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Showing posts from 2010

Have You Remembered All of Your Gifts?

As parents we delight in giving gifts to our children because we love them and want to bless their lives. Our delight is doubled when we see their eyes and hearts light up with joy. Our delight is tripled when we hear from their lips words of gratitude and appreciation. Our heavenly father delights in blessing us, but his joy and our own joy at receiving his gifts, is not complete until we express our sincere thanks from the depths of our hearts. “A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the abilit

A Radical New Approach to Personal Investing - Part 2

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For the last 10 years, investors have not made any headway in increasing the value of their investment portfolios, in fact the last ten years (2000-2010) is now commonly being referred to as “the lost decade”. This has led many investors to become disillusioned with the stock markets and their financial advisors. The following excerpt is taken from a recent post by The American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) does a good job of explaining why this has happened. “Diversification benefits have become harder to achieve. Increased similarities in the performances of asset classes have raised risk levels and made it more difficult to achieve improved risk-adjusted returns by relying solely on asset class and sector selection skills. At issue is asset class correlation, a term that describes how close the total return of one asset class (e.g., large-cap stocks) is to that of another (e.g., commodities). A correlation of 1.0 means returns are identical, both in terms of

A Radical New Approach to Personal Investing - Part 1

In the book the book " The Perfect Portfolio " author Leland Hevner states that the investing environment that we, as individual investors, face today is not a friendly place. Equity prices are buffeted by factors that were inconceivable just a few years ago. Yet while markets have changed dramatically, the investing theories, methods and resources we have available to cope with them have not. The time has come to pause, take a deep breath and rethink in totality how we view and interact with the equities/stock markets. It is time to recognize that much of what you have been taught about how to invest has changed. To survive and thrive in today’s new investing environment, a completely new approach to personal investing is needed. This new approach is the subject of this article. In the good old days (not many years ago), investors had a reasonable chance of predicting stock prices by analyzing company financial statements. Investors had a legitimate chance of being succe

Discovering Your Genius

In the book “ The Success System That Never Fails ”, author W. Clement Stone states that the start of all personal achievement starts in the mind of the individual. Your personal achievement starts in your own mind. The first step is to know exactly what your problem, goal or desire is. Most people don’t get what they want because they don’t know exactly what they want. If you are not clear about what you want, then write it down and then rewrite it again until the words express precisely what you are after. All success hinges on the 3 things listed below. Once you truly understand what they mean, you’re on your way to a golden future. 1. Inspiration to Action The road to success starts when you are inspired to make the effort. Inspiration starts when you are motivated to dissatisfaction with things the way they are. Therefore, inspirational dissatisfaction is the strongest single force in your success system that never fails. Inspiration to action can also be described as having

Your Attitude Makes the Difference

Success results more from certain mental traits and personality characteristics known as attitudes than from any other single factor. Attitudes are the result of choices you make – decisions to believe or not believe in particular aspects of your life. Attitude isn’t simply a state of mind it is also a reflection of what we value. Attitude is more than just saying I can, it is believing you can. It requires believing before seeing, because seeing is based on circumstances, believing is based on faith. Attitude is so contagious especially when we allow it to turn our doubts of the past into the passions of today and set the stage for our tomorrows. We have total ownership of our attitudes. No one else has the power to alter our attitudes without our permission. Our attitude allows us to become more empowering than money, to rise above our failures, and accept others for who they are, and what they say. It is more important than giftedness and is the forerunner of all skills needed

Your Money Mindset

"To be the master of money, you need to be smarter than it. Then money will do as it is told. It will obey you. Instead of being a slave to it, you will be the master of it. That is financial intelligence " Robert Kiyosaki, author Conspiracy of the Rich Have you ever wondered why money comes so easily to some people, yet others seem to struggle for every penny they earn? The difference between the two types of people often lies in how they think about money and wealth. How you think about money is the single most important factor that determines whether you are wealthy or not. So, if you want more money in your life it is essential that you develop a Positive Money Mindset . Your Mindset is the sum total of all your beliefs, values, identity, expectations, attitudes, habits, decisions, opinions and thought patterns about money and what it means to you. Many of our mindsets, are handed down from our families, society, religious authorities and teachers, but we can change

Investing for Cash Flow and Financial Independence

How is your retirement plan going? Are you frustrated with the way your mutual funds, stocks and other traditional investments have gone / are going? If the answer is YES then you need to consider the alternatives. Financial Planners will always tell you to diversify. That’s a good idea except that diversification is usually exercised by most people solely through the purchase of many different mutual funds. It is still investing in mutual funds or the stock market. There are ways to obtain wealth (and financial security) that you may not currently be exploring, ways that go beyond buying mutual funds. Instead of planning for retirement, plan to reach Financial Independence instead. True Financial Independence is an easily measurable known target, and is a goal that can actually be reached within a short period of time. How? Through passive income. Generate positive cash flow from hard assets such as real estate income property. Rental income is passive income for the most part,

What is Money?

Everyone uses money. We all want it, work for it and think about it. If you don't know what money is, you are not like most humans. However, the task of defining what money is, where it comes from and what it's worth is belongs to those who dedicate themselves to the discipline of economics. While the creation and growth of money seems somewhat intangible, money is the way we get the things we need and want. So what is this thing that means so much to everyone? Normally when people think of money, they do not focus on the raw concept of money but on how to acquire it, how to spend it and how to hang on to it. Most people spend a great deal of time thinking about money without ever contemplating what it is. Most people go through life believing that money is nothing more than paper and coin. They are mistaken. These objects are merely symbols that denote an arbitrary value. Paper and coin are inanimate objects that have no power of their own, other than the power we assign t

Secrets from the Universe

At some point, we probably all reach a stage in our lives where we ask the questions: What is "My Destiny" and am I following "God’s Plan"?. Well, one day while flying to Dallas Texas I started reading a book called “ The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die ” by John Izzo. It was about interviews the author had with over 200 people between the ages of 60 -106 in an attempt to discover why some people find meaning to life and die happy. The five secrets are: • To thine own self be true • Have no regrets • Give back more than you take • Live in the moment/present • Be a loving person and spend time with people who lift your spirit I know that many of us may have heard of these “secrets” before, but I was so intrigued by what I read that when I got back from my trip I started researching and trying to read everything I could on the subject. I discovered that they were called the Universal Laws . These are common truths that lay at the core of the mo

Investing in Uncertain Times - Part 2

“Divide your fortune into four equal parts: stocks, real estate, bonds and gold. Be prepared to lose on one of them most of the time. During inflation, you will lose on bonds and win on gold and real estate, during deflation, you lose on real estate and win on bonds, while your stocks will see you through both periods, though in a mixed fashion. Whenever performance differences cause a major imbalance, rebalance your fortunes back to the four equal parts.” In this post I will discuss the other part of Jacob Fugger’s investment approach, i.e. investing in real assets (gold and real estate). In 1981 I read a book called “ When your Money Fails ” (I still have it in my library) which talked about, the move to a cashless society (credit cards, debit cards, bar coding etc) but more importantly, the US government printing of lots of money and the high inflation it would cause. As we all know the inflation rate rose to about 12% and interest rates skyrocketed to a high of 21 percent and