| Saturday, November 27, 2010
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I read Micheal Masterson’s new book titled “The Pledge – Your Master Plan for an Abundant Life.” Masterson is multi-millionaire who has helped build some very large businesses. I’ve read every book he has written and follow him closely. In his most recent book, I read that he doesn’t watch TV and I believe this is one of the reasons why he is so productive AND wealthy. He uses the time saved very productively and has outlined his daily schedule in his new book. After reading his new book, I’ve made a few minor adjustments in my schedule to mirror his schedule. When you drill down into the things we have in our lives, it’s easy to see that time is our most valuable asset because it cannot be replaced. This is significantly different from almost everything else in life. Almost everything in life can be replaced including… Houses On the flip side, the things that cannot be replaced are… Time Sure you can argue with a few items on my list, but you must agree that time is NOT replaceable and IS critically important. As a little experiment, I’ve decided to eliminate TV for next two weeks. When I decided to take this little test, I didn’t think I watched much TV. However, within the first day of my experiment, I realized I watched more TV than I thought. I’ve used the time saved to get caught up on a few nagging “To Dos”, read and I’ve spent a little extra time writing. Right from the beginning of this little experiment, I can tell that eliminating TV is going to be a very productive decision. Want to become instantly more productive? Try this little experiment yourself and see what happens! You might find that you have time to pursue new hobbies, start new businesses, exercise more, or read an extra book or two. What You Measure ImprovesBefore Thanksgiving, I setup a little financial planning survey for real estate agents. I plan on sharing the results of this poll in an upcoming newsletter. I can tell you that you’ll be shocked by the results of this poll. It’s a real eye-opener. Believe it or not, one of the easiest ways to improve any area of your life is to measure where you stand on a consistent basis. For example, if one of your goals is to increase your net worth, you have to measure and track your net worth on a monthly basis. Otherwise, you’re not paying attention and you’re definitely not making any progress. I realized this myself when I sat down and calculated my net worth this month. I found an older Roth IRA I had actually forgotten about. This IRA isn’t large and the funds were invested into American Express stock for the last few years. The balance in this IRA hadn’t grown much, because I wasn’t paying attention. I sold the American Express stock and reinvested the funds into another company and the IRA is now up 8% within the last few weeks. Without taking the time to track my net worth, I wouldn’t have increased this IRA or have made any of the other changes and my net worth would be exactly where it was previously. Another example of how powerful measuring and tracking can occur when you track your business’s weekly cash-flow. I’ve learned over the years that cash-flow is the most important part of any business and therefore must be tracked on a consistent basis. Last year I began tracking the weekly cash-flow of my businesses and slowly but surely watched the businesses cash-flow improve month-after-month. The tracking kept me focused and helped me to see many opportunities for improvement. I’ve detailed what I learned going through this process and how you can eliminate negative cash-flow in my report “How to Eliminate Negative Cash-Flow In Your Business“, which you might download and read right now. And as you could image measuring and tracking one area also improves other areas. What do you think you might do with the money saved after you eliminate the negative cash-flow in your business? Use it to increase your net worth! You could use the increase in cash-flow to pay down debt, build an emergency fund, or contribute to your IRA for retirement. Today I measure cash-flow on a daily basis by setting a daily alert on my iPhone. Here’s a snapshot the alert I received today: Tomorrow’s alert better be higher than todays, or I’m not making progress. Once the amount in this bank account gets to a certain level, it gets transferred into a savings account and is added to my net worth. You’ve probably heard all of this before, but it’s true. What you measure improves. Want to lose weight? Weigh yourself every single day. Want to build a larger database of prospective clients? Track the number of leads you generate on a weekly basis. Want to sell more homes? Track how many leads turn into clients on a weekly basis. If you stop and think about it, tracking and measuring is super easy to do, but chances are your not doing it. Measuring key numbers in your business and life doesn’t cost you a penny, and the return is enormous. You don’t need any fancy software. All you need to do is make the time and follow through. Maybe you can use some of the time saved from shutting off the TV! New Lending Guidelines from Fannie MaeHave you seen the new lending guidelines from Fannie Mae? Tami Roberts, one of my Master Marketer Club members sent a link to this story and it’s a must read because it may have a significant impact on your business. To read the article, click here. On December 13th, new lending guidelines kick in that will make it harder for many borrowers to get approved for a new mortgage. You may need to consider changes to your marketing plan to target more qualified leads. Check out the new guidelines and adjust accordingly. Hard to Find ToysSince it’s officially time to shop for Christmas, see if you can find these hard-to-find toys… Happy Shopping! Rob Minton |
