On The Beach Education Corporation

I don’t know what it is lately but I’ve been getting requests from my network recently asking me to tell them what to buy, when to buy and where to buy. Dear July, I want to buy real estate. Do you think this is a good deal? Should I wait? Should I buy? What do you think?

Honestly, I really can’t answer questions like that. I know what I’d like to buy, when to buy and where to buy because I’ve been doing research and due diligence specific to my investment criteria. I have a plan, a written plan with a ten year time line. Actually, it’s an eighty year plan broken into ten year increments, broken into yearly goals, broken into quarterly intentions, broken into weekly tasks, broken into daily action steps where I can monitor my specific and measurable results. All I can say for sure is that if you don’t have a written plan, you really don’t know what you want. It’s all milling around in your head and you need to get it on paper.

My research is designed for me and my investors. This means that my investing style and investment criteria may not match your investing style or investment criteria. Imagine that!

What’s good for me is not necessarily the right thing for you. The hard thing is to do the work to find out what kind of lifestyle you desire in ten years, twenty years, thirty years, a hundred years from now, for yourself, your family, your inner circle, the world. That end goal is the magnet pulling you forwards. It will determine your short term goals and your long term intentions. You will start to plan things from a different perspective.

Invest the time in yourself to study the market: the real estate market, the stock market, the global economy, the local economy. Look for trends and be a contrarian. The trend is your friend as long as the trend is going your way. When the trend is nuclear fallout, everybody gets contaminated. The work comes in doing the research to find out when to pull out, or when to buy at the right time, or when to sell at the right time, or when to wait.

There are so many factors involved in such a simple question. In my earlier private sessions with clients, it would take on average 3 to 4 hours to discern an intelligent answer and the implementation would take up to a year.

I’ve seen too many people get into trouble by running after a seemingly good deal. It may appear to be a good deal from the other person’s perspective but is it really the best investment for you at your current stage. If a deal is going to be a winner, make sure it’s in your best interest.

December 22, 2009