What Does This Year Have In-Store?

It’s traditional, at this time of year, to speculate about what the future might hold – even if making predictions is a notoriously tricky business.

No one, 12 months ago, forecast that teenage British tennis player, Emma Raducanu, would be lifting a Grand Slam event in 2021.

I’ve long been obsessed with multiple revenue streams and investing in business not property or stocks even while working in events.

I've invested a lot of time and money into businesses and I’m far from done on my journey and by no means professing to be a guru, just a guy in a hat trying to figure it all out from others who know more than me in one or another field.

* This is me learning from Caleb Parker on Fortitude and Space-As-A-Service *

by asking the right questions to the right people, all of the time!

But before all that...

I came from immigrants, I knew nothing about finance. As many know, I am the first person in my family to finish high school so there was nobody in my family I could ask.

I started a company immediately after that, high school that is- I studied broadcasting and marketing at night while running a printed promotional t-shirt company, called OPM ( other peoples money).

I sold that company and moved to many more continents and sold a company on each of them before realizing making money from a business was not my problem but keeping it was.

I also learned along the way that how you make your first 6 or 7 figures is rarely how you grow your wealth from there.

I also quickly realized seeing trends and markets and being willing to be a windmill in the storm and not build walls to protect myself is my superpower.

So for a while, I stopped making and investing in businesses and started helping people share their voices and visions, messages, and missions with podcasting.

As most of you know, two of the companies I own are a media production, promotion, and a content-making company called A Podcast Company and a software company that makes that easier called KOPUS.

But as I see what is coming - and it is scary - I know I have to be able to do more with what I know of money and making revenue - hence this newsletter.

SO, here I am trying to once again help people with their stories, not just by sharing them but hopefully helping you re-write your story with tech, tools, and stories of others who have done it -

my goal is simply to help you...

this is for education and edutainment purposes only and is not financial advice.

The Law of 4 - 4 Things I Wish I Knew Back

I’m terrible at a plethora of things (like not shutting up when I hear BS), but I’m very good at thinking differently, starting startups, making money, running events, finding opportunities in markets, communicating with crowds, and individuals and knowing how to get in front of the people with the problems you are trying to solve.

I can attribute my success to these - four principles.. I'll share them with you, now.?

The first two I learned from Tim Ferris.

1) What if I created my own real-world MBA?

Having been a judge for the Association of MBA's entrepreneurial awards for 5 years, I have always dreamed of getting an MBA but what if instead of paying to pursue this degree, I create my own “real-world MBA.”

I am setting up a two-year “ Arthur Rocks Fund” of $120,000 — roughly the cost of two years at a business school — to use for angel investing.

“The two-year?plan is to methodically spend $120K for the learning experience, not for the ROI. To learn as much as possible about web3, finance, deal structuring, rapid product design, initiating acquisition conversations, etc.”

2) What If It Was Easy?

People tend to make things more complex than they need to be, and?Ferriss admits that he is no exception. “If I feel stressed, stretched thin, or overwhelmed, it’s usually because I’m over-complicating something or failing to take the simple/easy path because I feel I should be trying ‘harder,’” he writes.

The solution is to ask, “What would this look like if it were easy?”

3) Always Ask.

If you want it, ask for it. What's the worst thing that can happen. They say no, and you move on to your next target.?

I mean if it's good enough for Steve Jobs, why not you and me?

4) MRS. (Multiple Revenue Streams)

If you have read about me in Forbes, you will know that I do not rely on one income stream.

We need to think like the water. Streams of water going into an ocean so big and so strong it fears nothing.

Create your ocean of revenue, by creating rivers of revenue.

The accumulation of many sources is how the ocean came to be.

That is our plan, to be like water, my friend.

To become the architect of our own lives, the owners of our time.

The goal of all of this is to help you diversify your income and your ideas by keeping you away from the three C's that destroy wealth and opportunity and ownership.

Cocaine, Career, and Cash.

Why Cash:

Inflation is the increase in the prices of goods and services across an economy. When prices inflate, you need more money to buy the same things. The opposite of inflation is deflation, when prices become lower across a range of goods and services. Inflation is an important concept for investors to understand because it eats into your returns on your investments.

We should all save money, right?

Sure, but not too much cash.

Not?during times of high?inflation, when your dollar today will quickly be worth less?tomorrow, or a year from now.

Corbin Blackwell, senior financial planner for Betterment, recommends keeping enough to cover three to five weeks’ of living expenses and a cash?emergency fund that can last you three to six months in case you lose your job or face another financial calamity.

How Inflation Impacts You

If your income stays the same while prices go up, you'll feel the effects of inflation. Your money won't stretch as far and you'll have to make some changes to your budget.

In theory, salaries and wages should rise to keep up with inflation so that workers can maintain their standard of living. Everything is subject to Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs) that take rising prices into account.

If your income rises by the same percentage as the inflation rate, your purchasing power is not diminished. It doesn't grow or shrink. If your income rises by a percentage greater than the inflation rate, you'll be able to afford more goods and services.

This is the scenario most of us want.

It makes us feel better to see our purchasing power growing over time.

Of course, if your income shrinks or disappears, you might be in trouble.

Other people who feel the negative effects of inflation are those on a fixed income, or those who hold fixed-income investments while inflation takes its toll on their purchasing power.

The recent decision by the Bank of England to raise?UK interest rates?to 0.25% caught City commentators on the hop. The move followed the latest?inflation data?that showed the UK’s cost of living grew by 5.1% in the 12 months to November this year, its highest level in more than 10 years.

As a result, money in the bank will be losing its buying power even more rapidly. Cash therefore still looks like an uncomfortable place to be for the foreseeable. It’s the only option for short-term savings that might be needed at the drop of the hat, but as a longer-term store of value, the return of inflation has left cash looking even more woeful.

Paul Craig, portfolio manager at Quilter Investors, predicts that interest rates will only be heading in one direction in 2022, and that’s ever upwards:

“The Bank has already started the process of moving rates slightly higher than the rock bottom levels seen during 2021 and we expect further hikes next year as inflation continues to bite.”

Soaring?energy prices?have not only dealt a hammer blow to nearly?30 UK providers?in the past 12 months, they’ve left consumers facing sharp rises in their gas and electricity bills.

Unfortunately,?Dr Craig Lowrey, senior consultant at energy analysts Cornwall Insight,?is unable to offer any soothing words for the year ahead.“As a result of the continued increase in gas and electricity wholesale prices, our forecast for the default tariff?price cap?[announced by the energy regulator Ofgem in February 2022 and then implemented in April] has risen to approximately ￡1,800 per annum.”

This is a rise of nearly ￡600 on the current cap of ￡1,277 that came into force in October 2020, with Lowrey adding that his figure excludes the impact of recent energy supplier failures.

Property & mortgages

The number of people looking to move heavily outweighs the number of properties available on the market, although price increases are likely to be tempered by the rising cost of living and the expected increases in taxes and interest rates.

Bottom Line

If your investments aren't providing returns equal to or greater than the inflation rate, you're probably in trouble.

You'll find yourself making tough choices about what you can afford as inflation eats into your purchasing power.

In other words, investors should count on inflation and plan accordingly.

I will be sharing, in the coming weeks where I am investing my time and energy and I hope you will do the same, so we can help as many as possible in the times to come.