Have you been watching Eben Pagan’s daily “Money’s Dirty Secrets” videos the last few days?  He’s been releasing a  new video each day for 4 days. You can see them here at his Self-Made Wealth Blog

There have been a lot of really interesting posts by people after each video.  Here was one that caught my eye about money, inflation, and the ever-decreasing value of our dollar and its buying power:

———————————————————–
by Al H:

Here’s a story of how I learned a great lesson about the difference in money and assets.

My father had a habit of taking the change from his pockets each night and putting it in a jar. When the jar filled up he’d put it in the bank, or change it to bills and buy something for our family to enjoy. A nice habit when those coins were mostly silver.

Today, I own some of those coins … pre-1964 coins that were 90% silver content.

Up until recently I would occasionally check the price of silver and figure out how much those coins were worth in dollars. But a few weeks ago I decided to do something different. I went to Google and searched for what things cost in 1960.

Next, I calculated the amount of silver in each coin. For example, a silver dollar contains 0.7735 oz. of silver. Silver is about $17 per oz. currently, so one of these silver dollars is worth about $13 in paper money. This is the melt value of these coins, it is not the value of mint condition, uncirculated coins … just the regular coins anyone living prior to 1964 had rattling around in their pockets everyday.

When I compared what I could buy today if I converted those coins to dollars, I got a real solid understanding of money inflation. It was a good lesson in understanding asset appreciation, price inflation and the purchasing power of today’s fiat money.

Here’s some examples of what I found:

In 1960 an average new home cost $12,700. $12,700 in pre-1964 used silver dollars equals about 9823 oz. of silver. Silver is around $17 an ounce currently. Multiply 9823 x 17 = $166, 991. I think that would buy a fairly good home today.

In 1960 a gallon of gas was about 25 cents. One pre-64 used quarter has 0.1808 oz. of silver. $17x 0.1808= $3.07. Gas in my town is currently around $2.75/gallon. Seems the price of gas has gone down since 1960 in my town at least.

A loaf of bread was also about a quarter in the early 60’s. Can you buy bread for $3.07 today. I can buy 2 loaves with that.

Average cost of a new car in 1960 was $2600.00. 2600 used silver dollars = 2011 oz. silver x $17 = $34,187. That won’t buy a luxury car, but still will give you a wide variety of choices.

And if I was earning $6000 per year in the mid ’60s I’d have been earning the average wage. $6000 in silver coins would be about 4641 oz. of silver. At $17/oz that would equal $78,897.00. Not sure what it is today, but in 2008 the average wage was $40,523. I’d prefer $6000 per year if you pay me in silver!

For me the lesson, aside from being a nostalgic trip back to the past, was seeing how focusing on an asset, something of value, is very different than focusing on dollars … that is dollars that leave me dependent on the trustworthiness and promises of bankers and government officials.

I now truly know the difference in wealth and money, and agree 100% with the statement that money is NOT wealth. Wonder what our economy would be like today if we still had money backed by silver and gold!

Hey! If you know anyone who’s sincerely looking for a part-time way to generate some extra cash, have them listen to a 25 minute overview QUICKLY (limited time): Dial 1.605.475.6950, enter 190446#, then 4444#. If they have questions, they can message me.

Here’s just one example of many happening all the time, that identity theft is not just involving one’s credit card like many people think.  It involves some serious areas of your life and character; including your social security, medical records, criminal id theft, and your drivers license info.

The most misunderstood fact about this is that your identity theft protection plans from credit cards and banks WILL NOT help in these areas!  They will only help with that account or your other bank accounts.

Check out this article of what happened recently to these two people who had their identity stolen by being used in a criminal act, yet they were the ones sued! You’ll be amazed.

http://www.lasvegasnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=7389946

Pre-Paid Legal’s ID Theft Shield, combined with their Life Events Legal Plan is the best product available to help protect you from ALL areas of identity theft.

You’ve heard the saying, “Jack of all trades, master of none.”

That pretty much describes my dad, and I learned a lot from him growing up.  One of the things I picked up from him was remodeling houses.  Internet and network marketing is where I’ll spend my time to make money, and make a living, but I love working with residential construction and remodeling.

The month of February, I took time away from working on the computer to remodel a friend’s master bathroom and closet.  Check out my photo album on Facebook to see the results!

The last few months have been busy for me and have required some balancing and juggling to make time for everything.  As you may know, I also run a small residential construction business, specializing in bathroom and kitchen remodels, and house additions.  I do this because I love working with my hands, and seeing the finished product of a room or house after starting from a clean slate.

But I also know it’s important to work smart in life, leveraging your time anyway possible.  That’s why I’m also involved in the network marketing industry…No other business model today allows a person to create a full-time leveraged income with such little investment.  With that said, thinking of all this balancing over the last couple months, reminded me of an important lesson in building your own  business:

It’s vital to focus on income producing activity.

You’ve likely heard of the Pareto Principle, commonly known as the 80/20 rule.  It basically states that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. The 80/20 ratio isn’t exact and that’s not the main point, but the basic idea applies in so many situations.  I think you’ll notice that throughout life, most of the benefits come from about 20% of your efforts.  But, I believe it directly applies to the time you devote to your business.

The tricky part is focusing on that 20% of your efforts, because that’s where the majority of your income stems from.  When you focus on the income-producing actions each day, you’ll be able to be more productive and get your work done quicker!

Here are just a few examples:

Social Media: This definitely falls into the 80% category of non-income-producing activities. You can make money in your business without such things as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  They’re great tools to help you, but they’re just tools.  They don’t directly influence your business’ bottom line.

Email: This is a trap I’ve fallen into many times.  Emails are a vital form of communication, and it’s definitely important to reply back to customers and their questions.  It’s obvious emails can’t be ignored, but they fall into the 80%.  One thing I used to do was leave Hotmail and Gmail open all the time…every time a new email would come into my inbox, it would notify me, and I would stop what I’m doing, hop over to check the email and then hop back over, but it had completely interrupted my train of thought on what I was working on.  Lesson learned, leave emails for when you’re about done working, check them all at once, not throughout the day.

Talking to Prospects: Top priority and definitely fits into the 20%…this leads directly to producing income for your business.

So how do you apply this lesson to what you do now?

The first thing you need to do is define exactly what your targets are based on your end goals… Is your goal to recruit a specific number of people into your business per month? Then more traffic to your website is a target.  Or perhaps talking to X number of prospects on the phone per day is another target.  On the other hand, something such as number of Facebook friends, or blog post comments is not as much a target as it is an indicator of how you’re progressing toward your targets.

In other words, those things still may be important, but you need to determine their level of importance, if they fit into that 20% of activities that directly produce income and results, or the 80% that can still be important, but lower on the priority list…You’ll still do some of those things, but being fairly brutal with evaluating yourself, you’ll see the relative importance of those activities.

So, how do you apply the 80/20 rule to your own business? Try this:

1. Make a list of all the tasks you do in your business.
2. Make a separate list of your end goals.
3. Now, go over the list you made in #1 and categorize them based on whether they have a direct impact on your end goal.

Knowing this, here is what you can do:

1. Realign your emphasis on the 80% activities and focus on the 20% activities.  In some cases, you may find that an activity serves no real purpose at all, in which case you need to simply eliminate it.  In other cases, the 80% activity is important, but doesn’t directly produce income or get you closer to the end goal…in this case you simply put it lower on the priority list, leaving it to do after some more important tasks are completed. My email problem is a great example of this…instead of leaving it open all day, only check it once or twice throughout the day.
2. Evaluate your 20% activities and ask yourself this question: “Am I doing the things which will help me achieve  my end goals?”  You might find that you’re just spinning your wheels now because you don’t have any daily activities that fit into the 20% category, and you need to add some productive tasks to your list.  For example, if your goal is to recruit 10 people this month, and yet you spend all day Facebooking and Tweeting, then you probably don’t have any 20% activities because you’re not really doing anything to help you achieve your end goal.

Taking some time to evaluate this for myself is one of the most important lessons I’ve learned in building my home-based business.

Running your business can be quite overwhelming without a system of evaluating priorities of activities. All activities aren’t equal, and you only have so much time in a day to get everything done…especially if you are working your network marketing business part-time. You need to learn to determine which activities are important and which are not as important, then learn to divide your available time accordingly.

Master this and you’ll be way ahead of your competition.

Seriously, it’s for your own good, you need to check this video out:

In this video, Todd Falcone, successful network marketer and trainer, shares the keys to making it big in network marketing, boiled down to the nuts and bolts, no fluff.

1. Pick a Company
2. Commit Wholeheartedly
3. Take Massive Action
4. Surround Yourself with Success
5. Focus on Your Skills and Your Head

It can get a bad wrap sometimes.  You’ve likely heard some of the negative comments directed at the network marketing…The sad thing is most of them were created by people who really have no experience or direct knowledge of the network marketing industry; they just based their beliefs on hearsay and speculation.

I’ve found it really to be the perfect way to pursue a life that allows personal choices.  Sure there are downfalls to it, just like anything else in life, but, especially in today’s economy, there is no better way to achieve the success you want.  Check out this video to see why some very successful people chose network marketing as their vehicle to achieve success.

You attempted something and it did not work. But that doesn’t mean it will always fail to work.
When you truly desire to find a way, there is a way. Go back and remind yourself why you wanted to do it in the first place.

The obstacles you encounter do not prevent you from getting it done. Those obstacles enable you to get it done in a more creative, effective, realistic and sustainable way.

Right now you are more knowledgeable and experienced than you’ve ever been. Give it another go, and discover how much more effective you’ve become.

Don’t fret about the opportunities you’ve missed. Instead, discover how those opportunities have now evolved.

The pathway may look different now, yet it is indeed still there. Confidently take that first step, and begin to do what you’ve always wanted to do.