by Elisabeth Donati | Oct 7, 2011 | Financial Literacy, Financial Literacy Principles, Latest News, Uncategorized
Have you ever made a mistake that cost you money? Lots of money? And when you thought back over how it happened, you realized it was simply a lack of attention to detail on your part?
Of course you have. We all have. I know I have, and recently I might add. It started out being a $1600 mistake, but with the help of the company, turned into a $300 mistake instead. (Insert heavy sigh here!)
What happened doesn’t matter; it’s how I did it that tells the story. And it only took a couple of minutes to make the mistake.
The Dastardly Details (if you want them!)
There I was, needing to place a pretty big order with the printing company that prints some of our booklets and manuals. The company is Mimeo and they are awesome I might add.
We have this great relationship with the Cherokee Nation and every few months, they order our Camp Millionaire Curriculum and Financial Freedom Playbook for new and/or additional teachers to teach financial literacy to their community. We love what they are doing and so appreciate the difference they are making. And honored to be part of it, of course.
Well, here in the office, Jan and I have acronyms for everything: CM is Camp Millionaire, MO is Moving Out, CWW is Creative Wealth for Women. The problem started with this naming situation. You see I needed to order 250 of our CM Playbook but we also have a CCK (Creative Cash for Kids) Playbook.
You guessed it. I didn’t take the time to review (where was Jan when I really needed her eyes?!?) or look close enough to realize I clicked the wrong playbook and put it in the cart. The prices are about the same and I don’t have them memorized so I clicked, clicked, and clicked and went on to the next project.
Fast Forward
A few hours later something niggled me. You know that feeling you get when the Universe says, “Hey, something seems not quite right here! Pay attention!” and you have to stop what you’re doing and go check something?
Sure enough, that’s what happened. For whatever reason (this happens to me a lot), I realized what I had done but IT WAS TOO LATE! Most of the order had already been printed. Luckily for me it hadn’t been bound and my rep at the company was incredibly sympathetic. He gave me a huge discount to reorder the right product, reinstated our credit that we order with and talked to billing about only charging me for the actual cost of the paper for what was printed.
Huge Costly Mistake Widdled to Small Costly Mistake
In the end, what might have cost me $1600 ended up costing me $300. I feel incredibly grateful that the lesson wasn’t more expensive. And it prompted me to write this article.
“Paying” Attention to Details Saves You Money
That potentially costly mistake caused Jan and I to rethink our procedures here in the office for ordering things and doing all things related to money. We now only order things together so we can double check what the other is doing, we confer on all orders and sourcing projects, and we even enter items into Quickbooks and balance our checking account together.
All in all, that $300 mistake helped us put some very important checks and balances into place that will keep us (hopefully) from making any more costly mistakes in the future.
Avoiding Costly Mistakes in the Future
Here are some tips that may help YOU avoid having to shell out your hard earned cash in case of a financial mistake:
- Plan your financial actions, be them personal or business related. This gives you the space to be calm and pay attention when you do what you need to do with your money.
- Have a set procedure in place for handling financial transactions; from ordering things and keeping track of your spending to investing, buying stocks, receiving money, doing invoices, etc. Anything that involves money should involve a procedure and a thought out one at that.
- Take your time! This is probably the biggest reason we make financial mistakes (and any other kind of mistake actually). We get going too fast and simply don’t pay attention to the little details that turn into big mistakes later on. Make a time to do what you need to do, pour yourself a cup of decaffeinated something, even put a little classical music on if you need to. Do whatever it takes to be relaxed so you PAY ATTENTION.
- When you DO make a mistake — little or big — do your best not to get too upset. Sometimes there is nothing you can do but get the lesson. Let the mistake be fodder for learning a little more about how you operate and what you might need to change about who you’re being around money so you don’t repeat the mistake.
I’d love to hear about your financial mistakes here. Leave your comments below and share what you did and what you learned. We’ll all learn from them!
by Elisabeth Donati | Sep 30, 2011 | Financial Literacy, Financial Literacy Principles, Latest News, Uncategorized
by Paul Richard – ICFE PresidentSan Diego, CA – A growing number of merchants won’t accept cash anymore, including many airlines, which insist you pay by credit card if you want to buy a drink or a sandwich on board. There are also news reports that the U.S. Treasury is printing fewer dollars, as American consumers move towards an all-plastic economy. It is good news for the banks, card companies and other lenders.
To add to the cost of banking is the threat of a new one percent transaction tax on all banking activity.Cash is this writer’s preferred method of doing business. No credit cards, no travel cards, no charge accounts and here are some reasons why.
- Spend less using cash. Most people are simply willing to spend more when they use credit cards than they do when they use cash. The day-to-day cash spending rates drop. There are far fewer impulse purchases too, because if there is no cash available there will be no splurges.
- Cash makes budgeting easy. Draw out a certain amount of cash once a week and budgeting becomes automatic. One thing we all do when spending cash, we count how much is left over after a purchase. Hardly any credit card buyers check their credit available after their purchases.
- Reduce indebtedness. Credit cards were originally designed to be used for convenience, however a growing number of card holders now use them to accumulate debt. Using a card for convenience means paying the account in full at the end of the accounting period. Using the cards for debt means consumers will pay a lot more in the end because credit card interest rates are higher than most loans.
- Cash makes me think about what I spend and why. Brett Arends, a writer for Smart Money magazine, remembers back when he got his first job, he writes that he started calculating how much everything he spent cost in terms of hours worked. That new CD cost two hours of his time, and so on. It was a good discipline.
- Identity theft potential is minimized. Many people worry about handing out a credit card or details every time they make a purchase because of the prevalence of credit and identity thieves. Using cash cuts down on the risk and increases privacy.
- Cash helps local people. The cash spent at local merchants and their suppliers is keeping some fellow citizens in work. On the contrary with credit cards, the interest and other fees are helping finance bank executives, their marketing teams and call centers overseas.
Paul Richard
is the President – Executive Director of
Institute of Consumer Financial Education (ICFE). The Institute of Consumer Financial Education (ICFE) was founded in 1982 by the late Loren Dunton (creator of the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation). The ICFE is dedicated to helping consumers of all ages to improve their spending, increase savings and use credit more wisely.
by Elisabeth Donati | May 6, 2011 | Financial Literacy, Financial Literacy Principles, Latest News, Uncategorized
I have the opportunity quite often to teach or talk to teens and one of the things I love talking to them about is the idea of designing their lives.
Now I know that sometimes things just happen that don’t seem to be part of our design at first, yet if you really look deeper at the things that happen in your life, you can see your part in it shining through.
But, somewhere, at some time, you made a decision that led to the event you didn’t mean to insert into “My Perfect Little Life” script.
To give you a few little tips on how to bring what IS happening back to the script you had in mind, I wanted to use a little gardening analogy I noticed recently.
Financial Gardening
In The Garden
So, as I’ve crafted my spring and summer garden areas in Santa Barbara in the small areas I have to work with, I recently noticed something different about my gardening approach.
The first thing I am doing differently is paying (interesting word:-) a lot more attention to the details of the garden. And I’m doing this with volition, in other words, I am consciously choosing to do it now.
In the past, I would plant things and then ‘pretend’ I was too busy to do what was really needed to maximize the return (interesting phrase) on what I planted. Not any more. I plant. I water. I check on the ‘kids’ each morning, noon and night and take the time purposefully to tend to their care (though I am still learning how to keep certain bugs off certain plants so THEY don’t enjoy my produce before I do!).
The second thing that I’ve noticed is my newly attained ability to THIN! I’ve always struggled with pulling out those cute little seedlings because, well, it just hurt to pull them out. It seemed that they worked so hard to get sprouted and then come up for me to enjoy. How could I pull half of them out and not feel their pain?
Yet what I know from growing up with huge gardens as a child is, that unless you constantly thin, the stronger seedlings don’t take root and grow to their full capacity, yielding (interesting word) ME much bigger, yummier lettuce, carrots or pak choi (like bok choi but different).
For whatever reason, it’s become easy for me to simply go out every morning, thin the ones that need thinning (and usually eating those little morsels) and then move on with my day.
Financial Thinning
So how does this idea of thinning seedlings in a garden relate to my talks with teens about designing lives and money? Simple.
When I look around at the most stressed people I know, they usually have chosen (planted) so many projects that they just can’t tend to them all well. They also can’t bear to thin any of them and that’s where the majority of the stress comes from.
Americans seem to suffer from the “Oh, no, I can’t stop doing THAT because THAT may be the one thing where I make it BIG.” Wrong! The thing that will make it through is the thing you tend to the most, with the greatest attention and care. The thing that you’ve put the most time into planning, researching and focusing on.
One of the beliefs at the core of our inability to say ‘no’ to more projects and ‘yes’ to the things we could possibly do well, let alone do great, is a belief that there is a scarcity of anything in life. We buy (mmhm, interesting word) into the idea that if WE don’t do it, someone else will (and they might) or if we don’t try all these things, we might miss the thing that will work (we won’t).
There isn’t a scarcity of opportunity in life…just a scarcity in the amount of focus time we invest (interesting word) in the project or couple of projects we decide to devote ourselves to.
We forget sometimes that we can’t do a great job on ALL of the projects that we want to choose and, if you’re like ME (a serial creative being), you can barely move through your day without coming up with at least one more great idea!
Tips to Thinning – Step One:
Make a list of all of your projects, all of your investments, all of your volunteer commitments, all of the things that demand your time that you don’t consider part of the life you want for yourself. (And it’s perfectly OK to learn to say NO to family members. Martyrdom is NEVER healthy!)
Tips to Thinning – Step Two:
- Time to thin and this is how you do it. But first know that thinning can be emotionally painful at the beginning, but I give you my word, it gets easier – and sooner than you think, you’ll start looking forward to it and begin doing it on a regular basis.
- Pull the projects/things/people/investments, etc. that are the weakest, poorest performers. The ones that appear to be crowding out others that you know are stronger.
- Make sure you thin enough so that the things you leave in place are part of the life you want for yourself. Give them enough room to grow, flourish, evolve and do their thing.
- Check yourself every time you notice you’re pulled by anything outside of yourself to say YES to one more thing that you didn’t choose.
- Repeat Step One and Two on a regular basis.
How do you spell relief? THINNING!!!
by Elisabeth Donati | Mar 31, 2011 | Financial Literacy, Financial Literacy Principles, Uncategorized
Today’s blog was written for you by one of our very first Camp Millionaire Coaches, Patricia Davis. Enjoy…
As I travel the country teaching financial seminars, I often am reminded of my Mother, Mimi, who was the very first person who taught me the rules of the game of money and how to play it to win. In my recently published book, Mimi, Money and Me: 101 Realities About Money Daddy Never Taught Me But Mama Always Knew, I have chronicled many of her teachings about money and life, along with some of the mistakes, myths and misunderstandings I have heard from students in my classes.
A few months ago, I was asked by the director of a local non-profit to conduct a day long financial seminar for a group of highly motivated teens ages 14 to 17. While they were indeed good students and much more interested in understanding the rules of the game of money than are many teens, still there was a lot they just didn’t know about money—things nobody had ever taught them.
One of the day’s highlights took place when we spent several hours playing Creative Wealth International’s “The Money Game.” I combined the rules of The Money Game with several of Mimi’s teachings discussed in my book to add a healthy dose of “grandmotherly” advice and warnings. The game’s lessons about budgeting, living within one’s means, and saving all were taken to heart and fairly easily understood. As we went through the various rounds, it was Mimi’s strict rules (the ones I grew up with) that caused them pause.
At one point, during the discussion about the jars and always putting money away for tomorrow, one young lady asked, “Why should I save? I might die!” I replied, “You just might live! Plus, you have to be able to take care of yourself as well as your own needs and wants.”
Since they each had been given a copy of my book in advance, they had read many of the “Mimi-isms” I have strategically placed at the beginning of each of the book’s seven chapters. Three of them, along with a true story, helped me make the case for having the responsibility to look after oneself. “Every tub has got to stand on its own bottom;” “Learn to paddle your own canoe;” and “God bless the child that’s got his own” are all sayings I heard as far back as I can remember. As we grew older, Mimi still held fast to her beliefs about money and responsibility. The short exchange below makes the point.
One evening after work, I stopped by her house for a brief visit. (By then, she lived alone—my father had passed and all five children were grown and out on their own.) She asked where I was going when I left her house and I replied that I needed to go to the grocery store before going home. Then, the conversation went like this:
Get Your OWN Chicken!
Mimi: “What are you going to the store for?”
Patricia: ”I need a chicken. Mother, do you have any chickens in your freezer?”
Mimi: “Of course I do. I always have chickens. I have nine of them.”
Patricia: “May I have one?”
Mimi: “No, but you can borrow one if you tell me when I will get my chicken back?”
Patricia: “Mother, you said you have nine. Why should I have to pay you back?”
Mimi: “Patricia, I don’t know anybody the Safeway gives chickens to; not even poor people. Now, if you don’t want to give me my chicken back, it won’t hurt my feelings one bit. Go get your own chicken!!!”
She was probably 75 years old and financially set, but she still clung to her belief that every living soul has to learn to stand on his or her own two feet. “Go get your own chicken” was simply her metaphor for life. Keeping your money straight and being able to provide for yourself were, to her, the most important life lessons any of us can learn. Nobody is responsible for taking care of you but you. Those also are the lessons of The Money Game—learn the rules and play the game to win!
We thought Mimi was mean, strict and stingy. But, she told us she was teaching us lessons to last a lifetime. And, they have.
Mimi is no longer with us, but I hope with what I have written, her voice comes through loud and clear and that she lives on. She had strong feelings about the role of money in helping each of us become self reliant. I am grateful for her teachings and invite you to pick up a copy of the book so you can read some of them for yourself. I assure you that if you take them to heart and learn and follow the rules of the game of money, you will glide more smoothly down the road to financial freedom.
Check out testimonials to and snippets from Mimi, Money and Me on my website at www.yourmoneywiz.com. The book is simply written, easy to understand and will bring lots of smiles as you read some of the real-life stories. Last December, the Washington Post listed it as a favorite to give the gift of financial education.
A Little Bit About Patricia A. Davis – B.S., M.B.A, M.S.
Patricia Davis
Patricia Davis is a former corporate financial management executive who now conducts seminars nationwide on the topic of Financial Literacy and provides personal financial counseling to individuals (and couples) at all income levels with a special emphasis on underserved populations including students, teens, welfare-to-work participants, federal employees, and seniors.
Ms. Davis is the Managing Director of Davis Financial Services and the Executive Director of Money Matters, Inc., a 501 C(3) nonprofit corporation. Both provide financial literacy education and training, and financial counseling. She is also a licensed provider of Camp Millionaire, a fun-filled financial literacy education program for kids, teens and adults.
Ms. Davis graduated from Howard University with a B.S. in mathematics and statistics (cum
laude); holds an M.B.A. from Stanford University (Top 1%); earned a Master of Science degree in
Personal Financial Planning from Golden Gate University (Top Student Award); and graduated
from the Stonier Graduate School of Banking at Georgetown University (with distinction). In
2009, she was appointed one of two Maryland state representatives to the Taxpayer Advocacy
Panel, a citizens advocacy group of the Internal Revenue Service that focuses on improving
IRS responsiveness to taxpayer needs. In 2010, she received Golden Gate University’s Alumni
Community Service Award in acknowledgement of her work in providing financial literacy to
underserved populations. Also, she is a former White House Fellow, and has appeared on radio
and television discussing financial literacy.
Ms. Davis lived in California for almost 20 years and returned “home” to the Washington, DC area
several years ago. She has held high-level positions at some of the country’s premier companies
such as Bank of America and Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company, both in California; MCI
in Washington, DC; and Allfirst Bank, headquartered in Baltimore.
She is the author of a new financial management primer dedicated to and inspired by her Mother, Mimi called Mimi, Money and Me: 101 Realities About Money Daddy Never Taught Me But Mama Always Knew.
Mrs. Davis is married, a marathoner, and travels extensively.
by Elisabeth Donati | Feb 6, 2011 | Financial Literacy, Financial Literacy Principles, Media Attention, Uncategorized
I recently did a written interview for a new financial education website. The following is a copy of that interview. I thought perhaps people who didn’t know how Camp Millionaire got started might enjoy it.
1. When did you start the Creative Wealth website and why?
Our financial literacy website was started in 2001 as a way to publicize our first Money Camp for Kids summer camp. Since people were starting to look for things on the web, we knew it was important to have a presence there.
Over the years, the site has changed a few times (going to change again soon) but it continues to be the main source of customers and program referrals.
2. How did you come up with the idea of organizing camps?
I came up with the idea of building a profoundly effective financial education camp in 2000. I had been in the process of teaching myself about money and investing after I realized that the only reason I didn’t know about it was because no one ever taught me about it.
During that process, I noticed that people everywhere needed to learn what I was learning. I started thinking about how much I learned on the farms I grew up on and how much I knew about taking care of myself.
What I noticed was that without the skills to handle money and make it grow, I couldn’t care for myself when I was older. I would always have to work for money or be dependent on someone else. I didn’t like that idea at all.
Everywhere I went I noticed that people were talking about money in one way or another. How the price of everything was going up, how much in debt they were, the cost of gas, the cost of food, how much they saved…I heard people talk about money literally everywhere. On the street, in the store, at dinner parties, in the restroom!
The turning point happened when one day, I read a letter to the editor from a retired business attorney named Walt who was chastising people in Santa Barbara who were whining about how expensive real estate was. He basically said, “If you’d been doing with your money what you should have been doing with your money since you started making money, you’d have money to invest in a house…even in Santa Barbara.”
But it was his next paragraph that hooked me. He asked, “So…when, as a nation, are we going to start teaching our kids about money?”
Well, it hit me like a lightning bolt. I stood up at work a few hours later (I’d been thinking about this for a few hours) and said aloud, “Why doesn’t someone just create a money camp for kids so they can learn what we didn’t when we were young?”
I said it just to say it but you know what happens when you ask questions like that. YOU end up doing it. And that’s how it happened.
3. Why is financial literacy for kids so important to you?
Because I think to not teach kids about money and investing is child abuse. If our number one responsibility as parents is to make sure our children grow into adults who can be 100% responsible for themselves and their future families, then we MUST teach them how money works. If we don’t, we have failed as parents…period!
A mother lion makes sure her cubs can hunt before sending them out on their own. As a nation, we are filling our children’s heads full of useless information they will more than likely never use as adults and we call that giving them an education.
An education would be empowering them to create happy, successful, healthy lives…full of satisfying relationships and wonderful life experiences.
It takes learning about money, about health, about communication, about the difference between girls and boys (women and men), how to dress, common sense, common courtesy and a whole lot more to make it in this world.
My Camp Millionaire workshops (the name was changed in 2006) and The Money Game teach kids more than money. They learn to shake hands. They learn supportive financial belief systems.
They study the habits of successful, wealthy people. And no, teaching children about money doesn’t make them greedy or care about money above all else. It teaches them to respect the power of money to make their dreams come true and help others make their dreams come true as well. Our campers learn that making money doing good is the best thing you can ever hope to accomplish.
4. What challenges have you faced with your business and how did you overcome them?
The biggest challenge is that most kids would rather go to soccer camp or zoo camp or baseball camp than go to a money camp. Why? Because they don’t know how much fun it is and the don’t realize how vitally important the information will be to them when they older.
They also see how stressed out their parents and other adults are about money and they might already think it’s not a fun subject.
But the biggest challenge is empowering parents to be parents…to do the right thing for their kids. To make sure they know what they need to know to grow up and be responsible adults.
I overcome that challenge by empowering the parents I talk to do the right thing. I paint pictures of kids who end up moving home in their 20s or worse. I ask them questions about what they really want for their kids.
The other challenge is that the school systems are bogged down in the ‘no child left behind’ act and the only thing that has done is to leave every child behind.
Teachers can’t teach anymore. They teach to the tests and the tests mean absolutely nothing.
I tell the teens in my programs that college is A way, not THE way to having a successful life. They get it! Most kids already question how relevant the information they are learning in school is to their future. When you provide relevant information they see they need and can use, they never stop asking question. They are starving for information they see is relevant and important to their lives.
In truth, I’m still overcoming both of these hurdles but every year it gets a little bit easier because more schools are actually looking for good financial education programs and teachers are willing to do whatever it takes to bring this information to their students.
Parents also are looking for ways to teach their kids about money. With so many adults struggling financially these days, the pain is motivating parents to make sure their kids don’t end up in the same place or have to learn the hard way like they have.
Now the only challenge is that people want FREE and you always get what you pay for. That’s all I’ll say about that.
5. What successes have you faced and how did they help you to improve?
My first success was my first Money Camp for Kids in 2002 with 39 kids! I have no idea what we did with 39 kids but they learned a great deal and we learned even more than the kids about what it was going to take to build the best financial education program on the planet.
That first camp led to my discovering and becoming an expert in what is called accelerated learning. These teaching techniques propelled The Money Game and Camp Millionaire to the top in terms of fun and effectiveness.
Another success was my first Teacher Training in 2004 with 25 attendees. I had never done anything like that before and when we were finished after 3 days, they stood up and gave me a standing ovation. That was an amazing feeling and I knew I was onto something huge.
That training eventually turned in our 5-day financial education Train-the-Trainer that blows people away in terms of how to teach what we teach, how The Money Game works and oh, yah, there’s a ton of personal growth that happens in that program. People leave my train-the-trainer as different people, better people…people much more aware of their actions with money and motivated to change what they’re doing (if they need to) and take the information to as many children as possible.
The successes that I love the most, however, come as emails from parents who tell me about the conversations they’re still having with their kids. A favorite is when we get cards from teachers who tell us they love teaching even more; that their students love coming to THEIR classes because they now use the accelerated teaching techniques to teach everything.
Sometimes we get telephone calls from someone who took a camp from us just to say thank you.
But the best is when we run into someone on the street who waves us down to say that we changed their life. There is nothing better than that!
6. What are some powerful tools/resources you suggest for kids/parents who want to learn more about money rules?
The most important thing is to make an effort to teach your kids everything you possibly can about money and investing. But you can’t do it by lecturing. Do it by giving kids the opportunity to learn for themselves.
In my Ultimate Allowance book I give parents the three keys to raising money savvy adults:
Set the best example possible. In other words, if you’re in debt, get out. Use a budget, pay cash, only buy what you can afford, save some money and invest some of what you save. Let your children SEE you and HEAR you and WATCH you be responsible with YOUR money.
Talk to your children about everything money related. Parents often want to spare their kids worrying about money. But they’ll worry about money if you DO spare them this conversation. Talk to your kids about bills, your mortgage, insurance. Let them help you with the family budget (you have one, right?), take them to see the family accountant, let them write checks, etc. Let them know what being financially responsible looks like.
Give them the opportunity to learn by experience. This means they nust be put in charge, as early as possible (age 6 is good), of handling money and buying what they need. Each year you add a few more things they’re responsible for. Basically, you run the money you would normally spend ON them THROUGH them instead. Let them learn by making mistakes, having success with money, etc. The system I each includes helping them learn to invest and donate some of their money as well.
BONUS #1: Teach your children to start their own businesses so you empower them to be the CEO of their own lives. Let’s create independent adults who can think for themselves and take care of themselves, instead of adults who are always dependent on jobs and others for everything they need.
BONUS #2: For parents with have older teens, I always suggest they PAY them to read books about money and investing. Give them $25 per book and require a book report on each chapter and a conversation with the teen about how they can use the information they read in the book. This is one of the best investments parents can make in their children’s future!
Elisabeth Donati Bio:
Elisabeth Donati is the owner of Creative Wealth Intl., LLL, creator of Camp Millionaire and The Money Game. She is author of The Ultimate Allowance and writes a weekly blog called Financial Wisdom with a TWI$T.
Elisabeth is an expert in teaching the basic financial principles people need in a way that is engaging, empowering and fun. For information, visit www.innerwealthpublishing.com or call 805-957-1024.
by Elisabeth Donati | Jan 20, 2011 | Financial Literacy, Financial Literacy Principles, Media Attention, Uncategorized
Negative Economic Environment, that is. So many people are struggling these days. They have either lost their jobs and can’t find another one, having to take work that doesn’t pay well enough or their own business is down.
The thing is, with the advent of the internet as a way to make a living, and a good living at that, there is no reason to be struggling these days. Yes, it takes some figuring out but as my mom always said, if it’s worth putting in the time, get to work and stop complaining. You’ll be there quicker than you think.
Why the internet?
What you have to understand is this: people who market their programs, products and services on the internet do so because they realize the power of the web to drive potential customers to them. This is a good thing.
Someone told me that Bill Gates said something like, “In the future, there are going to be two kinds of businesses: those who market online and those that went out of business.”
I believe this is a pretty accurate depiction of what is happening in the world these days.
The funny thing that I notice on the cruise each year is that even if someone isbrand new to internet marketing, they are thrilled with the potential of attracting new customers with the web. This makes the cruise environment so positive. Every one is just excited and happy to be there.
The beginners realize that it’s simply a matter of applying the right knowledge to the right technology for their business and they will be successful. And most of the time, they come back on the cruise the following year and we find out how great they’ve done with the information they learned on the previous year’s cruise. Makes you kinda want to join me on next year’s cruise, huh?
Well, here are several reasons why…
- First, if you have an existing business, you must have a presence on the web now if you’re going to make it in that business. There are simply too many people who search for what they need on the web these days. If you’re not on the web, people aren’t going to find you.
- Second, if you are struggling financially because of ‘the economy’, I’m here to say that more and more people have found profitable niche’s on the Internet and are doing very well now. Even though the idea of learning a whole new way of doing business may seem daunting at first, there are thousands upon thousands of great programs online that can help you get up and running pretty quickly. If you want to know more, just send me an email!
- Lastly, let’s talk about our kids. If you haven’t noticed, things have changed over the past decade. It’s no longer viable for our children to be raised with the idea that they just have to get good grades, and get good, secure (hello!) jobs and work at those jobs until they retire. This life doesn’t exist anymore and we have to start raising our children differently. We must expose them to the many ways they can make money online and since they’re using the technology already, it’s easy for them.
If you’re new to this alternative way of thinking, I urge you to go here: http://www.shootingthesacredcows.com and watch Robert Kiyasaki on the subject of going to school and getting a job. And if you have teens, please invite them to watch this information with you. It could make a difference in the way they plan their futures and how financially successful they end up as adults.
After going on this Internet Marketing Cruise the past three years, I can say, honestly, that I’ve never met more positive, creative people looking forward to their futures. And the great thing is that many of them are already passing these traits on to their children.
People like:
Amanda Van der Gulik and her husband Rob of Teaching Children about Money. Their children Xanthe (age 8) and Quinn (age 6) already understand about ideas and making money and serving others.
Mike and Christal are showing their daughter, Nicole, a lifestyle that allows them to take her where they want when they want, all because daddy makes lots of money on the internet. Oh, and this also allows them both to be parents who can actually participate in their children’s lives.
And there were several 20-somethings there who are making great money already, too. I’m so proud of them. There’s one, and you’ll learn his name soon enough, who is helping me create a new program we plan to offer you starting in July.
Here’s a hint, and I’ve hinted at it before…
What if, over a six-month period of time, we could teach your teen (age 15 and up) how to not just start a business online, but help him or her create 1) enough money to pay you back for the program over those six months, but 2) earn enough money to join us (with you, of course) on next year’s Internet Marketing Cruise to highlight what he or she created?
And what if one of the teens in the program (which will be limited to 25 the first time around) had the opportunity to WIN a cabin on that cruise with points for extra effort, reaching goal posts, etc.?
Want to get your teens involved in THIS? Want to tag along when they come on the cruise to meet some of the big guys (and gals?). Want to learn right along side of them?
Well, that’s what we have planned. Stay tuned for a whole lot more. And if you know you and your teen have to be involved (and you should), send us an email with the subject line, “We Want In!” and we’ll add you to the list of parents who have already said they wanted to get their teens involved.
Oh, and if you don’t have teens, you’re welcome to join me on next year’s Internet Marketing Cruise. You can check out our Facebook page here.
Talk to you next week.
You guessed it. I didn’t take the time to review (where was Jan when I really needed her eyes?!?) or look close enough to realize I clicked the wrong playbook and put it in the cart. The prices are about the same and I don’t have them memorized so I clicked, clicked, and clicked and went on to the next project.
