Will you follow their advice?

Kia Ora,

Well this will be my last blog on financial education as next week a new law comes into effect here in NZ & these blogs could be in breach of that law.

The new law requires financial advisors to have completed a certain amount of training. But will you follow their advice?

More importantly will that advice be any good?

One commentator has outlined that basically by giving advice you are giving opinions & that is what a blog is, an opinion.

But what is this law really going to do?

That is an easy answer. The laws being implimented will mean that no one really gets true financial advice from most as they are generally only sales people, nothing more.

The reason we have financial advisors are generally most people are  too lazy to do the homework required to ensure that their own financial wellbeing.

The true advisor will be always looking outside the mainstream at investments that most see as too risky. But they are only risky because of a lack of financial education.

So when you look overseas you see that what has about to happen is about to happen here & is being pushed in other industries. By requiring people to 'fit; in by completing required courses it will channel their thinking to where those manipulating  wish people to put their money so they can use it.

 Then you get people like the 'angry man' saying you can not comment if you do not have the formal qualifications.

All that shows is we have someone who has brought into the new slavery, but the world is changing & a lot of people are starting to question the relevance of all these degrees & formal qualifications.

Experience is more relevant, like how many mistakes have you made, have you tried this & what lessons did you learn?

But for now that is to be surpressed here in NZ, so it is more important than ever that people do their own homework & cut aside the flim flam out there as to what is a good investment.

Who designates what an investor is?

Kia Ora,

Well the 'Angry Man' has given me a bit more to write about as I go through his emails of complaints.

On going back to see what else the complaint email contained was the claim that I was not an investor.


Who designates what an investor is? Ideally an investor say in property is in it for the long term, but as I study more & more I find in different areas you can be an investor & the time considered long term can be very short.

So have I been an investor & can I comment on the type of things I have been?

I would say yes just not so far a successful one, but then that is how you learn, making mistakes.

Originally on working in Iraq I knew for my plans to work I needed to be in property, first big mistake was not getting the right advice ( & a better accountant), but probably most of all was not reading this book I had heard about. Rich Dad Poor Dad. Things would be certainly going a lot better right now if I had.

So as much as giving education these blogs as I think I have said before are about showing my mistakes, why make them when you can learn from someone elses.

To make things work though I have looked at trading options to give me a cash flow, a couple of MLM (multi level marketing) ideas, continuing on with my businesses, of course property investment (hardest part here is finding the financiers who understand what you are on about, it doesn't fit the modern banking model & why the world is in trouble) & more lately investment in gold & silver along with using the internet including writing my blogs to create cash flow.

So am I an investor. Yes. Have I been successful at it? Not yet.
But then there is the one way to get rich fast as often quoted by Robert Kiyosaki; "Fail faster!"

But then as 'Mr Angry' seems to be, someone who is fixed on the requirement to have a formal qualification, failure is not an option.

Luckily Thomas Edison was asked to leave school as he could not be taught & then failed 10,000 times in his bid to invent the light bulb.

In the real world we fail, in the unreal academic world failure is not acceptable. That seems to part of the problem with young people these days as the education system now seems to teach that no one is a failure.

Will I succeed? I don't know, but if just one person learns something from my blogs to allow them to make a difference in the world then surely it is worth it.

What also seems to be missed in the complaints is if something is been said that challanges the norm, then do your own research.

All the people I have followed in the course of my personal financial education have said the same. They will show you, but do your own homework. Never believe anybody.

The other point is even in your own mistakes, there are always lessons to be learnt.

Working on your own financial education is always going to be a challenge. Some will find it easy, others of us will start great then crash to pull yourself up & try again.

Who is right in Financial Education?

Kia Ora,

Have been meaning to get back into this blog recently as grappled with things, but finally stirred on by a number of anonymous emails I have received regarding my security blog,but which also question my right to comment on security, health & safety & financial issues.

The security, Health & Safety issues have being dealt with through my security blog.

So who has the right to talk about financial education?

The emails basically say that since I have no formal qualifications I can not comment on any of the above.

Funny thing is if you financially educate yourself, you find that those formal qualifications are all part of the big con.

What he should be asking is "so why are you commenting on financial areas such as financial education & the financial crisis when you have not made it yourself?"

I haven't & that has been a struggle to carryon with this blog because of that. But his comments reminded me why I started the blog.


My information comes from those who have made & are generally in the know. One thing that comes through when you go down the road of financial education & again why I started the blog is best way forward is to help others understand & put them on the path of financial education.

The more you help others, the more you see yourself. You see your mistakes & where you can take the next step.

The email writer says I am not an accountant, No, but you do need them. Economist? No, & they are primarily responsible for the mess the world is currently in & digging itself deeper into if they are of the Keynesian variety.

How do people know this? Because you only have to look at history & each time the similar actions have been taken it has ended with a similar result.

When you are discussing racism the most common statement is "I am not racist but..." when you discuss the financial world there is a similar statement "this time it is different". Yet each time through out history despite mans best efforts it has ended the same.

The first time there was an economic crisis that was recorded was 300AD in the Roman Empire, that took about 300 years to happen. It is believed though it happened as far back as Babylon.

Ever since the amounts involved have got bigger & the time it takes has got faster once the tipping point is reached.

So again who is right in financial education?

Yes, I haven't made it but the information I am passing on comes from those who have & who are encouraging people to pass it on.

Or those who have a bit of paper, generally following one line of smoke & mirrors.

Always remember the Golden rule "he who has the gold makes the rules!" so those who have made it will know the rules.

So do you sit back & wait for those with the bit of paper to get it right or do you go & look for yourself. As they say you have to choose your own path to wealth & have the reason for wealth, don't believe anything anybody says, no matter how successful, but research yourself.

My path? Well still working on it as looking to create cash flow to take the first steps back into the investing I would like to do & at the same time grow my businesses.

My reason initially is to make our communities safer, but also provide a place of work mainly for those leaving the military as they adjust to the world outside, which recognizes their skills.

The second part of my reason is to establish sustainable communities (both economically & environmentally) as a base to allow the world to grow.

In Other words to "Make a Difference!"


So with the knowledge I have acquired & the desire to have as many people to know as possible so they can prepare for the time of opportunity I think I have the right to comment on financial matters the same as anyone else.

Fighting Yourself & Your Mindset.

Kia Ora,

Have neglected this blog for a while as being battling with myself. According to those teaching this type of education that I am using, I have the knowledge to succeed, but there is something just holding me back. Me.

It doesn't help that my flatmate's answer to getting things of the ground is to get a job.

That is besides the fact we have played cash flow 101 several times he still does not get it. It is hard enough convincing myself at times that I am on the right track without that coming from a mate.

It comes back to the crab story one of Robert Kiyosaki's advisors talks off. Where she grew up there was a type of crab & once they had two crabs they put them in a box which the crabs could easily climb out of. Why they ensured they had at least two crabs was as soon as one tried to climb out, all the others in the box would pull them back in.

They liken this to your friends & family when you are looking to launch your business or go through investing. You are going through the change in mindset needed but they are afraid of your change & therefore they suggest what is comfortable for them, usually get a job.

News flash, there are not a lot of jobs out there at present. I have carried out temp labouring to help keep my business dreams alive but even that has dried up over the last year or so.

So we have to think of other ways of creating that cash flow.

Recently I went to a seminar & yes thanks for the comment Helen, Kieran Trass was speaking at that seminar. He did have a couple of his games with him.

That seminar gave me some ideas to work on, but in the meantime I have being working on creating cash flow from the internet. Not successful as yet, but starting to get an idea of how this social media can really be useful. Working to a plan that will bring in cash flow from the social media but also advertise my businesses.

One I saw was great. I was on an internet dating site that is totally free & right now for the life of me I can't remember what it was.

Anyway when these sites start up they have to find ways to build members or create cash flow. This one had added adverts & adsense adverts as well. Then I noticed what the adsense adverts were. They were all this sites competitors who had paid for advertising.

So the people who had set up the site were making cash flow that their competitors were paying for & this allowed them to survive as they grew their membership.

It is that type of thinking that inspires me when things are tough. As I work through this social media stuff it starts to dawn on you the ways in which you can use it, which is not in everyones face. True it has taken me about three weeks to learn what some kid could probably get set up for me in five minutes, but I am perservering. Might even get some kid in to make it all work in a better fashion.

All this just shows that maybe those coming through have already learnt the lessons of the rich. Make money out of nothing, by seeing an opportunity.

You just look at Twitter & then you see all the applications that have being develped to make it better.

The comment was made that websites are basically obsolete or just on line brochures now. Set one up cheap, which if you do right will bring you a cash flow as well then link it to your Blog & to your Twitter & Facebook page. Set up a seperate Facebook page for your business & have it open to the public.

Suddenly you have the ability to create cash flow not just from your immediate community but from hundreds of millions who might never use your core service.

One person had 94,000 followers on twitter. Now if one of your tweets caught her eye then she retweeted it a good number of those followers would then retweet it, but also go & look at what it was that she liked.

Beats knocking on doors. So it is limited by our imagination & ability to keep going despite all the issues trying to drag us back.

Your Education Never stops.

Kia Ora,

Well for the last few weeks have being continuing my own financial education & the following points jumped out during the training.

First you have to decide where you want to be. Secure, Comfortable or Rich!

Then it is how you are going to reach the chosen level & the plans will alter for each level.

For example to reach the secure level, where an investment covers all your outgoings (or you are out of the rat race) your plan might be to purchase cash flow positive properties.

Then for the next level you might want to build your business & for the final level you might look at using paper/commodities or paper in the form of an IPO (Initial Public Offering- initial shares when a company goes public).

So different plans for different asset classes.

During this time I also attended an investment property seminar. One of the strategies involved buying properties without any money.

Now that one people always talk about & how risky it is, but all it needs is a mindset change. When you look at the current economic situation, it is not if someone will accept them, but how many.

Just yesterday in the paper there was an advert for a property to buy (not in the real estate section) for around $275, 000 with a valuation of around $795,000.

Part of the strategy mentioned above involved the first offer being half of the value of the property, which people tell me no one will accept, yet here is one on offer.

They are always out there, but having the knowledge & confidence of how to take advantage off them is what is needed.

It might be that all you need is the lawyers costs to ensure you can tie this deal up is all that is holding you back.

It is also being able to spot the opportunity. This one was in the financial pages.

Other areas to look for opportunities are the public notices & some even look in the death notices or hear about couples getting a divorce.

It is what you feel comfortable with.

Learning from Mistakes.

Kia Ora,

I thought I would get back to this week the reasons why I found the Rich Dad Poor Dad series suited me.

Early on he states that you learn in life by making mistakes yet the education system is set up for 'A' students & a system where it is wrong to make mistakes.

Because we all go through the school system we pick up on this & go through life trying to avoid making mistakes.

Personally I always claimed to have learnt more in the army than anyone else as I made more mistakes & the military actually encourage mistakes in training. That is why you train. Better to make most mistakes in training, than when the bullets are flying.

To that end Robert Kiyosaki designed a game called Cashflow 101 then 202 so you can make more mistakes when playing than having to use your real money.

Since then other groups or people involved in wealth creation have taken that on board & there are now a few games that do the same.

It all fits with the 'Cone of learning' where we learn most by doing the actual task, next by simulating (in the military we called this BHL/BHE-Battle Handling Lessons followed by Battle Handling Exercises, then exercises proper) the real life situation.

The next level is by playing games.

Funnily enough the ways most people learn the least is by reading or lectures.

It is probably why I made so many mistakes in the army. I am essentially an 'A' student in that I do learn most by reading, but choose a profession where it required me to perform at a practical level.

But it does open you up to opportunities. The next step is how to take advantage of them.

Currently besides writing my blogs on the subjects I am passionate about, it is supposed to be a way to create cash flow, but it is a slow process.

Virtually everytime I am on I see something I have being doing wrong so fix to see how that makes a difference.

On the big picture I can see how they all connect ( I will get my twitter up & running soon, someday), but the nuts & bolts are a bit different.

As they say it is the same with investing. Most people make a mistake doing it & give up, saying it was too risky instead of trying to learn the lessons it presented. It is hard at times to see those lessons because you are upset at the latest person to have ripped you off or misled you.

Even those that are successful may still have a lot of lessons to learn if they are to hold on to it.

Many people suddenly come into a great amount of money through lotto or good jobs, but it is not how much you make or have that measures your wealth but how much you keep.

It is also about learning the laws applicable as there is a lot you can do, that most people will say you "can't do that here". It just takes some knowledge to find out how you can do that here or more importanly a change in mindset.

Many people get upset with what others are doing to keep their lifestyle going. Calling them crooks, but it is more a lack of knowledge on one parties part, than anything criminal in nature.

Continuing your Education

Kia Ora,

I was going to follow on from the last blog with several other reasons that Rich Dad Poor Dad made an impression on me. But that will have to wait.

With financial education it never ends.

In amongst a busy work period I was able to take time out to attend a property investment seminar at the cost of NZ$47. That $47 may end up being the best investment I have ever made.

The first point picked up was on a way to purchase property with no money. Yes with no money. Now people such as Robert Kiyosaki say this all the time that "you don't need money to get rich", but it takes a mindset change to be able to see it even when it is presented to you.

Next point was pick a strategy & stick with it. With this extra knowledge I can now look again at my original strategy with renewed confidence, but they also pointed out be prepared to change strategy when required.

To that end another strategy that doesn't even involve being in NZ was on show. It just needed a good initial outlay to get into.

But it is one that can be used later & for cash flow aloan it is a great strategy, never mind the potential upside.

One of the presenters though also was able to assist in how to make cash flow on line. What online business at a property investment seminar?

Actually he was acting as MC & helped put the seminar together. This person is extremely good at his business & many would say extremely wealthy at only 25, but he has needed to learn what to do with his money & so hence I have now seen him at two seminars.

But what I have learnt from him now means I am looking to gain cash flow from several sources to give me financial freedom, help others & invest.

Whats more with the power of the internet all could be going well within a very short time.

There is always a but though. My but, & something several of the presenters made a point of, was dealing with the issues you have (& may not realize) that are likely to be holding you back.

All this points to never stop learning about anything including yourself. You never know when that light bulb will go on.