Good To Know: And/Or Assign, Your New Name

Good for you, your out there, putting out offers on properties. Maybe you are not at that stage yet. Regardless here is something you should know. Your new last name is now "and/or assign". I used to be Melanie Barr but I am now Melanie Barr and/or assign.

When placing offers on properties, having a contract in your name and/or assign give you possibilities. You can later transfer the contract to any corporation or person of your choice. I deal a lot with corporation, and at the time of the offer, the corporation may not yet be in place. The and/or assign allows me to later transfer the contract into that new corporation.

Maybe you have a property under contract but for whatever the reason you are unable to close on it. By having used the and/or assign you are now able to transfer the contract to someone else name and wholesale the deal.

So be proud of your new last name and use it in your contracts.

What Are You Reading: Who Took My Money?

Who Took My Money? Why Slow Investors Lose and Fast Money Wins!
by Robert Kiyosaki

If you have, lets say, $10,000 to invest. Where should you invest it? Simple question, unfortunately the answer is not as easy. For one, you would have to take in consideration your comfort level and time commitment. The problem is, you may not like the answer. If you are currently investing in mutual funds. It as been my experience most people would like to get a specific fund for that answer. Not, get out of mutual funds. Did you know that most financial advisers are first and foremost sales people. They are selling a product, mutual funds. They will never advise for you to invest in anything else but mutual funds, because that is where they make their money.

I remember when we met with a representative of Primerica. His advise was to combine all of our debts into one mortgage against our house. Then amortise for 35 years and make payments as if it was amortised for 25 years. It would leave us with a massive payment that would take up all of our spare money, but we would be debt free in 15-20 years. "Doesn't that sound great?" he asked. He was a little shocked when I didn't agree. That would only work if we where done accumulating debt. But I had two small children, we where already outgrowing our house and our vehicles where on the verge of needing to be replaced.

I lost further trust in the company when the representative kept asking me to join the Primerica group and become a financial adviser. I explained that I knew nothing about that, but he assured me not to worry that it would only take a weekend course and an easy test. Really?!?? That's all it took him to advise me what I should be doing with my money to get ahead? No kidding I didn't like the answers I was getting.

If you are wondering if your financial adviser is a sales person, ask this; when do they get paid? When they sale you a mutual fund product or when they make you money?

I also find very funny that they suggest you be diversified when all they offer is a product that only makes money one way, when the market goes up. That is not being diversified. Wouldn't it make more sense that if you are to be in the market, that you diversify yourself so that you can make money when it moves up or down? And that to further diversify yourself by investing out of the market as well?

That was my personal opinion. If you want to hear more about why and where you should invest your money, read Who Took My Money?

Tools Of The Trade: CutePDF Writer

CutePDF Writer is an other program that I use a lot. Not just for the cute name. Well a little bit for the cute name but also because it's very usefull. Best of all, it's a free download.

How would you like to take an excel spreadsheet and send it to someone as a PDF file so that you know the information you send will remain the same. Or a contract on a Word document so that you know when it is signed, the wording didn't get changed around.

Once installed CutePDF Writer will be set up as a device next to your printer. Take any documents and simply select CutePDF Writer as your printer and print. A pop up menu will show up asking you what to call the file and where to save it. How simple is that.

An other great program to use for your business.

Step On It: Stalling

There will always come a time where we will lose our momentum. It's important to recognised that we have stalled and take the necessary steps to get back on track. In my case, most of the time I can't ignore that I have stalled. Mostly because my husband constantly asks "What have you done with real estate lately."

If you have to be accountable to someone, it's harder to lose your momentum. If you are into this on your own, it will be easier to lose the momentum and not notice you have. Investors that have joined an investment group or keep in close contact with fellow investors will find it easier to stay on track.

For me, December is where I stall. I like to go big for Christmas, just like my mom has always done for me. So I will, purposely stop or slow down with my investing. That is one of the good things about investing in stocks or real estate; you can control how busy you are. My problem is after Christmas is all over, I tend to continue my no action routine. It takes me a long time to get moving again.

I know this is an issue, and I realise that taking a whole month off does not work well for me. So what do I do to avoid the loss of momentum? Well there are a few things I will try differently next time.

Planning: I will still want to dedicate a large portion of my time in December to Christmas and Christmas activities. That's important to me. But I will do this with a plan, I will designate a day to looking at listings, sometime in early January and write it on the calendar. I will schedule a marketing event, exposing me to investors to help me get the motivation going again.

Don't Stop, Slow Down: Since regaining the momentum as been so hard for me, instead of stopping my investment activities, I could just decrease the amount that I do. I probably dedicate 4+ hours a day to the real estate investing (including this blog). If instead, during the holiday season I cut that down to 1 to 2 hours. I'm still moving forward and it doesn't take a very large portion of my day.

These have been my struggles with keeping momentum and my solutions. Leave comment and let me know. What do you do to maintain or regain momentum.

What A Life: iPod Touch

I have two boys aged 6 and 7. More then anything they want an iPod Touch, like most of their friends and neighbours have. In the meantime they are reduced to scrounge time on mom and dad's iPhone and iPad when they are allowed.

Unfortunately for them, I insisted on two rules. One; they must pay for their iPod themselves and two; they must be ten years old. I'm not the most popular mom right now. They currently each have a Nintendo DS that can be found sometimes on the floor, sometimes under the bed, and sometimes they can not be found at all. It is my feeling that if they can't take care of their Nintendo DS an iPod is not going to fair any better.

From birthday money, they currently each have enough money for their iPod. They are now just patiently waiting till they reach the age of ten.

The other day, we read the comic book version of the book Rich Dad Poor Dad. It discusses how kids can get cash flow from creating their own business. That got them interested. From playing Cash Flow For Kids, they already know what an asset and liability is. They understand the advantage of purchasing "Doodads" with cash over credit cards; and they can recognise the trend of a stock. What can I say, they have been exposed.

So I decided to make a deal with them. If they come up with a business idea that they would operate and make money, I would allow for THAT money to go towards the purchase of an iPod now. They are not allowed to use their birthday money for an iPod, but if needed it could go towards the start up of their business.

In fact, we even located a website called "Kidpreneur" with information and resources for kids to start their own business.

So I asked Jerome, "What do you say? Want to do that?" His answer was "No, I'll wait till I'm ten." When I asked the same question to Patrick, he also answered in the negative. When I asked him why he said, "I'm scared."

Isn't funny that they would have the same excuse adults have for not taking charge of their financial future? They are either too scared or too lazy.

So in the meantime, we are discussing business ideas, and  waiting for them to either, take action or reach the age of ten.

Rich Dad Radio: Does School Make You Richer Or Poorer, Smarter Or More Stupid?

This week on Rich Dad Radio, Robert invited his youngest guest yet, Haley age 10.

Haley is currently attending public school, there was a school project where she had to pick a job. She raised her hand and said "When I grow up I don't want to have a job, I want to own a business. May I pick that."

"No!"

Well If that is not school teaching their students to become an employee, I don't know what is.

They also discussed how her spirit was crushed, when her project she submitted was degraded for lack of effort when the subject was something her teacher did not agree with.

What can our kids do when they do not get along with their teachers? I was always told to suck it up and make it work. To not be defiant and do as I am told.

Inspirational Corner: Meeting Robert

Fast Track as arrange with Robert Kiyosaki a Canadian book tour for Robert's new book "Why "A" students work for "C" students, and "B" students works for the government".

They where in Calgary last Wednesday on May 1st. Darren Weeks the founder of Fast Track, was up on stage and described how he came to meet Robert Kiyosaki and how Fast Track came to be, and how this book tour had been made possible. They planned the whole thing in only three weeks time.

Then Robert came on the stage. I really enjoyed hearing him speak. He as a way of not sugar coating everything that he says which is quite refreshing. He spoke of his days at school and of how he struggled. He spoke of his days in the war and how the ability to change saved the life of his battalion, when some others who did not make the necessary changes to their tactic did not fair so well.

He spoke of the future for the American economic system. He paints a pretty gloom picture, one he hopes he'll be proved wrong on.

He spoke a lot of how we learn from infancy on, and how, to give our kids an advantage, we should teach them about money between 0 - 12 years of age. The older we get the harder it will be.

Everyone who attended received his new book and got the chance to get it autographed.

I even shook his hand. Now I have to figure out how to shower without getting that hand wet.