Friday, September 02, 2005

The Ultimate Achievement Formula -Pareto Principle

The Ultimate Achievement Formula
Pareto Principle
Source: The Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary Keller


There is an amazing principle in life that when fully understood will probaly change your life forever. It's called the Pareto Principle or the 80:20 Rule. This universal truth was originally discovered by the Italian economist Vilfredo Paredo in 1906 when he noted that 80 percent of the farmland in Italy was owned by 20 percent of the population. Pareto, also an avid Gardner, subsequently noticed that 20 percent of the pea pods in his garden yielded 80 percent of his harvest. This was all the validation he needed to launch an intensive study into this amazing consistent theory that states that 80 percent of our results will come from 20 percent of our actions. I personally believe the 80:20 Rule is the best kept, underutilized "achievement formula" in business. Richard Koch, in his ground breaking book The 80/20 Principle, describes this rule as "the principle of greatest outcome for time and effort expended." Most people believe that time and effort alone deliver results, and, while this may be true, the 80:20 Rule teaches us that time and effort on the 20 percent that really matters will deliver 80 percent 80 percent of the results we seek.

When we are focused on the 80 percent that doesn't matter, we tend to get 20 percent of the results we want. The truth is that when our actions are not focused on the 20 percent that matters, the results we really want usually don't show up. Doing a lot of things is never a substitute for doing the right things.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

9 Steps to an Early Retirement

You Can Get Closer to Your Retirement Dream...
Starting Right Now.

Source: Automatic Wealth by Michael Masterson

If you fall for the Million-Dollar Lie and convince yourself that you can save yourself into a comfortable retiremant, you will wake up one day feeling like you can't stand to work another day - but will wake up one day feeling like you can't stand to work another day - but when you look at your retirement account, you'll realize you will probly have to keep working for the rest of your life.

If you take my advise seriously, face the future realisticly, develop wealth-building habits, get your income up there, and begin to develop equity, you will be able to retire in 7 to 15 years - and that will be early, believe me, compared to most of the rest of the retirement age population.

But since even seven years may seem too long to wait, I suggest the following nine-point strategy for getting close to retirement much sooner.

  1. Start a side business as soon as possible.
  2. Buy at least one rental property.
  3. Consider buying a second home in a tropical paradise.
  4. Relocate to a retiremant location early.
  5. Don't work when you are not working.
  6. Care about what you do.
  7. Interrupt your schedule with regular mini-vacations
  8. Live rich now.
  9. Be proud of yourself.
These are you first goals: Earn more than you spend and have more than you owe. When you have achieved those goals, you will have taken the most important step toward turning yourself into an automatic wealth builder.