor of trade policy at Cornell and former head of the International Monetary Fund’s China division. “A lot of other economies in the region are essentially riding on China’s coat tails, and this is remarkable for an economy with a low per capita income.”

In Japan, the mood was one of resignation. Though increasingly eclipsed by Beijing on the world stage, Japan has benefited from a booming China, initially by businesses moving production there to take advantage of lower wages and, as local incomes have risen, by tapping a large and increasingly lucrative market for Japanese goods.

Beijing is also beginning to shape global dialogues on a range of issues, analysts said; for instance, last year it asserted that the dollar must be phased out as the world’s primary reserve currency.

And while the United States and the European Union are struggling to grow in the wake of the worst economic crisis in decades, China has continued to climb up the economic league tables by investing heavily in infrastructure and backing a $586 billion stimulus plan.

This year, although growth has begun to moderate a bit, China’s economy is forecast to expand about 10 percent — continuing a remarkable three-decade streak of double-digit growth.

“This is just the beginning,” said Wang Tao, an economist at UBS in Beijing. “China is still a developing country. So it has a lot of room to grow. And China has the biggest impact on commodity prices — in Russia, India, Australia and Latin America.”

There are huge challenges ahead, though. Economists say that China’s economy is too heavily dependent on exports and investment and that it needs to encourage greater domestic consumption — something China has struggled to do.

The country’s largely state-run banks have recently been criticized for lending far too aggressively in the last year while shifting some loans off their balance sheet to disguise lending and evade rules meant to curtail lending growth.

China is also locked in a fierce debate over its currency policy, with the United States, European Union and others accusing Beijing of keeping the Chinese currency, the renminbi, artificially low to bolster exports — leading to huge trade surpluses for China but major bilateral trade deficits for the United States and the European Union. China says that its currency is not substantially undervalued and that it is moving ahead with currency reform.

Regardless, China’s rapid growth suggests that it will continue to compete fiercely with the United States and Europe for natural resources but also offer big opportunities for companies eager to tap its market.

Although its economy is still only one-third the size of the American economy, China passed the United States last year to become the world’s largest market for passenger vehicles. China also passed Germany last year to become the world’s biggest exporter.

Global companies like Caterpillar, General Electric, General Motors and Siemens — as well as scores of others — are making a more aggressive push into China, in some cases moving research and development centers here.

Some analysts, though, say that while China is eager to assert itself as a financial and economic power — and to push its state companies to “go global” — it is reluctant to play a greater role in the debate over climate change or how to slow the growth of greenhouse gases.

China passed the United States in 2006 to become the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, which scientists link to global warming. But China also has an ambitious program to cut the energy it uses for each unit of economic output by 20 percent by the end of 2010, compared to 2006.

Assessing what China’s newfound clout means, though, is complicated. While the country is still relatively poor per capita, it has an authoritarian government that is capable of taking decisive action — to stimulate the economy, build new projects and invest in specific industries.

That, Mr. Lardy at the Peterson Institute said, gives the country unusual power. “China is already the primary determiner of the price of virtually every major commodity,” he said. “And the Chinese government can be much more decisive in allocating resources in a way that other governments of this level of per capita income cannot.”

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7 Millionaire Myths

Source:http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/110333/millionaire-myths?mod=bb-budgeting
We all have are preconceptions about millionaires: they're tax evaders who just inherited their money from rich Aunt Flo, and they hang around the golf course all day with their snobby, elitist friends. So what's the average millionaire really like? Here are seven millionaire myths, and the real facts about the ones who seem to have it all.

1. Millionaires Don't Pay Their Taxes
Fact: It is estimated that millionaires, those in the top 1% of earners, pay about 40 percent of all taxes. Current tax regulation shifts may change these numbers to make this even larger than that -- so think twice before accusing the millionaires in America of not paying taxes.

2. Millionaires Just Inherited Their Money
According to Thomas J. Stanley's book, "The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy," only 20% of millionaires inherited their riches. The other 80% are what you'd call nouveau riche: first-generation millionaires who earned their cash on their own. Many millionaires simply worked, saved, and lived within their means to generate their wealth -- think accountants and managers: regular people going to work every day. Most millionaires didn't get their riches overnight when a rich relative died -- they worked for the money.

3. Millionaires Feel Rich
From the outside looking in, you would think that millionaires feel rich and secure, but that's not so. Most millionaires worry about retirement, their kids' college fund and the mortgage just like the rest of us. Those worries are greatest among new millionaires, the people who just recently acquired their wealth.

4. Millionaires Have High-Paying Jobs
It certainly doesn't hurt to be gainfully employed, but half of all millionaires are self-employed or own a business. It does help to have a college degree, as about 80 percent are college graduates, though only 18% have master's degrees.

5. Millionaires All Drive Fancy Cars
You can get that idea of the rich guy in a fancy German car out of your head when you think of a millionaire: They actually drive a Ford, with the carmaker topping the millionaire preferred car list at 9.4 percent. Cadillacs run second on the millionaires' favorite car list, and Lincolns third according to onmoneymaking.com.

Car payments are an investment with little return, which is why someone looking to grow wealth avoids high-priced vehicles in favor of a more economical set of wheels.

6. Millionaires Hang Around the Golf Course All Day
Those millionaires are all retired, with nothing else to do but hang around the golf course, right? Wrong. Only 20 percent of millionaires are retirees, with a full 80 percent still going to work. It's not as glamorous or fun, but millionaires go to work just like you do; it's how the money gets in the bank.

7. Millionaires Are Elitists
We've already established that most millionaires earned their money and not inherited it, still go to work, drive a Ford, and worry about their kids' college expenses. Sounds a lot like the rest of America, right? Millionaires come in all shapes and sizes -- some may be elitists, but most are just regular Joes who successfully managed their money.

The Bottom Line
Maybe you see a pattern here: Today's millionaires are people who live within their means, budget and spend wisely, and focus on financial independence first. These are habits that take discipline, but ones we can all adopt to begin growing wealth. If these facts prove anything, it's that every one of us can strive to become a millionaire -- you can start by driving your old car with pride.

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Bina Bisnes Yang Boleh Dijual-by Pakdi

Source:pakdi.net
Buat bisnes ada dua cara. Nak jual kotak atau nak jual masa.

Penjual kotak dan penjual masa tidak ditentukan oleh pendapatan. Ia ditentukan oleh bagaimana mereka bekerja. Penjual masa perlu menggunakan banyak masanya sendiri untuk bekerja, penjual masa tidak boleh digantikan dengan penjual masa yang lain, dan penjual masa selalunya menjual dirinya sendiri.

Tetapi penjual kotak tidak begitu. Penjual kotak mencipta sistem. Penjual kotak membina aset yang boleh djual beli. Penjual kotak mengeluarkan produk. Penjual kotak tidak perlu menjual dirinya sendiri. Penjual kotak boleh mengupah orang lain untuk menjual kotak-kotaknya.

Siapakah penjual masa?

Penjual masa adalah konsultan, peguam, doktor, akauntan, pensyarah, jurutera, speaker, motivator, ejen insurans, ejen saham amanah, jurujual, pereka fesyen dan sebarang kerja yang memerlukan kemahiran yang tinggi. Dalam erti kata lain, he is a professional!

Adakah menjadi penjual masa ini salah?

Tidak. Ia tidak salah. Cuma penjual masa tidak boleh buat kerja lain kerana penjual masa perlu menjual masa dan dirinya kepada orang lain.

Ia bagus sekiranya kalian memang benar-benar minat. mempunya passion terhadap kerja-kerja tersebut. Kalian akan buat benda itu sampai ke hujung nyawa. Pendek kata, kalau tidak dibayar gaji pun, kalian memang suka kerja tersebut. Tanya diri kalian balik, adakah kalian bekerja sebagai penjual masa adalah kerana minat?

Ia juga bagus sekiranya kalian melakukan semua itu untuk menolong orang lain. Seperti kalian sudah berpengalaman 30 tahun dalam industri dan kini kalian memilih untuk menjadi pensyarah untuk menyumbangkan dan berkongsi ilmu dengan orang lain. Kalian memang suka membantu orang yang memerlukan. Anda terasa mempunyai tanggungjawab tertentu untuk membuatnya sendiri.

Jika disebabkan 2 perkara ini, memang ia adalah sangat sesuai untuk kalian. Kalian akan melakukannya kerana ikhlas. Duit bukan lagi sebagai ukuran.

Self-Employed adalah penjual masa

Jika dirujuk kepada quadrant yang dicipta oleh Robert T. Kiyosaki, orang yang bekerja sendiri adalah penjual masa. Dia lah bos, dia lah janitor, dia lah designer, dia lah marketer, dia lah salesperson, semua benda adalah dia dia dia dan dia!

Banyak sebab kenapa hanya dia dia dia dan dia! Itu perlu dibicarakan dalam tajuk yang lain.

Namun, penjual masa boleh berubah menjadi penjual kotak sekiranya dia boleh mencipta satu sistem yang baik dan melantik orang yang layak untuk menjadi ketua dalam sistem tersebut. Selepas itu, boleh terlibat dalam bisnes yang lain pula.

Busines owner adalah penjual kotak

Majoriti penjual kotak adalah business owner. Penjual kotak membina perniagaan yang boleh dijual. Perniagaan yang boleh diambil alih oleh orang lain. He is working on his business (Bukan in his business). Dia membentuk perniagaannya agar menjadi satu aset yang bernilai.

Jalan penjual kotak adalah perjalanan yang panjang dan berliku. Bukan semua orang sanggup menempuhnya. Hanya orang yang luar biasa akan berjaya mencapainya kerana ia memerlukan lebih dari sekadar minat. Minat sahaja tidak mencukupi untuk menjadi penjual kotak yang berjaya.

Jatuh bangun adalah perkara biasa. Tetapi setiap kali terjatuh, dia akan menjadi lebih kuat. Dia akan menjadi lebih bijak. Sebab itulah minat sahaja tidak mencukupi. Kerana dugaannya terlalu besar, lebih besar dari penjual masa.

Penjual masa atau penjual kotak?

Tidak salah kalau hanya mahu menjadi seorang penjual masa. Cumanya, ini lah perbezaan yang kalian perlu faham, kenapa ada orang seperti Ingvar Kamprad (Ikea), dan kenapa ada orang hanya kekal sebagai Abu si Tukang Kayu.

Sekiranya kalian boleh menjual bisnes kalian kepada orang lain, maka itu tandanya kalian menjual kotak. Sekiranya tidak, maka itu tandanya kalian menjual masae-.

Jadi, apa pilihan kalian?

Dapatkan buku e-Myth Revisited untuk mendapatkan maklumat lebih lanjut tentang perkara ini. Boleh didapati dalam versi asal dalam Bahasa Inggeris atau edisi terjemahan terbitan PTS.

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How Rich Is Rich?

Source:http://finance.yahoo.com/focus-retirement/article/110295/how-rich-is-rich?mod=fidelity-buildingwealth&cat=fidelity_2010_building_wealth

How much money do you need to feel rich?

Wealth is a subjective concept, but one thing is universal in most definitions: being able to live a comfortable life without having to work.

"I'd like to have enough money so my family and I wouldn't have to work anymore or worry about the necessities, and maybe travel a bit," said Deborah Veale, a Southern California resident visiting New York City.

Veale said she'd need about $10 million to consider herself set.

One woman from Seattle put it at a "couple thousand dollars a month." Another from New York City wanted a billion (although she'd still fly coach.)

Experts peg the figure to be somewhere around $2 million to $12 million in savings.

On the high end of that range, a single person living in an expensive part of the country (say, New York City), wanting to retire at 35 would need at least $300,000 a year to feel rich, according to Steven Kaye, president of Watchung, N.J.-based wealth management firm American Economic Planning Group. He based that number on real-life figures his clients tell him they need.

A yearly income of $300,000 would allow for taxes, a $3,800-a-month apartment (the average price in Manhattan), and a monthly spending allowance of around twelve grand, he said. Not too bad, especially since you could do this all without a pesky job.

To generate $300,000 a year beginning at age 35, you'd need a nest egg of just under $12 million. That assumes a conservative investment portfolio generating a return of 5% a year, an inflation rate of 2.5% a year and Social Security benefits of $25,000 a year starting at age 62.

Over time, the shape of your nest egg would resemble a bell curve, growing in the early years, and then declining as inflation required you to withdraw more money to maintain a lifestyle equivalent to $300,000 in 2010. The $12 million would finally dwindle to $934 when you turned 100.

If you live in a low cost part of the country, $100,000 a year should be enough, said Kaye. In that case, you would need savings of about $4 million to retire at 35.

But if you're willing to stay in the workforce until age 65, a mere $2 million would be enough.

Jon Duncan, a financial planner at Tacoma, Wash.-based Seneschal Advisors, gave numbers similar to Kaye's, and agreed that for most people, the figure would be somewhere in the multi-millions.

"I'm from an era when we'd talk about millionaires and say 'Whoa, he's got it made for life,'" said Duncan. "But that's not the case anymore."

Indeed, few experts think a million is enough to quit your day job.

"Don't retire at 35," he advised this reporter, "you'll need a ton of money."

Keeping Up With the Joneses

Of course, there are other ways of determining wealth besides just what you'll need to live well in retirement.

Although decidedly not recommended by financial planners, one is relativity. Basically, you're rich if you're making more than your brother-in-law.

That appears to be how the government measures affluence. The Obama administration wants to extend tax cuts for all but the wealthiest Americans, which it defines to be those families making more than $250,000.

But that only includes about 2% of the population, according to the Census Bureau.

Kaye cautions not to confuse wealth with income. Some people can make a million a year, but be spending a million and a half. They are not rich, said Kaye.

"Income relates to lifestyle," he said. "Wealth relates to balance sheets."

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What You Say About Others Reveals A Lot About You

Source:http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/196673.php
How positively you see others is linked to how happy, kind-hearted and emotionally stable you are, according to new research by a Wake Forest University psychology professor.

"Your perceptions of others reveal so much about your own personality," says Dustin Wood, assistant professor of psychology at Wake Forest and lead author of the study, about his findings. By asking study participants to each rate positive and negative characteristics of just three people, the researchers were able to find out important information about the rater's well-being, mental health, social attitudes and how they were judged by others.

The study appears in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Peter Harms at the University of Nebraska and Simine Vazire of Washington University in St. Louis co-authored the study.

The researchers found a person's tendency to describe others in positive terms is an important indicator of the positivity of the person's own personality traits. They discovered particularly strong associations between positively judging others and how enthusiastic, happy, kind-hearted, courteous, emotionally stable and capable the person describes oneself and is described by others.

"Seeing others positively reveals our own positive traits," Wood says.

The study also found that how positively you see other people shows how satisfied you are with your own life, and how much you are liked by others.

In contrast, negative perceptions of others are linked to higher levels of narcissism and antisocial behavior. "A huge suite of negative personality traits are associated with viewing others negatively," Wood says. "The simple tendency to see people negatively indicates a greater likelihood of depression and various personality disorders." Given that negative perceptions of others may underlie several personality disorders, finding techniques to get people to see others more positively could promote the cessation of behavior patterns associated with several different personality disorders simultaneously, Wood says.

This research suggests that when you ask someone to rate the personality of a particular coworker or acquaintance, you may learn as much about the rater providing the personality description as the person they are describing. The level of negativity the rater uses in describing the other person may indeed indicate that the other person has negative characteristics, but may also be a tip off that the rater is unhappy, disagreeable, neurotic - or has other negative personality traits.

Raters in the study consisted of friends rating one another, college freshmen rating others they knew in their dormitories, and fraternity and sorority members rating others in their organization. In all samples, participants rated real people and the positivity of their ratings were found to be associated with the participant's own characteristics.

By evaluating the raters and how they evaluated their peers again one year later, Wood found compelling evidence that how positively we tend to perceive others in our social environment is a highly stable trait that does not change substantially over time.

Source: Wake Forest University

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The Truth About Car Payments

Source:http://www.daveramsey.com/newsletters/online/edition/personal-finance-newsletter-073010?ectid=cnl0810.final_06#carpayments
I'll always have a car payment.

You've probably heard that comment before, right? You might have even said it yourself—with a defeated, woe-is-me tone of voice. So what's the deal? Are car payments really just a way of life?

Well, that's the normal way of thinking. But, as Dave always says: When it comes to money, normal is broke. You want to be weird, and weird people don't have car payments.

So how, exactly, do you live without a car payment?

Here's the deal. Recent statistics show that one-third of car buyers sign up for a six-year loan at an average interest rate of 9.6%. Among these buyers, the average price of the car is just over $26,000. This means that one-third of the cars you see on the road are dragging a $475 payment behind them.

The car dealer won't tell you that your awesome new car loses about 25% of its value the instant you drive it off the lot. After four years, your car has lost about 70% of its value!

What does that mean? After six years, you've paid almost $33,000 for a $26,000 car, which is now worth maybe $6,000. Not a good deal.

Here's a new plan. What if you bought a cheap $2,000 car just to get around for 10 months? Then you take that $475—the average car payment—save it every month, and pay for a new car (with cash!), instead of giving it to the bank.

After 10 months of doing that, you'll have $4,750 to use for that new ride. Add that to the $1,500–2,000 you can get for your old beater, and you have well over $6,000. That's a major upgrade in car in just 10 months—without owing the bank a dime!

But the fun doesn't end there. If you keep consistently putting the same amount of money away, 10 months later you would have another $4,750 to put toward a car. You could probably sell that $6,000 vehicle for about the same price you paid 10 months before, meaning you now have $11,000 to pay for a car, just 20 months after this whole process started.

The bottom line with this exercise is simply this—what could you do with that $475 if you weren't paying for the car every month? Anything you wanted!

Think about it this way: If you were to invest that $475 (remember, this is the average car payment in the U.S.) into a good mutual fund with a 12% rate of return, you would have over $100,000 in 10 years! At 20 years, you would have made $470,000. And at 30 years? That mutual fund would be worth $1.6 million!

The numbers will make your head spin, but it really just comes down to simple math. The less money you are spending on your car every month, the more money you have to put into other more important things: your kids' college fund, your retirement, and paying off any other debt you might have.

If you'll just follow this simple plan, your life could be dramatically different 10 years from now. You can live without a car payment!

Does this get you fired up? If so, check out Financial Peace University! Dave will teach you how to get on a plan for getting out of debt, saving for retirement, college, and real estate ... all debt free! Getting rid of car payments is just the beginning of changing your life forever, so get started today!

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