Li Ka-Shing teaches you how to buy a car & house in 5 years

Hong Kong billionaire Li
Ka-Shing shares some of his money wisdom, outlining an inspirational
five-year plan to improve one’s lot in life

This article is translated from the original Chinese by Edmund Ng at
CeoConnectz.

Suppose your monthly income is only RMB 2,000, you can live well. I
can help you put money into five sets of funds. The first $600, second
$400, third $300, fourth $200, fifth $500.

The first set of funds is used for living expenses. It’s a simple
way of living and you can only be assigned to less than twenty dollars a
day. A daily breakfast of vermicelli, an egg and a cup of milk. For
lunch just have a simple set lunch, a snack and a fruit. For dinner go
to your kitchen and cook your own meals that consist of two vegetables
dishes and a glass of milk before bedtime. For one month the food cost
is probably $500-$600. When you are young, the body will not have too
many problems for a few years with this way of living.

Second set of funds: To make friends, expand your interpersonal
circle. This will make you well off. Your phone bills can be budgeted at
RMB 100. You can buy your friends 2 lunches a month, each at $150. Who
should you buy lunch for? Always remember to buy lunch for people who
are more knowledgeable than you, richer than you or people who have
helped you in your career. Make sure you do that every month. After one
year, your circle of friends should have generated tremendous value for
you. Your reputation, influence, added value will be clearly recognized.
You’ll also enhance your image of being good and generous.

Third set of funds: To learn. Monthly spend about RMB 50 to RMB 100
to buy books. Because you don’t have a lot of money, you should pay
attention to learning. When you buy the books, read them carefully and
learn the lessons and strategies that is being taught in the book. Each
book, after reading them, put them into your own language to tell the
stories. Sharing with others can improve your credibility and enhance
the affinity. Also save up $200 per month to attend a training course.
When you have higher income or additional savings, try to participate in
more advanced training. When you participate in good training, not only
do you learn good knowledge, you also get to meet like-minded friends
who are not easy to come by.

Fourth set of funds: Use it for holidays overseas. Reward yourself by
traveling at least once a year. Continue to grow from the experience of
life. Stay in youth hostels to save cost. In a few years you would have
travelled to many countries and have different experiences. Use that
experience to recharge yourself so that you’ll continually have
passion in your work.

Fifth set of funds: Invest. Save the $500 in your bank and grow it as
your initial startup capital. The capital can then be used to do a small
business. Small business is safe. Go to wholesalers and look for
products to sell. Even if you lose money, you will not lose too much
money. However, when you start earning money, it will boost your
confidence and courage and have a whole new learning experience of
running a small business. Earn more and you can then begin to buy
long-term investment plans and get long-term security on your financial
wealth being of yourself and your families. So that no matter what
happens, there will be adequate funds and the quality of life will not
decline.

Well, after struggling for a year and if your second year salary is
still RMB 2,000, then that means you have not grown as a person. You
should be really ashamed of yourself. Do yourself a favour and go to the
supermarket and buy the hardest tofu. Take it and smash it on your head
because you deserve that.

If your monthly income is at RMB 3,000, you must still work very
hard. You must try to find a part time job. It will be great to find
part time sales jobs. Doing sales is challenging, but it is the fastest
way for you to acquire the art of selling and this is a very deep skill
that you will be able to carry it for the rest of your career. All
successful entrepreneurs are good sales people. They have the ability to
sell their dream and visions. You’ll also meet many people that will
be of value to you in the later part of your career. Once you’re in
sales, you will also learn what sells and what not. Use the sensitivity
of detecting market sentiments as a platform for running your business
and in the identification of product winners in the future.

Try to buy minimal clothes and shoes. You can buy them all you want
when you’re rich. Save your money and buy some gift for your loved
ones and tell them your plans and your financial goals. Tell them why
you are so thrifty. Tell them your efforts, direction and your
dreams.

Businessmen everywhere need help. Offer yourself to do part time for
any kind of opportunities. This will help to hone your will and improve
your skills. You will start to develop eloquence and soon, you’ll
be closer to your financial goals. By the second year, your income
should be increased to at least RMB 5,000. Minimum it should be RMB
3,000, otherwise you would not be able to keep up with inflation.

No matter how much you earn, always remember to divide it into five
parts proportionately. Always make yourself useful. Increase your
investment in networking. When you increase your social investment,
expand your network of contacts, your income also grows proportionately.
Increase your investment in learning, strengthen your self confidence,
increase investment in holidays, expand your horizons and increase
investment in the future, and that will ultimately increase your
income.

Maintain this balance and gradually you will begin to have a lot of
surplus. This is a virtuous circle of life plans. Your body will start
to get better and better as you get more nutrition and care. Friends
will be aplenty and you will start to make more valuable connections at
the same time. You will then have the conditions to participate in very
high-end training and eventually you’ll be exposed to bigger
projects, bigger opportunities. Soon, you will be able to gradually
realize your various dreams, the need to buy your own house, car, and to
prepare an adequate education fund for your child’s future.

Life can be designed. Career can be planned. Happiness can be
prepared. You should start planning now. When you are poor, spend less
time at home and more time outside. When you are rich, stay at home more
and less outside. This is the art of living. When you are poor, spend
money on others. When you’re rich, spend money on yourself. Many
people are doing the opposite.

When you are poor, be good to others. Don’t be calculative. When
you are rich, you must learn to let others be good to you. You have to
learn to be good to yourself better. When you are poor, you have to
throw yourself out in the open and let people make good use of you. When
you are rich, you have to conserve yourself well and don’t let
people easily make use of you. These are the intricate ways of life that
many people don’t understand.

When you are poor, spend money so that people can see it. When you
are rich, do not show off. Just silently spend the money on yourself.
When you are poor, you must be generous. When you are rich, you must not
be seen as a spendthrift. Your life would have come full circle and
reach its basics. There will be tranquility at this stage.

There is nothing wrong with being young. You do not need to be afraid
of being poor. You need to know how to invest in yourself and increase
your wisdom and stature. You need to know what is important in life and
what is worth investing in. You also need to know what you should avoid
and not spend your money on. This is the essence of discipline. Try to
avoid spending money on clothing, but buy a selective number of items
that have class. Try to eat less outside. If you were to eat outside, do
make sure you buy lunches or dinners and foot the bill. When buying
people dinner, make sure you buy dinners for people who have bigger
dreams than you, and work harder than you.

Once your livelihood is no longer an issue, use the remainder of your
money to pursue your dreams. Spread your wings and dare to dream! Make
sure you live an extraordinary life!

Famous theory from Harvard: The difference of a person’s fate
is decided from what a person spends in his free time between 20:00 to
22:00 . Use these two hours to learn, think and participate in
meaningful lectures or discussion. If you persist for several years,
success will come knocking on your doors.

No matter how much you earn, remember to split your salary into five
parts. Take care of your body so that it will still be in good shape.
Invest in your social circle so that you will constantly meet new people
where you can learn new knowledge from. Expanding your network will also
have an important impact in how much you earn eventually. Travel every
year and expand your horizons. Also keep abreast with the latest
developments in the industry. If you follow this plan diligently, you
will soon see big surplus in your funds.

Whatever happened in the past is over. Do not dwell on past mistakes.
There’s no point crying over spilt milk. Everybody makes mistakes.
It’s what you learn from the mistakes, and promising yourself not to
repeat those mistakes that matters. When you miss opportunities,
don’t dwell on it, as there are always new opportunities on the
horizon.

Being able to smile when being slightly misunderstood is good
upbringing. When you’re wronged and you smile with calmness, it is
generosity. When you’re being taken advantage of and you can smile,
you’re being open-minded. When you are helpless and you can do a
philosophical smile, you’re in a calm state. When you’re in
distress and you can laugh out loud, you’re being generous. When
you’re looked down and you can calmly smile, you’re being
confident. When you’re being jilted in relationships and you can
smile it off, you’re being suave.



























There are many people who are struggling to make ends meet. It
doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor. There are lessons for all
to learn from Li Ka Shing.