The Practical Way

“Think Big and Kick Ass! in Business and Life” by Donald Trump and Bill Zanker

Monday, 8th February 2010 | Book Reviews, Personal Effectiveness, Personal Finance, Property, Wealth Building

This is one of the latest books of Donald Trump that he wrote together with Bill Zanker from the Learning Annex. They draw from their experiences in life to provide practical advice on how to think big in your life and achieve what you want. Donald gives many examples from real estate and his experience with dealing with famous people. Bill’s prospective is different. He draws his examples from the struggles that he had in starting the Learning Annex and transforming it into a successful company.

They recommend that is very important to find your passion and follow it. Do not do something for money, but because you are passionate about it. Then the money will follow. You need to go after your passion with 150% focus and to focus on the solutions to the problems that you will encounter and do not be dishearten by the problems.[...]

How to measure investment performance

Wednesday, 13th January 2010 | Personal Finance, Stocks, Wealth Building

As investors, it is very important to keep track of our yearly returns. Returns should be compared with a benchmark and our job is to beat the benchmark. If you can not beat the benchmark then it is better to buy it. This will save us money and time in the long run. There are certain things to consider when you measure performance:

1) Define your investment fund

First of all we must know what we measure. For example, assume we have a trading account of £10,000 and we decide to buy 1000 shares of Company X for £5.00 per share. Once we buy the shares, we will have in our account £5,000 in cash and 1000 shares of company X worth 5,000. Now assume that by the end of the year the shares increased in value and they are worth £6.00 per share. We can calculate our return in 2 ways:[...]

The formula for valuing assets

Tuesday, 8th December 2009 | Personal Finance, Property, Stocks, Wealth Building

In one of his letters to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett told them what is the formula to value any assett.

The formula for valuing all assets that are purchased for financial gain has been unchanged since it was first laid out by a very smart man in about 600 B.C. (though he wasn’t smart enough to know it was 600 B.C.).

The oracle was Aesop and his enduring, though somewhat incomplete, investment insight was “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” To flesh out this principle, you must answer only three questions. How certain are you that there are indeed birds in the bush? When will they emerge and how many will there be? What is the risk-free interest rate (which we consider to be the yield on long-term U.S. bonds)? If you can answer these three questions, you will know the maximum value of the bush ¾ and the maximum number of the birds you now possess that should be offered for it. And, of course, don’t literally think birds. Think dollars.[...]

Never sell a stock

Wednesday, 3rd June 2009 | Personal Finance, Stocks, Wealth Building

One of the biggest challenges that people face when they buy stocks is to decide when to sell them. This decision is as important as deciding which stock to buy. Even Warren Buffet, the legendary buy and hold investor, is selling stocks if he believes that he can find a better place for his capital.

First of all, you should never sell simply because a stock—and the market in general – goes down several percentage points. Selling on this basis alone is an overreaction that usually costs you money in the long run. Don’t waste your time on trying to time the market. Instead, you want to know your stocks well enough to be able to recognize which events spell danger and which scream opportunity.

Here, then, are some pointers to help you decide whether to stay the course or sell—for the right reasons:[...]

Be successful like Donald Trump, part 5

Thursday, 14th May 2009 | Personal Effectiveness, Personal Finance, Property, Wealth Building

I finished watching the fifth series of “The Apprentice” recently and it is time to write the usual summary about Donald’s advice to be successful. The people who are regular readers of this blog should know by know the main themes from the previous series. Series five moves on similar lines. The focus of Donald Trump should be clear by now.

Donald’s advice follows again the main lines of the previous four series. I think that he has made his point in the previous episodes and now he just repeats it over and over again. That is good in a way, because you can understand which points he stresses a lot and which ones are not so vital. And as the ancient Greeks used to say “Repetition is the mother of learning”.

His advice on series five is the following:[...]

Be successful like Donald Trump, part 4

Tuesday, 24th February 2009 | Personal Effectiveness, Personal Finance, Property, Wealth Building

The fourth season of “The Apprentice” was one of the best. The candidates were very strong and you are glued to your couch till the last minute. The final 2 are very both great and there is a little twist at the end of the series.

Donald here repeats his valuable advice through the series again. The topics are similar as the previous ones and you start to understand how he thinks. He focuses again on the importance of money, always thinking big and having a winning team around you. You can see that this is how Donald has built his empire. He combined these 3 elements (and a few more) and he built his empire. The tasks that the teams perform follow similar concepts as the previous series. They range from marketing, to selling, to creating ideas and of course teamwork and leading people.

Here is the advice given from Donald Trump in the [...]

Invest like Warren Buffett

Tuesday, 24th February 2009 | Personal Finance, Stocks, Wealth Building

Warren Buffet has been characterised as the greatest investor of all times. He buys great companies in fair values and holds them forever. He is very successful and he has managed to become the wealthiest person on Earth.

There are many people who are wondering how he does this. They are trying to do the same thing as Warren and achieve similar results. One way that this can be done is by buying the same companies he buys at similar prices or better. This is not always easily done, because a lot of times he reveals his positions months after he has done the purchases.[...]

Has Warren Buffett lost his touch?

Tuesday, 10th February 2009 | Interviews/Presentations, Personal Finance, Stocks, Wealth Building

It is always useful to see both sides in an argument. This increases your understanding of the situation and hopefully will help you to make better decisions. I have been following Warren Buffett very closely in the last 3 years and I have been reading articles written about him and his investment and management style. Everyone is praising him for being a very good investor and being able to attract great companies.

There is one person though who is betting against him. Who tells that his time is over and he has lost his charm. This person is Doug Kass and the last few months he wrote articles on why Warren is wrong and why his style does not work any more. His articles and reasoning are very interesting. His main point is that his style is not applicable to this new age and following it will cause you to lose money.[...]

Be successful like Donald Trump, part 3

Tuesday, 13th January 2009 | Personal Effectiveness, Personal Finance, Property, Wealth Building

After watching Series 1 & 2 I was really looking forward to watch the third one. I find the advice that Donald gives valuable and I think it can help people become winners.

The third series of “The Apprentice” is full with more advice on the same topics. By now you will start to see certain topics repeating themselves. Donald is big on thinking big and leading with authority. This is where Donald places his focus and what has helped him to build his empire.

It is surprising that Donald refers to the same topics again and again. The candidates in the series keep doing the same mistakes. Please make sure that you do not repeat your mistakes. Learn from them and improve.

Here is the advice from Donald Trump give in the third series:[...]

Be successful like Donald Trump, part 2

Tuesday, 16th December 2008 | Personal Effectiveness, Personal Finance, Property, Wealth Building

Last week I covered the advice that was given by Donald Trump in the first part of the series “The Apprentice”. This advice is covering practical ways that can help people become more successful in business and become better leaders. I think that these are steps that Donald has followed and he lives by. These steps have helped him to build his huge empire and become a billionaire.

The second series continues in a similar style. A new group of people face business challenges every week and hope to work for Donald. The tasks are similar to the first series, but the pressure is more and the deadlines are more aggressive. Donald continues to evaluate the performance of the teams each week and give feedback and advice.

Here are his gems of wisdom from the second series:[...]

Be successful like Donald Trump, part 1

Thursday, 11th December 2008 | Personal Effectiveness, Personal Finance, Property, Wealth Building

I came across the other day a series called “The Apprentice”. I am not a big fun of reality TV, but a friend recommended that I should watch this, because it is different and full of practical advice on how to succeed and run a business. As you know by now, I am very interested in practical advice and I thought of giving it a go and see what Donald Trump has to share.

I was pleasantly surprised by “The Apprentice”. It is all about business and how to be successful. Each week Donald gives the candidates a business task to complete and then at the end he judges them on how they did and gives his advice on what they did wrong. The tasks range from creating products to marketing to creating and running a business. The advice that Donald gives is great.

I was pleasantly surprised by “The Apprentice”. It is all about business and how to be successful. [...]

The practical way to riches, Part 6

Tuesday, 2nd December 2008 | Personal Finance, Wealth Building

This is the last post of this series. By now you must have a very clear idea of the practical way to riches. I have shared with you practical ideas that I have learned over the years. Most of the richest people in the world have followed the exact same ideas to build their wealth. What surprises me is that many people are failing to follow these simple steps and they are struggling so much today.

Today I will share with you the last idea. You might not realize the benefit of this one in the beginning and you might not even understand why this is important. I would recommend that you just look around you and decide if it is something that makes sense and you want to do as well. This is something that I did unconsciously some years ago and now I am happy I did it.[...]

The practical way to riches, Part 5

Thursday, 27th November 2008 | Personal Finance, Wealth Building

By now you must have a clear idea of the practical way to riches. To summarise what we said before, you need to follow these practical steps. You must put aside money every month that you will use for investments. You must save money every month that will cover you in case of emergency. You must control your expenses and spend less than what you earn. Finally, you must seek advice from competent people on a way to invest your money.

The above steps must become your habits. Every month you must do them like you brush your teeth every morning. Where most people fail is that they follow this advice for a while and then they relax and skip a few months. In the end, they just do it whenever they remember or when they have money left over. This is a disaster and it will make you to fail. This step will help you to resist the temptation of going down that path. It is a very critical step.[...]

The practical way to riches, Part 4

Tuesday, 18th November 2008 | Personal Finance, Wealth Building

The last posts have covered the basic steps of the practical way to riches. In order to become rich, you must put aside money every month to invest in projects. In addition, you need to save money every month to cover any emergencies that might happen along the way. The last thing we covered was the need to control your expenses, so you can enjoy life and build your wealth.

Now it is time to get into more depth about the creation of wealth. We have built a good basis by spending less than we earn and saving money for troubled times. We started to build a sum of money to invest to expand our wealth. Now it is time to invest this sum of money and make it work for us. Make the money produce more money without us having to be involved. This is the secret.[...]

The practical way to riches, Part 3

Tuesday, 11th November 2008 | Personal Finance, Wealth Building

In the last two posts we talked about the first two habits on the practical way to riches. These two habits are putting aside money to invest and save. This first will help you grow your wealth and the second will help you in a case of emergency. We need to plan well and get organized if we want to get rich.

Today’s post is about the third habit. The first two habits talked about managing the money that is flowing in. Now it is time to monitor the money that is flowing out. This is a very painful topic for many people and also an eye opener. If you do not get a good handle on this habit, then nothing else matters. You are moving away from riches fast.[...]

“Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill

Tuesday, 4th November 2008 | Book Reviews, Personal Effectiveness, Personal Finance, Wealth Building

This book is a classic one about wealth creation and it covers practical and theoretical ways on how to achieve this. It is structured in 13 steps that you can follow to achieve wealth. Most of the focus of the book is on the mindset, as the title implies. Think and grow rich, not work and grow rich.

It guides you to build a goal for your future in step 1 and then in the following steps it talks about how to move towards that goal. Near the end it starts to focus more on traits that you need to have to achieve the goal and also it has some very nice questionnaires for self analysis. These are useful to see where you are aiming at, but it does not provide steps on how to achieve them.[...]

The practical way to riches, Part 2

Tuesday, 4th November 2008 | Personal Finance, Wealth Building

Last week, we talked about the first habit on the practical way to riches. The first habit is to put aside some money each month so you can invest it and make the money work for you.

The second habit is as important as the first one. The first one will help you to expand your wealth and start to earn more. What we must pay attention to is that the wealth that we build is built on a strong foundation. The second habit will help to prevent a bad event of destroying our progress.[...]

The practical way to riches, Part 1

Tuesday, 28th October 2008 | Personal Finance, Wealth Building

If you want to become rich you need to develop certain habits. Being rich is a state of mind and a collection of habits. Money is used to keep count. I have been looking into this area the last few years and I have noticed certain patterns that emerge.

One of the biggest ideas and misconceptions about becoming rich is that rich people are born rich. This is wrong. There are countless examples that prove the opposite, but people think that these are the exceptions. What you must realise is that these people have some habits in common. These habits are not specific to a region/race/sex/age/year. They can be universally applied. In the next series of posts I will discuss these habits in detail.

Habit 1 – Invest your money

Rich people make their money work for them. They do not work for their money.[...]

“Why We Want You to Be Rich” by Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump

Tuesday, 28th October 2008 | Book Reviews, Personal Finance, Wealth Building

This is a very interesting book that is written by two great authors. The book is packed with good material about the things you need to focus to get rich. It spends some time in the beginning to tell you why you need to get rich and why depending on a job and the government to look after you is not a wise decision.

I found that Robert is repeating his mantras here, a lot. If you have read some of his other books I do not think you will read anything new here. Maybe some bits here and there, but nothing amazing. Donald is a bit more original than his usual books. His parts in the book are smaller that Robert’s, but I found they contain much more practical steps on how to think big and negotiate. [...]

How to profit in tough times

Tuesday, 28th October 2008 | Guest Speakers, Personal Finance

I have asked a friend of mine to write a guest post for this blog. My friend is a person who is very keen on action and I asked her to share her thought on these tough times that the economy is going through. Here is the practical way she is dealing with the downturn:

TOUGH TIMES AHEAD!!! Well at least that’s what all the tabloids have been screaming for some time now. Will it change? How long will it last? Who’s to blame? Who knows!!! BUT the famous saying of what goes up must come down, can be positively correlated with ‘where there’s a winner there’s always a loser’ and vice versa. So in dark down-turning times such as these, who is silently sitting in the corner smirking as they watch the markets take a dive? [...]

“Breakthrough to success” NLP seminar with Chris Howard

Sunday, 12th October 2008 | Interviews/Presentations, Personal Effectiveness, Personal Finance, Wealth Building

In June, I went to the Breakthrough to Success seminar by Christopher Howard. It was such an awesome event. Chris rocks. He has studied NLP and hypnosis for years and it shows every minute he is on stage. I have studied NLP as well, but I have never seen anyone put it to practice so well. Every move and every word he says are calculated and full of meaning.

In the seminar he covers the areas of wealth, personal growth, career, relationships and family. The best thing is that he shows you the skills to use to achieve what you want in the areas and you practice them with him. So, you gain a lot of insight on the practical application of these tools. [...]

“Richest Man in Babylon” by George S. Clason

Tuesday, 16th September 2008 | Book Reviews, Personal Finance, Wealth Building

This is a great book that talks about personal finances. It has many practical steps on how to control your financial situation as well as ideas on how to build wealth. The book is a collection of stories that take place in ancient Babylon. In these stories rich people of that age share their secrets of how they have created their wealth with other citizens of the city. Through these stories you can understand the principles and the actions that these people took and apply them in this modern age. The advice of these people is timeless and is not specific to that time or location. Of course if you try to find a camel trader these days to do business…… good luck with it. [...]