How the Rich and Famous Build a Fortune

Mentored by a Self-Made Millionaire

2008-10-16T00:10:00.000-07:00

In March, i came across this article featured in the Business Week or Economist .It featured the story of how this young man, Terry, CFA, CEO of www.OneMentor.com became a multi millionaire by the age of 34 owning a few properties fully paid and having several businesses generating income in excess of 1 mil annually.

He graduated from University with Honours in Engineering and got a job in a fund management firm so that he can learn about money. This was followed by several other roles in the financial industry with securities firm, Investment and Commerical Banks.

Fed up that the financial industry is more about politics and greediness rather than truly helping people make money, this Self-Made Millionaire left to set up www.OneMentor.com educating people on their Career and Money Management.

I too wanted to be rich and stop worrying about paychecks. I longed to have a few million so that i can do what i want in life. I have always been sceptical about the get rich schemes from FX, options trading or Internet biz listed in the newspapers. These cost thousands and i wonder are these speakers really worth thousands for just a few days' work? anyway, i do not have the money.

Found that www.OneMentor.com have mentoring services costing only a few restuarant meals. I signed up with them just to try the free trial.

The Mentor signed to me who is a Self Made Millionaire himself helped me analyzed my job and showed me why with my performance, i can never become a millionaire. I found that i was quite lazy and give up easily.

Over some months, he worked with me on increasing my salary through specific steps and mentored me on smart money management. Its quite good advice and i am definitely surprised how the rich view money. Its totally different from mine! I wished they taught this in school!

The good thing about this service is i now have a realistic target to reaching the elusive 1million and wiser in money management than before.

The bad thing is i can't get to meet my assigned Mentor face to face. he is overseas and he charges $1000 per hour for face to face coaching. hmm, i can't afford it, so can only settle for the online 99bucks email service. works anyway.

So far, i have gotten a $1890 pay rise, made about $36,890 in the recent stock market crash thanks to his views and gained lots of insights on how a Millionaire thinks.

overall, a very good return on the Coaching i received at www.OneMentor.com Now, i know what i want in life and have a specific plan to achieve my goals in Career and being a Millionaire in 3.5 years.

Li Ka Shing

2008-10-16T00:07:00.000-07:00

The Key: Business Acumen and determination to be wealthy

Li started selling plastic flowers in Hong Kong in the 1950s. Now Hong Kong's richest person. His fortune is centered on conglomerates Cheung Kong and Hutchison Whampoa. Through them, he is the world's largest operator of container terminals, world's largest health and beauty retailer, a major supplier of electricity to Hong Kong and a real estate developer. Hutchison Essar sold its stake in an Indian mobile business for $11 billion in 2007; the group still has other telecom interests. Li also has a $12 billion stake in Canadian oil company Husky Energy. He has announced plans to donate one-third of wealth over time. Eldest son Victor helps him run his massive empire; son Richard struck out on his own in early 1990s and is a billionaire in his own right.

Lakshmi Mittal

2008-10-16T00:05:00.000-07:00

The Key: Desire and determination to be wealthy

He heads world's largest steelmaker, $105 billion (sales) ArcelorMittal, which accounts for 10% of all crude steel production. With 44% stake, is the company's largest shareholder. Longtime resident of London is Europe's richest resident.

Bill Gates

2008-10-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

The Key: Persistently pusue an idea and never give up

He is a famous Harvard dropout and Microsoft visionary. Gates has gave up day-to-day involvement in the company he cofounded 33 years ago to spend more time focused on his philanthropic endeavors. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has $38.7 billion in assets, donates to causes aimed at bringing financial tools to the poor, speeding up the development of vaccines (for AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis), bettering America's lagging high schools. Sells 20 million Microsoft shares every quarter, proceeds going to private investment vehicle Cascade; more than half of net worth now outside of Microsoft. Believes Microsoft's far-flung bets, including 10-year affair with Internet-based television, may soon pay off; says next 10 years will be the "most interesting" in software history.

Warren Buffet

2008-10-15T23:58:00.000-07:00

The Key: Being frugal and Invest wisely and early

Warren Buffet studied under value investing guru Benjamin Graham at Columbia.

He took over textile firm Berkshire Hathaway 1965. Today holding company invested in insurance (Geico, General Re), jewelry (Borsheim's), utilities (MidAmerican Energy), food (Dairy Queen, See's Candies). Also has noncontrolling stakes in Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo. Insurance operations flourished in 2007. "That party is over. It's a certainty that insurance-industry profit margins, including ours, will fall significantly in 2008." The Oracle of Omaha issued a challenge to members of The Forbes 400 in October; said he would donate $1 million to charity if the collective group of richest Americans would admit they pay less taxes, as a percentage of income, than their secretaries. Had long promised to give away his fortune posthumously. Irrevocably earmarked the majority of his Berkshire shares to charity in 2006, mostly to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gift was valued at $31 billion on day of announcement; donation will far exceed that sum so long as Berkshire shares continue to rise.

Jim Rogers on US Subprime and on China Nov 2007

2008-10-15T23:39:00.000-07:00

Jim Rogers on US Subprime and on China Nov 2007
Six more hard years tipped for subprime falloutThe US subprime crisis will continue for years to come and America may be facing a permanent decline as an economic power, famed investment guru Jim Rogers said over the weekend.//-->Benjamin Scent Monday, November 19, 2007The US subprime crisis will continue for years to come and America may be facing a permanent decline as an economic power, famed investment guru Jim Rogers said over the weekend."The situation is going to continue to deteriorate," he said in Hong Kong."When you have a bubble, it normally takes years to work out all the ramifications."The subprime crisis is not over, Rogers said."I think we have a long way to go before it's finished," he said later at a conference. "When you have a bubble like this, it usually takes five to six years to clean it up."Rogers said not many people have lost their houses yet despite a credit bubble that allowed Americans to buy a house with no down payment - a situation unprecedented in US history.But he said many will lose their homes before the crisis is over."Inflation's going to get much worse. You are going to have more people losing money. You're going to have more bankruptcies," he said.On top of his dire prognosis, Rogers said he does not see anything that could be done to save the day.But, he said, any steps the US authorities take to try and stop a recession will not help the economy anyway."Let it happen," he said. "There are these bad elements in the economy that need to be cleaned out."Rogers said that America's position as an economic power may be starting a permanent decline."The United States has certainly peaked," he said."America, in [my daughter's] lifetime, will certainly be a shadow of its former self." Rogers has one daughter, Happy, who is four.China will be the "next great country in the world," following Britain's economic dominance in the 19th century and the United States after that.He said of the ramifications of a devalued dollar: "You've got to figure out ways to protect yourselves. It's going to change, the world as we know it."The dollar's decline is getting "very bad," he said.He predicts many countries are going to stop using the US dollar.In response to reports that Gulf countries, including the United Arab Emirates, are pondering dropping their currencies' pegs to the US dollar, he noted some countries had already done so and expects more to follow suit."In 20 years, very few [countries] will have their reserves in US dollars - very few," Rogers said. "You have to be nuts to buy US dollars in the twenty-first century."Rogers also called on US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke to resign for devaluing the greenback."All he knows about is printing money, and he's doing it," Rogers said. "He doesn't know about the value of the dollar; he doesn't care about the value of the dollar."The bow-tied investment sage, who helped launch the Quantum Fund with George Soros, said the yuan could replace the US dollar as the world's reserve currency in 15 years, after it becomes fully convertible."I don't suspect the euro's going to last 15 to 20 years from now," Rogers said."The yen will never be able to replace the dollar."