*
Advertisement *
The
Only Thing Worse Than Failure Is Regret
If
you have the dream of beating all the odds and being a raging
success in business, I can tell you this firsthand: It doesn’t
ever go away. It’s a gnawing desire. And if you don’t
satisfy it, you’ll wake up in 20 or 30 years and wonder
why you didn’t give it a try.
Please
read this special report to learn how a $40,000 a year accountant
turned into a $400,000 a year entrepreneur.
http://www.agora-inc.com/reports/700SIEBP/W700F241
WEALTH
Social
Security Is in Terrible Shape, but Healthcare Is Much Worse
U.S.
budget deficits, combined with low individual-savings rates,
"have left Congress, and the economy, playing catch-up
as it prepares for the pending retirement of the 79 million
baby boomers - a demographic shift that will put unprecedented
pressure on Social Security and Medicare." So says USA
Today.
Outlays
for Social Security will jump from 4.2% of the economy today
to about 6.5% by 2050, according to the Government Accountability
Office (GAO). Medicare and Medicaid health care programs will
grow much more - from about 4% of the economy to 20%. That's
about the size of today's entire federal budget.
How
soon will we start to feel the squeeze? Social Security income
(i.e., taxes), which now exceeds expenses, will begin to be
insufficient to meet needs in about three years. By 2015, the
system will be in serious trouble, experts predict.
As
David Walker, head of the GAO, told the paper, "Absent
meaningful changes to Social Security and Medicare, the nation
will ultimately have to choose among persistent, escalating
federal deficits, huge tax increases, and/or dramatic budget
cuts."
- Michael Masterson
TODAY'S
ACTION PLAN
This
is just one more piece of evidence proving what I keep on telling
you: You can't depend on Uncle Sam to take care of you in retirement.
You have to take charge of your own future. In past issues of
ETR, I've discussed many ways for you to do that. And in my
book "Automatic
Wealth", I created a simple six-step program
to make it possible for you to retire comfortably - under your
own power - in 7-15 years (or even less).
As
I pointed out above, experts predict that the entire Social
Security/Medicare system will be in serious trouble by 2015.
That's only 10 years away. So if you're not already on the road
to "automatic wealth," check out the ETR archives
for articles that can help you... or get yourself a copy of
the book.
HEALTH
Exercise Guidelines You Should Live By, Part 2
Yesterday,
I gave you four general guidelines for exercise that will improve
your overall health and fitness. Here are four more...
1.
Commit to stretching your body for at least a few minutes
every single day. If you have back trouble or spend too many
hours seated, find a bar to hang from. This is a great way
to elongate your body and relieve pressure on your spine.
2.
Take a few minutes every day to simply close your
eyes, straighten your back, and b...r...e...a...t...h...e.
Meanwhile, concentrate throughout the day on taking full,
deep breaths. This is one of the most important things you
can do to increase your energy and clarity.
3.
Engage in cross-training. No matter how good an exercise is,
you shouldn't do the same thing every day. Vary your routine.
This will not only keep your workouts interesting, it will
ensure that you continue to make progress.
4.
Do SOMETHING every single day. Even if you don't
have the time or can't find the energy to exercise, get up
and take a brisk walk around the neighborhood or do a few
minutes of bodyweight exercises. But do something. Every day!
-
Jon Herring
WISDOM
We
Are What We Hear
Owen
Edwards, writing in Smithsonian magazine about a project to
preserve distinctive sounds:
"Much
of the richness of life is absorbed through the ear. And much
of the clash and chaos, too. From a mother's lullaby to the
drumroll of thunder from an approaching storm to the cacophony
of car horns in a traffic jam, the sounds of our lives help
define our lives. In a sense... we are what we hear, and at
least part of the sum of ourselves resides in the recollections
of the summer hum of cicadas or the distant lament of a train
whistle at midnight. ... But sounds once taken for granted can
also fade away, never to be heard again.
"Unlike
spotted owls and snail darters, endangered sounds have few advocates.
'Most sound technology today is designed for dissemination,
not preservation,' says one of them, Daniel Sheehy, director
and curator of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, a collection
not only of tens of thousands of musical examples from around
the world but also of such auditory arcana (see "Word to
the Wise," below) as calliopes, insect sounds, and the
thrum of a human heart. ...
"What
should be recorded today? The answer, says Sheehy, is pretty
much everything."
(Source:
The New York Times)
*
Advertisement *
How
To Get People To Send You Their Money!
I
know this seems crazy but it's not. It's not a scheme that
you'd be ashamed to be involved in. And I'm not misleading
you in any way. The claims I'm making are factual. They are
all based on experience.
Click
here to learn more:
http://www.agora-inc.com/reports/700SDMU/W700F135
TODAY'S
MESSAGE
How
to Put on "Weight" as a Real Estate Investor
by
Justin Ford
In
Message
#1399, I talked to you about wrestling. I said:
"Determination
and technique matter first and foremost. You can win against
competitors who are far bigger than you but don't have your
technique or drive. But if you want to win the heavyweight crown
(where the biggest purses are), you'll have to compete against
people who have great technique and are very determined and
very big. So you'll have to put on some weight."
Fact
is, determination and technique matter not only in wrestling
but also in just about every aspect of your life - including
your investments in real estate.
Determination
is what gets you to act. No woulda, shoulda, coulda... no endless
dreaming and a bunch of "on the other hands." You
get off your butt and accept the challenges you must face in
order to achieve your goals.
Technique
helps you meet those challenges successfully. In real estate,
in particular, technique allows you to take an idea and turn
it into a significant amount of money, equity, or both very
quickly.
You
can buy a house under market value in a fast-rising area. Put
zero money down on the purchase, make some strategic, low-cost
improvements, and gain $55,000 to $70,000 in a year. You can
do the same with a small multi-unit building and pick up $105,000
to $155,000 in a year. I know. I've done it.
Once
you've mastered technique and built up capital at the low end
of the market, you can gradually move up the market to the bigger
money. But be sure to move up with technique as your guide.
If you go for size alone and forget how to buy right, you can
get clocked. But if you continue to use sharp real estate investing
principles as you work your way up to bigger properties, the
rewards can be tremendous.
Here's
why:
Let's
say you've built up an investment property "portfolio"
of $100,000. It's a single house. And each year, it produces
about a 10% return on the asset (the house, that is). It appreciates
by 5%, and you pick up 4% in net rents (rental income after
all expenses and carrying costs). You also pick up 1% or so
in amortization (the equity you gain from the reduction in the
balance of your loan).
That
10% might be a return of 100% or 200% or 1,000% or more on your
investment - depending on how much you put in to buy it. If
you put in a total of $10,000 (down payment and closing costs),
you've gotten back 100% of your investment the first year. If
you're $5,000 out of pocket, you're up 200%. If you only forked
over $1,000, you're up 1,000%.
And
if you bought the property with absolutely zero down (including
closing costs), your returns in terms of percent are impossible
to calculate. Somewhere in the neighborhood of infinity...
Fair
enough. But now let's apply this same scenario to a million-dollar
property. The percentage returns again depend on your down payment.
But the money is far bigger. Now you're gaining in the neighborhood
of $100,000 a year in appreciation. And as the net rents increase
and the value compounds, your yearly gains "inch up"
to $111,000, $122,100, and so on.
The
point is, once you've learned how to take control of an income-producing
asset - with a good purchase price and with a loan that lets
that asset pay for itself (including loan costs, management,
expenses, etc.) - you can move up to larger assets, with greater
income and greater equity creation, year after year.
You
were determined enough to act and not just sit there gnawing
your fingernails, mumbling about "real estate bubbles."
And you developed technique. So, yes, you understand that there
are real estate bubbles. But you know how to make profits safely
during inflated markets... and you are prepared to act for even
greater profits when those bubbles burst. You begin with value-buying
and financing techniques that you implement at the low end of
the market. And when the time is right, you move up in weight
class - where the purses are bigger.
So,
as real estate investors, our hats are off to Royce Gracie,
who, in Message #1399, demonstrated to us how determination
and technique can help us conquer mountains. And our hats are
off, too, to Dan Severn - the "mountain of a man"
- who returned to the ring after his defeat by Royce Gracie
as big and strong as ever, but with added skills... and went
on to capture the Ultimate Fighting Championship crown.
In
my next message, I'll show you how you can start at the low
end of the market, purchase under-valued properties with little
or no money down... and then gradually "roll those properties
up" to the high end of the market to generate more income
and equity from a single property in a single year than you
may have ever made at a full-time job.
[Ed.
Note: Justin Ford is the editor of Main Street Millionaire,
ETR's Real Estate Investment Success Program. For
information, click here.]
*
Advertisement *
He
Knew How to Sell
Eugene Schwartz possessed the world's
most financially valuable skill – he knew how
to sell. But he didn't do it door to door. He didn't
do it over the telephone. He didn't even do it face
to face.
What Gene did was even easier …
and more profitable. And he never had to leave the desk
in his home office to do it. You can learn how to do
the very same thing.
http://www.agora-inc.com/reports/700SGSBA/W700F223
COPYWRITING
Does Your Sales Copy Include This Secret Ingredient?
Let
the academic writers get caught up in the intricacies of grammar
and vocabulary. When it comes to sales, you need to make sure
your words invoke emotion. Pack an emotional punch in your copy
by writing about the problem you're going to solve:
"Do
you feel paralyzed by the fear of rejection every time you have
to ask for the sale?"
"Imagine
what your life would be like if all your debts were paid and
you had triple-A credit..."
Follow
with plenty of good reasons (proof) for buying, and you've got
the perfect recipe for strong sales.
(Source:
"Web
Copy That Sells" by Maria Veloso)
WORD
TO THE WISE
An
"arcanum" (ar-KAY-num) - the Latin
word for "secret" - is a mystery. "Arcana"
is the plural.
Example
(as used in today's Wisdom article): "'Most sound technology
today is designed for dissemination, not preservation,' says...
Daniel Sheehy, director and curator of Smithsonian Folkways
Recordings, a collection not only of tens of thousands of musical
examples from around the world but also of such auditory arcana
as calliopes, insect sounds, and the thrum of a human heart."
