Self made Millionaires Advise

[from Yahoo - finance] - food for thought.
When you think “millionaire,” what image comes to mind? For many of us, it’s a flashy Wall Street banker type who flies a private jet, collects cars and lives the kind of decadent lifestyle that would make Donald Trump proud.

But many modern millionaires live in middle-class neighborhoods, work full-time and shop in discount stores like the rest of us. What motivates them isn’t material possessions but the choices that money can bring: “For the rich, it’s not about getting more stuff. It’s about having the freedom to make almost any decision you want,” says T. Harv Eker, author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. Wealth means you can send your child to any school or quit a job you don’t like.

According to the Spectrem Wealth Study, an annual survey of America’s wealthy, there are more people living the good life than ever before—the number of millionaires nearly doubled in the last decade. And the rich are getting richer. To make it onto the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans, a mere billionaire no longer makes the cut. This year you needed a net worth of at least $1.3 billion.


If more people are getting richer than ever, why shouldn’t you be one of them? Here, five people who have at least a million dollars in liquid assets share the secrets that helped them get there.


1. Set your sights on where you’re going

Twenty years ago, Jeff Harris hardly seemed on the road to wealth. He was a college dropout who struggled to support his wife, DeAnn, and three kids, working as a grocery store clerk and at a junkyard where he melted scrap metal alongside convicts. “At times we were so broke that we washed our clothes in the bathtub because we couldn’t afford the Laundromat.” Now he’s a 49-year-old investment advisor and multimillionaire in York, South Carolina.

There was one big reason Jeff pulled ahead of the pack: He always knew he’d be rich. The reality is that 80 percent of Americans worth at least $5 million grew up in middle-class or lesser households, just like Jeff.

Wanting to be wealthy is a crucial first step. Says Eker, “The biggest obstacle to wealth is fear. People are afraid to think big, but if you think small, you’ll only achieve small things.”



It all started for Jeff when he met a stockbroker at a Christmas party. “Talking to him, it felt like discovering fire,” he says. “I started reading books about investing during my breaks at the grocery store, and I began putting $25 a month in a mutual fund.” Next he taught a class at a local community college on investing. His students became his first clients, which led to his investment practice. “There were lots of struggles,” says Jeff, “but what got me through it was believing with all my heart that I would succeed.”

2. Educate yourself

When Steve Maxwell graduated from college, he had an engineering degree and a high-tech job—but he couldn’t balance his checkbook. “I took one finance class in college but dropped it to go on a ski trip,” says the 45-year-old father of three, who lives in Windsor, Colorado. “I actually had to go to my bank and ask them to teach me how to read my statement.”

One of the biggest obstacles to making money is not understanding it: Thousands of us avoid investing because we just don’t get it. But to make money, you must be financially literate. “It bothered me that I didn’t understand this stuff,” says Steve, “so I read books and magazines about money management and investing, and I asked every financial whiz I knew to explain things to me.”



He and his wife started applying the lessons: They made a point to live below their means. They never bought on impulse, always negotiated better deals (on their cars, cable bills, furniture) and stayed in their home long after they could afford a more expensive one. They also put 20 percent of their annual salary into investments.

Within ten years, they were millionaires, and people were coming to Steve for advice. “Someone would say, ‘I need to refinance my house—what should I do?’ A lot of times, I wouldn’t know the answer, but I’d go find it and learn something in the process,” he says.

In 2003, Steve quit his job to become part owner of a company that holds personal finance seminars for employees of corporations like Wal-Mart. He also started going to real estate investment seminars, and it’s paid off: He now owns $30 million worth of investment properties, including apartment complexes, a shopping mall and a quarry.

“I was an engineer who never thought this life was possible, but all it truly takes is a little self-education,” says Steve. “You can do anything once you understand the basics.”



3. Passion pays off

In 1995, Jill Blashack Strahan and her husband were barely making ends meet. Like so many of us, Jill was eager to discover her purpose, so she splurged on a session with a life coach. “When I told her my goal was to make $30,000 a year, she said I was setting the bar too low. I needed to focus on my passion, not on the paycheck.”

Jill, who lives with her son in Alexandria, Minnesota, owned a gift basket company and earned just $15,000 a year. She noticed when she let potential buyers taste the food items, the baskets sold like crazy. Jill thought, Why not sell the food directly to customers in a fun setting?



With $6,000 in savings, a bank loan and a friend’s investment, Jill started packaging gourmet foods in a backyard shed and selling them at taste-testing parties. It wasn’t easy. “I remember sitting outside one day, thinking we were three months behind on our house payment, I had two employees I couldn’t pay, and I ought to get a real job. But then I thought, No, this is your dream. Recommit and get to work.”

She stuck with it, even after her husband died three years later. “I live by the law of abundance, meaning that even when there are challenges in life, I look for the win-win,” she says.



The positive attitude worked: Jill’s backyard company, Tastefully Simple, is now a direct-sales business, with $120 million in sales last year. And Jill was named one of the top 25 female business owners in North America by Fast Company magazine.

According to research by Thomas J. Stanley, author of The Millionaire Mind, over 80 percent of millionaires say they never would have been successful if their vocation wasn’t something they cared about.


4. Grow your money

Most of us know the never-ending cycle of living paycheck to paycheck. “The fastest way to get out of that pattern is to make extra money for the specific purpose of reinvesting in yourself,” says Loral Langemeier, author of The Millionaire Maker. In other words, earmark some money for the sole purpose of investing it in a place where it will grow dramatically—like a business or real estate.

There are endless ways to make extra money for investing—you just have to be willing to do the work. “Everyone has a marketable skill,” says Langemeier. “When I started out, I had a tutoring business, seeing clients in the morning before work and on my lunch break.”

A little moonlighting cash really can grow into a million. Twenty-five years ago, Rick Sikorski dreamed of owning a personal training business. “I rented a tiny studio where I charged $15 an hour,” he says. When money started trickling in, he squirreled it away instead of spending it, putting it all back into the business. Rick’s 400-square-foot studio is now Fitness Together, a franchise based in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, with more than 360 locations worldwide. And he’s worth over $40 million.



When extra money rolls in, it’s easy to think, Now I can buy that new TV. But if you want to get rich, you need to pay yourself first, by putting money where it will work hard for you—whether that’s in your retirement fund, a side business or investments like real estate.

5. No guts, no glory

Last summer, Dave Lindahl footed the bill for 18 relatives at a fancy mansion in the Adirondacks. One night, his dad looked out at the scenery and joked, “I can’t believe we used to call you the black sheep!”

At 29, Dave was broke, living in a small apartment near Boston and wondering what to do after ten years in a local rock band. “I looked around and thought, If I don’t do something, I’ll be stuck here forever.”

He started a landscape company, buying his equipment on credit. When business literally froze over that winter, a banker friend asked if he’d like to renovate a foreclosed home. “I’m a terrible carpenter, but I needed the money, so I went to some free seminars at Home Depot and figured it out as I went,” he says.



After a few more renovations, it occurred to him: Why not buy the homes and sell them for profit? He took a risk and bought his first property. Using the proceeds, he bought another, and another. Twelve years later, he owns apartment buildings, worth $143 million, in eight states.

The Biggest Secret? Stop spending.

Every millionaire we spoke to has one thing in common: Not a single one spends needlessly. Real estate investor Dave Lindahl drives a Ford Explorer and says his middle-class neighbors would be shocked to learn how much he’s worth. Fitness mogul Rick Sikorski can’t fathom why anyone would buy bottled water. Steve Maxwell, the finance teacher, looked at a $1.5 million home but decided to buy one for half the price because “a house with double the cost wouldn’t give me double the enjoyment.”

I PASSED MY CUTE !

CUTE stands for computerised unit trust exam. It is an exam that all potential Unit trust Consultants, have to sit for, before they are able to continue in their pursuits of educating the public about the advantage of unit trust as a tool of increasing one's savings.

The benefits of unit trust are plenty. In this article, we examine how investing in unit trusts can be advantageous to small investors.

Unit trust is an ideal way for small investors to invest for their future. Small investors are people who earn their living engaged in activities not related to the financial arena. They are aware that investing is important for them, but they lack the know-how to make the right decisions. For people who are unable or unwilling to research and analyze investment markets and climates on their own, unit trusts are a good way to invest.

In order to maintain a portfolio of stocks in the share market, a person has to keep himself up-to-date with market information and climate. For many people, this is difficult, time consuming and expensive. By investing through unit trust, they transfer the stress of investing to people who are better equipped to look after their investments. These are the professional fund managers. Investors in unit trust also benefit in other related ways:

Diversification
Most small investors do not have the amount of money to buy a wide range of investments. By investing in unit trust, small investors can own units of a portfolio that comprise many investments. The unit trust investors are protected from volatility through the bigger number and wider range of stocks in the unit trust portfolio.

Quick Access to Their Money
Most people want to invest in instruments that allow them to get their money out quickly. Buying an investment that you cannot easily or quickly sell is not good investment, as it poses a risk should you suddenly be in need of cash. Ideally, the investment can be easily sold and cashed within a short period of time.

Unit trust schemes provide this benefit. Under the Guidelines on Unit Trust Funds, whenever an investor wants to cash his units, the unit trust management company must pay the proceeds of repurchasing the units as soon as possible, at most within 10 days of receiving the order to repurchase.

Professional Management
People who invest in unit trusts get the service of professional fund managers. They are trained in this field. Their expertise ensures that the investment decisions they make is structured and follow investment principals. They are unlikely to make rash decisions, which are more likely to happen with people who invest directly in the stock markets. Unit trust schemes enjoy this depth of knowledge and experience that the professionals bring with them. In the long term, the expertise of the professionals help the investor generate above average investment returns.

Investment Exposure
As a small investor, it is some times difficult to buy shares of a particular company. For example, if you have $1000 to invest, you are unable to buy stocks in a company at $5000 per lot. It is also impossible for you to invest in real estate, international securities and corporate bonds that would cost a few hundred thousand, if not millions. Unit trust schemes make all these possible for you. Rather than having to buy the whole chunk, unit trust schemes allow small investors to a small portion according to the amount he has to invest. You can therefore tailor the amount of your investment according to the amount of money you have at your disposal.

Investment Costs
If you buy shares directly from the stock market, you have to pay transaction costs such as broker commissions. Percentage-wise, this is higher than the amount paid by large institutional investors such as the fund managers of unit trusts. Unit trust fund managers invest large amounts. This allows them to get access to institutional rates of return. As a small investor, you have no access to this if you invest direct.

LOVELY DAY TO REMINISCE A LOVELY ORANGE CAKE

Another wonderfully perfect recipe sent by my wonderful friend, Shirley from Perth is the Delicious Almond Orange Cake. It is a Tunisian recipe. And I have got lovely comments from friends when I made this. Try it !

TUNISIAN ORANGE CAKE

Place in 100c oven turn up to 150c & after 20 mins lower oven temp. to 130 c – 110c . Cake takes 55 - 60 mins.


2 ¼ cups almond meal
2 cups C.Sugar
1 ¾ full cup fine stale beadcrumbs – process slightly.
8 eggs Beat with handbeater till very fluffy

Zest of 4 oranges ( finely grated rind - add last )

400 mls oil & butter oil ( Butter 250gr. = 200 mls oil

3 tspns. Baking Powder + pinch salt.



SYRUP ( Don’t overdo pouring of syrup over cake

3 oranges - juice only
Lge. Piece thin orange peel – skin only - no pith
½ full cup C. Sugar
1 med. Pce cinnamon stick


Gently bring to boil & simmer for 4 mins. Sieve into
A jug & later warm up & gently spoon over pricked warm cake.

Serve with whipped cream or crème fraiche. Roasted
& chopped macadamians sprinkled on top.


METHOD FOR CAKE

1. Sift all dry ingred. Into a large bowl & blend with
a wooden spoon.

2 Whisk eggs till fluffy with a hand beater & gradually add in ½ cooled butter oil mixture - gently
blend egg mixture into dry ingred. & add in remainder
of butter oil & fold in & blend well altogether. Add in
the grated orange rind & pour into well buttered - lined
tin & place into 100 c oven turning up the temperature
to 150 c – 130 c After 15 mins. lower the oven temperature to 130 c - 110 c for remainder of time. Cake takes about 50 – 55 mins. Don’t overbake cake !!

DON’T CUT CAKE TILL COLD

What does politics got to do with Lasagna?

I made lasagna, yesterday for my little darling girl, my colleagues and a student of mine - she wanted me to make muffins but making lasagna is easier. Here is the recipe.

LOVELY ! Try it for yourself !

DELICIOUS BEEF LASAGNA
Ingredients

* 1 pound sweet Italian sausage
* 3/4 pound lean ground beef
* 1/2 cup minced onion
* 2 cloves garlic, crushed
* 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
* 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
* 2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
* 1/2 cup water
* 2 tablespoons white sugar
* 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
* 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
* 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
* 1 tablespoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
* 12 lasagna noodles
* 16 ounces ricotta cheese
* 1 egg
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced
* 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. In a Dutch oven, cook sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons parsley. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain noodles, and rinse with cold water. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining parsley, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
4. To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Arrange 6 noodles lengthwise over meat sauce. Spread with one half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with a third of mozzarella cheese slices. Spoon 1 1/2 cups meat sauce over mozzarella, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers, and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil: to prevent sticking, either spray foil with cooking spray, or make sure the foil does not touch the cheese.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving

What does politics got to do with Lasagna? Well, Razali must have gotten his inspiration to give us an insight into his political views when he was savouring a plateful of my homemade lasagna ! Betul tak Razali?