I was so charmed by Robert smilling at me that I almost forgot to face the camera. We had very limited time to have him autograph the books, not to mention snapping photo with him. There are many people queuing for the same opportunity.

The Secrets of the Rich – No. 1

The poor and the middle-class work for money. The rich have money work for them

I’ve recently been to a property fair featuring Australia properties. It was indeed an eye opener
for someone like me who has not invested in any real estate properties. It was demonstrated how
easy it was for someone who has moderate savings could actually own one small size apartment
and start earning passive income. Certainly, the apartment has to be situated in good locations.
Besides the passive income, the land which the apartment sits on will also appreciate and provide
capital gain if he intends to sell the unit later.

Using that passive income, the person could either spend it or serve a new mortgage loan for
another residential property. This is a formula that will never be taught in school.

How much interest are we earning today from our bank savings? It’s a shameful amount.

It can be quite scary if one has no prior real estate investment experience because the initial
capital outlay may cause uncomfortable to most ordinary people.

The Secrets of the Rich – No. 2

Mind your own business

Robert is not telling us not to be a busybody. The advice is to tell us to start our own business.
Many people actually have many great ideas. This world has no lack of great ideas. It’s whether
the idea is being put into action is another set of story. It’s a habit for not doing new things
and it’s also a habit for constantly doing new things. So the major problem of most ordinary people
is that they lack action despite having great ideas. Hence, no great result was produced.

So start putting your idea into action and start a business for yourself. You’ve got to take care of yourself!

The Secrets of the Rich – No. 3

Create investments, don’t buy them

Robert uses an example of real estate. I feel that this secret apply to your business too.
If you have a great idea which you put into action to create your successful business, you will
attract investors. They put huge capital into your business for you to grow them. How much an idea cost?

Create investment = Create idea

But you must put that idea into action. In other words, make things happen!

The Secrets of the Rich – No. 4

Expand the product before you buy

This can be applicable to your business too. This is what the big guys are doing in the business world.
If you own a successful business, you can take it to public through IPO. Your business is still the same
business. However, you’ve added an element of investment into your business. Money rolls into your business
quicker.

Robert’s next question was, “What is your winning formula?”

For him, don’t do what everybody else is doing.

I feel this is an important question. What we’ve been doing and thinking have gotten us to where we are today. So, I choose not to work for somebody else, just like many others are doing, and today I’m earning passive income.

What about yourself?

Good news! Robert Kiyosaki’s video seminar, Secrets of The Rich is available at SkyQuestCom.

“I hope I am wrong, but my view is that this crisis will take one to two years to stabilise,” Wee Cho Yaw, a banker for almost 50 years, told a university commencement ceremony, The Straits Times reported.

A bank spokeswoman confirmed the quotes when contacted by AFP.

The default crisis in the US subprime — or higher risk — mortgage sector ballooned into a world credit squeeze as banks tightened lending criteria. The crisis has also battered financial markets.

“What worries me is that no one seems to know the full amount of off-balance sheet securities circulating in the financial markets,” Wee was quoted as saying.

The subprime homeloans were repackaged into securities and sold to investors around the world. The wave of defaults led to billions of dollars in losses on those securities, damaging the balance sheets of major international banks.

“And this is what frightens me most — no one can tell me how much more will be written off…,” The Straits Times quoted Wee as saying.

Wee said regulators will need to ensure closer supervision of financial institutions and the “exotic trades” that have arisen over the past decade, the newspaper reported.

UOB has a regional presence, including subsidiaries in Malaysia, Indonesia, China and Thailand.

Baron Rothschild’s adage was to “Buy when there’s blood in the streets.”
Mine is “buy when CNBC starts telling you to short the market.”

Last Tuesday, CNBC exhorted its viewers to consider shorting stocks. Jim
Cramer followed up a few days later by urging his followers to “sell
everything” except commodities stocks.

My gut says these are classic stock market “tells” that signal a contrarian
buying opportunity, but I could be wrong. And that is the beauty of a
financial panic?and our first lesson.

Lesson #1: Nobody knows where the market bottom is.

It may be hard to believe, but your guess on the stock market bottom is as
good as anyone’s. That anyone includes Ben Bernanke, Hank Paulson, Bill
Gross, George Soros, Warren Buffett, Lloyd Blankfein and even Jim Cramer.

In six months, the media will dig up some lucky market analyst who made a
“remarkably prescient” call and turn them into a hero, a la Elaine
Garzarelli, the analyst credited with predicting the Crash of 1987.

Lesson #2: Do not sell into a panic.

Anyone who sold their stocks on Black Monday, Oct. 19, 1987, came to almost
immediately regret it. I know I did. I was a junior banker in London and
watched the meltdown on our lone department Quotron.

My brain said, “Hang on, hang on.” My wallet said, “Run for your life.”
With one phone call, I sold every Fidelity stock fund I had and promptly
lost a quarter of my net worth.

The temptation to panic is primal. Be a man, not a monkey.

Lesson #3: Look forward, not backward.

Does anybody remember how negative sentiment was in October 2002? The S&P
500 was down almost 50% from its record of 2000. The Nasdaq Composite Index
was off 75%. I had just returned from 10 years in Europe to run the UBS
tech banking group.

What struck me when I first visited Silicon Valley was how negative
everyone was. That was because my colleagues and clients saw the world
through the distorted prism of the Internet boom. They couldn’t see the
tech market getting better in the future, because the tech market couldn’t
be any better than it had just been.

The market looks forward, but people like to look backward. A Cisco Systems
shareholder that owned the stock at $77 has trouble forgetting that $77
price when the stock falls to $15. In time, it doubled to $30.

Is Citigroup at today’s closing price of $16.76 so different? Wall Street
in 2008 is Silicon Valley in 2002. It will get better in time.

Lesson #4: It’s investing, not gambling.

Why do we obsess over our ability to pick the bottom or top of a stock
price or the market? Statistically, it is a total crap shoot.

As Bernard Baruch said, “Don’t try to buy at the bottom and sell at the
top. It can’t be done except by liars.”

Financial panics bring out the worst in these tendencies. All this weekend,
I was chewing over whether or not it was the right time to buy the XLF, the
financial sector ETF that is trading at nearly half its record high.

I haven’t pulled the trigger yet, but I know that picking a bottom is a
mugs game. Admittedly, an awfully tempting one. Better to use common sense.
Set price and allocation targets, space out investments over time.

Since the beginning of this year, I have made fund purchases on about 20
different dates with an average cost base equivalent to an S&P 500 level of
1346. On that money, I am down about 5%. There are mutual funds that charge
that much for an up-front load. Investing like this won’t make you rich,
but you won’t gamble yourself into the poorhouse either.

Lesson #5: It’s only money.

There is no point in fighting the tape or your emotions as the market is
gripped by panic. Next time the Dow industrials are down 300 and heading
down further, do what you make your children do: take a time out. Turn off
CNBC, your computer and BlackBerry and leave the office. (Wall Street
professionals, unfortunately, this doesn’t apply to you­. You will get
fired.)

I am a believer in the equity markets and have most of my net worth tied up
in the stock market. So every panic over the past two decades has cost me,
albeit temporarily, big chunks of my net worth.

Does it hurt? Of course. Do I lose sleep over it? Occasionally. But I
always keep in mind that it is only money.

I think of my dad, who would inspect my weary face after my exhausting
banker trips to Japan, India, and Hong Kong. As he put it: “There’s no
point in being the richest man in the cemetery.”

Facts about Property

• The rich make more money through property investment than any other investment such as stocks and shares.
• Property that was worth $5,000 thirty years ago would be worth around $200,000 today.
• Stocks and shares can be volatile, but property is proven to be an extremely stable investment.

Why invest in Property?

• No investment today offers the stability, simplicity and excellent rewards of property investment.
• It is a well documented fact that the value of a property doubles every 7 years.
• Your rental income will partially finance your investment.
• You can add greater value to your property by making alterations to it such as doing a home makeover and replacing old furniture with modern looking designs

Frequently asked questions about Property and their answers

How much property can I buy with $100,000?

Due to mortgage, it is relatively easy to buy $1 million worth of real estate with only $100,000 in cash. However, if you invest in stocks, you may only buy $100,000 worth of stocks with $100,000 worth of cash.

How do I pay the interests?

If you own an asset that is generating a regular rental income, the rental income will partially cover your mortgage.

How much is my property worth on the day I buy it at $1 million?

The value at which your property is worth is based on the market value. However, it could possibly be worth $650,000 or $1.5 million. In contrast, if you buy stocks at $100,000, they are worth exactly $100,000. Bottom line is, a piece of property could be worth a lot more than what you initially invested.

For more information on how to make your fortune in property investment, visit SkyQuestCom to watch a clip of Dolf de Roos’ online video seminar, “How to Make Money from the Property Market”. Dolf de Roos’ is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Real Estate Riches: How to Become Rich Using Your Banker’s Money. Today, he is the Chairman of Property Ventures Limited, an innovative real estate investment company.

At the location… few hectares of land had been ploughed in preparing for the plantation

The vehicle which we relied on to reach our destination

Land had been ploughed twice by tractor

A small pond at the location, where the mountain water was gathered

A coffee bush with berries on it

A view on coffee plantation

This grinding machine is used extract the coffee beans from the berries… it’s manually powered by hand
Berries and beans3rd from left: Dr Ta and Kompani Tarigan (Karo village head and assistant to Dr Ta)Jerok trees can be found abundantly… the fruits are widely known as Mandarin oranges. In Singapore, Mandarin oranges are imported from China and Taiwan.Small coffee bushes (4 months old) waiting to be planted at the siteTogether with Dr Ta’s assistants