By David Drews

If you are stuck in the rat race and getting kicked around by life, I may be able to help you!  There just may be hope.

The first thing is you have to set goals. Set goals that are worthwhile, realistic, but something you must really stretch yourself for.  Set short term and long term goals. Set health goals, debt reduction and savings goals. Set any goal you need to set and write the goals down. Take a hard look at what you have to do to improve yourself enough to reach your goal. Be honest with yourself.

The second thing to do is to turn your drive time into learning time and turn idle time into learning or working time.  Search for ideas you can apply to your situation.  Take notes on your reading.  Read about successful people and start to do some of what they do.  Having good role models is important.

The third thing to do is to start a long term savings plan.  Complement this plan by selling unwanted items and collectibles and then build an emergency fund, and/or invest.  Make a detailed budget and figure out what you can save each payday. Don’t put 100% of your spare funds into your IRA. Have an emergency fund. Your IRA cannot be your emergency fund.  If your job does not pay a livable wage, start search for a new or second job or start a small business on the side.

One of the most obvious things to do is to try to get a raise. Resolve to always be punctual.  Try to improve your appearance.  Don’t turn into a neurotic or pathological nut trying to catapult herself to CEO of the business.  Just do a good job. Get a little bit better every day.

After saving up some money, having some goals under your belt and having a better reference from your employer, start learning new skills.  Learn skills that will help you find your new job.  You may want to learn computer programs, sales, Spanish, accounting, get the nuts and bolts of a skill and add the skills to your resume. Focus on something lucrative and focus on a field that is growing.

Be persistent. Don’t let one setback or a series of setbacks stop you! Keep plugging away.  Don’t get frustrated or bent out of shape.  Good luck!

David K Drews runs http://www.independentwealth.us a web site that will halp you get out of the rat race.  http://www.independentwealth.us offers a fairly larges online community where you can make contacts and find motivation.

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By Al Thomas

Years ago Senator Everett Dirkson, the great oratorical Senator from Illinois said, “A million here and a million there and before long you are talking about real money”. Today he would be a cheapskate. Now we talk in billions and trillions.

The mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market seems to deal in nothing but 9-figure buyouts. The 6-figure  deals hardly get a mention.

Even the 9-figure transactions are small when you take into consideration what countries like China, India, Britain, Germany, Japan and others are doing. Our trade deficit every month expresses the huge amounts that are taking place.

The trade deficit shows the amount we owe them. That deficit must be met and it is. Much of it by printing money of thin air. That is what the Federal Reserve does. Each time they create more it dilutes the cash you have and that is where the major cause of inflation comes from. Of course, the Fed will never admit they are the prime cause of inflation.

For a definitive study of the how, when and where of the Federal Reserve the book, Creature from Jekyll Island lays out the gory details. It reads like a detective novel and is shockingly true.

Every world central bank does exactly the same thing. It is a catastrophic collusion. The results of their efforts can be seen in the exchange rates of the dollar to the currency of their country. For those who trade in the daily multibillions they pay close attention to the spreads between all countries. This is a 24/7 effort.

Mistakes can be horrendous. A few years back one of the world’s largest banks, Bering & Co, was bankrupted by just one of their traders.

Few people of the general public realize their money whether it is dollars, yens, pounds, francs, deutschmarks or whatever has no backing at all. It is merely a piece of paper the central government has designated as legal tender.

Years ago paper dollars could be redeemed for so many ounces of gold or silver. Not any more. There is no government gold standard. It has been abdicated. Yet gold remains the standard of wealth.

Dollars may be redeemed for gold. It is up to the individual to do it. Many investors realize gold is the one investment that cannot be diluted by their government.

If a country had to pay for its wars in gold there would be very few wars. Only with the ability to print false wealth can a war be financed. Politicians could scream all they chose, but without money nothing happens.

Today’s wars are being fought more and more on the field of economics. See who can outproduce and /or  outprint their rivals. Guns remain in the background because so much is invested in the land of their enemy they dare not destroy him without hurting themselves..

Over the next 20 years it will be interesting to see what happens to the value of our dollars.

Al Thomas' best selling book, "If It Doesn't Go Up, Don't Buy It!" has helped thousands of people make money and keep their profitswith his simple 2-step method. Read the first chapter and receive his market letter at http://www.mutualfundmagic.com anddiscover why he's the man that Wall Street does not want you to know.   Copyright 2007 All rights reserved

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By Steve J Carter

In this article I am going to discuss whether it is possible to earn extra money at home, and give three practical methods which you could follow.

Is it possible to earn extra money at home? I get asked this question all the time by people who just need a bit of extra cash, but don’t want to have to go out in the dark and the cold to a part-time job in the evenings. Making money from home seems to be a panacea for all your money woes and you get to be comfortable at the same time. So is it possible? Well you would have to declare any money you made to the taxman, and some houses have restrictions on them that do not allow you to use the premises as a base of operations for any business activities – but yes it is very possible to earn extra money at home.

Here are some ideas of how to earn extra money at home:

Idea #1

Make homemade soap. The name gives it away doesn’t it? You can make soap in your kitchen if you have just a few tools, some soap can be made with just a microwave and some bowls! This is a fantastic way to earn extra money at home, and it has the scope to expand as you become more proficient. To sell the soap then you can get a stall at markets or carboot sales, contact owners of small shops or even large shops if you are enterprising enough!

Idea #2

Make homemade candles. You knew that was coming! Yes you can earn money at home from making candles too, and with your new found skills from making soap you should take to this with ease. They compliment each other nicely as well so you can have them all selling next to each other and you may tempt people to buy some of both rather than just one, therefore increasing the transaction size each time.

Idea #3

Make handcrafted wedding invites & birthday cards. People love to see handcrafted cards, they have an enduring appeal and are a great way to earn extra money at home. Again you can quickly pick up the skills and if you produce 5 cards of the same design each time you will reduce the time it takes as you can prepare the materials by doing it in bulk. At a couple of pounds each for normal mass-produced cards then you can expect to earn a tidy profit for each one you sell.

For those of you that are not gifted with crafts and would prefer a more subdued way to earn money at home, then I will be discussing some of these in a later article.

So in conclusion then it is absolutely possible to earn extra money at home and there are hundreds of different ways that you could do it, think of what you like doing and how you can profit from that!

Want to make money online? Trying but not getting anywhere? Then I prescribe a FREE copy of the 'Easy Success Blueprint' to find out how to get your finances into tiptop health! Get your report from SuccessForNewbies.com now

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By Robert G Allen

As with anything, it's extremely important to begin with a solid foundation in the world of money and generating income.  So let's begin there...

In the world of money, there are two types of income.  Linear income and residual income.  "How many times do you get paid for every hour you work?"  If you only get paid once, then your income is "linear".  If you get paid multiple times for the work you did once, then your income is "residual".  "Residual Income" is what you should be working towards.

The secret of the wealthy is not that they have more money but that they have more TIME freedom.  With more time, you can create more residual income streams.  It becomes important then to begin shifting your income streams from linear to residual.  So how do you do that?

First, you need to pick the right income stream that will soon create residual income for you.  I have a formula that I use to pick the right income stream.  All opportunities are passed through the filter of the money tree formula - the nine characteristics of the ideal income stream.  It's called the "MONEY TREE" formula because it spells the word MONEY TREE.

M in the Money Tree formula stands for Multiple Streams of Income

Multiple Streams of Income

The first goal in starting your own home based business is to add another stream of income to your life as a safety net for when other of your streams of income dry up. But the home based business you select should be a source of more than just one stream of income. It should eventually be a source of multiple streams of income all by itself.

For example, suppose you’re considering buying an existing restaurant. What possibility will you have to grow? Can you add more shops? Is your idea franchisable? Can one of your food entree’s be sold nationwide as a frozen item? Can you license your special cooking secrets to other restaurants. Is there a cookbook in there somewhere? What about bottling and selling your special sauces? Get the drift? Don’t even consider a business that doesn’t have expansion potential for additional streams of income. That’s why the first M in the formula reminds you of Multiple Streams of Income.

The O in the Money Tree formula stands for outstanding.

Outstanding product or service

If your product, service or information isn’t distinguishably excellent it will eventually become a casualty of competition. The goal of creating a money tree is to do the work once and to have the money flow for the rest of your life. What good does it do to create a business and eventually have it succumb to competition. In order for your source of income to survive through the next ten recessions...as there will be many more recessions in your lifetime...you must select a product, service or source of information that has the possibility to be permanently and perpetually profitable. When times get tough, people gravitate either to price or to quality. Don’t get stuck in the middle. That’s a sure formula for disaster. And don’t compete with the rest of the world on price. Make sure the quality of your produce is outstanding...the best in the world at a fair price. And you have a good chance of succeeding long term.

The N in the Money tree formula stands for Nothing Down.

Nothing Down

Why nothing down? Well, it doesn’t have to be completely zero down...but as little of your own money as possible. If you’re like most people, you probably don’t have a couple of hundred grand lying around to invest in your business. But what if you do have a nice chunk of cash. Should you run out and find a business to match your money and launch in? I think that one of the greatest curses is to have a lot of money to put into a new business.

Suppose you want to buy a hot franchise. It might cost you $100,000 and that’s just for the franchise rights. Then, you need to purchase inventory, leasehold improvements, special equipment. And what do you get? For most franchises, you get the right to be tied to a business 12 hours a day, to manage a lot of undereducated, under motivated employees, and make a steady paycheck for yourself. In a sense, you are just buying yourself a job. Why spend tens of thousands of dollars of your own money just to buy yourself a job...with a lot of risk?

I’m going to show you businesses that you can launch with little risk, little or no money down and the possibility of creating what I call "walk away" cash flow --money that flows to you whether or not you show up.

The E in the Money tree formula stands for "Employee-resistant."

Employee-resistant

That’s right...you don’t want employees. Employees are dangerous! They begin to feel they are entitled to their jobs. ("You can’t fire me. I own this job." ) The rapid increase in employee/employer litigation should be enough to convince you that you want to find a home based business that can be done by yourself, with a very low employee to income ratio.

I used to be the president of a seminar company with over two hundred employees. I made the decision to downsize when one of the employees sued me for age discrimination. He was in his late sixties when he came to work for us and when we layed him off during an economic downturn, he slapped us with a $500,000 lawsuit. We settled out of court for $2,000 but that was the last straw. I decided to never again put myself in a position where one disgruntled employee and his smart attorney could take it all away.

Today, I have zero employees. I make as much today as I used to make with 200 times less hassle. I like it that way. All of my streams of income can be monitored from a telephone anywhere in the world on only a few hours a day.

A friend of mine, Dan Kennedy puts it this way, "When it comes to employees, hire slow and fire fast." Most business people do just the opposite. They hire fast and fire slow. I say, try to find money tree businesses that don’t require any employees and then you don’t have to worry about either hiring or firing.

The Y in the Money tree formula stands for the world "Yield"

Yield

The streams you choose should be high yielding, high profit cash cows. Five years ago a friend of mine, Collette, started such a home based business. In less than a year she was making about $10,000 per month. What’s more, this business was a money tree business. It generates cash flow even if she stops working! But why stop when she is having so much fun? Today, after five years, she has grown her business till she now earns over $500,000 a year net, net, net.

What’s the yield on that kind of income? It’s the equivalent of having TEN MILLION DOLLARS in the bank earning only 5% interest! That’s my idea of yield. In this book I’ll be sharing exactly how Collette did this...as well as other business that meet the same kinds of money tree characteristics.

The T in the Money Tree formula stands for the words Trend and Timing.

Trend and Timing

Starting a business against the trend is like swimming up stream against the current. . Running a business is hard enough without trying to swim upstream. But when you choose a business that is with the trend it’s like floating downstream with the current. How do you select a business that’s on trend?

The first time I started a business was just after college. I started buying real estate...and as luck would have it...it was the exact right time. The baby boomers wanted real estate and the demand drove prices upward. Anyone who owned property made a killing. You could almost do no wrong.

Then, I started teaching people how to buy real estate with little or no money down. My little classified ads brought hoards of calls. It was a feeding frenzy. I was on trend. My seminar businesses took in more than a hundred million dollars in the next decade.

The secret is to get in front of a trend and ride the wave. The biggest wave of our century is the Baby Boom – 76 million people. This generation is four times the size of the previous generation. As this mass of humanity rolls forward through time it creates a huge demand wave. Picking businesses which are at the leading edge of this age wave has created thousands of fortunes. You need to make sure that your new business is leading this trend and not following it. It can make a huge difference in your lifestyle.

The R in the Money Tree formula stands for Residual

Residual Income

We’ve already talked about the importance of this part of the Money Tree formula.

But to emphasize this concept even further, let’s compare it to an escalator. Have you ever walked up a down escalator...the wrong way? When you walk up the down escalator, you have to walk fast just to stay in the same place. And to get to the top, you have to walk at double speed. People on the Up escalator don’t have to work hard at all. They just stand there holding the hand rail and the escalator takes them to the top.

These two escalators represent the two kinds of income that you can earn...linear income and residual income. Our economy is a down escalator. You work hard for your money but with inflation you have earn 3-5% more next year just to stay in the same place. But this puts you in higher tax brackets. The more you make the more they take. It seems you work harder and harder without making any progress. Your bank account balance earns 2% and your credit card balance costs you 20%. You’re going in the hole 24 hours a day. You wonder why you can never catch up. And if you stop...the escalator just takes you right back down to the bottom.

That’s what it’s like to earn linear income. When I think of this kind of income I think of how they catch monkeys in Africa. A native takes a coconut and cuts off one end to make a small hole just the size to allow a monkeys fist to enter. To the other end of the coconut they attach a long cord. They place a few peanuts inside the coconut, place the coconut in the middle of a clearing and hide behind a tree to wait for the monkeys to come. The monkeys come and smell the peanuts inside the coconut shell. One monkey reaches inside the shell to grab the peanuts, but with the peanuts inside, his fist is too large to escape the hole in the coconut. And then the native yanks on the cord and hauls that silly monkey to captivity because the monkey will not let go of those peanuts to save his skin.

Are you working for peanuts?

If you’re walking up the down escalator, you are caught in a Monkey Trap. What you want is Up Escalator Income. Which escalator are you on?

Here’s a list of the many types of residual income that you want to be exploring:

Savers earn interest

Song writers earn royalties on their songs.

Authors, like myself earn royalties from their books and tapes.

Insurance agents get residual business

Securities agents get residual sales.

Network marketers get residual commissions

Actors get a piece of the action

Entrepreneurs get business profits.

Franchisers get franchising fees

Investors get dividends, interest and appreciation.

Visual artists get royalties from their creations

Software creators get royalties.

Game designers get royalties.

Inventors get royalties.

Partners can get profits.

Mailing list owners get rental fees

Real estate owners can get cash flow profits

Retired persons can get pensions

Celebrity endorsers get gross percentage profits

Marketing consultants get % of profit or gross revenue

When you go to bed tonight, ask yourself this question, "What percentage of my day did I spend creating residual income?" If the answer is zero, you’re in trouble. You’d better wake up tomorrow and get busy. More on residual income later. I hope now you see why it’s such a vital part of our money tree formula

The E in the Money Tree formula means Essential to Everybody Everyday.

Essential

Whatever you sell, try to pick something that’s essential or is perceived as essential by a large and very motivated segment of society. Let me give you the real reason that real estate has always been a great wealth creation vehicle and a prime source of residual income for hundreds of thousands. It fits the Money Tree formula. Check it out for yourself and you’ll see why..

Whatever product you choose to market just make sure it’s essential. The more people need it and the more often they need it, the more successful your business can become.

The final E in the Money Tree formula stands for Enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm

You’ve got to love what you do. If you hate what you sell, you’ll never be any good at it. The prime admonition from Gary Halbert one of the all time great marketing gurus is this; SELL WHAT YOU LOVE. Truth is, you’ll never be truly great unless you do.

Well, there you have the 9 major characteristics of the Money Tree formula. These 9 characteristics are essential to the kind of hands off, hassle free businesses that create lifelong streams of cash flow.

Robert Allen is the author of two of the largest selling financial books in history; Nothing Down and Creating Wealth, both New York Times best sellers -- read by millions of people in the past 20 years. My other best-selling books include Multiple Streams of Income, and my current Mega-Best-Sellers, One Minute Millionaire and Cracking The Millionaire Code co-authored by Mark Victor Hansen.  I am selecting a group of people to with on my latest challenge.  To learn more visit http://www.robertgallen.com

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By Robert G Allen

There are three great financial-freedom mountains.  Each mountain is uniquely different from the others.  Yet each mountain can become extremely important to your long-term financial success.  Investing in the entire mountain range will give you both the safety of diversification and constant exposure to the hottest opportunities.

From each of these money mountains flow separate streams of income, 10 to be exact.  The goal is to have several streams from each money mountain flowing into the reservoir of your accumulating prosperity.  These are not just ordinary streams of income, they have passed through the money tree formula.  You want streams of income that flow into your life 24 hours a day - even while you sleep.

THE REAL ESTATE MOUNTAIN

This is a tremendously important piece of your lifelong financial freedom plan.  There are hundreds of books on how to make money in real estate.  I should know.  I've written three of them.  Each of these books is filled with dozens of strategies, techniques, and tips.  If you want to be successful in real estate investing, remember this...

Finding

Funding

Farming

You need to know how to FIND bargain properties, how to FUND those properties, and then how to FARM them - or to harvest the profits from each deal.  In your own city there are thousands of properties for sale, yet you can eliminate 99 percent of them from consideration by first determining which of them are the best bargains.  Then you can worry about funds needed to acquire them.  Then you decide whether to keep them for long-term profit or flip them for short-term gain.  It may sound oversimplified but that's the world of real estate investing in a nutshell.  Find it.  Fund it. Farm it.

THE INVESTMENT MOUNTAIN

The same is true for the investment mountain.  There are over $10,000 individual stocks in the stock market and almost as many mutual funds.  Just like real estate, there is a formula I use to filter these stocks.  Here is what you need to know.

Screening and Filtering

Timing in

Timing out

Using simple, understandable filters, you can sift through the gravel of the market and uncover a nugget or two.  Using the power of inexpensive tools, you can know exactly when to buy and precisely when to sell.  The results will astound you.

THE MARKETING MOUNTAIN

There are literally tens of thousands of "deals" floating around out there.  So, how do you select the right business opportunity that's right for you?  Again, you use the money tree formula to filter all the opportunities and then you can begin to narrow those down even more.  You must find an opportunity that you are passionate about.

I've done some screening myself and have found 4 fields of business that have the potential to create untold amounts of income.

The Internet

Infopreneuring

Network Marketing

Licensing

The fundamental activity behind all of them is marketing.  That's why I call it the Marketing Mountain.  Whether you are selling ideas, a service, or a product, nothing happens without marketing.  Even the best books languish in a dusty garage without marketing.  Without marketing your website is nothing more than a multimedia billboard in a corner of your basement.  It's extremely important then to learn how to market, because he who markets best wins.  And we all want our businesses to win.

So which money mountain do you want to climb?  Hopefully all of them.. Right?  Each mountain requires a unique set of skills, and it's important to develop these skills so you can use them when required.

Robert Allen is the author of two of the largest selling financial books in history; Nothing Down and Creating Wealth, both New York Times best sellers -- read by millions of people in the past 20 years. My other best-selling books include Multiple Streams of Income, and my current Mega-Best-Sellers, One Minute Millionaire and Cracking The Millionaire Code co-authored by Mark Victor Hansen.  I am selecting a group of people to with on my latest challenge.  To learn more visit http://www.robertgallen.com

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