We have all heard about  Multi-Level-Marketing and I, for one, have done a bit of research into it in the past. What I found was that, the concept was really smart but the products available to promote in businesses I could never really see the need for! Pills for this, lotions for that.. Unfortunately not really my thing.. And my early career in sales taught me that if I didn’t believe in a product, even if I tried my hardest to think it great, I would really not sell much at all.

So, I placed MLM on the shelf….

Last week iLearning Global popped up on my Facebook  and I thought I would take a look into it. I found the main site and found a Brian Tracy video playing back at me… All very nice, in High Definition, nice. Then slowly it dawned on me what iLearning Global was… It’s a subscription site filled with personal development video shorts, ebooks, audiobooks… Basically everything that has been filling my spare time up over the last year, which is pretty much the hub of this site, The4thMarketeer!!

Here is where I think I may need to re-iterate what a great year last year was for me, a real turner in personal philosophy. With the help of many an author and speaker, my world has become a much brighter place. I see possibilities all over the place and firmly believe that many things are achievable for me, when they weren’t before… So finding a site like iLG last week totally had me from the go.. A subscription site, with all of that information available 24/7?  By this time, my eyes had lit up like a kid in a sweetshop!! (You want to see the names of the faculty members… Some serious personal development heroes!)

A couple of videos along on the site started to detail a bit about the marketer scheme.. Here’s where the MLM part starts.. Enrol as a marketer and get a commission on every enrolment up to 7 tiers down. That means, if you enrol someone into the site as a marketer, and he enrols someone else… You will get a commission from both subscriptions!!

Now, I know a couple of people like myself, who are looking for more and something to get their teeth into, and I am assuming they are going to be chomping at the bit too to get involved in this. I feel this product is so good, or at least so well tailored for people like myself, that it really shouldn’t be too difficult to raise the excitement level with new prospects!!

Here is an opportunity to give something great to people who want it.. I’m thinking a great sense of purpose with arise if all goes to plan!!

Have a look at the site by clicking the logo at the top or bottom of this post and tell me what you think at benny@the4thmarketeer.com. I would really like to know if it is only me that can see how great this can be?

The only problem is.. If everyone joins iLG, The4thMarketeer.com will be rendered seemingly pointless lol

I have just found a very useful website if you want to do a little bit of research into the area of a property at www.houseprices.co.uk.  If you put in the postcode of a property in it will pull out all of the previous property sales prices from the land registry back to 2000!

Nice!

Found these guys the other week on the internet, and after a large amount of missed calls and answerphone messages spoke to a guy called Mark about what they do and how it all works. What I would like to say is that they seem to know what they are talking about and the site is full of great info for the newbie property investor.

The main guy of this operation, Brett Algre-Wood, shares plenty of his viewpoint with mailouts and vlogs… All good stuff.. Plus I found out that he has, in the past, work with Mr. Kiyosaki himself!! (for me that was a great sign of his pedigree lol).

If you look over the site, there are many guarantees in place for the after purchase renting etc, basically these guys are putting their money where their mouth is about how good their research is into the properties that they are selling. One such guarantee is that they will only let a 6 weeks lapse between exchange date and having your new property rented out, before they say they will pay the rent themselves!! (In certain cases, it may be 8 weeks). Obviously check the site for the details!

Another thing that I liked about these guys is that Mark had a look at this site and wondered if I was going to be making a blog post about them, no biggie, but then essentially threw the gauntlet down, challenging me to find some bad piece of press about them!!

So, in essence, they have these great guarantees plus they are not scared to have their dirty laundry aired in public…. That’s if you can find any!! As my Dad would say… I like the cut of their jib.

I have been away for a little while, but before I left I blogged about Ajay Ahuja and I said that I would let you know when I find out more on the subject and his dealings.

You will find Mr. Ahuja all over the internet- The BBC has also done an ‘Inside Out’ segment on him, saying that he is a bit of a fraudster! In my opinion, from what I have read… And bear in mind I have only read other peoples’ accounts of what has happened, is that in most instances where a problem has been reported, fingers can be pointed in both directions, his and his clients, both failing to do enough to to secure that appropriate soliutions are reached for the deal.

From what I can gather, Mr. Ahuja’s company seems a little bit lacsidaysical in its valuation methods and doesn’t perform the necessary research into the deals he is offering on an individual basis… But also, his clients have not been involved enough in their own deal! (They should at least have the foresight to view any property they are looking to purchase, until such a point that they have a relationship with the company they know and trust).

I have not had any dealings with the Ahuja Group, and doubt I ever will, but for some reason I feel that they are getting a bit of a hard time (having looked through the instances quoted in the BBC programme, I can only find one of the problems’ resolutions to be unfair on the customer).

Please let me know if you can shed any light on the subject,and if you do choose to do business with them…. Don’t take my word for whether or not you should, do your own research into them!

That is the key to ‘New Capitalism’ as Robert Kiyosaki would call it.

BUT!!! Before you all go out and whack new TV’s and cars on the credit card, you gotta be smart. Mr Kiyosaki makes the 2 different types of debt very apparent! There is good debt and bad debt.

Good debt is debt that makes you money, bad debt costs you money. Simple I know, but we all have a tendency to get it wrong! Basically, the difference is Assets vs Liabilities. An Asset is something that puts money in your pocket every month, a liability loses you money every month.

For example -

Car = liability (unless it makes you money as a Taxi for instance)

House = liability (unless it is rented and makes you money, all costs considered, every month)

Tbh, nearly everything that we buy is a liability, we buy it and it costs us every month, usually due to depreciation. So the plan of attack is to only buy things that make us money every month.

The greatest example of how more debt = more income is in buy to let properties. Just as long as the monthly rental covers the mortgage, management fees, maintenance etc and gives us an income on top, then we are winning! We will be earning passive income. Basically, once set up, we get money from it ad infinitum. I like to envisage assets as little engines that once started keep running, producing cash, and occassionally need a little maintenance.

That is the ‘Get Rich in the New Captalism Plan’ that appears to have worked for many people.

I hear you say, ‘But I don’t want any debt at all’, which is fair enough… But think how long it will take to save up for a house for example without a mortgage… It could take 10 years! Why not turn every £1 you have into £10 with the help of the banks money? And still get a return? Just need to make sure that the figures add up, so it doesn’t end up costing you!

Bearing in mind we all have a penchant for being in debt, this is surely a goldmine solution to all of our money problems!!

My longer term plan is to create a cashflow income from renting out property, but to use this I will need to leverage OPM (other people’s money), ie the bank’s money. But, to do this I have to be able to assure the bank that I am a worthy borrower.

To prove that I am worthy of the bank lending me money are a few factors, one of which is my credit score. About 6 months ago I had the perfect credit score of 999 then I stupidly applied for a credit card online for which I don’t think income-wise I was eligible for! The bugger is that it has affected my credit score and I want my 999 back!

If you are wanting to follow the kind of track that I am trying to proceed on you are going to want to maintain as high a score as possible, which means monitoring it. Tbh, having a good credit score is generally paramount to whatever you do these days.. It’s sort of like your borrowing report card, fortunately it doesn’t read like my school one, ‘Benny is very laid back, he could do better’.

One way of keeping track of your credit status is Experian, you can view your Experian score with Credit Expert (which I do). There are also a few tips on how you can raise your score etc and keep it as healthy as possible.

Good luck!!

I have posted about Kevin before, but at last I have watched his ‘Secret Millionaire’ show. All I can say is that it is very touching!

I had the joy of being on a course run by Kevin for 3 days.. Let’s just say that he knows his stuff and is very charismatic twinned with being a great speaker. I believe that he is in the middle of one of his own branded courses in London this weekend, ‘Building Wealth with Kevin Green‘.

If you haven’t seen his Channel 4 programme you can can get to it here:

Secret Millionaire – Kevin Green

If you are looking for a new financial plan I cannot recommend seeking out Kevin enough!!

Onwards and upwards

After winning the book, ‘Increase Your Financial IQ‘, at the RichDad Education 3-day seminar I went to, I have finally got my butt into gear to start reading it!

Again, Mr.Kiyosaki hits you with some truths… that if you had thought about it properly, you could have figured out yourself. But the joyful bit about RichDad is that there is always a full explanation about all that is said. The books starts with the 1971 change from the Gold standard to the Dollar standard. From what I gather, that means that instead of all money being backed by ‘hard’ gold, it is solely backed by the cash in the system…. meaning if more money is needed it can be printed essentially.

Mr. Kiyosaki then explains an old method that the Romans used to use… It’s called ‘clipping’. Where money loses value over time… (the roman government would shave the edges of coins so they used less gold) . Therefore meaning that when the government dispenses it, it is at its highest value, it has its greatest ‘worth’ and as we get it, it becomes less and less valuable. In modern times they call this phenomenon ‘inflation’. The bit here that makes sense when you look at it is that, it is not the general prices increasing or ‘inflating’, it is the devaluation of the currency that is occuring, which it is designed to do! So, saving, in modern times, is possibly stupid. He then explains that ‘currency’ comes from the word ‘current’ like in electricity.. to keep its value it needs to keep moving.

If you still haven’t seen or read a RichDad book, I emplore you to do so. They are available from any good bookstore or from the4thmarketeer bookstore, on your left. They are a great eye opener and I cannot recommend them enough! Also, I have posted a page of great videos from Robert Kiyosaki on The RichDad Videos page.

‘Life is a daring adventure…… Or nothing’     Helen Keller

Having completed my course the other weekend I obviously spoke to my mum about it. Tbh, I thought it was very much up her street, as she has had a rental property in the past and has a knack of adding value to anywhere that she lives.

I gave mum the details of The Wealth Intelligence Academy, the guys who held the course for Rich Dad Education. She subsequently booked herself in for the Women in Wealth introduction with a lady called Bindar, who was one of the mentors at mine.
I’m really excited that mum has gotten up and arranged it. I was a little worried that she might have thought it all a little ‘new school’ but she appears to have her finger on the button, so go mum! You never know, our dream of a property company may come around after all!