Cash Flow: Watch Your Wealth Grow!

Cash flow came up the other day in an interesting conversation with a friend over a Starbucks coffee. He knew that I like investing in real estate but he wanted to know how real estate investing grows wealth. Now, I knew that my friend has an analytical mind and I know that in his question, he would be analyzing every word that came from my mouth. So, I thought about his question for a few seconds and realized that I had to give him an answer that would satisfy has curious mind. I then picked up a Starbucks brown napkin and wrote four terms: cash flow, equity, depreciation, and appreciation.

Grow Your Wealth By: (1) Cash Flow

First, I told him that real estate investing provides for gross spendable income or as we say in the real estate investing, cash flow. I asked him to imagine buying a property for 60% of the market value, using the bank to finance the property and then renting the property out for twice the mortgage that you are paying on it. He said that “it sounds good!” I said, that’s cash flow making you wealthy!

Grow Your Wealth By: (2) Equity

Second, in addition to cash flow, now take the same property and hold on to it for a number of years. Let your tenant pay your down your mortgage. This means that the debt on the property is decreasing and your equity is increasing. The equity in the house is a valuable asset. It can be used as leverage to buy another property to start the process over again. I asked him, still sounding good? He replied, keep going. I said, that’s how you grow your wealth!

Grow Your Wealth By: (3) Depreciation

Thirdly, I said after considering the cash flow and equity take the same property and deduct the cost of depreciation for the wear and tear on the house by the tenant. Then you use that depreciation as a loss on your taxes. This could save you thousands on your taxes. I asked, “still with me” he nodding his head. I said, this how savings in taxes grows your wealth!

Grow Your Wealth By: (4) Appreciation

Lastly, I said consider cash flow, equity, depreciation, and now add in appreciation to the property. I told him that the savvy real estate investor makes money when he buys a real estate deal not when he sells. Remember I told him to imagine buying this property at 60% of the market value? This means that in a worst case scenario, the property should appraise for what you bought it for. So you would not lose any money. The upside of appreciation is that the property will more than likely rise in value and become more of a good investment over time. I said, are you still concerned about growing your wealth?

After about 10 minutes of my back of a napkin presentation, I asked him if he could find the same benefits by investing in stocks, bonds or precious metals. He said no. He thought that what I explained to him sounded good but, was still wondered if he could grow wealth by investing in real estate. I said yes, I am doing it now!

Conclusion

My friend was so impressed with my presentation that he bought my favorite Starbucks coffee. He had learned four ways to grow wealth by investing in real estate. He had learned all about (1) cash-flow; (2) equity; (3) depreciation; and (4) appreciation. He asked about how he could learn more. I hope that you do to! If you would like to learn what I am teaching my friends and clients, come to The Book On Investing to learn about my Savvy Investor Program.

Real Estate Investing 101: Looking at the Numbers

Real estate investing means you must look at the numbers. Would you love to invest in real estate but that don’t quite understand the numbers enough to make an informed decision? I am often asked, “How do you determine if a deal is a good real estate investment? Well, I use a simple formula when I evaluate a property in a real estate investing deal is to determine if it’s a good candidate for a rental with positive cash flow. This formula also allows me to determine if I need to use a different strategy to make a real estate investing deal profitable.

Take this house below as an example.

The purchase price of the property in this real estate investing deal was $80,000, and it rents for $900 per month. Therefore $900 monthly rent x 12months = $10,800 per year. The expenses would include 10% property management fee ($1,080 per year), annual taxes of $1,000(per year) and annual insurance of about $600 (per year). This equates to $10,800 rent per year – $2,680 yearly expenses (PM, Taxes, Insurance) = $8,120 per year.

In addition to the above expenses, I would also add another 10% for unexpected maintenance and vacancies. Therefore, $8,120 – $812 (10%) = net $7,380 yearly positive net cash flow from this real estate investing deal.

Once you have the net cash flow figure, this figure is then divided by the purchase price of $80,000 and then you will get a sum of 0.0913 which would mean a cash on cash return of 9.13% from this real estate investing deal.

As you can see, this is a pretty good return on investment from this real estate investing deal. These numbers are based on a cash purchase but could even look better if you used leverage or financed using the bank’s money.

To learn how we help you create the life of their dreams through real estate investments, contact us at The Book On Investing or RADAR Investments, Its Always On !

My Business Dream Team

As a real estate investor I have created a business dream team to help me achieve my goals. Now I teach real estate investors and other entrepreneurs how to do the same. My new program, “, “The Ultimate Guide to Building Your Business Dream Team™”, is designed to help real estate investors and other entrepreneurs learn how to focus on the things that they do best and delegate the rest. This program will help entrepreneurs be less transactional and more transformational.

In my book, “The Book On Investing™” , I write about how I am able to buy and sell properties, sight unseen, and make handsome profits. I am able to leverage the skills and expertise of my powerful business dream team to accomplish much more that I could do on my own.
Below is the process that I used to buy and sell my first real estate investment property.

Dream Team Member #1 – Marketing Person. This real estate deal was a property that was located 300 miles from where I live. A motivated seller contacted me after receiving info from my marketing firm. I contracted out to a marketing firm. That gave me the best return and response rate.
Dream Team Member #2– Real Estate Agent. I immediately put the house under contract. The contract was generated from my automated contract writing system. I then located a local Real Estate Agent. I added this Real Estate Agent to my business dream team to get comparable sales in that neighborhood. In addition, this Real Estate Agent continues to provide me with real estate investment leads.
Dream Team Member #3- Property Inspector. From the Real Estate Agent’s contacts, I was able to add a local property inspector and handyman. The inspector reviewed the house and provided me with repair estimates. This property inspector is now a trusted partner of my business dream team. I use him frequently to inspect and repair other houses.
Dream Team Member #4– Property Buyer- Through my property inspector I was introduced to another real estate investor who buys properties with cash. I was able to sell this property to this cash buyer. The cash buyer is now an integral part of my business dream team.
Dream Team Member #5– Closing Attorney. Through my contacts with the property buyer, I was able to make contact with a local Real Estate Settlement Attorney. This Attorney handled all of legal issue associated with the purchasing and selling of this property. The attorney handled the title search, escrow management, and all of the legal paper work.
Because of the work I put into building a team, the purchase and sale of this property went forward without a hitch. I used this experience to develop a blueprint for constructing a dynamic business dream team that can be adapted to any business.
To learn more about how I can help you build your business dream team to help you achieve your goals, visit “The Ultimate Guide to Building Your Business Dream Team™”. Sign up today and get your free report!

Growing Wealth in 2016

To grow the wealth necessary to live the life of your dreams, you will need a mechanism to do so. It doesn’t matter if your dream is having luxuries beyond your wildest imagination or helping out family members or the local charity of your choice. You need the money and assets to help you accomplish your dreams and goals.

In this New Year, learning how to be wealthy in today’s economy is as much “art” as it is “science” – but both are learnable. It’s not a mystery, and the fact that it’s been repeated throughout history, over and over, in every culture testifies to the fact that yes, indeed, you can learn how to get rich. Sitting on your couch playing video games is probably not going to make you rich, but digging ditches for the next 50 years probably won’t either. So how can you become rich?

1.) Grow Wealth: Invest in Real Estate

This is my favorite way to get rich! Buying real estate has been one of the surest ways to get rich since before there was money. As you know everyone needs it and, as Mark Twain so eloquently stated, “they’re not making it anymore.” There are numerous paths to wealth in real estate, but it generally revolves around buying property that brings in more income than it costs to own, and holding on to that property until the prices go up.

You can start building your real estate empire right now by reading my book The Book On Investing:The Ultimate Guide for the Savvy Investor.

2.) Grow Wealth: Invest in the Stock Market

The stock market can be an incredible source of wealth for you and your family. There are a lot of different ways to invest in the stock market. From penny stocks to mutual funds to options and more – there is enough to easily make your head spin. If stocks are going to be your chosen path to getting rich – don’t simply throw your money at random companies. Take time to fully investigate the kind of investing you want to do and follow other investors within that niche to learn how they have made their fortunes.

3.) Grow Wealth: Start an Internet Business

Many internet entrepreneurs are building pretty substantial wealth through online websites and web companies. One of the most significant benefits for starting an online business is that barrier to entry is much lower, as you don’t need buildings, employees, merchandise, or other expensive items to begin – just a computer and some ingenuity. To find out more about starting or building and internet business go to My Biz Dream Team.

4.) Start a Traditional Business

Although a lot of the shopping in the world is moving online, brick and mortar businesses are still the cornerstone of our economic system. For example, you could move to an area where the economy is thriving (North Dakota) and start a business to serve the oil and gas workers in that area. Building wealth through a traditional business is built by selling either services or products to consumers or other businesses.

5.) Grow Wealth: Save Your Money

Finally, there is the good old fashion way to get rich: slowly. Save your money, each and every month, and you’ll grow wealthy just by principle. For example, if you make the average American salary, around $50,000 per year, and can live frugally to save half of your income – you could bury your cash under your mattress for 40 years and retire with a cool million bucks.

Or, if you took that money and invested in real estate, earning an average return of 12% per year, you could have $26,389,054.18 after 40 years. This is why I choose investing in real estate rather saving my way to riches.

Conclusion:

These are the top five ways that you can use to build wealth in today’s economy.

To learn how we are helping our clients achieve success by investing in real estate and in businesses, please join us at The Book On Investing. Also, if you are interested in investing in real estate, join us at RADAR Investments

The Six Reasons to Invest in Real Estate Now: Will You Let This Opportunity Pass You By?

If you want to achieve the life of your dreams, you will need a mechanism to do so. It doesn’t matter if your dream is having luxuries beyond your wildest imagination or helping out family members or the local charity of your choice. You need the money and assets to help you accomplish your dreams.

An interesting article from noted real estate investor and entrepreneur, Charissa Crawley confirmed my thesis. Ms. Crawley gives six reasons why you should be investing in real estate now. Here they are:

1. Passive Monthly Income – By investing now and using your head to perform some simple calculations, you can ensure that you have more money left over at the end of the month than you need. This positive cash flow is like a gift that keeps on giving because it will show up in your mailbox every month whether you’re there to meet it or not. $200-$300 per month may not seem like a lot of money. But when you have 5, 10, or even 20 checks like that coming in that you don’t require you to do some repetitive or backbreaking job, a seemingly inconsequential amount of money can suddenly look pretty good.

2. Security – A small child may rely on a blanket, a pacifier, or a thumb for a sense of security. Recent events have demonstrated that — while we may be older — we still like to feel confident that we have options during scary financial times. Owning real estate gives you that same feeling because you know that regardless of what happens you still have options that offer you financial security.

3. Depreciation – Thanks to the generosity of the U.S. Congress, real estate allows you to take an annual tax deduction for the loss in value of your real estate. Ironically, while you are busily taking a tax deduction for the lost value, the actual worth of your property may be going up. Recently real estate has taken a temporary hit in terms of value in many places in this country right. But you get the depreciation credit even when real estate values increase (which is most of the time).

4. Capital Gains – Whenever you purchase something and its value rises while you own it, the federal tax code requires you to pay a special tax on that item when you sell it. Fortunately, no tax is due until you sell it. While there are a couple of steps involved, you can also extend the time you have to pay that tax in the event that you do sell it, which is a major benefit to all those who are able to capitalize on this little quirk of the tax code.

5. Appreciation – Real estate appreciates – increases in value – far more frequently than it loses value. With these increases come the opportunities for you to add to your net worth. You’ll still have the monthly income your positive cash flow provides, and you also have a second way to cash in on real estate. A third way is if you bought it at a great price. You could look at the trickle of monthly income as a down payment on the flood of cash that will come your way through appreciation – value you can benefit from by selling the property or by pulling equity out to help fund future purchases or use for anything you like.

6. Pride of Ownership – Do you remember how proud you felt when you got your first car? It may have been a beat up Chevy, but it was yours. Imagine how your chest will swell with pride when you drive down the street or fly to a different city across the globe to look at your house. You realize that you own another just like it across the street, and several others that are even nicer just around the corner. There’s no better feeling in the world than knowing that you own something that so many others only dream about.

Conclusion:

There are lots of great reasons why you should want to own real estate now. These are just a few of them. If you are smart, then you will begin to build a portfolio of appreciating assets that will add to your net worth on a year to year basis.

To learn about how we can help you achieve success by investing in real estate and in businesses, please join us at either The Book on Investing or RADAR Investments.

Real Estate Entrepreneurship is the Shape of Things to Come- Why Everyone Will Have to Become an Entrepreneur

People frequently ask me why we started our real estate investing company, Radar Investments, It’s Always On! My reply is always the same. We saw a problem in the real estate industry and we believed that we could provide a solution. Our coaches always told us that the most reward comes to those who solve the biggest problems. Radar Investments was created with the goal of helping people with their distressed property issues.

A recent article by Anna Vital and Alexandr Unak entitled, “Everyone Will Have to Become an Entrepreneur”, http://fundersandfounders.com/everyone-will-have-to-become-an-entrepreneur/, suggest that the businesses and companies are replacing workers with entrepreneurs. Why are these businesses and companies hiring entrepreneurs over the traditional workers? Because entrepreneurs bring certain skill sets to companies that other workers do not. Entrepreneurs understand how to solve problems and create value.

Entrepreneurs learn how to see a problem in a business model or system and they begin to think about solutions to solve a problem. In the real estate business, we saw a problem with the number with the houses that were on the market that people wanted to sell but could not for one reason or the other. We saw the opportunity to create value for these property owners by helping sell their properties to other buyers outside of the traditional real estate sales model. In this scenario, the seller disposes the unwanted property, the buyer gets a great home to live in or fix up and resell and we get paid for bringing the two parties together.

Using this formula, entrepreneurs like myself, are partly responsible for the housing recovery that is currently taking place all across America. This is a very good thing indeed. If the American economy is to fully recover, entrepreneurs with the ability to solve problems and create value will lead the way.

At our website, www.thebookoninvesting.com, and in our book , The Book on Investing we share with you ideas on how you can use real estate entrepreneurship as a means to survive the new economy. Your plan should consist of investing in real estate, and developing or buying businesses.

Conclusion
In The Savvy Investor Program™, we teach you how to create your own economy. We help you get off the treadmill. Remember that with real estate investing as one part of your financial plan, you can create the life of your dreams by following a few time-proven strategies and techniques. Today, buy your copy of The Book on Investing.

Share this post and link with your friends so that they can buy a copy of the book also. Let us know about other topics that you would like for us to discuss.

How the Wealthy Use Real Estate Investments to Buy Luxuries: Boys (and Girls) With Their “Toys”!

One of my wealthy business coaches taught me a four part formula for creating generational wealth. He said first, you need to build a business. Second, reinvest in your business. Third, invest in real estate. Fourth, buy luxuries.

The fourth part in the formula is what I am writing about today… using your real estate investments to buy your luxuries. Luxuries or “toys,” include cars, boats, trips or any non-asset that costs a considerable amount of money. I emphasize non-asset because if it’s not making you money, it is a non-asset.

Did you know that the average term of a new car note stretches out more than five years to 65 months? This is the longest average term ever reported. Seventeen percent of all new car loans in the fourth quarter of 2012 were actually between 73 and 84 months, and some notes stretched as long as 97 months. Just four years ago, only 11 percent of loans were in the 73-to-84 month category. Experts warned that long term car loans seriously present a heightened risk for consumers because it takes so long for consumers to reach a point where they owe less on the car than it is worth. Although “underwater” cars are pretty common and generally do not come with the emotional issues that underwater houses do, they still are extremely hard to trade or sell when you can no longer afford the payments.

Today, most mid-size sedans cost in the range of $20,000 to $30,000. The higher end luxury cars cost $40,000 and up to $80,000 or more. Now I know that there is nothing like driving a brand new car. The automobile is embedded into the American culture. Like most men my age, I like high end luxury sports automobiles. However, using the formula taught to me by my coach, I have learned to use my assets to purchase the “toys” that I want.

Instead of paying cash or financing a car like most people, just imagine taking your money and buying a house or commercial property either with cash or using the money as a down payment. You can then rent the house or lease the property and use the positive cash flow from the rent to finance your dream car. This way, you use the asset to pay for your “toy” while preserving your capital in the property. In addition, you get all the benefits of depreciation, appreciation, and tax savings on your real estate investment.

This is how wealthy people create and maintain wealth while living a life filled with luxurious “toys.” You too can let your business or your asset pay for your “toys”.

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From Coffee Cans and Mattresses to 401Ks: Where Do You Stash your Cash?

Where do you stash your cash? Are you one of the millions of Americans who is giving your hard earned money over to money managers charging exorbitant fees to invest in the stock market? Or, are you blindly pouring money into your 401K plan hoping that it keeps going up? Do you know what you are getting as a return on investment on your cash? Well, a recent article in CNN Money (http://economy.money.cnn.com/2013/03/22/american-householdwealth/) suggests that people are getting poorer while the investment companies and money managers who direct your 401K accounts are getting richer investing your money.

According to the article, which was based on recently released Census Bureau statistics, the median net worth of American households was $68,828 in 2011, down from $81,821 in 2000 (adjusting for inflation). Overall, median household net worth fell by $12,993, or 16 percent, between 2000 and 2011. Median household net worth showed no statistically significant change between 2010 and 2011.That means no growth for you.

The Census Bureau report also indicated that Americans are pouring money into retirement investment vehicles such as 401Ks in record amounts. In 2000, 30 percent of all wealth was held in the form of home equity. By 2011, this percentage had declined to 25 percent. At the same time, the share of wealth held in retirement accounts increased from 18 percent to 30 percent over the same period.

What does all of this mean? It means that the lack of financial education is costing you dearly. Are you like so many other Americans throwing all of their money into retirement accounts hoping that when you retire there will be enough there to cover your expenses? Meanwhile, the profits of the companies that you invest in are relativity flat. This sounds more like gambling than investing. It also means that we are way too dependent on the advice of others when it comes to our money. We need to take charge and learn how to manage our own financial destiny by investing in ourselves with good education and trusted investment coaches and mentors. We need to diversify our investments and know more about using self-directed IRA’s to invest in real estate, cash flowing entities, and financial instruments such as notes and liens.

Conclusion
In The Savvy Investor Program™, we teach you how to create your own economy. We help you get off the treadmill. Remember that with real estate investing as one part of your financial plan, you can create the life of your dreams by following a few time-proven strategies and techniques. Today, buy your copy of The Book on Investing.

Share this post and link with your friends so that they can buy a copy of the book also. Let us know about other topics that you would like for us to discuss.

Real Estate Investing for The Savvy Investor™

Knowing Your Numbers – The Rule Of 72

Do you know your numbers? If you plan to do any type of investing you must know your numbers. Your numbers tells the story of (1) where you have been; (2) where you are; and (3) where you are going. Your numbers represent the scorecard of how well you are doing with your investment. In real estate investing, knowing your numbers can mean the difference between profit and loss.

One of the most important numerical concepts for any investor is the Rule of 72. The Rule of 72 is a simple way to determine how long it will take for an an investment to double in value, given a fixed annual rate of interest. It is useful when trying to determine how hard your money has to work in order to duplicate itself.

No one really knows how this rule developed but historians say that the oldest known reference to it is in the “Summa de Arithmetica” by Luca Pacioli dated to 1494 AD. The formula for the Rule of 72 works like this, take the rate of growth and divide it as a whole number into the number 72.

For example, you purchase a piece of property for $50,000 in an area where the property value has grown for 4% annually. If this growth rate continues, it would take 18 years for that property to double in value (72/4=18).

This is important information for real estate investors because you want to invest in an area that you know will have a reasonable appreciation or growth rate. This will help you minimize your risk and maximize your return.

Conclusion
You have a choice to make. Do you stay on the treadmill of life hoping for wages to increase or by finding another job? Or, do you decide to take the steps to make life better for you and your family and never look back?

In The Savvy Investor Program™, we teach you how to create your own economy. We help you get off the treadmill. Remember that with real estate investing as one part of your financial plan, you can create the life of your dreams by following a few time-proven strategies and techniques. Today, take the first step in creating the life of your dreams and buy your copy of The Book on Investing.

Share this post with your friends if you think they are interested in creating the life of their of dreams.

Leave a comment and let us know about other topics that you would like for us to discuss.

Personal Finances: Are You Taking One Step Forward and Two Steps Backward?

Do you feel like you are losing ground financially? Do you feel like you just can’t get ahead? You work hard and try to be wise with your spending and savings, but your standard of living seems to keep going down. You just can’t seem to put your finger (or in this case foot) on the problem. Well, if you are in the middle class there are economic forces working against your interest that are keeping you from living the kind of life that you have worked so hard to build. And the bad news is that it may be getting worse.

You see, the price of everything is going up. We have all seen the increases in the prices of gas, housing, food, health care and the other basics that you need to survive. The prices are increasing faster than wages are growing. A recent story in the news indicates that “America’s median household income has dropped by more than $4,000 since 2000, after adjusting for inflation. The typical trappings of middle-class life are slipping out of financial reach for many families”.

On the other hand (again foot), what’s really interesting in all of this, is that the top 1% earners are getting wealthier. It’s estimated that between 1993 and 2011, the top 1% of America’s earners saw their income soar by 58%, while everyone else only got a 6% bump. This means that the top 1% earners are doing something that middle income earners need to follow just to keep up.

The wealthy follow a simple formula that keeps them in the higher income categories. They understand the value of building businesses, investing in real estate, and in educating themselves through coaching and mentoring.

Conclusion

You have a choice to make. Do you stay on the treadmill of life hoping for wages to increase or by finding another job? Or, do you decide to take the steps to make life better for you and your family to never look back?

In The Savvy Investor Program™, we teach you how to create your own economy. We help you get off the treadmill. Remember that with real estate investing as one part of your financial plan, you can create the life of your dreams by following a few time-proven strategies and techniques. Today, buy your copy of The Book On Investing.

Share this post and link with your friends so that they can buy a copy of the book also.

Let us know about other topics that you would like for us to discuss.