I am updating this post from last February. I think it is even more relevant now than then.

Did you know we Capitalists had our own Capitalist Angel?  Kind of neat don’t you think?

Every since I was a little Kid, I knew that I was going to be a millionaire when I grew up. I always liked money from the standpoint that I had figured out that if you have it, you could get to do the things that you enjoyed.  For me, this was to buy Popular Science and Popular Mechanics magazines and to buy items for my experiments that I constantly had going on.

My Mom indulged me in this and my bedroom was a constant disaster in that I usually was trying to grow some type of new yeast under the bed or tearing apart motors, or other mechanical devices on dresser and in the dresser. or on the floor.  It was really an enter at your own risk environment.

I also noticed that the grown-ups that had it seemed to be happy and the ones that did not, seemed pretty miserable.  I noticed this pretty much everywhere from the grocery and hardware stores, to my own extended family.  If you listened closely, the vast majority of unhappiness came from the lack of money.  So I never fell into that stupid socialist trap that money is the root of all evil because in fact I knew that it was the exact opposite.   I knew those people that said that were secretly lying which put me on edge and gave me a bad feeling that at that age I recognized but could never quite put my finger on.  In my own observations it brought happiness and peace to peoples lives.

As I grew older I wanted to figure out how to make and keep it money so economics and investing became some of my hobbies.  I always worked from about 6 years old on either mowing grass, selling Christmas Cards door to door, on my Grandparents farm, or in my Dad’s Hay and Feed business.  Throwing around  several hundred 75 lb. bales of hay a day when you are 14 will give you the incentive to figure out how to make money a bit easier than that.

At 17 I purchased my first Stocks and made money on the transaction.  As I did not have a mentor in this arena, it was a learn as you go process, so I devoured every book that I could get my hands on about making money.   I made mistakes though… arghhh and went broke several times after making it per say.  But, those mistakes later served me well.  I soon realized that there was a lot of contradictory information out there about making money and there is even more of it today!

Then I started to read the likes of really smart Economists like Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, and Thomas Sowell among others.  Through them I found out that while economics was a big, big issue,  in essence it was pretty easy to understand.

Capitalism is the only system in History that we have found in thousands of years that works every time. The only time it does not is when the government steps in, period.  Socialism and Communism does not work.  Government intervention caused the Great Depression and every single recession and depression before and after including this one.

One of the main causes was the Community Reinvestment Act in which the Government forced banks to lend money to people that could not afford it along with a bunch of other large and small government interventions.  The cause is the Politicians in office right now.

Do you see them taking the blame for it? Of course not.  They try and point it toward Corporate greed when it is just another case of Political stupidity.  But alas, complaining about it won’t fix things, but knowing what is going on can help you profit from it.

Now I am getting a bit off track here but if you don’t know the rules of the game, how do you ever expect to win?  The answer is you may for a while but sooner or later you will get bit on the butt and lose and you won’t know why.

I will give you some reading to do in the future if you are interested that will help you understand what the real rules are and you will be ahead of billions other out there that are clueless.

Capitalism is the only system that functions in a way which rewards rationality and penalizes all forms of irrationality….It is capitalism that gave mankind its first steps toward freedom and a rational way of life. It is capitalism that broke through national and racial barriers, by means of free trade. It is capitalism that abolished serfdom and slavery in all the civilized countries of the world.”
Ayn Rand

After 30 years of study of making money and investing, I have come to the conclusion that the following are the 3 best investments period.

1. Invest in your own Education constantly, but filter out whom you listen to and get a mentor who has been there and done that and has the scars to prove it. You now have me but you will want to pick up more.

2. Invest in your own business or other peoples businesses.  This is not stocks on Wall Street that you have no control over.  I am talking about putting money into your own business or going out and finding other businesses whereby you can invest your expertise, money, or both.  You can get returns in the 1,000% on a regular basis.  If you live in America, you can do this in a Roth IRA that you control. You can blow away any returns your Broker or Investment Adviser is doing for you if you do just a little bit of homework.

3. Well, anything that allows you to get your money of of the US dollar and into something real.  Right now I would say silver, or even real estate as long as it is in places like Argentina or some other country that does not have inflated prices. I used to say Real Estate for sure. But I have to add a big caveat, especially now.  Real Estate prices could still end up being corrected another 20 to 40% downward.  Especially commercial real estate.  The dollar looks like it is going to be worth less and less and inflation is starting to kick in big time. So, your money in the bank is could be worth a whole lot less.

But I still thing that #1 is your best bet for now.

OK, so on to Capitalism and why you need to make as much money as fast as you can.  (and no it is not just because of what is happening to the Economy now that the Democratic Socialists have taken control).  Just  in case you forgot, they have been in control of the Congress since 2006.  The Economy sure has done grand with them in charge so far huh?  But this is another issue that we will discuss later from a purely economics standpoint.  But I think a lot of the bad things were done on purpose.

But that is another long conversation best suited for another time and another venue.  But just got check out the Ludwig Von Mises Link and check out Casey Research for what is really going on in the world of money.  I suggest you sign up for their free daily dispach at the bottom of the page.

A Primer On Capitalism

I am going to include the following excerpt from “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand a Russian immigrant (legal) that came to America in the 20’s to escape from Communist Russia

This book was given to my by a friend exactly at the right time for me a few decades ago.  Rand was the first writer-philosopher-thinker that thought like I did about money and she also named several types of people that I had run into over the years on a constant basis due to my family’s heavy involvement in politics… Namely Moochers…   For that, I am forever grateful because when you can name something, it gives your power over it.

If you have never read or listened to “Atlas Shrugged”  I highly suggest it as a primer in Capitalism as it will give you a better understanding about what is going on in the US and around the world as a whole.  Plus she defines my idea of Capitalism to a T.  Now she goes to some extremes to prove her points, but even though it was written nearly 60 years ago it has an eerie resemblances to what is currently happening.

The following is an excerpt from Atlas Shrugged.

This is called the ” Money Speech” and is from a character in a book.  This will not spoil the book for you if you want to read but give you a taste of what it is all about. Hope you enjoy it.

This is why I want each and every one of you to make as much money as fast as possible and this is what drives me each and every day.

“So you think that money is the root of all evil?” said Francisco d’Anconia. “Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?

“When you accept money in payment for your effort, you do so only on the conviction that you will exchange it for the product of the effort of others. It is not the moochers or the looters who give value to money. Not an ocean of tears not all the guns in the world can transform those pieces of paper in your wallet into the bread you will need to survive tomorrow. Those pieces of paper, which should have been gold, are a token of honor–your claim upon the energy of the men who produce. Your wallet is your statement of hope that somewhere in the world around you there are men who will not default on that moral principle which is the root of money, Is this what you consider evil?

“Have you ever looked for the root of production? Take a look at an electric generator and dare tell yourself that it was created by the muscular effort of unthinking brutes. Try to grow a seed of wheat without the knowledge left to you by men who had to discover it for the first time. Try to obtain your food by means of nothing but physical motions–and you’ll learn that man’s mind is the root of all the goods produced and of all the wealth that has ever existed on earth.

“But you say that money is made by the strong at the expense of the weak? What strength do you mean? It is not the strength of guns or muscles. Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think. Then is money made by the man who invents a motor at the expense of those who did not invent it? Is money made by the intelligent at the expense of the fools? By the able at the expense of the incompetent? By the ambitious at the expense of the lazy? Money is made–before it can be looted or mooched–made by the effort of every honest man, each to the extent of his ability. An honest man is one who knows that he can’t consume more than he has produced.’

If you liked this excerpt, go buy the book and read it.  You can get is used for less then $7 or $8 dollars sometimes, although I hear it is hard to come by in England for some reason LOL.  Socialists don’t like it and I can see why.  It shows how utterly bankrupt their ideas are.   You can also just splurge and buy a new copy.  I know I dig mine out every few years and read it again and I get something new from it each time I read it.    Anyway, if you read it or have read it, I would love to hear your comments on it.  I am going to dig my out again this week.

Now in the next few weeks,  I am going to be concentrating on how you can get your business up and running and making a profit online as easily and quickly as possible.

I am going to be giving you some of my best tips on SEO and why you should be using WordPress for you site and how to use it to start  bringing in money right away.

Have a profitable day.

Cheers,

Andrew $ Anderson

Are you digging what you do?  If you are not, perhaps you need to figure out why if you want to really expand your profits i.e. how much money you are going to make.  Very rarely do I find people that do not like what they do reaching anywhere near their full potential profit wise.

Now I also know a number of people that like what they do and do not make much.  Usually, those you can help fairly easily if you think about it for a bit and they actually want help.

I am not talking about doing something temporarily that you don’t like to pay the bills or certain tasks that you have to do that you don’t particularly enjoy but….  If you wake up in the morning and dread going to work, then you my friend need a change of pace.

One of the first things you can do is do some brainstorming.  Go to Anderson’s Arsenal above and do a mind map of things that you like to do or have always thought about doing and get them down using Bubbl or just grab a crayon and a piece of paper.  The important thing is to write them down.

Do that and you are more than half-way there.   Then the next step is get on Google and do some research and figure out what is involved.

DO NOT LIMIT yourself because you may not think you have the money, or the ability.  GO BIG!  I will show you how to overcome all of that.  You will start feeling better once you do this.

I will have another post in a few days on the next few steps.

This post is from a new course called  “Investing In Small Businesses -The Best Investment Ever Invented” and I wanted to share parts and pieces of it with you.

The reason why I am sharing it with you is that this includes putting money into your own company as well.  As a Profit Consultant, I can’t think of anything better to put your money into than your own business!

It seems obvious but I speak with business owners that are complaining about their investment portfolios going down while their own business is going well.  HELLO, how about saying to heck with your stock broker and put that money into expanding your own business?

I have decided upon some requests for more specifics that over the course of the coming weeks that I am going to give you a primer for investing in small private companies and learn how to blow away our minimum 21% return (which is our benchmark with clients for another business that I work with that I may tell you about later) .

But perhaps more importantly, I am going to show you how not so lose any more money and to keep what you have!

In that in the next several years I think that we are going to be entering a fairly deep deflationary period and recession and we will see yields on bonds and such hover around 2% and the stock market is going to be a pretty scary place to be, I thought that I would show you how to invest in my all time favorite investment and that is basically smart, ambitious, hard working entrepreneurs.

If the market really thought that the bailouts were going to work, they would have skyrocketed on the news and point in fact, they have mostly gone down.

In that right now about 90% of all new job creation in the US ( and in all of the world for that matter) is done by small businesses and the government is not only ignoring them, but it is making life more difficult for them, they are currently and for the foreseeable future in dire need of capital.

My observation on this is that the problem for Entrepreneurs is that Governments and Politicians whom as a collective whole since Roman times and before have never been the sharpest tools in the shed and normally are quite short sited and self-serving and look at Entrepreneurs and Small Businessmen and Women as grains of wheat.  They know that it feeds that masses and themselves, but there are lots of them and they are so tiny.  Whereas Big Business is more like a giant pumpkin.  It grabs attention and they can get their arms around them and they can show them off and cater to how big and orange they are.  Little grains of wheat, not so much even though in the end pumpkins no matter how big are not the food and fuel that  a nation or government runs on.  It is the labor and ingenuity of 10′s of thousands of small businesses that employ people, that pay over 90% of all tax revenues.  Yet, they are taken for granted and more than likely trampled on by those very same politicians, governments, and even investors on their way to the Great Pumpkin patch.

The great news is that because of this opportunity abounds.  Profitable small businesses to invest in are everywhere! This huge vacuum is your opportunity!

If the Feds were suddenly able to use some of the 1.5 trillion (or is it 2 trillion?) they are talking about handing out to buy a clue, they would give half to Warren Buffet to invest and actually make money with and the other half to small businesses in the US and you would see the economy turn around and take off in less than 6 months. That and lower the corporate tax rate to 10% and they would have more money to waste and spend irresponsibly than they ever thought possible. And no I am not considering that political commentary. Just a dream that I have.

OK, back to reality and back on point here.

I am going to put this course into videos here shortly but I am on the road at the moment in Sunny San Diego and this will do just fine for now.

So you have figured out that you are tired of getting creamed on Wall Street and you want to take control of your your own financial future. First off, congratulations!

The other thing I want to drill home is that if you are reading this, you can do this and win the game.

You are smart enough, and have the ability to blow away what nearly any financial adviser can do for you.

Step 1.

The first thing you need to do is to figure out how much money you want to invest? Did you listen to me last Spring and liquidate your portfolios and go to cash? If so you probably have a lot more money than those that did not.

Now the great thing is that you can do this with 401k and Roth account money. In fact, if you are going to do it with Retirement funds, I would do it now, rather than later. There are some rumblings about nationalizing Retirement accounts that I did not put much weight in when I first heard them, but, now I am not so certain. For more information on how to do this with your retirement accounts, look at my post on Equity Trust.  Speaking of which, do you already have a small business? Are you doing OK or actually pretty good but more cash could help you do better?  Why not use your own money and take it out of the hands of Wall Street and put it in your own business or find another one and diversify?  For some reason, a lot of small business owners never think of this.

Step 2.

The next thing you are going to do is either online or on your computer or on a piece of paper, write down the number you have to invest and stick with it.

Depending on how large it is, you probably want to invest no more than half into any one entity or business or perhaps no more than 10%.

I am going to show you how to set up a dashboard that shows you exactly how things are going with your investment.

I will also show you some of the tools from Anderson’s Arsenal that will make this a breeze and allow you check and see how things are doing from a computer no matter where you are.

Step 3.

The next thing is to figure out what you know about. This may be your current or past job, your hobbies or something that you know something about or at least have an interest in.

What products do you see yourself, your friends, and your family buying in the coming years? Write all of them done and do not filter them by thinking such things as the is too silly and whatnot. Just make your list.

Then I want you to take a look around you and figure out which of the things that you have knowledge of, or are interested in, look like they are going to do well in a tight, tight, economy from your list.

People have to eat, they will still drink, they will still want some forms of entertainment, and they will want a better life for their children are some of the obvious things to take into consideration.

What else are people going to be wanting and buying? There is no right answer here by the way. You need to feel comfortable with the area you pick is the only correct answer and remember common sense will go a long way here.

Step 4.

Once you have a general idea, then I want you go Google it and and spend at least 10 to 20 hours researching it. You need to do this from multiple sources to get a proper perspective. Find out what is going on in the market. Find out who are some of the big players. And while I would like at the first page or two’s listings, dive into page 17 or so and skip some of the higher ranked pages. Sometimes all the higher ranked pages have going for them is that they know Search Engine Marketing or SEO and do not particularly have any real expertise in the subject matter at hand.

I am going to insert one Rule that I would not waver from. Put twice as much time in doing research as you do watching TV. If you don’t watch TV them good for you, you are ahead of the game. I might also suggest that if you do watch TV you quit watching the news. It will give you a false sense of doom and gloom if you watch the Bobble Heads too much.

So now you have found the area you are interested in and done your preliminary research to make sure you know the market.

The other thing that I have to warn you about though is that if you do decide to do this, you could end up having an enormous amount of fun here and you may forgo ever putting money into the regular stock market ever again.There is one other little part of the lesson that I would like you to do and it may seem silly at first but, it is important, and it actually has some scientific underpinnings.

Step 5.

I am borrowing this term from T.Harv Eker because it works and a bit of something from NLP or neuro-linguistic programming. Now before you ask ‘why is Anderson having me do this’ and you say it is silly, I ask you this. Are you making over 21% right now and if so do you want to learn how to make more? Then secondly ask yourself what do you have to lose? Besides you are by yourself and now one will be looking.

So here goes, I want you to think of a time when you have done really well with an investment and you made money. If you have not done that before think about when you found money or someone gave your money. Maybe it was the tooth fairy or for your birthday or even when you got your first paycheck. Think about how good it felt. Let that feeling run through you for 30 seconds or so and remember how it put a smile on your face and whatever other feelings were associated with the event. OK, while you are thinking of that I want you to touch your pointy finger to your thumb and press it while you are remembering how good getting the money felt and say to yourself “I am a money magnet”.

Now that was not so hard was it? Now repeat this exercise right now 4 or 5 times. Think about how good you felt when you got the money, have your finger touch your thumb, and repeat “I am a money magnet“.

The point of this every time you find money, even if it is penny, or a quarter, or you make a good investment or even get your paycheck, I want you to do this exercise. The great part about it is that soon or maybe even now if you have done it several times, try just touching your finger to your thumb and you will find that it brings back that good feeling when you got money. Try it, kind of cool isn’t it!

I will discuss that psychological reasons for doing this and why it is so important in Part 2.

Remember, you are a money magnet.

OK, quick recap here.

1. Figure out how much money you have to invest.
   
2. Write down the number.
3. Figure out where your interests and skill levels lie and choose the area you want to invest in.
4. Do at least 10-20 hours of research in the area you chose and figure out the market and the players.
5. Remember that you can do this and that you are money magnet and do your exercise whenever you get money.
   

Now looking back at what I have put up there so far does this make sense? Are you able to follow along so far? It was not that tough now was it? Well good!

It really is this easy.

In lesson #2 I will show you how to find the type of company you want to invest in and the mechanisms that I use to grade them and how to use my dashboard and what software I use to manage your investment.

In the meantime, do the steps above and get ready to take control of your financial well being and get ready to have fun.

Cheers,

Andrew Anderson