Saving is sin and spending is virtue

Interesting article written by an Indian Economist

Japanese save a lot. They do not spend much. Also Japan exports far more than it imports. Has an annual trade surplus of over 100 billions. Yet Japanese economy is considered weak, even collapsing.

Americans spend, save little. Also US imports more than it exports.

Has an annual trade deficit of over $400 billion. Yet, the American economy is considered strong and trusted to get stronger.

But where from do Americans get money to spend?

They borrow from Japan , China and even India .

Virtually others save for the US to spend. Global savings are mostly invested in US, in dollars.

India itself keeps its foreign currency assets of over $50 billions in US securities. China has sunk over $160 billion in US securities.

Japan 's stakes in US securities is in trillions.

Result:

The US has taken over $5 trillion from the world. So, as the world saves for the US , Americans spend freely. Today, to keep the US consumption going, that is for the US economy to work, other countries have to remit $180 billion every quarter, which is $2 billion a day, to the US !

A Chinese economist asked a neat question. Who has invested more, US in China , or China in US? The US has invested in China less than half of what China has invested in US.

The same is the case with India . We have invested in US over $50 billion. But the US has invested less than $20 billion in India .

Why the world is after US?

The secret lies in the American spending, that they hardly save. In fact they use their credit cards to spend their future income. That the US spends is what makes it attractive to export to the US . So US imports more than what it exports year after year.

The result:

The world is dependent on US consumption for its growth. By its deepening culture of consumption, the US has habituated the world to feed on US consumption. But as the US needs money to finance its consumption, the world provides the money.

It's like a shopkeeper providing the money to a customer so that the customer keeps buying from the shop. If the customer will not buy, the shop won't have business, unless the shopkeeper funds him. The US is like the lucky customer. And the world is like the helpless shopkeeper financier.

Who is America 's biggest shopkeeper financier? Japan of course. Yet it's Japan which is regarded as weak. Modern economists complain that Japanese do not spend, so they do not grow. To force the Japanese to spend, the Japanese government exerted itself, reduced the savings rates, even charged the savers.

Even then the Japanese did not spend (habits don't change, even with taxes, do they?). Their traditional postal savings alone is over $1.2 trillions, about three times the Indian GDP. Thus, savings, far from being the strength of Japan , has become its pain.

Hence, what is the lesson?

That is, a nation cannot grow unless the people spend, not save. Not just spend, but borrow and spend.

Dr. Jagdish Bhagwati, the famous Indian-born economist in the US , told Manmohan Singh that Indians wastefully save. Ask them to spend, on imported cars and, seriously, even on cosmetics! This will put India on a growth curve. This is one of the reason for MNC's coming down to India , seeing the consumer spending.

'Saving is sin, and spending is virtue.'

But before you follow this neo economics, get some fools to save so that you can borrow from them and spend!!!

 

Dear everyone,

Do you believe that wealth is from within you? For those who believe so, the series of posts as how to create wealth through A to Z will assist you to achieve your dream.

J

Just do it.

To create wealth, your belief must be aligned to the above series thoughts.

Please forward your view on this.

Stay tuned for next series. Look forward to seeing you again,

Wishing you success,

James Oh

SUCCESS STORY OF SHANGHAI

SUCCESS STORY OF SHANGHAI

Dear my friends, Shanghai Literally means “above sea” – no wonder it has so much to offer as  it is the city that never sleeps – exhilarating for those who seek an  active lifestyle. To facilitate its crucial function as a gateway to  China , it's integrated logistic and transportation systems manifestly  reflect this main heart of activities. Easy and excellent accessibility  by all modes of transportation, namely road, air, sea and rails is  crucial.    Not withstanding the fact that it has a super duper public  transportation system, it also has clean streets and surprisingly little  air pollution which is clearly in contrast to other major cities. The  city is also linked with thousands of bus lines apart from the  Shanghai Metro (subway) which has four lines at present. All these  facilities are made available for them to fuel demand of a highly  educated and modernized workforce. Such infrastructures are  crucially required to facilitate the movement of the labour forces  domestically as well as internationally.    Not surprisingly to note the world first of its kind, maglev railway  was erected there, from Shanghai’s Long Yang Road subway  station to Pudong International Airport. It takes only 7 minutes  to travel a 30 km journey with its maximum speed of 431 km/h.  Such an advanced and sophisticated transportation mode is  necessary in view of its huge population coupled with its  attraction as a favorite tourist destination. This city also has two airports; namely Pudong International  airport, caters for both domestic and international flights, served  as one of the most important hubs in China. Whereas Hongqiao  Airport is mainly used for domestic flight purposes.     To supplement its function as the gateway to China, numerous  elevated roads are also added, apart from the three railways  intersections in this grand city. You may find these elevated  roads appear in expressway-like road conditions (direction  separated lanes).  These bridges/multi level highways in the centre of this great  city, featuring the Chinese character “well”, link up the flow of  traffic from every direction. This zig-zag crossing afloat and  under the elevated highways truly reflected the glory of their  local architectural designs. If you were traveling at high speed,  you may feel like traveling on a roller coaster. Tunnels and  bridges cleverly creep in to link up certain areas such as Puxi  to Pudong. Everywhere you find big crowds of people, truly reflects its  real success as a tourists destination. Normally you may also  find parades of buses bring in and out thousands of visitors,  local and foreign, to and fro this grand city. As such, parking  problem becomes a norm here. To overcome this problem, the  drivers (locally called “Shi fu” or master) of all these tourist  coaches usually stopped their vehicles at the road side of the  main destination to drop their valued passengers. Thereafter,  they have to drive to a destined parking area, which is a walking  distance away from these tourist spots. What will happen if more  and more people, whom majority at present are still using  bicycles and scooters as their main mean of transportation,  upgrade to motor cars. Although it has well equipped with all these sophisticated  transportation infrastructure, ironically we find some of their traffic  rules are not in harmony with the international traffic laws.  Pedestrians who are used to normal traffic rules, usually have to  ensure that both sides of the traffic where two lanes of flowing  directly opposite to each other, are clear before crossing, they  have to be extra cautious especially when crossing the road.  Pedestrians are legally obliged to give way to the motorists  as the latter are legally obliged to slow down their vehicle,  but not obliged to stop even when approaching a zebra-crossing  – contradictory to the normal traffic rules. I was told that the  local authority is looking into the matter seriously. I guess it  is due to their own uniqueness where pedestrians and cyclists  at one time form the majority far beyond when compared to  motorists. That may be the reason why they think it is more  appropriate to shift the legal burden to pedestrians, rather than  the motorists. With the present situation, the Zig-zag traffic flow  has complicated the above problem especially to the pedestrians. Being one of its tourists’ main attraction spots, Shanghai Bund, is the  classic image of Shanghai. Here, you will find huge crowds of  tourists flooding the area day and night. It is worthwhile to note the  elegant colonial architectural buildings and the new futuristic buildings  actually blend in easy harmony, separated by the famous Huangpu river, being the main attraction. Naturally it never failed to attract visitors,  being individual or groups to snap their photos with such wonderful and  rare background of its kind. Taking a cruise along this famous river, which divide the majestic  buildings dating back to Shanghai’s grandest days and the latest  landmark area such as Oriental Pearl Towers and trade centre, you  may find some fun and excitement.    Alternatively, taking such a cruise at night may prove romantic  especially for young loving couples. The effect of the neon lights  from those elegant buildings along the river, may be viewed as if it  is candle lights from mighty candle stands. Just imagine you are at  that scene, staring at the beauty of the lighting while you let other  parts of body do the talking with your sweet and lovely partner –  a real romantic and joyful sensation. The breeze blowing towards  both of you, may add more sensation to their already intimate  feeling. By snapping a photo with such a memorial and sweet  moment is worth far beyond the effort.    For those who have already known of its port, being the largest in  the world as of December 2004, will not find any surprise to see  huge cargo ships frequently moving along this river. As such, taking  a photo with such unplanned cargo ship as a background would  become a norm here.    This never sleeping city brings in and out hundreds of thousands of  visitors either domestic or foreign daily. Coaches forming beelines  along the bund is a normal sight to the local people. Beggars; young  and old, able and disable, are also seen trying to take advantages of  the crowds. Your Chief Servant, James Oh Founder and Group CEO Skype me at james.oh18 http://liftyouup.blogspot.com

SIX PRINCIPLES OF LIFE

PRINCIPLES OF LIFE

• No point using limited life to chase unlimited money.  
  
  • No point earning so much money you cannot live to spend it.  
    
    • Money is not yours until you spend it.  
      
      • When you are young, you use your health to chase your wealth;when you are old, you use your wealth to buy back your health. Difference is that, it is too late.  
        
        • How happy a man is, is not how much he has but how little he needs.  
          
          • No point working so hard to provide for the people you have no time to spend with.  
            Remember this -- We come to this world with nothing, we leave this world with nothing!
            Sue Divine
            Forgiveness is the final form of love..
             
            

TGB POSITIVE RESULT FOR THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2010

Hello Folks,




We are very glad to bring you the good news on Transmile, which had published its first quarter report with RM 9.8 million. For some especially those who have been following our previous articles this is welcome news.


To view it, please click at the title of this post.


Big congratulations to this management team who have been working very hard to turn it into positive zone and we sincerely hope this is a permanent one, which give hope to lots of people especially their own staff. In this instance, they need a praise as they have proved my previous perception on the team wrong. However, it affirms that this company still have profitable and viable business model. This is a good news to me despite that I was wrong in my judgment at that particular time, based on their unattractive presentation, in my view, at their Annual General Meeting. It clearly shows that we can't judge the book from its cover. What is more important now is how they should look forward and make more achievements in the year to come.


For those who are curious to look in details of their performance. I am very happy if they could share with us their findings, the strategies and action they have taken to overcome their challenges. I believe that through sharing, we all can learn from each other.


With such results couple with their strategies, I hope they are able to convince their lenders not to wind up this company. Moreover, this company still has a niche market to play. In this regard, I wish them all the very best.


That's all for this time and again big congratulation to you. At the same time, I also look forward to hearing from you,


Thanks so much for your precious time to read this article. Kindly pass it to other if you enjoy it. You can do so by clicking on FB, Twitter and other social Networking Group side bar at the left side of this post.


Your Chief Servant,


James Oh
Founder and Group CEO


Skype me at james.oh18


http://liftyouup.blogspot.com

HOW TO LIVE YOUR LIFE TO ITS FULLEST

Dear Friends,


I am sure that some of you may be searching for the answer for the above question like me. This long sought after answer has driven me to blog this post because I have finally found mine, and do not know about you.


However, I prefer to share it out with you so as it will at least help you to find yours as well. Likewise, we always believe that we can only pass back our experience and knowledge to the world which we have benefit from, that is the way to express our appreciation to the world.


As far as I am concern, I would rather take the interpretation that to truly live life to its fullest, one has to truly enjoy every moment of our time. I have to adopt the right perspective so as to stay focus in enjoying every moment, regardless as to what condition, situation I am in. This is critically important that I have to choose whether to stay in control or let the events control me. In other words, if you choose to enjoy every moment, then you have to look at the event at the appropriate perspective so that it does not bring adverse emotion to yourself.


To achieve such a desirable result, you need to break your life into series of events and you have to manage every event in such manner that you stay at the peak at all times. It sounds simple yet it is not easy to manage. Here, you need to put in practice, learnt and unlearnt from it. Through practice, you can then be an expert in handling every situation.


Now, you may able to see why I chose the former. This is because practice reaffirms me and I can learn from it. It will mould myself into a better person so to speak. By constantly put it into practice, it will then become my habit and eventually become part of me. Thank God that I am able to see this clearly and He had implanted in me such a positive perspective, which enable me to see every event that happened in my situation, or people around me so naturally without getting any adverse influence from it. In this context, we must be fully aware that there are so much reported negative news everywhere; online and offline. It is so easy to be influence by it as people tend to distribute more unhealthy news rather than healthy news. Therefore, you need to stay on guard at all times so as not to be affected by such invisible harm, that can easily spiral from it, if you are not careful.


To me, to achieve the above goal you need to break your life into series of activities and you have to manage each activity, both good and bad as normal people see it, in accordance to your positive perspective. In other words, what you can control is yourself, and not the external factors. To stay in control of yourself, you have to truly discover your true self and let your inward reflection convert into your external behavior. You can't hide this inward feeling as it will leave thorns that people can see it no matter how you conceal it.


By knowing your true self coupled with the appropriate strategy, you will be able to conquer these challenges without any fear and worry. You will be totally free and live your life to its fullest. For instance, you like your favorite team, let say England to win the match against Germany in the recent World cup. However, due to the error made by the referee, as some alleged, you allow your emotion to take the lead that caused you not to enjoy the game immediately thereafter the controversial moment. As such, you feel hurt and painful not only affecting yourself at that moment, but also the rest of your time and the people around you thereafter. However, if you choose to forgive the error made by the referee, as some alleged and you also recognise the fact that no one is perfect. Then, same principle apply to the referee who has a task to decide at that particular moment. Hence, the tendency of making such a mistake is remotely high. It is fair to say that your tendency to spot an opportunity to address this issue is equally high. Do not forget the big picture that the spirit of this tournament is to improve the quality of the game and connecting the world through the ball. Which country wins the game at the end of the day is not so crucial. Hope you can understand what I am trying to raise here.


By having the right perspective, looking at the event in life is very crucial to achieve success as far as I am concerned. Firstly it will not only make you wiser, but you will have a more opened mind in the sense that you are able to look at things in various perspectives and it will eventually sharpen your evaluation and lead you to make better decisions in accordance with your pre set goals. In short, life is the sum of your choices.


Please pass this article to your circle of contacts should you find it useful. In this connection, you may share it online by clicking on the Twitter, Facebook or other social networking button which are available at the right side of this post.


Thanks so much for your precious time in reading this article. Please enjoy every moment of your time thereafter and make it to its fullest.


Wishing you a success,
Your Chief Servant,


James Oh


Founder and Group CEO


Skype me at james.oh18

To read other related article, please click at the title of this post.

SAVERS ARE LOSERS

Dear Readers and Visitors,

Lots of people providing financial advice usually tell people to “save their money” to get ahead. This have proven very true in the past, prior to changes in 1971. However, the question arises whether this is still true in today's context. Before we discuss further, it may be  appropriate for us to touch on the significant events in 1971, where economic measures taken by U.S. President Richard Nixon in unilaterally canceling the direct convertibility of the United States dollar to gold that essentially ended the existing Bretton Woods system of international financial exchange. Due to the above changes, some financial advisers advocate that Savers are Losers. Though it might sound radical, however does it really not make sense to save your money in today's economy? The answer is yes and no. Why we say that the answer to the question is in the affirmative. This is because some of you may be aware that the inflation rate is very much higher than the savings rate you earn from fixed deposit. As a result, it does not make sense to save in the form of deposit except for your contingency and emergency purposes. This is crucial for those who do not have insurance policy for their needs. With this in mind, of course it makes more sense to hold securities in other forms than hard cash. Consequently, people became more incline to invest in commodities, real estate, shares and bonds as  their hedging and investment tools which they believe to generate higher yields. This is true to some extent, if you enter and exit at the right timing. Timing is always the issue in any form of investment. You don't need a genius to figure it out for you. However, when there is heavy speculation, then the price will go up. Those who entered the market much earlier will make some profit. That is the game. The question that arises is when will the price reach its peak level. To have a better guage of the situation, you  need to have relevant information that has an impact on those commodities. Your entry and exit point of your investment is crucial. The difference will give rise to the return of your investment. This will be the mechanism you ought to know. However, you also need to know that if these prices keep on increasing, the appropriate  authority will have to step in so as to reflect that they are tackling the issue. As a result, you may see the reversal trend appears on the market. Such an unhealthy trend so called to be curbed by the policy  makers by imposing a much higher saving rate so as to reduce its impact to the society. If this issue is not well addressed, then this will add unnecessary burden to the lower income group especially, salary earners. If left unchecked, it will cause chaos to society at the end of the day. As such, If these trends for the long term are in the upward trend, then it makes more sense to invest on the above instruments rather than savings. As the market is flooded with liquidity, the investors have to  turn them into other forms of instrument other than cash. Then the above argument holds water. However, at the accumulation stage of wealth, you may need to save by cutting down unnecessary expenses so long as you spend on the area where it can give you a better return in terms of health, enhance your productivity or assets value. Here, you must be cautious of spending on those areas that really can generate a higher yield to you.  Every cent you save must be well spent to enhance those values so that you are either able to reduce your expenses substantially now or in the near future. Then you are actually added value to your net worth at the end of the day. By now, we hope we have given you a good insight of accuracy of the above statement so as to enhance your wealth management skills at the end of the day. This is crucial so as to reduce your unnecessary  worries so as to lift you up in this critical aspect of life. No doubts money will bring you unnecessary misery, but lack of it will also give you tremendous misery as well. Of course, the former is much better than the latter, we believe. Please don't forget to share with us your views, both good and bad. Thank for your time to read this article. Wishing you a great success.

WEALTH ACCUMULATION; HOW TO

Dear Folks,

When we talk about wealth, it is always appropriate to begin with inner wealth as a strong footing to build and accumulate wealth. However, it is very sad to say this critical and fundamental principle is always ignored even by those who claimed to be so called wealth grandmasters.

Then the million dollars' question is what is meant by "inner wealth" in this context. My definition is more incline to attain inner peace, joy and harmony where you can stay focus on the bigger picture than just solely focus on deals with money issues. Here, this approach is more inclined to a holistic and systematic manner of attaining wealth so that the individual can live his life to its fullest, while achieving his/her pre-set goals. This approach is also not the normal method of comparing and competing with others to achieve his/her goals, as commonly seen in the city environment, or so called rat race competition. He / she choses to leverage on other's resources to achieve their mutual goals. In other words, they chose to share and pool their own resources for their mutual objectives so as to bring enhancement and betterment to the people - in a bigger picture. Here, they cooperate to maximise use of the resources for the masses of the population, rather than individual goals.

Hence, healthy living, in term of physical, mental and spiritual health is always its underlying principle to address this wealth. They allocated some funds for nurturing and building up a strong foundation in these areas regularly or on daily basis by reading healthy stuff which enter into every major components of their minds and souls. As such, they are always full of energy to undertake such noble venture with confidence and passion without any doubt.  

No doubt they are constantly exercising their efforts to attain their goals. However, they remain content with whatever they achieved. They know from their hearts that by doing so, they are able to live to their fullest by stretching themselves to the maximum, but without feeling much pain. Contradictory to common misconception, they enjoy every moment of their walk as they have their missions and passions to press on toward their individual pre-set destination. Now, you can see the great difference between these two approaches.  

In this connection, they stay much healthier than the former. Indirectly, they keep their medical bills at bay despite working for long hours. On the other hand, their productivity is very much higher as a result of the good and healthy stuff they feed on in a  regular basis. They are less disrupted and distracted by those negative incidents. Hence they are very more focused on the big picture rather than indulge in those petty issues.

1.0 Real Estate

Having such mindset and approach, they are also able to see much clearer on how to allocate their funds to generate much higher yields from their investment in real estate besides having to curb the inflation rate which makes their wealth deteriorate. This provides passive income without requiring much labour. With rental and appreciation of their real estate, the gain they made through the investment will put them in a much better position than the return from fixed deposit in the bank. However, you may argue that it is very much depend on the location of their real estate investment. At the same time, they usually will do their homework well prior to such a heavy investment. In short, such a wise move will reduce their risks of getting their investment burned. The beauty of this type of investment is that it is always has some residue value compared to shares. 

2.0 Investing

To double your wealth, another avenue which you can look into is to invest in the potentially high-performing sectors shares which you believe can give a much higher yield in term of probability such as commodities, bonds or quoted shares other than real estate. You must be aware that the latter is less liquid and not easy to turn into hard cash, compare to the former, whenever you need it. As such, you need to formulate certain percentage of your wealth which is more suitable to your circumstances and needs. Hence, this will not only reduce your risk exposure, but also enhance your gain potential. 

3.0 Starting a Business

The old saying is that it takes more money to generate more money. To accelerate extra cash you may chose to venture into business, it makes more sensible opportunity for you to make unlimited wealth when compared to salary earner. However, you need certain skills to make your business venture profitable and able to grow by tapping into its own niche market depending on your product or service you are involved in.

Thanks to the internet world, which offers more viable business opportunity, which was not available in the past. For instance eBay or Web site or Blog. Now it is much easier to monetize your brilliant thoughts via a Web site or blog. Advertisers do embrace blogs as another way to advertise to target their own niche markets. Programs like Google Adsense also place relevant advertisements on your site in return for a cut of the proceeds. Here, you can write about your hobbies just like our http://teaartblog.blogspot.com, scribble reviews occasionally like what we have done on our blog at http://liftyouup.blogspot.com or any other works if you write with authority.  Certain topics pay much better than others. To get a rough sense of the relative value of your topic, you may use the "View Bids" tool at Searchmarketing.Yahoo.com.

Of course, you don't need your own website to generate extra money. But you can also offer your service offline such as offering tuition services or any other service which you are good at.

4.0 To trim down your spending especially those which does not offer you any added value

To accelerate your wealth, you have to use your money wisely. Reviewing your major expenditures regularly is another wise move. In this connection, you will be surprised to see how you can reduce them substantially without any compromise to your lifestyle. Such a good example not only cuts down unnecessary expenditures, but also cultivates good habit of proper budgeting and planning. You may also make use of to do list to assist your work in a more organised and efficient manner. Thus saving you money and time. More over you may use the time saved for other healthy activities which will boost your income further. Killing two birds with one stone.

For more ways to cut costs on daily spending decisions, click here.

Thank for your time and hope that the above article gives you a better yield than before.

http://liftyouup.blogspot.com

Your Chief Servant,

James Oh

Founder and Group CEO

Skype me at james.oh18

http://liftyouup.blogspot.com

PURPOSE OF LIFE

To all my dearest readers and visitors,

Today, we write to share with you the bamboo slip, as shown below, which was hanging on my wall for many years.

This bamboo slip had been hanging at a junction between my living and dining hall since many years ago. If I am not mistaken, I bought it from one of the shops in Malacca for my younger sibling who faced several blows in his studies. However, he passed it back to me when he moved out from my previous house. I find the poem reflected in it is so meaningful and have a great impact to my life. I use it as my guiding principle in my walk towards my destiny literally means "The destination of a human being". However, you can also prescribe as a success formula.

The stain in this banner is very old and the stain suggests that it had been hanging for too long. However, due to its rich content, I find it difficult to cast it away. 

Perhaps it is good for me to brief you in detail as what is its meaning so that you may appreciate it as I do. It tells us not to talk about the past failures, and don't be fascinated about our dreams. Instead grab hold of present opportunities and move towards our pre-set goals. Then you shall be rewarded with Success. It can be called a SUCCESS FORMULA.

Do you agree with it? If not, please voice out your views.

As far as I am concern, four important points are being raised here:-

1. Do not let your past failures hold you back. 

As it may not a failure as you deemed it to be, but rather a turning point as it should be. If you have recalled my previous article, you should know by now that lots of successful people have managed to eliminate the wrong paths before they found their success. 

2. Never be fascinated about your dreams. 

It encourages us to put it into action. Dream is good, though it cannot guarantee you success. But every success begins with a dream. So, you decide which to choose. Here, I confess that I always prescribe to the former that led me to achieve some success.

3.  Stay focus on your purpose. 

This is a very useful fundamental guiding principle. Stay focus and never distract your attention to any other thing if success is your ultimate goal. This is not easy because we use to walk by sight and the circumstances may be overwhelming and swing your heart away from your pre-set goal. That is why successful people form a small percentage of the whole population. 

4. Moving forward.

Let us acknowledge the fact that we can't change the past. The most we can do about it is to review and learnt from it so as to avoid making similar mistakes. Having said that, we have to keep on moving forward and progress with it. That's makes our life meaningful and useful. In this regard, we have to make our pre-set goals materialised for the betterment of the world which will benefit from our contribution. Thus,  leaving behind a good and sound legacy.

With the above briefing, we hope you have a good grasp of understanding life and its main purpose. Who knows, you may get one and hang it at your wall so as to remind you when you need it. Practise it daily until it becomes part of your behavior.

Thanks for your precious time in reading this article.

Your Chief Servant,

James Oh
Founder and Group CEO

Skype me at james.oh18

http://liftyouup.blogspot.com