Dollars and Sense by Jack Miller

Do You Know Anyone Who Wouldn't Like to Have More Money?

Rich and poor alike, it seems that nobody can get enough, regardless how much they already have. Rich and poor alike place a high priority on financial ease and security. Many of them seem willing to go to great lengths to achieve it. Some of the rich will risk all that they have in many instances just to nudge their portfolio yield a percentage point or two higher. Or they hold their wealth at fixed rate returns seemingly without regard to their losses that go on all the time wrought by taxes and inflation. Alas, many of today's rich are going to end their days as poor people because of their ignorance of this.

The poor stay poor for the most part because they don't understand that in the long history of the world, labor has rarely been the key to wealth. Neither has luck. The secret of acquiring and preserving financial security lies in effective use of capital and time in creating assets.

These assets must be carefully selected and managed so that they can increase rapidly enough to offset the ravages of inflation and taxes without losing it to poor judgment and risky ventures. Meanwhile, they should be capable of producing an after tax income stream sufficient to support their owner's lifestyle needs.

The purpose of this book is to explain some of the ways that those of you who are rich can stay rich and how those who haven't been blessed with wealth yet can set about on the yellow brick road to seek your fortunes. Hopefully, we can save both rich and poor alike some time and expense by revealing some of the ways money can be made and loss avoided in the processes of buying, selling, fixing up and managing my favorite investment vehicle, a portfolio of single family rental houses.

Table of Contents

Foreword 1
Buying Right In Good Times & Bad 2
Using Seller Non-Recourse Financing is Best 3
What's the Best Investment for a Beginner 4
Don't Look for Properties, Prospect for Sellers 5
Patience Is The Name of the Game of Successful Investment. 6
The Key to Fortune Building Lies in Avoiding Canpetition 7
Cold Canvassing is My Favorite Method of Prospecting 8
How Do You Buy The Right Property At The Right Price 9
How Can You Tell What a House is Really Worth? 11
Let Comparable MLS Sale Statistics Negotiate For You 12
Performace Mortgage Terms 16
Institutional Debt Robs the Sorrower of Real Profit. 19
Buy/Sell Installment Contracts Offer An Alternatives 21
Making Compound Interest Work for You 22
The Time Value of Money Can Create Fortunes 24
Making More Money In Our Changing World 29
Inflation Can Radically Alter Investment Decisions. 32
Deflation Requires the Opposite Strategies 34
Tenant Management Key to Profit and Cash Flow 39
Getting the Best Tenants to Compete for Housing 36
Let's Talk Deposits 40
Screen Out the Losers Before They Ever Get In 41
Pre-Raising Rents When the Lease is Signed 42
Passing On Repair Costs to Tenants 43
Increasing Bottom Line Profits with Options 45
Fixer-Uppers; The Good, Bad, and Ugly 46
Price and Timing vs Payments and Terms on Fixer Uppers 47
Learning to Sell Property is Critical to Cash Flow 51
Closing the Sale and Keeping it Closed 53
Creating Income and Profits with Mortgage Notes 57
There's A Fail Safe Way to Buy/Sell Notes 62
And in Conclusion, the Turtle Always Wins The Race 63