The Rule of 72 & the Entrepreneur

The Rule of 72
A useful mathematical tool, many entrepreneurs use the principles of the Rule of 72 on Compound Interests on estimating the potential income of a business endeavor. We may ask how does the Rule of 72 influence the entrepreneur's investment decision?

The Rule of 72 & the Banks
The Rule estimates the number of compound interest cycles an entrepreneur's money would double. If you get 1% per annum interest income on your savings deposit at the bank. Assuming 20% of that is withheld for tax, you are left with a net of 0.8% per annum. If you have 10,000 pesos, it will take 90 interest cycles (72/0.8 = 90) before the money would double into 20,000. pesos. In this case, it would take 90 years.

The Rule of 72 & the Business of Lending & Financing
Some LOAN SHARKS lend their money on people who are in desperate need of funds at an exorbitant interest rate of 20% per month. These loan sharks would estimate that 72 divided by 20 (72/20) would mean 3.6 interest cycles which means that in 3.6 months their P10,000 would grow and become P20,000.

Legal lending companies charges 3% to 5% interest on their micro financing activities, to help and boost small and micro enterprises into full economic activities, of course they have these other non-finance charges above this 3 to 5% interest which takes care of their operating costs. With a minimum 3% net income per month on their micro financing activities, they expect to grow and double their money in 24 months (72/3 = 24) or 2 years.

Some people with surplus cash use their funds, instead of keeping them in the banks, by accepting discounted and re-discounted post-dated checks at an interest rate of 3% per month. Discounting and re-discounting of checks happens when some people in the course of their business activities accepts post dated checks for payments. When their cash funds run short, they are forced to endorse their customers' post dated checks to other businessmen at a discount rate of 3% per month. This is usually accompanied by a personal check as an insurance in case the endorsed check turns out to be unfunded. The 3% per month on discounted checks doubles the surplus money in 2 years with no additional manpower, no sweat, and no hassles.

The Rule of 72 as Applied in Trading
Many creative traders use the Rule of 72 on a daily basis. A Filipino merchant may satisfy himself with a 5 cents net income (5%) for every peso value of the goods he is selling. If he can move P 10,000 or more worth of inventories per day, it will take him only 14.4 market days (72/5 = 14.4) to turn his investment into P 20,000 worth of inventories or cold cash. This costs some sweat and some hassles, but gives better returns and at a very short time.

In these very competitive days, where not just quality but pricing does matter, lowering the product price by reducing the mark-up on cost may mean increasing the volume and rate of inventory turnover, and shortening the number of days a person's investment doubles. For the entrepreneur, the Rule of 72 is a very easy and useful tool.

Who is Worthy of Respect?

(a Jewish proverb)

He who wants to live his life
should equip himself with a
heart
which can stand suffering.

Man must realize that life is
sometimes good, and
sometimes bad.

Only he is
worthy of respect
who is grateful for the good
and knows how to bear evil.

Why Was Man Created on the Last Day?

(a saying from the Talmud)

Why was man

created on
the last day?
So that he can be told,
when pride
takes hold of him:
the Almighty created
the gnat before thee.

What is Man's Great Guilt?

Man's Great Guilt
(words by Martin Buber)

Man's great guilt does not lie
in the sins that he commits,
for temptation is great and his
strength limited.

Man's great guilt lies in the fact
that he can turn away from evil
at any moment, and
yet he does not.

What is the Sense of Our Life?

What is the sense of our life?
What is the sense of the life of any living being at all?

To know an answer to this question means to be religious.
You ask: What is the sense of putting this question at all?

I answer: He who feels that his own life or that of
his fellow-beings is senseless is not only unhappy,
but hardly capable of living.

- Albert Einstein

A Saying from the Zohar

The Almighty conceals Himself from the mind of man, but reveals Himself to his heart.

Why Condemn No Man?

Condemn No Man
(a saying from the Talmud)

Condemn no man

and consider nothing
impossible,

for there is no man who
does not have a future,

and there is nothing that
does not have its hour.

What Name Should I Tell Them?

In Moses (peace be upon him) first encounter with the Almighty, he was instructed to deliver the children of Israel from their bondage in Egypt. Moses felt the trouble of introducing his newly known Mighty One to the elders back there. The elders have already known a lot of idol names in Egypt. Who could He be among them? So he asked the One before him, "What name should I tell them?" Apparently, His name was not among the names of the idols of Egypt.

Moses was told to say to the Israelites: "YaHWeH, the Mighty One of your fathers - the Mighty One of Abraham, the Mighty of Isaac, and the Mighty One of Jacob - has sent me to you." And He further said, "This is My name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation," Exodus 3:15.

Ever wondered why the Almighty wanted Himself to be known and be called by that name "YaHWeH"?

The hieroglyphics in the blue Sapphire Stone Tablets may provide a clue. The Ten Commandments begins with the self introduction of the giver of the commandments: "I am YaHWeH your Mighty One, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery," Exodus 20:2.

His name in the Sapphire Stone is expressed in a 4 symbol hieroglyphics written by the Almighty's own finger: Yod, He, Waw, He. What do those symbols mean to us? What do those symbols mean to Him?

Yod is a Hebrew hieroglyphic symbol of a hand. The hand is used to represent giving and receiving.

He, this is symbolized by a sprouting plant. It represents light or life moving towards the light.

Waw is symbolized by a balance. This is used to connect, at times representing justice and mercy.

Yod and He is YaH, these when combined means Giver of Life. When we say HalleluYaH, it means Praise ye Giver of Life.

Waw connects the two He in He Waw He. This means from life to life, justice and mercy from life to life, or justice and mercy from eternity to eternity.

Yod He Waw He, pronounced YaHWeH, collectively, the symbols means the Eternal, Just and Merciful Giver of Life.

The blue Sapphire Stone Tablets do not just tell us of a name. The symbols depict the character of the owner of the name. We see here the Creator lending His wisdom through the letters of the Sapphire Stone Tablets, that we may see and understand His nature.

What Does Aleph Means?

The English alphabet begins with an "a". What does "a" means? Nothing! The word "alphabet" is etymologically Greek which means alpha & beta, and what does "alpha" means? Nothing! But the Greek writing symbols were derived from the Hebraic system of writing which they call aleph beth, and what does "aleph" means? Something.

In one of the discourses of Yahshua the Messiah, commonly known Jesus, he asked the elders "what does aleph means?" This is a very profound question for us now, although the elders, in their own Hebraic culture, can provide an equally profound answer.

Aleph itself is profound, and the answer to the question will lead us into the profoundness of the rest of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet which consists of 22 symbols. All these symbols were taught by the Almighty Himself to the children of Israel via two tablets of stones. Aleph leads us to the wisdom of the Creator.

The first man was called by the name Adam (peace be upon him). The Almighty thought that was appropriate. In Hebrew writings, his name consisted of three letters: Aleph, Daleth, & Mem. By Hebrew hieroglyphics, aleph means first or beginning, as in the aleph and the tau (the beginning and the perfection). Daleth is symbolized by a door. And mem is water which is sometimes used to represent people or multitude. The letters in the name of Adam would collectively mean as the first door of the multitude. He was the first person commonly called man, the first woman was pulled out from him, and the children of men begun with the fragmentation of Adam's soul into seeds through the woman. Indeed, it was profoundly appropriate that the Creator should call him ADAM, and the Almighty's wisdom was first revealed in "Aleph."

Who Wrote the First Two Pages of the Bible?

I am one of those who had been reading the Sacred Scriptures of the Hebrew people, and the wisdom of the Scriptures never failed to amaze me. It does not only give me inspiration and insights, but it also gives me a peek into the wisdom of the Almighty who wrote the Bible's first two pages.

Wait a minute! The Bible's first book is Genesis and the scribes wrote all of them, of course. But the whole book of Genesis which begins with the word "Bereshit" (in the beginning) was based on the letters of the original first two pages which starts with the word "Anoki" (I am). And these two pages are not found in Genesis but somewhere else!

Remember, when the children of Israel left Egypt, they brought with them their tales and their stories handed to them from generation to generation by word of mouth. They also brought with them the understanding of the Egyptian hieroglyphics which they cared not to use in transcribing their stories. Then how did they come up with Genesis in writing?

Only a few months after the Hebrews left Egypt, Moses (peace be upon him), the Hebrew leader went up to meet with the Almighty at Mount Sinai where he was given the two tablets of the Testimonies, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of the Almighty. In them were the Ten Commandments, and a new hieroglyphics for the Hebrews to learn which they were to use in transcribing the additional instructions which they were to receive, and the stories which had been handed down to them. In these two tablets were the very letters they used in writing the stories of Genesis and all others up to Deuteronomy.

Ten Commandments in Sapphire Stone Tablets?

It was said that when the Mighty One of  the patriarch Abraham  gave Israel His ten commandments, He wrote them in two tablets of precious sapphire stones. The words were written in a new and very unique texts, we might call it heavenly texts, by the fingers of the Almighty. The letters were in use for some time until they were changed and later replaced by the present Hebrew texts, although the names of the letters remained.

What were really written in the two tablets of sapphire gemstones? Were they the words in Exodus 20:2-17? How were they written and arranged in the tablets? Who knows?

The image at right are the ten commandments in Exodus in the present Hebrew texts equally divided in two tablets.

Rule of 72 - How Compound Interest Works

The rule of 72 is a mathematical concept which approximates the number of years it would take to double the principal at a constant rate of return. In finance, this rule is used to estimate how many interest periods it would take to double your initial savings or investments. To obtain the number of interest periods, divide the number 72 by the interest rate that your savings or investment is earning.

For example, how many years will it take for a $1,000 to double with an interest rate of 8% per annum?

Divide the number 72 with 8 (interest rate) and you will get the approximate number of years to double your money which is at the end of the ninth year.

However, the performance of investments fluctuates so the actual time it takes an investment to double cannot be predicted with certainty, and there is no guarantee that an investment or saving program can outpace inflation.