Keys to Financial Freedom - Education, Personality Development

Eight steps to financial freedom

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Sat, 10 May 2014 02:00:00 +0000

LIZ KOH
Article from http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money
Posted on Last updated 08:15 05/05/2014

There are two paths to wealth creation - one based on using your own financial resources and the other based on borrowing money to invest.

It is not a good idea to borrow money to invest until such time as you have mastered the art of creating wealth with your own financial resources.

After all, if you can't manage your own money properly, how can you manage someone else's? There is a very simple formula for creating wealth using your own financial resources. Whether you are a risk-taking entrepreneur or a would-be saver, this simple formula applies to you. It comprises eight steps which are not necessarily taken one after the other.

The order of the steps represents their priority and the emphasis that should be given to them when planning how to use surplus cash.

1: Spend less than you earn

Spending less than you earn is all about creating a surplus which is then applied to Steps Two to Eight. The bigger the surplus, the more wealth you are likely to create. Unfortunately, the first step is where most people stumble. Once you've cracked it, the rest is relatively easy. Spending less than you earn is a matter of mindset. The easiest way to do it is to use the "pay yourself first" principle and set aside money each payday into a savings account by automatic transfer.

2: Join KiwiSaver

Your first priority with the surplus cash created in Step One is to join KiwiSaver or another subsidised superannuation scheme, if you have not already done so. Employer subsidies and tax credits mean that you will achieve a high rate of return on your money with a high level of certainty.

3: Pay off short-term debt

Paying off debt gives a tax-paid rate of return on your money which is the equivalent of the rate of interest on the debt. The higher the rate of the interest, the better off you will be by getting rid of the debt.

If you have several debts there are two schools of thought as to how they should be paid off.

Strictly speaking, you should start with the debt with the highest interest rate, but the alternative view is to start with the smallest debt so as to quickly get a feeling of success.

4: Set up an emergency fund

The best way to avoid getting into debt is to set up an emergency fund to cover unexpected loss of income through illness or job loss, or unexpected expenses such as car repairs, whiteware replacement or medical and dental bills. This should ideally be the equivalent of around three months' living expenses. If you have a mortgage, you may be able to use an offset arrangement with your bank whereby the amount of your savings is offset against your mortgage for interest calculation purposes.

5: Buy at least one house

By the time you retire, you will be financially better off if you have a mortgage-free home to live in. The sooner you can achieve this goal the better. If you are not ready to settle down in one place yet, or can't afford to buy in the area where you want to live, then consider buying a house that you rent to someone else.

6: Pay off your mortgage

Paying off your mortgage gives you a guaranteed, tax-paid rate of return on your "investment" equivalent to the rate of interest on your mortgage. If you have surplus cash of your own, it makes sense to place a higher priority on paying off your mortgage than on using this cash to set up an investment portfolio for which the returns carry risk, unless of course you are investing in KiwiSaver or a subsidised superannuation scheme.

7: Set up a savings and investment portfolio

Saving for your retirement should become a priority once your mortgage is paid off. However, not all of your saving and investing should be focused on these two objectives or you may have a very boring life!

Have two streams of saving; one for retirement and one for your shorter-term goals such as travel or home renovations. Working out how much you will need for your retirement will help you achieve balance between the two.

8: Protect your wealth

It is easy to overlook the risk of losing the wealth you have created. Risks include loss of income through illness, loss of assets through disasters such as fire or theft, relationship property claims and business failures, to name a few. Insurance brokers and solicitors can help you identify the risks you face and give you options for dealing with them.

Creating wealth takes time and it doesn't always happen smoothly. Life goes in cycles and your wealth may well ebb and flow over time as your circumstances change. The most important things to remember are to find ways to create surplus cash.

Liz Koh is an authorised financial adviser and author of Your Money Personality; Unlock the Secret to a Rich and Happy Life, Awa Press, 2008. The advice given here is general and does not constitute specific advice to any person. A disclosure statement can be obtained free by calling 0800 273 847.

LIZ KOH
Article from http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money
Posted on Last updated 08:15 05/05/2014

Seven Secrets of Self-Made Multimillionaires

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Sat, 03 May 2014 03:08:00 +0000

BY Grant Cardone | February 2, 2012
Posted from http://www.entrepreneur.com/

First, understand that you no longer want to be just a millionaire. You want to become a multimillionaire.

While you may think a million dollars will give you financial security, it will not. Given the volatility in economies, governments and financial markets around the world, it's no longer safe to assume a million dollars will provide you and your family with true security. In fact, a Fidelity Investments' study of millionaires last year found that 42 percent of them don't feel wealthy and they would need $7.5 million of investable assets to start feeling rich.

This isn't a how-to on the accumulation of wealth from a lifetime of saving and pinching pennies. This is about generating multimillion-dollar wealth and enjoying it during the creation process. To get started, consider these seven secrets of multimillionaires.

No. 1: Decide to Be a Multimillionaire -- You first have to decide you want to be a self-made millionaire. I went from nothing—no money, just ideas and a lot of hard work—to create a net worth that probably cannot be destroyed in my lifetime. The first step was making a decision and setting a target. Every day for years, I wrote down this statement: "I am worth over $100,000,000!"

Related: Seven Rules for Coping with Sales Rejection

No. 2: Get Rid of Poverty Thinking -- There's no shortage of money on planet Earth, only a shortage of people who think correctly about it. To become a millionaire from scratch, you must end the poverty thinking. I know because I had to. I was raised by a single mother who did everything possible to put three boys through school and make ends meets. Many of the lessons she taught me encouraged a sense of scarcity and fear: "Eat all your food; there are people starving," "Don't waste anything," "Money doesn't grow on trees." Real wealth and abundance aren't created from such thinking.

No. 3: Treat it Like a Duty -- Self-made multimillionaires are motivated not just by money, but by a need for the marketplace to validate their contributions. While I have always wanted wealth, I was driven more by my need to contribute consistent with my potential. Multimillionaires don't lower their targets when things get tough. Rather, they raise expectations for themselves because they see the difference they can make with their families, company, community and charities.

Related Video: Grant Cardone on Closing the Sale

No. 4: Surround Yourself with Multimillionaires -- I have been studying wealthy people since I was 10 years old. I read their stories and see what they went through. These are my mentors and teachers who inspire me. You can't learn how to make money from someone who doesn't have much. Who says, "Money won't make you happy"? People without money. Who says, "All rich people are greedy"? People who aren't rich. Wealthy people don't talk like that. You need to know what people are doing to create wealth and follow their example: What do they read? How do they invest? What drives them? How do they stay motivated and excited?

No. 5: Work Like a Millionaire -- Rich people treat time differently. They buy it, while poor people sell it. The wealthy know time is more valuable than money itself, so they hire people for things they're not good at or aren't a productive use of their time, such as household chores. But don't kid yourself that those who hit it big don't work hard. Financially successful people are consumed by their hunt for success and work to the point that they feel they are winning and not just working.

Related: How to Conquer Your Sales Fears

No. 6: Shift Focus from Spending to Investing -- The rich don't spend money; they invest. They know the U.S. tax laws favor investing over spending. You buy a house and can't write it off. The rich, in contrast, buy an apartment building that produces cash flow, appreciates and offers write-offs year after year. You buy cars for comfort and style. The rich buy cars for their company that are deductible because they are used to produce revenue.

No. 7: Create Multiple Flows of Income -- The really rich never depend on one flow of income but instead create a number of revenue streams. My first business had been generating a seven-figure income for years when I started investing cash in multifamily real estate. Once my real estate and my consulting business were churning, I went into a third business developing software to help retailers improve the customer experience.

Lastly, you may be surprised to learn that wealthy people wish you were wealthy, too. It's a mystery to them why others don't get rich. They know they aren't special and that wealth is available to anyone who wants to focus and persist. Rich people want others to be rich for two reasons: first, so you can buy their products and services, and second, because they want to hang out with other rich people. Get rich -- it's American.

Grant Cardone | February 2, 2012
Posted from http://www.entrepreneur.com/

12 mental tricks to make you save more, spend less

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 08:22:00 +0000

From https://ph.she.yahoo.com/photos/12-mental-tricks-to-make-you-save-more-spend-less-slideshow/

In theory, getting richer is a simple calculation: earn more, spend less. But in practice, it's harder than it sounds. In the moment, most of us would rather have that Rs 1000 brunch special than increase our retirement contributions by 1%. To combat the weakness so many of us feel when it comes to saving money, we've rounded up over a dozen awesome mind tricks that could help keep cash in your pocket for another day.

1. Think of your savings in terms of how many "weeks of freedom" they buy. David Weliver from Money Under 30 writes that by estimating how much money you need to live for a year and then breaking that sum into weeks by dividing it by 52, you'll end up with a much more tangible, urgent goal to save toward instead of an abstractly enormous sum: weeks of freedom. "That’s time to find a new job if you get laid off, time to travel around if you take a sabbatical, or the beginning of retirement — that time when you're finally free to do whatever the hell you please," he writes. "The good news is, thanks to compounding interest, the more you save, the less you have to save to buy an incremental week of freedom." 

2. Don't give things up — "savor" them instead. Giving up something to save money, whether lunch out or cable, can make you feel deprived. That is, unless you change your attitude to start "savoring" instead of "giving up." "Don't feel you have to change your lifestyle; merely change the frequency of your indulgences," writes Reddit user stringliterals. Go to the movies weekly? Try once a month instead. "It's psychologically much easier to tell yourself you're not giving anything up, you're just going to savor [it] more."

3. Engage the "gas or brake method." Financial blog Early Retirement Extreme compared making progress on your financial goals to driving. Every decision you make either gets you closer to where you want to be (stepping on the gas) or slows you down (leaning on the brake). The next time you go to make a decision, ask yourself: Am I stepping on the gas or the brake?

4. Remember that when you aren't earning, you're spending. Reddit user seerae looks at hours he isn't earning money as hours he's spending that money instead. "When I used to work a service industry job... I used to get called in or asked to cover shifts all the time," he writes. "Of course I'd rather spend the morning sleeping in and then watching some TV, or go hiking in the afternoon, or grab some dinner with friends that evening. But, then I'd think, am I really going to spend $150 to sleep in and watch TV?" The feeling of losing money is a lot more painful than missing it — and seerae says that agreeing to work was "totally worth it every time."

5. Practice the "stranger test." When deciding whether or not to make a purchase, imagine a stranger offering you your would-be purchase in one hand and the cash it would take to buy it in the other. If you'd rather accept the cash, you might as well keep that money in your pocket.

6. Spend your money where you spend your time. Reddit user GreyFoxNinjaFan points out some advice he heard on Reddit: "Spend your money where you spend your time. If you spend a lot of time on your feet, invest in decent, comfortable shoes regardless of the extra cost," he writes. "If you drive a long way quite regularly, spend money on the inside of the car and how it feels to [drive] the car over how it looks. When you start thinking like that, you also start to notice the superficial stuff you overspend on." 

7. Use the "urgency test" when shopping. J Money from Budgets Are Sexy has a trick that comes in handy when shopping — particularly, for clothes. If you're wavering on a purchase, ask yourself, "Would I wear this out of the dressing room right now?" If you aren't excited enough to wear it right then, don't bother buying it. 

8. Procrastinate on non-essential purchases. When it comes to discretionary spending (except for important moves for financial security, like saving for retirement), A. Noonan Moose from Frugal Fringe recommends putting off your purchase to give yourself time to find better prices and make better decisions. We highlighted a few of our favorite examples here. 

9. Never spend loose change. Make it a hard-and-fast mental rule, suggests blog And Then We Saved, and instead consolidate those unspent coins every night until you have a small pile of savings to bring to the bank. And even if you don't use cash, she writes, "some banks will round your purchases to the nearest dollar and deposit that money into a savings account. If your bank doesn't offer that service, you can easily add up the change on your purchases and move that change to a separate account. Doing the math yourself is a little less magical, but it works." 

10. Cover your credit card to create a mental — and physical — barrier. Break out those craft skills. If you're prone to impulse spending on your credit card (and who isn't?), Lifehacker recommends creating a simple paper sleeve for your card. Not only does it give you another mental step to climb before you can spend — and another chance to second-guess yourself and put on the brakes — but on the sleeve, you can paste or draw a picture of your savings goals to keep them top of mind, or pen a warning to yourself: "For emergency use only!" 

11. Don't hesitate to say "no." Jackie of Money Crush points out that we're thinking about "no" all wrong. Instead of being reluctant to turn down a purchase, pass up an expensive opportunity, or closely manage your budget, remember that refusal gives you power: For one thing, it gives us serious negotiating clout. And for another, she explains, saying "no" to the things that don't really matter allows us to focus on the things that do. 

12. "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." It's up to you if you want this slogan on a poster, but Reddit user AnnabellBeaverhausen suggests using it when struggling to be frugal. Before spending on something new to supplement or replace something you already own, look at what you currently use with a critical eye: Can you use it up, wear it out, make it work, or simply go without it until you have more cash?   

From https://ph.she.yahoo.com/photos/12-mental-tricks-to-make-you-save-more-spend-less-slideshow/

4 Steps to Start Building Financial Freedom Today

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 05:00:00 +0000

By Dave Koppenheffer
Posted from http://www.fool.com
April 5, 2014

There's a difference between financial freedom and wealth. Tony Robbins, the famed motivational speaker and life coach, suggested wealth is an emotion, we can all feel wealthy, while financial freedom means having a money machine.

Not a literal money machine, but having your investments earn enough to live on, which is probably more spectacular. To achieve such an incredible feat Robbins actually laid out a step by step plan.

Step one

The entire program hinges on our ability to accomplish this one goal. You have to spend less than you earn. While this isn't groundbreaking, if we're going to start building up a portfolio of investments we're going to need something to invest. From there it's a matter of what to invest in. Robbins suggested there are three buckets that should be filled in order: security, growth, and dream.

Security bucket

It's not sexy, but the first thing every investor needs to do is build a safety net. According to Robbins, enough to support your expenses for two to six months minimum. The closer you are to retirement, the bigger the security bucket should be.

The first chunk will go into your plain vanilla bank savings account. For most banks, this will yield less than 1% per year, but it's as liquid, or accessible, as you'll find. And the place you'll draw from when unexpected expenses rear their ugly head.

Bonds are good options for the rest of your safety net. Though, with volatility and historically low yields plaguing the market, there are better options. The first is using CDs, or certificates of deposit, which is a time deposit. You agree not to touch the money for a specified time, and in return you'll receive a higher interest rate.

Discover and Ally, in particular, have some of the best rates. I would suggest spreading your money across six-month, eighteen-month, and three-year CDs. This will avoid having your money tied up for too long, but still taking advantage of the best rates.

The second option is even simpler, and that's to set up a savings account with Bank of the Internet. It's insured by the FDIC making it just as safe as any other bank. The big difference is instead of yielding approximately .05% on savings accounts, a Bank of the Internet account will return .61%. Seemingly insignificant in the short-term, but as money compounds over time it can make a substantial difference.

Growth bucket

After you nail down your safety net it's on to the "steady as she goes" investments. If you feel more comfortable with funds, I suggest the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (NYSEMKT: VTI ) (NYSEMKT: VTI ) (NYSEMKT: VTI ) . It has rock-bottom fees, it'll give you extreme diversification, and steady returns over the long-haul.

There are plenty of other great choices, but I would encourage investors to explore Exchange Traded Funds, or ETFs. Because they are not actively managed, there are much lower fees -- which can help avoid thousands in compounding costs over time.

If you enjoy researching companies, however, individual stocks are a fantastic alternative. Though, I would still recommend playing it fairly close to the chest with a few like Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG ) (NYSE: PG ) (NYSE: PG ) (NYSE: PG ) (NYSE: PG ) . The consumer goods giant earns about 90% of its profits from 50 of the most recognizable house hold products on the planet. It's not going to wow anyone with growth, but it's a company that can weather a storm, and best of all it yields a 3% dividend, which has been steadily growing.

Your growth bucket will vary in size, again, based on your retirement timeline and tolerance for risk. With that said, the old adage is put a percentage next to your age and invest the remainder in the stock market. So, a 40-year old would have a minimum of 60% in the stock market.

Dream bucket

You set aside money in case of an emergency, and you've built up a sizable portfolio of stable stock market investments. Now it's time for some real fun. I don't know if Robbins and I have the same idea of what a "dream" fund should be. For an investor, though, the dream is to find stocks with massive growth potential.

This isn't exclusive to seasoned investors. Legendary investor Peter Lynch believed, as I do, that anyone can spot great businesses. Think about the products you use, the stores you shop, and the car you drive, there are potential investing opportunities everywhere.

Because growth stocks are inherently risky, they should almost always make up the smallest percentage of your portfolio. With that said, if you have a safety net, and a portion of your portfolio in stock market funds or steady businesses, you've earned it. So, don't be afraid to dream big and swing for the fences.

9 rock-solid dividend stocks you can buy today

One of the dirty secrets that few finance professionals will openly admit is the fact that dividend stocks as a group handily outperform their non-dividend paying brethren. The reasons for this are too numerous to list here, but you can rest assured that it’s true. However, knowing this is only half the battle. The other half is identifying which dividend stocks in particular are the best. With this in mind, our top analysts put together a free list of nine high-yielding stocks that should be in every income investor’s portfolio.

R.I.P. Internet -- 1969-2014

At only 45 years old... the Internet will be laid to rest in 2014. And Silicon Valley is thrilled. Because they know... The Economist believes the death of the Internet "will be transformative." In fact, the CEO of Cisco Systems -- one of the largest tech companies on the planet -- says somebody's going to bank "14.4 trillion in profit from one concept alone."

Dave Koppenheffer

Posted from http://www.fool.com

11 steps to financial freedom

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Thu, 23 May 2013 04:03:00 +0000

Want a new car? A bigger house? An earlier retirement? Make your own financial plan right here, in 11 easy steps.

By Julie Cazzin | From MoneySense Magazine, September/October 2011

Article from http://www.moneysense.ca/

I learned everything I know about money from my dad. Even though he had little formal education, he understood how money works, how to get it and how to make it grow. One moment stands out in my memory: it was a Sunday afternoon when I had just turned 12. Dad took his tan leather briefcase down from the top shelf of his bedroom closet, pulled out his notebook and preceded to show me how to create what I now know was his personal financial plan.

That afternoon, at our kitchen table, he showed me how saving can earn you money through compounded interest, and how owing money can bury you in debt. His message? If you have a financial plan, you have choices—and having choices and setting goals is what leading a successful and satisfying life is all about.

My dad’s personal financial plan was his road map, helping him navigate to his dreams. And the roads to those dreams were built on details. For instance, dad always knew exactly what his take-home pay was, how much the family spent every week on groceries and gas, and how much he needed to save each month to pay off his mortgage in 10 years—his main financial focus when I was growing up.

His plan wasn’t just about counting pennies though, it also allowed him to plan for luxuries—and pay for them in cash. That’s why there was a special column in his plan for $50 in weekly savings towards a family trip to Italy. He had a system he believed in, and made sure the household finances were managed effectively.

These days, most people I know don’t have a financial plan. We spend a lot of time planning for other aspects of our lives, such as our careers, marriages and having kids, but many of us fail to build a plan to achieve our financial goals.

If you would like to stop wondering about whether you’ll ever realize your financial goals, and build a plan to actually reach them, I can help. Read on and I’ll not only show you how to build a proper financial plan, I’ll take you through each step, complete with worksheets and a blank financial plan template that you can fill in at the end. Follow my simple instructions and in no time at all, you’ll have the peace of mind that comes with a professional-quality personal financial plan—without having to pay a financial planner a dime.

1. Talk to your spouse

Most couples never talk to each other about their financial goals. If you’re in a relationship, before you roll up your sleeves and dig into the numbers, talk to your spouse about what you want to accomplish. “Have a brief conversation about goals, values, and what kind of lifestyle you want,” says Karin Mizgala, chief executive officer of Money Coaches Canada, a national network of fee-only financial experts based in Vancouver. “That’s key to a good start.”

Action step #1: Click here to find 10 worksheets in the “MoneySense financial plan kit.” There is a PDF version of each worksheet that you can download and print out if you want to fill in the sheets with a pencil or pen. There is also a Microsoft Word version you can fill out on your computer. Print out “Worksheet 1-Prioritize your goals” for this step. You and your spouse should fill this sheet out separately, then compare the results when you’re done.

2. Figure out where you’re at

Before you start worrying about where you want to go, you first have to figure out where you are now. In this step you’ll create a net worth statement, which is essentially an honest measure of your current wealth. You do this by tallying up the value of what you own (your assets) and what you owe (your liabilities). When you subtract your liabilities from your assets, you get a number that represents your net worth. Your net worth statement is an important tool that charts your financial progress over the years. For instance, if your net worth is going down, you’re eroding your wealth and making it harder to achieve your goals. If it’s increasing, you’re on your way to getting richer and achieving your financial goals.

Action step #2: Determine your net worth. Print out “Worksheet 2-Gather your documents.” It’s a checklist to help you pull together what you’ll need before you start, including bank statements, credit card statements, and life insurance polices.

Once you have all your documents in front of you, you’re ready to fill out “Worksheet 3-Your net worth statement.” First list the values of all of your assets, including your home, your cars, your cash and investments. Then list your liabilities, including credit card debts, your mortgage and any other outstanding loans. Tally both your assets and your liabilities and transfer those amounts to the following section, your simplified net worth statement.

Finally, subtract your liabilities from your assets to discover your true net worth. This shorter net worth statement gives a clear snapshot of exactly where you stand today.

3. Track your spending

The key to building a strong financial plan for the future is to understand how much you spend and save right now. This is called tracking your cash flow, and it can give you a sense of control and confidence that makes it easier to make financial changes in your life.

Personally, I’ve kept a small journal tracking my spending for years because it helps me modify my behaviour if my spending gets out of control. It’s not always easy, but it works.

“The part most people dread is taking a really close look at their expenses,” says Mizgala. “But don’t put it off. Successfully managing cash flow is your key to financial control. It will give you an awareness that has more long-term value than anything you can invest in, buy or sell.”

The point of the exercise is to find out whether you finish each year with a cash surplus or a cash deficit. This number will tell you a lot about your general financial shape. A surplus means you’re living within your means, while a deficit shows you’re spending more than you make. If you have a deficit, you will have to cut your expenses (or increase your income) to achieve any financial goals.

What do most people find after doing this exercise? “They’re shocked,” says Mizgala. “It’s a very revealing exercise, mainly because if you have a family with two spouses with debit and credit cards, it’s hard to really see the complete financial picture unless you write it down. This awareness allows you to set up a system for the household.”

Action step #3: Record your cash flow. Fill out “Worksheet 4-Your spending and savings.” It shows what money is coming in (wages, interest, government benefits) and what’s flowing out (rent, debt payments, utility bills). Fill in all your monthly expenses in column 1 and your annual expenses in column 2. (You can leave column 3, the estimate for your future spending in retirement for a later date.)

Tally up your expenses in both columns and subtract them from total net income on both a monthly and yearly basis. The result is your cash flow deficit or surplus.

A good way to approach this exercise is to start with your regular monthly after-tax income and subtract the bills that don’t change month to month, such as rent or mortgage payments. If you don’t know the exact numbers, put in averages for things like groceries, gas or children’s activities. Then add in expenses that only come up a few times a year, such as travel, car repairs and gym fees. Estimate a total for these and divide it by 12, and put that figure in the monthly column of your worksheet. You may not pay the bills in 12 monthly installments but imagine you are setting money aside each month so that you have the total amount when the bill comes due.

4. Adjust your spending

Look closer. Are your expenses higher than your income? If so, you’re living beyond your means. You’ll need to adjust your expenses accordingly so you don’t go further into debt.

This step is not about punishing yourself or laying blame. If you’d rather eat out four times a week than buy a cottage in 10 years, that’s your choice. But you owe it to yourself to be honest about what you’re doing so you’re not wondering why you can’t reach your financial goals.

If you decide to cut back, there are some less painful ways of doing it. Consider renegotiating your mortgage to a lower rate or cutting out one major expense completely. A close friend of mine cut the $5,000 annual family vacation and substituted a couple of long weekends of camping instead. It saves his family $4,000 annually.

If you have a cash surplus, congratulations. You can start allocating money to meet your goals right away.

Action step #4: Compare your spending to your goals. Take a second look at “Worksheet 1-Prioritize your goals” and “Worksheet 4-Your spending and savings.” The idea here is to look at how well your current spending habits mesh with your goals. If you have a cash flow deficit you won’t be able to meet your goals, so you’ll have to see if you can free up cash by cutting back your spending in areas that are less important to you.

For instance, if you have a $5,000 a year deficit on Worksheet 4 and one of your goals is to go on a $4,000 family vacation to Britain in four years, you need to figure out a way to cut $6,000 a year from your spending. You could try using only one car and taking public transit to work. Such a cut could save you $6,000 a year in vehicle costs, allowing you to both balance your budget and reach your travel goal.

5. Set your life goals

Financial goals don’t just happen. You make them happen. This step requires you to assess where you want to be five, 10 and 20 years from now and answer some big questions, such as where you want to live in retirement and when you want to stop working.

One tip is to visualize what your life will be like 10 years from now if you do everything right. The truth is when they picture their future lives, very few people see themselves in a $10-million house in Hawaii. Most people’s goals are more realistic, such as keeping up their current standard of living in retirement (with maybe a few upgrades), preventing any financial disasters, and having the freedom to do the things they love, such as spending more time with friends and family.

“Think of what type of life you want in the future and how you are going to organize your life right now to get it,” says Mizgala. “Your job is to structure your finances so you can achieve your vision.”

Action step #5: Set your top three goals. Fill in “Worksheet 5-Your life and financial goals” and “Worksheet 6-Your top three goals.” If your are in a relationship, sit down with your partner and examine what your goals are and how they fit in with your spending and saving patterns. On Worksheet 5, list each of your top four or five goals and assign a dollar value to each, as well as a time frame for achieving the goal.

Now, compare how closely your goals align with those of your partner. In Worksheet 6, list the three most important goals that you both agree on, in order of priority, in column 1.

6. Develop a strategy

Once you know where you’re going, you need a plan to get there. The usual route is to spend less than you earn and invest the surplus in such a way that you can get where you want to go.

One word of caution—if you’ve identified your goals but you’re in debt, you probably should address that debt before you start investing for the future. “Even when people are not overspending and have debts that carry reasonable interest rates, I encourage them to work aggressively at paying those debts down,” says Norbert Schlenker, founder of Libra Investment Management in Salt Spring Island, B.C. “Don’t even think about investing before your debts are all gone.”

Action step #6: Chart a path to your goals. Go back to “Worksheet 6-Your top three goals” and in column 2, note any obstacles to achieving each goal. Then, in column 3, write down the action steps that you and your spouse have both agreed on to make that goal a reality. For instance, when you tally up the costs of your top three goals, you may find that you need an extra $65,000 in five years to meet those goals. The main obstacle may be that your household income is low because one partner works only part-time. That partner may decide to work full-time in order to earn extra money. The key is to develop strategies and appropriate timelines to make your goals materialize.

7. Review your insurance

If you work full time, much of your insurance may be provided by your employer’s group plan. But is it enough? If you feel confident enough to do some basic calculations yourself you can find out.

Many workplace benefit plans include disability insurance, but if yours doesn’t, get enough to replace at least 60% of your after-tax income.

Then look at your life insurance needs. The general rule of thumb is to get enough life insurance to cover 10 times your income if you have kids under 10 years old (five times your income if you have kids over 10), plus the amount needed to pay off your debt. So if you make $50,000 a year, you have $250,000 outstanding on your mortgage, and two kids under 10, you will need $750,000 in term life insurance. Go to www.term.ca for quotes.

At this point, it may make sense to have an agent review all your insurance policies—disability, life, auto and home—to make sure your coverage is adequate. But be careful. “Do not be oversold on insurance by an industry that is famous for doing exactly that,” says Schlenker. “Pay attention to fees, especially with life insurance. If you need more life insurance, chances are renewable term is the right product for you. You want plain vanilla coverage for a plain vanilla problem—your kids going hungry because you can’t work.”

Action step #7: Review your coverage. There’s no worksheet for this step, but you should still take some time to carefully review all of your insurance coverage. If you don’t have group coverage through work, you probably have private insurance policies for medical, dental, life and disability insurance. Consult an independent insurance agent for a quick review. If you need extra coverage, make a note of it so you can include that in your final financial plan.

8. Slash your taxes

Most tax planning is relatively simple. You’re probably doing a lot of things right already. For instance, if you own your home and use RRSPs, Registered Education Savings Plans (RESPs), and Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs), you’re already taking advantage of the best tax shelters out there.

To reduce the taxes you pay on your investment portfolio returns it helps to understand that the income tax system treats the various sources of investment income differently. Interest on bonds and foreign dividends is taxed at your full marginal tax rate, Canadian dividends are taxed at rates about one-third lower, and capital gains at half the full rate. So there are advantages to holding investments that generate capital gains and Canadian dividends outside of your RRSP and TFSA if you’re tight on contribution room.

Action step #8: Consider calling a tax accountant. Again, there’s no worksheet for this step. But a few basic principles apply. For those with low to moderate incomes, paying off debt—including the mortgage—is the best tax-planning you can do. That’s because you don’t pay taxes on the capital gains on your home and there’s no tax on the return you get for getting out of debt. If, however, you’re in a higher tax bracket—earning $85,000 a year or more—it may be worth paying for a couple of hours of an accountant’s time to see what mix of investment options—RRSPs, RESPs and TFSAs—is right for you tax-wise. Have these suggestions handy for your final plan.

9. Create an investing policy

Every professional financial plan includes an Investment Policy Statement (IPS) that recommends how a portfolio should be invested. It puts in writing the rules that will make you a more disciplined investor. Having an IPS helps you to stick with your plan and keeps you from changing course when the market gets volatile.

A typical investment policy might specify that your portfolio should always maintain a ratio of 60% stocks to 40% fixed-income investments. This ratio is determined by your time horizon and risk tolerance. The longer your time horizon and the greater your tolerance for risk, the higher the equity portion of your portfolio. As you near retirement and need the security of more stable income from your investments, the portfolio mix will usually tilt towards bonds.

An IPS also states the expected annual returns for your portfolio—typically 5% to 6% per year—over a very long time period, such as 20 years or more. Your IPS might also note the volatility you should expect for a given portfolio. For instance, it could say that you should expect the portfolio to suffer a 10% drop in the short term at least once a decade.

Action step #9: Determine which investments are right for you. Fill in “Worksheet 7-How are you currently invested?” and “Worksheet 8-Which investments are right for you?” On Worksheet 7, itemize every investment you own today—including cash, fixed-income products and equity holdings.

Worksheet 8 will help you assess how much you need to save monthly, when you’ll need the money, and what your risk tolerance is. The results will allow you to zero in on how you should invest in future to meet your goals.

If you have trouble with this section, you can always leave it for now. Once your financial plan is complete, you can consult a fee-only adviser to help you build an investment strategy that’s right for you.

10. Write up a will

Every adult who owns assets and has a spouse or children should have a will. An accurate and up-to-date will is the only way to ensure your assets will be distributed the way you want them to be. If you don’t have one, you’re letting the laws in the province you live in make those decisions for you. And if you hold the belief that your spouse will automatically inherit everything—you’re wrong. In most parts of Canada children trump partners. Without a will your husband or wife will get a predetermined amount of your assets—the rest goes to the kids.

Action step #10: Create or update your will. If you have an updated will it should be filed with your financial plan. If you don’t have one, hire a lawyer to draw one up for you. Visit www.lawyerlocate.ca and search for lawyers in your area who specialize in wills and estates.

11. Create your final plan

A typical financial plan has five main parts. The first outlines where you stand right now, that’s your current situation. The second contains your top financial goals, or where you want to go. The third is a simple net worth statement. The fourth lists the steps you must take to achieve your goals. It includes your income and expenses, an overview of your insurance, a section on retirement planning, and a section on estate planning. Finally, the fifth section—usually a separate document—is your Investment Policy Statement, which lays out how your portfolio is to be invested.

To get a better feel for what your financial plan might look like, let’s take a look at a plan that has already been created by a fictional couple, Patty and Walter Berglund. The Berglunds are a 34-year-old couple living in Halifax. They have two daughters, Debra and Marie, ages 5 and 2. Their household income is $110,000 and after all expenses have been paid, they have $20,000 in cash left over each year.

Their plan lists their top five goals—to pay down $20,000 in consumer debt, save $5,000 for a family trip to Disney World in two years, pay off their $150,000 mortgage in 15 years, save $60,000 in RESPs for their daughters’ post-secondary education and finally, to retire comfortably at age 60.

This is followed by a basic statement of their assets and liabilities that shows a net worth of $82,000. The couple’s projected income and expenses show a $20,000 annual cash surplus. That money is earmarked for their goals in the following way: In the first year the entire $20,000 surplus will go towards paying down the debt. In year two, $5,000 will go towards the big family Disney World trip, $5,000 towards an extra payment on their mortgage, $5,000 to the RESPs and $5,000 to a spousal RRSP for Patty. The couple agrees to continue using the annual surplus in this way each year until their goals change.

After consulting with an insurance agent, the Berglunds agreed that their group plans with their employer are mostly adequate but they decided to increase Walter’s insurance coverage by $300,000. In the section on retirement planning, the couple made some assumptions: that Walter remains employed as a physiotherapist and stays in the hospital’s defined benefit pension plan until age 60, and that Patty continues working part time earning $30,000 a year as a social worker. Walter will start saving $5,000 annually in a spousal RRSP for Patty once their consumer debt is paid off (excluding the mortgage). If they do this, the couple should have more than enough to cover their retirement expenses adequately. Their wills and power of attorneys are all in order.

The second document, the Investment Policy Statement (IPS), outlines the Berglunds’ investment plan. They have an average tolerance for risk and don’t require regular income from the portfolio right now. So a balanced 60% equity, 40% fixed income mix suits them fine. The couple wants a well-diversified portfolio at minimal expense. Thus, their policy states that low-cost index funds or exchange-traded funds are to be used wherever possible.

Their IPS also states that once a year the Berglunds will review their portfolio and rebalance to bring the asset allocation back to their pre-determined target mix of 60% equity and 40% fixed income. It also states clearly that sudden market price movements are not grounds for revision. This will help stop the Berglunds from making impulsive investment decisions out of fear or greed.

Action step #11: Create your financial plan. Open “Worksheet 9-Your financial plan” and gather together all of the worksheets you have already filled out. Worksheet 9 is a blank financial plan with all the sections already labeled for you. At this point, all you are really doing is taking information from the completed worksheets and putting it all together to form your plan. Before you proceed, it may help to review the sample plan for Patty and Walter Berglund at the end of Worksheet 9.

Now fill out “Worksheet 10-Your investment policy statement.” Again, refer to Patty and Walter Berglund’s Investment Policy Statement at the bottom of this worksheet for guidance. Write a brief summary of your current status, and under Objectives and Constraints write down your risk tolerance, time horizon, any taxation strategies you plan to use, and the amount of time you wish to spend managing your portfolio—in many cases, minimal.

Under Investment Strategy Guidelines, write an outline of how your investments will be allocated, according to asset class. The next three headings—Security Guidelines, Location Guidelines and Risk Control, Monitoring and Review are fairly generic and are already filled in for you.

Phew, it’s done! You now have a financial plan for the rest of your life. From this point on, as your goals change, modifications to your basic plan will be straightforward.

Of course you still have to follow your plan. But you’ll probably find that the process of putting it together has already changed some of your beliefs about how your money should be spent and invested, so changing your financial behaviour may not be as hard as you think.

To make sure you stay on track, you should take the time to review your plan at least once a year, and update it as necessary. It’s also a good idea to pull it out whenever you run into a big financial or life event, such as a market crash, marriage or job change. “It’s a tool to support you through life,” says Mizgala. “Money and household finances won’t be as scary when you break it down into these manageable bits. If you truly commit, it will be a huge boon to your emotional and financial well-being.”

Julie Cazzin | From MoneySense Magazine, September/October 2011
Article from http://www.moneysense.ca/

Learn to Be a Rich Woman

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:08:00 +0000

Real estate investor and author Kim Kiyosaki reveals what you can do to take control of your financial future.

BY ROSALIND RESNICK | December 7, 2006

Article from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/

Editor's Note: Learn from a panel of experts and entrepreneurs who have successfully financed their own ventures and are helping others do it at the Thought Leaders Live 2013 event May 29, in Long Beach, Calif. Event and ticket information can be found here.

Kim Kiyosaki, author of Rich Woman: A Book on Investing for Women, began her career as a real estate investor in 1989 after launching her first business with her husband, Robert Kiyosaki, the author of the bestselling Rich Dad, Poor Dad series. Today, Kim controls millions of dollars of investment property and teaches women how to achieve financial freedom through investing and taking control of their financial futures. We recently spoke with her to get her insight and advice on the importance of taking charge of your money--and your life.

Rosalind Resnick: Given your own success in building companies and buying real estate, why do you think that so many women are still afraid to take business risks?

Kim Kiyosaki: I think part of it is that so many of us haven't been educated about investing and haven't really been expected to be the ones handling the money. Being risk averse is not necessarily a detriment unless it's to the point where you become so afraid of risk that you do nothing. What I've found over the years is that the way I grow and the way I learn is by placing myself in situations where I have to face something I'm not familiar with or to break through a fear. I want to create a movement throughout the world to teach other women to put [my principles] into practice and become financially independent.

Resnick: Most women know how risky it is to depend on a man for financial support, yet millions of women continue to hope that their husbands will take care of them. Looking back on your own experiences growing up, what was the turning point that transformed you into the financial risk taker you are today?

Kiyosaki: I've always been very independent. When I was 14 years old, I came home one day and my mother was sitting with her girlfriend in the dining room, and my mom's girlfriend was crying, very upset. I was ushered out quietly, but I stayed in the other room and overheard the conversation. This woman was saying that her husband had left her for another woman and how horrible it was, but when my mom asked, "Did you know? Did you have an idea?" she said that yes, she did have an idea but that, even though the marriage wasn't working, at least she was financially taken care of. And I just remember thinking, "Why would anyone want such a miserable life?" I think so many of us women still have this idea that Prince Charming is going to take care of us. With one out of two marriages ending in divorce nowadays, that's just not the case any more.

Resnick: One of the challenges that women entrepreneurs continue to face is lack of capital. What advice do you have for women who want to start businesses or buy properties but have little access to cash or credit?

Kiyosaki: For every business that I've ever started--and I've started them all with my husband--we had no money. There's this idea that you have to have a lot of money to build a business or you have to have a lot of money to invest. I don't subscribe to that. Borders bookstore started in a garage. Apple Computer started in a garage. None of those companies was highly financed. When it comes to property, Robert and I were broke for quite a while. We were homeless for a short period of time when we were building our businesses. But when it came to investments, we didn't have money, either. My very first investment was a little two-bedroom, two-bath house in Portland, Oregon, and I needed a $5,000 down payment and I didn't have it--but I found a way to get it. But the thing I'd say about investing, especially about real estate investing, is to find the investment first because then it's a tangible thing. Otherwise, it's just talk. Once you find the investment, it becomes real to you. Then you can figure out how to find the money.

Resnick: Another challenge for women entrepreneurs is balancing work and family. What advice do you have for women who don't have the time to invest in a business venture?

Kiyosaki: Let's say you've got a full-time career and you've got a family. At the end of the day, the last thing you want to do is go look at property. You've got to somehow make that a priority. I think that every woman has their own business called, "Managing and Growing Your Money." And it has to be looked at as a business, not just a thing to do to pay the bills. A lot of women business owners say, "I've got a business, and it's doing well, so why do I need to invest?" I would bet you that every businesswoman out there has said to herself at some point, "I'd love to shut it down. I'd love to not have to go to work today." Eventually, you're going to get tired. You're going to want to take a break. By creating that income stream, you have a choice.

Resnick: In your book, Rich Woman, you talk extensively about leverage -- that is, the power of debt financing to increase an investor's returns. What do see as the pros and cons of financing real estate and other investments with borrowed money?

Kiyosaki: I see leverage as a plus as long as you know what you're doing, as long as you understand the numbers of the deal. With real estate, you can put down 10 to 20 percent and own 100 percent of the property. Now, if you manage the property well, you'll have a nice, positive cash flow. The con is what I call "the flipper"--when you buy the property with the sole intention of turning around and selling it for a profit. If the market turns, as it's doing right now, people are finding themselves stuck. If the market doesn't go up and they don't have a renter, now they're stuck and they've got this big mortgage payment that they've got to make every month. If you're buying to buy and hold, then the fluctuations of the market don't affect you as much.

Resnick: You say in your book that your husband, Robert Kiyosaki, the author of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad books, has been very supportive of your investing activities. What advice do you have for women whose spouses are less supportive?

Kiyosaki: I've talked to a lot of women about that, and when I asked about it. I got answers ranging from, "Dump him!" to "Learn how to work together!" But, ideally, if you can do it with your spouse or your partner, you're going to be more successful and you're going to get a greater return on your money. For those women whose husbands aren't supportive, the best advice I can give is to start, just start. Don't not do it because he's not interested. Because once you start and once he sees how interested you are and once he sees the cash flow coming in, often he'll jump in and say, "Let's do it together!"

Resnick: Every woman who seeks financial freedom through starting a business or buying a piece of real estate has to start somewhere. What's the first step that you'd advise a woman to take?

Kiyosaki: Number one, whether it's business or investing, is education. If you're starting a business, get some education about the business you want to start. Talk to mentors, talk to people who are doing what you want to be doing. Read up on it, attend seminars, go to speaking events. There are some great organizations that are supportive of women in business. If you can hook up with them, fantastic! There are also some great investment organizations. Hang around people who are going to support your ideas, support you in what you want to be doing. Don't hang around with negative people, people who say it's never going to work, that you're crazy, that it's too risky. Get those people out of your life.

Rosalind Resnick is the founder and CEO of Axxess Business Consulting, a New York City consulting firm that advises startups and small businesses. She can be reached through her website [http://www.abcbizhelp.com]

ROSALIND RESNICK | December 7, 2006
Article from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/

Shape the Work World You Want

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Wed, 15 May 2013 11:21:00 +0000

When women find that the corporate life isn't right for them, starting businesses of their own suits their sense of self.

BY MADDY DYCHTWALD | November 9, 2010

Article from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/

This is the second part of a three-part excerpt. It is an edited version of Chapter 3 of Maddy Dychtwald's book, Influence: How Women's Soaring Economic Power Will Transform Our World for the Better. (Voice, Hyperion)

As CEO of legendary ad agency N.W. Ayer in New York, Mary Lou Quinlan had it all. "A huge office, a fantastic view, my own bathroom, hundreds of people reporting to me, galas left and right. I succeeded on anybody's ranking of success in advertising," she told me. She's a cheerful redhead with a warm laugh and boundless energy. Maybe you've seen her as a judge on the reality show American Inventor or as a regular contributor on the CBS program The Early Show, or perhaps you've read her books on marketing and the workplace, including Just Ask a Woman and Time Off for Good Behavior.

But even this amazingly successful woman felt the traditional corporate world wasn't working for her somehow. She didn't have enough time with her husband and she spent more time at her office than in her Manhattan apartment. "Between your own fear of failure and the way your boundaries get narrower," she says, "you can narrow yourself into this version of you that has nothing to do with who you really are."

Quinlan had achieved so much, but she hadn't created a life that let her truly be herself and shape her world in her own, unique way. In the three stages of financial awareness model [survival, independence, influence], I'd say she had reached independence but hadn't reached economic influence -- the ability to use her financial resources to make her mark on the world.

In 1998, she stepped away from the pinnacle of corporate success to start her own company, called Just Ask a Woman, a five-person firm focused on marketing to women. Since then, she has written books, magazine articles and columns, and has appeared often on television. Today, still running Just Ask a Woman, she says, "I don't have to be somebody else's version of me."

Quinlan was able to reach the stage of economic influence only because she'd moved through the earlier stages. She rose through the ranks of advertising on her own merits and used her growing financial confidence to save and invest until she had the financial freedom to break out on her own. She also approached the move cautiously, testing the waters, taking a sabbatical from her job to write and think about her next steps, then moving ahead. Ultimately, her well-established financial security and confidence gave her the freedom to launch her business.

"My resources and planning put me in a place where money did not have to be the No. 1 driver," she says. "I see a lot of women who say they feel stuck and want to follow a dream, but they're not doing what they need to do to get into that position -- putting money aside, putting their toes in the water; the dream is more likely if you don't just leap off the bridge hoping to get it. Women are great at starting their own businesses, but they need to go about it with a straight business head on their shoulders, understanding what the risks are and what they can tolerate."

Quinlan waited until she was in her mid-40s to make the leap, but many younger women aren't waiting that long. Aliza Freud was 35, a marketing executive at American Express, when she decided to start SheSpeaks, a social network marketing firm. "In my last job at American Express, my responsibilities were global and there was a lot of travel. It was a dream job in many ways, but it was not a dream when I was sitting jet-lagged in Japan with my husband and two children at home," she says.

Most corporate jobs today are still set up on the assumption that somebody else, like a wife, is at home taking care of the kids. Freud also felt restricted by the narrow requirements of the corporate world: They didn't fit her real self.

"Senior female executives often have this feeling that somebody is going to tap them on the shoulder and say, 'We just figured out you stink and you're not talented,' " she says. "They call it the 'impostor's theory.' I felt like that was happening to me and my female colleagues at all levels." The impostor's theory, first identified by two women psychologists in 1978, argues that many high-achieving women attribute their success not to their own smarts, experience and positive personal qualities, but to dumb luck, good timing and other factors.

As these women rack up more and more achievements and promotions, their fear of being "found out" intensifies. One possible explanation for this fear of being caught is that traditional (male) definitions of success and the trappings that come with them just don't feel quite right for women. That was certainly the case for Freud and Quinlan.

Another factor: To a certain extent and at certain companies, women are impostors, trying hard to play by men's rules in an environment created by and for men. As long as she felt like an impostor, Aliza's professional and financial success wasn't enough to let her project her authentic self into the world, to make an impact in her own way.

Certainly, not all women feel this way, and many have done stunningly well in corporate positions. Being a woman at Ogilvy & Mather in the 1970s, for instance, "was fabulous," says Shelly Lazarus, who rose through the ranks to become chairman of the company. "If you can't be brilliant, be memorable. If there were 15 people in the room, I tended to be remembered because I was the only woman there. There would come the inevitable moment when everyone turned to me and said, 'Well, Shelly, what do women think?' "

She says she always felt the freedom to manage in her style, to wear what she wanted and to be herself. "Part of that was because David Ogilvy had an amazing instinct for putting people in positions where they would be successful. It was a true meritocracy." It certainly helped that her husband, a pediatrician, had more flexibility than she did, and that their combined earnings gave them the financial ability to hire a nanny and outsource work that would once have been done by a stay-at-home wife -- giving Shelly the freedom to work "like a man."

Still, for every Shelly, there are dozens of Mary Lous and Alizas, leaving to launch their own businesses. And they're not just influencing their own careers: They're changing our economy for the better. Consider: Nearly half (47 percent) of all nongovernment employees work for small companies, and 60 percent to 80 percent of new jobs in the past decade were created by small firms. In 2008, at a time when big companies were filing for bankruptcy, closing their doors and laying off thousands of people, small businesses were adding jobs. Example: In July 2008, medium and large companies laid off 41,000 people. But small companies -- those with 50 workers or less -- were actually hiring. Not just a few employees, either. Small companies added 50,000 new jobs that June -- enough to hire all those fired by big companies that month, and then some. The trend was strong enough to prompt Nell Merlino, the founder of the Make Mine a Million initiative, to write in a blog on the Huffington Post: "Women will lead the country out of this recession."

MADDY DYCHTWALD | November 9, 2010
Article from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/

From Cancer Patient to a Multimillion-Dollar Beacon of Hope

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Mon, 13 May 2013 13:34:00 +0000

BY Gwen Moran published on October 24, 2011
Article from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220373#ixzz2TBA0CALP

Businesses often start with a "light-bulb" moment, but Lee Rhodes' Madrona, Wash.-based Glassybaby kicked off with a flicker instead.

In 1998, Rhodes was raising three young children while battling a rare form of lung cancer. Exhausted, afraid and enduring her third round of chemotherapy, she found immediate comfort in the light of the votive candleholder her husband brought home from his glass-blowing class.

Rhodes was inspired to create--and start selling--a line of votives. Over the next three years, she worked with various artists to perfect her designs before selling them out of her garage. She also gave the pieces as gifts to friends and acquaintances battling cancer.

American Cancer Society Stats

1,596,670: Number of new cancer cases expected in 2011, not including certain skin and noninvasive cancers.

1,500: Approximate number of people per day expected to die of cancer in 2011.

After her divorce in 2001, Rhodes--now in good health--dove into Glassybaby. By 2003, the demand for Glassybaby votives exceeded the space of her home business, so Rhodes opened a glass-blowing studio in a former dairy processing plant in Green Lake, Wash. Glassybaby remained there until 2007, when Rhodes bought her current studio in Madrona.

By the end of 2011, production will reach more than 500 Glassybaby products per day. But even as she worked to build the business, Rhodes didn't forget the people she met during her own days fighting cancer, some who had trouble affording basic necessities and even transportation to their treatment sessions because of their illness.

"Most people don't understand that it's sometimes the difference between having something to eat or paying for the bus ride," she says. "How can you get well when you have to make those choices?"

Rhodes decided to help light the way through financial support. To date, Glassybaby has donated more than $600,000 to charities that help cancer patients meet their day-to-day needs, including the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Gilda's Club New York City, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Camp Korey, a member of the Association of Hole in the Wall Camps for sick children, founded by Paul Newman.

The company's success also caught the eye of another entrepreneur: Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos approached Rhodes in 2008 about the possibility of purchasing a portion of Glassybaby. At first Rhodes declined. But after meeting with Bezos, she was so impressed with him that she agreed to sell him 20 percent of the company. She says Bezos has been a "phenomenal sounding board" who has helped her develop ideas to expand the business and compete with the floral industry via same-day delivery service.

However, unlike Amazon.com, Glassybaby has added only one product to its line--a drinking glass version of its votive holder. Rhodes sees no other line extensions in the company's immediate future.

"When you feel you just can't go on, and you take a few moments to light a Glassybaby and calm yourself and your kids down, it's a daily ritual that really works," she says. "I don't know how I would add a plate or vase to that."

Gwen Moran published on October 24, 2011
Article from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220373#ixzz2TBA0CALP

How to Find True Financial Freedom Through Real Estate Investing

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Sat, 11 May 2013 09:12:00 +0000

by GLENN SCHWORM on APRIL 29, 2013
Article from http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/04/29/real-estate-investing-financial-freedom/

My inaugural article for Bigger Pockets was about “why” we invest in Real Estate. After this article you will know more of why we invest and hopefully you will get inspired to move your business to the next level.

We hear the phrase “Financial Freedom” thrown around, but what does it really mean? Is it just having or earning a lot of money? I know people who earn $800,000 a year and they are far from free! They are in businesses or jobs that own them. I also have met two different billionaires, one of whom owns about 250 businesses and has more time freedom than most. Do you want to eventually be very hands off from your business and have true financial AND TIME freedom? Seeing that time is our most valuable commodity, why not make the most of it? If you are interested in obtaining both, please read on…

How We Are Creating Freedom In Our Business

We started investing a little over 4 years ago. Our business is now doing about 15 full renovations at any given time, and we are on target to do over 60 flips in 2013, Sound busy? Well we are, BUT, not as busy as we used to be doing 20 flips per year.

How is that possible?

We decided last year to start implementing strong internal systems to begin to give us some personal freedom. Has it worked? Well, not totally yet, but we are well on our way. One of the keys to having freedom is to OWN the business and NOT let the business own you. That is the mistake of so many of us small business owners. We let the business own us. We don’t mean to when we start out, but in a short time that is what happens if we don’t make a conscience effort to avoid that trap. If we fall into it, we have no time for anything other than business and surviving!

There is a better way to live and a better way to run your investing business. It became apparent when I learned how one of the billionaires ran his 250 companies. He didn’t run them!! He invests, and finds the right people to run them. That it. Is it really as simple as that? Not quite! To have companies run smoothly, you must develop systems. We don’t have time in this blog to cover everything, because it is pretty extensive. Go read The E-Myth by Michael Gerber. It will enlighten you of how to OWN your business instead of it owning YOU!

How Can You Create Freedom In Your World?

It can be as simple as hiring a property management company to manage your real estate, or hiring contractors to do the work you have been doing yourself on your flips. This will provide freedom! Yes it costs money, but what can you do with the new time that you have found? Whatever you want! Vacation, spend time with your family, build your business, buy more rentals, flip more houses, again, it’s your time, do what you will with it.

Our business changed when we hired an administrative assist who eventually became our office manager. We now found the time to go and flip more houses. We grew even more when we hired on an inside agent who now handles all of our selling of finished houses (that was one of my main roles so it was very hard to release control). Next, we hired on 3 more agents, so now we have 4 inside agents who are running leads and bringing us houses to buy.

A few weeks ago, we hired on a project manager, and it would seem we finally have all of our chess pieces together. We have designed systems for each process and procedure and we are currently working to document and design a manual so if we need to replace any one person, the company doesn’t shut down. If you can treat your business like McDonalds treats a hamburger (Read their story to understand more about systems), you will be amazed at how your business will change.

We could go on forever with the details., but we won’t . There are plenty of resources for you to get some great information on systemizing your business. Bottom line is that systems will provide you with financial and time freedom if you manage the process correctly. Even simple ones to start should be done ASAP as your life will start to look very different.

One Of My Best Days Ever!

In closing, let me tell you what inspired me to write this post. This past Friday was a school day. When we woke up that morning, I took my 13 year old son to school. I then returned home to take my 8 year old princess to school. Well, I decided I had a different idea. I like having what we call “Daddy Dates” with my kids, and it was time for my daughter and I to spend some time together.

Instead of school, I took my daughter to an inside water park here in Upstate NY (don’t call the truant officer!!) We spent the entire day together. I shut off my phone and became an 8 year old again for the day. We went on all the rides, and I quickly remembered I was 44 after going up and down 4 flights of stairs over, and over, and over! Plus, being twisted around in all the rides was making me a little dizzy! We spent an amazing day playing together, bonding, and just loving each other. It was just she and I, and the lines were very short as most kids were in school and most parents had to work. It was the kind of special day that neither she nor I will forget for many years, or possibly the rest of our lives.

On our way home as she slept, I checked my messages to find out what went on while I was out. All on this same day, we sold another wholesale with about an $11K profit, our largest renovated home just went under contract for $362K, and we were featured on the front page of the local Business Review publication here in our area with a 4 page spread all about us and our success on the inside. Wow, what a day! And all of this while I was at the water park having a wonderful day with my daughter.

GLENN SCHWORM on APRIL 29, 2013
Article from http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/04/29/real-estate-investing-financial-freedom/

Interview: Icon builder David T. Fagan

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Thu, 09 May 2013 09:04:00 +0000

BY AL CARLOS HERNANDEZ ON MAY 7, 2013
From http://www.heralddeparis.com/interview-icon-builder-david-t-fagan/206378

BEVERLY HILLS (Herald de Paris) – David T. Fagan, a 30 year old business marketing auteur, is considered a “rain maker” and has been branded as the “Icon Builder.” Whether it is working with Inc 500 Infusionsoft or as the former CEO of Guerrilla Marketing, David is heralded as a sales expert. His activities and many attributes have been used to bring opportunities, accounts and profitable relationships to various business organizations.

Fagan has authored and co-authored several books: Cracking the Icon Code, Guerrilla Rainmakers with Jay Conrad Levinson,The Inside Drive with Dr. Haley Perlus, How to Raise an Entrepreneur, Secrets of Peak Performers with Dan Kennedy-Bill Glazer-Lee Milteer, Mad Ads: Madison Avenue Advertising on a Main Street Budget with Aaron Halderman, Zero to Hero in 90 Days or Less. He produces two magazine:

www.iconbuildermagazine.com and www.jointventuremagazine.com

David has received several industry awards including: 2010 TWC Business Builder of the Year, 2011 AMG Marketing Expert Trainer of the Year, and 2011 TWC Marketing Innovator of the Year. He is best known as an expert in marketing and business development making people and product icons in their respective industries.

Fagan, as the former CEO of Guerilla Marketing, recently acquired Michael Levine’s award winning PR company Levine Communication Office. LCO has been in business for 30 years and has represented 58 Academy Award Winners, 34 Grammy Winners, 42 New York Times Best-Sellers, and has consulted three US Presidents.

Despite the change in ownership, the firm’s name will not be changed and Levine will continue to serve as a consultant. PR guru Levine said, “I love LCO with all my heart, know that its best days lay ahead and the sale feels a bit surreal. I feel like a poor man’s David Geffen after he sold his record company.”

According to Fagan, “Icon Builder Media is quite effective at making people icons in their respective industries through various marketing strategies. To now add PR services from LCO, with a 30 year track record of success, is a dream come true.”

David has eight children and runs his own marketing and media company at www.iconbuildermedia.com.

His organization has regular events across the country and the details can be found at www.iconbootcamp.com.

Herald de Paris Deputy Managing Editor Dr. Al Carlos Hernandez had a unique opportunity to speak with a meteoric media mogul.

AC: Were your parents supportive when you were growing up? What is your socio-cultural background?

DF: I had very supportive parents who told me I could be whatever I wanted as long as I was willing to work for it. My father and grandfather were mill workers in the northwest until the mills were closed and my dad went back to school. We were middle class because my father worked hard and my mother stayed home.

What was high school/college like? How did those experience form your world view?

DF: We moved around a lot. I went to three different high schools and I left high school in the 11th grade and got a GED. Later my employer (Wells Fargo) said they would pay for my school. I went to University of Phoenix but quit after two years. In 2005 I took some Harvard courses. I believe in a very customized education.

When was the moment in life that you realized you were a master salesperson?

DF: When, at age 17 and with no high school diploma, I convinced a company to hire me as a full time sales person with a salary plus commissions.

How did you meet your wife and why did you decide to have such a large family? Eight Kids?

DF: I met my wife in ’97 and we married shortly after. She comes from a family with eight kids and I come from a family with six kids and we both wanted to have that kind of big family.

Was your goal to become wealthy? Have you reached all of your personal financial goals yet?

DF: In the beginning the goal was to be wealthy but over time I have defined success more around peace of mind, freedom and being able to do what I love. People might say I work 60+ hours a week. Actually I work about 20 hours a week doing the things I don’t like to do - the other 40+ hours aren’t really work because I love it.

What was the process in becoming a motivator and what motivates you?

DF: In making a difference and transforming people, products and services - I love seeing the before and after of an extreme makeover.

When did you decide to strike out on your own? What were the risks?

DF: I left home at 16 and I have always been real independent. I worked at Wells Fargo for almost five years and then never really looked back. I like calling the shots, making the gamble and being in control of my own destiny. I’ve been running my owning businesses for 13 years.

Tell us about your first seminar. What was that like?

DF: My first seminars were the ones I put on while I worked at Wells Fargo. I loved the feeling of inspiring action in the audience. Making people laugh is great, making them feel something strong is great, but inspiring people to the point of action is the most rewarding.

What is a guerrilla marketer?

DF: It’s the unconventional way to reach conventional goals in the world of marketing. Sometimes what was once unconventional becomes conventional and vice versa. A good GM understands the difference and knows when to be the effective contrarian.

Can you give us a sentence or two on each of the books you have co-authored and why folks should read them?

DF: Cracking the Icon Code - Cracking the Icon Code is essentially a step by step guide on how to become an ‘icon’ in your industry utilizing one’s image, expertise and advice. Being an icon in your industry gives an individual an unfair advantage over the rest because an icon has more influence, exposure and credibility than his or her competitors.

The Inside Drive: 9 Ways Champion Athletes Achieve Greatness & How You Can Too In Your Business - sport and exercise psychology expert Dr. Haley Perlus and myself teamed up for this book which is centered around being driven. You will read uplifting and empowering stories of athletes who found how important being driven is and how they accomplished their goals as a result of their passion and determination. Anyone who wants more out of life should read this workbook style book.

Mad Ads: Madison Ave Advertising on a Main Street Budget - co-authored with Aaron

Halderman: every way you could ever imagine to advertise is explained and shared in this comprehensive book…except TV. Everything from park benches to taxis to bill boards to the back of receipts is discussed in this book. Those interested in learning more also receive a great resource guide for finding people who provide the various marketing services.

Guerrilla Rainmakers: How to Make Your Business Rain Profits through the Law of Multiplication - co-authored with Jay Levinson, is a practical, hands-on book that develops the tools a business leader, owner or manager needs to not just survive in any economy, but excel in any economy. Those interested should check out the book because what you learn here can really help you make a significant breakthrough in your career, in your company, in your income, and in your life.

Zero to Hero in 90 Days or Less - Positive results and transformation have never been easier than with the contents of this book. The co-authors are true industry experts. Whether you want more transformation in your personal life or better results in your business this is the book for you. Just about every chapter is from a different author. Check this book out for a quick and easy read guaranteed to have something for everyone at every stage in life.

What is an icon, who are your icons and how can one become an icon?

DF: An icon is an individual who is not only successful and admired by others, but also has an unfair advantage over all others in their industry. This unfair advantage stems from having not just “admirers” but fanatics because of your immense amount of influence, credibility and exposure. These fanatics are enthusiastic about absolutely everything you stand for and therefore put you ahead of the rest, solidifying your iconic status in your industry.

How does one become an expert business marketer and business developer? Is the benchmark of success only money?

DF: It has almost nothing to do with money. Having a certain kind of website that positions you in a certain way, being an author, being featured in the media, having video testimonials, having major endorsements, winning awards and having degrees and certificates of completion can all raise your icon status. Most importantly you need to have fans and you get those through strategically giving, serving and sharing.

Is there any spiritual or moral undercurrent in your training philosophy?

DF: I personally look for clients that meet three criteria: 1) They have money 2) They have a way to make more money and 3) They have enough pain that they are willing to change the way they do business.

Do you consider yourself a post modern Norman Vincent Peale or more of a social media skewed Tony Roberts?

DF: I’m more of a cross between Richard Branson and Mark Zuckerberg.

I am a friend of Michael Levine. Why did you purchase his media company, LCO?

DF: My clients need PR services and LCO clients might just need my other services. In addition, LCO gave me a seat at the Hollywood table and increased my visibility ultimately raising my icon status. Michael says today visibility equals credibility and I agree.

What does ML bring to the table? What will his responsibilities be?

DF: He is an advisor, a mentor, a champion of my companies and the most connected guy I know.

How has new and social media changed the way to advise your clients on how to market themselves?

DF: Everyone in the advice business will make more money by having an icon status. Fans will help you get or raise that status. Social media is the easiest and most affordable way to build the audience that can become your fan base.

What does I.C.E mean?

DF: Would you be more successful if you were more INFLUENTIAL? Would you be more successful if you had more CREDIBILITY? Would you be more influential if you had more EXPOSURE? This is my I.C.E. acronym. It’s changing lives and making people a lot of money. There is nothing like having even a little ice in your veins. It’s at the core of any icon and it’s paramount for people in the advice business.

What kind of testimonials have honored you the most?

DF: Ted Wentworth and Diana Wentworth are clients who have given me great testimonials plus they bought me a Lexus ES 350 a year ago. That was pretty cool.

How is it that you have attained so much success at such a young age?

DF: I surround myself with successful people. I believe that we are the average income and success of the five closest people we hang out with.

What are you working on right now?

DF: A new list builder program called Icon Audience Builder.

Where will you find yourself in ten years?

DF: I don’t let myself look further than a year ahead. I’m unusual that way. I find that more than a year increases your odds of making bad decisions.

Greatest achievement in life so far?

DF: My family. My kids are becoming great entrepreneurs and great people.

Greatest regret?

DF: Not writing a book sooner.

One hundred years from now when it’s all over, how would you like history to remember you?

DF: As a leader who had an amazing ability to bring out the best in everyone around him and transform anything into something drastically better.

www.DavidTFagan.com
Edited by Susan Aceves

BY AL CARLOS HERNANDEZ ON MAY 7, 2013
From http://www.heralddeparis.com/interview-icon-builder-david-t-fagan/206378

April 2013: How To Achieve Financial Freedom In One Decade

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Tue, 07 May 2013 04:20:00 +0000

April 08, 2013 |

From: http://www.gurufocus.com/news/

When I’ve previously asked readers what their main investing goal is, financial freedom is the #1 response. They want investment income to surpass their expenses and grow faster than inflation, so then they can do whatever they want. Work or not work, live almost anywhere, etc. Even those that didn’t offer that specific answer still said they wanted the more general goal of having growing dividend income that gives them security, extra income, and the ability to retire on their terms.

So for this issue, I’ve interviewed Jason Fieber, who is putting dividend growth investing to work with the goal of achieving financial freedom by age 40. All theories and investing strategies aside, this is a case study in how to roll up your sleeves and make it really happen.

Interview with Jason Fieber

Jason Fieber runs the investing blog Dividend Mantra. In his late 20′s, he had a negative net worth with several thousand dollars in a checking account and a student loan total that was far higher. So as he puts it, he had a lower net worth than when he was a newborn, which after nearly three decades of living is not a comfortable place to be (but very common). He researched different investing strategies, and after a false start with mutual funds and a few stocks that ‘sounded good’, he got into Dividend Growth Investing.

In just three years of frugal living, high saving, and dividend growth investing, he expanded his portfolio value from $5,000 to over $100,000. His dividend income went from being non-existent to aiming for the conservative goal of $3,500 in 2013. With the continued dividend growth of his portfolio and the monthly additions of new capital, he expects to have a few hundred thousand dollars by his mid-thirties which can cover his current expenses with dividend income, and then to retire by 40. He’s doing all this while working at a car dealership and bringing in an average salary, so it really is something that just about anyone can do if they have similar priorities.

This interview will cover some of the details of specifically how he’s doing this. No matter how young or old you are, or what your family situation is, or how high or low your income is, you can apply some of this to accelerate your financial independence, or secure your current retirement. Lastly, Jason provides a few specific stocks that he thinks look pretty good right now even in this rather highly valued market.

Q: How would you describe your investing strategy?

I would describe my investing strategy as a dividend growth investment strategy with a keen focus on value. I primarily stick to a universe of 300 or so stocks that have a history (at least 5 years in most cases) of raising their dividends, preferably well over the rate of inflation. This usually shows management is concerned about shareholders, and a rising dividend shows that management is also optimistic about business operations.

But, the dividend, and growth of it, is just the beginning. I also focus on how the dividend is being funded. Have profits been growing over the last 10 years? Are they likely to grow in the future? What’s the ratio of earnings and free cash flow that is being paid out in the form of dividends? A payout ratio less than 60% is preferable.

From there, I love to look at the balance sheet. I like to focus on companies that use debt responsibly and only use leverage to grow the business in a way that creates long-term value. Interest rates are low, so some companies are using debt to buy back shares that are yielding more than the bonds. That can be an effective use of debt. For the most part, keeping debt low and well covered is key.

Finally, I focus on valuation through a quantitative and qualitative perspective. Quantitative fundamentals as discussed above are important, but I view the qualitative nature of a business as just as important. What’s the story of a business? How is it going to grow? Are they exploring new markets? Do they have an invaluable brand name? What do people think of their products? If there is another recession, what are the odds that people stop using a company’s services or products? Boil it down, and I tend to focus on multinational blue chip companies that have low debt levels, global operations with large economies of scale, brand name products and manufacture/sell products or services that people use on an everyday basis. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP) and Chevron Corporation (CVX) are examples of some of my larger holdings.

Q: Your blog states that you plan to retire by 40. How much do you plan to retire with, and how did you determine that amount and that timeline?

I do plan to retire/become financially independent by 40 years old. I turn 31 in two months, so that gives me just over nine more years to achieve my goal. Based on my average spending levels of about $15,000/year, I believe that $500,000 invested in a combination of dividend growth stocks with smaller positions in fixed income should be enough to yield around $21,000 per year based on a 3.5% yield. I think that allows a margin of safety.

Not only is that more than I spend now, but there is a good chance I’ll spend less once I’m no longer working. For one, I’ll no longer be commuting. Secondly, I plan on having my rather small student loan debts paid off by then. Those two factors alone would reduce my spending down to approximately $1,000 per month. It’s also important to note that the $21,000 that my investments would be yielding would be an initial sum that would be rising year after year as the equities I’m investing in continue to increase dividends on an annual basis in excess of the inflation rate. At that point my purchasing power would only increase to the point that I’d have a hard time finding ways to spend all the extra money. Philanthropy would enter the picture at that point, or perhaps sooner.

Your portfolio went from $5k to over $100k in three years, and with a reasonable income. Can you provide some details here on exactly how that happened? How much did you make, spend, and save/invest in an average month?

My portfolio did grow from $5,000 to $100,000 between the periods of March 2010 and March 2013. I’m extremely thrilled and blessed. I’ve been completely open about my income, expenses and investments since my blog went online in March of 2011 (1 year in to my journey). I’ve been receiving a bit more income over the last year as I received an opportunity to work in a higher income/higher responsibility position at work at the beginning of 2012. You could probably average out my monthly income to somewhere around $3,500 during this three year period and my expenses to somewhere around $1,300.

My results over the last year have been more impressive as I’ll explain. My income has been steadily rising as the time has gone on due to aforementioned additional income opportunities at work, my increasing dividend income and also some modest online income from my blog. My expenses have simultaneously been trending down during this period as I sold my car in mid-2011, moved to a cheaper apartment located on the bus line soon after the car was sold, cut my food budget rather dramatically and just generally increased my frugality and skills/interest in spending less money.

These opposite trends have obviously increased my savings rate, which has had quite a great effect on my ability to build my wealth. I believe that one’s ability to save money and maintain a high savings rate is the way to build wealth. Achieving solid returns on investments is, while very important, secondary to saving large portions of capital and having cash to invest in the first place. Regularly saving money and investing high portions of your money should be the foundation of your wealth building strategy, then maximizing that free capital in high quality long-term investments.

(Matt’s note: For more specifics, take a look at his income/expense reports on his blog. Here’s his February Income/Expense Report)

Q: What are your thoughts on frugality? Has the subjective quality of your every day life decreased, increased, or stayed approximately the same during these frugal years compared to earlier years?

Frugality has been a great leveraging tool for me. Where some use debt to leverage their chances at building wealth, I instead used frugality to save well over 50% of my net income over the last few years and invest that free capital as wise as I’ve been able to.

I’ve actually found increased happiness with frugality. Whereas before I started drastically cutting my expenses in the name of early retirement I would chase “stuff” for fulfillment, I now chase freedom. I always enjoyed having a nice car and living in a high end apartment. I liked eating out and spending my money freely. But, I always felt like I was missing something. It was like trying to drown a bottomless well. I find that many of our material desires are insatiable if we so choose to indulge. Rather, frugality has been freeing for me. I feel like it’s freed me from the need to constantly chase objects and subjective approval from society, and instead I’ve put all that effort and focus on building a Freedom Fund to buy me the most valuable commodity one can have in life: time.

Q: After this 2013 market bull run, are there any dividend stocks that you currently think are at reasonable valuations? What are you buying or looking to buy currently?

As far as stocks go, I am currently focusing on certain sectors that have not run up quite as much as others. Currently, I find many stocks that are consumer based rather expensive. Utilities are also quite pricey right now due to the fact that many investors have chased yield in an otherwise low yield environment. I’m currently paying attention to individual equities in the financial sector, energy sector and technology sector. A case could also be made for certain industrial companies and basic materials holdings.

I talk often on my blog of how I stay away from valuing the market as a whole. I instead focus on individual equities, as the market filled with thousand of stocks can have many overvalued equities at any given time and many undervalued equities at any given time. Obviously, with the rather robust rise in the broad market over the last 6 months it’s tough to find stocks that really scream value right now, but I still think that there are attractive opportunities out there for the investor with a long-term focus and time horizon. The market could pull-back tomorrow, but this doesn’t really concern me. I’m buying partial ownership stakes in high quality companies for a right to receive a portion of future earnings in the form of dividends. For the most part the current market value of those stakes is only of importance when I’m buying, as cheaper shares allows my limited capital to buy a bigger ownership stake.

If the market decides to severely discount what my stakes are worth, I’m highly likely to just buy bigger stakes in the high quality businesses that the market thinks are worth less than what they really are. The market’s loss is my gain.

Aflac Incorporated (AFL)

Although I’m already heavily allocated to it and do not plan on buying right now, I find Aflac Incorporated (AFL) to be one of the stronger values on the market currently. That’s even after a rather big run-up over the last year or so that has slightly eclipsed the broader market. It’s currently trading with a TTM P/E of just 8.50 and a forward P/E just above 7. The yield currently stands at 2.83%, and is backed by a rather robust history of growth in revenue, profits and the dividend. The 10-year dividend growth rate stands at 19.3%. Not too shabby.

I think there are some concerns about the Japanese Yen, and it should be noted that Aflac does around 80% of its business in Japan. Also, the balance sheet remains a bit risky with exposure to undesirable European sovereign debt. Aflac has made some moves to reduce that exposure, but risk remains. Overall, I think the market is presenting an opportunity here with AFL after weighing the risks and rewards. I increased my AFL stake back in early February.

Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI)

Another company I really like right now is Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI). This is the General Partner to the underlying partnerships of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (KMP) and El Paso Pipeline Partners LP (EPB). This is a complex investment, but needless to say the underlying business really isn’t. KMI owns units of the partnerships and certain increasing distribution rights called Incentive Distribution Rights (IDR) that ensure as the partnerships succeed, KMI will receive an ever-growing piece of the pie.

The business is primarily infrastructure in nature, as the partnerships own and operate pipelines and storage stations that transport and store natural gas, oil, CO2 and other energy products. KMI is the largest such operator in the country, which is simply fantastic. They operate a toll-like business that collects fees whenever someone wants to use their pipelines and stations to move and store energy. As the natural gas build-out continues here in the U.S., KMI will be an integral part of that growth.

Currently, they offer a yield approaching 4% with an announced growth rate of over 12% for the foreseeable future. Another great thing with KMI is that since it’s not an MLP, one doesn’t receive a K-1, which can complicate taxes. Seeing as how the yield and growth rate of the dividend can be a general proxy for your returns assuming a static stock valuation, one can see the attractive qualities of this investment. I very recently increased my stake in this company as well.

Wells Fargo & Co (WFC)

Finally, I like Wells Fargo & Company (WFC) here. It’s attractively priced with a P/E under 11 and it is currently extremely focused on delivering shareholder returns by way of dividend raises and share buybacks. They raised their dividend by 14% earlier this year, and then just recently by another 20% after receiving Fed approval to increase dividends and buy back shares. WFC is one of the more conservatively run big banks here in the U.S., focusing on old school banking like mortgage lending and holding deposits.

I know it sounds cliche, but I like siding with Warren Buffett when possible. Currently, Warren holds 466 million shares of this company, so my lousy 40 may not sound like much….but I’m actively looking to increase my stake in this company. It currently offers an entry yield of 3.23%, and I’m confident the next dividend raise will be in the double digits again. WFC did issue a lot of shares with the all-stock deal that they used to acquire Wachovia during the height of the financial crisis, but I’m anxiously anticipating the share count to be reduced through aggressive share buybacks. I initiated my position in this company just last month and I’d like to increase it.

(Matt’s note: Along similar lines, it’s worth mentioning that not only does Buffett’s company hold 466 million shares of WFC, but he has been actively increasing his number of shares in this bank even though it’s already one of his largest holdings. Back during the market bottom of 2009 when WFC stock was around $9/share, Buffett was quoted as saying, “If I had to put all of my net worth into stock, that would be the stock.”)

About the author:

Dividend Monk provides free stock analysis articles with an emphasis on dividend-growth investments. Also discussed are investing strategies, personal finance and minimalism, and industry outlooks. Visit Dividend Monk to see his individual stock portfolio.

April 08, 2013 |

From: http://www.gurufocus.com/news/

Daily Word: Keep Going Harder!!!

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 21:14:00 +0000

by Ash'Cash April 12th, 2012 @ 10:12am

Article from all hip hop.com

Happy Thursday, my great ones!

Today’s Daily Word is dedicated to going harder! As I’ve said a million times before and will continue to say a million times over…. It’s always too early to quit! You do not become a failure by not reaching a goal; you become a failure by giving up!

As long as you have breath in your body, it is imperative that you continue to strive everyday to reach all of your goals! Those who give up are those who either don’t want their dream bad enough, or those who don’t believe that they can attain it!

Do not become any of these!! Understand that if you want something, then you have to work harder to get it! And at the moment you think you’ve given it your all…..give it some more! Everything you want in life WILL be yours if you keep going harder!!! As John Lennon once said, “Everything will be OK in the end; so if it’s not OK, then it’s not the end.”

-Ash’Cash

“If you’re not making waves, you’re not kicking hard enough.” -@IAmDiddy

“Chances are, if you have a plan B, you’re not working hard enough on plan A.” -Unknown

“Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.” -Napoleon Hill

“Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.” -Newt Gingrich

“Many of the great achievements of the world were accomplished by tired and discouraged men who kept on working.” -Unknown

“If you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires.” -Malcolm Gladwell

“Stay the course, light a star, Change the world where’er you are.” -Richard Le Gallienne

“If at first you do succeed, try something harder.” -Proverb

Article from all hip hop.com

'Our aspirations are higher than those of grammar schools': Ashton-on-Mersey on cusp of gaining academy status

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 13:12:00 +0000

SETTING SIGHTS HIGH: Ashton-on-Mersey School

Posted Friday, March 30, 2012 - 17:17

By Matt Jones

Article from Mancunian Matters

Ashton-on-Mersey School is, after years of sustained effort, on the cusp of attaining academy status.

On April 1 the school, with the aid of the West Trafford Learning Partnership, will commit to a future of financial independence, self-directed syllabuses and, perhaps most significantly, uncertainty.

Academies have more independence over what they teach than mainstream schools, can choose to award bonuses to their staff and pay headteachers £30,000 more than comprehensive schools, with the belief that an added fiscal incentive will attract the most talented and dedicated educators.

They are not overseen by local authorities, who are negated to a backseat role, having control over little more than transport and the teaching of children with special educational needs.

This will bring the benefits of less red tape bureaucracy and greater financial freedom.

Such freedoms used to be afforded to these institutions by the generosity of their sponsors, who contributed up to £2million towards the first academies, though private investment can stem from a private agenda.

Sir Peter Vardy, a Christian philanthropist and one of the spearheads of Labour's governmental drive towards the introduction of 400 academies, was accused of requesting the teaching of creationism in science classes.

Such benefits fill the Ashton’s Executive Head Tarun Kapul with confidence. “Simply, it will be a success because we’ve done our research,” he said.

Teachers at transitioning schools have voiced concerns over the transfer of new staff to an academy, though Ashton has vowed there will be no change to the conditions of employment for current staff.

When you couple this with greater freedom in terms of what they can teach, it is no surprise Mr Kapul described the reaction of his teachers to the change as ‘unbelievably positive’.

He pointed out: "As we work together to achieve an improvement of standards it means better jobs for them."

The change has been endorsed by local MP Graham Brady, who also praised the school’s staff.

He said: “The most important thing for a school to succeed is good leadership. The Head, governors and leadership team at Ashton do a great job. The more control they have over the school, the better.”

Ashton will not be your average academy; the days of a failing school needing the monetary motivation of a sponsor, which seemed so revolutionary a decade ago, are now practically old fashioned.

Last year 91% of the school’s students got five A* to C's including all subjects, a far cry from the 42% it recorded a decade ago.

This meteoric rise brought the school a prestigious outstanding rating from Ofsted.

This means they will take a leading role in a federation of foundation academies. It will be run by trustees, a small group of governors who take on the legal role of coordination of the educational charitable company set up to run the multi academy trust.

The trustees are responsible for determining the governance of the schools, through a written constitution.

There is seemingly very little risk in Ashton-on-Mersey School's conversion into an academy; this updated branding of education has garnered cross party support, what with Labour starting the process and the Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition making few changes

Therefore the risk of academies falling out of political favour is low, and the autonomous financial freedom, if managed prudently, could guarantee the school long-term academic success.

The crux of the matter, though, is whether or not academies are raising standards and getting results.

Figures show the majority of academies are improving at a faster rate than the national average, though a quarter of existing schools that have attained academy status have seen notable falls in GCSE performance, and even more have seen a decline in attendance and behaviour.

Ashton-on-Mersey's change must be viewed in the context of its location.

The switch could have seemed all the more attractive given the fortunes of Altrincham Grammar School for Boys and Altrincham Grammar School for Girls since their respective changes.

Both schools have seen a consistent rise in GCSE results in the past few years and now have an 100% pass rate, which they have both attributed to their ability to teach what they believe should be taught.

However, Mr Kapul claimed: "We haven’t tried to follow the templates set by either of Altrincham's grammar schools as we believe our own system is more comprehensive.

"Our aspirations are higher than those of grammar schools, and we’re not likely to get complacent any time soon."

Fighting talk then, from a man who passionately believes in the sanctity of education, and more importantly for Ashton, believes in academies.

Another man who cares deeply about the state of education is Mr Brady, whose constituency all of the schools discussed in the article fall into. He is a champion of grammar schools, an institution about which he feels so strongly he resigned from the Shadow Cabinet because of Cameron's opposition to them.

He argued: "Grammar schools in selective areas are exactly the motor that does drive social mobility.”

However, he dismissed the potential clash between the different styles of education by drawing attention to Altrincham envious academic record.

He said: “The grammar schools do a great job for the more academically inclined children. The high schools all have their own specialisms and all achieve excellent results too.

The great thing about Trafford – and Altrincham and Sale in particular – is that our state schools are probably the best in the country, which goes for grammar schools and high schools alike.”

Article from Mancunian Matters

Cut on debt to attain financial freedom

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Article from The Standard

Published on 01/04/2012

By PETER KAMURI

Having debts is a way of life for human beings. When you fall short of cash to pay meet children’s school fees, house rent and other utility bills, the option is to seek bailout from moneylenders.

However, to have financial independence, it is important to take control of your debts.

This is one way of ensuring that your financial future is transformed into a positive one. But how can you have a control of your debts that are weighing you down?

Collins Rotich, a financial expert observes, "To be able to keep off debts, it takes some effort and commitment.

This way, you will be assured that your chances of keeping off debilitating debts are enhanced."

He notes, "One way of ensuring that you survive debts is by ensuring that you always work with a budget. One reason why you constantly find yourself wondering where all your money goes is because you do not have a budget."

Spending guide

Rotich advises, "When you have a budget, you are unlikely to incur debts as you have a guideline on how much to spend and when."

"Start by determining the monthly take-home income against your expenses. To have a successful budget that will keep you out of debt, you need to ensure you spend less than you make," he advises.

Rotich cautions that in circumstances where one does not make enough to cover basic expenses, there is need to get a way of increasing your income.

At the same time, one should look into ways of reducing expenses to avoid running into debts.

"People get into debts because they want to sustain their lifestyle habits that gobble up their earnings and in the end dent their pockets. Identify these areas and craft ways of reducing expenses on them," he advises.

Tracking income

Rotich says it is important for people to understand their financial situations.

"This is a good way of having an idea as to where you stand and this will help to be in control of your finances. Many people get into debt since they do not track their income and expenses," he says.

"When you are out of debt, it is important to ensure that you do not get back to it.

However, remember discipline is essential if you will be able to take control of your finances and avoid debt," Rotich concludes.

Article from The Standard

The Vibration of Success and Abundance

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 11:48:00 +0000

April 2012 Issue --> Cover Story Article

By: Carol Look

The Healthy, Wealthy and Wise

Carol Look's specialty is inspiring people to attract abundance in their lives by using EFT and the Law of Attraction to clear illumining beliefs and build prosperity consciousness.

A pioneer and leading voice in the EFT community, she's a highly sought after trainer, international speaker and workshop leader and is the author of the very popular book, Attracting Abundance with EFT.

While her signature work in the field has been combining energy methods such as EFT with the Law of Attraction, she also produces quality training products on additional topics such as weight loss, clearing clutter and pain relief.

Her weekly radio show can be found on the World Puja Network and she is a frequent guest speaker on worldwide tele-summits teaching people how to heal their bodies and minds with energy techniques.

In addition, she's featured as a primary EFT practitioner and energy therapy expert in the DVD documentaries, The Tapping Solution and Operation Emotional Freedom.

Ric Thompson: Well, I am just all excited here. I'm all a quiver if you will. You like to talk about abundance which is one of my favorite topics and one of my favorite states of being. So let's kick off with how do you define abundance, Carol?

Carol Look: It's such an important place to start and as you said it's a state of being. And when I figured out that abundance was a vibration, that's how I really define it. Abundance is a vibration not a dollar amount in your bank account. Well, once you figure out it's a vibration then you can tune into it, then you can do something about it. It's not about working harder, working more hours; you know it's not about pounding the pavement. It's really about accessing a vibration. And some people say, "Well what's a vibration?" It's really a mood, a feeling, a state of being as you said earlier so once you can tune into that abundance as a vibration then you start attracting abundance into your life in some very different equation than "let's get a second job, let's work harder, let's try to raise prices". That doesn't do it for us, for financial abundance. It does not work that way. So we've got to find a way to tune into this vibration or frequency of abundance.

Ric Thompson: Beautiful, beautiful. So let's dig a little deeper into this. Why is this so important?

Carol Look: Well, you know for me what happened is I would study different techniques and study the Law of Attraction and try to do really well at work and it wasn't working. It was not bringing me what I wanted in my life and what's important and what shifted everything for me is getting off the treadmill of sort of the lesser brain equations. If you do this, then you'll get that. If you do this, if you work two more hours, you'll get this much more money and tuning into it as an energy state. Because as an energy state that means you could tune into and all of our listeners could tune into abundance right now. At this minute you could tune into abundance and what would happen is people would come to my abundance workshops and they would say, "I've tried Law of Attraction. I saw the movie, The Secret, four times and it's not working. Well, it wasn't working because they were just trying to muscle it. You know, they were trying to push and trying to be happy and trying to have happy thoughts and that's not a vibration, that's working too hard at something else and that doesn't have a realness to it. And I believe it's not The Secret's fault, it was their people's misinterpretation of what The Secret said was, you know, what we needed to do. So what's so important about this for everybody and what changed and clicked everything for me was when you really understand it's about your vibration, you can literally turn it around. You can turn around your situation. You can turn around your health. We're talking about financial abundance as well as health, as well as relationships. You can turn them around so quickly, it'll make your head spin and that's what happened to me after years of basically barking up the wrong tree. I grew up in a family with a lot of stress around money. Oh, so much tension around money! And I think I was kind of determined not to have to go through that. I really wanted to have enough financial wealth so that I could be comfortable and just make choices I wanted to make and not struggle but I went at it the wrong way again.

You know I didn't go at it from this vibrational point of view and once I started to, it was a little scary because things happened so quickly and so much changed for the positive as far as abundance in my life. Then I had to work on, whoa this is working too fast, I mean is this really what I want. I had some other blocks. I had some other issues to deal, which is fine, everybody does but the importance of this I cannot overstate the importance of understanding abundance as a frequency of vibration, a way of being, a way of being in appreciation, a way of noticing what's beautiful and what's working and what's going well in your life. That's what starts to trigger the universe from looking at you and saying, "oh boy he's pretty shiny. Wow, he's pretty clear about what he wants". You know you talk all in your website and your magazines a lot about clarity, you know a lot about how do people remove the blocks and get clear. And one of the main ways to do it is to understand abundance isn't money. Abundance is a vibration and once you get that, once I got that after years of studying the wrong things. Once I got that, the movement was so fast. As I said it was a little - I had to work on some new issues about how much I could handle and how much I could stand out. Did I really want that much success? So that's a nice problem to have but it was scary nonetheless. So it's just critical for people to understand they have so much more power than they think they do.

Ric Thompson: Beautiful. And you know a lot of people could relate to the situation that you described there of, you know, a lot of stress and maybe it's in their financial area and maybe it's in their relationships. Maybe it's in their health, maybe it's in all that about above, right? So as you mentioned they're all kind of stuck muscling through this right and you're talking about a vibration and kind of tuning into that. So I'm excited to get into some of the details here. What gets in the way of a person who's in that stressful situation? You know, what's blocking them from being tuned into that vibration of abundance?

Carol Look: What blocks everybody on different levels is some kind of limiting belief or limiting emotion. I call it often vibrational clutter. Right? So we want to be abundant, we want to attract more in our lives, a better relationship or a better job or finances or really solid vibrant health, that's what we want. And then what happen is we've got the little monkey mind going and the monkey mind could be worry about the future. It could be upset about the past. It could be insecurity about what's going on now but its all clutter. It's all noise and static, which means you're not very clear. And the truth is a lot of people have trouble, believe it or not, they don't want to be clear because it feels somehow threatening or they're afraid of success.

So if you are doing the right things in trying to attract more abundance into your life but you're afraid of success your fear of success will be bigger, will be stronger as a vibration and you'll sabotage yourself.

Want to learn more? This article was just a small portion of an hour-long interview. If you want to get the full interview, visit http://www.healthywealthynwise.com/elite.asp.

The Healthy, Wealthy and Wise

What Do You Think the BRICS Can Build?

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:11:00 +0000

By MARCUS MABRY | March 29, 2012, 7:00 PM 1
Article from International Herald Tribune

Saurabh Das/Associated Press

From left to right, President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India, President Hu Jintao of China and President Jacob Zuma of South Africa at the BRICS 2012 Summit in New Delhi on Thursday.

The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa announced on Thursday that they would investigate establishing a system that would allow them to bypass the dollar and other global currencies when trading among themselves.

The leaders of the BRICS group of nations also announced that they would explore setting up an alternative to the IMF and the World Bank that would loan to developing countries and bypass the U.S.-European axis of power that has dominated global economic affairs since World War II.

In a story on the stakes and the obstacles before the BRICS nations, our colleague Jim Yardley explained that the group had not accomplished very much before this, their fourth summit meeting, in New Delhi. But Jim wrote that they were expected to come away with at least one concrete product this time:

They are expected to announce agreements that would enable the nations to extend each other credit in local currencies while conducting trade, sidestepping the dollar, a substantive move if not yet the kind of game-changing action once expected from BRICS.

But that raises the questions:

Do you expect the BRICS to change the global game? What is their potential as a bloc or an alliance? Indeed, are they a bloc at all, or just a list of countries whose growing economic might symbolizes the rise of a world where the United States is no longer solely dominant?

The five countries have very different agendas and forms of government. Does this make forming any kind of unified policy or outlook unlikely? Are they really just a smart catchphrase from a Goldman Sachs economist to encapsulate changing global economics, as Walter Ladwig, a visiting fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, argued in the Opinion pages of the IHT?

The French daily Le Figaro believes that “little by little, the BRICS are asserting themselves.” To what end, it does not say.

In its analysis of the summit meeting, the Times of India concentrates on the group’s political statements urging negotiated resolutions of the conflict in Syria and the West’s nuclear standoff with Iran.

Reuters concentrates on the lecturing and hectoring that BRICS leaders delivered to the profligate West, quoting the customary end-of-summit joint declaration: “It is critical for advanced economies to adopt responsible macroeconomic and financial policies, avoid creating excessive global liquidity and undertake structural reforms to lift growth that create jobs.”

Illustrating the countries’ differing, though not always conflicting, agendas:

China Daily reported that Hu Jintao, the Chinese leader, called on the BRICS to “deepen political trust” in one another.

Punjab Newsline said India called on the others to “avoid political disruptions” to trade, especially in West Asia.

And AllAfrica.com said Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s president, called on the others to invest in his country.

Article from International Herald Tribune

4 Tips To Reach Total Financial Freedom Sooner Than You Ever Dreamed!

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:26:00 +0000

By Marc Gamble
Article from ezine

STOP and picture what it would be like to have TOTAL Financial Freedom, or to be Rich or Wealthy and have FULL CONTROL over your life. Certainly financial freedom is something we are all striving for... right!?! I mean who wants to work for the rest of your life and have nothing to show for it?

...or... Who is happy living paycheck-to-paycheck and having someone else control how much money you can make?

...or... Who likes being told what time you have to wake up every morning, what you must do everyday, and what time you can go home in the evening?

...or... Who enjoys earning just enough to pay off your bills, but never having enough left over to build savings or even to 'splurge' on fun things like vacations or traveling?

...or... Who can care less about having enough money in your retirement 'nest egg' to enable you to enjoy your 'well deserved time off'?

You see, you'd have to agree, I think the answer to each of these questions is the same, "DEFINITELY NOT ME!"

So what does it take for you to achieve TOTAL Financial and Time Freedom where you don't have to work anymore and you don't have to worry about how much money you are earning? And, is it even possible?

WAIT. Yes it is possible! There is a "Proven System for Financial Success and Getting Ahead" that wealthy people have followed for generations to build financial security and wealth.

If you're still reading this article, then you're interested in learning how YOU can set yourself free and gain control over your life, your financial destiny, and your future. I'm going to share some practical tips that can help you gain your freedom.

The main thing to understand before we get started is wealthy people DO NOT Work For Money... Instead, they have Money Working For Them! If you follow these 4 tips I reveal in this article, you'll be able to reach financial freedom sooner than you ever dreamed.

1. You Must Change Your Values From 'Poor' to 'RICH'!

To become wealthy, you have to think like the rich think. Adopt 'rich values' and have a positive attitude towards money. You deserve to be financially free and to have as much money as you need to live the life of your dreams. You need to get educated about how to create multiple streams of income for yourself.

Eliminate 'poor values' which is thinking like an employee or a small business owner.

Employees wait to be told what to do and they expect everyone to 'take care of them' (ie: their company, their boss, their union, the government, etc). Thinking like an employee keeps you very 'weak' minded and 'needy'.

Small business owners very rarely become wealthy because they think they have to do it all by themselves. They believe, "If you want it done right... you got to do it yourself." That's why they start their small business so they can have some level of control and dignity over their life. Sadly, thinking this way has massive limitations for your financial growth potential.

LOOK! If you remember only one thing from this article, remember this...

The richest people in the world build networks... (ie: 'TV networks', 'Telephone networks', 'Computer networks', etc.) and everyone else looks for work. Money doesn't make you rich -- business skills do. You can always use business skills to make as much money as you need or want.

If you believe you need 'job security' or you need to 'play it safe' and don't take risks, then you are falling prey to FEAR.

You will never become wealthy working for someone else because you cannot have Job Security and Financial Freedom... You must choose... which is more important to you?

If you desire financial freedom, then start by learning how to control your fear. Everyone of us has a 'little coward' inside of them and a 'courageous person'. Gain control over your fear and don't let the coward win - let the courageous person win!

LISTEN... Building A Business makes you rich. "If you want to be rich, MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!"

2. The #1 Asset A Person Can Build Is To... "Build A Business"

This IS the Secret! You are ready for total financial freedom... aren't you? Well, you must build your own business in order to achieve it.

3 out of 4 American adults (over the age of 18) want to start their own business. Sadly, few ever do.

The Reasons: Most people can't afford to invest 5-10 years for their business to become successful... Or they can't afford the amount of money it takes to build a business.

Face it, the statistics are frightening... this fact is verified by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA):

50% of small businesses fail in their first year and...

95% of small businesses fail within their first 5 years.

Above all, people have a fear of failure and this is why most people don't start a business for themselves. Instead, they go for "job security" and play it safe.

WAKE UP RIGHT NOW... "Job Security" is a JOKE!

You are well aware of the massive number of company layoffs that are happening today. Why would anyone commit so much of their time to working on something they have NO control over.

The truth of the matter is that you don't own your JOB, it owns you. You'd have to agree that working a JOB (or a career) is like a form of slavery.

WHY?!?

You don't have control over how much money you can earn, what time you have to wake up every morning, where you have to be each day, what you have to do while you are there, what time you can get off...

By knowing this information, you can learn how to regain control of your life, your time, and your paycheck.

Something else you should consider is how risky your retirement program really is.

If you believe that your 401K and your Mutual Funds are going to take care of you... you also probably believe in the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy.

Please don't get angry at me, someone sold you that bill of goods. Mutual Funds are not safe and not smart and you should never bet your financial future on the stock market.

They are extremely risky for your financial future.

Today, most importantly, you want to own your own business to get your dignity back and take back control of your own life.

WARNING: Don't start a business that "owns" you either. This is a death trap too. If you are a sole-practitioner, you've basically created a business that controls you and not one that you control.

Remember, you are striving for TOTAL Financial and Time Freedom and if you have a small business that requires 110% of your time and energy, this is no better than having a JOB.

Let's face another harsh reality... when you trade your time for a paycheck, you are nothing more than a 'slave to the clock' and you will never become wealthy.

3. Have Courage & Strength To Fight For Your Freedom.

By now you should begin to realize that this is a life or death battle in the fight for your personal financial and time FREEDOM.

It takes courage and it requires strength to win this fight. If you're an employee you've given up your choices... someone tells you how much you make, when you go home, if you get downsized, etc.

You are fighting to be in control of your own choices.

Think about it this way, your boss or your supervisor is a bully telling you how to run your life.

And, the more security you "need", the less freedom you have. I hate to be blunt, but if you are needy, you are weak. And if you're weak, you won't have the strength (nor courage) to win the fight for your freedom.

We already discussed how FEAR is the main reason why more people don't start their own businesses.

I challenge you to get the courage to not care about what others think. To gain the mental and emotional toughness to withstand the world of 'big business'. You must learn how to make the yourself stronger.

If you want to be successful today, you have to develop the mental, emotional, and core toughness and get the necessary education for running a 'big business'.

You deserve your freedom, that's what the American Dream is all about. Fight for your rights and stand up for yourself. Don't let others decide your choices or your lifestyle for you.

4. Network Marketing is the "Perfect Business"

The first thing to do is choose a type of business. There are all kinds you can evaluate from franchises to home based businesses, and more.

However, many wealth experts and financial gurus agree that a "Direct Selling Business" (also known as: Network Marketing, MLM, or Multi-Level Marketing) Is "THE PERFECT BUSINESS".

Although there are dozens of reasons why this is, I'll briefly share the top 3 reasons why Network Marketing is the Perfect Business.

(A) Network Marketing offers a way for anyone to immediately get into BIG Business with very low start-up costs. In most cases for just a few hundred dollars, overnight anyone can legitimately "be in business".

This is a brilliant way to get in with low cost and build a very big asset that can set you free. Network marketing gives the average person a fighting chance to take control of your life.

(B) Network Marketing gives you the CHANCE to build some self-confidence and get stronger.

Remember we said you need to increase your strength and courage to become tougher and stronger so you can take control of your life become financially free? Well, network marketing offers you that too.

It helps train you in the "real world of business" so you can learn how to fight for your freedom. You are in total control of your financial destiny.

(C) And finally, Network Marketing levels the playing field for everyone because you get paid for performance... not your educational degree, your family background, your race, or even your current situation.

It's all about performance! You get paid on performance PERIOD. For example, nothing and no one is in control of how much you make. The more money you want to make, it's up to you. Simply perform and you earnings are potentially unlimited.

Network Marketing offers all of this (plus much more). If you are part of a good network marketing company, they will do their very best to make you strong enough to withstand the rigors of big business so you can stand on your own 2 feet and grow your business (your asset) as large as you wish.

Bottom line... Network Marketing gives you back the control of your life, your choices, and your dignity - and that's PRICELESS!

So I'm sure you'd agree that Network Marketing is the perfect business... for some people... check your heart soul & guts to see if it's for you.

On the other hand, if you like people telling you how much you can earn and what time you have to report to work every day, then it's not right for you.

I love sharing this kind of information with people who are dedicated taking control of their lives. They don't want job security but instead want financial freedom.

My recommendation to you is that you "Demand your freedom so badly that you will do whatever it takes to get it. You must have a burning desire in your guts to want to have TOTAL FINANCIAL and Time FREEDOM!"

Also, remember to keep an open mind and give your freedom a chance. There are plenty of ways great Network Marketing companies that you can participate in that will help you achieve your goals.

In short please surround yourself with friends and family who want you to become rich and above all, adopt a positive attitude towards money... and get educated about how to grow your business.

If you want to be rich, "MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS". Stop asking for permission and take control of your life... You really do need to get stronger today!

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

About The Author:

Marc Gamble, the author, is a wealth consultant and business advisor who teaches individuals, business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals how to reach financial freedom sooner than they ever dreamed.

Using "Next-Generation" online marketing strategies and Online Streaming Video Technology, anyone can quickly and easily discover how to explode their income and revenue... reaching a whole new Level of Financial Growth and Ultimate Lifestyle Creation.

Download the " 77 Social Media Marketing Tactics " Checklist Right Now!

(c) 2007, http://www.leadpageprofitsystem.com/77SMMTactics. Want to use this article in your publication? Reprints welcome so long as the article and by-line are reprinted intact and all links made live.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Marc_Gamble

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/536806

Article from ezine

How the Richest Man on Earth Attained Financial Freedom

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:09:00 +0000

By Richie Felix

Article from ezine

1. Build Your Own Income Grid: There is nothing wrong if you employ yourself to work for yourself. It gives full control over time and space. The wealth of this world is hidden in two prime factors aforementioned: time and space. Rich people pay others to work for them so that they can take control of time and space. The monthly peanut is not the actual measurement if an employee is worth, but the actual worth of his ignorance of this tourism. It is difficult to attain financial freedom working for another. This working system or environment is structured cleverly to keep you blind of your true worth considering your sublimed skills, talents and latent energy. So to keep you, the management design a sort of corporate ladder which is serving as significance of financial reward equivalent to enable you glue to your working gloves for decades, except death or other natural unforeseen contingencies shows up to detach you from this professional quagmire.

To avoid this ordeal in the game of life, I strongly advise my clients to create their own income system which I think is for superior to the salary system. This is not hard to do. Check around in your neighborhood to see what is in high demand, and build a skill and cool business around it. If someone is already doing it, you can come in to re-brand the business with little creativity and season innovation. There are many corporate bodies surviving the recession on the axle of re-branding and creativity. For me, if you can do what big forms and big business does, you can as well prosper like them. Becoming your own Boss, gives you the clarity to run with your set goals and visions. You can actually come to terms with challenges of life, that your ability to beat the odds of life is residing in your activated energy to expand your tool kits in all ramifications of life. For instance, you can come up with your clothes design, you can come up with your own speech presentation signature. You can actual develop your own blue ocean; that is, peculiar paradigm reality. You have what it takes on the inside and not on the academic certificate. Your really curriculum vitae is potentials. In the 21st century economic reality your potentials is your credentials. Whatever sizes you up base on what is written on the paper is simply running a pattern of error that need to be corrected. Your ability to discover yourself, develop your skills and engage them resourcefully put you ahead of the ignorant folks lurking around in the street.

2. Broadcast yourself: In these difficult times, when the American Dream seems more like a nightmare, having the mindset of becoming your own Boss is one thing, and the other is to get in place- a unique system to take both yourself and your products to the market places. It is an anathema to birth a child you cannot nurture to maturity. What exactly I am saying here, is that, every rich person you ever seen in your life have a unique way he broadcast himself and products to attain the pinnacle of financial freedom. This is one thing rich people do all through their life time. Everyday business will require you to blog or have a website unique to your services or products to generate the market "buzz" around your brand. Your ability to manage this end stream of business rendezvous separates you from everyday ordinary person. Do not forget, to keep generating new ideas, keep updating your products brand to fit into the prevailing situation at the moment. This way you stay on top and remain in business to one the wings of financial freedom all through life.

Ritchie Felix

Ritchie Felix is a writer, corporate re-branding expert, personal development, business consultant, a physicist, ICt4D and e-payment solution expert, a highly sought after public speaker, e-commerce consultant, poverty reduction cum eradication specialist consultant, project manager of youth Before 40 for better citizenship. He has created several businesses and products, and helped many people to eke out living from simple ICt4D tools.

Google more about Ritchie Felix at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ritchie2

http://www.before40.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richie_Felix

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4055919

Article from ezine

Goal Setting

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 01:54:00 +0000

Definition: Establishing short- or long-term objectives, usually incorporating deadlines and quantifiable measures

Article from the Entrepreneur

If you really want to make a success of your business, it's important to define your business goals, especially before you get started. For some people, the goal is the freedom to do what they want when they want, without anyone telling them otherwise. For others, the goal is financial security.

Setting goals is an integral part of choosing the business that's right for you. After all, if your business doesn't meet your personal goals, you probably won't be happy waking up each morning and trying to make the business a success. Sooner or later, you'll stop putting forth the effort needed to make the concept work.

At its simplest, a goal is just something you aim for. But goals are powerful contributors to successful business growth in several ways. To begin with, the process of setting goals forces you to think through what you want from your business and how growth may--or may not--provide that. This process helps suggest directions for pursuing that growth, which can greatly improve your chances of achieving your goals in the first place.

Goals also give you a framework within which to work. This tends to focus your efforts by helping you rule out actions that won't contribute to achieving the goals you've set. A very important part of that framework is a timetable. Any good goal has a timetable, and that timetable will influence your actions profoundly. When setting goals, aim for the following qualities:

Specificity. You have a better chance of achieving a goal if it's specific. Raising capital isn't a specific goal; raising $10,000 by July 1 is.
Optimism. Be positive when you set your goals. Being able to pay the bills isn't exactly an inspirational goal. Achieving financial security phrases your goal in a more positive manner, thus firing up your energy to attain it.
Realism. If you set a goal to earn $100,000 a month when you've never earned that much in a year, that goal is unrealistic. Begin with small steps, such as increasing your monthly income by 25 percent. Once your first goal is met, you can reach for larger ones.
Short and long term. Short-term goals are attainable in a period of weeks to a year. Long-term goals can be for five, 10 or even 20 years; they should be substantially greater than short-term goals but should still be realistic.

There are several factors to consider when setting goals:

Income. Many entrepreneurs go into business to achieve financial security. Consider how much money you want to make during your first year of operation and each year thereafter, up to five years.
Lifestyle. This includes areas such as travel, hours of work, investment of personal assets and geographic location. Are you willing to travel extensively or to move? How many hours are you willing to work? Which assets are you willing to risk?
Type of work. When setting goals for type of work, you need to determine whether you like working outdoors, in an office, with computers, on the phone, with lots of people, with children and so on.
Ego gratification. Face it: Many people go into business to satisfy their egos. Owning a business can be very ego-gratifying, especially if you're in a business that's considered glamorous or exciting. You need to decide how important ego gratification is to you and what business best fills that need.

The most important rule of goal-setting is honesty. Going into business with your eyes wide open about your ultimate goals lets you confront the decisions you'll face with greater confidence and a greater chance of success.

Article from The Entrepreneur

Three Ways to Become Rich -- One-Way to Live the Good Life

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 10:05:00 +0000

Panos Mourdoukoutas, Contributor

Article from Forbes

MARKETS | 3/16/2012 @ 3:57PM

In a free enterprise system, getting rich is a tempting proposition. Some want to become rich for the amenities and the trophies wealth offers, others want to become rich for the financial freedom, power and fame, or the opportunities wealth offers to contribute to society.

Prosperity by itself, however, is not a cure-all against an ill-led life. Money is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for the good life, for happiness and wisdom. But how can one become rich? What is the sufficient condition for the good life?

Certainly, one can become rich in many ways. Forbes World’s Billionaires list reveals three such ways:

The Company-builder way. Carlos Slim Helu, first on the list, amassed his wealth by setting up large-well managed corporations in heavy industry, mining, and retailing. He took, for example, an ailing state monopoly phone company Telemex and turned it into a real company. This way to reaches isn’t new. The “King of Steel,” Andrew Carnegie and the “King of the Automobile,” Henry Ford (NYSE:F) and the “King of Oil” John Rockefeller followed a similar path—they did create their own company empires that changed the course of economic history.

The Business-builder Way. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, second on the list, amassed his fortune by helping scores of engineers and marketers become entrepreneurs, who in turn helped other engineers and marketers become their own entrepreneurs, work at their own pace often in their own place, sharing the risks and the rewards with him. This way to riches is new. It follows the tradition of other Silicon Valley scientists-entrepreneurs like William Hewlett, and David Packard (NYSE:HPQ) who amassed their fortunes by helping other high-tech scientists-entrepreneurs amass theirs. Venture capitalists like Ned Heizer, Jim Markkula, Bill Drapper, Eugen Kleimer, Tom Perkins, and Andy Bechtolsheim became wealthy by serving as financiers and mentors to high-tech start-up entrepreneurs.

The Financier Way. Berkshire Hathaway’s Chair Warren Buffett (NYSE:BRK-B), third on the list, accumulated his fortune by buying up shares of well-managed corporations and entrepreneurial ventures like Exxon Mobile Corporation (NYSE:XOM), IBM (NYSE:IBM), Visa Inc. (NYSE:V), and Nike (NYSE:NKE), in essence combining the previous two strategies. Warren Buffett’s way to riches is neither new nor unique. A number of other investors have amassed their own fortunes by picking up winning companies.

Irrespective of which path one follows to riches, history has shown that staying rich is often more difficult than getting there. Even more important, being rich doesn’t warrant a good life, which bring us to the second question: What does it take to turn a prosperous life into a good life?

Reason. The capacity to examine life, to search for opportunities to expand your mental and spiritual horizons; to understand what can be controlled in life; to distinguish between false and true pleasures; to identify and treasure true friendships; to attain a properly balanced existence; to be a responsible human being, and to be kind to others—all of which can contribute to a meaningful spirituality.

Article from Forbes

How Irish And Celtic Music Became A Bustling Business

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 23:14:00 +0000

Article from Forbes

St. Patrick's Day Surprise: Seven-time all-Ireland accordion champion John Whelan serenades Steve Forbes and friends in the newsroom.

St. Patrick’s Day has long been a financial boon to pub owners, breweries and purveyors of just about anything green. But until this past decade, there wasn’t always a pot of gold awaiting the musicians who provide live Celtic and Irish music for the occasion.

Seven-time all-Ireland accordion champion John Whelan, who recently graced the FORBES newsroom with a special St. Patrick’s Day performance (see video below), arrived in America in 1980 with a suitcase and his accordion. He remembers a tough climate for musicians of his ilk, even on the big day.

“When I first started, I remember doing St. Patrick’s Day, you’d be lucky if you made $200-$300,” he says. “I’ve done St. Patrick’s Day [lately] for upwards for upwards of $12,000. It really has changed.”

Sometimes all it takes to elevate a genre is one runaway hit. For Celtic music, says Whelan, that catalyst was Riverdance. The Irish stepdancing production debuted during an intermission at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994 and quickly spread across the British Isles. By 1996, the show was ensconced at Radio City Music Hall in New York; the production continues to tour, pulling in just shy of $400,000 in nightly ticket sales according to Pollstar.

Riverdance showcased traditional Celtic music in a way the mainstream hadn’t previously seen, opening all sorts of doors for Irish musicians around the world. Suddenly, a sleepy subgenre was in high demand.

How high? Last year I spoke with Gaelic Storm, the Irish band featured in Titanic. Lead songwriter Steve Twigger told me that the band receives twice its typical take for shows on and around St. Patrick’s Day. For a band that grosses $15,000 per show, the boost really adds up.

“It’s sort of like Christmas time for Irish bands,” Twigger told me. “When we first started, we’d do a dozen shows per weekend. We’d start at 11am and just go from venue to venue.”

In fact, the demand for live Celtic music on St. Patrick’s Day in the U.S. is so substantial that many bands based in Ireland make the trek across the pond every year to cash in on the bonanza. For some groups, the main limitation on earnings is the number of concerts can be crammed into a single day or week.

Thanks in large part to Riverdance, the world’s appetite for Irish music lasts all year round. Gaelic Storm plays 200 shows per year and constantly puts out new material; Whelan has released over a dozen albums, even reaching the No. 5 spot Billboard‘s world music chart in the late 1990s.

This year, however, the veteran accordionist is doing something he’s never done before: playing a sober St. Patrick’s Day concert. Sponsored by the Irish Consulate General in New York, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence and a handful of other groups, the performance will aim to offer an enjoyable alternative to pub-crawling for those on the wagon.

“St. Patrick’s Day is such an important date in the Irish calendar around the world because it brings the community together,” he says. “It’s a way to bring all those elements of the history and the homeland together. So we celebrate it with great joy and great passion.”

Even without the Guinness.

See the full video of John Whelan’s interview and performance at Forbes below.

Article from Forbes

Five Ways to Think About Diversification of Your Investments

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 09:56:00 +0000

March 12, 2012, 11:23 AM
By CARL RICHARDS
Article from New York Times

Carl Richards is a certified financial planner in Park City, Utah. His new book, “The Behavior Gap,” was published earlier this year. His sketches are archived here on the Bucks blog.

Many of us learned the lesson years ago: don’t put all your eggs in one basket. But when we start to call it diversification, we forget the simple things that make this concept so powerful. What follows are a few thoughts on diversification that might spark a conversation about money in your home or office.

Before we begin, let’s start with a couple of assumptions:

You’re using broadly diversified mutual funds in your portfolio.

When we mention bonds, we’re talking about bonds that are high quality and not junk bonds.

I know there’s a ton we could talk about just in terms of what those two assumptions mean, but for this post, let’s just leave them be. Now, on to the interesting stuff.

1) Asset Allocation: How you divide your investments between bonds and stocks will be one of the most important decisions you make, and it is far more important than the question of which bonds or stocks you actually choose. Sure, those things matter. But you should only address them after you decide on an allocation gives you the best shot at reaching your long-term goals.

2) Correlation: The reason we diversify is because we want to own investments that move in different directions at different times. We want one to zig when others are zagging. The reason you include bonds in your allocation is to counter the times when the stock market is down (remember, I said high-quality bonds). This is true when we talk about including international stocks in a portfolio.

The main reason to include international stocks is because they often act slightly different than domestic stocks. You can make the same argument for stocks of small companies versus large companies, value companies versus growth companies, real estate stocks and even commodities. Your goal is to consider portfolio options that act slightly differently than everything else in your portfolio. If it acts the same and has the same expected future return, why add it?

3) Temptation: When you diversify correctly, you will usually have something in your portfolio that you don’t like. Just remember that it will probably change next year. This year, maybe your international fund will do well. But that creates a temptation to get rid of everything else and move all your money to the international fund.

Resist that temptation! Things change. Next year the investment you wanted to fire might turn into your new favorite. This process is likely to repeat. So instead of making the classic mistake of moving all your money to an investment that just did well, remember that the winners in a properly diversified portfolio will probably rotate.

4) Concentration: You can make a lot of money by being concentrated instead of diversified, but you can also lose it all. Often you hear people say that diversification is overrated. It’s easy to find examples of people who have gotten insanely wealthy by laying it all on the line with their business or investments, but what we often forget is how many people lose it all doing the same thing. Betting it all might be exciting and celebrated in our society, but slow and steady still seems to be the best way for the most people to have the best chance of winning the race.

5) A Real Financial Plan: Design your portfolio based on your life and not the markets. Your asset allocation should reflect your goals. If you do it that way, you should only make changes when your goals change, not when the market does.

Despite knowing better, I continue to see people ignoring the lessons of diversification. Are you one of them?

Article from New York times

Home Business: Banish The Fear Of Rejection

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:41:00 +0000

Tami Stodghill

Business Owner , Wealthy Way Of Life

Article from The Entrepreneur

Our former professions were within the Desktop Publishing and Graphic Design industries. My husband was the Technical Support Services Manager and I was Press Relations Manager. We had been in this industry for 20+ years and ours were not positions which required "sales" of any kind. In fact, people came to us and would leave having received valuable assistance and information. Certainly not jobs which made us feel as though there was ever a chance of rejection...

However, when we started our home business, we found ourselves in a position where we needed to call our prospects and leads, present our opportunity and then hope they found that "it spoke to them" and what they were looking for. Fear kicked in. And just making those calls seemed like a pressure so great that some days we initially would just put them off. No one likes rejection and since people have a preconceived notion that sales and telemarketing callers were to be avoided, it made it that much more difficult to put ourselves in the right mindset to face those fears.

Then a really good friend of my husband's who is in the industry told him something that completely changed our view. See, what he explained is that we are successful at our home business and it has allowed us to do what we want to do—work from home, have financial freedom and set our own hours. So, in a nutshell, we view it as a valuable opportunity. There are many home based businesses that offer those same benefits. He explained that if we faced every call with the attitude that "we have something of value to offer and either the prospect wanted to take advantage of this opportunity, or someone else would", all of the pressure and fear was abolished. We realized what he said was true. If we believed in our business and put that energy into every call, then we shouldn't fear any kind of response.

There are many reasons why someone may opt not to take advantage of your business opportunity—lack of available funds, fear of failure, fear of quitting their present position and chancing success, past bad experiences in a home business, or just plain indecisiveness. Trust me, we certainly were undecided for over 10 years when we were searching for a business and probably passed up the opportunity to join many different ventures. Would they have been successful for us? Maybe. But we evidently were not at a point that we felt comfortable making that change in our lives. It had nothing to do with the opportunities or the people presenting them at the time. It was just where we were at in our lives.

In closing, if you approach your calls with the mindset that what you have is a viable option for your prospects and that it is their loss when they pass up that chance to join your business, all fear of rejection will leave your mind. And in doing that, you will project a confidence, happiness and stress-free presence when you present your business. It will leave you feeling as though every call has been a worthwhile one and that you needn't fear someone turning down your offer for more details or information. If the prospect is in the right place in their life to make a change and take advantage of the opportunity you offer, then you will have a sale. If they aren't, no amount of dreading or analyzing their responses is going to change that. And it most certainly isn't a reflection of an unworthy business. Provide your information, feel great about the fact that you made that change yourself, and move forward so that you can find others who see your business as you did.

Article from The Entrepreneur

Taking control of your finances

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 12:02:00 +0000

Posted 5 days ago
Article from Northumberland Today

The idea of taking control of your finances can seem like a daunting task given the alarming international headlines and the day to day financial stresses that we all have to deal with. However, taking back control of your personal financial world and improving on what you are already doing should not be a scary and overwhelming task. In fact, it can be quite simple if you are patient with yourself. Obtaining financial freedom takes focus and effort, but it certainly does not have to be complicated.

It isn’t hard to get overwhelmed about the world of finances these days; every time you turn on the television, radio or read a newspaper, all the financial news seems to be doom and gloom. Headlines are focussing on the European debt crisis, Greece needing additional bail outs, the Canadian and Ontario governments running deficits and needing to make cuts and news that our economy is experiencing slow to no growth. Meanwhile, many of us aren’t aware of the hypocrisy of the banking world. How is it reasonable that we read articles referencing economists and investors from the five big banks who are telling us that Canadians need to lower their debt levels, while at the same time branch banking employees are trying to give Canadians as much credit as possible. In many situations it is as ridiculous as giving a starving person a sandwich and then scolding them for eating it. Financial consumers need to be aware that banks are big business, and that the credit opportunities they offer are not always in the client’s best interest.

The next step toward taking command of your finances is to make yourself aware of where your money has been going. Review the last few months of your bank statements and list all of your monthly fixed and variable expenses. Put your entire financial picture onto a piece of paper or use a spreadsheet on the computer. Ask yourself: how many bank accounts, credit cards, loans and lines of credits do I have and do I really need them all? Once you can see it, you can simplify it. Start closing accounts you do not need, cancelling credit cards you don’t use, decrease your limits on overdraft protection and lines of credit. Ultimately, you won’t bury yourself in debt if you’re not giving yourself the opportunity to.

Once you have made a list of your monthly bills and expenses, see if you can save yourself some money and make life easier. Look at your list of monthly expenses and see if you can reduce your payments on bills like home and auto insurance, cellphone service, cable, Internet and home phone services; these are all areas that you could negotiate a better deal. Another way to make life easier for yourself is to arrange your bills in a way that is easiest for you to stay organized. Whether you set up all of your bills to come out the day after you get paid, or you arrange them to come out at the beginning or middle of the month, the idea is to pay your bills before you can spend that important money on other things.

Another great tool for harnessing in your spending is the creation of a budget. I can remember being in university and my mother always saying to me, “I don’t know where all your money goes; you need to make yourself a budget!” She was absolutely right. During those days, I just kept swiping my debit card without a clue of how much I was spending on a week to week basis; I could never seem to figure out, why at the end of the month, I was out of money. In hindsight, making a budget and holstering my debit card in exchange for cash in hand would have saved me a lot of unnecessary debt.

The final step is to motivate and challenge yourself to making positive changes to your finances. Knowing your finances, and working within a budget, does not have to be a thorn in your side. If you’re someone who buys a coffee every day before work, challenge yourself to make your own coffee at home; instead of giving away $1.50 every day, put that money into a jar and save it for something more tangible. Financial freedom doesn’t always have to be about giving things up, it’s about knowing where your money is and using it more effectively.

Sean Moloney, BA, is a Sun Life Financial Advisor. He can be reached at 289-252-2103, sean.moloney@sunlife.com or www.sunlife.ca/sean.moloney .

Article from Northumberland Today

Three wealth-wrecking ways we can live without

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 02:01:00 +0000

Article from BusinessMirror.com.ph

MONDAY, 05 MARCH 2012 21:05 KENDRICK CHUA / PERSONAL FINANCE

WE’RE heading toward the final leg of the first quarter. It’s not a bad idea to start evaluating our finances so we won’t fall behind the targets we have set. For us to even go further, we need to rectify some of the overlooked mistakes that are wrecking our wealth inconspicuously. The sooner we rectify them, the better it is for us.

Wealth-wrecking Way # 1: Always pay yourself first

Financial advisors (myself included) have always been harping about the importance of paying yourself first. “Take 20 percent off your net income and just live on the 80 percent”, we say. Being disciplined in savings is your cornerstone for financial success. This has been tried and tested by the Chinese after all. You have been working hard (I hope you have) and you do deserve to be rewarded once somebody pays you for it.

However, this conventional thinking does not work all of the time. This works best only if you do not carry any huge consumer debt, (also known as, credit card debt) because chances are the gains you receive from your deposit or investment is paltry compared to the interest the bank charges you!

The bank pays you only less than 1 percent per annum for savings deposit. Another 3 or 4 percent if it’s a time deposit. Then they lend you the same money you lend them and they charge you a whopping 42 percent a year for on your balance excluding all the other fees. It’s really a no contest!

You’re making yourself poorer while making others richer, much richer. It should be the other way around. Appropriate more for debt repayment and after you wiped off your balanced, or at least bring it to a manageable level; then you can start paying yourself already.

Wealth-wrecking way # 2: You think enough is really enough

Sadly, most of the time, enough is not really enough. Baby boomers who are now starting to retire find themselves in a conundrum. The meager pension benefits from the government and the retirement benefits from the company they worked for can only last them for so long. All too often, retirees outlive their retirement benefits.

A friend of mine regularly purchases investment policies because she cannot bear to be in the same precarious position as her parents are in. Her parents rely on government pension and their little savings, which they thought would be enough to last them for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, reality has a nasty way of showing us we are wrong—when it’s all too late already.

And this is kind of thinking that gets us into a whole lot of trouble. Life insurance policies are in the same footing. I met people who believe they are fully insured. But here’s an interesting exercise I learned from a seminar: sum up the face amount of all your life insurance policies; then remove the last four digits of your answer. Let’s say you have a P2 million-coverage; remove the last four zeroes and you’ll be left with P200.

Now comes the tough question: Can your family subsist on P200 a day? P200 is half of the minimum wage in Metro Manila, and this is the interest income your family will receive when they put that in a time deposit earning a meager 4 percent a year. Most likely, this is a resounding “no”.

Don’t just settle for enough. Overshoot your target so that even if you come up short, at least you have “enough”.

Wealth-wrecking way 3: You work harder than your money; and not the other way around

All of us work hard to earn money. Some even have to work harder. And some of the richest men today work the hardest. That is why there is absolutely no reason why our money should slack off and take it easy. Our money should work twice as hard, or at the very least, work as hard as we do.

Let’s say at the end of the year you earned an additional 15 percent from your salary increase and bonuses. But since you were too busy working, you weren’t able to have time to manage your investments and so you just decided to put that in a time deposit. A year later, you realize that your money only grew by 4 percent, and after the government has taken its share of 20 percent, you’re left with a little over 3 percent. You earned 15 percent while your money earned only three percent.

Not only did your money not work hard, it was in fact lazy. Your returns were only one-fifth of what your increases are. Make money work harder than us. This is the key in attaining financial freedom.

We all wish we could turn back time and rectify our mistakes. Things don’t work that way though. We live with the memories of our blunders; but these mistakes, however painful, allow us to become savvier and better in managing our finances, and closer to our goals.

Article from BusinessMirror.com.ph