STICKING TO A SPECIFIC PLAN, THE MOST IMPORTANT PATH TO WEALTH

September 2011

All people that are wealthy became wealthy because they had a specific goal that they planned to reach and they never gave up on reaching their goal. All wealthy people became that way because they had a specific dream or goal, and they had an obsession with achieving that goal. They focused all of their energy on reaching their goal. To reach their specific goals they organized a specific plan to reach the goal, worked on that plan everyday, and focused all of their energy on the plan so that they could reach their goals.

There are two excellent books that teach this principle to becoming wealthy, and the books also provide examples of wealthy businessmen & woman throughout history that followed the principal throughout their lives to achieve wealth. The two books are "Think and Grow Rich" by Napolean Hill, and "See You At The Top" by Zig Ziglar. I highly reccomend these two books to anyone that is seeking to become wealthy but don't know where to start. These two books are excellent places to start.

I will repeat this very important principal to becoming wealthy again, since it is the most important principal to follow for anyone that wants to become wealthy. All people that are wealthy became wealthy because they had a specific dream or goal, came up with a plan to reach that goal, took action with with the plan, and had an obession with reaching their specific goal. Anyone that wants to become wealthy must follow this very important principal to becoming wealthy because following the principal is how all wealthy people became wealthy.

I will give an example of using this principal to become wealthy through investing in stocks. If a person really wanted to become wealthy investing in stocks he/she would need to follow a specific investment plan throughout his/her life. Let's say a person decided to follow an investment plan that consists of investing in the companies in the "Industry Leaders Portfolio" while steadily adding a certain amout of money every month & re-investing dividends every month. The goal for this person might be to build his/her wealth by 11% to 15% per year, since that is the long-term yearly returns for companies that are leaders in their industry. This person would be able to reach this goal if he/she followed a specific plan to reach the goal and had an obsession with reaching the goal.

Following a specific plan to reach a specific goal is how a person becomes wealthy. This is the most important principal to building wealth. All wealthy people became wealthy because they used this principal to become wealthy.

PATIENCE, PERSISTENCE & A POSITIVE ATTITUDE

August 2011

Patience, persistence, and a positive attitude are the three most important fundamentals to building wealth. Let's start with patience.

In order for a person to reach a specific goal in life he/she will have to have patience. For example, let's say a person decided to build wealth by investing in industry leader companies that increase his/her wealth by roughly 12% per year over the long-term. Some people that use this method to build wealth would lose patience if he/she did not see results quickly, but this method and any other method that is used to build wealth takes time and patience. In the case of investing in industry leader companies, or any type of investing, a person needs to focus on the long-term returns and his/her long term goal. He/she needs to forget about day to day, week to week, or any short-term performance and focus all of his/her energy into the long-term performance or the long-term goal. In the case of investing in industry leader companies the long-term performance or the long-term goal is to build wealth by 12% to 15% year after year through a buy-and-hold strategy that consist of buying and holding companies that are leaders in their industries, and constantly re-investing all dividends year after year after year. Focus all energy on the long-term goal, forget all negative day to day noise, and have the patience to receive the long-term rewards of patience. This requires a lot of patience though, which wil require persistence.

Persistence is a very important fundamental to building wealth because in order for a person to build wealth he/she must focus all of his/her energy on a specific goal or method and continue to push himself/herself everyday in order to stick to the method that was chosen to build wealth with. When a person puts all of his/her energy into a specific goal or method for building wealth it will happen as long as he/she pushes himself/herself, focusing all of his/her energy towards his/her long-term goal, and never gives up. This requires persistence, persistence, and more persistence. Never give up on a specific goal or method used for building wealth. Persistence will guarantee that one never gives up on his/her specific method used for building wealth. It is a good idea for one to say these words everyday if he/she wants to build a significant amount of wealth: "I will be persistent everyday. Success is all about having persistence, persistence, and more persistence!!!! Never give up!!!"

Of course, before a person can have patience and persistence he/she must make sure that he/she has a positive mental attitude day after day. A positive mental attitude will keep a person happy, pushing forward, patient, and ensure one's success. When one keeps a positive mental attitude day after day he/she can then see himself/herself in a positive light. Like the book The Secret says, "you become what you think about." If a person has a negative attitude everyday he/she will always see himself/herself in a negative way or a negative light, and he/she will become that. However, if one keeps a positive attitude everyday he/she can then see himself/herself in a positive way or in a positive light and he/she will become that. For example, if a person keeps a positive attitude everyday by saying to himself/herself, "I will have patience and persistence towards my specific goal in life, and focus the majority of my energy on this goal. Also, I will be successful and build a significant amount of wealth during my life by pushing myself everyday. I will be very successful through patience, persistence, and a positive attitude because I am very smart and I deserve it." If a person says a positive statement like this to himself/herself everyday then he/she will become the statement because one becomes what he/she thinks about. A positive attitude is the most important fundamental to building wealth. A person that wants to build a significant amount of wealth or become successful in any area of life must keep a positive attitude.

Patience, persistence, and a positive attitude are the most important fundamentals if one wants to be successful or build a significant amount of wealth. If a person has patience towards reaching his/her specific goals in life, pushes himself/herself towards the specific goals through persistence, and keeps a positive mental attitude day after day after day then he/she will become successful and build a significant amount of wealth.

Investing in Industry Leading Companies, One Of The Best Ways To Build Wealth

July 2011

Investing in companies that are leaders in their industry is one of the best and surest ways for any person to build wealth. This is something I write about in my report, "Wealth For All, A Guide To Building Wealth." This report can be found in the Building Wealth Reports section of the website. The great thing about companies that are leaders in their industry is that these companies steadily compound wealth every year for their investors. They steadily grow revenues, earnings, profit margins, and dividends year after year after year. Also, investors of indusry leading companies can compound their wealth at an even faster rate by re-investing the steadily increasing dividends paid by the industry leading companies, which then gives the investor more stock in the company thus increasing the dividends paid to the investor even more.

I created a list of criteria that determine if a company is a leader in its industry, which I discuss in more detail in my new report, "Wealth For All, A Guide To Building Wealth." First, the company must have some type of competitive moat around its business which creates a barrier around its business making it difficult for any other company to enter into that particular industry. Second, the company must control the largest percent of the market in its industry. Third, the company must have a long history of steadily increasing its dividends, revenues, net-cash flow and earnings year after year. Fourth, the company must have little to no competition in its industry. This goes hand in hand with have having a barrier to entry in its industry. Fifth, the company must be the lowest-costs-producer in its industry. This goes hand in hand with being the largest company in its industry because being very large in an industry gives a company economy-of-scale operations that makes it very difficult for any other company to compete with it. Sixth, the company must have a strong brand name or have the strongest brand name in its industry. Seventh, the company must have little to no debt and be able to easily service whatever debt the company does have. Eighth, the company must always have a substantial amount of cash on its balance sheet. Ninth, the company must be steadily expanding all over the world if it truly is an industry leader.

I made up a portfolio of excellent companies that pass all of this criteria and I discuss the portfolio in the report "Wealth For All, A Guide to Building Wealth." In the report I discuss how each one of these companies pass all of the criteria for being industry leading companies. I also discuss why investing in industry leading companies, such as those listed in the report, is one of the best ways any person can build wealth and become wealthy over the long-term.

I write about some of my favorite companies from the Industry Leaders portfolio in the Industry Leaders Portfolio section of the website. The first industry leader I write about is one of the best companies in the world for building wealth, and is one of my favorite investments for building wealth. It is none other than Microsoft Corporation (MSFT).

An Important Key To Building Wealth

June 2011

Decrease Expenses - Invest More - Decrease Expenses - Invest More

This is an important key to building weatlh. If a person constantly decreases expenses in order to be able to invest more and then decreases expenses even more he/she can then invest more, which then enables one's investment portfolio to produce more income that can then be re-invested back into the investment portfolio thus creating more income. Doing this throughout one's lifetime creates an excellent wealth compounding cycle and is an important key for any person that wants to become wealthy.

If one can constantly find ways to decrease expenses every month one can then invest more of his/her income every month enabling one to compound his/her wealth at an extremely fast rate. Then by investing more of his/her income every month his/her investment portfolio can then create more income which then can be invested back into his/her investment portfolio, thus creating more income. Then when he/she decreases his/her expenses he/she can then invest even more of his/her income every month, thus enabling his/her investment portfolio to produce more income every month, which then enables even more money to be invested back into his/her investment portfolio. Then his/her investment portfolio can produce more income every month.

 If one constantly decreases expenses and invest more of one's income every month one can compound wealth at an extremely fast rate. This is a very important key to building wealth and can make any person wealthy over the long-term when done properly.

What Investors Can & Can't Control

May 2011

An investor cannot control what the stock market and other markets do from day to day or which direction a comapany's stock price goes after he/she has invested in it. An investor can control the price they pay for stock in a company, his/her long-term investment plan, how he/she protects his/her principle invesment, and his/her portfolio allocation.

When an investor buys stock in a company he/she can't control what the stock will do after he/she buys it but he/she can control the price paid for the stock. An investor can use this control to his/her advantage by purchasing a stock when it's price cheap using valuation ratios such as price/book value, price/earnings, or price/sales. Generally, a stock is cheap when it's price/book value is below 1, it's price/sales ratio is below 1, and it's price/earnings is modest relative to the company's growth. Buying stock in a company only when the stock price is cheap based on it's valuation ratios is an excellent control mechanism that every investor has at his/her disposal and buying a company's stock when it is cheap decreases any downside risk because when a company's stock is relatively cheap the price of the stock has usually stabilized in general.

The second most important control mechanism that an investor has at his/her disposal is a long-term investment plan. An investor does not have any control over what the stock markets or the markets in general do in the short-term, but an investor does have control over how he/she plans his/her long-term investment strategy. For example, an investor might follow a long-term investment plan of choosing one company from each industry that is a leader in its industry, has a dominant market position in it's industry, steady growth, produces increasing amounts of free cash flow every year, has a long-term record of increasing it's dividend every year, is the lowest cost producer in it's industry, has an excellent brand name, and has a monopoly position in it's industry. Then the investor could steadily invest a set amount of money in these companies every month and re-invest all dividends every month. I call this long-term investment approach the "Industry Leader Portfolio." I have talked about this investment approach in other articles that I have written and I will always believe that this is the best long-term investment approach. This investment will make any person, no matter what income level he/she is at, become wealthy over the long-term. I also discuss this investment approach in my book "Wealth For All." Having a long-term investment plan allows any investor to be in control of his/her investing and will build wealth for any investor.

The third most important control mechanism an investor has at his/her disposal is portfolio allocation. An investor has no control over certain investments in his/her portfolio going up or down in the short-term but an investor does have control over how his/her portfolio is allocated. If an investor keeps his/her portfolio diversified across different industries, such as is the case if an investor use the "Industry Leader Portfolio" as his/her portfolio allocation mehtod, his/her portfolio's would not be as volatile as if the investor invested all of his/her money in just one or two companies.

Protecting principle investment through the use of trailing stop losses on an investment is another important control mechanism an investor has at his/her disposal. A trailing stop loss is a set sale price from the stock's highest price reached that an investor assigns to a stock in his/her portfolio. For example, if an investor assigned a 25% trailing stop loss on a stock that reached a high of $10 per share the trailing stop loss price assigned to the stock would then be $7.50 per share. That would mean that if the stock then went down below $7.50 per share from its high of $10 per share the stock would be sold. A trailing stop loss protects an investor from loss of principle and protects most of the the profit that the investor has already made from the investment.

All of the control mechanisms that I have discussed in this article can really make a big difference in an investor's long-term investment success. Indeed, using these control mechanisms in the right way can build a lot of wealth for any person.

Researching Companies, What Aspects Make A Company An Excellent Investment For Building Wealth

April 2011

Here is a list of aspects and fundamentals look for in a company that determine whether or not the company is a good investment for the long term:

1. When researching a company for possible investment it is a good idea to first think of the company as if you were going to buy the whole business in-full. After all, when an investor buys stock in a company he/she is buying a piece of the business. Essentially, he/she is becoming part owner of the company through the ownership of a percentage of stock in the company. So the best way to determine if the business is a good long-term investment is to research and think of the company fundmentals with the same tenacity as you would do when buying a business in-full. Usually, whenan investor researches a business that he/she wants to buy in-full he/she is looking for a business that he/she would like to still own in 20 to 30 years after purchasing the business. If you research a company and can't see yourself still owning a piece of the company 20 to 30 years from now or you don't think the company will be around that long it probably is not a good long-term investment. It would be best to leave a company like that alone and move on to the next company you want to research. If after researching a company you have determined that you would probably still own a piece of the company 20 to 30 years from now it is most likely an excellent long-term investment that will make you wealthy.

2.The best companies to invest in are companies that an investor can vision steadily growing for at least the next 20 to 30 years and companies that already have at least a 10 to 20 years record of steady growth. Wal-Mart is an excellent example of a steady-growth company.Wal-Mart has steadily grown revenues, profits, and dividends by 15% to 20% every year since the 1970's

3.Look for a company that is a dividend achiever. A dividend achiever is a company that has steadily increased its dividend every year for at least the last 10 years. Wal-Mart is an excellent example of a dividend achiever. Wal-Mart has steadily increased its dividend every year by 10% to 15% since the 1973 and just increased its dividend by 11%. This is a dead give-away that Wal-Mart is a steadily growing company that will continue producing steady returns of roughly 10% to 15% every year for its investors. Also, as the company steadily increases its dividend payments to its shareholders the dividend yield increases for Wal-Mart's long-term shareholders, based on their principle investment. For example, an investor that purchased Wal-Mart stock at $10 a share many years ago would now be getting paid a 10% dividend based on their principle investment of $10 per share of Wal-Mart. The reason for this? Wal-Mart now pays about $1.00 per share in dividends and $1.00 is 10% of $10.

4. Look for businesses that are leaders in their industry. A business that is a leader in its industry can operate the most efficiently out of any other company in that industry. An industry leader company is so efficient that during a recession there is no other company in the same industry that can compete with the industry leader's price. During a recession when prices decrease on just about everything, due to decreasing demand, an industry leader company can decrease their prices lower than any other company in the industry. This puts many of the other companies in that industry out of business because of cut-throat pricing cutting into their profit margins. This helps the industry leader company take over the market share of the companies going out of business in the industry. This then helps the industry leader company increase its economy-of-scale through market integration and cynergy, thus making its operations even more efficient and cheap per unit of output which then makes the company more of a leader in its industry. Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola are two great examples of this. These two companies are and will continue to be leaders in their industry. Wal-Mart a leader in the retail industry, and Coca-Cola a leader in the beverage industry. There are no other companies within their industries that have the economies of scale of these two companies. They are the most efficient companies by far in their industry. During a recession these two companies can use cut-throat pricing in order to take over the market share of other companies within their industry. Also, these two companies still produce massive amounts of cash during a recession that they can then use to purchase competitors at very cheap prices, thus taking over market share from these companies. This then increases their economy of scale even more, which then makes their operations even more efficient. Wal-Mart's and Coca-Cola's leader advantage within their industry is unmatched worldwide. These are two of the best companies in the world. 

Building Wealth Has Nothing To Do With One's Income

March 2011

Many peope think that becoming wealthy or building wealth is associated with how much income a person makes or how much a person can consume. In fact, this is far from the truth. A person can have the highest income in the world but have no wealth because they spend all of their income. This kind of person thinks they are wealthy because of their high income and high consumption lifestyle but they have no real wealth.

Here is an example of what I am talking about: Lets say person A makes $10 million in income every year and spends the whole $10 million every year without investing a penny then he/she will never become wealthy. On the other hand, lets say person B makes $100,000 a year in income and invest $20,000 a year. Person B will become wealthy whereas person A will never become wealthy if he continues living the way he/she does. The reason for this is that person B invest a percent of his income every year, whereas person A spends all of his/her income every year without investing a penny.

The conclusion? Being wealthy has nothing to do with how much a person can consume or how high a person's income is. In the example of person A and person B it is very clear that the person that made less income will become wealthy while the person that made more income will not because the person that made less income made sure that he/she invested a percent of their income every year while the person that made more income did not. This shows that a person with a very modest income can become wealthy over the long-term by keeping a good budget, consuming much less than their income, and by making sure that he/she sets aside a percent of their income every year for investment purposes. This is what being wealthy is associated with, consuming les and investing more. While many people will continue to associate with high income and high consumption with wealth people that are really wealthy will always associate being wealthy with consuming less and investing more. This is done with good budgeting, consuming well below income, and investing as much income as possible. That is the true meaning of being wealthy.

The Key To Building Wealth

February 2011

The key to building wealth over the long-term for a household is keeping a good budget of expenses every month. A written monthly budget helps a household set aside a certain percent of their income every month for investing so they can build wealth and become wealthy over the long-term. Without a budget a household has no control their expenses and how much of their income they have left over to invest with every month because there would be no written record of this without a clearly written budget. With a written budget every month a household can clearly see how much of their income they spend in each expense category and how much money they have left over to invest with every month. This is how a household can build wealth and become wealthy over the long-term. Here is an example of a clearly written budget that would help any household build wealth:

Monthly Household Income: $5,000.00

Monthly Expenses: Mortgage $1,600.00, Groceries $500.00, Utilities $400.00, Entertainment $500.00, Cable TV $200.00, Property Taxes $200.00, Other Expenses $600.00

Total Monthly Expenses: $4,000.00

Money Left Over For Investing: $5,000.00 - $4,000.00 = $1,000.00

This household budget is a good example of an excellent budget. This household's budget is written very clearly so that any person can clearly see that this household has $1,000.00 after left over every month to invest with. Also, household has some leeway in their budget to decrease some of their expenses every month in order to increase how much of their income they invest with. For example, this household might decide to decrease their entertainment budget by $200.00 every month. At that point their monthly entertainment budget would be $300.00 and they would have $1,200.00 set aside from their budget every month to invest with.

Keeping a good budget every month of every year is the key to building wealth. Doing this forces a household to steadily invest an increasing amount of their income every month of every year in order to compound their wealth and become wealthy over the long-term. By steadily increasing their equity in excellent investments, such as those in the Building Wealth Portfolio, any household can become wealthy over the long-term. And this can be done by keeping a good written budget every month of every year.

Forget The Market Noise, Focus On Company Fundmentals

January 2011

Focusing on the day to day activities of the stock markets and the economy can make an investor forget about the most important thing when it comes to becoming wealthy over many years, company fundamentals. The best way to become wealthy over the long-term is to forget about the markets fluctuations from day to day and focus on studying the companies with the best fundamentals for your investment dollars. Invest in companies that have a history of increasing earnings every year, increasing dividends every year, increasing cash-flow every year, a monopolized position in their industry, a moat around their business that keeps their cash-flow safe, steadily increasing demand for their products,  steady cash-flow producing products, and general steady growth. Focusing on investing in companies with these fundamentals is the way for an average person, or any person for that matter, to build wealth and become wealthy over the long-term. Companies with excellent  fundamentals such as Exxon Mobil, Chevron Corp, Wal Mart, and General Electric are excellent companies for a person to invest part of their income in every month. Companies with excellent fundamentals are also great for building wealth because they produce an increasing amount of income for their shareholders every year. These type of companies put an increasing amount of cash back into the pockets of their shareholders which shareholders can then invest back into the company by purchasing more stock in the company, thus compounding their wealth at an even faster rate.

As readers can clearly see, by investing in companies with excellent fundamentals that put an increasing amount of income into your pocket every year and by steadily increasing your investment in these companies every month a person can become wealthy over the long-term. It is very difficult to build wealth over the long-term by focusing on the day to day noise of the markets which emphasize buying and selling everyday in order to produce fees for brokers. Basically, if a person wants to become wealthy he/she should focus on investing in companies with excellent fundamentals for the long-term and not focus on the short-term action the markets everyday.

The stock market's day to day performance from has no real meaning when it comes to building wealth.  Stock prices going up or down on a daily basis has nothing to do with whether or not any particular company has excellent fundamentals. Investors that buy and sell on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis miss out on a basic fumdmental of becoming wealthy, the long-term growth of excellent companies. For example, an investor that sold Microsoft Corporation in the early 80's for a meager gain missed out on the long-term growth of the company that would have made that investor very wealthy, and they would still be getting steadily increasing dividend payments every year. Building wealth and becoming wealthy over the long-term requires investing in companies with excellent fundamentals over the long-term and steadily adding to your investment in these companies every month of every year in order to compound wealth. This is how any person can become wealthy over the long-term.

The Most Imortant Techique For Building Wealth

December 2010

The best way to build wealth is to invest more every year, which can be done by constantly decreasing your spending. If a person can constantly decrease his/her spending every year he/she can increase how much they invest from their yearly income. This way he/she will always be able to invest more of their income every year even if their income stays flat.

How to accomplish this? By living a life of scarcity. By always investing first and spending later. By investing as much of your income as possible every month while at the same time finding ways to spend less so you will be able to invest more and more of your income every year. Do this until you finally reach the point where you are investing a large percent of your income every month.

This cycle of investing as much income as possbile while at the same time spending less every year in order to invest more of your income creates a continuous cycle of compounding wealth every year. Always think about how to spend less and invest more every month of every year. This is probably the most important techique for an average worker to use, or any worker for that matter, to become wealthy over the long term.

Building Wealth by Budgeting, Spending Less & Investing More

November 2010

Planning a good budget in order to spend less and invest more. This is how an average worker can accumulate a significant amount of wealth over the long-term. An average person can accumulate a significant amount of wealth by budgeting well, spending less, and investing more. At Building Wealth we define wealth as a person's net worth, meaning their total assets minus total liabilities. It is not how much a person makes in income every year that determines whether or not they will become independently wealthy, it is how they budget their income so they can spend less and invest more of their income every month of every year. Even the highest income earners have a hard time building wealth without planning their budget so they can invest more and spend less of their income every year. Using this technique to build wealth is an important step for any person aspirng to become wealthy.