Is Gold Too Expensive?

Last week, gold prices hit nearly $1,200/oz. Most people think that this is a bubble and that gold prices are due to drop. I'm really not sure what to make of this, but I feel that in the long run (3-5 years), gold prices will keep going higher. But let me quote someone who's credibility and investing prowess far exceeds my own, Richard Russell, 85-year-old author of the Dow Theory Letters. He said:

There’s still loads of scepticism about the rising price of gold and the bull market in gold. It’s been so long since the US public (since 1971) realized gold was real Constitutional money that they don’t know what to make of the gold action. They think gold near $1,200 an ounce is expensive and they’d rather have dollar bills.

I’ve coined the phrase, ‘dollar-bugs’ for these ignorant Americans. I guess they’ll have to get educated the hard way, which means holding on to their fading Federal Reserve Notes, no matter what. As far as I’m concerned, it’s an amazing example of mass brainwashing. ‘Hey, I’d rather have junk paper turned out by the Fed than the real thing - gold.’ Pathetic. And the happy thought is that you can (legally) still swap your junk fiat paper for gold.

What do you guys think?

If I had to make a recommendation today, I'd rather buy silver than gold - but I'm still holding on to my gold coins right now.

Made $1645 In Online Income

For March, the break of online income is as follows:

• Online Income: $1645.30
  
  
  
  • Adsense: $339.28
  
  
  • Linkworth: $456.70
  
  
  • TLA: $103.61
  
  
  • Kontera: $62.07
  
  
  • Direct Ads: $330
  
  
  • Prosper Referrals: $175
  
  
  • Amazon: $117.82
  
  
  • Domain Embarking: $60.82
  
  
  
  

Revenue from Adsense seems to be on a slow decline. It looks like I was smart-priced. In a few blogs, I've modified the code so adsense ads are only displayed to search engine viewers. I don't think other kinds of traffic click on the ads anyway. I also signed up for Adsdaq to display in place of adsense on these sites.

Surprizingly, Linkworth has started performing really well on my sites. March's income was almost double of February's and I expect April's income to be a lot higher too. Its been a long time coming, but now the income is starting to be substantial. I'm very happy with their service and I strongly endorse it.

Text-Link-Ads is also doing moderately okay although its making less than Linkworth. I don't think you're allowed to use both services on the same site, so see which one works better for you. Between the two, my favorite is currently Linkworth. It also has a good affiliate program so if you sign up, make sure you put an affiliate ad on your site too.

This year,I accidentally stumbled upon Amazon affiliate income through a post I wrote. Hopefully it will continue as I learn more about affiliate marketing and try out different techniques to boost it.

Surprizingly, I found out that I had earned ~$60 from Domain Embarking, a site that helps you earn money from parked domains. I had a few sites that were parked with Sedo.com. In over 2 years, I make about 24 cents with Sedo, but with Domain Embarking, now I'm making some money atleast. To be fair, the $60 was earnings for the year till date, so it could have been only $20 for March. I'll find out how it does in April to get a better idea. Regardless, its still a whole lot better than the $0.01 per month I was making with Sedo.

I also just registered about 20 .info domains with godaddy. Godaddy is currently running a 99 cent special Actually is about $1.25 after taxes but still a great deal.
Parking them with Domain Embarking should earn me more money than that during the course of the year. The sites will also get PR and backlinks, so I might be able to sell them for more than $10 in a year. Or I might decide to host them myself and set up a BANS store on them. I use Dream Host for hosting and its really good. I can host multiple accounts on the same account for the low fee of $120/year. Use the coupon "passiveincome" to get a $20 discount on it.
Prosper is still handing out $25 signup bonuses to new lenders. When lenders who sign up through my link and fund their account, I get $25 too. That's how I made the $175 in referral fees. I also made around $30-$35 last month in prosper loans but since they usually issue a statement around the 5th of the month, i'll exclude that income. I usually get around $180-200 every month from the loans, of which 70% is return of principle. Calculating it manually is just too tedious.

Investing In Oil

I spent most of Saturday listening to an investment presentation by some oil guys from Texas and Oklahoma. I come in contact with them on a previous deal. At that time I had shown their investment presentation to my CPA (who usually turns down every investment I show him) and he was so impressed, he decided to fly out and meet them. He's become their accountant and is investing heavily in their current deal.

Incidentally, in the previous deal where I came across the oil guys, they were also investors like me in a gas pipeline deal in Texas. It was a pretty sweet deal and we should've gotten cashed out with a 30% profit after a year. Unfortunately our partner, Grant Wilson III, decided to swindle us out of the profits. After spending over a year with this jackass, subsidizing his travel and living expenses he just decided that he deserved all the profits and he's disappeared. Luckily we got all our principle back.

We talked to a lawyer about our legal options. Apparently it'll cost $25,000 to get a judgment against this crook and if he's spent the profits, we won't be able to collect anything. Spending $25,000 to maybe get around $60,000 doesn't sound very appealing. Anyway, if you come across anyone called Grant Wilson III in Houston, who's lived in Southern California and is originally from Boston, you should definitely keep your hand on your wallet at all times! The only positive thing in the whole deal is that I learnt a very important lesson about trust in business, and luckily it didn't cost me much money.

But back to the original discussion about the oil men. Unlike Grant, who's background is swindling people, oops, I meant to he was a lobbyist in Washington, these people actually have worked for decades in the oil industry. One of the principals has several patents and they all are extremely knowledgeable in various aspects of off-shore and on-land drilling and exploration.

They've basically put together a partnership deal where they find under-valued oil & gas producing properties with at least 10-12 years of production left. Usually its a distressed situation like an estate sale, lawsuit or defect in the title where the production has been stopped.

In the current "fund" (its called a fund but its really a partnership), they have 19 producing wells and will drill 2 more infill wells.

In normal deals that are "securitized" (sold as a security and governed by the SEC), dealer-brokers are involved and usually 30% of your investment goes to overheads like commissions, fees and marketing. Since only 70% of your investment actually gets invested you typically get low returns - in the range of 7-10%.

However, if you get an opportunity to invest directly with in a fund like this, where they aren't paying any broker commissions, you can get a much better return. Assuming oil stays at $65 and gas stays at $6, my CPA thinks we can get a 24% annual return. If oil goes up, our returns go up too! And since about 40% of the return is considered return of principle, its not taxable. (Although it does lower your basis in the investment).

Unlike my other investments which have taken quite a while to start producing, this is supposed to start generating income with 60 days. Of course, I'm not holding my breath. But the fact that my CPA is investing alongside me and I felt I could definitely trust them gives me a lot of confidence.

I let you know how it goes.

How To Start A Vending Machine Business

If you've ever wondered how much money the vending machine guy at your office makes, here's an excellent post by GeniusTypes on how he got into the vending machine business.

It all started with having an open mind and buying a route from someone who had lost interest for well below what it was worth.

You'll see this theme repeated in many successful investment stories.

Every so often you'll see ads in the local paper about the company that sells large office-type vending machines holding a presentation. Apparently, the charge $1000 each and it takes a long time to recoup your investment. Most of the buyers give up and sell them for $100-$200 each and the second owner usually has better luck.

GeniusTypes kept his initial investment low by understanding how to value the business to begin with. He thus guaranteed his success by keeping a large margin of safety.

He immediately saw where he could cut costs to increase his net income. He also followed up on some leads and expanded his route and thus the value of his business.

Also note how he takes the positive aspects from Robert Kiyosaki's books and doesn't dwell on whether the book is based on fact or fiction.

Check out these cheap vending machines.

Buying Canadian Income Funds For Passive Income (and Financial Freedom)

Yesterday, I bought some more Canadian Income Funds, also called Royalty Trusts or Canroys. As I mentioned before, I recently refinanced a property and I managed to pull some money out (totally tax-free!).

Rather than spend the money on an SUV or a big-screen TV, I opted to divide the money into 3 parts. The first 1/3rd went towards replenishing my emergency fund which was drawn down by vacancies in my rental properties. The second 1/3rd went towards future investments in summer just in case there's a pullback in the stock market and the last 1/3rd went to building up my passive cash-flow.


Long time readers will realize that I haven't made any effort display my net worth or any goals of net worth. That's because I feel its a meaningless number. If I had a $1 million dollar net worth and it only generated $25,000 a year in income (like Cd's did a few years ago) that's pretty sad. On the other hand, if I owned a $1,000,000 car-wash that generated $125,000 that's pretty significant.

My goal is to generate passive income. Its your passive income that provides financial independence, not your net worth. If you have $3,000/month through various passive income streams, you've got your basic food and shelter taken care of and you won't starve if you lose your job. That is my short term goal. My longer term goal is generate $10,000/month in passive income so I can travel the world without worrying (or working).

I'm currently not even at 50% of my $3,000/month goal so at least 1/3rd of all future investments must take me towards that goal. That's why I bought some Canroys yesterday. I bought Harvest Energy (HTE) and Canetic Resources(CNE). They generate revenue from oil and gas production and refining. The noteworthy part is that they payout around 12% dividend per year. Since the selling of oil and gas leads to a depletion of reserves, its important that they keep some of their revenue for future acquisition of new properties and for drilling new wells. Both of them have a payout ratio of under 80% which isn't bad considering they have proven and probable reserve lifespans of 9.5 years.

There are Canroys with lifespans of 6-7 years and payout ratios of 95% that yield 15% but I'm suspicious of their longterm viability. These two seem like pretty safe bets. If oil prices rise there's a chance of increased payout and also capital appreciation. If not, I'm still getting my 12% yield.

The only issue I have is that the Canadian Government takes its 15% tax straight out of my account. But even considering for that, my yield is still just over 10%. Besides, I get a US tax credit for that amount, so its not a total loss.

I also bought some units in Prism Income Fund(QSR.UN) which owns and operates nearly 500 fast-food franchises in Canada (Taco Bell, KFC, Long John Silver and Pizza Hut). Their stock has been pretty stable compared to other Canroys following the whole Taxation issue. Its also currently yielding 12% and while I don't expect much capital appreciation, I don't expect it to drop in value or its dividend to fluctuate with the price of oil and gas.

So now I'm one step closer to my goal of $3,000 in passive income. This brings my total passive income from Canroys to $300 per month. I'm also getting $300 from a loan to a developer at 2% per month. And I average around $300/month from my various online ventures. (Even though my online ventures aren't passive, I enjoy pursuing them and I have geographic independence. Thats why I'm counting it).I'm also making around $150/month from my direct oil and gas drilling investments, so I'm almost 1/3rd of the way to my goal!

When I get the money back from the developer, it'll be redeployed at a much lower rate. But I expect the cash flow from the direct oil drilling program to increase enough to cover this short-fall.

Earn $25 Referral Fee

Prosper.com has now started giving out $25 referral fees if you sign up through an affiliate link!

It doesn't matter whether you're a lender or a borrower, you still get the $25. Don't know when it started but it ends on August 31st 2007.



Great time to join if you already haven't. I've been lending out money at around 18%.

That Crazy Loonie

In the wake of the commodities boom, the Canadian currency has appreciated almost 50% against the U.S. dollar since the beginning of 2002. In the last three months alone, strong economic data, inflows from mergers and acquisitions, buoyant commodity prices and above-target core inflation resulted in a rise of the Canadian dollar (CAD) of about 8%.

I'm really happy since I own a lot of Canadian Income Funds which pay out monthly dividends in Canadian dollars. So as the Loonie appreciates, my monthly dividend increases too!

Will the Loonie ever achieve parity with the US Dollar though? Some analysts are predicted it to hit $0.96 = C$1.00 which is awfully close.

What do you guys think?

Last Chance To Get In On A Zero-Risk Investment

I've been wanting to send in the paperwork for the Everbank Marketsafe Japanese REIT CD for nearly a month. Since I used my Coporation's 401k and Profit Sharing Plan (PSP) to invest, I had to open a business account and fill out extra Trustee paperwork, in addition to supplying a copy of the original 200 page 401k & PSP documentation.

Anyway, I got it all filled out and signed by the co-Trustee (my wife) and fedexed it to Everbank. April 17th is the last date to get in on this investment.

If you think the Yen is going to appreciate against the dollar and Japanese Real Estate is going to appreciate, its worth a gamble. This CD is FDIC insured and has no downside risk! You can read more
about it at Wealth Building Lessons.

Since I'm investing through my PSP, I don't need to worry about taxes. If you want you can invest in a ROTH IRA at Everbank too!

Invest In Porn - Part 2

I had an afternoon lunch meeting with an LA business owner. He was trying to raise money for his "Audio Erotica" business. He figured that audio books were growing at a ferocious pace and no one was servicing the needs of Erotica fans(over half of which are female!). So he's tied up with several synergistic partners - well known porn stars(like Jenna Jameson), a publishing house, an audio recording company and is has already created several audio erotica short-story sets. Very interesting concept! He was meeting with me because he wanted to raise some more money. He's issuing an 11% convertible dividend and expects to double or triple the investment in 3 years. The only issue I have is with his valuation, which at $4.2 million is a tad too high. I may not invest but I believe he'll make money in his venture.

After that I skipped out of work and went sailing! That was fun. We docked at a harbor restaurant had a few drinks and went back! Then it was time for dinner and a real estate meeting. Quite a busy day. But it was fun!

As a follow-up to my Invest In Porn post, I actually did invest in a small start-up company that provides the technical website generation and templates to would-be porn-trepreneurs (I just made that word up!) - so basically it provides the technical framework and the ability to integrate data feeds. The deal is to get back 100% return in 18 months and still keep a small equity stake in the company. I'll let you know how it goes. Incidentally, that post is the 2nd link on google.com for the search 'invest in porn!'.

Blogging Yourself To Financial Freedom

Making Our Way has a great post on how people think they can start a personal finance blog and expect to make enough money out of it that they can quit their jobs!

Unless you getting 50,000 hits a day, thats not going to work out for you. And unless your a marketing expert, SEO guru and a great writer with interesting content, that really isn't going to happen.

Instead you should try to make $200-$500/mo from it and consider that to be one of your multiple income streams. If you can develop a dozen income streams each paying you $500/month, you've set yourself up for financial freedom. It may not be enough to live luxuriously, but at least you won't starve if you lose your job, or want to take a year off to pursue your passions.

Other examples of income streams can be paid off rental properties, stocks that pay a dividend, Canadian income funds (also oil & gas funds), actual oil & gas projects, equity stakes in a business, trust deeds backed by real estate, and micro loans(like prosper.com).

The more diversity you have, the safer your total income will be!

Tips On Lending Money On Prosper

1. Don't lend money to people to get cars.
Anyone with a pulse can get a loan on car. If they sell the car, wreck it or it otherwise gets repossesed, their motivation to pay off the loan will drop to nil.

2. Don't lend to people who are terminally ill or very old.
That sounds cruel but unless you're in it for charity(and I admit, I've made one loan like that which surprizing hasn't defaulted!) I suggest skipping this class of people.

3. Avoid people with a large number of delinquencies.
People who've had a dozen in the past 12 months are not good candidates for lending money!

Investing In Hotels

I spoke to my uncle's friend today. Apparently he had a few liquor shops and recently got into the hotel business.I'd been wondering what the numbers are in that business and I actually got some concrete numbers today.

Ideally you should pay 4 times the gross income or less. The bank requires you to only put down 20% of the purchase price. If you buy a chain (instead of running a mom & pop joint), the bookings are done through a central reservation system so its NOT a cash-based business. This means you can hire a manager or a management company to run it for you and be sure that you're not being robbed. Normally hotels should net you atleast 15% cash on cash or better.

Sounds like pretty good numbers to me. He's promised to include me (with my puny investment capital) in his next investment. Hopefully I will have free capital at that time.

I've heard of hotels in San Diego being sold for 7 times the gross and I guess making money on your investment isn't always the criteria for investing!!! But, there are a few people who pay CASH for their multi-million dollar hotels and so whatever they make is a profit to them.

Anyway, if I can buy a hotel in partnership this year, I'll be very happy. I might even put together a Private Investment Fund for investing in a hotel.

Canadian Royalties Revisited

A few weeks ago, I cursed the Canadian Finance Minister for causing my CanRoys to drop significantly overnight. I may have been premature in cursing him.

I originally bought them for the dividends that they were paying out, mostly in the 8-12% range, with the occasional one paying out 13-14%. However, the severe drop in prices caused their yields to jump proportionately to 12-17%. One of the companies I bought became a 19% yield! Even if Flaherty's taxation of dividends became true, it would still be 4 years away and by then you would've gotten nearly 80% of your money back. Last week money started flowing back in Canroys. I picked up a little more on margin. The one I picked up, AAV currently gives a 17% yield. So even if I have to pay 9-10% margin interest I'm still ahead by 7%. Plus if Oil & Gas prices continue to rise which I think they will I'll see some capital appreciation.

There are a few Master Lease Partnerships in the US that are like Mutual Funds of Energy Stocks. They only pay 6% dividends however the divis are considered return of principle and thus are not taxed!!! Pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

Timeshare Buyer or Victim?

I spoke to one of my friends after a while. I found out that he had just purchased one of those Hilton timeshares I had mentioned in an earlier post.

He was taken in by the high pressure tactics and the temptation of exotic vacations! He's now suffering from buyers remorse.

Like they say, "Invest in haste, repent at leisure!".


Well if any of you are interested in spending $20,000 on a hotel room, let me know. I'm thinking of putting together my own timeshare.

We buy a small house in Nicaragua for around $120,000. Its atop a mountain next to a nature preserve with lovely ocean views. It has running water and solar power. Its no Hilton with conceirge, but instead of 52 partners, you might only have 12. Plus you get to deduct the cost of your surfing vacations, because you've bought an investment property! It should rent out sporadically to cover the cost of maintenance. If Nicaragua does a quarter as well as Costa Rica, it should atleast double in value!

Dollar May Weaken

I regularly read the 'Daily Pfenning' by Charles Butler of Everbank.com.

Today's issue was especially bearish on the dollar.

The Yen finally started to move back up hitting a one month high over the weekend on speculation the Bank of Japan report tomorrow will show an improved economic outlook. The BOJ will make their rate announcement tomorrow before releasing a semi-annual report that will outline the bank's forecasts for prices and the economy. Any hint at higher rates before year end should propel the yen back toward 110.

Other Asian currencies gained last week also, with the Thai baht rising to a seven-year high. Thailand's central bank raised its growth estimate for next year to between 4.5 percent and 5.5 percent from a previous forecast of between 4 and 5.3%. It also lifted its prediction for export growth this year. While the gains in the Singapore $ were met with possible intervention by their central bank, the Bank of Thailand governor said the central bank would let the markets do their job in stemming the rise. So it looks like we have a green light for further increases in the baht.

The Australian dollar also had a good week with several reports showing the Asia-Pacific regions growth is picking up. Retail sales rose .5 percent after climbing .3% in August, and building approvals started to rise again. Australia's economy added more than 200,000 new jobs in the past five months, sending the unemployment rate to a 30-year low. Things continue to look up for the Australian dollar, a currency which continues to be one of our favorite.

Finally, India's central bank will likely raise interest rates for a fourth time this year as record economic expansion and loans growth stoke inflation. Expect a quarter point increase in interest rates tomorrow, which should strengthen the rupee. Many reports are now expecting the Rupee to strengthen to 44 by year end.

As previously mentioned, I bought some Australian Dollars and a Japanese REIT. A strengthening of the Yen will boost the value of my REIT, which buys apartment buildings in downtown Toyko.

I'm willing to share the info on the Japanese REIT with anyone who makes 10 posts on The Weekend Investor. Talk about a shameless plug!!!!

Gold was also up today. Its not too late to buy some and hedge against the devaluing dollar!

Invest In Porn!

While reading the recent issue of Business 2.0, I came across an interesting article on investing in the Porn Industry. Apparently there's this company called Adultvest that puts investors and porn industry businesses/people together. Kind of like Prosper !!!

I decided to check it out. Its a very fancy website [after all, porn sites are cutting edge in terms of web technology] and it lets you sign up depending on whether you're an investor or you need funding for your Adult entertainment business.

I signed up as an investor, and they promised to send me investment opportunites.
Lets see what I get. I'll post when I get something.

Only accredited investors are allowed to sign up but that easily achieved. Just say yes to the questions on whether you're accredited and suddenly you are!!!!!

Check it out. The site is totally Safe For Work. There's no adult content on it.

Anway, I got a kick out of their ad banners.

Here are some of my favorites!

Check out the bull's shadow.



The porn industry makes a ton of money. I used to work for a company that was bought by Akamai Technologies. We used to provide content distribution for porn companies[and also CNN and Yahoo]. We had a saying, "Porn built the Internet". They make a ton of money!



An explanation of how it works. I think its a neat concept.



And my favorite...this one cuts straight to the chase!!!



What do you guys think of investing in porn? I personally don't care. It called diversification!! ;-)

Maybe it'll even become mainstream some day. "Oil and gas investments aren't exciting enough for you? You need some excitement in your portfolio - invest in the Adult Entertainment industry!!!"

Not to mention its yet another way to deduct your adult entertainment subscriptions on your taxes! It really will qualify as research.

Are Timeshares A Scam?

Thanks to Lazy Man, I've been reminded to write on whether Timeshares are a good investment or not.

Some of the reasons the Timeshare companies give are
1. Its a good investment. If you get title to the property as a fractional owner, you get all the tax deductions of home ownership.
2. The cost of your vacations never goes up. So you beat inflation.
3. You can exchange you timeshare with other people in different parts of the world and live for free whenever you go on vacation.

On the surface it sounds really good. A while ago I had the misfortune of being conned into attending one of these in Vegas in exchange for some free show tickets. The reason they can afford to hand out $200 worth of free tix is because they use high-pressure tactics to persuade you to buy an overpriced condo.

Lets do the math...

They wanted $35,000 for a 1 week rental of a bedroom condo. So basically they took a $300,000 condo and sold it for $35,000 x 52 weeks = $1.825 million!!!!

Plus you pay an annual $850 "maintenance" fee. That doesn't sound like putting a cap on the cost of my future vacations, since this maintenance fee will go up with inflation.

Also, in order to exchange you timeshare with other timeshare owners you needed to subscribe to a service that charges around $185/year. Out of kindness, this fee was waived for the first year and I would get 2 round trip tickets to anywhere in the world plus a 7 day fully paid for vacation to Cancun.

Hmmm....if I invest the $35,000 at 8%, thats $2800. Add $850+$185 to that and I get $3835. I don't think I've ever spent that much money for living accomodations on a 2 week trip anywhere in the world. Granted, I didn't stay in 5 star hotels, but I'm pretty sure you can rent a condo for about $1,000/week anywhere in the world in peak season. And if you can get more than 8% return on your investments, you're losing even more money.

I think its a big scam. The presentation I went to was offered by the Hilton. They had 4 huge towers on a tiny postage stamp of a lot. I think there were probably 400 condos on 1 block of land. Thats like selling 1 building for around $720 million!!!! DAMN, I need to get into business!

Update:

Buying timeshares from the resale market can be a lot more cost-effective. You can buy cheap timeshares for less than 25% of the original cost from the original buyers and at that point it often makes sense. Check out this link for discounted timeshares.

Incidentally, you can get great deals on real estate on that link. There are listings for land & homes for under $5,000! It doesn't get any cheaper than that.