September 28, 2011

Simple Steps to Make Your Life Happier, Healthier and Wealthier

Wealth is more than the amount of money we accumulate. Wealth is living an abundant life; a complete life. Living a life were we are a blessing to others.

Today I decided to share with you a couple tips on how to make our lives happier, healthier and wealthier. You probably know that laughter, hope and optimism make a life more enjoyable. Even though we know this we see people around us that are constantly sad and pessimistic about life. It does not matter what the situation is (it is rainy, sunny, the have money or no money at all) they seemed to be wired for sobriety. They do not seem to see the good in life. It is possible that some of this is due to genetics or past experiences. However, there are still plenty of things you can do to influence how you feel each day and make a positive impact on those around you.


I understand that during these difficult times we are going through right now, makes the task a big challenge even for natural optimists. Now think about the energy it takes to be somber, gloomy, complain and worry about problems. How about if we take that energy and apply  it to the solution of problems and how we can benefit those around us. Here's a list of simple things you can do to give your attitude a boost:

1. Do what you love - You already know what you enjoy doing -- if you
can find a way to make a living at it great, otherwise consider spending time doing it as a hobby or just for fun.

2. Make time for family - I think that many of us in the chase of money sacrificed the well-being of our families. During the recent recession, many came to the realization that after all the family just wanted your love, affection and respect. There is a video by Casting Crowns that I enjoy and better explains this point Click Here To View The Video .

3. Build a Strong Spiritual Life - To achieve success and build a wealthy life, we must build a strong spiritual life. I say this without apology nor hesitation despite the fact that many people believe that we should not talk about religion in business. I am not going to go into a long theological discussion here, all I will say is that a life without a strong spiritual reserve is an empty life.


4. Be Grateful - If you focus on what you do not have, you will never have enough. Instead, every morning when you get up be grateful for what you have. This morning while I was working out, a man comes into the gym on a wheel chair. The man is missing both legs. Now this man could have stayed home complaining about what he does not have. Instead he came to the gym to workout with the rest of the guys. Not only did he come to the gym, he walked in with a great attitude, a big smile and ready for the work out. Every day write down 10 things to be thankful for. Gratitude has the power to shift your focus from what your life lacks to the abundance that is already present. You will see the change in your life; you will be happier, healthier and your stress level will be reduced.

5. Exercise - I think enough have been said about the benefits of exercise in our physical and mental health. Chose the best way for you to exercise, Just do it! Stop looking for excuses.
6. Reward Someone Else - Nothing feels better than making someone else
feel special and appreciated, even if it's just a simple smile and "Thank You" for a job well done. Thank someone today for their well done job.

Have an awesome day!

September 26, 2011

Lets Talk About Money

"The wise has valuables and oil at home, but a fool soon runs through both."Proverbs 21:20

Last week we talked about fraud. Today lets talk about money. I will get to basics and for many of you, it will be too basic. However, it is important for the benefit of all of our readers.

To begin, I would like to clear the air and get rid of the myth that money is not important and it is bad or evil. Lets set the record straight. Money is important, extremely important if you want to live in today's society. If you are planning to live in a desolated island, money may not be important. The reality is that money is an important part of our lives, whether you want to accept or not. Pretending otherwise is foolish. Without money we cannot provide shelter, food or clothing to our families. Without money we cannot be generous and fund ministries and help the less fortunate.

What is money? Money is the harvest of our production. What we receive for our production and services, which allows us to obtain the production and services of others. You may hear people say "Money won't bring happiness", but as I travel in this journey we call life I notice that money brings more happiness than poverty. I am not saying that money is the most important thing in life and that we must elevate money to the level of God. I am just saying that money is important. To think otherwise is foolish. To be able to develop wealth this must be clear in your head.

Money is not bad nor evil by itself, what is bad or good about money depends on what we do with our money. If you take your hard earned money and provide the basics to your family, help the poor and fund ministries then your actions would put the money to good use. If you take your hard earned money and use it to fund your vices and develop illegal activities, then your actions put your money to bad use. In my opinion what is bad is your desire for money above all things and at all cost. That is when you become a slave of money.

However, the pursuit of money leads to your own destruction. It is proven over and over, just look around. Have you noticed that those who go in the pursuit of money (aka money slaves) are those heavily in debt, work grueling hours for a compensation that does not cover their basics, money is never enough (the more they have the more they spend), money never lasts (the faster they earn it, the faster they spend it), are constantly worrying where they’re going to get the money to pay for they bills and are willing to do almost anything to get it (money slaves?).

Money has the ability to reveal our true person. It is easy to say "I am a good person", "I am a Christian", "I help the ones in need", blah, blah, blah. I tell them, show me your checkbook and we will see. The way YOU use money reveals more than words. The use of money reveals who you really are. If you are greedy, money simply shows your greed. If you are dishonest, money will highlight this characteristic. If you’re poor minded, money doesn’t help you because you can’t control it. If you are a fool, you’re soon parted from it.


Having a clear understanding about money and its proper place in our lives and use of it will help us be better prepared to develop wealth. Does money equal wealth? Definitely not. Money is only a small part of wealth, it is only one of the many resources available to build wealth. Money in the hands of the unwise just makes a fool with money and the prime candidate for frauds and devoured by alligators. Money is just a tool to serve us, never for us to serve money. Having a clear understanding of the proper place of money in our lives will prevent us from ending up being slaves of money.

September 21, 2011

Let's Talk About Fraud

Today let's talk about fraud and how we can protect ourselves from it. Money is hard to come by; it takes hard work and diligent stewardship. We must be astute and alert of potential frauds that can be committed against our families. Fraud is devastating to a family's self-esteem and wealth.

The best insurance against fraud is education; being intelligent stewards and investors. Education and dissemination of fraud prevention material will increase the level of awareness in people and reduce the amount of frauds being committed. It is our responsibility to educate ourselves to protect our hard earned money from these scammers. Please understand that the main focus of a swindler is to gain access to your money as soon as you have it in your possession. They are studying you and your weaknesses.

The main challenge we all face is how to identify one of these snakes before they reach you. Even though not two scammers are the same, there are some common traits that you can use to increase your awareness that you are near of a potential scam. Please understand that the list I am providing to you does not cover all of the potential traits of a scammer, but it will give some good ideas about some of them:

* they are narcissistic, self-centered, and grandiose
* they have feelings of entitlement
* they think they are special and entitled to live a good life

If achieving that good life means they have to engage in deceptive, immoral, and illegal behavior, that is fine with them. The means justify the ends. They justify their crimes since they believe they are entitled to the good life; even if to have that good life they must take your money by whatever means possible, after all they need to feed their families too.

* they have large egos, this leads them to think that they are too smart and they wont be caught.
* they believe to be innocent.
* they lack a conscience or remorse
* they are flamboyant
* many of them lack an education and/or have money problems
* they have a "gamblers attitude", no clear plan just "go with the flow"
* they love to show you their fancies (money, girls, houses, cars, famous contacts, etc); this is how they lure you into you handling your hard earned money to them. After all you want some of their candy too, right? Also, this way you are blinded by all the lights and forget about asking questions and request documents to support their claims.
* signs of insincerity, shallowness and superficiality
* they are typically male

Why do they commit the scam?

Scams are not easy to put together. One of the main reasons for them to put together these scams is their lack of education. Bottom-line, they are low class worms that are incapable of developing a real sustainable business. They see the scam as their way to gain access to your money without investing in an education or learning to provide value in return for your investment. A sustainable business requires a plan, a clear vision, it takes time, money and hard work. However, these worms are not interested in developing a business they want the rewards without providing value in return. Why work hard and diligently in a business when they can take it from you?

How to protect yourself from scams?

1. Be wise - think with your head and not your heart.
2. Ask questions:
 * Why is this "investment" good for you?
 * What kind of investment/company is it?
3. If the investment requires the investment in a company; Is the company registered? Where? What is the value of the stock?
4. Request audited financial statements, whenever there is a corporation behind the "investment".
5. What are the risks? - remember there is no zero risk investment
6. Is the investment registered? - Where?
7. Who are the auditors? Who is the legal advisor? - check them out, make sure that they are really involved and certifying the investment. Request permission to contact them or your trusted advisor to contact them.
8. Always request for WRITTEN information. It takes time and it is easier to catch a flaw in the presentation when it is written. Many times the scammer does not have the know-how in putting together a presentation that is consistent and coherent.
9. Have all written information reviewed by your trusted advisor.
10. Contact the BBB and your State Attorney regarding potential complaints filed against them.
10. Never send money to anyone you do not know. Never send money to anyone who is not willing to meet with you and your trusted advisor face-to-face. If they believe in their product or service, have them invest in their "presentation" and come to meet you and do their dance in front of you.
11. Never reveal your critical financial data (social security, bank statement, credit card numbers) to people that contact you over the phone.
12. Become an intelligent investor. The best insurance against fraud is knowledge. Only invest in registered companies and only after a careful analysis of the expected return.
13. Obtain a prospectus. Legal investments are required to comply with Federal and State regulations. They are required to provide written documentation to potential investors from where they can assess risks and make educated decisions.
14. Verify claims made by the presenter. If they claim that they have a patent, where is the patent? If they claim to have an oil field that produces 2 billion barrels of oil per day, where is the oil field? who certifies that production?
15. Never speculate on a get-rich quick scheme. They do not work and they will cause pain.
16. Do not "buy" into a company that requires you to recruit others to become distributors as the formula for success. If the company does not have a solid product with a market for it, the chances are it is pyramid.

I hope this information is helpful to you. I am currently working on an e-book on fraud prevention and decided to share some of the information you will find in the ebook. The link to the book will be published shortly.

September 15, 2011

Financial Intelligence

Naturally, most if not all of us want and crave for something better. It is all part of us, if we want a bigger car, a better house, buying good things for the family. We keep hoping for more but, in order to get what you don't have, you have got to do something you have never done before.

What makes a person wealthy is not real estate, mutual funds, and businesses. Not even money makes you wealthy. What makes you wealthy is "Financial Intelligence" (information, knowledge, wisdom and know-how). Money is the hands of an unwise person, just makes a fool with a lot of money and a great target for sharks, piranhas, and vultures to devour this fool. Let me give you an example, a new top of the line tennis racket, by itself, does not make you a better tennis player; what makes you a better tennis player is training, taking tennis lessons to develop knowledge of the game.

Wealth is developed with Financial Intelligence. Financial Intelligence consists of:

1. Increasing cash-inflows - increasing your income potential by creating more value on our products and services.
2. Reducing cash-outflows - creating a budget that will allow you to live well and still be able to direct funds to investments, charity, entertainment and education.
3. Protecting your wealth - developing plans that protects your estate from taxes, uncertain events, etc.
4. Leveraging your money - knowing how to maximize your return on your money. Benjamin Franklin once said "Money makes money and the money that money makes makes more money" Learn how to put your money to work harder instead of you.
5. Improving your financial knowledge - gain an understanding of the basics of finance to be able to make better financial decisions. Never allow your financial advisors to take control of your finances. Let me explain, going back to our tennis analogy the tennis coach will be there to provide you training, advice, helping you to increase your knowledge of the game, but they do not play the game for you.

In my opinion, one of the main causes for the recent recession is due to the fact that most people lacked financial intelligence. Most people were playing a game that they did not understand the rules of the game. People were unprepared and were slaughtered, they became easy targets for scammers who sold them these "financial products" that were bound to fail from the beginning. For that reason, we have prepared a short Ebook "Increase Your Financial IQ" with the goal of helping you increase your Financial Intelligence. As a subscriber of the Wealth Building Network we will make this ebook available at no cost to you.

September 14, 2011

Retirement Planning - Important Questions You Must Ask Yourself


The decision of how to handle your retirement is entirely yours. You can either develop a plan of action or leave the burden in the hands your children. One thing that is for sure is that every day that goes by we are all getting closer to our retirement; we are all aging.
On January 1, 2011 the first baby boomers turned 65 and they will start they next phase in life. In the past, retirement used to be blissfully perceived as being a delightful transition from a busy life filled with responsibilities and burdened with the costs of raising the children to the peaceful financial and physical freedom of retirement; how wonderful :)

The reality is that retirement has become for many a nightmare. We are living longer, many times outliving our savings, social security does not cover our retirement expenses, the cost of health care continues to increase at paces that were never imagined. Conclusion: The rules of the game has changed; retirement is not what it was for your parents.

Unfortunately, hope is not a viable strategy. The only solution is to properly plan for your retirement years. Currently with the new events in our economy many feel confused, even scared. However, "doing nothing" about it is the worse strategy you can take. Now more than ever your must plan for your elderly years. Once again the decision is yours on how you want to live those years.

Planning for your retirement doesn’t have to be hard, but there are a number of bases that you must have covered to accomplish success. To make sure that you are on the right track to seeing the retirement future you always dreamed of, there are a number of important questions that you will first want to ask yourself. The answers to these questions are important when developing a retirement savings plan.

1. What does retirement mean to you? Each person has their own definition of retirement. Some would slow down the amount of hours they are working right now. Some people may consider starting their own business, write a book, or become consultants. For others, retirement is taking over a new hobby, travel, and volunteering their time and resources to the mission(s) that are close to their heart. This question will define the amount of resources you need to sustain the lifestyle you want during retirement.

2. When do you want to retire? Your expected retirement date is critical since it represents your goal date. Based on your goal date your retirement savings plan will be determined. When setting this date, it is important to be realistic. The sooner you want to retire the sooner you must start building your funds to meet the lifestyle you defined in question number 1. Also, the earlier you want to retire (even if you plan to work part-time) the harder your retirement funds must work to ensure that they last for the duration of your retirement.



3. Am I making use of my company’s 401(k)? Are you employed? If so, do you have a 401(k) through your workplace? If you are employed full-time, you should. Are you contributing to your account? If not, this is a step that you must start taking now. It doesn’t matter whether you want to retire in 20 years or in 5 years, any bit of money that you can put aside will help. This is because your funds in your retirement funds are tax deferred. Also, if you are one of the lucky ones that still have a 401(k) with company matching (regardless of the amount) it will help you build up retirement funds on a tax deferred  basis. Company matching is "free money" being deposited in your account; you should consider maximizing this benefit.

4. Do you foresee any potential health problems? This is difficult question for many to address. I think we need to be honest with ourselves so our retirement planning be successful. Are you aware of family health problems?

5. Am I in debt? Once again, another difficult question but extremely important. If you are in debt, now is the time to start taking action. Debt can have a negative impact on your retirement goals and dreams. If the answer to this question is "Yes", now is the time to create a budget for yourself. The money that you are able to save can be spilt to repay your old debts, as well as add more money into your retirement savings.

These are not all of the possible questions to ask as part of your retirement planning. My goal here is to motivate you to take action. Now is the time to meet with you trusted financial advisor (whomever that person is; CPA, attorney, life insurance agent, etc) and develop a retirement savings plan. Your financial advisor can help you with tax aspects , financial projections, help you with the preparation of a budget, etc.

I hope you find this information help you. I welcome any ideas and questions you may have about this subject.

September 7, 2011

Beware of Hurricane Irene Scams

Beware of Hurricane Irene Scams

The FBI and other state and federal agencies have issued warnings about con artists seeking to profit from the tragedies caused by hurricane Irene. Beware of bogus charities and contractors, phony links and emails which try to trick you into giving personal information and/or contain viruses. For more information visit the FBI guidance on charity scams.

September 6, 2011

Who Wants Free Advertisement?


I have decided to promote small businesses in my blog. It is my way to help entrepreneurs who have a creative service or product that can be offered to the readers of our blog. Our readership continues to grow daily and it will provide the chosen business exposure to the visitors of our blog free of charge.

The only requirements are:

* it must be a legal product or service
* it must help (solve a need) of the readers of this blog
* provide a discount for the readers of this blog

It is simple and free of charge advertisement for your business for a month. If you are interested please email me at gonzalezconsultingintl@gmail.com