Real Estate Vs. Stocks - The Other Side Of The Story Every Real Estate Investor Needs To Know

By H. Scott Miller

The Wall Street or Main Street (real estate) debate is well covered territory by both the print and TV media outlets and perhaps was a topic of discussion at a recent cocktail party, wedding reception or real estate investment social event you attended.

Given the recent run up in the stock market (3Q07), the increase in interest rates, the limitations being put on non-owner occupied financing and the flattening or depreciating property value issue plaguing some of the country’s real estate markets, what is the better investment (from a return on investment standpoint) for both the short and long term, based upon today’s market?

If you are one to believe what you hear and or read (and it isn’t your fault if you do---a lot of money is spent to program your perception and belief systems) then you believe Wall Street is the better investment vehicle.

Discussions like these and comparisons of ROI (return on investment) between Wall Street and Main Street rarely account for and ignore the following:

1). The concept of leveraged capital: Up to recently, you could control a hard asset (real estate) with no money down---this can't be replicated on Wall Street...Even now, you can control a 100K real estate investment for between 5-10K---even if you were to use stock options, you still can't leverage yourself with OPM the way you can with real estate.

2) The benefits of tax deductibility: Real estate is the only investment that allows for a tax deduction when purchasing, owning/controlling and selling real estate---not so with Wall Street.

3) Differing ways to profit: Wall Street offers only two ways to profit from the stock market---capital appreciation and dividend payouts. On the other hand, investment real estate offers at least 8 ways to profit:

- Rent roll (rental income)

- Mortgage Payoff (thanks to your tenants)

- Property Improvement

- Purchase Profits (buying at a discount)

- Government Benefits (tax credits, tax deductions, rent vouchers, etc.)

- Strategic Property Management

- Property Appreciation

- Inflation

4) The concept of leveraged equity (profits): This is where the divide between Wall Street and Main Street widens. Let’s compare a $10,000 investment made by two investors (one invests in Wall Street and the other invests in Main Street) to better illustrate the profound profit differences: ·

Investor Y invests $10,000 into Wall Street for an annual return of 6%. ·

Investor X invests $10,000 (5,000 towards a down payment and 5,000 towards closing costs) to purchase a real estate investment worth $100,000 which appreciates 6% annually.

Here is how the two investment approaches differ:

a. In the 3rd year, Investor Y has a capital appreciation value of approx. $1,900---Investor X has an equity appreciation value that is more then 1000% higher (approx. $19,102).

b. In the 5th year, Investor Y has a capital appreciation value of $3,382---Investor X has an equity appreciation value has multiplied tenfold ($33,382).

c. At the end of 10 years, Investor Y has approx. $7,900 in profits---Investor X has more then $79,805.

d. At the end of 20 years, Investor Y has more then doubled his original investment (with profits exceeding $22,000)---so has Investor X, who has earned approximately 2200% on his original $10,000 investment (accumulating more then $220,714in equity).

Additional arguments could be made about the speculative nature of Wall Street or the volatility of the stock market & the differences between a hard asset and a paper one, but remember this:

- Everybody needs somewhere to live---you can't live in a mutual fund...Real estate will always be in demand regardless of the market circumstances...(This is the “demand” side of the law of supply and demand)

- God stop making land on the 7th day (unless you live near a volcano)---you can't build a house on top of your IRA...Real Estate will benefit from diminished availability (supply) as our population continues to expand due to natural reproduction and immigrant influx…(This is the “supply” side of the law of supply and demand)

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H. Scott Miller is a nationwide commercial and residential investment lending professional specializing in the creation, management and growth of real estate wealth from a mortgage prospective. He is also the author of "The Not So Funny Games That Lenders Play With Your Money That Can Cost You A Fortune Every Time You Get A Mortgage" which is freely distributed at The Mortgage Inner Circle.

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The Importance of a Business Plan For Entrepreneurs

By Eric Powers

A business plan is an indispensable tool for an entrepreneur and not only because of its importance to the fundraising process, but because of how it helps businesspeople crystallize their strategy and evaluate their process. These are the three major reasons to create a business plan if you are a hopeful entrepreneur.

Fundraising

Most literature on business planning focuses on the need for a plan to encourage external investment into the company, whether it is through loans or equity investment. Most funders will not consider putting money into a company without seeing a well-written, convincing business plan. An entrepreneur must make sure the plan speaks in terms the funders will understand, and meets their requirements for the qualifications of the management team, funding requested, and financial return.

Strengthening Strategy

When strategy is an amorphous concept, existing in the minds of the various company founders, it is loose and perhaps even contradictory. It also does not necessarily make use of the best research on the market, customers, and competitors. The process of creating a business plan requires the entrepreneurial team to go through this research and analysis systematically, creating a better foundation for strategy. Having to write down the strategy also creates an opportunity to make sure all of the founders are literally on the same page about what they intend to do. If they are not, fruitful discussions can be started which are better to get out of the way at this early stage while plans are still much more flexible.

Evaluating Progress

Finally, while the action plan outlined in the business plan is being implemented over the first months and years of operation, the business plan is both a guide and a means to see how well the results of the business stack up to the projections made early on. The pro forma financial statements can make this type of evaluation very easy. Make sure that the original pro formas are kept in spreadsheet format so that actual financials can be laid out alongside them. If your budgeted targets are saved in your accounting software, such as Quickbooks, this kind of comparison can be even easier and variances can be measured automatically.

Eric Powers is associated with Growthink, a business plan consulting firm. Since 1999, Growthink's business plan consultants have developed more than 2,000 professional business plans for entrepreneurs and business owners who have raised more than $1 billion in growth capital. Call 800-506-5728 today for a free business plan consultation, or visit http://www.growthink.com/businessplan.

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Real Estate Vs Stock Investing

By James Leitz

Investing for big gains is a game of buying low and selling high. You don't make the big bucks in real estate investing by collecting rents, or in stock investing by receiving dividends. Price appreciation, or rising prices, is the key to big profits in both arenas. The difference is that in one game the BUY decision is of greatest consequence, and in the other the SELL decision usually determines success or failure.

In real estate investing the BUY decision is the vital half of the equation, and in stock investing the SELL decision determines whether you win or lose. How to invest in real estate amounts to buying a property "right". How to invest in stocks profitably boils down to knowing when to sell. Let's take a look at these two distinctly different investments, starting with real estate.

In real estate you need to know what price to pay, where to buy, and how to best finance a property. This requires knowledge of local markets, as well as skill and experience in arranging deals and getting favorable terms when financing them. A bad decision in the buying process, which includes all of the above, can result in problems that have no good solution. This is especially true when a bad economy is accompanied by a bad real estate market.

Here's an example of why the buy decision is so important in real estate investing. Put another way, here's what can go wrong in real estate.

As real estate values are soaring in some parts of the country, Matt buys a property for $300,000 in a hot real estate market. He puts little down to maximize the effects of financial leverage. His goal is to sell the property a couple of years later for $400,000 or more. He plans to rent it out in the interim.

The economy falls into recession and the real estate market turns sour. Properties aren't moving and prices are falling. Two years after his purchase, properties comparable to Matt's can't find a buyer for $200,000, and he owes almost $300,000 on his mortgage. He also has a mortgage on the home in which he lives, and can no longer afford to make payments on both.

Matt is between a rock and a hard place, because he did not buy right. Financial leverage worked against him, and his real estate's lack of liquidity makes it impossible to sell without negative consequences. In the future, someone who knows the ropes will likely make a wise buy decision and take control of his property.

In stock investing you can not get heavy financial leverage, but you have high liquidity and can sell quickly and easily for as little as $10 in commissions. Knowing how to invest in stocks requires that you learn the stock market game. In this game, you must know when to sell.

If you buy a stock that turns sour, you can quickly sell and take a small loss. Unfortunately, most stock investors never learn the game. Here's an example of what can go wrong in a stock investment.

The stock market is hot, and Drew buys 1000 shares of JKL at $20. A year later it's at $30. Then, economic bad news starts to dominate the headlines and the stock market reacts by falling. Drew watches as his stock falls to $25...$20...$15 ... over the next six months. In that period of time the stock market was down about 15%, but JKL was down 50%.

Drew tells himself that when his stock returns to $20, where he bought it, he will sell. A year later JKL is at $5 and still falling. The stock is selling for pennies within weeks, and then stops trading. Drew just lost 100% of his $20,000 stock investment.

Knowing how to invest in stocks is mostly a matter of knowing when to sell. Drew did not make a bad buy decision when he bought his stock. It went up 50% the first year. His problem was that he did not know when to sell. While the rest of the market was sliding, JKL was falling out of bed, and Drew ignored it.

Drew should have sold as soon as he realized that his stock was performing worse than the stock market in general. He could have avoided a loss for only $10 in commissions.

A retired financial planner, James Leitz has an MBA (finance) and 35 years of investing experience. For 20 years he advised individual investors, working directly with them helping them to reach their financial goals.

Jim is the author of a complete investor guide, Invest Informed, designed for average investors or would-be investors of all levels of financial background and experience. To learn more about investments and investing and his new financial guide go to http://www.investinformed.com

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New Projects Require a Crisply Polished Elevator Pitch

By Geoff Ficke

Each week we receive a number of unsolicited business proposals in our marketing consulting business. Some are submitted by mail, some by e-mail and a number are the result of phone contacts. We have developed a methodology of quickly weighing the commercial viability of each. This is important as we strive to manage our time, and potential clients can receive proper initial guidance from us as they pursue their goals and dreams.

The key initial indicator we evaluate when weighing a newly presented Business Plan is the Executive Summary. This is typically the very first section of a Business Plan and provides the reader a focused snapshot of the proposition that is being offered. It is crucial that the Executive Summary be pithy, exciting but believable, and drives the reader's curiosity to delve into the interior of the Business Plan. The Executive Summary's that we typically review do not usually do this. They all too often do not reflect the actual quality of the product, new service or business concept that is being described. This is opportunity lost.

Many of our initial contacts come via telephone. Remember, we almost never have met the caller reaching out by phone to introduce their proposition. This verbal presentation, in order to create and maintain interest, must also contain an Executive Summary. On the telephone, however, this crucial summary takes the form of an Elevator Speech.

What is an Elevator Speech? Simply put, an Elevator Speech is a condensed, on point verbal description of your concept, your background and your goals for the project. It is historically called an Elevator Speech because it should always be assumed that the delivery will occur in a tight space or time frame. The ability to convey the importance of an ideas potential must be able to be presented coherently, concisely, clearly and with professional elan by the presenter.

Much like written Executive Summaries, the Elevator Speeches we hear are almost always delivered in a halting, bumbling, rambling, incoherent manner. Entrepreneurs have often invested considerable time, energy, and often monies in their concept. It is an interesting reality that so many do not take the time to properly craft and perfect the delivery of their Elevator Speech, the all important verbal Executive Summary for their opportunity.

There are many reasons that prospective inventors and entrepreneurs should have a powerful Elevator Speech. Remember, you only get one chance to make a great first impression! Make it count. The telephone is more personal than mail or e-mail. A well delivered Elevator Speech is a positive eye opener for decision makers. The listener will gain a stronger, more defined mental impression of the presenter and the business proposition on offer.

Here is another reason the Elevator Speech is crucial. There is a huge universe of products and business ideas chasing a finite amount of funding, licensing, partnering, strategic alliance and placement opportunities. When the chance arises to present your idea, you must be ready and able to deliver the details and leave "a great first impression". You never know where or when this situation to introduce yourself and your concept to a decision maker will occur.

All successful entrepreneurs are always SELLING. On an elevator, at a ballgame, at a trade show, at a shopping mall or networking at a business function, you never know when you might meet someone who can change the trajectory of your life. Practicing and perfecting a brief, exciting Elevator Speech could be the key to unlocking a great commercial opportunity. Do not waste the possibility.

by: Geoff Ficke

Geoff Ficke has been a serial entrepreneur for almost 50 years. As a small boy, earning his spending money doing odd jobs in the neighborhood, he learned the value of selling himself, offering service and value for money.

After putting himself through the University of Kentucky (B.A. Broadcast Journalism, 1969) and serving in the United States Marine Corp, Mr. Ficke commenced a career in the cosmetic industry. After rising to National Sales Manager for Vidal Sassoon Hair Care at age 28, he then launched a number of ventures, including Rubigo Cosmetics, Parfums Pierre Wulff Paris, Le Bain Couture and Fashion Fragrance.

Geoff Ficke and his consulting firm, Duquesa Marketing, Inc. (http://www.duquesamarketing.com) has assisted businesses large and small, domestic and international, entrepreneurs, inventors and students in new product development, capital formation, licensing, marketing, sales and business plans and successful implementation of his customized strategies. He is a Senior Fellow at the Page Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, Business School, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.

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The 4 Things All Entrepreneurs Must Know to Succeed in Business

By Louis Lim

To start and sustain a new business is a very exciting and challenging enterprise for most people but it entails the greatest risk of failure. Many wide-eye entrepreneurs go into a new enterprise, unfortunately, with more aspirations than common sense and put themselves at more dangers of failure than necessary.

Most new entrepreneurs go into their ventures with often a correct mindset i.e. to be their own bosses and make financial successes of them. However, like in any human enterprise, success requires more than motivation but an essential set of knowledge and skills. The simple formula for success is generally motivation, knowledge and skills.

However, there are four essential things that a new entrepreneur must know to succeed. The first, is to know you have customers to sell to and you can provide for what they need. This is called 'Having A Ready Market". A new entrepreneur more often calls on customers they already know when they were working somewhere else or have ready customer who asked for their services when they start. Starting with customers is the best reason for a new business. This becomes harder with a retail business and knowing how to find the best location becomes a great challenge.

The next thing for success in business is mastering marketing. Marketing is basically about communicating with and selling to your customers. It can be as basic as having or being a good sales person. The chances are if you have no selling skills you are less likely to succeed in business. And this applies whether you are doing a conventional business or Internet Marketing! Marketing in general, entails more than direct selling; it is about promoting your product or services successfully to your clientele. Your objective is to create a reputation or brand which people trust so that they would consistently buy from you. Having consistent sales is what makes a company succeed!

The next essential factor for a company's success is how a business is financially managed. The many dramatic failures in the corporate world in recent times had often to do with company insolvency. For a new entrepreneur, understanding financial management and cash flow is critical. Failure to understanding cash flow is one of the main reasons why a company fails.

Last but not least, for a company to have success, the management must know how to deploy its resources. This could be about how to motivate and deploy its employees in furthering the company's marketing and financial objectives. Also knowing how to allocate funds for running the business or acquiring essential assets is another operational requirement. There are also other resources like technical or intellectual assets. For this, an entrepreneur either learns the operational skills himself or employs one who knows them.

A simpler way to learn how to start a business without having to master the complexities of a conventional business is internet marketing. For anyone, going through an internet marketing course would allow the basics of entrepreneurship to be acquired. The author's resource box below would lead you to a very excellent program. Starting a business would not be as difficult.

Wishing you every success!

Louis Lim is a highly qualified Certified Management Consultant who promotes entrepreneurship as basic skills for financial security! Louis has identified Internet Marketing as the latest opportunity for those seeking financial independence. He has decades of experience consulting for many firms and mentors many business people. He shares his business skills on the internet. To learn a skill how on to make money online, go to http://www.TheSuperFastAffiliate.com.

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How To Start Your Own Business While Working For Someone Else

By Monica Carter Tagore

Many people think the only way they can launch their own business is to immediately ditch their day job and go off on their own. But there is another way to pursue your entrepreneurial dream - and keep bringing in money, too!

If you are considering launching a small business but are not sure how to do so because you do not have a lot of money, going into business while still working for someone else can be a viable choice.

When I launched my company, I did it from the comfortable vantage point of working for someone else. That allowed me the flexibility of having predictable income generation while in start-up phase.

Launching a business while working full-time for someone else requires organization and the ability to focus. That's because you will most likely be doing two full-time jobs - the work at the "day job" and work for your new baby, your company.

When I began preparing for and then running my company, work days often stretched well into the night. I would work a full nine or ten-hour day as a journalist, then go home to work another six or seven hours on my business. Make no mistake, operating a business while working full-time for someone else can be a challenge. But that challenge can be successfully faced.

Here are five tips for operating your own small business while working for someone else

1. Realize you will sacrifice leisure time. When you are working two full-time jobs, you will not have a lot of time for "extra" activities such as outings with friends or watching television. Realizing upfront the extra commitment of time will help you set realistic expectations for your time. This can also help you communicate with those in your life that you will sometimes be unavailable during this critical time, as you work hard to get your business off the ground.

2. Set a time frame. When you launch your business while working for someone else, set a time frame for when you will leave the "day job" to work full-time for your company. This is important because it will give you a target to shoot for and will help you set benchmarks - amount of money you will save by a certain date, for example. This also will help keep your business a priority, and not relegate it to permanent "side business" status. I left my "day job" two years after forming my company.

3. Create a business plan. Many entrepreneurs launch businesses without investing the time into developing a business plan. They want to "wing it," because they have the plan in their heads. That can add undue stress and contribute to the high failure rate of new businesses. I launched my business without a business plan, so that's why I emphasize the importance of having such a plan. My business became successful even though I started without a plan, but the lack of a business plan cost me in unnecessary expenses and time. The business plan I have now helps me structure my business in such a way that I know if expenditures are in line with my needs or if they are unnecessary. That saves money. And having a business plan also means you spend time on things that support your business, instead of on things that do not.

4. Use "found" time. When you are operating your own business while working for someone else, it's important that you maximize your time. That means using "found" time. Found time is those small increments of time that usually are filled with nothing or unimportant tasks. For instance, instead of using your break at work to smoke outside with your co-workers, you may now use this found time to make phone calls to potential suppliers or distributors, or others you must connect with for your business. Found time can be the time you use to find out about licenses you need for your business, conferences, events, etc.

5. Organize your finances. The biggest reason you have remained with your employer likely is financial. You need the money. So that means evaluating your current expenses and needs, and seeing how you can cut back and what your bottom line amount is to live and support your business. Put everything on the table. See what can be cut to help you reach the financial target you set when you established a time frame for leaving your day job. When I was organizing my finances and preparing to leave my employer to work for my company full-time, I eliminated cable, reduced dining out, and even shopped at thrift stores. Sacrifices you make can help you find the resources to dedicate to your business and nurture it to success. Once things pick up or your cash flow from your business is on the grow, you may resume some of the things you sacrificed earlier - or you may find your life is quite fine without them!

This is also the time to consider future expenses and how you will address them - what will you do about health insurance, for instance? Will you work from home or have an outside office? How will you fund all this?

These five practical - real-life - tips can help you properly prepare for successfully running your own business one day, even if you start it while working for someone else today.

Monica Carter Tagore is a successful entrepreneur and author. She is an award winning newspaper columnist and the publisher of the Knowledge Wealth Series. She presents workshops on goal achievement, success, and entrepreneurship, and is the author of Zoom Power: Your Key to Hitting Your Personal, Business and Financial Targets. Learn more about her work at http://www.knowledgewealthseries.com

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Business Startup - Full Time Or Part Time?

By K. MacKillop

Many potential entrepreneurs have a hard time deciding whether starting a business part-time or full-time makes the most sense for them. On the one hand, dedicating yourself full-time to a startup seems like it would give your idea the best chance of success. On the other hand, starting out part-time allows you to keep your regular job while testing your business idea. The best option for you depends on a number of factors and the weight you give the advantages and disadvantages of starting out full-time or part-time.

Full-Time Startup

The advantages of starting up your business full-time are obvious. Without the responsibilities of another job, you are able to commit your full attention and time to the startup, which is likely to shorten the time until your business is up, running, and making money. Since you are relying on your business taking off to provide you with income, you will be highly motivated to make good decisions and have extra incentive to succeed (especially if failure to launch means you have to go back to working for others!). If you need to seek outside investors, your willingness to risk taking on your idea full-time will give you credibility with them. They will be more likely to take a risk on entrepreneurs who are willing to take on significant risk themselves!

Starting out full-time gives you the time to comprehensively plan all aspects of your business. You are available during regular work hours on either coast to talk with suppliers, advertisers, trade associations and anyone else with information you need to make the best plan. You are able to spend more time networking and researching the industry so that you fully understand the opportunities and threats you can expect to encounter. The extra time and dedicated focus also make it easier to change direction if you realize the barriers to starting your particular idea are too great or if you identify better startup opportunities along the way.

The disadvantages of starting out full-time mostly involve the increased risk. Without a separate income, it can be difficult to get your business off the ground, especially given that startups tend to take twice as long and cost twice as much as you originally expect! You need to have enough cash on hand to cover your personal existence during the planning phase and are more likely to need outside financing (even if just a few thousand dollars) to launch your idea. If it takes longer than expected to start making sales (which it almost always does), desperation can lead to bad decisions and knee-jerk reactions that produce less profitable outcomes. In an ideal world, you could start your business full-time with enough working capital to sustain you for twice as long as you think it will take to get your idea in motion. That way, you have the breathing room to make the best decisions for the long-term success of your business idea.

Part-Time Startup

Starting your business part-time can be frustrating as it takes longer to get off the ground, but the advantages can outweigh the irritation. Most entrepreneurs that work on a business part-time do so because they are still working a full-time job for someone else. That steady income can relieve a lot of pressure, allowing you to take your time to find the best answers to every startup issue and possibly self-fund the entire startup. Working on your idea part-time reduces your risk all around. If you discover during your planning that you need to modify your idea or completely change direction in order for your business to succeed, it is easier to do so without significant loss. If you need more time to save up or raise the capital needed to finance your idea, you still have your regular paycheck to fall back on. Once your business is up and running, you can build your customer base until the business is profitable enough to replace your regular job before you commit to the business full-time.

The downside of starting your business on a part-time basis is that it can be more difficult and take much longer to get your idea off the ground. Your attention is pulled in different directions, especially if you have personal obligations to attend to outside of your regular work hours. It can be difficult to adjust to working a job and a half because often it seems like all of your time is spent working. The remedy, of course, is to manage your time well and schedule enough hours per week to work on your idea. But when you know you have the paycheck coming in whether you work on your business or not, it can be easy to become distracted or slack off. Be sure not to work on your business idea during your regular job hours -- you won't want your employees taking your time to work on other things, so show the same respect for your current boss.

Another difficulty that entrepreneurs often experience in starting a business part-time is balancing the responsibilities once the venture is up and running. For any business, there are growing pains -- periods during which you have to shuffle priorities and decide whether to hire some help in order to meet the demands of your growing business. If you are already working full-time, these periods can be even more stressful because the time you have to dedicate to the business is limited. Many entrepreneurs find themselves pulling the occasional all-nighter, outsourcing some tasks, or hiring an employee sooner than planned.

Get Started!

Some entrepreneurs are unable to dedicate the hours to work on their business idea even part-time, instead starting up on a spare time basis. This can work out, as long as you are able to commit time consistently, at least a few hours per week to developing your business. Periodic startups -- where the entrepreneurs does a little work on an idea, ignores it for a few months, then puts in a few more hours, etc. -- are less successful. The marketplace changes so rapidly that any more than a few weeks out of the loop can make what you know obsolete. Spare time startups can be very successful, however. Remember that just 3 hours per week of work for one year adds up to nearly a month of full-time hours!

Starting your own business is a huge endeavor that takes quite a bit of time and energy. Deciding whether to jump in full-time or not can be a difficult choice in some cases, but for others the right decision is obvious. Whatever you choose to do, be sure to develop and use a time-management system that works for you and ensure that the time you spend working on your idea is productive. If you are serious about asserting your independence, you will find the time to make your idea into reality!

K. MacKillop, a serial entrepreneur with a J.D. from Duke, is founder of LaunchX and authors a small business startup blog. The LaunchX System, a five Unit series of step-by-step business startup procedures, key software and more, assists entrepreneurs in developing a business idea into a successful company. Visit LaunchX.com and get on the road to starting a business today.

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Financial Ed is the Only Thing Between You and Wealth

By S Koonopakarn

I know where you are coming from. When my father left my mother, she didn't have career prospects in this country, so we lived off of the meager child support payments he'd forced my mother to accept, a mere fraction of what she was due according to the law.

So we made do. And we tightened our belts, pinched pennies, and shopped sales and clearance racks. This stretched our money to cover our family of four, however, budgeting did not allow for savings or retirement planning for my mother. Her needs took a back seat to the needs of her children. She entered the golden years of her life with no financial savings and was completely dependent on social security.

Our experience is not uncommon, it is utterly American. Since the beginning of America's Golden Age, that period following World War II that made us the wealthiest nation in the world, there has been an ever growing rift between the upper and middle economic classes. The biggest reason for this is a difference in financial education.

We've all heard the saying "It takes money to make money." However, we are also privy to a multitude of stories about lottery winners and professional athletes who, despite receiving millions of dollars, lose it rather than grow it to a point of infinite wealth. This can only mean that the truer proverb is "A fool and his money are soon parted"; it clearly takes much more than money to make money.

Henry Ford was once asked what he would do if he lost every cent he had, and he confidently replied that he would have his wealth back and more in a couple of years. He is not alone, for in building their businesses, the wealthiest entrepreneurs in America learned the skills necessary to build great wealth from humble beginnings. Again, we see that it is not money, but something within us that can not be lost nor taken away, that is the true origin of wealth.

The wealthy have knowledge that separates them from the middle class. It is this knowledge that is the root of Henry Ford's confidence that he could build his wealth again even if he had to restart from nothing. It is the knowledge that could give YOU the same confidence and more importantly, the means by which to lift yourself up from where you are, to a place where you could have everything you can imagine.

Dream big! As big as you can, but know that if you continue to have the middle class mindset, you will have great difficulty attaining what you dream of. You can not depend on others to look after your prosperity and retirement. Once upon a time, companies provided comprehensive retirement plans that took care of their retired employees for the rest of their lives, and the Social Security system promised to care for those taxpayers who contributed and reached retirement age. As company profitability became more important than company honor, the defined benefit (DB) retirement plans disappeared, replaced by the defined contribution (DC) plans such as the 401K that exist now. These plans require that the employee contribute to the plan, and what is present in the plan at the time of retirement is what can be withdrawn; live too long, and your plan will inevitably run out of money. Will Social Security make up the difference? Only if it still exists; through mismanagement and a practice of the government "borrowing" from the Social Security program, the latest estimate is that Social Security will be completely exhausted by 2037, four years earlier than previously thought, according to Martin Crutsinger, an Economics writer for the Associated Press.

It must be accepted that there is no bailout coming for us. There is only a simple choice. You can continue along in your ignorant bliss while other people "invest" your money as they see fit (or worse, as benefits THEM). Or you can learn to take control and make the decisions that will bring prosperity to YOU and your loved ones. Take it upon yourself to SECURE YOUR FUTURE!

S Koonopakarn is the CEO and Cofounder of Saintly Assistance Financing & Equities Group, LLC, an Atlanta-based investing and consulting company that specializes in real estate and retirement investments. He has the investment plan that will get you back on track to an early retirement without depending on Social Security and without sacrificing lifestyle. Find more articles and creative investment solutions on his blog here at http://www.SecureYourFutureNews.blogspot.com

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