My success systems - I thought I might share with you

[australianinvestor]

This has come about because I was feeling quite down today (like driving a lambo with the hand brake on... as well as a wheel clamp). Now I've decided that my success systems will pull me out of the rut, and I'd like to share them with you during my little re-design session tonight.

Who knows what a dashboard is? Yes, it's the bit in the Lambo with the nice gauges on it.

In business, for those that aren't familiar, dashboards are popular amongst executives because they are a snapshot of all the important things about their business at any time. Executives often get one handed to them each morning as they walk in, so they can assess progress, detect bad trends, etc.

My dashboard has a few vital differences, and is the key to this year's success.

It will be a nice leather folder (the zip-up kind), and here's what it contains:


Personal Dashboard
- Laminated copy of personal strategy (life goals, etc)
- Tactical plan for this year for each of this year's major goals
- Daily financial snapshot (financial statements, bank statement summaries)
- Master schedule (what I am doing for the day, week and month)

Company #1 Dashboard (Convenience store company) - done by store manager for me
- Laminated copy of company strategy (5 year goals, etc)
- Tactical plan for this year for each of this year's major goals
- Daily financial snapshot (financial statements, bank statement summaries, historical graphs)

Company #2 Dashboard (Media company
- Laminated copy of company strategy (5 year goals, etc)
- Tactical plan for this year for each of this year's major goals
- Daily financial snapshot (financial statements, bank statement summaries, historical graphs)

Motivation tools
- I will print a few pictures of what motivates me, so when I lose sight of the big picture (like I have recently), I can refresh myself. Imagine to a meeting you badly want to miss, and glancing at your motivational pictures before you walk in. Reframes your mind


Each day's dashboard might be a lot, but there's good reason for it:

- At any time of the day, I know what I am doing, and why, and what comes next
- I know the exact progress I have made
- I can detect problems and fix them before they damage my chances of success.


I am also designing a new way of investing my money, which involves a lot more automation in the way I turn earned money and business income into investments. Specifically, I am automating the way I allocate capital to my risk-free investments. If you'd like to hear more on that, just ask me.



So, what success systems do you have, and why are they working (or not) for you?


Daniel.

 

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[Runum]

Great ideas Daniel. I have always been able to keep every thing in my head. As I am acquiring more rental units I am having trouble keeping track of everything. All my properties are on separate spreadsheets. I am concerned about not making a collection or forgetting a bill. A daily/weekly summary would be great for me. Thanks for the idea. +++++speed.:cheers:

Greg

 

[camski]

When I finally decided to stop being a dreamer and start becoming a doer, I was like so many other people who always ask (How do I come up with money to invest?). So I took a page from one of the RD programs and used the piggy bank method. I didnt actually use piggy bank but instead plain white envelopes. I took three plain white envelopes and started putting $1 a day into each of those envelopes. Env #1 was for my business fund. Env #2 was for savings and Env #3 was titled God which I used to give to the charity/charities of my choice. Then other than the God envelope I did not touch the money other than for it's intended use. I now have a comfortable (for me comfortable) amount of savings and I have been able to buy a commercial property that nets me about $500 a month.
I did this in tandem with paying off my consumer debt and have been able to translate this into no consumer debt and besides my primary residence and my commercial property investment I have no debt. Now of course I upped my daily contribution to more than $1 as things got better financially but I still only started with basically $3 a day. I also do a monthly financial statement on myself, so i know the state of my finances at all times.
What I find funny is that I have recommended my envelope method to two different people, and even told them that the amount doesnt matter it is the discipline of doing it every day and both people wouldnt/couldnt do it. One started it but said that they HAD to get into to it to pay some bills but then never kept up with it, the other said that they couldnt afford the $5 a day that I was doing at that time and that $1 a day really wouldnt make much difference (SO SO WRONG).
These two things (combined with debt elimination) really helped me to turn my financial life around and has given me a level of security that up until 3 years ago I did not have. I firmly believe that even if someone started with a penny a day that the envelope method works. It works because it is action, it is something, it is doing rather than just dreaming.

 

[CactusWren]

Great ideas. Thanks. rep ++

 

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[AlwaysCurious]

I do like the idea that much, that I already started building a personal dashboard. Thanks for the inspiration.

And, yes, I also would like to learn more about investment automation.

 

[M&T]

Put an order in for me when they are complete!

 

[Jorge]

Great post Daniel!

Rep++

 

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[australianinvestor]

Cool, orders for dashboards How much do you want to pay? Hehehe...

I was in the new Terminal 3 at Singpore's Changi Airport recently, and it's the most beautiful airport I've been to. They have a Koi pond (!) in the departures area, and the sign on the pond gives some facts about the Koi. It is apparently a symbol for success. Maybe I'll make my leather dashboard folder with a little Koi logo embossed into it

 

[australianinvestor]

Ok, a quick explanation of what I am doing with my investment automation:

- The goal is to automate the process of getting my earned and business income into investment income.
- This starts by a process of taking cash from my bank account, paying it into my investment company, and allocating it to my risk-free investments
- Risk-free investments in my portfolio consist of only one thing: Australian government bonds (same as your T-Bills, I believe). - Decent return, above the cash rate, and risk-free (because it's extremely unlikely that my country will collapse and never be able to repay me) - just have to watch that inflation doesn't eat much of my real return
- The automation: every week an automatic transfer will be made from my personal bank account to my investment company bank account with a good cash rate. The cash then accumulates until I make a bond purchase.
- At the end of the month, I reconcile the accounts with my spreadsheet of transactions I performed, and send the spreadsheet to my bookkeeper to add to the accrual accounting system.

It's like I'm building a machine which takes my expensive income (salary), combines it with better income (business) and invests it according to my rules in a structure which protects it from litigation and expensive (employee) taxes.

This automated process is only part of my investment system. My whole system is this:

- X% of salary (make it as high as possible) is ready to go into the investment system
- 40% of it goes into risk-free investments (guarantee's I will not lose everything)
- 60% goes into my growth portfolio (own businesses, corp bonds, stocks, own notes, etc)

- Returns from the risk-free portfolio stay in the risk-free account forever.
- Returns from the growth portfolio are split three ways: I take a third and spend it on my doodads (or save it for more expensive doodads), a third goes into the risk-free portfolio, and a third stays in the growth portfolio.

Not a new system, but a nice one. The risk-free portfolio guarantees I will not be a loser due to market crashes or other phenomena. The growth portfolio gives me the faster returns needed to become rich, and I also get to buy cool stuff when my portfolio performs.

For those that are interested, I am a fundamental investor when it comes to stocks. I review a company in an industry I really understand, I decide what it's really worth (the present value of future earnings), and then compare the stock's price to my value figure. I only buy when a significant discount is available on the market because amateur investors and fund managers get scared and pile out for some reason. Often the reason is temporary, not affecting future earnings. So, I get a good price, far below its value. I then hold it.

Wow, this ended up longer than I expected. I hope this answered any questions If not, feel free to ask.

Daniel.