MargaretCollinsOnline – Thinking Out Loud…

Wouldn’t you just love to make this headline happen?

A major charity helping the homeless, receiving financial support from a business promoting property investment…

You can make this happen.

The Money Gym is organising a Property Extravaganza and all the profits are going to the Big Issue. You can come along – buy a ticket for just £25, all profits go to charity, you gain the wisdom and experience of some of the biggest property people in the UK today.

Below is an excerpt from an email Judith Morgan wrote earlier today – and if you don’t yet know Judith, it would be worth paying £25 just for the opportunity to meet her.

Have a read and then buy the ticket…. you know we usually regret what we don’t do far more than what we choose to do… so choose today and help The Big Issue!

Judith says:
Clients ask me all the time “what makes a good property investment and do you think this one will be OK”? The short answer is usually “I don’t know”…no-one knows in advance whether any investment’s projections will come true or not, only hindsight will tell. You can do your own due diligence, you can meet others who have done it and ask them why, you can quiz them till their brains hurt but in the end you just have to make a decision – are you in or out? All I can tell you is that I was a woman who lost out big time in the last recession and that I am buying property now. And I am investing in lots of different sorts to spread my “risk” across the UK, the Caribbean and the world’s property hotspots.

Yes, you know I am as rash an entrepreneur as they come, very top line, positively relishing risk but I am learning from observing the way our property clients invest. I have two clients who invest in completely different ways. One looks at the spreadsheet and only buys if it meets her very strict criteria. One assesses the investment and uses her emotional barometer to invest. Both achieve excellent results! I think I am somewhere in between these two ladies. I like to scope out great investments for our Money Gym clients. I like a wide variety because we are all in different financial places and have more or less money and time to get started.

The wide variety of Experts I have on offer for you at our Property Extravaganza on Saturday 21st March includes:
* Someone buying for you in Manchester for very small sums – £5,000 for one or £11500 if you want to bulk buy in handfuls of five!
* Someone who will hold your hand while you learn to do it yourself so you don’t have to pay a fee next time unless you prefer to
* Someone who will show you that BMV still works – you buy better so you still put in relatively small deposits.
* Someone who will show you how to double your capital PLUS create an income within 2-6 years in the Caribbean and how that can be 100% funded
* Someone who will teach you how to use the money in your dull old pension and make investments with it via a SIPP and that this works for all our commercial property investments
* Someone who will show you how to buy houses for only £1
* And someone who will show you how to build a Unique global property portfolio where your initial capital investment is GUARANTEED.

I have 200 seats at the venue, the fabulous Cavendish Conference Centre where we were for our Brett McFall event last September. I thought I had 250 seats but the capacity turns out to be only 232 and I will need those 32 for my Money Gym team, the back of the room gang, the facilitators and mike runners and the speakers and their entourages so that’s only 200 seats available and I have sold 26 at the time of writing to the early adopters and to some new names I’ve not heard of before but I am looking forward to meeting on the day. If we sell out all 200 tickets, we will be able to donate £4347.82 to The Big Issue who are coming along on the day to collect a cheque. At the time of writing, that cheque would be for £565.21 – better than nothing but not quite what I had in mind. Will you help me to help the homeless please?

And I am having the most extraordinary luck in persuading each speaker to give me some prizes I can raffle on the day – so far this stash includes a holiday in one of the Unique properties, tickets for Harlequin’s box at Wembley so you can watch sport or music live, Rick Otton’s Cashflow Investor pack work £1997, a year’s property mentoring with me, a day out and lunch with my Property Boardroom, priceless mentoring sessions with each of our speakers, books and various other goodies. I’ve even got Martin Roberts off the telly!

Steve and I are working on this project and we are rather beside ourselves with excitement about it. I bought a book of pink raffle tickets today for £1.49 and it made me almost deliriously happy. My hallway is filling up with booty – books and chocolate money and million pound notes.

We do hope you will support the Money Gym fundraiser in aid of The Big Issue and book out 21st March in your diary and come along and learn something new, meet the Property Experts who recommend you buy in 2009 using one of their cunning schemes and help us to raise in excess of four thousand pounds for the homeless.

BUY YOUR TICKETS HERE: http://www.themoneygym.com/events/property

I’m so looking forward to seeing you there and sharing my new property secrets.

Judith

Many of you who know me will not be surprised to know I’m interested in property investing. There was even a letter from a contact at the BBC recently looking for landlords willing to go on TV and discuss their problems around rental properties…

So, do I still think property is an investment option in the current climate??? Absolutely!

My existing properties are going along very nicely – thank you. Mortgages are generally dropping and rentals are reasonably constant – a good combination! The excess (and more!) I’m investing in new boilers for my tenants (who said landlords were evil and grasping?!!) so that they stay longer and look after my property! But new investments – right – new investments do need a different strategy. Do you know what that is???

If you’re looking for ideas why not come along to the Money Gym Property Extravaganza and see wht the new wisdom is for investing in property. This is an ace opportunity with some big name speakers and, just like the last Money Gym extravaganza, all profits go to charity – this time to The Big Issue.

So, if you want to learn about property investing options and give some money to a worthwhile cause, come along and see the Money Gym in London on Saturday 21st March!!!

Continuing reflections on success…

One thing I really notice in my role as Money Gym Coach and as a trainer with Training For Universities is that some people, many people, get to the stage where they recognise they need help…

There are many times when we know we’ve reached the boundaries of our current skill set and need fresh input. This is the first step on the journey to success. Having recognised a need, we come actively seeking a solution. You can’t start any journey of self improvement unless you actually show up!

Many new clients to the Money Gym know that they have reached the end of their budget and that joining the Money Gym Gold coaching programme is their last lifeline… For the majority of clients it really is that – a lifeline. Over the course of weeks or months they learn new ways of thinking, new skills, experience new communities of thought. There are so many amazing examples of this on the Money Gym Silver Google group – but you’ll have to join in or take a look at the blog to take a peek…

Similarly most people who come to my training workshops are faced with a situation where they know they could have done better… whether it is giving a conference presentation or managing a junior member of staff – they need new skills and come to the workshop to learn…

For a minority of people, unfortunately, showing up is as far as it goes.

For some there seems to be the mindset that “I’ve paid the money, now give me the skill!”.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’ve been tempted by this demon – and succumbed – on many occasions. How many people have bought internet marketing solutions and done nothing with them? How often have you bought something, maybe a diet book, perhaps an exercise video, maybe even full membership of a swanky gym – and then not got past the cover. If only turing your situation around were as simple as making the purchase! We all know it takes more than this.

First of all you need to be prepared to loosen your grip on old realities. Whatever you knew in the past isn’t working as well as it might so you have to be open to the possibilitity that there is a better way AND then some.

Once you have some idea of what the new way might be, that’s the time for rolling up your sleeves and putting in the work. We all know that the road to hell is paved with good intentions and I’ve laid many paths there for myself.

For me one secret of success is being prepared to move beyond dependence. To move beyond the belief that if I pay my money to someone else, “it” will miraculously tranform me.

I have to take responsibility for myself, for my future, for my actions. It is only by my own commitment that I can start to create a new way, to learn and to put into practice new skills, develop new habits. And yes, this does mean moving outside of my comfort zone!

So what do you think? Are we ready to give up our search for magic wand solutions, to move beyond dependence?

We’re well into 2009 now. For most people today is the first “proper” day back at work. I can see the effects of people trawling through their inbox, tying up loose ends from 2008, making plans to fill their 2009 diaries.

For myself, I’m just recovering. My body took a hard hit with various viruses over the last month but my mind – the bit of it that is motivated and focussed at any rate – seems to be just making it back to the land of the living! I hope you fared well over the holiday.

So as I beging to get my plans together I also need to look back at what worked, what stalled, what needs starting again, throwing out…

I don’t wish to knock New Year resolutions – though suspect that many made with good intentions have already fallen by the wayside. I feel that it is vitally important to make a conscious review of what is important for 2009, knowing what worked – or not – for 2008.

Almost everything you read proclaims doom and gloom for the forseeable future. Stockmarkets down 30% on the year, house prices down 16%, predicictions of 3 million unemployed in the UK. These stories are enough to keep most people safely locked in their bunkers. In terms of savings or investments, where is a girl to put her money? Interest rates for savers are so low as to be riseable but has the UK property market bottomed out yet – even if you do have the credit record and deposit to get that mortgage?!

Now I know that these headline figures hide many personal stories of tragedy, of savings lost, pensions shrunk and properties locked in a frozen sea – for the individuals and families concerned, this is tough stuff.

However on the few occasions I ventured out shopping over the holiday I was swamped by hoardes of people intent on buying – well everything! There was hardly a store I entered that didn’t have long queues of customers excitedly holding aloft their trophies. So is this the sign of a recession? Are all these good citizens doing their duty and spending their way out of a collapsing economy or are they doing the consumer version of fiddling while Rome burns?

Do you know what, I’m not sure I know the answer to that question.

What I do know is that I’m thinking more carefully about financial decisions big and small. More than ever I’m glad to be part of a comunity of people at The Money Gym who collectively have a lot of information about making and keeping money, about investment opportunities, about how to survive and thrive in these uncharted waters…

One lesson I’m really beginning to learn is this – when faced with a difficult job, get help!

Margaret Collins

This week I’m changing. Launching a new training business… and to mark the occasion I’m creating a new blog.

I’ve used Typepad for writing my blog for a wee while now but, given the overwhelming opinion of many successful online business owners I took the plunge and turned to Wordpress.

Fortunately I had a huge amount of support in making this transition, from Nicola Cairncross at The Money Gym – Nicola has prepared a resource library of videos and an Internet Home Study system for members of The Money Gym Club.

In honesty it has been fairly smooth; installing software, installing plugins, choosing themes… however the whole business has taken me the best part of two days! I really need to see the return on investment for my effort here!!!

However, for this first stage I just need to know, “Do you like it?”.

Over the next few days and weeks I’ll be transferring my web-presence here.

I’ll share with you the roller-coaster excitement of setting up a new business (Training for Universities) while making life-changing decisions and delivering high quality workshops across the country!

Last week I moved from the delightful surroundings of Bath University to The Royal Veterinary College, just as the temperatures plummeted and the snow fell… and I have the pictures to prove it!

For now, I’m just laying down a marker: Margaret Collins Online is here!!

See you again soon!

Money Gym Membership Bootcamp workshop today. Fantastic learning for business growth.