You can read the first part here. Everyone wants millions and the dreams-come-true that go with it.  There are roads that are tried and tested – which, more often than not, involve business.  But here are some other ways to get to that golden brick road. Real Estate Contrary to what most think, huge capital [...]

Sometimes, we need a guidepost, a road map to where we want to be. Most of the time, our goals involve wealth, or ways to wealth. Here are some methods that are tried and tested

1. Make a financial assessment.

A woman should know how much she has before she can decide what to do with how much she has. For many, this starts a series of wake-up calls, not to mention panic attacks. But wake up calls are good, and panic attacks are good because they set off something in the brain that makes it go to preservation mode.

Here is where the expensive coffee and clothes and bags and eating out and traveling have to go. Or at least cut by as much as seventy five percent.

Because to be wealthy is to carve out and use that seventy five percent for something that can bring in more income (read: investment).

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2. Invest.

For the conservative investor, there is the mutual funds that can give a steady yield year by year provided it is not taken out for at least 7 years. Other investments that are considered conservative include government bonds, time deposits, certificate of deposits and treasury bills. Boring, yes, but generally safe.

For the aggressive investor, there is the stock market. It is not for the faint of heart, it should be observed, it should be timed because it is affected by the waxing and waning of the world economies.

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We got into a business and we did not manage it. That was the fatal mistake.

But let me just say that from both ends, from the beginning until the end, there were a lot of good intentions.

We were invited to invest in a new venture – a restaurant. Hubby always wanted a restaurant to call his own and since we could not fulfill his dream yet because we are both so busy in our careers (design and law, respectively), we dived in, one eye closed.

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A friend of my husband asked me how in the world I do not own any Louis Vuitton, Prada, Tod’s, Burberry or Chanel bag, the carry-on status symbol of choice for the modern woman.

I had to smile.

Okay. I have to admit that I am not immune to their charms. If anything, I love soft leather, and I certainly can appreciate wonderful craftsmanship. The ooohs and aaahs of the woman who realizes what it is is also a great incentive, I will not lie.

But I never really felt the urge to whip out my credit card so that I can have it in my arms, never been to the point of really considering buying, never felt for it that urgent fire that one gets when one wants something, and now. Really.

Because, internally, I could not justify its cost. I do not understand why in the world it would have to cost an arm and a leg, or why in the world I had to have it just because every one else has it.

(hubby said that women buy bags for other women – those who can appreciate it – and it is the wanting to be the envy of that other woman that drives many a woman into bankruptcy… i told him maybe it is the same for men, except for them, it is cars, or trophy mistresses)

I would rather put my money in the stockmarket, or invest it in a business, or …

Let’s do that again.

While I would put my money in the stockmarket, or invest it in a business, I will entertain the thought of travel too (say, 70 percent of the time).

Because show me pictures of faraway places – snow capped mountains, private villas with a butler (at half the price), lodges in deep brown and adorned with elk antlers, being massaged into oblivion, having a romantic candlelit dinner with only the white sand, sparkling and beautiful, and the lullaby of the sea for company – would spark a yes from me and I would play with money and dates in my head until I could justify going.

That is my thing.

I found out that my thing is the in thing now (post recession).

A New York Times article that said people are happier when they spend money on experiences rather than material things. If I can quote: New studies of consumption and happiness show, for instance, that people are happier when they spend money on experiences instead of material objects, when they relish what they plan to buy long before they buy it, and when they stop trying to outdo the Joneses….

If they are creating memories rather than just collecting stuff.

Experiences over possessions.

The article actually started with the story of a couple who went to the extreme of limiting their possessions to just 100 things and then giving everything else away (and in the process, eliminating their $30,000 debt).

Amazing.

That they found out the pleasure of owning do not last very long. But a trip, a night at the theatre, adult ballet lessons, sleeping in with the kids, a Saturday night dinner with the whole family, even though fraught with little fights or inconveniences or little mishaps, would seem rose-colored when looked at through the (thankfully) hazy veil of memory.

I do not want to say never because I do not know whether I will succumb to a designer bag the future (maybe when they invent a bag that can double as something else?). But having what I have, knowing what I know, and feeling what I feel, I am oddly glad too, in a way.

Article by Issa. Photo by Madelene Uyehara. Copyright 2010.
Website: www.YouWantToBeRich.com
Email: issa@youwanttoberich.com

I was surprised by a frantic call from my home resort, the company where I bought my timeshare.

They were threatened to be exposed on national television of being a scam. Being an attorney for the leading broadcasting station, they wanted me to speak on their behalf, to do some sort of a testimony, to talk to their client and allay the client’s fears (and silence his threats).

I told them I could not. I was not happy with them.

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I am not really a business woman.
At least I did not start out thinking that I could be one.

All I know is how to be an employee. I was trained to think that way in school. I was not really aware but I was being groomed to become a top employee, the crème de la crème so that top companies will fight for me come graduation. My grades were my mirrors, and they were supposed to mirror me in top form so at least I will be considered. I was taught to follow all the rules, to take it all in and not ask, to be gracious and grateful, because I need these companies more than they need me.

It was my destiny.

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At one point in your life, you will be given what you think will be a golden opportunity – investing in someone else’s business. Before you turn giddy and give your yesses and your checks, think.

My husband and I, we are very enthusiastic persons. The idea of getting into a new business – except when it involves multi-level marketing, which does not float our boat – is enough to send us to euphoria. But of late, we have been a little selective and a little wary of the businesses we get into. We have been burned some of the time and if added up, those investments would run into the hundreds of thousands. Okay, okay, some are not yet “dead” but we worry about them constantly and we do not think that worrying is very good use of our time and our money.

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It was not my first time.

I remember. It was more than 15 years ago when I produced my first show. It was in a southern province, accessible by land (8 hours) and by air (45 minutes). We partnered with someone who was introduced to us as the wife of a Brunei prince. Such was the rage at that time and many young women – some described as desperate, others gold diggers, others still victims of their own beauty (and another’s greed) – fell for the charms of dark-skinned princes, giving birth to scions of royalty.

Indeed she was beautiful and was moneyed and was very much interested in bringing to her hometown some showbiz denizens. “To make my mother happy,” she quipped.

The show was a moderate success and we learned a lot. One partner made some unnecessary trips by plane which added to the expenses; the people that we tapped to get sponsors did not deliver (they got zero sponsors); the souvenir program was overpriced (we ended up hauling the whole lot back to headquarters); it was not easy.

I was reminded again of these lessons when we did “Love in the Key of R”.

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