The "fatal conceit" is an idea coined by Friedrich Hayek. It simply means that central planners working for the government tend to miraculously consider themselves free from sin and error. Nowhere is this more evident than in watching the present gang of do-gooders...
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Two stages of wealth creation.
Buying real estate for investment purposes can seem like a big chunk of information to digest if you look at it all at once. Let’s break it down into more manageable bites. The simplest part is Stage 1. During this time your primary focus is to stock up on debt. You...
The Reluctant Investor’s Lament.
Jason likes to close the monthly Creating Wealth in Today’s Economy seminar with a poem called The Reluctant Investor’s Lament. It was written in 1977, but still packs a wallop of powerful thoughts. Below is an abridged version for your reading pleasure. “I hesitate...
The easy way to get a loan modification.
Every once in a while you hear a story that makes you go, “Hmm, how DOES something like that even happen?” It all goes back to the secondary mortgage market and the practice of banks and Wall Street firms buying and selling pools of mortgages – one loan was sold 39...
Owners, make your property manager happy.
You’ve bought your first income property and have a property manager in place. You can’t just turn off your cell phone and take a year-long yacht cruise to the South Pacific. There are some responsibilities you, the owner, still have. Here’s a quick list. 1. Interview...
They’re melting in California.
As a California-based business, we offer the following commentary and wonder, “Why are we still here?” Yes, it’s warm in California but we’re talking about a different kind of melting. On June 10, 2009, California Controller John Chiang had this to say about the...
Income property arbitrage.
Let’s define arbitrage. Arbitrage is when an investor profits by exploiting small price differences between similar (or identical) financial instruments. Arbitrage occurs because of pricing inefficiencies in a market. These small price blips can add up to big money...
How do WE make money?
Maybe it’s been nibbling at the back of your brain – how do these people at Empowered Investor Network make money anyway? They seem to be giving all the good information for free. We do give away a lot. It’s part of the business model. The first thing to understand is...
What exactly does a property manager do?
As you may know, we are BIG fans of property managers. The small percentage of monthly rent diverted to their wallets for services rendered could very well save you an aneurysm from handling tenant complaints. Trust us, whether you live next door to your investment or...
A definition of “investment.”
You see the word “investment” tossed around quite often within these posts but what do we really mean when we refer to an investment? You likely have (correctly) ascertained we don’t consider anything sold on the Wall Street exchange an investment. Ditto for NASDAQ....