Dow to hit 10,000. Why?

As I’ve watched the markets claw their way back from the brink of disaster I’ve begun to wonder what’s causing the market to rise. As I posted yesterday, the true US unemployment rate may be as high as 20%, the credit markets are almost non-existent, mortgage defaults increasing and (although I think it’s a great personal decision) savings rate has gone up. With people spending less, what’s going to stimulate the economy?

A Quick Summary
Just yesterday I read an article on the Huffington Post called Why the Dow is hitting 10,000 and it really gave me a great summary of the current market conditions. With personal spending way down, the government seems to be making up the difference (and more) with cash-for-clunkers, bank bailouts, mortgage bailouts and a cool trillion on “stimulus spending.” The only problem is that the money just doesn’t seem to be trickling down to the public.

The only problem is that the article seems to be a little short on the so what? factor. What happens when the government can’t spend any more but the people haven’t paid off all of their debts and continue to save? All of a sudden all these gains may seem like another painful memory.

I’m a Red

I found out that my personality color is red. Basically there are five main things you need to know when communicating with me (according to the 23 page profile):

• Move swiftly from topic to topic
• Be straightforward, fast, efficient and to the point
• Be ready to ignore his seemingly arrogant behavior
• Recognize his personal drive for achievement
• Be enthusiastic and positive

Here are some don’ts:

• Try to hoodwink or mislead
• Be dull, dour or redundant
• Impose a “can’t be done” or defeatist attitude
• Be indecisive or unclear
• Tell him what to do or how to do it

I’ve taken many personality, IQ, Strengths and EQ test over the years. The best thing I’ve learned from them all is that knowing all about your personality is a fun hobby but, it can become a powerful tool if applied properly.

Do you use the information to react differently to those around you? Do you ask more questions to find out about others to see where your personality is compatible and contrary? Have you used it to direct your career or online business towards a future that fits your style?

Solving Me
From my test, I realize that I can come across as a little arrogant when I have set my mind on something. I also know why I get bored during the small-talk sections that happen at the beginning of every meeting. Based on this, I’ve tried to be more understanding of other people’s opinions and take the extra moment to see their point of view. I’ve also decided that if I can’t stop the chatter before each meeting, at least I can focus it once we begin.

Like everything else you do, use the many tests available out there to really transform your life and push it even further forward.

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Starting a New Journey in Piapot

Recently, a colleague of mine decided to close one part of his life and move on to another. He left the city and a number of different IT consulting jobs to open a hotel/bar in a small Saskatchewan, Canada town.

His mid-life career change made me think about my own situation. I have recently begun to expereince more success on my internet ’side-project’ and know that the future holds great things there. At the same time, I am also seeing a larger degree of success in my current career, so that direction also looks positive. That being said, I find myself living vicariously through this friend of mine. I’ve often wonder what I would do if I said goodbye to it all, picked up my family and moved on.

If you’re looking for answers here then you’ve read the wrong blog today! As you already know I have many different interests and look to continually improve myself. I suppose it really comes down to figuring out what you want to do with your life and then taking the risk when an opportunity presents itself.

For a final plug, if you’re ever in Canada, taking a trip down the Trans-Canada highway through Piapot, Saskatchewan, make sure to stop in and grab a drink at the Piapot Saloon and Guest House.

Have a look at my friend’s blog at blog.piapothotel.com.

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Procrastination (The Comic Version)

I need to thank Debohobo.com for showing me the cartoon and creator below. These are absolutely great!

In my previous post Never Give Up, I asked what was holding you back from achieving your goals. Does this cartoon fit anyone out there?

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

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Tags: cartoon, reaching your goals, whats in the way, barrier to success, business success, work hard, make money

Selling Junk

I went to an investment seminar last week that had a host of different companies trying to sell me their investment tools, property etc. I was bombarded by pamphlets and statistics showing how well they had done in the past and were very proud of the future.

Why has society come to this? People out there selling crap that they know is over inflated or completely bogus. I understand that everyone needs to feed their families but do we really need to blatantly lie to everyone we see to do this?

The sad thing is, there are many people who fall for this type of tactic over and over again. People lose their life savings to a guy who goes door to door selling the next “sure thing.”

Amazing.

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Inspiring Words

A colleague of mine handed me an excerpt from a book he was reading. The quote said, “Are you taking the opportunity to inspire those around you through each interaction you have?”

It was an interesting idea that made me wonder if it was possible to achieve such a lofty goal. Can you truly inspire those around you all the time?

Maybe it’s impossible to inspire everyone but I’ve started to think about this in terms of spheres of influence. For example, your family is your inner circle, friends a second, colleagues a third and others being a fourth layer of influence (you could also say customers as the fourth and strangers as the fifth.)

I’ve decided to give it a try, starting with my inner circle and working my way out as time goes forward. My goal? The happier I am at home and in my personal life, the stronger I will be when things are challenging at work!

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What Do I Want To Do With My Life?

Have you ever had one of those months? Everything at work seems to be going slow or even badly? As you can imagine, I’m in the middle of one of those…

I’d like a little advice from people on this one. How do you handle people who are difficult to work with or do not seem to care about moving themselves or the company forward?

I’m looking for some great thoughts on this topic because, to tell you the truth, I can’t stand the standard advice of

just ignore them and they will go away

Guess what? It doesn’t happen!

Think about it from this point of view. I am a very positive person who always tries to see the positive side of things. Recently, I’ve been in a number of situations where I just feel like I am being dragged backwards by people around me. It’s not the type of situation where I can simply find different people to work with or that type of thing. I truly don’t mind my job and usually look forward to getting my work done. The part that is driving me crazy is such a cliche I hate to use it: Two steps forward, one step back!

A Broader Topic
Maybe this just comes down to a need for me to express myself a little more outside of work and get my mind focused on other things. In years past I’ve been active with desiging websites, real estate investing and my artwork. Recently, as you can guess, I’ve been less active with my external things and have been specifically focused on the job and career.

As I think back, maybe this has been an ongoing problem for me over the last few years. I have been looking forward to creating businesses and real estate ventures and now that all that is temporarily on hold, I’ve got nothing to make me feel that I am working towards something greater than myself.

The Big Question
Earlier today, I went for lunch with a director in the company and he asked me about my personal growth plan for the next one to five years. As I thought about it, I realized that my personal growth plan five years ago (continue to advance my personal finance and investing education) had been fulfilled and I was at a loss as to where to go next. I came up with a few things specific to my web businesses but I didn’t really have a good answer for him.

Everything I talked about was in things I wanted to do; rather than growth that I wanted to obtain.

I guess this is just a rant. Maybe I’ll solve some of these issues on the ride home tonight!

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Drowning in Debt? Throw Them a Brick!

I was watching an advertisement for H&R Block today (yes, it is that time of year again) and I noticed something that completely blew me away. All the ads I’ve seen are based around a person getting their money back instantly and being able to enjoy their money right away. Right now, H&R Block is offering their “instant refund” as a “refund anticipation loan” that you receive on a pre-paid Master Card. Doesn’t this sound like a great idea?

Assuming you are approved, (is it even possible to be declined these days) you receive your anticipated refund as a credit on the Master Card. Here we are, in the middle of a credit crisis in America and hey, if you want your tax refund, let’s throw it on a credit card for you. Just make sure to spend the exact amount of your refund or else you’re back on at 18 ½ percent! Want to transfer the cash to your bank account? That will be a $2.50 transaction fee from Master Card. Do you want to cancel your credit card? Call us up so we can offer to reduce your rates, then, if you choose not to, we can drop your card and negatively affect your credit even further! Can anyone else see any issues here?

They’ve decided to take the people who need to have their money ‘instantly’ and offer them the newest poison pill in our society – more credit. I am amazed by the people who have overpaid on their taxes all year but then need the refund before they walk out the door.

Obviously it’s not the government’s business to determine how much credit a person should take so no regulation is needed. I’m also not here to blame the credit card company for their business practice – credit is not forced on people and neither are poor spending habits. I’m just wondering how a company can promote a service like this as somehow helping people. If their motivation was client focused, why wasn’t a pre-paid debit card offered or a pre-pay only credit card – with no requirement to maintain an account?

The credit card obviously offers some interesting options for H&R Block. What happens if their client doesn’t deserve the refund they thought he did? He walks out with a credit of $1000, spends it, then realizes that he should have only received $500. Guess what? You can bet that H&R Block will want their money back and next month this guy will have a nice new $500 invoice from Master Card. Now, rather than having blown his refund and going back to life, this guy has blown his refund and owes an additional $500!

My advice:
1. Get a certified accountant to do your taxes – especially if you have any business income.
2. Wait for a refund in cash – then re-invest the difference
3. Even better, use your refund to pay off the other credit cards and then invest the difference.

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Where to begin?

I’m not sure how I can explain my sudden disappearance from the blogging world. It was as if one day I was enjoying myself and making sure to write something new each day, then WHAM. I just stopped. I don’t think it was anything specific that directed me. It just seemed that all of a sudden I didn’t find the time or energy to get back on the computer and write.

As I look back at the last few posts, I realized that at about the time I stopped, I had just had my house painted and had everything in total disarray. I moved my computer into a less central area of my house and didn’t even get it hooked up for a month (I relied on my business laptop.) Even this is a poor excuse.

The thing that made me start writing today is, well, I’m not sure why. I’ve sat down a few times over the past two months and started to write but simply lost my desire and left the thought unfinished. I guess I thought that whatever I would write after leaving for so long would need to be mind-blowing and completely original. Guess what? I decided that if I was going to wait until the perfect moment, I may never get anything done in my life.

I suppose I actually missed getting my ideas down here and interacting with people around the web. Who knows if I’ll get any of my original readers back but I suppose that’s my own fault.

I guess if there is a lesson in all of this: if you’re going to get your house painted, be prepared with a month’s worth of posts ready to go!!!

Yeah, but what do I want?

Continuing my 62 Success Principles Challenge, I’ve come up on a very interesting chapter. This one is titled “Decide What You Want” and the basic premise is that in order to work towards something, you need to know what you’re going to learn (Be), experience (Do) and get to play with (have).

One of the great sections of the chapter deals with not living someone else’s dreams. Basically, it says that you need to live your life the way you want it - not the way your parents, friends, teachers etc. planned it out for you.

Has this ever happened in your life? Did someone of authority or even perceived authority try to influence your direction with both positive and/or negative comments? As I think about this statement, I realize how difficult it must be to ensure your child keeps a postitive direction without pressuring your dreams onto them.

I know that I have been very guilty of directing those around me and applying the correct pressure when the time was right. I always thought that it was more a matter of me know what the other person wanted before they did themselves. In most cases, I think my advice turned out for the best; however, I was living through my dreams.

What are my dreams? I enjoy working towards passive income streams and cash flow producing investments. Others enjoy building their career within an organization by working more and longer to succeed. What I didn’t realize early was that my dream of being an entrepreneur was not shared by everyone. Can you believe that not everyone has the same thoughts, goals and dreams? Wild!

It’s funny. As I look back on this chapter, I thought that this would be one of those that was nice to read but, since I already have a good idea what I want, not that important. Reading my post now, I realize that I’ve probably just changed a part of my personality that didn’t always move me forward.

A Meme

I’m not really sure what Meme even means but I’ve been challenged to a whole bunch of them so it’s time to shoot out one of my own.
Of course, I will be challenging the following bloggers:
Dan
Joanne
Debo
Jeanne Dininni
Mike

In The Success Principles, this chapter asks you to make your list of 10 things you want to do, 10 things you want to have and 10 things you want to become (in fact it’s 30 but I’ve made it easier here…) Here’s my list.

Do

• Live in Europe for one year
• Write a novel
• See the pyramids in Egypt
• Go on an archaeological dig
• Take surfing lessons
• Teach a class
• Go to a World Cup soccer match
• Get my scuba certificate (Barrier Reef)
• Learn to sail
• Earn over $1,000,000 in one year

Be

• Fluent in French and Spanish
• A multi-millionaire
• A rolemodel for my children
• Successful entrepreneur
• Leader in my field
• A recognized artist
• An excited, positive and passionate person
• Expert negotiator
• Real Estate investment expert
• A grandfather

Have

• Winter home/acreage in the mountains (ranch style)
• Star Trek TNG pinball
• Porsche
• Vulcan Nomad Motorcycle
• Passive income greater than my expenses
• 30 rental properties
• MBA degree
• My own island
• A large freshwater fish tank
• A group of 7 or picasso painting

Thanks for reading! Want more?