Listen to this post

My wife and I went grocery shopping over the weekend as we usually do every other week.

This time, as we were checking-out I noticed something that I am pretty sure I had seen before, but that I had never really given much thought to.

Perhaps it could have been that I had a different perspective or maybe it was just that I was less aware.

What am I talking about?

As we were checking-out, in the lane next to ours was a very old gentleman bagging groceries. He appeared to be in his 70’s.

I instantly felt a sense of compassion and for the guy and a lot questions started racing through my head.

Why is he still working? What financial mistakes did he make in his past that has him still working at a very old age? Didn’t he have any adult sons or daughters that could take care of him?

The fact is that I could not judge him. For all I knew he was just an old man who really enjoyed working. However the tired expression on his face and his inability to move very well told me that was not the case.

I turned over to my wife Gabby and I said, “Do you see that man over there” as I nodded with my head in the old man’s direction.

“Yeah” she said.

“Why do you think he is still working at his age?” I asked.

“He shouldn’t be!” she replied.

The Millionaire Next Door

As the popular saying goes – There are only 2 sure things in this life: death and taxes.

It’s not that I don’t think that man should make a living for himself, but no one that old should still be in the workforce.

He should be at home with his family, relaxing and enjoying his final years.

Instead, he was stuck in a grocery store, standing on his two feet all day and bagging other people’s food.

I recently finished reading a book called the Millionaire Next Door, which if you haven’t read, explains the real millionaires of this country; how they became millionaires, their habits and what they look like.

If you haven’t read The Millionaire Next Door – I highly recommend it!

One of things that I found very interesting is that the average millionaire in this country (United States) is a first-generation millionaire, is an entrepreneur and lives a middle-class lifestyle.

In other words, most people out there driving the flashy cars, wearing the expensive clothes and living in the big house are not really wealthy like they appear to be.  They are up to their necks in debt. They pay with credit and are one month away from bankruptcy. If they lose their jobs, they’re toast!

Unfortunately, because, 70% of our economy relies on consumerism, our economy depends on most people spending a lot of what they make and saving very little.

A lot of people don’t have more than 3 month’s worth of expenses in savings and a lot of more people don’t have anything saved for retirement.

The income that would otherwise be put away in savings or retirement is instead spent and this is what allows most people in America to look good today at the expense of how they will look tomorrow, a term referred to as “Keeping up with the Joneses

By the way, how much of your income do you put away in savings or retirement?

If your answer is anything below 10% of your take home income, again, I encourage you to pick up a copy of The Millionaire Next Door to truly understand the importance of keeping more of your wealth.

My $18,000 Savings Challenge

As a result of reading the Millionaire Next Door I have become very serious keeping more of what I earn and building my plan to accumulate wealth.

You’re probably thinking, “What’s the point of having money if you can’t spend it” right?

If you think this way, I understand where you’re coming from. I had this mindset for a very long time, especially when I was in college but having money is what gives you the ‘Take this job and shove it’ option.

Sure, it’s not bad to spend and perhaps take a nice trip when you can but having money, or wealth, is what allows you to live stress-free, more financially free and if you do go on that trip you can pay cash knowing that when you get back you’ll still have money in your bank account.

Furthermore, actively building wealth today will allow you to enjoy your days when they count the most so that you don’t have to bag groceries when you’re 70.

So, I want to share with you a challenge I have set for myself to build $18,000 that I will later reinvest into income producing or appreciating assets.

I currently make about $4,400 a month in take home pay (after taxes) and I have designated my income for the year as follows.

•  - 34% – Bills
•  - 14% – Living Expenses            - 48% ($2,112/mo.)

•  - 5% – Business Expenses         – 5%   ($220/mo.)

•  - 5%  – Savings
•  - 3% – Emergency Fund
•  - 5% – Personal Expenses
•  - 34% – Retirement Savings      – 47% ($2,068/mo.)

Keep in mind that the $18,000 that I have challenged myself to save will come from the 34% in Retirement Savings.

This is going to be a challenge because I am used to spending a lot more and not saving as much.

However, like the average American millionaire, I will live beneath my means so that I can later live like no one else.

Also, as an entrepreneur take into consideration that my income is not set and I can always earn more to afford a higher standard of living.

This is a challenge I have set for myself and I encourage you to make the same challenge for yourself. You don’t have to save as much as I am, as long as you allocate at least 10% of your income for retirement and 5% in savings.

To be honest, I cant wait to report back my results at the end of the year and I don’t know about you but I’m going to make sure I have a financial plan for my life starting today, so that I don’t have to bag groceries when I am 70’s old.

Mastermind:

If you plan to participate in this challenge, send me a message with your income goal for the end of the year and let’s hold each other accountable! I plan to write a post on those who took the challenge and post it on my blog at the end of the year.

Listen to this post

I am not an expert Internet Entrepreneur and I even though I am constantly studying business; I am definitely still learning a lot on my entrepreneurial journey. But I love that fact that I can write posts like this and share them with you because it truly shows the power of conducting business over the Internet.

I’ll go into this more here a in a minute.

So, last week I learned 2 very important lessons that generated me a little over $230 in income.

1. Customer Service
2. Assumptions

Customer Service

Let me start off by asking you, what does Customer Service mean, to you? How would you define it and how do you feel it should be implemented into a business, what ever it may be?

Let me tell you what I think Customer Service is.

To me, customer service means assisting my customer or potential customer in making the best decision that is right for them before the purchase and ensuring their complete satisfaction after a purchase has been made.

You may or may not agree with me or perhaps you may have a subtle difference in definition, and that’s quite all right.

But I want to tell you how my definition made for a very happy customer.

My Experience With a Customer 

One of the great things about Customer Service before the sale, as an Internet Entrepreneur is that you only have to do the work once and you can literally get paid on that work, time and time again.

Talk about really leveraging your time!

Let me explain.

Going back to my definition of customer service, I believe that before your customer buys anything form you, you have a responsibility to give them all the information they need to arrive at the best decision suitable to them.

Well, as an Internet Entrepreneur, the great thing is that you can easily do that through sales page where you can display all the information a customers needs to know about your product and educate them on what benefit it will have to them.

Additionally, you can deliver this through different kinds of content mediums such as videos, video testimonials and text.

Of course, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to buy but you want to make sure they make an educated purchase.

To me, that is providing excellent Customers Service before the and during the sale, but what about after the sale?

Last week I made a sale worth $400 through one of my sales funnels of the very same Internet Marketing Education System I use to promote and sale my products.

If you are curious about what those are, you can get more information by reading this post I wrote a while back.

• - My newest Internet Entrepreneur Community with Pro Elite

The purchase generated me $150 in a commission and I decided to give my customer a courtesy call to walk him through and give him a tour of his Marketing system education office.

The call went great but after the tour he expressed some anxiety with starting a new website for his Green Energy business.

After some discussion, I told him not to worry and that I would walk him through setting up his very own Word Press based business website by creating some instructional videos for him.

An hour later, I had created 3 very simple instructional videos on ‘how to set up his Word Press based business website’.

In the videos I gave him the option of using my Affiliate links to obtain his domain and email marketing campaign tools, and in an email he later expressed his gratitude for the 1on1 help.

He used my links and I generated an extra $80 in commissions.

My customers, who I’ll call Ray, has a long way to go as an Internet Entrepreneur. After all, this will be his very first time ever as a business owner. But he is very motivated and driven and I know he’s going to do great.

So here’s what I learned.

• - Going the extra mile to make sure your customer is happy even after the sale is an excellent way to ease and ‘buyers remorse’ and earn way more of your customers trust.

In my case, I called my customer, eased some anxiety and even created some instructional videos for him.

He was so grateful for my help and value I provided, that he was willing to use my preferred domain host and email marketing company affiliate links and, indirectly, give me an extra $80.

I say indirectly because the $80 I earned from Ray was a referral commission and was not directly earned from the amount of his purchases with those company’s.

Assumptions

As an Internet Entrepreneur who’s going on 2 years using WordPress as the engine to run my websites, I sometimes forget that there are people out there who are very eager to start an Internet based business but have absolutely no idea how to get started.

This is what I call the curse of knowledge. Just because you know how to do something doesn’t mean you should assume everyone else does too.

It’s the second lesson I learned; don’t make assumptions in business, and it’s something that I am actively working to get better at.

In the past and recently even, I’ve received emails from folks who want to get started with a website but again, they don’t know where to start.

I usually point them to resources they can use, that are free. However, those are usually very cut and dry and don’t offer much else in regards to the WHY’s of doing things when building a website and often leads to confusion.

Ray really inspired because I know that there are thousands of people out there that want to learn how to start a website and are very motivated but don’t have the thousands of dollars to invest in education, like I did.

So after much consideration, I’ve decided to launch my very own course called ‘Connected Entrepreneur HQ’ – a comprehensive course that will cover the WHY’s,  WHAT’s and HOW’s of building a WordPress website and everything in between.

I have already started creating it and I anticipate having this course completed sometime in February.

As for the price, I’ve decided to offer it at an extremely affordable $25 – that’s it!

Although this course will be jam packed with content, it is going to be my very first e-Course ever and I want everyone who needs this course to be able to afford it so that they can concentrate on what really matters, building their business.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say I am hoping the price and value I deliver though my course, generates some referrals, but that’s another great aspect of business.

I’ll release more details as I get closer to completing my course.

That’s all for now.

 Mastermind:

What are some important lessons you’ve learned when dealing with customer service?

Listen to this post.

I guarantee that you’re not going to hear this in the mainstream media here in the United States. In fact, I had a very hard time just finding this story on the Internet.

I also have to say that I am shocked that this story is not making headlines across the world, especially here in the United States, but I certainly understand why it is not happening.

What am I referring to?

The fact that today it was announce, India has reached an agreement with Iran to pay them in Gold for their Oil.

What’s the Big Deal?

In case that headline doesn’t mean much to you or you don’t understand its implications, allow me to explain a bit further.

The U.S dollar is currently the reserve currency of the world and has held this status since we officially abandoned the gold standard.

I say ‘currently’ because I believe that one day, in the not so distant future, the U.S dollar will lose that status as reserve currency which will not be very good news for those Americans hoarding dollars.

Prior to us abandoning the Gold Standard in 1971, the Bretton Woods Agreement established a monetary system in which the dollar was directly tied (asset backed) to physical gold and every other currency in the word was tied to the U.S Dollar.

When the U.S abandoned the gold standard, the U.S dollar became the official reserve currency of the world, backed solely by the confidence of world governments.

Consequently, reserve currency status means that when countries trade goods and services, they do so using the official reserve currency (the dollar) to price their goods.

If a country has no dollars, then they must buy dollars in their own currency to be able to transact.

Again, remember, the only reason we (the United States) have reserve currency status is because governments around the world still believe that U.S dollar is a safe haven, or a healthy currency.

The U.S Dollar Reign is coming to an End Soon!

Back in December of 2011 I read an article that announced China and Japan, the worlds second and third largest economies, respectively, had agreed to drop the U.S dollar and trade in t heir own currencies.

I was shocked to read that because not only does that mean that the 2^nd and 3^rd largest economies in the world are losing confidence in the dollar, but it completely undermined that currency all together.

Early this month, I read that Iran and Russia had also drafted up that same agreement – dropping the U.S dollar to trade in their own currencies.

Again, I was shocked and disturbed that none of this was making headlines in the news.

And then, a Bombshell

Yesterday, January 23, 2011 India announced that it was to pay Iran in Gold for its Oil and China was expected to also follow suite.

No longer will they use the dollar to buy their oil, but now, Gold.

This, in my opinion, should be making headlines in U.S because it is a clear indication that major countries around the world:

1. No longer respect the dollar as reserve currency
2. Proves to completely undermine a fiat currency (not asset backed); they won’t even use their own currencies.
3. And, is the first time precious metals are significantly preferred and used for trade since the gold standard.

In other words, I would be very nervous right about now if I were hoarding dollars!

The Silver Lining

Although this news seems to be very negative the reality is that there is incredible opportunity for YOU reading this, if you take action.

Of course, I cannot tell you what to do with your dollars. That is a decision that must be made by you.

However, I will that this kind of news further gives credence to my reasoning that precious metals like Gold, Silver, Platinum and Palladium will go up in value, way higher than they are today, when complete confidence in the dollar is lost.

In fact, aside from becoming an Internet Entrepreneur and building an asset for myself, buying precious metals now is how I believe I will build a substantial part of my wealth.

If this makes you nervous at all, then it’s time to get serious about protecting your wealth!

Mastermind:

How do you see a collapse of the dollar affecting your livelihood? Are you taking any measures to protect your money and purchasing power?

Last week I added a new section to my blog and discussed the importance of keeping an eye on the economy as a measure to protect your wealth.

Whether you’re a seasoned Internet Entrepreneur or just someone who is currently working a job, protecting your wealth and the purchasing power of every dollar you earn is vital to your financial prosperity and the well-being of your loved ones.

If you’re reading this post, then I am assuming you value the importance of building real, lasting wealth and that you’ve made a commitment to take complete control over your financial future.

If you haven’t made that commitment just yet, then keep reading because I am about to tell you why I believe many people who have not made that commitment may soon lose their entire life savings.

I don’t want you to be one of those people and I want you to make that commitment today, if you haven’t already done so.

Fiat Currency

I was recently surprised to discover that a friend of mine did not know that the United States dollar was backed by no physical asset – what

we today call a fiat currency.

In other words, the only reason we believe that a dollar is worth anything is because our federal government tells us that it’s worth something and other governments across the world also believe and have confidence in our dollar.

This wasn’t always the case. Before we (The United States) abandoned the gold standard in 1971, the U.S dollar was directly tied of the value of gold, which has throughout human history been regarded as the only universal currency.

Today, every currency in the world is a fiat currency – that is, backed by no physical assets whatsoever.

Purchasing Power

A few days ago I was having a conversation with a colleague about the fundamental problems with having a fiat currency and a debt-based economy.

Since our currency, the dollar, is a fiat currency, the Federal Reserve can create money out of thin air whenever it feels it needs to.

My argument was that simply printing more dollars to pay our national debt obligations was a very destructive policy because when you print more dollars and put them into ‘circulation’, the value of those dollar (purchasing power) is eroded and the purchasing power falls for everyone else holding dollars.

If these practices are continued, over time the dollar is significantly devalued and therefore you can buy less products or services with those dollars than you could before. This results in you having to work even harder to earn more dollars so that you can simply maintain your standard of living.

In the long-term, this could very well result in a loss of confidence in the U.S dollar as a valuable currency, by governments across the world.

My colleague’s response was, “you have to think of the economy like musical chairs. As long as everyone still thinks they can hear the music, they game is still in play.”

“Exactly! But what happens when the music stops, because it always does” I said.

He couldn’t find an answer to my question.

The reality is that since the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913, the U.S dollar has lost about 95% of its purchasing power resulting in 2,000% price inflation, since then.

Now you probably don’t remember how much things cost back in 1913 because you weren’t alive back then, but how about as early as the 1960s and 1970s?

I am sure you’ve heard parents, aunts, uncles or grandparents complain about how expensive things are today and how cheap they were back in their days.

My own mother once told me a story about her childhood in which she referenced a loaf of bread being $0.20. Today, that same loaf of bread is about $2.49 – that’s a 1,210% price increase!

Protect Your Wealth

Voltaire, who was a French enlightenment writer, philosopher and historian, once said that “all paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value – zero”.

95% of the U.S dollar is gone and if we continue on this path, it won’t be long before the other 5% is destroyed. I believe we will see this in our lifetime.

I recently disclosed how I am building my wealth and the actions that I am taking to secure my financial future.

Legally, I cannot tell you what to do with your money but what I can tell you is that precious metals commodities are increasing in value. There seems to be a real opportunity for people to come out prosperous on the other end, should a collapse of the dollar unfold. Do your own research and make the commitment to take whatever measures necessary to protect the hard-earned dollars you’ve worked for.

Mastermind:

How serious are you about protecting your wealth, whether it’s $1,000 or 100,000?

Over the last couple of months, I’ve cut down on the frequency in which I am posting new content here on Internet Entrepreneur Connection, if you’ve been following me for some time, I’m sure you’ve noticed.

By no means, does that mean that I am just sitting back and relaxing. Back in late October I announced the production of my very first book titled de-CLASS-ified: The death of the Middle-class and rise of the Internet Entrepreneur and I’ve been busy cranking away at my book.

I still have some way to go but I am really excited because it’s starting to come together and I know that the content and information that I am going to disclose is going to be eye-opening for a lot of people and they are never going to view themselves, their money or the world the same ever again – I can’t wait to share it!

Let’s switch gears now. Let’s talk about why I am writing this post.

Interesting Times For Today’s Entrepreneur

When I first started Internet Entrepreneur Connection back in August of 2010, I did so because I wanted to:

1. Introduce people to a new paradigm
2. Educate them on becoming Internet Entrepreneur’s
3. Teach them about how money really works, and
4. Mastermind with them on building true wealth

The fact is that the focus of Internet Entrepreneur Connection has not changed much over the last couple of years.

For those people who, like me, were told that the only way to succeed in life was to go to school, study very hard and trade 40 years of our life for a $40 Company Timex when we retired, I am still working to introduce them to the new paradigm – go to school, study hard and learn to build businesses.

For those people who, like me, were taught that the only way to make money in this life was to go to work everyday and trade our most precious, non-renewable resource – Time – for money, I am still introducing them to the world of Internet Entrepreneurship.

And for those people who, like me, were told that we should work very hard so that at the end of 2 weeks we could collect 1 paycheck, I am still introducing them to this ‘crazy idea’ called multiple streams of income and educating them on strategies to build wealth.

I am sure you can identify being conditioned to believe at least 2 of the 3 mindsets above.

But let’s face it, today’s entrepreneurs, just like the rest of America and the world, are going through some very interesting economic times, to say the least.

I firmly believe that if you want to make money as an Internet Entrepreneur and keep your money (i.e. not lose it to inflation, bad investments, over consumption, etc.) and you want to build real lasting wealth, then you have to stay educated on the economy

The Economy

If you’re familiar with my story, then you know what happened to me after college graduation.

I wouldn’t wish it upon anybody.

Since then, I have literally become a student of personal finance and have intensely studied money, building wealth and The Economy.

I have always thought this to be true but I am convinced, now more than ever, that to truly build wealth, YOU, my reader, need to know about what is really happening in the economy.

That is why today I am really excited to announce that moving forward not only will IEC be your HQ for becoming an Internet Entrepreneur, IEC will now also be your HQ for learning about The Economy.

What to Expect

The media does a lot of fear mongering and you can bet your best nickel that I am in no way, shape or form, subscribing to that rhetoric.

I am all about prosperity and abundance and I want you to be the same way because you cannot make a million dollars, if you haven’t made it in your head, first.

I am going to teach you everything I’ve learned, and continue to learn, about the economy that has allowed me to keep more of the money that earn and protect the wealth that I am building, so that you can do the same.

I am really excited about this new category here on Internet Entrepreneur Connection and I know you’re going to become wealthier by subscribing to it!

Mastermind:

Let me hear your thoughts on what you would like to learn about the economy or gain a better understanding of.

It’s a brand new year and most people have already made their New Year’s resolutions.

Some people want to lose weight. Others just want be healthier and adopt better eating habits. I would put money and bet that most resolutions this time of year have to do with health and wellness.

Yet, I believe that one of the underlying reasons why people can’t be healthy during the year is because they do not have the time or the energy to do so.

In this day in age, and especially in economic times such as the ones we are experiencing today, life seems to be getting faster, the every day hustle and bustle seems to be more stressful, everything is more expensive and by the time you get home you just want to relax.

Ask Yourself this Question, Instead of Making A Resolution

You may or may not agree with me but I believe that if most people had the money and time to do so, they would naturally be healthier and adopt good eating habits.

The reason why most people can’t or simply don’t is because of the demands of their daily routine – work, kids, traffic, etc.

Whatever your New Year’s resolution may be there is a very high probability that the underlying reason you have to make that resolution in the first place is because of a lack of time and money.

So instead of making a New Years resolution this year why not instead make a ‘commitment’ to earn a different type of income that will open up more time in your life?

 Types of Income

School only teaches us to make one kind of income – the kind that you have to work to get paid. If you don’t work you don’t get paid. It’s that simple.

This kind of income is often referred to as linear Income and is associated with  ‘trading time for money’ at a job. Linear income can also be the most expensive income that you earn because not only does it rob you of your most precious non-renewable resource – time,  it robs your loved ones of the time you could be dedicating to them as well.

Here are 3 other kinds of income that you should make a commitment to earn this 2012.

1. Portfolio Income – This type of income is usually income that is generated from investments in ‘paper assets’ more typically known as stock, bonds or mutual funds. Portfolio income is generated when you buy (invest in) stock from XYZ company at a given price and the price of that stock goes up in value after you have purchased it or when the company pays out dividends to it’s stock holders. In this economy however, finding a company to invest in that pays out dividends can be somewhat of a challenge.
2. Residual Income – This kind of income usually requires you to become a small business owner. Residual income is derived from one-time sales you make on a product you created or can also come from commissions earned from one-time product sales of a product someone else created. Residual income usually requires consistent work to keep producing sales of products.
3. Passive Income – This kind of income also requires you to become a small business owner and is every man’s dream! The reason for this is because income comes in day after day, week after week or month after month with very little work. Passive income is commonly also referred to as ‘leveraged income”.  The idea is that you leverage the efforts of others to create an income for yourself. For example, creating a product that you offer to the market place and allowing others to sell it to it for you, in return for a small commission, allows you to leverage those people’s work, time and efforts to create an income for yourself that can be generated week after week, with very little of your time spent to generate the income.

The advantage of becoming a small business owner (Residual and Passive income) is that once you become a small business owner, any expense you bare int he production of those  sales for your small business, can be applied against your profits. This ensures Uncle Sam only taxes you on pure profit. If you hold a full-time job (40 hours per week) with an employer and are investing ‘linear income’ earner to create a small business that will generate you residual or even passive income, any expenses incurred can be applied to your taxable linear income, drastically reducing your income tax rate.

In other words, Uncle Sam is letting you keep more of your money so that you can start a business (asset) and make more money.  How great is that?

Instead of making a resolution you may give up on by the end of January, why not instead make a ‘commitment’ to earn Residual or Passive income, this year?

Mastermind:

How would your life look if you could earn residual and passive income? How many hours would you work? How many hours would you dedicate to family?

Listen to this post.

It’s been a few days since I’ve had an opportunity to post here on the Internet Entrepreneur Connection but today you’re in for a treat.

That’s because today I am going to demonstrate why I believe we (here in America) are seeing the very first clear signs that the American standard of living is decreasing.

However, my intention is not to bring ‘doom and gloom’. My hope is to help you understand the urgency behind becoming an Internet Entrepreneur and establishing more than one income stream for yourself, if you haven’t already done so.

We have quite a bit to cover so let’s get started.

I Was Part Of This Statistic 

If you’ve been following me for sometime than you know that I became fascinated with the economy and personal finance right out of college. This was due to the fact that I felt betrayed by the very system I had always been assured was the only way to obtain the standard of living I envisioned for my life.

After college I had no job and was more than $45,000 in the hole.  When I finally did find a job 9 months later, I was severely stressed and fearful of losing of losing my job, was working early mornings, late nights and even through lunches – I was working myself to death at 23 for peanuts of a paycheck.

This led me to go into deep personal study to find an answer and figure out what went so wrong in my career.

What I discovered literally blew me away. It was for that reason that I started this blog you’re reading this article on and the very reason why I am writing de-CLASS-ified: Death of the Middle-Class and rise of the Internet Entrepreneur – my very first book that I have scheduled to release this coming April.

C’mon! This is America!

I am pretty confident that most people don’t believe that the American standard of living can actually go down.  

I mean, c’mon! This is America we’re talking about here! We don’t take steps backward we keep moving forward.

I know a lot of people have that mindset when it comes to the U.S as a society and as a people and I say this because I hear it all the time when I talk to friends and family.

And I share in those sentiments but the reality of what’s happening to the American standard of living for the 25%-66% of American households – the middle-class of America, is much different.

For Many, It’s Start With Student Loans

I grew up poor so I didn’t even qualify for a credit card and before college I had zero debt. That all changed after I became a college student.. Unfortunately, for many young middle-class people living in today’s age, college will be the beginning of financial ruin and a lower standard of living.

Last month I wrote about the disastrous college loan plan that the current administration was putting into effect coming 2012.

To summarize, what this plan does is ‘help college grads” making student loan payments, by setting a maximum repayment cap of 10% of their discretionary income to apply towards their student loan debt, with full debt forgiveness after 20 years.

For example, someone graduating college in 2012 with $50,000 in student loan debt and earning an income of $35,000 a year, would only be required to pay back about $1,100 per year. Well, clearly if we do the math, after 20 years, there’s still about $24,000 that are not paid for, sticking tax payer with the tab.

What this college loan plan does, in my opinion, is only incentivize college students to rack up more federal student loans because no matter how much they borrow for school, they know they’re only paying a fraction of the bill.

Someone’s Has to Pay

Unfortunately, this fraction of the bill that is not paid for by the student has to be paid by somebody. At this point the federal government has 2 choices to pay off the bill:

1. In crease taxes on the middles-class
2. Borrow to pay off the remaining bill, which adds to the deficit, results in money printing and therefore inflation of the U.S dollar.

You see, either way you want to paint the picture, all this college loan plan does at the end of the day is allow you to go to school so that you can get an education so that you can

1. Give more of your hard-earned dollars to the government; OR
2. Work more to buy less with your money

By that way, at this point you (and the rest of the middle-class) is also paying for every other college grad who was granted student loan debt forgiveness with and did not pay his bill in full.

And Here Is Where I See It…

In may 2011, the New York Times reported that the median starting salary for a college grad was about $27,000 and that 24% of recent college grads we underemployed or unemployed all together.

Those are horrific number anyway you want to cut them.

The result?

The College Parents of America organization recently announced that as much as 65% of recent college grads returned home to live with their parents after college – these grads are referred to as ‘Boomerang kids’.

What does this show us?

This tells me that these students clearly cannot afford to go live off on their own; they cannot afford rent or mortgage costs, cannot afford food or energy expenses, and cannot afford vehicle or transportation cost, without the help of family members to make ends meet.

This is one of the very first signs that we can clearly see of a decreasing American standard of living.

Middle-Class, Listen up!

Today, it’s getting harder and harder to survive off of 2 incomes, much less surviving off of 1. Unfortunately, I don’t see it getting better.

It used to be that you could go to school, make good grades and find a safe secure job. I say the new paradigm is learn new skills, become an Internet Entrepreneur and ensure your way of life.

Mastermind:

Are you seeing a decrease in your standard of living? Did it start with student debt for you or is it a result of other factors?

American’s are sick and tired!

They are sick and tired of their falling home values. They’re sick and tired of shrinking 401k’s. They are sick and tired of the increasing cost of living and sick and tired of being broke and in debt.

Americans are sick and tired of being sick and tired!

Today, average Americans are seeing the small wealth they’ve worked so hard to build, disappear right before their eyes by forces they have absolutely no control over and the American Dream hangs in the balance.

In this current economic climate, it is more important than ever to learn new skills and become an Internet Entrepreneur – your standard of living depends on it.

No Dependence

There may have been a time when you could depend on a good, stable American job to provide for yourself and for your family. Heck, there may have been a time where you could depend on your federal government to work together to do what is in the best interest of the nation and every American citizen.

However, with every passing day it is becoming more and more evident that returning to a day when you could graduate from college and obtain a job that you could be assured would not be outsourced or terminated all-together, is getting bleaker.

The markets are in turmoil at home and abroad. Our government can’t seem to agree on how to put people back to work, how to put more money in their pockets, how to stimulate the economy or how to pay for the 15-trillion dollars in debt that this country owes as a result of a disastrous monetary policy.

Nope! I think that many people all across the U.S are starting to understand that in times if economic crisis you simply cannot depend on anyone but yourself to be economically stable, financially free or whatever monetary goal it is that you wish to accomplish.

You have to depend on you to make sure you get yourself and your family through the tough times.

It’s Your Standard Of Living

As I write this, the average inflation rate for 2011 is estimated to be at about 3.4% – the highest it’s been since 2007 right before economic sands shifted. This means that a basket of goods this year is 3.5% more expensive than it was the year before.

At the same time, an article posted in USA Today last month claimed that over the last decade, the median household income dropped 2.3% to about $49,000.

Goods in America are getting more expensive and Americans are earning less. Americans are getting poorer and your standard of living is being threatened.

Obvious Fix

It’s really not that hard to figure out what the fix is to your problem.

If you are earning less dollars and the goods and services you buy to maintain your current standard of living require more dollars, then you need MORE dollars.

You then have two options:

1. You can got back to school and spend thousands of dollars to get a diploma that may very well be useless in terms of finding a job in a down economy; or
2. You can self-educate, learn new skills and spend thousands of dollars building an Internet business where the profits you earn can be limitless.

The reality is that there are no guarantees in either option. But in an economic climate where jobs are harder to come by and pay less, the amount of goods you can buy with your dollars is diminishing, retirement accounts are dwindling away and other forms of retirement income such as social security don’t appear to be guaranteed anymore, it is more important than ever to take charge of your financial future, secure your standard of living and way of life and become an Internet Entrepreneur.

Mastermind:

Do you think that becoming an Internet Entrepreneur in today’s economic climate is riskier than going back to school and looking for a job? Why or why not?

Over the last couple of months I’ve been thinking of new ways to engage my community on the Facebook Fan Page.

I’ve never been able to actively engage my community apart from 1 or 2 people who may drop by every now and then to share their thoughts on a post or status update and it’s something that I’ve really wanted to improve on for some time.

You’ve probably already heard this about thousand times but social media is all about building relationships with the people that believe what you believe – especially in a platform as powerful as Facebook.

Right up until yesterday, some of the things I was doing to engage my Facebook fans on the Internet Entrepreneur Connection fan page weren’t all that different from anything anybody else was doing. I was trying to post daily quotes, comments,

status updates, ask questions of my community, etc. on my wall in efforts to start the conversation – but none of it has really worked!

I haven’t been able to attribute it to anything other than, perhaps I was not engaging my community as consistently as I should have been.

But I’ve come up with an idea to engage my community that I haven’t seen anyone do just yet and I am really excited to share it with you (maybe you can tell me otherwise).

Today, I would like to introduce (and have you join me in future sessions of)  – Hector’s Minutes.

Hector’s Minutes – Discussing Business, Wealth and the Economy

As an Internet Entrepreneur who takes business, building wealth and the economy very seriously, I think it’s extremely important to surround myself with others people who have the same values, interests and like-mind (I know you do you!). But even more importantly, it’s vital to share ideas, thoughts and Mastermind with other people!

So what is Hector’s Minutes?

Hector’s Minutes will be a podcast style (audio) session that will be posted on the Internet Entrepreneur Connection facebook fanpage, where I will be able to share a 1-5 minute discussion on business, building wealth and the economy.

By using audio, you will be able to listen to me (instead of read an article that I post on my wall, for discussion), listen to a tip for the day and I’ll even be able to cut-in audio clips to share with you so that we can have a conversation that is important to you, your business and your wealth!

My goal for you is that you –

• - Become a better educated Internet Entrepreneur
• - Learn new ways to start or continue building wealth
• - And that you learn how todays economy will affect you so that you can be better prepared.

My goal with Hector’s Minutes is that –

• - I post at least once a week and as much as 3 times a week.
• - You openly join the discussion and share your thoughts and ideas
• - You share the IEC Fan Page with as many people as possible so that they can join our Mastermind and so that we can build wealth together! 

 Are you still reading this?

What are you waiting for? Visit the Internet Entrepreneur Connection Fan Page, “Like the page and listen to the very first sessions of Hector’s Minutes!

One of the many goals I have for my financial prosperity is to build wealth. In fact, I am not sure if I have ever shared this publicly here on IEC but one of my financial goals is to be worth a million dollars by the time I am 35 years old and I am extremely passionate about this goal!

And, I get it! Not everyone aspires to build wealth in his or her life. You may be satisfied with building enough of an income to sustain your current standard of living, having adjusted for inflation – and that’s cool! Nothing wrong with that.

But if you are reading this and thinking to yourself that wanting to build wealth and wanting to have enough money is being greedy, than the first thing you require is to focus on is building a better relationship with money because frankly you’ll never be able to earn more money or build wealth if you feel guilty about having more.

This kind of mindset often arises in people who grew up poor or in a household where ‘there was never enough’ – something I experienced and a challenge I had to overcome, myself.

When you’ve conditioned yourself (unintentionally) for years to believe that there is never enough, doing something that contradicts that belief (ike starting a business) knocks your subconscious for a loop and does everything it can in its power to operate from dominant program it knows best, which in this case is – money is bad and there is never enough,  keeping you stuck in poor mode!

Is that something you have challenges with?

How Do You Build Wealth?

It was a long enough battle for me but I finally unsubscribed from that mindset about a year ago and it took me about another good year to re-wire my brain and undo the last 2 decades of ‘poor mindset’ conditioning – now it was time to learn how to build wealth!

On my quest to build wealth, here are some of the things I’ve learned thus far:

• - Why High Assets = Awesome Personal Financial Statement
• - The Importance of Establishing Passive Income Streams
• - Why You Should Pay Yourself First

Recently, and as a result of writing my very first book, I’ve started doing more research on how the rich get rich and how the rich stay rich!

I picked up a book called The Millionaire Next Door and to be honest, I was pretty blown away by a lot of what I read. Granted, this book was published in the late 1990’s but many of the principles still apply to today’s wealthy.

For instance, did you know that:

1. Most of America’s rich are first-generation wealthy
2. Only 3.5 million (3.5%) of Americas 100 million households are considered wealthy
3. The typical millionaire has an annual ‘realized’ income of less than 7% of his/her wealth (will explain this one shortly)

I don’t know about you but the first one really excites me!

The one thing that I am finding consistent in this book however, is that most interviewed millionaires built their wealth by actively minimizing their realized income and investing in assets that pay for any liabilities. That’s how the rich get rich and stay rich!

In other words, the rich minimize their taxable income. This includes:

1. Consuming less products and services than the average American
2. Paying cash and never financing on large expenditures, except for their mortgage
3. Investing a lot their before-tax income in a 401K or using it to start businesses or invest in appreciating assets

One of the things that I have recently started doing to build my wealth is open an IRA and start investing in precious metals like Gold and Silver. In fact, I am also taking some of my after-tax income and buying precious metals (really enjoying this).

This picture above was recently taken when I received my very first 3oz of physical silver! I hope to have 100oz of Silver by the end of next year and a few ounces of Gold as well, as I protect my hard-earned dollars against inflation.

Are You Building Wealth?

Building wealth has nothing to do with being greedy and has everything to do with having the piece-of-mind that you can do great things and live an awesome life, and share that life with others, through your wealth.

Mastermind: Are you doing anything now to build wealth? Do you want to build wealth? If so, how?