Building wealth to retire young and rich has been my goal since 2003. That’s the year a few of us started our youth training business. Our business mission is to inspire as many youth as we can.

All along I knew that I have to save money to invest. I have to move to the “I” quadrant, the investor quadrant which Robert Kiyosaki has wisely mentioned it in his famous book, Rich Dad Poor Dad. I have to make my money works hard for me.

I have worked hard for my money, last July I finally made my money worked hard for me. I started with value investing. Learning from 2 of my close friends, Clive Tan and Ken Chee.

Remember that late last year was the financial crisis followed by Lehman Brothers collapsed. It created a domino effect where suddenly all banks were in trouble. Then AIG, and then the whole world. All this while, I was quietly waiting with some of my value investing friends, waiting to scoop up great deals in the stock market. Ok, we didn’t really quietly waited, sometimes we cheered when market went down some more.

While many are so fearful, complaining about the stock market, claiming they have to reserve whatever money they have for tough times ahead; I bought more shares. And I bought again and again.

I was thinking for the long term. I thought to myself, “once we are over this turmoil, I’m going to make lots of money from the investment.” So I’m not thinking anything about the investment at least till the end of year 2009.

Two days ago, it got me excited again. I got my first dividends from one of the companies that I bought. Hey, this is not bad. Many claimed to have lost money in the current economy, but here I’m making money. This is a real passive income, my first passive income.

I’m going to plow this money back to my Financial Freedom Fund for more investment. Let the magic of compound interest does its work. I study my portfolio again, and realize that there are another 2 of the companies I invested giving dividends.

Thanks for my two friends who are conducting the Millionaire Investor Program. The program showed me how I can also be an intelligent investor. If you are keen to attend the program, just contact me.