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this year’s PIGs

Hi everyone.

Well as it is not quite the third month of the year I can make this post and have it still count as a new year post right?

Last year was awesome for our PIGs as our business expanded (actually tripled) over the course of the year, we set up 2 LLCs (our first companies!), and started a new Network Marketing organization.

January was a little big of a mess though as I scrambled to make sense out of my personal accounting and present all the necessary information to our CPAs in a way that would make sense to them.  Good book-keeping may be boring but you’ll never become financially free without it!

This month has been a mess also as we have been snowed in, I haven’t been able to golf (boo hoo!), and I finally had to take my trusty old Gateway PC to that big geek farm in the sky.  After spending a week struggling with a brand new Gateway running Windows 7 I finally took the plunge and switched over to Mac.

The iMac is great but the switch required a different kind of scramble as I had to recreate or replace all the software I was using with Windows.  Well actually I didn’t, but I didn’t realize that until later.

The hardest program to replace was my Microsoft Money.  It’s not the best product in the world but it was certainly the best I have ever found for what I needed.  Not only was it able to make sense out of our multiple accounts, but it had a cashflow forecasting feature that I depended on.  That also turned out to be the toughest feature to replace.  Most of the finance software out there lacks this critical feature.  I finally found a program called moneyGuru for Mac.  It’s not perfect either, but I LOVE the cashflow forecasting features in it.

Here’s a secret.  I enjoy playing with the financial software.  I admit it.  My wife Amanda outed me this week when she said I enjoy playing with the financial software more than I enjoy playing my computer games!

Remember, I am on a quest for Passive Income Generators that will increase our passive income, our monthly cashflow, and therefore our lifestyle.  Without having Cashflow charts in an easy to read format I would have to resort to spreadsheets or (gasp!) budgeting to keep track of how our spending impacts us.  Any software can tell you what you’ve done.  I don’t care about that, that is in the past!  The Cashflow forecasting tells me how the decisions we make today will affect us next week, next month, and next year.  As the kids say, that’s whats up!

So that brings me to the title of my blog post, this year’s PIGs.

One of the things we learned last year is that spreading ourselves too thin, trying to do too many things at one time, is counter-productive.  So we have streamlined a little bit in what we are focusing on for this year.

Our main PIG is still our Second Life land business.  We are striving to increase our profits this year by a little more than double what we did in 2009.  This will get the business to the point where we can hire a full time General Manager at good wages, and put the P back in the -IG.  (If you have trouble following my abbreviations just let me know in a comment and I will break it out for you further.)

Not only will this free up some time, but it will also get the business spitting out extra cash that we can use to create or expand other PIGs.

Along with our Second Life expansion, our Open-Sim based world, Segarra Open Grid, is starting to take off as well.  Our goals for this year is to get that business to become a proper PIG in its own right by the end of the year.

Those two income generators are awesome but they are both in the realm of what we like to call Virtual Real Estate.  For true wealth-building we seek multiple PIGs from different areas.  That way if for some reason one PIG dries up, gets slaughtered, or we sell it for cash, we still have other PIGgies bringing in cash for us.

So our second primary PIG for this year is our GDI Power Team.  We will build this over the next few months until it becomes a very nice PIG in its own right, with room for massive growth in the years to come.

Finally, we have our eyes set on purchasing rental real estate before the year is out.  This will add to our passive income but also give us the opportunity for additional tax breaks which we will certainly need!

All told, our goal is to increase our PIG revenue by $10K/month by the end of the year.

Even if we fall short of our goal, we fill have a mighty fine year!

Be on the look-out for Passive Income Generators that you can add to your own portfolio.  These can be anything from cash producing real estate, profitable businesses, even interest income from savings.

The PIGs shall set you free!

Cashflow Real Estate Deals

Hi everyone!

Happy New Year!

It has been awhile since I posted and I’m going to keep this one short.  I have a number of great Wholesale Real Estate deals that have crossed my desk in recent weeks.

Investing in rental properties is a great way to increase your Passive Residual Income, especially when you can find them at these prices.

Take a look at the listings and with quick math you will see you if you paid CASH for these properties your ROI will be anywhere from 18% to 43%!  With the right financing your returns will be even better.

Oh and did I mention we can get you financing with just 20% down payment?!

If you are investing in Real Estate for Cashflow why are you still shopping?

Don’t let a great deal pass you by.  Take a look at the list and let me know what captures your fancy!

Have fun, and good luck!

Click here for full sized image.

Our Week in the Poconos

Hi everyone.

Once again the weeks are flying past and oops I skipped all the way through September and here we are a good way into October and I haven’t even posted a little peep about what we have been up to!

Before I get to far into this post I want to say Hello! and Welcome! to all of my new Facebook friends, Twitter followers, and of course to new subscribers to my blog.

August turned out to be a tight month for our Second Life land business so after some house-cleaning we rebounded and had a very satisfactory September.  So far in October we are taking off like a rocket but like all businesses ours has its ups and downs.

Last month Amanda and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary by taking a week off. We went up to the Poconos for our 2nd honeymoon and had a fantastic time.  It was great to take a break from our businesses, reconnect with each other, and also to reflect on the past year.

And when I say we took a week off, I mean exactly that.  I did not turn on a computer, take a phone call, check email, or send a text message the entire week.

OK I know at this point some of you are saying – James took a vacation, what’s the big deal?

Well, it may not be that big of a deal for you, but without being too dramatic I will say it was a definite milestone for me.  Our GRN membership allowed us to stay in a nice one bedroom condo, with a view of Lake Wallenpaupack, all for about $300 for the entire week.  This meant we had plenty of cash left over for what we like to call “mad money” and we were able to do everything we wanted to do while we were on vacation!

We went to Bushkill Falls and hiked the 2 hour “red” trail hike.  It was beautiful but some fellow hikers laughed in appreciation when on our way out I said the Exit sign was the most beautiful thing I had seen all day. Ha.  It was kind of like being in a sauna, it is enjoyable, but you enjoy it even more when it is over.

We went to Kosta’s Family Fun Park for a day.  We played mini golf (Amanda won), laser tag (Amanda won), and even did the go-kart track (Amanda won).  Can you sense a pattern?  I really enjoyed that go-kart track though, we went around the loop three times I think.

We went to Woodloch Springs Golf Course and played the back nine.  It was a beautiful but humbling course.  There were many elevation changes and every single hole had a forced carry, most of them over thick rough.  I foolishly forgot to buy more golf balls before we started.  We had three or four holes left to play when we were flat out of the golf balls we started with!  Fortunately Amanda was good at scavenging and found some strays that we used to finish our round.

We went horseback riding through forests and fields, and negotiated with the owner of the Bed & Breakfast in an attempt to structure a deal that would allow us to take over the 200+ acre grounds.  The horses were nice, and the owner was nice, but I think for now the purchase of the land and business is going on our wish list.

We were so sore after the horseback riding and the golf, that we were grateful to have booked a massage mid week.  That was my first time getting a massage and while I was a little freaked out I have to admit I felt much much better afterward.

In addition to those activities we also did a bunch of driving and exploring the area.  We had a couple of nice restaurant meals, but we mostly enjoyed Amanda’s cooking thanks to the full kitchen in the condo.  We watched some movies on the flat-panel TV.  We read books.  We went on walks.  Amanda finished 50% of a 1000 piece puzzle.

In short, we had a wonderful week, and returned rested and rejuvenated.

The icing on the cake was when we finally checked in on our businesses, we discovered that our Second Life land business brought in $4700 USD worth of revenue while we were gone. Some of that we even got to keep!

Coincidentally or not, since our vacation I have had a few conversations with aspiring entrepreneurs about life, goal setting, and business.  It is fun to share the successes, but our week in the Poconos was, truth be told, years in the making.

By know most of my readers know that I am a big fan of Robert Kiyosaki.  Years ago I had a chance to go to a Cashflow 101 game meeting in Syracuse, New York.  I had never played the game before, and I only knew about it from reading Robert’s books.  Well as it turned out I didn’t play that day either, as aside from the host I was the only other person to attend the meeting.

We didn’t play Cashflow but we did have a nice chat about the game and about Robert’s books and teachings.  I don’t remember this man’s name, so for the sake of the story I will call him Tom.  Tom was a truck driver and real estate investor.  He bought residential rental properties for cash flow.  He also drove truck.  All week long while he was driving truck, he listened to Robert Kiyosaki tapes.  When he took his meal break, he would sit for a half hour or hour and read one of Robert’s books.  And when he wasn’t driving truck or studying the Rich Dad philosophy, he was taking action and increasing his passive income.

We talked a bit about the land lord business.  He told me how foolish it was that people strive for +$100/month on their properties, when something as simple as a broken window will kill your cash flow for the month.  He told me how to improve a property and collect more rent by installing ceiling fans, pretty much in every room.  He told me about negotiating for properties by including people’s personal possessions in the negotiations.  He told me about getting someone to include their motorcycle and their sofa along with their house.

He told me a lot of things that day, but there is one piece of advise he gave which is the same advise I give today.  At the time I was starting to dabble in internet marketing and building websites, but had not yet achieved any level of success.  And the advise he gave to me was this:

Whatever you choose as your wealth vehicle, whether its websites, real estate, stocks, network marketing, building businesses, make sure it is something you enjoy.

That sounds simple, but without following his advise, I never would have been able to enjoy my 2nd honeymoon in the Poconos while our internet businesses cranked out cash.

Pursuing the path of financial freedom isn’t easy.

But if you choose something you love, you will get there.

It is too easy to quit, to get discouraged, to get negative, to give up.

But if you chose that thing you love to do, whatever it is for you, you will get past that.

Becoming financially free is hard work.  Anyone who tells you otherwise is telling you a fairy tale.   But if you chose something that you love, the work won’t seem that hard.

You will get into the zone where you can put in those 12 hour days and get up the next day eager to do it again.  You will have that energy that allows you to quack like a duck and let all the (excuse the language) bullshit roll right off your back and you can keep on keepin on.

You will be able to survive those lean months while your business is getting off the ground, and overcome the inevitable ups and downs.

You will get to that point where you can enjoy your own week (or more!) in the Poconos while the cash keeps rolling in.

Have fun, and good luck!

What do you do?

Hi everyone. Yes, this month has turned out to be nearly as hectic as last month.  Please accept my apology for the lack of new posts!

One question that keeps coming up over and over again, that I struggle with, is the simple inquiry: “What do you do?” This is a natural question and back in the days when I worked a J-O-B it was a little bit easier to answer.

These days, and for roughly the past three years, my answer tends to be: “As little as possible!”

I know that may sound kind of funny, but it really is true.  I have posted before about how we structure our businesses with the goal of placing them on auto-pilot, but the reality is we still do quite a bit of work.  Partly because we need to to keep everything going, partly because we don’t like to rest on our laurels so we are constantly expanding, and partly because, well, I like to work.

Working from home, owning multiple corporations, marketing on the internet, for most people who ask me “What do you do?” – what I actually do on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis is so far removed from their reality that it is too complicated to try to explain.

So I simply say, “As little as possible!” If I am pressed a little more, I will say Internet Marketing.  Depending on the level of interest I may go further and attempt to explain about one of our businesses.  Actually, if someone asked me what did my corporations do it would be easier to answer.

The question came up again yesterday when I was on the golf course.  Now that I think of it, it comes up quite a bit on the golf course, I guess because golfing is a big time commitment in and of itself.  I gave my standard answer, but in reality my day went something like this:

9AM woke up and showered etc.
10-11AM Skype chat with our girl in the Philippines.  She needed some guidance.
11A-3 PM breakfast, reading, emails, and started to list one of our websites for sale
3-7 PM golfing!
7-8 PM catching up on our Second Life business and Segarra Private Grid business, dinner
8P-12:30 AM listed our website for sale, forum marketing

So, what did I do?  I slept in until a comfortable hour.  I went golfing.  I got some reading done.  And I worked for something like 6 or 7 hours while keeping multiple businesses going.

The point I’m trying to make is this: to me, time freedom is everything.  I have posted about this before but it is worth repeating.

Another example: on Tuesday Amanda and I had to get up at 5 AM to travel to Baltimore for a medical appointment.  The drive is about 2 hours each way, so by the time we got back home it was about 3 PM in the afternoon and we were physically and emotionally drained.  So we did a little bit of this and that but for the most part took the entire day off from work.

I didn’t have to schedule it in advance.  I didn’t have to request time off with my boss.  I didn’t have to call in sick.  Our businesses kept on earning. Without checking every income stream, I know we brought in over $400 that day, and neither Amanda nor I were “on duty” while this happened.

Sometimes lately I am reminded of an old Beetle Bailey comic that I saw, where they say that Beetle works real hard at being lazy.  That’s me to a T!

I encourage you to join me in doing “As little as possible!”

Have fun, and good luck.

Hectic Month

Hi everyone.

Taking a glance at my blog for this month should give you an idea of just how hectic things have been this month!  I haven’t posted all month aside from posting about our Mastermind Webinar series.

Here’s what’s been happening.

Last month we had our Cashflow 101 meeting where one of my friends suggested I read the book The Four Hour Work Week.  I had heard about the book before but didn’t think much about it.  I have pretty much been waiting for it to come out on paper back.

Well the following weekend Amanda and I went down to the beach, spent some money, and had some fun.  While we were down there I picked up a couple of records (the vinyl kind) (that you listen to) (oh nvm), and Amanda picked up yet another book on gardening.  We wandered into a bookstore and I happened to see The Four Hour Work Week there so I thought what the heck.  I have $20 in my pocket, the book costs $20, I need a new book to read, let me go ahead and get it.

Now at this point you may be thinking – wait a minute.  Why is it that he gets a book called the 4 hour work week and then gets too busy to post on his blog?!  hehe fair question.  I read the book as quickly as I could absorb the information, and I think it is absolutely fantastic.  It covers a lot more information than just “outsourcing” which is what I thought it was all about.

I followed up my reading by subscribing to Jon Jonas’ program called Replace Myself, which is kind of a practical, hands on, step by step guide on how to multiply your income by hiring workers from the Philippines.

See what happened was this.

I’ve been thinking a lot about outsourcing in different ways.  Our “bread and butter” internet business is thriving, but some of our other businesses have been somewhat stagnant.  Partly it is because our main business was eating up too many minutes (time), and partly it is because, frankly, the work involved in the other businesses is tedious.

To be successful in those businesses you have to do certain things every day, day in and day out, for weeks and months on end.  Kind of like having a job.  I don’t mind doing the work to learn the business, but at some point to get what I need out of life I have to hire other people to do the grunt work.  Or what Amanda and I like to call Post Monkey stuff.

I also realize that for this to work well there are some things that I am going to have to do myself.  That’s just the nature of internet marketing, or in particular Network Marketing like Amanda and I are doing.

So all of these things have been happening at the same time, which has made for a very hectic month!

1. We started hosting our Mastermind Webinar series.  This takes up a lot more time and effort than you would think.  I have new respect for people who are able to do this every week!

2. We hired a General Manager for our Second Life land business.  This has meant spending time training at nights when I’d rather be goofing off.

3. We spent time interviewing and hiring our first workers from the Phillippines.  This has meant training, plus making videos and documents etc than can be used for future training.

4. We have been working on our expansion of Segarra Estates to include Open Sims.

All of this has added up to a lot of working minutes this month, with the goal of increasing our income, and free time, in future months.

Everything we do is for the goal of getting paid multiple times for the same efforts.  The effect of it is sometimes we work a whole bunch, and sometimes we play a whole bunch, and we keep on earning while working or playing!

When you understand the difference between being a business owner and being stuck in a self-created job, you can start enjoying the life of your dreams.

Have fun, and good luck!

The Truth About Networking

The TRUTH about Networking – It’s NOT what you think!

Do you know the TRUTH about Networking?

I’m not talking about Network Marketing, not necessarily.

I’m talking about real world, real life, now and forever, Networking!

Are you ready for the TRUTH?

Join James & Amanda Hagarty of Daba Cashflow Solutions
for the fourth webinar in our Mastermind Group Series.

We have been delving into the secrets of The Go-Giver, and what we have discovered is astounding.

This week we will discuss the Law of Influence, and you will learn what Networking REALLY is – and what it’s NOT!

Would you like to have your own ARMY of personal walking ambassadors?

Do you understand the difference between a Friend and a Creditor?

It’s not as obvious as it seems.

Even the age-old law of Win-Win, 50/50 – is a LOSING Proposition.

Don’t believe me?  I don’t care!

If you are ready to learn the TRUTH – join us Wednesday night!

Wednesday July 22nd at 6PM Eastern Time.

REGISTER NOW:
Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/160235122

Daba Cashflow Solutions
Mastermind Group Live Call for Members and Guests.

Join Us this Wednesday Night and listen live.

6PM Eastern
5PM Central
4PM Mountain
3PM Pacific

Time Converter Link:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

See you Wednesday!

James Hagarty
www.DabaCashflowSolutions.com

PS Your Commitment is critical!

Webinar3 Recording Now Available

We had a great time with Wednesday’s webinar.

For those of you who missed it, it is available online here:

virtualbreadwinner.com/mastermindwebinar3.wmv

Enjoy!

Is providing VALUE really all you need to succeed?

“Being broke and being rich are both decisions.  You make them up…Everything else is just how it plays out.” — The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea

What is the Second Law of Stratospheric Success?

Is being RICH really as simple as making a CHOICE?

Is providing VALUE really all you need to succeed?!

Are your LIMITING BELIEFS keeping you from the SUCCESS you DESERVE?!

Join James & Amanda Hagarty of Daba Cashflow Solutions
for the third webinar in our Mastermind Group Series.

So far we have discussed the Trade Secret and the Law of Value.

This week we will piece things together with

the Second Law of Stratospheric Succes!

We will help you understand why Providing Value,

in and of itself, is not enough.

AND – what you can do about it!

Wednesday July 15th at 6PM Eastern Time.

REGISTER NOW:
Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/606537058

Daba Cashflow Solutions
Mastermind Group Live Call for Members and Guests.

Join Us this Wednesday Night and listen live.

6PM Eastern
5PM Central
4PM Mountain
3PM Pacific

Time Converter Link:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

See you Wednesday!

James Hagarty
www.DabaCashflowSolutions.com

PS If you lack Commitment, don’t bother to attend!

Webinar2 Recording Now Available

Hi everyone.

We had a great time with Wednesday’s webinar.

For those of you who missed it, it is available online here:

virtualbreadwinner.com/mastermindwebinar2.wmv

Enjoy!

The Go Giver: The First Law of Stratospheric Success

“I need you to agree that you will test every Law I show you by actually trying it out. Not by thinking about it, not by talking about it, but by applying it in your life.”
– The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea

Join James & Amanda Hagarty of Daba Cashflow Solutions
for the second webinar in our Mastermind Group Series.

We will review the Trade Secret and discuss the First Law of Stratospheric Success.

Discover the impact that these simple concepts have when applied to your own life!

Wednesday July 8th at 6PM Eastern Time.

REGISTER NOW:
Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/195996107

Daba Cashflow Solutions
Mastermind Group Live Call for Members and Guests.

Join Us this Wednesday Night and listen live.

6PM Eastern
5PM Central
4PM Mountain
3PM Pacific

Time Converter Link:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

See you Wednesday!

James Hagarty
www.DabaCashflowSolutions.com

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