Tim's blog

I received an email yesterday. It was submitted via the contact page on this site. I'm not even interested in whether they used a real or fake email address and name. The whole premise of the email was it is unethical to take advantage of the coming situations caused by out of control government spending and irresponsible government debt.

Here is part of the text of the email:

It is no exaggeration to say what we are seeing in the economy today is unlike anything anyone alive today has seen. Instinctively, everyone knows this at a gut level. But, they don't believe it at a conscious level. This is partly because we have no shortage of cheerleaders in the media willing to give anyone claiming, "The worst is over," a ready stage to proclaim their wishful thinking.

One of the Field Guide members recently asked if we could do an update to the previous study we did on expenses verses rental revenue. This morning, I posted an update to their request saying we have most of the data and giving a first impression based on the 50,000 level view so far.

I also included this line in that update to the members...

"Taking a conservative approach is all about having the staying power to ride out the down times."

I wanted to expand on that here a little bit.

I kept this project very quiet. I have not talked much about it anywhere on-line.

In December of 2008 I started a research project. The initial project was to gather information to help Field Guide members navigate the economic turn-around expected to happen in 2009 and 2010. However, the more research data gathered the more interesting and troubling things became.

The currently proposed financial reform legislation will prevent 80+% of the people currently raising private money for their real estate business from continuing to do so in any kind of compliant manner.

A prevailing opinion among way too many people is tax policy should be concerned with the "fairness" of wealth distribution in a society. We've heard it from President Obama's own lips, he wants to increase the capital gains tax rates in the interest of "fairness".

Recently on Twitter, I saw this tweet...

Starting in 2001, I was telling my readers to prepare for the coming recession. I not only told them a housing bust was coming but how to profit from it. Not only why all equity markets were going to experience a massive correction but that the housing market would severely lag the recovery that would follow. I explained why the historical near full employment would not continue.

This isn't a trivial question, especially in today's economy. Who owns the job you perform in exchange for pay?

Most people say, "my job" when they are talking about the job they do. But, if it really is yours, why don't you have more control over it?

Do you get to decide where you perform your duties? How about when you do them?

Do you get to decide how much you get paid for doing your job?

See? It isn't really your job, is it? But, you probably want to keep it.

The best way to do that is to increase your value to your employer. If you can become the goto guy or gal in one or more subject areas critical to the success of your employer, you will be able to keep your employer's job for as long as you want.

One of the first steps in figuring out how you can increase your value to your employer is to create a Career Map

The use of the terms "conservative" and "liberal" aren't all that descriptive today. Yes, I call myself a conservative but I am really more of a Constitutionalist than anything. However, in today's political climate "conservative" and "liberal or progressive" are used to describe ones position on a range of issues. But, being a conservative or a liberal does not mean you are conservative or liberal on every single issue.

Did you hear it? Maybe you felt it? The US and World economies experienced a seismic shift due to a perfect storm of economic and political conditions. This shift brought forth a fundamental change to economies across the globe. Things and conditions are different now and they aren't going back to the “way things were” any time soon.