Missed Fortune 101

2010-05-20T11:07:00.000-07:00

Today is May 20th. 2010.

This blog represents some of my earliest words on the internet. What strikes me about this book, Missed Fortune and its sibling Missed Fortune 101, is how true it rang for SO MANY people, most people, however never even knew, or if they read the book, never did anything about it.

Missed Fortune 101 was and is about "transferring risk". That's IT! In 2 Simple Words!

You transfer risk from you, to the bank, and in the meantime benefit from it as well.

The concepts in this book would have save "people" BILLIONS of dollars cumulatively, but because the book recommends some strategies that seem "risky" to some, they instead held on to that risk, and many folks all over saw their life savings go away when the equity in their homes disappeared.

If you haven't read the book, now might be good time, because as you probably heard history has a way of repeating itself.

Zhu Zhu Pets are the Rage... or are they?

2009-12-21T12:28:00.001-08:00

Zhu Zhu Pets
Zhu Zhu Pets are probably the hottest toys this winter has anyone else seen this fad?

Does anyone think this has the potential to be as big as Elmo?

I think sometimes these toys take more than one year to become the "thing", like the Wii which spent the first year out in relative obscurity before it became a hot seller.

Dirt Dog Gas Powered Motor Scooter

2009-12-12T22:13:00.001-08:00

The 52cc Dirt Dog gas powered motor scooter
seems to pretty popular with right around now. Must be on some kids list. It is a professional off road type motorized scooter than comes with off road tires, a removable seat, as well as front and real disc brakes.

Used Golf Clubs: Smart Option

2009-11-09T11:45:00.001-08:00

What are your options when buying a set of golf clubs? First of all, you can buy new or used. Used golf clubs can be a big money saver over new golf lcubs, but can also come with some unique problems, such as, worn grips, not the perfect size and other problems. When you are buying a first set, this might be a way to go though, as you can get a feel for a lot of the difeerent brands out there before settling in on one you like.

What decisions have to be made before buying a set of golf clubs? This article hopes to help you learn what you need to know, so that you can decide on the right clubs and save you a little hard cash in the process.

First, let's see what makes up a set of clubs? There are four main categories of clubs: Woods, Irons, Wedges, and a Putter. There also exist the Hybrid Clubs. These are a combination of irons and woods. People who may have trouble hitting their long irons,maybe a 2 or 3 iron, usually tend to use these kinds of clubs instead. Regultions allow up to 14 different clubs in your bag and you can have any combination you want. For example, in my bag I might carry a Driver, a 4 wood, 3 thru 9 irons, pitching wedge, gap wedge, sand wedge, lob wedge and a putter. This set of clubs fits my style of game and the types of courses I tend to play.

Used golf clubs

2008-01-24T15:03:00.000-08:00

Deal Reached on Economic Stimulus Package
Most Workers Would Receive at Least $300 Tax Rebate

House leaders and the administration reached agreement today on a roughly $145 billion economic stimulus package that would quickly send payments to poor and middle-class workers while offering businesses one-time incentives to invest in new equipment and write off tax losses.

In formally announcing the deal this afternoon, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. hailed it as a bipartisan effort that would help stimulate the economy by spurring consumer demand and creating new jobs.

Under the stimulus plan, as many as 117 million people would get rebate checks. Individual income tax filers would receive up to $600, working couples would get up to $1,200, and those with children would get an additional $300 per child.

"First and foremost, the stimulus package will put money in the hands of hardworking Americans," Pelosi told a Capitol Hill news conference. "This is a middle-class initiative to strengthen the middle class and to those who aspire to be in the middle class. It will be in the form of tax rebates and a child tax credit."

She added: "We also have included immediate relief for homeowners who are at the risk of losing their homes because of the subprime [mortgage] crisis."

"This agreement is a big win for the American people," Boehner said.

Paulson said later that "if all works well," he expects the rebates to begin flowing in May. He said the aim is to start sending the checks within 60 days of enactment of the stimulus package, with most recipients receiving their checks in less than 10 weeks.

President Bush welcomed the deal, telling a news conference that it demonstrates "the kind of cooperation that some believed was not possible in Washington." He said he was pleased the package meets guidelines he set out last week.

"This package has the right set of policies and is the right size," he said. "The incentives in this package will lead to higher consumer spending and increased business investment this year."

Bush said he was "pleased that this agreement does not include any tax increases, as well as unnecessary spending projects that would have little immediate impact on our economy." He urged the House and Senate to "take the swift, decisive action our economy urgently needs" and pass the stimulus package quickly.

In the compromise deal -- reached during an arduous, late-night negotiation -- Democrats acceded to Republican demands by jettisoning plans to extend unemployment benefits and food stamps for now, but they concluded that they could revisit the issue if the economy continues to slide.

Republicans agreed to offer rebates as large as $1,000, even to working families that earn too little to pay income tax, an idea they had roundly rejected in past stimulus plans.

When all the numbers are tallied, this will be the most progressive economic package we have seen in years," said a senior House Democrat.

Boehner authored provisions that would allow faster tax write-offs for corporate investment and immediate tax deductions for small-business investments in plants and equipment. Businesses also would be able to take tax deductions this year on operating losses from as long as five years ago.

In the news conference with Pelosi, Boehner said lawmakers from both parties "had an endless list of items that they wanted to include" in the stimulus package but that he and Pelosi opted to keep it fairly narrow. "And the beauty of this package is that it is simple, it is clean, it is neat, and it will get the money back out into the American economy as quickly as possible," he said.

However, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) indicated in a statement that senators were likely to seek changes in the legislation originating in the House. He said the Senate Finance Committee would start considering stimulus provisions next week.

Reid said he was "proud that Democratic negotiators were able to secure tax relief for millions of Americans who would have been completely left out of the president's proposal." But he added: "I expect that the committee and other senators will work to improve the House package by adding funds for other initiatives that can boost the economy immediately, such as unemployment benefits, nutrition assistance, state relief and infrastructure investment." He said he looks forward to quick House passage "so that the Senate can debate these provisions soon and meet my goal of sending the president a package by the President's Day recess."

Under the deal, nearly everyone earning a paycheck would receive at least $300 from the Internal Revenue Service. Workers who earned at least $3,000 last year -- but not enough to pay income taxes -- would be eligible for $300.

Overall, 117 million families would receive a rebate check, including 35 million with incomes too low to have qualified under the earlier Bush proposal. Those 35 million families would receive rebates totaling $28 billion.

Full rebates would be sent to single taxpayers who earned up to $75,000 and couples with incomes of as much as $150,000. The value of the payments would decline after that and phase out entirely at incomes of roughly $87,000 for individuals and $174,000 for joint filers.

Pelosi dropped some key demands to keep the tilt of the package toward the middle class and to include the working poor. In addition to the unemployment and food stamp benefit extensions, she set aside proposed funding increases for low-income heating assistance and aid to state and local governments in the form of either Medicaid assistance or infrastructure funding.

Those concessions prompted some protest from House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), who huddled with Pelosi deep into the night hashing over the details.

House Democrats assured members the package still must go through the Senate, where Democrats could add additional provisions. With unemployment still at a relatively low 5 percent, the demand for unemployment insurance extensions has not reached a politically fevered pitch. But it still may, they said.

"The Senate will want to speak as well. We want to ensure that Congress does its utmost for the American economy and for the American people," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said this morning. He announced that his committee would draft its own stimulus bill next week.

Baucus said he would like to increase the size of tax payments for the working poor, ensuring that virtually every family would receive similar payments. He said he also believes that unemployment benefit extensions dropped by Pelosi and Boehner should be put back in the measure.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), another Finance Committee member, promised to lead a bipartisan push to secure funds for infrastructure projects, such as road resurfacing, that he said could begin pumping money into the economy months before the government could issue checks.

To address the underlying economic issue of the housing slump, administration officials agreed to expand the Federal Housing Administration's ability to insure higher-priced mortgages and to help homeowners threatened by foreclosure renegotiate their loans without sharp increases in their payments.

The package would temporarily increase the size of jumbo mortgages that can be bought by government-sponsored Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, from $417,000 to as much as $625,500 in high-cost housing markets.

Source:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/01/24/ST2008012401981.html

2008-01-23T10:50:00.000-08:00

Missed Fortune 101 is about managing your equity in your house. If more people had separated their equity from their house, they would be in a much better position than most people face.

With that in mind, here is feed with current real estate information.

http://www.topix.net/rss/business/real-estate.xml

2007-12-11T23:20:00.000-08:00

Theses are some of the strategies discussed in Missed Fortune 101 by Douglas Andrew.

This is an excellent post I ran across recently on the benefits of keeping your equity separate from home for investment purposes. The original post can be found here, but I've placed it here as a courtesy to my readers.

http://michellesgarcia.wordpress.com/2007/11/29/is-it-really-wise-to-rapidly-pay-down-my-mortgage/

By Michelle S. Garcia, Mortgage Consultant
Indymac Bank

There is a great debate within the inner-mortgage circles these days. Should we, as loan professionals, encourage clients to borrow as much money as possible? Or would consumers benefit more if we helped them to understand the advantages of 15-year amortization schedules and pre-paying principal? Let’s examine the pros and cons of both strategies.

Leveraging Your Property. In order to understand why you’d want to borrow as much as possible for your home purchase, you must first grasp the concept that equity has a zero rate of return. Here’s an example:

If Consumer “A” buys a home for $300,000, and puts 20% down, then they have $60,000 in equity. Over the next 5 years, the property appreciates $100,000 in value. Consumer “A” now has $160,000 in equity.

Consumer “B” buys a home for $300,000, and puts no money down. At the end of 5 years, that same home is now worth $400,000. Consumer “B” has $100,000 in equity, which is the same appreciation as Consumer “A”, a net $100,000.

As you can see, your down payment has nothing to do with your rate of return. What becomes important is how you choose to manage the $60,000 you didn’t use as a down payment. If you use it for frivolous activities, such as buying toys or going to Las Vegas, it would be more prudent for you to use that money as a down payment. Especially since this will enable you to obtain a lower interest rate.

However, if you were to invest the $60,000 in a vehicle that can out-earn the cost of that debt, then this could be a formula for success. This is why some lending professionals suggest putting as little down as you possibly can, maximizing your tax write-off, and investing the rest. This principle has been applied for many years in the life insurance game. The old saying goes, “Buy term and invest the rest.” The key component is taking the money you would have used as a down payment and creating an asset accumulation account. This account should earn a significant enough rate of return to enable you to pay your mortgage off entirely and achieve the ultimate goal of being debt-free.

Paying Your Home Down Rapidly. There are very few times over the course of my career that I have seen a client with zero debt and no financial difficulties. Choosing to pay off all of your debt can reduce stress and help you to gain freedom of cash flow for investment opportunities. A 15-year mortgage or a bi-weekly payment strategy provides structure. It can also put you on track to have your mortgage paid off within a set time frame. Simply put, it contains built-in discipline. It’s important, however, to understand that regardless of how rapidly you pay your home off, you’re not getting any greater rate of return on your investment than if you paid it off slowly. Conclusion. So how does one determine which scenario is best? The choice depends entirely upon the individual. Savvy consumers who are disciplined, and are comfortable taking chances from an investment perspective, would do well with the first scenario. Over the course of time, it’s been proven that your rate of return over the long-haul will be far greater than the rate you’d pay for a mortgage in today’s rate environment. It’s important to seek the advice of a skilled investment advisor to ensure success with this strategy.

2007-12-08T11:40:00.001-08:00

Scott Burns has an interesting article that shows you other investment alternatives to those posed in Missed Fortune 101 here.

One thing he does not mention is how much better off people wolud be if they had seperated their home equity from their house. Anyone who has read the book, and lived any amount of years knows that the real estate market is cyclical and right about now would be a great time to have some extra money to invest in real estate.

2007-08-31T21:50:00.000-07:00

The strategies discussed in Missed Fortune 101 are controversial sometimes and here are a few blog post that are interesting. I'll add some more to my mixer.

2007-08-12T22:58:00.000-07:00

Missed Fortune 101 reveals that many people are misguided in their retirement planning. Plenty of people use short term investment vehicles for long term goals and vice versa.
Similarly, often people focus on their problems instead of solutions.
For instance many people focus on the amount of debt they have instead of focusing on ways to increase what they already make. There's an excellent article you should check out at http://www.dreammanifesto.com/7-steps-for-manifesting-more-money-into-your-life.html/trackback/

2007-06-19T07:07:00.000-07:00

Douglas Andrew, author of Missed Fortne 101, has just written a new book titled "Last Chance Millionaire: It's Not Too Late To Become Wealthy". I haven't finished reading it yet, but it's similiar to his previous book Missed Fortune.

"Last Chance Millionaire" is an effort to help the growing population of baby boomers retire with more than the current average of about $50,000. With Social Security possibly headed for trouble and medical science pushing life expectancy to new heights, "Broke Boomers" would seem a more appropiate monicker.

Douglas Andrew shows that doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results is just plain stupid. His strategies are not without controversy, but it is something to carefully look at if you plan on retiring comfortably in the future.

Get your copy of "Last Chance Millionaire" and decide for yourself.

You may also want to look at "Stop Sitting on Your Assets: How to Safely Leverage the Equity Trapped in Your Home and Transform It Into a Constant Flow of Wealth and Security" by Marian Snow.

2007-06-19T05:46:00.000-07:00

There is a Missed Fortune Seminar being held this Thursday in Anchorage, by the Alaska Educational Institute. The seminar is titled "Missed Frotune: Using Your Mortgage to Create Wealth" and will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Carr Gottstein Academic Building, APU. RSVP: 646-2828 or mtullius@1stakmtg.com. Tell them you saw
it here, please.

2007-03-27T23:04:00.000-07:00

The Average Credit Card Debt And How To Get Out Of It
You must have heard that the average credit card debt that
an American carries is more than $8,000. Every American is
believed to have six cards on average.

If no extra purchases were ever made on credit cards and
the standard family made only the minimum credit card
payment every month, it would take more than two decades to
pay off the average credit card debt.

Various politicians and trade pundits keep on rattling that
consumers must stop uncontrolled spending since the economy
is already reeling under this massive debt.

Credit cards may be very convenient, but it sure can get
you into a lot of trouble, especially if you ignore your
credit card debt.

You can get out of your credit card debt by keeping a few
things in mind.

First and foremost, you must learn to control your
spending. If you are not able to control your spending when
you go shopping, you maybe need to stop purchasing things
on credit.

It is good to keep a card with you in case of emergencies,
but you'll need to train yourself to use it sparingly.
There's no point accumulating debts on yourself and
spoiling your credibility.

Secondly, try working on one thing at a time. If you have
accumulated too much debt, do not try to pay off the whole
amount at one go. Try to arrange you credit card debts in
an ascending order. Once you have stacked them all, start
paying off the smallest one at first.

Another technique to get your credit card debt in control
is through credit card debt consolidation. This refers to
getting hold of all your credit card payments and merging
them into one monthly payment.

This way, you do not need to worry about managing each
payment separately. Apart from this, you can also take
advantage of reduced interest payments, less late fees,
reduced monthly payments and more long-term savings.

Credit card debt consolidation programs are excellent
methods to get rid of debt problems. Companies offering
credit card debt consolidation services can assist you in
an emergency when you are under pressure to pay off your
dues as soon as possible.

The representatives of these companies negotiate with all
your individual creditors on your behalf to work out a
repayment plan for you. They also talk to them and try to
close the debt at the lowest possible rate of interest. In
addition, they also try their best to eliminate late fees
and other applicable penalties.

One of the options that credit card debt consolidation
companies use to assist you with credit card debt is the
debt consolidation loan. This is used for paying off all
your debt in one shot. This way you become liberated from
numerous debts and you have to shell out just one monthly
payment for the loan.

Thus, the procedure of combining all loans and credit card
dues helps you get away from the debt load with some easy
steps and you finally pay a lesser amount than you would
otherwise have to pay.

However, you would need to select a good credit card
consolidation company. It should have a good track record
and should not charge you exorbitant fees.

About the Author:

This article was brought to you courtesy of Anthony Samuel,
the webmaster of http://www.apply-for-a-credit-card-now.com
. A credit card directory where you can search, compare and
apply for credit cards from leading credit card companies.

2006-12-08T05:24:00.000-08:00

The 3-Step Business Growth Formula
To reach your organization' s productivity, sales and
revenue goals, it is vital that you continually grow your
business.

Are you currently meeting your revenue objectives? If so,
great! If not, you are not alone. The majority of
organizations are failing to reach their true revenue
potential and their leaders haven't yet realized exactly
what is holding them back; or they are in denial.

The underlining cause of poor productivity and sales is not
what you've been led to believe in other magazine and
journal articles. It's probably also not the issues you
and your executives have spent your time, efforts and
expenses on in attempts to improve revenues in the recent
past.

Poor customer service, ineffective marketing, an unreliable
workforce, distribution errors, etc., are not the cause of
falling short on your productivity, sales and revenue
expectations. They are only the symptoms of a larger
underlying cause.

Market leaders do not struggle with these costly issues.
Five years of research on the most effective organizations
has found that they have all followed the same formula in
order to take their organizations to the next level of
success.

Here is that "3-Step Business Growth Formula." Follow it
and you too will eliminate costly "revenue robbers" from
your organization forever.

1. Hire Only TOP Performers

The clichés of, "Your employees are your greatest asset"
and "You're only as great as your weakest employee" are not
simply clichés, they are facts. The truth is, the more
productive your employees are, the more profitable your
organization will be.

A TOP Performing employee really is the only asset in your
company that is guaranteed to make you money. They do so
month after month, and year after year.

Unfortunately, only 20 to 33 percent of the employees of
market survivors are TOP Performers. The rest of their
workforce is comprised of "Workplace Survivors" that do
just enough work to get by month after month or year after
year.

Your TOP Performers naturally succeed. They do so without
external motivation, bonuses, contests, incentives or
ultimatums. They fit your culture, their team and their
job.

It is critical that you learn the recruiting and employee
selection strategies of your market's leaders. They have
proved that by hiring a top performer the first time,
productivity, sales and revenues will begin to improve.

2. Develop Your Workplace Survivors into TOP Performers

Whereas a top performer makes you money, underachievers
always cost you money.

Along with their underperformance comes absenteeism,
tardiness, conflict, mistakes, apathy and ultimately
turnover. All of which are more detrimental to your bottom
line than anything else in business and the underlining
cause to larger problems.

It is imperative to create and follow a successful
performance boosting process. Your market's leaders insure
that every employee, from their executives to entry level,
are reviewed and developed at least twice a year. You need
to realize that if any employee is not reaching their
performance and productivity expectations, your
organization will also fall short on reaching its
productivity, sales and revenue goals.

Many market survivors act as if they believe not every
employee can be a top performer. Do you think market
leaders believe this? They don't and that is why they are
constantly developing their greatest asset to continually
reach expectations.

3. Take Initiative Before Your Competitors Do

To leave competitors in your dust, you can no longer settle
for underperformance. Standards and benchmarks must be set
on your best employees, not what it takes to survive.

If you are not reaching your revenue objectives and
actually believe your productivity and sales can improve,
take the initiative to eliminate your costly revenue
robbers. Many times, all it takes is a quick analysis of
your systems and simple adjustments to bring about profound
differences in the productivity of your organization.

Understand the barriers that are standing in the way of
peak performance do not disappear on their own. They only
get worse and end up costing you more of your time, energy
and resources in the long run.

When noticeable issues go unsolved, what kind of message
are you sending your managers, employees and clients?
Depending on the problem, to your managers it may look like
you don't believe in the competency of your leaders. Your
employees may begin to believe you don't have faith in your
product, service and the organization. Clients will
eventually assume you really don't care about them or their
business.

This is why it is imperative to allow your belief in your
organization to lead to action. If one of your goals is to
grow your business this year, take the initiative to do so.
Just make sure you do it before your competitors does.

About the Author:

Grant D. Robinson is the President of People Values and the
Author of the Market Leadership System. To improve your
“Hiring Success Rate” of TOP Performing Employees, watch a
free, 5-minute, on-line video at:
http://www.peopleva lues.com

2006-12-06T11:07:00.000-08:00

Getting Killed with Insufficient Funds or NSF Bank Fees?

Have you ever run in to tough times, been unable to pay your bills, run up a lot of Insufficient Funds bank charges? Most people have at one time or another been hit with overdraft fees, often times by depositing a check and writing a check against that account without giving enough time for the deposited check to clear.

After spending just a little bit of time working in a bank, it was east to see why checking accounts are the banks most profitable product.

The interest the banks make on your money is no longer where the banks may their money. If you don’t believe me, take a look at any number of public traded banks; their annual reports are usually available on their websites. Fees are where the real money is at for them. An average checking account is worth about $200 to a bank. NSF fees, the popular term used by most banks for insufficient funds, can run into the hundreds of dollars if you’re not paying attention. Often times, the people that can afford the fees the least, are the one that get hit the hardest.

Because checking accounts are so profitable, banks jump over each while trying to get new checking customers. Some banks now only offer their best CD rates to checking customers only, while others offer special offers to “new” money, new to the bank, that is.

If you ever had insufficient funds fees on your account, you can use this information to your advantage. Simply by asking a branch manager for a fee waiver, different banks will call it different things, but you get the point, you go down to the bank and explain your situation to them and get them to reverse at least some of the fees. 20% to 50% fee reduction is the norm. Believe me, they'll negotiate, especially if you hint at closing your account. They hate losing checking accounts, and will work with you. Washington Mutual goes as far as to promote one fee reversal per year in their marketing, so banks will be flexible if you stick to your guns.

A little known secret is that even if you don’t have an overdraft line of credit, banks give you about $300 credit over and above what’s available in your checking account. You can ask to opt-out, but then you’ll be hit with fees for bouncing checks from different sources.

Check out www.AnchorRetirement.com for information on College Planning, Retirement Planning and more. Please feel free to use this article on your website, newsletter or blog as long as this resource box is left intact and there's a live link to the site

2006-10-24T22:46:00.000-07:00

Excellent article by Larry Rubenstein of the Brandenton Herald about Missed Fortune 101, Douglas Andrew's book. In his article he states how using the strategies in Doug Andrew's book can help people reduce their debt the fastest. Someone with a 7.5% interest only mortgage would be paying about 6% if they were in a 20% tax bracket. On a 100,000 mortgage, that's $6000 a year in interest payments. You would do well by investing it in a tax deferred or tax free environment by letting the interest compound instead of sitting earning nothing in your house.

2006-09-12T10:02:00.000-07:00

Douglas Andrew has been pretty active lately, holding seminars in his hometown of San Diego and surrounding cities. His strategies ( Missed Fortune 101 and Missed Fortune) based on effectively using the equity you already have in your home are in discussed in great detail. His presentations can last up to 3 hours, so even if you're not familiar with the strategies, you'll walk away with a lot more information. Contact me at jbhdez@gmail.com for more information on attending an upcoming seminar.

A lot of people are now marketing Missed Fortune 101, every where you look on the web they're there. Here's a quick rundown.

Lewis Nason site is directed at Insurance Sales People using methods from Missed Fortune 101
http://www.insuranceproshop.com

Antonio Fillipone, a personal friend, runs his business out of Illinois and New York
http://www.rockfordretirement.com

Of course, there's Douglas Andrew's official website
http://www.missedfortune.com

These are just a small sampling of sites, feel free to add some more.

2006-08-17T08:45:00.000-07:00

The cost of college keeps going up and up. A recent article in Business Week points out that the average dorm costs are now about $7000 a year , with UC Berkeley leading the way at about $13,000/yr.

This doesn't surprise me, I live in New York where $7000 is a unheard of for a shoebox in Manhattan and $13,000 is a downright steal. Look here.

A lot of folks think they don't qualify for financial aid but if their finances are structured properly, qualifying for financial aid becomes easier.A page setup at Anchor Retirement Resources has more information on this topic.

2006-07-25T16:55:00.000-07:00

A lot of people may be asking themselves if the concepts in Missed Fortune 101 are still viable in todays interest rate environment. The answer is a resounding, Yes!. Refinance rates are now about 6.24% according to Bankrate. If your tax bracket is 28%, deducting your mortgage interest brings your true borrowing rate down to 4.49%. That's what you got to beat to make it work, and even if you're even or slighty down there are still advantages using these tactics.

Donald Trump once said, I'm paraphrasing here "I'd rather have a million dollars and owe a million dollars than have Zero dollars in my pocket".

Douglas Andrews is holding a seminar about the concepts detailed in Missed Fortune on August 8th in Los Angeles. If anyone from the area is interested in attending, let me know and I can make arrangements.

2006-03-17T09:55:00.000-08:00

I was sitting in my favorite watering hole recently and I ran across an old acquaintance. He ran a company, that was started by his father, that distributed cheese to local supermarkets. His mother had just passed away and had not properly planned her estate. To make a long story short an estate worth over six million dollars is going to be taxed close to 3 million dollars. The sad part about it is most of it could have been passed on to the next generation with a lot less estate taxes paid.

2006-02-23T20:38:00.000-08:00

Have Your Cake and Eat It Too
It's been almost one month since my last post, I'm going to try to post at least weekly with my goal to post daily.

Anyway, my last post concerning whether to pay down your mortgage or not is still in my mind. In all fairness, if you took the time to read the article you'll note that at the end of the article Don Taylor says "If you're fairly conservative with your investments and don't want to look outside savings accounts for investment choices, then paying down the mortgage isn't a bad idea. If you're taking a bigger-picture view of investing for the future, it's not as likely to make sense"(I added the emphasis)With that being said, I guess I agree with him but not in the methods he might use. Missed Fortune 101 is all about the big picture.

The concepts revealed in MF101 are about properly positioning your largest asset, your house and it's underlying equity and leveraging that by separating the equity from your house and using that to create a return that can and should beat what your paying in mortgage interest. If your interest rate is 6% and your tax bracket is 34%, your effectively paying less than 4% after accounting for the mortgage deduction. MF101 suggests using products that will guarantee a minimum return yet also perform well when the markets are in a bull market phase. If you're guaranteed a 1-2% return when the bears are in control, yet take advantage of the market upside when it's the bulls turn, can you see why this is something that although has been around for 100 years, never has it been accessible to the average person.

2006-01-25T22:51:00.000-08:00

This is an excerpt from an article titled "Pay down your mortgage or invest"

I disagree and will tell you in my next post.

If you can earn more by investing the money than you save by paying down the mortgage, then it makes sense to invest versus paying down the mortgage. The apples-to-apples comparison is the expected after-tax return on your investment versus the effective rate on your mortgage.

Not everyone can use the mortgage-interest deduction when filing his or her income tax return. If you aren't using it, then the effective rate on your mortgage is the interest rate on the loan. If you are using it, then the effective rate is roughly the mortgage rate times 1 minus your tax rate. With a 6-percent mortgage and a 25-percent marginal federal tax rate, the effective rate on the mortgage is 4.5 percent (0.06 x (1-0.25)).

My example ignores any interest deduction on your state income tax return. Incorporating a state tax deduction further reduces the effective rate.

It's pretty hard to beat 4.5 percent on an after-tax basis in a CD or savings account. A high yielding five-year CD is currently around 5.15 percent. The after-tax yield is 3.86 percent. Again, I'm assuming a 25-percent marginal rate on federal taxes and no state income tax (.0515 x (1-0.25)). Incorporating state income taxes further reduces the after-tax rate of return.

Invest instead in the stock market, and you can manage the tax impact of the investment earnings. Dividend income is currently taxed at 15 percent for most taxpayers, as are long-term capital gains. Invest the money in a tax-advantaged retirement account and you change the timing of the tax impact and the applicable tax rate on your investment earnings

2006-01-20T09:39:00.000-08:00

The Stock Market is for suckers�. - Blog Maverick - www.blogmaverick.com _

2005-12-21T01:15:00.000-08:00

Taking the Time to Find the Best Loan Offers
by: John Mussi

When you're looking for a loan, it might seem easy to simply accept the first loan offer that you receive. While it's true that you might receive a good deal on a loan this way, there's an even greater chance that you'll end up missing out on a better offer… and in some cases several better offers.

If you're wanting to find the best loan offers that are available to you, you need to take a little bit of time so as to shop around and see what other offers you can find… and the first step of this process comes with realizing that there are more lenders available to issue you a loan than just the bank that you usually do business with.

Considering multiple options

Don't misunderstand… there's nothing wrong with applying for a bank loan, especially at a banking institution where you have a history. Before you submit your application, however, you should take the time to consider the other options that are available to you as well.

A variety of lending institutions, from finance companies and loan offices to online lenders, are more than willing to make loan offers to individuals with the collateral to secure the loan… some of these offers will not be as good as those offered by your bank, but some of them may be better.

The only way that you can really tell which lender will offer you the best rates and terms on your loan is to take the time to request loan quotes from several different lenders, and then compare the quotes to determine which loan offer is really the best one for you.

Requesting loan quotes

When requesting loan quotes from different lenders, it's important to keep the collateral that you're using to secure the loan and the amount that you're asking for the same for each quote request. This keeps all of the external factors at the same level, so that the comparison of interest rates and loan terms can truly determine which offer is best.

The quotes that you receive should include the interest rates that you'll be charged, any special repayment terms that you must follow, and additional information that pertains to the loan and the repayment process.

Once you've gotten quotes from a variety of lenders, it's time to start comparing them so as to determine which loan offer is the best of all that you've received.

Comparing offers

In order to compare loan offers, it's important that you don't let the interest rates overpower the other factors that influence the loan. You may find a loan offer that has a wonderful interest rate, but the repayment terms and other parts of the quote make it less than ideal for your needs.

On the other hand, finding the loan with the best terms doesn't do much good if the interest rate makes it cost more than you can afford. Take the time to compare all of the factors of the loan quote so as to find the one or two loan offers that have the best balance of interest rates and other loan terms.

Once you've found your best offers, you should then finish the application process for the loan that serves you best… make sure that you keep the other top loan offers until after the loan has been approved, though, just in case something unexpected occurs and you're unable to get the original loan that you apply for.

You may freely reprint this article provided the following author's biography (including the live URL link) remains intact:

About The Author

John Mussi is the founder of Direct Online Loans who help homeowners find the best available loans via the www.directonlineloans.co.uk website

2005-12-19T22:28:00.000-08:00

Another reason why having too much equity in your house is not a good idea is the situation, I believe,we're in right now. The real estate market is near a top, if real estate prices come down as most people seem to think homeowners will be left holding the bag.

Anyone who has lost a job and has tried to refinance and take some cash out of THEIR house knows what I'm talking about. There isn't a bank that will let you take out all the equity out of your their home without showing what's called in mortgage business as the three C's.

Credit, Collateral and what we're discussing here Capacity, as in the capacity to repay the loan. Real tough to do when you're out of a job.

I help people implement strategies foung in Doug Andrew's book Missed Fortune.
Visit here for a free report on this subject.

2005-12-18T20:57:00.000-08:00

Missed Fortune by Douglas Andrew is an incredible book. A real eye opener, a life changing experience if you will. Missed Fortune carries the subtitle " Dispel the Money Myth Conceptions- Isn't it time you became wealthy?"

Douglas Andrew calls 23 common misconceptions, "Myth-Conceptions". I call them
Missed Conceptions.

Missed Conception Number 1 > The best way to pay down a house is to prepay the mortgage.

I always believed that paying off your mortgage was the best way to pay off your house but Missed Fortune shoots holes through that. Douglas Andrew shows you at least three reasons why that IS NOT the way to go. One reason is simple, the only tax deduction still afforded the average guy is their mortgage interest deduction. Someone paying six percent interest is actually paying about 4.2% interest rate taking into account a 34% tax bracket.

More Missed Conceptions to follow shortly. If you can't wait, look at my site for your free report.

Joe Hernandez
http://www.anchorretirement.com