A key theme in just about every self-help or self-improvement book is goal setting, and it’s easy to understand why. If you don’t know where you want to go, how can you expect to find your way, or indeed, know when you’ve arrived? But it’s a more complex process than you might think, and an over-emphasis on the achievement of goals is something of a red herring that can lead you along the wrong psychological track.
Your life is made up of a series of journeys. Sometimes you embark on them one after the other, and at other times they’re concurrent. Each journey usually has a goal or target attached. It could be the attainment of a qualification, a promotion, a new job, buying a house or other asset, perfecting a skill or ability, building a saleable business, achieving recognition in your field, progressing a relationship to the next level, achieving financial security, or something else. It’s perfectly natural to become focused on the destination but a big mistake to neglect the journey.
The nature of worthwhile goals is that they are rarely achieved quickly. The journey to each is what life is all about, but many people miss out on much of what it has to offer – because their focus is on where they want to go. The irony is that reaching the destination is almost inevitably an anti-climax. There is invariably an: “Is that it?”moment when you realise you’ve reached your goal and it doesn’t feel how you expected it to.
Few achievements can match the expectation and anticipation, and this feeling of slight deflation is then replaced with a realisation that this isn’t the end of the journey at all; it’s a brief stop-off before embarking on the next leg. Once you’ve arrived at one destination, it’s vital that you immediately embark on another journey. There’s no ultimate destination– not in this life at least. The journey is the thing.
All of this may sound negative, but it isn’t. It’s merely to alert you to the fact that the journey is what really matters. Destinations are merely brief stops on a longer route and it’s only by going on the journey and experiencing the highs, lows, successes and failures along the way, that you can really appreciate the destination. So take the time to enjoy and appreciate the journeys you embark upon.
By all means, garner all your efforts to reach your destination quickly and smoothly, but not at the expense of looking out of the window every now and again and stopping off to enjoy all the fascinating stuff along the route. When you look back on any achievement or goal you have reached it will be the journey you’ll remember, not the ultimate destination. If you start out with the right attitude, it’s within your power to make those memories great ones.
Kind Regards
John Harrison
PUBLISHERS NOTICE
Dear Streetwise Customer,
Imagine if your betting profits were a nailed on 100% certainty…that you wereguaranteed to never lose a bet…and that there was a totally fool proof system youcould deploy that would only ever win or break even at worst. Well thanks to arule which every bookmaker in the UK is forced to follow, you dont have to imagine it.
Becouase It’s The Loophole To End All Loopholes!
And for reasons I’ll explain fully, it’s a loophole that’s open to anyone and everyone with an internet connection…and it will be open forever.
Here’s your chance to find out about this secret loophole for yourself, because Nick has come up with a unique offer that will put almost £300 in your pocket…even if you prove him wrong!
If your great-great-grandparents were resurrected tomorrow, they’d be stunned…
We travel where and when we choose at astonishing speed and at very little cost. Goods and services are in almost limitless supply and everything there is to see and know is practically there at the click of a computer mouse or via a smartphone screen.
Go back just four generations, and the poor were undernourished and thin. No longer. How would you explain to your great great grandfather that the ‘poor’ of today are usually the people who eat way too much?
Take any wealth and well-being measurement you like… per capita income, car ownership, real spending power, health, home ownership and size… and the trend is always upward and always improving. Our wealth and prosperity, and the factors connected with them, just get better and better.
Forget nostalgia about the good old days… if there’s ever been a Golden Age, one where economic prosperity has created freedom, opportunity and the good things in life, it is right here and now. It’s never been any better than this.
But if that’s the case, let me ask you this – are you any happier than your parents were at your age… or your grandparents? You have good ‘stuff’ in your life, ‘stuff’ they could have never dreamed of. But unless you’re very unusual, the answer will be “no” – you are not happier than the preceding generation.
Throughout the Western world something strange is happening. As prosperity grows, so does the incidence of depression. Experts calculate that depression is 10 times more prevalent than it was 50 years ago.
Psychologist after psychologist has come up with the same conclusion – people are less satisfied and less happy than at any time in recent history. And yet by any measure, they’re more prosperous. Real happiness and fulfilment clearly can’t be bought. And if you want confirmation of that, you need look no further than the average lottery winner.
Most people buy a lottery ticket with the expectation that if they ‘win the big one’, it will transform their life for the better… for all time. And yet research by Dr Nick Baylis of Cambridge University suggests that the average lottery winner’s happiness quotient returns to its pre-win level within one year of the win.
Acquisition of goods and services bring them no long-term improvement in happiness – just a short-term ‘buzz’, followed by a storage and ‘looking after’ headache! The new possessions give no pleasure – just hassle and worry. And then pain if they’re taken away.
But I think it goes further than that, because many winners end up less happy than they were before. The money has robbed them of something very important… the belief that there is a simple solution to their personal happiness problem – a great pile of cash! Once they realise that the money has failed to do the ‘trick’ they feel lost. All hope of a simple solution easily purchased in the shape of a lottery ticket, is gone.
Now they’re going to have to find the real key to happiness, but they haven’t got a clue where to look. Maybe they should try the Jacuzzi.
Some time ago I was talking to a friend at my local health club in the Jacuzzi. He’d just sold his business and was thinking about what to do next. Paul had enough money to retire on, but after a few weeks of inactivity, he was starting to get restless. Brendan, who quickly caught up with the conversation, joined us.
Brendan has sadly passed away now. He was quite well known locally. He was boxing trainer who had successfully trained several British European and World champions, including Prince Naseem and Johnny Nelson. He also did an enormous amount of work with the area’s under-privileged kids, for which he received an MBE. Brendan listened to what Paul was saying and then said: “You can’t just do nothing… you need a purpose!”
And the more I thought about it, the more I realised how true this was. The acquisition of money, wealth or ‘stuff’, which is unrelated to activity or effort, is rarely, if ever, satisfying. Lottery winners become unhappy, not because they now have money, but because they have lost their previous purpose… achieving financial security and working to buy ‘goodies’… and have failed to replace it with a new one. And maybe large sections of the wider population are similarly afflicted, albeit less acutely.
Just a generation or two ago, they were too tied up with their primary purpose of feeding, clothing and sheltering their family, to need other ‘purposes’ in their life. Today, in this country at least, that purpose has been broadly taken care of. And many people now see acquisition per se, as a purpose, and expect it to bring them happiness and fulfilment.
They acquire some ‘stuff’, but it doesn’t make them happy. But rather than conclude that ‘more stuff’ doesn’t make you happy, they conclude that they’re not happy because they simply don’t have enough ‘stuff’ yet! But no amount of ‘stuff’ will ever be enough.
Now I know what Brendan meant by purpose. He spent a lot of his life helping young kids who might otherwise go ‘the wrong way’, find their own purpose in life. So his purpose was helping others find a purpose. But I have a broader definition, which encompasses what most of us should be looking for…
To Create, Make Or Do Something Better.
The ‘something’ you create or make or do better, could be a business, a job, a house, a product, a book, a charity, a club, a society, a plan, a person’s life… whatever. Note that I said: ‘create or make better’ not ‘buy’. Buying doesn’t work. Money offers a convenient measure of how well your creation has done but, in isolation, offers little in the way of satisfaction or happiness.
So am I saying that making money is pointless? Not at all, but it has to be used in the right way if it’s to have any impact on your level of happiness. I’ll say it again: buying ‘stuff’ won’t do it.
Money, once earned, opens up ‘purpose opportunities’ that aren’t available to people without it. That might involve buying time to pursue a personal project, buying instruction to further your goals in a project or hobby, or directly investing in people or projects where money can be used to create something… or make something better.
This is the real way you can use money to create personal happiness… not through the vacuous purchase of yet more gadgets and gizmos that clutter up your life and render no long-term benefit. You ‘re-invest’ the money in a purpose that has meaning to you and that will bring long-term satisfaction and happiness.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting you have to give the money away, work for charity or help the disadvantaged. That might not be your thing. It might not be a purpose that is going to make you happy.
Your purpose could be a totally selfish one… to work towards a personal challenge like climbing a mountain or sailing around the world for example… but there has to be something – a plan followed by action to create something – or make or do something better.
It’s all about seeing something you care about transferred from an idea, to a plan, to action, through to an end result with a positive outcome. It’s about having an impact on something.
What that thing is will be very personal to you… it may or may not require large sums of money to bring about. Only you will know. But the more money you have, the wider the choice of ‘purposes’ you will have.
The happiness-creating potential of money is not in what it can buy, but rather in the access to new purposes that it can bring.
You can’t use money to buy happiness directly, but you can use it as an ‘entry ticket’ to the next level, and the best tickets – the expensive ones – offer limitless choice.
Look, I’m not totally stupid, I know that if you’re struggling to make ends meet, you probably think the preceding 500 or so words is pure baloney.
“Just give me the cash,” you may say, “and I’ll show you whether it will make me happy. Purpose my arse!”
Nothing I can say will convince you that having a million or two to spend as you please won’t make you happier than you are right now, or that if you were in that position, you couldn’t happily sit on a beach for the rest of your days and conspicuously consume. Nothing will convince you of that other than experience.
As the great Spike Milligan once said: “All I ask is the chance to prove that money can’t make me happy.” That’s why so many of our publications are devoted to the task of helping you become financially strong and secure. The things I’ll do to prove a point!
Kind Regards
John Harrison
PUBLISHERS NOTICE
Please Don’t Forget…This Works!
Dear Streetwise Customer,
Just imagine this for a moment…
Every morning before you go out to work or whatever else you’re doing that day, you switch on your laptop or PC and click, ‘Go’.
A few hours later you come back home and yet another £59 has been added to your account…Simply, Easily, Automatically…without you lifting a finger.
That’s what I’m writing to you about today. I want to send you everything you need to get this up and running and working for you in less than half an hour…and I want to send it For Free!
It’s amazing, it’s brand new and it works
Why would I send you the means to make over £300 a week for doing (or risking) nothing? Because I want to introduce something which makes that kind of money look like chickenfeed.
Food waste is big news at the moment. The amount of food going to landfill has been estimated to be as high as 40% and there’s general consensus that something needs to be done. Much of the waste seems to be down to over-zealous ‘sell-by’ dates, and one US grocery store and restaurant has been set up to tackle the problem.
The Daily Table offers grocery shopping and dining. Goods are kept on sale in the store for way beyond the usual sell-by dates and then used in the restaurant when it becomes clear that they are about to pass their best. The owners of the business believe that by using older stocks of fruit and vegetables which would otherwise be thrown away, they are able to provide healthy meals at prices which compete with the fast food chains.
This is an admirable idea. It provides low prices and environmental brownie points to its customers. Will it be a success? I don’t know, but it certainly hits the zeitgeist of the times, Perhaps a trend to keep an eye on and food for thought – how else might you profitably tackle the issue of food waste?
Quote Of The Day
“Happiness depends upon ourselves.”
Aristotle
Alternative Quote Of The Day
“My wife said: Can my mother come down for the weekend? So I said: Why? and she said: ‘Well, she’s been up on the roof two weeks already’.”
Bob Monkhouse
It’s Been A Good Month For…
Metal Detectorists – as one enthusiast has discovered a rare hoard of Bronze Age artefacts, which experts describe as “nationally significant”, in the Scottish Borders. Mariusz Stepien was searching a field near Peebles with friends when he found a bronze object buried half a metre (1ft 8in) underground.
Archaeologists spent 22 days investigating, building a shelter to protect the find from the elements. Mr Stepien and his friends camped out there. They uncovered a complete horse harness, preserved by the soil, and a sword dated to 1,000 to 900 BC. The Bronze Age in Britain ran from about 2,000BC to about 650BC.
IT’S BEEN A BAD MONTH FOR …
City Centres- Almost half a trillion pounds could be wiped off the UK economy over the next four years if workers fail to return to offices. Flexible working plans that would see most staff never return to the office full-time.
Thousands of small businesses – from sandwich bars such as Pret a Manger, which is shedding 2,890 jobs, to pubs, newsagents, and dry cleaners – rely on urban centres being full of employees and professionals accustomed to spending freely during lunch breaks, on their journeys to and from work, and in the evening.
Today’s National Day
NATIONAL COMIC BOOK DAY!
PUBLISHERS NOTICE
Please Don’t Forget..This Works!
Dear Streetwise Customer,
Just imagine this for a moment…
Every morning before you go out to work or whatever else you’re doing that day, you switch on your laptop or PC and click, ‘Go’.
A few hours later you come back home and yet another £59 has been added to your account…Simply, Easily, Automatically…without you lifting a finger.
That’s what I’m writing to you about today. I want to send you everything you need to get this up and running and working for you in less than half an hour…and I want to send it For Free!
It’s amazing, it’s brand new and it works!
Why would I send you the means to make over £300 a week for doing (or risking) nothing? Because I want to introduce something which makes that kind of money look like chickenfeed.
When sustainable alternatives are widespread, affordable and just as good or better than the legacy option, then eco-consumption becomes less about the status of opting in and more about the shame of opting out. That’s why in 2020, millions of consumers will seek out products, services and experiences that help them alleviate rising eco-shame. It’s the evolution of eco-consumption as a status play.
Just take a look at three iconic eco-consumption moments. Way back in 2008 Tesla launched the Roadster, a $100,000 supercar. In 2016 Adidas partnered with Parlay for Oceans to produce a limited-edition line of sneakers made from recycled ocean plastic; only 50 pairs were made.
Also in 2016, NYC’s Momofuku Nishi becomes the first restaurant in the world to offer the Impossible Burger, which looks, cooks, smells, sizzles, and tastes like conventional ground beef but is made entirely from plants.
But what has been the story since then? Fast-forward to 2019, and Tesla’s Model 3 is a play for the mainstream driver, and now the third best-selling car in the UK. Adidas made 11 million pairs of ocean plastic sneakers in 2019. And Impossible Burger is available at over 7,000 Burger King outlets cross the US.
Quote Of The Day
“If you plan on being anything less than capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.”
Abraham Maslow
Alternative Quote Of The Day
“I’m normally not a praying man, but if you’re up there, please save me Superman.”
Homer Simpson
From high-end and rare to affordable and widespread: that’s the eco-consumption journey across the last few years. And when eco-alternatives go mainstream in this way, they’re no longer an exciting status currency.
The key implication? A shift in the moral calculus for consumers. Because when eco-alternatives are as available, affordable and effective as the legacy option, there’s no reason not to choose them.
Throw in Extinction Rebellion, the global Strike for Climate movement, and Greta, and you have a tipping point in awareness also fueling this crucial shift. Increasingly widespread shame at air travel – or flygskam in the original Swedish – is now set to diffuse across every B2C industry. It’s a shift with profound implications for consumerism, business, everyone.
Today’s National Day
NATIONAL COFFEE DAY!
PUBLISHERS NOTICE
Your $400,000 training starts at 8pm
Dear Streetwise Customer,
We’ve just finished setting up behind the scenes for tonight’s exclusive live training with world-renown trader Guy Cohen.
If you’ve already reserved your spot, then you’re all set to discover the exact trading system our very own Streetwise Publications member, Roger, used to make $400,000.
But if you haven’t got your name down yet, time is seriously running out …
Here’s everything you need to know:
What: Live training with world-renown trader Guy Cohen, called “The Big Money Keys That Made Streetwise Roger $400,000”.
When:8pm tonight.
Why: You’ll learn how to implement the same 3-step trading system that made Streetwise member Roger $400,000. It takes less than 30 minutes per day and can be used by complete novices or advanced traders alike. You’ll also get to ask Guy questions during the live Q&A section.
I have spent some time during lockdown and its aftershock thinking about economic depressions, which we are once again feted to enter, just over ten years after the last Great Recession.
But there have been many myths around economic depressions. In fact, many simply signal a shift in economics.
The British depression of 1873-1896 caused real hardship. This was a result of the economic opening up of the prairies, the pampas and Australia to farming, combined with falling freight rates by land and sea, lowered the cost of food.
In 1870, Britain produced half the world’s coal. But by the mid-1920s, it produced barely a fifth as producers in both the New and Old worlds dug coal for a third of the British cost.
Distress among coal miners, agricultural workers and the landed gentry who had built their fortunes on coal and farming was palpable. Rural areas depopulated and emigration soared.
In the economy as a whole, however, nominal wages were at least stable and prices fell. And most of the economy in fact prospered.
Quote Of The Day
“You go through life wondering what is it all about but at the end of the day it’s all about family.”
Rod Stewart
Alternative Quote Of The Day
“My mother was a lolly-pop lady…and by that I mean she had a long body, and a big, fat head.”
Harry Hill
The 1920s were a difficult time for the UK, especially for traditional industries such as iron and steel, shipbuilding and coal mining, exacerbated by austerity and competition.
But in 1931, Britain enjoyed a boom, driven by new industries like cars and aircraft building. Yet the popular narrative is that this was a period of unemployment and deprivation. In a period of structural economic change, the losers were again more visible than the winners.
In the early 1980s. Unemployment rose to three million. But while traditional industrial output fell, new services — which are still with us — expanded and thrived. But when all the data came in, it became clear that the recession was much less severe than predicted.
Output fell by less than 3% in 1980-1981 and grew strongly thereafter. There is now much gloom about a post-Covid British economy. It sure looks bad: businesses shutter up and job losses increase daily.
But maybe a shake-out and a technological leap forward is just what the economy needs. As in any recession, companies have to cut costs, improve efficiency and change their business practices. This does not mean that the economy as a whole may not benefit.
Online shopping is soaring, and a shift from consumption to savings and investment may improve stability. Employers have found that working from home raises productivity and many new business opportunities have opened up.
For now, there should be no need to worry about markets, the global economy, inflation or the euro. We must not fall prey to the doom and gloom narrative of another depression or recession.
This is simply a time of recalibration, brought on quicker by Covid. But whether Britain will over-perform, as it has done in past periods of structural change, or underperform with dire consequences, is far from clear and rests with the government.
Today’s National Day
NATIONAL INNERGIZE DAY!
PUBLISHERS NOTICE
“I want to cancel all my subscriptions”
Dear Streetwise Customer,
Streetwise member Roger had been using Guy Cohen’s trading system for years …
But suddenly he wanted to cancel ALL of his subscriptions.
Why?
Well, take a look…
Yep, Roger had just made over £300,000 (c. $400,000 at the time) using Guy’s trading system …
SO MUCH money he simply wanted to stop trading and “enjoy a comfortable retirement.”
As Roger says in the email, “I am now approaching my mid 70s and the time has come to enjoy my money rather than spend time making more of it.”
I wholeheartedly agree with Roger … what’s the point in making money if you can’t enjoy it!
So, how about you? Have you made enough money to enjoy “a comfortable retirement” yet?
If not then I have good news for you …
I’ve persuaded Guy to hold an exclusive live training session for Streetwise members only.
During this short training he’ll walk you through the exact same 3-step system that made Roger $400,000 (by the way, he’s made even more since!).
And even show you how to automate it so you can profit in less than 30 minutes per day.
Welcome to my psychiatrist’s chair. Make yourself comfortable and ease right back because I want to take you back to your early childhood.
You were five years old and you saw a toy you really wanted. I mean you really wanted it, so you went to your parents, and asked if you could have the toy for your birthday.
Did they say: “yes, of course, no problem at all.” Chances are, they didn’t. If they were like most parents, they said: “wait and see.” If you pressed them, you probably got: “Well, if you expect, you won’t get!”
Whether you got the toy or not, this sort of response was one you probably became accustomed to hearing over the years – no definite commitment, and always the warning not to expect too much.
Of course, there were perfectly good reasons for this. Your parents weren’t sure whether they’d be able to get the toy for you. They’d be concerned that they couldn’t afford it when the time came, or that the shops would be out of stock. It was all down to them, and their response reflected that.
They didn’t want to disappoint you; so there was always a warning to lower your expectations, not to expect too much, because unfulfilled expectation leads to abject disappointment in your average five-year-old child, and no parent wants that.
I’m sure you can see where I’m heading with this. Psychologists, personal development experts, and just about everyone else who has studied the human psyche and the factors determining success and failure, broadly agree on two important things:
1. What we learn in early childhood has a significant on-going effect on our thoughts and behaviour throughout our lives – unless we make a determined effort to re-programme and re-learn.
2. We get pretty much what we expect to get from life, but rarely more. Expectation always precedes acquisition.
So we have a situation where early childhood has created a general tendency towards low expectation. At the time it was appropriate – you had no control over the fulfilment, or otherwise, of your expectation. You’d be devastated if your expectation wasn’t met. But all that’s changed now. You’ve grown up. You have control, and what’s more, you’re big enough to take it on the chin if you fall short of what you expect.
Low expectations are completely at odds with achievement, financial or otherwise. Very little of any consequence is ever achieved without the expectation and belief that it can be done – except when it happens by sheer accident. Why?
Because we only take the actions necessary to achieve success when we expect a successful outcome. In any endeavour, there will be setbacks and low points. The only thing that gets us through these is the belief – the expectation – that we will ultimately succeed. If we don’t believe and expect that we’ll ultimately triumph, why the hell should we put ourselves through the pain and difficulty of pressing on through adversity?
Can you see how high expectation must always precede high achievement, and how your early conditioning might be holding you back from achieving your full potential now? It’s definitely worth taking a little time to assess whether your expectations are as high as they should be, and whether they’re being created and shaped by old and obsolete influences. What you discover may surprise you. And this doesn’t just apply to achievement. Your expectations shape everything.
From time to time, I visit an online forum for people who have nothing better to do with their money than waste it on expensive cars. Just out of curiosity, you understand. Anyway, two of the topics, which repeatedly come up, are: “When at a junction, which of your cars is least likely to be let out by other drivers? ”And: “Which car is likely to get the most abuse from members of the public? ”Opinions always vary widely.
Some people say that you can sit there all day in a Ferrari, but be let out straightaway in an Aston Martin, while others swear the reverse is true. Someone else will say they’ve driven Porsches for years with no bother, but get hassle from all quarters in their Bentley, and then another Bentley owner will say this is nonsense. Then others say they get little courtesy and lots of hassle in any car that is out of the ordinary. But then there are people, like me, who say it doesn’t make a blind bit of difference.
It’s true. I’ve had more than my fair share of very nice cars over the years and I find that being let out at a junction while driving one is no more trouble than when driving a bog standard saloon. I’ve never experienced any animosity from people, and the only conversations I’ve had while driving something unusual, have been the result of genuine interest and curiosity. So how come people’s experiences vary so greatly?
The answer has implications for just about everything we do. You see it’s pretty clear that the cars are no different, and the public who are reacting to them are the same. The only thing that’s changed is the driver. Each driver will have his own opinion on how people are going to react to his car, and this opinion will form the basis of his expectations.
If you drive your Ferrari believing that everyone is going to be hostile, then that’s what you’ll find. If you believe they’re going to be interested and friendly, then you’ll find that too. It’s partly a result of how your expectation affects your behaviour, and partly your own perception of the reaction. If you expect to see hostility, that’s what you will see. If you expect to see interest, then that’s what you’ll see.
I’m sure, like me, you know people who get into fights easily. And then you know others who go to the same environments, who never have so much as a crossed word. The former will always claim that it isn’t their fault – that trouble just seems to follow them around. And it does, because that’s what they expect.
If they go into the same environment expecting something else, then the vast majority of the time, ‘something else’ is what they’ll get. Their demeanour and body language will be non-confrontational, drastically reducing the likelihood of causing offence, and their perception of the behaviour of others will be positively focused, eliminating the chances of imagined slights.
I can’t over-emphasise how important expectations are. They almost totally shape our future reality (barring outrageous good or bad fortune). If you’re hoping for success, but grimly expecting failure, you have little chance, if any. Your subconscious mind will find a way for you to fail, and your conscious mind will, in the most unlikely of places, recognise signals that it’s time to give up.
When you expect success, every glimmer of hope is a clear sign that you’re on the right track. When you expect failure, every tiny setback is confirmation that you should give up. You’re going to get what you expect, so you might as well expect something good.
Kind Regards
John Harrison
PUBLISHERS NOTICE
Streetwise Member Makes $400,000
Dear Streetwise Customer
Streetwise member Roger Woodman tried making money from the financial markets for YEARS with little success.
In his own words…
“I bought many, many courses, spent thousands of pounds on webinars, books, systems … At the end of it, I worked out that I’d made precisely nothing.”
Maybe you can identify with how he felt?
Well, it all changed for Roger when I personally introduced him to my good friend and expert trader Guy Cohen …
In Roger’s own words … “Trading with just Guy’s system, I’ve made over $400,000.”
That’s a pretty big difference … From “precisely nothing”, to over $400,000, right?
And this success has enabled Roger to live the kind of retirement life he’s always dreamed of. For example, here he is pulling up into Guy’s driveway in his rather swish new car (Guy often meets with his students to help them) …
Better yet, with Guy’s system Roger has never been chained to his computer desk all day …
He says, “It takes me about 30 minutes a day … remarkably little stress … very little drawdowns. If I have got drawdowns, they’re peanuts.”
It’s no wonder he calls Guy’s trading system a “godsend”.
And here’s the good news for you …
I’ve persuaded Guy to hold an exclusive live training session for Streetwise members.
During this short training he’ll walk you through the exact same 3-step system that made Roger $400,000.
And even show you how to automate it so you can profit in less than 30 minutes per day.
A trust is a legal arrangement where assets such as cash, property or investments are given to someone to look after for the benefit of a third person, saving on tax in the process. Put savings in a trust for your children and it will not count towards your inheritance tax (IHT) bill.
This can protect assets from divorce or the bankruptcy of a beneficiary, and the trustees can control who benefits, what they benefit from, when they benefit and how the money is invested.
There is a catch, however. While these assets do not form part of the beneficiary’s estate for IHT purposes, the trust itself is liable to 20% IHT at inception if the amount invested exceeds the donor’s £325,000 “nil rate” band, and it may be liable to up to a further 6% on every 10th anniversary.
This is can still better from an IHT perspective compared to if the assets were held outright by the individual, leading to IHT being payable on their death.
Quote Of The Day
“My attitude is, if someone’s going to criticize me, tell me to my face.”
Simon Cowell
Alternative Quote Of The Day
“The first few weeks of joining Weight Watchers…you’re just finding your feet.”
Jimmy Carr
Use Investment Bonds
Investment bonds are life insurance policies where you invest a lump sum in a variety of funds. Some run for a fixed period, others have no set term.
When you cash in such a bond, how much you get back depends on how well or badly the investment has performed. All gains and income earned within an investment bond are taxed at 20%, while withdrawals of up to 5% a year are allowed for up to 20 years without incurring an additional tax charge.
One tax-efficient device is to gift a bond to another taxpayer — such as a child or grandchild — before cashing it in, so the original policyholder can avoid paying income tax, as well as inheritance tax.
Alternatively, if the original policyholder is able to reduce their income in the tax year in which the bond is cashed in — perhaps by not taking a bonus from their company, or turning off income withdrawals from a pension for a year — then they may be able to withdraw money personally at the basic rather than the higher rate, known as “top-slicing”.
But beware some heavy charges with these products.
Today’s National Day
NATIONAL LOVE PEOPLE DAY!
PUBLISHERS NOTICE
Streetwise Member Makes $400,000
Dear Streetwise Customer,
Streetwise member Roger Woodman tried making money from the financial markets for YEARS with little success.
In his own words…
“I bought many, many courses, spent thousands of pounds on webinars, books, systems … At the end of it, I worked out that I’d made precisely nothing.”
Maybe you can identify with how he felt?
Well, it all changed for Roger when I personally introduced him to my good friend and expert trader Guy Cohen …
In Roger’s own words … “Trading with just Guy’s system, I’ve made over $400,000.”
That’s a pretty big difference … From “precisely nothing”, to over $400,000, right?
And this success has enabled Roger to live the kind of retirement life he’s always dreamed of. For example, here he is pulling up into Guy’s driveway in his rather swish new car (Guy often meets with his students to help them) …
Better yet, with Guy’s system Roger has never been chained to his computer desk all day …
He says, “It takes me about 30 minutes a day … remarkably little stress … very little drawdowns. If I have got drawdowns, they’re peanuts.”
It’s no wonder he calls Guy’s trading system a “godsend”.
And here’s the good news for you …
I’ve persuaded Guy to hold an exclusive live training session for Streetwise members.
During this short training he’ll walk you through the exact same 3-step system that made Roger $400,000.
And even show you how to automate it so you can profit in less than 30 minutes per day.
Two brothers supported the same football team. At the end of every game, the team captain picked up the match ball and kicked it into the crowd. Whoever caught the ball got to keep it. Both brothers badly wanted one of those balls.
The first brother turned up for every home game, sat in his usual seat, and watched as the ball was hoofed into the stand – most of the time at the opposite end of the ground. Once, the ball did come near him but he wasn’t really paying attention, and someone, a few seats along, grabbed it. After every game he went home cursing his bad luck. The second brother did things differently.
For a full season, he carefully watched where the ball landed. He noted that 80% of the time the team captain kicked the ball into the South Stand, and that, more often than not, it landed between Rows 15 and 20. In the close season, he spent an hour every day kicking a football into the air and catching it.
When he purchased a season ticket for the following season it was in Row 17 of the South Stand. When the players came off the field at the end of the first game, he kept his eyes on the team captain until he’d picked up the match ball and kicked it into the crowd.
Now let me ask you this – which of those two brothers do you think is the most likely to be ‘lucky’?
If Shakespeare was right about the world being a stage and everyone being merely players, the need to prepare and rehearse seems obvious. And yet so few people do it. We stumble into important interviews, meetings and social interactions with only a vague idea of what we will say, how we will act or how other key players will act or react. Everything comes as a surprise and, as a result, we fail to make the most of the opportunities that are presented to us.
To fully capitalise on the opportunities life gives us, it’s vital that we prepare and rehearse. This will mean different things to different people in varying situations, but preparation can take both mental and physical forms. Few opportunities arrive ‘out of the blue’, but even if they do, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t rehearse. If you walked into a lift and the only other person there just happened to be the one person in the world who could make your dreams come true, you know exactly what you would say to them – don’t you?
Time spent preparing and rehearsing is rarely wasted and is so often the difference between success and failure. Don’t ever step onstage without knowing your lines. In the real world there are no ‘prompts’ to bail you out.
Kind Regards
John Harrison
PUBLISHERS NOTICE
Streetwise Member Makes $400,000
Dear Streetwise Customer
Streetwise member Roger Woodman tried making money from the financial markets for YEARS with little success.
In his own words…
“I bought many, many courses, spent thousands of pounds on webinars, books, systems … At the end of it, I worked out that I’d made precisely nothing.”
Maybe you can identify with how he felt?
Well, it all changed for Roger when I personally introduced him to my good friend and expert trader Guy Cohen …
In Roger’s own words … “Trading with just Guy’s system, I’ve made over $400,000.”
That’s a pretty big difference … From “precisely nothing”, to over $400,000, right?
And this success has enabled Roger to live the kind of retirement life he’s always dreamed of. For example, here he is pulling up into Guy’s driveway in his rather swish new car (Guy often meets with his students to help them) …
Better yet, with Guy’s system Roger has never been chained to his computer desk all day …
He says, “It takes me about 30 minutes a day … remarkably little stress … very little drawdowns. If I have got drawdowns, they’re peanuts.”
It’s no wonder he calls Guy’s trading system a “godsend”.
And here’s the good news for you …
I’ve persuaded Guy to hold an exclusive live training session for Streetwise members.
During this short training he’ll walk you through the exact same 3-step system that made Roger $400,000.
And even show you how to automate it so you can profit in less than 30 minutes per day.
Tax-efficient incentives to invest in entrepreneurship and start-ups were introduced in the 1990s and have been hugely lucrative for wealthy investors in recent years — although the rules have been tightened of late to prevent abuse.
There are two vehicles to invest in: venture capital trusts (VCTs) and the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS). VCTs were introduced by the Conservatives in 1995 as a way of providing funding for early stage private companies with the potential for long-term growth. These companies often have unproven business models, and as a result have a high failure rate. VCTs therefore tend to spread these investments across a range of businesses to mitigate risk.
The benefits of a VCT include 30% income tax relief on an investment of up to £200,000 (assuming it is held for five years). In addition, any capital gains and dividends received are free from tax.
EIS shares were introduced in 1994 and allow you to claim back up to 30% of the value of an investment as income tax relief. Again, these are investments in early-stage companies. There is no minimum, but most investment managers will expect you to put in at least £10,000, which would save you £3,000 in income tax. You can purchase a maximum of £1m worth of EIS shares in a year. Dividends are taxed but not capital gains — and you can write off losses against other taxes.
The average VCT has been lucrative for investors, delivering a 140% total return over the past decade. About £250m has been invested in VCTs so far this year — up 4% on 12 months ago.
Quote Of The Day
“People come into your life and people leave it…you just have to trust that life has a road mapped out for you.”
Orlando Bloom
Alternative Quote Of The Day
“Me and my wife haven’t got any savings. Well, we do, but they’re all tied up in Boots points.”
Gareth Richards
Suffering From A Tax Conscience
Ministers and officials ate £3 million worth of biscuits in a year and spent £45 million on taxis to move prisoners and staff around the country.
More than £20 billion is lost through public sector fraud and £15 billion on duplicated procurement across Whitehall departments and councils.
The Home Office spent £427,000 on rubber bullets that the police are not even allowed to use.
Crawley Council spent £5,070 on 12,200 hot drinks from vending machines for employees, when the equivalent number of tea bags would have cost £200.
Today’s National Day
NATIONAL ASK A STUPID QUESTION DAY!
PUBLISHERS NOTICE
Dear Streetwise Customer,
If I could show you how to stake £30 in order to WIN £80… knowing that with just a few clicks of your mouse you could AUTOMATICALLY get back your initial £30 if the result didn’t go your way… would you give it a go?
How about £44 to make £132?
Or £104 to make £320?
Well the bad news is I can’t…but the good news is that I know a man who can!
Tony Langley is a legendary name in sports betting circles, and now he has broken new ground… an amazing new ‘no fear’ betting strategy where you can AUTOMATICALLY recover your original stake if the result goes against you!
Impossible? Well take a look here and decide for yourself.
Until today this has only been made available to Tony’s small insider circle, but now he’s released just fifty places on his Gladiator Trading System to Streetwise customers.
I’ve been in and around sports betting for many years, and I’ve never seen anything as clever as this. It’s genius!
I’m expecting demand to be through the roof on this. Once you learn how to do it…and Tony leaves you in no doubt…you’ve got a ‘can’t lose’ strategy you can use for life.
Britain is on the verge of new PPI claims. You could claim back thousands, for over the years PPI was sold to millions of loan-takers, despite many never being able to claim its benefits thanks to multifarious small-print exclusions.
With hefty commissions on offer, banks feverishly sold PPI regardless of whether it was of any use to the customer. Since 2010 more than £35bn has been handed back in compensation to mis-sold customers.
Claims were meant to end last August. But there is a new scandal that could lead to further claims. The issue now goes beyond miss-selling and focuses on the commission banks earned from insurance firms when they sold PPI. A large percentage of the PPI premiums customers paid went towards the commission, not the insurance. In some cases 97% of customers’ payments went to the salesman. The salespeople benefited disproportionately, and they were paid fat commissions.
Those fat commissions might be about to be repaid.
The good news for customers is that you may be able to get money back, even if you weren’t mis-sold PPI, seeing as more than two-thirds of the premium was going to intermediaries, not for the product.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ruled in 2017 that the banks should refund the excess when commission payments made up over 50% of a premium. But several people have successfully gone to court to argue that their PPI policies were unfair and have won far more of the commission back. This could open the legal gates for everyone to reclaim all of the commission they paid.
In one case a customer discovered that a PPI policy sold by Citibank funnelled 95.2% of the premiums towards commission. Citibank must now repay £7,954.
A new round of PPI claims is likely about to start, in earnest. Be sure to recheck any policy taken out to see if you could benefit.
Quote Of The Day
“Life is very interesting…in the end, some of your greatest pains, become your greatest strengths.”
Drew Barrymore
Alternative Quote Of The Day
“A bikini is like a barbed-wire fence. It protects the property without obstructing the view.”
Joey Adams
Don’t Run A Business – Licence Instead
For many people, the hassle and risk of running a business just isn’t for them. They have a great product or service idea but lack the skills or motivation to carry it forward. Rather than let the idea wither and die, there is a solution, one that leaves the production, marketing, research, sales, accounting and distribution headaches to someone else.
Licencing has grown in popularity in recent years. In the USA alone, it’s a $500 Billion industry. Many of the products you see on sale today have been developed by individuals and then licenced to major corporations in return for a royalty. Perhaps this type of arrangement could be something that would fit in with your plans. For many, it’s the perfect solution.
Today’s National Day
NATIONAL GOOD NEIGHBOUR DAY!
PUBLISHERS NOTICE
“How To Beat This Crisis!”
Dear Streetwise Customer,
By any measure, the last few months have been traumatic.
I’m not going to dwell on the details – you’re already being bombarded with the negative news from all angles and it feels like there’s no escape.
You know what’s happening…but maybe you don’t know what to do about it.
The scale and duration of the health risk remains uncertain, but the economic impact is likely to be felt much more widely and be much longer lasting. Anyone running a pub, restaurant, café, bar or any other kind of hospitality or events business faces an uncertain future – as does anyone whose business relies on face to face interaction with their fellow humans. In fact this is likely to have a knock-on impact on businesses we haven’t even thought about yet.
And yet those people – just like everyone else – needs to continue making money.
They need to keep a roof over their head, food on the table and be in position to go again when all this ends and we get back to normal.
What if there was a way to make as much money as you need (and a great deal more) without leaving home – one which can not only survive the crisis we’re currently experiencing, but actually thrives from it?
If you were to design a money making strategy from scratch to take advantage of the circumstances we’re currently experiencing, this is exactly what you’d come up with – a business where…
How do I know this is perfect for now?
Because the guy who developed it is something of a recluse.
He started self-isolating years ago before it became a thing, and has run this business from the top of a French mountain, from a remote Swedish farm and from the wilds of northern Scotland.
If you’re looking for an insurance policy that will enable you to make money without leaving home to steer you through this crisis and beyond, I can genuinely think of nothing which fits the bill more closely.
Take a look now and respond today. In every crisis, there are opportunities.
Even if you’ve looked at doing something like this before and decided against, think again. Now is the time.
