Get Rich Slick

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Heraclitus posited that man cannot step onto the same river twice much less two or more people step onto the same piece of water (river) twice.   So Heraclitus’ philosophy states that the world is in constant flux and no two people can really follow the exact same path and this is my thesis for personal finance and wealth.

I can illustrate step by step the path that I’ve taken to building the wealth I have now but it’s going to be virtual impossible for anyone to follow it exactly or closely unless they live in the same places I lived, experienced the same triumphs and set backs and lived life exactly the way I lived it.

I think this explains why, despite hundreds and hundreds of personal finance, get rich, and self development books fail to make everyone healthy wealthy and wise.   A real estate guru might write the best most perfect way to invest in real estate to make millions but if the real estate market changes or if the capital markets don’t exist then it’s completely irrelevant when the world moves on and changes.

And while no two people can step into the same river twice, everyone can step into it at their own leisure and at a time of their choosing and take something away from it.

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If you’re not sure what you need to be grateful for them perhaps this little video might help….

Here’s a hint…

…Everyday we wake up
We choose Love
We choose light
And we try, it’s too easy just to fall apart

Plastic Bottles
Imported Water
Cars we drive wherever we want to
Clothes we buy it’s sweatshop labor
Drugs from corporate enablers
We’re not living the Good life
Unless we’re fighting the Good fight
You and Me just trying to get it right

In the center of the first world
It’s laid out before us, who are we to break down?

….

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As I drove to work this morning, I noticed a new sign over one of the city’s “gentleman’s club” and couldn’t help but notice a sign that read, “Dollar Steak Buffets Are Back” over the establishment.

It got me thinking if this is a good strategy to save money on lunch and I’m wondering if it will show up on those famous frugal blogs out there.    Personally, I get my steak lunches the normal way: vendors;  I’m noticing that there continues to be a serious drop in patrons at high end restaurants and I’ve seen a few shutter doors already.

I can only imagine that these clubs are suffering along with the restaurants, retail and other industries.  Something has to be done be before we slip into a depression, this economic disaster is now feeding on itself exponentially and dollar buffets at the strip clubs are a sign of the times.

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I was on my way to have lunch with a friend earlier this week but I over anticipated traffic so I got there about 30 minutes too soon.   I was so hungry, I figured a $0.99 Mickey D’ double cheeseburger could tide me over until we met for lunch so I drove into a McDonalds in the most unsavory part of town.

As I was pulling up to the intercom to place my order an old poor black man walked up close to my car and said, “Sir, I’m not going to ask you for money but could you please buy me lunch today because I haven’t eaten in a while?”

As I looked him over, he did look fairly ragged wearing worn and torn clothing and rather filthy too.  I said to  him, “What would you like?”

He beamed back and said he wanted a “BLT Combo Number 5″ and added “and Sprite for the drink.”

I ordered a double cheeseburger and a #5 with a Sprite and pulled up to the drive thru window.   I handed the clerk a $100 but she didn’t accept the bill so I handed her my AMEX.    She gave me the food and I drove up to the edge of the restaurant where “God” was waiting for his meal.

I handed the #5 combo to him along with the drink.   He took it, looked at me and said, “God bless you today son” and walked away.

It wasn’t until a few days later that I realized I had purchased God lunch that day.   I tend to think that an all powerful being would find it pretty boring to sit atop of the cosmos looking down on a seeming fairly placid universe.   No, God hangs out in the form of a poor shunned person all day long unable to get something to eat from the very people for which everything has been given to on Earth.

Despite having written checks for hundreds or thousands of dollars this year for various charities and organizations only to have a sense of regret that my money went into a black hole, I got a high sense of accomplishment from a single $5 meal purchase for someone who needed it.

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1. Invest in training & education

Mass unemployment mean mass competition, often during heavy dry periods people will head back to school to get an MBA or second degree. I’m not sure how viable that course of action might be but I would certainly focus on education that has some staying power in fields like health care, education, infrastructure and energy.

2. Network, Network, Network

Now is the time to invest a few bucks in taking old buddies out to lunch and begin the networking process. Lunch an investment? You’d be surprised how a full stomach can open some doors and a person’s gotta eat anyway….For those gal friends, send them a small flower bouquet on their birthday to make yourself visible and networkable.

3. Invest in others

Networking is a two way street and if you find a job opportunity that doesn’t fit your needs, don’t just throw it away, network with your friends and let them know that a particular company is hiring for a particular skill set. Perhaps a few months into the future a position will open up that meets your criteria and it’s a definite plus to have a friend on the inside that can vouch for you and push the hiring manager in the right direction.

4. Invest in activities that build character

If I were to suddenly find myself unemployed, common wisdom says I should keep busy during doing chores around the house, perhaps make my own laundry soap, grow a garden, etc. I would actually take a long three month vacation to Europe or South America and maybe work odd jobs (low paying) to meet new and interesting people, gather a sense of what matters to people in other cultures, understand how the cogwheels of the world turn in different parts of the world. When coming back if asked why I was unemployed for 3 months I’d say I was consulting in Europe/South America on critical character building activities. When was the last time you met someone like that?

5. Invest in opportunities

This is perhaps counter intuitive but with mass unemployment during a recession there are people that come up with unique and innovative ideas that have the potential to make a great deal of money. Unfortunately, during recessions, many people don’t have the capital they need to start a business or bring their idea to fruition. Necessity is the mother of invention and innovation is the father of profits, so don’t let any slip you by unnoticed.

6. Invest in security

Car alarm, home alarm, video surveillance, karate, nun chucks, shotgun or mace whatever your favorite method of protecting yourself and family, now is the time to invest in security. Crime waves are already starting to spread throughout the country as desperation increases and it’s only going to get worse as the recession deepens. If you need to cut your home alarm monitoring or your cable, cut your cable as it will be useless if you’re shot bleeding to death on the floor in your home.

7. Invest in productivity tools

In addition to investing in education and training, investing in the right productivity tools during a recession will help focus your time and energy for productive purposes. The range of tools to buy here is too long and tend to be specific to your career but something like a new computer with the latest versions of software can go a long way.

8. Invest in laughter & happiness

They say laughter is the best medicine but during a recession and unemployment there comes a time where you’ll need to invest in something that will make you laugh a great deal or bring you much happiness. Don’t be afraid to invest money on that vacation, wardrobe, or something else that brings happiness because those are the things that carry us through the dark times.

9. Invest in love

No explanation needed.

10. Invest in God.

Stop by your favorite church, synagogue, or mosque and say “hi” to the old man, it can’t hurt.

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1. Do NOT purchase gift cards

Not a lot needs to be written about this one, with the list of bankrupt chains growing every day, you’d have to like playing Russian roulette to buy any type of gift cards right now.

2. Do NOT prepay for insurance

The insurance industry is under severe strain and while a few people choose to prepay their insurance premiums 6 months or 12 months at a time, if you can pay monthly it may be a better option despite the nominal $2 to $3 fee for doing so because this will help preserve your cash flow and give you some options if your insurance company goes bankrupt.

3. Do NOT prepay for retail products

Layaway services are all the rage now that people can’t buy on credit but what happens if you’ve been paying layaway fees and depositing money to a retailer and the retailer goes bankrupt? Do you think you’ll get your money back?

4. Do NOT prepay for utilities (a.k.a balanced billing)
Throughout the United States, most utilities offer the option of prepaying and/or spreading your utility payments throughout a 12 month period evenly. While it sounds like a great idea, during a recession and a deflationary spiral, the big winner is the utility and the big loser is you. The prices of natural gas, heating oil, propane and electricity have dropped dramatically over the past few months and will likely continue to drop so why give more money to your utility company now?

5. Do NOT prepay for services

Whether your prepay your lawn service, maid service, pool service or anyone else, it’s time to rethink this strategy. It’s not uncommon for small businesses to struggle, cut back, reduce service or go bankrupt during tough economic times and there’s no point in losing money to these service providers if you don’t have to right now.

6. Do NOT commit to long term leases, contracts or agreements

The job losses keep mounting weekly and we’re not at the tail end of a recession we’re at the BEGINNING! There is a high probability that you may lose your job, be asked to take a pay cut, forgo a bonus or have a reduction of business at your employer that may result in some adverse consequences (e.g. pay more for health insurance or lose health insurance coverage).

7. Do NOT seek new employment

If you can postpone looking for a new job, right now isn’t the time to be job hopping. I can’t tell you how big the list is growing of professionals that I’ve known over the years that are now calling up asking for leads, interviews or help looking for a new job.

8. Do NOT incur any new debt

I love debt during inflationary times because the value of the debt gets inflated away but during a deflationary spiral, any new kind of debt increases the pain of servicing payments on existing debt and refinancing debt becomes much more difficult.

9. Do NOT make any large purchases (e.g. home, car)

There is a reason autos have $13,000 off MSRP and that’s because no one is buying them. Homes also have incentives as large as 50k to 100k “off” of original price. During deflationary periods, the intrinsic value of anything and everything goes out the window. A piece of property is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, all markets become local.

10. Do NOT blame anyone for your situation

Let’s face it, everyone is looking for scapegoats to blame for the economic mess but the reality is that economic cycles, booms & busts just happen and once we’re beyond this one they will happen again.

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I wasn’t sure what to make of Geezeo as it seems to be part blog, part marketplace and part community.  Geezeo has a bit of something for everyone I guess but what I found interesting is the public feed community section where people post their spending confessions which makes the site seem a bit like Twitter and New York confessions.

Geezeo is a bit further along in development than PocketSmith but I didn’t get to work through the various options on the site:  Debt management, Budget, Savings Goal, and Retirement Planning.

Like PocketSmith, Geezeo has potential to integrate a marketplace which offers checking, credit, broker and other accounts and linking/integrating them with budget, savings and retirement goals but I didn’t get around to trying the site features out.

I simply do not feel comfortable handing over my account usernames and passwords over to these people regardless of how secure the site claims to be.

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I received a request to review PocketSmith.com and I decided to give it a whirl.   I’ve logged on a few times and looked around the website and I came away with two major themes:   High potential and very beta.

First, the site is very aesthetically pleasing and I found the color schemes agreeable, smooth and functional.  I’m assuming that for a website across the globe, it was very responsive as I rolled over to various functions and options.

PocketSmith has a calendar based approach to finances and I love the concept since time is money and both should be tracked as a unified pair.  The calendar is iCal compliant and can be integrated with Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar and iCal for Mac OS X.   I love this capability although I didn’t get a chance to test it thoroughly.

PocketSmith has a Goal section which allows you to allocate the time/money to specific goals along with your typical cash flow and forecast graphs to help you manage your money over time.

Unfortunately, there are many key features missing from a money management application that leave me unable to recommend the application as a complete money app.   Because the application is still in beta, it is unfair to draw any conclusions since I’m not sure if these features will be added in the future or not.

What’s missing?

For starters, there is no electronic automation of transaction downloads.   Quicken, Money and others have the ability to download transactions from credit cards and banks in the background as long as you provide the username and passwords to your account(s).   PocketSmith does have the ability to upload OFX or CSV files but I did not test this feature since I wasn’t certain what the benefit of uploading transactions would be anyway.

PocketSmith does not seem to have any mechanism or way of classifying transactions and I’m assuming that whatever you upload as an OFX or CSV will be what shows up on PocketSmith.com.

I give a giant kudos though for thinking about currencies as there is a place in the application to establish a base currency in something other than US Dollars.

I’ll try to review the application at some point in the future when there is more functionality in the application but it has high potential.

No electronic automation of transaction downloads, you can upload OFX, CSV files.

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I made a decision a while ago that I wasn’t going to vote in this election but that’s only part of the story.   Instead I opted to give my son the chance to vote in this election so I gave him my vote.   He’s only in the fourth grade and when I told him that I wasn’t voting he asked if he could have my vote.   Oddly enough, he didn’t ask me why I wasn’t voting but was thrilled at the opportunity to vote in this election through my vote.

As I sat there looking into the innocent eyes of my son it occurred to me that we should all give our votes to our kids;   After all, kids look at the world through innocence and always respond with brutal honesty.    Kids don’t worry about things like “terrorism” or “taxation” and quizzickly ask why “the guys on TV are always yelling like babies” at each other. Lol!

One year ago I endorsed Ron Paul on this blog and was sadly disappointed to see Ron drop out of the race.   All I wanted for Christmas last year was a stable monetary policy but the Grinch stole Christmas and the financial mess ensued.

So my son decided on who he wanted to vote for and I went to the polling place and clicked on the ballot for his selection.  Afterward, I asked him why he wanted me to vote for this person and he said, “because one of those men wants war and the other one doesn’t” and “because one of those men looks mean and ugly” and “the other one doesn’t, he looks nice and smart.”

I initially thought that perhaps this view was fairly naive but the more I thought about it the more it I realized that he was the much smarter person between the two of us.   One man is ugly because he is the victim of a war and ironically enough continues to want to pursue war with other countries while the other man is a reasoned man with a college (Harvard) education scar less and charismatic.   You reap what you sow?

My son attends a private religious school and perhaps his least favorite subject (religion) has actually taught him a thing or two after all.   I don’t think I have to tell you who he choose and it’s not my place to speak for him now but I think you can surmise who this die hard capitalist voted for during this election cycle and I did it for my son.

As for why I didn’t vote in this election nor will I vote in any other election in the future, well that’s a discussion for another day but my son’s innocence has helped me see the world in a way that I had not been able to see in a long time.

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Worried about the market? Don’t be, because I’m going to explain to you the new world order that’s coming. First, industry will be broken down into a few major “hubs” where all citizens will enjoy the lifestyle they enjoy now in a slightly different manner. A few centralized quasi-free market quasi government entities will be setup as follows.

American Telecommunications, Inc. will control all telecommunications. With their preconfigured hookups to the NSA and other government agencies, you’ll rest assured that big brother will be watching over you to ensure your most willing participation and acceptance of the new world order.

American Banks of Americans will control all banking, lending, credit, mortgages, investing and provide direct feeds to the IRS to monitor all your transactions to ensure you comply with each and every law and keep you from doing any “evil” things with your money because it’s not really your money it’s the government’s money.

American Consolidated Motors will sell all vehicles which will be sold on a consolidated basis to squeeze the most money out of your pocketbook by working with American Oil & Energy to optimize both industries.

American Oil & Energy will control all gasoline, natural gas and diesel distribution and sales along with providing you with the electricity that goes into your home. Convenient “monitoring” systems will be installed to ensure your “compliance” with the deemed appropriate usage and prevent any type of subterfuge.

American Pharmaceutics will control all medicine distribution to ensure your safety and compliance with all “American” based programs. All your medical information will be kept in a centralized database to ensure complaince with all government mandated medical programs.

American Phlights will control all air travel which will be subject to extreme security measures which will require a review of your American Telecommunication, American Pharmaceutics and American Bank of Americans accounts.

American Phoods will control all crops, beef, poultry, and other food stuffs for all Americans.

American Insurance will control and issue all insurance & claims.

You will no longer receive a paycheck and 401k, IRA and other similar accounts will no longer be necessary, those account will be transferred over to American Bank of Americans and distributed to other American entities to pay for all the goods and services you will receive.

All that is required from you the citizen is complacent obedience and everything will be taken care of for you.

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