The RAT Race Story

You're born. A few years pass and you go to primary school. Why? To get a decent foundation of knowledge that will support you throughout life. You work hard and do your homework, because that's what your parents told you to do.
After a few years at primary school you can read and write and do basic mathematics. You hit puberty and go to secondary school. Why? To get good grades! But why's that important? Well, so you can get into a great university! Oh, OK.
You continue to work hard, do your homework and revise for the all important end of school exams! Since you have worked hard you do well. You get into you first choice university. Great!
Hmmm... This university lark is expensive, I'm not sure how I can afford it.
No worries, you can get a student loan that will cover your tuition fees, pay your rent and still give you money to piss up the wall!
But why am I at university anyway? So you can study for the career! Then you can get a job, buy a house, start a family and live the life that society says you should lead!
Ah, OK. So off you go to uni. You study less hard but make up for it by playing hard. You lose your virginity (if you hadn't already at school (naughty!)), drink way more than your liver can handle, miss lectures and have an infection scare. Still, you scrape through with a reasonable grade. Phew. Oh, by this time you are between £10,000-20,000 in debt.
Oh well, forget about that for now, I can pay it off when I've got a job, and now I have the tools to go out and make some money! Cool! So off you go and get a job. You earn more money now than you ever have, so you get a student loan for a new car. Another £7,000-£10,000 debt.
Still, you don't mind too much because you work harder and get a promotion. And you meet someone at work who you rather like. You furnish her with gifts and meals to impress her and WAHOO! Before you know it, it's worked and you have a fiance.
A wedding is really expensive stuff! Better work harder to get another promotion. You get one, but whenever you have more money to spend you seem to have more bills and expenses. Especially since you are now paying a mortgage for the new house you've just bought.
You work harder, doing longer hours and having less time for you. This didn't stop you getting the wife pregnant though! DAMN!
Baby clothes, a pram, decorate the spare bedroom, new car seat! The list is endless.
You work even harder than before, getting a new job with more money but a longer commute. Baby pops out but you don't see it much, you're always in the office.
Then you do something really silly!! You get her pregnant again!!! House is now too small, you sell, and buy a bigger more expensive house. The mortgage is almost crippling!! How can I be in this situation?! I studied hard at uni, I got good grades like I was told I needed, I have a good job, yet I'm still working my ass off, making other people richer and I never see my wife and kids! WHAT DID I DO WRONG?
Nothing. You didn't do anything wrong. You just weren't trained in how money works.
Stay tuned! Keep your eyes open for next articles for tips on how to escape the rat race!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jon_Brown

Failure Is A Choice Made By The Undisciplined part 3 of 3

By Vic Cosant
Part3
Here's a fun, potentially life-changing game I'd encourage you to play. Pick out an area of your life that you've had weak discipline in in the past. Set an objective relating to this area. Now, set that objective as your life's top priority — or at least put it in the very top few. Then set a minimum time that you will stay committed to this objective. I'd recommend a minimum of a month, but for this game you could even choose a week. If you can be disciplined for one week, you can be disciplined for as long as you choose. Now, this is going to mean repriori-tizing your time from your normal weekly schedule, but you'll do it — Why? Because it's your top priority!
While doing this, you're going to experience an interesting phenomenon. In the past, when you have set halfhearted objectives, your brilliant mind would start figuring out how to get around the objective to get you back to your comfort zone. However, now you'll find when it's your top priority, your mind works only on achieving the objective and taking you where you really want to go.

PS: Plan your road map to your success. Seasons Greetings to all.
Bro. Willy

Failure Is A Choice Made By The Undisciplined- part 2 of 3

By Vic Cosant


The truly disciplined

My great friend Wayne Dyer (author of The Secrets to Manifesting Your Destiny) is a wonderful example of what it means to be "truly disciplined." There was a time when Wayne had run eight miles every day for 21 years in a row without missing a day! That's over 7,665 days straight running eight miles a day with no exceptions! I don't know about you, but I'd be overwhelmed with the thought of attempting that. And yet to Wayne, it was a part of his day — every day — without exception. Now I think Wayne would admit he isn't disciplined at everything. But what allowed him to be so disciplined at this?

He simply made running the most, or certainly one of the most, important activities in his day, every day. The great thing about this is that you simply don't allow anything to get in the way of the most important objectives in your day. Everything else takes a lower priority. All of a sudden reaching the objective becomes easy. You become — disciplined.

In the case of Wayne, I'm sure that over the 21-year period there were literally millions of things that he could have used as an excuse not to run one of those days. But, because it was one of his top priorities, nothing got in the way of Wayne's running. He ran when he had a fever, he ran in place on long flights, and during bad weather he would run up and down the halls of his hotel. That's discipline!

ps: make a habit in the basic principle of discipline , my your dreams come true.

Bro. Willy

Failure Is A Choice Made By The Undisciplined Part1 of 3

by:Vic Conant

Failing to meet your objectives, regardless of what they are, is a choice, because something else has been given higher priority. If you fail, it is because you choose to fail.
We call some people "self-disciplined" and others we call "undisciplined." And what's fascinating is that one person can be disciplined at one thing but not at another. I know an extremely successful businesswoman who has run two different billion-dollar businesses. If you saw her in her business environment, you would say she was disciplined. However, this same woman has had an extreme weight problem for as long as I've known her, and so far she hasn't had discipline in that area of her life, even though she would identify it as an area of tremendous concern to her.
How can this happen? How can a brilliant person so strong and disciplined in one area of his or her life be so undisciplined and unsuccessful in another?
The answer is deceptively simple. Discipline always involves the act of reaching a goal, and it also reflects the level of commitment that is attached to the goal. Furthermore, our various personal commitments will be ranked in the order we consciously, or more likely unconsciously, believe fit with our life priorities. When goals are set halfheartedly and they don't reflect our top life priorities, there should be no surprise when we display low discipline and we fail.
The vast majority of us have no grasp of what our top life priorities are. And because we aren't conscious of them, we tend to move them around very fluidly. That's why weight may seem like a high priority on Monday but be lowered to a secondary importance below taste enjoyment by Friday. Likewise, fidelity might seem like the highest priority until temptation comes in our path. In general we allow ourselves to get in the habit of setting goals for which we are not truly committed, and then we beat ourselves up when we fail at achieving them. There is a huge difference between even a 99% commitment and a 100% commitment. Choosing to be disciplined about something means committing 100% to reaching the objective.

picture courtesy to :http://darenz.cybernamix.com/cms/imagelibrary/100042.jpg

PS: Have the habit of discipline may your dreams come true.
Bro. Willy Testa

Lesson2: The Types Mutual Funds

Types of Mutual Funds

There are mainly four types of mutual funds in the Philippines: stock (or equity), bond, balanced, and money market.

Stock or equity funds invest in shares of stock of Philippine corporations listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange. Equity funds offer the highest possibility of growth among all mutual fund types, but they also have a corresponding high amount or risk.

Bond funds invest primarily in fixed-income securities such as bonds or treasury notes issued by the Philippine government and commercial papers issued by reputable Philippine companies. Because these bonds are normally guaranteed, the possibility of loss is very low. Investing in bond funds provide capital preservation while maintaining conservative asset growth.

Balanced fund is a mixture of equity and bond funds. The high potential growth of equity investments is tempered by the conservative growth of fixed-income securities. Obviously, the return of a balanced fund is normally somewhere between the return of an equity fund and a bond fund.

Money market funds are similar to bond funds because they also invest in fixed-income securities and the growth of the fund is conservative. The main difference lies, however, in the term of money market fund investments, which is usually short-term such as one year or less.

How to choose a good mutual fund
Choosing which mutual funds to invest in ultimately depends on the investor’s growth goal and risk tolerance. If the purpose is capital growth, equity funds are the way to go. Bond funds are chosen, on the other hand, if the investor prefers capital preservation over risky capital growth. For those who want medium risk and medium growth, balanced funds are the best option. Money market funds are for those who wish to earn a conservative amount of return in the short-term.
According to the Investment Company Association of the Philippines, a duly recognized association of investment companies in the country, there are currently a total of 22 mutual funds. Six (6) of these are bond funds, five (5) are equity funds, ten (10) are balanced funds, while one (1) is a money market fund.

Source: http://www.pinoymoneytalk.com/introduction-to-philippine-mutual-funds/

UNDERSTANDING MUTUAL FUND INVESTING

Part 1

UNDERSTANDING MUTUAL FUND INVESTING


A mutual fund is an investment vehicle that pools together the funds of various investors---both individuals and corporations. The pool of funds is managed by a professional fund manager who uses the funds to create a diversified investment portfolio consisting of various investment instruments such as stocks and bonds.

Mutual Fund Quick Facts
o It pools the money of people, with the same investment objectives, through the issuance of shares.
o The resulting size of the fund allows it to invest in a basket of securities.
o It is managed by full-time professionals.
o Investors in a mutual fund are considered part owners or shareholders of the fund.
o Shareholders are entitled to a proportionate share in investment income and risk exposure.
o Each share represents a proportionate ownership in all the fund’s underlying securities
o Earnings in a mutual fund are based on Net Asset Value Per Share (NAVPS)


courtesy of http://www.philequity.net/investorEducation.php

Mutual Funds : What is this all about?

MF Lesson1: Mutual Funds : What is this all about?
As you probably know, mutual funds have become extremely popular in other country such a the US. What was once just another difficult to understand financial instrument is now a part of our daily lives. Less than 1 million people in Philippines, invest in mutual funds. But in the United States alone, trillions of dollars are invested in mutual funds by 80 Million investors.


In fact, to most people, investing means buying mutual funds. After all, it's common knowledge that investing in mutual funds is (or at least should be) better than simply letting your cash waste away in a savings account, but, for most people, that's where the understanding of funds ends. It doesn't help that mutual fund salespeople speak a strange language that is interspersed with jargon that many investors don't understand.

Originally, mutual funds were heralded as a way for the little guy to get a piece of the market. Instead of spending all your free time buried in the financial pages of the Philippine Stock Market Street Journal, all you had to do was buy a mutual fund and you'd be set on your way to financial freedom. As you might have guessed, it's not that easy. Mutual funds are an excellent idea in theory, but, in reality, they haven't always delivered. Not all mutual funds are created equal, and investing in mutuals isn't as easy as throwing your money at the first salesperson who solicits your business.

In this tutorial, we'll explain the basics of mutual funds and hopefully clear up some of the myths around them. You can then decide whether or not they are right for you.