Do You Have the Right Financial Personality Type To Be A Successful Real Estate Investor?

Have you ever thought about your financial personality type? I hadn’t either until I read a recent article.  In the article, author Casey Bond, uses the well known Myers- Briggs personality traits test and applies it to finance and investing.  Her thesis is that your financial personality trait can be a determining factor for your success in money management skills and in investing. Below is the chart of financial personality types. What type are you?

Debtor (D) / Saver (S)

Debtor: If you fit this category, you tend to borrow money to make major purchases rather than saving up the necessary cash. This personality type tends to always owe money either on credit cards, student loans, or mortgages.  On the other hand, if you are a debtor, you tend to also use your debt strategically; borrowing money to take advantage of high-yield opportunities that will pay off later.

Saver: Savers usually do not like to owe anyone money and would prefer to own things outright, even if that means living according to a strict budget.  If you are this type, you tend to cut expenses to ensure that you have a positive cash flow, and go without when you run low on money. Savers ensure they have money for now and for the future, investing with the goal of remaining financially comfortable at all times.

Aggressive (A) / Conservative (C)

Aggressive: This personality type uses an aggressive investment approach to look for earned income.  If you are this type, you tend to favor high risk, high-yield funds. You are also very open to new or uncommon investment opportunities, such as futures, commodities, currency trading, and real estate investing.

Conservative: This personality type includes individuals who are very risk-averse and generally manage their finances so that they can never lose money.  If you are a conservative investor, you tend to place a large proportion of your income into savings accounts, a mortgage, and low-risk private investments or company pensions.

Planning (P) / Impulsive (I)

Planning:  The planning personality type tends to seek out opportunities to save money and to take strategic steps to do so within their household budget.  Many planners are great at looking at the future and seeing what needs to be done today to reach their financial goals.  If you are a planner, you also tend to be very good at identifying and prioritizing your various short-term and long-term financial goals.

Impulsive: Impulsive types often engage in deep thinking about their financial lifestyles. If you are impulsive, you tend to have a great strength that others don’t in terms of being able to make quick decisions about spending. For example, you might buy a house before anyone else makes a bid or snap up an investment before the price goes up.  Impulsive types also tend to advocate using money for pleasure, like taking vacations and enjoying the fruits of your labor.

Giving (G) / Hoarder (H)

Giving: The giving financial personality type is driven by a desire to take care of the people or causes they love.  If you are this personality type, then your primary quest is to find ways that you can serve others.  Regardless of the amount that you have saved, your level of income, or the opportunities presented to you, you tend to find that there is always more that you can give to those you care about most.

Hoarder: In comparison, a hoarder personality tends not to like to part with money.  If you are this personality type, money is a resource to be protected, treasured and analyzed on a regular basis. If you are a hoarder you are driven by fear of financial loss, thus you avoid situations that require parting with your money.  Spending and lending money to your friends and family are behaviors in which hoarders rarely engage.

In Conclusion

In case you were wondering, I took the test and it turns out that I am APIG.  APIG means: Aggressive, Planning, Impulsive, Giving.  I am aggressive when it comes to investing with an ever watchful eye on return on investment. I always plan my strategy for investing and try to always think about the future. I am sometimes impulsive in my decision making as I believe in the speed of implementation. I am also giving. I believe in helping others to achieve their goals. I am always giving back to others of my time, knowledge, and resources to make a better world.

Tell me your financial personality type. Do you agree or disagree with the assessment? If you want to continue this discussion, then comment on this post.   

 To learn how we can help you achieve success by investing in real estate and in businesses, please follow 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”.

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.

 

 

The Power of Leverage in Real Estate Investing: So Easy, A Cave Man Can Do It!

Leverage is a very simple principle in the physical world. You use one or more objects to multiply the force it takes to move a bigger object. For example, in the illustration above, with the right tools the smaller rock on one end can move the larger rocks on the other end. Using the principle of leverage, the cave man figured out how to move big boulders to provide shelter for his family. This was the start of civilization.

The Power of Financial Leverage in Real Estate Investing

Leverage in the financial world is very similar to leverage in the physical world. Instead of using a smaller rock to move a larger rock, you use a small amount of cash, in combination with debt, to make a much larger investment. Leverage has the effect of multiplying the return on investment. With a small initial equity (cash) investment, you gain control over a larger investment and you reap the returns on the larger investment.

Let’s look at a few examples. In the first example you purchase a $100,000 investment with $20,000 of equity and debt of $80,000. In the second example you purchase a $100,000 investment with $10,000 of equity and debt of $90,000. In these two examples, both have a 10% gain.

As you can see from the table, a gain of 10% generates a 50% return on equity with a 20% investment compared to a 100% return on equity from a 10% equity investment.

Using leverage can mean huge rewards for a real estate investor. Imagine you had $100,000 in an IRA, 401K account, or a savings account that was available for investment. You could use this capital as a 20% down payment on a $500,000 investment property. Assume the property appreciates at a moderate rate of 8% per year for three years. At the end of the three years the equity in the property has increased over $120,000, a return on equity of 120%. When was the last time your stock fund, savings account, or IRA performed like that?

Now, just imagine you could take the $220,000 above (initial $100,000 + $120,000) in equity and gained control of a $1,000,000 investment property. If the $1,000,000 investment property appreciates at the same 8% rate, the equity will grow by $80,000 per year. That’s power of leverage!

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.

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.

Real Estate Investing: Knowing Your Numbers

Do you know your numbers? In any real estate investment you must know your numbers. Your numbers tells the story of (1) where you have been; (2) where you are currently; 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.

In real estate investment the key number concepts that you should understand include cash on cash return, cash flow, appreciation, depreciation, tax service and debt service. Having the knowledge of these terms will give The Savvy Investor™ the confidence to know when you are making a good deal. Knowing your numbers helps you minimize your risk and maximize your returns.

Measuring the return on a real estate investment is one of the keys to becoming a successful real estate investor. In this post, we will talk about one of the key measurements in assessing your prospective investment.

Cash On Cash Return

The cash on cash return is the ratio between a property’s cash flow in a particular year (before taxes) and the amount of the initial capital investment. It is expressed as a percentage. The cash on cash return tool is used as a quick read on an income property because it can be easily compared to other types of investments such as stocks. For example, one can easily compare the investment in a rental house that has a 10% cash return in the first year versus a CD or paper instrument that has a 2% cash on cash return during that same year.

How to calculate Cash on Cash Return

The formula calculating for cash on cash return is

    Annual Cash Flow / Cash Invested.

For example, you buy a property for $50,000 in cash. The property can rent for $1,000 per month. So the annual cash flow is $12,000($1,000 X 12 months). You divide the $12,000 in annual cash flow by the $50,000 in cash you invested. The Cash on Cash Return is 24%. Although there are other factors to consider in deciding whether to invest in a particular property (e.g. taxes, debt service, repairs), an analysis of cash on cash return is one extremely help way of assessing the strength of one prospective investment as compared to another.

Conclusion

In The Savvy Investor Program™, we teach you real estate investing concepts that take you from being a novice to being an experienced investor. One key component of your success is to know your numbers. 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, get your free copy of The Book on Investing at: http://tinyurl.com/TheBookOnInvesting. Share this post and link with your friends so that they can get a free copy of the book also.
Let us know about other topics that you would like for us to discuss.

Tithe, Save, Invest : Are They Part of Your Formula for Success?

Running a successful business takes massive effort and the right

mindset. We have found that one key part of the proper mindset for

success is establishing a solid financial foundation. We are often

asked, “How do you achieve a solid financial foundation?” It’s

actually very simple. Tithe. Save. Invest. That’s the formula that

has worked for us. Perhaps you might want to try it.

Tithing–

For us, the principle of tithing is based on our Christian faith.

However it is a universal principle no matter your faith. We

believe that you should give God a share of what He has given you.

Tithing is more than just money. It includes your time, your

talents, your gifts and anything else that you have been blessed

with. In my previous blog, “Sometimes it’s not about the Money,” I

mentioned that tithing includes giving of you to make other peoples’

lives better. Tithing allows you to show just how appreciative you

are for the blessings that have been bestowed upon you.

Saving-

The second part of the formula is saving. Saving allows you to put

aside some of the fruits of your labor for when you need it most. It

allows you to accumulate capital and have instant access to these

resources. Savings can help you achieve some of your financial

goals. Whether it’s a comfortable retirement, a down payment for a

house, or a new car, or stereo, you can get there by setting money

aside. And best of all, you can have what you want without getting

bogged down in debt. The unfortunate part of saving is that it does

not allow for much growth. Saving should lead to investing in some

of the instruments or types of property that I mention below.

Investing-

This third principle is based on the fact that you need to invest in

something that will allow you an adequate return on investment

(ROI). Investing means that you believe in a something so much, that

you expect it to pay dividends in the future. Investing can take

many forms. You can invest in paper instruments such as stocks,

bonds or notes. Or like us, you can invest in real property such

as, houses, apartments, commercial buildings, and land. Or you can

invest in businesses. One of the most important investments you can

make is to invest in yourself through education, coaching and

mentoring. The key to successful investing is to know why you are

investing and to understand every aspect of your investment.

Conclusion

To learn more about these principles and for your free copy of our

recent report on how you can develop the mindset and habits needed

to become a successful real estate investor click here:

www.thebookoninvesting.com.