Do you waste too much valuable, irreplaceable time each day feeling guilty about crucial tasks that are either not started or, worse yet, not finished?

If you answered ‘yes’, you’ve got loads of company.

One of my favourite professional speeches is entitled Goals to Gold!

I love delivering it to diverse audiences because of the visible evidence I detect each time, without fail, as different members of those disparate groups begin to realise – often for the very first time – that this isn’t all there is to their lives.

Let’s face it; the human race simmers in discontent!

Most of us can benefit from attempts to lose weight, save consistently, control our temper, regain lost fitness, and invest more intelligently.

Although this is an article aimed at simply and methodically making you aware of useful investment strategies, I do realise that you have other concerns in life, as well. That’s why my e-book, 5 Steps to a Saner Life is designed to provide quick, multi-dimensional help to people who hunger to get better in many areas.

Have you ever gone on a swift roller coaster and felt your stomach stay at the top of the rise even as the rest of you hurtled down?

If you’re a glutton for punishment - and adrenalin-inducing thrills - you’ve probably done that more than once - sometimes in the same afternoon, while on holiday in some magical place like Disneyland, perhaps.

Have you ever been to the circus and watched aerial artistes go through their motions on a high wire act?

If so, you should also have noticed, at least in passing, that the safety net strung out directly below the acrobats serves a rather important function.

To succeed in our financial lives, we too need a ‘safety net’. In my Malaysia-based financial planning practice, I insist that each carefully selected client puts in place a reserve fund of between 3 and 12 months’ expenses.

We all want to accomplish great things with our lives.

That is why as each year draws to a close, most of us gear up for the New Year with myriad resolutions swirling around our skull. It is part of our entrenched cycle of renewal.

But this practice of setting New Year Resolutions can backfire on us.

You see, many people start off early in life making these resolutions with a great deal of enthusiasm every January 1st.

You wake up screaming!

Your spouse calms you down; reassuring you it was just another nightmare.

Even as you settle back and start drifting into slumber again, you wonder why the only dreams you have nowadays are bad ones.

What happened to your once fertile imagination that was able to conjure exciting, almost always enjoyable dreams; pleasurable mental movies you could play against the screen of your inner eyelids day or night, awake or asleep?