Wisdom of Rich Dad

In conjunction with World Children’s Day, Hartamas Shopping Centre (HSC) and Yuber, which provides child training services, organised the Kids Marketplace recently to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit in youths.

The highlights at Kids Marketplace included the Kids Entrepreneurship contest, Cashflow 101 for Kids Challenge, workshops by Yuber and a green bazaar.

A total of 39 teams comprising 78  youngsters participated in the Kids Entrepreneurship contest for the chance to win holiday packages, Yuber scholarships and the grand prize of an Asus Notebook.

Participants  who were grouped under the junior (aged 8-12) and senior (aged 13-18) categories competed for the Best Display, Most Creative and the Most Promising Young Entrepreneur Awards.

The Most Promising Young Entrepreneur, in particular, were judged based on creativity and leadership skills, as well as the ability to make the most profit from an undertaking.

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Women need to get smarter about their money says Nicole Pederson Mckinnon editor of Smart Investor Magazine.

Should couple share financial responsibility?

In The Education of Millionaires, author Michael Ellsberg details the successes of a number of “self-educated” billionaires, including hair-care magnate John Paul DeJoria, Facebook co-founders Dustin Moskovitz and Sean Parker, fashion designer Mark Ecko, Hip Hop and fashion mogul Russell Simmons, WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg.

Like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates before them, these highly successful entrepreneurs either dropped out of college or never enrolled in the first place, once again raising questions about the value of a higher education.

“If you want to be a doctor, lawyer, engineer [and] go into a traditional profession, [college] makes a lot of sense,” Ellsberg says. “But for people who have no idea…$50,000 a year is an expensive way to figure out what you want to do with your life.”

In the accompanying video below, the author and Forbes blogger discusses the common traits and the 7 Core Success Skills he gleaned from these titans of industry:

• Learn How to Sell
• Learn Marketing
• The “Right” Way to Network with Big Wigs
• Define Your Vision
• Invest in Yourself
• Build the Brand of “You”
• Take an Entrepreneurial Mindset

“These are the real world skills we don’t learn in college,” Ellsberg says, stressing, as the subtitle of his book indicates, “it’s not too late” to learn these lessons, even if you did go to college.

It is typical to grow up believing that if we studied hard, excelled in school and landed a good job, the fairytale of having a luxury car, a dream home and being able to live the good life would come true.

But the reality is, there are many people, including highly educated ones, who work hard for money and yet plunge deep into debt with every dollar earned.

Some take the short cut by placing bets on the lottery. While millionaires have been made overnight, they can become bankrupt just as quickly if they lose all of their winnings to extravagant lifestyles and frivolous spending.

Even today, the downward spiral of the real estate markets has completely shattered the dreams of ordinary people hoping to create wealth. It is worse for those who have been driven out of their dream homes and into the “poor house” as a result of property foreclosure.

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We’re familiar with the idea of work-life balance — that miraculous sweet spot where one’s out-of-office world is rich and full, and doesn’t collide with one’s career.

But how about money-life balance? According to J.P. Morgan Chase and Co. and the nonprofit advocacy group Consumer Action, a reasonable money-life balance considers the positive emotional benefits that go along with behaving responsibly with money.

In other words, you achieve money-life balance if you’re not racking up massive credit card bills during late-night online shopping binges on Zappos.com (ahem).

In a newly released survey conducted by Chase and Consumer Action, only one-third of 1,016 adults said they had money-life balance.

The Key to Good Balance

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Divorced three years, Albert Ramos shares custody of his son and daughter, ages 5 and 8, with his ex, but the kids live primarily with him.

Their mother contributes $800 a month in child support, but he bears the bulk of the costs for the kids’ day-to-day care.

As primary provider, “I never want to live paycheck to paycheck,” says Ramos. So he’s become a super-saver, stashing away 18% of his $100,000 income each year.

“He’s saving more than most people in his situation,” says Plantation, Fla., financial planner Benjamin Tobias.

On the other hand, he’s barely treading water on his home as a result of his tapping equity for an investment that hasn’t gone as planned; he’s way underinsured; and despite his power-saving, he’s shortchanging his kids’ college funds.

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