Saturday 27 February 2016

GET RICH SLOW

By: Mark Frentz
www.akerahomes.com
mfrentz@akerahomes.com

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A Simple Method Over 30 Years

A week ago I was helping a family with some retirement planning. They were strapped for cash and didn't have money to put into purchasing rental properties even though they understood how much their money could grow in real estate. The advice I gave them? Forget about saving for real estate! They already own one property and that property will multiply over the next 30 years to allow them to purchase more property without extra cash infusions. I'll explain this really soon, but for now I want you to realize that this family was ecstatic. Now they could begin to rest knowing that their future would be taken care of and what they needed to focus on was not saving every penny for their retirement, but rather simply doing life together as a family and allowing the retirement to grow as time continues to roll on. This is almost exactly the opposite approach that most people I know take toward retirement. People I usually talk to aren't stressed about retirement and are putting away a few dollars into their RRSPs every year. This is often actually killing their retirement because RRSPs were never even meant to help someone retire on their own. Because of the average person's lack of knowledge about how investing works and what their retirement needs are, the average family becomes more and more stressed about retirement as times goes by rather than, like the first family I mentioned, more and more relaxed. So... how can you retire after 30 years of getting rich slow?

Getting Rich Slow

Here's the plan for this strategy: How could you retire with over $20,000 each month ($240,000) in income from real estate investing in around 30 years without saving an extravagant amount of money each month? Before we get into it I want to warn you... Real estate is easy to do, very difficult to do well. If you have a great understanding of how real estate investing works this strategy is fairly simple and easy to realize. If, on the other hand, you have no idea what you are doing in real estate investing the only way to make this happen is by communicating and joining with someone else who does understand what she or he is doing. If you join with someone else, you will pay for their services and this won't look exactly the same... but say you only realized half of this each year and you had none of the work with finding and maintaining that real estate portfolio over the 30 years of this strategy? Would this still be appealing if you invested the original money once and then, 30 years later, you retired on only $120,000 each year? I'm guessing for most people this would still be pretty exciting. On to the strategy...

If real estate increases in value by 3% per year (this is conservative, but realistic) you can refinance your first property every 5 years and pull out enough money to purchase a new property. That means you portfolio doubles every 5 years! If you purchased a rental today, you could have 2 rental properties in 5 years, 4 properties in 10 years, etc. What this could look like is that you would own 16 properties in 20 years! Now, there properties would not be cash flowing by much.... they would be cash flowing a tiny amount and your extra money would be reinvested back into them. For the last 10 years you would simply keep putting all the cash you make on the properties. Also at the end of the last 10 years you would be able to sell around 4 of the properties to pay down the mortgages on the rest of them. That would leave you with 12 properties without any mortgages. At that point you would simply live on the cash flow from each property (today that would be around $2,000 per property per month if they are all suited). This would total far more than the $20,000 each month that I suggested at the beginning of this post. You would actually be closer to $24,000, but I like to play things conservatively.

Potential Problems

I've tried to use simple numbers and estimates, but there are some obvious problems with my example. The biggest is that the market does not climb in ANY city by 3% each and every year. There are dips and peaks in every market. The ideal is that no matter where the market is you can refinance the existing properties in order pay for new properties whenever it is possible... that will AVERAGE 5 years. It won't be exact. Another large problem that is obvious to me is that you may have some difficulties qualifying for 16 properties. If this happens the simple fix is to begin purchasing properties with over 8 doors in them. These properties will qualify themselves and isn't actually a big problem. You simply need to understand what you are doing or, as I mentioned earlier, you can pay someone else to take care of the larger details. Lastly, you may not have 30 years until retirement... If you have far less time you may need to put more money into properties each year, but the important point I'm making is that you need to make a decision to get into property NOW, not later.

Summary

The beauty of this basic plan is that if you have the will/motivation to save enough to make sure you get into property as early as possible you are then able to leverage your existing investments to grow your retirement each and every year. The last thought I want to leave you with is this: If it is too late to really take control of your retirement it typically is not too late for your kids or grandchildren! Teach them and guide them. If most 18 year olds spend the first few years of their working lives to purchase a property, they then can go to school or work or not and they have already make huge steps toward taking care of their own families and retirements.



As always:

Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!

If you would like to learn more about investing in real estate please contact me at the email address listed at the beginning of this article or go to my website at: www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html

Saturday 20 February 2016

FINDING MY WHY

By: Mark Frentz
www.akerahomes.com
mfrentz@akerahomes.com

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Why Define Your "Why"?

Our subconscious minds work a bit like a radio tower that sends out a signal that, in turn, motivates us toward something or against something. Our focus tends to be heavily influenced by our subconscious mind and it is vitally important that we train our subconscious mind to send out the signals that will help us move in direction we want to move in. I recently finished a mini series helping people understand hinders and motivates us, but the series barely scratched the surface. For the purpose of today's post you can, at least in some ways, think of your subconscious mind as including major parts of your limbic system. Today I will use the term 'subconscious' because it is a word most people have heard a lot about and because it doesn't exactly line up with our limbic system in every way. The important point I want to make in this introduction is that our subconscious mind influences us an incredibly great deal and if we train this part of our mind in the right way we can be motivated toward our goals and dreams rather than toward what society tells us to focus on (the newest whatever to buy or simply that we don't look as good or seem as successful as typical media personalities).

The key to programming your subconscious mind the way you want to is to understand why you want what you want. I am a real estate investor and the biggest reason people usually tell me they want to get into investing is because of the money. While it is true that people invest for the money, there is always a deeper reason. In itself money is, at greatest, simply a tool. If you want to be really motivated toward your goals you will need to probe deeper than with the simple answer of money.

How You Define Your Why

As I just pointed out, in order to truly be motivated toward your goals you will need to delve deeper into your desires and values than simply getting what you want right now; money. I am about to teach you an exercise that goes a long way to understanding your deeper desires and what gets you out of bed each morning. When I do this exercise with people I typically need to ask the basic question at least 3 times. With some people I have asked the question 5-6 times before getting to the core of a person's desires. What I am teaching you is how to get down into your limbic system (centre of emotions and motivations among many other things). When you are done you should experience emotion! When I did this for myself the first time I ended up crying quite a bit by the end. While you don't necessarily need to cry I cannot emphasize enough that in order to get full benefit out of this exercise you will need to keep going until you experience strong emotion. One more tip before I get into it: This exercise should take time. If it takes you 5 minutes in total, you probably haven't done it very thoroughly. It can easily take 30-45 minutes of soul searching... and it's worth the effort!

1. Ask yourself why you want what you say you want (money, a certain job, a relationship, etc.). The first time you ask this question you can simply take the first thought that comes to mind.

2. Ask yourself why you want the answer you gave for the first question. An example here is maybe you said you wanted a job because it will give you money or security or you may have said you wanted a relationship because it will complete you in some way. You now need to ask yourself why you want the security or to be complete. The second time you ask this question the answer will be a little more difficult to discover. That's ok, work through it. If this step takes a few minutes it is well worth it.

3. You now need to continue asking yourself why in the sequence set above. Keep going.... This is the most difficult part. Each time may take longer to do all the inward processing that is needed. The good news is that this is the absolute least expensive good therapy you will ever receive:) For step three you need to continue asking why until you have reached a deep emotional place within yourself that you know is essential to who you are and want to be.

4. Once you have reached that deep emotional space you need to ask yourself: How will I feel when I realize the answer I am actually seeking deep down (the answer to the last time you had to ask 'why'). Connect to your emotions here. The more you emotionally connect with yourself the deeper and more solid your goals will be attached to your deepest desires.

5. Now ask yourself: What difference will achieving what I want and may need on a deeper level make in the lives of others around me?

6. Last question: When I see the difference this makes with those around me, how will it affect me? Again you are bringing things back to that which most connects with you on multiple levels.

I would recommend that you write these answers down because they can now form the basis for your own mission statement and will be the backbone of your goals and dreams moving forward. Your ability to achieve your goals will multiply when you do this. Not because it is magical or ingredients to some sort of mind potion. The best psychological research shows that there are clear connections between your deepest emotions and your motivations to do every day tasks that bring you toward or further from your goals.

Note: If practicing this exercise hasn't taken you to a deep emotional place... no worries. It simply means you aren't connecting with yourself in a deep way. Many people aren't able to get there right away and you need to be prepared to have emotions come up that will be uncomfortable. If you are terrified of uncomfortable emotions it may take a few times to feel relaxed enough to connect. Keep going and you will absolutely know when you have connected with yourself in a deeper way.

When To Review Your Why

If you've taken the time to go through these questions well, you have completed the most difficult and longest part of motivating yourself consistently. The second part is easier day to day, but will be difficult in a different way if you don't have a regular routine to your day. Almost every successful person I have ever met or read about has a consistent daily routine.

The last step to this exercise is to remind yourself at least daily why you are doing what you are doing. You don't need to go over the exercise again and again. You simply need to remind yourself of the final answers you came up with when doing the exercise. You may not see a lot of results in the first week or two, but by the end of the third week if you do this each and every day (once in the morning and maybe even once at night) you will begin to see a difference in how much you accomplish and how you are beginning to think differently. I sincerely believe that if you practice these reminders once or twice each day for two months you would be in a completely different place when it comes to making decisions that move you toward your goal.

Summary

I began this post by comparing our subconscious mind to a radio tower that send out signals. Even though it isn't always obvious to some individuals, the small decisions you make each day toward or away from relationships/money/specific careers are almost always influenced by your subconscious mind. I want to challenge you to work toward your dreams by taking a step back today and working on the part of your mind that will ultimately help work toward or against your goals. While there is much more to success than focusing on what you want, this is a very important early step.



Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!

If you would like to learn more about investing in real estate please contact me at the email address listed at the beginning of this article or go to my website at: www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html

Wednesday 10 February 2016

WHAT MOVES ME FORWARD? part 4 of 4

By: Mark Frentz
www.akerahomes.com
mfrentz@akerahomes.com

Remember: Please share this article if it helped





Input Output

"You are what you think about" is a quote I have often heard. I have no idea who it comes from, but I believe it is true to a large degree. What we put into our brains largely determines how we act, communicated with others, and believe in. The question then is... What are you thinking about? What are you putting in your brain on a daily basis? Is it TV, light party conversation, or hockey? While there is nothing wrong with any of those three in themselves, if the majority of what you put in your brain is focused on what you get from those types of activities you most likely shouldn't expect too much from yourself when it comes to overcoming problems in life because they aren't the ideal training grounds for learning courage and pushing through barriers. Another timeless quote: "You reap what you sow"

Train Your Brain

Take a few minutes to think of how you would train yourself for a job like becoming a doctor or accountant or water treatment specialist. For any of these professions you would go to school to learn specific knowledge about these fields. Why do we think differently when it comes to our ability to overcome challenges in life? If you want to overcome challenges I plead with you not to go to the school of the latest movies or sitcoms. Look around you at Canada, or North America... do you truly want to think like and get the same results as the majority of people are getting? If so, please stop reading now and go back to the latest show on TV. If you want different results you will need to start training your brain in different ways.

The school of strong minds begins with you learning all you can about your mind through free blogs, like this, relatively inexpensive books, and internet videos. You don't have to spend a ton of money in order to learn how to think well, you simply have to introduce more helpful thoughts into your head than you get from around you each and every day. Here is a list of questions and ideas to help in beginning this journey:

1. Who do you spend your time with? Are these positive or negative people? Do they encourage you to be your best and tell you the truth or do they simply help you feel good about not accomplishing anything and being mediocre because they may struggle with high aspirations themselves?

2. Explore your spirituality: What do you value in life? What do you most want to accomplish in life? These questions can focus on your 'why' which was discussed in my last post in this series. What do you believe your purpose in life is?

3. Write out a mission statement. Take your time and develop this over weeks and months until it is something you fully believe in and want to strive after in life

4. Practice better self talk: Attempt to work on eliminating certain phrases and words you use that stop you from achieving and pursuing your goals and exchange them for those that do. An example of this is eliminating the word 'can't' and exchanging it with the question 'how can I find a way to...' Another example is how you talk about success or money. Exchange the term filthy rich for wealthy, or extravagantly generous.

5. Do things to push yourself and challenge yourself each and every day. Some of my favorites are: Taking a cold shower in the morning because I feel I have accomplished something difficult first thing each day and have more courage throughout the rest of the day. Take a trip on a plane if that frightens you. Speak in front of people. Eat something new.

6. Get into routines: The importance of a routine cannot be over emphasized. Every person I've ever heard of that has accomplished anything of worth has had a solid daily routine.

7. Put something into your head from a better brain than yours: There are so many resources out there that aren't expensive like podcasts, blogs, youtube videos, as well as books including biographies, texts in your field, and simply people who have thought a lot about things and are good at thinking in general. At the very least I would recommend spending time thinking other people's thoughts (all of the examples above) for at least 30-60 minutes each day to combat all the junk thinking around you each day.

8. Review the goals you have set for yourself on a daily basis and dream about these things to encourage you to work toward them instead of whatever chances your fancy in any given hour. 

Summary

It is true that you sow what you reap. If input 'The Bachelor', then you are going to reap far less than changing the world for the better. In short, put the stuff into your head each day that will give you the results you want out of life over a long period of time. Remember that your brain doesn't change for the better or for the worse in a few hours or days. It takes weeks and months of consistent work to get results and you have to decide whether it is worth it to move forward toward what you truly want in life.




Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!

If you would like to learn more about investing in real estate please contact me at the email address listed at the beginning of this article or go to my website at: www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html

Monday 8 February 2016

WHAT MOVES ME FORWARD? part 3 of 4

By: Mark Frentz
www.akerahomes.com
mfrentz@akerahomes.com

Remember: Please share this article if it helped







Moving Past Fear

In the first post of this series I discussed the fact that our 'reptilian brain' or limbic system is very good at reacting to situations. One of the most interesting things, for me, about our limbic system is that it doesn't matter whether a situation is real or imagined, we react the same. A quick example before we get into what you can do to help calm this part of your brain: If you saw a grizzly bear when you were walking through the forest, what would you do? Now what if you saw a huge dog, but thought it was a grizzly... what would you do? What if it was simply a clump of trees, but you thought it was a grizzly? Last question... What if you are laying in bed at night and imagine walking in a forest and coming across a grizzly? What is interesting about our limbic system is that whether a threat is real or even simply imagined, we will kick our sympathetic system into high gear. What this means is basically that adrenaline and cortisol are released by our brains into our body. This has a few physical affects in our body which include: restricted blood flow to our 'thinking/logical' brain, increased heart rate and breathing, tunnel vision, and restricted blood flow to our digestive system. When you are in danger, these are great things in many ways. When you are not in danger, they are terrible. If your sympathetic system is often or consistently engaged you will use up a lot of things in your body you need and can actually get sick more often as your immune system is compromised.

The Answer to Your Problems

The answer to reacting instead of thinking is your parasympathetic system! This is the system in your brain that slows the entire process down and allows you to digest and think again. If you want to do research on this look up the vagus nerve and how to activate it. For the purposes of this post I will give you a few ideas that help in allowing you to think better in the moment as well as learn not to react in the same way in the future if it isn't helpful.

First, you need to understand that in the moment it is best to take good long deep breaths and be close to a person who is safe. By close I mean actual physical contact. If you are touching someone who you feel safe with and you do some good, deep, belly breathing you will most likely calm yourself quite quickly.

Secondly, if you find yourself reacting to situations and losing control of yourself often you need to learn to change this response. This does not happen overnight, but can be done if you work at it. If you have fairly good mental health I would suggest you begin with exposure therapy. I'll give a quick example: If you are scared of saying 'no' to people because you are afraid of conflict I would encourage you to practice cold calling or making sales calls for a while or even saying no to people at work or at home. This will be really difficult at first and you will feel the fight, flee, freeze response a lot. You will sweat and it'll probably stink like 'scared sweat'. If you do this over and over however, you will begin to feel comfortable in more situations in life. Another way to practice this is by giving speeches in front of people. You can sign up for 'toast masters' and practice doing things that scare you, but are actually quite safe. Eventually you will become used to these situations and overcome some of your fears.

*** note: if you struggle with mental health (depression, anxiety, PTSD, bipolar disorder, etc.) then it is best to see a psychologist and ask how to improve your mental health before you try exposure therapy... You'll have to simply trust me with this.

Third, understand that fear is a great short term motivator to stop doing something... it is a terrible motivator for long term goals like investing well over 15 years or building a business. It'll simply sap you strength over time. You need to find a motivator that will bring you to reach your goals in a healthy way. Is it healthier to build a business to avoid disappointing you dead father, or because you see the benefits of how it can teach your children, your family, the employees you hire, and the value you bring to your community? I truly hope the answer is obvious to you right now.

Using Your Brain for Your Benefit

With these steps in mind you will need to strengthen your ability to work for something rather than work to avoid something bad (disappointing someone). Remember from the first post... our limbic system is involved in motivation and our emotions and senses. The way to use these to your benefit is to start imagining what you really want in life. But don't simply think about it, you need to vividly imagine it! involve your emotions and your senses. If you dream of making a ton of money so that you can begin a not-for-profit organization that helps homeless people in a poor neighborhood you can begin by imagining what your organization will look like when it is finished; imagine the people standing in front of you thanking you for your help and ask yourself: what are they wearing, what does the place smell like and look like? I invite you to involved all 5 senses if at possible even to the smallest detail. Also, how will you be feeling in that moment? How will the people around be feeling? Again, involve your emotions. A great way to practice this is by asking yourself 'why' you want something many times until you actually become emotional. If you want help with this I can provide a few tips. Email me and I will try my best to help you out in your specific situation. If there is enough interest I may simply post a simple way to practice this yourself in the future. Again, if interested let me know.

Last, and Most Importantly

This exercise of imagining and involving your limbic system will help you only if you practice consistently. My recommendation is you do this twice a day; once first thing in the morning and once just before bed. If you do this you must give it time to take root in your limbic system or what a lot of people call your subconscious mind. You may not notice a huge difference in the first week, but if you practice this consistently and correctly you will notice massive changes in the small choices you make each and every day. You will begin to do things that actually work toward your goal rather than seeming to sabotage yourself.

While this takes care of a lot of your limbic system, you still need to work on your 'thinking brain' if you want complete results and reach your goals much faster and will far less mental effort. We will discuss this in my next post.




Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!

If you would like to learn more about investing in real estate please contact me at the email address listed at the beginning of this article or go to my website at: www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html