1. More of our fantasies are about money… than sex.
2. If we could have any luxury in the world (and money didn’t matter) more of us would choose to spend money on a butler and a maid than anything else.
3. 90% of Americans who own pets buy them Christmas gifts.
4. Money is the leading cause of disagreements in marriages.
5. 65% of Americans would live on a deserted island all by themselves for an entire year for $1,000,000.
6. For $10,000,000 most of us would do almost ANYTHING! Including abandoning our family and friends and our church. A very high percentage of us would, for that same amount of money, change our race or sex. And, 1 in every 14, would even murder someone for ten million bucks.What’s really strange about this is, the statistics remain the same whether it’s ten million dollars all the way down to three million. For three million bucks, most of us would do the same horrible things we would do for ten million. But, guess what? Few of us would do these things for a “measly” two million.
7. 92% of us would rather be rich than find the love of our lives.
8. Here’s a weighty one: Money (or the lack thereof) is the biggest stress inducer in the lives of Americans. We worry more about money than our marriages, our health, or even who’s going to win the Superbowl Game or come out on top in the latest Survivor TV show.
9. If you get your money out of a Hitachi ATM machine in Japan, it will be laundered. The way they do it is, they briefly press the bills between rollers at high enough temperatures to kill most bacteria.
10. Women have very fixed ideas on how much they are willing to spend on a bra. 38.3% of women won’t spend $30 for a bra. 28.4% won’t spend $50. 10% would pay as much as $75. And, only 3.5% would shell out $100. But, you know what? Almost 20% of women say they would pay almost anything for a bra. This is because they consider (and I guess so do a few men) that the contents of what those bras are encasing is of extremely high-value.
11. Nearly half of the people who sell their houses with furniture included will take all the light bulbs out of all the lamps when they vacate the premises.
12. Most people won’t bend over to pick up money lying on the sidewalk unless it’s at least a dollar.
13. Most Americans think pennies are a pain in the ass and the U.S. Mint should stop making them.
14. There is about 405 billion dollars in circulation. Only 32 million of that amount is counterfeit. That means, the percentage of counterfeit money in America is .0079%. And, $20 bills are more often counterfeited than $100 bills.
15. Do people care if their bills are crisp? Indeed, they do. Fresh, crisp, clean bills are considered much more valuable than those which are old, wrinkled and dirty.I once sent a ‘dollar bill thank you’ letter to a guy who sent a sincere letter back to me bitching the free $1 bill I sent him was wrinkled instead of crisp as I had described in the letter.
16. Let’s flip a coin and try to guess whether it will come up heads or tails. Three times as many people guess ‘heads’ than ‘tails’.
17. Here’s one I personally think really sucks: One out of every four Americans believe their best chance of getting rich is by playing the lottery.
18. How about this one for a shocking fact: 5% of lottery ticket buyers buy 51% of all tickets sold. (Trust me, none of these people belong to Mensa.)
19. A staggering 74% of us are influenced by how much we can win in a lottery as opposed to the odds of us winning.
20. That’s a good thing for the Government because the odds of winning a lottery jackpot are about 10 million to 1.
21. A person who drives 10 miles to buy a lottery ticket is 3 times more likely to be killed in a car accident while driving to buy the ticket… than… he is to win the jackpot.
22. Sunday newspaper coupon inserts are the second-most read section of the paper, after the front page.
23. Few people know it but, you can buy single-disease insurance.
24. Only 6% of people in America regularly buy clothes tailor made just for them.
25. Here’s one that’s really important: 63% of us decide NOT to buy a product advertised on the Internet… because… we think the shipping and handling charges add too much to the order.
26. Eight times as many Americans would rather use an ATM than deal with a real live teller.
27. This one’s going to blow your mind: 83% of Americans still pay with checks instead of credit cards!
28. Almost 30% of us say we would need 3 million smackaroos to feel rich. This ties in with the fact most of us would do anything for as little as $3 million… but… not nearly as many of us would do those identical things for a measly $2 million. (Hey, here’s your chance to take advantage of that situation. If you only want to pay $2 million to have something done, ask me if I’ll do it. The chances are, believe it or not, I WILL DO IT.)
29. Here’s another fact which is really, really important: 80% of Americans say giving personal information (especially their credit card information) over the Internet scares the living shit out of them.
30. Two-thirds of Americans say they wouldn’t let their spouse spend the night and have sex with another person for a million dollars. Many of these people are liars. There’s a big difference being asked if they would do it for a million dollars… as opposed to… handing them a paper sack containing the million fungolas and simply saying, “Here, you can have this if you’ll let me sleep with your sweetie tonight.”
31. The average wedding in America costs a staggering $20,000.00.
32. More than one-third of American women consider money more important than good sex to the success of a marriage.
33. According to Employee Benefits Research Institute 96% of all people who have jobs right now won’t be eligible for their full Social Security benefits when they reach age 65.
34. When it comes to houses, more than anything else, people want a state-of-the-art kitchen.
35. When people shop for a car, what they want more than anything else is reliability for the best possible price.
36. One of the best ways to raise money for a charity is to have a free dinner for a lot of people and have an empty envelope tucked under their plate… for the express purpose… of making whatever size donation they want.
37. People tip more on sunny days than they do on dreary days.
38. More than 80,000,000 people call the I.R.S. Information Hotline phone number every year. One-third of those calls go unanswered. And, according to the Treasury Department itself, 47% of the answers the ‘get-through’ callers receive are incorrect.
39. Almost two out of three people have modified their financial behavior because of their fears.
40. Almost three times as many people who live in the South worry about losing their jobs as compared to people who live in the Midwest.
41. Which would you rather do: Shop till you drop… or… have great sex? For men, this is a no-brainer. However, more women would actually rather have an unlimited shopping spree than spend a weekend with a fabulous lover. In fact, the #1 favorite fantasy of women is to have a blank check to shop at their favorite store. The favorite fantasy of men is what we would like to DO to the sales girl… rather than… what we would like to buy from her.

Do you have your own list of Money Facts? If you’d like to share, please send them by placing a comment below (which will be confidential) and we’ll contact you directly to exchange emails.

We all have aging parents and/or relatives. Just the thought of Alzheimer’s affecting them can be quite traumatic.

“The idea that Alzheimer’s is entirely genetic and unpreventable is perhaps the greatest misconception about the disease,” says Gary Small, M.D., director of the UCLA Center on Aging. Researchers now know that Alzheimer’s, like heart disease and cancer, develops over decades and can be influenced by lifestyle factors including cholesterol, blood pressure, obesity, depression, education, nutrition, sleep and mental, physical and social activity.

The big news: Mountains of research reveals that simple things you do every day might cut your odds of losing your mind to Alzheimer’s.

In search of scientific ways to delay and outlive Alzheimer’s and other dementias, the following suggestions are excerpted from Jean Carper’s newest book: “100 Simple Things You Can Do to Prevent Alzheimer’s”. She tracked down thousands of studies and interviewed dozens of experts. Here are 10 strategies that you might find most surprising.

1. Have coffee. In an amazing flip-flop, coffee is the new brain tonic. A large European study showed that drinking three to five cups of coffee a day in midlife cut Alzheimer’s risk 65% in late life. University of South Florida researcher Gary Arendash credits caffeine: He says it reduces dementia-causing amyloid in animal brains. Others credit coffee’s antioxidants. So drink up, Arendash advises, unless your doctor says you shouldn’t.
2. Floss. Oddly, the health of your teeth and gums can help predict dementia. University of Southern California research found that having periodontal disease before age 35 quadrupled the odds of dementia years later. Older people with tooth and gum disease score lower on memory and cognition tests, other studies show. Experts speculate that inflammation in diseased mouths migrates to the brain.
3. Google. Doing an online search can stimulate your aging brain even more than reading a book, says UCLA’s Gary Small, who used brain MRIs to prove it. The biggest surprise: Novice Internet surfers, ages 55 to 78, activated key memory and learning centers in the brain after only a week of Web surfing for an hour a day.
4. Grow new brain cells. Impossible, scientists used to say. Now it’s believed that thousands of brain cells are born daily. The trick is to keep the newborns alive. What works: aerobic exercise (such as a brisk 30-minute walk every day), strenuous mental activity, eating salmon and other fatty fish, and avoiding obesity, chronic stress, sleep deprivation, heavy drinking and vitamin B deficiency.
5. Drink apple juice. Apple juice can push production of the “memory chemical” acetylcholine; that’s the way the popular Alzheimer’s drug. Aricept works, says Thomas Shea, Ph.D., of the University of Massachusetts. He was surprised that old mice given apple juice did better on learning and memory tests than mice that received water. A dose for humans: 16 ounces, or two to three apples a day.
6. Protect your head. Blows to the head, even mild ones early in life, increase odds of dementia years later. Pro football players have 19 times the typical rate of memory-related diseases. Alzheimer’s is four times more common in elderly who suffer a head injury, Columbia University finds. Accidental falls doubled an older person’s odds of dementia five years later in another study. Wear seat belts and helmets, fall-proof your house, and don’t take risks.
7. Meditate. Brain scans show that people who meditate regularly have less cognitive decline and brain shrinkage – a classic sign of Alzheimer’s – as they age. Andrew Newberg of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine says yoga meditation of 12 minutes a day for two months improved blood flow and cognitive functioning in seniors with memory problems.
8. Take Vitamin D. A “severe deficiency” of vitamin D boosts older Americans’ risk of cognitive impairment 394%, an alarming study by England’s University of Exeter finds. And most Americans lack vitamin D. Experts recommend a daily dose of 800 IU to 2,000 IU of vitamin D3.
9. Fill your brain’s “cognitive reserve.” A rich accumulation of life experiences – education, marriage, socializing, a stimulating job, language skills, having a purpose in life, physical activity and mentally demanding leisure activities – makes your brain better able to tolerate plaques and tangles. You can even have significant Alzheimer’s pathology and no symptoms of dementia if you have high cognitive reserve, says David Bennett, M.D., of Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center.
10. Avoid infection. Astonishing new evidence ties Alzheimer’s to cold sores, gastric ulcers, Lyme disease, pneumonia and the flu. Ruth Itzhaki, Ph.D., of the University of Manchester in England estimates the cold-sore herpes simplex virus is incriminated in 60% of Alzheimer’s cases. The theory: Infections trigger excessive beta amyloid “gunk” that kills brain cells. Proof is still lacking, but why not avoid common infections and take appropriate vaccines, antibiotics and antiviral agents?

A great way to keep your aging memory sharp and avoid Alzheimer’s is to drink the right stuff and avoid the bad stuff.

1. Tops: Juice. A glass of any fruit or vegetable juice three times a week slashed Alzheimer’s odds 76% in Vanderbilt University research. Especially protective:blueberry, grape and apple juice, say other studies.
2. Tea: Only a cup of black or green tea a week cut rates of cognitive decline in older people by 37%, reports the Alzheimer’s Association. Only brewed tea works. Skip bottled tea, which is devoid of antioxidants.
3. Caffeine beverages. Surprisingly, caffeine fights memory loss and Alzheimer’s, suggest dozens of studies. Best sources: coffee (one Alzheimer’s researcher drinks five cups a day), tea and chocolate. Beware caffeine if you are pregnant, have high blood pressure, insomnia or anxiety.
4. Red wine: If you drink alcohol, a little red wine is most apt to benefit your aging brain. It’s high in antioxidants. Limit it to one daily glass for women, two for men. Excessive alcohol, notably binge drinking, brings on Alzheimer’s.
5. Two to avoid: Sugary soft drinks, especially those sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. They make lab animals dumb. Water with high copper content also can up your odds of Alzheimer’s. Use a water filter that removes excess minerals.

5 Ways to Save Your Kids from Alzheimer’s

Now Alzheimer’s isn’t just a disease that starts in old age. What happens to your child’s brain seems to have a dramatic impact on his or her likelihood of Alzheimer’s many decades later. Here are five things you can do now to help save your child from Alzheimer’s and memory loss later in life, according to the latest research.

1. Prevent head blows: Insist your child wear a helmet during biking, skating, skiing, baseball, football, hockey, and all contact sports. A major blow as well as tiny repetitive unnoticed concussions can cause damage, leading to memory loss and Alzheimer’s years later.
2. Encourage language skills: A teenage girl who is a superior writer is eight times more likely to escape Alzheimer’s in late life than a teen with poor linguistic skills. Teaching young children to be fluent in two or more languages makes them less vulnerable to Alzheimer’s.
3. Insist your child go to college: Education is a powerful Alzheimer’s deterrent. The more years of formal schooling, the lower
   the odds. Most Alzheimer’s prone: teenage drop outs. For each year of education, your risk of dementia drops 11%, says a recent University of Cambridge study.
4. Provide stimulation: Keep your child’s brain busy with physical, mental and social activities and novel experiences. All these contribute to a bigger, better functioning brain with more so-called ‘cognitive reserve.’ High cognitive reserve protects against memory decline and Alzheimer’s.
5. Spare the junk food: Lab animals raised on berries, spinach and high omega-3 fish have great memories in old age. Those overfed sugar, especially high fructose in soft drinks, saturated fat and trans fats become overweight and diabetic, with smaller brains and impaired memories as they age, a prelude to Alzheimer’s.

A lot of people ask me what the difference is between antimimeticisomorphism and thinking outside the box. The most expedient response is that outside the box thinking presupposes there is a box. Even Edward De Bono’s Lateral Thinking concept assumes a datum reference way of thing.

Antimimeticisomorphism has no such preconditions. The only constraint is that it be focused on a predetermined outcome, goal or target, otherwise it has no purpose, direction or vector in which to point.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for creative thinking and expression, by antimimeticisomorphism has a very pragmatic role. Its definition makes that crystal clear:

Antimimeticisomorphism

is having fun

doing out-of-the-ordinary things

that create extra-ordinary results

with the least amount of effor

and lowest cost

If you want to see examples of antimimeticisomorphism in action, click on the following hyperlinks to access:

The antimimeticisomorphism video

The antimimeticisomorphism website

A secret antimimeticisomorphism website with cool photos and videos

Antimimeticisomorphism blog posts

As one of the chosen ones in the movie The Matrix explained to Neo “There is no spoon.”

At the beginning of the year, I blogged about my yoga class being full because people started their New Year’s Resolutions… We’re not even into March and my yoga class is essentially ‘empty’.

There’s no surprise, most people just don’t commit to their goals and therefore never realise their ultimate dreams or destinies.

I used to think it was sad, but no longer.

People who don’t want to commit to any level of discipline aren’t committed enough, don’t want it enough to bother so they haven’t lost anything of value because if it was valuable to them, they’d do something about it… Or so you’d think!

There is nothing wrong with settling for mediocrity – that’s where most people are – the average, the mean, median.

That’s where the NORMAL probability distribution curve’s name comes from.
It’s called NORMAL for a reason.

Normal Probability Distribution Curve

In fact, the curve kinda looks like a few of the people who were in yoga class, lying on their backs, at the beginning of the year… But I digress…

To get extra-ordinary results means you have to do what others aren’t willing to do.

Go to yoga class, go for a run, get to the gym, get on your bike, have a swim… Do something that will get you moving TOWARDS your goal/outcome/dream.

The great news IF you do actually show up and do ‘something’ – is that it gets easier. First of all, like in yoga class – 2/3 of the people are no longer attending. That puts you in the top 1/3 JUST BY SHOWING UP.

Within 3 to 4 weeks (experts claim it takes “21 days” to change a habit) you’ll start to feel, think and act differently – as if by magic.

But y’know what? I won’t waste your time or mine – you know where you’re at.

If you’re at the top end of the probability distribution curve – you’ll click on the hyperlink to determine how to make THIS YEAR YOUR BEST YEAR EVER!

If you’re in the BLUE ZONE of the curve above, all of this falls on deaf ears and you’ll just click away on to another page (if you haven’t already), chase another thought or idea and not following it up with any action.

Don’t worry, you’re in good company – MOST PEOPLE are dabblers. They fool themselves by starting a whole bunch of things, never finishing or following through on any of them so they FEEL like they’re doing something, but it’s all a waste of time, money and effort.

How do you STOP IT?

You know…

You just don’t do it.

It’s rare that one image “says” it all… This is one of them… Enjoy!

As a subscriber to this blog, you know by now that one of my foundational principles is called Exponential Mindset Thinking, which means…

Having fun
doing out-of-the-ordinary things
that create extra-ordinary results
with the least amount of effort
and lowest cost

The video below is just another example of how you can have FUN with concepts like this – to brighten up people’s lives with a little humour.

I know it sounds trite that “life’s too short to be too serious”, but it’s true. Too many people take business way too seriously.

As I’ve said many times, there is a balance between humour/fun and ‘official’ business, but WITHOUT ANY humour or fun, there is NO balance.

Just start thinking of ways to lighten things up – I am sure you’ll come with something…

Whenever a poor person or to be politically correct a non-wealthy person starts to whinge about how rich people get rich, I often get my back up. That’s because being rich or wealthy is no different than being poor or destitute. You have to work at it. Poor doesn’t just happen, you have to DO certain things or NOT DO certain things to become and STAY poor.

Let me give you an example from an email I received – from an investment advisor (to the rich and wealthy)…

________________________________________________

Good morning,

When you are next at a dinner party and the conversation slows, ask your fellow diners what is the all-time closing high of the Dow Jones Industrial Average?

The answer is 14,164, hit on the 9th of October 2007.

To keep the conversation going, then ask them what percentage the Dow is current below that record closing high and then what percentage it is above its Global Financial Crisis (GFC) low.

The answer is -10.2% and +93%.

I believe most people who aren’t as close to equity markets as the readers of these notes would be stunned to know the Dow is only -10% below its all-time high and +93% above its GFC low.

I realise there is a big business in the scaring the hell out of uneducated investors, but I believe over the short, medium and long term all those who have capitulated from equities to less volatile, yet grossly overpriced “safe” asset classes, will regret it in an absolute and real return sense.

I have seen others describe the switch from equities to other “less volatile” asset classes as “asset allocation”. That’s a very convenient way of describing what is a classic capitulation, but particularly by those approaching retirement who believe they are protecting their lifestyle expectations.

However, at the end of the day all investors must do what they are comfortable with. I have no issue with that and perhaps my relative youth leads me to be far more risk tolerant and volatility tolerant than my investment strategy writing peers.

________________________________________________

Interesting perspective isn’t it?

I’ve been advocating alternative investments to create wealth and abundance for years – with a contrarian approach that is endorsed by none other than Warren Buffett.

Of course the poor person might shout as loud as he/she can that it’s the perspective of a BILLIONAIRE… But how does one BECOME a billionaire?

Hmmm… Something to think about.

I just wanted to share this with you because when it’s all said and done, if you do what everyone else does, you get the same results they do – AVERAGE RETURNS.

To get BETTER results, you have to think differently. It’s what I call antimimeticisomorphism.

If you want to determine your Next Best Step, click on the hyperlink… There are a handful of financial advice bonuses available for you.

There is no doubt about it, New Year’s Resolutions are a powerful tool to achieve goals, yet only a few follow up and follow through on their resolutions…
Why is that?

One simple reason is that most people forget that decisions are made every minute of every day and they add up at the end of the week/month/year.

Non-decisions are the same – the decision NOT made to put your runners on to go for a run. The decision NOT to turn down the (extra) piece of pie. The decision NOT to get up early.

“It is in the moments of INdecision
that dreams are destroyed.” – Dr Marc Dussault

If you made a list of New Year’s Resolutions for 2012 – take them out right now and re-commit yourself to following through.

If you’re not motivated – the problem is you have impotent goals.

You need something that will MOTIVATE, INSPIRE and MOVE YOU TO ACTION.

Pick something exciting, but within the realm of possibility – something you can really get enthused about – something that would CHANGE you and your life.

I know too many “people who end up where they don’t want to be” simply through lack of planning and commitment.

No decision IS a decision – it’s the worst one of all – one made by someone else for all the wrong reasons.

There is no joy in living a life by default.

To live a life by design, you need to know what YOU want and desire.

You decide.

By NOT deciding, all you’re doing is letting yourself down – no one cares that you don’t make a decision. That’s why it’s so easy.

One day leads to a week then to a month and before you know it, another year has passed. If you get lulled into complacency, a whole decade can pass you buy.

That’s tragic.

Don’t just sit there – do something!

Anything!

If you didn’t create a list of New Year’s Resolutions – do it now!

If you didn’t already know, most of the cells in your body will regenerate themselves within the next 12 months, which means you’ll have a brand new body – literally…

Though you can’t see it happening, every minute of the day we lose about 30,000 to 40,000 dead skin cells off the surface of our skin. So just in the time it took you to read this far, you’ve probably lost about 20,000 cells.

That’s almost 9 pounds (4 kilograms) of cells every year! But don’t think your skin might wear out someday. Your epidermis is always making new skin cells that rise to the top to replace the old ones. Most of the cells in your epidermis (95%) work to make new skin cells.

The question is – which (new) body do you want?

Given the choice, which one would you prefer?

Here’s the thing – you have the choice… Click on the image to see how you can have a great ‘new body’ in 2012!

Deciding or NOT deciding are both decisions. One gets you the body you want, the other well…

New Year’s Resolutions are one of the easiest ways to set the wheels of success in motion. They can be the catalyst to create your ultimate dream destiny…

“What if…”

What if… your childhood dreams actually came true…

What if… you could wave a magic wand and get anything you want…

What if… you could rub Aladdin’s Lamp and get any 3 wishes granted…

What if…

Those are two very powerful words.

Here’s the thing. Some people get what they want while others don’t.

• It’s infuriating to know someone dumber than you is out-performing you in business or school.
• It’s aggravating to have someone less physically capable beat you at your favorite sport.
• It’s perplexing to see someone who started with less money than you build a ‘fortune’ that allows them to have the luxurious, stress-free lifestyle you’d like to have.

What if… you could learn how to accomplish all your goals?

What if… it took less than 5 minutes a week to implement?

What if… the strategies were proven and tested?

What if… they cost LESS than going to McDonald’s?

Just let yourself imagine those words.

Let your thoughts wander.

Listen to what you would say in the privacy of your own mind.

Feel what it would be like to have those things most important to you.

What if… You believed it was possible.

What if… You learned the strategies, techniques and tips you need.

What if… You applied them, one day at a time.

What if… You achieved one goal, then another, then another.

How different would your life be?

How much more could you do and contribute to others?

What if… you had a system to make them all come true?

What if… I gave you the link – would you make 2012 your best year ever?

Why not give yourself this Christmas gift?