Hey Guys,
First and foremost I want to say thank you for all the support and kind words last week. It definitely helped me through my little down time. But as promised I'm back and ready to resume our regularly scheduled program. So let's get in to it.
Leverage
Have you ever played with a seesaw (also know as a "teeter-totter") as a child or even as an adult? It's probably one of the most simplest toys ever made. It's basically a long, narrow board pivoted in the middle so that, as one end goes up, the other goes down. A person sits on each end, and they take turns pushing their feet against the ground to lift their side into the air. It's a simple little device that can be a lot of fun. What's really amazing about this little device is that you're able to get more out of your God given strength because of this piece of wood. Under normal circumstances you may not be able to lift your friend up in the air on your own. But with a seesaw, you can easily do this and more because you're able to use the power of leverage.
Well that power of leverage isn't limited to the playground. In fact if you have the right perception, the world is your playground with tons of teeter-totters waiting to do your bidding. Let me give you some examples of the power of leverage.
Stop working for your money, let your money work for you!
I know that doesn't seem to make any "cents" literally. But let me explain. One day my wife and I were watching Robert Kiyosaki the author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Robert has such a varied view of finances than most of us were taught or rather never taught. You tend to get a lot of Aha moments when you read his material or listen to him speak. Well that's exactly what happened to me one faithful night. He said something that changed the way I view money and wealthy people forever. He basically said the following: "The rich don't work for their money, they make their money work for them!" I thought to myself oh my Damn, he's a freaking genius! He wasn't saying that the rich were lazy, he was arguing that they were just smarter about how they used the money they made.
So I thought to myself well that's very true and I need to find opportunities to do this. Obviously if you have a savings account that gains some interest or investments this is a perfect example of this. But I realized there was another way I could do this every day. For the longest I always paid with everything using cash or my debit card. It was something I was very proud of ever since I got myself out of credit card debt. But then Robert's statement popped in my head. I realized that I was gaining nothing by paying for everything with cash or debit card. So I did a little research and decided that I would actually start using a credit card again. But this time I was in a position where I would never carry a balance. Furthermore I also picked a credit card that would pay me back for every purchase I made. I settled on a Platinum American Express charge card. I liked this card because they had a great reward system that was all encompassing. This meant that I could use the points I was accumulating with various airlines, restaurants, stores, gas stations, etc, etc. They had such a wide range of ways to utilize the points I earned. So initially I used my AMEX to charge all my business expenses. That racked up points very quickly and easily. But then I realized I was still leaving money on the table because I wasn't using a card that gave me rewards for my personal expenses. So I went and got another AMEX for my personal use. Now literally everything I bought earned me some rewards back.
Kids don't try this at home….
So racking up points on my own individual purchases wasn't enough for me. I decided to expand my efforts by recruiting my wife. I did the unthinkable. I gave my wife an AMEX card as well and insisted that she bought everything with it. Now, fellas I don't really suggest doing this if you know your wife has the discipline of a 2 year old in a candy store with $100. Ladies don't you dare tell your man Eddy said that you should give me a credit card to spend as I please because it will make us money. I'll flat out deny it and point to the transcript that will illustrate how you took my words out of context. lol Fortunately my wife is pretty good, her only vice is shopping for my little princess. That girl is the best dressed person in our household. I literally have holes in my white tees and she's running around with brand new dresses every week. Go figure. lol Now that I had my wife "on the payroll", we were really racking up those points!
Eureka!
Finally every dollar I spent was literally working for me! However we didn't stop there. Even when we would go out with friends or family we made it a point to encourage everyone else to give us the cash and we would throw the bill on the AMEX. So as you can see, any chance we could find to rack up the points we did! Now I'll say this again. Keep in mind at this point in my life I don't carry any balances! So this is why this method of leverage can work for me. I don't suggest doing this if you can't pay your bill in full at the end of the month. In any event the result of all this leveraging of my AMEX was several hundred thousand points that I could pretty much use for anything. If you know me, then you know I like to travel. I'm blessed that I can do it several times a year. Well I basically pay for all my flights with the points I've accumulated for normal everyday spending. I now literally have my everyday dollar working for me and it pays me back with free flights to warm islands in the Caribbean several times a year. lol Let it marinate in your mind for a second.
Opportunity is everywhere if you know where to look…
As you can see that's one way to leverage something you'll probably be doing the rest of your life. If you're in a position to this and you're not, then you're basically leaving money on the table. Fortunately there are folks like me that will be happy to pick it up for you. lol Look there are so many ways to leverage various aspects of your life if you have the right perception. For instance some of my loyal subscribers are taking the little money they earn from opportunities like reading emails and taking surveys and putting them in CDs or high interest savings account. This way they compound the money they've earned. Other's have ran with my advice about Clixsense and using the cash they earn for viewing ads to purchase ads right back on Clixsense. Why you may ask? Well because they'll often advertise an offer that will pay them more than what they just earned if someone signs up after viewing the ad. That's a powerful use of leverage. I've literally tripled the money I earn from Clixsense by doing this every month. But you need to be open minded to see leverage opportunities. Most people look at something like Clixsense and laugh. Whereas people like Phil and I are laughing to the bank. It's literally funny what a different point of view can do.
Sometimes there are opportunities to leverage other people strengths so you both win. For instance, I have a buddy that apparently has been very successful at forex trading for the last couple of years. He and I got to talking and I was intrigued by his success. I'm already a very busy man so I had no interest in learning how to actually trade in the forex market. However I saw a leverage opportunity there that could work for us both. Since he was already doing the work, I basically proposed a stock broker type of relationship. I would give him money to invest in the forex market for me based on what he was already doing with his own funds. Then whatever he was able to earn we would divvy up at an agreed percentage. The end results was a net of several hundred dollars within two months. That my friend is a great example of leveraging people without exploiting them. We were both gaining something out of the relationship. He was leveraging the extra funds I had and I was leveraging his knowledge. It was a match made in heaven.
Duel….
So my challenge to you is to find ways to levearge situations that can help you get more out of life. Although I focused solely on financial gains, there are probably other ways you can find to leverage opportunities to help yourself or others. Just recently I used some of my swagbucks to support the Tennessee Flood relief fund. I also did this via MySurvey for my homeland of Haiti a few months back. The power of leverage can be used in so many different ways if you think outside the box. Trust me when you can learn to look pass the 4 walls surrounding your mind the world becomes one of opportunities rather than the limitations that life has beat into you all these years.
Well enough yammering. Hopefully you've had a few Aha moments and you're actively seeking or working on some opportunities to leverage situations in your life. If you are I would love to hear about it. Either way I would love to hear what you thought of this article below. So feel free to chime away. Hopefully you got some value out of this article. If not maybe you'll get some value out of the job leads below. Enjoy either way. Speak to you next week!
P.S. Shout out to all of you that decided to take advantage of MySurvey this week. I see that the update helped a lot of you make a decision to give it a shot. I'm confident you'll be happy with this company for many years to come.
Monday 5/17/2010
– Website Sales Representative
– Web Design and Administration
Tuesday 5/18/2010
– Web Content Creation and Marketing
– Commodities and Trading Writer
– Amharic/English Interpreters
Wednesday 5/19/2010
– Mortgage Processor/Underwriter
– German and Spanish Translators
– Writer
– Bilingual French/English Medical Interviewer
Thursday 5/20/2010
– Experienced Probate Paralegal
– English to French Translator
– Editor
Recommended Instant Work At Home Opportunities
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Get Paid To Search The Web (SwagBucks)
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Work At Home With Amazon.com (Data Entry, Typing, etc)
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HomeJobStop.com (Membership based site)
Hello Eddy,
As always one of your biggest fans!
I searched your site for the Two Dollar Click have you done any research on this site?
Hey Corissa,
Thanks for the support. I’ve never heard of this company. But as always you can conduct the same research I do by following the steps in my scam video: http://www.workathomenoscams.com/scams
Hope this helps.
Yes, way to go!! Spend money but still receiving it back.. Thanks for the info..
You’re welcome Katland. I’m happy you got some value from the article.
Eddy,
You’ve done it again. Along with all the other things you do, you’ve adressed something that is important and something that alot of people out there have trouble with, making the most out of the money you make. It’s extreemly important when a person is working for themselves and working tord being able to do more than just work to pay the bills.
Thank you!
Wendy
Gotcha back Sweetie!
Thanks Big Sis! (Ms Edrena)
Wendy,
Thanks for the words of encouragement. Quite frankly I was starting to wonder if the message had went over people’s heads. lol
You stopped “preaching” and went to “meddling” is what most men would think at first glance to your article when you said you gave your wife that AMEX card and then encouraged her to use it all the time! However, should one keep on reading, the wisdom of your narrative becomes evident as one continues to read, but/and, that is, ONLY if the balance can be paid in full every month. Don’t run off half-cocked–read the entire article: “For this plan to work, pay the full balance of the charges every month.” Those are the key words. Understanding is the best thing is the world “old” folks use to say.
Brilliant as usual Eddy. I’ve used my “cash back rewards” from my PayPal Plus Mastercard to purchase advertising. Sure I could have used the money ( it was $100 ) to buy something on EBay but using it to make more money. Awesome. Now if I could have just grasped the whole “pay your balance in full” concept, it would have made things a bit more sweeter..
You forgot to mention that even simple changes like using SwagBucks for doing searches instead of google and yahoo search works in our favor as well. Yes! You have converted me… and sorry I couldn’t earn you anymore than 100 extra Swags ( bucks ).
Phil ( now where’s my beer ) Ames
Oh and… I was having a hard time deciding what my next advertising budget was going to be used for. Thanks for writing this post and making my decision easier ( duh..clixsense )
Eddy!
Glad you are out of your “funk”!!!!
Thanks for the “recap”!
That was pretty funny…you said you “I did the unthinkable. I gave my wife an AMEX card as well and insisted that she bought everything with it.”
FUNNY! 🙂
But you made great points in your recap!
Thank you SO much for all you do! ☺♥♥☺
Amelia,
Thanks. I’m happy to be back to my normal self too.
In any event, I’m glad you like this week’s recap. Just remember I only told my
wife that because she’s disciplined and I know I can pay the bill in full at the end of the month. I wouldn’t have
made the suggestion if i felt it would actually lose me money. lol Thanks for the continued support here and my FB fan page. 😉
Phil,
Thanks! The “pay your balance in full” concept is definitely key. lol
I actually did think about swagbucks as a perfect example of leverage. But I felt I’ve beat that dead horse enough in the last couple of weeks. I’m hoping by now people understand it literally makes more “cents” to get paid for something you already do than not. If you can’t see the logic then you have bigger problems that I can’t possibly solve. lol So that’s why I didn’t mention it. But you’re right its a great example of leverage. I’m happy you’ve jumped on the bandwagon. No need for the apology. I’m happy to get any referral credit for it. Maybe SB will improve this limitation in the future.
In any event, I’m glad I can jog a bit of inspiration on your end.
Ms Edrena,
My bad big sis. lol I knew I may have crossed the line with the AMEX wife suggestion. lol However you’re absolutely right, if folks aren’t skimming then they’ll realize there was a big if statement after I made that comment. R.I.F. reading is fundamental as the old 80’s commercial use to say. So thanks for reiterating the point. lol