Hong Kong Billionaire, Successful Living, Budgeting, Finances, Joe GirardA few weeks ago, someone posted an interesting article on Facebook about Hong Kong Billionaire Li Ka-Shing who talks about how to buy a car & house in 5 years.  It was packed with excellent tips on how to structure your earnings in a way that creates the most successful living and wealth, regardless of how much you earn.

The advice in the article seems simple, but is actually quite powerful in the message.  I have to share two awesome points with you.  The first message is about progress:

“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.”

Haha!  I love it!  It sounds harsh, but it is so brutally honest.  The second message that really stuck was about the art of living and how we have it backwards:

“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.”

Have a read through the article and gain some insights for yourself.  He breaks down how we should budget our money for successful living in a way that seems counter-intuitive to most people and flies in the face of our instant-gratification culture.  I am going to break his suggestions down for you here.

How to split your money:

Li Ka-Shing suggests splitting your earnings into five sets of funds:

  1. 30% Living Expenses: Keep your daily costs as low as possible, so you can focus on the important things.  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.
  2. 20% Making Friends: Expand your interpersonal circle, take people for lunch, and remember to meet with people who are more knowledgeable than you. And do it every month, so that in one year, you will have grown your reputation, influence and added value to your network.  This is a huge tip.  Go and be generous.  Give.
  3. 15% Learning: I always talk about the best gift you can give others is your own personal development.  This piece of advice is huge.  Read books, get information online, and study the strategies carefully.  Learn to apply the lessons and put them in your own words to really grow your knowledge.  As you develop, find more advanced training, so you can meet more like-minded people.
  4. 10% Holidays Overseas:  This one caught me by surprise, but it makes sense.  Go and travel, learn from the people you meet, and make new connections.  Also reward yourself for all the hard work you are doing!
  5. 25% Invest:  For all of those thinking about starting their own business, follow this tip.  Create your OWN startup capital by saving each month.  Go and buy some wholesale products and re-sell them.  Earn money to boost your confidence.  Great advice for those who want to break free and do their own thing.

Some other great successful living snippets:

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.

Be smart with where you spend your money and time!

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.

There is some great wisdom in the success advice from Hong Kong Billionaire Li Ka-Shing.  Read the entire article and it should put a smile on your face.  Some people will argue with the advice, but you know what the biggest take-away is?  Success takes time. It takes a strategy.  If you are willing to put the time and energy into the right things, you will reap the rewards.  Be generous to others and surround yourself with awesome people.

I just had to share this post today because I really enjoyed reading the article.  Would love to hear your comments below!

Joe Girard
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    7 replies to "Successful Living on any Budget: Advice From a Hong Kong Billionaire"

    • Marie

      Great find Joe…

      • Joe Girard

        Thanks Marie! Pretty powerful stuff and it seems so simple!

    • Kim Nguyen

      Great article Joe! Didn’t think about the overseas part before!

      • Joe Girard

        Thanks Kim! I also had to think about that one as well, but as long as it is about growth, connecting, and self reward, I think it is fabulous advice. PS, we will be connecting for a coffee soon.

    • Anselm

      Hi Joe
      I guess the mortgage falls under the 30% living expenses or this is a budget for a mortgage free lucky dude ….

      • Joe Girard

        Anselme! How are ya?
        Well, I think Li Ka-Shing is giving a solid guideline that he suggests for people who haven’t already committed their money to living expenses. I know if I look at the advice he gives, I have DEFINITELY been spending in an opposite way and why money troubles seem to plague people. Do we need all those flst screen TV’s? Even if we just shift some of our spending as he suggests, we can get further ahead.

    • […] back your calendar and do something with your time. As I wrote in the post the other day about the Hong Kong billionaire, the advice is to make time to develop yourself, start a business, or get some traction on new […]

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