Financial Planner

A financial planner or personal financial planner is a practicing professional who helps people to deal with various personal financial issues through proper planning, which includes but is not limited to these major areas: cash flow management, education planning, retirement planning, investment planning, risk management and insurance planning, tax planning, estate planning and business succession planning (for business owners). The work engaged in by this professional is commonly known as personal financial planning. In carrying out the planning function, he is guided by the financial planning process to create a detailed strategy tailored to a client's specific situation, for meeting a client's specific goals.

Personal financial planning is broadly defined as a process of determining an individual's financial goals, purposes in life and life's priorities, and after considering his resources, risk profile and current lifestyle, to detail a balanced and realistic plan to meet those goals. The individual's goals are used as guideposts to map a course of action on 'what needs to be done' to reach those goals.

Alongside the data gathering exercise, the purpose of each goal is determined to ensure that the goal is meaningful in the context of the individual's situation. Through a process of careful analysis, these goals are subjected to a reality check by considering the individual's current and future resources available to achieve them. In the process, the constraints and obstacles to these goals are noted. The information will be used later to determine if there are sufficient resources available to get to these goals, and what other things need to be considered in the process. If the resources are insufficient or absent to meet any of the goals, the particular goal will be adjusted to a more realistic level or will be replaced with a new goal.

Planning often requires consideration of self-constraints in postponing some enjoyment today for the sake of the future. To be effective, the plan should consider the individual's current lifestyle so that the 'pain' in postponing current pleasures is bearable over the term of the plan. In times where current sacrifices are involved, the plan should help ensure that the pursuit of the goal will continue. A plan should consider the importance of each goal and should prioritize each goal. Many financial plans fail because these practical points were not sufficiently considered.

Credit Money

Credit money is any claim against a physical or legal person that can be used for the purchase of goods and services. Credit money differs from commodity and fiat money in two ways: It is not payable on demand (although in the case of fiat money, "demand payment" is a purely symbolic act since all that can be demanded is other types of fiat currency) and there is some element of risk that the real value upon fulfillment of the claim will not be equal to real value expected at the time of purchase.

This risk comes about in two ways and affects both buyer and seller.

First it is a claim and the claimant may default (not pay). High levels of default have destructive supply side effects. If manufacturers and service providers do not receive payment for the goods they produce, they will not have the resources to buy the labor and materials needed to produce new goods and services. This reduces supply, increases prices and raises unemployment, possibly triggering a period of stagflation. In extreme cases, widespread defaults can cause a lack of confidence in lending institutions and lead to economic depression. For example, abuse of credit arrangements is considered one of the significant causes of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The second source of risk is time. Credit money is a promise of future payment. If the interest rate on the claim fails to compensate for the combined impact of the inflation (or deflation) rate and the time value of money, the seller will receive less real value than anticipated. If the interest rate on the claim overcompensates, the buyer will pay more than expected.

Over the last two centuries, credit money has steadily risen as the main source of money creation, progressively replacing first commodity and then representative money. In many cases credit money has been converted to fiat money (see below), as governments have backed certain private credit instruments (first banknotes from central banks, then later certain types of deposits to banks), thus converting central banknotes to legal tender, and other types of notes (deposit certificates of less than a certain value) to a status not very different from fiat money, since they are backed by the power of the central government to redeem eventually with tax collection.

A particular problem with credit money is that its supply moves in line with the business cycle. When lenders are optimistic, notably when the debt level is low, they increase their lending activity which creates new money. This may also trigger inflation and bull markets. When creditors are pessimistic (for instance, when debt level is perceived as too high, or unwise lending activity in the past has resulted in situations where defaults are expected to follow), then creditors reduce their lending activity and money becomes "tight" or "illiquid." Bear markets, characterized by bankruptcies and market recessions, then follow.

Money supply

The money supply, or money stock, refers to the total amount of money held by the nonbank public at a point in time in an economy. There are several ways to measure such an amount (called a monetary aggregate), but each includes currency in circulation plus demand deposits (checking-account money).

Money supply data is recorded and published in order to monitor the growth of the money supply. Public- and private-sector analysts have long monitored this growth because of the effects that it is believed to have on real economic activity and on the price level. The money supply is considered an important instrument for controlling inflation by economists who say that growth in money supply will only lead to inflation if money demand is stable.

The World's Billionaires 2008

After 13 years on top, Bill Gates is no longer the richest man in the world. That honor now belongs to his friend and sometimes bridge partner Warren Buffett.

Riding the surging price of Berkshire Hathaway stock, Buffett has seen his fortune swell to an estimated $62 billion, up $10 billion from a year ago.

Gates is now worth $58 billion and is ranked third richest in the world. He is up $2 billion from a year ago, but would have been as rich--or richer--than Buffett, had Microsoft not made an unsolicited bid for Yahoo! at the beginning of February. Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helú now ranks as the world's second richest person with a net worth of $60 billion.

The Billionaires are:

1.Warren Buffett
2.Carlos Slim Helu
3.William Gates III
4.Lakshmi Mittal
5.Mukesh Ambani
6.Anil Ambani
7.Ingvar Kamprad
8.KP Singh
9.Oleg Deripaska
10.Karl Albrecht

Money can't buy you love

Reams of research over the past decade confirm what we all know but prefer not to admit: To women, wealth is sexy.

A survey of 190 women published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology reveals that women looking for a man are most attacted to power and finacial resources, followed by kindness and intelligence. Women seeking a one-night stand, on the other hand want muscularity and mucsulinity most (actually, period).
Love doesn't come cheap, however. Earlier this year, researchers at the University of Chicago asked 10,434 women -- all of whom had set their ideal man's height at sic feet -- what it'd take to fall in love with a 5'2" suitor. Their collective answer: He'd have to earn at least $270,000 more per year tham their ideal six-footer.

Why are women so hot for money? Evolutionary biologists have long theorized that females naturally seek man who can provide for the family. But Arizona State University researchers also found that because women have been stuck under a glass ceiling at work, they're attracted to men who can help then to bust through.

So go ahead, use your wealth to woo. Just don't let it come between you later -- financial issues are behind nearly three in five failed marriages.

Love Story

Love Story is a 1970 romantic drama film written by Erich Segal coordinated with his 1970 best-selling novel. It was directed by Arthur Hiller. The film, well-known as a tear-jerking tragedy, is considered one of the most romantic of all time by the American Film Institute (#9 on the list), and was followed by a sequel, Oliver's Story in 1978. Love Story starred Ali MacGraw and Ryan O'Neal and also marked the film debut of a then-unknown Tommy Lee Jones, who played a minor role in the film.

The novel tells the story of Oliver Barrett IV, who comes from a long line of wealthy and well-respected Harvard University graduates. Partly to break the traditional Ivy League mold, the Harvard student meets and falls in love with Jennifer Cavilleri, a working-class, quick-witted Radcliffe College student. Upon graduation from college, the two decide to marry against the wishes of Oliver's father, who thereupon severs ties with his son.

Without his father's financial support, the couple struggles to pay Oliver's way through Harvard Law School with Jenny working as a private school teacher. Graduating third in his class, Oliver takes a position at a respectable New York law firm.

"Love means never having to say you're sorry."--Spoken twice in the film; once by Jennifer when Oliver is about to apologise to her for his anger, signifying the emotional connection between them. It is also spoken by Oliver to his father when his father says "I'm sorry" after hearing of Jennifer's death. The quote made it to #13 onto the American Film Institute's AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes, a list of top movie quotes. The 1972 screwball comedy What's Up, Doc?, which stars O'Neal, mocks this trademark line. At the end of that film, when Barbra Streisand's character coos "Love means never having to say you're sorry" while batting her eyelashes, O'Neal's character responds with the line: "That's the dumbest thing I ever heard."

Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts

The Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts (香格里拉酒店集團, SEHK: 0069) is a hotel chain based in Hong Kong. It is the largest Asian-based deluxe hotel group in the region.

The group started in 1971 with its first and flagship hotel in Singapore, and now has 54 deluxe hotels and resorts located in key Asian, Australian and Middle Eastern cities with hotel room inventory of over 27,000. The hotel group also has a sister brand called Traders Hotel, established in 1989 to cater mostly to business travellers.

The Shangri-La Group was set up by Mr. Robert Kuok. His nephew, Mr. Edward Kuok Khoon Loong is the Chairman of the Board for Shangri-La Asia Limited.

Shangri-La Asia Limited is incorporated in Bermuda with limited liability. It is traded on Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited as stock code 69, traded on the Singapore Exchange as stock code Shang and Asia 2kHK$ and on American Depositary Receipt traded as SHALY.

Shangri-La Hotels (Malaysia) Berhad, is incorporated in Malaysia with limited liability. Traded on the Bursa Malaysia as stock code 5517.

Shangri-La Hotel Public Company Limited, incorporated in Thailand with limited liability. Traded on the SET Stock Code Shang.

Traders is a four-star brand managed by Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, stands for business class accommodation and services. Traders is geared to satisfy the needs from the fast growing mid-market traveller segment. The first Traders hotel opened in Beijing in 1989.