557. Information is Money

All information, even if old, is money but CURRENT information is always the best !

556. The Snowball System for Clearing Your Debts

The best system I have found for clearing debt is what I call the Snowball system. I call it this because the amount of money you can use to pay off your debts increases (like a snowball) with each stage.

The first thing to do is to find an accelerator, an extra income that you can use to "get the snowball rolling". This could be a part-time job or a sideline business that pays for example €100 per month.

Next list out your debts in 4 columns, the payee, the amount owed, the monthly payment and the date of the final payment.

Now re-write the list in the order of how soon the debt ends.

Apply the accelerator to the nearest debt horizon (the one to be soonest paid off) and speed up the payments on that so that if you were paying €250 per month to this debt, start paying €350 per month until it is cleared. In the meantime, continue paying the normal repayments on ALL other debts. You must not rob Peter to pay Paul here by stealing the accelerator from other debts. This is very important. The accelerator must be genuine extra income or genuine extra savings from reduced spending.

Once the first debt is cleared, take the new full payment (€350 in our example) and apply it to the next shortest horizon debt (say this is costing you €500). You are now paying €850 off this debt and you continue to do this until all your debts are cleared.

Once cleared, you can then start applying all the money you were spending on debt to building up your investments.

555. Why We Should Pay Our Debts

Pay off your just debts. When you do this you become wealthier (paradoxically) because it is always more expensive to owe money than to be debt free, even with the "tax-breaks" that sometimes attach to debt. It can be difficult to pay your debts but if you take the decision and focus on the process, it can be done. Use the Snowball technique and attack each debt in turn until you are clear. All the money you have been using to clear the debts can now be diverted into investments and you will begin to accumulate wealth. Being debt free makes it cheaper to stay alive.

554. Living Within Your Means

Always live within your means. Drive a pickup truck rather than a Ferrari. The biggest tax that most people pay is their own lifestyle. A life spent "keeping up with the Joneses" will leave you poor, old, tired and miserable while you could be better off being happy, comfortable, retired and independently wealthy.

553. Invest in Your Own Education

The best investment of time, money and effort that you can make is in your own education, but only if you apply what you have learned in practical terms. Apprendre pour apprendre is the French expression that carries the sense of learning for the sake of learning. This is a fine and noble idea but it is a luxury. Make sure you can afford it. Your learning should follow a plan. There should always be a practical, material benefit to your learning. It should enhance your career (i.e. give you a better paycheck) and it should bring benefits to those around you. (i.e. the practical application of your new skills for the benefit of the less fortunate). It is a never-ending process.

552. The Pain of Breaking Old Habits

When breaking yourself of habits that you have identified as being harmful to you, you should know that it will be a painful procedure. You WILL get cut. All you can do is to make sure that you are cut with the sharp butcher's knife, not the blunt butter knife. When breaking the habit do it once and for all time. Do not try to ease out of it because that way you just stay in the comfort zone and before you know it the habit has re-established itself. The butcher's knife is fast and clean, the butter knife slow and painful.

551. When Should I Sell ?

Sometimes, you hold a profitable investment and wonder whether or not to sell it. Do not be in any doubt. If you are asking the question at all then you should sell. Nobody ever went broke by taking a profit. As part of your financial plan, you should already know your selling price and if the investment has reached it then you should sell and move on. Remember that your profit is made on the day you buy not the day you sell.

550. Verbal Assault

When you are attacked verbally, before walking away, one of the most effective put-downs (if you could be bothered) is to say "That remark says more about you than me." This is because it is the truth. When you judge someone you define yourself as someone who needs to judge.

549. Silence and Combat

In a combat situation do not speak. Try to still your mind so that there is no "silent" inner conversation. Both types of speech will steal your energy and prevent you from taking action. When you talk about doing something, you are not doing it.

548. Good Sense

The first rule in Martial Arts is : If you are walking down the street and someone says "psst ! come into the alley!", DON'T GO !

547. Informed Decisions

Never, ever, make any important decisions without being in full possession of all the facts relevant to the decision that you can muster. Keep very good sources of high quality information. Never rely on underlings in an organisation for your information - always speak to the engineer, not the oily rag. Remember you are the Chief Executive Officer ( The Boss ) of your own life and as such you are an equal to the CEO of any organisation, from a stamp collecting club to the president of the country.

Learn to interpret all the facts calmly and cooly.

Don't just ask for the good news, ask what all the news is. In fact be very suspicious of those who only bear good news - they are probably only telling you what they think you want to hear. These people are called yes-men and will lead you into error.

Learn also to distinguish between hard data and mere opinion. Only give weight to an opinion if the person knows what he is talking about and if he has a reputation for being right more often than he is wrong. Don't for example agree with the opinion of a brick maker when he is talking about jewels.

546. Mastery

Make Mastery into a way of life, your way of life. We are life-long apprentices. The process is circular : Learn, try, correct, practice, improve, learn... Mastery is a never-ending cycle. You must get in line for learning and stay in line.

545.Perseverence and Breakthroughs.

Whenever your mind says to you "I'm just not getting this", then you are just about to make a breakthrough and learn something new. At times like this, it is crucial that you DO NOT GIVE UP! Most people give up when their mind tells them discouraging things but these thoughts are actually tell-tales you should read to let you know that a new discovery is just around the corner.

If you persist at times like this, your learning curve steepens and you begin to make profound changes in your knowledge base and you become capable of fundamental paradigm shifts.

544. Wealth

The acquisition of wealth is simple but not always easy. If, however, you find that you do not have the time to make the odd €1,000.000 or so, then there is something wrong with your thinking. Plato says : "Every man should be wealthy, for that allows him the leisure to associate with the wise."

543. Study, but What to Study ?

All of your life, study Life, Love, Philosophy, Politics, Martial Arts, and Business. Keep abreast of Technology. After that, you should study what you please.

542. Power and Truth

"Power and Truth have different demands." - Samuel Peppys.

Power, for instance, demands that you maintain it at all costs. Power must be exercised from time to time so that it is believed and to encourage the others. All that Truth demands is that you discover it. In practical terms, it is well to remember what Peppys has said and be clear in each situation which of the two are the priority.

541. Franchises

Generally speaking, you never want to buy a franchise. The real winners where franchises are concerned are the people who started and run  them. If you ever do set one up yourself, a clever way to do it is to give away the territories free of charge or for a nominal cost and then charge 10% of the gross in each region. This is equivalent to giving away the razor and charging for the blades. Make sure you hold the freehold of the property where each outlet is located (Mc Donalds do this) and charge the franchisee rent. Set your advertising spend at 9-14% of turnover (Specsavers).  Set total salary limits at 30 - 35% of turnover.

Register the name worldwide as the cost of doing this will be the cheapest legal fees you will have to pay.

Once you have your system up and running you can licence manufacturers to make product under your name. This will attract licence fees, of course. A good example of this is Weight Watchers, sweets, scales etc. Develop simple and effective financial control systems for the franchisees and maintain tight quality control.

540. Be Prepared to Defend

When out and about in the world, keep your mind present in the here and now. Let your attention be open and free, do not let it get captured. Keep your knees slightly bent and your guard up at all times.

539. Be Eclectic in Designing Your Own Character

Sculpt and develop your own character. Do not model yourself on any one person alone. In all people, there are elements of character you can admire. Take only the good ones. Be eclectic.

538. Enthusiasm and Imagination

Try to avoid allowing the daily grind of your routine to blunt your enthusiasm and imagination. This can be a difficult thing to do because as we evolve systems for doing things, and they become routines, we tend to forget that there may be better ways and become bored with our own methods. The key to dealing with this is to keep everything under regular review.

537. Colour Inside the Lines

Wherever possible, avoid doing anything illegal. If you are not sure whether or not something is legal, find out first. Certainly never do anything illegal at anyone else's request for when the crime is discovered, as it certainly will be, the other person will place the blame firmly on you without a second's hesitation. Being legal is obeying the rules and that is fine as far as it goes. Better than legal, are being moral and noble. Morality and Nobility are principles, laws are mere rules. If, as a motorist, you follow the principle of driving while keeping the needs of the other road user in mind, then you will automatically be obeying the hundreds of "rules of the road" without having to memorise them all.

536. Double the Speed and Reduce the Effort

Practice the exercise of doubling the speed at which you carry out your tasks while at the same time reducing your efforts to the minimum. This exercise will increase your efficiency.

535. Planning and Attention to Detail

In every activity, enthusiasm and single-mindedness are absolutely vital if you are to succeed but they will only take you so far unless you also employ meticulous planning and absolute attention to detail. "For want of the nail the shoe was lost ...etc."

534. Doubting ? Yes ?

Whenever you have a doubt about something, someone else alwais gains - Mark Mulvey.

533. Your Most Valuable Skill

In an age when events move ever more swiftly and information overload threatens to swamp your mind, the most valuable skill you can acquire is to be able to tell for yourself what is true from what is false. This is done by polishing your mental faculty called Buddhi, or conscience. Meditation is the way to do this and when your mind is still, it will be able to see clearly what is true and what is not.

532. Improvements

Whatever you are practicing, learning, doing, trying-out etc., love the fact that you are getting better and better at it, not that someone might praise you for it.

531. Doing What is Right

You need to develop and maintain a strong sense of the difference between doing what is right and fair and those things that you merely feel like doing.

530. Public Speaking

If you want to give a good talk, be witty and good humoured but if you want to give a great talk, remember that what comes from the heart goes to the heart.

529. Transformation and Power

Once you have learned how to transform misery into something better, you will have power over it. Our duty, as humans is to remove misery wherever we see it. Misery is not natural. Our true nature is infinite Joy.

528. Flexibility

Strive to remain flexible in mind and body and at the same time hold true to yourself all your life long. Find and define your values, the virtues you hold highest, and live by them all the days of your life. This is the meaning of steadfastness. If you remain flexible, it will not be rigidity. Remember that if you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything.

527. Denial

When you say to yourself "I am not in this situation, I don't care." when in fact you are in that very situation, then you are in a state of denial. Denial equals Delusion. This is a very unhealthy mental state and should be avoided at all costs. When you deny what you know in your heart to be true, you are practicing Active Ignorance. In short you are lying to yourself. It leads only to misery and pain.

Denial is a major gateway to mental illness and ultimately, if taken to its logical conclusion, leads one to madness and destruction.

When a situation that you do not like develops, rather than going into denial, stand back and review and evaluate it thoroughly. See what, if anything, is to be done about it. Work out what the most appropriate response is and take action on it. Then let the bally thing go and move on from it.

You do not always have to respond immediately. Oftentimes, you have enough time to meditate and consider all your options before rushing in.

526. Judging

Do not judge people, for when you do, you take on their burdens. When you judge, you cannot be happy until the other person changes, and guess what ? They will only change if and when they want to. By judging, you are saying as much if not more about yourself than about the one being judged. Judge not lest ye be also judged.

525. Victimisation

Never allow others to victimise you by getting you to do things just to prove your own self-worth. Your self-worth is self-existent. It is a given simply by virtue of your own existence. It is not reliant on your actions or the opinions of others. Remember the description of your own Self :

The Self knows all
Is not born
Does not die
Is not the effect of any cause
Is eternal
Self-existent
Imperisable
Ancient
He lives in all hearts
That Thou Art

The victimisation spoken of here is a form of manipulation and a guilt-trip. Do not allow it to happen, even once. Repeated manipulations of this type build up resentment in your heart and mind. This is a form of mental and emotional cancer.

524. Back It Up !

Always keep backup copies of everything you do, write, build, create, whatever. File them neatly under a sensible system. Keep one copy at least off site. Better still, keep 3 or 4 in 3 or 4 off-site locations.

523. How to Double Your Intelligence

Every time you add a new distinction to a subject, you double  your intelligence with respect to that subject. This is how you measure true intelligence - not by IQ numbers which only measure how good you are at doing IQ tests and are not at all a true measure of intelligence.

522. Paradox

Sometimes, when seeking the Truth, you will find two or more things that are equally true but also equally utterly opposed to each other. This situation is called a Paradox. It is a rare and golden opportunity for your mind to resolve the apparent conflict. These situations challenge the mind to see the bigger picture. It is only in this way that the paradox can be resolved. By referring the situation to the next level up, the true relationships of the elements in the paradox can be seen. Even when you do this, sometimes the paradox remains. Then the right thing to do is to let your mind rest with it. One of the characteristics of Leonardo da Vinci's mind was that not only was he comfortable with ambiguity, he actively embraced it. He even deliberately used it in his paintings as a conscious technique called Sfumato - smoking.

521. Mind Your Own Business.

It is a fool's errend to take up someone else's burden.
"To do the duty of another is fraught with danger." -Bhagavad Gita.
You will get no thanks for doing it, you will probably be reviled and you will alienate others.

520. It's Not About the Money...

"Whenever someone says 'It's not about the money...', it IS about the money." - H.L.Menken

519. Roots

Even when you become a Rugby International, or a Silat Grand Master, never forget your old club. Remember your roots and keep them close to your heart.

518. Power and Vulnerability

Very often the thing that makes you most vulnerable is the power you give away to others. Work from respect and expect nothing less in return. Enforce it where necessary. For those who disrespect you, do not give them the energy and power over you that they seek. Do not waste time trying to argue with the uneducatable.

517. Paul Bear Bryant's Prayer

This is the beginning of a New Day.
God has given me this day to use as I will.
I can waste it or use it for good.

What I do today is very important because I am exchanging one day of my life for it.

When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, leaving something in it's place that I have traded it for.

I want it to be a gain, not a loss - good, not evil - success, not failure, in order that I shall not forget the price I paid for it. - Paul Bear Bryant.

516. Two Important Daily Questions

Ask yourself every day :

1. Am I being productive or just being active ?

2. Am I inventing things to do just to avoid the important things ?

515. Effective vs Efficient - What to Do, How to Do It.

From a state of complete rest, become effective. i.e. engage only in those activities that move you closer to your goals. Simply doing something unimprtant very well does not ever make it into something important. Learn to distinguish between what is effective and that which is merely efficient. Efficient gets the job done. Effective advances your plans.

In financial terms, effectiveness means gaining maximum income from the minimum necessary effort and this includes the minimum number of customers. Apply Pareto's Rule, (The 80:20 Rule) and eliminate the 80% that cause you the most effort.