Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch disappeared.

AIG almost collapsed.

More to come….

Many Americans are looking to this year’s presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain, to save US financial system. But they are politicians! The problem Obama or McCain face: Limited financial education and diminished financial common sense.

Learn more about financial literacy from multi-millionaires like Robert Kiyosaki, T. Harv Eker and lots more at here.

This principle is about visualization. Visualization is the act of creating compelling and vivid pictures in your mind.

Jack Canfield gives a scientific explanation for why visualization works. What is important for me: “Visualization simply makes the brain achieve more”. When I visualize my goals in my mind as already achieved, my subconscious mind will work to turn my visualizations into reality.

The author explains the process of visualization and gives a few examples to prove that visualization works. The process is quite simple. I need to close my eyes and see my goals as already achieved. To make the process more powerful I should add sounds, feelings and emotions to my pictures.

The emotions are the most important ingredient of visualization. We must enjoy the visualization. It can’t be a chore. Doing visualizations properly we feel happy doing it, and we are creating happy future.

Good news! Mark Victor Hansen’s exclusive interview with SkyQuestCom is here. Click here to find out more.

Blair Singer is best known as the author of the best-selling book Sales Dogs. He is also one of Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Advisors in sales and leadership. Blair is one of the worlds best trainers in personal and organisational behavior change in business and has earned global recognition through the development of a unique high impact approach to helping people achieve peak performance.

In this excerpt from his main video seminar, Blair compares different breeds of dogs to the different types of sales personalities you’ll encounter everyday in your job. You’ll learn how to identify the types of breed of the people around you. By knowing the breed of your prospects and team members, you can tailor your sales strategy to help you close a deal or manage your team better.

Types of sales dogs:

The Pit bull

never takes no for an answer
can handle new projects
The Poodle

image is important to these people
good networkers
The Golden Retriever

will do anything for friends
provides good service
The Bassett

they love you no matter what
What you have just read is just a sample of what you can learn from Blair Singer. Join him as he reveals successfully proven strategies that will help you to become a champion salesperson and leader who inspires winning teams!

With Blair, you’ll learn how to:

• Apply proven techniques to overcome objections and convince your prospects to buy
• Spot the different personalities in your team and apply the best methods to inspire your team to deliver outstanding results in any project
• Use your natural talents to dramatically improve your income and have fun doing it!
• Powerful sales techniques that help you to dramatically increase your earnings
• And much more!

So click here now.

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?

Good news! Robert Kiyosaki’s video seminar, Secrets of The Rich is available at SkyQuestCom.

No?

There were times that people would complain that they were broke. So they cut down on their spending. They only bought things that they really needed. But they could still survive until the next pay day arrived.

BROKE is TEMPORARY!

POOR is PERMANENT, because it is a mindset.

So if a person’s financial literacy is poor, he has a poor mindset. And we know that to change a person’s thinking takes a long time and lots of effort.

MAKING MONEY FAST is also a mindset!

Would you like to equip yourself with FINANCIAL EDUCATION? Click here to find out how you can start your FINANCIAL EDUCATION.

Zimbabweans are suffering chronic shortages of meat, maize, fuel and other basic commodities due to the collapse of the once prosperous economy, which critics blame on President Robert Mugabe’s policies, including his violent seizure of white-owned farms.

Central bank Governor Gideon Gono announced on Wednesday that inflation had surpassed 2.2 million percent, though some economists put it much higher.

In a notice in the official Herald newspaper on Saturday, Gono said the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe would introduce 100 billion dollar special agro-cheques , to help consumers who currently need to carry large wads of cash even for simple transactions.

“This new $100 billion special agro-cheque will go into circulation on Monday,” the notice said.

The central bank has been printing higher denomination banknotes to keep pace with soaring prices. The most valuable bank note currently in circulation is worth Z$50 billion.

Gono said he was also considering raising the amount of cash people could withdraw daily from their bank accounts. The central bank has imposed a withdrawal limit of Z$100 billion, but this is only enough for two trips on an urban commuter bus or two loaves of bread — if one can find it.

The Zimbabwe dollar, which had been officially pegged at 30,000 to the U.S. dollar before exchange rules were relaxed recently, now trades at about 800 million to the greenback.

Besides struggling with shortages of basic goods and services, Zimbabweans also spend long hours in bank queues trying to withdraw their money.

The central bank says the limits on cash withdrawals are designed to curtail a thriving black market in foreign exchange and basic commodities.

The worsening economy could add to pressure on the ruling ZANU-PF party to make concessions to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which has refused to recognise Mugabe’s overwhelming victory in a June 27 presidential run-off election.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the first round vote on March 29 but failed to get the absolute majority needed to avoid a second ballot. Tsvangirai pulled out of that poll, citing violence by pro-Mugabe militia.

Two weeks ago a German firm, Giesecke and Devrient, stopped deliveries of banknote paper to Zimbabwe following pressure from the German government amid international criticism of Mugabe’s widely condemned re-election. Gono said Zimbabwe had made alternative arrangements.

On Sunday, the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve said they would lend money and buy equity if needed to rescue the two pillars of the US housing market, sending shares soaring early on Monday.

But the gains soon fizzled as analysts noted any direct government investment in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would further dilute existing shares - the last thing investors want.

Regional banks were also under fire as investors fretted about the possibility of more bank failures after regulators seized the mortgage lender IndyMac Bancorp late on Friday, following withdrawals by panicked clients.

National City Corp, responding to market rumours, said in a statement it was ‘experiencing no usual depositor or credit activity.’ But the Midwestern banking institution’s stock still plunged 14.71 per cent to US$3.77 after the statement.

Shares of other regional banks such as Washington Mutual and M&T Bank Corp also plummeted, with Washington Mutual down 34.8 per cent at US$3.23, and M&T Bank down 15.6 per cent at US$58.82. The S&P financials sub-index fell 5 per cent to 239.22, its lowest level since October 1998.

‘Bottom line is the market is in no mood to give anyone any benefit of the doubt right now,’ said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Equity Markets in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Mr Kenny pointed to the long-term impact of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s poor performance as the key drivers of investor uncertainty.

‘I mean, it’s nice to know that the government is willing to take unorthodox steps to calm the markets and to infuse confidence on the part of the investors, but this is a long road ahead of us here,’ he said.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 45.35 points, or 0.41 per cent, to 11,055.19, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 11.19 points, or 0.90 per cent, to 1,228.30. The Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 26.21 points, or 1.17 per cent, to 2,212.87.

After the closing bell, General Motors shares rose as much as 5 per cent on news that Chief Executive Rick Wagoner will announce the automaker’s second restructuring package in six weeks, in an attempt to cut costs and shore up investor confidence in the company. GM closed at US$9.38, down 5.4 per cent on the NYSE.

In the regular session, the Dow’s drop was cushioned by the performance of defensive stocks like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, which tend to weather economic downturns because consumers still buy their products even in tough times.

McDonald’s shares rose 1.3 per cent to US$58.09, while Coca-Cola gained 1.4 per cent to US$50.96 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Apple shares gained 0.8 per cent to US$173.88 on Nasdaq after the company said it sold 1 million units of the new iPhone in its initial weekend, in line with analysts’ estimates.

On the other hand, shares of Fannie Mae fell 5.1 per cent to US$9.73, while those of Freddie Mac slid 8.3 per cent to US$7.11, both in NYSE trading. Both stocks had risen more than 20 per cent in trading before the opening bell.

Among regional banks, Fifth Third Bancorp tumbled 10.6 per cent to US$11.16 on the Nasdaq.

In other news, activist shareholder Carl Icahn blasted Yahoo on Monday for rejecting his joint proposal with Microsoft Corp, saying management was more focused on who would run the Internet company than on the details of the offer.

Shares of Yahoo fell 4.2 per cent to US$22.57 and Microsoft shares dipped 0.4 per cent to US$25.15, both on the Nasdaq.

Trading volume was low on the New York Stock Exchange, with about 1.41 billion shares changing hands, below last year’s estimated daily average of roughly 1.90 billion, while on Nasdaq, about 2.07 billion shares traded, below last year’s daily average of 2.17 billion.

Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 3 to 1, while on the Nasdaq, more than two stocks fell for every one that rose. — REUTERS

“I hope I am wrong, but my view is that this crisis will take one to two years to stabilise,” Wee Cho Yaw, a banker for almost 50 years, told a university commencement ceremony, The Straits Times reported.

A bank spokeswoman confirmed the quotes when contacted by AFP.

The default crisis in the US subprime — or higher risk — mortgage sector ballooned into a world credit squeeze as banks tightened lending criteria. The crisis has also battered financial markets.

“What worries me is that no one seems to know the full amount of off-balance sheet securities circulating in the financial markets,” Wee was quoted as saying.

The subprime homeloans were repackaged into securities and sold to investors around the world. The wave of defaults led to billions of dollars in losses on those securities, damaging the balance sheets of major international banks.

“And this is what frightens me most — no one can tell me how much more will be written off…,” The Straits Times quoted Wee as saying.

Wee said regulators will need to ensure closer supervision of financial institutions and the “exotic trades” that have arisen over the past decade, the newspaper reported.

UOB has a regional presence, including subsidiaries in Malaysia, Indonesia, China and Thailand.

Baron Rothschild’s adage was to “Buy when there’s blood in the streets.”
Mine is “buy when CNBC starts telling you to short the market.”

Last Tuesday, CNBC exhorted its viewers to consider shorting stocks. Jim
Cramer followed up a few days later by urging his followers to “sell
everything” except commodities stocks.

My gut says these are classic stock market “tells” that signal a contrarian
buying opportunity, but I could be wrong. And that is the beauty of a
financial panic?and our first lesson.

Lesson #1: Nobody knows where the market bottom is.

It may be hard to believe, but your guess on the stock market bottom is as
good as anyone’s. That anyone includes Ben Bernanke, Hank Paulson, Bill
Gross, George Soros, Warren Buffett, Lloyd Blankfein and even Jim Cramer.

In six months, the media will dig up some lucky market analyst who made a
“remarkably prescient” call and turn them into a hero, a la Elaine
Garzarelli, the analyst credited with predicting the Crash of 1987.

Lesson #2: Do not sell into a panic.

Anyone who sold their stocks on Black Monday, Oct. 19, 1987, came to almost
immediately regret it. I know I did. I was a junior banker in London and
watched the meltdown on our lone department Quotron.

My brain said, “Hang on, hang on.” My wallet said, “Run for your life.”
With one phone call, I sold every Fidelity stock fund I had and promptly
lost a quarter of my net worth.

The temptation to panic is primal. Be a man, not a monkey.

Lesson #3: Look forward, not backward.

Does anybody remember how negative sentiment was in October 2002? The S&P
500 was down almost 50% from its record of 2000. The Nasdaq Composite Index
was off 75%. I had just returned from 10 years in Europe to run the UBS
tech banking group.

What struck me when I first visited Silicon Valley was how negative
everyone was. That was because my colleagues and clients saw the world
through the distorted prism of the Internet boom. They couldn’t see the
tech market getting better in the future, because the tech market couldn’t
be any better than it had just been.

The market looks forward, but people like to look backward. A Cisco Systems
shareholder that owned the stock at $77 has trouble forgetting that $77
price when the stock falls to $15. In time, it doubled to $30.

Is Citigroup at today’s closing price of $16.76 so different? Wall Street
in 2008 is Silicon Valley in 2002. It will get better in time.

Lesson #4: It’s investing, not gambling.

Why do we obsess over our ability to pick the bottom or top of a stock
price or the market? Statistically, it is a total crap shoot.

As Bernard Baruch said, “Don’t try to buy at the bottom and sell at the
top. It can’t be done except by liars.”

Financial panics bring out the worst in these tendencies. All this weekend,
I was chewing over whether or not it was the right time to buy the XLF, the
financial sector ETF that is trading at nearly half its record high.

I haven’t pulled the trigger yet, but I know that picking a bottom is a
mugs game. Admittedly, an awfully tempting one. Better to use common sense.
Set price and allocation targets, space out investments over time.

Since the beginning of this year, I have made fund purchases on about 20
different dates with an average cost base equivalent to an S&P 500 level of
1346. On that money, I am down about 5%. There are mutual funds that charge
that much for an up-front load. Investing like this won’t make you rich,
but you won’t gamble yourself into the poorhouse either.

Lesson #5: It’s only money.

There is no point in fighting the tape or your emotions as the market is
gripped by panic. Next time the Dow industrials are down 300 and heading
down further, do what you make your children do: take a time out. Turn off
CNBC, your computer and BlackBerry and leave the office. (Wall Street
professionals, unfortunately, this doesn’t apply to you­. You will get
fired.)

I am a believer in the equity markets and have most of my net worth tied up
in the stock market. So every panic over the past two decades has cost me,
albeit temporarily, big chunks of my net worth.

Does it hurt? Of course. Do I lose sleep over it? Occasionally. But I
always keep in mind that it is only money.

I think of my dad, who would inspect my weary face after my exhausting
banker trips to Japan, India, and Hong Kong. As he put it: “There’s no
point in being the richest man in the cemetery.”