Due Diligence

I want you to imagine with me if you will, your sitting in your lounge room on the floor with your legs crossed or in lotus position for those more flexible, you have your eyes closed and breathing in through your nose, out through your mouth nice deep breathes. Now visualise your goals with as much feeling as you can muster, feel how great it will be to have that job, promotion, that level of income, whatever it may be.

However you can visualise all you like but if you take no action, nothing will manifest. The very first action before anything else is Due Diligence, research your dream, what will the cost be? Do I need to learn any new skills. After setting your goals and visualising with feeling, you'll need to do something the universe doesn't suffer laziness very well. Nothing comes from nothing. Those who succeed have the will to do so, they see, feel and know that what they are to achieve will happen.

The wise man Soloman said "a fool believes everything, the wise search out a matter".

Proverbs 14:15-16 [NKJV] The simple believes every word, But the prudent considers well his steps. 

A wise man fears and departs from evil, But a fool rages and is self- confident.

Due Diligence doesn't mean you won't get it wrong sometimes, but it's amazing how things jumped out at you when you go looking, no truer words have ever been spoken than "if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is". If you look well into a matter the fraudulent, or where the risks outweigh the benefits come to light. If a financial deal offers more returns than normal, or expected be doublely diligent. 

Never let dollar signs get in your way of checking something out, and if you hear a phrase like "you can't tell others what we're doing or this is confidential and has to be kept under wraps", then run my friend as fast as your legs will carry you. Nothing that is above board and ethical needs to be hidden, it can be clearly brought out into the light and examined without fear. Due Diligence will stop you falling prey to scammers and others willing to take your money or your dreams away.

Even an above board deal may not be in your best interest only you can and should decide, get competent professional advice from reliable financial advisors, talk to a good accountant, checkout any laws or government requirements, and access any risk thoroughly, be certain that you are able to handle the risk, so that your not laying awake at night worrying about it.

Effective Due Diligence may not completely protect you from making a poor decision, but at least then you have the peace of mind, that you have done all in your power to protect yourself, your family and your assets and that the dream you have is a plausible possibility or not.

If your dream concerns finances in any way shape or form, get the counsell of a reputable, accountant, financial advisor, make sure you understand completely what they tell you, this is also good due diligence getting the wright advice is critical.

Next time 'More Blessed to give than receive'.

Disclaimer: I am not a certified accountant or financial advisor the opinions expressed on this blog are mine and are presented 'as is' with no guarantee or warrantee of fitness of use for any particular purpose. I accept no responsibility or liability for any loss or benefit that may be incurred should a reader follow any advice given on this blog. You the reader accept full responsibility for any action you undertake and the consequences that may occur as a result of using the information in these blogs. 

Try it Again with Feeling

Ok boys/girls try it again from the top with feeling. Even the best musicians can lose the zing that makes music so much fun. There is just something special when you see someone who is passionate about what they are doing.

This morning I'm sitting in the QV Cafe in The queen Victoria building having a coffee and some raisin toast. I always come here when I'm in Sydney as the service is generally good the staff are friendly enough. I was a little worries when I gave my order as the waitress repeated what I didn't order, but a couple of wiry smiles back and forth, and a repeat on my part, all good. I suspect this waitress is on her 'L' plates this morning. All good had my coffee and toast within 3-5minutes of sitting down, that's a great effort considering the number of people here.

“Catch on fire and others will love to come watch you burn.” 
― John Wesley

Note: The above is often attributed to John Wesley but in fact I'm not sure he did actually say it. 

However for the purposes of this blog it's the point the phrase makes that's most important whether Wesley said it or 'Fred Bloggs'. There is a profound truth here. When you are passionate in your pursuit of whatever it may be, others are drawn to it. It inspires, encourages and you passion empowers other to say maybe, just maybe I could do that too.

So how does all this relate back to Visualisation, Goal setting and Vision Boards. Let me give you a picture, your 'Visualisation, Goal setting and Vision Boards' are the vehicle but you feelings and emotions are the fuel that will drive those dreams to become realities. 

Now here's the catch to this. Some of you are not going to like this, but here it is. Your Visualisation and the feelings that you put behind them work positive or negative, honestly you get what you dwell on the most. If your visualising and adding to them good feelings, that is positive emotions 'I can do this' that's what will manifest. If you visualise and add to it negative emotions like 'it probably won't happen or I can't do this. ' then that's what will manifest.

Let me give you an example of this from my own life, of how negative feelings can affect our lives. About eight years ago I found myself unemployed, what I really wanted to be was a full time minister, but I could never get in a position where I was paid to do it full time. So I still had bills to pay and mouths to feed so I applied at several agencies and I got a weeks trial with a government department, fantastic I thought, but my heart wasn't in it.

After the first week of work I was in my local shopping centre car park, waiting in the car for my wife, when I got this overwhelming anger and I shouted out in my frustration to the universe, to God, "Why is it I can get this kind of work, but not what I want to do?

Literally no more than five minutes later on a Saturday morning (Government Departments don't work weekends) My mobile phone rings the person on the other end says "don't come in on Monday, you've been cut". What the heck? It's not hard to put 2 and 2 together and realise that my heated negative emotion had manifested something and rapidly, that was not going to be good. I was unemployed for four months after this event and every possible bill you can imagine came flooding in. It was also the closest I've ever been to divorce, everything went sideways. 

I had to recant my negative emotional outburst, the emotion that went with that feeling of helplessness. I replaced it with a positive attitude towards any work I could get. Then it all changed and I got employment with a fantastic company, still through an agency 12 months later I was made permanent. The company has really looked after me. Just as my Visualised negative emotions caused negative things to happen, the Visualised positive emotion brought about positive change.

Your feelings and emotions are a strong driving force whether they are positive or negative. So if we want the things that we visualise to happen we need to apply positive feelings towards it. 

Next time Due Diligence 

. Your Vi

Vision Boards

Carrying on from Visualisation and Goal setting? I thought I'd put this idea of visualisation into practice. I've been reading and listening to quite a few motivational writers and speakers over the past four or five months and most of them have this idea of visualisation as a key concept.

As I write this I am sitting in an outdoor coffee shop, Aromas On Sea overlooking the beach where I'd love to live. I've had my visualisation board done for about two months now. I've thought about it everyday and visualised living here near this beach. Believe it or not I've just this week signed the contract to have a house built no more than 3 minutes drive from here. Now if you had said that I was going to build a house in this blue chip area two months ago, I would not have believed it myself. I'm so excited I can hardly wait.

Let me give you a snippet of what I was visualising in words, I wrote these on 22nd of November last year.

1. My house will sell for a little more than $xxx,xxx,xx (I specified the amount).

What actually happened

We put the house on the market in December not to sell, but just to see what it might be worth the real estate expected about 20,000 less that what I was visualising. But we put it on just to see what might happen, the thing with visualisation is you must 'Action It'. The neighbour in front of our battle axe block stood in the driveway, telling each prospective person "her rules for anybody who was thinking of living there". I let it go if this things going to work it must be with all the normal odds for or against. We received four offers that day. 

One from an investor trying to get a bargain 70,000 less than its market value. 90,000 less than we wanted. One from a first home buyer, 20,000 less than we wanted.

Two couples, excited buyers who were looking for a home, they kept out bidding each other until they reach the exact amount, so we said yes of course. Remember above I asked a little more than, well your not going to believe it, but our yes wasn't enough for these feisty bidders. The next morning we get a call from the real estate to say, they wouldn't stop out bidding each other, you got an extra $3,500 in the 24hrs after we said yes to the real estate.

My visualising became a complete reality including the little extra. I thank God for revealing this little gem for living an amazing life. Visualisation really does work, at least for me.

2.  New House Build at xxxxxx will accept 5% deposit in Cash.

What actually happened.

In the week we were selling the house we ran across several builders building in the exact area I had been visualising to live, not quite in the town, but on one of the main arterial roads leading out, mainly so we wouldn't get stuck in traffic especially on the weekends. 

Two weeks after the house sale, We checked out three builders. The one we wanted was within our price range but they required a 10% bank bond. It looked good so we went for it, but the bank wouldn't do the bond, banks are funny that way they like to do things their way, sometime of course the obstacles come our way to steer us back on coarse. So we went back to the builder and said would you take 5%. You guessed it they said yes. When I wrote the above I wasn't thinking 5% Cash, that was actually a typo at the time that I didn't pick up on. I meant 10% Bank bond. Go figure even the typo come out right.

What makes all this more interesting is that on the bank side they had actually offered to do 95% which I also missed. So not only have I paid the deposit I've got money in the bank yahoo. I don't know if I'm allowed to mention the bank but they've done well by us. Anz Bank.

Now that I was building I needed somewhere to live whilst it was being built. Which lead me to this visualisation for a place to rent.

3. The perfect HOUSE in xxxxxxx whilst our house is built - 450-500 (Xxxxxis ideal at present).

What actually happened.

The location I picked for a temporary rental wasn't anywhere near where I'm building, but it is close to my work place. I had quite a lot of Km's on my lease vehicle and wanted to minimise as much as I could adding to them for the year of the build. So I specified a location close to work.

A rental came up at the location so we went to check it out. This is just hilarious, someone else came at the same time and the current tenant wasn't ready. So the real estate for the rental took us to see the amenities of the complex, he shows us the pool area, we were in there for a couple of minutes with the other prospective tenant and they lock my wife and I in the pool area. I turned to my wife and said laughing "do you think that this is a tactic to eliminate the competition?".

We were locked in there for about ten minutes until the real estate came and got us out by knocking on other residence of the complex to get a key. Let's say we didn't get that one and leave it there. The other person really wanted it. 

So the house sells we've got nowhere to live. We pulled out the trusty tent and put it up in my parents back yard complete with queen sized bed and 32" Led TV and every DVD I owned. Four weeks we stayed in the tent. 

I must admit I enjoyed the tent it was like being on a four week holiday, especially when it rained, the sound on the roof was absolutely beautiful. We watched movies every night it was great. I also became an early riser as the tent got pretty hot after about 7:30am.

We found a place almost exactly opposite where the first rental was located, but just so much better. It was a little grubby and needed a little TLC but it is perfect and exactly within the price range I specified. The rooms are absolutely huge, I've gone from a tent to a mansion in comparison. Thus far we are on track with what we have visualised, can't wait to see the next positive steps forward.

More on Vision boards

Left is an Example of a vision board. (This isn't mine, mines a little way out to put here, just yet at least). 

Most say at the least write down what you are visualising in word format, but most suggest the writing and then putting a picture to it to make it, well visual. 

The premise being that we are visual by nature. The idea is the find pictures of things that most resemble your goal, scrapbook them or put them into your favourite editor I used noteshelf for ipad. 

To get some really great ideas for your own vision board google vision boards and you can see what others have done, like the image above. Use images that inspire and remind you of what you have already started to visualise and vocalise into words on a page. I found a picture of an Australian million dollar note, and I used that to inspire me towards my financial goals. I found photographs of houses overlooking the beach in the area I wanted to live.

Next time giving your visualisation some feeling.

Abundantly Living

So it's crosses your mind like it has mine there must be a way to live more abundantly, to enrich my life with good things. It's not impossible other people have been living abundant lives, from the likes of Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Donald Trump and thousands if not millions of other unnamed people all these people have done extraordinary things with their lives, I believe you and I can as well.

We are living in a time of unprecedented change. New technologies, new ways if doing things are being created faster than we ever thought humanly possible. Who would have thought a decade ago that India and China would be world leaders in economic growth, yet here it is and they are doing just that.

In western societies the growth of internet based industries and e-commerce are changing the way in which we do our shopping, the way in which we communicate, the way in which we learn. Just the rise of social media is just staggering, the advertising revenues of these online sites alone is amazing. There are more ways now than ever before to create incomes and wealth in legitimate ways on the Internet, from Facebook, eBay, Google, youtube giving us all a variety of different ways to generate income.

There is definitely no shortage of wealth to go around those finances are traveling the planet in our new found global village. New wealth is being created all the time by creative, enterprising people like yourself. People who are looking for maybe just a little more income to meet the growing demand in the cost of living, the pressure being applied to the household budget.

Some are looking for part-time or full time employment from home to manage the demands of a growing family. The good news is it can be done the bad news nothing comes easy, there is no free lunch. In order to move forward regardless of what you want will require effort, persistence and a determination to achieve your goal whatever that may be.

Traditional Methods of increasing wealth.

Most of us will start our financial journey working for someone that is, trading our time for money. That is a noble and worthwhile pursuit. Here are a few tips for making wealth from day to day working. None of this will be ground breaking or revolutionary, most of us know these things, but it just takes a little push sometimes to do them.

1. Spend less than you earn.

Wow that's a revelation isn't it. The truth is that many people are spending just a little or a lot more than they earn. Doesn't matter if you are an individual or a country the principle is simple enough.

2. Save something from every payday that you don't touch.

It doesn't matter where or when you start saving as long as you do. Think of it like this every dollar I save is two dollars earned and the truth is in today's economies this is more true than ever.

3. Cooling off period.

Put a cooling off period in place before buying big ticket items.  Give yourself to think through the purchase. Ask yourself 'do I really need this? Will I actually use this item? 

4. Purchase assets not liabilities. 

Most people fill up their lives with liabilities, in other words things that cost them to have. Assets on the other hand make money for you. Anything that takes money to keep that does not appreciate in value greater than the cost of owning it is a liability. 

5. Purchase your groceries online. Coles and Woolworth's provide a pretty good service here. It costs me $8 for delivery. 

It is amazing how much you can save when you shop online. It forces you to plan out your shopping and you don't tend to make those impulse purchases. When I don't go shopping for groceries I don't eat out while I am there, so I save especially when the kids are with me. Now I still go shopping each week clothing and other nicknacks. I enjoy getting out and mingling with the crowd. But I save a lot purchasing all my general groceries online.

6. Pay as you go

Many utility companies like electricity, gas even your local council will allow you to make direct dept payments each week or fortnight towards your utility costs. So when your electricity, gas or rates show up. It's a tiny little bill. Yes your week to week consumable income is a little less but honestly you won't notice it and your overall stress level will decrease when you know that your bills are paid almost before you get them.

7. Treat yourself

You work hard for your money. Put aside a few dollars each week to take you and your spouse/partner out for dinner, the movies or some other activity you both enjoy. For me we have a date breakfast on Saturday mornings, at a Cafe after we drop our daughter off at work. We love it. It's not overly expensive but it's nice to sit down chat over breakfast. On average including coffee for me and a banana smoothly for my wife, about $40. 

Hope these few hints help somebody, over the next days, weeks and months we'll discover together what works, what does not at least for me. 

Next time I want to look into Visualisation and goal setting and how to setup a vision board.