The Thinker's Expression

There are two primary ways to generate income and they are active income and passive income. Active income is any income received from doing a service in exchange for money in the form of wages, tips, salaries, and commissions. Usually, this will require you to allocate a certain amount of time to be in a certain place to fulfill the job requirement. Passive income is any earnings that is generated through the use of systems that works for you, and in which you may not be actively involved, all the time, for it to work. This include income from investments, rentals and making YouTube videos. Active income is usually the first and sometimes the only way that we think of making money. It is certainly the most common way to make money and many would argue that it is also the easiest way. There are advantages and disadvantages to active and passive income. An advantage of active income is that it can be generated immediately. All you have to do is to show up at work and start using the ski...

Who is the fastest self-made billionaire ever? While it took Warren Buffet 55 years to join the billionaires club, Jay Walker literally did it in less than a year. He launched priceline.com during the DotCom Bubble and his net worth instantly jumped from zero to billions. However, it was not sustainable because when the bubble burst, his net worth crashed as well, while Buffet is still on top of the list, and he does not seem to go anywhere anytime soon. That is the kind of wealth you would want to build.  The game of money is not easy - it's tough, competitive and ruthless. And if you do not know the rules, you will fail. The problem with most people is that they might work hard their entire lives but still end up poor at the end of the journey because they do not know how the game works. So if you want to find yourself on the other side of the coin, you better master the rules first. 1. Money does grow on trees I am sure that many of you have been taught the opposite truth b...

Have you ever thought that there will be a day when you put your money into the bank, the bank will not give you any interest but deduct your money instead? In 1998, the deposit interest rate in Malaysia was as high as 8% to more than 10%! But in 2008, the interest rates for fixed deposit dropped to 3.5%. And guess What? Today, in 2020, it's 1.5%!  What's the reason behind this drop? Will it continue to drop? That's the question. In order to maintain economic growth, money supply must be increased in the country but the central bank cannot print money without restrictions. So at this time, lowering the interest rate is the only option to encourage people to spend more for consumption or investment.  This is the trend going on around the world. In 2014, Euro entered the era of negative interest rate. In 2015, Switzerland and Sweden entered the era of negative interest rate as well. This is then followed by Japan in 2016. Today, we see the United States continues to lower the...

Life is a learning journey, so they say ... It is even more true now, in this age of connectivity, that we are bombarded by bits and pieces of information and misinformation. These bits and pieces are like pieces of puzzles, waiting to be put together to form the bigger picture. There are many things we do not learn in school, some learnt partially, while others are probably outdated. That's why we are given this amazing organ, called the brain, to process and make sense of what we see, feel, hear, taste, etc. Major life's decisions are hard to make without the correct input of information, neither are we an all knowing being. The best decisions we can make are the informed ones.  " To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge " ~ Nicolaus Copenicus

According to EPF's 2016 report, only 22% of 6.7 million active contributors aged 54 years have sufficient savings of RM196,800 or more to sustain themselves during retirement. If you are not the 20% high income earner, you may end up being insufficient during retirement, if EPF is your only savings.   Therefore, it is important to allocate 30% savings rate from your income (With about 10% to 13% deducted from your salary for EPF, you will need another 17% to 20% saved) and make a habit out of it. The principle here is not about the amount of money, but the habits of being able to delay gratification, live frugally, and do not spend your future money .   What can you do with the extra amount saved? Some would allocate those extras into EPF. Some would put them as Fixed Deposits. While others may invest them in properties, stock market, Unit Trusts Fund, etc. What ever you do, make sure your money does not stay stagnant, because if your money does not grow, you will get poorer ....