Wealth Tips for Everyone

“No choice”, is two words which people around me use.

There will always be some people around me who always say that they have no choice but to accept what their lives had throw at them. some lament to me that they have no education to backup their dreams, some choose to blame their education background for  their state.

For example, in the aging society I am in now, I see a lot of old people working in fast food joint if i have the chance to visit the joint at strange timing where people are normally either working or studying, trapped in concrete prisons elected by their forefathers. It seemed strange to me, as most of us would had been used to being served by teenagers who are trying to earn a few dollars in their free time.

Some of these elders mentioned that they are trying to keep their mind alive. Others, are simply trying to make a living as they now discovered that their retirement funds are no longer enough by today’s standards.

The choices they have now, are very limited to that, if they are 10 years younger.

Then again, as compared to many others who are younger, did they exercise their choices when they have the chance? or did they just waste their time away, hoping that their luck will take them somewhere safe, safe from all the issues that many job owners are facing now? Since I wa not born in their era, I find that many of them followed whatever their peers or parents told them to do, rather than to look at what the rich and famous are doing.

Why do I say that? Well, my parents did just that.

They chose to follow the norm. They chose to follow the crowd. They chose even to believe what their peers are saying.

And they are still doing it even now.

And that brings us to point number one.

1) The rich choose to be successful.

You see, whenever my parents are confronted by me on the issue of their bad habits, they will chose the simplest way to evade from the confrontation. In my previous article on “How to win the lottery”, I had already mentioned that I have confronted my mother about the wisdom of buying the lottery. She simply says that she has not time to record down her finanes when I dared her to record down her winnings, which she claimed to support her habit.

Then again, everyday, she is playing my PS2 in the living room, doing nothing.

Hmmmm, ok. Enough of my mother. You can read about her adventures in my article here. Next up, my friend who had his business sealed by a new intellectual law being laid down by the government, went about trying to raise awareness to everyone around him, saying how it is unfair for the intellectual companies to press charges to people who downloaded stuffs that was being aired on the television in other counties.

And what did he do after a while? He spent his time playing MMOs around the clock, throwing his problems behind his head. When he stopped playing, he continues to lament about the issue again.

And again.

And again.

Without doing anything.

Well, that is his choice. What can I do about it? Or should I say, I did gave him my 2 cents’ worth. And my 2 cents’ worth, are after all, 2 cents’ worth. They do not cost anything for you to get them. But if he did not even heed my 2 cents’ worth, what makes you think that he will heed my $1,000 worth of advices?

Instead of trying to find other ways to either to revive his business, he chose to become the King in his MMOPG. He chose to become famous once again in the game arena, which brought him much fame as he did at another game we were playing 3 years back.

So, will you want to become what the people around me had became? Do you want to be just another whiner, who sits around all day, trying to make yourself famous with the success you have a few years ago?

Or would you rather have started something? Would you have tried to identify the weakness that you have and try to do something about it? Would you even want to make more than you were making, when given a chance?

Or would you rather stay at home every day, watching television?

I do not know which choice you choose now will benefit you the most in the future. But I am certain that if you would even choose to do something about the state that you are in now, you would have been in a better state than you are, even if some day, you will be back at square one.

Well, if that happens, you would have known how to make your next million with nothing in your pocket since you ha already being there, done that, and bought the T-shirt.

And making that choice will be easier now, since you would have known what to expect, and what steps to take to get you to the top again.

2) The rich choose freedom over security

Looking at the question again, what would you have chosen? Would you have chosen security over freedom if you have the chance?

No. I do not think so.

I think many people would have chosen freedom over security.

To many, the idea of having to work in a cabinet is hideous, and unimaginable.

But they still do it anyway.

And I really wonder why.

Why would they want to choose security over freedom? Why would they want to lock themselves up in a cabinet and make someone else wealthy?

In fact, why do so many people still get a day job and sit in a cabinet, when they know that it will be those who owns the businesses and the buildings they work in that gets the bulk of the profits?

Err, if your answer is, “Everyone knows that”, then, why are you continuing to feed the Millionaires and Billionaires who owns the building you are working in? Are you not even angry with them making use of you to make money for them?

Or, is it just easier to work under someone and let the days goes by?

3) the rich choose to work smarter

Well, some people definitely do not agree with the last few sentences in point 2. And that is why there are always some people who will risk everything they have just to have a chance to be wealthy. Some of them are even spat at wherever they go as their ideology are different from the main stream. Some of these people, including Bill Gates, are spat at simply just because they are rich. But there is one thing in common among them, is that they work smarter than those around them.

And this ensured that they beat their peers hands down.

And why is that so? Why do working smarter will allow a person be ahead of their peers? Isn’t it common knowledge that those who are hardworking will be successful one day?

Well, being hardworking will surely be enough to get you ahead of peers who only know how to get ahead by working hard. To do a simple comparison, if you are an apple picker in an apple orchard, then, the more hours you spend picking apples will meant that you will be able to pick more apples into your basket, assuming that your peers will gather the same amount apple you do per unit time.

Then again, let us consider another job, let us say, programming a new operating system. In case you do not know, Windows XP and Vista, Mac OS X, and Linux are some examples of OSes.

Let us imagine that you decided to be rich. And you know how to make an OS. And so, you decided that you will want to make an OS that is more powerful, and more beautiful than Windows Vista.

So, what will you do after deciding all that?

Some people will go ahead and program the OS themselves. They know that if they are able to make something better than Windows Vista, then they will be able to get rich very easily.

And so, they will then start their programming immediately, and they might work through the night without sleep, in the hope of being able to finish their OS quicker than anyone. They will then sacrifice their leisure time just to see their dream take shape.

But after a while, when a nice television program comes by, or when another Premiere League comes by, he will decide that taking a break or two will be justified and stop his work for a day or two.

Then, after a few months, they will look at their progress and say, hey, this is just not worth it. Is there any way I can speed things up?

After a year or two, when they finally see their dream takes shape, Windows Vista 2 came out.

And all they can do now is to throw their own buggy OS away and try to make another one.

Sad isn’t it? But there are many people who likes to do just that. They like to trade their one goal in life and their future with just the temporary feeling that they are doing something great by themselves.

While I really agree that one should follow their dream since it will be their dream which will propel them to success eventually, there is no reason to use the most ineffective method to achieve it if your life depends on it.

Another group of people will then gather a few friends or relatives and start their own company. They will then enjoy fun and laughter together for a while. When the test comes, companies which are created by a group of friends will be more likely to break apart than family businesses, which explain why we see more family businesses lasting through the years as compared family businesses.

Either way, as their business gets bigger, or the pressure to expand their business gets greater, they may find it hard to get help from people they know, since they are already used to working with people whom they can trust.

So, that is also the reason that some family stays as big as the size of the family is.

What about rich people? What do they do? Well, let us take a look at the famous Windows, which dominates the OS market now.

First, there was Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Microsoft rose from a sub-contractor of IBM into a power house OS creator. They created the MS-DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows XP and then Windows Vista. Apart from making OSes, they created the XBOX, which is now synonymous to exciting games. They also invaded the PDA market with their Windows CE, and later, Windows Mobile, and also invaded the MP3 market with the Microsoft Zune. And Microsoft never stopped looking around for things to create, or things to buy.

Then again, did Bill Gates and Paul Allen did everything alone?

No.

Did Bill Gates and Paul Allen did everything with a group of friends and family?

Maybe they did. After all, some colleagues are bound to become your close friends if they are worthy enough. As for family members within the company, I do not know. I do not want to make any guesses since I do not have any interest to hire a detective to track each and every employee of Microsoft.

Did Bill gates and Paul Allen stayed small?

No. They did not. In fact, they are constantly on the lookout for new opportunity to make their company bigger.

So, what actually did Bill Gates and Paul Allen did when they want to make a lot of money?

Well, they did things the easy way out.

Although Bill Gates did physically touch the codes of his products well into the first 5 years of the creation of Microsoft, They do know the importance of employing people to work for them.

Yes. You heard it. They employ people to work for them.

They paid large amount of money for top talents so that the best can work for them. They buy over companies which they think will benefit them to diversify and to eliminate competitions. They market their products aggressively to ensure that everyone will know which software to buy when they needed it. Even if you do not need a new software, they will introduce the new one and cease the support for the old one anyway.

And all these made a lot of people angry.

But, you cannot deny that what they are doing earned them a lot of money. And it really will not harm you too much if you can take some tips on the way they marketed their products.

4) The rich choose to focus (while the poor choose to try to do everything themselves).

Arh… The digital age brings a blessing to the people of this world. People can now chat with millions of people in the world, while surfing their favorite website, and listen to their favorite music with a click of the button. They can also check their email while watching Lords of the Ring in HD, while enjoying a cup of espresso.

Even at work, they are able to do their work, check their email, chat with their peers, SMS their friends, and look at the stock market all at the same time.

On the go, people can now contact their peers, check their favorite blogs, get the latest on the news, as well as watch the latest trailer on their mobile phone.

Then, with technology, it is easier for people to be their own boss, their own manager, their own accountant, their own web administrator, as well as their own marketer.

This led to many people to think that they can be a banker, an accountant, a real estate broker, a stock broker, a hotel tycoon, and the top income earner of a few network marketing network all at the same time.

Well, there are a few people in this world who are successful with a few different business at the same time, but it makes little sense to try out other things if you are not even an expert in your own field.

Christopher Gardner did only one thing which made him able to break out of the rat race, and that is trading stocks.

Robert Kiyosaki excels in real estate, which holds the bulk of his assets.

Bill Gates did not try to make another fast food chain, although he had the money to start one.

William C. Durant only makes cars, trucks, pickups, and more cars.

And they are millionaires.

So, what makes people think that they can earn millions by doing many jobs at the same time, if they could not even earn a few bucks from one business they owned?

5) The rich choose to observe

An interesting observation I made is that, there are constantly a group of people at the top of the money pyramid and they seemed to be always be able to do the correct thing at the correct time.

When the market is poor, these people buys stocks people do not want to buy.

When the market is good, these people sells the stocks everyone one wants to buy.

When the market crashes, these people counts their profits, while others count their debts.

When the market is in need of an item, they are the first to provide it.

When the market is saturated, they are able to distinguish themselves from others.

When the market do not need that item anymore, they are the first to get out of the market and move on to other products.

When the other business owners are going bankrupt with an excess of that item, they are the ones who have the capital to start another business with another item that the market needs.

Whenever the market changes, they are the first to be able to sense that change. Whenever the balance of power changes hand, they are also the first to see where that power shifts to. Whenever there are people who are hungry for something, they will be the first to identify that item which feeds the masses.

Unfortunately, there will always be another group of people at the end of the spectrum.

They will always follow sound “advices” given by “experts” who claims to be able to sense the flow of the market. They will gladly believe their own “sixth” sense, then someone who knows the subject matter better than them. They will always be willing to throw their money down into something which they think will bring them millions with a few dollars down and no hard work attached, rather than to follow a sound plan to achieve their financial goals.

They, unfortunately, will always be the ones who shout around, telling everyone how they are scammed.

That is, if they are still around to pay their debts.

Continue on another post…

Continuing from party 1…

 

6) The rich choose to create (rather than to save all the time)

Okay. It is important to have a cache of money for emergency. It is always important to have a sound financial plan, something which people are getting more and more interested in. In fact, it is possible to just save a million dollars when you retire if you are able put a certain amount of money into the bank each month.

Then again, it will take a very long time to do that.

If you starts to save around $1,000 a month, you might reach your goal of saving up $1m in about 35 year, assuming that interest is at 5%.

Then again, who in this world have the ability to wait that long? Most people would either be trying to dig themselves out of the grave, or are already floating around without mass.

It is again, that particular group of people who not only save up, but are able to invest in their dollars at the same time. They are the ones who are able to save more, simply because they have more money to save, and invest at the same time. In absolute numbers, they simply win the pauper in the amount of dollars they save, as well as the amount of dollars they spend in their investments.

And that is also why, when the rich will only get richer, simply because they can.

With those amount of “extra” money, money which they do not need to survive, they can create different income sources which can feed them forever.

Or, they can choose to spend a certain amount of it, and still be able to create a source of income to support themselves, simply because they can.

And to emphasis the point, the rich can afford to create more wealth, simply because they can.

And you can too.

So, the choice is yours. You can choose to become rich, by creating streams of income with your money, or you can simply choose just to save. If you choose to save, please start early. It makes no sense to start saving at the age of 74 when your earning capability is lower. If you trade your time for money, the amount of time you have will then just decrease as you grow older.

Either way, if you think you can lead a comfortable life, please choose your plan now.

7) The rich choose to focus on success (the poor focus on failures)

Have a chat with a rich person if you can. Take note of what is their focus on as they exchange words with you. You will often find that they often focus on their success than their failures. They are not afraid of falling again, and again, and again. It does not seem logical, but they are able to pick themselves up every time they fall down.

You will then find that they are always actively finding ways to get more money, rather than to lament about their lost which they suffered years ago.

Have a chat with poor folks when you feel like it. Take not of what is their focus as they exchange words with you as well. Take note of their choice of words when you come to the subject of money. See if they are what the gurus usually says they are, namely, defensive when the topic of money is raise, or declare to everyone that they do not need to be rich.

I have met them. I have exchanged enough words with them. They live around me. So, it may be time for you to identify who they are and “learn” from them. There will always be things to be learnt from others, but you are the one who can choose to use them as a positive or negative learning material, depending on the situation. As the saying goes, “A fool learns from experience, a wise man learns from others’ mistake”.

You make that choice. You handle the consequences. It is your life.

The rich choose to learn the correct stuffs. (the poor creates their own lies)

How many of the skills you have picked up 10 years ago are still applicable? Well, as an engineer, my basic Mathematics skills and Sciences took me well into my college years.

But that is all. Once out of college, my basic math and science becomes an item that is next to common sense to me. In fact, without some basic knowledge, I do not think that anyone could do anything in life.

Okay, there are a lot of people who did not attended school, or some of them had made it big after dropping out of college. But how many of them can last long without basic knowledge, like basic Math and Science?

Am I looking down on people who do not have a PhD in Math or Science? No.

Am I looking down on people who dropped out of school? No.

Am I discrimination against the rich people and poor people? No.

So, what exactly is my point then?

Well, consider this. You pay is $100. You wanted to buy a bag at $1,000. Can you do it?

Yes. Some of you might say. And I do agree.

You can always get the other $900 and buy that item.

And what if your monthly pay check is $100?

Well, you can save your money for 10 months, and have $1,000, And so, you can buy that bag which costs $1,000.

Then, what are you going to do with living expenses?

Herm, I will think of that later.

Is that how some people do their Math?

Yes. I do see them around me. In fact, my buddy in my college years have a younger sister who did that every month. She always spends beyond her budget. And when she has nothing to spend for that month, she stretched out her hand and asked for more.

And that money had to come from somewhere.

So, if you asked me, are there anyone who do not observe the law of basic math, my answer will be, “they are around me all the time”.

I, myself, is guilty of this from time to time.

So, Do everyone have a choice to spend more than they could?

Yes. They could. Before credit card comes around, one can borrow money from people around them to increase their spending power.

Once credit card comes around, one finds it easy to over spend. Since basic Math do not need to apply.

Wait, if basic Math do not apply, why should anyone care about using credit card to do their purchase?

Well, simply because of the ugly fact that, if you cannot handle simple, basic Math, what makes you think you can handle things that is more complex than basic Math?

Let us take an example. Before credit card comes around, the equation of income versus expenditure is:

Total income – Total expenditure = Total spending power left over

Looks simple, isn’t it?

Well, with credit card, it becomes:

Total income – Total expenditure – Total credit card debt this month = Total spending power left over

Simple enough? I think it is.

But, some people prefers to use this formula instead:

Total income – Total expenditure = Total left over + credit card

So, they concluded that they have more and more to spend each month, because they have a credit card.

If they do not have enough to spend, they will then use another credit card to increase their credit limit.

Then, another.

Then, another.

Then, another.

So, who is going to pay for all these credit card bills?

Some will say, “I will sign up another credit card to foot the bills”. Another will say, “I’ll mortgage my house to pay for my credit card bills. Everyone does that”. Yet, another will say, “I will take up a loan to pay off my debts. In that case, I will have more money to buy the things I want”.

And finally, they will all say, “I will declare bankrupt so that I will not need to pay for anything!”

And they will lose everything they once had.

So, one word of advice, please stick to the basic Math of:

Total income – Total expenditure = Total spending power leftover

If you cannot handle more complex Mathematics. I, myself, are sometimes confused over the different types of formula we can use and so naturally, my leftover is negative.

Yes. You heard me. My leftover is negative.

Simply put, my spending is more than my earnings for that particular month.

And I can do that sometimes because I try hard to have leftovers from the months before that. So, naturally, with simple Math, I can have some months that I spend more than I earn, simply because I have accumulated enough leftovers from previous months.

So, using simple Math, my formula becomes:

Total spending power = Total income + total leftover from last month – total expenditure this month

But, I would rather stick to the simple formula:

Total income – Total expenditure = Total spending power leftover

since it is both easy to understand and foolproof.

So, it is your choice. You can come up with fancy formulas for yourself, but ultimately, once you debt catches up with you, you will have to pay them of face the music. Make a choice now before you start creating strange formulas which look nice but do not make sense even for those who never stepped into a school before.

9) The poor says “no choice” the rich create their choices

Have you ever heard people saying that they are doing a job, or have done something because they have no choice? Have you seen people getting angry over something other people had said, unable to rebuke the offender, they might use the excuse “I have no choice” as to end the conversation?

Well, I have. I had seen people using the words, “no choice” as an excuse, again and again. I have seen how some of these people conducted their lives, and I have no choice but to agree with them that, they have no choice after all.

Yes. You heard me right. I am actually agreeing with them.

I am actually agreeing with these people.  Most of them are neither thieves nor bandits. Most of them have a decent job and a decent income and some form of investment. Most of them have some insurance scheme protecting them and their family, since they know that insurance is now a necessity rather than a luxury.

However, they might have failed to make a few vital choices in their lives, which cause themselves to have “no choice” over their decision in life.

First, some of them failed to catch the flow when they could. Fear of failure and the love of low risk life led many to give up their dreams in a hope of a “steady” life, in which the company or government will take care of them.

After 30, present day, they found out that their “steady” life is not that steady anymore.

First, their “steady” life did not even shook. It just disappeared.

With each generation of people living longer and longer, they found out that the advice of their generation obsolete when they get old. The advice that most of our parents followed are, “Study hard, get good grades, get a stable job, get married and have a few children”. And more often than not, they will try to enforce what they were taught to us.

At least, that was what my parents did.

They made me study hard. With little they have, they employed the best tutors for me, so that I will have the best grades in school. Later, I entered a college and got a degree in computer engineering. And now, I have a “stable” job which earns me quite an okay sum per month. That sum will not make me rich, but that sum will not make me stave.

Yes, you heard it. That sum will not make me rich. These technical skills which I have picked up will get obsolete once new technologies come out. There are plenty of youngster steaming out of colleges all over the world, waiting to take over my job. Each day, I sit down at the computer terminal, wondering who will be the next computer wizard who will take over my place in the company, considering around 2,000 people are graduating each year with the same degree I have each year, in my area alone.

Then again, my parents are happy. I had okay grades, I graduated from college, I had a job now.

And my parents are happy.

But I am not.

I am not happy simply because that I can be replaced immediately by another person who has the same skill as I do. Programming is easy to pick up, believe me.

Then, my “stable” job will be lost to me the moment I cannot do any programming.

That is to say, if I lost most of my fingers, to simply unable to commute to work for an extended period of time, I will be unable to work.

And if I am unable to work, I am unable to make any money.

So, in a sense, I have “no choice” now but to work.

But whether I will be able to have a “choice” will be decided what happens to this little blog in the corner of the World Wide Web.

What about the millionaires of today? Well, many of them decided that they had enough. They had enough of getting salaried “stable” jobs which offers no securities. They had enough of waiting for the pay check which will be stunk whenever there is a recession. They are really, really tired of having an empty bank account, one which I have myself.

They made that choice.

They made that important choice.

They made that single, important choice to change their lives, not because anyone forced them to, but because they wanted something else out of their lives. Because they wanted to fulfill their dreams, without giving up on their own well being.

And some of these millionaires are penniless when they made that choice.

But then again the fact that they did made that choice, and exercised their choices, that made them what they are, this time, this day.

After reading all these, assuming you are still reading, you may ask yourself this question:

Why do you want to listen to my 2 cents’ worth?

Well, I may not be a professor who has a PhD on the topic, or that I am a physiatrist have treated a million patients, and all of them are praising about how well a job I have done. Heck, I did not even have 20 years of experience behind myself to proof the things I had written in this blog, something which many gurus in the internet had.

Well, I do have 25 years of experiences observing how poor people behave. I have 25 years of experiences looking at how poor people conducted their lives day to day, making decisions which they thought are the best decisions one can make in this world. Instead of looking around for a bit, instead of getting the advices of people who had succeed, instead of even finding time to read a few books, or read a few internet pages, they chose to listen to urban legends and hearsays which guaranteed huge returns, without doing anything significant.

A lot of them believed in lotteries, because lotteries allowed them to win a few million dollars with only a few dollars down. They believed that they will always be the next one in line to win the lottery, when in my previous post, I had already shown everyone that winning the Jackpot prize is next to impossible, for a common person walking on the road.

Or should I say, for most of the people walking on the road, winning the lottery is next to impossible.

Yes, there is someone who is out there who gets to carry home a fat check every time the numbers for the lottery. But, how many people are there who takes home a fat check at the end of every draw?

Well, the amount of people who hits the jackpot can be counted by my fingers. And most of the time, I only need to use one of my hand to do the counting.

Well, so, the choice is ultimately yours. You can decide to act now, or later. It is your choice. Only you can make that choice. If you have “no choice”, then, the very act of whether you want to execute that choice is YOUR choice alone. No one can force you.

So please, make a choice.

It was during a sleepless night that I started to physically write this article on a notebook using a pen from my stationary tub. It was so unintentional, yet this article is about something which everyone gets to have, and yet, everyone does not have enough of it.

Yes. That commodity is Time.

Time is something which everyone has, but at the same time, everyone do not have enough to use. How often do you hear people complaining about having not enough time to do their job, or not having enough time to play? Well, I hear them all the time. They came from people of different shape and sizes from the very rich that I know of personally, to the very poor whom I met on the streets.

How many of us have the luxury of sitting down at a coffee table, watching everyone rushing by, without a care in the world? Well, I did that once with a group of my friends. We sat in a Starbuck’s outlet for half a day, doing nothing other than to look at girls passing by the windows, and talking about whatever that came to our mind. Then again, it ended when dinner time came around and all of us had to return to our nests.

So, what did we get out of the visit? Not much, except for some caffeine in our blood stream. The images of the girls that went passed us were forgotten within 10 seconds and I did not think that our life span had increased any longer by looking at the demure ladies walking pass the joint.

So, why do some people like to sit around and do nothing the whole day, knowing that they are wasting the most precious commodity they have?

I don’t know. Maybe they just want to relax. Maybe they just want to enjoy life for a moment. Or maybe, they are just trying to forget that they have to spend a whole day’s pay on the plate of Grilled Chicken with Chips that they are enjoying so much.

Wait a minute, what had I just wrote? A single meal at the cost of a day’s pay? Who would spend a day’s hard work on a single meal? Who would be so stupid to do that?

I don’t know. But I see them around me all the time. Instead of spending within their means, many people that I known of are actually enjoying the strange pattern of spending an hour in a posh restaurant, while spending another hundred hours working for that hour spent in that restaurant.

Hey, isn’t that a bit strange then? Why are people sacrificing so much for just a meal? Why can’t they just have their meal at a normal neighborhood eatery? Isn’t is painful to pay for something which you can only enjoy for a brief moment, only to find yourself trying to pay for it at the end of the month with another month’s hard work?

Err, yes. To me, to pay for a meal worth my day’s work is already very heart breaking for me. But then again, if I am to have a meal like a millionaire, I will have to exchange a month’s pay for it, simply because I have no choice.

And most of the working middle class have no choice either. Either they enjoy their meal in a neighborhood eatery, or they slave away in a posh hotel. There is no other way for a working middle class to enjoy the luxury of a millionaire other than to work really hard for it. And some times, these working middle class had to spend a whole life’s savings just to fulfill their one dream in life, which in the end, may be over in a couple of minutes.

There you see, it is very easy to just live within your means. It is really easy for a middle working class to have a meal in their neighborhood eatery, and enjoy the thrill of killing houseflies with their utensils.  However, it is really hard, and painful, for a working middle class to pay for a meal which is equivalent to their whole month’s pay.

The same can be said for a millionaire.

They will find it really hard to eat in a neighborhood’s eatery, since it is really painful to have no one to serve you during a meal. However, they will find it really easy to grab a meal in a posh restaurant since there will be less people queuing up to get in.

But hold on for a minute. There is a difference between the two. If you haven’t see it, let me just rephrase the comparison which I had made between a middle class and a millionaire.

First, a middle class will find it easy for their pocket to eat in a normal neighborhood eatery. They can choose to frequent the eatery. The millionaire, on the other hand, has the ability to CHOOSE not to eat at the cheap eatery, simply because he prefers not to eat at that eatery.

Second, a middle class can choose not to break their wallet by choosing the cheapest item on the menu. The millionaire, on the other hand, can choose not to break their back by choosing another restaurant with a nicer chair.

Hmmm. Those two items are not really fair comparisons, aren’t they?

Well, if you compare the choices that the wealthy have, as compared to a poor, there isn’t much to compare, isn’t it?

First of all, you will find that the rich have more options when it comes to paying a certain item, let’s say, a car. While many people would be happy with something that has four wheels and an engine, in order to get a car with more sparkle, they will often have to resort to paying for the car using some form of hire purchase scheme. What about the rich? Well, they can choose to pay by using hire purchase options too. But they can also choose to use credit or cash, in a single payment, since it doesn’t make sense to pay the interests incurred when you use the hire purchase option.

Next, the rich can choose to buy from different version of an item, but the poor are usually limited to one or two version of an item. Take from example, a computer ridge.

For the poor, it may be as simple as “something which I can surf the internet with”. Bare minimum, built in graphics card, built in sound, a 2nd hand CRT monitor, OEM keyboard, mouse and speaker.

For the millionaire, a LCD is a must. It is always preferable to get a IMac which produces files which normal PCs cannot read from. The speakers cannot be too ugly, and keyboard and mouse had to look cool.

Then again, the millionaire can also order a PC with built-in graphic and sound, one that “allows one to surf the web” easily, from a few mouse click, directly from Dell.

So, you see, the Rich do have more choices. They have more choices since they are able to choose what kind of commodity to use to trade for what they want to purchase. They are even able to choose what kind of credit card they want to use, simply because they can.

The poor, unfortunately, can only trade for commodities they want, using the single, most precious commodity they have, that is time.

For a posh meal in a restaurant, they have to serve their masters for some time before they can gather enough money to pay for their bills. They do not have many other choices in footing their bills than to use their time.

Wait, doesn’t everyone foot their bills with money? Why am I talking about time? Am I mumbling rubbish in this article as well?

Well, let us look at how money appears in the bank accounts of most people of this world.

First, they work for 8 to 14 hours a day. Then, they make sure that their hours are written down properly in a book at the finance department. At pay day, they queue up to receive their pay check, or rush to the bank to check whether the amount credited is correct or not. Next, they will then check their mail boxes for bills and….

Wait… let’s not go there. We are supposed to talk about how money gets into the pockets of a normal person, not how it flows out of it.

Ok. So, what about a rich person? How do money flows into their pockets?

Errr, ok, since there is a lot of ways a money can go into a rich person’s pocket, let us just take the life of a rich person who owns a rental apartment, Robert Kiyosaki’s favourite.

First, they… err, do other things… maybe, they do their day job. Then, they make sure that people who own them money, pays them on time, including their employees and those who rented their flats. At pay day, they also check their bank account or the check they receive to see whether everything is in order. Then, they cash in their checks or just see the figures appear in their bank balances. Next, they check their mailboxes for bills…. And we shall stop here again.

So, there is no difference between a rich man’s means of getting money, and a poor man’s way of getting money? Right?

Ok. Scroll up a bit. Read those lines again. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE.

That particular kind of rich person that I had mentioned may have a day job, but, he still receives income from the apartment they rent out. Therefore, any income received from their rental apartment is extra income, which that particular rich person does not need for survival.

On the other hand, whatever money that a poor person, or a middle working class makes during their day job, may become whatever they need for survival, assuming that they do not have other forms of income.

So, the words, “Time is money”, is true.

However, the amount of money that particular time can generate varies from person to person, depending on how much work, what kind of work, and the amount of money generating ways they have on hand.

Then again, money can buy time, to a certain extend. Although it cannot help a person to buy back the time that was lost, they can allow a person to buy more time in the future.

Take for example, a rich person who owns a car, as compared to a person who relied on the public transport system to get around.

Getting from point A to point B, for a person who relies on the public transport system, is usually a pain.

For a train station, he or she had to buy the ticket at the ticketing machine before getting to the automatic gates if he or she does not have a seasonal pass. After getting through the gate, he or she may have to compact themselves into tiny packages, since the train will be very packed during peak hours (Think of the trains in Tokyo during peak hours). Trying to reach for the mp3 player in the pocket might be impossible, as the person next to you may be just, well, right next to your skin. When the train reached the destination, he or she will have to squeeze their way out of the train, the same way they had squeezed into the train earlier. He or she will then walk to the final destination, assuming that the place he or she heading to is within walking distance from the subway.

Similarly, getting from point A to point B, for a person who owns a luxury car, is also a pain.

First, he or she has to make sure that the car has enough fuel to last the trip. If not, he or she will have to stop at the nearest gas station to top up before the trip. He or she may have to stop at other gas stations along the way to the destination, if the destination is really far. Along the way, the driver has to make sure that he does not scratch his or her shiny car, since it will be a hassle to get it repainted. If there is a traffic jam, the driver will then have to crawl along with the slow moving traffic, listening to the songs he or she had downloaded into the iPhone sitting on top of the dashboard. When the destination appears on the GPS screen, he or she will have to find a parking lot as close as possible to the destination, since the parking lot at the destination itself may be full, due to the fact that everyone drives a car.

So, who really spent more time for transport, well, it actually depends on how efficient the transportation system in your neighbor is. If the place you work and the place you live in are right next to a subway, I will say that you will probably save a lot more time than a person who drives. Then again, how many companies are built within 50 meters from the subway? Well, assuming that buildings are actually in blocks of 20m x 20m, I would say that about 24 buildings can be built within the vicinity of the subway.

Wow. That is a lot of buildings, isn’t it? But in my country, the buildings that are actually within 50 meters from the subway is usually 5 or 6, as buildings are not always square, and each company’s ability to buy a piece of land is usually different. Oh, and an area of 20m x 20m is actually very small for Multinational Corporation. Even their employee’s office area is not that miniature.

Then again, it just so happens that it will be faster for me to travel by public transport to work during peak hours, since the roads that I will be travelling on has bus lanes (lanes on the road made especially for buses). Then again, during off peak hours, it will always be a pain to travel by bus. Buses in my area is especially slow and less frequent, as compared to the frequency during peak hours.

Another comparison on how convenient a car can be is, getting from my friend’s house which is 60km from the map takes 1 hour at least by train, while by car, it only takes 10 minutes.

So, if I had a car, and want to get to my friend’s house, I would have saved 50 minutes. That amount of time will be enough for me to do a workout, or leveled up my characters in World of Warcraft.

Then again, 50 minutes alone is enough to clinch a deal, or come out with the next killer idea which can make a 12 years old the next billionaire.

And that is the difference between a rich person and a poor person.

A person who has enough options will be able to choose between the commodity they have to exchange for an item, let’s say, for a house. They will then be able to generate more money with the time they saved. If done correctly, this cycle will never be broken, and that is why everyone is complaining that “the rich always gets richer”, since the rich have the access of money generating machines that the poor do not have.

Then again, it is not impossible to break out of the life cycle of the poor. The moment an effort is made to break the poor person’s cycle, the lives of that particular person who wish to break out of the rat will never be the same again. In order to break out of the life cycle of the poor, one must be able to use their time wisely so that they can produce more “options” for “trading”, instead of being limited to using “time” to trade with other commodities.

Then again, you may ask, if time is such an expensive commodity that we have, why can’t we just keep exchanging time for other commodities, rather than wasting time on other things which may not guarantee us a steady stream of income?

Well, let us just say that, not everyone may have enough time.

Take for example, an old man who can no longer work, since he has a pair of weak legs. Or a person who had recently been told by the doctor that he has only 3 months to live, due to a huge tumor in his or her brain.

Arh… Then you will say to me, “these things will never happen to me, since I am so healthy”.

Correct. You are very healthy now. But what about tomorrow? Have you been going for a health checkup recently? Have you been exercising enough? Have you been eating well? Have you been eating junk instead?

Arh, you will then say to me, “I feel healthy. There is no need for me to get a checkup.”

Well, my healthy looking aunty was diagnosed with lung cancer a month ago.

Arh, you will then say to me again, “It may have happened to your aunt, but not to me. I am very lucky”.

So, do you know what is flowing in your blood? I do not know what is flowing in mine either, since I am not a specialist. So, I rather let a specialist tell me whether the things that are flowing in my bloodstreams are poisonous or not.

Another friend of mine, who had an accident out of nowhere, can no longer live like a person. Everyday, he lives in fear, wondering when he will take a fall again, breaking his spine once again.

Being brought back from death 5 years ago, much of his spine are covered in metallic plates, holding whatever bones that was left together. Hardly a day went by without him wondering when he will die. Occasionally, I will receive his message, saying that he is afraid of dying. And as always, I, a person who had never tasted death before, can never give him many advices, since I do not really know what is going through his minds. Instead of forcing down wisdom which I think that will be useful to him, I rather avoid sending him the wrong message, since I am about the handful of friends he trusted.

I had not tasted death, nor do I plan to taste is so early in life. In fact, if given a chance, I would rather not taste it at all. I personally believed that you as long as you are alive, you can make a difference in this world, like what I am trying to do now, writing my thoughts and others into an article, hoping that there will be some who will be able to see this blog someday, and take away something from this blog.

To this friend of mine, I cannot offer him much advice from someone who knows about death. All I can offer to him are knowledge which I had exchanged with my time, and hope that they will be useful to him when he need them.

Then again, he had lost a lot of time with that fall of his.

Under normal circumstances, he would have lived to a rip age of 70. He would have graduated by age 25, just as I did, with a Honors Degree in Chemical Science. He would then get a girlfriend and get married before the age of 30 years old. He will then have a few children and continue to raise them over the next 20 years or so.  His son will then enter the work force as he had, and gotten married when the time comes, just as he had 30 years ago. My friend would have grown old, just as I will be, and we would meet occasionally to talk about our lives, or the daily news.

But, on that fateful day 5 years ago, my friend took that fall.

And therefore, his time stopped for a while.

After he recovered, his time was shortened. Instead of taking 3 years to complete his degree, he now have to spend 6 full years to finish them. Instead of taking Chemical Science as he had wished for, he can only take an Arts and Social Science degree, even though it is not a lesser degree. Unable to stay outside in the open for long, he is unable to take more than 4 modules per semester. His per-day schedule cannot be more than 4 straight hours, as he will need some outpatient medical attention after 4 or 5 hours. With that, there are certain modules he cannot take, as he would have to be in the school for long hours.

As for the getting married part, it is quite impossible for now.

He became a hermit, unable to talk to anyone, since he can no longer hang out with anyone anymore. He locked himself in his room, playing Massive Multi Player Online Game every day. Unable to be in the open for too long, he cannot join his teammates for projects, and had to do them remotely from home, through the MSN.

And so, his time had been shortened for a lot, maybe he will be able to life till a ripe age of 70. Maybe he won’t.

So, you might be thinking, hey, my friend is unlucky. It does not concern you at all. You will never be that unlucky to fall down.

Okay. So, my friend who took a fall at a young age of 19 years old has nothing to do with you. But the fact is, no one expected it.

So, if you have the ability tell me now that who will have an accident tomorrow, I will gladly be your slave for half of my life, since I will know when I will die.

Since no one can actually foresee the future, rather than depending on one’s’ luck, I would suggest everyone reading this article to be as prepared as possible for whatever situation that might happen to you.

Oh, so, you might be thinking that you have a job now. You will be getting your pay raise next month. Your dream wedding will happen next year, with three thousand guests attending your wedding at a well-known cathedral. With the pay raise next month, you will be getting a brand new SUV, amidst the oil crisis that is happening during the time of writing, as you can afford it.

So, nothing bad will happen to you, right?

You life is all well, carefully planned, isn’t it? Nothing will go wrong for you in the next 10 years, isn’t it?

What if you are the next person to take that fall?

What if you are the next person whose office takes a plan hit?

What if you are the next person who just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?

What if you just got unlucky tomorrow?

It will only take one fall to be in my friend’s state.

Sad to say, many of us, who thinks that time will always be on our side. We will always fail to use our time wisely until it is too late.

How many times have you heard from those who do not have time left lamenting about the things which they should have done, but did not do?

Take for example, another friend of mine.

At the age of 21, he had USD$350,000 stashed in an overseas bank, earning interest. By the time he is 25, it would had become half a million.

The time which I used for playing online computer games, he was there with me. The time I spent playing offline games, he was negotiat