What you can learn from this ebook

One of the greatest myths in this world is that we’re entitled to live a great life. That somehow, somewhere—someone—is required to fill our lives with continual happiness, enticing career options, empowering family time and blissful personal relationships simply because we exist on this planet. We expect these things—and when they don’t show up, for many of us at least, it’s someone else’s fault.

But perhaps the greatest truth in this world—and the one lesson we hope this program will help you learn over and over again—is that there’s only one person responsible for the life you enjoy here.

That person is YOU.

If you want to be successful, you have to take 100% responsibility for everything you experience in your life. From the level of your achievements to the results you produce, to the quality of your relationships to the state of your health and physical fitness— even responsibility for your feelings, your income, your debts… everything!

This is not easy.

In fact, most of us have been conditioned to blame something outside of ourselves for the parts of our life we don’t like. We blame our parents, our bosses, our teachers, our friends, our co-workers, our clients, our spouse, the weather, the economy, our astrological chart, our lack of good golf clubs—anyone or anything we can pin the blame on. We never want to look at where the real problem is—ourself.

There is a wonderful story that is told about a man who is out walking one night and comes upon a man down on his knees looking for something under a street lamp. The passerby inquires as to what the other man is looking for. He answers that he is looking for his lost key. The man offers to help and gets down on his knees and searches for the key. After an hour of fruitless searching, he says to the man, “We’ve looked everywhere for it and we have not found it. Are you sure that you lost it here?” The other man replies, “No, I lost it in my house, but there is more light out here under the a streetlamp.”

What you can learn from this ebook

Tip #1: Don’t Take Notes From Big Business

Is your marketing not yielding results justifying the investment? Before you react, consider your view of marketing itself. There’s a tendency for small business owners to consider marketing in the way big businesses practice it.

To illustrate the point, think of five advertisements. Now, compare your marketing budget to theirs. Do they compare?

Celebrity endorsements, television commercials and billboard ads are expressions of marketing that typically come to mind. It’s natural. We’re a product of our environment and we’re constantly saturated with corporate messaging.

How businesses have marketed over the past 80 years is a result of mass production. Large-scale output led to mass marketing and created mass media. Like its products, companies found that packaging and delivering marketing content was also an efficient business practice.

Businesses wanted their messages to be seen by the most people possible. The bigger, the better philosophy worked because demand exceeded supply. “Market” evolved into a verb. It became something that producers did to customers.

Plus five more tips…

What you can learn from this ebook

If you’d like to ensure your assets are distributed as you’d like them to be when you die, estate planning is the answer. Successful estate planning transfers your assets to your beneficiaries quickly and with minimal tax consequences. Estate planning can also assure that family members know how you’d like your financial and medical affairs to be handled if you become incapable of making your own decisions.

The process of estate planning includes inventorying your assets; talking over important decisions with family members; and making a will and/or establishing a trust. This brochure provides only a general overview of estate planning. You should consult an attorney, and perhaps a CPA or tax advisor, for additional guidance tailored to your specific situation.

What you can learn from this ebook

Many Americans today are living longer, healthier lives, which could mean your finances may need to accommodate extra years of retirement. It’s up to you to make yours a comfortable retirement. In most instances, Social Security alone will not provide you with as much money as you were earning
before you retired. That’s where a 401(k) comes in.

Fortunately, you may have access to a powerful retirement tool that can provide a portion of your
retirement income—a 401(k) plan provided through your employer. What you get out of a 401(k) generally depends primarily on how much you put in and how wisely you invest your monies. This booklet can help you reap the full benefits of your plan.

What you can learn from this booklet

True or False?

Mortgage lenders are required to give me the lowest rate available.

No matter what type of mortgage I have, as long as I continue to make monthly mortgage payments, my principal balance will fall every month.

With many types of mortgages, my monthly payment could go up a lot from one month to the next.

If the lender is willing to lend me the money for my dream house, I must be able to afford it!

I can always refinance my mortgage in the future.

To download this e-book, or any of our current e-books, please visit the ebook page where you may choose the e-book(s) you wish to download. *Download an e-book by clicking on it’s title.*

What you can learn from this booklet

When a brokerage is closed due to bankruptcy or other financial difficulties, the Securities Investor Protection Corporation steps in as quickly as possible and, within certain limits, works to return to you cash, stock and other securities you had at the firm.Without SIPC, investors at financially troubled brokerage firms might lose their securities or money forever…or wait for years while their assets are tied up in court.

To download this e-book, or any of our current e-books, please visit the ebook page where you may choose the e-book(s) you wish to download. *Download an e-book by clicking on it’s title.*

What you can learn from this booklet

No one is born knowing how to save or to invest. Every successful investor starts with the basics—the information in this brochure.

A few people may stumble into financial security—a wealthy relative may die, or a business may take off. But for most people, the only way to attain financial security is to save and invest over a long period of time.

Time after time, people of even modest means who begin the journey reach financial security and all that it promises: buying a home, educational opportunities for their children, and a comfortable retirement. If they can do it, so can you!

To download this e-book, or any of our current e-books, please visit the ebook page where you may choose the e-book(s) you wish to download. *Download an e-book by clicking on it’s title.*

What you can learn from this ebook

We’ve spent a lot of time cruising the websites of brokerage companies and we sympathize with you wholeheartedly. Many of the websites just don’t flow in a logical manner. Some are short and sweet, packed with great information about the company’s products and services. Others spend many pages saying virtually nothing that will help an investor make a decision about which broker is right for him. And one discovery we did make-from the number of pages we had to search to summarize the cost of doing business with them was that the majority of brokerage sites really want you to work hard to ferret out their commissions and fees!

In this report, we have selected 20 firms that offer an array of products for investors at any experience level, several of whom offer both Web-based and software-based trading.

What you can learn from this ebook

In an effort to describe, understand, and quantify the growth of greenwashing, TerraChoice Environmental Marketing Inc. conducted a survey of six category-leading big box stores. Through these surveys, we identified 1,018 consumer products bearing 1,753 environmental claims. Of the 1,018 products examined, all but one made claims that are demonstrably false or that risk misleading intended audiences.

Based on the survey results, we identified six patterns in the greenwashing, which we now recognize as the “Six Sins of GreenwashingTM”.

Of the 1,018 products reviewed, all but one committed at least one of the Six Sins of Greenwashing.

These findings suggest that greenwashing is pervasive, the consequences of which are significant:

• Well-intentioned consumers may be misled into purchases that do not deliver on their environmental promise. This means both that the individual consumer has been misled and that the potential environmental benefit of his or her purchase has been squandered.

• Competitive pressure from illegitimate environmental claims takes market share away from products that offer more legitimate benefits, thus slowing the penetration of real environmental innovation in the marketplace.

• Greenwashing may create cynicism and doubt about all environmental claims. Consumers – particularly those who care most about real environmental progress – may give up on marketers and manufacturers, and give up on the hope that their spending might be put to good use. This would eliminate a significant market-based, financial incentive for green product innovation and leave committed environmental advocates with government regulations as the most likely alternative.