by: Magellan Fetalino
Photo taken from onpreneur.com
Robert Kiyosaki’s rich dad once told him “If you want to be successful on the right side (cashflow quadrant), you’ve got to know the difference between facts and opinions. You can’t blindly accept financial advice the way people from the left quadrant do. You must know the numbers. The numbers will tell you the facts. Your financial survival depends upon facts, not some friend or advisor’s wordy opinions.”
Makes sense? Let me give non-financial situations where we mix up facts from opinions.
“You should marry him. He’ll make a good husband.”
“You’re working for that guy? He’s corrupt!”
“Don’t fall for that man, he’s a playboy!”
“Look at those muscles. He must be strong.”
“She’s too pretty, she’s out of my league.”
“The world is flat.”
“He’ll definitely pass the bar, he’s a smart guy.”
“You can’t sing, you have a terrible voice.”
“She can win the whole competition, she’s so good!”
“I can’t compete with him, he’s way better than me.”
“I can never be rich, Hanggang dito na lang ako.”
“Jessica Sanchez’ last song was not that great, she will lose the finale!”
Sounds familiar? What’s the common denominator among these statements? ALL ARE MERE ASSUMPTIONS AND OPINIONS. And the worst part is, WE OFTEN LISTEN TO SUCH ADVICES. None of these are facts, because FACTS, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, are things or situations that are proved to be true. Do you think any of these are backed with proven information?
We can’t know if Jessica Sanchez wins or not until results are shown tomorrow (Let’s vote for her!). We can’t know if a guy can be a good husband until he becomes one. We can’t know if a woman is out of your league until you try. Whatever people say now are just assumptions. We have to stop assuming and listening to opinions without doing further study, research, or action. Not until something is proven, it cannot be a fact.
Hanggang dito ka nga lang ba? You can’t say you can be rich until you do something about it. I remember a passage from the website of Mr. Anthony Pompliano that inspired me to continue my advocacy. It says there “Some people dream of success, others make it happen.” After contemplating this passage, I knew inside me that I am not just a dreamer; I want to make things happen.
As Mr. Edward K. Lee, Chairman of COL Financials, put it, there are two kinds of failure. “Thinking without Doing” and “Doing without Thinking”.
Mr. Edward K. Lee, photo taken from im-bc.com
Now let’s incorporate it to personal finance and investments.
“I can never afford that, it’s too expensive.”
“I should just make a lot of children so that they will take care of me when I’m old.”
“I should invest in Gold, my friend says it’s a good investment.”
“We should buy a property here, properties are good investments.”
“I should buy this stock, it’s an oil company anyway, it’s a good investment.”
“Bonds are safer than stocks.”
“You need to be hands-on with your business to succeed.”
“You should diversify (Portfolio Diversification).”
“You shouldn’t diversify.”
There are so many opinions out there don’t you think? And some are even contradicting each other. So who should you listen to? My answer is “none other than YOURSELF”. Learn how to study and research what’s best and stop depending on others. Robert Kiyosaki’s rich dad called it Due Diligence, defining it simply as doing your own homework and finding out which statements are facts and which are opinions.
True enough, people nowadays want everything instant and fast to the point that they will search for shortcuts to anything and skip Due Diligence in the process. People hate to research and usually just depend on other people’s say on things, which are most of the time, unreliable as well.
During the fall of the market in October last year, everybody said buy Gold because it’s the safe haven during bearish markets. For a moment, gold almost hit $2000 per ounce, and everyone had expected for it to surpass that level. Now, everybody who bought near $2000 have almost lost 25% of their investment as Gold falls off to $1500 levels.
Everything changes in time, and certainty is not in the vocabulary of the future. We can make all the assumptions we can, but everything would still be uncertain. But we can be close to certainty if we know how to conduct Due Diligence, because backed with the proper information and data, we can definitely be confident with the crucial choices we need to make for our future.
retireby25 