Archive for December, 2009
December 09 ~ Are you busy livin or busy dyin??
Posted by: | CommentsPERSONAL UPDATE BY DEAN LETFUS
Another week in paradise as they say. Yesterday’s blog really summed up my feelings at the moment so rather than reinvent the wheel……
I have had 3 journalists in the last 3 weeks contact me asking my opinion on property matters. They were all new to me and had contacted me because they had been reading my earlier blogs on the markets and found my educated guesses to be on the money pretty consistently so it was very encouraging to see my research and homework starting to bear fruit, even though I get labelled as a bit of a pessimist these days 
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The worm is turning
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Property Opportunity
I have had 3 journalists in the last 3 weeks contact me asking my opinion on property matters. They were all new to me and had contacted me because they had been reading my earlier blogs on the markets and found my educated guesses to be on the money pretty consistently so it was very encouraging to see my research and homework starting to bear fruit, even though I get labelled as a bit of a pessimist these days
Today’s news confirmed more of my opinions with the announcement of a third stimulus attempt for Japan and a warning of credit downgrades for the US and UK economies. Given that they are both bankrupt this is hardly a surprise and we must anticipate some further fallout here and in OZ from this ongoing meltdown. Also today, surprise surprise, is data showing that our residential building has dropped by 40%, that is huge, and the supposed recovery in housing has stalled.
This is of course caused by the fact that we are still in the middle of a recession, which the journos seem to have forgotten, and we have more and more people stressed and stretched financially. As I have said earlier expect a huge wave of business failures over Christmas followed by unemployment rises and mortgagee sales in the first 6 months of next year. The recent round of domestic murders is a leading indicator of the level of financial stress in our communities.
So put all of this together and there is sadness for many people and families but at the same time enormous opportunity and hope for investors.
Right now there is plenty of property to choose from that is heavily discounted and positive cashflow pretax. As we eventually recover economically we are going to have a ginormous housing shortage because we have stopped building, combined with high inflation. This is a “perfect storm” for property investors because the housing shortage drives values high and inflation reduces your current mortgage size, so you get kissed on both cheeks. Not to mention raising rents.
This really is the time to be putting a plan in place to retire early through property. The next recovery and boom is going to be a doozey if these trends continue.
And if you are really serious about that and have some time and energy to take advantage of this perfect storm I have a couple of spots left in my next 12 month intake, more info HERE
So get control of your financial future today. We may be dead of old age before we see things this good for property investment again
Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus
The Ethical Investing Strategist
PS: My recent Facebook melt down means I am rebuilding both my friends and my Forgiveness fan page. So please become my friend 
HERE AND become a fan of Forgiveness HERE
Getting Results
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Getting Results
I am talking to 3 groups in 3 different countries tomorrow about getting results and in particular why some people get better results than others even though they are following the same programme. A friend of mine has 600 clients doing a particular course and the variation is results is so large he asked me to help him explain why this occurs and assist the under performers to improve.
So……….
The Number 1 reason everybody gets different results with the same information is:
We operate based on our beliefs about something, not the actual situation. Let me explain.
3 people all attend the same property investment training and read all the same books and decide to start investing. In addition to having identical education they all have more or less identical incomes and equity. After 12 months
Bob is retired.
Sandy has bought 3 properties and plans on buying 1 more in the next 12 months.
Terry has lost 150K and will never touch property again.
And this occurred with them all doing the same thing, with the same education and opportunity. So the difference is
Bob believed that his education was good and he “knew” that the current market was ideal. He believed that the results of his teachers could be replicated. So he did exactly what he was taught as fast as he could and found it easy to retire in a year.
Sandy believed her education was good however she also believed what her parents had taught her that rich people were w*nkers and anything resembling “getting rich quick” was always going to be dodgy. She believed that she should take what she had learned and adapt it to a slow long term plan. She is quite happy with her results so far.
Terry believed that the education he got was ridiculously expensive and he also believed that the teachers were flaunting their wealth to make him envious. He also “knew” that the current market was highly competitive so he had to make decisions quickly and “jump” on any good deals.
You see what they believed about themselves and the market produced their results, simple as that.
So my friend, what do you believe about yourself and your market today?? It is controlling your future, might be time for a rethink??
Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus
The Ethical Investing Strategist
PS: My recent Facebook melt down means I am rebuilding both my friends and my Forgiveness fan page. So please become my friend HERE AND become a fan of Forgiveness HERE
Who has control??
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I had an interesting event on the weekend when my Facebook accounts were disabled for unknown and unspecified sins. Thankfully it was just Facebook, so whilst a pain not the end of the world.
It does however highlight the point that he who makes the rules controls the game. I effectively have no right of reply or appeal and they will not tell me what I did wrong. So when I googled the issue I discovered many thousands of people have experienced the same problem without explanation.
So because FB has 350 million users and it is free they can do what they like and it appears that they do .
So the lesson for us is, do you have control over your life in the same way. Do you give your power to others so that they control you or not? Sounds almost a silly question till you think about it.
Who decides how you spend your time and money. After all these are the 2 main assets we have.
Odds are the bank dictates how most of your money is spent and your employer decides how most of your time is spent………
So when you recover from the shock of understanding that the next question to answer is:
“How do I get control of my own life”?
What plans do you have in play to get control of your time and your money. You can do it, but only if you acknowledge that you need to and you plan to change your situation!!
Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus
The Ethical Investing Strategist
Does size matter?
Posted by: | CommentsYou have to wonder what sort of world we live in when our measures of success now include who has the biggest houses. I have been very privileged to have been in some incredible homes over the years and I have to say that my observation is you reach a point where size is a hindrance if anything. I remember being at a party in a 1200 square meter home and you needed a GPS to find the toilet. The hallways were 3 metres wide which just had dust trap written all over them.
I love open plan living and I like large rooms but one does reach a point where this becomes ridiculous. I watched a doco on big homes in the USA last year and some of those interviewed weren’t even certain how many bathrooms their houses had. One lady took the reporter into 2 rooms she didn’t remember ever being in and she had lived there for ten years!!
I am all for celebrating success and if a large home is your thing then good on you but surely once it is “big enough”, wouldn’t you rather put your wealth into things that you actually use and enjoy.
For example this house in France
was recently purchased for Seven hundred and fifty Million US dollars and I can’t decide whether to rejoice with them or feel sorry for them. I mean are their lives so empty that this is their only way of being significant??
I have watched many mansions being built on the Gold Coast and can’t help but wonder whether it is all about being seen and being in the papers rather than building something they will live in and love. In fact many of the most ostentatious homes don’t even seem to have permanent residents??
As someone once said: “There’s none queer as folk!”
Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ! Dean Letfus
The Ethical Investing Strategist
Global Warming etc.
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Global Warming nonsense
My views on climate change and global warming are well known so i won’t bore you with a repeat of why I believe Global Warming is total nonsense. But what is interesting about this subject is 3 pieces of news in the last 2 weeks.
Firstly the research out of the USA showing that Al Gore deliberately altered figures to make his argument/movie stack up. Anybody who makes a hundred million dollars in the name of universal goodness and doesn’t do anything beneficial with it is suspect in my book anyway but it was refreshing to see that as the global leader in this area he has lied to make his argument valid.
Secondly research in New Zealand said that NIWA’s figures actually show temperatures in New Zealand as stable for 150 years, NOT increasing. The research questioned why NIWA said it was increasing when their data showed otherwise.
And thirdly yesterday we were told that this summer temperatures would be lower than previous years and below average.
Sadly our government has been conned and is continuing with Labours silly emissions trading scheme but at least some real facts are emerging. At least we can move to Australia where they are treating this with the contempt it deserves .
What can we learn from all this??
Well just because lots of people think something is true doesn’t make it true. And having politicians and famous people endorse something doesn’t change the facts, they are just trying to get you to believe things that in many cases are lies. ( Just look at the campaign in NZ with Zena and Keisha for example).
In fact never underestimate the stupidity of people in large groups
But most importantly understand this: Causes seem to be more popular when they are weird, left field or simply untrue. Every man and his dog in NZ jumps on the global warming bandwagon even though there is no proof it is even real, yet we don’t invest the same energy, money or media coverage on our having the highest teen suicide rate in the world. We don’t care that women and children are beaten and raped daily in our homes. We don’t even take seriously the damage done and lives lost through our ridiculously low drinking and driving ages.
No because that’s not sexy, that’s not trendy to care about that.
It says to me that our society has lost it’s way. Every day it legislates against Biblical values a little piece of us dies. But the trees and the whales will be ok so I guess that’s all right isn’t it??
Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus
The Ethical Investing Strategist
