My 5 years plan-1 month review

By paperplaneinc | Apr 25, 2012

I started my 5 years plan during 14 Mar 2012. Today is 25 April 2012. I am looking back at what I wrote last month now.

I am committed to quiting my daily job, but not now yet. I have to plan in details how to work my way out of this trap. I have seen many people successful in doing this, normally but working their ass-off first when started in this kind of plan. I’ve came to know about a person who work his ass off for 5 years times, climb all the way to top position in a huge company, getting paid well, became indispensable to the company. Then when the timing materialise, he quit his daily job, and started his own accouting firm while still working as a freelance consultants.

So, how to reach his stage of life? I saw 2 major factos in this, or maybe I can say 2 important values for us to learn. His communication skill is good, he gets to know many people and get to gel in to almost every circle he is in. Second value is his knowledge about accouting. His analytical mind+hard working attitudes is what makes him indispensable, I think.

I am looking back at myself at this point of time. I quit my job because I hate my job? Is this the real reasons behind. No, I think. Emotional is temporary, I want to quit because I need a better life, especially with my family, and also for my son’s future. My wife has had fear when I first talk to her about this. Yes, we are all afraid of changes. But if we planned well and take action step by step, reviewing what is right or wrong, eventually I think we will get there.

Well, to get away in 5 years this way, I notice the first step is always getting a higher/better pay. In such a way, we get more reserves. When you have more left, started by first saving before spending. Descipline yourself to safe a fixed amount every month, significantly in this 5 years. Just 5 years only, we shall see the huge differences. You’ll end up with more money with you, which I think emotionally less fear. This step I think is important for you to make your next moves more boldly.

In Chinese, there is this famous quote from a Hong Kong drama: Life is without too many 10 years. How many 10 years can we have? Start thinking seriously what we want to achieve, and plan it, then take action. Even if we fail, I think we will be near there also, at least we did try.

Recalled on what I intend to achieve:–

1. Improve myself to become a great trader in Forex, or become a good Fund Manager. To achieve it, I need to learn more new skills, study CFA especially, and also read more articles and books about investment.

2. Build my own business. I am currently thinking about building a new company to revamp my dad’s shop and business. Grow it bigger into a nation wide company. This company of my dad is considered less competitive in my country. I think there’s space to improve and break the Oligopoly situation currently in my country here. I will go into more details in future.

3. Start my own Online income making empire. This has always been my goal since I studied it during my University times. I never thought it will become reality for me to earn money online. It has become more common nowadays. I started to learn about niche blogging way to earn money online. Will focus on this area this year to improve my earnings.

4. Write 1 book in this 5 years period. Be it a novel or a self-improvement or personal development book. I want to start writing something. Even Harry Potter’s writer started out writing in a coffee shop, never underestimate the power of writing, words and ideas. It might makes you millionaire if not billionaire someday.

5. Build another business I have in my mind currently. An automated machine business for my own country. I would like my country to improve in efficiency, spend less in overhead and stuff’s salary. Just sell things through Automated Vending Machine, this will be the trend in next 10 years, I want to be part of it, and grow bigger with it.

——————————————————————–
Action already taken& planned action for next month:-

1. I have put CFA courses as 1 of my major studies for this year. If possible, I will get sponsored by my current company to pursue on this.

2. I have not taken much action in this area yet. But I have studied many places suitable to set up businesses, looking at competitors prices and position. I think this area is somewhere worth exploring further as I can eat up certain portion of this market.

3. My online money making is stably at USD20 now. My initial target this year will be making USD 100 every 2 months. But considering this, I will need to set up new sites to make more money. Currently I run 5 sites, some active, some are not. To achieve in working this number, I will need to run another 10 more sites. Which I think currently challenging as I am very tight up in current work.

4. Write 1 book in this 5 years period. I do not intend to write any book this year looking at my current workload. I have no space for this anymore currently.

5. Building an automated machine business. Initialy I was thinking having a joint venture with someone who already has this business available by joining his franchise. Unfortunately, it seems not working out. I will continue explore this area as it seems promising if done successfully across the country.

My 5 years plan-March 2012

By paperplaneinc | Mar 14, 2012

My 5years plan | Comment

Today is 14 Mar 2012. I started to draft down my own 5 years plan now, in here–my very own personal development blog. After many nights of thought, I’ve decided to start thinking of quitting a daily job, and get started to plan for my own future-especially my own retirement maybe 20 years down the road.

The reason why I started this plan–I hate my current job! To be specific, I hate working my arse-off for others, yet getting so little return—a fixed salary, living paycheck by paycheck every month, and not saving enough for my own future.

If you want to know good reasons why you should never get a job-Read this previous post of mine-http://freepersonaldevelopment.net/why-you-should-never-get-a-job/

Afterall, I am motivated by a post I read somewhere in facebook where I download it into my desktop. It is in Chinese, if you read Chinese, it’s good to you. If not–I think start learning Chinese now will be a good option. China will be the big player in world 10 years down the road now.

I attached here the pictures of this motivating story.

In 5 years time, I would like to achieve the below goals:

2. Build my own business. I am currently thinking about building a new company to revamp my dad’s shop and business. Grow it bigger into a nation wide company. This company of my dad is consider less competitive in my country. I think there’s space to improve and break the Oligopoly situation currently in my country here. I will go into more details in future.

3. Start my own Online income making empire. This has always be my goal since I studied it during my University times. I never thought it will become reality for me to earn money online. It has become more common nowadays. I started to learn about niche blogging way to earn money online. Will focus on this area this year to improve my earnings.

Mental Math Tricks to Impress Your Friends

By paperplaneinc | Feb 19, 2012

personal development | Comment

How to multiply any two digits number by 11

Let’s say that you want to find the product of 36 and 11. One way to find it would be to multiply 36 by 10 and then add 36 on the result. There is, however, a simple trick that’ll do the job for any two digits number. To find out the result, write the first digit followed by the addition of the first and second digit, followed by the second digit.

Example:

What happens if the sum of the two numbers is bigger than 9? In this case you add 1 to the first number, followed by the last digit of the addition of the two numbers, and then again you add the second number

Square any two digits number that ends with 5

Calculating the square of a number below 100 is extremely simple. If you want to find the square of 25 for example, you simply have to take the first digit (2), multiply it for the next higher number (3), and then add 25 to the result.

Multiply any two digits numbers with the same first digit and the second digit that sums up to 10

Let’s say that you want to multiply 42 and 48 together. Notice that they both start with 4, and that the sum of their second digit is 10. In this case there’s a simple rule that you can use to find their product. Simply multiply the first digit (4) for the next higher number (5) and then append the product of their second digits.

Note that if the product of the second digits is below ten, you have to add a 0 in front of it.

Multiply by 9

To multiply by 9, simply multiply by 10 and then subtract the number itself.

Quickly find percentages

To find out the 15% of a number, divide it by 10 and the add half of it.
To find out the 20% of a number, divide it by 10 and multiply the result by two.
To find out the 5% of a number, divide it by 10 and the divide it by two.

Addition

When we were at school, we have been taught how to sum two or more numbers together by using the right to left approach. With this method, you first sum the decimal part of the number, then you move to the hundreds and so on. This works good on paper, but it’s a pain when you’re doing mental calculations. Fortunately, the solution is very easy.

Left to right approach

Instead of using a right to left approach, we can start from the left and move to the right. Take the following example:

Usually, you would first sum up 4 to 45, and then and 30 to the result. But by using the left to right approach, you first sum up 30 to 45, and then you add 4 to the result. Although this example is very simple, you’ll see the advantages of this method as you start to use it.

If you’re working with three digits numbers, the process is the same.

This example is a bit more complicated than the previous one, yet it’s very easy to solve using the left to right approach. You first start by adding 600 to 459, which results in 1059. Now the problem is simplified to 1049 + 37. You simplify it even further by adding 30 to 1049, and then you finally add 7 to the result.

Subtraction

Like with addition, you can use the left to right approach for subtracting to numbers together. This time, however, it may feel uncomfortable to keep track of borrowings (a borrowing occurs when you subtract a number to a bigger one, like 16 – 9). Let’s see an example of this.

In this case, you first start by subtracting 10 to 64, resulting in 54, and now you only have to subtract 7 to 54. You can, however, subtract 20 to 64 and add 3 to the result. This way you don’t have to worry about borrowings.

Using complements to simplify subtractions even more

There is a way to easily calculate 3 or 4 digits subtractions very quickly in your head. This technique makes use of complements. For example. let’s say that you’re facing the following problem:

Instead of following the standard left to right approach, you could solve this problem by subtracting 400 to 674 and then add 42 back to the result. 42 is the difference from 100 and 58. A good question is: how do you find 42?

Note that there’s a simple pattern for calculating the second number. In particular, the sum of the first digits always sum up to 9, and the sum of the second digits always sum up to 10. The only exception is when the number ends with 0, which is simpler.

You can use this technique to solve any subtraction very easily.

Multiplication

In order to solve simple multiplications, it’s helps a lot being comfortable with the multiplication table for numbers below 10.

As you may have already guessed, we’re going to use the left to right approach to solve simple multiplication very easily. Take the following example:

We can reduce it by first calculating 30 × 7 (which is like 3 × 7 plus a 0) and then add 6 × 7 on the result.

This approach can be used for even larger numbers. Note that you can also round up instead of rounding down:

User contributions

the following are some math tricks contributed by the users.

Multiply by 5

Contributed by Scott.

To multiply 5 simply cut the # in half then multiply by 10.

eg. 17*5
1/2 of 17 = 8.5
8.5 * 10 = 85

Multiply numbers with multiple digits

Contributed by Tom Peterson

Use this trick when multiplying numbers with multiple digits

let {a;b;c;d…} represent digits of a number

ab x cd = (axc), (axd + bxc), (bxd)

the commas represent separation of digits, so “axc” represents the digit in the hundreds place, etc.

eg) 23 × 14 = (2×1), (2×4 + 3×1), (3×4)
8 + 3
= 2,11,12

in the event of double digits in the same digit place, the number in the digit’s place (starting with the unit’s place) carries the ten’s place digit of the digit place to the following digit place [what a mouthful!]

like in this instance

= 2, 11, 12 = 2, 12, 2 = 3, 2, 2
the answer is 322

the theory behind this is the “distribution property” of numbers commonly used with equations like (x + 1)(x + 4)=0 to make x^2 + 5x + 4=0

the same principles can be applied with 3 digit numbers as well

abc x def = (axd),(axe+bxd),(axf+bxe+cxd),(bxf+cxe),(cxf)

for multiplying 2 digit with 3 digit numbers, just use the 3×3 digits method but use a zero in the hundreds place of the 2 digit number

Square a number close to 10^2

Contributed by Prerak

Vedic mathematics provides lots of short cuts like shown here.

e.g.-
If you need to square a number close to 10^n, you can do so easily. Like if you want 92^2, lets take its answer as abcd.
Now, 92 is 8 before 100, so subtract 8 from 92, i.e. you get ab as 84. For finding cd, square 8 i.e. 64.
Hence the square of 92 comes as 8464.

For square of 87, let the answer is abcd again. Here 87 is 13 short of 100, so subtract 13 from 87 You get 74 as ab. For finding cd, square 13 i.e. 169. Since cd is only of two digits, add this extra 1 to ab.
So the answer becomes 7569.

Square two digits ending with 5

Contributed by alwayslovely

To square 2 digit numbers ending with ‘5’ eg 75 × 75
1. The answer will end with ‘25’
2. Take the first digit ‘7’ multiply by the number after ‘7’ => 7 × 8 = 56

75 × 75 = 5625

Test it out with 95 × 95.
Did you get 8125?

Squaring any number

Contributed by joe

take any number and find out how much to add to get it to the nearest tens subract and add that number to the orignal number multiply add the square

example:

(999+1) (999-1) + (1^2)
(998) (1000) + 1
999^2 + 998001

Squaring a number

Contributed by Ryan

A math trick I noticed when I was young. If you are squaring a number it is always equal to the total of the number times 2 subtract one of the previous squared number. This is helpful if you dont want to write it out. For instance most people know that 10×10=100 or 11×11=121 even 12×12=144 so lets say you dont know 13×13. Its equal to (13×2)-1(plus the previous squared number which was 12×12)144=169

Squaring two digit numbers

Contributed by Shyju

Suppose AB is the number,
Then arrange the number as follows,

A*A|2*A*B|B*B

( if A*A or A*B is one digit add 0 prior to that – eg: 4 should be written as 04, 5 should be 05 etc..)

Take a number : 35

09|30|25 ( 3*3 | double of 3*5 | 5*5 )

From right to left, keep the right most number as it is and add the number coming both side of | symbol.

ie. Keep 5 as it is, add 2+0, add 3+9

1225

Take another example 43
16|24|09 = 1849

Want more tricks?

All these tricks I learned are from the fantastic book secrets of mental math. This is one of the few books (probably the only one) that I would carry with me all the time. It’s extremely cool to be able to perform mental calculations very quickly, and you can get around it without being a nerd.

Here’s a list of what you can expect to learn from the book:

Additions and subtractions.
Basic and advanced multiplications.
Divisions.
Guessing a number (when it’s good enough).
Pencil and paper math.
How to memorize numbers.
Many other tricks that will impress your friends.

Conclusion

If you know any other math trick, please share them on the comments.

30 Habits that Will Start Changing your Life

By paperplaneinc | Feb 19, 2012

personal development | Comment

Developing good habits is the basic of personal development and growth. Everything we do is the result of a habit that was previously taught to us. Unfortunately, not all the habits that we have are good, that’s why we are constantly trying to improve.

The following is a list of 30 practical habits that can make a huge difference in your life.

You should treat this list as a reference, and implement just one habit per month. This way you will have the time to fully absorb each of them, while still seeing significant improvements each month.

Health habits

Exercise 30 minutes every day. Especially if you don’t do much movement while working, it’s essential that you get some daily exercise. 30 minutes every day are the minimum recommended for optimal health.
Eat breakfast every day. Breakfast is the more important meal of the day, yet so many people skip it. Personally, I like to eat a couple of toasts in the morning along with a fruit beverage.
Sleep 8 hours. Sleep deprivation is never a good idea. You may think that you are gaining time by sleeping less, when in reality you are only gaining stress and tiredness. 8 hours are a good number of hours for most people, along with an optional 20 minutes nap after lunch.
Avoid snacking between meals. Snacking between meals is the best way to gain weight. If you are hungry, eat something concrete. Otherwise don’t. Update: for clarification, I mean don’t eat junk food between meals, but eating real food it’s ok.
Eat five portions of fruits and vegetables every day. Our body and brain loves getting vegetables and fruit, so I highly recommend eating as much of them as possible. Five portions is the dose that’s usually recommended by many health associations.
Eat fish. Fish is rich of omega 3 and other healthy elements. At least one meal per week of fish should be enough for getting all these nutrients.
Drink one glass of water when you wake up. When you wake up, your body is dehydrated and needs liquid. Make the habit of drinking one glass of water after you wake up in the morning. Also, drink more during the day.
Avoid soda. Soda is often one of the most unhealthy beverage you can find. Limit your consumption of soda as much as possible and you’re body will be grateful for that.
Keep your body clean. I don’t advise spending your day in front of the mirror, but a minimum of personal care does never hurt.
If you smoke, stop it. There’s no reason to smoke anymore, and quitting is possible.
If you drink, stop it. Same as above. Don’t think that alcohol will solve your problems. It never does. The only exception is one glass of wine per day during meals.
Take the stairs. This is just a hack that forces you to do a minimum of exercise. Instead of taking the elevator, take the stairs.

Productivity habits

Use an inbox system. Make the habit of keeping track of all the ideas and things that comes to mind. You can use a notebook to do this, and then sync everything on your computer.
Prioritize. If you have a list of things to do, where do you start? One way is to prioritize your list. If you are in doubt, ask yourself: “If I could only accomplish one thing today, what would it be?”
Plan, but not too much. Planning is important, and you should decide in advance what you are going to do today or this week. However, planning for more than a few weeks is usually inefficient, so I would not worry too much about that.
Wake up early. Waking up early in the morning is a great way to gain extra time. I personally like to wake up at 5 am, so that by 9 am I have already accomplished what otherwise would have taken me many days..
Check your email only twice per day. Email can easily become an addiction, but it’s usually unnecessary to check it every 10 minutes. Make an effort and check your email only once or twice per day, see if the world will still rotate as before after you try this.
Eliminate unimportant tasks. Being busy all day does not mean you are doing important stuff. Eliminate every activity that’s not important, and focus on what really matters.
Clean off your desk and room. Having a clear room and desk is important to maintain focus and creativity.
Automate. There are a lot of tasks that you need to perform every day or every week. Try to automate them as much as possible.
Set strict deadlines. When you do something, decide in advance when you’re going to stop. There’s a rule that states that you will fulfill all the time you have available for completing a task, so make an habit of setting strict deadlines for maximizing your productivity.
Take one day off per week. Instead of working every day, take one day off per week (for example sunday) where you are not going to turn on your computer. Use that time for doing recreational activities like going for a walk.

Personal Development habits

Read 1 book per week. Reading is a good way to keep your brain active. With just 30 minutes per day you should be able to read one book per week, or more than 50 books per year.
Solve puzzles. Quizzes, word games, etc. are all good ways to exercise your brain.
Think positively. You are what you think, all the time.
Make fast decisions. Instead of thinking for one hour wherever you are going to do something, make your decisions as fast as possible (usually less than 1 minute).
Wait before buying. Waiting 48 hours before buying anything is a tremendous money saver, try it.
Meditate 30 minutes per day. A great way to gain clearness and peace is through meditation. 30 minutes are not a lot, but enough to get you started with meditation.

Career habits

Start a blog. Blogging is one of the best way to put your word out. It doesn’t have to be around a specific topic, even a personal blog will do.
Build a portfolio. If your job is creating stuff, building a portfolio is a great way to show what you are capable of. You can also contribute stuff for free if that applies to your work.

Warren Buffett Explains Why Stocks Are Obviously Better Than Gold

By paperplaneinc | Feb 9, 2012

Wealth Management | Comment

Warren Buffett watchers won’t be surprised by the news that the Berkshire Hathaway CEO is not a fan of gold, and instead prefers investments in real productive enterprises.

In the latest issue of Fortune, Buffett has a “preview” of his upcoming annual shareholders letter, which will come out in late February.

In it he acknowledges his dislike of currency based investments, given the ongoing devaluation of the dollar and so on.

But contra many, who like gold as a hedge against devaluation and instability, Buffett still likes companies.

And he provides a simple argument for why.

Today the world’s gold stock is about 170,000 metric tons. If all of this gold were melded together, it would form a cube of about 68 feet per side. (Picture it fitting comfortably within a baseball infield.) At $1,750 per ounce — gold’s price as I write this — its value would be about $9.6 trillion. Call this cube pile A.

Let’s now create a pile B costing an equal amount. For that, we could buy all U.S. cropland (400 million acres with output of about $200 billion annually), plus 16 Exxon Mobils (the world’s most profitable company, one earning more than $40 billion annually). After these purchases, we would have about $1 trillion left over for walking-around money (no sense feeling strapped after this buying binge). Can you imagine an investor with $9.6 trillion selecting pile A over pile B?

Beyond the staggering valuation given the existing stock of gold, current prices make today’s annual production of gold command about $160 billion. Buyers — whether jewelry and industrial users, frightened individuals, or speculators — must continually absorb this additional supply to merely maintain an equilibrium at present prices.

A century from now the 400 million acres of farmland will have produced staggering amounts of corn, wheat, cotton, and other crops — and will continue to produce that valuable bounty, whatever the currency may be. Exxon Mobil (XOM) will probably have delivered trillions of dollars in dividends to its owners and will also hold assets worth many more trillions (and, remember, you get 16 Exxons). The 170,000 tons of gold will be unchanged in size and still incapable of producing anything. You can fondle the cube, but it will not respond.

Personal Development

My 5 years plan-1 month review

My 5 years plan-March 2012