Robert Kiyosaki Blog

~ Kim Kiyosaki

As my mind ran through all the mistakes I’ve made over the years, two thoughts came into my head.

First, I don’t consider a mistake something bad or something I wish I hadn’t done. A mistake, to me, is simply an action I took that did not have the outcome I intended. Every mistake I make teaches me something I didn’t know. Human beings are designed to learn from mistakes. The more mistakes I make, the smarter I become.

So even when I lose money on an investment, that loss tells me there’s something I need to learn. People who avoid making mistakes stay stuck, even trapped, by what they know. They rarely venture into untested waters and don’t learn anything new.

Second, I found that my mistakes–where the actual results didn’t match my intended results–fell into two main categories: 1. when I lost money or 2. when I lost a good deal.

These cases all had something in common. The mistake was not losing the money or losing the deal. That was the result. What was more important was what caused the result. That’s where the real mistake–plus the lesson–lies.

It turns out that every memorable and costly faux pas I made was the result of the same simple but powerful failing: My biggest investment mistakes occurred at times when . . . I did not trust my gut.

It was those times when I doubted myself: when something sounded so good it had to be true (that’s also known as greed) or when I allowed the so-called experts to talk me out of it.

Not trusting your gut, also known as not following your intuition, can last just a moment. It’s when you see or feel something, as subtle as it might be, and you ignore it.

“No, I must have heard him wrong.”

“I’m sure this case is the exception.”

“But all my friends have invested in this. They must know something.”

My “mistakes” occurred when I didn’t listen to the warning signals going off, and that’s when I got into trouble.

It may be as simple as a gut feeling that says, “Sell those ABC stock shares now.” Then the broker talks you out of it . . . and the shares go downhill. I’ve done that one.

Or when I knew, from one snapshot moment, that I should walk away from a deal because my gut was screaming “No, no, no!” I went through with it because the returns being reported were better than anything I had seen–and I wanted those returns. Here’s the story that goes along with that scenario:

My husband Robert and I met a man who owned a hedge fund while we were attending a stock-trading seminar. Several knowledgeable investors we knew were investing with him and telling us about the incredible returns they were getting. We were interested. So interested, in fact, that we made a special trip to his firm’s offices in Florida to conduct our due diligence on the company.

This man claimed to have designed a unique and confidential trading system that was the core of his success. He had just refurbished and moved into plush offices. I made a mental note of the high overhead he was paying monthly. What we heard and saw did not set off any alarms. That night he and some members of his executive team took us out to dinner at an upscale steakhouse.

This man had made a strong point of telling us what a good Christian man he was. Now I don’t care whether a person is Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim or Hindu. However, I’m a strong believer in practicing what you preach; if this man goes out of his way to share his religious principles with me, then I expect him to act in a way that is congruent with those principles. Not the case here.

During dinner, and after a bit of wine, this man and his cohorts turned into the most obnoxious, rude, womanizing and embarrassing people I had ever been around. Diners near our table were getting up and walking out. At that point I knew in my gut that, at least on the “Christian” level, this man did not practice what he preached. And my instincts raised the red flag: “Where else is he not practicing what he preaches?” That was the moment I should have walked away.

The next morning I had convinced myself that maybe this was just a fluke. Maybe this man was just letting off some steam. “Can I really judge a person’s character from one incident?” I asked myself.

Why didn’t I trust my gut? Greed. The returns on his investments were far beyond the average. People I spoke with who were investing with him sang his praises. I could certainly overlook this one flaw if it meant I’d make a lot of money, I rationalized.

So Robert and I invested money with this man. The statements we received showed beautiful returns–on paper. We were about to invest more money into the hedge fund when Robert brought home a copy of a well-known investment newspaper. On the front cover was our friend, Mr. Hedge Fund, sitting on the beach with the headline, “Would You Trust This Man With Your Money?”

At first I was shocked, and then I began defending the guy. “It’s probably a disgruntled employee wanting to get even,” I thought.

In fact, this man conned his investors out of millions of dollars that he spent on everything from a new house to a new boat. He’s in prison, and investors may get about 10 percent of their money back.

The lesson for me was this: Had I trusted my gut at that defining moment at dinner when I knew something was not as it should have been, I would have saved myself money, distress and frustration.

Mistakes are truly mistakes only when you cover them up and pretend they didn’t happen; if you do that, you learn nothing. And in that case, you’ve just wasted a perfectly good mistake.

Go here to see the original:
Trust Your Gut

The Australian Government provides a money-management site that is useful to people around the world. Understanding Money encourages readers to adopt a three-point approach to their finances:

1. Prepare a budget plan - work out how much you earn and what you spend it on, to help you see where you could make changes.
2. Set some financial goals - they don’t have to be big, but they’ll help you see what you could gain by being better with your money.
3. Get into the savings habit - once you’ve set some goals, try to save regularly and as much as you can to meet your goals.

Understanding Money includes a free, downloadable budget planner in Excel format; a financial health check with links to financial literacy resources; and a free, downloadable money handbook in PDF format. Though some of the details (such as the types of retirement programs) are Australia-specific, the concepts are applicable to anyone, anywhere.

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Understanding Money

Cherie Kerr wants out of her home. The 65-year-old comedian and public speaking coach paid $590,000 for a 1,150-square-foot Los Angeles condo two and a half years ago–only to find the construction so flimsy that her upstairs neighbor woke her up by dropping a coin on the wooden floor.

“A defect hell,” fumes Kerr of her newly built abode. She has moved back into a suburban home she still owns and would love to unload the apartment, but housing values have fallen so far that she figures such a move would lock in a $200,000 loss.

The good news is that Kerr is anything but stuck. A real estate agent recently informed her that the condo can fetch $3,300 a month in rent. That’s enough to cover her mortgage and property taxes. So Kerr has decided to lease out her condo until values rebound. While she no longer harbors visions of becoming rich off the downtown L.A. property, things could be a lot worse.

“It’ll be a tax writeoff,” she says.

Kerr has lots of company these days. No less a financier (and former do-it-yourself tax preparer) than Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is leasing out his Mamaroneck, N.Y. home after failing to get for it a bid he was willing to accept. If you’re one of the horde suffering real estate buyer’s remorse, you too may be able to turn a modest profit renting out your albatross of a residence. How can that be? Thank the trove of tax breaks for residential landlords.

The first step in figuring out whether renting makes sense is to find out how much your place is worth. A professional appraisal is best, but written statements from a few Realtors will do as long as they agree on the value and stipulate how much is attributable to land and how much to the building. (The appraisal, as you’ll see later, is essential for two separate tax calculations.)

The next step is to see how much the property will fetch in monthly rent and weigh that against the costs and tax consequences. As a landlord, you can’t claim mortgage interest as an itemized deduction on Schedule A of your tax return. Instead, you deduct interest costs, plus property taxes, monthly condo fees, insurance and anything you pay to a property manager (most charge 10% of rent) against rental income on Schedule E. You can also expense travel and other costs you personally incur to look after the property.

The other big tax deduction for landlords is depreciation. The tax code allows you to divide the value of your building (but not the land) by 27.5 and to claim the result as an annual depreciation expense. Here’s the first place that the current appraisal comes in. When you convert to a rental, your depreciation is based on the cost of the property plus improvements or its market value at the time of conversion–whichever is less.

In Kerr’s case she must use the $390,000 fair market value of her condo, not the $590,000 she paid. Assuming that 10% of the $390,000 is attributable to land under her building, the depreciation expense comes to $12,764 annually (and reduces her cost basis by the same amount). Add in Kerr’s other expenses and the total is likely to exceed her $39,600 gross annual rental revenue. Almost any residential landlord with a mortgage is going to be in that boat.

The amount by which expenses exceed rent is a tax loss that can be used to shelter up to $25,000 in other income–say, from your salary–if your adjusted gross income is $100,000 or less. (The same cutoff applies to both singles and couples.) Above $100,000 the break is phased out, and it disappears completely at $150,000.

“It’s the one and only time you get to use a passive loss to shelter active income,” says Sacramento tax attorney Roni L. Deutch.

If you happen to be a real estate professional–defined as someone spending at least 750 hours a year, and at least 50% of his working time, in the business–then your career managing property becomes an “active” one and your losses are fully deductible against other income. If you fail the income test or to qualify as a pro, your rental losses don’t go entirely to waste. The net loss gets carried forward and deducted if and when you dispose of the loser real estate or you have gains from passive investments. These gains could be from selling the property in question at a capital gain or from owning other passive investments, like oil wells.

Note that “passive” is a term of art in the Internal Revenue Code and does not cover portfolio investing (stocks and bonds). So if you collect $30,000 from stock dividends and have a $30,000 loss on Schedule E, you can’t net one against the other. But you can wise up, sell the stocks and use the proceeds to pay off the mortgage. At that point you’re probably out of the loss column on the rental and pulling real cash out of the property. A good part of the cash return will be sheltered from taxes by your depreciation deduction.

How are gains taxed when you sell a converted property? A lot depends on timing. If you lived in the property for at least two years and then rented it out for less than three, you may be able to use the provision that excludes $500,000 in gains from the sale of a principal residence, per couple, from tax. (You’ll still owe gains tax on the amount claimed as depreciation.) If you sell at a loss, the only deductible portion is the loss occurring after you converted the house from personal to income-producing use. The appraisal is crucial here.

Kerr hopes that sales prices will rebound in two years. Assume instead that they slide and she clears only $340,000, or $50,000 less than what her Realtors said her condo was worth when she converted it to a rental. Her tax basis in the property will be $364,500 (the $390,000 minus $25,500 for two years of depreciation). She’d be left with a $24,500 capital loss she can use to shelter taxable gains on other investments. Also, she could then claim any passive losses she couldn’t use before.

Renting does present problems. You must either maintain a property yourself or pay someone else to do it. Tax and real estate experts warn against hanging on to real estate if rent falls far short of your pretax, out-of-pocket costs. In other words, look to the tax benefits to sweeten the deal, not drive it, says tax accountant William Fleming of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Rent Out Your Home. Cut Your Taxes.

It’s a quote from a book I just finish reading : Cashflow Quadrant: Rich Dad Poor Dad.

It’s an interesting read – I know I’ve read it twice and the reason why I bring up this topic “Making Money” is because of the economy. Really – I look at my kids and I wonder … have I wasted my life. Have I been so busy in the pursuit of my own happiness that I can’t offer more for my children because I thought wanting to make more money was “evil”… or maybe because I was scared or too lazy to try?

This kind of book – how to make money or the mentality behind it really makes you think.

Yes I know – I’m not trying to make it rich or even become rich over night. But I do have that urge to do more, make a little extra so my kids can have it easy. If anything – learn a couple of money managing or wealth building skills I could teach my kids so they don’t end up like dear old dad – a slave to a job – always wondering if this recession or hard time will destroy all my dreams [ if I have any ].

What parent doesn’t want the best for their kids and who doesn’t dream of “making money effortlessly” … I mean seriously! It’s not like it can’t be done – People today are making money sitting at home. You have people who make six figure incomes because they came up with some lame application for the iphone that millions just had to buy.

The other reason I bring up the “money and how to make it” plus the mentality behind how you think and spend your money – is because of my loving wife. We are on opposite sides of the spectrum when it comes to money. I am more of a saver thinking of tomorrow and she is more of a “lets have fun today before we die tomorrow” kind of person. Which really makes it difficult when it comes to money and our finances.

I’m trying to get my daughter to read – Rich Dad Poor Dad
, by Robert T. Kiyosaki…
Not because I want her to be money hungry but rather I want her to think differently when it comes to money. In today’s economic crisis – millions of people are learning that having a job is not having security. We are all learning that depending on the government truly is more riskier than playing the stock market.

Wanting Better for your Kids Financially

Really is it bad to want better for your kids, financially speaking? Or maybe just the chance to change the way your kids look and think about money and how it works. I went to the book store yesterday and saw hundreds of posters and stickers about “buy 2 get one free” deals. Everyone is hurting in this economy – but the wealthy or smart people weather it better because they have options and a deferent mind set – as where regular people like me are stuck making money [income] at a dead end job. If you love your job, career hey that’s great. But when the kids ask for toys, milk or an unexpected expense comes along that breaks your bank – you only have X amount of dollars to work with because your boss is not going to give you a raise.

I watch the gas pump like a hawk [ not that it does me any good ] and at my job [ where I make most of my money after taxes ] I see people purchase with the gas pump in mind. I mean that people will say things like – “I have to watch my pennies, gas is too high”. Why, because even with a job – we live on a fixed income and every time gas goes up, food prices go up – our dollar [ spending power ] drops.

No I don’t want my kids to be greedy make money at all cost kind of people. But I do want them to think different, see the world different. Have the insight to take educated risk and plan wisely for the future. Rather than be like dad and save , save , save and be no farther ahead than I was 20 years ago. Or worse – be like Mom and millions of other Americans who live for today and now 20 years later still can’t see that their no better off than they were before.

Growing old and finding out that making money was important

I watch my father in-law who only has a year to go before he retires at age 50. It’s great that he has a job that gives him that ability – but he wonders if he could afford to retire. He is concerned with the fact that the money he makes, the money he saved, … will it be enough for him to live a comfortable life? I listen to him and wonder – what will I be thinking, doing when it’s time for me to retire – will I be able to retire?

Do I want my kids to do the same or can I teach them to do things, think in ways that will better them in the long run. That when they reach age 40, or 50 they could retire with little worries and if they work, it’s because they want to – not because they need to make money in order to survive.

I’m not talking making them into millionairs – just better off than me.

Here is the original post:
Making Money is not evil

These new interactive Web sites give you advice — some better than others — to help you reach goals.

Online financial-planning tools are getting more personal. Plenty of Web sites crank out cookie-cutter plans, but three recent entrants give users more detailed advice. Voyant, SimpliFi and ESPlannerBasic provide something more than a quick-and-dirty look at your financial state of affairs — for free.

These three sites cannot replace the personalized service of a financial planner, but they are helpful to most investors. You can use them to get a general idea of your finances and benchmark your progress without shelling out thousands of dollars for a session with an adviser. Those who use an adviser can treat the sites as a way to double-check their adviser’s plans.

Voyant

Pros: Voyant is the best of the bunch. Its slick interface lets you map your financial goals, such as buying a home or saving for your kids’ college, along an interactive timeline. It takes less than five minutes to enter the information needed to create a graphic display of your expected income and retirement savings.

You can test what-if scenarios quickly without entering much new information. For example, you can easily adjust the growth-rate assumptions of your investment portfolio with a sliding bar on the right side of the planning tool. Most calculators make you plug in a different rate each time you want to test a new scenario. Voyant also supplies a menu of events, such as starting a business or having a child, to see how those decisions will affect your finances.

Cons: But some of Voyant’s premade options are a little too cute. For instance, you click on an icon of a sports car to “plan” a midlife crisis. (If you could prepare for such a scenario, it wouldn’t be a crisis.)

No Web site would be complete nowadays without an attempt at social networking — in this case, a feeble one. Voyant lets you communicate with other users on the site’s forums. A button on the tool lets you contact financial advisers who use Voyant’s planning software. (The site is still struggling to sign up advisers. When I pushed the button, I was told “financial professionals” in my area — Washington D.C. — were not available for an online chat.)

Simplifi

Pros: As the name suggests, SimpliFi is not complicated. The site does a decent job at the broad strokes of financial planning. Spend a couple of minutes entering your data and you get a snapshot of how your goals match up with your savings and investments. An animated guide named Sophie grades your financial well-being from A to F. SimpliFi provides a suggested investment mix for your portfolio and a to-do list for other financial tasks, such as paying down debt or buying insurance.

Cons: SimpliFi’s advice is spotty in some areas. The site makes a big deal about its status as an investment adviser registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but its investing guidance is generic. Plus, it recommended that my wife and I buy term life insurance even though we have no children, no debt and more than enough savings to cover a funeral if one of us meets an untimely end.

ESPlannerBasic

Pros: ESPlannerBasic tackles financial planning from a different direction than the other sites. Instead of letting you set your own goals and working backward, the site asks you a series of questions to determine how much you can spend each year without compromising your lifestyle in retirement. The questionnaire takes about 30 minutes to complete. The site then generates annual spending, savings and life-insurance recommendations.

Cons: ESPlannerBasic’s drab interface, similar to Microsoft Excel’s, makes using this tool a chore. Plus, you have to estimate obscure statistics on your own, such as your salary in the year before retirement. (How many Gen Xers know that figure?) Granted, ESPlannerBasic is the bare-bones free version — the advanced copy has more features, including Monte Carlo simulations to forecast various investment scenarios. But after slogging through the basic tool, I don’t want to pay $149 for ESPlanner.

by Thomas M. Anderson

3 Free Financial-Planning Tools