Last night I spent some time and had a good talk with an ex-colleague. We had dinner at Lintas.

With 2-3 hours ... I started to talk about my current situation. What I have been doing after exactly 5 years I left Institute Sinaran. And what I am planning to do in this coming 5 years time, to enable me to retire by then. Yes, retire ... financially independent.

Yes ... I was just like him ... 5 years ago. I was a Math teacher there, giving tuition to some of the students. He is doing that now too, and has been doing that for past 20 plus years!! And still with Ins.Sinaran ... and without any changes, he will most probably retire there. Mind you, it is not wrong at all ... retire with the college, tho one may never retire ... financially free. Most lecturers staying in the education-line till retirement as they do not have the courage enough to pull themselves out from the E-quadrant.

Let us put it in more general point ... most of those in E-quadrant simply think it is more secure(financially) to stay employed as we were taught to be ... employee.

So ... I told him how I started some 8 years ago ... by reading the RDPD book! I was in huge debt after wedding ... I was broke with my young baby boy. Life was tough ... very very tough without simple financial basic, without money to support the young family. As I married late, and financially broke ... it is more reason to work extremely hard ... twice harder than all my colleagues.

What do I do?

I read RDPD. I was so focus and serious about moving out of E-quadrant. I m having the S-quadrant ... but not in B or I side. So ... I forced myself to be in I-quadrant, moving into KLSE (unfortunately, it was 2008 ... today, I do see it as fortunately!) and forced myself to be in B-quadrant(goreng keropok to sell). I failed in both in 2008 ... quit my keropok-biz ... lost few thousands invested in some equipment. I lost about 70% of my small initial capital(always start small when we are new in markets)

I re-read RDPD and started to buy more investment books. I read Azizi-Ali's "Millionaire In Me" and how we could be millionaire by changing our mindset. I remember I read Adam Khoo's book whenever I am free ... to understand how market works(so I thought, my views have changed) ... I continued to buy more books, money-financial related magz ... and more. Yes, I was totally broke with 3 credit cards to clear ... the financial stress was tremendous and the ripple-effect on other part of our lives is definitely being felt.

2008 was the nightmare year for me ... but, thank God for helping me, guiding me. I continued to stay strong ... walked to college, planning my path to be a trader ... planning how I could build a biz ... and planning how to clear my debt. While tuition-classes picked up then, it is still not sufficiently enough ... my baby girl was born.

I was barely surviving ... trying to make ends and month end salary is a MUST for me. I have to pay RM500 for an apartment where I could not sell(or rent out) ... paying RM450 for my Kancil. I was renting a house to give tuition nearby school(and rented out my rooms). With my small salary of less than RM4k, I am certainly struggling ... financially and emotionally.

Staying positive, staying strong and persistent ... those are characters that majority will fail. We have too much of negativity news/people around us. I slowly distanced myself from my colleagues ... my surrounding people who are financially not doing well. It is all in the mind ... yes, I learnt that from some of my financial books, telling me the different mindset between the rich and the poor.

The poor will dream ... day-dream and envy about others successes. They give excuses and blame others for their short-comings.

The rich do dream ... take actions and put their dream as goal. They duplicate other successes and admire successful people. They give reasons why they need to change and take responsibilities for their mistakes, and wrong-doings. They understand that mistakes are stepping stones for them to be experienced and wiser.

These are what I told my colleague ... and he was very motivated to change his mindset ... and financial live. I do hope I could give him some guidelines ... but I could only tell him what I have done, and what I m going to do.

I am still far from my personal goal ... my dream of being financially independent. But, at least ... I have moved away from E-quadrant. So ... I shared with him my 2015 goal ... and 5 year goal. By 2020, I will want to retire!



What is my next step? To move away from S-quadrant.

S = self-employed. My current tuition classes where I have to be there physically to teach, and to manage my classes. In other words, those in S-quadrant are those changing their TIME with MONEY. Again ... nothing is wrong with that, ok? Just that we need to be there ... physically and have limited income(due to limited TIME). Each day, I will be teaching about 3-4 hours, averagely. If I have the energy, I will teach at nights or weekends too(I hv stopped teaching on Sundays ... that is for family time). I am not a lazy person ... I will work and work ... besides, I am teaching Math which something I love very much!

Being able to generate income from my trading is also very important. I hv spent 4-6 hours per day for past 6 years in market, invested thousands in myself. This is a serious biz for me. So, I know I could only continue to improve. While majority looking for tips around the forums, yak-king around talking air-water, I m working on my charts, trading system ... learning new trading idea. And meeting more and more traders, to share their experiences(going to meet another two traders who are working in IBs later).

So ... my ex-colleague(call him Mr C) was very impressed with my total change of my mindset. Yes ... he knew me personally ... we are in same Math Dept ... and he was far better financially than me, some 5 years ago. Today ... he is still there with some increment in his salary, while tuition-classes slowing. It is never to late to change and motivate ourselves, to do better than what we are doing today. BUT ... we need to take ACTION.

Haha ... I told him ... if I can do it, you can too!!

Am I pulling him to move to KL? Hmm ... I have no control on what others wish to do. It is our own lives, our own choice.

My choice was obvious ... I have to uproot myself from KK, and to moved back to KL ... there are more opportunities there. So ... the change is needed. No matter how hard, how scary it could be ... if I want to move away from E-quadrant(remember that was my goal?) I have to move away from the beautiful KK ... yes, another sacrifices I have to make to achieve my personal-goal. By the way, I have sacrificed the time watching TV, stopped bowling in total ... no time-wasting talking to colleagues or so-called friends(unless we have similar goals?).

Leaving Ins. Sinaran ... leaving my colleagues, no one actually knew why I am doing such. No one! No one giving you a chance when you are poor ... when you are struggling. In fact, we could use their criticism to propel ourselves higher!! Newton's Third Law applied here, fyi.

Law of Attraction : This is something I shared with him too ... we must be able to attract what we want ... as that is OUR CHOICE. It is not by chance or luck, where many non-performers believe. We create our LUCK ... we create our own opportunities. We need to be pro-active and go out there to do what we needed, and yes ... do mistakes, meeting wrong people ... be disappointed and being crushed. Being envied ... and now, many talking bad about us ... that is the sign of us moving ahead of them.

Small minds talk about human. They stay small. We could move away from them ... it is a choice.


Letting the average minds be where they are is important. So, my ex-colleagues will remain in E-quadrant as they are average. They fear RISK ... I was one of them 5 years ago, ok? And again, it is VERY OK to be average. It is just me ... my personality not allowing myself to be in the herd. I like to challenge myself ... and see how far I could go.

I no longer talk about people ... about events. I will like to meet people to discuss IDEAS.  That is why I meeting more people with like-minded. They could enrich my mind ... and I do admire many of those successful people.

Ok ... back to Mr C. While I knew him for 5 years in Ins. Sinaran and I have no contact with him for past 5 years ... he is not even in my facebook list!

He could appreciate my stories much more than anyone else as he is still teaching Math and been there with me. He was my Math Dept head back then too. Salary-wise more than me ... tuition-wise more than me. But, today ... he could see my changes ... and my goals(which I shared with him) ... he knew I am going to move ahead, irrespective of obstacles, fear of uncertainties ... and failures!!

As he is my friend ... I am more open to him. I could feel more comfortable to share with him my goals .. my dream and my motivation. We all have different personalities ... so, it is very important to know our own pace, our own risk appetite ... while we try to struggle thru the thickness of ujnknowns, criticism ... difficulties ... adversity?

If we are not passionate enough with our goals ... we could not go far. If we are not motivated enough to move even during difficult times, we could not move far. Think of that for our 2015 resolutions.

We talked till the restaurant closed around 11.30pm ... and continue to talk before we call it a night.

I do hope to help a friend. But, we could only help those who wish to help themselves. Many of them do not have the direction of what they want to achieve. As for me, I was financially-idiot ... and realized in a hard way that MONEY is essentially important for me to get out of below-average living. Without money, I could not treat my family, my friends nice meals. Without money ... I could not donate much.

But ... I do still wish to stay humble, while sharing with  some of my friends how I pulled myself out of the E-quadrant ... and now, going to pull myself out of the S-quadrant. I could only hope I could inspire them even in small manner, to change their lives for a better --- financially --- at least.

I will want to stay frugal as I am now ... I will want to help more people to be motivated and taking a venture out of E-quadrant. It is a VERY difficult journey, no one telling you get-rich story here.

I will want to keep my blog here ... tho I will be blogging more about stock-analysis in my www.tratles.net site ... so, I am still very much myself, a Math teacher.

I will remind my close friends to tell me off if I started to show-off, to let the air up in my head ... or perhaps, being boastful. Because ... money changes human, they said. I want to remain my humble self, doing things in simple way. Money supposed to solve our problems ... not changing our characters. We must remember our roots ... always.

Well ... I have offered him to replace me ... to give my tuition students to him. Yes, he appreciated my offer to help ... we should do things in sincere manner. And not to mis-lead others, not to have personal agenda of using others.

I have only achieved first level of success : Out of the E-quadrant.

My second stage of out of S-quadrant will come ... when I am involving more in my B-quadrant. While maintaining in I-quadrant ... I am certainly could only improve(because I WANT IT BADLY).

This post is also to motivate those YOUNG ones(older ones more difficult to motivate to change due to bad-habits die hard) ... to plan to get out of the E-quadrant. No one telling you to steal... to lie. Do it the hard way ... believe in God, believe in yourself. Then .. learn! Never stop learning.

If you are too lazy to find out what you personally want to do ... no one could find that for u. Your laziness amazed me.

Get out of forums, if you are in trading-investing. Get out of the negative environment, and LEAVE your friends(so-called) who might be pulling you down(dragging you, emotional baggage etc etc).


Do what it takes ... to be your own SUCCESS.

I will end my long post here with what late Dennis Ng shared.




Change your thoughts ... APPLIED KNOWLEDGE is power.

To in-touch with me : https://www.facebook.com/tratles

TEH