Archive for February, 2012
Is everybody leaping
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So it is the end of February already and a leap year at that.
Maybe as one gets older the years get shorter, certainly seems that way anyway.
Interesting reading in the papers today. Apparently, if they are to be believed, the property markets in NZ, OZ and the USA are recovering.
Now how even a bad journalist can say that with a straight face is beyond me but maybe it is simply after 4 years of hell we are trying to talk ourselves into a recovery in spite of the facts. Any piece of positive data, no matter how flawed, gets paraded around like the Hope Diamond.
So the tricky part here is where is the line. It is true that we possess what we confess so it is good to talk positively before we see it. This is what hope and faith are about. But the flip side is that reality is reality and sometimes we have to look at the big picture and find our own hope without needing all the circumstances to change. I tended to live in the first camp but age and wisdom forces me to meet more in the middle these days.
The world is in a mess. That is going ot take probably a decade to fix, if not longer. So waiting for the market to change is a bad strategy. However finding good markets and opportunities in the midst of this global nightmare is a good strategy.
Maybe you have been like I was, sitting on stock waiting for the numbers to come right. I realised after 3 years they may not come right for another ten years, so you bite the bullet, feel the pain, take the loss but start to be able to breathe again. And suddenly an option like the USA market or a business opportunity or whatever appears that you couldn’t have considered before because you were in so much pain.
I hope this makes sense, it was very liberating for me to stop hanging on to stuff and on the other side of the pain there was life again! So let it go and make a note to think about again next Feb 29th 
Stay Inspired ~ Dean
PS: Only 24 hours to go CASHFLOW CITY
Are they human after all?
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It is always fascinating to watch politicians when they are under pressure. Certainly Australia is providing incredible entertainment right now as Gillard and Rudd hang each others laundry out all over the media.
I guess it is a reminder that it takes a certain kind of animal to survive in politics. In New Zealand we are a bit too kind so nice guys can hang in there but in Oz and the USA it really is a shark pool. And you have to admire their strategic cunning in the case of Rudd.
Having been bulldozed for being a narcissistic tyrant Rudd is displaying pure genius right now. He knows that Gillard will make Goff defeat look like a victory. No one can stand her. So he can go to all the previously disenfranchised back benchers and say to them:
Stick with Gillard and you are unemployed, work with me and we could win this thing. So better a shot in the dark than a shot in the head.
Stay tuned, we could just see The Rudd Resurrection.
And as long as the mining boom continues, nobody will really care over there anyway.
Only Passion will sustain you when everything turns to custard ~ Dean.
PS: Don’t forget our next USA CASHFLOW Webinar this Thursday!
One thing that never changes is the fact that everything changes
Posted by: | CommentsI am sitting looking outside at the rain and wind and thinking, it is February, we haven’t had a summer in NZ and it is going to be autumn in 4 days, what the $)@!&$(_&$_ is up with our weather.
Well we can be sure it isn’t global warming. In fact I think it is very “funny” that the GW theorists have had to rename it climate change because people are freezing to death on several continents right now.
Anyway I wasn’t going to talk about the weather but the fact that our lives, like our weather, can and will change.
The Bible talks about there being a time for every purpose under heaven. Now our actions will impact our experience no doubt but we do need to understand that our life will be a series of cycles.
I have been from zero to hero and back again several times in my life and I am not 50 yet. I am learning that sometimes you just have to hang on for the ride, knowing that this valley will eventually turn into another mountain.
And you know sometimes IN SPITE of our efforts and starategising and goal setting and hard work, life just comes along and says “Suck on this for a while”. And that’s because sometimes life knows better than we do.
The only people I could never learn anything from were those people who had led charmed lives. They had 1 years life experience repeated 20, 30 or 50 times. They knew nothing much about anything except having a good time.
As I grow older I find myself drawn to those with more scars. There is something comforting about someone who walks with a limp, because you get to learn what they discovered in the process of that failure and how they recovered.
In it after all has been my favourite song for nearly 30 years. It sums up the above perfectly.
Enjoy………….
PS: Don’t forget our next USA CASHFLOW Webinar next week!
Breathing again
Posted by: | CommentsI still haven’t had my operation but it looks like I will live and I finally feel well enough to start talking to you again .
Only a brief word today however, prompted by my broker Scott sending me this yesterday…….
Finance Update:
Most Kiwis have been enjoying low home loan interest rates for a while. So how should you handle your home loan?
Should you fix?
Should you float?
Should you split things down the middle?
Only you can answer that question, but this update is designed to help you make a decision about your home loan.Remember, there’s no way to guarantee a perfect decision on home loan rates. But there are things to bear in mind when making the best decision for you.
To fix or not to fix? – That is the question.
It’s certainly a question that plenty of homeowners are asking right now. And the best way to answer it is to weigh up your priorities and choose the rate and the term that’s best for you. So here are some things you may want to think about.
Why choose a fixed rate?
A fixed rate means you’ll know exactly what your repayments will be over a fixed term. So whatever interest rates do, you’ll be able to budget for your repayments with certainty. You can even increase the amount you repay by up to $1,000 a month or $500 each fortnight without any penalties (as long as those increased payments remain for the fixed rate period.)
Why choose a floating rate?
Right now, floating rates are lower than fixed rates. While it’s unlikely they’ll stay that way, they are currently the cheapest way to borrow money. They’re also more flexible if you want to make extra repayments on your loan at any time. The downside of a floating rate is that rates can change at any time – and that means your regular repayments will change too.
What can you afford?
When planning your budget, it’s a good idea to think about the impact of rate increases. If your regular repayments go up, what will this mean for your other financial commitments and lifestyle costs such as holidays and entertainment.
What’s the cost of certainty?
While it will cost a little more to fix your loan now, over time the price difference between a fixed and floating rate is likely to be small. That’s the price of knowing exactly what your regular repayments will be.
What are your plans?
Your personal plans also impact your interest rate decision. If it’s likely you’ll be making a lump sum payment on your loan in the near future, you may be better to keep a floating rate or only fix for a short term.
Is it a good idea to split?
By splitting your loan between a fixed and a floating rate, you can strike a balance between certainty and flexibility. How you split the loans depends on which of these is more important to you.
So you have read this article and are thinking to yourself “this is a pretty non-committal position” to take, and I would have to agree with you.
The reason? At the moment there is no clear winner when looking at floating or fixed interest rates as a general rule, it comes down to your personal circumstances. There will be some of you who would definitely benefit from doing one or the other strategy but for most it will be a combination of the two.
Please feel free to contact me by clicking here if you would like to talk about your current position and how to best future proof your home loan costs.
Kind regardsScott Miller
Advanced Mortgage Solutions
0508 466 356
Oh and 
to register for next weeks US Cashflow Webinar. There are some exciting developments and we will have lots of time to answer your questions!!
We now have no doc loans in place and a stupidly strong currency, time to learn enough to dip your toes in the water, it’s cool, clear and profitable!
Book at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/798961393
Only Passion will sustain you when everything turns to custard ~ Dean.
