Money Gym Property Investors Hope to Raise £4,500 for The Big Issue!

The Money Gym team is working together to put on a Property Extravaganza on 21st March 2009 in Central London. Tickets cost £25 including VAT and all ex VAT proceeds will be presented to The Big Issue Foundation on the day. One of our speakers, the ever-abundant Peter Stanley, has been wanting to set up a connection between property profits and helping the homeless for a number of years. I am delighted that finally we have been able to bring his vision to fruition. Peter will open the day with his talk demonstrating that Anyone Can Do It. He’s even offering a prize for the best reason on the day why the reverse is true!

At the time of writing, we have sold 111 tickets which means we can write TBI a cheque for £2391, but I want to give them nearly twice that, £4,500! In order to do that, I have to sell the remaining 89 tickets, the venue only holds 200.

So, what’s it all about then? It’s about The Good News about property investing in 2009. We have inspirational speakers, ordinary people who have made lots of money buying property and still continue to do so even in these current market conditions. Those speakers including Martin Roberts of TV’s Homes Under the Hammer and Hasmita Reardon who was Bradford & Bingley’s Property Woman of the Year award 2008 who has a portfolio of 80 properties in Sittingbourne, Kent, which she rents out to tenants nobody else wants. She’s a social entrepreneur in my book. And Rick Otton, Katharine Wooller and Abdul Malik.

The investments are suitable for people who want to put their first foot on the property ladder or their next one. They are for people with no money, no time and no know-how and conversely for the more experienced investor too. It will be a cracking day out which provides excellent networking opportunities in a relatively small group of wealth creators who are upbeat and positive and on the road to taking control of their own finances. There are over £42,000 worth of prizes in a holiday, Wembley tickets, books, memberships, portfolio places, mentoring, coaching and more from the very abundant speakers and colleagues who want to help this great cause.   And Goody Bags!

Will you help us please? Will you blog and Twitter this to get the campaign to go as viral as possible? If you let us know you have linked to this post, we should be able to track back to your post. If you can link it back to the this posting on the Money Gym’s blog, even better for you as this is a high traffic site.   If you can’t be bothered with all that trackback stuff (and who can blame you), do still please pass it on and help us help the homeless to help themselves.

Why not take the day off and come and join us in London’s West End? If you can persuade a friend to book and come too, there’s a special gift for both of you – 90 days Silver Membership of the Money Gym with our compliments!

Please help us to raise our £4,500 target by using all social media methods at your disposal and let’s have some fun with this viral campaign!

Thank you so much for supporting our goal. Click here for full details and booking

Money Gym Gold Video Entry – Eileen Bowley

Eileen sends in her video entry to Money Gym Gold Competition and we have to applaud Eileen’s bravery for using her new Flip Video for the first time, but we wonder, with Eileen, what happened to her tree!  She says it started to droop 2 days after bringing it home.  Watering is the key Eileen – get a base that lets you top it up, and saw the bottom of your tree off, so it can soak it up!  I learned the hard way after YEARS of droopy trees!  Anyway, we are here to listen / watch Eileen so don’t let the tree distract you!  Good luck Eileen!

Money Gym Gold – Video Entry – Shaun Lawton

Wow!  watch this video entry for the Money Gym Gold Competition for a great example of how to create an “evergreen” video that Shaun will be able to use on his own site too, which will immediately connect his visitors and subscribers with who he is and what he’s about.

Shaun has also been cunning enough to put his own site URL in the description box as well as mine (required) and that of his girlfriend.  He’s used multimedia, with a video recording of himself introducting things, and then moved onto a powerpoint presentation using pictures to illustrate his life, low point and high point, and at the end included a “call to action” telling people what to do – go now and vote at http://www.themoneygym.com/blog.

Shaun has shown that he’s either a naturally gifted internet marketer, or he has been seriously paying attention in the Membership Site Bootcamp videos and calls!!

Money Gym Gold Written Entry – Jo Rheam

Jo Rheam has submitted a written entry for the Money Gym Gold Competion and here it is:

What am I doing?!  It’s a beautiful crisp sunny day and I’m sat here at my laptop, staring at the screen, whilst my partner and two little girls are out on their bikes in the park, having some wholesome winter fun! It’s the day after my birthday and just a couple of days before the New Year, and I guess what I’m really wanting to do is get to grips with the rest of my life …

I feel like my life so far has been a bit ‘ordinary’ – eldest of three children, did well at school, went on to art school and university, stumbled into a career in training, did okay, went freelance, did okay, had a few turbulent relationships, finally settled down in a more peaceful relationship and had two children. But that doesn’t tell the whole story by any stretch.

Along the way, I seem to have managed to make my life one great big emotional rollercoaster ride! If there’s even a hint of boredom, I’ll shake things up and create a drama of some sort, and not always a good one. So I suppose I feel as if I’ve sabotaged some of my own potential. Deep down, I really believe I can … and will … do something spectacular one day. And one of the reasons for entering this competition, instead of going out and getting rosy-cheeked in the park, is because I’m starting to feel ready …

The lowest point in my life has been the past couple of years, as I’ve been struggling to deal with postnatal illness. I even ended up in a private psychiatric clinic for a month last summer, something I never in a million years thought I would do. It’s been really tough, but equally it’s given me insights and learning that I wouldn’t change for the world. I think I’ve got a lot more humble. I’ve seen how little separates the ‘haves’ from the ‘have nots’, and how thin the line is between ’sanity’ and ‘insanity’. It’s scary … but it’s brought a huge amount of warmth and compassion into my heart. I can’t look down my nose at anyone any more, or feel smug or self-important. Life is fragile, and very very precious. At times I may have wondered if I really wanted it … but now I know how much I do.

The highest points in my life …. well, the obvious ones are my children. I don’t need to tell you how much I love them, that goes without saying. I remember talking to a friend once and telling her “I didn’t know what joy meant until I had my girls”. I still think it’s a bit of a naff word but, for me, it’s a word that came alive when I became a mum. Because, even in the thick of the relentless demands that children bring, you get those many magical moments when love and happiness bubble up and you just think “thank you”!

Other highlights include things I’ve done on my travels – watching the sunset with a baguette sandwich on the top of a mountain in France; clambering through the Costa Rican jungle to a perfect white sand beach; seeing the New Year fireworks in Darling Harbour in Sydney; arriving at Macchu Picchu after surviving Dead Woman’s Pass on the Inca Trail, and so many other amazing experiences around the world. Plus the buzz of being brave enough to go in the first place! I left a job I’d outgrown and went travelling by myself, not knowing what I’d do when I got back … and that leap into the unknown taught me so much. Above all, it taught me that leaping into the unknown is a very exciting thing to do!

Since then, I’ve taken a big bold step into a new arena by setting up an online business – a brand new social networking site for mums. It’s called Mummo (www.mummo.co.uk). The name comes from a combination of ‘mummy’ and ‘more’, because it’s all about mums as people in our own right rather than “just” parents! It’s about us looking after ourselves as well as our children, on the grounds that happy mums make for happy families. It’s also a social enterprise – I want Mummo to make money not just for me, but also so that we can do all sorts of positive things ‘in life’ to support and value mums. I’ve got so many ideas I’m bursting with them, but my challenge now is to get the site up-and-running and get the word out as widely as possible. Then … watch this space!

I’m interested in all four lanes of the wealth highway, but obviously most interested in the business and internet ones. I am looking for support from the Money Gym to help me make Mummo a huge success! I want Mummo to become something that enables me to have financial freedom and also helps other mums to do the same. At the risk of sounding a bit Miss World-ish (no risk of looking it!), I want Mummo to be something that genuinely does “make a difference” and that I can look back on with huge amounts of pride. Having been a miserable mum and seen the impact that it had on my children, I want Mummo to encourage mums everywhere to do what they need to do to be happy and fulfilled. I want it to be the thing that helps make my life as spectacular as I believe it can be.

Winning this competition would be the best possible start to the New Year. Please help me make 2009 the beginning of a very bright future.

Money Gym Gold Video Entry – Debbie Winterbourne

Here’s  Debbie Winterbourne’s video entry to the Money Gym Gold Competition – now Debbie, what happened to looking at the camera?  Good news, your entry will be considered on the content not video technical skills (as I admire ANYONE who is brave enough to have a go and I often end up looking at the preview screen rather than the camera eye itself!)  Rick Stein (famous chef & restaurateur) says you must make the camera lens your friend to succeed on video and TV, and you can see how I get on with that on my 12-hour Wealth-A-Thon on Saturday 3rd January at Money Gym TV – kicking off at 8am GMT till 8pm GMT.

Money Gym Gold Video Competition Entry – Emma Kernoghan

I had a feeling the entries for Money Gym Gold competition to win a year’s wealth coaching with me, would pour in between Xmas and New Year and I was right!  I go out for the day and come back to x6 entries and comments on entries.  Here is Emma Kernoghan’s video entry – well done Emma! Now get your friends and family to comment and vote for you while I twitter & broadcast all the new entries to get comments and votes.

Money Gym Gold Written Entry – Dawn Dingwell

Hi Nicola

I only came across your website the other day and it has really inspired me and got me buzzing again. I have just recently turned 52 and was feeling a little flat as I am still struggling to meet my goals.I really didn’t think age would affect me but boy has it. I have been self employed since my thirties, and brought up two children who I have home educated from the start. Life has been very busy and years have passed very quickly. My children are both teenagers now and here I am still struggling to make ends meet, but still determined, and telling everyone that I one day I will still become a millionaire.

Being self employed was a very conscious choice, I wanted to be able to create my own money, and my absolute goal was to become a millionaire and then show my children how to do the same, I didn’t want to win the money, so I didn’t buy lottery ticket or scratch cards or bet, I just wanted to get rich though my own business efforts. I have been involved in many businesses, some good, some bad, some profitable but none that have taken me to financial freedoom. I have read all the books, so many books, courses, listened to audio tapes daily in the car, and sometimes I feel so near that I can almost touch it, but also so far away.

When things went wrong as they often did, I was willing to take the consequences and move on, I made a deal with myself that didn’t matter how bad it got, I would never sign on to benefits or become dependant on the state, as I felt for me, if I did this that I would see myself as a failure and I might never have the courage to get back up and have another go. Things went wrong plenty of times, and after the tears and anger we just sold everything in sight (which was very painful), got back up and carried on with the next project . My husband, has always supported me, trusted me and gone along with most of my business ideas working together and helping me which everyway he could. He too was self employed and his trade was going nowhere, so we worked together. I don’t think I was always the easiest person to live with, my mind was always bursting with new ideas and he was always the first to hear and how this project was definately going to be the one, he too trusted and believed we would one day become millionaires.

My lowest point was when I turned 50 and I released that I was far far away from being a millionaire, we had so much debt and I was struggled every day to keep us out of the courts and to hold on to our house, baliffs were knocking at the door, we couldn’t answer the phone, we had to tell the kids not to answer the door, our credit record was going quickly going out the window as day by day defaults were pouring in, and it was sucking up all my energy, I was sinking fast and then my husband become very depressed, the stress and strain of all the bills and the failures had taken its toll and I felt so responsible, so helpless and so alone, but knew I was the only one who could move us forward and had to keep going.

However I learnt to count my blessings and made a list of everything I had achieved during my lifetime, small acheivements large achievements, family achievements, kids achievements I looked back on all my past goals and read back over my journals and I started to realise I have come a hell of a long way and that I should be proud of myself and not beating myself up like this.

One of the high points in my life was when I found premises for my alternative education centre, I had been scouring the internet for another project I had been doing and this site kept coming up which looked to be the perfect venue for a project I was running, I tryed to contact them but no one got back to me and I forgot about it, six months- eight months later I was on the internet and it came up again, this time I phoned and left message on the answer machine, a man came back to me shortly after apologising for not getting back and asked my interest in this venue. He told me it was a centre for autisic children and was only used during the summer months. I apologised, I thought it was an outwood bound centre, and I was looking to rent a place to use for our project I was doing with home educated children, amazingly he had wrote a book on home education and asked me to meet him.

To cut a long story short, we met got along famously and now rent the premises all year around for this project, a wonderful place set in the woodlands with so many facilities for our young people, 20 mins in the car from me and at a wonderful affordable price.

What have I learnt from this, never give up, I always knew I would find some where special for this project, I was always looking and searching, but nothing prepared me for how special this venue would be.

The highway that appeals to me most is property, I have been involved in it when I done up our both our parents houses and sold them on and then brought another property, I was very green and got our fingers burnt a little, we brought at the wrong time, sold at the wrong time, worked hard for months and made hardly any profit. It put me off property for quite a while but didn’t stop me learning as much as I could, reading books audios and even attending a few property meeting and I am now ready to try again learning from the mistakes I made in the past.

Close second would be the internet, I have made a little money on it, but nothing to get excited about. I have wrote three ebooks, but marketing them is the hardest. I have set up my own websites and it is a ongoing job getting them out there for all to see.

After reading your book yesterday I realise I may be much closer than I thought to becoming financially
free we just need someone to point us in the right direction, so thankyou so much Nicola for given me the chance to enter this competition.

Dawn

Money Gym Gold Written Entry – Kate Coleman

I was born an Aquarian on 22 January 1961, the only girl (and apple of my Dad’s eye).
Mum was an entrepreneur and set up her own business in the 1950’s way before it was fashionable to do so. In the 1980’s she sold that business and retired a wealthy woman. Dad was an accountant.
My two older brothers both have their own businesses. One lives here in the UK and other in New York.
My career – mainly in marketing and sales but chequered due to taking almost 10 years out to bring up the children.
2 degrees – a BA(Hons) in Photography and an MBA.
My most enjoyable, if insecure, jobs were working for other entrepreneurs. I’ve travelled the world and rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous as part of my work.
I’ve had three businesses of my own with varying levels of success but always felt that I was still working for other people and there was little passion there.
I have two children – one of each and now both living independent lives – almost.

My low point – June 2008. My 18 year marriage had ended 3 years previously, I was almost financially ruined, with 2 teenage children. The separation was my choice and I had to fight very hard for it. I moved house twice in 6 months, worked at anything I could to make the money I needed and still be around for the children. My daughter dropped out of school at 16, started messing about with drugs, then moved in with her boyfriend. In June 2008 I hit rock bottom and my GP handed me the happy pills. All I wanted to do was to sleep. I didn’t see my friends, couldn’t read my precious books or listen to the music that I’d always loved.

A few weeks later I read that the root of depression was fear and anxiety. And I suddenly realised that that was how I’d been feeling – constantly anxious. The next logical question was what was I feeling fearful of? Amazingly, there was not one single thing in my life that I could point to. In that instant I knew I was OK, that I could not only survive but that there was nothing stopping me from doing whatever I wanted to do.

What have I learnt from all this? Beware fear, it belittles, stifles and stops progress and growth dead in its tracks. Its presence is rarely based on reality; its only source of nutrition is itself.

My high point – the last 6 months:
I found the Money Gym (or it found me) and met a fantastic bunch of people.
I showed my daughter the power of compounding and, despite earning below minimum wage, she went and opened a bank account to save £10 a week for the rest of her life.
The happy pills have gone in the bin.
I believe most things are possible.

Preferred Wealth Lanes:
Internet – just starting out on this but I’m surprised at how much I’m enjoying it. For me this is THE essential lane as my success here will impact on my business goals. It will also enable me to achieve my goal of being able to work from anywhere in the world. I know instinctively that this is the medium that will provide me with the tools that I need to reach my goals but I also feel overwhelmed by it all and am having difficulty focussing my activities.
Property – I’ve just bought 3 properties in the Caribbean for passive income (I still can’t believe it).

Kate

Money Gym Gold Written Entry – John O’Flynn

I am aged 42 and have a lovely wife and 3 lovely kids (2 girls and 1 boy) I say lovely kids because they are most of the time I also have a mad as a hatter English Springer spaniel! I have a good job with lots of responsibility and quite well paid, however I have a huge mortgage plus bills and spending that outstrips income. I am quite IT aware and love gadgets.

I played Cashflow 101 fot the first time just before Christmas and had great fun even though I have now realised that I don’t know what my attitude to money is! I have dabbled in the stock market including having bought RBS just before they crashed and property by selling our first house and suffering negative equity in the early 1990’s

The lowest point in my life that I care to recall was just before Christmas 2007 when the owner of the small firm I worked for then told me that he wasn’t sure the company was going to survive beyond the New Year. He did this the night before the Christmas Party and asked us to keep it to ourselves. This taught me that you can’t rely on a job to provide you with financial security.

The highest point, well there are a few e.g. my marriage, my kids, changing from the company described above to my current job, but the one that really sticks out is when we were told my son could go on to bi-annual heart checks after months of checks following his heart surgery at 3 months old. What did I learn from this – well it’s to really value the importance of quality time with your loved ones and also there’s lots of people out there that do what they do because of a passion for it – the nurses, doctors, surgeons and charities (Heartlink Glenfield).

The highway that appeals the most to me is “The Internet”. It’s a way of creating a passive income stream and one that I can utilise my interest in the internet, web pages and computers. I can also do it anytime of the day or night and anywhere which gives me the flexibility to work it around my day job and my lovely family.

Money Gym Gold Video Entry – Bee Milbourn

Bee Milbourn got a webcam for Christmas and she’s used it to enter the Money Gym Gold competition! Well done Bee!

Vote for Bee using the comments box below and by hitting the “Bookmark” button too (then click submit in the top right hand side of the page – the site will start to submit your bookmark automatically – leave it going till it finishes)

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