The James Dicks Blog

Welcome back.

Follow up to previous blog post.

Once you have actually seen yourself spending and enjoying your newfound financial success, you can move on. Please don’t fudge—OK, let’s move on together. Let’s change your visual focus. Where do you live in your new life of prosperity? What does your house look like? How many bedrooms does it have? Can you see it? If you can see it, spend a few minutes creating details. If you can’t see it, spend a little more time with the exercise until you can.

Someone once said that what the mind can see, the body can achieve. I believe it. I go a step further. I believe that the mind must see it before the body is able to work for it. Look at another realm of human endeavor: sports. When Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile, he saw it long before he did it. Over and over in his mind, he later recalled, he visualized doing what had been deemed to be impossible. Interestingly enough, once Bannister did what no one else had ever done before, others quickly succeeded in doing it. Why? Because in minds all around the world, mental barriers had been broken. People understood that the impossible was now possible.

The same analogy applies to wealth creation. There is a process one must go through to achieve it. Bill Gates, in his best-selling book The Road Ahead, writes about his “play” with computers in high school. Even then, when computers were the size of large rooms and far less powerful than our miniature hand-held PDAs, he dreamed about what they would be able to achieve in the future.

His dream was so strong, in fact, that he feared missing out on the revolution he saw in his mind. He dropped out of Harvard University—dropped off the safe path he was on—to get a quicker start. There was simply no way that he was going to let the software revolution start without him.
Bill Gates saw the future of computers in his mind long before it became a reality. He saw a role for himself in that future. He dreamed the dream, developed plans to fulfill that dream, and then took action. This could be called the “science of success.”

It’s not restricted to Roger Bannister and Bill Gates. It’s something that each of you can participate in and benefit from. But before you can do it, you have to knock down the mental barriers to your financial success. You must learn to envision your achievements. Once you do, the achievements will follow. So far, so good? Are you beginning to see the mindset you need to have if you are to achieve financial freedom? Let’s go a little further.

What about a family? Will you have a spouse? Children? What will they be like? These are extremely important thoughts to consider and plan for. You must see it before it happens, but once you do; financial freedom will be more than one step closer.

All of the questions I have posed to you so far will become an important part of creating your dreams and ultimately achieving goals based on those dreams. Now that you see the process unfolding, you can also see how the end results will be different for everyone.

More to follow don’t miss reading the most important aspect of how this exercise can make such an impact on your financial life.

My Best
James Dicks

You have heard it before; it’s a lot easier to make money with money. Well it’s true. BUT we all don’t have the means to get rich using our own money, after all if we had a lot of money we would probably not be reading this.

What I learned from my experiences was that financial freedom is as much a mindset as it is net worth. You have to think about financial freedom as a process—not just a goal to achieve, but an activity that you continue, and expand upon, once you have reached your goal. You have to develop a plan, implement specific strategies to make that plan a reality, and then come up with a revised plan.

I have written about this in the past, and it never changes. To create a plan, one that works you must write it down, on paper. This allows you to for a mental process that will embed your plan in your subconscious. By having a plan you can help create the proper mind set to achieve financial success.

I am going to create a few blogs that will add to this as lessons so to speak so make sure you check back during my financial mindset series.

So here’s your first lesson: your mindset is critically important. Yes, making money and achieving financial freedom is important—but getting into the right frame of mind is at least as important. Without the proper mindset, you probably won’t keep the money you make—and even if you do, you probably won’t enjoy it as much as you thought you would, and, after all, enjoying your financial freedom is what makes that freedom worth pursuing in the first place.

I am not writing something that I don’t understand, you can believe me, if there is anything I understand it’s making money and then loosing it, and not because I don’t know what I am doing, but because of unforeseen circumstances. The most recent is our terrible economy. I had a thriving business that took it on the chin hard like most other business have over the last few years. BUT that’s okay, I have the right mental mindset to create and build financial freedom.

Each time you have a setback in your financial plan simply write down your mistakes and avoid them the next time, I know this sounds obvious but in reality if we did this since the beginning we would not be making the same mistakes. I fared much better the second time around with my finances than the first time around when I lost everything. This time around I still made some mistakes but won’t make the same ones again. Will you ever get it right? Great question, no, because you can never predict everything that can happen in your financial life, you just have to learn from your mistakes and build on that. Update your plan and modify it to work within your most recent circumstances.

As 2011 approaches, some predict that by the end of that year 48 percent of the nearly 50 million mortgages will be underwater. WOW! That’s a lot. We are all affected by this whether we rent or own, want to own or know someone who does own a home. The effects are far and wide.

What do you do if you are upside down on your property and the bank is running you around and around? You know…asking you to send in the same documents over and over again. Well you can do a Strategic Foreclosure.

What is a Strategic Foreclosure? Another word for tell the bank come get my property and you are tired of their crap. You have to take a step back first and decide where your moral compass sits. What is the right thing to do, make your payments, as promised? Sure financial responsibility is admirable, but it is hard to maintain that kind of thinking when the very financial institutions you owe money have little to NO financial responsibility. What happened to lead by example?

Hire an attorney and it will take one to three years for a foreclosure to happen.
Now think for a moment about your situation. If you do what all the big corporations do, you put business first. If that is the case, you may want to consider a business decision on your biggest investment, your home. I can better explain this with an example, which happens to be a real life example from someone I know.

Okay, you buy a modest home in 2006, 4 bedrooms two baths, two-car garage about 1600 square feet, relatively new. You pay $225,000.00 put in about $30,000.00 in upgrades. All of a sudden the market starts to pull back, and it did. Next thing you know you are paying way more than you can rent the property for, the house across the street just sold for $112,000 and there are ten more on the street for the same price. What do you do?

Well, you first try and call the bank to see if you can get approved for one of the many home mortgage modification plans. But you are not so lucky since you don’t meet any of the requirements, and it wasn’t from a lack of trying. You were told “sorry” so many times you quit counting. Now all of a sudden your job has reduced your hours and pay. You are lucky enough to still have a job but nonetheless, you are now struggling to make your mortgage payment. You decide enough is enough and can’t make your current mortgage payment. One month turns into three and so on. You are still trying hard to get a modification but to no avail.

Finally you are making headway with the bank and you believe you can see a light is at the end of the tunnel you think, the bank says “no problem, we will lower your payment and you can keep making payments on your original note.” WOW, thanks but no thanks, don’t do me any favors! But why say that?
Let’s look at why.

Even if they lowered your principal you are wasting your time as far as a business decision is concerned. The house is only worth what someone is willing to pay, and right now that’s $112,000.

So you walk away from this house, the one you owe $260,000 on. You live in it for say 3 years total before it is foreclosed on. Yes, your credit will be affected, you will have a foreclosure, along with about 50 percent of the other Americans out there that owned a home and experienced a foreclosure. But you are better off saving your money and renting at a price you can afford for the next few years. Get your feet back under you and then buy when the job and the housing market has improved a bit.

If you end up buying a home similar to yours, let’s say the one next door, for say $112,000 in the next five to seven year, it will probably be back to the levels you currently owe – $260,000.

So, a sound business decision encourages you to walk away, make a deal with bank, turn over the house and owe nothing. Save a little money, put down 20% on a new house in two years. Even if your credit is affected you can do a rent to own or a lease purchase. After 12 months of good payments, you can refinance it as your primary residence.

The $112,000 house you will buy for $120,000. You put down $10,000.00 and owe $110,000 over the next six years. Your house goes up in value to say $200,000 and your mortgage goes down to say $95,000.00 and you have $105,000.00 in equity. Meaning if you stayed in the old house that you owed $260,000, it is now worth $200,000.00 and your mortgage is down to $230,000.00 give or take. Which scenario, as a business decision, seems better, upside down or positive?

You have to weigh the pros and cons the decision to be moral and ethical make your payments or make a sound business decision and be ahead financially. Only you can make that decision. I will tell you that the banks and big companies make these decisions every day and they always choose the business decision. That’s not a reason to condone it, but a reason to seriously sit down and consider your choices.

One thing is for sure, the real estate market will come back, until then look for the opportunities they are always present.

When I was in the Marine Corps, a lot of emphasis was placed on leadership skills and how these extraordinary qualities help to make the Corps a solid and dependable organization; focused on teamwork and the mission. Without the team the mission was never accomplished and so it is in today’s business community. I want to share with you a few of the leadership traits that the Marine Corps used to build its foundation upon, one that has served it well for more than 234 years.

I believe that one of the most important qualities that any of us can possess is integrity. Without an honest approach to life and to everyone we come into contact with, our lives are meaningless. Honesty and a sense of duty should be the number one issue in our daily lives and always remember to stand up for what you believe is the right thing, even if it’s not the popular thing to do.

You must always place other’s needs ahead of your own with a sense of unselfishness. Make certain that you, as the manager; never take advantage of any situation because you’re in charge. Never take credit for something that a subordinate has accomplished but always give credit where the credit is due. Those you are in charge of leading should never take a back seat based on your status as a manager/supervisor. As the Marine Corps states, be considerate of others.

Make sure that you get up every morning with a fair amount of enthusiasm and share it with the team. This can be translated as a positive attitude that creates a sincere interest in the performance of all your duties. If you show enthusiasm, others will soon do the same in accepting their own challenges within the organization. Smile, be understanding of others, enthusiastic about the job and willing to accept anything that is required of you and the team.

Also be as dependable as you possibly can to yourself and to others. If you are late to work, how can you expect others to make it there on time? Dependability also fosters a degree of trust among the staff members and develops an effort to try and attain the highest standards possible. Being dependable also means standing up for your actions and never making excuses. Get into the habit of successfully accomplishing a task whether you like it or agree with it. If required by the organization, do it to the best of your abilities.

The courage to do what isn’t popular or might be hazardous is something you’ll have to develop. It’s a very personal trait. Any bravery “under fire” (whether on the battlefield or in the boardroom) allows you to stay calm in situations that require you to remain under control. Your moral courage is also something that must never be neglected in order for you to develop the necessary strength to stand up for what is morally right. Your moral courage also forces you to accept fault when you are to blame. This is something that our drill instructor tried to instill in us right from the start by answering with the statement “No excuse, sir” when asked about our involvement in certain situations. Take the responsibility and the blame when required. It’s all about honor and making sure the team is never placed in jeopardy. Admit your mistake and move forward. It is that important.

Endurance is the final trait I want to share with you because it’s an extremely important quality to have, especially in today’s business world. When you feel like quitting, tell yourself to keep going. Understand internally that you have the ability to withstand the pain involved (whether physical, emotional, or financial), and can handle the stress, exhaustion and the hardships you’ll most likely endure.

If you simply decide to quit, then you will have achieved nothing. But if you hang in there and get the job done, even when you don’t think you can travel one step further, you will have succeeded.

I think you just might agree with me when I say that there has never been a more important period in our life’s history that requires a distinct positive approach to everything we do. It just might be the key to success in our professional lives today. For those of you in management and leadership roles, you’ve studied the benefits of a positive disposition versus dwelling in the negative. If you display a positive approach to others when “bad things” happen, you are more likely to come to a successful conclusion in any problem you may face.

It’s not easy but it is necessary, even expected, of today’s business leader. Your confidence will be observed by those around you and will become quite contagious. If the team moves in a positive direction, the entire organization will have a better chance of succeeding. That’s important in today’s challenging business environment.

In corporate America today, there is a desperate need to do more with less. The stress of trying to create a positive cash flow when sales are down might force you to develop an approach that has never been tried before. Don’t say it can’t be done – try it. You may be surprised at how innovative thinking suddenly develops when a positive attitude is created.

Another personality trait attained when you’re in a positive mental zone is confidence. Without the will and desire to accomplish even the smallest task, there’s really no point in getting up in the morning. Your optimistic approach to the job at hand will take you to the next level of accomplishment. Part of building a respectable level of confidence is developing and attaining a set of goals that you set out for yourself and your organization. Accomplish each goal, step by step, and your confidence will flourish. You’ll start believing you can do whatever you set your mind and heart to do.

Oh, and one other thing – love what you do. That’s extremely important because once you find that your life’s work is actually something you enjoy doing, you’ll want to do it more often. You’ll want to make sure it’s done competently and those around you will also start feeling the same way. It’s often been said that if you love what you do, you’ll never work another day in your life.

But many of us are trapped in positions and in companies that we don’t enjoy because of the current shape of the economy. What can you do if you find yourself in that situation? Maybe it’s time to get out and start searching for that one thing that you are passionate about. Time to start enjoying the day from sunrise to sunset. Let your passion drive you forward and find what it is that will create a solid, confident, and positive attitude within you. It’s in you right now; you just need to do some soul searching to find it.

Your attitude and the way you think are entirely under your personal control. A positive attitude will help you lead your team to victory. So, when you think about it, your future success, even your very health is something that you can control if you literally put your mind to it. Think positively.