Achieve Your Goal by Doing Whatever You Want!

I came across a video by Penn Jillette which he describe how he loss 100 lbs by eating whatever he wants. You can watch the video here.

It is interesting to know that he loses his weight not because of some diet pills that burn fats when he eat junk food. It is essentially redefining what he wants that get him to lose so much weight. 

His regime goes like this. He eat nothing but baked/boiled potato for 2 weeks, only eating when he is hungry. This fundamentally changed his eating habit. 

After 2 weeks, whatever healthy food that use to taste blend will become tasty to him as his taste bud felt the change in flavor. 

After months of eating only healthy food, no meat product or unhealthy fats and carbs. He have stop having craving for junk food and even find them disgusting. Now all he want is healthier food. 

This is redefining what you want to achieve your desire goal. We can use the similar regime to help us achieve our goals by redefining what we want. 

Maybe you goal is to save some money and the bad habit that cost you a lot of money is eating out too much. You can maybe start packing your lunch to work and cooking your own dinner for 2 weeks. You may start to feel the change in habits and soon enough after a few month you might not like to eat out as much. You WANT to cook your own meal. 

There are many way to apply this method but you must have the will to change your habits. Once that is done, you can achieve any goal by doing whatever you want. 

Be an Environmental Friendly Parent.

I believe that as a parent, I owe it to my children to make sure they live in a sustainable planet. Therefore, I always advocate to my fellow new parents that being environmental friendly will ensure we live a cleaner planet for our next generations when we pass on.

I happened to have a conversation with my spouse who went to a recent baby fair with a fellow new parents. As she was describing their loot, I realise how wasteful can a parent get. Not only they are wasting precious cash which can be save up for their children, they are creating plenty of waste which can be harmful for our environment.

So as a responsible parent we should always try to reduce the wastage we create by following some simple rules.

1) Don't buy more than what is necessary

I know sometime it can be tempting to buy things in a bundle as they often offer cheaper deal. However, if you buy more than you need and your child out grown it you will end up create unnecessary waste. So if possible, share the bundle with another parent. If that is not the option, just buy what is needed.

2) Take hand me down

Buying new items like clothing, toys or book can be quite wasteful, so taking in hand me down is a great ways to save the environment. You will give old item a new purpose and most of the time your children will out grow it pretty quickly. Just make sure you clean them up before giving it to your kids.

3) Reduce the use of diapers and baby wipes

This might be an inconvenience but if you truly want to help the environment this will have the greatest impact. Although diapers decompose fairly quickly, the amount we are using right now can fill up our landfill faster than it decompose. Baby wipes DO NOT decompose naturally so it has to go into landfill. So as much as possible, use cloth nappies and wash your babies instead of using baby wipes.

All of this might not be practical as every parent face different issue that prevent them from being environmentally friendly. However we can all chip in and do a little bit, our environment will be slightly better.

How much money to keep in the bank?

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I have discuss many time in my blog that we should at least save up 10% of our income for savings and investment.

But how much of the 10% should we keep in cash?

People who read "Rich Dad Poor Dad" will understand the theory that keeping too much cash in the bank is only waiting for inflation to erode away the value.

But it is also not recommended to convert all your cash to asset.

Having cash as an asset can be useful, as and when you require urgent payment or you have lose your job you can use the cash you have on hand to handle it. Otherwise you will have to liquidate your asset which take too long and you might be overwhelmed by whatever crisis you are facing.

So if you do not have some cash standing by be it because you converted them to asset or you have never save money before. Now is a good time to start.

1) Start with a mini rainy day fund

This is a strategy taught by Dave Ramsey.

Everyone should start with a mini rainy day fund. $1000 in cash kept in the bank for urgent crisis ONLY!

It may not be much but having that $1000 can get you out of some sticky situation.

2) Build on your rainy day fund

Next is to build that mini rainy day fund to a $10,000 fund.

Now you are seeing some results and remember not to touch this money for any other reason than to pull you out from crisis.

3) Have 12 month worth of living expenses money

Because everyone have different standard of living, this amount will be different from person to person.

For example:

Living expense meant mortgage, utilities, phone bills, groceries, basic transports or whatever you need to carry on your daily life.

For me that amount come down to about $1,200 but I like to be prudent so I will take it as $1,500.

I will then take $1,500 X 12 months = $18,000

Yours might be higher or lower depending on your living standard but whatever the amount may be that will be the saving target to keep as cash.

So it is important that you keep that money and not touch unless it is absolutely necessary to safe guard yourself and your family.

Who is your boss?

Who is really your boss?

Most people think it will be the person who sign their pay check every month. But really they are only manager who pay you for your service to their organization.

The only boss in your life is yourself and it is imperative that you remember that as it can dramatically change your life.

Brian Tracy, a well known motivational speaker and successful entrepreneur once said in a seminar:

"Always see yourself as self-employed, it is a mistake thinking that you work for anybody else but yourself"

So having the mentality that you are the boss of your life (Self-Employed), you developed an entrepreneur mindset. This means you take responsibilities for all your choices and you decide how far you want to bring your life.

You will be more committed to learning new skills to provide more value for your current organization instead of just doing the same thing everyday. This way you will see yourself climb up the ladder instead of scoring 4% increment every year.

You will look out more for your Profit & Loss every year to make sure you are not in serious financial crisis. Investing for the future instead of staring at the calendar waiting for the weekend or the next short getaway.

Don't fall in the rat race because someone sign your pay check and you believe you owe your life to them.

Remember, you are the CEO of your own organization and you decide where it is heading.

Unconventional ways of raising children

I have rather unconventional ways with raising my children... At least to the older generation Asian parent.

I am an Asian parent and my children have to be raise up by certain standard in order to be considered a good parent.

But I do not care.

I allow my children to use tech products (iPad, Smartphones, computers etc..) as and when they please.

I feed my children fast food at least once a week.

I don't force my children to study and they will only read a book when they are ready to.

I give them freedom of choice when it come to their clothes, the food they want to eat and the way they want to do things.

My parenting style is that I lead by example.

If I want my son to read a book, I make sure I read one beside him.

If I want my daughter to eat healthy, I make sure I can eat healthy food as well.

If I want my children to sleep early, I make sure I go to bed by 10:30.

I do not want my children to do something because "dad say so" but rather do it because it is the right thing to do.

This doesn't mean I do not discipline, I do.

I disciple them when they do not show respect to others freedom, when they misbehave in public which causes inconvenience to other and when they cause harm to others physically.

I have been criticize by the older generation, they think that I am spoiling my child.

The older generation can say all they want about how I raise my kids.

I believe in what I do and how I do it.

You should too because only you know your child the best.

The one thing to give up if you want to succeed

There is one thing that you have to give up in order to be successful.

It is something that is not often easy to give up especially for young entrepreneur who are full of passion in what they do.

That one thing is...


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I have to admit, it took me many years and some harsh lessons in order to accept this fact. I tend to be an egoistic person and my ego often overrule me.

I have receive feedback and criticism from customer and contractor. My ego make me feel that they treat me like dirt and I do not tolerate or talk in a proper tone. It got so bad that I drop a few customer because I thought "it's their loss anyway".

In the end I was wrong, my ego almost cost me my business and my reputation.

So it is very important to drop your ego, build your reputation as a humble young entrepreneur who are sincere to provide the best service for your customer.

Giving up your ego allow you to open your mind, with an open mind you can learn more knowledge through accepting criticism.

Only through constant improvement can you achieve success.


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How I Diversify My Portfolio?

Diversifying your portfolio is an important process as it help you to minimize risk and exposure. This basically means not putting all your eggs in one basket.

It can be pretty confusing for amateur investor as they do not have much space to diversify into due to the size of their capital. Regardless of your capital size, a simple form of diversification which I am going to show below can help you reduce your risk.

How I do it?

First, I allocate the amount of money I will be using to invest. This amount usually come in 10% of my monthly income.

Next, identify the investment vehicle you are going to use. If you are not sure about this, please check out my post on How to start Investing. And allocate percentage of money from your investment capital according to your risk tolerance.

My investment vehicle with percentage are as follow:
1) Reits/Stocks (30%)
2) Mutual funds (60%)
3) Precious Metal (5%)
4) Forex (5%)

My strategy is having higher percentage of my capital in lower risk investment like mutual funds/bonds. I use my precious metal investment as an insurance in an event where the market crash.

Of course this is just an example, you will have to figure out for yourself. If you have a higher risk tolerance you might want to put higher percentage into stocks or properties. Most importantly it must make sense to you and at time you must re-balance it according to how the market is reacting.

Remember you are in control of your capital, so every decision you make will shape your financial future.