Friday, March 30, 2012

How to Get Rich - Learn From The Best

Do you think the world's wealthiest individuals did it all by themselves without the guidance of others ?

Many have admitted the fact that they have gained their inspiration and guidance from others that have been successful in their lives. They have then patterned their lives around these individuals teachings.

Today, the average individual has such a great opportunity to gain knowledge through the internet age. Previous generations had to look a  lot further and dig far deeper to find the information that was needed for them. It used to be a very discouraging task which led many to give up trying.

What To Do


You now have the opportunity to simply Google the type of information you want. You can sort through search results and research the most promising leads in a matter of minutes.You should filter out the ones that look too good to be true and focus on the ones that have a proven track record.

There is a lot of  free information on the internet but not all of it is good. You must check the quality of the source before ever following their advice. Check out your teacher before ever getting involved with their recommendation. If you find it hard getting information on a person, take this as a sign that they may not be
sincere.

Good quality mentors will always publish their credentials. They will never try to hide behind fake testimonials and other deceiving methods. ( Yes, many testimonials on internet sites and emails are from paid actors, not actual satisfied customers )

Explore This Site


I invite you to start your search on this site and explore all of my previous postings. This information is provided free of charge and is offered for your education, not to prompt you to buy a product. You can check my credentials on the about us page.

Find Your Mentor


I am not about to recommend anyone in particular for you to follow, including myself. I want you to be able to make that decision on your own based on the research you can gather.

The most important thing to remember when looking for your mentor is to find someone that has already done what it is you want to do. You can then follow these mentors with enthusiasm and be able to trust what it is they have to say.

A true mentor will always be in it for the follower first. After all, they are already wealthy and don't really need the extra income to survive and prosper.

As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions for future topics.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

How to Get Rich - Avoid Fear and Greed

Are you afraid to make a change that will effect your future ?

Do you expect to become wealthy without working for it ?

If you answered YES to either of the above questions, chances are you will never become truly wealthy.

Conquer Your Fears


The first step to taking on any new venture is to conquer your fears. You will never be successful at anything if you are too afraid to take that first step. To conquer your fears you must first learn all that you possibly can about what you are planning to do. Learn from those who have done what you want to do. Follow in their footsteps and avoid the mistakes they made before they were successful.

Fear will keep you frozen in place just as the deer in the headlights on the highway. You all know what happens to that deer.

Control Your Greed


We all want to get rich now, not later. Look at all the programs that are trying to sell you on the fact that you can get rich fast. Sure it can happen, but not that likely for the average individual with moral values.

These programs play on the Greed Factor. They will take your money before you have a chance to start building your wealth. They can become an addiction when you keep trying this one and  that one. Don't fall prey to their high pressure marketing. Remember, they are the ones who are becoming wealthy on your greed.

Fear and Greed in the Stock Market

Fear and Greed are two major factors that drive the daily fluctuations of the stock markets around the world. Many investors are not properly trained and will sell when the market is declining because of their fear of losing money. These same investors will buy when prices are rising and near the top of their cycles because of their greed towards making money fast.

These untrained investors will more often that not lose their money simply because they cannot control their emotions of fear and greed. They buy at the wrong times and they sell at the wrong times. It is because of the herd mentality fueled by the media and stock analysts. Remember, the media makes money by selling stories and the analysts and brokers make money by buying and selling as many shares as they can.

What To Do


Control your emotions of fear and greed and do not let them make your investment decisions for you. Develop your own investment plan and stick to it. Know ahead of time when you are going to buy and when you are going to sell. Be realistic about how much you expect to make from an investment and do not be afraid to take small losses from time to time. We all make mistakes, it is part of the learning experience.

By avoiding the powerful emotions of fear and greed, you will truly be well positioned to take your place with the well educated and experiences successful investors of the world.

As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions for future topics.

Friday, March 23, 2012

How to Start Saving Money - Have a Look at Your Future

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to see into your future ?

Unless you are a fortune teller or have a magical crystal ball in your closet, chances are you will not be able to actually see into your future. Why not then do the very next best thing. Visualize the future you would like to have.

Imagine


Yes, imagine being in a place you want to be and having everything you want to have. This is a fun exercise that everyone should try. It won't cost you anything except a little bit of your time.

Write down everything you would like to have in your life right now. Also write down where you would like to be spending most of your time right now. Now write down all of the activities you would like to be doing right now.

These three lists now represent your future life that you would like to have according to your current state of mind. Of course these lists could change in the future, but for now let's start with what you want right now.

Focus


The next step is to focus on the most important and realistic thing you would like to have right now. Make it your number one reason for being alive today.

Cut out pictures of the thing, place, or activity that is now your focus. Put these pictures in a place where you will see them everyday, when you wake up in the morning, before you go to bed at night, etc.

Keep this focus in front of you all the time up until the time you actually acquire the thing, place or activity. Once you achieve this goal, repeat the process with your next most important thing, place or activity on your list, etc etc

Develop Your Plan


Of course, to reach these goals you will need a plan of action. I suggest that you reread my previous post "How to Start Saving Money - Time for the B Word" to see how you can develop your personalized plan of action.

Without a well developed plan that you take action on, it will be next to impossible to get what you truly want out of life. Don't count on winning a lottery or inheriting a fortune. For most of us this will never happen.

Start Now


Don't say you'll do this stuff later. Do it Now! The longer you delay starting, the longer it will be until you can actually realize your future life that you want to have today. You owe it to your future self and whoever else you want to share your life with. What can possibly be more important than that!

As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions for future topics.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

How to Deal With Debt - Make it Work For You

Debt is a very ugly and scary word for many individuals.

As mentioned in a previous post, there is good debt, bad debt and really ugly debt. Review my previous post "How to Deal with Debt- - The Good The Bad and the Ugly" to refresh your memory.

This post will concentrate on the Good Debt, the debt that can be used to help accelerate your building of wealth.

Good Debt


My definition of Good Debt is simply a form of debt that allows you to deduct the interest on your income tax. Most commonly this is debt that is used in order to purchase an investment that earns you an income.

Some jurisdictions allow you to deduct the interest on your mortgage for your principle residence. This is still good debt, but not as good as debt used for investment purposes, because it discourages you from building equity in your principle residence.

Building Good Debt


The first step for most individuals is to pay off all debt that you cannot use as a deduction on your income tax. Next would be to pay off the mortgage on your principal residence.

Once all the above debt is taken care of, now is the time to start accelerating your wealth using other peoples money (good debt). Once all other debt is retired, open yourself a line of credit at your bank or credit union. To keep your interest rate low, you can secure your line of credit with your principal residence ( once your mortgage is paid for ). This is by far the best option.

Now you can borrow money on your line of credit to purchase investments that will pay you an income. Examples of investments are high yielding stocks, royalty trusts, real estate investment trusts (REIT's), individual revenue properties, etc.

The key here is to ensure that the net income from your investment after taxes will be more than the interest costs on your debt after taxes. The income from your investment can then be used to pay your interest costs as well as to pay down a portion of the debt itself. You will essentially be using other peoples money to increase your own net worth.

What the Wealthy Do

Many wealthy individuals use the above strategy to propel their wealth. The above strategy is called financial leverage. It allows you to use good debt to accelerate the rate of growth in your assets.

A Word of Caution 


It should be noted that this strategy is not the starting point for building wealth. This is a strategy that should only be used once you have a regular savings and investment plan in place using your own income. You should already be in a comfortable financial position and not be worried about paying your everyday expenses. This includes having an adequate emergency reserve and proper insurance in place.

As in all investments, there is always a potential for loss. You should only be considering this strategy if you have the financial cushion to absorb any potential losses.

As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions for future topics.

Friday, March 16, 2012

How to Get Rich - Get Paid As Often as You Can

When you work for an employer, how often do you get paid ?

Most of us would say every two weeks. Some would say twice per month. Which of these two payment options would be the best for you ?

Yes, once every two weeks is better. This is because you have your money sooner and can spend it on whatever you need to or want to much sooner. If you have a regular savings plan you would be depositing funds more often (two more deposit per year actually) which will grow your savings at a faster rate.

Why Does This Matter


The same principle should be used when choosing your income investments. Given two equal quality investments, choose the one that pays out income more frequently. As long as this income is reinvested right away, you will make more money in the long term. This is called compounding and the more often your money is paid out and reinvested the better.

To illustrate this, go to the tools page on this site and type in a savings plan. Now, change the frequency of the compounding and see what happens. The longer the savings term you select the more difference the compounding frequency makes. It really is magic.

There are many investments that pay out a regular income. The most common payment frequencies are once per year, once every three months  (or quarterly), and once per month. I prefer to find investments that pay income monthly. There are a couple of additional reasons (other than the power of compounding) why this is a good idea.

Other Good Reasons

One of the most rewarding principles of investing is to watch your money grow. By seeing the monthly income  flowing into your account every month gives a visual representation and a very positive feeling about your investment. If you have to wait for three months or even a year to see the income, the feeling is just not the same.

The other reason is that you will have more flexibility with your investment decisions.

Let's say something goes wrong with one of you investments and you wish to sell. Because you are investing mostly for income, you will want to make sure you get paid before you sell your shares. If you are being paid monthly, you will already have more of the income in your pocket so to speak. You don't have to worry so much about loosing the income as it will only be for a maximum of one month.

In contrast, with an investment that pays out once per quarter, you could lose up to three months of income.This could be quite damaging to your income flow and would be a bigger setback to your future wealth building.

One More Good Reason


Having your income paid monthly will also give you more opportunities to take advantage of good buying opportunities This could be for additional shares in your existing investments or other new investments that happen to be at a good price to buy.

In general, the more often you have cash to work with the more often you will be able to make investment decisions.

As you can see, there are many good reasons to getting paid as often as you can.

As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions for future topics.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

How to Get Rich - Never Stop Learning

Would you like to know everything there is to know about investing and the world of finance?

Of course you would. We all would. But in reality, you will never know everything there is to know.

The reason, of course, is that in the world of investing, things are constantly changing. What worked last year, last month or even last week, may not work this week.

You therefore, must be constantly updating your knowledge with new trends and ideas. In essence, to become truly wealthy, you must never stop learning.

 Open Your Mind


A person who is open minded about new ideas and concepts will usually do much better than the person who thinks they know everything. The mister know it alls of the world, aside from being very boring to talk to, do not usually do as well as the open minded individuals. The reason being they are not open to new ideas and concepts. They become trapped in their own delusion that they know best.

No one person can possibly know everything there is to know about anything. Think about it. If they did, especially in the investment world, they would own everything.

Create a Learning Attitude


The way to open your mind is to develop a learning attitude. Be humble and never accept things as they are. Always challenge what you have done in the past and look for ways to improve.

Learn from your past mistakes in order to not repeat them in the future. We all make mistakes and you have to accept that as part of the learning curve.

Anticipate the Future

Just like no one can possibly know everything, no one can possibly know the future. However, we can develop ways to anticipate the future by studying the past. Many things move in cycles and history has a tendency to repeat itself. By forecasting what you think should happen given the past trends, you can very often be positioned to do very well in selected investments. Be there before the crowd so to speak.

The more experience you get at something, the better you will become at anticipating the future cycles that have not yet happened.

Above all else, no matter how well you are doing, never start thinking that you know it all and there is nothing left to learn. If you do, you will soon be proven wrong. It is only a matter of time.

As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions for future topics.

Friday, March 9, 2012

How to Get Rich - Are You Smart Enough

Do you think you are smart enough to get rich ?

I have seen individuals who feel that getting rich takes a lot of smarts. They feel that you must have an I Q
above a certain level for instance. They feel that financial topics are very complicated and impossible for the average individual to thoroughly understand.

It is true that our financial industries have developed products and services that have become quite confusing to understand on your own. You are therefore told that you should use the services of one of their financial advisers. This is the only way to sort through the muddle and find the best solutions for you.

Totally Not True


If you are able to read through and understand all of the principles in this blog site, then you are truly smart enough to get rich. Getting rich takes a general understanding of all the necessary components along with the desire to reach your predetermined goals. Aside from that, it takes one other very important ingredient. ACTION.

Without action and the desire to reach your goals, you will never become rich. You can be the smartest person in the world and get the highest grades at school and still not become rich. In fact many of the richest people alive today didn't even finish college. This pretty much proves the point.

Your burning desire to reach your goals will enable you to find ways to be successful at whatever you do to achieve the results you desire. This will drive you to learn new ways and to better understand what you need to do to achieve your goals.

The Answer is Yes

Your answer to the above question . YES. You are smart enough to get rich.

If you have been able to read this far without clicking to another site, you are definitely smart enough to get rich.

What Now

To get rich, you must first learn as much as you can from other people who have become rich themselves. Don't listen exclusively to the advise of most financial advisers, because many of them are not rich. How can they possibly teach you something they don't know themselves. Instead, develop your own plan based on the sum of all the verified advise you can gather.Do your homework and be in control.

Next, you must develop a burning desire to reach your goals. Know what being rich means for you. Then develop your necessary steps to getting there.

Finally, take action. Do whatever it takes to reach your first step, then the next one, next one, etc. Pretty soon you'll be well on your way to getting rich.

As you can now see, there are other things that are a lot more important than being really smart, when it comes to getting rich.

As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions for future topics.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

How to Start Saving - Take Time for the B Stuff

The B Stuff ! Budgeting that is. The most important part of any financial plan.

Without a budget, or guideline, nothing can be done in order to create wealth and ensure financial freedom.

It takes time to initially develop a budget as previously described in my post entitled " How to Start Saving - Time for the B Word " If needed, review this previous posting before proceeding.

Take Time


Time is a commodity we only have so much of. We often find ourselves short of time and always in a hurry to maintain our everyday lives. There is so much to do with such little time to do it. Sound familiar ?

When it comes to your finances, take the time to book an appointment with yourself (and your partner if applicable). Book an appointment and call it a "Financial Review" . Allow for a full hour.

At first, you may want to book an appointment once per week. This will enable you to review your budget and see how you have done during the week. It is also a good time to discuss any challenges that you may have faced during the week and how you plan to overcome them.

After a while, once your finances are running smoothly, you may find you only need to meet once every two weeks or even just once a month. This will depend on how well you are doing at controlling your urges and at solving your challenges. Everyone will be different.

Monitor your B 


With a properly designed and executed budget plan, you will find that from time to time amounts will need to be adjusted to compensate for increased income and/or goals that have been achieved. Constant monitoring and adjustment of your budget will ensure the most efficient use of your time and your financial resources.

Without a constant review and adjustment process, you may find your budget too hard to control. Much like a successfully run business, you must maintain control to ensure the best results.

It is wise to treat your personal finances as a business. It is actually, the business of your life and of your dreams and ambitions. What can be more important than that ?

Time For Yourself


Take all the time you need for yourself and your personal finances. No two individuals will be the same in the amount of time they will need. This is indeed a very personal time and should always be high on your list of priorities when developing your schedule.

After all, what is more important to you than your dreams and desires ? I can't think of anything that should be.

As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions for future topics.

Friday, March 2, 2012

How to Get Rich - Toss the Comforts

Many people go through life being comfortable. They don't want to step outside their so called comfort zone to take a chance on improving their position.

I suppose it's human nature that we all take the path of least resistance in everything we do. We don't like confrontation or others challenging our way of life. We have a tendency to go with the flow so to speak.

Toss the Comforts


In order to truly get what you want out of life, you have to sometimes step outside of your so called comfort zone and take a chance.This is true in many aspects of our lives including relationships, social networking, etc.

The building of true wealth is no exception to this rule. We must go beyond what is familiar to us and learn new ways to increase our wealth. To boldly go where no one we know has gone before.

I realize it is not as scary as space exploration for instance, however, it is still scary in a sense that it is new to us and we are unsure of the outcome. To take a chance and step beyond others we know truly takes courage.

Above the Crowd


To step above the crowd and learn new ways to prosper is truly the way to financial freedom. The old saying, no risk, no gain, is truly where it's at when it comes to investing. To stay in your comfort zone and not learn new ways is a path to being average. Being average is ok for many, but not if you truly want to experience total financial freedom.

What To Do


Think about what you are doing right now to better yourself financially. Hopefully, there are a few areas you are working on. If not, now's the time to start. It's never too late to start on the road to building your financial future.

Listen to the advice of others who have done what you want to do. Learn as much as you can about the areas you want to explore before taking the plunge. Don't be afraid of making a few mistakes along the way. We can learn valuable lessons from our own mistakes and those of others.

Remember, to truly gain financial freedom we must step beyond our comfort zone and embrace new opportunities as they are presented to us.

As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions for future topics.