July 9th, Let's Start Reading Again

   These past couple of days have made me question society. You might be thinking what is making me lose faith in society. Mobile phone games, everywhere I turn someone is on their phone playing a game. The reason that this is grinding my gears, is due to the fact that no one is reading anymore.

  As a little experiment I want you the reader to ask ten people a question. Ask them when was the last time they read a book. Some of the people that I have asked have stated that the last billion they read was in college. When I hear that people don't read, my heart skips a beat. Knowledge is power, if we are not learning then we are not growing. After we graduate from school, we have no one to teach us about the many trials life puts us through. That's where good come in, there is almost one book per subject. There's even books that teach a craft, like all the for dummy books.

  Listen, I’m not trying to say that you can't enjoy your commute. All that I am saying is we are throwing away valuable time. So many people spend their work down time on social media and games that it outweighs the time they spend actually working. Everyone always says they hate their job or they want more pay yet, they don't attempt to aquire a new skill set. I'm not saying that reading will solve all your problems, but it can help in many ways. People sometimes turn to alcohol or drugs to escape reality and these substances can have bad side effects or even cause death. You can read a nice fiction book and escape reality that way, worst case scenario you dislike the book or it leaves you craving more. So read a book and feel free to let me know how it went.

July 7, 2016 Ambition

  Beginning of July and the weather is already bad. As I sit here typing this post, it is over 90 degrees outside. For the next five days the weather will stay like hot. !right sound like a dream come true for many of you, but that's not the case for me because I am stuck inside working. So today I want to talk about ambition.

  Ambition is a strong desire to achieve something. When I hear the word ambition, a voice  asks me how bad do I want it. How badly you want something, is the true definition of ambition (in my opinion). For most big decisions in our lives, we make a decision based on a want. Think about the reason some people get married, to fill a void, to not be lonely, because they want to spend the rest of their lives with the person and many more. These are all wants, all our decisions are fueled by a want/desire. Ambition is one of the few things that can help us to change the direction of our lives (in a good way).

  The reason that I brought up the weather is because I am unable to enjoy it. The only way that I can enjoy the weather on a consistent basis is by changing my current situation. I would need to be able to live without the need of employment. To many of you reading this post, the concept of living without the need of employment sounds insane. The concept is actually quite freezable, that is if you have enough ambition. What is it that drives you to make you want to do more in life. What drives me is time. I want to be able to enjoy what little time I have left on this planet. Through society we are taught that we need to work for forty or fifty years until we are able to retire. Why do I have to wait until I'm seventy years old to buy a nice sports car and drive it through town mid day. So whenever I commute to work and see men over forty going to work, I tell myself that won't be me.

  Ambitions don’t have to only be for “big” things. Years ago I wanted a pair of headphones that cost $250. To get the headphones I didn't buy any food at work for a month and just ate cup of noodles. So whatever your ambition is let it drive you to success.

July 2, 2016 A Fateful encouncouter

   As i stated in previous posts, my job allows me to meet people of all walks of life. Today I was able to borrow fifteen minutes from someone who worked in the financial industry. I know that everyone reading this is saying to themselves, big deal I know accountants and stock brokers. The person I met was in their 90s, had been through the great depression, just celebrated their 70th Harvard reunion and they are worth millions of dollars. 

   If you were to see this person on the street, you would think that they were just another old person. I did not know that this person had a wealth of knowledge before hand. The topic came up when I was printing an email that one of her students sent her. I asked if she was a professor and she responded that she worked in the financial industry. After knowing that finances were their area of expertise, I started talking about my return in the stock market. As of writing this post I am currently up 20% in the stock market. Might not sound like a lot to some people, but the average return for investors is 7%. There in front of me was a financial mogul and as a young investor, I was not going to let this opportunity pass me by.

   The first topic that we discussed was diversification. The old saying is true do not have all your eggs in one basket. The second topic that we discussed was investing in companies that pay dividends. The dividends will be reinvested and help with your gains. Next we spoke of investing mostly in companies that do most of their business in America. The final piece of advise that I was given was.... Don't pull out of the market, stay there for the dark times because it can always get better. Time is your biggest asset when investing.

   I kept these topics vague, because I can't reveal all my secrets. The topics themselves are gems that I will live my investment life by. I recommend picking up some investment books to learn more. This person will be bringing me a list of stocks that they recommend and that list I will publicize 

May 26, 2016 Where I've been

   So recently many of you readers have been sending me emails regarding my mini hiatus. The reason for this hiatus was actually for you the reader. Sounds like an oxymoron but it actually a hiatus to work on some stuff for my loyal readers. All of the work that I have done over the past week has been in preparation of launching my first book. It will be live soon, just have to go through it one last time. At the bottom of this post you will find the cover for it.

April 29, 2016 Are you caught with your pants down?

   Just the other day I was having a conversation with a friend of mine and he brought up an interesting topic that intrigued me. This friend of mine is old enough to be my father so he has gone around the black a couple of times, so I value his knowledge. The topic that he touched upon was about always being prepared.

   'But Josh how can you always be prepared, when Life always throws something new at you?' I'm not saying that anyone is a hundred percent ready for anything that comes their way. I know people that are swinging at a fast ball and off a sudden Life throws a bowling ball at them. In my interpretation always being prepared means you never know what is coming your way but you have to be ready for it in some degree. A prime example of this is to always have a couple of business cards on you at all time. As an author, I must make it my duty to always carry business cards. The reason for this is because in my business I have to gain an audience and the best way to do that is by word of mouth. If I hand out one card to a person and they enjoy my writings, then they might tell their friends about my work. Guess what if I never handed out my business card to that person then I can not help them or the multitude of  people they are connected to. You may be thinking to yourself at this point that my example sounds like networking, well that's because it is networking. Many situations arrive throughout our lifetimes and one way to prepare for them is by having a network of people that can help you get through any situation. My network consists of  almost any profession or knowledge base, anywhere from garbage me to rocket scientist.

   Another way to be prepared for some of life's rough patches is a rainy day fund. This is something that I learned from Dave Ramsey. This fund has to be a minimum of a thousand dollars but not easily accessible. This fund is not for you to go buy the newest IPhone. A couple of months ago Murphy came a knocking (Murphy's law), in the form of my water heater failing on me. Even though I had an unplanned expense I was able to overcome it because of this rainy day fund. A thousand does not sound a lot of money but its just a starting point. When you can you can add more money in it because some obstacles can cost more than others. 

   Thanks for reading, the above information is not new but sometimes you just have to hear it in a different way.

                                                                                                                                          Stay prepared,

                                                                                                                                                     Josh R.

April 26, 2016 Are we Financially Secure

 Just the other day I was too sick to go into work. On my sick day my brain started to think about how financially secure I truly was. After evaluating all my monthly expenses against my savings and assets, I realized that I was not financially secure. If I was to be let go from my current job and unable to receive unemployment I would only e ale to survive for about 4 months.

   This post is just here to help you the reader re evaluate your current financial situation. Think about if you were forced to go on short term disability or your job closes down how would that affect your financial situation. I'm not here to tell you how to manage your money or anything, I am just asking do you really know where your money is going. The average American does not have a written monthly budget, and just like a goal statement if it's not written out then it is not binding. If you plan out everything accordingly then you get to allocate funds correctly and cut any unnecessary expenditures. 

   Other than learning how to budget your money, you must learn how to make your money work for you. There are different ways to make your money work for you such as stocks, mutual funds, real estate any many more options. To have my money work for me I personally have some money in mutual funds, some in stock and working on residual income from my books. For those of you that are not familiar with residual income, it is income that continues to pay out throughout your lifetime. Royalties for songs and payment on book rights are two simple forms of residual income. Without having our income work for us then we rely on our jobs as our only source of income. So if anything were to happen to our work we would essentially become financially insecure.

                                                                                                 Thanks for reading,

                                                                                                                 Josh

April 21, 2016 Why?

   Today's topic is very important, without it you can not succeed in almost anything. The topic of today is "why", this may sound like a simple topic but it is not. Why do we work in our current job, why do we try to better ourselves? So today I will briefly touch on our why statement.

   The "Why Statement" is another concept that I picked up from my time in network marketing. Yes, it is literally a statement explaining our "whys". The "whys" are mainly a person's reason for doing network marketing but it can be applied to almost all aspects of life. Our why is what motivates us to move forward, if you have a strong why you will give your all. If you have kids, then they are your reason for working hard. When you have a reason to succeed then you can not afford to fail. I want to issue you the reader a challenge. Write down a list of reasons why you can not afford to lose at life. After you make that list I want you to make another list, on this list I want you to write out why you must succeed in life. Even though both lists are  outlining your whys they have different answers. If I don't succeed in life then I will not be financially free. I need to succeed in life because if I don't then I can not inspire generations of people through the written word.

   Today's post is a bit short but it is a powerful one. You must weigh your actions against your cause. I am writing this blog to help my readers in any form that I can. So my actions must be able to satisfy my ambitions. All I really want to say is make sure you truly know why you put in all those hours in at the office.

April 19, 2016 Goal Setting

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   "If you plan to fail, you are planning to fail" - Benjamin Franklin. This is a powerful quote which is the basis for today's discussion on goal setting. When most people hear the words goals they tend to associate it to dreams and aspirations. Goals and dreams are not the same at all. A dream is something that you wish for, whereas a goal is written down and has an action plan.

   Through my journey in network marketing I always heard about the importance of having a "goal statement". The "goal statement" was a paragraph on where we saw ourselves in a time span of three to five years. You would first write in detail how great everything had turned out and after that you would then describe what made that possible. In my personal opinion, I do not believe that this type of goal setting is fully effective. I prefer having my action plan set up like a chart that has two columns, one labeled 'Goal' and the other column labeled 'Actions to achieve goal'. By doing an action plan in this manner I can pin point what tasks directly affect my progression towards my goal. This in turn makes sure that I am doing the "right" things to achieve my goal (see April 3, 2016's post for "right" things). I am not saying that my way of goal setting is the one and only way to set goals. As long as you have an action plan you are already a head in the game we call Life.

   Just having a goal and/or action plan doesn't mean that you are done with goal setting. A big part of goal setting is visualizing your goals, because if you can "see" your goals it makes them more attainable. One thing that I learned in network marketing was to have a "Dream Board", which is filled with pictures of things that the maker wants to achieve. I literally hate the word dream, because dream means wishful thinking. Wishful thinking will not get you towards your goals so I am renaming the "Dream Board" to 'Goal Board'. By creating this board you are able to put as they often say a face to a name. Sounds a bit confusing but let me give you an example... " I want to be a millionaire" this is a statement that most people answer when asked what they want in life. This statement is too broad because it does not specify what they truly want from life. The Goal Board would break down this statement to something such as financial freedom, the ability to take multiple vacations per year or even owning a car collection. Other than breaking down goals to smaller attainable parts it also sets up a deadline for completing the goal. 

   By setting a deadline for your goal, you create a way to measure progression towards a goal. By measuring your progress you are able to determine if your actions are helping you succeed in obtaining your goal. This grants us the ability to adjust our actions in order to maximize our productivity towards goal attainment. Goal deadlines also create a sense of accountability. If you fail to achieve your goal then you are the only person to blame. Think about deadlines at work, your boss holds you accountable if the deadline is not met so why should it be different here.

   I now have a rather simple question to ask. After reading this post, do you have dreams or do you have goals? If you answered goals then I have one more question for you. Have you done goal setting? If you answered no then it is not a goal but rather it is a dream. But do not fret and worry because you now should know how to turn that dream into an attainable goal. If you follow your plan you will be successful.

                                                                                                        Thanks for reading,

                                                                                                                         Josh R.

April 15, 2016 Cyber Security

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  Today I learned a very important lesson in life. The lesson that I learned today was that you must make sure that all your information is secure. I was recently a victim of a cyber attack in which someone tried to withdraw money from one of my accounts. I always hear about people’s information getting stolen and always thought that it couldn’t happen to me. Turns out that I was wrong, very wrong.

  Most of people have at least two locks on their doors, one regular lock and a deadbolt lock. If you feel secure with two locks why have only one “lock” for our digital accounts. The one “lock” we have on our digital accounts is a password that most do not remember. The password is fine and dandy but can easily be broken into no matter how “secure” you believe it is. My password for the account that was hacked was 15 characters long and a pass-code that I had never used before. The funny thing is that the email that I use for the account has a 2-step authorization setup. The only problem is that I never enabled it on any account other than my email accounts. If I would have taken five minutes out of time to set it up for 2-step authentication then I would have saved myself a ton of time and frustration.

  Before you bring out the pitchforks and try to burn me at the stake, just take a step back and listen for a bit more. If you have a smartphone, then you are halfway to having true security on your accounts. The app that I personally use on my phone for 2-step authentication is Google Authenticator. If for some reason you do not like Google then there are many other options from big developers such as Microsoft. I’m not trying to tell you to go out and purchase a life lock subscription or anything. All I am recommending is that you try out a 2-step authentication method. A password or a pin was sufficient in the past but so were chip-less debit and credit cards. Why wait until cyber security is fully needed, act now and save yourself the trouble. I was lucky because I was able to find out within an hour, but will the next victim be as lucky.

                                                                                                                                     Protect yourselves,

                                                                                                                                                               Josh R.

 

April 14, 2016 Change

  This post today is another post straight from the heart. The topic of today’s post is Change. I am not talking about change is a monetary sense, but change that happens to us throughout our lifetime. We get too comfortable in our current situations that even the slightest change can scare us.

  Doing network marketing for a couple of years there was one saying that was repeated over and over when talking about traditional businesses. The saying was simple, catchy but memorable “If you’re not a dot com,then you’re a dot gone.” The reason why I am bringing up this quote is because it pertains to a business changing from a traditional brick and mortar into a online store. Nine years ago I used to work for a big electronic store named Circuit City. If that name does not ring a bell it is because they are no longer in business. They attempted to change their ways but it was too little too late. Now you must be asking yourself what does this all have to do with you. The connection is very simple, if we fail to adapt to the changes that life puts our way we are doomed to fail.

  How can not adapting to a change in our everyday life lead to failure? Let us take a look at a smoker if they fail to change their smoking habit they are likely to contract a number of diseases including cancer. Before you start saying that the above example is too broad let us take a look at something that might hit closer to home. There are workers out there that have to change the way they work because of new management or a shift in the company. If they do not adapt to the new focus then they might not be with the company for much longer. It is hard to change, I still struggle to this day to change. If I don’t change for the better who will?

  If your current situation is not satisfying you, then you have to take a step back and look hard at it. Remember Albert Einstein’s famous quote “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” You will never grow if you don’t change with the times. If you try to fight the change you might end up like Palm, Circuit City, RadioShack or even The Wiz. Change can be good so try and embrace it.

                                                                                                                   Thanks for reading,

                                                                                                                                     Josh