You know that saying, “dress for the job that you want to have not for the job that you have”?

 There’s some truth to that and it’s not even so much about how you present yourself to the world, it’s also about how you’re presenting yourself to yourself.

That’s why it’s important, to take a look at what our self-beliefs are. What do we really, deep inside, believe that we’re capable of? And are our beliefs the thing that’s keeping us from moving forward? Have we kind of settled into the space that we’re in and told ourselves that this is fine, this is good, this is where we’re meant to be; when, really, we want to move forward?

 I think we need to look at that. You know the saying, “fake it till you make it?” I think that’s what you need to do for your inner life. Think to yourself, “what would it feel like to be that person who makes the kind of money that I want to be making?” What is that success vision that you have for yourself? Will you feel differently? How will you feel differently? Can you step into that? Make it like an acting exercise where you step into the character, and I don’t mean like being a fake person. But I just mean being the version of yourself that has the success that you want to have. Just push yourself forward in time a little bit. I think that’s what we have to do.

So I think maybe it’s changing the headspace first. Being bolder. Saying “I can do this!” Taking it on fearlessly. Step into it. Be the change!

Capital Gains are the profits you earn when you sell an investment.

Short term capital gains are when you held the investment for less than a year before selling.

Long term capital gains are from selling investments that you held for longer than a year.

Short term gains are taxed at your regular income tax rate while long term gains are taxed at a lower rate.

2022 Long-Term Capital Gains Tax Rates

Why did I buy a VeeFriends NFT?

The first, and main, reason is because I am a learn-by-doing person. I wanted to understand block chain, smart contracts, and NFTs better and this loked like a golden opportunity for me to do this.

I believe that electronic/digital/automated smart contracts are where we are headed and it will happen faster than you might imagine. I think NFT tokens will be like the visual file folder label for accessing those contracts.

The NFT token I bought is a drawing of the Happy Hermit Crab. When I click on it, a file opens up that shows when I bought it, what I paid for it, and identifies me as a string of numbers tied to my digital wallet which I used when I paid for it in ETH. It also shows that I have admission to the 2022, 2023, and 2024 Vee Conferences to be hosted by Gary Vaynerchuk.

I am fairly certain that in the future it will also show whether or not I attended those conferences. If I decide to sell this token to someone else, that transaction will also be recorded in the file along with a string of numbers that indentifies the new owner, when they purchased it and how much they paid for it.

NFTs will be key players in the legal system.

Everything will be swiftly and automatically recorded without needing a notary to stamp it and without someone having to note everything down.

Artists will use NFTs to license their work. NFTs could be automated to withdraw access at the end of the term or present an option to renew. Any kind of lease could be automated to end access at the end of the leasing term in the absence of continuous payments.

There will be a huge demand for people who can create NFTs. Notaries should probably start now to learn this stuff.

Bought my first NFT (Non-Fungible Token) yesterday.

Happy Hermit Crab

Part of the VeeFriends Collection by Gary Vaynerchuk.

I bought it during a Dutch Auction, which is where there is a stated starting price which is high (the ceiling price) and the price gradually lowers until it hits the floor price.

This NFT is a token on the Etherium block chain. It has my identifying number embedded in it. There is a token ID # and the owner ID#.

It is also a contract in that it guarantees me admission to the next 3 VeeCons in 2022, 2023, and 2024.

This token is also a collectible which I can sell, along with the contracted VeeCon admission, if I want to.

You can see my token at veefriends.com/4650-happy-hermit-crab.

The auction items were all priced in ETH. I paid .8128888888889 ETH for my token. I had to buy an ETH in advance of the auction in order to pay for my auction item. There was also a cost of doing business. The transaction fees are referred to as gas. The gas for this transaction cost 0.1 ETH.

With all the talk about taxing cryptocurrency transactions, I wonder if the IRS would see this as a taxable event or how they would value my token.

I am learning by doing. This is all so interesting to me!

Finding property insurance for a fix and flip property is proving to be very challenging.  Most agents do not want to deal with it because the policies do not last a full year.  Some agencies charge for the full year regardless of how long you need it.

One agent quoted me $827/yr.  That was  with $197,000 on the house and $300,000 liability insurance.

Someone else told me $116/mo. That was $110,000 on the house and $1million liability.

I will make more calls tomorrow and get more quotes.  I dont think we need to get $1mil in liability.

Update:

Found a company that does property insurance for real estate investors: National Real Estate Insurance Group. They gave the best quote and they are nationwide. Fix and flips are no problem.

Currently in escrow on a house in Indianapolis with a partner. Looking to fix and flip. I don’t expect to see a lot of profit from this one but wanted to keep busy. Didn’t do any deals in 2020 and feeling rusty. Asking price on the house is $68,000. ARV should be around $120,000.

I am currently cash poor, but a realtor I’ve been communicating with in Indianapolis sent me the info on a listing that had just come to her and she wasn’t putting it on the market. I hadn’t been planning to do a flip – looking for apartment buildings, but it looked like a good deal and they are hard to come by these days.

 BTW – the reason for this post is to show you that you can buy real estate without putting any of your own money in – but you do need to bring something else to the table. Also, if you have money but no time, you can invest in real estate by partnering with someone who has time but no money. Obviously there is more to it in the details but this is the basic premise that I wanted to demonstrate.

Would you rather make a million dollars from one person or one dollar from a million people? Go deep or go wide? Most people would probably rather make a million dollars from one person. Seems like the smarter way to go, right? Certainly seems easier. On the other hand, if you can touch a million lives – how cool would that be? I have never been one to choose the easy way. The challenge is part of the appeal. If someone were to say to me, “we can do it the easy way… or we can do it the hard way”, the crazy in me would be very likely to say, “well, we know we can do it the easy way, let’s see if we can do it the hard way!” I know I’m not the only crazy one because I see people choosing to do hard things all the time. Entrepreneurs, activists, leaders, choosing not to go with the flow but instead, to turn the tide. Taking on the challenges. Entepreneurs take on challenges everyday. Your whole life is a challenge. People for whom making a difference precedes making a dollar. I see you people and I’m inspired by your awesomeness.