My Aussie apartment

It's an investment property I bought last year. It's called Micasa8... located on Swanston Street, Melbourne. The contruction is on-going and is now constructing level 5.

Profitability Of Oil and Gas Investments

Compared to traditional investments, the right direct investment in oil and gas may provide solid returns with monthly cash flow, particularly in today's high oil and gas markets. In addition, direct investments in oil and gas can provide tax advantages which are not available with stocks and bonds. Furthermore, being diversified with direct investments in oil and gas can provide a hedge against the impact of high or rising energy prices on other asset classes.

Some potential advantages of direct investments in oil and gas may include:

• Potential payback between 2-4 years;
• Tax deductions not available to other investment classes;
• Years of regular cash flow;
• An investment which is less impacted by the 'up and downs' of the stock market and interest rates;
• Diversification of your investments.

However with direct investments in oil and gas, there is the possibility of the loss of a portion, or all, of the investment principal if the well or wells are unsuccessful. Furthermore certain direct investments are relatively illiquid and very difficult to sell to others.

Certain direct investments in oil and gas provide a monthly payment for the oil and natural gas sold during the month.

Investments in oil and gas are less dependent on the economy or interest rates compared to traditional investments like stocks and bonds. As a result, these investments may provide a hedge against a downturn in the economy, particularly if the downturn is the result of a shortage of oil and gas.

Traditionally, investing in Oil and Gas fields has always been the territory of the qualified investors. However, a company called OilPods is determined to change this. It opens up the opportunity to retail investors to participate in the acquisition of Oil Leases of Productive Oil fields for the purpose of acquiring an income asset that through its daily production of crude oil will generate a monthly positive cashflow income for the investors. Just how secure is such method?

The company carves out 7.5% of its first lease’s “Working Interest”. For example, this lease is called the Zullig Project. The 7.5% of the Zullig Project is in turn divided into 240 units for individual investors to invest in, through OilPods.

OilPods offer investors a cashflow or income instrument where the monthly returns may be cashed out or re-invested to increase the constantly “income” producing units. This directly increases the cashflow return to the investors monthly.

The duration of the return depends on the mineral reserves in the land. The first monthly income payable to investors commence immediately upon the completion of title transfer, which currently takes 6 months from the date of contract. The conservatively projected return is between 7 to 15%.

OilPods collaborates with US based, Powder River Basin and Gas Corporation (http://www.powderrivergascorp.com/), a publicly traded Colorado corporation trading under the symbol PRVB. PRVB acquires and explores Oil and Gas properties. Lets examine the income statement of PRVB.

For FY2006 - 2004,

Net Income : $5,725,000 $699,000 $1,008,000

Cash And Cash Equivalents : $2,733,000 $383,000 $169,000

Income Before Tax : $8,757,000 $1,511,000 $1,008,000

The Company's net revenues from oil and gas sales for the first six months of 2007 increased to $1,566,833 from $795,797 for the first six months of 2006. This represents an increase of $571,036 or approximately 71.8% over the previous year. The Company also had net revenues from working interest sales of $9,540,843, an increase of $325,843 or approximately 3.5% over the same period of 2006. Powder River Basin Gas Corp. had a net profit of $6,813,727 before income taxes for the first six months of 2007. This represents a Basic Income Per Common Share of $0.04.

PRVB delivered a set of good financial results. Despite such, its share price has been plunging from highest $0.46 to the current $0.23 (on Nov 1, 2007). For the past few years, PRVB didn't declare any dividend payout to shareholders, cited reason such as capital for business expansion. Could it be this reason that investors start to abandon PRVB shares causes it to depreciate?

Nontheless, with the recent high oil price, early birds of OilPods investors are definitely on cloud nine! For keen investors, please visit http://www.oilpods.com/ for more information.

Tracking your net worth

Wealthy people understand the huge distinction between working income and net worth. Working income is important, but is only one of the four factors that determine your net worth. The four net worth factors are:

Income - working income and passive income
Savings - if you don't keep any of your income, you will never create wealth
Investments - from the money you saved, move to the next stage by investing it
Simplification - simplify your lifestyle. What will it take for you to be happy financially?

Here's the url to download your net worth tracking sheet.

http://www.wealthlearning.net/download/net_worth_tracking_sheet.pdf

Most people know it's important to keep and organize all of your vital financial information. But knowing you should and knowing how are two different things!

Once you know the reasons for being very organized with your financial data (and keeping it all in a very safe place) I hope you will put organization on your net worth building to-do list (at or near the top).

You need to be able to see your financial strengths and weaknesses quickly. If you are an active investor, it's even more important that you do so. Time wasted on missing data and lost tracking information is money lost.

Also, keeping an accurate and up to date personal net worth statement (personal financial statement) can help you get loans or other financing more quickly.

It would be well worth the effort to be able to give your financial institutions information they need at a glance. And your needs for the same ability to query your net worth and data associated with accounts, investments, in and outgoing money, and other important data are very important.

Be sure and carefully consider all portions of your net worth. Often forgotten components of your net worth are listed below in a handy checklist to get your data system in order and on track.

• Cash on Hand and In Bank
• Notes Payable
• Marketable Securities
• Non-Marketable Securities
• Securities Held by Brokers
• Restricted or Control Stocks
• Partial Real Estate Interests
• Owned Real Estate
• Loans Receivable
• Life Insurance
• Other Assets
• Accounts Payable
• Amount Due to Brokers
• Unpaid Income
• Taxes
• Other Unpaid Taxes/Interest
• Other Debts
• Debt on Real Estate Equities
• Real Estate Mortgages

Make sure you know what you're really worth. The only way to calculate your net worth accurately is if you track everything above.

On your road to a high net worth you can make fewer pit stops if you have a plan and the data to support your investment decisions and abilities close at hand.

Make use of spread sheet software and programs (i.e. Quicken) to keep your net growth on track. The reports you can run are invaluable for seeing where you’ve been and how far you’ve come with your portfolios, mortgage, taxes, and other important information.

Meeting with Investment Consultant

930am : It's my usual workout at Planet Fitness, Vivocity. For many people, morning exercise is a challenging task. Same goes for me.

1105am : I'm late for 11 am meeting with JL Global Investment Consultant, Liling.

1125am : She's already seated inside. I have arranged to meet her at Banquet foodcourt, Vivocity. I have recently exit from my investment and made a decent return. The meeting is to facilitate this exit and also to discuss a little more in detail about two new investments. I'm late, so I ought to buy her drink.

1200pm : We're having a great talk. It's a good start. We discuss the details of the two investments - Indonesia oil palm funding and Australia Bundoora property funding. Both investments are exciting and very rewarding. I can't decide! I want to have both! She gives me good advice on my another current real estate investment - Cash back loan. It's a very useful leverage tool. It's a good financial lesson from her. Excellent! She'll send me some information on that too. That's what I called excellent customer service. Good job!

1245pm : End of our meeting. Liling can't join me for lunch. It's a pity or else I could learn more sound investment ideas from her.

0100pm : Heading back home.

Lessons From Robert Kiyosaki's Seminar, 'Secrets Of The Rich' At The National Achievers Congress

The Secrets of the Rich - No. 1
The poor and the middle-class work for money. The rich have money work for them

I've recently been to a property fair featuring Australia properties. It was indeed an eye opener for someone like me who has not invested in any real estate properties. It was demonstrated how easy it was for someone who has moderate savings could actually own one small size apartment and start earning passive income. Certainly, the apartment has to be situated in good locations. Besides the passive income, the land which the apartment sits on will also appreciate and provide capital gain if he intends to sell the unit later.
Using that passive income, the person could either spend it or serve a new mortgage loan for another residential property. This is a formula that will never be taught in school.
How much interest are we earning today from our bank savings? It's a shameful amount.
It can be quite scary if one has no prior real estate investment experience because the initial capital outlay may cause uncomfortable to most ordinary people.

The Secrets of the Rich - No. 2
Mind your own business

Robert is not telling us not to be a busybody. The advice is to tell us to start our own business. Many people actually have many great ideas. This world has no lack of great ideas. It's whether the idea is being put into action is another set of story. It's a habit for not doing new things and it's also a habit for constantly doing new things. So the major problem of most ordinary people is that they lack action despite having great ideas. Hence, no great result was produced.
So start putting your idea into action and start a business for yourself. You've got to take care of yourself!

The Secrets of the Rich - No. 3
Create investments, don't buy them

Robert uses an example of real estate. I feel that this secret apply to your business too. If you have a great idea which you put into action to create your successful business, you will attract investors. They put huge capital into your business for you to grow them. How much an idea cost?

Create investment = Create idea
But you must put that idea into action. In other words, make things happen!

The Secrets of the Rich - No. 4
Expand the product before you buy

This can be applicable to your business too. This is what the big guys are doing in the business world. If you own a successful business, you can take it to public through IPO. Your business is still the same business. However, you've added an element of investment into your business. Money rolls into your business quicker.
Robert's next question was, "What is your winning formula?"
For him, don't do what everybody else is doing.

I feel this is an important question. What we've been doing and thinking have gotten us to where we are today. So, I choose not to work for somebody else, just like many others are doing, and today I'm earning passive income.

What about yourself?