Daily Thoughts #11: How I plan to get financial freedom by understanding cash flow and money? (我如何通过了解现金流和金钱来达到财务自由?)

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During Sundays, I usually will spend it on courses, reading or meeting up with friends. Today, I spent it on some articles about financial management. I would like to share some of the gains from the reading as well as some personal experience sharing. 

1 Understand cash flow 

There are two main components in cash flow, one is asset and the other one is debt. Those property that could bring money into my pocket are asset and those property that drain money out of my pocket are called debt. So, by understanding cash flow and learn how to manage it is about how to increase asset and reduce debt. Saving, making budget, control spending, earning interest, use credit card wisely and making investment are methods of doing financial management.  

2 Saving 

In this era with so much of temptation, it is hard to save up money! We always heard about people who have zero saving that spent all their salary once they get it. It is insane to have zero saving as we need those for contingency. My own strategy of saving is that I treat myself as another entity. Whenever my salary reaches my account, I will deposit 5% of the salary into fixed deposit as the real payment for myself. Whereas the other 95% I take it as the operational cost for me to pay for debt, insurance and daily expenses. With that, I could also force myself to rely on that 95% to survive, learning to be thrifty and wise at the same time.  

3 Fixed investment 

One of the great way to manage your finance is by getting in a fixed investment planning. This type of investment is like what Warren Buffet proposed, the value investment. Rather than spending a lot of time to research on different kind of stocks, I will just lock on to one or two companies that I like and trust in terms of its operation, executives and financial report. Plus, this method needs me to disregard the fluctuation of the stock and buy in whenever it is the scheduled time to invest. This do save a lot of time. Then, in every week, month or quarter invest a fixed amount of money into the company through stock purchase. For example, I have a 400 bucks budget for this fixed investment and I set myself to invest in this company monthly. So, every month, no matter how high or low is the stock price, I will just buy in. However, this method had yet to be practiced by me, I am currently accumulating the amount to do so and doing some research in investment, especially on the mechanism. 

4 Passive income 

Creating passive income is one of the wisest way of investment and it is a long term one too. Passive means by I do not need to do anything, literally and I still get monetary return. Nevertheless, this have to be done with an upfront investment of time and effort to create such property of mine. Those properties that could produce passive income are fixed deposit, rental fees, book royalty and others. So far, writing on Steemit is the first step for me to start writing a book, and investing in property and generate rental yield is in my near future planning as well.  

5 Learn how to spend 

Learning about financial management is not about being thrifty. Usually, over frugal will lead to more loss. Meaning to say, due to the money save on some items, the inconvenience will cause more losses. Learning how to spend and spend more is part of financial management. The important part is learning where to spend it. Here are some guidelines on where should we spend more: 

1. Money on upgrading quality of life (pick up some good quality habits like learn how to cook to eat healthier)
2.  Money on buying tools (like computers, software that could increase the productivity) 
3. Money on security (like insurance) 
4. Money on ultimate experience (those experience that could only be enjoy now and may not come in the future, for example dating someone) 
5. Money on increasing our knowledge 

6 Risk management 

Risk management is another vital skill. Most of the time there are risk everywhere and the more the unknown is, the higher the risk. So, whenever I decide, I will consider the possible consequences before that. At the same time, I will add in the possibility on unforeseen circumstances. After considering these, I will judge whether the risk is something worth taking. If it is too high, and the return is not worth the bet, then I will let it go. For example, last time I had been expose with a lot of get rich scheme with investment involved. After I listen to the proposal, I usually will think thoroughly on whether the methods suit me. Usually, after having a deeper thought, I found out that most of the proposal are shelling the founder from risk, not the participants (like me). All the participants will take on the highest risk, but most of the profit will go to the founder whom bare little to no risk. I was in this before, something like a direct sale with a pyramid scheme. For each stage, it seeks for more investment from me and so I give up. I had incur some loss during that time but I had gain valuable experience and lesson on how to judge what suits me and what not.  

Thinking back the old me, I always felt that talking about money was being too realistic and so I never dig deep to understand about money and financial management. Luckily, now I am awake and understand the importance of understanding about money. By having a solid understanding, I could even reduce the risk of getting scam too!    

 星期日，我通常都会上上课，读读书，见见朋友。今天，就读了有关理财的读物。一下是一些关于理财和了解金钱观的建议和个人经历分享。 

1了解现金流。 

现金流本身有两种，资产和债务。那些能把钱放入你的口袋的就叫资产，而从你的口袋中抽取金钱的叫债务。而懂得理财就是怎样增加资产，减少债务。存钱，做预算，控制开销，赚取利息，明智地使用信用卡，做投资，这些都是理财活动。 

2存钱。 

在这个充满消费诱惑的时代，要存钱可说是非易事啊！我们时常听到的月光族，就是那些拿到工资就把它花光，零存款的一群人。没有任何应急的钱，真的使不得。我本身存钱的一个方法就是我把自己当作另一个公司。当发了工资，我得把大概5%的工资当成是自己真正的工资，直接存入定期存款。其余的都是我的生活开销以及还债务和保险金的份额。如此一来，我被逼以剩下的95% 的工资来存活。 

3定投。 

定期投资股票是其中一项被建议的理财方式。这种定期投资比较像巴菲特的价值投资法，就是指定研究某个公司，了解其价值所在并信任其执行团体。然后，以每周，每个月或每季度（个人而定）来定期投资这间公司的股票。利用这个方式就得忽视期间的起伏，并购买等量金额的公司股票。就比如，我每个月将用四百块来当作定投资金。所以，每个月不管股价多少，我都以四百块买入。但是，这种做法我还没执行，还在研究之中并把一定的资金储备起来。 

4被动收入。 

制造被动收入是一个非常明智的投资方法，也是非常长远的投资。被动的意思就是不必做任何事情就能得到收入。前提是，我必须得牺牲时间和金钱来筹备它。能有被动收入的资产有定存，房产租金，书本版税等。目前，写Steemit将是我迈向出书的第一步，而房产投资也将会是未来不久的投资方案。 

5学会花钱。 

懂得理财不代表样样都得省。通常，过度的节省将伴随着很高的隐性成本。意思就是说为了节省，造成不便的损失可能多过省回来的钱。理财的其中一项技巧就是学会花钱，而且要花得多。花在的地方得有这几个特征： 

1. 提高生活素质的钱（培养一些高质量的生活习惯，比如学会烹饪，吃得更健康） 
2. 买工具的钱（比如电脑，软件等能帮助提高效率的） 
3. 事关安全的钱（比如保险） 
4. 终极体验的钱（只有当下能享受的，未来可能不能再有机会了，比如谈恋爱） 
5. 提高知识水平的钱 

6衡量风险。 

控制风险是一项不可或缺的技能。多数的事情都存在着一定的风险，未知数越高，风险就越高。当我面对任何事时，我都会去想可能发生的结果，并加上未知的状况的大概率。考虑这些后，我将考虑是否这个风险值得我去冒。如果过高的风险，回报也不是那么的值，那么我都会放弃。比如，之前我被朋友有很多致富的投资计划，里边有着不同的做法和一定的投资金额。每次听了后，我都会仔细地细想这个做法对我的匹配性。当深入去想后，通常都是这个计划都偏帮计划者，而不是参与者。参与者都会每次承受最大的风险，而计划者将会是幕后，得到最高利益并承受着最低风险。我也曾经参与了直销，但也因为不断的要我有资金的投入，我也就放弃了。当中也亏损了不少。算我年少时期不懂事，现在眼睛会比较亮些，头脑也比较清晰。 

回想以前的我，总是对金钱的了解不去深入探讨，就感觉一直讲钱好像太现实。但是，现在终于惊醒了，知道金钱观的重要性。懂得理财和有着扎实的金钱观，被骗的几率也会低了很多！