How Important is Money to Warren Buffett?

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Dennis Ng
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Post by Dennis Ng »

yuanli wrote:
Hi Dennis,

attended your course on the Monday that just passed.

yes, the power lies within us.


and people with a sense of mission is strong! with a sense of purpose can go very far
Hi Yuanli,
do you know your comments made me so happy?

Today I was going through the comments given in the seminar feedback forms written by seminar attendees.

I'm so happy that to many of them, the Seminar has made a difference to them, many wrote that the Seminar helped them to increase their belief that they can become a Millionaire if they Believe in themselves and take positive actions.

I'm looking forward to the day when we have 10,000 seminar graduates and each of us reaching out to teach/influence another 100 people each or thereby helping 1,000,000 (One Million) People out there.

Together, each of us doing a little, we can achieve a great deal collectively together.
Cheers!

Dennis Ng - When You Master Your Finances, You Master Your Destiny

Note: I'm just sharing my personal comments, not giving you investment advice nor stock investment tips.
mui2
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Post by mui2 »

Recap what Dennis say in his last saturday seminar "Love People Use Money". It is thro the use of money to acheive what we want. So money is just the vehicle to reach the destination. It is more than wanting to be millionaire...think about why you want to be millionaire.

I am supportive about Dennis wanting to set the Foundation. Teaching the poor to fish is still important than just giving out cash to them. Have u hear of Jack Sim who is a social enterpreneur ? I hope I can do a biz that can generate profit and yet help the poor and save the earth. To know more pls visit www.worldtiolet.org

Lastly, Dennis on Mother Day pls give your wife a big huge and tell her "Thank You from all your students".

To all mothers "Happy Mother's Day"
Dennis Ng
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Post by Dennis Ng »

mui2 wrote:Recap what Dennis say in his last saturday seminar "Love People Use Money". It is thro the use of money to acheive what we want. So money is just the vehicle to reach the destination. It is more than wanting to be millionaire...think about why you want to be millionaire.

I am supportive about Dennis wanting to set the Foundation. Teaching the poor to fish is still important than just giving out cash to them. Have u hear of Jack Sim who is a social enterpreneur ? I hope I can do a biz that can generate profit and yet help the poor and save the earth. To know more pls visit www.worldtiolet.org

Lastly, Dennis on Mother Day pls give your wife a big huge and tell her "Thank You from all your students".

To all mothers "Happy Mother's Day"
Hi mui2,
thanks.

yes, I am really very, very, very lucky to have a very supportive wife, she is the COO of 2 of the companies, taking care and managing the daily operations, human resource matters and financial affairs. She is also a very, very, very good Mother to 2 children. She is really my pillar of support, on the 3 out of 4 weekends each month I'm conducting seminars, she has to see to everything in the house on her own, without any help (we only have a part-time maid that comes once a week).

It's Mother's Day tomorrow, let's thank from the bottom of our hearts, and wish all the mothers out there a very Happy Mother's Day, that they are the Wing beneath our wings, without whom we can never fly.
Cheers!

Dennis Ng - When You Master Your Finances, You Master Your Destiny

Note: I'm just sharing my personal comments, not giving you investment advice nor stock investment tips.
Dennis Ng
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Post by Dennis Ng »

Some of you might remember I said in seminar that why there are so many scams or scandals in the Financial Markets? It's becos many people Love Money and Use People.

The World will be a much better place if we do the reverse, Love People and Use Money.

Do not chase after money. Many people do NOT understand that money/wealth is the Result. People who chase after money and if they resort to doing Illegal things, or Unethical things or operate on a Win/Lose philosophy would typically end up in a sorry state.

Just focus on pursuing your passion, ask yourself what are you good at and what you enjoy doing? By pursuing this passion you will have happiness and fulfillment, both during the struggle and journey and also when you reach the "destination" (Financial Freedom).

Just focus on developing this Strength further, be the best you can be, contribute to the world your strength and then, the money/wealth follows, you don't have to consciously chase after it.

This is my personal experience over the last 11 years since I gave up a cushy job at the bank to pursue my Passion.

Sharing this article that resonates with my beliefs well.

Cheers!

Dennis Ng

Money and the Meaning of Life

8:00 AM Tuesday May 17, 2011 |

Everywhere you look, there's compelling evidence that the single-minded pursuit of wealth often leads smart people to do incredibly stupid things — things that destroy what money can't buy.

Last week, the big story was the conviction of Raj Rajaratnam on 14 counts of insider trading, a greed-driven scheme that will lead to obliterated reputations, long prison terms, or both, for senior leaders at IBM, McKinsey, and other blue-chip institutions.

A few weeks before that, the big story was the resignation and humiliation of Berkshire Hathaway's David Sokol, the likely successor to CEO Warren Buffet, undone by his eagerness to cash suspiciously timed investments in the stock of a company Berkshire later bought.

And next week on HBO we get to see the made-for-TV adaptation of the bestseller Too Big to Fail, a blow-by-blow chronicle of the subprime-mortgage fiasco — an exercise in collective greed that came pretty close to destroying the world as we know it.

Every time I read or see these sorry dispatches, I ask myself the same questions. How is it that brilliant people with more money than they'll ever need allow their hunger for even more money to cause them to lose everything? How much is enough, and why are people willing to risk so much to get more? If money is so alluring, how is it that so many people of great wealth also seem so unhappy?

To answer those questions, I tend to turn to the big lessons in a small book that was published 20 years ago. Called Money and the Meaning of Life, the author is Jacob Needleman, a professor of philosophy at San Francisco State University. I met Needleman during the heyday of the first Internet boom, when lots of people in their twenties and thirties were making more money than they ever imagined they would and were trying to come to terms with what it meant.

Since then, we've had a broader stock-market boom, a real-estate bubble, a second Internet boom, and plenty of busts along the way. The specifics of the financial markets have changed, but the questions remain the same. Here's some of what Jacob Needleman has taught me about the answers, drawn from an interview we did with him at Fast Company many years ago. It's amazing to me how relevant these insights are to what's happening today.

Money may be the root of all evil, but only if you're not honest about what it means to you. "Money is about love and relationships," Needleman explained. "It has a wonderful power to bring people together as well as tear them apart. You can't escape money. If you run from it, it will chase you and catch you. If we don't understand our relationship to money in this culture, then I think we're doomed. If you don't know how you are toward money and really understand that relationship, you simply don't know yourself. Period.

Money truly can't buy happiness, especially if you're unhappy to begin with. "If you are worrying about vegetables now, you'll be worrying about yachts then," Needleman joked. "You're a worrier. It's in you, not the money. Life, except for the obvious physical needs, is not so much defined by the external situation as by the inner one. Having money won't change your internal makeup. If you're an anxious sonofabitch without money, you're going to be an anxious sonofabitch with a lot of money."

Being rich does not make you smart — especially about things other than money. "I met a guy who worked his way up from zero to a half-billion dollars," the philosopher noted. "I asked him, 'What was the most surprising thing you discovered when you got rich?' He said, 'Everybody asks my opinion about things because they think I know something. All I really know is how to make a lot of money.' See, this guy wasn't fooled by his money. That's the key.

Being rich does not automatically lead to a rich life. "There is a difference between money and success. To be totally engaged with all my functions, all my faculties, all my capacities in life — to me that would be success. I grew up around the Yiddish language, and in Yiddish there are about 1,000 words that mean "fool." There's only one word that means an authentic human being: mensch. My grandmother would say, "You've got to be a mensch," and that has to do with what we used to call character. To be successful means to have developed character... You should be looking for the joy, the struggle, and the challenge of work. What you bring forth from your own guts and heart. The happiness of hard work. No amount of money can buy that. Those are things of the spirit."

It's easy to pass judgment from afar on the misdeeds and missteps of wealthy people in the news. But look in the mirror. What's your relationship with the pursuit of wealth? How do you think about money and the meaning of life?
Cheers!

Dennis Ng - When You Master Your Finances, You Master Your Destiny

Note: I'm just sharing my personal comments, not giving you investment advice nor stock investment tips.
alvin
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Post by alvin »

Thanks Dennis for your sharing.

I, too, can resonate to what you said. Love people and use money.

Having a lot of money does not mean anything. Money has to be used to achieve its effect. Do good with money and we will feel good. The tighter we hold on to money, the more we will lose it (e.g. people who fear losing money put their savings in banks, and they actually lose more than they gain). The more calculative we are, the less we can unleash the power of money. We have to breathe out in order to breathe in.

Thanks to Dennis's teaching, I have been looking for my passion in life. I have not found it yet, but thinking that one day I will find it REALLY EXCITES me!

I would just like to share a very short story from paul coelho's blog:

Two boys used to go to school together.

One of them had a bad habit of stealing the chocolates from his friend’s bag.

One day he felt guilty about what he was doing… So he wrote a letter as he didn’t have the courage to confess directly.
“I have been stealing your chocolates… I’m sorry for that…’

The other friend smiled reading it, and sent a letter back:

“Don’t worry. I know about it… That’s why I keep chocolates in the same place in my bag…’

This story reminds me to be magnanimous, even when someone takes advantage of me. I want to be bigger than who I am.
www.bigfatpurse.com - Living a Life of Abundance
daringd
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Post by daringd »

alvin wrote: Thanks to Dennis's teaching, I have been looking for my passion in life. I have not found it yet, but thinking that one day I will find it REALLY EXCITES me!
Thanks, Alvin for sharing. I'm on the same boat too! Have no idea what's my passion in life but shall not give up in looking for it. I think you are doing a great job by sharing here and on your blog :)
Kind Regards

D.D.
www.DonnaDaritan.com
Living through questions, reflections and actions.
Ax
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Post by Ax »

Hm.. i think that's a very good story.. haha..
walkinepark
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Post by walkinepark »

To know your passion, i guess you might need to know yourself better first..

Here's a website on discovering your personality type.

http://www.ipersonic.com/

take the test.
I don't know about you, but the results describe me fairly accurately :)

Cheers
kellytay
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Post by kellytay »

walkinepark wrote:To know your passion, i guess you might need to know yourself better first..

Here's a website on discovering your personality type.

http://www.ipersonic.com/

take the test.
I don't know about you, but the results describe me fairly accurately :)

Cheers
Thanks to walkinepark for the personality test.
It was absolutely spot on! I am the The Reliable Realist.
Kelly Tay
Sales Manager
DTZ Debenham Tie Leung (SEA) Ltd
walkinepark
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Post by walkinepark »

kellytay wrote:
walkinepark wrote:To know your passion, i guess you might need to know yourself better first..

Here's a website on discovering your personality type.

http://www.ipersonic.com/

take the test.
I don't know about you, but the results describe me fairly accurately :)

Cheers
Thanks to walkinepark for the personality test.
It was absolutely spot on! I am the The Reliable Realist.
you're welcome kelly. :)
ngtfook
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Post by ngtfook »

Buffett higher tax call strikes a nerve
Tuesday 16 August 2011, 7:47 SGT
By Ben Berkowitz

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Warren Buffett has touched a national nerve.

The 80-year-old "Oracle of Omaha," one of the world's three richest men, has taken to the pages of the New York Times to call for higher taxes -- yes, higher taxes -- for himself and his well-off peers.
"My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It's time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice," he said.

Buffett calling for a higher tax burden for the wealthy is nothing new; last November, in a lengthy sit-down interview with ABC News, he insisted that the wealthy "have it better than we've ever had it" and that they had an obligation to pay substantially more tax.

However, the timing of his latest appeal made people take notice. Washington lawmakers are fighting about how to reduce the nation's budget deficit and curb its massive debt burden, and the question of "added revenue" -- code for higher taxes -- looms larger than any other.

Republicans have fiercely resisted any attempts by President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress to make higher taxes for the wealthy part of any budget plan, insisting instead on all the deficit-curbing measures be made through spending cuts.

Taxation will be a major theme of the 2012 presidential election, and Buffett planted himself squarely in the middle of the debate.

"While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan , and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks," he wrote.

Buffett is not alone in agitating for change.

Starbucks Corp Chief Executive Howard Schultz is brewing up support for his call to withhold political contributions to U.S. lawmakers until they strike a "fair, bipartisan" deal on the country's debt, revenue and spending.



TRENDING HIGH ON TWITTER

In his Times piece, Buffett felt free to speak for his fellow rich.

"Most wouldn't mind being told to pay more in taxes as well, particularly when so many of their fellow citizens are truly suffering," he said.

While there are plenty of "super-rich" who have been outspoken on tax issues in past, like Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein and Congressman Darrell Issa , only one of the country's notably wealthy people who was contacted by Reuters was immediately willing to respond to Buffett's call.

"George Soros says he agrees and congratulates Warren Buffett," his spokesman said. "The rich are hurting their own long term interests by their opposition to paying more taxes."

From the general taxpaying public, the reaction was almost instantaneous. "Warren Buffett" was one of the single most mentioned topics on Twitter as of Monday afternoon, as was the title of his op-ed piece, "Stop Coddling the Super-Rich." Nearly 55,000 people voted in an MSNBC.com poll on his comments, and 95 percent agreed with him.

President Obama, appearing in Minnesota on a bus tour of the U.S. Midwest, cited Buffett's comments as further proof that Congress needed to find ways to raise tax revenue without taxing the middle class any further.

Speaking of the various tax incentives he and other wealthy taxpayers receive, Buffett said "(these) and other blessings are showered upon us by legislators in Washington who feel compelled to protect us, much as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species. It's nice to have friends in high places."

Buffett, chairman of the conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, said his federal tax bill last year was $6,938,744, the equivalent of 64 shares of Berkshire Class A stock.

"That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income -- and that's actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent," he said.
Price is what you pay; Value is what you get
RayNg
walkinepark
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Post by walkinepark »

Kudos to Warren Buffett.

The US ship is definitely lop-sided and if this goes on, it will sink and all will suffer. Time to shift the weight back to the other side.

cheers
ngtfook
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Post by ngtfook »

walkinepark wrote:Kudos to Warren Buffett.

The US ship is definitely lop-sided and if this goes on, it will sink and all will suffer. Time to shift the weight back to the other side.

cheers
I hope Singapore multi millionaires will do the same like Warren Buffett. The income gap in Singapore between poor and the rich is too wide; the govt should reduce tax for lower income group. :wink:
Price is what you pay; Value is what you get
RayNg
Dennis Ng
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Post by Dennis Ng »

ngtfook wrote:
walkinepark wrote:Kudos to Warren Buffett.

The US ship is definitely lop-sided and if this goes on, it will sink and all will suffer. Time to shift the weight back to the other side.

cheers
I hope Singapore multi millionaires will do the same like Warren Buffett. The income gap in Singapore between poor and the rich is too wide; the govt should reduce tax for lower income group. :wink:
What Warren Buffett proposes to tax the Rich more is ok, but it does NOT really help to bridge the Rich Poor Divide.

I think a possible simple plan to help bridge the Rich Poor Divide is to:

1. help to educate the middle class so that they can become Rich.
2. then all of us will then do our part to help to educate, empower and provide mico-financing to the Poor, to help them to elevate themselves from Poverty.

This is my simple plan that I hope ALL seminar graduates can also help in this cause.
Cheers!

Dennis Ng - When You Master Your Finances, You Master Your Destiny

Note: I'm just sharing my personal comments, not giving you investment advice nor stock investment tips.
positive7
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Post by positive7 »

Hi Dennis: Always have this dream to help others when I have the $$. But this art of investing at times seems needs some level of intelligence and emotional strength. The last one week was a turbulence week. Read so much, 2900, 2800, 11,500 n below etc get panic and decide to sell at a lost finally. Whatever opportunity fund has dwindled. It takes time to make a come back. I have now to hang on to what Confucius said: "It doesn't matter how slowly you take as long as you do not stop.". Just hope it will not be too slow.
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