I’d like to thank all of you as this blog passes two miestones:  First, it looks like in a day or so, I will pass my 200,000th page view of this blog.  Second, hopefully, in a few days, I will also pass my 200th offsite readership.  There are many readers who don’t come to the site, but uses RSS to pull my articles, and it is great that almost 200 of you are doing it now on a daily basis.  I do look forward to more of your comments and feedbacks.  You can always click on Ask me / Feedbacks  to send me a note or question that you would like me to share my views!

I noted a particularly blunt statement in an investment book which was cause for thought:  He said that even " if you are 40 and earn 100,000 USD annually, it will still be hard for you to retire on the money comfortably you save if all you do is invest in time deposit."

I know some friends who spend their lifetimes trying to get the best terms and rates for their term deposits.  They are not open to taking any risk, but over time, they are going to be taken over by people who  are willing to diversify and learn other investment strategies that is a little bit more risk but can give potentially more payout.

What it means is that fundamentally you have a flawed strategy that limits your ability to reap a better return for your efforts.  You can execute that strategy to perfection, but you would still be way off.

Which brings me to the realization that I also know many friends who have big ambitions and goals, and they back it up with a lot of hard work.  But there is something that you should not forget — hard work, just like a term deposit, can only give you so much."  If you want much better returns for your labor, the most important thing is for you to continually ’sharpen the saw.’.  Make sure that in the course of your hard labor, you are also constantly learning and imbibing new stuff that will allow you to plan better and work smarter.

Hard work is commendable, but  if you are merely working hard but still doing the same stuff you are doing 5 years ago, then you are not doing yourself a big favor.  How many of us are ‘too busy’ to plan or learn new things? 

Hard work is essential, but it alone does not suffice. 

Hard work is great, but only if backed up with good amounts of planning and learning, and with a quick realization for change and adoption to new ways. 

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