Why were we created?

"We were not created to be eaten by anxiety, but to walk erect, free, unafraid in a world where there is work to do, truth to seek, love to give and win."


Joseph Ford Newton
Author

Life Quotes

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.

-Dale Carnegie



I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.

-Frank Lloyd Wright



The heights by great men reached and kept / Were not attained by sudden flight, / But they, while their companions slept, / Were toiling upward in the night.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow



The most essential factor is persistence - the determination never to allow your energy or enthusiasm to be dampened by the discouragement that must inevitably come.

– James Whitcomb Riley



Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragement, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.

- Thomas Carlyle



Money grows on the tree of persistence.

- Japanese Proverb



My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.

- Hank Aaron



Nearly every man who develops an idea works at it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then gets discouraged. That's not the place to become discouraged.

- Thomas A. Edison



Never consider the possibility of failure; as long as you persist, you will be successful.

- Brian Tracy



Never, never, never, never give up.

- Winston Churchill



Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.

- Vincent Lombardi



Energy and persistence conquer all things.

- Benjamin Franklin



We are made to persist. That's how we find out who we are.

- Tobias Wolff

Self -fulfilling Prophecy

Here is your Friday story,
Self-fulfilling Prophecy

Proverbs 23: 7 - “As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.”

The batter hits the ball high in the air towards right field. It arcs majestically against the sky. It is going right towards Sammy. Everybody in the park knows that he’s going to drop it. Sammy knows that he’s going to drop it. He drops it.

This scene has been replayed time and time again on fields around the world. It doesn’t have to be a fielder; it sometime is a batter you know is going to strike out. It doesn’t even have to be baseball. It can be anything.

It’s called a self-fulfilling prophecy. I wasn’t familiar with this term until I took a psychology class in university. Basically it means that what you believe will usually happen.

If you believe you are going to flunk a test, you probably will. If you think the meal you are making for your new in-laws will be a disaster, it probably will. If you think you will be in a car accident, better call your insurance agent. In all these cases, your visualizing the worst-case scenario will greatly increase the possibility of them actually happening.

There are people in the world who sew the seeds of the self-fulfilling prophecy. They are the people who put their fears on you. For example, their fears that something might happen to you make you uneasy and possibly help the unfortunate event happen. They are usually the first ones to say, “I told you so.”

So what do you do? First, look at history. There were plenty of people who said humans would never fly, let alone walk on the moon. You have the choice to believe those thoughts. Also, you can replace those thoughts with positive ones. You don’t have to believe the nay-sayers. If self-fulfilling prophecy works with negative thoughts, it can also work with positive ones.

George Bernard Shaw said, "You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’ " What message are you playing in your mind?

When I started playing softball, I was like Sammy. I was hoping the batter wouldn’t hit the ball to me. Eventually those thoughts were replaced with positive ones and I was begging for the batter to hit it to me. Can you guess which thoughts allowed me to enjoy the game the most and perform the best?

When the game was on the line, Michael Jordan wanted the ball. He already saw the ball going in before he shot.

Pete Rose, who holds the record for the most hits in baseball, was asked how many times in a game he thought he was going to get a hit. He answer was, “Every time.” Did he get a hit every time? No, but his belief that he would greatly increased his success.

It’s the same with life. Put positive, happy thoughts in your mind and you will tend to be happy. If you are constantly worrying that something MIGHT happen, you will not lead a full life and probably not reach your potential. What does worrying do most of the time anyway? It usually prevents you from doing your best in a situation.

It comes down to the simple saying. If you think you can, you may be right. If you think you can’t, you are almost certainly right. Put another way, success comes in cans!

John Stevens

John Stevens is a freelance writer in St. Marys, Ontario. You can read more of his writing at his blog at http://johnnyvfanclub.blogspot.com or send John an email to: john.stevens@rogers.com

Your Thoughts

"The Law of Attraction attracts to you everything you need according to the nature of your thought. Your environment and financial condition are the perfect reflection of your habitual thinking. Thought rules the world."

Dr. Joseph Edward Murphy
Surgeon

The Three P's

Without purpose, passion and persistence, no amount of confidence, talent and ability will lead to success. This may seem unrelated, but if you want to take a look at an impressive display of all of the above please view the United States Marine Corp Drill Team at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90UPLLo6nY+

Max & Alex Weinzierl's Video

I invite you to watch an entertaining & informative video produced by a couple of young gentlemen Max @Alex Weinzierl.

Please go to the link below, scroll down to Jack Weinzierl's Video and enjoy.

I promise you will not be disappointed.


http://www.strategicprofits.com/66-seconds-humorous/

Also, please digg them and maybe we can help two good guys win the contest.


Sincerely,
Tony Brown

Be Your Own Bank

Be Your Own Bank
Written by: Trista Winnie


You probably don’t sit around calculating how much interest you pay to banks and other lenders each year, but chances are you have financed large purchases, such as homes, education, cars and major appliances.

The interest you pay to banks can add up
The interest paid on these items can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, perhaps more, in the course of a lifetime. People often have to decide how much money to allocate for their retirement and how much to paying down current debt.
But what if it were possible for people to save for retirement in a vehicle that allowed them to finance their life in a way that provided advantages over borrowing from a bank or lender?
That is exactly what R. Nelson Nash had in mind when he pioneered the Infinite Banking Concept. In essence, Infinite Banking, and other similar systems adapted from Nash’s original idea, involves paying into a whole life insurance policy with an insurance company that allows policy holders to take loans collateralized on their individual policies.
How it works
Infinite Banking and other individualized banking systems rely on participating whole life insurance policies, which build up equity and pay dividends. Policy holders pay premiums—which vary based on the amount of the death benefit chosen, along with other factors, such as the age and health of the policy holder—into a whole life insurance policy for a period of five to seven years and let the policy increase in value. This is known as the capitalization phase.
“Generally, we try to fund most of the money into it in the first five years,” Tom McDermott, president of Asset Protectors & Advisors Group, said. “The longer you can allow it to accumulate, obviously, the more you can pull out for retirement savings, the more you can pull out for larger items.”
After the capitalization phase, the policy becomes self-supporting; the returns on the policy at that point will be enough to cover the premiums. The annual dividends are based on how well the insurance company did that year. Insurance companies must invest the premiums received “in order to produce the benefits that are promised,” Nash wrote.
Through the use of a paid-up additions rider, policy holders benefit from having their dividends reinvested into their policy, thus increasing the value of their policy and subsequent death benefit.
Policy holders are able to borrow up to 100 percent of the cash value of their whole life policy at any time with no tax penalties. A policy holder “outranks every potential borrower in access to the money that must be lent,” Nash wrote.
With this structure in place, policy holders are able to essentially act as their own personal bankers. They can loan themselves money from their own life insurance policies, and the interest payments go back to their own accounts.

People who participate in individualized banking are able to borrow money from—and repay—themselves when financing major purchases, rather than relying on and paying interest to banks and other outside lenders.
“Your average American family is not saving money...at the same time, they’re spending approximately 34.5 cents on every dollar in interest to finance their lifestyle through banks and different finance companies,” David Kane, president of the benefits division at York International, said.
By depositing cash into a life insurance policy rather than using it for a major purchase, investors retain the ability to earn interest on that cash. Further, by borrowing from their own life insurance policy, they avoid having to spend that 34.5 cents per dollar on outside financing, and can instead pay that to their own policy.
The borrowed money can be used to finance any purchase, whether or not a lender would typically grant a loan for it. The policy holder, as banker, gets to set the loan requirements.
“You are totally and completely independent from all other sources of financing,” Rebecca Rice, owner of Rebecca Rice & Associates, said. “You have control of your own banking system and you’re able to control the amount of money that goes into your bank.”
Policy holders must make sure that they pay back any loans they take out. If they don’t, the system of growing the policy’s value will fail.
People who follow through on utilizing the insurance policy as a bank are able to supercharge the returns guaranteed by the policy while financing things they would have financed anyway. The difference is that all the interest payments go back to the policy, not to a bank or other lender.
“The Infinite Bank is really like a complete financial system. It will provide money for your lifestyle, for your retirement and for your heirs,” Kane said. “It works well in all phases of wealth.”
The advantages
Perhaps the most obvious advantage of individualized banking is that it offers life insurance coverage—something most people need anyway. Life insurance is a low risk investment; there are guaranteed returns, and life insurance companies are noted for their longevity.
There are also tax benefits. “In a properly structured life insurance program, if you borrow the money out of the policy, the proceeds are tax free,” McDermott said. “As long as you don’t lapse the policy, no taxes are due. When the death benefit is paid, it is paid income tax free, minus the withdrawals. We structure these programs so that the income stream is tax free through age 100 and the policy has a no lapse provision in it so as not to generate a taxable event.”

In addition to providing capital for borrowing, policies can also provide a stream of retirement income for policy holders. There are no age limits on policy withdrawals.
“This is the front of the wave for retirement planning,” McDermott said. “Setting up something like an Infinite Banking plan...allows you to save for retirement planning and [know] exactly what your tax exposure is going to be when you start pulling the money out. And if you pull it out correctly, you’re going to have zero tax exposure.”
Insurance policies are also safe from exposure to litigation and creditors. “Insurance policies are protected from...taxes, creditors, litigation, things like that,” Steve Sappington, co-founder and registered principal of TWM Group, LLC, said. “We have, for example, a lot of doctors who use this Infinite Banking Concept...because it shelters assets.”
In addition to being safe, individualized banking is flexible. Policy holders can borrow money and use it for purchases for which financing is usually hard to come by, such as foreign real estate. Policy holders can even become lenders themselves, borrowing money to lend it to other people in order to earn further interest.
People who use individualized banking can use their policy in a variety of ways without turning any money over to a bank or other lender at any time. “It’s really phenomenal,” Rice said.
The disadvantages
Still, it is by no means a perfect system. It typically takes several years for policies to grow to the point that the returns equal the costs of the premium, and for there to be a significant enough value in the policy to warrant borrowing from it.
The initial stages of individualized banking are analogous to starting a small business; there are a few years where money is spent before any money comes in. In addition, policy holders must be dedicated to building up the value of their policies.
“Just plan on really funding that policy well for seven years, then you’re going to be able to do some really nice things as a result from that,” Sappington said. He compared the initial stages to a jet taking off. A jet uses a lot of fuel to take off but becomes much more efficient after the initial surge of fuel use.
In addition to building up their policies, policy holders must be dedicated to paying back loans, though there is certainly more flexibility involved, since policy holders are paying themselves back. If unforeseen circumstances arise, policy holders can change their repayment schedule as necessary, rather than worrying about foreclosure, repossession or damaged credit. However, failing to pay back loans will diminish the effectiveness and efficiency of the system.

People who want to use an individualized banking system will need someone familiar with it to help them set it up, and not all insurance brokers are aware of the system.
Those interested in individualized banking will need to do research to make informed decisions. Fees, commissions and the percentage of the premium that goes toward building the account’s value vary by company, and there are many ways to structure whole life policies.