The Seven Secrets to Financial Empowerment

By Trisha

As you work to fulfill your dreams in the field of real estate investing I want you to embrace your future and do everything in your power to help ensure your success despite the challenges youll face along the way. Ive identified 7 financial keys that can unlock the door to success for you and others you may come in contact with along the way.

There are a lot of things you can do every day that can help determine whether you reach the pinnacle of success or remain in the valley of missed opportunity, but very few things will figure as prominently as your finances. Financial gurus got it right when they say that if you dont control your money it controls you! Heres how to regain control of your financial future one step at a time.

Control Your Spending " By taking control of your spending you can have a much bigger say in the types of deals you have available to you. This process starts with having " and sticking to " a realistic and attainable budget. Im not suggesting you should sell your TV and hit your kids up for gas money in exchange for taking them to t-ball practice.

What I am saying, however, is that if youre clear about exactly where your money goes youll have more control over reducing unnecessary, frivolous expenses. Think before you say, Charge it! If you dont really need another John Tesh video " dont buy it! Sooner or later Blockbuster will have it for 49 cents.

Control Your Saving " By getting into the habit of regularly setting money aside for a rainy day, you can systematically build a rainy day fund that you can tap into for unplanned expenses. By having 3-6 months of expenses in an interest earning money market account you have cash available in case of a short term need. If you have this cash you can take advantage of more property opportunities. Sometimes a seller will agree to your terms if you can meet their need for cash. If you have a few thousand dollars sitting in an account you can access it quickly and still get a lucrative deal while its still available!

Control Your Thinking " You should get motivated and fired up every day! Instead of listening to negative people complain about high gas prices, inflation, or politics, tap into a good motivational book, CD, or seminar that will do something for you other than raise your blood pressure. Unless youre a member of OPEC or on the board of an oil company you cant control prices. However, by controlling your thinking and your thought processes you can build your own cartel of real estate investment properties!

Control Your Saving " By getting into the habit of regularly setting money aside for a rainy day, you can systematically build a rainy day fund that you can tap into for unplanned expenses. By having 3-6 months of expenses in an interest earning money market account you have cash available in case of a short term need. If you have this cash you can take advantage of more property opportunities. Sometimes a seller will agree to your terms if you can meet their need for cash. If you have a few thousand dollars sitting in an account you can access it quickly and still get a lucrative deal while its still available!

Control Your Debt " In many ways this goes hand in hand with controlling your spending because for many investors (especially brand new ones with unrealistic expectations) their first inclination is to whip out a credit card for routine purchases.

Control Your Giving " Theres nothing more empowering and fulfilling than giving money away. You want to make a regular habit of giving to charities or organizations you believe in. But it is possible to go overboard by trying to help too much.

By keeping your balances low you free up additional funds for additional property purchases. Not only can credit cards charge hefty interest rates, they make it very easy to spend more than you otherwise might. Fast food restaurants dont take plastic because theyre dedicated to superior customer service. They want to make it as easy as possible to Super Size " your waist line and their bottom line.

Control Your Time " This is one of the most difficult areas to control because time is a commodity that is in such short supply. Its very easy to waste countless hours in front of a television set or hunched over a computer surfing from one web site to another. By taking control of how and where you spend your time you can financially empower yourself by freeing up precious minutes " and hours " for more lucrative opportunities. A great way to save time is by outsourcing routine or mundane tasks to others. Not only will you close more deals, but youll have more free time for your family and leisure activities you enjoy.

Control Your Thinking " You should get motivated and fired up every day! Instead of listening to negative people complain about high gas prices, inflation, or politics, tap into a good motivational book, CD, or seminar that will do something for you other than raise your blood pressure. Unless youre a member of OPEC or on the board of an oil company you cant control prices. However, by controlling your thinking and your thought processes you can build your own cartel of real estate investment properties!

These are just a few things you can do to financially empower yourself. Put these into practice today, perfect them " and make them your own! The secret to financial empowerment is really no secret at all. The secret lies in actually applying them in your life today and make tomorrow lucrative. Start now and live the life youve been dreaming about! - 23218

About the Author:

If you dream about being a real estate investor it can all become reality. All you need to do is follow Charissa Crawley's step by step guide, click here for more information.

Can the Volt Save GM?

By Dino Delellis

This topic nearly word for word has been scrutiny of automotive journalists and other transportation stock analyst and pundits ever since it was announced that GM would once again do an electric car.

GM, Ford and Chrysler arrayed a huge number of lawyers and much cherished Washington lobbyists to go after California after it decided to introduce a zero emissions rule on part of all car fleets. While GM was fighting California, it was also building an electric car, 10 years ago called the EV1. The state lost, GM breathed a sigh of relief and promptly destroyed all EV1's and sold the patents.

It was said that the link between GM and big Oil was never so blatant as when the EV1 was shelved, the many patents accompanying that huge R&D effort was simply sold to BIG OIL.

Some might say, that was a wise business move to recoup costs, but most of the public would in acute dismay exclaim "Why would oil companies be interested in automotive patents that would/could eventually diminish their own returns ?"

So much for the history lesson, this week, we are back at square one watching a video interview with GM's Chief Designer as he discusses the new GM Chevy Volt.

GM has almost entirely "bet the boat" on the new technologies going to market in the electric Chevy Volt. We are sure that GM Detroit Management exactly didn't plan it this way, but their European operations must have seen the writing on the wall many years ago as gas hit 3+ dollars per gallon in europe and continued on through the equivalent $4 dollar mark. With the global credit crunch, increased gas prices and declining sales of the big cash SUV's GM is feeling the pinch like never before. The Volt must become iconic.

The car is also GM's gambit to outpace foreign competitors like Toyota (TM) and Honda (HMC). Unlike conventional hybrids-including the best-selling Prius-the Volt is essentially a plug-in electric car with an onboard gas-burning engine that can recharge the vehicle's batteries. This enables the Volt to travel some 40 miles before the driver turns on the gas.

Because most daily commuters in the U.S. don't travel that far, GM says many drivers will not have to use any fuel at all, simply recharging the vehicle via a regular outlet at home overnight. GM is still wrangling with the Environmental Protection Agency over the vehicle's efficiency, but executives say the final number should be north of 100 mpg for both types of power.

On the surface, unless you have significant shareholder shares in an oil company, we all want a Volt. The dream of being able to cross Europe or United States basically on plain cheap electricity without having to pay between 3 and 5 dollars a gallon for gas is a like a dream come true.

So back to the question can the Volt save GM?

I suppose it might be presumptuous but perhaps we should first ask - Does the General really need saving?

BusinessWeek estimated GM's Liquidity position to be 45 Billion in May of 2005 with a burn rate this year of over a Billion a month here in 2008 ( Boston Herald ). Estimated reserves now stand at about 25 Billion and analysts say that even with the 10 Billion in future cost cutting, GM may need another 10-12 Billion in cash to see their way through to 2010.

According to an article in Detroit News Oct 14th 2008

GM had access to about $21 billion cash, $5 billion in available credit lines and is raising $5 billion through asset sales and borrowing.

Those cost-cutting moves intensified Monday when GM announced it was closing plants in Grand Rapids and Janesville, Wis. The moves affect about 2,500 hourly workers at plants that produce sport-utility vehicles and parts for pickups and SUVs.

Since 2005, the General's cash reserves have been reduced from 45 Billion to a mere 25 Billion and with the tightening credit crunch and federal government moving slowly on aiding the BIG3, the rumour doing the rounds is that GM is eyeing the cash reserves of Chrysler ( estimated 11 Billion ) to help it through 2009 when the arrival of the Chevy Volt and Cruz, the following quarter are expected to help turn things around.

So, what are our expectations for the Volt? GM says its expecting to sell about 10,000 Chevy Volts at between 30-40,000 USD each in 2010. So, that's about 3-4 Billion dollars in gross sales with a net of about a 800 Million dollars annually at an estimated 20% profit per car.

So, is this innovative car of the 2010 year - Volt just a little, just too late?

Looking at these numbers alone, I would wager, most emphatically no. - 23218

About the Author:

Dino Delellis writes on a number of interesting topics. To see more of the Dino personal journals hop on over to Dino P. Delellis and catch his strange views on the globe in a nutshell.

Secrets of the Forex Made Easy Way

By Chan Boldene

If you've been following Forex at all over the last few years, you've probably heard the statistic that 95% of all traders lose money at this profession (before applying Forex Made Easy principles). Let's think about that for a sec. 95% of all traders lose their money. So, how can you become part of the five percent who actually "win" in this profession? Simple, education and experience.

Forex Made Easy Secret: Education.

Ignorance about the hobby/profession can be costly and dangerous (in any field actually). Hand over your hard-earned money to a clerk in the local 7/11, it would be no different. But, there are many online programs and courses available, so which should you choose? Again, the answer is easy, too easy in fact: the course that's free! And everyone likes free. But but but... No buts. There are hundreds of courses available for free, you just need to search for them. Remember, not being educated could land you broke and frustrated. Part of the 95% losers. Another statistic.

Experience is the Second Forex Made Easy Secret.

The next best teacher is experience. When your money is on the line, you need to have experience making the trades, clicking the buttons, watching your money rise and fall with each tick. The only way you can do this is through experience (actually making the trades). Seems obvious, doesn't it?

But most Forex Made Easy readers will plunge right in and watch their hard earned dollars or euros or yen fly out the window. Sure they had a program to follow, but they didn't follow it. Sure they had goals but those goals weren't at all realistic. Sure they had a mini-account but they were clearly underfunded. Sure they had a premonition which way the market was going to go, but that's all it was, a premonition.

Greed is a large factor in the Forex market (and other markets in general). People want to make a boatload of money quickly. It just doesn't happen that way. Very few things in life do.

Learning a profitable trading method is easy and very do-able. The hard part for most Forex Made Easy traders is getting the right mindset. Here are some facts that you must accept:

- You win some; you lose some. Everyone does, even those who've been at this for decades.

- You need discipline to trade. Without discipline you will fail. Period.

You can profit well from Trading the Forex Made Easy way. It takes a combination of managing risk, accepting losses, and keeping great discipline in order to succeed. - 23218

About the Author:

Mr. Boldene is a Freelance Writer and writes about a variety of subjects. To view more about Forex, click on the Forex Made Easy Info Blog button or the Forex Made Easy Intro.

A Few Tips About Correct Investment Research

By John Maccain

At what time it come to invest money, there are thousands of school of consideration, opinion and viewpoint. Used in restoring different types of flooring, and I'll go over the basics here so that you understand what is involved.

It isn't advisable to make investments according to just emotion or impulse. It's your cash; parting with it is not an option. The most important thing to do before investing is performing good research.

Scientific and historical research that is required to really understand the subject of investing in three dimensions. These five elements are of utmost importance in making a correct analysis of where you should put your hard earned money.

Pillar 1, Technical. This is the step where you will want to use world market statistics to gain knowledge on patterns. You will learn how to predict market fluctuations when you start to see these patterns clearly. Now this one support might be the basis of a whole article, but this is just a tip to get you at least look in the right way before invest.

Pillar 2, Economic Trends. This, like Pillar 1, is a statistical analysis, but it's specific to economics. At this tip you should reply question for physically like what is going on with the worldwide economy? What trends are occurring? What shifts have occurred? Tell me the short and long term trends? By judgment out this in order, you be able to create to rule out area of poor trends.

Pillar 3, Politics. As well as other relevant information like changes in leadership, wars and other conflicts internally or between/among nations. Find this out, as well as other relevant information like changes in leadership, wars and other conflicts internally or between/among nations. The political scene of a country has a definite effect on the economy and trade of that country. So it's significant information to gather to give you an overall world view and a correct estimation for future or present savings.

Pillar 4, Geo Politics. At this point in the investigation you will be analyzing world geography, social science, history while examining international power and looking for patterns. What is the influence of the past and topography of the place on associations with different nations? This works very closely with Pillar 3, but from a geographic perspective.

Pillar 5, Solar Geography. This pillar is related to Pillar 4, but at this point you'd be investigating historical events from the perspective of meteorology, oceanography and seismology, and how these subjects affect the conditions of the planet and specific countries, and thus the economy of the countries.

In order to completely know the subject of investing in three dimensions you really need to know about a lot of technical, scientific and historical things that are needed for it. However that is what differentiates the expert investors from the more mundane. There is only one way to get good at a subject and that is to study and learn it. Or do your research in finding a professional who already KNOWS this subject. what's known as "diamond grinding" is used. One way or the other, if you do it right, you can enjoy it and make money as well. - 23218

About the Author:

He has had achievement in with the Five pillars of worldwide marketing influences to be able to envisage investment prospects with immense accuracy. To learn more, go to www.mystrategicforecast.com.

Forex Made Easy Tips

By Chan Boldene

Contrary to popular belief, trading using the Forex Made Easy method is very easy. Before I try to deconstruct this whole Forex business (and you know it is a business, don't you?), I want to share some simple but critical Forex Made Easy bits of wisdom. I will refer back to this occasionally. They're important not just as you learn to trade the Forex markets, but because they are quality principles to live by.

If you've been around any length of time, you've heard or read how the basketfuls of money we can make from Forex Trading (or FX Trading), so what are the tips and rules and strategies we can incorporate to make money from 4X Trading? Below are the seven Forex Made Easy Tips that the staff and management of Forex Made Easy (me) came up with to help make you money in this crazy but rewarding field of 4X Trading.

Tip #1: Don't get greedy.

This is embarrassingly simple. When you're on a sizzling hot winning streak, it's easy to think that you can't lose, but it is the kind of thinking that is very dangerous. Trading is relatively easy, but you can lose your shirt, your pants, and your precious bank account in short order too. Greed can consume you and deplete your trading account faster than you can say "but they didn't teach me that in the Forex Made Easy blog!" Greed can devastate.

Tip #2: Get Educated

Making money in Forex does not take the talents of a brain surgeon. Who says you have to be a market genius to make money? Any body can learn to trade, and any person can make money. You don't need to spend a lot of time getting educated, but a trader with real world experience trading has a lot going for him.

Tip #3: The Best Proven Systems are Simple

This Forex Made Easy tip is perhaps the most difficult to conquer because we like gadgets and systems and indicators and tools. Use the KISS method: Keep it Simple Stupid. The phrase is completely overused but it fits. Keep it simple, use a few indicators, and support and resistance. Don't get complicated. Simple trading "systems" are far more robust than complicated ones.

Tip #4: Make sure you have Risk and Money Management Rules

This Forex Made Easy tip is probably the least glamorous. Success is built on money and risk management. You need to learn about fluctuations and standard price deviation and if you have no idea what it is, there are plenty of resources online to educate yourself.

Forex Made Easy Tip #5: Discipline- Set the Rules and Stick to THEM

No matter how great you think you are (and you're probably not all that...sorry), you will have losses. Even after you search this Forex Made Easy site for nuggets of wisdom and insight, which you will undoubtedly find, you will still need disciple. So, let me repeat that, you will have losses. But you need to have discipline to ride out the losses and bounce back. Know your rules. Stick to them. You need to keep your emotions in check when trading.

Tidbit #6: Have A Blast.

Trading Forex can be challenging and rewarding. It can also be exciting as you "win" more and more. Don't take your gains OR your losses so seriously. Don't spend your entire day in front of the computer screen. Go outside. Relax. Spend some quality time with your family. Watch a sunrise. Go treat your kids to an amusement park. Go on a second or third or eleven honeymoon with your spouse. The markets will always be there tomorrow.

Tidbit #7: Paper Trade First Until You "Make Some Money"

Practice Practice Practice. You won't hear that enough. There are software applications on the market (and some that we can recommend) to help you so that you won't lose money quickly. You can test strategies, theories, and win a million dollars - all with no money changing hands! You need to "paper trade." It's actually a no-brainer but something you will overlook if you think you are smarter than the markets. If you cannot make money when there's it's just on your computer screen, what makes you think you can make money when you're risking your hard-earned money?

We at believe that anyone can make money trading the Forex markets. The effort you need to put in will be well rewarded. So don't forget this rule: simplicity is best. Simple, steady, and well-executed strategies will make you a lot of money from trading the currency markets. That's the Forex Made Easy way. - 23218

About the Author:

Chan Boldene is a technical writer and has penned numerous articles on the currency markets. Join him at currency Tips for a few key pointers. Visit also currency Rumors.