The government help

The government has decided to help out people that spent money stupidly and bought houses they could not afford. This just rewards people for their poor choices and those who didn't make this mistake will end up paying for it!

Make your savings work for you

Yahoo finance has an article from last week that talks about how to get a higher rate on your savings then you get from your local bank. Some interesting tidbits from the article are. The current average interest rate for banks is far below half a percentage point a year. There are online banks out there that will give you 1.40% interest rate. Thats the equivalent of getting 3 times as much interest on your money each month which will continue to compound while you sit on it.

They also suggest reward checking accounts and using a 5 year CD. but if your looking to store liquid cash who cares how much money you will make if you lock the money in for the next 5 years. That option doesn't make sense when you can invest that money in other ways over the next 5 years and make more then 2.37%

I cant seem to post the link to the article but it is called 4 safe ways to earn more tinterest

Joint Ventures

A joint venture with another company can create value for both of the parties involved. Why is it when people approach me about teaming up they always seem to be the one that gets all of the value out of it. Why would I take 25 percent of the profits from a joint venture that uses my labor hours and overhead when all you provide is managing the website. Any time my employee is working on our joint venture instead of my main business means that the other person is borrowing that employee at no cost. well at least that was the Idea of the last women who wanted to team up.

contribution to overhead and labor should always be figured in when you are negotiating a deal. offering a potential partner a small piece of the total profit but then expecting the costs of the business to be covered in that small portion is a good way to ensure that you won't be doing business with that person.

google analytics

I have been using Google's free analytics software for a few months now on my businesses website and I have to say it has changed my perception on the value of the internet. I had no idea that nearly 20% of my web traffic comes from outside the united states. Yet on my website I only tell people about shipping options for the U.S. and Canada. how much business am I missing out on because There are no international shipping options listed on the website. Today that changes. Now When some one in London wants to place an order they can see instructions on how to do that. We will let people know ahead of time that any order that is shipped out of the country must have a wire transfer. No Credit card. i don't want any nigerian fraudsters stealing from me.

The world is huge I wanna sell to all of its people.

lottery pool of the future

What if you could build an online lottery pool where people payed $20 to join in a pool of 1o people that will only play the lottery when the pot gets to over a certain level say $90 million dollars.
A person would have 200 chances to win a 1/10th share of a prize worth at least 2.8 million and it goes up every time there is a winner. its the "set it! and forget it!" of get lucky with the lottery. its a way for people to increase there odds at winning without having to shell out alot of money for one lottery.

Also if a person didn't have the luxury of co workers or friends that wanted to play then they would have to play there own money every time. This way they get 10 tickets to 20 different big games = 200 chances for atleast 2.88 million dollars. and you gain $32,000 more after taxes for each additional million over 90 million. the lottery typically grows by 20 million each time there is no winner after 90 million. thats $680,000 each time for you!!

New Strategy

I havent found time to update this blog on a regular bases but If I try writing in it everyday at lunch I might get something out of it.

I had a drink last night with an entreprenuer that has been building businesses up and down the east coast for the last 2 decades. He was knowledgeable on everything in wealth accumulation that had to do with owning businesses. I currently in line to take over the family manufacturing business, which is an excellent business and should continue to thrive over time but i am afraid that the future will lead to slow growth and make my dreams of becoming a billionaire and long and slow process.
Over a few glasses of 15 year old scotch we discussed the many small businesses and start-ups that were here in the great state Of New York and how these companies need to partner with companies such as my own to become sizable companies. If you invest in 3 or 4 small start-ups that have the potential to grow into 5 to 10 million dollar businesses in the future. I can accumulate wealth thru the build up in equity in these little companies. with my companies conections and access to capital A small company can scale up quickly and magnify its growth prospects. unfurtunitly most people behind start-up companies are dreamers that believe that there are ideas are worth millions and they tend to forget that they are not yet millionaires, so picking the best entreprenuer with his or her head on straight is very important. otherwise you can lose your shirt.

is he gonna be a billionaire?

I bought into the office lottery Pool yesturday, with $121 million up for grabs yesturday and $212 million in the powerball today i figured it was worth risking the 2 dollars to get 10 chances at both.

I was thinking about Brad Duke last Night remeber him he was the winner of a 220 million dollar jackpot in 2005. He showed Fortune magazine how much he had alocated to different investments and said that he wanted to become a billionaire in 15 years. that was at during the boom years when investments could do no wrong. his math didn't make sense to me when he won in 2005 and I would love to know how he is coming on his goal 5 years after the win.


$45 million: Safe, low-risk investments such as municipal bonds
$35 million: Aggressive investments like oil and gas and real estate
$1.3 million: A family foundation
$63,000: A trip to Tahiti with 17 friends
$125,000: Mortgage retired on his 1,400-square-foot house
$18,000: Student-loan repayment
$65,000: New bicycles, including a $12,000 BMC road bike
$14,500: A used black VW Jetta
$12,000: Annual gift to each family member

only $23 million is aimed at high grow investments the rest is slow growth or expenses. he would need 28.5 percent compound interest for this to work and he invested in real estate starting in 2005. those investments cannot be doing all that well right now.

crossing my fingers that our pool wins ton

how did they get $35 million

The last week in January I was in a meeting about buying the assets of a company that was in bankruptcy. Three days ago on yahoo I read that the company CCS Medical has now lined up $35 million in new financing from GE Capital. If a bankrupt company with 400 million in liabilities can get that much money to continue operating . Then I have the wrong bankers!!!!

Its stuff like this that makes you think, "swing for the fences" when Warburg Pincus who owns CCS Medical is loading it up with debt then taking it bankrupt. The getting even more money continiue operating after bankruptcy.
certainly GE Capital would be interested in my company that has very little debt and a long operating history and give us access to the kind of capital that these guys have just gotten. I think its time to take a serious run a buying another company and move along the Empire Building process!!

championship game

Tonight is the Championship game of the Beer League playoffs!! The goalie that has carried us for the entire season has been suspended for fighting and as of 5 o'clock we did not have a goalie for the game. one of our forwards will return to the pipes for the first time since high school. With a free long sleeve T-shirt on the line. This will be the fiercest battle of the season. Scoring big goals is what i do and thats what I will be doing tonight!!!

Diet and the things that taste good

Why is it that everything in this world that taste so good. falls into the category of really bad for you. The chocolate chip cookie is right up there with bacon has the best things i have ever had yet they are both on the naughty list if your are trying to lose some weight.

I have been trying to keep myself to a healthy diet the last few months but have found it hard not to have pizza and fast food for lunch 3 or 4 times a week at work. That being said I have managed to lose 10 pounds in the first 3 months of 2010. I think that has more to do with the fact that I have been going out much less then last year. I am 5 foot 7 inches and currently weigh 163 I am not fat by any means but i could stand to lose some weight so that the muscles i am attempting to build at the gym become more notice able.

I generally go to the gym 3 days a week two for primarily lifting and one for a light weights session followed by a spin class. Over the course of this blog i am going to attempt to keep track of my diet and workouts.

other posts will cover things that bother me about my life and the rest will probably be business ideas that i would like to pursue but probably will forget or move on from.

First steps

I don't have a clue what this blog going to be about. or if anyone other then myself will ever read its words but i do know this...for the last few months I have been living in the same mid-sized middle American city that I have grown up in since I was a child. The awful economy has returned me to the place I swore I would only visit for sort periods of time after college.

I now find myself struggling to find my place in a world that seems to have found its own path for me. If you could call this dot on the map lifestyle a path.