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Testimonial from the 4 Day Education For Life Seminar - Melbourne Feb 2008

Testimonial from the 4 Day Education For Life Seminar - Melbourne Feb 2008

Testimonial from the 4 Day Education For Life Seminar - Melbourne Feb 2008

Testimonial from the 4 Day Education For Life Seminar - Melbourne Feb 2008

Testimonial from the 4 Day Education For Life Semainr - Melbourne Feb 2008

Testimonial from the 4 Day Education For Life Seminar - Melbourne February 2008

What is going on in the world, are we heading for depression, recession or just a very volatile time? Who knows, some experts say one thing, and others say the opposite. The thing to be aware of is that even in times like these, there are massive opportunities for those with the knowledge.

Do you remember how Jamie was teaching you how to rent out shares on his Free DVD, and you can earn a monthly income from the market, making a few percent per month on shares?

What if there was a system set up to teach you how to make a daily income from the market, working from home, with handholding support every step of the way?

Can you imagine making a living from home, working just a few hours a day, being able to take time off whenever you choose? Many traders are making $500 to $1000 a day, starting with as little as $2000.

The current market volatility has been great for people trading in the Eminis market. It doesn’t matter which way the market is going, up or down, the more volatility, the better.

If this gets your attention, then have a look at the Eminis trading system by clicking on this link and ordering a Free DVD, or booking into a webinar.

http://www.eminisglobal.com.au/cmd.php?af=685629

You will be amazed at the simplicity of this trading system.

Have a prosperous month

Warm Regards

Keith Mason

LearnToBeRich.com.au

]]> http://www.learntoberich.com.au/knowledge_base/crazy-market-conditions/feed/ http://www.learntoberich.com.au/knowledge_base/homestudy-graduate-testimonial/ http://www.learntoberich.com.au/knowledge_base/homestudy-graduate-testimonial/#comments Wed, 15 Oct 2008 04:37:55 +0000 nelson http://www.learntoberich.com.au/knowledge_base/?p=61

Ian Thomson - Homestudy Graduate Testimonial

In 1937 American born Napoleon Hill (1883-1970), wrote in his landmark book Think and Grow Rich, “Whatever your mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.”

Hill is considered to have influenced more people into success than any other person in history and has been perhaps the most influential man in the area of personal success technique development, primarily through this book. He did not just write about some theory of how to think and grow rich - he wrote from his own numerous experiences and the experiences of America’s most successful people.

Hill was one of the earliest producers of the modern genre of personal-success literature. His most famous work, Think and Grow Rich, is one of the best-selling books of all time. Hill spent 20 years writing this book and interviewed many of the most successful people in the U.S. in the process. Think and Grow Rich was reprinted twice in the year it was first published while the world was still suffering the effects of the great depression and since then has sold more than 7 million copies.

Hill stated in his writings, people are free to believe what they want to believe, and he examined the power of personal beliefs, and the role they play in personal success. The huge sales of Hill’s books prove that the secret of achievement is still highly sought-after as key plank in wealth creation. Using the philosophy of achievement, Hill stated, was the responsibility of every American.

“What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve” is one of Hill’s hallmark expressions. How achievement actually occurs, and a formula for it that puts success in reach for the average person, were the promise of Hill’s books.

Hill considered freedom, democracy, capitalism, and harmony to be important contributing elements. For without these, Hill demonstrated throughout his writings, personal beliefs are not possible. He contrasted his philosophy with others, and thought achievement was superior and responsible for the success Americans enjoyed for the better part of two centuries. Fear and selfishness had no part to play in his philosophy, and Hill considered them to be the source of failure for unsuccessful people.

The secret of achievement was tantalizingly offered to readers of Think and Grow Rich, and was never named directly as Hill felt discovering it for themselves would provide readers with the most benefit. For according to Hill, 98% of people had no firm beliefs, putting true success firmly out of reach.

Hill’s early career as a reporter helped finance his way through law school. He was given an assignment to write a series of success stories of famous men and his big break came when he was asked to interview steel-magnate Andrew Carnegie.

Carnegie commissioned Hill to interview over 500 millionaires to find a success formula that could be used by the average person. These included names familiar to most Australians such as, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, Charles M. Schwab, Theodore Roosevelt, William Wrigley Jr, John Wanamaker, George Eastman, Woodrow Wilson, William H. Taft, John D. Rockefeller, and F. W. Woolworth.

Hill became an advisor to Andrew Carnegie, and with Carnegie’s help he formulated a philosophy of success, drawing on the thoughts and experience of a multitude of rags-to-riches tycoons. The secret to success is very simple but you will have to read the book to find out what it is! Napleon Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich is not only about making money, it is about a better way to live a rich life.

Napoleon Hill made many interesting observations including these:

•  A goal is a dream with a deadline.

•  Action is the real measure of intelligence.

•  All achievements, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea.

•  All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination, Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth.

•  Any idea, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought.

•  Before success comes in any man’s life, he’s sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and the most logical thing to do is to quit. That’s exactly what the majority of men do.

•  Big pay and little responsibility are circumstances seldom found together.

•  Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.

•  Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not, to put this plan into action.

•  Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.

•  Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.

•  Education comes from within; you get it by struggle and effort and thought.

21st Century Education can assist you on the path to wealth creation in the 21st Century. For further information log on to: www.LearnToBeRich.com.au

ASIC’s proceedings name a number of individuals and companies as defendants including, Quentin Ward (director of Axis) a financial adviser and former bankrupt from Perth, Axis International Management Pty Ltd (Axis) and Tim Johnston.

In the same week newspaper headlines screamed, ‘Firepower reveals $16m of creditors’, ‘Firepower chief lived in luxury’, ‘A new cowboy from the wild west’ as allegations emerged of how Tim Johnston, the head of Firepower, was believed to have spent a fortune on expensive furnishings and antiques, and how he regularly flew a prominent Sydney antique dealer to Russia to advise on purchases.

Even worse it has emerged that Firepower investors who pumped more than $60 million into the fuel pill company on the promise of spectacular returns when it was to be listed on the stock market in London, now stand to lose all of their investments.

Investors included diplomats, doctors, accountants, media figures and a number of high profile AFL footballers, including Wayne Carey, who now stand to lose six-figure sums after buying shares in Firepower - at up to 35 times their start-up value. Many bought the shares on the promise of a stunning share market listing in London. Carey, the former North Melbourne and Adelaide Crows star, bought $100,000 worth of Firepower shares, his father Kevin invested $60,000, and the AFL Brownlow medallist Mark Ricciuto $175,000 in two parcels.

The foibles and shortcomings of the financial planning industry are a pet topic of Jamie McIntyre, CEO of 21st Century Education, whose book What I didn’t learn from my financial planner but wish I had, questions why investors even need to deal with a financial planner.

McIntyre says you must understand that most financial planners are not trained at a high level in investing and in most cases they are not successful investors themselves. “If a financial planner is going to show you how to become financially independent, to retire wealthy and to live your dreams one day, then the obvious question to ask them is why haven’t they done it themselves.”

The involvement of the former bankrupt Perth financial adviser Quentin Ward, in selling Firepower shares, a company who did not comply with financial regulations and who did not bother issuing a prospectus, highlights the poor ethics in some sections of the financial planning industry according to McIntyre

The original entity that Firepower incorporated in the British Virgin Islands had an authorised capital of a billion shares at US1 cent a share, but footballers later paid 35 cents a share, Federal Court documents show. Others paid as much as $1.40.

For eighteen months prior to this the Sydney Morning Herald ran a series of articles that raised questions and drew attention to the dealings of Firepower. Firepower took the trouble to sue the Herald for defamation but lost the case and had costs awarded against them, which the Herald will never recover.

Firepower was the biggest sporting sponsor in the country and Johnston bought the Sydney Kings basketball team, which has since gone into liquidation with a claim of $265,073 against Johnston. It’s sponsorship of high profile sporting clubs included the South Sydney Rabbitohs rugby league team, the Western Force Super 14 club (now owed $55,000) and its top-line players Cameron Shepherd ($27,500), Ryan Cross ($41,250) and Scott Staniforth ($13,750)

Other sponsorships included the boxer Paul Briggs, who used to fight under the moniker ‘Firepower’ Briggs is now owed $55,000; Tongan Rugby Union ($71,019); Nedlands Rugby Union ($45,000); Russian Rugby Union ($251,294); Tasman Rugby Union ($76,800); and Tasman Motor Sport ($175,000).

ASIC alleges that these individuals and companies were associated with Firepower BVI, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, raised funds from investors in Australia in breach of the Corporations Act (the Act). ASIC alleges a prospectus or disclosure document was not provided to investors as is required under the Act so investors or their professional advisers have all the information they need to reasonably make an informed investment decision about the company and its shares.

The commencement of proceedings follows an ASIC investigation into the sale of over 80 million shares in Firepower BVI (by persons and companies associated with it) to approximately 1400 Australian investors from mid 2005. These investors collectively paid in the order of $60 million for the shares.

ASIC commenced its investigation in March 2007, prompted by inquiries it made in the latter part of 2006 and early 2007. In May 2007, Firepower parties (Firepower Operations Pty Ltd, Firepower Holdings Pty Ltd, Timothy Johnston and Firepower CEO, John Finnin), challenged ASIC’s section 30 notices that had been served.

ASIC allegations include, a charge that Axis and Ward (the sole director of that company) acted as intermediaries and unlawfully distributed application forms to Australian retail investors for the sale of nearly two million shares in Firepower BVI for a total price of more than $1 million without the necessary disclosure document.

ASIC is seeking the following orders from the Court:
•  Declarations that the conduct of the defendants contravened the Corporations Act.
•  Orders banning Johnston and Ward from managing a company in Australia.
•  Additional disclosure to investors so that investors can assess any rights they may have to redeem their money or to pursue other compensation actions which may be open to them.

ASIC will assess potential claims for compensation for investors as part of these proceedings or fresh proceedings. ASIC’s investigation is continuing in relation to Firepower BVI.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission was warned the fuel technology company Firepower “may in fact be a scam” more than six months before it became a public issue, but it chose not to investigate.

This allegation was raised in the ABC TV program Four Corners, in which John Finnin, the former CEO of Firepower also criticised the Australian Trade Commission, or Austrade, for its part in promoting and supporting the company. John Finnin, who was a former senior trade official before joining Firepower, said almost $100 million was raised from investors, but when he had worked for the company he could only account for about $30 million “at best”.
Finnin said many of Firepower’s alleged multimillion-dollar deals were never concluded, including a huge contract with Russian railways that was repeatedly presented to shareholders as a certainty.

“We’re talking about contracts across dozens of countries that we claimed to have: Pakistan, Romania, Germany, Russia. We were claiming to have contracts which we didn’t have,” Finnin said.

“They made further claims that … they had supplied the Australian and New Zealand military [with products], which of course was incorrect.”

Finnin said the support Firepower had received from Austrade gave it a layer of credibility it should never have been afforded. “They were able to say they were being supported by the Australian Government, which in essence they were,” he said.

Former Firepower CEO, John Finnin, was previously a senior Australian trade official, who was dumped from his highly paid Firepower job in August 2007 after a court heard he might be charged with child-sex offences. Finnin told a Melbourne magistrate that he denied the allegations, which were revealed when he applied for the return of computers and associated equipment seized by police under a search warrant in May 2007. The father of four said in evidence that the company paid him $500,000 a year, which allowed him to drive a Maserati Quattroporte that he leased for $5000 a month.

Finnin was once linked to the Jordanian trucking company Alia, which was central to the AWB scandal. He resigned as Austrade’s director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa in June 2006 to become CEO of Firepower.

Four Corners reported that an accountant whose client was offered shares in Firepower made a complaint to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in May 2006 alleging it could be a scam. The commission said it was “taking no further action at this time”.

The complaint was made at the height of investment euphoria in Firepower and at a time when the company was on its way to being the biggest sporting sponsor in the country.

Firepower chairman, Tim Johnston, is thought to be in Britain after refusing to return to Australia to answer questions from authorities over the demise of the Sydney Kings basketball team.
ASIC is also seeking to have Johnston and the former bankrupt Perth financial adviser Quentin Ward banned from managing future companies in Australia.

Note: Jamie McIntyre is currently authorised to provide general advice and dealing services in Derivatives, Deposit Products, Managed Investments and Securities (ASIC No. 321 315).

Financial coaching is a value added service and is about empowerment motivation and education rather then just relying on often flawed advice from a financial planner who is entirely dependent on commissions.

21st Century Education provides financial coaching and has more than 25 contracted financial educators and turned over $30million in the last financial year and is on track to be a $50million business this year.

21st Century Education Chairman and founder Jamie Mcintyre says the government has told people for years that there won’t be a pension to rely on in retirement. “You need to become a self-funded retiree. This means everyone has to become an investor, yet no one was taught about financial education and self empowerment at school.”

According to McIntyre even ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) asks the wrong question. “How do we get more people to see a financial planner?”

The correct question according to Mcintyre should be, “How do we get more Australians to be empowered to take charge of their financial future?”

There is this huge demand for people to be financially educated and empowered and unfortunately financial planners have so far failed to fill this gap McIntyre says. In the near future he is confident financial coaches and financial educators will be utilising self empowerment strategies that take more and more of the traditional financial planning business slice unless financial planners shift to the provision of more education and empowerment, rather then just commission based advice and selling managed funds.

Consumers want more than that McIntyre said when he explained why he founded 21st Century Education, a personal services and financial group that employs nearly 100 people and has doubled in size in the last year. The reason for founding his successful 21st Century Education business, McIntyre said, was to provide a financial education to people who should have received that education as part of their schooling.

It is also why he wrote his first book What I didn’t learn at school but wish I had, which has been distributed to over 250,000 Australians. To assist with his goal of a financial education for all Australians, McIntyre gives this book away for free on his company website www.21stcenturyacademy.com despite it selling in bookstores for $35.

McIntyre became a self made millionaire by getting a financial education many years ago and said he doesn’t need the book royalties and has just committed to donating up to $1million worth of copies of his books to be given away over the next 5 years to assist in providing an education he strongly believes we all should have received at school.

One of Jamie McIntyre’s greatest passions has been to create an educational system that is designed for the 21st Century as opposed to an outdated education most of us received at school so we can create an extraordinary quality of life that most people only dream about.

McIntyre believes people’s dreams can come true, just like they did for him, once he learnt the information he shares in his book, What I didn’t learn from my financial planner but wish I had This book provides an education for life and explains what it takes to create the necessary financial abundance to have an extraordinary quality of life.

McIntyre is appalled that superannuation nest eggs have taken a hit after funds recorded their worst annual return since 1987 of minus 6 per cent. The higher cost of living has also forced more workers to curb their voluntary contributions, leading super experts to warn these people now risk missing out on any upswing in returns when the sharemarket recovers.

In early July 2008, figures from the independent research company SuperRatings revealed returns on the median balanced super fund shrank by 6 percent over the year. On a typical balance of $50,000, this represents a $3000 hit, not including contributions made during the year.

The Federal Government is expected to come under renewed pressure to ensure the adequacy of retirement savings, with several members of its super advisory panel stating this should be the highest priority.

Note: Jamie McIntyre is currently authorised to provide general advice and dealing services in Derivatives, Deposit Products, Managed Investments and Securities (ASIC No. 321 315).

He says due to the massive labour shortage and with immigration levels hitting their peaks the acute shortage in housing will force another upward spike in property prices in coming years.

Mcintyre comments are backed up by article in the Australian Financial Review (AFR) on 25 June 2008 which reported competition for housing among aspiring home buyers and tenants is set to intensify, with a big influx of skilled migrants helping drive the most rapid population growth since 1988 and exacerbating the Australia’s shortage of homes.

Official figures show the Australian population climbed by almost 332,000 people in 2007 to 21.18 million, with more than half of that growth (185,000) attributed to net migration.

Federal government plans to boost the immigration intake by 37,500 to 190,300 in the next financial year have prompted warnings of the rising population increasing the pressure on housing at a time of rocketing rents and low affordability.

Population gain, along with improving productivity, is an important engine of economic growth and also fuels demand and increases the pressure on resources and infrastructure, including the supply of housing.

The AFR reported the nation’s spurt is coming as high interest rates, low affordability and modest returns help stifle the construction of new housing. Dwelling starts were down by 3.3 percent in the March quarter and weak finance and approvals indicate activity will stay flat.

One industry spokesperson claimed a shortfall of 31,000 homes in the number currently being built on an annual basis. He also stated tenants and aspiring home buyers faced an increasingly tough market as any acceleration in the pace of building construction was some time away. Tenants in Sydney face particularly tight conditions with rent costs expected to accelerate by 10 percent annually over the next two years with early relief being unlikely even if interest rates eased and affordability increased as the construction of apartments typically involves an 18 month cycle. This means it could be three years or more before significant inroads are made into accumulated demand.

A second industry spokesperson says the looming boost to migration, though welcome by employers struggling to find the workers they need, will exacerbate the pressure on housing. “If we are heading for 200,000 plus in net migration, then the undersupply in housing will be at its most acute since the 1970s and it is very hard to escape it.

The strong growth in labour supply will help alleviate labour shortages, however the housing shortage is approaching extreme levels worthy of a more activist approach by policymakers.”

The Howard government introduced measures such as the First Home Buyers’ Grant. This meant that more individuals had the money to buy, and so many left the rental market to become owner-occupiers. This reduced the demand for rental properties and so rents remained low.

The increased demand to buy and the limited supply of homes led to residential property prices dramatically increasing. But now, property prices have reached a critical level, where individuals even with the help of banks and the first home buyers grant, can’t afford to buy.

With many individuals being priced out of the market, they are now forced to rent. This combined with record immigration and the city living becoming even more desired has led to rents dramatically increasing.

In order to benefit from the next property boom, become an expert in the suburbs that are going to grow in value first. Get to know those areas so you can pick the bargains in those suburbs near the city, near the water or in the more affluent, the more desirable suburbs. If you buy a good property in those areas you are likely to achieve excellent capital growth in the next 5-10 years.

Then over the next few years the suburbs one ring further out will start to make good investment sense. It is only near the end of the cycle that the outer suburbs, those that have traditionally been first home owner areas get good capital growth.

For investors this is all good news. Will we see another property boom within the next 3 years? At 21st Century Property Direct we believe we will experience a another spike in property prices within 3 years.

About 50,000 Australians are estimated to have lost a combined $2.7 billion after a string of disasters in which financial planners were a key distribution channel. These disasters include Westpoint, Centro Properties Group, MFS (now renamed Octaviar) and margin lenders Opes Prime and Lift Capital.

Financial planners can take at least some of the blame for some of these recent huge financial disasters that have left thousands of people with losses of millions of dollars, in many cases their hard earned retirement savings.

In June 2008 it was announced that a dedicated financial advice team within ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission will seek to increase competition among financial planners and overhaul their disclosure of fees, risks and relationships that may create conflicts of interest.

ASIC is currently suing eight financial planning firms who recommended Westpoint ‘promissory notes’ with around 4,300 investors standing to lose $320 million. Westpoint paid commissions of 10 percent and more to advisors recommending its ‘promissory notes’ offering 12 percent per annum, paid monthly. Planners from some of the countries biggest firms flocked in. Almost 400 complaints have been lodged with FICS against planners chasing high commissions who missold Westpoint products. By April 30, 2008, planners have been found guilty in 70 panel hearings.

Centro Properties operates shopping centres all over Australia and in some other countries as well as managing property funds. 15,000 investors in two of their unlisted funds have had redemptions frozen on $3.7 billion of investments.

Opes Prime and Lift Capital were margin lenders who collapsed in the wake of the credit crunch. 2,800 investors are $820 million out of pocket in their dealings with these two companies. Financial planners who recommended these companies received free or discounted loans.

Anyone living on or near the Gold Coast was impressed by the rapid rise of MFS and the wonderful publicity it received in the local and even national business press. Local television even broadcast footage of their Annual General Meeting chaired by former politician and ambassador Andrew Peacock.

In January 2008 MFS lost 70 percent of its capitalisation in a few hours when it was revealed they needed to borrow $500 million to repay a loan. MFS was also behind a $1 billion New Zealand financial planning firm that poured tens of millions of dollars of investors money into three high-risk investment companies that collapsed in the last six months of 2007.

As Crikey.com reported in late January 2008, “…the real calamity comes from the complete destruction of value in the traditional MFS financial services business. A financial institution simply cannot close the doors on withdrawals and survive, as MFS did yesterday to the 10,000 investors in its $770 million Premium Income Fund. And why did those 10,000 investors back MFS? Because it paid huge commissions to their financial planners.

“At its core, MFS demonstrates the huge flaws and conflicts in Australia’s financial planning industry. The majority of its directors were Gold Coast lawyers and financial planners who are now getting blown away in margin calls after clearly not following standard advice about risk management and diversification.”

Financial planners are one of the most complained about industries in Australia and in 2007 the Financial Planning Association received investigated complaints against 130 of its members.

Around 85 percent of financial planners are aligned to or employed by a bank or large financial institution. Financial planners receive a range of commissions (often unstated, which is a major and ongoing issue) including an up-front fee, which is known to be even more than 10 percent in some instances. They also receive a trailing commission and a in some cases a volume rebate as well as in-kind benefits such as shelf-space fees and discounted loans.

McIntyre says you must understand that most financial planners are not trained at a high level in investing and in most cases they are not successful investors themselves. “If a financial planner is going to show you how to become financially independent, to retire wealthy and to live your dreams one day, then the obvious question to ask them is why haven’t they done it themselves.”

Investors are now realizing the high price they are paying or have paid in the past for often worthless advice as the appeal of dealing with financial planners wears thin and the spotlight turns on their fees.

Note: Jamie McIntyre is currently authorised to provide general advice and dealing services in Derivatives, Deposit Products, Managed Investments and Securities (ASIC No. 321 315).

In Australia, the 2008 BRW Rich 200 List identified 38 people as billionaires. The fortunes of these people come from diverse business interests including mining, property, shopping centres, technology, finance, retailing, textiles and clothing, media (television newspapers, magazines) hotels, gambling, liquid ammonia production, cardboard cartons, transport and health care.

Some of the advice from these billionaires for creating and keeping their fortunes is to remain married, work for yourself, spend wisely, invest in shares and property and gain work experience overseas.

For people with an interest in astrology you will be interested to learn that six of the 38 billionaires on the list were Aquarians, more than any other star sign, with total wealth of around $12 billion. For mere millionaires Leo is the dominant star sign followed by Sagittarius with Taurus being the least successful.

Billionaire iron ore miner Andrew Forrest, Australia’s richest person, faced and overcame a range of setbacks before he became successful as the CEO of a company with a market capitalisation of only $3 million at start up. In 2003 when China’s ruling party stated it wanted to quadruple the country’s economy in the next 15 years, he identified an opportunity and punted on the demand for iron ore exploding and became a billionaire in the process. As with many other ideas that went on to create billionaires, Australian institutions initially refused to back the company.

Many readers will have lived in a Meriton apartment at some stage, the creation of billionaire Harry Triguboff, who immigrated to Australia from China as a 14-year old with his Russian parents. Triguboff attributes a large slice of his success to building in inner-city locations. “Why would you want to go anywhere but a few good areas?” he asks.

Probably every single person in Australia has spent some time at a Westfield shopping centre, the brainchild of billionaire Fank Lowy who arrived in Australia in 1952 at the age of 21 with only seven years of formal education and no material possessions after suffering the ravages of war in German-occupied Hungary.

Lowy is regarded as Australia’s most successful immigrant and attributes part of his success to having a secure family base. His success story is well known from a delicatessen in Blacktown in what was then Sydney’s outer-west, then buying surrounding farmland and creating housing estates and then modeling another builder by building a shopping centre in 1959. Westfield floated on the stock exchange in 1960 and today Westfield has more than 100 shopping centres in Australia and the U.S. Financial engineering has been an important part of Lowy’s success and he also admits to his intuition being his driver. “If I have a bad feeling about something, it has to go away before I can progress.” Technology is important to Lowy and he was one of the first to acquire a fax machine in the early 1980’s. To maximize the use of his time Lowy always travels with a laptop and his BlackBerry on his corporate jet.

U.S. billionaire Warren Buffett, the ‘Sage of Omaha’, is generally considered to be the world’s most successful investor. His investment vehicle, Berkshire Hathaway, is legendary. In the last 40 years, Buffett has increased the book value of the company by 286,865 per cent. Buffett has made some brilliant moves in his career, such as turning a $1 billion investment in Wells Fargo into $4 billion; making 500% profits on a massive investment in Geico and - in one of his best known and most talked about plays - turning $1 billion into $8 billion with Coca-Cola. Buffett is famous for droll quotes such as “I got interested (in business) when I was seven or thereabouts. I wasted my time before that. Buy businesses that an idiot could run, because one day one will. We really want to buy from someone who doesn’t want to sell. Investors should be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.”

According to respected U.S. business magazine, Forbes, while there are numerous business school courses, self-help books and magazine articles devoted to analysing a billionaire’s investment strategy or entrepreneurial skills, few, if any, pay close attention to their personality traits. Forbes claims it has been observing billionaires for more than 20 years and says it has detected very pronounced similarities among the majority of billionaires which can roughly be categorised as: A. Master of the Universe; B. All Business; C. Sports Fan; D. Geek; E. Old Money.

It seems there is no common model to emulate and become a billionaire when comparing the success stories of billionaires world wide - every billionaire has had a unique route to success. Some had to face terrible tragedies and hardship, which would have destroyed many other human beings. Others did not have these hurdles to overcome but all of them had to work really hard. All of them had to integrate aspects of themselves, which could be called the ‘dark side’ or ‘the shadow’ as psychologist Carl Gustav Jung called it, into their personality and function convincingly among other human beings. The greatest effort people invest in order to become successful is with their own selves.

Self-management is the most difficult part of management skills needed to become a billionaire. Along with this skill for self-management, there are however, four additional common factors in all billionaire life stories. They all had a burning desire to be successful, and they relentlessly pursued their goals without losing faith in themselves.

Secondly, each one of them had an inner conviction. They saw themselves as successful in their mind’s eye and did not give up in spite of all difficulties. This ability to first visualise success and maintain this vision seems to be a key component for success in all fields.

Thirdly, they all took major risks in thinking out of the box and acting consistently. Lastly, they all understood the value of networking and engaging other gifted people.

In Australia the road to mega-riches is paved in rust-red iron ore. The 10 richest investors in Australia’s red-hot mining sector boast a combined net worth exceeding $15 billion, according to a magazine survey. The second-largest category for wealthy mining investors was coal, which is one of Australia’s top two exports, along with iron ore.

While Australia may be a great place to move from being poor to being middle class, places like India and China will be the best places in the world to come up with transformative business ideas that can catapult people into billionaire status. Early in the 21st century, technology and the Internet fueled much of the wealth to create new billionaires. Recently in the US finance created 27 fortunes, real estate was the source of 16 and food and beverages created 12.

However, a good trend is that worldwide most billionaires are still self-made. That means people coming from humble beginnings around the world have the economic freedom to leap into the billionaires’ club in a single generation.

You don’t have to come up with the next Windows or Google or Facebook to be a billionaire. You can also do it being a supplier of potatoes to McDonald’s as one man did in the U.S. Although Google is a lot more exciting to write about and learn about, you can also come up with a better business model for providing cola companies with sweetener or figure out how to become a dominant supplier of asphalt in Victoria. Don’t think that the road to riches is hidden solely in these old business models.

I can do it. The first million may be the hardest. But the simple fact is Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin - did not have any more hours in their day than you, or the ability to shoot laser beams with their eyes, or help from alien beings. They made their wealth in a single lifetime using the same 24-hour days you have. If you want to do it, and become a billionaire there is no reason why you can’t.

Some final advice for those wishing to achieve billionaire status. At some stage every billionaire has had to add more value in order to create wealth. One way to do that is by developing your financial education skills. These skills are. The ability to think creatively and solve problems. The ability to communicate more effectively. The ability to market an idea or concept and bring that idea to reality and commercial viability. The ability to negotiate.

Jamie McIntyre , the founder of 21st Century Education, is setting big goals for himself and last year he set a goal to become a billionaire by the time he is forty. That’s in 10 years in case you were wondering.

It is not that becoming a billionaire for material means or lifestyle is what made Jamie set himself this challenge, but more so that he knows that money can be a powerful tool to serve and he knows the influence that being a billionaire can bring to creating positive change in this country.

For Jamie setting this goal came about when he personally met a billionaire some 18 months ago. He was asked by the billionaire how long it would take to become a billionaire using his current wealth strategy.

As Jamie had never seriously considered that as a goal his response was at least 30 or more years if ever. The billionaire asked Jamie “why not in 3 years?”

If the guy wasn’t already a billionaire then Jamie would have said you’re “on drugs or deluded” but the fact that this guy had become a self made billionaire within less than 10 years made Jamie take him seriously. And that day a seed was planted.

Since then Jamie has had several billionaires come into his life where he has personally had the chance to sit down with them for personal chats including one very famous one, Sir Richard Branson of Virgin fame as well as an Australian who just became one of our latest billionaires in the space of a few short years.

Jamie was recently invited to meet and speak alongside another famous billionaire - Donald Trump - to share what it takes to develop the Mindset of a Millionaire.

Jamie McIntyre is renowned for his ability to present things in down to earth simplistic language so the average person can understand and implement with ease, but until now has been reluctant to teach others the actual mechanics and strategies to become a billionaire that he has learnt first hand from meeting billionaires as he thought it too advanced for the average person to be able to replicate and apply any lessons from.

But recently this has changed as he now has figured out how an average person could actually replicate the same strategy to make a lot of money.

Of course for most people, not a billion dollars and for many not even a million dollars but certainly for many several hundred thousand dollars in assets up to several million with virtually no outlay.

Already one of his 21st Century Homestudy Members has used the exact same strategy many billionaires use to make $27 million dollars. Another business partner of Jamie’s used the same strategies to make $60 million dollars - all within the space of a few years.

For details of Jamie’s leading billionaire strategies

www.LearnToBeRich.com.au

Jamie has a burning desire to provide a financial education - a modern day education for life, to every Australian while they are attending school and he asks, “Why are people not receiving this financial education while at school?”

“Nowhere in our school life are we taught how to have money work for us. Isn’t it interesting?” Jamie informs us. “In other words, we are taught only one part of the equation and not the other. The basic concept of how to have money work for us could be taught to 10 year olds at primary school in probably a one-hour session.”

According to Jamie a financial education is vital for success in life and the real world. In his best-selling book What I didn’t learn at school but wish I had, which has had numerous reprints, Jamie outlines a broad range of strategies which people can utilise to improve their lives immensely.

Some of the fascinating information and strategies outlined in this book, which Jamie says you should have been taught at school, but were not, includes how to develop the mindset of a millionaire and think like a winner, why most people fail, the history of money and the systems controlling it, how to rewire your subconscious mind for financial success, how to generate instant cash flow, even if you have little money to start with and how smart investors earn $35,000 per year from investment property - tax free

Of special interest are the four key skills Jamie details “that you must master to succeed in the 21st century and how others have used these skills to earn over $100,000 p.a.” Jamie also tells us how smart investors are replacing their income in 90 to 180 days or less by using a unique renting strategy and eight ways investors can raise money to start investing immediately, even if you have no money.

In this book we learn in detail that these four skills of a 21st century education are, the ability to think creatively and solve problems, the ability to communicate more effectively, the ability to market an idea or concept to bring it to reality and the ability to negotiate.

Jamie invites readers to work through his best-selling book, What I didn’t learn at school but wish I had, step-by-step in order to create and redesign their life, with an emphasis on improving financial results until readers produce the results they ultimately desire.

To accomplish these objectives outlined in his book, Jamie believes it is important to spend time on developing a solid foundation of understanding the big picture of money and how to change your thinking to be more effective at implementing the exciting strategies in his book.

Jamie is positive proof that the strategies he offers in this book really work. He went from sleeping on a friend’s couch with $150,000 in personal debt, no job, no income, no assets, not even $20 left in his wallet and virtually bankrupt, to becoming a self-made millionaire in a little under four years and creating an extraordinary quality of life for himself and others by using these very same strategies.

Jamie’s belief is that if you are not just curious, but committed to excelling in your life in the 21st century, then what you will find in this book will be a real gift to you from someone who cares about helping others achieve similar things and you can join the thousands of others who are applying these strategies and improving their lives immensely.

“For most Australians the way they try to obtain lifestyle is to take their time, which we all have 24 hours of in a day, then they try to sell that time in exchange for some money. They think the name of the game is to sell that time for as much as they can per hour or per week. The challenge is that because we need both time and money to have lifestyle, we often sacrifice our time for money” Jamie writes.

“There are many people that become millionaires but still lack time and money. In other words, they need to keep on working. They become what we call asset rich and cash flow poor. You probably know some people like that - maybe even intimately. Becoming asset rich and cash flow poor is really not the idea. Having money stuck away that cannot be used is pointless. There are many people who die with it and there is not a lot of lifestyle in that. Sadly, the percentage of people that actually have the quality of life they would really like is very small.”

“If only I had learnt this education at school, how much easier life would have been for me and no doubt many others. My dream is this type of education will soon be available in all American and Australian high schools, especially if I get my way” Jamie concludes.

What I didn’t learn from my financial planner, but wish I had, is a unique and valuable guide for anybody interested in wealth creation strategies - but don’t tell your financial planner about the information you will learn in this book!

The quality of advice, conduct, ethics, honesty, integrity and behaviour of financial planners is often open to question. In this book best-selling author Jamie McIntyre takes the financial planning industry to task by detailing numerous serious cases of malpractice, fraud and abuse and the loose definition of ‘fee-only’ used by financial planners.

Following the runaway success of his previous books Jamie has written another major title of around 300 pages - What I didn’t learn from my financial planner, but wish I had - in the 21st Century Education series and addresses issues involving an education for life and what it takes to create the necessary financial abundance to have an extraordinary quality of life without using a financial planner.

Jamie asks, “What is the difference between the people who succeed and those who don’t? Is it a matter of luck that some people acquire great wealth? Perhaps these people buy more lotto tickets, they marry into money or inherit it. Or is there a little bit more to it than that?”

According to Jamie, one of the secrets of financial independence is learning to develop the mindset of a millionaire and applying the newest and most exciting financial strategies available in the world today.

Jamie believes the financial planning industry has been profiteering and taking advantage of people due to their ignorance around financial planning and money for far too long, so Jamie wrote this book with the intention of enabling as many people as possible to learn and develop the skills required to become financially successful.

Who is going to look after your money the best? Do I really need a financial planner? Why is it dangerous to take advice from a financial planner? Can I be my own financial planner? Why is it that your financial planner and the financial planning industry do not educate their clients on how to become rich? Why is it that most people who live in a rich country are not rich? Is there is a short cut to success? How much money goes through your hands? Will you finish up dead or dead broke?

Jamie provides the answers to these questions and many more in this book which is all about helping people discover the strategies and secrets that could transform them into one of the 5 percent of the wealthiest people in Australia and the world. Instead of relying on advice from commission driven financial planners Jamie offers countless tips and strategies for wealth creation and details many of the secrets to his own success in this book including the importance of having a millionaire mentor and how to develop a millionaire mindset.

Jamie asks readers to look at where they are currently in their life and explains the importance of having realistic expectations about investing. He explains that a lot of people are looking to change their lives and that most of us are so caught up with making a living that we forget to live.

In simple language Jamie gives eight steps to start you on the path to becoming a Millionaire with a look at banks, the share market, property, conventional businesses, using other people’s money (O.P.M.), using equity, superannuation, a fascinating look at making money out of thin air, renovations, creating cash-flow through share renting and a case study detailing how one Australian businessman made around $1 billion with OPM (Other Peoples Money).

In 12 wide-ranging chapters Jamie offers in-depth and hard-earned practical advice to help people discover the strategies and secrets that could transform them into one of the 5 percent of the wealthiest people in Australia and the world. In one chapter Jamie details the mindset and some characteristics of a millionaire and what it is that makes a millionaire; there is even a millionaire quiz to try your hand at.

If you want to be truly rich, become an entrepreneur, Jamie asserts in another chapter with detailed and fascinating case studies about a number of famous entrepreneurs.

In another chapter Jamie looks at share market strategies that your financial planner will not teach you, including share market strategies, channelling, leverage, insuring, the way down strategy, the way up and down strategy, share renting for cash-flow and a summary of instant cash-flow strategies.

The chapter titled “How to become a property millionaire” where Jamie explains fast track property strategies to make money while you sleep, property organising principles, how to obtain 100 percent finance, interest only or P∓I (Principle and Interest) loans and how to profit from Rates Default properties will be of interest to many people. There is even a 21-point checklist for property investors.

The Internet is the real estate opportunity of the 21st century Jamie says and he backs up this statement with wide-ranging and practical Internet strategies with tips on how to profit from the Internet and to treat the Internet as an investment strategy and practical advice on setting up your Internet business.

Since starting 12 years ago, Jamie McIntyre took less than 5 years to become a self-made millionaire. In the last 8 years as an educator and success coach, Jamie has touched the lives of around 250,000 Australians and New Zealanders and recently people world-wide in over 16 countries, transforming peoples’ fulfilment as well as producing many millionaires in the process and helping many people retire early.

This has given Jamie even more insight into what it takes to make it, not just financially in the industry, but also how to make your life emotionally rewarding and fulfilling.

“Education is the solution to most problems especially financial ones and this book is an educator to inspire you to take charge of your financial future and never have to rely on commission driven real financial planners ever again” according to Jamie. Jamie says that this book was also an opportunity to keep his promises to one of his earliest mentors, that was, in return for this knowledge, that once Jamie had successfully applied it to his life, he would then share it with others to pass it on.

With the very same knowledge Jamie shares this book, he was able to produce incredible results, such as making millions of dollars with real estate in his twenties. He was also able to generate significant monthly cash flows with the share market to create multi-million dollar businesses, starting from below zero 12 years ago.

Jamie made millions of dollars from the Internet as well, even though, like many of us, he did not know anything about any of the wealth creation strategies detailed in this book when he first started.

Note: Jamie McIntyre is currently authorised to provide general advice and dealing services in Derivatives, Deposit Products, Managed Investments and Securities (ASIC No. 321 315).

Says self made millionaire and educator Jamie McIntyre

If you are not a self-made millionaire yet then here is some good news,says self-made millionaire and educator Jamie McIntyre. The latest statistics released and reported in the Australian Financial Review on 26 June 2008 highlight the number of wealthy Australians surging by 11,000 in 2007 to a total of 172,000.

Despite souring economic conditions rich people across the world managed to overcome these conditions and add to their wealth.

Even with the disruption in global markets, Australia continues to hold it’s number 10 ranking out of 71 countries. Steady growth in the domestic economy and the strong demand from Asia for our commodities continues to drive our wealth creation as the number of wealthy in Australia continues to grow at above average rates.

Australia’s growth rate of 7.1 percent in the number of wealthy Australians means our growth rate is faster than that of many other countries.

India with a 22.7 rise in wealthy to 123,000 and China with a rise of 20.3 percent to 415,000 were two of the countries that did manage to outpace Australia.

The annual World Wealth Report classifies wealthy Australians as those having net assets of at least US$1 million excluding their primary residence and consumables.

A Macquarie Private Bank spokesperson said he was not surprised by the report. “Most ultra-wealthy (those with more than US$30 million) in the Asia-Pacific region usually had limited exposure to equity markets and tended to hold 50 to 70 percent of their assets in cash. They are making their wealth in their own business. Most rich people are astute market investors and saw depressed market conditions as an opportunity to buy.”

Naked short selling will be banned on the Australian stock exchange next week to help curb excessive market volatility.

Short selling, where traders seek to profit by selling borrowed shares of companies to then buy them back, in the anticipation their prices will drop, has been partly blamed for the sharp falls of stocks such as Macquarie Group Ltd in recent days.

A form of the practice, known as naked short selling, involves selling without first borrowing the stock, or even ensuring they can be borrowed.

The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) said today it would remove all securities from its list of stocks approved for naked short selling from Monday.

“The removal will remain in force until further notice,” the ASX statement said.

“It will be reviewed when the government’s foreshadowed legislative amendments to the reporting of covered short selling activity take effect.”

Treasurer Wayne Swan and Corporate Law Minister Nick Sherry welcomed the move.

“Australia has a world-class regulatory system and this action today will help ensure ongoing confidence in the operation of Australia’s financial markets,” Mr Swan said in a statement.

“This action shows that our regulatory system is working well in responding to challenging global circumstances.”

Senator Sherry said he was concerned by attempts to manipulate markets through the use of short-selling.

“As previously announced, the government will be introducing legislation to strengthen disclosure of covered short-selling into the parliament very shortly,” he said.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said overnight it was considering temporarily banning naked short selling there.

Earlier today, Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) deputy chairman Jeremy Cooper told a House of Representatives economics committee hearing in Sydney investors could only make naked short sales if they were on “an approved list maintained by the ASX”.

“The government’s indicated that it’s considering new disclosure obligation regarding covered short selling.”

Mr Cooper said ASIC would provide whatever advice the government needed in considering new regulations.

When asked whether existing rules were adequate, Mr Cooper declined to comment as it was a policy question.

In March, ASIC and the ASX reminded investors of their disclosure obligations when short selling stock.

ASIC also said it was concerned some individuals were spreading false and misleading information about listed companies to provoke sales of securities.

On the Australian sharemarket today, Investment bank Macquarie Group jumped $9.85, or 37.81 per cent, to $35.90.

The stock has recovered most of the value it lost during the week, having slumped 38 per cent by yesterday’s close.

E.L. & C. Baillieu director, Richard Morrow, said today’s gains in the market were most likely the result of short-covering amongst investors following the surge on US indices.

Short covering is where investors buy the shares at a higher price than they sold them to cover positions that have gone the wrong way.

“It smells of some very, very heavy short-covering, especially in the finance sector, specifically in Macquarie Group,” Mr Morrow said.

In the US, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, Treasury Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke held a closed-door meeting tonight with members of congress.

The ban, if enacted by the SEC, may well be unprecedented and a reflection of regulators’ concern about the widening scope of the financial crisis.

http://www.wabusinessnews.com.au/en-story/1/66638/Naked-short-selling-banned-on-ASX

Short selling has been restricted accross the world. But is short selling a legetimate financial tool?

Hear what professor Sinclair Davidson has to say.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/counterpoint/stories/2008/2370800.htm

You make money in real estate when you buy, not when you sell. The essence of good property investment is buying well.

That’s why I’ve become a buyer since the market and the mood of the public turned south. The current economic and real estate climate is, for me, the ideal circumstance to secure the real estate which will grow my financial security in the future.

Fortunately for me, everyone else seems to be doing the opposite. There’s been a stampede in the wrong direction and I’m happy to be running against the herd. I seem to have the whole territory to myself.

For reasons I’ve never understood, most people seek to create wealth by doing what the masses are doing. They wait until a market is booming before buying. They follow the pack into the frenetic market and buy at or near the peak. No one ever secured their future behaving like this.

One of the oldest maxims in wealth creation is that you buy when everyone is sellin