Infiniti Point - Learn the art of Finance and Business

Martial Arts and Business are of the same mindset - Part I

2008-04-23T01:05:00.000-07:00

As the face of Infiniti Point shifts I am constantly going back towards things that I've been taught in the past to help me get my bearings in regards to where to go next.

Three lessons that Adam Chan, someone that I am proud to call a teacher and a friend have shared with me that have changed his life are:

1) When is a chair not a chair?
2) Where is the mind?
3) Fight with equal parts fire and water.

An excerpt from his forum reads:

"when is a chair not a chair? "- this one haha cause me to relearn everything that i ever learn
" where's his mind " - this one I am still working with , sensing intent where his focus are and hit where he is not , this one change my closing and trapping approach forever
" balance combative arts with healing" - this one cause me to practice chi gung for 10 years

In regards to lesson #1 - When is a chair not a chair?

From the martial arts aspect, this lesson asks the student to reflect on that simple fact that one doesn't need 100 moves to be a master, but must truly understand the value of but a few movements to be effective. I used to believe that the more "moves" I knew, or the more "reactions" that I knew, the better off I was as I collected many different moves from many martial arts. However this was not the case as eventually too many moves clouded my mind while trying to remember the "proper" way to react to a specific attack. Studied properly, a single punch can be used in lieu of a block or a throw, defense or offense. Taken literally, the same chair that you're sitting on could be used as a weapon, a shield, or simply a ladder for screwing in a light bulb or painting that hard to reach spot on the ceiling.

From the business side, I look at different uses for the same technique, product offering, or strategy within a particular movement. Something where people see a tax benefit, you could also use to create capital which then flows into an investment where the capital grows in equity, but also pays out a dividend to enable cash flow.

Akin to making a punch do more than simply strike an opponent, moving your assets into a proper order also gives it's usefulness a magnification factor that supersedes more than the sum of the parts.

Alongside finding different uses for the same subject, movement, or opportunity - sometimes you have to take a look at the "chair" in question to realize it for what it truly is. Not to be course or rude, but to quote Adam:

Earl, the one thing if anything that you learn from me at the end of this lesson is to have a big, expensive bullshit detector for anything and everything out there that could either work, or not work.

So what I've done in my own field of business is started doing some deeper background checking, calling referrals and listening a LOT more intently so as to not make the same mistakes in the past again in the present. The only true path is listening to the arguments from both my heart, and my head instead of ignoring one or the other and making a proper decision after gathering the facts. With our new direction, I feel as though a weight has been lifted off my shoulders, but the next move must ring true with the purpose of iPoint.

To Educate
To Serve
To Profit Together

I really think that needs to find its way onto the new ipoint website once it's done...

Stay tuned for Part II - where I'll visit the lesson "Where is the mind?"

Book list update - My latest Amazon Order

2008-04-09T09:58:00.000-07:00

Yay, my latest order from Amazon just got shipped. Of course I had ordered these in January, but better late than never. One of these days I've got to compile my actual reading list to see where I started and where I am heading. Plus it never hurts to re-read some of the classics. In any case, I've got my work cut out for me. I think I'll start with the Breakthrough Rapid Reading book to see if I can actually read any faster than I already do. Until then, I've still got Make your life a masterpiece by Peter Legge to complete. I even won some books at the Vancouver board of Trade event from yesterday, and purchased a few more for my library. Once I get home today, those should be up on the ol' book list as well.

Here's to learning the art of Finance and Business.

-Earl

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Qty      Item                           Price      Shipped Subtotal
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   1     Taxman Is Watching             CDN$ 14.56      1 CDN$ 14.56
   1     The Paradox of Choice: Why Mo CDN$ 13.83      1 CDN$ 13.83
   1     Breakthrough Rapid Reading     CDN$ 34.13      1 CDN$ 34.13
   1     All the Money in the World: H CDN$ 22.02      1 CDN$ 22.02
   1     Doing What Matters: How to Ge CDN$ 22.05      1 CDN$ 22.05
   1     The Memory Book: The Classic   CDN$ 13.10      1 CDN$ 13.10
   1     Smart Couples Finish Rich: 9   CDN$ 16.02      1 CDN$ 16.02
   1     The Automatic Millionaire: Ca CDN$ 14.56      1 CDN$ 14.56
   1     Start Late, Finish Rich: Cana CDN$ 20.76      1 CDN$ 20.76
   1     The Automatic Millionaire Hom CDN$ 20.76      1 CDN$ 20.76
   1     Rich Dad's Advisors Own Your   CDN$ 16.98      1 CDN$ 16.98
   1     Rich Dad's Advisors How to Bu CDN$ 15.72      1 CDN$ 15.72
   1     Rich Dad's Advisors OPM Other CDN$ 16.98      1 CDN$ 16.98
   1     Rich Dad's Advisors The ABC's CDN$ 16.75      1 CDN$ 16.75
   1     Napoleon Hills Keys To Succes CDN$ 13.51      1 CDN$ 13.51
   1     Hedge Funds For Dummies        CDN$ 17.99      1 CDN$ 17.99
   1     Investing for Canadians for D CDN$ 17.99      1 CDN$ 17.99
   1     Personal Finance For Canadian CDN$ 17.99      1 CDN$ 17.99
   1     97 Tips for Canadian Real Est CDN$ 16.19      1 CDN$ 16.19
   1     Stock Investing For Canadians CDN$ 17.99      1 CDN$ 17.99
   1     The Fundamentals of Hedge Fun CDN$ 68.39      1 CDN$ 68.39
   1     What the CEO Wants You to Kno CDN$ 17.61      1 CDN$ 17.61
   1     Linus and Lucy: Level 5 - Int CDN$ 3.98      1 CDN$ 3.98
   1     Trading For Dummies            CDN$ 17.99      1 CDN$ 17.99
   1     Reading Financial Reports For CDN$ 16.79      1 CDN$ 16.79
   1     Stock Investing For Dummies    CDN$ 15.59      1 CDN$ 15.59
   1     Investing For Dummies          CDN$ 15.59      1 CDN$ 15.59
   1     Profitable Growth Is Everyone CDN$ 20.79      1 CDN$ 20.79
   1     Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas CDN$ 18.90      1 CDN$ 18.90
   1     What Got You Here Won't Get Y CDN$ 18.87      1 CDN$ 18.87
   1     Small Giants                   CDN$ 13.51      1 CDN$ 13.51
   1     The Richest Man in Babylon: N CDN$ 14.65      1 CDN$ 14.65

Initiative - Make your life a masterpiece

2008-04-05T11:39:00.000-07:00

I'm currently reading the book: Make your life a masterpiece by Peter Legge
And something that stood out in the first few pages of the book is a quote by Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie once said:

"The world needs more men that have the courage to act on their own initiative. Moreover, men of this type write their own price tag and the world willingly pays it. The world willingly rewards men of initiative."

I think I've been able to harness the ability of initiative, but what I am missing is a proper system with which to exercise the skillsets and knowledge that my mentors have imparted to me. With the fall of my last product vendor, I've been on the lookout for something new to work with where it's possible to continue my goal of helping people reach financial freedom, alongside building a business that helps my community.

It's a little harder to run the initiatives with the once bitten twice shy mentality of a person burnt from our last project, but I'm going to roll the initiative die with another go in Public Company arena. Should that fail - I'll continue with the initiative in real estate to see where that takes me. We'll see how the road opens up. I'll keep things posted up here to track my own progress, but the readings do help keep my chin up.

Inspiration comes from many different places.

2008-04-03T23:52:00.000-07:00

There's an article that describes how a mugger's life was changed via kindness that I found on a forum the other day.

It's interesting and inspirational to see that people trying to help others are still rewarded for their troubles and work.

A Victim Treats His Mugger Right
Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner.

But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.

He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.

"He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, 'Here you go,'" Diaz says.

As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, "Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you're going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm."

The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, "like what's going on here?" Diaz says. "He asked me, 'Why are you doing this?'"

Diaz replied: "If you're willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me ... hey, you're more than welcome.

"You know, I just felt maybe he really needs help," Diaz says.

Diaz says he and the teen went into the diner and sat in a booth.

"The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, the waiters come by to say hi," Diaz says. "The kid was like, 'You know everybody here. Do you own this place?'"

"No, I just eat here a lot," Diaz says he told the teen. "He says, 'But you're even nice to the dishwasher.'"

Diaz replied, "Well, haven't you been taught you should be nice to everybody?"

"Yea, but I didn't think people actually behaved that way," the teen said.

Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life. "He just had almost a sad face," Diaz says.

The teen couldn't answer Diaz — or he didn't want to.

When the bill arrived, Diaz told the teen, "Look, I guess you're going to have to pay for this bill 'cause you have my money and I can't pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I'll gladly treat you."

The teen "didn't even think about it" and returned the wallet, Diaz says. "I gave him $20 ... I figure maybe it'll help him. I don't know."

Diaz says he asked for something in return — the teen's knife — "and he gave it to me."

Afterward, when Diaz told his mother what happened, she said, "You're the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch."

"I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It's as simple as it gets in this complicated world."

In the martial arts, my teacher has taught me that there are many levels of awareness that people possess in which to practice their art, alongside many levels of skill that are attainable with the proper training and dedication to practice.

Level 0 - Bad guy throws punch, you don't even notice, you get hit
Level 1 - Bad guy throws punch, you notice, you get hit
Level 2 - Bad guy throws punch, you notice, you duck, but get clipped
Level 3 - Bad guy throws punch, you notice and get out of the way
Level 4 - Bad guy throws punch, you notice, get out of the way, and have time to hit back
Level 5 - Bad guy throws punch, you notice, get out of the way, block and counter
Level 6 - Bad guy throws punch, you notice, time slows down, you have More time to block and counter.
Level 7 - Bad guy throws punch, you notice, time slows down, and you have time to intercept with a direct attack
Level 8 - Bad guy is about to throw punch, you notice, hit him first.
Level 9 - Bad guy is thinking about throwing punch, you stop him with words but back up your words with proper body structure so that you have TIME to intercept the intent should he continue.
Level 10 - Your awareness is strong enough that the bad guy never tries to attack you in the first place.
Level 11+ - You're awareness and skillset is strong enough that you convert the would be enemy into a friend and ally. The conflict is over before it starts, and it's as if it never existed.

Some day I'd like to reach the skillset and awareness levels that would allow me to stop fights before they're even thought of. I do still honestly want a method of business that is truly a win-win with mitigated risk for the clients, and a strong upside for everyone. So I'm still in training to find the answers to the financial side of the picture, the martial artist side, and the ability to truly help others in my lifetime.

The problem is that the only way to truly experience a deeper sense of peace, you must understand the exact opposite to find the real meaning. Something else is that any self-made truly successful trader must lose a few accounts to learn the life lessons that allow them to become successful. I believe that failure is an ingredient in the learning process to reach enlightenment. That being said, both failures and successfulness are only temporary, and only the test of time in the end is a fair measure of one's worth. It's not the disasters and successes measured against one another to dictate the value of your persona, but how you handle both sides of winning and losing, and to what degree you're willing to stand up for yourself and others.

Reaching the Infiniti Point is not just a monetary goal, but a life worth goal as well. Something worth striving for. Perfection itself is just an illusion, eternally traded upwards and reinventing itself as time goes on. Therefore in the end, the journey doesn't stop.

Is there anything actually GOOD out there?

2008-03-23T22:25:00.000-07:00

I have to admit I'm a little disheartened. Every "investment opportunity" I've come across in the general public that didn't come from a bank, or proper financial institution has failed dismally, ended up as a scam or a fraud, and has hurt me, and people I've referred to these things to help me do due diligence have also been taken.

Hell one of the things I've been involved in even has a DOCUMENTARY being done on it.

However with all of the obstacles and problems in the way of reaching my goals of financial freedom, I still believe that there must be something out there - an opportunity that beats the odds and creates a place where ordinary people can create a vehicle for financial freedom in this world.

Something that I would like to do is to create a coalition of the willing. A group of individuals who will put their skills to the test to assist in creating a system to help find and vet investment opportunities for ourselves to better our own financial IQ, knowledge base and in turn produce a group of savvy and successful investors.

Having said that, I am changing the face of Infiniti Point Strategies for those of you who have tried to check on the website as of late - you've found an "under construction" page for the last little while. We're getting closer to creating the new system - but this time we're focusing even DEEPER on the educational aspects, bringing in successful guest speakers, finding the courses and knowledge to better improve your financial IQ, and perhaps finding joint venture partners along the way to make the world a better place for everyone. My dream still exists to catch that Infiniti Point - and with perseverance, focus, and a little luck - we'll create the stars from which we wish upon.

Infiniti Point Strategies: Closing Doors sometimes leads to more opportunities

2008-02-27T21:10:00.000-08:00

I just read an interesting article on how removing options actually makes life a whole lot simpler. Closing Doors

Decisions Decisions... from a leadership perspective, you're better off making a decision and sticking to it to show that you actually have an opinion, and that you're actually choosing a direction rather than wandering around aimlessly. Irregardless of the rationale that went behind the decision itself, people would more likely follow someone who believed they were sure - rather than someone trying to hold open ALL of the doors.

From a personal networking side, it's not a question of whether or not you are allowing a door to close or not. You just have to keep all of the doors slightly ajar, and failing that, you just have to remember where the doors are, and which door does what. For in this arena, a door is never closed unless you've completely burned the bridge.

Lastly from a marketing perspective, you will ALWAYS make more sales with more than a single choice, as now your clients see some sort of selection, but there is a barrier that once you cross over into TOO MANY choices, people will simply stop purchasing things because they now need time to think about it more, and with too many decisions and distractions in life already - if it slips their mind, you've lost the opportunity.

I think I'm working way too much these days...

Infiniti Point Book Review: The Lazy Investor by Derek Foster

2008-02-17T15:03:00.000-08:00

I'm taking a step back and beginning to read a lot about the new sector that I want to investigate - which is the stock market. Even with the hiccups along the road and the roadblocks that slow us down from reaching our financial goals, I still believe that there is a way for people to escape the rat race and reach financial independence on their own terms without working until you're 60+. You learn to ride a bicycle by falling and getting back on again.

I was just recently invited to a seminar at the Vancouver Convention Centre, and although it was full of people, the presentations themselves were uninteresting to me. The business itself looks like it adds up, but I think I need some further investigation to decide whether or not it works from the numbers side of things. Luckily enough there just happened to be a Financial Forum just down the hall which caught my attention.

A book that stood out from the rest at the Coles bookstand titled: "The Lazy Investor" looked interesting, and the tagline start with $50 and no Investment Knowledge looked appealing. From the title - it sounded like it fit in with my mission to help others and myself along the way to the Infiniti Point.

In short - this book taught me about DRIP programs - or Dividend Reinvestment Plans. It's a method where you purchase stocks that pay dividends and then reinvest the dividends to buy more shares of the same stocks, which in turn pay more dividends and increase the amount of cashflow. With the dividend payouts and the equity gains in the stocks being purchased, the gains are slow and steady but also give you a near "recession-proof" system as long as the companies that you purchase the stock in don't go under.

In my own opinion - the pros and cons of this are straightforward.

The structure of the program is sound - however it sounds more of like a "PLAN B" structure to the real estate, investment banking and other systems I'm learning - but hey, everyone needs some sort of backup plan to make things work out. In comparison to the other options of subscribing to a commission based, trailer dependent financial planning company or bank rife with fees (no offense to those in the industry, but I just like doing my own homework) I believe that this would be an excellent passive route for spare investment funds.

Once I open up my first few DRIP accounts - I'll blog their results as part of my online portfolio.

Thanks for reading and Happy Investing!
Earl Flormata

Infiniti Point - Stopping the Madness

2008-02-02T19:04:00.000-08:00

Digging around on the internet, I got a link showing that apparently Vancouver is a place where people can hide out and work on things that are not so much on the lighter side of the fence. My intent on creating Infiniti Point was to get a group of like minded individuals together to work as a team on learning how investments work, and working together to build our financial houses together.

With the whole mess of HFX going on - I'm going to focus back on the basics again and head back into a stronger training phase for myself and the agents around me that still wish to follow. Having said that - we're going to look at 3 major markets - Real Estate, Foreign Exchange (again), and the Stock Market.

I'm going to continue attending the real estate courses that I've already started into, alongside starting to take courses on the stock market in the few upcoming months. In the meantime, I've set aside all outside forex trading opportunities and will go back to my roots of reviewing the basics and working with my original forex teachers from the Philippines. You'll note on the ipoint investment club blog a new post with forex trading signals. These come straight from my original forex teacher: Jomer Abelarde, who I will continue to work with to rebuild the forex side of ipoint.

There's still some great opportunities out there but in the meantime, it's back to school for me as I rebuild the group up. If any of the iPoint clients are interested in where the next sets of training will be held, just keep an eye on this blog alongside the forum. There will be an excellent communications course that I'm going to help administer for Dr. Blair Dunkley in February - so if you're interested - drop me a line and I'll keep you posted. I've already started on the HFX victims fund as well, and I execute my first few trades next week. Wish me luck as I start the journey again, but with more experience under my belt.

Happy Investing,
Earl Flormata

Fall from Grace.

2008-01-28T09:09:00.000-08:00

So let's all trade "my worst day ever" stories shall we?

In one simple email, from a person that I thought I could trust to get things done properly - laid the very worst case scenario position I could ever hear about. Horizon FX Investments was linked to Razor FX Investments in a Fraudulent Ponzi scheme that would wipe out at least 26M of investor money from our side of the fence. Talk about a hard pill to swallow...

At this point in time, I was sitting in a meeting learning more about purchasing Real Estate, and I had already marked myself down for 3 properties - none of which I'd have the money for at the drop of a hat. As I read the email, I felt sick to my stomach, and simultaneously thanked the stars that there was a cease trade order on Horizon to prevent even more of my friends, family, loved ones and acquaintances from further harm. The thought of hurling myself off of the penthouse balcony shortly after the presentation also sounded quite inviting at the time as well, but if it hadn't been for my wife, and baby on the way the lure of the pavement below might have enticed me to try and fly.

With the thought of suicide passing through my mind - the very next thought I had was to immediately find Gem to ensure that he didn't jump himself. First of all was that he was a friend from my previous life at Business Objects - second was a selfish thought that he was my only connection to the supposed "traders" that had run off with our money! Needless to say, the last pieces of the presentation were a blur, but I'll get back to that LAND opportunity later. I'm starting to seriously think that real estate might be a really damn good option to pursue at this point in time seeing as I can touch the ground, the bricks, swing the door and ride up and down the elevator to convince myself that it is, in fact: REAL.

Needless to say there was a bit of a panic among my 1000+ customer base (how much of it is still around I have yet to find out) who trusted my initial due diligence on the historical reports that HFX provided. For those of you that know me - I am a novice forex trader, but knew enough back then how to back test the data - and it all came back just fine. However the problem was that I had stopped testing the new data, and chalked it up to a typo when my Chief Trader overseas told me that the reports were off a few times in the last few weeks. Lesson learned - never stop testing. Next time, that'll have to be part of the situation - among many other safety methods for the collective investment group.

I've had some time to cool off and think things through a bit. Hindsight being 20/20 - here's a summary of the lessons learned so that nobody repeats the same mistake:

1) I don't care how long you've known the person running the company - get background checks on the traders and the principles of the company and all that are involved. PERIOD. Never trust anyone to get it done for you - no matter what. Make friends with the police and get a regular account going with them. Hell, make friends with the gangsters so they can run background checks from their end. Do what it takes to make sure that the investment is running clean.

2) Apart from due diligence, the next step in the phase is vigilance. Check, doublecheck, triplecheck, and keep checking as a religious ritualistic procedure to ensure that you don't get caught blindsided by evidence that would point to your investment not being as "sound" as the owner says it is.

3) Learn the industry. You don't have to become a master at it, but learn enough to network your way to the people who are strong enough to help maintain the vigilance at a level higher than your own. Then strive to increase the thoroughness of the testing. You can never be too sure. Taking a calculated risk is required - but keep your hands on the calculator.

4) Diversify, not diworseify. From now on in, I'm going to fix the spread on my investments across multiple markets, and adjust more often. Currencies, Stock, Real Estate, Commodities.

================

To all of the investors that have believed in me on this one - I apologize. I truly didn't see it coming. I think my immediate and extended family lost just over 2M on this. Hence lesson #4 - I'll keep in mind not to overextend again - ever. I had personally tested EACH and EVERY line of the historical reports and they fit to the graphs that I have purchased. These guys were professionals in this arena - so let's all be better prepared for next time.

What are the next steps to take?

1) Seek legal counsel.

2) Join others that are looking to either a civil suit or class action suit

3) Collect all email or written documentation with HFX.

4) Save all your weekly reports

5) Ask your bank for all documentation that supports deposits or withdrawals

6) Talk to your accountant about possible write-offs from this investment loss.

7) Contact the BC securities commission to see what they are doing about this.

8) Keep your head up. This sucks for everyone but the only way you are a victim is if you let this defeat you.

9) Call the US DOJ and get a claim number if you can.

10) Find the case number and post on this site so we can all keep updated.

11) Contact any other investors that you know and alert them about this site so that we can work together as a team rather than lost individuals.

12) Contact the BC or Canada DOJ to see what kind of help they can provide us all.BC - http://www.gov.bc.ca/ag/ CAN - http://www.justice.gc.ca/en/index.html

================

On a personal note - although I too was burned by this, I'm creating a fund from my other investments to work on helping those that overextended to the breaking point financially. It's not that you shouldn't be more careful and expect someone to come bailing you out in a riskier endeavor - however if you came in under my wing, or the Infiniti Point flag - know that I will not rest until I have protected each and every last one of you, at least to an extent. We're currently looking over our legal options, alongside other avenues to recoup what we can from the lost money. The iPoint HFX victim's fund will be started immediately to help those in need. I'll also be contacting accountants to give us options on mitigating the loss in its current form to our utmost advantage (tax write offs - hopefully something other than capital loss/gains).

With a heavy heart - it's hard to start the year out with a large loss, but it's only through a fire that a phoenix is re-born. I still believe this is a year for opportunity. It can't get much worse than this now can it? Join the group currently at the hfxscam wiki to find out more information as things progress. Check out Karl's blog for more too.

Although the sound of a "normal" job sounds really enticing to even me right about now, I still do believe that there are opportunities out there for someone in the middle class to attain a higher standard of living without the need to sacrifice time that could be spent with family and more pleasurable and humanitarian pursuits. So keep your head up, don't let this loss drag you down, and keep striving to reach the Infiniti Point. I dreamt that I touched it once - and I still believe that it is within our reach to find a true and real opportunity out there. I've been demoted from a humble student to a now shamed and humble student. All the more reason to work harder at working smarter.

Infiniti Point: Ritz, more than just a cracker.

2008-01-09T01:22:00.000-08:00

Downtown Vancouver pricing on real estate seems to have no true upper limit as of yet. The Ritz Carlton (not to be confused with the other "Ritz" )has just broken the $20 million price barrier and is now the most expensive condo penthouse in BC.

Now with that type of price tag - it's no wonder that people think Vancouver is expensive to live in. Even though it's still considered as one of the top ten places in the world to live. Having said that I'm about to embark on a journey towards learning more and more about real estate.

It's about time I suppose that I move into that territory as it complements the stock market training I'm undergoing as well. With the support from my income in the Forex sector - it's a definitely worth a deeper look. I'll be attending the course run by Albert Lowry on Friday through to Sunday.

However before then, I'll be taking 2 days off my normal "working" time - (if you can call what I do "work") because it's my wife's birthday on the 10th - and our dating anniversary on the 9th. (Damn you Karl for prodding me to ask her out the day before her bday. If only we had that discussion a week earlier, or later...) Now see, I had asked her out without thinking of the financial ramifications of having Christmas, New Years, Our Dating Anniversary (which sounds funny, but is almost more meaningful to us than our wedding anniversary), Her Birthday, and Valentine's Day within the same 2 month timespan. But that was then, and now I'm doing a little better than before with my $5/hour martial arts teaching job, and paper route back in the day. Never forget to balance the whole work/family ratio in life. We have to stop and smell the flowers once in awhile eh?

Well - back to the real estate, I just purchased a house for $540k on the market - and after the renovations, I'm hoping to pull out the equity growth to invest for cashflow and not have to worry so much about the mortgage payments. (not that I worry a whole lot now, but meh, less worrying is even better) Time to see if I can't buy the next house on the block and make it cashflow as well... only time will tell, but I'll keep you all posted on what happens next. Gotta love that Smith Manoeuvre ... oh that and spellcheck. God Bless spellcheck. M-A-N-O-E-U-V-R-E... I'll get it right one of these days.

Just because I'm the CEO of Infiniti Point doesn't mean I stop researching... why you ask? One - because it's no fun being alone on the beach without my friends, and Two? Well - I can't afford a penthouse at the Ritz quite yet. Almost, but still a little journey away. Until then, have a good one, and I'll just keep reading and researching away.

Infiniti Point: Really Good Returns?

2008-01-07T01:41:00.000-08:00

What are "really good returns" to you? To me, it used to be 8-10% or higher when I was just a regular sheep following the herd into RRSP land. Then it changed to 30% or higher, now with the investment banking training, forex trading training, and real estate training between my ears, it'd better be 200-400% or higher. What is risk but a calculated variable? If you can mitigate risk with control - then is it truly still called gambling? Counting the cards is frowned upon, but a necessary skill when attempting to take on Vegas is it not? A 1% average win ratio above and beyond the house is still an asset. What then is the difference being armed with the power that is knowledge when entering the financial realm? I know it's an over-used term, but crossing the street is still considered taking a risk is it not? However crossing without looking or running across a highway isn't the brightest thing to do either. Besides, knowing more than the average investor gives me a little more than that card counting 1% bonus.

The best investment by far is the asset that lies between your ears. This doesn't mean that I'm about to go informercial on your ass and try to sell you some lame "how to win at everything" e-book duct taped to DVD's and a chaser seminar to upsell you even more crap that you don't need. In the future, iPoint will go even deeper into the educational portion with proper lessons, but it'll just cover the essentials before someone can get their feet wet with their new found opportunities.

iPoint is a company that researches investments and shares it with their clients. We all take part in helping to decide whether or not an investment is a good idea or a bad idea, and help everyone by providing a proper opinion from a non-biased standpoint. I'm usually the first guinea pig to test something out with my own personal funds, but I let people know where and when I'm playing so you can help give your own opinion, or tag along for the ride. I'm not a licensed financial planner, nor will I ever want to become one because it limits what I'm allowed to say to people, as the place where my license would be hung would dictate what to sell, and what to say. Besides, I'm not selling - but rather educating people on their options in what's truly available out there. Although I'm somewhat successful, I don't consider myself to be a genius, a guru, or an expert of any sort in the financial realm. I am but a student - willing to share what I know in exchange for a chance to learn more because for me - it's no longer a necessity, but a game and a labour of love. In the end, my loyalty lies with the bottom line, and my people.

Infiniti Point: New Year - New Opportunity

2008-01-06T00:24:00.000-08:00

So, it's the year 2008 - what I believe will be a definitive year for Infiniti Point Strategies. With the 8 in the year representing our "Infinity" vision it's time to make things happen.

My own personal and business resolutions:

- Read at LEAST one inspirational business book a month and post and share the wisdom online
- To continue to read and learn and SHARE information on my blog posts 2x week
- Help those closer to me attain at least 500k/annum in passive income by 2010
- "Earn my leather jacket" - I'll post what this means to me in a future article.
- Balance my life using the techniques learned from Timothy Ferris and his 4 hour work week
- Create automation and tighter community in the iPoint world so more can be done in less time

With each passing day it seems that my eyes open wider and wider to allow me to see even more opportunity than ever before. It's a shame that so many others out there waste time with excuses, "reasons" and rationalizations to prove why they can't be successful when even someone with such a simple mind can figure out ways to win in this world. 6 3-point shots in a row isn't a fluke. Reaching my old yearly income in a month isn't a fluke anymore either. Now to set the bar even higher, and let's see how long it takes to reach 1M/month. Apparently there's something beyond infinity after all... Now... bring me that horizon. and touch the Infiniti Point

Infiniti Point: To Tax Shelter, or Not to Tax Shelter?

2007-12-24T14:20:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia: Tax Shelter
Merriam Webster: Tax Shelter

Always think of any and all tax shelters as a temporary boost in capital - or a temporary loan from the government. It matter not about the strength of the program, the political backing, or the different laws or exemptions that it uses - but what you do with the money in the time between receiving the return, and having to pay it back.

That's right - the proper usage for a tax shelter is simply to attain capital to invest in something that generates a higher rate of return than the penalties attached to using said tax shelter. Done properly you will come out with a significant gain. You can't play a rich man's game with a poor man's mindset. Stop thinking about the structures as a point of "winning vs. losing" against the CRA. They will always have deeper pockets than you.

In using the term "lose" - that would be in the case if you participated in a tax shelter, then spent the money on liabilities. The only way to truly come out ahead - and "win" is to make the money grow. Whether it's in real estate, the foreign exchange market, or elsewhere - just plant the seeds to win the game.

When Infiniti Point Strategies selects a tax shelter - it's for the structure of the shelter to be strong enough to meet the following criteria:

1) To be strong enough to be defensible in a court of law - up to supreme court. - This allows for the longest amount of time before the court cases end, and in turn generates the most amount of growth for the clients' investment choices.

2) To support real charities with real causes - in our own backyard. Helping Canadian charities is our primary philantrophic goal when choosing to support it with Canadian Tax Dollars. The rear view mirror test in the case where the charity could exist and continue to do good works regardless of the tax shelter associated with it is an excellent test to put to a tax shelter program.

For those of you who haven't invested yet, there's no better time to start than the present.

If you're still not sure about the temporary benefits of a tax shelter, check out these links sent to me by an ex-co-worker of mine.

http://www.metronews.ca/story.aspx?id=98596
http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=01a7a395-5b33-4925-9453-27acacf8a7cd&k=51696
http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/287682
http://community.intuit.ca/discussion/index.php?showtopic=26826

Following up on the CRA’s intentions, there’s still a way to participate in tax shelters and make financial gains regardless of how the courts turn out.

Worst case scenario.
Let’s assume that CRA charges us 9% per annum (it’s between 8 and 9) as interest, and disallows the claims for 100% of the donation, Cash and otherwise.

So here’s an example of $2000.
$2000 1:5 Ratio = $12000 total receipts x .437 = $5244

CRA has 3 year statute of limitations to challenge shelter. Assume they wait until the last minute to gather highest interest.
Let’s also assume that your investment is growing at a 30% rate per annum (worst historical growth for one of the opportunities that I show people.)
The shortest court case on Tax Shelters was about 8 years – I’ll assume 5

Even after the capital gains of the investment are taken in account – you’re still at a net positive position when compared to the interest requested from the CRA. In the case where you’ve already spent the money – you can still set aside the same amount for a shorter period of time (3-5 years as opposed to 8) and still make a profit, even from borrowed money.

Infiniti Point: His and Her Bank accounts.

2007-12-20T15:39:00.000-08:00

I came across an interesting article on those pesky MSN messenger pop ups that spit out the news. His and Her Bank Accounts . Friend or Foe?

My current situation is that we have his/her/and ours for everything. Chequing, Savings, Foreign Currency, Investments, Credit Cards, etc. Now the funny thing is that it's not so much about privacy, equality, shared responsibility and all of that. It's for the plain and simple reason that if something should happen to either one of us, we know that the joint accounts might be troublesome to deal with depending on the bank - so we figured to keep separate accounts to allow each other to continue to have access to funds at all times.

I agree that people should share the wealth between partners, but not always at a 50/50 rate. If one of you is better with numbers and investments than the other, then try something like 40/40/20 after paying the bills. (20 to go into investments and savings - or at least as much as possible to be directed by the better numbers person, but of course discussed with both).

Now regarding the investments themselves, for the name on the page ensure that you put the person with the lower income bracket to save on the tax burden. Even better, incorporate both of you under separate companies to take advantage of the ability for corporations to be forgiven X amount of Capital Gains to increase what you keep in your pocket even more. Just don't forget on the beneficiary side to include the name of your significant other / children.

Just my 2 cents. Now the important part - 40% or 20% or 50% of nothing is still ZERO. So get out there and learn how to invest from people at Infiniti Point http://www.ipoint.ca/ and see what they can show you.

Financial Age <> Physical Age <> Wisdom.

2007-12-19T00:34:00.000-08:00

Doug Anderson's newer article speaks about not discriminating against age when it comes to learning something.

The funny thing is that I'd have to agree and disagree at the same time. I agree more-so not just because I'm the "younger fellow" he spoke of in his blog, but because I'm learning from and meeting new people from a 20-year-old who surpasses even my ability to network and find people. Although I feel that my experiences in general give me a better balance of skills, I must admit that I am impressed with his network and contact base. On the flip side however, Darcy Rezac from the Vancouver Board of Trade is also a networking genius himself although a bit older than the "old guy" 35 that Doug mentioned. So there's something to be learned from everyone of all ages. I do see that Darcy's methods are much more refined than Kosta's however the fresh outlook would be refreshing from Kosta's side in comparison to Darcy.

Humility and the role of the servant leader play in this territory as younglings are getting richer at a faster pace than their predecessors, but are also arrogant and have an "invincible" mentality that allows them to sometimes make rash moves that put them into not-so-good predicaments. All I ask for in the end truly is to bring balance into life, learn from everyone and everything, and stop the smell the roses now and then to stretch your legs and not work.

Me? - I'm looking forward to taking another bit of vacation early in the new year, sitting on the beach, then coming back to my hotel room to my trusty laptop and finding that happy balance between work and play.

In martial arts, you tie your belt in a fashion that both sides are of equal length that symbolizes balance. One day I'll pursue the dream of writing a book with my mentors and how I applied Martial Arts to Business and won.

Fran's Guide to Obtaining and Maintaining Excellent Credit.

2007-12-13T01:23:00.000-08:00

One of things that I want to explore in greater detail is the concept of credit.
How do I obtain credit?
How do I check my credit history?
How can I repair any errors in my credit report?

Perhaps ipoint could look into getting an alliance with a group that can help our client base increase and maintain their credit scores so we have a stronger overall group to learn together with, and perhaps run joint ventures with.

In my travels I ran into an excellent credit article in a forum. With the author's permission, I've re-posted it for people to share in. Hopefully someone can "Canadianize" it and re-post it as an article for the ipoint group. Either way, at least I'm taking the steps to learn about the wide world of finance from all of its facets.

In America, your credit is based on credit history. The longer you have credit, the more prompt your payments, and the lower your balances, the better credit you will have. Unfortunately, having no credit is usually just as bad - and in some cases worse - than having bad credit.

Why Credit is Important

It seems that the old days of paying for everything with cash are gone. Doing so these days will actually cost you additional money - potentially thousands of dollars. Your credit - like it or not - plays a huge role in many things that you do. It affects your insurance rates, is utilized by many apartment complexes to approve tenants, obtain credit cards, vehicle loans, and mortgages. Recently, quite a few employers have recently started screening for potential employees by examining their credit. The fact is, it is hugely advantageous to have a high credit rating, and likely will make life much easier on you - not to mention much less expensive in the long run.

The difference between good and bad credit on large purchases is tremendous. A person with a poor credit rating will generally pay tens of thousands of dollars more in interest than someone with average credit, and a person with excellent credit will pay even less.

The Credit Reporting Agencies
There are three main credit reporting agencies. Some institutions use what are called tri-merge bureaus, which is pulling information from each bureau and combining it into one. Others use individual CRAs, which usually vary by the area. In the Midwest, for instance, if we are using a single CRA, we use TransUnion.
You can get more information about each Credit reporting agency, as well as order your credit report to check your score and/or accuracy at these websites:
www.transunion.com
www.equifax.com
www.experian.com

Types of Tradelines

Basically, a tradeline is simply an open line of credit. There are several different types, which we will discuss.

Revolving
Usually the most common type of tradeline out there, it simply means that it is an open-ended line of credit. You can borrow money on it, pay it back, and then re-borrow without having to reapply for the tradeline. The most common revolving credit lines out there are credit cards, although some institutions do offer revolving lines of credit and other products. These types of tradelines usually have payments that increase or decrease according to the balance of the loan. These types of loans are generally frowned upon by potential borrowers.

Installment
This tradeline is a type of loan that you borrow $X on and pay it off over a set timeframe. An example of this type of loan would be a vehicle loan. These types of loans generally have fixed payments.

Mortgage
Basically, any type of loan using real property as collateral is considered to be a mortgage. These are typically installment loans, but there are other revolving products out there, such as lines of credit. These types of loans help your credit the most and damage your credit the least.

Obtaining Credit

Basically, it is usually very difficult to obtain credit when you have no credit history. The easiest ways to obtain credit would be either with a secured loan, secured credit card, or a co-signer.

Secured Loan/Secured Credit Card
Getting either a secured loan or credit card is probably the easiest way to get credit without help from others. Basically, with both a secured loan and a credit card the lending institution is lending money out to you because they have collateral. Collateral is something that is used to guarantee payment - common collateral are vehicles, homes, and funds. In most cases, these credit cards and loans will secured by funds - that is, cash you have in the bank. Generally, you will be required to deposit $X into an account with the institution. In this example, we'll use $500 as $X. Once your $500 dollars are in the account, they put a freeze on it - making it impossible for you to withdraw those funds until the account is closed or the funds are released. The institution will then issue you either a credit card or a secured loan, using those frozen funds as collateral.

If it is a credit card - secured or unsecured - never, ever charge over 50% of the credit limit, even if you pay the card off in full each month. The reasoning behind this is because potential lenders like to see that you still have funds available on your open lines of credit - that you are being responsible with it. The reasoning you can't ever do it is because the company that holds the credit card reports to the Credit Reporting Agencies (from now on known as CRAs for the sake of typing less) only once per month, effectively taking a "snapshot" of your current balances. If you are maxed out, even if the check to pay off the balance is in the mail, it will reflect poorly on you.

If it is a secured loan, although it may be tempting because it is costing you money to pay interest, don't pay it off early unless you have found a better alternative. Credit history is exactly that - history of your payments. The longer you have the loan, the better off you'll be in the long run. Look at the money you are paying in interest as an investment - maybe even the best you have ever made. With good credit, you will save tens of thousands of dollars in interest on big ticket items, such as a house.

To obtain either a secured credit card or a secured loan, I would suggest checking with your local banks or credit unions, and avoiding any cards with an annual fee. As long as you pay your balance off on full each month on credit cards, you do not have to pay any interest.

Cosigner
A cosigner is basically another individual put on the note ( loan) that is also responsible for payments. The cosigner is 100% responsible, they don't have any less responsibility than the actual borrower. If the payments are late or the loan defaults, the cosigners credit will be damaged just as much, if not more, than the borrowers. Using a cosigner will often allow you to obtain credit that you normally wouldn't be able to obtain without any other credit history. Lower interest rates, longer terms, or even just getting approved are some examples as to how cosigners can help. Having a cosigner on a note doesn't really matter as far as building credit goes, it will either increase or decrease as if you were on the debt alone.

Maintaining Credit

Basically, once you have obtained credit, maintaining it will be the key that will eventually unlock the "excellent" credit door. Time is both your friend and enemy - it will, after a number of years, erase any poor credit you may have, but it will also take a while to build good credit.

The key to maintaining and improving credit comes from six main factors. These factors are:
Payment History
Length of time accounts have been established
Keeping your balances below 50% of the limit
Having little unsecured debt
Having low outstanding balances
Number of Tradelines

We'll examine them a bit further

Payment History
This is by far and large the most important factor, and one of the biggest contributors to either helping or damaging your credit rating. Having a flawless or near flawless payment history is the best way to keep excellent credit. Payments are reported late only if they are 30+ days delinquent. Not that I would recommend it, but that means you could be 20 days late every month on your credit card payments and still have perfect payment history - although I would imagine you would be paying quite a sum in fees and interest.

Length of Time Accounts have been established
The longer accounts have been open, the better it will reflect on you. A credit history of 10+ years is very, very good.

Keeping your balances below 50% of the limit
This is important because the CRAs keep track of the highest balance you have ever carried on your revolving credit - aka credit cards or other revolving lines. Fortunately, however, if you were near or over your limit, the more time that passes the less it affects your score. If you recently went near/over your limit, a quick fix to this is to simply increase your credit limit and don't every go above your previous high balance.

Having little unsecured debt
The less unsecured debt you have the better off you are going to be. Unsecured debt is basically debt that you have that does not have any collateral attached to it - the most common unsecured debt is credit card debt, although there are other unsecured products out there.

Having low outstanding balances
Basically, this is regarding your total debt. Mortgages don't seem to have a whole lot of effect on this, but credit cards, vehicle loans, and other installments loans do play a role in this total. The less the debt, the better the credit

Number of Tradelines
The ideal situation is to only have 2-3 credit cards out there for unsecured debt, maybe a vehicle loan, and a mortgage. Believe it or not, you are actually penalized for not having any revolving credit lines out there - which would include credit cards. Many people have dozens of open accounts and never use them. There is absolutely no reason to have 10-15 or more credit lines open, even if you have no balances, the amount you could potentially borrow plays a role in calculating the score. Also, when closing accounts, make sure you actually contact the institution to close it, simply cutting them up and throwing them away isn't actually closing the account.

The Credit Score

Your credit score is simply a score assigned to you by the CRAs. They calculate your FICO score based on a variety of criteria, much of it is mysteriously shrouded. C'mon, you know everyone likes being graded on things where the rules aren't given to them, right?

Hopefully this will shed a little light on the topic...

Basically, the higher the score is, the more likely you are to repay your outstanding debts. By following this guide, you should attain a high score with relative ease - and keep it that way. However, there are a variety of little nuances that also affect it that many people are unaware of. For instance, applying for credit actually damages your score. If you often apply for credit and have a lower score than you feel you should, this is likely the reason. If you want to inquire about interest rates with several different companies, call them all on the same day. Several inquires lower your score far less if they are made the same day than those same inquiries spread over several days or several weeks. This is to allow the consumer to be able to shop around for rates and what not, without taking the full impact of applying at each place. Other factors include things I have mentioned above, and likely several others that I am unaware of.

Credit Myths and Legends

Paying extra payments/the account off faster helps your credit
False - Credit History is simply whether or not you make your payment on time or not. It doesn't actually show the amounts that you paid, simply whether or not it was on time - No more, no less.

It is good to have many accounts with no balances
False - Having many open accounts will actually reflect negatively on you. Potentially Lenders look not only at your current balances, but the actual amount you can borrow at any given time

A higher income will give you better credit
False - Nowhere does your income report to your bureau - it certainly will be a factor when trying to get approved, but doesn't actually help your score

Staying at the same Job Helps your Credit
True - If you are employed at the same place for more than 5 years, it will have a tremendous positive impact on your scores

Only older people have good credit
False - Young people can have good credit also, although admittedly, it is much harder to get your scores up due to the lack of activity

It only takes 2-3 months to get good credit when first starting out
False - It actually takes 6 months of continuous reporting before you even get a score, most lenders won't touch someone who does not have a score without a cosigner

Being an authorized user on someones card helps your credit
True - Usually, it will report to the bureau exactly like a card on your name - although of course, it will not be helpful if the person is near the limit or late on payment

It's ok to charge up to the maximum limit on credit cards as long as you pay it off each month
False, see above where I explain how the reporting works - the "snapshot" of your credit doesn't necessarily reflect if it is paid in full each month or not.

Author:
Fran Bourassa

Well - if anyone can find any groups that would do more good than harm in the credit realm for the ipoint community, drop me a line and let's see if we can't create a synergy.

Cheers,
Earl

Financial and Medical Opportunities in Watching the Trend.

2007-12-07T10:54:00.000-08:00

In keeping up with my posts - I suppose I should drop some teasers in regards to one of the products that Infiniti Point is looking at sharing with our member base.

Now first of all let's take a step back to identifying the trend. Back to my trusty handy handy tablet - I've managed to make yet another Picasso-esque diagram to somehow describe the pictures in my head.

Disregard the little circle on the picture, that'd be the cursor that I was too dumb to move, and I'm too lazy to screenshot it again...

So now that you've got the picture in your head somewhat, imagine that this giant spike in population is slowing moving through the ages. Did you ever wonder why there were so many more GOOD cartoons in the 80's? How did Huggies and Mattel and all of the other companies geared towards kids do so well in this timeframe? Now just imagine that this HUGE pile of people in the same age group is reaching the retirement age... naturally things will change. The cartoons and excess of cool breakfast cereal "prizes" are now gone - but what's in its place?

Some food for thought:

Taken from:
CNN Money
and
FDIC.GOV respectively.

Having pointed out all of these things - again there is opportunity here to do good things and help people in their time of need. The product line I'm running this teaser on is basically in the life settlements and viaticle's. If you want deeper info, contact your link in the iPoint group.

Now with all that seriousness out of the way, back to the jokes found on the good ol' Internet:

In Pharmacology, all drugs have two names, a trade name and generic name. For example, the trade name of Tylenol also has a generic name of Acetaminophen. Aleve is also called Naproxen. Amoxil is also called Amoxicillin and Advil is also called Ibuprofen.

The FDA has been looking for a generic name for Viagra. After careful consideration by a team of government experts, it recently announced that it has settled on the generic name of Mycoxafloppin. Also considered were Mycoxafailin, Mydixadrupin, Mydixarizin, Dixafix, and of course, Ibepokin.

Pfizer Corp. announced today that Viagra will soon be available in liquid form, and will be marketed by Pepsi Cola as a power beverage suitable for use as a mixer. It will now be possible for a man to literally pour himself a stiff one. Obviously we can no longer call this a soft drink, and it gives new meaning to the names of "cocktails", "highballs" and just a good old-fashioned "stiff drink". Pepsi will market the new concoction by the name of: MOUNT & DO.

Thought for the day: There is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra today than on Alzheimer's research. This means that by 2040, there should be a large elderly population with perky boobs and huge erections and absolutely no recollection of what to do with them.

No, the opportunity has nothing to do with sexually active elder people - but tons to do with what we can do to help those in need for a win-win situation. So get with the program and find out more. I believe that we make the go-live movement starting on Monday.

Moving the toothpick.

2007-12-04T03:11:00.000-08:00

So, it's funny what people notice and don't notice, learn or miss, or observe and assume. We all have our own natural skills and instincts that allow us to benefit from our abilities to adapt and change that we sometimes take for granted.

Apparently my business coach tells me that I have an innate ability to establish relationships with people at a deeper level than most. This is a good thing AND a bad thing. First of all, let us establish the ranking systems of said skills

1) Conscious Competent
2) Unconscious Competent <-- Earl is HERE (Relationship Building)

3) Conscious Incompetent

4) Unconscious Incompetent

The problem with being unconsciously competent is that I'm not aware of the skillsets that I'm using (or not using for that matter). However the fact of the matter is that we're all unconsciously competent in one field or another. But we'll visit this at a deeper level another time. Today's lesson was a simple but eye opening one. Alvin Yip and I were having dinner at Earl's Restaurant on Lougheed Hwy and I watched him eat his very intimidating hamburger when I noticed him do something that to me was completely out of the ordinary. Instead of pulling out the toothpick and making a giant mess of a sandwich, or eating around the toothpick to keep the structural integrity of my sandwich intact (yes, this is about as profound as I get around 3am) he just moved it to another part of the sandwich.

1) Conscious Competent

2) Unconscious Competent

3) Conscious Incompetent

4) Unconscious Incompetent <-- Earl is HERE (Structural Sandwich Eating)

The funny thing is that all of this time, I thought that I was destined to always have a mess on my hands at the whim of my sandwiches. However on Alvin's side, he was already running a corporation and able to write off many things before I had even realized that this was the more tax efficient way of living. Strangely enough is that he was looking forward to finally earning a steady regular paycheque back then, and he's working his darndest to go back to the structure where he could write things off again. It took the Infiniti Point project to show him that he was once already on the right path, and how to get back on it, and it took dinner tonight to teach me how to move the toothpick to a different part of the sandwich so that everything is still held together, and I'm no longer hostage to the combination of bread and fillings. Overall, I'm thinking... good trade.

The Learning Annex in Vancouver (Dec 1 2007)

2007-12-03T13:52:00.000-08:00

Wow, compared to the videos and samples of the Learning Annex in other areas of the world - I must say that the Vancouver version of it was less than spectacular. It was nowhere near as interesting as the flyers made it out to be.

Nevertheless, Patrick and I went down to check things out over there and we ran into a few of the regular seminar-goers that we come across during our financial searches. Like minded people tend to flock together I suppose. In any case, the setup of the room was pretty interesting with a very empty square space in the middle - which I found out was just a section for the sales staff to setup for when the closing of educational classes were sold.

In the end, I did purchase a course on the recommendation of a colleague who's currently earning just under 1M/year in the Real Estate markets. The presenter's name was Albert Lowry - and apparently he's the one who's taught many of the folks on the market today. Let's see how this thing pans out. The course is set to be in early January - I'll reserve judgement of the course until after I really give it a good run.

Taking the first step to being rich and successful

2007-12-01T22:01:00.001-08:00

A good friend and mentor of mine once asked me if I would rather be smart, or lucky. I thought about this for awhile, and the idea did cross my head that technically if I took it the wrong way, he just called me stupid... After letting the whole ego thing out of the way, I decided to go a little deeper and thought that technically lucky would be better than smart because you can become educated, but cannot truly buy luck.

Since then, I wonder if the successes I've had along the way have truly either been through hard work and determination, or just plain luck. Perhaps a bit of both? I've since stopped trying to be quite as "smart" although I still try to learn all that I can. There's no need for me to truly play all of the roles now that I understand where my strengths and weaknesses lie.

However the one thing I've noticed is simply the drive and determination I have that seems to surpass all other wants and needs that I have. The want to succeed. To be able to make my mark on this world before I am gone. Something to be remembered by. In Napoleon Hill's book, Think and Grow Rich - he mentions a "burning desire" to reach said goals and accomplishments.

Funny enough people fail and continue to fail to take the first step. For those of you who I'm coaching and training to take over the business eventually and work alongside me, I know that you always come across the closed minded folks who never even give the thought of freedom a chance. The FIRST step to success is to BE THERE. Just friggin show up. All you have to do is try. I'm not saying that it will help you win the game overall, but if you never buy a ticket - you're never going to win the lottery

Brandi the blond is in such serious financial trouble that she decides to ask God for help. She prays, “God, I lost my business and if I don’t get some money soon, I’m going to lose my car. Please, God: let me win the Lotto.”

But Lotto night comes and goes and Brandi’s numbers don’t come up. Again she prays, “God, I’ve lost my business and now my car and if I don’t get some money soon, I’m going to lose my home. Please, God: let me win the Lotto.”

But again, Lotto night comes and goes and Brandi’s numbers don’t come up. In desperation she prays, “God, I’ve lost my business, my car, and my home and if I don’t get some money soon, my children will starve. Please, God: just this once, help me get my life back in order. Let me win the Lotto!”

Suddenly there is a blinding flash of light, a roar of thunder, the heavens open and Brandi hears the voice of God Himself!

“Brandi, my child! Meet Me halfway on this. Buy a ticket!”

taken from here .

Now all I'm asking for is a little initiative. All you have to do to take the mantle of leadership upon yourself and move to the next level is to TRY. If you want to help yourself, help me, help others, it's your move.

Keep in mind that although I'm not taking on any new clients or students directly (I've already chosen the 15 first ones I will take with me to their first million) - I'm still sharing the results of the trials and tribulations that is the minefield of investments and opportunities out there by being your guinea pig. Walk with me towards the Infiniti Point and we can lean on each other on the way up.

Cash Flow (Literally)

2007-11-27T01:02:00.000-08:00

Another week, another post - this one is just a commentary on something that Karl Fulljames found on another blog on the Internet.

In relation to Cash Flow, the Blog called: The Tao of Making Money illustrates the cash flow patterns that exist for the vast majority.

Although an excellent example - I feel that it doesn't capture every aspect of the rich cash flow archetype - but that's pretty well documented in Kiyosaki's and Anderson's work.

In any case, it's a good start. If only there were a multiple income stream one where they had some of the money flowing into an "Asset" container, which then streamed back into income...

sometimes I wonder if it's a good thing, or a bad thing that I own a tablet PC... Anyway, you get the rudimentary idea. Eventually the goal would be to create multiple passive streams and get rid of the IN stream coming from the regular 9-5 workday to free up more time to dream up even more passive streams. In the end, it truly is just a game.

Thanks to the whole iPoint project, I'm happy to say that this is my current diagram - (with a few more asset/passive lines - but I'm not creative enough to figure out how to draw that many more). Now that I've done even further research and started looking into the real estate side of the market, I'm looking forward to adding even more streams. I can't wait until I'm allowed to launch the whole Infiniti Point Investment Club.

Cheers,
Earl

Jobs cause the most stress

2007-11-26T10:31:00.001-08:00

Here's a damn good reason for me creating iPoint:

Stress = BAD

Job = Stress

Therefore

Job = BAD

Take a look at THIS article from the Vancouver Sun. Although I should really write up the whole story from the beginning, Infiniti Point to me was a method to help my friends and family members (at least the ones that were ready) learn and join me in the quest for passive income and financial freedom. Even though I feel that I've already met and surpassed my original personal goals, it's no fun sitting on the beach by myself...

I'll have to add that my stress levels - even at a job that I enjoyed at one point were still up there. Being stuck - not having the choice to WANT to work and not HAVE to work is still a stressing point unto itself.

Having said that, please join me in my quest for chasing perfection and true freedom. Check out http://www.ipoint.ca/ and join the forums, help us to find opportunities, and join the ones that we're already participating in and escape the 9-5 prison that gives Canadians so much stress as of late. My next personal goal will be to help 15 people reach either 1M in net worth, or 500k/year in passive income by 2010. Afterwards, the goal will be to help 100 people reach the same goals by 2012 and lastly 1000 people by 2014.

So you lost your wallet (or purse)...

2007-11-20T00:29:00.001-08:00

Now what? Your keys, credit cards, points cards, coupons, stamp cards, chewing gum, recent receipts and perhaps a few photographs are now pretty much gone... To boot, you've now got to deal with the headache of finding those darn phone numbers to let each of your financial institutions know about your predicament.

For those of you that know me, you understand the fact that I've got the memory of a goldfish at times, and delight in the 11th "discovery" of a castle in my fishbowl as I try to re-arrange my filing and room those 3 times a year when I feel super inspired.

One of the steps that I do in between my rousing games of "find my keys and wallet or I don't get to leave the house" is that I scan/photocopy everything in my wallet. Naturally this should happen AFTER emptying it out a little to compete a little bit less with George Costanza Oh, and don't forget to do BOTH sides of the cards.

Jerry: Your back hurts because of your wallet. It's huge.
George Costanza: This isn't just my wallet. It's an organizer, a memory and an old friend.
Jerry: Well, your friend is morbidly obese.
George Costanza: Well, at least I don't carry a purse.
Jerry: It's not a purse, it's European.

No, I'm not going to post a picture of the inside of my wallet here (I'm not that much of a goldfish) but it's a great start to finding all of those much needed phone numbers on the backs of all of your credit and debit cards. (did I mention to scan/copy the backs too?) Plus that usually hides the location of those accursed security numbers that they keep asking for to prevent people from stealing your credit card and using it without finding their secret backside hiding place.

Now I might also mention that it's a good idea to write "Please ask for Photo ID" on the back of your cards as well, so that the person who "found" your money carrying device can't accidentally purchase something by mistake :).

On that note, you might as well order something in for delivery at this point because it'll be fun calling all of your auto-billing memberships, bills, subscriptions, etc to stop payments on things, and then again once you get your new credit card numbers. Better hope you're carrying some cash!

Lastly - if your wallet didn't have anything in it to begin with, perhaps it might be prudent to call up some of those folks over at iPoint to find out what they're up to these days.

Taxes Simply Put (Classic Story)

2007-11-19T01:11:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know that this is an old story - but it never ceases to amaze me the number of people who A) Haven't seen this one before, and B) Don't understand this concept.

I'm starting to wonder if the stuff I heard at the last Fast Track to Cash Flow event in Vancouver talking about moving to Alberta because of their great tax structure (comparitively speaking with the rest of Canada) might be a good idea or not...

Anyway, here's the story:

Lets put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand. Suppose that every day, ten people go out for dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh $7.
The eighth $12.
The ninth $18.
The tenth (the richest) would pay $59.
So, thats what they decided to do.

They ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a problem. "Since you are all such good customers," the owner said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20."

So, now dinner for the ten only cost $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So, the first four were unaffected, they would still eat for free.

What about the other six, the paying customers? How could they divvy up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get their fair share?

The six paying customers realised that $20 divided by six is $3.33. If they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth and the sixth would each end up being 'PAID' to eat their meal.

So, the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each persons bill by roughly the same amount, and proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so:

The fifth, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. The first four continued to eat for free. Once outside the restaurant, they began to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth, pointing to the tenth diner "but they got $10!"

"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth. "I only saved a dollar, too. Its unfair that they got ten times more than me!"

"That's true!!" shouted the seventh. "Why should they get $10 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine surrounded and beat up the tenth diner.

The next night the tenth diner didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without number ten. When it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

That, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table any more.

If you're interested in finding out ways to save those hard earned dollars before the tax man cometh, why not contact a few of the folks at Infiniti Point

Cheers,
Earl

Who's your Dollar?

2007-11-01T09:24:00.000-07:00

Loonie could swoon next year, EDC says

Apparently the Canadian Dollar might not be so mighty in the long run in 2008 according to this article from The Globe and Mail .

I'm a mixed bag of feelings at this point because I've got investments on both sides of the fence. But being a proud Canadian, I'll be happy to revel in the sunshine that is a strong Loonie for the time being.

What with the tax rates dropping shortly as well, it's good news for everyone in Canada Land. So here's to the mighty maple leaf in the short term. Why not take a vacation and enjoy the role reversal on the American side for a bit?

Worst Credit Card Ever!

2007-10-19T00:52:00.000-07:00

Ok, there's bad, there's bad, and then there's the Worst Credit Card in the history of mankind.

Let me get this straight... they charge you:

$99 Set up Fee
$49 Annual Fee
$89 Program Participation Fee
$120 Account Maintenance Fee
_____

$357

357??? for a card that starts at $300. Oh, and it also charges 20% interest. Wow... just wow... No wonder the Rich get Richer and the Poor get Angry. What "grinds my gears" is that they also charge $25 to up the credit limit $100 at a time at their discretion without requiring customer permission! I think you'd be much better off with a cash secured credit card than this monstrosity...

Some words of wisdom that I learned from Frank Abagnale a world renowned expert on Identity Theft were thoughts on credit.

Never use Debit Cards. They contain the information used to get into your bank account, and if stolen alongside your PIN - any losses that you take due to theft are placed in your own liability.
Use Credit Cards and simply pay them off before interest is charged. With the insurance of credit card companies - just calling into them alerting them of the stolen card allows you to stop the withdrawals and purchases, alongside limited liability to the client for the stolen monies.
When your children go to post secondary, instead of giving them cash - create supplementary cards in their names with credit limits. This allows you to monitor their spending habits, while at the same time building their credit history.

I hope that people get educated enough to realize that they could potentially be ripped off if they don't add up the fees that are stacking up... I'm also very much looking forward to Patrick Evangelista's future research notes on a GOOD Canadian credit card - and a breakdown of the points systems (airmiles, aeroplan, 1% cashback, etc)

Until next time.

Cheers,

Earl

Leadership Mastery - Day 2

2007-10-16T17:19:00.000-07:00

On to Part 2 of the Leadership Mastery by the power within.

The second day was a definite eye opener for me. We started off with Ram Charan who started his speech in a much different manner than the rest of the previous speakers. Instead of being up on stage, he walked around the floor engaging people directly and involving the crowd more deeply in his words.

Practice leads to Instinct grows to Intuition which evolves into Judgement.
it's only through the practice and desired determined repetition that people are able to reach further with their skills.

The rules he set out were:
1) Deliberate Practice. (Are you practicing something new every week?)

Without learning something new at each opportunity, your obsolescence grows. You need ferocious determination to commit to new practices because if you're not growing, your competition is.

2) Look over the Horizon (what's coming in the future?)

What's changing? Develop the ability to detect change. Also cultivate your creating change abilities to influence your teams.

2a) Identify changes in the external environment

Be a creator of change instead of a recipient.

3) Broaden yourself

Each and every day you must strive to be more than the person that exists now.

4) Use the Multiplier effect

"I don't do it, I get it done, with my multiplier"

Working in methods to leverage yourself and train the trainers allows your influence to increase in exponential leaps and bounds.

5) Keep an eye for Talent

With the current shortage of talent in the world - a keen eye for people that would make a fit, or growing organically (finding talent within your organization) will keep you ahead of the competition.

6) Calibrate People

This topic was touched briefly and basically stated to ensure that people are working at a good pace to the benefit of the business in one of the categories of margin or velocity - Ram continued into the next point to deeper explain the theory.

7) Mastery of your business

Exercise: How do the successful companies accomplish measurable goals? Identify 10+ companies that make good money over a long period of time? How do they make money?

Some of the highlights from this chat were:
- Microsoft (96% gross margin on product)
- Johnson and Johnson (11% sustained growth for 50 years)

Understanding of the 4 parts in a business that make all of the difference.

Margin
Velocity
Revenue Growth
Cash

Return = Margin x Velocity

Each staff meeting to really make a difference in the business would be to list different methods on how to increase the Margin if possible, develop a more efficient/faster Velocity to increase the revenues.

Ram gave the example of how Dell with already thin margins was forced to look towards increasing the velocity of the business. He then continued to show us a chart of the inventory turnover rate of Dell over the years and then explained that Dell's current inventory turn is somewhere around 120 in comparison to their closest competitor sitting around 25.

8) Understanding of the 80/20 rule

80 percent of the benefits will come from 20 percent of the changes. Once you identify said changes, select 3-5 of them to focus on as laser sharp dominant priorities.

9) Having the right people in the right jobs
10) Follow through

Ram's speech was of excellent value to me personally during this weekend because I had a lightbulb turn on at this point for my own business - and came up with an idea to increase revenues by 10% with just a little rearrangement in business structure.

==================================================

The second speaker of the day Dan Gilbert spoke about his theories on Stumbling on Happiness

After showering us with many different views on how to calculate happines ranging from: Happiness = Your Salary / Your Neighbour's Salary to comparing one scenario vs. another. Other tidbits of info included that 10% of your income provides 90% of your happiness.

If you're intersted in checking out more of Dan Gilbert - I managed to find a video on the internet.

One of the comments that struck a chord with some of the crowd was the comparison on levels of happiness before and after children within a marriage. Basically he stated that with children and the time commitments required the different types of happiness that could be experienced were reduced, and thus wouldn't return back to normal until the kids moved out. I myself can't truly comment on this yet as I've yet to start a family. Needless to say the parents in the crowed weren't too amused.

==================================================

The next speaker up was Frank Abagnale the author and protagonist of Catch Me If You Can with an inspiring speech about his history and life. At first, it seemed less lively and took many of us off guard with the delivery, but the content grabbed our attention, and before we knew it - many of us were swept away in the rythm of his words.

Many of the people that have heard the story via the movie - myself included were in awe of the social prowess of Abagnale during his youth, however from his point of view it was simply a matter of survival as a child thrust into the world of adults. His strong stance on family values and ethics was an inspiration to us all.

==================================================

Unfortunately due to some logistics and travel issues, Peter Guber wasn't able to present.

Luckily for us however the keynote speaker Anthony Robbins was able to jump onto a helicopter and appear earlier for us.

Something of interest I noticed was that fans were put onto the stage before Tony walked on. Little did I know I'd be wishing for some fans too after all of the excitement.

Let's get down to the notes I took:

3 Mandates of Leadership

See it as it is, not worse than it is
See it better than it is
Make it the way you see it

The most fundamental job of a leader is to influence.

Now to set the record straight - Tony is NOT a "motivational speaker". Where people get that idea from is all of the commercials with all of the jumping and screaming - but there is a method to the madness.

Focus

State -> Behaviour / Action --> Results

Physiology

To reach the results you desire, you must change the behaviours or actions of a person. However before you can inspire change in behaviours or actions, you must alter someone's state. The only two routes to state are via physiology or where the mind is focused.

I suppose since his claim to fame wasn't hypnosis, we went the physiological route to change the state. Although it seemed silly at first, the drills on applying different types of physiology to similar actions indicated a change in state, and in the end, a change in the result of our actions.

I think that people could hear us cheering from across Whistler village as we got pumped up for the last few "state changes".

==================================================

All in all the weekend was a most enjoyable experience. The company at hand always had something interesting to speak about - the speakers were of the highest calibre - and best of all it didn't feel like I was attending an event where I was there only to realize it was a giant marketing ploy aimed at selling me the "next level seminar". It was this level of professionalism that makes me look forward to the next year's lineup - and to experience the whole thing anew. Until the next one, live well - live full and I'll hopefully see more of you around again the next time through.

Cheers,

Earl

Leadership Mastery - Day 1

2007-10-15T20:19:00.000-07:00

So I've decided to attend the Leadership Mastery program run by the power within. One it was just an excuse to get away for the weekend and hang out in "one of the most relaxing places on the face of planet Earth".

The first night was spent in a pure networking mode where basically all of the delegates were put together into a room to mingle. Just the meeting of the minds alone last night was worth the entire trip.

-------------------------------------------

The MC

James Cunningham was the MC - and has a definitely intoxicating stage personality. His stage presence alone grabbed everyone's attention and brought us back into the fold. Although he used many of the jokes from his GM appearance, it's his delivery that truly makes them stand out.

-------------------------------------------

The Speakers

Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm spoke mainly about ideas within his book
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Wisdom without understanding
A disconnect between how and why.
and what stood out the most to me: the fragility of the wisdom in Blink.

What was interesting was his discussions on a triangle taste test instead of the traditional Pepsi vs. Coke test.

Give a person two unmarked glasses, one containing Pepsi and the other containing Coke, they'll have an 80% change of being able to tell which is which. (Personally I keep choosing Coke on purpose to infuriate those Pepsi guys). But if you introduce a third glass, containing either Coke or Pepsi, they odds that they'll be able to identify the odd drink is reduced to 33%, or pure chance.

How the intuitions of experts reach the level that they are is the very definition of the term "expert". The gut reactions that leaders have that end up becoming wise decisions in the long run come from the countless hours of experience under their belts. Malcolm then goes on to mention that younger folks just haven't on average had enough life experience to be able to make these types of decisions yet - but I'd have to disagree if you truly live, breathe, and immerse yourself in the topic that is your mastery. That being said, someone 100% in tune with their area of expertise - a 20 year old, although immature at life in general could be more versed in a subject more-so than someone 20 years in an industry. How else would you explain the child prodigies that are able to captivate and inspire the rest of the world to strive and reach farther every time?

Which in turn brings me to the next speaker:

Roland Fryer

Roland contrary to Malcolm's postulate on age, managed to receive tenure at Harvard under 30 years of age. What makes Roland stand out in my mind is his work on another one of my favourite books: Freakonomics

The discussion that carried well on into the lunch hour was Roland's methods on incentivising children on how to do better in school as a whole. His talks went from explaining how to ensure that kids came to school on time by spending on $300 per classroom by investing in an Xbox. The story continues to develop as he explains that kids were lining up at 6:45 am to get in early so they could play, and subsequently weren't late for class. Another method was to pay a child $2 per book read - followed by passing a comprehensive test.

Although he's been downtrodden by others in the educational community for his methods, I've got to say that I'm a personal believer because as a child my parents did not give me an allowance. Instead they rewarded me for getting good grades - and not just ANY grade, but only getting paid for "A's". As this was my major source of income for the summer time, naturally I tended to bring home as many A's as possible, unfortunately not doing so well in the subjects of French and Calculus. Funny enough I earned the award for top marks in the business class and look where I am today... Now my parents work with me, and I'm the one giving the incentive of money for performance.

After a well put together lunch with some tasty BC Salmon our minds were put to the test with Dr. Laura D'Andrea Tyson and her talk on economics.

She went on to tell the tale of the falling US Dollar against the world currencies (which by the way is a good thing and bad thing for my Forex investors at iPoint ) and discussed the balance of world trade overpowering world production among further interesting facts. Even more engaging were the questions asked at the end with a very entertaining remark on Clinton vs. Clinton.

My only feedback is that for the day - her talk came right after lunch, and although the content was amazing, the delivery method was not as story filled, or lively as the other speakers, and as such a few people were caught nodding off. Perhaps switching positions with Darcy Rezac .

On the art of the N.E.T.W.O.R.K. Darcy sits near the perfect definition of what Malcolm Gladwell defines as a connector. Part of the equation of what it takes to cause a Tipping Point - although I'm having a hard time picturing Darcy on horseback with the message that the "British are coming". His book The Frog and Prince, or the newly updated Work the Pond! are labelled as the connector's handbook.

Darcy went to give us great examples on the small world phenomenon, as well as tidbits of the science behind networking and the 6 degrees of separation. He even goes as far as showing the formula behind your networking capability as a balance between your current network, your ability to network, and your leadership skills. With an unforgettable exit on the stage with a sing-a-long that had more than the number of expected people joining in, I'll be sure to never leave my business cards at home - ever. Actually Darcy, if you ever end up reading this, you're the reason why I wanted to attend more Board of Trade events.

The day closed with last, but definitely not least Arianna Huffington who with her biting wit, and delicious but tasteful sarcasm told us her story along with all of her political commentary on how the world cannot be simply divided into two categories whether they are left and right, up and down, or wrong and right. My favourite joke from her speech was her comment on MSNBC being downgraded into a series of news reports of blonds reporting on other missing blonds. I'd look forward to hearing her speak again at a future event. Another part that stood out for me was her topic on "Joy Triggers" - identifying and using the simple things in life that make it all worthwhile. Be it a song with personal meaning to you, or just getting a smile from your special someone.

On that note - I'm exhausted just reminiscing about day 1's completion. Now it's time to forward this blog along to many interesting people I met at the conference and see how well I can put my new knowledge of blinking, bribing, economizing, networking and happiness to the test.

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Stock Market Definitions

2007-10-11T13:52:00.000-07:00

An acquaintance of mine had forwarded me an interesting collection of Stock Market Definitions that I thought would be fitting to share with you all :).

Stock Market Definitions

For all of you who are having trouble with the stock market these days, here is a little something to help you put things in perspective.

Bull Market -- A random market movement causing an investor to mistake himself for a financial genius.

Bear Market -- A 6 to 18-month period when the kids get no allowance, the wife gets no jewelry, and the husband gets no sex.

Momentum Investing -- The fine art of buying high and selling low.

Value Investing -- The art of buying low and selling lower.

P/E Ratio -- The percentage of investors wetting their pants as the market keeps crashing.

Broker -- What my broker has made me.

Buy, buy -- A flight attendant making market recommendations as you step off the plane.

Standard & Poor -- Your life in a nutshell.

Stock Analyst -- Idiot who just downgraded your stock.

Stock Split -- When your ex-wife and her lawyer split your assets equally between themselves.

Financial Planner -- A guy who actually remembers his wallet when he runs to the 7-Eleven for toilet paper and cigarettes.

Market Correction -- The day after you buy stocks.

Cash Flow -- The movement your money makes as it disappears down the toilet.

Yahoo -- What you yell after selling it to some poor sucker for $240 per share.

Windows 2000 -- What you jump out of when you're the sucker that bought Yahoo at $240 per share.

Institutional Investor -- Past year investor who's now locked up in a nuthouse.

Profit -- Religious guy who talks to God

All jokes aside though today I had an interesting meeting where I met two folks whose primary business is to basically take companies to an IPO and trading on the senior market. So far the initial plans are to setup a non-profit investment club as an entity that can find and bring people and opportunities together for our mutual benefit. Although the container/corporation itself is created as a non-profit, the opportunities that it shares with folks are definitely for profit. It'd be more of a risk capital type investment for people with money to burn that are sick of the normal ebb and flow of mutual funds. We'll see how things pan out - and if something does, be sure to look on the Infiniti Point website

So I took today off.

2007-10-09T23:33:00.001-07:00

So I took today off and spent it with my wife. We had some dim sum in the morning, had plans to take a walk but due to the crummy weather in Vancouver ended up heading to the mall instead. At Oakridge Centre, I took her shopping and found some nice new clothes for both of us (thanks to Tommy Bahamas for me, and Hugo Boss for her). Afterwards we just grabbed some groceries at Costco, and then headed to Lumiere's for a nice relaxing dinner. Although it wasn't a spectacularly planned and eventful day, it sure was relaxing.

I suppose we're still going to need some "wise words" on the blog today so here goes:

P/PC Balance - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
I've been reading this book for awhile now, and something came to mind today. In the book there's an analogy in story form about the Production / Production Capability balance that takes into account the "legend" of the golden goose. In short, a farmer finds out that a goose of his lays golden eggs, and for a short while he collects a golden egg once a day and enjoys his riches. One day he decides that one egg a day is too slow, and kills the goose to get to many eggs at once. Sadly there is no gold in the goose, and now with it's death the goose or PC (Production Capability) was destroyed because of the farmer's greed.

It's a fine balance between production and production capability - or work and play. If you focus on either side by itself, the other neglected side will drag down both. Hence my day off today. I'll admit that we both worked a little bit, but focusing the majority of the day on each other was a nice change of pace that was much needed and welcomed.

It's been awhile since I've given my wife some flowers so that was something I thought about as well. A friend and ex-coworker of mine left the software industry, and just happens to own a little flower shop http://www.passionfloral.ca/ Thanks for the quick delivery Choymann! And an awesome job on the flowers as usual.

Back to the grind tomorrow, but a little more refreshed and with a little more spring in my step.

Protest vs. Tax Evasion

2007-10-08T17:51:00.001-07:00

Jury says Windsor tax protest not tax evasion Jack Klundert of Windsor, Ont., has won a court case in which he was charged with refusing to pay about $350,000 in taxes.Copyright 2007 CBC All Rights Reserved
____________________________________________________________________ http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/06/27/taxes27062006.html

So let me get this straight...
"Klundert, who says he doesn't believe the federal government has the constitutional right to collect income tax, was found not guilty of tax evasion. "

Some dude, just says I don't wanna pay these CRA guys taxes - so I'm just gonna protest and not pay tax...

"Klundert argued that disclosing his earnings to the government would be like "sitting down with thieves" and telling them where his valuables were. "

And that's that? - Geez. And I thought that we had to go through all of these compliated methods to save taxes when all you really have to do is just say "no" in protest. Hell then I protest too! :)

For those of us who can't pull off the protest though, give the folks from www.ipoint.ca a call and you'll be able to find out what tax savings methods they've got handy.

Penny for your thoughts?

2007-10-08T16:28:00.000-07:00

I ran into an interesting article today regarding the
Canadian Penny.

Seems as though the poor thing has outlived its welcome. I've got to admit that I'm guilty of holding a jar of them hostage in my own home, mainly because it would cost me more time and money to get them sorted, than to actually count them and drag it to the bank. Besides, I use a money clip - no room for coins sadly. Makes for a pain in the ass when parking at a meter mind you. I can't wait until the lot of them have the ability to take credit cards so I can write the darn things off. Perhaps it's one of the major reasons that I bought a motorcycle.

In any case even though the site's not ready yet, I figure posting on a regular blog is in order these days so here I am. This time, I'll be sure to not leave such a long gaping hole in between postings. Eventually I'll plop a link to this article on the http://www.ipoint.ca/ website, but for now this'll do. My vote? Lose the damn penny. I don't use them anyway.

Cheers,
Earl

Learn something new every day (or week) - Book Review: Richest Man in Babylon (Facebook post converted to Blogger)

2007-05-26T10:45:00.000-07:00

Well I figured that I'd start taking notes on the stuff I'm reading so one day when I feel dumb, I can come back to what I've learned throughout the years.

So here goes for this posting

What Earl's Reading:
The Richest Man in Babylon, George S. Clason

Quote that got my attention:
"A Part of All you Earn is yours to keep."

My thoughts on this:
Well it's been said to me by more than one of my mentors, and countless books I've read to set aside 10% of my earnings to work for me / save for the future.

After reading Rich Dad Poor Dad, I started my own business, and actually put ALL of the earnings back into the business for the first while. As per the cash flow method of buying assets - I moved into making my businesses grow by investing everything back into them.

Now, my mentors are telling me to set aside that same 10% but now for different reasons. Perhaps it's to do with "the secret" and the law of attraction. Perhaps it's why I've just been so lucky throughout the years. One of them tells me that it's not just the principle of setting something aside, but that it goes back to the biblical days, and that good things just seem to happen when you set aside that much - so after the mental beating from multiple sources, I suppose I'll set aside 10% into a liquid, but much "safer" account not in the FX/Precious Metal/Real Estate Markets and see where things go from there.

The 7 cures for a lean purse was another interesting section of the book:

1) Start thy purse to fattening
2) Control thy expenditures
3) Make thy gold multiply
4) Guard thy treasures from loss
5) Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment
6) Insure a future income
7) Increase thy ability to earn

let's break these down and look a little deeper.

1) Start thy purse to fattening

This is where the whole save that 10% came into existance. I'll get started on this right away again (although it sucks not getting to watch this grow in my investment accounts...)

I'm also setting up ways to make sure I fatten my purse as well as my local charity's purses at the same time, by setting aside funds to donate in a growth account so I'm able to watch my original donation keep on growing. Who says a single donation should only serve as a single influx of income?

2) Control thy expenditures

Ok, so I'm guilty of shopping a little too much sometimes, now that I'm a friggin pansy and my suits have to be custom made otherwise they're not "comfortable" enough anymore. But lately things are growing faster than I can spend - which is a good sign. Now the hard part is not growing what I spend.

3) Make thy gold multiply

Hah, Done! It's only what I've been working on for the past 4 years.

4) Guard thy treasures from loss

Done too - I used to be worth more dead than alive. I suppose that's some sort of accomplishment ;) - Take that life insurance companies!!

5) Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment

Not quite yet. So far, my house was going to be my biggest selfish purchase ever, but now that I understand the restructing of equity - perhaps I'll make my house work for me after all.

6) Insure a future income

Passive income = Future income - wether or not I get off my ass.

7) Increase thy ability to earn

Well, I guess it's why I'm reading a book a week and giving Amazon lots of money. Alongside searching for mentors and other sources of learning. At one point in time, I thought I'd be going back to traditional "schooling" again to better myself, but so far, I'm doing pretty darn good with my own self directed studies... Perhaps I'll seek that MBA later in life - after I'm done expanding my business around the globe.

There's a surplus in Government funds. What should they do?

2007-05-02T10:47:00.000-07:00

A) Save it (to fix the debt from previous government)
B) Lower Taxes (if there is a surplus, apparently we're paying too much)
C) Spend it...

Seeing as the default answer is "C" - I wonder what they're spending it on?
Perhaps they're helping with the long line ups at the passport office? - Wait, last I checked the line was about 6 hours long minimum. Maybe they're helping the unfortunate find jobs? Oh wait... no they increased people's ability to donate to charity and claim tax credits so they could cop out on that one.
Hmmmm... I wonder where the money's going?

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=22033c43-1ca6-4d37-b1ab-d36498097142&k=76832

...and people wonder why I run seminars on how to save money on taxes.

Book Report: E-Myth Mastery - on Leadership

2007-04-26T10:48:00.000-07:00

Just a quote from a section of the book that really hit home...

"It's your commitment to create something significantly different than what you've already created that's going to challenge your leadership capability, because the more unknown the outcome is, the more stress will be created as you not only attempt to lead your people, but challenge yourself to rise to the occasion. And the more stress that's created by your fear of the unknown and by your unknown and yet untested ability to push beyond it, the more challenged you will be as a leader. Challenged to find the right words to say. Challenged to make the right decisions. Challenged to hold yourself and your people on target, when the target itself is unclear, and constantly shifting. Challenged by your constant feeling of being hopelessly alone. That after you have said what you have said, done what you have done, concluded what you have concluded, argued, deliberated, debated what you have believed in and fought for, after all of that, still there will be that deathly uncertainty in your own mind, in your own heart, about whether you were right, or whether you will be successful, or whether the decision you finally made is going to come crashing down in the future. And that feeling of being alone, late at night, or early in the morning, or even in the middle of the action when you are being forced to make a decision, that feeling is more isolating than anyone can ever know until they've experienced it. What happens then is what will determine your ability to lead. Because ultimately the leader is always alone. With the decisions she's made and the ones that she didn't make but were made on her watch. A leader must be able to stand in them alone. And that's why the reluctant entrepreneur is almost always a reluctant leader. Because she is always alone, even when she isn't even when she is surrounded by people, clamoring for her attention. And being alone can be no fun."

-=-

I guess this quote stood out because it's time for me to eek out of the comfort zone of being 2nd in command and moving into the leadership role of my own life. Although I consider myself successful in a way now - I realize that it's just the foothills of where I believe my potential can go, and the number of people I can help and affect in my life. I hope I can live up to the challenge of making a better world. I believe I can live up to the challenge of making a better world. I know I can do my small part and make a better world.

Time to step up the pace. But I do so hate being alone...

Travelling like a mofo.

2007-04-25T10:50:00.000-07:00

Holy Crap... I don't deserve a postal code at the moment. Been travelling so much that I wonder if I should just buy a plane to save money. Let's see - where have I been in the last year?

May 06 - Maui, Hawaii
Aug 06 - Paradise Island, Bahamas
Sept 06 - Vegas
Oct 06 - Kelowna, Victoria, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Vegas (again)
Nov 06 - Toronto, Calgary
Dec 06 - Philippines (Metro Manila Area)
Jan 07 - Recovering from Jet Lag.
Feb 07 - Calgary, Vegas
March 07 - Philippines (Metro Manila, Boracay)
April 07 - Vegas (yes, again), Whistler, Calgary, Winnipeg
May 07 - Florida (Disneyworld), Calgary
Jun 07 - Toronto, Edmonton

Man, wish they'd hurry up and invest transporters already. I hate planes. This much travel isn't as glorious as it sounds for those of you with the ol' desk job. Luggage hunting is not a sport I enjoy, or recommend ;) I wish my travel schedule upon no-one.

Janice hitched a ride with me on the majority of the trips (of course the ones where it was an anniversary trip - duh).