Be Bold

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy,

the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.

Concerning all acts of initiative and creation,

there is one elementary truth,

the ignorance of which kills countless dreams and splendid plans:

that the moment one definitely commits oneself,

then Providence moves too...

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

Begin it now.

- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe - 

10 Things Investors Need to Control

I fell in love with investing the moment i entered the financial management class. Why is that? Simply because investing is really a practical subject and closely related to life compared to engineering subjects like calculus, mechanics of materials, surface engineering, and so on. For me, its pretty hard to practice (mostly) what we learn in engineering without proper tools or machines. Even though i used to love programming but with time, the knowledge simply fade without practice.

Investing is relevant in everyday life. U can watch the stock prices go up and down, and decide to buy or sell. Or u can save money in an account, a fixed amount every month, and with proper application of "time value of money", after a certain period of time, u can accumulate your desired amount of cash. Or u can create your own retirement plan. Or if u have excess cash, u can decide which business are u going to invest in.

Rich Dad often said "Investing is not risky. Not being in control is risky." Financial literacy, after all, is really important. According to Robert T. Kiyosaki, if u want to become a successful investor, there are 10 basic things u need to take control:

1) Yourself
2) Income/expense ratios and asset/liability ratios
3) Management of the investment
4) Taxes
5) When you buy and when you sell
6) Brokerage transactions
7) ETC (entity, timing, and characteristics)
8) Terms and conditions of the agreements
9) Access to information
10) Giving it back, philanthropy, and redistribution of wealth

Learn what u need to learn and experience them first hand.
I hope all of us gain control of our financial statements.

International Business

So i have this International Business (IB) course this semester, well it is compulsory but i find it very interesting, but of course less interesting compared to Financial Management since IB requires a lot of readings.

Anyway, last week before holiday we had this forum for presentation, discussing whether it is necessary or irrelevant for youth to be involved in politics. Well obviously its necessary lol. The previous night, oil price went up by 20 cents, and we brought that issue into the forum. Turns out that the price hike is to reduce the national debts, which reminds me that some of PTPTN receivers at the end of their studies simply neglect their responsibility to pay back, which is a similar case in the US.

We also had this totally random quiz in IB, there was like 10 subjective questions and its either u know or u dont know. Some of the questions that i remember, how many medals did Malaysian teams get (4 at that time), who is the main character of Frozen (Elsa), who is the PM of Singapore (Lee Hsien Loong), what is the capital city of Pakistan (Islamabad), and others. There are 3 more coming and its pretty exciting tho since we dont need to study at all. Hahas

SMART goals

Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible. In my previous post, i did mentioned a SMART goal. It is simply a guideline to set your own proper goals. If u want to go to a place, of course u need a specific location, when to go, how are u going to do it, and so on. 

SMART is an acronym for:

Specific - Me, going to Germany, on 20th January 2015, for a vacation, hotel at Berlin, etc

Measurable - 3 weeks, budget RM xxxx, etc

Attainable - Can i reach them? Am i prepared? Visa? Plane? Luggage? House? Language?

Realistic - Is it possible? Am i able and willing to do? 

Timely - Can i reach the goal within the timeframe? Deadline 3 months from now (enough time to prepare)

Set your goals wisely, and strive for it.

"...man can have nothing but what he strives for." (Qur'an 53:39 )

Pilot

It's Eid al-Adha holiday here in Malaysia and for all Muslims in the world. But i'm staying here in the university because it's only a 1 week holiday and this is my last semester. 

3 months left before i graduate, yeah.

This is my 1st post after a very long hiatus. Not really a hiatus because i don't really blog anyway. Lol.

I have survived my crazy engineering courses and once I finish these business courses, i am ready to fly anywhere. It seems that my interests have shifted towards business tho rather than engineering.

If there is one very important lesson that i learn in business, it's that if u want to have/be something, u really need to set a goal, SMART enough so that u can plan your paths in detail.

This is totally random lol.

More business tips coming in my future posts. Stay tuned!