I have been reading this book for 2-3 months already. As it is a made up of short articles of tips on how to have a peaceful and meaningful family life. Besides the Chicken Soup series, I feel that this is the superbly written and it has been beneficial to me. I am sure I will be reading this book again in the future.
There are 100 articles altogether. Some very interesting articles include listening to people, taking time to relax, keeping promises, never taking family for granted and even appreciating your in-laws. I am sure that most of us feel that all these topics are simple and "Of course I know!", but give it a try and you will find that it takes a lot of discipline and mind power to accomplish these actions.
The book is a very easy read with only 2-3 pages for each article. I will be looking out for his other Don't Sweat The Small Stuff series.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
For One More Day By Mitch Albom
Though this book has nearly 200 pages, it took me a surprisingly short time to finish it. It has been a long time since I'm able to finish reading a book within 2 days. The last was when I was reading the Sci-fic DragonLance series more than 10 years back. Anyway, the flow is smooth and style used was a relaxed and easy for the reading.
Th author tells a true story about a man whom he met at a baseball field one day. He was a baseball player in the major league but has been down in between jobs for most of the recent years. The man is Charley "Chick" Benetto and has split with his wife and his daughter did not want him in her life and did not invite him to her wedding. He was devastated and wanted to kill himself.
While driving back to his hometown, he crashed and lying in the grasses, he found himself in his hometown with his mother. He was shocked as he buried his mother several years ago. He followed his mother to 3 places where his mother beautified 3 elderly women. It was at the end where Charley realised that this is not real and his ghost mother was trying to help him to get back to his life.
There are many pages where the author writes about incidents in Charley's life when his mother stood up for him or he did not stood up for his mother. Most of the stories were very touching.
In the end, Charley survived the crash and made his life better. He died 5 years later.
There are many lessons to be learnt especially regarding relationships in this book. It talks about parents love, siblings relationships, teenage love, marriage and the love of a sport.
Th author tells a true story about a man whom he met at a baseball field one day. He was a baseball player in the major league but has been down in between jobs for most of the recent years. The man is Charley "Chick" Benetto and has split with his wife and his daughter did not want him in her life and did not invite him to her wedding. He was devastated and wanted to kill himself.
While driving back to his hometown, he crashed and lying in the grasses, he found himself in his hometown with his mother. He was shocked as he buried his mother several years ago. He followed his mother to 3 places where his mother beautified 3 elderly women. It was at the end where Charley realised that this is not real and his ghost mother was trying to help him to get back to his life.
There are many pages where the author writes about incidents in Charley's life when his mother stood up for him or he did not stood up for his mother. Most of the stories were very touching.
In the end, Charley survived the crash and made his life better. He died 5 years later.
There are many lessons to be learnt especially regarding relationships in this book. It talks about parents love, siblings relationships, teenage love, marriage and the love of a sport.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Creating Wealth by Robert Allen
This book is about being able to retire in 10 years using Robert Allen's 7 principles of wealth. It took me 1.5 months to finish this book. Not that it is a difficult read, but its methods are interesting and I have not been having much time to read any books at all during this period of time. Nevertheless, I have been hoping to read a couple of Robert Allen's books and I'm glad to have finished this one.
Robert is the author who have been challenged to buy a piece of property with nothing down, and with only $100 as living expenses in 72 hours. In 57 hrs, he signed agreements to purchase not 1 but 7 properties with a total value of $722,715.
This book starts with some thinking foundations on how to develop a wealthy mindset, which is a 5 steps process, namely;
1) Set realistic goals and write them down,
2) Visualize your goal,
3) Affirm yourself,
4) Replace luck thinking with probability thinking and
5) Take action.
His 7 wealth principles are:
1) Don't count your dollars until they have passed through the strainers of taxes and inflation.
2) Make maximum use of your assets and sacrifice to invest in things that go up in value.
3) Don't diversify! Concentrate all of your eggs in the right basket.
4) Wealth seekers are always on the offensive, not on the defensive.
5) Money must multiply at wealth-producing rates of return.
6) Choose investments that are both powerful and stable.
7) Control is essential.
The main sections are able being able to buy properties at very little down and how to determine if the property is of the value that you would like to buy at. Various methods and factors are discussed and it would be very beneficial to an American. In Singapore, where I am a resident, it is not possible to buy a property with less than 10% down and most of the methods are unable to be practise here.
The last sections are about education and the mindset of people. I agree totally with Robert that we should always be learning in order to improve our financial intelligence. There is a part which I am extremely enlightened. He says that one should be an expert in creating wealth and the best way to become an expert is to write a book on that expertise. In order to write a book, one has to do research, train one's discipline and network with similar minded people. For me, an added advantage in writing a book is that it will also improve my writing skills.
This book ends with a chapter on 52 insight thoughts, ie quotes from famous and successful people.
This is a good book on real estate investment, though it does touch on other investments such a precious metals and collectibles (art and coins). Personally, i have learned quite a bit on how the American real estate works.
Robert is the author who have been challenged to buy a piece of property with nothing down, and with only $100 as living expenses in 72 hours. In 57 hrs, he signed agreements to purchase not 1 but 7 properties with a total value of $722,715.
This book starts with some thinking foundations on how to develop a wealthy mindset, which is a 5 steps process, namely;
1) Set realistic goals and write them down,
2) Visualize your goal,
3) Affirm yourself,
4) Replace luck thinking with probability thinking and
5) Take action.
His 7 wealth principles are:
1) Don't count your dollars until they have passed through the strainers of taxes and inflation.
2) Make maximum use of your assets and sacrifice to invest in things that go up in value.
3) Don't diversify! Concentrate all of your eggs in the right basket.
4) Wealth seekers are always on the offensive, not on the defensive.
5) Money must multiply at wealth-producing rates of return.
6) Choose investments that are both powerful and stable.
7) Control is essential.
The main sections are able being able to buy properties at very little down and how to determine if the property is of the value that you would like to buy at. Various methods and factors are discussed and it would be very beneficial to an American. In Singapore, where I am a resident, it is not possible to buy a property with less than 10% down and most of the methods are unable to be practise here.
The last sections are about education and the mindset of people. I agree totally with Robert that we should always be learning in order to improve our financial intelligence. There is a part which I am extremely enlightened. He says that one should be an expert in creating wealth and the best way to become an expert is to write a book on that expertise. In order to write a book, one has to do research, train one's discipline and network with similar minded people. For me, an added advantage in writing a book is that it will also improve my writing skills.
This book ends with a chapter on 52 insight thoughts, ie quotes from famous and successful people.
This is a good book on real estate investment, though it does touch on other investments such a precious metals and collectibles (art and coins). Personally, i have learned quite a bit on how the American real estate works.
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