Investing in the Hidden Investment

'How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it.'

Adam Smith (1723 - 1790), Scottish economist and philosopher.

Life's not all about the money.

Now after a nice backgrounder, here it is: the backbone of our pursuit.

The Hidden Investment Philosophy:

1) Life’s Not All About the Money

2) Investment: Think Resources – Money is Just One of Them

3) It’s All Under Our Noses: Tapping Our Vast Hidden Wealth

The Hidden Investment Goals:

A. Invest in Yourself as the Greatest Asset

B. Invest in Your Relationships and Family

C. Invest in Time as a valuable Resource

D. Invest in Sharing and Charity

E. Invest in Taking Care of What you Have



Hence, our Key Categories,

1. Your Greatest Asset: Yourself

2. Our Business Partners: Building Relationships

3. There’s Gold in the Hours

4. Sharing: Good Measure and Running Over

5. Making it Last: Effective Wealth Management

There we go, future articles for The Hidden Investment will flow from our key categories, and definitely, not limited by these basic five.

Let us join together in this common goal of detailing out how to put financial and material success in proper perspective and live life to the fullest.

No matter what happens with our financial investments, we know how to cope and systematically this time. We’ll have better chances in succeeding in life and enjoying it at all stages, starting now, when we put on a healthy attitude towards the accumulation of wealth, both material and non-material.

God bless us all in our awakening in the abundance of life and the healthy pursuit of it's meaning and truth.













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1: Lush grass grows as if reaching for the sky
2: Abundance: Grapes ripe for the picking
3: Life's a miracle: The Namib Desert Flora

Investment in Wealth Management: Taking Care of What We Have

''Consider also, in counting your blessings, taking care of the things you have now, and putting them to good use, there may be times when we got to make do with what we have.''

Author Unknown

1: Smart Spending: Checking whether it's a need or not.

2: 'I'll put this to good use': A beaver takes a twig.

The Hidden Investment is about making the most out of life. It is also about making the most out of what we have.

At the onset of our most critical expenditures, more often than not, we weigh between cost and quality, and most of the time, we prefer quality over something cheap that may prove to be costly due to maintenance, repairs and, worse, replacement.

There are people who can pretty much assess how much service something, some gadget or material has delivered to them. That’s a good thing to have. Generally, for most of us who do not have that keen sense of evaluation, the quality of something is a qualitative perception which directly relates to the time span of such a material exists and can be put to good use. Simply put, ultimately, how long something can provide service to us is the manifestation of its quality. We often set aside as minor premise other factors such as frequency of use and environmental conditions (i.e., storage).

One of our objectives is making use of our possessions, material things and resources efficiently and to the best of service it can render us. In other words, making things last. It is definitely about exerting extra effort in taking care of our property and belongings.

This is Investing in Wealth Management; taking care of things in general and in particular, making it last so that we can stretch its usefulness.

1) It’s a Commitment

Most people, especially in our time, are pretty much used to disposables. Sometimes, we can take our resources for granted, even those that may have cost us a few more bucks than others. We think so much of the cost when it comes to the purchase of everyday things; say the flashdrive, the pair of gardener’s scissors, even our mobile phones and a lot of other things, but after the transactions, we do not put enough effort in taking care of them. We are not so much concerned with its maintenance, unless it’s something really big. We have to make a decision in taking care of our things. It’s a commitment we have to make with ourselves

2) It’s an Effort

Sometimes, we even have things that are there for no reason at all. Say we bought that thingamajig from a garage sale last summer! And now, we don’t know what to do with it and realize it could be a waste of money. It’s an effort to take care of our things even those we may have thought not to benefit us. The phrase “I’ll put that to good use” could be a great mantra whenever we find gadgets or materials lying around the house. The next time around we can make an effort in thinking whether or not something merits our even the cents in our pockets.

3) It’s about Extending Value

This could well be about creativity in putting things to good use and making them last. More importantly, it’s about extending it’s value. Well, the notion of value varies from person to person, but at any rate, prolonging the service of something does stretch their value.

Two characteristics usually come to mind:

Thrifty - careful with money and resources: managing money and resources in a cautious and sensible way so as to waste as little as possible.

Frugal - characterized by thriftiness and avoidance of waste

Well, yes, we have to be this and that. Don’t worry, just always think about it as efficient management of wealth and properties. These characteristics will be very handy on our journey to success in every way.

See, The Hidden Investment can be this mundane in a manner and more importantly practical at that. This is simply making the most out of life and everything that’s in it, including our biggest commercial assets to grandma’s old pair of scissors.

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Finally, The Five Basic Hidden Investments (Our Key Categories):

Your Greatest Asset: Yourself.

Business Partners: Building Relationships

There’s Gold in the Hours

Sharing: Good Measure and Running Over

Making it Last: Wealth Management

Investment in Sharing: Good Measure and Running Over

''No one would have remembered the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions. He had money as well.''

Margaret Thatcher, Former British prime minister

1: It's all about empowerment: Riding on horseback in South America

2: Charity does not take so much

Why do we usually wait for the undefined ‘someday’ when we think about helping others in a big way, like charitable foundations and sharing institutions? Well, we usually think it costs a lot, for one, and that to make an impact in peoples lives, we need to do something really big. We also think that it takes a Warren Buffett, a Branson or a Rockefeller to do things like that and that we will have to wait for that day when we’re Rockefellers and Buffetts to be able to do so.

This is actually the inspiration and probably the most important key principle of The Hidden Investment. It’s about giving. It’s sharing with others, our wealth, and doing it, as in conventional investments, as early as possible.

1) It’s Not about the Money
It’s all about empowerment. Great things start from small beginnings. Maybe all they need a little boost, like a little injection of Jet fuel to get a struggling 4WD to surmount an uphill climb. Likewise, it only needs a few great books to change an entire life and a little inspiration to transform a point of view from despair, resignation and apathy into idealism, optimism and resolve.

2) It Does Not Take that Much
If it’s about the empowerment, then it’s doesn’t take a lot of money to help individuals and / or group of people. Education and skills training, for example, spells a lot of difference in developing countries on whether or not a certain family has a potential to get past the poverty line .

3) It’s Best to Start Early
The complexity of needs is directly proportional to our age. This indeed may also be true to the complexity of the things that make us happy, but that’s another matter. Now, while the basic needs are met, the chances of enabling someone meet his own in the future will greatly increase. Consider the needs of elementary pupils to college students. We can then start with the young ones, who do not need that much, but still can’t afford to help themselves or to get help from their family.

The First Steps We Need to Take:

1) Choosing our beneficiary – this is about who we will share our blessings with. This is critical. Some of us can very well see great potential in other people, and that all they need is a little spark for their rockets to soar.

2) Setting our guidelines – It helps of course to at least in ourselves or among our friends to formalize a little bit and set procedures, from choosing, qualifications, and conditions for our beneficiaries. Well, it really depends on the help we are extending.

3) Individual or Pooled Funds – Getting a support group for this may be even better, our friends may have been thinking of the same thing. We may opt to invite others, totally strangers who are committed or ardent in the same cause.

4) Terms of Release – There could be a one-time help such as a construction of a school building, clinic facilities and multi-purpose community areas. Others may include regular endowments such as books for a library and maybe personal financial help; say a certain amount for every term.

5) Talk about Inspiration – Explicitly sharing the goal or objectives of our endeavor to our beneficiaries, enlightens them. One of these persons that we are able to help could be the next extension of ourselves in this undertaking. Or maybe not, however, certainly, the seeds of The Hidden Investment in helping others have been sowed.

The answers to these qualifications variably depend on our objectives, and our areas of concern, or aspects of life that we are deeply passionate about.

See, when we empower people, we at the very least give them fuel to reach their dreams. We at the very least ignite the fire of hope in their lives. We share with them the commitment to make life better at the very least for themselves, their families, and who knows, maybe for a lot of others as well.

The rewards are pretty much apparent; just imagine how great the feeling of empowering lives. In our little ways, we can alter the cycle of poverty into a culture of people helping people help themselves.


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Again, The Five Basic Hidden Investments (Our Key Categories):

Your Greatest Asset: Yourself.

Business Partners: Building Relationships

There’s Gold in the Hours

Sharing: Good Measure and Running Over

Making it Last: Wealth Management

Investment in Efficient Time Management: There’s Gold in the Hours

“Time waste differs from material waste in that there can be no salvage”
Henry Ford (1863 - 1947)

1: Liquid gold being poured into mold

2: Brass Sundial

That's one good lesson from the master manufacturer himself. Time is a resource we often take for granted. We usually shrug at the old adage that time is gold, because it is cliché, because it's like an old record, and we're sick and tired of our folks always telling us that.

Be that as it may, time is a powerful ingredient in investments. Whenever we put money into an investment vehicle, it takes time to cook it up. Our investments, through interest and growth of businesses overtime, finally bear fruit. That's the basic idea behind investments.

Now, Here in The Hidden Investment, that's how we view investments as well, it is growth over time.

However, we also stress the importance of time in our daily lives. This is about taking care of how we manage time and make the best use of it. Every minute and every hour counts, we try to imagine that really, there's gold in the hours; and fragments of it in the minutes. The only problem is that we are only given it to be spent wisely, or else it's gone.

We will then explore how we value time as an investment resource - how it will bring us advantages and ultimately, success in general.

1) Making the Time
We do not, and cannot, apparently, create time, some say we can save time, but really, we are simply just spending it wisely. By making time, we mean, spending time efficiently. Much is said about saving money, that every penny counts, we will look into translating that into every minute counts, and see how exactly we can do that, at work, leisure, with the family and a lot of other things we do.

2) Taking the Time
Of course, it should give us an idea on which activities we should be really investing time on. Well Spending time on a certain activity is investing on it, unless of course if it does not have any perceivable potential. It's also about prioritizing, and measuring our daily activities against our objectives - one of which broadly speaking is, whether or not, it answers the question: Will this make me a better person, in a better position in the future?

3) Time Out
We can strive for almost 100% efficiency, but it can wear us out, we get tired, well, good news, we're human, it's all right to take a little time out. In The Hidden Investment we want all of us to be happy and not live bereft of fulfillment and enjoyment, just because we are “saving time”. We aim to be happy not only in the future but also now, in the present. It's living life to the fullest at every stage. Leisure time, rest, these are also investments for ourselves, making us better persons. We should be careful, though, not to overdo it, and also, still, to know, at the back of our heads, which are important for our well-being.

In a nutshell, we will consider time management techniques, spending time wisely and what to spend time on. We will also check to see if there are superfluous activities and an excess of unhealthy interludes, which make time management, even more difficult.

Grains of gold are ticking away, let’s take some, and put them to good use.


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Again, The Five Basic Hidden Investments (Our Key Categories):

1) Your Greatest Asset: Yourself

2) Business Partners: Building Relationships

3) There’s Gold in the Hours

4) Sharing: Good Measure and Running Over

5) Making it Last: Wealth Management

three down, two left.

Investment in Your Family: Building and Maintaining Relationships (Part III)

"The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works is the family."
Lee Iacocca, Philanthropist, American Corporate Executive


1: I learned saving from daddy and mommy
2: A family of egrets celebrating over the day's catch

Setting a good example for people to emulate starts with investing in oneself. The more we invest in ourselves, we create better opportunities and potential for success and when people see results, especially those close to us, who know what we’ve been up to, they begin to look into our lifestyle and ask about how we are able to do it, even little by little.

How exactly do we invest in our Family as our future business partners? We started with convincing them of a better perspective and way of life, through ourselves as the subject of a great personal life experiment. When even little change is evident, they will ask and start to listen. Here’s steps 2 and 3:

2) Get them to Listen, and then Guide them
Once they know what we are about or up to with this shift in perspective and applying The Hidden Investment principles, and are convinced, even at the least hint, by asking, we can then begin help them help themselves as well. The first step may take time though, all this getting them around to your side strategy, well, because of the complexities of the nature of individual attitudes. We have to remind ourselves that the last thing that we should be thinking of doing is quitting on them. There will be those who are easier to persuade, especially when they see results. A word of caution, though, in mentoring or teaching. Let’s not forget that it is their prerogative to determine what exactly they want to learn from us. Let’s keep from overloading them by volunteering information they do not need, yet.

3) Grant Opportunities and Give Experience
Let’s be leaders in our families. We may not be dad or granddad or mum or grandmum, patriarchs or matriarchs in our clans, but that does not mean we cannot be leaders in our families. Especially when we have proven ourselves successful in varying degrees and different endeavors, a lot of our relatives and immediate family members look up to us, for the younger ones and, set us as good examples by the elders. We then gain their trust. For those who were on our direct mentorship, we could give them great opportunities to test whether or not they have absorbed and practiced the ideas that we’ve shared. They can at least stand on their own and, as they say, fish on their own, since we have taught them to. We can extend opportunities to them and make them feel good at sharing not only responsibilities but also the potential for fruits, profits and gains to be shared to other members of the family.

Just note for the record, that this is definitely not about manipulating people for our future advantage. It’s about strengthening genuine relationships that last and a relationship built on foundations of manipulation for personal advantage is not going to last, and will even destroy lives, one of which could be our own.

The objective of this category is also to create more and more people like us in the family, so they can also reap the benefits of success for themselves at the very least, and at most, become our great success team and business partners. It’s always good to savor success, so much so is enjoying it with our loved ones.


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Investment in Your Family/Relationships: Building and Maintaining Relationships (Part I)

Investment in Your Family/Relationships: Building and Maintaining Relationships (Part II)

Again, The Five Basic Hidden Investments (Our Key Categories):

1) Your Greatest Asset: Yourself

2) Business Partners: Building Relationships

3) There’s Gold in the Hours

4) Sharing: Good Measure and Running Over

5) Making it Last: Wealth Management

Investment in Your Family: Building and Maintaining Relationships (Part II)

“The family, that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor in our innermost hearts never quite wish to.”
Dodie Smith, British playwright, novelist, and theatrical producer. Dear Octopus

1: Mother penguin teaches baby to dance
2: The family circle

In part I we ended with this premise: “There's just so much complexity with compatibility. We usually do not want to exert that much just for family and success in relationships, which are oftentimes viewed as liabilities, rather than assets”.

Let’s turn this around as well, then, and look at it in a positive light. What happens is that we begin to care and when we do, the situation starts to get better as well. Why? Because, we begin to focus on improvements and positive potentials in the people or things that we care for.

A shift in perspective or how we look at things or people, in this sense, transforms our instincts into well-meaning and nurturing actions which increases potential benefits for all. This shift, in basic and general terms can be described as a shifting from duty to delight. It is a shift in gears from doing or “caring” because of duty, because we have no choice because socio-cultural values expect us to, into caring because we believe in the value of uplifting our own well-being as well as our loved ones’.

See it’s all about relating ourselves and our importance to others especially the ones close to us, our relationships, our family and relatives. In terms of The Hidden Investment principles, the way we want to value ourselves because of our potential gains, investment fruits and advantages from ourselves, would be a great standpoint in valuing others as well, in that sense, and so much more, beyond that.

Now, for some, it is quite daunting to see and then believe that our parents, kids and siblings could be potentially great business partners. We keep on thinking about the hurt if any in the past, incorrigible attitudes and idiosyncrasies since these are the people we have lived with for the longest time. But as we’ve noted earlier, it is very much possible, for there are great businesses out there that have been run by families along with the vicissitudes of the nature of business. The first thing that we need to have is a change in viewpoint.

Although it’s true that we can only choose our friends and not our family or relatives, we can also choose to be on one side with our immediate team, none other than our nearest and dearest.

Now, how exactly do we invest in our Family as our future business partners? We'll consider these following first steps starting with one and will be continued in the next article, Investment in Your Family/Relationships: Building and Maintaining Relationships (Part III)

1) A Good Example is A Great Teaching
The way we start to deal with ourselves in The Hidden Investment should extend to the way we should treat our potential business partners as well. It starts with showing them, first by sharing with them directly this great insight or philosophy on financial success and success in general, and then by setting a good example in practicing what you preach in terms of taking care of yourself, saving, balancing activities, stress management, financial planning and other activities that we will also discuss in the future.

Putting our ideas into practice is one great way to get our potential business partners to listen, much more if we succeed at it and that trickles of the great change we’re aiming for are becoming evident, little by little in our life.

We’ll continue with the next steps 2 and 3 tomorrow with our conclusion of this three-part Hidden Investment key category.

The family for a basic unit presents such complex behavioral implications. It should not be surprising since our individualities, basic values and how we view life can be traced in the roots of the tree that we are most “familiar” with.

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Investment in Your Family: Building and Maintaining Relationships (Part I)

Investment in Your Family: Building and Maintaining Relationships (Part III)

Investment in Your Family: Building and Maintaining Relationships (Part I)

“we are each other's business:
we are each other's magnitude and bond.”
Gwendolyn Brooks, U.S. poet and novelist. Family Pictures, Paul Robeson


1: Sunset walk with dad, mum and kids

2: Close family ties: A small herd of dolphins

It's really surprising to see most quotations on the family mostly by famous Western persons are on the negative side. The usual finds are on how the family is like a prison or comparing it to a life of hell or something less than that extreme portrayal.

The thing with relatives and family is that we cannot, or we do not have the power to, choose our relations. And this idea that we have to live, grow and deal with people we are not sure we will like (well, if we've been thinking about it before our birth), sparks the ire of many individuals.

A lot of events in our society, from the awful to the appalling, are blamed to the family as its basic unit. What we do in the bigger scope of human relationships stem from how we deal within the smallest medium of daily social interaction. This has been the basic standpoint of many schools of psychoanalytic thought such as Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and the other sailors of the subconscious.

It is also true that sometimes, we find tragic flaws of not a few successful people in their family trees, either in the roots or the twigs. A wealthy and frugal businessman can be drained of his earnings by his spendthrift wife, or in some cases a hardworking career mother can be unduly complemented by a drunkard. That is pretty basic, other complications include, having spoiled brats daddy-I-want-a-pony-and-I-want-one-right-now as kids, and having a marred relationships with parents and in-laws.

We can look at this and turn around and see big big family-owned businesses prospering, bearing fruit, and even further strengthening along with their family ties as well. They may have black sheep in the fold, but they're generally in harmony. There is no question then which is the better set up, we will always want to prosper and succeed along with our immediate family.

There's just so much complexity with compatibility. We usually do not want to exert that much just for family and success in relationships, which are oftentimes viewed as liabilities, rather than assets. Yes, liabilities - mum and dad's healthcare, the kids going to college, and sometimes financially helping our poorer relatives - all these are necessary expenses that are good in themselves and also an indication of certain family values.

Let’s turn this around as well, then, and look at it in a positive light. What happens is that we begin to care and when we do, the situation starts to get better as well. Why? Can we think of our family as our assets in business and financial sense? And how exactly do we do that? Let’s explore that next.


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Investment in Your Family/Relationships: Building and Maintaining Relationships (Part II)

Investment in Your Family/Relationships: Building and Maintaining Relationships (Part III)

Investment in Yourself: You are the Greatest Asset You Have

“Only Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius”
William Shakespeare Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene 3

1: Headstand by the horizon

2: A Cat cleaning himself

Although “no man is an island”, we take a good amount of pride in being self-reliant. It is always great to be our own man or woman.

Hence, we will look into maximizing our capacity to think, work and generate and effectively use material and non-material wealth. In this area we will talk primarily about our well-being – taking care of our health, maximizing energy (using it wisely), and stress management – all this for the purpose of creating a mean green and clean machine, as it were, within ourselves. Here are the basic steps:

1) Self-Engagement
Now looking at all possible definitions of the word “engagement” these are the most appropriate for pursuing our point:

en·gage·ment (n):

2: commitment to attend: an arrangement to be present at an event, especially a business or social appointment

3: pledge for something: something, for example, a promise, that is freely made and that carries an obligation to do something

5: military battle: a battle or other conflict involving military forces
A minor engagement on the frontier

6: active or operational state: an act or condition of being activated or becoming operational

What we want to do is to commit ourselves in helping ourselves. Figuratively, definition number five may apply, as confronting ourselves and engaging in a battle for self-betterment. Definition number six, is also neat, and may relate to us getting ready to reach our goals or our potentials being activated for release.

2) Self-Enrichment
Part of this is also about self-enrichment – increasing knowledge, educating ourselves, ideas in taking care of our mind, using it at full capacity as well thereby maximizing the potential fruits it can render unto us.

Yes, You can be Your Greatest Mentor, among other people. One, because we know who we are, individually, to some extent, better than others, and no one is as interested in our development as a person as ourselves.

Hence, we can dedicate ourselves to learning and educating ourselves. This will keep us from boredom and eventually lack of interest in life, and impede our capacity for enjoyment and happiness. As long as we keep our minds stimulated and committing ourselves to exploring new ideas and new possibilities in life, feelings of aimlessness are first to dissipate.

3) Self-Empowerment
Being good, doing good, looking good and feeling good – we all want these, if possible, altogether. The good news is, yes we can!

Having a great purpose in life, focusing on our objectives, having the energy and time to pursue our goals and possessing the know-how, all of this will ultimately give us the power to make things happen in our very own beautiful lives at the very least.

The even better news is that we can give these to ourselves as long as we commit to it. The first step at least is committing our minds to the idea. We can subscribe to a great purpose in life; we can focus on our objectives, give ourselves the energy and time to pursue our goals and help ourselves gain the know-how in our endeavors.

And when we have empowered ourselves, we can help others too and make it an energizing and inspiring cycle of successful living.

Well, the important idea here is that we have to take care of ourselves, gear ourselves up for the challenges in life and strive to win our daily battles then savor our personal victories.

After all, in financial metaphor, the goose that lays the golden eggs for us is none other than ourselves, first, more than anyone or anything else.

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Again, The Five Basic Hidden Investments (Our Key Categories):

1) Your Greatest Asset: Yourself

2) Business Partners: Building Relationships

3) There’s Gold in the Hours

4) Sharing: Good Measure and Running Over

5) Making it Last: Wealth Management

1 down, four more to go.

Reach for the Cheese, In Style

“Economists tell us how to make money; psychiatrists give us a place to spend it.”
Allan Bloom (1930 - 1992), The Closing of the American Mind


1: Not Your Ordinary Cheese
2: Reach for the Cheese

Now as we aim to infuse a fresh perspective to our traditional money matters thinking. We will go by the following philosophy:

1) Life’s Not All About the Money

In the pursuit of personal success, most of us forget that money is just a means to an end (and not an end in itself, to complete the quip). Initially, as we set out to work and earn or before we do, life is about happiness, self-actualization and the rest of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs. But what we actually do to ourselves in our early, young adult, young professional stage reflect that dehumanizing fact that we live to work, earn, and invest to a certain extent, with of course a certain amount of risk.

2) Investment: Think Resources – Money is Just One of Them

That investment risk has bitten us in the past months. And those of us who are planning to do so are now in a quandary, where to place hard-earned money to make it work to guarantee future financial success.

Invest vb 1: to commit (money) in order to earn a financial return
2: to expend for future benefits or advantages

Most of the time, we only focus on the financial returns as money begets money. But future benefits or future advantages don’t always mean cash or liquidity or material prosperity it’s more than that. Therefore, in terms of investment, we may have other things in mind, such as time and energy or the capacity to do, to live and to enjoy life to the fullest. The commitment of money to gain more money is not entirely outlandish, but we can always commit it for something else, maybe even better, rather that instant, material and direct personal gain.

Things could be different from now on, like a bucket of cold water, the global financial crisis had us awaken from the denial of the fact that we used to live like robots, designed to work & earn, although still not guaranteed to succeed.

3) It’s All Under Our Noses: Tapping Our Vast Hidden Wealth

The relationship between contentment and happiness has now been an inequality.
We can always want more and more. In the process of doing so, we tend to forget about the nice things we have right now, material and non-material possessions and become slaves of the latest and the newest what-an-absolutely-incredible-offer.

This is about being aware and taking care of our real assets in life. Okay, life’s about the money, yeah, sometimes. But the assumption here is that these principles are, more often than not, jettisoned as we go through our everyday business running in the rat race, which, by the way, is defined as:

the struggle to survive: the struggle of individuals to survive and make progress in the competitive environment of modern life, seen as a dehumanizing and ultimately futile activity (informal).

Ergo, what we want to do here is to reassess the way we live and think about how we are making the most out of life. What, if there is indeed any, are our more important resources that we take for granted in the utterly meaningless pursuit of financial gains, as we think nowadays, under the cloud of a global crisis?

Yes, we will still be running in the rat race, but we’re going to run in it, in style, and with a better view, a fresh and confident pace with these principles in hand, that during the race, and after it, we will be sure that it was all worth it and that we have gained more than what we have expected.

More than the cash and assets that comes with the rat race, as it is, we will have put more meaning into the money game or the race to riches.


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Interlude I: Supply & Demand

Can't help it. It's simply amusing and relevant.

Smile, it's a comical reflection of our current situation

Little Curious Cal: An example of a character who knows a good amount about living life to the fullest.

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The 'Hidden' Agenda

“Foul cank'ring rust the hidden treasure frets,
But gold that's put to use more gold begets.”
- William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis


1: A diamond in the rough

We need money to get more of it. We need it to work for us as well. That’s the deal, that’s the kind of thinking we’re into, and that’s just the philosophy that got us where we are now. It’s all right, nothing fundamentally wrong with that. But it becomes an almost never-ending pursuit.

Greed is good, some will say. Until at some point we realize it’s a chasing after the wind. We’re lucky if we end up with just feeling the meaninglessness of it, it’s a different matter, when we talk of ends and means – how much wealth we accumulated and what it took, sacrifices, marred relationships, lost time and energy for happiness and enjoyment, and more often than not, even more heartaches. Then we ask ourselves, was it all worth it?

Through this little joint we should be able to see, examine and tap hidden resources around us to help us live life to the fullest at every stage and every aspect, not just the financial. It is true, the window of success can be narrowly defined in monetary terms and material wealth but that is also to limit it and restrict complete happiness and contentment. So early at this point may we encourage you to contribute great ideas and constructive criticism, because in sharing and helping each other we are able to reach our common goals – that is, success in most, if not all, aspects in life.

We will explore five (5) basic areas of life with the highest potentials in guaranteeing future success and even present enjoyment. These are arbitrary categories in life, there are definitely more of them in sub-groups and whole new groups entirely, it is not limited to just five.

We will look into potential itself as a guiding concept in investing. After that brief immersion into the world of potential or hidden power and resources that may seem concealed at first, we will start our journey into identifying how we can tap these vast hidden resources in our lives.

We may be surprised at that sometimes these hidden resources are really the commonplace things we may have taken for granted. We will see how we can take control of these resources to some extent and make them work at full capacity for success and fulfillment:

The Five Basic Hidden Investments (Our Key Categories)

Your Greatest Asset: Yourself.

Business Partners: Building Relationships

There’s Gold in the Hours

Sharing: Good Measure and Running Over

Making it Last: Wealth Management

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Potential: The 'Hidden' Power

An Introduction: A Challenge to Common Financial Thought

1: Hopes are dashed with disappointments as stocks dip in October 2008

2: Arctic ice crashes

The rest of the world is on a disillusioned note towards the free market economy. Money has been power for most, well, it still is; ever wondered why we feel so helpless nowadays.

Hearing the business news does make us cringe. Companies declare huge losses and even bankruptcy, massive layoffs from one industry to another, the value of retirement plans linked to investment vehicles cut down by nearly half, and we think to ourselves, “When is this going to end?” or “What’s next?”

We cannot seem to escape it, that’s all the news there is. It’s even hogging the headlines of our daily lives. Words like rent, mortgage, credit, debts, loans, expenses and liabilities keep on popping up in our heads until worries set in, dampen our resolve and dull our spirits.

These are definitely tough times. For others, these may even be dark days. Somehow, we find it hard to believe that the greed of a few can mangle the globe. And they’re telling us this going is going to take sometime, maybe even longer before we could get back up.

The last thing that we should think about doing is quitting.

What we need to do is to reassess our perspective, our view on success, thereby looking at life in a bigger scope. Somehow, we need to rethink our financial stance and the idea that only material wealth can ultimately make us happy. We may not be aware of it, but somehow, we have that in our heads.

Material wealth is part of success, but it's only a part of the bigger picture. What's worse is we fall in love in the process of amassing wealth only to find out that its fruits contain only a narrow definition of success.

Part of not quitting is knowing what our "remaining" assets are. More importantly, part of success is being aware of what real assets we have and taking care of them, making them last, that we may longer enjoy its fruits. Others, more often than not, are surprised at the idea that their most precious assets are non-material (and we usually take for granted that truth too).

Along with these important, untapped, and hidden non-material assets and resources, we can make better use of the material ones for our future advantage. This is the basic objective of The Hidden Investment. How to do it? It's about helping each other in repositioning ourselves in this big, big picture that is life and living it to the fullest.

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The Hidden Agenda