“How I lost 18 pounds in 2 days and 40 pounds after 4 emotional shifts – diet and exercise had nothing to do with it.”

Competition windsurfing at the Olympic level requires 4-6 hours of training six days a week. This became the norm for me from 1990-1999. Ever since I remember I have always been active. As a kid I would prefer to be climbing a tree or riding my bike, swimming in the ocean or going for walks rather than watching TV. My father would always take us on hikes into the mountains with heavy packs on our backs and I was lucky to be introduced to the outdoors from an early age. I grew up two doors from a beautiful beach on Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne, Victoria. Our own garden had many wonderful trees to climb and space to kick the football and be active.

During my windsurfing years I trained like any other professional athlete, full time. I loved training whether it was going for one hour runs, which I did four to five days a week, or going to the gym for strength training or on water windsurfing and kayaking. Basically I am a water baby and always have been. It was my love of the ocean that enabled me to win in windsurfing. From the very beginning at age 12 I used to spend hours on the water mucking around on my windsurfer. After spending an entire summer falling in, getting bruised and battered, sore hands and getting rescued by the yacht club rescue boat, I finally mastered the art of being able to turn the board and sail back to the beach. When I raced as a young teenager I would beat the older guys in their twenties, not because I was stronger, but because I understood the wind shifts better than they did. Windsurfing at the Olympics is like running a marathon and playing a game of chess at the same time.

When I was growing up I never ever thought about my weight. I was a fit and healthy kid and had broad shoulders and strong legs. My competition weight at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics was between 58-60kgs. This was my healthy fit body weight. I had a lot of muscle at the time too and was lean.

However, in 1994 I had an accident windsurfing in New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean. I was racing in an island hopping race, where you sail from one island to the other, and a flying fish flew straight into my left knee. It sounds pretty crazy but these particular fish – Un agrieet in French as they are called, are actually like gar fish and swim very fast and occasionally glide over the water through the air. Unfortunately one happened to glide straight into my knee whilst I was windsurfing at about 40km per hour. This accident resulted in me having to be flown in a helicopter to the Noumea Hospital to have my leg operated on in emergency surgery. The sharp nose of the fish had gone right through my knee and into the bone. It had punctured the outer wall of my main femur artery in my thigh and to top it off it had over 200 baby teeth which were very poisonous.

I ended up having two operations on my knee to get it back to normal. The main problem I suffered from this accident was not so much the surgery, as my knee healed well, but it was the antibiotics that the doctors gave me to stop any infection.

My body shape started to change after taking the antibiotics and two operations. My lymph system started to struggle. The lymph system is vital in removing toxins and waste from every cell to the bladder so that they can be released from the body. About three months after the fish accident I still felt very weak. Three months late I had a blood test and it showed that I was not absorbing the sugar and nutrients from my food and I actually had the blood sugar level of some one who was fasting. My entire digestive track had been compromised.

My body had put on about six kilos and for some reason I was holding lymph in my skin. For an athlete this really messes with your head as you have skin fold tests at the Institute of Sport to measure how much fat you are carrying. Suddenly I was being told to lose weight. For the first time in my life I became focused on my weight. I kept saying to the sports doctors that I could not understand why I had put on this weight; my diet was exactly the same. In fact my diet at the time was extremely healthy (like most athletes) and was also wheat, sugar, alcohol and dairy free. I had decided to go on this diet because I had had some digestion problems six months before and had become intolerant to certain foods.

My automatic reaction to the slight weight gain was to train harder and harder. To be a few kilos overweight in the Olympic windsurfing class was a major disadvantage. Now I was suddenly disadvantaged because of my weight in the light winds. My focus became on my weight instead of winning and for the first time in my life I started to compare myself with other people. I would look at all the naturally skinning girls on the windsurfing circuit and found myself getting annoyed that I was not that body shape. But what was happening was that I was no longer my natural lean body shape and because I could not work it out my focus became on everything external. It was the only way my ego was able to handle it at the time.

Not only did my body shape change after this accident my bladder also seemed to have been affected. Every night I found my self getting out of bed to go and urinate at least 4 times in a night. This was very disturbing to having a good night sleep. I felt like I had constant pressure on my bladder. I would also find that my legs would swell up after a long three hour bike ride. My body was not coping but instead I still trained harder and harder. I went to every doctor I could find and they could not help me. From 1994 to 1999 I must have spent over ,000 on vitamins, supplements and doctors visits to try and find the answers. The doctors I went to simply did not know why. In frustration I started to research as much as I could and I tried every new vitamin, mineral supplement and ‘super food’ I could find that my help my lymph system.

After reading more about these particular tropical fish in New Caledonia I discovered that the poison can actually affect the Lymphatic system. People who had been stung by similar fish or jelly fish had had troubles with their lymph system afterwards.

Finally I was getting some idea but still nothing I did with my diet seemed to help. Even lymph massage only helped for a short time. From 1994-1999 I still competed in windsurfing but I was now 64-66 kilos instead of 59 kilos. This may sound trivial to the average person, but to an athlete it is a big deal. Even though I won seven world titles in windsurfing and competed at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 I never ever realized my dream of Olympic Gold. I share more of my story in the book Spirit in Sport. Looking back on this I have to realise that no matter how trivial, my body weight played a significant role in me losing my focus on winning. The increase in body weight also affected me emotionally, even though I was largely not conscious of it at the time.

In 1999 I retired from windsurfing and went into a corporate sales role. Suddenly I was a full time employee and this was new to me. Ever since I was seventeen I had pretty much worked for myself or run my own businesses. Throughout my windsurfing career I had an event management business that kept me going and as a teenager I had a windsurfing school. When I needed extra cash in between overseas trips for windsurfing I would also work in a café. And in the late 1990’s I ran my own Personal Fitness Training business.

After 9 months in this sales role I realized that the only thing I liked about it was the consistent cash flow. To me that was not enough to hold me in a job that I no longer believed in. When I walked away from the six figure income to set up Barakaya and do what I do today people thought I was crazy. But I had to follow my heart. I have always been someone who has had followed thier heart, even in the face of opposition. My parents for example told me to give up windsurfing when I was 19. They wanted me to get a ‘real job’ and some security. At 19 I was Australian Champion and had won two world titles and was preparing for the 1992 Olympics. To give up then to please a parent would have broken my heart. As it turned out I managed to secure sponsorship to fund my windsurfing campaigns for eight years. Later on my parents realized that it was not such a bad decision after all, especially after I became an Olympian.

Besides I never did my sport for money. I did windsurfing because I loved it. I made enough money to compete but had none left over for investments. This did not bother me at the time because I was doing what I loved and following a dream.

In 2001 everything in my life changed. For the first time everything I tried to do failed. I had gone back working for myself in marketing and sales contracting. There were several clients that failed to pay me for the work I did because they either went bankrupt themselves or had internal disputes going on which affected me. Suddenly my finances were in the red and this created a great deal of stress.

The only way I thought to handle the debt situation was to work longer and harder to pay it off. I took a job selling real estate to help get back on track financially. During this time I was also trying to set up Barakaya so I was working 7 days a week. This was ok if your heart is in what you do but the real estate job was killing me – spiritually. It was not where I wanted to be and the only reason I was doing it was for the money. During this time I ended a five year relationship with my partner. It was my decision to leave him. I simply had to at the time. We had grown apart and I felt a tremendous need to be free. I had also snapped my ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) in a ski accident and a week later prolapsed a disc in my lower back which caused me great pain. I could not get out of bed for a week and was able to move only very slowly around the house. A few weeks later I decided to have a knee reconstruction on my knee to mend it as soon as possible so the knee joint would not wear out. The general anesthetic took its toll on me and the anti-inflammatory drugs for my disc in my back made me feel sick. The health I had taken for granted all my life was gone. For the first time in my life I could not exercise in the way I wanted to. I could not run because of my knee or ride a bike because of my back. So I did nothing for nearly an entire year. During this time I was engulfed by a heavy feeling of sadness.

Over a six month period my body had put on 20 kilos and I had no idea why because I had not changed my diet. I was not able to face myself in the mirror because I did not like what I saw. My face was swollen and puffy. I had lost all the jaw line and fine features of my natural face, my stomach has swollen out about 4 inches and my thighs were carrying a lot of fluid. I even had fluid on my calf muscles and triceps. Via stealth it seemed I had gone from a size 12 to a size 16.

Each day I would wake up with pain in my pancreas and liver. Finally I decided to go to a doctor that a friend recommended. He was qualified in western and eastern medicine. He spent a lot of time with me taking tests using vibrational medicine. Basically I was a ‘walking toxic waste dump’ he told me, in a nice way. My body was shutting down and my lymph system was not coping. I had cancer cells in the body which would become a real problem if I did not immediately start treatment. At the time I did not even have the money for extra vitamins let alone other medical related expenses. I was too proud to ask anyone for help. I simply wanted to do it on my own. And the last thing I wanted was to tell my family exactly how bad my health had become. When I walked out of the doctors surgery that day I felt deep in my heart that even if I did have all the right ‘physical’ treatment (which was alternative and natural, because I do not believe in chemotherapy) and go on strict diet, nothing would make any difference. There was a whisper from my soul that said I needed to find the answer at the spiritual level.

A week later I was on my way to work the real estate sales job and I pulled the car over on the side of the road and burst into tears. I was completely physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausted. For the first time in my life I felt totally out of control, burned out and disconnected from any happiness and joy. I could not go on working seven days a week and playing ‘catch up to the creditors’. The pressure I was putting on myself was killing me. The job I was in was soul destroying. I called mum in tears. “I can’t do this anymore.” She understood and with some warm and caring words made me feel ok for making a decision to quit this real estate job. As soon as I made this decision I felt like a huge weight was being lifted off my back. I had no choice but to surrender to my soul at the time and pursue what my heart really wanted to do which was run personal development programs.

The creditors would just have to wait. I had no idea at the time how much a slave to money I had become. Being in debt had made me feel guilt and shame about being a ‘bad and hopeless person’. Even though the debts were business related I still felt like a failure. What happened to the confident, healthy, vibrant happy windsurfer that I once was? That person was no longer. I had fallen so far emotionally that I did not even know who I was anymore.

It was a dark night of the soul. During this time I was defiantly lost in Dante’s dark woods. Day after day I would drive the car down to the beach and consider just driving it off the pier, or swimming out into the ocean never to return. In fact I really just wanted to curl up in a ball, go to sleep and not wake up. If suicide was an easy thing to do, and did not affect other people in your life, then there was a part of me that would have definitely done it.

Lost in despair I did not know who I was anymore. I was lost with no direction. I did not fit in anywhere and I was too embarrassed to go out and see my friends because I looked so overweight and felt ‘ugly’. (I did not know at the time but I was going through a tremendous spiritual awakening and as a result everything in my physical world was being torn apart to be ‘re-built’.) I became so lost that one time I remember driving the car to the supermarket to get some groceries as my fridge was empty. I could not find a car park and became so angry that I simply drove home without any food. I had looked down at my swollen stomach and burst into tears. For a period of 8 months I had also buried myself in alcohol to numb the pain – to stop feeling. My self esteem was rock bottom. I was too embarrassed to be seen. Instead I buried myself in research.

I sold my four wheel drive, got an old bomb to drive around, cut all my overheads took a part time job and spent 25 hours a week researching. I was determined to find answers about what was happening in my own body. In 1998 I had attended a metaphysics course that basically said that we create our reality from our thoughts and feelings. What we think about is what we create. This had made sense to me but purely on an intellectual level. I remember walking out of that workshop recognizing that I had created all the good things in my life but I found it very difficult to comprehend that I would in fact have created all the injuries, chaos and pain in my life. Why on earth would I have created that?

As I read book after book and attended workshop after workshop on quantum science, sacred geometry, emotional freedom technique, heart coherence and human behaviour the same message was there – we create our reality. Or our consciousness creates our own reality. Meanwhile I was desperate to find answers as to why my body was so bloated still. I went to a reiki healer who helped to balance my chakras. This seemed to work in some way but still my weight did not change. I had stopped drinking alcohol and had started to kayak three to four times a week. But still no change in my body shape.

In January 2002 I flew to Sydney to meet with a lady who used a machine to ‘bring my spirit back into my body’. I was desperate at the time to find answers. I held on to these two metal handles and she told me that my spirit was 8 metres from my body. She brought it back in and immediately my lymph system started to gurgle. Within two minutes I went to the loo and started to urinate. My lymph started to clear. This definitely made a small difference and I felt more grounded. But still my body shape did not change. I read book after book that linked emotions with the body. It made complete sense to me. Finally I began to understand just how powerful emotions were. Every experience we have ever had is recorded in our own mind ever since conception in the womb.

So I started to delve into childhood memories to see if they were affecting me right now. When I was a 4 week old baby the doctors operated on me to cut out a cyst that was in my small intestine. As a result they had left a 40cm scar across my stomach and cut out 1/5th of my small intestine. The stitches later ripped in hospital and they kept me in a humidity crib for 4 months. As a kid growing up this trauma as a baby seemed to never have affected me in any way. My health had always been good but maybe this memory had something to do with my body blowing up now? I could not work it out. I went back and searched and healed each memory from this life.

During this time I started to facilitate personal development workshops. I had finally overcome all my fears about finances, body shape and my life and surrendered to my situation. I had stopped resisting my life and started to live again.

There was nothing to fear any more. I was doing what I wanted to do, facilitating workshops, and I had started to generate income again. Yvonne Evans, a good friend, and I decided to combine services and facilitate programs together. Yvonne is a mystic and healer, as well as being a corporate coach. For the first time I started to really understand the unseen spiritual realm.

Everything is a vibration of energy. Our five physical senses of touch (kinesthetic), smell (olfactory), taste, sight and hearing makes us feel like everything is physical. However when we break the body down into tissues, cells, atoms and molecules the body is energy. Under the microscope quantum scientists realise that when they look at the atom of a cell it is actually waves of energy. When this energy is observed with physical eyes it appears to be electrons and positrons but when it is not observed with the physical eyes it is actually waves of energy. Quantum scientists have realized this since the 1920’s; mystics, sages, Indigenous shamans, healers and spiritual teachers have realized this since the dawn of humanity. We are energy. The physical world appears solid to our eyes but it is actually vibrations of energy.

We are spiritual beings having a human physical experience.

What we can see with our physical eyes is less that 5% of what actually exists at other levels of vibration. For example we cannot see radio waves or television waves or even microwaves, but they still exist. The astral realm for example is the next vibrational range up from our physical realm. Spiritual teachers, mystics and psychics can see what goes on at this level of vibration. It exists simultaneously with the physical realm but is simply at a higher frequency of vibration. Many people who see spirits or ghosts or colours or sparks of light tune into this level of vibration. I had started to realise the importance of our own thoughts and feelings and how thought forms in the astral can attach and affect our own physical body. Yvonne guided me through a process of clearing my own energy field – the aura. After doing this clearing process with Yvonne for the first time in three years I felt grounded and properly in my body. The pain in my pancreas went and my hips rotated back to their correct position. I had not known it at the time but I had had astral interference that was affecting my physical body shape. I discuss this in detail in Section 1.

A week after clearing my energy field Yvonne and I were sitting in a coffee shop discussing my swollen stomach and trying to work out the cause of it. Suddenly out of my mouth came “I think I have been stabbed in another life.”

Yvonne tuned into my soul story. (A mystic can access higher vibrational information that resides at soul level whilst remaining grounded in physical consciousness.) “You have been disemboweled on a battle field as a soldier,” she said. When she said this a burst of energy ran up my spine and I saw flashes of this life time in my minds eye. The ‘me’ that had died on the battle field was stuck in the astral level and had not gone to the Light (connected with the soul properly). I guided (in my mind’s eye) this aspect of me to the Light and felt suddenly overcome with peacefulness and love. Yvonne suggested I drive home and get some sleep to allow my consciousness to re-sort. There was a lot going on within me at the unconscious level.

As I crawled into bed this particular past life memories started to come through. I had my first physical catharsis. A physical catharsis is when your physical body releases emotional memories. This one was one from a past life. My body shook and contorted in amazing ways as the memory of being disemboweled flashed through my mind. This was not painful but it was certainly overwhelming and exhausting. The pain at soul level was being released via my physical body. This catharsis lasted for two and half hours. I had no choice but to surrender to the experience. I had to be in a state of observation without getting attached to what was happening and being released. When the contortions and muscle spasms finally subsided I lay in bed absolutely amazed at what I had just experienced.

My physical body had literally morphed!! My stomach had gone in three inches. I went and looked in the mirror. My face had changed back to normal and my body felt leaner. I could not believe it. In 2 days I lost 8 kilos! Basically I had read book after book and research article after research article from leading scientists who all talked about the body being vibrations of energy or a holograph of Light and now I had proved to myself that I was actually just that – pure energy. The discordant energy that was in my energy field from this ‘past life memory’ was now cleared and as a result my physical body was able to adjust back to its normal and healthy shape. This was amazing. I was so excited I wrote everything down.

(The mind has the template to self heal. When we allow the mind to heal it can heal. But first we must address any emotional wound or discordant thought energy that is in the mind and release it so the body can heal. The mind is the eternal aspect of self and is a field of energy – or pulsating Light vibration. The mind resides in every cell of the body and is also independent of the body. I explain this in detail in Section 1.)

For six months leading up to this catharsis I had been meditating for two hours a day. During these meditations I was drawn by spirit to do toning. Toning is when you use the voice to resonate certain sounds that correlate with our chakras. The chakras are the ‘wheels of energy’ that represent our Light body. They connect us with the etheric and spiritual aspect of Self. When I toned my entire body would buzz with a higher vibration of energy. This higher vibration of energy is also called spirit – Light. The Indians may call it Prana, the Chinese may refer to it as Qi (Chi), and Christians may call it the Holy Spirit. It is pure source energy – or pure divine love from the creator (God/Goddess/All there Is). This high vibration of Light would flow right through my body and often last for over two hours. I would feel incredible divine love and in a bliss state when this would happen. At the time I intuitively felt it was my own Higher Self healing me. So from these experiences I understood that we were simply vibrations of Light. So when my body morphed after healing the past life of being disemboweled it only confirmed to me that we are a hologram of Light – that appears to be solid to our physical eyes, but is not solid at all.

When you heal the energy field (or the mind field) – at the spiritual and emotional level you can heal the physical body. So much for diet I thought!!

The day after I healed this past life I bumped into my neighbor and she could not believe the differenced in my appearance. My entire face and body shape had changed. “What on earth happened to you?” she exclaimed. She could not believe it, and of course I could not put into words what had actually happened at the time, it was all a bit ‘out there’ for anyone else to understand.

After this experience my full mystical abilities returned and I was again able to communicate with the Angelic realm. I had been able to do this as a child but had lost the ability as a teenager. Yvonne had told me in a meditation in early 2003 that the Arch Angels were going to ‘wake me up’. I did not know what that really meant at the time, but simply went along with it. I had not idea what kind of ride I would be in for.

For a period of two years I would have one past life memory flood through my consciousness to be healed and transformed, to the Love, after another. With every new memory came new awareness about self, pain and healing. I realized that I was able to help heal the pain that my clients had and also help them heal past life memories that were affecting their current life, or ability to have healthy loving relationships. (All of our lives are happening in the eternal now moment at soul level. Beyond the third dimension of the physical world there is no such thing as time and space. Einstein confirmed this in his own scientific research. What this means it that all of our ‘past lives’ are in our hologram of mind right now and very often there is unfinished business that we have to heal in this life. I discuss this in detail in Section 1 and the nature of learning spiritual lessons in this life.)

With other clients I would help them heal physical pain in one hour that stemmed from deep memories in the unconscious mind – at soul level. With practice I developed ways to clear the energy field. My clients would burst into tears because they felt spiritually grounded and connected to their Higher Self and their Soul (the true Self) for the first time. When Yvonne and I facilitated our Soul purpose and emotional intelligence programs we could bring in the higher frequencies of Divine Love and fill the room with this energy so people could experience it. Some people would burst into tears having never felt divine love before. At our highest level, the Soul, we are divine love. Anything less that divine love is the ego self which is stuck in the emotional roller coaster of life. (I discuss this in detail in Section 2.)

Finally I was back feeling great, happy with my body and enjoying life again. It was a wonderful feeling to be able to finally fit back into my size 12 jeans. I could even look at myself in the mirror again without feeling emotional pain.

It will not be every person’s journey to go through such amazing mystical experiences. However, it just happened to be my own journey to learn to heal many different emotional wounds and to understand consciousness at these levels. The more emotional wounds that I healed on myself the more I would be able to help other people to heal their own. We all have emotional wounds in the psyche, and for some of us they affect us in our lives now as physical symptoms, conflict, weight gain, chaos or illness.

It is important to look at the body in a wholistic way. We are not just physical. We are physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. The spiritual and emotional affect the physical and the physical can affect the emotional, mental and spiritual. For example the fish accident affected me physically which affected me emotionally. The drugs in my physical body affected my ability to connect to the higher vibrations of Light and my spirit for example.

When I was a Personal Fitness Trainer I realized within the first month that there was more to weight loss than simply doing exercise. How could I get my clients to be self-motivated? Why would they do the exercise with me only to go home and eat all the wrong foods, or too much food? It was my days as a Personal Trainer that contributed to me becoming interested in being able to understand human behaviour.

This book will discuss in a simple way what we can do at the physical level, the emotional level and the spiritual level to help balance the body, mind and soul. I speak not only from the perspective of being a Personal Fitness Trainer and former professional athlete but more importantly from the perspective of being a mystic, metaphysical counselor and healer. My work is about healing and addressing the ultimate cause of any thing that we suffer from rather than treating only the symptoms.

There are thousands of diet and exercise programs out there for people to choose from. So rather than giving you what you already know in the physical body chapter I will give you some tips on diet and exercise that perhaps will be new to you.

In the emotional intelligence section you will learn the importance of feeling your emotions and how to interpret them and transform them so that the body can be freed up of emotional charge. All emotions are stored in our mind and also in every cell of the body as polarized electro-magnetic charge. It is our subconscious and unconscious minds which run our physiology. When we transform emotional charge our physical cells are more freed up to operate in a balanced and optimal way. All addictive tendencies such as over-eating stem from emotional, physical and spiritual imbalance.

The majority of emotional themes and patterns of behaviour are unconscious – meaning we are not conscious of them. We do not know we even have them. This chapter will help you identify the behaviour traits, beliefs and emotional wounds that affect you today, whether it is over eating or self destructive habits. It will also help you to understand why you have put on weight in the past even when it has had nothing to do with what you put in your mouth.

In the Section 1 (Taking back our spiritual power) I explain several techniques that you can apply to clear yourself energetically of negative thought forms that you pick up in your environment. There is a meditation process to help ground your energy field properly in your body and help balance the chakra system. In this chapter I discuss the importance of understanding the chakra and energetic systems in the body. Each chakra is connected with the endocrine gland system of the body. The glandular system of the physical body needs to be in balance for us to have physical and emotional health. The glandular system is largely ignored and misunderstood by many Western trained physicians.

When we are overweight the reasons will vary as to why we are overweight. For example many people blame it on their genetics. However research shows us that genetics only account for less than 25% of the whole. So we cannot blame it all on our genetics. We must take responsibility for Self and when we learn more about the ‘bigger picture’ and why we do things then we can be truly free to change.

We all have free will – the ability to choose what we think, say and do. We make our own choices in life. If we do not like the way we are, or do not like the fact that we eat too much food then we can change. As soon as we become aware of those parts of us that are either addicted to food or simply have no discipline we can work with each of them. To be disciplined is to be a Disciple of Self – the True Self, the Soul, rather than a slave to the ego. As we work with each of these parts of our self – each persona, we can heal each one, one at a time. We have the power; we just need the right tools.

In regard to weight loss, when we shift what is playing out at the unconscious level of our own mind our body can shift very quickly. I lost 8 kilos (approx. 18 pounds) in 2 days, and 18 kilos after 4 major emotional shifts. In my case diet and exercise had little to do with my weight gain.

Fiona Taylor

92 Olympian,winner of 7 World Titles in Windsurfing, consciousness coach and mystic

Copyright February 2007.www.barakaya.com

Managed funds are when you add your money to a pool created by many other investors and pay a manager to do all the investing work for you. When choosing a managed fund to invest in, be sure to check out the reputation of the investment company. It is important that they be registered with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC).

To find this out you need to go to the ASIC website. It is a way of investing money in stocks and shares for those people who don’t have the skills or the time to do it themselves. Managed funds make share investments available to those with only a small amount of money, as the whole adds up to a significant amount.

People – such as retirees – who want to make a living from their savings often invest in managed funds. Not only retirees of course, anyone with some spare cash can invest in a managed fund. The person who manages the fund is usually an expert in this field and he takes a percentage of your profits as his fee. Managed funds can also be in the field of real estate, cash or international shares.

When choosing a managed fund to invest in, be sure to check out the reputation of the investment company. Who want to make a living from their savings often invest in managed funds. Not only retirees of course, anyone with some spare cash can invest in a managed fund. The person who manages the fund is usually an expert in this field and he takes a percentage of your profits as his fee. Managed funds can also be in the field of real estate, cash or international shares. It is important that they be registered with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC). To find this out you need to go to the ASIC website.

At times, most of us come across the slogan saying you can buy a home with no money down â?? isnâ??t that right? Yes, but we still end up paying a nominal amount of money while buying a houseâ?¦ sounds quite strange. But then, how does all this work?

Well, this is how it happens. Whenever there is an upswing in the real estate prices, many prospective buyers find it quite difficult to come up with the necessary initial amount to buy a home. In such a scenario, just relax, since there are several options which can enable one to get a mortgage with little or at times no down payment for a home loan at all.

A numbers of banks and lending institutions have started giving out offers better known as hundred percent financing programs. A case wherein you are being exactly sold this kind of an offer comes into being when you hear the term “no money down” required. A case where a home loan is backed by hundred percent financing not only leads to higher closing costs but also higher rates. To make things just a little bit honest, it is only those who have an excellent credit rating can become eligible to receive no money down home loan.

Well, one can also get a little creative with financing and during those times where the real estate market is down can resort to options such as owner financing and rent to own. A scenario wherein you pay a higher monthly payment to the owner with a pre-determined portion of all which will go into any saving account related to your down payment.

In a nutshell, there are options galore for those who have a meagre sum of money or donâ??t have anything at all. With all types of advertisements and publicity material, there are drawbacks to be considered, but it still does not mean one cannot buy a property without prior putting the money on table.

Are you looking to learn more about a home loan and its uses? A premier financial services company like Australian Lending Centre will provide detailed information on different types of loans and their applications.

Author: Jeff Mitton is a financial expert working with the Australian Lending Centre. His knowledge will guide you in the right direction with regard to topics such as home loan. To know more, visit http://www.australianlendingcentre.co.au.

For the 5th straight year the Australian Bureau of Statistics noted another record increase in online advertising revenue in Australia. Defying skepticism from the dotcom bust of the late 90’s, online marketing has surged worldwide driven by the continued growth of technology and greatly increased acceptance of online businesses. “I saw internet advertising being used to great effect in other industries and realized there was a huge opportunity for an independent online market dedicated to buying and selling machinery in Australia” said Luke Bruce, Director of www.Machines4u.com.au

The Internet now is the world’s fastest mode of communication, with over 86%* of Australian businesses now online it is the most widely accepted source of business information today. The bulk of the online advertising boom has arisen from a new generation of specialist targeted websites. The trend is very evident in recent years from the quick growth of area specific sites in real-estate, employment, automotive and many more industries.

Up until the launch of Machines4u.com Australian industry has lacked an independent, industry specific online market for buying and selling machinery. Catering for the wood, metal, glass, stone, plastics and materials handling industries Machines4u.com is designed to make it easier for Australians to buy and sell machinery.

The site provides sellers very cost effective advertising and buyers an extensive online marketplace, finance estimates & contacts, Transport, Service, Supplier directories as well as helpful news and articles.

* Courtesy of Australian Audit Bureau of Verification Services.

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An island nation always has a special charm in the hearts of people who don’t have the luxury of living at such a paradisiacal place. New Zealand is one such country that oozes resplendence at every step. With nearest neighbour Australia, New Zealand is not a part of Australian continent. In fact, the country belongs to the largely submerged continent of Zealandia, which stretches from the north of New Caledonia to the south of New Zealand’s Sub-Antarctic islands. New Zealand is comprised of three main islands besides several other small islands that enrich the topography of the country with some breathtaking views and inspiring scenery.

New Zealand Highlights

New Zealand is blessed with some of the choicest nature’s bounties, with pristine golden beaches, snow-capped alpine mountains, crystal-clear river waters, glacier-fed lakes, and abundant adventure activities you can indulge in. This means the country is agog with tourists all the year round offering numerous opportunities to earn handsome rental income from apartments and other vacation properties alongside some of the most-visited spots in New Zealand.

The inviting kiwi weather is an added incentive to visit the country. The outdoors of the country is ideal to indulge in plenty of activities, like bungee jumping, scuba diving, zorbing, mountaineering, kayaking, surfing etc.

The natural attractions of the country are enough to lure holidaymakers, retirees, and expatriates who look for real estate investment opportunities in the country. In fact, in addition to the vacation property, second-homes are also extremely popular for the property investors due to New Zealand’s favourable living conditions, cost of living, and the rosy projections of the nation’s economy.

If you think that New Zealand is just about adventure sports, think again. For the country has a rich history and tradition of the native Maori people, as depicted through several museums and art galleries. New Zealand also has a rich treasure of flora and fauna wildly found in the National Parks and the Ocean.

The country is extremely well connected with the rest of the world through airways and seaways. The internal transport of the country depends on efficient air, road, rail, and sea routes for a variety of commuters.

New Zealand is every bit a modern country having plenty of education opportunities for lower and higher level of students. All the modern amenities, like nightclubs, discos, pubs, restaurants, cafes, theatres, cinemas etc. can be easily accessed through major kiwi cities.

The nation’s economy is also booming with Agriculture playing a major role in its upswing.

Overall, New Zealand offers one of the best places to invest in real estate. Moreover, the British investors would love the place inhabited by majority English-speaking friendly people.

Property Market in New Zealand

In recent times, New Zealand property prices have hit the roof with surging demand from the European investors, particularly the British real estate investors. This has resulted in a slowdown in the New Zealand property market. And this also means that property is now much more affordable for the budget investors. The growth is definitely on the wane and the prices are dropping, yet no one is discounting New Zealand’s property potential.

Though low, the prices are still on a higher plank. For instance, luxury apartments in the capital city, Wellington, are highly priced at £400K+, and over in Auckland, it’s even more. However, small accommodation is reasonably priced in major kiwi cities. For instance, you can make off-plan investment in apartments in Auckland for £60K+.

The Studio Apartments in cities, like Auckland, are a safe investment. They guarantee regular rental income through people who often flock the cities for better job prospects. And with the high expectations from the nation’s economy in the coming years, major pressure has to be borne by the housing industry to feed the demand for more accommodation.

The current period is favourable for any kind of property investment in New Zealand. An astute investor will exploit the prevailing lower prices of New Zealand property, and make a killing in times to come.

The kiwi legal system is identical with the British Common Law system. Resultantly, trading in property is largely hassle-free in New Zealand. Moreover, there is no stamp duty to pay on property purchased in New Zealand.

It seems that owning a property in New Zealand is cakewalk for those who possess the required finance. However, for those who have limited budget, there are lots of financial institutions in New Zealand that offer lower interest rates on mortgages in New Zealand.

The hottest locations for property investment on the North Island include Wellington, Tauranga, and Auckland. The South Island has Nelson, Queenstown, and Christchurch as jewels in the real estate crown.

The potential real estate investors in New Zealand would do well if they hire a specialist to deal with all the legalities and other formalities required for ownership of property in the country. After all, you don’t expect to be ripped off your hard-earned money just because of some negligence on your part.

In the past, trying to sell a home privately – i.e., without an agent – was a foolhardy endeavour. Today, though, many Australians do so without any trouble whatsoever. Modern technology and easy access to information have made selling a home privately easier than ever.

Enjoy The Flexibility Of Selling Privately -

When you hire and work with a real estate agent, you are restricted to doing things on their terms. For example, you’ll only be able to show your home to prospective buyers when the real estate agent is available; this can cause a major problem for you, especially if you are on a tight schedule. By going it alone, you can show your home whenever and however you please. It’s actually quite easy to juggle phone calls from interested parties while working your regular job – so why pay someone else to handle those matters for you?

Avoid Getting Burned -

Even if you take your time and do your research when looking for a real estate agent, it’s all too easy to get burned. For one thing, even if you spell everything out for your agent, he or she may forget an important detail or otherwise be unsure about what you want. Major mistakes can – and do – happen all the time due to confused communications between your agent and a prospective buyer. By dealing directly with people who are interested in your home, you can rest assured that they’re being told exactly what you want them to be – and the opportunity for major errors is much less.

Handle Everything – Minus Legalities -

Since the sale of a home involves a lot of important legal details, you’ll still absolutely want to hire an experienced Queensland conveyancing firm to handle them for you. However, paying a Gold Coast conveyancing firm is much more manageable when you don’t have to pay a real estate agent, too. Using a conveyancing firm helps you cover your legal bases, ensuring that everything is being handled in the proper manner. While going without a real estate agent is usually a good move, you should never cut corners by skipping a conveyancing firm; the legalities that they help with are simply too complex. In the end, your private sale will still save you a lot of money and frustration.

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To whom it may concern,

I would like to say a big thanks to the team at Trading Online Solutions your strategy for Index Trading has changed my life.

Like most Australians I’ve always been fed the line that you always invest for the long term. Due to what has happened recently around the world I lost my job and had to sell both my investment properties just to survive the 6 months I’d been out of work, but having to do this at the wrong time of the real estate cycle meant I lost K on one property and was lucky to make K on the other.

Thanks to your strategy for Index Trading, I’ve since been able to bring in another cash flow alongside my current part time work to support me and my family.

Also, I’ve learnt a valuable lesson in having more than one type of income, which I can see will now allow me to start investing in property again for the long term and give me the best of both worlds having capital growth and cash flow.

This is a lesson I will never be caught out with again and will be passing onto my kids so they can learn from my mistakes.

Thanks again,

Barry Johnson – WA (client since February 2009)

Hi guys,

I’m writing a testimonial as I said I would if you guys proved me wrong.

As being very sceptical that this was yet another scam I had a lot of hesitation and didn’t want to be caught out again. After very careful consideration and asking every question under the sun I decided to give it one last try as I knew I needed to somehow make extra money. 10 months down the track you guys have proved to me that there are companies out there that are the real deal and can genuinely help people work towards their financial goals.

I know that 4 of my mates have jumped on the gravy train as well and we’re all heading off on a much needed holiday after the many years of being stuck in the rat race looking for a way out.

Many thanks

Fred Williams – QLD (client since March 2009)

To whom it may concern,

I would like to say a big thanks to the team at Trading Online Solutions your strategy for Index Trading has changed my life.

Like most Australians I’ve always been fed the line that you always invest for the long term. Due to what has happened recently around the world I lost my job and had to sell both my investment properties just to survive the 6 months I’d been out of work, but having to do this at the wrong time of the real estate cycle meant I lost K on one property and was lucky to make K on the other.

Thanks to your strategy for Lay Trading, I’ve since been able to bring in another cash flow alongside my current part time work to support me and my family.

Also, I’ve learnt a valuable lesson in having more than one type of income, which I can see will now allow me to start investing in property again for the long term and give me the best of both worlds having capital growth and cash flow.

This is a lesson I will never be caught out with again and will be passing onto my kids so they can learn from my mistakes.

Thanks again,

Related Australian Real Estate Articles

There have been a number of articles, forum threads, and choir-practice conversations over the last few years in all Australian Police organisations about the inadequate accoutrement belts being issued to operational uniformed members.

The “inadequacy” of these belts is that they cannot carry the multitude of tools required for operational policing these days, and of greater concern, that these issue belts are actually causing serious injuries among officers. These injuries range from insomnia, back strains, sciatic aggravation, and a multitude of other injuries that in quite a few cases are considered to be a work-related injury.

Obviously, if a piece of equipment is causing injury, or is not up to the task required of it, then something should be done, yes?

But what options are there?

NSW Police has tried issuing a different type of belt, to see if that would fix the problem. For some people it has. But then you have the silly issue of the belt being used operationally is not the belt members are allowed to use when they undertake their OSTT / Firearms re-qualifications. Just another example of idiots running things…..but let’s not go there.

Almost all Australian Police organisations have “trialled” an accoutrement vest for GD’s members. Some of these trials saw operational members wearing the vests on duty and providing feedback. Other trial versions, and the only ones I have personally seen, were a case of the vest sitting in the office of a non-operational member, and entire decisions being based on that office environment.

Apparently the general consensus was that the vest was too “tactical” or “military” in appearance, and we all know how adverse our respective Police Managers are regarding our Police being seen as anything other than blue Care Bears. The fact that very similar vests are being worn happily by Ambulance Officers seems to be ignored by Police Management.

Somehow, another vest was sourced, and trialled. The “General Accoutrement Vest” (GAV) is made by an Australian company, Personal Protective Clothing, (PPC), in Victoria. Again, this vest has been “trialled” by operational Police, and I have yet to hear one Officer who has trialled it saying that they would wear it. In fact, the only comments I have received from testing Officers is that they refused to wear it after one day due to the fact that it was either too hot to wear, or it looked utterly ridiculous.

But they have been ignored. At least one Australian Police organisation has announced that these vests will be rolled out. The initial idea is that it is only going to be provided as an option to the smaller-stature officers, and possibly those with documented back injuries.

I have my concerns.

Firstly, and this needs to be addressed. The vest looks like either a bra on steriods, or something out of a Sado-Masochist’s fantasy wardrobe ensemble. PPC’s website states that the GAV provides the public with a “Unique Visual Memory”. So does a clown costume, but that does not mean it is a good idea to have our frontline Police wearing a clown costume!

I have shown images of the GAV to Police Officers in Australia and overseas, as well as people who have never been Police Officers, and not one single person said that it provided a professional or even positive appearance. Those people who weren’t too busy laughing were highly critical of the appearance of the GAV. One term used to describe the vest by a Qld Police Officer was “Gay Action Vest”.

Police need all the help they can get in doing their job. Having the general public laughing at how they look does NOT help.

Secondly, and of more importance, is the ability of a GAV-wearing officer to utilise body armour. I have attempted to contact PPC to have them respond to this one concern, but they refuse to answer my e-mails or return my telephone calls. Maybe they were just too busy?

In regard to body armour, a number of points must be raised, which have not been done so in any prior article about the GAV.

Accoutrements: The equipment held by the GAV includes an Officer’s radio, baton, cuffs, and ASR / OC. If the body armour is placed over the GAV, then that equipment cannot be used. Imagine being seriously injured and not able to call for help on your radio because it is underneath your body armour? What about trying to defend yourself against assault that does not justify you using your sidearm, but ONLY your sidearm is accessible as everything else is under your body armour?

Projectiles / Blunt Force Trauma. Body armour is designed to not only stop the penetration of a bullet, but to also disperse the impact of the bullet over a wide area, to prevent bones being shattered, organs badly bruised, or the shock of the bullet causing other serious injuries, (imagine the force of a bullet impacting over your heart?). The problem with having your accoutrements underneath body armour is that it causes the body armour to become uneven, which may allow bullet penetration, or more likely, the force of the bullet is not dispersed, and can cause pieces of your equipment to be punched into your body. Not really an acceptable situation.

Perhaps the GAV is designed to be placed over your body armour? Currently, to use body armour, all a Police Officer has to do is put the armour on.

If the GAV was to be used over body armour, this is what would have to happen – The GAV would have to be removed, (itself not a preferred option as the likelihood of losing kit is increased), put the body armour on, adjust the GAV to a larger size, and then put the GAV back on. A much more time consuming process, and if the situation justifies the use of overt body armour, then time is usually something you, or the public, do not have.

But why is the GAV being trialled? What is the justification in spending a very large chunk of the tax-payers money on trialling this ….. thing?

Current thinking by Police Managers in relation to the previously outlined Police belt issues is that the one and only solution is reducing the amount of weight on the belts. Even numerous Police Union / Association articles have not moved away from this thinking. NSW and Victoria Police have moved to the use of thigh holsters for their sidearms in their erroneous assumption that it will reduce the weight on the belt.

Police are problem-solvers. They are meant to think outside the box, so let’s do that now.

If weight is the issue regarding Police belts, how can we fix that?

Well, who else wears similar weights on their belts?

US Police do. Canadian Police do. What do they do to reduce the weight on their belts? They use suspenders. Uncle Mike is just one company that makes suspenders for Law Enforcement belts. They are designed to transfer some of the weight of the belt to the shoulders, which is exactly what the GAV purports to do, and the suspenders are designed to release if some parasite decided to use those suspenders to hold onto an officer.

And when LEGEAR can supply these suspenders at .40, retail price, you have to wonder why they were not “trialled” prior to Police agencies spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on the GAV. Even if the organisation just agreed to reimburse members buying these suspenders, it would be vastly cheaper than their planned “clown-costume” solution.

http://www.legear.com.au/product-p/um-9120-4.htm

But is that it? Are all these Officer’s injuries so easily resolved, with just a set of suspenders?

What about the belts themselves? Why is it that Police in Australia are allowed to wear the belt that is issued, and ONLY that belt? Police “duty” belts are made by Safariland, Bianchi, Gould & Goodrich, Uncle Mike’s, 5.11, Blackhawk, Galls, LEGear, and a plethora of other recognised companies. But in the face of uncomfortable and injured officers, their employers insist that they must wear the issue belt, or face disciplinary action. In previous articles I have commented that Police organisations should allow their staff to wear equipment that meets a standard, and not just insist that one brand and model can be used.

I wore a Bianchi belt for most of my time in the Police, and the biggest feature I noticed was that it allowed more “real estate” on the front of the belt than the issue Safariland belt, due to the Safariland belt having a decorative false buckle that took up a lot of room. More room on your belt mens more ability to move your equipment into a comfortable position.

 What if it is not the belt? Why is it that in the last 11 years or so that I have been involved in Policing, I have not once heard of a Canadian or US Police Officer complaining about injuries resulting from wearing their equipment belt? In most cases they actually have more equipment on their belts than Australian Officers. Are Australian Officers just bigger whingers?

No. I carried more on my duty belt than all other Police in my regions, (extra cuffs, extra magazine and extra torch), and did so for years. I even slept on concrete floors wearing the damn thing during occasional breaks on my years of double-shifts. Why is it that I do not have any back pain or injuries?

I exercise. A large percentage of US and Canadian Police also exercise. Although this subject can take up an entire magazine in itself, it is common knowledge that the best form of prevention and rehabilitation for back injuries is proper exercise. Once our Police leave their respective training colleges, there is no requirement or incentive for them to exercise, which I can guarantee you has resulted in a large portion of injuries to our frontline Police.

Instead of spending ridiculous amounts of money on an equally ridiculous looking vest, how about our Police management look at preventing injuries through having fit Police? That would actually show some concern about the health and well-being of our Police rather than just protecting the organisation from future lawsuits.

Besides the business idea and its development, running a successful business means careful structuring and detailed planning. Especially in a time of global crisis, the location and the economic and financial environment of the chosen location are critical issues to be considered. Hard times are often a motive power that makes you see the weak points of an enterprise and makes you restructure it in a way to become more effective.

Australia is known with its complex tax system. There are three levels of assessment rules – federal, state and local. Its integration is a subject of discussions at present. At the federal level are imposed the income tax on individuals, the corporation tax on profits, the goods and services tax, the excise taxes, etc. At the state level are imposed payroll taxes, stamp duties on land transfers and other transactions, some taxes on land and properties, fire service taxes, etc. At the local level are imposed some taxes on land and properties.

Just the contrary Singapore is known as a location with business friendly tax regulations.

Some of the advantages of the Singaporean taxation could be outlined as follows:

CORPORATE TAX RATE

Australian corporation tax rate is a flat 30%.

In Singapore, the highest corporate tax rate stands at17%. Annual profits of first 300,000 SGD are taxed roughly at 8.5%.

Additionally, the Singapore tax legislation provides for another scheme of full exemption but only for new companies and only if they meet the following conditions: to be incorporated in Singapore; to be tax residents in Singapore and to have no more than 20 shareholders. In that case the qualifying company is given a full exemption up to 100,000 SGD of its chargeable income for its first three consecutive years of assessment.

TAXABLE INCOME SOURCES

Singaporean resident companies are chargeable to corporation tax on their profits arising from Singapore and on their profits arising from foreign countries when remitted to Singapore. The income earned and retained outside the country is not taxable. Additionally the dividends, the branch profits and the service income are exempt from assessment even when remitted to Singapore when they have been charged in a foreign state in which the certain tax rate is at least 15%. Furthermore, this rule is temporary changed for the year 2009 – for that year it is not necessary to fulfill any conditions in order to be able to apply the exemption.

Australian resident companies pay corporation tax on their worldwide profits, sourced within and outside of Australia. The remittance of the incomes is not a precondition for assessment.

DIVIDENDS

In Singapore the “one – tier” system is applicable. The corporate income is assessed on corporate level and this is final assessment. The dividends are tax exempt and there is no withholding tax with this respect.

In Australia the resident shareholders only receive tax credit when declaring the dividends in their personal tax returns. The credit is for the taxes paid by the company in respect of that part of the profits distributed to the said owners. The non-resident shareholders may not be liable to such credits.

DOUBLE TAX TREATIES

One of the ways of avoiding double taxation is the conclusion of treaties and agreements, regulating the assessment of certain incomes. Singapore has concluded nearly 70 treaties and Australia over 40. There is Double taxation agreement in force between the two countries as well.

GOODS AND SERVCIES TAX (GST)

The Singaporean standard GST rate is 7%, the Australian one – 10 %.

In Singapore a company is obligated to register for the purposes of GST act when the annual turnover is above or expected to be above 1 million SGD. GST registration threshold in Australia is 75,000 AUD.

Both tax systems provide for zero rates with regard to exports, where tax credit is still available.

Imports are taxable supplies in both locations, generally charged with the standard rates.

PROPERTY TAXES

The property taxation system in Singapore is centralized. The basic rate is 10% for industrial, commercial and let-out residential properties and 4% for owner-occupied residential properties. The rate is to be applied to the annual value of the item. The valuation is based on the market appraisal of the land and the estimated rent of other properties.

Australian system for property taxation includes land value taxes, other property taxes on real estates, stamp duties, water rates, etc. The rates and the payment terms differ in each state.

SOCIAL INSURANCE CONTRIBUTIONS

In Singapore the employers` social insurance contributions are made to the Central Provident Fund and depend on the amount of the salaries and wages paid. The rates are between 0% and 14.5%.

The Australian retirement system is called Superannuation Guarantee fund, where employers are required to make compulsory contributions, calculated on the basis of the salaries and wages. At present the rate is 9%.

A payroll tax is also due by Australian employers over the amount of the wages above a certain threshold. Both the rates and the thresholds are appointed by the state governments, e.g. for New South Wales they are as follows: 5.75% where the wages exceed 638,000 AUD. When determining the assessable amount, groups of companies might be treated as one single enterprise if there are related operations.

According to a research published by the Info-communication Development Authority of Singapore, many companies located their business in Singapore over the past years, attracted by the competitive tax environment in addition to geographic advantages, economic and political stability and advanced infrastructure.

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Do you have the mindset necessary to become a billionaire?

One of the things that set billionaires apart is where many people see only a problem; the billionaire mindset will identify an opportunity and have the courage to act.

In Australia, the 2008 BRW Rich 200 List identified 38 people as billionaires. The fortunes of these people come from diverse business interests including mining, property, shopping centres, technology, finance, retailing, textiles and clothing, media (television newspapers, magazines) hotels, gambling, liquid ammonia production, cardboard cartons, transport and health care.

Some of the advice from these billionaires for creating and keeping their fortunes is to remain married, work for you, spend wisely, invest in shares and property and gain work experience overseas.

For people with an interest in astrology you will be interested to learn that six of the 38 billionaires on the list were Aquarians, more than any other star sign, with total wealth of around billion. For mere millionaires Leo is the dominant star sign followed by Sagittarius with Taurus being the least successful.

Billionaire iron ore miner Andrew Forrest, Australia’s richest person, faced and overcame a range of setbacks before he became successful as the CEO of a company with a market capitalisation of only million at start up. In 2003 when China’s ruling party stated it wanted to quadruple the country’s economy in the next 15 years, he identified an opportunity and punted on the demand for iron ore exploding and became a billionaire in the process. As with many other ideas that went on to create billionaires, Australian institutions initially refused to back the company.

Many readers will have lived in a Meriton apartment at some stage, the creation of billionaire Harry Triguboff, who immigrated to Australia from China as a 14-year old with his Russian parents. Triguboff attributes a large slice of his success to building in inner-city locations. “Why would you want to go anywhere but a few good areas?” he asks.

Probably every single person in Australia has spent some time at a Westfield shopping centre, the brainchild of billionaire Fank Lowy who arrived in Australia in 1952 at the age of 21 with only seven years of formal education and no material possessions after suffering the ravages of war in German-occupied Hungary.

Lowy is regarded as Australia’s most successful immigrant and attributes part of his success to having a secure family base. His success story is well known from a delicatessen in Blacktown in what was then Sydney’s outer-west, then buying surrounding farmland and creating housing estates and then modeling another builder by building a shopping centre in 1959. Westfield floated on the stock exchange in 1960 and today Westfield has more than 100 shopping centres in Australia and the U.S. Financial engineering has been an important part of Lowy’s success and he also admits to his intuition being his driver. “If I have a bad feeling about something, it has to go away before I can progress.” Technology is important to Lowy and he was one of the first to acquire a fax machine in the early 1980’s. To maximize the use of his time Lowy always travels with a laptop and his BlackBerry on his corporate jet.

U.S. billionaire Warren Buffett, the ‘Sage of Omaha’, is generally considered to be the world’s most successful investor. His investment vehicle, Berkshire Hathaway, is legendary. In the last 40 years, Buffett has increased the book value of the company by 286,865 per cent. Buffett has made some brilliant moves in his career, such as turning a billion investment in Wells Fargo into billion; making 500% profits on a massive investment in Geico and – in one of his best known and most talked about plays – turning billion into billion with Coca-Cola. Buffett is famous for droll quotes such as “I got interested (in business) when I was seven or thereabouts. I wasted my time before that. Buy businesses that an idiot could run, because one day one will. We really want to buy from someone who doesn’t want to sell. Investors should be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.”

According to respected U.S. business magazine, Forbes, while there are numerous business school courses, self-help books and magazine articles devoted to analysing a billionaire’s investment strategy or entrepreneurial skills, few, if any, pay close attention to their personality traits. Forbes claims it has been observing billionaires for more than 20 years and says it has detected very pronounced similarities among the majority of billionaires which can roughly be categorised as: A. Master of the Universe; B. All Business; C. Sports Fan; D. Geek; E. Old Money.

It seems there is no common model to emulate and become a billionaire when comparing the success stories of billionaire’s world wide – every billionaire has had a unique route to success. Some had to face terrible tragedies and hardship, which would have destroyed many other human beings. Others did not have these hurdles to overcome but all of them had to work really hard. All of them had to integrate aspects of themselves, which could be called the ‘dark side’ or ‘the shadow’ as psychologist Carl Gustav Jung called it, into their personality and function convincingly among other human beings. The greatest effort people invest in order to become successful is with their own selves.

Self-management is the most difficult part of management skills needed to become a billionaire. Along with this skill for self-management, there are however, four additional common factors in all billionaire life stories. They all had a burning desire to be successful, and they relentlessly pursued their goals without losing faith in themselves.

Secondly, each one of them had an inner conviction. They saw themselves as successful in their mind’s eye and did not give up in spite of all difficulties. This ability to first visualise success and maintain this vision seems to be a key component for success in all fields.

Thirdly, they all took major risks in thinking out of the box and acting consistently. Lastly, they all understood the value of networking and engaging other gifted people.

In Australia the road to mega-riches is paved in rust-red iron ore. The 10 richest investors in Australia’s red-hot mining sector boast a combined net worth exceeding billion, according to a magazine survey. The second-largest category for wealthy mining investors was coal, which is one of Australia’s top two exports, along with iron ore.

While Australia may be a great place to move from being poor to being middle class, places like India and China will be the best places in the world to come up with transformative business ideas that can catapult people into billionaire status. Early in the 21st century, technology and the Internet fueled much of the wealth to create new billionaires. Recently in the US finance created 27 fortunes, real estate was the source of 16 and food and beverages created 12.

However, a good trend is that worldwide most billionaires are still self-made. That means people coming from humble beginnings around the world have the economic freedom to leap into the billionaires’ club in a single generation.

You don’t have to come up with the next Windows or Google or Facebook to be a billionaire. You can also do it being a supplier of potatoes to McDonald’s as one man did in the U.S. Although Google is a lot more exciting to write about and learn about, you can also come up with a better business model for providing cola companies with sweetener or figure out how to become a dominant supplier of asphalt in Victoria. Don’t think that the road to riches is hidden solely in these old business models.

I can do it. The first million may be the hardest. But the simple fact is Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin – did not have any more hours in their day than you, or the ability to shoot laser beams with their eyes, or help from alien beings. They made their wealth in a single lifetime using the same 24-hour days you have. If you want to do it, and become a billionaire there is no reason why you can’t.

Some final advice for those wishing to achieve billionaire status. At some stage every billionaire has had to add more value in order to create wealth. One way to do that is by developing your financial education skills. These skills are. The ability to think creatively and solve problems. The ability to communicate more effectively. The ability to market an idea or concept and bring that idea to reality and commercial viability. The ability to negotiate.

Jamie McIntyre, the founder of 21st Century Education, is setting big goals for himself and last year he set a goal to become a billionaire by the time he is forty. That’s in 10 years in case you were wondering.

It is not that becoming a billionaire for material means or lifestyle is what made Jamie set himself this challenge, but more so that he knows that money can be a powerful tool to serve and he knows the influence that being a billionaire can bring to creating positive change in this country.

For Jamie setting this goal came about when he personally met a billionaire some 18 months ago. He was asked by the billionaire how long it would take to become a billionaire using his current wealth strategy.
As Jamie had never seriously considered that as a goal his response was at least 30 or more years if ever. The billionaire asked Jamie “why not in 3 years?”

If the guy wasn’t already a billionaire then Jamie would have said you’re “on drugs or deluded” but the fact that this guy had become a self made billionaire within less than 10 years made Jamie take him seriously. And that day a seed was planted.

Since then Jamie has had several billionaires come into his life where he has personally had the chance to sit down with them for personal chats including one very famous one, Sir Richard Branson of Virgin fame as well as an Australian who just became one of our latest billionaires in the space of a few short years.

Jamie was recently invited to meet and speak alongside another famous billionaire – Donald Trump – to share what it takes to develop the Mindset of a Millionaire.

Jamie McIntyre is renowned for his ability to present things in down to earth simplistic language so the average person can understand and implement with ease, but until now has been reluctant to teach others the actual mechanics and strategies to become a billionaire that he has learnt firsthand from meeting billionaires as he thought it too advanced for the average person to be able to replicate and apply any lessons from.

But recently this has changed as he now has figured out how an average person could actually replicate the same strategy to make a lot of money.

Of course for most people, not a billion dollars and for many not even a million dollars but certainly for many several hundred thousand dollars in assets up to several million with virtually no outlay.

Already one of his 21st Century Homestudy Members has used the exact same strategy many billionaires use to make million dollars. Another business partner of Jamie’s used the same strategies to make million dollars – all within the space of a few years.

For details of Jamie’s leading billionaire strategies
go to: www.Luxury4Life.com.com or
Email: info@luxury4life.com

We have a range of books by Jamie McIntyre available, including:
What I Didn’t Learn at School but wish I had
What I Didn’t Learn from my Real Estate Agent but wish I had
What I Didn’t Learn from my Financial Planner but wish I had
What I Didn’t Learn from Google but wish I had
What I Didn’t Learn From My Stock Broker but Wish I had (Just Released)

These books are available from good bookshops or from:
http://www.Luxury4Life.com/BooksForSuccess.asp

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For Jamie McIntyre Ebook & FREE DVD go to www.Luxury4Life.com/Dvd.asp