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| TheRumpledOne 6,411 posts msg #45794 - Ignore TheRumpledOne |
7/13/2006 8:47:31 PM http://prosperityuniverse.com/artman/publish/article_3.shtml Protect Your Assets, Insure Your Privacy, and Build Your Own Dynasty! What to Do When You "Get There" By Bob Scheinfeld OK. So you want to create prosperity in your life. That's fantastic. Let me ask you a question. Suppose you have the prosperity you want so badly – right now. Now what? Have you ever asked yourself that question? “If I had money in the bank, life would be perfect.” Have you ever thought that? Of course you have, we all have. But most people with money have certainly as many and possibly more challenges as you do. It happens because we fixate on getting the money, giving no consideration to what we're going to do once we have it. That’s why I spend a good amount time teaching my clients and students not just how to create prosperity but how to handle it. Here's a good illustration. Many years ago, during very intensive seminar, I participated in one of the “stretching exercises.” I had to climb to the top of a 50-foot telephone pole, stand on a platform about the size of two small feet, then leap off to a trapeze some 15 to 20 feet away, grasp the bar, and swing. Climbing the pole and standing on top weren't the problem. Once there, I took a big leap, launched myself forward, and grabbed the trapeze bar, but as my weight started to fall, I lost my grip and couldn’t hold on and swing, which was the ultimate “victory.” I definitely wanted that victory so I asked the facilitator, “What happened? I had enough distance. I had my hands on the trapeze. But I couldn’t hold on. Why?” He said, “The odds are that you were standing on top of the pole and saying to yourself, ‘I have to get to the trapeze; I have to get to the trapeze.’ You didn’t say to yourself, ‘I have to get to the trapeze, hold on, and swing.’ You were just focusing on getting there. So you got there and that’s it." His analysis was absolutely accurate, so I re-did the exercise, this time focusing on getting to the trapeze, holding on, and swinging, and I achieved my ultimate victory. More importantly, it was a significant “aha” lesson I’ve never forgotten. We often focus on creating prosperity for ourselves, but we rarely focus on or consider what we’re going to do when we get there. With prosperity comes responsibility—to yourself and others. You want to continue to maximize the ongoing benefit your prosperity is bringing you by ensuring that you and the people you care about share in your improved “quality of life” by becoming as happy, healthy, and fulfilled as possible. By "quality of life," I mean internal changes including your mental and physical well-being; your need for relaxation; specifics of how and where you work and live; your business and personal relationships; and so forth. Only your imagination and life purpose can limit the scope of what your overall quality of life looks like. The Challenges of Prosperity When you’ve built your prosperity to a certain level, you reach what I call “surplus,” which means you have a consistent surplus of cash and assets. Surplus brings new challenges and complexities that are proportional to the size of the surplus and the number of people you’re responsible for. Now you'll need to: **Invest and Grow Your Surplus** You must find the best ways for you as a unique individual to grow your surplus while preserving your base capital and taking only what you consider to be an acceptable level of risk. Today’s multiple investment options can get confusing, even overwhelming. It’s easy to make serious mistakes and incur great losses if you don’t discover and apply the proper strategies. **Protect your Assets** The more prosperous you become, the more of a "target" you can become and you must protect your assets from lawsuits and other “attacks” by learning and applying specific strategies to your unique situation. With asset protection, there's no "one size fits all" solution and you must be cautious in how to set things up to achieve your protection goals. You must also protect expensive assets from all forms of loss and risk. A friend of mine went bankrupt when an avalanche destroyed his multi-million dollar home and he didn’t have the proper insurance to cover the loss. **Pass Your Assets Along** Like it or not, you're going to pass on one day, and you must have in place the essential insurance, trusts and other legal strategies needed to protect the loved ones you want to receive your assets after your death. Again, however, there are zillions o choices in this arena and the solutions must be custom-designed for your unique situation, wants and needs. **Minimize The Tax You Pay** Do you want to work your butt off, finally create prosperity and then have Uncle Sam take a huge chunk of it? You musty get educated and employ strategies that allow you to legally, ethically, and morally pay the absolute minimum possible tax on your income and assets. What are the best strategies for you? Stay tuned. I'll show you how to find them. **Create Streams of Passive Income** The world changes at a rapid pace and you don't want to ever be dependent on just one stream of income (no matter how strong it may be now) because if it slows down or goes away, you're in trouble. You want to create numerous income streams through real estate, investing, network marketing, owning one or more businesses that can run without you, royalties or licensing fees on products you create, etc., so your income is safe and you can enjoy your prosperity without having to work daily. I'll show you how to choose and setup your own income streams in a minute. **Plan For Your Retirement** Similar to creating multiple streams of income, you want to arrange your affairs to ensure that you and your significant other can retire when you want and still live your preferred lifestyle without stress or worry. Once again, however, there are twenty million options for how to do this and you must have a system for finding the best ones for you. The Responsibilities of Prosperity In his book, How To Be Rich, the late oil tycoon J. Paul Getty wrote: “I felt that, in our contemporary society, far too much emphasis was being placed on getting rich, on amassing wealth. Little if any attention was paid to the very important question of how to be rich, how to discharge the responsibilities created by wealth even while constructively enjoying the privileges and prerogatives conferred by it.” Are there people who helped you on the road to creating your prosperity? Share your prosperity with them in as many ways as possible. Are there charities or causes you're passionate about that you could support financially? Share the wealth! How can you help make your local community, or the communities your business affairs may touch a better place to live – for yourself and others? The possibilities for giving back are endless. Find ways that work for you and inspire you. While you may not be ready to give back, start thinking now, before you jump off the pole and head for the trapeze, about what you'll do when you've created your business success and wealth. Just the Beginning . . . As you can see, prosperity isn't an "end." It's just a beginning. Resist the temptation to focus only on what it will take to get prosperous. Keep a watchful eye on “how to be prosperous”—now that you have a clear understanding of what that term means. How to Get The Help You Need As you can see, managing prosperity requires work. You'll need help to make the best possible decisions and choices for all the challenges being prosperous brings. I get the help I need to create and manage prosperity by tapping into a system called "The 11th Element." To learn more about The 11th Element and how YOU can get the help you need to find the customized, personalized, unique-to-you prosperity solutions, click here to visit my website. |
| TheRumpledOne 6,411 posts msg #45885 - Ignore TheRumpledOne |
7/14/2006 2:23:26 PM Funny how life works... this was in the inbox today -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "When a man says money can do anything, that settles it: He hasn't got any." - George Bernard Shaw A Philosophical Ride With an Unusual Limo Driver By Michael Masterson Question: What would you do with your money if you had all you could ever need? I was asked that question, strangely enough, by the limo driver who was taking us home from the Miami airport at the end of our trip to Asia. I didn't tell him that I was in that happy position ... and that I was still grateful every day for my good fortune. I didn't say any of those things because (a) I didn't want to sound like a jerk and (b) I knew he wanted to talk about it. It's an interesting question. What would you do? What would you do with your life if you had, say, 10 (or 20 or 50?) million dollars tucked away, earning you all the money you needed to pay for everything you wanted ... with plenty left over? When ordinary people get lucky with wealth by winning the lottery or coming into an inheritance, studies indicate that the majority of them keep their jobs but increase their spending. Bakers continue to wake up early. Plumbers continue to get their hands dirty. And postal workers continue with their daily rounds. Why do they keep working? It could be the attention they receive from their fellow workers. (People whose lives remind them of what it "used to be like.") It could be the force of habit. ("What else am I supposed to do?") It could be the fear of falling backward. ("At least I'll always have my job.") That last line of thinking isn't as crazy as it sounds. A significant percentage of people who come into wealth quickly end up broke in a relatively short period of time. My philosophical limo driver and I mused about these facts for a while. And then he reminded me that I hadn't answered his question. "But what would you do?" he asked again. I sat back in my seat and thought about it. "I would definitely stop working," I said. "At least for money. I'd write books, work out, do a little painting, and spend time with my family and friends." "What would your perfect day be like?" he asked. And so I thought about that too. I imagined myself waking up in an apartment overlooking a sunny plaza. In Paris? Rome? Buenos Aires? After taking a leisurely shower, I stroll, bathrobe-clad, to the porch, where breakfast has been served. Eggs Benedict and coffee. Silver and fine table linens. I read the International Herald Tribune and then take a walk to my studio by the sea. I write or paint until I get that Hemingway-esque feeling of having "done good work." Then I head to the local cafe, where my friends await me. We eat and drink merrily, and then I take a short walk to my secret apartment, dark and cool, where I enjoy a postprandial siesta. Revived, I meet K at some auction house or art gallery where, after looking over the new arrivals, we successfully bid on a small but exquisite pencil sketch by Jules Pascin. That evening, we dine with our three boys and their spouses, who have flown in to celebrate Mother's Day. Before turning in for the night, I write a note to an old friend who's working in Japan, read a poem by Ezra Pound, and knock off The New York Times crossword puzzle in just under 15 minutes. "That's a beautiful dream," my driver said. "I hope that some day you will achieve it." "Me too," I said, thinking about the ways my current life is like and unlike my fantasy. "So," my driver said, after a while. "You didn't ask me." "Sorry? What did you say?" "You never asked me what I'd do if I had all the money I needed." A pang of embarrassment. "I'm sorry. You're right. What would you do? What would you do if you had all the money you could ever need?" He looked at me through the rearview mirror and smiled. "I already have all the money I need," he said. I was taken aback. Was he pulling my leg? I took a good look at him and noticed that he was wearing a fine cotton shirt and sporting a Rolex. "Really," I said. "That's great. Wow." His smile had widened into a Cheshire grin. "You're surprised, aren't you?" "Well, yes. I mean, no. I mean, I'm not sure what I am. So what are you doing now that you've made it?" "I don't write books, I can tell you that," he said, laughing. " But I do spend lots of time taking my friends to sporting events. That gives me a lot of pleasure." My limo driver philosopher was a season ticket holder to the Miami Heat, the Miami Dolphins, and the Florida Marlins. "Watching sports is a big part of my life," he admitted. "I don't have a family of my own, but I have nieces and nephews - and they have become big sports fans. So that's good." I sensed that my interlocutor was a tad bit disappointed with his life. I asked him why, if he was financially independent, he was driving a limo. "I don't do it for a living," he said. "I drive a couple of hours a day. That's it. But I like meeting people and finding stuff out about what they do and what they think. It keeps me thinking. And I get a kick out of it when my customers find out that I'm richer than they are." I wondered if he was, in fact, richer than me ... He exited I-95 and drove at a leisurely pace east on Atlantic Avenue. "Like you," he said, "I used to think about what I'd do if I had all the money I needed." "And how close is your life to what you imagined?" "That's the interesting thing," he said. "I think I am leading my perfect life right now. But it's nothing like what I thought it would be." "How so?" "Like working as a limo driver," he said. "I never imagined I'd be doing that." "Yeah, I bet." "And yet I love it." "It sounds like you do." "And do you want to know something else?" he asked. I definitely did. "I wash and wax this baby myself. By hand. I could afford to buy six car washes. Yet I go to the supermarket, buy the Turtle Wax, and do the rub-on, rub-off thing myself." I thought about the pleasure I get from gardening. "I think I can understand that." He turned north on Ocean Boulevard. "That's our house up there on the left," I told him. He looked at it with evident appreciation. "Nice," he said. "Really nice." "It's kind of low key," I found myself saying. "Hey, you don't have to apologize to me," he said. "I'm a limo driver!" I was not surprised when, after pulling into my driveway, he hopped out of the car and helped us with our luggage. The fare came to $42. I gave him a fifty and said, with embarrassment, "Keep the change." He gave me a business card. Just his first name on it - Harvey - and a phone number. "I live up the road, only a couple of miles from here," he said. "Call me next time you need a ride to the airport." An expensive shirt. A Rolex. A business card with only his first name and a phone number. If Harvey wasn't the richest limo driver in the world, he was at least doing a good job impersonating him. He had said he lived "a couple of miles up the road" from us. That meant Gulfstream or Manalapan. Could Harvey own one of those $20 million homes on the beach? If so, he would have to have a minimum net worth of $100 million. For the rest of the day, I couldn't get Harvey out of my mind. Was he really rich or just a bullshit artist? And if he was rich, how rich was he? If nothing else, I concluded, he got me thinking about what I want from my life and what I'm doing about it. Today's Action Plan: My conversation with Harvey raised some interesting questions: What would you do if you had all the money you needed? What parts of your present life would you keep? What parts would you change? And what entirely new things would you do? |
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