Fortunes Creator

I remember a conversation I had with my uncle a few years ago. He is a high-powered VP at a major US corporation who worked his way up from a stockboy at age 17 through all the ranks of the retail world to make it where he is today…extremely successful, maybe over-worked but definitely well-compensated. I’m sure he’s a millionaire a few times over, but I’d never ask, of course.

He was and is full of insight and inspiration to me, but one thing he told me during this particular conversation really opened my Gen-X eyes to the mindset of the rich. We got on the subject of retirement, and he being just a decade away from “retirement-age” at the time, said “I’ll never be able to retire. When I’m 80, I’ll be the cartboy in the Wal-Mart parking lot!”

We laughed at the thought of him trading in his $800.00 Brooks Bros. suits for a blue and white smock, but I knew it was true. Baby boomers can’t retire. Now, of course, in my uncle’s case it was not a matter of having to keep working to survive. He has more than enough to see himself, and maybe his children, through retirement. But the mentality of retirement seems to have eluded the baby boom generation.

The Boomers grew up with the post-WWII work ethic deeply ingrained in their collective psyche. Many (if not most) baby boomers have come to think of retirement as the short pre-cursor to certain death. It’s as though they’ve come to equate life with work, deriving self-worth from corporate productivity.

They’ve watched their own parents retire and then plunge swiftly into despair, bitterness, poverty, (prescription) drug addiction and declining health until they became a burden on their families, society and each other.

Of course, there are far too many cases of Baby Boomers not being able to stop working for financial reasons. Few have the financial nest egg built up to assure a safe and comfortable retirement. Outrageous health care costs coupled with the rising cost of living make it impossible for most to quit working altogether. As well, several “studies” have publicly declared that older people who keep at least a part-time job live longer, healthier and happier lives.

These studies rarely go any deeper than this…meaning few examine the fact that the Baby Boom generation has invested so much of their own “essence” into their working lives that they have lost the ability to enjoy the other facets of life for any prolonged period of time.

After all, they had the sixties. They did fun, love, art and music to the point where it quite literally killed some of the brightest minds of their generation. Perhaps it was a matter of being “scared successful.”

So as we watch our parents and older siblings redefine retirement for themselves (or ultimately abolish it completely), we Gen-Xer’s seem somewhere in the middle…we want to retire NOW, yet we also strive to be “successful” (whatever that means).

Growing up in the ’80’s, we were mindbent by the images of Wall Street raiders, big shouldered broads climbing the corporate ranks, and Ronald Reagan with his perpetually jet black pompadour preaching of American superiority.

Enter the ’90’s…age of grunge slackers and overnight internet millionaires. Then we watched as our musicians who told us to rage against the machine showed us around thier multi-million dollar cribs on MTV. We’re now a bunch of confused 30-somethings riding the fence between here and there.

We don’t like work but we want to be rich.

We love life, love having fun, can easily lay in the sun all day without feeling the least bit guilty.

We are desperately searching for ways to keep the money flowing in while we are out kiteboarding or getting our toenails painted.

Boomers think we’re lazy and unrealistic.

We think Boomers are slaves to the global corporate meat-grinder (think Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”).

So, what’s really working, anyway? Many of us think we aren’t working as we write blogs, push affiliate programs through email advertising and join the latest social networking site or YouTube knockoff to gain exposure for one of our ebooks we’ve written. But I dare say, we’re actually working longer hours than our Baby Boomer counterparts, even though we think we’re just “surfing” or messing around on the internet.

So, ask your best Gen-X friend if he would quit the internet if he was suddenly able to “retire” with all the money he’d ever need and you’d probably hear a “No way, man! Then what would I do with all my time?” Sounds suspiciously like the answer you get from a Baby Boomer when you ask them if they plan to quit working when they “retire.”

The author, JoAnn Roselli, is a successful living consultant, screenwriter, webmaster, entrepreneur, real estate investor and author of “How to Get High-Quality Plastic Surgery…CHEAP!” She resides in the Dominican Republic with her husband and their 12-year-old son.

Last night, I was listening to my MP3 player populated with my favorite subliminal, self-hypnosis and success mastery recordings, as I do every night. I do this because I believe passionately in the need to make the most of every minute…even those spent in REM sleep.

I started this habit several years ago during a period of situational depression, and it helped me so much out of that frame of mind that I decided to make it part of my lifestyle. Feeding my sleeping brain this way has improved my life in every facet, and I highly recommend it as a means of counterbalancing all of the negativity and ugliness we are all bombarded with through our encounters with dreadful people with bad attitudes and all of the terrible media stories we are exposed to…including stories of poverty, lack, famine and war.

Now, don’t write me off as a cold and self-involved person. On the contrary, I am an empath (i.e. I feel your pain) and over the years I have had to learn how to protect my own emotional state from negative influences and energy vampires.

Well, upon easing into semi-consciousness while listening to Brian Tracy reading “The Science of Getting Rich” I was struck by the intensity of the chapter on “avoiding poverty.” Our whole lives we are taught the virtues of being charitable and pitying the world’s poor.

The truth that “The Science of Getting Rich” conveys in a very matter-of-fact way is that the best thing that you can do for the poor is to become rich yourself, and impart your wisdom on to those less fortunate. While this idea is nothing new, i.e. give a man a fish, feed him for a day…yadda, yadda, yadda, author Wallace Wattles went on to say that you should not pollute your mind with images of poverty, nor should you speak of your own past struggles with lack of money or impoverished beginnings.

This one is a tough one. After all, most of us use our meager beginnings as proof that we “deserve” the good life once we start to live it. We humans tend to recount our own stories of heartache and financial hardships to others as some way of leveling ourselves with the lowest common denominator. Exactly the OPPOSITE of what we should do, especially if we desire to get rich (which anybody in their right mind wants, whether we are willing to publicly admit it or not).

Wattles says the best thing you can do is not to climb back down the ladder to prove to the poor that you are just like them, but instead to live your life in such a way as to inspire them to do what it takes to climb that ladder and join you on your plateau of plenty. There is always a way to better one’s self in this world and each individual is responsible to make every effort to become rich, productive and beneficial to society as a whole.

So, turn off the news and stop telling the story of when you lived in your Toyota Corolla that summer after college. Silently vow to yourself that those days are gone, never to return, and start a new business or balance your checkbook. Treat poverty like the disease of the mind that it is and avoid it like the bubonic plague.

Stop thinking that you have to surround yourself with people who are on a lower vibrational (and financial) plane than you, just so that they think you are a good, nice person.

If you aspire in a decent, law-abiding, and creative way to improve your own bank account, real estate holdings and family life, then you are a good person and you don’t have to prove it to anyone by giving away your hard-earned money. Instead, do something to fire up the ambition of someone who has fallen victim to poverty-itis…even if it is only to go out for a drive in your BMW, or write a blog post about stomping out poverty by simply being unwilling to accept it in your lifestyle.

I live in a country (the Dominican Republic) whose government sadly has publicly declared it “A Poor Country.” I have seen people accept a lifestyle of lack, simply because they were born into this “poor country.” Many do not raise their standard of living based on the assumption that it is “too hard to get ahead for the average Dominican.

I have also met people here who grew up in shacks with dirt floors who hitch-hiked 60 miles a day each way to go to college, get a degree in law or medicine and become very well off. Those people will all agree that living in that dirt-floor shack for 60 or 70 years seemed much harder than a few years of hitch-hiking and studying, and subsequently living a life of comfort, stability and luxury.

When you drive through areas populated with those who have bought into the poverty mindset, you will notice the filth…empty styrofoam restaurant containers, beer bottles, and empty plastic grocery bags strewn everywhere. And you see this pattern everywhere in the world, including of course the good ole US of A. As we know, it costs nothing gather up all that garbage and stuff it in one of those plastic grocery bags and put it out to the curb for garbage pick-up.

If you were to ask the people who live under these conditions why their yards are full of garbage, they would undoubtedly tell you that it is because they are so poor. But it is more accurate to say that they are poor because they are willing to live under such conditions!

Does that seem cold? Let them eat cake?

Maybe, as I know each person’s circumstances are unique, and we all have our own obstacles to overcome. But when there is always money for beer and time for playing Dominoes or watching TV, yet not enough money to pay the electric bill or time to pick up the garbage in the front yard…it is difficult to say that I am completely wrong.

There is one truth that cannot be argued with…the Rich care about making things better for themselves and for the world, and they strive daily, if not hourly, towards that goal. And through their efforts, ideals and goals they create jobs, support the economy and help others to improve their own lives.

So the next time you feel angry or jealous of Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Mark Cuban, Michael Dell or some other billionaire…take a moment to think of the number of lives that have been improved by the efforts of these men and the others like them who have amassed great wealth because they operate from a mindset of limitless abundance.

They didn’t fold when the newspapers say times are hard, the economy is slumping, or the proverbial “bubble” has burst. They keep their faith, adjust their sails and catch the winds of change. That is why the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. They find out how to profit no matter what, rather than crying about how bad things are, how tough it is and how there just isn’t enough to go around anymore.

To deny that “God” or the “Universe” has provided an abundance for all should be seen as blasphemy, don’t you think? I believe it was John Wayne who said, “I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor. Rich is better.” Yo tambien, Duke.

The author, JoAnn Roselli, is a successful living consultant, screenwriter, webmaster, entrepreneur, real estate investor and author of “How to Get High-Quality Plastic Surgery…CHEAP!” She resides in the Dominican Republic with her husband and their 12-year-old son.

Collecting Coins - A Worthwhile and Educational Hobby

There are many reasons why one collects coins. There are collectors who collect on the basis of the coin’s future perceived value, some collect coins coming from just one particular period, some on metal type and some for a coins historical value.

There are also those who enjoy collecting everyday common coins, gaining pleasure from inspecting mint marks and dates on their everyday change.  Others have a collection of coins coming from different countries.  Some coin collectors spend thousands on rare gold and silver coins from the period of the 1800’s until the early 1900’s.

The hobby of coin collecting can give pleasure and fun to an individual of any age. Many coin collectors began their collection when they were young children, collecting dimes or pennies and many of them have made coin collection a lifetime hobby.

The hobby of collecting coins involves spending money from the very start so it is good to join a coin collectors group to get ideas and help from knowledgeable and experienced collectors.

You need somebody to buy your coins from, and it may be hard to find a coin dealer of good repute when your are new to the hobby, so having someone that has been in this hobby for years can be of great help to guide you on choosing an honest and knowledgeable coin dealer.

Begin by acquiring a big magnifying glass and examine coins in a bright area so you can spot mintmarks, errors and to clearly read dates on worn or damaged coins.

Decide on what coins to collect and buy a “bookshelf folder” for that series.

You must also have storage, such as clear tubes made of plastic or coin tubes having top screws to keep your coins in until you are ready to put them in a coin album; storage can also be good for keeping duplicate coins.

You must learn about different coin values. Follow what types of coins are sold, and how they are priced, based on dealer pricing. You also will need someone or some references that will show you how to evaluate the accurate value of a certain coin based on mint mark, age, color, surface and condition.

“A Guide Book of United States Coins” or universally known as “the red book”, which is published yearly, provides a good outline of the U.S. coins history, information on basic coin grading, coin descriptions from past to present including a list of errors to watch for, average U.S. coins retail cost, and an explanation of errors which occurred in the “minting process”.

Monthly publications from “Coinage” (coin collecting magazine) contain many useful facts and information as well articles about your new found hobby plus a lot of great photos.

The newspaper, particularly in the numismatic world section, will be of great interest to you especially when you become more and more involved and interested in your hobby and want to remain up to date with the present happenings in the world of numismatics.

As you grow more experienced in coin collecting, your “eye for coins” will improve and develop maturely so that you now will be scrutinizing more carefully the features and details such as coin lettering, making certain that the letters are not blemished or blurred, but are still  distinguishable.

You will be spending so much interest and concentration on the coin’s general state that eventually you can walk away from certain coins that show evidence of abrasion, and will then be experiencing the fun side of coin collecting.

Spend ample time reading, looking at photos, learning from experienced collectors and asking as many questions as needed from not only other collectors, but dealers as well. The hobby of coin collecting is a continuing process that will last for as long as you are continuing the hobby.

Your knowledge and training will save you a lot of money as well as make you money when the time comes, but more importantly, have fun while learning. Take pleasure in what they call the “Hobby of kings” that has turned to be the “King”of hobbies.

Keep on studying and learning, because the better you understand, the more that you will enjoy your new found hobby.

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