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First Encounter with a Millionaire

Thomas J Stanley PhD is a man whose niche is millionaires. He’s met and interviewed, studied and written about more millionaires than probably anyone else– except perhaps Napoleon Hill, who wrote “Think and Grow Rich”. He’s the go-to man for talk shows, lectures, forums about millionaires. And it’s made him a millionaire. He’s famous for his best -seller books, including the “The Millionaire Next Door”.

He tells this charming story of how he met his first millionaire. I thought you might be interested too!

 

“My First Encounter with a Millionaire

When I was a boy, we lived in a small apartment in a blue-collar section of the Bronx. Just a quarter mile away was the wealthiest neighborhood in New York City, a residential community called Fieldston, aka Mansionville! I was nine years old. I told my eleven-year-old sister, “I’m disgusted with the marginal propensity of the people in our own blue-collar neighborhood to give to trick-or-treaters on Halloween. I think we need to move out of our neighborhood this Halloween and go to Fieldston.” So, Sissy, her two friends and I began by cold-calling a home on Waldo Avenue in Fieldston. The first home we identified was on two acres with a large wall and a large gate. It sat one hundred and fifty feet from the street. There were no lights on.

I knocked on the door for five minutes. Finally, it opened up, and there was James Mason, the distinguished British actor in front of me. “Trick or treat,” I said in my best Halloween commando voice. Mr. Mason informed us that he had no candy to hand out but he would give us “all the silver in the house.” This was my first affluent experience! While he was inside the house gathering our “treat” I told my sister, “it’s either coins, flatware, or some combination of both.” That kind man gave us two handfuls of nickels, dimes, quarters, and half-dollars, the equivalent of what we would have received if we had trick-or-treated at three hundred blue-collar households. That’s what it means to be wealthy in America.

After our stop at Mr. Mason’s home, we noticed that the lights were on at the English Tudor-style home across the street. Attached to the front door was a note: “Attention, trick-or-treaters. My husband is ill. Don’t ring, don’t knock. You’ll find coins in the milk box.” Inside the box was a treasure trove: more than twenty business envelopes with lovely black writing on them. The envelopes were designated for groups of one or two, three, four, five, six or seven trick-or-treaters. Eight-plus was the big envelope, and there were three for each category. We removed only one envelope, for the group of four; then we left Fieldston and went home. Twenty years later I began studying the affluent in America. And I am still as enthusiastic as that young trick-or-treater!”

 

Musings from the Mountainside

There are a lot of things being said about the economy, about recession and finance, personal, national and global.

No matter what the “experts” try to tell us, there are some fundamental things you can rely on which don’t change. It’s not a question of fashion or whether you follow one brand of economics or another or which political party you belong to, it’s just practical laws of life, no matter what any one says.  These are simple things like  income must be greater than an outgo. For any individual or group to survive, it has to give good exchange with the people around it. The more and the better the quantity and quality of the exchange, the better things will be.

We don’t make money. Only the Mint “makes money” when it stamps coins and prints notes. What we can be sure of is the more money it  “makes”,  if the amount of goods and service available to consumers stays the same, the greater the amount inflation will be

We give value and service and deliver products . How good we are at doing this depends on how creative we are,  how well we think and then follow through and act. Sometimes there’s a gap in between the moment when we think and the time when we act. Sometimes we need to learn how to do something first before we can deliver a service or create a product, and it might not be as short as we’d hoped…. and so we are going forward on a promise and hope of a dream. Better that than no hope of something better and doing nothing to make it change for the better.

There is something we can be sure of. If we try to help people and we  do and produce things that will help them, we’ll be of  more value, more use to others and to ourselves, and that will help us all to survive.   Money and goods will flow and move and we can breathe some life into it. Sometimes, it seems to me that’s what internet marketing is about.

What do you think?

 

Happy New Year

Happy Hogmanay as we say in Scotland. Lang may your lum reek. Translation: Long may your chimney smoke, so wishing you plenty of fuel to keep your fire burning bright and you nice and warm in the cold and dark days of winter.

There is an old tradition in Scotland, called “first footing”. After midnight of the old year on 31st December, to bring you good luck, the first visitor to your house should be a young, dark-haired, handsome man.  And to ensure you stay warm, he brings a lump of coal. Also salt, black bun (a rich fruit cake) and a “hawf bottle” of whiskey. These represent warmth, wealth, food and good cheer.

Once entered into the home, a toast is offered to the house and all within it, using the important whiskey of which everyone should have a few wee drams on Hogmanay. The traditional taost is: “A guid New Year to ane an a’ and many may ye see”. This is a good New Year of one and all and many more may you see.

And that is my wish for you too in 2013.

This is the response of a wealthy financial adviser to one of his clients, a 47 year old man who wrote complaining that at 47, he had come to realise he was not wealthy, he didn’t want to wait till he was 70 to become rich. I thought you might like it as much as I did so here it is below.

“You are middle aged. Your net worth is meager. Your income is barely sufficient to meet expenses… And those expenses are going up. The Great Recession is looming. Economists are predicting things will get worse. What can you do?

Should you give up your dream of retiring comfortably one day? Should you accept a future of increasingly meager existence? Should you grow bitter and curse the powers that be for putting you in this situation?

Or should you take responsibility for your situation and make changes?

That last question was rhetorical, of course. But sometimes, I wonder if people really do understand their options. There are things that happen in life that we can’t control. But we can control the way we respond to them.

I understand that when you are halfway through your life and are barely making ends meet, it seems like the only chance to become financially successful is to win the lottery (either an actual lottery or the stock market equivalent of one). So it may be frustrating to hear some rich guy from Palm Beach telling you that you can’t quickly turn $25,000 into $1 million by investing in stocks.

But I believe – no, I am certain – that anyone who has modest intelligence and a positive attitude can become financially independent in seven years or less if he or she is willing to work enormously hard.

You do not have to give up on your dream of being wealthy. You always have the ability to change your financial life. It will take a bit of time and patience. And it will require that you change some of the thoughts and feelings you have about wealth and your relationship to wealth.

The first thing you must do is accept the fact that you are solely and completely responsible for your current financial situation. Before you react defensively, read that sentence again… I didn’t say you are the cause of your situation. I said you are responsible for it.
By taking responsibility for your current condition, you also assume responsibility for your future. Nobody can change your fortune but you. And nobody else will. The sooner you accept that reality, the sooner you will shed the anger and blame and begin to feel financially powerful.

I’m not giving you a pep talk. I’m telling you the truth. I’ve done it myself, and I’ve coached dozens of people to do it, too. It is a simple adjustment of your thinking, but it is extremely powerful. It works instantaneously. Without it, you cannot move forward, even by a single inch.

The next thing you must do is set realistic expectations. I’ve had people tell me that they don’t want to make 10% or 15% per year on their money. They think returns like that are “ho-hum.” They want some incredible stock tip or some secret get-rich-quick technique. But when I hear people say that, I think, “This person will never become wealthy.”

Realize that 10%-15% is a high rate of return. Warren Buffett – the most successful investor of all time and the third-richest person on the planet – has averaged 19% on his investments over his entire career.

And realize that the journey to millions of dollars is earned $100 at a time. You must be willing to accept this fact to move your financial life forward. Your financial life is like a train that has stalled. And right now, you want to be driving it at 100 miles an hour. But it can’t go from zero to 100 miles an hour in no time flat. Inertia is against you. Be happy with 10 miles an hour now… and then 20… and then 30. This is how wealth accumulates: gradually at first, but eventually at lightning speed.

The third thing you must do is thoroughly understand the difference between spending, saving, and investing. With every paycheck you get, cover your necessary expenses first (bills, mortgage, etc.). Then put some money toward saving. And then put some money toward investing. Then and only then – after you have “paid yourself” – should you add to your “spending” account.

The fourth thing you must do is recognize that your net investable income (the amount of cash you have after spending and saving) is the single most important factor in determining how quickly you will become wealthy.

Commit to adding to your income with a second income. Make an honest count of the number of hours each month you devote to television and other non-productive activities. Devote them to wealth-building instead. Cast aside the comfortable shoes of victimization. Put on the working boots of a financial hero.

It’s not fun to realize, in the midst of your life, that you haven’t acquired the wealth you want. But the good news is your past doesn’t have to be a prologue… unless you allow it to. You can change your fortunes today by doing the four things I’ve just told you to do.

You are only 47, not 87. You have plenty of time to increase your income and grow your net worth. Why do you assume all is lost when – as any 87-year-old will tell you – you have a whole wonderful life ahead of you… a life that can be rich in 100 ways?”

What do you think?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lessons from Nature

 

Wisley is the flagship garden of the Royal Horticultural Society. It does wonderful show beds and gardens on the grand scale and small, intimate gardens on the scale of a suburban postage stamp.

Wisley also has trial beds where it grows and compares different varieties of plants, both garden flowers and vegetables. The results of these tests are graded and form an important award of merit system for recognised varieties of plants for growers and producers and give a guarantee of standard for consumers.

More recently, they also developed some wonderful orchards growing apple, pear, cherry and other fruit tree varieties.

A walk around Wisley one late summer day produced some wonderful photos and a break from the flat screen. Good to swap virtual reality for some of the real stuff. It’s always good to get some fresh air in the lungs and sunshine on your skin when you want a breather from the internet marketing world. It puts things back in perspective.

A New Start

I started John Thornhill’s Partnership to Success Program a few months ago. The program is meaty and takes you through a lot of ground from setting up on line towards creating and marketing your own product, as well as other activities.

I decided I’d go back to the beginning and review what we’d covered so far. It’s always a good idea when learning something new to make sure you get plenty of hands-on experience of whatever it is you are dealing with, especially when it’s something practical. So, I am going to set up a second website along side the one I am doing with John’s program. That will give me a good opportunity to review what we covered so far, while also making use of the time to get another project moving.

The first lesson with John covers buying a domain name and setting up a blog. If you have never done this before, they are quite simple steps to take once someone has shown you what to do. That, of course, opens the door to a whole new world. For the old hand, these steps are quick and simple to do. So first, I am going to head over to D9 Hosting to see if the website name I want is available.

Now that I have some experience, I am looking forward to rounding it out with some additional activity and examples while exploring some new, interesting areas.

A Big Thank You to D9 Hosting

It seemed like a simple thing to do. Such a small change to make. The instructions were straightforward enough. I pressed “click.”. A quick flash. All done.

Suddenly my website couldn’t be accessed. I tried everything I knew. I looked everywhere I could for ways to undo it. But whatever I did, I could find no way to restore it to the way it had been just a minute before. I’ve really done it this time I thought. . Wait, what about the back up I did not long ago.

It appears there was no back up to be found.

This was turning into my worst nightmare. And now the afternoon was nearly over. This can’t go over until tomorrow, I thought. What to do now?

D9 Support came to the rescue, quickly and effectively and calmly. And shortly, all was back to normal in working operation again.

I have to say, D9 are looking after me well.

Diamond Jubilee

 In Britain we are coming up to the week-end of celebrations for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Lots of decorations are going up and plans for parties and celebrations up and down the country and a public holiday for all next week.

At a time of financial uncertainty such as we have now with bad news blasts about world economies hitting out at us from television at meal times, it is interesting to look back at a Britain at the time of the Queen’s coronation, in 1953. Britain was still recovering from the hardships and privations of war. At the time, the BBC televising  the  Coronation of the Queen at Westminster Abbey and broadcasting it to the nation,  was an extraordinary breakthrough of modern. One million TV sets were specially bought for the occasion so ordinary people could gather together with friends and watch the ceremony at the Abbey in homes up and down the country. Twenty million were reported to have watched it then. 

 How times have changed and how much we have moved on from that moment.

With the development of the computer and internet, new posssiblities are available to us that were beyond dreams then.  And with that comes the possibility to take control over your own finances and crown your own personal future with success. Here’s wishing the goodwil and high spirit of the Diamond Jubilee to all up and down the country and a throughout the Commonwealth and a many more years to the Queen.

 

What a Wonderful World!

Just saw the most fascinating video of shots taken of the Planet Earth from the space station by NASA. The photos range from the fiery green Aurora Australis over the ocean to lightning storms at night over Africa, the moon setting over the horizon as day breaks, and even a comet passing by.

It gives a glimpse of our world from a different perspective, a 24 hours trip as the world rotates around its axis, starting with sunrise as it passes through the day into night, over the jewel lights of London in Great Britain and other cities of Europe then back to the newly waking day.

Takes you out of the daily grind and struggle for a few moments, and lifts you out of this world.

 

 

 

 

D9 Hosting

There are a lot of different hosting sites, offering different degrees of service. Ease of use and assistance to the new website owner venturing out like an old time pioneer into the wild west of the internet may not be the top priority of a large hosting company. So, I was pleased to be introduced to D9 Hosting.

Started by Dan Thompson and Paula Brett in 2007, D9 Hosting offers a wide range of services to people all over the globe. They have a well-thought-out range of packages and rates to cater to different types of users. In particular, D9 has a special interest in helping new people to get started smoothly online and pass through all the complexities the old hand can deal with comfortably. Using their own personal experience to draw on, they give additional suuport to the needs of beginners with on-line videos and other services which are easily accessed. 

Personally I have used their service and found D9 to be very helpful. For example, Paula responded instantly to a chat request and the issue I had was fixed within minutes. I found they have many satisfied users with good word of mouth.

So, I can definitely recommend D9 Hosting with confidence.

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