I have been extremely remiss in posting recently.  Life events have taken over, but I’ll try to be better in the future.

I always like to try to understand how other people perceive the world and I have many sites that I visit to get that look at life.  Sometimes I shake my head.  Sometimes I nod in agreement.  We are a very diverse lot in this country in how we see the world and what is important to us.

I was visiting the blog on The Quilt Show today and saw this life list of lessons from Regina Brett.  A lot of common sense in 45 lines.  Thank you, Regina, for sharing your insight.  I am happy to send people your direction.  For more about Regina, visit reginabrett.com.

Here is her list of 45 lessons which was posted on The Quilt Show blog:

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.
8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.
12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.

19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ‘In five years, will this matter?’

27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.

35. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative — dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s,we’d grab ours back..

41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come.

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.
45. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.”

I read articles on several real estate websites weekly and found an article I read today a great synopsis of what has happened over the past few years.  We started noticing the impact of the real estate meltdown in Colorado Springs the beginning of 2007.  There were hints things were changing in 2006, but prices didn’t start really changing until the foreclosure activity started increasing in 2007.  Here’s the article from Broker Agent Social if you’d like to learn more.

Here’s a neat tool to help you get a REAL person when you call companies trying to avoid talking to you.  Now instead of just repeatedly hitting zero like I usually do, you’ll know what to do.  After all, it costs money to provide customer service and heaven forbid companies putting that in their operating budget.  I found one on the list that I need!  I’m sure you will too.  Click here.

I’m almost half way through a book that my sister told me about.  Outliers, The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell.  He also wrote Blink and The Tipping Point.  Outliers gives a different perspective on how people become extremely successful.  It’s a fascinating read.  How did the best athletes get where they are today?  How about heavyweights in the business world?  What is the meaning of 10,000 hours?  What does any of this have to do with you?  Read Outliers to learn more.  If you could develop mastery in one area, what would you choose?

Want more good books to read?  Check out our Recommended Reading List.

I’ve been an investor for a long time and I’m interested in trends in the market, because we all know investing in the stock market (or real estate market) is not a short term endeavor if you want to truly be successful.  I love the charts on Yahoo and with the DJIA rising in recent weeks I wondered what the long term chart looked like for the DJIA in January of each year over the past 20 years.  I kept buying shares during the 2000-2002 downturn and made a very nice double digit return in 2003.  Is the current chart so very different?  Looking at the chart for the past 6 months is scary but here’s what I found out when I took a longer view.

At the beginning of 2003 after the previous downturn, the DJIA was at 8054.  In January 2009, the DJIA was at 8001.  Let’s look at the long term trend from 01/1989 to 01/2009:   01/89 2342, 01/90 2590, 01/91 2736, 01/92 3226, 01/93 3310, 01/94 3978, 01/95 3844, 01/96 5395, 01/97 6813, 01/98 7908, 01/99 9358, 01/00 10940, 01/01 10887, 01/02 9920, 01/03 8054, 01/04 10488, 01/05 10490, 01/06 10865, 01/07 12622, 01/08 12650, 01/09 8001.  Would you have invested over the past 20 years knowing what has happened in the past 6 months?  I sure would have.  I would have put in even more than I did!  The point a lot of people miss is that the real value of long term investing is not how rapidly the indexes rise, but how many shares you are accumulating along the way.  If you sell out near the bottom or you don’t continue to invest when the market is down you lose a lot of ground.  Buy low, sell high means buy lots more shares at low prices and reap the rewards when prices go up and you get to cash in to have money to live or achieve goals you’ve set.

Just thought you’d like to know.   If you had continued to invest and have more now than 20 years ago, do you think you’d have money to invest in historically low priced real estate too?  Something to think about.  Fear and greed drive short term movements in the markets.  A long term vision helps put it all in perspective.  If you want to know how to do it, there are a lot of good books on library shelves that can help you.  If you need help picking and sticking with an investment allocation, meet with a good experienced financial advisor to get you going.

Every week I provide sellers whose homes I have listed with information about trends in our local market so they can be up to speed on what’s going on.  The good news during March was that the number of listings flattened and the number of showings for our company is staying steady.  Sellers have to know this market is not easy and must have a hardy constitution to weather all the uncertainties if they really want to sell their home.  This is not a market to “try” to sell.  That commitment has to be made upfront.  But, with a leveling of listing activity and a 22% increase in sales in El Paso County for March 2009, there is a glimmer of a silver lining on all those clouds.

There are still a lot of foreclosures and short sales to wade through and many more coming, so any upward trend won’t happen quickly, but when it does come, it will be steady because that’s what our local market usually is - steady.  No flash and dash like 40% gains per year seen in Florida, just steady upticks in prices.  Distressed property sales are still more than 30% of the monthly sales for March and 94% of homes that sold were priced below $400,000, so El Paso County is becoming more affordable to more people.  With the $8000 tax credit for first time buyers (remember that also means people who haven’t owned a home in 3 years) and low interest rates, we are in the midst of a perfect storm.  What an opportunity!!!  There is increased activity in some areas of California and in Las Vegas, so we’ll just keep watching the trends and keep you informed.

This isn’t what I normally post about, but I’m a fiber artist and I happened to run across this website since a group I meet with once a month just moved to The Bead Corner in Monument.  The quilt shop where we used to meet, Wild Heather, moved to Denver.  I’ll have to make it to Denver occasionally because Wild Heather carries a lot of neat stuff for fiber artists.  While searching for The Bead Corner, I found this site which lists all the bead shops in Colorado.  So if you like beads, check it out.  Thanks Rocky Mountain Bead Society for making it easier for us to spend money and help the economy!

There’s a new real estate community that just launched today - epicketfence.  It started in Colorado and I had the opportunity to be the first Featured Realtor for the Colorado Springs market.  When you click on the link above, it takes you directly to the article I wrote for epicketfence.com.  Check it out if you want to learn more about what’s happening in the Colorado Springs real estate market.  If you want to learn more about the statistical details of our market, don’t miss PikesPeakFacts.com.  It’s updated every month.

Today I went to a 2 hour class provided by RE/MAX Properties, Inc and it opened my eyes to possibilities.  I have been aware of the ability to invest in real estate in self directed IRAs for 10 years, but today’s class with Jenn Dizmang was more sophisticated and evolved than the classes I’ve attended before.  Previous classes were sales pitches for black boxes given by people who would make money from participants.  Today’s class explained what is possible and how it is possible.  And I know we only touched the surface.  The book Jenn recommended to learn more is by Hubert Bromma and is entitled How to Invest in Real Estate With Your IRA and 401K & Pay Little or No Taxes.  I’ll include it in my Recommended Books Page but I have not read it yet - just taking Jenn’s word for it.  For real estate investors who want to take advantage of the current market and put hard assets in their retirement account it is something to consider and learn more about.  Bricks and mortar.  Real estate.  Yes it is possible but it has to be done correctly.  That means understanding real estate investing before using retirement assets to do more.  You can’t take capital losses in a tax deferred account.  Everyone who has taken a hit in the stock market knows that.

Let me emphasize that I don’t give tax, financial, or legal advice.   I don’t have those credentials.  You need to talk to the professionals you know to get that type of advice.  What I want to give you through this blog is a general knowledge of all the opportunities available to people who want to manage their money and investments well.   When I was a financial advisor (no longer licensed), I always referred to real estate as the commodity portion of most investor’s portfolios.  For most people that is the home they live in.  That’s why I found myself getting my real estate license over 6 years ago - to diversify my own portfolio with real estate investments.  The current stock market shows why diversification is important.  The 4 major asset categories are cash, bonds, equities, and commodities.  A lot of people have flocked to gold (a commodity) in the past few years and the price has been driven up.  Classic supply and demand.  The real opportunities lie in real estate and other depressed assets.  Building a foundation at a time like now is the key to great wealth.  I’m looking forward to the next up cycle in the economy because I am positioning myself now to take advantage of the opportunities.

As always, I suggest reading everything you can get your hands on, either on the web or in books, to learn how people who are successful investors have done it.  You don’t have to learn everything the hard way.  By gathering ideas that make sense to you and taking calculated risks, you will be amazed at what can happen.  I grew up poor but I vowed to never be poor again.  I hated risk at first but I’ve learned to be excited about taking educated risks with things I understand.  You have to educate yourself first and then take your first steps.  You don’t want to be foolish and driven by fear or greed.  It’s an exciting time filled with potential.  I wish you much success.

I had a rare play day yesterday which was full of laughter and camaraderie.  I had committed last year to be a member of the audience during the taping of the online tv show, The Quilt Show.  Tapings are done twice a year and orchestrated by my fellow PDQ guild member, Lilo Bowman.  So yesterday was the big day and I and a friend drove 2 hours to La Veta, CO, a very cute little mountain town, to spend the day participating in the taping of 2 shows.  The taping was done by a very professional and efficient crew.  It was a lot of fun!  I even had the opportunity to be on camera to ask a question of guest, Carol Doak.

The Quilt Show is a great quilter’s site that is hosted by Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson.  HGTV cancelled Alex’s popular Simply Quilts a few years ago and The Quilt Show is the result of filling in that gap.  One thing I like about the site is the series of demonstration videos by Bernina.  I have a Bernina machine and the videos are great for learning new ways to use this powerhouse machine.  One of my favorite features is my needle felting attachment.  It’s a total right brain activity that’s easy to do when I don’t want to have to think too hard.