Humans have struggled to gain money and power for centuries. In some places, the desire leads to bloodshed and abuse. The desire for money is constant. If it weren’t, sites like Aridni wouldn’t be around. Creating wealth can be done in positive ways, like the cliché about teaching people to fish instead of feeding them a fish.

The basic formula for financial success on any level is simple. Spend less than you earn. In Charles Dickens’ classic novel, David Copperfield, David noted:

Annual income, twenty pounds; annual expenditure, nineteen six. Result: happiness.
Annual income, twenty pounds; annual expenditure, twenty pound ought and six. Result: misery.

So spend less than you have’what a simple theory with abundant results. Piling debt and fees from overdraft accounts and late credit card payments abound when we step from under the wing of our parents. Building a nest egg is impossible… unless you pinch a few pennies or work a little more to create savings.

I don’t know of any way around debts when you’re young’school loans, mortgages, car loans and credit cards maybe. Some experts think that investing any money while carrying debt is plain stupid. They’re right if your money is sitting in the bank, accomplishing nothing.

Then again, my net worth is growing because I carry debt. My real estate investments are carried by the bank. If I didn’t hold debt on these projects, I wouldn’t be able to have these investments. What’s the correct answer? It depends on the individual. You have to know your desires and goals to grasp just how much money you need to be saving and growing.

The battle for money is all a game. We all have to decide on how much we want and how hard we’re willing to work. As a friend always reminds me, “If making lots of money were easy, then everyone would be doing it.” Everyone isn’t. They’re content with the “rat race”. The question is’are you content?

What was the last good idea that you followed from the drawing board to actualization? Now what was the last good idea that you let slip by? How many ideas go through our minds that we simply don’t have the time and resources to bring to life?

Hopefully there is a high frequency when it comes to good ideas that were planned out and put to the test. However in the real world that isn’t quite possible. Unless of course you only come up with one good idea every couple of months, but we both know you can do better than that if you wanted!

So what should you do with all of your aging light bulbs? You can either act on them or forget about them.

If you want to act on them but don’t have the time, what are you doing now that isn’t necessary or could be postponed? What is required for you to raise the capital to fund this new project? Is it a matter of not eating out a couple times or as large of a decision as getting a second mortgage on the house? Perhaps you have to go talk to your friends and family about investing in you.

Whatever it takes to make your dream a reality, for the purpose of this article we’ll say you can’t or are unable to make the leap in a project you believe in. Now what? Do you let the idea sort of fade out of existence until the opportunity is gone, only to have it return as a regret?

Keep track of your ideas, make a folder for them. Allow them to evolve if they need to. But most importantly ACT. Act on some of your ideas. It’s much better to produce a decent project today than to search endlessly for the perfect idea.

Well I’m back to Montana right now, and on the three day drive, I learned a couple important things about traveling long distances alone. Some of it more useful knowledge than others, but still here they are.

Record your thoughts – While this is a good idea even if you aren’t driving across the country, this keeps them from evaporating. There are a limited number of ideas that your brain can hold before it clears them out for the newer ones you think up. So while it’s hard to write things down, perhaps you should get a voice recorder or do it at the next rest/gas stop.

Bring plenty of music – I had to listen to the same few cds the whole trip. While it was things I liked, but there is a limit to the number of times you can listen to anything. As Gnarls Barkley asked me plenty of times, “Does that make me craaaaaaazy?” The answer is yes.

Record your thoughts– You have no idea how fast you can lose your million dollar ideas if you don’t record them or write them down. No matter how brilliant, no matter how great the idea is, it is still floating around in your grey matter and is subject to the elements whatever they may be. See you already forgot that this was point one, too. Should’ve written it down.

Take the Scenic Route – Driving across the state of South Dakota on the I-90 is brutal. It’s boring as heck. It’s the worst 400 miles in the world. The only things you will find there are open plains and billboards.

Record your thoughts – Oh yeah–if you have to take the boring way, make some use out of the time by recording the ingenious things you think of on your way.

In case you couldn’t tell, I lost a couple great ideas on my journey. While they are still partially around in fragments, the grandiose portion is gone. Don’t let that happen to you!

Could you ever imagine reading an investment book with multitudes of different ideas ranging from lukewarm to hot, only to find out after you’ve finished reading it that the book was written by Bernie Madoff?  That is pretty close to what I have just done.

This last summer I picked up a handful of books at a yard sale about real estate investing and managing properties.  One of them was a book titled ‘171 Ways to Make Money in Real Estate’ by Sonny Bloch.  The book was first published over 20 years ago and gets very specific into the different ways to buy or negotiate for property.  Some of the exact methods and numbers would no longer apply due to the changes over the last twenty years, but I thought this was an interesting read nonetheless.

He talks about methods he used to buy property in Florida before Walt Disney World was built, then selling for massive gains.  He mentions this a few times through the book and really showed himself as a credible expert.

After I read the book, I researched the author.  Wow.  What a way to lose faith in everything I had just read.  Apparently he was the talk radio equivalent of Bernie Madoff.  He defrauded his listeners with investments such as fake gold bars, equity in bogus radio stations, and wireless cable.  Most of the  victims were elderly people who wound up pennyless as a direct result of Sonny Bloch.

While my problem with Sonny pales in comparison the problems he caused 15+ years ago,  I can’t place any trust in this book.  I know parts of it are true and would still work today, but the real question is bigger.  Do I really want to take financial advice from someone who defrauded the elderly out of almost $25 million, fled the country, and when brought back charged with (and plead guilty to) 7 different counts of tax evasion and perjury.

I’ll probably flick through the again, but it will not be going back on the shelf.  The garbage can is a much better place for this book.  Glad I didn’t pay more than a quarter for it.