… regrets, I’ve had a few
but then again too few to mention
And now, the end is near;
And so I face the final curtain.
My friend, Ill say it clear,
Ill state my case, of which I’m certain….
I’ve lived a life that’s full.
I’ve traveled each and every highway;
And more, much more than this,
I did it my way.
Regrets, I’ve had a few;
But then again, too few to mention.
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption.
I planned each charted course;
Each careful step along the byway,
But more, much more than this,
I did it my way.
Yes, there were times, I’m sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew.
But through it all, when there was doubt,
I ate it up and spit it out.
I faced it all and I stood tall;
And did it my way.
I’ve loved, I’ve laughed and cried.
I’ve had my fill; my share of losing.
And now, as tears subside,
I find it all so amusing.
To think I did all that;
And may I say - not in a shy way,
No, oh no not me,
I did it my way.
For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught.
To say the things he truly feels;
And not the words of one who kneels.
The record shows I took the blows -
And did it my way!
Friends, December is with us – how astonishing. Another year has passed. You personally are a year older and like many, possibly have not progressed as you intended since last December.
Some had dreams this time last year that have not come true. Their goals have not been achieved. Their finances have been diminished and their personal world is sitting on the edge of a cliff with the majority expecting it to fall over the rim.
Can you ignore all the babble of the talking heads on Bloomberg, ABC, BBC, Foxtel, the internet or your daily newspaper?
Many believe that these educated idiots speak truth, most do not. They say what the owners of the media command them to say. But it is December again. A year has passed. A year of violent events, physically and financially for many, and it really is a time to recall how you were thinking this time last year as the “silly season” approached… an event that took place almost a year ago… and now is the time evaluate what has passed.
I’m taking about Christmas or New Year Resolutions.
Remember Charles Dickens story of “A Christmas Carol.”
Remember the three ghosts.
The ghost of Christmas past.
The ghost of Christmas present and
The ghost of Christmas yet to come.
In short the story said that you can learn from the past regardless of how good or bad it may have been. You can use the present to change direction in a positive way. And you have control 100% of what is yet to come. It is all your choice.
If you can believe the talking heads, we are all in a state of calamity, a state of disaster, a state when nothing lies ahead but governments spending unearned money to force an overburdened society to survive the new great recession. A future where we – the individuals – have lost all control. Sadly the talking heads offer no solutions. Only opinions.
Friends don’t give the government all the power they have taken from you. They are not the solution. Be your own master or mistress and demand that your life become what you want it to be, regardless of anything or anyone or any event that may occur, naturally or unnaturally.
I know for a fact that some of the readers of this newsletter had a bad year. Some lost their businesses, others lost their personal fortune due to bad investments, and others fell down the cliff of financial overload as their debs outstripped their assets. Some lost their jobs and to others - it was the year of bad investments.
But I hope that none of you ever lost your hope. Your desires, your goals, your passions or your ability to take that first step forward each and every day you are on this planet.
If you held real estate, shares or other capital assets over the last 12 months, your net worth today may well be less than it was last December. And maybe you are wondering what happened in 2008 to change the financial world as you knew it.
It can be summed up in a sentence. Debt happened.
The whole world was carrying too much debt. The whole word was carrying debt that was based on something invisible – C R E D I T. And much of it was unrepayable in terms of real cash.
Let me give you an example. In Australia a short while ago I was in a Coles store when a lady came out with a trolley that was loaded up to the gills. I mean she must have had $500 worth of food in it. Behind her came her 12 year old son with a second trolley full of alcoholic drinks. Several more hundred dollars worth.
She offered a credit card in payment. It was overloaded. Credit card refused. Undaunted she reached into her wallet and produced a second card which was also refused. The third card was also refused. And annoyed with herself and muttering something like “Surely one of these has something left on it” she shuffled through about 10 cards until she found a good one… said :”Aha we’ll try this one” She looked worried as though she had no credit left and muttered “I think there is something left on this one”
There was. This final card was accepted and the line behind her breathed a sigh of relief…. but that woman, (wow imagine the interest she must have been paying by not being a part of the cash society) was like all the people, all the businesses, all the partners, all the states, all the governments, entire countries, in fact everyone who has more debt than they can comfortably service. She was a disaster waiting to happen.
2008 it happened. Imagine how she felt when her banks said “Sorry, your line of credit has been stopped because you owe too much and we have no more credit for you.” That’s the story of 2008. Then the banks find that they have over lent and from here the story gets more complex.
Cash is King
So cash is king. I have two credit cards because there are times when I have to use them, like booking international hotels or airline tickets on the internet…. Businesses which will not book me unless I quote a credit card. But when I arrive I pay in cash.
When traveling I have an Australian account that allows me to draw cash via ATMs wherever I am. Being “cashed up” like this saves me thousands a year. Oh how quaint!!!. How old fashioned!!! Not using credit cards. Maybe so but I don’t give one cent more to the banks than I have to. And if I have to use a credit card I make a full payment immediately to cover the debt before the banks add things like daily credit to it. I remember a tailor in Singapore why tried to tempt me to buy a suit. “I told him: “I have no money.” He looked at me pathetically and said: “Use your plastic money, Sir.” Not me. I’m antediluvian. Cash is king.
So what is the credit crisis all about? Simply over borrowing on all scales. .Too many institutions, from entire countries down to single individuals, have more debt than they can service. Same as the lady with 10 credit cards all overdrawn… bigger scale… same problem.
I had no intention of writing this kind of newsletter today. I am actually going away to the island of Bohol tomorrow for about a week. I shall dangle my feet in a swimming pool, walk on a beautiful palm edged beach with my wife, eat the finest foods and enjoy life to the max… just for a few days before returning to the work that I love which is mostly done at my computer. I also have a small “farm” here where I get my daily exercise, planting and working in harmony with mother nature who is very kind to me.
I have the good life. And you can have it too - wherever you start from now.
I am writing this because a customer, an electrical contractor, emailed me and told me his business had gone broke and the reason was that he was owed huge amounts by many customers who were finding it difficult to pay him. He had been over generous in not insisting that their monthly accounts be paid within 30 days. Some were up to 6 months overdue and he had continued to give them more credit and now he could not be repaid. He was a part of a cycle which he hoped would never happen. Builders go broke. Contractors are not paid. They go broke. Bad debt moves from builders to contractors to suppliers. Banks lose money also.
Yet that same man had, last December, written out a glorious scenario of what he expected to happen in 2008 and little of it had.
It’s December again. The end is near and he is facing the final curtain. Go back to My Way and read it again. There is a whole lot of truth in those words.
So this man will have to start again. That’s OK. Here are the basics.
He wants to be totally independent. This time he must learn how to run his personal cash economy. No cash payment, no credit extended.
First step is to pay off what you owe. If and when you can. Make every arrangement to pay what you owe. And make every possible arrangement to collect what is owed to you.
Where do I go from here?
Then go back to step one. Step one is answering the question that millions of people are asking now and which governments also ask, and that is: Where do I go from here? Remember the song “You must love me” from Evita - This isn’t where we intended to be!!!
Where do we go from here?
This isn’t where we intended to be… so on
I’ve put a couple of lines in red as they ask the most important questions.
Certainties disappear
Which brings me back to how to create a new plan.
You want a debt free life.
Step 1. Understand there are two kinds of assets, appreciating assets and depreciating assets. The depreciating kinds are those shiny new cars, the boat in the water down at Deep Point, the caravan and the overseas vacations in the luxury resorts. Yes you can have all those things… but first you have to earn them with good money management which means you must (if you’ve never done it before) become a saver.
If you earn $100,000 a year 10% of that must be saved. If you earn $33,000 a year 10% of that must be saved. You must pay yourself first. Some time in your future this capital that you are accumulating step by step will take you to the point in your life when your capital is working for you and not for the other guy (banks, governments, lenders of all description). Saving is step 1. Saving is an accumulating asset.
Buying what you can afford for cash is another form of money management. No cash. No buy.
Step 2. You must learn where to use those savings to buy long term appreciating assets. There are many around, some astonishingly good ones, but unfortunately I am not licensed to tell you what these are… you must discover them for yourself. I don’t mind discussing a few of these assets privately with those who choose to write to me. But I do not give advice. It is you, by exercising your personal power of choice, who decides.
When you have a plan. When your life is reorganized. When your debts are only against appreciating assets, when your savings are growing each and every month, your mental well being will receive such a shot of adrenalin that you will begin, through the self induced euphoria of positive thinking you receive as a capitalist, mentally soar to levels that – at this moment – when things are tough, you think of as belonging to someone else.
Success is your destiny. Success is your birthright. Success is what you are due in return for putting in the effort to be successful.
“That was then; this is now…and now is all you’ve got.”
Ignore all the talking heads. I just heard one this morning talking about “the new established bottom” of the markets now that the Dow was recovering. Of course this same person picked the top and knew that the markets were going to collapse? Ha ha…. Don’t listen. Listen to those with a little wisdom. Not the media who simply want to sensationalize everything to capture more viewers to sell more adverting to at higher prices. Listen to people who are still making it, people who do not regard today as D for disaster day but rather… just another O for opportunity day.
Most important.
Do a little meditation and listen to the internal voice. Expect those hunches to occur. Expect your intuition to work for you. Expect to be made aware of the golden opportunities that exist today. Expect good things to happen. Expect victory to be yours.
The only way up the ladder of success is one step at a time. There are no shortcuts. No one can take that first step except you.
This crisis will pass
Are you joining the recession? Are you joining others, in partaking in the financial crisis? This crisis will pass. People will eventually regain their confidence and a new era will begin. It will take years rather than months and unfortunately governments will not learn. They don’t really care if they work in a deficit economy or a surplus economy.
They haven’t got a clue. All they want is to claim some credit and be re elected. Sad isn’t it that our financial destiny is in the hands of the greedy and the selfish?
Better is to allow your own personal financial success to be in your hands and your hands only.
I know a lot of people who do know how to create a surplus business and none of them are going broke. They continue to do what they do well. Provide products or services for others who need them, and continue to do so, regardless of how badly their government, their banks, or their local real estate agents are doing.
But it is December. December 2008. Recession is here and that should not change the fact that NOW, December 2008 is your evaluation time. The New Year is coming. If the year 2008 didn’t give you what you demanded of it, then the question is: what can you do in 2009 to hit the right button?
For starters you can make plans. You can decide that today really is the last day of your old life. Today is then the first day of the rest of your life. Your plans should be long term, 5 or 10 year plans, but within those plans should be monthly, weekly and daily plans to move just one step higher every day. By going one step higher every day you can see the top of the ladder. You can see it from the depth of the recession. But you must take that first step. The top is your destination. Higher. Up. Ascension.
Life is about choices.
Listen to the gloomers who are having the time of their lives telling everyone “I told you so!!!” And then ask yourself if everyone is in gloom. No way can this be so.
This is a time to exercise a few of the dusty cells of your mind. A time to believe that there are so many opportunities around you that you must – just must – come across, one that looks like it is made just for you. And when you do find this idea, plan, thought, or burst of creativity, turn down a glass and shout a loud hurrah for this is your day. First step start believing. Read the line in blue. It was written just for you.
Yes this is your day - every day that is. This is your day to be successful. December is your month to evaluate what you have done and create anew the plans you have to create to make 2009 your year. This is your day. And your partners day (if you have one) Today is a day of joy. Today is your day of celebration.
Remember those who have departed this earth in 2008 and be thankful for the lessons you learned from these departed friends. Remember that this day, every day, 3 million people pass on and their time is up. 3 million more arrive and we want to leave a better world for them than the one we arrived in. If you live to be 70 then today is one threehundredandsixtyfifth of a 70th of your life span. Be thankful for that. Remember December to December is about a whole 70th of your life. Make the next Dec to Dec work for you. Get the most out of it.
Yes today you must be thankful. Thankful for all the bad things that have happened which are universal messages to you. Be thankful for the good health that remains. Be thankful for the good night’s sleep you just enjoyed. Be thankful for the good food that mother nature provided. Be thankful for the beautiful world we live in. Be thankful for the gift of love and the gift of giving. Be thankful for the money in your pocket. Be thankful for the investments that continue to work for you. Be thankful for the day that the Universe has provided. And most of all - be thankful for the privilege of being here to enjoy.
December is time for thinking, for planning, for thanking the universe and for taking the first step upward in your personal journey that you will look back on as the past while you enjoy the future.
We can all help each other. We can all give to each other and in giving we get.
Nothing to give? Try love. Give the invisible gift of love to each and everyone you meet. Give a smile to a stranger. Help an old lady carry her bag to her car (she will probably think you are a thief) but do it anyway. Give thanks for the privilege of helping another. And, despite how you feel right now, give thanks just for being here.
Give thanks for everlasting universal energy
Oh Universe, allow me to give and not to count the cost, let me fight and not to heed the wounds, let me labour and not ask for any reward save the joy of knowing that I do thy will. And let me give thanks for being a part of the magnificence that is our awesome universe and which it my privilege to be a part of.
Start now and make 2009 your best year ever.
Funny thing: I struggled yesterday to write a newsletter. I didn’t finish it. Today I knew what I had to say.
When I return from my short vacation I will write a newsletter on how to trade without using a system. A way of trading where all you use is support, resistance, oversold and overbought, rallies and retracements and PRICE. To which you must add a little risk management and the most important ingredient .COMMON SENSE.
That will be my New Year gift for you.
If your story of 2008 is
… Regrets, I’ve had a few
but then again too few to mention.
…MOVE ON
And now, the end is near;
And so I face the final curtain.
My friend, Ill say it clear,
Ill state my case, of which I’m certain.
I’ve lived a life that’s full.
I’ve traveled each and every highway;
And more, much more than this,
I did it my way.
Regrets, I’ve had a few;
But then again, too few to mention.
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption.
I planned each charted course;
Each careful step along the byway,
But more, much more than this,
I did it my way.
Yes, there were times, I’m sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew.
But through it all, when there was doubt,
I ate it up and spit it out.
I faced it all and I stood tall;
And did it my way.
I’ve loved, I’ve laughed and cried.
I’ve had my fill; my share of losing.
And now, as tears subside,
I find it all so amusing.
To think I did all that;
And may I say - not in a shy way,
No, oh no not me,
I did it my way.
For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught.
To say the things he truly feels;
And not the words of one who kneels.
The record shows I took the blows -
And did it my way!
Today is your day. So do it your way.
Until then enjoy a wonderful weekend!
Warmly
Michael S Johnson
www.michaelsjohnson.com