Thursday 2^nd July 2020

Shihan Cameron Quinn gave me a copy of the 2^nd edition of his incredible book, first published in 1987 called ‘The Budo Karate of Mas Oyama’ to proof read, after training this morning. He's updating and republishing it later this year.

It’s an honour to read, I seriously cannot put it down. If you’re into Kyokushin karate or martial arts in general, highly recommend check it out.

Sharing this in case my entries become less frequent this month…

 

Sunday 5^th July 2020

Today is my 16^th anniversary partnering with USANA Health Sciences. Sweet sixteen! What a ride it’s been. Talk about doing something your future self will thank you for!

My health and lifestyle have both benefited incredibly thanks too:

1. My decision to get started on Monday 5^th July 2004.
2. My daily decision to use the products 2-4 times a day, every single day.
3. The decision to build a business my future self will thank me for. I still think like this today.

You’ll notice the focus on my decisions, as it’s the only thing I can control. Yes, 1000’s of others are involved, but in reality I cannot control what they do. I’ll only influence some of them, so my focus is always on what I can control and that’s my decisions and actions. Of course I do my absolute best to serve others and provide a great environment/community to be part of, learn from and contribute too.

Additionally, the company is genuinely incredible and deserves much credit for the amazing events, community, unmatched products and lifestyle we’re able to live, if we put in the work.

 

Monday 6^th July 2020

A business partner whom also works for a small listed company, told me she's been asked to use 10 days annual leave this financial year and have just found out they’ll need to do the same thing next financial year too.

On a seperate topic, it's clear 'trust' will ramp up in value in all communication. It’s always been incredibly valuable in all relationships, but I feel will become an even greater asset moving forward in business relationships with all the noise in the marketplace today and fake news circulating.

 

Friday 10^th July 2020

Melbourne in Stage 3 lock down again due to COVID re-emerging, with 288 new cases confirmed today from the 37,000 tests in the past 24hrs. Maths tells us that’s 0.7% of people tested with the virus and most of that 0.7% would be asymptomatic. Strange times.

The ABS reported new home loan lending down $2.15 billion dollars in May. The biggest drop ever recorded.

Met with a friend today whose wife is active in a direct sales company. We spoke about succession options, as in USANA it’s a will-able asset that I can pass on, once I’ve passed, turning it into (hopefully) a multi-generational asset. This providing:

1. My next of kin purchases a Business Development System (BDS) currently $30AUD
2. A 100svp or 200svp monthly auto-order is maintained
3. $33 annual fee is maintained

That’s it. What a gift.

My friends company is more restrictive in this area. The next of kin needs to be active and skilled to the level of her and must reside in Australia. If these conditions are not met, the company will pay out 18 months income to the next of kin and that’s it. Limiting to say the least.

On the positive, it appears negotiation is an option, from what he tells me. Hopefully they negotiate a win-win outcome.  

 

Saturday 11^th – Monday 13^th July 2020

The ASX continues increasing in price.

COVID Cases in Melbourne increase everyday and a cluster has spread to NSW.

In the USA I heard Florida had 13,000 cases confirmed in one day.

A couple of banks are changing their behaviour via their lending criteria. From August in ANZ bank applications with value over seven times over the value of the borrowers annual gross verified income may be deemed ‘unacceptable for ANZ mortgage purposes’ and subject to tighter criteria.

Also St George bank will charge only $1 for LMI (Lenders Mortgage Insurance) with LVR’s up to 85%. I don’t know the details but there’s got to be a catch somewhere.

 

Tuesday 14^th July 2020

I’m noticing a trend of funds and asset managers holding more cash than usual, ignoring the ‘V shaped’ economic recovery spin we’re being fed. With reporting season upon us here in Australia for listed companies, we’ll find out soon enough.

COVID cases in Victoria continue their daily upward march; today it’s 253 new cases. One thing different this time around is the amount of testing happening. It’s waaaaaaaaaaay more than we did months ago, meaning more positives will be found. Interestingly, the number of hospitalisations is still incredibly low...

 

Wednesday 15^th July 2020

My mate xxxx daughters best friend is moving to Western Australia as her Dad hasn’t seen his family since March due to the WA boarders being closed, despite working for a large listed company and is tested every single day. COVID is impacting everyone in one-way or another.

Got a call from another mate tonight who reckons there are enormous economic clouds on the horizon for us all. He’s selling two of his three properties in northern New South Wales because property prices are at ‘bubble’ like prices in his area. As an example, he bought a block of land on the beach for $550,000 in around 2015 and today smaller blocks are selling for 1.2 million.

He’ll clear a stack of property debt and take fantastic profits from those places once sold and then figure out his next step of where to put those profits to work.

 

Sunday 19th July 2020

70,000 new cases of COVID over night in USA and Melbourne had upward of 400 new cases in past day or two. Looks like the human error made by the Victorian Government by hiring private security companies to police quarantined people, who were sleeping with and letting them come and go, instead of using police or military like every other state was an error. Who’d have though…?

One thing concerning is the news reporting cases. Wouldn’t it be better to report hospitalisations and/or deaths only?

The fear the media is instilling is criminal, especially as there’s still no messaging around promoting our health and immune system (getting sun, regular exercise, quality sleep, great nutrition, empowering people through education).

Nope! Instead its all fear based, because bad new sells more advertising space on media platforms.

 

Monday 20^th July 2020

Some Physical Preparation Coaches I know in California yesterday said much of Los Angeles in back in shutdown, saying schools would likely not be back until 2021 now. Wealthy families in California are hiring teaches and having them teach groups of children privately.

They also said gyms reopened for just two weeks and are now closed again. I can only imagine the challenges they (and many other) businesses are facing.

The need to diversify income by going online and creating additional part time income stream online, that's leveraged is the elephant in the room for millions of people I feel. I understand the trepidation and fear in doing something new, because I was in the same boat in 2004 when I first started, but COVID has clearly accelerated the rate of change at this time in society.

xxxx texted me some statistics shared on Sky News tonight.

• 99% of all cases are ‘mild’. So why are we even reporting them?
• Swine Flu in 2009 has 38,000 cases in Australia and 191 deaths and no ‘lockdown’ or political virtue signalling. Yet here we are with 11,800 cases and 122 deaths
• In Victoria 0.08% of the population have tested positive and 0.0005% of the population have died as of today.
• The NSW premier has said there on ‘high alert’ with two people in hospital and another two people in intensive care.

This YT video gives a quick overview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b3K_4uyMKM

 

Tuesday 21^st July 2020

The Australian Government today announced an extension until March 2021 for the Job Keeper and Job Seeker programs. This will end up being at least 12 months of wage subsidy.

These extensions, starting in October, will be more ‘targeted’ than the current program.

The part that caught my attention was Prime Minister Morrison saying this is the worst economic crisis in over 100 years, which by time frame includes the Great Depression.

 

Thursday 23^rd July 2020

Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg today updated Australia with it’s Economic Statement:
- Unemployment to peak at 9.25 per cent in December
- Net debt to hit $677.1bn in 2020/21
- Budget deficit to grow to $184.5bn in 2020/21 

Bouncing forward from this is going to take some work from us all!

 

Saturday 25^th July 2020

Insightful discussion today with xxxx who’s an economist, investor and keeps his eyes open. He hinted the news is not good economically and we’ll likely see a government debt crisis here in Australia within the next 5 years. Our government doesn’t have any more tricks up its sleeve.

I asked, what does this mean for people like him and I?

He said if you have debt, make sure it’s at a reasonable LVR (loan to value ratio), so if you needed to sell assets, it won’t wipe you out.

Without immigration now due to COVID, with high unemployment, people becoming reliant and dependent on the government for money and rescue in crisis, high household and government debt levels it doesn’t take much to go from the frying pan to the fire.

Perhaps the removal of the ‘debt overhang’ many have carried since the GFC will eventuate resulting a ‘clean out’ or reset of the financial system making it stronger, healthier and more robust than it’s current state.

Obviously, no one know the future with any certainty and ‘the economy’ versus our personal ‘economy’ are two entirely different things, but only if we make it that way.

I feel we’ve had an incredible economic wind at our backs blowing us forward for a few decades and perhaps this wind is now changing directions. If this is the case, it’s not the blowing of the wind that matters, but the set of our sails. My tribute to late and great Jim Rohn right there!

 

Sunday 26^th July 2020

The talk about a vaccine for COVID is overblown. Firstly scientists have been working on a COVID vaccine for years, yes long before COVID19 came along and secondly, the process of bring to market a ‘safe’ vaccine is long and expensive. Despite what’s reported, such things are best not rushed.

 

Wednesday 29^th July 2020

Its reported Australia is in its biggest bout of deflation in 72 years. So much for all the worry about immediate inflation from money printing…

APRA (Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority) today ‘demanded’ (their words, not mine) banks now pay dividends, after stating in March they suspend dividends for their interim dividends back then. CBA paid as per usual, NAB cut theirs down to 30c from 84c and ANZ and WBC suspended theirs back then.

They’re instructed to pay out less than 50% of earnings this time around.

 

Friday 30^th July 2020

USA reports an enormous drop in the April-June quarter and there’s zero doubt the July-October quarter will be in the red too.

Added to my favourite LIC today.