Passive Investments Liquidation | Further Money Gym Statement

Last week the news broke about Passive Investments going into liquidation and Greg Ballard and Andy Shaw facing bankruptcy proceedings and one of the most difficult phone calls I had to make was the one telling my much-touring singing sister, Heather, about the news.   In my journey as a wealth coach, and the subsequent journey of creating and building The Money Gym, I don’t think I can remember such a difficult and horrid week.

As you know, I regard Andy and Greg as friends of mine, and they helped me so much, both practically and emotionally, when I was going through the difficult time with trying to sell the hotel, after the planning permission for change of use was refused.   I really could not believe that they had done anything wrong.

While all of my friends and family are grownups and able to do their own due diligence and make their own decisions, I still feel responsible that I have introduced them – along with my treasured clients – to something that I really believed at the time was good, even great, but now turns out not to be.

As more and more information comes to light about Passive Investments and the way they have treated some people, I am starting to feel very bad indeed about having promoted them, but I can only say that I (and then the Money Gym) did that in good faith, and the moment we started to suspect that they might not be delivering on the customer service in the way we would have liked, based on Judith’s personal experience as a client, we ceased to do so.

We were paid commission on referrals by Passive Investments. However, I can say, hand on heart, we never introduced Passive to anyone that we felt would not benefit from their service, and both Judith and I often actively talked some people out of it.   If an investment opportunity does not feel right in every way to our clients, we discourage them from proceeding with it.   We can honestly say that we have never introduced anything to our clients for the purposes of securing our introduction fee only; that is a bonus only.

Judith has educated me, over the weekend, about how Passive should have handled the client fees and how it seems they may not have complied with proper accounting procedures.

With hindsight, the statement we released last week was written hastily in response to the discussions on our private forum and comments on the blog and came from our hearts, but perhaps we should have waited for a few days before issuing it while the full story filtered back to us.

My position has always been that I (and The Money Gym) would only promote something that either I, or someone very close to me, had invested our own money in and were happy with.  The service that Passive offered was so attractive that nearly all my friends and family jumped on board, followed by a lot of our clients and subscribers.  However, in light of the developments last week, I feel that The Money Gym will be reviewing it’s stance on introducing anyone or anything at all, let alone quite so wholeheartedly, in the future.

I apologise unreservedly for my part in bringing the services of Passive Investments to the attention of so many people.

Nicola Cairncross

Note:  James Tickell, director of Portland Business & Financial Solutions, the insolvency practice chosen to disband the Passive Investments empire, says the matrix of firms will formally enter liquidation on 11 December.

Contact:  London Office, 43 Pall Mall, London, SW1Y 5JG, Tel: 020 7925 2651 / Fax: 020 7925 2652 / Office email: post@portbfs.co.uk

Why I Have Sent Tudor Equity A Cheque For £2.5k With A Smile On My Face by Clare Hanbury

Money Gym Subscriber Clare Hanbury-Leu says: The relationship with Passive Investments was built on trust. I have trusted them to find the right properties – to renovate them to a high standard – to rent them out as quick as they can – to advise on the best mortgage deal – to re-mortgage and turn things around as soon as they can etc.

Most of us must be happy to accept risk to put so much trust into the hands of people we don’t know well. My friends, my financial adviser, my partner all felt nervous of the arrangement and advised against it but I pursued it – uncharacteristically ignoring their advice. My instinct felt strong on this one.

I have been involved with Passive Investments for 3 years and have two properties. The rental on one of these was a little slow in coming and the turnaround on the first mortgage again a little slow. I had one property fall through and lost a bit of money on legal costs and survey etc. All this said, I have been delighted with the results of the investments to date and delighted with every contact I have had with the company. I have felt totally supported by them. I like having them in my life. Every glitch, every query has been dealt with quickly, politely, humorously.  I have been happy to talk to two potential clients and chat through my experiences with them.

I have had some contact with Greg in the last few months and found him open and straightforward. He is an ideal business partner. Even prior to my contact with him there was no doubt in my mind that these are very tough times for the company with its peculiar business model that clients pay when we have done well and not until then! I am staggered that he has stuck at it as long as he has with no salary. I know he has worked for the future of his own properties (which is good thing) but he has also worked free for me too!

When the letter came though last week, the trust I had placed in them suddenly felt foolish. However after a few minutes indulging in panic…most of what I felt was what a WASTE of the talent and expertise that is this team. I felt upset that I would not complete the portfolio. I felt nervous about having to deal with the properties on my own and I felt frustrated to have to do so when they have a good system in place. I have a property in London too which I manage myself and would much rather it was in Passive’s care! Then I read that Steve wanted to keep things going with the team there and I was keen to know how I could help.

So…..there is this 2.5k (which is a LOAN) to help Tudor Equity capitalise – this is money that the very same advisers, partners friends etc will describe as throwing good money after bad – but I don’t think so. From a numbers point of view…Because the 15K back payment /property has been reduced to 10K this means that by the end of completing the portfolio of 5 properties, there will be a SAVING to me of 25K from the original agreement AND I’ll get the 2.5 loan back.

Hmnnn why is this a difficult one to agree to? I guess that it’s difficult because of trust. Do I trust them again? The way I see it is that they have ALREADY done so much for me re: my properties that they have ‘earned’ this AND if the team don’t think they can make a go of it because there are not enough of us signed up – we’ll get the money back anyway…and if they DO think they can make a go of it – well I am willing to give them an opportunity to do so.

My cheque is on its way to them with a smile on my face. I really want to help keep this business going and I am grateful to them for giving us a chance. I have not yet spoken to anyone outside of Passive and I have not looked on the internet to read what is being said so my words are unaffected by others’ opinions.

I don’t see any point in NOT supporting the team now. I feel the market is not only stabilising but strengthening – I think we all know this and what we also know is that we have a dedicated team and they will be even more so if this can go ahead. I really hope there are enough of us to give them a chance to navigate a path to creating a robust business again. I’m sure they can do it. The banks won’t help but I will.

Clare Hanbury B.Ed (Cambridge) MSc (London) MA (London)
International Development Consultant ClareHanbury.com

Passive Investments In Liquidation | The Money Gym

Read The Latest Money Gym Statement Here>>>>

Nicola says: Following the shocking news that Passive Investments have gone into liquidation, and that Andy Shaw and Greg Ballard are being made bankrupt by one of their larger creditors, many people are asking us to comment, both on the blog and in our private google group.

When I first met Greg and Andy, back in 2004 I think it was, they struck me as two highly intelligent, funny, energetic, successful guys, who had been in traditional business before, who thought very differently to many people and who had created a FANTASTIC model for investing in property. They were also helping their friends and family invest in the same way, on a fairly small scale, as well as building their own portfolios which numbered about 150 properties in those days.

I immediately knew that our Money Gym clients would love to meet them and hear about this method of investing in property, getting your money back out and going again, as the need to leave money in a property was frustrating many of our clients. We organised an Open Day at my hotel, The Acacia, and many of the clients who were there wanted Greg & Andy to do it for them, like they were doing for their nearest and dearest. Greg and Andy put together an offering, and I spread the word into the Money Gym group of clients and subscribers.

I introduced them to Gill Fielding, my first wealth mentor, who immediately invested with them, ditto Maria Davies. Gill then started presenting this opportunity for them. When Gill could no longer present, Maria Davies took over for a while.

Everyone loved the concept, especially busy professionals and people who wanted to invest in property but didn’t have the first clue about how to go about it. Most people really took to Greg and Andy too, as they shared their knowledge freely, helping many, many people make money along the way. I particularly remember one lunch where they helped a Money Gym client to negotiate a purchase, making him an extra £80,000 along the way. They then took him under their wing and mentored him for a while in his own property deals.

Pretty soon, they were so swamped with people wanting them to invest for them, that they had to create a company to handle the demand. Passive Investments was born.

We are also aware that they then developed a “private investor” scheme whereby people with money sitting idle in a low interest bank account lent the money to Greg and Andy personally for bigger property projects, and because I was not one of those people, I didn’t find out any further details and they never sought a public platform for that opportunity though the Money Gym.

My sister Sarah and brother-in-law Nick invested, my sister Heather invested, Steve Watson and I both bought a “place” each too. I would have happily bought more “places” if I could. The company still owe us for some of the second “place” so my family and I are all out of pocket as well as those of our clients who chose to invest alongside us.

One ray of hope is that those of our clients and family who have properties may make up the monies they have lost (by having paid a fee for a service that now won’t be delivered) AND may ultimately end up better off, due to now not having to pay Passive the agreed “back end” fee on the eventual refinancing of their properties.

Judith Morgan, ex-accountant, Money Gym client and now our business partner, invested the entirety of her inheritance from her Mother into her two “places”. This should have meant ten properties in the fullness of time but she only has three. Her portfolio could not be grown once it became impossible to achieve mortgages or re-finance.

I have heard some horrible stories going around about things that Greg and Andy are supposed to have said and done and while I have no personal knowledge of those things, I’m working on the “innocent ‘till proven guilty” theory. I have always liked and respected Andy and Greg, and I feel sure that most of the rumours are unfounded.

Only yesterday Andy’s website was apparently hacked into, allegedly by someone known to the company, and a personal message to members and investors was changed beyond all recognition to cast the worst possible light on Andy. Here is a link to Andy’s correct personal statement.   Remember to click on the Free User button and then the blue Download button.

We have also been re-educating our clients during the credit crunch to take a more active role in managing ALL their investments, including this one which was originally intended to be passive.  You might want to read about one of our clients (who is not alone by any means) who feels that she will go forward with Tudor Equity, the company that some of the management team is putting together to take the portfolios forward.

Feel free to comment on the blog here but be aware that we reserve the right not to publish any comments that are potentially libellous or are simple repeating content from other people’s blogs or emails.

Later Note: James Tickell, director of Portland Business & Financial Solutions, the insolvency practice chosen to disband the Passive Investments empire, says the matrix of firms will formally enter liquidation on 11 December.

Contact:  London Office, 43 Pall Mall, London, SW1Y 5JG, Tel: 020 7925 2651 / Fax: 020 7925 2652 / Office email: post@portbfs.co.uk

Amazing Offers, Radiowaves & Outer Space

So who moved the Bank Holiday from the traditional last weekend in August to this weekend then?  First I knew about it was when GM.tv started wittering on about DIY for the Bank Holiday!

It’s been a weird week without the kids – this year I’m coping better because I’m getting out and about more – except NOT down the beach obviously!! I’m playing poker live around various venues in Sussex.  For £12 a night, you get two games and your dinner and last night at the Montague was a great night all round, with a fine home-cooked Shepherds Pie with peas (yum) or chicken korma with rice.  It was odd going back there as I spent a large part of my teenage life upstairs in The Montague, they used to run a fantastic soul night there, and co-incidentally, this week on Facebook, I was contacted by Steve MacMahon, an ex-Worthing boy, who is now a DJ in New York, whose very sister used to run that soul night!!

Lee the landlord of The Montague is incredibly entrepreneurial, and is running a great pub there, with “cocktails & karaoke”, comedy and cabaret nights in addition to the biggest Texas Hold’em game in the area, up to four tables now.  There’s two computers with fast internet connection, there are notices on the bar telling us who our barstaff are, and lockers to put your drink in if you need to go outside to smoke (not me!).  Join The Montague’s “University of Poker” (M.U.O.P) Facebook group here http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=23133628865

It’s the last day of the Grand Wealth Giveaway – Kathy very kindly extended the deadline by two days, so if you haven’t downloaded your free gifts – and there is some great property investing stuff in there, Kathy having made her money in real estate, go and get them now, as the offer is closing at midnight tonight.
http://tinyurl.com/wealthgiveaway

As a list building exercise, participating in the Wealth Giveaway was a great event for the Money Gym adding over 300 new people to the Money Gym MVS system.  I’m hoping that many of those are internet marketers who will be interested in re-branding and giving away my free reports on their websites and blog.

I’ve had a frustrating week with technology, but we figured out why the admin area of the blog was running so slow – it was a rogue plugin.  After deactivating them all, then reactivating them one by one, it’s now running along nicely.  Having issues with my podcasts from Hipcast though, as soon as I post one, then go to change the catagory, the player disappears!  I’m going to dig out Mike Stewart’s tutorials on podcasting direct from the blog later today.

New at The Money Gym is a great special offer for just £4.97, where we are bundling a great load of stuff, some audio including the first three chapters of the Money Gym book, as read by the author, four reports, the UK’s first Wealth Conference audio and a 30 day trial of the Money Gym Club site…..and folks are signing up in droves!  You can get your bundle here http://www.themoneygym.com/offer/

As I say, I’ve been recording the Audio version of The Money Gym book – listen to Chapter 1 here at http://www.MoneyGymRadio.com .  I’m a reading kind of gal, but I know 30% of the population like to listen to stuff in the car or while exercising, so I’m working my way through the book, and the audio version will be available by next week as an option.

It’s made me realise that I need to rewrite it and update it – I’ve learned SO MUCH MORE since I wrote it.  I think I will lose the “Day by Day” format too, and make it flow more.  Must talk to Debs and Joe at Bookshaker about a relaunch…..”The Money Gym Revisited” here we come!

As part of the run up to the re-launch of the Money Gym Silver Club membership, I’ve been experimenting with some BlogTalkRadio shows.  I’m veering between a “Smashy & Nicey” kind of voice, through to a “late night talk show” voice and it’s a struggle to talk normally.  I’m having an issue with my headset making my voice very quiet too, but I’ll try holding the receiver today (for half an hour?) and see if that helps.  Not quite brave enough to open the lines to phone in’s yet, but there is a chat facility….committed to doing a show every day till the end of next week, then I’ll swap to weekly, probably on a Wednesday at 1pm.  Check it out at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/TheMoneyGym

The sewing hobby is going well too – I’ve made two linen shirts for me, a pair of gingham short shorts for Phoebe, and cut out two nighties ready to sew this weekend.  I’ve been listening to Frank Kern videos while I’m sewing so it’s not taking me totally away from the computer, but nearly!

I had lunch with Greg Ballard yesterday, and had a good old chinwag, catching up on all the news, and a look round their new offices, which used to be those of my accountant, Mark Nicholson from Spofforths.  It was great to hear that, in spite of the credit crunch, Passive are still picking up lots of great bargains for their clients.

Steve is working his way diligently through John Reese’s Traffic Secrets 2.0 which is excellent and very thorough.  He’s missing the kids but is also getting out and about more with his golf, having bought himself a driver and putter on eBay and a new pair of golf shoes, as the old ones were giving him terrible blisters!

And I’ve been enjoying wandering around the Scienceray blog – check out these AMAZING pics of outer space here http://www.scienceray.com/Astronomy/A-Handpicked-Collection-of-Ultimate-Space-Pictures-3.216589 and look out for the pictures of the planned “doughnut” space station to house the whole human race if we do end up totally destroying the planet, god forbid!

Now, don’t forget to book your tickets for the very exciting two-day “Money Gym Presents….Brett McFall” event on 20th and 21st September – just £25 and all of it (ex the VAT) is going to Great Ormond St Hospital.  It’s the must-attend event for aspiring internet entrepreneurs and We can only fit 300 of you in, and we have 80-odd on our VIP pre-register list, so if all those buy two tickets…..get yours here at http://www.themoneygym.com/brettmcfall

Have fun, we always are!

Nicola

Wealth Coach Diaries: Nicola’s Week

This has been an AMAZING couple of weeks for lots of different reasons. It’s been so busy that, not only have I not had time to play with my new sewing machine, but, for only the second time this last year, I was unable to write the ezine!!

My twitterings kept the blog updated and my Twits also fed out to my Facebook and MySpace profile. The blog being updated by Twitter also fed out to my Hubpages and Ecademy, so all major social networking went on as normal.

The weekend before last saw the “Money Gym Presents…Property” with the ever popular property multi-squillionaire and all round good bloke, Greg Ballard, holding forth about property investment and the property market in general – dynamite stuff as ever. Judith and I updated everyone on our Rent2Own exploits and the band of merry Money Gym rent2own devotees grows and grows – David Lee, what have you started?

Later in the day, my old matie from Las Vegas and Sussex, Maria Davies, came to show us how we could buy a luxury villa in the Caribbean for just £1000, and invited us to one of her open evenings. I’ve never been very keen on overseas investing, but the combination of luxury, Caribbean, and Maria buying TWO herself (she ain’t no property fool!) has got me very very interested. It’s an income strategy after the first four years too, with demand for Caribbean holidays growing and growing all time. Maria has another fr*ee Open Evening coming up in London and you can book your place and find out more here at

http://www.caribbean5starinvestments.co.uk
Talking of Caribbean holidays, I’m hoping that our Money Gym Wealth Creation & Internet Marketers Cruise (with Mike Filsaime) in January will take us to a couple of the islands that Maria’s lot are building on, so I can have a look while I’m out there! Just £500 per person for eight nights, the return flights to Miami are £400, so it’s a dirt cheap holiday in the sun. There are six Money Gym allocated cabins left (and there are some that hold three so bring the kids even if you are a single parent – they will be well looked after in the kid’s club) so secure your cabin (and all the extra Money Gym goodies) here at http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/holidays

Then……….felt really sick with a 24 hour bug on Thursday but recovered in time for Tim Brocklehurst’s Freedom Class weekend on Saturday/Sunday/Monday. This was an intensive three day workshop where he taught us how to use the amazing Viral Spiral system to grow our lists virally. We were amazed by the incredible and inspirational Ange Wayne, and some of the othere excellent speakers included ever exuberant marketing maverick Alan Forrest-Smith and Martin Avis, who gave a great presentation on how to build excellent relationship with your subscribers.

By the end of the three days, we walked out with a turnkey online business, although some of us were not sure how we did it! Brillaint “over shoulder” back up from Matt Garrett and Rob O’Callaghan

We stayed at the TOTALLY FABULOUS Hoxton Hotel in Great Eastern Road I think it was, and while it only cost about £97 per room per night, I was blown away by the rooms, the bathrooms, the funky lounge, bar and restaurant, the hot and trendy guests/locals, the live dj’s on Friday and Saturday, but the best thing by far was the staff. They were not just helpful, can-do and smiling, they positively beamed fun and job satisfaction. You just can’t bottle that – if you could, service in this country would be an amazing thing. See http://www.TheMoneyGym.tv over the coming week for some videos….very funny when I caught Marcus De Maria at 8am, who was hosting a workshop at the same venue.

I talked to the Bar/Restaurant Manager – Richard Moul who was frighteningly young and energetic (and a real whisky expert!) to find out what his recruitment policy was, only to find that he recruits for attitude and personality and then whips them into shape after. It only bloomin’ works. We had some fantastic customer service experiences there and I will be staying there as much as possible in future even if I have to get taxis about to my workshops and meetings.

The Freedom Class was amazing – what can I say? Many many thanks to Tim Brocklehurst for his patience, his organisation, laying on of three great speakers – one of whom Ange Wayne, Change Strategist, flew over from Australia especially. She was amazing, Alan Forrest Smith was on fire! Martin Avis was wonderful on how to build a great relationship with your virally fuelled list (it was great to meet him properly at last) and one other who has asked not to be mentioned for her own reasons.

Genius move, putting Ange on, on the first day, as we were struggling a bit and she talked in a compelling, almost hypnotic way, about success, choice and responsibility. Tragic that Steve missed that bit as he was carted off to A&E when his heart went into Atrial Fibrillation – they kept him in overnight at the Royal London, but he still managed to win the challenge on the Monday, having done so much homework beforehand.

Luckily Tim had a camera crew on hand, so Steve can catch Ange on the DVD’s. You can find out more about her at http://www.AngelChange.com – a play on her name (it’s not all about angels, phew!) and her home AND office is based in Angel Place Building too! Amazing speaker, awesome.

From Tim’s mailing for Steve (his prize) Steve has gained over 250 new signups and his blog and first email has attracted a new client already – someone who owns a Champagne business – NICE!

I’m so thrilled because I managed to come home, take one of my articles and turn it into a rebrandable free report, working through the process. From putting up my free report in three places so far, I’ve picked up 10 new double opted in subscribers today already and it’s only lunchtime. That’s amazing.

I’m also thrilled because I have created my first ever Facebook application. I was making a Blidget (widget for folks to feature the Money Gym blog on their websites) and it offered me the option to make a Facebook application out of my Blidget. Of course I clicked yes, and was walked through several stages to create my app. Now, if you don’t realise how exciting this is, just think about how viral this could go. If even half my 447 (as of today) friends feature the Money Gym app on their profiles, and half of their say….50 friends like what they see and feature it….that’s our blog on 5587 profiles….man, that’s powerful.

My brain was FRIED after all that techie, detail stuff, but I still managed to make it to my Monday Night Poker Game at the Crown & Anchor in Shoreham. On Tuesday I took it easy and fixed Head Chef, Andy Quinn’s laptop for him (well, Steve did) and set up a Facebook group for the Crown & Anchor, whose new website is taking ages!

Had coffee with one of my poker buddies, Paul Stanford from 4Momentum on Tuesday, he’s a business consultant and we talked about how to take The Money Gym to seven figures from six, and how to get him blogging and how to wrest control of his website and hosting from the current designers who want to charge him for every little thing and won’t give him access to his own CPanel.

Kids off school today (yet another Insect Day!) and off to play poker live again tonight, private game, first invite so honoured and a fixed buy in, for those of you who are worried about a wealth coach apparently gambling. My Monday nights cost me £12 and inclued dinner, for heaven’s sake. It’s cheaper than the pictures.

When this ezine is written, I’m off to check my property messages and see if the deal that fell out of bed due to a solicitor offering business and not legal advice, has come back on. The vendor turned out to be someone who used to work for me at The Acacia, as a maid! How small is this world really?

Have fun, I will be when I slow down!

Nicola

Is A Property Boom The Death Of Entrepreneurialism?

This week I posted a blog posting picked up from another site, about whether the property boom had meant the death of entrepreneurialis

Read it here >>

The author seemed to be putting forward the view that entrepreneurs had been getting lazy and flocking to the property market – they put their premise forward thusly…

“The net effect of this (property) boom has been one where the incentive to become truly entrepreneurial was significantly reduced – why try and create a new product or service if there was a guaranteed high return from property development? Similarly, from an investment point of view, why consider any other investment opportunity if there was a perceived guaranteed high return from property development?”

Interesting how they slipped that “perceived” in the second sentance eh?  Do they mean that the return being gurarnetted

Let me give you a bit of context for my fascination for this….

In 2003 I bought my hotel The Acacia.  Property investment and business in one I thought.  A big TICK x 2 on the Lanes of The Wealth Highway.

I created an E-Myth’d business, one which would run without me, whereas I could market the place from anywhere in the world. Which was based in a building that would appreciate in value.

Then I met Andy Shaw and Greg Ballard, no strangers to business or property themselves.  They started to come to a lot of our Money Gym events at The Acacia and we used to spend time in the breaks in the back garden, because some of their team smoked in those days, and we could talk to Steve (the Manager / Chef at the time) through the kitchen window while he prepared his latest sumptuious feast for the clients.

I’ll never forget the day, when one of them uttered the following immortal words ….

“Of course, this place will never make you a good enough return in terms of profit, to make up for how much effort, worry and risk you have put into this place”.

They were not being unkind, just honest, and they knew what they were talking about, because they had had a big business;  two factories, over 100 staff who got up in the morning to cause them grief, over 100 pieces of equipment and a fleet of vans that did likewise.  They realised that, in their first property deal, they had made more profit than they had made in half a year in their business.

So they sold the business and went into property.

They suggested I sell the hotel business and concentrated on the virtually virtual coaching company The Money Gym, my internet marketing activities and property investing – but focusing on simple little one bedroom flats.

I was in a hurry to get out now, becuase the scales had fallen from my eyes in terms of the best use of my time and efforts.

Then I discovered the other problem – that Andy and Greg had also experienced – nobody wanted to buy my business when I wanted to sell it.  Or perhaps I didn’t know how to go about selling a hotel business properly.

And there were other people’s jobs depending on me – you can’t just walk away from a business if there are othere people working in it – your employees.  You have a responsibility.

Grim.

Anyway, with time it all resolved itself – not easy but we got there.

Because at the end of the day, as I never tire of saying, wealth creation is a simple matter of deciding where your best return on investment is, and putting your money, time (which is money) and efforts there. If you don’t know how to work out your return on investment (ROI) here’s one of my previous articles on the subject, which tells you how to work it out, and how to compare different opportunities, and make chalk like cheese for the purpose of comparing different opportunities.

Aye, but, here’s the rub.

We all have our personalities and emotions to deal with and that can muddy the waters.

We find that our Money Gym Gold clients

have distinct preferences about which one or two Lanes of the Wealth Highway they want to work with first.

Analytical people like the idea of the Stockmarket, women are always keen on property and often have a business idea (or existing business / self employed venture going already) while techie and marketing types are drawn towards the internet Lane.

The skill in the early days, as their coach, is in finding out if that is, indeed, their fastest route to the money, as Judith would say.

Because our main goal in The Money Gym is that we want them to recoup their investment as quickly as possible, then go on to create oodles of cash so that they can re-invest it and create more cash, and re-invest it………..you get the idea.

And here is where I get back to the point – hurrah!

We want them to do it as quickly and easily, and effortlessly as possible.

Because why would you want to flog your guts out creating something new, and trying to bring it to market, when you can make pots of cash from following a tried and tested system, a step by step process, one that is proven to work, with colleagues alongside you, and mentors who have gone before, to hold your hand and stop you making painful and costly mistakes?

Why would you go it alone?

I suspect the article was written by a “Creator” in Roger Hamilton’s “Wealth Dynamics” and as one myself (Creator / Star profile moi!) I can almost sympathise.

Almost, because I wasted 38 painful, poor years, trying to create a new business, and bring it to market.

I now harness my creativity into making money out of thin air, created great win/win deals, helping others to create wealth, and finding new ways to make our marketing better.

Who said wealth creation had to be hard work?

And unless your business can create a better return than the property market, why would you go there?  Current blips notwithstanding, the property market appreciates at an average of 10% per annum and the more sophisticated investors create an infinity return on their investment.

Most businesses don’t even break even.

Now, I can hear howls of protest from Judith in the distance (takes a while for sound to travel from Streatham to Shoreham) so I will finish up by saying that we are not anti-business in The Money Gym.

But we are anti-hard work.

So bring us your business idea and we will help you shape it into something that will run happily alongside your property empire building.  We will help you harness the power of the internet to market your business automatically, and then, only when you have nothing to do, will we let you look at the stockmarket.

Unless you want to start there, of course!

Client led coaching, with laser like focus, with a right old boot up the bum, that’s The Money Gym.

Come join us!

http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/Gold

PROMOTION:

Talking of whom, one of the supermodels of the property investing world, Greg Ballard, will be joining us tomorrow to tell us how to get an infinity return on your investment.

Then I will be sharing how to make money from property without buying any.

Then Maria Davies, another star of the property world, will be showing us what she’s buying, and sharing how to buy a luxury holiday home in the Caribbean AND create a monthly income, for just £1000.

http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/MGPresents/property2.htm

Wealth Coach Diaries: Nicola’s Week

My new sewing machine has arrived today (£32 from eBay – why pay more?) and it’s beautiful!

Well, it’s a bit old and cream coloured, but it’s in really good nick and it’s got everything I need (forward, back, ziz zag) to make lovely linen garments and it’s even got a “quick unpick” which you slide along seams to unpick them quickly.

Also arrived today was the www.WrapOnline.co.uk catalogue and my word, they have a vast quantity of beautiful clothes, but luckily I was saved from spending a fortune by the fact they don’t do black, white or navy. Lots of lovely sludgy colours that I probably should be wearing but just can’t bring myself to buy.

Indigo, prune and kingfisher, I ask you. Bitter Chocolate, Poppy, Aubergine…..What kind of colours are they?

I have emailed them with my suggestions on how to triple their profits – stock black, white and navy in addition to those sludgy colours.

Don’t make the same mistake as Marks & Spencers for heaven’s sake.

OK, retail rant over.

Why am I sewing? Can I be that much of a skinflint you may ask yourself?

Because I’m looking for a hobby, used to be designer and can pattern-cut and sew standing on my head, and I have a much loved long linen shirt that I want to copy in many colours. Starting with black, white, navy and pink (the new black don’tcha know?). Also I want to teach Phoebe – it’s something we can do together and it’s a useful and fun skill, a bit like good cooking.

Talking of hobbies, the gardening has taken a bit of a back seat but the live Monday night Apple League poker games are coming along nicely and are great fun. I came 2nd out of 27 the other night, in the first game, and just missed being on the final table in the second game. I am getting to know the other players a bit now, still very friendly, and the landlord from the Thursday night game in The Montague pub, Worthing, came over to the Crown & Anchor pub to play this week, so I now feel that I could go there on my own if I wanted to.

Sean, a young salesman who seems to have taken a shine to me, says I’m getting a bit of a reputation for being an aggressive player who can bluff well. Bit scary apparently! I did learn from the knee of the master, Mr Watson, so that’s no surprise.

I gave Giles, the new owner of the Crown & Anchor, the book “How To Make Your First Million” by Martin Webb which I read last week and thought brilliant. I know Martin (presenter of “Risking It All” on Channel 4), from my clubbing days in Brighton. My penchant for drinking in loud nightclubs helped him make his first millions LOLOLOL and it was a fascinating read to find out what went on behind the scenes while Martin and Simon – now an aspiring counsellor for Kemptown – built their chain of pubs, clubs and restaurants. Watch a video of Martin talking about the book here
Read more..

Property: Top 3 Ways?

When I first started the Money Gym, and wrote the “Financial Intelligence 101″ tips, that grew into The Money Gym ebook, one of the most popular sections was the Property Investing Section.  Everyone wanted to know about investing in, and making money from property.

In the early days, when we used to host the Money Gym workshops at The Acacia, my much loved boutique hotel and my latest venture into property investing, we used to cover “The Top 10 Ways To Make Money In Property” and we used to simply tell people about them, they used to go off and investigate the one they liked the sound of, then we would coach them from there.

However, one day, a couple of guys came along who blew most of our “Top 10″ out of the water. 

Out of “Top 10 Ways To Make Money In Property” only three of them remain.  Which ones?  Aha, you will have to wait for the next few days to find out that!

After we heard about how these guys invested in property, we simply couldn’t, in all good conscience, just tell folks how they COULD invest in property, but we felt we then had to share how we felt people SHOULD invest in property.

Now this went right against all accepted coaching law and wisdom, I can tell you!

But hey ho!  Wealth coaching has always been different – a mix of training, mentoring and coaching, rather than pure coaching itself.

At The Money Gym, we aim to save you time, money, and stop you making expensive mistakes.

Mistakes like I made with buying that hotel in the first place.  If these two guys, my mates Greg and Andy, had been around in 2003, there is NO WAY they would have let me buy it.  They would have stopped me making THAT half million pound mistake.

Side note:  You will see in this week’s ezine, I talk about the difference between “failure” and a “mistake” and it’s an important distinction to make if you are an entrepreneur.  Essentially, a failure is something that can bury you but you can learn from your mistakes.

That hotel was a mistake – some would definately see it as a failure – but I choose now to see it as a mistake.  A very large one true….. 

One that taught me a VERY LARGE LESSON!  In fact, SEVERAL very large lessons.

I will never forget the moment in the garden of The Acacia, when Greg or Andy uttered the immortal words that made me realise that buying it had been a mistake and told me why.

1.  This hotel will never make you the amount of profit that would make all the work you put into it, worth it.
2.  You have a lot of your own money in this business and you will struggle to ever get it out.
3.  When you have had enough and you do want to sell it, nobody will buy it, unless you find someone as daft as you were, to buy it in the first place.

Hmmmmm…..

They like straight talking, those two.  And that is one of the things I most value about Greg & Andy. So many people won’t tell you what you need to hear.  Nobody around me in those days did, that’s for sure.  Hence the mistakes.

So, five years on, here we are, still making mistakes but not so many, and certainly not failing, and together with Steve and Judith, two more straight talkers, they are still two of my closest friends and mentors.  Whenever I want some advice about business and life, I go straight to Greg, and to Andy for property market / business marketing / creative / internet input.

So you can imagine how thrilled I am that Greg still comes to London, to present for The Money Gym on property investing.

I can’t imagine how much longer he will do that, as we are pretty much the only presenting he does outside their own Open Days.

He’s coming to the Southwark Rose on 14th June and really, you should be there. 

* If you have questions about the current property market, you should be there.

* If you have questions about your business proposition, you should be there.

* If you just want to see a down to earth, authentic, funny, FANTASTIC speaker, you should be there.

* If you want to recharge your wealth creation batteries, and hang out with some like minded people, you should be there.

That’s five “shoulds” in five lines, I’m about to get struck off the Eurocoach List!

Book your place here – still some Early Birds left as I’m late promoting this due to half term.

http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/MGPresents/property2.htm

See you there!

Nicola

p.s.  Greg always sells out fast so get your space booked now.

Despair Of Ever Investing In Property?

This post was written before the demise of Passive Investments.  Read The Latest Money Gym Statement Here>>>>

Every so often a wealth creation concept or different way of doing things comes along, that just blows my mind.

A few years ago, when I came across the way my mates Greg & Andy invest in property, my head nearly exploded with excitement, and I couldn’t wait to share their ideas with my readers.

However, Greg & Andy’s way of doing things does depend on three things

1.  A good credit rating
2.  A pot of cash to use over and over again for deposits / refurb
3.  Ability to get a mortgage (lots of “buy to let” mortgages still ask for proof of earnings)

Now this is great for a large majority of our Money Gym members and hundreds of them have availed themselves of Greg & Andy’s services, via Passive Investments or learned how to do it themselves, via Andy’s book.

BUT………..

I knew there was about 30% of our subscribers who couldn’t “do property” the Passive way, or even buy their own home, due to

1.  No pot of cash
2.  No credit rating
3.  No proof of earnings

Now, I know that there are several other ways to make money from property, without having to buy any yourself, but sadly people just seem to give up at that point, and don’t go on learning about what makes a good property deal, if they haven’t got even one of the above three things in place.

So you can imagine how delighted I was when I met David Lee, via Tamkin Riaz, at the last World Internet Summit.  I really think that the heavens were conspiring that night, because I had met David several times before, but never really fully grasped what he did.

On this occasion, I ended up sitting next to him, his wife and son, in the pub, and out of politeness really, asked him again to tell me what he does…..an hour or so later, I still didn’t really get it, but dimly grasped enough to realise that it was a totally different way of making money from property, and to tell Judith we should invite David to speak for The Money Gym.

In January David did a VERY powerful presentation – and he would be the first to admit he’s quite new to public speaking – and his concept and content blew us away.

Can you imagine being able to make money from property without needing a deposit, a mortgage or a good credit rating?  Where you are not competing with all the “below market value” boys, and where you are not only making big chunks of cash, but helping two sets of people?

Let me repeat that……where you are making what we in the Money Gym call “life changing sums of money” while helping two sets of people.

A geniune win/win/win situation.  It takes a bit of a mind-shift, a bit of a leap of faith, and access to some minor cojones to get started, but if you are open-minded and determined…….

I tell you now, this is dynamite stuff.  Judith and I both love it!

Several Money Gym clients signed up on the spot and we have all been working our way through the materials – the detailed “how to” workbook, the many hours of audio with real people, case studies, and student stories.  I have rarely seen a better put together home study course and the backup support from David is superb.

David is doing a presentation soon, and there will be a very special guest there – Rick Otton.

Rick is the guy who learned how to utilise this way of making money from property, firstly in the USA, then Australia, and he mentored David to make it work here.

I have no idea where Maidenhead is, but, if you have despaired of every becoming a property investor, but you want to be, I suggest you get your map out and make your way there pronto!

http://tinyurl.com/574rzb

Don’t delay, places are limited and David’s last events in Ealing and Manchester sold out very quickly.

Take action now and I personally promise you, you will be amazed!

http://tinyurl.com/574rzb

Property Crash? Andy Shaw comments…

PASSIVE INVESTMENT UPDATE:

This post is an old one obviously but it gets a lot of traffic from the search engines.  The news that Passive Investments have gone into liquidation is shocking for everyone.  Read The Latest Money Gym Statement Here>>>>

The Post Previously Read:

I knew Andy Shaw wouldn’t be able to resist on the dreadful headlines about the property market for long, and I was not disappointed.  If you can’t believe a man who, with his partner Greg, has built up a property portfolio worth over £30 million, then who can you believe eh?  Andy says….

“I was doing some research the other day for our business Passive, and I was asked to find some research from a recognised professional that backed up my argument about the fact that the country is not over geared despite what the media says.

Well here’s quite a good one that I thought you’d like too -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jan/12/housingmarket.houseprices

Martin Ellis is the chief economist of Halifax and he is stating that the property market is now worth £4 trillion, which is three times the UK’s annual output. And it shows household debt at what is commonly thought to be a staggering £1.3 trillion.

Now I have been trying to say that for years but never got round to looking for the figures to back up what I was saying. So, really basically, if you look at the country as just a person, it is worth £4 trillion, and has £1.3 Trillion of debt

So our mortgage and household debt, cars, loans, credit cards, the lot, gears us as a whole to 33% of our equity.

Can you tell me what loan to value the banks consider virtually zero risk lending?

Well different banks view it in different ways. Allied Irish view 70% as virtually zero risk, while Nationwide view 65% as virtually zero risk. Some banks go down to as low as 50% before they view it as virtually zero risk. But we as a population are at 33%, which is well below the risk criteria of even the most conservative of banks.

What does this say to you about the way the media and the government view the extraordinary high levels of consumer debt? It says to me: scaremongering. ……

Read more at Andy’s site >>>>

Discover How Two Men Turned £10k On A Credit Card Into £37 million Plus, In The UK, In Just A Few Years….
	Our mate, Andy Shaw. Property Genius & Thoroughly Good Bloke!
CLICK HERE NOW - DON’T MISS OUT !!

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