Summary – Working backward to ensure financial survival

The most common problem with us is that we believe with all our heart that the key to living is to live in the present. I’m not against the idea since I too believe that is the only way to live. But the problem starts when we were so occupied with the present, we prefer to think that the future always stay in the future and we shouldn’t be bothered with it.

WRONG! The future will become a present to us sooner or later. And the only way we can realize that is by checking the present, which is the future of our past. Confused? Don’t be.. There’s more

1) How much cash do you have now?
Take out all your cash in your wallet and start counting. Check also all the balance in your banks. If you have a piggy bank, count those too. In short, if it is cash, count it and put the number on a piece of paper.

2) How much do you have in term of things?
Do you have a house? a car? a stereo? This is going to be more tedious than counting those coins. You will now have to estimate how much your assets worth at present. Forget about the depreciation or appreciation. Just calculate how much cash will you receive if you sell your assets now.

3) Double up everything
If the total cash you have now is about $50K, and you are now 30 years old, simple maths will tell you that by 60 years old you should have $100K.

Yes, I know that there are a lot of other factors should be considered, such as increment in salary, dividend or interest received etc. If you want to work it out, by all means please proceed. You know your finance better than I do. But logic says that unless something change, that should be the minimum you will get if there are no change in the way you manage your finance now.

Now assuming you will live until you are 80 years old. With $100K in saving, you can only survive if you spend $416 per month. I’m not sure what we can even get with $416 in 50 to 60 years time. Pay the rent maybe?

My point is this, irregardless of the inaccuracy of the calculation, we need to save for the future. And that will not happen if we did not check on our current expenditure and lifestyle. We need to change for things to change.

A good way to start is by working backward. Let’s assume we want to retire with $3000 per month. Simple maths will show that we need to have at least $720K to maintain that monthly expenditure. Now figure out how can we get that $720K

– I wonder –
How much would you like to be given monthly after you retire?

———– Personal Note ————-
I still remember my first piggy bank. At the time it was in the shape of an elephant. I had saved quite a lot of money then. It was about $40. How I knew? I knew because one day I accidentally broke a helmet screen. It belong to my father’s friend. So my father ask me to pay him with my own money.

It was a very educating moment. Even though I doubt that the cost to repair the helmet is $40

Last night was scary. I was tweaking the blog when suddenly everything’s gone. The blog is unreachable. Knowing I can’t do anything, I emailed my hosting support and they restored the blog from their backup. Damage? Hm the most recent 2 posts were lost. So I have to repost the entries from my own backup. Comments made by azuwachan and DaPocket were not recoverable

A very good lesson for me… to always backup 🙂

Anyway, today is Sunday. And here in LessonInLife.com, we take it easy on Sunday.. So presented to you are a continuation of creative ads. I just received them via email.

Credit to DaPocket

It’s been a while since I post an entry on scam awareness. Basically, what I’m trying to do is to highlight some of the popular scam which is going on. It’s sad but even with the on-going education of scam awareness, people still fall for it. Hopefully my little contribution here will tip the scale a bit.

I received this email recently. To save some space, I’m attaching the whole email at the comment section.

Generally, The person’s name is Larry and he is a director of a bank in Ghana. One of his client apparently died leaving $4.5 million with no heir to claim them.

Now, he’s asking whether I can present as the next kin to collect the money. If I agree I will be awarded with 30% of the wholel amount. That’s very gracious don’t you think?

/end email

Why it is confirmed a scam? (Please refer to the email in the comment section)

• There’s no explanation as to where he got my email. Even so, if you are about to do an illegal transaction involving millions of dollars, will you believe a complete stranger?
• There is one flaw. The client was said to die on the 21st of April 2001. That’s 7 years difference.
• The usage of a yahoo email is very suspicious looking.
• I’ve received about 2 or 3 emails very similar to this. A clear sign

How it scams?
It starts very convincingly that you bear no risk at all. But in time, I can guarantee you that the scammer will start asking you to deposit some money with the reason that his account is being monitored.

The amount may not be that much. Maybe a few hundred dollars. And you will be tempted since comparing that amount to the millions you will be receiving, that is nothing.

The scammer will then ask for more money to be used for other administration fee. This time it will be in thousands of dollars. He will even guarantee you your money back anytime you want.

Of course your money is already lost.

– I wonder –
Have you ever received emails alike?

Disclaimer – I am not by any chance associating Ghana with scam. It just so happen that the email I received stated the name.

Summary – Friday : The day to contact Lost Friends

I just went through my phonebook (in my handphone of course), and I come across my ex-roommate. He is a very dear friend of mine, and I suddenly remembered that he hasn’t called me for quite some time.

At that point, I faced two feeling. One is that feeling of wanting to call him back, just to say hi. Another is that pride thing where I think I had called him quite a lot already, and it’s his turn to call me back.

Of course I chosed calling him. And after a while, I realized that it was me that has changed my phone number and didn’t bother to give him. Whether or not he will call me if I’m still using the old number is not an issue. I should always give him the benefit of a doubt and never assume.

/end story

Guys, I know that there are some of your friends out there that you haven’t call or email. Today is the perfect day to do just that. Pick up the phone, SMS or call him/her. Friendship is just too valuable just to be sacrificed for pride. Even if he/she never make the first move, that should not be an excuse for you to do the same.

Cherish your friendship. You have taken quite a lot of time nurturing them, selecting your friends.. Why throw it away over a petty pride.

Of course they are friends that are just not worth it. But isn’t it always better to have 10 useless friends than no friend at all

Remember

• Choose one friend from your phonebook
• Call him / SMS him / email him now
• Put up a reminder in your handphone calendar, to contact another friend next week.

– I wonder –
How about you reply this article by telling us about a friend of yours? A name and how you become friends would be great

———– Personal Note ———–
Let me start, the person I just called is Bahim. He is now working in Toyota and just got married last year in March. I apparently wasn’t invited simply because I changed my phone number,Fortunately I called.