First published January 1981
I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and a very pleasant holiday. I mentioned something in my last newsletter that I feel is important enough to discuss further and I hope it gives you some wonderful ideas for your New Year’s resolutions.
Most people at this point in time are very confused about the economy. Among those worried about the economy are people who own gold, property owners, stockholders, investors in the commodity market, bankers, housewives, doctors, and innumerable others who have all seen major money mis-management in this country. They wonder what the future will bring, what actions the new president will take, and in general, what to believe about the economy. I have always put emphasis on a person’s “beingness”, his abilities, and on having a good “valuable final product.” Your ability to produce a good product will carry you through any economic situation, more than all the gold and real estate you can buy, although those are also excellent investments. Your primary investment should always be yourself as you are far senior to anything in the “material universe.” Realize than an investment in yourself enables you to better control all those other investments that you want to do well with. I ran into a friend the other day who said something like, “Richard, I just don’t know what I’m going to do about my cash flow! I can do well with my investments, but I have a terrible time with my monthly income!” My answer must have sounded oversimplified to him when I said “Go out and make more money!” which is the most basic answer to cash flow problems. “The income potential of any usual group is established by the demand for income, not by any other important factor.” “In financial supervision on an International basis, this is the only factor one works with.” “While it is reasonable to suppose that income will occur for other reasons and can be achieved in other ways, the actual fact is that only demand by the group produces any income at all.”
Find a clear cut valuable, final product and produce it, and find the clear cut positive beingness that goes along with that product and be that beingness. You will then have more money than you know what to do with. If you need help or think you could do better with this, come to our next personal achievement workshop. In the area of economics, again, invest in yourself by getting educated as the first and most important action. Currently our economic condition is determined by the politicians, so learn the politics of economics. You need training and education for anything that you want to accomplish, make more money at, or accumulate more of etc. So get yourself trained. And now back to those New Year’s resolutions I mentioned! Sit down and work out the financial areas (and any others) that you feel you need the most help with, and make a resolution to make an investment in yourself, specifically to handle those areas, whether it be better tax handling, financial planning, real estate investments or money and economics in general. And then carry them through!
I have noticed that where a person has trouble with cash flow or income, etc. he is not sufficiently aware of what his product is or has not sufficiently assumed the “beingness” that goes with that product. Whatever your beingness – doctor, bricklayer, waitress, consultant, and whatever your product, they can be embellished and enhanced to a point where you produce a more desirable product and you make more money! Hazy ideas of your product or you beingness won’t do, like “Well, I am a salesman of sorts…” or “Well, I’m trying to get started in ___________, but if it doesn’t work out, I will try _______________.”
Some of my expectations for 1981 are that the interest rates will peak pretty soon between 21 and 25%. Sometime in the first quarter of 1981, they could fall as low as 11 or 12%. By the way, I never stop investing in real estate because interest rates are rising. I lost too much money when I did that! I just continue to find the good deals, which are often easier to find in times of high interest rates. If the rates later go down drastically, so what? Then you refinance your property at the lower rate. I’m also expecting a nice upward trend in hard money (gold, silver, diamonds) starting in the first quarter of 1981. You can call my office for an update of these prices anytime. And now is a good time for buying.
On the other hand you can have the best product available and in high demand but people see you as how you think you are, you put it out there as a mock up and everyone sees you that way. So change the way you think you are, mock up the better you so that people see that better you and want to be part of your life and happy New Years and a lot of success for you this years.
With much admiration
Richard G. Stewart
R.G. Stewart
