Well , first and foremost, a warm welcome to this blog. Thank you for your willingness / or unwillingness ( in case you got re-directed here accidentally or happened to click it indirectly ) to spend your precious time on my humble little blog.
Just a few clarifications before you move on. This blog is NOT ANOTHER "GET RICH QUICK BY INVESTING " scam , nor is it a guide to quick fixes of your monetary woes . As the title of the blog implies , it is merely a guideline or a reference materials for others to read or refer to in order to acquire more financial knowledge , and ultimately break free from the vicious cycle of the rat race and income traps.
I do not claim to be the masters of financial intelligence , but rather I am just a student , just like many of us , struggling to acquire more knowledge in this seemingly never-ending quest to acquire financial freedom. With this blog , I hope that I can share with you all some financial knowledge that I have read from books , websites and other sources , in hope that all of us can be financially free in the end. So, here's abit about my story and how it all started .
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Born and raised in the Prince of Wales island, Malaysia in the 90's ,I came from a rather poor family background . However, my parents worked hard to provide for me , and everything seems nice and pretty in my childhood . There was never a need to worry about money , heck , there wasn't a need for money back then as I haven't understood the value of it . Me and my family of four stayed in a small but comfortable house , which only have one room in
Rifle Range Flats , a low cost housing scheme started by the Government to help the poor .Due to it being a low cost residential area , a lot of people , even the local Penangites dare not venture in it , because they thought the place is rowdy , dirty , noisy and dangerous . Well , in a way , they are right . They certainly got the rowdy and dirty part right , but for those who are staying there ,many would claim that it might be among one of the rare jewels reflecting the food haven in Penang , with its morning wet market , the happenings , hawker foods , night street market and etc.
I was no exception . Growing up in that small neighborhood , we know almost everyone in the area . Food was aplenty and their diversity and low costs only serve to make your stomach grow bigger. I felt really happy when I was young . Nevertheless , all started to change when I entered adolescence . It is that phase of life when people started craving for things that our peers have . My more well off peers would have their parents fetched them to school with nice looking cars , wearing branded , expensive uniforms ( believe it or not , even school uniforms differs from brand to brand ) , and can afford computers and internet connection ( a symbol of luxury and exclusivity that belongs to the rich at that time ) .
Being a hot-blooded teenage guy succumbing to the feeling of envy and jealousy , I would occasionally ask my parents to buy the same , if not better things for me. Unfortunately , I was often denied the requests and would get the same reason every single time for the unavailability of those luxuries which is " Sorry son , we can't afford it " .
It was then that I started learning the true value of money and how it could greatly or adversely impact our lives .
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During my secondary schooling days , while other kids are being chauffeured to and fro their home by their parents of personal chauffeur , I on the other hand , had to walk quite a bit to take buses back to home every single schooling day . While walking under the hot, scorching sun , carrying a heavy school bag filled with textbooks that contains information and facts I knew I would never need in the future , I started wondering , why ? Why is it that some people can travel by car , motorcycle and other means of transportation ? Why is it that some people can afford to go out everyday , splurging their money like water , and enjoying the material pleasures of life ? While me, on the other hand have to suffer and say no whenever there's an invitation to go hang out simply because I can't afford it and I have no means of transportation to go to .
As I grew up and started to mature more , I realized the reason was simply I don't have enough money . The impact money had on our lives is indeed very big . Money affects us in more ways than we can possibly think of. In school , more often than not , it segregates us into forming distinct cliques based on our family's income level ( i .e the poor mixing with the poor and rich mixing with the rich ) . It makes us think twice before giving up our hard-earned money for an activity . It even limits our decisions and choices ( i.e you can go to a famous private university even if your results are not that good , provided you have the fund and etc ) . Some people even let money controls their life and be obsessed with it .
After graduation from high school , money , or rather the lack of it affected me even more , I wasn't very good at studying in the first place , and therefore only attained mediocre results . Due to lack of funds , I was unable to pursue my desired course in college or private universities eventhough I was confident in my communication and presentation skills , knowing that I could excel in those courses had I be given a chance .So, in the end I entered public university pursuing course that I was given , not chosen. The lack of money was a heavy burden to me.
During this time , a friend of mine joined Amway company as a distributor and introduced me to the term "financial freedom". For the uninitiated , Amway business model is a multilevel marketing model (mlm) , which requires you to recruit more people into the business to enable you to earn commissions from their sales. I was immediately smittenned by the idea of being free from money forever , and I took the bait . I joined Amway as a distributor too , went to their seminars and try to recruit some people .
However , I quit after realizing that this kind of business wasn't suitable for the people of my age bracket . Don't get me wrong , multilevel marketing is a great business model , and so is Amway , but I realized that at my age , when most of my friends are just studying and not earning money yet , I would not be able to recruit people in . Plus the fact that I was also studying at that time and can only do it part time . Hence, I left it and kept on searching for better alternatives.
Even now, I am still searching . Now , if you have read until now , I believe that most of you can relate with my story , of how the lack of money have somewhat limited our abilities to enjoy life to the fullest , and overshadowed our main priorities in life ( health , happiness and family ) . Have you ever wondered what you can do if you are financially free ? I have , and a lot of times too. Up until now , there are countless "what if I have the fund" times that came across my mind whenever I suffered a setbacks or obstacles related to fund . I could have provided much more for my family . I could live a better life , I could give more back to the society , and I definitely could have been much more happier .
People say , money are the roots of all evil , and blamed money for many of the vicious acts and crimes conducted by beasts disguised in human skin , but then again , if we were to think carefully , money are just emotionless , soulless ,lifeless inanimate objects incapable of making decisions . It is the their owners , the humans that made those decisions to do various violent and vicious crimes using them. For money , people became corrupted , bribery happened , war erupted , relationships broke , and many people are harmed in the process. However, the opposite is also true . Without money , it's hard to survive . Have you ever lived in the street as a homeless beggar ? Have you ever tried not having real food to eat and only survive on instant noodles or in the worst case scenario , only breads for months ? These may be an exaggerated scenarios , but I assure you , these people are real and they exists . In today's cruel reality , it's obvious that money is essential and we need them to survive.
And henceforth the existence of this blog . I dare not think much but I hope that with this blog , at least there are more and more people who's able to learn more about financial intelligence and ultimately acquire financial freedom in the end. It is my earnest desire to share these guides and tips to those that are interested in order to raise awareness about the impending crisis of 21st century , that is " the rich getting richer, and the poor getting poorer ".
Hopefully , all of us are able to learn something from this blog and be liberated from the confinement and control of money . Let's all be free TOGETHER :)
