Paul Ferraresi

July 1st is the half way mark of the year. Ah, those, lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer are upon us. Just 6 months ago you and everyone else were filled with excitement and enthusiasm for the New Year.

The slate had been cleaned fresh and you listed out all the dreams and goals you wanted to accomplish this year. How have you done? Hmmm! We are at the half way mark heading to the finish line. Have you looked at the goals you drafted out on a weekly basis? Have you tried to do one thing each week to get closer to that goal?

With six months remaining in the year, if you have not moved ahead on any or few of your goals it may look overwhelming. This is when people quit. NO! Take one of your goals on your list and let’s at least work on this one. Say your goal was to lose 10 pounds this year. If you have had no progress then, let’s try to lose just two (2) pounds by year end. (The real deadline will be November 1st because you know it can be difficult to lose weight over the holidays.) Do not worry about the weight. Just write down one thing that you will accomplish this week to get closer to that goal. For instance, think about a healthier life style, say, I will walk an extra 200 steps every day. That’s it. Next week add one more accomplishment to the above; for example, I will replace one of my meals with only fruits and vegetables this week. If you add one new item each week it will not be overwhelming and you will more than surpass the goal of losing 2 pounds.

You know, my wife has never competed in team sports in her life. Over a year ago she started attending a woman’s boot camp. Each morning she got up at 5:30 am with me and she headed off to her torture camp while I did my own routine. At first it was difficult but she moved ahead. She incurred a stress fracture on her foot and was in a “boot ” for about six weeks. To mark time during the boot phase she worked with a trainer at a gym. Continuing on her new “health kick” she next decided to join a woman’s running group after only one year of the boot camp. Well, she is still doing the boot camp, on track to do her first half marathon this January, works a minimum 60 hours per week, is doing strength training, and, has to live with me (that is a boot camp all on its own). She encountered, in her running, a re-injury of her stress fracture and numerous muscle pulls with much pain. She is dedicated and can “see the finish line”! You see, she has added a little bit every day. I am so proud of her and cannot wait to see her at the finish line. She is the model of a true winner.

In closing, may I stay on the topic of your health? As a start, visit www.adultfitness.org. You can take the President’s challenge which will give you a health base line. Also, I found a web site run by Dr. Michael Roizea who follows the concepts of holistic medicine. He has a quiz that allows you to determine your “true age” versus your “calendar years”! It is a simple quiz that takes a few minutes.

You see, one of Dr. Roizea’s patients, a smoker, took the test and found he was 10 years older than his calendar years of 47. It showed he was 57 which was the age the patient’s father had died at. So, with a few small changes the patient has subsequently now reduced his calendar age. Go to www.realage.com, sign in and take the quiz. It will be a eye opener. On the home page hit the drop down menu at “my real age”, then hit “Take the real age test.” Take the quiz. It is free. I think “getting younger than you are” may be a great goal to work on for the rest of this year Remember what Satchel Paige said…how old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?

I look forward to seeing YOU at the finish line with all of the other winners.

Most people think that the worst of the housing crisis has passed. They should be preparing for a flood of home inventory that will overwhelm the markets and cause prices to fall even further.

For the past 3-4 months there has been a form of moratorium on foreclosures set up by the present administration. Most institutions with delinquent mortgages have not foreclosed and your tax money has been used to cover the bank losses during this period (dumb move). There are only a few foreclosure signs in the neighborhoods, but, the rest of the banks are rushing to get their properties onto the market.

From December 2008 until March 2009 the number of bank asset managers inquiring about foreclosures dropped by 80%. Recently, the number of inquiries has skyrocketed as they see the inventory coming to market. Expect a flood of new properties in June.

Many investors entered the market too early and are now unable to “flip” the properties. They will now have these same homes foreclosed on them.

All of the administration’s efforts to revive the housing markets have failed. Those who are losing their jobs cannot buy homes, interest rates are rising, crowding out buyers and prices are continuing to fall.

Rental properties now have negative cash flows and will also come onto the market. In addition, builders are being supported in states like California. The state is providing a $10,000 credit to buyers of new houses bought directly from builders on top of the $8,000 Federal Credit. This encourages builders to build more houses that are not needed. It is estimated that more than 500,000 new homes will be built this year.

Lastly, many second homes were bought from the equity in people’s primary residence. Many of these homeowners need cash so they are selling the vacation homes which adds more inventory.

So with the end to the foreclosure moratorium and unemployment increasing it shows that more foreclosures are on the way. Keep you powder dry as there will be GREAT opportunities for you to make “buys” as prices continue to erode.

Would you like to learn how our clients avoided losing any equity values in their home? Or, how they avoided losing value in their serious retirement money?
Doug Andrew occasionally presents a 3 hour Educational Webinar. He has squeezed this program down to a 1 hour webcast. We have posted this webcast on our sister blog www.Wealthyfutureblog.com . To watch this power-packed informative program click the link. When you arrive at the Wealthy Future Blog got to the line that says “this 1 hour webcast” under the True Asset Optimization post and that will open up this great recorded webcast that you can view at your convenience. Don’t miss your fortune!!

The new administration’s “Payroll Czar” has just been appointed. The original job description is to oversee and regulate the incomes of employees in companies that got government bailout money. Watch out friends—-if you think that it will stop there—-you are sadly mistaken.
This administration wants to control everyone’s income. Look at the hypocracy. You are not supposed to have company functions in Las Vegas or other cities for that is wasted money. But, it is okay for the President to waste millions of your tax dollars for a Friday Night “date night” in New York.
Most Americans never connect the dots. As Pravda stated, the Russian state newspaper, the Democrats have reached their goal. They have maintained an ineffective education system in the U.S. for over 30 years. They have “dumbed down” America. Americans are more interested and more knowledgeable about “American Idol” than what is going on in the world.
During the campaign Obama stated that only the rich will have an increase in taxes. If anyone with a 3rd grade education had done the math, they would have seen that it was impossible to do that…it was a big lie.
Look at today. The present administration wants to cut the pay that top executives make. Remember, the top 20% of income earners pay 86% of all taxes.
Let’s say a person is earning $2 million per year. Their total tax rate is now in excess of 50%. Using 50% tax, then this person takes home $1 million and the Government gets $1 million. If the Government reduces a person’s pay to $1 million, then, in order to get the same tax money going into Washington, they will have to tax him @ 100%, i.e., confiscate all of that person’s income. So, with 100% of the money going to the Feds, then, no other money will be spent in the economy…more recession. By the way, I have not included all the new spending that is planned In this “ tax the rich scheme”.
Now, tell me, would you go to work knowing all your pay will be confiscated? That is socialism at its best.
Well, they could tax people at 120% of their pay! What?
Watch out below!

The fables told to gullible voters and the uninformed by President Obama that the rich got a tax holiday under George W. Bush is bunk.
Let’s take a look at the numbers. The share of the tax burden paid by the top 20% of households by income distribution actually increased. Those with average pretax incomes of $248, 400 increased significantly between 2000, Bill Clinton’s last year as President, and 2006 the last year in which data is available.
The Obama administration is set to increase taxes on the upper income people even more. He is trying to sell it as a retribution for the big breaks they allegedly got from Bush at the expense of the poorer folks. (Poor folks do not pay taxes)
The top 20% of households paid a record 86.3% of all taxes in 2006 versus 81.2% under Clinton. Hmmm to be “fair” the top 20% should only pay 20% and so forth…not almost 90%.
If the Democrats raise the tax burden they kill the golden goose. The bottom 20% of income earners saw their share of income taxes drop from minus 1.6% to minus 2.8% in 2006 (these numbers are negative because many in the lower quintile pay no income taxes, but, get money from child and other tax credits.)
If people claim the 5.1% increase in taxes for high earners was due to an increase in their incomes…well, that is wrong. The top 20% saw pretax income rise from 54.8% of the total in 2000 to 55.7% in 2006. A 0.9 percentage point increase. The top 10% share of income increased from 40.6% to 41.6% mainly due to a large number of low income tax payers being removed from the tax rolls.
For over one hundred years every time tax rates increase the tax revenue into Washington decreases. Every time tax rates decrease tax revenue increases. If you want less of something then simply tax it more. Duh!
Like the guy who went into the doctor and said…when I raise my arm it hurts..what should I do? Don’t do that! If they want more tax money in don’t raise taxes! Don’t do that.