Biggest Wealth Lessons To Make 2022 Your Best Year

As we are approaching 2022, I wanted to spend some time to jot down some of my most important learning lessons in my journey to build wealth. I am no wealth expert, but I have learned from many others - and in doing so, I wanted to impart the biggest lessons that have worked for me.

Without further ado, let's dive into some of these lessons so that we can make 2022 your best year ever.

Cash is Dumb, Cash Flow is King

Wait wait, isn't cash and cash flow the same thing?

Well - its similar but different. And when we realise the stark difference between the two, it is where we can get really wealthy.

People always say that you should keep cash for the purpose of rainy days or what we call emergency funds. I'm sure many of us have heard this before.

Let us define the various categories of emergencies, or rather unexpected requirement for cash:

• House
• Renovation
• Wedding
• Car
• Hospital Bills

All of the above are categories that I found will require a substantial amount of cash.

But here's the thing. Most of these categories can be planned for - you can plan your house purchase, your renovation, your wedding, buying a car...

All except your hospital bills.

This is why I insist on getting the proper insurance coverage before you even consider investing. It just makes good financial sense to buy insurance since hospital bills can sometimes be unplanned.

So once I have gotten insurance portion covered - then I don't need emergency funds anymore.

Many financial advisors would disagree with me - but hey, I am not intending to walk the same route as everyone else. Otherwise, I will just end up getting the same results.

What if you lost your job? This brings me to the concept of cash flow.

In fact, this is exactly why we invest in the first place - so that our jobs are a choice and not a necessity.

You see, I am a very simple man with a very simple life - to the extent that I don't even sleep on a bed, I sleep on a mat. Yes - I'm a minimalist.

The amount of cash flow that I get from my portfolio today can easily support my lifestyle, not because I am getting huge amount of cash flow, but simply because my lifestyle is just so darn simple. To give you a perspective, I am getting around USD$2,000 of cash flow from options every month.

I don't know what you think about USD$2,000 monthly, but I like to think it is pretty decent for my age. How is that I was able to build a portfolio that gives me USD$2,000 of options cash flow every month?

Well, I recognized that cash is dumb and cash flow is king. Simple as that.

Cash is what I refer to as cash in the bank. It guarantees you a loss of money due to inflation. If I ever see more than $3,000 in my bank account, I am very concerned. Deeply concerned. It is almost like you are the boss of a company, and you saw 3000 of your employees just sleeping in the office during working hours.

So what do I do instead? I put most of my income into the brokerage account and buy qualified stocks, and use options to generate cash flow from my investments. This could be selling call options or selling put options, and all of these cash flow adds up.

This is also what Robert Kiyosaki teaches - use your cash to buy assets and allow those assets to create cash flow to pay for your expenses.

So if I leave you with this idea to prepare for 2022 - cash is dumb and cash flow is king. 

Stop Chasing Money, Start Chasing Time

This is another important concept that we have to understand.

Money is in abundance, but time is scarce.

It is an obvious that we have only 24 hours a day - none of us gets any second more.

It is even more obvious that our lifespan is limited.

I hope that these two points get across. We have VERY LIMITED TIME.

This is something that we need to internalise every single day, as it guides us on how we make our decisions.

Ask yourself this - if you want to learn something new, a new skill set, what would you do?

• Go to YouTube, watch all the videos, learn for free and figure out everything on your own
• Go to someone who has already gotten the results you want, pay them money, and learn from them

The choice that you make clearly defines how much you respect your time.

I don't know about you - but over the years, I learned that if I want to make the most out of my life, then I better figure a way to shorten my journey. The best way to do that, is to learn from someone who has already done it.

This is why when I wanted to learn about properties, business, investing - I don't try to watch YouTube videos. I paid the price and learn from the mentor straight.

Why? Because I don't want to spend years of my life trying to figure out everything on my own, and end up getting zero results. Those years of my life are years that I will never get back.

In fact, I have met others who have been investing for five years and ended up with zero profit and losses. Some may think that, "Oh well, at least he didn't lose money."

No. He lost something more important than money. He lost 5 years worth of his life - let's be clear about it. This is 5 years that he will never get back.

I don't write this so that you will join my course (yes, I do have a course). I write this because it is very sad to see people wasting precious time trying to figure things out on their own. Years of their life that they will never get back.

Besides, it does not matter to me, whether you decide to join my course or not - because I will still continue to live the minimalistic life that I have today. This is also the same reason that I am the only person who gives a 90 days guarantee, which is more than enough time for anyone to decide if the course is a right fit.

Focus on Timeless Concepts, Not Short-Term Tactics

In the world of investing, the timeless concept is this.

Fundamentally good companies will always go up in the long run. When we recognise that, the game of investing becomes so much easier.

All we had to do, is to hold fundamentally good companies at undervalued prices and wait for it to appreciate. To boost our returns, we can also choose to buy call options on fundamentally good companies.

This is why I do not do any short-term trading, because it is incredibly ridiculous. The whole idea of me investing in the stock market is to exchange money for more money. Why would I do trading to exchange time for money...?

Remember as I said, money is in abundance, but time is scarce.

Throughout the years of investing, the timeless concept remains the same. Hold fundamentally strong companies and in the long run, the market will reward you. There is no need to get into your "gambling" instinct to try to time the market.

Now, let's move on.

In the world of wealth, the timeless concept is this.

Once you find something that is able to generate a positive return on your investment - which in my case, it is investing in qualified stocks - the only logical step is to put all available capital into that vehicle and makes the most out of that vehicle.

This is the same reason why I put most of my income into my brokerage account. Simply because I know it will generate a positive return for me. The best part of the stock market is that it is high liquid, unlike properties or one of the investment plans offered by insurance companies.

Yes, and this is also the same reason why I sold all investment-related policies years ago to fund my brokerage account. And I count my blessings for doing so.

Take Charge Of Your Life

Nobody owes you a living, you are in charge of your own life.

99% of the world out there are consumers, which means that they are "takers" aiming to benefit from others.

1% of the world out there are producers, which means that they are "givers" aiming to benefit others. 

Being a consumer is always the easy road - think about it, it is easier to watch a YouTube video or create a YouTube video? And now, think a little deeper, who do you think deserves more wealth? The consumers or the producers?

I learned this a while back - if you want to be extremely wealthy, you just need to add value to others and people will pay you money based on the value you have added to them.

However, to add value to others, we must first add value to ourselves. I have spent well over tens and thousands of dollars upgrading myself with practical knowledge. Meanwhile, most people stopped their education after graduating from University and never bothered to upgrade themselves ever again.

The idea that your learning stops after graduation from university is absurd. The whole idea of universities is to make you a better employee, it is never designed to make you rich. If you want to be wealthy, then clearly the knowledge you attained from universities will never be enough - you have to go beyond that.

Now, touch your heart and go back down to memory lane. When was the last time you made a huge investment in yourself and more importantly, execute what you have learned?

You see, back in school, we are pressured by examinations or course deadlines - so we get our shit together, study and do the work. However, in our personal life, nobody gives you the deadline that you should be able to live financially free. YOU give yourself that deadline. I repeat that again - YOU give yourself that deadline.

For myself, I have given myself the deadline that I will be financially free by the age of 32 - which is six years from now. This is my personal deadline, and do or die - I will achieve this. And to achieve this, I sought after people who can teach me how to do it.

Now ask yourself this - what is your deadline to be financially free, so that working at a job is a choice and not a necessity. This means you work because you want to and because you need to. This is what freedom actually means.

The Bottom Line

All of these lessons are those that I found to be extremely helpful when it comes to building wealth and I am really grateful to have learnt these concepts from very successful people whom I have met and I share these lessons through my blog.

For those who are interested in using qualified stocks as your chosen vehicle, do check out the video training which I have recorded (and will remove soon when 2022 comes) and decide if it is a right fit for you.