Do-It-Yourself Financial Counseling

/Creating Wealth by Robert G Allen/

Step 1: Determine what you are trying accomplish

Knowing where you're going is more important than how much you have at the start.

Step 2: Once you are know where you are going, focus all of your resources to accomplish your objective

Financial Resources:
1. Cash and "near cash"
2. Credit
3. Financial statement
4. Cash flow

Nonfinancial Resources:
1. Time
2. Knowledge
3. People
4. Courage

Step 3: List all feasible alternatives to reaching your goal using your resources
1. If you don't have it, you can get it.
2. Try to use your own cash last.
3. When you resort to borrowing, always borrow the cheapest dollars first.
4. If you do borrow against your equity - in your home, for instance 0 only borrow an amount with monthly payments equal to the amount you can afford to repay out of your present monthly income.
5. Start out slowly when using leverage.

Tenants

/Creating Wealth by Robert G Allen/

How to find a good management company
Look in the yellow pages under "Real Estate Management" and follow two basic rules:

1. Don't ever believe a word the management company says, or anything you read in the monthly reports it gives you. Question every number. Don't let the company spend more than $500 without your OK. Ask it about vacancies, since every vacant day costs you money. Look at the ads it runs to attract new tenants.
   
2. Inspect your property at least once every month.Just walk through and see if the unit is vacant or rented. And see if the tenant is the kind of person you want living in your property. The inspection can be a regular day of the month, so the tenant can prepare. You can learn a lot about your management company from your tenants.
   

Tenant Selection
The key to any good management system is finding good tenants.

Take an application from every prospective tenant. Credit references. Job information. Present ans previous addresses.
The tenant fills out the application and leaves a small deposit.
Make calls to verify employment. Call to previous landlords.
All of this takes an hour or so. You should check out each item on the applicant and inform the prospective tenant of your decision within a day or two.

• Deposit - A must
  Try to get the first and last months' rent and a security/clearing deposit equal to at least half a month's rent. The deposit is never to be applied to rent. There are always minor repairs to make when a tenant moves out, and you may have to take care of the tenant's unpaid utility bills out of your own pocket. For this reason, return a tenant's deposit 15-30 days after he vacates.
  
  
• Property Inspection
  You should inspect the property before, during, and after a tenant's stay. The tenant should be present each time. Before he moves in, walk through and fill out a property-inspection form. This protects both of you if a dispute should arise concerning who is responsible for damage. It will save you many a trip to small claims court.
  During the tenant's stay, make regular inspections, perhaps around rent-collection time.
  
  
• Discount Rent Program
  A prospective tenant would be told that the rent would be $100 less upon two conditions:
  1) Rent is due on time. Part of the discount is for prompt payment. If the rent is late, the discount doesn't apply.
  2) The tenant will do all minor repairs and pay up to $50 in cost of materials per month.
  
  
• Utilities
  A tenant has to pay all utilities.This way he deals directly with the utility company and bears the brunt of all increases.
  In single-houses rentals tenants take care of the yard also. You can offer to cut the lawn for them for a $20 fee every two weeks, but they usually decline (good).
  

Happy landlording!

The Win-Win Philosophy: How to Achieve Win-Win Wealth in a Win-Lose World

/Creating Wealth by Robert G Allen/

Principle 1:
If both parties can't win, don't play.

Principle 2:
Since the essence of win-win is mutual problem-solving, don't negotiate with people who don't have problems.

Principle 3:
Male friends with the seller - he will be more apt to enter into problem solving with a friend than with an enemy.

Principle 4:
You can't solve a problem unless you understand it.

Principle 5:
Once you understand the problem, search for alternative win-win solutions.

Principle 6:
Optimism is the root of persistence.

Find a motivated seller

/Creating Wealth by Robert G Allen/

Keywords to find a motivated seller:

• nothing down
  
• low down payment
  
• seller will carry
  
• owner financing
  
• flexible
  

Find a good appraiser

/Creating Wealth by Robert G Allen/

To find a good appraiser:

1. Check "Real Estate Appraisals" in the Yellow Pages. When you call, ask if the company does appraisals for FHA or VA.
   
2. Call up any savings and loan association (yellow pages under "real Estate Loans") and ask one of the loan officers to recommend a very conservative FHA or VA appraiser.
   
3. Go to https://entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/apprlook.cfm, type in this city or zip code and see an online list of credited appraisers in this area.
   

Property Selection Grid

/Creating Wealth by Robert G Allen/

Buy a property that scores in the 12 to 15 ranges:


Click for a large images.

Target Property

/Creating Wealth by Robert G Allen/

• A three-bedroom detached single-family house or an attached condominium or townhouse that is located in a stable neighbourhood within a 50-mile radius of your own home;
  
• priced at less than the median price in your city and worth at least 10% more than your cost;
  
• can be bought with less than 10% down and
  
• terms that allow the buyer to rent out the home with no negative cash flow.
  

Buy homes only in the bottom end of the price pyramid:

How to Find the Right House

1. Area with large numbers of middle-class houses in the lowest-priced category.
   
2. Property: three-bedroom house
   
3. Price range: you should buy houses prices much less than the median-priced house in your area.
   
4. Rent fee: Check the rent fee for two and three-bedroom apartment in the area. Your rent fee should be equal your mortgage fee with 10% down payment or up to 10% more.
   

Money Making TV Shows

Dragons' Den where entrepreneurs pitch the Dragons (five Canadian business moguls) for investment. - Wednesdays
8 pm EST on CBC Television.

The Apprentice 5.
The Apprentice 6 - Sundays January 2007 on NBC

Flip That House: This half-hour reality series brings the viewer into the latest trend in "buy-sell" house renovation known as "house flipping." Each episode will follow the transformation of a different house, each with its own "flipper/host" familiar with home renovation and real estate.
TLC Television

Flip This House - Tackling one of the most exciting aspects of today's high-stakes real estate market - the transformation of an eyesore into a profit-making beauty
A&E Television

The Big Flip,
HGTV

Please add your favorite "Money making TV Show" in Comments below

4 specific stages in the wealth-building trajectory

/Creating Wealth by Robert G Allen/

/I think any successful project has the same 4 stages./

Stage 1: The Prelaunch Stage
This is the time to set goals and write them down.it's the time to prepare yourself mentally for the liftoff.

The will to prepare to win is more important than the will to win.

Stage 2: The Liftoff, or the Struggling Stage
RA: "... a minimum goal: you should be prepared to buy at least one single-family house per year for the next ten years..."

"If you will spend two years working as most people refuse to work, you will be able to spend the rest of your life in a manner which most people will never be able to afford."
/Wade Cook, "How to Build a Real Estate Money Machine"/

Stage 3: The Powerful Pre-Orbit Stage


Stage 4: The Automatic-Pilot Stage


Wealth-Building Principles during the first three Stages of Wealth:
1. Always think in terms of profit after taxes and inflation.
2. Sacrifice to invest in things that go up in value. Avoid consumer items.
3. Don't diversify; concentrate your eggs in the right basket.
4. Be on the offencive, not the defencive.
5. Have your assets growing steady at wealth-producing rates. That means debt and leverage.
6. Choose investments that are both powerful and stable.
7. Maintain maximum control over your investments.

During the forth stage, the above principles will be reversed for a time.

Wealth-Perpetuating Principles during the Forth Stages of Wealth:
1.Jettison the debt!
2. Lower your compound rates of return from wealth-producing rates (above 25%) to wealth-perpetuating rates (below 25%).
3. With lower growth rates, you will need to do more careful tax and inflation planning.
4. For a time, you will think defensively, not offensively.
5. You will be more prone to diversify your assets than to concentrate them.
6. Pay less attention to need for sacrifice. If you want something nice, buy it. You've earned it. You can afford it. Who cares if it goes down in value?
7. Less control over your investment...
8. During the first three wealth-building stages, you will probably want to keep your present job and do your investing on the side. Once you put your investments on automatic pilot, this may change. If you don't enjoy your job, quit. Your investments can now carry you.

7 Wealth Principles

/Creating Wealth by Robert G Allen/

Wealth Principle 1
Don't count your dollars until they have passed through the strainers of taxes and inflation

Wealth Principle 2
Make Maximum use of your assets and sacrifice to invest in things that go up in value

Wealth Principle 3
Don't diversify! Concentrate all of your eggs in the right basket!

Invest heavily in your strong investment.

Wealth Principle 4
Wealth seekers are always on the offensive, not on the defensive

Wealth Principle 5
Money must multiply at wealth-producing rates of return

Wealth Principle 6
Choose investments that are both powerful and stable

Wealth Principle 7
Control is essential

A fool and his money are soon parted

Do you have Investor Skills?

/Creating Wealth by Robert G Allen/

Take a few minutes to complete the questionnaire to check your investor's skills.

If you were to receive from an inheritance $100,000 tax free, what dollar amounts would you spend in the next year in the following categories:

---------- Gold, silver
---------- Recreation
---------- Reduce debts
---------- Bank savings
---------- Commodities
---------- Bonds
---------- Collectibles (antiques, stamps, art, etc.)
---------- Stock market
---------- Money market funds
---------- Vacation
---------- Mortgages
---------- Medical/dental
---------- Precious gems
---------- Automobile
---------- Buy own home
---------- Treasury bills
---------- Recreational vehicle
---------- Charity or church
---------- Go into business
---------- Give to family
---------- Mutual funds
---------- Down payment on real-estate investment

---------- Price

Here is a listing with annual projected growth rates:

Hard assets:

• Gold, silver - 15%
  
• Precious gems - 17.5%
  
• Collectibles - 15%
  

Liquid money

• Bank savings - 3-8%
  
• Treasury bills - 3-6%
  
• Money market funds - 3-9%
  

Passive capital

• Stock market - 10%
  

Growth investments

• Bonds - 10%
  
• Commodities - 25%
  
• Mutual funds - 10-13%
  
• Discounted mortgages - 15-25%
  

Active capital

• Buy own home - 10%
  
• Real-estate investment - 10%
  
• Business - 15%
  

Consumer

• Vacation - 0%
  
• Medical/dental - 0%
  
• Reduce debts - 0%
  
• Recreation - 0%
  
• Recreational vehicle - 0%
  
• Automobile - 0%
  

Nonmonetary

• Give to family - 0%
  
• Charity or church - 0%
  

Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime

Developing a wealthy mind-set

/Creating Wealth by Robert G Allen/

Wealth does not reside in material possessions.
Wealth resides in the mind.
Wealth is not a thing, it is a thought!

Step 1
Set realistic goals and write them down

Step 2
Visualize your goal

Step 3
Affirm yourself

Step 4
Replace luck thinking with probability thinking

Step 5
Take action

9 most prevalent faulty assumptions about wealth

/Creating Wealth by Robert G Allen/

# 1
Having a job is good and leads ultimately to Wealth

“Wealth is when small efforts produce large results. Poverty is when large efforts produce small results.”

The answer is not to work harder, but to work smarter.
A job should be looked upon as a temporary inconvenience.

# 2
Saving your money is a good Investment

# 3
Debt is bad – Avoid it
You can never become wealthy without going into some form of investment.

# 4
Security is good
Risk is an essential part of progress.

# 5
Failure is bad
Failure is part of success.

# 6
Wealth is measured in material possessions

Broke is a temporary condition.Poor is a state of mind.

# 7
The government, my employer, or someone else is responsible for my financial well-being.

# 8
Acquiring wealth is a win-lose game.

# 9
It takes money to make money.