Singapore - Russia Ties

Okay. This is a picture of a McDonalds in Russia.

Remember the saying than no 2 countries with McDonalds have ever fought a war with each other? It looks like the saying is true indeed as Singapore is going to work even more closely with Russia in the future.

Singapore and Russia are apparently going to partner together to tap opportunities in the world. This was outlined in the 4th Russia-Singapore Business Forum.

Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said: "Russia is strong in innovation and technology, while Singapore has good networks and experience in Asia. Russian technology companies can partner Singapore companies to penetrate markets in Southeast Asia, China and India," he said, adding that these partnerships will enable both parties to take on business opportunities and better manage commercial risks in international markets

Seems like my wish has come true. As Singapore's population is rapidly growing, we should expect more Russians to come and make their homes in Singapore. With that should come more Russian cuisine.


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Super Rich Lose US$300B

Wow! Apparently the super-rich in the U.S. have lost a combined US$300 billion of their networth over the past twelve months. This was according to Forbes annual rankings that were just released. Topping the list in terms of losses is Warren Buffet who lost a whopping US$10billion. (Now that could last me several lifetimes)

Compared to Singapore's 40 Top Richest who managed to increase their networth as a collective whole, I must say that perhaps the U.S. have been hit harder by this economic crisis than the rest of the world.

Out of the Forbes list of 400, only 28 of them managed to add to their overall networth.

But I guess we must still applaud the super rich for getting there in the first place. How do the super rich do it? I guess the best way we can find out is to read their books. Some pointers that we can all learn from their books are summarised here:

1. Always do what you love. When you are passionate about what you do, money will follow.

2. Follow sound financial advice. Try to resist the temptation to make a quick buck.

3. Consult experts when making financial decisions.

4. Buy assets not liabilities. Invest in real estate, stocks and shares.

5. Don't leave too much money sitting around in banks.

6. Have a positive mindset. .

7. Write books (or get others to write books for you if you are too busy) =)


Learn from the super rich here:
1. Donald Trump Lessons
2. Key Lessons From Rich Dad Poor Dad
3. David Bach Automatic Millionaire

Financial Freedom and Your Subconscious Mind

In this article which I found on the internet, it reaffirms the point that I was trying to make in my ten part mini-series about how important it was to have the correct mindset when determining your financial goals. The power of the sub-conscious mind is indeed very powerful and should not be underestimated. Do read the article below to find out more:

You might also like to read these other articles once you are done:
3 Key Lessons From Rich Dad Poor Dad
David Bach Automatic Millionaire
Income Investing - Rental Property

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The Medium for Influencing the Subconscious Mind

Until I started reading, actually absorbing Napoleon Hills book, Think and Grow Rich, I had forgotten that this is a skill my mother taught me for years, without me actually realising it was 'auto-suggestion', as described in Napoleon's book.

Napoleon Hill's book, Think and Grow Rich, Chapter Two, he insists that you write down your Desire's, I believe the beginning of 'one's personal freedom' is the process of writing it all down, it actually anchors your thoughts, it makes them a physical 'being' because these, your thoughts, are now 'written'.

Where does the auto-suggestion come from then?

Napoleon's steps in Chapter Two, Desire, are concise;

1. Decide what the exact amount of money you want!

2. What are you going to give in return for this desired amount of money?

3. Decide a definite date by which this amount of money you desire will be acquired!

4. Create your plan - whether you are ready not, put this plan of desire into action now!

5. Write down a clear and concise statement of the amount of money you desire, how you plan to achieve this and by when and what you plan to give in exchange for this (remember give and thine shall receive or give nothing receive nothing!)

6. Read this statement to yourself morning and night out loud not in your head.

To show you how easy this can be, a plan could look something like this;
"In my first year of business I desire to earn $100,000. To achieve this desired sum, I will coach, mentor, and teach frustrated network marketers to become successful leaders: regardless of their company affiliation and I will do it for free. I intend to reach my desired goal by 31 March 2010 by working daily in my business, helping people to the best of my ability and working through the processes I have set in place to achieve this desire."

All Napoleon Hills requirements are covered in the above, but acquiring this thought process, auto-suggestion, is not easy; it takes repetition, belief in you, commitment and hard work.

Napoleon Hill also recommends belonging to a group that 'Masterminds' his chapters weekly, this can assist learning from others, helps yourself and other 'materminders' to achieve and work through the same process, it can help the belief in yourself and can help them to believe in themselves.

As Napoleon says "thoughts are things, powerful things at that, when they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and a BURNING DESIRE for their translation into riches or other material objects" this can come about.

I'm not here to sell a company or product. I coach, mentor, and teach frustrated network marketers to become successful leaders and I do it for free: Regardless of MLM company affiliation

You can join me, would love to have you come on board


I Appreciate You
Julie McClelland
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Donald Trump Lessons


How can we possibly explore financial freedom without taking a look at the person of Donald Trump and the lessons that he can offer us?

Donald Trump is a billionaire (don't ask me how many zeroes are involved, I am simply confused by that amount) with business interests in real estate, books, television, etc, etc. These are a few key lessons that I have learnt from observing this man.

Never Give Up

Trump has a never say die attitude. He is always trying to do something better and bigger. He probably has his eye on the next project while he is still involved in some other project. After filing for bankruptcy some years back, he is back as one of the richest man on earth. One thing is for sure - this man never gives up!

Multi-Tasking

It seems like this man knows how to multi-task quite a fair bit. Look at his television show The Apperentice and you can see that even for a busy man like himself, he knows how to delegate work such that he even has time to appear on the show! I think that Trump must have great multi-tasking abilities to focus on so many areas like real estate and television at one time.

Confidence

When Trump speaks, he oozes with so much confidence. And that is perhaps the X factor he has. He has been there, done that. He does not try to be a crowd pleaser. He says things as they should be said. He does not try to be politically correct. That is what makes him special. He does not go along with the crowd. He has confidence in what he does and say. This is perhaps the most important factor.


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Avoiding Group Think


So here I am sipping on my caffe latte in Starbucks and I am thinking about something that I read recently at Problogger.

The article basically mentioned why "weak ties" - those ties we have with people outside our normal social circle - might be a more useful source of information compared to strong ties we have with family and existing friends.

The reason given is that people in our social circle usually already share similar values and goals as us. If someone is a teacher, most of their friends will probably be teachers. If you came from a certain junior college, polytechnic or university, your friends that you hang out with are also probably those who have taken the same course as you or were in the same school.

In that sense, the life experiences and exposure they have would have been very similar to yours. That means that they most probably have nothing NEW to offer to you. In addition, because of the need to maintain close ties and come to a consensus, you and your friends will engage in something called Group Think. As they say, highly cohesive groups are likely to engage in groupthink.

If your friends are the partying sort, you will realise that all of them will feel that there is nothing wrong with partying. If your friends are all smokers, they will all have the same attitudes towards smoking. This goes the same way for our financial decisions be it in terms of insurance, investment and the like. The dangers of group think is that we confine ourselves to certain ideas without testing them out in an analytical manner.

Let's take the investment in stocks. Do you use fundamental analysis or technical analysis? What are your approaches and strategy?

Even in the online community, it is easy to engage in groupthink when we find like minded people who will not test out our ideas to see whether it works or not. So sometimes, it pays to find people to argue with. Yes..people who do not accept our ideas!

In this way, we can be exposed to different school of thoughts and learn from people who are not as similar to us in our thinking, actions and behaviour. These "weak ties" will help to strengthen our own thought process and serve as a testing board for our new ideas.

As they say, keep your friends close but your enemies closer.

It is only when we engage people from the opposite camps do we truly grow in terms of our thought process and hopefully our investment decisions.

So next time, try to find some one who disagrees with you and engage with that person. Your goal is not to show him that you are right. Your goal is to listen to his point of view and try to understand why he thinks that way.

The author is trying hard to listen to views from both sides of the FA and TA camp. He tries not to stick to one school of thought unless it works.

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Future of Canroys

Canadian Royalty Trusts are usually energy producers (e.g. oil and natural gas) The trusts give out high dividends because they don't have to pay corporate income taxes if they distribute their income to unit holders (shareholders). Canadian royalty trusts differ from U.S. royalty trusts in that U.S. trusts are not allowed to acquire new properties whereas Canadian royalty trusts can. Canadian trusts are not corporations, and in theory at least, unitholders have unlimited liability for the actions of the trust. In practice, however, most experts consider it unlikely that individual unitholders will ever be held liable for the trusts actions.

Now, that is changing. When certain large corporations announced their intentions to convert to the trust structure, the Canadian government (Tories) changed the rules as they feared a drop in tax income from loss taxes. By 2011, all existing trusts will have to pay taxes similar to that of corporations while newly formed trusts will no longer get any tax incentives that current trusts enjoy.

A trust has only limited oil and natural gas reserves and these reserves are slowly depleted. With the proposed changes and uncertainty looming, access to new capital might be difficult thus making new acquisitions harder. Trusts without sufficient reserves in the ground may be unable to maintain their current distribution levels. Once the tax incentives stop in 2011, trusts might opt to use their profits for capital expansion or new projects instead of distributing them..

So what will happen between today and 2011? Some trusts could convert to regular corporations during this period. Others might be left with no choice but to reduce their distribution as their oil and gas reserves are depleted. Those that are able to step-up their output substantially will also be able to carry on the high distribution.
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Passive Income Sources

I found this really good article on Ezine which I thought I should share with everyone. It basically describes some of the sources of passive income that anyone can get. Here is the article attached below:

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Cash is king!

This aphorism from real estate investing perfectly describes the little known method the rich actually use to accumulate millions of dollars. This report reveals 10 sources of passive income. Put any or all of these sources into place and sit back and watch the dollars roll on with no (or very little) further effort on your part.

If you truly want to get rich and live a life of luxury, then you must master the ability of generating cash flow from passive income sources. Without this ability, your income will be limited to traditional ways of making money, such as working. Working will never free you from having to work. You must do something different than working in order to obtain the income you need to live the lifestyle you desire. Passive income is the key.

Before you begin any investment plan, the first rule is to consult with a qualified investment advisor. By talking over your plan and considering possibilities you may not have considered, you will protect your capital to the greatest degree and help protect it from potential loss whiule multiplying your return.

This article will not consider the cost of entry to any investment nor will we look at rates of return. These will fluctuate - possibly every year or even over the course of a year- depending on the economy, conditions set by the SEC and other regulatory bodies and the IRS. This article will consider only the 20 possible sources of passive income; you will need to conduct further research to determine if any investment is appropriate for you.

1. ETF's - Exchange Traded Funds - This is a fund that tracks the performance of an index such as the Dow Jones or Standard and Poor 500, a basket of assets or a commodity. Trading in the same manner as a stock, its price will vary according to the days trading demands. Benefits of owning an ETF include the ability to buy short, buy on margin and to buy as little as one share. Expense ratios are often lower than mutual funds. A common ETF is called a spider - SPDR - and tracks the S&P 500 index. Look for the symbol SPY to research or to purchase.

2. REIT - Real Estate Investment Trust - One of my favorite investments because you own a portion of the real estate (or mortgages) the trust invests in. These also trade like a stock on the exchanges. An Equity REIT buys ownership (equity) in properties while a Mortgage REIT buys the mortgages on properties. Two key advantages to owning an REIT are the tax advantages and the liquidity of the security - you trade it just like a stock.

3. Canadian Oil and Gas Trust - This is an organization that invests in oil and/or gas production and possibly mining in Canada. Several of these are now trading on the American (US) exchanges. Purchase is the same as purchasing a stock in any other company. Tax advantages are similar to those of an REIT and a big advantage - the one I like the most - is that some of these trusts pay ridiculously high dividends - and they pay monthly! My advice: do your research, find a Canadian Oil and Gas Trust you like and then invest as much as you can.

4. MLP - Master Limited Partnership - Want a limited partnership that you can sell or trade as easily as a stock? Enter the Master Limited Partnership. These hybrid organizations feature the limited liability of a partnership while enabling you to trade the partnership units - investment units - just as you would a stock. What could be better? A MLP offers distributable cash flow as well as income and these terms must be mastered and understood before a reasoned decision can be made regarding the purchase of an MLP for your investment portfolio.

5. Annuities - Who has not heard of an annuity? But do you know how they work? Let's keep this simple: an annuity is nothing more than a contract you sign with an insurance company that guarantees to pay you a certain set amount of income over a period of time. You pay for an annuity upon signing and then the insurance company repays you the amount of your investment plus the "profits" (we'll keep this simple and not use the technical term) over a period of several (or many) years. These are generally considered safe stable investments appropriate for a conservative portfolio.

6. TIPS - Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities - Offered by the U.S Treasury, these are securities that are indexed to the rate of inflation meaning your dividend will increase as the rate of inflation increases. A TIPS pays interest every six months and pays the principal upon maturity. Also a conservative investment, you may want to consider these if you are looking to preserve and protect capital from the ravages of inflation while providing a consistent and dependable income, but your money may not grow at the rate you would prefer - but then we aren't looking at capital appreciation anyway.

7. Dividend Paying Stocks - Finally we get to what is perhaps the most familiar method of passive income. Anyone who knows anything about Wall Street knows that companies pay dividends to people who own their stock. Right? Well, most of the time , if it is a well known and established company. Many newer and smaller companies will use their income to grow the company instead of paying dividends and any company that incurs financial trouble may stop paying dividends. So if you are going to buy stock to acquire the income make sure the company has a track record of paying dividends. The best known American companies - commonly referred to as the "Blue Chips" are also the companies that traditionally have paid the best dividends. As with all other investments, research is necessary to capture the best dividends and target those companies with the best potential in future years.

8. Covered Calls - This is a passive investment instrument that is often considered risky. But it is not. A covered call is selling the option to buy stock that you own. You do not sell the stock, you only sell the option to buy that stock at a future price and time. The person buying the covered call buys the option at the price you agree upon - actually at which the market agrees upon - and you just set back and forget it. Well, not quite. The person who has bought the option has the right to buy your stock at any time between the time you sold the option and the expiration of that option. Writing (selling) a covered call is the only options investment that is considered safe enough by the IRS to be included in a 401K or other retirement plans. But you must do your homework and thoroughly understand the world of options before using this method.

9. Real Estate - Everyone knows what real estate is and everyone knows - or at least is intuitively aware - that big money can be made from real estate. Real estate provides tax advantages as well as the opportunity to highly leverage your investment - leverage being a factor that is limited or absent in many other investments. Many real estate advisors and gurus insist that the one house at a time or the flipper strategy or fixer upper or wholesale method or other flavor of the month is the absolute best way to make money in real estate. Generally speaking, avoid all that. Making big money - meaning massive income - in real estate is possible with highly leveraged deals which are a certainty only in commercial property. Multiple family properties, office buildings, retail facilities and warehouses would all constitute commercial property. Of these, the best strategy is to invest in multiple family properties. The bigger, the better. This requires knowledge and education more than it requires capital. Capital can always be acquired through your network, but knowledge is the one ingredient that will make this passive investment method work. And, with a big property, the income from that one property may be all you need to secure your retirement - today!

10. Business Ownership - No, this isn't what you think. Owning a small business for most people is worse than working 9 to 5. In your own small business you get caught up in the details, trying to make the business go, searching for a market, dealing with customers; it quickly becomes more than a full-time job. That's OK if that's what you love to do. But, what we mean here is starting a business or franchise with the short term goal of handing it off to someone to run. The faster you can do this the better. If you can do it from the very beginning so much the better - the more time you free for yourself, the more time you will have to enjoy and/or create more passive income sources. A book that will help you is The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber, another is the Four Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris. Both of these books will help you structure your business ownership in a way that frees you of actually running the business yourself - margaritas on the beach anybody?

As this article is already so long, we will create a Part 2. Passive income source number 11 is Private Lending - a relatively new income source and we will also look at a few others you may not be familiar with.

All of these sources require work to set up, but once established, they can be structured to run hands free. The two books mentioned in item 10 above will help you structure your passive income sources to be truly hands free income.

Perry Jones,millionaire1000.com
results by jpnelson.blogspot.com
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