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!

BE YOUR OWN PR AGENT–How To Easily Get Free Publicity

On my June 7th blog entitled “Write your way to Credibility” I talk about how writing a simple book and using that book as a business card gives you instant credibility and believe me that has worked wonders for me for many years.  There is another easy “trick” that anyone can use to get tons of free publicity. I learned this lesson from my father, Dr. Edwin O. Haroldsen, who was a great man that came off a farm in Idaho to not only get his PhD but went on to be a big time newspaper man and editor of the national magazine U.S. News and World Report.

I began to learn this “trick” (or lesson) when I was just a kid.  I would go with him to his newspaper office frequently and observe all the hustle and bustle of the writers and editor as they worked away with the noise of the teletype machines in the background.  It was during these times he told me that editors and writers of newspapers, magazines, T.V. and Radio were always on the lookout for good stories and like most people they would like these stories done the quickest and easiest way possible.  He then told me about the “publicity people” that are hired by big companies and celebrities and very wealthy people, but he then said you really don’t need these people because you can do the job yourself.  You do just what they do–you write up a story, your story of success or what’s happening around you that is interesting and unique, and you send it to the media—papers, magazines, TV and radio.  In other words you help out those writers and editors by doing some of their work for them and delivering the story all packaged up and ready to run.  Editors love a good unique, interesting and well written story because it saves them a ton of time.  If it’s a good story they only need to make a few edits to then, bingo, your story appears in print or on the air!

“Really?” you say, “It’s that easy?” Yes, I am saying exactly that!  No, it doesn’t work every time so it’s smart to send to multiple newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations. But, most importantly you better have a good intriguing, well written story. This can take some time as a well written story will take some time and re-writing.  Re-write it over and over until it’s not only exciting and appealing to you but will also be for other people. Find a few people whose opinion you trust and ask them for their honest feedback—if they find it exciting, editors will too.

I’ve used what my dad taught me many times and had my business and personal stories on the front page of local and national newspapers and yes, even on national TV! These stories increased my credibility but also my business and profits by huge numbers and all that for free. You can do the same thing to enhance and increase your business, a new invention or idea of a product you may have or for your family or your favorite charity. Give it a try!

The Final Step to Wealth

We’ve spent the last few weeks building up to this last step in building your wealth—getting on the fast track using leverage.  Yes, I’m talking about leveraging properties including using bank loans but to really supercharge and speed up the process even faster, you will want to use financial partners.

To do this, you just need a few people looking to invest in a safe, reliable project that will give them a regular and consistent return. Get them to collectively fund a down payment of 20% or more on the property you want to purchase and promise a reasonable return–say a 10% APR, an amount that is definitely higher than the best CD can offer. You should also put in some of your own money to makes the investors feel more secure seeing your confidence in the investment’s potential by also putting your money at risk.

Then when you sell or rent those properties, get the best return possible and get the money back to your investors with a higher than expected rate of return. When they see that you not only lived up to but exceeded their return expectations, you will have created an enthusiastic group of investors for future projects as well as getting wonderful word of mouth that could bring even more money flocking to you.

If you have read the revised edition of my first book, now named The Next Step in Waking up the Financial Genius Inside You, then you probably read Dell Loy Hansen’s letter in the Pre-Foreword thanking me for writing the book which he read when he was flat broke and in college. Dell gives me and my book great credit for giving him the financial formula and path to his great fortune. He followed pretty much everything I suggested in the book and his success was supercharged and sped up big time. He simply brought on some very well healed partners and took really great care of them with good, consistent returns on their money.

He now owns more than a billion dollars’ worth of properties and recently paid around 85 million cash for the Salt Lake professional soccer team “Real Salt Lake” RSL.  I love his P.S. of his letter where he says “Thank you a million, or more appropriately “Thanks a Billion”.  So if you or if my young man seeking advice and a formula want to jump on the super-fast track, go find some wealthy partners and be sure to take good care of them–under promise their rate of return on their investment and then over deliver.

 

Write Your Way to Credibility

We’re building up to the final step in building your wealth as I had advised a very motivated young man not too long ago. The key to this is leveraging your success by bringing financial partners into your plan. This will be the fourth and last step which we will get to next week. But right now, let’s talk about what you need in order to put Step #4 into practice.

A real key item to have in order to bring people in who can help you leverage your efforts is to have a great calling card. You need something so you will be remembered and more importantly that you gives you some instant credibility.  Putting things into print is a sure way to show you are serious and this automatically gives credibility.  It could be a magazine or newspaper article or, even better, a book on the subject or a closely related subject.

I’ve found that the best calling card I’ve ever has been in the form of my books.  Anyone really can write a book, even if you can’t seem to find an agent or publisher or even if you don’t feel that you are much of a writer. There are individuals, businesses and plenty of books and websites to get you started in self-publishing. You don’t even have to do it all—you can hire on people to do any of the work you don’t feel you can do well or don’t have time to learn.

I self-published my first book, printing only 1,000 copies in the beginning, but wow … selling or even just giving the book away gave me a giant boost in credibility and even a little fame. It got me on the front page of the Wall Street Journal and even on NBC’s Today Show. That made it terrifically easy to get potential investors interested in my projects.

In today’s computerized world you can write a book of any length and print just a few dozen copies or a few thousand for a rather small investment. Then you can hand these out like calling cards, use them to start a conversation and list the publication as a credit on anything you post or print up, for anything. Everyone will take you seriously with your name on a good publication.

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