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Read the full article and grab links at tashcorbin.com/439Do people really only value offers they've paid for?In this episode of the podcast, we're diving into a hot topic that fires me up: Do people really only value offers they've paid for?This common advice can mislead your marketing and sales, so we're going to set things straight.Shall we do it?The impact of pricing on valueToday, I want to unpack this idea that people value offers more if they pay for them, and the secondary advice to charge for what you might usually offer for free, so that people will actually value and complete it.I'm sure you've encountered these assertions that high ticket clients are superior and people seeking freebies are just wasting time. Some experts suggest charging for webinars rather than offering them free. While those strategies might work, they're often presented with blanket statements that carry judgment and privilege. The misconception is that if people pay, or spend more, they value it more... and therefore are more likely to complete whatever they've purchased.Yes, there is psychological evidence that price influences the perceived value of a product, but it's not the full story.Challenging blanket marketing adviceIt's crucial to challenge these two common strategies: raising prices to increase people's perceived value, and charging for what could be free to attract "high-intent" customers.For instance, the idea that charging $25 for a webinar makes attendees more likely to act is flawed. Correlation doesn't equal causation—there's much more at play in customer behaviour.Privilege and judgement detox Now, let's address the issue of privilege and judgment in these pricing strategies. Charging for a 5-day challenge because it supposedly attracts more committed participants can be misguided. If the free challenge isn't converting, adding a price won't fix that. If people aren't finishing the challenge, again - charging for it won't fix the design issue with the challenge itself.The real issue might be it fails to move people closer to readiness to purchase or the sales pitch needs work. Overloading a challenge with information and too much homework might also keep people from achieving their goals, and being ready for what's next.Keep on reading and grab links at tashcorbin.com/439Let me know your thoughts via our Text FanMail!
https://youtu.be/T2EXLJwPOUI In this episode, we review the video from Dave Ramsey about The 3 Basic Money Skills You Need To Know Review. He talks about spending, saving and giving. Here is the transcript for this episode: There's really three basic money skills, so giving saving and spending, okaySo in this video, we're going to review Dave Ramsey's video onthe three basic money skills that everybody needs to know and soYou know just saw the clip there where he's introducing it. And so we just wanted to kind of give our thoughts on itSo he's sort of outlined it so it's the the saving while the spending I guesshe says first spending saving and giving so kind of those three areas andAt the beginning of the video. Basically it's prompted by a caller who isWanting to buy a new car he saved up enough to where he can afford to pay for it in cashHe's got you know emergency reserved saved up and all thatso he's doing fine financially beats having a hard time, you know parting with the money, soso it's it's one of those things that I think we we do see as financial planners, you know sometimesSomebody is just kind of out of balance in one of those areas and it can kind of wreak havoc on their financial situationwell, or you get used to a certain lifestyle, I meanI remember even personally just being in school and not spending anything or being in inyou know out of the country and just had minimal resources and it's hard to adjust sometimes toSpending quite a bit or I mean they could work with sizingYeah, you know you can be somebody who yeah, you know who's used to spending a lot of money?Maybe you have a change in your financial situationAnd now you got to put the brakes on it that can be a tough situation the saving, you knowSome people are just kind of natural savers, you knowthey they're happy to put money away and some people it's it's a real chore and then giving I meanThat's one of those things that I thinkKind of really adds purpose to your your life in generalYou know, what what you do with you know, what you have is a big part of itYeah, I agree in giving is I mean it might be giving to charities and supporting organizationsbut where I see it with clients more is giving tokids or giving to family members and and there isLimits or if you want to be conscious of that and it feels goodSupporting someone but you also don't want to enable them or there's balances with that as wellOkaySo I guess next we'll watch another a little bit of this video where he kind of explains the the three different skillsLearning to enjoy money falls under spending learning to enjoy life with your moneyWhich is kind of what your questions about the second one saving?And learn to save money for emergencies for college for retirement to change your family tree to build wealthand learn to investYou learn to ride the investment waves like we've had in the stock market in the last couple weeksright andgivingthe power of generosity to completely change you when you learn to give asThe natural rhythm of your life it changes everythingAlright, so overall I would say it sounds like pretty good adviceIt's it's very general and maybe a little bit of an oversimplification of some, you know, kind of more complexinternal thoughts and emotions that you know, we all have but I meanIt's a good way to kind of look at it and balancing different different things and that that's you knowCertainly part of what we try to do as financial planners. Just help people find that right balanceso, you know, we we certainly have clients where theyHave more than enough money to spend on splurge as if they want to or you knowTake a trip or whatever it is, and they have a really hard time of letting that goThere's there's always kind of that fear of, you know, can I can I afford to do this?What if some you know something comes up?So, you know being able to kind of balance that and then something else you talked about in the video is how giving can sometimesHelp youJustif...
I typically strongly recommend to property investors to never contribute any cash into an investment property acquisition. I’m not suggesting that you should blindly borrow more and therefore pay more interest. What I am suggesting is that if you have cash to contribute towards an investment that you do so indirectly using an offset account.Contribute cash into the offset insteadInstead of contributing your cash and only borrowing the difference (i.e. what you need), I suggest that you borrow 100% of the property’s cost and deposit any cash savings in a linked offset account. Let me explain using a simple example.Peter buys an investment property for $600k and has $275k of cash to contribute towards this investment. The total cost of Peter’s property (including stamps, etc.) is $635k so Peter needs to borrow $360k. However, I would recommend that Peter borrow $635k and then deposit his cash ($275k) in an offset account. This means that he would only pay interest on the net difference (i.e. $360k) but he has crystallised the maximum tax-deductible loan.Peter should be able to borrow $635k if he has equity in other property – whilst being careful to avoid cross-securitisation.Here’s why it makes senseThere are a number of benefits associated with borrowing the maximum and depositing cash into the offset – some of which are discussed below:1. It reduces your risk because it means that you have ready access to a large amount of cash savings in case of emergencies such as a change in personal circumstances, unexpected large property expenses and so on. Peter can withdraw the $275k of cash from the offset without any restrictions. Maintaining access to your cash is critical to ensuring you have a safe financial buffer.2. Your circumstances might change in the future (employment, illness/accident, etc.) and/or the banks rules might tighten (reduce the amount they will lend you) which might negatively impact your borrowing capacity. I have always recommended that the best time to borrow is when you don’t need it. Therefore, if you have the opportunity to lock in a higher loan now, take it. This maximises your current and future options and costs you nothing.3. As noted above, it crystallises the maximum tax-deductible loan. You only have one opportunity to set the maximum tax-deductible loan and that is when you first purchase an asset. You will have to live with how you finance the asset initially for the rest of the asset’s ownership period. That is, Peter cannot contribute his $275k of cash and then say one year later, change his mind and increase the loan from $360k to $635k to pull his cash out again – because the purpose for what he uses the additional funds will determine whether the loan is tax deductible or not.Let me share a story about two clients. When we met these client’s, the husband was retired, and his wife was still working. They wanted to buy an investment property and had a large deposit – about 80% of the property’s value. We counselled them to borrow the max and put the cash in the offset (as described above). They couldn’t see any benefit as they thought since they were in (or near) retirement, that they probably won’t need the money (i.e. no changed or planned changes in circumstances). Despite this, they thankfully followed our advice. A few years later they unexpectedly decided to relocate i.e. move homes. This relocation required them to spend more. They easily facilitated this by drawing cash from the offset account. This meant that they didn’t need to borrow more monies which would have been non-tax deductible (home loan). Avoiding having a home loan in retirement is important. This story demonstrates that you never know what is around the corner and therefore you should always maximise your flexibility/options.4. Preserving the cash in the offset gives Peter the option of reinvesting these monies in other asset/s in the future. For example, in 20 years’ time, the property might be worth say $2.5 million and assuming a conservative rental yield of 2.5% p.a., the property might generate say $60,000 to $65,000 of annual gross rental income. Interest on a $635k loan at 7% p.a. is $44,500. Therefore, Peter could withdraw all the cash from the offset at this time and it’s very likely that the net rental income will cover the total interest expense i.e. property will pay for itself. This means that Peter could safely withdraw the monies from the offset and invest them in the share market, another property, another investment altogether or use them for personal purposes.5. Consider the situation where you would like to retire but your pension/income from super isn’t sufficient by itself (or you cannot access super yet). In this case, you could sell your investment property to facilitate retirement. However, if you have a large amount in the offset account, then alternatively you could gradually draw on these monies to fund retirement. This would allow you to hold onto the investment property for a longer period thereby enjoying the compounding benefits of capital growth.The above four benefits are generic in nature. I find that there are often a few additional client-specific benefits associated with this loan structure too (depending on their circumstances and goals of course).You need some credit adviceIt is important that you engage an experienced professional that is licensed to provide credit advice (i.e. a mortgage broker) to review your position and recommend the best loan structure for you. I have discussed one loan structural consideration above but there are many to consider. It is also possible that the above structure isn’t appropriate for your circumstances. That’s why personalised advice is important.We have credit, tax and financial advice licenses so we can provide holistic advice. Therefore, if you need help, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
Over the past two years lenders have been incrementally increasing interest rates on investment loans and loans with interest only repayments (as opposed to principal and interest). As the chart below illustrates, the average interest rate margin between a principal and interest home loan and an interest only investment loan is now 1.04% p.a. As recent as January 2016, interest rates for these loans were virtually identical.This begs the question, should you switch your investment loan to principal and interest repayments to save approximately 0.47% p.a. in interest costs (i.e. difference between 1.04% and 0.57% in the chart below)?The conventional wisdom for interest only repaymentsThe conventional wisdom has always been to set up investment loan repayments as interest only. The rationale for this is it allows you to have better control and flexibility over your cash flow and capital. That is, it frees up more cash flow which you can direct towards the repayment of non-tax-deductible debt (i.e. home loan) or invest in other assets for example. But you could always make principal repayments at any time.This approach had strong merit whilst interest rates for all loans and repayment types were virtually equal i.e. there was no penalty for repaying interest only compared to principal and interest. However, now this has changed, does it still make sense to have interest only repayments?Our rule of thumbI have financially modelled the long-term impact of setting up an investment loan with interest only repayments compared to principal and interest (for people that still have a home loan). Obviously, if you set up your investment loans as interest only, you have more cash flow to repay non-tax deductable debt, as despite the interest rate being higher, the repayment does not include a principal component (only interest).Here is the rule of thumb that I have determined:If your total investment debt represents 40% or less of your overall debt, set up your investment loans on interest only repayments. However, if your total investment debt represents 40% or more of your overall (total) debt, then set up your investment loan repayments as principal and interest – subject to the exceptions mentioned below.The reason this rule of thumb works is because if your home loan is relatively small (compared to your overall debt) then any savings resulting from making extra repayments (i.e. if your investment loans were on interest only it gives you more cash flow to repay your home loan) will be less than saving 0.47% p.a. on all your investment loans.It is very important to note that as interest rates rise, the dollar value difference between an interest only repayment (at a higher rate) and a principal and interest repayment (at a lower rate) reduces. The table below sets out the monthly repayments for a loan for $750,000.Interest ratesP&IInterest onlyDifferenceCurrent rates (say 4.60% for P&I and 5.07% for IO)$3,845 p/mth$3,169 p/mth$676 p/mthCurrent rates + 1.5%$4,545 p/mth$4,106 p/mth$439 p/mthExceptions to the rule of thumbThere are two important exceptions to the above rule of thumb.Firstly, you must consider how important it is for you to acquire more investments. Sometimes, it is worthwhile to set up investment loans on interest only repayments to allow you a greater capacity to service more debt and/or invest in more assets. This would typically apply to anyone that hasn’t yet acquired the amount of assets required to fund retirement yet – unless they had a substantial income. However, if you do not need to invest in anymore assets and are in a ‘consolidation’ phase, then switching to principal and interest repayments might be the way to go.Secondly, if you lock yourself into principal and interest repayments now, you must consider the impact of future rate changes. At the moment, you save 0.47% p.a. by having an investment loan on principal and interest repayments compared to interest only. However, what if that savings differential evaporates but, due to tightening credit, the banks will now allow you to switch back to interest only repayments? There’s one thing that never changes, and that is changes in lending policies and interest rates. Just don’t be seduced into making a short-term decision.If you do switch to principal and interest, it might be worthwhile resetting your loan term to 30 years to minimise the repayment amount. Otherwise, the repayment will be calculated on your remaining loan term.Here is a decision tree to assist you with assessing your own position (click to enlarge):Get professional credit adviceIt is analysis and insights like these that could save you a lot of money!Sure, finding the lender that will offer you the lowest rate is a good, short-term fix. However, finding a credit advisor(mortgage broker) that gives you advice and insights as well as comparing and negotiating interest rates will save (make) you substantially more in the long run. As always, play the long game.
Mourning because of our brokenness and failure - not being ok with staying the samewhich leads to repentancewhich leads to dependance on Godwhich leads us back to poverty of spirit - the deep down understanding that we without Christ we can do nothing!John 15:5 5I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.Mourning out of pain and lossWe are so convinced that it is important that we are impregnable imperviouswe refuse to mourn -we put on a smile -we distract ourselves.we ask people not to tell anyone.Pain is a friend - pain is a treasure - as we turn to the Lord and His great promises - Romans 8:28 - as we turn to one another and we are encouraged BECAUSE we will be comforted -there are those who refuse to be comforted - the whole world is falling apart!They refuse to receive hope and helpthey refuse good adviceIt will never get any better...When we weep with the one who can do all things we know that our weeping will come to an end! - BECAUSE of HIM
New Year presents new goals and new opportunities to either make them or fail. It can go either way, so with our community, we thought we'd do what community does: support one another. This is why Jason created “Just Create January.” Every day of this month in our Facebook group, we have an opportunity to be accountable, share, and even brainstorm with one another. On this week's show, we'll chat about the motivation and results so far and what we'd like to see from all of us in 2018.BridgetWillard.com | Gutenbridget.comJasonTucker.blogThere are lots of accountability & challenge groups that start at the beginning of the year; Jason and Bridget thought it would be a great idea to create something like that for marketers/creatorsJason joined a blogging group – they would provide a prompt and members would write about it each day.#JustCreateJanuary was started to help encourage ‘creation’ of all kinds – blogging, design, video, web, etc. They didn’t start it to build a community – the WPblab community already exists – they did it so we all can create and encourage each other. It’s different from other challenges because we are already all connected.Sometimes you just need another person to say that should be a blog post or that should be a video, etc.Using Facebook to manage the challenge since everyone uses Facebook – one post per day in the group (at 5am) will encourage group members to participateSubmit your creations to the group each day and then others can comment and share and encourage youhttps://www.facebook.com/ThingDotDo/Talking with other people in a group and brainstorming together can help you realize that you have something to share. The point is to ‘do something’!Sometimes you just get in a rut, but as you share and talk it out with each other, it can make creation easierhttps://lorennason.com/category/create/ – Loren Nason’s curation of the responses to the #JustCreateJanuary challengeThere’s a vulnerability involved with creating – it’s yours and it comes from who you are (very personal). It’s nice to have a place where you feel psychologically safe to share your content with before posting.Ways of Sharing ContentShare a Draft Plugin – https://wordpress.org/plugins/shareadraft/ “share a draft with your friends or colleagues for either review or approval.” – you can also set it so the link expires after some timewww.Dribbble.com | www.Behance.net (Adobe) – designers share & get inspiration from each otherBetter Click to Tweet – https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-click-to-tweet/ – allows you to easily create tweetable content for your readers. Using a shortcode, your selected text is highlighted and made tweetable.https://codepen.io and https://github.com for sharing code (or just post it on your blog)Make a private board on pinterest and only share it with people that you choose, and make public later. Or, if you don’t want to share on a public site like Dribbble, CodePen, GitHub – share it on your personal websiteIt can be intimidating to post on sites where other designers / developers can see your work, but it’s a great way to improve your skills and show how far you’ve comeAnother option is to share on #JustCreateJanuary and get feedback from a smaller community or message one of the members for feedback/adviceIt’s fun to experiment and remember why we’re creators and why we do what we do – we’re all makers!Sharing with the group can help build confidence by seeing and commenting on each other’s work in a safe space, where you can get feedback and encouragementAt the end of the day, WPblab is about people who are trying to market themselves, market their customers – #JustCreateJanuary is an extension of thatBridget’s first GitHub repo was about women’s shirt sizes (and inconsistency) at conventions – it’s not just for code. Anyone can comment on repo’s – it’s like commenting on a blog.#JustCreateJanuary can help keep you out of the ‘rut’!Go ahead and write something on a piece of paper and share it to the group – all creation is encouraged! Choose whatever medium works best for you! It can just be code .. it can just be the start of a blog post … or if it’s something private for a client, you can just say what you are working on, even if you can’t share itThanks for helping with our show notes!Cheryl LaPrade @yaycheryl Sherie LaPrade @heysherie James Tryon @jamestryonThe post WPblab EP90 – Just Create January – An Incubator and Accountability Group appeared first on WPwatercooler. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.