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 >>>

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!!

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

Audio Article – The Shower That Wasn’t

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.2MB)

Today I’m delighted to share an article about something rather wonderful that happened in the Money Gym google Mastermind Group recently to S, one of our buy-to-let investors.

Time to listen 6:44 or read the written version here >>>

[podcast]http://www.themoneygym.com/audio/2008aashowerstory.mp3[/podcast]

The Game That Changes Lives

Judith Morgan asks:  Have you read Robert Kyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad?  It’s about the very first book we recommend at The Money Gym. It’s accessible, and even in my recent cull of personal development books for Children in Need, I hung onto the entire purple Rich Dad series. I probably won’t ever read them again, but I will dip into them for reference when working with clients and it makes me feel wealthier just knowing I have them on my shelves.

But even more powerful than the book and reading the series, is playing the game. In fact, I think this may be Kyosaki’s piece de resistance.

I bought the game ages ago and promised to teach some friends how to play. James was so keen, he couldn’t wait for me to learn the rules so he borrowed the game, read the rules and then taught me! Its the perfect teaching tool. You learn a lot by playing, I often learn just as much by facilitating others as coach and banker.

What did I learn, specifically?

Well the brilliant thing is you get to learn by doing, you can try on the maths and the emotions of investing in shares, properties, businesses and opportunities, just as we teach our clients to do in real life. But often they are scared of actually doing it. Who isn’t? I know I was.

It’s well documented that when I joined The Money Gym I had no intention of investing in property ever again, I had been doing that in the last recession and ended up with two repossessions. However, typical of me, I did attend the weekend where Gill Fielding, Secret Millionaire, taught us how the maths worked. Of course, I got the maths instantly and I must admit it was heart-stoppingly sexy. But nevertheless, my body language was all revealing, I sat with my arms crossed throughout. Nope, not going there.

What changed my mind? Playing Cashflow 101. I knew what I should do but I couldn’t force myself to face my fears and re-visit the property market, such was the residue of pain from 1987-1992 more than a decade later.

But in the game you get to try on what it would be like to dip your toe into any market. You learn how to evaluate an investment opportunity and you see what happens if you do it, and what happens if you don’t. You know what they say, the NLP-ers? Your body can’t tell the difference between doing it and trying it on for size. So you get to feel the real emotions too. All sorts of them, good and bad.

You get to learn about yourself. The first few times you play the game, you play it just like you live your life. Imagine that – how does the dice know to just give you paycheck after paycheck after paycheck with nothing changing in your life? Or send you Doodad (waste of money) after Doodad?

Some complain they just didn’t get the breaks. Yes, sometimes that’s true. But what can you learn from that?

Some ride the roller-coaster from babies to divorce to bankruptcy and bounce back. It’s just the way we are… or can we, should we, change?

We all learn that its easier to get out of the Rat Race if you are a janitor than an airline pilot. And why’s that? Because we all tend to live up to our income whereas the goal in the game as in The Money Gym and in life is to create a gap between your income and your expenditure, and to use that money wisely in a way which creates passive income from investments.

Some people are born knowing how to do this. Most of us are not. But we can all learn and Cashflow 101 will teach you how to do that in a safe and supportive, nay fun environment.

The other day we played it with our crack Women Talk Money team at The Money Gym and three of our six delegates immediately signed up to play more games, so beneficial did they find it – and these are not our beginner clients, still so much to learn.

It’s fun, sure. But don’t let that distract you, there’s some very deep learning going on, frequently on an emotional level. You get to observe yourself play. We allow time for discussing what we are learning as its happening. You get profound lightbulb moments about the way you have always operated and why that isn’t working and how you can change. You discover that tithing, and giving back and helping others brings a speedy positive leg-up for you.

You find out that you are better at maths than you thought, that any idiot can do this stuff. You watch others and see yourself in them – overly timid – overly brave. You see that you live beyond your means and waste your money or conversely that you are scarce. You realise that you have no plan, do not visualise, are easily distracted from your purpose by fun and the social element, you are reminded about focus, going after what you want and yes (my favourite this one) throwing precisely the number on the dice that you want.

Cashflow 101 teaches that collaboration is more productive than competition and that there are so many ways of “winning” the game of money.

I used to run these games once a month at my flat in Canary Wharf where I had room for a dining room table. Then I sold my games to Philly before discovering that I missed playing the game and so I have bought some new games and we have played a handful of times during the last few weeks and am more convinced than ever that this is the best learning tool about money that I have come across during my wealth creation journey.

I am quite a strict teacher. It takes about 4 hours to learn to play. I want people to arrive on time and concentrate, focus on what they want, take it seriously even though we laugh and cry. But I dont want them coming just for the craic – yes, its social and fun, but if you allow yourself to be distracted by that, that in itself tells me something about you. Are you more interested in the people, in the tea and cakes, than learning anything about yourself and about how you are with money?

But have no fear. I really think I am getting to be quite a gifted facilitator now, albeit I need to lean back after the first hour and let you do your own sums and make your own mistakes. It does help to have a coach teach you how to play and help you along the road to financial freedom. I ask people to really imagine what that would feel like, making millions, winning, losing, holding half a million in your sweaty palm. Many of us have never dared to do that, not really believing it could be true for us.

Sorry to bang on again about the wonderfully abundant and ace manifester Janet Swift but I swear the turning point in her life was when she decided to drive from Gloucester to Canary Wharf once a month to play, so determined was she to turn things around. You get the chance to try on new hats, you see. To play boldly, to play timidly, to borrow big, to pay off debt, to collaborate, to go it alone – your body feels the fear and you do it anyway under my somewhat bossy guiding hand!

See what our Money Gym clients say about playing Cashflow and come along and join us for a series of six games January to June 2009 in London SE1 on Thursday and Friday evenings. Book the whole series, there are only 15-20 seats on each evening (four games) max. Nicola and I will teach and facilitate and as you get better, I will invite you to teach others, surely the best way of learning? And surely our cheapest coaching you can buy. Bargain, take it from me, one who learned how to buy her first BTL property by playing the game. And it only took me about a year! Guess what? Now I have six!!!

And here’s a tip. Practice throwing the dice. See the number you want in your mind’s eye, and practice, practice, practice until you can throw it. Visualise 5 spots, and then throw a five. Let me know when you can do it. That should keep you busy over the Christmas holidays!

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JUDITH’S PERSONAL BLOG AT:
http://www.JudithMorgan.com

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 **

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?

£1k For A Piece Of Caribbean Paradise?

Judith Morgan says: “Only £1,000 down for your own freehold little bit of Paradise in the Caribbean? Can this really be true? Or is it simply “Too Good To Be True”?

I have always wanted a life in the sun, so when one of our own ex-clients on the 2007 Money Gym Gold Express programme contacted me earlier in the year, I couldn’t wait to hear about the opportunity she presented.

At the time, I had challenges of my own – I was right in the middle of moving house in the same week as Janet Swift took me to a 3-day Alan Forrest Smith event and then I hurtled up to Manchester to find out all about Cartel, about which more later.

And to be honest with you, and I don’t think Victoria would mind my sharing this with you, when she brought it around to me, she hadn’t got her own head round the offering yet and so I simply didn’t understand it either and with all that busyness on my hands, I just parked it – a bit further down the To Do List! But I do remember calling Nicola and saying we must tell our clients about this. Nicola said “no, not now, let’s wait until someone we know and trust has invested their own money in it first” or word to that effect.

But Money Gym clients are not fools and so Victoria hedged her bets and she also showed it to Marcus de Maria AND Maria Davies. These days, Maria writes a regular column for “A Place in the Sun” magazine and so if Victoria could get past Maria’s defences, that would be a great result.

As Maria tells the story, Victoria badgered and badgered and badgered until Maria caved in and looked at the details and followed up on the opportunity in a way which I simply had not had time for.

And what did she discover? Maria discovered something so good she invested herself and she has now given up most, if not all, of her other speaking engagements just to present for this company. She is concentrating on them pretty much full-time and for the same reasons, it doesn’t just look too good to be true – it is true! And we want our clients to get a piece of that action!

With Maria’s “heads up” we have now all discovered something which, as I say, many will think too good to be true and indeed that may prove to be thei greatest marketing challenge!

So, what do they offer then, and how can you get your own freehold bit of Paradise in the Caribbean for only £1,000 down?

This company is a UK based developer, owned and run by one family, most of whom work in the business. Their Head Office is in Essex and I have been down there twice, once on my own to learn from a BBC geologist and oceanographer all about why their developments are no more likely to be hit by a hurricane than the south coast of England (!) and once with a carload of lovely Money Gym ladies.

We went to find out more, we went to grill the sales guy whose name, appropriately, is Sunny. We grilled the poor boy (and ticked him off about the state of the Ladies Loo to boot) for way more than two hours and he had the answers to all of our questions, literally at his fingertips. Sunny, rather worryingly (but affectionately I feel) now calls me “Trouble”.

Since then I have been once more to hang out in Essex. I have been to their Directors’ Box at the glamorous all-new Wembley Stadium where I met Katharine. Katharine is a Cambridge graduate who has worked for this company since she was 23; she’s now 26 and she is, quite frankly, the most brilliant presenter I have ever heard in all my years in the Money Gym.

There’s no fluff, she embodies the word succinct, thank heavens and she’s intelligent, intelligent, intelligent and posh (her hobby, nay passion, is Polo). And Katharine has created a lot of the business excellence which this company now display. Again, when answering questions, she quite easily and quickly put her hands on the answer to everything. Katharine is my new best friend in the Wonderful World of Wealth Creation.

God knows how or where the CEO recruited Katharine (she was head-hunted apparently) but he’s no fool. Together they are a brilliant business combination to my mind.

Sunny’s Mum works for the company. Katharine’s brother is her PA. It truly is a family business. Does that make it a better business? Not necessarily, but apart from Cartel, I haven’t found a business with greater or more infectious energy for a very long time. Victoria even took her singing sister into this company to work too.

So, let’s cut to the chase. Who are they and what’s in it for you?

A little piece of Paradise as I already said on terms which are literally too good to be true…..
Read more..

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