Real Estate Investing Talk

I’ve revamped my financial freedom speaking program and added a lot of real estate investing content to it.  The end result is a solid presentation that demystifies real estate investing for people.

The area of real estate investing is a real curiosity for many folks especially since traditional investments like stocks, mutual funds and bonds have turned out to provide dismal returns over the years.  People are worrying about their retirements and I don’t blame them.

However, real estate investing is also scary because of the big numbers involved and has more work than simply calling up an investment broker to purchase X units of a mutual fund.  Fortunately, I’ve gone through the hoops of acquiring multiple investment properties and dealt with tenants as well as renovations as described in my previous post about buying real estate investments and managing properties.

Unbiased Information About Real Estate Investing

In addition to my real life experiences so far in real estate investing, I am not a realtor, nor a mortgage broker nor a banker nor an investment dealer of any kind.  Therefore, I do not work in the industry so to speak and can provide unbiased information.

I am simply an active real estate investor who utilizes a variety of services and analyzes my own numbers for potential investment properties.  The information I share in this presentation is valid, useful and practical.

I’m calling this new speaking program ‘The Sensible Approach To Real Estate Investing’ and some of the things I talk about include;

*  Powerful financial tactics to position for financial fitness and personal credit

* Achieving significantly greater returns compared to those of average investments

* Identifying important factors to determine where to invest in real estate

* Analyzing figures for potential real estate investments with real life examples

* Proven feasible strategies to grow your portfolio and personal equity wealth over time

* Realistically achieving financial freedom without falling victim to fast money scams

This new talk is available in 30, 45 and 60 minute versions (need full hour to fit in all elements) so I can fit into most speaking agendas.  But of course, the full version has the most information and for a topic such as real estate investing, people generally want more rather than less information.

You can see details of this new talk (at the Corporations & Associations section) as well as my other available speaking programs at my website.

If you would like me to present ‘The Sensible Approach To Real Estate Investing’ for your group, feel free to contact me.

Pets For Personal Growth

It’s absolutely incredible how pets can often lead to immense personal growth for us.  As a dog owner, I feel that my pets have taught me a lot about life including compassion and responsibility over the years.

This month, I completed a very personal project that actually started about 23 years ago.  I had moved to Winnipeg with my first two Lhasa Apso dogs Pepper and Max to start a new pharmaceutical sales career.  I decided to shoot video of them at home doing normal everyday things like playing, eating, sleeping and even taking a bath.  For some reason, this was really the only video footage I ever took of them and today, I am really fortunate that I did.

Back in those days, I was only able to transfer the video cassette footage to VHS so that I could watch the video on TV.  Then many years later when computers got better, I was able to transfer the footage to a computer video file.  The digital file enabled me to save the footage from any further degradation in picture quality which can happen with VHS tapes over time.

My Dogs As Personal Growth Teachers

Pepper and Max were the first real dependants I ever had and therefore they taught me how to be responsible as well as compassionate, especially during their older years.  I wasn’t perfect with them but I was a good enough dog owner to help them live long lives of 15 years each.

But I did make mistakes which I won’t go into here.  Learning from my experience with them enabled me to be an even better dog owner today with my current Lhasa Apso dogs Chester and Roxie, stars of my dog obedience training videos.

Bittersweet But Worthwhile Project

As all pet owners know, all pets have unique habits and personalities.  With current improved computer video editing programs, I was finally able to edit the original 30 minute video footage of Pepper and Max into something quite nice.  The end result was about 26 minutes of enhanced video where I was able to brighten up some previously dark scenes.  I also added music and put the scenes in some sort of logical order.

As I was reviewing all the video footage, all of the unique habits of Pepper and Max suddenly came back to me.  I certainly had a smile on my face.   But at the same time, the video also made me really miss those two guys.  Pepper passed away 19 years ago while I lost Max about 13 years ago – so it’s been a very long time since they were with me.

I still miss them dearly which is why this project was bittersweet.  My stomach was in knots for the entire weekend I was working on this project.  But overall, I’m really glad that I did do this video.

I never want to forget Pepper and Max especially given just how significant they were in my life.  They were perhaps two of the greatest teachers in personal growth I ever had.  The new video will just help me remember them better.

Of course with my current Lhasa Apsos Chester and Roxie, I’ve already been shooting lots of great video of them as they also continue to take over from Pepper and Max as personal growth coaches for me in many ways.

I decided not to share the full 26 minute video of Pepper and Max with the world since it’s too long anyway.  But I did do a shortened version of about 10 minutes below just in case anyone was interested or curious.

Hope you enjoy it if you choose to see it.

If you have any stories about pets enhancing your personal growth, please feel free to share below in the comments section.

Managing Rental Properties

I wrote about the work involved in my most recent real estate investment acquisition which took five months to complete.  If you read that article, you would see that there was a lot of work, time and money involved.

It turns out that since I have other rental properties already and I currently serve as my own property manager for them, there were many other things that went on in addition to what was happening with the latest purchase.  Here are just some of the tales of managing rental properties in the last while.

Losing My Best Tenant

Nothing good lasts forever and this was certainly the case in rental properties.  Perhaps my best set of tenants at one of my condo townhouses, who were always pleasant to deal with and never complained all that much, notified me that they were leaving.  It wasn’t because of the rental property itself but they were just moving on in life by making their first home purchase in Canada and therefore leaving the world of renting.

So I had to advertise and do some rental open houses for new tenants.  Fortunately, I was able to do these open houses while the current tenants were still there since the place wasn’t too much of a mess and they were very cooperative.

I found a new nice family, signed a lease with them after doing credit and reference checks and they will be moving in the day after my current tenants move out.  There is little renovations needed so this time, I think I was quite fortunate.  The new family even liked the current wall colours so no new painting required.

The only thing I really have to do is help them reseed the grass in the backyard area and since the wife is a gardener, she will be more than happy to help with the daily watering needed for 2 -3 weeks.

Breaking Rental Leases

Things were not so smooth at one of my other rental properties, a triplex in downtown Hamilton.  The couple on the second floor, who have been there for four years already, suddenly informed me that they were breaking up and therefore asked for a way to break the current lease we signed.  Neither of them could carry the current rent on their own.

The guy apparently changed locks on the girl so she actually could get back in to get her things for 2 weeks.  This alone is a not allowed according to the lease agreement.  In fact, the lease agreement is a legal binding one that is suppose to be honoured even if they break up.

However, such things happen in life so I came up with a way for them to get out of the lease without hurting me financially.  I had to meet with both of them separately and I proposed an amendment to the current lease.

They both already vacated the apartment but officially, they had nine months left on the lease and both were on the hook since both names were on it.  I decided to release them from the lease via this amendment if they still pay the equivalent of the next 60 days notice.  They both agreed to this and signed the amendment which would help them be released from the lease seven months ahead of time.

In the meantime, I had to do some major renovations since the floors were in bad shape.  So one of my renovators came in and we repainted the walls, some of the ceiling, all the kitchen cabinets, replaced the kitchen countertops, replaced window blinds and repaired some plumbing.  We also put in new laminate flooring in the bedroom and had enough good planks from the current floors to replace bad planks in the living room and den.

Actually, I did most of the painting including the kitchen cabinets and it was rough work.  I vow never, ever to paint kitchen cabinets again.  It is hard work especially if one is messy like I am.

We were able to save on some of the renovations costs because Rona happened to have a special on the laminate floors.  I went to pick up 19 cases and put them all in my Mustang.  Before my renovator came, I carried each of the cases one by one up to the second floor apartment.

I also located somebody near me who was selling a kitchen countertop.  There was no way I could fit it into my Mustang so my renovator came and we transported it on his car rooftop back to Hamilton.  He later cut the piece into two parts to fit the current kitchen.

As soon as most of the renovations were done, I advertised and held two rental open houses.  We had a lot of interest even though only a portion of those people who contacted me via email actually showed up at each open house.  But lucky for me, I had two applications on the spot from interested couples.

While doing reference checks, I hit some snags with one couple as some of their references got ‘complicated’ and they pulled out of the running.  The other couple passed the reference and credit checks with flying colours so I informed them that their application was approved, much to their delight.

So I’ll be meeting them to sign a new lease next week and they plan to move in on June 1.  A bonus is that I’ll be renting this apartment out at market rent (the previous tenants were still well below market rent).  Happy ending after some ups and downs with this apartment.

Remove Bad Tenants

Meanwhile, another set of current tenants have been giving me a hard time with constant complaints about little things here and there.  Although many of their complaints are valid (such as minor repairs needed), some are just ridiculous.

Many of the complaints had nothing to do with their own apartment as they seemed to enjoy pointing out every single defect in the building, including the basement.  They even mentioned taking some of these issues up with the Landlord & Tenant Board.

They told me that they were considering on breaking the lease. Personally, I don’t think they have enough grounds to do so but I can now sense that even as I repair things, I don’t think they will ever be satisfied and the working relationship between us has already been soured.

I already know that they were already looking at other rental properties and filling applications, even before the status of their current lease was determined.  So I decided to take this one step ahead and inform them that I will be more than happy to release them from their lease.

I didn’t even require a 60 days notice because the sooner they leave, the sooner they will be out of my hair.  I’ll do some of the renovations and repairs once they are gone when the apartment is vacated.

They haven’t announced a definite departing date yet but it will likely be sometime in mid May before June 1.  Anytime will be fine by me and if they leave during the month of May, I’ll simply give them a partial refund for May’s rent.

Since Hamilton has a low vacancy rate and I’ve proven to myself to be pretty good at getting new tenants, I don’t see any problems getting new ones for this apartment.  I’ll hopefully get better tenants who will be a much better fit for the property.

Inheriting Tenants

For the new property I’m closing on at the end of the month (which I described in my last article), I’ll be inheriting four sets of tenants who currently live there.  All are planning to stay so I’ll have to meet with them to sign new leases with me.  They are all currently paying under market rents and for this particular property, I have to pay for their utilities as well.  I’ll be working in modest rent increases into their new leases to gradually move rents in the right direction.

I’ll also have to scramble to get a licenced electrician and plumber in to get safety certifications required by the insurance company.  I’ll also have to ensure that a basement window is large enough to meet safety standards in case of fire for the basement apartment.  I may have to get a larger window space made.

This will all cost money of course but I don’t think too many other renovations over these will be required until a tenant moves out.  This will help me spread out the repairs costs over time and the rental income from the four apartments will most certainly help.

Managing My Own Rentals for Now

So there you have it – just some of the things I have to do as part of managing my rental properties on an on-going basis.  Remember, each time I do an open house, meet with tenants, oversee repairs and other tasks, I have to physically drive to Hamilton from my home in Mississauga.  This of course costs gas, money and time.

Of course, I could always hire a local property manager to do most of the day to day functions and field tenant calls.  But so far, I can manage things with the eleven rental doors I have. It’s work but I’ll certainly be looking forward to each rental cheque deposit day!

Eventually as I expand my rental properties portfolio, I will start to delegate properties to property managers but even in these cases, I will still have to be the one to oversee major renovations and on-going costs involved.

I still have to manage the overall real estate investments even if at some point, I don’t manage the day to day tasks that a property manager will assume.  I’m the one who must ensure that the dollars continue to make sense each month.

So overall, real estate investments are not completely hands free even if I didn’t manage my own rental properties.  This is one very important factor if you are considering in real estate investing.

Do you have the time to do what I do?  If not, especially if you are already busy with a full time job, consider a joint venture partnership where your partner is the managing partner of the investment.  He or she will be worth the 50% share of profits as in most typical joint venture partnerships in real estate investments.

Keep in mind that the managing/expert JV partner will essentially be doing all of this work for free for many years until profits are actually made through a sale or refinance.  This continued work including taking the property into a refinance or sale is definitely worth the 50% share.

Otherwise, be prepared to go at all this on your own.

Several Months Work To Buy Real Estate Investment

Since the fall (2012) when my rentals were stabilized, I had always planned to buy my next real estate investment property.  I was actually hoping to acquire the next one before the winter but things didn’t turn out that way.

The first potential target was to get a rent to own property which would have been a condo townhouse in the Hamilton, Ontario area.  I wanted to focus on higher cash flow compared to a standard rental for such a property and a rent to own was the way to go.  After a few trips into Hamilton to scope out a few possible condo townhouses, my realtor found one that had an existing tenant who wanted to do a rent to own.

This sounded great since both the property and the rent to own tenant was already living there and this tenant was very interested in owning the townhouse someday.  We worked out a possible rent to own deal and then it turned out that the tenant failed to qualify.  This was a real disappointment so I had to move on.

Exploring Student Housing Rentals

As my next possible targets, I was quite open to student housing rentals near a college or university.  After a combination of finding out some potential properties on my own plus some my realtors found, I did some financial analysis on them and narrowed down a short list of the ones I wanted to see.

This was followed by drives back to Hamilton and this time to Kitchener as well.  There wasn’t much available near McMaster University in Hamilton, which is a great area for student rentals.  The one nice potential property in the area was a small 3 bedroom house about 20 minutes walking distance to Mac.  I needed at least 4 students in there to make the financials worthwhile but in the end, the asking price just didn’t even justify the acquisition.

Next stop was in Kitchener near Conestoga College, an area which does not have much official student residences so as a result, much of the residential area surrounding the college has student housing.  I drove in about 3 separate trips to see potential properties and was keen on one particular condo townhouse that allowed student rentals.

I was planning to make an offer but my realtor there, actually talked me out of it since there might have been a safety issue with the basement.  I would have put a student in the finished rec room down there but there wasn’t any exit to the outside and this would have caused the safety issue.  This actually shows the high integrity this agent had as he wasn’t just focused on making the sale but wanted to do the right thing for his client.

No more potential properties in Kitchener were available that suited my criteria so unfortunately, there would be no more additional real estate investment properties in that city for me at this time.

Back To Hamilton To Continue The Search

So although a bit disappointed, my continued my search back to Hamilton and this time I focused on multi-family units in the downtown area.  Many of the potential properties in this class of real estate investment would be considered a no-go since they were located in the north part of downtown Hamilton.  My financers considered this area a no-fly zone for me so I had to narrow down my search to south of Main Street or at least very close to it.

My realtors in Hamilton found a potential fourplex.  It took 3 separate trips back into town to see all of the units since access was not available to each apartment on every trip.  I even took one of my contractors to see the property.

This property passed all of my financial analysis and my contractor considered the site quite workable in terms of renovations.  So I made an offer on this house and things went back and forth in the negotiation phase – requiring me to sign off each time an offer and counter offer was made.

In the end, the seller and I failed to reach a mutual agreement on the purchase conditions so I decided to drop this potential acquisition.  What a waste of time!

Multiple Offer Situation On Hot Real Estate Investment

After going into town to see a few more potential properties, all multi-family units (duplex, triplex, fourplex), we found a nice triplex that was renovated really well.  I quickly put in an offer but there were multiple offers on this one and I lost out to another buyer.

I was then interested in another fourplex where the financials also were quite promising.  But this time during my viewing of the property, we met a few of the current tenants and they would have turned out to be undesirable.  My realtor actually thought that this one lady who lived there (which I would have had to inherit if I bought the place) was on drugs for sure.  I think she was right.

Finally A Suitable Real Estate Investment Property

By this time, it was already late February and still no acquisition yet.  My realtor suggested a fourplex he had recently listed but was a bit out of my price range since I already knew what I was willing to spend on my next real estate investment property. I went to see it anyway and I was told that if I wanted that one, we could somehow make the numbers work since the sellers were quite flexible.

A proposed deal was drafted with a vendor take back involved and after more number crunching as well as what my mortgage broker could come up with, an offer was made and accepted after some negotiation.  Part of the deal was that the sellers was to repair a few current leaks in the house at their expense.

Financing Hurdles To Jump Through

Financing for this property turned out to be trickier than expected.  Although my mortgage broker had worked miracles for me in the past few deals, we had to jump through hoops for this one.  The financing company kept asking for all sorts of paperwork each week. We even hit a snag with an appraiser which would have caused the deal to fall apart.

This went on for about 2 to 3 weeks and finally, the financing was approved but not before I had to redo my own financials on my own end and free up some extra capital to make the deal work.

The Dreaded Home Inspection

Meanwhile, the home inspection which I was present for of course, revealed many issues with the property but most were minor and cosmetic in nature.  Most of these issues would not be repaired until a tenant moves out and currently, all four units were tenanted.  I interviewed most of the tenants and they seemed like they were relatively problem free (since I would be inheriting them as part of the purchase).

The roof however, was in need of replacing and having gone through this issue already at one of my other real estate investment properties, I knew I would have to spend another $2000 or so on a new roof for this one.  But at least I could delay this until the fall before the winter comes.

The insurance, which I must have in place before the closing date for the property, actually required the roof replacement as a condition within 12 months.  This was okay with me but they also added some other conditions related to electrical and plumbing safety certifications.  So these would represent extra immediate costs for me.

Time & Money Required In Real Estate Acquisitions

As I am writing this, I’m also preparing new leases which all four sets of tenants will have to sign.  Their current leases are not with me so we have to get new ones signed to establish new agreements between my inherited tenants and I.  I’ll be meeting with each one individually in the next couple of days as well as pulling together the funds required by my lawyer to close on this deal.

Assuming that the deal closes on April 30, it would have taken me five months to acquire my latest real estate investment.  During these five months, there was real time and money involved.

I spend time to search and analyse suitable properties.  Then I had to physically travel to both Hamilton and Kitchener to view the properties.  Of course, driving involved gas that doesn’t come cheap these days.  The time factored in also costs money as well since it’s my time involved here.

All of this points out to what is involved in buying real estate investments.  There is real work involved and fortunately for me, my schedule was relatively flexible since I’m pretty much self employed. But the costs and time required were still real.

If you want to invest in real estate, be prepared to spend the time as well as money (gas, inspections, appraisals, etc.) in your search.  If you have a full time job, be prepared to spend many evenings and weekends doing this.

Even though I do have time, it still took my five months to actually land my next property.  Things never go as quickly as one would wish for. After closing, the work of managing the investment comes in so the story is not ended yet, not even close.

Is This Real Estate Investment Worth It?

Now for all that work, is this real estate investment worth all that work put in as well as the work that will follow in managing it over the next couple of years?

The answer of course is yet. Expected first year rental income will be over $33,000 no matter what the media reported housing price averages are. People need to live somewhere and Hamilton is booming. The tenants will be paying down the mortgage on this property for me.

Joint Venture Partnerships

If you don’t have the time nor real estate investment expertise to do all this, then it’s highly suggested that you take on a joint venture partner who does know what he or she is doing (and has the time to do most of this ground work).

Typically, most joint venture agreements involving an expert/management partner and a money partner (providing the initial capital for closing the deal) have a 50-50 split on profits.  Some people who have not been exposed to many joint venture deals might balk at the idea of sharing 50% of profits if they are the ones putting in all the intial capital.

But as you can hopefully see after reading this, the expert partner did have real costs involved in the acquisition.  All of this intitial ground work PLUS the management work that will required for the rest of the real estate investment over many years, is worth something.  In the real estate investment world, a 50% share of the profits is definitely considered a fair split given the amount of work that the expert partner must do.

I’ll write about some of the work in managing rental properties that will typically be required for real estate investments in another article post.

If you have a full time job and would like a joint venture partner to do most of the ground work, do prepare to offer a 50% split.  Otherwise, get ready to do all of this on your own.

Single Effort Book Review

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a book review and although I get offers to do them on a regular basis, I’ve been turning most of them down due to lack of time and/or interest in the books offered to me.  However, recently I did agree to review a book called Single Effort by Joe Keller since it is one that is aimed at single guys (which I am one).

So when the PR firm sent me my review copy, I looked forward to reading it.

The Target Audience

The target audience is clearly single male readers but instead of the usual book for this demographic, Single Effort is for both guys who have never been married and those who are divorced (or in the process of going through one).  The author, a divorcee himself, made sure that the divorced men crowd were included by having specific early chapters to address common issues that this group goes through.

Indeed, this book is very helpful for divorced men since many of these poor fellows are probably quite rusty in their dating skills and may not be too up to date on the latest dating trends out there.  The area of online dating is an example where many divorced guys may not have much experience with.

Single Effort even describes how separated men starting out in the divorce process can save lots of money by going through a mediator first before than letting the divorce lawyers do the bulk of the work.  This is what the author himself did.

The Life For Single Guys

A separate chapter focuses on life after divorce but the tips offered here are also great for all single guys living on their own for their very first time.  Not only does it cover dating but also other areas of life such as how to nicely set up your house or apartment to make it appealing to women and tasks that all single men have to do for themselves such as  cooking, cleaning and laundry.  After all, their ex-wives and mothers are no longer available.

Joe Keller believes that cooking is so important for single guys that he wrote an entire chapter on this topic.  Not only does he cover kitchen setup but also identifies products that he has already tested and uses.  He also includes various recipes for us single guys to cook up.

Another topic which is covered in its own chapter is the subject of wines.  The author here obviously believes that the more knowledgeable a single guy is on wines, the more impressive he will be to the ladies.

Although I can see his points on cooking as a useful skill that many women will appreciate, I have to admit that as a guy who is not a cooking enthusiast, I was not convinced to drastically expand my own cooking skills.  I personally hate spending time to cook but that’s just me as I’m sure some (but not all) other guys will feel otherwise.

How To Meet And Talk To Women

Of course, the book goes into detail on where and how to meet single women.  The author provides some great ideas in this book.  However, even though I like many of his ideas on how to talk to women in public, I think they should have been qualified a bit more.

I believe that geography will have a lot in determining whether it might even be appropriate to just start talking to women in public and go as far as asking for phone numbers or email addresses as soon as you meet them.  I would think that in smaller towns and cities where most people are more open to communication between strangers, these ideas might work.  However, in many big metropolitan cities where people are more wary of strangers due to higher crime rates, such strategies may not work as well.

The Online Dating World

True to helping single guys keep up to date, Joe Keller dedicates two full chapters to the world of online dating.  He describes how to write an effective online profile and how to communicate with women online.  I found these tips particularly useful.

What would have been great is a review of some of the more popular online dating websites and dating services out there since there are so many of them.  He already reviewed household products he uses at home so why not review dating websites too?

My Final Thoughts On Single Effort

The author approaches the reader assuming that the end goal is to be in another happy relationship.  Although I think this is great, I would have liked to see a bit more coverage for single guys who do not want to get into any serious relationship anytime soon.  These may be guys who got burned too much in a past relationship or marriage and just want to have fun for now.

Age differences and cultural differences since we live in a much more diverse society than ever before, are important issues to address in a single man’s dating world.  I don’t think Single Effort or any other book of its type so far, goes into these adequately.

But overall, I do consider Single Effort to be a useful read filled with worthy tips for single guys whether never married or divorced.  It is up to date and worth adding to your collection of single men guides.

Order Single Effort below.

Spring Fitness

New Spring Fitness

Now that my ski season has pretty well come to an end with the ski slopes out there rapidly turning into slush by noon hour, I’m going to be switching my winter schedule over to my spring fitness schedule.  I’ll still try to squeeze in one or two more mornings (and mornings only) up at Blue Mountain next week but I’m pretty sure that will be it.

The winter schedule which started in December was pretty heavy on the skiing side with four to six days per week on the slopes.  I had a few cycles of nine to eleven consecutive ski days due to teaching ski camps.

But now with my winter finally over after a successful 50 to 60 days on skis, I have to replace my ski days with other fitness activities.  So in comes my spring fitness workouts which are described briefly below.

The Spring Fitness Workouts

Mondays: Martial arts forms (non-weapons, empty hands)

Tuesdays: Martial arts weapons

Wednesdays: Strength weight training & Super stretch (flexibility)

Thursdays: Cardio kickboxing & self defense techniques

Fridays: Martial arts forms

Saturdays: Martial arts weapons

Sundays: Strength weight training & Super stretch

For my martial arts, I want to maintain the two empty hand forms I still do, which are my open Chinese form and traditional Japanese kata called Seun Shin.  I hope to get them on video later this year.

As for my martial arts weaponry, I also want to maintain my open bo staff and 3 section staff forms.  They are also due for a video update.  Although not really a full form, I also maintain a very short routine with my Chinese staff.

When these weapons forms are back up to speed, I want to start doing broadswords again and hopefully work them into a short routine as well.

Work On Flexibility

I lost quite a bit of flexibility over the past few years due to both my ACL surgeries and lack of emphasis on stretching.  Since I retired from martial arts competition, I haven’t been stretching as much as I use to – only stretching as warmups and cooldowns for workouts.

I want to get my flexibility back up to previous levels if possible and know that it will be a long road but certainly not impossible.  So my plan is to do a lot more stretching after my workouts from now on.

Although not mentioned in my official spring fitness schedule, I do want to resume some meditation and tai chi again as I do feel that they are of much benefit, especially to the internal well being and spiritual side of my fitness.  I will do them either as separate activities from my workouts and/or immediately following my workouts.

If you have specific plans for spring fitness, feel free to share below.

If you did the same things last year which ended up with bad results and if you seem to have a pattern of doing such things where the end results are always undesirable, there’s a very simple logical solution.

Here it is … simply STOP DOING THOSE SAME THINGS!

Bad Relationships And Poor Health Results

For example, if you keep having unhappy relationships with abusive partners, then STOP dating those types of people.  You deserve better.

If you are always hoping to lose weight but are not successful (and are honest with yourself to admit that you still snack on junk food), then STOP eating unhealthy food and consult a dietician to help you get on the right track.

Also STOP your previous habit of not doing any exercise.  Your previous activities of eating poorly and not being active enough continued to result in not losing weight.

Money Related Results

If you still can’t get anywhere close to saving enough money to get out of debt and/or save up enough for a down payment to eventually buy your own home, then STOP going out to restaurants, buying take out coffees, going out to movies, bars and clubs all the time.  Have the occasionally entertaining night out but definitely drastically cut down what you have been doing.  You need to establish a budget and stick to it.

If your investments keep losing money each year then STOP investing in such low return securities like many mutual funds, stocks and bonds these days.  Consider educating yourself in how to invest in higher return investments like real estate properties instead.

This is exactly what I did as I got out of mutual funds and bonds that were not making any wealth for me.  Instead, I took action to learn about real estate investing the right way and now own several rental properties that provide me with a decent return (20% to 30% ROI) on my investment.

Latest Motivational WebTV Episode

Here is a video which represents the latest Motivational WebTV episode about stopping doing the same things over and over that do not work to produce desirable results for you.  It’s been quite a while since I’ve produced a new episode as my ski season has been keeping me quite busy this winter.

Now as you will see in the examples in the video and in this post, you might feel that they are quite obvious … and they are.   But it’s incredible how so many people out there still keep on doing the same things over and over again even if they don’t get desired results.

Many people still get caught in bad relationships and many others still experience financial issues year after year.

So this is why this video and article are still worthwhile to at least remind us to stop doing things that just don’t work for us.  We will not achieve success by doing the same things over and over again if they don’t work.

Share This Motivational Video With Others

If you know others who would like this motivational video, please share it with them.  There are buttons on the blog post to easily share it on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and by email.  All past episodes are at my Motivational WebTV Archive.

The last episode before this one featured awesome Airplanes From an Aircraft Carrier I visited a few summers ago.   It’s pretty entertaining.

Feel free to leave your comments below.

Meetup Groups Are Fun Social Outlets

I’ve been involved with various Meetup groups for a few years now.  Meetup.com is a social based online system to help people actually come together face to face through various interest groups.

There are different groups that focus on all sorts of topics and interests.  I’ve come across groups with interests in dogs, real estate investing, skiing and snowboarding, trying out different restaurants, outdoor hiking, business networking, attending festivals, dancing, pubs, pool halls, special topic speaker events, cycling rides and even travel outside the country.

These groups organize various events which people are invited to attend.  Sometimes there are nominal costs to join certain Meetup groups and/or attend their events while much of the time, there are no costs at all.

You do have to do your research and check out different Meetup groups that might interest you in your area as not all are organized the same.  Some groups have been running for many years while some are not very active since in many cases, the organizers of each group must put in time as a volunteer to get their groups up and running and maintaining them.

Some Meetup groups are also fronts for certain business ventures so again, you just have to check all the groups in your area to see which ones are worth your time.  This is not to say that no business should ever be done at Meetup events but the overall theme of Meetup.com is social first.

There are probably lots of Meetup groups already in your local region if you are located in North America.  Just start at Meetup.com and enter your location plus a few interests and you will see several groups in your area.

Toronto Meetup Groups I Get Involved With The Most

So far, I’ve joined quite a few different Meetup groups in the Toronto area but I’m involved with three main ones.

GTA Free Spirits – a fun social group that I just formed and will have different events including outings to shows, restaurants, festivals, ski days and some travel.

Toronto Events Meetup – this is a group that is focused primarily on restaurant and cuisine outings although they are doing a few non-food events too.

Toronto Ski Meetup – this primarily winter season group is about getting people together (with carpools) to ski and snowboard in the southern Ontario area and I have met many of my ski students here.

So if you are in the GTA Toronto region, check out the Meetup groups above as well as others through Meetup.com as it’s a great way to ‘meet up’.

Indian Grandmother Skier

Sometimes I meet the most interesting people as part of my ski teaching during the winter.  This week was a good example when I was called to teach a private one on one ski lesson at the Learning Centre of Glen Eden Ski Resort in Milton, Ontario.  This is where the beginner skiers learn the basics of skiing on the easy ‘bunny’ hills.

I never know who the student is until I meet that person at the designated lesson time.  In this case, I didn’t know if the student is an adult or child, male or female.  I just knew the name was Naheed from what the supervisor had as far as advance information goes.

It turns out that Naheed is an adult lady who was already walking up the bunny slope a bit to try sliding down.  It turns out that she has been on skis before nine years ago but haven’t been on since.  She told me that she is now a grandmother and wants to relearn how to ski so that she can be on the ski slopes with her grandkids in the future.  Talk about a great incentive to learn!

Another interesting thing about Naheed is that she is of east Indian background.  First of all, most folks her age will usually not be taking ski lessons and this is especially true with ethnic grandparents.  Although we are starting to see some diversity on the ski slopes, it’s usually the younger generation that is trying out skiing so seeing Naheed out there is really impressive in my eyes.

After reviewing the basics of stopping and turning with Naheed, I told her that she was ready to tackle the bigger chairlift accessed slopes for her next ski lesson if she were to continue learning.  It turns out that she immediately booked another private lesson with me the next day to get introduced to the chairlift slopes.

We had an intensive hour the next day on the bigger slopes and by the end of that lesson, Naheed was able to slowly ski down the blue intermediate slopes with decent control.  Needless to say, she was quite happy with a huge smile when I told her to look back up that big slope she just went down.

In fact, she was so gung ho about her skiing that she went out to try out brand new skis.  I even convinced her to go out and buy a helmet next time in order to be safe and also serve as a good example for her grandkids.

So this was a very interesting and rewarding ski teaching experience for me as a ski instructor.  Naheed most certainly blew away the typical stereotype that many of us would have of Indian and other ethnic grandmothers!

Really Focus More For This Year

One of the things I’m going to do more for this year in 2013 is focus more.  Let me explain this.

I happen to like a lot of things and want to do better in many things.  As a result, I have found that in both my business and personal lives, I have been spread out too much among many different interests.  Since there is only so much time in a 24 hour day and a 7 day week, sometimes progress over all of these interests can be short of expectations.

The limited progress is often a result of not spending enough time and effort in any one interest since I dabbled in too many at one time.  It’s pretty well like the saying, ‘Jack of all trades but master of nothing’.  In my case, the ‘Jack’ could end up being a very little jack indeed.

Select Priority Areas To Focus On

So what I’m going to have to do is instead of dabbling in so many different interests, I’m going to select fewer ones as priority areas to focus most of my efforts this year.  This will be the case for both my business and personal lives.

Just as a quick example, I have several websites that each specialize in different unrelated interests.  I found that in 2012, I just could not give each one as much attention as I should.  So I’m going to concentrate only on a few of these websites instead.

Even as a professional speaker, I’m going to focus more on a select keynote topics.  Although I’ll probably still offer my current range of speaking programs, I’ll be blogging, talking and therefore promoting only what I will consider to be the main presentations for 2013.

It’s been proven that those who focus on a few areas and do them very well will be more successful than being spread out all over the place.  After achieving enough success in a certain area, I can elect to move onto another area to focus on, but certainly not before.

This will certainly be the case for learning foreign languages for example.  One just cannot learn a few different languages at the same time very efficiently.  It is always better to concentrate learning efforts in one new foreign language at a time.

When I was reviewing my basic Spanish to prepare for my trip to the Dominican Republic last fall, I found that I just could not fit in my studying of Chinese Cantonese.  So I had to abandon my Cantonese until after I came back from my trip.

I’ll start to share what main areas I’ve chosen to focus on in both my business and personal lives in future posts.

So a main theme for me this year in 2013 will be FOCUS!