Financial Freedom Insider

From Mark Ford, founder, Palm Beach Research Group: At the beginning of your career, you had high hopes. A big, beautiful house—bought and paid for. A cottage on the beach.

A vintage car collection. A country club membership.

But things didn’t turn out that way. No cottage. No car collection. Only $20,000 in savings, and no equity in your house.

What happened?

For a while, it seemed like everything was moving along nicely. And then… pop! The dot-com bubble burst in 2000. And pop! The real estate bubble collapsed in 2007. And then, pop! Pop! Pop! A slew of other unanticipated disasters…

So, here you are. And it sucks.

It may not be your fault. After all, you worked and saved for many years. However, it is your responsibility. If you want a better life, you’re going to have to do something about it.

The good news is you can change your financial fate… starting today. And it doesn’t matter how little you have or how old you are right now.

You can start enjoying a secure, comfortable life in a matter of weeks… and then experience a steady improvement in everything as time goes on.

The goal is for you to have a debt-free home, cash in the bank, and assets hidden away for safety… plus monthly income to cover your retirement expenses for the rest of your life.

The requirements:

1. A can-do attitude
2. The ability to devote five to 15 hours per week to creating change.

As I said, things will begin to improve in just a few weeks. And they’ll get better as each month passes. A year from now, you’ll be in a much better financial situation. Three years from now, you’ll be comfortable.

Before the end of the seventh year, you’ll have a seven-figure net worth.

This strategy has three parts. I designed it specifically for people who are in financial trouble. That means anyone with less than $50,000 in liquid assets (cash, bonds, and stocks), little or no equity in their homes, and only Social Security to count on after they stop working.

  Three things you should do now

Here’s what you must commit to doing… starting now.

1. Rectify your debt. Debt is dangerous for everyone, but it’s lethal for the not yet wealthy. We’ll talk about this in more detail later.
2. Change the way you spend, save, and invest. It’s impossible to become wealthy in fewer than seven years simply by picking better stocks and bonds. You have to spend less, save more, and invest smarter. (I call the method I’ve devised to do this “the Secret of the Golden Buckets.”)
3. Develop additional income. The amount of money you have to invest is the single most important factor in building wealth. There are many, many ways to increase your income.

I’d like you to think about whether you agree with me on this point: Changing your financial situation can’t be done by investing alone.

If you agree with me, I’d like you to make a commitment to all three parts of my core strategy.

Are you willing to get to work on eliminating your debt? Really? It’s going to require some tough decisions. Are you ready to make them?

Are you also willing to change the way you spend, save, and invest? It may sound easy, but most people find it difficult to change their spending and saving habits. Are you willing to try?

And finally, are you willing to do what it takes to make more money? This, I’m sure, sounds difficult. It means extra work. And extra responsibility. But it’s a necessary part of the overall strategy. So, I must ask you to commit to this as well. Can you do it?

Before you answer, let me be more specific about the kind of changes I’m asking you to make.

Are you willing to spend time considering my ideas about developing extra income and personal wealth?

If you have debt problems, are you willing to take the time to contact all your creditors and negotiate new terms?

Are you willing to reduce your spending—maybe even drastically? Are you willing to buy smaller toys? Drive a cheaper car? Live in a less expensive house?

Are you willing to take a serious look at your investments and, if necessary, change your asset allocations?

To earn extra income, are you willing to put in the effort to become a superstar employee? Work more billable hours? Start a side business?

Are you willing to consider investing in rental real estate?

I’m asking these questions because I’ve discovered there are lots of people out there who want—and need—more money. But few are willing to do anything about it.

They’re willing to invest in XYZ stock if they’re told it’s going to go up 1,000%. But they’re not willing to learn why that kind of investing is guaranteed to make them poorer.

They like the idea of having more income… so long as they don’t have to put any extra time into creating it.

They’re willing to save more—but only a few dollars here and there. They refuse to even consider downsizing to a smaller home.

Hear this: Money doesn’t flow easily from those who have it to those who don’t. It takes more than thinking. It takes time. And it takes work.

Here’s an example. I am, as you may already know, a big proponent of investing in real estate. I acquired almost half of my net worth that way.

I know, for many people, the idea of buying real estate is detestable. You may feel this way. If you were suckered into the real estate Ponzi scheme that collapsed on itself in 2008, you may have sworn off real estate investing for good.

But that’d be a mistake. Real estate investing has always been one of the primary wealth-creation routes in America.

The real estate market, like all financial markets, has its ups and downs. There are times to get into real estate and times to stay out. I urged my friends to get into real estate from the late 1990s until about 2005. Almost nobody listened to me.

And then, when the market became clearly overpriced, I warned them not to buy. They thought I was crazy.

I began aggressively buying again in early 2010. By that time, a few of my friends had decided to heed my advice.

One of them, a doctor, bought 50 low-income homes in Lake Worth, Florida (about 15 minutes north of Delray Beach), for an average price of $50,000.

Today, those homes are worth, on average, about $100,000.

That’s a $2.5 million gain… in less than five years.

But he’s not after the capital gain. He invests for the income (which is what I do). He uses the rental income on those properties to pay for the management and upkeep and to pay off the mortgages.

When the mortgages are paid off (in only three more years), he’ll be netting more than $300,000 per year. And if rental prices go up (which is very likely), that income will be even greater.

That money will be coming to him, free and clear, for the rest of his life. He won’t have to do anything except meet with his property manager and accountant every couple of months.

That’s what I call financial security.

I’m telling you my doctor friend’s accomplishments to illustrate a point.

He was skeptical of real estate investing when I first recommended it to him. He was smart enough to know if he made the wrong moves, he could end up losing money (like so many millions of Americans did in the housing collapse).

But he was willing to listen to my thoughts and look at the numbers I showed him—numbers from my own real estate investing and from other people I’d advised. That convinced him to try it. To put his foot in, one toe at a time. And now, he knows the game as well as—or better than—I do.

It all starts with having an open mind and a willingness to learn.

Reeves’ Note: Mark shares the specific methods he’s used to amass an eight-figure net worth in the Wealth Builders Club. Within one year, it’s possible to earn an extra $104,000 using just two of these secrets.

Tom’s so confident in Mark’s system, he’s offering an unprecedented guarantee on your first million dollars. Click here to get started…