July 21,2016 Are you prepared for war?

   Just the other day my brother sent me the above image and I could not help but fall in love with it. This conversation can be applied to almost every aspect of our life. It is essentially saying it is better to be over prepared than under prepared.

   One way that we can make sure we are over prepared for life is having an emergency fund. Approximately 62% of Americans  have less than a thousand dollars in savings. That basically means that only 38% of people are prepared for a minor emergency. Without an emergency fund we are one paycheck away from being homeless. If you don't have an existing emergency fund, start one today and get it up to a thousand dollars first. The goal is to get it high enough to cover three to six months of expenses.

   Another aspect of life that we need to be over prepared in is life insurance. Approximately 38% do not have life insurance. Death is inevitable and we have to prepare accordingly. A funeral is expensive, there is the cost of the plot, the wake, the casket and the headstone. A basic term life policy for twenty years can be as low as twenty a month. There are many options for life insurance, I'm no expert in on insurance so I'm not going to compare term life vs whole life insurance.

   This was a small post but it is food for thought. So make sure you stay prepared in life.

July 19th 2016, Are your friends real?

   Today I decided to talk about real friends vs associates. Let me know down below in the comments what you think. Also if you want to get our weekly news letter feel free to click on the subscribe/support us tab 

July 18th 2016, New Day, New me

   As the title states, today is a new day in my life. Today is the day that I take my first step towards the life I want. I have mapped out a plan of action and will do my best to stick to it. This action plan is in conjunction with my work schedule. Before you say that you don;t have anytime, I work 54 hrs a week in 6 days. This is not including my commute time which is two to three hrs each way. So don't think it's impossible and read on.

   The action plan I have developed is no walk in the park. If I follow it to a T then success should be guaranteed. The downside is for the next year or two I will not have a "life".  When I say that I will have no "life" means that I will have little to no leisure time. This is a concept that I learned from listening to Dave Ramsey and his proverbial "living on beans and rice". He uses this analogy to tell his listeners to cut unnecessary expenditures and save money to tackle debt. The "living on beans and rice" concept relates to my time management, I need to cut out the time wasters. I need to budget my time wisely, because lost time can never be regained. Not everyone is born with the same amount of riches, yet we all are born with the same number of hours in a day.

   After reading the previous chapter, you might be asking yourself why I don't just do a little more instead of jumping head first. Whenever you are fully immersed in something you tend to pick it up faster. By fully immersing myself in my action plan I will pick up ways to get more done in the allocated time. You also need to realize that you have to think big, you have to value and believe in yourself. By doing only the minimum how can you expect to get the same returns as someone who works their tail off. It's the same as attempting to pay a credit card off by only paying the minimum. Success is like an iceberg, everyone sees the success (the tip) but fail to see the hard work

July 12th 2016, We are spoiled

  Today’s post is going to be about an interaction I had today with a customer. The customer came in and spoke with me about a documentary they were working on, it was actually pretty interesting. The star of the film was a young boy from South Africa that loved to dance. After hearing the boy's story, I realized how good we have it as Americans.

  In today's society, the average American whines and complains about any little thing. We as American's are spoiled and we have spoiled our children. There is no reason that kids should be posting “FML!!! My parent's got me the wrong colored IPhone for Christmas. I'm going to break it so they have to buy me the right one.” This is an actual post that a child made and there's thousands more just like it. This little boy from South Africa has never owned a cellphone or even an ipod. He was given a cracked iPhone 4 ( a device that is 6 years old) and cherishes it. He is not complaining about the color or the fact that it is cracked because he knows that it is not a necessity but merely a luxury. It's not only in technology that we are spoiled, think of fashion. I hate it when I see someone wearing a pair of “designer” jeans that have holes in them. Someone taking a pair of jeans and cutting holes in them does not justify it costing a couple of hundred dollars. I was shown pictures of this boy wearing normal jeans, his expression was priceless. It was his first time wearing blue jeans and he was modeling them in the mirror. The jeans did not cost much and didn't have any big branding or holes in them, yet they brought joy to this child.

  Before you go off saying that we can't compare American kids to this child from a third world country, stop just stop. Where he lives there is no electricity and his grandmother has to buy prepaid electricity cards. Most people lose their minds when there is no wifi, imagine what they would do if they didn't have any electricity. This young boy is forced to live with his five other sibling in his grandmother's two bedroom house because his mother is a drug addict. His grandma sells homemade donuts to make ends meet. One day a woman purchase from her and seconds later a drug dealer who was waiting in line picks up this women and uses her as a human shield. Why you might ask, it’s because a rival drug dealer decided to do a drive by shooting to try and kill the man on the line. These are the conditions that this boy lives in, yet he is still able to smile and chase his dream. What's your excuse?

  The reason I wrote this post today is not to make anyone feel bad for this boy. Don't pity him, instead learn from him. His situation is much worse than most of ours and he doesn't complain about it. There has been many cases of police killing civilians and instead of peaceful protesting, people are killing cops. Stop trying to justify your actions with wrongs that are happening elsewhere. Look at the Trayvon Martin riots, people decoded to use his case to riot and loot. Two wrongs don't make a right!!!

July 9th, Let's Start Reading Again

   These past couple of days have made me question society. You might be thinking what is making me lose faith in society. Mobile phone games, everywhere I turn someone is on their phone playing a game. The reason that this is grinding my gears, is due to the fact that no one is reading anymore.

  As a little experiment I want you the reader to ask ten people a question. Ask them when was the last time they read a book. Some of the people that I have asked have stated that the last billion they read was in college. When I hear that people don't read, my heart skips a beat. Knowledge is power, if we are not learning then we are not growing. After we graduate from school, we have no one to teach us about the many trials life puts us through. That's where good come in, there is almost one book per subject. There's even books that teach a craft, like all the for dummy books.

  Listen, I’m not trying to say that you can't enjoy your commute. All that I am saying is we are throwing away valuable time. So many people spend their work down time on social media and games that it outweighs the time they spend actually working. Everyone always says they hate their job or they want more pay yet, they don't attempt to aquire a new skill set. I'm not saying that reading will solve all your problems, but it can help in many ways. People sometimes turn to alcohol or drugs to escape reality and these substances can have bad side effects or even cause death. You can read a nice fiction book and escape reality that way, worst case scenario you dislike the book or it leaves you craving more. So read a book and feel free to let me know how it went.

July 7, 2016 Ambition

  Beginning of July and the weather is already bad. As I sit here typing this post, it is over 90 degrees outside. For the next five days the weather will stay like hot. !right sound like a dream come true for many of you, but that's not the case for me because I am stuck inside working. So today I want to talk about ambition.

  Ambition is a strong desire to achieve something. When I hear the word ambition, a voice  asks me how bad do I want it. How badly you want something, is the true definition of ambition (in my opinion). For most big decisions in our lives, we make a decision based on a want. Think about the reason some people get married, to fill a void, to not be lonely, because they want to spend the rest of their lives with the person and many more. These are all wants, all our decisions are fueled by a want/desire. Ambition is one of the few things that can help us to change the direction of our lives (in a good way).

  The reason that I brought up the weather is because I am unable to enjoy it. The only way that I can enjoy the weather on a consistent basis is by changing my current situation. I would need to be able to live without the need of employment. To many of you reading this post, the concept of living without the need of employment sounds insane. The concept is actually quite freezable, that is if you have enough ambition. What is it that drives you to make you want to do more in life. What drives me is time. I want to be able to enjoy what little time I have left on this planet. Through society we are taught that we need to work for forty or fifty years until we are able to retire. Why do I have to wait until I'm seventy years old to buy a nice sports car and drive it through town mid day. So whenever I commute to work and see men over forty going to work, I tell myself that won't be me.

  Ambitions don’t have to only be for “big” things. Years ago I wanted a pair of headphones that cost $250. To get the headphones I didn't buy any food at work for a month and just ate cup of noodles. So whatever your ambition is let it drive you to success.

July 2, 2016 A Fateful encouncouter

   As i stated in previous posts, my job allows me to meet people of all walks of life. Today I was able to borrow fifteen minutes from someone who worked in the financial industry. I know that everyone reading this is saying to themselves, big deal I know accountants and stock brokers. The person I met was in their 90s, had been through the great depression, just celebrated their 70th Harvard reunion and they are worth millions of dollars. 

   If you were to see this person on the street, you would think that they were just another old person. I did not know that this person had a wealth of knowledge before hand. The topic came up when I was printing an email that one of her students sent her. I asked if she was a professor and she responded that she worked in the financial industry. After knowing that finances were their area of expertise, I started talking about my return in the stock market. As of writing this post I am currently up 20% in the stock market. Might not sound like a lot to some people, but the average return for investors is 7%. There in front of me was a financial mogul and as a young investor, I was not going to let this opportunity pass me by.

   The first topic that we discussed was diversification. The old saying is true do not have all your eggs in one basket. The second topic that we discussed was investing in companies that pay dividends. The dividends will be reinvested and help with your gains. Next we spoke of investing mostly in companies that do most of their business in America. The final piece of advise that I was given was.... Don't pull out of the market, stay there for the dark times because it can always get better. Time is your biggest asset when investing.

   I kept these topics vague, because I can't reveal all my secrets. The topics themselves are gems that I will live my investment life by. I recommend picking up some investment books to learn more. This person will be bringing me a list of stocks that they recommend and that list I will publicize 

June 21, 2016 A treat

   I recently found an old poem of mine that I wrote a little over ten years ago. This poem won me a competition and got me some Mets tickets. This poem was published in a book, so to prove it here's a high res image of the poem. Hope you enjoy.

June 16, 2016 Ghost writing

   Over the past few weeks, I have learned a very valuable lesson... If you want something done right do it yourself. I decided to pay someone to write something for me, to test the waters of a ghost writing partnership. This is a recap of my journey with ghost writing.

   Let me define the term ghost writer; Ghost Writer - a person whose job it is to write material for someone else who is the named author. I can hear your inner-voices saying, "Josh aren't you an author, why are you hiring someone else to write for you?"  Yes I am an author and could have done the job myself, but i decided to test out the waters. I used the site upwork.com to find a free lancer. The process was fairly simple. You set up an account as someone looking to hire a worker. You then create a job ad that lays out what you are looking for and how much you are willing to pay for the job. You get to send the ad to some of the best rated authors. Other than that, freelancers can contact you in regards to getting the contract. The site has an app that has a nice messenger to allow you to speak with the freelancers throughout the duration of the contract.

   I received many applications for my request, it struck me as odd that all of the writers were not from North America. After speaking with all the clients, I decided to go with a writer who showed passion in the idea. Communication was essential, I had to give the writer a general idea of what exactly what i was looking for. After giving them the terms of the agreement a contract was signed. After a milestone was reached, I was sent the work that had been done up to that point in time. If the work was up to par, then some of the funds were released. I had originally thought that the job would take about a month or two to complete. The job took this person only two weeks.

   Once the work was completed, I read it from start to finish. The work looked "perfect" in my eyes, hey I was ready to run with it. After having ca couple of people read excerpts from it, I decided to look at it as a consumer. I liked the skeleton of the work but hated the execution. So I had to decided to redo the whole thing, So I lost money on this investment, not much but I don't like to lose.

   The purpose of this post was really just me going over my journey with hiring a ghost writer. I'm not saying that outcome reflects the average outcome of hiring a ghost writer. If you decide to hire someone to do work in your place, just make sure that you don't review the work with rose colored glasses. Hey I do some ghost writing for sites.

May 26, 2016 Where I've been

   So recently many of you readers have been sending me emails regarding my mini hiatus. The reason for this hiatus was actually for you the reader. Sounds like an oxymoron but it actually a hiatus to work on some stuff for my loyal readers. All of the work that I have done over the past week has been in preparation of launching my first book. It will be live soon, just have to go through it one last time. At the bottom of this post you will find the cover for it.

May 24, 2016 Vlog Episode 4, My setup

   Sorry for the long delay withing posts, my life has been pretty hectic this past week. I will go into more details about that tomorrow. In the mean time here is a video about what I use to run this blog. In case you this blog is ran through square space. Hope you enjoy and I will see you in the next one.

May 16, 2016 Having a Breakthrough

   Today’s topic is another powerful topic that I am blessed to be able to talk about today. Today's topic is about having a breakthrough. Before you pass this blog post as something that does not apply to you STOP. Stay along for the journey, no matter where you are in life this information is crucial.

  Before we can dig into achieving a breakthrough we must define what a breakthrough is. The Webster definition of breakthrough is a sudden increase in knowledge, understanding, etc. My definition of a breakthrough is… Your eyes are finally exposed to the cold hard truth. The reason that I define a breakthrough like this is because when we have a breakthrough we see the world for what it is. Everything seems to fall into place and it all makes sense. In network marketing we called breakthroughs “magic moments”. It's a magic moment because it's almost like magic how everything makes sense by flipping one switch.

  The way most people have their breakthrough is by being fed up. Yes that is correct; most people have breakthroughs by hating their current situations and decide to do something about it. A prime example is my personal situation, I want more from life yet I always felt like I was in a rut. I was browsing the web and looking at memes; when I came across a book named How to make a million F*cking Dollars. I did not buy the book but there was a recommendation for a little book called The Total Money Makeover. That little book changed my life not only financially but in almost every other aspect of it. Before you go rushing to buy this magical book to uncover the secret of life, pump your brakes. This book only talks about getting out of debt, but the book represents my first step into taking control of my life. Years ago I decided to try network marketing because of a pain I felt in my work place. I got back stabbed when going for a new position and saw no hope in attaining more finances through the conventional way. I believed that network marketing was my solution and my breakthrough, but it was a halfhearted commitment.

  That's the problem with some of these magic moments. They sometimes are not true breakthroughs because we do not have 100% commitment. When you have a breakthrough you never want your life to go back to the way it was before. A prime example is an overweight person who has become physically fit, ask them if they are willing to become obese again. Their answer more than likely will be no. In my breakthrough I became fed up with not having financial freedom. After seeing how retirement truly is in America for those unprepared, I made a vow to myself saying that will not be my situation. If you have a breakthrough no matter how big or how small your breakthrough is follow through with it.

  Take that pain that forced you to snap and have the breakthrough, to help you stay on task. If you are fed up with your current situation then you will do whatever it takes to get out of it. Success is whatever you make it, but are you successful because you only see the world through rose colored glasses.

May 13, 2016 Vlog Episode 3, Some more questions

   Today we answer some more questions from college students

May 11, 2016 Putting something off for 'tomorrow"

  Today’s topic is on the subject of putting off things for 'tomorrow'. Before you start thinking that I am an advocate of procrastination, I am not in the least bit. Today’s blog post is actually reasons why you should not procrastinate. Sounds like common sense, well it is but that doesn't mean

  Today I had a talk with a good friend of mine, we discussed plans for tomorrow. The only problem with our conversation was that we were planning to be productive tomorrow but wasting today. By just talking about our plans we were just dreaming. The main reason we were still “dreamers” was because tomorrow is not defined. “Tomorrow never comes it is always today” -Oso. This is a powerful quote because it is essentially saying that we are constantly worried about the future that we forget about the present. If you are one of those people who say “I can just do it tomorrow”, then I have one question for you. What do you do if ‘tomorrow’ never comes?

  I remember when I was working in the financial district for a Fortune 500 company; I always thought about ‘tomorrow’ but it never came. I know I just confused many of you readers right now but ‘tomorrow’ not coming does not only mean death. When I say that ‘tomorrow’ never comes means that your future does not the way you planned. In my case my ‘tomorrow’ was a nice severance package or a raise. The ‘tomorrow’ that came was termination, which was totally unplanned for. At that time I was putting off paying off my debt for ‘tomorrow’. I always believed that my cash flow would not stop so I thought I could afford to keep my debt. Well six months without a job and no unemployment showed action today.at I truly could not afford to keep my debt.

  There are many people that see an invention or an idea that makes them say “Hey I thought of that first.” The difference between the observer and the inventor is one simple thing. The observer put off their work for ‘tomorrow’ whereas the inventor did their work today. I'm not saying that you have to go all in on an idea but take some action today. If you say that you want to quit smoking then take actions towards it. Work hard today so that tomorrow can be smooth sailing.

May 9, 2016 Motivation

   Motivation is a very funny subject and I am so glad that I am able to touch upon it in today's post. Not funny as in ha ha funny but funny because some people hate the idea. The reason some people hate the idea of motivation is due to a lack of knowledge. If you believe motivation is bad then this post will help change your view on the topic.

   Have you ever seen a person playing fetch with a dog? When the dog brings back the object the owner usually says something along the lines of good job or good boy. By saying this to the dog they are giving positive reinforcement to the pet so that the pet becomes trained in the game of fetch. Motivation is also a form of positive reinforcement. Let’s take a look at people who try to exercise and lose weight or get in shape. Every year millions of people say that they want to lose weight as a New Year resolution. Before the end of the month many people fail to keep up with their goal. One of the main reasons for failing is that they were not motivated. The best way to achieve the goal of losing weight or getting in shape is by working with someone or in a group. When you have someone else working out with you they can help motivate you and drive you towards success. Without motivation you are not achieving your goals or tapping into your full potential. Look at workers in the DMV do they look happy? Most of them hate their jobs and are not motivated hence why they do not even crack a smile.

   Motivation is something that we as humans need on a regular basis. "People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily." - Zig Ziglar. This quote is very true because we have 'internal batteries". When we are motivated we feel energized and that nothing can stop us. The feeling is comparable to when a young teen calls their crush for the first time and sets up their first date of their life. The night before the date the young teen will more than likely stay up all night. Throughout the night they are happy until they have their first negative thought. That negative thought brings more negative thoughts, with each new negative thought their "internal battery" gets lower and lower. Once their "internal batter" is empty they begin to dread the date. Something magical happens on the day the date, their "internal battery" instantly becomes full once they lay eyes on their crush. You might be asking what does that the story has to do with motivation, well the crush is a metaphor for motivation and the restless night is all the negativity from society. There are always factors of life that can bring negativity and motivation will help you stay positive and on track.

   Now there are some forms of motivation that in my honest opinion are bad. The major form of motivation that i feel is bad is over motivation. Have you ever seen someone that is over motivated about a topic that whenever you speak to them they only talk about that topic? I call this "rah rah motivation", this type of motivation is almost like a brainwashing. The people are so motivated that they refuse to change their beliefs no matter what. A prime example of this would be terrorist who believe suicide bombing is God's will.

   Hope you enjoyed today's topic. If you need motivation you can just look up some videos on YouTube. You do not have to watch motivational speaker, you can watch people like The Rock or Jim Carey. We look at celebrities and put them on pedestal, they are normal people like us. They have overcome many difficult situations and you can learn from them. Hey The Rock has an alarm clock that doubles as a motivational app. 

May 6, 2016 Vlog Episode 2, 21 Questions

    Today I accumulated a list of 21 questions from college students and these are my answers.

May 4, 2016 You are your own worst enemy!!!

  We all know the old saying that you are your own worst enemy. I endorse this saying one million percent. You might be thinking that this saying makes no sense. Well then sit back and buckle your seat belts, you’re in for a bumpy ride.

  I want everyone reading this post to close their eyes and think for a bit. I want you to think for the next minute of everything that is not going your way. Now in every single scenario that came to mind there was one thing that was consistent in each situation. It was YOU. You hinder your own success subconsciously. Right now if you unhappy with your current place of work, then what are you doing to getter a better workplace. Before you start saying that it's politics, the boss has it in for me, or the job market is bad I’m going to tell you to stop. Any reason you come up on why you can not accomplish something is called an excuse.if you are unhappy with the amount of money you are making then go out there and make more money. Before you think of reasons on why you can not make money think of ways to make extra money. In this example you can get a second job, start your own business or drive for uber the possibilities are endless. The main thing is to get out of the negative mindset of thinking the world is against you.

  This concept does not only apply to matters of money, it also applies to your health. If you are overweight don’t blame a thyroid condition or slow metabolism blame yourself. You can take little steps to lose weight like taking stairs rather than escalators and elevators and by cutting back on energy drinks. Before you come to chop my head off I just want to say that I am not a thin person saying this. I weigh over three hundred pounds and realized that I was always saying that I didn't have any time to work out and that's why I was fat. After doing some self reflection I begun to realize that time was not the issue and that I was simply lazy. Throughout the month of April I began to walk more and cut down my intake of sugar. The step I am taking now are not that radical compared to my year of being a vegetarian. In the month of April I have lost about twelve pounds by doing these little changes.

  If you feel that your relationship is in turmoil apply the same principle. Instead of blaming the other person and listing their faults, look at yourself and list your own faults. When you come home from work and see your significant other do you make those moments memorable. If not do you just come home and turn on the game and just watch tv all night. Let him who is without sin cast the first stone. Listen I am not going to turn this post into a marriage counseling session but just try it out.

  The last way that I want to touch on how we are our own worst enemy is when it comes to the people we surround ourselves with. We allow ourselves to be easily influenced by the people around us. This can be a good thing but in most cases the people around us can have a negative impact. If everyone around you is negative and always put your dreams down then there is a problem. All of their negativity affects your state and if they are negative you will become negative. If this describes your inner circle then you should lose contact with them for one week and see how your life is without them, You never know who is truly helping you or hurting you but why chance it?

  Today’s post is a lot to take in, don’t worry you might not fully understand what is written here. This topic is something that you have to revisit during different points in your life. Think about learning financial information at the age of 17 versus the age of 35. The information is of greater importance because it relates to your current situation.

                                                                                                                      Thanks for reading,

                                                                                                                                    Josh

May 2, 2016 Vlog Introduction

   Today I uploaded the first every Books by Josh vlog video. For those of you not familiar with what a vlog is, it is just a video version of a blog post. Other than just writing I want to do videos because sometimes you can not fully express yourself through text. So sit back, relax and enjoy this short vlog entry. 

April 29, 2016 Are you caught with your pants down?

   Just the other day I was having a conversation with a friend of mine and he brought up an interesting topic that intrigued me. This friend of mine is old enough to be my father so he has gone around the black a couple of times, so I value his knowledge. The topic that he touched upon was about always being prepared.

   'But Josh how can you always be prepared, when Life always throws something new at you?' I'm not saying that anyone is a hundred percent ready for anything that comes their way. I know people that are swinging at a fast ball and off a sudden Life throws a bowling ball at them. In my interpretation always being prepared means you never know what is coming your way but you have to be ready for it in some degree. A prime example of this is to always have a couple of business cards on you at all time. As an author, I must make it my duty to always carry business cards. The reason for this is because in my business I have to gain an audience and the best way to do that is by word of mouth. If I hand out one card to a person and they enjoy my writings, then they might tell their friends about my work. Guess what if I never handed out my business card to that person then I can not help them or the multitude of  people they are connected to. You may be thinking to yourself at this point that my example sounds like networking, well that's because it is networking. Many situations arrive throughout our lifetimes and one way to prepare for them is by having a network of people that can help you get through any situation. My network consists of  almost any profession or knowledge base, anywhere from garbage me to rocket scientist.

   Another way to be prepared for some of life's rough patches is a rainy day fund. This is something that I learned from Dave Ramsey. This fund has to be a minimum of a thousand dollars but not easily accessible. This fund is not for you to go buy the newest IPhone. A couple of months ago Murphy came a knocking (Murphy's law), in the form of my water heater failing on me. Even though I had an unplanned expense I was able to overcome it because of this rainy day fund. A thousand does not sound a lot of money but its just a starting point. When you can you can add more money in it because some obstacles can cost more than others. 

   Thanks for reading, the above information is not new but sometimes you just have to hear it in a different way.

                                                                                                                                          Stay prepared,

                                                                                                                                                     Josh R.

April 26, 2016 Are we Financially Secure

 Just the other day I was too sick to go into work. On my sick day my brain started to think about how financially secure I truly was. After evaluating all my monthly expenses against my savings and assets, I realized that I was not financially secure. If I was to be let go from my current job and unable to receive unemployment I would only e ale to survive for about 4 months.

   This post is just here to help you the reader re evaluate your current financial situation. Think about if you were forced to go on short term disability or your job closes down how would that affect your financial situation. I'm not here to tell you how to manage your money or anything, I am just asking do you really know where your money is going. The average American does not have a written monthly budget, and just like a goal statement if it's not written out then it is not binding. If you plan out everything accordingly then you get to allocate funds correctly and cut any unnecessary expenditures. 

   Other than learning how to budget your money, you must learn how to make your money work for you. There are different ways to make your money work for you such as stocks, mutual funds, real estate any many more options. To have my money work for me I personally have some money in mutual funds, some in stock and working on residual income from my books. For those of you that are not familiar with residual income, it is income that continues to pay out throughout your lifetime. Royalties for songs and payment on book rights are two simple forms of residual income. Without having our income work for us then we rely on our jobs as our only source of income. So if anything were to happen to our work we would essentially become financially insecure.

                                                                                                 Thanks for reading,

                                                                                                                 Josh