Rich Dads say, so Aunty listens

2013-10-04_13-03-14Aunty’s favorite Rich Dad is Robert Kiyosaki.  He had this to say about the recent US government shutdown:

“The U.S. Government, due to partisan finger pointing and squabbling, has shut down.   Neither side could reach an agreement on a spending plan for the government.  Mail will still be delivered, the military will still be active, Congress will still get paid, but there are those many other services that will stop, affecting over 800,000 Americans – who will be out of work.  Focusing on what will or won’t change with the shutdown will not matter.   Instead, learn the lesson and message that lies within this mess.

This Government shutdown should ultimately remind us that we are in charge of our own financial future and we can’t depend on any government to take care of us.   Even if the shutdown is only temporary, even when they are “open for business,” the Government will still be faced with a mess, one that they created.   Their limiting solutions are:  a) pay the national debt, b) default on the debt, or c) continue with “Quantitative Easing” by printing more money. The problem is that any of these options will eventually lead to an economic crash.

And here lies the lesson that many can’t—or won’t—see:

Looking to the Government for financial solutions is like closing your eyes in traffic and hoping you don’t get hit.  You want to make sure that you and your family are prepared regardless of what happens with our economy or our government.  Understand what the rich already know and do what they do.  It’s never too late to get started.” 

Many people have their eyes closed and have not gotten hit – yet.  I truly hope they never do.  I hope that government subsidies for the needy never ends, that retirement benefits continue to be paid, that we do not encounter an economic crash, hyper-inflation, deflation, etc.

But, what if it does happen?

Are you doing what you need to do to safeguard, grow, be independent?  Aunty may not recommend that you run out and sign up for Rich Dad classes (see Aunty’s review), but if you do take control and start to save, invest, protect, and grow your own financial picture of well being, you will be better off – even if you count on your company’s or the government’s programs for retirement.  Start learning in chunks, little pieces, whatever way you can.  Robert Kiyosaki even has his own Rich Dad blog – highly recommended, and it’s free!

Do, or don’t?

Jeff Olson & AuntyJeff Olson, in an audio recording for Nerium distributors, talks about the price of neglect.  “The price of neglect is far more painful than the price of discipline.”

Please take the time to really think about this quote and actually weigh the consequences of inaction over action.  Candy Crush Saga or taking a seminar?

I consider Jeff Olson a Rich Dad because of his leadership, success, and his heart.  His book, The Slight Edge, has 10 simple rules that anyone can incorporate in their lives, to better their lives.

“Whether you think you can, or think you can’t – you’re right.”  Henry Ford

From time to time, I listen to words of wisdom from Bob Procter.  He also learns from “Rich Dads”, one of them being Napoleon Hill.  To quote Bob Procter:

In his best selling book, Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill wrote, “You will never have a definite purpose in life; you will never have self confidence; you will never have initiative and leadership unless you first create these qualities in your imagination and see yourself in possession of them.” He went on to say that, “… imagination is the most marvelous, miraculous, inconceivably powerful force the world has ever known.”

Have you ever thought of what your perfect life would be like?  Just that thought is the start of the process and fulfillment.  Write it down, draw it, dream board it, or post it here in a comment!  Brick by brick, step by step, build that perfect life.

Think it, learn it, do it

Sounds simple?  It really is.

Thinking it is the easiest part of it.  What does your ideal life look like?  Dream big.  Dream ENORMOUS!  Dream for real – do you REALLY want to have 15 cars that you won’t drive in a huge mansion that you get lost in?  Is your dream a nice little small house near a beach park with cash flowing rental real estate and a dividend paying stock portfolio with someone else who cooks and cleans for you?  (ahem, that’s also Aunty’s dream…)

Learning it means turning off the tv or limiting Candy Crush saga and picking up a book, a course, a seminar.  Be careful how much you pay – even though coaching gurus will tell you that they are worth every cent.  The world wide web has made it possible to advance your knowledge at your speed, whenever you want, however you want it, for free or for a fee.  Learn, digest, learn, digest.

Doing it – now this is what takes focus, commitment, and not listening to those who care about you.  I don’t know if Einstein would be considered a Rich Dad, but his definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  Walk a different path.  It will not be an easy one (price of discipline), but it sure beats going nowhere (price of neglect).

Mahalo Robert, Jeff, Henry, Bob, Napoleon, Albert

To all the Rich Dads that I know, and even the ones that I have yet to discover, mahalo.  If you know of any others, please share it with us in the comments section along with what a summary of what you have learned from them.  Also, please share your dreams – if not with Aunty, with somebody else.  Build your brick house just in case the straw houses crash.

Aunty will be a millionaire for how much?

2013-09-20_15-52-42Aunty just signed up for another newsletter – couldn’t help myself – the copy was that good, and the information that I was promised was going to be awesome….

It is a “field manual” survival book and a 12 month newsletter by Dr. David Eifrig (I know, his name could be a joke if you switch around a couple of letters) that will let me know how to get silver coins super duper cheap (no worries Paul, that one I promised you I wouldn’t post), a device that will purify water and fits in your pocket, and a defense mechanism that will repel attackers, available for cheap on Amazon!*

All this and more for an annual subscription fee of $39!  Such a deal, such a deal, with SO much more valuable information .  Aunty is such a soft sell, so I figure, “why not?”  And if it is worth the $39, Aunty will review and let you know so you can get in the deal too.

However, immediately after putting in the numbers of Aunty’s corporate dedicated credit card (note to Aunty:  write a post about the stupendous advantages of having a C Corp), another super duper special offer popped up, with 6(!) expert newsletter people and all kinds of goodies that will make Aunty rich(!), happy(!), secure(!) and all that good stuff came, worth at least $12,000, with no annual renewal fee and a time sensitive super duper special of $1000, period, good for Aunty’s lifetime!!

$39 with annual renewal or $1000 without?

$1000 is a lot of money, even if it is for 6 experts that I really don’t know, sending me newsletters and tips.  This is much more than $39 to find out how to purify water and repel bad guys.  The publisher of all those newsletters putting this deal together is a master of newsletter affiliate marketing.  A master almost to the point of being annoying.  AND, this $1000 lifetime guaranteed deal is not just $1000, because there IS an annual fee of $149 for something that isn’t called an annual renewal.  So now it is confusing – there is an annual fee?

Okay, that was a turnoff.  Maybe the information and lessons are worth thousands IF Aunty practices it.  Maybe Aunty will become a millionairess overnight or in the next year.  Maybe Aunty will be retired with Uncle with no cares or worries, living a lifestyle that is perfect for us.  Maybe it will be so, but da buggah stay lie [translation:  the publisher/marketer was being deceptive.]

Auwe!

First, he says “no annual renewal fee” and then he says “small fee of $149 charged annually.”

This publisher – Stansberry Porter whatever – might be a good guy, but he really should be more ethical, IAO (in Aunty’s opinion), or at least not talk through both sides of his mouth with different stories.

Has Aunty ever paid a lot of money for a subscription/service?

Yup.  In fact one of the most recent ones is The Wealth Builders Club by Mark Ford.  This one cost $1500, paid with Aunty’s corporate account, and is worth more than $1500, IAO (in Aunty’s opinion).  Lessons are unfolded like peeling layers off an onion.  Each layer is delicious, rich with content, and done with sensitivity to those of us with moderate income wanting to improve our lives.  Recently (IAO) it spends a bit too much emphasis on the paid in additional riders of mutual whole life insurance, even though it IS an awesome way to save and use money.   Several strategies for income and investment are broken down and taught, all very possible, all well researched and even tested.  Membership does cost a lot of money, but Aunty feels that she is getting her monies’ worth and even has an affiliate relationship with them.

Aunty recommends this “Club” only if you are serious about investing and have the means to do so.  If you are not yet financially solvent or just starting off, then Mark Ford’s Palm Beach Letter is a less expensive option and rich with content, just not as frequent and detailed as the Wealth Builders Club.  It is one of my favorite, and is a bargain.  The Palm Beach Letter is $39 annually.  Aunty highly recommends this newsletter and also has an affiliate relationship with them.  If you click on The Palm Beach Letter, you will have access to their rather long (and excellent) sales copy and subscription button to join.

However, subscriber, be aware!

Be Aware, not necessarily Beware.  ALL of these self help, financial, be better, etc. newsletters are in the business of affiliate marketing.  EVERY one of them, especially the free ones.  You will get a LOT of invites to view other products/newsletters/secrets/strategies. They all have appeal and urgency with impending doom.  One thing almost all financial and investment newsletter like to do is bash the President in office, and that is kinda overdone.  In this day and age, in our current crisis/non-crisis, it doesn’t matter who is in office.  We have to take charge of our own finances, growth, retirement.

Subscribing to newsletters is a good start, just be careful who’s opinion (it is all opinion until history proves it to be fact) you want to adopt as your own, and be ready for a lot of emails pitching this newsletter service and product or that service and product.  Your email address and contact name has been melded into “THE” list of potential buyers, and the campaigns will begin.

Some of them are fantastic, some are pretty good, some of them are not so good.  Aunty reads them all to get a general bigger perspective and then either forgets about it or bookmarks it in one of the 35+ email folders for newsletters on my laptop.  Penny stocks, mortgage updates, recipes, gloom and doomers, silver bugs, investment advisories, yada yada yada.   Yep, Aunty gets daily emails from subscriptions, and because of them, the number of newsletter and offers keeps growing.

Just a heads up to be aware that others will send enticing sales promotions to you.  Be choosy in what you do buy or subscribe to.

Aunty also affiliates

Aunty is starting to monetize her website, and Aunty also has affiliate marketing relationships.  However, the affiliate markets that Aunty has are those that are tried and true, tested and used by Aunty.

The google adsense ads that pop up are not of Aunty’s choosing but those are monetized by Aunty’s content and people clicking on those ads, and so far…….drum roll please………over the last 2 months……….Aunty has made…………$14.11!  It’s a start, thank you very much.

Future lessons about how that is going as well as more of Aunty’s journey into websiting will be covered as time goes on.  If you ever had an inkling or itch to start your own blog/website, just go for it.  Aunty’s “Website” page walks you through the process.  For less than $50, you can start your own blog without having to hire a designer/programmer/expert.  It will be a learn as you go experience.  In the beginning, just post content.  Later on, you can start to monetize with google ads or other affiliate ways and when you make over $14 like Aunty, please let Aunty know so we can celebrate together!

Aunty the millionairess

It will happen, and it’s not because Aunty sits around meditating and focusing on a dream board (Aunty still doesn’t have a dream board and lacks the discipline of meditation).  Warren Buffet, the brains and heart behind the super successful Berkshire Hathaway fund/company said, “Be greedy with others are fearful, and fearful when others are greedy.”  In other words, don’t necessarily do what everybody else is doing or says to do.

Instead, read, learn, listen, then form your own conclusions.  Determine your path and take the steps, one by one, inch by inch (“NIAGARA FALLS!!!….” lol – sorry, I digress).

If you have any questions or want Aunty’s take on something, please comment below.  Just let Aunty know in your comment if you want it to be private and Aunty won’t approve it for posting.

*[Update:  the manual is pretty good, lots of useful information.  The water filter that was hyped and can be bought on Amazon for around $20 is called LifeStraw.  The device that will repel people and animals is an airhorn, the louder the better.]

Closing Cycles = Wowza!

2013-08-19_10-34-36Aunty was going to title this latest post, “Closing Cycles = Zounds!” but changed it after Aunty looked up the word.  “Zounds” is an abbreviated version of “God’s wounds”, or a mild oath.  Not very pleasant stuff.   “Wowza” a better word in this situation, interpreted as surprisingly amazing or oh my gosh.

In this weekend’s seminar with Meir Ezra (review coming soon), we were constantly challenged to define the meaning of words – simple words that we all thought we knew.  Truth, Ethics, Statistics, Product, Spirit, Money, and on and on.  It was amazing how most of us were not able to verbalize definitions, or had a very wrong definition of a word in the data base of our brain.  An example:  do you know the meaning of the word “peruse?”  Using the Webster dictionary clarifies a lot of misunderstood words.

Another powerful insight that Aunty got from this weekend’s seminar was the cycle of action:  Start, Change, Stop.

I had heard it before:  everything in life has a beginning, an evolution, and an end.  Everything we do has the same cycle.  Every task, idea, feeling has that same cycle.  Example:  if someone (or you) does something that causes you to resent them (the start), the feeling in that relationship simmers, bothers, bugs you (the change), until you can either forgive or let go (the stop).  Open cycles of action are when you are stuck in the change phase – the simmering, the bothering, the bugging.

Aunty has a LOT of open cycles in her life

Because of this, Aunty feels stressed.  Uncle has far less, and thus, he is a very happy man.  The more open cycles we have, the more problems we have.

One of the exercises from Meir’s first workshop was to write down a list of all the open cycles in our lives.  In our jobs, we have daily, weekly cycles of actions that we must complete, i.e. send out an email to employees re: reduction in hours (start), think about, get clarification, push it on the side, or format the email  (change), send the email (stop).  Students have assignments (start), they do research, start typing, leave it until the last minute (change), they turn in their assignments or don’t turn in their assignments and get an “F” (stop).

Aunty did the exercise, but poorly and without intention.  It was not until this morning, when Aunty awoke, that Aunty really got it.

You see, there was a set of invoices that needed to be recalculated and go out to a customer for Uncle’s business.  Because it was a bit of a headache to deal with, Aunty buried it under a pile of papers.  This was an open cycle.  Granted, it was a small open cycle, but it was open and causing a problem  – we were not getting paid.  It was also causing Aunty to have anxiety because they had to be processed.

Aunty’s Wowza

You may think, “duh”, Aunty should just finish up those invoices and send them out.  Well, that makes you far smarter than Aunty because Aunty just finally realized that and took 10 minutes to complete the task, address it and pop it in the mail.

It felt SO good to close that paper sized cycle!!

That small cycle closing made Aunty feel terrific, and Aunty now has a lot more locomotive steam to tackle her other open cycles, one by one.  Some of them are also small (pack bag for trip), some are huge (downsize belongings).  Some are relationships – big constant weights on Aunty that will take some time to clear, but just by writing them down, the problem starts to go away.

Many cycles are not problems because Aunty is great at closing them out, such as paying off credit card balances every month before the due date.  The difference is that Aunty can give those a “Wowza!” each time they are done.  Closing open cycles makes the problem go away.

Your open cycles

Look at your problems, your hurts, the things that cause you stress in your life, and find their open cycles.  Sometimes it is a word said in anger that keeps eating away at your insides, sometimes it is an idea that you can’t stop thinking about.

Write down as many open cycles that you have and work on one of them at a time.

Turn your personal “zounds” into closed cycles and let Aunty know so that Aunty can “Wowza” you!!

No Money Down?

2013-07-21_18-22-39Aunty has never done a no money down deal.  Why?  Because it is very much harder and more sinuous (having many curves and turns) to do than a deal with money.

Most people that go to investing events and courses have a common refrain – “I want to invest but I don’t have any money.”  The lure of being able to swing an income generating deal without any money is strong, and the projections and testimonies of others that have found wealth doing this type of deals is very appealing to new wannabe investors that have no money.

Why do they have no money?

Each person has a different answer, but the fact that they are attending investing events is one of the first steps on their path to wealth.  It gives them an edge over all the other people who don’t have money and expect to somehow survive in the state of barely surviving without trying to improve their situation.

However, paying money to a guru with empty guarantees in order to learn “no money down” strategies gets them that much poorer or in debt, and less able invest.  Students are taught assignments, wholesaling, subject tos, purchases using other people’s money, forming partnerships, finding angel investors, borrowing from friends and family, etc.

What it will take to do a no money down deal

It will take time, discipline and determination.  Successful ones are those who are willing to put all their efforts into finding those rare deals and seeing them to their fruitful end over and above a lot of their competition.  Sometimes, in spite of great effort, some are not so successful, and as a result, have ruined relationships and potential huge liabilities for promises made and not kept in a deal gone bad.  Market conditions can be unpredictable, numbers can be skewed, trust can be broken in a heartbeat, and you could be in worse financial condition than when you started with nothing.

Very persuasive sales presentations will make it sound easy, that there are thousands and thousand of deals with many different approaches, and that a lot of people with money are chomping at the bit to invest with anyone with a deal.  Maybe there are a lot of people sitting on money, but if it were Aunty, she would rather invest it herself, or get into a deal that had a huge guarantee of payoff and security.

Using other people’s money or credit also means that your profit is smaller, depending on how the deal is structured.

What to do instead of no money down?

Use discipline and determination to save up some money.  This will take patience.  2 rules for wealth are spend less and earn more.  Sounds simple, but simple is the usually the best solution.

Once you earn more, you can owe less, and own more.  Meir Ezra gave that same advice for people who get a windfall of $1,000,000.  The first step, he said, was to economize.  The next was to pay off every single debt.  After that, figure out what brings income to you, and increase it.

Use your money to make money.  Rather than be the one that goes around finding people to borrow from, become a source that lends out money at rates that will compound your cash.  It starts off slow and then starts to snowball.  Be VERY careful of who you lend to, and what it is for.  Even a seemingly no-brainer of a good deal can go awry, and if it does, you want to benefit from that rather than be the loser.

In any case…

If you are in a deal that you are putting together, or a deal that you are participating in, make sure there is good communication.

Aunty and Uncle were in a no-brainer of a deal with a few other investors, and everyone was getting a bit hu-hu (angry) because the controlling managing partner was not keeping all of the players informed.  For awhile, it seemed like the deal was a pretty bad one because of poor accounting and a void of communication, and Aunty was getting riled up by Uncle who was getting riled up by some of the other investors asking him what was going on?  It turns out that everything was going fine, the project was a cash flowing solid piece of investment, and we were all on the same page of understanding once a meeting was held.  The rebellious confusion that was starting to brew could have been avoided in entirety had we all been communicated to, on a regular basis from the very beginning.

Vice versa, if you are the one putting together a deal, communicate, communicate, communicate.  The less money you have in the deal, the more you owe honesty and communication to your source of funds.

One day

Some people can easily put out a deal, or even just an idea of a deal, and have people waiting in line to invest with them.  If you are in that position, then congratulations to you!  That is a position that you need to earn by winning the trust of your fellow investors.  When you are at that point, always put their best interests before yours.  Under promise and over deliver.

But not for us

For Uncle and Aunty, we are like the turtle – slow but steady, using our own money and our own credit to get bank loans.  Fast and furious rabbits may reach the finish line faster using other investors’ money, but they may also fail faster and more furiously.

Aunty was like the impatient rabbit in her younger days.  Over the course of my rather long life,  I have “invested” in ways that were more like gambling than income producing.  I never sat down to add up all our losses because I knew it would be an ugly number.  It took years of going to trainings, listening to webinars, subscribing to gurus programs and getting lessons from the school of hard knocks before I learned better discipline.

One of the greatest virtues that I have only just recently gained is that of patience.  I used to always look for the spectacular and instant gains.  This resulted in lost opportunities to take decent profit because of greed or jump into bad deals.  During the last 4 years, I began investing in rental real estate, learned about options trading the safer way, and began building our retirement accounts with steady investment opportunities.

It felt excruciatingly slow.  No home runs – just a base hit here and a base hit there.  Occasional set backs were because of my old habits of shooting for the big win, and those losses were made more real by having them cut into the slow and steady gains that were being made.  Because of my new found virtue of patience, our up coming retirement is now very possible, and the wonderful and beautiful compounding effect is beginning to kick in!!  We are now on track to our retirement income and lifestyle goals.

If you have no money

Work a few more hours, get a part time job, find ways to generate additional income, read up and implement recommendations on how to save money.  One of the best pieces of advice that I have come across is by Mark Ford of the Palm Beach Letter.  If you subscribe (subscription is free!), you will be able to access the excellent article that teaches about 3 buckets for wealth – spending, saving, investing.  It is called “The Secret of the Golden Buckets” and it is truly golden advice for anyone starting off.

If you have money

Invest wisely, and grow your money.   Of ALL the newsletters, programs, events that I have taken, the Palm Beach Wealth Builder’s Club ($1250, refundable) is the platinum standard of step by step do-able lessons that are presented methodically and deliciously.  Rental real estate,  income for life premium, living rich, retiring next year, extra income project, how to start a business, and more.  The main contributor is Mark Ford, and he lives what he preaches, very successfully.

The main thing is that you take action.  To quote John Greenleaf Whittier, “For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, “It might have been.”

Notes from Genius Tour – Meir Ezra

Genius Tour June 14, 2013 Meir Ezra

Meir Ezra WOWed all of us.  His presentation was filled with so many golden nuggets of information, splattered with exercises of both the mind and body, as well as some pretty funny dirty jokes in his rather strong and charming Israeli accent.  When he comes to town again (he LOVES Hawaii!!), please go.  [Update:  Meir will be teaching again on August 17 and 18 at the Hyatt Place.  To sign up, go to The Genius Tour and choose Hawaii.]

Here are the notes that I took from this intense 2 day seminar.  Most of them are stand alone ideas that deserve time to absorb:

What do you expect from the seminar? If you don’t know what you expect, how will you know that you arrived there? We must define what we want.

Essence of genius is simplicity. Know the definition of words.

A professional is one who thinks it is simple.

What is truth? Exact time, place, form and event. Does not contain continuation.  A Lie is the opposite time, place, form and event, and continues.

People are ethically good. We are the worst judge of ourselves, so when we do something bad, we feel bad. When we do something good, we feel good.

Must understand the mind – everything you deal with are minds.

How do you find a purpose, how do you find what your purpose is?  It is your Fuel of the soul.  What is your purpose?  Write down your purpose.  Look up the definition of purpose.

Ideas are conveyed by sentences.  Sentences are conveyed by words or symbols. If you do not understand the sentence it is because there is a word or words that you do not know in the sentence.  If you do not understand the sentences, you will not get the idea. Your IQ is defined by the number of WRONG words you know.  Increase the number of words that you do know, and you increase your IQ.

People become criminal because of the number of words that they don’t understand. A good man comes across a word or symbol that he does not understand, which causes confusion, which causes sins. Once you go past a misunderstood word without figuring out what it means, your understanding goes away. The more words you do not understand, the stupider you become. Learn definitions of words from the dictionary.

The first dictionary was written by Webster in order to empower people to understand words so they have power and cannot be cheated.

Ethics – ability of the individual to uphold the moral code.

Justice – when an individual violates the moral code, the group puts force to get the individual to be ethical.

Moral code – a set of standards, laws, or rules that we hold ourselves to, based on our own group consensus.

If you have a problem, look at all the data of the problem in order to find a solution. For a problem to be a problem, it must contain a lie.  If something becomes complex, it contains a lie. Find the lie and you will solve the problem. Simple brings the result immediately. (Task:  change IX to 6 using just one continuous line *see solution at end)

An authority is someone who knows good P.R. Look at their result, by their actions, you can judge how they are.

Insanity is not being there – being in the past when you need to be in the present.

Spirit – this thing that knows. We need to clear false data.

Love is the flow of admiration and sympathy. Love is very close to hate, flipping very fast. Love can be used to control and cage. Use love to take the person to full potential, not cage or control.

The view point that you take defines your life. If you think you can, you can. If you think you cannot, you cannot. 99% of the people do not try, are not willing to show up.

Clever = ability to recognize truth. Smallest number in the universe is 2 = force, counterforce.

Greatness is ability to continue to love man despite all invitation to do otherwise. If you can continue to love them, no sorrow or pain. Handle the spirit, not the physical.

 

 BREAK – after we came back, Meir had us do exercises – squat against wall, push ups for men

Prerequisite for success is to become unserious, charging toward your purpose and be sure of your success. Success is ability to experience motion, as well as the ability to control motion.

What is seriousness – when interest is intense because of penalty. Attention is stuck in the past. I better do that or else something will happen.  When you are serious, you get slow and stuck on what you do not want – one always gets what his attention is on.  You get what you validate.  Look at the problem from an unserious point of view.

Child rearing. If they are doing something bad, ignore it (non validation). Every child has a job that they have to do – it is an agreement that they help – more than just chores, it is their job and responsibility. Let your children make their own decisions in order to complete their jobs.

Competence is the ability to do what you do when you are doing it.

Any area where you are serious about you are also incompetent. The past influences your present behavior to such a degree that if you are not aware of it, you cannot control it. A being causes his own feeling. Smile when you feel lousy. Force yourself to be the cause. After an impact you make a decsion – a resolution to act in a certain way “I will never do that again” = no-no because you have taken away your free will.

Whenever we do something wrong, rather than find or make excuses of why we did that wrong deed, just be able to admit that we are wrong.

Serious people are not serious because of what is happening now, but because of what happened in the past. To combat, look at data in front of you, not what happened.  Evaluate with what is in front of you – look at everything as “interesting”.

When you are serious about something in your life, you fail.  Measure by statistics, not by feelings.

When you make a decision, you feel better. Crisis is a moment of decision. People never lose their ability, what you lose is your willingness. Easy to ignite the willingness by igniting your purpose.

The less decisive you are the more emotionally bankrupt you are.  Stress is the sum of all indecisions.

 

Cycle of action = Start, Change, Stop.

When you start something, you also need to have closure. Exercise = make a list of ALL the open cycles that we have in our life. Do a target list with closure date, and take one or two a day. Stress is only the sum of all your open cycles.

Unluckiness is too many open cycles of action. Close the cycles.

If you have a past time in your life that “money is bad”, and you change your thinking and decide that you want money, you must go back to the exact time, place, form and event that you formed your original idea and eliminate it – it is not your current truth. Anything that you know about, you can control it.

Example with daughter relationship: find the point in time that caused the problem. The problem is that you want to be right all the time, so people do not change because in order to change, you must be able to admit you are wrong. Learn correct data to make decisions to fix problems.

Production is basis of morale.

Knowledge, Responsibility, Control work together.

Fear – a state of imperception, almost always true that it doesn’t exist. Getting info from what is in your past, not the present.

Power is speed of particle flow.

A person becomes old when they think they can become hurt. Being careful = being serious = slow.

When you want cooperation, align their purposes with yours.

Force does not bring solution.

When you are in a painful or negative situation, you are missing tools. You are good in one area, but the other 6 areas you are not good at.

Coaching – what do you do, what do you want, what else do you want.  Quantify with result of result and time.  Define targets.

Training is key for success = getting better results with less effort. If no training = growing upset. Beginning of any upset is an incomplete cycle of action. Usually upset because not willing to communicate or look at the problem. Get the ability to look.

 

AFTER LUNCH BREAK

 

Difference between a professional and an amateur

An amateur

thinks things are complicated and unpredictable

happy with good enough

frustrated – he is the victim, bad luck, etc

operates from fear (state of imperception – what you do not see, feel, hear), and tries to win

avoids risk – does not confront. When you don’t confront, it becomes a lie, it stays

loves to be comfortable

focus on the past (insanity-stuck on the past)

being the problem – everything is a problem

they know what they know and accept that life is like that.

focuses on present time and future while he ignores the past being the solution –

A professional

knows things are simple and can predict the results and time

happy with perfection only, no plan B, only plan A

effective, he is the cause of the good AND the bad – trusting your decision

confident and knows he will win.

Manages risk – confronts.

Ignores current comfort level for future, higher comfort level (price of neglect is higher than the price of discipline)

Professionals learn and improve continuously.

 

Mind thinking

The past is always different from the future. We learn continuously to learn from our past, then we go forward knowing, and then inventing new truths.

Exercise to show the mind. Close eyes, imagine a cat, point to where the cat is, open eyes. We all pointed to out side of ourselves, not our brains.  Thus, our mind is not our brain, but it is a series of pictures, millions of pictures that we have taken over our lifetime(s).  Our brain takes 20 pictures per second.  The purpose of our mind is to keep us safe.  Sometimes, it goes coo-coo or on auto pilot and thus we do things that are not good for us out of fear or past conditioning.

Logical thinking is ability to see similar things as similar, different things asdifferent, identical things as identical.

Analytical is ability to take data and compute with it.

 

TONES (Aunty thinks this was one of the most powerful and useful knowledge of the seminar)

Did you ever try to communicate to a person and communicating to that person was like hitting your head on the wall.

The emotional tone scale – 24 tones on a scale from 0 – 4.0.  People have 2 tones: chronic and social.  The people with tones on the upper scale are more productive and those on the lower scale will try to bring you down.

IMG_0674

 

The WORSE tone is 1.1 = covert hostility (hostile but they don’t want you to know about it)  These are those people who Meir calls vampires.  They smile at you but stab you in the back.  If you have people like this in your life, get away, stay away from them, for they are the source of many of your problems, downfall.  Traits of the Covert Hostiles:

  1. speaks in generality (always, everyone),
  2. finds the wrong source of the problem, makes other people wrong
  3. cannot complete cycles of action, blaming others for incompletion
  4. doesn’t improve
  5. has friends and associates who do not succeed in life
  6. are never sick mentally – only their children or their friends are sick
  7. when act as relay, will only relay bad news
  8. no sense of ownership, will take your things

(in Meir’s Ethics and Finance class – he will teach how to recognize these vampires)

People are operate at their own certain tone will not be able to communicate with others on different tones. Must be at same tone level or close to the same tone.  If different levels of tone, lower tone people will want to take everyone down.

If a person is below antagonism (low tone), you cannot sell them.  Low tone people will find anything wrong with everything.

To “read” the tone of the person, listen to their communication delay or lag. If there is communication lag, the person is in low tone, i.e. saying “I don’t know” or “I’ll get back to you”, or not answering the question.

To sell someone, you must be in the same tone as them to reach them, and bring them up to a higher tone.

Marketing

Most business do not need branding, they need marketing that sells whatever you are selling. To sell, survey your customers find out what they want.

Example of veterinarian’s business. Found out that people are upset about fleas and ticks, so put ad “FLEAS FLEAS FLEAS TICK TICKS  We kill them all. Call 1 800 kill fleas”.  Give mystery, and they will call.

Example of Sausage business: did survey: 2 most important: size of cases & grills well. Changed size of boxes, put “grills well” on box. New box sold 68 times more sausages than the standard. Tone of people who barbeque – very high – enthusiastic – used bright colors.

Use written, verbal surveys of the marketplace. If you know the tone scale, know the survey results, know the business organization.

 

DAY 2

Showed us pictures and asked what was wrong. Many of us invented what we thought we saw. We see a part of what is front of us and we assume the whole. When we assume, we are incorrect. To be able to observe without assumption is to be able to see what is really there. When we assume, we can be cheated. Our responses are automatic, but we must get off of our automatic responses and assumptions, but must raise our observational skills and really look.

All the pictures that Meir showed had nothing that measured data, such as scoreboard, control panels.

In business, you must have measurements at every time period of every department, every personnel.

 Start – Change – Stop  A robot does the tasks assigned to it. When you tell a person what to do and they do it, they become robots.

When you communicate what it is you want to have (the Stop), and they figure out what to do, and they become the person you need.

 Start is what you are/mind

 Change is the doing/body

 Stop is the having/product

A product is an exchange, and exchange is a product. Product is a completed thing that has an exchange value within or outside the activity. It is not a product unless it has been exchanged.

 

Exchange is giving something for something else.

Exchange – four types

  1. criminal exchange – stealing. Giving, giving, giving to friends and you don’t demand anything back is a criminal exchange.
  2. Partial exchange – promise something but don’t deliver exactly what is agreed upon
  3. fair exchange – payment for what is agreed upon
  4. exchange in abundance – give more than what was agreed – they will give you something

Exchange either flows or it is stuck. You can improve exchange in any one or more of these ways:

1 .quantity

2. quality

3. give more time

4. extras

 

DRILL write a list of everyone that you are in an exchange relationship with and look at what type of exchange you have with them.

Make a table:  list of people, what condition of exchange they are in, what am I going to do.

Look over the list, and give in abundance, i.e. thank you letter, gift, acknowledgement,

 

What is the product?

Must be able to identify the product in order to be successful. The product must be defined. Only if you can define the product can you measure it. If you cannot see or define what the product is, then you cannot achieve it. When you do not succeed, it is because your ability to name/define the product is missing. You can measure only if you define what the product is..

 

A product of a teacher = student duplicating the materials taught and uses it successfully to improve their lives and the lives of others bringing about a new civilization.  A good teacher cares more about the students than cares about the money. “You are important to me” is what reaches people.  Rather than “I am interesting” people want to know that you are interested in them.  To be interested, you need to be a professional and not an amateur.

A product of a business owner = viable expanding, prosperous organization with increasing money to owner’s reserves and a very well paid staff.

A product of an army = an opponent with a more ameniable state of mind.

A product of a husband and wife is a spouse who maximizes their potential and is succeeding in their life. Should not be caging of the other person.

 

Business Structures

People typically do a business structure with the Director on the top with different departments under it such as marketing, management, sales, accounting, legal.

Meir’s structure is a very LONG big chart of columns that is on a continuum – a cylindrical chart, like a barrel.  Steve Jobs got from E. Hubbard the cylindrical chart of 7 areas and Apple took off.

Every company needs 7 areas, even if the company is just one person.  The area that is the lowest defines our overall product. Shows what they need to produce and how to measure.

Everyone pushes to same direction so the energy is output, not input = no fighting.

7 areas of the cylindrical chart:

  1. Executive
  2. Human Resource
  3. Sales
  4. Treasury
  5. Technical
  6. Qualitycontrol/correction division (corrected organization and its people) income/# of people
  7. New public

 

Success definition: Achieving the postulated (self created truth) results or more of the desirable results compared to an earlier time. You become the CAUSE of changes, not the EFFECT.

An individual who is not working in life to remedy or to make better the actual conditions which he finds around him is not liable to succeed. And if you want a good definition of success, it would just be that: a person who can look around him and see what has to be done, what has to be remedied, what’s actual, and then actually can do and does do something about it. And that person is about eighty-four light-years above normal.

How does one know if he has achieved more, less or the same of the things wanted? By using MEASUREMENTS.   Every area of our life is measurable.

Without measurement:

  1. one cannot know who won
  2. one cannot know if he failed or succeeded,
  3. one cannot know what needs to be corrected
  4. once cannot know if change is needed
  5. one does not know what is right and what is wrong
  6. you can not have management even if one measures but doesn’t inspect, one cannot manage. It is here that we have operating on opinions and rumors vs. operating on facts, or you are guessing.

The universe is divided in two:

  1. those things that can be measured and;
  2. those things that cannot be measured.

In business, only one thing cannot be measured:  that which has not been done or produced.

A person who resists measurements:  1. is too unorganized and so has no time for anything and is already non productive, or,  2. is producing nothing of value.

Why do we need to measure our success? Without measurements we will make mistakes. Balance sheets are for the government – to show how much taxes we need to pay. They are not a true picture of success. Many businesses that measure with profit and loss statements and balance sheets show profit, but the owner has nothing in their account.  Meir’s system is a different way of measurements, formulas, specific steps to give an accurate picture of how the business is doing, and how to improve production and profit.

 

STATISTICS

The purpose of statistics is to maintain accurate and continuous visual (graphed) records of the activities of the organization for the use of the executives and board of directors in planning future activities and analyzing past and current activities. To help the growth of the organization by maintaining a historical record of that growth.

Get your statistics, and you will be able to improve.

From info, put into graphs, look at the statistics.  You cannot get the true picture just looking at numbers.  You get the picture when it has been put into a visual picture, i.e., a graph line.

 

IMG_0697

Statistics behave 6 ways. Conditions are states of operation. Each condition has specific steps, formulas in order to improve.

  1. Non Existence – brand new, bankrupt (very low graph)
  2. TheDanger – moving but not in control (not organized yet)
  3. Emergency – handle it and go to normal, don’t handle, can go down
  4. Normal – exact formula
  5. Affluence (very fast up)
  6. Power (affluence goes to new normal)

Affluence is most dangerous stage because many people cannot handle it.  Most people will spend and lose their money when and if they win a million dollars.  If you win a million dollars, first economize, then you pay down every possible bill, invest in what already makes income for you, find a new way of affluence and continue.  This then becomes Power.

Beyond Non Existence is a liability, not helpful, but bad , then enemy, then treason (betrayal after trust), then confusion.

You inherit the condition that you fail to assign or deal with.  In an emergency situation, you must promote promote promote. Use what worked in the past. Change your operating basis, get the employees working. Economize, find the cause of your problem.

Other ways for a business to succeed other than the org. chart, statistics, ethics and money, finance: 1) no ethics, cheating, 2) product is amazing (like Google), 3) unbelievable founder (like Steve Jobs).

When the explanation for lack of success does not push the statistics up, the explanation is incorrect.

 

The Source of Delays

Normally, the CEO shoots orders, the VP level is shocked/bypassed, and the staff does policy strategy from direct orders from the CEO. The CEO gets non compliance, leads to emergencies, leads the manager to want to know everything, leads the manager to stop the flow of production. Happening because of lack of control of the manager who blocks production, tries to recreate by themselves.

The inability to correctly manage workloads by staff and executives is the main reason for delays. The solution is to have a tool to manage the workload.

The purpose of time management is efficiency. Efficiency is minimum effort for maximum result.

Your power is defined by how fast you are. The more efficient you become, the more powerful you will be. The more delays, the less power you have. People delay because they do not want to confront. When you introduce a delay, you always bring about a problem.

The prosperity of a business is directly proportional to the speed of the flow of its particles.

To prosper, service must be as close to instant as possible. Remove delays.

Anything that stops or delays the flow of a business or delays or puts a customer or product on WAIT is an enemy of that business.

Speed of service is of comparable magnitude to quality of service, and where exaggerated ideas of quality exist they must become secondary to speed. Quantity before Quality.

 DRILL:  Write down all the places in your business where speed is slow – it can be customer service, issuing of quote or invoice, answering the phone, replying to emails, etc.

 Your homework is: improve the speed of all the slow points.

Why are you not as efficient as you should be?  Executives and staff lacking workable management tools. People don’t like a job if it has been assigned to them and they haven’t agreed to it.  Important to make agreements that all parties accept and agree to.

 

CONFIDENCE

Money is an idea backed by confidence. If you can create confidence, you will have money.

Idea – a formulated thought or opinion

Backed – to support by material or moral assistance or assured.

Confidence – trustful; without fear or suspicion, faith that one will act in the right, proper or effective way.

How do you get confidence? Meir drew a triangle. These are the component parts of Understanding.  Life is about understanding. Only life trusts life.

1st point is Affinity – your level on the tone scale, a scale of emotion, closeness to each other.

2nd point is Reality – level of agreement (I like this, you like this too)

3rd point is Communication – having your ideas accepted.

Confidence is reality. If you create enough agreements, you will have a sale. You need 650 agreements to get a deal.

To be successful in sales, you must learn to create reality. There is exact technology on how to get reality, confidence.

 

The next time that Meir comes to Hawaii, he will be doing a 2 day workshop for us, spending one day on Businesses and the next day on Parent Academy. His son Michael is a fine example of great parenting, as Meir, very proudly, showed us his graduation ceremony/speech to his fellow schoolmates at a school in Florida, with a curriculum program that you could only pass with 100%.

It was an awesome weekend.  Time literally flew and Aunty’s brain felt like it was exploding in different directions.  Wow.  Hope you all can be there next time.

*2 solutions to make IX = 6 with one continuous line .  1.  Add a “S” = SIX, or 2. Add a numeric 6 = IX6 = 6.

 

 

Gurus of Wealth

2013-06-02_16-09-10The best way to get wealthy is slow and steady, not fast and risky.   “But I don’t have any money” is the most common cry and stops most people in their tracks.  Successful people will find a way so they do have money to invest.

The following are a summary of programs/authors/subscriptions/methods that I have tried and my recommendations based on personal experience that are specific to wealth building:

Michael Masterson

Michael Masterson is a prolific author of many wealth building strategies.  I highly recommend his book “Automatic Wealth” as a blueprint of setting your path to success.  I have learned to make better use of my time using his 7 year/yearly/monthly/weekly/daily/hourly planner method.  The magic of his method is that it encompasses more than just the financial aspect of your life.  You will also include your health, personal life, social aspects, and spiritual if you so desire.  Michael writes a column on an occasional basis on Early to Rise.

Mark Ford

mark fordaka Michael Masterson, now writes on a regular basis for the Palm Beach Letter (subscription price of $99 annually).  He explained why he changed his name, and it really doesn’t matter to me because this man is a genius at giving valuable advice for wealth.  If Aunty could choose just one source to recommend for money, investment, income advice, it would be Mark Michael Masterson Ford.  Aunty just signed up for his Palm Beach Wealth Builder’s Club.  The subscription cost was $1250 for the first year, and $87.50 annually.  To tell you the truth, Aunty almost called to cancel when I saw the charge on my credit card statement during an especially tough month, but I looked back on what I had received in the recent lessons, and knew that this was the “club” that had the strategies, support, and answers that Aunty needed in order to stay the path to get financial independence.  Aunty will share in cliff note format what I have learned as the lessons are flying into my email box, but to truly learn from this best of the best, Aunty recommends that you subscribe because some of his recommendations are not what Aunty would do, but you might, and vice versa.

2013-06-02_16-14-33Hawaii Real Estate Investors Club run by Paul Xavier.  As the months and soon to be years go by of my investing growth, I have come to run the gamut of emotions about HiRei.  I first went there to learn about real estate investing and some of the meetings were excellent, some so-so.  The greatest value I have gotten from these meetings is finding fellow investors who are willing to share what they know, and becoming friends with these people.  I also learn a LOT.  Paul’s depth of knowledge is quite amazing.  His ethics are good.  Sometimes his answers are too abrupt, but they usually ring true.  Come check out this group that meets on the first Thursday of every month at JCCH on Beretania.  Annual subscription is $120, guests can attend a meeting for $15.  Dues and parking are collected at the door, so it’s not a freebie, but it is worth it.

2013-06-02_16-17-52BawldGuy Talking

Jeffrey Brown has a great blogsite packed full of great financial info for the baby boomer generation.  Based in San Diego, he sometimes sounds like a Canadian with a Texas attitude, lol.  Not only does he write insightful witty articles, he also has guest contributors with top dog credentials and information.  One day I am actually going to call him since he keeps suggesting that we do so.  If you have a few grey hairs, check out Bawld Guy Talking.  Smart financial advisor, always learning, great judgement calls.  If you don’t have a plan to get to where you want to go in your golden years, read his blogsite, and give him a call.  Let me know what he says.  If I call him first, I’ll let you know.  [Wanted to let you know that I called Jeff Brown today.  We differed on many grounds, but I must say it was one of the best 90 minutes (!) of conversation and communicating that I have had for eons!  This is a very astute gentleman, and if I were to do it all over again, I would want to have him in my corner as my coach, referee, and friend.  That being said, there may be changes in our financial picture in the near future.  Whatever happens, it has to make sense for Aunty and Uncle, and it has to feel that it is right for us.  Confucious say, “When it becomes obvious to you that you cannot reach your goal, don’t adjust your goal, adjust the actions which you are taking.”  Bawld Guy Jeff Brown is something like a modern day Confucious.  Someone worth paying attention to even though his current target market is Texas and mine is Las Vegas.]

2013-06-02_16-22-03Joe Taxpayer

Joe is a smart young man with a common sense approach to wealth.  www.JoeTaxpayer.com, Financial Commentary for the Average Joe.  Joe is on the side of people like me – he calls a spade a spade.  One example is his research and rebuttals about a mortgage pay down program, the Money Merge Account by United First Financial .  This MMA program costs $3500, an overpriced multi level marketing scheme.  Joe even provides a free spreadsheet (see his page – the first link is his excellent and easy to use worksheet – highlighted in green – his MMA worksheet) that you can use to plug in your own numbers to pay down your mortgage faster, and if you use the $3500 as an initial principal payment, you are already much better off than buying the web-based MMA program.  HOWEVER, now that we are investors, paying off one’s mortgage as fast as one can is not the best use of discretionary income.  Joe’s website is a good one though not biased toward real estate.  It is a middle of the road eyes wide open and geared to opportunity kind of place.

2013-06-02_16-27-56Raymond Aaron’s Wealth Creator Program

I heard Raymond Aaron speak at a recent HiREI weekend event.  His system on goal accomplishment was excellent.  As a result, I signed up for his Wealth Creator Program.  Not only is Raymond an excellent speaker, he is also an excellent salesman willing and able to share his best tips and secrets.  He invented the MTO approach to goals.  M is for the minimum level of a goal – what you can be counted on to achieve, T is for the target level – which is a stretch, and O is for the outrageous – what you are sure you cannot achieve (but may end up achieving because you will be on a roll!)  If he ever comes to town again, make sure you sign up to hear him speak.  As an example of his high level teaching style, here is an interview with Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad) that he sent to subscribers:  RK Interview.

I just started reading Raymond Aaron’s newest book “Double Your Income Doing What You Love”.  After a few pages in, I can tell – this book sparkles.  Its title does not do it justice.  This is one of the few books that are truly life changing.  I will write a book report after I read it.  Buy it if you can.

*Caveat:  Watch your expenses whenever you buy a program from a guru or mentor.  Some will sell you a program that allows you full access to resources/communication for a year, some will charge you fees on a monthly basis for a minimum of a year under contract – and these can be pricey!  Multiply what you are paying for on a monthly basis by 12 (months).  That is your annual outlay.  Ask yourself if it is worth it and you are getting value/action from it.  If it is, continue.  If it is not, discontinue asap if you are able to (READ the contract).  This was the case with Raymond’s program, and I also had to pay a foreign transaction fee on my month charges because he runs a Canadian corporation.

Kung Fu Finance

Kung Fu Girl is on a break, but her free blog has much to peruse.  I look forward to her new posts in the near future.

2013-04-17_12-03-06Robert Kiyosaki

Robert Kiyosaki was born and raised in Hawaii, but has left the islands to make it bigger and richer elsewhere.  I can see why – Hawaii is such a laid back place, not a place for someone who wants to move ahead.  Someone once described living in Hawaii as a slowing down in life – like walking through jello.

When Robert met and married Kim, his beautiful young wife, his journey and trials began, with the lessons that he learned from his “Rich Dad” on the island of Hawaii, as well as from Buckminister Fuller, and others.  He invented a game, wrote a book, got on the Oprah Show, and the rest was history, as they say.

It is Robert Kiyosaki’s books and his Cash Flow game that turned the tide in Aunty’s mindset and Aunty hopes to meet the great man one day soon to thank him in person.

Business Credit

I am learning about obtaining business credit.  This is important to me because currently our action plan to keep buying properties has hit a small road block.

The original plan was to purchase a Vegas property in cash (cash is king), cash out refinance the property to get the cash back out, and buy another property.  This was to be repeated as many times as possible until the cash supply dries up.

The problem occurred with the very tight lending policies of the banks, as well as a rather new rule of most major banks allowing a person/investor only 4 conventional mortgage loans.

Other options are hard money loans, angel investors, etc. but my first and favorite way to borrow money is with the bank.

At a recent BOSS Inc U event, attorney Rod Butters introduced the concept of business credit.  I, of course, had to sign up for the program.

Step 1 is setting up your business entity.  I use a Nevada LLC set up for me by BOSS’s Michael Bowman – a sweetheart of a attorney.  He is like a labrador retriever in human form.  Cute, big, and cuddly.

It is very important that the business looks and acts like a business.  Register with the State and IRS, which will generate an EIN number – this is like a social security number, but for businesses.  You will need a physical place and local phone number for the business.  Setting up a company website helps to validate your company in the eyes of the creditors.  BOSS did all this for me too, for a very reasonable fee.  They will do my annual filings and keep me up to date and on track because I pay them a small monthly fee to do my books.

Step 2 is signing up for some credit building accounts.  One that I never heard of before is Wright Express – a fleet card service which is a good way to purchase the gas you will use as you run around doing business related errands.  Another is opening a MerchantCard that reports to the different credit bureaus so you start building up your credit history in a good way.  Your credit will be based on the business, not your personal records, and, as Martha Stewart says, that is a good thing.

Step 3 is checking up on your business credit score if you have any, as well as your personal credit score.  Some business credit will use your personal score to determine your credit strength until your business can truly stand on its own and obtain lines of credit.  You will also sign up with Dunn and Bradstreet, and check out  Experian, and Equifax to see if your company has any credit records on file.

I still have Steps 4, 5, and 6 to go, and will keep you informed as to what I have going on as I strive to build our purchasing power with untapped business credit.

5 Star Rating and good Karma (credit)

Aunty was in a major pickle.  Major.  I didn’t even want to tell Uncle about it because he might get mad and make me cut up all my credit cards.

2013-05-10_20-56-48See, pal Cookie called to let me know about Wells Fargo’s stream line loans that refinance at today’s lower interest rates with zero points and $650 closing costs (that’s a great deal).  Aunty was in the beginning phase of talking to Kim, one of their loan officers, when “SMASH! ouch, OUCH!” – I get an email update from Credit Karma (great free service if you don’t select extra offers) that my credit score went crashing from 740 to 660, “WHAM!” because I was over 2 months late on paying on my Nordstrom card.

Having a delinquency on your credit report is like dragging around a leg chain with a big black ugly ball for 7 long years.  There are ways to increase credit scores (maybe another post in the future) but that delinquency will pop up in the negative column and NOT go away for 7 long years – and in Aunty’s case, that means until Aunty is 67 years old!

Normally, we pay off all our credit card balances every month.  For some odd reason, that Nordstrom card was noted as paid by me and put away for 2 billing cycles.  A letter in the mail from a Nordstrom Vice President apologized for any oversight and informed me that my Nordstrom account was way past due.  Oh oh.  Not good.  Aunty got on the phone with a Nordstrom representative and cleared the balance online immediately.

However, too much (I had late fees to pay), too late.  The damage was done because it was over 2 billing cycles late.  A couple of calls to their toll free number resulted in, “Sorry, we are not able to remove the damage.”

Never give up.  That’s kinda what I believe, so Aunty called the phone number on the Vice President’s “currently past due” letter and asked to speak to him.  The customer service rep who answered the phone was Garth – like in Garth Brooks.

Aunty explained the situation (okay, maybe I begged) and Garth said some magic words, “Let me see what can be done”  and put me on hold.

Be still my heart.  Wish, wish, hope, hope.  Wish, wish, hope, hope.

When Garth came back on the line he said, “Okay, just for this one time, we have removed the delinquency….” and a bunch of other great words, and “SHAZAAAM!” the leg chain with all of its weight came off, replaced with Hallelujah and mahalo, mahalo, mahalo.

How wonderful was that!  After the call ended, Aunty immediately sent of a letter of commendation thanking Nordstrom for having such a great employee and being such a great company.  [note from Aunty – please DO send off letters of commendation for people who make your day.  In return, you make their day in a really nice way.]

2013-05-10_20-50-485 Stars to Nordstrom!  They have lived up to their reputation and high standards of delivering excellent customer service.  They have given Aunty 7 years of cleared credit.  7 years of being able to get investment real estate loans at the lowest rates because of good credit.  This will save us thousands of dollars of interest qualifying us for lower loan interest rates.

Aunty is so happy, Aunty is going to go out and buy a celebratory something from Nordstrom, put it on the Nordstrom card, and pay it off right away.  Maybe something for Uncle, and then I’ll let him know about the credit disaster that got cleared.

 

 

 

Update:  Aunty’s credit score has bounced back!  It is funny how it took 1 day for it to take a dive when the delinquency was reported, and 4 weeks before the score was revised higher after the problem was fixed.  Lesson learned – pay everything on time, every time!

2013-06-05_16-37-58

Beginning “The Pledge”

IMG_0521Aunty recently joined the Wealth Builders Club (will give more details in a future post) and one of the bonuses of that program is getting Michael Masterson’s new book “The Pledge” in the mail.  I like getting a “real” book, especially if they are hardcover.  Somehow having pages to turn and paper to smell makes it of more value to me than an e-book.

I posted about Michael Masterson before – as the man with many names.  Regardless of how many identities he has had, he delivers, and delivers very very well.

Upon flipping through it to get a sense of what this book was about, a test on page 2 of the Introduction stopped me in my tracks and I knew it was something worth sharing.

The heading of the section was asking the reader how good is their life? and take this test.  The test/questions define the quality of your working life.  The questions are:

  1. What will you do?
  2. With whom?
  3. Where?

Simple questions which we already have the answers to right now.  You are already working or have a career or will embark on a career or path, you already have an employer, co-workers, clients, vendors, partners, and you already are somewhere.

Aunty then skipped to almost the last chapter to get the purpose of these questions.  You probably already know what the questions will evolve into:

  1. What would I really enjoy doing?
  2. Who would be the best person(s) to do it with?
  3. Where would I most want to do it?

This last set of questions do not only apply to your working life, but also your personal, retirement, and spiritual life.

Aunty isn’t the best of readers – finding time in the day to sit down and read is luxury time that I don’t have.  However, Jeff Olson in “The Slight Edge” prescribes reading just 10 pages of a good book per day.  Aunty can do that.  And when I am done with this excellent book, I’ll do a book report/review if it turns out to be as good as I think it will be.

 

Gavin Tsuda’s Tactics

Gavin’s 8 steps for small business leadership was in military speak.  He has used these steps in combat and still uses them today in all aspects of his life.  Planning parties, business objectives, investing – following these 8 steps is the recipe for success.  Although these seem like “duh, I know that already” because you think you know these steps, ask yourself if you actually implement them.  If you do, you are most likely to succeed.

Step 1 is Receive the Mission.  Decide what it is you want to do, what the problem is, what your objective is.  Think about the end state.  Remember METTTC – Mission, Enemy (competition), Terrain (area, geography, place), Troops (support people), Time, and Civil Considerations (customers).

Step 2 is Issue the Warning Order.  This is a pre-announcement to subordinates that something will be happening.

Step 3 is Make a Tentative Plan.  Have 3 possible plans or course of actions, apply the “what ifs” to each, choose the best one.

Step 4 is Start the Necessary Movement.  Give initial directions, start everyone on a process.  Whenever a task is given, it is very important that everyone knows the task and the purpose of the task.  That way your team understands why and can use their own initiative to achieve the result you are wanting to achieve.

Step 5 is Reconnoiter.  This is where you do research, checking things out, doing due diligence.  Whatever is discovered will either confirm or deny your initial assessment.

Step 6 is Complete the Plan.  Have all the pieces in play.  Designate the main effort – the person or team that will actually do the leading, and the others are support.  All orders start with “The purpose of the operation is…” then explain how.  State the end state – what you want to accomplish.

Step 7 is Issue the Order.  Give commands, write it out.

Step 8 is Supervise.  If any unforeseen problems occur, you need to be there.  Always have a contingency or back up plan.

After all this is done, you and your team will have charged up the hill and planted the flag in triumph.  Keep the plans and review them, reuse them if it worked.  Learn from the mistakes.

I can see why Gavin is so respected.  He carries himself with dignity and yet is humble.  If I were in his troop, I would charge when he gives the command.