How to become wealthy with just a middle class salary

What if i tell you that it is possible to become a millionaire with just an average middle class salary? There have been many people who've done it and i would like to share this one person today.

Credits: andrewhallam.com

Andrew Hallam is the author of the book "Millionaire Teacher". He started investing when he was 20 and became a millionaire by age 37 with just a normal teacher's salary. There is an interview series by Channel News Asia money mind programme where they had an exclusive session with him.

What inspired Andrew Hallam to become what he is today is interesting. He said there was a time where he was working at a bus depot back then and there he met this mechanic who was a millionaire. He was thinking how could this person who earns an average become a millionaire? The mechanic inspired him by saying: "You can choose to do whatever job it is you want to do. If you learn how to manage your money, you can become wealthy even with a middle class salary".

Watch the videos below and find out more about his story:







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Asia’s Youngest Self-Made Billionaires

Forbes magazine regularly comes out with a list of richest people in the world and they've come out with a list of Asia’s youngest billionaires for 2013. On the list are Gree’s Yoshikazu Tanaka from Japan and Fang Wei of Fangda International Industrial Investment of Beijing in China. Forbes also came out with a similar list in 2008, which included several billionaires like Ma Huateng of Tencent Holdings from China and Chu Lam Yiu from Hong Kong. These young, self-made billionaires serve as an inspiration to anyone who believes that hard work—and a bit of cleverness—can indeed make you rich.

1. Yoshikazu Tanaka (36)

Japanese entrepreneur and self-made bilionaire Yoshikazu Tanaka founded social network game site Gree when he was just 26. He has had the distinction of being called “Asia’s Youngest Self-Made Billionaire” by Forbes in 2010. Gree has grown big enough to acquire other companies, including Atlantis Co., Ltd., US social mobile gaming platform OpenFeint, and mobile game developer Funzio. His net worth is estimated to be at $1.9 billion as of April 2013.


2. Fang Wei (40)

Self-made billionaire Fang Wei’s net worth is estimated to be at $1.3 billion according to Forbes. Fang Wei chairs Fangda International Industrial Investment of Beijing. A profile from Bloomberg says that the company invests in carbon, iron, steel, real estate, and pharmaceuticals.


3. Ma Huateng (42)

Ma Huateng co-founded Tencent in 1998. Today, the internet company’s QQ instant messaging tool is very popular in China. Tencent is also currently involved in other businesses including e-commerce and online games. Forbes estimates Ma’s net worth to be a staggering $10.2 billion as of October 2013, up from $6.4 billion from the previous year. Time Magazine named him one of the world’s most influential people in 2007.


4. Chu Lam Yiu (44)

Chu Lam Yiu chairs fragrances and flavourings company Huabao International. Her fortunes may have fallen a bit since her Hong Kong listed company’s shares dropped, but Forbes estimates her net worth to be at around $1.7 billion as of October 2013. According to a profile of the company by Bloomberg, Huabao supplies flavours and fragrances for tobacco, food, and other household products. Huabao also provides research, development, and marketing services to its customers.


5. Robin Li (45)

Robin Li is the co-founder of Chinese online giant Baidu.com. Baidu was founded in 2000 and is now the largest Chinese search engine and gets the lion’s share of local search queries. Li is one of China’s richest men and Forbes estimates his net worth at $11.1 billion as of October 2013. Li has had experience working at several US websites including Infoseek and Go.com.


Conclusion

While there are many billionaires in Asia, many of them inherited their fortunes. A lot of them were able to grow their inheritance and become notable business figures in their own right. The five billionaires on this list, however, stand out because they started companies by themselves, were able to expand those, and reap the rewards of their hard work. Also worth nothing is Huabao International’s Chu Lam Yiu, who is the only female in our short list of young Asian billionaires.

Yoshikazu Tanaka, Fang Wei, Ma Huateng, Chu Lam Yiu, and Robin Li are self-made billionaires that have been featured in Forbes’ list of young Asian billionaires. They serve as inspiration to entrepreneurs who may not have been born with a golden spoon but are determined to build their fortune through sheer hard work. It’s also remarkable how many on this list are from China, serving as a testament to how the country’s economic policies allow entrepreneurs to become not just millionaires, but billionaires.


*This guest post is written by Israel Defeo. He is the writer and online promoter of the leading financial comparison website in Hong Kong, Money Hero. The online portal presents up-to-date and unbiased information about insurance companies, credit cards, loans, deposit accounts and broadband and mobile plans.

A success story - Olivia Lum, the person who created water for Singapore

In this next success story, i'm bringing to you Olivia Lum, founder and Group CEO of Hyflux group. I'm sure you have heard of this company before but you may not know the success story behind it. In a rare video i'm about to show you, it depicts Olivia's journey towards success and how she manage to achieve all that she has now.

According to Forbes, Olivia is Singapore's 27th richest person with an estimated net worth of $460 Million. She was originally from Malaysia, living in a small town of Kampur in Perak, Malaysia. In her younger days, she would hear people quarrelling because of money, especially husbands and wives. The village was poor and Olivia was living in a leaky shack without running water with her grandmother. She thought to herself that she cannot live in such a poverty stricken place and she must get out of the poverty cycle one day...... She came to Singapore in search for better education at the tender age of 16. This was the life changing event for her.

An interesting fact is Hyflux's first project in Singapore was to cater clean drinking water for birds. Yes, you did not read wrongly, it was for birds. The project was to recycle waste water into pure drinking water for birds at Jurong Bird Park. The company has thus come far to create Singapore's first own drinking water called NEWater.

They have recently opened their new innovation centre which i've been there before. The new centre is really nice with modern architecture. It's a symbol of their success till date. They have innovated to create water from air. This new product is called Hyflux dragon fly which produces clean water from air. There is no requirement to fix the machine to a water pipe like our regular water cooler. This produces drinking water for anyone anywhere even without a water source. 

The video starts with Olivia showing us her childhood living environment to her former schools and interviews with ex teachers, principals and so on. 

Watch the video below for her whole story and exclusive interview with Olivia herself:

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Changing the world

"When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits,I dreamed of changing the world.
As I grew older and wiser, I discovered the world would not change, so I shortened my sights some what and decided to change only my country. But it, too, seemed immovable.
As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have none of it.
And now, as lie on my deathbed, I suddenly realize:
If I had only changed myself first, then by example I would have changed my family.
From their inspiration and encouragement, I would then have been able to better my country,and who knows, I may have even changed the world."
- Anonymous

When young Nelson Mandela read this inspiring quote, he was awaken to something in his life. He thought to himself that he had found the keys to changing his country, South Africa and even the world. After returning to South Africa, he changed his views and his way of treating people. Starting from changing himself, he changed his family, his friends and after several years, he finally managed to change his country.

Really, to change the world, the starting point is not Earth, not a country, not a race and even not other people. To change the world, you have to start with yourself. Change yourself to make the world a better place.

The above was an inspiration story which I came across. Thought it was good to share it here. Nelson Mandela passed away on 5th December 2013. The world remembers the sacrifices that he has made. He has indeed left a legacy behind. RIP Mr Nelson Mandela.

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A Singaporean success story - The guy who brought Krispy Kremes Doughnuts to Singapore

Krispy Kremes doughnuts opened its first store in Singapore at Tangs orchard. There were long queues seen at the store and doughnuts lover flock to buy it. If you're a doughnut lover like me, you would have known or heard about this famous and popular doughnut brand.

Credits: www.marketing-interactive.com

The guy behind this newest doughnut craze is Andy Chaw. The brand was brought to Singapore by his own Singapore based company called Star 360 holdings which distributes sports apparels around the world. Going into the food business is the first its kind for this company. 

Credits: sg.openrice.com

A brief summary about Andy Chaw:

• He started his business without any financial support from his family
• After his NS in the late 1980s, he did not go on to university. Instead, he supplied perfumes to duty free shops in Myanmar and Indonesia.
• At the age of 26, he persuaded the president of Adidas Asia Pacific to let him handle retail for Indochina. To his surprise, he agreed.
• He made his first million buying and reselling old stocks of Adidas to emerging markets in Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.
• His company currently operates in 17 countries and distributes 20 over brands worldwide. 
• His net worth is estimated to be around $300 million.

The whole story of his journey to success is on Forbes Asia. Click here to read the full story

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