Living a Rich and Fulfilling Life

Don't be afraid your life will end; be afraid it will never begin. ~ Grace Hansen

You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough. ~ Joe Lewis

Such true, true words spoken by Ms. Hansen and Mr. Lewis. I've had more than a year since my last post to reflect on that. That's quite a story if you have time.

Last September, when I first started this blog, I had only just been introduced to the idea of investing and passive income in a financial seminar held by my organization. It was a "revolutionary" idea to me really. The only investing I did back then was to turn my money (cash & CPF) over to an insurance agent who sold me these investment-linked policies and endowment plans. Only during the recent financial crisis, when I witnessed the China-India fund which I was invested in, which at one point almost doubled in 2007/8, crumble into a $15,000 loss did I get my first wake up call. I needed to care about my finances. For who else is going to be more concerned about my money than me? Thankfully, I rode out the wave to recovery without selling and managed to break even and then gain some at the beginning of this year. Talk about Scary!

Since then, I focused a lot of effort into learning and finding out more about the different investments in the market, attending talk after talk and reading book after book. But most important of all, I began to take action. Action to get my money working hard for me. But while I focused tremendous time on this new-found direction of living a rich and free life, or at least wanting to live one, I also realized that there were other things to life that were equally or even more valuable - relationships, love, experiencing new cultures, seeing new worlds, cities, charity, volunteer work and finding peace with God for example. To quote Napoleon Hill in his True Riches video below, "observe if you will, with great benefit, the fact that money comes at the end of the list of the twelve things that makes men rich".

That said, it does not mean that money isn't important. It is. But there is a whole world more to life than simply that.

With this new focus, shall I continue this blog; to record my journey into living a rich and fulfilled life with money providing me with the opportunities.

Wish me luck! =)

Cheers,

~K