JAMES Packer’s $US250 million ($307m) loss from the bankrupt Fountainbleau Las Vegas Resort had been expected by the market, according to several analysts.

• Government stands by forecasts
• One million still expected to be out of work
• Jobless rates: Jumps back to 5.7 per cent

WALL Street shares ended with modest gains today as data showing a rise in US retail sales and lower unemployment claims helped soothe fears of rising oil prices and interest rates.

TOLL road builder BrisConnections has launched a flood of legal claims around the country against 140 investors who defaulted on the second instalment payment on their partly paid securities.

But you know that if you want to achieve real wealth, you won’t get it by watching television. You need some strategies for creating wealth. It doesn’t just spring out of the ground on its own. The ones in life who actually create wealth are those who find a strategy for creating that wealth. That strategy is based on a realistic way of taking what you have and turning it into real wealth.

There is no fantasy or magic about it. A strategy for creating wealth has to be driven by an attitude of success combined with some practical ideas for making cash where it was not there before. So here are five solid ideas for getting your wealth program underway in the short term.

1.      Making it Your Reason for Living to Create Wealth

The heart of gaining success in any endeavor starts with one basic idea.  You have to want it more than the next guy.  That desire to create wealth must become a priority in your life for you to be willing to make the kind of effort and sacrifices that it will take to get from where you are to a place of great wealth.

This is an attitude adjustment that really summarizes almost everything you will learn if you took a course in getting wealth through positive thinking.  What those courses will teach you is how to focus your energies and put wealth creation on such a high level of importance that you will let it transform your schedule, your priorities and your values.

But making wealth creation your reason for living does not turn you into such a maniac that you make hasty decisions.  It doesn’t mean letting your plans for becoming wealthy hurt your relationship with friends and family.  Wealth creation does not happen overnight.  It takes time, patience and a commitment to stick with it.

Making it a priority means you don’t give up if you encounter a setback and you view mistakes as very important parts of your learning curve.  Successful people who have achieved success can testify that when you set your mind to the priority of creating wealth and you refuse to give up on that goal, there is nothing that can stop you from achieving it sooner or later.

2.      Getting Liquid for Investing

The myth that the capital you will use to begin an aggressive program of investments and wealth creation will just come to you out of the blue is just that, a myth.  You cannot wait around to win the lottery or for a windfall to surprise you for your program of realizing wealth to get moving.  You must find a way to create liquid capital that can be the basis for your investment strategy.

Liquidity simply means cash.  Most of us only keep a small amount of our money available for liquidity.  That means we allocate a few hundred dollars each month for spending cash to buy lunches, get a haircut or to spend for cash transactions.  But the liquidity you need to start an investment program to create wealth must be on a larger scale.  You will need hundreds if not thousands of dollars that are not committed to other things to start a program of investment that will realize real wealth in a reasonable period of time.

The path toward freeing up that much capital might come from some very small savings and cash generation plans.  You might set out on a program to liquidate a lot of your unused possessions through eBay and set all of that money back toward an investment program.  You might sacrifice some luxuries like your $5 latte at Starbucks and make it a point to put that cash into a fund to go toward saving for your investment program.

You may even be able to do some work on the side like performing online temp work or taking a second job for a few months just to build up that fund of liquid capital.  Some of these plans will take some effort and sacrifice.  But if your priorities are serious about creating wealth, they will not be things that you are not willing to do.

3.      Using Secured Debt to Create Wealth

Secured debt is that debt that is based on collateral.  Your home mortgage or your car loan are secured by those properties which means if you default on those debts, that property can be confiscated to pay off the loan.  This is in contrast to credit card debt, which is unsecured.  If you have a mortgage on your home, that is a secured debt that can represent a significant opportunity for creating liquidity for a wealth creation investment plan.

A second mortgage is a serious concern.  But if you have been in your home for ten years or so, you may have as much as $30-40 thousand available to you through a second mortgage.  It is easy to get a second mortgage loan because it is secured.  Usually the lender will not even ask questions about what you need the money for.  Then when you get that check for thousands of dollars, you will have created a big nest egg of liquid capital that can launch an aggressive plan for creating wealth through smart investments.

4.  Leverage Failure

Once you set out on your investment program, use that age-old strategy that will protect you against those short-term failures.  That strategy is – diversify, diversify, diversify.  Because yours is an aggressive plan of wealth creation, you will take more risk than someone who is investing for retirement.  But spread your capital over a number of investments so no one experiment in wealth creation represents your entire fund.

In this way, you are creating a hedge for yourself against some inevitable failures.  This is no criticism of you as a smart investor.  Even the most brilliant investors in the world have some failures happen in their portfolio.  So instead of letting failure surprise you, plan for it and leverage it for future success.  That is a plan that will not allow one small mistake to derail your long-term goal of creating a significant amount of wealth.

5.  Learn the Lay of the Land Over and Over Again

One key part of your strategy will be the same the first day you set out to create wealth as it is when you have been at it for ten years.  You must plan to constantly stay in a learning curve.  After a while you will develop a sense of where to put your money, when to move it and how much to invest in particular wealth creation opportunities.  But experienced investors know that you must remap the financial lay of the land constantly.

Just in the last few years, the way stocks and other investment vehicles work has changed completely.  Those investors who learn the lay of the lay over and over again are the ones who will find paths to creating wealth in every possible kind of market.  It takes that kind of flexibility and willingness to stay limber and ready to move your investments on a moments notice.  But if you can do it, your strategy for creating wealth is one that has a high likelihood of great success.

Best of  luck,

Will

The answer is simple; we believe the best time to invest was yesterday; the next best time is today.

We believes property investment to be a long term strategy. Its value will have its movements over the economic cycle but consider this; what was you home worth ten years ago and what is it worth today?

One of the driving forces in property as an investment is the fact that it is population driven, people have to live somewhere.

The smart investor will buy a property in an area in which people will want to live.

The investment will be close to schools, transport and shopping facilities to ensure a minimum vacancy rate and a maximum rental return

Bureau of statistics states:

• At 30 June 2008, the estimated resident population of Queensland, for example, was 4.29 million, an increase of 97,900 people since June 2007. For the five years from June 2003 to June 2008, Queensland’s average annual growth rate was 2.4% per year, making it the fastest-growing state or territory for that period.

In real terms, the Australian housing finance market nationally, has seen tremendous growth in the last two decades. The market growth has been fuelled in recent years by various factors, including a stable low interest rate environment, sustained growth in housing prices and most importantly a continuing demand for investment property loans.

Premium Finance Services believe that investors remain a large influence on growth, in some instances, accounting for up to half of all sales in some suburbs.

In Australia, 70% property investors are on incomes between $45,000 and $60,000 per annum, and over 90% of all millionaires become so through investment in real estate.

Small wonder there is still a demand for investment properties.

The concept of Property as a wealth creation vehicle is to accumulate it during your working life with little or no negative impact on your lifestyle. Positive steps need to be taken as statistics indicate that around 83% of Australians will retire with less than $30,000, not much to show for a lifetime in the work force.

That said why are some investors hesitant?

Property prices are flat at the moment and interest rates are there lowest for years and yes, we are all aware of the impact of the global issues on our economy. Is there any such thing as perfect conditions though?

We believe the time to move forward for those astute investors is today, not tomorrow.
Today’s preparation and actions determine tomorrow’s achievements.

As part of an overall debt reduction and wealth creation strategy Premium Finance Services recommends the reduction of non deductible house hold debt, particularly the principle place of residence, as soon as possible, in fact according to recent findings of nationwide Mortgage Finance Association of Australia (MFAA) and Bank West Home Finance Survey, a large number of Australian Homeowners plan to pay off their mortgage sooner.

The survey interviewed 500 people who had taken out a home loan or refinanced in the past seven years or who intended to take out a home loan in the next seven years.

The survey showed that 86 percent of respondents want to pay off their mortgage quickly and the same amount is confident in their ability to do so. Eight in ten respondents indicated they would pay off their mortgage sooner by making higher regular repayments or lump sum repayments.

While only two in ten said they would make more frequent repayments. Women showed a higher interest than men in paying off their mortgage sooner.

Thanks for reading.

Till next time,
Premium Finance Team

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The team of Relationship Managers at Premium Finance Services in Brisbane and Melbourne have decided to share some of their stories with the world wide web! Perhaps we can pass some finance tips onto you, subscribe and learn a few things.

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• Budget Calculator ( free & very powerful! )
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• and more – OK – we don’t know what yet, but these things along with some stories will be an insight into the finance industry we hope you find useful!

Till next time,

Karl

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