Top 5 Tips to Build Wealth and Success

Warren Buffett is worth $45 billion. That wealth isn't only a factor of savvy investing and good business — the "Oracle of Omaha" is also known as a penny pincher. Buffett still lives in the same Omaha, Neb., home he bought in 1958 for $31,500.

Follow his frugal formula, and you too may wind up with a lot more money than you ever dreamed.

This week Financially Fit covers five tips to build wealth and success.

1. Live Below Your Means.
Being wealthy isn't just a product of your salary or investment prowess; it's learning how to save.

"We can make a lot of money, you can make a little bit of money, but the second you spend all the money is when people get into trouble. Saving is the key to preserving your wealth," says Ed Butowsky, managing partner of Chapwood Capital Investment Management, a firm that manages money for wealthy individuals.

As many Americans realized during the booming real estate market, just because you think you can afford something doesn't mean you should buy it. Keeping an eye on your bottom line will pay dividends over the long term.

2. Bounce Back From Defeat

With nearly 15 million workers unemployed right now in the U.S., it's easy to get discouraged. Don't! Most successful and wealthy people have overcome obstacles and failure along the way. Steve Jobs was ousted from Apple when he was 30. Today, he's a billionaire and a legend. Plus, after getting fired, he created another billion-dollar media company, Pixar.

"Bouncing back from defeat is something all great achievers have. They have this undying belief good things will happen and will continue to happen," says Butowsky.

Take Michael Jordan. "His airness" was cut from his high school basketball team. Motivated by the rejection, Jordan became a star the next season. The rest is history.

3. Self-Promote

Regardless of the profession, the rich and successful tend to have a strong sense of self-worth — key to skillfully navigating an upward career path. Mark Hurd, who was ousted as CEO of Hewlett-Packard in August, couldn't be kept down for long. Using his business skills and connections, in September, Hurd was named president of Oracle. (Hurd and Oracle founder Larry Ellison are known to be close friends.)


4. Have Street Smarts

Bernie Madoff lived the high life for decades, scamming unsuspecting clients, with a money-making formula that proved too good to be true. Only afterward did we learn that with a little due diligence, most clients could have easily uncovered the fraud.

But it's not only the swindlers and the con men you have to watch out for. Many times, friends and family take advantage of the rich. Whether it's a handout or an investment idea, Butowsky advises his high net worth clients that in most cases, it's wisest to just say "no." The best way to do that: have someone else do it for you.

"You need to really set up a wall between you and your family," he advises. "If you don't want to give them (family or friends) money ... saying no is probably a good idea."

5. Buy Cheap

The rich can afford to splurge, but that doesn't mean they do.

John Paulson, a billionaire hedge fund manager, bought his Hamptons "dream house at a bargain basement price," according to Greg Zuckerman, author of the Paulson-based book, "The Greatest Trade Ever." The story has it that Paulson eyed the home while it was in foreclosure. Finally, on a rain-soaked day, he purchased the home on the Southampton town hall steps. He was the only bidder.

On New York City's Upper East Side, Michael's— The Consignment Shop for Women— has been a bargain-hunting destination for more than 60 years. "We have a good percentage of women who can afford to shop on Madison Avenue but really like the idea of saving that money," says proprietor Tammy Gates.

From Chanel to Gucci and Louis Vuitton, the store specializes in high-end designer merchandise for a reasonable price. Speaking of her clientele, Gates says, "they're wealthy for a reason. They recognize that bargains keep people wealthy. Paying top dollar when you don't have to doesn't make sense."

This article is part of a series related to being Financially Fit

got a call from 03-27818181

Today is Monday and usually a busy day for a GP's clinic and I got this stupid call 03-27818181~ 2.30pm. A Malay lady claiming from AIA insurance representing Visa wanting to ask me three questions and if answered correcting I may get to win a Samsung Galaxy!!! Wah !But before she can finish talking I felt so annoyed( being so tired in the morning and haven't taken my lunch) and keep on asking her what is the bank that gave her my handphone no.She can't answer and finally give up and promise will call back ~5.30pm

And of course she didnot call back and I google and found out so many people got this stupid marketing call form AIA, read it
http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/0327818181/3

NINE Things That Will Disappear In Our Lifetime

This is an email from smartbiz, thanks.

Subject: NINE Things That Will Disappear In Our Lifetime

Whether these changes are good or bad depends in part on how we adapt
to them. But, ready or not, here they come.

1. The Post Office
Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so
deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain
it long term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the
minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your
mail every day is junk mail and bills.

2. The Cheque
Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with cheque by
2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to
process cheques. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to
the eventual demise of the cheque. This plays right into the death of
the post office. If you never paid your bills by mail and never
received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of
business.

3. The Newspaper
The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They
certainly don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That may
go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the
paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet
devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine
publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and
the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid
subscription services.

4. The Book
You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your
hand and turn the literal pages. I said the same thing about
downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly
changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for half the
price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The same
thing will happen with books. You can browse a bookstore online and
even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less than
half that of a real book. And think of the convenience! Once you start
flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find that
you are lost in the story, can't wait to see what happens next, and
you forget that you're holding a gadget instead of a book.

5. The Land Line Telephone
Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you
don't need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they've
always had it. But you are paying double charges for that extra
service. All the cell phone companies will let you call customers
using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes

6. Music
This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music
industry is dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal
downloading. It's the lack of innovative new music being given a
chance to get to the people who would like to hear it. Greed and
corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio
conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40% of the music
purchased today is "catalogue items," meaning traditional music that
the public is familiar with. Older established artists. This is also
true on the live concert circuit. To explore this fascinating and
disturbing topic further, check out the book, "Appetite for
Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, "Before
the Music Dies."

7. Television
Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of
the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their
computers. And they're playing games and doing lots of other things
that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time
shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common
denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about
every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it.
It's time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery. Let the
people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix.

8. The "Things" That You Own
Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our
lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may simply
reside in "the cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive and you
store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on
a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be. But all of
that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up
their latest "cloud services." That means that when you turn on a
computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system. So,
Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the
Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet
cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. And you
may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider. In this
virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your
whatever from any laptop or handheld device. That's the good news.
But, will you actually own any of this "stuff" or will it all be able
to disappear at any moment in a big "Poof?" Will most of the things in
our lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes you want to run to the
closet and pull out that photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or
open up a CD case and pull out the insert.

9. Privacy
If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it
would be privacy. That's gone. It's been gone for a long time anyway.
There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even
built into your computer and cell phone. But you can be sure that
24/7, "They" know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS
coordinates, and the Google Street View. If you buy something, your
habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to
reflect those habits. "They" will try to get you to buy something
else. Again and again.

All we will have left that can't be changed are "Memories".
And then probably Alzheimers will take that away from you too !

A good article about forward PE

reading through the blogs in the morning, snowball of
good stock bad stock- Finance and Investment through a skeptic's eyes has highlighted a good article for reading Value Restoration Project
Do give it a good read!

Run, Don’t Walk, Away From Forward P/Es
Posted on: 2011/06/20, In: Investment Philosophy, Secular Cycles
One of the most consistent messages I’ve heard throughout my career is that the market is inexpensive or at least “fairly valued” based on next years earnings. We hear it at heights of euphoria and the depths of despair. I don’t recall ever hearing the consensus or even a vocal minority calling the market overvalued based on forward earnings estimates. In fact, we rarely even hear perma-bears cite high P/Es based on forward estimates as the primary cause for concern. Over a decade with low and often significantly negative returns, how can that be?

A Flawed Exercise

What makes market calls based on forward P/Es so dangerous is that the concept makes such good intuitive sense. We know the market’s primary function is to look forward and discount the future back to the present. We know that valuation, as James Montier puts it, is “the closest thing we have to a law of gravity” in finance. We know that earnings, while flawed in many ways (another discussion for another day), are essentially what investors want to pay for. To confuse matters worse, when analyzing an individual company’s stock, skilled investors absolutely would want to forecast forward earnings, make pro-forma adjustments from GAAP and then estimate a fair value based on a P/E multiple of that estimate.

Valuing the market on forward earnings estimates is a flawed exercise which often leads to incorrect assumptions about future market returns. It just doesn’t work very well.the rest of articles

Bullish outlook for two IPOs

Bullish outlook for two IPOs
By LEONG HUNG YEE
hungyee@thstar.com.my


KUALA LUMPUR: Despite the sluggish performance of initial public offerings (IPOs) in major markets, investors and analysts are generally bullish on the IPOs of MSM Malaysia Holdings Bhd and Eversendai Corp Bhd next week.

Analysts said the IPOs were expected to be well-received despite the perceived lack of quality offerings on the market recently

They said the two IPOs were “likely to garner attention” of large institutional investors given its size. “There's also a sheer diversity of companies being listed, which gives investors a better choice to diversify their portfolios,” an analyst said.

OSK Research head Chris Eng said MSM and Eversendai might be considered “small” to foreign investors and as such were unlikely to be affected by regional sentiments.

However, he said Eversendai would have to compete for funds not only with MSM but also Bumi Armada.

“We feel positive about MSM given its strong government ties, defensive business model and leading position in the Malaysian sugar industry. The fact that its shares are in demand and it has just reported a strong jump in profits points to a good debut,” Eng said.

MSM's net profit for the first quarter ended March 31 soared 416.5% to RM62.2mil from a year ago, mainly due to increase in sales and higher prices of refined sugar products.

Revenue for the quarter rose to RM503.17mil from RM497.75mil.

“The positive sentiment could be attributed to the better quality of these soon-to-be listed companies which have strong financial track record,” the analyst said adding that the recent strong financial results posted by MSM would attract investors.

He added that investors' appetite for these mega IPOs appeared to be returning after a dismal performance from few ACE counters recently.

MClean Technologies Bhd and XOX Bhd have been underperforming since it got listed. MClean made its debut on the ACE Market last month at an IPO price of 52 sen. The counter closed at 25.5 sen yesterday, half its IPO price. XOX fell 35% on its debut to 52 sen from its IPO price of 80 sen. A day before listing, the mobile virtual network operator announced it made a net loss of RM1.67mil for the quarter ended March 31, 2011. The counter continued to slide, closing at 41 sen yesterday.

“Not all the newly-listed companies are seeing bad performances in their stock prices. The perception is there because a few of the recent listings are not doing very well.

“But Focus Lumber Bhd, Boilermech Holdings Bhd, Asia Media Group Bhd and Benalec Holdings Bhd are performing well. So, it also boils down to the company,” said a local fund manager.

Analysts said Prada SpA and Samsonite International IPOs on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange did not get the type of reception they were looking for. Prada's shares were traded flat on their debut on the Hong Kong stock market yesterday. Samsonite, which fell 8% on its Hong Kong debut last week, has recovered its losses and was trading at HK$14.58 early yesterday - slightly higher than its listing price of HK$14.50.

Nevertheless, analysts did not expect the regional sentiments to affect the listing of MSM and Eversendai.

Year-to-date, Bursa Malaysia has received 16 new companies. Besides Eversendai and MSM, other mega IPOs this year are Bumi Armada and UOA Development Bhd.

Bumi Armada is expected to be listed this year while Old Town Bhd announced its plan to list on Bursa Malaysia's Main Market on July 11.

Eversendai IPO's institutional offering had amounted to more than 2.5 times the 202.04 million shares on offer to investors under the bookbuilding exercise, while the public portion was 7.3 times oversubscribed. The final institutional price has been fixed at RM1.70.

Still bullish?I can't remember when is the last time I apply for an IPO, even missing the not too long listing of PETROCHEM,why?Not in the mood to analyse all these IPO, it will take up too much of my time.I would to just do a follow-up of whatever exiting stocks that I owned.