How to Invest in Gold Without Actually Buying It

Buying Gold for Cheap

Are you wondering how to buy gold and invest in gold without actually having to buy physical gold? Gold has had a huge run in price since the year 2000, exploding from around $300 an ounce to around current prices of $1,700 an ounce. While many people including myself believe that gold still has plenty of upside and will eventually reach $5,000 an ounce or more, it can be hard for the average Joe to get invested in physical gold, known as gold bullion. This complicates things but there are ways to get around this. You don't have to miss out on the greatest bull market of our time - there are easier ways to get invested in the gold market!

Why Has the Price of Gold Risen So Much?

This is a common question I get from people not too familiar with the fundamentals of the gold market. Basically, gold is a barometer that measures the strength of fiat currencies such as the dollar. Confused? Don't worry! Let me explain further. This is crucial to understand.
What is a Fiat Currency? A "fiat" or paper currency is money that isn't backed by anything, other than the full faith and credit of the government that issues it. Every currency in the world today is Fiat - the US Dollar, the Canadian Dollar, the Yuan, the Euro, the Japanese Yen, etc.
Why Have Currencies Been Losing Their Value? - A big reason to own gold is because when curriences such as the dollar lose their value, due to excessive money printing by the central banks, gold tends to rise in price.
It does this because people fear inflation and losing the purchasing power of their money - which happens when central banks print money.
So, Why Are Central Banks Printing Money if They Know it Will Devalue the Currencies and Cause Inflation? Because they must do it and they have no other option.

Why Central Banks Such as the Federal Reserve Are Printing Money

What is Quatitative Easing? To put it simply, it is printing money. Ben Bernanke said with QE3 that the Fed will engage in monthly rounds of QE, supplying a minimum of $40 billion a month in purchases of mortgage-back securities. This money does not come from a bank or savings that the federal reserve has accrued - it comes out of thin air! That's why people say they are printing money. While they are not physically printing it, it is being electronically created.
If the Federal Reserve is printing so much money, why haven't prices risen? Why is Ben Bernanke printing money?
These actions haven't caused big inflation - yet. But many people, myself included, think it will. And some argue that it already has. Gas prices are over $4 a gallon in some places, and food prices are risen quick. The government tends to underreport inflation in the Consumer Price Index for a number of reasons. They say inflation is currently only around 2 percent, but independent analysts such as Shadow Stats have said that the real rate of inflation is more like 6-7 percent, currently.
How Much Upside Does the Price of Gold Have?
Another way to ask this question is, "how much money will central banks print?" The answer is, a lot, to both questions. The western world is faced with a tremendous amount of debt - the United States national debt is currently over 16 trillion and growing every day. By 2016, at current paces, this number will increase to over $20 trillion! And I am very pessimistic that the US government will get things done to fix the debt problem.Many believe we could even see a hyperfinaltion in the United States if the Federal Reserve continues to print money.
Can gold reach $10,000 an ounce? I really do think so. Remember, the gold price is a function of how much currency has been created. So when you see a chart of the money supply in the United States, as it increases, the price of gold tends to increase. The federal reserve needs to keep increasing the money supply and keep interest rates low to prevent another 2008 financial collapse.
*Price targets for gold this decade*
*Gold price target for 2013 - $2,250 - $2,500.
*Gold price target for 2013 - $3,000
*Gold price target for 2014 - $4,000 - $5,000+
*Gold price target for 2015, 2016  - $5,000 - $10,000

How Can I Invest in Gold Without Having to Buy it?

So, like I said above, there are many ways for the average Joe to get exposure to gold without actually having to buy it. Here are a couple of ideas.
1) Buy a Gold Exchange Traded Fund  - The most popular choice I know of is the GLD - SPDR Gold Trust. Actions that will debase the dollar such as QE3 will give this ETF more upside. It is designed to track the price of gold. Instead of buying a physical gold coin for $1,700, you can buy a share of this fund for $170.
You can also buy the GDX, which is the Gold Miners ETF, or the GDJX, which is the junior gold miners ETF. These ETFs hold shares of dozens of companies around the world that mine gold. Both of these have a ton of upside but carry a little more risk since they are miners. Gold mining company risks include rising costs and the potential nationalization of mines. Nevertheless, I am very bullish on the gold mining stocks. Which leads me to my next way to invest in gold without having to actually buy it:
2) Buy Gold Mining Stocks - Check out large cap gold stocks such as Goldcorp (Quote: GG), Newmont Mining (NEM) which pay a pretty decent dividend and could outperform gold as it moves to $5,000 an ounce.
3) Buy Gold Royalty Company Stocks - Another way to buy gold is to buy the royalty companies. These are NOT mining companies, rather they are financers for the mining companies. They give miners some money upfront to build a mine and then get a portion of the gold produced for a fixed price for the life of the mine.
These companies are cash-flow machines - they are very profitable because of the fixed-price business model. Companies such as Franco Nevada (FNV) or Sandstorm Gold (SAND) pay $500 an ounce and less for the gold the miners produce. With inflation comes rising costs to build and produce gold, which affects the mining stocks but does not affect on these royalty companies. So they offer all of the upside of gold but none of the risk associated with the mining companies.

I hope you enjoyed this article on how to invest in gold without actually buying it - there are many ways to invest in gold and its important to know the differences!

7 Lessons Bloggers Can Learn From Steve Jobs

Even though Steve Jobs, Apple CEO died over a year ago, I honestly think bloggers can learn a lot from him and that is why I’m presenting this article titled 7 lessons bloggers can learn from Steve Jobs.

Brief History of Steve Jobs
Simple to a fault, Steve Jobs was no doubt an exciting personality when it came to business as he had an unbridled passion for excellence and innovation. He was a marketer to the core. By way of history, Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976 with Steve Wozniak (in his parents’ garage) but was forced out in 1985 by then CEO, John Scully and the Apple Board. He returned to Apple on September 16th 1997 to rescue it from near bankruptcy. Apple had just acquired NeXT at the time. Three years later (precisely 2000), he was named permanent CEO.
When Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, it was producing a chaotic range of computers and peripherals, alongside a dozen different versions of the Macintosh. After a few product review sessions, he felt the company should streamline its’ operations. He declared the company was going to focus on just four products. All other products should be cancelled. His colleagues were bewildered but pundits say getting the company to take this decision saved the company.

Focus was entrenched in his personality and had been sharpened by his Zen training. He relentlessly sifted out what he considered distractions. Colleagues and family members would consistently be exasperated as they struggled to get him to deal with personal issues. But that was just him. He had a laserlike focus and when he concentrated on a goal, he wouldn’t back off until he achieved it.

 “We tend to focus much more, he says. “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred and other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of many of the things we haven’t done as the things we have done.”
The passion Jobs exhibited on his job was infectious; it was deep and trickled down to employees who exhibited deep loyalty to the Apple brand, so much so that as he battled his last illness, he was surrounded by an extremely faithful cadre of colleagues who had been motivated by him for years, alongside his wife, four children and sister.
His passion was so deep that at most times in his life he said he wasn’t running the company because of money but because of his love for the job.
His passion found a place in discipline which was deeply rooted in his personality. He was disciplined to a fault. “To turn really interesting ideas and fledging technologies into a company that can continue to innovate for years,” he says, requires a lot of disciplines.”
By the time he died in October 2011, Jobs had built Apple into the world’s most valuable company with a line of products such as the iMAC, iPOD, iPOD nano, iTUNES store, iPAD, iPHONE, to its credit.
7 Lessons Bloggers Can Learn from Steve Jobs

If you are a blogger and care to know, you can learn the following lessons from Steve Jobs and build a successful and profitable blog:

• Constant Search for Innovation

In all his years as Apple CEO, Jobs was constantly in search of innovation. Even in cases where he was not the inventor of a product, he showed that you don’t have to be the inventor to be the innovator. You can improve on someone else’s product and still make a high quality product. One of such products that Apple improved upon was the MAC. According to Walter Mossberg, the personal technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal, “he (Jobs) didn’t invent the basic technologies in that (the MAC), they were developed at Xerox. But Xerox had no ability to market them.” But his search never ended with a highly innovative product launch; he was constantly in search of innovation.
According to him, “…if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure it out, what’s next.”
Lesson for Bloggers: In what ways are you introducing innovation to your blog? Has anything changed on the blog since you launched it? What creative and innovative functions have you introduced since you started blogging?

• Marketing Is It

Just as Steve Jobs prioritized marketing, a blog can only be successful to the extent to which it is marketed. The era of just churning out great content, hoping it would bring readers is long past and gone. Start marketing your blog now. Jobs was a master marketer, you just need to watch his product launch videos to realise that. At the launch of the iPHONE, he really wowed the audience when he referred to the iphone as 3 devices. According to him, “today, we are introducing three revolutionary products. The first is a wide-screen iPod with touch controls. The second is a revolutionary new mobile phone. And the third is a breakthrough Internet communications device."
While continuing to build tension, Job repeats the three devices several times then says, "Are you getting it? These are not three separate devices. This is one device…today Apple is going to reinvent the phone!” The crowd goes wild on hearing this but that is just who he was – a master marketer.
Lesson for Bloggers: In what ways are you marketing your blog? Do you have a marketing plan at all or you’re just going about your marketing in an haphazard way? Is marketing a top priority for you or just something you do when you like?

• Recognize What Consumers Need Before They Do

You need lots of foresight to do this. You must be able to predict what your readers might appreciate and give it to them. You can’t always wait for them to tell you. “You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them”, he says. “By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”
 He continues, “It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”
To his credit, Apple created many revolutionary products the world needed (even though we didn’t know at the time).
Lesson for Bloggers: In what ways have you predicted what your blog readers would appreciate and did you provide it? How many times do you do brainstorming sessions to be able to accurately predict the future for your blog industry?

• Building a Great Company or Blog

Jobs’ passion was to build a great company that churns out amazing products and he succeeded with it. Most times when he was what his greatest creation was; was it the iPHONE or iPAD, he’d promptly say, “No,” while stressing the fact that Apple - the company was his greatest creation because it keeps creating great products. During product introductions, he was fond of saying: “he built a highly capable company that likely will endure and thrive.”
Lesson for Bloggers: Are you building a great blog or just slapping crappy content online in the name of running a blog? What great products are you creating to keep your blog in the forefront of its industry? Can your blog survive long after you’re gone?

• Financial Profitability

Steve Job’s financial performance was astounding. According to an Harvard Business Review Blog, “if you had invested $100,000 in Apple the day he rejoined in 1997, and held that investment until the day he stepped down in 2011, your investment would have been worth $6.86 million, a 35.4% compounded annual growth rate.” That means, on average, Apple’s shareholder return grew 35% year in, and year out, for 14 years!  Now, that’s awesome!
It took Jobs three years to turn the fortunes of Apple around. As a blogger,it would take some time to finally start making money with your blog but if you’re stuck with a dud blog years after set up, consider doing what Steve Jobs did - focusing  and shrinking product lines, hiring people who understood his dreams and firing those who did not conform or add value in any way. You probably need a blog audit by a professional (who can look at issues dispassionately) to ascertain how to do this.
Lesson for Bloggers: Is your blog financially profitable? What products are you churning out to make your blog profitable and viable? There’s nothing wrong with having premium content that digs deeper into issues than your blog posts can contain, but are you doing them or you’ve become comfortable making pennies from the adverts on your blog?

• Patience and Long Term View

Even though he achieved a commendable financial performance, it’s worthy of note that Jobs took some years after he rejoined in 1997 to put the house in order as the company was nearing bankruptcy. It would be safe to say the company started doing well, financially in 2000, that’s three years after he took over the reins of leadership! So, patience and long-term view were vital to his amazing financial performance.
Lesson for Bloggers: Are you ready to wait for your blog to get over the teething stages and mature into a money-making tool? Or you’ve been hit by the instant gratification syndrome? It does take time to make some progress on any venture and Jobs alluded to it in this quote: “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”

• Think Differently

 
That’s one of the slogans of Apple Incorporated and I dare say it was the reason the company recorded amazing success. I guess it won’t be out-of-place to say the company always went in opposite directions (with conventional wisdom or thought). It had the courage to stand on its beliefs and execute it.
Lesson for Bloggers: If you’re thinking like your other blogging colleagues, your blog would go nowhere. The only thing that’d make your blog visible, in an attractive way, is to think and do things differently. Are you ready to do this?
Summary and Action Points
If you want to succeed as a blogger, take a cue from Steve Jobs.

• Develop Laser-sharp Focus
• Have a Strong Passion
• Build Up Discipline
• Constantly Search for Innovation
• Improve Your Marketing Skills
• Build a Great Blog
• Have Patience and a Long term view
• Be Financially Profitable
• Think Differently, Not Conventionally

If you already own a blog, applying these lessons will no doubt skyrocket your success but if you’re just thinking of starting a blog, read these make money online for beginner tips.

Steve Jobs
Amazon Price: $35.00 $14.99 Buy Now
(price as of Jan 7, 2013)

Read and learn more about this business icon in this highly revealing book, which is based on forty interviews with Jobs conducted over 24 months, as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues. It's a real expose on the life and times of the former Apple henchman. Get this book and learn lessons you can employ in your life, business and blog.

Buy A Home With No Cash Upfront

Buy A Home With No Cash Upfront

Did you know that if you're a first time home buyer, that you may not have to put any money down upfront and make no down payments? Even better, you could get around having to pay closing costs, which can be very expensive in states like New York and California. Buying a home without putting any money down is possible, and I will show you how to do it here.

How Can I Buy A Home With 0 Percent Down? – After the US housing bubble burst I 2008 and home prices collapsed, banks and lenders really started to tighten up their lending requirements. You could have gotten a 0 percent down mortgage easily before 2008, but things have changed. However, this doesn’t mean it’s impossible to get a mortgage without putting any money down – it’s just harder.
Here is my own personal plan on how I will be buying a home with very little to no money down upfront:
First step – you do need good credit, preferably over 700. What is an FHA mortgage loan? The FHA is known as the Federal Housing Administration, and they insure mortgages on single family and multifamily homes including manufactured homes and hospitals. And they can help you achieve this goal of putting zero money down when buying your first home!

The FHA makes it easier to do this by giving you a super-low down payment for first-time homebuyers (3.5 percent), and most of your closing costs and fees can be included in the loan as well.

Example of How Much You Can Expect to Put Down Upfront When Buying First Home
So I am personally looking to buy a home within the next 6 months - my price range is $200,000 to $260,000. Let's say I find a home listed for $240,000 and make an offer. This is what you can expect: 3.5 percent down payment with FHA equals a down payment of $9,100.
Closing costs for me would be in the range of $10,000 to $15,000 - not too great. This is New York and closing costs are high here. So, Here's where you need to get creative.
Don't lowball the offer - tell the owner you will pay his or her exact asking price. But tell them you want them to cover the closing costs! Since you are not low-balling, and paying the exact asking price, it is not unreasonable to ask this of the owner. I would say there's a great chance they will agree to the offer.
What Interest Rate Can You Expect to Get on Your Mortgage? - A 30-year fixed mortgage is most likely your best bet here - I would expect with today's super-low interest rates that you'd be able to lock in a 3.6 - 3.8 percent interest rate. We will go over all of the numbers later on.
Getting a Piggy-Back Second Loan for Down Payment on a Home - Remember, the goal here is to pay no money down for your first home. What I intend to do now is either get a second "piggy-back" loan to pay either the entire down payment OR use a credit card at 10 percent interest to cover half the loan.
EXAMPLE: Four-Bedroom, 2 Bathroom Colonial Home Price - $260,000.
Down Payment - $9,100. Mortgage - $250,900. Second Loan - Either half the down payment or the full amount. We will do the full amount.
Alternative Loan Financing Options for Paying Your Down Payment on a House -You may also want to ask family or close friends to help you pay your down payment costs - maybe they will be willing to lend you money at a lower interest rate then your credit card rate would be. For this example we will use a second loan at 10 percent interest
Here are the final numbers on what it would cost you to buy a home with no money down, per month. This doesn't include any maintenance or repairs the home may need:
*Breaking Down the Final Numbers*
Home Price - $260,000
Closing Costs - None (Owner Agrees to Pay).
Down Payment With FHA - 3.5 percent ($9,100) COVERED with a second piggy-back loan at approx. 10 percent interest.
Mortgage - 3.8 percent 30-year fixed  ($251,900).
Monthly payments on mortgage (3 percent monthly taxes and insurance included) - According to Trulia.com, you can expect your total payments to come out to $1,767 a month.
Second Piggy-Back Loan Payments - Approx. $120 month.
TOTAL PAYMENT ON HOUSE PER MONTH WITH NO MONEY DOWN - $1,887 (This seems like a lot but I will show you why it's not below).
How to Buy Your First Home and Live Free and Clear - So now you know the costs associated with buying your first home. If you are a single guy like myself, you may want to consider renting out the rooms to help pay your mortgage and expenses. If you are a couple, you can still at least rent out two of the rooms. Or you may want to consider buying a multi-family home and renting out the other unit, so you have more privacy.
This home I have listed as an example happens to be a real home that I am seriously considering purchasing. According to comparable homes in this area, I can expect to rent out each bedroom for about $700 a month. With the other three bedrooms in this home fully rented, I can expect $2,100 in rent:
$2,100 rent - $1,887 expenses = $213 positive cash flow.
So if you play the numbers right it is very possible for a first-time homebuyers to buy a home with absolutely no money down, and then make money each month! While you will still probably end up paying some money on repairs and maintenance, you have to admit that this is still a pretty sweet deal. You will build up a ton of equity by sharing your house and renting it out, and then you might consider selling it when the market turns up - for a huge profit!
Why Purchasing Real Estate is a Great Idea and Why Real Estate is Still the Best Investment - I have been bullish on real estate since 2010. Ever since the housing bubble burst in 2008, home prices have collapsed. I feel strongly that housing prices have bottomed in 2012. I also really like the idea of getting a 30-year fixed interest rate mortgage under 4 percent. Since inflation is around that 4 percent range, that is basically free money.
The Federal Reserve has come out and said they will not raise interest rates until at least late 2014 or early 2015 as well, to boost the economy. So you have some time to lock in these ridiculously low rates.
In my opinion, there is a ton of money to be made from investing in real estate, but you have to invest for passive income and not capital gains. Please read this article I wrote on real estate investing which goes into much further detail.
I hope you enjoyed this article on first time home buying with no money down. Best of luck!

I HATE My Coworkers

Every workplace has them: people that will push your buttons. These individuals come in many forms:

• the manager who walks all over you
• the colleague who slacks off, working half as hard and as many hours as you do
• the teammate who takes all credit for your work
• the bully who you avoid working with at all costs
• the competitive peer who is 'always right'
• the employee who files discrimination charges with ridiculous 'facts' that are illogical and untrue
• the supervisor who micro-manages everything you do

Have you worked with any of these people? Could you even be one of them? These types of personalities are not only detrimental to their own career growth, but to the employees around them and ultimately to the bottom line of the company. They cause good employees to leave, they waste valuable management time, and they are incredibly difficult to 'let go.'
What can you do about it? I'm personally not a conflict resolution expert, a professional d