Be Prepared for the Moment of Adversity
By Richard Dolan
I have been in real estate since 2006 and have come to respect one fact above all of the many in life: We don’t know what we don’t know.
As a real estate investor, even if you feel that you have all the real estate you need to fulfil your life, you have to recognize that truism and the fact that we all remain financially vulnerable, and perhaps more so than most, given our complex financial lives.
In a heartbeat your world can change: a sudden phone call, knock at the door or newsflash will move you from complacency to the realization that you are naked and vulnerable. Perhaps you just get that sinking feeling in your gut that something tragic has happened. You don’t know what to think. You’re not sure how to feel or react. You don’t even know where to start. All you do know is, come hell or high water, you will get through it.
It might not even be something that happens to you. Maybe one of your most important employees has suddenly died. Not only have you lost someone you were very close to but your business is going to take a massive financial hit because you’ve lost an important part of your business. Luckily, mykeymaninsurance.com always you to avoid this because they can protect your company financially, should you lose a key employee through illness or death. But this is just one of the many situations that could occur to your business that you can do nothing to prevent.
That courage and fortitude is one of the many benefits of being an accomplished real estate investor, but nothing and no one is ever truly invincible in the face of adversity, upset, or distress.
You see, adversity is the dominant force that holds the power to reshape our view of things and our financial and personal well-being. Physical well-being (health-wise) can be acquired by following a balanced diet and taking remedies like these Joy Organics products if need be. However, the path to financial preparedness is riddled with adversity and has become more and more formidable. Fortunes are made but quickly lost.
Financial preparedness is not merely having a grounding in financial knowledge and wealth dynamics. It is the state and quality of your financial affairs: Business and real estate interests organized, whole and complete. Critical information gathered and placed in one location, known to your business partner, life partner, and others for when the moment calls for it. Everyone knows where to look first to preserve and protect your life, and your business and financial affairs.
In our efforts to gain some financial elevation, we are bombarded by a hailstorm of adversities, big and small, throughout each day. Yet, how you, your advisors, and those most affected by your financial decisions, commitments, and circumstances respond to these adversities determines whether your personal and financial aspirations quickly erode or if you can somehow become invincible.
The financially prepared have a plan, and a route suited to the times that allows them to rest easily along their journey in life, with complete conviction and confidence that they have defined and protected what really matters most. Unlike others, they do not waste precious time, energy, or sleep by worrying over or catastrophizing adverse events.
As a result, they and their loved ones will always be okay. In their financial and life planning, they strive upward through a hierarchy of money matters, beginning with assessing their financial preparedness, clarifying needs and protecting priorities, and securing dreams and aspirations – in addition to aligning resources and people that will help them ultimately fulfill their financial intentions. This means:
- Their plan has purpose;
- Their purpose produces possibilities; and
- Their possibilities power preparedness.
“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In those choices lie our growth and our happiness.”
Viktor Frankel
As a real estate investor, I take note of the things that shape our vulnerabilities and rob us of invincibility. Summarized, they represent the 12 Challenging Events, which can be divided into three categories:
- Ineffability: indescribable, inexpressible, beyond words, beyond description, begging description; indefinable, unutterable, untold, unimaginable, overwhelming, breathtaking.
- Adversity: ill luck, bad luck, trouble, difficulty, hardship, distress, disaster, suffering, affliction, sorrow, misery, tribulation, woe, pain, trauma; mishap, misadventure, accident, upset, reverse, setback, crisis, catastrophe, tragedy, calamity, trial, cross, burden, blow, hard times, trials and tribulations.
- Misfortune: problem, difficulty, setback, trouble, adversity, stroke of bad luck, reversal of fortune, misadventure, mishap, blow, failure, accident, disaster, catastrophe, sorrow, misery, woe, trial, tribulation, tragedy.
As I have commented from the REIN stage, ‘The quality of an outcome is equal to the quality of our “response-ability”.’
The 12 Challenging Events that may generate emotional and physical pains for you and your family are outlined below.
Level 1: Disaster
Disaster, when it strikes, brings reason to abandon your home, grabbing just the essentials and leaving the rest behind. More often than not, you will not have a home to return to in the short term. This makes getting things like home insurance essential.
- Fire
- Flood
- Earthquake
Level 2: Disabling
Disabling events bring hurt and pains when we lose a part of ourselves or of the people we love. It requires us to greatly rethink how we live, such as going to https://rollingpaper.com/ for advice on how to cope with the condition. You may have to adjust your current living conditions such as handrails or it may require you to move to more disability or illness-friendly accommodations. Although, simple changes made in the home in regards to aiding to your disability might prove to be helpful and companies like bathtimemobility.co.uk can assist in providing solutions for the same to be incorporated in the house as well.
- Arthritis
- Illness
- Disability
- Dementia
Level 3: Economic
Economic adversity may bring challenge, concern, and a state of crisis – the type that engulfs you and your family. These are hard to prepare for and almost impossible to avoid. At the very least, savings or equity can help soften the blow.
- Market crash or crisis
- Sudden loss of income
- Forced retirement
Level 4: Devastation
Devastating adversities may bring irreversible pain and suffering. Again, there may be no way to prevent or prepare for this outcome.
- Separation
- Divorce
- Death
And should there be an Armageddon or a zombie apocalypse, we have bigger problems than financial preparedness.
The Real Estate Investors Next Step
If I were you and I have been where you are I would consider taking the REINVEST Challenge. Visit REINVEST online and take the short quiz that will bring you awareness about the state and quality of your financial preparedness as a real estate investor. Once you’ve received your score, you may want to consider purchasing the REINVEST package, which provides you with three things:
- An assessment that will define your financial preparedness, financial intentionality, and adversity response profile (ARP);
- Your personal REINVEST binder, which will organize all your affairs – financial, legal, and otherwise – and be a beacon for your loved ones to act on your wishes; and
- Access to a REINVEST professional, who will guide you through a 30-minute completion call within 30 days of purchase. During this call, the content of your binder will be reviewed and any gaps identified with respect to the ordering of your affairs, to ensure those affairs are aligned with your financial well-being and security.
For more information, please visit www.rein-vest.com.
Richard Dolan is the President of the Real Estate Investment Network Ltd. and is also a successful entrepreneur and author. Richard’s clientele includes the 2012 and 2013 NBA World Champions, the Miami Heat; the world’s largest bank, HSBC; National Bank of canada; Royal Bank of Canada; Sotheby’s International Realty Canada; and the world’s fastest and most exclusive supercar manufacturer, Pagani Automobili, to name a few.
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