- WEALTHY: An investment ratio that will do you no good (Andrew Gordon)
- HEALTHY: You may be offended by what I have to say… (Craig Ballantyne)
- WISE: Mark Twain on the “age issue”
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- How do you feel about the elderly? (Robert Ringer)
- Why marketing is like beekeeping (Howie Jacobson)
- It’s Fun to Know… about cooking up some laughs
- Add “immolate” to your vocabulary
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Fantasy Value Can Lead You Down the Wrong Path
If you like to buy companies on the cheap – like I do – you probably look at their P/Es. That’s fine. Just know what you’re looking at. If it’s a forward P/E, ignore it.
What’s a forward P/E? Let me explain.
Investors use P/E (price-to-earnings) ratios to measure how cheap a stock is. “Value” investors love P/Es below 10 – meaning the price of a share is less than 10 times earnings per share. Since P/Es vary from sector to sector, some value investors simply look for P/Es that are below the average in their sector.
A “Ratios” report is available on the Reuters website for every listed company, and is the easiest way to look this up. To its credit, Reuters uses only “P/E Ratio (TTM).” The TTM stands for “trailing twelve months.” Other financial sites – including Yahoo – also give “forward P/E.” This shows you what the company is expected to earn over the next year compared to its current price.
“Trailing” P/E and “forward” P/E seem like close cousins, but they differ in one key respect. Trailing P/E is a real number. It records what has happened. There’s no disputing it. On the other hand, forward P/E is just a guess. It’s Wall Street’s best estimate on what a company will earn in the future. By jacking up future earnings that haven’t yet occurred, analysts can make a company look much cheaper than it is. Right now, for example, some are projecting earnings to increase 70 percent this fourth quarter over last year’s fourth quarter. And the chances of that happening are next to nothing.
Forward P/E is least reliable when it’s based on an economy that no longer exits. At a time like this, when the economy is undergoing a major shift – from growth to recession – you don’t want to rely on analysts who are living in the past.
[Ed. Note: Looking into the future can be tricky. But with proper due diligence and some guidance from an expert in the field, you can make investments with confidence. ETR Investment Director Andrew Gordon can teach you more about the oil market than most investors will ever know. It's a sector that stands to make TRILLIONS in the years to come. Discover where the safe profits will be right here.]
“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
Mark Twain
Throwaway People
A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I had an appointment in Arlington, VA. As we were walking toward our destination, we noticed a thin, elderly lady standing near the street corner. She was exceptionally well groomed, and dressed in a colorful, neatly pressed outfit.
Leaning on her cane, she was looking around in what appeared to be a confused manner. We were concerned, because the temperature was well into the 90s, and it was a very humid day. As we approached her, my wife asked if she needed any help. She smiled sweetly and said that she was looking for her dentist’s office, but was not certain she was walking in the right direction.
She went on to explain that she had glaucoma and could not see very well. When she gave us the name of her dentist, I told her that it was just on the other side of the street, and said we would be happy to help her across. She appeared to be pleased by the offer.
My wife and I took hold of her arms, waited for the streetlight to change, then slowly helped her to the other side. As we approached the curb, she explained that even though she was not totally blind, she could not see the curb clearly enough to be sure she wouldn’t trip and fall.
We carefully guided her up over the curb and onto the sidewalk. She assured us that she could make it into the dentist on her own, so we wished her a nice day and began to turn away. Then, suddenly, the kindly little lady began talking to us about her life and her family. She said she was 90, and her eldest sister was still alive at age 99. She also mentioned that she had another sister who had passed away.
Several times, I said that we had to be running along to avoid being late for our appointment – and each time, she went on to another subject. Her deceased husband… her osteoporosis… her son who was a medical doctor. She seemed genuinely excited to have someone to talk to, and clearly did not want the conversation with two strangers to end.
It was obvious that she was lonely. One side of me wanted to stay and talk to her for as long as she wished, but the “responsible” side of me was thinking of our appointment. Awkwardly, we finally ended the conversation.
As my wife and I walked away, we turned around and watched that adorable little lady walk, with considerable difficulty, toward the door to the dentist’s office. I couldn’t help wondering if her doctor-son knew that his mom was walking by herself to the dentist in 90-degree heat.
As a result of that unexpected encounter in Arlington, many thoughts drifted through my mind the remainder of the afternoon. First and foremost, I thought about my 98-year-old mother. My mother was the ultimate housewife/mom at a time when such an occupation was considered noble. She spoiled the heck out of me, and I loved every minute of it. More important, I loved her to pieces… and still do.
I remembered how, from the time I was about six years old, whenever I spotted the smallest bit of debris on the floor, I would pick it up and throw it in the wastebasket because I didn’t want my mom to have to bend over. Now, with six children of my own, I’m still in awe of the fact that she, merely by being who she was, motivated me enough to want to spare her any unnecessary work.
I’m thankful that, in their senior years, I was able to do so much for, and with, my parents. A fabulous trip to Hawaii, full of joy and laughter, comes quickly to mind. Sunday night dinners at Matteo’s and gourmet meals at The Bistro in Beverly Hills, too. Having lived through the golden age of Hollywood, my mom and dad got a big kick out of eating at celebrity haunts like these.
I also thought about how long it’s been since I visited my mother… and about the time, when my brother-in-law’s mother died and I offered my condolences, he said, in a reflective tone, “You only have one.” As we go about our day-to-day lives, I guess it’s pretty easy to forget the obvious.
I think one of the chief reasons we tend to brush aside the elderly is that the society we live in is not only drowning in materialism and narcissism, but is a throwaway society as well. No one fixes anything anymore. When something is broken, you just throw it in the trash can… and then buy a new and better model.
So it’s only natural that we do the same thing with old people, right? After all, they can’t be fixed, so why not just throw them away? It’s too bad we place so little value on the elderly, because, on the whole, they have so much to offer. Wisdom… purity of thought… and, above all, tranquility. If the medical community could transplant an 80-year-old brain into a 21-year-old skull, one can only imagine how much better the life of the young person who owned that skull would likely turn out.
I believe it’s healthy to be conscious of the fact that we’re all on our way to the same destination: old age (provided we’re luckier than the Tim Russerts and Tony Snows among us). And when we arrive at that destination, let’s hope that we won’t be walking down a street alone, cane in hand, barely able to see the curb. And that our children will visit us often.
As Katharine Hepburn once said, “Life is hard. After all, it kills you.”
[Ed. Note: Improving your life starts from the inside out. Of course, thinking good thoughts about yourself and others isn't all you need to do. You need to take action in order to move yourself forward to success. But sometimes you need a little push to get yourself going... and some simple techniques to help you accomplish your dreams. Discover 189 ways to get everything you want out of life.
For a treasure chest of proven ideas, strategies, and techniques for increasing your income many times over, check out Robert Ringer's best-selling dealmaking audio series.
And sign up for his Voice of Sanity e-letter.]
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How to Legally Profit With the Insiders…
There’s no question the “insiders” have the advantage when it comes to making money. And “they” have perfectly legal and ethical ways to consistently keep income streams flowing their way…
But what if you could reap the same consistent profits the “insiders” do, week after week? Actually, you can. I was one of them. Had access to all the secrets they use to make enormous amounts of money. And I’m willing to share that information with you for two reasons.
To discover those reasons and how I know for a fact you can easily make great money just by following a few fairly simple steps, click here…
Is Your Market Waggling?
My wife keeps bees. She can sit in front of her hives for hours, just watching their dangerous little tushies waggling back and forth in front of the entrances. I sometimes sit next to her in the early evening and watch too – for as long as I can. To me, it’s all the same thing: The bees fly in. The bees fly out. A couple of bees are walking around in circles. Okay, I get it. Now can we throw a Frisbee?
For my wife, on the other hand, the bee display is far richer. She’s learning to read the language of bees, and so is eavesdropping on a conversation in bee-talk, a conversation so important that the very survival of her hives depends on it.
What appear to me as random movements are actually precise and complex ways to transmit information. The direction the bee points in, the figure she traces with her body (yes, all the worker bees are females), the duration of the dance – all these communicate the location of good nectar that can be brought back to the hive and turned into honey.
If you’re using Google AdWords, your market is waggling its butt in your face 24/7. It’s clearly telling you where the nectar isn’t, and, if you’re lucky, where it is:
- Some of your keywords are profitable; others are not.
- Some of the websites showing your Content Network ads are bringing you buyers; others are just sending you expensive tire kickers.
- Some of your bids are too high; others are too low.
- Some of your ads are not connecting with your prospects; others are driving them wild.
- Some of your landing pages are turning visitors off within seconds; others are getting prospects to do exactly what you want them to do.
WHICH ONES?
If you don’t discover the answers to this question on a regular basis (monthly, if not weekly), I guarantee you’re searching for nectar in the wrong meadows and gardens. Sure, you may be collecting enough to survive, but as Glenn Livingston notes, in AdWords, the good is often enemy of the great. If being great is simply a matter of learning how to set up and read reports, and then take drop-dead-obvious actions based on the data, why not go for it?
[Ed. Note: Chapter 14 of AdWords for Dummies shows you how to set up reports that run while you sleep and show up automatically in your inbox. You'll discover the most important numbers, and how to interpret and act on them. And since the book includes $24.95 in AdWords credits, you actually get paid about $8 when you buy it from Amazon. So get cracking on those reports, and may your honey be sweet and plentiful.
Now you have the chance to pick the brain of AdWords expert Howie Jacobson in person. He'll be speaking at ETR's 2008 Info Marketing Bootcamp - sharing a method you can use to make an extra $100,000 in 2009. And he's not the only one... 11 other marketing and business-building experts have responded to our Internet Ultimatum. Learn how you can make $1.2 million or more next year, right here...
Get Howie's complimentary AdWords ER Report "Why Most AdWords Campaigns Fail - and How to Make Yours Succeed" at www.AskHowie.com]
Are You Lying About Your Diet?
Today, I’m going to talk about weight loss. And I’m not going to be politically correct. So if you are easily offended, press your “page down” button right now.
Most overweight people are carrying their extra pounds because they eat too much and exercise too little, not because of “bad genes.” And the latest research shows that they’re probably lying to themselves about their diet.
Researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture had 524 men and women – some of them overweight and some of them with a normal BMI (body mass index) – estimate how many calories they ate each day. Their estimates were then compared to their actual calorie intake, as determined by a proven scientific method.
The results were shocking. On average, the subjects underreported their calorie intake by 11 percent. So if, for example, they thought they were eating 2,000 calories, they were really eating 2,200 calories. Do that for 18 days, and you’ll have overeaten a whopping 3,600 calories. That’s a whole extra pound of fat.
But here’s the worst news. The subjects who had a normal BMI under-reported their intake by only 3 percent. That means the overweight folks in the study under-reported their food intake by much more than the 11 percent average.
No wonder they can’t lose weight!
To stop lying to yourself (and your trainer), you need to start keeping track – in writing – of everything you eat. That includes each handful of grapes, chips, etc., and all the leftovers you scoop off of your children’s plates and into your mouth.
This should be an eye-opening exercise for you.
If you find – as I suspect you will – that you are consuming more calories than you’ve been admitting to, take action to stop the offending behavior before you gain even more weight.
[Ed. Note: It may be uncomfortable at first. But once you pinpoint the problem, you can begin to solve it. Since losing weight can be tough, make sure you have plenty of support from your loved ones. Or join an online support group. You can join ETR's free SpeakOut Forum and exchange exercise techniques, recipes, and motivation right here.
And for an exercise routine that builds muscle and burns fat, try fitness expert Craig Ballatyne's Turbulence Training program.]
It’s Fun to Know: Cooking up Some Laughs
You think you see Sarah Palin’s visage on your grilled cheese sandwich… an image of Elvis on a French fry. Should you eat it? Put it up for auction on eBay? Or – here’s an idea – post a photo of it on the Museum of Food Anomalies (MoFA) website? The weirder and wackier it is, the better.
Visit Hanttula.com to get a few laughs… and see if your “find” is MoFA-worthy.
== Highly Recommended ==
What Do Top Athletes, Best-Selling Authors, and the World’s Richest Share?
If you look around, you’ll see that almost everyone who’s achieved fame, wealth, or success has gotten there with the help of one thing…
“It” helped author Jonathan Safran Foer land landed a $500,000 deal for his first novel, Everything Is Illuminated.
“It” helped billionaire business magnate Richard Branson get Virgin Atlantic Airways off the ground and turn it into a success.
“It” helped real estate guru Dave Lindahl acquire 11 apartment buildings within 12 months… and create nearly $10,000 a month in positive cash flow!
This powerful success-accelerator is available to you, too…
What can “it” help YOU accomplish?
Word to the Wise: Immolate
To “immolate” (IM-uh-late) – from the Latin for “sacrifice” – is to kill or destroy, often by fire.
Example (as used by Carol Kino in an issue of Art in America): “Bowls of honey at the room’s center drew random insects to immolate themselves against a nearby bug zapper.”
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2008
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Dear ETR-Team,
I’ve been receiving ETR since – I think – 2004, but Mr. Ringer’s article “Throwaway People” must be one of the absolute best pieces I have read in your ezine.
But it doesn’t surprise me – after all this is a wealth-newsletter.
Thank you.
Greetings,
Georg (26)
Thank you for publishing such an honorable piece.
At the heart of true morals and successful living iis that matter of our attitudes toward the ee
elderly. Would that all America could read this.
and tell me, you visited your Mom after this …right? I hope so, its very true, we only have one, and you never know how much they really mean to you until they are gone, mine passed from cancer at 54 my Dad passed a few months before
her, leaving my children with no maternal grandparents, such a loss, I think this article is one of your most valuable to date because its a wake-up call, in so many different ways, and instead of material things, it gives value to human life.
I am a mother and I am a grand-mother as well. When I was healthy, and that has not been for a long time, I did everything I could possibly do for my children. Now that I have become even sicker, and not long to live. I do and feel exactly as stated, “A throw away Person”, you’ve no idea how many times I’ve said this not exactly but almost nearly outloud. The saddest part is, Nobody is listening anymore, not even my children. However I feel the one person who is most understanding to me, and sadly is my nine year old grand-daughter, and my first grand child as well. I hate to see what is happening to my younger daughter and wish I could “fix” me, but life has thrown me away to Cancer and so this would be, My only crime….Thank you for th is article, it touched me dearly, and I know exactly how this feels, first hand.
*Have A Blessed Day*
My parents have passed away when I was in my thirties. My mom’s sister (at 88)is the aunt who was the closest to me helping me at the birth of all of my children. At the end of July, she fractured a vertebra lifting her bedposts. She was in so much pain she lost hope of living. I came to California to nurse her back to health. She is doing better each day, although she has a residue of low back pain which appears upon her overexerting herself. When I was in Hawaii debating if I should come over to help her knowing no one else was willing to stop their lives to do it, I remembered her love and sacrifice for me and my children and knew I could not let her die for lack of caring. I had to do what I could or I could not face myself for being ungrateful for what she has done for me and my family. She said it was kindness and patience with her needs that helped her to get better. That was in addition to megadoseses of vitamins, essential oils and physical therapy.She was on so many medications she was responding inappropriately at times.I am grateful she has regained the will to live to be with us and help her daughter (64,who almost died from pancreatitus and is still recovering) and her granddaughter (32 who recently became pregnant with her first child). What are we living for if not to appreciate the people in our lives be they familiy or friends?