Compounding Kindness

Last week I talked about my speech in Las Vegas and emphasized how absolutely critical it is to use leverage if you want to make big money in a relatively short period of time.  But can leverage be used if you want to spread good words and good works so you can make a huge impact for good in the world?  All of us can spread good stuff around and many people do but where do they usually start?  They start right at home with family and friends. But if you want to spread good works and good words greatly beyond that you probably need to use leverage.

Let me try to motivate you with numbers showing how a great idea, a great deed and/or great motivating words can spread and become huge. Let’s call it “good message compounding”.  If any one of us passed on a great message or did a great deed and encouraged the recipients of our kindnesses to “pay it forward” to 10 people asking that they also request their recipients to keep it going by passing it along to ten more and everyone kept that going, what potentially could be the results?  Shockingly, if everyone in the chain were to do this and that passing it on continued 6 times or through 6 levels of people, your message or deed would have affected more than one million people!  If it went to the 9th level, you would have influenced or helped more than one billion people!

Of course, not all those first 10 people would follow through and pass it on and even if the first ten people did we can be pretty certain that not everyone down the line would pass it on.  But the point I want to make is it is possible to end up with huge numbers of people getting your message or being impacted by your good deed. If you keep that “huge potential” in mind it can really be such a super motivator for you and for all of us to push ourselves to do and say more to help others.

So I would encourage you to keep firmly in your mind that 9th level of over a billion people that you could potentially help.  Even though this “good message compounding” most likely won’t multiply into a billion it could certainly multiply into hundreds of good messages and deeds and probably even more than that. And that ain’t too bad coming from one little human on this planet of more than 7 billion people.  In my book that’s pretty exciting, knowing you, as just one person, can have that big of an impact for good in the world. And it all comes back to you in the great feeling it gives you and the happiness you see it bringing to others’ lives.

 

The Six Wealthiest Letters

I just got back from Las Vegas where I gave a speech on financial matters; this was mainly what formulas and so-called secrets I’ve learned over the years on how to make a fortune in today’s world. I gave this presentation to a great new little company that I am pretty sure will not stay small for long–it’s called LyfeStart. I think it will grow at a very rapid pace, for two main reasons: The super sharp and experienced founders and the great product they’ve developed that helps people’s health and longevity as well as putting money in their pockets.

In my speech, I presented the financial lessons I’ve learned from a few millionaires and a couple of billionaires. Specifically, guys like Paul J. Meyer, Larry Rosenberg, Curt Carlson and Aristotle Onassis. There are two formulas that most super financially successful people have discovered and used. They can be summed up with 6 letters: OPM and OPE. OPM is “Other People’s Money” in the form of loans from banks or individuals used to purchase the right assets. OPE is “Other Peoples Efforts” which we talked about in recent posts. How do either or both of these help insure that you will make a fortune? They help you leverage yourself. As all of know with a long enough lever we can lift almost any heavy object that we want to. And believe me the same is true if you use the right lever to lift the financial part of your life. Just about every wealthy person I’ve ever met or read about has used either OPM or OPE or a combination of both.

You see what you are doing is multiplying yourself since there is not enough time in your life to do really big things financially by yourself. Believe me, billionaires know what they’re talking about. They’ve done it. Salary, commission and other income just doesn’t cut it; you don’t make a billion dollars that way and, in most cases, not even a million. There are just not enough hours in your life to make those huge numbers happen. The average person lives only about 700,000 hours. So, if you made $200,000 dollars a year and didn’t spend one penny of that, do you know how long it would take you to be a billionaire? The answer: a whopping 5,000 years!

To make it big financially you just have to use OPM or OPE or both. When it comes to OPE, what I hear the most is that “there’s just not many good people out there anymore” to which I say that’s a bunch of bunk! There are many super people out there that can and will assist you. You just need to go out there and find them. Then give them enough incentive, sell them on your dream and provide them with good direction. I’ve associated and hired so many great people that many times do a much, much better job at certain tasks, than I do. This has greatly enhanced my life and my net worth.

One of the secrets that my wealthy mentors also taught me is to be sure to study what talents and natural abilities people have and then put them in the positions that best use those very talents. That makes them happy and fulfilled while moving you faster and closer to your goals.

 

A List for Great Health

For the last few weeks I’ve been talking all about Money, Money, Money … so now I want to shift gears and talk about the extremely important subject of Health, Health, Health!  As most people know having tons of money without good health can be a real bummer. I can’t help but think of Steve Jobs with all his billions, who left this earth at a very early age because of a huge health issue that his money couldn’t solve.

I have preached for years that it’s better to read and re-read the very best book many times over to remind ourselves of whatever great lessons or super inspiration we got out of reading that great book the first time, since we tend to forget much of what we’ve learned. So with that in mind I was reviewing my notes of some of the best stuff I learned from reading Dr. Robert Lustig M.D. great words on health. So today I am going to give you a list that you can review at a glance to remind yourself of what you can do, and should be doing, to greatly increase your odds of achieving and keeping yourself in Great Health!

From Dr. Lustig’s great book entitled Fat Chance.

1. Sugar is killing us.

2. Your waist size is most important.

3. High fiber appears to limit total food intake.

4. Orange juice is worse than a sugar soda.

5. Alcohol increases fat around the liver and other organs.

6. Exercise works at so many levels, except your weight.

7. Studies show that those who skip breakfast eat more calories during the day.

8. Muscle burns more energy, even when you are at rest.

9. Consistency in exercise is the key.

10. Even 15 minutes a day is great for health.

11. Fiber one cereal has 14.9 grams of fiber.

12. Eat real food.

13. Don’t eat anything 4 hours before bed.

14. Wait 20 minutes before second helpings

15. Kids who get exercise during school do better academically.

16. Vegetables give you fiber and micro nutrients.

17. Resveratrol keeps inflammation down.

18. Diet is about weight loss and exercise is about inches and health.

19. People who eat veggie omelets at breakfast are less hungry at lunch time.

20. Eating protein does not stimulate insulin or hunger.

21. Alcohol is much worse than fructose and glucose because the lipid build up can lead to liver inflammation.

22. Alcohol for the same number of calories is more likely than glucose to cause chronic disease.

 

And here is another list that I wrote to myself so many years ago. I forgot where I got it–but it’s good and works.

Mood boosting super foods.

1. Tomatoes

2. Whole grains

3. Fatty fish

4. Dark chocolate

5. Spinach

6. Red meat -lean

Stick to the recommendations on these two lists and that commitment alone will show you great improvements your health!

 

Big Money in Cosmetic Fixes

As discussed last week, you can turn a 10% gain into a 100% gain using your sweat equity on the right real estate asset. Grabbing up run=down properties worked miracles for me, eventually adding millions of dollars to my net worth. You can do the same thing. But, you ask, exactly how do I direct my efforts? What do I fix up to make the property worth more? The simple short answer is paint, carpet, cleaning and basic accessories such as attractive plants and pictures on the walls and a nice green lawn and shrubbery in the yard. This is because you would be buying property that doesn’t needs more than a face lift but which you can buy cheap simply because it looks bad.

Now if you are like me and not particularly good as a handyman then you’ll probably want to use what I call OPE–other people’s efforts. I hired high school kids for just a few bucks an hour. I found from experience that paying people hourly, if you can keep an eye on them, is far less expensive than getting bids on the work needed. I should also say that most fortunes are made through the use of OPM (other people’s money) as we mentioned in earlier posts. So OPM combined with OPE is your formula for great wealth with this approach.

I should also add that I am not very good with any kind of design or decoration decisions, inside or outside. So what did I do about that? Basically two things–I picked other people’s brains as well as copying success, both without cheating. Picking people’s brains is pretty easy since people like to talk about themselves and what they do for a living. I would simply take designers, architects and other professionals to lunch and pick their brains for the cost of a meal.

Copying success is not that hard either, it’s mainly a matter of paying attention to what works then doing the same thing. I will never forget the beat up little house that I bought that was in desperate need of a major design update on the front of this very sad structure. I was trying hard to figure out exactly what to do with the face of this house when the obvious solution suddenly hit me. The basic house structure and layout was almost identical to the house next door–even though you really had to look hard to notice that with my house being such a disaster. The house next door was absolutely beautiful and a delight to look at. It looked like “the little cottage in the woods” that we read about and picture when we were kids.

So what I did was essentially take the lazy man’s option and I had my people do an exact copy of that nice house in every detail– the exact same color of paint, the exact same window coverings and shutters and all the cutesy stuff around the yard and on the lawn. Bottom line, the house looked fantastic and I sold it in short order. There is one postscript to the story–the neighbor was irrate! So much so that he repainted and redesigned the front of his house as he didn’t want to live next door to an identical twin! I didn’t really blame him but it was a bit of compliment to him too. Not sure he saw that.

One big thing to keep in mind as you are using your own sweat equity or using OPE to do this fix up work, keep yourself totally motivated and firmly place in your head that this “grunt work” can and will turn a potential 10% gain into 100% gain. With those kinds of numbers and with enough time, it will turn thousands of dollars into millions!

Shotgun Investing

Last week I talked about how you can receive a huge rate of return on your invested dollar—100% return– by increasing the value of the ‘right kind of asset ‘by only 10%! But the real trick is that you must know how to increase its value by 10 or more percent to start with.

In my opinion and from my experience the best type of asset that lends itself to  ‘forced improved value ‘ is good ol ‘ real estate and specifically properties that need a  ‘face lift ‘. These are beat up houses, duplexes, apartment buildings etc., or what I have often refer to as ‘dirt bag properties ‘.  The key is doing a ‘face lift ‘not ‘bone surgery ‘ so you would need to find properties that are run down mainly on a cosmetic level.  You really don‘t want a property that needs to be fully rewired, plumbing pulled or the foundation replaced.  I look for properties that haven‘t been painted for 25 years or the front lawn is dead and the fence is falling apart. Maybe it just needs new carpet and window coverings to turn it around. Those kinds of properties can make you a fortune and do so in a few short years.

I do want to add that when I was introduced to leverage I was a stock broker and I began trying to use leverage with stocks and bonds but I found out very quickly that the real problem was I really couldn’t ‘fix up’ a stock and I didn’t have any control over the company whose stock I was buying or the stock market itself.  I did however, have some control over a little beat up house that I would buy, even though that is where the real work began.

Once you have found the dirt bag property, the next big chunk of work is actually doing the fix up to greatly improve its value and give you those big fat returns on your invested dollar.  So how do you find those fixer uppers and exactly what kind of work does it take?

There are several ways this can be done.  You could drive through the right neighborhoods that are a bit run down and in your price range, but that is the hard way to do it and it takes a ton of time.  Since time is one of those things that none of us seems to have enough of I recommend what I call the ‘shotgun’ method.  The concept of a shotgun is that when a hunter shoots at a bird the shotgun blasts hundreds of BBs that spread out as they speed toward the target. Most of those BBs miss the mark but it only takes one or two BBs to bring down the target.  Likewise, my  ‘shotgun method ‘ of finding the right properties is very efficient and a real time saver and it only takes one or two hits to score your target.

All you do is use the internet to observe all the for sale properties that even roughly fit your  ‘specs ‘ and then make low ball offers –around 20% to 25% lower than the asking price.  And you do this without even driving by the property.  The real key here is to be sure you have a “subject to” clause in your offer, which basically says that this offer is good only upon certain conditions.  Those conditions can be subject to acceptable financing or even something simple like “subject to my spouse or partners approval”.  So now when you shoot your shotgun at many dozens of properties each week or each month, you only get in your car and drive by and or do an inspection after you get a  ‘counter offer ‘  or sometimes, an actual acceptance on you super low ball price! It does happen once in a while!

Using the shotgun method works if you make enough offers and then after you have scored a property, then the physical work begins. It‘s not easy but it‘s simple.  More on how to fix up those properties next week!

 

The Simple Wealth Formula

As promised, here is the simple formula for building Great Wealth!

When I was 27 years old I was lucky to meet a guy who knew and had applied this “Simple Wealth Formula” (SWF).  My mentor was Larry Rosenberg of Denver, Colorado.  He practiced SWF which made him a multi-multi-multi-millionaire. The best part is, at least for me, he was so very generous with his time and taught me just how I could do what he had done.  And yes, this SWF still works wonders today, especially with our super low interest rates.

The first thing a person needs to do to begin their own road to a fortune is to save, save, save!  It’s sad that Americans save so much less than they did in even just the 1980s when the average American saved over 11% of their after tax earnings. Now it is down around 2%.  The key to savings is simple–pay yourself first!  Take a certain amount of your earnings right off the top–let’s say just 10%–and put it away every time you get paid and then force yourself to live on what’s left over. You won’t be sorry because what you can do with that money is nothing short of a financial miracle.

That financial miracle can and will happen by using a lever, a financial lever.  Using a lever on the right assets will make millions of dollars for you.  We all know what a lever is and how a person can lift many times their weight by using a lever—it’s a very simple but very powerful tool that multiplies the strength you have, or in terms of the SWF, the power of your investment.  Here’s a simple example of how “financial leverage” works:

Let’s say that you bought a $500,000 asset putting up $100,000 of your own money and borrowing $400,000 from a bank or the seller.  6 months later you sell that asset for $550,000 dollars. (I’ll talk about how that happens in next week’s blog.) If you did that, you would have just turned that 10% increase in the value of that asset into a whopping 50% return to you on your $100,000 dollars. If we are talking about your return on an annualized basis it would be 100%–but more on that later.

I remember when my mentor showed me this on paper. My eyes just about popped out of my head.  I was even more shocked when he showed me the next key to the SWF method–compounding.  Just $1,000 dollars compounded at 100% per year turns into over a MILLION DOLLARS in just 10 years. And yes, that means $10,000 dollars compounded at 100% annually is more than ten million dollars in 10 years!

Amazing, isn’t it? But like you and most people the next big question is how in the world can you find an asset that will move up in value by 50% in 6 months or even in one year?  The answer is where the real work comes into play.  It can be done by just about anyone and you don’t have to be a genius to do it.  I’ve done it over and over and over again over the span of many years.  In the next few weeks I will talk about what the best assets are to buy, how to find them, how to purchase them and how to push their value up by 10% and even more.

 

The Difference Between Being Wealthy or Not

Last week I said basically that having a ton of money does not make for a perfect life and I’m pretty sure that most of my readers would agree with that. However there are lots of great things and big benefits that large amounts of money can do for you and those around you.  If that’s the case why don’t more people have more money and why are so few people super wealthy?

I’m pretty darn sure I know the answer to that question and it’s not the answer most people think. It’s not …

1. Having a very high IQ.

2. A college degree from a top school

3. Winning the lottery

4. A stunning new invention

5. Working 100 times harder and longer.

6. A big inheritance

Okay, if it’s not any of those things what the heck is it, you ask? It’s actually several things, but the biggest factor is following or using a proven formula or plan.  And believe it or not, it’s pretty darn simple.  I didn’t say easy–you really have to work hard and it does take time.  Yes, there are a lucky few that make fortunes almost overnight–with an inheritance, new invention or winning the lottery but those cases are very, very rare indeed.  Most fortunes are made over many, many years by following a solid and time tested and proven financial formula.

It’s rather sad that so many people still think and dream of the day they are going to suddenly “strike it rich” and of course that myth is constantly fed by the rare occasions when someone does strike it rich and it’s all over the news.  Those very exceptional cases are magnified and perpetuated by the media and it keeps people keep holding on to “the dream”.

Many years ago after hitting my first million dollar net worth goal, I wrote a book about it. The sub headline that I used in my advertisements was possibly that best and most accurate part of the ad–an actual fact that I’ve proved over and over again: “Millionaires are NOT 10, 50 or 100 smarter than you.” Nor, I might add, do they work 10, 50, or 100 times harder than you but they do know and follow a simple and proven financial formula.

Stop and think about the 10, 50 and 100 times smarter and harder statement. You know that it’s impossible for anyone to be that much smarter or work that much harder than you! And yet, they do have 10, 50 or 100 times more money. That doesn’t seem right, does it?

So exactly what is that “financial formula” and how does it work?

Next week I am going to lay out exactly what that formula is and how you can follow it, step by step, to make millions.  You can use this wealth for yourself and those you love, and for those deserving worthy causes you may want to support.

For many of my readers this formula is already known and is being used. For others, it’s known and it will be a good review and or act as a motivator to begin or continue.  For still others it’s a formula that they’ll want to pass on to their kids and grandkids so they can build their own fortunes in the years to come. It’s an example of that old wise saying, “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime”. Let’s get you feed for life.

Be Sure To Have Joy In The Journey to Being Rich & Famous

Would you agree with me that most of us at one time or another, especially when we were young, had thoughts that of being rich and or famous? And maybe those thoughts were followed by “If I was rich and famous, my life would be perfect or darn near perfect.”

If you were at all like me, you certainly had those thoughts. Most people I’ve talked with over the years had those thoughts run through their minds at some point.  But I’m here to tell you that “a near perfect” life does not necessarily follow fame or wealth.   Yes, wealth can make a lot of things in your life a lot easier, but if you think that tons of money and fame will automatically bring you happiness and contentment, you’re dead wrong.  (In fact, speaking of “dead”, I think you will find a higher early death rate and more addictions in the rich and famous than the middle class. That is saying something about how imperfect a life with wealth and fame can be.)

Riches and fame can give you a lot more choices but you do need to be extremely careful of what choices you make. For example, gifting your wealth to charitable causes can bring far greater and longer lasting satisfaction than feeding a cocaine or alcohol addiction with all that money.

Please don’t misunderstand me; I’m not dissing money and fame or going after great and lofty financial and glory goals. Those are energizing, lots of fun and can be very satisfying but be sure you enjoy each hour and day of your pursuit and be aware that whatever the end results of your journey, it won’t make your life perfect. Nobody’s life is perfect and when you realize that and accept that fact, your satisfaction and contentment can begin to really soar. Trust me on that; I’ve been there and done that and learned it.  I have to remind myself of that on almost a daily basis and concentrate on the big multi-year goals but at the same time “live in the now” and have tons of “joy in the journey”.

After saying all that about what money is not, it doesn’t mean that money is not important. It is and it can do good things for you and your life. So I think next week I am going to talk about how I see the market right now and what you can do about it to make some pretty big financial gains.

No One’s Life is Perfect

I ran into a friend a few days ago and greeted him with the old familiar “Hey, how’s it going?”  He gave the usual response of “I’m doing fine”, but he added two words to the beginning of his greeting: “I guess …”!  Wow. That totally changed the meaning of his greeting and his facial expression matched those two added words. Obviously, he wasn’t doing “fine”. So I dug a little deeper and found out he really was struggling with some big issues.

In today’s world of fast and quickly expanding social media we are given the impression that people out there have near perfect lives.  I mean take a look at virtually anyone’s Facebook and you’ll see all these fun pictures and comments. Much of what we see is the good stuff, and of course there is really nothing wrong with that, but it sure can make a lot of people feel and believe that their own lives, filled with challenges, big ups and downs, and problems are really “messed up”, causing self-pity, depression and, in the worst cases, even suicide.

The fact is, nobody’s life is perfect or even close, but when you’re looking from the outside you might be tricked into thinking that other people are doing tons better than you. If you take time to look and probe on a deeper level you will see that the surface view can be very misleading since most of us don’t announce or display our problems but prefer to show and advertise our successes.

So, if you really want to know the truth and gain insight into a person’s real and complete life,you need to dig deeper.  One easy way to do this is by simply asking the right questions.  For example, pick a friend or relative that seems to be doing well as you see on their Facebook postings or hear them talk about their world travel, huge income or impressive home and lifestyle, and ask questions like these:

1.  What are the biggest challenges you are having in life right now?

2.  In the past, what do you think has been the worst or hardest part of your life?

3.  Who or what makes you sad?

4.  Do you ever get down or depressed? (If they say yes, ask how often and what causes it.)

5.  What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you?

6.  Do you think much about your own mortality?

7.  What in your life scares you the most?

8.  Have you experienced any great tragedy in your life? If so, what happened and when?

9.  Do you worry and think about tragedy striking you in the future?

If you take a little time, you certainly can add your own probing questions to this list.

I’m pretty sure if you question those who you think have “the perfect life” you will find, as I have, that no matter how rich and famous or perfect their lives look from the outside, they too have their problems and challenges and many times much larger problems that you would have ever guessed.

You might ask at this point, “Why go through all of this questioning?”

I personally believe it’s a very good thing to do for at least 2 reasons.  First, it can help you see and understand yourself better and remove any self-pity or feelings of “not as good as other people”. It can even lift you out of a state of depression, so you come up with the thought of “Hey I’m not doing so badly after all.” Because of this, you may see yourself in a much different light and find you have higher self-esteem”.

Second, and most importantly, knowing the challenges and problems of your relatives and friends can put you in the perfect position to step up and help them overcome some of their problems, challenges and obstacles.  This makes it a real Win-Win. And all for just asking a few questions!

Sensational Free Publicity

I have a few more thoughts on the idea of “Free Publicity”. I have this incredible story of how I ended up on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer nearly for free due to a simple marketing gimmick. That front page article got me a huge boost in sales for the book I was promoting then showing just how impactful media exposure can be for your business.

This all started when I talked my way on to a small radio show for a very short interview. Before this though, I had come up with a unique way to market my book. It was simple and very effective but not nearly as effective as when I had that radio audience.  Being on that radio program for even the short time I was turned my marketing trick into a much bigger push than I ever imagined I’d have from it.

On the air, I said that the next day I would be at the main downtown square of Philadelphia giving away money! That’s right I told the listeners that there would be “free money” given away the next day at noon. You see, what I had done previously with mediocre results was to put a one dollar bill in an envelope with the words “take this 1 dollar bill and add 9 dollars to it and buy my book How to Wake Up the Financial Genius Inside You from your local book store or via mail”. Prior to my Philadelphia experience I had limited results with this little gimmicky marketing idea but that all changed the day after the interview.

When I got to the town square I was shocked to see something like 600 or 800 people jammed into that small space. Nevertheless, I began handing out the envelopes, which caused a huge rush toward me, so much so that I was scared that I might be crushed. I then began throwing 5 or 10 envelopes at a time as far from me as I could. It all turned into a mad circus and then suddenly I was being escorted by 2 policemen into a retail store and out the back door. The policemen were very nice and explained that I was causing a near riot and they were afraid someone would get hurt.

I was very upset and went back to my hotel thinking that I had failed, since I had only given away maybe 200-300 envelopes which would not help my book sales by much. But the next morning I was shocked  and elated to see my picture on the front page with me in the middle of that huge crowd as I was flinging the dollar filled envelopes into the air. Wow! My book sales spiked and I was a very happy camper.

I got all that publicity and that huge bump in books sales for a truly tiny amount of cash. And all that came from some pretty simple steps. Bottom line lesson here is, if you want free publicity, use your creative brain to come up with unique stories or ways to approach the media and/or your marketing methods. In this age of viral videos and social networking, it isn’t too hard to get something exciting to make the rounds. You just need to be sensational and unique so as to grab the public’s attention and imagination. What do think that would be for what you want to promote?

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