Thursday, February 24, 2005

How To Get Rich

How to get rich is really quite simple. 1. Generate excess cash. 2. Invest your excess cash in passive and portfolio investments until the income from those investments is great enough to enable you to retire. Of course, most people get stuck on number 1.

Generate excess cash. First, let's define "excess cash". Excess cash means that you have an income coming in that is 2 to 3 times the average for your area. You can create this excess cash in one of two ways.

The first way to generate excess cash is to work 2 or 3 jobs at the same time. The second way is to learn a trade that pays about 2 to 3 times the average pay for your area. What trade? That depends on the area you live in.

Electricians, accountants, carpenters, masons may all make 2 to 3 times the average wage for your area. Also, almost anything in the health field such as nursing, pharmacology, physical therapy, radiology, etc. may generate 2 or 3 times the average income for your area.

How do you determine the "average" income for your area? This also is easy if you don't mine being inexact. Just go to any Wal-Mart or McDonald's in your area. Ask them what their starting pay is. The "average" income for your area will be about one and a half to two times the amount Wal-Mart or McDonald's pays their entry level people. If there's a large discrepancy between what McDonald's and Wal-Mart pays just take the average of what they pay, then double it. This is the average income for your area.

Now that you have excess cash, what do you do with it?

You invest it.

Excess cash is invested in passive and portfolio vehicles. It is not partied away, it is not used to buy a bigger house or a finer car. You do not use it to take better vacations or improve your wardrobe. Use it Only to invest in passive and portfolio investments. When the income from these investments is great enough that you can retire, then go on that nice vacation, buy those fine clothes, purchase that big house or nice car, but for now, don't spend it, invest it. Do this right and you should be able to retire in 2 to 10 years. 2 years will be if you're lucky.

Passive investments or vehicles are investments primarily in business or real estate. However, investments in licenses, patents, copyrights et al would also qualify.

Portfolio investments are more familiar. These are investments in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, annuities, T-bills, etc.

With your first bit of excess cash you will need to visit an accountant. Have the accountant prepare 3 financial plans for you. The first plan will be the income you'll receive in retirement at just a sustenance level. The bare minimum to get by. The second plan will be the amount of income you'll need to get by at a "comfortable" level. The third plan will be the amount of income you'll need to retire rich.

Each plan will include not only the outcome - how much income you'll receive in retirement - but also how much you'll need to invest each year to get there and what "vehicles" you'll need to invest in.

A "vehicle" is any investment category or object whether it be real estate, stocks, mutual funds, a business, copyright on a book or a patent. Any of these could be a vehicle - a device you have invested in to increase your current assets and future income.

Your current lifestyle must support your future goals. Acquire no new debt unless it is "good" debt. Good debt is any debt that you obtain which produces income for you. Bad debt is any debt which takes money away from you. This is also the true definition of an asset and a liability.

Contrary to traditional accounting practice and common understanding, an asset is anything you own that puts money into your pocket on a regular basis. A liability is anything you own that takes money out of your pocket.

You must not enhance your lifestyle to the point that you spend your excess cash. Your excess cash is only to be invested. Do not buy the Porsche or the mansion on the green or the designer clothes or the Rolex watch. Wait. With determination, work and perseverance, you'll be able to retire soon anyway. "Soon" being a relative term meaning anywhere from 2 to 10 years.

So that's how you get rich. Simple, easy, relatively quick and almost no risk. You just need to get that excess cash flow in place. And then you're on your way.

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Perry Jones is a successful entrepreneur and work at home advocate. He has worked with several Fortune 500 companies and helped these companies generate millions to their bottom line. Perry is the Organizer for the recent Extra-Ordinary Film Festival http://eofilmfestival.goduck.net in Tempe, Arizona, and has several websites including Millionaire 1000 http://millionaire1000.1afm.com - Home Cash Flow http://homecashflow.1afm.com and How 2 Get Rich http://how2getrich.bravehost.com
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Saturday, February 12, 2005

A Disease Called Life

What do you love to do the most? This is the most important question you will ever have to answer. Discovering the answer to that question and then doing it will free your soul. Not doing what you love condemns you to hell.


God has given each person a dream that only they are uniquely qualified to fulfill. This is our purpose in life. It is what we love to do the most.


Most people have turned their back on their dream, on what they love to do. They go to school and become indoctrinated into the industrial religion - school, job, family, career. This religion further requires that we sacrifice ourself - our dream - and also our sense of adventure, our love of fun, our innate joy of living to the dicta and dogma of the industrial religion.


Living like this is living life backward. In giving up everything to pursue job, family, career because we think it will make us happy, we eventually discover that we are not happy. Then it is often too late to determine what will make us happy and so we go on getting bigger houses, finer cars, fancier clothes, because we know no better. We think that that is the only way to achieve happiness, when that which will make us happy remains hidden.


We sacrifice our dreams to a religion which promises everything but find instead that everything isn't enough. We wake up one day realizing that the kids are sick, the mortgage needs to be paid and someone we love has died. We say we are living when in fact we are dying every day. We claim to be awake when we all are really asleep. It is only when we finally wake up by the process of doing what we love that we realize how deeply we had been asleep.


Many people follow the prescribed path of the doctrine and through luck, skill, determination and hard work they acquire the big house, the fancy car and the fine clothes. They may even convince themselves they are happy, but something will always give them away.


Whether it is illness, disease or cancer, addictions, accidents or injuries, the tragedies which befall them or the pain which surrounds them, those who are observant will always see that these people are not happy, they are not fulfilled, they are not satisfied. We can identify them because they speak of the world in a way we are all familiar with and often engage in ourselves. We speak of the bad service at the grocery store, how Tom did what to Lisa, how our friends are ill, how our workplaces are full of strife and struggle and our marriage is unhappy. If we wake up and have to go to work - we know we are not living our dream.

All this is because we have a disease the only cure of which is to find our dream and do it. We all have this disease; this disease called life.

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Perry Jones is a successful entrepreneur and work at home advocate. He has worked with several Fortune 500 companies and helped bring millions of dollars to these companies bottom line. Perry's online course on home based business and work at home business is available at http://homecashflow.1afm.com More information is available at http://millionaire1000.1afm.com Perry is the organizer of the Extra-Ordinary Film Festival http://eofilmfestival.goduck.net
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Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Stop Working & Start Living!

Do what you love. Doing what you love produces more wealth than working for a living if we understand the true meaning of wealth - abundance, prosperity, riches, love, joy, giving, sharing, happiness, enthusiasm, success.

The question then is: What do you love? What do you love to do? This is more profound than enjoying what you do. This is deep. This is something way down deep inside. Some might call it spiritual love. What do you love? If that is too deep of a question, you may be able to sneak up on it from the enjoyment side - maintaining the realization that what you love is something deeper, although possibly, but not necessarily, related to what you enjoy. So, what do you enjoy? What do you like to do? What do you have fun doing? Is there anything you can think of that you would like to do that makes your heart leap just thinking about it? Answer these questions and you may begin to discover the love that is hidden within your heart.

In the book “Unconditional Money”, the author David Cates reveals that when we have connected to the love within ourselves the money will begin to flow. Slowly at first, in bits and dribbles, but ever-increasing if we maintain the connection to our soul. But, in order for the flow to begin, we must connect to the physical world - the world of hard edges and solid planes. And this brings us to faith

FAITH

Faith is half action, half belief. It is one half doing and one half dreaming, thinking, planning. For many years I thought that faith was just believing, just the dreaming part. As a result, many (most) of my dreams and plans never came true. Has that happened to you? The Bible states that faith without action is not real faith - it’s an illusion, delusory, it’s not real faith. The same is true in money, entrepreneurship, running a home business. You can plan all you want, believe all you want, but if you don’t get off your duff and do something, nothing is going to change. Planning is essential, but so is doing.

What do you love? What do you want? Where do you want to go? Wealth, making money, success; all are an internal quest. We’ve been taught by the world that to get rich, to achieve the income levels we desire, we must work hard, save, invest, own a business and make it grow - working your butt off in the process. That works, but often at the expense of families, friends, marriages and health. John D. Rockefeller at 50 looked 80 and lived on a diet of bread and milk. That was all his stomach could handle. He lived in constant worry that someone was going to steal his money or that his businesses would collapse bringing him to financial ruin. John D. Rockefeller was rich, but he wasn’t happy. What is the American Dream? What is the definition of success?

Success and the American Dream

Success in America has usually meant living in wealth. It usually means being rich. Success has meant fame, fortune or the suburban house with the white picket fence, a cat, a dog and 2.2 children. But it may not be my dream. It may not be my definition of success.

Success is an individual thing. To define it we have to refine it. We must search through all the paradigms and templates that society, our parents, teachers, friends and TV has bombarded and suffocated us with, to discover the true “us” we have hidden inside. You will never be truly happy until you connect to that essence which is truly you and which you may have hidden, buried and ignored for so long that you’ve forgotten that it - you - even exists.

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Perry Jones is a successful entrepreneur and work at home advocate. He has worked with several Fortune 500 companies and helped these companies add millions to their bottom line. His free online course on home business and small business is available at http://homecashflow.1afm.com Information regarding a unique home based business is available at http://millionaire1000.1afm.com Perry's many ventures now include the recent Extra-Ordinary Film Festival in Tempe, Arizona. Information is available at http://eofilmfestival.goduck.net
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Monday, February 07, 2005

Social Entropy

Each advance in science, politics, culture, etc, is considered progress. But this progress will tend to be negative in effect unless counterbalanced.


We see the results of this negative effect each passing day as the breakdown of our civilization seems to accelerate. Crime increases, gangs rule the streets, terrorism and wars rage on while the world seems to get smaller and smaller via the global satellite network.


These advances will continue to be negative in effect if they are not tied to an equivalent advance in our higher selves. To compensate for the entropic influence of advancement we must counter it with equal advances in our spiritual selves, in our morals and in our ethics and values.


Each technological advance, each item or step in terms of progress must then be counterbalanced with advances in our higher selves. Only through such commensurate and equivalent advances in technology and spirituality can civilization progress in a stable manner.


Without an equivalent moral advance in spirituality or morals for each technological or social advance, civilization will tend to deteriorate and self-destruct as we can clearly read and see in our daily papers and news broadcasts.



Pery Jones is a successful entrepreneur, work at home advocate and sponsor of the Extra-Ordinary Film Festival - http://eofilmfestival.goduck.net His online course on small business and home business is available at http://homecashflow.1afm.com More information is available at http://millionaire1000.1afm.com

Saturday, February 05, 2005

Congratulations! You've Won a Million Dollars!

Now What?



Hi, my name is Perry Jones. First of all, let me say I don't want any of your money. And I won't accept it if you offer it to me. Of course, I'll be tempted - who wouldn't - so don't do it. The purpose of this is to help you keep your money.



Let me tell you a little about me so you'll know I'm qualified to tell you about this. I've studied finance and investments for over 25 years. I began preparing taxes for other people and small businesses when I was 15 years old. I have been a mutual funds advisor obtaining a Series 6 Federal Securities license just 3 weeks after I began studying for it. Most people require 1 to 3 to 6 months or more to study for a Series 6. I followed that up by studying for and obtaining a Series 63 State Securities license just a week later. I was co-founder of an investment club we called the BBC - Billionaire Boys Club. In our first year we obtained a 54% rate of return. The average at that time was around 18%. I've managed portfolios for wealthy individuals, been an incorporator for businesses, prepared business plans, started and sold my own business, invested in and managed my own portfolio and I was a trust and non-profit tax accountant for KPMG - a Big 5 accounting firm. Over all, I feel my background, education and experience will help you hold onto your money.

Over the last few years I've been studying money, wealth and those who've obtained wealth. My research has revealed that people who suddenly come into wealth, such as in an inheritance or a lottery winning, - like you for example - often go through all they've received within 2 years. During these two years they are often subjected to an unusually high amount of stress and have friends and relatives they never knew they had come asking them for money.



Many people often feel guilty. "Why me?" "What do I do with this?" "Who do I turn to?" "Who do I trust?" Hopefully, you won't experience any of these feelings and everything will go smoothly for you. But if you find yourself feeling this way, you aren't alone.



To help, I've developed some simple rules or guidelines. Accept those which feel right to you or which seem to make sense. If it feels wrong or just doesn't make sense, don't do it.



1. Wait. This is already what most people do. Wait a few days until the excitement dies down before claiming your money. This gives you time to calm down and relax and look at the situation a little more rationally. Winning a large jackpot is a big responsibility and you need time to get yourself used to the idea.



2. While you're waiting those few days, find yourself a competent attorney and a good accountant, CPA or financial advisor. How do you find such people? Trust your friends. Yeah, the word may leak that you've won, but it is more important to get an attorney and financial advisor in place rather than not trust your friends and go to the lottery office without such a team behind you. Who would your friends recommend? Ask them, ask around. Maybe you could consult the mayor of your town - if its small, or ask your doctor, tax preparer or someone who owns a small business. You could also just go through the Yellow Pages and select a few financial service firms at random and then call them for an initial appointment. When you appear for the appointment, be honest, tell them you won the big jackpot and ask them what suggestions they have on how you should invest the money. Meet each of the advisors you select and then wait at least 24 hours after meeting with the last before deciding which one you'll be working with. Then call that one back and give them the good news. Trust me, they'll be very happy.



3. While you're waiting, you may want to change your phone number and/or get yourself a new mailing address - a post office box or a mail box at a nearby mailing service. Otherwise you'll be inundated with phone calls and proposals in the mail to help you part with your money.



So you go to the lottery office and collect the big check. You get your smiling face on all the local (and maybe national) media. So what's next?



4. Take 10% and blow it. Yeah, this may not seem like sound investment advice, but you've just won the lottery for pete's sake! Have fun! That's what winning is all about. Take that vacation you've always wanted. Get that sports car you've always dreamed of. Throw yourself the biggest party you can imagine. Rent out the nightclub or restaurant or theater for you and some of your best friends. Have a good time. Have fun. But don't forget:



5. Be yourself. Don't be someone you're not. Don't assume "airs" just because you're suddenly wealthy. Your friends will resent it and sooner or later, so will you. This really hasn't been much of a problem for most people and shouldn't be with you, so just keep it in mind.



6. If you don't go to church or believe in God or a Supreme Being of some kind, now may be a good time to reconsider your position. You're going to need all the advice, wisdom and support you can get. When friends and family you never knew you had suddenly begin calling you and showing up on your doorstep, you may start to wonder who you can trust. Who will you turn to? God is infinite love and wisdom and this may be just what you need right now.



7. Relax. Don't feel guilty. Praise God. This money is a gift. Lightning has to strike someone sometime. This time it just happend to be you. You may now have enough to retire. If so, go ahead and retire. Quit your job, or at the very least stay away for a few days. You'll probably be too excited to concentrate on your job anyway. So take a vacation and maybe it'll become permanent.



8. Be careful who you trust. All the people you knew and were friends with before you won are probably safe. Any "friends", "relatives" and others you may have encountered since you won may not be.



9. Talk to your family, lawyer and financial planner and set up an investment plan. Discuss what you would do with this money. Don't make any rash decisions. The longer you keep this money in a safe place - even if its just a regular bank account for now - the longer you'll be able to consider all your options, plan for the future, and dream of what could be. Consider capping your donations to church or charities at a maximum of 10%. If you're receiving your money in annual payments, keep your donations at 10% per year. After the first year you may want to increase this percentage, but for the first year, keep donations to a 10% maximum.



10. Don't give money away to just anyone or for any reason. People may start coming out of the woodwork with news of relatives needing lifesaving operations, to pay bills, to start a medical clinic, pay for an abortion, save the whales, feed the hungry, to pay the rent so they won't be evicted, to start a new business which is "guaranteed" to turn their life around, etc. Don't do it. Refer them all to your attorney. Even the United Way, Girl or Boy Scouts, your local church, Red Cross and even your favorite Uncle Billy. Ask them all to submit a written proposal to your attorney. And tell them he'll take it from there.



11. Take a vacation. Get out of the country. Or just get out of the area for a while. You may need a few days, you may need a few weeks. But now is the time to think and relax. You've been given a great gift. What are you going to do with it? To figure that out, take that vacation you've always wanted. Go away. Go someplace where no one knows you. Take your immediate family (or not) and bring along a trusted friend or friends or relative(s) if you wish. Go sailing. Go to Europe or Asia. Take that cruise. Go to Las Vegas (but be careful if you go there), or Cancun or Fiji. Whatever vacation or place you've always wanted, now is the time to do it.



If you take your family, they may impose too greatly upon your conscience. You don't want that. You want to be able to rationally and logically figure out what to do with this great gift you've been given. Having your family around may not allow you to do this. Or it may. Only you can make that determination.



If they are not with you, call home. Call your family, pastor or a trusted friend. Talk. And make lists. This is number 12.



12. Make lists. What dreams did you always want to do or achieve? Who did you always want to be? Now may be the time to do that. Or maybe you'll too old. Or not. And don't be hasty. You've got all the time in the world. You can live anywhere you want. Do anything you want. Buy any car you've wanted. Get that big house in that luxury area.



Keep on making lists. Think about all the things you've written. Do you really want this or that? Do you really want to go here or there? Think about these things. It may take some time, or maybe it won't. Maybe you won't need to get away, maybe you've had all this planned out already, if not on paper then in your head. Enjoy yourself.



13. Move on. Your plans are in place. Your family has been taken care of. Perhaps you've bought that nice house or car you've always wanted. Now is the time to move on. Start living your life. Maybe you won't change anything, or maybe you will. Maybe you'll change everything. But life goes on, and so do you. You may be able to live at a higher level of affluence, you may be able to donate to those charities, you may be able to do some good things you never had the time or money to do before. Now you have both. So do them. You may even want to go back to school. You're never too old. Begin implementing the investment plan you worked out. Begin living that life you dreamed of while on vacation and while making lists. And that's it.



There's plenty of competent investment advice out there so I'm not going to offer any. Except for this. If you're going to buy that new house, pay cash. Buy it outright. Same for the car. Get out of debt. Now is not the time to be adding new debt. You're going to need time to learn how to invest wisely. Many people study for years and never get it right. But with the proper team around you, the love and support of family and friends and God on your side, you'll make the right decisions.



If you wish to contact me, click here.

One more thing.


Congratulations!



This page is presented for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal or financial advice. Please consult a legal advisor and/or financial advisor before taking any action.




Perry Jones is a sucessful entrepreneur and work at home advocate. He has worked with several Fortune 500 companies and has helped contribute millions of dollars to these companies' bottom line. You can obtain more information at http://millionaire1000.1afm.com Perry's free online course regarding small business and home based business is available at http://homecashflow.1afm.com


Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Success and Happiness

Success is based on the ability to achieve goals. True success is based on the ability to achieve dreams.

Anyone can be rich if they work hard enough and follow a plan. But not everyone can be happy. Happiness stems from enjoying life. True happiness is a result of making our dreams come true. Thie requires courage, for obstacles to derail the realization of our dreams will come in many forms of which the most persuasive and insidious will come from those who love us the most.

It isn't that those who love us and care about us wish to see us held back - they just don't want us to get hurt. When faced then with opposition from our friends and family and other loved ones, we need to remember our own vision and abide by the voice we hear within. This "voice within" is the guide we must follow and it will rarely steer us wrong.

If happiness is a result of the realization of our dreams, we must establish the foundation on which dreams are built. This foundation consists of a balanced life in which each one of the five facets of life are integrated and addressed more or less equally.

These five facets; family development, financial development, self development, social development and spiritual development all require our attention. When these are out of balance, our lives are often tedious and mundane and at worst - out of control. When in balance our lives are vigorous, joyful and exciting, in short - successful, whatever that may mean to each person.

Upon this firm foundation of five facets is a structure built out of our purpose in life. This is our dream - that mission God has put us here on Earth to fulfill. God has given each person a special dream to fulfill, a mission here on Earth that that person is uniquely qualified to present. This is the castle that rests upon the foundation.

Perry Jones is a successful entrepreneur and work at home advocate. He has worked with several Fortune 500 companies and has helped these companies add millions to their bottom line. His free course regarding home business is available at http://homecashflow.1afm.com More information is available at http://millionaire1000.1afm.com