Help me to Retire

Steve McKnight and the friendly crew over at propertyinvesting.com have set up a new free tool for us to use. It’s called Wealth Score and is basically for you to see how well you are doing financially. You input your current income, your personal assets, your investment assets and your debts and it will calculate a score for you. The score you get is the amount of days you could survive on your assets alone. Also given with your results are averages from others that have used this tool.

Wealth Score is a handy tool to help track your financial progress. I suggest you go back to it every 6 months to a year to make sure you are heading in the right direction for financial freedom.

Try it out now!

Someone / some entity has recently bet a large amount of money that global markets will fall between 30% and 50% before the 21st of September 2007.

Do these people know something we don’t know, or are they just covering their tails with the recent market volatility.

Have a read of the full article here.

Don’t get too caught up with the American fear tactics. Markets go up and down and over the long term always recover.

Happy Investing.

What do I mean by this?

A study recently completed proved that the smarter ones amongst us (IQ wise) where generally the same as the more average ones in the areas of net worth and financial distress. Interesting isn’t it? You don’t need to be super intelligent to get your self wealthy, you just need to start investing.
Investing really is a simple sport so being dumb is no excuse what so ever. And being too smart for you own good could hold you back over analysing. Learn what you can and give it a go. You’ll find it’s very forgiving over time and very rewarding.

To read the IQ article check it out here.

I found a great article on ‘things I wish I knew when I was younger’. It has some great tips for all you people out there who have a lot of living and learning left to do.

One of the points mentioned in the article is “Waiting to do something until you can be sure of doing it exactly right means waiting for ever”. This is the exact point I was talking about in my last article here on perfect timing.

There are a lot of great tips in this article, but one that I have found to be very true in recent years is the first tip they mention: “Most of it doesn’t matter”. When you think about that point and apply it to many areas of your life (especially towards negative people and all the fears you may have) you’ll be surprised by the freedom and happiness it brings you.

Give it a go and check out the article here

I was once caught in this trap. The feeling that there will be a divine signal and everything will come into alignment. It would trigger the ‘do it’ in me, ‘the time is right’, ‘buy it now’.
When I started seriously looking into property investment in 2005 and 2006 I said to myself I have time. The big boom has just finished, I can now take my time and learn everything there is to know about property and once prices have come back down a bit I can get in there and get some. The learning part was great and it helped me avoid making some serious investing mistakes, such as not using a Trust to buy my properties, but the waiting for prices to come back down was a mistake.
As I waited for prices to level off, time went by, followed by some more time. And while this time was going by, strangely enough in most places property prices were going up (of course some places faster than others).
In the end I saw the error of my ways and stopped waiting for the planets to align with the perfect property deal. I bit the bullet and hired a Buyers Agent. That in many ways took the pressure off me as I knew I had an expert working for me. And when the time came to get the biggest loan of my life I felt great!

Remember the saying… . the best time to buy property was 10 years ago.. the next best time is today!

Here’s an article I found on waiting for the perfect time. Read it, it applies to many things in your life!

Waiting for that perfect moment in life to do something is wasted time! Trust me. Just do it. Making mistakes is the greatest way to learn in life.

If you became suddenly ill or hospitalised or even dead would your family know what to do with all your affairs?
Do your family members understand all your financial dealings? Would they know where to start in paying your bills?
These are all important questions that you should sort out now while you are fit and well. I’m sure we’d all hate to see our hard earned investments disappear or go down the drain just because we hadn’t planned for the unexpected.

Heres a list of some things you should have easily on hand in case the worst should happen:

• Up to date medical insurance information
• An updated will
• Power of attorney information
• Life insurance information
• A basic guide to your bank accounts - numbers, passwords
• A basic list of bills in case someone else needs to help you pay them
• Spare keys for both house and car
• Details of all your investments and what needs to be done to look after them

Also think about people to notify of where these details are stored. Either papers stored somewhere accessible, on a certain computer or USB drive or even somewhere password protected on the web.

Anyway its something to think about. Sure you might think I’ll be dead so I won’t have to worry, but think about making life a bit easier for your loved ones left behind.

Check out the full article on this subject here.

Following on from one of my earlier articles (10 new ways to make money online) this one gives you what are some of the current best online earners. And surprise surprise if good old eBay isn’t number one…
Ebay is a great place to start online. You can start by selling things around the house you don’t want anymore. Maybe you have some movies you don’t watch anymore, or a game you don’t play or a book that you have read. All of those items will sell on eBay. Once you have gotten the hang of things you can then move into getting your hands on some wholesale pricing and starting your eBay store selling new items. Give it a go, it really is very easy. The eBay site gives you step by step instructions.
Here’s the list:

1. Selling Ebay Items
2. Turnkey Sites/Basic Promotion
3. Tweaking tip #2 to make even more money
4. Write a blog
5. Pay Developers to code you a 100% original website
6. Learn SEO (Search Engine Opimisation)
7. Creating a directory
8. Start a paid service website
9. Create a content rich newsletter
10. 10 Do PPC to CPA

Check out the full article here.

The internet is a great teacher, so if you don’t understand anything above, use your friend Mr Google.

Well in the business arena, the answer is pretty much a yes. Executives, business owners, entrepreneurs and wealthy socialites love their golf, so so should you!
Heres some stats for you:

• A 2004 survey of 1,000 women golfers, 73% said that the game had helped them develop important business relationships
• 705 women managers at Fortune 1,000 companies, 41% said that not participating in informal social networks held them back at work, the activity they mentioned most was golf.

Some tips for on the golf course:

• keep your eye on people’s balls, so you know exactly where it lands. When you find the ball for them, “people are relieved, and they see you as someone who’s on top of things, who pays attention to detail.”
• Don’t force a discussion of business topics on the golf course. “Save it for the ‘19th hole”.
• Take the focus off your game and keep it on theirs

Any way check out the full article here.

Better book those golf lessons!

Hey there, do often wake up in the morning and wonder why your not a Billionaire? Well this article I found could point you in the right direction of success.

Heres ten reasons for you to consider:

1. Don’t take vacations.
2. Sleep is for the weak.
   
3. Have a short attention span.
4. Don’t depend on technology.
5. Being underestimated is a good thing.
6. You are a one-man army.
   
7. Success Leads to More Success.
8. Ponder each decision carefully.
9. Trust your family.
10. Curiosity didn’t kill the cat.

You can check out the full article here.

Enjoy

This site has some great tips for getting the most out of your day.
If you can get your work life, your family and your self on running smoothly and on time your going to have more spare time to enjoy life and focus on your investing for the future.

This article will help you get the most out of yourself so you can be the best you that you can be!!

Have a read!