Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Quote for the Day...
"If you think about disaster, you will get it. Brood about death and you hasten your demise. Think positively and masterfully, with confidence and faith, and life becomes more secure, more fraught with action, richer in achievement and experience."
Eddie Rickenbacker1890-1973, American Fighter Ace, Race Car Driver and pioneer in air transportation.
Eddie Rickenbacker1890-1973, American Fighter Ace, Race Car Driver and pioneer in air transportation.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
How to Create All of the Wealth and Success You Want In Your Life – Tip #12
This is tip #12 of at least 10 in the series (yes, we passed our minimum starting goal, and we will probably be rapping up the series soon). I have published most of them as e-zine articles, but if any are missing, they are all available on my blog. Thanks, and enjoy Tip #12…
Tip #12 – Give yourself permission… Several previous tips hit on the fringes of this, but I feel like this is important enough that it deserves its own article, too. What could I possibly mean when I say you need to give yourself permission to create and have all of the wealth and success you want in your life?
Well, most self-made millionaires started out poor, and wanted something better for their lives, but they had to overcome this major obstacle. Most of us, if we are born into a poor family, are programmed from the time we are babies to stay poor. Our parent(s), without thinking about the impact it has, say things like: rich people are greedy; money doesn’t grow on trees; what do you think we are, the Rockefellers; you want me to buy you what, do you know how hard I have to work for what little money we have; if you want it, go out and get a job and earn the money yourself. If you want to be rich, WOW, what tough programming to have installed in you from birth!!!
So we have programming from birth that says it is bad and wrong to be wealthy. Our programming is unlikely to say, “It is okay to be wealthy if you don’t take advantage of others, and if you make the world a better place through the earning and use of wealth”. Furthermore, it likely teaches that the only way to earn money is by the sweat of our brow. It is unlikely that we were taught that we can get wealthy by thought, creativity, ideas, wise investments, etc.
Then, more layers complicate things even more. We spend years in school learning how to be good employees. We are taught to follow the rules. Every child must do the same work, and act in the same way. Forget about what you are good at, or where your passions would lead you; you must do the three R’s like everyone else. Forget about being unique, or finding your true calling. Every student must conform to the herd. To some extent, conforming is necessary for the public school system to work, but oh how it stifles creativity and individual ideas!
But I tell you, God did not intend for us to be the pine caterpillar. You see, if you place pine caterpillars end-to-end, in a circle, they will follow each other around that circle indefinitely. You can place food in the center of the circle, and the pine caterpillars will continue to follow each other around that circle until they die of starvation, so strong is their follow-the-herd mentality. They won’t break away on their own and go to the food. But to be wealthy and successful, you must break away from the herd. You must break away from mediocrity, and chase greatness in something. Wealth and success generally requires that you be very good at what you do – whatever that may be. Brian Tracy says you want to get in the top 10%, because all of the rewards go to the top 10%.
However, for most of us who were raised poor, no where in our programming were we taught that it is okay to be wealthy and successful. Instead, we were taught that the wealthy are greedy, or that they should be put on a pedestal that is not meant for us to attain (Rockefellers, Carnegies, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln – we were taught about them, as icons, but we were not taught that we could become like them – why?).
What I am saying is, if this is how you were programmed from birth, then there is a giant step that is necessary for you to take before you can achieve wealth and success… You have to give yourself permission to break out from the herd. You have to decide that you deserve more and better. You have to recognize that rich and successful people are often the most kind, giving, caring, and compassionate people in the world. I think I mentioned before some of what helped me with this step – the mantra, “I get rich doing what I love. I deserve to be rich because I add value to other peoples lives.”
For those of us who grew up poor, we need to overcome programming that equates rich with negative connotations. Until we do, we might have hit and miss successes, but sooner or later we will sabotage ourselves.
In T. Harv Eker’s Millionaire Mind Intensive, we did an exercise where we wrote down all of the negative programming we received growing up, and then, for each thing we came up with, we reprogrammed with new, more beneficial statements. I suggest you do something like this yourself. As an example, ‘rich people are greedy’ can become ‘rich people are giving, intelligent, and free to live life on their own terms’ (and if you don’t believe it, go out and meet some rich people and discover the truth – most are the later, and not the former!). ‘You have to work hard to earn money’, might morph into ‘money can be made through my ideas, thoughts, creativity, businesses, and good investments’. If you were treated poorly as a child, perhaps ‘you are worthless’, might become ‘you are a child of the most high God, and you were created for great things’ (a line borrowed from Joel Osteen)!
Once you come up with new programming, take it a step further. Harv says, wisely, that physical is memorable. So, first, write down your new statements, and say them out loud every day (the louder the better – you want to convince your subconscious mind). Second, make it physical. Put a large rubber band on your wrist, and every time you think the old negative thoughts, snap the rubber band hard enough so it stings real good (physical is memorable). Now you are taking steps to remove the old programming, and replace it with more beneficial new programming. Now you have better things in your future, and you are starting to give yourself permission!!!
Again, please pass this on to anyone you know who may benefit from it… Together, let’s get inspired, let’s get motivated, let’s create some buzzzz, and let’s help some people (family, friends, and ourselves) create all of the wealth and success we want in life!!!
Tip #12 – Give yourself permission… Several previous tips hit on the fringes of this, but I feel like this is important enough that it deserves its own article, too. What could I possibly mean when I say you need to give yourself permission to create and have all of the wealth and success you want in your life?
Well, most self-made millionaires started out poor, and wanted something better for their lives, but they had to overcome this major obstacle. Most of us, if we are born into a poor family, are programmed from the time we are babies to stay poor. Our parent(s), without thinking about the impact it has, say things like: rich people are greedy; money doesn’t grow on trees; what do you think we are, the Rockefellers; you want me to buy you what, do you know how hard I have to work for what little money we have; if you want it, go out and get a job and earn the money yourself. If you want to be rich, WOW, what tough programming to have installed in you from birth!!!
So we have programming from birth that says it is bad and wrong to be wealthy. Our programming is unlikely to say, “It is okay to be wealthy if you don’t take advantage of others, and if you make the world a better place through the earning and use of wealth”. Furthermore, it likely teaches that the only way to earn money is by the sweat of our brow. It is unlikely that we were taught that we can get wealthy by thought, creativity, ideas, wise investments, etc.
Then, more layers complicate things even more. We spend years in school learning how to be good employees. We are taught to follow the rules. Every child must do the same work, and act in the same way. Forget about what you are good at, or where your passions would lead you; you must do the three R’s like everyone else. Forget about being unique, or finding your true calling. Every student must conform to the herd. To some extent, conforming is necessary for the public school system to work, but oh how it stifles creativity and individual ideas!
But I tell you, God did not intend for us to be the pine caterpillar. You see, if you place pine caterpillars end-to-end, in a circle, they will follow each other around that circle indefinitely. You can place food in the center of the circle, and the pine caterpillars will continue to follow each other around that circle until they die of starvation, so strong is their follow-the-herd mentality. They won’t break away on their own and go to the food. But to be wealthy and successful, you must break away from the herd. You must break away from mediocrity, and chase greatness in something. Wealth and success generally requires that you be very good at what you do – whatever that may be. Brian Tracy says you want to get in the top 10%, because all of the rewards go to the top 10%.
However, for most of us who were raised poor, no where in our programming were we taught that it is okay to be wealthy and successful. Instead, we were taught that the wealthy are greedy, or that they should be put on a pedestal that is not meant for us to attain (Rockefellers, Carnegies, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln – we were taught about them, as icons, but we were not taught that we could become like them – why?).
What I am saying is, if this is how you were programmed from birth, then there is a giant step that is necessary for you to take before you can achieve wealth and success… You have to give yourself permission to break out from the herd. You have to decide that you deserve more and better. You have to recognize that rich and successful people are often the most kind, giving, caring, and compassionate people in the world. I think I mentioned before some of what helped me with this step – the mantra, “I get rich doing what I love. I deserve to be rich because I add value to other peoples lives.”
For those of us who grew up poor, we need to overcome programming that equates rich with negative connotations. Until we do, we might have hit and miss successes, but sooner or later we will sabotage ourselves.
In T. Harv Eker’s Millionaire Mind Intensive, we did an exercise where we wrote down all of the negative programming we received growing up, and then, for each thing we came up with, we reprogrammed with new, more beneficial statements. I suggest you do something like this yourself. As an example, ‘rich people are greedy’ can become ‘rich people are giving, intelligent, and free to live life on their own terms’ (and if you don’t believe it, go out and meet some rich people and discover the truth – most are the later, and not the former!). ‘You have to work hard to earn money’, might morph into ‘money can be made through my ideas, thoughts, creativity, businesses, and good investments’. If you were treated poorly as a child, perhaps ‘you are worthless’, might become ‘you are a child of the most high God, and you were created for great things’ (a line borrowed from Joel Osteen)!
Once you come up with new programming, take it a step further. Harv says, wisely, that physical is memorable. So, first, write down your new statements, and say them out loud every day (the louder the better – you want to convince your subconscious mind). Second, make it physical. Put a large rubber band on your wrist, and every time you think the old negative thoughts, snap the rubber band hard enough so it stings real good (physical is memorable). Now you are taking steps to remove the old programming, and replace it with more beneficial new programming. Now you have better things in your future, and you are starting to give yourself permission!!!
Again, please pass this on to anyone you know who may benefit from it… Together, let’s get inspired, let’s get motivated, let’s create some buzzzz, and let’s help some people (family, friends, and ourselves) create all of the wealth and success we want in life!!!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
How to Create All of the Wealth and Success You Want In Your Life – Tip #11
This is tip #11 of at least 10 in the series. I will try to publish most of them as e-zine articles, but if any are missing, they will all be available on my blog. Thanks, and enjoy Tip #11…
Tip #11 – Be thankful for what you have, instead of complaining about what you don’t have. Since I and many of you are real estate investors, the timing of this tip couldn’t be better. We need to stop complaining about what the market is doing, and start giving thanks for things we are doing that are working! We need to stop complaining about escalating property taxes and insurance, and start giving thanks that we are of able enough body and mind that investing is an option for us!
Let’s take a little timeout here, and do an exercise. For those of you who have been with me long enough, we have done this once before, but it was long enough ago that I can’t find it on my blog or in my material, so I guess we can do it again.
Take out a blank sheet of paper, and write down something you have to be thankful for. You must stop, and do this now, or you will not get the desired effect from the exercise. It won’t take long – just a few minutes… Seriously, stop reading now and get you a blank sheet of paper, and a pen or pencil, and write down something you have to be thankful for. Now write down something else you have to be thankful for. Then, get a little crazy, and write down everything you can think of that you have to be thankful for. Don’t be stingy here… Even include simple things like having arms and legs that work, and eyes and ears… Not everyone has those things. Family. Friends. Include things like having a roof over your head, and food in your belly… Not everyone has those things, either. Since most of my readers are Americans (yes, we have some international readers/subscribers now – thank you and welcome aboard!), let’s be thankful for living in the land of opportunity… Not everyone lives in a country where upward mobility in life is even possible. So really go after this list, and write down everything you can think of that you have to be thankful for, including the basics. Timing being what it is, tip #11 will be our Thanksgiving article. Now, you must complete the assignment of writing down things to be thankful for before you go to the next step, or, again, you will diminish the benefits of the exercise.
Next, after you have finished writing down things to be thankful for, go back to the top of your list, and start numbering the things you wrote down. Now what are you doing? You are counting your blessings!!! What’s more, if you were not stingy about it, and you really wrote down all of the things you have to be thankful for, you should find that the things you have to be thankful for probably far outnumber your problems in life… Interesting that people, in general, seem to have 90% blessings, and only 10% problems, yet we spend more time worrying about and focusing on our problems than we spend being thankful for our blessings.
Referring back to tip #2, we said that what we focus on expands. If we focus on our problems, we seem to have more and more problems. Do you know anyone in your life that just seems to be constantly mucked down in problems and issues? Someone that constantly complains about everything that is wrong in the world? Well, if what we focus on expands, and we always focus on the crap in our lives, guess what happens? We become a giant crap magnet!!! (I think the giant crap magnet terminology is borrowed from T. Harv Eker)
If, instead, we focus on what we have to be thankful for, we will start to notice more and more things in our lives that we have to be thankful for, and we will start attracting more and more good!!! Try this out in your life, and see if it isn’t true for you! Personally, I have fallen off of this horse lately, but from past experience, I can vouch that it works, and I am going to get back on this horse starting tonight (I like the things I have to be thankful for in my life much more than I like the crap!)! I hope you all do the same!!!
Tip #11 – Be thankful for what you have, instead of complaining about what you don’t have. Since I and many of you are real estate investors, the timing of this tip couldn’t be better. We need to stop complaining about what the market is doing, and start giving thanks for things we are doing that are working! We need to stop complaining about escalating property taxes and insurance, and start giving thanks that we are of able enough body and mind that investing is an option for us!
Let’s take a little timeout here, and do an exercise. For those of you who have been with me long enough, we have done this once before, but it was long enough ago that I can’t find it on my blog or in my material, so I guess we can do it again.
Take out a blank sheet of paper, and write down something you have to be thankful for. You must stop, and do this now, or you will not get the desired effect from the exercise. It won’t take long – just a few minutes… Seriously, stop reading now and get you a blank sheet of paper, and a pen or pencil, and write down something you have to be thankful for. Now write down something else you have to be thankful for. Then, get a little crazy, and write down everything you can think of that you have to be thankful for. Don’t be stingy here… Even include simple things like having arms and legs that work, and eyes and ears… Not everyone has those things. Family. Friends. Include things like having a roof over your head, and food in your belly… Not everyone has those things, either. Since most of my readers are Americans (yes, we have some international readers/subscribers now – thank you and welcome aboard!), let’s be thankful for living in the land of opportunity… Not everyone lives in a country where upward mobility in life is even possible. So really go after this list, and write down everything you can think of that you have to be thankful for, including the basics. Timing being what it is, tip #11 will be our Thanksgiving article. Now, you must complete the assignment of writing down things to be thankful for before you go to the next step, or, again, you will diminish the benefits of the exercise.
Next, after you have finished writing down things to be thankful for, go back to the top of your list, and start numbering the things you wrote down. Now what are you doing? You are counting your blessings!!! What’s more, if you were not stingy about it, and you really wrote down all of the things you have to be thankful for, you should find that the things you have to be thankful for probably far outnumber your problems in life… Interesting that people, in general, seem to have 90% blessings, and only 10% problems, yet we spend more time worrying about and focusing on our problems than we spend being thankful for our blessings.
Referring back to tip #2, we said that what we focus on expands. If we focus on our problems, we seem to have more and more problems. Do you know anyone in your life that just seems to be constantly mucked down in problems and issues? Someone that constantly complains about everything that is wrong in the world? Well, if what we focus on expands, and we always focus on the crap in our lives, guess what happens? We become a giant crap magnet!!! (I think the giant crap magnet terminology is borrowed from T. Harv Eker)
If, instead, we focus on what we have to be thankful for, we will start to notice more and more things in our lives that we have to be thankful for, and we will start attracting more and more good!!! Try this out in your life, and see if it isn’t true for you! Personally, I have fallen off of this horse lately, but from past experience, I can vouch that it works, and I am going to get back on this horse starting tonight (I like the things I have to be thankful for in my life much more than I like the crap!)! I hope you all do the same!!!
Monday, November 10, 2008
How to Create All of the Wealth and Success You Want In Your Life – Tip #10
This is tip #10 of at least 10 in the series. I will try to publish most of them as e-zine articles, but if any are missing, they will all be available on my blog.
In Tip #9, we discussed the need for creating a budget. Now, in Tip #10, I am going to discuss a budget in more detail. Thanks, and enjoy Tip #10…
Tip #10 – I am going to cover the best budget I have ever seen, heard of, or used, and to give credit where credit is due, much of this comes from T. Harv Eker and his 3-day ‘Millionaire Mind Intensive’ (which, with tickets from his book “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind”, is FREE!!! FYI, I personally found ‘MMI’ to be awesome.
First, you have heard 1,000 times, you need to keep track of any and all expenses for at least 1-2 months, and the longer the better. If you don’t know where your money is going now, how can you budget it? Managing your money requires that you know where your money is going.
Now, for the budget itself… T. Harv Eker suggests a system of jars, with a percentage of your income designated for each jar. This can be tweaked to meet your needs, but here are some suggested guidelines:
Necessity Jar – 50%
Education Jar – 10%
Long Term Savings Jar – 10%
Give Jar – 10%
FFA (Financial Freedom Account) Jar – 10%
Play Jar – 10%
Now, on to the main objection most of you will have immediately… “I can’t live on 50% of my income”. Noted. So here is what you do. First, you determine what amount of money you can spare for the jars, and you use that money to do your jars. If you can only spare $10/month to do your jars, spend $5 of it on necessities, and $1 on each of the other five jars. What matters here is not the amount, but creating the habit of managing your money properly. “It’s not the amount; it’s the habit!”
Also, how serious are you about creating all of the wealth you want in your life? If you are real serious, then go a little further. First, put 10% into your FFA jar. Next, consistently throw all of your spare change into your FFA Jar every day. Also, when you come into a windfall of any kind, put that in your FFA Jar. What you will find is, when you start to effectively manage your money, and you focus on it, all kinds of wonderful things will start to happen. You will get a bonus that you don’t need for necessities, and you can put it in your FFA Jar. You will get a raise, and you won’t need the extra money for necessities, so you can increase what you are putting in your FFA Jar. You will find unnecessary expenses you can eliminate, or ways to make some extra money you weren’t making before, and you will be able to add that to your FFA Jar. No matter how small it starts, if you manage your money effectively, over time what you are able to put away for your Financial Freedom Account will grow and increase in ways and amounts that you can not currently fathom! It will turn into a giant snowball, that continues to gather size and speed as it rolls down the hill!
Now, on to some details about the jars, what they are for, and the purpose they serve.
The Necessity Jar (50%) is fairly obvious. This is living expenses that you must pay on a regular basis. Rent or mortgage, utilities, insurance, phone, food, car payment, gas, etc.
The Education Jar (10%) is money spent to make you better, like taking courses and seminars in your field. Stay on top of your game. The learners inherit the earth, while the learned are wonderfully prepared for a world that no longer exists (or something like that).
The Long Term Savings Jar (10%) is saving for occasional large expenses. This might be a down payment on a house, a child’s college tuition, or, depending on your preferences, maybe even for Christmas (if you have a hard time covering Christmas out of your Necessities Jar).
The Give Jar (10%) is for charitable giving, and it serves at least three purposes. First, giving is Biblical. God instructs that we give the first 10% of our income. Further, we are told that if we give, it will come back to us magnified many times. Second, helping out others when you don’t “have to” feels great. You are making a contribution to society. Third, without even realizing it, many people sabotage themselves when it comes to building wealth because they don’t feel worthy. Let me use a personal example here. I grew up poor, and I learned that rich people were greedy and selfish. Well, that mentality wasn’t exactly conducive to creating great wealth. When I started trying to improve my finances, family and friends would give me the standard guilt trips, both Biblical and otherwise, and, unsure how to respond, I would feel guilty and dejected. When I started consistently tithing, and the guilt trips came my way, I was happy to respond. “Well, I am doing win-win-win business, without ever taking advantage of any one. I am providing jobs and income for my help and/or contractors. ‘I get rich doing what I love. I deserve to be rich because I add value to other peoples lives.’ Also, I am tithing my church, and giving to some other causes as well, which I was never able to do when I was poor. Can you point out to me the flaws in what I am doing?” Wow, did that change things!!! No more guilt. No more feeling dejected. No more wondering why I was working so hard to get ahead in life. Now I felt great, and it reflected in my business and other areas of my life! FYI, when I started giving, jumping up to 10% all at once hurt too much, so here is what I did… I started giving a smaller amount, and I pledged that every time I had a windfall or a blessing to count, I would increase my giving. I quickly got up over 10%, and it was not painful at all. I only share that because it may be a good option for others who find 10% giving immediately to be unpalatable.
The FFA Jar (10%) is your Financial Freedom Account. This is your “save and invest the difference” money. This is where your money starts to work for you, instead of you working for your money. Your FFA money can never, ever, be spent! Ever! It is the proverbial goose that lays the golden eggs, and you must never kill the goose!
The Play Jar (10%) is money that is for just that – play. Many people, especially those of us who grew up poor, are not very good at receiving (goes back to the feelings of guilt already mentioned). The Play Jar serves to strengthen our receiving muscles. This is not for average, every day stuff… The Play Jar is for the kinds of fantastic things that we can not normally afford, but now we can because we have money set aside just for that purpose. This is the kind of stuff we would love to do ‘when we have more money’. This is not just dinner out, but a fancy dinner with dessert, candlelight and ‘the best wine on the list’! This is not just a visit to the spa, but getting the massage with the hot rocks and the cucumbers! The play jar is where you get to experience a slice of the good life, and, used properly, it will serve to motivate you because you want more!
Now, I just shared with you the best budget I have ever seen or used, and it works (if you work)!!!
Please pass this on to anyone you know who may benefit from it… Together, let’s get inspired, let’s get motivated, let’s create some buzzzz, and let’s help some people (family, friends, and ourselves) create all of the wealth and success they want in life!!!
In Tip #9, we discussed the need for creating a budget. Now, in Tip #10, I am going to discuss a budget in more detail. Thanks, and enjoy Tip #10…
Tip #10 – I am going to cover the best budget I have ever seen, heard of, or used, and to give credit where credit is due, much of this comes from T. Harv Eker and his 3-day ‘Millionaire Mind Intensive’ (which, with tickets from his book “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind”, is FREE!!! FYI, I personally found ‘MMI’ to be awesome.
First, you have heard 1,000 times, you need to keep track of any and all expenses for at least 1-2 months, and the longer the better. If you don’t know where your money is going now, how can you budget it? Managing your money requires that you know where your money is going.
Now, for the budget itself… T. Harv Eker suggests a system of jars, with a percentage of your income designated for each jar. This can be tweaked to meet your needs, but here are some suggested guidelines:
Necessity Jar – 50%
Education Jar – 10%
Long Term Savings Jar – 10%
Give Jar – 10%
FFA (Financial Freedom Account) Jar – 10%
Play Jar – 10%
Now, on to the main objection most of you will have immediately… “I can’t live on 50% of my income”. Noted. So here is what you do. First, you determine what amount of money you can spare for the jars, and you use that money to do your jars. If you can only spare $10/month to do your jars, spend $5 of it on necessities, and $1 on each of the other five jars. What matters here is not the amount, but creating the habit of managing your money properly. “It’s not the amount; it’s the habit!”
Also, how serious are you about creating all of the wealth you want in your life? If you are real serious, then go a little further. First, put 10% into your FFA jar. Next, consistently throw all of your spare change into your FFA Jar every day. Also, when you come into a windfall of any kind, put that in your FFA Jar. What you will find is, when you start to effectively manage your money, and you focus on it, all kinds of wonderful things will start to happen. You will get a bonus that you don’t need for necessities, and you can put it in your FFA Jar. You will get a raise, and you won’t need the extra money for necessities, so you can increase what you are putting in your FFA Jar. You will find unnecessary expenses you can eliminate, or ways to make some extra money you weren’t making before, and you will be able to add that to your FFA Jar. No matter how small it starts, if you manage your money effectively, over time what you are able to put away for your Financial Freedom Account will grow and increase in ways and amounts that you can not currently fathom! It will turn into a giant snowball, that continues to gather size and speed as it rolls down the hill!
Now, on to some details about the jars, what they are for, and the purpose they serve.
The Necessity Jar (50%) is fairly obvious. This is living expenses that you must pay on a regular basis. Rent or mortgage, utilities, insurance, phone, food, car payment, gas, etc.
The Education Jar (10%) is money spent to make you better, like taking courses and seminars in your field. Stay on top of your game. The learners inherit the earth, while the learned are wonderfully prepared for a world that no longer exists (or something like that).
The Long Term Savings Jar (10%) is saving for occasional large expenses. This might be a down payment on a house, a child’s college tuition, or, depending on your preferences, maybe even for Christmas (if you have a hard time covering Christmas out of your Necessities Jar).
The Give Jar (10%) is for charitable giving, and it serves at least three purposes. First, giving is Biblical. God instructs that we give the first 10% of our income. Further, we are told that if we give, it will come back to us magnified many times. Second, helping out others when you don’t “have to” feels great. You are making a contribution to society. Third, without even realizing it, many people sabotage themselves when it comes to building wealth because they don’t feel worthy. Let me use a personal example here. I grew up poor, and I learned that rich people were greedy and selfish. Well, that mentality wasn’t exactly conducive to creating great wealth. When I started trying to improve my finances, family and friends would give me the standard guilt trips, both Biblical and otherwise, and, unsure how to respond, I would feel guilty and dejected. When I started consistently tithing, and the guilt trips came my way, I was happy to respond. “Well, I am doing win-win-win business, without ever taking advantage of any one. I am providing jobs and income for my help and/or contractors. ‘I get rich doing what I love. I deserve to be rich because I add value to other peoples lives.’ Also, I am tithing my church, and giving to some other causes as well, which I was never able to do when I was poor. Can you point out to me the flaws in what I am doing?” Wow, did that change things!!! No more guilt. No more feeling dejected. No more wondering why I was working so hard to get ahead in life. Now I felt great, and it reflected in my business and other areas of my life! FYI, when I started giving, jumping up to 10% all at once hurt too much, so here is what I did… I started giving a smaller amount, and I pledged that every time I had a windfall or a blessing to count, I would increase my giving. I quickly got up over 10%, and it was not painful at all. I only share that because it may be a good option for others who find 10% giving immediately to be unpalatable.
The FFA Jar (10%) is your Financial Freedom Account. This is your “save and invest the difference” money. This is where your money starts to work for you, instead of you working for your money. Your FFA money can never, ever, be spent! Ever! It is the proverbial goose that lays the golden eggs, and you must never kill the goose!
The Play Jar (10%) is money that is for just that – play. Many people, especially those of us who grew up poor, are not very good at receiving (goes back to the feelings of guilt already mentioned). The Play Jar serves to strengthen our receiving muscles. This is not for average, every day stuff… The Play Jar is for the kinds of fantastic things that we can not normally afford, but now we can because we have money set aside just for that purpose. This is the kind of stuff we would love to do ‘when we have more money’. This is not just dinner out, but a fancy dinner with dessert, candlelight and ‘the best wine on the list’! This is not just a visit to the spa, but getting the massage with the hot rocks and the cucumbers! The play jar is where you get to experience a slice of the good life, and, used properly, it will serve to motivate you because you want more!
Now, I just shared with you the best budget I have ever seen or used, and it works (if you work)!!!
Please pass this on to anyone you know who may benefit from it… Together, let’s get inspired, let’s get motivated, let’s create some buzzzz, and let’s help some people (family, friends, and ourselves) create all of the wealth and success they want in life!!!
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
How to Create All of the Wealth and Success You Want In Your Life – Tip #9
This is tip #9 of at least 10 in the series. I will try to publish most of them as e-zine articles, but if any are missing, they will all be available on my blog…
In the first seven tips, we focused largely on things applicable to success in general; in Tip #8 I said we would take the next two or three tips to get specific and focus in on the other part of our series title – wealth! So, without further ado, Tip #9…
Tip #9 – Create a budget. “A budget is people telling their money where to go instead of wondering where it went.” -John Maxwell
Almost everyone has heard that failing to plan is akin to planning to fail… Well, so it is with your money and finances. If you don’t have a budget, and/or a method of consistently keeping track of your net worth, then, by default, you are planning to fail. Instead of you controlling your money (and wealth), your money is controlling you.
Most people have heard that one of the secrets to wealth is to pay yourself first… However, most people don’t do it. I said in a previous article, getting rich is simple, but it isn’t easy. T. Harv Eker says something akin to, “If you pay yourself first, you will never miss it. If you pay yourself last, you will never do it”, and he is, to my experience, 100% right.
You work all year to pay Uncle Sam, the grocery store, restaurants, the utility company, gas stations, Wal-Mart… But ask yourself, what part of the year do you work to pay yourself? If you are like most people, the answer is little to none. Does it make sense to work hard to pay everyone else, and not pay yourself?
Here is a little reality check. It is not, “When I have more money, I will start to manage it.” It is, “When I manage my money, I will have more… money to manage.”
I am not sure, but this sounds like Robert Kiyosaki… “With every dollar we get in our hands, we hold the power to choose our future to be rich, poor, or middle class… Poor people simply have poor spending habits.” “It is the lack of self-discipline that is the #1 delineating factor between the rich, the poor, and the middle class.”
On the lighter side, Stuart Wilde said, “The trick to money is having some!”
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.” So it is with wealth and budgeting. If you pay yourself last, and wait for luck to make you wealthy, it is likely to be a very long wait. However, if you believe in cause and effect; if you manage your money (spelled B-U-D-G-E-T), and follow my three rules from Tip #8, you will quickly find yourself amassing a pretty good nest egg of wealth.
If you enjoy my tips, please pass this on to anyone you know who may benefit from it... Together, let’s get inspired, let’s get motivated, let’s create some buzzzz, and let’s help some people (family, friends, and ourselves) create all of the wealth and success they want in life!!!
In the first seven tips, we focused largely on things applicable to success in general; in Tip #8 I said we would take the next two or three tips to get specific and focus in on the other part of our series title – wealth! So, without further ado, Tip #9…
Tip #9 – Create a budget. “A budget is people telling their money where to go instead of wondering where it went.” -John Maxwell
Almost everyone has heard that failing to plan is akin to planning to fail… Well, so it is with your money and finances. If you don’t have a budget, and/or a method of consistently keeping track of your net worth, then, by default, you are planning to fail. Instead of you controlling your money (and wealth), your money is controlling you.
Most people have heard that one of the secrets to wealth is to pay yourself first… However, most people don’t do it. I said in a previous article, getting rich is simple, but it isn’t easy. T. Harv Eker says something akin to, “If you pay yourself first, you will never miss it. If you pay yourself last, you will never do it”, and he is, to my experience, 100% right.
You work all year to pay Uncle Sam, the grocery store, restaurants, the utility company, gas stations, Wal-Mart… But ask yourself, what part of the year do you work to pay yourself? If you are like most people, the answer is little to none. Does it make sense to work hard to pay everyone else, and not pay yourself?
Here is a little reality check. It is not, “When I have more money, I will start to manage it.” It is, “When I manage my money, I will have more… money to manage.”
I am not sure, but this sounds like Robert Kiyosaki… “With every dollar we get in our hands, we hold the power to choose our future to be rich, poor, or middle class… Poor people simply have poor spending habits.” “It is the lack of self-discipline that is the #1 delineating factor between the rich, the poor, and the middle class.”
On the lighter side, Stuart Wilde said, “The trick to money is having some!”
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.” So it is with wealth and budgeting. If you pay yourself last, and wait for luck to make you wealthy, it is likely to be a very long wait. However, if you believe in cause and effect; if you manage your money (spelled B-U-D-G-E-T), and follow my three rules from Tip #8, you will quickly find yourself amassing a pretty good nest egg of wealth.
If you enjoy my tips, please pass this on to anyone you know who may benefit from it... Together, let’s get inspired, let’s get motivated, let’s create some buzzzz, and let’s help some people (family, friends, and ourselves) create all of the wealth and success they want in life!!!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
How to Create All of the Wealth and Success You Want In Your Life – Tip #8
This is tip #8 of at least 10 in the series. I will try to publish most of them as e-zine articles, but if any are missing, they will all be available on my blog…
In the first seven tips, we focused largely on things applicable to success in general; now let’s take the next two or three tips to get specific and focus in on the other part of our series title – wealth!
Tip #8 – Follow my three rules for creating wealth in your life.
Rule #1 – Live below your means.
Rule #2 – Save and invest the difference.
Rule #3 – Continuously improve on rules #1 and #2.
Again I will return to the slogan, it is simple, but it isn’t easy. Common sense dictates that if you follow these rules, eventually, at some point in the future, you will become wealthy. However, the killer is in the doing.
Wealth building is not rocket science. Contrary to what many want to believe, it is actually very basic, simple math. Make ten dollars. Subtract nine dollars to live on. Save and invest the one dollar difference. Repeat over and over again. Then, as the one dollar differences add up over time, learn to invest them better and better. Eventually they become a massive pile of money that begins growing itself quickly and easily, and instead of you working for your money, your money works for you. The formula for wealth is so simple, it is actually boring.
Where does everyone go wrong? If I shared the long version – well, that would be a book in itself. So, the short version… We live in a consumer society. We are bombarded by hundreds or even thousands of messages a day saying spend, spend, spend. Don’t think so – when you wake up in the morning, start counting the television and radio commercials, billboards you drive past, banners in store windows, ads in magazines, phone calls from telemarketers, flyers in the mailbox, e-mails pitching you everything under the sun, etc. I would be surprised if you didn’t give up counting before lunch time! If you buy this product you will be beautiful. If you buy this product you will have a beautiful spouse. If you buy this product you will feel great. If you buy this product you will… blah, blah, blah, blah.
From children to adulthood, through home and school, we are taught how to be responsible, conform to society’s rules, get a good job, buy nice things that are beyond our means, etc. However, very few of us are taught how to manage our money (aka follow my three rules)!
Instead of having a solid, long term plan, we chase instant gratification, which, to use Robert Kiyosaki’s terminology, keeps us stuck in the rat race. We work to make money, which we spend to make ourselves feel good, then the money runs out, and we feel lousy. So we work harder and longer to make more money, which only allows us to spend more money, which predictably runs out again, so we feel even lousier. Then the trap starts all over again.
Brian Tracy says this is Parkinson’s Law – that expenses rise to meet income. Make a little more money – spend a little more money. Get a raise – and we immediately go out and upgrade our car, or our cable television, or our health club membership, or our home, etc.
The first step to living by my three rules – recognize the pattern you are currently in, and, assuming it is the pattern of the average American (Parkinson’s Law), make a decision to change it. More on how to do that coming soon in tip #9.
There are a lot of things you can do to improve your situation once you have made a decision to do so; there is very little you can do to improve if you haven’t yet decided to!
If you enjoy my tips, please pass this on to anyone you know who may benefit from it... Together, let’s get inspired, let’s get motivated, let’s create some buzzzz, and let’s help some people (family, friends, and ourselves) create all of the wealth and success they want in life!!!
In the first seven tips, we focused largely on things applicable to success in general; now let’s take the next two or three tips to get specific and focus in on the other part of our series title – wealth!
Tip #8 – Follow my three rules for creating wealth in your life.
Rule #1 – Live below your means.
Rule #2 – Save and invest the difference.
Rule #3 – Continuously improve on rules #1 and #2.
Again I will return to the slogan, it is simple, but it isn’t easy. Common sense dictates that if you follow these rules, eventually, at some point in the future, you will become wealthy. However, the killer is in the doing.
Wealth building is not rocket science. Contrary to what many want to believe, it is actually very basic, simple math. Make ten dollars. Subtract nine dollars to live on. Save and invest the one dollar difference. Repeat over and over again. Then, as the one dollar differences add up over time, learn to invest them better and better. Eventually they become a massive pile of money that begins growing itself quickly and easily, and instead of you working for your money, your money works for you. The formula for wealth is so simple, it is actually boring.
Where does everyone go wrong? If I shared the long version – well, that would be a book in itself. So, the short version… We live in a consumer society. We are bombarded by hundreds or even thousands of messages a day saying spend, spend, spend. Don’t think so – when you wake up in the morning, start counting the television and radio commercials, billboards you drive past, banners in store windows, ads in magazines, phone calls from telemarketers, flyers in the mailbox, e-mails pitching you everything under the sun, etc. I would be surprised if you didn’t give up counting before lunch time! If you buy this product you will be beautiful. If you buy this product you will have a beautiful spouse. If you buy this product you will feel great. If you buy this product you will… blah, blah, blah, blah.
From children to adulthood, through home and school, we are taught how to be responsible, conform to society’s rules, get a good job, buy nice things that are beyond our means, etc. However, very few of us are taught how to manage our money (aka follow my three rules)!
Instead of having a solid, long term plan, we chase instant gratification, which, to use Robert Kiyosaki’s terminology, keeps us stuck in the rat race. We work to make money, which we spend to make ourselves feel good, then the money runs out, and we feel lousy. So we work harder and longer to make more money, which only allows us to spend more money, which predictably runs out again, so we feel even lousier. Then the trap starts all over again.
Brian Tracy says this is Parkinson’s Law – that expenses rise to meet income. Make a little more money – spend a little more money. Get a raise – and we immediately go out and upgrade our car, or our cable television, or our health club membership, or our home, etc.
The first step to living by my three rules – recognize the pattern you are currently in, and, assuming it is the pattern of the average American (Parkinson’s Law), make a decision to change it. More on how to do that coming soon in tip #9.
There are a lot of things you can do to improve your situation once you have made a decision to do so; there is very little you can do to improve if you haven’t yet decided to!
If you enjoy my tips, please pass this on to anyone you know who may benefit from it... Together, let’s get inspired, let’s get motivated, let’s create some buzzzz, and let’s help some people (family, friends, and ourselves) create all of the wealth and success they want in life!!!
Reminder: E-mail subscriber list...
Since my on-going tips on "How to Create All of the Wealth and Success You Want In Your Life" are drawing a lot of new people to my blog, I thought I should remind readers quickly of my e-mail option. For those who are interested, e-mail me at reinvestorsfl@aol.com, and, on your request, I will e-mail you whenever I write new material (errr, most of the time). I also occassionally share information with my readers that I do not put on my blog, and I will never intentionally sell or share your e-mail address. Period. Thank you, and remember, "You can have your excuses, or you can have your dreams, but you can't have both!"
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Some Quotes On Habits, borrowed from Dennis Waitley...
"First we make our habits, then our habits make us." Denis Waitley
"The truth is, you don't break a bad habit; you replace it with a good one." Denis Waitley
"Being miserable is a habit; being happy is a habit; and the choice is yours." Tom Hopkins
"Good habits are as addictive as bad habits, and a lot more rewarding." Harvey Mackay
"To change a habit, make a conscious decision, then 'act out' the new behavior." Dr. Maxwell Maltz
"Winning, and losing, are habit forming." Denis Waitley
"The truth is, you don't break a bad habit; you replace it with a good one." Denis Waitley
"Being miserable is a habit; being happy is a habit; and the choice is yours." Tom Hopkins
"Good habits are as addictive as bad habits, and a lot more rewarding." Harvey Mackay
"To change a habit, make a conscious decision, then 'act out' the new behavior." Dr. Maxwell Maltz
"Winning, and losing, are habit forming." Denis Waitley
Thursday, October 23, 2008
How to Create All of the Wealth and Success You Want In Your Life – Tip #7
This is tip #7 of at least 10 in the series. I will try to publish most of them as e-zine articles, but if any are missing, they will all be available on my blog…
Tip #7 – Choose who you spend your time with carefully… Learn from people who have already successfully done what you want to do.
Studies have shown that your income is the average of your peer group. Think about the five people or groups of people that you spend the most time with, and odds are your income is about the average of that group. If your peer group is pulling you down, or keeping you down, then you need to fix that, or decide that you are content to stay put.
Personally, I had a big issue with this, because my group of family and friends were poor, but I couldn’t or wouldn’t change my family or close friends of many years. Still, a couple of points that can help you… First, find a mentor who is already at where you want to be, and find a way to get them to help you. Keep in mind, it wouldn’t be fair to just expect someone who is very successful to help you out of the kindness of their heart (though sometimes they may); offer them as much or more value in return for their mentoring you, and don’t give up until you find the mentor you need.
Also, I increased the average income of my peer group in part through books, CDs, web sites, etc. Robert Allen, Robert Kiyosaki, Mark Victor Hansen, Jack Canfield, Ron LeGrand, Brian Tracy, Robyn Thompson, CREonline… I spent/spend time with these big thinkers every day!
Let me share a little story with you… Fishermen of old sometimes used crabs for bait. What they found was, if they had one crab in a container that was several inches high, the crab would climb out and get away every time. However, if they put a bunch of crabs in a container together, they could use a container that was only one inch high, and the crabs would never get out of the container. What happened was, every time a crab tried to climb out of the container, the other crabs grabbed him and pulled him back into the ‘safety’ of the group. They didn’t want to let one crab get out, because who knows what dangers may lurk beyond the walls of the container!
Are you seeing this safety net in your life, and among your peer group? Every time you talk about new ideas, or getting rich, or trying something you have never done before, are there people in your life shooting it full of holes and trying to talk you out of it? If so, is it time to find some ways to increase your exposure to peers who will pull you up instead of down? We all need more positive associations in our lives!
Before I close this tip, more on making sure that you learn from people who have already successfully done what you want to do. If I am having problems in my marriage, should I talk to a parent that has been divorced four times and is struggling in their current marriage? If I want more money and success in my life, should I talk to a family member or friend who hates their job and lives paycheck to paycheck with no idea of how to ever change that? A great rule for getting anything you want in your life – find someone who already has what you want, and steal if from them… (hopefully you know I am kidding). Study them. Read their books. Ask them to mentor you. Learn how they did it, and then you do it too. If you think what wealthy people think, and you do what wealthy people do, eventually you will have… what wealthy people have!!! It is simple, but it isn’t easy!
If you enjoy my tips, please pass this on to anyone you know who may benefit from it… Together, let’s get inspired, let’s get motivated, let’s create some buzzzz, and let’s help some people (family, friends, and ourselves) create all of the wealth and success they want in life!!!
Tip #7 – Choose who you spend your time with carefully… Learn from people who have already successfully done what you want to do.
Studies have shown that your income is the average of your peer group. Think about the five people or groups of people that you spend the most time with, and odds are your income is about the average of that group. If your peer group is pulling you down, or keeping you down, then you need to fix that, or decide that you are content to stay put.
Personally, I had a big issue with this, because my group of family and friends were poor, but I couldn’t or wouldn’t change my family or close friends of many years. Still, a couple of points that can help you… First, find a mentor who is already at where you want to be, and find a way to get them to help you. Keep in mind, it wouldn’t be fair to just expect someone who is very successful to help you out of the kindness of their heart (though sometimes they may); offer them as much or more value in return for their mentoring you, and don’t give up until you find the mentor you need.
Also, I increased the average income of my peer group in part through books, CDs, web sites, etc. Robert Allen, Robert Kiyosaki, Mark Victor Hansen, Jack Canfield, Ron LeGrand, Brian Tracy, Robyn Thompson, CREonline… I spent/spend time with these big thinkers every day!
Let me share a little story with you… Fishermen of old sometimes used crabs for bait. What they found was, if they had one crab in a container that was several inches high, the crab would climb out and get away every time. However, if they put a bunch of crabs in a container together, they could use a container that was only one inch high, and the crabs would never get out of the container. What happened was, every time a crab tried to climb out of the container, the other crabs grabbed him and pulled him back into the ‘safety’ of the group. They didn’t want to let one crab get out, because who knows what dangers may lurk beyond the walls of the container!
Are you seeing this safety net in your life, and among your peer group? Every time you talk about new ideas, or getting rich, or trying something you have never done before, are there people in your life shooting it full of holes and trying to talk you out of it? If so, is it time to find some ways to increase your exposure to peers who will pull you up instead of down? We all need more positive associations in our lives!
Before I close this tip, more on making sure that you learn from people who have already successfully done what you want to do. If I am having problems in my marriage, should I talk to a parent that has been divorced four times and is struggling in their current marriage? If I want more money and success in my life, should I talk to a family member or friend who hates their job and lives paycheck to paycheck with no idea of how to ever change that? A great rule for getting anything you want in your life – find someone who already has what you want, and steal if from them… (hopefully you know I am kidding). Study them. Read their books. Ask them to mentor you. Learn how they did it, and then you do it too. If you think what wealthy people think, and you do what wealthy people do, eventually you will have… what wealthy people have!!! It is simple, but it isn’t easy!
If you enjoy my tips, please pass this on to anyone you know who may benefit from it… Together, let’s get inspired, let’s get motivated, let’s create some buzzzz, and let’s help some people (family, friends, and ourselves) create all of the wealth and success they want in life!!!
Monday, October 20, 2008
A few more quotes for the day...
"The reason most people face the future with apprehension instead of anticipation is because they don't have it well designed". -Jim Rohn
"Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." -Abraham Lincoln
"When you see yourself as good, the world you live in has a different design." -Richard Flint
"Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." -Abraham Lincoln
"When you see yourself as good, the world you live in has a different design." -Richard Flint
How to Create All of the Wealth and Success You Want In Your Life – Tip #6
Tip #6 – Excellence…
To create all of the wealth and success you want in your life, it would behoove you to aim at being the best in your field. Brian Tracy says all of the rewards go to the top ten percent. Further, he says if you took all of your time, energy, and money, and put it into becoming the best in your field, it would pay you back over one thousand fold over your lifetime.
Mediocre people are easily replaced, so their value is extremely limited; when you get paid by the hour, there is an automatic ceiling placed on your income. However, if you are the best in your field, you can switch from getting paid by the hour to getting paid for the value you add, and now the only limits are the ones you place on yourself. Jim Rohn says “Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job (personal achievement). This is where you can go from making a living to making a fortune.”
“The quality of a person’s life is directly proportionate to their commitment to excellence.” -Vince Lombardi
Let’s look briefly at pricing… If you are selling a commodity item, something where ten other people are selling the same thing right along side you, the price you can charge is extremely limited. Nobody can make large margins, because you are competing based largely on one thing – price. That is mediocrity. However, if you have something exclusive, that nobody else has, you can demand whatever price you want as long as the perceived value is higher than the cost. That is being the best. You have the best product, or the best service, or whatever it is that makes you far superior to any competitor, and now when somebody wants what you have, the price of a competitor is no longer a factor.
As a final way to evaluate excellence, let’s look at its opposite – failure. Jim Rohn says, “Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don’t fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgment repeated every day.”
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” -Aristotle
So, there you have tip #6 – decide on Excellence for you or your company!!!
This is tip #6 of at least 10 in the series. I will try to publish most of them as e-zine articles, but if any are missing, they will all be available on my blog. Also on my blog are some motivational quotes that have become quite popular, as well as other articles, so earmark my blog as one of your favorites, make a habit of going there, share the link with others, and let’s see if we can create some magic in your life!
To create all of the wealth and success you want in your life, it would behoove you to aim at being the best in your field. Brian Tracy says all of the rewards go to the top ten percent. Further, he says if you took all of your time, energy, and money, and put it into becoming the best in your field, it would pay you back over one thousand fold over your lifetime.
Mediocre people are easily replaced, so their value is extremely limited; when you get paid by the hour, there is an automatic ceiling placed on your income. However, if you are the best in your field, you can switch from getting paid by the hour to getting paid for the value you add, and now the only limits are the ones you place on yourself. Jim Rohn says “Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job (personal achievement). This is where you can go from making a living to making a fortune.”
“The quality of a person’s life is directly proportionate to their commitment to excellence.” -Vince Lombardi
Let’s look briefly at pricing… If you are selling a commodity item, something where ten other people are selling the same thing right along side you, the price you can charge is extremely limited. Nobody can make large margins, because you are competing based largely on one thing – price. That is mediocrity. However, if you have something exclusive, that nobody else has, you can demand whatever price you want as long as the perceived value is higher than the cost. That is being the best. You have the best product, or the best service, or whatever it is that makes you far superior to any competitor, and now when somebody wants what you have, the price of a competitor is no longer a factor.
As a final way to evaluate excellence, let’s look at its opposite – failure. Jim Rohn says, “Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don’t fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgment repeated every day.”
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” -Aristotle
So, there you have tip #6 – decide on Excellence for you or your company!!!
This is tip #6 of at least 10 in the series. I will try to publish most of them as e-zine articles, but if any are missing, they will all be available on my blog. Also on my blog are some motivational quotes that have become quite popular, as well as other articles, so earmark my blog as one of your favorites, make a habit of going there, share the link with others, and let’s see if we can create some magic in your life!
Friday, October 17, 2008
How to Create All of the Wealth and Success You Want In Your Life – Tip #5
Tip #5 – “Develop a Millionaire Mind”.
In tip #4 we discussed being willing to pay the price of success, and how you have to really want it badly. We ended talking about wanting to be better (improve yourself), and now we are going to transition further into the mental side of the equation. Zig Ziglar is well known for his quote, “You can get anything you want in life if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”
Personally, I include in my daily declarations (a list of things that I declare over my life, out loud, on a daily basis) these statements that I got from T. Harv Eker’s 3-day “Millionaire Mind Intensive” (a boot camp, if you will)… “I get rich doing what I love. I deserve to be rich because I add value to other people’s lives.” What a change in thought pattern when, instead of thinking “I want to be rich, I want to be rich, How can I be rich?”, you start thinking, “How can I add so much value to other people or to the company I work for or to the world that money will flow back to me for my efforts?” Do you see the paradigm shift starting to occur here?
What does this mean? To me, it means you earn according to the value that you add. If you create a huge amount of value for a few people, you will collect a few huge paydays. If you add a very small amount of value, but add it to huge numbers of people, then you will collect a large stream of small paydays. Hopefully at some point you find/do work you can do once, but you keep getting paid over and over again (called residual income), like with successful books, or maybe selling a patent and getting an ongoing percentage of sales, or investments that earn you money even while you sleep. If you don’t add much value, you won’t get paid much. Let’s break this down a little. If you have a JOB, it pays you according to the value that someone believes that you, in your position, create. A secretary is generally not considered to create a ton of value, so the pay is not great. A CEO that successfully runs a billion dollar company is generally considered to create a lot of value, so he gets paid a lot more. Bill Gates created a lot of value with his vision for computers and how they can make lives easier. Sam Walton created a lot of value when he came up with a store, Wal-Mart, which gave people great prices and a ton of selection all together in one location – which was unheard of before he thought of it and decided to pay the price to make it happen.
So day in and day out, task by task, how much value do you add to the world? That is one of the great determining factors of success. Someone who doesn’t know and understand this is going to have a hard time ever being extremely wealthy or successful. I am getting a little side-tracked here, but once you have made a decision that you want more out of life, there are a lot of things you can learn and do that will help you. Until you have made the decision, though, there is very little that can help you! Until there is a paradigm shift in the way you think about money, it is nearly impossible for someone who is poor or middle class to become wealthy. They have to be willing to pay the price, but they also have to develop their own millionaire mind.
Here is an example of a millionaire mind in action… A poor person or middle class person decides they want to buy a boat. They go to the bank, beg for a loan, and get approved. They buy their boat, and incur monthly payments. Next they spend money on a bunch of toys and gadgets that every boat owner wants, plus don’t forget fuel, maintenance, insurance, etc. Owning a boat keeps them poor or middle class, or maybe even broke. Next, we put on our millionaire mind, and see how a wealthy person buys a boat. First, they set an accomplishment goal, and decide that, once they make a successful investment, they will reward themselves with a boat. They go out and buy a bargain priced duplex, that has positive cash flow after paying the mortgage and all other expenses. The excess positive cash flow from the duplex pays for their boat and boating expenses. Now they have their boat, but no money is coming out of their pocket. In fact, the duplex they own, in the long run, appreciates in value. The underlying mortgage they got to buy the duplex gets paid down a little every month, growing their wealth without them working for it, plus they get tax benefits for investing in real estate. Without going into too much detail, you can see how, by developing a millionaire mind, we can have our cake and eat it too?!!!
This is tip #5 of at least 10 in the series. I will try to publish most of them as e-zine articles, but if any are missing, they will all be available on my blog. Hopefully you are getting a lot out of my tips, and can’t wait for the next one. If so, please refer a friend to my blog so they can benefit from it as well… Together, let’s get inspired, let’s get motivated, let’s create some buzzzz, and let’s help some people (family, friends, and ourselves) create all of the wealth and success they want in life!!!
In tip #4 we discussed being willing to pay the price of success, and how you have to really want it badly. We ended talking about wanting to be better (improve yourself), and now we are going to transition further into the mental side of the equation. Zig Ziglar is well known for his quote, “You can get anything you want in life if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”
Personally, I include in my daily declarations (a list of things that I declare over my life, out loud, on a daily basis) these statements that I got from T. Harv Eker’s 3-day “Millionaire Mind Intensive” (a boot camp, if you will)… “I get rich doing what I love. I deserve to be rich because I add value to other people’s lives.” What a change in thought pattern when, instead of thinking “I want to be rich, I want to be rich, How can I be rich?”, you start thinking, “How can I add so much value to other people or to the company I work for or to the world that money will flow back to me for my efforts?” Do you see the paradigm shift starting to occur here?
What does this mean? To me, it means you earn according to the value that you add. If you create a huge amount of value for a few people, you will collect a few huge paydays. If you add a very small amount of value, but add it to huge numbers of people, then you will collect a large stream of small paydays. Hopefully at some point you find/do work you can do once, but you keep getting paid over and over again (called residual income), like with successful books, or maybe selling a patent and getting an ongoing percentage of sales, or investments that earn you money even while you sleep. If you don’t add much value, you won’t get paid much. Let’s break this down a little. If you have a JOB, it pays you according to the value that someone believes that you, in your position, create. A secretary is generally not considered to create a ton of value, so the pay is not great. A CEO that successfully runs a billion dollar company is generally considered to create a lot of value, so he gets paid a lot more. Bill Gates created a lot of value with his vision for computers and how they can make lives easier. Sam Walton created a lot of value when he came up with a store, Wal-Mart, which gave people great prices and a ton of selection all together in one location – which was unheard of before he thought of it and decided to pay the price to make it happen.
So day in and day out, task by task, how much value do you add to the world? That is one of the great determining factors of success. Someone who doesn’t know and understand this is going to have a hard time ever being extremely wealthy or successful. I am getting a little side-tracked here, but once you have made a decision that you want more out of life, there are a lot of things you can learn and do that will help you. Until you have made the decision, though, there is very little that can help you! Until there is a paradigm shift in the way you think about money, it is nearly impossible for someone who is poor or middle class to become wealthy. They have to be willing to pay the price, but they also have to develop their own millionaire mind.
Here is an example of a millionaire mind in action… A poor person or middle class person decides they want to buy a boat. They go to the bank, beg for a loan, and get approved. They buy their boat, and incur monthly payments. Next they spend money on a bunch of toys and gadgets that every boat owner wants, plus don’t forget fuel, maintenance, insurance, etc. Owning a boat keeps them poor or middle class, or maybe even broke. Next, we put on our millionaire mind, and see how a wealthy person buys a boat. First, they set an accomplishment goal, and decide that, once they make a successful investment, they will reward themselves with a boat. They go out and buy a bargain priced duplex, that has positive cash flow after paying the mortgage and all other expenses. The excess positive cash flow from the duplex pays for their boat and boating expenses. Now they have their boat, but no money is coming out of their pocket. In fact, the duplex they own, in the long run, appreciates in value. The underlying mortgage they got to buy the duplex gets paid down a little every month, growing their wealth without them working for it, plus they get tax benefits for investing in real estate. Without going into too much detail, you can see how, by developing a millionaire mind, we can have our cake and eat it too?!!!
This is tip #5 of at least 10 in the series. I will try to publish most of them as e-zine articles, but if any are missing, they will all be available on my blog. Hopefully you are getting a lot out of my tips, and can’t wait for the next one. If so, please refer a friend to my blog so they can benefit from it as well… Together, let’s get inspired, let’s get motivated, let’s create some buzzzz, and let’s help some people (family, friends, and ourselves) create all of the wealth and success they want in life!!!
How to Create All of the Wealth and Success You Want In Your Life – Tip #4
This is tip #4 of at least 10 in the series. I will try to publish most of them as e-zine articles, but if any are missing, they will all be available on my blog. Enjoy Tip #4…
Tip #4 – Dreams don’t fail for lack of desire; dreams come apart from not being willing to pay the price to achieve them… That says a lot.
Here is a recipe for success in any area of your life: figure out what is required to achieve your goal or dream, and then determine in advance that you are willing to pay the price. My friend, Tim Harris, is fond of the time-honored quote (as am I), “it is simple, but it isn’t easy”. The formula for success is not complex – it is simple. The doing, however, is often the furthest thing from easy.
I talk with a lot of people about real estate investing, wealth, and success, and I have noticed a recurring pattern… People want to be successful and wealthy and happy, but they don’t want to pay the price. This generation is full of people who think the world owes them a living, but they have that formula backwards. So many people want to win the lottery… Rather than working hard and doing what it takes to earn a fortune.
When I started on the road to wealth, I wanted to know “The Secret”, but I didn’t want to work my tail off. For a while, nothing happened. Eventually, when I wanted it bad enough to give 110% at my full time job, and then added in a second full time job investing in real estate and the study of wealth, things improved. When I started getting up earlier, and working harder, and going to bed later, and sacrificing some weekends, working on making me the best me I could be, things improved. You see, The Secret was good, but to really get the ball rolling, I also had to be willing to pay the price!
In my former life, as an employee, I knew a lot of people that had a job, worked every day, and hated it. They hated Mondays and lived for Fridays at quittin’ time. They bickered and complained constantly, and worked just hard enough to keep from being fired. Then, they had the gall to complain that they didn’t get paid enough, never got big raises or the promotion they deserved, and weren’t treated fairly by the boss or the company. Here is what they were missing. They thought they should get paid more just because, and they never figured out that the best way to get paid more is to become more valuable. If they improved their attitude, worked harder, offered to take on more workload, and thought of ideas to help the company be more successful, sooner or later they would have got paid more, or got promoted, or probably both.
How do you fix this ‘the world owes me a living mentality’? First, “Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better.” That may or may not be from Jim Rohn. Jim Rohn does expound that you will become wealthy when you spend more time working on yourself than you spend working on your job.
I will leave off here on tip #4, and we will transition into tip #5 – Develop your millionaire mind.
Please pass this on to anyone you know who may benefit from it… and I will see you soon in tip #5. Together, let’s get inspired, let’s get motivated, let’s create some buzzzz, and let’s help some people (family, friends, and ourselves) create all of the wealth and success they want in life!!!
Tip #4 – Dreams don’t fail for lack of desire; dreams come apart from not being willing to pay the price to achieve them… That says a lot.
Here is a recipe for success in any area of your life: figure out what is required to achieve your goal or dream, and then determine in advance that you are willing to pay the price. My friend, Tim Harris, is fond of the time-honored quote (as am I), “it is simple, but it isn’t easy”. The formula for success is not complex – it is simple. The doing, however, is often the furthest thing from easy.
I talk with a lot of people about real estate investing, wealth, and success, and I have noticed a recurring pattern… People want to be successful and wealthy and happy, but they don’t want to pay the price. This generation is full of people who think the world owes them a living, but they have that formula backwards. So many people want to win the lottery… Rather than working hard and doing what it takes to earn a fortune.
When I started on the road to wealth, I wanted to know “The Secret”, but I didn’t want to work my tail off. For a while, nothing happened. Eventually, when I wanted it bad enough to give 110% at my full time job, and then added in a second full time job investing in real estate and the study of wealth, things improved. When I started getting up earlier, and working harder, and going to bed later, and sacrificing some weekends, working on making me the best me I could be, things improved. You see, The Secret was good, but to really get the ball rolling, I also had to be willing to pay the price!
In my former life, as an employee, I knew a lot of people that had a job, worked every day, and hated it. They hated Mondays and lived for Fridays at quittin’ time. They bickered and complained constantly, and worked just hard enough to keep from being fired. Then, they had the gall to complain that they didn’t get paid enough, never got big raises or the promotion they deserved, and weren’t treated fairly by the boss or the company. Here is what they were missing. They thought they should get paid more just because, and they never figured out that the best way to get paid more is to become more valuable. If they improved their attitude, worked harder, offered to take on more workload, and thought of ideas to help the company be more successful, sooner or later they would have got paid more, or got promoted, or probably both.
How do you fix this ‘the world owes me a living mentality’? First, “Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better.” That may or may not be from Jim Rohn. Jim Rohn does expound that you will become wealthy when you spend more time working on yourself than you spend working on your job.
I will leave off here on tip #4, and we will transition into tip #5 – Develop your millionaire mind.
Please pass this on to anyone you know who may benefit from it… and I will see you soon in tip #5. Together, let’s get inspired, let’s get motivated, let’s create some buzzzz, and let’s help some people (family, friends, and ourselves) create all of the wealth and success they want in life!!!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
How to Create All of the Wealth and Success You Want In Your Life – Tip #3
This is tip #3 of at least 10 in the series. I will try to publish most of them as e-zine articles, but if any are missing, they will all be available on my blog at http://thelundletters.blogspot.com/
Also on my blog are some motivational quotes that have become quite popular, as well as other articles, so earmark my blog as one of your favorites, make a habit of going there, share the link with others, and let’s see if we can create some magic in your life!
Thanks, and enjoy Tip #3…
Tip #3 – Figure out your dreams, and set goals to get there… Most of you have probably heard something along the lines of, ‘you can’t hit a target that you can not see’. Hopefully you recognize the wisdom in that.
Let’s, for a minute, liken the importance of dreams and goals to flying on a commercial airplane. Suppose the airplane has no particular course, but just takes off and flies around. Do you want to book a flight? How do you know you won’t fly into objects or other airplanes, since air traffic controllers are not guiding the plane? What are the odds you are going to end up at your desired destination, much less within an appropriate timeframe? Will you even find an airport or other place for safe landing? Or will you run out of gas before you land? A commercial airplane flying in this manner sounds ridiculous, but is it really any less ridiculous for people to go through life, hoping for all kinds of wonderful dreams to come true, but never stopping to figure out what it will take to make their dreams come true, and never making plans and setting goals to make it happen?
“If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” -Zig Ziglar
I once talked to a close relative about whether or not they had dreams and goals. They responded to me that not everything was about money. Well, I responded that dreams and goals don’t have to be about money. I said that dreams and goals can be spiritual, mental, physical, emotional, or other. Dreams and goals are about figuring out what you really want out of life, and charting a course to make sure it happens.
Let me get serious and say, for a moment, imagine yourself on your deathbed… Now consider this question… “Was your life a complete success?” Then, if not, ask yourself, “What things do you wish had happened that would have made your life a complete success?” If you don’t have planned, written dreams and goals for your life, when would now be the right time?
Not sure where I heard this, but it is also pretty deep: “Talent is God’s gift to you; what you do with it is your gift to God”.
I could probably go on for pages and pages about dreams and goals, but if what I have said already doesn’t convince someone of the need, then I doubt anything else I say would. Plus, I could use the extra time to get some sleep!
Now we are 3 tips into a journey of at least 10, so you are probably starting to have a feel for what to expect from my articles… I try to give you great information, and I hope that you find it useful. I hope something I have shared with you, or share with you in the next few weeks, changes the rest of your life for the better!!! If you like my 10 tips, please pass this on to anyone you know who may benefit from it… Together, let’s get inspired, let’s get motivated, let’s create some buzzzz, and let’s help some people (family, friends, and ourselves) create all of the wealth and success they want in life!!!
Also, a sneak preview of some coming attractions… Possible tips to look forward to include: the role mentors play in your success, how important the people you associate with are to your future, and why dreams fail.
Also on my blog are some motivational quotes that have become quite popular, as well as other articles, so earmark my blog as one of your favorites, make a habit of going there, share the link with others, and let’s see if we can create some magic in your life!
Thanks, and enjoy Tip #3…
Tip #3 – Figure out your dreams, and set goals to get there… Most of you have probably heard something along the lines of, ‘you can’t hit a target that you can not see’. Hopefully you recognize the wisdom in that.
Let’s, for a minute, liken the importance of dreams and goals to flying on a commercial airplane. Suppose the airplane has no particular course, but just takes off and flies around. Do you want to book a flight? How do you know you won’t fly into objects or other airplanes, since air traffic controllers are not guiding the plane? What are the odds you are going to end up at your desired destination, much less within an appropriate timeframe? Will you even find an airport or other place for safe landing? Or will you run out of gas before you land? A commercial airplane flying in this manner sounds ridiculous, but is it really any less ridiculous for people to go through life, hoping for all kinds of wonderful dreams to come true, but never stopping to figure out what it will take to make their dreams come true, and never making plans and setting goals to make it happen?
“If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” -Zig Ziglar
I once talked to a close relative about whether or not they had dreams and goals. They responded to me that not everything was about money. Well, I responded that dreams and goals don’t have to be about money. I said that dreams and goals can be spiritual, mental, physical, emotional, or other. Dreams and goals are about figuring out what you really want out of life, and charting a course to make sure it happens.
Let me get serious and say, for a moment, imagine yourself on your deathbed… Now consider this question… “Was your life a complete success?” Then, if not, ask yourself, “What things do you wish had happened that would have made your life a complete success?” If you don’t have planned, written dreams and goals for your life, when would now be the right time?
Not sure where I heard this, but it is also pretty deep: “Talent is God’s gift to you; what you do with it is your gift to God”.
I could probably go on for pages and pages about dreams and goals, but if what I have said already doesn’t convince someone of the need, then I doubt anything else I say would. Plus, I could use the extra time to get some sleep!
Now we are 3 tips into a journey of at least 10, so you are probably starting to have a feel for what to expect from my articles… I try to give you great information, and I hope that you find it useful. I hope something I have shared with you, or share with you in the next few weeks, changes the rest of your life for the better!!! If you like my 10 tips, please pass this on to anyone you know who may benefit from it… Together, let’s get inspired, let’s get motivated, let’s create some buzzzz, and let’s help some people (family, friends, and ourselves) create all of the wealth and success they want in life!!!
Also, a sneak preview of some coming attractions… Possible tips to look forward to include: the role mentors play in your success, how important the people you associate with are to your future, and why dreams fail.
Friday, October 10, 2008
How to Create All of the Wealth and Success You Want In Your Life – Tip #2
This is tip #2 of at least 10 in the series. I will try to publish most of them as e-zine articles, but if any are missing, they will all be available on my blog at http://thelundletters.blogspot.com/
Also on my blog are some motivational quotes that have become quite popular, as well as other articles, so earmark my blog as one of your favorites, make a habit of going there, share the link with others, and let’s see if we can create some magic in your life!
Thanks, and enjoy Tip #2…
Tip #2 – ‘Think and Grow Rich’ is the title of a book by Napoleon Hill. The book is a classic that has been the starting point for many, many wealthy, successful people. As the title implies, the book uses the premise that wealth starts with your thinking. If you think that the only way to have money is to work hard and earn it, that will, by the very thinking of it, become your reality. You will work hard to earn money because you don’t know there is any other way. If, on the other hand, you think that you can become rich by coming up with great ideas that make people’s lives better, that may very well become your reality. Your reality is created first in your mind, and then the world around you conforms to your mental picture (I wrote a really intense article, titled “Visualizing Can Make All Of Your Dreams Come True”, on my blog back in May – check it out when you get a chance – it should be one of my 10 Tips, but since I already wrote that article, it might not make this series).
Have you trained yourself to see opportunities? If opportunity knocked today would you open the door and let it in? Would you even know it was knocking? In order to Think and Grow Rich, you have to learn to look for and seek out opportunities. Most people, the 99%-ers, walk past opportunities every day, because they aren’t wired to notice them. They don’t understand how to Think and Grow Rich.
Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
Mark Victor Hansen said, “What you think about comes about.”
I am not sure who said, “What you focus on expands.”
Napoleon Hill said, “What your mind can conceive and believe, you can achieve.”
I think I first heard T. Harv Eker say, “Where attention goes energy flows and results show.”
In order to create all of the wealth and success you want in your life, you need to recognize that you create your reality inside your mind first, and then you follow up with the steps and actions that make it real. Most people are sure that seeing is believing; the successful minority know that believing leads to seeing.
Now, what you can expect as we continue this journey… I will continue to give you great information, and it will continue to be up to you what you get out of it. If you read my tips, enjoy them, but do nothing with them, nothing much will happen. However, if you find some advice that is pertinent to you in your life, and you capture it, and you act on it, maybe, just maybe, something I share with you now or in the next few weeks could change the rest of your life for the better!!! Now, that would be what I would hope and pray for! Also, please pass this on to anyone you know who may benefit from it… Together, let’s get inspired, let’s get motivated, let’s create some buzzzz, and let’s help some people (family, friends, and ourselves) create all of the wealth and success they want in life!!!
Also on my blog are some motivational quotes that have become quite popular, as well as other articles, so earmark my blog as one of your favorites, make a habit of going there, share the link with others, and let’s see if we can create some magic in your life!
Thanks, and enjoy Tip #2…
Tip #2 – ‘Think and Grow Rich’ is the title of a book by Napoleon Hill. The book is a classic that has been the starting point for many, many wealthy, successful people. As the title implies, the book uses the premise that wealth starts with your thinking. If you think that the only way to have money is to work hard and earn it, that will, by the very thinking of it, become your reality. You will work hard to earn money because you don’t know there is any other way. If, on the other hand, you think that you can become rich by coming up with great ideas that make people’s lives better, that may very well become your reality. Your reality is created first in your mind, and then the world around you conforms to your mental picture (I wrote a really intense article, titled “Visualizing Can Make All Of Your Dreams Come True”, on my blog back in May – check it out when you get a chance – it should be one of my 10 Tips, but since I already wrote that article, it might not make this series).
Have you trained yourself to see opportunities? If opportunity knocked today would you open the door and let it in? Would you even know it was knocking? In order to Think and Grow Rich, you have to learn to look for and seek out opportunities. Most people, the 99%-ers, walk past opportunities every day, because they aren’t wired to notice them. They don’t understand how to Think and Grow Rich.
Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
Mark Victor Hansen said, “What you think about comes about.”
I am not sure who said, “What you focus on expands.”
Napoleon Hill said, “What your mind can conceive and believe, you can achieve.”
I think I first heard T. Harv Eker say, “Where attention goes energy flows and results show.”
In order to create all of the wealth and success you want in your life, you need to recognize that you create your reality inside your mind first, and then you follow up with the steps and actions that make it real. Most people are sure that seeing is believing; the successful minority know that believing leads to seeing.
Now, what you can expect as we continue this journey… I will continue to give you great information, and it will continue to be up to you what you get out of it. If you read my tips, enjoy them, but do nothing with them, nothing much will happen. However, if you find some advice that is pertinent to you in your life, and you capture it, and you act on it, maybe, just maybe, something I share with you now or in the next few weeks could change the rest of your life for the better!!! Now, that would be what I would hope and pray for! Also, please pass this on to anyone you know who may benefit from it… Together, let’s get inspired, let’s get motivated, let’s create some buzzzz, and let’s help some people (family, friends, and ourselves) create all of the wealth and success they want in life!!!
How to Create All of the Wealth and Success You Want In Your Life – Tip #1
Over the next few weeks, I am going to share at least ten tips on things you can do right now, even in a bad economy, to start creating all of the wealth and success you want in your life. I will try to publish most of them as e-zine articles, but if any are missing, they will all be available on my blog at http://thelundletters.blogspot.com/
Also on my blog are some motivational quotes that have become quite popular, and I will try to add some more of them in the coming weeks, so earmark my blog as one of your favorites, make a habit of going there, and let’s see if we can create some magic in your life!
If you like what you see, refer friends and family. Check out my blog, and feel free to e-mail me comments as well, at reinvestorsfl@aol.com
Thanks, and enjoy Tip #1…
Tip #1 – Especially at a time like this, when our American economy, and to some degree world economies, are in turmoil, you must take 100% responsibility for your life, your wealth, and your success. You can not sit back and idly wait for success to come to you – you need to figure out what you want, take the bull by the horns, and go out and make your life what you want it to be.
Abraham Lincoln said, “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left behind by those who hustle.” Are you living your life based on what is left behind, or are you out there hustling and going after the gold?
I have been using the quote, “You can have your excuses, or you can have your dreams, but you can’t have both,” for some time now, and I honestly don’t know where I got it from. I might have created it myself, or I might have got it from someone, somewhere along the line, but if so I don’t know who. Anyhow, do you go after and get what you want in life? Or do you make excuses? The easy way out is to blame the economy, blame the real estate market, blame the politicians, blame the competition, point out how bad things are, and say that just getting by is doing better than most today. Blame is a game that nobody wins. As long as it is someone or something else’s fault, you can not improve. That is the easy way out, but is it what you want for your life? “You can have your excuses, or you can have your dreams, but you can’t have both.”
“What you ardently desire, sincerely believe in, vividly imagine, and enthusiastically act on must inevitably come to pass.” -Paul J. Myer
What Paul Myer is saying in that quote is something that great and successful people have known for hundreds of years, but somehow the other 99% of us rarely get looped in. Our circumstances don’t make us – we make our circumstances. If we want something, anything, badly enough, we really can go out and make it happen in our lives. Jim Rohn has a neat saying – “you aren’t a tree”. You aren’t stuck in one place. If you aren’t happy where you are at, move. If your life isn’t what you want it to be, stop blaming, stop making excuses, figure out what you want your life to be, and start making it so! We have all heard the old adage, if you continue doing what you have always done, you will continue to get what you have always got. If you aren’t happy with your current results, own up to them, take 100% responsibility, and start figuring out and doing what is required to get where you want to go. I have had a number of young real estate investors over the years ask me for advice, and I told most something like this… start where you are right now, with what you have right now, and figure out what you need to do to get where you want to go, and then “just do it”. Nido Qubein said, “Your present circumstances don’t determine where you go; they merely determine where you start.” Isn’t that great?!!!
I am not sure if many of you have studied Abraham Lincoln much, but he had a ton of great sayings, including, “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.” Ella Wheeler Wilcox said, “There is no chance, no destiny, no fate that can circumvent or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.” Now, personally, I think things may hinder us some, but if we are bound and determined, and we take 100% responsibility, I don’t think there is much that can keep us from accomplishing just about anything we make up our minds to accomplish.
Now, what you can expect going forward… I used a lot of quotes in this tip, and I will try no to be quite so loose with them in other tips, but I will still use some. I will continue to give you great information, and it will continue to be up to you what, if anything, you get out of it. If you read my tips, say that was nice, and go about your day, nothing much will happen. However, if you find some advice that is pertinent to you in your life, and you capture it, and you act on, maybe, just maybe, something I share with you now or in the next few weeks could change the rest of your life for the better!!! Now, that would be what I would hope and pray for! Also, please pass this on to anyone you know who may benefit from it… Together, let’s get inspired, let’s get motivated, let’s create some buzzzz, and let’s help some people (family, friends, and ourselves) create all of the wealth and success they want in life!!!
Also on my blog are some motivational quotes that have become quite popular, and I will try to add some more of them in the coming weeks, so earmark my blog as one of your favorites, make a habit of going there, and let’s see if we can create some magic in your life!
If you like what you see, refer friends and family. Check out my blog, and feel free to e-mail me comments as well, at reinvestorsfl@aol.com
Thanks, and enjoy Tip #1…
Tip #1 – Especially at a time like this, when our American economy, and to some degree world economies, are in turmoil, you must take 100% responsibility for your life, your wealth, and your success. You can not sit back and idly wait for success to come to you – you need to figure out what you want, take the bull by the horns, and go out and make your life what you want it to be.
Abraham Lincoln said, “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left behind by those who hustle.” Are you living your life based on what is left behind, or are you out there hustling and going after the gold?
I have been using the quote, “You can have your excuses, or you can have your dreams, but you can’t have both,” for some time now, and I honestly don’t know where I got it from. I might have created it myself, or I might have got it from someone, somewhere along the line, but if so I don’t know who. Anyhow, do you go after and get what you want in life? Or do you make excuses? The easy way out is to blame the economy, blame the real estate market, blame the politicians, blame the competition, point out how bad things are, and say that just getting by is doing better than most today. Blame is a game that nobody wins. As long as it is someone or something else’s fault, you can not improve. That is the easy way out, but is it what you want for your life? “You can have your excuses, or you can have your dreams, but you can’t have both.”
“What you ardently desire, sincerely believe in, vividly imagine, and enthusiastically act on must inevitably come to pass.” -Paul J. Myer
What Paul Myer is saying in that quote is something that great and successful people have known for hundreds of years, but somehow the other 99% of us rarely get looped in. Our circumstances don’t make us – we make our circumstances. If we want something, anything, badly enough, we really can go out and make it happen in our lives. Jim Rohn has a neat saying – “you aren’t a tree”. You aren’t stuck in one place. If you aren’t happy where you are at, move. If your life isn’t what you want it to be, stop blaming, stop making excuses, figure out what you want your life to be, and start making it so! We have all heard the old adage, if you continue doing what you have always done, you will continue to get what you have always got. If you aren’t happy with your current results, own up to them, take 100% responsibility, and start figuring out and doing what is required to get where you want to go. I have had a number of young real estate investors over the years ask me for advice, and I told most something like this… start where you are right now, with what you have right now, and figure out what you need to do to get where you want to go, and then “just do it”. Nido Qubein said, “Your present circumstances don’t determine where you go; they merely determine where you start.” Isn’t that great?!!!
I am not sure if many of you have studied Abraham Lincoln much, but he had a ton of great sayings, including, “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.” Ella Wheeler Wilcox said, “There is no chance, no destiny, no fate that can circumvent or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.” Now, personally, I think things may hinder us some, but if we are bound and determined, and we take 100% responsibility, I don’t think there is much that can keep us from accomplishing just about anything we make up our minds to accomplish.
Now, what you can expect going forward… I used a lot of quotes in this tip, and I will try no to be quite so loose with them in other tips, but I will still use some. I will continue to give you great information, and it will continue to be up to you what, if anything, you get out of it. If you read my tips, say that was nice, and go about your day, nothing much will happen. However, if you find some advice that is pertinent to you in your life, and you capture it, and you act on, maybe, just maybe, something I share with you now or in the next few weeks could change the rest of your life for the better!!! Now, that would be what I would hope and pray for! Also, please pass this on to anyone you know who may benefit from it… Together, let’s get inspired, let’s get motivated, let’s create some buzzzz, and let’s help some people (family, friends, and ourselves) create all of the wealth and success they want in life!!!
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Some inspirational quotes...
"It is the best of times. It is the worst of times." -Charles Dickens
"The quality of a person's life is directly proportionate to their committment to excellence." -Vince Lombardi
"Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be". -Abraham Lincoln
"Talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift to God."
"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common people." -Henry D. Thoreau
"If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time." -Zig Ziglar
"Don't let the learning from your own experiences take too long. If you have been doing it wrong for the last ten years, I would suggest that's long enough." -Jim Rohn
"Your present experiences don't determine where you go; they only determine where you start." -Nido Qubein
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." -Theodore Roosevelt
"Things don't go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be." -Charlie "Tremendous" Jones
"If you keep doing what you have always done, you will keep getting what you have always got."
"I get rich doing what I love. I deserve to be rich because I add value to other people's lives." -T. Harv Eker
"When you see yourself as good, the world you live in has a different design." -Richard Flint
"You have to make it happen." -Mean Joe Greene
"The only limits we have, are the ones we put on ourselves."
"Success starts with taking 100% responsibility for your life."
"You can have your dreams, or you can have your excuses, but you can't have both."
If I have not stated who made the quote, there are two possibilities. If you like, it is a Chris Lund original. If you don't, I heard it from someone, somewhere, but have long since forgot who!
"The quality of a person's life is directly proportionate to their committment to excellence." -Vince Lombardi
"Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be". -Abraham Lincoln
"Talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift to God."
"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common people." -Henry D. Thoreau
"If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time." -Zig Ziglar
"Don't let the learning from your own experiences take too long. If you have been doing it wrong for the last ten years, I would suggest that's long enough." -Jim Rohn
"Your present experiences don't determine where you go; they only determine where you start." -Nido Qubein
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." -Theodore Roosevelt
"Things don't go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be." -Charlie "Tremendous" Jones
"If you keep doing what you have always done, you will keep getting what you have always got."
"I get rich doing what I love. I deserve to be rich because I add value to other people's lives." -T. Harv Eker
"When you see yourself as good, the world you live in has a different design." -Richard Flint
"You have to make it happen." -Mean Joe Greene
"The only limits we have, are the ones we put on ourselves."
"Success starts with taking 100% responsibility for your life."
"You can have your dreams, or you can have your excuses, but you can't have both."
If I have not stated who made the quote, there are two possibilities. If you like, it is a Chris Lund original. If you don't, I heard it from someone, somewhere, but have long since forgot who!
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Times Are Tough; Get Free Help Here!!!
We all know the saying, tough times don’t last, but tough people do. Well, I keep hearing (and occasionally saying) that times are tough, and I figured it was time to ‘cinch the belt in a little’. Due to a current confluence of events, I find myself looking for ways to save a little more and spend a little less (just like the good old days), so I am writing this article as much for me as I am for you!
First, in offering full disclosure, the confluence of events… My wife and I were blessed with our second son on May 10th, 2007; while definitely a blessing, he also adds to our cost of living. I quit my JOB in December 2007. Just prior to that, times were good, so I bought a big new house and a big new truck. Despite a large down payment, the house still carries a large monthly mortgage. The real estate market is doing worse than the economy overall, and the combined value of my real estate holdings has dropped quite a ways (meaning smaller paydays if/when I sell any of my existing properties in this real estate market). Last, but not least, I recently purchased two fixer upper single family houses, and we are trying to finish up one while we do the early stage repairs on the other… So the ‘cash cushion’ I kept on hand is getting tied up in the purchase and repairs of those two houses.
Second, with that out of the way, some pain free ways to save more and spend less… If you have not shopped around your automobile insurance in the past 1-2 years, now is a good time. I am not saying settle for a low quality insurer, or for less than adequate insurance, but I am saying keep your insurer honest by making sure you are getting your money’s worth. Many people are surprised by the fact that the same two insurance companies, offering the same insurance coverage, two years apart, may flip flop completely in their rates… I have experienced it personally. Also, if applicable, you may shop around other insurance, such as life, health, disability, etc. You may save money without any sacrifice! Are you on a cell phone plan that makes the most sense for your usage (I know someone personally who should be on an unlimited plan, who continually spends a fortune on overage minutes – WHY?)? If your electric bill is high, Lakeland Electric does FREE energy audits. Maybe you know about some things you aren’t willing to do right now, like upgrade to more energy efficient appliances, but maybe there are also some cheap, easy ways to reduce your electric bill significantly that you haven’t thought of. If you have a sprinkler system, is it off during heavy rain periods? Do you heat and cool your home sensibly (for instance, I heat to about 73 degrees in the winter, and cool to about 77 degrees in the summer; a 4-5 degree swing should not result in any real discomfort, and if a bigger spread doesn’t bother your family, even better)? How about giving yourself a financial check-up? Are all of your investments, evaluated individually, doing well, and do they make sense? Do you know what you are invested in, and how and why it should make you profits? Likewise, if you borrow, do your loans make sense? Could they be structured better, have better rates, etc.? Especially if you carry a balance on a high interest rate credit card, can you get it reduced somehow? I know I am constantly bombarded with zero interest rate for X amount of months credit cards that might help. As an example, when I have a loan I plan on paying off in full in the next year or two, I get a zero interest for eighteen months credit card, pay off the loan with it, and now my entire payment pays down principal instead of part going to interest. Are you one of those people that pays bills late for whatever reason, thereby incurring late fees, penalties, higher interest rates, etc.? Figure out what it takes to get and stay current, and the savings alone will help keep you there. If you tend to spend more when you use a credit card instead of cash (which most people do), chuck the credit cards. If, on the other hand, you have a high level of self discipline, then use no fee, high rewards credit cards, charge all of your normal expenditures, pay the bill in full every month, and rack up rewards (I do this and my business earns my wife and I nice meals out). In fact, since I am rehabbing two houses, I redeemed over $200 in Discover cash back bonus awards this past month. If applicable, improve your credit scores so any future borrowing will get cheaper and cheaper (better rates, lower fees). When it comes to tax time, are you getting all of the deductions you are entitled to? Many people intentionally don’t take income tax deductions they are entitled to because they think it might cause an audit; little side bar here – as long as you aren’t doing anything ‘wrong’, the audit will probably hurt less than the money you are throwing away (in the rare event you do get audited)! Here is one I have found saving me a lot of money recently… When I see something in a store I ‘have to have’, I wait and research it on-line later. Two benefits – first the urge to spend often goes away, thereby cutting out the expenditure altogether, and second, I find almost everything I research I can buy cheaper on-line than what I would have paid in the store (yes, even including shipping and handling). If you eat meals out a lot from the JOB, can you save money by packing a lunch more often? Something I find my family guilty of quite often – we throw away perfectly good leftovers while we eat out or prepare something more appetizing. Three solutions quickly come to mind – one, eat the leftovers; two, freeze the leftovers for later; three, prepare smaller meals. If you have the time and inclination (I don’t), plant a garden. Do you make sure to bargain shop, and take advantage of sales on things you know you will use anyhow? And, on the opposite side of the coin, avoid buying junk you don’t need at all just because it was on sale! Do you clip coupons, actively look for sale prices, etc.? While I think exercise is great, and I actively exercise myself, if you are one of those people who has an expensive gym membership, and only goes to the gym twice a year, get rid of it. Here is a fun, easy way to save a little dough – my wife takes my kids to the library almost weekly, and they not only get all the books they can read for free, they even get a bunch of kid’s movies on DVD! With the popularity of cell phones these days, I know many people that have done away with their land line because it was wasted money. Last and definitely not least, the old adage, Pay Yourself First! ‘If you pay yourself last, you will never do it. If you pay yourself first, you will never miss it.’ These are all things that, with just a little front end work, can help you save more and spend less without any sacrifice to your lifestyle. Next, on to the things that might hurt a little…
Third, ways to save more and spend less where the terminology ‘no pain, no gain’ applies… These you will feel a little more. Depending on how bad you want to reach your goals, how bad your financial situation is, your time constraints, etc., let’s start with the extreme – can you work more hours, get a second job, start a part-time business (even if temporarily to get over the hump)? Perhaps a stay at home spouse can pick up some work from home? In this economy many stay at home parents watch extra kids for friends or family, allowing one family to make extra money (babysitting) and allowing the other to save extra money (cheaper than daycare). Maybe private school or home schooling needs to be replaced by public school, even if only temporarily while times are tough? It isn’t for everyone, but I know one couple that happily rented out an extra room in their home for a long time. Consider a smaller, cheaper, more fuel efficient car, now or the next time you car shop (yes, as mentioned previously, I failed miserably in this category). While on the subject of vehicles, most of you are probably already combining many errands into fewer trips and avoiding unnecessary driving these days. Are you making the most of free entertainment at home? Have a brainstorm session with your family of all of the fun, free or cheap things you can think of to do at home, and then implement the favorites and save the cost of travel and entertainment out. Most Americans can save some money by eating out less, and personally I know when I cut back on soda and drink more water my body and my wallet both appreciate it. If you routinely drink coffee at Starbucks, or drink alcohol at bars/restaurants, besides the moral issues, let me kill you now for what you spend per drink! Ouch! And I won’t even get started on cigarettes/tobacco. Last, here is the thing everybody hates to do – create a budget! First and foremost, spend as you normally do, and track every penny for at least a couple of months… and find out where your money is really going. If you can make yourself do it, continue to keep track of expenses for a full year, so you are sure to include once or twice a year expenses like holidays, birthdays, insurance, taxes, etc. Nine times out of ten, there will be some expenses that are shockingly high, and you will know where to look to stop the bleeding.
This article is just to whet your appetite, but if you got some helpful hints out of it, and or you want more of the same, search the internet for some sights on saving money… I know I stumbled across some when I was looking for personal finance information not too long ago, and I saw some good tips, as well as some that I would never recommend… I will share a few since they may be good for a chuckle… Reduce showers to once a week (they said you would save on hot water, shampoo, soap; I suggest you would probably save on dating, too!). Train your cats to use the toilet (somebody claimed it can be done). Go around early on garbage day and gather what you need from what others throw away (they do say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure – LOL). Become a vegetarian - it is a cheaper lifestyle (I know meat can be expensive, but that seems extreme to a meat and potatoes guy like me!). Anyhow, enough of the extreme!!! Best wishes everyone, and hopefully I will see you… on the other side of the rainbow (you know, where the pot of gold is)!
First, in offering full disclosure, the confluence of events… My wife and I were blessed with our second son on May 10th, 2007; while definitely a blessing, he also adds to our cost of living. I quit my JOB in December 2007. Just prior to that, times were good, so I bought a big new house and a big new truck. Despite a large down payment, the house still carries a large monthly mortgage. The real estate market is doing worse than the economy overall, and the combined value of my real estate holdings has dropped quite a ways (meaning smaller paydays if/when I sell any of my existing properties in this real estate market). Last, but not least, I recently purchased two fixer upper single family houses, and we are trying to finish up one while we do the early stage repairs on the other… So the ‘cash cushion’ I kept on hand is getting tied up in the purchase and repairs of those two houses.
Second, with that out of the way, some pain free ways to save more and spend less… If you have not shopped around your automobile insurance in the past 1-2 years, now is a good time. I am not saying settle for a low quality insurer, or for less than adequate insurance, but I am saying keep your insurer honest by making sure you are getting your money’s worth. Many people are surprised by the fact that the same two insurance companies, offering the same insurance coverage, two years apart, may flip flop completely in their rates… I have experienced it personally. Also, if applicable, you may shop around other insurance, such as life, health, disability, etc. You may save money without any sacrifice! Are you on a cell phone plan that makes the most sense for your usage (I know someone personally who should be on an unlimited plan, who continually spends a fortune on overage minutes – WHY?)? If your electric bill is high, Lakeland Electric does FREE energy audits. Maybe you know about some things you aren’t willing to do right now, like upgrade to more energy efficient appliances, but maybe there are also some cheap, easy ways to reduce your electric bill significantly that you haven’t thought of. If you have a sprinkler system, is it off during heavy rain periods? Do you heat and cool your home sensibly (for instance, I heat to about 73 degrees in the winter, and cool to about 77 degrees in the summer; a 4-5 degree swing should not result in any real discomfort, and if a bigger spread doesn’t bother your family, even better)? How about giving yourself a financial check-up? Are all of your investments, evaluated individually, doing well, and do they make sense? Do you know what you are invested in, and how and why it should make you profits? Likewise, if you borrow, do your loans make sense? Could they be structured better, have better rates, etc.? Especially if you carry a balance on a high interest rate credit card, can you get it reduced somehow? I know I am constantly bombarded with zero interest rate for X amount of months credit cards that might help. As an example, when I have a loan I plan on paying off in full in the next year or two, I get a zero interest for eighteen months credit card, pay off the loan with it, and now my entire payment pays down principal instead of part going to interest. Are you one of those people that pays bills late for whatever reason, thereby incurring late fees, penalties, higher interest rates, etc.? Figure out what it takes to get and stay current, and the savings alone will help keep you there. If you tend to spend more when you use a credit card instead of cash (which most people do), chuck the credit cards. If, on the other hand, you have a high level of self discipline, then use no fee, high rewards credit cards, charge all of your normal expenditures, pay the bill in full every month, and rack up rewards (I do this and my business earns my wife and I nice meals out). In fact, since I am rehabbing two houses, I redeemed over $200 in Discover cash back bonus awards this past month. If applicable, improve your credit scores so any future borrowing will get cheaper and cheaper (better rates, lower fees). When it comes to tax time, are you getting all of the deductions you are entitled to? Many people intentionally don’t take income tax deductions they are entitled to because they think it might cause an audit; little side bar here – as long as you aren’t doing anything ‘wrong’, the audit will probably hurt less than the money you are throwing away (in the rare event you do get audited)! Here is one I have found saving me a lot of money recently… When I see something in a store I ‘have to have’, I wait and research it on-line later. Two benefits – first the urge to spend often goes away, thereby cutting out the expenditure altogether, and second, I find almost everything I research I can buy cheaper on-line than what I would have paid in the store (yes, even including shipping and handling). If you eat meals out a lot from the JOB, can you save money by packing a lunch more often? Something I find my family guilty of quite often – we throw away perfectly good leftovers while we eat out or prepare something more appetizing. Three solutions quickly come to mind – one, eat the leftovers; two, freeze the leftovers for later; three, prepare smaller meals. If you have the time and inclination (I don’t), plant a garden. Do you make sure to bargain shop, and take advantage of sales on things you know you will use anyhow? And, on the opposite side of the coin, avoid buying junk you don’t need at all just because it was on sale! Do you clip coupons, actively look for sale prices, etc.? While I think exercise is great, and I actively exercise myself, if you are one of those people who has an expensive gym membership, and only goes to the gym twice a year, get rid of it. Here is a fun, easy way to save a little dough – my wife takes my kids to the library almost weekly, and they not only get all the books they can read for free, they even get a bunch of kid’s movies on DVD! With the popularity of cell phones these days, I know many people that have done away with their land line because it was wasted money. Last and definitely not least, the old adage, Pay Yourself First! ‘If you pay yourself last, you will never do it. If you pay yourself first, you will never miss it.’ These are all things that, with just a little front end work, can help you save more and spend less without any sacrifice to your lifestyle. Next, on to the things that might hurt a little…
Third, ways to save more and spend less where the terminology ‘no pain, no gain’ applies… These you will feel a little more. Depending on how bad you want to reach your goals, how bad your financial situation is, your time constraints, etc., let’s start with the extreme – can you work more hours, get a second job, start a part-time business (even if temporarily to get over the hump)? Perhaps a stay at home spouse can pick up some work from home? In this economy many stay at home parents watch extra kids for friends or family, allowing one family to make extra money (babysitting) and allowing the other to save extra money (cheaper than daycare). Maybe private school or home schooling needs to be replaced by public school, even if only temporarily while times are tough? It isn’t for everyone, but I know one couple that happily rented out an extra room in their home for a long time. Consider a smaller, cheaper, more fuel efficient car, now or the next time you car shop (yes, as mentioned previously, I failed miserably in this category). While on the subject of vehicles, most of you are probably already combining many errands into fewer trips and avoiding unnecessary driving these days. Are you making the most of free entertainment at home? Have a brainstorm session with your family of all of the fun, free or cheap things you can think of to do at home, and then implement the favorites and save the cost of travel and entertainment out. Most Americans can save some money by eating out less, and personally I know when I cut back on soda and drink more water my body and my wallet both appreciate it. If you routinely drink coffee at Starbucks, or drink alcohol at bars/restaurants, besides the moral issues, let me kill you now for what you spend per drink! Ouch! And I won’t even get started on cigarettes/tobacco. Last, here is the thing everybody hates to do – create a budget! First and foremost, spend as you normally do, and track every penny for at least a couple of months… and find out where your money is really going. If you can make yourself do it, continue to keep track of expenses for a full year, so you are sure to include once or twice a year expenses like holidays, birthdays, insurance, taxes, etc. Nine times out of ten, there will be some expenses that are shockingly high, and you will know where to look to stop the bleeding.
This article is just to whet your appetite, but if you got some helpful hints out of it, and or you want more of the same, search the internet for some sights on saving money… I know I stumbled across some when I was looking for personal finance information not too long ago, and I saw some good tips, as well as some that I would never recommend… I will share a few since they may be good for a chuckle… Reduce showers to once a week (they said you would save on hot water, shampoo, soap; I suggest you would probably save on dating, too!). Train your cats to use the toilet (somebody claimed it can be done). Go around early on garbage day and gather what you need from what others throw away (they do say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure – LOL). Become a vegetarian - it is a cheaper lifestyle (I know meat can be expensive, but that seems extreme to a meat and potatoes guy like me!). Anyhow, enough of the extreme!!! Best wishes everyone, and hopefully I will see you… on the other side of the rainbow (you know, where the pot of gold is)!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
A couple of quotes for the day...
"I remember saying to my mentor, 'If I had more money, I would have a better plan.' He quickly responded, 'I would suggest that if you had a better plan, you would have more money.'
-Jim Rohn
And then one a little on the lighter side:
"Sometimes I lie awake at night, and ask, "Where have I gone wrong?" Then a voice says to me, "This is going to take more than one night." -- Charles M. Schulz
Best wishes to my readers!!! If you are reading my blog, and you aren't already on my e-mail list, be sure to drop me a line and ask to be added... REInvestorsFL@aol.com
I e-mail the list when I blog a new article, and let them know it is available. Also, once in a great while I write some extras for them that I don't put on my blog. I do not share e-mail addresses with anyone for any reason, and you can be removed from my list upon request at any time. Thanks!
-Jim Rohn
And then one a little on the lighter side:
"Sometimes I lie awake at night, and ask, "Where have I gone wrong?" Then a voice says to me, "This is going to take more than one night." -- Charles M. Schulz
Best wishes to my readers!!! If you are reading my blog, and you aren't already on my e-mail list, be sure to drop me a line and ask to be added... REInvestorsFL@aol.com
I e-mail the list when I blog a new article, and let them know it is available. Also, once in a great while I write some extras for them that I don't put on my blog. I do not share e-mail addresses with anyone for any reason, and you can be removed from my list upon request at any time. Thanks!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
How an Olympic Effort Can Make All Your Dreams Come True
Since many of us are enjoying the Olympic Games in August 2008, I thought it would be interesting to look at a few similarities between Olympic athletes, and people who aspire to make their dreams come true!
First, note that to compete at the highest levels, you almost have to have God-given talent and ability for your sport. I am a five feet, ten inch, slow white guy who makes up for it by not being able to jump. If my dream is to be the center on the Olympic basketball team, my odds aren’t very good. If you wish to pursuit your dreams, start by figuring out some of your natural abilities, then determine ways to achieve great success in some of those areas. Abraham Lincoln said it this way… it is much easier to ride a horse in the direction it is going! Amen.
Second, note that Olympic athletes have to have a passion for their sport. If you don’t love what you do, being the best in your field will be too difficult! Amen.
That leads me into our third similarity. Olympic athletes are devoted. They have heart, and courage, and dedication beyond comparison. Most Olympic athletes are up training and pursuing their dreams while the Average Joe is still in bed dreaming. Just the other day I was working alongside my handyman and a helper, putting down tile and grouting. It was Saturday night, about 8pm, and both of them said they were too tired to work any more. I said if we work just a few more hours we can finish the job, so we can all rest on Sunday, and get back to another job on Monday. I even offered to throw in a bonus if we completed the job Saturday night. They decided to go home to watch TV in lieu of the bonus. I worked a couple more hours, then got up early Sunday morning and worked another half day by myself to finish the job. I picked up supplies early Monday morning, and still beat them to the other job site. The handyman works steady, but slowly, and has a habit of wanting extra time off on a regular basis. The helper at times looks like he is a professional, at taking breaks. I just switched him back from pay by the hour to pay by the job, so his breaks will be on his time, instead of on my dime. While I don’t have my handyman’s skills, I work harder, and longer, and move faster than either of them. They work for seven to twelve dollars an hour. I work to make the world I live in better, and to build a fortune for my family, that I can eventually pass on to my children. They work to pay next week’s bills (and occasionally last week’s bills). I work because I choose to, and not because I have to. Don’t misinterpret me - I would not for a second claim that I am better than them; but I would say I have a better plan. The difference I offer up between my financial success and their struggle (besides a better plan) – heart!!! They just don’t want it as bad as I do! Amen.
Fourth, Olympic athletes are persistent. They keep plugging away at their sport, at their skills, at their routines, day after day, week after week, year after year, giving it their all as they reach for glory. Back to that tile job… It was 3:55pm Saturday, and we realize we are going to need one more bag of grout to finish the job. The place I ordered the tile and grout from closes at 4pm, and it takes them several days to get grout, because they don’t stock it. My handyman says, “You might as well give up.” Thirty minutes and 5-6 phone calls later, I am on my way to pick up the grout we need at a different local store. My handyman says, “You sure are lucky.” Well, if I did it his way we wouldn’t have got more grout – we would have gave up. I wasn’t lucky – I was persistent. I frequently have people tell me I am lucky, and sometimes I explain to them and sometimes I don’t, that I have no more or less luck than anyone else. What I do have is more heart, and more persistence. When I determine to do something, I go after it like a pit bull, and God help someone who tries to prevent me from reaching my goals. Persistence makes all the difference for Olympic athletes, and it makes all the difference for me! Amen.
Fifth, Olympic athletes visualize. They prepare mentally as well as physically. They rehearse their events in their minds, over and over again, seeing perfect performances in their mind first, and then when they actually perform, they just make reality match the way they already did in their minds so many times. Most of those who have experienced success at the highest levels in other areas also used visualization techniques. Try this. Figure out exactly what would be your dreams come true, and then visualize them happening. See in your mind what your successes were, and what obstacles you had to overcome, and see in great detail how you suceeded. Then break down and analyze exactly what you did on the path to making your dreams come true, and then start doing those things now! Determine the price that needs to be paid, and decide in advance that you are willing to pay it! What you think about comes about, and your future starts today! Amen.
Sixth, Olympic athletes don’t make or accept excuses for their own poor performance. They use failure like rocket fuel for improvement. In one of the Star Wars movies, the wise Yoda explains to a young Luke Skywalker, “there is no try; there is only do, or do not”. When you fail, learn the lesson and move on. If you have read any of my past material, you probably already know my next line – “you can have your excuses, or you can have your dreams, but you can’t have both”! Amen.
So, putting it all together, here are six things taken from Olympic athletes that you can use if you really do aspire to make your dreams come true:
1 – Find your God-given talents and abilities
2 – Love what you do
3 – You gotta have heart
4 – Persist, persist, persist…
5 – Visualize things working out the way you want them to
6 – No Excuses, no exceptions; use failure as fuel for improvement
Thank you for checking out my article, and if you liked it, make sure you check out my blog for other articles!!!
First, note that to compete at the highest levels, you almost have to have God-given talent and ability for your sport. I am a five feet, ten inch, slow white guy who makes up for it by not being able to jump. If my dream is to be the center on the Olympic basketball team, my odds aren’t very good. If you wish to pursuit your dreams, start by figuring out some of your natural abilities, then determine ways to achieve great success in some of those areas. Abraham Lincoln said it this way… it is much easier to ride a horse in the direction it is going! Amen.
Second, note that Olympic athletes have to have a passion for their sport. If you don’t love what you do, being the best in your field will be too difficult! Amen.
That leads me into our third similarity. Olympic athletes are devoted. They have heart, and courage, and dedication beyond comparison. Most Olympic athletes are up training and pursuing their dreams while the Average Joe is still in bed dreaming. Just the other day I was working alongside my handyman and a helper, putting down tile and grouting. It was Saturday night, about 8pm, and both of them said they were too tired to work any more. I said if we work just a few more hours we can finish the job, so we can all rest on Sunday, and get back to another job on Monday. I even offered to throw in a bonus if we completed the job Saturday night. They decided to go home to watch TV in lieu of the bonus. I worked a couple more hours, then got up early Sunday morning and worked another half day by myself to finish the job. I picked up supplies early Monday morning, and still beat them to the other job site. The handyman works steady, but slowly, and has a habit of wanting extra time off on a regular basis. The helper at times looks like he is a professional, at taking breaks. I just switched him back from pay by the hour to pay by the job, so his breaks will be on his time, instead of on my dime. While I don’t have my handyman’s skills, I work harder, and longer, and move faster than either of them. They work for seven to twelve dollars an hour. I work to make the world I live in better, and to build a fortune for my family, that I can eventually pass on to my children. They work to pay next week’s bills (and occasionally last week’s bills). I work because I choose to, and not because I have to. Don’t misinterpret me - I would not for a second claim that I am better than them; but I would say I have a better plan. The difference I offer up between my financial success and their struggle (besides a better plan) – heart!!! They just don’t want it as bad as I do! Amen.
Fourth, Olympic athletes are persistent. They keep plugging away at their sport, at their skills, at their routines, day after day, week after week, year after year, giving it their all as they reach for glory. Back to that tile job… It was 3:55pm Saturday, and we realize we are going to need one more bag of grout to finish the job. The place I ordered the tile and grout from closes at 4pm, and it takes them several days to get grout, because they don’t stock it. My handyman says, “You might as well give up.” Thirty minutes and 5-6 phone calls later, I am on my way to pick up the grout we need at a different local store. My handyman says, “You sure are lucky.” Well, if I did it his way we wouldn’t have got more grout – we would have gave up. I wasn’t lucky – I was persistent. I frequently have people tell me I am lucky, and sometimes I explain to them and sometimes I don’t, that I have no more or less luck than anyone else. What I do have is more heart, and more persistence. When I determine to do something, I go after it like a pit bull, and God help someone who tries to prevent me from reaching my goals. Persistence makes all the difference for Olympic athletes, and it makes all the difference for me! Amen.
Fifth, Olympic athletes visualize. They prepare mentally as well as physically. They rehearse their events in their minds, over and over again, seeing perfect performances in their mind first, and then when they actually perform, they just make reality match the way they already did in their minds so many times. Most of those who have experienced success at the highest levels in other areas also used visualization techniques. Try this. Figure out exactly what would be your dreams come true, and then visualize them happening. See in your mind what your successes were, and what obstacles you had to overcome, and see in great detail how you suceeded. Then break down and analyze exactly what you did on the path to making your dreams come true, and then start doing those things now! Determine the price that needs to be paid, and decide in advance that you are willing to pay it! What you think about comes about, and your future starts today! Amen.
Sixth, Olympic athletes don’t make or accept excuses for their own poor performance. They use failure like rocket fuel for improvement. In one of the Star Wars movies, the wise Yoda explains to a young Luke Skywalker, “there is no try; there is only do, or do not”. When you fail, learn the lesson and move on. If you have read any of my past material, you probably already know my next line – “you can have your excuses, or you can have your dreams, but you can’t have both”! Amen.
So, putting it all together, here are six things taken from Olympic athletes that you can use if you really do aspire to make your dreams come true:
1 – Find your God-given talents and abilities
2 – Love what you do
3 – You gotta have heart
4 – Persist, persist, persist…
5 – Visualize things working out the way you want them to
6 – No Excuses, no exceptions; use failure as fuel for improvement
Thank you for checking out my article, and if you liked it, make sure you check out my blog for other articles!!!
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Clear Debt From Your Life In 2-5 Years
I recently read “The Total Money Makeover” by Dave Ramsey… Dave proposes a very common debt reduction plan – and one that has gained a lot of popularity in recent years. He calls it a “debt snowball”, and says to start with your smallest debt, work on paying it off using “gazelle intensity”, and then adding the payment from it (and any other money you can come up with) to your next smallest debt until it is paid off, and then applying all of those payments to the next smallest debt until it is paid off, and so on. Dave says that if you use this plan, and you truly give it everything you got, most people will be debt free in approximately 2-5 years (all debts paid off except their primary mortgage, which apparently will sometimes be paid off in that amount of time and sometimes will take a little extra work after that). The snowball effect being that, each time a debt is paid off, the payment from it and all previous debts grows like a snowball, and gains momentum, making it easier and easier to pay off bigger debts.
In the stone age of financial planning, financial planners said you should make the minimum payment on all debts except for your debt with the highest interest rate, and apply all extra payment to that debt. The problem with that was it didn’t consider the psychological make up of people. If your highest debt was a large one, it took a very long time to make a significant dent in it, and most people would give up because they didn’t see enough progress. Same idea as in weight loss – you do crazy dieting or exercise in the beginning, which you can’t maintain forever, because you must see progress; if you diet and exercise for weeks without any noticeable progress, your enthusiasm fades and you give up. If you start with a very small debt, you can make noticeable progress, get fired up, and have even more intensity to continue the plan. The concept is not unique to Dave Ramsey – though the book at times makes it sound like “his plan”. What is unique is Dave taking the “debt snowball” up as his personal crusade, and backing it with a fire and intensity rarely seen in financial planning. Let’s face it – most people find budgeting to be slightly less exciting than… watching grass grow.
Dave’s passion for his plan is catchy, and it is probably a great plan for a lot of people, but I am not sure that Dave will admit it is not for everyone. Dave apparently crashed and burned in real estate investing using debt/leverage, and he takes on the idea that any and all debt is bad and will ruin anyone and everyone. He fails to acknowledge anywhere in the book that I could find even the remote possibility that debt can be a tool for good (a la Robert Kiyosaki). Many a man has made his fortune by the wise use of debt (as a tool). Most large and successful businesses, at some point or another, expanded through the use of debt. Countless real estate millionaires made their fortunes by borrowing wisely, leveraging their real estate investments, and benefiting from positive cash flow, mortgage pay down, appreciation, tax benefits, etc. (and, yes, admittedly many have failed in these same endeavors through the unwise use of debt).
By the same token, let’s talk about credit cards. They are a double-edged sword – a weapon that can badly injure the user, and that, used correctly, can be a great tool. Dave Ramsey suggests no one ever keep any credit cards for any purpose. I disagree. I use my credit cards wisely, and I love them. I learned it from T. Harv Eker. I charge almost all of my standard business expenses on one of two credit cards, and I pay the balance in full every month. Also, I charge enough in routine business expenses (my business is rental properties and rehabbing houses) that the cash back and other bonus awards from my credit card use provides my family with nice meals out regularly, gives my wife funds that pay for most of our family pictures and photo books, and other occasional bonuses. Harv says his credit card use pays for his family’s all-inclusive vacations. Terrific. I have good credit. I get credit card offers in the mail all of the time offering me zero interest on balance transfers for up to eighteen months. I recently took advantage of two such offers. I had 2-4 years left to pay on my wife’s car and my truck. I decided that, by transferring to zero interest for eighteen months, I could pay the same amount I was already paying every month in vehicle payments, and, because 100% of every payment would go to principal (no interest), I could have both loans down to nothing or a fraction of what I owed on them in eighteen months. At that point, if my interest jumped up to 20% for the remaining balance, and I had no other options to reduce that rate or pay off the balance (which is unrealistic), I STILL WOULD HAVE BEEN MILES AHEAD! Dave, show me the flaw in my logic!!! What Dave should say, somewhere in his book, at some time, is that his plan is great for many, but is not for everyone. He should mention that, if you have self discipline, and if you manage your money well, that maybe, just possibly, debt can be a tool that works for you. I ASSURE YOU IT CAN BE!!!
Anyhow, the book is a quick, easy read, with many interesting stories, and, as I have said, it can benefit many (including most average Americans). Dave exposes many common misconceptions about money and finance, and proposes a plan that has definite value for those who are serious about eliminating debt from their lives (and are willing to really throw themselves into it). Now, don’t kid yourselves into thinking that Dave is sharing a big huge secret, and that, once you know it, you can become debt free fast without applying any effort. Dave preaches that you have to really throw yourself into the plan, and do whatever it takes to get out of debt. He talks about extreme budgeting, garage sales, overtime or second jobs, part time businesses, etc., in addition to managing your money wisely, but he says it will be one of the most worthwhile things you could ever do for yourself, and it will change your life. Dave says, “if you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else”; in fact, it is printed across every single page! I like it better the way I have heard it before – if you are willing to do the things others won’t for a short time now, you will be able to do things others won’t for the rest of your life! Either way, there is value in Dave’s plan, and if the idea suits you, I absolutely would recommend “The Total Money Makeover” for you, my friend!
P.S. – Dave provides a bunch of budgeting forms in the back of the book that might be helpful – I even wrote up a copy of “The Debt Snowball” chart myself, as I may apply some form of it myself some time if and when it suits me.
Great related quotes:
“A budget is people telling their money where to go instead of wondering where it went.” –John Maxwell
“If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” -Zig Ziglar
In the stone age of financial planning, financial planners said you should make the minimum payment on all debts except for your debt with the highest interest rate, and apply all extra payment to that debt. The problem with that was it didn’t consider the psychological make up of people. If your highest debt was a large one, it took a very long time to make a significant dent in it, and most people would give up because they didn’t see enough progress. Same idea as in weight loss – you do crazy dieting or exercise in the beginning, which you can’t maintain forever, because you must see progress; if you diet and exercise for weeks without any noticeable progress, your enthusiasm fades and you give up. If you start with a very small debt, you can make noticeable progress, get fired up, and have even more intensity to continue the plan. The concept is not unique to Dave Ramsey – though the book at times makes it sound like “his plan”. What is unique is Dave taking the “debt snowball” up as his personal crusade, and backing it with a fire and intensity rarely seen in financial planning. Let’s face it – most people find budgeting to be slightly less exciting than… watching grass grow.
Dave’s passion for his plan is catchy, and it is probably a great plan for a lot of people, but I am not sure that Dave will admit it is not for everyone. Dave apparently crashed and burned in real estate investing using debt/leverage, and he takes on the idea that any and all debt is bad and will ruin anyone and everyone. He fails to acknowledge anywhere in the book that I could find even the remote possibility that debt can be a tool for good (a la Robert Kiyosaki). Many a man has made his fortune by the wise use of debt (as a tool). Most large and successful businesses, at some point or another, expanded through the use of debt. Countless real estate millionaires made their fortunes by borrowing wisely, leveraging their real estate investments, and benefiting from positive cash flow, mortgage pay down, appreciation, tax benefits, etc. (and, yes, admittedly many have failed in these same endeavors through the unwise use of debt).
By the same token, let’s talk about credit cards. They are a double-edged sword – a weapon that can badly injure the user, and that, used correctly, can be a great tool. Dave Ramsey suggests no one ever keep any credit cards for any purpose. I disagree. I use my credit cards wisely, and I love them. I learned it from T. Harv Eker. I charge almost all of my standard business expenses on one of two credit cards, and I pay the balance in full every month. Also, I charge enough in routine business expenses (my business is rental properties and rehabbing houses) that the cash back and other bonus awards from my credit card use provides my family with nice meals out regularly, gives my wife funds that pay for most of our family pictures and photo books, and other occasional bonuses. Harv says his credit card use pays for his family’s all-inclusive vacations. Terrific. I have good credit. I get credit card offers in the mail all of the time offering me zero interest on balance transfers for up to eighteen months. I recently took advantage of two such offers. I had 2-4 years left to pay on my wife’s car and my truck. I decided that, by transferring to zero interest for eighteen months, I could pay the same amount I was already paying every month in vehicle payments, and, because 100% of every payment would go to principal (no interest), I could have both loans down to nothing or a fraction of what I owed on them in eighteen months. At that point, if my interest jumped up to 20% for the remaining balance, and I had no other options to reduce that rate or pay off the balance (which is unrealistic), I STILL WOULD HAVE BEEN MILES AHEAD! Dave, show me the flaw in my logic!!! What Dave should say, somewhere in his book, at some time, is that his plan is great for many, but is not for everyone. He should mention that, if you have self discipline, and if you manage your money well, that maybe, just possibly, debt can be a tool that works for you. I ASSURE YOU IT CAN BE!!!
Anyhow, the book is a quick, easy read, with many interesting stories, and, as I have said, it can benefit many (including most average Americans). Dave exposes many common misconceptions about money and finance, and proposes a plan that has definite value for those who are serious about eliminating debt from their lives (and are willing to really throw themselves into it). Now, don’t kid yourselves into thinking that Dave is sharing a big huge secret, and that, once you know it, you can become debt free fast without applying any effort. Dave preaches that you have to really throw yourself into the plan, and do whatever it takes to get out of debt. He talks about extreme budgeting, garage sales, overtime or second jobs, part time businesses, etc., in addition to managing your money wisely, but he says it will be one of the most worthwhile things you could ever do for yourself, and it will change your life. Dave says, “if you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else”; in fact, it is printed across every single page! I like it better the way I have heard it before – if you are willing to do the things others won’t for a short time now, you will be able to do things others won’t for the rest of your life! Either way, there is value in Dave’s plan, and if the idea suits you, I absolutely would recommend “The Total Money Makeover” for you, my friend!
P.S. – Dave provides a bunch of budgeting forms in the back of the book that might be helpful – I even wrote up a copy of “The Debt Snowball” chart myself, as I may apply some form of it myself some time if and when it suits me.
Great related quotes:
“A budget is people telling their money where to go instead of wondering where it went.” –John Maxwell
“If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” -Zig Ziglar
Sunday, July 13, 2008
No Crystal Ball About the Future of Real Estate
I recently shared Frank McKinney’s opinion that the real estate market is likely to turn around in late 2008 or in 2009… Now I read an article by David Butler, who is published regularly on www.creonline.com, and figured it is only fair to give airtime to a contrary opinion (see “Dead-cat Bounce” below). The truth – none of us has a crystal ball about what will happen to real estate in the short term, and we all have to act prudently, and do the best we can with the circumstances that surround us. Ten to twenty years out, real estate prices will almost certainly be much higher than they are today, but not everyone that owns real estate can wait that long for a comeback… Personally, I think there is a lot of opportunity in the current real estate market, and I am rehabbing two houses right now that I hope to flip, but, until I have completed those flips and have profits in hand, I wouldn't be fair for me to tell you “yes, it still works today.” Also, I bought both properties at prices where I can keep them as rentals if necessary. I will let you know how my flips work out. Also, my single family rentals still cash flow, and I am keeping them, and I expect them to get better in the next few years because the rental market is getting stronger right now, plus I expect to see Florida property taxes dropping significantly in the next couple of years (as recent lower property values get factored in by the property appraiser’s office). On to the part of David’s article that predicts a gloomy future for real estate values (go to www.creonline.com to see the article in its entirety).
CRE Online > How-To Articles > A "Dead-Cat Bounce" in the Rocky Real Estate Market
A "Dead-Cat Bounce" in the Rocky Real Estate Market
by David P. Butler
[June 2008]
The phrase "Dead-Cat Bounce" is finance industry term derived from the notion that "even a dead cat will bounce at least once if it falls from a great enough height," and describes a pattern wherein a spectacular decline in the price of a stock is immediately followed by a moderate and temporary rise--before resuming its downward movement. The connotation is that the rise is not an indication of improving fundamentals of the stock. A "bounce" is often the result of speculation. Traders buy into what they hope is the bottom of the market, expecting a "bounce" and making a quick profit. Thus, the very act of anticipating a bounce can create and magnify it. There is evidence of a "Dead-Cat Bounce" happening in the current real estate markets in several parts of the country. Investors are rushing headlong into some of the worst markets (Stockton, CA is one such example) and actually bidding up prices against retail buyers for REO listings--on homes listed at prices still higher than the affordability levels for the areas where they are located! Many investors have been brainwashed by Wall Street and the media to think that "buying low" is always a winning approach. But "buying low" all by itself, is a very speculative strategy--and more so in times like these. The biggest challenge is that turnarounds are often difficult to spot because deflation in the housing markets typically runs about 18 quarters (4.5 years), and false bottoms in housing sales and starts are common. It is imperative to stay focused on ways to navigate the foreclosure and pre-foreclosure markets right now because the real opportunity will only come in 2009-2011, depending on the region. So--buying for value is the optimal strategy.
Housing market declines are steep and accelerating
The current recession will most likely turn out to be the worst in decades. There are many more problems ahead. My forecast for the next 5 to 7 years includes the following economic scenarios.
Deleveraging (the process of taking leverage out of the financial system) is the dominant theme in the markets in 2008 and going forward for at least a year, as the capital markets recoil from the massive losses in structured finance and the housing bubble. This process will transform the banking industry, putting an increasing drag on economic growth and corporate profits.
Due to the weakness in the economy, the next trend in the housing correction will be a crisis in prime mortgages, and...
A likelihood of a meltdown in the $40 trillion global credit CDO market for the same reasons that crashed real estate securitizations, as a massive credit card crunch is looming right around the corner;
Many more hedge fund blowups, corporate bankruptcies, bank failures;
The inherent rise or interest rates that has to come with bank deleveraging--only now in its early stages. After 2010, you should expect inflation and interest rates to really begin soaring, which will put an increasing drag on economic growth and corporate profits.
From their peak in 2006, home prices will ultimately decline to pre-1999 levels between now and 2012. Commercial real estate market will also suffer.
The rental market is set to heat up, and will provide good investment opportunities for patient and prudent investors.
CRE Online > How-To Articles > A "Dead-Cat Bounce" in the Rocky Real Estate Market
A "Dead-Cat Bounce" in the Rocky Real Estate Market
by David P. Butler
[June 2008]
The phrase "Dead-Cat Bounce" is finance industry term derived from the notion that "even a dead cat will bounce at least once if it falls from a great enough height," and describes a pattern wherein a spectacular decline in the price of a stock is immediately followed by a moderate and temporary rise--before resuming its downward movement. The connotation is that the rise is not an indication of improving fundamentals of the stock. A "bounce" is often the result of speculation. Traders buy into what they hope is the bottom of the market, expecting a "bounce" and making a quick profit. Thus, the very act of anticipating a bounce can create and magnify it. There is evidence of a "Dead-Cat Bounce" happening in the current real estate markets in several parts of the country. Investors are rushing headlong into some of the worst markets (Stockton, CA is one such example) and actually bidding up prices against retail buyers for REO listings--on homes listed at prices still higher than the affordability levels for the areas where they are located! Many investors have been brainwashed by Wall Street and the media to think that "buying low" is always a winning approach. But "buying low" all by itself, is a very speculative strategy--and more so in times like these. The biggest challenge is that turnarounds are often difficult to spot because deflation in the housing markets typically runs about 18 quarters (4.5 years), and false bottoms in housing sales and starts are common. It is imperative to stay focused on ways to navigate the foreclosure and pre-foreclosure markets right now because the real opportunity will only come in 2009-2011, depending on the region. So--buying for value is the optimal strategy.
Housing market declines are steep and accelerating
The current recession will most likely turn out to be the worst in decades. There are many more problems ahead. My forecast for the next 5 to 7 years includes the following economic scenarios.
Deleveraging (the process of taking leverage out of the financial system) is the dominant theme in the markets in 2008 and going forward for at least a year, as the capital markets recoil from the massive losses in structured finance and the housing bubble. This process will transform the banking industry, putting an increasing drag on economic growth and corporate profits.
Due to the weakness in the economy, the next trend in the housing correction will be a crisis in prime mortgages, and...
A likelihood of a meltdown in the $40 trillion global credit CDO market for the same reasons that crashed real estate securitizations, as a massive credit card crunch is looming right around the corner;
Many more hedge fund blowups, corporate bankruptcies, bank failures;
The inherent rise or interest rates that has to come with bank deleveraging--only now in its early stages. After 2010, you should expect inflation and interest rates to really begin soaring, which will put an increasing drag on economic growth and corporate profits.
From their peak in 2006, home prices will ultimately decline to pre-1999 levels between now and 2012. Commercial real estate market will also suffer.
The rental market is set to heat up, and will provide good investment opportunities for patient and prudent investors.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Financial Freedom For a Fist Full of Nuts! Can It Be True???
A friend recently loaned me “The Total Money Makeover”, by Dave Ramsey (I will save some of the details of the book for another day), and in the book Dave shares a story I have heard several times before… I will use a version I heard that is only slightly different than Dave’s version.
The way I heard it, people used this method to catch monkeys in jungle areas. The captors would cut a small hole in one end of a coconut shell, just big enough for the monkeys to fit their open hands into, and then put nuts, a favorite treat of the moneys, into the coconut shell. The captors would tie a rope to the other end of the coconut and hold it or anchor it, and wait for the monkeys to come along. The monkeys would put their hands into the hole and grab the nuts, but the hole was so small that, while their open hand would fit into the coconut, their closed fist would not fit back out through the hole. The monkeys, in their desire for the nuts, refused to open their fists, and the captors could easily walk up and capture them.
Now, first, you and I think, “Gee, it sure is silly of those monkeys to be so greedy for the nuts that they allow themselves to be captured, when all they have to do is drop the nuts and they can escape.” Simple enough, right?
Next question… Do you have a ‘fist full of nuts’ in your financial life? Something that you are holding onto so strongly, and you will not let go no matter what, that might be costing you your financial freedom? How about something like keeping up with the Joneses? How about wanting to drive a little too much vehicle for your finances? How about a little too much fun, or not quite enough hard work? How about too much house, or too much credit card spending? How about too much television time that could be used more productively in your part time business, or working some overtime, or getting a second job for a short period of time to push your finances to a new level? How about expensive habits like gambling or smoking? How about ideas regarding how to handle your finances, that, despite the fact that they have not worked for you in the past ten years, you continue to cling to, instead of learning new, better ways (you have heard the saying, ‘if you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got’)?
Truthfully, don’t almost all of us have one or more examples of ‘a fist full of nuts’ in our lives? I know of some I have been able to get rid of to a large degree (like television), some that have burned me badly (like thinking I could outsmart the market place using stock options), and I know of some I still have (like the big fancy truck I decided I deserved, and the nice house and pool I decided my family deserved). Now, some of my things, like the house and truck, I decided were earned because of the hard work and real estate investing success I enjoyed over the ten years prior to those purchases, and maybe that is completely true, and maybe it is only partly true – I can’t say for sure until the end of the story, but this I know for sure… if the monkeys would have been willing to let go of the nuts, they could have escaped. And this I know for sure… there are a lot of things that the average American holds onto tightly, that, if they were willing to let go of them for a short period of time early on, it would allow them freedom from the rat race and financial bondage for the rest of their lives.
How much sense does it make for millions and millions of Americans to drive fancy, new vehicles, live beyond their means using credit cards, and spend their whole lives struggling financially, living paycheck to paycheck, if the alternative is to drive cheaply for five or ten years early on, keep the spending under control, put all of the extra money into wise investments (or, if they adhere to Dave Ramsey, debt reduction), and then after five or ten years they could have comfortable finances and be able to drive what they want and spend what they want for the rest of their lives?
One way or another, every day with every dollar, we all vote for what happens in our lives. We decide on a fist full of nuts, followed by a lifetime of financial captivity, or we decide to make some sacrifices, so we can enjoy a future of financial freedom. Best wishes at the ballot box!!!
The way I heard it, people used this method to catch monkeys in jungle areas. The captors would cut a small hole in one end of a coconut shell, just big enough for the monkeys to fit their open hands into, and then put nuts, a favorite treat of the moneys, into the coconut shell. The captors would tie a rope to the other end of the coconut and hold it or anchor it, and wait for the monkeys to come along. The monkeys would put their hands into the hole and grab the nuts, but the hole was so small that, while their open hand would fit into the coconut, their closed fist would not fit back out through the hole. The monkeys, in their desire for the nuts, refused to open their fists, and the captors could easily walk up and capture them.
Now, first, you and I think, “Gee, it sure is silly of those monkeys to be so greedy for the nuts that they allow themselves to be captured, when all they have to do is drop the nuts and they can escape.” Simple enough, right?
Next question… Do you have a ‘fist full of nuts’ in your financial life? Something that you are holding onto so strongly, and you will not let go no matter what, that might be costing you your financial freedom? How about something like keeping up with the Joneses? How about wanting to drive a little too much vehicle for your finances? How about a little too much fun, or not quite enough hard work? How about too much house, or too much credit card spending? How about too much television time that could be used more productively in your part time business, or working some overtime, or getting a second job for a short period of time to push your finances to a new level? How about expensive habits like gambling or smoking? How about ideas regarding how to handle your finances, that, despite the fact that they have not worked for you in the past ten years, you continue to cling to, instead of learning new, better ways (you have heard the saying, ‘if you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got’)?
Truthfully, don’t almost all of us have one or more examples of ‘a fist full of nuts’ in our lives? I know of some I have been able to get rid of to a large degree (like television), some that have burned me badly (like thinking I could outsmart the market place using stock options), and I know of some I still have (like the big fancy truck I decided I deserved, and the nice house and pool I decided my family deserved). Now, some of my things, like the house and truck, I decided were earned because of the hard work and real estate investing success I enjoyed over the ten years prior to those purchases, and maybe that is completely true, and maybe it is only partly true – I can’t say for sure until the end of the story, but this I know for sure… if the monkeys would have been willing to let go of the nuts, they could have escaped. And this I know for sure… there are a lot of things that the average American holds onto tightly, that, if they were willing to let go of them for a short period of time early on, it would allow them freedom from the rat race and financial bondage for the rest of their lives.
How much sense does it make for millions and millions of Americans to drive fancy, new vehicles, live beyond their means using credit cards, and spend their whole lives struggling financially, living paycheck to paycheck, if the alternative is to drive cheaply for five or ten years early on, keep the spending under control, put all of the extra money into wise investments (or, if they adhere to Dave Ramsey, debt reduction), and then after five or ten years they could have comfortable finances and be able to drive what they want and spend what they want for the rest of their lives?
One way or another, every day with every dollar, we all vote for what happens in our lives. We decide on a fist full of nuts, followed by a lifetime of financial captivity, or we decide to make some sacrifices, so we can enjoy a future of financial freedom. Best wishes at the ballot box!!!
Successfully Start a Business, & Successfully Invest in Real Estate
In his book, ‘Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat’, Michael Masterson says that "Nothing matters more than selling." "Many first-time entrepreneurs have the impression that they are doing things in a logical order when they look for the perfect office space, have logos designed, and order a lot of inventory. The reality is they are wasting valuable resources on secondary and tertiary endeavors. If no one is going to buy what you want to sell, you've just wasted a bunch of money on a business that will never be."
Author Susanna Hutcheson, commenting on Masterson’s book, says “I see this when a client comes to me and has spent most of his small budget on Web site design and left the important thing, the sales message, for last --- just to fill in the beautiful design. They've spent their money on the least important and have no money left for the most important… I've seen this first hand in my own consulting business. Entrepreneurs tend to put their values and their money on all the wrong things --- and this leads to certain failure.”Here are Masterson’s three steps to starting a business:Step one: Get the product ready enough to sell, but don't worry about perfecting it. Step two: Sell it. Step three: If it sells, make it better.
While this all sounds fairly easy, it's not. "Selling can be terrifying," Masterson says. "It can be tough, gritty, unglamorous work. But when you make that first big sale, you realize it's also exhilarating. And like it or not, you probably won't become a successful entrepreneur until you can sell your product or service in your sleep."
Masterson also shares that you have to give far more than you expect in return to succeed. Similarly, I have read numerous times that you should give customers more value than they expect to get for the price, and I believe it.
What does all of this have to do with real estate? Two points.
First point. Several years back I talked to an investor who I saw at my Real Estate Investment Association every week for a few years. It was the first time we really spoke at length, and I asked him if he rehabbed houses. No, not yet anyhow. So rental properties is your game? No, but I wouldn’t mind doing those some time. Okay, then you wholesale houses? No, but I almost did wholesale one, and I would have made big money, too, if it worked. So now I am at a loss, and I ask him what he does do in real estate. He is still learning, and trying to figure out what will work for him. This after a few years of going to meetings every week religiously!!! [some of you are in my real estate investor association, and meetings are every other week; well, back in the day we were hard core, and met every week]
I see people all the time that buy real estate courses like they are candy. I go to free seminars and watch the same people rush to the back of the room to buy three and four different courses – any one of which would probably provide more information than they would need to get started. I see people study, read, spend time and energy learning the business, networking, and several years later they have still never made one red cent in the business. I see people with LLCs, corporations, accountants, attorneys, fancy business cards, using real estate investor terminology that I have never heard before, and they still haven’t done one deal.
I have seen people that have gone through every secondary and tertiary endeavor possible, but they never stopped to ask the most important question of all… Can I go out, locate bargain properties, and figure out a way to make money on them? At what point do you stop studying, learning, buying courses, buying sophisticated software, networking, etc., and just ask “can I make money in this business (or investment)?” [I think many who call themselves real estate investors are not investors, but are running their own small business, but we will save that for another article…]
Masterson says people starting a business need to sell, but it is hard, so they do everything else first and don’t find out until afterwards if their product or service is wanted. People interested in real estate investing find it somewhat fun and easy to learn, study, read, network, set up companies, set up offices, etc., etc., so they do those things, but they wait way too long to go out in the marketplace and find out if they are able to locate properties, negotiate bargains, and find a way to make money on them.
That leads into my second point. Personally, I believe that almost all businesses should be started on a shoestring, while you accomplish that one task… Find out if there is a market for the product or service you want to sell, and can you make money meeting the needs of that market place. If the answers are yes, then start meeting those needs, and base your expansion on your success and the level of demand for your product or service.
Real estate investing should be done in a similar manner. Personally, I did most of my studying in the early years in the library, and by picking the brains of a couple of co-workers that were successful real estate investors. I may not have spent one red cent until I bought my first property, and if I did spend some before that, it wasn’t much. The fact is, by many standards, I still run my real estate investing on a shoestring budget. I minimize all expenses, except for when it comes to giving the customer the best product I can at a reasonable price (part of my formula is to rehab houses nice, giving potential tenants and buyers more than they expect in a home in a given price range).
You might say, “Ready, Fire, Aim” (from Masterson’s title) is crazy, and you have seen some investors that rushed into crazy deals and got in over their heads. I agree with you. But don’t they still have the same issue as in my first point – they tried to buy, buy, buy, but they didn’t stop first to ask “can I go out, locate bargain properties, and figure out how to make money on them?” “Can I make money in this business?”
Anyhow, not my best article, but those were just a couple of points I noticed and wanted to drive home about how to successfully start a business, and successfully invest in real estate.
Author Susanna Hutcheson, commenting on Masterson’s book, says “I see this when a client comes to me and has spent most of his small budget on Web site design and left the important thing, the sales message, for last --- just to fill in the beautiful design. They've spent their money on the least important and have no money left for the most important… I've seen this first hand in my own consulting business. Entrepreneurs tend to put their values and their money on all the wrong things --- and this leads to certain failure.”Here are Masterson’s three steps to starting a business:Step one: Get the product ready enough to sell, but don't worry about perfecting it. Step two: Sell it. Step three: If it sells, make it better.
While this all sounds fairly easy, it's not. "Selling can be terrifying," Masterson says. "It can be tough, gritty, unglamorous work. But when you make that first big sale, you realize it's also exhilarating. And like it or not, you probably won't become a successful entrepreneur until you can sell your product or service in your sleep."
Masterson also shares that you have to give far more than you expect in return to succeed. Similarly, I have read numerous times that you should give customers more value than they expect to get for the price, and I believe it.
What does all of this have to do with real estate? Two points.
First point. Several years back I talked to an investor who I saw at my Real Estate Investment Association every week for a few years. It was the first time we really spoke at length, and I asked him if he rehabbed houses. No, not yet anyhow. So rental properties is your game? No, but I wouldn’t mind doing those some time. Okay, then you wholesale houses? No, but I almost did wholesale one, and I would have made big money, too, if it worked. So now I am at a loss, and I ask him what he does do in real estate. He is still learning, and trying to figure out what will work for him. This after a few years of going to meetings every week religiously!!! [some of you are in my real estate investor association, and meetings are every other week; well, back in the day we were hard core, and met every week]
I see people all the time that buy real estate courses like they are candy. I go to free seminars and watch the same people rush to the back of the room to buy three and four different courses – any one of which would probably provide more information than they would need to get started. I see people study, read, spend time and energy learning the business, networking, and several years later they have still never made one red cent in the business. I see people with LLCs, corporations, accountants, attorneys, fancy business cards, using real estate investor terminology that I have never heard before, and they still haven’t done one deal.
I have seen people that have gone through every secondary and tertiary endeavor possible, but they never stopped to ask the most important question of all… Can I go out, locate bargain properties, and figure out a way to make money on them? At what point do you stop studying, learning, buying courses, buying sophisticated software, networking, etc., and just ask “can I make money in this business (or investment)?” [I think many who call themselves real estate investors are not investors, but are running their own small business, but we will save that for another article…]
Masterson says people starting a business need to sell, but it is hard, so they do everything else first and don’t find out until afterwards if their product or service is wanted. People interested in real estate investing find it somewhat fun and easy to learn, study, read, network, set up companies, set up offices, etc., etc., so they do those things, but they wait way too long to go out in the marketplace and find out if they are able to locate properties, negotiate bargains, and find a way to make money on them.
That leads into my second point. Personally, I believe that almost all businesses should be started on a shoestring, while you accomplish that one task… Find out if there is a market for the product or service you want to sell, and can you make money meeting the needs of that market place. If the answers are yes, then start meeting those needs, and base your expansion on your success and the level of demand for your product or service.
Real estate investing should be done in a similar manner. Personally, I did most of my studying in the early years in the library, and by picking the brains of a couple of co-workers that were successful real estate investors. I may not have spent one red cent until I bought my first property, and if I did spend some before that, it wasn’t much. The fact is, by many standards, I still run my real estate investing on a shoestring budget. I minimize all expenses, except for when it comes to giving the customer the best product I can at a reasonable price (part of my formula is to rehab houses nice, giving potential tenants and buyers more than they expect in a home in a given price range).
You might say, “Ready, Fire, Aim” (from Masterson’s title) is crazy, and you have seen some investors that rushed into crazy deals and got in over their heads. I agree with you. But don’t they still have the same issue as in my first point – they tried to buy, buy, buy, but they didn’t stop first to ask “can I go out, locate bargain properties, and figure out how to make money on them?” “Can I make money in this business?”
Anyhow, not my best article, but those were just a couple of points I noticed and wanted to drive home about how to successfully start a business, and successfully invest in real estate.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Jim Rohn's Three Minute Movie
Jim Rohn's philosophy for successful living demonstrates a deep understanding of the world. His simple, yet insightful messages have touched millions of people, and continue to offer inspiration to generations. [their marketing message, not mine]
Click the link below (or paste it into your browser) to see his new 3-minute movie.
www.SUCCESS.com/lessons
Click the link below (or paste it into your browser) to see his new 3-minute movie.
www.SUCCESS.com/lessons
Thursday, July 3, 2008
My vacation, and a business quote for the day...
Hi everyone!
I haven't had time to write much lately... My family and I just got back from two weeks of vacation in Michigan, much of which was spent with my wife's relatives... I guess every family has a few 'quirky' members, but most of them are terrific, and we had a great time (really, we did)!
We did some boating, with tubing and water skiing, some swimming and hot tubbing, played ping pong, got to see many houses and talk to Tammy's relatives about what they have done with their houses and what they plan to do (which a house guy like me always enjoys). We spent three days in Mackinac (tourist town), where we had a jacuzzi in our suite, and an indoor water park at our hotel, where we had hours and hours of family fun. We discovered "ladderball", which is a fun game that was new to us, went to a wedding and reception, a family reunion, and much more. My six year old got to have six birthday parties, as most everyone wanted to do a small party for his July 1st birthday, plus he got a real 4-wheeler from Mom and Dad at his first party before we ever left for vacation (it will be tough for us to ever top this birthday)! We stayed busy, showed off our two amazing boys to everyone, reconnected with many, and most of the rent checks came in while we were away. One of the benefits of buy and hold real estate - earning money even while you are gone on vacation!
I am not sure how much writing I will do in the near future, either, as we are finishing upgrades on one of my rental properties now, with a rehab house waiting to follow that, and I close on another fixer-upper Tuesday of this coming week. Time to get back to basics, get out to some job sites, and start making sure things are getting done, done right, and done in a timely manner! I have been reading Frank McKinney lately, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I am fired up to get back in the field and start leading by example (aka - hard work). I don't usually do a lot of the fix up myself, but I can do some, plus the planning, some shopping, etc. (it has been a while since I got very 'hands on'). Eventually I will let you know if buy, fix up, and sell works for me in this real estate market (hopefully it will be good news - I am confident that it will be)!
Anyhow, I thought I would share a business quote for the day...
"When everyone is looking for gold, it is a good time to be in the pick and shovel business." -Mark Twain
I haven't had time to write much lately... My family and I just got back from two weeks of vacation in Michigan, much of which was spent with my wife's relatives... I guess every family has a few 'quirky' members, but most of them are terrific, and we had a great time (really, we did)!
We did some boating, with tubing and water skiing, some swimming and hot tubbing, played ping pong, got to see many houses and talk to Tammy's relatives about what they have done with their houses and what they plan to do (which a house guy like me always enjoys). We spent three days in Mackinac (tourist town), where we had a jacuzzi in our suite, and an indoor water park at our hotel, where we had hours and hours of family fun. We discovered "ladderball", which is a fun game that was new to us, went to a wedding and reception, a family reunion, and much more. My six year old got to have six birthday parties, as most everyone wanted to do a small party for his July 1st birthday, plus he got a real 4-wheeler from Mom and Dad at his first party before we ever left for vacation (it will be tough for us to ever top this birthday)! We stayed busy, showed off our two amazing boys to everyone, reconnected with many, and most of the rent checks came in while we were away. One of the benefits of buy and hold real estate - earning money even while you are gone on vacation!
I am not sure how much writing I will do in the near future, either, as we are finishing upgrades on one of my rental properties now, with a rehab house waiting to follow that, and I close on another fixer-upper Tuesday of this coming week. Time to get back to basics, get out to some job sites, and start making sure things are getting done, done right, and done in a timely manner! I have been reading Frank McKinney lately, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I am fired up to get back in the field and start leading by example (aka - hard work). I don't usually do a lot of the fix up myself, but I can do some, plus the planning, some shopping, etc. (it has been a while since I got very 'hands on'). Eventually I will let you know if buy, fix up, and sell works for me in this real estate market (hopefully it will be good news - I am confident that it will be)!
Anyhow, I thought I would share a business quote for the day...
"When everyone is looking for gold, it is a good time to be in the pick and shovel business." -Mark Twain
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