H.J. Chammas's Blog, page 8

May 28, 2019

What is Your "Big Why"?

What is Your "Big Why"?
Since I was a kid, I always wanted to become rich when I grow old. At that time of my life, I never had a strong enough “why” that made me move toward something I wanted in life. In fact, my “why” was just a fearful one of ending up like my parents who were often fighting about money.

After twenty years of being an employee, I would have been broke any day I left my job. What a pity! I was navigating through life from one pay cheque to the other without any big why that would act as my life’s purpose.

It took me quite a long time for my “big why” to start taking shape in front of my eyes. At that time, I was in my mid thirties.

What I learned during this process was that long-term thinking made the process easier. The further I looked into my future, the less prejudgment I had on whether my ambitions were achievable. I started thinking about what I wanted my life to be like in five and even ten years.

The first draft of my list included my personal and financial ambitions with a time horizon of five to ten years.
I started to look at threads on my list and how the different points related to each other. I found that the things I wanted in life can in fact be regrouped into the following areas of life:
• Home and family
• Health and fitness
• Work, career, and finances
• Personal development and education
• Social life and relationships
• Spiritual development and life contribution


It was a remarkable discovery that my personal ambitions came first, before my financial ambitions. What I discovered is that my financial ambitions acted like enablers for me to achieve my personal ambitions.

Download my ebook for free and start taking control of what you want to achieve in life.

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Published on May 28, 2019 07:46

April 29, 2019

Your 3-Step Journey to Financial Freedom


Your Three-Step Journey to Financial Freedom
It will make much more sense to have a visibility on your current situation and an understanding of the reasons you are where you are before setting your financial objectives. In essence, you can only know where you’re going if you know where you’ve been.

To help you get a solid grasp of your current financial situation, I am sharing a free ebook that comes with free templates and worksheets that enable you to plug in your own data and then conclude your current financial situation.

Download the eBook and Free Financial Statement Here
Starting with your own personal financial statements and looking into your ambitions in your big why list, you will need to determine your primary financial objective, whether it is security, comfort, or financial freedom.

This exercise might seem a bit tricky in the beginning, since you might feel inclined to value security and put it at the top of your list, followed with comfort in the middle, and then financial freedom at the bottom.

Most of us were programmed by our parents, school, and society to value first and foremost a good job with a steady pay cheque with good health and retirement perks. This is why most people put security as their primary financial objective.

As a logical next step, we start to seek comfort, with plans for a house, a car, and enough money for entertainment and vacations.

This keeps the financial freedom objective at the bottom of the list. Most people will attribute this stage to luck. Most of us dream of becoming rich, but we keep it as a dream or wish and never put financial freedom at the top of our financial objectives. That’s because we all find refuge in the easier objectives of security and comfort instead of bothering with the effort and education required to become financially free.

It’s no wonder that the primary objectives for the poor and middle class are security and comfort respectively. Both security and comfort are short-term thinking where a pay cheque, health insurance, retirement plan, a house, a car, entertainment, and travel all offer the feeling of instant gratification. Because the poor and middle class value comfort over financial freedom, they will never become financially free unless they change their beliefs and priorities.

On the other hand, the primary goal for the rich is financial freedom. They have developed the discipline of sacrificing short-term indulgence. They invest their capital into income-producing assets. They invest time in learning about how to create wealth from books, seminars, and mentors. As a consequence, they enjoy much better and bigger things in the future. Their delayed gratification is way more rewarding. Because the rich value financial freedom over comfort, they will get both.


This three-step financial freedom roadmap was one of the most life-changing lessons that my mentor Papa Joe ever taught me. In fact, this roadmap changed my life and made me achieve financial freedom in fewer years than I originally planned, even while being an employee. Let’s discuss each of the stages of the financial freedom roadmap, and then connect them all together.

Stage One—Financial Security
The first stage is financial security, which will be achieved when you generate enough unearned income to cover your essential expenses. Once you achieve financial security, you will feel secure against the risk of leaving your job for whatever reason. At this stage, your unearned income still does not cover your discretionary expenses, but it ensures that you are covered on the essential expenses related to taxes, home mortgage or rent, utilities, home maintenance, insurance, education, food, and clothing. Simply put, in the first step of financial security, you will need to put a personal financial objective of achieving a sum of unearned income equal to essential expenses within a defined time frame.

Stage Two—Financial ComfortThe second step is financial comfort. In this step you will be setting a personal financial objective of achieving a total of unearned income equal to the sum of your essential expenses plus discretionary expenses. Once you achieve this stage, you will have total relief. You can choose to leave your job to pursue other things in life. You may even choose to remain in a job that you are passionate about, but you will not have any fear of being kicked out of your job at any day in the future. Your income-producing assets can carry your total expenses as they are and without the need to reduce them.
Stage Three—Financial FreedomThe final step of the journey is financial freedom. This is where your total unearned income will exceed your total expenses, both essential and discretionary expenses, by at least 30%. This means your unearned income will allow you to afford keeping your life style as it is. On top of this, you will keep a 30 per cent net cash flow, which could be reinvested into more income-producing assets. This is the step where you feel your wealth is being fast-tracked and where you can start indulging yourself with things you thought you could never afford when you were at step one of your journey.


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Published on April 29, 2019 03:19

April 2, 2019

Where Is Your Money Going?

Where Is Your Money Going?
Most people focus on their income ... on how much they make per month or per year, Although, this is important for a person'w financial well-being, it is equally important for them to focus on how much they spend and keep.

Expenses may be classified as either essential or discretionary spending. Households incur two types of expenses. Some expenses are either enforced by law (such as income taxes and health insurance) or are essential to keeping the household running (such as personal housing, food and clothing, and transportation costs). These expenses are essential expenses, as the income earner does not have the option of not paying them without incurring consequences. Simply said, such expenses are essential for survival and therefore may be defined as needs.

On the other hand, discretionary expenses are optional expenses that are not necessary to run a household. In other words, the income earner can pay for these goods or services at his or her own discretion. Discretionary expenses are most often defined as things that are “wants” rather than “needs”.

Although the definitions are clear, the concept of what is discretionary is subjective and may differ considerably among individuals. For some households, what may be classified as an essential expense in good times might be considered a discretionary expense in tough times. As an example, although a car is required for transportation, which is necessary, a household might decide to sell the car and use public transport instead to get out from a car loan.

Do you want to learn more on how to classify your expenses as discretionary or essential? Download my FREE eBook - The 4 Stages of Building Wealth .

 https://www.employeemillionaire.com/the4stages
Expenses may fall into any of the following types:
• Income taxes
• Food and clothing
• Medical insurance
• Property taxes / real estate taxes for personal home
• Home mortgage or rent
• Utilities
• Personal home maintenance
• Personal home insurance
• Personal home household improvements
• Student loan payments
• Charity
• Travel and leisure
• Credit card payments
• Car loan payments
• Personal loan payments

When I first saw the list in front of my eye, it was relatively straightforward to categorize expenses such as taxes, home mortgage, rent, utilities, home maintenance, insurance, education, food and clothing under essential expenses. Some expenses like household improvements, charity, travel and leisure were easily categorized as discretionary expenses. The remaining items on the list, which consisted of credit cards and other loans payments, required detailed examination to evaluate whether the items purchased were discretionary or essential.


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Published on April 02, 2019 02:18

January 21, 2019

Limiting Belief 11 - All the good investments are taken. Only the mediocre and bad investments are left over to the small investors

They Thought All Good Investments Are Taken ... and Never Embarked On The Road To Wealth!
Most unknowledgeable people are cynical about investment. They often claim that all good investments are taken and that only the mediocre and bad investments are left over for small investors.

Savvy investors wouldn’t miss opportunities to make good investments. Why can’t you join the league of those investors? In fact, the marketplace is a dynamic place, with economic forces and personal forces always at work, generating a continuous flow of investment opportunities.



Economic forces such as interest rates, employment rates, population growth, population shifts, and area developments all have major impact on the market. As a result, prices of properties might be driven up or down. Such economic forces are big and are on the news to an extent that they may often mask the impact of personal forces in putting opportunities in the market.

For example, personal situations like marriage, divorce, increase in the size of a household, relocation, death, inability to pay a mortgage, and family disputes over inheritance all present opportunities in the market. Those personal forces present more opportunities at discounted prices just because those people want to get rid of a property for personal reasons sooner rather than later. Such personal factors have always been there and will always remain there.

Do you still believe opportunities at a bargain price tag are all taken?
Learn how to identify great investment opportunities at below market price by visiting www.employeemillionaire.com

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Published on January 21, 2019 22:30

January 14, 2019

January 7, 2019

Limiting Belief 10 - Investors diversify their investments to minimize risk

Shall You Diversify Your Investments? ... Or Shall You Concentrate On Only A Few Holdings?
“Diversify your investments” is the most common advice offered by financial advisors.

Why do you think Warren Buffet believes otherwise when he said “Diversification is a protection against ignorance”?


In fact, he also said that risk can be greatly reduced by concentrating on only a few holdings. This precious advice suggests that investors become deeply knowledgeable in an area of investment and then stick to what they know. It is like putting all your eggs in one basket and then watching over this basket. Think of it like a kind of protection.



We cannot possibly understand all the moving parts of the economy and the countless investment choices available to us, but we can focus and become experts in one or few types of investments. In that way we minimize risk.

The Employee Millionaire (www.employeemillionaire.com) covers all the how-to's of real estate investments. What you will be learning is a wealth of information I have assimilated from many books, seminars, webinars, coaching from real estate advisors, and from my personal experience. I am trying to make it simple with many illustrations to improve the chances that anyone can understand and then apply the learning.

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Published on January 07, 2019 11:13

January 3, 2019

Limiting Belief 9 - Investors have a specific knowledge that most people cannot have

Do Investors Have A Specific Knowledge That Most People Cannot Have?
It is true that investment requires some education and research on the part of the investor. Warren Buffet recommended that investors never invest in a business they cannot understand. He also added, “What counts for most people in investing is not how much they know, but rather how realistically they define what they don’t know.” In other words, investing in what you don’t know or understand cannot be classified as investing. Actually, investing in something you do not understand is pretty much like gambling.
A good example is my friend who bought two expensive properties off-plan by following the advice of an agent that he will more than double his money in four years. My friend is counting on luck. I really do wish him all the luck.


Real investment is investing in what you know and fully understand. If you do not have deep understanding in any specific area, I encourage you to look for a topic that greatly interests you and commit yourself to studying and researching it to become an expert in it over time. Nowadays, with the fast evolution of the Internet and digital media, you can instantly get answers to any area of interest. If real estate is an area you would like to educate yourself on, The Employee Millionaire program (www.employeemillionaire.com) becomes quite handy in your journey.

Learn More!
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Published on January 03, 2019 08:44

December 27, 2018

Limiting Belief 8 - Successful Investors Have A Crystal Ball That Enables Them To Time The Market

Is It True That Successful Investors Have A Crystal Ball That Enables Them To Time The Market?
Wise investors invest with clear criteria and plan for worst case scenarios. Once they are in the game, whenever opportunities present themselves, they will act upon them and achieve high returns.

For an outsider, the image is totally different. People hold the mistaken belief that successful investors really can time the market. They do not understand that those investors were already in the market and then took advantage of opportunities.

Between 2010 and 2012, I bought 3 townhouses with the objective of renting them out for cash flow. I managed my risk and bought properties that are more than 20% less than the market price. With the right buying price, I made my profit going in. The net cash flow from renting out those three properties was positive, with ROI’s ranging between 10% to 17%. I was quite happy with such returns. When the market in Dubai started to regain its 2008 losses and even started to get irrationally high, I took advantage of this window of opportunity and sold those three properties in 2015 with a total profit of a bit over a million dollar. All those agents and bankers I was working with to acquire those properties really believed that I have a crystal ball and I can time the market. I consistently explained to them that I purchased those properties for the cash flow, but I saw enormous capital gain opportunity when the market ticked up in 2015, so I immediately sold them for a handsome profit.

The funny part of the story is that my friends and colleagues who thought I was stupid to invest in properties in 2010 all thought I was smart in 2015. The fact of the matter is that I am neither stupid nor smart. I am just an investor with clear criteria and objectives who had a stake in the market when it changed course and started to grow again at very high pace.

After a strong comeback in 2015, the market in Dubai softened a bit. I immediately bought couple of properties. The banker I always work with to get loans still calls me every couple of weeks for advice on how the market is going. Every time, I tell him that I don’t know. I don’t think he believes me since I still receive those calls. To be transparent, I am enjoying those calls more than he is because I always ask him about the number of home loans the bank is granting. In fact, I am getting data from him that will enable me to have a feeling for where the market might be going. Please note that I said “might”. I never convince myself that whatever data I read will really tell me what will definitely happen next or when.

In other instances, some of the agents I frequently work with also call me to ask about when the market will drop or improve. I tell them, too, that I don’t know. I believe they do not believe me either, given the frequency of calls I receive from the same agents in a short span of time.


Most people think timing the market is about sitting on the sidelines and actively observing until they identify the golden moment to jump in a make fortune.

They don’t understand that timing is about always being in the game, then, when opportunities show up, taking advantage of them. In other words, timing is not about being in the right place at the right time; it’s about always being in that place and then leveraging any opportunity.

Warren Buffet once said: “We have long felt that the only value of stock forecasters is to make fortune-tellers look good.” I’m amazed at how many investors take market forecasters seriously, even when they have no credible track records of success. Warren Buffet also advises against trying to predict the direction of the stock market, the economy, interest rates, or elections. I hope you agree with me that no one has a crystal ball to time the market.

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Published on December 27, 2018 21:39

November 16, 2018

Limiting Belief 7 - Investing is Complicated and Risky. Others Can Manage My money more Wisely

Investing is Complicated and Risky. Others Can Manage My money more WiselyAmong my friends and employees whom I interviewed to understand their views on investment, the majority believe that investment is complicated and risky. They eventually end up depending on their earned income and then wake up one day when their income goes lower or when they see themselves out of a job.
To me, this is risky. Actually, it is riskier to keep on depending on your job until you face the reality of diminishing income or losing all your earned income later in your life.

Many of those employees I have interviewed have sought the help of professional financial advisors to invest their money. I am not attempting to undermine the value of financial advisors—but I encourage this segment of people to ask themselves whether those financial advisors will put their customers’ interest before their own.
Financial advisors are employees, agents, or brokers for financial institutions. They earn their income by selling investments to their customers. They definitely have an interest in generating high returns for their customers, but I don’t believe they will place their customers’ interests before their own.

What I am trying to say is that although those financial advisors might be looking after your money, you owe it to yourself to become actively engaged in your financial planning. When you become involved in the decisions on how and where to invest your own money, higher returns on your investments are more secure. You do not want to be another proof of the old saying “A fool and his money are soon parted”. In the extreme case of losing your money because of bad advice, you can rest assured that your financial advisor has already received payment or commission for the advice given to you. The advisor wins in either case, whether you win or lose.
Investment is not as risky as it might appear. Actually, it is less risky than having a job, which you might lose sooner or later. I am not saying there is no risk associated with investment. Great investors minimize risk by following sound investment principles and proven models. You may have heard that investors make their money going in. This suggests that smart investors buy assets that have more value than the tag price on them. It means they are sure that their profit has actually been made when going in since they bought the asset at a discount as compared to the market price.
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Published on November 16, 2018 23:15

November 8, 2018

Limiting Belief 6 - It Takes Money To Make Money


Limiting Belief 6It Takes Money To Make MoneyIndeed, it takes money to make money, but who said it has to be your money? In an earlier article, I have shared one of the best lesson my mentor, Papa Joe, ever taught me: “The road to wealth is good debt”. Check out this article, it has explained in depth the principles of borrowing and leverage to create wealth.

The reality is a large amount of money is required for investment in assets such as rental properties. Most of us do limit our own selves with thoughts such as: "I can never save that amount of money!" ... So, we end up spending our hard-earned money on discretionary expenses.


It is only through the wise use of good debt that returns can reach high double digits. In the best scenario—when you don’t use a single dollar from your own money to purchase income-producing assets—your returns can be infinite.


I invite you to transform this limiting belief into an empowering one - Indeed, it takes money to make money, but who said it has to be my money?

With this kind of thoughts, you will start he road to wealth is good debt. I will become as rich as the amount of good debt I take in my life. I shall begin managing my expenses to save money and eventually invest it and use leverage to accelerate my returns on investment.

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Published on November 08, 2018 22:44