Thursday, October 30, 2008
Start Creating A Financial Safety Net NOW!
 It was reported in last week's MSN news that Asia's poor are still oblivious to the global crisis. The interview was extracted from MSN News dated October 23rd 2008."I have no idea about what's happening," said Firman, one of the army of cleaners who service the bustling exchange, as he swept the marble lobby and emptied standing ashtrays outside the trading floor. The 28-year-old who earns 30,000 rupiah (three dollars) a day rubs shoulders with some of the elite of Jakarta's business world, but he doesn't know them and he doesn't care very much for what they do. "I'm just an ordinary man, I don't understand their business," he shrugged. "It makes no difference to me," he said. "Everything is just as difficult as before." "It's difficult as I haven't had a salary rise despite the fuel price hike. It used to be enough to feed my family but with the fuel hike it's very tight," the father-of-two said. "Poor people like me need to be smart to manage our limited money. If we cannot eat tempeh (soybean cake) we eat only rice and vegetables," he said. "I don't have other skills but I do have the spirit to work hard to raise my family as far as it doesn't harm people," he said. The working class however are aware of this economic spiral downwards but are trying to ignore the fact because by not acknowledging it, they are hoping the problem will just fade away. But how to ignore the fact when every day, we read about the global downturn in the various medias, we hear the radio reports on what Governments are trying to do. I just heard it over the 1pm news that our Government is studying the possibility of a retrenchment fund. In fact, when I checked on the internet, the report on this was already reported in The Star daily on Tuesday, the 14th of October 2008.Abdullah Sani (PKR-Kuala Langat) said however that the fund needed to be executed immediately especially in light of what was happening in the global economy now. “Whenever there is an economic downturn, the victims are the workers. I believe thousands of factory workers will lose their jobs during this downturn,” he said. It was mentioned that the factory workers will be affected. But I seriously do not think that it is just blue collared workers who will be affected. It will be all levels of the working community.  The only group of people who are likely not to be affected will be the wealthy and the successful. In fact, i think that some if not many of them will look at the situation as an opportunity to further extend their wealth. Those who have read Robert Kiyosaki's books will surely understand how the wealth generation fundamentals work.So, unless you are in the rich and wealthy group, it is not too soon to wake up from our slumber and move out of our comfort zone. It is not too late to start creating your financial safety net, if you have not done so already. Do not wait until you are falling before you start "weaving" this net. Do it now. No idea what to do? Then watch this space. Technorati Tags:wealth creation, financial safety net Labels: Wealth Creation |
