10 RULES FOR HAPPY LIVING

Just want to share with you this quote I got many years ago. It has inspired me a lot. I hope it can inspire you too.

1. GIVE SOMETHING AWAY
2. DO A KINDNESS

3. GIVE THANKS ALWAYS

4. WORK WITH VIM AND VIGOR

5. VISIT THE ELDERLY AND LEARN FROM THEIR EXPERIENCE

6. LOOK INTENTLY INTO THE FACE OF A BABY AND MARVEL

7. LAUGH OFTEN

8. PRAY TO KNOW GOD'S WAY

9. PLAN AS THOUGH YOU WILL LIVE FOREVER

10. LIVE AS THOUGH TODAY IS YOUR LAST DAY ON EARTH

I hope that these rules can help you start your year with renewed vision, more inspiration and higher aspirations. Choose to make this year your best year ever. May you have a prosperous New Year.

3 WAYS TO EARN PASSIVE INCOME and PROFIT

              Instead of discussing the difference between ACTIVE and PASSIVE income. Today, I would like to focus more on giving you ideas and sharing with you alternative sources where you can make money passively or semi-passively. I hope that this helps.

1. Rent

Rental Income is one of the best sources of passive income because money keeps coming in without doing anything. All you have to do is to collect the rent at the end of the month and you have money to spend. The downside of this is that in order to have rental income, you should have invested in a real property which will generate this rental income and as we know it has a high capital outlay. Another thing is when you get to have tenants from hell which will give you a hard time collecting rentals and not only that, they may even destroy your property.

Let me expand this a little more and give you some ideas on rental income.

a. Parking lots

b. Real Estate Investment like condominiums,apartments etc.

c. Taxi Business

d. Billboard Advertisements - Renting your space

2. Investment

Investment income is my choice of passive income. Why? Because even as you sleep, you make money. Because money is working hard for you. However to have sufficient investment income, you must also have a significant amount of money to invest which is the downside. That is why it is always an advice of financial gurus to young people to invest early on in their career so that by the time they decided to retire they can live on their investment income alone.

Here are some examples of investment instruments that you can choose from

a. Stocks

b. Bonds - Government or Corporate

c. Mutual Funds

d. VUL's - Variable Universal Life Invesment Funds

e. UITF's - Unit Investment Trust Funds

f. Long Term Bank Deposits a.k.a Time Deposits

g. Forex

3. Royalty

Royalty income comes from many sources. It can be from business that you were able to franchise, it can also be from a book that you have written or a music recording. It can also come from inventions, patents etc. The idea here is to be the first in the market.

Some sources of royalty income are

a. Be a Franchisor of a Business

b. Software Development

c. Write Books

d. Record a Music Album

e. Patent an Invention

As an additonal note, one of the fastest growing industry today in the INTERNET MARKETING BUSINESS and let me tell you, THERE IS MONEY IN THE INTERNET and it can also be a source of PASSIVE INCOME. You just have to know how to utilize it. If you want to know more about internet marketing you can visit my mentors site at www.jomarhilario.com and learn from the man himself.

I hope you got some ideas in this post. Till my next blog post.

TOO YOUNG TO SAVE FOR RETIREMENT? HERE ARE 10 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD.

Got this from www.save-and-learn.com. One of my investment providers. Hope you get something out.

For almost all young adults who have just started their first job, or who are just getting ready to settle down and marry, planning for their retirement is not at all in their minds. For those who have just gotten their first job, the experience of receiving your paycheck is a thrilling and empowering feeling. Now you have money to spend for the things you’ve always wanted to get. Billboards and glitzy print ads beckon you to accumulate all sorts of products and services that make you enjoy the life that you feel entitled to. At last!

But, listen, time waits for no one. Sooner or later, you will find yourself with a closet full of out of fashion clothes, outdated gadgets, and toys that you have outgrown. Worse still, you may still have credit card bills to pay for these things, and zero cash saved up for even your next vacation to Boracay. This time will come, if you’re not careful. And believe me, that time could just be around the corner.

If you’re smart, you should begin to plan for your retirement as soon as you receive your first pay check! Here are ten reasons why you should prepare now:

1. If you are employed, and your company is setting aside money for your SSS or GSIS or company retirement, guess what? What your company is setting aside is not going to be enough. 

2. Time is in your favor. Who has more time to save for retirement at age 60? You, or your uncle who is 30 years older than you?

3. Because of # 1, you don’t have to sacrifice a lot in order to save a lot. If you and your uncle wanted to accumulate P1 Million by the time you’re both 60, you would have to save a smaller amount regularly, because you have more time to save. Right?

4. You can make more aggressive investments now but get rewarded with higher returns. Usually, these higher risk investments have a way of recovering very well over a longer period of time. 

5. Inflation is not in your favor. You know it. Don’t be in denial. It will cost you more to retire than earlier generations ahead of you. So, don’t think that it will be affordable enough for you by that time. 

6. You can start small and grow. Even setting aside a small portion of your paycheck each month will pay off in big pesos later.

7. It’s easier to develop the habit of saving while you are young and you have no major obligations.

8. As you accumulate savings over time, your money will starting working for you, rather than you working for money. 

9. No matter how much you love your parents, do you like the idea of supporting your parents because they failed to save for their retirement? Well, don’t impose your failure to save on your children. They deserve a life of their own.

10. It’s great to enjoy your savings! Imagine the nice and easy life you can enjoy when you have saved enough. If you want to keep working even when you’re old, you will go to work because you like to, not because you have to. And – when you have saved enough to take care of a comfortable lifestyle – you can occupy yourself with work which probably won’t pay much, but which will be fun and self-fulfilling.

4 KINDS OF INVESTMENTS THAT GUARANTEE SUCCESS

               Today I would like to share with you some of my realizations as I way preparing for a talk a few months ago about investments. I suddenly realized that there are 4 kinds of Investment in life that you can make and these four are interrelated if you want to lead a happy and abundant life. Allow me share with you what are these investments.

1. INVESTMENT IN ASSETS

I believe that this is the most commonly known investment to us. This includes investing in paper and real assets. According to Robert Kiosaki "Assets are those things which puts money in our pockets" simply say, whatever field you want to pursue in life it is very important that you learn to how invest in different kinds of assets. This assets will help you achieve financial independence or financial freedom but above all these assets will allow you to be a blessing to others.

Today, I started my mission to help as many people as I can in their journey to financial freedom. If you happened to read this blog. Maybe I can help you on starting out with your investments. Leave a comment or send me a personal message @ justinrichmonddy@yahoo.com

2. INVESTMENT IN KNOWLEDGE

For me, this is the first step before investing in any asset. It is very important to learn the risks associated with any investment and not only looking at the rewards. Most people fail in this part that is why scams are very much prevalent in our country. But there is also a problem with too much knowledge because there are times that we forget to implement what we learn. I can vividly remember what my mentor said about knowledge, he said that "Knowledge is not power, the implementation of knowledge is power". The best thing to do is to obtain as much knowledge as you can, sort out those which can help you and implement them. That way you turn your knowledge into wisdom because wisdom is defined as "Knowledge in Action". 

So my dear friends, start investing in knowledge, in everything you do ask yourself  "What can I learn from this?" It can be a new knowledge or even a new experience which is also a form of knowledge. I encourage you to attend seminar and, keep improving yourself. Besides, what more is a better investment than investing in yourself. Correct?

3. INVESTMENT IN RELATIONSHIPS

I believe that this is more important than the first two kinds investments I mentioned. Relationships makes our life meaningful. As Bo Sanchez always says "If you fail in your relationships, you fail in life". This is very true because there are a lot of people who invested so much on assets and on knowledge that they had forgotten to invest in their relationships. They will just wake up one day and suddenly realize that their life is EMPTY. Because only relationships can fill the emptiness in our lives. It's sad to know some rich and intelligent people who suffers from broken relationships with their families. Remember that life is too short. Don't live a life that you will regret later on. Learn to treasure your relationships after all they are your greatest asset.

So how do you invest in your relationships? The answer is simple. YOU GIVE YOUR TIME. I suggest you schedule a regular family time every week. For our family we do it every Sunday. It is the best day of the week for me. We go to the FEAST to get our spiritual nourishment then go out after. It might be a simple gathering for us but I treasure each and every moment I have with my family and it gives me something to look forward to every week.

4. INVESTMENT IN GOD

This is the most important investment of all, Investing in the Kingdom of God. As I mentioned in my previous blog. This investment is the only investment that has no risks and has guaranteed rewards. This is the only investment you can bring with you when you leave this world. Investment in God does not only represent your tithes and offerings. It also represent your time and your relationship with HIM. My friends this is the best investment I can ever recommend. The returns are unimaginable and when YOU invest in HIM, He'll make sure that your investments will bring you joy,peace and abundance.

 As a parting note. I want to quote a statement from BO SANCHEZ about wealth. He said that "THE PURPOSE OF WEALTH IS TO LOVE OTHERS". Fellow readers, I hope that you will all be truly wealthy in all aspects of your life and never forget that the purpose of being wealthy is to love others.

THE SECRET KEYS TO SUCCESS

                  In my previous blogs, I have mentioned some of the success principles I learned from my mentors. This time I want to share my own success principles with you which has kept me guided as I journey along life. These are the 3 principles that I value most. I hope that you will also learn and be inspired by these principles.

1. ATTITUDE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN SKILL.

Ever since I was young I had always been guided by this principle. My mom raised me in a way that she had always reminded me of this very important principle in life. This had been more clear to me when I heard a talk conducted by Mr.Francis Kong which he pointed out the importance of attitude than skill. Skill can only makes as much but your attitude will take you places. In today's environment IQ is only secondary, EQ is more important that IQ because no matter how good you are if you don't have the attitude what it requires to be good then it still doesn't count.

2. LEARN FINANCIAL LITERACY

I always believe that every person ought to be rich. And the surest way to get rich is to learn financial literacy early on in life. It's quiet sad to think that our educational institution hasn't seen the value and importance of financial literacy yet more than any other course or subject. That is why it has been my advocacy to teach other's the importance of FINANCIAL LITERACY. It's sad because the rich keeps getting richer while the poor keeps getting poorer because of only a difference between them and that is FINANCIAL LITERACY. The rich knows something that the poor don't. I believe that by teaching FINANCIAL LITERACY to other people, I can make a difference in this world and make my life significant too.

3. GIVE, TITHE AND INVEST IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

I believe that the best investment we can make in our lives is by investing in the kingdom of GOD. It doesn't only require monetary investments but also investments of good work while we are alive. This is the only investment we can bring with us when we leave this world. This is also the only investment that have absolutely no risk but only guaranteed rewards. Maybe not here on earth but you can be assured of it in heaven.

Friends, I hope that these principles will also be your guiding principles in life.  I hope that may this inspire you and bring you prosperity. To Your Success.. Till my next blog post...

3 Inspring Lessons from My Mentor

              Last Saturday, I was privileged to have a dinner with my Real Estate Mentor, Trace Trajano. During our dinner he shared 3 very valuable lessons to us which I want to share with all of you. 

1. There are only two things that hinders us from achieving our dreams in life: DISTRACTIONS AND DISCOURAGEMENT

He said that these two things are the main reason why we haven't achieved our goals yet and as I was pondering about it on my way home, I realized that he was right. I was distracted with so many things that is why I couldn't still deliver my full potential on achieving my goals and at times I get discourage specially when times are tough and when things are not going the way I planned them to be.

2. ALWAYS GIVE MORE VALUE TO YOUR CLIENTS THAN WHAT THEY HAVE PAID FOR

This is a universal law in sales. Always give more value to your customers. People will buy something if they think that it is a good deal or in short they are getting more than what they have paid for. It's a natural tendency for every person to feel this way. This can be done by giving discounts, promos and special bonuses  with things that you are selling.

3. THE MOMENT YOU WAKE UP ASK THIS QUESTION TO YOURSELF

The question is "WHAT IS ONE THING I WILL DO TODAY TO...". Start with "one" then eventually with "things that  you will do today",  Then start writing down your answer/s. After writing it down, then start implementing it. This question should be customized to what you are currently doing or striving for. Example, for us real estate investors you can ask, "What is one thing I would do today to find sellers?" If you do this every day and implement your answers then success becomes a mathematical certainty for you.

This 3 lessons are treasures for me. I have shared them to you so that you can also grow and be successful in your endeavors. Hope you learn something out. 

6M's YOU NEED TO BE A MILLIONAIRE

              My Real Estate Mentor Trace Trajano mentioned in his THINK RICH QUICK 2.0 seminar last October 23-24,2010 that there are 6 M's that you need to possess, understand and learn in order to achieve MILLIONS or success in your life. So what basically are the 6 M's to Millions?

1. Mindset

Having the right mindset is very crucial in any undertaking. Before you even start something, it's very important that your mind has already been conditioned and program to achieve the output that you are striving for. Our mindset plays a vital role in all our endeavors specially in our life. If you have a positive mindset then most of the time you have positive results and when you have a negative mindset then most of the time you can expect negative results. As my mentor says "Your mindset determines your destiny"

2. Marketing

Marketing plays a vital role in our life. The moment we are born we are already marketing ourselves. How? simple, the mere fact that you cry to ask for milk means that you are marketing yourself to your parents to give you milk. Correct? Most people I know doesn't like marketing. Why? Because rejection and discouragement are part of marketing. But let me tell you that the mere fact that you apply for a job is already marketing. Marketing your skills to your employer. So marketing plays a vital role in our lives, specially in our destination to success.

3. Mastery

Mastery is important in any undertaking. You don't have to be good at many things but you have to be the BEST when it comes to one thing. That is your core gift. As John Maxwell says there is a problem in the way society brought us up. Why? Because we were brought up in such a way that we lack mastery. We were programmed in a way that we should work on and improve the things that we are not so good at. For example, in school if you are good in english but not so good in math, then chances are your parents will tell you to study MATH and even get a private tutor for you so that you can improve your mathematics skills. But let me tell you, THAT IS WRONG, why? Because we became too diversified to the point that we lacked mastery. John Maxwell says that we should keep working on and improving the things where we are good at. Where our core gift is. That way you can have a mastery of your own.

4. Mentors

Mentors is one of the most important ingredient of success. All the successful people in the world have their own mentors. This people are the ones who can help you in reaching your goals faster with a shorter time frame. Why? Because you are leveraging on their experience and expertise. I have been guided by different mentors the moment I started in venturing into investments and business and I am so glad to have them as my mentors. You can check who they are from my previous blogs.

5. Management

Management is the key to implementing your skills and mastery. Proper management of time, resources and skills leads to a better output thereby allowing you to reach your goals faster. Management also involves people around you. Leveraging on their time, skills and expertise because the truth is you can't do all of them. You have to learn to manage and eventually to delagate task.

6. Mastermind

Last but not the least is what they call Mastermind. Mastermind is simply to be in a group of like minded people with the same interest and goals in life. It's very important to be with like minded people because they will help you and encourage you to go for your dreams but it is also equally dangerous to be with people who are small minded and people who loves to discourage others also known as dream stealers. Beware of them my friends. As of this writing. I have already formed my mastermind group where we decided to meet every Tuesday's to discuss things relevant to us and our success

Here are the 6 M's to Millions. I hope you get something out of this. I will be writing more of this in the coming days but for now I wish you all the best. To Your Success!!!

10 Money Mistakes Everyone Should Avoid

I got this blog from Mr.Kendrick Chua in his blog thewealthwarrior.net which I find worth sharing with all of you because of the wisdom contained in this blog. Credits goes to him and please do check out his blog.

(Got this from www.thewealthwarrior.net)
by: Kendrick Chua, CIS, The Wealth Warrior

We all make money mistakes once in a while and in my years of financial planning practice, I have come to realize the 10 Money Mistakes people often commit.

1.) Spending all income. I know of people who spend their income down to the last peso the day before their payday. It’s as if they can’t stand having the money carried over to the next payday. As a result, when a glitch in accounting system delayed the pay, the solution: cash advance or buy on credit.

2.) Spending more than you earn. What is worse than spending all your income? It’s spending more than what you earn. So if the cash runs out days before the next batch of funds come in, the result is incurring debt. You can always be a free-loader but then you won’t have any friends left.

3.) Paying only the minimum amount due on the balance. Some credit card companies allow you to pay only 5% of your amount due and people take advantage of this much to the delight of these companies. It’s okay if you really don’t have the cash at the moment but don’t do it every so often. You’ll dig a hole so dip even the devil will have a hard time climbing out.

4.) Not getting life insurance early. In one of my previous posts, I mentioned that the best time to buy life insurance is when you don’t need it. I repeat: when you don’t need it. When you’re young and healthy (hopefully) your premiums are low, your accumulation rate is longer and you can fully-paid up the insurance earlier.

5.) Not investing early for retirement. One of the 7 habits Covey taught is to “Begin with the End in Mind”. Once you start working, prepare for your retirement. You can never plan too early for this stage. Aim to belong to the 3% Filipinos who are either financially independent or wealthy at age 65. The rest of the 97% are dead, still working or dependent on charity. Choose your side and choose it wisely.

6.) Not investing aggressively while still young. Some of the baby boomers I have talked to regretted that not only did they not start investing early, they did not invest aggressively. Now, even if they do want to, they cannot afford to invest as aggressively as they would want to. Follow their advice, start young and start aggressive.

7.) Not planning for major financial obligations. Giving birth is not an emergency. It is something being prepared for. Nine months is a good duration to set up enough funds for it. Same goes with education and wedding. Prepare well financially. It can let you enjoy the fruits more.

8.) Not doing proper research before investing. Some people happen to be scammed more than others. No it is not bad luck as they always thin. Rather, it is the gullibility that resulted from lack of proper research before getting into the investment or joining the company.

9.) Not preparing for rainy days a.k.a. not saving. At some points in our working career, emergencies and unexpected financial circumstances will happen: getting laid off, getting sick and hospitalized, etc. Although not often, but they are bound to happen. Not having a contingency fund is planning a project without a plan B. You need to have an emergency fund to prepare you for these “disasters”. Otherwise, you’ll be left with no choice but to borrow and be in debt. A good rule of thumb is having three to six months worth of cash easily accessible.

10.) Not giving back to the Lord. This may well be the biggest financial mistake. The Lord, in all His graciousness, provided for all our needs and at times, even some wants. Isn’t it just right we give a part back to him through our tithes and offerings? Seriously, the Lord doesn’t need our money but it is our own way of submitting and thanking Him for all the blessings we are receiving bountifully. The Lord did promise that when we offer Him the first fruits of our labor, he will provide us with blessings so full, we won’t even have enough containers to store them.

Bonus

11.) Not having hospitalization or medical insurance. The paradox of medical insurance is that you need to get sick and hospitalize for you to find this investment worthwhile. But it is better that you have one and not use it at all rather than having none and need to have one. It will greatly mitigate a lot of your expenses which can be allocated for other purposes.

I shared this blog post because this is where financial planning literally revolves around and these are always the common mistake of people who don't see the value of financial planning. In my next blog I will try to address each mistake presented in this blog. 

3 SIGNS OF MARKET PEAK

                This afternoon, I attended a Stock Market briefing sponsored by my broker Citiseconline.com,Inc.It was a great experience to be at the presence of such a huge crowd of investors and the first talk was conducted by Citiseconline's head of research Ms.April Tan. What she discussed was the reasons why she considers our market to be quiet relatively cheap at present because a lot of investors are concerned that our market might have reached its peak since it is trading in the upper band of its channel. Well here are some reasons that Ms.Tan gave as a sign that our market hasn't peak yet.

1. CORPORATE EXPANSION = CREDIT EXPLOSION = HIGH INTEREST RATE

First, during a market peak, we can see that corporations have been expanding massively creating huge credit for them to finance their expansion thereby pushing the banks to lend money at high interest rates given the limited supply. High interest rates is a way of the central bank in regulating the unsustainable growth of the economy and inflation. But as we know our interest up until today is still very low standing only at 3.1% showing us that the economy's growth is still sustainable and healthy.

2. EXPENSIVE VALUATION

During a market peak or a bull market peak, stock prices become expensive relative to their fair values. This is not the case in our market today because the PSE is trading only at 15.8X PE compared during the last bull market in 2007 where the market has traded 18X PE and considering that the market is now at an all time high.

3. INVESTING IN THE STOCK MARKET BECOMES "IN"

This simply means that the market has been so popular that everybody has literally cashed all their money at the bank and dump it at the market. Kidding aside, this is truly the case during a market peak because the average daily value and turnover of the market will rise significantly. But our market today has still a lower turnover value compared to 1997 which is at the height of the Asian Financial Crisis. Another thing worth considering is that TRUST FUNDS, which play a big role in the financial markets, has not been placing a significant amount of their position in the market yet compared to the previous bull market.

So simply saying, are we in a bull market? Yes, definitely we are. And will this bull market end soon? That I don't know BUT one thing is for sure, the Philippine market has still some energy to go higher and higher. Enjoy the raging bull my friends. I hope that you learn something out from this blog.

Trading vs. Investing

        I want to write a blog about the difference of trading and investing but suddenly it came to my mind that my mentor, MARK SO, has written one in his blog at www.markso.wordpress.com. I thought that it would be better to just share it with you because I believe that there's no better way to explain this since it comes from my mentor itself.

The Difference Between Trading And Investing

by Mark H. So

I want you to imagine that you are in one of my finance seminars right now. You are seated in the middle row and you are here because you want to understand how to grow your money.

As the seminar begins, and after I make everyone feel comfortable, I pause and look into the crowd and ask a simple question. “Can anyone tell me; is there a difference between Trading and Investing?”  A few hands go up and I pick one. “Sir, investing is putting your money into an asset and making it work for you”. “Good”, I say, “…and what about Trading?” “Well, sir trading is buying and selling”. “Very good, okay, how about you?” I point to another person. “Investing is long term, trading is short term”. “Fantastic! Thank you for your very concise answers, you are both correct, now let me summarize and simplify so that everyone understands: Investing and trading are both being able to place your money into assets and make it work for you, both of them are also buying and selling, the difference is, investing is buying and selling on a long term basis while trading is buying and selling on a short term basis.”

Then I joke around. “Of course many of the experienced investors in the room know that Investing is also known as ‘Buying and Praying’” Which elicits a healthy amount of laughter. And I continue “…And those of you experienced traders in the room also know that Trading is ‘Buying and Praying Faster!’” And the room gets hysterical. I continue with another question: “Okay, raise your hands, how many of you want to make money by waiting a few years (Long term) to see some returns?” About a third of the room raises their hands. “Great! Now raise your hands if you want to make your money even faster!” Almost everyone in the room, even those who said they wanted long term investments raises their hands. “Ah, greed is in the air today I see…Now let me ask you, why do you want to make money faster?” Someone shouts, “Para yumaman ng mas mabilis!” (“So that we can get richer faster”) And the room starts to laugh again as everyone has the same mindset. So I continue “Very good, I know exactly what  you mean, everyone wants to get rich as soon as possible.”

Then I ask a few more questions: “So, how long would it take for you to double your money in a long term investment?” The crowd begins to chatter and you can hear people saying certain investment types and attaching the amount of years it would take for that investment vehicle to double their money. Some say 5 years, others say 3 while others say 10 years. “And how long would it take to double your money in trading short term?” Then the crowd randomly mentions a few numbers, some say 1 month, 3 months, 1 year. “Okay guys, that’s great, now let’s just say, for long term investments, and for arguments sake, can we agree that if you pick the right vehicle and you invest at the right time, you can actually double your money in 1 year?” The investors in the room nod. “Okay then, now for the traders in the room can we agree that for short term investments, you can double your money in 1 month?” A person from the back shouts “Actually Sir, you can double your money in 1 week, especially if you time it correctly!” And I myself nod and continue “…That’s true, but let’s just say 1 month to be a bit more conservative, can we agree? Good, now let me ask you guys, if you can double your money in a long term investment in 1 year, can you also lose all of your money in 1 year?” The room unanimously agrees, Yes they say with a vengeance. “And for short term traders, if you can double your money in 1 month, can you also lose all your money in 1 day?” The room, especially the veteran traders, vigorously nods in total agreement. ‘Absolutely’ is what I hear some people say as I press on.

“Good! Now, do you still want to make money in the short term knowing that you can also lose money faster?” then suddenly the room starts to ponder and quiet down a bit, and I can see some people beginning to realize the ugly truth about trying to grow your money whether for the long term or the short term. Everyone wants to make money fast, but my question made them realize that they might not want to lose money –slow or fast.

So I look around the room and I speak to them as I am speaking to you right now.

“Well, if you ask me, I would still want to make money in the short term even if I know that I can lose money faster, because and remember this, if you lose money in a long term investment, you don’t just lose your money, you also lose something far more valuable, you lose time. Remember my example above? If your long term investment made you lose money in 1 year, you lost your money and you also lost 1 year of your life — something that you can never get back…. Now if I lost my money in the short term, say 1 month. I lost my money, but only 1 month, which means I still have 11 months in the year to decide on what to do with my life!” And the crowd laughs and smiles in unison as if they saw clearer into their future on how they might tackle how they will grow their money. They nod in simple agreement and like them, I hope that you now understand in more practical terms what the difference is between Trading and Investing.

There you have it. I hope this article has been helpful to you. More articles about investing are coming up in the coming days.

WHO ELSE WANTS TO BE FINANCIALLY FREE

           People often ask me the question "Why do we need financial planning?". The answer is simple. The reason is that because financial planning is considered our life plan,our blueprint in life to reach our financial goals. One of the wrong connotations with financial planning is that people often think that financial planning is all about investing your money and buying life insurance products but those are just part of the whole process of Financial Planning. I can't blame them because most financial planners are employed or connected to an Investment or Insurance company thereby promoting their products to their clients but financial planning is a very broad subject. Financial Planning includes not only investments and insurance but also planning for your expenses. Not only the major expenses but the basic ones as well, including your expenses for your hobbies and luxuries. It also involves tax planning and estate planning. Things which are not very much known subjects of Financial Planning. Financial Planning is like budgeting in a bigger scale. Budgeting not only for a month's expenses but for your whole life. Its an imperative task for each one of us to plan for our financial life. The best way to do this is to seek out the help of Financial Planners preferably the recognized ones or to do it yourself. Do not worry about the cost in consulting a financial planner because believe me in the long run you will realize that you made one of the best decisions in your life IF you will just follow your Financial Planners' advice. You can also do this yourself, how? by educating yourself and attending seminars. A lot of companies are already offering seminars on financial planning. Some are even free. You can email me at justinrichmonddy@yahoo.com if you want to know companies who are offering these seminars for FREE or if you want to consult me with your questions. 

  "Nobody plans to fail oftentimes they just failed to plan"

WHO are my MENTORS pt.2

In my previous blog I introduced my Spiritual and Financial Mentors. This time I would like to introduce my other set of mentors who have also influenced and taught me in other aspects of my life and business.

REAL ESTATE MENTOR

Trace Trajano - Trace Trajano is the a Real Estate Investor in Cincinnati,Ohio who has acquired and sold properties worth $10M and the best selling author of the book Think Rich Quick. Trace is also a real estate guru having students in different countries. I am part of Trace Trajano's local coaching program under Ronald Cagape. His coaching program has really taught me a lot of things not only in real estate investing but in different aspects of my life as well. You can also learn from Trace for FREE by visiting and signing up in his website www.buyfirstdeal.com.

INTERNET MARKETING MENTOR

Jomar Hilario - Jomar Hilario is considered the Tim Ferris of the Philippines. One of the most famous Internet Marketing Guru in the country. One of his most famous achievement is filling up Araneta Coliseum by marketing the event through the Internet. I learned blogging and internet marketing from Jomar but besides that I also learned a lot of stuff from him from different techniques on how to do business online and how to earn several ways online. Truly a great mentor with a great heart. If you want to know more about him and to get free lessons from him visit www.jomarhilario.com. 

MINDSET MENTOR

John Calub - John Calub is said to be the Philippines' #1 Success Coach. He is also one of the most famous motivational speaker in the country. I have only attended John Calub's seminar once but his teaching had really made an impact in my life. I am still looking forward on attending his other seminars and his famous FIREWALK bootcamp. I really really believe that success starts from the mind that is why I encourage everyone to work on their mindset because "YOUR MINDSET DETERMINES YOUR DESTINY". If you want to know more about him and his upcoming seminars visit www.moneymagnetseminar.com

So there are my mentors but those are not all of them. They are too many of them to mention because I also from other motivational speakers such as Francis Kong and Chinkee Tan. I also learned a lot from different Financial Analyst like Mr.Alexander Gilles and Ms.April Tan of CFA Institute(Chartered Financial Analyst Institute) and many more. I was also privileged to learn from some of stock market big bosses like Mr.Edward Lee of CitisecOnline and Mr. Jerry Angping. But my pursuit of knowledge doesn't end here. In fact I am still searching for more mentors and more knowledge because I believe that knowledge when implemented can make you a fortune. 

DREAMS have DEADLINES....isn't it?

I remember one of the inspiring stories I heard from my mentor Mr. Rex Mendoza of the corporate giant Ayala Land Inc. He gave us a very inspiring story in one of his talks about dreams and the it goes on like this. One day as he was having lunch with one of his colleagues Mr.Randell Tiongson and Mr. Mendoza was able to tell him of the current things that was happening in his life. First, they moved out from their home to a new and larger one in Magallanes Makati then he also told his friend that he was playing golf every Sunday with his family as well as having a coy fish pond in his new home. Well, this news was quite odd for Mr. Randell Tiongson because Mr. Rex Mendoza was a financial planner and advisor and as we all know financial planners are known for telling their clients to live below their means and to save and invest. But what shocked Mr. Randell Tiongson the most and kept him stunned for a moment was when Mr. Rex Mendoza told him that he was driving a new Porsche Boxter on his way to the restaurant. This made Mr.Randell very confused that at the back of his mind he was thinking if this is the same friend he used to know but before he can even utter a word Mr.Rex Mendoza told him something which kept Mr.Randell silent and thinking for a moment. It was so powerful that even I was left thinking and was made to realize a lot of things. He said “Because You see my friend after reaching where I am right now, I came to realize that certain DREAMS HAVE DEADLINES, I could not wait for that day when my children are all grown up and ready to leave the house until I buy our dream house. I could not also wait for that day when my sight and hearing are already impaired before I buy that plasma t.v. I could not also wait for that day when I will be too old to even drive or ride a car before I buy my dream car. You see that is the problem with most of us because we fail to put deadlines in our dreams that is why some dreams remained dreams forever.” 

Friends I would like to share with you three important things when it comes to dreaming: 

1. Dream Big Dreams 

The most important thing in dreaming is that we should learn to dream big because what you will achieve is measured by the size of your dream. 

Let ne give you some tips on how to dream, first write down your dreams whether big or small and next review your dreams daily, put it somewhere you can see and read everyday, through that you will always be aligned with your dreams and lastly declare your dreams to positive people. This is very important because if you declare your dreams to positive people they will encourage you to achieve and reach for your dreams but be careful not to declare your dreams to negative people because they might steal away your dreams. 

2. Do Everything you can to achieve your Dreams 

The Next important thing in order to achieve your dreams is action. As it is said “Vision without Action is Daydreaming” so you should work hard in order to achieve your dreams and you should be committed and consistent in achieving your dreams. Finally, believe and be determined that you can achieve your dreams. 

3. Put a Deadline in your dreams 

One important thing that is usually taken for granted when it comes to our dreams that we fail to put deadlines into our dreams. We should learn how to set a timeframe for our dreams and be specific in when we would want to achieve that dream. If we would do that then we would only use our time for things that will bring us closer in achieving our dreams. 

Dreams gives us hope, it is what keeps a person going forward and be excited of tomorrow, it is an essential part of our lives and it is what gives us hope of success. So my dear friends keep dreaming, dream big dreams and work hard to achieve those dreams and never let your dreams to remain dreams forever. Always remember that time runs fast and everything we need in order to achieve our dreams lies in the palm of our hands so learn to value time because indeed CERTAIN DREAMS HAVE DEADLINES. 

Who are my MENTORS pt.1

One of the secrets in becoming successful in what you do is to seek out mentors. Why? Because these mentors will help you to take the shortcut in becoming successful by doing the things that made them successful and avoiding their failure and mistakes. As I promised from my previous blog, I will now talk about my mentors. Who are they, what I learned from them and how they helped me in becoming who I am today. Before I start, I categorized my mentors according to their mastery. I have mentors in every aspect of my life and I can proudly say that I have learned from nobody else but from the best of the best. As one of my mentors had told me "If you want to be the BETTER than the rest then learn only from the BEST"

SPIRITUAL MENTOR

Bo Sanchez - Bro. Bo Sanchez is the founder of the Light of Jesus Community. He's a best selling author and one of the most sought after motivational speaker and preacher in the country. Every Sunday, he regularly give talks in a prayer meeting at PICC more popularly known as "THE FEAST" where our family regularly attends to get our spiritual nourishment. Bro.Bo really inspired and help me to achieve a lot of my dreams and still keeps on inspiring me to achieve even more. Visit his blog at www.bosanchez.ph and be very very blessed.

FINANCIAL PLANNING MENTORS

International Marketing Group - This company helped me in starting out my fundamentals in FINANCIAL PLANNING. A lot of people have helped me out when I started, Our President and CEO Mr.Joen de las Pena, my Marketing Director, Ms.Ojing Osana and my dear friend Tirso Lisbos to name a few but there is a lot more of them to mention who have really helped me and taught me about FINANCIAL PLANNING.

Randell Tiongson - Mr. Randell Tiongson is the President of the Registered Financial Planner Institute Philippines. I have heard a lot of his seminars and he is the one who conducted the Associate Financial Planner Course where I attended to be a certified financial planner. I am also an avid reader of his blogs about personal finance at www.randelltiongson.com

Rex Ma. Mendoza - Mr. Rex Mendoza is the VP for Marketing of Ayala Land Inc. and one of the Most famous Fund Manager and Financial Guru in the country. He currently runs his own company - Rampver Strategic Advisors. Mr.Rex Mendoza is a regular mentor at IMG. This person had inspired me so much and I have learned so much from him. I was so overwhelmed to hear him speak because this person is one of a kind. I can't share all his accomplishments with you but I guess when you hear him speak, you will already know it. This is all I can say about him right now but I will be writing a blog about him to share with you more of my experiences with my great mentor. Check out their company at www.rampveradvisors.com.

STOCK MARKET TRADING MENTOR

Juanis G. Barredo - Mr.Juanis Barredo is the head of Technical Research and the Vice President for Marketing of CitisecOnline.com Inc. He regularly conducts seminars on How to Invest in the Stock Market and Technical Analysis as part of the company's stock market education program. As I mentioned in my previous blog, I am a stock market trader and this person has helped me and taught me so much through his seminars on how to trade stocks using technical analysis. I must say that 80% of what I know use in trading are the things I learned from him.

FOREX MENTOR

Mark H. So - Mr. Mark So is the President and CEO of BusinessMaker Academy Inc., a company providing business and corporate seminars to individuals, but part of his mastery is trading FOREX and teaching how to trade FOREX. Mr.Mark So is one of the very few people who teaches and knows very well how to trade the FOREX market. I myself highly respect and honor this man for being such a person who teaches not only what he knows but teaches from the heart. He is also a regular columnist of Manila Bulletin and also runs several other businesses. You can read his blogs at www.markso.wordpress.com or visit their company website at www.businessmaker-academy.com.

I just mentioned half of my mentors to you above. In my next blog I will mention my other mentors and other important things I learned from them. Watch out for that.