The Masses Always Get Screwed
in the most crucial aspects, in the most important things ... ie. in life itself.
The rich get richer whilst enjoying their luxuries whilst the masses bust their guts. Day in day out for almost everyday of their lives, the masses get up early to make it to work on time and do that overtime just to maintain, balancing work and family. Yes, the lion's share of waking time is spent preparing for work, going to work, spending time at work and coming home from work ... simply to maintain ... all your working life ... simply to grow old and be able to retire and maintain.
It may be comfort zone ... but is it living? ... Really living?
Yes time ... (let's omit spiritual discussions here since we all come from varied religions) is the single most valuable asset we own in our lives. Money lost can be earned back. Time once lost is forever gone. Love, health, wealth, happiness and all the other good things are pretty useless if you have run out of time. But if you have time, many possibilities are yours to be had.
Time is the most precious asset we own.
This is a lesson which would be well worth underlining to the likes of many teenagers and others who find life boring and mope around whittling time away.
So here's the question ... "Is it meaningful to spend most of our limited, most precious time on this earth, simply scrambling everyday; scrambling away the best years of our lives simply in order to maintain?"
Sure ... there's a lot to be respected of the old established values. Working hard, providing for one's family, providing good education for the kids and then retiring to enjoy grandchildren etc.Those insurance company and retail bank ads certainly capitalize on this. They give a very compelling picture in their clever marketing, portraying the financial care they provide spanning three generations for the masses. Typically these ads provide scenes of the generations happy and spending quality time together through smokey effect camera lenses. For the viewer; what a warm and fuzzy feeling all over.
In contrast, there's this brilliantly done Korean animation. It starts with a strong young man climbing a cliff with a bulky back pack of what he needs. Furthermore, strapped on to his back pack is a cute little baby. You see this man climbing with this huge burden, through sunny weather with birds chirping around him, and also through sleet, hale, snow thunder and lightning storms and star lit nights. He takes breaks to change his and his baby's clothing to suit the weather, protecting his baby through thick and thin. He climbs by day and sets up tent in the evenings on cliff edges and cooks his and his baby's meals. Day after day, night after night in all conditions until his baby turns into a boy who grows into a man and joins the climb. They keep climbing the treacherous never ending cliff. Eventually the strong young man has become a greying feeble old man and his young son who is now big and strong has him strapped to his back and continues climbing. Eventually the old man dies. His son performs a ceremony and tearfully throws his dad over the cliff. He then continues climbing ... on and on ........
Well life insurance is really a must if you have dependants, and medical and hospitalisation insurance is really important to have for obvious reasons. But Insurance Companies as wealth building support organisations?
Not only insurance companies ... but all ... Financial Institutions Suck ... BIG TIME!!!
The only ones who get really wealthy are the Banks, the Insurance companies and the Finance Companies. That's why they own so many of the biggest buildings. They use your money to make money and give pittance in return. Nobody generates any kind of meaningful wealth invested with these institutions and investors would be lucky to keep pace with inflation and not end up shrinking real wealth by the time retirement comes along. At best you have a form of forced savings with lot's of sophisticated marketing info hitting your neural perceptions to vie for your individual' 'hard earned, slogged for money. And on the masses it works and works to the trillions of dollars well ... thank-you very the much. That's largely why the masses continue to slog and put their earnings with the financial institutions to let those rich capitalize on their money ... and life goes on.
In Singapore where I am stationed for now, it's a system of the people working for the government and not the government serving the people. I am not really a politically inclined person, but this is just fact. Here it's basically a one party government who has a grip on the small but thriving and rich country as well as control of the Merlion's share of the wealth. I'm saying it but everyone knows it. Studies have shown that in this country the least amount of the GDP gets apportioned to the very hard working workforce relative to all other major Asian cities.
This is not an attempt at political statement or the pros and cons therein, but simply to underline the factors affecting wealth building for individuals here and the facts impacting your life if you are a Singaporean.
There's been an on going campaign for some time now, encouraging people to upgrade themselves through more education. The nominal increase in individuals' income will not impact the wealth of individual people in any great way ... but the rich will get richer from it if the campaign is successful. What a great idea ... get super rich by encouraging others to upgrade and work harder.
Sheep mentality? ... is it prevalent?
What is the state of some of those masses now? ... Those who felt so secured with the Lehmans and the AIGs. Well in Singapore, I see people on the tele on the news and the newspapers in tears crying and complaining over life savings gathered from all that lifetime of slogging ... all loss on mini bonds attached to Lehman investments.
There are many who have cut losses on their stocks in fear as the markets have fallen. Many very angry and in chat rooms and in person are cursing at the markets, the US government, the Financial Institutions and their investment advisors but noticeably less toward our local government. It seems the market is an evil being who is out to get them.
Well what I hear and see now from what is going on is insistent bleating of sheep being led to slaughter. It's cold I know, but nevertheless fact.
Despite the Lehman bankruptcy the senior executives of Lehman are and will be doing just fine thank-you. Likely they will just retire back to their bungalow mansions and super-penthouses, keep a low profile for a few months and figure how their stash of money can continue to make more money. They can afford to not work and still lead a super luxurious lifestyle because money will continue to flow in.
Also it's highly unlikely the Kuek family will skip a beat in their day to day super luxurious lifestyles either.
The rich get richer and the middle class get screwed ... and yet they slog on because that's what they are good at; that's what they have been born and bred to believe they are meant to do all their lives.
But don't get angry with the rich. Don't curse at them for making tons of money. You may not agree with some of them and their principles or lack of. You don't have to follow those. But you should instead admire the rich, learn from them ... and ... join them. Btw there are lot's of not rich individuals who are pretty unprincipalled too. Bad principle is hardly the purvue of the rich alone.
In reality, the market is not some evil being out to get you. It is in fact the greatest blessing where we can help ourselves to free money and indirectly help the economy in the process.
And in Singapore we do have a fully modernised, as good as anywhere Financial System. In fact we vie to be the Financial Hub of the region. It's there to be used and for the taking ... but if one is to get all we dream for ... the "sheep mentality (kiasi / kiasu)" needs to be shrugged off and the "smart money" way needs to be adopted. Free Money is here for the taking.
With the bear run this last year capped by the week ending 20 October 3,000 point plunge on the Dow, the sheep are panicked and bleating and act in fear. The smart money is truly licking their chops in antici..p..p..p ..pation. This is a fact that repeats again and again and again after every major market downturn.
Yes ... history always does repeat.
Yes we are talking investments ... WHOA THERE don't click off.
When the banks talk, when the insurance companies talk, when the Finance Company talks, so many by the masses listen and listen to the tune of trillions of sheep money. Sheep don't really understand, but they listen and they hear and they obey transferring all their hard earned monies for the financial institutions themselves to use to spin money and in return they pretty much get zip! But often when someone imparts some real bona fide facts about investments ... many in the masses will run for the hills and mentally reflexively switch off. "Don't try to sell me anything cuz I dun noe n dun care." My money is well taken care of in the bank and in my insurance company."
Well if that someone dun care ... then they dun care ... and life goes on ... b-a-a-a-a ... work and slog for the maintenance money till the day I die. ... but at least it's comfort zone. ... at least comfort zone until a mini-bond crisis crops up or a stock market plunge occurs. So what can sheep do when made uncomfortable? They bleat ... incestantly ... as they are now doing. The shepherd has come along and calm them down ... but in the end it's unlikely them sheep will get their dues from it all.
That's a choice. In spite of my verbose, others' choices should be respected.
But is it your choice?
Everyone has the right to choose. But in the choice of life, like it or not, everyone is forced to choose. The choice is confirmed by our mindset and our action or inaction ... to determine our own lifestyle and fate or to just go with the mass flow.
This blog addresses the topic of time and money and life itself.
Excuzeee ... but what could be more important? Keep an open mind; it's a discussion well worth having.
So we're talking money ... the second most important asset we own in our lives. How we (i) best preserve and spend our time and (ii) how we can build wealth are the two major factors impacting our quality of life on this earth.
"Money is the root of all evil." Heard that one? Now isn't that a load of BS?. ... Hello??? ... Money is not the root of all evil, but "lack of money is the root to much suffering." Why do you think all the masses slog day in day out just to acquire some of it?
"Money cannot buy happiness." Now that's another crock. If someone is wealthy and yet unhappy, that has to do with a mental problem, nothing to do with having lots of money. In contrast, if someone is unhappy and broke and owing money, it's largely if not entirely because he has no money.
Money is so important because it buys freedom of choice. Freedom to lead the type of lifestyle one desires in any place or places one likes, freedom to make sure your family and love ones have the best, freedom to take the best action in any emergency, freedom to help others etc etc.
Lack of money however invites others to shit on you ... for life in general to shit on you ... for you and your family to be lacking ... and that's no BS.
Now we're not all born equal despite what some religions say. Each of us has our own abilities and disabilities. Some are born with more opportunities than others. Paris Hilton is hardly as rich and wealthy as she is because of superior mental intelligence or brilliant work ethic and initiative or good character. She must have been a very-very-very good being in her past life.
The really good news for us who have all our faculties intact, is that the human mind and ability truly are tremendously powerful and almost infinite in potential. To use or not to use?
There's a brilliant novel written in the 70's titled, "Jonathan Livingstone Seagull." Yes it's about seagulls. Seagulls flock to the big landfill rubbish dumps of the world, scavenging, a squawking and a pecking and fighting over rubbish to eat. It's ugly, but it's the easy way out so they get to eat the rubbish which is enough for them to get by. ... comfort zone.
Jonathan Livingstone Seagull however made a conscious decision to use his God given talents to break away from the masses. With each flap he built powerful wings and he soared the skies, visited many beautiful places and glided and carried far and wide on wind currents and fished from the Oceans of the world. As such his life was dramatically fulfilling and exhuberantly complete. He had the freedom to go wherever he wanted and to do whatever his heart desired. In his travels he socialized with other like minded seagulls as himself. He had rich experiences, strived for true happiness and found it. He didn't fight for and eat rubbish.
The gist of this novel is that it tells us we have choices. We can join the masses. The masses slog to maintain day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year till they grow old and eventually die. ... same as the climber in the Korean animation and then the baton is passed on to the next generation.
... or we can dare to be different. Get out of the mass comfort zone of scavenging for rubbish in the land fill rubbish dump.
For us humans in modern society, soaring the skies like Jonathan Livingstone Seagull means amassing money ... lots and lots of it ... accumulating wealth and living the way we want ... not just wishing for it. Only if wealthy can the world be our oyster, like it was for Jonathan Livingstone Seagull.
Robert Kiyosaki, T Harv Eker, Napolean Hill and all the other established wealth gurus, although expressing their principles differently, really state the same undisputable basic facts -
1) Ability to have wealth and accumulate money is not about working more, or more diligently or from a more qualified position for it, but about a mind set. The wealthiest people work the least.
i) Wealthy people believe and know they can have their cake and eat it as well ... that they can have all the wealth and work less.
ii) Middle and Upper Middle Class people believe they deserve and can only get a small portion of cake. So they slog hard to get it and harder to get a slightly bigger piece but never really go for more.
iii) Poor people don't expect cake. They hold on to a doughnut, focus on the hole and wonder why they have nothing.
2) Real Wealth is not defined as the amount of things one has under ownership, but is defined by the ability to sustain the kind of luxurious lifestyle one wishes for ... without working.
3) Wealthy people know that money is a seed to be planted ... either as building a business that can run largely on it's own or through prudent investment. Usually those who have the former also partake in the latter. Prudent investment means being the "smart money" and not being part of the herd mentality.
4) Wealthy people, even before they are wealthy instinctively look for easy wealth making opportunities. When they see it they take action. They do not side-line themselves as most sheep do.
They don't slog to produce expensive wool for the powers that be only to be renumerated with a pittance of the real value.
The easiest way to start to break away from the masses and the herd is to realize that money, besides being the second most important asset, is also a seed to be planted. The second realization needed is that the seed needs to be planted in the correct place and nurtured in a proper manner for it to blossom and produce many more fruit with seeds.
If you have the savings, start investing wisely, the way the smart money does it. If you don't, then you had better be setting aside at least 10% of your hard slogged money to do so if you want to get towards there. No action no results.
WARNING! Smart money investment is not about leaving money in Financial Institutions to invest. It's not about getting duped by flambuoyant unregulated investment schemes promising heaven and earth. It's not about falling for expensive courses that promise riches to be made easily by trading with their magic methods or systems. The question to be asked is, "Show me the safety and show me the money". ... only the solid facts that pertain to these two aspects need be considered so please leave out the rhetoric.
(a) Tired of slogging just to pay the bills, sustain the family and pay for the house and car, with just a little respite on the weekends and perhaps that annual holiday?
(b) Want to be able to afford your dream and the kind of lifestyle you deserve without breaking a sweat?
If you are a young-ish working person between 21 to 40 years of age, wouldn't you like to know you will have all your heart's desires ahead of you ... there for the taking?
If you're a retiree or getting toward there, wouldn't you like to have a life of plenty, never having to work but taking time to enjoy the things you really like without a concern about cash inflow?
Here's some BS we've been fed - Since the population is going grey, people need to be working to a much older retirement to sustain.
Don't buy into that. This encouraged mind-set simply means putting more money into the coffers of the powers that be through our extended slogging.
IF YOU ARE SERIOUS ABOUT UPGRADING YOUR LIFESTYLE PERMANENTLY, YOU SHOULD BE SERIOUS ABOUT THIS BLOG.
What you need is three things (i) to be with the smart money (ii) the correct safe investment vehicle, and (iii) proper expert service to enable you to make a lifetime of high returns to leverage on.
BTW Whilst the sheep have been bleating loudly, people with the smart money know that their existing good investments are about to turn around and are licking their lips in anticipation, taking advantage to position their new investments now whilst the huge and rare opportunities remain available.
Yes the smart money is geared right now to make more free money than ever. Ahem ... this is fact. It's not just me spinning some rhetoric.
Warren Buffet (widely recognized as the world's most successful investors and is often placed as the world's richest individual as that title interchanges back and forth.) as he was quoted in the Sunday Times October 19 2008 -
On choosing to buy during this financial crisis -
"A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful."
Choice: Follow the sheep or emulate the likes of Warren Buffet?
Would you like to break free from the masses? ... live your dream and not just think about it and wish for it?
It's not a sily hoax. Just start adopting the wealthy mind set ... and take action ... start with that first step to doing what all wealthy people do ... guaranteed painless.
To your success and warmest regards,
Geoff 
PS - to help with that first step ... link - www.mkwealth.com
PPS Here's a few questions for fellow Singaporeans ...
1 ) For average to upper middle income earners - If you had sold your first HDB flat recently how much would you have profited in cash back? ... $200,000 +/-...?
2 ) For those who did, how long would it take you to earn that amount of money? (the way to get rich is not by working for it)
3 ) After taking the cash, how many of you planted that money as seeds to grow? If you had done so, or do it now with the smart money, you could easily be a millionaire in a few short years .... Fact not fantasy. (Do you have a millionaire mind set? If you don't would you like to adopt it starting now?)
4 ) Would you like to be shown an investment vehicle that can really start making that wealth safely and consistently?
5 ) For those higher net worth individuals, how much were you getting in returns from your investments from your Private Bankers eg Meryl and Lehman during the recent bull run years? ... 12% +/- per annum? How much do you think they spin from your money and how much of it do they give back to you? ... I've been there done that working as a Private Banker.
6 ) Given the strength and explosiveness of that bull run do you think the return you got was a good return? Did you put money there because that was a trade-off for the safety aspect provided by a prestigious Investment Bank? Hope you're not caught in that Lehman fiasco.
7 ) How about a much safer, fully guaranteed, fully underwritten, highly regulated, negligeable risk investment platform with a strategy applied which earned easily 100% per annum and maybe even more in the next good years to come?
8 ) How much money have you made on deposit down good property investments in the past? What was the rate of returns on your money investment? Do you consider those property investments you've done high risk?
9 ) What if I told you we have investments based on the same principles as your property investments, except the cycles are a lot faster and the opportunities present faster and more consistently and therefore the investment much more liquid? What would that do for you?
