We have provided this section of the site to show you how to acquire and keep wealth. Our website is all about achieving Success, which means many different things to different people. We feel success means a lot more than simply being financially secure. But having enough money to meet your needs will give you the absolute freedom to do whatever your heart desires with your time. And that means that you are in a far better position to live your life’s true purpose, and to reach your full potential. You can give much more to the world if your needs are already taken care of, and your energy is 100% available for expanding your experience, rather than worrying about how you will pay the rent.

Keys To Building Wealth

• Wealth mindset – This is by far the most important aspect of building wealth. By the time we become adults, most of us lack that mindset, simply because we have been told all during our childhoods that money doesn’t grow on trees, that we must finish our vegetables because of the starving children in China (because there isn’t enough to go around), and that it takes hard work to get anywhere in life. These are commonly referred to as “limiting beliefs”. The rest of journey-to-success.com deals specifically with how to adjust your thinking so your focus is on abundance for all, not scarcity and competition.
  
  
• Knowledge – You will need certain skills in order to make money and to keep it, if you don’t already have them. Foundational issues such as basic bookkeeping and understanding certain financial statements are critical to anyone who is serious about creating wealth. You will need general and specific knowledge about the business, industry, and/or investments you are involved with. In order to keep your money once you start amassing wealth, you will need to learn about how to use entity structuring and other legal protections, as well as specific tax strategies to make the most of tax laws.
  
  
• Wealth Building Team – You will need to form a team of experts to help you build your business and your wealth. Nobody becomes wealthy all by themselves. This team will include accountants, lawyers, financial experts, assistants, marketing experts, etc. And depending on the types of investments or businesses you engage in, it may include real estate experts, Web development and marketing consultants, business development experts, and so on. Wherever you have a gap in expertise or time, you will need to fill it with an outside expert. And you will not want to scrimp on cost for these people—hire the best, they will more than earn their way.
  
  
• Opportunities – Once we start taking notice of them, opportunities to make tons of money begin to appear all around us. This is part of having a wealth mindset, and ties into the Law of Attraction. This is like when you buy a new car, all of the sudden you see cars just like yours all over the place. They were always there, you just never noticed them before you started paying attention. But also, you will want to spend at least some of your time around other people who have a wealth mindset. These are the people who are making money and making deals on a daily basis. A network of like-minded people who are on the fast track will help you succeed much faster than if you’re working alone. We currently have more opportunities than we can possibly pursue coming in every single week, and that’s mostly because we started paying attention! It’s also because we started hanging out with people who think about money in entirely different ways than the average person. And that rubs off over time!
  
  
• Multiple Streams Of Income – We’ve all heard about “hedging our bets”, right? Well, it’s true. You will want to invest in at least three or four different areas over time (not all at once or you’ll drive yourself crazy). In our case, we are building this online business, plus we’re investing in real estate, loaning money to others, and getting involved in one or two network marketing opportunities. Eventually we plan to buy some other businesses as well. As you can see, even if the real estate market takes a hit, we are well insulated by our other investments. Many people we know also invest in oil and gas wells. Very few of them are in the stock market at this point, but more on that later. The key is that it’s important to not put all your eggs in one basket, and to build passive income over time so that working eventually becomes a daily choice. Now wouldn’t that be nice?
  
  

Oh My Gawd!!

Now, this all probably sounds quite daunting, right? But you don’t have to do it all in one week! And you certainly don’t have to do it alone, nor should you! It took us more than a year to get all these things in place, and we’re still building. Remember, just one bite at a time…and eventually you will have a beautiful quilt of various investments, and your books and files completely organized, with other people doing much of the lifting for you.

However, as I’ve said in other places on this site, I strongly believe the number one priority for building wealth (or success, or happiness, or anything else you desire) is to focus on “raising your awareness”. Work on yourself most, and the rest of the pieces will fall into place. It’s that simple (but it ain’t that easy!). So relax, enjoy the ride, and remember: The journey is much more important than the destination!

Our main goal with this site is to help you realize that you are just as capable and deserving as the next person to build as much wealth as you could possibly desire. But in this section, we offer you the things that we have learned along the way that can get you started on your journey to financial success.

Ways Of Making Money

Passive vs. Active Investing

• Active investing – You are doing some of the legwork in locating and evaluating your investments, playing a part in the actual transaction
  
  
• Passive investing – You loan money to others who do all of the legwork in locating and evaluating your investments, and all you have to do is evaluate them for their risk and returns, and whether they are appropriate for your investment criteria
  
  
• Active income – You have to spend time to earn your nut
  
  
• Passive income – You have either bought something or built something that you no longer have to spend your time on – it pays you whether you work or not (my favorite!)
  
  

So, what kind of wealth builder do you want to be? Ultimately, you will probably end up doing some or all of these things.

(Please note I am not a financial advisor! Seek professional advice if you plan to do anything with your money!!)

Building Your Own Online Business

My husband Ron has put together a whole section on everything you need to know so you can build your own successful online business. Check out Web Central!

401k’s, Stocks, Bonds, and Mutual Funds

These are practically one and the same these days. Pensions are pretty much a thing of the past, and so are most dividends. So if you have all of your income tied up in these types of investments, guess what you’re going to have to do when you retire? You will have to sell your assets in order to live. There is almost no residual income from these investment vehicles anymore. And as you know, just a few years ago we saw our 401k values drastically decrease in a matter of months. (401k investments are almost always in mutual funds, which are just a bunch of stocks somebody picked—in my opinion, they are no safer than picking your own stocks, unless you’re Warren Buffet—now, that man knows how to pick ‘em!). This is your retirement they’re messing with! Wouldn’t you like to have more control over what happens to your money?

Personally, I do not care for indirect investing because I have almost no control over the investment vehicle. Remember Enron? Remember how Wall Street analysts were saying “It’s a Buy” until the day before Enron collapsed? You don’t know what’s going on inside these companies, even if their financial statements are audited by Arthur Anderson. I much prefer knowing what’s going on, and having a say in the decision-making process.

Self-Directed Roth IRA’s

A little known but rapidly growing area of investing is known as Self-Directed Roth IRA’s. What most financial advisors won’t tell you is that you can actually take money from your Traditional IRA, roll it over into a Self-Directed Roth IRA, and invest it in all sorts of things besides stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. This is a huge area that I won’t go into here, but you should know that you can buy real estate, businesses, raw land - pretty much anything you want as long as it fits the IRS criteria. You cannot buy rare wines (heck, you might drink your retirement!), rare coins and gems, or certain commodities with your Roth IRA.

You can learn more about Self-Directed Roth IRA’s here. This is our custodian company, and I highly recommend them for their expertise and excellent customer service.

If you have a 401k, and you are not still working for the company who administered it, you can roll that into a Traditional IRA, then convert that to a Roth IRA (but you have to pay taxes on that money). Otherwise you must wait until you leave the firm to get access to the funds.

(Please note I am not a financial advisor! Seek professional advice if you plan to do anything with your money!!)

Real Estate Investing

We have all heard about the recent growth in the real estate market, and most of us now have friends or family who call themselves real estate investors. I was one of those people until just recently, when I discovered that I wanted to devote my time to building this website (however, I still do real estate as an investment, just not as my “business”). I think there is always money to be made in real estate, but that it’s not going to be as easy as it has been, going forward. People will have to be far more savvy to do well in the coming years – no longer will it be like “taking candy from a baby” as we have seen in recent years. Investors will have to know how to make money in a downturn (if that’s what happens).

Friends of mine in the pre-foreclosure business will continue to do very well, but they have a particular niche that will greatly benefit if and when foreclosures become far more prevalent (as I believe they will). But people who have purchased property banking only on appreciation may experience some discomfort, to say the least, if values level off or decrease. That’s why it’s really important to know what you’re doing, now more so than ever.

Commercial Real Estate Investing

Commercial real estate is where the most money is to be made in the shortest amount of time…if you know what you’re doing! I cannot emphasize this enough. If you don’t have any education in this area, you can easily lose a huge pile of money real quick. But if you have the knowledge and the time to invest, you don’t need any money—you can always find plenty of money if the deal is good.

The reason I like commercial investing vs. single family homes is that if you buy right, your risk is much lower and your returns are much greater than you get with houses. And, if you’re like me, you’d much rather do one or two deals a year than twenty to one hundred—just think of the work! The profit can be the same, for a fraction of the time and effort spent.

Think about it…if you have twenty rental houses, and you lose a tenant, you have lost 100% of that revenue stream to cover your mortgage. But if you own one 20-unit apartment building instead, and you lose one tenant, you have lost only 1/20th of the revenue stream to cover that one mortgage payment! And you have only one roof to maintain, not twenty. One or a few furnaces, not twenty…you get the picture. So if you buy your 20-unit building right, your risk is 1/20th of that of owning a bunch of rental houses. Sweet, huh?

Lastly, because so many people are afraid of the “extra zeros” involved in bigger deals, there is very little competition compared to buying single family houses. So if you can get over your fear (and you do that by becoming educated about investing, and by changing your limiting beliefs), there Jis nothing stopping you from becoming a real estate mogul!

My very favorite commercial real estate investing guru is J. Scott Scheel. If you’re serious about buying apartment buildings, strip malls, warehouses, or office buildings, this is the man to see. He is honest, no B.S., and extremely conservative when he evaluates deals - so if you do what he says, it’s almost impossible to fail!

Scott holds seminars a few times a year around the country, and may have a home study course available soon (if not already). Check out Scott’s website here.

Another awesome teacher who specializes in buying apartment buildings is Dave Lindahl. He has some great home study courses, as well as bootcamps he gives around the country. His website is here.

There are many others out there, some good and some sleazy. The two I have mentioned are definitely in the former category.

(Please note I am not a financial advisor! Seek professional advice if you plan to do anything with your money!!)

Who Can Help You Navigate These Waters?

You think I learned all this on my own!? Nope, I called the experts. I got help. Having a wealth mentor is the absolute fastest, most effective, and safest route to take. You will learn to avoid the pitfalls, the typical mistakes, and you will build a strong foundation upon which to build your investment empire.

There are many mentors out there who can help you learn investing and wealth building. But there is only one I know of who covers all the bases I mentioned above: wealth mindset (psychology); knowledge; building a wealth team; finding opportunities; and creating multiple streams of income. This woman is Loral Langemeier and she runs several companies including Live Out Loud (which I am now doing), Wealth Diva (“a man is not a plan!”), and Get Real. She is a self-made millionaire at a very young age. The network she has built is called “Loral’s Big Table”. It is phenomenal in terms of the caliber of people, and the scope and number of great deals which Big Table members have found or put together. These range from real estate to businesses to oil and gas to online opportunities to network marketing. Check out Loral’s programs here.

This program isn’t cheap. But if you’re serious about taking your life to a whole new level, you will want to seriously consider bypassing this year’s Caribbean vacation and spending the money instead on this program. I have to say, this program played a big part in expanding my conception of myself and my infinite possibilities, and showed me that I could do anything I set my mind to—even make money!

More To Come, As Always...

Yes I know, you’ve heard this before…but really, we will be adding much more to this section of the site over time. Check back often!