Are you Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

Be aware my friends, until February we are being heavily tracked by the big bad wolves on our way to grandma’s house.  ‘Grandma’s house’ for most of us is financial freedom, retirement lifestyle wealth and the ability to give to others less fortunate.  We are innocent, just looking for guidance, and end up following the lead of the wolf.

The ‘wolves’ I’m talking about are the financial professionals whom are out to gain only for themselves, or worse, seem to THINK they are helping but DO NOT REALIZE they are leading you to the cave.

It's rare I turn on the television but when I do it’s to watch hockey or ‘unplug’ my brain watching re-runs of Seinfeld.  But now, in the midst of the RSP selling season, I’m interrupted with commercials about how the financial industry is going to help me and my family retire.

If it was 2006 again for me, I would probably believe the hype and think “yea, I gotta get my act together and make an appointment to see these guys.”

You know what?  I DID get my act together, in 2007 when I took on Real Estate investing as a full time career. 

That wasn’t it either;

I did what 10% of 1% of 2% of 4% does:  DESIGNED A PLAN to build my wealth & achieve financial freedom.

Now what does 10% of 1% of 2% of 4% mean?  I borrowed the quote from my friend and broker Peter Kinch.  In his book The Canadian Real Estate Action Plan, he says roughly 4% of Canadians will ever buy real estate as an investment which puts anyone who owns investment property in the 96th percentile.  Out of those, about half of them will buy two or three properties to supplement their income.  To further the statistic, maybe HALF of them decide to truly educate themselves bringing the total of sophisticated investors down to 1%.  Finally, out of the 1%, only about 10% of THOSE investors decide to create a PLAN and treat their investment portfolio as a business.

So I am PROUD to say my wife and I ARE 10% of 1% of 2% of 4%!!!

Here we are almost four years into our Real Estate investing and our lives have DRAMATICALLY changed.  Changed in so many ways I could blog for months on end straight before I ran out of examples.  I look back to all the people I told when I was embarking on this new career and see them still sitting on the fence, basically doing exactly what they were four years ago.

These are the same people who now come to me for ‘advice’ on how they should structure their RSP contributions because I ‘sorta know what I’m talking about’.  Are you kidding me?

Their view of my knowledge doesn’t upset me, what gets me is how they can ignore the success change right in front of them.

Here’s the kicker:  “I wish I could be as successful as you one day”.  “Well, you can!  With much quicker results because I’ve already been through the trenches.  I’ve got battle wounds and have emerged from one of our worst economic times to give you the advice and help you need” is a paraphrase of my answer.

Their reply (one of many)?   “Well BNN had this report about the Canadian housing market and how it is overpriced and just about to breakdown – I think for now, I’m going to play it safe and keep my money in RSP”

‘FOR NOW’?  ‘PLAY IT SAFE’?  Didn’t the ‘safe market’ just rip away an average of 40% from everyone?  How do these people estimate ‘for now’? How long is that?  And how long have they been saying it?

I'll stop here for now as I could go on forever.  I realize today’s post is more of a rant, but when I see the commercials and talk to the same people who continuously follow the same patterns it makes me kind of sad I can’t get through to them.  But on the other hand,  it helps me pinpoint others who ARE ready to make financial freedom their goal. Maybe in print the others will listen!

Great Speed Forward and THANK YOU to all the veterans and their families who helped make my life as free as it is!