A Chinese philosopher brought a young apprentice for a walk in his huge garden one afternoon. They were having a discussion regarding the apprentice’s slow progress in his studies.

They walked deeper into the garden and soon settled down for a moment.

The philosopher then said “look around you”, and as the apprentice started to notice his surroundings, he continued with a question “do you see the ferns and the bamboo trees?”

“Yes”, replied the apprentice.

“I planted the fern and bamboo seeds together at the same time.”

The philosopher went on saying, “I watered them, took care of them, and nurtured them from the very first day and so on.

The fern grew quickly from the ground and filled this entire place with it’s beautiful greenery.

A year went by and I had yet to see any signs of the bamboo growing from the earth. But I did not give up.

Another year went by… and another year. Still no sign of anything sprouting out from the ground.

It was only in the beginning of the fourth year when a breakthrough came – I got to see the bamboo trees growing slowly from the ground! However, thirty days later, the bamboo trees still looked insignificant with it’s height as compared to the ferns.

At the hundredth day of that year, the bamboo trees grew at a tremendous rate that made this garden gloriously beautiful as you see here today!”

The philosopher was wise by not giving up watering and caring for the bamboo seeds, which resulted in having a garden that was two times more beautiful with both ferns and bamboo flourishing in the place.

Now given that you were handed the bamboo tree seeds and you went on to plant it. Would you think that it was better to keep on watering even after not seeing any fruits of the labour after reaching the first day of the fourth year – while knowing that another hundred days more and the expected results would show – or stop at that point in time?

The same applies to us as we strive towards our financial liberation.

Here’s the cool part. A bamboo can rise till great heights!

That’s how we should expect our success to be as we grow in this journey.

No doubt that we are still living in an economic downturn. However, it is also during this period where heroes are made.

It’s not going to be the chief executives or the presidents that would stand tall and become the heroes to emerge in this season. This time, it would be the ones that get their hands dirty, mingling and hustling with confidence that the solutions we provide adds value to people that walk into our lives daily.

3 Things To See In An Emerging Hero

1. Honesty

In these days where presumably, 20% had been badly hit by the economy, 60% went through some form of recession restructuring (eg: decrease in income or increase in responsibilities), and the remaining 20% include those who are not affected by the current situation, people are still willing to open up their wallets to spend. Hence, there is a need for honest persuaders to lead consumers to making the right decisions towards a deal. Honest representatives will build quality leads and gain potential sales as trust has been created between the buyer and him.

2. Happiness

Who would you rather help out and support?

Trust is instantly built when a person brightens up another’s day. There’s charisma, charm, and instant rapport from a representative who is happy to be in your presence.

I am more likely to part my money with a person who is confident in his goods and services – especially with someone who is happy to be in his career.

How about you?

3. Hustle

Hustle is the most important word today. Made popular by Gary Vaynerchuk, hustling is a key to tremendous success in this battled economy.

Heroes hustle to meet people every single day.

Heroes hustle to embrace and accept themselves for who they are.

Heroes hustle to build up their brand and reputation continuously.

Hustlers are the ones that uses action (speak louder than words) to win over people (both consumers and followers). They go out there to do their stuff – even if it takes a huge portion of their time!

Are you an emerging hero?

Here’s a question to you today. Do you see yourself to be an emerging hero in this battered economy or are you going to remain at the sidelines?

Do share your thoughts in the comments on the career that you are in and how you can make a difference in your industry. Let your friends be in this conversation while you’re here too!

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Yes, given Parento’s 80/20 distribution concept, it is fair to say that 80% of the working population at the age of 40 years old and above today are totally screwed financially.

This proclamation is based on a real family that I got acquainted with recently, where they are (read: claimed to be) deeply in debt, with the husband holding low-income jobs. This week alone, 3 members of that family had been hospitalized with each of them requiring medical treatment for a span of 2 to 3 days.

What were the odds for even 1 person to fall seriously ill out of a sudden?

Looking at the random faces we see in public daily, I wonder how many of them might fall into the same category as that family mentioned above? Where they have insufficient savings to tide them through till the end of the month, and mindlessly waiting for the next pay day only to go through the same vicious cycle over and over again?

Well, it was before this week of the sudden news of the 3 people requiring emergency medical treatment when the sole breadwinner acknowledged that he badly needed to save. Only procrastination (the lack of personal responsibility) with the unforeseen circumstances that only made their situation worse off today.

What went wrong?

Nothing went wrong. No one would have expected such a possibility occurring out of the blue in the very first place. However, it was this attitude towards the unknown future that only made one ill-prepared for an even such as the real-life example above.

What is the least amount of money that one need to have by 40?

It is common wisdom to have at least 6 months worth of savings (as of recent income) for liquidity due to rainy day seasons and unfortunate incidents.

Given that an average working adult makes $2,000 a month, 6 months worth of replacement source of money makes it only $12,000.

Anything lesser than $10,000 shows that the person is in a tremendously bad financial state. If anything terrible were to happen, one hospitalization bill alone would immediately wipe out whatever savings that he or she would had been storing up for years.

In fact that amount is only a bare minimum. It is definitely not enough to talk about leaving behind a legacy or even being able to live comfortably.

Have a financial strategy: There’s still hope…

For someone in his 40s, it is still not too late to start building up a retirement fund. Gradual savings and a little diversification from a comfortable budget to earn interests and rate of returns is a sound financial strategy.

If you happen to be someone in the early 20s, that should be the most basic of strategies to adopt and apply immediately from the very first job!

Question and Action

Which point of time are you in your life right now? Wealth accumulation is an important factor to get you closer to financial liberation.

So are you going to be totally screwed and unprepared when you are in your 40s with less than 10 to 15 years more before hitting the retirement age? Or would you rather be at a position where you are certain and confident that you are well prepared for any unforeseeable circumstances like the real incident that was told at the beginning of this post?

I certainly hope that this post gets you thinking right now.

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In the next 7 minutes, you will get your finances in order!

Here’s how.

Minute #1: Be consciously aware of your current financial situation

Are you someone who’s living in ignorant bliss and not knowing how your financial situation is like right now? Start to see the light. Not continuing living in the darkness is the first and most important thing prior to getting your finances in order.

Minute #2: Liquidity and savings

Know your cashflow – how much liquidity do you have at the moment and how much do you save.

Minute #3: Find good grounds

Surely there are places which you know you should have put your money into but haven’t done so. Good grounds are places that will get you better returns – either to combat inflation or to set it aside as disciplined form of savings (includes investments too).

Minute #4: Diversification

After finding good grounds, start sowing into them. Diversification allows you to reap various types of harvest. For example, the time taken for bamboo trees to grow is likened to how investments work, while other smaller fruits take a faster time to grow is similar to a higher return savings program.

Minute #5: Vision and objectives

Govern your vision and set financial objectives. What goals do you have for your investments and savings? Are you prepared for the different seasons (eg: the next bull run) in the coming years?

Minute #6: Realistic expectations

There’s definitely going to be expenses. In fact, it isn’t surprising to know that probably more than half of our take-home income goes to fixed expenses such as our bills, insurance, food and transport. However, is our savings the remainder of what we have or do we set aside an amount to save first then utilize the rest for expenditures?

Minute #7: Knowing yourself

How do you see yourself today? Does it align according to what you hope for and desire in the coming 1, 5, or even 10 years later? It is knowing yourself that will help you get closer to your financial goals.

So, do you want to achieve financial liberation? Let’s start by getting your finances in order right now.

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We want financial liberation. However, there are some hurdles that we might be facing today that we have to overcome before we could go anywhere near our goal. Read through all of them and see if any of them exists in us today.

Here are 11 ways (or obstacles) that would cause a person to be a financial failure.

If you found the 11 points (in bold) very familiar, don’t worry. They were written exactly in the same order from page 3 of a popular selling book The Big Moo : Stop Trying to Be Perfect and Start Being Remarkable, written by 33 of the brightest minds in business and edited by Seth Godin.

Do you see any of the 11 points above in yourself and in regards to your current financial situation?

So what about the solutions? I’m certain that you too would know how to counter those problems mentioned. Let’s extend the conversation in the comments section, bringing the suggestions to the readers like yourself now to share some ideas to make one a financial success.

Featured book: The Big Moo : Stop Trying to Be Perfect and Start Being Remarkable (get the book directly from the link today!)

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Ever heard of Parkinson’s Law?

That’s the one.

It’s origins were from Cyril Northcote Parkinson’s observation of the British Civil Service, where the number of employees at the Colonial Office increased even though the importance of British overseas empire declined [Ref: Understand The Parkinson’s Law To Improve Efficiency]

In today’s work context, it means having to fill up the time we have to complete a task with irrelevant work (or “fluffs”), and eventually accomplishing it at the very last minute.

Based on that, let’s go into the 3 rules that we can get from understanding Parkinson’s Law on getting us closer to financial liberation.

Plan according to these rules and we are definitely getting closer to financial liberation. Noticed the questions at the end of each rule? Share your answers and thoughts in the comments!

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It’s your beginning. You are the star of this journey. Here we are, at the genesis of your financial liberation.

Here are 3 important things you should take note of in your genesis story.

Getting into TFL’s community

Now is the time to ask this one simple question: are you going to be choosing option A or B?

The beginning is always the most important part of the journey. Get the start right today.

I hope you have A as your choice. If that’s true, please do proceed on to fill up the following simple form and you are in! You too can read more on what The Financial Liberation is about as you begin in your genesis story.

Here’s what you should be getting in TFL’s community:

• Be the first to receive the news on TFL
• Access hidden and secret pages
• Enjoy being in the vibrant community
• Signing up is free!

Let’s do that and see you in the following page!

Your information will not be released to anyone else. Only TFL and myself would have the access to contact you. That’s the disclaimer here. Oh, and don’t worry as we hate spam too.

That’s it for now. Let’s have a great beginning together in TFL! You’ll love this.