Rich Money Habits

Today, I’m delighted to announce the winner of Jack Canfield’s Hardcover Book – The Success Principles: How To Get From Where You Are To Where You Want To Be.  This is part of the Rich Money Habits Guide Contest I kicked-off during the launching of my Rich Money Habits Guide Ebook where 10 of the best business and personal finance books of all time are given away for FREE to the first 10 affiliates who are able to refer a successful sale of my ebook.

…and the winner of the first book is…Neil Arias!

Neil is the one on the left, and that’s me on the right, wearing a collared shirt with dark blue horizontal lines.

This picture was taken during our recent Cashflow 101 game last March 12, 2011.  During our conversation, I learned that Neil is also an IT professional like myself.  That’s why I think we get along very well.  He also attended Trace Trajano’s Think Rich Quick 2.0 seminar and I had the priviledge of listening to his thoughts and experience going through Trace Trajano’s Apprentice Challenge.  One thing I noticed about Neil is his determination and willingness to learn…that’s why I am very happy to give him this valuable hardcover book from my own collection.  I’m sure this book will help take him to “where he wants to be”, just like how the book’s title said it would.

Here’s the good news for you – there are still 9 more hardcopy books to be given away for FREE! Click here to find out how you can join the contest and get a chance to win one of the following best-selling business books of all time.

* All books above are actual hard copy version (6 HARDBOUND, 4 PAPERBACK) from my own book collection

Cheers to your financial success!

Allan

P.S. After my recent article about the 10 real-life tips from playing Cashflow 101 gameboard, I’ve received lots of emails from readers of this blog inquiring how they can join the next Cashflow 101 event this coming April.  Here’s the good news – the date is finally set to April 3, 2011, Sunday from 1 PM to 4 PM in the afternoon.  Click here for more details.  There’s only a very limited number of slots available so better reserve early so you don’t miss out.  There’s a minimal fee to cover the cost of the venue and some light snacks.  Avail of the early bird price of only PhP200 if you reserve on or before Thursday, March 31, 2011 at 7PM PST (Philippine Standard Time).  After that, the price will go up to PhP400.

P.P.S. Bo Sanchez will be holding his How To Create Millions Through The Stock Market Seminar next Saturday, April 9, 2011 from 8:30AM – 12:00PM at St Francis Theatre, Lourdes School of Mandaluyong City.  Here’s the really great news — you can get a chance to win a FREE ticket to Bo Sanchez’ Stock Market Seminar if you join my Cashflow 101 Event this coming Sunday.  See you at the Cashflow 101 Event!

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Before anything else, I’d like to greet you a Happy Valentine’s Day!  May this day be special for you not only because you will get roses and treated like a queen, but also because “to love and be loved in return” is the greatest feeling of all.  Feel the love.  Cherish the moment.  And remember to love in return. Speaking of love, my wife and I have been pouring our hearts and soul into our own mini-project, working doubly hard the past few days as we get ready for the launch of my very first ebook guide Rich Money Habits – 8 Ways To Shift Your Money Habits and Be Rich. And now, the really great news is — we now have our official launch date and time:

7:00 PM, Thursday, February 17, 2011 (Philippine Standard Time)!

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Visit www.richmoneyhabits.com to get a glimpse of the book

and reserve your copy now! (Hint: Discounts & Bonuses)

==================================================================== To make this more exciting and more enjoyable for you, I’ve decided to hold a contest —

The Rich Money Habits Guide Contest

Prizes:

10 of the Best Business and Personal Finance Books of All Time

Straight From My Own Collection

To Be Given Away!

* All books above are actual hard copy version (6 HARDBOUND, 4 PAPERBACK) from my own book collection

Here are the very simple steps you need to follow to win the contest:

1) First, click here to sign-up as an affiliate so you can get 50% commission by referring the Rich Money Habits ebook guide to your friends.

2) Refer your friends to reserve and buy the ebook using your affiliate link provided upon sign-up!

Step 1: Email your affiliate link to your contacts! Step 2: Share your affiliate link in Facebook! Step 3: Tweet your affiliate link in Twitter! Step 4: Blog about the Rich Money Habits guide and refer your readers to your affiliate link.

Criteria for Winning:

Each of the first 10 affiliates who refer a successful sale will not only get 50% as commission from the sale, but also WIN one of the above 10 best-selling business & personal finance books of all time— hard copy version (6 HARDBOUND, 4 PAPERBACK), NOT an ebook, straight from my own book collection!

And that’s not all…

1) The earlier bird gets the worm. Whoever makes a successful referral first gets to choose which of the above books he wants as gift. 2) If you win, you will get your prize delivered straight to your doorstep for FREE. I will shoulder the shipping.  You don’t have to pay anything.  In fact, I will even be the one paying you your 50% commission! 3) The special introductory price will only be available for 72 hours. Reserve your copy now! This will get you in the priority list so you don’t miss out in availing the HUGE bonuses and discounts.  HINT: a very very special gift awaits the first 10 who buy my Rich Money Habits guide. That’s all for now.  This is going to be an exciting week! Cheers! Allan P.S.  What are you waiting for?  Sign-up as an affiliate now, promote the Rich Money Habits guide to your friends and get a chance to win one of the 10 Best Selling Business and Personal Finance Books of All Time!

Last week, I shared my reflections of the past year 2010.  Today, I’d like to share with you my personal financial goals for the coming year 2011.  This is actually my way of challenging myself by publicly declaring my goals for the coming year.

My 3 major financial goals this year 2011

1) Create at least 3 new streams of income earning at least $100 per month each

Right now, I am still working full time at my current job as an IT consultant for a credit card company.  While I do enjoy my job, I still want to have more options.  I want to be able to one day control my income streams.  Having a job is good.  However, it is only a temporary solution to a permanent financial problem — not having enough money.

I’ve been fortunate to earn quite enough to be able to sustain me and my family and have some extra money saved every month.  The big challenge for me this year, just like in the past year, is to learn how to invest a portion of that money for my family’s future.

I don’t exactly know what the 3 income streams will be.  One thing is for sure — for this year, I’d like to focus on investing to generate more cashflow.  Last year, most of my investments had pretty good returns.  The only problem is, they were only capital gains. There’s no monthly cash flow.  This year, my goal is to learn to invest for cash flow and capital gains.  I’m considering putting up a business.  Or perhaps finally invest in a property and rent it out.  Or may be I can explore going into franchising.  I will share more to you as I get clearer on how to achieve this goal.

2) Go somewhere I’ve never been to for a week, every quarter of the year.

This is my way of growing myself.  I feel I haven’t grown that much personally and haven’t widen my horizon for the past year.  This year, I want to go somewhere I’ve never been to. Either in the Philippines or outside.  I’d like to experience and learn new things to keep my hunger alive.  I’d like be able to share exciting stories.  I’d like to be able to know what it feels like to discover and be amazed again.

As I shared last week, I was able to travel to Bohol with my wife last December.  It realy felt good just doing nothing, hearing the soothing sound of the waves while trying to relax in a hammock by the beach.  Working in a fast-paced IT and financial services industry sometimes takes its toll on my mind and body.  I feel I need to freshen up every once in a while to stay sharp and energized.

3) Weigh no more than 85kg at any time of the year.

It’s been one of my greatest struggles every year to keep my weight down.  I am getting sick quite often the past year.  I can’t go on and blame my work or my lack of time for exercise.  I know that it’s just a matter of building new habits in terms of my overall health.  Eat right. Get some exercise.

So this year, I want to be able to maintain my weight to a more manageable level — no more than 85 kgs.  It will take some time, but I’m ready for it. Let’s bring it on!

I know goals #2 and #3 don’t look like a financial goal at all.  They seem more to do with personal development than money.  I totally agree, it looks that way.  And it’s the way I prefer it.  I personally think it is very important to take care of my mind and body in my journey to financial freedom.  As I’ve described in one of my articles, your health is more important than your money.  Without it, none of your other financial riches really matter.

2011 Goals for Rich Money Habits

My goal for Rich Money Habits is to be more consistent in posting new articles — at least one per week.  As I share my thoughts to you, I gain more clarity.  The clearer I am with the things I want, the nearer I am to my goals.

Here are some of the things I’ve been thinking as I was doing some planning for Rich Money Habits this year.

- create more useful articles
- find more ways to reach out to more people
- find more ways to help you in your financial goals
- launch a product that helps you manage your money better
- redesign blog so you can navigate it easily

As you might have probably guessed, most of my goals above are still in the works.  And quite general, if you might add.  I still don’t know what exactly I am going to do.  But I think the important thing is to use these goals to remind myself what I need to focus on — helping you.  Everything else is secondary.

Cheers to an exciting year ahead!

A couple of weeks back, I received a review copy of Mark Fisher’s book “The Instant Millionaire: A Tale of Wisdom and Wealth” from Kim of newworldlibrary.com but due to busy schedule, I’ve only been able to write a review just now.

Before I say anything else, please note that I am not being paid for this review.  However, I did receive the review copy of the book for FREE which is great and if you click the picture below, and buy the book from amazon, I would earn a little affiliate income.

With that out of the way, the book Instant Millionaire, is a fable (short story) of a young man who wanted to be rich and seek out to learn from an old rich man they call the instant millionaire.

The 3 ideas that struck me most when I read the book

1.  The Power of Words

There’s this one scene in the book where the master was demonstrating how powerful words really are, especially the words that we tell ourselves.  The scene describes the young man screaming for help in fear of losing his dear life, simply because he read a few words on a computer screen and put meaning into those words and made himself “believe” that his life was in danger even if it was actually not.  Words are just words.  But the meaning we put into those words spell the difference.

2.  The Power of Stories

What I liked about the book is that it was written as a short story.  The book is an easy reading.  I managed to read the book from cover to cover in just one sitting.  I don’t know if it’s just me, but I learn more when I enjoy reading.  And reading a good story captures my imagination even more powerful than just a list of bullet points from a powerpoint presentation.

3.  The Power of Habits

The term instant millionaire is a misnomer because in the story, the young man mapped out a plan to be a millionaire in 6 years!  I don’t think many people would consider 6 years as instant!  In reality, most overnight successes are actually long, long years of preparation.  We only see the success, but we fail to go behind the many long hours of frustration and self-doubt before that.  Success is a product of a lifetime of great habits coming into fruition.

Who should buy this book

• those who want to read a good old short story of having a rich money mindset
• those who loved reading the classic “who moved my cheese” and probably want to read another fable to entertain and make them think about life again
• those who are looking for a different way of thinking about money

Who should NOT buy this book

• those who focused on the word “instant” in the title and looking for a get rich quick scheme
• those who are looking for a specific step-by-step how-to instruction guide on getting rich
• those who want to become an instant millionaire and don’t want to pay the price

Overall, this is a good short story style reading book you can finish in one sitting.  It does not really get into the nitty-gritty and how-to stuffs of getting rich but if you’re looking for an easy way to learn to think like a millionaire, this book is a good start.

P.S. Want to have your book reviewed and your story featured here at Rich Money Habits? Contact me.

P.P.S. Want to hear more about book reviews in the future, subscribe to Rich Money Habits now!

P.P.P.S. Become a fan of Rich Money Habits in Facebook!  Click the Like button now!

Here’s an interesting guest post from Mariusz, sharing his thoughts on the most important lesson about investing.  Read on and enjoy!

If you are a beginning investor, it can be very confusing to listen to others who give you advice on how to invest your hard-earned money. The best thing that you can do is ignore most of the advice and educate yourself following the strategies of investors who successfully built wealth over long periods of time, not just over the last few days, months, or quarters. I would suggest reading lots of books on the subject of value investing.

The major theme that you will get from reading these books is that in order to be a successful investor, you must think that when you buy stocks, you are investing in businesses because this is exactly what stocks represent.

When companies are started, they usually are funded with some type of private or venture capital money. When a company becomes big enough, its management might turn to the public markets to raise money to pay off the original financial backers and to grow the business going forward. When that happens, the company issues shares to the public through a process called the Initial Public Offering, and these shares are assigned ticker symbols such as DVR or MORN.

At this point, they start trading on the exchanges such as the NASDAQ or New York Stock Exchange. These exchanges allow stock owners to buy and sell their ownership interests in companies. While it can be very cumbersome to buy and sell private businesses, shares of publicly traded companies can trade hands with a click of mouse. This liquidity can be advantageous for investors because it allows quick access to cash, but I believe that it actually lures investors into becoming gamblers or speculators. For example, do you know anyone who has a successful business? You probably do. How many times do you see this person selling his or her business during the course of a year? He or she probably holds on to the business for years, if not forever, reaping the benefits of business ownership.

However, because public markets allow investors to buy and sell within seconds, this allows them to become flaky investors who forget about the underlying business and, instead, focus solely on the stock price. As a result, they are willing to abandon their ownership whenever bad news about the company is released. A private owner would never sell a business simply because the Fed changed interest rates or China’s GDP slowed down.

“If you truly want to experience success in investing, you must realize that when you buy stocks, you become a partial owner, or a salient partner in the businesses that these stocks represent.”

But that’s not everything. Just because you realize that a Lexus is a car doesn’t mean that you should be willing to pay any price for it. Depending on the model and year, you would not pay more than you think it is worth. Businesses are no different – they have values. It is safe to say that Business A is worth more than Business B, if Business A generates more money than Business B. So it would be logical to assume that it is not the best strategy to overpay for businesses because when it is time to sell, for whatever reason, it would be hard to find another fool that would be willing to overpay you for your business.

While this may seem logical to you, this is exactly the opposite of how the majority of investors invest. They get excited when prices go up and depressed when prices go down. So they are happy and more willing to buy businesses when they become expensive, and they are sad when these same businesses become cheaper. To me, this doesn’t make any sense, but this is the world of investing.

The recipe for successful investing is simple: treat stocks as businesses, buy them with the intentions of becoming an owner, pay only the price that makes sense, and wait for your wealth to grow.

That’s it. It is that simple, but for some, it is too simple. The investment industry cannot possibly follow this strategy because how else would most investment professionals justify charging you insanely high fees in relation to its terrible investment performance?

About the author:

Mariusz Skonieczny is the founder and president of Classic Value Investors, LLC, an investment management company. He is also the author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market

P.S. How about you? What do you think is the most important thing to keep in mind when investing in the stock market?

It’s been more than a year since my wife and I signed-up to the Truly Rich Club. While it has been an amazing journey, there were also some logistic problems we encountered along the way. 

A few months ago, my wife and I had to renew our membership.  Since our credit card issued in Malaysia already expired, we renewed the membership using our BPI credit card here in the Philippines.  However, 3 months after renewing the membership, the DVDs and Audio CDs have NOT been delivered to our home yet. 

That’s when I tried to search for any support contacts in the Truly Rich Club member’s site.  To my surprise, I couldn’t find any support contact number. 

Thankfully, my wife was able to save an old email from the Truly Rich Club when we were still starting out as a member.  We emailed the address right away, and in 3 days, the DVDs and Audio CDs arrived in a bright red LBC package.

If you’re having the same problem or  you ever encounter any problem with your Truly Rich Club membership, you can email the following address:

P.S. Do you want to solve your financial problem?  Join Bo Sanchez’ Truly Rich Club NOW!

Be part of the Money Summit & Wealth Expo 2010, the BIGGEST wealth building and income opportunities super conference and expo in the Philippines, this coming July 2-3, 2010 at RCBC Plaza, Makati City.

Learn the best money secrets to grow and invest your hard-earned money from 16 of the most successful entrepreneurs, real-estate investors, best-selling business authors, sales superstars, and money experts in the country today.

Hurry!  Early bird discounts & BIG bonuses available until June 12 ONLY!

Reserve your seat/s NOW!

Who is this seminar for?

If you are an employee…

• who want to quit your job?
• who want to get out of the rat race?
• tired of your 8 to 5 job?
• tired of paying too much in taxes?
• who want unlimited income?
• who want to earn extra income without quitting your job?

If you are a professional, freelancer, or self-employed proprietor…

• frustrated with self-employment?
• who want to grow into a real business?
• tired of working 24/7?
• who want cut back on your time working?
• overworked with non-stop servicing of clients?
• who want to tap new markets?
• interested in new sources of income?

Today, I’ve signed up to the 2-day event and got the PhP 1,000 early bird discount as well as the extra bonuses worth a whopping total package value of more than PhP 15,000.

How about you?  Get your early bird discount and lots of bonuses NOW!

Hurry!  Early bird discounts and huge bonuses available until June 12 ONLY!

Reserve your seats TODAY!

See you there!

P.S. If you refer your friends, you earn a 5% referral fee.  If 10 of your friends sign-up for the VIP package, you get a whopping PhP 2,247.50!  And yes, I earn PhP 224.75 too if you sign-up as VIP now and indicate me (Allan @ Rich Money Habits by akosiallan.com) as your referrer.   Let’s continue learning rich money habits to achieve our dream of financial freedom!  Cheers!

P.P.S. Of course, I will still share whatever I learned from the event through this blog for the benefit of those who are unable to attend the Money Summit & Wealth Expo 2010.  Watch out for that in the coming month/s.

First of all, THANK YOU very much to all those who participated in the first-ever Rich Money Habits Readers’ Survey. 

Your inspiring life’s stories, financial goals and dreams and suggestions on how Rich Money Habits can be of help to you are very much appreciated.  Rest assured, we’ll definitely keep them in mind as we aim to constantly improve the Rich Money Habits blog to be more relevant to your financial needs.

Without further ado, I am very delighted to finally announce the winner of the FREE Rich Dad Poor Dad book as part of our first ever Rich Money Habits Readers’ Survey promo. 

And the winner is… Lunining Arabiran! 

I was so amazed at the personal finance tips and stories Lunining shared that I want the readers of this blog to learn from and be inspired by it as well. 

Here’s her answer to the question “What are your money habits and how they have affected your life?”

I’m earning a little over minimum wage and I was "awakened" that after 3 years of working I had so much less than what I was hoping for. I cleaned up my act….

1. I love Manga (Japanese animation) so much so that a large chunk of my money goes here. I curtailed the Manga-buying impulse. (I still do buy but occasionally).
2. I don’t use my credit card except when buying groceries twice a month.
3. I bring lunch to the office.
4. I had my mom invest my money that has a 12% APY.
5. I read about how to invest in the stock market.
6. I built up and completed my 1 year emergency fund.
7. I am building up my retirement plan. I’m also looking into consulting someone who works for the SSS. So I can compute the actual amount of pension I’ll be receiving when I’m 60.
8. I am taking up my Master’s degree so I can go ahead and get side jobs. (This wasn’t really necessary to get the jobs but understanding more concepts and theoretical background would help) and I’m almost done, just the thesis left.
9. Next time I get to be in another country, will be saving my per diem like crazy. Last time I was in the US, I spent my money on a lot of souvenirs.
10. I created a budget.

All of those things are the stuff that I’m doing, have done and will be doing. There are a couple things more but I think this is getting too long.  Basically, knowing and being conscious of how money is spent has taught me that when you spend money now, you’re not only giving up that money in that instant but you are also forfeiting the right that, that money can earn in the future.

How about you?  What are your money habits and how have they affected your financial life?

Today, we are launching the first ever edition of Rich Money Habits Blog Carnival.

This edition is now accepting submission of the best money stories and articles showcasing money habits that make people rich through personal finance, business, investing, stocks, mutual funds, bonds, real-estate, internet marketing, and more.

Submission of entries is until January 26, 2010, at 12 midnight Pacific Time.

So hurry, submit your stories and articles now and be one of the chosen few to be featured to the first ever edition of Rich Money Habits Blog Carnival.

Let your story be heard.  Be featured.  Be Inspired.

What is a Blog Carnival?

“A Blog Carnival is like a magazine. It has a title, a topic, editors, contributors, and an audience. Editions of the carnival typically come out on a regular basis (e.g. every monday, or on the first of the month). Each edition is a special blog article that consists of links to all the contributions that have been submitted, often with the editors opinions or remarks.” – blogcarnival.com