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William Teh’s Book: Make Happy Choices
Transcript
Daniel: Greetings, and thank you for joining us at “Future money trends.com”. I’m here at the KC Summit in San Antonio, Texas. I just met with William Tey of “TT Trends”, he wrote a book. You can get it on Amazon, “Make Happy Choices”.
I just love seeing something like this because in a crisis economy and investing, so many people forget to live their lives and enjoy their lives. It’s great to plan and be prudent, but you also want to have a great life. William, thank you for joining us.
William: Thank you Daniel.
Daniel: Let’s start off with the book “Happy Choices”. What is the overall theme in it, and what made you decide to write it?
William: That’s a great question, Daniel. This is my follow up book to “Thirteen Ways to Accomplish More by Doing Less”. This book was driven by two things. One, all the other “Happy Choices” books were spiritual, positive thinking kind of books.
This one has more of a financial twist to it, and “Making Happy Choices” also has a lot of health twists to it, as these last couple of years I have been challenged with some personal health issues and health in the family. I believe that making happy choices is, “what can we do to start being happy and living happily today, instead of deferring it to sometime in the future where I may not even show up?”
Daniel: What’s the best thing people can do right now, things we may be doing just because we’ve been conditioned to do it, that we could stop doing those actions and start making happy choices?
William: Absolutely. One of the key things that I’ve done, instead of having a to‑do list, I have a stop‑doing list. I figure out, what are the things that are non critical? Whether they get done or not done, it doesn’t really affect my life. I try and figure out what my three, usually three, non‑delegable tasks are, and figure that piece out. Right now in my life I figure out, what are the things I need to shed? I keep shedding work, I keep shedding non‑productive activities.
Daniel: That’s great. So many people spend one third of their life at work or at school between their entire lives. Your book, on the finance side, what are some actions people can take to make their life better and have happier choices by making certain financial decisions?
William: That is a great question, Daniel. I would like to give credit to one of my early and still my current manger, which is Robert Qusaki. Overwriting metric to make happy choices is our income and our expenses determine our lifestyle. If we have the correct kind of income and the correct way we spend money, that will greatly depend on our lifestyle.
The metric that he taught me that has served me so well is if my passive income is always greater than my monthly expenses, then I am free to do what I purposely want to do, instead of having to show up for eight‑to‑five, go for a JOB. If I can generate a cash flowing portfolio that meets or exceeds my monthly expenses, then I have the free time to actually do what I really want to do.
Daniel: What about somebody? You and I are both living in this environment. There are many people watching this right now who are more concerned about economic lapse, hyper inflation and just things being destroyed; societal collapse. Were you ever at that point in your beliefs? What would you say to someone who has that belief and they might not be making happy choices because they’re deferring it ’til after the collapse?
William: That is a great point. When I first started out investing I had this financial planner that says, “if you start it today at 30, by the time you reach 70 you have enough money to retire forever, comfortably. The three basic assumptions for that promise where there’s inflation, deflation, stagflation, how am I going to live ’til I retire?
If we started to build a portion of our portfolio that passively generates cash flow like Robert Qusaki talks about, maybe rental income, maybe annuities or royalties, whether or not I showed up for work I still get a pay check. The pay check is called a mailbox pay check. Those are the best kinds of pay checks we get. If we had it we could be cash flow positive but asset negative. It still generates cash flow. The key for me is cash flow.
Daniel: That’s a great point, actually. I have a story to tell people. I had a duplex. I bought it in ’06 and of course it collapsed, literally 50%, in value. However the tenants payed their rent, and the value really was never even a thought process. Of course I search it today and it’s worth about what it was in ’06 again. But in the end it doesn’t matter because they always paid the rent. In closing, can you tell us about “TT Trends”?
William: That’s a great question. It took me a long time to figure this out. “TT Trends” is an acronym for Time Tested Trends investments. The asset is not the asset itself, but the asset is the cash flow it throws off. Either as profit or cash flow. We invest in the trends, not in the assets.
Daniel: Great. Reminds me a lot of like a future money trends. It’s a pleasure meeting you. I look forward to reading this book. Thank you so much.
William: Thank you so much, Daniel.
