Liquidity!

Time for my monthly blog post! Eeek. I have been rather productive in the last while. Here is a quick recap on the lifestyle before I segue into the topic of the day.

The RHIB (Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat) is almost completely rigged; sea trials were a smashing success with top speed on flat water a sustained 42.3 nautical miles per hour! Ya Baby. First voyage to the west coast is set for this weekend, Port Renfrew to Carmanah Point. Take a look at http://www.westcoastsurftours.com/ for a little teaser.

The SLED (Summit 800 HO) is getting final tuning and modifications and will head up to Whistler with me on Tuesday God willing for the season of powder shredding to commence. Follow updates there at http://www.whistlermountainchalet.com/.

So in order to understand how this has all been possible, lets look at the concept of liquidity! Roughly translated to spendable cash on hand, to understand the importance of liquidity right now we need to look at the credit market instability. As the ARMageddon continues, similar effects are becoming visible in the consumer credit markets. People refinanced their homes, and used the equity to spend on toys or to back lines of credit with which they bought toys. The higher mortgage payments induced from refinancing reduced real income so consumer spending then had to be financed with credit. Now citizens are carrying higher mortgages as well as more credit card debt so.... sooner or later something has to give.

So if you are smart and disciplined and have not stretched yourself too far, like the poor victims mentioned above, you are now in a wonderful position. First now would be a good time to ask your credit card company to reduce your interest rate. If your payment history is in good standing the CC company will have incentive to keep it that way. Secondly ask for an extension on your limit. Again, as bad loans go down the toilet, CC's need to cover for those losses and increase their revenue through their solid customers. Once you increase your available credit, and don't use it, your beacon score will go down, making you look even better.

Now, you have liquidity. Tumultuous times make for good deals! As the markets shuffle and settle there will be good buys to be had. Real estate foreclosures are certainly a market worth watching. Cautiously. Watch for stock dumps in areas where speculation has been hot, or where mergers are falling apart. To bring these circumstances into a more personal level if, say, your neighbor happens to be a little bit stretched, of course s/he does not want to default on their mortgage or credit card, so now might be a good time for you to help each other. Perhaps they have some toys they don’t use that much, and maybe need a bit of cash to get caught up?
It's a buyers market, buy low, be high! See you on the water or mountain soon.

Dugan Selkirk
President
Fife Group BDS
www.DestinationBillion.com

Human Capital

As winter fast approaches and we busily squirrel our nuts away pause to reflect on the most valuable things in your life. What is the one thing that makes your life flow smoothly from one day to the next: YOU. You are the most valuable thing you have. You are more valuable than your house, your job, or your portfolio. If you lost your house, could you build another?? Oh yes. Through the dotcom boom, the real estate boom, oil market boom, the rapid expansion of economies in India and Chinga and the financial market ...ah... explosion, there has been more cash wealth created than ever before in human history. This great growth period has created labour shortages in every industry. For the first time ever, in general market metrics, there is more money than people!

From Geoff Colvin's Fortune article "Firms need good people, more than good people need firms." This is a time of great leverage for the life long learner. If you created within a firm make a list of ways you could add more value to the organization. If you work on your own, add value to your operations by learning something new about your business every day.

Take some time each day to read, research or develop new business. As you increase your human capital your return on financial capital will increase. It still takes money to make money but you can go alot further with less these days. Human capital is still a means to the financial capital end. If you have ever tried to pay your bar tab with human capital, I trust you would agree.

Dugan Selkirk
President
Fife Group BDS
www.DestinationBillion.com

Island Reflections

Just back from my holiday home in Whistler, and had an excellent meeting with a good old friend in Squamish on the way home. Andrew is Bohemian Bourgeois through and through. He manages a staff of 25 full time painters, like hearding cats for sure, but he is truly the bar by which the industry can be measured. He runs such a tight ship that painters come to him for work and his reputation is growing in the industry so work he gets.

Like any good business man he has rods in plenty fire and is going full speed in several different directions.

Like any good bohemian he can blow off work to ride wind water or mountain whenever conditions warrant.

A cruicial practice then for the busy life styler, one that i will talk about often here and one that Andrew and I discussed at some length is the regular personal financial inventory. Have a regular review of everything you have going on and determine what pays the best, what has potential and what is not going to pay. What do you do that makes the most money in the least amount of time. Figure it out and focus on it and cut the dead flesh of non production away. BE HONEST with your self and don't let emotion cloud your vision. Lets face it, although you may enjoy whatever work it is you do, the point of work is to facilitate play. So if you are doing work that isnt paying, scrap it. Focus 60% of your alloted work time on whatever it is that pays the hardest. That leaves you with enough time to research and peruse other projects, but will ensure you stay paid in the process.

Figure out the 5 things you do best, do them with all your power, and outsource everything else!

Dugan Selkirk
President
Fife Group BDS
www.DestinationBillion.com

Go Day!

Hello Blogland. Welcome to me and my point of view. A poet come economist has a perspective on the world that goes deep like a canyon into the mountain side from which gushes forth a cold refreshing spring of insight, comedy and cheap advice. Take it or leave it, I don't really care, but read it coment on it and for goodness sake go to my website and click on something! There is a wealth of information there, find what you need.

Dugan Selkirk
President
Fife Group BDS
www.DestinationBillion.com