Personal Finance Management Guide

Investment Planning: Building Your Personalized Investment Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:47:00 PDT

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler. -Henry David Thoreau

Everyone needs to save for a rainy day. Once you have saved enough to take care of emergencies, you should start thinking about investing and to make your money grow. We can help you plan your investments so that you can reap adequate benefits and achieve your financial goals.

Investment Planning: How it Works?

Investment planning begins after you have taken into account your current and expected income level and have laid down your financial goals.

Investment planning needs to be done at the beginning of the year. Yes, you just might be feeling relieved now that all your tax-saving investments have been made. In fact, you might have even filed your income-tax returns. And after all this hard work, you want to take it easy for sometime.

Planning your investment focuses on identifying effective investment strategies according to an investor’s risk appetite and financial goals. There is a wide variety of investment options, including shares, bonds, mutual funds, bank deposits, real estate and futures and options. Through investment planning, one can identify the most appropriate portfolio mix.

Selecting securities isn’t the first thing investors do; choosing investments is just one of many elements in the process. To bulletproof your investing, you need to complete the tasks that detailed below. The following checklist outlines how you can build a successful investment plan that meets your individual needs and goals:

1.) Invest in a diversified investment program or systematic investment plan. Your risk tolerance level goes a long way in defining your investment approach. If you’re not averse to taking risks, then you may want to invest in an equity based mutual fund. Else, you may want to invest in a plan that involves bonds and other safe securities. Also, ensure that you keep in mind your investment objectives before you subscribe to an investment plan.

2.) Determine where you stand. Gain a good understanding of what your financial commitments are now and in the future. Make certain that you have an emergency fund and a savings plan.

3.) Determine your investment profile. This can be done by considering your risk appetite. There are mainly four types of investment profiles:

a.) Conservative (Low Risk Tolerance): Such portfolios comprise mainly (about 70%) of income assets, such as fixed interest and cash.

b.) Balanced (Average Risk Tolerance): This refers to portfolios with an equal emphasis on growth and income assets.

c.) Growth (High Risk Tolerance): Such portfolios comprise mainly (up to 80%) of growth investments, such as stocks and foreign currencies.

d.) High Growth or Aggressive (Very High Risk Tolerance): This refers to portfolios with more than 90% of the funds in growth investments.

4.) Clearly state your financial goals. How much do you need? When do you need it? How much risk can you tolerate? If you lost the principal of an investment, could you mentally recover and invest again?

5.) Determine the appropriate allocation of your personal assets for your age (young adult, middle-aged, retiree, and so on). Develop a regular investing program and stick to it regardless of market volatility.

6.) Select the investments that meet your financial goals and risk-tolerance level. How much time do you have (in years) to invest? Should you be an active trader and invest often during the day or a passive investor with a buy-and-hold policy?

7.) Analyze your investment portfolio or candidates. Before you call your online broker, make certain that you can tell a child in two minutes or less why you want to own a particular investment. Determine how long you plan to hold the security and decide at what price you will sell (and take your profits or cut your losses).

8.) Select a reliable online broker that suits your needs. Avoid mutual fund loads (a sales charge added to the purchase or sale of a mutual fund) and high fees. Use automatic investment plans, dividend reinvestment programs, investment clubs, and other programs to reduce brokerage commissions.

9.) Review your investment plan regularly. Monitor your investment portfolio and reevaluate your goals on a regular basis. This helps in fine-tuning a portfolio to suit your current financial situation and a change in risk preference. Rank the performance of your investments and make the appropriate changes. You can expect that changes in general market conditions, new products that are introduced, and new technology will change how established businesses operate. Use this information to gain an understanding of when to hold and when to fold.

10.) Start the tax process. This is the most important task. Start the entire tax planning now. In the beginning of a financial year itself, human resource departments (for the employed) start making queries regarding tax-saving investments proposed for the entire year.

Accordingly, the employer deducts taxes from the monthly salary. And you do not want to fill up this form without having any idea about the investments that you will make during the year. That's because there could be serious consequences for your finances.

In case the numbers are too little, the employer will cut higher taxes, thereby reducing your salary. For instance, if investments of $ 40,000-50,000 have to be made after the provident fund deduction, the employers will cut $ 1,000-1,250 till they get the exact details.

Worse, if you declare a particular amount of tax investment and do not stick to it, there could be heavy cuts during the last few months of the financial year. This would stress your finances for a long period of time.

Your success as an investor depends upon your ability to choose the right investment options. This, in turn, depends on your requirements, needs and goals. For most investors, however, the three prime criteria of evaluating any investment option are liquidity, safety and return.

Just remember that investment planning helps you to decide upon the right investment strategy. Besides your individual requirement, your investment strategy would also depend upon your age, personal circumstances and your risk appetite. These aspects are typically taken care of during investment planning. (Investment Planning: Building Your Personalized Investment Plan)

Email Archiving for Dummies: e-mail archiving software

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:15:00 PDT

Email Archiving Basics

Email archiving is a stand-alone IT application that integrates with an enterprise email server, such a Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Domino. In addition to simply accumulating email messages, these applications index and provide quick, searchable access to archived messages independent of the users of the system using a couple of different technical methods of implementation. The reasons a company may opt to implement an email archiving solution include protection of mission critical data, record retention for regulatory requirements or litigation, and reducing production email server load.

The core function of an email archiving application is to capture and preserve all email traffic flowing into and out of the email server so it can be accessed quickly at a later date from a centrally-managed location. There are email archiving applications to support most major email messaging systems, and they can be installed in-house or they can be outsourced to a hosted service.

In addition to email and attachments, some email archiving applications can also archive additional aspects of a mailbox including public folders, offline PST files, calendars, contacts, notes, and associated metadata and context. Email archiving applications accomplish the capture of email content on magnetic disk storage in one of two methods. One method is to capture email directly from the email application itself. (e.g. Microsoft Exchange, IBM Domino, Novell GroupWise, Sendmail, Imail). The alternative method captures email content during transport via an agent installed at network gateway.

Email Archiving Software

The typical business email user sends and receives 600 emails in a week. Those emails rapidly take up your Microsoft Exchange Server, which in turn, gets slower. The solution is a smart email archiving solution.

Email is critical to your small to medium sized business' communication, but it brings with it a host of new problems; dealing with storage limits, periodic backups, problematic PST files, access to old emails and regulatory compliance or eDiscovery requests just to name a few. Failure to address these problems effectively can bring serious repercussions.

According to recent research a typical corporate email account will generate about 4.3 GB of electronically stored information (ESI) per user/year, most of which needs to be preserved. Metalogix can help organizations store and manage this messaging and its related information while controlling growth, enforcing policies for compliance.

Metalogix provide an award winning content migration and archiving software that enables organizations to migrate, manage and archive enterprise content to ensure availability, regulatory compliance, efficiency and cost effectiveness.

Professional Archive Manager for Exchange email archiving solution by Metalogix drives email archiving by communicating with the Microsoft Exchange Server. Storage of the emails and their attachments is directed away from the overworked Microsoft Exchange Server and onto separate, inexpensive storage. The archived emails can be easily retrieved and restored with a few simple clicks. With Professional Archive Manager for Exchange email archiving solution, the time consuming task of archiving email just got easier.

To archive email, single instance storage technology is employed. Communication through active directory ensures a balanced cooperation between corporate internal systems and Professional Archive Manager for Exchange email archiving solution.

Metalogix Professional Archive Manager (PAM) will virtually eliminate the pains you experienced with PST management and email bloating. The workload on your mail system will decrease dramatically, helping to decrease support calls for all mail-related issues. The web mail integration of the product is extremely user friendly and will not require any extensive training for your organization. The added bonus of eDiscovery/compliance will really help with decreasing times associated with auditing for your organizations financials.

Metalogix is the exact solution for your email archiving needs. Metalogix Software delivers award-winning content migration and archiving software that enables organizations to migrate, manage, and archive enterprise content to ensure availability, regulatory compliance, efficiency, and cost effectiveness. It supports its more than 2,000 customers worldwide from seven office locations; Boston and Dallas (US), Vancouver and Halifax (Canada) London (UK), Bratislava (Slovakia), and Schaffhausen (Switzerland). Originally founded in 2001, Metalogix of Canada merged with the archiving business of H & S Software in 2008. Profitable and privately held, Metalogix’s investors include Insight Venture Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners.

Teen Guide to Personal Financial Management

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Sun, 10 May 2009 20:33:00 PDT

Why should young people even think about saving for retirement? Why not run credit card debt up to the max if the bank is willing to lend it? Answers to these questions and others can be found in this basic guide to the fundamentals of personal finance written specifically for young adults. A wide range of financial matters on how to manage your money are discussed in a progressive fashion from the very basics of opening a bank account to budgeting, paying for college, financing a car, and tax-deferred retirement accounts so that readers with varying levels of knowledge are provided with all the information they need to stay out of debt and to plan for their futures. Touching on a wide range of financial matters, from the use of credit cards to planning for college and retirement, the volume logically walks readers through the process of handling their personal finances. Examples throughout the book as well as advice from financial and family counselors clarify specific points for students to help them learn how to save and budget, how to avoid the pressures of consumerism and escalating debt and how to manage all aspects of their money wisely. Sample lesson plans, an extensive glossary, resource lists and further reading lists provide students who wish to study specific concepts in greater detail with all the tools they need to do so.

Buy This Book at AMAZON.COM Using this Link and Save $11.11 or 19% OFF: Teen Guide to Personal Financial Management

More book details
Teen guide to personal financial management
By Marjolijn Bijlefeld, Sharon K. Zoumbaris
Edition: illustrated
Published by Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000
ISBN 0313311072, 9780313311079
269 pages

Review of Teen Guide to Personal Financial Management

Anyone doubting the importance of guiding teens in the area of personal financial management need only read the first five pages of the introduction to become a believer....The highlight of the book is the 18-page "resource guide" of education resources, Web sites, and brief annotations of financial management services. Highly Recommended.-The Book Report

“This book belongs in the classroom or on the professional or nonfiction shelves where a parent or educator might use it for valuable life lessons.”–VOYA

“With frightening anecdotes and ample documentation, the authors present a convincing thesis that debt is rampant among teens, college students, and recent grads. They then go on to provide facts on budgeting, saving, investing, dealing with debt, understanding mortgages and loans, and even planning for retirement.”–Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin

“Anyone doubting the importance of guiding teens in the area of personal financial management need only read the first five pages of the introduction to become a believer....The highlight of the book is the 18-page "resource guide" of education resources, Web sites, and brief annotations of financial management services. Highly Recommended.”–The Book Report

“This book is a fast read. It culls essential information on financial management into one source....this book is an invaluable resource on this matter....Bijlefeld and Zoumbaris do an acceptable job of providing advice for teens on personal financial management.”–Melissa McShea

The Latino Guide to Personal Money Management
The Latino Guide to Personal Money Management is a personal finance book by and for Latinos. Latinos stand poised to become the largest minority group in the United States early in the coming century. Yet this readership has lacked reliable, targeted financial information. It's time for a personal finance book that addresses the need of the Latino community for sound, practical, financial advice. "The Latino Guide to Personal Money Management" is the first personal finance book by and for Latinos in the US market. Laura Castellanos and Laura Castaneda combine their financial and journalistic expertise in this definitive guide and reference. Individuals and families will find a panoply of advice on how to set up and use US bank accounts, save for retirement or college, and send money to family members in other countries. This guide also includes valuable tips on buying stocks and bonds, negotiating for a home, and applying for credit. The authors focus on every important aspect of money management and provide the reader with extensive resources-- worksheets, useful lists of financial institutions, and sources of bilingual information. For Latino-Americans who want to take control of their finances, this unparalleled guide is a must-read. Tip and strategies include: preparing for and financing children's educations; taking care of extending family while planning for retirement; selecting all types on insurance; locating banks that serve Latinos' needs; finding bilingual financial services.

Individuals and families will find a spectrum of advice on how to set up and use U.S. bank accounts, save for retirement or college, and send money to family members in other countries. It also includes valuable tips on buying stocks and bonds, negotiating for a home, and applying for credit.

Buy This Book at AMAZON.COM Using this Link to get FREE Super Saver Shipping at Get the book at a reduced price of $16.25: The Latino Guide to Personal Money Management

More book details
The Latino Guide to Personal Money Management
By Laura Castellanos
Contributor Antonia Hernandez
Edition: illustrated
Published by Bloomberg Press, 1999
ISBN 1576600580, 9781576600580
311 pages

Customer Review

Valuable financial information for Latinos and non-Latinos, March 17, 2000
Latinos will become the largest minority group in the United States in the 21st century, but remain largely outside the financial mainstream. For example, the Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies reported in March 2000 that 44% of Latinos own their own homes, compared with 75% of whites.

According to the Federal Reserve, despite an economic expansion of record length, there is vast disparity in wealth (all assets, including homes, autos, stocks, and savings accounts) between whites and nonwhites. The median net worth for Latino, African-American, Asian, and other minority families was $16,400 in 1998, the most recent year for which the Federal Reserve has data. That figure is just 17.28% of the median net worth of $94,900 for non-Latino white families, virtually unchanged from 17.23% in 1992 (although the disparity in income is much smaller: 62%).

The wealth gap is much greater than the income gap for various reasons. Minorities, including Latinos, typically have less access to credit for starting businesses, and are less likely to invest in the stock market. They are also less likely to have accounts at financial institutions, doing business instead with check cashers and payday lenders, the latter of whom often charge interest equal to a 500% annual percentage rate.

This much-needed book not only examines the cultural factors that help explain these trends among Latinos, it also offers advice to Latinos on setting up and using accounts at banks and credit unions, saving for retirement or college, sending money to family members in other countries, buying stocks and bonds, negotiating for a home, and applying for credit. It also lists financial institutions and sources of bilingual financial service information and provides Spanish-language translations of key financial terms. Castaneda, a former Knight-Bagehot Fellow in business and economics reporting at Columbia University who has covered business and finance as a freelance writer and a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, has thoroughly researched her topic.

Although oriented toward Latinos, this book would be helpful to anyone who wants to take control of and improve their finances.

Pearl Jewelry Gift Ideas for Mother's Day: Use Promo Code to Receive 15% Discount

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Sun, 03 May 2009 09:47:00 PDT

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How to Minimize Your Taxes and Pay for Your Kid’s College

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:50:00 PDT

The goal of tax planning is to arrange your financial affairs so as to minimize your taxes. There are three basic ways to reduce your taxes, and each basic method might have several variations. You can reduce your income, increase your deductions, and take advantage of tax credits.

Putting your money away into your tax-sheltered retirement accounts helps you reduce your tax burden and may help your children qualify for more financial aid. However, accessing retirement accounts before age 59 1⁄2 incurs tax penalties. So how do you pay for your children’s educational costs? There isn’t one correct answer, because the decision depends on your overall financial situation.

Here are some ideas that can help you meet expected educational expenses and minimize your taxes:

1. Apply for aid, regardless of your financial circumstances. Qualifying for federal aid, of course, means first filling out the dreaded Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). This is the form that most financial-aid officers use to compare your family's finances with what your child's colleges of choice cost, before calculating your expected family contribution (EFC). (If your child is applying to private colleges, you may also need to fill out the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE, a form administered by the College Board, a nonprofit membership association.)

A number of loan programs, such as Unsubsidized Stafford Loans and Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS), are available even if your family isn’t deemed financially needy. Only Subsidized Stafford Loans, on which the federal government pays the interest that accumulates while the student is still in school, are limited to those students deemed financially needy. In addition to loans, a number of grant programs are available through schools, the government, and independent sources. Specific colleges and other private organizations (including employers, banks, credit unions, and community groups) also offer grants and scholarships. Some of these have nothing to do with financial need.

2. Help your kids find a work. As a parent, you can play a helpful role in assisting your child search for jobs. Your child can work and save money to pay for college costs during junior high, high school, and college. In fact, if your child qualifies for financial aid, he or she is expected to contribute a certain amount to his or her educational costs from money earned from jobs held during the school year or summer breaks and from his or her own savings. Besides giving the student a stake in his or her own future, this training encourages sound personal financial management down the road.

3. Save in your name, not in your children’s. Many parents set up accounts in their child’s name to build up college funds. Don’t do this. If you’ve exhausted your retirement account contributions, saving money that you’re earmarking to pay for college is okay. Just do it in your name. If your children’s grandparents want to make a gift of money to them for college expenses, keep the money in your name; otherwise, have the grandparents keep the money until the kids are ready to enter college.

4. Don’t try to do it all yourself. Unless you’re affluent, don’t even try to pay for the full cost of a college education for your children. Few people can afford it. You and your children will, in all likelihood, have to borrow some money.

5. Borrow against your company retirement plans. Many retirement savings plans, such as 401(k)s, allow borrowing. It's common for such plans to let you borrow a percentage of your money that doesn't exceed $50,000. The interest rate is usually reasonable, with a specified repayment schedule. The downside of borrowing from your 401(k) is that if you lose your job, the loan must be repaid quickly.

Just make sure that you’re able to pay back the money. Otherwise, you’ll owe big taxes for a premature distribution.

Remember that just because you can doesn't mean you should. In fact, borrowing against your 401(k) account should be considered a last resort. Your 401(k) is your retirement nest egg - not an emergency savings account.

6. Borrow against your home equity. This is the oldest trick in the book. It's also one of the best because you can exert almost total control over the process.
If you’re a homeowner, you can borrow against the equity (market value less the outstanding mortgage loan) in your property. Doing so is usually wise because you can borrow against your home at a reasonable interest rate, and the interest is generally tax-deductible. Be careful to borrow an amount you can afford to repay and that won’t cause you to default on your loan and lose your home.

Here's how it works: Say you need $50,000, your home is worth $250,000 and you owe the bank $100,000 on your mortgage. You can borrow against the equity, in this case $150,000.

How to Teach Your Kids about Taxes and Money Matters

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:13:00 PDT

The importance of teaching children the skills of financial management cannot be overemphasized. Teaching children about money, given all the new and complex choices that exist for people today, is more important than ever before.

Children need a firm foundation in understanding the value of money and knowing what to do, or, what not to do with it. This can only come through conscious, explicit teachings. Too many children think their parents have an endless supply of money for them to tap into. When denied a purchase, they think the parent is being mean. Setting up a structure and helping your child understand and respect money is a chore, but it will pay off in the long run.

One way of teaching your kids about money is by showing your kids your pay stub! Sharing information about what you earn and what you pay in taxes with your children can be highly educational for them. This information gets kids thinking about the realities of living within an income.

Your pay stub helps kids see not only what you earn each month, but also how much goes out for expenses, like taxes. You can then have discussions about the costs of rent and mortgages, utilities, food, and everything else. Your children may better understand your financial constraints, and, as a result, they’ll be more responsible for earning money, paying taxes, and meeting monthly bills. You don’t do them (or yourself) any favors by keeping them in the dark about financial matters. In the absence of information, children have no concept of the amount their parents earn. Some have outrageously inflated ideas of how much their parents make — especially children whose parents eagerly fulfill their requests for purchases.

Also, avoid punitive savings schemes, like punishing them by reducing their allowance for buying the latest edition of their favorite comic book. The first step in making children financially responsible is to take advantage of human nature rather than ignoring it or futilely trying to change it.

Some efforts by most parents to teach most kids about money are doomed from the start. Those efforts usually begin (and often end) with the opening of savings accounts for their children. The parents suddenly decide that the time has come to impose order on their children's chaotic financial condition, so they drive the kids down to the bank and sign them up for passbooks. The children are intrigued and excited at first by the notion that a bank will pay them for doing nothing, but their enthusiasm fades when they realize that the interest rate is very small and, furthermore, that their parents don't intend to give them access to their principal money. To a kid or a teenager, a savings account is just an instrument or a magic box that vanished birthday checks and some of their allowances.

Instead, parents should put their kids entirely (almost) in charge of their money, and watch them learn how to spend and save. By making them in charge, you empower them to make the right financial decisions. Remember that it is not all about creating or investing money but making the right financial decisions to attain your objectives in life. And money is just a tool to attain those objectives.

How to Ensure a Complete and Accurate Filing of Your Tax Return: Tax Preparation Checklist

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 09:33:00 PDT

When you sign your 1040 form, you agree to abide by the tax law making you responsible for paying your taxes, regardless of who prepares your return. If there are errors, innocent or otherwise, the Internal Revenue Service looks for the taxpayer, not the person who filled out the forms.

Preparation is key so get your information together before you start and if you need help, ask a qualified tax adviser. And do remember that you have to pay your tax – plus any payment on account due – it’s not just about getting the form in.

In case you don’t feel like flipping through countless pages of government instructions on what constitutes a “complete and accurate” return, you may want to check out several common problem areas at a glance and the types of records normally required.

Use the following checklist for better tax preparation on your income tax return. Not every category will apply to you. Just pick those that do and make sure you have that information available.

Tax Preparation Checklist:

1. Itemized deductions: Receipts, receipts, who’s got the receipts? If you’re planning on itemizing your deductions, you need the numbers to calculate your deductions and to prove your claims in case you’re audited.

2. Medical expenses: Keep all your receipts, and make sure you get receipts for all services that you receive during the year, including cab fares to and from the doctor’s office. The list of allowable medical deductions is long and fairly inclusive, and as healthcare costs continue to rise faster than most people’s salaries, more and more people will find they can take a medical deduction.

3. Mortgage interest payments: You should receive these payments, which are documented on Form 1098, from the bank that holds your mortgage.

4. Real estate taxes: Keep a copy of your real estate tax bill, and either the canceled checks, a receipt from your city or town, or a line item on your Form 1098 (if your mortgage company pays your taxes for you).

5. Personal property taxes: Keep a receipt for your excise tax bill.

6. State and local income taxes: Hang on to copies of your canceled checks if your bank still gives you back your checks. Otherwise, when the IRS wants proof, you’ll have to pay for copies from your bank.

7. Charitable deductions: For donations in excess of $250 (per donation), keep a written receipt or letter from the charity that states the amount and nature of your donation.

8. Casualty or theft losses: You just never know when your number will come up in the burglar lottery, or you drop your diamond ring down the garbage disposal. If you don’t have your receipts, don’t despair, though; you have other ways to prove this deduction.

9. Unreimbursed job expenses, safe deposit box fees, tax preparation fees, and other miscellaneous itemized deductions: Once again, keeping your receipts makes these deductions easy to prove. You may be rejoicing to find that you don’t have enough deductions to itemize in 2007, so you can trash all your receipts now. And, you may also be assuming that the same will be true in 2008. Keep in mind, though, that your finances, and your tax situation, can do funny things from year to year; be sure to hang on to your 2008 receipts so that you keep all your deduction options open down the road.

10. Dependent expenses: If you plan to claim someone other than your qualifying child as a dependent, you need to be able to prove (if you’re audited) that you provided more than 50 percent of that person’s total support. The length of time that you provide the support doesn’t mean anything — it’s the total cost that matters. So be ready to show how much you paid for your dependent’s lodging, food, clothes, healthcare, transportation, and any other essential support stuff.

11. Car expenses: If, for the business use of your car, you choose to deduct the actual expenses rather than the standard mileage rate (which is 44.5 cents per mile for 2008), you need to be able to show the cost of the car and when you started using it for business. You also must record your business miles, your total miles, and your expenses, such as insurance, gas, and maintenance. You need a combination of a log and written receipts, of course!

12. Home expenses: If you own your home, you not only need to keep track of your mortgage and real estate tax payments, but you also need to keep precise records of your purchase price and purchase expenses, plus the cost of all the improvements and additions you make over time (save your receipts, please!). Although you may not be selling your house this year, when you do, you’ll be thankful you have all your receipts in a neat little file. If you rent a portion of your house, or you run a business from it, you’ll also need your utility bills, general repair bills, and housecleaning and lawn-mowing costs in order to calculate your net rental income or your home office expense.

13. Business expenses: The IRS is especially watchful in this area, so be sure to keep detailed proof of any expenses that you claim. This proof can consist of many items, such as receipts of income, expense account statements, and so on. Remember that the IRS doesn’t always accept canceled checks as the only method of substantiation, so make sure that you hang on to the bill or receipt for every expense you incur.

Remember that it's only your taxes -- not life or death! Do your best, but don't obsess. Even the IRS understands that only those with tombstones over their heads never make mistakes. Remember, it's the new, friendly IRS. But, it will charge interest and penalties.

Atlanta Bankruptcy Rates Expected To Climb In Continuing Economic Decline

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:34:00 PST

To many Georgia residents, it's no surprise Atlanta ranked 8th in the nation on the Forbes.com list of metropolitan areas with the worst housing markets. The first quarter of 2009 has been a continuation of the declines the area saw through most of 2008. Jobless rates are the highest they have been in the history of the state, and foreclosure rates continue to climb.

Bankruptcy attorneys and financial experts expect that bankruptcy rates will continue to climb until the economy turns around.

Atlanta bankruptcy attorney Matt Berry says that many people may not understand bankruptcy or are not fully aware of the protections that it provides them.

“If you are facing heavy financial burdens, the first thing you should do is talk with a bankruptcy lawyer,” Berry suggested. “An attorney will have a deeper understanding of the different aspects of the law, and the advice that you get will allow you to make informed and educated decisions about your financial future.”

Essentially, Berry explains that filing bankruptcy can help you erase or pay off many of the debts you have incurred. Filing for bankruptcy protections will allow you to obtain a start fresh and begin anew with a clean slate.

Statistically, most consumers file Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, which allows for most debt to be wiped out in about 90 days. There are some limitations. Some debts, such as student loans and child support, are not eligible for discharge in bankruptcy. Chapter 7 will clear most of your unsecured debts, such as credit cards and signature loans (loans for which no collateral was provided).

Changes to bankruptcy laws that went into effect in October 2005 did make it more difficult for consumers to file bankruptcy. One change in the Bankruptcy process requires that all persons who consider filing for bankruptcy undergo a “means test” to determine if their income level is high enough to support some repayment of their debt.

If in the past six months, the debtor made more than the median income for the state they live in, they must file a chapter 13 bankruptcy case and make payments in an effort to pay off their debt in three to five years.

The Web site for Berry’s firm, Berry and Associates, lists a number of advantages for Chapter 13 Bankruptcy including:

- Chapter 13 will stop foreclosure and allow you to catch up mortgage payments over time.

- Stop lawsuits, garnishments, even tax levies to get back in control of your finances

- Automatic stays are broader ranged and include co-debtors

Understanding your options is essential to protecting your financial future. Getting the assistance of an expert can be extremely valuable. Contact a Georgia bankruptcy attorney to review your situation and see if bankruptcy is a viable option.

About the Guest Blogger:

Rob Beard is a staff writer for Berry and Associates. He specializes in legal and financial topics such as Chapter 13 Bankruptcy and Georgia Bankruptcy filing.

Truly Creative Ways Bail-out Companies Do to Save Money

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 18:08:00 PST

CITIBANK’S NEW OFFICE POLICY

EFFECTIVE March 01, 2009

Dress Code:

1) You are advised to come to work dressed according to your salary.

2) If we see you wearing Prada shoes and carrying a Gucci bag, we will assume you are doing well financially and therefore do not need a raise.

3) If you dress poorly, you need to learn to manage your money better, so that you may buy nicer clothes, and therefore you do not need a raise.

4) If you dress just right, you are right where you need to be and therefore you do not need a raise.

Sick Days:

We will no longer accept a doctor's statement as proof of sickness. If you are able to go to the doctor, you are able to come to work.

Personal Days:

Each employee will receive 104 personal days a year. They are called Saturdays & Sundays.

Bereavement Leave:

This is no excuse for missing work. There is nothing you can do for dead friends, relatives or co-workers. Every effort should be made to have non-employees attend the funeral arrangements in your place.

In rare cases where employee involvement is necessary, the funeral should be scheduled in the late afternoon. We will be glad to allow you to work through your lunch hour and subsequently leave one hour early.

Bathroom Breaks:

Entirely too much time is being spent in the toilet. There is now a strict three-minute time limit in the stalls. At the end of three minutes, an alarm will sound, the toilet paper roll will retract, the stall door will open, and a picture will be taken. After your second offense, your picture will be posted on the company bulletin board under the 'Chronic Offenders' category. Anyone caught smiling in the picture will be sectioned under the company's mental health policy.

Lunch Break:

* Skinny people get 30 minutes for lunch, as they need to eat more, so that they can look healthy.

* Normal size people get 15 minutes for lunch to get a balanced meal to maintain their average figure.

* Chubby people get 5 minutes for lunch, because that's all the time needed to drink a Slim-Fast.

Thank you for your loyalty to our company. We are here to provide a positive employment experience. Therefore, all questions, comments, concerns, complaints, frustrations, irritations, aggravations, insinuations, allegations, accusations, contemplations, consternation and input should be directed elsewhere.

The Management
(Don’t take this seriously.)

Filing Bankruptcy In Texas: What Can You Keep?

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:20:00 PST

Keeping your stuff is probably important to you. Faced with financial obligations that you are unable to pay, understanding the exemptions available in bankruptcy can help you take steps to preserve as many of your belongings as possible in a chapter 7 bankruptcy case.

In the State of Texas, both federal and state bankruptcy exemptions are available for those filing bankruptcy. There are some limits on certain exemptions such as equity that you have in a home or in a vehicle.

The law office of Robert A. Higgins and Associates, with convenient locations in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex has offered assistance to hundreds of clients looking for a way out of debt. Below is a brief summary of the exemptions available to those who file bankruptcy in Texas.

Homestead: Unlimited, although, property cannot exceed 10 acres in town, village, city, or 100 acres elsewhere (200 per family). Sale proceeds exempt for 6 months after sale.

Pensions: Tax-exempt retirement accounts, traditional and Roth IRAs to $1,095,000 per person, and virtually all pension and survivor’s benefits.

Insurance: Most life, health, accident or annuity benefits, monies, policy proceeds and cash value, due or paid to beneficiary or insured.

Miscellaneous: Property of business partnership; alimony and child support; higher education savings plan trust account; liquor licenses and permits

Personal Property: Includes items up to $60,000 in value for family, or $30,000 for single adult.

Public Benefits: Unemployment compensation; Workers’ compensation; Crime victims’ compensation; Medical assistance; and Public assistance

Tools of Trade: Tools, books, equipment and boat or motor vehicle used in trade, farming or ranching vehicles and implements

Wages: Earned but unpaid wages and unpaid commissions not to exceed 25% of total personal property exemptions

In a chapter 7 bankruptcy case the debtor is required to turn over to the trustee only the nonexempt money or property that he or she possessed at the time the case was filed. Since many nonexempt assets are liquid in nature and tend to vary in size or amount from day to day, it is wise for the debtor to engage in some negative estate planning. With the help of a qualified Texas bankruptcy lawyer, a debtor can legally minimize the value or amount of these liquid assets on the day and hour that the chapter 7 bankruptcy case is filed. Contact Higgins and Associates for help and information regarding your Dallas or Fort Worth bankruptcy options.

About the Guest Blogger:

Rob Beard is a staff writer for Higgins and Associates. He specializes in legal and financial topics such as Chapter 13 Bankruptcy and Bankruptcy Law.

What Does a Social Security Disability Attorney Do?

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:01:00 PST

If you are considering applying for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits the expertise of a Social Security disability attorney can help. A Social Security disability attorney can increase your chances of receiving Social Security disability benefits at each stage of the Social Security disability application and appeals process.

A Social Security disability attorney will not complete the Social Security disability application process, but if you have retained a Social Security disability attorney this may increase your chances of receiving Social Security disability benefits even at the application level. If you are denied Social Security disability benefits a Social Security disability attorney will complete the following tasks for you:

1. The

Social Security attorney will review all of your information and your initial Social Security disability application to make sure it included all relevant information.

2. The Social Security attorney will complete the first step of the Social Security disability appeals process. In most states, this is the “Reconsideration” phase. The “reconsideration” paperwork must be submitted to the Social Security Administration with in sixty days of the Social Security disability denial letter. There are ten states that do not have the “reconsideration” phase and the first step in the Social Security disability appeals process will be a judicial hearing with an Administrative Law Judge.

3. The Social Security disability attorney will present your Social Security Disability Case before the Administrative Law Judge. This will include gathering all of your medical information and developing a persuasive case, meeting with you prior to the judicial hearing and arguing your Social Security Disability Case before the Administrative Law Judge.

4. The Social Security disability attorney can help appeal your Social Security Disability Case to the Advisory Council if the Administrative Judge does not approve your Social Security disability claim.

Unfortunately, most Social Security Disability applications are denied at the initial phases of the Social Security Disability process. If you have applied and been denied

Social Security Disability benefits you can get help. Do not get discouraged even if you have been denied at the initial level and the reconsideration level; with a competent Social Security disability attorney arguing your Social Security Disability Case at the judicial hearing you have a strong chance that your Social Security disability benefits will be approved. Visit SocialSecurityHome.com today and fill out a FREE evaluation form to discuss your Social Security Disability case with a qualified Social Security Disability Attorney.

About the Guest Blogger:

Rob Beard is a staff writer for SocialSecurityHome.com. He specializes in legal topics such as SSI and SSDI.

Personal Finance Advice for Penny Savers

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 11:56:00 PST

Most of us probably resolve to be more sensible with money in these times. We’re going to live frugally, save regularly and not go into the red. But, mysteriously, within a few months we seem to have run up a credit card debt and blown our savings on a holiday. The truth is that you don’t need cast-iron discipline or the wisdom of Warren Buffett. Here are some easy steps to get from profligate to prudent this year- while still enjoying life.

1. Junk useless direct debits. Don’t just go on paying for that life cover you don’t need.

2. Use your credit card sparingly. Pull out the plastic when you absolutely have to have that have-price dress in the sales. But always pay it off before it incurs any interest.

3. Find out your books balance. Get out all your bank statements and work out how much you’ve earned- include benefits and interest on savings- and how much you’ve spent over the past year.

4. Bank online and check your balance twice a week. This will give you a clear idea of what’s going in and coming out.

5. Build up a rainy day fund. Set up a monthly direct debit to put money aside in a high-interest account.

6. Organise all your payments. Have your direct debits going out just after your salary is paid in. The rest is yours-to transfer into a savings account paying a better rate of interest than your current account. Transfer back as and when you need extra cash.

7. Buy now, pay at once. If you can’t afford something one month, wait until the next.

8. Always shop around when contracts- like your internet and mobile phone service provider- come up for renewal. Don’t forget to ring your existing provider to see if it can offer you something better.

9. Buy treats with reward points schemes. Use all those points you’ve accumulated on your various cards to give yourself a treat. Spoil yourself- after all, you deserve it.

Confessions of a Shopaholic: Shopaholic Series- Book Review, Free eBook PDF Download

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:52:00 PST

The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic (2000) (Confessions of a Shopaholic in the US) is the first in the popular Shopaholic series. It is a chick-lit novel by Sophie Kinsella, a pen-name of Madeline Wickham. It focuses on the main character Rebecca (Becky) Bloomwood, a financial journalist, who is in a serious amount of debt through her shopping addiction.

Confessions of a Shopaholic is the book that made Sophie Kinsella a worldwide favorite author. In this book, she introduces Becky Bloomwood, a quirky and lovable character who has an addiction to shopping and an aversion to paying bills.

Description:

Rebecca Bloomwood just hit rock bottom. But she's never looked better.... Becky Bloomwood has a fabulous flat in London's trendiest neighborhood, a troupe of glamorous socialite friends, and a closet brimming with the season's must-haves. The only trouble is that she can't actually afford it--not any of it. Her job writing at Successful Savings not only bores her to tears, it doesn't pay much at all. And lately Becky's been chased by dismal letters from Visa and the Endwich Bank--letters with large red sums she can't bear to read--and they're getting ever harder to ignore. She tries cutting back; she even tries making more money. But none of her efforts succeeds. Becky's only consolation is to buy herself something ... just a little something.... Finally a story arises that Becky actually cares about, and her front-page article catalyzes a chain of events that will transform her life--and the lives of those around her--forever. Sophie Kinsella has brilliantly tapped into our collective consumer conscience to deliver a novel of our times--and a heroine who grows stronger every time she weakens. Becky Bloomwood's hilarious schemes to pay back her debts are as endearing as they are desperate. Her "confessions" are the perfect pick-me-up when life is hanging in the (bank) balance.

Review:

If you've ever paid off one credit card with another, thrown out a bill before opening it, or convinced yourself that buying at a two-for-one sale is like making money, then this silly, appealing novel is for you. In the opening pages of Confessions of a Shopaholic, recent college graduate Rebecca Bloomwood is offered a hefty line of credit by a London bank. Within a few months, Sophie Kinsella's heroine has exceeded the limits of this generous offer, and begins furtively to scan her credit-card bills at work, certain that she couldn't have spent the reported sums.

In theory anyway, the world of finance shouldn't be a mystery to Rebecca, since she writes for a magazine called Successful Saving. Struggling with her spendthrift impulses, she tries to heed the advice of an expert and appreciate life's cheaper pleasures: parks, museums, and so forth. Yet her first Saturday at the Victoria and Albert Museum strikes her as a waste. Why? There's not a price tag in sight.

It kind of takes the fun out of it, doesn't it? You wander round, just looking at things, and it all gets a bit boring after a while. Whereas if they put price tags on, you'd be far more interested. In fact, I think all museums should put prices on their exhibits. You'd look at a silver chalice or a marble statue or the Mona Lisa or whatever, and admire it for its beauty and historical importance and everything--and then you'd reach for the price tag and gasp, "Hey, look how much this one is!" It would really liven things up.

Eventually, Rebecca's uncontrollable shopping and her "imaginative" solutions to her debt attract the attention not only of her bank manager but of handsome Luke Brandon--a multimillionaire PR representative for a finance group frequently covered in Successful Saving. Unlike her opposite number in Bridget Jones's Diary, however, Rebecca actually seems too scattered and spacey to reel in such a successful man. Maybe it's her Denny and George scarf. In any case, Kinsella's debut makes excellent fantasy reading for the long stretches between white sales and appliance specials. Confessions of a Shopaholic: Shopaholic Series- Book Review, Free eBook PDF Download
DOWNLOAD

5 Ways to Tell the Winners from the Losers When Buying Stocks at the Bottom

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 09:10:00 PST

Right now lots of stocks look cheap. But there's a big difference between cheap and value stocks.

If you want to find the perfect long-term investment when buying at the market bottom, be sure to follow David and Tom's five simple rules...

Rule #1 -- Look for a deep moat.

A deep moat makes it hard for competitors to assault a business and eat away at its margins.

Take the online junkyard I told you about earlier...

Because you have to have zoning and "use permits" to store and sell totaled vehicles, it's difficult for newcomers to break into the salvage business. Plus, the auto insurance industry is very fragmented with hundreds of area managers. Each area manager makes the decision about who will sell his or her totaled vehicles. That's why this company has spent over 25 years building solid relationships with these agents.

But the deepest part of their moat is their extensive database of sale prices for millions of salvaged vehicles from millions of auctions. This allows the company to tell insurance companies and buyers exactly what to expect from a sale based on the exact condition of the car. And that means more consistent prices, which makes this company the first choice for insurance companies looking to sell totaled vehicles.

Rule #2 -- Look for hidden value.

This online junkyard has a lot of hidden value that the market is not recognizing yet. For one thing, as cars become increasingly sophisticated with crumple zones, airbags, computers, sensors and more, they are more expensive to fix and that makes them more likely to be totaled in an accident.

But most of the hidden value in this company comes from opportunities that are just now taking shape...

For example, the company is taking their online auctions to the general public. All you have to do is drop off your car and they take care of the rest. As the company president put it, they combine "the convenience of CarMax with the transparency of eBay."
But that's not all...

The company is also partnering with auto dealers to help sell trade-ins. Dealers can now use the online auction system to easily and quickly move older models, nonrelated brands, and other nonstandard vehicles that they receive in trade-in but can't otherwise sell. This is a huge opportunity and one the company is only just starting to promote.
And that doesn't even count the company's overseas expansion...

Rule #3 -- Look for good management and ownership.

The CEO of this hot growth company is a good old boy worth billions. He loves to drink beer, grill burgers, and work on cars. But don't let his down home attitude fool you; he's one smart grease monkey.

He started out with a small junkyard and grew it into a billion dollar business, and he is still the largest shareholder today with 11% of the company.

But that's not all...

He knows his stock is a screaming bargain right now and he's got the cash to buy it. That's why he's backing up the truck and loading up. The company repurchased nearly 3 million shares in the last quarter of FY2008.

That boosts earnings per share and it's good news for shareholders who stand to benefit from the company's incredible growth potential.

Rule #4 -- Look for a bargain price tag

The stock has taken a beating lately as hedge funds and mutual funds dump shares to meet redemptions. Right now the stock is selling at a 50% discount to its 52 week high despite beating analysts' estimates by a penny per share in the most recent quarter! And that makes it the ideal candidate for savvy investors looking to snap up a great company at fire-sale prices.

Rule #5 - Average in to limit your downside risk.

Because hedge fund selling could continue for months, the best way to guarantee you'll get this stock at the lowest price is to "average in."

Rather than trying to time the market and catching this stock on the way back up, start dollar-cost averaging into this stock today. Don't buy all at once; add new money, even in small amounts, on a regular basis.

Then commit to holding the stock for the next 3 to 5 years. Remember, Sir John Templeton held his stocks for 4 years before cashing out at a substantial profit. And Warren Buffett is buying for the long term as well.

Both men built fortunes following this deceptively simple and time-proven strategy. And fortunes will be made again as the U.S. economy recovers in the months and years to come.

In the words of Warren Buffett,

"This country is going to be living better 10 years from now than it is now. It will be living better 20 years from now than 10 years from now... We've got all the ingredients for a sensational future."

But you also may not realize that any stock market returns that you may achieve now will be achieved in a slowing economy, so where will that lead you? Buying for returns doesn’t serve a purpose unless what you’re buying will produce growth. Put it simply, are you buying because what you are buying is going to grow?

If you don’t know, you are just betting that this is right point in time. But this is not to say we will never see light again, either. Companies are in business to do business. As time passes, they will become more motivated to increase their profits and to make things happen, like making more loans to homeowners to bring profits in the door.

While you may be tempted to see this as the right time to get into the stock market, you also find is hard to justify an investment if the economy continues to slow down. Only the very bold will see this as a move to buy, and buy meagerly. The rest of us should question whether buying now is really worth the risk versus waiting for a safer entry point where we have more certainty with the economy, as well as seeing market volatility recede. We can still have a profitable portfolio for our future and not have to time it perfectly. While waiting for your invested money bear its fruits you need to hone your personal finance management skills to weather the storm.

10 Things To Know If You Are Considering Bankruptcy

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:49:00 PST

If you are having trouble paying your bills, looking at your financial situation with a clear, objective view can be difficult. Seeking the help of a credit counselor or bankruptcy attorney can help you get a better understanding of what your options are to get out of debt. If you need help finding an attorney, look for one in your local yellow pages or search online using attorney locator services like BankruptcyHome.com.

Here are some things to think about if you are considering filing bankruptcy.

1. If your monthly income is higher than the minimum payments on your outstanding debt, consider budgeting better and speaking to a consumer credit counselor to help reduce your debt.

2. In bankruptcy, all creditors are treated the same. Don’t try to repay a large personal loan to a friend or family member within six months of filing bankruptcy. The bankruptcy trustee will likely sue to have the money returned and evenly divided among your creditors.

3. Don’t cash out your retirement or 401(k) accounts. The balance in those accounts is protected up to over $1 million. Keeping those assets safe for your future should be a priority.

4. When completing the paperwork for your bankruptcy, be completely and totally honest. Don’t try to leave assets, bank accounts, brokerage accounts, credit union accounts, cash deposits or other assets off of the lists. The bankruptcy trustee will likely find anything you are trying to hide anyway and the punishment could cost you more in the long run.

5. List all of your creditors in your bankruptcy. Include loans from friends and family members along with all your credit cards, mortgage loans, car loans.

6. Never allow a creditor to draft funds from your account to pay a bill.

7. Don’t transfer balances on credit cards, draw cash advances from your credit cards or charge your credit cards up to their limits.

8. Don’t transfer funds to your children’s bank accounts.

9. If you own a home, don’t take out a second mortgage before filing bankruptcy. Unless changes are made to the bankruptcy laws, you will have to keep making all of your mortgage payments in order to keep your home. You should never take out a second mortgage to pay off credit cards that would likely be discharged in bankruptcy.

10. Tell your attorney everything about your small business, sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, LLP, LC, corporation, hobby or side business. The asset must be considered when developing your bankruptcy plan.

First and foremost you need to remember that your financial problems will not go away if you do nothing about them. It is important to face your money issues head on and take responsibility for your situation. Coordinate with your attorney to make all court appearances. Keep your attorney up-to-date on changes in your financial situation. Provide your attorney with a current address, phone number and email address.

About the Guest Blogger:
Rob Beard is a staff writer for BankruptcyHome.com. He specializes in legal and financial topics such Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and Chapter 13 Bankruptcy.

How to Get Cheap This Valentine’s Day: Inexpensive Gift and Date Ideas

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 08:59:00 PST

No money to spend on Valentine's Day? Don’t worry. You can still have a romantic Valentine's Day date on a shoe string budget. The current economic atmosphere when one should be more concerned with prudence and thriftiness in spending habits, a frugal date, in my mind, is something to be lauded rather than repudiated.

Date Ideas

1. Home dates. There's no shame in staying at home on Valentine's Day. Rent your favorite romantic movie and decide as a couple to plan the meal. Instead of going out to an expensive restaurant on Valentine's Day, select a dinner from a cookbook, shop for the ingredients and prepare dinner together. Dress up for the meal and eat by candle light to add flare to this cheap date idea. Then snuggle up with a blanket and watch your flick.

2. Learn how to do a strip-tease and perform it for your partner. Then have sex. There is no better gift to your partner than your body. Spice-up your sex life. Do something different. If you are a guy that knows little about girl’s orgasm or you think you know it all, you need to download and read this.

3. Walk in the park. No matter where you live, there's bound to somewhere close by that has a walking path or trail. Set aside a few hours and go for walk together. Talk to each other about whatever you like (stay away from stressful topics such as work, money, etc.).

4. Have a movie night with your date, challenging each other to bring a flick within the allotted theme of the night – such as worst movie of all time or the best classic you’ve never heard of.

5. Lunch-date instead of dinner-date. You can still go out for a lovely meal on Valentine's Day. Just make it earlier in the day. Even the best restaurants are less expensive when you go there for lunch rather than a full dinner.

6. Museum-date. There are museums for many things other than just fine art, and there are probably some right one in your home town. Historical museums (a personal favorite) are very common, especially in small towns and communities. The best part is many of them are free.

7. A day in bed. Call in sick. Have you partner call in sick. Don't get yourself fired from your job or anything. Use vacation time if you have to. Turn off your cell phone, laptop, etc. Rent a movie with some hot love scenes in it, or rent an adult movie even. Watch the movie, and re-enact the scenes in the movie. Spending all day in bed with your partner is a lot of fun, and really forces the two of you to connect on many levels.

8. Beach-date. If you live near the beach, a walk on the beach is a cheap date idea. Pick up shells, sea glass, etc., and turn your beach findings into a heart shaped collage or some other souvenir of Valentine's Day.

If the beach is not close enough, a walk in the woods can yield the needed materials to make a heart shaped, grapevine wreath decorated with pinecones, nuts, berries, etc. to hang on your front door or over a fireplace as souvenir. Walking is both free and romantic. A brisk walk is good for the heart and soul. Breathe in the fresh air and enjoy Mother Nature hand-in-hand.

9. Picnic. If the weather permits, instead of eating lunch or dinner at home, why not pack it up and head to the park for a picnic? Make sure you bring a blanket to sit on. Some cold drinks are also nice. Finger foods or small sandwiches are easier to eat than larger or messier foods.

10. Poetry readings. Call your local bookstores for upcoming events, such as poetry readings or lectures. Poetry readings, in particular, are surprisingly romantic. Enjoy a cup of coffee together along with words of romance and inspiration.

11. Check your local festivals. Check out your local papers' events section. You'll find everything from music festivals to food festivals to flower and garden festivals. Spend an afternoon of fun together without spending much money. The majority of these festivals feature free entertainment, including live music, fun activities, cheap food, and lots of booth browsing.

12. Historic sites. Many historic sites are either free to the public or offer discounted admission (just look online or call ahead). Spend the afternoon enriching your brain and your relationship!

Gift Ideas

13. Consider making both your gifts by hand and from scratch. The language of flowers. If you live in an area where wild flowers are available, pick your own bouquet of flowers for your date.

14. Looking for Valentine affordable gift ideas? Consider Samantha Rose Pearl Jewelries. SamanthaRose.us features the best selling exclusively designed and celebrity inspired pearl jewelries. You can choose from their elegant collections of pearl necklace, pearl earring, pearl bracelet, pearl lariat, pearl pendants and custom-made pearl jewelry piece.

Pearls never go out of style, but this season they aren’t just in style, they are “hot”. Not only are they “hot” they are very versatile. Pearls have been worn by fashionable women for ages.

Pearls are regarded as gems because they’re attractive, relatively rare, and can be worn as jewelry. Instead of being faceted, there are usually polished, carved, or drilled. Of all the gems produced by living organisms, pearls are the best known and most highly valued.

Shop now at Samantha Rose Pearl Jewelry (www.samantharose.us) and use this Discount Code: “CUPID” to received 15% discount on ALL items. The promotional discount code is valid only from February 9- 15, 2009.

15. Assemble a scrap book of your relationship. This can be an annual activity done on each Valentine’s Day chronicling your life together in the past year. Save and assemble memorable items such as: pictures; notes you’ve written each other; ticket stubs from movies, shows and sporting events you attended together; receipts from romantic dates; and if married or planning marriage: engagement announcement, bridal shower invitation, wedding invitation, baby showers, etc.

16. Write something. Anything from a heartfelt letter of love to a personalized poem, sometimes it’s the thought that counts than the material gifts.

Keep in mind that inexpensive gift and date ideas are only limited by your imagination and creativeness.

Stylish Wedding for Less at Dallas Bridal Show

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 01:59:00 PST

Samantha Rose Designs, Inc. (www.samantharose.us) recently participated in Dallas Bridal Show, 20th Year Anniversary Show last January 24-25, 2009 at Dallas Market Hall. Dallas Bridal Show is the premier bridal event in Dallas and the third largest bridal show in the United States with over 350 wedding businesses, ranging from the first steps of planning your wedding to the honeymoon.

The show is the definitive bridal destination offering the latest fashions and trends in weddings. It featured the industry's top manufacturers of bridal gowns, both moderate and designer, bridesmaid’s gowns and mother of the bride, flower girl, jewelries, prom and special occasion resources.

The three-day bridal show was designed for one-stop shopping, with plenty of money-saving specials and prizes. Wedding cost can be reduced during economic recession without stripping all the beauty from one of life's most special ceremonies. In line with this theme, SamanthaRose.us showcased its latest affordable and yet elegant bridal line but also included a few other pieces, for example the Bohemian Line and Classic Line.

There was a lot of interest in all lines presented and the best seller was item number NS008WKg Translucent White Two-Strand 18. They also offer FREE jewelry pouch for bridal gifts.

To show their appreciation, they invited their booth visitors to complete an entry form for the bridal show give-a-way. For those who joined, please visit this link until February 7, 2009 for the winning entry. The lucky winners will get a 60” white pearl necklace.

Watch for them for the next Dallas Bridal Show. They will be participating this July 11-12, 2009, The Dallas Bridal Show, Dallas Market Hall, 2200 Stemmons Fwy. Dallas, Texas.

The Law of Financial Success- FREE pdf eBook Download: Personal Finance Advice

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 15:14:00 PST

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Business eBooks personal finance adv the law of financial

To download this FREE pdf eBook, click here: The Law of Financial Success- FREE pdf eBook Download

Excerpts from

"The Law of Financial Success"
by Edward E. Beals

Book Description

This book was written in 1907 by an anonymous author, and has been analyzed and revised. It seems that it was crafted by Atkinson, Beals and maybe Wattles. These teachings probably contributed to Mega Hit Books such as: The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles, The Master Key System by Charles Haanel and maybe Napoleon Hill i.e. Think and Grow Rich. In sum, this short book is a treatise on the fundamentals of Mind Science and New Thought focuses on supply, abundance, and character develoment. This philosophy been produced in a pocket size version for use in travel, autos, computer bags etc. Moreover, this book contains a nice size metaphysical glossary in the back of the manuscript. We have screened thousands of self help books and this one is truly an inspirational treasure with everything you need to transend to the next level prosperity.

The law of attraction says you are a living magnet, a force field of energy that radiates out from you and attracts back into your life people and circumstances in harmony with it. The Law of Financial Success explains how to apply this energy so you may achieve all you desire.

Contents: Money; Mental Attitude; Fear & Worry; Faith; Latent Powers; Ambition; Desire; Will Power; Auto-Suggestion; Harmony; Creation; Concentration; Persistence; Habit; Claiming Your Own; Making Money.

Introduction

"THE LAW of Financial Success!" To some this title may appear presumptuous, and indicative of an overweening vanity on the part of a writer who wishes to impress upon the world the belief that his ideas and opinions regarding the subject of Financial Success are of such transcendent value as to be worthy of the appellation of The LAW. Patience, patience, good friends, the author has no such bumptious conceit—no such vainglory. He is not attempting to frame a law; not seeking to impose upon the world a set code of conduct, emanating from his finite mind, and claiming for it the authority of a LAW. Nay, nay, he has learned to smile at such exhibitions of folly on the part of some so-called thinkers of our times, and begs to be absolved from the suspicion of such childish desire or intent.

He does not wish to pose as the formulator, discoverer, or enunciator of a new Law. He knows that any Law, to be really a LAW, must rest upon the eternal foundations of Reality, and cannot be created, made, or formed by the finite mind of man. And, so, good friends, he does not claim to have made, created or formed this great Universal Law to the consideration of which this little book is devoted. It is not his mental offspring, but a great, eternal, universal Law of Life, which springs from the source of all Laws of Life. In fact, it is an integral part and portion of the ONE GREAT LAW underlying all Life, and fits into those other Natural Laws, which, when combined in an Universal Harmony, form the outward manifestation of the GREAT LAW underlying, inherent in, and manifesting in all that we call Life.

But," you may ask, "is there then really a fundamental LAW underlying that which we call Financial Success? Is there a LAW which if once discovered, understood and practiced, will enable one to accomplish that for which this great modern world is so strenuously striving, toiling and desiring? Is there a LAW, which, when operated will make one the master of Financial Success, instead of a mere blind groper after its fruits? Is, indeed, Financial Success the result of the operations of a LAW, instead of the operation of mere luck, chance, or accident?"

Ah, yea, good friends, all this that you seek comes only from the application and operation of a great LAW, which the successful men and women of the world make use of either consciously or unconsciously. And this great LAW is as well defined as is any other Natural Law, and when grasped and understood may be practiced and operated just as may any of its related Laws on other planes of universal activity. There is no such thing in Nature as blind chance, accident, or uncaused lack. Everything in Nature operates in accordance with LAW. LAW underlies everything. You may doubt this, but stop a moment and try to think of anything in our finite world that is not the effect of some cause. A great stone is dislodged and rolls down the mountain side, striking a tree which it uproots and sends rolling down into a stream which is dammed up, causing a flood that sweeps away a fertile field, and so on, and on, effect succeeding effect. Was all this mere blind chance? Not at all. The stone was dislodged in response to the operation of causes that had been at work for centuries disintegrating the stone, and which caused the boulder to become dislodged exactly at the moment when the inherent power of the Cause reached that particular stage. There was no more chance in the dislodgment of the stone than there was in the striking of a clock that had been wound up a day, or a week, or a year before. It was all the result of invariable and consistent LAW. And so was the direction of the stone's fall; and all the succeeding incidents.

But mark you this, had some Man been able to discover and understand the LAW in operation in that latent power inherent in the stone, he would have been able to prevent the stone striking the tree and causing all the resulting damage; and he might, and would have been able to divert the stone from its path of damage, and turn it into some place in which it would have done no harm, and in which he could have broken it into bits at his leisure, and thus secured building stone for the foundation of his cottage, or the material from which a hard roadbed could have been made. The LAW behind the stone was always there, and was consistent in its operation, and yet Man, by the power of his mind could have turned the LAW into his own channels and converted it to his use. He could have made a servant and a slave of this Universal Law, instead of allowing it to master him, and become his tyrant; for in this way has man mastered the forces of Gravitation Steam, Hydraulics and Electricity, which once mastered him.

Thus has Man risen from savagery and barbarism into what he is today. And thus will he advance from what he is today into what he will become in the days to come—a creature as much superior to Man of today as the latter is superior to the barbarian. The story of Man's Attainment may be expressed in these words: "The subjugation and mastery of Nature's forces," And so it will ever be. Man first is mastered and operated upon by Nature's forces. Then he discovers the LAW underlying these forces. Then he harnesses the force, and makes it work his will. As the great English scientist Ray Lankester has recently declared in his works: "Man is held to be a part of Nature, a product of the definite and orderly evolution which is universal; a being resulting from and driven by the one great nexus of mechanism which we call Nature. He stands alone, face to face with the relentless mechanism. It if his destiny to understand and control it."

"But," you may object, "this is all very well, and undoubtedly true of the physical forces of Nature, but financial Success cannot be classed with these forces. Why, it is purely a latter-day development, and cannot be identified with the great Natural forces of which you have spoken."

Patience, again, good friends! As we proceed you shall see that the Law of Financial Success is a part and parcel of the Great Law of Use and Nourishment which is in operation all through animal and vegetable life. It is the same LAW that manifests in the form of the securing of food by the animal, the securing of nourishment by the plant. Nay, more, it is the same LAW by and through which Nature operates when it causes the atom of oxygen to attract to itself the two atoms of hydrogen in order to form the molecule of water. Water all over the world is composed of just these two substances, combined in just this proportion. The atom of oxygen has the power to operate the great Law of Attraction and Use, upon the two atoms of hydrogen, and when it draws them to itself, the tiny globule of water results.

The oxygen needs the hydrogen to accomplish its life mission; the plant needs the drop of water to accomplish its life mission; and the animal needs the plant to accomplish its life mission. And modern man needs Financial Success to accomplish his life's mission. And each one draws to itself that which it needs in proportion to its use of the LAW. The same LAW in its various forms is in operation everywhere in the same way.

But in the chemical, mineral, vegetable and animal worlds, the desire which prompts the attraction, and the will which manifests the desire, are unconsciously exerted. With man, it is different, he has developed consciousness, and to live his full life, and to accomplish his manifest destiny he must use that consciousness in discovering, understanding and availing himself of the natural forces inherent in the LAW.

And this is why this little book has been written—to point out; first the existence of the Law of Financial Success; second, to lead you to an understanding of it; and third, to give you the result of the experience of successful men in the direction of operating the LAW. And now, to "sum up" this introduction, as our legal friends would say, the writer asks you to consider the following propositions:

All progress, whether physical, mental, moral, spiritual or financial, is based upon LAW. And he who wins success in any line does so because he has followed the LAW or LAWS pertaining to his business, whether he does it consciously or unconsciously.

Some of our great "Captains of Industry," who have won marvelous successes in financial affairs (though they may have failed as moral or spiritual beings), have won their great success along this line because they, consciously or unconsciously, have discovered the underlying LAW, and by concentrating upon it alone, to the exclusion of everything else in life, have manifested the operation of the LAW to an almost abnormal degree.

What most of us want is "all 'round" success, but what we must remember is that no one can be an "all 'round" success without Financial Independence. No matter how much good a person may want to do, he is handicapped by a lack of money. All the air-castles that he has built; all the beautiful plans that he has created: all the cherished desires to do good—all go unfulfilled because there is no money with which to complete them. Before these air-castles can become real buildings; before these plans can become realities; before these great desires can be fulfilled; before any of these great things can be manifested into living realities—the LAW must be seen, understood, and put into conscious operation. And the purpose of this little book is to tell you HOW TO DO IT!

For several years the writer has seen the need, among advanced thought circles, of a book filling this want. In his own life he has found that Financial Success is not a matter of grind, and rush, and fight and struggle. It is a matter of getting into harmony with the LAW, and then following that LAW to its logical conclusion. In this little book he will place this information and the result of his experience. In it he will state the LAW—how to get in harmony with it—and what to do to keep in the closest touch with it.

This book is no magic potion to be swallowed with wonderful results—it is, instead, a plain statement of the LAW, so that all who run may read, and then act. And he who acts will win success, because he is following the LAW that has been laid down from time immemorial. Whether rich or poor, successful or unsuccessful—it matters not—this book will be of great value to you. If you are a natural money-maker, you must have been using this LAW unconsciously, and in such case this book will enable you to do consciously that which you have been partly doing unconsciously. If you are unsuccessful, and money seems not to be attracted by or to you, this book will guide your thought and actions into proper channels where you will be able to manifest the LAW and thus get the highest possible results.

And, now that you have been told of the feast of good things ahead of you, draw up your chair to the table and partake of what nourishing food has been provided in the following pages. After all, you know, "the proof of the pudding lies in the eating thereof," and so fall to and taste that which has been gathered together for your mental, physical and financial well-being. And now, while you are filling your plates, the writer proposes the opening toast, to be drunk in Nature's sparkling fluid: "Here's to you—may you live long and prosper by following the Law of Financial Success!"

CHAPTER 1

Money

THERE is no idea that seems so much misunderstood as this idea of "Money." On the one hand we find many people engaged in a mad chase after "money for moneys sake," and on the other hand, many others who are decrying money as the root of all evil, and severely criticizing the tendency of the age to seek money actively. Both of these classes of people are wrong—they are occupying the opposite sides of the road of reason, whereas truth is found here, as always, "in the middle of the road."

The man who seeks money at a thing of value in itself—the man who worships money at a very god— such a man is a fool, for he is mistaking the symbol for the reality. And, likewise, the man who decries the pursuit and desire for money as a foul, evil thing—he who would make of money a devil—this man is likewise a fool. The wise man is he who sees money as a symbol of something else behind, and who is not deluded by mistaking the shadow for the substance, either for good or evil. The wise man makes neither a god nor a devil of money—he sees it as a symbol of almost everything that man may obtain from the outside world, and he respects it as such. He sees, while it is true that avarice and greed are detestable and hurtful qualities of mind, still the lack of the proper desire for, and striving after money, makes of man a creature devoid of all that makes life worth the living.

When the sane man desires money, he really desires the many things that money will purchase. Money is the symbol of nearly everything that is necessary for man's well-being and happiness. With it he opens the door to all sorts of opportunities, and without it he can accomplish practically nothing, Money is the tool with which man may carve many beautiful things, and without the aid of which he is helpless. Money is but the concentrated essence of things desired, created and established by society in its present stage of development. There have been times in which there was no money—there may be times coming in which the race will have passed beyond the need of money as the symbol of exchange and possession—but, be this as it may, the fact remains that now, right here in the beginning of the Twentieth Century, there in nothing that is so necessary for man's well-being and content as this much-abused money.

Remember this, first, last and all the tune, that when I say, "man needs money," I mean that he needs the many things that money will purchase for him. And for one to decry the desire for money is for him to decry the desire for nearly all the good and desirable things of life. As a recent writer has said: "Unless a man acquires money, then shall he not eat; nor be clothed; nor have shelter; nor books; nor music; nor anything else that makes life worth living for one who thinks and feels."

The people who decry the desire for money are generally those who have found themselves lacking in the qualities that tend to attract money; or else those who are in possession of money that has been inherited, or is otherwise acquired without the labor, excitement or satisfaction of having been made by themselves. With the first mentioned class it is a case of "sour grapes"; with the second it is financial dyspepsia, which has left the victim devoid of a normal appetite.

In spite of the loud cries and protests of our long-haired brothers and short-haired sisters—so-called "reformers"—money is still necessary in order that man may have the necessities of life, as well as a few luxuries. We cannot live on beautiful theories, but must have bread and batter, and potatoes, and sometimes a piece of cake or pie—and it takes money to get them. Money means freedom, independence, liberty, and the ability to do great good, as well as great evil. It means the opportunity to carry out great plant and to fulfill great ideals. It means the filling in of those mental pictures that we have sketched out in our minds. It means the chance of materializing those airy "Castles in Spain" that we have dwelt upon in moments of hopeful ecstasy. Ah, yes, money is the wizard, able and willing to work wonders. It is, indeed, the genie who can and will do its master's bidding.

I hold that in the present stage of evolution of man, money is to mankind what air, water, sunshine and mother-earth are to the plant—it is nourishment. And, as in the plant, the desire for nourishment is a natural and worthy instinct, so is the desire for this financial nourishment in man a perfectly natural and worthy instinct—it is the working of the same natural law. And, mark you this, that as the desire of the plant is a natural indication of the existence of the nourishment-need, so is this desire in the breast of man a certain indication of the possibility of its satisfaction and attainment, if natural laws are but followed. Nature is no mocker—it causes no desire to spring up in a living thing, unless it also endows that living thing with the faculties and powers to attain that which it craves. A realization of this great natural law will do many of my readers much good just now.

But note this, also, nature does not encourage the hoarding up of anything for the mere sake of acquisition. It punishes this error severely. The Law of Use underlies all of nature's instinctive cravings. It desires that the living thing shall draw to itself the nourishment and material it needs, in order to use it. And this desire for money on the part of man is governed by this same law—the Law of Use. Nature wishes you to desire money—to attract it to you—to possess and acquire it—and lastly, and most important of all, to use it. By using money, and keeping it working and in action, you will fall in line with the workings of this great Law of Use. By falling in with this Law, you work in harmony with the great natural forces and purposes. You bring yourself into harmony with the Cosmic Plan, instead of opposing it, and when man so brings himself into harmony with the natural forces around him, he reduces friction and receives the reward that comes to all living things that work with, instead of against, the LAW.

So, friends, in closing this chapter, I would say to you: Be not afraid, but assert the desirability of the possession and use of money: recognize that it it your natural right to possess it, just as it is the natural right of the plant to sunshine, light and air. And do more than this—it belongs to you—demand it of the LAW, just as does the plant.

Cease all this talk of the beauty of poverty, and the joy of the humble—you know that in the bottom of your heart you do not mean a word of it You know that you are just saying these things because you are afraid that you cannot have that which you want. Throw off this mask of hypocrisy, and self-deception, and stand out in the open like a man, throwing your head up and looking the world in the face, saying, "Yes, I do desire Money; I want it and I want it earnestly, and through the LAW I demand it as my rightful inheritance—and I'm going to get it, beginning right now!"

Throw off the shackles of the slave, and assert your freedom. Assert your own mastery of that which is your own. Don't be afraid to assert what you want, and to see it clearly ahead of you—then march straight onward to the mark, without turning to the right, or to the left, without fear or favor, without flinching or fouling—straight to the mark which is called Financial Success! For in that goal, alone, may you find that for which you seek—that which your heart desires.

To download The Law of Financial Success FREE pdf eBook follow the URL, http://www.scribd.com/doc/11246823/The-Law-of-Financial-Success?secret_password=1dgptij4apga0322eeis

Crisis Investing - A Three-Pronged Working Capital Model (WCM) Strategy: Personal Financial Planning

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:36:00 PST

One of the great things about being a professional investor is the opportunity one has to apply his or her long-term experience to the investment environment that is unfolding (or coming unglued) in the present.

If nothing else, most successful investors develop a consistent strategy that allows them to take advantage of short-term changes and the opportunities that they create in a somewhat unemotional manner. You can always tell a "newbie" by a "let's see how you do for a year" comment, or a "what's hot" question.

Wall Street would like us to ignore the fact that the stock market is a cyclical beast that changes direction periodically, and almost never at the turn of a calendar quarter or year--- cycles vary in length, breadth, and direction. Inevitably, less experienced investors get caught with their portfolio egos unprepared for market realities.

Similarly, Wall Street would like investors to look at income securities (bonds, CEFs, preferred stocks, etc.) with the same analytical eye that they use for equities. They too are expected to grow in market value forever, even though it's the income that the investor is after. High total returns mean missed profit taking opportunities more often than they signal increased income.

So as much as the wizards would like us to believe (a) that up arrows are always good and down arrows always bad, and (b) that they can get you safely hedged (protected) against the bad stuff with all forms of creative portfolio care products; its just never going to work that way.

Cycles are a good thing. They cleanse the markets of both fear and greed residue, and (all appendages crossed please) this time, perhaps, they'll point out that both multi-level derivatives and congressional tinkering don't ever produce the intended results.

Unfortunately, investors in general are a lot like teenagers. They know everything immediately; expect instant gratification; take unnecessary risks; fall in love too easily; ignore all voices of experience; prefer the easy approach; and feel that the lessons of the past just can't possibly apply to what's going on now. Duh, dude!

That said, what can Joe the plumber do to protect his 401(k), IRA, or personal investment portfolio from the Bernies, Nancys, and Harrys that are waiting in ambush? How does he protect himself from unregulated scams, and Wall Street toxins now, and into the future?

Well, it requires a slightly more mature mindset than the new media allows most investors the patience to develop, and an appreciation of the miracle drugs that have saved the lives of comatose portfolios victimized by the correction viruses of the past.

What if: (1) In the 30's, you had purchased shares in from 20 to 40 prominent, dividend paying, NYSE companies, or even in October '87, or '97. Now, if you had sold all those issues that gained 10%, and reinvested 70% of the profits keeping a diversified portfolio of similar stocks, hitting "replay" religiously, how much more market value would you have today?

What if: (2) At the same start date, 30% of your portfolio was placed in high quality income securities, and 30% of the income produced (and the remainder of that produced by equity profits) was reinvested similarly, how much more income would you have today than you do now?

If you combined the two analyses, how much more working capital would be in your wallet? You would be amazed at the results of this research; it would lead you to these portfolio life saving, and KISS-principle preserving, conclusions:

One: Every market up cycle produces profit-taking opportunities, and all reasonable profits should be realized--- in spite of the taxes. Two: Every market down cycle produces buying opportunities, and buying activities of three kinds must be continued throughout the downturn.

Three: Compound income growth is a wonderful thing, so find investment vehicles that can be added to routinely and, if spend you must, always spend less than you make. Four: Unhappily, nearly all of your past decision-making has been back---wards.

Just as the process described above is significantly more difficult to implement with mutual funds and other products, so too is the three-pronged strategy for dealing with market opportunities.

Reinvest portfolio generated income in three ways, and leisurely according to your planned, working-capital-calculated, asset allocation. Good judgment and an awareness of overall industry conditions are always required:

One: Add new equity positions, in new industries if possible, and keep initial positions smaller than usual. Never buy a stock that does not meet all Working Capital Model (WCM) selection criteria, and never stray more than 5% from your overall portfolio asset allocation guidelines.

These acquisitions should be monitored closely for quick turnover, at net/net profits of from seven to ten percent, depending on the amount of smart cash (WCM again) in your portfolio.

Two: Add new income positions when yields are unusually or artificially high, and watch for quick profits in this area as well. When yields are normal or lower than normal, diversify into new areas. For better results, do more "ones" than "twos" if possible.

Three: Add to positions in stocks that have maintained their quality rating and dividend while falling 30% or more from your cost basis. If the addition doesn't produce a significant change in cost per share, return to "one" or "two".

Add to positions in income securities to decrease cost per share and increase current yield simultaneously. Never allow a single position to exceed 5% of total working capital.

When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping, avoiding the buy high, sell low Wall Street game plan.

Steve Selengut
http://www.kiawahgolfinvestmentseminars.com/
http://www.sancoservices.com
Professional Portfolio Management since 1979
Author of: "The Brainwashing of the American Investor: The Book that Wall Street Does Not Want YOU to Read", and "A Millionaire's Secret Investment Strategy"

The Science of Getting Rich, FREE pdf eBook Download: Personal Finance Management

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:28:00 PST

The Science of Getting Rich

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Business eBooks personal finance edu personal finance for

SCIENCE THE RICH Wallace D. Wattles Timeless wisdom and a practical, step-by-step prosperity program from a forgotten 1910 classic With a new introduction by Rebecca Fine GETTING OF SCIENCE THE RICH Wallace D. Wattles i GETTING OF ©1999 Rebecca Fine. All rights reserved. You are encouraged to share this book in printed or electronic form with as many other people as possible, as long as no changes are made, no fee is charged, and you include all the pages (two appendices at the end). The Science of Getting Rich Network www.scienceofgettingrich.net Download this book. Online discussion groups Audiotape version Free weekly newsletter Workshops Much more! Mission Statement: To inspire, encourage, and exemplify abundance thinking and a strong sense of self-worth for people of goodwill everywhere. Certain Way Productions 1001 Cooper Point Road SW Suite 140 #345 Olympia, WA 98502 360-427-5514 certainway@scienceofgettingrich.net ii Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................. v Preface Chapter 1: Chapter 2: Chapter 3: Chapter 4: Chapter 5: Chapter 6: Chapter 7: Chapter 8: Chapter 9: ................................................................................................................................ vii The Right To Be Rich ................................................................................................ 1 There Is A Science of Getting Rich ............................................................................ 3 Is Opportunity Monopolized? .................................................................................... 5 The First Principle in The Science of Getting Rich ..................................................... 7 Increasing Life.......................................................................................................... 11 How Riches Come To You ....................................................................................... 15 Gratitude ................................................................................................................. 19 Thinking in The Certain Way .................................................................................. 21 How To Use The Will .............................................................................................. 25 Chapter 10: Further Use of The Will ........................................................................................... 29 Chapter 11: Acting in The Certain Way ...................................................................................... 31 Chapter 12: Efficient Action ........................................................................................................ 35 Chapter 13: Getting Into The Right Business .............................................................................. 39 Chapter 14: The Impression of Increase....................................................................................... 41 Chapter 15: The Advancing Personality ....................................................................................... 43 Chapter 16: Some Cautions and Concluding Observations ......................................................... 45 Chapter 17: A Summary of The Science of Getting Rich ............................................................. 49 Appendix A: Support The Network ................................................................................................ li Appendix B: Get The Audiotapes ................................................................................................. liii Note: This book is designed to be printed out, and the page numbers above are correct for that version. When viewing online, Acrobat uses a different system. To read onscreen (not recommended), click on the Table of Contents button on your Acrobat Reader toolbar to bring up Acrobat’s Table of Contents. Then, choose one of the three sizing buttons to adjust the page size to your liking. Click on any chapter above to go there. TofC Button Sizing Buttons iii iv Introduction ABOUT EIGHTEEN MONTHS AGO, a man I’d never met sent me a book I’d never heard of by a man who’d been dead nearly 90 years. That little book changed my entire life. As I put into practice the principles you’ll learn about in this book, the results were astonishing — and they began almost instantly and continue to this day. When The Science of Getting Rich arrived in the mail that afternoon I immediately ripped open the package, sat down, and read it with an open mind — mostly because the title was just so intriguing. And even though I must admit I found some of the old-fashioned language and some of the ideas in the first part a bit confusing, there was something about it that compelled me to reread those little confusing bits two or three times until I got it! Once I did that, I couldn’t stop reading until I’d read the whole thing! Right away I began to put into practice what the book outlines ... and everything began to change. “Coincidences" happened — happy ones that led to connections with people ... that led to more connections ... that led to money beginning to flow toward me in increasingly larger amounts and from several sources, including new and unexpected ones. And even though changing your habitual thinking is difficult and I’m still not as good at it as I intend to be, my businesses began to “click,” my income doubled , then tripled, and continues to rise ... my cramped city apartment has given way to a spacious waterfront house ... I’ve established rewarding new relationships with many generous, successful, wealthy people ... and opportunities to be, do, have, and give more continue to show up at my doorstep almost daily. It’s amazing — and wonderful. Until this book arrived, nothing I had ever read or heard before had explained to me so clearly that there are universal laws at work regarding wealth and success and that if we’ll just work with those laws — go with the tide instead of trying to swim against it (usually unknowingly) — the results we want will begin to come to us. That if we will scientifically reproduce the causes of wealth, we will invariably reproduce the results. Now, right off the bat author Wallace D. Wattles says that instead of questioning how these principles work, you’ll need simply to accept them and begin to practice them. So I did that, even though as I read I did find myself resisting from time to time and thinking, “Well, I don’t know if I can agree with that.” But I’d already decided just to accept (at least temporarily) each premise as if I did thoroughly believ it. By the time I finished the book I understood why he had included that warning. You see, some of what you’ll read or hear will most likely challenge some of your previous thinking. That seems to be the case for most people. But keep on, and you’ll soon see how Mr. Wattles beautifully builds each chapter on what he presents in the preceding ones. I think you’ll find yourself saying — as I and many others have — “Oh, now I see why he said that. Now I see how it all fits together.” I believe, also, that you’ll find it absolutely refreshing to know that to get rich by the method outlined here, it is essential that you embrace and practice what we all know as the Golden Rule ... that the daily practice of gratitude is one of the conduits by which your wealth will come to you ... and that www.scienceofgettingrich.net v The Science of Getting Rich by accomplishing your financial dreams through this method, everyone with whom you come into contact will also have more. A far cry from the dog-eat-dog, claw your way to the top, anything for a buck mentality so many believe to be the only way to wealth. Pay close attention to the message of this book with an open mind. Get a free copy of the entire printed version (what you’re reading now) at The Science of Getting Rich Network website — www.scienceofgettingrich.net — and read it. Print it out and give it to your friends. Distribute it on your own website if you like. Join the Network and get the free weekly ezine to share in the insights and amazing experiences of others. Focus constantly on your own personal vision and share that vision with other like-minded people who are doing the same. You WILL see results! You already have within you everything you need to turn your dreams into reality. You are a person of infinite worth and unique possibility. Even if you don’t think of yourself as a creative person, and even if you’ve failed before, and even if you think you’ve tried everything, open your mind to this book. You’ve probably heard the saying, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.” That has certainly held true for me and many, many others, and perhaps you’re ready, too — right now. If you’re not yet where you want to be in terms of income and your own personal success, the problem may not be what you’re doing so much as how you’re doing it. And that begins with how you think. If you want to change your life, you may just need to change your mind! —Rebecca Fine Olympia, WA November, 1999 Editors Note I’ve lightly edited the 90-year-old manuscript to accomodate modern readers. Unfortunately, though, there is as yet no graceful way in English to avoid completely the use of the masculine gender to represent all people, especially in working with such an old book. Luckily for us women, we have vast experience in reading ourselves back in — just as we have learned to dance backward! Where it does not interfere with the gracefulness of the writing, I have changed man to person, men to people, and mankind to humankind. To Mr. Wattles’ credit, although writing just after the turn of the 20th century, he makes it clear that The Science of Getting Rich applies equally to men and women alike. —Rebecca vi www.scienceofgettingrich.net Preface THIS BOOK IS PRAGMATICAL, NOT PHILOSOPHICAL — a practical manual, not a treatise upon theories. It is intended for the men and women whose most pressing need is for money, who wish to get rich first, and philosophize afterward. It is for those who want results and who are willing to take the conclusions of science as a basis for action, without going into all the processes by which those conclusions were reached. It is expected that the reader will take the fundamental statements upon faith, just as he would take statements concerning a law of electrical action if they were promulgated by a Marconi or an Edison, and, taking the statements upon faith, that he will prove their truth by acting upon them without fear or hesitation. Every man or woman who does this will certainly get rich, for the science herein applied is an exact science and failure is impossible. In writing this book I have sacrificed all other considerations to plainness and simplicity of style, so that all might understand. The plan of action laid down herein was deduced from the conclusions of philosophy. It has been thoroughly tested, and bears the supreme test of practical experiment: It works. www.scienceofgettingrich.net vii viii www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 1: The Right To Be Rich CHAPTER 1 The Right To Be Rich WHATEVER MAY BE SAID IN PRAISE OF POVERTY, the fact remains that it is not possible to live a really complete or successful life unless one is rich. No one can rise to his greatest possible height in talent or soul development unless he has plenty of money, for to unfold the soul and to de-velop talent he must have many things to use, and he cannot have these things unless he has money to buy them with. A person develops in mind, soul, and body by making use of things, and society is so organized that man must have money in order to become the possessor of things. Therefore, the basis of all advancement must be the science of getting rich. The object of all life is development, and everything that lives has an inalienable right to all the development it is capable of attaining. A person’s right to life means his right to have the free and unrestricted use of all the things which may be necessary to his fullest mental, spiritual, and physical unfoldment; or, in other words, his right to be rich. In this book, I shall not speak of riches in a figurative way. To be really rich does not mean to be satisfied or contented with a little. No one ought to be satisfied with a little if he is capable of using and enjoying more. The purpose of nature is the advancement and unfoldment of life, and everyone should have all that can contribute to the power, elegance, beauty, and richness of life. To be content with less is sinful. The person who owns all he wants for the living of all the life he is capable of living is rich, and no person who has not plenty of money can have all he wants. Life has advanced so far and become so complex that even the most ordinary man or woman requires a great amount of wealth in order to live in a manner that even approaches completeness. Every person naturally wants to become all that they are capable of becoming. This desire to realize innate possibilities is inherent in human nature; we cannot help wanting to be all that we can be. Success in life is becoming what you want to be. You can become what you want to be only by making use of things, and you can have the free use of things only as you become rich enough to buy them. To understand the science of getting rich is therefore the most essential of all knowledge. There is nothing wrong in wanting to get rich. The desire for riches is really the desire for a richer, fuller, and more abundant life — and that desire is praiseworthy. The person who does not desire to live more abundantly is abnormal, and so the person who does not desire to have money enough to buy all he wants is abnormal. There are three motives for which we live: We live for the body, we live for the mind, we live for the soul. No one of these is better or holier than the other; all are alike desirable, and no one of the three — body, mind, or soul — can live fully if either of the others is cut short of full life and expression. It is not right or noble to live only for the soul and deny mind or body, and it is wrong to live for the intellect and deny body or soul. www.scienceofgettingrich.net 1 The Science of Getting Rich We are all acquainted with the loathsome consequences of living for the body and denying both mind and soul, and we see that real life means the complete expression of all that a person can give forth through body, mind, and soul. Whatever he can say, no one can be really happy or satisfied unless his body is living fully in its every function, and unless the same is true of his mind and his soul. Wherever there is unexpressed possibility or function not performed, there is unsatisfied desire. Desire is possibility seeking expression or function seeking performance. A person cannot live fully in body without good food, comfortable clothing, and warm shelter, and without freedom from excessive toil. Rest and recreation are also necessary to his physical life. One cannot live fully in mind without books and time to study them, without opportunity for travel and observation, or without intellectual companionship. To live fully in mind a person must have intellectual recreations, and must surround himself with all the objects of art and beauty he is capable of using and appreciating. To live fully in soul, a person must have love, and love is denied fullest expression by poverty. A person’s highest happiness is found in the bestowal of benefits on those he loves; love finds its most natural and spontaneous expression in giving. The individual who has nothing to give cannot fill his place as a spouse or parent, as a citizen, or as a human being. It is in the use of material things that a person finds full life for his body, develops his mind, and unfolds his soul. It is therefore of supreme importance to each individual to be rich. It is perfectly right that you should desire to be rich. If you are a normal man or woman you cannot help doing so. It is perfectly right that you should give your best attention to the science of getting rich, for it is the noblest and most necessary of all studies. If you neglect this study, you are derelict in your duty to yourself, to God and humanity, for you can render to God and humanity no greater service than to make the most of yourself. 2 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 2: There Is A Science of Getting Rich CHAPTER 2 There Is A Science of Getting Rich THERE IS A SCIENCE OF GETTING RICH, and it is an exact science, like algebra or arithmetic. There are certain laws which govern the process of acquiring riches, and once these laws are learned and obeyed by anyone, that person will get rich with mathematical certainty. The ownership of money and property comes as a result of doing things in a certain way, and those who do things in this certain way — whether on purpose or accidentally — get rich, while those who do not do things in this certain way — no matter how hard they work or how able they are — remain poor. It is a natural law that like causes always produce like effects, and, therefore, any man or woman who learns to do things in this certain way will infallibly get rich. That the above statement is true is shown by the following facts: Getting rich is not a matter of environment, for if it were, all the people in certain neighborhoods would become wealthy. The people of one city would all be rich, while those of other towns would all be poor, or all the inhabitants of one state would roll in wealth, while those of an adjoining state would be in poverty. But everywhere we see rich and poor living side by side, in the same environment, and often engaged in the same vocations. When two people are in the same locality and in the same business, and one gets rich while the other remains poor, it shows that getting rich is not primarily a matter of environment. Some environments may be more favorable than others, but when two people in the same business are in the same neighborhood and one gets rich while the other fails, it indicates that getting rich is the result of doing things in a certain way. And further, the ability to do things in this certain way is not due solely to the possession of talent, for many people who have great talent remain poor, while others who have very little talent get rich. Studying the people who have gotten rich, we find that they are an average lot in all respects, having no greater talents and abilities than other people have. It is evident that they do not get rich because they possess talents and abilities that others do not have, but because they happen to do things in a certain way. Getting rich is not the result of saving, or thrift. Many very penurious people are poor, while free spenders often get rich. Nor is getting rich due to doing things which others fail to do, for two people in the same business often do almost exactly the same things, and one gets rich while the other remains poor or becomes bankrupt. From all these things, we must come to the conclusion that getting rich is the result of doing things in a certain way. If getting rich is the result of doing things in a certain way, and if like causes always produce like effects, then any man or woman who can do things in that way can become rich, and the whole matter is brought within the domain of exact science. www.scienceofgettingrich.net 3 The Science of Getting Rich The question arises here as to whether this certain way may not be so difficult that only a few may follow it. As we have seen, this cannot be true (as far as natural ability is concerned). Talented people get rich, and blockheads get rich; intellectually brilliant people get rich, and very stupid people get rich; physically strong people get rich, and weak and sickly people get rich. Some degree of ability to think and understand is, of course, essential, but insofar as natural ability is concerned, any man or woman who has sense enough to read and understand these words can certainly get rich. Also, we have seen that it is not a matter of environment. Yes, location counts for something. One would not go to the heart of the Sahara and expect to do successful business. Getting rich involves the necessity of dealing with people and of being where there are people to deal with, and if these people are inclined to deal in the way you want to deal, so much the better. But that is about as far as environment goes. If anybody else in your town can get rich, so can you, and if anybody else in your state can get rich, so can you. Again, it is not a matter of choosing some particular business or profession. People get rich in every business and in every profession, while their nextdoor neighbors in the very same vocation remain in poverty. It is true that you will do best in a business which you like and which is congenial to you. And if you have certain talents which are well developed, you will do best in a business which calls for the exercise of those talents. Also, you will do best in a business which is suited to your locality: An ice cream parlor would do better in a warm climate than in Greenland, and a salmon fishery will succeed better in the northwest than in Florida, where there are no salmon. But, aside from these general limitations, getting rich is not dependent upon your engaging in some particular business, but upon your learning to do things in a certain way. If you are now in business and anybody else in your locality is getting rich in the same business, while you are not getting rich, it is simply because you are not doing things in the same way that the other person is doing them. No one is prevented from getting rich by lack of capital. True, as you get capital the increase becomes more easy and rapid, but one who has capital is already rich and does not need to consider how to become so. No matter how poor you may be, if you begin to do things in the certain way you will begin to get rich and you will begin to have capital. The getting of capital is a part of the process of getting rich and it is a part of the result which invariably follows the doing of things in the certain way. You may be the poorest person on the continent and be deeply in debt. You may have neither friends, influence, nor resources, but if you begin to do things in this way, you must infallibly begin to get rich, for like causes must produce like effects. If you have no capital, you can get capital. If you are in the wrong business, you can get into the right business. If you are in the wrong location, you can go to the right location. And you can do so by beginning in your present business and in your present location to do things in the certain way which always causes success. You must begin to live in harmony with the laws governing the universe. 4 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 3: Is Opportunity Monopolized? CHAPTER 3 Is Opportunity Monopolized? NO ONE IS KEPT POOR BECAUSE OTHER PEOPLE HAVE MONOPOLIZED THE WEALTH and have put a fence around it. You may be shut off from engaging in business in certain lines, but there are other channels open to you. At different periods the tide of opportunity sets in different directions, according to the needs of the whole and the particular stage of social evolution which has been reached. There is abundance of opportunity for the person who will go with the tide, instead of trying to swim against it. So workers, either as individuals or as a class, are not deprived of opportunity. The workers are not being “kept down” by their masters; they are not being “ground” by the trusts and big business. As a class, they are where they are because they do not do things in a certain way. The working class may become the master class whenever they will begin to do things in a certain way. The law of wealth is the same for them as it is for all others. This they must learn, and they will remain where they are as long as they continue to do as they do. The individual worker, however, is not held down by an entire class’s ignorance of these laws; he can follow the tide of opportunity to riches, and this book will tell him how. No one is kept in poverty by a shortness in the supply of riches; there is more than enough for all. A palace as large as the capitol at Washington might be built for every family on earth from the building material in the United States alone, and under intensive cultivation this country would produce wool, cotton, linen, and silk enough to clothe each person in the world finer than Solomon was arrayed in all his glory, together with food enough to feed them all luxuriously. The visible supply is practically inexhaustible, and the invisible supply really is inexhaustible. Everything you see on earth is made from one original substance, out of which all things proceed. New forms are constantly being made, and older ones are dissolving, but all are shapes assumed by one thing. There is no limit to the supply of formless stuff, or original substance. The universe is made out of it, but it was not all used in making the universe. The spaces in, through, and between the forms of the visible universe are permeated and filled with the original substance, with the formless stuff — with the raw material of all things. Ten thousand times as much as has been made might still be made, and even then we should not have exhausted the supply of universal raw material. No one, therefore, is poor because nature is poor or because there is not enough to go around. Nature is an inexhaustible storehouse of riches; the supply will never run short. Original substance is alive with creative energy, and is constantly producing more forms. When the supply of building material is exhausted, more will be produced. When the soil is exhausted so that food stuffs and materials for clothing will no longer grow upon it, it will be renewed or more soil will be made. When all the gold and silver has been dug from the earth, if humanity is still in such a stage of social development that it needs gold and silver, more will produced from the formless. The formless stuff responds to the needs of mankind; it will not let the world be without any good thing. www.scienceofgettingrich.net 5 The Science of Getting Rich This is true of man collectively. The race as a whole is always abundantly rich, and if individuals are poor it is because they do not follow the certain way of doing things which makes the individual rich. The formless stuff is intelligent; it is stuff which thinks. It is alive and is always impelled toward more life. It is the natural and inherent impulse of life to seek to live more; it is the nature of intelligence to enlarge itself, and of consciousness to seek to extend its boundaries and find fuller expression. The universe of forms has been made by formless living substance throwing itself into form in order to express itself more fully. The universe is a great living presence, always moving inherently toward more life and fuller functioning. Nature is formed for the advancement of life, and its impelling motive is the increase of life. Because of this, everything which can possibly minister to life is bountifully provided. There can be no lack unless God is to contradict himself and nullify his own works. You are not kept poor by lack in the supply of riches. It is a fact which I shall demonstrate a little farther on that even the resources of the formless supply are at the command of the man or woman who will act and think in a certain way. 6 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 4: The First Principle in The Science of Getting Rich CHAPTER 4 The First Principle in The Science of Getting Rich THOUGHT IS THE ONLY POWER WHICH CAN PRODUCE TANGIBLE RICHES from the formless substance. The stuff from which all things are made is a substance which thinks, and a thought of form in this substance produces the form. Original substance moves according to its thoughts; every form and process you see in nature is the visible expression of a thought in original substance. As the formless stuff thinks of a form, it takes that form; as it thinks of a motion, it makes that motion. That is the way all things were created. We live in a thought world, which is part of a thought universe. The thought of a moving universe extended throughout formless substance, and the thinking stuff — moving according to that thought — took the form of systems of planets, and maintains that form. Thinking substance takes the form of its thought, and moves according to the thought. Holding the idea of a circling system of suns and worlds, it takes the form of these bodies, and moves them as it thinks. Thinking the form of a slow-growing oak tree, it moves accordingly, and produces the tree, though centuries may be required to do the work. In creating, the formless seems to move according to the lines of motion it has established. In other words, the thought of an oak tree does not cause the instant formation of a full-grown tree, but it does start in motion the forces which will produce the tree, along established lines of growth. Every thought of form, held in thinking substance, causes the creation of the form, but always, or at least generally, along lines of growth and action already established. The thought of a house of a certain construction, if it were impressed upon formless substance, might not cause the instant formation of the house, but it would cause the Benefit from the insights, turning of creative energies already working in trade and commerce into such channels as to result in the speedy buildexperiences, and thoughts of ing of the house. And if there were no existing channels other like-minded people in through which the creative energy could work, then the house would be formed directly from primal substance, without the online discussion group at waiting for the slow processes of the organic and inorganic www.scienceofgettingrich.net world. No thought of form can be impressed upon original substance without causing the creation of the form. A person is a thinking center and can originate thought. All the forms that a person fashions with his hands must first exist in his thought. He cannot shape a thing until he has thought that thing. So far, humankind has confined its efforts wholly to the work of its hands, applying manual labor to the world of forms and seeking to change or modify those already existing. Humankind has never thought of trying to cause the creation of new forms by impressing thought upon formless substance. www.scienceofgettingrich.net 7 The Science of Getting Rich When a person has a thought-form, he takes material from the forms of nature and makes an image of the form which is in his mind. People have, so far, made little or no effort to cooperate with formless intelligence — to work “with the Father.” The individual has not dreamed that he can “do what he seeth the Father doing.” An individual reshapes and modifies existing forms by manual labor and has given no attention to the question of whether he may produce things from formless substance by communicating his thoughts to it. We propose to prove that he may do so — to prove that any man or woman may do so — and to show how. As our first step, we must lay down three fundamental propositions. First, we assert that there is one original formless stuff or substance from which all things are made. All the seemingly many elements are but different presentations of one element. All the many forms found in organic and inorganic nature are but different shapes, made from the same stuff. And this stuff is thinking stuff — a thought held in it produces the form of the thought. Thought, in thinking substance, produces shapes. A human being is a thinking center, capable of original thought. If a person can communicate his thought to original thinking substance, he can cause the creation, or formation, of the thing he thinks about. To summarize this: There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe. A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought. A person can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his thought upon formless substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created. It may be asked if I can prove these statements, and without going into details I answer that I can do so, both by logic and experience. Reasoning back from the phenomena of form and thought, I come to one original thinking substance, and reasoning forward from this thinking substance, I come to a person’s power to cause the formation of the thing he thinks about. And by experiment, I find the reasoning true. This is my strongest proof. If one person who reads this book gets rich by doing what it tells him to do, that is evidence in support of my claim, but if every person who does what it tells him to do gets rich, that is positive proof until someone goes through the process and fails. The theory is true until the process fails, and this process will not fail, for everyone who does exactly what this book tells him to do will get rich. I have said that people get rich by doing things in a certain way, and in order to do so, people must become able to think in a certain way. A person’s way of doing things is the direct result of the way he thinks about things. To do things in the way you want to do them, you will have to acquire the ability to think the way you want to think. This is the first step toward getting rich. And to think what you want to think is to think TRUTH, regardless of appearances. Every individual has the natural and inherent power to think what he wants to think, but it requires far more effort to do so than it does to think the thoughts which are suggested by appearances. To think according to appearances is easy; to think truth regardless of appearances is laborious and requires the expenditure of more power than any other work we are called upon to perform. There is no labor from which most people shrink as they do from that of sustained and consecutive thought. It is the hardest work in the world. This is especially true when truth is contrary to appearances. 8 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 4: The First Principle in The Science of Getting Rich Every appearance in the visible world tends to produce a corresponding form in the mind which observes it, and this can only be prevented by holding the thought of the TRUTH. To look upon the appearances of poverty will produce corresponding forms in your own mind, unless you hold to the truth that there is no poverty; there is only abundance. To think health when surrounded by the appearances of disease or to think riches when in the midst of the appearances of poverty requires power, but whoever acquires this power becomes a master mind. That person can conquer fate and can have what he wants. This power can only be acquired by getting hold of the basic fact which is behind all appearances, and that fact is that there is one thinking substance from which and by which all things are made. Then we must grasp the truth that every thought held in this substance becomes a form, and that man can so impress his thoughts upon it as to cause them to take form and become visible things. When we realize this we lose all doubt and fear, for we know that we can create what we want to create, we can get what we want to have, and can become what we want to be. As a first step toward getting rich, you must believe the three fundamental statements given previously in this chapter, and in order to emphasize them, I repeat them here: There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe. A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought. A person can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his thought upon formless substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created. You must lay aside all other concepts of the universe, and you must dwell upon this until it is fixed in your mind and has become your habitual thought. Read these statements over and over again. Fix every word upon your memory and meditate upon them until you firmly believe what they say. If a doubt comes to you, cast it aside. Do not listen to arguments against this idea. Do not go to churches or lectures where a contrary concept of things is taught or preached. Do not read magazines or books which teach a different idea. If you get mixed up in your understanding, belief, and faith, all your efforts will be in vain. Do not ask why these things are true nor speculate as to how they can be true. Simply take them on trust. The science of getting rich begins with the absolute acceptance of this. www.scienceofgettingrich.net 9 The Science of Getting Rich 10 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 5: Increasing Life CHAPTER 5 Increasing Life YOU MUST GET RID OF THE LAST VESTIGE OF THE OLD IDEA that there is a Deity whose will it is that you should be poor or whose purposes may be served by keeping you in poverty. The intelligent substance which is all, and in all, and which lives in all and lives in you, is a consciously living substance. Being a consciously living substance, it must have the nature and inherent desire of every living intelligence for increase of life. Every living thing must continually seek for the enlargement of its life, because life, in the mere act of living, must increase itself. A seed, dropped into the ground, springs into activity, and in the act of living produces a hundred more seeds; life, by living, multiplies itself. It is forever becoming more. It must do so, if it continues to be at all. Intelligence is under this same necessity for continuous increase. Every thought we think makes it necessary for us to think another thought; consciousness is continually expanding. Every fact we learn leads us to the learning of another fact; knowledge is continually increasing. Every talent we cultivate brings to the mind the desire to cultivate another talent; we are subject to the urge of life, seeking expression, which ever drives us on to know more, to do more, and to be more. In order to know more, do more, and be more we must have more. We must have things to use, for we learn, and do, and become only by using things. We must get rich so that we can live more. The desire for riches is simply the capacity for larger life seeking fulfillment. Every desire is the effort of an unexpressed possibility to come into action. It is power seeking to manifest which causes desire. That which makes you want more money is the same as that which makes the plant grow; it is life seeking fuller expression. The one living substance must be subject to this inherent law of all life. It is permeated with the desire to live more, and that is why it is under the necessity of creating things. The one substance desires to live more in and through you. Therefore it wants you to have all the things you can use. It is the desire of God that you should get rich. He wants you to get rich because he can express himself better through you if you have plenty of things to use in giving him expression. He can live more in you if you have unlimited command of the means of life. The universe desires you to have everything you want to have. Nature is friendly to your plans. Everything is naturally for you. Make up your mind that this is true. It is essential, however, that your purpose should harmonize with the purpose that is in all. You must want real life, not mere pleasure or sensual gratification. Life is the performance of function, and the individual really lives only when he performs every function — physical, mental, and spiritual — of which he is capable, without excess in any. www.scienceofgettingrich.net 11 The Science of Getting Rich You do not want to get rich in order to live swinishly, for the gratification of animal desires. That is not life. But the performance of every physical function is a part of life, and no one lives completely who denies the impulses of the body a normal and healthful expression. You do not want to get rich solely to enjoy mental pleasures, to get knowledge, to gratify ambition, to outshine others, to be famous. All these are a legitimate part of life, but the person who lives for the pleasures of the intellect alone will only have a partial life, and he will never be satisfied with his lot. You do not want to get rich solely for the good of others, to lose yourself for the salvation of mankind, to experience the joys of philanthropy and sacrifice. The joys of the soul are only a part of life, and they are no better or nobler than any other part. You want to get rich in order that you may eat, drink, and be merry when it is time to do these things; in order that you may surround yourself with beautiful things, see distant lands, feed your mind, and develop your intellect; in order that you may love others and do kind things, and be able to play a good part in helping the world to find truth. But remember that extreme altruism is no better and no nobler than extreme selfishness; both are mistakes. Get rid of the idea that God wants you to sacrifice yourself for others and that you can secure his favor by doing so. God requires nothing of the kind. What God wants is that you should make the most of yourself, for yourself, and for others. And you can help others more by making the most of yourself than in any other way. You can make the most of yourself only by getting rich, so it is right and praiseworthy that you should give your first and best thought to the work of acquiring wealth. Remember, however, that the desire of substance is for all, and its movements must be for more life to all. It cannot be made to work for less life to any, because it is equally in all, seeking riches and life. Intelligent substance will make things for you, but it will not take things away from someone else and give them to you. You must get rid of the thought of competition. You are to create, not to compete for what is already created. You do not have to take anything away from anyone. You do not have to drive sharp bargains. You do not have to cheat or to take advantage. You do not need to let anyone work for you for less than he earns. You do not have to covet the property of others or to look at it with wishful eyes. No one has anything of which you cannot have the like, and that without taking what he has away from him. You are to become a creator, not a competitor. You are going to get what you want, but in such a way that when you get it every other person whom you affect will have more than he has now. I am aware that there are those who get a vast amount of money by proceeding in direct opposition to the statements in the paragraph above, and may add a word of explanation here. Individuals of that type who become very rich do so sometimes purely by their extraordinary ability on the plane of competition, and sometimes they unconsciously relate themselves to substance in its great purposes and movements for the general upbuilding through industrial evolution. Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, et al., have been the unconscious agents of the supreme in the necessary work of systematizing and organizing productive industry, and in the end their work will contribute immensely toward increased life 12 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 5: Increasing Life for all. But their day is nearly over. They have organized production and will soon be succeeded by the agents of the multitude, who will organize the machinery of distribution. They are like the monster reptiles of the prehistoric eras. They play a necessary part in the evolutionary process, but the same power which produced them will dispose of them. And it is well to bear in mind that they have never been really rich; a record of the private lives of most of this class will show that they have really been most abject and wretched. Riches secured on the competitive plane are never satisfactory and permanent. They are yours today and another’s tomorrow. Remember, if you are to become rich in a scientific and certain way, you must rise entirely out of competitive thought. You must never think for a moment that the supply is limited. Just as soon as you begin to think that all the money is being “cornered” and controlled by others, and that you must exert yourself to get laws passed to stop this process, and so on — in that moment you drop into the competitive mind and your power to cause creation is gone for the time being. And what is worse, you will probably arrest the creative movements you have already begun. KNOW that there are countless millions of dollars’ worth of gold in the mountains of the earth, not yet brought to light. And know that if there were not, more would be created from thinking substance to supply your needs. KNOW that the money you need will come, even if it is necessary for a thousand men to be led to the discovery of new gold mines tomorrow. Never look at the visible supply. Look always at the limitless riches in formless substance, and KNOW that they are coming to you as fast as you can receive and use them. Nobody, by cornering the visible supply, can prevent you from getting what is yours. So never allow yourself to think for an instant that all the best building spots will be taken before you get ready to build your house, unless you hurry. Never worry about the trusts and combines, and get anxious for fear they will soon come to own the whole earth. Never get afraid that you will lose what you want because some other person “beats you to it.” That cannot possibly happen. You are not seeking anything that is possessed by anybody else; you are causing what you want to be created from formless substance, and the supply is without limits. Stick to the formulated statement: There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe. A thought, in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought. A person can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his thought upon formless substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created. www.scienceofgettingrich.net 13 The Science of Getting Rich 14 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 6: How Riches Come To You CHAPTER 6 How Riches Come To You WHEN I SAY THAT YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DRIVE SHARP BARGAINS, I do not mean that you do not have to drive any bargains at all or that you are above the necessity for having any dealings with your fellow men. I mean that you will not need to deal with them unfairly. You do not have to get something for nothing, but can give to every person more than you take from him. You cannot give everyone more in cash market value than you take from him, but you can give him more in use value than the cash value of the thing you take from him. The paper, ink, and other material in this book may not be worth the money you pay for it, but if the ideas suggested by it bring you thousands of dollars, you have not been wronged by those who sold it to you. They have given you a great use value for a small cash value. Let us suppose that I own a picture by one of the great artists, which, in a developed society, is worth thousands of dollars. I take it to Baffin Bay and by “salesmanship” induce a native dweller to give a bundle of furs worth $500 for it. I have really wronged him, for he has no use for the picture. It has no use value to him; it will not add to his life. But suppose I give him a gun worth $50 for his furs. Then he has made a good bargain. He has use for the gun. It will get him many more furs and much food; it will add to his life in every way. It will make him rich. When you rise from the competitive to the creative plane, you can scan your business transactions very strictly, and if you are selling any person anything which does not add more to his life than the thing he give you in exchange, you can afford to stop it. You do not have to beat anybody in business. And if you are in a business which does beat people, get out of it at once. Give everyone more in use value than you take from him in cash value. Then you are adding to the life of the world by every business transaction. If you have people working for you, you must take from them more in cash value than you pay them in wages, but you can so organize your business that it will be filled with the principle of advancement, and so that each employee who wishes to do so may advance a little every day. You can make your business do for your employees what this book is doing for you. You can so conduct your business that it will be a sort of ladder by which every employee who will take the trouble may climb to riches himself. And given the opportunity, if he will not do so, it is not your fault. And finally, just because you are to cause the creation of your riches from formless substance which permeates all your environment, it does not follow that they are to take shape from the atmosphere and come into being before your eyes. If you want a sewing machine, for instance, I do not mean to tell you that you are to impress the thought of a sewing machine on thinking substance until the machine is formed without hands, in the room where you sit or elsewhere. But if you want a sewing machine, hold the mental image of it with the most positive certainty that it is being made or is on its way to you. After once forming the thought, www.scienceofgettingrich.net 15 The Science of Getting Rich have the most absolute and unquestioning faith that the sewing machine is coming. Never think of it or speak of it in any other way than as being sure to arrive. Claim it as already yours. It will be brought to you by the power of the supreme intelligence, acting upon the minds of men. If you live in Maine, it may be that a person will be brought from Texas or Japan to engage in some transaction which will result in your getting what you want. If so, the whole matter will be as much to that person’s advantage as it is to yours. Do not forget for a moment that the thinking substance is through all, in all, communicating with all, and can influence all. The desire of thinking substance for fuller life and better living has caused the creation of all the sewing machines already made, and it can cause the creation of millions more — and will, whenever people set it in motion by desire and faith and by acting in a certain way. You can certainly have a sewing machine in your house, and it is just as certain that you can have any other thing or things which you want and which you will use for the advancement of your own life and the lives of others. You need not hesitate about asking largely. “It is your Father’s pleasure to give you the kingdom,” said Jesus. Original substance wants to live all that is possible in you, and wants you to have all that you can use and will use for the living of the most abundant life. If you fix upon your consciousness the fact that your desire for the possession of riches is one with the desire of the supreme power for more complete expression, your faith becomes invincible. Once I saw a little boy sitting at a piano, vainly trying to bring harmony out of the keys. I saw that he was grieved and provoked by his inability to play real music. I asked him the cause of his vexation, and he answered, “I can feel the music in me, but I can’t make my hands go right.” The music in him was the URGE of original substance, containing all the possibilities of all life. All that there is of music was seeking expression through the child. God, the one substance, is trying to live and do and enjoy things through humanity. He is saying “I want hands to build wonderful structures, to play divine harmonies, to paint glorious pictures. I want feet to run my errands, eyes to see my beauties, tongues to tell mighty truths and to sing marvelous songs,” and so on. All that there is of possibility is seeking expression through people. God wants those who can play music to have pianos and every other instrument and to have the means to cultivate their talents to the fullest extent. He wants those who can appreciate beauty to be able to surround themselves with beautiful things. He wants those who can discern truth to have every opportunity to travel and observe. He wants those who can appreciate dress to be beautifully clothed, and those who can appreciate good food to be luxuriously fed. He wants all these things because it is himself that enjoys and appreciates them; they are his creation. It is God who wants to play, and sing, and enjoy beauty, and proclaim truth, and wear fine clothes, and eat good foods. “It is God that worketh in you to will and to do,” said the apostle Paul. The desire you feel for riches is the infinite, seeking to express himself in you as he sought to find expression in the little boy at the piano. So you need not hesitate to ask largely. Your part is to focus on and express that desire to God. This is a difficult point with most people. They retain something of the old idea that poverty and self-sacrifice are pleasing to God. They look upon poverty as a part of the plan, a necessity of nature. 16 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 6: How Riches Come To You They have the idea that God has finished his work, and made all that he can make, and that the majority of people must stay poor because there is not enough to go around. They hold to so much of this erroneous thought that they feel ashamed to ask for wealth. They try not to want more than a very modest competence, just enough to make them fairly comfortable. I recall now the case of one student who was told that he must get in mind a clear picture of the things he desired, so that the creative thought of them might be impressed on formless substance. He was a very poor man, living in a rented house and having only what he earned from day to day, and he could not grasp the fact that all wealth was his. So, after thinking the matter over, he decided that he might reasonably ask for a new rug for the floor of his best room and a coal stove to heat the house during the cold weather. Following the instructions given in this book, he obtained these things in a few months. And then it dawned upon him that he had not asked enough. He went through the house in which he lived, and planned all the improvements he would like to make in it. He mentally added a bay window here and a room there until it was complete in his mind as his ideal home, and then he planned its furnishings. Holding the whole picture in his mind, he began living in the certain way and moving toward what he wanted — and he owns the house now and is rebuilding it after the form of his mental image. And now, with still larger faith, he is going on to get greater things. It has been unto him according to his faith, and so it is with you — and with all of us. www.scienceofgettingrich.net 17 The Science of Getting Rich 18 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 7: Gratitude CHAPTER 7 Gratitude THE ILLUSTRATIONS GIVEN IN THE LAST CHAPTER will have conveyed to the reader the fact that the first step toward getting rich is to convey the idea of your wants to the formless substance. This is true, and you will see that in order to do so it becomes necessary to relate yourself to the formless intelligence in a harmonious way. To secure this harmonious relation is a matter of such primary and vital importance that I shall give some space to its discussion here and give you instructions which, if you will follow them, will be certain to bring you into perfect unity of mind with the supreme power, or God. The whole process of mental adjustment and atunement can be summed up in one word: Gratitude. First, you believe that there is one intelligent substance, from which all things proceed. Second, you believe that this substance gives you everything you desire. And third, you relate yourself to it by a feeling of deep and profound gratitude. Many people who order their lives rightly in all other ways are kept in poverty by their lack of gratitude. Having received one gift from God, they cut the wires which connect them with him by failing to make acknowledgment. It is easy to understand that the nearer we live to the source of wealth, the more wealth we shall receive, and it is easy also to understand that the soul that is always grateful lives in closer touch with God than the one which never looks to him in thankful acknowledgment. The more gratefully we fix our minds on the supreme when good things come to us, the more good things we will receive, and the more rapidly they will come. And the reason simply is that the mental attitude of gratitude draws the mind into closer touch with the source from which the blessings come. If it is a new thought to you that gratitude brings your whole mind into closer harmony with the creative energies of the universe, consider it well, and you will see that it is true. The good things you have already have come to you along the line of obedience to certain laws. Gratitude will lead your mind out along the ways by which things come, and it will keep you in close harmony with creative thought and prevent you from falling into competitive thought. Gratitude alone can keep you looking toward the all, and prevent you from falling into the error of thinking of the supply as limited — and to do that would be fatal to your hopes. There is a law of gratitude, and it is absolutely necessary that you should observe the law if you are to get the results you seek. The law of gratitude is the natural principle that action and reaction are always equal and in opposite directions. The grateful outreaching of your mind in thankful praise to the supreme intelligence is a liberation or expenditure of force. It cannot fail to reach that to which it addressed, and the reaction is an instantaneous movement toward you. www.scienceofgettingrich.net 19 The Science of Getting Rich “Draw nigh unto God, and he will draw nigh unto you.” That is a statement of psychological truth. And if your gratitude is strong and constant, the reaction in formless substance will be strong and continuous; the movement of the things you want will be always toward you. Notice the grateful attitude that Jesus took, how he always seems to be saying, “I thank thee, Father, that thou hearest me.” You cannot exercise much power without gratitude, for it is gratitude that keeps you connected with power. But the value of gratitude does not consist solely in getting you more blessings in the future. Without gratitude you cannot long keep from dissatisfied thought regarding things as they are. The moment you permit your mind to dwell with dissatisfaction upon things as they are, you begin to lose ground. You fix attention upon the common, the ordinary, the poor, the squalid, and the mean — and your mind takes the form of these things. Then you will transmit these forms or mental images to the formless. And the common, the poor, the squalid, and the mean will come to you. To permit your mind to dwell upon the inferior is to become inferior and to surround yourself with inferior things. On the other hand, to fix your attention on the best is to surround yourself with the best, and to become the best. The creative power within us makes us into the image of that to which we give our attention. We are of thinking substance, too, and thinking substance always takes the form of that which it thinks about. The grateful mind is constantly fixed upon the best. Therefore it tends to become the best. It takes the form or character of the best, and will receive the best. Also, faith is born of gratitude. The grateful mind continually expects good things, and expectation becomes faith. The reaction of gratitude upon one’s own mind produces faith, and every outgoing wave of grateful thanksgiving increases faith. The person who has no feeling of gratitude cannot long retain a living faith, and without a living faith you cannot get rich by the creative method, as we shall see in the following chapters. It is necessary, then, to cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude. Do not waste a lot of time thinking or talking about the shortcomings or wrong actions of those in power. Their organization of the world has created your opportunity; all you get really comes to you because of them. Do not rage against corrupt politicians. If it were not for politicians we should fall into anarchy and your opportunity would be greatly lessened. God has worked a long time and very patiently to bring us up to where we are in industry and government, and he is going right on with his work. There is not the least doubt that he will do away with plutocrats, trust magnates, captains of industry, and politicians as soon as they can be spared, but in the meantime, they are all very necessary. Remember that they are all helping to arrange the lines of transmission along which your riches will come to you, and be grateful. This will bring you into harmonious relations with the good in everything, and the good in everything will move toward you. 20 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 8: Thinking in The Certain Way CHAPTER 8 Thinking in The Certain Way TURN BACK TO CHAPTER 6 AND READ AGAIN the story of the man who formed a mental image of his house and you will get a fair idea of the initial step toward getting rich. You must form a clear and definite mental picture of what you want. You cannot transmit an idea unless you have it yourself. You must have it before you can give it, and many people fail to impress thinking substance because they have themselves only a vague and misty concept of the things they want to do, to have, or to become. It is not enough that you should have a general desire for wealth “to do good with.” Everybody has that desire. It is not enough that you should have a wish to travel, see things, live more, etc. Everybody has those desires also. If you were going to send a wireless message to a friend, you would not send the letters of the alphabet in their order and let him construct the message for himself, nor would you take words at random from the dictionary. You would send a coherent sentence, one which meant something. When you try to impress your wants upon the thinking substance, remember that it must be done by a coherent statement. You must know what you want and be specific and definite. You can never get rich or start the creative power into action by sending out unformed longings and vague desires. Go over your desires just as the man I have described went over his house. See just what you want and get a clear mental picture of it as you wish it to look when you get it. That clear mental picture you must have continually in mind. As the sailor has in mind the port toward which he is sailing the ship, you must keep your face toward it all the time. You must no more lose sight of it than the helmsman loses sight of the compass. It is not necessary to take exercises in concentration, nor to set apart special times for prayer and affirmation, nor to “go into the silence,” nor to do occult stunts of any kind. Some of these things are well enough, but all you need is to know what you want and to want it badly enough so that it will stay in your thoughts. Spend as much of your leisure time as you can in contemplating your picture. But no one needs to take exercises to concentrate his mind on a thing which he really wants. It is the things you do not really care about which require effort to fix your attention upon them. And unless you really want to get rich, so that the desire is strong enough to hold your thoughts directed to the purpose as the magnetic pole holds the needle of the compass, it will hardly be worthwhile for you to try to carry out the instructions given in this book. The methods set forth here are for people whose desire for riches is strong enough to overcome mental laziness and the love of ease, and to make them work. The more clear and definite you make your picture then, and the more you dwell upon it, bringing out all its delightful details, the stronger your desire will be. And the stronger your desire, the easier it will be to hold your mind fixed upon the picture of what you want. www.scienceofgettingrich.net 21 The Science of Getting Rich Something more is necessary, however, than merely to see the picture clearly. If that is all you do, you are only a dreamer, and will have little or no power for accomplishment. Behind your clear vision must be the purpose to realize it, to bring it out in tangible expression. And behind this purpose must be an invincible and unwavering FAITH that the thing is already yours, that it is “at hand” and you have only to take possession of it. Live in the new house, mentally, until it takes form around you physically. In the mental realm, enter at once into full enjoyment of the things you want. “Whatsoever things ye ask for when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them,” said Jesus. See the things you want as if they were actually around you all the time. See yourself as owning and using them. Make use of them in imagination just as you will use them when they are your tangible possessions. Dwell upon your mental picture until it is clear and distinct, and then take the mental attitude of ownership toward everything in that picture. Take possession of it, in mind, in the full faith that it is actually yours. Hold to this mental ownership. Do not waiver for an instant in the faith that it is real. And remember what was said in a proceeding chapter about gratitude: Be as thankful for it all the time as you expect to be when it has taken form. The person who can sincerely thank God for the things which as yet he owns only in imagination has real faith. He will get rich. He will cause the creation of whatever he wants. You do not need to pray repeatedly for things you want. It is not necessary to tell God about it every day. Your part is to intelligently formulate your desire for the things which make for a larger life and to get these desire arranged into a coherent whole, and then to impress this whole desire upon the formless substance, which has the power and the will to bring you what you want. You do not make this impression by repeating strings of words; you make it by holding the vision with unshakable Keep yourself focused and PURPOSE to attain it and with steadfast FAITH that you thinking in the certain way with do attain it. The answer to prayer is not according to your faith the weekly e-mail newsletter while you are talking, but according to your faith while you available FREE at are working. www.scienceofgettingrich.net You cannot impress the mind of God by having a special Sabbath day set apart to tell him what you want, and then forgetting him during the rest of the week. You cannot impress him by having special hours to go into your closet and pray, if you then dismiss the matter from your mind until the hour of prayer comes again. Oral prayer is well enough, and has its effect, especially upon yourself, in clarifying your vision and strengthening your faith, but it is not your oral petitions which get you what you want. In order to get rich you do not need a “sweet hour of prayer;” you need to “pray without ceasing.” And by prayer I mean holding steadily to your vision, with the purpose to cause its creation into solid form, and the faith that you are doing so. “Believe that ye receive them.” 22 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 8: Thinking in The Certain Way Once you have clearly formed your vision, the whole matter turns on receiving. When you have formed it, it is well to make an oral statement, addressing the supreme in gratitude. Then, from that moment on you must, in mind, receive what you ask for. Live in the new house, wear the fine clothes, ride in the automobile, go on the journey, and confidently plan for greater journeys. Think and speak of all the things you have asked for in terms of actual present ownership. Imagine an environment and a financial condition exactly as you want them, and live all the time in that mental environment and financial condition until they take physical shape. Mind, however, that you do not do this as a mere dreamer and castle builder. Hold to the FAITH that the imaginary is being realized and to your PURPOSE to realize it. Remember that it is faith and purpose in the use of the imagination which make the difference between the scientist and the dreamer. And having learned this fact, it is here that you must learn the proper use of the will. www.scienceofgettingrich.net 23 The Science of Getting Rich 24 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 9: How To Use The Will CHAPTER 9 How To Use The Will TO SET ABOUT GETTING RICH IN A SCIENTIFIC WAY, you do not try to apply your will power to anything outside of yourself. You have no right to do so, anyway. It is wrong to apply your will to other men and women in order to get them to do what you wish done. It is as flagrantly wrong to coerce people by mental power as it is to coerce them by physical power. If compelling people by physical force to do things for you reduces them to slavery, compelling them by mental means accomplishes exactly the same thing; the only difference is in methods. If taking things from people by physical force is robbery, them taking things by mental force is robbery also. There is no difference in principle. You have no right to use your will power upon another person, even “for his own good,” for you do not know what is for his good. The science of getting rich does not require you to apply power or force to any other person, in any way whatsoever. There is not the slightest necessity for doing so. Indeed, any attempt to use your will upon others will only tend to defeat your purpose. You do not need to apply your will to things in order to compel them to come to you. That would simply be trying to coerce God and would be foolish and useless. You do not have to try to compel God to give you good things, any more than you have to use your will power to make the sun rise. You do not have to use your will power to conquer an unfriendly Deity, or to make stubborn and rebellious forces do your bidding. Substance is friendly to you, and is more anxious to give you what you want than you are to get it. To get rich, you need only to use your will power upon yourself. When you know what to think and do, then you must use your will to compel yourself to think and do the right things. That is the legitimate use of the will in getting what you want — to use it in holding yourself to the right course. Use your will to keep yourself thinking and acting in the certain way. Do not try to project your will, or your thoughts, or your mind out into space to “act” on things or people. Keep your mind at home. It can accomplish more there than elsewhere. Use your mind to form a mental image of what you want and to hold that vision with faith and purpose. And use your will to keep your mind working in the right way. The more steady and continuous your faith and purpose, the more rapidly you will get rich because you will make only POSITIVE impressions upon substance, and you will not neutralize or offset them by negative impressions. The picture of your desires, held with faith and purpose, is taken up by the formless, and permeates it to great distances — throughout the universe, for all we know. www.scienceofgettingrich.net 25 The Science of Getting Rich As this impression spreads, all things are set moving toward its realization. Every living thing, every inanimate thing, and the things yet uncreated are stirred toward bringing into being that which you want. All force begins to be exerted in that direction. All things begin to move toward you. The minds of people everywhere are influenced toward doing the things necessary to the fulfilling of your desires, and they work for you, unconsciously. But you can check all this by starting a negative impression in the formless substance. Doubt or unbelief is as certain to start a movement away from you as faith and purpose are to start one toward you. It is by not understanding this that most people make their failure. Every hour and moment you spend in giving heed to doubts and fears, every hour you spend in worry, every hour in which your soul is possessed by unbelief, sets a current away from you in the whole domain of intelligent substance. All the promises are unto them that believe, and unto them only. Since belief is all important, it behooves you to guard your thoughts, and as your beliefs will be shaped to a very great extent by the things you observe and think about, it is important that you should carefully govern to what you give your attention. And here the will comes into use, for it is by your will that you determine upon what things your attention shall be fixed. If you want to become rich, you must not make a study of poverty. Things are not brought into being by thinking about their opposites. Health is never to be attained by studying disease and thinking about disease; righteousness is not to be promoted by studying sin and thinking about sin; and no one ever got rich by studying poverty and thinking about poverty. Medicine as a science of disease has increased disease; religion as a science of sin has promoted sin, and economics as a study of poverty will fill the world with wretchedness and want. Do not talk about poverty, do not investigate it, or concern yourself with it. Never mind what its causes are; you have nothing to do with them. What concerns you is the cure. Do some of these bold statements Do not spend your time in so-called charitable work or charity movements; most charity only tends to perpetuchallenge or confuse you? ate the wretchedness it aims to eradicate. I do not say that you should be hard-hearted or unkind and refuse to hear Get the insights and thoughts of the cry of need, but you must not try to eradicate poverty in other like-minded people in the any of the conventional ways. Put poverty behind you, and put all that pertains to it behind you, and “make good.” online discussion group at Get rich. That is the best way you can help the poor. www.scienceofgettingrich.net And you cannot hold the mental image which is to make you rich if you fill your mind with pictures of poverty and all its attendant ills. Do not read books or papers which give circumstantial accounts of the wretchedness of the tenement dwellers, of the horrors of child labor, and so on. Do not read anything which fills your mind with gloomy images of want and suffering. You cannot help the poor in the least by knowing about these things, and the wide-spread knowledge of them does not tend at all to do away with poverty. What tends to do away with poverty is not the getting of pictures of poverty into your mind, but getting pictures of wealth, abundance, and possibility into the minds of the poor. 26 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 9: How To Use The Will You are not deserting the poor in their misery when you refuse to allow your mind to be filled with pictures of that misery. Poverty can be done away with, not by increasing the number of well-to-do people who think about poverty, but by increasing the number of poor people who purpose with faith to get rich. The poor do not need charity; they need inspiration. Charity only sends them a loaf of bread to keep them alive in their wretchedness, or gives them an entertainment to make them forget for an hour or two. But inspiration can cause them to rise out of their misery. If you want to help the poor, demonstrate to them that they can become rich. Prove it by getting rich yourself. The only way in which poverty will ever be banished from this world is by getting a large and constantly increasing number of people to practice the teachings of this book. People must be taught to become rich by creation, not by competition. Every person who becomes rich by competition knocks down the ladder by which he rises, and keeps others down, but every person who gets rich by creation opens a way for thousands to follow — and inspires them to do so. You are not showing hardness of heart or an unfeeling disposition when you refuse to pity poverty, see poverty, read about poverty, or think or talk about it, or to listen to those who do talk about it. Use your will power to keep your mind OFF the subject of poverty and to keep it fixed with faith and purpose ON the vision of what you want and are creating. www.scienceofgettingrich.net 27 The Science of Getting Rich 28 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 10: Further Use of The Will CHAPTER 10 Further Use of The Will YOU CANNOT RETAIN A TRUE AND CLEAR VISION OF WEALTH if you are constantly turning your attention to opposing pictures, whether they be external or imaginary. Do not tell of your past troubles of a financial nature, if you have had them. Do not think of them at all. Do not tell of the poverty of your parents or the hardships of your early life. To do any of these things is to mentally class yourself with the poor for the time being, and it will certainly check the movement of things in your direction. Put poverty and all things that pertain to poverty completely behind you. You have accepted a certain theory of the universe as being correct, and are resting all your hopes of happiness on its being correct. What can you gain by giving heed to conflicting theories? Do not read books which tell you that the world is soon coming to an end, and do not read the writing of muckrakers and pessimistic philosophers who tell you that it is going to the devil. The world is not going to the devil; it is going to God. It is a wonderful becoming. True, there may be a good many things in existing conditions which are disagreeable, but what is the use of studying them when they are certainly passing away and when the study of them only tends to slow their passing and keep them with us? Why give time and attention to things which are being removed by evolutionary growth, when you can hasten their removal only by promoting the evolutionary growth as far as your part of it goes? No matter how horrible in seeming may be the conditions in certain countries, sections, or places, you waste your time and destroy your own chances by dwelling on them. You should interest yourself in the world’s becoming rich. Think of the riches the world is coming into instead of the poverty it is growing out of, and bear in mind that the only way in which you can assist the world in growing rich is by growing rich yourself through the creative method, not the competitive one. Give your attention wholly to riches. Do not focus on poverty. Whenever you think or speak of those who are poor, think and speak of them as those who are becoming rich, as those who are to be congratulated rather than pitied. Then they and others will catch the inspiration, and begin to search for the way out. Because I say that you are to give your whole time and mind and thought to riches, it does not follow that you are to be sordid or mean. To become really rich is the noblest aim you can have in life, for it includes everything else. On the competitive plane, the struggle to get rich is a Godless scramble for power over others, but when we come into the creative mind, all this is changed. All that is possible in the way of greatness, of service and lofty endeavor, comes by way of getting rich, because all is made possible by the use of things. You can aim at nothing so great or noble, I repeat, as to become rich, and you must fix your attention upon your mental picture of wealth to the exclusion of all that may tend to dim or obscure the vision. www.scienceofgettingrich.net 29 The Science of Getting Rich Some people remain in poverty because they are ignorant of the fact that there is wealth for them, and these can best be taught by showing them the way to affluence in your own person and practice. Others are poor because, while they feel that there is a way out, they are too intellectually indolent to put forth the mental effort necessary to find that way and travel it. For these, the very best thing you can do is to arouse their desire by showing them the happiness that comes from being rightly rich. Others still are poor because, while they have some notion of science, they have become so swamped and lost in the maze of theories that they do not know which road to take. They try a mixture of many systems and fail in all. For these, again, the very best thing to do is to show the right way in your own person and practice. An ounce of doing things is worth a pound of theorizing. The very best thing you can do for the whole world is to make the most of yourself. You can serve God and humanity in no more effective way than by getting rich; that is, if you get rich by the creative method and not by the competitive one. Another thing. We assert that this book gives in detail the principles of the science of getting rich, and if that is true, you do not need to read any other book upon the subject. This may sound narrow and egotistical, but consider: There is no more scientific method of computation in mathematics than by addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; no other method is possible. There can be but one shortest distance between two points. There is only one way to think scientifically, and that is to think in the way that leads by the most direct and simple route to the goal. No one has yet formulated a briefer or less complex “system” than the one set forth here. It has been stripped of all non-essentials. When you commence on this, lay all others aside. Put them out of your mind altogether. Read this book every day. Keep it with you. Commit it to memory, and do not think about other “systems” and theories. If you do, you will begin to have doubts and to be uncertain and wavering in your thought, and then you will begin to make failures. After you have made good and become rich, you may study other systems as much as you please. And read only the most optimistic comments on the world’s news — those in harmony with your picture. Also, do not dabble in theosophy, spiritualism, or kindred studies. Perhaps the dead still live and are near, but if they are, let them alone; mind your own business. Wherever the spirits of the dead may be, they have their own work to do, and we have no right to interfere with them. We cannot help them, and it is very doubtful whether they can help us, or whether we have any right to trespass upon their time if they can. Let the dead and the hereafter alone, and solve your own problem: Get rich. If you begin to mix with the occult, you will start mental cross-currents which will surely bring your hopes to shipwreck. Now, this and the preceding chapters have brought us to the following statement of basic facts: There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe. A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought. A person can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his thought upon formless substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created. In order to do this, a person must pass from the competitive to the creative mind; he must form a clear mental picture of the things he wants, and hold this picture in his thoughts with the fixed PURPOSE to get what he wants, and the unwavering FAITH that he does get what he wants, closing his mind against all that may tend to shake his purpose, dim his vision, or quench his faith. And in addition to all this, we shall now see that he must live and act in a certain way. 30 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 11: Acting in The Certain Way CHAPTER 11 Acting in The Certain Way THOUGHT IS THE CREATIVE POWER or the impelling force which causes the creative power to act. Thinking in a certain way will bring riches to you, but you must not rely upon thought alone, paying no attention to personal action. That is the rock upon which many otherwise scientific thinkers meet shipwreck — the failure to connect thought with personal action. We have not yet reached the stage of development, even supposing such a stage to be possible, in which a person can create directly from formless substance without nature’s processes or the work of human hands. A person must not only think, but his personal action must supplement his thought. By thought you can cause the gold in the hearts of the mountains to be impelled toward you, but it will not mine itself, refine itself, coin itself into double eagles, and come rolling along the roads, seeking its way into your pocket. Under the impelling power of the supreme spirit, people’s affairs will be so ordered that someone will be led to mine the gold for you. Other people’s business transactions will be so directed that the gold will be brought toward you. And you must so arrange your own business affairs that you may be able to receive it when it comes to you. Your thought makes all things, animate and inanimate, work to bring you what you want, but your personal activity must be such that you can rightly receive what you want when it reaches you. You are not to take it as charity, nor to steal it. You must give every man more in use value than he gives you in cash value. The scientific use of thought consists in forming a clear and distinct mental image of what you want, in holding fast to your purpose to get what you want, and in realizing with grateful faith that you do get what you want. Do not try to “project” your thought in any mysterious or occult way, with the idea of having it go out and do things for you. That is wasted effort and will weaken your power to think with sanity. The action of thought in getting rich is fully explained in the preceding chapters: Your faith and purpose positively impress your vision upon formless substance, which has the same desire for more life that you have, and this vision, received from you, sets all the creative forces at work in and through their regular channels of action, but directed toward you. It is not your part to guide or supervise the creative process. All you have to do with that is to retain your vision, stick to your purpose, and maintain your faith and gratitude. But you must act in a certain way, so that you can appropriate what is yours when it comes to you and so that you can meet the things you have in your picture and put them in their proper places as they arrive. You can really see the truth of this. When things reach you, they will be in the hands of others, who will ask an equivalent for them. And you can only get what is yours by giving the other person what is rightfully his. www.scienceofgettingrich.net 31 The Science of Getting Rich Your pocketbook is not going to be transformed into a Fortunata’s purse, which shall be always full of money without effort on your part. This is the crucial point in the science of getting rich — right here, where thought and personal action must be combined. There are very many people who, consciously or unconsciously, set the creative forces in action by the strength and persistence of their desires, but who remain poor because they do not provide for the reception of the thing they want when it comes. By thought, the thing you want is brought to you. By action, you receive it. Whatever your action is to be, it is evident that you must act NOW. You cannot act in the past, and it is essential to the clearness of your mental vision that you dismiss the past from your mind. You cannot act in the future, for the future is not here yet. And you cannot tell how you will want to act in any future contingency until that contingency has arrived. Because you are not in the right business or the right environment now, do not think that you must postpone action until you get into the right business or environment. And do not spend time in the present taking thought as to the best course in possible future emergencies; have faith in your ability to meet any emergency when it arrives. If you act in the present with your mind on the future, your present action will be with a divided mind, and will not be effective. Put your whole mind into present action. Do not give your creative impulse to original substance, and then sit down and wait for results. If you do, you will never get them. Act now. There is never any time but now, and there never will be any time but now. If you are ever to begin to make ready for the reception of what you want, you must begin NOW. And your action, whatever it is, must most likely be in your present business or employment, and must be upon the persons and things in your present environment. You cannot act where you are not, you cannot act where you have been, and you cannot act where you are going to be. You can act only where you are. Do not bother as to whether yesterday’s work was well done or ill done; do today’s work well. Do not try to do tomorrow’s work now; there will be plenty of time to do that when you get to it. Do not try, by occult or mystical means, to act on people or things that are out of your reach. Do not wait for a change of environment, before you act; get a change of environment by action. You can so act upon the environment in which you are now, as to cause yourself to be transferred to a better environment. Hold with faith and purpose the vision of yourself in the better environment, but act upon your present environment with all your heart, and with all your strength, and with all your mind. Do not spend any time in day dreaming or castle building; hold to the one vision of what you want, and act NOW. Do not cast about, seeking some new thing to do or some strange, unusual, or remarkable action to perform as a first step toward getting rich. It is probable that your actions, at least for some time to come, will be the same ones you have been performing for some time past, but you are to begin now to perform these actions in the certain way, which will surely make you rich. If you are engaged in some business, and feel that it is not the right one for you, do not wait until you get into the right business before you begin to act. 32 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 11: Acting in The Certain Way Do not feel discouraged or sit down and lament because you are misplaced. No one is so misplaced that he cannot find the right place, and no one is so involved in the wrong business that he cannot get into the right business. Hold the vision of yourself in the right business, with the purpose to get into it and the faith that you will get into it and are getting into it, but ACT in your present business. Use your present business as the means of getting a better one, and use your present environment as the means of getting into a better one. Your vision of the right business, if held with faith and purpose, will cause the supreme power to move the right business toward you. And your action, if performed in the certain way, will cause you to move toward the business. If you are an employee or wage earner and feel that you must change places in order to get what you want, do not “project” your thought into space and rely upon it to get you another job. It will probably fail to do so. Hold the vision of yourself in the job you want while you ACT with faith and purpose on the job you have, and you will certainly get the job you want. Your vision and faith will set the creative force in motion to bring it toward you, and your action will cause the forces in your own environment to move you toward the place you want. In closing this chapter, we will add another statement to our syllabus: There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe. A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought. A person can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his thought upon formless substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created. In order to do this, a person must pass from the competitive to the creative mind; he must form a clear mental picture of the things he wants, and hold this picture in his thoughts with the fixed PURPOSE to get what he wants, and the unwavering FAITH that he does get what he wants, closing his mind to all that may tend to shake his purpose, dim his vision, or quench his faith. So that he may receive what he wants when it comes, a person must act NOW upon the people and things in his present environment. www.scienceofgettingrich.net 33 The Science of Getting Rich 34 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 12: Efficient Action CHAPTER 12 Efficient Action YOU MUST USE YOUR THOUGHT AS DIRECTED in previous chapters and begin to do what you can do where you are, and you must do ALL that you can do where you are. You can advance only by being larger than your present place, and no one is larger than his present place who leaves undone any of the work pertaining to that place. The world is advanced only by those who more than fill their present places. If no one quite filled his present place, you can see that there must be a going backward in everything. Those who do not quite fill their present places are dead weight upon society, government, commerce, and industry. They must be carried along by others at a great expense. The progress of the world is slowed only by those who do not fill the places they are holding. They belong to a former age and their tendency is toward degeneration. No society could advance if everyone was smaller than his place; social evolution is guided by the law of physical and mental evolution. In the animal world, evolution is caused by excess of life. When an organism has more life than can be expressed in the functions of its own plane, it develops the organs of a higher plane, and a new species is originated. There never would have been new species had there not been organisms which more than filled their places. The law is exactly the same for you: Your getting rich depends upon your applying this principle to your own affairs. Every day is either a successful day or a day of failure, and it is the successful days which get you what you want. If every day is a failure you can never get rich, while if every day is a success, you cannot fail to get rich. If there is something that may be done today and you do not do it, you have failed insofar as that thing is concerned — and the consequences may be more disastrous than you imagine. You cannot foresee the results of even the most trivial act. You do not know the workings of all the forces that have been set moving in your behalf. Much may be depending on your doing some simple act, and it may be the very thing which is to open the door of opportunity to very great possibilities. You can never know all the combinations which supreme intelligence is making for you in the world of things and of human affairs. Your neglect or failure to do some small thing may cause a long delay in getting what you want. Do, every day, ALL that can be done that day. There is, however, a limitation or qualification of the above that you must take into account. You are not to overwork, nor to rush blindly into your business in the effort to do the greatest possible number of things in the shortest possible time. You are not to try to do tomorrow’s work today, nor to do a week’s work in a day. It is really not the number of things you do, but the EFFICIENCY of each separate action that counts. www.scienceofgettingrich.net 35 The Science of Getting Rich Every act is, in itself, either a success or a failure. Every act is, in itself, either effective and efficient or ineffective and inefficient. Every inefficient act is a failure, and if you spend your life in doing inefficient acts, your whole life will be a failure. The more things you do, the worse for you — if all your acts are inefficient ones. On the other hand, every efficient act is a success in itself, and if every act of your life is an efficient one, your whole life must be a success. The cause of failure is doing too many things in an inefficient manner and not doing enough things in an efficient manner. You will see that it is a self-evident proposition that if you do not do any inefficient acts and if you do a sufficient number of efficient acts, you will become rich. If, now, it is possible for you to make each act an efficient one, you see again that the getting of riches is reduced to an exact science, like mathematics. The matter turns, then, on the question of whether you can make each separate act a success in itself. And this you can certainly do. You can make each act a success, because ALL power is working with you, and ALL power cannot fail. Power is at your service, and to make each act efficient you have only to put power into it. Every action is either strong or weak, and when every action is strong, you are acting in the certain way which will make you rich. Every act can be made strong and efficient by holding your vision while you are doing it and putting the whole power of your FAITH and PURPOSE into it. It is at this point that the people who separate mental power from personal action fail. They use the power of mind in one place and at one time, and they act in another way in another place and at another time. So their acts are not successful in themselves; too many of them are inefficient. But if ALL power goes into every act, no matter how commonplace, every act will be a success in itself. And since it is the nature of things that every success opens the way to other successes, your progress toward what you want and the progress of what you want toward you, will become increasingly rapid. Remember that successful action is cumulative in its results. Since the desire for more life is inherent in all things, when a person begins to move toward larger life, more things attach themselves to him, and the influence of his desire is multiplied. Do, every day, all that you can do that day, and do each act in an efficient manner. In saying that you must hold your vision while you are doing each act, however trivial or commonplace, I do not mean to say that it is necessary at all times to see the vision distinctly to its smallest details. It should be the work of your leisure hours to use your imagination on the details of your vision and to contemplate them until they are firmly fixed upon memory. If you wish speedy results, spend practically all your spare time in this practice. By continuous contemplation you will get the picture of what you want — even to the smallest details — so firmly fixed upon your mind and so completely transferred to the mind of formless substance, that in your working hours you need only to mentally refer to the picture to stimulate your faith and purpose and cause your best effort to be put forth. Contemplate your picture in your leisure hours until your consciousness is so full of it that you can grasp it instantly. You will become so enthused with its bright promises that the mere thought of it will call forth the strongest energies of your whole being. 36 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 12: Efficient Action Let us again repeat our syllabus, and by slightly changing the closing statements bring it to the point we have now reached. There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe. A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought. A person can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his thought upon formless substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created. In order to do this, a person must pass from the competitive to the creative mind. He must form a clear mental picture of the things he wants, and must do — with faith and purpose — all that can be done each day, doing each separate thing in an efficient manner. www.scienceofgettingrich.net 37 The Science of Getting Rich 38 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 13: Getting Into The Right Business CHAPTER 13 Getting Into The Right Business SUCCESS, IN ANY PARTICULAR BUSINESS, depends for one thing upon your possessing, in a well-developed state, the faculties required in that business. Without good musical faculty no one can succeed as a teacher of music. Without well-developed mechanical faculties no one can achieve great success in any of the mechanical trades. Without tact and the commercial faculties no one can succeed in mercantile pursuits. But to possess in a well-developed state the faculties required in your particular vocation does not insure getting rich. There are musicians who have remarkable talent, and who yet remain poor. There are blacksmiths, carpenters, and so on who have excellent mechanical ability, but who do not get rich. And there are merchants with good faculties for dealing with people who nevertheless fail. The different faculties are tools. It is essential to have good tools, but it is also essential that the tools should be used in the right way. One man can take a sharp saw, a square, a good plane, and so on, and build a handsome article of furniture. Another man can take the same tools and set to work to duplicate the article, but his production will be a botch. He does not know how to use good tools in a successful way. The various faculties of your mind are the tools with which you must do the work which is to make you rich. So it will be easier for you to succeed if you get into a business for which you are well equipped with mental tools. Generally speaking, you will do best in that business which will use your strongest faculties — the one for which you are naturally “best fitted.” But there are limitations to this statement also. No one should regard his vocation as being irrevocably fixed by the tendencies with which he was born. You can get rich in ANY business, for if you have not the right talent, you can develop that talent. It merely means that you will have to make your tools as you go along, instead of confining yourself to the use of those with which you were born. It will be EASIER for you to succeed in a vocation for which you already have the talents in a well-developed state;, but you CAN succeed in any vocation, for you can develop any rudimentary talent, and there is no talent of which you have not at least the rudiment. You will get rich most easily in terms of effort, if you do that for which you are best fitted, but you will get rich most satisfactorily if you do that which you WANT to do. Doing what you want to do is life, and there is no real satisfaction in living if we are compelled to be forever doing something which we do not like to do and can never do what we want to do. And it is certain that you can do what you want to do. The desire to do it is proof that you have within you the power which can do it. Desire is a manifestation of power. The desire to play music is the power which can play music seeking expression and development. The desire to invent mechanical devices is the mechanical talent seeking expression and development. www.scienceofgettingrich.net 39 The Science of Getting Rich Where there is no power, either developed or undeveloped, to do a thing, there is never any desire to do that thing, and where there is strong desire to do a thing, it is certain proof that the power to do it is strong and only requires to be developed and applied in the right way. All other things being equal, it is best to select the business for which you have the best developed talent, but if you have a strong desire to engage in any particular line of work, you should select that work as the ultimate end at which you aim. You can do what you want to do, and it is your right and privilege to follow the business or avocation which will be most congenial and pleasant. You are not obliged to do what you do not like to do, and should not do it except as a means to bring you to the doing of the thing you want to do. If there are past mistakes whose consequences have placed you in an undesirable business or environment, you may be obliged for some time to do what you do not like to do, but you can make the doing of it pleasant by knowing that it is making it possible for you to come to the doing of what you want to do. If you feel that you are not in the right vocation, do not act too hastily in trying to get into another one. The best way, generally, to change business or environment is by growth. Do not be afraid to make a sudden and radical change if the opportunity is presented and you feel after careful consideration that it is the right opportunity, but never take sudden or radical action when you are in doubt as to the wisdom of doing so. There is never any hurry on the creative plane, and there is no lack of opportunity. When you get out of the competitive mind you will understand that you never need to act hastily. No one else is going to beat you to the thing you want to do; there is enough for all. If one space is taken, another and a better one will be opened for you a little farther on; there is plenty of time. When you are in doubt, wait. Fall back on the contemplation of your vision, and increase your faith and purpose. And by all means, in times of doubt and indecision, cultivate gratitude. A day or two spent in contemplating the vision of what you want and in earnest thanksgiving that you are getting it will bring your mind into such close relationship with the supreme that you will make no mistake when you do act. There is a mind which knows all there is to know, and you can come into close unity with this mind by faith and the purpose to advance in life, if you have deep gratitude. Mistakes come from acting hastily or from acting in fear or doubt or in forgetfulness of the right motive, which is more life to all, and less to none. As you go on in the certain way, opportunities will come to you in increasing number, and you will need to be very steady in your faith and purpose, and to keep in close touch with the supreme mind by reverent gratitude. Do all that you can do in a perfect manner every day, but do it without haste, worry, or fear. Go as fast as you can, but never hurry. Remember that in the moment you begin to hurry you cease to be a creator and become a competitor. You drop back upon the old plane again. Whenever you find yourself hurrying, call a halt. Fix your attention on the mental image of the thing you want and begin to give thanks that you are getting it. The exercise of GRATITUDE will never fail to strengthen your faith and renew your purpose. 40 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 14: The Impression of Increase CHAPTER 14 The Impression of Increase WHETHER YOU CHANGE YOUR VOCATION OR NOT, your actions for the present must be those pertaining to the business in which you are now engaged. You can get into the business you want by making constructive use of the business you are already established in — by doing your daily work in the certain way. And insofar as your business consists in dealing with other people, whether personally or by letter, the key thought of all your efforts must be to convey to their minds the impression of increase. Increase is what all men and all women are seeking; it is the urge of the formless intelligence within them seeking fuller expression. The desire for increase is inherent in all nature; it is the fundamental impulse of the universe. All human activities are based on the desire for increase. People are seeking more food, more clothes, better shelter, more luxury, more beauty, more knowledge, more pleasure — increase in something, more life. Every living thing is under this necessity for continuous advancement; where increase of life ceases, dissolution and death set in at once. Man instinctively knows this, and therefore he is forever seeking more. This law of perpetual increase is set forth by Jesus in the parable of the talents: Only those who gain more retain any; from him who has not shall be taken away even that which he has. The normal desire for increased wealth is not an evil or a reprehensible thing. It is simply the desire for more abundant life. It is aspiration. And because it is the deepest instinct of their natures, all men and women are attracted to those who can give them more of the means of life. In following the certain way as described in the foregoing pages, you are getting continuous increase for yourself, and you are giving it to all with whom you deal. You are a creative center from which increase is given off to all. Be sure of this, and convey assurance of the fact to every man, woman, and child with whom you come in contact. No matter how small the transaction, even if it be only the selling of a stick of candy to a little child, put into it the thought of increase, and make sure that the customer is impressed with the thought. Convey the impression of advancement with everything you do, so that all people shall receive the impression that you are an “advancing personality,” and that you advance all who deal with you. Even to the people whom you meet in a social way — without any thought of business and to whom you do not try to sell anything — give the thought of increase. You can convey this impression by holding the unshakable faith that you, yourself, are in the way of increase and by letting this faith inspire, fill, and permeate every action. www.scienceofgettingrich.net 41 The Science of Getting Rich Do everything that you do in the firm conviction that you are an advancing personality and that you are giving advancement to everybody. Feel that you are getting rich, and that in so doing you are making others rich and conferring benefits on all. Do not boast or brag of your success or talk about it unnecessarily; true faith is never boastful. Wherever you find a boastful person, you find one who is secretly doubtful and afraid. Simply feel the faith, and let it work out in every transaction. Let every act and tone and look express the quiet assurance that you are getting rich — that you are already rich. Words will not be necessary to communicate this feeling to others. They will feel the sense of increase when in your presence, and will be attracted to you again. You must so impress others that they will feel that in associating with you they will get increase for themselves. See that you give them a use value greater than the cash value you are taking from them. Take an honest pride in doing this and let everybody know it, and you will have no lack of customers. People will go where they are given increase, and the supreme, which desires increase in all and which knows all, will move toward you men and women who have never heard of you. Your business will increase rapidly, and you will be surprised at the unexpected benefits which will come to you. You will be able from day to day to make larger combinations, secure greater advantages, and to go on into a more congenial vocation if you desire to do so. But doing thing all this, you must never lose sight of your vision of what you want or your faith and purpose to get what you want. Let me here give you another word of caution in regard to motives: Beware of the insidious temptation to seek for power over other people. Nothing is so pleasant to the unformed or partially developed mind as the exercise of power or dominion over others. The desire to rule for selfish gratification has been the curse of the world. For countless ages kings and lords have drenched the earth with blood in their battles to extend their dominions — not to seek more life for all, but to get more power for themselves. Today, the main motive in the business and industrial world is the same: Men marshal their armies of dollars and lay waste the lives and hearts of millions in the same mad scramble for power over others. Commercial kings, like political kings, are inspired by the lust for power. Look out for the temptation to seek for authority, to become a “master,” to be considered as one who is above the common herd, to impress others by lavish display, and so on. The mind that seeks for mastery over others is the competitive mind, and the competitive mind is not the creative one. In order to master your environment and your destiny, it is not at all necessary that you should rule over your fellow men, and, indeed, when you fall into the world’s struggle for the high places, you begin to be conquered by fate and environment and your getting rich becomes a matter of chance and speculation. Beware of the competitive mind! No better statement of the principle of creative action can be formulated than the favorite declaration of the late “Golden Rule” Jones of Toledo: “What I want for myself, I want for everybody.” 42 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 15: The Advancing Personality CHAPTER 15 The Advancing Personality WHAT I HAVE SAID IN THE LAST CHAPTER APPLIES as well to the professional person and the wageearner as to the person who is engaged in selling or any other form of business. No matter whether you are a physician, a teacher, or a clergyman, if you can give increase of life to others and make them sensible of that fact, they will be attracted to you, and you will get rich. The physician who holds the vision of himself as a great and successful healer, and who works toward the complete realization of that vision with faith and purpose, as described in former chapters, will come into such close touch with the source of life that he will be phenomenally successful; patients will come to him in throngs. No one has a greater opportunity to carry into effect the teaching of this book than the practitioner of medicine. It does not matter to which of the various schools he may belong, for the principle of healing is common to all of them and may be reached by all alike. The “advancing man” in medicine, who holds to a clear mental image of himself as successful, and who obeys the laws of faith, purpose, and gratitude, will cure every curable case he undertakes. In the field of religion, the world cries out for the clergyman who can teach his hearers the true science of abundant life. He who masters the details of the science of getting rich, together with the allied sciences of being well, of being great, and of winning love, and who teaches these details from the pulpit, will never lack for a congregation. This is a gospel that the world needs; it will give increase of life, and people will hear it gladly and give liberal support to the person who brings it to them. What is now needed is a demonstration of the science of life from the pulpit. We want preachers who can not only tell us how, but who in their own persons will show us how. We need the preacher who will himself be rich, healthy, great, and beloved, to teach us how to attain to these things, and when he comes he will find a numerous and loyal following. The same is true of the teacher who can inspire the children with the faith and purpose of the advancing life. He will never be “out of a job.” And any teacher who has this faith and purpose can give it to his pupils. He cannot help giving it to them if it is part of his own life and practice. What is true of the teacher, preacher, and physician is true of the lawyer, dentist, real estate agent, insurance agent — of everybody. The combined mental and personal action I have described is infallible; it cannot fail. Every man and woman who follows these instructions steadily, perseveringly, and to the letter, will get rich. The law of the increase of life is as mathematically certain in its operation as the law of gravity. Getting rich is an exact science. The wage-earner will find this as true of his case as of any of the others mentioned. Do not feel that you have no chance to get rich because you are working where there is no visible opportunity for advancement, where wages are small and the cost of living high. Form your clear mental vision of what you want, and begin to act with faith and purpose. www.scienceofgettingrich.net 43 The Science of Getting Rich Do all the work you can do, every day, and do each piece of work in a perfectly successful manner. Put the power of success and the purpose to get rich into everything that you do. But do not do this merely with the idea of currying favor with your employer, in the hope that he, or those above you, will see your good work and advance you. It is not likely that they will do so. The person who is merely a “good” worker, filling his place to the very best of his ability and satisfied with that, is valuable to his employer, and it is not to the employer’s interest to promote him. He is worth more where he is. To secure advancement, something more is necessary than to be too large for your place. The person who is certain to advance is the one who is too big for his place, who has a clear concept of what he wants to be, who knows that he can become what he wants to be, and who is determined to BE what he wants to be. Do not try to more than fill your present place with a view to pleasing your employer. Do it with the idea of advancing yourself. Hold the faith and purpose of increase during work hours, after work hours, and before work hours. Hold it in such a way that every person who comes in contact with you, whether foreman, fellow worker, or social acquaintance, will feel the power of purpose radiating from you — so that everyone will get the sense of advancement and increase from you. People will be attracted to you, and if there is no possibility for advancement in your present job, you will very soon see an opportunity to take another job. There is a power which never fails to present opportunity to the advancing personality who is moving in obedience to law. God cannot help helping you if you act in a certain way. He must do so in order to help himself. There is nothing in your circumstances or in the industrial situation that can keep you down. If you cannot get rich working for the steel trust, you can get rich on a ten-acre farm. And if you begin to move in the certain way, you will certainly escape from the “clutches” of the steel trust and get on to the farm or wherever else you wish to be. If a few thousands of its employees would enter upon the certain way, the steel trust would soon be in a bad plight. It would have to give its workers more opportunity or go out of business. Nobody has to work for a trust. The trusts can keep people in so called hopeless conditions only so long as there are people who are ignorant of the science of getting rich or too intellectually slothful to practice it. Begin this way of thinking and acting, and your faith and purpose will make you quick to see any opportunity to better your condition. Such opportunities will speedily come, for the supreme power, working in all and working for you, will bring them before you. Do not wait for an opportunity to be all that you want to be. When an opportunity to be more than you are now is presented and you feel impelled toward it, take it. It will be the first step toward a greater opportunity. There is no such thing possible in this universe as a lack of opportunities for the person who is living the advancing life. It is inherent in the constitution of the cosmos that all things shall be for him and work together for his good, and he must certainly get rich if he acts and thinks in the certain way. So let wage-earning men and women study this book with great care and enter with confidence upon the course of action it prescribes. It will not fail. 44 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 16: Some Cautions and Concluding Observations CHAPTER 16 Some Cautions and Concluding Observations MANY PEOPLE WILL SCOFF AT THE IDEA that there is an exact science of getting rich. Holding the impression that the supply of wealth is limited, they will insist that social and governmental institutions must be changed before even any considerable number of people can acquire a competence. But this is not true. It is true that existing governments keep the masses in poverty, but this is because the masses do not think and act in the certain way. If the masses begin to move forward as suggested in this book, neither governments nor industrial systems can check them; all systems must be modified to accommodate the forward movement. If the people have the advancing mind, have the faith that they can become rich, and move forward with the fixed purpose to become rich, nothing can possibly keep them in poverty. Individuals may enter upon the certain way at any time and under any government and make themselves rich. And when any considerable number of individuals do so under any government, they will cause the system to be so modified as to open the way for others. The more people who get rich on the competitive plane, the worse for others. The more who get rich on the creative plane, the better for others. The economic salvation of the masses can only be accomplished by getting a large number of people to practice the scientific method set down in this book and become rich. These will show others the way and inspire them with a desire for real life, with the faith that it can be attained, and with the purpose to attain it. For the present, however, it is enough to know that neither the government under which you live nor the capitalistic or competitive system of industry can keep you from getting rich. When you enter upon the creative plane of thought you will rise above all these things and become a citizen of another kingdom. But remember that your thought must be held upon the creative plane. You are never for an instant to be betrayed into regarding the supply as limited or into acting on the moral level of competition. Whenever you do fall into old ways of thought, correct yourself instantly. For when you are in the competitive mind, you have lost the cooperation of the supreme mind. Do not spend any time in planning as to how you will meet possible emergencies in the future, except as the necessary policies may affect your actions today. You are concerned with doing today’s work in a perfectly successful manner and not with emergencies which may arise tomorrow. You can attend to them as they come. Do not concern yourself with questions as to how you shall surmount obstacles which may loom upon your business horizon unless you can see plainly that your course must be altered today in order to avoid them. www.scienceofgettingrich.net 45 The Science of Getting Rich No matter how tremendous an obstruction may appear at a distance, you will find that if you go on in the certain way it will disappear as you approach it, or that a way over, under, through, or around it will appear. No possible combination of circumstances can defeat a man or woman who is proceeding to get rich along strictly scientific lines. No man or woman who obeys the law can fail to get rich, any more than one can multiply two by two and fail to get four. Give no anxious thought to possible disasters, obstacles, panics, or unfavorable combinations of circumstances. There is time enough to meet such things when they present themselves before you in the immediate present, and you will find that every difficulty carries with it the wherewithal for its overcoming. Guard your speech. Never speak of yourself, your affairs, or of anything else in a discouraged or discouraging way. Never admit the possibility of failure or speak in a way that infers failure as a possibility. Never speak of the times as being hard or of business conditions as being doubtful. Times may be hard and business doubtful for those who are on the competitive plane, but they can never be so for you. You can create what you want, and you are above fear. When others are having hard times and poor business, you will find your greatest opportunities. Train yourself to think of and to look upon the world as a something which is becoming, which is growing, and to regard seeming evil as being only that which is undeveloped. Always speak in terms of advancement. To do otherwise is to deny your faith, and to deny your faith is to lose it. Never allow yourself to feel disappointed. You may expect to have a certain thing at a certain time and not get it at that time, and this will appear to you like failure. But if you hold to your faith you will find that the failure is only apparent. Go on in the certain way, and if you do not receive that thing, you will receive something so much better that you will see that the seeming failure was really a great success. A student of this science had set his mind on making a certain business combination which seemed to him at the time to be very desirable, and he worked for some weeks to bring it about. When the crucial time came, the thing failed in a perfectly inexplicable way. It was as if some unseen influence had been working secretly against him. But he was not disappointed. On the contrary, he thanked God that his desire had been overruled, and went steadily on with a grateful mind. In a few weeks an opportunity so much better came his way that he would not have made the first deal on any account, and he saw that a mind which knew more than he knew had prevented him from losing the greater good by entangling himself with the lesser. That is the way every seeming failure will work out for you, if you keep your faith, hold to your purpose, have gratitude, and do — every day — all that can be done that day, doing each separate act in a successful manner. When you make a failure, it is because you have not asked for enough. Keep on, and a larger thing then you were seeking will certainly come to you. Remember this. You will not fail because you lack the necessary talent to do what you wish to do. If you go on as I have directed, you will develop all the talent that is necessary to the doing of your work. It is not within the scope of this book to deal with the science of cultivating talent, but it is as certain and simple as the process of getting rich. 46 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 16: Some Cautions and Concluding Observations However, do not hesitate or waver for fear that when you come to any certain place you will fail for lack of ability. Keep right on, and when you come to that place, the ability will be furnished to you. The same source of ability which enabled the untaught Lincoln to do the greatest work in government ever accomplished by a single man is open to you. You may draw upon all the mind there is for wisdom to use in meeting the responsibilities which are laid upon you. Go on in full faith. Study this book. Make it your constant companion until you have mastered all the ideas contained in it. While you are getting firmly established in this faith, you will do well to give up most recreations and pleasure and to stay away from places where ideas conflicting with these are advanced in lectures or sermons. Do not read pessimistic or conflicting literature or get into arguments upon the matter. Spend most of your leisure time in contemplating your vision, in cultivating gratitude, and in reading this book. It contains all you need to know of the science of getting rich, and you will find all the essentials summed up in the following chapter. www.scienceofgettingrich.net 47 The Science of Getting Rich 48 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 17: A Summary of The Science of Getting Rich CHAPTER 17 A Summary of The Science of Getting Rich THERE IS A THINKING STUFF FROM WHICH ALL THINGS ARE permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe. MADE, and which, in its original state, A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought. A person can form things in his thought, and by impressing his thought upon formless substance can cause the thing he thinks about to be created. In order to do this, a person must pass from the competitive to the creative mind. Otherwise he cannot be in harmony with formless intelligence, which is always creative and never competitive in spirit. A person may come into full harmony with the formless substance by entertaining a lively and sincere gratitude for the blessings it bestows upon him. Gratitude unifies the mind of man with the intelligence of substance, so that man’s thoughts are received by the formless. A person can remain upon the creative plane only by uniting himself with the formless intelligence through a deep and continuous feeling of gratitude. A person must form a clear and definite mental image of the things he wishes to have, to do, or to become, and he must hold this mental image in his thoughts, while being deeply grateful to the supreme that all his desires are granted to him. The person who wishes to get rich must spend his leisure hours in contemplating his vision, and in earnest thanksgiving that the reality is being given to him. Too much stress cannot be laid on the importance of frequent contemplation of the mental image, coupled with unwavering faith and devout gratitude. This is the process by which the impression is given to the formless and the creative forces set in motion. The creative energy works through the established channels of natural growth, and of the industrial and social order. All that is included in his mental image will surely be brought to the person who follows the instructions given above, and whose faith does not waver. What he wants will come to him through the ways of established trade and commerce. In order to receive his own when it is ready to come to him, a person must be in action in a way that causes him to more than fill his present place. He must keep in mind the purpose to get rich through realization of his mental image. And he must do, every day, all that can be done that day, taking care to do each act in a successful manner. He must give to every person a use value in excess of the cash value he receives, so that each transaction makes for more life, and he must hold the advancing thought so that the impression of increase will be communicated to all with whom he comes into contact. The men and women who practice the foregoing instructions will certainly get rich, and the riches they receive will be in exact proportion to the definiteness of their vision, the fixity of their purpose, the steadiness of their faith, and the depth of their gratitude. www.scienceofgettingrich.net 49 The Science of Getting Rich 50 www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 17: A Summary of The Science of Getting Rich APPENDIX A Support The Network This book and The Science of Getting Rich Network website are made available on the principle of shareware: If you use them, find them valuable, and/or share them with others, why not do your part to keep them freely available to all? Please fill out this form and send with your donation. All the information requested is held in strictest confidence (but you need not supply it if you prefer not to). Name: ______________________________________________________________________________ E-mail address: ________________________________________________________________________ Amount enclosed: q $5 q $10 q Other $________________ Your comments or suggestions are welcome! __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Make payable and mail to: Certain Way Productions 1001 Cooper Point Road SW, Suite 140 #345 Olympia, WA 98502 360-427-5514 www.scienceofgettingrich.net li The Science of Getting Rich lii www.scienceofgettingrich.net CHAPTER 17: A Summary of The Science of Getting Rich APPENDIX B No time to read? Tired of the garbage that passes for drive-time radio? Get the book on audiotape! Stay focused, guard your thoughts, and follow Mr. Wattles’ advice to review the principles daily with the help of this two-hour, two-tape set (in a handsome storage album) — the complete book read by and with a new introduction by Rebecca Fine, founder of The Science of Getting Rich Network. All major credit or debit cards accepted online at www.scienceofgettingrich.net. Use this form if you prefer to order by mail and pay with check or money order. ITEM DESCRIPTION One set, as described above ITEM # AUD1-A PRICE EA. $22.00 US $44.00 US Dianne Lessa, Senior Software Engineer, Littleton, MA The tapes are great! Now instead of having to make time to read it (I have read it three times), I can listen to it every day in my car going to work. Thanks! QUANTITY TOTAL $ $ $ $ $ SPECIAL! Buy 2, Get a third set FREE! AUD1-SP WA residents, please add 8% sales tax Shipping & handling ($4 in US; $5 US to Canada) TOTAL AMOUNT ENCLOSED Name: Address: City: Phone: State/Province: E-mail Address: q Check q Money Order q USA q Canada Zip/Postal Code: Make payable and mail to: Certain Way Productions 1001 Cooper Point Road SW, Suite 140 #345 Olympia, WA 98502 360-427-5514 Remember: Quick & secure credit/debit card ordering,is available on our website! www.scienceofgettingrich.net liii The Science of Getting Rich liv www.scienceofgettingrich.net

THE FIRST PRINCIPLE IN THE SCIENCE OF GETTING RICH

The First Principle in The Science of Getting Rich- THOUGHT IS THE ONLY POWER WHICH CAN PRODUCE TANGIBLE RICHES from the formless substance. The stuff from which all things are made is a substance which thinks, and a thought of form in this substance produces the form.

Original substance moves according to its thoughts; every form and process you see in nature is the visible expression of a thought in original substance. As the formless stuff thinks of a form, it takes that form; as it thinks of a motion, it makes that motion. That is the way all things were created. We live in a thought world, which is part of a thought universe. The thought of a moving universe extended throughout formless substance, and the thinking stuff — moving according to that thought — took the form of systems of planets, and maintains that form. Thinking substance takes the form of its thought, and moves according to the thought.

Holding the idea of a circling system of suns and worlds, it takes the form of these bodies, and moves them as it thinks. Thinking the form of a slow-growing oak tree, it moves accordingly, and produces the tree, though centuries may be required to do the work. In creating, the formless seems to move according to the lines of motion it has established. In other words, the thought of an oak tree does not cause the instant formation of a full-grown tree, but it does start in motion the forces which will produce the tree, along established lines of growth.

Every thought of form, held in thinking substance, causes the creation of the form, but always, or at least generally, along lines of growth and action already established.

The thought of a house of a certain construction, if it were impressed upon formless substance, might not cause the instant formation of the house, but it would cause the turning of creative energies already working in trade and commerce into such channels as to result in the speedy building of the house. And if there were no existing channels through which the creative energy could work, then the house would be formed directly from primal substance, without waiting for the slow processes of the organic and inorganic world.

No thought of form can be impressed upon original substance without causing the creation of the form.

A person is a thinking center and can originate thought. All the forms that a person fashions with his hands must first exist in his thought. He cannot shape a thing until he has thought that thing.

So far, humankind has confined its efforts wholly to the work of its hands, applying manual labor to the world of forms and seeking to change or modify those already existing. Humankind has never thought of trying to cause the creation of new forms by impressing thought upon formless substance.

When a person has a thought-form, he takes material from the forms of nature and makes an image of the form which is in his mind. People have, so far, made little or no effort to cooperate with formless intelligence — to work “with the Father.” The individual has not dreamed that he can “do what he seeth the Father doing.” An individual reshapes and modifies existing forms by manual labor and has given no attention to the question of whether he may produce things from formless substance by communicating his thoughts to it.

We propose to prove that he may do so — to prove that any man or woman may do so — and to show how. As our first step, we must lay down three fundamental propositions.

First, we assert that there is one original formless stuff or substance from which all things are made. All the seemingly many elements are but different presentations of one element. All the many forms found in organic and inorganic nature are but different shapes, made from the same stuff. And this stuff is thinking stuff — a thought held in it produces the form of the thought. Thought, in thinking substance, produces shapes. A human being is a thinking center, capable of original thought. If a person can communicate his thought to original thinking substance, he can cause the creation, or formation, of the thing he thinks about. To summarize this:

There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe.

A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.

A person can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his thought upon formless substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created.

It may be asked if I can prove these statements, and without going into details I answer that I can do so, both by logic and experience.

Reasoning back from the phenomena of form and thought, I come to one original thinking substance, and reasoning forward from this thinking substance, I come to a person’s power to cause the formation of the thing he thinks about.

And by experiment, I find the reasoning true. This is my strongest proof.

If one person who reads this book gets rich by doing what it tells him to do, that is evidence in support of my claim, but if every person who does what it tells him to do gets rich, that is positive proof until someone goes through the process and fails. The theory is true until the process fails, and this process will not fail, for everyone who does exactly what this book tells him to do will get rich.

I have said that people get rich by doing things in a certain way, and in order to do so, people must become able to think in a certain way.

A person’s way of doing things is the direct result of the way he thinks about things.

To do things in the way you want to do them, you will have to acquire the ability to think the way you want to think. This is the first step toward getting rich.

And to think what you want to think is to think TRUTH, regardless of appearances.

Every individual has the natural and inherent power to think what he wants to think, but it requires far more effort to do so than it does to think the thoughts which are suggested by appearances. To think according to appearances is easy; to think truth regardless of appearances is laborious and requires the expenditure of more power than any other work we are called upon to perform.

There is no labor from which most people shrink as they do from that of sustained and consecutive thought. It is the hardest work in the world. This is especially true when truth is contrary to appearances. Every appearance in the visible world tends to produce a corresponding form in the mind which observes it, and this can only be prevented by holding the thought of the TRUTH.

To look upon the appearances of poverty will produce corresponding forms in your own mind, unless you hold to the truth that there is no poverty; there is only abundance.

To think health when surrounded by the appearances of disease or to think riches when in the midst of the appearances of poverty requires power, but whoever acquires this power becomes a master mind. That person can conquer fate and can have what he wants.

This power can only be acquired by getting hold of the basic fact which is behind all appearances, and that fact is that there is one thinking substance from which and by which all things are made.

Then we must grasp the truth that every thought held in this substance becomes a form, and that man can so impress his thoughts upon it as to cause them to take form and become visible things.

When we realize this we lose all doubt and fear, for we know that we can create what we want to create, we can get what we want to have, and can become what we want to be. As a first step toward getting rich, you must believe the three fundamental statements given previously in this chapter, and in order to emphasize them, I repeat them here:

There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe.

A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.

A person can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his thought upon formless substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created.

You must lay aside all other concepts of the universe, and you must dwell upon this until it is fixed in your mind and has become your habitual thought. Read these statements over and over again. Fix every word upon your memory and meditate upon them until you firmly believe what they say. If a doubt comes to you, cast it aside. Do not listen to arguments against this idea. Do not go to churches or lectures where a contrary concept of things is taught or preached. Do not read magazines or books which teach a different idea. If you get mixed up in your understanding, belief, and faith, all your efforts will be in vain.

Do not ask why these things are true nor speculate as to how they can be true. Simply take them on trust. The science of getting rich begins with the absolute acceptance of this. THE FIRST PRINCIPLE IN THE SCIENCE OF GETTING RICH
(Tags: science of getting rich free pdf ebook download, personal finance management, personal financial advice, personal finance for dummies, personal finance education)

Obvious Signs that Your Dishonest Stockbroker is Making You Look Stupid

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:34:00 PST

A dishonest stockbroker can do serious damage to your net worth. While the vast majority of stockbrokers are good, honorable professionals who take their fiduciary responsibility seriously, some fall more accurately into the category of “Stock Jockeys” who are only in it for their own gain. The good news is that, in the Information Age, it is much easier to spot a dishonest stockbroker.

Dishonest brokers often ask their victims a steady stream of questions designed to derail honest investors from asking the right questions. In contrast, honest brokers encourage you to ask questions, provide you with additional educational materials, and make certain that you understand the risks involved in your investment decision. And if you decide not to spend your money, they’re untroubled by your investment decision.

The National Futures Association has collected basic questions that are turn-offs for dishonest brokers. In the following list, I’ve tailored those questions to meet the needs of online investors:

1.) What risks are involved in the investment? All investments except U.S. Treasury securities have some default risk. (U.S. Treasury securities are considered risk-free. The Federal government backs these securities just as it does the legal tender — that is, the money in your pocket. The government isn’t likely to fail, so the securities — and your money — are risk-free.) Some investments have more risk than others do. A salesperson who really has a sure thing won’t be on the telephone talking with you.

2.) Where did you get my name? The dishonest broker may answer, “from a select list of investors,” but your name was probably obtained from a newsgroup question that you asked, from a bulk e-mail response, or from a mailing list subscription.

3.) Would you explain your investment proposal to my attorney, financial planner, investment advisor, or banker? You know the investment is a scam if the salesperson says something like, “Normally, I would be glad to, but . . .” or “Unfortunately, we don’t have enough time,” or “Can’t you make your own decisions?”

4.) Can you give me references and the names of your principal investors and officers? Swindlers often change their names so that you can’t check their histories. Make certain that the reference list contains the names of well-known banks and reputable brokerage firms that you can easily contact. The Investor Protection Trust page (www.investorprotection.org) includes links to various resources that you can use to check out a broker or other financial professional.

5.) Can you send me a written explanation of the investment, so I can consider it at my leisure? This question provides two turn-offs to dishonest brokers. First, swindlers are reluctant to put in writing anything that may become evidence in a fraud trial. Second, swindlers are impatient; they want your money right now.

6.) How long has your company been in business, and what is your track record? Can I meet another representative of your firm? If the broker or the investment doesn’t seem to have a past, the deal may be a scam. Many swindlers have been running scams for years and aren’t anxious to talk about it.

7.) The prospectus, the risk disclosure statement, or the audited financial statements? For legitimate, registered investments, these documents are normal. A legitimate investment may or may not be traded on an exchange. However, fraudulent investments never are.

8.) How can I get my money if I want to liquidate my investment? You might discover that your potential investment can’t be sold or that selling your investment involves substantial costs. If you’re unable to get a solid answer in writing, the investment might be a scam.

9.) When and where can I meet you to further discuss this investment? As you might imagine, dishonest brokers often won’t take the time to meet with you, and they don’t want you in their places of business. Legitimate registered brokers are happy to sit down and discuss your financial goals.

10.) What regulatory agency is the investment subject to? Tell the broker that you want to check the investment’s good standing with its regulatory agency before going forward. The possibility of having to talk to a representative of a regulatory agency is a real turn-off to a swindler.

11.) How much of my money will go to management fees, commissions, and similar expenses? Legitimate investments often have restrictions on the amount of management fees the firm can charge. Getting what the firm charges in writing is important. Compare the firm’s fees with charges for similar investments.

12.) Where will my money be? What type of accounting can I expect? Often, funds for certain investments are required to stay in separate accounts at all times. Find out which accounting firm does the firm’s auditing and what type of external audits the firm is subject to. (Make certain that the well-known accounting firm is actually the auditor.)

13.) If a dispute arises, how will it be resolved? No one wants to go to court and sue. The investment should be subject to a regulatory agency’s guidelines so that disputes are resolved inexpensively through arbitration, mediation, or a reparation procedure.

14.) Which exchanges are the securities traded on? Can I have copies of the prospectus, the risk disclosure statement, or the audited financial statements? For legitimate, registered investments, these documents are normal. A legitimate investment may or may not be traded on an exchange. However, fraudulent investments never are.

WHERE TO COMPLAIN ONLINE

The Internet provides many ways to complain about online investor fraud.
Here are four good resources:

a.) Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org) has an online complaint form
and promises to follow up within two weeks of your complaint.

b.) Federal Trade Commission (www.ftc.gov) provides an easy-to-use
complaint form. Click File A Complaint Online at the home page.

c.) Securities and Exchange Commission (www.sec.gov) has an excellent
online complaint process.

d.) National Fraud Information Center (www.fraud.org) forwards your complaint to the appropriate organizations and includes it in the center’s Internet fraud statistics (which might not help you get your money back but might be helpful to other online investors).

e.) FINRA BrokerCheck: http://www.finra.org/Investors/ToolsCalculators/BrokerCheck/p085698

And if all the remidies is done and if an investor determines that his or her account has suffered losses at the hands of a broker or advisor, it may be time to move ahead with legal proceedings.

The Investment Gods Are Angry- Working Capital Model (WCM)

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 08:46:00 PST

The Working Capital Model (WCM) is an historically new methodology, but with roots deeply imbedded in the building blocks of capitalism, and financial psychology--- if there actually is such a thing.

The earliest forms of capitalism sprung from ancient Roman mercantilism, which involved the production of goods and their distribution to people or countries around the Mediterranean.

The sole purpose of the exercise was profit and the most successful traders quickly produced more profits than they needed for their own consumption. The excess cash needed a home, and a wide variety of early entrepreneurial types were quick to propose ventures for the rudimentary rich to consider.

There were no income taxes, and governments actually supported commercial activities.

The investment gods saw this developing enterprise and thought it good. They suggested to the early merchants, and governments that they could "spread the wealth around" by: (1) selling ownership interests in their growing enterprises, and (2) by borrowing money to finance expansion.

A financial industry grew up around the early merchants, providing insurances, brokerage, and other banking services. Economic growth created the need for a trained work force, and companies competed for the most skilled. Eventually, even the employees could afford (even demand) a piece of the action.

Was this the beginning of modern liberalism? Not! The investment gods had created the building blocks of capitalism: stocks and bonds, profits and income. Stockowners participated in the success of growing enterprises; bondholders received interest for the use of their money--- the K.I.S.S. principle was born.

As capitalism took hold, entrepreneurs flourished, ingenuity and creativity were rewarded, jobs were created, civilizations blossomed, and living standards improved throughout the world. Global markets evolved that allowed investors anywhere to provide capital to industrial users everywhere, and to trade their ownership interests electronically.

But on the dark side, without even knowing it, Main Street self-directors participated in a thunderous explosion of new financial products and quasi-legal derivatives that so confused the investment gods that they had to holler "'nuff"! Where are our sacred stocks and bonds? Financial chaos ensued.

The Working Capital Model was developed in the 1970s, at a time when there were no IRA or 401(k) plans, no index or sector funds, no CDOs or credit swaps, and, a whole lot less risky product for investors to untangle. Those who invested knew about stocks and bonds; investment-qualified trustees protected workers pension plans.

The WCM was revolutionary then in its breakaway from the ancient buy-and-hold, in its staunch insistence on QDI selection principles, and in its cost based allocation and diversification disciplines. It is revolutionary still as it butts heads with a Wall Street that has gone mad with product differentiation, value obfuscation, and short-term performance evaluation.

Investing is a long-term process that involves goal setting and portfolio building. It demands patience, and an understanding of the several cycles that both create and confuse the environment in which it takes place.

The WCM thrives upon the cyclical nature of the process while Wall Street ignores it. Working capital numbers are used for short-term controls and directional guidance; peak-to-peak analysis provides longer-term performance analyses.

In the early 70s, investment professionals compared their equity performance cyclically with the DJIA, over the time from one significant market peak to the next--- from the 11,400 achieved in November 1999 to the 13,930 achieved in November 2007, for example. Equity portfolio managers would be expected to do at least as well as the Dow over the same time period, after all expenses.

Another popular hoop for investment managers of that era to jump through was Peak to Trough performance. Managers would be expected to do less poorly than the Dow during corrections, like the 33% drop between November 99 and September 02, or the much steeper 40% variety that we are immersed in today.

Professional income portfolio managers were expected to produce secure and increasing streams of spendable income, regardless. Compounded earnings and/or secure cash flow were all that was required. Apples were not compared with oranges.

Today's obsession with short-term blinks of the investment eye is Wall Street's attempt to take the market cycle out of the performance picture. Similarly, total return hocus-pocus places artificial significance on bond market values while it obscures the importance of the income produced.

WCM users will have none of it; the investment gods are angry. (Google Peak-to-Peak or Trough-to-Trough to see how far a field the financial community has strayed.)

The WCM embraces the fundamental building blocks of capitalism --- individual stocks and bonds and a few managed CEFs in which the actual holdings are clearly visible. Profits and income rule.

Think about it, in a working capital world, there would be no CDOs or multi-level mortgage mystery meat; no hedge funds, naked short sellers, or managed options programs; no mark-to-market lunacy, Bernie Madoffs, or taxes on investment income.

In a working capital portfolio today, lower stock prices are seen as a cyclical fact of life, an opportunity to add to positions at lower prices. There has been no panic selling in equity holdings, and no flight to 1% Treasuries from 6% Munis. In a WCM portfolio today, dividends and income keep rolling, providing income for retirees, college kids, and golf trips.

Capitalism is not broken; it's just been too tinkered with. The financial system is in serious trouble, however, and needs to get back to its roots and to those building blocks that the Wizards have cloaked in obscurity.

Let's stick with stocks and bonds; lets focus on income where the purpose is income; let's analyze performance relative to cycles as opposed to phases of the moon; let's tax consumption instead of income; let's not disrespect the gods.

Amen!

Steve Selengut
http://www.kiawahgolfinvestmentseminars.com/
http://www.valuestockindex.com
Professional Portfolio Management since 1979
Author of: "The Brainwashing of the American Investor: The Book that Wall Street Does Not Want YOU to Read", and "A Millionaire's Secret Investment Strategy"

Working Capital Model Investing– Investing Rules Of Engagement-The QDI

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 06:00:00 PST

Crash! The 2007 thru 2008 financial crisis halved 401(k), IRA, and Mutual Fund values in a matter of months. For many, retirement dates had to be pushed back; for others, new jobs had to be found. The tragic flaw? No income allocation in the investment program. Market value builds egos; income pays the bills.

Few employers cautioned Savings Plan participants that 401(k)s are just not defined benefit programs. Few mutual fund distributors suggested to benefit departments that their programs were missing something of critical importance.

Throughout the meltdown, all investment securities fell in market value. But the vast majority of income securities, including closed end income funds (CEFs), have continued to pay interest and dividends. Market value builds over-confidence; income pays the bills.

The Working Capital Model (WCM) is a comprehensive system for investment management that is based on uncompromising rules of engagement. The investor's focus must remain centered on the development of dependable cash flow and the creation of an expanding number of houses and hotels on his game board.

With a reasonable amount of effort, and a lot of self-discipline, anyone can use it to build a portfolio, slowly and sanely, benefiting from the cycles we all expect to continue indefinitely. All cycles have two components; the WCM helps you deal with each.

Every portfolio holding must generate regular income of some kind and each must have profit potential--- at least at the time of purchase. The planned balance between income producers and growth providers (equities) must be maintained throughout the process, even though there may be no immediate need for the income. Have you learned that unrealized gains are not growth?

Year to year, we want to see reasonable growth in both Working Capital (the total cost basis of the cash and securities in the portfolio) and base income (interest and dividend income produced by the securities in the portfolio). But more importantly, we want to produce this growth in a lower-than-usual risk environment, made up of properly diversified investment grade securities.

The first steps in the investment process are Management Functions: Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling

Planning involves the identification/definition of Investment Goals and Objectives. They should be long-term but flexible over time. They should include parameters and rules that are well thought out--- at the personal level. They should be reasonable and realistic historically.

Goals and objectives are essential, but they need to be laid-up on a foundation that reduces the risk of loss at various stages in the life cycle of the investment program. Asset allocation is a planning/organizing tool used to design the portfolio in a way that will balance the need for growth in Working Capital with the age-dependent risk tolerance of the investor.

Asset allocation decisions should implement and support the Investment Plan. Under normal circumstances, the securities in the income "bucket" of the portfolio (bonds, government securities, mortgages, preferred stocks, REITs, etc.) are all much safer than any of those in the equity "bucket".

An asset allocation with 50% in each bucket is much more conservative than one with 80% directed toward equities--- regardless of the quality ratings we require for the equity securities. Asset allocation decisions must be made using the cost basis of the securities in each bucket.

Beyond asset allocation itself, organizing involves selecting actual securities that fit into the two investment buckets in a properly diversified manner. It may involve several separate portfolios, but must be easy to direct and control.Diversification rules (also based on security cost basis) will guide the portfolio into a variety of issues and sectors.

Proper diversification assures that the overall risk of loss is spread around companies, countries, businesses, and geographical areas. Market capitalization issues, and global representation are dealt with behind the scenes, in the quality determination phase of the security selection process.

Leading, most simply, is personal decision-making. You must direct the activities of others (brokers/managers/accountants/etc.) who may be offering you investment advice. The investment manager (you are the primary investment manager) must create the quality, diversification, and income generation rules (the QDI) that govern the day-to-day operations of all portfolios.

Why would anyone accept a portfolio that was not designed for his or her own unique situation and needs? Laziness, confusion, brainwashing, ignorance of the markets--- all of the above?

The Principles of Investing (the QDI) are superimposed in, on, and around the management functions. They control the security selection process to help reduce portfolio risk. They help set the targets for profit taking and provide mind-set controls that enforce the rules. They assure that every security within the portfolio contributes to base income.

It is imperative that you lead your portfolio into strict guidelines for security quality, cost-based diversification, income generation, and profit taking. Rules for disposing of downgraded or weakening positions must also be codified.

Profit taking is the most satisfying of all portfolio decision-making functions--- and possibly the least popular! Most of the reasons are ego centered, until the WCM shows clearly the opportunities that are available for the newly created working capital.

Reasonable targets must be set (between seven and ten percent dependent on the amount of smart cash available), and triggers pulled insensitively when targets are reached--- no hindsight at all can be tolerated. A monthly brokerage statement with unrealized gains is a sign of poor management.

Controlling involves realistic performance evaluation, and monitoring to assure that you are following your own rules and guidelines. Comparing your annual change in market value with the DJIA or S & P is not performance evaluation.

Working Capital Model Investing - The Process

Most people enter the investment process tip first. They hear something, grab an idea from a popular blog, accept a Cramerism or some motley foolishness, and think that they are making investment decisions. Rarely, will the right-now, instant-gratification, Internet-generation speculator think in terms that go beyond tomorrow's breaking news.

It just doesn't work that way in the long run. Investing takes place in an uncertain environment with at least three important cycles working their way through time at different rates of speed. Each should have an impact on investor decision-making. More often than not, short-term thinking and impulse decision-making are ineffective long-term investment strategies---

Today, in the midst of a cyclical "perfect storm", how many Wall Streeters have the cold-blooded temperament required to focus on anything other than dwindling market values, depressing economic news, and income securities that just don't want to react normally to minuscule interest rates?

The short-term mentality thrust upon investors by the tax code, the media, and the underground investment advice community obscures the big picture and makes investing more and more difficult as time goes on. The Working Capital Model (WCM) is a long-term-thinking-only-welcome-here approach that is based in a much less frantic, but parallel, investment universe.

The investment community evaluates short-term time intervals, and compares all performance to popular indices that rarely have any direct relationship to real live investment portfolios. If an investor thinks long term when constructing his investment plan, how does he justify short term thinking when it comes to performance evaluation?

In rising markets, investors second-guess their profit-taking disciplines because they exited a security too early, and strong markets often tempt the shortsighted into more aggressive asset allocations. In falling markets, just the opposite occurs. Most investment decision-making is a series of much-too-late, knee-jerk reactions to cyclical conditions that are misunderstood.

Market Value growth does little more than increase a person's hat size; Working Capital growth increases a person's asset base. The point is that paper profits can't be reinvested or reallocated. True portfolio growth requires additions to the income and growth producing asset base--- the working capital.

The most important fundamental tenets and basic differences between the WCM methodology and modern Wall Street craziness are these:

One. The length, depth, breadth, and height of the various cycles are presumed to be totally unpredictable. Additionally, even though they are inter-related and inter-connected in many ways, none of them are related in any way, shape, or form to the calendar year.

Unlike Wall Street, and most of Main Street for that matter, the calendar has no role as a measuring device within the WCM, making the horse race mentality, and competitive atmosphere disappear entirely.

Two. To be successful, an investor must make cycle-savvy, buy-sell-hold decisions, and formulate different performance expectations for securities based upon their purpose. The WCM recognizes only two classes of securities, Equity and Income, leaving more speculative "others" out of the equation entirely. Each class is purchased with a different primary objective in mind.

Investors must learn what to expect from each, and at different stages of the various cycles. The cyclical focus of the WCM makes it easier to determine now the actions and decisions most likely to produce the best results later--- in terms of investor specific investment goals and objectives.

Three. The WCM does not focus blindly on short-term changes in the market value of securities, nor does it concern itself with calendar time intervals. Similarly, it does not look at cyclical peaks and troughs as either good or bad. Rather, it attempts to deal with conditions at hand in a manner most likely to achieve long-term goals.

Four. The generation of annually increasing levels of "base income" is given paramount importance in the WCM. It is defined as the total of interest and dividends produced by the portfolio, without the inclusion of realized capital gains. Income pays the bills, not market values.

Five. The WCM is as much a planning tool as it is a decision making model. Working capital is defined as the cost basis of the securities and cash contained in the portfolio. This approach simplifies the implementation of the asset allocation decisions that all investors should be making before they purchase security number one.

Six. The WCM uses the market value of securities quite differently than most other investment methodologies. It recognizes that the price of a security is as much a function of speculation about the movement of market price as it is about the inherent fundamental quality of the security itself.

Lower prices of IGVSI stocks, for example, are considered opportunities for purchase, while higher prices are considered opportunities for profit taking. Similarly, lower prices of income Closed End Funds translate into opportunities to increase income and reduce average cost per share, while higher prices are also viewed as profit taking opportunities.

The Working Capital Model operates in an environment of cycles rather than calendar years, and emphasizes a security's fundamental value as opposed to its market price. Market Value is used only to signal buying and profit taking decisions. The methodology has three operating objectives:

One. Growing Working Capital at a rate consistent with portfolio asset allocation. Higher equity allocations should produce a higher long-term rate than income portfolios.

Two. Growing portfolio base income at a rate consistent with portfolio asset allocation. Higher income allocations should produce a higher growth rate than equity portfolios.

Three. Trading securities for reasonable profits, as often as possible. Equity portfolios should produce more capital gains than income portfolios, and mostly short term if the operating disciplines of the WCM are being observed.

When the cycles converge higher, new market value highs will appear as well.

by:

Steve Selengut
http://www.kiawahgolfinvestmentseminars.com
http://www.valuestockindex.com
Professional Portfolio Management since 1979
Author of: "The Brainwashing of the American Investor: The Book that Wall Street Does Not Want YOU to Read", and "A Millionaire's Secret Investment Strategy"

Tips You Should Know to Prevent Identity Theft During Holiday Shopping Season

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 01:58:00 PST

With holiday season fast approaching, consumers are entering into the most active spending period of the year. Reinforced by the soft economy, this is "high season" for identity theft with identity thieves seeking to take advantage of shoppers. Identity theft generally rises during the holidays because thieves assume that consumers aren't paying attention to their credit card purchases, debit card purchases, receipts etc. as closely.

One the leading provider of a new breed of services to help consumers safeguard their privacy and prevent identity theft is IdentityTruth. They are offering basic tips to help consumers to “prevent identity theft” and avoid putting your identity at risk during the 2008 holiday season. In addition to watching budgets this season, consumers also need to be vigilant in the face of possible identity theft.

1. Use credit cards instead of debit cards: Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, Credit Cards provide consumers protection again fraudulent charges and your liability is limited to $50. You also have the right to dispute charges and withhold payment during investigation. However, debit cards are entirely different. Although they market themselves to deliver the same protection, they are not required to by any law. Bottom line, your liability for fraudulent charges is the entire amount in your checking account as well as the credit line you have been authorized to receive.

2. Use a single credit card to consolidate your purchasing: The more credit cards open in your name, the greater the risk that a thief will obtain the account information for one (never mind that having numerous cards with big lines of credit can be a bad temptation and can actually drag down your credit score--even if you don't have balances). It's also easier to monitor a single statement for signs of fraud, and you won't incur the annual fees associated with having multiple cards. Make sure to cross-check all your receipts against your statements to see that they match.

3. Be sure to write "SEE ID" on the back of credit cards: This simple step can help to foil thieves if the card is lost or stolen, and might even help to catch the thief if your card is taken.

4. Shop on secure sites and be wary!: While the majority of identity fraud occurs offline, identity theft is also a problem online. You must exercise caution when shopping on the web. Stick to sites that you know are legitimate, and if you are trying a new site for the first time, here are a few things to look for: the URL should have "https" in the shopping cart; there should be a lock icon on the bottom right hand side of the window and look for icons that indicate site safety (the Better Business Bureau, VeriSign and Hacker Safe icons).

5. Watch out for "phishing" and "vishing" scams: These scams can be a real problem, as identity thieves try to play on people's generosity during the holiday season. Phishing emails often take the forms of requests purporting to be from a bank or credit card company; they ask you to "verify" account information such as login and password or they request a donation or assistance for the less fortunate during the holidays. Vishing scams--which involve fraudulent calls—seek to exploit consumer concerns over fraud by seeming to offer fraud prevention assistance. The bottom line: no legitimate vendor will ask for your login and password via email or on the phone.

6. Be careful when using ATMs: Only use ATMs with monitoring cameras, such as those in bank lobbies. Avoid kiosk ATMs, those freestanding units often do not have cameras and are statistically more likely to be infected by skimmers (electronic devices that allow thieves to record account and PIN numbers). "Shoulder Surfing" can also be a problem at a crowded mall. While you assume that the man behind you is uncomfortably close because of mall crowding, he may actually be looking over your shoulder trying to get your login.

7. Place fraud alerts to prevent new credit card accounts from being opened: Free fraud alerts placed on your credit report are good for 90 days (if you can demonstrate that you've been an identity theft victim, they can be set for 7 years) and, in combination with other proactive measures, can be used to help to prevent identity theft.

ALL I LEARNED FROM NOAH'S ARK AND FROM MY DOG

noreply@blogger.com (Marie Claire) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 06:38:00 PDT

ALL I LEARNED FROM NOAH'S ARK

1. Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.
2. Stay fit. When you're 600 years old, someone might ask you to do something REALLY big.
3. Don't listen to critics, do what has to be done.
4. Build on high ground.
5. For safety's sake, travel in pairs.
6. Two heads are better than one.
7. Speed isn't always an advantage. The cheetahs were on board, but so were the snails.
8. If you can't fight or flee, float!
9. Take care of your animals as if they were the last ones on earth.
10. Don't forget that we're all in the same boat.
11. When the doo-doo gets really deep, don't sit there and complain shovel!!!
12. Stay below deck during the storm.
13. Remember that the ark was built by amateurs and the Titanic was built by professionals.
14. If you have to start over, have a friend by your side.
15. Remember that the woodpeckers INSIDE are often a bigger threat than the storm outside.
16. Don't miss the boat. No matter how bleak it looks, there's always a rainbow on the other side.

ALL I EVER LEARNED FROM MY DOG

1. Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joy ride.
2. Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy.
3. When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
4. When it's in your best interest, always practice obedience.
5. Let others know when they've invaded your territory.
6. Take naps and always stretch before rising.
7. Run, romp, and play daily.
8. Eat with gusto and enthusiasm.
9. Be loyal.
10. Never pretend to be something you're not.
11. If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
12. When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently.
13. Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.
14. Thrive on attention and let people touch you.
15. Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
16. On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.
17. When you are happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
18. No matter how often you are criticized, don't buy into the guilt thing and pout. Run right back and make friends.