Posts Tagged ‘focus’

Forex Trading Systems – the Easiest Way to Create a Profitable Second Income

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

The fastest way to achieved financial freedom is to create a second stream of income that generates money for you automatically. If you can create this kind of second income, you are able to leave your 9 to 5 and create multiple stream of income, and then you are well on your way to achieved financial freedom. In this article, we focus on in creating a steady and consistent second stream of income with the use of an automated forex trading systems.

An automated forex trading system is a system that automatically generates consistent profitable trades for you. In other words, you spend a few minutes setting it up, and spend the rest of the day creating or accumulating more assets for you goal in reaching financial freedom.

There are many automated forex trading systems out there, and it is up to you to find one that makes consistent profit. While an automated forex trading system is fairly cheap, most systems out there is inconsistent and most likely a scam.

To filter out the bad ones from the good ones, we need to take advantage of their money back guarantee. Most good systems offers up to 60 day money back guarantee policy. And most of the system can be used on a demo account (fake money) to test if it makes consistent profit. What you can do is, get a system that you are interested in, use it on a demo account and see if it makes considerable amount of money before the 60 days money back guarantee are up. Worst case scenario is it does not make you thousands of dollars; you simply return it and get your money back. Best case scenario is it makes you thousands of dollars with little to no work in your part. The plan is foolproof.

In fact there are many people are currently sitting at home with their family, and enjoying their life like it should, without any worries of going back to their 9 to 5 routine. The one thing these people have in common is, they made a wise choice and more importantly took action to reach their financial goal. What about you?

For a complete review of the best and proven forex trading systems, all you need to do is click here

Can’t Get a Business Loan?

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

It time again to revisit alternative financing strategies for business owners needing money. Whether your business needs capital to grow, meet payroll, or to just simply survive, there are numerous alternatives for your company when banks so ‘NO’.

Personal loans are no longer viable options for business owners. Banks have tightened their purse strings on personal credit just as they have with business credit. This tightening typically does not have anything to do with the state of your credit or the value of your collateral. But more reflects their past indiscretions with their depositors’ money. Further, most business owners, over the last two or three years, have already encumbered all of their personal assets, leaving nothing of value to collateralize.

The following lists many alternatives that may still be available to your business. These alternatives allow business owners to capitalize on their previous hard work; be it from building relationships with suppliers and other business partners to closing sales and building a strong customer base:

Using Your Business Relationships!

Trade Credit: It never hurts to work with your suppliers. Ask for better terms; either more discounts or longer time for payment. Here you can reduce your overall costs or allow more time to collect money from your customer before payment is due to these suppliers. Now, your suppliers may baulk at this discussion as they are probably feeling the same pinch as you are. However, impress upon them that it does their business no good (short term or long-term) if you go out of business, have to cut back your standard orders, or are forced to find other suppliers who offer better terms.

In conjunction with trade credit, do all that you can to collect your receivables from your customers, as soon as possible. If your suppliers offer you discounts for early payment, offer the same to your customers (just maybe not at the same magnitude) or offer discounts for cash. This allows you to collect payments faster as well as reduce you costs by paying less for the goods you need to run your business. Just remember, in this type of economy, cash is king.

Using The Strength of Your Customers!

Receivables and/or Purchase Orders: If your business has accounts receivables sitting on its book just waiting to be collected, you maybe able to get cash for those assets NOW. There are cash advance companies (not banks) that specialize in purchasing your receivables. Companies like Bridgeport Capital Service, RTS Financial Services, or Paragon Financial Group. These companies will purchase your invoices for up to 90% of their amount. They will then work with your customers to collect these receivables (saving you both time and money on collection). When the invoices are paid, these companies will refund to you the remaining 10% of the invoice amount. This type of funding is great for struggling companies as these cash advance businesses will focus more on your customers’ credit and business strengths than your.

Many of these same companies will also finance your purchase orders. If you place an order with your suppliers and agree to pay for their goods over time, these cash advance companies will finance these agreements. This could allow your business the opportunity to take advantage of trade discounts (percentages off the purchase amount) as your company will have immediate cash to satisfy your supplier. This is very similar to having a line of credit with your bank but as an individual credit facility for each purchase.

Credit Cards: I not saying go out and get more credit cards. If your business accepts credit cards, there are companies (again, not banks) that may advance cash to your company based on your FUTURE credit card receipts. These facilities are only paid back when your business generates credit card sales. Thus, if you have a slow month, you are not stuck with a huge monthly loan payment. As your credit card sales ebb and flow, your repayment of these advances will ebb and flow in tandem.

Using Your Character!

Need just a small amount of cash to get you by? Try social lending sites like All World Private Funding!, Zopa, Prosper, or Lending Club. These sites create peer-to-peer lending in which ordinary people, who have additional cash, can review your request and contribute to the funding of your loan. The benefits of these programs include getting the money you need, possible lower rates and better terms than most banks offer, and you get to tell your story directly to the lenders.

Similarly, there is Micro-Credit companies. The largest in the US and around the world is ACCION USA. Micro-finance companies limit their total out lay to a maximum of $25,000 per loan. However, most micro-credit funders like to build relationships first with their borrowers. Thus, they may only approve smaller amounts in the beginning and increase your loan amount as you pay back each facility. These companies will also work with startup firms or those that have been turned down by traditional banks and other financial institutions.

Never forget your friends and family. These are the people who know you best and may better understand what you are trying to do with your business. There are many cons with borrowing money from those closest to you but new companies like Virgin Money will help you manage this new relationship. Companies like Virgin will help you keep everything in a business like manner.

Now, while there is a lot of focus these days on traditional banks, most communities also have Credit Unions. Credit Unions are not-for-profit organizations. Thus, they do not have to worry about Wall Street or shareholders. While the majority of Credit Unions have yet to fully adopt commercial lending departments, they should have lending programs in place that will meet your business needs.

Some of these alternative options maybe a little more expensive, overall, then having a single credit facility with a bank. But, they are a sure fire way of leading your company through our current credit drought. The key to success is to do your homework. Find the program that best fits your needs and that will provide the greatest benefit at the lowest cost to your business. Some business owners tend to panic a bit when they begin to feel the credit pinch. It is only natural as raising money for your business is time consuming, time that can hardly be spared in these trying times. But, remember to think about the long term. Don’t just settle on the first source that gets approved, find the best fore you. Be diligent!

Joseph Lizio holds A MBA in Finance and is founder and owner of http://www.businessmoneytoday.com

Do You Need To Invest On The Stock Exchange?

Monday, November 24th, 2008

These trends relate to the increasing cost of retirement which in turn is linked to longer life expectancy and the effects of a massive ageing population.

Firstly, as we know, most major employers are moving away from the final-salary pension schemes of old. The promises made by employers are proving to be very expensive to keep and as such, current corporate management is trying to lower or remove this burden.

The second major trend is the devaluing of state retirement benefits. Of course, this differs from country to country, but the trend is for pensioners to receive less, not more benefits.

Whilst the masses appear to be completely unaware of this trend, the clock to retirement age is ticking and each passing month without action is one less in which preparation can be made.

Suddenly, investors need to decide whether they want to focus on alpha or beta. For the lay person, this means either trusting in the skill of an investment management to outperform the market, or, relying on the market and investing passively in an index. This is a very difficult call to make.

Should an investor stick with the more traditional unit linked funds investing on the stock exchange and bond markets, or look to more adventurous areas such as hedge funds, property and commodities? Can an investor protect themselves from the potential swings in the market by diversification?

For those that wish to avoid the complexities and rely on a managed fund, choosing a manager can be hard to do. Even the legendary Bill Miller who had beated the S&P 500 for an incredible 15 consecutive years has just had 2 poor years in a row.

In fact, the average US mutual fund investor averages much lower returns than are possible. This is in part due to the unfortunate habit of private investors to jump onto an investment bandwagon and buy into hot funds at the top of the market. Some studies suggest that this causes most investors to earn a massive five percent less each year than the S&P 500 index.

Such mistakes are primarily due to a lack of understanding. Private investors often lack economic, business, political, financial or stock exchange knowledge – and this can prove to be very expensive. This – of course – is understandable. Not everyone has the desire or capacity to become an expert in economics or geopolitics. And yet, this is what these changes essentially require. At the most extreme, this may prove to be the difference between a prosperous or a poor old age.

All these things really prove is that the private investor needs to understand the stock exchange and it’s workings more and more – and that an ever greater number of people need to become private investors. This will be a massive change in how individuals are responsible for their own affairs.

Stuart Langridge is a financial advisor and personal finance columnist. He shows people why they need to invest on the stock exchange and why we all need to Invest on the stock exchange for a more comfortable retirement.

A Review of the Insider Secrets Exposed Report

Friday, November 21st, 2008

You’ve probably heard plenty of reports about people that have done a great job when it comes to home and network marketing, and have secured themselves a reliable financial income or even more fantastically, have discovered their fortunes through things like network marketing.

If you’ve ever wondered what those people are doing right and whether you should be doing it yourself, this is exactly what Insider Secrets Exposed is trying to share with you. Insider Secrets Revealed calls itself a controversial report that exposes the underbelly of the work at home industry. When you are deciding whether or not you want to take the plunge, taking a look at Insider Secrets Revealed can help you make a decision.

When you get access to this valuable resource, you will have a first-hand insider glimpse at what the other side of the wall looks like in terms of MLM opportunities, networking opportunities and other work at home schemes that have spread like wildfire. You’ll find the ways that people are being lured into them, how they are being tricked and what often ends up happening. While all of this is fairly grim news in terms of making your first million at home while online, Insider Secrets Revealed does state that there are smart ways to go about making sure that the money you make online is good and reliable.

One of the most valuable things that Insider Secrets Exposed will do is break down the industry for you. While their focus is on pointing you towards getting good information when it comes to getting your business online started, you’ll find that there is a lot of useful information on what to to avoid as well. This is valuable information in a business that is made up of get rich schemes that only want to separate you from your money.

Essentially, Insider Secrets Exposed seems to be an great way to get started when it comes to the MLM or networking business. While their claims of instant wealth are a little suspicious, as are all claims of this sort, it is important to think about the fact that they are providing you with good information when it comes time to decide if you want to take the plunge.

There are many reasons to get Insider Secrets Exposed, but the best one is that they are genuinely trying to get good information across. Insider Secrets Revealed can provide a beginner or an expert with valuable insight, so make sure that you at least take a look at this resource.

Learn the Lemons from the Straight MLM Winners and read about Insider Secrets Exposed from Brian Garvin and Jeff West at MLM Review Kings. This article may be used royalty free provided Bio & Links remain intact.

Effective Speech Writing and Delivery

Friday, November 21st, 2008

For one’s speech to be effective, one should ensure to answer the following questions:

What? – The overview of the speech
Why? – Why is the speech/subject important?
How? – The format of speech to be used
Who? – The speaker and the audience…

The Four Ps for effective speech writing and delivery:

Plan
Prepare
Practice
Present

One of the most important stages of every speech is to ask himself/herself the following questions:

Why am I preparing and delivering this speech?
What is the aim and objective that has to be achieved?
The audience…

Aim is the overall target that one needs to reach with their speech – The reason why one is planning to stand on the stage hold forth. It should ideally take the form of a simple, concise statement of intent. The objective is the more detailed and precise steps one needs to plan to take in order to reach their aim. This includes the components included within the overall aim. The starting point for planning any speech is to make certain the primary or principle aim behind it; and then to formulate the precise steps to achieve that aim.

After one has determined their aim and objectives, one has to thereafter consistently focus on them, as if one does not do so, then in all probability even the audience will not be able to focus upon the objective.

A successful speechwriter considers it to be a series of arguments that leads up to the conclusion. The speech will gain in strength to the extent that one focuses on content. Empty arguments, no matter how eloquently they are presented, are rarely enough to motivate an audience to take action

The success of one’s speech depends on how closely one’s intent matches with that of the audience. The term AUDIENCE can serve as an acronym to help one identify the categories one needs to consider when preparing and delivering a speech…

Analysis – The audience – Who and how many?
Understanding – What do they already know and what do they need to know?
Demographics – Audience age, gender, education, social and ethnic background, etc.
Interest – Why is the audience attending this forum/seminar, etc.?
Environment – What kind of distractions can take away the audience attention during speech delivery?
Needs – What does the audience need?
Customization – Addressing specific needs of the audience.
Expectations – What does the speaker to accomplish? What is the audience expectation from the speaker?

If you master the art of writing effective speeches you can master every aspect of writing including nursery rhymes and proverbs.

Wedding Reception Flowers and Decorating Accents

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

Once the bridal bouquet and ceremony flowers are chosen, it’s time to focus on what type of wedding reception flowers you may use. You’ll need to look at food tables, guest tables, the head table, as well as decorating accents throughout the room. However, you don’t need to use only flowers. There are a wide variety of choices of greenery that can also be put to good use.

First, you must understand where larger flower arrangements are appropriate… and where they are not. The more elaborate floral arrangements can be used on buffet tables, cake tables, on stands near the entrance and staircases, and close to the band or DJ. These types of arrangements, however, should not be used on guest tables or the head table as they are too large and will block the view of the guests.

Table centerpieces created from flowers should be kept low and small. Make sure they compliment the overall color scheme and theme of the wedding. Nor do all the table centerpieces have to be identical. A unique and interesting idea would be to use a variation in the types of flowers, yet with the same color scheme.

Small bud vases are best used on guest tables. A great combination wedding favor and table centerpiece idea would be to cluster small vases with a single flower in each. After the wedding, the guests can take home one of the bud vases as a wedding favor.

If you can not afford to use many large floral arrangements, choose 2 or 3 for the buffet tables or other key area and decorate the rest of the room using balloon bouquets, tree branches with twinkling lights or rented palm and/or ficus trees.

Edible bouquets are also very popular for table centerpieces. Spun sugar sculptures, fruit baskets and miniature tiered wedding cakes also serve a dual purpose as a table decoration and wedding favors… or as dessert at the end of the meal.

Here are a few more wedding “flower” bouquet ideas you may want to consider:

  • Wedding wishes cookie bouquets
  • Milk chocolate long Stem roses candy bouquets
  • Twinkle pop/lollipop bouquets
  • As you can see, you can incorporate many “floral” bouquet ideas into your wedding scheme without breaking the bank. Large floral arrangements are beautiful to look at, but they can also be very expensive. Consider some of the alternatives to help save money, yet still create unique flower arrangements that will delight your guests.

    Rose Smith is the owner of Wedding Themes and More, a website designed to help you plan your perfect theme wedding. Read more about wedding decorating ideas and wedding flowers at http://www.wedthemes.com/

    Forex Trading Currency Pairs – How to Choose Which Currency to Pair

    Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

    Forex trading involves making worthwhile decisions at all times. In choosing Forex trading currency pairs, it is highly advisable that new traders should focus more on one currency pair. The best pair to begin with is those that contain a small spread, so that would be EUR-USD.

    In general, brokers will have to charge 2 pips when a trader will buy EUR-USD but worry no more since there are no brokers who would merely charge less than one pip.

    Furthermore, one can also choose GBP-USD since it is very much similar to EUR-USD although it possesses a higher spread and bigger volatility. That being said, one should try the Forex trading currency pairs of GBP-USD after a few months of trading with EUR-USD.

    However if you are happy and contented with the result of EUR-USD, just forget about the other.

    On the other hand, USD-JPY and USD-CAD are totally different from the Forex trading currency pairs of EUR-USD and GBP-USD given the fact that they are highly dependent on two unlike countries, Canada and Japan that also possess a different economy and location from GB, Europe, and USA.

    AUS-USD possesses a direct relation with the gold price thus when the gold price goes up, the currency is expected to go up, too. In view of this, if you simply follow the gold price as well as the economy of USA then you can surely predict the movement of AUS-USD.

    Now that you are aware of the safe Forex trading currency pairs to go for, expect that your risk is low.

    I personally started out with this remarkable and easy to use automated trading software named Forex-Brotherhood. And amazingly, it made my work so simpler and make my Forex trading so hassle free that now I Literally earn money on auto pilot after 1-2 months of set up. You can Check this and some other great software and it reviews – http://revenueboosterz.com/forexsoftwarereview.html

    To know more about Forex trading and automated software click here FOREXROBOTREVIEWS

    Six Fun Wine Tasting Party Themes

    Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

    So you want to host a wine tasting? Make it fun! Wine tasting doesn’t have to be a stuffy affair. After all, wine is first and foremost about pleasure. So even if you are trying to organize an education tasting, you should keep it enjoyable. One of the best ways to keep your guests interested and focused on the wine while having a great time is to plan a fun wine tasting theme. A cohesive theme helps keep the tasting focused and helps to get guests involved, drawing them out to comment on and discuss the wines. After all, the discussion is what is really the most fun and educational, not just tasting the wines. Otherwise you could just have wine tastings all alone at home!

    Some of the themes listed below are not mutually exclusive. Mix it up, make it interesting in any way that seems entertaining to you and your guests. You can even throw in some wine tasting party games to really turn up the excitement.

    Blind Wine Tastings:

    A blind wine tasting is a fun way to get everyone involved and keep your guests guessing. In a blind tasting, the tasters are blinded to the wines. Generally, the bottles are covered with a brown bag to hide their identity and then numbered with a marker. That way your guests are not biased based on the label, producer, price or anything else. You can share your unbiased thoughts and impressions about the wines. You can have random wines or they can all have some theme, such as a vertical or horizontal tasting (see below). It can even be fun to incorporate a game such as scoring each wine to see which wine gets the most votes. Or you can award prizes for the person who guesses the the most wines correctly (vintage, producer, region, grape varieties, etc.). At the end you reveal the wine and can discuss further once you know what the wines were. It is a good idea to reveal the wines while everyone still has a bit of each wine left to taste so they can go back and reassess their impressions after finding out what they were drinking.

    Vertical Wine Tasting:

    A vertical tasting is an assortment of the same wine, from the same producer and vineyard, across several vintages. It is a great way to begin to understand both the style and specific characteristics of a producer or vineyard as well as the subtle differences that result from the different growing conditions of different vintages. While this can be difficult to arrange for someone new to wine, who only has access to the newest wines that are on the current market, if you have friends who collect wine and can help source the bottles this type of tasting can be very educational.

    Horizontal Wine Tasting:

    A horizontal wine tasting theme is much easier to put together. It is a tasting of various wines from the same vintage. Ideally, wines from the same region and general style are tasted from one vintage to compare the different producers and vineyards. This helps to learn about the characteristics of the vintage as well as the differences between the various producers or vineyards the wines come from. This type of tasting is much easier to put together than a vertical tasting because the wines all come from the same vintage. If you stick to a current vintage then you will have many options you can find in the marketplace. While it is generally best to stick to one region or style of wine, if you really want to challenge your guests you can include several wines from the same vintage but from different regions, grapes or countries to help learn about the, sometimes dramatic, differences between them.

    Wine Region Theme:

    A great way to learn a lot about a particular wine region is to host a tasting where the theme is just one wine producing area. Choose several wines produced in that region, from different producers, vineyards and sub-regions within the area. As you and your guests taste through them, pay attention to the similarities as well as the differences. Can you identify any characteristics that unify the wines? What sets them apart? Ask these questions to your guests. If you draw people out to talk, discuss and argue, your tasting will be more fun and educational.

    Wine Scoring Party:

    Another fun way to get your guests all personally involved is to ask everyone to score each wine. While most tasters find it easy to say if they like or don’t like a wine, it requires much more attention to the details of the wine to give it a specific score. There are different ways to do this. One of the best is to supply your guests with a wine tasting score sheet which serves as a template to score wines. You can have sections with room for notes on the wine name, color and appearance, aroma, flavor and mouthfeel and overall impressions and conclusions. For the standard 100 point score they can give up to 5, 15, 20, and 10 points each for the color/appearance, aromas, flavors and overall impression/finish, respectively. The scores for each are added and added to 50 to create the final score between 50 and 100. You can then compare scores across guests and figure out how the wines ranked.

    Wine and Food Pairing Dinner Party Theme:

    Traditionally, wine is not meant to be enjoyed alone. Throughout history wine has accompanied food and many people believe that alongside food is where you should enjoy and judge wine. While tastings of wine alone is a lot of fun, a full dinner can really make the food and wine shine, bringing out nuances of each that were missing before. If you or your friends love to cook, pairing wine with each dish or course is a great way to both learn about the wines but also to learn about what types of wines work with specific foods. You can serve several wines alone with a given course and vote on which paired the best with the food. A fun way to do this is to choose a country or region and pair that area’s cuisine with the wines produced there. For example, you can pair traditional Spanish cuisine with Spanish wines. The cuisine and wine of these old cultures grew up alongside each other over centuries and therefore they often create some of the most profound food and wine pairings. There are so many other options, from the general (like French wine with French food) to the specific (like Provençal cuisine with Bandol wine or Southwestern French cuisine with Bordeaux). If you are really enthusiastic you can even decorate the room and table in the style of that region to get everyone in the mood. Get creative and make it fun!

    Josh Dusick is the editor of the Wine Tastings Guide at http://www.wine-tastings-guide.com where you can get information about how to host a wine tasting party, how to serve and taste wine and even about pairing wine and food.

    Five Mistakes To Avoid While Investing

    Monday, November 17th, 2008

    Each investor gets in the stock market with the same main goal- to add to their own wealth. For generations, the stock market has shown to be a winning strategy to establish personal riches for investors around the globe. Although a lot of investors are fortunate in their quests, there are as well numerous others who lose money attributable to several basic investment errors. The five most common investment errors are the lack of portfolio diversification, ineffective market timing, lack of reinvestment, emotional investing and overpaying for investments and investment advice.

    1. Lack of Diversification

    Diversification is among the fundaments to a flourishing investment portfolio, yet so many investors neglect to properly address this step. Whenever an investor decides to invest into a particular industry sector or into a particular company without diversifying across other investments, they’re essentially putting all of their eggs into one basket. This move can significantly add to the investor’s portfolio risk and the possibility for loss of capital. A properly diversified portfolio will adhere to all components of an asset allocation, considering risk tolerance, investment capital available, investment time frame and the current portfolio’s investment class weightings.

    2. Market Timing

    Some investors get wind of success stories from investors and traders who win big time by timing the markets. Although market timing can turn out to be successful for a lot of investors, many investors make the mistake of investing into a stock while its price is climbing instead of at the ground level. Another market timing error is selling an investment when the investor thinks that the stock is about to come down, potentially causing the investor to lose capital growth opportunities if the stock does not in fact drop-off as anticipated. Though market timing is a winning strategy for many investors, it can be a risky investment strategy and is not suggested for most investors.

    3. Lack of Reinvestment

    Whenever an investor is to sell off their investments, a big mistake that can be made is to not reinvest the money into a different investment, therefore holding the proceeds in cash. In many cases, it is advisable to reinvest the proceeds into another stock that meets the investor’s own objectives. Another reinvestment error occurs when investors fail to take advantage of the opportunity that a lot of investments offer the ability to reinvest dividends. This is an good strategy for wealth building and should be considered by nearly all investors.

    4. Emotional Decisions

    Most investors make their trading decisions on an emotional basis rather than on a logical basis. For instance, emotional investors will sell off an investment as it is dropping in price, therefore taking a loss instead of waiting for the market to re-correct. Although the overall investment goal is to buy when low and sell when high, a lot of investors execute the exact opposite strategy based on their emotional reactions.

    5. Overpaying for Investment Fees

    The price that is paid for investments can have a huge impact on an investor’s total investment return. Consider investment trading fees, investment transaction fees and up front prices for investment advice in order to ensure that your net investment returns are as healthy as possible.

    Larry Haywood is a stock market enthusiast, focusing on innovative and unique techniques for building up wealth via the stock market. For a limited time, you can claim the “Insider’s Guide To Forex Trading” e-book absolutely free at: http://www.mystockmarkettips.com/ebook-offer.htm

    Offshore Tax and Asset Protection – the PT Theory

    Saturday, November 15th, 2008

    PT, for those of you who are not familiar with the initials, stands for many things. Some of the more popular are Perpetual Traveler or Permanent Tourist. Others are Prior Taxpayer, Privacy Thinker, or Prepared Thoroughly. But what is PT all about?

    In a nutshell, a PT arranges his or her business and personal affairs as a Sovereign Individual, by unfurling various ‘flags’ or country bases and by treating governments as service providers instead of rulers. For example, there would be a citizenship flag (“second passport”), an official residence flag, a banking flag and so on. Each of these would be from different jurisdictions. That way, you are not bound to any particular country.

    The ultimate PT goal is not to be resident anywhere! That is how you become a Permanent Tourist, at least on paper. You might for example spend five months of the year in one home, five months in another, and a couple of months vacationing, visiting friends or taking a cruise in between. That way each country treats you as a tourist and does not consider you a tax resident. You then keep all your assets stashed safely offshore, earn your money over the internet in other countries, and live totally tax free completely legally. If you drive cars, own real estate etc they are all held in company names, or simply rented or leased. So you don’t appear on any government ‘Big Brother’ style databases.

    PT is based on the theory that most countries treat tourists better than citizens.

    In fact, the beauty of this idea is its simplicity. As a ‘PT’ wherever you are, you always appear to be from somewhere else!

    You can usually live and travel in better style and for less money than it costs to remain where you are. You can also chose to enjoy places that encourage the lifestyle and social norms you have always wanted to live.

    PT will appeal to a wide spectrum of people who dream of being able to disappear when events and times in life make it convenient to do so. As a PT, a Perpetual Tourist, you run your own life. Using freedom tools such as the flags theories you can put a significant distance between yourself and bureaucrats that want to determine what is best for you, ‘for your own good’ of course!

    A Brief History of the PT Theory

    The PT theory was, according to urban legend propogated in the books, inspired by Harry Schultz, a Monaco-based newsletter publisher of North American origin who first coined the “three flags” theory back in the 1960s. Schultz’s claim to fame is that he is quoted in The Guinness Book of Records as the world’s highest paid investment consultant.

    Later, a writer using the pseudonym W.G. ‘Bill’ Hill wrote a series of books including PT1, PT2 and The Passport Report which were published by Scope International Books in Hampshire, England. This same company published books by authors including Adam Starchild, Reinhard Stern and Jon Golding and Bob Beckman, also under the imprint ‘Milestone Publications.’

    Scope went out of business in the mid nineties and was absorbed by an American direct marketing company who are still using much of the material today. The majority of it however has been toned down somewhat, not surprisingly as it is published from within the USA.

    Other writers have taken up the PT theme in books like The International Man by Doug Casey, The Internationalist by Nicholas Pullen, and most recently in 2006 by a group mysteriously calling themselves “Grandpa and Others.” They wrote an attractive-leather bound three-volume set of limited edition books known as Bye Bye Big Brother. Or simply “BBBB.”Bye Bye Big Brother is also available in an abridged, paperback version from Vera Verba, a Chicago-based imprint. But hardcore readers should be aware that the abridged version has edited out some of the more cutting edge, controversial material included in the original.

    From Three Flags to Six Flags

     The original theory espoused by Harry Schultz and Harry Browne (“How to Find Freedom in an Unfree World”) talked about three flags:

    • Have your citizenship somewhere that does not tax income earned outside the country.  
    • Have your businesses and speculations in stable, low or no tax countries.
    • Live as a tourist in countries where what you esteem is valued, not outlawed.

    Later W.G. Hill added two more flags – business havens where you make your money, and playgrounds where you spend your time, as a separate flag to your official residence – thereby creating a five flag theory – the level of complication or sophistication is up to you! Finally, in Bye Bye Big Brother, a sixth flag was added – cyberspace, where all the other five flags come together, a place where you can be everywhere and nowhere at the same time!

    Shortcomings and Concerns about the PT Theory – and the Dangers of Camouflage Passports!

    View on the PT theory is that it’s a great idea, provided you treat it as what it is: a slightly tongue in cheek knock at the establishment with a wicked sense of humor. A client of mine recently read it and said it was riveting, like reading a novel.

    PT is a well thought out idea to break free and escape, especially if you like international living and the traveling lifestyle. It’s probably aimed more at those with well over a million safely tucked away in a Swiss bank seeking the kind of asset protection arrangements that their lawyers would not tell them about… while being less useful (but nonetheless interesting reading) for those who are just starting out on their quest for offshore wealth building opportunities.

    PT is certainly not a step-by-step plan you should follow blindly. Indeed, it’s clearly not for everybody. We say, “by all means read the literature.” It’s an idea you can read about, absorb and enjoy… and then adjust to your own situation.

     always had a slightly different vision, and still do today.  What’s the difference? Well it’s not easy to live out of a suitcase, or to have to worry about counting the days you are in a certain country due to limited tourist visas or the concern that you will become a tax-resident. There are more sophisticated plans available today, and we write about them in our newsletter for members. We also tend to focus more on opportunities for creating wealth.

    An Important Warning about the Legalities of the PT ‘Six Flags’ Theory

    Here’s an important warning. Some of the tactics in the original PT books might have seemed like harmless fun back in the eighties, but in today’s world they could get you into hot water.

    By way of example, one of the products frequently promoted was the so-called camouflage passport. Camouflage passports are booklets that look like passports from countries that used to exist but don’t any more – the intention being to fool anyone who might have learned about countries like Ceylon, Dutch Guiana, British Honduras or the U.S.S.R. in their school history classes, but who didn’t know that those countries today are called Sri Lanka, Suriname, Belize and Russia. Camouflage passports were promoted as a way to avoid terrorist attacks, by confusing terrorists in a hijacking situation into thinking that you came from a neutral country rather than a target country like the USA, UK or Israel. However in the current environment merely having a camouflage passport in your possession is more likely to get you labeled as a terrorist than anything else!

    Indeed, it has been said that ‘Big Brother’ thinks PT stands for Potential Terrorist!

    Peter Macfarlane is an author and lecturer on offshore finance, investment, due diligence and wealth creation matters. He is joint editor of The Q Wealth Report http://www.qwealthreport.com