Money Gym Interviews | Anthony North, Big Issue

Judith interviewed Anthony North, Head of Fundraising for The Big Issue yesterday and we found out how he came to work at the Big Issue, what gets him up in the morning and what they are going to do with our donation from the rapidly filling up Property Extravaganza Day on 21st March 2009.  Book your place here >>>

Bugs, Birthdays, Business & Beautiful Food

I got an email from Hal, my mate from Georgia, today.  The subject line got my attention as all of Hal’s emails invariably do.  Today, the subject line was “One big fat ugly rat” and I opened it immediately….

It went to to say….

“Dear Nicola,  I don’t know about you, but one big fat ugly rat in my house is one way too many!

I spoke with a gentleman a few days ago and he told me he had found evidence of a rat in his basement. He asked, “Do you think I have a rat problem?”

What?  Are you kidding me? A big fat ugly rat in your house and you’re asking me if it is a problem?

Now, I don’t know about you…but if I find evidence of a rat in my house, I’m going to take immediate action.  Rats and my wife do not mix…..under any circumstances.

NO…..not at all……no way!

Roof rats (Rattus rattus) are rampant in the Atlanta Metro Area….just as they are in all metropolitan areas in America.  They have been living in our houses for thousands of years. It’s their natural habitat.

Roof rats are referred to as “commensal rodents”.  Commensal means, “lives with man” or “shares man’s table”.

Let me suggest one thing to you.  If you even THINK you hear something in your attic or basement….if you even THINK you smell a strange “amonia-like odor” in your basement or attic….if you even THINK you have found droppings from what could be a rodent…..you need to take immediate action!”

He went on to suggest some immediate action you could take, and of course, one of the action you could take would be to call Hal.

Hal, you see, has a company called North Fulton Bug Extermination and if I lived in North Fulton, and had a bug problem, there is only one man I would call and that’s Hal.  Apart from the fact that he’s a mate of my mate Mike Stewart, the Internet Audio & Video Guy, Hal, through his emails, has established that he’s

1. Passionate and knowledgeable about bug extermination
2. A Really Nice Guy

His website bears that out  and note, he’s using video to immediately connect with and communicate with harrassed householders with a bug problem.

Now, you might be wondering how Hal became such a cutting edge web marketeer and the answer is, of course, he wasn’t, but he’s a fishing buddy of Mike Stewart, who is brilliant at internet video and audio marketing.  one of my first mentors online actually.

And I think it’s a brilliant story that shows the power of the internet to market existing real world businesses, even very local business, who have a traditional business model but open minds when it comes to marketing.

Mike’s site also has a brilliant video promoting a local carpet company.  There are well edited videos of all the staff just talking about their customer service ethos, and why they are so proud of working there.  Where would I go for carpet if I lived in Georgia?  Well not some faceless shop where nobody cared about what they do or sell, that’s for sure.

I email Hal sometimes to let him know his emails light up the inbox of someone in the UK, and he always responds with amazement and delight.  Do you think he realises he is running the risk of becoming the Gary Vay.ner.chuk of the bug exterminating world?  A cult hero….

I might start a Facebook Fanclub for Hal.  what would he make of that, I wonder?

where am I going with all this?

Dunno, except I’ve just got back from Tamkin Riaz’s and Michael Young’s Mastermind Networking event in London where I was delighted to meet a roomful of new people, all successful, positive, upbeat people who are barely registering the credit crunch let alone being affected by it.  Specialists from all areas of the wealth creation arena -from all over the world – and very nice people.

Property investors whose long term investments are making a rental profit for the first time in ages, internet marketing specialists whose businesses are booming as everyone wakes up to the fact that a “job for life” is the riskiest thing you can bank on, and that the banks are the last places you should keep your cash.  Everyone is looking for another way, so if you have a success story, you can inspire others to changet their lives too, and boy, is that needed.  Tell your story, and exchange some energy.  Make some money while those who are not looking to change their mindset panic.

All of this was contrasting sharply with the blank, grey, miserable faces on the 8.15am commuter train from Shoreham to London.

And the man on GMTV this morning who took 21 weeks of serious, full time job seeking, to find another job exactly the same, and exactly as vunerable as the one he had been made redundant from.

If only he had applied himself so diligently to finding another way to make money rather than trading your hours for a pittance.  If only he had known there was “another way”.

Today, we made a list of the challenges of the average person, when trying to get to grips with property investing and internet marketing and then we tried to brainstorm what the solutions might be, in trying to get that average person to overcome those challenges and how to get them to take action.

As you might expect from a roomful of dynamic entrepreneurs, talented speakers and business people, by the end of the day, we had abandoned the “how to make the horse drink, having led him to water” rough plan for the day, and had come up with a MASSIVE money making scheme of our very own.

Herding cats, as Greg & Andy used to say of our meetings at Passive Investments in the early days.

Great fun, and thanks to Tamkin and Michael for organising the day and changing the venue from Luton to London so I could attend.  And I think I’ve met some joint venture partners and potential event organisers for my swiftly burgeoning speaking career.

Off to Manchester at 5.45am tomorrow (man!) to spend a day with one of my first ever Money Gym clients ever, to review his wealth creation actions over the last five years, and plan the next five.  Then to Central Manchester to speak for “Build Your Wealth” – you can still book to attend this interesting two days

Flying, luxury hotels, taxis, I absolutely love it.  Effortless travel, old friends and new and just great fun.

Tickets are flying out for the Property Extravaganza now, and Judith is reaching new paroxysms of excitement as she organises the speaker webinars to help encourage you to come along and help us help The Big Issue, who help the homeless help themselves.

She won’t rest till all 200 tickets are gone, and we are a quarter of the way there, with a month to go still.

Are you coming yet?  If not, why not?

http://www.themoneygym.com/events/property

we put on bloody marvellous events and even if you come for no other reason than to do what I’ve done today, which is hang out with dynamic, optimistic, positive, clever people………well, that’s a good enough reason, eh?

Gotta go, pan fried cod with asparagus, safron potatoes and a portugaise sauce (sundried tomatoes, garlic, parsley, white wine etc apparently) on the go next door….washed down with a glass of Judith’s present to the birthday boy, Steve.

YUM!

Have fun, we always do.

Nicola

Ready Fire Aim! Memberships, Marketing & Multimillions

It’s been a busy old week, what with the first draft of the Property Extravangza info page going live at http://www.themoneygym.com/events/property and the first flurry of bookings coming in.

We have decided that this event is in aid of The Big Issue, who help the homeless to help themselves, we have a great set of speakers, including Rick Otton as the keynote speaker, and Martin Roberts off the tele, property expert and star of Homes Under The Hammer. Judith has written a stonking bit of copy, quite inspired, and we are just waiting for photos of speakers, video testimonials of other events and suchlike. Then the page will really sing! http://www.martinroberts.co.uk/

I’ve just been watching Rick on national tv in Australia, walking folks through his whole “rent to own” system – they are really getting it there and the UK will follow behind. Only today on page 4 of “Property Today” which comes with my Worthing Advertiser, there is a big article about a new Rent To Own scheme launched in Littlehampton, on the back of the Government’s own “Rent To Buy Later” scheme.

On the same page, funnily enough, there is a property advertised with a “zacuzzi” in the bathroom….some little estate agent getting it totally wrong! Bless ‘um.

I started work with Debbie Winterbourne this week, winner of the “Gold For Christmas” competition – where she gets to work with me going through the Gold programme, then gets to hang out with us for life! We are doing one call a month where I cover the material module by module in the first half hour, via video webinar, then Debbie gets to ask general questions about what she’s just heard, then she goes off and does her homework, and comes back for a second call, where we explore her personal circumstances, and particular challenges around that module.

I had forgotten quite how bossy I was when coaching…..”directive coaching” it’s called. Phew! Must remember to ask more questions and issue less instructions. Debbie took it all in good part and she’s an action taker so right up my street. We need to do some work behind the scenes on both her websites as I can make an immediate difference there!

You can find out more about Debbie and her particular passion for deciphering the power of dreams here and if you need a nice but affordable workshop space in London, she owns Quantum House which you can find here

(some time later………..)

Lord I got totally distracted by Google Calender there – saw one embedded in Pat Lovell’s blog (Pat’s from GotAccess.com among other things and I met him on the cruise) and thought Wow! that would be great to keep my speaking gigs updated for the GP (general public LOL) and ended up embedding it to my blog, Ecademy account and all. You can view my peramulations around the world speaking here >>

Off to London this weekend for “Build Your Wealth” again, and I’m in Manchester for “Build Your Wealth” events – you can book here for just £7 for both days

Did you know, it’s over £70 on the train and takes 4 and a half hours, and it’s one hour on the plane and costs just under £100. Madness. Early start though! Which of the lovely boutique hotels to stay in, eh? Recommendations on an email…..

While in Manchester, I’m seeing an old Money Gym client for the day, to work with him to review his progress and plan for the next five years. Lovely man, really looking forward to it! I also joined a webinar this week with a software company who are thinking of taking me on as non-exec Marketing Consultant – I think I can bring a lot to the table as they come from the corporate world and while aware of internet marketing, are not yet quite aware of the power and speed of it, if you can just get your first ideal customer clearly in mind and communicate straight at them. This is going to be fun.

I hosted what turned out to be a very popular webinar to nearly 100 registered-in-advance “ideal customers” of the Money Gym the other night, quite on the spur of the moment, on membership sites. It suddenly occurred to me that it might be fun to test the whole idea of video broadcasting a powerpoint presentation, making an offer at the end, much like I do on stage. Yes, I know! It’s nothing new, used to do it lots years ago, but you forget things don’t you? I’m going to do more of it, and we did a “Google Analytics/Statistics Tracking” webinar with the Membership Club Magic bods this week as a bonus call. Great fun.

Busy but great fun.

Talking of the Membership Club Magic webinar, from Saturday the recording will be available to watch online again here - those videos take ages to edit, chop up and upload and nobody can get online while you upload them. Howls of rage echo from around the house when you try, as you hog all the supposed 8 meg bandwidth. Runescape gone! Pokerstars gone! Second Life gone! Skype gone! MSN gone! British Telecom…..8 Meg, my derrier.

Steve and I are on ANOTHER diet, this one being a healthy eating one, lots of delicious salads (and beans/pulses, no, don’t ask!), no wine or beer during the week and he even went for a run this week. It’s inspired by a book he’s reading called “Fat Bloke Slims (How I Lost 3 Stone” by Bruce Heron, who you may remember as D.C. Terry Perkins from The Bill. Actually I saw another diet (that’s me) but Steve’s made his mind up to lose weight now too. He does make the best salads and I’ve made some of my best lentil and garlic soup which we are having whenever Steve doesn’t want to cook.

And Judith proudly announced this week that she’s learned to play poker. She went into a game with her accountant and solicitor with 80p and came out with £1.22. Judith, have you not heard of a “fixed buy in tournament”? Even we don’t play cash games!! This sparked a debate about whether it would be appropriate to host a “Money Gym Texas Hold’em Tournament” after one of the Cashflow 101 games?

Hmmm, perhaps not!

And finally……….I’ve just finished Michael Masterson’s brilliant book “Ready Fire Aim” about how to take a company into the multi-millions and beyond. I enjoyed it so much I’m going right back to the beginning and I’m reading it again. Shot straight into my Top 10 Business Books of All Time!!

Got A Website You Are Not Using?

Do you have a niche website or domain name you are not using? Perhaps you have several…..

Not sure what to do with it?

Why not list it for auction on a site like http://www.SitePoint.com?  Think ebay for website businesses!

I can see sites on there, only established last year, with only a couple of thousand unique visitors a month, no mailing list, no Google page rank, for sale at $3000 (buy it now) or minimum bid $500.

Do you have a website that needs more traffic and inbound links?

Why not buy a related site, with traffic and Google page rank, for $50 or $100 and not only create links to your site, but then look at how you can improve the one you have just bought, using what you learn in the Money Gym?

Do you want instant online income?

Why not buy a site that is generating revenue already?

If you spend $1000 to buy a site that is making $200 a month, it will take you less than a year to go into profit, and get you a 100% ++ return on your investment.

No idea what I’m talking about?

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, why not join me at Gary & Mark Vurnum’s one day “Recession Proof Income” workshop in Gatwick on Sunday? That’s 25th January and it’s very, very affordable.

I’ll be making a surprise guest appearance – Gary and Mark put on the first ever internet workshop I ever went to, in 2003, where I learned how to use Google adwords to dominate the bed & breakfast market in Worthing!!

http://www.recessionproofincome.com?mark

Cheers
Nicola

Money Gym Magic

Listen to the audio version of this story here >>>

Every so often, magical things happen in the Money Gym.

This week, one of our clients – let’s call her S – was having an issue with one of her buy to let properties – her new tenants, via the management agent, was giving her grief about a shower that was having an identity crisis.  The tenants felt it should be a power shower, the managing agents has billed it as such, verbally, but S had never called it anything but a mixer shower head.  The shower wasn’t commenting.

S was worried about her legal obligations, and she had been given some outrageous quotes from the management agent’s crony plumbers, as to the cost of fitting a power shower should she go down that route.

The agents were further complicating the situation with lots of hearsay, psuedo legalese and some other comments that sounded vaguely threatening.

Not a pleasant situation and one that was giving S some sleepless nights.

She posted her dilemma on the Money Gym Mastermind Google Group, and one of our other clients, G, jumped straight in with some support.  G is a builder with many years experience of rental places both public and private, and knowledge of contracts.  Now G comes to lots of our workshops and we had got to know him well, lovely man, but even I didn’t know all this about him!  I watched amazed as he swung into action…

He gave S the beneift of his experience, not to mention loads of emotional support and down to earth common sense advice about handling the tenants and the agent.

One of our other clients M, who is a successful and no-nonsense business woman, also offered to visit the offices of the management agent with S, as her “professional advisor” should she want to set up a meeting with the agent and tenants together to sort things out.

One of our other clients, K, in watching the email discussion flying backward and forward, then had a bit of a breakthrough, and realised that one of the biggest reasons she hadn’t started investing yet, in spite of the bargains she keeps finding, and having got the cash ready, was because she was terrified of dealing with builders, if any refurbishment was required.  She said how great it was to be able to call on G for advice, via the Money Gym.

As the whole conversation unfolded, G, who had been struggling to find his wealth creation niche to date, realised that he had something to offer here – a service that might get him out from the “dark side” as Judith and I call working for a living.

“Thanks everyone. You witnessed my breakthrough today. Again, it’s like Brett (McFall) said, if you give you get it back in droves. I’ve lived and worked with the knowledge for so long now that it’s become second nature to me. Intellectual familiarity breeding contempt I suppose, and I forgot the value of the information to someone who lacked the same experience, but was committed with a property portfolio anyway”.

G had realised that he could mentor buy to let landlords, on his area of expertise;  namely his years of building experience, contracts in the building trade, dealing with builders, not to mention being an emotional rock to lean on when dealing with difficult people in general.

He talked to the group about his new idea, and how he could get started with setting up a mentoring service like that, and asked what his first steps should be?  Get coach training?

“You don’t need that, you won’t be that kind of coach” and “Start blogging about it”, was the universal response.  Luckily one of the other things G loves to do is write – so blogging won’t be an issue.

The techie bits of setting up a blog might have been an issue though….

I immediately sent him over a link to some Camtasia videos we had created for our Membership Bootcamp people, showing him how to buy a domain name, hosting and an email account, and how to set up a blog.

The idea is that he should start talking about the experiences he’s had over the years, to start to attract traffic and a pool of people who know who he is, and what he can do for them.  Then we can mentor him through how to offer his service, what and how to charge, and how to set it all up.

What fun!  and how marvellous that he started giving freely of his time and knowledge and the universe has given him back an idea finally that he can work on and develop as his own.

I can see a blog, an ebook, a membership site for landlords, his mentoring / coaching service….

We are eagerly waiting the next instalment in the story.  I have no doubt that G will take action – that’s what he does.

And if he falters, there is a whole gang of people to help, advise, support him, in the same way he helped, advised and supported S.

Do you think his chances of success are better or worse for having this community around him?  Better, of course.

So what’s the hidden meaning in all this for you?

Perhaps you are struggling to work out what you could offer, to a hungry market, that could get you out from the “dark side”?

Perhaps you are wrestling with wealth creation issues on your own, having taken a few steps along one of the Lanes of the Wealth Highway, but got a bit scared or stuck?

Would being part of a supportive, creative community like this help you move forward?

Would some well chosen questions from an experienced wealth coach dispel some negative or limiting beliefs about money, your own value or your fears around exchanging money for that value, perhaps?

Would having over 200 great new well-connected contacts open up some doors for you in your existing business?  Not to mention my links with Ecademy Blackstar …..

There are many hidden benefits of joining The Money Gym and I call the community aspect – particularly the Google Mastermind group – our “hidden jewel in the crown”.

If you are thinking you love the sound of all this, you need to take some action now.

We are counting down to Christmas and the 3rd of January – the 12 hour Wealth-A-Thon which is the last day for signing up for Money Gym Gold at 2008 membership fee levels.  You can save £1200 if you take action now for a January start.

AND…….

If you want to be one of the 20 people that will enjoy the special bonus, the “Membership Site Bootcamp” product, worth £1750 and not available to the general public yet (going……..going……….nearly gone!) then you need to take action now.

This is what you need to do:

1.  Visit http://www.themoneygym.com/gold and read the page carefully
2.  Scroll down to the “join now” button and click it to pay your deposit.
3.  Email Judith to set up your first call, where you will decide with Judith, which coach is right for you
4.  Enjoy Christmas knowing you are all set to make 2009 your best financial year yet.

That’s it.  Hope you enjoyed the story!

Cheers
Nicola

16% Interest Anyone?

My property investor friend and colleague, Peter Stanley, wants to pay you more for your money than the banks do.   And that’s ironic because he used to BE a business bank manager!!  I’ve known Peter for years – since 2000 odd, and he’s a top bloke and a VERY experienced property investor.

Read what Peter has to say:

“Some of you may know that I offer a private investors plan alongside the property coaching and sourcing arms of my business, Property Made Simple.  This private investors plan evolved after conversations where people wanted the returns you can get by investing in property, but for a smaller stake, over a shorter time and without any of the hassle of  owning property.

At first, I only offered it to close friends and family, but like the other parts of my business, it’s grown by word of mouth and is now something I offer, albeit quietly.

In fact, some people use it as an additional income stream or a way of increasing their nest egg.

So why would a successful property entrepreneur do this ?

I’ve been watching the Manchester property market for over 15 years and I strongly believe that now is the time to be buying property – despite what the media are telling you – so I’m raising money to buy more houses, whilst cutting the investor into my profit.

If any of you have read my blog or my monthly newsletter you’ll know how much I hate the media reports, written by people in ivory towers, whose only experience of the property market is from the safety of their desk.

So what do you get as an investor ?

We ask for a minimum amount of £5,000 and a minimum term of 6 months, which is documented by a formal loan agreement and signed by both of us.

Interest is paid monthly by bank transfer to an account of your choice at 16% per annum, which is around 4 times what you’d get if you left it in the Bank.

At the end of the term, we return the initial loan to you, unless you’d prefer to continue to the arrangement when we’d prepare and sign new papers.

This doesn’t suit everyone, so don’t worry if it’s not for you, but if you’d like to know more, drop me an email and we can schedule a time to talk or meet.”

Contact Peter directly at PropertyMadeSimple.com and tell him Nicola sent you.

** Have you entered our Money Gym competition yet
where you can win a WHOLE YEAR’S wealth coaching?
Just click here to find out more **

Property? Yes! Right Now!

Judith has picked me up on the fact that there’s one more wealth creation event we need to draw to your attention for your urgent action this week.  And it’s for you if you are still keen on property even while all around you are gnashing their teeth and wailing doom and gloom.

We are holding a little property evening next week to introduce our clients to Tamkin Riaz (who I have known for a long time and speak for regularly) and his business partner Abdul of South2North.

** This is not to be confused with a previous well known Manchester “opportunity”.  Tamkin and Abdul have access to some great contacts in the financial services industry, allowing them to be buying properties wholesale from the banks and building societies and they are selling them onto us in The Money Gym, still at very much wholesale prices. **

The South2North offering is five properties in Manchester and surrounding areas for £10,000 fee. The five properties will be made available to you within 12 months and each one will have either instant equity of at least 15% or, in some casess cashback – up to £25,000 across the whole five properties, net £15,000.

This is a really exciting opportunity for people who want to own five investment properties by this time next year for only £10,000.   What a stonking bargain!

On this special information page which Steve has created you can find out the answers to all the questions we have already received from our clients about this and listen to an hour-long teleseminar Judith and I ran with Peter Stanley, our man on the ground in Manchester, who is helping us with this project.

You can also book your seat for the event – just £25 which is totally refundable when you arrive.
Steve will process refunds the next day to those who turn up using the same card you used to book.

All details here:   www.themoneygym.com/south2north

If you are interested in this opportunity but are not free to attend next Tuesday evening, 4th November 2008 at 6-8 p.m. at our usual venue, the Southwark Rose Hotel, please email Judith (judith [at] themoneygym.com) and she will bring you up to speed after the meeting.

Remember – true entrepreneurs learn how make money in any market!

Cheers,
Nicola

Financial Freedom | John’s Burning Question

Hi Nicola

Here’s my burning question…..I am a man. 50 years old. Anyway, I would like to ask for your advice regarding my route to the wealth highway.

My financial position is thus. Home owner with no mortgage. Our home is worth around £155,000 in today’s market. My wife owns a 1 bedroom house with her sister a 50/50 share mortgage  around £70,000 and valued at say £90,000. The property is let and only just pays for itself.

My wife and I both work with approx take home pay per month of £2250. I require around £100 a week to live on and my wife requires all of her income to live, so I can save around £750 per month.

I have a credit card of around £2000, savings of £3000 and my wife has a loan of £3000. I hate my job and would love to be free of it.

My interest is web design and am becoming quite good. Hopefully this is where I can shine but I need more free time for this to happen. I am knackered at the end of the day.

I realise that my wife and I are in a good position regarding our own home and we could maybe do something with the equity, I don’t know.

What would you do, Nicola?

Hi there John…congratulations on being our first “Ask Nicola” burning questioner! And what a lovely one to start with……the quick answer is that you are financially free already, you just don’t know it!

I’m going to mainly deal with your own situation here as your wife and you seem to keep your finances quite seperate…is that right?  Do come back to me if you wanted a response bases on your joint finances….

You say that you would like to do more web design, and with some good marketing online, and networking locally, and I know that you could make a very good living at this.  Local business people are AT LAST waking up to the power of the web in generating leads for their business, and how efficient and cheap that can be compared with the traditional methods, like advertising.  They are happy to pay £500 – £1000 for a blog type site (great for SEO), and around £2000 – £3000 for a blog type site, with ecommerce / mailiing list capabilities.

You could educate yourself about internet marketing, including traffic generation, social networking and web 2.0, as well as web design (our about to be relaunched Internet Marketing Home Study System will soon be available via our very affordable Silver membership) and then you would REALLY be in demand.  I would envisage that, within a year, you would be outsourcing most of the work!

However, the issue seems to be time and energy, as your day job takes both.  Have you considered taking some of the equity in your house, and investing it in your new business, using it to

a) pay yourself a salary of £500 a month (£100 per week x 52 divided by 12)

b) pay for some teaching to bring your internet marketing / seo skills up to scratch – Silver would cover that

c) pay for a year’s worth of mentoring – our Money Gym Gold programme would be ideal for this and I would suggest you have a look at our coaches, and see which one you think would best be able to hold your hand through the year, to set up and build your business.

I would think pulling out £20,000 would not only cover the expenses as above, but also pay the payments on the money you would be borrowing so your outgoings would not go up at all.  If you apply before you hand your notice in, you should have no trouble getting a mortgage of 12% loan to value.

Your other alternative – if you don’t want to use your equity, is to use your £750 a month savings, to build a “Freedom Fund” to cover your first year in business, and in Money Gym Silver membership, we give you a blueprint on how to do that, step by step.

HOWEVER, if I were you, I would be pulling out all the equity available, and as well as investing in my new business, as above, I would be buying as many one bedroom buy to let flats (existing housing stock NOT new builds) as humanly possible.

This would ensure that you never had to work again, if you didn’t want to!  You could keep leveraging the growth in your property portfolio, again and again, tax free, to grow your portfolio further and to live off.

Again, this is something our experienced property investing Money Gym coaches could hold your hand through, via the Money Gym Gold programme as they are all very sound on this topic!!

Now, you know what you can do (and what I would do) the only question is “what’s going to stop you doing it?”

Keep in touch John and let me know how you get on?

Warm regards

Nicola

Ask Nicola

This is the page where you can ask us your most burning Wealth Creation questions – about any of the Lanes of The Wealth Highway.

• Property
• Internet
• Business
• The Stockmarket

We particularly welcome questions from women, and want to assure you that there are NO stupid questions – we all had to start somewhere with learning about making money and clever investing.

Name Email Country Burning question about wealth creation?

Beat Credit Crunch – Sell Your Home!

Bet you never thought you would hear that advice about beating the credit crunch from us eh?

I was moodling around Google Trends today, looking at the interesting key words and phrases thrown up around the phrase “credit crunch” and I came across something – by a “So-Called EXPERT” – that absolutely incensed me. Have a read below and then carry on to hear my thoughts on the subject……!!

(This article is was featured on the Money Week website and was taken from “Merryn Somerset Webb’s free weekly personal finance email, Money Sense)

Merryn says: We’ve heard that 41% of people paid for some part of Christmas on their credit cards; that more people than ever before will go bankrupt this year; that repossessions are likely to keep rising all year; that mortgage rates are going to keep going up even as base rates fall; and that the average person only has enough cash to last 12 short days should they leave their jobs.

Hot on the heels of this has come a plethora of articles telling us what to do about it. Anyone who doesn’t know how to consolidate their loans, find an interest free credit card, cut their utility payments, create a budget spreadsheet (you can download one here) and get a cheaper mortgage by now clearly hasn’t been listening to the personal finance experts properly or spending enough time on the Moneyweek website.

But reading – and writing – all these money makeover articles this month (see also: How to give yourself a money makeover), I’ve been beginning to wonder if for many people the best way to survive the credit crunch and free up a lot of cash in a hurry might be to stop bothering with financial micro managing, dump their mortgages altogether and rent somewhere to live instead.

Why it makes sense to rent, not buy.

Selling to rent (STR as it is now known) has made some financial sense for some years now in cash flow terms – i.e. rents have been generally cheaper than mortgage payments on most properties. But now that the chances of making a capital gain on owning a house (the only reason to have bought over the last 3 years) look pretty low, it seems to make more sense than ever.

READ MORE HERE >>> (If you can bear to…..)

Right then, deep breaths all round!

Any Money Gym client will be spinning on their mouses (mice? meece?) right along with me because we all know something that the majority of the population does not seem to know….or believe……or worse……they seem to forget in times of TEMPORARY crisis like these….

Property doubles in value every 7-10 years in the UK on average, and it’s quicker in the South East. Even taking dips in growth (because that is what this is, a dip in growth).

The GOVERNMENT for heaven’s sake, have recently upgraded their estimates of ANNUAL GROWTH of property in the UK, for the next ten years, from 5.5% per annum to 8.5% per annum. And that’s the whole of the UK. The South-East historically has risen at around 14% over the last 50-60 years.

So, when your average family home is worth around £240,000, and the family who lives in it is set to make another £240,000 over the next ten years, without having to work for it, or even pay tax on it……..

HOW CAN IT POSSIBLY MAKE SENSE TO SELL IT?

How else could they make that money? That’s £24,000 a year…..more than many people make per annum in their JOBS.

Sorry, I’m shouting I know, but I’m bloody furious!! If I had my way, old Merryn would be taken outside and shot at dawn. With a paintball gun obviously, but publically and with dayglo paint balls that HURT a bit. While wearing a sign that says “STUPID ALERT: DON’t BELIEVE A WORD I SAY”

Even if this fictitious family have to borrow some money to keep up the mortgage payments or GOD FORBID, GET A SECOND OR THIRD JOB to keep up with their payments, surely that’s got to be worth doing?

My business partner Judith Morgan gave up two properties in London in the early 90’s because it was that, or let her business go down the tubes. She subsequently sold the business for well over six figures, but now she says she should have kept the properties, and DONE EVERYTHING in her power to do so, because they would be worth MILLIONS to her now. And have taken a lot less work!!

Read Judith’s story here – and she’s an accountant, so she knows.

Unlike Merryn somerset Webb, MoneyWeek editor who doesn’t know, to the point of being dangerous.

Her biography reads thusly:

Merryn was a senior scholar at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where she gained a first class degree in History & Economics. She then became a Daiwa scholar and spent a year studying Japanese at London University. In 1992 Merryn moved to Japan to continue her Japanese studies and to produce business programmes for NHK, Japan’s public TV station. In 1993 she became an institutional broker for SBC Warburg, where she stayed for 5 years. Returning to the UK in 1998, Merryn became a financial writer for The Week. Two years later, in 2000, MoneyWeek was launched and Merryn took the job of editor.

She writes a FREE weekly personal finance email called Money Sense and has recently published a book on personal finance for women, Love is Not Enough: The Smart Woman’s Guide to Making (and Keeping) Money (HarperPress, 2007).

Note: Nowhere does it say she’s a professional property investor. Oooooh, were those all JOBS she has had? Methinks they are. High paid jobs, but jobs nonetheless.

Money Gym’ers……….avoid this woman like the plague! In her articles credits she lists one article called “Your house is not your pension” – I have read it and I tell you now, you should not.

In the third paragraph, she says “But if your house isn’t your pension, what is? Personally, I think it is a nice savings account backed up by a SIPP (Self Invested Personal Pension) into which you put a variety of low cost exchange traded funds which you then hold for 20 years”.

Hahahahahhahahahahahahh – the sound of hysterical yet still FURIOUS laughter echoes round Money Gym Towers, startling the seagulls and the children of the beach. All very well if you have excess income over expenditure and you have 20 years till you want to retire. Which most people – most women – don’t!

God almighty, comment by clicking the link below, will you Money Gym’ers?

Let me know I’m not alone in my fight to save the ordinary people – particularly women – of the UK from being trapped in their “Just Over Broke’s” and total financial poverty in old age?

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