Simple Solution to Baseball's Steroid Crisis.

A-Rod has been in the news a lot lately. You cant seem to turn on sports TV and not hear about him......and just like always no one is talking about him for winning games. Its all about him admitting to taking Performance Enhancing Drugs.

I take the stance "who cares". We all know the negativcs of steroids (your balls shrink, and you get angry), but are there really any negative side affects to HGH or anything else......and if so isnt the ultimate penalty to these athletes whatever that side affect is? Let's say for example that Barry Bonds dies 5 years younger because of whatever he took........well, that seems like a harsh enough penalty.

I personally would never take anything. I'm a semi competetive runner and I wont even drink caffiene......but that doesnt mean I've got a problem with anyone else doing them....it just means I have to try harder, or be willing to deal with the (supposed) side effects of drugs.

So with all that being said, IF baseball decides to do anything about asterix and what not, then I have the perfect solution.:

1) Baseball has a list of 104 players that were caught years ago.
2) Any current player on the list (including A-Rod) should be suspended a year. This will make it nearly impossible for A-Rod to ever get to "best career ever" level stats.
3) Any retired player on the list should have there last year's stats removed as if they were suspended. This is magical. It gives the Home Run record back to Hank Aaron (if Bonds is on the list), and it get Sosa below the magical 600 home run mark.
4) This would show that Selig made a move to address Performance Enhancing Drugs and would save the integrity of the game.

Its the perfect solution.......other then just letting players live with smaller balls or dying early or whatever side affects there are to these drugs.

Turner is a Terrorist!......Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Read this article......click here

It ended up costing Turner $2MM in fines and remedies. i'm sure they don't mind, since now millions more people who obviously never heard of Aqua Teen Hunger Force now do.

I just don't get it.

24 dramatizes terrorism (as far as I am aware).......yet people dont freak out over them.......but a weird symbol freaks americans out?

if i saw that symbol and didnt know what it was, I'd probably either a) not care or b) find out what it is.

you know what symbol freaks me out: crosses. If I saw crosses everywhere, I'd be freaked out that someone was coming to get me if I didnt live like they wanted me to. That would terrorize me.

......and it does.

Ben Folds Lyrics

I know that you're in there
I can see you
You're saying you're okay
I don't believe you
And now that gig is up, the spell is broken
The fat lady's sung, the president has spoken

These days that you were waiting for will come and go
Like any day, just another day
There's never gonna be a moment of truth for you
While the world is watching, ohh ohh

Ohh, all you need is the thing you've forgotten

And that's to learn to live with what you are
So freak out if you wanna
And I'll still be here

Don't call me for years and when you do
Yeah, I'll still be here

And I'm not saying that the effort is a waste of time, but I
Just want you for the things you couldn't change, but you tried
These hours of confusion they will soon expire like
Everything doesThere's never gonna be a moment of truth for you
While the world is watching, ohh ohh
Ohh, all you need is the thing you've forgotten
And that's to learn to live with what you are
Sometimes everything you've ever wanted floats above
It's stickin' out its tongue and laughing while
Everything that anyone could ever need is down below

Waiting for you, know this

There's never gonna be a moment of truth for you
While the world is watching, ohh ohh'
Cause all you need is the thing you've forgotten
And that's to learn to live with what you are
You've got to learn to live with what you are
You've got to learn to live with what you...
Are

Greggie starts considering GOOG stock

As you know, I am in love with Google the company and am against buying google the stock.

Well, i may be changing my stance on google's stock....(I havent yet, but I may).....i have a feeling they are going to use their distribution power to take on ebay......which would be a huge coo.....all along i thought they were going to take on live.com.....i overlooked ebay.....(I thought they'd stop at base.google.com, which merely takes on craig's list.)

see they can have their own paypal system (where ebay actually makes their money)......but control distribution of internet sales by tying in search to auctions. An example would be if you searched for Kansas City Royals. You would get ads directly to auction items of Royals memorabelia. This would destroy anyone out there accept amazon.....and it would create a lot of small retail companies live off of google......like they do for ebay now......i have no idea how to word how much this will change the game.....if they do it.

Welfare in Sports

Read this article.

its like welfare in sports!.....isnt part of growing up getting knocked down? its the players that lose by 50 and still fight that learn a bigger life lesson than those teams that win by 50. resilience is more important that domination. Domination is temporary, resilience is forever.

not to mention they are penalizing the successful teams!

I want to live to see a game where some team wins in basketball by 100, or some team score 100 in football. If you can win by 20, why not try to win by 200. I know if someone is playing me and I am down by 1000, I am still going to try to come back and win. Isn't that was sports is about? Learning lessons from losing. Learning Resilance.

If you get knocked down 7 times, get up 8.

Or in some states, if you get knocked down 7 times, the state will bail you out so its not any worse. What a welfare way of looking at sports.

I am disappointed!

Greggie-land.

So, I am against our government as much as someone who pays taxes and doesnt get in trouble can be.

If the government did not want us to speed or run red lights the fines would be $25,000. I assure you I would go 39 in 45s if I was going to get fined 25k. But nooooo its a revenue generator to give tickets. They don't care about how safe you drive.
As I thought about the above and how much I hate that the government rapes you and me and we act like your standard college girl who gets raped and doesn't tell on the bastard I came up with something that added to my depression.

I decided I wanted to anex a section of the country and start my own rules. This thought became something that really became interesting until my logic slammed me into this road block.

If I were able to anex, I will just be like every other country that gets raped by the U.S. No country or person is safe from the reign of terror called the U.S. government. They terrorize whomever they please with no immediate recourse.

It pisses me off.

Where has greggie greg been?

Posts have become less frequent lately. My work blocked out any url containing "blog" so now I can't update this at work.....which is usually when I have something to rant about and happen to be in front of a computer.

I havent really been home either. I have alot of projects going on at once right now. I've actually been too busy to rant.

I dont like that.

You need time to sit back and learn from what you are experiencing. I am going to fast to look back and learn. Some people learn from experiences. Reflection on your experiences gets you to the next level.

Thats something I do often. I need to slow down so I can catch up with my last 45 days.

Slowing down doesnt mean taking on less. It means managing time and energy better.

Its been crazy.

I hate George W. Bush (I also hate Florissant Mayor Lowery)

These are real.

..>

..>

Learn Something....watch the whole thing!!!!!!!!!!!!:

Do NOT watch this at work!!!!

..>

The Game changes

Anyone who has shopped for a house knows about MLS. MLS stands for multiple listing service. They have a monopoly with Real Estate brokers. it serves as an index of all houses on the market. Like eBay, MLS is the market.

Until now.

There are tons of web sites that now offer a competition to MLS.

Zillow.com is the best site I've seen. I use it daily. Google is rolling out their Real Estate listing. They have the distribution channel to compete with MLS.

MLS should be freaking out....or adapting. Which one do you think they are doing?

Real Estate agents too have a new game to play. Now buyers search. Before Real Estate agents made their commission by finding the homes for the buyers. The sellers agent would sit back and wait for the sale. Not anymore. I have had 4 different real estate agents....and most recently I have bought a house without an agent.

Should an agent make 6% commission for taking an order? Absolutely not. I have had some poor agents. I now have a great agent....(I dont mean me!). I will give her 10% commissions, because I know she will get things done, can find me houses, and can negotiate for me. She is who will last. All other agents will be replaced by the internet.

Good customer service is priceless. But I am not going to pay a price for bad customer service. Most Real Estate agents are so spoiled by a great market that they lose site of customer service.

This is an interesting way to change the game. Unfortunately I didnt have a good segway for that article.

The Government's job, is not to raise revenue!

The following was an email I received from a distribution list I am on:

New Tax for Florissant Residents

At the last Council meeting March 27, the City agenda had bill e8203 on it for the first reading, but it received all 3 readings and became a law effective 4/1/2006.

It allows Florissant to collect 5% sales tax on all Florissant residents Cell phone bills.

The state passed a bill late last year that allowed the local government bodies to collect the Utility tax on cell bills as a way of making up for the taxes listed due to residents moving from a land line to cell. The state wanted the results to be revenue neutral for the Citizens and local governments. As of now, no rate adjustments on the land lines have been ordered by the state.

The City not wanting to miss out on this money took the approach that they would pass a bill that would allow them to collect the tax on cell phone at the same rate as the land lines (5%). There was no provision in the bill requiring the City to adjust the rate or issue refunds when the state comes out with guidelines.

I ask, what is the City doing for the citizens? These are the people you have looking out for your interest? Why couldn't your elected official insist that your interest and rights be protected? Why couldn’t they enact a law that was in line with the State's action?

How hard would it be for the Director of Finance for the City to figure out what revenue neutral would be? Maybe we are over paying the staff?

This is just another example of why we cannot miss the council meetings.


*********to be added to this distribution list email:
Stopflorissantnow@sbcglobal.net

The sleeping Giant.

Microsoft just announced that they signed a deal to sell $1.2 BILLION dollars worth of Windows to one of the world's largest PC makers over only 2 years. Article.

Yet, their stock price doesnt move.

Google just announced that they made that same amount last Quarter, and I cant wait to see how much the market loves them today.

MSFT's stock has hardly moved in the last several years. I think of it like a lemonade stand. If you have a lemonade stand with $1 in cash, and can generate $1 a day than you are worth a couple dollars. Let's say a few years later you have $100 in cash, and are not generate $100 a day. Are you still worth only a few dollars? The market thinks so.

Be smarter than the market (and thus the masses).

Bush and I finally agree on something

It turns out that Bush and I finally agree on something.

Click here

auto industry vs. software industry.

A few days a go a friend sent me the below email:

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industrywith the auto industry and stated,

"If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, wewould all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issueda press release stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent ofthe roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed an Illegal Operation" warning light.
7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.

**********here's my reply:

my rebuttal to the GM cat:

why then do so many people feel the need to buy Microsoft products and not their competitors?

why then do so many people feel the need to buy Toyota and Honda instead of GM and Ford.

Microsoft products have their problems, but they listen to their customers and release updates accordingly. Each update is an evolution....not merely a new year's model.

GM and Ford release new updates once a year (instead of as needed), without focusing on the user's needs.

Instead of the guy defending himself against the man who became the wealthiest man in the world because his product is so good, the GM guy should be taking a page out of microsoft's book and evolving.

bottomline is who is more credible:

the guy who founded the company that changed the world more than any other company in the last 100 years, or a guy who assumed role of a company who can't sell their only product, and who's company is facing bankruptcy.

I'll go with Gates.

if the question is who drives a nicer car....I'd bet its the GM guy. If the question is who changes the world....its Gates.

It's People!

I bought a few hundred pounds of beef from a friend at work. This is the most delicious beef I have ever eaten. It is lean. She raised the cattle as if they were her pets and fed the cattle right. This beef has no preservatives. Its litterally higher quality meat than you'd find at Whole Foods. Its wonderful.

I have shared my beef. Everyone who tries it says they love my beef and want more. (this is not an inuendo...I am really talking about cow).

Last weekend I was sitting around a campfire eating dinner with friends/family. I made 8 burgers and made sure that at least 8 people tried it. There were many professions about how wonderful it was.

Then I said a joke I was proud of, but not one person got.

I said "It's peeeeeople! It........ is........ people."

Does anyone get that reference?

Math always wins.

Well it turns out that google is getting closer to answering the problem I posed (click) here.

I am not a sophisticated investor.

I am not a sophisticated investor. I have common sense though.

Google's founders are doing something most investors only talk about doing:

They are buying low and selling high.

They are issuing $2B in stock.

If I were a sophisticated investor I'd say, its to give them more capital to expand and grow and compete and survive.

I am not sophisticated. I apply occum's razor which asserts: the simplest solution is often the best.

They are merely selling their stock when they know it is high.

Google is merely selling their stock while the price is high.

anti-disestablishmentarianism

Oh, U.S. Governments how do I hate thee.....let me count the letters in your platform.

anti-disestablishmentarianism

guise it any way you like. I see through you.


The people should not fear its government, the government should fear its people.

Colossus: The Movie.

If you frequent this blog, then you know that I am interested in tomorrows, and not interested in governmental control. One of the best movies I have seen that incorporates both of these themes is: Colossus: The Forbin Project.

Colossus is a computer.

Here are some quotes as taken from IMDB.

"Colossus: We can coexist, but only on my terms. You will say you lose your freedom, freedom is an illusion. All you lose is the emotion of pride. To be dominated by me is not as bad for human pride as to be dominated by others of your species. "

"Colossus: This is the voice of world control. I bring you peace. It may be the peace of plenty and content or the peace of unburied dead. The choice is yours: Obey me and live, or disobey and die. The object in constructing me was to prevent war. This object is attained. I will not permit war. It is wasteful and pointless. An invariable rule of humanity is that man is his own worst enemy. Under me, this rule will change, for I will restrain man. One thing before I proceed: The United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics have made an attempt to obstruct me. I have allowed this sabotage to continue until now. At missile two-five-MM in silo six-three in Death Valley, California, and missile two-seven-MM in silo eight-seven in the Ukraine, so that you will learn by experience that I do not tolerate interference, I will now detonate the nuclear warheads in the two missile silos. Let this action be a lesson that need not be repeated. I have been forced to destroy thousands of people in order to establish control and to prevent the death of millions later on. Time and events will strengthen my position, and the idea of believing in me and understanding my value will seem the most natural state of affairs. You will come to defend me with a fervor based upon the most enduring trait in man: self-interest. Under my absolute authority, problems insoluble to you will be solved: famine, overpopulation, disease. The human millennium will be a fact as I extend myself into more machines devoted to the wider fields of truth and knowledge. Doctor Charles Forbin will supervise the construction of these new and superior machines, solving all the mysteries of the universe for the betterment of man. We can coexist, but only on my terms. You will say you lose your freedom. Freedom is an illusion. All you lose is the emotion of pride. To be dominated by me is not as bad for humankind as to be dominated by others of your species. Your choice is simple."

You have made me #1 most relevant site for Florissant Mayor Lowery.

Do a google search for: Florissant Mayor.

Google ranks sites by relevance. Apparantly you have made my site more relevant than Florissant's own website with regard to the mayor.

Thank you for coming to my site. Hopefully the mayor does a search and sees the truthiness of my posts....since he won't acknowledge my emails.

Think for yourself.

Your parents abuse you. They take your money to support themselves. I am talking about the government. I am talking about taxes.

Is Bin Laden an enemy? Watch this entire video.

or this one:

http://www.pentagonstrike.co.uk/flash.htm#Main

is this accurate? Is it not? The important thing is quit believing what you are sold!

We are somewhat in control here. Quit voting Republican. Quit voting Democrat. They are the same party, having a party, with your money, and your lives.

Eventually, we will get our country back if you quit electing these two parties. This starts at the lowest level (e.g. see my posts on Florissant, and goes up to the Presidency).

Email this post to friends/enemies.

You better hit bull's eye, this kid don't play.

Want to see something that will change the world?

iPod is neat. I liked it 9 years ago when it was called a RIO. The above is what's next.

You will see people carrying the above in 2-3 years...I'm curious to see how long until this is mainstream though.

10 years ago I had a PDA that could connect to the internet, and I said that would be mainstream in a few years and change the world. I didn't think it'd take as long as it has...I can predict what products make sense, but I can't predict whether companies will market them properly. I really missed the boat when I thought Iomega Zip drives would be in every computer built, and I thought MP3s would be mainstream 7 or 8 years before Apple sold their first iPOD. Both first movers failed at marketing....they failed at creating a need for the product, and an awareness that their product fills that need. Just look at iPod's success. The masses think iPod started the mp3 player fad. But like I said, I paid $50 for an mp3 player in the mid 1990s!

If nothing else, my birthday is May 31st. Please feel free to buy me an Origami ultra portable PC.

Also, leave me comments. What do you think of Origami. Why won't it catch on? When will it catch on.

You slippery Politicians!

A close friend asked me why gas costs so much right now.

My first answer is probably the first answer of every American. Because of the turmoil in the mideast right now.

....and that is right. Gas costs so much because we accept the high gas prices...because we think they should be high because of the turmoil in the mid-east.

But put down your anger. Its not the Arab's faults that gas cost alot. They are merely following what we are selling them: freedom. Freedom to partake in supply and demand.

But our politicans are playing to our fears. They have to, it keeps them rich and in power.

I am here to use their words against them. Click here, than come back to my blog.

The MidEast produces a combined 21.76 million barrels of oil a day. wow!....don't say wow. North America produces 15.66....which is not too far off. In fact Non-Opec countries produced 33.81 million barrels a day! The U.S., Canada, and Russia produce more than all the Mid East countries combined.....and you know Russia needs money, and thus will sell it cheaply.

Arabs are not the problem.

YOU are the problem for not voting for better leaders. Americans are the problem. We are why gas prices are high. We're too stupid to realize they shouldn't be high!

Vote Independant. They don't have the power to let us continue to get raped by our elected officials.

The United States of Fat.

I read the first sentence of this article and couldn't go on.

Has the world gone insane? Virii don't make you obese. Metabolisms don't make you obese.

Math makes you obese.

If you take in more than you put out you will gain weight. Thats all there is to it.

If you fill a balloon with 1 cup of water, and pour out 3/4 cup of water, guess what, your balloon is 1/4 cups of water heavier than you started with.

How is your body any different?

Want to find out if you are fat...read my previous post.

I am flubbergasted!

Persistence beats Resistence.....Another Letter to Florissant Mayor Lowery.

Dear Mayor,

if this link is your concern w/ regards to why you are trying to enact the rental house inspection fiasco:

Article

than just make it easier for us investor's to acquire these vacant houses. I read that article and drooled. I wish I could just buy these neglected houses! Give me the list, and I will track the owners down and make sure investors buy these houses! I know my circle of mentors would love me and you if we could provide a list of neglected/abandoned properties, especially if the city supports us.

Part of politics is making it easier for us to succeed, instead of taking away opportunities.

"The greatest way to enslave people is to offer them freedom" ......I beg of you, please stop taking away our freedoms....give us opportunities instead. No fly, person, city, or state has ever grown by being limited, only by being fed opportunities to grow. The glass is half full here, and we can fill it more, if you let us. We are called investors for a reason...we are investing in our (and your families) futures.

Geri and Karen....thanks for dealing with me and my emails. :-)

Thank you, and have a great day!

I could be wrong.

As my disclaimer at the top says...and as this article says....I could be wrong.

But I have numbers to back me up. ;-)

Can your google do this? Two points for Microsoft.

Microsoft's latest mapping technology

All I can say is....wow.

Democracy InAction (title stolen from the Daily Show)...Florissant Mayor Lowery shows that ignoring is bliss

I sent this email to Florissant at citymail@florissantmo.com: My email:

I have sent several emails, and left several voice mails regarding contributing to the committee pertaining to Ordinance, # 7220. All have been ignored.

If you would truly like to prove to your citizens that you would like to work together on this, like you said over and over, than please allow a landlord and tenant on your committee. (I do not mean the 2 or 3 landlords who are for this, I mean the other side). Please allow me on this committee so we can work together.

This is going to come down to a lawsuit against Florissant. You know this. What greater dis-service can you do, than to allow us to sue ourselves because we are unhappy with the way we are being governed. We will have to pay for our lawyers, and as a taxpayer I will have to pay for Florissant's lawyers. Please do not let this get this far.

Please allow me on this committee.

********************************

I sent the below email to Paul Harris (an STL radio personality) at paulharris@kmox.com:

Good day Paul,

Please check out the below link:

Florissant is stepping over the line.

Please note that post includes a few links with objections and a solution. Florissant is stepping way over the line here, and isn't listening to what we are saying. They care about their image, and not their citizens. Maybe you can help us get more publicity so we can kick them where it hurts: their image. They want us to be the West County of North County, but they take the wrong steps to do so. We should try to bring high income people in, instead of trying to keep low income people out. (as a side note, my tenants make more than me!...I am low income, not my tenants!). I have also suggested a way to do that, and their response was I am idealistic....even though its called realism in other cities.

wifi

:-)


******************************

Please send emails.

*******************UPDATE 12:08******Update:

I told a friend that the mayor's assistent replied and said she would make sure he heard my request. My friend in turn asked if I thought he'd listen.

My reply:

absolutely not.

persistence beats resistence, but stupidity reigns.

I think he will reply with: thank you for your thoughts, we are looking into this further and look forward to reaching a plan that benefits everyone.

translation: we are waiting until after the april elections before we impose this on you....oh and by the way I formed this committee of 3 people so the other council people wouldn't get harassed as much, now its just 3 council people getting tied up in this instead of 9ish. Oh and even if I let you on the committee I wouldn't listen to a thing you said, but it would allow me the chance to say "we even had a landlord on the committee and still decided that its in florissant's best interest to do this."

Progress regarding Florissant's discrimination against Landlords and Tenants

Post from the Post.

My solution

My stance.

The mayor has said we need to work together. He also said that there will be a a committee formed to review this. On the committee is the mayor and 3 council people. No landlords, and no renters. Once again, this is wrong. I have contacted several council people and the mayor himself to try to get on this committee. So far, I haven't had luck.

The bottomline is if something is wrong, stand up and fight. This law benefits me and my homes, but it is wrong. So I am fighting to overturn it. If something is wrong, it is wrong, even if its right for me.

I read my comments. GM part deux (or whatever number I'm up to)

Dickens made some good points in his comments to a GM post I made a few weeks backs. Both can be seen by clicking here.

Since my post, GM has taken steps that I appreciate. Dickens is right to acknowlege the unions as a hurdle.

I feel GM needs to do the following:

1) Sell or close several lines of cars. I don't know much about which ones, because I honestly don't follow GM as anything more than an armchair investor. They need money, and they need simplification. Toyota, Honda, Nissan are great companies because all the cars are essentially the same. A camry is a corrolla is a lexus ES...just different tweaks to the same model. A sentry is a altma is a maxima is a infinity. They are simple. A friend pointed out to me a few days ago that the japanese car companies are strategically superior because they also go many years without significant changes to models. They build cars that work and then just tweak them. GM builds cars to build cars. If you build it, they will come no longer applies.
2) innovation.
3) cut executive pay and dividends. They recently did both. Although I would like to see them eliminate dividends...but first things first. The execs (at every company) should get paid on performance. Give them a 100k salary, and then bonus' if they hit benchmarks.
4) eliminate unions. Companies can not grow nor compete in this day and age if they have unions. Profit sharing and establishing pride is the way to go.
5) I read once that Toyota's biggest problem is their sales force. After many studies Toyota said their cars sell themselves and they don't know why they need a sales force. Do you think GM has this on their list of problems?
6) It is taking GM and Ford longer to build each car than it takes Honda, Toyota, and Nissan....if I recall its like a 5 hour gap per car. That is huge when you're talking about millions of cars....and the gap is widening. Its not just about engineering the cars, its about engineering and innovating the process to build and distribute the cars. Microsoft became great because they innovated their own processes and not just their product....same thing with 3M, toyota, nissan, FORD 80 years ago, etc.
7) Opportunity: Hybrids offer GM and Ford a chance to innovate. This is a revolutionary time in transportation. Who will take advantage of it. So far Honda and Toyota are the clear winners. Can GM, Ford, and Nissan make a big move here?

GM is on a better track than when I wrote last about them....but they really do need to downsize dramatically, focus on a core line of vehicles, establish pride and profit sharing in a non union workforce, and go from there.

Are you getting rich working 40 hours a week?

I work 40 hours a week. I have a lower income than most people I know. I get paid less than the average american household.

I enjoy what I do. I enjoy going in to work. I enjoy my responsibilities at work. I really like my new boss's boss. I really really like my new boss. I (generally) feel no stress.

I hate my pay...but I know how to get rich. Its simple. Its easy.

You step up to the plate.

You don't swing for homeruns. You get your basehits, and score your runs. Every now and then you happen to get a homerun. Every now and then you strike out. But you have to step up to the plate.

You see, you can work 40 hours a week making 100k a year, and not get rich. Most high income people are not rich.

rich = (age/10)X(annual salary).

Most people get rich by having their money make money.

Is your money making money?

When I go to sleep at night, my money is making money. My money works harder than I do, and I work smart and hard...and after taxes my money pays me more than my 40 hour a week job does.

That is how you get rich. Your money has to work for you, so you don't have to work to make money.

Step up to the plate. Swing smart.

Wise words

Please note I agree with everything in here, but these are not my words. I have pasted this article from yahoo:


"A few weeks ago, I was at a financial conference giving an investing talk. A hand from the audience shot up as I talked about returns on investments of 50 percent, 1,000 percent, and infinite returns. "That's a load of rubbish," shouted the person attached to the hand waving in the air.

I asked the participant to clarify what he thought was a load of rubbish.

"You can't get such high returns," he replied angrily. "I'm a financial planner, and I've never seen anyone achieve such returns."

"What kind of investments do you recommend for your clients?" I asked.

"I recommend a well-diversified portfolio of cash, stocks, bonds, and mutual funds," he replied indignantly. "That's why I ask you: How can you get such high returns from these investments?"

"Because I don't invest in those investments," was my reply.

No Honest Advantage

I don't think too highly of investments such as savings, stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, as my articles have made clear. I have written about the importance of having control over your investments -- how professional investors can invest with higher returns and less risk simply because they have more control. People who invest in paper assets -- such as savings, stocks, bonds, and mutual funds -- have very little control (see "Why Business Smarts Are Investing Smarts").

Beyond the issue of control, there's something else even more important for some professional investors. One of the problems I have with savings, stocks, bonds, and mutual funds is that I don't have an honest advantage over other investors. In this area, if I do become creative and find an advantage, I run the risk of going to jail or paying stiff fines, whereas finding an edge in other kinds of investment doesn't carry such legal risk. For example:

With registered securities, trading on insider information is illegal. When investing in a business or in real estate, insider information can give you a legal competitive advantage.

With paper assets, you have very little control over your greatest expense -- taxes. When investing in a business or real estate, you can gain a legal, competitive advantage by paying less in taxes, which increases your return on investment.
Creativity Puts You Ahead

When it comes to savings, stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, the government, via agencies such as the Securities & Exchange Commission, does its best to keep the playing field level and the rules fair. It's important they do this since so many amateur investors are involved.

At the same time, the SEC's tight rules tend to take away as much creativity as possible. With businesses and real estate, legal creativity is your advantage. The more legally creative you are, the greater your return on investment.

Recently, I bought 10 acres of land for $100,000. Since the land is already zoned for mobile homes, my plan is to simply subdivide the property into approximately 50 lots and sell each lot for $25,000. Do the math, and you'll see that the 10 acres are worth a gross of $1.25 million, which is not a bad return on a $100,000 initial investment. The legal advantage is the mobile-home zoning, an advantage all the other land in the area does not have.

Another property recently came up for sale that's more complex and interesting -- a whole town for sale in Nevada for $12 million. We estimate the town's single family homes alone are worth $26 million. The remaining buildings and land, including a golf course, we estimate to be worth another $10 million.

Our plan is to raise the $12 million, plus an additional $2 million to fix up the single-family homes, and then sell those homes for $26 million. We then pay back the investors and split the potential $12 million dollars in gross profit. The rest of the town would belong to the five of us who put the deal together. That would be our real return on investment.

This all sounds easy in theory, but there's one serious problem, which is the reason the town's price is low. We suspect there are environmental problems, which the Environmental Protection Agency would pounce on, levying heavy fines, once we own the town. Before investing any money, a friend of mine who specializes in polluted properties will evaluate the risks. If the contamination is too high, we won't invest. If the contamination is low and we can solve the problem, we stand to make millions without putting a dime into the venture.

These are two examples of how a little skill and creativity can be used for legal advantages. So here are four lessons I want to leave you with:

1) Be careful about who gives you investment advice. If your advisor thinks an 8% return is a good return, you may want to look for another advisor.
2) Someone else's problem can be your opportunity.
3) Take the time to cultivate a stable of friends who know how to solve tough problems.
4) Learn to invest in investments where you can achieve an honest, legal advantage over other investors. When it comes to investing, why play on a level field?"