Friends and Dollar Signs

Since when was it OK to look at friends with dollar signs in our eyes? - Casey McFarland

In the past couple of weeks I have had the opportunity to meet a variety of people that some could be a wonderful asset and others could be a terrible liability.  It truly is amazing to see the fight to survive come alive in people when the economy and typical opportunity begins to shrink.

A couple of weeks ago I met a fellow by the name of Shawn Watkins.  He related the fight for survival of the shrinking economy to a billabong in Australia.  A billabong is a small lake that get's cut of from the river.  In the heat the crocodiles will soak in the water to cool down.  Yet as the billabong begins to shrink, the fight to cool down begins to increase as there is less water to go around.  That is what seems to be happening in almost every industry in every market right now.

As the billabong of the economy shrinks it becomes easier to see who your friends are.  It seems friends are replaced as dollar signs in good times and bad.  So be careful, not with people choosing money over you, yet you choosing money over people.

The B Side To The Truth is there is more than enough opportunity to go around.  Yet what keeps us from getting our slice of the pie?  The first and foremost is the lack of knowledge in a changing market.  When times were hot anyone could make money, even those who were uneducated.  When times get cold sort of speak, the best investment one can start with is the knowledge and know how.  Investing in your education should be a regular expense in a person's life, and I do not mean traditional public school or money making colleges.

A few steps to successful investing in any market:

1. Treat life as a investment.
2. Take the time to get the knowledge and education necessary.  We all have 168 hours in a week.  Figure out what your time is worth and treat it that way.  And every hour you spend educating yourself and creating commitments, then consider this a pay raise on what you are worth per hour.  A simple formula given by Neil Strauss is:  Know what your time is worth. There's an easy formula to calculate this: Take your earnings for the year. Divide that number by 1760. The resulting number is roughly what you make hourly in a work week. However, considering that statistically most people work for an average of one-third of a work hour, multiply that number by three. Now you know what your time is really worth. Treat it that way.
3. Invest in food storage.
4. Invest in your debt.  How do you invest in your debt?  Simple create a financial statement that includes your monthly income, monthly expenses, total real assests (remember your personal home is a liability, not an asset.  An asset puts money in your pocket, a liability takes money out of your pocket), and total liabilities.  Create a plan to decrease your expenses and increase your income.
5. Invest in gold, silver, tangible usable goods, and section 8 housing or housing in the working class range.  There will always be a working class.

Colton -discover your true'ness'