 The Consistency Pill by Simon Chan
DISCLAIMER - I am not a Financial Advisor and do not work for any Brokerage Firm. The opinions given are my own and are not to be used as professional advice. These are my findings and can help you to make informed decisions on investing. Consult a Broker or Lawyer before making any investment. The Consistency Pill by Simon Chan is a book about how to get things done. It teaches you to be a great salesman, and even greater how to live a highly productive life. Perhaps of all 100 books I have read on finances and habits this year, it is one of the best. The reason I say this is that it is not complicated. The Number 1 skill needed to be successful is consistency. Perhaps no book I have ever read about habits and success has helped me better identify how to succeed. I think you can sum it up with a few words: Consistency, Determination, Resilience, and never giving up. When I picked up the book, I thought the name was odd. But once I read chapter one, I knew that I had found a gem. WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE CONSISTENCY PILL Simon Chan is a world-leading motivational speaker and knows how to empower your sales staff. He takes a person who is not confident and turns them into a great salesperson. One of the first things I learned from Mr. Chan is that you must try and then try again to make a sale. He claims that when you start, it may take 100 presentations to make one sale. Most people will give up after four or five unsuccessful attempts. But you go back again and again until you impress people with your consistency. Simon Chan says that if you approach the same person or company five times, you will normally either make a sale or they will give a lead to someone who needs your product. People who see your consistency will be impressed when you don’t stop and keep on keeping on. To be successful in sales (and life), you need more than just goals. You need a system to get it to work. He says we need a SMART system with the goals that are: S – Specific M – Measurable A – Achievable R – Realistic T – Timely You set your goals and then you apply yourself to become consistent. You put yourself to work with attainable and measurable goals. Simon says he has a friend who owns 5 different million-dollar businesses. This fellow starts reading and never finishes a book. I thought, wow… no focus. But what he does is find a good idea and apply it to action in the next 30 days. Do you move on new ideas, or do you like most just put them off? Take action and create a daily NEW Routine. You apply the CONSISTENCY SYSTEM. People are impressed when you are steady and consistent. And they buy into the Big 3 “C” Action steps. CHANGE COMMITMENT CONSISTENT According to Simon Chan, only winners never quit. Winners are champions that stay consistent long-term. Everyone wants to join a winner. He quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson. “What you do speaks so loudly that they cannot hear what you say.” Be consistent and a person of action. Today we live in a special time. With the availability of the Internet, we can virtually be a success at anything. Just Google it and learn what you want to do. Learn it and gain the skills to do it. Part of the Consistency System is tied to having an accountability partner. You can be accountable once per day, once per week, or even just once per month. But you must hold yourself accountable to someone for your actions. (or your inaction.) Jessie Lee Ward said this about Simon Chan. If there’s anyone on earth best equipped to teach consistency it is Simon. Being friends with him for the better part of a decade now I can honestly say there is no better example of how to systematically make people feel seen, heard, loved, and appreciated consistently. If consistency is your weakness, read this book. Consistency is the mother of all skills because once you learn how to be consistent, you can get good at everything else. Anyone can be consistent. It just takes some work and effort. To help others, Simon Chan created the Purpose Driven Networkers. Each day they spend a few minutes encouraging one another to keep after it and try harder. Purpose Driven Networkers help you to have goals, and a system to put them into action. People see and buy into your changes when you get consistent. Your consistency in detail impresses clients, friends, and co-workers. The key to winning is not convincing people but outlasting them. Determination makes the difference. You just don’t let “No” stop you. Social media today makes it very easy to find prospects. Serving and living for God is very important to Simon Chan. When you do things right, blessings come back to you over and over. No way to stop the principle of sowing and reaping. Having a good image of yourself is crucial. Our minds lead us to accomplish the things we set out to do. Think positive thoughts, and good things come to you. You can’t see yourself as a consistent person unless you are one. You let your past go and remind yourself each day that: “Yesterday is history, today is a mystery, and tomorrow is my legacy.” What we focus on is what stays in our minds. Think good things and do things consistently. When you do, you will have great success. As mentioned early, having determination, resilience, and consistency is key to success. I highly recommend this book. It is a great easy-to-follow plan to get us on a path that is rewarding and leads to a life of success and happiness. List of All Investment Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/investments.html List of All Minimalism Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/minimalism.html www.lifecanbesimple.net http://www.InternetDirect.us Internet Direct Laptops
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 Minimalism – Having Hope in Life
Do you have a lively hope in life? We face problems, difficulties, and trials every day. One of the things I love about minimalism is that when applied to possessions, it does not take you long to realize that having a lot of things brings a very short span of happiness. After that, you have to deal with all the ‘STUFF’. It first means having to have room to store it all. Some things require ongoing costs to maintain, insure, and just take up your time dealing with them. The more you have, the less freedom you have. Think about that. The more you have, the less freedom you have. Unfortunately, some people don’t think there is anything they can do about their situation. Zig Ziglar said that many people suffer from what he calls PLOM disease. PLOM is an acronym for Poor Little Ole Me. In other words, rather than deal with issues, they just throw up their hands and say there is nothing I can do… Poor Little Ole Me. We should not view the issues of life like that. The Bible is full of verses regarding TRUE HOPE. 130 mentions are made of the word hope. Rom_8:24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? Rom_8:25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Today I want us to think about having hope. As a Christian, the one thing we should have is real hope. I recently read the book “Knowing Yourself, Knowing Your Money” by Rachel Cruz who is the daughter of well know author Dave Ramsey. She had a whole chapter dealing with hope. Did you know that over 50 percent of Americans’ biggest hope to obtain financial stability is thinking they will win the lottery? That is not hope, that is being blinded by Satan. You are more likely to be struck by lightning three times and survive than to win the lottery. Dave Ramsey said that the lottery was designed by the government to take advantage of the poor and ignorant. Anyone that sees life clearly will never waste their money on lottery tickets. But I see people all the time dishing out good money hoping for the big win. God will always provide for us, and we do not need to ever seek quick, fast money. What is sad is that the few who do win the lottery wind up with a ruined life. Talk to anyone who ever won a lot of money and see how well that worked out. In Rachel Cruz’s book, she told about a farmer who had this big barrel of water. Almost daily, he had to fish out a drowned rat. Some fellow decided to do a test on the rats. The numbers I am giving you are what I remember and may not be 100% accurate. ( I read that book over 5 months ago.) If a rat fell into a barrel of water without any way out, the average rat drowned to death in 73 minutes. However, if you helped the rat out, each time you saved him, he would then last over 24 hours more. The average rat saved 3 times would last over 96 hours swimming before he gave up. The point of that story is that a little hope makes a huge difference. Think of how much difference. Over 60 times the determination rate in a rat when given a little hope. This is probably a horrible example comparing it to people, but think about it. A rat was smart enough to understand that if he was saved once, he built up more determination to swim and live longer. Put that in a spiritual context for mankind. If we are saved, should we not have a much greater hope than a rat in a barrel? When we know Christ as Savior, we should NEVER GIVE UP. I once read that man can live up to 33 days without food, up to 7 days without water, but can barely survive a day without hope. As a true born-again Christian, we have hope that is real. A real hope that is guaranteed by our Heavenly Father. Verses on Hope abound, especially in Psalms Psa_33:22 Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee. Psa_119:114 Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word. Psa_146:5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God: 1Jn_3:3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. 1Th_2:19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? 1Th_4:13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. Heb_6:18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Heb_6:19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; 1Pe_1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, I hope this article on faith and hope is an inspiration to you to overcome any problem you face and realize that we are not limited when we look to the true source of hope, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In the weekly emails I receive from Joshua Becker, I found a reference to the next article. Check out the PUSH and PULL article this week by Brittany on NoSideBar site. https://lesslessmore.com/2023/01/11/the-push-and-the-pull/ List of All Investment Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/investments.html List of all Minimalism Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/minimalism.html www.lifecanbesimple.net www.InternetDirect.us Internet Direct Laptops – www.ebay.com/str/internetdirectlaptops  Myths in Stock Market Advice – Part 3 DISCLAIMER - I am not a Financial Advisor and do not work for any Brokerage Firm. The opinions given are my own and are not to be used as professional advice. These are my findings and can hopefully help you make informed investing decisions. Consult a Broker or Lawyer before making any investment. Those of you who have been following my blog and articles for several months, know my reason for doing this is to share some of my findings in investing in the stock market. I want to help everyone to make good solid decisions when it comes to investing. My first 40 articles have been tied to things that have worked for me or promising new things I am trying this year. The reality of the situation is that I can only share what I know to be the truth. I wrote my first 2 articles on myths last month. I keep finding more and more lies being put forth as true, and I want to continue on the topic again and explain more myths. Remember to read those 3 books I mentioned in my first article. The link is below to both articles on Myths. To read article one on myths, click below: https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/myths-in-stock-market-advice Article 2 is here: https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/myths-in-stock-market-advice-part-2 MYTHS IN STOCK MARKET ADVICE Myth: All you need to do is invest in your Roth IRA. Don’t worry about how it is allocated. This is a very horrible piece of advice. You must decide where and how you want to invest in your IRA. In Ramit Sethi’s book “I Will Teach You to be Rich”, he gives an example of a lady who for 8 years put in $3000 to her Roth IRA. However, after 8 years, it was barely worth more than $24,000. How could that happen? She never invested the money. It sat in a money account making a few percentage points each year. NOTE: When you put money into any Investment Account (401K, Roth IRA, or Traditional IRA), you must decide where to invest the money. Ramit Sethi gives some advice on how to invest simply by using Target Date Mutual funds. Read about it here: https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/book-review-i-will-make-you-rich-by-ramit-sethi Remember, just putting money into the account does not start your investment. You can use many methods to invest. If undecided, simple FULL STOCK MARKET INDEXES such as ITOT or VTI are good to start with. Explanations of some of the main investment vehicles are here: https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/investment-categories I wonder if you have ever been told by your broker or financial advisor that you don’t need to worry much about the stock market movements. It never will drop 15% in one day. No one would lie about such an important thing, would they? I remember the day in October 1987 when the market went down 22.6% in one day. I know where I was on that Black Monday and everyone at work was in shock. It started dropping early on October 19, 1987 and fell all day. The odds of it happening were like a billion to one, but guess what, it happened. Another great myth is “no matter how far it goes down, it will come right back in time.” Well that sounds good. But the past is no guarantee that history will always repeat itself. In 1949, there began an upswing in the Japanese Nikkei. (Their money standard compares to our dollar in the United States.) It started at $40, and constantly went up. For 20 straight years, it went up. There were a few downs, but it always quickly regained and went from $40 to $40,000 in 1989. But starting in 1990, it went down by 80% over the next 20 years. It has NEVER recovered. Well, that is in Japan, it could not happen in the United States, right? My question is “Why Not?” No one controls the market. It moves in strange ways, and it is not always in a positive fashion. Since 1900 we have experienced 33 prolonged Bear Markets. A Bear Market is when you have a decline of 20% or more. So while history does tend to repeat itself, there are no guarantees. I want to repeat Warren Buffet’s quote. He said his number one rule was “Don’t lose money in the stock market.” And Rule 2 is don’t forget number 1. People believe it is easy to recover a 20 or 30% loss. Look at the information below. I covered it in the second article, but it is crucial to realize the importance of not losing money.  So if you lose ½ of your money, now you must have a 100% return to break even. How many of you ever made a 100% return in your IRA or 401K? I have been investing for 30 years, and I think my best year ever was 22%.
So our number one goal should be to never lose money. Not easy when you are trying for above-average gains, but there are logical ways to proceed cautiously. So take these findings and learn to make better decisions. Keep reading and studying on your own. NEVER stop reading and learning. If you are a serious investor, be sure to read the 3 books I mentioned in the first article which is below. https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/myths-in-stock-market-advice List of All Investment Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/investments.html List of All Minimalism Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/minimalism.html  CLOSED END FUNDS (CEFs) DISCLAIMER - I am not a Financial Advisor and do not work for any Brokerage Firm. The opinions given are my own and are not to be used as professional advice. These are my findings and can hopefully help you make informed investing decisions. Consult a Broker or Lawyer before making any investment. I want to discuss a type of investment that many are unfamiliar with in the investing industry. These are called CEFs or Closed-End Funds. Closed end funds are mutual funds that have a set amount of shares. The amount is set at the funds IPO and can only be changed by a management decision. Normal mutual funds can sell more shares, but not CEFs. Closed-end Funds are basically like a mutual fund but they can not sell additional shares. Since these funds are fixed, they sell initially at Net Asset Value. (NAV) So in the market, these sell for more or less of their value. If the price is more than NAV, they are selling at a Premium. (like +2.1%) Since these are managed, when selling at a Premium it may be due to the excellent management. You have to pay for quality funds. A quality fund that normally is above premium of NAV is PIMCO Dynamic Income fund (PCI). I own shares of this CEF. Where the most money can be made is when they are selling at a discount to NAV. I purchased one today which is a healthcare REIT that is selling at -8.45 to NAV with an annualized return of 6.71%. The one mentioned is THQ – Tekla Healthcare Opportunities Fund. Prices fluctuate all the time, so sometimes some really good prices are there for the taking. It should be noted that CEFs many times do not perform well in periods of fluctuating interest rates like we experienced in 2022. Here is a complete rundown from the Fidelity website that does a good job in explaining CEFs.  What is a Closed-end fund? A closed-end fund holds an IPO at launch and the money raised from that IPO is used by portfolio managers to buy securities. Even though they have been traded in the US for over a century, closed-end funds (CEFs) are not well understood. A common misunderstanding is that a CEF is a type of traditional mutual fund or an exchange-traded fund (ETF). A closed-end fund is not a traditional mutual fund that is closed to new investors. At its most fundamental level, a CEF is an investment structure (not an asset class), organized under the regulations of the Investment Company Act of 1940. A CEF is a type of investment company whose shares are traded on the open market, like a stock or an ETF. Why are they called "closed-end" funds? Like a traditional mutual fund, a CEF invests in a portfolio of securities and is managed, typically, by an investment management firm. But unlike mutual funds, CEFs are closed in the sense that capital does not regularly flow into them when investors buy shares, and it does not flow out when investors sell shares. After the initial public offering (IPO), shares are not traded directly with the sponsoring fund family, as is the case with open-end mutual funds. Instead, shares are traded on an exchange, typically, and other market participants act as the corresponding buyers or sellers. The fund itself does not issue or redeem shares daily. Like stocks, CEFs hold an initial public offering at their launch. With the capital raised during this IPO, the portfolio managers then buy securities befitting the fund's investment strategy. After the IPO, there are only 5 ways to increase capital within the portfolio
Similarly, there are only 5 ways capital can flow out of a CEF
So, because capital does not flow freely into and out of CEFs, they are referred to as "closed-end" funds. The "closed-end" structure gives rise to discounts and premiums. After the IPO, a CEF's shares trade on the open market, typically on an exchange, and the market itself determines the share price. The result is that the share price typically does not match the net asset value of the fund's underlying holdings. (Net asset value = (fund assets - fund liabilities)/shares outstanding) If the share price is higher than the net asset value, shares are said to be trading at a "premium." This is typically portrayed as a "positive discount," although mathematically that is counterintuitive. For instance, a fund trading at a 2% premium would be shown as "+2%." If the share price is less than the net asset value, the shares are said to be trading at a "discount." This is typically portrayed with a minus sign, "-2%." The closed-end structure also has other implications
The relatively stable capital base, in turn, gives rise to 2 other attributes: First, it makes CEFs a good structure for investing in illiquid securities, such as emerging-markets stocks, municipal bonds, etc. The higher risk involved with investing in illiquid securities could translate into higher returns to shareholders. Second, regulators allow the funds to issue debt and preferred shares, with strict limits on leverage. The fund can issue debt in an amount up to 50% of its net assets. Another way to look at this is that for every $1 of debt, the fund must have $3 of assets (including the assets from the debt). This is commonly referred to as a 33% leverage limit. The fund can issue preferred shares in an amount up to 100% of its net assets. Another way to look at this is that for every $1 of preferred shares issued, the fund must have $2 of assets (including the assets from the preferred shares). This is commonly referred to as a 50% leverage limit. The point is that CEFs are not highly leveraged, though any amount of leverage magnifies the volatility of the fund's net asset value. Key takeaways:
Link to Fidelity Research on CEFs. Here is an example of CEF Screener using a discount of -8 or less to NAV for one month and -7 for the year and up at least .5 for today. This list is for example only, each investment has to be analyzed on all merits, not just the discount to NAV.  So in summary, I believe that Closed-End Funds are great for income and some experience growth in value based on their underlying investments, particularly those tied to REITs. They typically will move back to their NAV over time which means you can make some good money by buying them when they are at a discount to NAV. Be sure to analyze the fund before purchasing. No one thing such as a discount to NAV means it is a super investment. List of All Investment Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/investments.html List of All Minimalism Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/minimalism.html www.lifecanbesimple.net http://www.InternetDirect.us Internet Direct Laptops |
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