Today we hit 9.8% unemployment in the USA and the apparently smart people in Washington still think it's about healthcare ...

It's about the job's people ... it's NOT about health ... no-one cares about healthcare if they cannot eat ...

You want to fix healthcare ... get more people jobs with companies that pay their employees well and provide health insurance ...

Here goes ... two steps to solve the entire problem before Xmas ...

1 ... Give every employer a DOUBLE tax deduction for health insurance for our employees.  If I spend $5,000 a month on insurance for each employee, give me a $10,000 deduction ...

2 ... Give Every employer a $10,000 tax deduction for every extra employee we add between now and December 31st ... simple numbers if you work out what the government will spend on welfare and the wages of people paid to manage the welfare ... it's crazy ...

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this…

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20." Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men? The paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings)

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 ( 22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20,"declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!"

"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a Dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!"

"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!" The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, this is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction.

Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

For those who understand, no explanation is needed.

For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible

Here in Vegas the media is still trying to find every negative story they can about the so called recession that most of us who know what we are doing have chosen not to participate in.

National media seems to be about half and half, let me know how the media is in your market.

Thanks ... Brad Sugars

Maybe not the bigger ticket items, but even they, houses etc are starting to move.

Stock markets certainly made a run for it in recent weeks ...

SO, what are you seeing, recession over (if there really ever was one) or still a little while to go ????

Let me Know ASAP ... Brad Sugars

See, I told you you should look at getting into your own business ...

They try everything - new sales scripts, better ads, new products, yet to no avail ... every day they open their doors, they plunge further into debt.

In most cases, the reason things aren’t working is very simple - there’s not enough business out there to keep them operating.

To illustrate, think about this example - Harry and Barry open up a hardware store.  There’s 6 other hardware stores in the immediate area, but the boys aren’t fazed - the other shops are staffed by ‘pimply kids who don’t know anything’.  According to Harry and Barry, they’re experts in the game - and will get heaps of business simply because of that.

They open a store a block down from the big competitor, write a couple of ads with the headline ‘Opening Sale’ and they’re off and running.

For two weeks, things seem to go well - they may be selling the products extra cheap, but they’re selling lots.  The cash register keeps ringing and things are pumping along.

Soon after though, things slow down.  In fact, they almost come to a dead stop - just a few customers a day, buying a hammer here and there.

The boys wonder why.

Whilst they got a few things right - the ads were ok, the customer service was good, the store was laid out well and the products were well chose, they missed the most important point of all ... whether the business was viable at all.

If they’d done a little research, they would have discovered the following - every year, 1.1 million is spent on hardware in their area.  If each of the 7 local hardware stores had an equal share of the sales, each one would have revenue of around $150,000 each.

Of course, the stores had wildly different figures.  The largest, a nationwide chain had the lion’s share at $475,000 - almost half.  The next biggest, a smaller, older store with a loyal client base, had $260,000. 

The 5 other stores made up the rest.  Naturally, 4 of them were on the verge of going under.  The fifth was Harry and Barry’s.

Looking at it from this perspective, the boys’ dream of opening a hardware store and becoming wealthy seem a little unrealistic.  They’ll be lucky if they last the next 6 months.

Think about your situation.  How much business is out there, and how much can you actually claim?

If there’s only a million dollars worth of sales, and you manage to grab 10%, that’s only $100,000 in sales.  Take out basic expenses (not including your own wage), and you’d be lucky to pull $30,000 profit out of it.

You may as well go and work for someone else - that way, you’ll earn more money and have less responsibility.  If the business goes down, it’s not your house, car and credit rating on the line.

So what do you do if your business is a dud?

Sell - get the heck out before it’s too late.  “But nobody will buy it,” most people say.  Wrong - you’d be surprised how many people there are willing to take a business that’s just getting by to buy themselves a job and ‘make a go of it’. 

Take the money and invest in something with more potential.  “But I can’t do anything else,” business owners often contest.  Wrong again - if all you could do is sell hardware, or wash dogs, or whatever it is you do, you should avoid business and get a job.

Owning a business isn’t about doing something - it’s about making money.  It doesn’t matter what the actual product or service is ... you can easily find people who know how to do the work; your role is to do the business.

So don’t flog a dead horse any longer than necessary - you are not bound to your business for the rest of your life.  You are free to change direction at any time.

Scared?  Good - that means something has stirred.  Let that stirring become action, go see one of my ActionCOACH's and you’ll be taking the first step towards real business success. 

All the Best ... Brad Sugars

Got this question today that I thought was worth answering for everyone to see ..

There is one thing that I really don't understand in the Real Estate Coach.. Why are you saying that a property with a positive cashflow will rarely increase in value over time, whereas a negatively geared property (a property with a negative cashflow) will necessarily increase in value? Can't a property with a positive cash flow increase in value too? Thank you very much for the help!  Sebastien

The simple answer is they will both increase in value over time.  The main difference is that a positive cashflow property is usually in a mid to lower socio-economic area, further out from the city and thus prone to less capital growth than a property close to the city or water or on a hill with views etc.

Another way to look at real estate is the balance of returns.  You get two forms of return, cashflow, being the rental income and capital gain in the value of the property over time growing.  The returns have a balance, one with better cashflow will generally get lower growth and vice versa.

Sebastian, when you are looking at portfolio management it's great to keep a balance between high cashfow properties and high growth properties.

All the Best ...Brad Sugars ...

PS.  You can order any of my books at www.actioncoach.com/books.php

]]> http://bradsugarsblog.com/property-real-money-real-estate-book/feed/ 1 http://bradsugarsblog.com/go-and-resign-for-goodness-sake/ http://bradsugarsblog.com/go-and-resign-for-goodness-sake/#comments Thu, 21 May 2009 17:54:29 +0000 bradsugars http://www.bradsugars.com/?p=84 Why is it that people who don't like a situation stay ... ?????

Well, in my opinion, there is no good reason, they are just ripping themselves and their employers off ... it's like committing a little bit of personal fraud every day ...

Read more on Go and resign for goodness sake …...

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Had dinner last night with Jeffrey Gitomer and we were discussing this for him and his business and his statement was clear, I am right now investing so I become the undisputed #1 in my category while everyone else is in hiding ...

If you are at all in doubt, then sit down with one of my coaches (www.actioncoach.com) and work out a way you can turn the negative into a positive.  Put a plan in place to grow and grow now.  Remember if a tree is not growing. it's dying, it's true in nature and true in business.

All the Best ... Brad Sugars