I have to tell you that I have not, so far kept my end of the deal. I started this to show everyone how it can be done and I'm not getting it done. In other words, I'm not getting out of my way. Oh, I have a bunch of rational excuses, which I don't feel the need to bore you with. I'd rather tell you the results so far, that is that I have not called on any properties (I did call on a lead my son Harrison gave me, and that turned out to be a list, not a property.) I've written a few down, but have not followed up on any. Even the two mobile homes I mentioned in the last post.
So, I have to ask myself, what's it going to take to get this done? I wrote down a few things and one thing that I came up with was that I'm sitting in an amusement park and watching everyone else ride the rides. Of course, if this was a fair comparison, I'd be sitting here with hundreds of people, and only about twenty of us would be actually riding. The rest of us would either be too scared to ride, or even more appropriately, would be running the rides, working for the park. But I digress. What I came up with is this: why would anyone go to an amusement park alone? That's not much fun. You always have much more fun if you go with friends. That made me think about it. Yeah, we aren't going into business to have fun, right? Well, no - that's not right! We need to have fun even if we make money at it. What's wrong with that? We need to have fun even if we fail to make money at it. That's the only way we learn. Granted, it's not as much fun when we fail, but the attitude to have fun should still be there, regardless. Think about it. If you can have fun when you fail, nothing will stop you!
Anyway, I was sitting outside trying to figure out what is wrong with me. It's like I'm completely shut down. I suppose it's that fear of failure; fear of looking bad. I'm even afraid of looking bad in front of people who I don't even know, or mean very little to me. (Granted, strangers are starting to mean a lot more to me than they used to. After all, we're all in this together, right?) I realize the rule that we need to fail to learn. You won't learn to ride a bike by reading a book about it (are there really any books written about that?) Reading about knowledge is only a first step - kind of like dreaming about something you want. It's great, and it's a start, but that's all. You have to get off your butt and do something. And the more you do and know in your mind you are definitely going to get it, the closer you'll be to getting it.
See? I know all this shit, I just don't practice it. I guess I'm too scared. How do I get unscared?
Thinking back to the amusement park comparison and how no one likes to go alone, no matter how much fun the rides are, I realized that I need to find someone to go through this with me. Now, I know that that is what this blog is supposed to be about (partly) and that Jeanette didn't go through her ordeal with a partner. I just think that in business, at some point you need to understand that you can't do everything alone. At least you can't expect to have much success. It's not like losing a few (or even 200) pounds. You don't need to report how many pounds you lost to the IRS, and if you don't make it, they won't come and take your house away. Nor do most peoples' families depend on you losing any amount of weight, unless your weight is killing you (which could be a possibility.) In business, there is too much for one person to know, at least at the level of detail required to have success - even if you only own one rental property. Now, I've managed my properties for years, and even done the books for them. But I can say that if I had to do it over again, I wouldn't have done it that way. I think that is part of the reason I only have two investment properties, and one isn't even rented! Down deep, I hate managing them, and my default thought is that I have to do everything myself. What an awful catch-22!
The bottom line is that I must build my team. Someone to go through it with me would be nice, but if I just have someone to talk to about it, and they are actually contributing to my success, then success will find me. Don't get me wrong - I talk to Cathy about it, but we're kind of the blind leading the blind at this point. I consider Cathy like a part of me. I think you know what I mean. At least I hope you do.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
The start of something big
I've been struggling with myself over getting off my ass and getting something done about our financial situation. Let me spell it out. Right now we are somewhere in the area of $100,000 in credit card debt, are paying two mortgages, the CC companies are after us because we quit paying them over a year ago, and we're still struggling to pay our bills, mainly due to the two mortgages. Not to mention that we owe the IRS another $5000. We have been contemplating filing for bankruptcy, as it has been suggested that it is probably not only our best choice, but our only one.
Okay so that's our sob story. I say 'our' because it's not just me. I include my wife, Cathy, and my son, Ben in all of this. I have two older sons as well, but they, for now, are deciding to go it on their own. I haven't had a 'real' job since 2002. We inherited some money when my great aunt passed away a year before that, and I decided to try my hand at stock trading. After two years, we were pretty much out of money and Cathy decided it was best if she got a job. Actually, it was a year or so after that. Bottom line, we were in a pretty deep hole already.
I'm lucky to have Cathy. We just celebrated our 10th anniversary yesterday. She lets me play in bands (granted it makes a little cash, but not nearly a living) as well as do my entrepreneurial stuff. I've been in a network marketing company for about 5 years now. I can't say I haven't learned anything, but I also have not been able to build a profitable business. Totally on me, not the company. I just have a hard time staying focused and motivated to do the things necessary for success.
I recently got inspired, however, by a book that was written by a lady name Jeanette Fulda. Strangely, it is not even close to being a financial pump-you-up kind of book. As a matter of fact, it would usually be put among the 'weight-loss' books. The book is called Half-Assed. She goes step-by-step through the arduous task of losing half her weight, and it's not like she was like 250 or anything. We're talking 375 down to 175. She does not make it sound easy. She includes all of the little thoughts that went through her head, especially when she was starting her program. I started getting the idea that if I could figure out a simple plan, and use her model of losing weight through the simplicity of 'eating the right food and moving [her] body' - only use an equivalent simple plan of daily actions of financial good health, I would be able to get our family, first to a point of having what most people (in our country, anyway) consider to be a 'normal' way of life; and expanding that to what most people would consider an 'upper class' way of life.
The main thing I noticed that she did was start a blog, and note her progress on it. At first it seemed like simply record-keeping. Then, when people came on and encouraged her, it became the main source of encouragement. She didn't want to let all the people down who were following her progress. Talk about brilliant!
So, I started, once again, thinking how I could help my situation using some of her ideas. First, I know I must put some 'vision' into this. What do we want? At least initially? Let's get into specifics. Before I got into those details, though, I knew I must start a blog. I've done it a couple times before, so it wasn't completely overwhelming to me. I just didn't keep up with it, like a lot of other things in my life. 'Course I'm sure no one can relate.
Okay, so I figure I'll use the same time frame - two years. Seems like enough time to accomplish something fairly lofty, but not get lost in it. So in two years, I have the debt completely gone plus a passive income of $1000 a month. Too small? How about $4000, which would engulf my wife's income and enable her to quit her job. Yeah, that will work. That puts an added incentive in there, besides just money. Not that there's anything wrong with money. I've just heard that if you can have a non-monetary goal, that gives you a better chance at actually achieving it. I don't know where I heard it - probably one of the many self-help books that seem to have gone from actually helping me know anything to just being another source of entertainment.
Alright, I've got the time frame and the actual (initial) goal. Now a simple daily plan of action to achieve it. I've tried out a lot of things that had great promise of income 'while you sleep.' The only thing I ever did in my life that even had a clue that it would work for me (and still does) is real estate. Everything else I ever did besides the J.O.B. route didn't really net me any money. Whether is was my fault or not, I don't know. I do know the things that made sense and seemed like they should do well, and the things that I still collect dollars from when the month is done and over with. Real estate investing is that.
Now I've been in the real estate investing business for about 20 years. It's been consistent, as far as having a cash flow is concerned, but I've never taken it to completely get me out of the rat race, which, by Robert Kiyosaki's (Rich Dad, Poor Dad) definition, means that your passive income pays all of your expenses. THAT'S where I want to be.
I've taken enough courses now to just get me into the higher gear of this business, and to be extremely dangerous to my financial existence - that is if I'm not careful. Either way, my physical existence will be okay, in other words nobody's going to die here, but I do have my family to think about. All I really need to do is have a good idea of the simple, daily things I must do to achieve this goal. It's going to take some self-discipline, but so does losing 200 pounds. Basically, all I need to do is copy down numbers off of signs in yards and out of ads on Craigslist that look like the people who put them there really need to sell there place and don't really know what to do. That's where I come in. I'm here to help. They also need to help me help them. Not every one of them will except my help, but that's okay.
What I don't know are all of the tiny details of writing a proper contract. I have a general outline, and know the really important things to put in there to CMA. I'll just have to have a lawyer help me with the particulars, and my buddies at the Investor's Club if I get into other jams. Fortunately, I won't need that lawyer unless I am actually going to close on a property, and since my first deals will go through (so I plan) without me even taking possession, my liability should be at a minimum.
Anyway, I don't have to think about that stuff right now. All I need to do is call these folks, and follow up, until I get an answer as to if it's time to send them a contract. I'll go through what I can do for them, and they'll either be okay with it, or not, or need to think about it.
And I'll be taking you all along with me. I plan to stay with this, as Jeanette did, to at least the end of my initial goal, so, when (if?) I succeed, anyone will be able to know that this can work, and the actual process, even if you have a small amount of knowledge. How's that?
Right now, I've got two people I want to call - a couple of mobile homes from Craigslist. It's a start. I'll let you know how it's going in a day or two. Bye for now!
Okay so that's our sob story. I say 'our' because it's not just me. I include my wife, Cathy, and my son, Ben in all of this. I have two older sons as well, but they, for now, are deciding to go it on their own. I haven't had a 'real' job since 2002. We inherited some money when my great aunt passed away a year before that, and I decided to try my hand at stock trading. After two years, we were pretty much out of money and Cathy decided it was best if she got a job. Actually, it was a year or so after that. Bottom line, we were in a pretty deep hole already.
I'm lucky to have Cathy. We just celebrated our 10th anniversary yesterday. She lets me play in bands (granted it makes a little cash, but not nearly a living) as well as do my entrepreneurial stuff. I've been in a network marketing company for about 5 years now. I can't say I haven't learned anything, but I also have not been able to build a profitable business. Totally on me, not the company. I just have a hard time staying focused and motivated to do the things necessary for success.
I recently got inspired, however, by a book that was written by a lady name Jeanette Fulda. Strangely, it is not even close to being a financial pump-you-up kind of book. As a matter of fact, it would usually be put among the 'weight-loss' books. The book is called Half-Assed. She goes step-by-step through the arduous task of losing half her weight, and it's not like she was like 250 or anything. We're talking 375 down to 175. She does not make it sound easy. She includes all of the little thoughts that went through her head, especially when she was starting her program. I started getting the idea that if I could figure out a simple plan, and use her model of losing weight through the simplicity of 'eating the right food and moving [her] body' - only use an equivalent simple plan of daily actions of financial good health, I would be able to get our family, first to a point of having what most people (in our country, anyway) consider to be a 'normal' way of life; and expanding that to what most people would consider an 'upper class' way of life.
The main thing I noticed that she did was start a blog, and note her progress on it. At first it seemed like simply record-keeping. Then, when people came on and encouraged her, it became the main source of encouragement. She didn't want to let all the people down who were following her progress. Talk about brilliant!
So, I started, once again, thinking how I could help my situation using some of her ideas. First, I know I must put some 'vision' into this. What do we want? At least initially? Let's get into specifics. Before I got into those details, though, I knew I must start a blog. I've done it a couple times before, so it wasn't completely overwhelming to me. I just didn't keep up with it, like a lot of other things in my life. 'Course I'm sure no one can relate.
Okay, so I figure I'll use the same time frame - two years. Seems like enough time to accomplish something fairly lofty, but not get lost in it. So in two years, I have the debt completely gone plus a passive income of $1000 a month. Too small? How about $4000, which would engulf my wife's income and enable her to quit her job. Yeah, that will work. That puts an added incentive in there, besides just money. Not that there's anything wrong with money. I've just heard that if you can have a non-monetary goal, that gives you a better chance at actually achieving it. I don't know where I heard it - probably one of the many self-help books that seem to have gone from actually helping me know anything to just being another source of entertainment.
Alright, I've got the time frame and the actual (initial) goal. Now a simple daily plan of action to achieve it. I've tried out a lot of things that had great promise of income 'while you sleep.' The only thing I ever did in my life that even had a clue that it would work for me (and still does) is real estate. Everything else I ever did besides the J.O.B. route didn't really net me any money. Whether is was my fault or not, I don't know. I do know the things that made sense and seemed like they should do well, and the things that I still collect dollars from when the month is done and over with. Real estate investing is that.
Now I've been in the real estate investing business for about 20 years. It's been consistent, as far as having a cash flow is concerned, but I've never taken it to completely get me out of the rat race, which, by Robert Kiyosaki's (Rich Dad, Poor Dad) definition, means that your passive income pays all of your expenses. THAT'S where I want to be.
I've taken enough courses now to just get me into the higher gear of this business, and to be extremely dangerous to my financial existence - that is if I'm not careful. Either way, my physical existence will be okay, in other words nobody's going to die here, but I do have my family to think about. All I really need to do is have a good idea of the simple, daily things I must do to achieve this goal. It's going to take some self-discipline, but so does losing 200 pounds. Basically, all I need to do is copy down numbers off of signs in yards and out of ads on Craigslist that look like the people who put them there really need to sell there place and don't really know what to do. That's where I come in. I'm here to help. They also need to help me help them. Not every one of them will except my help, but that's okay.
What I don't know are all of the tiny details of writing a proper contract. I have a general outline, and know the really important things to put in there to CMA. I'll just have to have a lawyer help me with the particulars, and my buddies at the Investor's Club if I get into other jams. Fortunately, I won't need that lawyer unless I am actually going to close on a property, and since my first deals will go through (so I plan) without me even taking possession, my liability should be at a minimum.
Anyway, I don't have to think about that stuff right now. All I need to do is call these folks, and follow up, until I get an answer as to if it's time to send them a contract. I'll go through what I can do for them, and they'll either be okay with it, or not, or need to think about it.
And I'll be taking you all along with me. I plan to stay with this, as Jeanette did, to at least the end of my initial goal, so, when (if?) I succeed, anyone will be able to know that this can work, and the actual process, even if you have a small amount of knowledge. How's that?
Right now, I've got two people I want to call - a couple of mobile homes from Craigslist. It's a start. I'll let you know how it's going in a day or two. Bye for now!
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