What Are You Reading: 8 Rich Dad Scams "8 Financial Scams Disguised As Wisdom"

I was going to be doing the next few "What Are You Reading" posts about the book "Why "A" Students Works For "C" Students" but I left my signed copy on the plane when returning from Toronto. I have an other copy, although not autographed, that is currently lent out. I'm a little upset with myself for having left it behind, but I might just have changed someone's life forever, for the person who finds and reads it.

So until I get my other copy back, I decided to post about 8 Rich Dad Scams.

This is a short read and a free download on the Rich Dad website. It discusses the 8 financial scams that are disguises as wisdom.

1. Higher Education: Basic education taught from grade K to 12 is very important for everything that will follow in life. However, a college/university education teaches you to become an employee. If you want to be rich, don't count on school.
2. Get A Job: A job makes you work hard to make someone else rich and you will be paying the highest level of taxes. If you create jobs, and work for yourself you will get to benefit from the many tax breaks available.
3. Work Hard: Working harder to make more money will result in you paying more taxes. Most people work hard all week looking forward to Friday, only to be depressed again on Sunday at the thought of having to go back to work.
4. Live Below Your Means: Instead of living below your means and saying to yourself "I can't afford that", ask yourself "How can I afford that?" learn to be creative to make more money to live the life you want.
5. Save Money: Since the currency was taken off the gold standard it no longer holds its value. Putting your money in the bank where it will lose it's value will not get you ahead.
6. Your House Is An Asset: An asset is something that puts money into your pocket, a liability would be something that takes money out of your pocket. Based on those definition, your house is definitely a liability. In fact you should invest for cashflow not appreciation.
7.  Get Out Of Debt: Getting out of debt means that you have reached the plateau and you will not grow any further. But there is a difference between good debt and bad debt. Good debt produces cashflow making you richer. Get into good debt.
8. Invest Diversely In The Long Term: The problem with mutual funds, stocks and bonds is that when there is a market crash all of them crash. You are not truly diversify if all your investment is in the same vehicle such as a mutual fund.

Robert's believes we have been financially brainwashed. Our leaders do not encourage us to change or to seek ways to move from the employee mindset to the investor mindset. They teach us to live below our means.

Tools Of The Trade: Dropbox

I was in Toronto this past weekend for work with Rich Dad Education. When I travel I take my computer with me, so that if I get the chance I can work on it. My laptop is the one we used for the real estate business. Part way through the weekend, I received a text from my husband asking about the status of a few properties that he had received some information on. Unfortunately, I was quite busy when he texted me and I was unable to look up that information for him. He was at a standstill.

It is not a great business practice to have outside influences determine your level of productivity. Our business would have been better serve if Adam would have been able to access the database with the status of all of our deals.

This is where Dropbox comes in. If I had installed the Dropbox program to Adam's computer as well as mine and any other devices we use. I could have stored a copy of that database file to it. Instead of having to call me to look the information up, he would have been able to open his Dropbox application and open the file himself.

Of course there is also the added security that if anything was to happen to my laptop during my travel, all of my important files would be safely stowed in the Dropbox program.

Step On It: Step One, Buyers List

Have you heard the saying "Your Network Is Your Net Worth"? You may have also heard, "When In Doubt Wholesale It Out". Those are two great statements. As a real estate investor, you will in fact be more successful if you have a large network. The bigger your network the easier it will be to wholesale your properties that may not meet your criteria.

So it is only natural that your first step when starting to invest in real estate is to build your buyers database. It's not enough to just collect business cards. You need to get the contact information, as well as the fellow investor's type of deal they concentrate on, the area where they are looking to invest, price range and criteria. From now on, every time you meet with a new investor, ask these questions so that you have an idea of where they fit. Write those details on the back of their business card. Once you get home, add their information to your database, and send a quick email re-introducing yourself referring to where you met.

The best way to collect fellow investor's card is at network meeting, investment groups, advance real estate classes, and so on. The problem with this is that sometimes you will end up with a lot of sellers and not always a lot of buyers.

So where can we find real estate investors that are interested to buy. How about investors that are already owning real estate properties? One of the best way to find those investors is with "For Rent" signs. You can do this  in any area, doesn't have to be local. So since I've been looking into multi units in the Maritimes, having potential buyers in that area would be my best option, should I ever need to wholesale a property.

What A Life: Melanie's Dance Move

Kids always view their parents as old people, and their parents age is the base of when someone becomes old and can no longer do the cool stuff. Somehow we had gotten on the topic of dance move, and more particularly doing the worm.

When I told my boys I knew how to do the worm they of course did not believe me. So we cleared a patch in the living room and I proved them wrong. Priceless! This was a year or two ago, but today I came across a video Adam had taken of my mad dance move.

Rich Dad Radio: Bubble Bobble

Before I talk about this weeks Rich Dad Radio show I would like to mention the July 6th show. If you remember that particular show was about the Canadian work force, but I was having technical difficulties and was unable to listen to the whole show. So I went back and was able to listen to the whole thing. What a surprise it was to hear Robert Kiyosaki answer one of my question on the air in the "Ask Robert" section. I'm famous and didn't know it :) Well maybe not famous but it sure was cool.

This week Robert had Richard Duncan for a guest speaker. Richard is an economist and author of "The Corruption Of Capitalist", "The Dollar Crisis", and "The New Depression". The question Robert ask him was is this rally in the economy false, and Richards answer was "Yes". Although the stock market is at an all-time high (mainly due to the fed's wild money printing) but the retail debt, automotive loans, student loans are at an all-time high and so is the taxes on the income. The pattern of the stock market is seeming to be the same as it was before the 2000 crash and the 2008 mortgage bubble crash.

This week show was very interesting and informative. Let me know what you think of it.

Inspirational Corner: Daily Motivation

Motivation doesn't last. I know, neither does bathing; you have to do it daily. 

Every day you should work on your motivation. It's easy to lose the drive, to take a break. But if you do, it's twice as hard to restart. So how do you keep yourself motivated when you are starting to fade? Here are 16 tips to stay motivated and on track.

1. One Goal: If we try to accomplish too much at one time, we will feel overwhelmed. We will suck our motivation and energy dry. Concentrate on one goal and one task at a time.

2. Inspiration: Seek out inspiration. People who have accomplished what you seek to do or who are on the same path as you are great source of inspiration. Seek them out, read their blogs, books, or magazine articles.

3. Get Excited: That can be a tough one. How to you get excited when you lost your motivation. Well by seeking inspiration from other in tip #2 build on it. Visualize yourself and situation once you have accomplished and succeeded your goal. Talk about it and get excited about it.

4. Build Anticipation: Plan your starting point. Mark it on a calendar, plan for what your first actions steps will be and build the anticipation. You could just start today, but the chances are you would stop just as easily. But by building up the anticipation, making your starting date important, carefully planning you plan of action you are increasing you chances of success.

5. Post Your Goal: Print you goal, just a few words in big letter and post it where you will see it regularly. At home and at work. This will help you keep focused and the excitement high.

6. Commit Publicly: Nobody wants to look bad in front of people. If you share your goal with others you will be more likely to stick to it just so that you don't have to tell them you didn't accomplish it. But what a satisfaction it would be to let them know you've reached your goal and succeeded it.

7. Think About It Daily: We have started to accomplish that by posting your goal. Dedicate a portion of time everyday to your goal. Actively think about your goal and what you are doing to reaching it.

8. Get Support: You will be more likely to succeed with a support group behind you. There is no reason you have to go at it alone. You will be more likely to burn out that way. Seek out people who will support your goal and/or are achieving to complete the same one. They can be either in the real world, online or both.

9. Realize Motivation Will Come And Go: Motivation is like a tide, it will come and it will go. Be aware of this so that when your motivation is low you will know it will come back. Keep on task, continue to think of your goal and to seek out to your support group.

10. Stick With It: Do not quit. Even when your motivation is low but sure to keep moving forward. When your motivation is high go full speed ahead. Be sure to keep going don't give up.

11. Start Small, Really Small: The grand view of your goal may be so big that it will be intimidating and scare you off. Don't be overwhelm on all that there is to accomplish. Start with small task for now, and slowly grow from there.

12. Build On Small Success: Take the time to acknowledge your small success, and take that feeling of accomplishment and move forward with you next small goal.

13. Read About It Everyday: To help keep you motivation high read about the topic of your goal daily (books, blog or magazine). Be careful that what you read is positive and about your specific topic.

14. Call For Help When Your Motivation Diminish: The best thing you can do when your motivation is low is to call for help. Reach out to someone and get to the point "I'm loosing my motivation, help me out". Feel free to email me if you feel a slump coming on.

15. Focus On The Benefits, Not The Difficulties: Where your focus is aimed will have a big impact on your motivation. If you focus on the hurdles in your way over the benefit of overcoming them, your journey will seem harder even though the task to be accomplished would be the same.

16. Squash The Negative Thoughts With Positive One: Become self-aware of negative self talk. When you start noticing your inner chatter is negative, mentally stop yourself and replace it with a positive one. If you catch yourself thinking "This is so hard" replace it with "I can do this".

I hope these tips helps you stay motivated. One last advice, on your facebook page "like" Zig Ziggler, Robert Kiyosaki and Kim Kiyosaki. Every day they post motivational quotes and pictures. Might as well pepper your life with random motivation.

Good To Know: GoToMeeting Q&A Session

If you have visited my Up Coming Events page you would have seen the poster for the new up coming series Q&A With Real Estate Investors. Each session will be held every second Tuesday at 7pm MST. Space is limited to twenty listeners so be sure to contact me to register to each event. If you where unable to attend or that the session was filled before you could register you can also contact me for the recorded version.

My first guest speaker will be Shin Kawaguchi from Alberta. Shin was a Rich Dad Education student and as taken his new knowledge to secure many different real estate investments. He will be discussing the mind set involve in real estate investing as well as his background and real estate experiences. I'm excited to attend this Q&A session as there is a lot I can learn from his knowledge and experiences.

I hope you can join me in this first Q&A With Real Estate Investors and ask your questions to Shin.

What Are You Reading? Why "A" Students Works For "C" Students

I got my copy of "Why "A" Students Works For "C" Students, And "B" Students Works For The Government" by Robert Kiyosaki on his book tour.

Robert's books have discussed the mind set required for becoming rich. This book is more geared toward parents and grandparent on how to teach their kids on the concept of money and financial education. It explains why the school system does not teach this and why what they do teach is to have our children become employees.

I will be talking about this book in more details in upcoming blog. Read the book along with me and let me know what you think.

Tools Of The Trade: DocuSign Ink

Last week I was working an event in Calgary when I received an email from my realtor with an attached document that needed my signature. This document was time sensitive and needed  immediate attention. Unfortunately, at the particular hotel where I was staying did not have access to a printer and surely not a scanner.

So instead I used an app called DocuSign Ink. First is prompts you to record your signature and initials. Then you can click and drag your signature or initials to the area on your document where you need it. You can also add text to fill out the the blank document.

So instead of being tied to your computer during the closing of a deal; with the help of this app you could live your life and do whatever you please.

Step On It: Are You Getting Good Help?

I don't know about you, but my first relationship lasted much longer then it should have. In fact if we would have been honest with each other we wo'uld have realized much earlier that we simply were not right for one an other. But we tend to hold on and put unplaced or unearned loyalties in new relationships. As real estate investors, we must rely on a lot of relationship with many people. Our realtors, lawyer, accountant, joint venture partners, mentors, and so on.

Of course, we interviewed a few different realtors, lawyers, accountant, etc. or we were suppose to. Once we select one, a lot of us will feel obligated to be loyal to there services. If they are doing a good job, no problem. Carry on as usual. The problem arise when things start going wrong.

Now, I would like to think that if a major mistake is done by someone in our power team, we would all move our business elsewhere. The truth is a lot of us would not. They would provide an excuse and we will accept it. Giving second chance, maybe a third. The key is, when someone on our power team starts showing incompetence, we should take action and avoid having their lack of know how cost us any more money in the long run.

So how can we find out if our power team is competent. Well let's start by making a list of all the skills each employed individual should have and then rate them. For example, a realtor should be quick, mostly when requesting numbers and sending in offers. How are they doing? If by doing this exercise you realize that someone on your power team is not quite to par, you have three options. Replace that person with someone better. Teach and train that person to fit your needs. Or change nothing, the problem with this option is that things may just get worst as time pass and it should not be an option as all.

In the event of your mentor, make sure that the person mentoring you is actively doing what you seek to learn from them and that they are successful at it. They will have done mistakes along the way but if they do not learn from them, they will not be able to teach you how to avoid them as well.

Loyalty is a great thing, but it should not come to the expense of our success.

What A Life: Raj

At the beginning of this year my sister had her 30th birthday. She hated it. So of course, we made a big deal about it.

We had a surprise birthday party, Big Bang Theory themed. We also made it a costume party and I decided to go as Raj. I purchased dark foundation and drew on sideburns with my eye-liner. It really freaked my kids out.

It was a good time and my sister survived turning thirty.

Rich Dad Radio: Stage A Revolution

This week on Rich Dad Radio Robert and Kim are interviewing author Dave Logan, writer of Tribal Leadership.

In his book Tribal Leadership, Dave described the five stages of leadership.

1. Life Sucks: This would be the group of people that are so dissatisfied with life as a whole that their ethics are getting shabby. These people could be cooking the books, or other immoral activities. This would be 2% of the people.

2. My Life Sucks: This group of people have lots hope. They are 25% of the people. They are unhappy with the situation but they are also unmotivated to attempt any efforts to change the situation

3. I'm Great: This stage could be more called, I'm Great; And Your Not. This group would mostly be the specialised professional that have develop a sentiment of superiority to others. Lawyers, Doctors, Accountant and so on. This sense of superiority was formed in the school environment.

4. We're Great: Dave describes this more as We're Great And Your Not. Teamwork is strong in this stage, but it also as the us against the world. It's an environment of competition.

5. Life Is Great: They aim for overall greatness.

The book is to recognize which individual you have in your business and how to lead them to attain the higher stages. Tools and audio books can be found at www.DaveLogan.com.

Inspirational Corner: Katie O'Brien

Some of you may have attended the 2013 Fast Track Rich Dad Advisor Event  in Edmonton back in April. You would have had the pleasure to hear Katie speak. Katie is currently working with Rich Dad Education and is a Entrepreneur, Real Estate Investor as well as a Stock Investor as well as Gold and Silver.

Katie took her first courses in 2007 with Wealth Intelligence with Russ Whitney. Rich Dad was not yet integrated into Canada at that time. She took a more entrepreneurial approach and started a vending machine business. She increased her credit card balances every six months and regularly applied for new credit cards as she was taught in her courses to fund her new business (she is still regularly contacting her credit card companies to increase her borrowing power).

A few months later, she was asked to join the with the Wealth Intelligent Academy when they merging with Rich Dad. She took on a management role in the Preview division. She set her personal goal to obtain up to ten credit cards. She purchased her first home using RRSP for her 5% deposit, this property was meant to be her first rental but due to changes in circumstances she ended up moving in. She attended a quick visit to the UK were she met with "Women In Wealth". She was inspired by them and reassured that she was on the right track.

In 2009 she organized an interview with Robert to discuss Canadian economics to spread Robert's knowledge in the Canadian market and economic. During that time she was also dealing with Still's disease (a form of juvenile arthritis). She was equally scared of both the state of her health and her upcoming interview with Robert. She had been told by the assistant that she should expect to have 15 minutes of his time. The interview ended up lasting 4 hours. Katie was a long time fan and close follower of the Rich Dad Philosophy. He asked Katie to also interview him again along with Kim. He took the time to do this during the Rich Dad Conference in Orlando Florida. Katie was awed by Robert's and Kim's connection and bond to each other.


Katie has pretty much worked in every role with the Rich Dad Education company in Canada. She is guided with her motivation to inspirer people to grow and to be able to live the life that they really want. To see them overcome their adversities when they believe they can't.

Life is not about perfection, life is about progression and I am okay with not being perfect (her disease is presenting a lot of limitation to her physical life). In twenty years, you will still find me on the stage, still not perfect but I would have progressed. - Katie O'Brien

Good To Know: Why Everyone Should Have An Home Equity Line Of Credit

Today I attended an online webinar organized by Rich Dad Education. Their speaker was Jeremy Reese.

When he was younger, his parents where not wealthy people but lived comfortably owning their own home. His mother was a photographer and his father would develop them, running a business together. When he was 18 years old, Jeremy was in a motorcycle accident. Which was the cause of him loosing his leg. He was in ICU for 4 months. As where is parents, making difficult life or death decisions fighting for the survival of their son. During that time neither of his parents could work and the business went under. They also ended up loosing their home as they were unable to maintain the mortgage payments.

Now imagine the same situation if they had taken advantage of the equity they where slowly building on their home by having made the regular mortgage payments for years before the accident by having obtain an Home Equity Line Of Credit. Jeremy would still have had his accident and his life would still be in jeopardy. His parents would still have had to stop working and their business would still have gone under. But while they where unable to work, they could have resorted to the line of credit to maintain the payments on their mortgage. Giving them the ability to stay focus on the survival and recovery of their son. Lessening slightly their level of stress in such a horrible situation.

In these days, many peoples retirement plans is suing someone else. It as become a terrible truth to our justice system. Imagine someone is walking their dogs in the middle of a snowy, icy, Canadian winter day; and they slip and fall on the sidewalk in front of your property and they brake their arm. They decide to take advantage of their misfortune by suing you, the home owner. Off they go to their lawyers office and explain the situation. The lawyer seeing dollar signs all over their story approve of their case and decides to look into it closer. So Mr. Lawyer does a quick background check on you, and realize that although yes you do own your own home, there is a large amount against it leaving almost no equity. The dollar signs quickly vanishes and although he would still be willing to take on the case, it will now be at the plaintiff's expenses. Lawyer's are not cheap and the plaintiff may rethink his decision to sue. Even if the Home Equity Line Of Credit as not being used, when the lawyer does his background check it will still show up against the property. If that was not in place, the chances of the law suit taking place would be a lot more likely.

Our society is very scarred of debt. We have been brainwashed to constantly work of getting out of debt. When in fact it should be get out of bad debt and accumulate good debt. While unused, payments of a Home Equity Line Of Credit is $0. You only have to make the payments when it is in use for the amount that is used, and at that point it is interest only. So in Jeremy's case, his parents wouldn't have had to worry about paying off the Line Of Credit until they were back at work when Jeremy was home again.

As an investor, you can simply imagine how having access to this cheap easy money would benefit for closing on deals giving you a little more time later to either refinance or to set up arms length mortgages.

I hope you see the safety possibilities that an Home Equity Line Of Credit can offer. If you do not currently have one in place, I strongly recommend that you consider applying for one soon. Because if the occasion arise that you could need one, you will no longer qualify to obtain one.

What Are You Reading? Getting The Most Of What You Read

If you are following this blog, investing in real estate and/or seeking to become financially independent, the chances are you have read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. Perfect! Since you've read it, can you tell me what are the 6 lessons that Robert teaches in the book?

No? Huh.

Actually that is not a surprise, according to the cone of learning I had previously discussed on the post "Analysis Paralysis" we will only retain about 10% of what we read. Webinars, and seminars are a great way to get access to information orally and visually but for many of us, we mostly rely on reading books, blogs and articles to learn new things on real estate investing and other related subject. So in this post, I will offer a few tips to help get the most out of your books and hopefully be able to retain more then just 10%.

First of all, selecting what you should be reading. I will leave it up to you to figure out what you wish to learn about or which topic you would like to read more, but there is a lot of information out there and some may not pertain to your situation. No need to spend a lot of energy reading everything out there. This is where speed reading comes in. When you come across a new written source of information, scan it quickly. Read mostly the chapter titles or table of content. Is this information you wish to know more about and is it useful to you? If not move on. Our time is precious and might as well use it to further help us along. If it seems like something that may be of interest; do a quick scan of a few paragraphs, picking out and understanding key words and concepts. This will give you a broad overview of the information provided and that may be all that you need to know.

If the information, however is something that is worth studying in greater detail, I would still recommend that you first skim the material to get an overview of the subject. This gives you an understanding of its structure, into which you can then fit the detail gained from a full reading of the material.

Now that you are going to read written material you really want to learn, have a look at your environment. If you are easily distracted, reading in a high traffic area may not work well for you, you may want to find a comfortable quiet spot and read there. That is why I enjoy the library, they always have comfy chairs in quiet corners, or on the couch with a blanket once the kids are in bed. Also pay attention to your energy level, if you are tired, you will not be able to concentrate and just may end up falling asleep, if hit myself in the head many a times because of that and you end up loosing your page. If you are on a caffeine high, you may be too restless to sit down to read. The perfect set up may never happen and I certainly do not recommend that you do not read if you can not create that set up. But if you are able to, this may help maximize the quality of your reading.

Active reading will help emphasize the information in your mind. Using a highlighter (only if you own the book) on key information, or stick tabs to point out important passages, and taking notes as you are reading. Taking notes forces you to comprehend what was read and rephrase it onto your notepad (or if you want to easily relocate those notes at a later time, use Penultimate) making you reach the active part of the learning cone. You will retain 70% of what you say, taking notes is like doing a presentation to yourself.

When taking notes, be sure not to simply recopy what you are reading, this would keep you in the automated thinking. Rephrase what you have read in your own words making sure you understand the concept. Also avoid when possible the list making types of notes. Go multidimensional. Doodle graphs and charts, refer to certain areas of your notes with arrows. Try to use the half side of your page when your taking notes so that you have room to go back and further explain certain parts. I came across an article describing a technique called Mind Maps that puts those ideas to use.

The last point I will bring up is, be judgmental on what you are reading. In the real estate world there are a lot of different opinions on which is the best techniques. Some information that will be provided to you will be opinions but can be delivered as if a fact. Just because it is written down, it does not make it true. Think for yourself and form you own opinion.

Tools Of The Trade: Penultimate

I once attended a real estate investing group meeting. It was a great meeting to attend. Perfect opportunity to network and they had a few different guest speakers that provided great information. One speaker stood out to me more then the others. Not because the information he provided was so much better but because he started his presentation explaining that he would be providing handouts of his presentation and to not worry about taking notes and just sit back and listen. No sooner did he start his presentation that he would urge us to write stuff down and request we take notes of different things.

I was not prepared to takes notes. I hadn't brought pen and paper with me. Oops. So I started using my phone's note pad app. It worked okay, but it's not quite the same as when I take hand written notes. I colour code them using multiple pens, use arrows or doodle. There is just more freedom with hand written notes.

But there is also a problem with taking hand written notes at meetings or webinars. Those notes tends to spread out. Later on, when I want to review my notes on Lease Option for say (which I was trying to do this past week) It was very hard to find the right set of loose paper or notebook that held my notes. In fact I never did find them.

This is where Penultimate comes in. In this app you will have a virtual notebook that you can title to what ever you would like. So the title of the course you are taking, the date and name of group of a meeting you are attending, etc. You can create as many notebooks as you wish. Once you tap on the notebook you wish to work on, it opens and shows either lined paper, or graph paper or which ever type of paper you have selected. A few different choice are free with this app but if you wish, you can purchase additional paper kits that may better suit your needs like music paper maybe. You can also select the "pen" colour you wish to use as well as the width of the line. There is also an undo/redo button and an eraser. Obviously this app would be better suited for a larger device like the iPad and should be used with a stylus.

This is an app that coordinates with the Evernote app I mentioned in my last weeks post. With Penultimate I can keep my virtual notebook all available on that app as well as on Evernote. Which means at a later date I can access those notes from any device (phone, iPad, Computer) that is connected to my Evernote account. Can you see the possibilities? If I had been using this app for the courses and meeting I have attended, I would know exactly where my notes on lease option would be.

This is an amazing app that I think you should add to your collection of real estate tools as well as everyday life.

Step On It: Routine & Repetition

Today I went to Chuck E Cheese with the boys. As always they had a blast and as always I spent way too much on tokens and crappy pizza. But it's all part of the fun and we make sure to make it a periodic at best trip. It's a treat.

While I was there, a man was playing on the arcade game named Skee-Ball. It's kind of like bowling were the ball will land in different holes which are places strategically. The smaller hole that award the most point is the smallest in the most hard to reach  spot. The points awarded varies from 1000 to 10,000 depending on the hole the ball lands in. If your total score was above 43,000 points; you would get a hundred tickets that can later be redeemed for toys.

This man would put in his tokens and sets himself up and would proceed to throw each ball at the same angle in the same manor and at the same speed, to the best of his ability. Over half of the ball he threw would land in that 10,000 hole. Impressive!!! Having played this game when I was younger I can admit I have NEVER gotten a ball in the high score hole. I would have taken a video to show all of you, but it is my experience that strangers do not appreciate random people taking videos of them.

This man perfected his technique until he was able to get his ball into the 10,000 hole. Once he figured that out, he repeated the same process again and again and again, getting the desired result again and again and again. We both, from the look of it spent, the same absurd amount of money on tokens today. But he ended up with a lot more tickets then we did. Now I am not jealous, those tickets gets exchange for toys that can be easily bought at any Dollar Store for a fraction of the money that we spend on tokens.

I'm mentioning this in this post to discuss the power of routine and repetition. A month or so ago I posted about creating a system. Once that system is in place, maintaining it with a steady routine and repetition will ensure that you constantly get the desired effect and success. Once it become a habit, and the more practice you get at it; it becomes second nature and the results become easier to obtain.

Ok simple, create a routine, form a new habit. Right!  Easy for me to say.

Well here are some tips from the research I did. By now, if you have followed the recommendation from my post, create a system, you have a good idea of needs to be done.

Now you need to decide on timing. Most people have greater energy for creative thinking in the morning since self controls depletes as the day wears on. This would be the time of day you want to dedicate to critical thinking tasks and trouble shooting.

Midday tends to be when the energy and coffee high dissipate. This would be the time of day to designate to boring routine stuff. Answer emails, file, data entry or even run errands.

Evenings is where you would plan for the next day. Create your to do list, complete the get ready tasks for the morning (lunches, lay out clothes, etc), and declutter for a fresh start in the morning.

Now if you are a night owl, of course you would rearrange your timing to fit your need. The same for other activities that may take president, work, family time and so on.

It takes 21 days to make or brake a habit. That means for 21 days, when establishing a new routine, your old routine is fighting you. It WILL be uncomfortable. Start small, commit to your new routine for 4 days. Everyone can commit for 4 days. On day 5 evaluate what you have done, how is the process working out. Then make an other commitment, this time for a week. Now it's been 11 days. By this time you should start seeing progress towards your goals. Things should be starting to come together. Make an other commitment for an other week. 18 days down now, only 3 to go to make this new habit permanent. At this time, evaluate the life style. Is this something that is working out for you? Is it still a struggle to commit and stay motivated? If so, you may need to consider if this is really the life style for you. If your why is clear and strong enough, the thought of the next three days and beyond are not even on your mind.

Well good luck with implementing this new routine. Wish me luck as well as I do the same.

What A Life: Hay There

Well I hope your summer is going well and that you are taking advantage of the nice weather. The boys and I have been having a few picnics at the park after their swimming class and a few trips to the local skate park. So far, they do not seem to be missing school.

Adam is getting pretty busy with farm work since it is haying season. The hay we harvest goes towards feeding our cows during the winter. So the more hay bales we get, the better. It's a bit of a stress when winter is still going strong but the hay is all used up. So I would say it's a pretty important time for the farm.

For you guys out there who did not grow up on a farm (like me) there are really four stages to haying season. Cutting, drying/raking, baling, and moving. So first we have to cut the hay. This is what Adam is doing in the picture. Then the hay needs to dry, in this stage we rake the hay when and if necessary to dry the other side or to combine rows together to make the bailing process easier.

Then it's baling time, the hay gets rolled up into big hay bales ready to be used when we need them. The final stage is moving them. They need to be stacked together in an area that will be convenient to grab when feeding the cow without been accessible by the cow. Because otherwise the cows will eat them. You'll be amazed how far a cow can reach through a barb wire fence. So the bales can not be too close to the fence either.

So there we go, haying season. This is probably also the time of year where we are the most vulnerable to mother nature. The weather will dictate when it is time to hay. The rain will stop your progress. Hay doesn't dry well in the rain ;)

So if you are a fellow farmer, I wish you a good haying season. If not, enjoy your summer and pray for dry warm weather.

Rich Dad Radio: Technical Difficulties

I was pretty excited about the Rich Dad Radio this week. Robert is visiting in BC and he's discussing Canadian issues. He was shocked at the amount of people that complained about the lack of work available. As a guest, he had someone from Shale Oil discussing position they have open seeking employees. They also discussed the high level of pay. But a high paying job isn't enough you also need to .......

Yup that's when I got the technical difficulty. For some reason the episode will not load past this stage for me.

So hopefully this problem is only with me and my internet connection. Or that it is fixed soon.

Inspirational Corner: Misook

I was thinking of what I wanted to post about for today. So I thought to myself, what inspire me? and then it was clear. My classmates! Other Rich Dad students. Keeping in touch with them, rejoicing in their successes and learning from their hardship is one of my biggest motivation. There are a few who's story have been truly inspirational for me.

Such a person is Misook. She moved to Canada from Korea in 1998. She didn't know the culture, and very little of the language. Her determination and hard work as made her thrive regardless. By the year 2000 she bought her own home. She was telling about that experience one day; she didn't have credit in Canada. The money she made from her work she kept in cash or sent home to help support her family back in Korea. She was determined to buy the house and when from bank to bank until a bank manager kindly took her under her wing. She explained to Misook that firstly she should not be walking around with so much money in cash and sent her to a "B" lender.

I can imagine that the interest was astronomical but Misook was proud that she had bough her first home. That is something that some Canadians will never accomplish in their whole life. I didn't know Misook back then but I am also proud of her for that accomplishment. Later on she sold her property and bought a new house in Sylvain Lake in 2005.

She signed up with Rich Dad Education in April 2012. Took her first course in May. In the first seven months she attended eight courses. Looking back now, she admits that it may have been too much too fast and if she was to do it again she would probably give herself more time in between.

She took the lease option course in October of 2012 and had her first deal set up in December of that year. That's amazing!!! She as been concentrating on lease option/rent to own ever since been active in finding tenant buyers and placing offers. In fact she was sending in an offer just today.

I feel I should mention that Misook is not going at this alone. Her husband, Jon, as been supporting her in her education and lease option business all along. They make a great team and I consider myself very lucky to be able to consider them both friends.

If you wish to know more about Misook's rent to own business, please contact me and I will forward you her information.

Good To Know: Private Money

If you have been a blog follower, you may know that I recently changed jobs. Yes I still have a J.O.B. although I must say working with Rich Dad Education is providing me with access to great information and great people for real estate investing. But due to my change of employment, we didn't qualify for a traditional mortgage on our last deal and had to resort to private money. So I decided to post about Private Money and Hard Money Lenders this week.

There are a few ways of borrowing money for acquiring real estate.

• Institutional -> "A" Lenders
• Non-Institutional -> "B" Lenders (not banks but almost)
• Private Lenders -> Individuals with money or access to low interest money (ex: borrow at 3% and lend it at 12%)

Typically when using a private lender you should expect for the interest rate to be higher. 7% up to 25% depending on the risk of the loan.

• 7% -> First position mortgage for someone who almost qualifies for a traditional mortgage
• 10% -> Second position mortgage set up behind a traditional mortgage
• 10-15% -> For individuals who do not qualify for a traditional mortgage (ex bad credit)
• 15-25% -> Bail foreclosure loan - High Risk (Most lenders offering these loans are not really expecting for the home owner to be able to keep up with this high interest loan. This loan is mostly used as an entry to acquire the property at a significant discount. It's really setting up the home owner for failure but I suppose getting foreclosed on is also a failure.)

So why would we use private money or hard money lenders if the interest rates are so much higher? Well, the bank have seriously narrowed who they will lend to. Making acquiring properties, mostly for real estate investing, more difficult. You may not be able to get a traditional mortgage if:

• Your credit score is less then 600
• Unable to prove income sufficient for loan (banks will only count 50% of rental revenue)
• High credit card debt (debt / service ratio)

In fact, it may be somewhat easy to acquire the first couple of rental properties, but for the next few, is almost guaranteed that it will have to be through private money. Keep in mind, a hard money loan should be considered as a temporary solution. In most cases the term will not be more then a year.

Taking aside the high cost of money with private money there are also very good features with borrowing privately.

• Criteria to get a loan are lower
• Lender is a person not an institution (terms or changes down the road will be more flexible)
• Commercial lending is simplified
• Loan will take in consideration the details and value of the property as oppose to your personal situation.

In larger commercial deals, it may be easier to get a mortgage from an "A" or "B" lender but chances are that they would only finance a relatively small portion of the value of the property. 50 to 60% for an "A" lender. In this situation, you can couple this mortgage with other form of lending. VTB or vendor take back, where the seller agrees to hold on to a portion of the mortgage (this will normally be from the equity in the property). And of course Hard Money lenders. In almost all of these circumstances, the lenders will require that a portion of the price of the property is covered by you directly, normally 5 to 10% of the purchase price. There are some ways to minimize if not eliminate that amount, but that will be for an other post.

Have you considered becoming a Hard Money Lender? Ask yourself this, are your investments providing at least 7% return and are they secured? The financial market have shown in the past 12 years 3 drops of 50%. That not only effects your return on your investment but it affects the principal of your investment. You come out of it with even less money then you went in with. It is very unlikely that you will lose your principal when investing in Hard Money loans. One of the disadvantages with becoming a hard money lender is that it is not truly a source of passive income. And you will only be bringing in money for the term of the loan, after which you would have to set up an other loan. But unlike having Buy/Rent/Hold properties, you are not affected by the tenants or vacancies when you are the hard money lender.

There are a few ways of becoming a hard money lender. You can develop your own relationship with real estate investors and provide them with a loan when they require it. You can still evaluate the deal and decide if you wish to invest of not. But with this method you may not get access to very many deals although you would form a good relationship of the investor and get a good sense of if they are good investors after some time. This would also be a great way to set up arms length mortgages with your RRSP.

You could join a mortgage investment corporation. This special form of corporation can lend money but the income and expenses is taxed with the lender. This will give you the advantage of having your money pooled in multiple mortgages as opposed to be tied up to just one mortgage. Keep in mind new legislation are coming into effect regulating these types of corporations. They will be less profitable in the upcoming future and be handled more like mutual funds.

You could also get in contact with a mortgage broker. In fact when selecting a mortgage broker from my power team, I always ask if they have access to private money. A mortgage broker will come across many investors and many lending opportunities. They would also take care of all the advertisement and screening for potential borrowers. Once you are presented with a real estate investment deal from a broker, be sure to do your own due diligence. Evaluate the deal, and verify the value of the property as oppose to the asking price. You would probably need to have over $300K in money available to loan for this option.

Well I hope this post as shed some light on hard money lending, and have made you more comfortable in using them or providing them.

What Are You Reading: Books To Read

Well, I ran out of books to talk about on here or ones that I have read. The truth is, I've been reading different novels that have been just for fun. And although I'm sure you would love to know more about various romance novel, this is simply not the blog for it. I've also got some more pertinent books on the go but I'm not finished yet.

I'm getting very excited about Why "A" Students works for "C" Students, and I cannot wait to do my review on it  but, I want to get all the information from that book first, and I'm only on the first few chapters.

So today, I decided I would share my list of books that I wish to read and those that as been recommended to me.

• Slight Edge - Jeff Olsen: Secret to a successful life
• Power of Yes - David Hare: A dramatic seeks to understand the financial crisis
• Why "A" students works for "C" Students - Robert Kiyosaki: How to give your child a financial head-start without given them money
• Blink - Malcom Gladwell: The power of thinking without thinking
• Tipping Point - Malcom Gladwell: How little things can make a big difference
• Outlier - Malcom Gladwell: The story of success
• The Wealthy Barber - David Chilton: The common sense guide to successful financial planning
• Getting Past No - William Ury: Negotiating your way from confrontation to cooperation
• The 4 Hour Work Week - Timothy Ferriss: Escape the 9-5, live anywhere and join the new rich
• 401(K)aos - Andy Tanner: How our dream of retirement became a nightmare of chaos
• Positive Personality Profiles - Robert Rohm: D-I-S-C-over personality insights to understand yourself... and others!

Well there you have it, my list. If you have read some of this, I would love to know what you think of them. Or if you have other books you would recommend, I would love to add them to my list.

Tools Of The Trade: Evernote

This past week, while surfing the TV with the kids I came across a TV segment called App Centre. Through them I came across an App called Evernote. Seemed like something that could have been of use so I installed it.

Imagine, having access to your notes, to do list, documents on all your device. Phone, Ipad, and your laptop. Not only can you view them from every device but you have access to them and you can modify, or create from anywhere with any of your devices. Wow! I'm putting this App to the test. You should too. There is so much more it can do.

Step On It: Procrastination & Distractions

We are in the middle of summer break now and I don't know about you but with the kids at home, the nice weather outside, and to top it off a trip to the library and bunch of new books to read; my attention is not staying on the proper task at end. Distractions are abundant and I'm procrastinating my little heart out.

So I decided for this blog to research ways to keep on track and to share it on here for my fellow procrastinators. Here are the keys I've come across.

1. Set Achievable Goals: Take the to do list, if you don't have one put together yet, create your to do list. Now break it down. For example on my list I have do the bookkeeping for the Inc's and the farm, To break it down I can have for different task; sort the receipts, sort the invoice, scan bank statements, etc. Now focus on the daily task. You can only work one day at a time.

2. Attain Solid Focus: Set a specific amount of time for a task, small enough that it can be accomplish without stopping. Before you do this, make sure everything else that could interrupt is taken care of. In my case that would be to make sure that my kids are fed (if near meal time) and entertained and that the kitten is also fed. Then go at it. For example, I could say for the next 60 minutes I will work on the research for my next post on this blog. Have a specific schedule, include break times.

3. Proper Motivation: Once works fall in priority it can become a chore, and we lose interest altogether. You can try to keep yourself interested by challenging new ideas for your work. But some important task are simply boring to do, but they still need to be done. In that case try to find motivation to complete a task that is uninspiring by setting up a reward after it is accomplish. For example, after I finish sorting through all the receipts I will ... read the next chapter in my book... have a snack... play a quick game on the computer. Whatever it is that will motivate you.

4. Get Plenty Of Sleep: If you are running on no sleep, distraction will seem more soothing for the tired mind. Being sleepy is it's own form of distraction. You will not be able to stay focus and on task if your eyes keep closing. When you know you have a day that you want to dedicate to work, turn in early the night before.

5. Unplug: Stay offline. There is nothing more distracting then facebook and email. Mostly since they beep at you to get your attention. It is amazing the amount of time that can be lost checking status updates. It's not enough to simply say "I just won't check it for a little while". Close the window, you can sign on again when the task is completed. In fact that could be your reward for motivation.

6. Share Your Progress: One way to keep yourself focused and highly motivated to complete your task if to commit to sharing your progress with others. Do this with someone who is doing the same thing as you so you can report to each other. You wouldn't want to have nothing to report. Also keep your crossed off to do list. Then you have the visual of your accomplishment as you cross something off your list. It's highly rewarding to draw a line across something that is finally done. And the list doesn't lie. Now I spotted my husband to do list once and the first thing he crossed off was "Write Down To Do List". :)

7. Isolation: Cut off the distractions. Sometimes it's from yourself with lack of focus, sometimes it's the other things you would rather be doing but when the distraction are coming from other people trying to get your attention or just catching your attention, isolation is key. Close the door to your office, put up a sign that says "do not disturb" or "disturb for emergency only". That is what I do with my kids, once I know all their immediate needs are taken care of I explain that I need to work and will be closing my door. They are not to open it unless then for an emergency. It will take a few tries to understand what is considered an emergency but overall they seem to get it. If isolating yourself in an office is not a possibility I would recommend you do it with headphones. Play something that is not too engaging, something that is easy listening. If you find yourself signing along or getting up to dance, it's not the right selection.

I invite you to start implementing these tips along with me and see if we can get our daily To Do lists cleared up.