Your Investment Success Now!

Have you heard people say that investing in the stock market is risky?

Rubbish!

Well, actually, they are partly right. it can be risky. But, it doesn’t have to be! Want to know how?

Imagine you are going to cross a road. Is that risky? Well, if it is a busy road and you close your eyes and have an iPod jammed into your ears at full volume and you just step out, then, yes, it’s risky!

However, if you do the things you were told to do at school like looking both ways etc, it’s not risky.

Well, investing is like that too.

If you call up the first stock broker you find and you give him your life savings and ask him to buy the latest hot stock. And that’s not only the extent of your research, it is also the extent of your plan about what to do with these new shares that you have courageously bought. Then, YES, you are doing something risky!

But, as I said, it doesn’t need to be like that. And, let me reassure you. Because if you think I am about to tell you that you have to spend hours and hours researching companies, you’re wrong.

It’s easy to do low-risk investing. It doesn’t take heaps of extra time or training to know how to cross a road safely does it? Well, bizarrely enough, the same is true with investing!

So, let’s get into it! There is a key to this that I want you to concrete into your mind … “It’s A Business”.

What do I mean by that? Well, run your investing like a business. Businesses have income and they have expenses. And they manage each of these. And, for you as an investor, one of your biggest “expenses” will be the “losses” you incur in “doing your business”. So, manage them like a good business would.

So, how do you do this? By doing three things:

1. Measure your results

It is VITAL that you measure your results. If you do not measure, how will you know what to improve? So, keep records of every investment you make, what your thinking was when you went into it, what happened, the win (or loss) and the mistakes you made!

Yes, you’ll make mistakes - buying on a “tip” without actually thinking about the trade yourself, or selling for a small profit just in case the price went down again, or not selling when the price did go down because you thought it would probably bounce back up again, … Keep records and learn from them so you can become a better investor over time.

2. Plan BEFORE taking action

If you were to go along to the bank (with your life savings again) and ask what they would do with it, how would you feel if their answer went “well, we’ll try to look after it for you”? You wouldn’t leave your money with them, would you? You want to know what sort of return you’ll get. And, they can only tell you that because they already know what they would do with your money.

You need to do the same thing! So, before you enter into any investment, decide when you will exit from it. That’s if it goes well, and if it goes badly. Have very clear rules and … STICK TO THEM! (And record in your trading diary whether you did follow them or not).

It is thousands of times easier to make decisions in the unemotional time BEFORE you enter an investment. When you are sweating because the price of shares you already own is moving the wrong way for you, it is almost impossible to make rational decisions about when to exit.

3. Only risk what you can afford to risk

Just because you have bought $50,000 of the latest hot stock does not mean that you should have $50,000 at risk. Before you entered the investment you will have already decided what your exit point is if the price goes against you (won’t you!).

So, let’s say that the $50,000 was a purchase of 1,000 shares trading at $50 each. You might have decided that your losing exit point is $49.50. So, if the price drops to $49.50, your broker will automatically sell for you. You will have lost 50c per share - a total of $500.

By taking that approach, even though you are investing $50,000, you actually only have $500 at risk at any one time. Is that high risk? I think not!

But, I hear you say, “stop loss instructions are not guaranteed - I could lose more than 50c”. Yes, that’s true! That’s one of the “features” of stop losses.

But this is where it gets better! Would you be interested in having insurance that meant that you could sell your shares for a pre-agreed price, regardless of the price in the market?

Well, you can do that too! If you buy a “Put Option”, it will give you that security. Sure, just like car insurance, it will cost you a small premium to buy the insurance. Or, you could just go for the free stop loss. Or maybe you even go for both? You might buy cheaper insurance at a lower price than your stop loss, just in case the price plummeted. Whatever you do, quantify your true risk BEFORE you enter the trade!

So, by doing these three things you can:

1. Only risk the amount you choose to risk - even when you have invested considerably more.
2. Make it easier to follow your own rules by taking the decisions before things get emotional.
3. Record your progress so that you can look for areas to improve.

Look out for #2 in the series - You Need Lots of Experience!

Here’s to your investment success!

Ian

Tags:   risk · share trading · shares · stock market · top ten investing mythsNo Comments.

Most rich Australians became rich by using Synergy to multiply their results. What I mean by that is that they took some of their income (their savings) and they put it into an investment that gave a great return. So, they multiplied their savings and ended up with much more than they would have had if they had just left their savings in a bank account. That process of multiplication is called synergy.

The most common way of using synergy to get rich has been with property. So, for instance, if someone owned a rental property, they might put, say $200 a month into the property to cover the difference between the rent coming in and the mortgage and other expenses going out. So, in the course of a year, they might have put $2,400 into the property. However, if the property had gone up in value by, say, $30,000 in the year, then they would have multiplied their $2,400 to $30,000. That is how many Australians have become very wealthy. And, you can do this too. You could become very wealthy in maybe 15 years or so using synergy in this way.

But, maybe you don’t want to wait that long?

What if you could do this and also multiply the growth in the value of the property by further synergy? Maybe you could get even richer, even quicker or, if the next strategy was one that produced cashflow, then maybe you could earn an income from the strategy that was more than the original $200 a month that you put in? Would you be interested in knowing about that?

Watch this short (3 mins 35 seconds) video and see what you think!

That is the power of Synergy! What did you think?

That short video clip has been taken from the DVD “What I Didn’t Learn At School But Wish I Had” featuring Jamie McIntyre. For a free copy of the full 3-hour wealth education DVD to be posted to you, click here: www.InvestmentSuccessNow.com/freedvd.html.

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In the e-book “What I Didn’t Learn At School But Wish I Had” (get your free copy here: www.InvestmentSuccessNow.com/freeebook.html), Jamie McIntyre sets out the 8 Steps To Start You On The Path To Becoming A Millionaire. Step 5 is “Other People’s Money”. Here’s some of what Jamie says in the e-book:

“The fifth step we are going to look at is called OPM. OPM stands for Other People’s Money. To become wealthy you may need to consider using other people’s money and that is something we will look at later on.

Let me give you an example. Let us say for example you wanted $15,000 to invest and you did not have it right now. Could you go out and get a personal loan? If you have a job I dare say you would be able to get a personal loan or be able to borrow that money from someone. Let us say you were able to borrow $15,000 if this was appropriate for you. Let us compare that to Bill and Mary who did not do that. For Bill and Mary to save $15,000 may take them, if they are saving $100 per week, three years of consistent effort. If they are like most Australians, guess what they mostly will do after they start saving, they will then spend it on a holiday, another car or something insignificant.

So it takes a lot of hard work and discipline to save that up. But what if they were committed to investing and willing to borrow $15,000? Now, if they borrow on a personal loan that would probably only cost them around $75 per week to pay off. If they are already committed to saving $100 per week, that $100 per week they are saving could now cover the cost of that loan and it would not put any extra stress on them financially but what it gives them is $15,000 immediately to use for investing.

There are some financial strategies we will look at in a moment where $15,000 invested (for instance in the market with a low to medium risk strategy, if they were to do it according to the way I teach people) could generate anywhere from $300 up to as much, in some cases, as $1,000 many months of the year in additional cash flow. That is with less risk than most people are taking right now.

$15,000 can generate $300 to $1,000 per month in some fast track strategies with less risk than buying a car.

So you might say, “Jamie, can we move right on to that topic and show me how to do that.” Well, if you stay tuned we will go through that in some detail in the next few chapters. The point is to illustrate that using other people’s money, borrowing money, etc., if it is done smartly and wisely, can increase potential returns - however it can also produce a negative return if done incorrectly. Most will say, “I am not going to do that, it is too risky to invest in the market”, but how many people will go out and borrow $15,000 or more for a car? And what do we know about a car, a car is a classic poor investment. As soon as we drive it out of the showroom door we lose 20%. Within 5 to 10 years what is our $15,000 car worth? Could be down to say $5,000 or less, therefore, we have lost a considerable amount of money. Plus does this car, every time you drive into a service station, put money into your pocket? Obviously not, it takes money out of your pocket. Cars cost money monthly and they lose value. They are a guaranteed loss, but how many Australians have at least one or two cars? Many people, and they consider that smart. I realise a car is considered a necessity in Australia but really it is a luxury people get before they can really afford it. It is a complete waste of money for most people, yet the same Australians could go and borrow $15,000 to invest. Even if it was invested in the worst companies available on the market, they would still not perform as badly as a car over the next 5 to 10 years. We have got to look at our mindset. What is risky here? The biggest risk you will take with money is not investing and not saving, that is the greatest risk. When you are investing I agree you can lose. At times you will, but that amount can be manageable. You can learn to deal with that and you will be way ahead of someone who did not decide to invest.

Remember that I am not advising you what to do with these strategies. They are suggestions to consider. You need to adjust them to your personal situation and also consider whether you are willing to develop your mindset to have these ideas work for you. Otherwise, if you are not willing to, then the Money Magazine type advice is about the best you will get where you hope to retire in 100 years from now. Now there is nothing wrong with that advice. It is just slow and boring and is often offered by financial planners who made their wealth through selling advice and earning their commissions, or journalists who are yet to produce real life results. Always seek financial mentors who have real life results for further help, or attend seminars or home study courses taught by self-made millionaires to continually educate yourself.”

So, personal loans are certainly not right for everybody or for every thing. But, sometimes they can be great! So, if a personal loan would help you, maybe to invest in the Homestudy program as well as to give you some cash to invest with, then go to www.InvestmentSuccessNow.com/personalloans.html and download and complete the simple application form and fax it direct to the 21^st Century Personal Loan team.

Once you have the personal loan organised, then get in touch with us and we will get the Homestudy program dispatched for you so that you can start earning the extra income as quickly as possible.

Please note that personal loans are arranged direct with the 21^st Century personal loan team. We will have no knowledge or information about whether you have chosen to get a personal loan. Therefore, please use the contact information on the Personal Loan page if you need to get in touch with the personal loan team.

Ian & Liz

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So, you’re off to the 4-Day Education for Life Seminar in the Gold Coast this weekend. We wish we could be there too. As we can’t we thought we would help by sharing our top tips for getting the most out of the seminar.

So, here they are …

10 tips to help you get even more out of the 4 Day Live Event:

1. Arrive the day before the scheduled start day and leave the day after. The first day is an early start and you want to be sure to be there on time, relaxed and ready to go. The program is jam-packed and full-on so staying an extra night will allow you time to rest up after the big event.
2. Stay in the hotel where the event is being held or if there is no availability stay at the closest hotel you can. Days start early and end late and you won’t want to miss anything … so being close on hand makes it easier for you.
3. Register on Thursday evening. The registration lines on Friday morning tend to be lengthy and if you have registered you can just be focussed on getting a good seat.
4. Take a bag full of snack bars and fruit … high energy, good snacks to tide you through the sessions. Meal breaks are fitted in around a tight schedule, so there is no fixed time and it can be a long time between breaks, so to keep your energy up, keep a supply to nibble on.
5. Drink lots of water. To stay alert and avoid drowsing off and feeling bad …. Keep your water bottle filled up. You will receive a water bottle so top it up at break times.
6. Take heaps of notes. To highlight things that you want to act on - divide your page in half down the middle, jot your notes on the left side and your action points on the right. This will make them stand out later.
7. Wear comfortable clothes with layers and comfortable shoes. Not total sloppy joes but you don’t want to be bothered by feeling constricted by what your wearing. And you want to be able to adjust your own temperature if the room is too cool or warm for you. There are exercises where you will be moving around so bear that in mind.
8. Talk to other people. There will be lots of people there so take the opportunity to find out what they are up to, they may already be doing what you want to do. And remember to share your experience with people. And, if you have a particular speaker you want to talk to, look for them BEFORE they present. There will be lots of people who want to speak with them afterwards!
9. Have fun. Yes it’s full on and there will be a lot going on and a lot to take in so if you start out with the attitude that it’s going to be fun it will be.
10. Take action. At the end of the seminar, before you leave for home, decide on one thing you are going to do immediately. People who get results take action. So go back in your notes and decide on one thing you wrote down in your notes and decide to do it. And let us know what it is!

Have a great time. Learn lots and apply lots and you’ll be hugely successful.

Liz & Ian

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I have been asked a few times recently what are the key things to do (or not do) when starting out as an investor. Well, one thing led to another and … here are my Ten Commandments for Trading. I hope you find them useful and I look forward to your feedback.

By the way, I use the term “trading” to include “investing”. So these could just as easily have been called my Ten Commandments of Investing.

1. Thou shalt have a clear goal

If you do not know why you are trading then stop! The clearer this goal is, the more likely you are to achieve it.

2. Thou shalt have a documented trading plan

Before you enter any trade, you should have a documented trading plan that covers things such as: the criteria for entering a trade, the criteria for exiting, when to trade, how much to trade, how often you will review the trading plan, etc. This applies to all types of trading – shares, options, property, business, …

3. Thou shalt always follow thy trading plan

Measure your success based upon whether you followed your plan or not – not on whether you happened to have a few lucky trades this week. Adjust your trading plan as necessary to improve its expected success based upon measurements of its past success.

4. Thou shalt never enter into any trade without knowing when thou shalt exit

It is considerably harder to decide when to exit after time has passed, especially if a trade has moved against you. Always set your rules before entering a trade and follow them while in the trade. If you find you need to change your rules, then change your trading plan.

5. Thou shalt manage thy money

Knowing how much to trade with will make the difference between success and failure. Calculate the right amount based upon your statistics of how your trading plan has performed in the past. If you have not traded the plan before, paper trade with historical data to develop these stats.

6. Thou shalt not be greedy

Do not deviate from your trading plan for any reason. Do not take trades outside your plan and do not “stretch” your trades to try for higher returns. You may get away with it sometimes but you will pay for it later.

7. Thou shalt take action

Paper trading is great. But you can’t spend your paper profits on groceries. Keep taking more actions, monitor the results and adjust your future actions.

8. Thou shalt be responsible for thine own trades

I do not care who suggested a trade or a trading strategy – your broker, your best friend, an “expert”, … If you choose to trade it, it is YOUR trade. YOU are responsible for choosing whether to trade it or not and you are responsible for the results too.

9. Thou shalt let thy profits run and cut thy losses short

Do not let your losses run and cut your profits short!

10. Thou shalt not attempt to “beat the market”

The market does not care whether you win or lose. It is unemotional. Do not waste your energy or deviate from your tested trading plan by trying to beat it. You won’t!

——————–

Let me know what you think.

Ian

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Well, I’m absolutely shattered but it has been great fun. I think I have averaged about 3 hours sleep each night that I have been here but it has been well worth it. Without doubt this has been the best 4-Day Education 4 Life seminar yet! It has also been the biggest. And … it has also seen the introduction of five new initiatives to help Homestudy members.

Talking of new initiatives, the day started with Mark Allen re-joining the stage. Mark spoke on day one about 21^st Century Finance. Today Mark spoke about the 21^st Century Investment Newsletter. This is a brand new initiative to help Homestudy members. This newsletter will inform you of news, offer trading recommendations and also inform you of opportunities to invest in IPO or pre-IPO shares. These shares will have two great advantages. Firstly they will not normally be available to investors and secondly they will usually be at a 10% to 20% discount! If you are interested in more details about this, please let me know.

The second speaker of the day also launched a new initiative: Property Direct. Mark Rolton had spoken yesterday about property options where you can make million dollar profits on each deal. Today he announced Property Direct. This initiative is aimed at helping you to have access to virtually no money down property and land deals, plus providing real estate education, plus give you help in acquiring property and finance, plus teaching you how to select the best areas to operate in plus teaching you how to access discounted property deals below market price! This initiative takes the Inner Circle initiative to an even higher level! Again, please let me know if you would like more information on this.

We then had the pleasure of Jenny Armato talking to us. Jenny is one of the world’s top Internet marketers. She introduced us to the concept of creating an Internet business that pays really well. Jenny focuses on helping entrepreneurs and marketers realise the full potential of business opportunities using the Internet. The Internet keeps growing at an explosive pace and an Internet marketing business is a great thing to add to your investing.

Tony Sfeir then introduced another new initiative: 21^st Century Health. All the money in the world is of little use if you don’t have your health. Or, as Tony put it, “healthy body, mind and soul = quality living”. 21^st Century Health will teach you how to get and stay healthy. For instance, do you know that you should have an alkaline body? 21^st Century Health also offers a range of health supplements to support you in achieving greater health.

The final new initiative of the day was explained to us by Craig Jervis. This new initiative is called 21^st Century Self Leadership and is aimed at helping you to become more motivated and giving you practical tools to make you stronger than ever before. Again, please let me know if you want more details.

So, that was four new initiatives launched today. Plus, one that I forgot to mention on day 2 (sorry!) makes five new initiatives launched during the seminar – all aimed at helping you take your investing to a higher level.

The new initiative that I foolishly forgot to mention on day 2 was the 21^st Century Investment Fund. The key features of this fund are:

• Targeting above average performance for leading Australian companies
• No entry or exit fees
• No Government fees or charges
• Distinctive performance based fund
• Minimum investment $5,000

As before, please get in touch if you would like to know more about this.

So, that’s it! It’s all over. Over 400 people were packed into the Holiday Inn at the Gold Coast and spent about 52 hours over the last four days learning how to develop the mindset of a millionaire and learning many investing strategies used by these same millionaires so we could go away and use them ourselves.

During the four days I think I averaged about 3 hours sleep each night and I must have nearly worn out my camera. I was asked to help out by taking photos and I took over 1,000 photos over the four days.

Everyone I spoke to said they had a fabulous time – I know I did. I’m sorry it had to end. But I’m not sorry that I will now be able to catch up on some sleep! Then it will be time to talk it through with Liz to see what things we are going to apply to take our investing to a higher level. I hope you can also see something in these notes that you can use to put some more cash into your own pocket.

These short notes about what happened each day only scratch the surface of what was covered. So, please drop me an e-mail or give me a call if you would like to know more about any of it.

I hope to speak with you soon.

Ian

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After many late nights on day 2, there were quite a few red eyes at the start of day 3. But no lack of enthusiasm!

The day got off to a great start with Rick Otton explaining how people can create huge amounts of positive cashflow from property. Rick teaches people how to buy and control houses with little (if any) of your own money and then how to turn that house into a cash producing machine. He uses a number of different ways to do this depending on the property. This turns the traditional approach to property investing on its head – buying, renting and hoping is NOT the way to go! After his talk, Rick was swamped with people wanting to learn more.

After the break, Daniel Kertcher talked about the opportunities through trading options and CFDs on the US stock market. The US market offers more trades and higher returns than the Aussie market. Trading with CFDs allows you to multiply your profits tenfold. CFDs normally also multiply your losses tenfold. However, adding options to the strategy allows you to almost completely protect your losses. This is an advanced strategy that has been very profitable for many people. Daniel offers a trading platform that allows these combined CFD and option trades to happen at the same time and from the same trading account. Even more people swamped Daniel after he finished talking.

Now, going back to property, if you really want to make lots of money in a few, hugely profitable, commercial property transactions then you would have enjoyed Mark Rolton’s talk. Mark showed us many examples where he had been able to find property where the seller was prepared to accept, say, $2m and he was able to find a buyer willing to pay, say, $3m. Mark does not buy the property and sell it again; instead he puts an “option” over it, simply allowing him to collect the $1m from the middle. Usually the property is vacant land that can be sold to a developer. $1m is not a bad profit for a bit of research and a few phone calls is it? So, if you know of a field or two near you that might be available for sale and you think it might be suitable for putting a factory or housing estate or supermarket on, can you please drop me an e-mail with the address? (Yes, I’m serious! )

After lunch, “Aussie Rob” introduced us to his Lifestyle Trader system. This great system quickly and easily takes the analysis work out of determining when to get into and when to get out of a trade. And, what’s more, it covers stocks, commodities, options and forex! So, if you were starting to think it was all too complicated, then this may be something that would help you.

Andrew Baxter stressed the importance of analysis when trading. He explained his advanced methods of combining fundamental, technical and quantitative analysis together to find superior entry and exit points for trades. His system applies to CFDs, options and shares and results in a higher probability that the trade is profitable.

Steve Molnar returned to the stage to present the last topic of the day – 21^st Century Inner Circle. The Inner Circle provides a range of support services to property investors including the ability to buy property for no money down, coaching, consultancy services, introduction service to match debt and equity as well as developer and builder introductions and also offers a property audit service.

Day 3 was packed with information that you could use to make more money, whether you were interested in shares, property, CFDs or options. The day ended with the winners of the cashflow game receiving their prizes – over $4,000 to each of them! And then the hotel staff arrived from the bar bringing drinks and we all chatted until the early hours!

And there’s still more to learn on day 4!

Until then …

Ian

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Day two at the Gold Coast has been fabulous!

Tony Christiansen is a husband and father of three children, a successful businessman, a qualified lifeguard, a second degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, a motor racing and speedway champion, an Olympic gold medal winning athlete and a commercial pilot. He has achieved many things including climbing Africa’s highest mountain – Mount Kilimanjaro. He also happens to not have any legs! Yes, that’s right; you might want to re-read the list of some of the things he has achieved! He is considered by many to be one of the worlds leading motivational/inspirational speakers. I now know why, as we heard him tell his story to us today. It was a moving, funny and highly inspirational talk and I felt honoured that he shared his story with us. If Tony can achieve all the things that he has, then I can achieve much more than I have so far. What a great start to day two!

By the way, there is more information about Tony at his website: www.tonytalks.com.

Everybody had started work on creating vision posters first thing this morning. Many dreams were identified and converted into goals. If you have seen the movie The Secret, you will know how powerful that process can be.

Jamie came back on stage and went through Share Renting with everyone. He also introduced us to three new initiatives:

• a way of buying shares at a discount!
• a new way of buying property at a discount and
• a way of borrowing an extra 20% of the value of a property, on top of a normal home loan, interest free! You could buy a property with 100% finance (but repayments on only 80%) or buy a property that is more expensive than otherwise.

I’m eagerly waiting more details of these over the next two days.

Angus Knight, the recommended share broker, took the discussion on share renting to greater depth for everyone by conducting a workshop and answering everyone’s questions on this highly popular and profitable strategy. Angus told us that this strategy is typically returning about 24% to 36% per annum for people at the moment. That’s a fabulous return for a low risk and simple to follow strategy that typically only takes a half-hour or so every month.

Andrew Dimitri presented a new options trading strategy where all the trades are performed for you by options trading experts who manage highly successful, multi-million dollar trading accounts. And have been for 25 years. There is nothing for you to do except watch the returns come rushing in! Andrew was legally unable to tell us the past performance of these traders (US Law apparently – bizarre but true!). However, he was able to say that their target is a return of at least 5% per month. Yes, that’s right, per MONTH, not per YEAR. That would be 60% per year – or more if the profits are re-invested. And, no work to do yourself! I will have to look into this one more myself!

Steve Molnar from Inner Circle reported in on the current status of the property market. I was surprised to hear the growth that is happening. For instance, prices in Melbourne have increased by 10% in the last quarter. The Inner Circle joint venture helps people in the Homestudy Club to get brand new investment property that has been built and furnished to a higher than standard specification, at below retail price. And, with the developer paying for things such as Stamp Duty. I look forward to hearing more on this.

After dinner we had a game of Cashflow. Well, actually, we had about 40 games of Cashflow! This is a great game and really hones your “investing muscles”. The idea of the game is to “do investment deals” to “get out of the rat race” as quickly as possible. If you have played it you will know that it can take one and a half hours or more to achieve this goal. Well, tonight, the winning team achieved it in about 20 minutes. I wonder whether this is a world record? The winners each won $4,420 – not bad for 20 minutes fun!

So lots of information was shared and lots of fun was had and we found that time had flown. The day ended around 1:00 am but nobody seemed to feel tired. So, everyone moved to the hotel bar where many stayed until it closed at 3:00 am. As Jamie says: “sleep is over-rated”.

See you for day Three!

Ian

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Look I just had to let you know what’s going on at the Gold Coast right now as I am TOTALLY pumped by it all!

Wow! The latest 4-Day Education for Life seminar got off to a rip-roaring start in the Gold Coast yesterday. This is the biggest ever 4-Day seminar so far with over 400 attendees. The room is squeaking at the seams and the energy level is really high.

Jamie spent much of today teaching us how to get into the best possible mindset in order to be an outstanding investor. He covered topics such as the psychology of financial success, assets and liabilities, life force energy and the “triad” of success. With a huge amount of audience participation, everybody had their energy levels raised to new heights. Everyone that I spoke to was astonished to see that it was already 10:00 pm – it only felt like mid afternoon. I am not going to go into details of what Jamie covered as it will spoil the surprise and excitement for you if you have not attended one of these great seminars yourself yet. Suffice to say that the whole room was fired up and ready to take on the World by dinner time!

Have you ever got excited about something and then gone off to talk to someone about it only to find that they tell you it can’t be done and before long all that excitement you had about getting something done was wiped out? Well that’s what’s so great about the Homestudy club! It’s full of people with a CAN DO attitude! And so today Jamie introduced some of the support team that makes this program so doable.

Leigh Barker, the 21st Century recommended accountant, shared ways of holding on to more of the money you earn. Who said accountants are boring? He focused on tax minimisation and asset protection. Leigh takes an aggressive but always strictly 100% legal approach to both of these areas. He told us some amazing things that were possible to do (in the right situations and with the appropriate paperwork and planning etc) such as making your own home into a rental property with all the financial advantages of it becoming an investment property with you still living in it. He also covered many other topics ranging from how your cat or dog might be able to become a business expense through to being able to transfer ownership of property between family members without incurring stamp duty etc costs. Leigh is an investor himself and fully understands all the strategies in the Homestudy program and offers an introductory consultation free of charge for new Homestudy members – something that I strongly suggest you take him up on!

Igor Loutkovsky, the recommended insurance advisor, gave an overview of some of the insurance related benefits of being in the Homestudy Club. These include a much wider range of insurance that is normally possible from traditional insurance brokers plus discounted premiums as well as the understanding of an insurance broker that truly understands the needs and demands of intelligent investors who have gone through the Homestudy program.

Mark Allen from 21st Century Finance has a track record of being able to help people borrow more money at lower interest rates than most people can obtain through “normal sources”. Something that any property investor would be interested in! 21st Century Finance act like a normal mortgage broker … but on steroids! Again, their starting position is that they need to support demanding and educated investors who want to stretch the envelope of possibilities. For instance, they will happily help to structure finance for you to enable you to buy property for no money down and to create positive cashflowed property. No only that, they can arrange finance for cars, businesses and personal reasons as well as a huge range of home loans. They have a track record of managing to borrow more money at lower interest rates than most people can obtain through “normal sources”.

What a fabulous start to the seminar. It is late now but I am so pumped by the possibilities for creating wealth that I just had to sit and write this. And this is only day one. Hold onto your hats for day two!!!!

Ian

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Not a lot you may think … but when Ian and I first started changing our financial lives one of our mentors gave us a sage piece of advice. This one piece of advice enabled us to wipe out our “Bad” debt, start saving money and resulted in me losing 5 kilos!

And let me tell you there was a lot of “BAD” debt and NO savings!!!

So if you are struggling to find a way to start changing your financial position and maybe you’re even thinking “I don’t have any money to start with”, then I highly recommend you take this piece of advice and start applying it right now!

No excuses, no blaming anyone else, just take responsibility and do this one simple thing and I can guarantee you, you will be astonished at what results you’ll start to see.

This piece of advice is, at the end of the day, so simple you won’t believe it.

Our mentor told us “Before doing anything with your money ask yourself this one question, ‘Am I consuming or am I investing?’”

So what does that mean and how can you apply it to your life?

Well, in this instance “consuming” is something you do that will give you no long term benefit. In fact it can be detrimental to you. So, for instance, buying junk food, which may taste great in the short term and fill a short term need but in the long term has little or no nutritional value and probably a high fat content!

So, before spending your hard earned cash on, say, a new pair of shoes (and this does come from someone who loves shoes) you ask yourself the question: “Now Liz, are you consuming or investing?”. I can justify this purchase (as any woman can when a pair of shoes is involved) but deep in my subconscious I know that I don’t need them and they most certainly will not put money into my pocket and will not increase in value either. So, if I am truthful, then the answer for the shoe purchase will be “I’m consuming”.

I can now make a conscious choice as to what I am going to do: consume or not.

This may make it sound tedious, boring and maybe even a bit complicated but trust me, when you get in the flow of doing it, you’ll be amazed at the results.

Ian and I had been consuming BIG TIME, yes, to the tune of ‘bad’ debt of $1.5 Million!!! And to get to where we wanted to be this debt was one of the key things we had to get rid of. We also effectively had NO savings another key thing that had to change.

Our lives needed to change dramatically for us to achieve our financial goals. One of the key things that helped us was we asked ourselves this question every single time we did anything with our money and I’m not even talking big sums of money. What we found was that we were predominantly consuming and mainly on things that were not helping us!

And when you start asking yourself this question on a daily basis I know you’ll be absolutely astonished at how many times you reach into your pocket and spend your money. In fact, start counting how many times in one day you spend money and, more importantly, at the end of the day what you have to show for it!

Now I’m not talking about becoming penny pinching, miserly spend thrifts who spend all their time counting pennies and being miserable. I’m talking about becoming consciously aware of what you are doing so that you are making a conscious choice. Then and only then, can you start on the path of mastering money by making conscious choices and taking full responsibility for your actions.

And back to the original thought which is “What has becoming an investor got to do with losing weight?”. Well, what we found was that asking this question became a habit and we started to apply it to lots of other things, one being the food we ate. Soon our eating habits changed and we were eating healthy nutritious food, we cut out a lot of junk and take-aways and replaced them with food that was investing in our future health. And surprise, surprise we lost weight and felt better.

So the next time you are thinking of doing something with your money or food ask yourself one simple question: “Am I investing or am I consuming?”

Let us know if you decide to start asking yourself this question and let us know what happens.

Liz

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