Keep Your Eyes on the Money

It's the lenders' fault. It's the borrowers' fault. Blame the fund managers. No, blame the Federal Reserve.

We can probably attribute a bit of the blame to all of the above, along with the government, financial institutions and several other players. But honestly, do we really want to sit around all day pointing fingers, or do we want to figure out what we can do to take care of our own finances?

If the crisis has shown us anything, it's that those who were supposed to the most adept at managing money are not. So what do we do now?

This disaster should have taught us three lessons:

Lesson #1: Turning your hard-earned money over to a 401(k) manager or a mutual fund manager may have been the easy thing to do, but it's now turning out to be the costliest thing for many people. No one is going to look out for your money more than you will.

Lesson #2: Advice from people who are making a commission, (sales brokers), a fee (financial planners) or revenue (financial news stations whose advertising revenue comes from mutual funds and brokerage firms) isn't sound investment advice; it's a sales pitch. Find people or resources that offer unbiased and unencumbered financial information.

Lesson #3: There's no one to blame but yourself (ouch). I'm not saying what's happening economically is fair or justified. It's not. And the people responsible need to be held accountable. That being said, if we don't wake up and take charge of our money, then those who have made a fortune in this fiasco will do it again.

3 Key Fundamentals
This disaster was largely caused by two things: greed, which kept building on itself until it did itself in, and a complete dismissal of the basics of a sound investment. Let me share with you three of the fundamentals I've followed throughout my 20 years of investing. I'll also tell you a big mistake I made recently by ignoring one of the three.

When it comes to selecting an investment, I want three things:

1. Good partners
My No. 1 investment partner is my husband. We have the same financial goals, we are aligned on our vision and outcomes, I trust him and he has a brilliant understanding of the future of the economy.

I've had people approach me who wanted to partner on a deal, and the only thing they brought to the table was money. There's nothing wrong with money, but if that's the No. 1 thing they offer, then that's not enough for me.

I've had plenty of bad partners in other arenas, and I've learned that what's more important than money are character, aligned values, a unique talent and, most importantly, someone I truly enjoy hanging out with as a friend.

I'm very fortunate to have those people as my investment partners today.

So think twice about the person you're considering a partnership with before making the leap. A good partner can make the deal. A bad partner can break the deal.

2. Good financing.
Whether it's real estate, business or stocks, financing is key. For example, if I'm buying a property I look at:

• Purchase price
• Down payment
• Financing terms
• Debt
• Cash flow

If all those things fall into place, I'm probably looking at a good deal.

The same holds true for businesses and stocks (which are simply a derivative, or a by-product, of a business). You want to find out, first, how strong the company's financial situation is. Then you want to consider:

• Purchase price
• Down payment
• Financing terms
• Debt
• Cash flow

3. Good management.
This may be the most important factor of all. There's a saying: Money follows management. So if you're looking for people to invest in your business, the first question will probably be, "Who is the management team?"; If you want to invest in a business, you'll want to ask that question. A business may have the best product in the world, with great financial backing, but if the management team can't drive the company forward, there's no company.

It's no different with a rental property. You can have a great property in a prime location with ideal financing, but if you have lousy property management, the property will slowly deteriorate on all fronts.

My Latest Mistake--and Lesson
My husband and I have owned an 18-unit apartment building in a wonderful area of town for 14 years. I oversaw the work of the on-site manager and paid close attention to income, expenses and cash flow.

For the past year and a half, almost all of my attention has gone into Rich Woman and The Rich Dad Co. I took my attention off the management of this property. I assumed it could pretty much run by itself. I asked a woman I knew to be my liaison between the on-site manager, the maintenance man, our bookkeeper and me. She had never managed a property before, so what happened next was not her fault. It was mine.

To make a long story short, I finally brought in a professional property manager four weeks ago because the monthly financial reports I was getting didn't make sense. She found out that the on-site manager had turned over most of his duties to the maintenance man. The maintenance man was not only overcharging us for just about every job he did, but also, after a tenant moved out, he used one of the 18 units to store items he was buying for himself with our money. To top it off, our accounting fees had gone through the roof.

That's the cost of poor management. I took my attention off managing the property, and it didn't take long for the income to go down, the expenses to go up and the cash flow to disappear. There was no one to blame but myself.

Will I continue to make mistakes? Absolutely. That's how we learn. But at least if I lose money, I know it's in my control to turn it around and make money. My financial future isn't at the mercy of the ups and downs of the stock market and all those making a killing from it.