Choosing The Right Home, Part II: How Expensive A House Do You Need?
How much of your net worth should be invested in your home? That depends. When you are starting out, your home may represent most of your wealth. It may be all of it. But as you start saving and investing, you’ll want to gradually decrease that percentage from most of…
READ MORENew Year’s Resolution Progress Update
So what are your top four goals for 2003? In what way do you plan to be wealthier? Healthier? Wiser and happier? If you didn’t do so at the beginning of the year, here’s your second chance to write them down and make a list of what you need to…
READ MOREAre You a Creative or Reactive Leader?
“Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.” – George Lois If you want to advance quickly in the business you work for or accelerate the progress of the business you own, you’ve got to become better at starting things, at…
READ MOREDirect-Marketing Dilemma: Is It Better to Create or Buy Your Product?
There are plenty of good reasons to create and manufacture your own unique product if you are in the direct-marketing businesses. Most obviously, you can lower production costs. Lower manufacturing costs give you a greater product margin and that can allow you to sell your initial product (and thereby establish…
READ MOREBuying Investment Real Estate: Knowing When the Price is Right
“You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through.” – Rosalynn Carter To scout for potentially profitable real-estate deals, begin by looking at the actual sales prices in the neighborhood you’re targeting. Your local tax assessor’s office should have this information, and…
READ MOREYour Reaction to New Business Opportunities
I sent a memo to IT last week reporting on a clever and very effective scheme that one of our competitors is using to make a lot of money. His response was to explain to me “what’s wrong with what he’s doing” and “why our way is better.” There…
READ MOREIs It Really Possible To Leave the Office at 5 O’Clock?
Way back when TT was a Lt. Col. U.S. Army Action Officer in the Pentagon, he was criticized by his superior for leaving work everyday at 5 o’clock (as Gen. Westmoreland had “ordered” them to do at the time), while everyone else stayed until 7 or 8. “Your problem,” he…
READ MOREThe Single Biggest Investment Opportunity of 2003
Dear Investor, As the head of one of the most powerful investment groups in the world, I have access to intelligence and ideas the average investor never hears about. For example, I recently had a private conversation with one of the world’s most successful hedge-fund managers. (This man’s fund rose…
READ MOREOne of the Most Debilitating Myths About Leadership
We almost hired TH for the job. He would have made a lot of money — maybe $400,000 a year. TH had a very impressive résumé and said almost everything right in the interview. The stumper? When my partner asked him how he would handle a specific problem, he…
READ MOREPut It In Writing
A very common question among businessmen: Is it necessary to “paper” deals? During the 25 years I’ve been in business, more than 90% of the deals I’ve made have been oral. Usually, the process is some version of this: I’m talking with a colleague/competitor about what I’m doing/he’s doing and…
READ MOREBuying Used Cars: Is This Really Worth My Time?
“That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.” – Henry David Thoreau On Sunday, as I drove to church, my 1990 Chrysler Town & Country minivan’s odometer rolled over 230,000 miles. I bought it for $8,000 when it had 120,000 miles on it. That was in 1996,…
READ MOREYou Can Sell Just About Anything Through Direct Mail
“Hell, there are no rules here — we’re trying to accomplish something.” – Thomas Edison You can sell books through direct mail. And newsletters. You can sell audiotapes and videotapes and seminars. You can sell jewelry and perfume and radios. You can sell clothing and furniture and flowers. Direct…
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