Elizabeth, I can relate. Conceptually I get it big time. I’m not afraid of numbers, but tend to get lost in calculations… or used to.
What I am finding is that by being at the same time confident and “gentle” with myself, I am able to gain comfort. Does that make sense? I’m going through John’s course again … becoming assiduous about ‘playing’ with the financial calculator … and less afraid to expose my ignorance!
I know that you and I are both capable, and that by ‘doing’ (going through the motions … fake it til you make it kind of stuff) we will have the result we are after.
Forget the garbage about what happened at school. We get to get on with it NOW!
There, I’ve exposed myself to all and sundried! Guys … I AM humble, see?
Email me if you are feeling lost … we can ‘follow the yellow brick road’ together, and I promise not to snort with impatience!
Carol
PS would HIGHLY recommend John’s course and bootcamp… and don’t let the wiz kids intimidate you (David A!)
Posted by Elizabeth on April 13, 2000 at 15:39:08:
I have been reading your articles with great interest, and I wonder if you could advise me on a personal level? I am a 48 year old woman, living in California for the past 21 years, and I have done a total of 2 1/2 deals in the past 13 years. I was inspired by Carlton Sheets, but, I am not in love with the landlording only the revenues and capital appreciaiton. I am self employed, and have done OK for myself, but nothing like I need to if I want to retire soon, and I do, very much! Now, I was educated in the genuine 2 room school house, by a great
historian,but,unfortunately, his maths skills were awful,and he transferred a huge fear of numbers to most of his students. I read your articles, and can sometimes understand the concepts, but I tend to “blank out” when it comes to following the math. Yet, I know instinctively that this is an area that has immense value for me in getting to my early retirement goals ASAP. Is there any hope for someone like me to be able to learn your field, and actually succeed in it? Any suggestions that you might have would be greatly appreciated
Posted by John Behle on April 17, 2000 at 13:43:21:
The math part of the business used to frustrate me at first. Then the day came I realized it wasn’t math at all. There isn’t one calculation I have to do by hand or any formulas I need to know.
Discounting, for example is just a matter of identifying 4 out of 5 variables, entering them into the proper memory register of the calculator and then THE CALCULATOR solves for the 5th variable. The formulas are built in and though I could work them by hand, I never do - or desire to. Some like to, I don’t.
Things became a lot easier once I truly understood that it really is about the concept, not a bunch of formulas. Another thing that helped was when I realized all the numbers are just determining my profit. I wrote a chapter in the original book “The Paper Game” titled “I hate math - but I love profit”.
There are some articles about discounting here and at my website that should help. What I find is that the concept and process of discounting tends to hit people with an “AH HA!” type of effect. For most it goes from frustrating mystery to “makes sense” very quickly. All of a sudden it’s clear. Hope that helps.
The number-bet is like the alphabet except that is has different symbols and there are only 10 of them.
Numbers like letters make up stories, one makes up stories of the past and of fantasy, the other (at least in this case) makes up the stories of finance.
It’s like Robert Kiyosaki says, the numbers tell you the cashflow and cashflow is the story of financial health.