Category Archives: Investing

Personal MBA

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What’s my Personal MBA?

What do I want to learn? What outcomes do I want to have here? 

  1. Profitable Business Building – I need to learn how to build a business. Identify a product, validate it, build it, market, sell, managing those businesses and owning the business instead of working on the business.
  2. Networking – I need to learn how to network. How to build relationships that I want to be in and enjoy the process. Surround myself with people who are doing what I want to do. Saying no to people who take me down. Doing a 80/20 analysis on those in my life. Taking courses on relationships (Tony Robbins), leadership and management (Dale Carnegie), speaking (Acting, Improv, toastmasters), and then putting the skills to use every day. Going to places and speaking for free
  3. Investing – I need to learn about how to invest my money, tax shelters, dividends, index funds, real estate, real estate law, rentals, rental law.

Why? (It’s important to have a really good why and remember it daily! This will give you the motivation to keep on doing this) I want to build wealth so I can live free from a 9-5 and support my family and my interests without the need to work at a job I hate for lousy pay. So I can travel the world without fear of losing my wealth or my health, or being detrimental to my savings and my life.

I would spend approximately 100k on a business school MBA. But from my time in school so far, I realize that it will not get me where I want to go. Nor as fast as I want to go. It is not dynamic, it is not flexible, and at the end of the day I do not want to be working 10-12 hour days with an MBA behind a desk crunching number to make a fraction of what I could make with my own business.

So then, What’s the plan?

Time is limited and I want to do only the things that matter. 20% of the work for 80% of the spoils. Yup, got it. But how do I make that call. I believe the just in time approach to learning is the key here.

Business Building

  1. Read (what are the top books and blogs I need to be reading and why?)
    1. Four Hour Work Week
  2. Take courses (Zero to Launch, Dale Carnegie, Amazing Selling Machine, and any and all smaller courses)
  3. Take action. If you would be spending 100k on an MBA, put 33k into building your first business.

You probably have no idea what to do, that’s okay. Everybody starts here. Just take one ridiculously tiny micro-step at a time. It will add up before you know it, but you have to start and you have to do. Less analyzing, less thinking.

I write my big goals down. Then I read them everyday. Then I visualize them everyday in as clear of detail as I can. Every single day, morning and night.

You have to guard against too much information. There is so much out there, and so much crap, you have to find one source and cut everything else out. For me this was Ryan Moran and Freedom Fastlane, Then with the Amazing Selling Machine course. Focus. Do.

Networking

  1. Get confident (take an acting class, and an improv class) learn to play a character and think on your feet.
  2. Speak in front of people (join a toastmasters class, and a dale carnegie class) learn to organize your thoughts and give a good presentation. I love adrenaline sports and so I think about public speaking as an adrenaline sport. It’s so much better!
  3. Learn how to manage your emotions (Tony Robbins), Read people and listen.
  4. Learn jokes
  5. have 3 stories to tell
  6. Have a business card ready and an elevator pitch ready
  7. Chat people up
  8. Learn sales (memorize the Little Red book of selling). It’s about relationships, and being likable and enjoyable to be around.
  9. Do a relationship course (Tyler Tervoorten sp?) has a great one on coach.me
  10. Go to conferences and meet
  11. Host dinners
  12. Go to friends dinners
  13. Meet at your ultimate frisbee team or wherever…
  14. Do a mastermind group
  15. Put 33k into going to conferences, meals, courses, books, outings and looking good. Appearance matters.
  16. Appearance Matters, build your personal brand, your personal person, think of yourself as an actor playing a part. What part do you want to play? How do you act, speak, present yourself? What is your persona? Learn it, do it, become it.
  17. You need to learn how to reach out to people, how to reach out to people where you want to be, learn how to ask good questions.

Investing

Take 33k and invest it. I would put 20k down on a multifamily house and get income coming in right away. Then I would reinvest that income into the house for tax reasons. For the remaining 13, i’d invest in dividends and index funds. Something that pays out and increases in value.

  1. Read (only these three books to start)
    1. Tony Robbins – Money Master the Game
    2. The intelligent investor
    3. Rich Dad Poor Dad
  2. Invest in multifamily real estate
  3. Join Wealthfront and invest through them
  4. Invest in index funds, then dividends

But I don’t have any money yet! Well, then you better get your butt to work.

Step 1. Get between 1-5k to start your cash flow business (fund product, marketing, shipping, etc…). Borrow (family, P2P lending, Credit Cards, friends, whoever), or get a better job and save to get the extra cash.

Step 2. Build your cash flow business. Get on the Amazing Selling Machine and follow the plan.

Step 3. Invest. Buy a multifamily and rent it out. Dividends on Wealthfront.

This process will likely take about a year or more to see yourself at step 3 depending on how fast you move.

To move faster you need to exercise every day, eat well to stay healthy and fit, meditate daily for focus, get grateful for what you have to stay sane and not get pissed off by trolls, visualize what you want so you get ultra clear, talk to your friends and family every day so you have a support network, take a day to rest for a few hours and dine with your family and friends (preferably daily if possible, lunches are great times to meet up if you still have a 9-5). Cut out alcohol, this slows you down and makes it easy to forget what you are learning and harder to visualize what you want. But most importantly, work on your business every day!

But I have no extra time! You may be right. I thought that too. But then I cut out TV and that gave me a couple hours a day. I woke up an hour earlier 5:30 am so I could meditate and visualize and work out before my job. I read and study on the commute. I use my lunches to meet people. It’s just a little bit extra (3 hours) and using slack time to study. But it helps, and it’s doable.

Suggested Reading:

  • Four Hour Work Week
  • Money, Master the Game
  • Intelligent investor
  • Robert Collier Letterbook (Copy Writing)

Passive Income Investing Ideas

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Here’s a list of Passive Income Investing Streams.

These all require capital. Do you already have capital? Great! If not, you might want to create a product and get some cash rolling in so you can invest it. Then check out Passive Income Product Streams

Wait… if you’re in debt, before you go investing, pay off your damn credit cards and high interest P2P loans. Student loans and mortgages are different (unless they are high interest) and should be okay as long as your investment return is higher than your compound interest rates on your debt.

  1. Multi-Family Rental Houses. You see an asset increase and you get rental income. Start with 2 family homes 1st (there is more red-tape on 3 families or more).
  2. Single-Family Rental home. Less lucrative than multi-families, but you still get a double dip investment here. The home is an asset and you get rental income.
  3. Dividend Producing Stocks – Another double dip investment. Low cost index funds to start, dividend portfolios next. Re-invest in more dividend producing stocks until you need to take an income. Earn dividends and have your assets increase in value. What are the taxes here?
  4. Index Funds
  5. Person to Person Lending – These can pay great percentages (10%+) but they are not secured and you could lose your money. You could also lose it in stocks…
  6. Private equity investing
  7. REITs. Real estate investment trusts. These are like owning a rental home but without the upkeep. Look for REITs in elder housing.
  8. Bonds – Government Bonds, TIPS,
  9. Annuities

 

Other important stuff.

  1. You are paying too much in fees and interest to your advisor. Even if they are through your own company. Use Wealthfront and get $0 fees for up to $10k. Then 0.25% after that.

Stuff I didn’t include because, why waste your time?

  1. Savings accounts. Less than 1%
  2. Going on a budget. Yeah, I’m already on a budget, that’s why i’m looking to make more money.
  3. Spend less than you earn. Duh!
  4. CD’s 2%… nah…

Also, Here’s a list of other peoples ideas for investing:

  1. http://retireby40.org/start-making-passive-income/
  2. http://www.financialsamurai.com/ranking-the-best-passive-income-investments/
  3. https://stefanieoconnell.com/the-best-investments-for-passive-income/
  4. http://www.goodfinancialcents.com/passive-income-ideas
  5. http://www.moneycrashers.com/passive-income-investing-strategies-investments/
  6. http://www.thesimpledollar.com/building-passive-income-streams/
  7. http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/011916/4-best-passive-income-investments.asp

What’s your investment plan?

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What’s your investment plan?

When I think about this I cringe because I know I’m wholly unprepared. I need to make major changes to make this happen. Changes in my income, changes in what I invest in, and changes in how I invest.

Right now, I work a 9-5 and have automatic deductions go to a 401k at 7% of my annual salary and 4% matched by my employer. So 11% total. According to Fidelity I need to be saving 20% to have the same type of lifestyle that I currently have if i were to retire at 65.

Well, I don’t want to retire at 65. I don’t even really want to retire. I want to have enough income coming in so I can live a comfortable lifestyle without (unnecessary) fear that it will all just go away. But more importantly, I want to build businesses, build products, contribute my time and energy to projects and people that matter to me. Having a 9-5 is holding me back from that dream.

Jobs can just go away. There is no loyalty in corporations anymore. They are always looking at the bottom line, and if you aren’t perceived as a contributor, then you are gone. I can always get another job, but I don’t want to have my whole income rely on a single point of failure.

401k’s are a good retirement investment, but those don’t provide recurring income necessary to live a quality life before 65. I still don’t want to wait to 65 to have some modicum retirement income based on a measly salary with a merit increase that is 3% short of inflation year over year.

Retire at 65? With a male age expectancy of 85-ish, that gives me only 20 years, and with mediocre health. No thanks!

So for retirement, maybe I diversify and get a Roth IRA. Pretax retirement investing. This is better because taxes are only going to go up and I’ll be investing with tax free dollars. However I trust that the government will find a way to get their fingers on that money as well once they realize they are not making enough through the 401k taxes at retirement age for my generation.

So what then? The prevailing advice to my generation (from generations past) is to get better skills and get a better job with better pay. Then save that money, and invest it.

But I have a family to take care of, and soon parents to take care of, and a mortgage to take care of, and then the costs of daily life, then if i’m lucky, i’ll have a little bit extra to take a much needed break from working my fool ass off. No, I need a better way to create income than just a better paying job.

There are three things that I know of that will do that. I’m sure there are more, I just don’t know what they are at this time.

  1. Thing #1. Build your own business. Preferably a product based business.
  2. Thing #2. Invest in multi-family real estate rentals.
  3. Thing #3. Invest in Dividend Producing Stocks.

Actually there are many more ways to invest here, but I’ve listed these three as they are what I think are my best option at this point for long term wealth building.

The Plan.

Step 1.0: The first step of the plan is to build a cash flow business. Selling Products is what I’ve chosen to do as they look to be the most lucrative with the least hassle based on my market research. I have done this with a small amount of success years ago, but I have not given it a focused effort before. I am using this blog as a training ground to test these ideas.

Step 1.1: Once income is coming in through products I need to re-invest that money into the business until it is producing 1m a year. I need to do this for tax reasons, as well as cash flow reasons. I want to be earning off of a 1million dollar a year business, not 5 or 6, 80k a year businesses. I don’t know how long this will take, but the internet tells me it can be done in one year.

Step 2: Take the surplus money from step 1 and invest it in a multi-family rental property. I need to research doing business as a rental business with an LLC. Taxing issues, how to re-invest business money and staying above board on my taxes here. Capital gains. Anything else?

I like rental properties because the property value goes up so i’m earning a percentage of the market, and rent is being paid. Rent goes up, property values go up and I’m getting passive income from the rent, and investment income from the property value. Even if the property dips in value, the rental market will continue in highly populated areas. The trick is to find those areas.

I currently own a 2 family home and have rental income coming in. This is nice because it is a separate income stream than my job. I can lose my job without losing my house. That’s nice. However being a landlord is not without its challenges. My plan is to eventually have a property management company take over this part. But this just means that I need to go back to step 1 and build a cash flow business to fund these investments and services.

Go here to see the economics of a house rental business. What do I need to know about taxes for a rental business? How do I purchase a house if I don’t have any money?

Now, Dividend producing stocks.

Step 3. The internet tells me that if I want to create recurring passive income and watch my investments grow, the next best way to do this is with Dividend Producing Stocks.

I don’t know much about how to invest in dividend producing stocks… Or what stocks to invest in. I’m still figuring out step 1. But, I will find out and have a list to share.

So, to recap. If you want to retire before 65 do these things…

  1. Build a cash flow business and reinvest that money into the business until you are earning 1million per year in revenue. Then you can pay yourself for step 2.
  2. Invest that money into multifamily rental properties.
  3. Invest additional money into dividend producing stocks.

It’s important to mention; you need to know what your number is. How much do you need to 1. survive, 2. be comfortable, and 3. have abundance. I just skipped over survive and comfort and went straight to abundance/growth because I did a comfort analysis (how much it would take to be comfortable) and know that if I’m making 1million a year, I will meet both my comfort needs and my growth needs.

It’s also important to have a very strong why. Why are you doing this? Listening to Jim Rohn, Tony Robbins, Dale Carnegie, and especially Napoleon Hill, have given me clarity in my direction that fuels my desire to achieve this goal.

Never underestimate the mental game.