The 80/20 Rule: Apply it on Self

The 80/20 Rule states that in most situations 80 percent of results stem from twenty percent of activities.

See the application of this rule in Personal finance: 20 Percent of people are writing blogs/articles about Personal finance, while 80 Percent of people are reading the same articles/blogs to find out how they can be part of same 20 Percent.

What goes missing is the "How To " Manual to be in the 20 Percent side of life, and the 80 Percent Folks end up being on same side due to inability to find this "How To" Manual in these sites.

The 80 Percent Junta needs to understand that there is no manual to be on 20 Percent side, rather slow and steady progress will automatically make them part of successfull crowd.

The 20 Percent folks took time to be on that side, and what helped them was hard work and perseverance.

Passive Income: What the heck is it about

Reading certain older blogs by fellow personal finance blogger's, stumbled upon the concept of "Passive Income" or "Alternate Income".

Idea of having this Passive/Alternate income looks fascinating, but in reality what does it take to do so or how easy is it??

Passive Income ideas ranged from :

• Advertising Revenue's : From blogs/web site etc. : Not so simple, market is mature, too many mee too's, and building a sizeable advertising revenue stream may take too long and too much effort, which is not every one's cup of tea. Not every one can be John Chow :)
• Arbitrage: Ranges from retailing on Ebay to Credit Card Interest Rates arbitrage: Again it either requires full time hunting for bargains offering arbitrage or very good credit history. But both these streams do not qualify for Passive income.
• Dividend/Stocks: This is feasible option, but requires upfront and continous investment: Key requirement is $$$, which we had enough, we would not be sitting here and reading or writing these blogs

All in all, creation of Passive/Alternate income sources require either full time work in managing arbitrage/updating content for advertisiment or putting money on table for making your money work.

The only feasible option looks like second one, where we put our money to work in way, that it creates source of passive income.

Next the question comes is: Do i need thousands of $$$ to start off... or can i start off with even couple of hundred say $200?

Answer is simple: You can even start with as little as $50 to create source of passive income. The difference between person starting with $50 and one with $5000 will only be time when the source starts.

So...... Don't think much... even if u have $50 to spare u can start building source of passive income right now.... Key message: START NOW...

Blogs: Personal Finance

First thing i thought after waking up: There must be other people in world who must have gone through the same stage where i'm today: i.e. waking up one day and starting to take control.

I searched on Google (www.google.com) for "personal finance blog" and then on technorati (www.technorati.com) for same, and stumbled upon list of blogs on personal finance. Some of them are about tips on finance, some are autobiography with complete financial sheets.

Here is list (Will keep updating as we build upon):

PF Blog
Wise Bread - Living Large on Small Budget
Digerati Life
MyMoney Blog
Lazy Man & His Money
Boston Gal
Simple Dollar

Plan: Scariest Word

Make a Plan !!! This phrase scares me more than watching Exorcist or Blair Witch Project !!

Every damn blog or site for personal finance starts off with "Make a Plan", write down how much u need, and so on..... I start yawning while reading all this and am sure most of you will also be feeling the same.....

Hell... Had i known how to plan and meaning of planning, i wouldnt be wasting time here searching the blogs/sites trying to find out how to stand back up, how to save such amount of monies which all these folks are doing.


Planning is the last thing one should do if u want to get up and straighten up your finances or you want to start getting in control of your own money.

Starting off with planning is like the situation when ur in middle of nowhere and starving, and
on asking for directions to nearest MacD, being told "Go to Barnes and Nobles, buy receipe book, go to Safeway, buy the ingrediants, soak it for 5 hrs and then cook and eat"......


Hell no... I'm hungry right now and thats why i'm asking for directions... and need my Big Mac right now......

We want simple solutions which common man can implement right away to start seeing results.
If you end up saving $100 in first week/month, you will be so much motivated to work harder, rather than ending up spending $100 in first month in buying and reading the suggested books from Amazon.

Awakening: Was i sleeping

Sleeping !! Really. Yes i had been sleeping for quite some time now. Even though going to office, living the routine life, religiously following and watching stock markets, commodities and currency movements, spending hours reading world economy, understanding impact of subprime crisis on emerging markets, impacts of rising tensions between Syria and Iraq Kurds on crude oil prices, betting on rate cuts and CRR hikes by central banks... still making not a single dime......

Sound like story in which person is awake yet sleeping.... able to watch everything yet worse than blind man.... able to shout, yet failing to even murmur at right time..

One fine day.. yes this is that fine day... i woke up from the depth's, deeper than grand canyon's of my great great sleep...... and like a newborn child started to observe....

so much has changed since i was last awake.... so much that feels like i've been transported to different world....

Only one thing hasn't changed... World is still making money... whether it is simple middle class folks minting money in China, or the housewifes in small towns of India or the CNN Money featured "Millionare in Making" folks.....

One thing which is common to every single person making money is the "Structure & Discipline".....