Educating Your Minds

Life Insurance - You Need It?

2006-04-11T01:45:00.000-07:00

I know am always talking about money. Here’s what I found some days ago. Well, can you ignore it?

Two weeks ago, I met with an accident. Though I was not hurt much, anything could have happened. I had been investing some money into mutual funds when my insurance agent asked me, “What about life insurance?” I just ignore and said, “I do not need it”. But, the accident set me thinking and to take appropriate action and take the required life insurance.

Major factor in getting life insurance is your dependents. Some points you could think of:
You need a Life Insurance – If you want your family to have a good lifestyle when you are not around.
You need a Life Insurance – If you can take a moment and just think what would happened your spouse who is not working and having no income?
You need a Life Insurance – If you have debts, loans, credit cards etc to be taken care of.
You need a Life Insurance – Any special needs you might have, health (of course health insurance can cover some)
You need a Life Insurance – To give better education to your children when you are not around.
You need a Life Insurance – Support your parents who may be financially dependent on you?

Life insurance is universally acknowledged to be an institution, which eliminates 'risk', substituting certainty for uncertainty and comes to the timely aid of the family in the unfortunate event of death of the breadwinner.

A Roadmap To Your True Financial Independence - Part 1 - Generating A Passive Income For Yourself

2006-04-09T22:14:00.000-07:00

A Roadmap To Your True Financial Independence - Part 1 - Generating A Passive Income For Yourself
By: Michael Devries

Then, there are many, many ways in which you may earn a passive income, from stocks and bonds, CD's, mutual funds, money market accounts, real estate, commodities, investing in businesses, etc. etc., right?

And each of these has their Pro's and their Con's relative to all of the rest.

Which of these is best for you and your particular needs and situation is somewhat beyond the scope of this article, and may be addressed in more detail in a future article, but herein the *point* we wish to have you take away with you is ...

Pick whichever passive income generation methods are best for you, start growing your passive income stream(s) and start getting your money working for you Today! Right?

Please see the resource box below for more information regarding the passive income generation method(s) which we prefer, use for ourselves, and therefore recommend.

And although I know that I just stated that we were not going to go into a detailed analysis and comparison of each of these passive income generation techniques, which we are not, here are a few of the factors that you may wish to consider and questions you may wish to answer for yourself in your selection of which of these are the best passive income generation methods for you, ok?

1) What are the true investment requirements?

What are the initial investment requirements? / How much money do you have to have to get started?

What if any recurring investment requirements are there? Do you need to continue to invest more money into this instrument in order for it to maintain the level of passive income generation you need?

2) What is the real net rate of return e.g. 1% a year, 10% a year, 1% a day, etc.?

How much passive income is this technique going to generate for you, each day / month / year, based on how much you invest in it?

Do these earnings compound upon themselves, and if so at what rate and frequency?

3) How accessible are the earnings generated?

Can you really access the money generated when you need it, e.g. to pay the mortgage and the monthly bills, etc. or do you have to wait and plan ahead to withdraw your earnings?

What do you have to do to access the earnings generated, and how easy to do is this for you?

4) How truly passive is it?

Do you have to constantly "watch the markets" and/or your investments to avoid losing money and/or your potential earnings in them?

Do these investments require some continuing level of effort to manage and/or maintain, e.g. real estate?

If so, then is this something you really want to do with your time in order to "guard" or maintain your investments?

5) How long will it take for this method to generate the passive income you need to cover your expenses such that you may achieve true financial independence?

Will this generate enough for you to live on in a matter of months or years or not until you are retirement age? This makes a Big Difference, doesn't it! ;)

Will this method generate barely enough for you to get by or will it continue to grow and provide you with added financial security?

6) What are the risks?

Could you lose your initial investment and/or your earnings if you aren't vigilant or careful?

Compare the risks to the potential rewards and decide if the risks are outweighed by the rewards and whether or not you are willing and able to take these risks.

Your answers to each of these questions relative to the passive income generation methods which you consider for your own financial independence strategy and plan should help you chose those that are right for you and your current needs and situation at the time, right?

Again, the objective is just to chose those that are best for you right now, and get started generating a passive income, Today! Right?

The sooner you start generating a passive income and getting your money working for you, the sooner and more likely you are to achieve true financial independence as soon as possible! :)

In Part 2 of this series of articles, we will explore the various ways in which you may generate additional revenue with commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products (and/or others' services) and how you may use the revenue generated from these sales to further fuel and grow your passive income stream(s).

And then, in Part 3, of this series of articles, we will explore how you may use the money you earn from working, e.g. your "day job" and/or business(es), to further fuel your investments in and accelerate the returns on these investment from both Step 1 and Step 2 above

I hope that you have found this article helpful and beneficial to you!

Please feel free to pass it along to your friends and family who may also be interested in achieving their own financial independence and whom may benefit from it.

To Your Financial Independence,

- Michael S. DeVries

Michael S. DeVries is the Moderator of The Virtual Consulting Discussion List (http://www.TheVCF.com/vcdl.phtml) and Principal of The Virtual Consulting Firm (http://www.TheVCF.com). Sit Back, Relax and Make More Money with Less Effort than you ever thought possible! Find out how Now at: http://www.thevcf.com/ECEXServices.phtml

A Roadmap To Your True Financial Independence - Part 1 - Generating A Passive Income For Yourself

2006-04-09T22:10:00.000-07:00

Are you searching for a way to true financial independence for yourself and your family?
Aren't we all? ;)
Are you tired of being "trapped" in the "rat race", working day in and day out to earn a paycheck that just covers your immediate and short-term expenses?
Do you feel like you just aren't making any positive progress in this way towards your true financial independence?
Do you, therefore, believe that there *must* be a better way? And are you ready to take advantage of this better way when you see it?
In these articles, I will share with you what we believe is this "better way" and provide you with a roadmap that you may customize to your situation and needs and use for yourself to achieve your true financial independence as soon as possible! :)
In a "nut shell", here is what we believe to be the simple roadmap, listed in order of importance, to your financial independence:
1) Build and grow a truly passive income stream!
2) Generate additional revenue with commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products (and/or others' services)
3) Use the money you earn from working, e.g. your "day job" and/or business(es), to further fuel your investments in and accelerate the returns on these investment from #1 and #2 above.
In this article, I will address Step #1, which is the one that we feel is the critical success factor and the most important "piece in the puzzle" to achieving and sustaining your true financial independence as soon as possible! :)
We believe that the "key" to true financial independence is to have a steady, and preferably growing, source of truly "passive income".
So ... What is a "passive income"?
A truly passive income is any source of income wherein you continue to make money without having to expend any further time or effort to maintain the source or level of this income.
You may probably already see that when you have a truly passive income that generates sufficient funds to cover your necessary monthly expenses then you are truly financially independent, since this means that you no longer have to perform any further work to earn the money you need to live on, right?! :)
So ... How do you get to a passive income that covers your expenses?
Well, like Robert T. Kiyosaki, author of the "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" books, T. Harv Ecker, author of "The Millionaire Mind", and so many other "guru's" will tell you, the key to a truly passive income is making Your Money Work hard for You! Rather than you working hard for your money! Right?
So ... How do you get your money working hard for you?
Well, firstly, you have to have some money that you can put to work for yourself, right?
And unless you are lucky enough to win the lottery or happen to inherit (or find ;)) a large sum of money, then the chances are that you will have to start with what you can afford out of what you currently have saved and/or from your earnings and grow it from there, right?

Michael S. DeVries is the Moderator of The Virtual Consulting Discussion List (http://www.TheVCF.com/vcdl.phtml) and Principal of The Virtual Consulting Firm (http://www.TheVCF.com). Sit Back, Relax and Make More Money with Less Effort than you ever thought possible! Find out how Now at: http://www.thevcf.com/ECEXServices.phtml

Invest and make money work for you

2006-04-08T00:34:00.000-07:00

Investing money is must for various reasons. You need to educate yourselves the importance of investing and saving. Educate yourselves to take action. After all knowledge of something is not going to help unless you have taken some action on that knowledge. There could be n number or reasons for saving and investing. But, one main reason is security for your future - financial security. You cannot have money sitting in your bank account doing nothing. It needs to go out and bring more money. Especially for the long term, investing can generate greater returns. The sooner your start the better. Losing few years of your investment time is going to have a huge effect on the interest or returns you would be earning.

You need to invest for :
1. Financing for the future.
2. Education both school and professional
3. Big Purchase (i.e. home, car)
4. Retirement

Investing will supplement your income in case of emergencies like
1 Illness
2 Death in Family

Investing also helps in getting appropriate
Tax Advantages.
Leaving something for your future generation.

Saving and Investing will keep you calm and you will have better physical health,less risk and lower stress.
Create assests through saving and investing and you will have better physical, mentaland financial health.
And finally, you would be happy and thrilled with joy knowing your money is working for you.

Timing-Signals.Com

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Financial knowledge is a must

2006-04-07T22:15:00.000-07:00

As usual I was having my usual talks about money with my colleagues. I asked them, "Do you know why we do not have a lot of money?” I wanted quick answers and asked randomly. No answer. Then I asked them what would you do if you had 1 Million dollars. Again no answer. Silence prevailed though one of them said, "I don't know". Well, that’s the answer to the first question.
We do not know what do with too much money. I believe that is one of the reasons why we do not have enough money.

We were again talking about the importance of investing. Well, everything is going quite fine. Why do you need an investment. Right now you are well off and generating income. But, till when you will be generating income. Do you think this is a never ending resource. The sooner you realize and understand it you would be empower yourself with the knowledge to do something about it.

Let's understand this. The average person completes his education and starts earning a decent income by the age of 25. He would be working till the age of 60.With so much work pressure,stress levels, odd working hours and many other factors our efficiency may last 25 years. Almost everyone in the IT, ITES fields are below 30 and are so tired and stressed out by the end of the day, I am not sure how can they continue for another 25 years. So an average age where income generation would stop is around 55 years.

Now, would you call it quits and end your life the next day. Absolutely not. Technology has advanced so much that they find a solution to all your health issues. You would be lying in a hospital with the oxygen mask, life support system, medicines etc. You may want to take a cruise trip, as you did not find time earlier. You may still want and need so many things may be more than what you required earlier. But, hold something is missing. You are not earning now. You are not generating any income. Can you imagine yourselves surviving for many year without any income? You will definitely want to hang on to your life even if you are not earning.

Don't you want to continue the same lifestyle you had in your income generating years or would you be happy to lead a miserable life, depending on others. Take some action before its too late. There is never a wrong time to do a right thing.

This is where what you had done in your income generating years would help. How you saved your money? How you invested your money? How you channelized your money etc. etc. Those investments and saving are your income generators now. You must and should have or educate yourself with regards to the financial knowledge to create income for your non-working years.

Start Somewhere!

2006-04-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

It's quite some time since I have posted something to my blog. Well, you know I've been educating myself too. But, you see that is not enough. What good is that if you do not apply it. As someone has said, "Books are not meant to be read rather they need to be used". I've been procastinating to get myself into action. I'm waiting for the right situation, right time etc. etc. But, I think I may not find a right time at all. The best time to do something is right now. I've been doing affirmations. I have decided to build a small site to just put up the information of the place and around it where I stay. And, you know what I'm waiting for the perfect design and perfect content to come along the way. Hmm... enough is enough. If you ever need to reach somewhere you should start somewhere. You will be empowered when you see something happening. So, I thought the best thing to do first is get the domain name registered and put up just 5 pages. That's it.

Have you thought of having any website of your own.
Well, here it is you can have the best prices at GoDaddy.com - World's #1 Domain Name Registrar

The Biggest Risk

2005-11-30T20:41:00.000-08:00

Last week, I happened to come accross a job site. There was an article under resources section titled "10 Really Good Reasons To Quit Your Job And Start Your Own Business

"Wow! I was suprised. Isn't that contradicting! At one side, jobs were being offered and the other side you are being given 10 Reasons to Quit Your Job.This just ensures the fact that most of the people NEVER EVER think any options other than JOB. They long for it, search for it, hang on to it and cling on to it. Even though, the article gives some good rock solid reasons right under your nose it will definitely be ignored by almost 97%.

Are you so scared to do something new? Do you degrade yourself so much that you can consider yourself to be fit for only jobs? Are you scared that something happens to your job how will you ever survive? If you are not willing to do something different then you got NO RIGHT to crib about your present conditions or job.Its TIME to think.

Though no one can ever guarantee you success on your first different venture except you. Well, this thought should not act as a deterrent for not TRYING. It might be a risk.BUT, THE BIGGEST RISK IS NOT TRYING.I like the quote mentioned in the article, which was taken from the book The Artist's Way : "Leap, and the net will appear"

The 80-20 Rule

2005-11-21T20:36:00.000-08:00

You know the reason why there are very less people who are rich.
Well, one reason is the 80-20 rule.
80% of the world's wealth is shared by 20% of the people
AND 20% is shared by 80% of the people.
Not fair. Well, that's the way it is.

More examples of 80-20 Rule.
80% of a manager's interruptions come from the same 20% of the people
80% of a problem can be solved by identifying the correct 20% of the issues
80% of advertising results come from 20% of your campaign.
80% of an equipment budget comes from 20% of the items
80% of an instructor's time is taken up by 20% of the students
80% of benefit comes from the first 20% of effort
80% of customer complains are about the same 20% of your projects, products, services.
80% of network traffic stays within the LAN while 20% needs to cross the backbone.
80% of our personal telephone calls are to 20% of the people in our address book
80% of our shipments utilize 20% of your inventory.
80% of sales time is spent on 20% of the customers, who may not be the profitable 20%
80% of the decisions made in meetings come from 20% of the meeting time
80% of the outfits we wear come from 20% of the clothes in our closets and drawers
80% of the traffic in town travels over 20% of the roads
80% of what we produce is generated during 20% of our working hours
80% of your annual sales come from 20% of your sales force
80% of your future business comes from 20% of your customers
80% of your growth comes from 20% of your products
80% of your innovation comes from 20% of your employees or customers
80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers
80% of your staff headaches come from 20% of our employees
80% of your success comes from 20% of your efforts
80% of your website traffic comes from 20% of your pages

JOB - Are you just made for that?

2005-11-13T10:18:00.000-08:00

Recently, I was just having a small talk with one of my colleagues. I asked him, if you were to search for something on the Internet what would you search for. He answered better job.. another job ... better prospects... and finally said he needs money.
Thats what I want to hear. So, you need money. Then why don't you search for ways to make money. Are we only fit to do jobs, work for others. Can't you think beyond that? Job is one way of getting money. There are other ways also. Find that out.

You know what a JOB is , its Just Over Broke

Make money in spare time with zero Investment.

Educated - Ego Problem

2005-11-04T15:58:00.000-08:00

A fictitious situation.

You are having a white collar job. Manager, Softare Engineer etc.
Spent a lot of time, money and enery becoming a professional. Your are stressed daily with deadlines, work pressures, long working hours, no weekends etc. For all the trouble, trauma and pain you undergo, you get a paycheck of X amount.

Suddenly the trade of Janitor/Housekeeping comes in great demand. Companies are ready to shell out huge amount of money. The paycheck is more than 10 times what you current white collar job gives you. Work is only 8 hours. No pressure. No deadline.

Would you accept the position? Would you be prepared to work as Janitor? No.
You got to be kidding when saying No to a super duper unbelievable offer. You will do the work of Janitor for 9 hours and you will live like a King for the remaining 15 hours of the day. Still, you are opting to choose the white collar job with all the stinking policies and procedures.

Well, is that what you call a Ego Problem as a result of your education.
Hmmm. you seem to be truly educated! Are you?

Foundation for Success

2005-11-04T15:06:00.000-08:00

Like everything solid, you must build success on a strong and lasting foundation. Life is but a chain of moments and success depends on the choices you make in your daily actions. Reading books, attending seminars, discussing your life with friends, listening to success coaches is just not enough to ensure success in life.

OPEN OPEN your heart and your mind.

Free them both of all beliefs that don’t serve you on your journey to success, wealth and happiness. Prepare yourself to consider and adopt new ways of thinking, feeling, and living and apply them everyday to every part of your life. You will find happiness, but only in your own unique special way. Your success and happiness depend on first discovering what you want from your life and then enjoying what you do along the path to fulfilling that desire. 99% of the world’s workforce HATES their job. Which clearly means that people everywhere are spending an average of 50 hours every week doing something they hate and try to become rich doing it. This does not work! You can only be successful in life if you are doing what you enjoy. WHY? because you are doing what you love, what you enjoy, creating a special vibration with your thoughts and emotions. You create yourselves.

Jackpot! Today and Bankrupt after 100 days!

2005-11-04T13:27:00.000-08:00

Who in the world doesn't dream of winning a lottery? How desperately people long to become rich overnight. As a matter of fact, the lottery business thrives just because of mans desire to get rich overnight.
Truly enough, many people do get lucky and hit the jackpot or a substantial amount. Sadly enough, these people go bankrupt, back to their previous situation or even worse than that almost overnight.
These people are unable to manage money and hence land into n number of problems. For many people, sudden money can spell disaster.We need financial knowledge. We need to educate ourselves to manage money.
Because the winners have a large sum of money, they make the mistake of thinking they know what they're doing. They are willing to plunk down large sums on investments they know nothing about or go in with a partner who may not know how to run a business.
Well, what would you do if you win a JackPot? A dream - can become true. Anyway, lets put down an action plan. So, you wont be in for a surprise if you get lucky :) and come back to this site to check out what you would have done and now going to do.

Success - Education & Financial Freedom

2005-11-04T13:12:00.000-08:00

In one a single line. 'You no longer work for money - it just follows you.' Look at a situation.Person A derives 100% income from Source 1. Person B derives 1% from from Source 1, 1% from Source 2, 1% from Source 3 and so on....100% income is generated from 100 sources. Who is having a better income pattern a more secured one. Absolutely right! Person B. If something has happens to his 50 sources of income he still has 50% income. Sadly for person B, if something happens to his only Source. Just Imagine !

Success. A word which holds different meaning for different people. For me it could mean like each day should be Sunday :). For someone else it might mean owning a beautiful house, for another it could mean having a big bank balance etc etc.

Success is simply accomplishing what you set out to do. Usually people fall in four quadrants.
1 - Lots of Money No Time - Professionals (IT,Doctors,Businessmen..)
2 - Lots of Time No Money - Unemployed Lot
3 - No Money, No Time - Still unemployed but no time to do anything.
4 - Plenty of Time and Money - Guys who have Financial Freedom.

EVERYONE would like to be in that Group 4. Well, who wouldn't? But are you prepared to do something to have that. Are you prepared to keep an open mind, look out for information and help which can put you into category number 4. And willing to learn ways to achieve it. You need to think differently if you want to be in the 4th quadrant. That’s a SECURED QUADRANT! - FINANCIAL FREEDOM. How does education relate to that? If you are truly educated that does not mean you have a lot of general or specific knowledge. Being truly, educated means you have learned how to get what you want in a completely legal manner. You have learned to get knowledge and put it to a specific action. Formal Education - nothing. With meaningful education - everything. To be successful you need to know how to get information and knowledge you need to apply it towards your goal. To be successful, you need to know who to get the information from. These type of skill have nothing to do with a college degree.