Market Update: MUST Watch 3-Minute Video...
Feature Article: Lessons from Warren Buffett
Critical Reads: A 60 Million Dream Home - Best or Worst Investment?
The Funnies: Amazingly Simple Home Remedies!
A MUST Watch 3-Minute Video
Instead of an update on the market, I suggest watching this powerful 3-minute video from the National Geographic. Think about the future implications of what will happen when these trends turn into reality. What will be in greater demand? Will you be prepared? How can you position yourself to benefit?
To be honest, I've included this video for you because it fits very well with this week's feature article, especially "GEM #1."
A Few Lessons from Warren Buffett
I'm calling these lessons "GEMS." These GEMS are not in any specific order. I'll put quotes around sentences directly from the book. I'll also put direct quotes from Warren Buffet in Italics. In some cases, I'll add my two cents, too.
GEM #1
Buffettt is known to say: "In the short run, the market (stock market) is a voting machine. In the long run, it's a weighing machine. Weight counts eventually. But votes count in the short term. And it's a very undemocratic of voting. Unfortunately, they have no literacy tests in terms of voting qualifications, as you've learned."
Right now, the voting machine is down on real estate as an investment. Is this the time to buy? Possibly.
Buffett's company Berkshire Hathaway acquired shares in the second largest real estate brokerage. He must believe that the weighing machine will win as the real estate market rebounds over time and has positioned his company to profit from this rebound. Or maybe he has studied the expected population growth and realizes the demand for housing will only increase over the long-term.
Watch the National Geographic video about our population and the estimated growth for the next 10, 20 and 30 years. Sooner or later, the weighing machine will reward those who bet against the voting machine.
GEM #2
Buffett liked to ponder the reasons for (business) failure as a way of deducing the rules of success. You can learn a great deal from failure. Study business failures and learn from each one. Adapt your investing based upon the lessons you learn.
Also, you should definitely study your own investing failures. What did you invest in that didn't turn out as expected? What can you learn from this investment? How can you adjust to going forward?
GEM #3
Buffett's grandfather was known to say: "Try to be punctual in all your dealings. You will find it difficult to get along with some men, deal as little as possible with such...Save your credit, for that is better than money...If you go in business, be content with moderate gains. Don't be too hasty to get too rich...I want you to live so as to be fit to live and fit to die."
This advice from his grandfather was priceless. It looks like Buffett has followed it throughout his life.
Warren realized he wanted money early on in life. His reasoning was as follows: "It could make me independent. Then I could do what I wanted to do with my life. And the biggest thing I wanted to do was work for myself. I didn't want other people directing me. The idea of doing what I wanted to do every day was important to me."
Gem #5
As a young boy, Warren stumbled across a book at his library that changed his life. The book's title was "One Thousand Ways to Make $1,000. A million dollars in other words!
In the original book, one of the ideas had something to do with pennyweight scales. Warren thought that if he had a weighing machine, he would weigh himself fifty times a day. He was sure other people would pay money to way themselves too. Here is the opportunity Warren saw:
"The weighing machine was easy to understand. I'd buy a weighing machine and use the profits to buy more weighing machines. Pretty soon I'd have twenty weighing machines, and everybody would weight themselves fifty times a day. I thought - that's where the money is. The compounding of it - what could be better than that?"
Are your investments compounding like Warren's weighing machines?
GEM #6
"Since a young age Warren had studied the lives of men like Jay Cooke, Daniel Drew, Jim Fisk, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie. Some of the books he read and reread. One of them was special - not a biography but a paperback written by former salesman Dale Carnegie, enticingly titled How to Win Friends and Influence People." He had discovered this book at age eight or nine."
Warren read, studied and applied the concepts in this book before becoming a teenager. Warren went on later in life to take the Dale Carnegie training course. He learned how to give a speech in this course. He has said that his Dale Carnegie degree is the most important degree he has ever received. He felt that public speaking was required to gather investors for his partnerships. The Dale Carnegie training allowed him to overcome his fear and move on to grow his business.
The book How to Win Friends and Influence People should be required reading and if you haven't read it yet, get to your library this week and check it out! It will change your life.
GEM #7
Buffett was delivering papers when Franklin Roosevelt died; he saw this as an opportunity to sell more papers. "Newspapers put out special editions, and he hustled himself out to the street corner, hawking papers while everybody mourned."
Warren learned how to turn adversity into opportunity. Right now, there is a lot of adversity in the economy and real estate market. How can you turn this adversity into opportunity?
GEM #8
Warren developed a sideline to his newspaper route. "He asked all of his customers for their old magazines as scrap paper for the war effort. Then he would check the labels on the magazines to figure out when the subscriptions were expiring, using a code book he had gotten from Moore-Cottrell, the publishing powerhouse that hired him as an agent to sell magazines. He made a card file of subscribers, and before their subscriptions expired, Warren would be knocking at their door, selling them a new magazine."
Warren had created a "side" business to his paper route. He sold different products to the same customers. Do you have a side business? In not, how come?
GEM #9
One of Warren's biggest problems with his paper route was a customer who skipped out on their bill. To combat this problem, he began tipping elevator girls to let him know when people were about to move. He would then knock on their door at 6am before they moved to collect the outstanding balance.
What problems or challenges are you struggling with right now? Is it possible that a simple change might have a big impact?
Critical Reads
12 Tips to Make Your Move Simple & Stress Free
Let's face it, moving is NOT fun and can be very stressful for your family. Check out these 12 moving tips that will help you get to your new home with less stress. You can read the article and tips at this link.
The 7 Most Bucket-List Worthy Destinations for 2011
Have you seen the movie, "Bucket List?" If not, add it to your Neflix que. It's a great movie because it helps put things into perspective. Your "Bucket List" is a list of things you want to do before you kick the bucket. Seeing interesting places is typically on everyone's "Bucket List." Well, Paul Eisenberg recently shared what he believes are the 7 most bucket-list worthy destinations for 2011 at this link.
A $60 Million Dollar Dream House - Best or Worst Investment?
Check out this Wall Street Journal article profiling $60 million dollar home built on speculation by a group of real estate investors. Candance Jackson reports:
"Three years into the housing bust, at a time when home values are hitting new lows in many markets, a small group of developers has plunged into the risky business of betting millions on high-end speculative homes. They are erecting amenity-rich mansions for wealthy buyers that they hope will materialize. While the vast majority of the "spec" market remains moribund, some developers, pointing to a handful of big sales and the recent recovery of the stock market, believe the world's wealthiest buyers are out again shopping for trophy mansions, often as second, third or fourth homes."
You can read this article and see the home at "this link.
Amazing Simple Home Remedies!
1. Avoid cutting yourself when slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold the vegetables while you chop.
2. Avoid arguments with the females about lifting the toilet seat by using the sink.
3. For high blood pressure sufferers ~ simply cut yourself and bleed for a few minutes, thus reducing the pressure on your veins. Remember to use a timer.
4. A mouse trap placed on top of your alarm clock will prevent you from rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.
5. If you have a bad cough, take a large dose of laxatives. Then you'll be afraid to cough.
6. You only need two tools in life - WD-40 and duct tape. If it doesn't move and should, use the WD-40. If it shouldn't move and does, use the duct tape.
7. If you can't fix it with a hammer, you've got an electrical problem.
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