Using Rental Real Estate to Fund Your Retirement
“You know more of a road by having travelled it than by all the conjectures and descriptions in the world.” – William Hazlitt (“On the Conduct of Life,” Literary Remains, 1836) In past messages, I’ve told you why I think real estate is such a good “second business.” It’s something…
Let Your Best Customers Do What They Want: Buy More!
In most businesses, the 80/20 rule applies to just about everything — including the question “Who gives us our bottom line?” In other words, there is a good chance that fewer than 20% of your customers are giving you more than 80% of your profits. This is so because repeat…
Are You Sick Of Your Job? It Shows!
Almost everybody, no matter how smart, ambitious, energetic, etc., grows tired of his or her job at some point. Usually, the feeling passes after a while. Sometimes, it lingers. It’s not much fun to work when you lack passion — and in case you are in any doubt, it’s not…
Two Ways To Reduce Investment Risks
“The key to long term survival and prosperity has a lot to do with the money management techniques incorporated into the technical system. There are old traders and there are bold traders, but there are very few old, bold traders.” – Ed Seykota (The Market Wizards) The purpose of this…
What’s Wrong With Nepotism?
The toughest and most important part of building a business is finding great employees. When you take the regular paths — help-wanted ads and interviews — you end up hiring a lot of disappointing people. I recently spent weeks trying to find someone to fill a part-time position. After a…
How To Become Wealthy In Friendship
OK, I admit it. I’m rich. Rich in health. Rich in wealth. And rich in family and friendship. Although I don’t know exactly what friendship is, I have lot of friends. I mean dozens of them. And they aren’t just friendly acquaintances but individuals I know well and care about,…
How Wealthy People Get Wealthier
“If a man has money, it is usually a sign, too, that he knows how to take care of it; don’t imagine his money is easy to get simply because he has plenty of it.” – Edgar Watson Howe (Country Town Sayings, 1911) It’s a common misconception that borrowing money…
Must You Be Cutthroat To Succeed In Business?
A young man who is beginning what I hope will be a long and profitable career in business said this to me recently: “But isn’t that the way you HAVE to be in business? Like ruthless and all?” He is climbing up the ladder of success with the grease of…
How Risky Is Real Estate Investing?
“Knowledge is power.” – Francis Bacon (Meditationes Sacrae, 1597) When it comes to earning a second income, I believe in real estate. No other investment I know of has its beneficial balance of capital appreciation, income, and risk management. I explained my ideas last year in a series of messages…
Paid Vacations
For the past six years, I’ve had a little sideline job that’s allowed me to relax on Caribbean white-sand beaches, play golf on some of Ireland’s and Scotland’s best links courses, and visit more than 25 countries around the world. Not only do I get to go on these trips…
How Secure Is Your Business? What Are Your Top People Telling You?
In the months that followed September 11, Bush ordered a bunch of undercover audits of airport security. 783 were conducted. The results, according to an article I saw in USA Today, indicated an amazingly high level of incompetence. The president’s investigators were able to carry knives past screeners in 70%…
Taking The 20-Something Factor into Consideration
Every once in a while, some bright young kid I’m mentoring does something really stupid or really shiftless — something so wrong that it causes me to wonder if I’ve made a mistake committing my time to him. This happened yesterday. PSG temporarily closed a profitable operation so he could…