J's Coffee Pot
It's all about money and how to make more of it
Its all about debt and how to get out of it
Its all about buying property without having to get a mortgage
Its about investments and financial intuition
And - it's moved!
If you would like to continue to follow my blog, and I would love that, please check out my new website at JudithMorgan.com
Thank you and please do keep in touch. See you over there.
Yesterday, Nicola and I interviewed Anthony North who is Head of Fundraising for The Big Issue Foundation. He moved us both to tears more than once, often with his own passion for his job! I know I wound up feeling I wanted to do even more to support The Big Issue than we are already doing. We expect to be able to donate around £4,500 on 21st March from our Property Extravaganza day and Nicola ended up emailing him after the interview offering to help them with their internet marketing. Anthony already said he comes into work every day with a brilliant idea which they have insufficient funds to put into practice. Nicola had a brilliant idea about that. Or two.
Our interview series in support of our Property day generally last for 30 minutes. My thinking is here that we are all busy and time-poor. But within moments of Anthony opening his mouth, Nicola had skyped me to say "allow him to go to 60 minutes if you want, he's fascinating". I had already made that decision since Anthony can talk for England - how I am going to keep him to just 10 minutes on the day I have no idea!
The Big Issue have an event of their own on 17th March, just a few days before ours. Its called Real Lives, Real Achievements and I am going along with Karen & Rich (Money Gym clients) to find out more about their work in action. I know from Anthony's talk with us that they support a fluctuating population of about 2,500 vendors and we found out how to become a vendor, what constitutes a happy ending for the vendors and how much it costs to spend a night in a homeless hostel, amongst other things.
You can listen to Anthony's interview here and you can also book your tickets to our event or donate by Paypal if you are not free to attend.
A chap on Twitter asked me for my Top 10 Reasons for investing in property. I have knocked out the following very quickly and twittered each one back to him!
Because my portfolio is in profit for the first time ever - and quite a big one too which seems to get bigger with each month fortunately. This means I have surplus cash, can soak up prevous tax losses, and cashflow is eased which makes me feel like taking on more of the right investments
Because I can buy so cheaply right now and help people in extremis.
Because I can buy using Lease Options for £1 and avoid having to apply for a mortgage or pay stamp duty that way - lovely! Its fast too.
Because I can help others into a nice home which is one of the suprising delights of being a landlady. Having owned and rented, I know what makes a nice rental home for folks who choose not to own right now for whatever reason of their own (which is none of my business).
Because I can get more and better advice from experts who have grown in this challenging market and had to step up their expertise accordingly.
Because people bring me mind-bendingly good investment opportunities every day.
Because I enjoy sniffing out "the deal" and finding a win:win.
Because tax-friendly overseas schemes are helping me live my dream and create a pension within 10 years.
Because some of those are 100% funded.
And because my favourite one is GUARANTEED, i.e. I can't lose my capital, its pegged and underwritten by Lloyds. Beat that.
If you would like to hear more about each of these, please book now to attend the Money Gym's Property Extravaganza in Central London on 21/3/09.
Coming soon - my top 10 reasons for attending that day - I hope I can get that out before my JV partner emails his list of 14,000 and sells my remaining tickets for me in one fell swoop!
...(unlike Bradford & Bingley, the bank that gave the awards - it's gone bust).
That was the rather lengthy title of a surprisingly upbeat article in yesterday's Mail on Sunday, by Duncan Farmer. Thank you Duncan for your follow up piece on the ladies who were given awards a year ago by the B & B for their achievement as BTL landladies.
As Duncan says " one year on, B & B has collapsed and been broken up and there are no awards in 2009 - but amazingly, the women who triumphed last year are not only surviving, they are thriving." Amazing perhaps to Duncan, but not to me, they are professionals, they bloody-well know what they are doing! I am hoping it wasn't Duncan's intention to patronise them like that. We'll give him the benefit of the doubt, for now.
Duncan's article features Hasmita Reardon, 45 year old former nurse and mother of three, who owns more than 80 properties in her home town of Sittingbourne, Kent, mostly let to tenants no other landlord will touch. I've just sent her an email asking her to come and speak for us on 21st March at our Property Extravaganza day as I am sure she will be very inspiring, especially since she specialises rehousing women on the run from violent husbands - now there's a niche!
Also the article features winner Teresa Galley who owns 20 properties in her native Doncaster and Fiona Macaskill, the Bristol student landlady who now owns 40 houses in the Fishponds area worth an estimated £9m. Fional is frustrated by the credit crunch since its slowing down her rate of acquisition and says "there are fabulous bargains out there".
Nicola Cairncross always reminds me that women "get" property easily, it's a home after all and we've all had them, we know what makes a good one, and how important it is to have a nice one. It's an instinct not peculiar to women but let's say they often look at property investing in this light.
Helen Currie from Leigh in Lancashire also wants to buy more but regards the cost of mortgages as too high "the lenders want two or three per cent above the base rate and a huge arrangement fee". And Sandra Cook from South Wales has doubled her portfolio and also seen her mortgage repayments shrink.
Duncan concludes his article with: "Since winning the awards, the women have heard only once from Bradford & Bingley, which was taken over by the Abbey-Santander banking group, but whose mortgage book was handed over to taxpayers: it was to ask them to switch to another lender."
Oh, don't start me...
If you want to be a woman of property and follow the shining example set by Hasmita, Teresa, Fiona and Helen, you definitely want to be at our Property Day in March, book your tickets here.
You'd think I would learn my lesson by now, wouldn't you? I should stop reading the bloody weekend papers... apparently I have been heard to look up from the financial section two weeks running and say, gloomily, "I dont think will ever get a mortgage again". Good job I've got six already then, and an even better job I know a way of buying property without getting a mortgage at all!
Here's yesterday's doom and gloom news under the above headline: Gordon Brown plans to ban 100 per cent mortgages in an attempt to prevent a repeat of the reckless loans by banks and building societies blamed for the credit crunch. He has written to City watchdogs at the FSA asking them to begin an urgent investigation into how such loans can be permanently outlawed.
The economic crisis has led to most financial institutions withdrawing 100 per cent home loans - but the Prime Minister wants to make sure that they do not return when the recession is over. Mr Brown also aims to persuade banks to refuse to give loans to people unless they can show they are earning enough money to meet their monthly mortgage payments.
Read the rest of the Daily Mail article by clicking here.
This is patent nonsense as some of the commenters on the Daily Mail website point out.
This wasnt why the meltdown happened. Its locking the stable door after the horse has bolted. I have two 100% mortgages and I havent defaulted on them despite never having been able to prove my ability to pay either of them. The FSA have been totally discredited IMHO. Gordon Brown's dour Scottish penny pinching ways havent done the country one iota of good in hindsight, have they? To stifle lending and lenders in this way simply won't work. As one of the commenters on the DM site says, they will find a workaround so long as its profitable for them and us.
I've been here before. And whilst I've never borrowed from a bank since the last recession (when I was repossessed due to ridiculously high interest rates) and deep in debt, I can remember it was less than three years before all the lenders wanted to lend to me again - HUGE amounts. Lenders have very short memories and as soon as the markets bounce back it will be (greedy) business as usual, lending up to the eyeballs to anyone who wants it.
Don't make me laugh, Gordon. Actually speaking of laughter, there's a fabulous joke by Michael McIntyre about having your mortgage at Northern Rock and being worried about it. He advises borrowers and run home and change the locks! That's more like it. Wish I could find that again on YouTube.
If you are worried that you won't ever get a mortgage, and who could blame you, come to our Property Extravaganza and find out how to buy your own home without a mortgage, or sell your home to someone who can't get a mortgage right now by clicking here and booking your tickets.
Mortgage lending on buy-to-let properties has dived by nearly two-thirds in the past year, figures showed on Friday. Around 37,000 mortgages, worth £3.9 billion, were taken out by investment landlords during the final quarter of 2008, the CML (Council of Mortgage Lenders) said.
That is 56 per cent lower by number and 65 per cent lower by value than during the same period a year earlier. There were 4,000 repossessed buy-to-let properties last year, up from 2,000 in 2007, the group said. And the number of buy-to-let mortgages more than three months in arrears was up from 7,500 by the end of 2007 to 26,800 by 2008's finish.
Ian Potter, of the Association of Residential Letting Agents, said: "The contraction in the buy-to-let market will have a very significant impact on the availability of housing stock for the population."
GOOD! Is it me? Am I the only one seeing an opportunity here???
Come and hear The Good News about professional property investing with The Money Gym on 21st March 2009 in aid of The Big Issue. Book your tickets by clicking here.
Thoughts have been running through my head today about what I would do when I make it. When my financial dreams and aspirations and plans have come to fruition. By my own reckoning, I'm about half way there. But it depends on what your definition is of financial freedom, doesn't it?
Are you someone who wants who wants to be a millionaire on paper, i.e. having assets to that value?
Or are you someone who wants to make more passive income than your outgoings, a la Rich Dad?
That second one is deceptively easy, although I confess I am about six years into it. However, I expect the next six years to be all downhill as opposed to the first six years which sometimes feel like they have been all uphill and all on a roller-coaster!
And today I was marvelling at the abundance of my speakers. They have all been so generous in the prizes they have given me for our Property Extravaganza on 21st March. A little gremlin was sitting on my shoulder as the prizes rolled in. I was incredulous and grateful all at once, but my gremlin was saying "ah yes, well that's all very well for them, they are millionaires/multi millionaires. It's easy for them to donate prizes worth anything between £500 to £10,000 and lots of them too". Blah, blah, blah.
And then my next thought - follow me here - was "I wonder why on earth they are still bothering to educate the likes of us if they've already made it?". Followed up with "when I've made it, I'm just going to sit with my feet up". More blah, blah, blah.
And then it hit me. Of course I won't sit with my feet up. I've got plenty of money in the bank and a million pounds worth of assets and I don't need to work nearly as hard as I do now, and yet I choose to. Ah, so they love their work so much, educating us, sharing their learning, that they've had their chance to sit with their feet up and chosen not to.
It's very important to know what you want and to go after it. Its equally important to love what you do and know why you are doing it.
Peter Stanley spoke about time freedom.
Katharine Wooller spoke about her love of horses and working in property which is also her hobby.
I love to help people.
Will any of that change when we reach a place where we think we've made it? I doubt it. I'll be the same person, driven and loving to help.
So, on the basis of a little light thinking earlier today, I'm changing my mind about what I will do when I've made it. It's that easy to change your mind!
Do you know what you would do?
There's a great exercise on pages 9 and 10 of Nicola's Money Gym book where you are asked to write down how you would like to be living your life on a Tuesday in two, five or ten years' time. Write down where you are, who you are with and what you are doing from the moment you get up to the moment you go to bed.
Is that a compelling enough vision for you? If not, go back to it again and again and build a vivid and specific scene.
Now, how are you going to get there? We are going to show you how on 21st March. Book your tickets now and help the homeless via The Big Issue.
"Judith Morgan is the best business coach/mentor I know. She sees things others don't (or long before they do), her mind is as sharp as a razor, yet she delivers her wisdom with love and respect for her clients. She is great at listening to one's ramblings, quickly understanding what you're trying to do and has an immense and genuine belief in what you can achieve."
Marion Ryan, ReadySteadyBlog.com
Coaching clients and colleagues, despite it being my intention to pull back on that sort of work.
Sorting out a big backlog of Cartel paperwork, all glitches, clients (myself included) waiting to find various bits and bobs of paperwork, necessitating visits to Earls Court and Mill Hill. Growing the team.
Working with Mike & John to bring the Creative Entrepreneurs Club up to speed.
Copying with a snowy car accident and managing in my "courtesy" car - a Fiat Punto. The only way I know its my car is that it doesn't have any hub caps, just big heavy doors which swing back on your legs as you get out, that's the trouble with a 3-door car, I had forgotten. Don't get me wrong, for my courtesy car and my protected No Claims Discount, I am very grateful. Tap, tap, tap.
Interviewing Peter Stanley over at The Money Gym, he's my first speaker on Property Extravaganza day on 21st March. Negotiating with all the speakers to give me some wonderful prizes for our raffle, setting up webinars with each of them, liaising with the venue, marketing the gig, creating the sales letter, mind-mapping the event and tapping on it.
Using my new emwave machine to relax, not very successfully yesterday and today. Must try harder; ironically that won't work.
Helping an LA-based friend of a friend, very exciting that one. Just been offered a holiday there as a reward! It was so easy and enjoyable - just reaching out to third parties who could help and connecting folks. I LOVE to do that.
Lunching my mortgage broker who introduced me to something she calls the electronic tonic; when you wear it round your neck it balances you. Her somewhat sceptical husband wore it for a day and pronounced himself unable to feel gloomy. Imagine what it will do for me - I NEVER feel gloomy. I should launch into orbit. Mind you, if it balances you...will it bring me (unacceptably) back down to earth?
Fielding calls from all sorts of "strangers", at least two referred kindly by Julian Sonessa, who want to get into Lease Options or join my Cartel team.
Going to Basildon for more Harlequin training with Bianca, Kevin and Christian - we had to get there for 0830 which necessitated another 5 a.m. start. Commissioning my own white label Caribbean website and beginning to blog on it - drawing the dream ever nearer.
Being Sunday-lunched in Chislehurst, Kent with my old friends from my day job (two years out on 28th Feb) and entertaining Lizzie & Marie at home here.
Running a Cashflow game which was THE most enormous fun.
Doing the Money Gym accounts (needed doing but this was just an avoidance tactic instead of the real job in hand). Noticing that whereas clients used to come to me from the Money Gym, now my clients are joining the Money Gym - via tapping events, Cashflow games and the Property Day.
Going to see Vicky Christina Barcelona and loving it. Best Woody Allen film for YEARS. Run to see it, infectious music and a lovely mellow July/August in Europe vibe going on.
Going to my solicitor's house for supper so he could teach me and my best friend how to play poker.
Getting very, very excited about a visit to Lincoln on Thursday upcoming to find out more about a Unique property offering which I shall be introducing my clients to on 21st March. This will enable us to build an awesome property investment globally where our surprisingly low capital investment is guaranteed.
Starting to create a garden at Streatham Hill, just foundations at the moment, tree surgery and garden paths, but blossoms will definitely follow. I see pink climbing roses and enormous hydrangea bushes in that old red colour Jane had at her Cornish wedding in 2001.
And anticipating a visit on Saturday to Stewart Pearce for my annual psychic MoT.
It just happens if you don't force it - you find form. I hit the ground running yesterday morning with a big pile of stuff which needed doing and I polished most of it off yesterday - I ordered some new clothes which arrived in the post today. I have tried them all on, kept the ones I liked and already returned the ones I didn't and ordered some more. Mail order is a bit hit and miss but a boon.
I've done the filing, ordinary and financial.
I am up to date with The Archers.
I have placed adverts for my Rent2Own business which I had been meaning to do ever since Xmas.
I have spoken to clients, colleagues and contacts in Spain, LA, Brighton and Leatherhead.
I am up to date with all my Cartel paperwork and everything is posted off to Head Office.
I have Twittered, and blogged, written some marketing emails, and got out a couple of ezines.
I have taken three or four jobs out of my in-tray which have been there a very long time and crossed them off the list - including talking to BT (!), ordering some light bulbs, fixing the drainpipe.
The gardeners have started to concrete my side paths.
The cleaning lady has been.
I am closer than ever to getting my tenant's electric meter problem sorted out - closer than ever in four years of trying!
I've sorted out my inbox (only 2 emails awaiting attention).
I've written a thankyou email for lunch on Sunday and sent cards and presents to those I love who have birthdays tomorrow and Thursday, you know who you are and I celebrate you.
I've paid bills, and walked to the Post Office and drawn out the cash for the labourers even though I shall be away in Lincoln on Thursday and in East Finchley on Friday.
And my car's coming back from the garage on Friday too.
Honestly, is there a feeling like being on top of yer jobs? I think not. I am an absolute saint who is retiring to bed early tonight since I have to be in Fulham for an 0830 start. Yesterday I worked from 0830 to about 2300 and today I'm caving in at 2100.
The only thing I havent done is ordered some groceries online. That will just have to wait.
And if I have promised to do something for you and not yet delivered, now would be the time to remind me!
Do you know how GOOD this feels?
