If you have ever Googled the subject of wealth creation you maybe surprised with how many sites they are on the subject. These are some ideas that I have developed, picked up from others and learned by experience.
There are several keys to building wealth.
1. You must begin, you must pay yourself first. Probably the hardest lesson to learn is that you will not achieve wealth until you put a value on yourself and make a payment to yourself every month for that value. A good place to start is 10% of everything you earn, put that into a savings plan, preferrably one that debits your bank account that you can't get at, like a whole life insurance policy or a segregated fund with an insurance company. The advantage of these types of investments is they generate guaranteed returns, they require a regular deposit using a pre authorized cheque and you can't get your hands on the money.
If you say that you will wait until you pay off your debts, you will never begin, you will never create wealth and you will never be out of debt. The key words were in the last paragraph you have to begin. Take a leap, give it a try, call your insurance agent and start today, what have you to loose? If it doesn't work, if you are not debt free and wealthier than you are today in five years, cash in the policy and use it to pay off your debt.
2. Now let's talk about how your are going to get out of debt. Cut up the credit cards, from now on you will pay cash and if you don't have cash you will go without. Develop a budget, list everything you spend, keep a record of everything you spend. Start thinking about how you can save money. Can you walk to work, or take the bus ? Could you pack a lunch instead of going out, could you do without the low fat late, maybe use coupons at the grocery store? Even a couple of dollars savings will make a difference.
3. Make a list of all your debts, pick the smallest and start to focus on paying it off. David Ramsey calls it the snowball effect, you might want to go to his website and follow his suggestions. www.davidramsey.com
4. Start saving to build a nest egg of $1,000 in cash in your savings. The purpose is to have an emergency fund to deal with the issues when they arrive instead of using a credit card.
5. You need to build a fund with at least three months salary in your bank account.
6. Pay off your mortgage, once you have achieved the financial freedom of no more credit card debt you need to start on your mortgage, we will discuss how in a later point.
7. Give some away, wealth is built with gratitude and one way to do that is to give away some of what your earn you will get it back tenfold when you do.
8. Develop a cash management plan. There are not a lot of things you can control, you cannot control rates of return on investment, but you can control what you save, the time you have to save, the taxes you don't pay and the interest that you pay. There are several motgage vehicles you can use th
Once you have a One account, you need to spend some time with a financial advisor and discuss how to take advantage of what this tool can do for you. How to use the interest you will save to start building wealth, for when you start to save you can begin to dream the dreams of financial independence. It doesn't take a long time but it does take discipline and encouragement.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Art and Culture
We seem to be changing, Cranbrook Ed on Baker St. the Spirit Tree in Clock Tower square, the Arches project. Nice to see, now the trick is to keep the graffitti off and the vandals outs.
Adding art to a community has to be good for the community, it brings a calming influence and makes others think outside the box.
It's exciting to see the interest in the rail to trails as well. What a fabulous project, I can see how it will be used by hundreds every day.
Adding art to a community has to be good for the community, it brings a calming influence and makes others think outside the box.
It's exciting to see the interest in the rail to trails as well. What a fabulous project, I can see how it will be used by hundreds every day.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Business Coaches
I attended our Advocis seminar last Wednesday we had a guest speaker who is a business coach. He talked about goal setting, establishing values and why you should hire him to be your coach. This may be the fourth or fifth one that I have heard in the last year or so. That coupled with the piles of books by others that I have read suggests that by rights I should be the smartest most successful financial advisor in the country.
I'm not suggesting that these guys don't do some good, they probably do. They probably help a lot of people get focused on what needs to be done to be successful. They make a living at it because the human failing is that we don't want to do the things that are hard or hurt, like making phone calls, planning our days, weeks and years in advance etc. It is much easier if you can get someone else to do that for you.
The other problem is that being a successful financial advisor is boring stuff, you have to be willing to do the same thing day after day. Over and over. It is not glamorous work.
I have achieved success in this business, it hasn't been easy, it has taken most of the last 30 years to finally get it right and it has been an application of many of the principles that the gurus teach. Set goals, develop a business plan and a marketing plan, follow the plan and measure the results. Manage time and resources to best meet the perameters of the plan. Just about the same as running any business, stuff they teach in business schools all across the country, in fact you can get an MBA in this stuff if you want to.
The interesting thing is that I discovered that all the goals and plans mean nothing unless you know the secret, and that is to keep a daily journal, write down everyday what you did, and what you are grateful for. It's that simple. When I started to do that all the other things began to fall into place, the goals were reached, the free time began to be more free and less work and the income went up.
Gratitude is an amazing thing, Christ Jesus alludes to this in Matthew he went on to describe how to pray, I suggest your read the book of Matthew, get a copy of a Bible written in modern day language so you don't need a professor of theology to interprete for you and read the book of Matthew, you will be amazed at what you learn and how you can apply it to you business. It all begins with being grateful.
Now you might say when I have something I'll be grateful, wrong answer, be grateful for everything, for the air you breathe, for life itself, for the world around you. Just be grateful everyday, start and end your day with gratitude and write it down in your journal.
Another thing you can do to help generate success and it doesn't matter what you do or what carrer path you choose the princple applies. That is to write out positive affirmations of what you want to achieve and read them dailly. One of my favorites I got from Jack Canfield. You may not recognize the name but you have read some of his books, he is the co-author with Mark Victor Hansen of the Chicken Soup books. One of the most successful author duos in the world.
Jack's affirmation, with some modification is, "I am happily and easily earning, saving and investing (put your own number in here) per year. God is my infinite supply and large sums of money come to me quckly and easily for the greater good of all concerned."
Does this work? Well let me tell you about my experience, which isn't much different than Jack's that he ralates in one of his books. I took this affirmation, put in a number, typed it out on 3 by 5 cards and posted it on my bedroom mirror, in th car, at the office, in my wallet and anywhere that I would see it dailly. I didn't put a big number in the blank but big enough. I read it everyday. When I hit my number my wife said to me, maybe you need to pick a bigger number because you just made the one on the card on the mirror. I should point out that my wife is the chancellor fo the exchequer, I make it but she manages it.
Of course I set a bigger goal, when I hit that one she said you better set a bigger number in the affirmation on the mirror. Now one of the keys to the affirmation is that is does not have a time limit. It is just a simple little phrase that you can easily memorize and the you read everyday. Your sub conscious hates a vacumn, God hates a vacumn and when you couple a positive affirmation with gratitude the forces of the universe are going to go to work to make it reality. You just need to be ready to receive the message and act on it. You don't necissarily know what you did differently but you will do things differently because that is what is necessary to achieve the goal.
You can't buy happiness, but you can create it, and it begins with being grateful and having a positive affirmation. When you are achieving your dreams its impossible to not be happy, and happiness means you will be healthier and you will enjoy your life more. You were not put on this earth to be miserable, you were put here to fullfill Gods affirmation, you'll find that one in the first chapter of Genesis, in the Bible. Remember the book you bought to read Matthew, well read the first chapter of Genisis as well, it's the truth.
I'm not suggesting that these guys don't do some good, they probably do. They probably help a lot of people get focused on what needs to be done to be successful. They make a living at it because the human failing is that we don't want to do the things that are hard or hurt, like making phone calls, planning our days, weeks and years in advance etc. It is much easier if you can get someone else to do that for you.
The other problem is that being a successful financial advisor is boring stuff, you have to be willing to do the same thing day after day. Over and over. It is not glamorous work.
I have achieved success in this business, it hasn't been easy, it has taken most of the last 30 years to finally get it right and it has been an application of many of the principles that the gurus teach. Set goals, develop a business plan and a marketing plan, follow the plan and measure the results. Manage time and resources to best meet the perameters of the plan. Just about the same as running any business, stuff they teach in business schools all across the country, in fact you can get an MBA in this stuff if you want to.
The interesting thing is that I discovered that all the goals and plans mean nothing unless you know the secret, and that is to keep a daily journal, write down everyday what you did, and what you are grateful for. It's that simple. When I started to do that all the other things began to fall into place, the goals were reached, the free time began to be more free and less work and the income went up.
Gratitude is an amazing thing, Christ Jesus alludes to this in Matthew he went on to describe how to pray, I suggest your read the book of Matthew, get a copy of a Bible written in modern day language so you don't need a professor of theology to interprete for you and read the book of Matthew, you will be amazed at what you learn and how you can apply it to you business. It all begins with being grateful.
Now you might say when I have something I'll be grateful, wrong answer, be grateful for everything, for the air you breathe, for life itself, for the world around you. Just be grateful everyday, start and end your day with gratitude and write it down in your journal.
Another thing you can do to help generate success and it doesn't matter what you do or what carrer path you choose the princple applies. That is to write out positive affirmations of what you want to achieve and read them dailly. One of my favorites I got from Jack Canfield. You may not recognize the name but you have read some of his books, he is the co-author with Mark Victor Hansen of the Chicken Soup books. One of the most successful author duos in the world.
Jack's affirmation, with some modification is, "I am happily and easily earning, saving and investing (put your own number in here) per year. God is my infinite supply and large sums of money come to me quckly and easily for the greater good of all concerned."
Does this work? Well let me tell you about my experience, which isn't much different than Jack's that he ralates in one of his books. I took this affirmation, put in a number, typed it out on 3 by 5 cards and posted it on my bedroom mirror, in th car, at the office, in my wallet and anywhere that I would see it dailly. I didn't put a big number in the blank but big enough. I read it everyday. When I hit my number my wife said to me, maybe you need to pick a bigger number because you just made the one on the card on the mirror. I should point out that my wife is the chancellor fo the exchequer, I make it but she manages it.
Of course I set a bigger goal, when I hit that one she said you better set a bigger number in the affirmation on the mirror. Now one of the keys to the affirmation is that is does not have a time limit. It is just a simple little phrase that you can easily memorize and the you read everyday. Your sub conscious hates a vacumn, God hates a vacumn and when you couple a positive affirmation with gratitude the forces of the universe are going to go to work to make it reality. You just need to be ready to receive the message and act on it. You don't necissarily know what you did differently but you will do things differently because that is what is necessary to achieve the goal.
You can't buy happiness, but you can create it, and it begins with being grateful and having a positive affirmation. When you are achieving your dreams its impossible to not be happy, and happiness means you will be healthier and you will enjoy your life more. You were not put on this earth to be miserable, you were put here to fullfill Gods affirmation, you'll find that one in the first chapter of Genesis, in the Bible. Remember the book you bought to read Matthew, well read the first chapter of Genisis as well, it's the truth.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Thanksgiving Day thoughts
It is a beautiful day here in the Kootenay's, but cold, it may have got up to 5 degrees C. but that was the warmest. We have a skiff of snow on the lawn. It has been a day to rest, relax enjoy turkey dinner and mainly just contemplate life.
I read an article this morning where the author said that Canadians have a lot to be grateful for, and I agee, we are truly blessed in this country. We need to give thanks everyday for all that we have and what we enjoy as a nation.
Some twenty years ago I started to keep a daily journal, it is now many volumns and has become a issue as to where to keep them, but one of the things I did was write down everyday what I was grateful for. It is amazing how much of a change this has made in my life. The suggestion that I will be grateful when I have something to be grateful for is often the reason why we don't keep a journal but that is the wrong attitude, there is so much to be grateful for, if nothing more than the air that we breath, or the green grass. By being grateful everyday we are opening our hearts and minds to receive more.
Here on Thanksgiving day let's begin by being grateful for everything we have and use this as the beginning of being grateful everyday for what we have no matter how small or immaterial it is, for that we how we open up our receivers to receive more.
Happy Thanksgiving
I read an article this morning where the author said that Canadians have a lot to be grateful for, and I agee, we are truly blessed in this country. We need to give thanks everyday for all that we have and what we enjoy as a nation.
Some twenty years ago I started to keep a daily journal, it is now many volumns and has become a issue as to where to keep them, but one of the things I did was write down everyday what I was grateful for. It is amazing how much of a change this has made in my life. The suggestion that I will be grateful when I have something to be grateful for is often the reason why we don't keep a journal but that is the wrong attitude, there is so much to be grateful for, if nothing more than the air that we breath, or the green grass. By being grateful everyday we are opening our hearts and minds to receive more.
Here on Thanksgiving day let's begin by being grateful for everything we have and use this as the beginning of being grateful everyday for what we have no matter how small or immaterial it is, for that we how we open up our receivers to receive more.
Happy Thanksgiving
Getting out of the Rat Race!
Recently someone made the comment that there wasn’t enough hours in the day, that they felt they were in a rat race, on a tread mill and they couldn’t get off. As I thought about this I asked myself the question, “What has changed?” We don’t have any less time than Einstein or Churchill, and their lifetime achievements are world renown. We have more tools today to help us do our work, so why do we feel we can’t accomplish what we set out to do in the time we have?
I came to the conclusion that it has nothing to do with time; we have the same amount of time in a day for eternity. The real problem is how we think. We spend too much time worrying about time, what needs is to change how we think about time, work, duties, and life in general.
In a conversation with my son’s drama teacher some years ago, he made a profound statement, in reference to the rush that students seem to be in to graduate. He said, “It is not a race!” Think about that for a minute, that is a very true statement, you don’t get a prize for getting through life first. The real message is that our creator gave us the opportunity to savor life and enjoy it and enjoy every minute of it.
How much stuff we accumulate in a lifetime will not make one iota of difference in the end, we go out just like we came in. That is not to say that what we do with our lives should not make a contribution. What we accomplish makes our homes, community, country and world a better place to live. That is important but we don’t need to do it all in the next week.
Can you change your concept of time? Yes you can! I know from experience that today I no longer worry about how many hours there are in a day. I no longer feel that I am in the rat race. Neither you nor I are rats, we can change how we view ourselves in an instant.
These are ideas that I developed after reading “How to stop worrying and start living”, by Dale Carnegie.)
1. Live in day tight compartments. Another way of putting it is to live in the Now, in the present moment. What happened yesterday, or for that matter a moment ago is the past and should not be dwelled on and what happens tomorrow or in the future is the future and should be of no concern. Life becomes much easier when you stop worrying about what you did yesterday or what you are going to do tomorrow. There is a tremendous amount of supporting evidence to say that this works, you will find it in the Bible. Christ Jesus said, “Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.” Matt 8:22.
Sir William Osler, considered to be the father of modern medicine and the founder of John Hopkins Medical school, told the graduating class at Yale, “a man like myself who had been a professor at four universities and had written a popular book was supposed to have brains of a special quality.” He declared that that was untrue. He said that his intimate friends knew that his brains were “of the most mediocre character.” He went on to say, “that when he was a medical student in Montreal he was not a particularly great student, certainly not the brightest of the lot but what had made a difference in his life was this quote from Thomas Carlyle, “Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.” Sir William Osler, a Canadian, became Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford, when he died it took two volumes and 1446 pages to write his biography. What was the secret of his success? Dr. Osler said that it was living his life in day tight compartments. Just like a large ship that has air tight compartments that can be closed off if there is a leak, he focused on living in the now, closing off the compartment from yesterday or tomorrow and not worrying about the past or the future.
2. Next you need to stop worrying. Not an easy task for most of us but absolutely necessary for your personal sanity and your health. Worry is usually brought on by something that we have no control over. No matter how much we worry about it the outcome is not in our hands.
Here is a three-step method to deal with worry, a) Analyze the situation fearlessly and honestly and figure out what is the worst that could possibly happen as a result. b) after figuring out what was the worst that could possibly happen, reconcile yourself to accepting it, if necessary. c) devote the time and energy necessary to try and improve the worst that you have already accepted.
3. Seven rules that will help you stop worrying.
i) Keep busy, that will crowd out worry from your mind. Action is the best therapy.
ii) Don’t sweat the small stuff, and everything is small stuff. Don’t let the termites of life ruin your happiness.
iii) Use the law of averages, to outlaw your worries.
iv) Cooperate with the inevitable, recognize that some things are beyond your control and you cannot change them.
v) Put a “stop-loss” order on your worries. Decide just how much anxiety a thing may be worth and refuse to give it any more.
vi) Let the past bury its dead.
vii) Don’t saw sawdust.
(Excerpted from the book “How to stop worrying and start living by Dale Carnegie.)
4. Adjust you attitude. Develop a positive attitude, look for the best in others and expect the best for yourself.
5. Develop clearly defined goals. Write them down. Focus on achieving them.
6. Learn to meditate. Taking time to stop and just be quiet and clear your mind of all that is going on is essential to better health. When you do this you think less about what ails you and the less you think about it the less it will bother you. We live in an age when the number one killer of baby boomers is hypertension, most of which is self inflicted as we try to live by someone else’s rules and our mistaken belief that we have to be constantly doing in order to get ahead. Its time to get off the treadmill and recognize that taking control of life right now is a choice and you can make it.
These are some ideas that will help you can to make life a whole lot more fun and still accomplish everything you need to do each day. Time will not be as important as it once was, you have all the time you need, the same allotment that has existed for eternity. You can accomplish great things in life when you stop worrying about whether you will get it done today. Life in “Day tight compartments” Focus on the now. By doing this your life will become more centered, you will find the time to reflect on what you have accomplished and how you can achieve your life goals calmly without stress and strain.
One last point, you owe it to yourself to do this, it will prolong your life. Isn’t that what its all about? Canada Life’s recent mortality table says the average Canadian Male will live to 85 and average Canadian Female to age 87 (non smokers) that means that 50% will live even longer, perhaps to age 100. Which half are you going to be in?
I came to the conclusion that it has nothing to do with time; we have the same amount of time in a day for eternity. The real problem is how we think. We spend too much time worrying about time, what needs is to change how we think about time, work, duties, and life in general.
In a conversation with my son’s drama teacher some years ago, he made a profound statement, in reference to the rush that students seem to be in to graduate. He said, “It is not a race!” Think about that for a minute, that is a very true statement, you don’t get a prize for getting through life first. The real message is that our creator gave us the opportunity to savor life and enjoy it and enjoy every minute of it.
How much stuff we accumulate in a lifetime will not make one iota of difference in the end, we go out just like we came in. That is not to say that what we do with our lives should not make a contribution. What we accomplish makes our homes, community, country and world a better place to live. That is important but we don’t need to do it all in the next week.
Can you change your concept of time? Yes you can! I know from experience that today I no longer worry about how many hours there are in a day. I no longer feel that I am in the rat race. Neither you nor I are rats, we can change how we view ourselves in an instant.
These are ideas that I developed after reading “How to stop worrying and start living”, by Dale Carnegie.)
1. Live in day tight compartments. Another way of putting it is to live in the Now, in the present moment. What happened yesterday, or for that matter a moment ago is the past and should not be dwelled on and what happens tomorrow or in the future is the future and should be of no concern. Life becomes much easier when you stop worrying about what you did yesterday or what you are going to do tomorrow. There is a tremendous amount of supporting evidence to say that this works, you will find it in the Bible. Christ Jesus said, “Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.” Matt 8:22.
Sir William Osler, considered to be the father of modern medicine and the founder of John Hopkins Medical school, told the graduating class at Yale, “a man like myself who had been a professor at four universities and had written a popular book was supposed to have brains of a special quality.” He declared that that was untrue. He said that his intimate friends knew that his brains were “of the most mediocre character.” He went on to say, “that when he was a medical student in Montreal he was not a particularly great student, certainly not the brightest of the lot but what had made a difference in his life was this quote from Thomas Carlyle, “Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.” Sir William Osler, a Canadian, became Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford, when he died it took two volumes and 1446 pages to write his biography. What was the secret of his success? Dr. Osler said that it was living his life in day tight compartments. Just like a large ship that has air tight compartments that can be closed off if there is a leak, he focused on living in the now, closing off the compartment from yesterday or tomorrow and not worrying about the past or the future.
2. Next you need to stop worrying. Not an easy task for most of us but absolutely necessary for your personal sanity and your health. Worry is usually brought on by something that we have no control over. No matter how much we worry about it the outcome is not in our hands.
Here is a three-step method to deal with worry, a) Analyze the situation fearlessly and honestly and figure out what is the worst that could possibly happen as a result. b) after figuring out what was the worst that could possibly happen, reconcile yourself to accepting it, if necessary. c) devote the time and energy necessary to try and improve the worst that you have already accepted.
3. Seven rules that will help you stop worrying.
i) Keep busy, that will crowd out worry from your mind. Action is the best therapy.
ii) Don’t sweat the small stuff, and everything is small stuff. Don’t let the termites of life ruin your happiness.
iii) Use the law of averages, to outlaw your worries.
iv) Cooperate with the inevitable, recognize that some things are beyond your control and you cannot change them.
v) Put a “stop-loss” order on your worries. Decide just how much anxiety a thing may be worth and refuse to give it any more.
vi) Let the past bury its dead.
vii) Don’t saw sawdust.
(Excerpted from the book “How to stop worrying and start living by Dale Carnegie.)
4. Adjust you attitude. Develop a positive attitude, look for the best in others and expect the best for yourself.
5. Develop clearly defined goals. Write them down. Focus on achieving them.
6. Learn to meditate. Taking time to stop and just be quiet and clear your mind of all that is going on is essential to better health. When you do this you think less about what ails you and the less you think about it the less it will bother you. We live in an age when the number one killer of baby boomers is hypertension, most of which is self inflicted as we try to live by someone else’s rules and our mistaken belief that we have to be constantly doing in order to get ahead. Its time to get off the treadmill and recognize that taking control of life right now is a choice and you can make it.
These are some ideas that will help you can to make life a whole lot more fun and still accomplish everything you need to do each day. Time will not be as important as it once was, you have all the time you need, the same allotment that has existed for eternity. You can accomplish great things in life when you stop worrying about whether you will get it done today. Life in “Day tight compartments” Focus on the now. By doing this your life will become more centered, you will find the time to reflect on what you have accomplished and how you can achieve your life goals calmly without stress and strain.
One last point, you owe it to yourself to do this, it will prolong your life. Isn’t that what its all about? Canada Life’s recent mortality table says the average Canadian Male will live to 85 and average Canadian Female to age 87 (non smokers) that means that 50% will live even longer, perhaps to age 100. Which half are you going to be in?
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