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.

Father Figure

If you have ever read "Rich Dad Poor Dad" you will know that Robert Kiyosaki is lucky enough to have 2 fatherly figure. This allow him to compare and contrast how this 2 person think, which in turn affect their physical result.

I feel that I am luckier as I have 3 fatherly figure in my life who teach me how to be a better person.

My first fatherly figure is my biological father. He is the most hardworking man I have ever seen, he often work up to 80 hours a week just so he could provide a better life for our family. He is not rich but he does his best. He show me that a person can make it through life with hard work and respect for other people. His guidance have help me secure many sincere friendship and respect from fellow colleagues.

My second fatherly figure is my father-in-law. He is a photography enthusiast, he often show me pictures he have taken and the thought process before he press the shutter. A humble man with a big heart to share, he thought me the importance of passion and how having something you are passionate about can help you live a happier life.

My third fatherly figure is my mentor. He may not be as successful as the entrepreneur seen in publication, but his perseverance have allowed him to live an above average lifestyle. He pulled me up when my business is in the red and shared his valuable experience so I can apply them to my business.

Although this 3 men lead very different life, their lesson is fairly similar. They all encourage hard work, passion and happiness. I am thankful to have them in my life, for it is their guidance that gave me hope for a better tomorrow.

I strive to provide the same guidance for both my children.

The Darkside of Entrepreneurship

What is the Darkside of entrepreneurship?

It is the side that is often not shared in success story, the true struggle and agony faced by most of the entrepreneur out there.

It is waking up not knowing whether today is your last day in business, but you still dress up and show up for the occasion.

It is watching your employees and contractor make more money than you, but you are putting in twice the amount of hours and work.

It is witnessing your saving slowly dwells away while you scrap together coins to have a proper lunch.

It is not knowing what to say to your children when they needed new stuff but you have no spare cash to provide for them.

It is looking at your spouse working 2 jobs just to make ends meet.

It is not having any idea what to say during a family/friends gathering when they ask you about your business.

It is realising the debt slowly building up and you have absolutely no idea how to keep up.

Despite all this, the worse feeling of all.

You realise you are not far enough to keep trying and you came too far to give up.

So the question remains.

Is all of this worth it?

3 Lessons Business Taught Me About Life

Business is a cruel game, you never know the next day can be your last day in the game and you will have to start over. However the good news is, the skill and knowledge learnt in business can be apply anywhere.

Here I share 3 lesson I learn about life through my business.

1) You don't need much money to survive

We often thought that need a certain amount to live a basic life, the truth is the amount actually varies according to your current situation.

When I just started my business, I drain up almost all my saving and my business is not generating enough money to keep both me and my partner alive. We realize that the only way to keep the business alive is to keep ourselves alive first. So we took a significant pay cut, I end up with $200 pocket money per month and my wife have to help pay for most of the expenses we have.

So I came up with a budget plan where I slowly realize that most of my money is spent on non-necessities and it make me learnt that I actually do not need as much money as I think to survive.

2) Having the right people is imperative

When I hired my first contractor to help me with my business, I did not check whether he is the right man for the job and he ended up screwing up my job. From then on I know I have to choose the right people to help me with my business to push my business forward.

Same things goes in life. 

If you chose the wrong people to have in your life, they will only anchor you don't because they cannot see themselves being at different level as you. They will encourage you to do what is convenient instead of what is right. It is a tough decision as you might know this people for a long time, but you have to cut them loose if you want to change your life.

The right people will empower you to do better and will encourage you to do what is necessary. They want to see you do better than them so you can in turn pull them up from there. 

Choose your surrounding friends wisely.

3) Don't give up when the going get tough

In business and in life, there will always be down time. It will always be 2 step forward and 1 step back until you reach your goal. The important lesson here is to have a distinct goal and not to give up when thing isn't going so well.

Just know that there is always a way out, you might change your approach but always focus on your main goal. Never give up hope!

Daddy's Guide: How to get baby to sleep?

For a Daddy, the greatest fear is to take care of your little ones alone. Especially when it come to getting your infants to sleep.

Let's face it, we dad do not have the luxury of breast feeding the baby to sleep and we also do not possess the gentleness that can sooth baby to sleep. So putting an infant to sleep is challenging but it doesn't mean it cannot be done.

Here is a way I find useful which I used on my 2 kids during infancy and I hope it help you have a better night rest.

Step 1: Check if the baby have a wet diaper or is hungry

First step is to eliminate anything that will wake your child up unnecessarily, that means to say change your baby diaper and feed your baby if needed.

Step 2: Create a calm sleeping environment

You can achieve this by lowering the curtain, switching off bright light and turning on your side table lamp.

Step 3: Tired your baby out

This step might seem abit cruel but if used conservatively it can be quite effective. I will allow my baby to cry it out for about 5 minutes. This will tired the baby abit to make it slightly easier to put them to sleep.

Step 4: Switch on baby videos with lullaby

This can be done concurrently with step 3. You can on baby videos with some lullaby, the purpose of this is to fixate your baby attention to a single spot.

Step 5: Proceed to hug and sway your baby to sleep

At this point your baby should be crying heavily, proceed to sooth your baby by gently swaying your baby in your arm. After awhile you will realize your baby is attracted by the video playing and will slowly stop crying.

Step 6: Put your baby down slowly

Once your baby start to become dreamy, you can slowly put your baby down and gently pat the little one to sleep with the video and music still playing. You can switch off the video once your baby is fully asleep, but I prefer to leave it on to maintain the environment.

I find this method especially useful if you combine it with pacifier, but it works fine for me both with and without pacifier.

Please note that this method may not work on all babies, so you might want to tweak the method to better suit your little one. Good Luck!

How to start investing?

My interest in investing started when I was just 10, back then I watched a drama regarding stock broker and the things they are talking about intrigue me. The numbers, the way they try to initiate trades and all the wizard talk make them look so cool.

So I started researching on this subject when I was about 18 which is the legal for anyone to do any form of investing in my country. Now I manage my own portfolio with an not so impressive 4% per annum return and I am striving to  learn more in this field to increase my return rate.

My journey as a investor did not start well as back then there wasn't much reliable information and many lesson were through trial and error. So I decided to compile the steps I take in a more chronological ways to help you get started.

1) Take Economics Class

This is the most fundamental step as most of the investment revolve around our economy. Learning economics can help you understand what is going on in the world economy so you can make a more inform decision.

I recommend studying the following:
- Supply & Demand
- Fiscal Policy vs Monetary Policy

2) Learn The Terms Used in Investing

Learning the terms used in investing allow you to communicate with your broker efficiently and it also allow you to understand what is being spoken in the mainstream media.

Example of terms in investing are as follow:
Bull - Market rising
Bear - Market falling
Blue Chip - Shares of big and reputable companies
Initial Public Offering (IPO) - New shares issue from previously private company
For more click here

3) Look at Different Type of Investment Vehicle

There are many type of investment vehicle each carrying different risk and reward. Depending on your personal risk tolerance, you might want to look at investment that is suitable for you.

Types of investment vehicle:
- Stocks
- Mutual Funds/Unit Trust
- Bonds
- Forex
- Precious Metal
- Real Estate

4) Find a Reputable Broker

After deciding on which investment vehicle is more suitable for you, it is time to find a broker. There are many broker flooding the market, it is imperative that you find a reputable one who specialize in the field of your chosen investment vehicle which will provide reliable information and good customer support. Sign up for demo account if possible to test their platform and google reviews about the broker before committing to that broker.

5) Learn About The Different Analysis Type

There are essentially 2 type of analysis:

Fundamental analysis - The study of economy, industry sector and companies to predict price movement. This is where learning about economics come in handy. It basically means reading news and annual report to make informed decision on your investment.

Technical analysis - Making informed decision through the study of past market data like price and volumes.

I find that the easiest way to learn about this 2 type of analysis is to through Forex trading. You can create a free demo account from any broker and play around with different analysis. This way you can safe guard your money while learning a valuable lesson.

Knowing all this basics should allow you to kick start your investment journey. However, no investment is 100% so it is very important that you do your due diligence and invest only with money you can spare.

To learn way to safe guard your capital, read my blog post on 3 Bucket Method to Diversify Your Savings.

Survivor: Young Parent Guide

My journey as a young parent begin when I were 22, back then my wife is only 20 and we just got started working in the corporate world. Needless to say we weren't earning a lot and I have to think of ways to make end meet with less than $3,000 in combine income. Looking back now, I realize I made many money mistake but I manage to pull through with many help and personal sacrifice in order to feed my kids.

So I compile a list of things young parent can do to help them survive financially so you can minimize making the same money mistake I do.

Here we go~

1) Staying with your parents

I know it is tempting for young couple to want to have a place to call your own. But having a place while your kid is still in infancy will not only increase your living expenses by means of rent and utilities, you will also have to make special arrangement to take care of your child. Therefore, staying with your parent can not only minimize your living expense, they act as a caretaker for your child as well.

2) Both you and your spouse must go to work

Once you have manage to convince your parents to act as a caretaker, it is advisable that both of you go to work. Combine income from 2 person can allow you to have more money to save up for the future and working mom usually qualify for many subsidies which will be useful once your child hit toddlers age.

3) Take hand me down from others

Children grow up real fast, so buying things like clothes, toys, pram or even baby cot is not really worth the full price. So as much as possible, take hand me down from other parents whom their children have out grow. Most parent are more than happy to pass them to you, just make sure they are in good condition and safe for your child.

4) Buy only necessities

As much as possible try to buy only necessities, in the market it is fill with baby products that look good but are actually quite useless. You don't need a baby wipe warmer or an overprice blender to make baby food. So stick to the necessities and try to take hand me down or DIY to save money.

So basically, it all come down to how much you are willing to sacrifice to secure a better future for your little family. All the measure mention above are only temporary as when you grow older and your income increase, a better lifestyle will await you and your family. Good Luck.

How to Correctly Price Your Product/Service?

Product/Service Pricing is one of the most critical part of your business plan, a bad pricing strategy can literally bring down your business.

When I just start up my logistic business, I make a mistake in pricing my service too low. I though I could make it if I just cover my variable cost and survive just by breaking even. Little did I know that although I am seeing growth in sales, I didn't see and growth in cashflow and it almost cause my business to fail due to insufficient cashflow.

Many entrepreneur fail to realise the hidden cost that must be factor in when it comes to their pricing strategy. And I am here to share a method that I use personally to price my services in hope that people who are starting a business will not fall into the same trap.

The key to good pricing is to know the following formula:

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The breakeven formula allow you to consider all the cost that must be factor in and the amount of units that need to be sold at a certain price to achieve your sales target. Click here to find out more about breakeven formula.

I am not here to teach economics so I will skip the actual calculation using the formula. However, I want to highlight the important cost that must be factor in during the calculation so you can minimize risk of insufficient cashflow.

Important Cost To Take Note

1) Depreciation

If you plan to own machinery or vehicles, depreciation is major cost you must factor in so you will have enough cash reserve to replace them.

2) Your expected earnings

There is no point if your business survive but you can't feed yourself. You need to keep yourself alive to lead the business to greater heights, so factoring in your expected salary will make sure your pricing can allow your company to grow and allow you to survive.

3) 10% - 20% of cost increase

Factoring in 10% to 20% of cost increase can allow you to have pricing that need no adjustment should there be a sudden change in the economy.

Having all this cost in mind plus all the cost involve in your business, you can apply them in the formula and come out with a comfortable pricing. This method of course is not the end all and be all, you will have to adjust according to your business needs and how the market is doing.

Want to Save Money? Track Your Expenses!

Most people gave up saving money too soon because the feel broke after awhile and end up using their saving to fund their necessities. So they actually sabotage their own effort because they make a major mistake.

That mistake is not tracking their expenses! This is extremely crucial and yet nobody likes to do it because nobody want to face the truth of where their money really went (usually goes to some avoidable lavish spending). However if you truly want to change your financial position, this is the first step to do it.

So how can you start?

Commit yourself to track your expenses for a month. You can start by creating a spreadsheet after you got your salary, key in all the bills and fixed expenses that you need to pay and you will get a nett spending allowance.

Next, start keying in expenses you spent everyday, categorize them so you can see where majority of your money went to. Below is an example:














Of course you can customize it the way that suit your lifestyle, the main take away from this is to identify which of your expenses is taking up the largest chunk of your paycheck. While also make you spend within a limited budget.

What to do with this information?

After a month or two of doing this, you should be more cautious of where you are spending your money and you will also subconsciously not overspend your allowance. With this, you can look at how you can make leeway for extra savings that you can put away.

Example, if you find that eating out is taking up a big portion of your spending and you spend an average of $5 per eat out. You can choose to let go 2 eat out and choose to pack lunch instead, you would have save $10. So for the next month, put $10 as your fixed expenses and put the money in a separated saving account.

If you can find more ways to reduce unnecessary spending, you will start to see your saving as a "Fixed Expense" grow bigger. In no time you will have a nest egg without affecting your lifestyle too much.

3 Bucket Method to Diversify Your Savings.

One of a useful method I used to reduce my risk and grow my wealth.

This method basically have you commit to spending less than you earn, split the difference and invest them in different place to reduce your investment risk.

The security bucket are investment like fixed income bond, insurance policy and your first home. This cover your basic needs so at least 60% of the money you saved up goes into here. 

The growth bucket are investment like stocks and business venture where there are more fluctuation. This ensure your money grow faster, however there are more risk involve. Therefore put about 20%-30% of the money you saved here.

The dream bucket are saving for you to complete your dream. The dream bucket can be a dream home, a dream car or a dream vacation. This bucket is basically there to reinforce you to keep you motivated, if not you will have nothing but money.

The central idea is when you make money in your growth bucket, put 50% of the profit to your security and 50% to fund your dream. If your growth bucket goes bad, your security bucket is your safety net.

However, it is extremely important that you don’t take money from your security bucket to fund your growth when an opportunity arise as any unforeseen circumstances will set you back indefinitely. Or worse if you use money in the other 2 bucket to fund your dreams which create a big hole in your overall wealth.

Video Explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyHvNxpebIM