Archive for Dean Letfus
Power of water
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Well I am finally back home and the damage done by the flooding here is quite something. It is the worst in 80 years and appears to have been exacerbated by the dams being released as they were over full. Nadi is simply a mess, it will be quite a job to get the shops open again and replace the stock. The food markets basically have none, (food that is), as all the root crops etc. were devastated.
I have long believed Fiji has a curse over it and this certainly appears to be increasingly true as they slide into trauma after drama over the last 20 years.
What never changes is their incredible spirit and love of life but to see so much damage knowing they can’t fix it quickly is harrowing to say the least. They were without water for over a week and power is still spasmodic. Imagine that happening in NZ, it would have been investigations, criminal behaviour etc. Here it is “life” 
Stay Inspired and BE THANKFUL today!! ~ Dean
Don’t forget……
Posted by: | Commentswhat this weekend is really all about!
Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus
Knowledge is Power
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I have been a long time fan of Rodney Dickens. He is the only economic forecaster who seems to get it right most of the time. His report today @ http://www.sra.co.nz/pdf/MangawhaiApr12.pdf is a fascinating read and shows the long term issues we are still in. As a kiwi I love coastal property and was always waiting for it to come back to earth.
It sounds like it still has a ways to go in lots of areas still. Which makes the whole property thing quite weird right now doesn’t it. We have many areas of Auckland doing sort of quite well, a couple of areas going off big time and other suburbs dead as a dodo. And nationally it is even weirder.
One of my agents told me this week he had investors fighting at auction over stock and another is ringing people out of the phone book to try and get them to list as he has buyers but no houses. And he is in what I would term a true scungy investor market. If you are risk tolerant there is even room for some trading right now, not withstanding the legal issues around it, however you would want to be quick on your feet and happy to hold if you couldn’t sell.
The banks relaxing more and more is an interesting upside allowing some investors back into the buy and hold space. I guess overall things are moving predictably, Auckland is the place to be investing, Christchurch if you are willing to put the work in to watch the demographic rebuild and keep the rest of the country on mild alert
Anyway back to Rodney, if you appreciate good quality information and accurate forecasting on the property market subscribe or at least sign up for his free reports!!
Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus
Who, what, where and why!
Posted by: | CommentsApologies for being blogless lately but frankly I am so sick of being sick and the after effects of morphine have just made writing very hard. I am trying to get back to “normal” but now have another round of unpleasant procedures to endure. Who would have thought ones gall bladder could cause so much trouble even after it’s gone! So I will try and keep you informed of my life and times and make some intelligent comment regarding property but please bear with me as they try to figure out how to get the stones out 
Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus
Self Help
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When I was in hospital I had several occasions when I had to tell late night nurses what to do or to stop them doing something wrong. Because I was on a fixed routine I knew when my IV had drugs in it and whether it needed flushing etc. and when I should be taking certain pills.
Now even though I was very sick most of my nurse interaction was pain relief and IV liquid food so the consequences of a minor problem were negligible. But it made me wonder how many times similar mistakes might occur with real serious issues.
Given how hard nurses work and the unbelievably difficult people they have to deal with I am not saying they are the problem.
I guess what I am thinking is this:
Is it realistic to expect a service or system to be “flawless” when it is being operated by imperfect people??
Obviously if someone was given the wrong drugs and they died that would be tragic and I know this does sometimes happen. But just because the consequences are more significant does not change human nature. We all make mistakes and will do as long as we are alive.
So when the recent stats on hospital misadventure was front page news I was reminded that we are trying to run a perfect system with imperfect people perfectly, which will never happen.
We need people who do their best, who are well trained and who are well rested when it comes to nurses.
I don’t know how to make all that happen in a society where nurses are poorly paid and many are raising families as well as working shift work.
One of those unsolvable puzzles I guess………
Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean.
Coast for sale
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I was at Ohope this weekend and it looked like real estate signs were having a convention on the roadside. Given our love affair with property and the beach it was a real “sign of the times” to see house after beachfront house with a for sale sign up.
And something I hadn’t seen before was many of the signs had the asking price emblazoned across them.
I wonder how long it will take for coastal markets to come back, especially in areas like Ohope. Middle of nowhere and on the way to kind of nowhere. Stunning location and beach but will people ever want to pay a million dollars to live/holiday again?
I guess the answer to that is yes of course they will, we are after all kiwis with short memories and a serious sand addiction.
But the last 4 years may mean it’s a long road before we see these markets get anywhere near their 2006/7 heights.
There is always an upside of course. If you’ve been waiting to buy a house cheap at the beach, now is THE time!
Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean
Permanent decisions
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Thought for today:
Never make permanent decisions based on temporary emotions. We can;t control our emotions, they just happen to us don;t they. And most of the time we are being influenced by them because that is part of being a thinking feeling being.
Yet we often make decisions we later regret because those decisions are permanent and not what we would have done if we were less angry/sad/happy.
Think about it for a minute, from unwanted pregnancies to destroyed marriages and financial ruin. Permanent decisions made under the influence of a temporary emotion.
To stop this damage I am learning how to make temporary decisions so that I can check my emotions out. In stead of !$^&$^%#&$^ and ^%$#*!%&#)* to you too I now say:
“Let’s discuss this later on when I can think more clearly about it”.
Recognising our emotional barometer is a great place to start. None of us are going to make rational decisions in the heat of an emotional meltdown so once we establish that as a fact in our lives we can learn to say to ourselves I must not make any decisions right now until I am calmed down, sober, whatever it may be.
This has been quite a revelation to me today, not sure why.
I guess as I get older I understand the word permanent a bit better
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